Episodes
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Measuring Psychopathy: Inside the Hare Psychopathy Checklist
How do forensic psychologists assess psychopathic traits when an interview alone is insufficient? Explore the Psychopathy Checklist–Revised, the importance of collateral records, and the difference between psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder. Learn why professional assessment requires...
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The Psychology of Suspicion: Murder Behind a Respectable Victorian Family
What happens when a murder investigation challenges society's assumptions about who is capable of violence? The 1860 Road Hill House murder exposed the complicated relationship between family dynamics, social reputation, and criminal suspicion. Inspector Jonathan Whicher's investigation…
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The Princes in the Tower: How Power and Bias Shape a Murder Investigation
The disappearance of two royal children in 1483 illustrates the difficulty of evaluating allegations when evidence is incomplete and political interests are powerful. Richard III became the central suspect, but historical accusations were influenced by dynastic conflict and later interpretations....
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The Fertility Doctor Who Was Secretly the Donor
Patients thought their fertility doctor was helping them conceive using carefully selected anonymous donors. Years later, some discovered something almost impossible to believe: their doctor himself appeared to be the biological father of their children. The story of Cecil Jacobson remains one of...
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Psychopathy Without Crime: What the Research Actually Tells Us
Does being high in psychopathic traits mean someone will become violent or criminal? The relationship is much more complicated than popular culture suggests. This episode examines psychopathy as a constellation of personality traits, the distinction between traits and criminal behavior, and why...
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Beyond the Binary: What Modern Research Says About Organized and Disorganized Offenders
The organized-disorganized typology shaped how generations of investigators and students were trained to read a crime scene — careful planning and control on one side, impulsivity and chaos on the other. This episode traces the model's origins in early FBI behavioral science and examines the...
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ADHD and Criminal Responsibility: When the Brain Struggles with Self-Control
Can a neurodevelopmental disorder influence criminal behavior without eliminating legal responsibility? This episode examines the forensic implications of ADHD, including impaired behavioral inhibition, executive dysfunction, and emotional dysregulation. We explore how forensic psychologists...
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The Boy in the Box: How Philadelphia Finally Gave a Name to Joseph Augustus Zarelli
For more than six decades, he was known only as the "Boy in the Box" — one of America's most haunting unidentified murder victims, his battered body found outside Philadelphia in 1957. Despite thousands of leads, generations of detectives working the case couldn't determine who he was, even as…
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Justice Delayed: The Science and Psychology of the Teresa Ann Houck Cold Case
Teresa Ann Houck, 23, left her job at a Baltimore club in October 1986 and was found shot to death in Druid Hill Park hours later, leaving investigators with evidence but no suspect. For nearly 40 years, the case sat unsolved until a routine DNA database search produced the match prosecutors say...
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The Psychology of the Getaway Driver: How Responsible Is Someone Who Never Commits the Violence?
The getaway driver may never enter the building, hold a weapon, or physically harm anyone—yet they can play an essential role in a violent crime. Psychologically, their distance from the violence can make participation easier by allowing them to see themselves as an assistant rather than an...
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The Psychology of Lawful Deception: How Interrogation Tactics Walk the Legal Line
Courts have long allowed detectives to use certain deceptive tactics during interrogations — falsely claiming an accomplice confessed, or that evidence exists when it doesn't — but that doesn't mean anything goes. This episode examines the Supreme Court case Frazier v. Cupp and the voluntariness...
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Can a Brain Injury Turn Someone Into a Criminal? The Forensic Psychology of the Injured Brain
Can damage to the brain actually change someone’s personality enough to contribute to criminal behavior? From impaired impulse control to aggression and poor judgment, injuries to certain brain regions can dramatically alter how a person behaves. This episode explores what neuroscience can—and...
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The Poison That Left a Trail: Forensic Science and the Litvinenko Case
When Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian security officer, fell inexplicably ill in London in 2006, doctors initially had no explanation — until forensic testing uncovered polonium-210 in his system. This episode examines how that finding reshaped the investigation, forcing forensic teams to...
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What a Body Still Knows: The Stephen Smith Exhumation Case
When 19-year-old Stephen Smith was found dead on a South Carolina road in 2015, investigators initially attributed his death to a vehicle strike — a conclusion that didn't hold up over time. This episode looks at what happened when his body was exhumed eight years later, and what forensic...
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The Clock That Lied: How a Jealous Fiancé and a Pinch of Face Powder Made Forensic History in Lyon, 1912
Through the lens of forensic psychology, this case illustrates how pathological jealousy and an obsessive need for control can drive an intimate partner toward violent, calculated homicide. Émile Gourbin demonstrated the traits of an organized offender, weaponizing social manipulation and…
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China’s T800 Robot SWAT Patrols: The Dawn of AI Police Humanoids That Could Save Lives (or Replace Them?)
China just deployed the EngineAI T800 humanoid robot alongside SWAT officers in Shenzhen, walking real public patrols with fluid human-like motion, 5G real-time alerts, and zero fatigue – the most advanced real-world test of AI policing yet. In this episode we break down the massive pros for…
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“Diagnosed for Dollars: How Law Firms Betrayed the NFL’s Concussion Victims”
The NFL’s billion-dollar concussion settlement was designed to compensate former players suffering from the devastating neurological consequences of a career in professional football — but a bombshell report reveals that five law firms systematically exploited that system through an organized...
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Behind the Behavioral Science Unit: Jana Monroe on the Science of Profiling
Jana Monroe, the first female FBI agent in the Behavioral Science Unit, spent her career applying crime-scene analysis and victimology to roughly 850 homicide cases — work she describes as systematic suspect-pool reduction, not psychic access to a killer's inner life. This episode unpacks that...
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Trapped on the Roof: The Killing of a correctional officer
On May 20, 2012, a gang fight inside a privately run Mississippi prison exploded into a multi-hour riot that left the facility in chaos. Twenty-four-year-old Senior Correctional Officer Catlin Carithers, called in on his day off, was cornered and beaten to death on the roof after inmates used…
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The Psychology of the Vigilante — Applying the PEPS Model to Real-World Cases
In part two of their look at vigilantism, Carlos and retired FBI profiler Andrew Bringuel dig into what actually motivates someone to bypass the justice system and act on their own. Using the PEPS model — personal, economic, power/political, and social motives — they break down real cases,...
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"Don't Shoot, G-Men!" — How a Bureau PR Line Became FBI Legend
The legend goes that gangster "Machine Gun" Kelly coined the term "G-Men" when he begged federal agents not to shoot during his 1933 arrest — but the real story is a lesson in institutional myth-making. This episode traces how J. Edgar Hoover's Bureau and a cooperative press turned a routine...
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The 49ers owner gets caught in a trailer park
A billionaire’s son gets caught in a trailer park sting. The league says it is reviewing the matter. This is what happens when the story a man tells himself finally meets the version everyone else can see. Every case has a moment before the moment. A man sits in an SUV at a mobile home park in…
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PART TWO: THE JUMP SHE WASN’T SUPPOSED TO SURVIVE
Nine years after Belgium, in the English countryside, a military-trained parachute instructor jumped from four thousand feet with both her main and reserve chutes disabled — and lived. Behind it sat a husband, a life insurance policy, and a marriage already in freefall long before she was. This...
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Cut Lines: The Anatomy of a Parachute Murder: PART ONE: THE FALL IN BELGIUM
In 2006, an experienced Belgian skydiver stepped out of a plane and discovered mid-air that neither of her parachutes would open. What looked at first like an unthinkable equipment failure turned out to be something far colder — a killing engineered days in advance by someone who never had to be…
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Why Bank Robbers Still Skip the Optimal Window: Updated Stats on a Declining Crime
Bank robberies in the United States have plunged to historic lows, yet the patterns of when and where they occur still reveal surprisingly suboptimal choices by perpetrators. Drawing on the latest FBI Bank Crime Statistics and regional breakdowns, this episode revisits classic insights about...
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The Imposter in the Abbey: Michael Dongarra and the Psychology of Sanctuary
1997, a fugitive con man who had stolen over a million dollars in religious artifacts while posing as an Anglican priest sought refuge inside a Benedictine monastery in Massachusetts. This episode examines how Michael Dongarra exploited the psychological architecture of trust that monastic life...
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Live on Camera: How Mexico's Cartel War Turned Influencers into Targets
Mexican content creators are being killed in real time on TikTok and Instagram as rival Sinaloa Cartel factions settle scores in public. César Gastélum's murder outside a fast-food restaurant is only the latest in a string of more than a dozen influencer killings tied to the Chapitos-Mayos split....
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The Mind of the I-5 Strangler: Paraphilias, Sadism, and Serial Offender Profiling with Dr. Hickey
In this episode, leading forensic criminologist Dr. Eric Hickey joins us to analyze the psychopathological profile and behavioral mechanics of Roger Kibbe, the I-5 Strangler. We examine how underlying sexual sadism, fantasy ritualization, and paraphilic fixations drive repetitive violence and...
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The Father in the Emergency Room: Toronto, 1999
In 1999 a father named Henry Masuka walked into St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto carrying his infant son through an asthma attack and walked out into a police shooting that ended his life. This episode traces the desperate arithmetic of a parent facing a locked door between his child and care…
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Depth Charge: The Lobster Spot That Almost Cost a Life
On the opening day of Florida’s lobster mini-season, a heated dispute over a diving location near Fisher Island escalated when a man allegedly swam over and deliberately shut off a surface-supplied air system while an 18-year-old diver was underwater. The captain of the victim’s boat pulled the...
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The Jackal’s Mind: Ideology, Narcissism, and the Psychology of Transnational Violence
This episode explores the psychological profile and behavioral motivations of Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, analyzing how grandiosity, ideological radicalization, and anti-social traits fused to create one of history's most notorious militants. Through the lens of forensic analysis, we examine the…
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Black Widows of Los Angeles: The Hit-and-Run Insurance Murders
Two elderly women in California befriended homeless men, housed them, and took out millions in life insurance policies naming themselves as beneficiaries. After waiting out the contestability periods, they staged the men’s deaths as hit-and-run accidents. This is the story of Helen Golay, Olga...
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The 1982 Chicago Tylenol Murders: Poison on the Shelves
In late September 1982, seven people in the Chicago area died after taking Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with potassium cyanide. The bottles had been purchased from ordinary stores and the capsules tampered with after they reached the shelves. The case remains unsolved and permanently...
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America’s Murder Rate Plummets to Historic Lows: Inside the 2026 Crime Drop
In the first half of 2026, U.S. homicides fell 18 percent, putting the country on track for its lowest murder levels in more than a century according to White House and independent data. This episode examines the numbers from the Council on Criminal Justice, the multi-year decline after the...
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DNA Across State Lines: How a 1992 Chinatown Cold Case Exposed a Multi-State Serial Killer
In May 1992, the body of unhoused 45-year-old Nancy Hernandez was found beaten, sexually assaulted, and strangled in a utility corridor off Hang Ah Alley in San Francisco’s Chinatown. More than three decades later, DNA evidence linked the crime to Ricky Dawson, a man already convicted or…
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The Double Mirror: Inside the Minds of the Kray Twins
In the 1960s, London’s East End was ruled by a singular, terrifying force: identical twin brothers Ronnie and Reggie Kray, who seamlessly blended brutal gangland violence with West End celebrity glamour. This episode tears down the mythos of "The Firm" to examine the volatile psychological…
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The Scent of Murder: Unpacking the "Bitter Almond" Trope
This episode breakdown explores why crime scene investigators treat the scent of bitter almonds like a smoking gun. It uncovers the real chemistry behind cyanide poisoning and highlights how popular TV shows—including NCIS and CSI—frequently use this classic mystery trope.
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The Anatomy of Threat: Inside a Face-to-Face Mass Shooter Encounter
This episode examines the profound psychological dynamics of facing an active mass killer through the firsthand account of Navy Airman Ryan Blackwell. We analyze the acute stress response, the cognitive processing that occurs during immediate life-and-death trauma, and the psychological aftermath...
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The Nonsense Defense: Ganser Syndrome, Malingering, and the Psychology of Faking Madness
Ganser Syndrome is one of the most bizarre and contested diagnoses in all of forensic psychiatry, a condition where individuals give deliberately approximate but almost-correct answers to simple questions, as if performing madness rather than experiencing it. This episode examines the clinical...
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The Confession Trap: Why Melissa Ellison’s Killer Called the Police After 39 Years of Silence
On December 28, 1987, 20 year old Melissa Ellison was beaten to death in her Jacksonville mobile home while her 13 month old daughter sat crying on the living room couch. For nearly four decades the case sat cold, until this month, when 70 year old Gary Edward Glowacz picked up the phone and…
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Narco-Terrorism and the Criminal Mind: What the 22nd MEU's Caribbean Campaign Reveals About Cartel Psychology, Organizational Violence, and
The transnational narco-terrorist networks that the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit spent ten months hunting across the Caribbean under Operation Southern Spear are not simply criminal organizations that happen to carry weapons, they are hierarchically sophisticated, psychologically coercive...
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The Hunting Ground: Transnational "Tourist" Crews Target Suburban America
In this episode, we break down a troubling new security trend hitting the master-planned communities of Southern California. On June 30, 2026, authorities in Irvine executed a series of coordinated arrests, taking down six individuals—including four juveniles—tied to a predatory "burglary…
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Inside the Criminal Mind: A Retired DEA Agent on the Psychology of Colombian Cartel Leadership, Loyalty, and the Architecture of Narco Viol
Colombian cartel organizations are not simply criminal enterprises held together by money and fear, they are sophisticated psychosocial ecosystems built on coercive loyalty, paranoid leadership structures, and the systematic psychological conditioning of everyone from street-level sicarios to...
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The Psychology of Sacred Betrayal: What Father Richard Storey's Alleged $160,000 Embezzlement Reveals About Moral Disengagement, Entitlement
Father Richard Storey held one of the most psychologically powerful positions a person can occupy in a community — a trusted religious authority with unrestricted access to congregational finances, moral legitimacy, and the deeply human tendency of parishioners to extend unconditional deference…
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The Warrior Identity After Combat: A Forensic Psychology Lens on Wil Ravelo's Transition from Green Beret to SWAT Officer
Wil Ravelo's trajectory from Green Beret to police officer to SWAT operator is not just a career story, it is a forensic psychology case study in identity continuity, adaptive functioning under chronic stress, and what it looks like when a person successfully channels the hypervigilance, threat...
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Profiling the Proxy: The Psychology of Tehran’s Assassins
Explore the dark psychological architecture behind state-sponsored terror as we profile the operatives recruited into Iran’s Quds Force. This episode examines the complex intersection of ideological radicalization, coercive control, and the compartmentalized mindsets required to execute...
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Inside the Cartel Mind: The CJNG World Cup Gambits
This episode delivers a deep-dive behavioral analysis of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and their calculated psychological warfare executed on the eve of the World Cup. By analyzing the brutal ambush of five police officers in Michoacán, we decode the tactical terrorism and high-stakes...
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The Psychology of Playing Under Cartel Terror: What Colombia's 1994 World Cup Reveals About Fear, Identity, and Coercive Control
Colombia's 1994 World Cup squad carried into every match not only the weight of national expectation but the invisible psychological burden of operating inside a cartel-controlled threat environment where performance had life-or-death consequences they could not openly acknowledge or escape. This...
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51-Year Secret: Forensic Genealogy, Elder Homicide, and the Mind of a Killer
In 1975, the partial remains of 73-year-old William Reginald Sipfle were discovered in a Tucson landfill, a case that went cold for over five decades before forensic genealogy and DNA technology brought it back to life. The alleged perpetrator, Sipfle's own stepdaughter Carol Ann Beall, is now 79...
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Forensic Psychology currently has 1000 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
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