Podcast
Criminal
Vox Media Podcast Network
Criminal is the first of its kind. A show about people who’ve done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle. Hosted by Phoebe Judge. Named a Best Podcast of 2023 by the New York Times. Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.
— All episodes
EPISODES
- 01
Mar 6, 2026 · 59m E355
Excited Delirium
When Angelo Quinto died, his family said police were responsible for his death. But a lawyer told them his official cause of death would likely be something...
- 02
Feb 27, 2026 · 47m E354
The Mug Book
After a gang leader was murdered in San Francisco’s Chinatown, the only witnesses who would talk with the police were tourists. They looked through so-called...
- 03
Feb 20, 2026 · 42m E353
The Plot
In 1864, a 41-year-old woman named Mary Surratt was running a boarding house in Washington, D.C. One of the most famous actors in the country began visiting...
- 04
Feb 13, 2026 · 48m E352
The Big Lie
In the early 2000s, the hip hop group Silibil N’ Brains seemed like they were on the brink of becoming very famous. They had a record deal with Sony, had bee...
- 05
Feb 12, 2026 · 41m
Captain's Orders (Criminal+)
This episode is unlocked and available for everyone to listen to! Phoebe tells a story about an uncooperative plane passenger. Plus, Lauren and Phoebe discus...
- 06
Feb 6, 2026 · 41m E351
The Test
When Mike Williams went missing while duck hunting on Lake Seminole, investigators wondered if he had been eaten by alligators. But Mike’s mother was sure so...
- 07
Jan 30, 2026 · 33m E350
An American Original
In 1963, Jeanne and Alan Abel traveled to Washington, DC to picket in front of the White House. They said they were part of a campaign that wanted to put clo...
- 08
Jan 23, 2026 · 37m E349
Amok
While investigating a murder, a Polish detective discovered an unusual clue – a novel that contained an odd number of similarities to the real-life crime. Da...
- 09
Jan 16, 2026 · 46m E348
Gone
One night in 1989, Karen Palmer got in her car with her husband and two daughters and drove away from their home in California. They didn’t tell anyone where...
- 10
Jan 9, 2026 · 35m E347
Like a Bad Dream
One day in 2011, Lindsey Schweigert’s roommate came home to an open garage, a missing dog, and an overflowing bathtub. Lindsey remembers waking up in police...
- 11
Dec 26, 2025 · 43m E346
Sister Helen
In 1982, Sister Helen Prejean was invited to write a letter to a man on death row named Elmo Patrick Sonnier. She told us, “I thought that all I was going to...
- 12
Dec 19, 2025 · 36m E345
The Speeding Duck, the Hungry Javelina, and “Leonardo da Pinchy”
Stories of animals really going for it. Say hello on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Sign up for our occasional newsletter. Follow the show and review us on...
- 13
Dec 12, 2025 · 32m E344
The Knock
On Christmas morning, Laura Nowlin was in her living room with her infant son. They were getting ready to leave to spend the day with family. Then, Laura hea...
- 14
Dec 5, 2025 · 44m E343
Fall River
In 1833, a writer named Catharine Williams began working on a new book. She’d published books of poetry and about the Revolutionary War before, but this book...
- 15
Nov 28, 2025 · 29m E342
The Manual
In 1993, a family was found murdered in their home. A Maryland police spokesperson described the homicide investigation as the most “exhaustive and labor int...
- 16
Nov 21, 2025 · 45m E341
The Post Office
Scott Darlington ran the post office in a village outside Manchester for four years. One day, the computer system told him there was money missing from the b...
- 17
Nov 14, 2025 · 46m E340
The Boy Scout
When David Hahn was 16, he started working on something that caught the attention of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,...
- 18
Nov 7, 2025 · 40m E339
Rogers Park
The story of one day in one neighborhood in Chicago – and the people living there who try to stop ICE agents from arresting their neighbors. Say hello on Fac...
- 19
Oct 31, 2025 · 52m E338
Ghostwatch
On Halloween night, in 1992, an unusual television special aired on the BBC. Nobody expected what happened next. “The technicians were looking up at the big...
- 20
Oct 24, 2025 · 45m E337
The Custom of the Sea
In 1883, a sailing captain named Thomas Dudley accepted a job no one thought was a good idea: to sail a small ship called the Mignonette halfway across the w...
- 21
Oct 17, 2025 · 34m E336
The Tusker
When Audrey Ryan’s father told her he once found 20 pounds of hash while he was fishing for scallops, she didn’t believe him. But he said that he wasn’t the...
- 22
Oct 10, 2025 · 34m E335
Zak and Michelle
In 2006, a group of young men and teenagers were arrested under the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act for planning to set off bombs in Toronto. They were known as...
- 23
Sep 26, 2025 · 34m E334
Patience
One Saturday morning in 2018, the police showed up at Patience Rousseau’s door, and started asking her questions about something she'd posted on Facebook aft...
- 24
Sep 19, 2025 · 36m E333
The Phone Call
Bow Suprasert had just returned from a trip abroad when she got a strange phone call, saying a man had been caught traveling with a passport in her name. But...
- 25
Sep 12, 2025 · 37m E332
The Compound
In 2023, a woman named Jella got a new job. On her first day, she got in a car to go to her new office. Then she got a feeling that something wasn’t right. D...
- 26
Sep 5, 2025 · 39m E331
This is Phoebe Judge from the IRS
Phoebe tries to scam an English grandmother named Daisy over the phone. But Daisy isn’t just any grandmother. Say hello on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Si...
- 27
Aug 22, 2025 · 43m E330
E. Jean
We visited E. Jean Carroll at her house in the woods to talk about her two trials against President Donald Trump. Say hello on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok...
- 28
Aug 15, 2025 · 32m E329
The Bus Ride
Two days after Hurricane Katrina hit, people who lived in the Fischer Housing Projects were still trapped – and it didn’t seem like anyone was coming to help...
- 29
Aug 8, 2025 · 34m E328
Kids on the Case
The summer after Jessica Maple finished 6th grade, she found out that her great-grandmother’s house had been burglarized. So, 12-year-old Jessica got out her...
- 30
Aug 1, 2025 · 35m E327
The Clock Starts Ticking
On October 11, 2008, an 18-year-old was shot by someone firing a gun from the back seat of a car. A couple of hours later, homicide detectives arrived on the...
- 31
Jul 25, 2025 · 43m E326
Death in Eden
In the early 1930s, eight people settled on an uninhabited island in the Galapagos. Within five years, two were missing and two were dead. Abbott Kahler’s bo...
- 32
Jul 18, 2025 · 36m E325
The Double
In 2023, two men told police the same story: each man said that his name was William Woods, and that his identity had been stolen. Say hello on Facebook, Ins...
- 33
Jul 11, 2025 · 49m E324
The Man Nobody Killed
On September 15, 1983, Michael Stewart was on his way home from a nightclub when police arrested him. Thirteen days later, he was dead. Elon Green’s book is...
- 34
Jul 4, 2025 · 34m E323
The Clearwater Monster
Early one morning in 1948, a phone call woke up the police chief in the small town of Clearwater, Florida. The caller said he’d seen something strange at the...
- 35
Jun 27, 2025 · 33m E322
Uncle Harold
In 1997, Eric Konigsberg received a strange voicemail from someone in prison — a hit man who had confessed to at least ten murders. Eric and the man had neve...
- 36
Jun 20, 2025 · 47m E321
By Any Means Necessary
In July 2010, a woman was on vacation with her boyfriend of six years — they were traveling around Italy in a van. One day, she was looking for a pair of sun...
- 37
Jun 13, 2025 · 33m E320
The Guru
In the late 1960s, a yogi named Swami Rama came to the United States. His followers believed he could read their minds, visit them in their dreams, and manip...
- 38
Jun 6, 2025 · 33m E319
Professor Quaalude
John Buettner-Janusch was one of the first Americans to study lemurs. He held prestigious faculty positions at Yale, Duke and NYU, before surprising everyone...
- 39
May 30, 2025 · 24m
Thin Ice and Unusual Punishments
Two years ago, we started making Criminal Plus episodes — behind-the-scenes conversations featuring Phoebe and Criminal co-creator Lauren Spohrer. Today, we’...
- 40
May 23, 2025 · 32m E318
Action Park
“Anyone who went to Action Park understood you could get really messed up going there. It was part of why you wanted to go.” Seth Porges made a documentary a...
- 41
May 16, 2025 · 35m E317
No Hint or Help
In the 1950s, a new television quiz show premiered called Twenty One. But the first episode was a disaster — so the producers decided to try something. Say h...
- 42
May 9, 2025 · 36m E316
False Positive
The night before she gave birth, Susan Horton had a salad for dinner. The next day, doctors told her she’d tested positive for opiates - and reported her to...
- 43
May 2, 2025 · 34m E315
Tabatha
When Tabatha Trammell was 50 years old, she started studying to become a doula — a support person for pregnant women. Today, most of her clients are incarcer...
- 44
Apr 25, 2025 · 30m E314
The Job
Not long into his job as prison superintendent, Frank Thompson had to prepare his staff to perform Oregon's first execution in three decades. They simulated...
- 45
Apr 18, 2025 · 31m E313
The Roofman, Part 2
When Jeffery Manchester escaped from prison, a lot of people weren't surprised. But they didn't expect what happened next. "I kind of figured he'd be on the...
- 46
Apr 11, 2025 · 36m E312
The Roofman, Part 1
Between 1998 and 2000, more than 40 stores and chain restaurants across the country were robbed by a masked man who always entered through the roof. Police c...
- 47
Apr 4, 2025 · 41m E311
The Pride of Pine Hill
In the midst of the 1996 race for North Carolina governor, a new candidate emerged. Her name was Jolene Strickland, and her campaign slogan was “Too Good to...
- 48
Mar 28, 2025 · 34m E310
The Bottom of the Cliff
In May of 2021, the National Park Service received a call that a woman had fallen over the Grandview Overlook at New River Gorge National Park. After days of...
- 49
Mar 21, 2025 · 41m E309
The Man Without a Will
A Toronto police officer was having an affair with a government worker – and then they found out about an elderly man who died with a large estate, and no wi...
- 50
Mar 14, 2025 · 37m E308
High Tide
Right after sunset, three boats sailed towards the rice plantations on the Combahee River. Harriet Tubman knew they had to hurry - they only had six hours be...
- 51
Mar 7, 2025 · 1h 18m E307
Five Stars
“Christopher Kinahan is probably the most successful and entrepreneurial criminal that Ireland has ever produced.” Say hello on Facebook, Instagram and TikTo...
- 52
Feb 28, 2025 · 40m E306
The Stay
Last year, a committee of state lawmakers in Texas issued a subpoena for a man on death row to testify four days after he was scheduled to be executed. Today...
- 53
Feb 21, 2025 · 33m E305
The Butterfly Smuggler
The first time Ed Newcomer went to the L.A. Bug Fair, he met a man who called himself the world’s most wanted butterfly smuggler. It took three years of unde...
- 54
Feb 14, 2025 · 40m E304
Ava and the Pickpocket
“He stole my watch. He stole my jewelry. I stopped wearing jewelry – just to see what else he would steal.” In 2004, Ava Do met a professional pickpocket at...
- 55
Feb 7, 2025 · 33m E303
Robert Smalls
On May 13, 1862, in Charleston, South Carolina, a man named Robert Smalls took command of a Confederate ship called The Planter and liberated himself and his...
- 56
Jan 31, 2025 · 36m E302
The Raid
In 2023, police raided the Kansas newspaper where Eric Meyer worked with his mother, Joan. Seven officers also searched their home. Joan had a heart attack a...
- 57
Jan 24, 2025 · 33m E301
Guns, Grenades, and $100,000
“Anything you can think of is going to be in the water.” Say hello on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Acc...
- 58
Jan 17, 2025 · 35m E300
Dexter Wade
Bettersten Wade searched for her missing 37-year-old son for nearly six months. Then she found out that the police knew where he was the whole time. Say hell...
- 59
Jan 10, 2025 · 35m E299
Moon Rocks Wanted
On September 18, 1998, an unusual ad ran in USA Today — a company called John’s Estate Sales was looking to buy a moon rock. The phone number on the ad belon...
- 60
Dec 27, 2024 · 38m E298
The Christmas Fire
The bodies of a woman and her child were found inside a burned house on Christmas Day, 1843. An autopsy showed that they’d died before the fire even started....
- 61
Dec 20, 2024 · 49m E297
Turtle vs. Toilet, a Monster in the Closet, and a Surprise Possum
Stories of animals really going for it. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice. Follow t...
- 62
Dec 13, 2024 · 29m E296
Operation Flagship
In 1985, 160 people were sent letters saying they’d won free tickets to an NFL football game. They were told to pick up their tickets at the Washington Conve...
- 63
Dec 6, 2024 · 44m E295
The Sale
In 1791, three men filed lawsuits in the General Court of Maryland. They were all suing the same person: the Jesuit priest who enslaved them. Say hello on Tw...
- 64
Nov 22, 2024 · 1h 20m E294
For the Sake of American Youth
“Children nowadays, they make maps. And say, this is the street where the store is that we're going to rob, and this is where we're going to hide, and this i...
- 65
Nov 15, 2024 · 42m E293
Extraordinary and Compelling Reasons
In 1993, Gary Settle was sentenced to 177 years in prison. Twenty-six years into his sentence, he started helping other inmates get out of prison through som...
- 66
Nov 8, 2024 · 38m E292
The Reverend
In 1977, a man named Robert Burns went to a funeral and shot someone, in the head, in front of 300 people. He didn’t deny it, and his lawyer didn’t deny it....
- 67
Nov 1, 2024 · 29m E291
The Family Land, Part 2
This week, part two of the Reels family story – how two brothers went to jail in an attempt to save their family land, and were held there for eight years wi...
- 68
Oct 25, 2024 · 33m E290
The Family Land, Part 1
Melvin Davis and Licurtis Reels refused to leave the land that had been in their family for generations – so they were sent to jail. They expected to be in j...
- 69
Oct 18, 2024 · 41m E289
Valentine
Today, a personal story from Phoebe about her mother, Valentine, who died this spring. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Sign up for our...
- 70
Oct 11, 2024 · 39m E288
Under the Wall
Soon after the Berlin Wall went up, a group of students knocked on Joachim Rudolph’s door. They told him they were trying to get people out of East Germany -...
- 71
Oct 4, 2024 · 1h 1m E287
A Land Without Law
Before Guantánamo Bay became the prison we know today, Marie Genard spent more than a year of her life there. She was 14. Brandt Goldstein’s book is Storming...
- 72
Sep 27, 2024 · 34m E286
The Mirage
In 1977, a new bar opened on North Wells Street in Chicago. Things weren’t as they seemed at the aptly named “Mirage Tavern.” This story is from our friends...
- 73
Sep 20, 2024 · 39m E285
A Murder in the Forest
One morning, two men got in a boat and sailed down a river in the Amazon rainforest. They were never heard from again. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook, Instag...
- 74
Sep 13, 2024 · 42m E284
Into the Vault
In the summer of 1975, two best friends attempted a robbery unlike any they’d ever pulled off before. Their target: the mob. Say hello on Twitter, Facebook,...
- 75
Sep 6, 2024 · 38m E283
The Petition
When Madison Smith went to her county attorney’s office to talk about her rape case, she knew she wanted to press charges. But the prosecutor told her he wou...
- 76
Aug 23, 2024 · 33m E282
Hot Lotto
In 2010, a $16.5 million Hot Lotto ticket was sold at a gas station in Des Moines, Iowa. At first, no one showed up to claim the prize. And then, a series of...
- 77
Aug 16, 2024 · 36m E281
Big Fish
Two men turned in the winning catch at a Lake Erie fishing tournament. But when the tournament director squeezed one of their fish - he felt something inside...
- 78
Aug 9, 2024 · 47m E280
Ana
Phoebe: Are there a lot of spies in this country today? Scott: Far more than people can probably even imagine. You can't rule anybody out. You never know wha...
- 79
Aug 2, 2024 · 37m E279
Trouble in Flamingo
Hunters in the Everglades used to kill millions of birds every year for their feathers. In 1902, a man named Guy Bradley was hired to stop people from shooti...
- 80
Jul 26, 2024 · 45m E278
Millions of Pills
“There was a saying I heard a few times: ‘under the influence, above the law.’ And I think that describes the mindset of a certain type of fraternity guy.” M...