(see episode 120 for Jane Doe #1). This episode contains the testimony of Jane Doe 2 in the rape trial of Kellen Winslow Jr., a former NFL tight end, in San Diego County Superior Court in early November. Jane Doe, who remained nameless and was not shown on camera, was a 59-year-old homeless woman from Encinitas, California who was picked up and raped by large black man with tattoos who drove a black Hummer and identified himself as “Kevin.” She testifies that he drove her to a parking lot close to a shopping center and raped her violently, causing extra pain due to his “gigantic penis.”
Winslow was also charged with raping another homeless woman, as well as a 17-year-old at a 2003 party when he was 19. There were also indecent acts where he allegedly exposed himself to an elderly female neighbor who was in her yard gardening and a 77-year-old in a health club hot tub while Winslow was out on bail and awaiting trial.
With incontrovertible evidence accumulating against him, Winslow finally accepted a plea deal that spared him from the possibility of a life prison sentence. He pleaded guilty to raping the unconscious teen in 2003 and to the sexual battery of Jane Doe 1, while the San Diego County Superior Court agreed to dismiss other felony charges including kidnapping, sodomy, forced oral copulation and two charges of forcible rape.
Brothers Erik and Lyle Menéndez were convicted in 1996 for the murders of their parents, José and Mary Louise (“Kitty”) Menéndez (see episode 169 for testimony from Lyle’s girlfriends).
The trial had many subplots. One of the most juicy involved the brothers’ therapist, Dr. Jerome Oziel, and his mistress / patient, Judalon Smyth. Erik Menéndez, torn apart by guilt after the murders, apparently confessed to Oziel, who then told his mistress, Judalon Smyth, who went to the cops. The affair was a stormy one (Judalon said she once made Oziel an IOU for 500 sex acts). Judalon said Oziel was obsessed with her; Oziel said it was the other way around. In fact, the affair seems to have been a folie a deux. This episode contains testimony from both parties.
Erik and Lyle Menéndez are currently both serving sentences of life without parole in the California Department of Corrections. Jerome Oziel lives in Portland, Oregon where he offers relationship and marriage seminars. Judalon Smyth is an EMT technician in Beverly Hills, California.
This episode contains testimony from the Murdaugh family’s longtime housekeeper, Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson, during South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh’s trial for the murder of his wife Maggie and youngest son, Paul. Simpson testified that said she never knew Alex and Maggie to argue, other than “some minor disagreements” over things like like over the paint color of their beach house remodel. But Maggie also told Blanca that the couple were worried about a lawsuit against Paul, who had been recently involved in boating accident in which a friend had been killed. Maggie said she was very concerned about money, and felt Alex was “not being truthful” with her about the lawsuit.
On March 27, 2023, Alex Murdaugh was found guilty of double homicide and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
This episode contains more audio from the trial of Sandy Murphy and Rick Tavish for the murder of Ted Binion. Binion was a wealthy American gambling executive and one of the sons of Vegas casino magnate Benny Binion, owner of the Horseshoe Casino. Ted, a multi-millionaire, loved the high life and ran the Horseshoe for a while, hosting the casino’s poker tournaments. But in 1998, Ted, 55, was having problems. Due to his heroin addiction and associations with known criminals, he’d recently lost his gaming license and his ties to the casino. His wife Doris had moved out, taking the couple’s daughter, Bonnie, after learning of Ted’s affair with a topless dancer named Sandra Murphy. Just before his death, he discovered that Sandra was cheating on him with a man named Rick Tabish.
On September 17, 1998, Ted was found dead from a combination of Xanax, heroin, and Valium. He’d recently bought 12 pieces of tar heroin from a street drug dealer, and had a Xanax prescription from his next-door neighbor, a doctor. Police believed the scene was staged by Sandra Murphy and Rick Tabish, who wanted Ted’s money (after losing his gaming license, Ted had taken all his gold out of the Horseshoe safe and buried it in a 12 foot deep underground vault in Pahrump, Nevada). In 1999, Sandra and Rick were found guilty of murder, but the verdict was overturned.After a second trial, they were acquitted of the murder, but found guilty of conspiring to commit and committing burglary and/or grand larceny. Rick served 11 years; Sandy was sentenced to time served.
This episode contains testimony from the second trial, in May 2005, featuring two of Sandy’s gossipy beauticians, hairdresser Georgia Gastone and Michelle Gillian.
This episode returns once again to the 1992 trial in which Jeffrey Dahmer pleaded guilty but insane to the murder and dismemberment of 15 boys and men. A number of psychiatrists testified at Dahmer’s tril. Judith Becker, a professor of psychiatry and psychology, was the second expert witness for the defense. Dr. Becker diagnosed Dahmer as a necrophiliac, although she added that Dahmer was not a “classic” necrophile in that he preferred comatose sexual partners to deceased ones “75 percent of the time”. In this excerpt from the trial, Dr. Becker, reading from her notes, summarizes Dahmer’s crimes in a remarkably monotone voice. Dahmer was found guilty and sentenced to life. He was killed in prison on November 28, 1994.
During the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995, screenwriter Laura Hart McKinny testified about the 13 hours of taped interviews she conducted with LAPD officer Mark Fuhrman, who was involved in the investigation of the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. McKinny claimed the tapes contain many instances of Fuhrman expressing racist opinions and using offensive language and misogynistic slurs. Fuhrman and McKinny began meeting for taped interviews in February 1985 and continued meeting until July 1994. Only a very small portion of the audio was played in court.
This episode contains McKinny’s testimony at the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995.
Renegade Mormons Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell developed their own doomsday cult, telling their small circle of followers that demons had turned their family members into “zombies” or “vampires” who needed to be killed. On May 14, 2023, an Idaho jury found Daybell guilty on all charges, for her role in the deaths of her two children and her husband’s first wife. Chad Daybell will be tried separately next year.
On Day 5 of the Vallow Daybell trial, Zulema Pastenes, the widow of Lori’s brother Alex Cox, took the stand. She explained Lori ‘s beliefs about casting out evil spirits, and how she was convinced various people–including her two children–had been ‘possessed’ and ‘attacked’ by demons.
Dixie Shanahan, 36, a hard-working nurse’s aide from Defiance, Iowa, was abused by her stepfather all through her childhood, then, in 1995, she married an abusive husband. Scott Shanahan, 40, had a violent temper, was twice convicted of beating Dixie, and once tied her up with wire coat hangers, and locked her in the basement for three days. One night, Scott threatened Dixie and her unborn baby with a loaded gun. Dixie, afraid for her daughter’s life, waited until Scott was asleep then shot him in the back of the head. Then, instead of calling 911, she pulled the covers of Scott’s body, closed and locked the bedroom door, and never went in there again. A year later, when police entered the room, there was nothing left but skeletal remains.
In April 2004, Dixie was found guilty of second-degree murder, which normally carries a 50-year sentence, but in 2018, after fifteen years behind bars, she was granted work release.
This episode features a phone call between Jodi Arias and Travis Alexander, whom she was dating intermittently between February 2007 and Alexander’s death in June 2008. A member of the LDS church, Alexander presented himself in public as a virgin and politely courted a number of LDS women while keeping his highly sexual relationship with Jodi as a “dirty little secret.” Eventually the two broke up, but Jodi continued to drive from her home in Yreka, CA to visit Travis in Mesa, AZ. As Travis increasingly ignored her in favor of “pure” Mormon women, Jodi became increasingly erratic and unhinged. On Wednesday, June 4, 2008, during a visit to Mesa, the pair got into a fight and Jodi shot and stabbed Travis to death.
The prosecution claimed that Jodi had driven to Mesa from Yreka with premeditated plans to murder Travis. The defense argued that the relationship had been abusive, and Jodi had killed Travis in self-defense. After a complex series of trials and appeals, Jodi was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
In December 2019, in Celebration, Florida, police performed a wellness check on the home of the Todt family, who hadn’t been seen for some time. Anthony Todt, 44, was discovered unkempt and shaking. Wife Megan, 42, was found dead, along with their three children: Alek, 13; Tyler, 11, and Zoe, 4. They had been stabbed in the stomachs and smothered to death, and lay decomposing with crucifixes gripped in their hands. Also dead was the family dog, Breezy.
Anthony claimed that Megan had recently joined an online cult and the family had decided to kill themselves to avoid the apocalypse so they could be together in heaven. He said the murders were committed by Megan, and after her suicide, he had attempted to join her by attempting to strangle himself and overdosing on Benadryl but unfortunately didn’t take enough to die.
Todt was a physical therapist who’d recently been served a federal warrant for health care fraud charges. Police concluded his life was falling apart and he faked the “family cult suicide” to draw attention away from his financial and legal problems. In 2022, he was convicted of the murders and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. This episode contains Todt testifying at his trial, claiming that Megan was responsible for the children’s deaths.
(see episode 120 for Jane Doe #1). This episode contains the testimony of Jane Doe 2 in the rape trial of Kellen Winslow Jr., a former NFL tight end, in San Diego County Superior Court in early November. Jane Doe, who remained nameless and was not shown on camera, was a 59-year-old homeless woman from Encinitas, California who was picked up and raped by large black man with tattoos who drove a black Hummer and identified himself as “Kevin.” She testifies that he drove her to a parking lot close to a shopping center and raped her violently, causing extra pain due to his “gigantic penis.”
hers Erik and Lyle Menéndez were convicted in 1996 for the murders of their parents, José and Mary Louise (“Kitty”) Menéndez (see 
This episode contains testimony from the Murdaugh family’s longtime housekeeper, Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson, during South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh’s trial for the murder of his wife Maggie and youngest son, Paul. Simpson testified that said she never knew Alex and Maggie to argue, other than “some minor disagreements” over things like like over the paint color of their beach house remodel. But Maggie also told Blanca that the couple were worried about a lawsuit against Paul, who had been recently involved in boating accident in which a friend had been killed. Maggie said she was very concerned about money, and felt Alex was “not being truthful” with her about the lawsuit.
This episode contains more audio from the trial of Sandy Murphy and Rick Tavish for the murder of Ted Binion. Binion was a wealthy American gambling executive and one of the sons of Vegas casino magnate Benny Binion, owner of the Horseshoe Casino. Ted, a multi-millionaire, loved the high life and ran the Horseshoe for a while, hosting the casino’s poker tournaments. But in 1998, Ted, 55, was having problems. Due to his heroin addiction and associations with known criminals, he’d recently lost his gaming license and his ties to the casino. His wife Doris had moved out, taking the couple’s daughter, Bonnie, after learning of Ted’s affair with a topless dancer named Sandra Murphy. Just before his death, he discovered that Sandra was cheating on him with a man named Rick Tabish.
This episode returns once again to the 1992 trial in which Jeffrey Dahmer pleaded guilty but insane to the murder and dismemberment of 15 boys and men. A number of psychiatrists testified at Dahmer’s tril. Judith Becker, a professor of psychiatry and psychology, was the second expert witness for the defense. Dr. Becker diagnosed Dahmer as a necrophiliac, although she added that Dahmer was not a “classic” necrophile in that he preferred comatose sexual partners to deceased ones “75 percent of the time”. In this excerpt from the trial, Dr. Becker, reading from her notes, summarizes Dahmer’s crimes in a remarkably monotone voice. Dahmer was found guilty and sentenced to life. He was killed in prison on November 28, 1994.
Renegade Mormons Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell developed their own doomsday cult, telling their small circle of followers that demons had turned their family members into “zombies” or “vampires” who needed to be killed. On May 14, 2023, a
Dixie Shanahan, 36, a hard-working nurse’s aide from Defiance, Iowa, was abused by her stepfather all through her childhood, then, in 1995, she married an abusive husband. Scott Shanahan, 40, had a violent temper, was twice convicted of beating Dixie, and once tied her up with wire coat hangers, and locked her in the basement for three days. One night, Scott threatened Dixie and her unborn baby with a loaded gun. Dixie, afraid for her daughter’s life, waited until Scott was asleep then shot him in the back of the head. Then, instead of calling 911, she pulled the covers of Scott’s body, closed and locked the bedroom door, and never went in there again. A year later, when police entered the room, there was nothing left but skeletal remains.
This episode features a phone call between Jodi Arias and Travis Alexander, whom she was dating intermittently between February 2007 and Alexander’s death in June 2008. A member of the LDS church, Alexander presented himself in public as a virgin and politely courted a number of LDS women while keeping his highly sexual relationship with Jodi as a “dirty little secret.” Eventually the two broke up, but Jodi continued to drive from her home in Yreka, CA to visit Travis in Mesa, AZ. As Travis increasingly ignored her in favor of “pure” Mormon women, Jodi became increasingly erratic and unhinged. On Wednesday, June 4, 2008, during a visit to Mesa, the pair got into a fight and Jodi shot and stabbed Travis to death.
In December 2019, in Celebration, Florida, police performed a wellness check on the home of the Todt family, who hadn’t been seen for some time. Anthony Todt, 44, was discovered unkempt and shaking. Wife Megan, 42, was found dead, along with their three children: Alek, 13; Tyler, 11, and Zoe, 4. They had been stabbed in the stomachs and smothered to death, and lay decomposing with crucifixes gripped in their hands. Also dead was the family dog, Breezy.
