In an era when true crime dominates podcast charts and streaming platforms, a new show is betting that firsthand experience matters just as much as research. Deadly Intentions, the upcoming podcast hosted by radio legend Bubba the Love Sponge and former federal inmate Pierre Rausini, aims to take listeners deep into the worlds of serial killers, organized crime, cartel operations, prison culture, government conspiracies, and the psychology that drives some of society's most d

In the hazy dawn light along White Oak Bayou, a jogger’s routine run turned into a nightmare. What looked at first like a discarded mannequin tangled in the reeds was, upon closer inspection, another human body. By noon, crime scene tape fluttered in the humid breeze as technicians documented the scene. Another name added to a grim tally that has haunted Houston for years: more than 200 bodies pulled from the city’s sprawling network of waterways since 2017. Many ruled accide

Everett De Morier has spent years writing about gangsters, con men, criminals, dreamers, and visionaries. But lately, the most fascinating stories in his life aren't the ones with his name on the cover. They're the ones nobody knows he wrote. On paper, De Morier has already built the kind of career many writers spend a lifetime pursuing. His novel Thirty-three Cecils captured the London Book Festival Fiction Prize and is currently in feature-film development with Matthew Modi

What began as a routine high school track meet in Frisco, Texas, ended in a tragedy that captured national attention and ignited intense debate across the country. On April 2, 2025, 17-year-old Austin Metcalf, a standout student-athlete at Memorial High School, was fatally stabbed during an altercation at Kuykendall Stadium. The accused, Karmelo Anthony, a student-athlete from Centennial High School, admitted to the stabbing but claimed he acted in self-defense. According to

On a summer morning in July of 2022, a speeding Toyota Camry left a suburban road in northeast Ohio, crossed a stretch of grass, and slammed into a brick building at more than 100 miles per hour. The crash lasted only seconds. The debate that followed would last years. At the center of it all was Mackenzie Shirilla, a 17-year-old from Strongsville, Ohio, whose life became the subject of one of the most closely watched criminal cases in the state. Prosecutors would argue that

How Pedro and Margarito Flores Built a Drug Empire—and Then Betrayed the World's Most Powerful Cartel Boss For years, Pedro and Margarito Flores lived a life most drug traffickers only dream about. They moved multi-ton quantities of narcotics across the United States. They handled hundreds of millions of dollars. They dealt directly with some of the most feared cartel leaders in the world. And then they walked away. In one of the most remarkable reversals in modern organized-

How a Philadelphia Mob Boss Survived the Mafia Wars and Reinvented Himself Behind a Microphone For most mob bosses, the story ends in one of two places: a cemetery or a prison cell. But Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino found a third option. Today, Merlino hosts a podcast, gives interviews, and discusses organized crime from the comfort of a recording studio. But long before he became a media personality, he was one of the most feared and controversial figures in the Philadelphia

How Albert Gonzalez Orchestrated the Largest Credit Card Theft in History By the time federal agents arrested Albert Gonzalez in 2008, he had helped steal more credit card numbers than any criminal in American history. The number was almost impossible to comprehend. More than 170 million credit and debit card numbers. Banks lost hundreds of millions of dollars. Retailers scrambled to contain the damage. Consumers across the country discovered fraudulent charges appearing on a

Long before ransomware gangs extorted Fortune 500 companies and cryptocurrency fueled a new generation of cybercriminals, there was Max Butler. Known online as "Iceman," Butler helped transform cybercrime from a collection of isolated hackers into a sophisticated underground economy worth millions of dollars. By the time federal agents finally caught him, prosecutors would describe him as one of the most prolific cybercriminals in American history. The irony was that Butler w

Long before hackers stole streaming passwords and criminals sold illegal IPTV subscriptions online, there was Frank Cardamone. In the early 1980s, Cardamone became one of the most infamous pirates in America—not on the high seas, but in the rapidly expanding world of cable television. To thousands of customers across northeastern Pennsylvania, he was known simply as "The HBO Kid." The nickname wasn't subtle. Cardamone printed it on business cards. He reportedly displayed it o

The mythology of the FBI often centers on dramatic arrests—the handcuffs clicking shut, the fugitive cornered, the years-long manhunt finally over. But for retired FBI Special Agent Tom Simon, the job was rarely about the moment of capture. It was about patience. For much of his career, Simon worked in the world of violent criminals, organized crime figures, and fugitives who had spent years mastering the art of disappearing. The challenge wasn't simply finding them. It was u

What begins as a social media post can turn into chaos in a matter of hours. Across the United States, police departments are grappling with a growing phenomenon known as "teen takeovers"—large, loosely organized gatherings of teenagers coordinated through platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and Discord. While many participants arrive simply looking to socialize, some events have devolved into fights, vandalism, assaults, robberies, and arrests. The trend has becom

In a small storefront office in Berwyn, Illinois, James Keegan sold something more valuable than money. He sold hope. To hundreds of undocumented immigrants living in the Chicago area, Keegan presented himself as a man with connections. He claimed to be a former attorney for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He said he knew the system. More importantly, he claimed he knew how to beat it. For a fee—usually around $3,000—Keegan promised what many of his clients desperat

Most inmates spend their prison sentences counting the days until release. Arthur Lee Cofield Jr. spent his plotting one of the most audacious financial frauds in American history. From a prison cell in Georgia, Cofield allegedly orchestrated a sprawling criminal enterprise that siphoned more than $11 million from wealthy victims, purchased thousands of gold coins, acquired luxury real estate, and funded a lavish lifestyle for associates on the outside—all while serving time

For years, comedian and former drug trafficker Johnny Mitchell and former mortgage-fraud mastermind turned bestselling author Matthew Cox built successful podcast empires telling stories about scams, prison, organized crime, and the criminal underworld. The problem? Almost nobody listening was female. "Because we don't cover violent crime, we're at about 90 percent male," Mitchell said. That statistic nagged at both men. After all, true crime as a genre is one of the most pop

When Marashellie Bell looks at the future, she doesn't see a backup plan. She sees a YouTube channel. Born from what she describes as "a series of bad decisions," Bell's path into media wasn't exactly traditional. A high school dropout, pregnant, unemployed, and searching for direction, she found inspiration in some of true crime's biggest names, including Bailey Sarian, Annie Elise, and Stephanie Soo's wildly successful Rotten Mango podcast. Today, Bell hosts Crime & Curls,

When Netflix released The Tinder Swindler in 2022, viewers around the world were stunned by the audacity of one man's elaborate deception. The documentary tells the story of Israeli con artist Shimon Hayut, who posed as wealthy diamond heir Simon Leviev to scam women out of millions of dollars. Presenting himself as the son of billionaire diamond mogul Lev Leviev, Hayut cultivated an image of extreme wealth. Through the dating app Tinder, he matched with women across Europe,

THE SLEEK CURVED BODY of the Gulf-stream G-V cut through the thin Nevada air at nearly six hundred miles per hour and 43,000 feet. Tonight, however, the glossy white private jet's typical cargo of corporate executives and Hollywood royalty had been replaced by a gifted crook and his female companion. A modern day paperhanger—and a major problem for the U.S. Secret Service's war on cybercrime. At twenty-six-years-old John Boseak was the most prolific manufacturer of counterfei

IT WAS A MOONLESS NIGHT, three 4×4’s stopped under the cypress canopy. The vehicles’ high-beams hit the swamp and several alligators slithered off the banks into the black waters of the Florida Everglades. Jessica Marie Bell and her female co-conspirators—Aubrey Waldron, Jetta Frake, Jamie Hewitt, and Felisha Leitner—exited the vehicles. They were wearing an array of torn blue jeans, wife-beaters, and cowboy boots. Swamp Witch by Jim Stafford radiated from one of the truck’s

COURTNEY BURGESS TEXTED ME in a panic on the morning of October 21, 2024, stating: “Feds came to my house and tour it up and took all my electronics including my studio equipment.” Despite the horrible grammar, I could sense the panic, and imagined him standing in his home, surrounded by the destruction. Burgess, a music producer who fancied himself a “hit-maker” with three decades of experience in the industry, spent the next several minutes describing how the FBI had confis

ALL FOUR TIRES OF THE PORSCHE caught air as the vehicle shot out of the building's underground garage. The fire alarm screamed in the distance. The ice lab — located on the top floor of the Sunset Plaza condominium building — was burning. The European supercar hit the asphalt with a thud, Pierre Rausini yanked the steering wheel to the left, and fishtailed onto Sunset Boulevard. The Louis Vuitton duffel bag, containing over half a million dollars in cash, slipped off of the p

THE SLENDER HISPANIC male, veiled in a hooded sweatshirt and dark pants with short black cropped hair, stealthily approached the large beige house—a pistol tucked in the small of his back. It was December 12, 2011, in the city of Arcadia, a wealthy suburban Los Angeles bedroom community, nestled against the San Gabriel foothills. The man slipped around the corner of the three-car-garage, to the single side-door. There he pressed his weight into the door and frame, forcing it

THE TWENTY-TWO-YEAR-OLD slipped his U.S. Passport to the female agent at the Orlando International Airport Customs desk. From behind the counter the stern woman carefully compared the data on the screen before her to Jacob Diaz’s travel documents. Her eyes bounced between the handsome baby faced young college student—a Mexican-American with the uncharacteristic features of an Anglo—returning from Acapulco and the monitor. When the agent inquired if the young man had anything

THE AK-47 CRACKED, sending a 7.62 projectile spiraling down the assault rifle’s barrel. It briefly traveled through the air, then plunged into the attractive forty-two-year-old blonde’s chest. The round blew a dime-sized hole in her rib-cage as it spiraled through the woman’s upper-torso and tore out of her back, leaving a silver-dollar size exit wound—hours later, forensic examiners with Broward County would locate the mangled bullet lodged in the baseboard. The blonde immed