Let's Go To Court!

Hate ads? The entire LGTC catalog is available ad-free on Patreon! Rita Crundwell had just about everything. She owned multiple properties. A kick ass RV. 400 horses. A freezer full of horse semen. How did she support herself? Well, that depended on who you asked. Some people thought her parents had been early investors in Campbell’s Soup. Other people thought her side hustle brought in good money. One thing was certain -- Rita’s salary as the treasurer of Dixon, Illinois, wasn’t enough to cover her lavish lifestyle. Then Brandi tells us a terrible story that begins in a doublewide trailer in Florida. The bank had recently foreclosed on the trailer. Neighbors said that the two sisters who occupied it hadn’t been there in months. But when a father and son crew arrived to clean it out, they discovered a horrible stench. The body of Debbie Burns had been wrapped in several blankets and a shower curtain. Her sister/caretaker, Barbara, was nowhere to be found.   And now for a note about our process. For each ep

Hate ads? The entire LGTC catalog is available ad-free on Patreon! Richard Henry Patterson was mortified. His girlfriend, Francisca Marquinez, was dead in his bed, and he knew exactly what was to blame. His sizable penis. He was certain she’d choked and died while performing oral sex. Richard was so embarrassed that he took a few days to call the police. At least… that’s the story he told them when they showed up. Then Kristin tells us about the first and only criminal trial in the history of the United States Supreme Court. It all started in 1906 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. A pretty white woman named Nevada Taylor was on her way home from work when a man attacked and raped her. She didn’t get a good look at her attacker. She knew he had a soft, gentle voice, strong arms, and… was maybe black? That was all Sheriff Joseph Shipp needed to hear. In fact, it was all that most white folks needed to hear. Soon after the reward money piled up, a sketchy man came forward with an incredible story. He was pretty sure

Hate ads? The entire LGTC catalog is available ad-free on Patreon! It was the mid-90’s and Sharon Lopatka was super into the brand spankin’ new world wide web. She launched a handful of online businesses. She chatted with newfound friends. She also explored her sexuality. The anonymity of the internet allowed Sharon to discuss some pretty kinky stuff. She went into chat rooms, looking for men to torture her to death. Some said yes, but backed away when the conversation shifted from fantasy to logistics. Then, Sharon found a guy who wasn’t scared. His name was Robert “Bobby” Glass.  Then Brandi tells us a horrifying tale that took place right across from her salon. Robin Bell was the manager of a Dollar General in Bonner Springs, Kansas. One night in November of 2005, she planned to work late. The district manager was coming the next day, and she wanted the store to look perfect. But when her husband, Don, woke up in the middle of the night and found that Robin wasn’t in bed with him, he knew something had t

Hate ads? The entire LGTC catalog is available ad-free on Patreon! When Kathleen Schroll called her mom late one night in the spring of 2008, her voice shook with fear. She said that a man named Ollin “Pete” Coones was in her house. He’d stolen her lawn mower, and now he planned to kill Kathleen and her husband, Carl. Kathleen told her mom that Pete said “he has his tracks covered where no one will know who did it.” When police arrived at the Schroll home, it was too late. Carl and Kathleen were dead. So… Pete did it. Right? In that same vein, Kristin tells a story that starts bad and gets so much worse. In 1913, Atlanta was rocked by the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan. Mary was killed at the National Pencil Company, where she worked long hours for little pay. The crime scene was littered with evidence, including bloody fingerprints, footprints, human feces, and two notes -- presumably written by Mary as she lay dying. Atlanta police rushed to solve the case, but didn’t go where the evidence led them. Th

Hate ads? The entire LGTC catalog is available ad-free on Patreon! Byron David Smith was in his basement on Thanksgiving Day, minding his own business when he heard a window break upstairs. Then he heard someone enter his home. Byron grabbed his gun and waited quietly as the intruder roamed the house. When the intruder came down the stairs, Byron fired his gun three times. The intruder, 17-year-old Nicholas Brady, died. Ten minutes later, another intruder entered Byron’s home. It was 18-year-old Haile Kifer. Byron killed her, too -- shooting her six times. On the surface, it seemed that Byron had acted within his legal rights. In Minnesota, a person may use deadly force to prevent a felony from taking place in their home or dwelling. But as investigators soon discovered, this case wasn’t clear cut, and Byron wasn’t as innocent as he seemed.   Then Brandi tells us about a “normal, middle class family,” but we all know where this story is headed. Chris and Tina Lunney were living what appeared to be a pretty

Hate ads? The entire LGTC catalog is available ad-free on Patreon! When Bruce Rouse didn’t show up for work one summer morning in 1980, his employees immediately knew something was up. So they called his house and Bruce’s teenage children went to their parents’ master bedroom to check on them. But the scene in their parents’ bedroom was shocking. Their mom, Darlene, had been shot in the face. Their dad, Bruce, had been shot in the face, too. He’d also been beaten and stabbed. A sheet covered their bodies. Who could have done such a thing? (This is a total Brandi case, so we’ll give you one guess.) Then Kristin tells us about Julia Phillips -- a Southern lady who was pumped to celebrate her birthday. She got a bunch of Mike’s Hard Lemonade, bought some sexy new lingerie from Victoria’s Secret and headed to her boyfriend, Melvin Roberts’ house. But as she was getting out of her car, a man came up from behind her. He was black. Or was he hispanic. He had an accent. Maybe Indian? It was all a blur as the myster

Hate ads? The entire LGTC catalog is available ad-free on Patreon! For a few years in the mid-2000’s, Dane Cook was on top of the world. He performed high-energy stand up routines to countless adoring fans. He sold out Madison Square Garden. One of his stand up comedy albums went platinum. The next one went double platinum. He got movie deals. He created his own production company. At the risk of stating the obvious, Dane got rich. Super rich. Luckily, his half-brother Darryl McCauley was by his side the whole time, acting as Dane’s business manager. Then Brandi tells us a story that’ll make your blood boil. In November of 2001, Kent Heitholt, a sports editor for the Columbia Daily Tribune, was discovered dead in the newspaper’s parking lot. Kent had been brutally beaten and strangled. His murder went unsolved for two years. But a young man named Charles Erickson, who’d been 17 at the time of Kent’s murder, read about the crime and got a bad feeling. He and his friend Ryan Ferguson had been partying at a ne

Hate ads? The entire LGTC catalog is available ad-free on Patreon! It was a cold February day, and mother of the year Karen Matthews was in a panic. Her nine-year-old daughter, Shannon Matthews, hadn’t come home from school that day. Immediately, the tightknit community of Dewsbury, England, came together to find the missing child. Investigators searched 3,000 homes. They stopped 1,500 drivers. But the days crept on. Shannon was nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, Karen acted like a big weirdo. Then Brandi returns from her battle with COVID to tell us about an old timey divorce.  Eliza Jumel was, too put it mildly, rich. When her husband died, Eliza became the richest woman in New York. By that point, Eliza had discovered that money could buy her a lot of things -- the former home of the American Revolution, for example -- but it couldn’t buy her acceptance from the upper crust of New York City society. For that, she needed to marry the right dude. So she set her sights on Aaron Burr.  And now for a note abou

Hate ads? The entire LGTC catalog is available ad-free on Patreon! Leona Helmsley referred to herself as the queen of the palace, but her terrible personality earned her a more apt nickname -- the queen of mean. She and her husband were rich beyond most peoples’ imaginations. They stayed that way in part thanks to savvy real estate investing, and to tactics that were illegal at worst and immoral at best. But when Leona finally stiffed the wrong contractor, her luck began to crumble. Then Kristin tells us about heiress Sunny von Bulow, who had the bad fortune of marrying the wrong man. When she married Claus von Bulow, Sunny was smitten. But the pair were a bad match. Sunny came to their marriage with a tremendous fortune. Sunny’s money was a sore spot for Claus, and Claus’s infidelity was a sore spot for Sunny. By the late 70s, the pair seemed headed for divorce. Then Sunny slipped into a sudden coma. She recovered, only to slip into another one for good. And now for a note about our process. For each epis

Hate ads? The entire LGTC catalog is available ad-free on Patreon! Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a trailblazer. When she entered Harvard Law School, she was one of just 9 women in a class of nearly 500 men. Later, in her legal career, she faced incredible discrimination. But Ruth didn’t let the douchebags get her down. She was whip smart, and a tireless worker. Her children remember her staying up until the wee hours in the morning, poring over law books, with a stale cup of coffee on one side of her desk and a box of prunes on the other. She kept working, and working, and working. She argued before the Supreme Court multiple times -- and won. She became a judge. And then, in 1993, she became the second woman appointed to the Supreme Court. Then, with Brandi recovering from COVID-19, Kristin’s sister Kyla fills in with all the energy of an eager understudy! Kyla tells us about a family in Portland, Indiana, who had a hell of a time in the 90s. It all started with their mail being stolen. They got a PO box, but th

Hate ads? The entire LGTC catalog is available ad-free on Patreon! Steven Beard woke up on October 2, 1999, in horrible pain. His stomach was split open. His intestines were exposed. When he called 911, he couldn’t tell the dispatcher what had happened — he could only say that he desperately needed help. It didn’t take investigators long to discover that Steven had been shot in his sleep. But who would want him dead? Then Kristin tells us a story that, at first glance, makes no sense. A man walked into a QuikTrip, bought a couple of lottery tickets, and despite the overwhelming odds against him, won $16.5 million. Great, right? Not so much. He refused to claim the prize money. Iowa lottery officials were stunned. Who wouldn’t want $16.5 million? Months passed. The man still refused to come forward. Lottery officials smelled something fishy. And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pa

Hate ads? The entire LGTC catalog is available ad-free on Patreon! Jackie Coogan landed his first movie role when he was just an infant. A few years later, when he was performing the shimmy on stage, Charlie Chaplin was taken by his performance. He cast little Jackie in a couple of his films, and with that, Jackie’s career took off. Jackie became one of the industry’s biggest stars. By the time he was 12, he’d earned a million dollars. By the time he was 21, he’d earned four million. He was set for life. The money had all been set aside -- just waiting for him to hit adulthood. At least, that’s what he’d been told. Then Brandi tells us about a troubled marriage. Jennifer and Frederick Trayers had been married for nearly two decades. They’d been through ups and downs together. Frederick’s career in the navy took them all over the place, but they always had each other. But in 2002, Frederick began an affair. Suspicious, Jennifer installed spyware on Frederick’s computer. She began reading every emotionally-ch

Hate ads? The entire LGTC catalog is available ad-free on Patreon! As the Civil War came to an end, Alexander Clark saw possibilities. He’d helped dismantle slavery, and now he wanted a piece of the next big fight -- the fight for equality. So he and other black men lobbied Iowa for voting rights. When they won that fight, Clark turned his attention to education. His home sat next door to Grammar School No. 2. It was a good public school. But his children couldn’t attend it. Instead, they had to go to a poorly funded school about a mile away. So when his daughter Susan was 12 years old, Alexander and his wife Catherine sent her to Grammar School No. 2. When she was turned away, they sued. Then Brandi tells us about 17-year-old Ashley Reeves. Ashley had always been a dependable kid, so when she broke curfew one April night in 2006, her mom immediately knew that something was wrong. Initially, police suspected Ashley’s boyfriend. But when that lead didn’t go anywhere, they turned their focus on a 27-year-old

Hate ads? The entire LGTC catalog is available ad-free on Patreon! It all started with a friend request. Amanda Playle was flattered to see the Facebook request come in from her old high school boyfriend, Anthony Reynolds. The two hadn’t spoken for a while, but they quickly reconnected. They talked about their lives. So much had changed since their high school days. Amanda was married to her husband Paul. She’d become a mother. Over time, she admitted to Anthony that her marriage wasn’t perfect. But when Anthony pressed her to meet up, she declined. She didn’t want to cross a line. But Anthony refused to take no for an answer. Soon, he began stalking and harassing her. Then Kristin tells us about a man who fell behind on his mortgage payments. Tony Kiritsis planned to turn his real estate into a shopping center, but after falling behind on his payments a few too many times, he found himself under the threat of foreclosure. He was livid, but didn’t blame himself. He blamed Meridian Mortgage. So he showed up

Hate ads? The entire LGTC catalog is available ad-free on Patreon! In the early 1940s, Boston’s Cocoanut Grove nightclub was *the* place to see and be seen. The club owner, Barnet “Barney” Welansky, was a sharp businessman. He ensured that the club was beautifully decorated with blue satin hanging from the ceilings, heavy drapes, and support columns that were made to look like palm trees. He also kept a watchful eye on the finances by ensuring that no one left without paying. He locked almost every exit and covered windows with draperies. On November 28, 1942, the Cocoanut Grove gained the horrific distinction of becoming the deadliest nightclub fire in American history. Then Brandi brings in her sister, Kaci, to tell us about Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, aka, the Ken and Barbie Killers. In the late 80s, the people of Scarborough, Ontario, were on edge. There’d been a string of rapes in their community, and all anyone seemed to know about the rapist was that he was blonde and in his twenties. On little

Hate ads? The entire LGTC catalog is available ad-free on Patreon! Audrey Marie Frazier defies true crime labels. Was she a black widow? Was she a master of disguise? An escape artist? We like to think she was all three! See, ladies? We really can have it all. Audrey was a chronic spender. She never had enough money to support her expensive tastes. So she got creative. She bought life insurance policies, and umm…. All of a sudden, the people around her got sick. Super sick. Then Kristin tells us about John Darwin. This man is a douche canoe if we’ve ever heard of one. On March 21, 2002, John hopped in his handmade canoe and set out into the North Sea. The waters were calm and he was an experienced canoeist, but John didn’t show up for work that evening. His wife, Anne, panicked. She called the authorities. Rescue crews worked tirelessly to find John, but all they found was his paddle and the wreckage of his canoe. Don’t worry about John, though. He was just fine. And now for a note about our process. For e

Hate ads? The entire LGTC catalog is available ad-free on Patreon! It was the winter of 1919, and the folks at the Purity Distilling Company were working their asses off. Prohibition was right around the corner, and they wanted to make as much rum as they could -- while it was still legal. They received shipment after shipment of a key ingredient: Molasses. All of it went in a tank in Boston’s North End. The tank was 50 feet tall and 90 feet in diameter. It held up to 2.3 million gallons of molasses. But the tank had problems. It leaked constantly, and it made strange groaning sounds. It had been poorly constructed. On January 15, 1919, the tank collapsed. Then Brandi tells us about pedofile Jeff Doucet. Jeff ran a karate studio in the 80s, and that’s how he gained the trust of 11 year old Jody Plauche. Over time, Jeff groomed Jody. For a year, he sexually abused the boy. Then, in February of 1984, he kidnapped Jody. Investigators tracked Jeff down to a motel in California, and returned Jody to his parents.

Hate ads? The entire LGTC catalog is available ad-free on Patreon! This week, we covered two romantic entanglements that’ll have you reaching for the puke bucket. Burt Pugach was a wealthy, married lawyer when he met 21-year-old Linda Riss on a park bench in New York City. Linda wasn’t particularly attracted to Burt, but he was pushy. They’d been dating a while when Linda discovered that Burt was married. Burt had a million excuses, but Linda didn’t buy any of them. She decided to move on with her life. But Burt made that impossible. Then Kristin tells us a truly revolting catfishing tale. In 2005, Thomas Montgomery was living the life of a married suburban dad. But Tom was unfulfilled. So he got online. He quickly fell into conversation with an 18-year-old high school student who went by the screenname Talhotblond. She sent him pictures of herself. She was gorgeous, and she wanted to see pictures of him. What was a balding, 40-something man to do? Lie his ass off.  And now for a note about our process. F

Hate ads? The entire LGTC catalog is available ad-free on Patreon! Cameron Todd Willingham woke up to his two-year-old daughter screaming “Daddy, Daddy!” He sat up in bed, but was surrounded by smoke so thick he could barely see. He made his way out of the burning house and yelled for his neighbors to call the fire department. His two-year-old daughter and one-year-old twins were  trapped inside the home. Cameron dropped to his knees and cried. Firefighters arrived on the scene, but they couldn’t save the children. All three of the Willingham children died in the fire. It was a tragedy, plain and simple. But a few days later, when arson investigators reviewed the scene, they were certain that the fire was set intentionally. Cameron had set the fire. But years later, certainty waned. Were those arson experts really experts, after all?   Then Brandi tells us a bizarre story about Seventh Heaven star Jeremy London. In 2010, Jeremy claimed that a group of men abducted him after they helped him change his flat t

Hate ads? The entire LGTC catalog is available ad-free on Patreon! Derek and Maria Broaddus couldn’t have been more thrilled. In the summer of 2014, they bought their dream home in Westfield, New Jersey. But their dream home quickly turned into a nightmare when the couple received a series of unsettling anonymous letters. The letter writer knew their names. The writer knew the nicknames they gave their children. The writer alluded to secrets within the walls of the home, and referred to the Broaddus children as “young blood.” Each creepy letter was signed, “the watcher.”  Then, Kristin tells us about the controversy surrounding the literary estate of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Laura Ingalls Wilder authored the Little House on the Prairie series of children’s books. She began writing them when she was in her sixties. The books brought her tremendous financial stability. When she died, her will was crystal clear. Her literary estate would go to her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane. Upon Rose’s death, the literary estate