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Crimes of the Centuries

Crimes of the Centuries

Amber Hunt and Audioboom 267 Episodes Sep 14, 2026

Crimes of the Centuries is a true crime podcast hosted by award-winning journalist Amber Hunt. Each episode examines a historical crime that was once labeled the 'crime of the century' but is now lesser known. The cases span centuries and left a mark by changing laws or shocking society. The podcast is produced by Audioboom.

Episodes

S6 Ep26: Johnny Gosch: The Paperboy Who Never Came Home
S6 Ep26: Johnny Gosch: The Paperboy Who Never Came Home Sep 14, 2026 3441 On September 5, 1982, 12-year-old Johnny Gosch left his West Des Moines home to deliver newspapers. He never made it back. What followed was a police chief with his own violent history, an FBI that wanted nothing to do with it, and a mother who refused to let the case go quiet — even when the few answers she found led somewhere far stranger than anyone expected.Crimes of the Centuries is a podcas
S6 Ep25: Abscam: The True Story Behind ‘American Hustle’
S6 Ep25: Abscam: The True Story Behind ‘American Hustle’ Sep 7, 2026 3406 A con man with a gift for talking fast and a knack for never getting caught made himself invaluable to the FBI in the late 1970s — and the FBI made him the centerpiece of the biggest political corruption sting in a generation. It never should have worked, yet it went further than anyone expected.Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past t
S6 Ep24: Charles Harrelson and the Assassination of "Maximum John"
S6 Ep24: Charles Harrelson and the Assassination of "Maximum John" Aug 31, 2026 3692 In 1979, a federal judge in San Antonio was known for one thing above all else: He did not show mercy. John H. Wood Jr. had earned his nickname the hard way, one maximum sentence at a time. Just before he was set to face off with a powerful drug empire, he was killed outside his home in broad daylight. What followed would become the most expensive FBI investigation since the Kennedy assassination
S6: ENCORE: Fatty Arbuckle: Scandal in Hollywood
S6: ENCORE: Fatty Arbuckle: Scandal in Hollywood Aug 27, 2026 2964 The roaring '20s of last century were fueled in part by a new industry: filmmaking in Hollywood. Directors were rolling in dough, as were the silver screen's first stars. But in 1921, the future of cinema would forever be altered after internationally beloved comedian Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle was charged in the death of a young starlet after attending a boozy Prohibition-era party in Arbuckle's ho
S6: Norman Thorne: Cold-Blooded Killer or 'Martyr to Spilsburyism'?
S6: Norman Thorne: Cold-Blooded Killer or 'Martyr to Spilsburyism'? Aug 24, 2026 2049 A young woman named Elsie Cameron vanished after delivering an ultimatum to her fiancé, chicken farmer Norman Thorne. Weeks later, investigators dug up his property and found her dismembered remains buried in an unmistakable place — the same spot where he'd posed for a photograph days earlier, smiling, surrounded by his birds. Thorne had an explanation. It was a strange one. And the only person wh
S6 Ep23: Dr. Crippen and the Coal Cellar
S6 Ep23: Dr. Crippen and the Coal Cellar Aug 17, 2026 3229 Weeks after a woman's mysterious disappearance, a ship's captain noticed something off about two of his passengers — a quiet, bespectacled man and his teenage "son." He couldn't shake the feeling he'd seen that face somewhere recently. So he did something no ship's captain had ever been able to do before: He alerted police, instantly, from the middle of the ocean that two murder suspects might be
S6 Ep22: Serial Killer Joseph Paul Franklin's Three-Year Race War
S6 Ep22: Serial Killer Joseph Paul Franklin's Three-Year Race War Aug 10, 2026 3270 For three years in the late 1970s and into 1980 — before shared databases and DNA evidence — one man moved freely across 11 states trying to start a race war. He changed his name to honor a Nazi propagandist and a founding father. He bombed synagogues, gunned down interracial couples, shot a magazine publisher in broad daylight, and left whole communities living in fear of a killer they couldn't
S6: The Botched Execution of Tony Carruthers: Future COTC?
S6: The Botched Execution of Tony Carruthers: Future COTC? Aug 7, 2026 2795 Three people vanished from a Memphis home in February 1994. A week later, they turned up in a local cemetery, buried in a grave dug for someone else's funeral — held the day after they disappeared, with mourners who had no idea what was beneath the casket. Tony Carruthers was convicted of the murders in 1996, representing himself after burning through six court-appointed attorneys. Thirty years, o
S6 Ep21: The Murder of Leslie Preer
S6 Ep21: The Murder of Leslie Preer Aug 3, 2026 2590 Investigators were certain they knew who killed Leslie Preer. Their main suspect had motive, a suspicious alibi, and a failed polygraph. Investigators had everything they needed — except the right guy. Twenty-three years later with a pair of fresh detectives, a water bottle at Dulles Airport told a very different story.Crimes of the Centuries is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten
S6 Ep20: The Wrong Kind of American
S6 Ep20: The Wrong Kind of American Jul 27, 2026 3451 Twenty-two-year-old Fred Korematsu was parked on a San Francisco hillside with his girlfriend, listening to music on the car radio, when the broadcast stopped on Dec. 7, 1941. In the weeks that followed, the U.S. government imprisoned 120,000 people based solely on their ancestry. Fred, a California-born welder who had tried to register for the draft on the very first day he could, decided he was
S6 Ep19: "Goodnight, Sweet Wife:" Murder in Mission Hill
S6 Ep19: "Goodnight, Sweet Wife:" Murder in Mission Hill Jul 20, 2026 3148 On the night of Oct. 23, 1989, Chuck Stuart called 911 from a car phone in Boston's Mission Hill neighborhood, his voice strained with panic. He said he and his wife Carol had been shot by a Black man. Within hours, Boston police had launched the most intensive manhunt in the city's history — tearing through a predominantly Black neighborhood, stopping and searching anyone who dared answer their
S6 Ep18: The Girl Scout Murders on Cookie Trail Road
S6 Ep18: The Girl Scout Murders on Cookie Trail Road Jul 13, 2026 2813 Dozens 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 divide

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