Episode 65: Helen Bailey’s fatal final chapter

Helen Bailey was a successful author, but suffering from the sudden death of her husband. Then Ian Stewart came along, and thing started looking up. Until Helen, and her little dog Boris, disappeared…

Episode 64: Bonny Lee Bakley’s long fatal con

In Part II of our loosely related celebrity slaying series, we look at the life and death of Bonny Lee Bakley, whose final of her many marriages, to actor Robert Blake, turned out to be the one that killed her.

 

Episode 63: Death in the House of Brando

Our latest episode is Part 1 of a two-part look at two loosely connected celebrity homicides. In this one, we discuss the shooting death of Dag Drollet by Christian Brando, Marlon Brando’s son. It’s a sad story of celebrity privilege, some really bad handling of mental health issues and more.

Sorry we’re so late with this by the way — the good news is it’s mostly because we’re trying out new software that makes us sound better. Or rather, the sound quality is better. We’re not altering our voices. 🙂 We want to thank our Patreon supporters who have helped us make the leap from free software to something more professional.

Enjoy.

Episode 62: Albert Cochran How many murders can you get away with?

Janet Baxter was killed on a cold November night in Maine in 1976 during a quick trip to the A&P to get some cold medicine. When her murder was finally solved 22 years later, the man who did it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise. It turns out Baxter was just one of five people he was convicted of or suspected of killing.

Serial killer? Family annihilator? Or just a hot-head? We discuss.

 

Episode 61: What if everyone hated you, then you disappeared?

Madalyn Murray O’Hair, founder of American Atheists, pissed a lot of people off. And when she, her son John and her grandaughter Robin disappeared from San Antonio, Texas, in 1995, no one made a big effort to find them.

When small-time crook Danny Frye vanished around the same time, no one bothered to look for him, either.

Maybe someone should’ve.

 

Episode 60: The long road of an Oregon serial killer

John Ackroyd (Oregonlive.com photo)

Our special Oregon correspondent, our sister Liz, joins us once again, this time to talk about Oregon serial killer John Ackroyd, who fatally stalked Route 20 for decades. The topic is inspired by The Oregonian’s comprehensive coverage of the case, The Ghosts of Highway 20.

 

Episode 59: A Maine murder and manhunt

When Stephanie Ginn Gebo was found dead on her bedroom floor by her 13-year-old daughter in June 2015, her former boyfriend Robert Burton was already in the Maine woods, where he stayed, eluding police for 68 days.

[Photo is Robert Burton caught on surveillance camera in July 2015 during his 68 days on the run, courtesy of Maine State Police]

A very special 2018 Groovy Christmas episode

F-sake Rudolph, you freak, get the f@#%ing nose away from me.

In our annual holiday tradition, we’re merging our podcasts Groovy Tube and Crime & Stuff, this year in an interactive Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer-watching extravaganza. Ok, it’s not an extravaganza, but break out the DVD and watch with us anyway.

Episode 58: Part II Negative Nellies Watch Making a Murderer

We continue our in depth discussion, including our NNW rating, of both the Netflix documentary and the case it’s based on.

Episode 57: Part 1 Negative Nellies Watch Making a Murderer

The Negative Nellies watch and rate the Netflix documentary series Making a Murderer. Both seasons! And this may be hard to believe, but we have so much to say, we’re splitting it into two episodes.

We knew you’d like that.

Episode 56: When the Ouija board spells MURDER

Sometimes the whole thing’s just the Ouija board’s fault, as murders and other bad decisions from coast to coast and across the pond show.

Episode 55: How to murder your husband, she wrote

In 2011, romance novelist Nancy Crampton Brophy wrote a blog post on “How to murder your husband.” It turned out to be an unfortunate topic: her husband, Dan Brophy, was murdered in June, shot dead at the Oregon Culinary Institute, were he worked. And in September, Nancy was arrested and charged with his murder.

Episode 54: Albert Flick, never too old to be a killer

Albert Flick was convicted of killing his wife in 1979. After he got out of prison, he continued to assault women, a knife his weapon of choice. After his third conviction, Flick got a relatively short prison sentence — the judge said Flick would “age out” of attacking women. Unfortunately for Kim Dobbie, he didn’t.

Episode 53: The Hart family, not what they seemed

When two apparently loving moms and their six kids plunged off a California cliff to their deaths, the pattern of abuse and control that lead up to it made many wonder how the red flags weren’t seen earlier.

A discussion with our special guest host, our sister Liz the college professor.

Episode 52: It’s Drega, and he’s got a gun

Carl Drega didn’t just have a beef with his northern New Hampshire town, he had a lot of beefs. He also had an AR-15 assault rifle and one August day in 1997 he decided to settle things once and for all.

 

Episode 51: Gary Gilmore, Let’s do it

We’re back! Talking about the killer who brought the death penalty back into fashion in 1976, and inspired a slogan for a giant shoe company. What made Gary Gilmore so special? Listen and find out.

Total other end of the spectrum, we apply our NNW rating to the documentary “Bobby Kennedy for President.”

Episode 50: Think you can’t get scammed? So did I

For our very special 50th episode we get a little personal — one of is $1,300 poorer after she got scammed. We talk about what happened, how it happened and, geez, am I really THAT stupid? Uh huh.

In our special NNW ratings we discuss the 1974 made for TV movie “Bad Ronald” and Michelle McNamara’s “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.”

Episode 49: A true crime pulp murder

Our long national nightmare is over! That’s right, we finally have another episode up. When a model, her  mother and their British gentleman boarder are murdered the night before Easter in 1930’s New York, it’ s not what you think.

Episode 48: No justice for anyone in the Haysom murders

Love? Manipulation? Insanity? Whatever. One word that doesn’t apply in the thirty-three years since Derek and Nancy Haysom were murdered is justice. We discuss.

And our NNW rating system takes on “A Wrinkle in Time” and “Wormwood.”

 

Episode 47: Did Linda Dolloff go batty for love?

Jeff Dolloff wanted to find a woman to marry who loved his family’s land in Standish, Maine, as much as he did. And he found her. But did Linda Dolloff love it too much to give up without a fight? We discuss.

And in our NNW rating discussion of the documentary “Killing for Love,” can Maureen convince Rebecca about “the absolute biggest problem with this film?” Hmmm. Listen and find out.

Episode 46: What happened to the Turpin family?

David and Louise Turpin are charged with multiple counts for allegedly abusing their 13 children over the past 30 years. What happened between the time the two became a couple — she 15, he 22 — and the moment 30 years later, when their 17-year-old daughter escaped their “house of horrors” in California in January, alerting police, who found children n chains? We take a look.

Episode 45: Brenda Spencer, the shooter who ‘didn’t like Mondays’

The silicon chip inside her head had definitely switched to overload, but how she really felt about Mondays is still up for debate. We discuss the 1979 crime that spurred a song and a lengthy prison sentence.

Also, in a very special recommendations segment, we unveil our Negative Nellies Watching rating system. Now you can understand.

Episode 44: Killer nurse Charlie Cullen, 16 years, nine hospitals, hundreds of deaths

From 1987 to 2003 nurse Charlie Cullen worked at nine hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He wasn’t particularly smart or sneaky, he wasn’t a master criminal. But he killed and killed and killed. And every time a hospital became suspicious and let him go, he’d go down the road to another one, get a  job and kill some more.

Estimates are he may have killed as many as 400 people before he was finally stopped.

Join us in our discussion of the man who may be the most  prolific serial killer in the U.S.

Episode 43: Who left Ashley Ouellette in the middle of the road?

On February 10, 1999, at about 4 a.m., the body of Ashley Ouellette, 15, was found on the center line of the Pine Point Road in Scarborough, Maine. She’d been neatly placed there after being murdered.

Some 19 years later, police are still looking for her killer.

Join us for Episode 43.

Episode 42: The Gardner Heist, solved or not so much?

In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990, two thieves dressed as police officers talked their way into Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, tied up the two guards on duty and walked off with art that’s now valued at $500 million. Nearly 28 years after what is considered the biggest art heist in history, the paintings are still gone and their empty frames haunt the museum.

Over those 28 years, a parade of criminals and criminal-wannabes have fallen all over themselves to confuse the investigation. The FBI said it 2013 the crime is solved, but no one has been arrested, no one knows where the paintings are and the $10 million reward for their return still stands.

Join us as we review the Gardner heist, the players, the theories and the empty frames.