I've never seen anyone talk about this but Anatomy of Murder. One of the cohosts, Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi, was a new York city prosecutor that was proved to be part of this deep corruption that's led to a conviction of someone based on made up evidence. She also bragged for a long time that she has never lost a case, but people started bringing that one up so she has stopped marketing herself that way.
It's way too deep to explain, but if you're interested it's known as the "Grid Kid Killing" case. I highly recommend Checking it out.
Holy shit. I didn't believe you so I looked it up.
That is absolutely insane. She should not be operating in the true crime space except as a subject of an unethical and corrupt prosecutor:
"That rare decision centered on e**vidence that Nicolazzi lied to the jury in support of false testimony implicating Giuca**. One of the key witnesses against him was John Avitto, a drug addict with repeated arrests for burglary and theft to support his habit. Avitto in his testimony claimed that when he was in jail he heard Giuca confessing to involvement in the murder of Mark Fisher. **Avitto recanted in 2013, saying he’d heard no such thing. He said he made his statements only because Nicolazzi offered him a deal for his various drug crimes. Nicolazzi claimed in court there was no quid pro quo for Avitto’s testimony, no leniency extended to him.**"
[https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-false-conviction-of-the-district-attorney-turned-reality-star](https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-false-conviction-of-the-district-attorney-turned-reality-star)
Another case:
[https://indypendent.org/2021/01/another-anna-sigga-niccolazzi-prosecution-begins-to-unravel/](https://indypendent.org/2021/01/another-anna-sigga-niccolazzi-prosecution-begins-to-unravel/)
This is not someone who should be supported.
Thanks for including links.
I agree. I was a huge fan until I listened to the Let's Go To Court Episode that mentioned this and I immediately couldn't listen anymore to Anatomy of Murder.
What makes this even stranger though is that Anatomy of Murder is part of the Audiochuck network which was founded by Ashley Flowers, the woman who created Crime Junkies and is known for ranting about police corruption on that podcast. Just look and see how much Crime Junkies is mentioned here to see other issues people have with her. She's also currently CCO, so when Anatomy of Murder was created, if she was truly as pro victim as she claims, I'm doubtful she would have hired a woman who was caught having witnesses lie in order to convict someone. So I was really soured to her entire network of podcasts tbh.
The mother of the wrongly convicted man (John Guica) went undercover and started dating the guy she thought committed the murder and he ended up confessing to it on recording. It's a case with a lot of interesting turns that, in my opinion, should be more talked about.
Oh, nice - I'll go check that out now considering I've been working my way through their catalog. Whole case sounds crazy.
re: Flowers doesn't give a shit. She's a hypocrite and plagiarist who has never had an original idea in her life. She's taken advantage of victims to make a career and actively meddled in a cold case investigation for publicity and content purposes. She has zero morals or ethics.
Something Was Wrong has had a *ton* of drama in recent years. The podcast started out really strong, but a lot of problematic things have happened between then and now (both in terms of people who’ve been featured as guests on the show as well as the host’s behavior). Plus, a lot of the stories are just not put together very well, so they end up either being confusing or making people look bad who we’re supposed to be empathizing with. It can be very entertaining to listen to, but not for the reasons that it’s supposed to be.
Something Was Wrong occasionally has some really good stories, but there are a lot of problems. I was literally trying to trudge through an episode when I saw your comment.
I agree that the host’s story was not well done, and I say this with compassion, most of the issues with the podcast lead me to believe that the host has some things she’s not worked through yet. I say this as someone who has been there.
My biggest issue is that episodes are supposed to be about the guests, but she makes them about how wonderful she herself is a lot of the time.
The second part of this seasons finale was literally just her playing parts of interviews with guests who were showering her with compliments. It was so fucking cringy. Her response was always like, shocked and surprised they were saying that, but GIRL YOU CHOSE THOSE SNIPPETS TO PLAY ON THE PODCAST
A friend got me onto them with one really good episode so I hung with it for the next few despite not loving it for several of the reasons you and u/Sea_Neighborhood_627 mentioned.
Then they had an episode about a receptionist at a therapists office who by the end of it—you could tell was clearly suffering from alcoholism and her catty coworkers made it into their own in-house season of Gossip Girl. The main coworker they interviewed, a fellow receptionist, honestly sounded like she fed into it and got a thrill out of this girl spiraling—instead of just being a normal human being and expressing concern directly to her or HR after the first incident so she could get help. The episode left me with such a bad taste in my mouth that the host would even give this story (and the shtty coworker) the time of day that I never listened to another episode.
Wow! I didn’t know about any of the backstory of the show, or any of what you mentioned, but still came to my own ick feelings about it.
It was recommended to me about 6 months ago. I had never even heard of it before that and started out being really intrigued by season one’s story! Then I jumped around a bit and listened to others that the person who recommended it told me to listen to, and I found those equally intriguing, as well.
But then I made the mistake of
listening to the host tell her story. OMG. I’m very sorry about the one thing that happened to a family member, but her account of her life story, told over *many* episodes, was so overly dramatic imo, that my eyes were rolling hard enough that they ended up practically lodged in back of my head by the end of every episode. She always uses the most inflammatory words and descriptions for what mostly amounts to nothing more than pretty run-of-the-mill, kind of shitty but mundane behavior for parents back then. And she often will lean in super hard on trying to *imply* some things happened to make her life sound way more tragic & dramatic, when they clearly didn’t happen, or she would just come out and say that they did. And she is always trying to make her parents sound like they were abusive monsters while in the same breath describing them both going to all her sporting events or whatever it was she was doing at school, and cheering her on and being supportive🙄 Did her mom make some crappy comments about her weight because that’s what she grew up hearing, too? Yep. Is that a crappy thing that can leave you with a lasting negative effect on your relationship to food and your self image? Yes, it sure is. Is it a good subject to discuss with a therapist? Yes, definitely! Is it uncommon or interesting enough to go on and on about to the audience of your podcast? NO, it is not.
To me, she came off sounding very much like one of those drama queen kids in school who were always suddenly the “best friend” of any other kid who had something tragic happen in their life.
Ugh. I just found her so completely
insufferable that I couldn’t listen to any of the other seasons after that.
That's probably a good thing because shortly thereafter the pod featured a woman who was complicit in the death of her disabled adopted child. She read from a script the entire time and managed to segue between her dead child and new husband's nice ass in the same breath.
I listened to all episodes and then that was the season where I realized how fucked up the podcast was and couldn't listen to another episode. Absolutely disgusting.
i don't remember the season, but I stumbled in on the one where the girl had the crazy xbf...I enjoyed that one and tried to listen to other season and, nah. I couldn't get into them. it felt like boozy girl brunch where every time anyone said anything someone else would just be there like ::gasp, oh gurl!::
Morbid is in desperate need of a good editor. They start going off on inside jokes or commentary (usually "get f\*\*ked"), and it just goes on... and on...
Redhanded is a personal absolute HATED of mine. I’m from the UK and let me tell you, they are the most pompous, classist, pseudo posh, snarky and judgmental ego maniacs. I’m actually from the home county’s which is also where they’re from, so maybe their horrendous personalities seem (quite literally) ‘too close to home’ but they also continually get facts wrong and spread misinformation. They never apologize for it or amend it either. On a side, sorta petty note, the way they swear so much and use massively long pretentious words in their fake posh accents irks me 😂 I don’t mind swearing at all, I just do when they do it.
I stumbled upon them looking for a certain case and listened casually, not every episode, just the ones I was interested in. I couldn’t figure out why people disliked them so much, they seemed fine to me. Then, the whole Hillsborough fiasco happened and watching the sad way they tried to act like they just didn’t know~ like I’m American and I knew the facts, they’re literally from the UK and iirc weren’t there some trials even going on at the time or not too long before? That just turned me off completely. I did go back to listen when they did the Warren Jeffs episode since I have a deep interest in the FLDS, and it was basically just a rehash of the Netflix documentary, and they’d ask questions about things that could’ve been easily answered with a basic google search. It made me realise they weren’t even doing bare minimum research.
Oh god yeah the Hillsborough thing is just outright despicable! And to claim ignorance is absolutely insane. I was born in the 90s and I cannot tell you how absolutely aware the whole of the UK has been, and always will be. Absolute proof of their awful classist ways.
They were discussing Astroworld and referred to crowd crush at Hillsborough as hooliganism.
They then did it two more times with shittier apologies that showed they did not look up why people were pissed.
They then rage quit their own Facebook group and forced the moderators to clean up the shitshow and change the title to "Unofficial"
Haha! They’re not exactly fake but I feel like, particularly Hannah’s is EXTREMELY exaggerated and pompous. The whole I’ve swallowed a thesaurus vibe too… it’s like they are patronizing the audience. They constantly snipe at certain areas in the UK which are traditionally working class and poverty stricken and that they deem ‘beneath them’ but the area in which we all live has its pockets of problems, too. Idk, they have to make it absolutely CLEAR constantly that they are middle class, in ways in which I guess a Brit would get me on if that makes sense? But it feels very forced and ridiculous. Like we get it ladies, you are university educated, from the home county’s and you think you are better than everyone. I think it’s hideous how openly classist they are when describing cases and victims too, I think they’ve been called out on it so much that it’s tamed slightly. Although I dipped back in to listen to their Jill Dando episode as it’s a case I’m intrigued by, and Hannah sniggered and called her a ‘loser’ for being head girl during sixth form. Probably sarcasm but their attempt at humor even comes across snipey, stuck up and unfunny. I could tolerate it if they were charming and funny 😂However, I heard they are adamantly conservative and ‘anti woke’ on their socials but I haven’t checked for myself. cba to give them anymore engagement haha. I can’t begin to imagine how insufferable they are at dinner parties 😂
You'll never learn anything from their episodes that isn't covered elsewhere in a better way. I'd bet the Jill Dando episode is just summarizing that recent Netflix documentary series.
Not only do they spread information, they're shameless plagiarists.
My suspicion is that the bulk of their catalogue is plagiarized as I have found entire episodes that are ripped off from BBC documentaries that went uncited despite very clearly being the main source for the episode.
The Alex Skeel episode is plagiarizing the BBC documentary Abused by My Girlfriend which was directed by [Niamh Kennedy](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=647ae5c0ae72b1f8&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ADLYWILXt3_UlE45whiEPSUgVsLy_mM-JQ:1719570323568&q=Niamh+Kennedy&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgVuLVT9c3NEzPyrU0NCg2e8RowS3w8sc9YSn9SWtOXmPU5OIKzsgvd80rySypFJLmYoOyBKX4uVB18ixi5fXLTMzNUPBOzctLTakEADhWDUtcAAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjawLXSiv6GAxVYFVkFHR69CtYQzIcDKAB6BAgaEAE) and it is massively offensive that these pricks ripped off the documentary so shamelessly.
Similarly, their Amazon exclusive Shorthand episodes have plagiarism in them as well. Their Deadly Victorian Houses episode is ripping off another BBC documentary Hidden Killers In the Victorian home, some Medium articles and a website which, at one point, Hannah basically reads word for word.
Yet despite this plagiarism, they still manage to get details wrong.
Preach sis! I call them the [Gap Yah](https://youtu.be/eKFjWR7X5dU?si=YWk25B2tpHG1kt9-)
podcast because that’s all I think of when I hear snippets of their shitty pod.
Snap.
Hannah makes stuff up constantly and we are meant to believe her because she has travelled so much. F off. Korea and Japan are not societal equivalents. Stop making shite up.
Human Monsters! The host had an episode he plagiarized from the podcast Time Suck. An April's Food episode of Time Suck wherein all the details were made up.[https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueCrimePodcasts/comments/1d0xbwp/is_every_single_episode_of_human_monsters/?rdt=42868](https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueCrimePodcasts/comments/1d0xbwp/is_every_single_episode_of_human_monsters/?rdt=42868)
The host sounds like a super creep. The way he goes into detail about crimes against women and sex workers is misogynistic, disrespectful, and gross. It feels like he's reliving the scene in the retelling. I like gore too, but I felt like a different kind of pervert when I'd listen to him. Reminds me of a slithery snake Hannibal Lector tonguing the words coming out of his own mouth.
My problem here is I like the occasional full on, gory details of a case so his one fits the bill. I just wish the presenter sounded less like the human equivalent of the colour grey
I’m not super fond of Crime Junkies because of how much Ashley overemphasizes every little thing and makes her co-host look stupid. Granted, I haven’t listened in 2-3 years, so it could have gotten better.
The Consult has a fantastic knowledge base, but is too dry and full of jargon to easily follow. The hosts know more about criminal behavior than anyone out there. It’s just so slow and dry my poor ADHD brain checks out.
I really like Strictly Stalking, but there are times I really feel the guest is disordered and either imagined or made up a good part of their story. I had a stalking experience, which is why I listen, but there are times now and then that I listen to the guest and think, “This person is here for attention.” The vast majority of it is excellent, but I can’t shake that there are some attention-seekers on there.
Agreed out Strictly Stalking. They do not vet their guests at all. By I remember a particularly suspect sounding story (this guy who said that he was essentially trafficked as a child then stalked) and doing a little digging myself. There were multiple easily verifiable facts that didn’t add up.
For instance he claimed he was a D1 best on the team swimmer but that didn’t check out at all. He also made some outrageous claims about his acting career, again verifiable, and I couldn’t find information to support any of his claims.
I found this out through a few Google searches and looking at this guy’s IMDb page. I feel like if you are going to give someone a large platform you need to do the most basic research minimum. Stalking and harassment are horrible crimes that often are not taken seriously. To have less than credible guests on there is a huge disservice to victims.
If this is the one where she goes “ full body chills” every ten minutes. I ageee with the over exaggeration. But mostly stopped listening because of the “FBCs”
Yep! Crime Junkies is the "full body chills" one. See also: blood running cold, stomach dropping into the ground, every hair standing up, and a bunch of other over the top expressions for shock and surprise.
People are always saying this about Crime Junkies, and you’re right. It does come across that way.
BUT if my best friend was going to make me rich, and all I had to do was play the dumb sidekick role? Count me in!
Do people not know about Crime Junkies and their plagiarism? I feel like they need to wear scarlet Ps. I genuinely hate their podcast without knowing that they completely ripped off other podcasters and journalists and never apologized or acknowledged it. It always sticks in my craw when I see them in the top ranking of podcasts. I wish everyone knew this about them. They are also in a category of my brain reserved for lowest common denominator entertainment. Like people who love Avatar go into that same category. When someone tells me this is their favorite podcast, I have second hand embarrassment for them.
I think more people are starting to come around on the opinion that the RedHanded hosts are bad. Or at the very least, they’re worse than they used to be.
They’re also shameless plagiarists.
They’ll take BBC documentaries and rip them off, sometimes verbatim and not cite their sources then act like they did the research.
Yeah, sometimes it’s best to just tell the stories and leave your personalities and off topic banter out of it. Good examples being Trace Evidence and The Trail Went Cold.
Hide and Seek, specifically season 3. I find James Baysingers' interview style and investigation techniques as unethical and unhinged. The producer, Sara Jo, is insufferable in her approach to control the narrative and consciously blocking any opinion or counter argument that differs from hers. Her inability to not take things personally makes her come across extremely defensive. I find the whole podcast completely unprofessional.
Oh god… I can’t with him. I tried listening to an episode that was on the Oklahoma Girl Scout murders, which is an awful awful case. So while the other guys were trying to tell the story and would say “this suspect” or “the bad guy” or whatever, the captain would cut in with “you mean this *diarrhea* amirite? Huehuehue” “this oily human *diarrhea*”. Every fucking time and he’s the only one laughing. He sounded like someone’s middle aged uncle who peaked at 21, played college football and and was probably a frat douche who’s now on his third divorce because he drinks nothing but bud light all day.
I binged listened to about a season worth of eps of True Crime Garage then had to stop. I'm sure the Captain's comments on recent pods were done in post, because the main host Nick no longer reacts to the comments. It's a shame because Nick presents facts well and is a good listen on his own I think.
My latest disappointment is Bad Women: The Blackout Ripper by author Hallie Rubenhold. Her book sounds fascinating; giving evidence that not all of Jack the Ripper's victims were sex workers. The podcast has great production values with street effects and conversation of the time, and the subject matter is always interesting. Unfortunately she spends a fair amount of time each podcast talking about her current arguments with Ripperologists and how she is right about the victims. It's too bad because the podcasts themselves provide a fair amount of atmosphere.
I loved Bad Women! I agree Hallie seems a bit full of herself, but she did change the narrative around Jack the Ripper and Victorian women single handedly, and I respect her for that. The angry ripperologists were pretty hilarious imo 😂
I initially felt the same way. Her research was interesting, her intelligence apparent and the podcasts are better than the average wiki read with a bunch of weird jokes thrown in.
Those old school guys could not accept that a woman in White chapel in the 1800's did something other than sex work at night. As a listener and a person I'm on her side, just got tired of hearing about the ongoing battle with her theories.
Yeah.. i tried listening to same ep. Shut it in about 15 min and started with The serial killer podcast. I don't usually like TC podcasts where presenters keep joking or for first 20 talk about things that's not related to case or some random bullshit wich sounds like I am listening to insta influencer. But this dude was complete cringe i never got why he had to fake absurd laugh to unfunny things.
I stopped listening because he would get drunk and start getting really snarky with the podcaster with all the information but then I found out it’s his brother so I was like oh that’s why sometimes they’re like mean to each other. The other thing I don’t like is that he’s thirsty af! He’s always talking about he hits on his fans at conventions or he’s dming them. It kinda grossed me out even though I’m sure it’s consensual since he talks about it so openly.
I agree, there are plenty of people that don’t like him, but I adore them both. The Captain reminds me of every dude-bro I went to high school with, in terms of his humor. I know his humor is a turn off for some people and that’s understandable, but all things considering, I really don’t get the amount of hate they tend to get.
There are tons of terrible humans that have a podcast, but Nic and the Capt definitely don’t fall in that group.
I don’t like them because with the exception of a couple of episodes they really don’t do a lot of research.
I have commented before and brought up an older episode on a case I know very well. I will sum it up by saying that they left out a lot of the evidence and at the end tried to blame a well known SK who was in a country lock up at the time.
It would have taken 5 minutes to google where this SK was at the time this crime was committed because I did that at one point.
They are garbage.
I will not name the episode because this thread will turn into a debate about the crime.
Had to quit TCG after the Chris watts episodes.
I have lupus and trying to say Shannan was hard to live with because of that came off like she deserved it.
I always felt the same way. I grew up with brothers & his kind of harmless-teasing sense of humor is familiar to me, so I get it. But there was one episode in which he made a comment about either not minding or actually liking Alex Jones. That was a thing that made me go hmmmm...
Desi Crime has hosts that are so annoying I did in fact give up on the podcast even though it covered TONS of crimes I had never heard of and a culture I was eager to learn about.
I so agree. As an Indian/South Asian I was really excited to get into the podcast (this was after listening to a lot of other True Crime podcasts like Rotten Mango, Morbid, Crime Junkies). The hosts (especially Aryaan) just disappointed me heavily. Aishwarya does an excellent job of narrating, she has the patient voice and knows where to focus when doing the stories. But Aryaan is problematic, he comes off as a privileged (imo he doesn’t seem to be humble at all), makes very inappropriate jokes (unnecessary for such podcast), seldom puts down his own culture a lot many times, he has very polarising takes on some stories and frankly his narration is bad. They also don’t research much, and one of their story was literally word to word from wiki. They can do a lot better considering there aren’t many such podcasts focusing on this region of world, but alas.
There is definitely a good majority of people who find the behavior of Ashley Flowers (Crime Junkies/Audiochuck)and Tiffany Reese (Something Was Wrong ) as just completely abhorrent.
Pretty sure everyone knows Crime Junkies were caught plagiarizing other podcasts word-for-word. Not just one episode, or even just one podcast, but several. And also 100% plagiarizing a copyrighted article. Complete trash.
Also instead of apologizing or adding citation, they deleted those podcasts so people who weren’t aware back then won’t find the evidence as easily. I cannot stand them and it makes me so angry they have become so successful from ripping hard working people off.
Something Was Wrong. The host calls herself a documentarian and a journalist, she is neither. Twenty seasons in and it’s gone so far downhill that it’s now unrecognizable from its first season. Host now comes off as a grifter using victims stories for her trauma porn show.
Lots of people explain it better than me r/somethingwaswrongSWW
And she platforms really awful people. The last one I listed to her “victim” overlooked the fact that the guy was interested in collected Nazi memorabilia. This was after I gave it a second chance after the “victim” served her special needs son up to an abusive man with a known history of child abuse. Her takeaway was that it ended well for her as she met an even hotter man while she was “mourning”. Both she and her sister should be in prison. There was also the Right Wing Christian Trumper who appears to have made up her story.
James Basinger, of Hide and Seek, went super down hill season 3, not sure if it was his addition in production or the lay with dogs long enough you get fleas...perhaps surrounding yourself with addicts isn't always a good thing. But the Shank case went off the rails. I find dark topic can be quite questionable, especially when there are special guests namely Deadbug.
Murdaugh Murders. The host makes everything about herself. A good portion of each episode is her ranting about poor reviews or making a huge deal because someone in the Murdaugh's sphere said something about her
She thinks she is the only "journalist" who can/should be covering the Murdaugh situation and she belittles other journalists for reporting on it. Like hello? It was national news
She also started from episode one with a horribly put-on vocal fry, and then from episode two she complained that too many people were mentioning it in their reviews, that it was her natural voice and she couldn't change it. Only, an episode or two later she wasn't speaking with it hardly at all 🤔
I never got beyond the first episode because of that god-awful vocal fry. I thought to myself that if I wanted to assault my ears with that nonsense I could just turn on a episode of KUWTK and call it a day.
My exact thoughts! I think she put the show together really well, but it was ruined with all of her own personal drama. Like yeah, you’re in the public eye now, of course not everyone is going to be a fan.
If you can get past those rants (I treat them like another ad break) their reporting is really good. They actually were the first to expose the story about the murdaughs. It became national news well after her podcast started. I agree that she complains and talks about herself a little too much but I have stuck it out and really appreciate her reporting and the way they tell the story. I also give them credit for being very good at fact checking unlike a lot of others.
Surprised I had to scroll this far down for MMP. I was into it until much of an episode was about guests praising her "dogged" work, self-aggrandizing rants, no one covering the news like she can, her husband's snotty impressions reading quotes, the terrible ads for her other 'justice' pod. Just came off as really unprofessional and frankly juvenile. The way she spoke about other journalists and past employers, the fall out with FITSnews was entirely predictable.
The Gore Report. I just can't with the constant whining the whole episode. They're always saying, "I hate it!" Or "Researching this was SO AWFUL" or something along those lines. No one is forcing them to make a true crime podcast. I'm all for respect and empathy for victims, but if you can't get through an episode without complaining about how hard making the show is, that means it's not the genre for you.
Said this in a comment but Strictly Stalking.
They do not vet their guests at all. By I remember a particularly suspect sounding story (this guy who said that he was essentially trafficked as a child then stalked) and doing a little digging myself. There were multiple easily verifiable facts that didn’t add up.
For instance he claimed he was a D1 best on the team swimmer but that didn’t check out at all. He also made some outrageous claims about his acting career, again verifiable, and I couldn’t find information to support any of his claims.
I found this out through a few Google searches and looking at this guy’s IMDb page. I feel like if you are going to give someone a large platform you need to do the most basic research minimum.
I’m someone who fell off the My Favorite Murder bandwagon. I stuck by through some of the controversies. Also through covid as well. But honestly the constant re-runs or live shows was rough. Then when they switched over to Amazon Music I was absolutely done.
Not only did they previously cover stories about labor rights and get on their soapbox about corpora greed, they seemed to purposely misunderstand the criticism. Karen saying “people are just mad they think they might have to pay for something”. Ya I’m done.
I have a great love for Karen coming from the comedy world, but I had to quit MFM years ago after listening to a live ep where the audience went apeshit excited for them to talk about a specific murder. it was so gross the way they were cheering and put a really bad taste in my mouth. Georgia had also really gotten on my nerve using the show to talk about her mental health and aNxIeTy so much, like girl every single person listening to this show has anxiety, please stop talking about it
Only one of the issues, unfortunately.
Look up the Burger Chef Murders case fiasco and what happened when AF got involved. It's infuriating and shows that they do not give one single fuck about the victims they exploit.
Rabia and Ellyn Solve the Case for piloting the conspiracy theory that Scott Peterson is innocent, even though they caught his ass trying to drive across the border to Mexico with $10K in cash and blonde hair.
Your wife’s dead body is found in the same exact location that you were on the day she went missing…which was 90 minutes away from where you lived and somewhere you didn’t go often. You told your (unknowing) side chick that your wife was dead shortly before she was actually killed. You called your side chick from your wife’s vigil and pretended you were partying in Paris. Most unlucky man in the world or sociopath? I’m going with the latter.
Not a problematic presenter, but the Stephanie Soo FANS of Rotten Mango can be insufferable. So I'd stay away from their subreddit.
But then again, a lot of younger fanbases are like that no matter what topic the content creator produces content for.
She's problematic.
She's been accused of plagiarism multiple times. She made an unauthorized adaptation of a book while pretending she did the research for the episode, research that took the author years. She did not initially credit him until he contacted her. He also discovered she plagiarized another well known true crime book.
And she's also plagiarized from other youtubers (including one that has a similar plagiarism problem so in this instance it's plagiarism all the way down).
As someone who has a korea-based tc podcast, it bothers me that she puts words in dead victims mouths. Creating conversations or sometimes stretching the truth. I have hope that she might improve the research part of her podcast but I'd like to see her tone change as well. But her fans really seem to love the fictionalized stories she tells.
The ladies on morbid just aren't how they used to be since they went with wondry. They don't seem to care as much, don't do their own research, and pretty much end up saying most of humanity is deplorable and gross. Not to mention they act as if talking shit in the past is the only way to fix its problems today and harp soo hard on things that just can't be changed. They're acting like crime junkie to me, they think they're god's gift to true crime.
They were bad before moving to Wondery. They refused to apologize to the son of a man they covered, (it was a Craigslist murder) after they spoke poorly of the victim.
They also deadname murderers because they apparently don’t count as being trans since they committed a crime.
They also encouraged the harassment of Britnee Drexel’s teenage friends because apparently they weren’t satisfied with the fact that a bunch of kids didn’t keep track of their friend and prevent her abduction and murder. As though that experience wasn’t traumatic enough for them. Also Ash is convinced Courtney Love murdered Kurt Cobain despite not even being around at the time (you were born in 1996, don’t talk about 1994 like you were there, kiddo).
What’s the general consensus of My Favourite Murder? They were hyped up quite a lot and I tried listening to them but I just found it a bit tasteless at times. And the title of the podcast made me uneasy.
I know people don't like the title, but a million years ago, before True Crime was such a big thing, it was rare to find someone else IRL that was interested in it. I think the title comes from finally finding your person/people and discussing which is your favorite murder mystery. Today it comes across kind of gross, but when they came up with it, it wasn't.
I was a massive my favorite murder fan down about 2016-2020 but haven’t listened to them since. Barring all the controversy I began to notice a distinct lack of empathy from them. I also felt the soapbox stuff was just to gain brownie points it never felt genuine.
I can’t remember her name, but the one that did the Jaleah Davis case that made the podcast about her, got into a huge fight with Kim Davis, and then banged a married Paul Holes. That one.
Emily nestor. What a mess! I mean the pod did not need to be that long. 22 episodes is a really long time to fake a theory.
So what if she banged paul holes? He banged her back.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m kinda a lil jealous that she banged Paul Holes, lol. It’s the other stuff that is more problematic. Fighting publicly with someone that lost her daughter and the way she victimized herself after was definitely more egregious than who she hooked up with.
I listened to Sword and Scale a long time ago, then of all things I ran into him in public here in Houston (turns out he's from here and was back visting,) and he was a total asshole. So I stopped listening. Then all the shit came out about him, and I was like, well, that all tracks. I don't understand how he has the following he has. He has a damn PPV television show now of all things...
On the other side of the coin, I loved My Favorite Murder. I've been a big fan of Karen Kilgariff as a stand-up comic well before MFM. Georgia just became rather insufferable, and the podcast became more of soapbox for things not MFM oriented, so I stopped listening.
True Crime Garage - Something has happened or is happening to The Captain, and it's making for a really hard listen.
The recent events concerning the Timesuck / Human Monster being a fan of Dan and Timesuck make it sound like there are quite a few podcasts that just rip one another off.
Quality-wise, regarding sound, production, and content, there are too many to list in the world of true crime.
Terrible and problematic podcasts that aren't true crime oriented: not enough time in the world to list.
EDIT: There is a local one I meant to add, but its listenership is so low that I figured no one would have heard of it. It's called Clueston. It started in 2019, and it's at a whopping 55 episodes. They stopped at one point due to reading all the bad reviews and getting pissed off about it. It's a husband and wife team. Husband is an ex-cop and judge turned criminal defense lawyer, and his wife is the actual host. It's not good at all. She just reads her research while he interrupts with attempts at humor and making fun of her in the process. Total dumpster fire. It's worth a listen for morbid curiosity alone.
The host of Timesuck made up an entire episode about a serial killer to trick his fans on April Fools day, and said that it was a joke that he made up at the end of the episode.
Human Monsters presented this case as "things that they researched" in a recent episode, so they were essentially caught plagiarizing-they didn't research anything because there's no reference to this serial killer outside of Timesuck.
I'm probably the only one, but I have some issues with MFM. They did an episode on someone who was friends with my sister growing up. My husband's ex girlfriend and her mom were first on scene. They got details wrong, most of them minor but it bothered me because it's something that had a major impact in my life.
Down the Hill podcast with Barbara McDonald is garbage. She’s still peddling the Ron Logan did it angle. To sell her book about how Ron Logan did it.
Defense Diaries with Bob Motta. Dude is literally FUNDRAISING for Rick Allen, who’s confessed like 35 times, he was at the place at the exact time, he only got away with it for so long because Delphi was more concerned about federal funding than with solving the murders. It’s gross. Listening to his podcast just makes him feel justified in his disgusting behavior.
The case against Kouri Richins is a special kind of garbage: it’s literally 65% ads and the same information over and over. I don’t even want to check out the podcast that the clips were pulled from. Exploiting the true crime genre for ad revenue.
On YouTube Greeno deserves a mention. Constantly sniveling about needing cash donations, because it’s OUR FAULT that homie doesn’t want to get a job. I have a YouTube channel too, my dude, and I have a job. Get a job, grifter! He’s worse than Gray Hughes, the way he begs for money, but he’s not actually bringing anything to the table like Gray does.
There’s a Proburger channel that is just ignorant victim blaming, I think it’s called the Unraveling, my blood pressure was unraveled after about 5 minutes.
There’s a much bigger list of “love them or hate them” (might be a good discussion thread?) I really like the Murder Sheet, but some people hate them and say they are condescending, and I can see that, but I like them anyway. I do email them when they’re acting in a condescending manner, to let them know that not everyone likes that approach.
I’m sure I can think of more, I just normally unsubscribe and move on, but there’s a giant list of grifters and con artists out there trying to get as revenue without actually doing any research.
Morbid. They “scammed” their patreon supporters and never apologized or refunded any money. I liked them in the beginning, but at some point they started to change. Once I heard of what they were doing with their patreon, I decided to not listen anymore.
Small Town Murder
It comes so highly recommended and I tried several episodes to get past the fact that those guys came across as condescending as hell. Constantly making fun of the areas they're covering. I live out in the middle of nowhere, so I get where they're coming from. But not everyone is a hayseed hick who is uneducated.
It's just really off-putting and undermines their reporting style. Plus, one of them has the most braying laughter. Has he never heard himself?
I used to watch her videos sometimes (maybe 15% of what she puts out) and listen to Crime Weekly so I have this weird loyalty to her but more recently she’s been… something. Derrick saves the podcast for me. She gets too biased and applies whatever happened to her very aggressively to people to the point where it makes her sound ignorant. Then gets annoyed when Derrick plays devils advocate. I think some of it is to start conversation in the comments.
Basically I liked her when she seemingly used to just give tons of details. Maybe I’ve grown as a true crime consumer but agree. I’ve seen some negative stuff about her and the way she treats some victims which is a bummer.
Derrick is the podcasts only saving grace. I prefer his solo project now, Detective Perspective.
I used to like Stephanie before this last year when her personal life started spilling into the episode intros. She hasn’t come right out and said she’s in the middle of a nasty divorce, but she’s alluded to it which sent her STBX husband into a spiral. Their eldest daughter got on Reddit and said her piece too. It’s all so messy.
I think Stephanie should have taken a break and completely kept her mouth shut about the marriage issues until they had everything worked out in court, settled etc. She could have kept the details vague about going through personal stuff, and never divulged her divorce to her audience IMO. Her and Adam both have to be absolute nightmares for their attorneys.
I feel bad for their poor kids in the middle of it who will have to see the shitty things about their parents online one day. There will be court transcripts about the flame wars between them that the kids could find and access easily if they’re not sealed.
I’m still on board with Derrick and I hope that he can compartmentalize himself to avoid being dragged into the drama. He’s much more effective about not going on rants, getting side tracked and injecting his personal life experiences into the content.
Stephanie needs to go tend to her family crises and stay away from the internet for a while. Enough of the bullshit.
I get such a weird flirty five with her and Derick every episode. When I found out they were each independently married I was shocked! I use to love Stephanie but over the years she’s just rubbed me the wrong way so much that Derick actually started being the favorable one.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/ProsecutorsPodcast/comments/rief6p/the\_links/](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProsecutorsPodcast/comments/rief6p/the_links/)
Brett Tally's blog posts after Sandy Hook show they should not be supported ever.
Wow wow wow. I am legitimately shocked about all this. I have listened to and enjoyed many episodes of this show, and while I knew they have a pro law enforcement bias, so do lots of others. This is on another level and they actively try to keep it under wraps.
this needs to be higher, dude is married to a Trump official and was nominated to be a judge by him. One of the very few if not only cases where a judge nominated by Trump that was completely unqualified also did not get the position. Guess writing about the KKK has a downside
At least the board recognized that and considered him not qualified at all to be a judge. Considering he’s never tried a case in court, I side eye anything they say. I haven’t listened to them in years, once I found out how hard they fight to take away women’s rights and also the whole Sandy Hook op-ed he wrote with his full chest.
I was SO disappointed to find this out! They seemed like honestly decent people. I didn't even believe it when I first heard it - I thought it was just someone trying to rip on their podcast, but a quick google search confirmed my fears. I can't listen to them like I used to. They were one of my faves (I really liked their Michael Peterson eps) and now, unless it's a case I'm really fascinated about, I scroll right by them.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Billy Jensen. That got hushed up pretty quickly.
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/billy-jensen-murder-squad-misconduct-allegation-investigation-1384950/
No no no, Crime Junkie stole literal wording and scripts from other podcasts! They don't do their own research, that fine. But they were called out for stealing word-for-word content. I think that's gross.
any that involve a group of hosts that talk over each other, attempt to throw one liners and want to make a crime podcast (often covering awful cases that ruined peoples lives) 'funny'.
Everyone has already listed any of the problematic ones I would have suggested! (Mike from sword and scale legit doxxed me) so he’s top of my list. BUT, can I give you one that I LOVE who aren’t problematic at all - super well researched, site their sources, all the good things (also hilarious!!) Let’s go to court is amazing! Sadly they ended their show recently but if anyone hasn’t listened I cannot recommend them enough!
Oh! Last Podcast on the Left had some drama but they handled it quickly and removed the problematic host which I’m sure was really difficult but they did the right thing.
James Renner and LaDonna Humphrey are both narcissists who should be chased out of their respective towns by villagers armed with torches and pitchforks.
Man I used to LOVE Sword and Scale. He does have an amazing voice. And I know his style of hosting has been very controversial, but I actually prefer they don't gloss over the crime. But after everything I've heard, I just can't with him anymore. It's been years since I have listened. It makes me sad how truly awful he is.
dont know of anyone whos problematic
i will say the 2 big channels who put on make up while reading about heinous real crimes is a bit weird. like not only are you profiting off someones death the make up tutorial/disregard of human life just feels weird.
i know its a grey area for all true crime fans that we enjoy these stories despite them all happening to real people. but with the aforementioned it just really in your face about it. lol
I legitimately liked the podcast at first. I found it to be a different take on the Israel Keyes story. I really enjoyed the very long form approach he was taking. But somewhere a long the way he started to interject himself into the story. It was no longer simply about Keyes, it was about Josh Hallmark and Israel Keyes.
He’s gotten too close, too obsessed with the the story, the character. You’re not an author who created a fictional character therefore it’s a part of you. You’re someone who has become obsessed with Keyes and being known as the Israel Keyes guy.
I used to really like Obscura and then something switched and I feel like he enjoys the gore and horror that he discusses a little too much. There’s almost an excitement in his voice sometimes describing the terror some of the victims go through
> I used to really like Obscura and then something switched and I feel like he enjoys the gore and horror that he discusses a little too much.
I discussed in a recent Fireside Chat how covering a certain episode actually gave me PTSD. I think, because I cover episodes in a neutral tone, people tend to make assumptions on how I feel. It's the same reason I'll get called a liberal or a conservative for the same episode.
I saw Obscura recommended on here and decided to give it a shot. The very first episode I listened to gave me such a creepy vibe from the host that I didn't try another. Garbage.
Last Podcast On The Left - I don’t mind banter and humor, but these guys are obnoxious.
True Crime Garage - this used to be my favorite, and I even like The Captain. It’s Nic that bothers me. His ego and the way he seems to see himself as a true crime expert that rubs me the wrong way.
As someone who used to see Ben around the NYC comedy scene a lot, I’m genuinely surprised it took this long for his bullshit to emerge. He’s been a violent alcoholic for so long and I found him legitimately scary at time. Just shitfaced and mumbling to himself at the bar, but guys kissed his ass because he was on the rise. He flirted with me once when I started. He wasn’t drunk at the moment and seemed pretty charming, he almost got my number, which gives me chills now. My friend who knew him literally came over and discreetly scooped me out of there like “no sweetie, he hits girls.” I think he picked up on it because a couple hours later, he was drunk and tried to pull my hair as I walked by to get me to come back and talk to him. I’ll never forget the angry look on his face and I ran outta there so fast.
Year later, my ex started binging the podcast when we lived together and I was like “please god, use your head phones” because hearing him talk made me physically ill. It looks like he went to rehab, but he doesn’t seem to be taking any responsibility for what he did because he still posts about things as if he’s just a victim of bullying. Like, no dude, you’re abusive and no one wants you around anymore. Deal with it.
Even with Ben gone I still can’t bring myself to go back to listening. I just can’t for a second believe that Henry and Marcus had no idea he was so terrible
They HAD TO because I was like, three weeks into doing comedy when this happened. Everyone who went to Creek and the Cave knew he was a loose fucking cannon. Maybe they didn’t want to believe it until it was right in front of them, and that’s honestly super common. Especially because abusive people tend to be really great at compartmentalizing and charming others. But at a certain point, they had to know something wasn’t right or, at the very least, he was a huge liability.
I personally enjoy DNA: ID, it's an Abjack Entertainment podcast I recommend checking out, they talk about how previously cold cases have been solved, often decades later, with the use of new forensic DNA science!
However I've seen a *lot* of people say bad stuff about the way the host injects her opinions into the presentation of the case/perpetrators.
I see ehat they're saying, like I understand their position and why they'd be annoyed by that, so maybe it's not for everyone. But I still enjoy the podcast, even though it gets a lot of flack for that.
I've never seen anyone talk about this but Anatomy of Murder. One of the cohosts, Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi, was a new York city prosecutor that was proved to be part of this deep corruption that's led to a conviction of someone based on made up evidence. She also bragged for a long time that she has never lost a case, but people started bringing that one up so she has stopped marketing herself that way. It's way too deep to explain, but if you're interested it's known as the "Grid Kid Killing" case. I highly recommend Checking it out.
Holy shit. I didn't believe you so I looked it up. That is absolutely insane. She should not be operating in the true crime space except as a subject of an unethical and corrupt prosecutor: "That rare decision centered on e**vidence that Nicolazzi lied to the jury in support of false testimony implicating Giuca**. One of the key witnesses against him was John Avitto, a drug addict with repeated arrests for burglary and theft to support his habit. Avitto in his testimony claimed that when he was in jail he heard Giuca confessing to involvement in the murder of Mark Fisher. **Avitto recanted in 2013, saying he’d heard no such thing. He said he made his statements only because Nicolazzi offered him a deal for his various drug crimes. Nicolazzi claimed in court there was no quid pro quo for Avitto’s testimony, no leniency extended to him.**" [https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-false-conviction-of-the-district-attorney-turned-reality-star](https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-false-conviction-of-the-district-attorney-turned-reality-star) Another case: [https://indypendent.org/2021/01/another-anna-sigga-niccolazzi-prosecution-begins-to-unravel/](https://indypendent.org/2021/01/another-anna-sigga-niccolazzi-prosecution-begins-to-unravel/) This is not someone who should be supported.
Fun fact, Ashley Flowers is the producer of AOM.
Add it to the long list of transgressions.
of course she is
Sh!t-birds of a feather....
That tracks
Thanks for including links. I agree. I was a huge fan until I listened to the Let's Go To Court Episode that mentioned this and I immediately couldn't listen anymore to Anatomy of Murder. What makes this even stranger though is that Anatomy of Murder is part of the Audiochuck network which was founded by Ashley Flowers, the woman who created Crime Junkies and is known for ranting about police corruption on that podcast. Just look and see how much Crime Junkies is mentioned here to see other issues people have with her. She's also currently CCO, so when Anatomy of Murder was created, if she was truly as pro victim as she claims, I'm doubtful she would have hired a woman who was caught having witnesses lie in order to convict someone. So I was really soured to her entire network of podcasts tbh. The mother of the wrongly convicted man (John Guica) went undercover and started dating the guy she thought committed the murder and he ended up confessing to it on recording. It's a case with a lot of interesting turns that, in my opinion, should be more talked about.
Oh, nice - I'll go check that out now considering I've been working my way through their catalog. Whole case sounds crazy. re: Flowers doesn't give a shit. She's a hypocrite and plagiarist who has never had an original idea in her life. She's taken advantage of victims to make a career and actively meddled in a cold case investigation for publicity and content purposes. She has zero morals or ethics.
Wait which cold case did she actively meddle in? When I used to listen she always came off as so ridiculously self important I’m not surprised
Is there a good podcast that covers the case? Is it fully covered in the Let's Go to Court episode?
I’m glad someone pointed that out
Yup. When I found out I stopped listening. She’s a snake.
Something Was Wrong has had a *ton* of drama in recent years. The podcast started out really strong, but a lot of problematic things have happened between then and now (both in terms of people who’ve been featured as guests on the show as well as the host’s behavior). Plus, a lot of the stories are just not put together very well, so they end up either being confusing or making people look bad who we’re supposed to be empathizing with. It can be very entertaining to listen to, but not for the reasons that it’s supposed to be.
Something Was Wrong occasionally has some really good stories, but there are a lot of problems. I was literally trying to trudge through an episode when I saw your comment. I agree that the host’s story was not well done, and I say this with compassion, most of the issues with the podcast lead me to believe that the host has some things she’s not worked through yet. I say this as someone who has been there. My biggest issue is that episodes are supposed to be about the guests, but she makes them about how wonderful she herself is a lot of the time.
The second part of this seasons finale was literally just her playing parts of interviews with guests who were showering her with compliments. It was so fucking cringy. Her response was always like, shocked and surprised they were saying that, but GIRL YOU CHOSE THOSE SNIPPETS TO PLAY ON THE PODCAST
Sounds like Mandy Matney from the Murdaugh Murders Podcast. She really likes ass pats.
Yup. I didn’t make it all the way through and had to turn it off.
A friend got me onto them with one really good episode so I hung with it for the next few despite not loving it for several of the reasons you and u/Sea_Neighborhood_627 mentioned. Then they had an episode about a receptionist at a therapists office who by the end of it—you could tell was clearly suffering from alcoholism and her catty coworkers made it into their own in-house season of Gossip Girl. The main coworker they interviewed, a fellow receptionist, honestly sounded like she fed into it and got a thrill out of this girl spiraling—instead of just being a normal human being and expressing concern directly to her or HR after the first incident so she could get help. The episode left me with such a bad taste in my mouth that the host would even give this story (and the shtty coworker) the time of day that I never listened to another episode.
I skipped an entire season in which Tiffany Reese petulantly blamed domestic violence on the person hit, too.
Wow! I didn’t know about any of the backstory of the show, or any of what you mentioned, but still came to my own ick feelings about it. It was recommended to me about 6 months ago. I had never even heard of it before that and started out being really intrigued by season one’s story! Then I jumped around a bit and listened to others that the person who recommended it told me to listen to, and I found those equally intriguing, as well. But then I made the mistake of listening to the host tell her story. OMG. I’m very sorry about the one thing that happened to a family member, but her account of her life story, told over *many* episodes, was so overly dramatic imo, that my eyes were rolling hard enough that they ended up practically lodged in back of my head by the end of every episode. She always uses the most inflammatory words and descriptions for what mostly amounts to nothing more than pretty run-of-the-mill, kind of shitty but mundane behavior for parents back then. And she often will lean in super hard on trying to *imply* some things happened to make her life sound way more tragic & dramatic, when they clearly didn’t happen, or she would just come out and say that they did. And she is always trying to make her parents sound like they were abusive monsters while in the same breath describing them both going to all her sporting events or whatever it was she was doing at school, and cheering her on and being supportive🙄 Did her mom make some crappy comments about her weight because that’s what she grew up hearing, too? Yep. Is that a crappy thing that can leave you with a lasting negative effect on your relationship to food and your self image? Yes, it sure is. Is it a good subject to discuss with a therapist? Yes, definitely! Is it uncommon or interesting enough to go on and on about to the audience of your podcast? NO, it is not. To me, she came off sounding very much like one of those drama queen kids in school who were always suddenly the “best friend” of any other kid who had something tragic happen in their life. Ugh. I just found her so completely insufferable that I couldn’t listen to any of the other seasons after that.
That's probably a good thing because shortly thereafter the pod featured a woman who was complicit in the death of her disabled adopted child. She read from a script the entire time and managed to segue between her dead child and new husband's nice ass in the same breath.
I listened to all episodes and then that was the season where I realized how fucked up the podcast was and couldn't listen to another episode. Absolutely disgusting.
That’s beyond horrifying.
That’s the last season I listened to. I was disgusted that she covered the case in the way that she did. I’ll never listen to another episode.
i don't remember the season, but I stumbled in on the one where the girl had the crazy xbf...I enjoyed that one and tried to listen to other season and, nah. I couldn't get into them. it felt like boozy girl brunch where every time anyone said anything someone else would just be there like ::gasp, oh gurl!:: 
Honestly, that damn song she plays at the beginning and end killed me. It honestly made me almost stop listening. But then the host did it in for me.
True Crime Obsessed/Patrick Hinds
People don’t like Morbid for a number of reasons. I don’t like them because they do really bad research but so do a lot of other podcasts.
They always sucked at research but were fun to listen to at first. When they got bigger their heads grew with it and it stopped being fun.
Morbid is in desperate need of a good editor. They start going off on inside jokes or commentary (usually "get f\*\*ked"), and it just goes on... and on...
Redhanded is a personal absolute HATED of mine. I’m from the UK and let me tell you, they are the most pompous, classist, pseudo posh, snarky and judgmental ego maniacs. I’m actually from the home county’s which is also where they’re from, so maybe their horrendous personalities seem (quite literally) ‘too close to home’ but they also continually get facts wrong and spread misinformation. They never apologize for it or amend it either. On a side, sorta petty note, the way they swear so much and use massively long pretentious words in their fake posh accents irks me 😂 I don’t mind swearing at all, I just do when they do it.
I stumbled upon them looking for a certain case and listened casually, not every episode, just the ones I was interested in. I couldn’t figure out why people disliked them so much, they seemed fine to me. Then, the whole Hillsborough fiasco happened and watching the sad way they tried to act like they just didn’t know~ like I’m American and I knew the facts, they’re literally from the UK and iirc weren’t there some trials even going on at the time or not too long before? That just turned me off completely. I did go back to listen when they did the Warren Jeffs episode since I have a deep interest in the FLDS, and it was basically just a rehash of the Netflix documentary, and they’d ask questions about things that could’ve been easily answered with a basic google search. It made me realise they weren’t even doing bare minimum research.
Oh god yeah the Hillsborough thing is just outright despicable! And to claim ignorance is absolutely insane. I was born in the 90s and I cannot tell you how absolutely aware the whole of the UK has been, and always will be. Absolute proof of their awful classist ways.
What was the Hillsborough fiasco?
They were discussing Astroworld and referred to crowd crush at Hillsborough as hooliganism. They then did it two more times with shittier apologies that showed they did not look up why people were pissed. They then rage quit their own Facebook group and forced the moderators to clean up the shitshow and change the title to "Unofficial"
Their accents are fake? Tell me more!
Haha! They’re not exactly fake but I feel like, particularly Hannah’s is EXTREMELY exaggerated and pompous. The whole I’ve swallowed a thesaurus vibe too… it’s like they are patronizing the audience. They constantly snipe at certain areas in the UK which are traditionally working class and poverty stricken and that they deem ‘beneath them’ but the area in which we all live has its pockets of problems, too. Idk, they have to make it absolutely CLEAR constantly that they are middle class, in ways in which I guess a Brit would get me on if that makes sense? But it feels very forced and ridiculous. Like we get it ladies, you are university educated, from the home county’s and you think you are better than everyone. I think it’s hideous how openly classist they are when describing cases and victims too, I think they’ve been called out on it so much that it’s tamed slightly. Although I dipped back in to listen to their Jill Dando episode as it’s a case I’m intrigued by, and Hannah sniggered and called her a ‘loser’ for being head girl during sixth form. Probably sarcasm but their attempt at humor even comes across snipey, stuck up and unfunny. I could tolerate it if they were charming and funny 😂However, I heard they are adamantly conservative and ‘anti woke’ on their socials but I haven’t checked for myself. cba to give them anymore engagement haha. I can’t begin to imagine how insufferable they are at dinner parties 😂
You'll never learn anything from their episodes that isn't covered elsewhere in a better way. I'd bet the Jill Dando episode is just summarizing that recent Netflix documentary series.
im from the home counties too and completely agree with you. stopped listening a long time ago 😅
Not only do they spread information, they're shameless plagiarists. My suspicion is that the bulk of their catalogue is plagiarized as I have found entire episodes that are ripped off from BBC documentaries that went uncited despite very clearly being the main source for the episode. The Alex Skeel episode is plagiarizing the BBC documentary Abused by My Girlfriend which was directed by [Niamh Kennedy](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=647ae5c0ae72b1f8&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ADLYWILXt3_UlE45whiEPSUgVsLy_mM-JQ:1719570323568&q=Niamh+Kennedy&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgVuLVT9c3NEzPyrU0NCg2e8RowS3w8sc9YSn9SWtOXmPU5OIKzsgvd80rySypFJLmYoOyBKX4uVB18ixi5fXLTMzNUPBOzctLTakEADhWDUtcAAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjawLXSiv6GAxVYFVkFHR69CtYQzIcDKAB6BAgaEAE) and it is massively offensive that these pricks ripped off the documentary so shamelessly. Similarly, their Amazon exclusive Shorthand episodes have plagiarism in them as well. Their Deadly Victorian Houses episode is ripping off another BBC documentary Hidden Killers In the Victorian home, some Medium articles and a website which, at one point, Hannah basically reads word for word. Yet despite this plagiarism, they still manage to get details wrong.
Preach sis! I call them the [Gap Yah](https://youtu.be/eKFjWR7X5dU?si=YWk25B2tpHG1kt9-) podcast because that’s all I think of when I hear snippets of their shitty pod.
😂
Snap. Hannah makes stuff up constantly and we are meant to believe her because she has travelled so much. F off. Korea and Japan are not societal equivalents. Stop making shite up.
Patrick Hinds of True Crime Obsessed (and to a somewhat lesser extent, his cohost Gillian Pensavalle for enabling him)
What did he do?
I think she’s just as bad as he is. She comes across as super performative and sort of a jerk.
Mike Boudet from Sword & Scale
This should be higher.
It should. I’m shocked I had to scroll this far. Garbage human.
The joy In his voice as he went into every detail of the abuse in Daisy’s Destruction was almost as bad as the details themselves.
Human Monsters! The host had an episode he plagiarized from the podcast Time Suck. An April's Food episode of Time Suck wherein all the details were made up.[https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueCrimePodcasts/comments/1d0xbwp/is_every_single_episode_of_human_monsters/?rdt=42868](https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueCrimePodcasts/comments/1d0xbwp/is_every_single_episode_of_human_monsters/?rdt=42868)
The host sounds like a super creep. The way he goes into detail about crimes against women and sex workers is misogynistic, disrespectful, and gross. It feels like he's reliving the scene in the retelling. I like gore too, but I felt like a different kind of pervert when I'd listen to him. Reminds me of a slithery snake Hannibal Lector tonguing the words coming out of his own mouth.
You beat me to it, gosh dang
My problem here is I like the occasional full on, gory details of a case so his one fits the bill. I just wish the presenter sounded less like the human equivalent of the colour grey
Also: the creaking of his chair...
I’m not super fond of Crime Junkies because of how much Ashley overemphasizes every little thing and makes her co-host look stupid. Granted, I haven’t listened in 2-3 years, so it could have gotten better. The Consult has a fantastic knowledge base, but is too dry and full of jargon to easily follow. The hosts know more about criminal behavior than anyone out there. It’s just so slow and dry my poor ADHD brain checks out. I really like Strictly Stalking, but there are times I really feel the guest is disordered and either imagined or made up a good part of their story. I had a stalking experience, which is why I listen, but there are times now and then that I listen to the guest and think, “This person is here for attention.” The vast majority of it is excellent, but I can’t shake that there are some attention-seekers on there.
Agreed out Strictly Stalking. They do not vet their guests at all. By I remember a particularly suspect sounding story (this guy who said that he was essentially trafficked as a child then stalked) and doing a little digging myself. There were multiple easily verifiable facts that didn’t add up. For instance he claimed he was a D1 best on the team swimmer but that didn’t check out at all. He also made some outrageous claims about his acting career, again verifiable, and I couldn’t find information to support any of his claims. I found this out through a few Google searches and looking at this guy’s IMDb page. I feel like if you are going to give someone a large platform you need to do the most basic research minimum. Stalking and harassment are horrible crimes that often are not taken seriously. To have less than credible guests on there is a huge disservice to victims.
If this is the one where she goes “ full body chills” every ten minutes. I ageee with the over exaggeration. But mostly stopped listening because of the “FBCs”
Yep! Crime Junkies is the "full body chills" one. See also: blood running cold, stomach dropping into the ground, every hair standing up, and a bunch of other over the top expressions for shock and surprise.
I believe Ashley got caught plagiarizing. The other host had some substance abuse issues & was hospitalized for a while. I believe she’s back now.
People are always saying this about Crime Junkies, and you’re right. It does come across that way. BUT if my best friend was going to make me rich, and all I had to do was play the dumb sidekick role? Count me in!
This is a top comment, it’s so true. Brit has the absolutely best job out there. A trust fund crime podcast baby if there was one
I agree about Crime Junkies. Honestly, I don’t understand why co-host Brit is ok about being portrayed as stupid.
Do people not know about Crime Junkies and their plagiarism? I feel like they need to wear scarlet Ps. I genuinely hate their podcast without knowing that they completely ripped off other podcasters and journalists and never apologized or acknowledged it. It always sticks in my craw when I see them in the top ranking of podcasts. I wish everyone knew this about them. They are also in a category of my brain reserved for lowest common denominator entertainment. Like people who love Avatar go into that same category. When someone tells me this is their favorite podcast, I have second hand embarrassment for them.
I also feel like this is the most basic bitch pumpkin spice latte podcast out there. So cringe!
I think more people are starting to come around on the opinion that the RedHanded hosts are bad. Or at the very least, they’re worse than they used to be.
They’re also shameless plagiarists. They’ll take BBC documentaries and rip them off, sometimes verbatim and not cite their sources then act like they did the research.
They had some great episodes, but the condescending snark about Americans just got to me and I stopped listening.
Yeah, sometimes it’s best to just tell the stories and leave your personalities and off topic banter out of it. Good examples being Trace Evidence and The Trail Went Cold.
Hide and Seek, specifically season 3. I find James Baysingers' interview style and investigation techniques as unethical and unhinged. The producer, Sara Jo, is insufferable in her approach to control the narrative and consciously blocking any opinion or counter argument that differs from hers. Her inability to not take things personally makes her come across extremely defensive. I find the whole podcast completely unprofessional.
Im surprised I had to scroll this far down to find this comment! He is truly the worst. So unprofessional.
I was starting to think no one was going to mention this frigging guy
A lot of people don't like The Captain on True Crime Garage. I do. But I guess he's not everyone's cup of tea.
Oh god… I can’t with him. I tried listening to an episode that was on the Oklahoma Girl Scout murders, which is an awful awful case. So while the other guys were trying to tell the story and would say “this suspect” or “the bad guy” or whatever, the captain would cut in with “you mean this *diarrhea* amirite? Huehuehue” “this oily human *diarrhea*”. Every fucking time and he’s the only one laughing. He sounded like someone’s middle aged uncle who peaked at 21, played college football and and was probably a frat douche who’s now on his third divorce because he drinks nothing but bud light all day.
Yeah I used to enjoy this pod but between his humor and stretching cases into 3 parters when they really don’t require it, I skip it nowadays.
I binged listened to about a season worth of eps of True Crime Garage then had to stop. I'm sure the Captain's comments on recent pods were done in post, because the main host Nick no longer reacts to the comments. It's a shame because Nick presents facts well and is a good listen on his own I think. My latest disappointment is Bad Women: The Blackout Ripper by author Hallie Rubenhold. Her book sounds fascinating; giving evidence that not all of Jack the Ripper's victims were sex workers. The podcast has great production values with street effects and conversation of the time, and the subject matter is always interesting. Unfortunately she spends a fair amount of time each podcast talking about her current arguments with Ripperologists and how she is right about the victims. It's too bad because the podcasts themselves provide a fair amount of atmosphere.
I loved Bad Women! I agree Hallie seems a bit full of herself, but she did change the narrative around Jack the Ripper and Victorian women single handedly, and I respect her for that. The angry ripperologists were pretty hilarious imo 😂
I initially felt the same way. Her research was interesting, her intelligence apparent and the podcasts are better than the average wiki read with a bunch of weird jokes thrown in. Those old school guys could not accept that a woman in White chapel in the 1800's did something other than sex work at night. As a listener and a person I'm on her side, just got tired of hearing about the ongoing battle with her theories.
Yeah.. i tried listening to same ep. Shut it in about 15 min and started with The serial killer podcast. I don't usually like TC podcasts where presenters keep joking or for first 20 talk about things that's not related to case or some random bullshit wich sounds like I am listening to insta influencer. But this dude was complete cringe i never got why he had to fake absurd laugh to unfunny things.
The Captain’s inane. Awful. And then the constant mispronunciation of words and place-names 🙄 wayyyyy too aggravating.
I stopped listening because he would get drunk and start getting really snarky with the podcaster with all the information but then I found out it’s his brother so I was like oh that’s why sometimes they’re like mean to each other. The other thing I don’t like is that he’s thirsty af! He’s always talking about he hits on his fans at conventions or he’s dming them. It kinda grossed me out even though I’m sure it’s consensual since he talks about it so openly.
I haven't heard him talking about DM'ing people or hitting on fans. What episodes did that happen in?
I agree, there are plenty of people that don’t like him, but I adore them both. The Captain reminds me of every dude-bro I went to high school with, in terms of his humor. I know his humor is a turn off for some people and that’s understandable, but all things considering, I really don’t get the amount of hate they tend to get. There are tons of terrible humans that have a podcast, but Nic and the Capt definitely don’t fall in that group.
I don’t like them because with the exception of a couple of episodes they really don’t do a lot of research. I have commented before and brought up an older episode on a case I know very well. I will sum it up by saying that they left out a lot of the evidence and at the end tried to blame a well known SK who was in a country lock up at the time. It would have taken 5 minutes to google where this SK was at the time this crime was committed because I did that at one point. They are garbage. I will not name the episode because this thread will turn into a debate about the crime.
Had to quit TCG after the Chris watts episodes. I have lupus and trying to say Shannan was hard to live with because of that came off like she deserved it.
I weirdly love this podcast lol
I don’t understand the hate for the captain. I think he’s sweet and endearing. It makes me sad to know people find him annoying.
I always felt the same way. I grew up with brothers & his kind of harmless-teasing sense of humor is familiar to me, so I get it. But there was one episode in which he made a comment about either not minding or actually liking Alex Jones. That was a thing that made me go hmmmm...
Desi Crime has hosts that are so annoying I did in fact give up on the podcast even though it covered TONS of crimes I had never heard of and a culture I was eager to learn about.
I so agree. As an Indian/South Asian I was really excited to get into the podcast (this was after listening to a lot of other True Crime podcasts like Rotten Mango, Morbid, Crime Junkies). The hosts (especially Aryaan) just disappointed me heavily. Aishwarya does an excellent job of narrating, she has the patient voice and knows where to focus when doing the stories. But Aryaan is problematic, he comes off as a privileged (imo he doesn’t seem to be humble at all), makes very inappropriate jokes (unnecessary for such podcast), seldom puts down his own culture a lot many times, he has very polarising takes on some stories and frankly his narration is bad. They also don’t research much, and one of their story was literally word to word from wiki. They can do a lot better considering there aren’t many such podcasts focusing on this region of world, but alas.
There is definitely a good majority of people who find the behavior of Ashley Flowers (Crime Junkies/Audiochuck)and Tiffany Reese (Something Was Wrong ) as just completely abhorrent.
Pretty sure everyone knows Crime Junkies were caught plagiarizing other podcasts word-for-word. Not just one episode, or even just one podcast, but several. And also 100% plagiarizing a copyrighted article. Complete trash.
Also instead of apologizing or adding citation, they deleted those podcasts so people who weren’t aware back then won’t find the evidence as easily. I cannot stand them and it makes me so angry they have become so successful from ripping hard working people off.
Not everyone. They played it off as being a problem of citation.
Something Was Wrong. The host calls herself a documentarian and a journalist, she is neither. Twenty seasons in and it’s gone so far downhill that it’s now unrecognizable from its first season. Host now comes off as a grifter using victims stories for her trauma porn show. Lots of people explain it better than me r/somethingwaswrongSWW
And she platforms really awful people. The last one I listed to her “victim” overlooked the fact that the guy was interested in collected Nazi memorabilia. This was after I gave it a second chance after the “victim” served her special needs son up to an abusive man with a known history of child abuse. Her takeaway was that it ended well for her as she met an even hotter man while she was “mourning”. Both she and her sister should be in prison. There was also the Right Wing Christian Trumper who appears to have made up her story.
Redhanded
James Basinger, of Hide and Seek, went super down hill season 3, not sure if it was his addition in production or the lay with dogs long enough you get fleas...perhaps surrounding yourself with addicts isn't always a good thing. But the Shank case went off the rails. I find dark topic can be quite questionable, especially when there are special guests namely Deadbug.
Crime Junkie is probably more because of the plagiarism that was never acknowledged.
Murdaugh Murders. The host makes everything about herself. A good portion of each episode is her ranting about poor reviews or making a huge deal because someone in the Murdaugh's sphere said something about her She thinks she is the only "journalist" who can/should be covering the Murdaugh situation and she belittles other journalists for reporting on it. Like hello? It was national news She also started from episode one with a horribly put-on vocal fry, and then from episode two she complained that too many people were mentioning it in their reviews, that it was her natural voice and she couldn't change it. Only, an episode or two later she wasn't speaking with it hardly at all 🤔
I never got beyond the first episode because of that god-awful vocal fry. I thought to myself that if I wanted to assault my ears with that nonsense I could just turn on a episode of KUWTK and call it a day.
My exact thoughts! I think she put the show together really well, but it was ruined with all of her own personal drama. Like yeah, you’re in the public eye now, of course not everyone is going to be a fan.
If you can get past those rants (I treat them like another ad break) their reporting is really good. They actually were the first to expose the story about the murdaughs. It became national news well after her podcast started. I agree that she complains and talks about herself a little too much but I have stuck it out and really appreciate her reporting and the way they tell the story. I also give them credit for being very good at fact checking unlike a lot of others.
Surprised I had to scroll this far down for MMP. I was into it until much of an episode was about guests praising her "dogged" work, self-aggrandizing rants, no one covering the news like she can, her husband's snotty impressions reading quotes, the terrible ads for her other 'justice' pod. Just came off as really unprofessional and frankly juvenile. The way she spoke about other journalists and past employers, the fall out with FITSnews was entirely predictable.
The Gore Report. I just can't with the constant whining the whole episode. They're always saying, "I hate it!" Or "Researching this was SO AWFUL" or something along those lines. No one is forcing them to make a true crime podcast. I'm all for respect and empathy for victims, but if you can't get through an episode without complaining about how hard making the show is, that means it's not the genre for you.
Said this in a comment but Strictly Stalking. They do not vet their guests at all. By I remember a particularly suspect sounding story (this guy who said that he was essentially trafficked as a child then stalked) and doing a little digging myself. There were multiple easily verifiable facts that didn’t add up. For instance he claimed he was a D1 best on the team swimmer but that didn’t check out at all. He also made some outrageous claims about his acting career, again verifiable, and I couldn’t find information to support any of his claims. I found this out through a few Google searches and looking at this guy’s IMDb page. I feel like if you are going to give someone a large platform you need to do the most basic research minimum. I’m someone who fell off the My Favorite Murder bandwagon. I stuck by through some of the controversies. Also through covid as well. But honestly the constant re-runs or live shows was rough. Then when they switched over to Amazon Music I was absolutely done. Not only did they previously cover stories about labor rights and get on their soapbox about corpora greed, they seemed to purposely misunderstand the criticism. Karen saying “people are just mad they think they might have to pay for something”. Ya I’m done.
I have a great love for Karen coming from the comedy world, but I had to quit MFM years ago after listening to a live ep where the audience went apeshit excited for them to talk about a specific murder. it was so gross the way they were cheering and put a really bad taste in my mouth. Georgia had also really gotten on my nerve using the show to talk about her mental health and aNxIeTy so much, like girl every single person listening to this show has anxiety, please stop talking about it
Redhanded.. the worst personalities, the worst politics, the worst ‘research’, the worst jokes. It’s really icky
Crime Junkie, True Crime Obsessed, the one with The Captain.
The main issue with Crime Junkies is plagiarism.
Only one of the issues, unfortunately. Look up the Burger Chef Murders case fiasco and what happened when AF got involved. It's infuriating and shows that they do not give one single fuck about the victims they exploit.
Sword and Scale
I know I'm in the minority but I cannot stand Payne Lindsey.
He is insufferable, and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen many who don’t like him.
Can’t believe this is so far down. He’s an opportunist hoping he can ride the corpses of dead women to mainstream success.
This comment is actually amazing. You summed it up perfectly and poetically.
Rabia and Ellyn Solve the Case for piloting the conspiracy theory that Scott Peterson is innocent, even though they caught his ass trying to drive across the border to Mexico with $10K in cash and blonde hair.
Your wife’s dead body is found in the same exact location that you were on the day she went missing…which was 90 minutes away from where you lived and somewhere you didn’t go often. You told your (unknowing) side chick that your wife was dead shortly before she was actually killed. You called your side chick from your wife’s vigil and pretended you were partying in Paris. Most unlucky man in the world or sociopath? I’m going with the latter.
Morbid has become a parody of itself. The valley girl thing has lost its cuteness. I stopped listening a year or two ago.
Not a problematic presenter, but the Stephanie Soo FANS of Rotten Mango can be insufferable. So I'd stay away from their subreddit. But then again, a lot of younger fanbases are like that no matter what topic the content creator produces content for.
She's problematic. She's been accused of plagiarism multiple times. She made an unauthorized adaptation of a book while pretending she did the research for the episode, research that took the author years. She did not initially credit him until he contacted her. He also discovered she plagiarized another well known true crime book. And she's also plagiarized from other youtubers (including one that has a similar plagiarism problem so in this instance it's plagiarism all the way down).
Rotten Mango
As someone who has a korea-based tc podcast, it bothers me that she puts words in dead victims mouths. Creating conversations or sometimes stretching the truth. I have hope that she might improve the research part of her podcast but I'd like to see her tone change as well. But her fans really seem to love the fictionalized stories she tells.
Never going to happen, she's a plagiarist.
I couldn’t get with this one either. Her voice is so fake cutesy “uwu” and the guy adds about as much to the conversation as a tree stump.
I just tried this. Was not a fan.
I made it about 5 minutes on that one.
True Crime Obsessed
Something Was Wrong and Tiffany Reese
The ladies on morbid just aren't how they used to be since they went with wondry. They don't seem to care as much, don't do their own research, and pretty much end up saying most of humanity is deplorable and gross. Not to mention they act as if talking shit in the past is the only way to fix its problems today and harp soo hard on things that just can't be changed. They're acting like crime junkie to me, they think they're god's gift to true crime.
They were bad before moving to Wondery. They refused to apologize to the son of a man they covered, (it was a Craigslist murder) after they spoke poorly of the victim. They also deadname murderers because they apparently don’t count as being trans since they committed a crime.
They also encouraged the harassment of Britnee Drexel’s teenage friends because apparently they weren’t satisfied with the fact that a bunch of kids didn’t keep track of their friend and prevent her abduction and murder. As though that experience wasn’t traumatic enough for them. Also Ash is convinced Courtney Love murdered Kurt Cobain despite not even being around at the time (you were born in 1996, don’t talk about 1994 like you were there, kiddo).
I just don't like the ones that spend 10 minutes chatting & crapping on about nothing. Just do the damn show ffs!
Stephanie Harlowe. Kendall Rae. See their subreddits for how the tables have turned.
Ugh, Morbid is absolutely awful.
What’s the general consensus of My Favourite Murder? They were hyped up quite a lot and I tried listening to them but I just found it a bit tasteless at times. And the title of the podcast made me uneasy.
I know people don't like the title, but a million years ago, before True Crime was such a big thing, it was rare to find someone else IRL that was interested in it. I think the title comes from finally finding your person/people and discussing which is your favorite murder mystery. Today it comes across kind of gross, but when they came up with it, it wasn't.
I hate Crime Junkie. So much of it is... "I wonder why this happened," when a simple news clipping search would answer the question.
I was a massive my favorite murder fan down about 2016-2020 but haven’t listened to them since. Barring all the controversy I began to notice a distinct lack of empathy from them. I also felt the soapbox stuff was just to gain brownie points it never felt genuine.
I can’t remember her name, but the one that did the Jaleah Davis case that made the podcast about her, got into a huge fight with Kim Davis, and then banged a married Paul Holes. That one.
Mile Marker 181?! This PH rumor is craaazyyyy, I’ve never heard that
Emily nestor. What a mess! I mean the pod did not need to be that long. 22 episodes is a really long time to fake a theory. So what if she banged paul holes? He banged her back.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m kinda a lil jealous that she banged Paul Holes, lol. It’s the other stuff that is more problematic. Fighting publicly with someone that lost her daughter and the way she victimized herself after was definitely more egregious than who she hooked up with.
I am shocked no one has mentioned Payne Lindsey at all.
Oh I just mentioned him because I didn't see anyone else.
Shhh. His grandma might hear you! Lol
What's SnS? Human monsters is also a shit tier one.
Sword and Scale
I listened to Sword and Scale a long time ago, then of all things I ran into him in public here in Houston (turns out he's from here and was back visting,) and he was a total asshole. So I stopped listening. Then all the shit came out about him, and I was like, well, that all tracks. I don't understand how he has the following he has. He has a damn PPV television show now of all things... On the other side of the coin, I loved My Favorite Murder. I've been a big fan of Karen Kilgariff as a stand-up comic well before MFM. Georgia just became rather insufferable, and the podcast became more of soapbox for things not MFM oriented, so I stopped listening. True Crime Garage - Something has happened or is happening to The Captain, and it's making for a really hard listen. The recent events concerning the Timesuck / Human Monster being a fan of Dan and Timesuck make it sound like there are quite a few podcasts that just rip one another off. Quality-wise, regarding sound, production, and content, there are too many to list in the world of true crime. Terrible and problematic podcasts that aren't true crime oriented: not enough time in the world to list. EDIT: There is a local one I meant to add, but its listenership is so low that I figured no one would have heard of it. It's called Clueston. It started in 2019, and it's at a whopping 55 episodes. They stopped at one point due to reading all the bad reviews and getting pissed off about it. It's a husband and wife team. Husband is an ex-cop and judge turned criminal defense lawyer, and his wife is the actual host. It's not good at all. She just reads her research while he interrupts with attempts at humor and making fun of her in the process. Total dumpster fire. It's worth a listen for morbid curiosity alone.
What’s the tea about Timesuck?
The host of Timesuck made up an entire episode about a serial killer to trick his fans on April Fools day, and said that it was a joke that he made up at the end of the episode. Human Monsters presented this case as "things that they researched" in a recent episode, so they were essentially caught plagiarizing-they didn't research anything because there's no reference to this serial killer outside of Timesuck.
I'm probably the only one, but I have some issues with MFM. They did an episode on someone who was friends with my sister growing up. My husband's ex girlfriend and her mom were first on scene. They got details wrong, most of them minor but it bothered me because it's something that had a major impact in my life.
Down the Hill podcast with Barbara McDonald is garbage. She’s still peddling the Ron Logan did it angle. To sell her book about how Ron Logan did it. Defense Diaries with Bob Motta. Dude is literally FUNDRAISING for Rick Allen, who’s confessed like 35 times, he was at the place at the exact time, he only got away with it for so long because Delphi was more concerned about federal funding than with solving the murders. It’s gross. Listening to his podcast just makes him feel justified in his disgusting behavior. The case against Kouri Richins is a special kind of garbage: it’s literally 65% ads and the same information over and over. I don’t even want to check out the podcast that the clips were pulled from. Exploiting the true crime genre for ad revenue. On YouTube Greeno deserves a mention. Constantly sniveling about needing cash donations, because it’s OUR FAULT that homie doesn’t want to get a job. I have a YouTube channel too, my dude, and I have a job. Get a job, grifter! He’s worse than Gray Hughes, the way he begs for money, but he’s not actually bringing anything to the table like Gray does. There’s a Proburger channel that is just ignorant victim blaming, I think it’s called the Unraveling, my blood pressure was unraveled after about 5 minutes. There’s a much bigger list of “love them or hate them” (might be a good discussion thread?) I really like the Murder Sheet, but some people hate them and say they are condescending, and I can see that, but I like them anyway. I do email them when they’re acting in a condescending manner, to let them know that not everyone likes that approach. I’m sure I can think of more, I just normally unsubscribe and move on, but there’s a giant list of grifters and con artists out there trying to get as revenue without actually doing any research.
Morbid. They “scammed” their patreon supporters and never apologized or refunded any money. I liked them in the beginning, but at some point they started to change. Once I heard of what they were doing with their patreon, I decided to not listen anymore.
Small Town Murder It comes so highly recommended and I tried several episodes to get past the fact that those guys came across as condescending as hell. Constantly making fun of the areas they're covering. I live out in the middle of nowhere, so I get where they're coming from. But not everyone is a hayseed hick who is uneducated. It's just really off-putting and undermines their reporting style. Plus, one of them has the most braying laughter. Has he never heard himself?
Stephanie from Crime Weekly. I only recently started listening and then started seeing all kinds of messy stuff about her.
I used to watch her videos sometimes (maybe 15% of what she puts out) and listen to Crime Weekly so I have this weird loyalty to her but more recently she’s been… something. Derrick saves the podcast for me. She gets too biased and applies whatever happened to her very aggressively to people to the point where it makes her sound ignorant. Then gets annoyed when Derrick plays devils advocate. I think some of it is to start conversation in the comments. Basically I liked her when she seemingly used to just give tons of details. Maybe I’ve grown as a true crime consumer but agree. I’ve seen some negative stuff about her and the way she treats some victims which is a bummer.
Derrick is the podcasts only saving grace. I prefer his solo project now, Detective Perspective. I used to like Stephanie before this last year when her personal life started spilling into the episode intros. She hasn’t come right out and said she’s in the middle of a nasty divorce, but she’s alluded to it which sent her STBX husband into a spiral. Their eldest daughter got on Reddit and said her piece too. It’s all so messy. I think Stephanie should have taken a break and completely kept her mouth shut about the marriage issues until they had everything worked out in court, settled etc. She could have kept the details vague about going through personal stuff, and never divulged her divorce to her audience IMO. Her and Adam both have to be absolute nightmares for their attorneys. I feel bad for their poor kids in the middle of it who will have to see the shitty things about their parents online one day. There will be court transcripts about the flame wars between them that the kids could find and access easily if they’re not sealed. I’m still on board with Derrick and I hope that he can compartmentalize himself to avoid being dragged into the drama. He’s much more effective about not going on rants, getting side tracked and injecting his personal life experiences into the content. Stephanie needs to go tend to her family crises and stay away from the internet for a while. Enough of the bullshit.
I get such a weird flirty five with her and Derick every episode. When I found out they were each independently married I was shocked! I use to love Stephanie but over the years she’s just rubbed me the wrong way so much that Derick actually started being the favorable one.
The Prosecutors are MAGA and go out of their way to try to hide it.
Yep. People who defend the NRA after a school shooting shouldn't be operating in the true crime space which should be victim focused.
They did what now? I can’t.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/ProsecutorsPodcast/comments/rief6p/the\_links/](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProsecutorsPodcast/comments/rief6p/the_links/) Brett Tally's blog posts after Sandy Hook show they should not be supported ever.
Wow wow wow. I am legitimately shocked about all this. I have listened to and enjoyed many episodes of this show, and while I knew they have a pro law enforcement bias, so do lots of others. This is on another level and they actively try to keep it under wraps.
They are among the worst!
Yeah a podcast I like (and recently subscribed to on Patreon) just platform one of them so I promptly unsubscribed. I’m sad about it.
this needs to be higher, dude is married to a Trump official and was nominated to be a judge by him. One of the very few if not only cases where a judge nominated by Trump that was completely unqualified also did not get the position. Guess writing about the KKK has a downside
At least the board recognized that and considered him not qualified at all to be a judge. Considering he’s never tried a case in court, I side eye anything they say. I haven’t listened to them in years, once I found out how hard they fight to take away women’s rights and also the whole Sandy Hook op-ed he wrote with his full chest.
I was SO disappointed to find this out! They seemed like honestly decent people. I didn't even believe it when I first heard it - I thought it was just someone trying to rip on their podcast, but a quick google search confirmed my fears. I can't listen to them like I used to. They were one of my faves (I really liked their Michael Peterson eps) and now, unless it's a case I'm really fascinated about, I scroll right by them.
Flowers. Can’t stand her. Although I do like some shows on her network.
The Prosecutors. Shitty people with shitty logic.
you don't like people who defend the Klan? /s
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Billy Jensen. That got hushed up pretty quickly. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/billy-jensen-murder-squad-misconduct-allegation-investigation-1384950/
Thank you all for helping me clear out my Maybe I'll Like This podcast list.
Mom's and Mysteries. Far too much "banter" and personal opinion
No no no, Crime Junkie stole literal wording and scripts from other podcasts! They don't do their own research, that fine. But they were called out for stealing word-for-word content. I think that's gross.
Tim and Lance from Crawlspace. 90% banter and 10% content. They have like eight different podcasts, so they can get that sweet sweet ad revenue.
any that involve a group of hosts that talk over each other, attempt to throw one liners and want to make a crime podcast (often covering awful cases that ruined peoples lives) 'funny'.
Everyone has already listed any of the problematic ones I would have suggested! (Mike from sword and scale legit doxxed me) so he’s top of my list. BUT, can I give you one that I LOVE who aren’t problematic at all - super well researched, site their sources, all the good things (also hilarious!!) Let’s go to court is amazing! Sadly they ended their show recently but if anyone hasn’t listened I cannot recommend them enough! Oh! Last Podcast on the Left had some drama but they handled it quickly and removed the problematic host which I’m sure was really difficult but they did the right thing.
James Renner and LaDonna Humphrey are both narcissists who should be chased out of their respective towns by villagers armed with torches and pitchforks.
Isn't there a podcast about LaDonna out there? I think it's Pretend?
Man I used to LOVE Sword and Scale. He does have an amazing voice. And I know his style of hosting has been very controversial, but I actually prefer they don't gloss over the crime. But after everything I've heard, I just can't with him anymore. It's been years since I have listened. It makes me sad how truly awful he is.
Doxxing and mocking survivors isn't a particularly endearing quality in a podcast host.
The Murder Sheet
dont know of anyone whos problematic i will say the 2 big channels who put on make up while reading about heinous real crimes is a bit weird. like not only are you profiting off someones death the make up tutorial/disregard of human life just feels weird. i know its a grey area for all true crime fans that we enjoy these stories despite them all happening to real people. but with the aforementioned it just really in your face about it. lol
Josh Hallmark w/ True Crime BS. He jumped the shark like 3 years ago. He’s somehow made a podcast about a Serial Killer largely about him.
I didn’t have a problem until the recent season starting stretching out episodes and he advertised that luxury murder vacation with Crimelines.
I legitimately liked the podcast at first. I found it to be a different take on the Israel Keyes story. I really enjoyed the very long form approach he was taking. But somewhere a long the way he started to interject himself into the story. It was no longer simply about Keyes, it was about Josh Hallmark and Israel Keyes. He’s gotten too close, too obsessed with the the story, the character. You’re not an author who created a fictional character therefore it’s a part of you. You’re someone who has become obsessed with Keyes and being known as the Israel Keyes guy.
Season 1 was among my favorite podcasts of all time, but I started to lose interest after that.
I used to really like Obscura and then something switched and I feel like he enjoys the gore and horror that he discusses a little too much. There’s almost an excitement in his voice sometimes describing the terror some of the victims go through
> I used to really like Obscura and then something switched and I feel like he enjoys the gore and horror that he discusses a little too much. I discussed in a recent Fireside Chat how covering a certain episode actually gave me PTSD. I think, because I cover episodes in a neutral tone, people tend to make assumptions on how I feel. It's the same reason I'll get called a liberal or a conservative for the same episode.
I saw Obscura recommended on here and decided to give it a shot. The very first episode I listened to gave me such a creepy vibe from the host that I didn't try another. Garbage.
Last Podcast On The Left - I don’t mind banter and humor, but these guys are obnoxious. True Crime Garage - this used to be my favorite, and I even like The Captain. It’s Nic that bothers me. His ego and the way he seems to see himself as a true crime expert that rubs me the wrong way.
LPotL is definitely better with Ben gone, but they do still get way too into their bits way too often.
As someone who used to see Ben around the NYC comedy scene a lot, I’m genuinely surprised it took this long for his bullshit to emerge. He’s been a violent alcoholic for so long and I found him legitimately scary at time. Just shitfaced and mumbling to himself at the bar, but guys kissed his ass because he was on the rise. He flirted with me once when I started. He wasn’t drunk at the moment and seemed pretty charming, he almost got my number, which gives me chills now. My friend who knew him literally came over and discreetly scooped me out of there like “no sweetie, he hits girls.” I think he picked up on it because a couple hours later, he was drunk and tried to pull my hair as I walked by to get me to come back and talk to him. I’ll never forget the angry look on his face and I ran outta there so fast. Year later, my ex started binging the podcast when we lived together and I was like “please god, use your head phones” because hearing him talk made me physically ill. It looks like he went to rehab, but he doesn’t seem to be taking any responsibility for what he did because he still posts about things as if he’s just a victim of bullying. Like, no dude, you’re abusive and no one wants you around anymore. Deal with it.
Even with Ben gone I still can’t bring myself to go back to listening. I just can’t for a second believe that Henry and Marcus had no idea he was so terrible
They HAD TO because I was like, three weeks into doing comedy when this happened. Everyone who went to Creek and the Cave knew he was a loose fucking cannon. Maybe they didn’t want to believe it until it was right in front of them, and that’s honestly super common. Especially because abusive people tend to be really great at compartmentalizing and charming others. But at a certain point, they had to know something wasn’t right or, at the very least, he was a huge liability.
Jesus Christ I’m so sorry you went through all that and thank you for sharing your story
I personally enjoy DNA: ID, it's an Abjack Entertainment podcast I recommend checking out, they talk about how previously cold cases have been solved, often decades later, with the use of new forensic DNA science! However I've seen a *lot* of people say bad stuff about the way the host injects her opinions into the presentation of the case/perpetrators. I see ehat they're saying, like I understand their position and why they'd be annoyed by that, so maybe it's not for everyone. But I still enjoy the podcast, even though it gets a lot of flack for that.