The Murder Men Are Coming for True Crime's Female Audience

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 popular forms of entertainment in America and is consumed almost equally by men and women. But when it comes to stories involving serial killers, mass murderers, and violent predators, women dominate the audience. Depending on the study, female viewership can climb as high as 75 percent.

Mitchell thinks he knows why.

"Broads are interested in violent crime," he joked. "It's a sickness or something."

The idea for a new show came during a late-night phone call.

"Johnny called me late on a Sunday," Cox recalled. "He was like, 'Dude, I've got an idea to tap into the female demographic. We need to start a channel about serial killers. Chicks love that stuff.'"

Just like that, The Murder Men Podcast was born.

The show is a sharp departure from the pair's usual content. Instead of fraudsters, smugglers, and white-collar criminals, Mitchell and Cox now spend their time dissecting serial killers, mass murderers, cult leaders, and some of the most notorious violent criminals in modern history.

"Sometimes we throw in a conspiracy," Mitchell said. "Just to spice it up."

The move places them squarely in a market currently dominated by female-led giants such as Crime Junkie with Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat, Morbid with Alaina Urquhart and Ash Kelley, and Bailey Sarian's wildly popular Murder, Mystery & Makeup.

"We feel like there's a void when it comes to equal representation," Cox laughed.

"Yeah," Mitchell added. "This DEI crap has to stop. These broads have been running this long enough." The two burst into laughter. "There's a couple of new sheriffs in town."

The joke may be tongue-in-cheek, but the numbers aren't. Since launching, The Murder Men Podcast has seen subscribers climb steadily while viewership has reportedly doubled month after month.

Whether they're profiling serial killers, unpacking mass shootings, or chasing the latest conspiracy rabbit hole, Mitchell and Cox appear to have found something they were missing all along: an audience that extends well beyond the prison-yard crowd.

And if the show's early growth is any indication, The Murder Men may have stumbled onto the deadliest formula in podcasting.