Episodes

With the investigation into the murder of Carol Stuart in full swing, all of Boston is talking about it. The city's leaders say this is the tragic but inevitable result of the crack cocaine epidemic that has swept across the ...

By the summer of 1989, Charles Stuart had decided to kill his wife. But he didn't think he could pull it off alone. So he started asking around, trying to find someone willing to help him. And if he couldn't recruit a willing...

On October 23rd, 1989, Charles and Carol Stuart were abducted and robbed in their own car. Before he escaped, their attacker shot each of the Stuarts, leaving Carol fatally wounded and Charles desperately calling for help. Th...

In January 1932, Howard Woolverton and his wife were run off the road by some thugs, who grabbed Howard and drove away. They held him for ransom in a plot that captured the nation's attention. But just who was behind the sche...

Robbery gone wrong, or cold-blooded murder? In fall of 1989, Charles and Carol Stuart were expecting their first child. It was the happiest time of their lives. But on the night of October 23rd, they’d just left a birthing cl...

In the early 1930s, there was more going on in America than the Great Depression and a spate of kidnappings. We're joined by author and acclaimed journalist Joe Urschel to discuss the evolution of law enforcement, the impact ...

In June, 1933, a crime that would shock that nation was committed outside a train station in broad daylight. No one saw the Kansas City Massacre coming, and as the nascent FBI scrambled to deal with the fallout, they were sha...

With the entire country watching, J Edgar Hoover's Bureau of Investigation turns their efforts to hunting down the infamous Machine Gun Kelly and his wife, Kathryn. To listen to all four episodes of 'Machine Gun Kelly' right ...

George "Machine Gun" Kelly and his partner in crime, Albert Bates, pull off a flawless abduction of one of the richest men in Oklahoma. But their victim, Charles Urschel, has a superpower that's going to ruin everything. To l...

After his first botched kidnapping attempt, George "Machine Gun" Kelly goes back to what's familiar: robbing banks. But as the Great Depression ravages the economy, it's getting harder and harder to get a good haul, so George...

Growing up in Memphis, George Kelly Barnes starts dabbling in crime from a young age. First he blackmails his father, then he grows a successful bootlegging business for himself. But how did this small-time crook earn one of ...

Until 2020, the world had mostly forgotten all about the McDonald's Monopoly scandal that rocked the country. But like so many modern true crime stories, this one was revived thanks to a simple post on Reddit. We chat with Ja...

In the 1930s, America was in the midst of an epidemic that no one could stop. But it wasn’t an illness we were up against, it was a crime: kidnapping. Every year, thousands of people were abducted and held for ransom while la...

Cautionary Tales is the podcast that explores history's biggest missteps,and asks what we can learn from them. Whether it's a botched crime, a film flop, or a catastrophic plane crash, there is always a lesson. Each episode b...

In 2001, the FBI receive an anonymous tip that the McDonald's Monopoly promotions have been rigged for years, and they set out to investigate. But what seems like a joke case at first soon turns deadly serious. And just when ...

After finding a way to steal the highest value prize tokens for the McDonald's Monopoly games, Jerry Jacobson had a problem: he needed people who could claim the prizes and then give him a cut. He didn't have the network to p...

In 1987, McDonald's joined forces with another American icon for a marketing scheme. The McDonald's Monopoly promotion was so popular that the company decided to bring it back again and again, watching their sales spike every...

Medical professionals are some of the most trusted people in our society. And for good reason. They dedicate their lives to helping others. Every now and again, you get a bad egg like Genene Jones, who seeks to hurt her patie...

In the late-1980s, McDonald’s teamed up with another icon of American capitalism: the game of Monopoly. Together, the two brands launched one of the most successful and popular marketing campaigns of the 20th century. Certai...

After being chased from Bexar County Hospital, killer nurse Genene Jones heads to Kerrville to work in a new pediatric clinic. And despite how close she came to being caught for her crimes already, she refuses to stop murderi...

At Bexar County Hospital, Genene Jones' colleagues started to notice that a worrying number of children were dying while she looked after them. It got so bad that people started calling Genene's regular shift 'The Death Shift...

After a lifetime of making up dramatic stories about herself to get the attention she loved, Genene Jones found a career where she could surround herself with life and death drama, and people would thank her for it. But she s...

Genene Jones grew up in a loving family, but always felt overlooked by everyone around her. Then, when her brother died in a horrific accident, she found that tragedy brought her exactly what she'd always craved: attention. T...

Love a cozy yet dark vibe? Join Allison and Mike, a witty, married duo with over 20 years of banter under their belts, for Crime and Coffee Couple—your weekly true crime fix. On Sunday, October 31, 2010, 16-year-old Devon Gri...