How a Runaway’s Tragic End Exposed America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer

On October 4, 2012, 17-year-old Jake Evans—a quiet, homeschooled Texas teen with no history of violence—called 911 and calmly confessed: “I just killed my mom and sister.” The brutality of the crime stunned investigators. Evans had shot his mother in the head execution-style and stabbed his 15-year-old sister 28 times. But what turned a seemingly mild-mannered boy into a family annihilator?Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime--6473403/support.

On a sweltering Florida afternoon, Hoyt Birge and Peter Tournay entered what they thought was a routine drug deal—only to find themselves staring down the barrel of a gun. Within minutes, Hoyt lay lifeless on the floor, and Tournay, bleeding out from a gunshot wound, played dead to survive. The assailant? A cold-blooded killer who staged the scene to look like a robbery gone wrong, but whose motives ran far darker.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime--6473403/support.

In 1990, 14-year-old Regina Walters fled her troubled Texas home, seeking escape—only to vanish into the night. Six months later, her badly decomposed body was discovered in an abandoned Illinois barn, posed in a macabre tableau: wearing black high heels, her hair freshly cut. The haunting crime scene bore the signature of a predator who’d stalked America’s highways for years—a long-haul trucker with a kill count that dwarfed even Ted Bundy’s.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime--6473403/support.

For nearly two decades, an elusive terrorist known only as “The Unabomber” terrorized the nation, mailing 16 bombs that killed 3 people and maimed 23 others—from university professors to airline executives. The FBI’s longest and costliest manhunt targeted a phantom: Ted Kaczynski, a reclusive math genius turned anti-technology zealot, living without electricity in a Montana shack.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime--6473403/support.

For years, John Gotti ruled the Gambino crime family with a diamond-crusted fist—flaunting his power in $2,000 suits, mocking prosecutors, and earning the nickname “The Teflon Don” after three high-profile acquittals. But in December 1985, Gotti’s ambition turned deadly when he orchestrated the brazen assassination of his boss, Paul Castellano, outside Sparks Steak House in Midtown Manhattan. With Castellano gone, Gotti seized control… and the FBI vowed to take him down.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime--6473403/support.

In December 1989, the festive lights of the Fairfax County, Virginia, apartment complex glowed with holiday cheer—until five-year-old Melissa Brannen disappeared during a cheerful Christmas party. One moment she was laughing with friends; the next, she’d vanished into the winter night. The only clue? A witness who saw a shadowy figure carrying a bundle near the playground.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime--6473403/support.

On a frigid February afternoon in 1993, a massive explosion ripped through the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center, shaking Manhattan to its core. The blast—equivalent to 1,200 pounds of TNT—tore a five-story crater through concrete and steel, killing six, injuring over 1,000, and filling the towers with choking black smoke. For the first time, America realized: this wasn’t an accident. It was an attack.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime--6473403/support.

In the spring of 1984, Christopher Wilder, a charming Australian-born racecar driver and amateur photographer, crisscrossed America with a deadly secret. Posing as a fashion scout, he prowled shopping malls, targeting young women—many of them aspiring models—with promises of photo shoots and magazine spreads. But his camera was a prop; his real tools were ropes, knives, and a sadist’s imagination.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime--6473403/support.

Claude Dallas was the last of a dying breed—a self-styled mountain man who lived off the grid, poaching game in the rugged Owyhee Desert of Idaho. But in 1981, his frontier fantasy turned deadly when two Idaho game wardens, Bill Pogue and Conley Elms, confronted him about illegal hunting. In a burst of violence, Dallas gunned both men down, execution-style, then vanished into the wild.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime--6473403/support.

In the sweltering summer of 1984, Tampa, Florida, was gripped by fear as a ruthless predator stalked the streets, raping and murdering at least ten women. The killer left no witnesses, no patterns—just a trail of broken lives. Then, one victim survived.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime--6473403/support.