Podcast
Crimes of the Centuries
Hosted by Amber Hunt and Audioboom · EN
Crime is so commonplace that it takes something particularly shocking to be labelled the “crime of the century.” Even so, there are a lot of cases that have earned the distinction. In each episode of Crimes of the Centuries, award-winning journalist Amber Hunt will examine a case that’s lesser known today but was huge when it happened. The cases explored span the centuries and each left a mark. Some made history by changing laws. Others were so shocking they changed society.
49episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
S6 Ep18: The Girl Scout Murders on Cookie Trail Road
3d ago00:52:22Tap to summarizeDozens of Girl Scouts arrived at Camp Scott in the Oklahoma woods in June of 1977 expecting songs, crafts and campfires. By morning, three of the girls were dead, their bodies discovered along a dirt path called Cookie Trail Road. The investigation that followed became the largest manhunt in Oklahoma history, fueled accusations of corruption and racism, and left behind a mystery that still divides people nearly 50 years later.Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free episodes and more over at www.grabbagcollab.comOrder the Crimes of the Centuries book at your favorite bookstore or at www.centuriespod.com/book!Follow us on Instagram and other social media: @centuriespodEPISODE SPONSORS: Rula. Quality therapy covered by insurance, with an average copay of just $15/session. Visit rula.com/cotc Hims. Simple, online access to personalized, affordable care for ED, Weight Loss, and more. Visit hims.com/COTC ButcherBox. Premium, responsibly sourced meat delivered to your door. Get ribeyes for a year OR ground beef or chicken breast for life, plus $20 off at butcherbox.com/COTC Quince. High-quality bedding at 50–80% less than similar brands. Free shipping and 365-day returns at quince.com/centuries
Transcribe →S6: ENCORE: The Forgotten Serial Killer of the Victorian Era
1w ago00:38:29Tap to summarizeIn Victorian England, a serial killer preyed on sex workers and other vulnerable women, targeting the people society was least likely to mourn or protect. But unlike the infamous Jack the Ripper, whose identity remains one of history's great unsolved mysteries, Dr. Thomas Neill Cream had a name, a medical degree, and a chilling willingness to use both. Cream weaponized his professional knowledge, exploiting the trust his victims placed in him as a physician to devise methods that were slower, more calculated, and in many ways more sinister than anything the Ripper was known for. When he was finally caught, the case against him didn't just end his reign of terror — it helped shape the legal landscape for decades to come.
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S6: TRUTH DEFERRED S1E1: Love Lost & Justice Unraveling
1w ago00:58:44Tap to summarizeIn 1884 Cincinnati, a string of brutal murders and a verdict that outraged the public set off a chain of events that would end in one of the darkest moments in American history — the largest massacre of unarmed civilians by National Guard troops on U.S. soil. In Truth Deferred, historians Mike and Amy Morgan investigate what actually happened — and present the truth that was deliberately buried for over 140 years. While Amber's on vacation, we share Episode 1 of Truth Deferred: The story starts on Monday, March 31, 1884. The streets are covered in blood. Over 50 people are dead, and some are dying in the hallways of the hospital. Every window has been smashed out of the jail, and the county courthouse is a smoldering ruin. To find out how we got here, we travel back to an imperfect love story ending in a public murder, and how the case of William McHugh illustrates a growing distrust of the criminal justice system. (Truth Deferred began as a Grab Bag Collab podcast available only at GrabBagCollab.com. After its initial run, it was released wherever you get podcasts, so subscribe today.)
Transcribe →S6: ENCORE: The Manhattan Well Murder
2w ago00:45:52Tap to summarizeWhen a 22-year-old woman living with relatives in a boarding house disappeared on Dec. 22, 1799, her loved ones didn't immediately worry. But when she still hadn't returned days later, all eyes turned to her lover, whom she'd supposedly been set to marry the last time she was seen alive. Levi Weeks came from a family with money, so his rich brother did something that was unheard of at this point in American history: He hired fancy lawyers. And that's how Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr ended up on the same side defending a man against murder charges in 1800. The case, referenced in Lin Manuel Miranda's award-winning musical "Hamilton," marks two firsts: The defense panel was America's first legal Dream Team, and the Weeks' case was the first recorded murder trial in the country's history.
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S6: THE CATALYST: The Traveler
2w ago00:45:06Tap to summarizeAmber's on vacation, so she's yanking an episode of The Catalyst from behind the paywall over at Grab Bag Collab. Dive deep into the upbringing and backstories of individuals who committed history's most notorious crimes, shedding light on the psychological factors that shaped their paths. With a suspenseful twist, the identities of these individuals won’t be unveiled until the end of each episode. ‘The Catalyst’ will unravel the complex narratives behind these disturbing cases and try to understand what triggered them. This episode is called "The Traveler."To get our back catalog of Catalyst episodes, plus all of our other shows, subscribe at www.grabbagcollab.com.
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S6: The Murder of Faith Hedgepeth: Future COTC?
3w ago00:41:01Tap to summarizeIn September 2012, a 19-year-old UNC-Chapel Hill student was found beaten to death in her off-campus apartment. She was a biology major, a member of the Haliwa-Saponi tribe, and weeks away from her twentieth birthday. Despite DNA evidence collected from the scene on day one, her case went cold for nine agonizing years — generating hundreds of DNA tests, thousands of interviews, and an internet's worth of amateur theories that muddied the waters and targeted people who had never been charged. An arrest has since been made, and trial is set for September. But questions about what was preserved, what was lost, and whether the systems around her worked the way they should have are only beginning to surface. This is a case worth watching.
Transcribe →S6 Ep17: Meaher's Illegal Gamble: The Last Slave Ship
3w ago00:56:23Tap to summarizeIn 1859, a wealthy Alabama landowner made a bet that he could do the unthinkable. The next spring, he did just that — trafficking human beings from West Africa to the United States a half-century after it had been made a federal crime punishable by death. The Clotilda brought back 110 men, women and children. For more than 150 years, the ship sat buried in the mud of a Mobile Bay bayou, as if the whole thing had never happened.Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free episodes and more over at www.grabbagcollab.comOrder the Crimes of the Centuries book at your favorite bookstore or at www.centuriespod.com/book!Follow us on Instagram and other social media: @centuriespodEPISODE SPONSORS:Mint Mobile. Get a new wireless plan for just $15 a month at MintMobile.com/cotc. Talkiatry. Get matched with an in-network psychiatrist in minutes at Talkiatry.com/cotc. Hims. Get your free online visit for ED treatment and more at Hims.com/cotc. BiOptimizers. Get 15% off Magnesium Breakthrough at bioptimizers.com/cotc with code COTC.
Transcribe →S6 Ep16: Murder in Coweta County
Jun 1500:56:34Tap to summarizeOne April morning in 1948, a tenant farmer named Wilson Turner walked out of a rural Georgia jail and into an ambush. The man waiting for him owned 2,000 acres known as The Kingdom, a moonshine empire, and the county sheriff. What followed was a murder investigation that drew 500 lawmen from across the state — and a verdict few in Meriwether County saw coming. This is the real story behind Murder in Coweta County.Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free episodes and more over at www.grabbagcollab.comOrder the Crimes of the Centuries book at your favorite bookstore or at www.centuriespod.com/book!Follow us on Instagram and other social media: @centuriespodEPISODE SPONSORS:Mint Mobile. Get a new wireless plan for just $15 a month at MintMobile.com/cotc. Talkiatry. Get matched with an in-network psychiatrist in minutes at Talkiatry.com/cotc. Hims. Get your free online visit for ED treatment and more at Hims.com/cotc. BiOptimizers. Get 15% off Magnesium Breakthrough at bioptimizers.com/cotc with code COTC.
Transcribe →S6 Ep15: Twilight Zone Part 2: 'We Decided to Break the Law'
Jun 801:09:43Tap to summarizeAfter three people died on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie, it took four years to get five defendants into a courtroom and another 10 months before anyone knew how it would end. What unfolded in between was part legal battle, part Hollywood spectacle and entirely unlike anything the film industry had faced before. Part two of two.Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free episodes and more over at www.grabbagcollab.comOrder the Crimes of the Centuries book at your favorite bookstore or at www.centuriespod.com/book!Follow us on Instagram and other social media: @centuriespodEPISODE SPONSORS:Lumi Gummies. Get 30% off your order at LumiGummies.com with code COTC.Quince. Get free shipping and 365-day returns on your order at Quince.com/centuries.Storyworth. Save up to $20 at StoryWorth.com/cotc.ButcherBox. Get your choice of free Sirloin Tips, Ground Beef, or Chicken Wings in every box for life, plus $20 off your first box and free shipping always at ButcherBox.com/cotc.
Transcribe →S6 Ep14: Twilight Zone Part 1: Vic Morrow's Last Role
Jun 100:51:20Tap to summarizeIn the early morning hours of July 23, 1982, cameras were rolling at a California filming location when a helicopter crashed into a river, killing actor Vic Morrow and two young children, Renee Chen and Myca Le. It was called a tragic accident. But the more investigators looked, the harder that word was to defend. Part one of two.Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free episodes and more over at www.grabbagcollab.comOrder the Crimes of the Centuries book at your favorite bookstore or at www.centuriespod.com/book!Follow us on Instagram and other social media: @centuriespodEPISODE SPONSORS:Hims. Get your free online visit for ED treatment and more at hims.com/COTC.Rula. Find a therapist covered by your insurance — average copay just $15 — at rula.com/COTC.Home Chef. Get 50% off your first box, free shipping, and free dessert for life at homechef.com/COTC.
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