Back in the early 1980s David and Mark Pedley were little more than a father-son real estate scam duo. Then came prison, escape, and a self-penned Bible, named for an obscure Jerusalem priest and the foundation for a micronation called the Dominion of Melchizedek.
It was no ordinary secession movement. The Dominion would become one of its era's greatest swin ... Show More
Oct 20
Cape Town's Bloody Mob Wars: The Steroid King, Dirty Cops, and Numbers Gangs
Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It's also home to one of the most violent and tangled criminal underworlds on the planet, where drug lords, prison gangs, crooked cops, and millionaire businessmen wage bloody wars over everything from nightclub security ... Show More
1 h
Oct 13
Cuba’s New Synthetic Drug Wave
How Cuba is Slipping into Drug Chaos Since the beginning of the year, the US has placed Cuba under an oil embargo, crippling its public services and throwing a society that was already on its knees into chaos. Blackouts roll for days, trash piles high and locals are getting sick ... Show More
59m 52s
Oct 6
Cuba: From Lansky’s Casinos to Castro’s Guns
Sean got beaten up in Cuba! To celebrate this, we’ve thrown together a biopoly of crime in the tropics, beginning with the story of how American organized crime flocked to Havana in the 1920s as a Prohibition rum-runner’s paradise. After World War II, mobsters then executed a tak ... Show More
59m 13s
Oct 2020
Satanic Panic Pt. 4: The Rise of Evangelical Churches
Emboldened by power- and money-hungry conmen, Evangelical doomsdayers set the stage for an epic showdown of biblical proportions. The fight for the souls of every last American was beginning, they claimed, and Satan was coming to drag us all to hell. Learn more about your ad choi ... Show More
47m 45s
Apr 2024
The Fraudster's Guide to Magic Money
Sam Israel had a problem. The investors in his hedge fund, Bayou Capital, were expecting spectacular returns. Sam himself had spent years proclaiming the fund's brilliant results. But in reality, Sam had been marking his own homework, publishing fraudulent accounts and using thes ... Show More
1 h
Apr 2022
William Kamm & The Order of St. Charbel Pt. 2
When teenage girls in the Order started getting pregnant in the early 2000s, Kamm claimed the babies were miraculously conceived from his “holy seed.” It was a lie, but by then, he had cemented control over every part of his followers’ lives. Now, he was selling them on his next ... Show More
37m 8s
Apr 2024
Tehama's Most Wanted: Razzlekhan
As if the whole cryptocurrency thing wasn't ridiculous enough, enter Heather Morgan aka Razzlekhan. An entrepreneur and amateur rapper, she and her husband, Dutch, lived large. The source? Hacked bitcoin. Can't get enough of these clowns and their techno criming? Fear not, there ... Show More
55m 26s