Shows
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | BOLO for T-BirdClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "But in a season when crime stories get dark, this one briefly takes us in the other direction and reminds us that law enforcement isn't always flashing lights in arrest reports. Sometimes it's compassion and officers pooling their own money so someone doesn't feel forgotten. The Bridgeport Turkey heist may be one of the strangest crimes in Thanksgiving history, but it's also one of the most human the bad guys got away, but the good guys made sure the victim didn't eat Taco Bell for Thanksgiving."
2025-11-1504 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Unhappy ThanksgivingClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "Tony was convicted and sentenced to death, but the conviction unraveled because it turns out the prosecution withheld evidence that would have exonerated him. And testimonies used against him were recanted. And some witnesses admitted to lying under pressure. So after spending years on death row, his conviction was overturned in 2009 and he was released. And the actual perpetrator or perpetrators remain unknown. So are there any theories? Not many."
2025-11-1504 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Blue MagicClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's evil, but it's impressive. And here's where legend and fact get blurry. In American Gangster, Lucas smuggles heroin into the US in the coffins of dead American soldiers returned from Vietnam. That's very cinematic. It's a gut punch. It. It's probably not true. Atkinson denied it, calling it, well, using a word that I can't probably say on swell. But after that word Hollywood nonsense, the reality was still staggering."
2025-11-1505 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Cranberry Connection?Click here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "And in a town like Falmouth, people connect the dots when investigators can't or won't. So what do we know? We know Shirley was ambushed. We know the crime was personal. We know investigators believe someone in her orbit holds the key. And we know that 20 years later, her murder is unsolved. If you have information on this murder, you can contact the Falmouth Police Department or the Massachusetts State Police Cold case unit."
2025-11-1505 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Early CheckoutClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent, but I won't remain silent. Welcome back to Lunchtime Crime. We. We are going to Kansas City, so I guess we can grab some ribs. It's January, 1935, and this is one of the strangest unsolved murders I've come across. A young man, a hotel room, a false name, and a story that has puzzled investigators for nearly a century. We are entering the mystery of room 1046."
2025-11-1505 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Veiled ThreatClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "We still debate what drives someone to kill in the name of love and how much of it is a choice. Now, Laura Fair has more or less vanished from history books, but in 1870, she was a headline. A tragic mix of passion, betrayal, maybe villainy. Thanks for showing up for a little lunchtime crime. We'll have a fresh batch of crime related stories all this week, the week after that, because crime never sleeps, so we'll never starve. Come back soon."
2025-11-1006 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Talk Like a PirateClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "But within weeks, the prosecutors dropped the case. Maybe they were hip hop fans. Their actual reasoning was the station was dead and further prosecution would serve no additional government purpose. Still, the court issued a permanent restraining order. No more unlicensed broadcasting or else so Radio New York International became history or legend, depending on your point of view. For some, it was free speech, a handful of idealists making a difference, making radio democratic again."
2025-11-0904 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | DominoClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent, but I won't remain silent. Welcome back to Lunchtime Crime. Sometimes I like to mix up the menu a little bit by sharing some bios. Sometimes they're about a criminal and sometimes a crime fighter. And today we're talking about a badass bounty hunter. Domino Harvey was known for her daring recoveries, attitude and unique upbringing. She was born into privilege. She was the daughter of actor Lawrence Harvey and fashion model Pauline Stone."
2025-11-0904 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Book 'emClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "He carried file cards listing stolen books matched to their owners and devised detailed plans to remove library markings on precious volumes, making them easier to sell to unsuspecting dealers. So let's be clear. He was not doing this to free the books. He was doing this all about money. I mean, he may have loved books, but this was a money making scheme on his part. He had a special toolkit that include color stained cloths and Q tips for camouflaging spine repairs."
2025-11-0905 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Pittiful Romance ScamClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "Come back for more lunchtime crime all week. No deep fakes here or no particularly deep takes here? Just quick snacks from our never ending crime buffet."
2025-11-0905 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Creepy Crawly WarfareClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "By the 1950s, the program produced about a hundred million yellow fever infected mosquitoes per month, which could be delivered via bombs or missiles. I never thought of mosquitoes as a payload. They also bred 50 million fleas weekly, and those were uninfected to start, but could later be infected with anthrax, cholera, dengue fever, malaria, typhus and tularemia, which I had never heard of, but is also known as rabbit fever. Rabbit, as in bunny rabbit."
2025-11-0305 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Foot MassageClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "Instead, his insurance plot became one of the most bizarre homicides in California. And that is saying something. The jury found him guilty of first degree murder in 1939. He was executed by hanging at San Quentin. And he was one of the last before the state abandoned that method of execution. So, lunch buddies, when you add both a human accomplice and an animal in your murder scheme, there is the potential for things to go very wrong for all parties. Come back for more lunchtime crime."
2025-11-0304 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Bat Man Hit ManClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "And then high pitched squeals coming from the vents. And a smell of ammonia seeping into rooms that no air freshener could mask. When contractors opened the attic drywall, they uncovered hundreds of bats roosting in the insulation and their droppings saturating the wood and the walls. It was a nightmare of remediation. Workers in full respirators hauled out truckloads of contaminated insulation. The couple learned the odor came from guano that was piled so deep it ate through their drywall."
2025-11-0204 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Pecking DisorderClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "They weren't pecking his eyes out, but still it was startling, and it inspired her imagination and led her to conceive a story in which flocks of birds systematically and mysteriously turn aggressive and attack humans in a series of mounting assaults. Her story was set in Cornwall after World War II, and she made a bold choice as an author not to offer any explanations for the birds aggression. So story was not tied up with a neat bow."
2025-10-3104 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Venom Is Liquid GoldClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "But they're labeled as tropical fish or collectible toys. And a particular favorite with collectors is the emperor scorpion Pandanus imperator. It's big and glossy and black and has massive claws. It also has venom, and that venom has real scientific or medical value. Scorpion venom is part of research on pain management, cancer detection, and antibacterial treatment development. So scorpion venom is sometimes called liquid gold. And it has turned these animals into something of value for poachers and smugglers."
2025-10-3104 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Waxing DefamatoryClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "The court held that the display was clearly libelous because it gave the false impression that Monson was guilty of murder. The court emphasized the figure's placement in a murder scene and said that the public would take away from that the belief that he was guilty. The court thus determined that this that the display constitute a libel similar to a photograph or a written statement that had the potential to harm."
2025-10-2704 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Away with the FairiesClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "Her funeral was boycotted by townspeople and even clergy, reflecting the deep social divides caused by her murder. And maybe the embarrassment the case symbolizes how superstition intertwined with gender, social status and political anxiety can become a very toxic brew. It's just a haunting story. Come back for more Lunchtime Crime. Next up, we're going to stay in this time period, but travel to London and visit Madame Tussauds."
2025-10-2705 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Office Party FailClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "And after the official party ended, some employees, including Phelps, attended an after party at the home of a maintenance worker located about a block from state park property. At this party, John Walsh, who was the assistant park manager and so that made him second in command, got pretty drunk and he behaved objectionably. And by that I mean he basically tried to climb up on people, or so said four different women."
2025-10-2505 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Getting Your ExorciseClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent, but I won't remain silent. Welcome back to lunchtime Crime. Today we're talking about exorcist, not in the movies in Texas. In 2008, the Texas Supreme Court issued a ruling. It was a landmark ruling in a lawsuit filed by Laura Schubert. She was a 17 year old girl who suffered injuries during an exorcism."
2025-10-2505 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Abominable ShowmanClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent, but I won't remain silent. Welcome back to Lunchtime crime and past the popcorn, because we are going to the movies and to court almost. Movie maker William Castle was known for integrating inventive stunts into low budget horror movies in the 50s and 60s. The movies in question, well, or the questionable movies, might actually be better remembered for the gimmick."
2025-10-2505 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Jack Is Back - with DNA and Ethical QuestionsClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "I didn't think I would ever read another book about this case until the publication of the the Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold, which focuses on the lives of these known victims, what they call the canonical victims, because it gives you an entirely new perspective and and corrects a lot of things that we believe that probably were never true. It's a very respectful and deeply researched book."
2025-10-1905 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Arti(non)factClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "And it illustrated how susceptible museums and collectors were to opportunistic but somewhat artistic fraud during periods of antiquities fever. If you can't get enough mummy csi. In another case, the Vatican museums had two small mummies believed for decades to be ancient Egyptian artifacts. But later, sophisticated scans and tests revealed that the wrappings were genuinely ancient. But the contents, a man and a woman's bones, dated to the Middle Ages and even contained a modern nail."
2025-10-1904 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | The Borden BattleClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent. But I won't remain silent. Welcome back to lunchtime crime. Lizzie Borden may or may not have taken an axe to family members back in 1892. And there's a whole cottage industry around that question. And there are still Borden legal trials. Let's go to Fall River, Massachusetts, the kind of place where history never quite rests."
2025-10-1905 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Werewolf - Swipe LeftClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent, but I won't remain silent. Welcome back to Lunchtime Crime. We're doing some especially creepy stories ramping up to Halloween. And this story has an element of a classic monster angle, a werewolf. And also it's a little bit of a public service announcement, maybe."
2025-10-1903 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | All Balled UpClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent. But I won't remain silent. Welcome back to Lunchtime Crime. Have you picked out your Halloween costume yet? If you are the DIY type, this cross between a criminal case and a Darwin Award may be worth a listen. Today's story isn't about murder or malice, but about a costume gone wrong. One that went from clever to catastrophic in seconds. And it's the case that redefined costume safety in America."
2025-10-1904 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Phantom LawClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "So we're not talking about copyright issues related to the original material of the Guy in the Mask because it entered public domain decades ago, but that made the material available legally to theatrical, cinematic and musical adaptations. And the one that you probably know best is the rock opera on Broadway, a show that has been haunted by lawsuits. In 1990, Ray Rapp, a songwriter known mostly for religious music, sued Lloyd Webber. He claimed copyright infringement."
2025-10-1205 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Holiday StalkingsClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent, but I won't remain silent. Welcome back to lunchtime crime. Today's special is corn tuck in your napkin because we have an extra helping. Two stories straight from corn mazes. We're going to go into the innocent world of pumpkin patches and corn mazes, which became kind of nightmaric places. Our first tale begins in Petaluma, California, where a peaceful fall tradition took a turn."
2025-10-1204 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Closing the GatesClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "This was a significant precedent that cemetery owners could have exclusive arrangements with tour operators, and some guides went out of business due to the limitation. Another related set of legal questions arises regarding liability and safety. Tour operators leading groups through historic cemeteries may face legal claims if accidents, injuries or property damage occur occur during tours. Operators must comply with local regulations, maintain safe conditions and respect cemetery rules to minimize litigation risk."
2025-10-1205 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Curse You, HGTVClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "Law school grad Alexis Luttrell decided to stretch the festive season. What began as a playful Halloween scene, a skeleton and its loyal skeleton dog became a year round ornamentation. Come November, the bony duo dressed for election Day and December brought Santa hats and tinsel. Valentine's Day hearts followed. For the most part, the neighbors smiled, but the city had less of a sense of humor. In January 2025, a city code enforcement officer appeared at Luttrell's door with a citation."
2025-10-1205 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Enter At Your Own RiskClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent, but I won't remain silent. Welcome back to lunchtime crime. For the rest of the spooky season, we will feature daily specials inspired by Halloween. And where better to start than a haunted house and a personal injury suit?"
2025-10-1204 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | The Dark Mayor of SkagwayClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "He was born in Georgia in 1860, and he had a long history of criminal activities and cons out west. He earned the nickname Soapy from a previous scam in Denver, where he sold bars of soap with hidden cash prizes inside to swindle people, or at least the promise of hidden cash prizes. When he hit Skagway in 1897, it didn't take him long to establish himself as a ringleader in this frontier town. He controlled much of the local economy through his gambling and confidence schemes."
2025-10-0604 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Blind Item JusticeClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "The 2nd Circuit upheld the verdict and the court said that the key question wasn't whether his name was used, it was whether people who mattered could identify him. And they could. Hope walked away with more than $50,000 in damages. And the case became a landmark because it established that so called blind items can be defamatory if readers can connect the dots. So for gossip writers, vague hints weren't a shield. If your audience could figure it out, you were on the hook."
2025-10-0404 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Nearly DepartedClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "As daughter Carol put it, her father had been treated like a throwaway person. Frank survived this pretty well, but he was not in good shape. He spent his days in a hotel, largely unaware of just how bizarre his own near burial had become. The story made national headlines not just because of the mistake, but the dramatic gut punch it delivered. A family mourning at a funeral, a father burying his son. And then the son walks back into the world 11 days later."
2025-10-0403 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Are You My Baby?Click here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent. But I won't remain silent. Welcome back to Lunchtime Crime. We have a special that is a bad news, good news, bad news story. A mystery solved thanks to DNA. But science falls short of answering several questions, including whether this story actually involves a crime. Bobby Dunbar was a four year old boy living in Louisiana. In 1912, he disappeared on a family fishing trip."
2025-10-0405 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Priced to MoveClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent, but I won't remain silent. Welcome back to lunchtime Crime. Our true crime dish of the day comes from a mobile home park manager who turned a natural disaster into personal profit. That was his cunning and completely deceptive plan anyway. Sadly, this sort of opportunistic crime happens pretty regularly when there's property damage or loss, usually due to some kind of natural disaster."
2025-09-2604 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Safe at Home?Click here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent. But I won't remain silent. Welcome back to Lunchtime Crime. We have a truly distasteful blue plate special today because it's seasoned with betrayal. I'm not going to use this person's name, not because I think they deserve to be protected, but because this case hasn't worked its way entirely through the courts yet. So I'm just going to refer to a former manager of a mobile home park in Missouri."
2025-09-2605 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Recreational IncompetenceClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "Because these crimes not only involve substantial monetary loss, but also damaged computer computer community confidence in local government on a smaller scale. This reminded me of a story I've talked about later, but I really want you to check it out. If, if this sort of scheming interests you, there is a wonderful documentary called. What is it called? Goodness all the Queen's Horses. I blanked there for a minute."
2025-09-2606 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Looking in on ResidentsClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "She'd been staying at a condo friend's condo in the association and she discovered a camera hidden in a flower pot in the master bedroom. Deputies investigated and found video footage captured on a hidden camera that showed individuals in various states of undress, including the woman who made the complaint. The footage also revealed or himself testing the camera in his own apartment prior to installation in the condo, which established pretty clear intent and knowledge of his actions and did not exactly cement his status as a criminal mastermind."
2025-09-2604 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Misgovernment in the SunshineClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent, but I won't remain silent. Welcome back to Lunchtime Crime. I swear to you I am not cherry picking Florida cases. It's just working out that way. This week I will try to vary the menu, but with so many fresh ingredients here, it's a challenge. Today's story is about a 76 year old former condo manager who's on the lam accused of embezzling more than a million dollars over a decade."
2025-09-2605 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Fake on a PlaneClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "And in the past, and maybe one of the most high profile cases, which you might know as the from the movie and the book Catch Me if youf can, was the serial impersonator Frank Abnegale. What I want to make clear is that he rarely if ever was actually flying when he was impersonating a Pan Am pilot. He just, he wasn't."
2025-09-2105 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Stamp Out CrimeClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "Postal inspectors launched an intense investigation and ended up seizing $500,000 worth of counterfeit stamps along with printing plates, presses and the machinery used to produce them. But despite the bust, the stamps continued to surface in underground mail markets. I will confess, I don't know what an underground mail market is, but there was a major one in Chicago. As late as 1981, one Chicago man was caught with 745 counterfeit stamps which he said he inherited from his father."
2025-09-2104 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Roses and ThornsClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "And he did work at the shop as a florist. And the flower shop thrived because it became a go to vendor for not just the neighborhood and the Irish Catholic community, but for organized crime. It was the preferred florist for mob funerals, weddings, holidays and special events in the criminal underworld. And it was also a front and perhaps a money laundering asset. The shop's proximity to Holy Name Cathedral, where many gangsters attended mass, added to its significance in Chicago's crime history."
2025-09-2004 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Getaway CarClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It was marketed as compact, lightweight, made from innovative aerospace plastic, whatever that is. Carmichael asserted it was virtually indestructible and impossible to tip over. And she promised a major disruptor in the automotive industry. And that garnered intense media attention and attracted investors who were eager to capitalize on this new technology. Now, Carmichael was a transgender woman who had been living under various aliases. Aliases. Quickly she became a charismatic and high profile figure."
2025-09-2005 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | No AnchoviesClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "The Pizza connection trial is a landmark case that showcases how pizzerias were used by mafia groups to distribute drugs and launder millions in drug proceeds while maintaining an outwardly lawful pizza front. And the long term success of this enterprise demonstrates that you can't go wrong giving the people what they really want. Pizza and heroin come back for more lunchtime crime. All week we have a famous flower shop that isn't all that it seems. A car that crashed a financial scheme, not a stamp of approval."
2025-09-2004 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | It All Comes Out in tbe WashClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent. But I won't remain silent. Welcome back to Lunchtime Crime. On the way to the lunch counter today, we're taking a little side trip, a little errand, and stopping at a laundromat. Let's say it's Chicago in the 1920s. And let's say the proprietor is Alphonse Gabriel Capone. Although maybe not on paper. Al Capone is of course most known for smuggling liquor, gambling and violent racketeering."
2025-09-2003 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | And Leave Show Biz?Click here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent. But I won't remain silent. Welcome back to Lunchtime Crime. We finish out our salute to the sorry side of showbiz by going back to the late 19th century to consider the curtain call of William Terris, a popular British actor who may or may not have enjoyed an unexpected comeback as a ghost. At 50 William Terrace was an established star, famous as the hero of melodramas at London's Adelphi Theatre."
2025-09-1304 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Still Masked MurdererClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "He was driving his maroon British sports car, so he was not a starving actor, but he was a struggling actor. He swerved sharply and crashed into a bean field. When rescuers, hopeful rescuers got to him, he was in swim shorts and he was visibly injured and he had managed to stagger out of the vehicle, but he could barely walk and he was pleading for help and collapsed and he died of a single stab wound to the back."
2025-09-1205 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Murder...Dot...Dot...DotClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "But the bottom line is we don't know the truth of it. Even now, some crime writers, some noir novelists have taken a shot at solutions. Probably the most famous was SS Van Dyne in the Canary Murder. When they made the movie, Louise Brooks played the gold digging victim. More recently, in 2023, Sarah Davello had a new take on the case, emphasizing misogyny and class prejudices that she feels colored the investigation."
2025-09-1204 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Last DanceClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "We do know that several hours later Hopkins called police to report that an intruder had attempted to rob him. And when the officers arrived, they found Danny Lockins body on the floor. He had been stabbed more than a hundred times. Some of the wounds were three inches deep and there were several that could have been potentially fatal. And he had been mutilated after death. Police investigations also revealed some other things that made them uneasy, including pornographic photographs depicting male sexual torture."
2025-09-1205 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Queen of HarlotsClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent, but I won't remain silent. Welcome back to Lunchtime Crime. We are going way back to the Gilded Age, but not to Mrs. Astor's ballroom or the Waldorf Astoria, but to another part of New York that was also a social meeting place of sorts, if you had the cash. Welcome to the Hertz empire. Not car rentals, arguably a different kind of short term rental."
2025-09-0704 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | His Lips Were SealedClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "After joining Louisiana Army National Guard, he graduated from Army Airborne School. And he eventually became a commercial pilot with Trans World Airlines TWA in 1964, flying as a captain on the Boeing 707. And that more conventional part of his career ended in 1972. By the mid-1970s, Seal transitioned into drug smuggling. Initially he transported marijuana across the US border by plane, but by 1978, he escalated to cocaine. Better profit margin, but maybe Skeevier business associates."
2025-09-0605 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | High CrimesClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent, but I won't remain silent. Welcome back to Lunchtime Crime. Sometimes I consider rebranding Lunchtime Crime as a Florida snack shack just because our true crime stories take us back to my home state so often. And this is one which is very Florida. What was going down in this particular courtroom did not involve bad behavior by lawyers or even the judge. That's a nice change. It was the jury in Tanner vs. United States."
2025-09-0603 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Once BurnedClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "I said of murder, but it's really petty treason, and that's a charge I had never heard of. It comes from English law. Petty treason involved killing a person to whom one owed obedience and allegiance. So a wife killing her husband or a servant killing his master. The law treated these crimes far more harshly than ordinary murder because they were seen as an assault on the social order. Murphy was sentenced to hang, but Catherine received the rare and cruel sentence of burning to death."
2025-09-0605 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Dead Horse RunningClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "Okay, it's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent, but I won't remain silent. Welcome back to Lunchtime Crime. And we're off to the races. It's 1977, and we are at Belmont Park Raceway, and the big excitement is not focused on the thoroughbreds, but on a respected veterinarian, Mark Gerard. He was so respected, in fact, that he had cared for thoroughbreds as famous as Secretariat."
2025-09-0605 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Will History Rhyme?Click here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "This reflects his view that the deaths were not a natural disaster consequence, but the result of negligence and incompetence. Hemingway describes the dire aftermath of the storm, with veterans perishing, many found face down in the mangroves, and he highlights the government's failure to rescue them. Despite warnings, he wrote, the veterans were treated as expendable. Despite his sharp critique and overall public outcry and a congressional investigation, no officials were formerly charged with anything."
2025-08-3104 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Alert Today - Alive TomorrowClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "Training courses emphasized the recognition and reporting of potential war gases and incendiary devices, instructions for helping residents during blackouts, and how to operate warning sirens. Wardens coordinated rescue teams and were on the ready alert to handle emergency evacuations. I'm not sure where to. They were taught to be the local point of contact for civil defense announcements and instructions, and they were supposed to educate neighbors about safety procedures and where to find shelters. They could conduct drills and distribute educational materials to raise public awareness and readiness."
2025-08-3004 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | The Father of Our Military PoliceClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "Come back for more lunchtime crime for a little fusion cuisine of history and law enforcement served up with occasional snarky garnish and autobiography. You can skip that part if you want to."
2025-08-3004 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Fsshion PolicingClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "In fact, we're going to focus on the evolution of the police uniform, the original power dressing. Well, unless you count the military and royal regalia and religious robes. So let's move on. The earliest US Police uniforms were influenced by the London Metropolitan Police, which predated our New York City Police Department by a good 15 years or so. So the New York Police Department issued its first uniforms in 191854 and it was a fetching look."
2025-08-3007 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Top Cop August VollmerClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent, but I won't remain silent. Welcome back to Lunchtime Crime Today. Let me introduce you to the father of modern policing in the U.S. august Vollmer. He was born on March 7, 1876 in New Orleans, Louisiana, to German immigrant parents. He did live in Germany briefly, but he really grew up in the US he was an athlete, skilled in boxing and swimming."
2025-08-3004 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | The First Exoert WitnessClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "So no one was ever punished for this murder. And to add insult to homicide, now it's remembered largely for the legal precedent it set in introducing expert witnesses, and not for what happened to poor Elma. Dr. Hosak's role did pave the way for expert witnesses in trials, particularly in medical, forensic and technical matters. And you could argue that the case helped raise the standards of evidence and fairness in our justice system."
2025-08-3004 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Unsafe HarborClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "And while on board, he fatally shot his ex wife and a man who was with her named Larry Ford, who was a local marine technician who may or may not have been her boyfriend. Not that that really matters. Trauger then set the boat ablaze with gasoline and maybe another accelerant. When it was torched, it went up so intensely that people said that the blazing boat looked like a rocket motor igniting. The victims were almost instantly cremated. Only skeletal remains were ever recovered."
2025-08-2505 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | The Joe Cool MurdersClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "But instead of heading to the Bahamas, their plan was to hijack the vessel and escape to Cuba. So soon after departing Miami beach, they took control of the Joe Cool and murdered all four crew members with gunshots. There were shell casings that would later be recovered inside and outside the boat. It's believed that Archer killed the Branhams on the upper deck while Zarabozho shot the other two crew members below. And then they threw the victims bodies overboard."
2025-08-2405 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | The Chesapeake Bay MysteryClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "Now there has been a suspect or a person of interest and they have kept the case open for decades, but there's never been any arrest as of today. For the families of Joanne Zwingman and Christine Pilczak, this was just a horrible situation, losing their loved ones and then feeling that the whole investigation was botched and misrepresented."
2025-08-2405 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Murder on Thunderboat RowClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "He was the man responsible for powerboat brands such as Formula, Donzi, Magnum and cigarette. He had a booming business and a big personality. And he had connections with celebrities, politicians, law enforcement and the underworld. His boats were coveted by racers, wealthy elites and government agencies, including the US Customs Service, which used Blue Thunder cigarette boats to chase narcotics traffickers."
2025-08-2405 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | The Bluebelle MurdersClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It by all accounts was a pleasant trip until late Sunday night. Terri Jo, that's the 11 year old, was sleeping below deck when she was jolted awake by screams and banging and heavy footsteps. So she went topside and discovered her mother and younger brother, lifeless, I'm sorry, older brother lifeless, in the main cabin. And Julian Harvey was standing there and he struck her and ordered her back below."
2025-08-2405 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Abandon All Hope Chest?Click here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "The conjured chest is now in the hands of the Kentucky historical society. Since 1976. It's in their collection, but it isn't displayed. I hope it's not in anybody's office. The writer in me wonders if creating a really creepy backstory is just a clever way to unload an unwanted piece of furniture, but I suppose it is easier to call Goodwill."
2025-08-1704 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Protect. Serve. Compete.Click here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "We out medaled all the competition with 569 gold medals and 1,354 medals overall. Or maybe you missed the 2025 World Police and Fire Games. The premier international multi sport event for active and retired law enforcement officers, firefighters and public safety personnel. It's basically the Olympics for first responders. It happens every two years. They compete in 67 events over 10 days. The history goes back to the 1960s when the California Police Olympics were first held and that grew into a global competition."
2025-08-1703 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Jail BrokenClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent, but I won't remain silent. Welcome back to Lunchtime Crime. Today's lunch spot is Granite, Oklahoma, and The year is 1927, at least to start. So grab a tray. Clara Wilbanks Waters became the first female warden of an all male correctional facility in the US it was a medium security facility and she was appointed after the death of her husband who had held the position. She had been a schoolteacher."
2025-08-1602 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Deep PurpleClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent, but I won't remain silent. Welcome back to lunchtime Crime. Today's special is corned beef wrapped in a crispy egg roll wrapper, washed down with Berners ginger ale. If you know, you know we're in Detroit for this story. When most of us think of gangland slayings in the 20s, we think of New York or Chicago. But one of the nastiest was in Detroit."
2025-08-1605 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | The Root CauseClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "Hampton was charged with murder exactly 12 years after Lampley's death. And I cannot at this point find a public record of his sentencing. Not on this particular crime, anyway. And in case you were wondering, yes, there is an episode of the Wire in which a sweet potato was used as a silencer. Devares Hampton may have made very bad life choices, but his taste in TV is pretty good. Come back for more Lunchtime crime. All week we'll be serving it up."
2025-08-1603 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Thou Shalt Not SmuggleClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "They had dubious provenance, which just means it's hard to trace exactly where they came from and how. And it's very likely they were looted from archaeological sites in Iraq. And cultural property experts hired by Hobby Lobby told them that the smuggling methods involved shipping these artifacts through intermediaries in the United Arab Emirates to Israel and then to multiple hobby lobbies across the U.S. the shipments were labeled ceramic tiles or clay tile samples, which I guess buy a stretch is kind of true."
2025-08-1004 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Tough CrowdClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "And that's why there were casualties. Mostly working class protesters and a lot of Irish immigrants. Police, militia and innocent bystanders also suffered injuries. And it, it was grim. Dozens were killed or seriously wounded and they had to be laid out in nearby buildings for identification by families."
2025-08-1005 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | First Fingerprint ConvictionClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent, but I won't remain silent. Welcome back to Lunchtime Crime. I haven't put a murder on the menu this week and I know that's what some of you come for. So here goes. This is the Charles Hiller murder case with a side order of forensic history. In Chicago in 1910, Charles Hiller was a chief clerk in the freight department of the Chicago Rock island and Pacific Railroad. Pretty good job."
2025-08-0904 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Non Campos MentisClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "There were some camp counselors who weren't really offering any structured activities, but at least there were people there. The scams left families out hundreds or thousands of dollars and emotionally distressed. And their summers were definitely ruined. They had to scramble for alternative child care or camp arrangements now. Gather's website was impressive. It was very polished."
2025-08-0905 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Clipped WingsClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "And he instructed his overseas associates to label shipments as decorative wall coverings and origami papercraft and wall decorations so that the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Services inspections wouldn't catch wise. But they did. And federal prosecutors eventually charged Limmer under the Lacey act conspiracy and smuggling laws. And in February 2024, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to smuggle wildlife. He netted tens of thousands of dollars."
2025-08-0904 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | The (Almost) Bulletproof PresidentClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "You might think that historic Cane would be on display somewhere as a presidential artifact, but that doesn't seem to be the case. So come back for more lunchtime crime. We serve five new blue plate specials a week, and you can browse the menu for a quick bite of more than 300 offerings, and you are welcome anytime."
2025-08-0404 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Thoughts and PredatorsClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "When people got suspicious about this place, and I'll give you some ideas of why they got suspicious about this place, what they found were four teenage girls who were dressed as nuns, and they were sent out to beg. And they reported that if they came back with less than $12 a day, they were horsewhipped. What first planted some suspicion in the neighborhood is that the orphanage seemed to have a lot of late night parties with loud music and what the neighbors felt was drunken revelry."
2025-08-0304 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Dishonorably Discharging His DutiesClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "He can claim his little piece of Civil War history because he is one of only three Union generals cashier during the Civil War. And his was the only case involving a general officer convicted of war profiteering and corruption. So come back for more lunchtime crime all week. I'll be here. And I look forward to seeing your smiling face across the lunch counter."
2025-08-0304 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | LA Harris for the DefenseClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "He could kind of assume multiple identities and just win trust from a wide range of people. He succeeded in winning freedom for clients. And those victories, of course in the big picture, undermined trust in the legal system. He was caught. He was sentenced in a D.C. courtroom. Several judges had to recuse themselves from his trial because they had ruled in cases he argued. He did go to prison on 13 counts that also included forgery and perjury."
2025-08-0304 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Following the Bouncing BallClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "Or do the people who take a more salacious interest in sex crimes not like to think about old ladies? I don't know. Come back for more lunchtime crime? I think this episode delivers the only cold cuts on the menu this week, but maybe a little bit of food for thought."
2025-08-0303 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Coconut Wire FraudClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "Now, she conspired with her husband, Brian Ahakuelho, who was a former union leader, and he rigged a union dues increase vote in January 2015. And the jury found that she expl. Exploited union funds to finance luxurious travel, including first class flights, which had minimal or no union business justification. She was one of several family members on the union payroll, and she earned over $100,000 a year for clerical duties. I think we could say there were other duties, as required."
2025-07-2604 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Rogue WaveClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It was implanted into unsuspecting patients and it was billed to insurers to the tune of around $18,000 or even more under some reimbursement codes. A key part of the scam involved a component known as the pink stylet, which was purposefully manufactured as too large to safely implant. So providers were then directed to purchase a replacement white stylist. Which was a piece of plastic with no functional capabilities. Yeah, it was a piece of plastic. Laura Perryman instructed doctors to implant this useless junk in patients bodies."
2025-07-2604 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | The Not So Sweet Mrs. ButterworthClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent, but I won't remain silent. Welcome back to lunchtime Crime. Today I have the not entirely sweet story of Mrs. Butterworth, a colonial housewife and master counterfeiter. Mary Peck Butterworth was born in 1686 and died in 1775. An exceptionally good run for a woman of that era. Not bad today really. She lived in Massachusetts and she was financially comfortable."
2025-07-2604 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Elizabeth aka EddieClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "And she created work in this identity, and she called it inspiration, and some people called it cultural appropriation. Durak's work as Eddie Buruck began appearing in 1995 and gained some prestige in art exhibitions such as the 1996 Telestra Telstra. Not Telestra Telstra, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. That is a mouthful. However, Durac in 1997 revealed that she was the artist behind Burrup, and the art world. And the Indigenous communities reacted pretty fiercely and critically."
2025-07-2605 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Repo WomanClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent, but I won't remain silent. Welcome back to Lunchtime Crime. I guess today instead of coming up to the lunch counter, you're going through the drive thru and is that your car? It would have been a fair question to ask 42 year old Amanda Johnson of Greeley, Colorado. Her current address is the Colorado Department of Corrections. Johnson was the ringleader of two major auto theft operations."
2025-07-2605 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | We Demand Release of the Red BookClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent, but I won't remain silent. Welcome back to lunchtime crime. We usually focus on pretty hearty, simple fare here at the lunch. Murders, cons, thefts. But today's feature is definitely a little more complicated. The main ingredient is murder, but there's a lot of lot of side dishes here. Our scene is Vermont in 1919, and our body du jour is, or was, Lucina Broadwell. She was 29."
2025-07-1905 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Sweet RevengeClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "So if there was no real reason to do an autopsy, no obvious reason, poisoning could easily be mistaken for a disease and escape notice. But that was changing around 1915. Forensic toxicology had improved and there was something called the Marsh test. And this test and some other confirmation procedures allowed investigators to detect even really small amounts of arsenic in tissue and body fluids. And that set a scientific standard that was accepted as evidence in court. It was considered pretty reliable."
2025-07-1905 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Immigrant = CriminalClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "And he never returned. Later, a handyman from the Sprague household discovered him lying along a path. He'd been shot. He'd been beaten with blunt instruments, and he was barely recognizable. Now $60 and a gold watch were on his person. So that ruled out robbery as a motive, suggesting a crime with a more personal motivation of hatred or maybe revenge. Suspicion immediately fell on three brothers, the Gordons. Nicholas, John, and William. They were Irish Catholic immigrants."
2025-07-1805 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Evil Twin? Or Convicted by Cliche?Click here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "And they told him, you know, how to get in the house and, and what Dr. Wilson's schedule was so that he could lay in wait. Now, the prosecution's case hinged entirely on his testimony, which was inconsistent and certainly self serving because he received a plea deal with the possibility of parole instead of a death penalty. So that's a pretty good deal. There was little to none for forensic evidence linking Betty or Peggy to the crime directly."
2025-07-1806 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Felled by a MadmanClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "She had been fatally beaten and decapitated and raped, and there was immediately a suspect, a neighbor, but that didn't prove to go anywhere. However, a detective saw a similarity to the murder of Marietta Ball, and this led him to a suspect from that case, a lumberjack named Joseph LePage, who had lived in Vermont and was now in New Hampshire. He was questioned in the original case and he had a reputation for accosting young women, but they thought he had an alibi."
2025-07-1806 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | LeftyClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "But there's more to the story. Lefty was a gambler, a Las Vegas casino executive, an organized crime associate, and an FBI informant. He was born in Chicago and got his start gambling at Wrigley Field. And when his family acquired racehorses, he learned the finer points of winning at the track. He was a phenomenal bookmaker, and that caught the interest of certain people in Cicero, and he worked for them."
2025-07-1304 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | "Sister Ping" Was Queen of the SnakeheadsClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "The cargo ship carrying 286 undocumented Chinese immigrants ran aground off Queens, New York. Ten people died, and the event brought national attention to both the scale and the brutality of the human smuggling trade. Her exact role in the Golden Venture episode is debated, but authorities and rival smugglers identify her as a key investor and organizer. Her operation could be ruthless."
2025-07-1305 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | The Velvet Hammer Who Built GalvestonClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent, but I won't remain silent. Welcome back to Lunchtime Crime. We've been serving up stories about nicknames this week, and who does that better than organized crime? One of the most inspired examples is Sam the Velvet Hammer Maceo. He was a Sicilian born American crime boss, entrepreneur, political power broker and philanthropist alongside his brother Rosario."
2025-07-1304 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Hi-Yo Who?Click here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "With the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty height of silver. The Lone Ranger. Hmm. What do you think? Some historians have suggested that Bass Reeves was the inspiration for the Lone Ranger, a masked human hero who fought injustice on the frontier. Of course, the version that we know is a white guy with a mask. The show became a sensation first on radio in the 30s and later on TV in the 50s. And there was comic books and merchandise."
2025-07-1104 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | The Vampire SlayerClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "Nicknames are an intrigiing window into how we talk about the crime and criminal. So I hope you'll come back for more servings all week."
2025-07-1004 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | A Pop of PoisonClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent. But I won't remain silent. Welcome back to Lunchtime Crime. There are some things you just should not put in your mouth, including my cooking and the toy I'm going to tell you about that led to really tragic consequences. Aqua Dots, sometimes sold as bindis, was a craft kit that was supposed to encourage creativity. But it ended up at the center of an alarming problem."
2025-07-0305 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | The Sierra Diablo MurdersClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "And the husband and father of these two women did have the position and potential access to sensitive information about explosives manufacturing that would have been important to both American and German war efforts. Of course, remember 1938. We are technically not in it yet. Despite Sheriff Fox's dogged pursuit of leads, including having a criminal pose as a doctor and working very hard to establish links to the German consulate in San Francisco, the case was never solved and official files were later destroyed and the investigation faded into obscurity."
2025-07-0304 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Brother HoodsClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "Barefoot himself denied involvement, claiming he was out of the state at the time of the murder. But the weight of testimony and evidence pointed to a coordinated Klan plot. The Larry Pettic case shattered any myth that might remain that the modern Klan is not criminal and ruthless. And as hate groups go, it's not exactly a brain trust. That's it for today's lunchtime crime. We have some really unusual entrees this week, and you are always welcome back at the lunch counter."
2025-07-0304 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Smooth CriminalClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "Now, surprisingly, this was not about money. It was about personal grievance and hatred for a supervisor. Davis had been demoted and he was harboring a lot of resentment toward Wright Industries and Gillette. And he feared for his job security. So he stole the information, detailed technical drawings, trade secrets, and sent them by fax and email to several of Gillette's direct competitors, including Warner Lambert, which owns Schick, Wilkinson Sword, Bic, and the American Safety Razor Company."
2025-07-0304 min
Lunchtime Crime@LunchtimeCrime | Solve for XClick here to reply to @LunchtimeCrime "It's time for lunch. You have the right to remain silent. But I won't remain silent. Welcome back to Lunchtime Crime. Today we have a cold cut platter, an unsolved murder that dates back to 1940. And this one really is a mystery because, honestly, at least half of the unsolved cases that I've heard about are not really unsolved as much as they are unproven. Law enforcement and other people have a pretty good idea of who did it."
2025-07-0306 min