In this special Christmas episode of Hard Times and True Crimes, we examine one of the most disturbing crimes in American history: The kidnapping and murder of Marion Parker in Los Angeles in 1927. In December...

Ronald Gene Simmons lived quietly in Arkansas throughout the 1980s, keeping mostly to himself and his large family. Outwardly, he appeared to be living a simple life in the country—but behind closed doors was a world shaped by control, fear, an...

In 2023, Erin Patterson sat down to lunch with her in-laws. A fatal family lunch in rural Australia. A handful of mushrooms. Three deaths. One survivor. And a woman at the center of a case that grabbed the world's attention almost overnight.&nb...

Episode Summary:In our Halloween special, we step into the dark  history of women’s mental health in early 20th-century America. Two women — Catherine Ward and Carrie Selvage — entered the asylum system from different directions. On...

🎙️ In this episode, we uncover the chilling truth behind The Amityville Horror — separating fact from fiction in one of America’s most infamous stories. Long before the bestselling book and Hollywood movies, there was a real tragedy inside 112 ...

On New Year’s Eve, 1947, Winston-Salem was still glowing with Christmas decorations when a tragedy unfolded that shocked Forsyth County and made headlines across the state of North Carolina.  Everett and Margaret Phillips were ...

In the early 1950s, the quiet community then known as Fuquay Springs - today's Fuquay-Varina in Wake County, North Carolina - was shaken by the violent killing of Dr. Cozart, a respected local physician. His sudden death stunned the to...

In July of 1906, Rowan County, North Carolina, was shaken by one of the most brutal crimes in state history. Isaac Lyerly, his wife Augusta, and two of their young children were murdered in their farmhouse near Barber Junction. Bludgeoned with ...

In February 1988, a single gunshot shattered the quiet of a Durham, North Carolina, neighborhood. Barbara Stager told police her husband Russ's death was a tragic accident. But as investigators dug deeper, the picture-perfect image of a devoted...

In the warm summer of 1955, Judge Curtis Chillingworth, Florida’s youngest ever circuit judge and a man known for his fairness would vanish from his beachside cottage in Manalapan, just south of West Palm Beach. His wife, Marjorie, d...

In 1983, a brutal double homicide in Houston, Texas shocked the public—not just because of the violence, but because of who was eventually held responsible. Karla Faye Tucker, a 23-year-old woman with a troubled past, quickly became one of the ...

In this special mini-episode, we revisit 102. Murder on Route 66: The Welch Family Tragedy with a surprising update. You can listen to the original episode here: https://www.h...

In 1931, a little girl named Vera Leonard vanished while waiting for the school bus in Guilford County, NC. Hours later, her body was found in the ashes of her burned-down home. The man arrested—“Will Moore”—turned out to be an escaped...

In this gripping true crime episode, we explore the harrowing and heartbreaking story of Graham Staines, an Australian missionary who was burned alive along with his two young sons by a radical mob in Odisha, India, in 1999. Even in...

In 1949, deep in the Smoky Mountains of Sevier County, Tennessee, a savage double murder shattered the stillness of a quiet Appalachian community.Charlie Perry—a former Knoxville bootlegger turned tourist camp owner—and his longti...

In June 1961, JD and Utha Welch packed up their car, their four young sons, and headed west from Oklahoma to visit family in California.It was supposed to be a simple road trip — a summer memory in the making.But one quiet ...

Show Notes:In 1986, Tina and Karen Bowen were just teenage girls when their mother passed away from cancer. Not long after, strange things started happening in their home.Knocking from inside the walls.Furniture move...

In this chilling episode of Hard Times and True Crimes, we dive deep into the twisted tale of Charles Schmid, the manipulative and charismatic serial killer who terrorized the young women of Tucson, Arizona, during the 1960s. Kn...

📍 Episode Summary:In 1958, 30-year-old nurse Olga Duncan vanished from her Santa Barbara apartment. She was newly married, seven months pregnant, and full of hope for the future. But what no one could’ve imagined was that t...

In 1974, the quiet town of Searcy, Arkansas, was shaken by the shocking murder of Fern Rodgers, the wife of local physician Dr. Porter Rodgers. What seemed like a tragic crime soon unraveled as more information came to light that implicated not...

🎙️ Hard Times & True CrimesShow Notes:In the fall of 1927, New Orleans was buzzin’ with jazz, bootleg liquor, and secrets behind every shuttered window. But nothing prepared the city for what was found inside a quiet little ap...

In this gripping episode of Hard Times and True Crimes, we uncover the hauntingly intertwined stories of Aundria Bowman and Kathleen Doyle - two women connected by tragedy and a ruthless predator who evaded justice for...

 Episode Summary:This week, we’re diving into one of the most notorious crime sprees in American history—the 1958 murder rampage of Charlie Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate. Was Caril Ann Fugate a hostage or an accompli...

🔎 Episode Summary:Truck stops, open highways, and a killer hiding in plain sight—Sean Patrick Goble was a long-haul trucker with a dark secret. 🚚💀 In the early 1990s, Goble crisscrossed the country, using his job as a cover to ...

 🔊 Narrator: Curtis Hildreth🎼 Music by: Isaiah HildrethEpisode Summary:In this episode of Hard Times & True Crimes, we take you back to Gaffney, South Carolina, a small Southern to...