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
Oct 9, 2026 · 47m E384
Donor 106
One night when Eve Wiley was 16, she started reading through her mother’s emails, and discovered a secret her mother had been keeping from Eve her whole life...
- 02
Oct 2, 2026 · 35m E383
The Midnight Slider
In 2013, a small boat called the Midnight Slider was found floating empty in the waters off of Isle Madame in Nova Scotia. “Murder is not something that occu...
- 03
Sep 25, 2026 · 43m E382
Not Criminally Responsible
In 1992, a young man walked into a police station and said he wanted to turn himself in for a crime. When the police asked if there was someone at home who t...
- 04
Sep 22, 2026 · 38m E10006
The Boyfriend Who Never Existed: Inside The "Bed Trick" Trial
Phoebe interviews author Izabella Scott about an unusual trial in England. One woman, referred to as Miss X, accused her best friend Gayle of posing as a man...
- 05
Sep 18, 2026 · 40m E381
Family Secrets, Part 2
In June of 1985, police followed in pursuit as Fritz Klenner drove through the streets of Greensboro, North Carolina, with his cousin Susie Lynch and her two...
- 06
Sep 11, 2026 · 31m E380
Family Secrets, Part 1
In 1985, college student Ian Perkins reconnected with a family friend, Fritz Klenner, who told him a secret. He said he was a CIA agent — and offered to let...
- 07
Sep 8, 2026 · 33m E10005
He Was Told It Was a Job. It Was His Kidney They Wanted.
In 2021, a Nigerian man heard from a friend who offered him a job opportunity in the U.K. After he arrived he was taken to a hospital, where he found out tha...
- 08
Sep 4, 2026 · 1h 4m E379
The Informant
In 1978, an investigator in the Harris County DA's office in Houston got a call from an old friend. He told the investigator that he was in jail, that he wan...
- 09
Aug 28, 2026 · 40m E378
911
A conversation with a 911 operator about what happens on the other end of the line – and the day she heard her daughter's voice on the phone. This episode wa...
- 10
Aug 25, 2026 · 45m E10004
What Happened When 33,000 People’s Therapy Notes Were Released Onto the Internet
Imagine receiving an email from a stranger that said your therapist’s notes about you would be released onto the internet for all to see — unless you paid a...
- 11
Aug 21, 2026 · 43m E377
Out of the Box
In 1964, one of the best javelin throwers in Australia traveled to England to see if he could qualify for the Olympics. But, because of an injury, he didn’t...
- 12
Aug 14, 2026 · 53m E376
A Bump in the Night and Unexpected Guests
Amber Dawn was 20 when she moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Enumclaw, Washington. On her very first night, she began to notice strange sounds. And they...
- 13
Aug 13, 2026 · 46m
Please Continue (Criminal+)
Today, an unlocked episode of Criminal Plus that's full of exciting updates, public service announcements, and Tom Cruise's teeth. If you enjoyed listening t...
- 14
Aug 11, 2026 · 28m E10003
How a Volcanic Eruption Led to a Criminal Trial
In 2019, a volcano erupted off the coast of New Zealand - killing 22 tourists who were on it at the time. Four years later, a criminal trial began - where pr...
- 15
Aug 7, 2026 · 51m E375
Mr. Apology
In 1980, posters appeared in subway stations and on telephone poles in New York City with a phone number to call. When you called it, you would hear a messag...
- 16
Jul 31, 2026 · 48m E374
The Premonitions Bureau
On October 21, 1966, a woman named Lorna Middleton suddenly woke up from her sleep, struggling to breathe. The day before, a man named Alan Hencher was at wo...
- 17
Jul 28, 2026 · 28m E10002
She Killed Three People with Poisonous Mushrooms. Did She Mean To?
In 2023, a woman named Erin Patterson had her husband's family over for a lunch of beef Wellington. A week later, three people were dead. Phoebe interviews G...
- 18
Jul 24, 2026 · 40m E373
The Comfort Kit
A few hours after Rachel Waters’ mother died in hospice care, police showed up at Rachel’s childhood home with a search warrant. “It had my name and the word...
- 19
Jul 17, 2026 · 35m E372
125 Acres
George Dinning was emancipated in 1865, when he was 10 years old. By the time he was in his mid-thirties, he’d bought the land on which he had been enslaved....
- 20
Jul 14, 2026 · 36m E10001
Why Alex Murdaugh is Getting a Do-Over
Earlier this year, Alex Murdaugh’s 2023 double murder conviction was overturned by the South Carolina Supreme Court - due to “shocking jury interference.” Ph...
- 21
Jul 10, 2026 · 38m E371
That’s Not Me
Porcha Woodruff was eight months pregnant when she was arrested by police one morning at her home in Detroit. When she spoke with a detective at the police s...
- 22
Jun 30, 2026 · 27m E10000
What Nobody Tells You About the Morgue (with Patricia Cornwell)
Phoebe interviews crime novelist Patricia Cornwell about how working in an autopsy suite inspired her to create her most famous character: forensic pathologi...
- 23
Jun 26, 2026 · 30m E370
All the Time in the World
The “body farm” at Texas State University is a place almost no one is allowed to see, because it’s one of very few places in the world that deliberately puts...
- 24
Jun 19, 2026 · 42m E369
The Caller
In 2008, an article in the monthly FBI bulletin argued that 911 calls could contain clues for homicide investigations. “The caller, in fact, may be the kille...
- 25
Jun 12, 2026 · 48m E368
Riverwalk
In November 2019, nineteen-year-old Zac Brettler went missing. When his parents began looking for him, they discovered that Zac had been living a double life...
- 26
Jun 5, 2026 · 44m E367
A Man to Be Afraid Of
Sheriff Buford Pusser said he and his wife had come under gunfire early one morning on a country road - leading to her death. He told one reporter, “I'm pret...
- 27
May 29, 2026 · 45m
Breaking Up is Hard to Do (Criminal+)
This episode is unlocked and available for everyone to listen to! It took some trial and error, but Phoebe finally figured out how to put on makeup. Plus, La...
- 28
May 22, 2026 · 38m E366
Mantrap
Ed and Bertha Briney’s unoccupied farmhouse was reportedly broken into 50 times over 10 years. They put up “No Trespassing” signs, repeatedly complained to s...
- 29
May 15, 2026 · 32m E365
The Mountain
On January 18, 2025, Thomas Plamberger and his girlfriend Kerstin Gurtner began climbing the tallest mountain in Austria. But when they were almost to the to...
- 30
May 8, 2026 · 42m E364
The Poison Squad
In 1902, twelve young men volunteered for a government experiment. They agreed to eat food laced with chemicals like formaldehyde, borax, and salicylic acid...
- 31
May 1, 2026 · 38m E363
Poisoned
In January 1993, a lot of children started showing up at Seattle Children’s Hospital with the same unusual symptoms. Doctors didn't know what was going on –...
- 32
Apr 24, 2026 · 50m E362
The Numbers
When Fannie Davis and her family moved to Detroit in the mid-1950s, they hadn’t prepared themselves for how hard it would be. They had trouble finding steady...
- 33
Apr 17, 2026 · 38m E361
Unwarranted
On the morning of May 20, 1957, a bomb exploded under Don King’s front porch. Police got a tip that they should search the home of someone he knew - a woman...
- 34
Apr 10, 2026 · 40m E360
Rhinelander v. Rhinelander
Alice and Leonard Rhinelander had only been married for a few weeks when his family lawyer came to their house and took Leonard away with him. The next time...
- 35
Apr 3, 2026 · 37m E359
The Longline
For years, John Moore and Tanner Mansell ran shark diving tours off the coast of Florida. One day, they came across a fishing line in the middle of the ocean...
- 36
Mar 27, 2026 · 33m E358
The Formula
On Christmas Eve in 1926, a man came running into Bellevue Hospital in New York screaming that Santa Claus had been chasing him for blocks with a baseball ba...
- 37
Mar 20, 2026 · 54m E357
The Quintuplets
When Elzire Dionne gave birth to five identical babies, she caught the attention of reporters and doctors hundreds of miles away, the Chicago World’s Fair –...
- 38
Mar 13, 2026 · 35m E356
Cecilia
When Cecilia Gentili was growing up in Argentina, she felt so different from everyone around her that she thought she might be from another planet. “I think...
- 39
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...
- 40
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...
- 41
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...
- 42
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...
- 43
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...
- 44
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...
- 45
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...
- 46
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...
- 47
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...
- 48
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...
- 49
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...
- 50
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...
- 51
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...
- 52
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...
- 53
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...
- 54
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...
- 55
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,...
- 56
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...
- 57
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...
- 58
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...
- 59
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...
- 60
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...
- 61
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...
- 62
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...
- 63
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...
- 64
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...
- 65
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...
- 66
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...
- 67
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...
- 68
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...
- 69
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...
- 70
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...
- 71
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...
- 72
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...
- 73
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...
- 74
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...
- 75
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...
- 76
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...
- 77
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’...
- 78
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...
- 79
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...
- 80
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...