CRIMEandSTUFF

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

Posted on January 21, 2018 by maureenmilliken

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:34:47 — 43.4MB)

Episode 41: Murder at Not So Pleasant Point

Posted on January 5, 2018 by maureenmilliken

On a November Sunday in 1965, the extended Francis family’s home was invaded by five hunters from Massachusetts. By the end of the day, one member of the family would be dead.

Join us for a story that still resonates in Maine more than 50 years later.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:09:41 — 31.9MB)

A Very Special Christmas Episode: Crime & Stuff goes Groovy

Posted on December 25, 2017December 25, 2017 by maureenmilliken

What’s the true meaning of Christmas? No, really, what is it? In this very special Christmas episode, in partnership with our sister podcast, Groovy Tube, we find out through That Girl, Mary Tyler Moore, Adam 12 and Starsky & Hutch.

Sure, Santa gets arrested. But it’s warmer than eggnog by the fire.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:59:39 — 54.8MB)

Episode 40: Killed in their own backyards

Posted on December 4, 2017 by maureenmilliken

One of them went outside to shoo hunters away from her property as her year-old twins played in the house; another was removing a log that blocked his family’s camp road, anxious for a weekend away with his fiancee; another was hunting for gems on her country property; another was splitting wood, careful to wear hunter orange; another, 18, was hanging around outside with her brother.

All of them were part of a small but tragic toll in Maine — shot to death on their own or a neighbor’s property by hunters who said they mistook them for deer.

Join us for Episode 40.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:30:11 — 41.3MB)

Episode 39: The Maine Crime Writers at Crime Bake

Posted on November 22, 2017 by maureenmilliken

Something different this episode! We interviewed four Maine Crime Writers at the annual New England Crime Bake mystery writers conference.

Writers Dick Cass, Brenda Buchanan, Barbara Ross and Bruce Robert Coffin — all who write different subgenres of crime and mystery fiction — talk about their books, writing, crime and Maine.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:00:22 — 55.1MB)

Episode 38: Nichole Cable, teen angst, Facebook and murder

Posted on November 9, 2017 by maureenmilliken

Nichole Cable, 15, told her mother she was going down to the end of their street in a small Maine town to “get some smokes” from an acquaintance. It was the last conversation they’d have.

Cable was murdered, her body found weeks later. But not by a stranger, but by a young man who lured her with a fake Facebook profile.

What happened? Listen and find out.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:29:58 — 41.2MB)

Episode 37: Kim Wall’s fatal final story

Posted on October 24, 2017October 25, 2017 by maureenmilliken

Swedish journalist Kim Wall was doing what she did best when she climbed aboard Denmark inventor Peter Madsen’s homemade submarine August 10: chasing a great story.

But Wall never got off the sub alive, her dismembered remains later found in the strait between Sweden and Denmark, and Madsen charged in her death.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:01:19 — 28.1MB)

Episode 36: Murder on the Appalachian Trail

Posted on October 9, 2017October 9, 2017 by maureenmilliken

More than 2,100 miles, 14 states and, since 1974, 11 murders. The Appalachian Trail is a pretty safe place to be, unless you run into the wrong crazed killer. All of the 11 people who were killed on the trail that stretches from Georgia to Maine were killed by a stranger. At least those whose murders were solved.

Join us as we discuss those hikes into hell.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:48:02 — 49.5MB)

Episode 35: Carol Jenkins, the murder a town wanted to forget

Posted on September 24, 2017 by maureenmilliken

Carol Jenkins was 21 and on the first day on the job selling encyclopedias when she made the mistake of agreeing to go to Martinsville, Indiana. She didn’t make it out of town alive.

That was 1968, and her racially motivated murder is still considered partially unsolved in a town that seems more concerned about defending itself against charges of racism that finding justice for a young woman who was brutally killed in cold blood on the sidewalk of a main street.

Join us for Episode 35, which also includes a rollicking discussion of the movie “It.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:32:07 — 42.2MB)

Episode 34: Son of Sam, the terror of New York City

Posted on September 16, 2017 by maureenmilliken

In the summer of 1977, New York City was terrorized by a killer who shot his victims at close range, eventually killing six people and wounding seven. He was eventually called the Son of Sam.

While not history’s most prolific killer — or even 1977’s — his brazen attacks, which police determined began in July 1976, made national deadlines.

David Berkowitz’s arrest in August 1977 in many ways raised more questions than they answered.

Join us for Episode 34, where we discuss Son of Sam, 1977 TV and even have a pop-up recipe.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:41:44 — 46.6MB)

Episode 33: Was Conrad Roy texted to death?

Posted on August 28, 2017August 28, 2017 by maureenmilliken

The relationship between Massachusetts teens Conrad Roy and Michelle Carter was one that only could have happened in the 21st century. They lived less than an hour from each other, but rarely met in person. But they communicated nonstop by social media, and in the weeks leading up to Roy’s July 12, 2014, suicide, they exchanged more than 1,000 texts.

Carter’s conviction was the first in Massachusetts history in which someone was convicted of manslaughter for words alone.

Join us as we discuss the tragedy that was the relationship between Conrad Roy and Michelle Carter.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:40:48 — 46.1MB)

Episode 32: Malaga Island, Maine’s secret shame

Posted on August 19, 2017August 21, 2017 by maureenmilliken

Malaga Island residents (malagaisland.org photo)

In 1912, the state of Maine bought Malaga Island and evicted its mixed-race residents, placing eight of them — an entire family — in the Maine School for the Feeble-Minded and casting the rest adrift, some with tragic results.

The move came after a several years of denigration of the people of the island by newspapers, politicians and area residents.

It’s something that until a decade ago, no one in Maine talked much about, or even knew about.

Now, in 2017, we’d like to think we’re better than that. Are we? Things like this surely couldn’t happen today. Could they? We discuss.

Yep, we’re back and all fired up after a month off. Join us for Episode 32. Actually, Episode 32 B. Because we’re not too proud to re-record if severe technical issues screw up a good story.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:18:56 — 36.1MB)

Bonus Episode 2: What we’re doing on our summer vacation

Posted on July 16, 2017 by maureenmilliken

Soooo… it’s been 31 episodes. And it’s July in Maine. And we have day jobs (kind of). So we’re taking a break for a few weeks from Crime & Stuff. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have anything to say…

We discuss what we’re reading, watching, doing (Maureen’s reading 75 self-published books as a contest judge. By August 1. You can imagine what she has to say about that). Rebecca’s planning some pretty cool upcoming topics for when we return in August.

And if you REALLY miss us, there’s always Groovy Tube: The Crimes of the Brady Bunch.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:02 — 21.1MB)

Episode 31: The Connecticut Valley Serial Killer

Posted on July 9, 2017 by maureenmilliken

In the ongoing Maine case of Anthony Sanborn, the man who served 27 years for a 1989 murder he may not have committed, the most recent twist is that a profiler has linked that murder, of Jessica Briggs, to another in 1987 in Vermont. That murder, of Barbara Agnew, was the last in a string of New Hampshire and Vermont killings that may have been done by one killer.

The Connecticut River Valley serial killings have never been solved. There may be many more victims; there may be many killers; Briggs may have been the victim of a serial killer who wasn’t tied to those murders at all. How does it all fit together? We try to make sense of it.

Join us for Episode 31!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:27:17 — 40.0MB)

Episode 30: Kyron Horman, little boy still lost

Posted on July 1, 2017 by maureenmilliken

On June 4, 2010, Kyron Horman’s stepmother took him to school in Portland, Oregon. There was a science fair that morning and Kyron, 7, was excited about his tree frog exhibit. His stepmother, Terri Moulton Horman, snapped a picture of him to post on Facebook later. It would be the last photo of the little boy ever taken.

Terri says the last time she saw Kyron, he was walking to his classroom at 8:45 a.m.. No one else saw him in the classroom, or anywhere else at school after that that day. Kyron’s disappearance resulted in the largest search in Oregon history, but no trace of him was found. Seven years later, no one knows what happened to Kyron.

Well, almost no one.

Crime & Stuff welcomes special guest, sister and college professor Liz Milliken, to talk about the Kyron Horman case.

Join us!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:49:42 — 50.2MB)

Episode 29: Annie Dookhan, wicked bad chemistry

Posted on June 22, 2017 by maureenmilliken

Annie Dookhan is arrested. (Boston Globe photo)

Annie Dookhan, a chemist at the Hinton State Laboratory in Boston, was loved by prosecutors — she was a whiz, testing more drug evidence than everyone else in the lab, and she always got them the results they wanted. Although some of her coworkers wondered just how she got it done, no one else was very concerned because she was helping put people in jail.

In 2011, someone in the lab noticed she’d forged the name of an evidence officer in a log book. Investigators started pulling that string, and when all was said and done charges against more than 21,000 people convicted of drug crimes were dropped and estimates were she may have falsified evidence in more than 40,000 drug cases.

Find out how Annie Dookhan went from being a shining star in the Massachusetts criminal justice system to the biggest fraud in Massachusetts history.

And as a bonus, the trailer for our new Groovy Tube podcast!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:07:17 — 30.8MB)

Episode 28: The mysterious death and life of Joyce Carol Vincent

Posted on June 14, 2017 by maureenmilliken

Joyce Carol Vincent was pretty, bubbly, smart and talented. She also didn’t talk about her past and had parts of her life even those closest to her knew nothing about. Still, when the remains of a woman were found in a London bedsit in January 2006, about three years after the woman died, none of her friends or acquaintances realized it was the Joyce they had known. It just wasn’t possible.

But really, it kind of was.

Join us for Episode 28.

And in recommendations, we talk about Nobel Prize winner and all-around huge influence Bob Dylan. Spoiler alert: We love him.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:20:08 — 36.7MB)

Episode 27: You might remember Phil Hartman’s murder

Posted on June 6, 2017 by maureenmilliken

You might remember Phil Hartman from Saturday Live, where in the 1980s he was uproariously funny as Frankenstein in the ongoing Frankenstein, Tarzan and Tonto bit, or as the Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer (“Your world frightens and confuses me…” Trust us, it was funny). Or maybe you loved him on The Simpsons, where he did another lawyer, Lionel Hutz, and Troy McClure, a newscaster and former unmemorable actor, who always opened with, “You might remember me from such roles as…”

And you also probably remember Hartman was shot May 28, 1998, by his wife, Brynn, who then shot herself.

We look back at Hartman, his wife, and the circumstances surrounding the murder-suicide.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:15:14 — 34.4MB)

Episode 26: Blanche Kimball, the cold case chewing gum murder

Posted on May 30, 2017May 31, 2017 by maureenmilliken

When Blanche Kimball was stabbed to death in her home in Augusta, Maine, in 1976, police were stymied. She’d been stabbed 44 times and left to die, only found by police after neighbors became concerned at least a week after she was killed.

Gary Raub — then Gary Wilson — was at the time tearing an alcohol and violence-fueled path through central Maine, but somehow avoided serious attention from the police.

The case was one of Maine’s oldest cold cases. But in 2012, DNA and some smart cross-country detective work and, ultimately, a piece of apple pie flavored chewing gum, led to Raub’s arrest 3,000 miles away.

The case was the oldest cold case in Maine to be solved.

We also discuss “Tower,” more Kimmy Schmidt and lots of other stuff.

Join us for Episode 26.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:41:43 — 46.6MB)

Episode 25: Phil Spector, murderous wall of crazy

Posted on May 24, 2017May 26, 2017 by maureenmilliken

Phil Spector, a small white man with an afro and mustache, is pointing a gun out of a car window, straight at the camera, as a larger man with a beard, helps steady his arm, reaching around him from behind.

So, what do you do with a musical genius who loves guns and scares the hell out of people?

Well, since he’s rich, more famous than famous and influential, nothing.

Until someone gets hurt.

Phil Spector, whose “wall of sound” production transformed the music of the 60s, spent decades bending people to his will with crazy antics and the threat of violence. Lana Clarkson, an actress and part-time hostess at the House of Blues in LA, didn’t know spector when she met him in February 2003 when he stopped into the House of Blues in February 2003. She made the mistake of accepting Spector’s invitation of a drink and shop talk at his house that night. She didn’t get out alive.

Episode 25. Join us as we talk about Phil Spector’s murderous wall of crazy.

[In photo: Phil Spector points a gun as his bodyguard helps him in 1975. (Mark S. Wexler/Corbis)]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:18:43 — 36.0MB)

Episode 24: The Fitbit & the woodchipper, two murders that made investigative history

Posted on May 16, 2017 by maureenmilliken

Connie and Richard Dabate in happier times.

In April, Richard Dabate was arrested on charges he murdered his wife in December 2015. The evidence against Dabate is a cyber-crumb track of electronic device information, the biggest ones provided by the Fitbit his wife was wearing when she was shot in their Connecticut home. Investigators said it’s the first time a Fitbit has been used to help bring murder charges against someone.

More than 30 years before, another woman was killed, also by a Connecticut Richard. Helle Crafts body was never found — her husband had chopped her frozen, dismembered corpse up with a woodchipper and sprayed it into the Housatonic River during a blizzard. But enough was found to convict him, the first time in Connecticut someone was convicted without a body.

Two stories of relentless investigation helped along by tiny details, as well as some mind-blowing idiocy and laughable narcissism.

We know you’ll enjoy it!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:00:32 — 27.7MB)

Portland: The Sanborn video tour

Posted on May 15, 2017 by maureenmilliken

Want to see the area where Anthony Sanborn and his friends hung out and Jessica Briggs was murdered? Take daytime, and a nightime, tour with us, including Oxford Street and the neighborhood where Sanborn and others in the case lived; Peppermint Park, where the kids hung out; and the Portland waterfront, including DiMillos restaurant, where Briggs and others in the case worked and the Maine State Pier, where Brigs was murdered.

Click on the photo below for the daytime tour.

Click on the photo below for the nighttime tour.

Bonus Episode 1: Logan Marr, Anthony Sanborn updates

Posted on May 11, 2017 by maureenmilliken

Updates on Logan Marr (episode 18) and Anthony Sanborn (episode 22).

Find out how Logan Marr’s sister, Bailey, turned out. Some good news for a change.

On the other hand, in the ongoing saga of Anthony Sanborn, the Portland, Maine, man recently freed on bail after 27 years in prison, find out what a case investigator had in his attic all these years. Hint: The defense might have liked to see it.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:48 — 6.8MB)

Episode 23: Frances Schreuder, keeping murder in the family

Posted on May 10, 2017May 10, 2017 by maureenmilliken

Frances Schreuder wanted desperately to be a member of high society, but she just didn’t have enough money to bankroll it. So she did what a lot of women would do — got her teenage son to kill her incredibly wealthy but tight-fisted father.

You may not recognize the names now, but the murder of Franklin Schreuder spurred several true crime books and two — yes TWO — TV docudramas.

And if that’s not enough fun, we also talk about some of Maine’s most notorious tourist-area murders.

Join us for a very special Mother’s Day Episode 23.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:09:43 — 31.9MB)

Episode 22: Anthony Sanborn, murder, injustice and disposable lives

Posted on May 2, 2017 by maureenmilliken

When 16-year-old Jessica Briggs was found dead under the Maine State Pier in Portland in May 1989 — stabbed, beaten and eviscerated — police quickly narrowed their focus to her fellow street kids. They arrested her sometime boyfriend Tony Sanborn in 1990, he was convicted of her murder in 1992 and an appeal failed in 1994. In April, after 27 years behind bars, Sanborn was let out on bail after attorneys spent more than a year combing through police and prosecution files that show a trail of lies and constitutional violations.

The star witness? 13 at the time of the murder? Turns out she was legally blind and couldn’t see what she’d claimed she’d seen, something the prosecution didn’t share with the defense. Another important witness? Police had threatened to pursue the adult man’s sexual assaults on underage girls unless he testified that Sanborn told him he’d killed Briggs. The defense didn’t know about that, either. And that’s just the beginning.

Sanborn’s release was a first for Maine, but what lead to it will blow your mind.

Join us for Episode 22! And keep an eye out for Episode 22.2, with important updates on this ongoing case.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:43:23 — 47.3MB)