Crimes of the Centuries
Crime is so commonplace that it takes something particularly shocking to be labelled the “crime of the century.” Even so, there are a lot of cases that have earned the distinction. In each episode of Crimes of the Centuries, award-winning journalist Amber Hunt will examine a case that’s lesser known today but was huge when it happened. The cases explored span the centuries and each left a mark. Some made history by changing laws. Others were so shocking they changed society.
- Update frequency
- every 7 days
- Average duration
- 39 minutes
- Episodes
- 223
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2025
S5 Ep25: The Hitler Diaries
When a major German magazine announced it had uncovered Adolf Hitler’s long-lost diaries, the world took notice. But what began as a journalistic coup turned into a scandal that rattled media empires…
00:56:54 |
Mon 08 Sep 2025
S5 Ep24: Who Killed Barbara Hamburg? The True Story Behind El Dorado Drive
The murder of Barbara Hamburg might read like fiction — a bitter divorce, a mysterious pyramid scheme, a family full of secrets — but for her son Madison, it was all too real. In 2010, Barbara was fo…
00:50:17 |
Mon 01 Sep 2025
Future Crimes of the Centuries? The Death of John O’Keefe and the Trials of Karen Read
This week on Crimes of the Centuries, we’re breaking from tradition. Instead of a crime from decades past, we’re looking at a case that’s still shaping headlines — and raising questions that may take…
00:50:26 |
Mon 25 Aug 2025
S5 Ep23: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: Separating Fact from Fiction
In 1981, 21-year-old Danny Hansford was shot and killed inside one of Savannah’s grandest mansions. The man who pulled the trigger, antiques dealer Jim Williams, claimed self-defense. What followed w…
00:53:55 |
Mon 18 Aug 2025
S5 Ep22: The Green Bicycle Mystery
Bella Wright was a shy, working-class woman whose life was cut short on a summer night in 1919, just short of her 22nd birthday. At first, her death looked like a tragic accident – until a single bul…
00:53:37 |
Mon 11 Aug 2025
S5 Ep21: Gun on the Ferry: The Ruin of Laura Fair
Laura Fair wanted what many women in Gilded-Age San Francisco wanted: security, respectability, and a husband who told the truth. What she got instead was a years-long affair and a heap of public sco…
00:53:57 |
Mon 04 Aug 2025
S5 Ep20: The Fox in the Henhouse: Klaus Fuchs and the Secret That Changed the World
You’d think the guy helping build the deadliest weapon in history would be someone the Allies vetted carefully. You’d be wrong. Klaus Fuchs was a physicist, a refugee, and a trusted member of the Man…
00:52:04 |
Mon 28 Jul 2025
S5 Ep19: Karen Silkwood and the Price of Speaking Up
In 1974, 28-year-old Karen Silkwood left her home with a binder full of evidence and a plan to blow the whistle on dangerous conditions at the plutonium plant where she worked. She never arrived. Wha…
00:46:31 |
Mon 21 Jul 2025
S5 Ep18: Reckoning at Penn State: The Jerry Sandusky Scandal
Jerry Sandusky was a legend at Penn State University. As the right hand of head football coach Joe Paterno, he was known not only as an exceptional coach but also as a big-hearted philanthropist and …
00:50:31 |
Mon 14 Jul 2025
S5 Ep17: Faith Vs. Flag: How the Gobitis Case Tested the Limits of Religious Freedom
In 1935, 12-year-old Lillian Gobitas and her little brother William were kicked out of their Pennsylvania public school — not for misbehaving, but for quietly refusing to salute the flag, which they …
00:44:09 |
Mon 07 Jul 2025
The Murder of Phil Hartman
Crimes Of The Centuries is dark again this week, so here is an episode that you might not have heard previously... or might just want to listen to again.
When news spread that a high-profile comedia…
When news spread that a high-profile comedia…
00:38:05 |
Mon 30 Jun 2025
Guest Episode: The Wild Tale of Black Jack Ketchum
While Crimes of the Centuries takes a brief summer break, enjoy a guest episode from Josh at The Wild West Extravaganza. This one’s a doozy: It’s the story of "Black Jack" Ketchum — a train robber wh…
00:30:06 |
Mon 23 Jun 2025
S5 Ep16: The Siege of Sidney Street
In late 1910 and early 1911, a band of impulsive Latvian radicals fleeing persecution in Russia unleashed a wave of violence in London that left three policemen dead and part of a quiet city block in…
00:49:05 |
Mon 16 Jun 2025
S5 Ep15: The Repairman's Ruse: The Kidnapping of Alice Speed Stoll
When Berry Stoll returned from work on Oct. 10, 1934, the scene greeting him was pure chaos: His maid was tied up, his wife was missing and a terrifying pool of blood covered one of the beds. Alice S…
00:40:02 |
Mon 09 Jun 2025
S5 Ep14: Breach of Trust: Inside the Legendary Loomis Fargo Heist
One Sunday morning in 1997, a security guard noticed the front fence at Loomis Fargo in Charlotte, North Carolina, was ajar. So was the warehouse door. And the vault inside was fitted with a suspicio…
00:40:35 |
Mon 02 Jun 2025
S5 Ep13: Silenced in the South: Ruby McCollum and the Murder of Dr. Adams
In 1952, Ruby McCollum left two of her children in her car as she casually walked into a doctor's office in Live Oak, Florida, and shot Dr. C. Leroy Adams — a respected white physician and newly elec…
00:43:04 |
Mon 26 May 2025
S5 Ep12: The Stolen Cells and Silent Legacy of Henrietta Lacks
When Henrietta Lacks discovered a tumor inside of her in 1951, she turned to Johns Hopkins Medical Center for help. They examined her cells and discovered two things: First, she had cervical cancer. …
00:44:45 |
Mon 19 May 2025
Presenting: Murder True Crime Stories
Murder: True Crime Stories explores the depths of history's most notorious murders, like you've never heard before. Go beyond the crime scene as we search for the real story, and focus on the people…
00:06:41 |
Thu 15 May 2025
S5 Ep11: Sex on the Moon: The Audacious Theft of Lunar Rocks
A band of nerdy geology enthusiasts were sure the email they received in 2002 was a hoax: The unsolicited message said that its writer was in possession of moon rocks that he was willing to sell. But…
00:41:37 |
Mon 12 May 2025
S5 Ep10: Did Britain Hang an Innocent Man? The Murders at Rillington Place Part 2
When 25-year-old Tim Evans was hanged for killing his wife and 14-month-old daughter in 1949, few outside of his family questioned whether justice had been done. After all, Evans had at one point con…
00:39:18 |
Mon 05 May 2025
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