Episode 545: The Career Girl Murders (Part 2)

In 1985, a 68-year-old woman was assaulted and murdered in Beatrice, Nebraska. Five people confessed, but 19 years later, they were exonerated. Still, some can’t shake the memories implanted in their minds and still wonder if they’re truly innocent.

In this chilling episode of "Murder, Mystery & Makeup," Bailey Sarian unravels the gruesome story of Cameron Hooker, a psychopath with a macabre fascination for torture. In a narrative interlaced with dark humor and empathetic storytelling, Sarian delves deep into Hooker's oppressive and sadistic hold over his victim Colleen, highlighting his blood-chilling cruelty involving creative torture devices and manipulation stunts.

The story evolves as Sarian transitions from the captive's ordeal to the aftermath, including the courtroom drama and the victims' rehabilitation. Amidst this, the mysterious murder case of Marliz Spannake adds to the horrifying dimension of Hooker's terror. Through the episode, Sarian succeeds in drawing the listeners' abhorrence for Cameron's heinous acts while leaving them in awe of the indomitable spirit of victims like Colleen and Janice, who managed to rebuild their lives post-trauma.

Immerse yourself into the chilling narrative of one of America's notorious serial killers, Joel Rifkin, in Ash Kelley and Alaina Urquhart's "Morbid: A True Crime Podcast". Our hosts expertly unravel the life of Rifkin, from his troubled upbringing marked by severe bullying to his disturbing transformation into a serial killer - shattering his comfortable home life and leading him on a dreadful path of crime.

In the latter part of the story, Kelley and Urquhart dig deeper into the grotesque methodologies of Rifkin's murders, taking us on a terrifying journey into the lives of his unfortunate victims while tracing the consequent legal proceedings that led to a hefty 203-year prison sentence. As you delve into this heart-wrenching episode, be prepared to witness a haunting portrait of evil incarnate, a bleak testament of the duality that resides in the human psyche.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI is about the Osage Reign of Terror—the 1920s organized killings of members of the oil-rich Osage Indians. Powerful and bigoted whites systematically exploited and murdered the Osage people to expropriate their wealth, showing us the horrors that result when racism and greed align. The murders were also a major catalyst for the growth of the FBI, and the triumph of its rational and scientific vision of law enforcement—and a shift away from the era of frontier justice, corrupt and incompetent local sheriffs, and rogue “lawmen.”

Over a half-century after the civil rights movement sought justice for African Americans, prominent movements such as Black Lives Matter continue fighting to expose and resist injustice. In this social landscape, Bryan Stevenson’s message is timely: The US justice system consistently denies justice to society’s most vulnerable members.

In his 2014 book, Just Mercy, Stevenson examines the justice system’s pervasive failures toward marginalized populations, especially Black Americans. To illustrate these failures, Stevenson discusses numerous criminal cases, most prominently the 1989 case of Walter McMillian, a Black man wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Alabama.

In this guide, we’ll discuss Stevenson’s analysis of the McMillian case and his evidence of extreme punishments doled out more broadly by the justice system. Moreover, we’ll consider Stevenson’s diagnosis of the root problems with the American conception of justice and his suggestions for repairing it. We’ll also examine arguments from other sources about how to improve the justice system and provide further context for the cases that Stevenson cites.

The Other Wes Moore chronicles the lives of two men with the same name. Both Wes Moores are black men who grew up in the inner-city communities of Baltimore City and the Bronx. Both were raised by single mothers within the same era. So how did one end up a decorated military veteran and academic scholar, and the other a convicted murder with a life sentence?

The book, written by Wes Moore the Army veteran, searches for answers by parsing their histories. Part memoir, part biography, this book questions the influence of family and environment in young men’s lives and what's needed to ensure success, especially in the lives of those without privilege or resources.

Over a half-century after the civil rights movement sought justice for African Americans, prominent movements such as Black Lives Matter continue fighting to expose and resist injustice. In this social landscape, Bryan Stevenson’s message is timely: The US justice system consistently denies justice to society’s most vulnerable members.

In his 2014 book, Just Mercy, Stevenson examines the justice system’s pervasive failures toward marginalized populations, especially Black Americans. To illustrate these failures, Stevenson discusses numerous criminal cases, most prominently the 1989 case of Walter McMillian, a Black man wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Alabama.

In this guide, we’ll discuss Stevenson’s analysis of the McMillian case and his evidence of extreme punishments doled out more broadly by the justice system. Moreover, we’ll consider Stevenson’s diagnosis of the root problems with the American conception of justice and his suggestions for repairing it. We’ll also examine arguments from other sources about how to improve the justice system and provide further context for the cases that Stevenson cites.