CWO Classic: Uncover: Escaping NXIVM

The 2012 murders of 20 school children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary shocked the nation and shattered their grieving families. But InfoWars host Alex Jones immediately unspooled a series of conspiracy theories accusing the parents of faking their kids’ deaths in an elaborate hoax. For years, the families were harassed by conspiracy theorists and routinely slandered by Jones. Fed up, a group of parents sued the host for libel and asked courts in Texas and Connecticut to hold him accountable in the biggest defamation case in US history.The HBO Original documentary “The Truth vs. Alex Jones” goes behind the scenes of the billion-dollar-plus lawsuit. It also digs into the origins of Jones’s unrepentant personna and his scandal-driven business model, as well as the worldview of the followers he inspired to torment the victims’ loved ones.OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "THE TRUTH VS. ALEX JONES" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 11 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE. For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com

In June 2021, Ella Mae Begay vanished from her Sweetwater, Arizona home in the middle of the night. Preston Henry Tolth admitted to tribal police he stole the 62-year-old’s truck and beat her, but Ella Mae’s family pressured him to say where on the Navajo reservation he left her. A year later, 38-year-old Kristina Carrillo went missing from the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. But as host Connie Walker investigates her disappearance, she uncovers an unlikely connection between the two cases.In the final season of “Stolen: Trouble in Sweetwater,” Walker looks at two missing persons cases from the largest Indian reservation in the US and their potential link. In addition to her journalism on the issue of missing and murdered indigenous people, the Peabody Award-winning host also focuses on the systemic issues that make solving these cases so difficult.OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "STOLEN: TROUBLE IN SWEETWATER" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 12 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.In Crime of the Week: the beat slows down.  For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com

To engage his sociology students, Elizabethton High School teacher Alex Campbell created a unique lesson plan. The class would research a 1970s cold case known as the Redhead Murders. By semester's end, the students had created a profile of the possible serial killer. Six months after the class released their findings, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation identified someone who fit their profile. They said DNA linked a now-deceased truck driver to one of the half-dozen murders. But with links to the other victims still missing, a new group of Mr. Campbell’s students pick up the trail to solve the case once and for all.From iHeart True Crime and KT Studios, “Murder 101” traces how a group project turned into a potential break in a 40-year-old mystery. The podcast brings us into the classroom discussions on possible clues and an interview with the one person who might tie the crimes of Jerry Leon Johns together: his one surviving victim.OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "MURDER 101" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 11 MINUTES OF THE PODCAST. For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com

Imogene Scott finds herself aboard a luxury cruise ship chartered by the Collier family. The guest list includes powerful friends, as well as Chinese investors interested in acquiring their clothing factory. But after setting sail, an obnoxious passenger is killed with a harpoon through his chest.Also on board is a figure from Imogene’s childhood: world famous detective Rufus Cotesworth, who tried to solve her mother’s car bombing but abruptly dropped the case. The murdered passenger was actually Rufus’s undercover partner, looking for connections between the Colliers and the enigmatic Viktor Sams. Though she despises him, Imogene agrees to help Rufus investigate when she learns Sams was somehow tied to her mother’s death.Hulu’s high seas whodunnit “Death and Other Details” stars Violett Beane and Mandy Patinkin. The stylized drama takes the locked room murder format and sets it afloat. Can the pair learn what Danny uncovered that got him killed? Why is Viktor Sams targeting the passengers ? And will Imogene discover who was responsible for her mother’s death all those years ago.OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "DEATH AND OTHER DETAILS" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 12 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.In Crime of the Week: Up shit's creek.This episode was recorded live at The Word Barn in Exeter, NH.  For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com

It was the scandal that took down a President…but it didn’t happen all at once. The road to Watergate was paved over time with small turns and little-known stories that need to be heard.In this CWO Classic: we’ll revisit our December 8, 2017 review of the classic podcast “Slow Burn.” For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com

After profiling lawyer Shane Correia years ago for her podcast, part of his story stuck with host Amory Sivertson. He grew up under the cloud that his sister Sophia had been arrested for murdering her mother-in-law. And it was his brother Sean who said he witnessed Sophia commit the crime. But something about the story bothered Sivertson. Did the six-month pregnant 23-year-old really beat Marlyne Johnson with fireplace tongs just to steal some money? Why does the blood evidence only point to Sean, who was given a deal to testify against his sister? But her own investigation takes several turns, and Sivertson wonders if she’ll ever know who’s telling the truth.In “Beyond All Repair” from WBUR and ZSP Media, Sivertson offers up a classic murder mystery with an enthralling cast of characters. She brings a vibrant narrative style and leaves no stone unturned in her quest to find out who killed Marlyne . OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "BEYOND ALL REPAIR" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 11 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.In Crime of the Week: sinking feeling. For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com

He went from NFL tight end to having three murder charges. Could his rags-to-riches-to-ruin story have been different?In this CWO Classic, we’ll revisit our October 29, 2018 review of "Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football, Inc." from Wondery and the Boston Globe Spotlight team. For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com

Western news outlets became fascinated with Chen Guangcheng, a blind self-taught lawyer who advocated for human rights inside communist China. When Guangcheng escaped house arrest and fled to the US in 2012, he was held up as a symbol of freedom and democracy. But in the subsequent years, observers were puzzled when Guangcheng re-entered the public sphere as a Trump supporter, repeating right-wing talking points. And the humble dissident who stood up to China’s authoritarian government was spotted in Washington on January 6th.The podcast “Dissident at the Doorstep” from Crooked Media looks at Guangcheng’s story, tracing his early advocacy for reproductive freedoms and disability rights, to the diplomatic crisis caused by his flight from captivity, and his latter day emergence as a right wing darling. Hosts Alison Klayman, Colin Jones, and Yangyang Cheng ask if the man known as “the barefoot lawyer” changed his political stripes…or was he misunderstood from the beginning?OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "DISSIDENT AT THE DOORSTEP" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 11 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.In Crime of the Week: Every dog has his DNA. For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com

“Twin Peaks” actor Kyle MacLachlan had a crazy story for his friend. In the 1980s, kingpin Pablo Escobar bribed an entire North Carolina town to let him land airplanes and smuggle cocaine into the US. The little-known story happened in Varnamtown, population 300. They found that residents, many with the last name of Varnam, got rich as a cog in the cartel's trafficking operation. But one fisherman who refused to be intimidated took on the town in a quixotic effort to stop the smuggling. It took a spate of bad luck and double crosses to bring the whole thing down.In the podcast “Varnamtown,” MacLachlan and war correspondent Joshua Davis revisit this drug war footnote in a tale that features REO Speedwagon, lawn mowing Playboy bunnies, and an attack turkey. We hear from residents, investigators and drug smugglers while the actor and the journalist banter with each other about the story’s quirky twists and turns. OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "VARNAMTOWN" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 11 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE. For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com

Concerned by her adolescent behavior, Katherine Daniel’s parents sent the teenager to the Academy at Ivy Ridge, a school that promised to set her straight through a rigorous program. But within its walls, Ivy Ridge’s students were subjected to humiliation and violence at the hands of its staff. Years later, Katherine and her former classmates returned to the now-closed school. Riffling through its abandoned files and surveillance tape, they put together the pieces of their traumatic experiences, hoping to prove to an unconvinced world they were abused by so-called educators more interested in collecting tuition than in their well being.The Netflix documentary series “The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping” is a unique view of the troubled teen industry told through the eyes of a former student. Katherine Kubler retraces the academy’s history while confronting former workers and pursuing current owners. She also attempts to come to terms with her own experience at the school and her strained relationship with the parent who put her there.OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "THE PROGRAM" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 14 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.In Crime of the Week: rise, dry, reboot. For exclusive podcasts and more, sign up at Patreon.Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com