Chapter 4: Boomtown I was beginning to think of Rock Springs in a way I knew I would always think of it, a lowdown city full of crimes and whores and disappointments… —Richard Ford, “Rock Springs” 1987 Two men walked into a bar. Actually, it was not yet a drinking establishment. Ed Varley’s family…
Lis Wiehl is a bestselling author who served as a federal prosecutor in the United State’s Attorney’s office and was a tenured professor of law at the University of Washington. She appears frequently on CNN as a legal analyst and is the former co-host of WOR radio’s “WOR Tonight with Joe Concha and Lis Wiehl.”…
She couldn’t have done it… Nan Patterson Nan Patterson was young, she was pretty. In fact, she was a Floradora girl, one of the celebrated lovelies in the Broadway smash of that name. She came from a good family; her father worked in the Treasury Department. Surely, she couldn’t have killed a man. When Caesar…
We all have stories that make us write. When we’re kids, something grabs us and won’t let go. For crime writers, maybe it’s an unsolved murder that made the moms in our neighborhood lock the doors. Or something quieter, more personal, that makes us question who we are and what we know. My story became…
Criminal Element is thrilled to share that the Case Closed podcast from Macmillan Podcasts is back with a new season! For the past two seasons, we’ve shared true crime stories that have been solved, so you always walk away feeling satisfied—no frustrating cliffhangers or ambiguous endings. Now, you can listen to season 3 early on…
A recent transfer to Atlanta, and the resulting ninety-minute commute, led me down an audio content rabbit hole. My first venture into this world was Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie. As the winner of the Booker of Bookers, Rushdie’s sprawling magical fiction merits its own review. With that said, I learned Midnight’s Children is not…
Journalist and author Maureen Callahan’s American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century exposes readers to one of the most calculating, coldblooded, and mysterious serial killers ever, Israel Keyes. While most people can easily name serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy, few know about Keyes, and there…
For decades, American hungers sustained Tijuana. In this scientific detective story, a public health expert reveals what happens when a border city’s lifeline is brutally severed.
Trace by investigative reporter and journalist Rachael Brown tells the story of Brown’s internationally acclaimed true crime podcast which reexamines the cold case murder of Maria James in Australia in 1980 and the potential foul-play of major institutions that disrupted progress. Maria James, a 38-year-old mother of two boys, was brutally murdered in her bookstore…
Jenny Maloney provides a true-crime solution to the age-old question: what do I get Dad for Father’s Day? It’s that time of year again. Time to find the perfect gift for dad. Let’s face it, ties are just not that fun anymore. Aftershave doesn’t work that well in the summer months. And we’re all a…
