I need a new true crime podcast to get into. I prefer serialised ones rather than individual stories each episode. I just caught up to date with Up and Vanished which is not bad, even if the host does try inserting himself into the story; it's an intriguing case and features a rare break in the investigation during the making of the podcast which is unusual.
Any others to recommend? I've done Serial. I've briefly looked into Accused but it didn't grab me.
I think the one I would most recommend is
Casefile by Anonymous. The majority of the cases are covered in a single episode, but bear with me…
The podcast was started by someone off work and bored and as the show took up, others are now involved in the research and production. The episodes started off (going from memory) about 30 minutes are so (but some less) but now are often 90+ minutes and at least one has been two and a half hours.
Recently, there have been multi-part episodes, such as a five-part one about the EAR and a two-parter on The Moors Murderers; each episode is 90+ minutes. With the former, there were a couple of bonus episodes of interviews they had done. There was a slight, misguided (and mercilessly brief) attempt at acting in one episode, but otherwise, the approach is sound.
There’s very little padding or superfluous details in the episodes and the friend who introduced me to the podcast commented that liked that the approach is to stick to the facts and although the host has opinions, that’s not at the forefront and thought a fair few others could take a leaf out of that I would agree with that and in the majority of single-episodes stories, I’m not sure how much benefit there would have by spending more time – with the Snowtown one, for instance, I don’t know what else there was to add.
Although I’m not against adverts, I’ve found that the amount and frequency, plus overproduced intros/outros can really pad out an episode – e.g. a couple that I mention below sometime have 20-25 minutes of actual content versus a 30+ minute runtime. That’s not an issue with Casefile and certainly with the recent episodes, aren’t interrupted by the ads.
If you’ve listended to Serial, then presumably, you’ve listened to
Undisclosed? If not, I would recommend the first two seasons – far more rigorous than Serial. Also, in both cases, the team has helped to uncover new evidence that may free the two people convicted.
Crimetown has an unusual approach in that it looks at the crime culture in a particular city for a season. The first was Rhode Island and a fair bit is to do with organised crime and the effect on local government. It’s entertaining and had many great stories, but although these were interconnected, I felt the approach was slightly too scattergun and being more focused would have helped the overall narrative.
In the Dark – brilliant. The main focus of the first season is about the adbsuction and murder of a young boy by a serial offender. This led to a national register of sex offenders and that’s looked at.
Actual Innocence – each episode is about someone wrongfully convicted and later exonerated. Very good.
Stranglers – about the Boston Stangler(s). Overall, I think a book like the one by Susan Kelly (who features) gives a better examination of the case, but there’s some good stuff – particularly about the cultural impact of the case. But there are caverats…
It’s too overproduced – if someone is writing an newspaper article, there has to be accompanying sound effects, for instance, which is distracting and unnecessary. Some of the choices are odd – for instance, although one journalist is interviewed and comes out rather well, but her coverage helped established the notion that there was one murderer and put information into the public domain that shouldn’t have, which is basically ignored. It puts forward the argument about mass panic but others (e.g. Kelly in her book) argue that the panic affected mainly the people, mostly poor/not well off in certain locations, whereas for the well off, it was something not to be taken seriously.
The structure left something to be desired – it starts with DNA linking DeSalvo to one murder, but for most of the series, it’s casts doubt on him being the murderer until it gets to the DNA testing, which was a weird decision.
Breakdown – a different case each season. The first relates to an arson case and the various breakdowns (get it??) that led to a wrongful conviction, which was many, many years later overturned. The journalist behind it has a newspaper background (and it’s presented by his paper) , which I think is reflected in the presentation but didn’t have any issue with that. Haven’t heard the other seasons but will be getting around to it.
True Murder – each week a different author talks about their book. It’s rather a mixed bag, particularly dependent on the quality of the book and author; however, some are excellent. The choice of books is quite varied and although some will be about a specific crime/offender, others may look at a series of crimes with different perpetrators or a topic such as capital punishment in America. I would particularly recommend is Blood Runs Green (
http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo19966410.html) and the two episodes with Stephen Williams.
If you enjoy podcasts where people suppose far too much from far too little,
Missing Maura Murray is the one for you. I manage to make it to around episode 30 before bailing – I’ve read that it’s gotten better, but that doesn’t say too much. The concept is two people are planning to make a documentary about a disappearance, but don’t seem to know very much about it. Sometimes it was quite funny (unintentionally) but it was mainly going down one rabbit hole after another. There’s also a spin-off called
Crawlspace but haven’t tried it.
