True Crime Campfire

By: True Crime Campfire
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  • Summary

  • Join hosts Katie and Whitney for a different kind of true crime podcast. You can start with season 1, The Puppet Master and the Prince of Darkness, a deep dive into the most bizarre murder case you've never heard of. Or start with season 2, which covers a different stranger-than-fiction story each week. This bingeworthy show combines meticulous research with a refreshing mix of comic relief and seamless storytelling. There's plenty of room around the campfire--come help us roast murderers and marshmallows!

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.
    Copyright True Crime Campfire
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Social Sciences True Crime World
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Episodes
  • Away Team: The Story of Heaven's Gate

    Away Team: The Story of Heaven's Gate
    Jan 3 2025
    I have vivid memories of the night of March 22, 1997. Part of it has to do with, y’know, young dumb love—but most of it has to do with the Hale-Bopp Comet, also known as the Great Comet, which was brilliantly visible from my hometown that night. I had a huge crush on this guy, and he invited me to watch the comet with him. We climbed up on the rooftop of this neighborhood bar with a bottle of screw-top wine, and we watched the sky—and suddenly, there it was, a bright silvery ball with a long glowing tail. Magic. I’ll never forget it—wrote some bad poetry about it later that night. And then a couple mornings later, I woke up to the strangest news story of my life. A group calling themselves Heaven’s Gate had taken their own lives en masse out in California—and they’d left behind a video explaining why. They were catching a ride on the comet, with the full certainty that it would take them to paradise. They were leaving their human bodies behind, chasing the pure perfection of enlightenment. These were smart, educated people with families who loved them. What led them to this? Join us for the story of one of the deadliest cults in American history: Heaven's Gate.

    Sources:
    Heaven’s Gate: America’s UFO Religion, Benjamin Zeller https://web.archive.org/web/20081003124716/
    http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070318/news_lz1n18timelin.html
    Cult Education Institute
    https://www.heavensgate.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20080122002236/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,986136-1,00.html
    Wikipedia "Comet Hale-Bopp" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Hale%E2%80%93Bopp

    Follow us, campers!
    Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfire
    https://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/
    Facebook: True Crime Campfire
    Instagram: https://gramha.net/profile/truecrimecampfire/19093397079
    Twitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfire
    Email: truecrimecampfirepod@gmail.com
    MERCH! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.com

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.
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    52 mins
  • Bad Fortune: Two Tales of Psychic Scammers

    Bad Fortune: Two Tales of Psychic Scammers
    Dec 20 2024
    As Abe Lincoln once said—or possibly some guy named Peter Drucker, depends on who you ask—the best way to predict the future is to create it. But for a lot of us humans, that’s a little too loosey-goosey. We’re not big fans of the unknown, and we tend to seek out people who claim they can tell us what to expect from the future. Americans, for example, spend billions a year on psychics. A lot of these are legitimate businesspeople who genuinely want to provide counseling and comfort for their clients. But there’s also a bustling trade in psychic fraud—run by people who have no qualms about taking advantage of you at your most vulnerable and desperate. Today we’re gonna tell you about two of those cases. Case 1: The Mysterious Death of Seth Tobias. Case 2: Psychic Scammer Gina Marks

    Sources:
    New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/business/04tobias.html
    ABC News: https://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=4279324&page=1
    New York Magazine: https://nymag.com/news/features/43914/
    The Times: https://www.thetimes.com/article/hunt-for-tiger-the-go-go-boy-after-seth-tobiass-death-5n923qml8pf
    The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/12/bob-nygaard-private-investigator-psychic-fraud
    NBC: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/maryland-psychic-sentenced-to-6-years-for-scamming-clients/155294/
    TV show "Pink Collar Crime," episode "The Psychic Didn't See Him Coming"

    Follow us, campers!
    Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfire
    https://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/
    Facebook: True Crime Campfire
    Instagram: https://gramha.net/profile/truecrimecampfire/19093397079
    Twitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfire
    Email: truecrimecampfirepod@gmail.com
    MERCH! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.com

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.
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    44 mins
  • Fool Me Twice: The Murders of James & Virginia Campbell

    Fool Me Twice: The Murders of James & Virginia Campbell
    Dec 13 2024
    Some of the easiest people on the planet to fool are those who have a real high opinion of their own brains based on very little evidence. A classic con-artist trick is to make the mark think they’re the one in charge, they’re the one making the decisions. They don’t realize they’ve been taken until their bank balance is empty and they’ve signed away the deed to granddaddy’s farm. Sometimes they won’t even see it then, because that would mean facing up to some unpleasant realities about themselves. In this week’s story, the consequences of gullibility and manipulation are a lot heavier than financial ruin—three generations of a family have their lives torn to pieces over greed and a web of the darkest lies imaginable.

    Sources:
    Daddy’s Girl by Clifford Irving
    Court papers: https://casetext.com/case/ray-v-state-51
    The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1985/02/26/true-confessions/718e2739-0997-4ac0-a551-d860a9f51b7f/

    Follow us, campers!
    Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfire
    https://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/
    Facebook: True Crime Campfire
    Instagram: https://gramha.net/profile/truecrimecampfire/19093397079
    Twitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfire
    Email: truecrimecampfirepod@gmail.com
    MERCH! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.com

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.
    Show More Show Less
    54 mins

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