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True Crime Garage
True Crime /// Best of 2024
00:47:36
True Crime /// Best of 2024 Part 1 of 1 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com As we are rounding out the year here in the Garage, we thought that we would do a little True Crime year end review. Join us in the Garage as we discuss some the best True Crime that we consumed in 2024. Come for the True Crime and stay for the Holiday cheer!
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- [00:00]
Narrator
Miami Metro catches killers. And they say it takes a village to race one.
- [00:05]
Captain
Anyone knows how powerful urges can be? It's me.
- [00:07]
Narrator
Catch Dexter Morgan in a new serial killer origin story. Hunger inside of you.
- [00:12]
Captain
It needs a master.
- [00:13]
Narrator
Featuring Patrick Gibson, Christian Slater. Special guest star Sarah Michelle Geller. With Patrick Dempsey and Michael C. Hall as Dexter's inner voice.
- [00:21]
Colonel
I wasn't born a killer. I was made.
- [00:23]
Narrator
Dexter original sin new series now streaming on the Paramount plus with Showtime plan. Go to paramountplus.com to try it. Free terms apply. Lemon, lime and a drop of cherry make a simple Shirley. But what happens when Tito's handmade vodka reveals this sweet sipper's dirty secret? Stir up a Tito's dirty Sherlock and crack the case with tito's@tito's vodka.com. 40% alcohol by volume, namely 80 proof. Crafted to be savored responsibly.
- [01:42]
Colonel
Welcome to true crime Garage. Welcome to the best of 2024 as we see it.
- [01:52]
Captain
As we see it. The weather outside is frightful, but the garage is so delightful.
- [01:58]
Colonel
It's warm and delightful.
- [02:00]
Captain
And since you've no place to go. Here's our show. Here's our show. Here's our show.
- [02:04]
Colonel
I didn't want to admit this to anybody, but because we're all friends here about December 15th, all my coffees have Bailey's in them until the start of the new year.
- [02:17]
Captain
It would be weird if they didn't.
- [02:21]
Colonel
He. He sure smells like Bailey's a gentleman.
- [02:24]
Captain
That I love listening to. Dave Damashek, he's a sports guy and I've listened to him forever. Back when he was radio guy and he was a writer for when Ben Stein's money. So he's. He's not just a sports guy. A bit of a, you know, comedy background, if you will. But he says this is his favorite time of year. He says around somewhere between December 10th and December 15th, you can just tell the boss to go and screw because yeah, I'll be here. I'm going to be here, but I'm not doing any work. And oh, by the way, I'm going to be drunk.
- [02:58]
Colonel
Well, that's part of our job.
- [03:01]
Captain
Yeah.
- [03:02]
Colonel
So best of 2024.
- [03:06]
Captain
Should we define that for the beautiful listeners?
- [03:09]
Colonel
For the beautiful listeners. So this is anything true crime related. It could be a documentary, it could be a book, it could be a podcast. It could be anything true crime related that would we consumed during the year of 2024. So we could have wrote. We could have read a book from 1981 and thought it was so amazing. And that's on our list. I will just go ahead and say that I believe everything but one item that I am that's on my top five list is from the year 2024.
- [03:49]
Captain
The majority of mine are from 2024. And I will, when necessary, I will pivot. Yes. I will let you know the date of release. Pivot for the item consumed or the true crime consumed.
- [04:06]
Colonel
Well, these are my favorite episodes. And so I guess, you know, this time of year is great. We can tell our boss to go screw, we're getting drunk and we're going to talk some true crime. But the top five best of 2024 as we see it. So let me, I'll just start off.
- [04:25]
Captain
Are you sure? Because I, I was thinking about this right before we flipped on the microphones because I start off well, I think that sometimes when somebody goes last in a countdown, it almost implies that they're selections might be of better importance than the others. And I don't look at it that way. But, but in a countdown, usually the last thing to be named is considered the best. Right?
- [04:55]
Colonel
Right.
- [04:55]
Captain
And I want to say this to you, my friend, I am very intrigued by what your 5 will be. So the listeners should know. I have no idea what you've chosen. You don't know what I've chosen?
- [05:07]
Colonel
I have no clue.
- [05:08]
Captain
And because I'm so intrigued of what you have picked and I know that it's going to steer me in the right direction to consume something true crime in the early 2025, just on my own excitement level, could I go first to make your picks more important than mine?
- [05:27]
Colonel
But I have a question for you.
- [05:29]
Captain
Yes, sir?
- [05:30]
Colonel
Out of my top five list and your top five list, how many, how many will be the same? Not in the same order, but how many things on your list will be the same as my list?
- [05:44]
Captain
I would say there's a chance for. I think two is most likely that could be the same because when we're only doing five, if we were doing 10, I would say three for sure. But three of these, three of these on my countdown, I know you've viewed or read as well.
- [06:04]
Colonel
Right.
- [06:05]
Captain
And so I'm putting the minimum at two, maximum at three. Because two of my selections, I don't think I have no knowledge, prior knowledge that you are even aware of them.
- [06:17]
Colonel
Probably not. I'm not aware of a lot of things.
- [06:20]
Captain
Well, but that's what's crazy is you compare 2024 to 1994, there's, and thankfully, because we're, you know, we, we are intrigued by true crime and fascinated by it. There's so much more to consume nowadays than there was back then.
- [06:40]
Colonel
Yeah.
- [06:40]
Captain
And so it's, it's getting more and more every year. And unfortunately, you just can't put earballs or eyeballs on everything that's out there because there's just so much of it. And frankly, look, not all of it is good either. Right. There's a lot of really good true crime out there, but there's also just kind of some junk along the way. And everybody out there, we all have busy lives and family and wonderful things going on. We can't always be busy with true crime. And so there's only so much you can consume. And that's why you're going to see one or two items that maybe didn't get consumed in the year that it was released.
- [07:19]
Colonel
We're lucky enough to dive into cases every week, but that also hinders us from keeping up with new true crime.
- [07:28]
Captain
We are eyeballs deep, neck deep in a new case each week. And it doesn't. I don't like. The worst is when a new true crime documentary comes out on one of the great streaming services.
- [07:42]
Colonel
Yeah.
- [07:42]
Captain
And you're like, wow, I cannot wait to put my butt in that recliner, pour a cold beverage and watch this documentary. Oh, but if I do these cases, you don't like to start researching too many of them at the same time because it gets confusing. And so I'm always like, well, maybe there'll be enough time in the week, next week that I'll be able to get to it. And then I'm three or four days behind and you're out in public and people are talking about it and you're like, no, no, no, no, don't tell me anything.
- [08:14]
Colonel
Don't tell me what happens.
- [08:16]
Captain
Yeah, yeah. Doesn't really work that way, but yeah.
- [08:19]
Colonel
Did they solve the case? That's. That's all. All right, so number five.
- [08:27]
Captain
Number five. And I did say that I will go first, so it would be weird if I was just silent here. I went with one, and this one is one that I think that we might both have on our list. I don't know if, if it appears on yours. I don't know if it'll be in the same spot. But I say that because either one or both of us did say after recommending it at a dozen times to the listeners, that it will probably be on one or both of our list. And so, of course, my number five is who Killed Robert Juan? Which was a fantastic documentary. Two parts, both approximately one hour each, actually, I'm looking at it now. Episode one was 61 minutes. Episode two was 75 minutes. And individually they're titled Murder on Swan street and the Unraveling Truth. This was a case that I was unfamiliar with. A friend of ours, we, who we saw and hung out with at CrimeCon, had suggested, said, hey, Nick, have you ever heard of the Robert Juan case? And I said, no. I said, where's it out of? And she said, Washington, D.C. and look, that's. That's one of the great cities of this country. And so I, my ears perked up and I said, tell me a little bit about it. She told me a little bit. And God bless her, she. It was the tip of the iceberg. And so I got home and I realized there's a documentary about it. She. If she told me that, I failed to remember it. And I saw that it was on Peacock. Peacock's doing some good things, I think. A lot of good sports on Peacock these days too. I thought this documentary was very well put together. It's not from 2024, but it was new to me. I believe it came out in 2022.
- [10:13]
Colonel
2023.
- [10:14]
Captain
2023, okay. So I wasn't too late. I was late to the party, but not too late. They weren't cleaning everything up by the time I got there, I loved one. I thought the way that they put it together was fantastic. I thought that the, the, the model that they had of the town home that they lived in, that the suspects, if you will, lived in was so key to the documentary. And we said that in our attempt at covering this case to the best of our ability in a four part series not too long ago, that one part that is confusing from a storytelling perspective is the layout of that beautiful town home that they lived in. To have the model there that was put together and to reference it throughout the course of the telling during this docu series, I thought was key. The visualization of that and then the characters. And I say characters, but these are real life people that were telling us the story, right? The bloggers that had covered it, they were so interesting to listen to. And the attorneys, the prosecutor and the defense attorney were. Their personalities were brilliant and they were like. It was almost like something out of fiction where somebody's like, here's the, here's the perfect defense attorney and how they should act and conduct themselves and the arguments that they should make. On the other side of that table was the fictional picture perfect version of a prosecutor who was, who is determined to get truth and justice for the victim.
- [11:56]
Colonel
You can't dream up better characters.
- [12:00]
Captain
No. And to be honest with you, I really both of those attorneys, prosecution, defense, very successful individuals prior to this case. I remember when I heard, I think it was the prosecutor first, the district attorney. I, when I'm hearing him and he's talking about the case, I thought at first glance, man, I'm like, if this thing goes to trial, that dude's winning. And then they introduce the defense attorney and I'm like, he's going to be pretty tough to beat. And it was intriguing. I well done to peacock into the directors, producers of who Killed Robert Juan. Still an unsolved case, very sad case. The victim, very incredible guy, great guy. And so I hope we get answers there. Of course. But if you're looking for something to watch, I say buckle in because you watch this one and you're going to want to go and listen to our four part series. You're going to want to get on the Internet and learn more. It's so, but it's so well done that it, it only leaves you desiring more because the case is so intriguing.
- [13:09]
Colonel
Yes. And that's why it's also my number five.
- [13:12]
Captain
Boom.
- [13:13]
Colonel
So there we go, we got one down. So let's go to number four on our top five.
- [13:22]
Captain
All right, Number four is I went with A Harvest of Innocence, the untold story of the West Memphis Three murder case. This by the great Dan Stidham, who anybody that's followed the case will know was the defense attorney for Jesse Misskelley, one of the three defendants in this case. And I, I thought Dan Stidham was a breath of fresh air. Of course, there's no shortage of material out there to review on this case. There's several books, several documentaries. I think there's another documentary in the works. So there's no shortage of interesting and good consumables here. But I thought he was a breath of fresh air because a lot of the books in documentaries and things you'll review online are skewed one way or the other that the, the West Memphis three are innocent or they're guilty. And we've certainly covered the case and added some of our opinions to the case as well. Yeah, but he's a breath of Fresh Air 1 because he represented one of the, the defendants. He represented a complicated defendant. Jesse Misskelley was a complicated defendant to have and represent and to hear.
- [14:44]
Colonel
To represent.
- [14:46]
Captain
Correct. And to hear him voice at length. What he said, what was summed up in earlier documentaries where he says, you know, I went and I took this case, I was assigned this case as a, as a public defender, and I thought the guy was guilty. He told, he confessed. He told me. He, you know, he confessed to me, right? And I thought, I went into this thinking, well, I'm. I'm going to represent this guy and try to get him, make sure that he doesn't get the death penalty, make sure that I represent his best interest and that he's treated fairly. But when I lay my head down on the pillow at night, I know that he's responsible. So if he ends up in prison, that's where he belongs. But then to hear how his opinion morphed and changed after he learned of the details of the case and learned more from his, his defendant and from Jesse Misskelley and, and got to, to know the boy, Jesse, and how his opinion changed and then how he fought so hard for somebody who he believed to be innocent. And so I thought the book was fascinating. We were lucky enough to have Mr. Stidham on the show, and he and I spoke to. And poor, poor captain had to edit this thing. I could only imagine. Probably took two weeks out of the guy's life. It was, it was long, I know. And I was, I was so excited.
- [16:11]
Colonel
To never again send you the file.
- [16:14]
Captain
Because I was like, I know how invested you've been in this case over the years and the amount of intrigue you have about this case. So I thought, oh, man, I'm going to send it to him and it's going to be a joy for him to edit it because, you know, there's some, there's some really good nuggets in here and some really good conversation. But it was, it was, I'm sure, something very difficult to cut up. And part of it was, Mr. Stidham and I talked for so long, and I'll go. Here's a little peek behind the curtain real quick. Due to the time change and due to his job and due to what I do here at True Crime Garage, the only time that he and I could do this interview, it started at 9pm Eastern, which is the time zone I live in on a Friday night. You know, the crispiest of colonels enjoys his Friday night. I thought, you know what? For Dan Stidham, I will give up my Friday night. For the beautiful listeners, I will give up my Friday night. And this book that I just read, I will give up my Friday night. We started that at 9pm I opened up a bottle of red wine at 9:20. Because I thought, you know what, if I sip on this wine, it'll keep me going. So I don't, I don't start to, I don't start to get tired. Fast forward to about three hours later. It's now after midnight. I've drank the entire bottle of red wine and we're still talking about the case. So thanks to Dan Stidham for coming on the show and thanks. This book was way overdue, frankly. It could have come out 10 years prior as far as I'm concerned. But I, I very much enjoyed it. It's a different perspective and it's. I added it to the collection of the growing collection of West Memphis Three information that I've compiled over the years.
- [18:01]
Colonel
My number four is Cold Case who Killed JonBenet Ramsey? It was on Netflix. It's a three part series. It's funny because I was telling you before we started rolling on the microphones, this documentary has gotten a lot of criticism online saying there's not really new information. They claim there's a bunch of new evidence and they don't really present that evidence to the audience. But the people rating it on Netflix, it's sitting at about 7.5, which is similar to the Robert Juan documentary. So I thought it was good. I'm so fascinated with the case that almost anything, even if it's garbage, I will probably consist, consume hoping that there's some little nuggets of new information or, or maybe a different way to look at some of the evidence.
- [19:08]
Captain
This one captain for me was an honorable mention. I strongly considered it for my five spot. I, I really enjoyed it. I didn't look forward to watching it, to be honest with you, because I thought, here's this new documentary, what's going to be new about it? But after I sat down and you told me you said it was good and so I thought, well, if Captain says it's good, then I, out of respect for his opinion, which I value greatly, I will sit down and I'll give it a go. And you know what? If I, if I hate it after 30 minutes, I can always turn it off. But due to your recommendation, I sat down and I couldn't help it, man. I found myself deeply invested in the documentary and like you said, maybe there's not a whole lot of new information per se within the confines of that three part series, right? But some of it was described slightly different. Some of the images that were shown, at least one or two of the pictures that were shown were new to me. For the first time. And I thought it, I thought it to be. I couldn't, I finished episode one and could not wait to start episode two. So thank you for the recommendation, my friend.
- [20:18]
Colonel
Well, here's why I think it was an important documentary is we got to hear from John Andrew Ramsey, Bob Whitson. We've got to hear from Michael Caine, Michael Tracy, so many individuals, Steven Singular and Joyce Singular. If you just took each one of these individuals and you just set them down for a long form interview, now that would have been fascinating. An hour. Just give each one of these individuals an hour because each one of these individuals could have talked for probably multiple hours. And to hear long form interviews from all these individuals and also we get to hear John Ramsey talk a lot. So I think that's why it's important. Yeah, that's my number four. And I give it two thumbs up. I thought it was worth the watch and worth being in my top five.
- [21:17]
Captain
Absolutely, 100%. Two thumbs up.
- [21:20]
Colonel
Top three. Here we go.
- [21:22]
Captain
We're hitting it. Yeah, we're, we're full head of steam here now, baby. All right. My number three is a book that came out this year in 2004. Sorry, 2024. Wow. Wow. A Foreign Faction by James Kohler. This was recommended to me by a couple of friends. And to be honest with you, when I picked it up, I had thought initially that it was a book that had already come out, that it was not new. And in fact, they recommended this book to me just about three or four weeks after it had come out. And because of the subject matter, I thought it was an older book that I had just overlooked. The subject matter here, too, is JonBenet. So the full title is Foreign who Really Kidnapped JonBenet by James Kohler. And this is available in several different forms, paperback, I believe it's available in hardback as well. But you can get it on Audible if you're a subscriber to Audible or if that's a. Maybe somebody gets you the gift of Audible this year. Yeah, this would be one that I would recommend. And as you can see, and longtime listeners of this show do know that the Captain and I have an addiction. And one of those, maybe more than one addiction, but one addiction we have and share is that if something about the JonBenet Ramsey case comes out, we're probably going to watch it, listen to it, or read it at some point. And so I was very thankful to my friends who recommended it to me. And I, I've, while I do not, the thing about JonBenet with the case, and same with West Memphis Three, for that matter. A lot of the opinions, a lot of the stuff that comes out has a certain amount of fact and a certain amount of opinion to it.
- [23:24]
Colonel
Right.
- [23:25]
Captain
And while I, while I may not agree with the opinions expressed in that material or that source, I try to look at it from an entertainment value. And with the JonBenet documentary series that you just talked about, that's how I had to look at it. Did I enjoy spending my time, however long it took me to watch that, did I enjoy spending my time? Was I, was I intrigued? Was I ready to. And eager to watch the next episode? Yes. And I thought with Foreign Faction, at first I was like, yeah, I was like, I hesitated to pick it up. And man, I'm glad that I did because very quickly I'm, I'm talking minutes into this, I was like, okay, I'm excited, I'm excited once again. And I'm, I'm ready to tear through this. So I listened to it on Audible. I didn't, I didn't actually read the book, but I thought it was very well put together and very happy that it's my number three.
- [24:30]
Colonel
It is not my number three, but I just finished it last week and we could probably do five episodes just on that book and, and our thoughts on their thoughts. Thoughts on Thoughts.
- [24:44]
Captain
Welcome to Thoughts for your Thoughts. That's an old Parks and Rec joke. If, yeah, if there's people out there like, what are these idiots doing?
- [24:52]
Colonel
My number three is. And this is where it gets a little weird. I, I think I'm correct on this information, but it's media pressure. The Untold Story of Mara Murray. It's an eight part podcast series told by Mara's sister, Julie Murray. And it came out February 5th of 2024, not 2004.
- [25:18]
Captain
Like I had said.
- [25:19]
Colonel
I thought it was an interesting take, having a sister and, and she's not the only person telling us about Mara and her disappearance. You know, she brings in other individuals, but because she's the sister, she's able to have contacts and have individuals that we might not have heard of in the case. So I thought it was very well done. I thought Julie did a great job and I thought it was a. With all these cases, you're just trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. And I don't know if it puts all the pieces of the puzzle together, but it gives us more pieces to play with and try to complete a full picture. So that's my number three. And we'll get to the top two spots right after this quick beer break.
- [26:31]
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- [27:44]
Narrator
Catches killers, and they say it takes a village to race one.
- [27:47]
Captain
If anyone knows how powerful urges can be, it's me.
- [27:50]
Narrator
Catch Dexter Morgan in a new series Serial killer origin story Hunger inside of you.
- [27:55]
Captain
It needs a master.
- [27:56]
Narrator
Featuring Patrick Gibson, Kristen Slater Special guest star Sarah Michelle Geller. With Patrick Dempsey and Michael C. Hall as Dexter's inner voice. I wasn't born a killer. I was made Dexter Original Sin New series now streaming on the Paramount plus with Showtime plan. Go to paramountplus.com to try it.
- [28:12]
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Captain
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- [29:48]
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- [30:46]
Colonel
I just love saying that word Sherpa.
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- [31:14]
Colonel
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- [31:33]
Colonel
All right, we are back. Cheers, mates. Tell the boss to piss off. Cheers to you, Colonel.
- [31:42]
Captain
Cheers to you, Captain. That's right. Christmas vacation starts at different times for all of us, but it cannot get here fast enough. And in fact, Merry Christmas and happy.
- [31:52]
Colonel
Holidays to all of you out there, you filthy animals. All right, so we're we're down to the top two spots. Best of 20, 24.
- [32:03]
Captain
Yes. And I am currently looking for because we had some coverage on my number two selection here and I wanted to look back here it is. So on our wonderful show off the record available for subscribers on Apple subscription.
- [32:21]
Colonel
And Patreon hashtag is A sponsor.
- [32:24]
Captain
That's right. In fact, it's of our own creation. But the, the book that I'm going to recommend here, it was recommended on our show, but also I got the privilege of interviewing the author. The title is Dead End Inside the hunt for the i70 serial killer. And this is by the great Bob Ciphers, who is an award winning journalist and CBS reporter and frankly, just one hell of a damn good guy. So Bob Ciphers was, was on the initial coverage of this case. So for those of you that do not know, the, the first murder in this series took place way back in 1992. At the time, Bob Ciphers was working as a reporter in and near, in and around the St. Louis area. And they had one of the murders that took place near St. Louis. And so he hops in his car and he goes out there to investigate and do the story for the newspaper at the time. This i70 serial killer case, for me, I, I get it that everybody's intrigued and have different interests, but for me, Captain, this one is really, you have Jack the Ripper, Zodiac, and then it's the i70 killer. For me, those are the ones that just, I, they, they haunt me. They, they stay in my thoughts, they creep into my, my dreams and nightmares and thoughts for thoughts. Thoughts for thoughts. This case intrigues me. I. And I'm. Whoever this killer was. It seems like as quickly as they showed up on the scene and started killing people, they. Then they very quickly vanish afterwards. And it's a killer that seems to have very little interaction with the victims. And the victims seem to be completely at random.
- [34:13]
Colonel
Right. And almost seem at random.
- [34:17]
Captain
Yeah. And the killer is called the i70 killer because most of the murders, well, not most, all of the murders take place somewhere off of Interstate 70.
- [34:26]
Colonel
Right.
- [34:26]
Captain
And in multiple cities across multiple states in a very short period of time. So it's a very unique series of killings in a very unique killer who still unidentified to this day. So when it comes to unidentified killers, like I said, third only in mystery level for yours truly, to Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac Killer. And then to talk further about how great of a guy Bob Ciphers is. When we were at the last crime con I walked over to, he, he was sharing a table with some other authors that are under the same publisher. This one is available on Amazon and also on Kindle. I read this one on Kindle. And the great thing about Bob was he not only covered the case in 92 in the greater St. Louis area, but they formed a task force. So in 2021, they, being investigators from the different jurisdictions where these murders took place, created a task force. And the task force was smart enough to say, you know what? We're going to travel to each of these locations together for pro. For probably the first time, we're going to get investigators from each jurisdiction that will travel arm in arm together in unison to each one of these locations and review each case together on location. And they said, you know what? We need to document this.
- [35:53]
Colonel
Yeah.
- [35:54]
Captain
Oh, who we going to get to document it? Somebody says, you know, Bob Ciphers really did a damn good job covering it in St. Louis back in 92, and stuck with it. He stuck with it for years after the. Afterward, after the killer seemed to disappear into the shadows. And so he was the perfect person to document it. But when he showed up on scene, he wasn't just documenting and watching what the investigators were doing. He was sitting there. And in his book, he talks about some of his own thoughts and observations that he made at each one of the crime scenes. And he found new people to interview and potentially some new eyewitnesses many, many years later in this case that will prove to be valuable soon at some point in this ongoing investigation. So we're at CrimeCon 2024 earlier this year in the great city of Nashville.
- [36:51]
Colonel
Nash. Vegas, baby.
- [36:53]
Captain
Nashville. So I go over because I wanted to make sure I said hello to Bob. Great conversation I had with him on off the Record, which was in. Came out March 30th of 2020 for our conversation with Bob Ciphers. I go over to talk to him. He interrupts me. And at first I thought my hair trigger reaction. I go, this guy's rude. Just like. It's like he's just gonna interrupt me. He interrupts me, Captain, by standing up and hugging me. Oh, like, I'm in. I'm in mid the second sentence out of my mouth. He just stands up, grabs me, pulls me in close, bear hug action. And he goes, thank you, thank you, thank you. And I said, what's that for, Bob? I thought, my dumbass. I thought he was hugging me because it helped him sell some books. He. He goes, nick, that is from the victim's families. I told the victim's families, who I've known for all these years, that you were kind enough to have me come on your show to talk about their cases that are still unsolved. And several of them told me, bob, if you see him and the captain, give them a hug and thank them. And so Bob. Bob gave me that hug. And it man, it. I'll tell you what, my heart, it. It got me right in the chest, my friend. Right?
- [38:14]
Colonel
You're like the Grinch. It grew. Your heart grew three sizes.
- [38:18]
Captain
That's right. It got me right in the chest. And. And Bob's just a great guy. He cares so much about those people, the victims, their families and the story. And if anybody can help push this thing through and get this suspect and apprehend somebody and put somebody in prison for this, should they still be alive, I'm glad that Bob's there helping along the way.
- [38:41]
Colonel
Yeah. It's fascinating, especially going to CrimeCon and talking to different individuals about what cases people become obsessed with. You know, I think a lot of people become obsessed with the JonBenet Ramsey case or West Memphis Three, or cases that there's a lot of documentaries and books about, because you can get your hands on so much information. And then there's these other cases where there's not as much meat on the bones, if you will, but they still can swirl around in your brain and really occupy a lot of your thoughts. So my number two, and I'm gonna. I have to set this up a little bit. It's. It's not a shocking one because you had it on your list. So I think we're now two. Two for two, right?
- [39:32]
Captain
Yes.
- [39:32]
Colonel
But A Harvest of Innocence, the Untold Story of the West Memphis three murder Case. And it was a book. There was no option to get it on audible. Look, we have a lot of weird shit going on in this world. We can get access to information maybe sometimes too fast, and everything's right at our fingertips. And I think sometimes that can boggle people down. And I know it boggles me down. And just a little. A little tip going into the new year for anybody that struggles with mental health, my therapist said to me, let's examine some of the points in your life that you can look back and go, in 1994, that was a great year. Right. And start examining, well, what were you doing and what brought you enjoyment? And are you doing those things today? And as cool as it is to watch a documentary or easy as it is to watch a documentary or to watch things on YouTube, that's why my number three pick, the The Untold Story of Ma Murray. It was a podcast series. And I remember getting into podcast and the podcast series, the long form series were so fascinating to me and. And would like you said, it's how entertaining is. Is this a tough watch to get through when I'm reading this book? Am I Just trudging along in the quicksand. And so the reason why my number three spot, my number two spot there, they're really the ways I would have to consume content more so of years. Years in the past. Right. So the fact that you couldn't get this book. I still don't know if you can get this book on Audible, but to. You know, at first it was like I'm going to force myself to. I do a little thing at the end of the night where I. I charge my phone and I just check a couple things in my office, and then I just kind of sit there and unwind. And sometimes I listen to a podcast. Sometimes it's a YouTube video. Maybe I just practice my guitar or whatever. But when I got this book, I decided I'm just going to spend 20 minutes to an hour every night reading this book. And most nights I'd get to about that hour mark and go, just keep reading. You know, because it's. It's just a fascinating book. But I also think by reading a book as opposed to listening to a book, it. It's also a way to slow yourself down. So A Harvest of Innocence by Dan Stidham is my number two. Here we are.
- [42:30]
Captain
So we have two top spots.
- [42:32]
Colonel
Yeah, Top spot two, line up. We both were correct on that one. Let's see if our top one lines.
- [42:38]
Captain
Up with A harvest of Innocence. I always almost slip and say Harvester of Sorrow. The old Metallica song.
- [42:45]
Colonel
Yes.
- [42:46]
Captain
All right. Two very different things. Don't miss. Don't mistake them. My number one pick. And look, sometimes this happens, but if you. If you want to tie me up and throw rocks at me and stone me to death in the. In town square, I'll understand. Seems a little aggressive. Little. A little much punishment doesn't fit the crime. But my number one is not. Has not been a recommendation on our show that we often have. Not every week, but most weeks we have a recommendation. Most of the times it's a book. Could be a podcast, could be a documentary. But my number one, I consume this. I read this at the start of 2024, and in fact, it came out middle of the year 2022. I just never purchased it. Didn't get to it yet. And unfortunately, this one fell at a weird time on our show where I was. Where I was having to read other things and watch other things based off of the cases we were covering at the time. So while I was reading this book at the same time, it never made it to a recommendation because after several weeks I had kind of put it down, I was finished with it and we had recommended other things and I just thought, well, we'll get back to it. And here we are at the end of 2024 and this is the first time I'm recommending it to anybody. But the, the name of the book is Shadow man by Ron Francel. And this book was brilliantly written by a man who is a very acclaimed author. He's written I think 17 or 18 books and he's a great nonfiction writer. He's a journalist, he's covered war, he's covered natural disasters both here and abroad. One of his books that I loved is called the Darkest Night, which is a true crime bestseller. But Shadow man had everything that the colonel looks for in a true crime book. So the full title is Shadow Man An Elusive Psycho Killer and the Birth of FBI Profiling. According to the book, this is the first time in history that the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit created a psychological profile to catch a serial killer.
- [45:12]
Colonel
And we know how you like those profiles.
- [45:14]
Captain
I do. And I am a bit of a Behavioral Science unit fanboy. So I'm not, I'm not ashamed to admit it. And I tend to read everything that former members of that unit put out. I got my hands on Shadow Man. It wasn't until this year. The case is intriguing. So the, the case, it's actually two cases because he is, was a serial killer. The cases go back to the 70s. 1973, a seven year old girl went missing from a Montana campground while her family's there vacationing in the middle of the night. This is the stuff of nightmares, friends night, absolute nightmares in the middle of the night. Somebody cut a slit in the tent and pulled her through the slit in that tent, snatching her away from her family in the middle of the night and goes undetected. And so we have this killer and he starts taunting the victims mother with phone calls. And there's another victim here, her name is Susie Jaeger who was a. An adult. She was a waitress. But this was, this book is about a horrible, horrible individual that is so incredibly evil and his deeds were so incredibly evil that it's shocking. It's only due to the passage of time that many people do not know about this killer. So I loved this book. I thought it was great. And it was the best true crime that I read that I consumed in this year 2024.
- [46:56]
Colonel
My number one spot is going to Monsters. The Lyle and Eric Menendez story. This is. They consider this the second season of Monster the anthology series. The first season was Dahmer, the Jeffrey Dahmer Story. But this same team are the ones that are responsible for doing the biopic in the series People versus OJ And I thought this was so well done that it made me go back and watch the People vs. OJ and then made me go back and watch Monster, the Jeffrey Dahmer Story. And what's so fascinating to me about this biopic is it did a couple things. There's a. The way they told this story is, I believe it's called like Rashomon effect is. And the way, the way they tell the story is from multiple perspectives at the same time. So there'll be a scene where, you know, some. Look, everybody knows that they killed their parents, but it's why did they do it? The why becomes the most important thing. The why is going to be whether they get a few years behind bars or they spend the. The rest of their life in jail. So it's so fascinating because there'll be a scene that points to them as abused victims that ended up killing their abuser. And then there's other scenes that paint them as well, they weren't abused. They were just getting rid of their parents so they could inherit the money. And it's just so well done. And to really see the genius of it, if you only watch it one time, and I know it's a long series, but if you watch it for the second time, you will start seeing the. The genius of how they had to lay this out. And it also makes me excited for which I guess they'll call it their third season of Monster, which will be the Ed Gein story. And I believe it's going to be titled the Original Monster. So that is my number one intriguing.
- [49:31]
Captain
Well, Captain, you've given me some ideas on things that I should be watching and reading and intrigued to see what they do with the Ed Gein story as well.
- [49:42]
Colonel
Yeah, I'm. It's tough. I mean, I, like I said, I. I so badly wanted because Ryan Murphy and his team did, you know, American Horror. And every time one of these comes out because you don't want them to glorify killers in any way, shape or form. But when the Dahmer one came out, which made me go back and I end up watching some documentary where it's like Dahmer tapes or something in his own words. And when they're showing pictures of Dahmer's apartment, if you ask me, is that the set of Monster or is that Dahmer's real apartment. I couldn't tell you because that's how well they do of recreating these scenes and recreating these real life characters and put them onto screen. And maybe a documentary or a book might change your mind a little bit of how you view a case. I didn't ever think a biopic would make me change my viewpoint on a case and they were able to do that. So again, I just think it's a fascinating series. So top five of 2024. I've got to pull back up my list. I had at number five, who killed Robert Wanna? Number four, cold case, who killed JonBenet Ramsey? That's on Netflix. Number three, media pressure, the untold story of Maurie, eight part podcast series. Number two, a book, a Harvest of Innocence by Dan Stinham, the Untold Story of the West Memphis three murder Case. And then number one, Monster, the Lyle and Eric Menendez Brothers biopic on Netflix.
- [51:47]
Captain
And I had it number five, as did you, who Killed Robert Wan? The documentary series on Peacock. Number four. Again from your list, A Harvest of Innocence by Dan Stidham, new friend of the show as of 2024, a fantastic audiobook, A Foreign Faction by James Kohler. Then we have at number two, dead end, inside the hunt for the Interstate 70 serial killer by again, new friend of the show, Bob Ciphers, who we met at crimecon. And my number one was Shadow man, an elusive psycho killer in the birth of FBI profiling by Ron Fran Cell.
- [52:28]
Colonel
And we would love to hear your top five. So when we post this on social media or on the blog, go to truecrimegarage.com and post your top five on there if you want to. Would love to get your recommendations and happy holidays, safe travels. And until next week, be good, be.
- [52:49]
Captain
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- [53:30]
Colonel
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- [53:35]
Captain
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- [53:54]
Colonel
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