The Ravens Hollow

Wade Wilson shares a name with a comic-book antihero, but there’s nothing fictional about the terror left in his wake. In this episode, we dive into the twisted case of the heavily tattooed murderer whose erratic behavior, obsession with attention, and brutal crimes turned him into one of true crime’s most unsettling modern figures. Fame, violence, narcissism, and chaos collide in a story stranger — and darker — than fiction.

Vincent Li is the man responsible for the 2008 killing of 22-year-old Tim McLean aboard a Greyhound bus traveling through Manitoba. In one of Canada’s most shocking violent crimes, Li attacked and killed McLean in front of horrified passengers near Portage la Prairie. After his arrest, Li was diagnosed with untreated schizophrenia and was found not criminally responsible due to mental disorder. The case sparked nationwide debate ov...

Charles Albanese was a wealthy Illinois businessman who secretly poisoned members of his own family with arsenic in the early 1980s for money, inheritance, and control of the family company. Several relatives died after suffering mysterious illnesses, while another survived, raising suspicions that eventually led investigators to uncover the poisoning scheme. Albanese was convicted of three murders and one attempted murder and was ...

Richard Speck wasn’t a criminal mastermind—he was more like chaos in human form. In 1966, he broke into a Chicago townhouse and brutally murdered eight student nurses in a crime so senseless it shocked the entire country. What followed wasn’t a clever escape or a long game—it was a sloppy unraveling, complete with a self-inflicted injury and a recognizable tattoo that practically introduced him to the police.

Speck became infamous ...

In 2014, Chicago teenager Heather Mack was arrested in Bali after her mother, Sheila von Wiese-Mack, was found dead—her body stuffed inside a suitcase at a luxury hotel.

What followed was the unraveling of a disturbing plot involving Heather and her boyfriend, driven by money, control, and a volatile relationship. Dubbed the “Suitcase Killer,” Heather’s case shocked the world and raised troubling questions about motive, manipulatio...

In April 1989, a brutal assault on a young woman jogging through Central Park shocked New York City and gripped the nation. Within days, five Black and Latino teenagers—later known as the Central Park Five, and now widely referred to as the Exonerated Five—were arrested, interrogated for hours, and convicted in a case fueled by public outrage, sensational media coverage, and intense pressure on law enforcement to find answers. Year...

In May 2011, six-year-old Timmothy Pitzen vanished after being taken out of school by his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, for what seemed like a spontaneous trip. Over the next three days, the two were seen traveling through Illinois and Wisconsin, visiting water parks and hotels—appearing, at least on the surface, carefree.

Then the case took a dark turn. Amy was found dead in a motel room...

Meet Rodney Alcala: part predator, part chameleon, and somehow—bafflingly—a former game show contestant. Charming on the surface, monstrous underneath, Alcala’s story reads like Hollywood rejected it for being too implausible. In this episode, we unpack the unnerving double life of a man who could quote poetry, pose behind a camera, and leave devastation in his wake—while slipping through the cracks of a justice system that kept mi...

Imagine a doomsday power couple so committed to the apocalypse that they decided to speed up the guest list. Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell—an Idaho‑Hawaii romance built on fringe prophecies, zombie talk, and enough red flags to start their own parade—left a trail of suspicious deaths, missing children, and baffled investigators in their wake.

Lori, later dubbed “Doomsday Mom,” embraced Chad’s end‑times visions and self‑appointed spi...

Imagine a doomsday power couple so committed to the apocalypse that they decided to speed up the guest list. Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell—an Idaho‑Hawaii romance built on fringe prophecies, zombie talk, and enough red flags to start their own parade—left a trail of suspicious deaths, missing children, and baffled investigators in their wake.

Lori, later dubbed “Doomsday Mom,” embraced Chad’s end‑times visions and self‑appointed spi...

Raymond Eugene Brown wasn’t just a walking red flag—he was the whole parade. A killer whose crimes began at just 14, he went from family annihilator to repeat murderer after a disastrously misguided parole. His life reads like a cautionary tale about ignoring every possible warning sign: a violent past, a chilling pattern, and a justice system that gave him one chance too many. In this episode, we unravel how one man managed to tur...

In the spring of 1946, Texarkana had two states, one Phantom, and absolutely no chill. A masked assailant stalked lovers’ lanes with eerie precision, turning a quiet twin city into a jittery maze of locked doors, sold‑out hardware stores, and citizens who suddenly discovered religion—or at least better porch lighting. The Phantom Killer struck under moonlight, vanished at sunrise, and left behind a trail of terror, theories, and en...

Kenneth Allen McDuff wasn’t just a menace—he was Texas’ worst argument for parole reform wrapped in a six‑foot frame and bad intentions. Born into comfort but fueled by cruelty, McDuff bullied his way through childhood before graduating to burglary, murder, and eventually earning the charming nickname “The Broomstick Killer.” After receiving three separate death sentences—yes, three—he still managed to walk free thanks to a perfect...

Richard Cottingham looked like your average 1970s family man—commuter, computer operator, husband, father. But behind that beige exterior lurked a man the tabloids would later dub The Torso Killer, a predator whose crimes were so brutal they rattled even seasoned investigators. Operating across New York and New Jersey from the mid‑60s to 1980, Cottingham lived a double life so convincing it took decades—and a hotel staffer’s quick ...

Terry Blair wasn’t just a product of a family tree with more felony branches than leaves—he became Kansas City’s grim reminder that sometimes the danger isn’t lurking in the shadows, it’s walking right out on parole. Born into chaos in 1961, Blair went on to terrorize the city from 1982 to 2004, targeting vulnerable women and leaving investigators convinced his known seven victims were only part of a larger, darker tally. His reign...

In 1981, 13-year-old Mary Louise Day vanished from her home in Seaside, California, under circumstances that would puzzle investigators for decades. What began as a quiet, unreported disappearance spiraled into one of the most baffling cold cases in American true crime—one involving family secrets, suspected abuse, and a shocking reappearance more than 22 years later

Intro Audio:  Gavin Prater

Outro Audio: Jason Poe

Source ...

Meet Edward James Adams, the bank robber who proved you don’t need a Tommy gun or a movie‑star snarl to become one of the most slippery outlaws of the early 20th century. Adams wasn’t your typical stick‑’em‑up desperado—he was a smooth‑talking, sharp‑dressed criminal who could charm a room, crack a safe, and vanish before the dust settled.

From jailbreaks that read like stage plays to heists pulled off with almost theatrical flair,...

Rudy Bladel was the kind of disgruntled ex‑employee who didn’t just hold a grudge—he loaded it, chambered it, and took it trackside. A former railroad fireman whose career was derailed by a 1959 yard merger, Bladel spent the next decade and a half turning his personal vendetta into a grim, locomotive‑themed murder spree.

Intro Audio:  Gavin Prater

Outro Audio: Jason Poe

Source Credit: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Bla...

Happy 50th Episode!! 

Today we are diving into a few cases of botched executions over the centuries.   Where ""justice" didn't go clean, didn't go quick.....and definitely didn't go the way it was supposed to. 

Intro Audio:   Gavin Prater

Outro Audio: Jason Poe

Source Credit: 

https://parade.com/966564/parade/fun-facts/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_botched_executions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Greene

https:...