True Crime Campfire

Most of us have ordinary lives, with all its joys and heartbreaks, and that’s more than enough…but not for everyone. There will always be some people who want a brighter spotlight than their life has provided for them, but who ideally would like to avoid any hard work involved in earning it themselves. The kind of person who cares so much about how they’re perceived is also often the kind of person who finds it hard to care at all about the welfare of others. This can lead to some very dangerous decisions. Join us for a story of stolen valor, fraud, and murder. Sources: NBC's Dateline, S25E5, “Secrets in the Smoky Mountains” https://law.justia.com/cases/tennessee/court-of-criminal-appeals/2019/e2018-00295-cca-r3-cd.html https://tbinewsroom.com/2013/09/16/federal-prisoner-pleads-guilty-in-2006-monroe-county-murder/ 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/TrueCrimeCampfirehttps://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/Facebook: True Crime CampfireInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/truecrimecampfire/?hl=enEmail: [email protected]! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are few crueler ways to harm someone than through poison. It turns your own body against you, making you a prisoner in a failing shell. Being poisoned can be terrifying, agonizing, drawn out for weeks or months…or it can push you out of consciousness and falling towards death as quickly and easily as turning off a light switch. Sources: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/feb/10/curry-poisoner-guilty-murder https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/feb/11/poison-curry-killer-sentenced https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/jan/06/poison-curry-murder-trial https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna25855779 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13424532/ https://www.irishtimes.com/news/nurse-faces-extradition-for-us-murder-1.1022408 https://www.irishtimes.com/news/nurse-wanted-for-murder-in-us-now-living-in-dublin-1.1040566 Forensic Files, S13E28 “Needle in a Haystack” 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/TrueCrimeCampfirehttps://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/Facebook: True Crime CampfireInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/truecrimecampfire/?hl=enEmail: [email protected]! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In last week’s episode, we met John Smith, a lying, manipulative weirdo who almost certainly had killed his missing second wife, Fran. Towards the end of that episode, we learned that John had been married before, to a young woman named Janice Hartman—and that Janice, just like Fran, had gone missing, never to be seen again. We started that episode with a grim discovery six years after Janice’s disappearance—the skeleton of a young woman in a plywood box beside a country road in western Indiana, her legs cut off below the knees. This week, it all comes together. Ka'Chava: Go to https://kachava.com and use code CAMPFIRE for 15% off your first order. Sources: Michael Fleeman, The Stranger in My Bed NBC's Dateline, S32E37, “Chameleon” https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/9/2002/2002-Ohio-4402.pdf https://legalclarity.org/betty-fran-smith-case-from-disappearance-to-dropped-charges https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2004/oct/03/handler-hailed-for-her-search-dogs-sent-to-prison 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/TrueCrimeCampfirehttps://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/Facebook: True Crime CampfireInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/truecrimecampfire/?hl=enEmail: [email protected]! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If there’s one old folktale that finds a frequent echo in true crime stories, it has to be ‘Bluebeard,’ about a man who marries and then murders a series of wives. It’s a pattern we’ve seen time and again, with both killer husbands and lethal wives, most often driven by greed. That, at least, is something comprehensible—there are some killers driven by urges so cold and petty that it’s hard to even recognize them as human. Join us for the chilling true story of a serial husband whose entire life was a lie. Sources: The Stranger in My Bed, Michael Fleeman 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/TrueCrimeCampfirehttps://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/Facebook: True Crime CampfireInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/truecrimecampfire/?hl=enEmail: [email protected]! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All of us have some tensions and frustrations with our families, and that’s fine. It’s just normal human nature. But for some people, these rough edges to everyday family interactions become absolutely unbearable, an insult to their overinflated sense of importance. And those resentments can seep like poison through every particle of their being until it's all they can think of. Visit crimewaveatsea.com/campfire to join us on the CrimeWave cruise in February! Sources: https://supreme.courts.ca.gov/sites/default/files/supremecourt/default/documents/2-s076337-resp-brief-082809.pdf https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jan-16-me-63999-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-jan-30-me-13611-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-12-12-me-13181-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-01-02-mn-15646-story.html 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/TrueCrimeCampfirehttps://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/Facebook: True Crime CampfireInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/truecrimecampfire/?hl=enEmail: [email protected]! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices