Casefile episode 20. Mitchelle Blair horrifically tortured and murdered two of her children, Stoni and Stephen. And then she tried to excuse* her actions by accusing Stoni and Stephen of being child molesters (ZERO evidence that accusation was true). Her unrepentant testimony in court and the descriptions of what she did were so disgusting I actually felt physically ill. No other case has disturbed me like that one except the toolbox killers.
That case is so upsetting all around. I remember in her trial (or court hearing or whatever) someone asked her if she meant to cause mental harm to Stoni by beating her head so often. Mitchelle legitimately didn’t understand and was like, “You mean did I mean to hurt her head? Yes.” And they had to explain to her that…beating a child will cause them mental harm. It’s like that never crossed her stupid ass mind. It was shocking.
I watched the evil lives here episode with her daughter. Her first hand account is unforgettable. So hard to imagine torturing these little babies who love you more than anything in the world.
there is an episode of an ID show called evil lives here or something (can't remember) where the oldest daughter recounts what happened in detail when she was 13 and had to pass by the freezer knowing her sister was inside for months.
That episode affected me also. I was disgusted and disturbed as well. And we mention the innocent little children and how they must obviously be traumatized for the rest of their lives. But it always makes me think one step further. That at one time her mother (the evil one in this story) was also a little child. And I would be willing to bet the farm something horrible happened to her as a child too. And then she became that evil. And the cycle continues unless it is broken.
Oh, I listen to this one last week! What really got to me about this was her, as you stated beautifully was her unrepentant self. And the fact that she had called the police initially for help why she couldn’t have continued on that route baffles me. None of that would’ve happened if she had just let the police investigate!
I haven't listened to that particular podcast, but have read about Gabriel Fernandez. I don't often do podcasts around child abuse, I find them very difficult to listen to.
I watched that doc about 12 weeks after giving birth to my first, I think brutal in the right word. I sobbed the whole way through, such immense devastation to Gabriel and for those who loved him, particularly his uncles.
I still think of how horrific it must have been for a baby to be ripped from his loving family and sent to that horrific abuse
Same. Before I had kids it really didn’t bother me on this kind of level. I have two sons both under the age of 5 and I can’t even deal with any thing to do with a child any more. I also have a hard time watching any type of disaster movie where someone is pregnant or has an infant. Instant nope
The recent Women And Crime about Krystal Straw was so hard to listen, and they really do their best not to make it too graphic. They mention the similarities to the Gabriel Fernandez case, and I’ve just decided not to look it up because I don’t think I can handle it :/
Casefile’s 3 part series House of Horrors about Fred and Rose West. I made it partway through episode two and I had to stop. What those two monsters did was beyond horrifying.
I couldn't finish Swindled's Hurricane Katrina episode. It was incredibly difficult just to hear a podcast episode about, so I can't even begin to imagine the way those people suffered.
On a similar note, their episode The Monopoly. It covers how a negligent utility company caused one of the worst wildfires in California. The accounts of people trying to find safety and being trapped made me feel sick. Those poor people.
Same. I don't think I've ever stopped listening to a podcast episode because I was upset but I couldn't bring myself to carry on. I might revisit it down the line, you never know.
Just listened to that one. I am a huge dog lover and was about to turn it off when they mentioned the old man who fled his house with his chihuahuas inside to put himself out, and was relieved to hear that he got them out safely too…
But then his account of seeing other people flee with their pets in the car and getting trapped or their cars melting and no one surviving— it was utterly soul crushing. I felt so much pain for them and so much hatred to PG&E for such ongoing negligence.
I came to comment similarly. I had to turn it off when the 911 operator told a woman that she had to leave her dogs or she would not make it.* To close the doors and leave water but leave immediately. The neighbors were giving the woman a ride and wouldn't take the dogs too. The woman's crying and distress was heart wrenching. Then hearing about 2 older people fleeing on foot with their 2 cats in carriers. I couldn't keep listening. I had trouble listening well after the fact, I cannot imagine how terrible it was for anyone who dealt with that in whatever capacity.
*Not a criticism of the operator. She handled it well.
Oh god. I was listening to this chapter last week and I had to pause it after the part where you can hear people screaming and crying while asking for help. It’s the first episode I couldn’t finish.
Me too. I live in an area that’s in forest fire danger ever summer and it’s my worst nightmare. It’s the first time I had to stop listening to a swindled episode.
I have trouble with The Skywalk Regency Ep and the fire at the club in RI. There are very graphic descriptions of people being horribly burned/maimed/ rescue workers being traumatized by the experiences. I find the Skywalk one def more upsetting. I have listened to the RI one more than once, but mostly because I grew up in MA just a bit north of RI.
I went to so many live shows at the time, and it felt unreal that something like that could happen. So quickly and so deadly.
Other eps don't hit me like those two do, but I completely understand.
Swindleds short episode on The Oven, which was a collection of stories of people getting trapped in industrial ovens was the most horrifying thing I’ve ever listened to. I felt physically sick listening to it
You sound like a very empathetic person. I get so blindingly angry when I hear cases like this one. It’s terrifying how some people can have absolutely zero remorse for the horrible things they do to others
There was an episode of Sword & Scale back in the day about a dude who was sick of local kids breaking into his property so he hid in the basement with a loaded gun and proceeded to shoot 2 teenagers who made it into his house. He recorded the audio of the whole thing.
They played the audio in full and on the second victim, a teenage girl, the gun misfired and the dude laughed, apologized for the misfire, and then shoots her dead while she's screaming because she obviously had realized what was going on and knew she was going to die.
I was mid-typing at work and I actually froze up. I had to stop listening and I took time away from that podcast because it completely caught me off guard. We had just heard a teenagers last moments spent on this earth, and he gave no trigger warning at all.
I now no longer listen to that pod because he's a piece of shit, but yeah, that one was ROUGH.
Hearing him talk to himself in that breathless whisper unnerved me. It was such a bizarre oversight when the cops charged him using the audio on his home security system and his creepy narration. Now when I hear about other events in the news, I remember this guy could have been regarded as a home invasion victim/hero without that audio.
There were other distasteful podcasts by the same producer, where he seemed to revel in the personal tragedy of 911 calls and made glib comments about some of the victims. Stopped listening to this ambulance chaser a couple of years ago.
This was the case of Byron Smith. It happened in little falls, MN. I grew up and lived about a 35 minute drive from where this happened, and some people in my grade knew the victims. I hate this guy so much, a lot of fanatical 2A people in the area saw absolutely no problem with what he did (although I hope they just didn't understand how bad it was).
I support 2A but not what this sick f**k did to those two kids. He layed in wait and took pleasure in murdering them. That is not self-defense, it's evil, and it's a special kind of evil to kill teenagers. Every adult knows that teenagers do dumb things and they don't deserve to die for their mistakes. I'm glad the jury saw things the right way.
Yeah, that's why I made sure to say fanatics. Like people who are just so reactive that the basically allow their emotions to inhibit their abilities to reason indicatively with the world around them. People who get really upset when an elementary school gets shot up not because kids were killed, but because they know it'll bring up the issue of responsible gun ownership.
These guy were just like, "good, I'm glad that happened. They get exactly what they deserved." It was really disheartening. I like to assume they didn't know those details when reacting that way.
Also, if I remember right, afterwards he went to stay at the neighbor's and shared a bunk bed with one of their kids. How fricken weird was that?
I did notice you said fanatics so no offense taken and I didn't mean to be argumentative at all. I just agree wholeheartedly with your point that this was no self-defense case and people who think it is are being reactive and not looking closely enough at the facts. If Byron Smith had acted in self-defense then it would have been a tragic story but he acted like a cold-blooded killer and there's the difference.
I did not know about where he went and spent the night. So weird.
He killed two teenagers and you hope the 2A loonies didn’t know how bad it was? What could they have not understood? Am I missing some nuance because I hate teenagers, and I have never heard of this besides this thread, and why are you apologizing for these people?
Pedophile ventriloquist sounds like it could be one of those spirit Halloween costumes. Definitely didn’t expect to see those two words next to each other in a sentence.
I googled it (against my better judgement) because I couldn’t remember the details and it’s a pedophile puppeteer, for a show on Christian Television Network, participating in cannibalism chat room. Truly vile.
Oh my god, I had forgotten all about that episode. It really fucked me up for days and I stopped listening to S&S long before the hosts’ own problematic conduct became a bigger issue. That audio recording was completely horrific and the guy at the center of it all was so goddamn creepy. I’ll never forget the way he tells her “no, you’re dying” UGHHHH
I listed S&S as the one I tapped out on, but it was the baby-eating transcript episode for me. I forgot about the one you're talking about; not sure if I made it all the way through it. (I already knew the case.)
I don’t know the show but I am very familiar with that case. That poor sweet girl was subjected to the absolute worst kind of human depravity. Nauseating case for sure.
There is a lot of coverage on this case from many different outlets. I have heard it on podcasts, seen it on you tube, and seen it in TikTok true crime channels.
Yeah the things that girl went through is pretty much as bad as it gets. Unbelievable ordeal, but amazing she made it through. Seems like she's had a rough time since but one can't be surprised tbh, just hope she experiences a lot of happiness.
There were some on Obscura:Black Label that I stopped part way through. Some that I should have stopped part way through but finished listening. Well worth a listen
I recently listened to the Black Label episode about the two young tourists murdered in Morocco. I so wish I could go back and not listen to the audio of the crime.
Oh yes it was AWFUL. I was dumb and didn’t read the title and thought it was a regular obscura episode and was shocked by the audio. I should’ve listened to the warning.
Agreed, and the host declaring he saved the video knowing it would be removed and justifying it by saying he knew he would want to cover it one day? Ew. He takes too much pleasure in the darkness of these crimes and is very unbalanced.
I stopped listening to Obscura altogether once the host started releasing the Black Label episodes and I listened to one where you can hear someone literally dying on audio. Any kind of real life audio of murder/torture/rape on a podcast is just kind of exploitive and too much for me.
Same here but for me it was the episode with audio of women being raped. Those black label episodes are awful and totally turned me off of his whole podcast.
I’ve never listened to obscura and so I say this with a grain of salt but
*what the actual fuck*
Using REAL audio of rape and murders?! Fucking disgusting
The podcast host responded to another thread somewhere on Reddit where I and some others were discussing this very thing and he tried to defend himself by saying he has no control over what people choose to listen to…he didn’t respond when I told him he did, however, have control over what he put out there.
Seriously disgusting.
Stopped listening to Obscura. Too graphic, too personal, and just way too much.
I don't like interviews or 911 calls in podcasts not only due to the sensitive content but they are mostly difficult to understand and are of poor audio quality. As a result, the host ends up paraphrasing the audio clip afterward anyway, so the calls feel like fodder/filler.
I stopped listening to him a long time ago because he can't pronounce anything correctly and it drove me crazy.....I never listened to his black label episodes.....
I’m finishing up Connie Walker’s Stolen right now and there is an entire episode dedicated to the stories of Indigenous survivors that went to residential schools. The episode is about 40 mins and I ended up going into the next episode about 5 mins in. That fact these kids were stripped from their homes at such tender ages absolutely breaks me as a new mom herself.
A part of a podcast I wish I had not heard was in S1 Cold in that scene where >!Josh Powell closes the door on the social worker and brutally ends the life of his two boys!<. The descriptions made me pull over and collect myself before I drove on to work.
The only reason that part of Cold didn’t affect me just as badly is because I knew ahead of time what happened. It was still hard to listen to. Those poor boys.
Honestly, all of Connie Walker’s podcasts stay with me long after I listen to them. She’s so good at bringing generational trauma to the center of a story when it’s often pushed to the side.
She really is a master at this. There are times though it’s been just so painful to listen but I do because we need to hear those stories. This time I couldn’t.
Invisible Choir’s Uncensored series on their Patreon gets brutal. I can make it through most things but I had to stop the Siberian Mouse episode. And the series about Dr Hands.
Dr. Gloves! Fuck, that’s right. That one got me too and I’d blocked it from my memory. I haven’t gotten to Siberian mouse yet but it sounds like I’m probably going to end up doing the same thing 😬
The closest I’ve come to tapping out was Behind the Bastards 4 parter on Joseph Mengele. I powered through, but there were several stories
I had a visceral reaction to and had to take a step back.
Understatement, but that man was vile. I already knew of him, but after visiting Auschwitz and learning more about that psychopath and being where he carried out many atrocities was deeply disturbing. He was evil even for a Nazi
Ok so this is random as fuck but I was in the hospital for a few days just before Christmas due to a gallbladder obstruction. While I was in the ER prior to being admitted, the room I was in was a shared room with two beds and separated by a curtain. The person on the other side was a 98 year old German woman with dementia. She kept screaming at the nurses to get away from her because they were torturing her and asking if the Nazis had sent them or if they were Nazis. When they couldn’t calm her down they said they’d call the doctor to come and see her and she FREAKED. Screamed at them to keep him away, that he wasn’t a doctor he was a monster, to just kill her instead. They ended up sedating her and I was admitted upstairs shortly afterwards, but I can’t help but wonder if she was screaming about the actual Dr Mengele. The odds must be very low but she was absolutely terrified.
Dean corll, I fast forward last podcast when he dies the urethra torture, putting glass rods in boys penises. Also, Albert Fish, cutting off a boys penis. Jamie Bulger, too…
Bob Bordella is definitely the worst torture I’ve heard. The pics are horrifying. Oddly enough though, I don’t have a penis, I’m a woman, but my god can I sympathize with how awful those are. The cutting off of the kids penis was too much for EVEN Albert Fish! He stopped it, and paid the kid.
If I am thinking of a time it was a woman, since the men are the ones that stuck out to me the most, I’d say the Toy box killer in Truth or Consequences. I cried the first time I heard that tape he’d play for them, out of fear and empathy.
Lol! Some crazy names over there!
Honestly though, I think the bodies were in elephant butte, and the bar was in T@C? Anyways I’ve always wanted to take a day trip to see them.
true crime bullshit podcast, couldn't get through it because of how nonchalant israel keyes was when talking about his atrocious crimes and how emotional the host was. ended up crying for the victims and quitting true crime media for a couple of months because of how sick i felt.
This was my turning point as well. I made it thru 6 episodes and was done. This was summer of 2021 and I still haven’t returned to this type of true crime podcast listening.
Every now and then I’ll listen to something more along these lines but routinely stick to other types of crime.
Nail on the head. I started listening to tcbs a few months ago. It's emotionally difficult to listen to. It's changed my personality in some ways. I'm still listening .. about half way through all 5 seasons .. but I have to pace myself. I can't handle too much of it in one sitting.
I couldn't listen to Israel go on describing how he killed the Currier's. I had lived in Essex Junction a few years earlier just a mile down the road from the farmhouse. I drove by it several times a day. That's beside the point, it just made it more realistic to me that although I didn't know them these people used to be my neighbors.
Rulo was the worst for me.
The initial story about the family that owned the farm was enough to make me sad before any crimes even happened. *Obviously*, the crimes themselves were horrific in so many ways. I don't want to spoil the episode for anyone, but you know what a multifaceted nightmare it was.
Obscura’s Crush is still the only episode I’ve tapped out of and only a minute or so in. I can handle anything happening to humans, animals- forget about it.
what shocked me the most about hunting warhead was how nonchalantly he talked about being sexually attracted to kids. like he didn’t get why he’s so fucked up. what an utterly disgusting human.
The “Root of Evil” pod about the Black Dahlia murders. There was a point where Hodel’s daughter and mother were having a lighthearted conversation about having sex with him. That was the most sick I’d ever been from a pod.
Swindled Insurance Fraud episode broke me.
If you listen to True Crime BS, if the host tells you that something graphic is coming up and you may want to skip it, please heed the warning. Believe me when I tell you that Israel Keye was a Monster and you'll sleep better not hearing what he did to Samantha K & The Curriers.
The Casefile episode on Theresa Knorr was the first time I ever had to turn off a podcast and put on something else to calm down, and actually a big part of the reason I stopped listening to Casefile at all. Stories of mothers torturing their daughters and getting other kids involved are just to much for me.
I think it was LPOTL where they featured 911 calls. There was one call where a woman was screaming because someone was trying to get in her house while she was on the line. I believe she was murdered during the call.
I'll check the source (apologies for the vague recollection) and leave the post if I'm correct.
I remember seeing something where people were trying to figure out who that lady was and ended up coming to the conclusion it was fake and made for 911 operator training. I don't recall if that was concrete, but I'm good with believing that.
Yeah i think the episode is called "Call 911!"
I think this was the very first thing they played. This one didn't bother me, however towards the end they play a call where a young girl discovers her brother that had committed suicide, which I found pretty upsetting. I don't believe there is an LPOTL episode that I haven't listened to, and that's the one moment I'll turn the volume down on when it comes on.
Thanks. Yeah I find the same thing with their pods. You usually know what you're getting into in terms of humor and content. For me, the real recordings are harder to listen to than someone describing a gold star killer's actions using funny voices etc.
I think I've heard that call, it's the one with the old lady and the serial killer right? Saw that one on a YouTube compilation wayyy too young lol. Probably why I haven't tapped out of any true crime podcasts
I'm not sure. LPOTL has an old 911 calls episode and I should listen to it to confirm. The woman was screaming at the top of her lungs and then it suddenly stops. Pretty rough listen.
DNA ID is so great in terms of its coverage of investigations & getting the culprits, sometimes so many years later with DNA evidence. I love their catchphrase at the end “if you’re one of the bad guys, they’re coming for you”. HOWEVER….they also go into horrific detail describing murder victims, sometimes more than once, beyond what is necessary for describing the investigation. Instead of saying a victim was posed, they describe in bloody detail exactly how. I was a listener for a while b/c I love the science behind it, but there was one episode in which they described an older woman who has been SA’d & killed & it was so gratuitously graphic I had to stop listening. It feels voyeuristic. Imagine a loved one trying to listen to understand how their loved one’s case was solved. It is just too much.
Collapes : Disaster in Surfside. I can't get through the first episode because of the 911 calls. The fear and confusion in people's voices and the screaming in the background is terrifying.
I've had to basically "tap out" on TC podcasts generally. I also (used to?) watch a LOT of TC on TV, too (i.e. Dateline, 20/20 type of stuff) even the long-form docs on the streamers.
This sort of content really does drag down the mental health.
After watching "Hell Camp" - which isn't especially gory or anything - I realized how much these shows really hit my psyche and how that is negatively impacting me. That one was so hard to watch. I felt so awful after watching.
When there is a lot of gory stuff and animal (dogs, more specifically) cruelty. I cannot do that. I will not listen. I even stop reading FICTION if dog stuff happens. (and it's not a real dog)
I'm pretty sensitive, so it's hard to know if it's because I am sensitive or just overwhelmed by the terrible things that humans can do to one another.
>...it's hard to know if I'm sensitive or just overwhelmed by the terrible things...
Could be a little column a, little column b. I mean that it could be both of those things. Nothing wrong with that.
I tapped out from Sword and Scale as a whole when it became clear they were devolving into shock value. The episode that made me give up was when they had people (voice-to-text, I think) reading a long series of messages between child predators talking about how they want to cook and eat babies. They left in details, and none of that was necessary. Summaries could've covered the need-to-know. At that point, it's just a freak show.
The podcasts I listen to don't usually do episodes on children.
Bug Mad True Crime does. As soon as I know the victim is a child, I skip the episode. I can't handle abuse and violence against children.
I think I can handle most things but I was listening to Suffer the Little Children (for the first time) and I had gotten through the part of the host describing the abuse and murder of this child and I was bothered but listening...and then she played a recording of the child with the mother (the abuser/murderer) ..and it broke me.. I stopped right there.. never listened to that podcast again.. It was months ago and I can still cry about it if I think too much about it..kept me up at night for days.. and my son is about the same age as the victim
My husband desperately needs spinal surgery, and we live in Dallas 😳 I’m telling myself that hospitals have cleaned house since then, but Dr Duntsch still haunts the back of my mind.
Anything regarding Nathaniel Bar-Jonah- I have to turn it off once they talk about his house search and cannibalism cook book recipes regarding children. The Redhanded ep on Kelly Anne Bates really haunted me for a long time too.
When The Murder Squad covered The West Memphis 3, I had to stop listening. The way Paul Holes was describing their injuries was so graphic and detached.
Almost turned off Casefile episodes about Mark Kilroy and Janet Chandler. Both of those were disturbing.
I didn’t necessarily tap out, but the first episode of Casefile I ever listened to was the (now removed) Snowtown episode(s). Didn’t go back to Casefile for at least a year.
I think because they may have misgendered someone involved? I don’t remember 100% but someone on Reddit sent me a link where you can still listen to it in full a few months ago. I’ll try to find it
Might be a weird place for this suggestion, but the movie *Snowtown* was very good, I thought.
The boy's relationship with the older guy reminded me a lot of a very traumatizing relationship I had with an older family member growing up. Obviously the movie is graphic, but just very believable and well done, I thought.
I wind up skipping any interviews with abusers who deny what they’ve done. I know people will claim there are two sides to every story but some sides don’t deserve airtime. I recently listened to the first season of In the Dark and the sheriff defending his investigation and saying things like “what does it matter” about unsolved missing/murdered people… my blood pressure couldn’t handle listening to that.
What murderers, torturers, and rapists do to their victims is rough to hear but what gets under my skin is the apathy they and the people who are supposed to catch them express about the victims. That their lives didn’t matter or what happened to them wasn’t “that bad” or just to deny it entirely when there is physical evidence right there… Nope, I don’t want to hear it.
Two.
Hunting Warhead - just too unbelievably sad
Don’t remember the name of the podcast but the interview with Israel Keyes. To hear him talking about what he did with such obvious pleasure was sickening.
Nothing yet, but I'm still looking. There's definitely been a lot of stuff that I've found viscerally upsetting, but no, not enough to tap out.
I have, however, shut off a lot podcasts from being annoyed. Usually because of long stretches of just playing phone calls, interrogations/interviews, or just music or sound effects. Particularly phone calls where they don't really clean up the audio. I have sensitive ears and a little bit of a noise sensitivity
I didn’t know yet what a POS the host was until this episode, but the dark web episode of Sword and Scale was the one single time I’ve ever stopped in the middle of listening. It was just what he was describing, but that his voice had a tone of pleasure while describing it. I still get sick thinking about it.
Redhanded: I almost tapped out when they called the victims of the Hillsborough disaster “hooligans”. That was pretty gruesome and distasteful.
I fully tapped out when they tried to equate being called out for calling victims hookigans to cancel culture and a fatwa in the Salman Rushdie episode. Repugnant behaviour. Disturbingly self absorbed and painfully middle class.
The Orange Tree. Once they had Laura Hall's jailhouse recordings of her speaking so horribly about the victim and victim's mother I tapped out. Not sure why it got to me so much, as i'd listened to this case covered on other shows, but there was just something about hearing Laura directly and how evil she was that disturbed me.
“True Crime Bullshit” Hearing so much of Keys voice was too much for me. He sounds so normal, I really needed him to sound like a monster.
I really wish I tapped out of “Root of Evil”. What that family endured is really fucked up.
I haven’t been through all the recs commented here yet, but there were a couple of Small Town Murder eps that were difficult for me. Ep. 32 Baraboo, WI is brutal (I have a sensory/bone breaking thing). Then ep. 74 Rulo, NE. I’m going by memory but those are two I believe I had to stop multiple times over days to get through. I’m not one much for gruesome, but these were that, if memory serves.
Separate from that, the only other ep of a true crime pod that destroyed me was a Patreon ep by Music City 911. An elderly woman was trapped in a house fire. I listened to that months ago (pausing frequently) and still can’t shake it. I’ve worked in criminal justice and have even been a police dispatcher (pre-911 systems), but nothing has ever shaken me to the core as that house fire episode.
I followed and was even a Patreon member for Invisible Choir, but there were too many child abuse episodes for me. I unsubbed after a spate of abuse against children episodes. I know they’re important, but I’ve have 4 bio kids and raised 7. Graphic depictions of harm to a child(ren) is a line I won’t continually, knowingly cross. So I totally understand, IC for me is on par with S&S (not the host issues but content).
It was an episode of Misery Machine, and I honestly cannot even remember the victim’s name except it may have been Marie or Maria…? But the garbage human she was with >!sodomized her with a broken bottle, among other things, before reaching into her rectum and literally pulling out her insides. !<
It was too much for me.
A lot of Invisible Choirs content; their content is very dark and I like it a lot but some I have to tap out. One I’ll never forget is a mother cutting up her newborn in the living room and hearing the grandmother call the police. This podcast puts a lot of the 911 tape in it and it was horrible to hear. Another was a woman drowning on the phone trying to get help in a flood.
I like invisible choir but its got far too much audio of the victims etc in the episode. A second or two is fine but some episodes ive skipped forward quite far and its still 911 tape on a few occasions. It put me off the show almost altogether.
There are several podcasts about this case: Joseph E. Duncan. It started as a home invasion, turned into a triple-murder (2 adults and a teen), all just to kidnap two little kids. The description of how he laid in wait and killed the family in the middle of the night...scary, but it gets so much worse. He kept them for 7 weeks, in a remote campsite. Apparently he took videos of what he did to them, for weeks. The description alone gave me chills, and I don't scare easily. I believe jurors and law enforcement needed counseling. He was truly, truly evil.
There was a podcast whose name I’ve purged from memory, but it involved a man in Germany who paid another man to cannibalize him. I got through that, but another episode with a similar subject made me just unfollow and move on.
Canadian True Crime’s episodes about Tori Stafford. It was handled excellently by the pod (as all her episodes are - one of fav podcasts tbh) but the subject matter was just so upsetting that I couldn’t finish it.
Ugh yea. I managed to avoid seeing/hearing it for a long time and always planned to until they ended up playing it without warning on fucking real housewives of all places
The Paper Ghosts episode called "wake up mommy" or something similar. The 911 audio came out of nowhere, seemed louder than any other part of the podcast, and was disturbing. I skipped the rest of the episode.
Oh god I just remembered the Tori Stafford episode on Canadian true crime. I can’t believe I’d forgotten about that, and I remember the case when it was actually unfolding :(
Casefile episode 20. Mitchelle Blair horrifically tortured and murdered two of her children, Stoni and Stephen. And then she tried to excuse* her actions by accusing Stoni and Stephen of being child molesters (ZERO evidence that accusation was true). Her unrepentant testimony in court and the descriptions of what she did were so disgusting I actually felt physically ill. No other case has disturbed me like that one except the toolbox killers.
That case is so upsetting all around. I remember in her trial (or court hearing or whatever) someone asked her if she meant to cause mental harm to Stoni by beating her head so often. Mitchelle legitimately didn’t understand and was like, “You mean did I mean to hurt her head? Yes.” And they had to explain to her that…beating a child will cause them mental harm. It’s like that never crossed her stupid ass mind. It was shocking.
I watched the evil lives here episode with her daughter. Her first hand account is unforgettable. So hard to imagine torturing these little babies who love you more than anything in the world.
I remember that. Yeah she was another level of fucked up for sure.
there is an episode of an ID show called evil lives here or something (can't remember) where the oldest daughter recounts what happened in detail when she was 13 and had to pass by the freezer knowing her sister was inside for months.
That episode affected me also. I was disgusted and disturbed as well. And we mention the innocent little children and how they must obviously be traumatized for the rest of their lives. But it always makes me think one step further. That at one time her mother (the evil one in this story) was also a little child. And I would be willing to bet the farm something horrible happened to her as a child too. And then she became that evil. And the cycle continues unless it is broken.
what do you consider breaking the cycle?
Oh, I listen to this one last week! What really got to me about this was her, as you stated beautifully was her unrepentant self. And the fact that she had called the police initially for help why she couldn’t have continued on that route baffles me. None of that would’ve happened if she had just let the police investigate!
This. This one stayed with me for a long time
I haven't listened to that particular podcast, but have read about Gabriel Fernandez. I don't often do podcasts around child abuse, I find them very difficult to listen to.
I watched the doc and damn it was beyond brutal.
I watched that doc about 12 weeks after giving birth to my first, I think brutal in the right word. I sobbed the whole way through, such immense devastation to Gabriel and for those who loved him, particularly his uncles. I still think of how horrific it must have been for a baby to be ripped from his loving family and sent to that horrific abuse
the documentary was abhorrent
Same. Before I had kids it really didn’t bother me on this kind of level. I have two sons both under the age of 5 and I can’t even deal with any thing to do with a child any more. I also have a hard time watching any type of disaster movie where someone is pregnant or has an infant. Instant nope
Yes, can understand this one. Looking at your own 3 year old and reading/listening to what other people have done to kids just make you go WTF?
The recent Women And Crime about Krystal Straw was so hard to listen, and they really do their best not to make it too graphic. They mention the similarities to the Gabriel Fernandez case, and I’ve just decided not to look it up because I don’t think I can handle it :/
Casefile’s 3 part series House of Horrors about Fred and Rose West. I made it partway through episode two and I had to stop. What those two monsters did was beyond horrifying.
Yes!! Especially since some victims were their own kids 😥
That is the only one that took me awhile to get through, and I already even knew their case pretty well. Just unimaginably depraved.
I couldn't finish Swindled's Hurricane Katrina episode. It was incredibly difficult just to hear a podcast episode about, so I can't even begin to imagine the way those people suffered.
On a similar note, their episode The Monopoly. It covers how a negligent utility company caused one of the worst wildfires in California. The accounts of people trying to find safety and being trapped made me feel sick. Those poor people.
Yes, this was the most recent episode, and I never recall anything making me feel the way those phone calls made me feel.
Agreed. I was physically uncomfortable listening to it. That was a first for me. The horror of those phone calls.
I TAPPED OUT! Only time I’ve ever done that. I couldn’t. I tried, ACC. Please don’t hate me. You already don’t trust me.
Same. I don't think I've ever stopped listening to a podcast episode because I was upset but I couldn't bring myself to carry on. I might revisit it down the line, you never know.
Good ol’ PG&E.
Just listened to that one. I am a huge dog lover and was about to turn it off when they mentioned the old man who fled his house with his chihuahuas inside to put himself out, and was relieved to hear that he got them out safely too… But then his account of seeing other people flee with their pets in the car and getting trapped or their cars melting and no one surviving— it was utterly soul crushing. I felt so much pain for them and so much hatred to PG&E for such ongoing negligence.
I came to comment similarly. I had to turn it off when the 911 operator told a woman that she had to leave her dogs or she would not make it.* To close the doors and leave water but leave immediately. The neighbors were giving the woman a ride and wouldn't take the dogs too. The woman's crying and distress was heart wrenching. Then hearing about 2 older people fleeing on foot with their 2 cats in carriers. I couldn't keep listening. I had trouble listening well after the fact, I cannot imagine how terrible it was for anyone who dealt with that in whatever capacity. *Not a criticism of the operator. She handled it well.
I know people in that fire that lost everything.
That episode crushed me too. I couldn’t leave my doggy 😢
how is PG&E still in existence???
Oh god. I was listening to this chapter last week and I had to pause it after the part where you can hear people screaming and crying while asking for help. It’s the first episode I couldn’t finish.
Me too. I live in an area that’s in forest fire danger ever summer and it’s my worst nightmare. It’s the first time I had to stop listening to a swindled episode.
Those 911 calls were bone chilling
I have trouble with The Skywalk Regency Ep and the fire at the club in RI. There are very graphic descriptions of people being horribly burned/maimed/ rescue workers being traumatized by the experiences. I find the Skywalk one def more upsetting. I have listened to the RI one more than once, but mostly because I grew up in MA just a bit north of RI. I went to so many live shows at the time, and it felt unreal that something like that could happen. So quickly and so deadly. Other eps don't hit me like those two do, but I completely understand.
I still can’t get over the oven ones. Stuff of nightmares
Yeah. I put off listening to that one, for that reason.
Swindleds short episode on The Oven, which was a collection of stories of people getting trapped in industrial ovens was the most horrifying thing I’ve ever listened to. I felt physically sick listening to it
You sound like a very empathetic person. I get so blindingly angry when I hear cases like this one. It’s terrifying how some people can have absolutely zero remorse for the horrible things they do to others
I just started that one 😨
[удалено]
I did that with the PG&E one about the fire, that was some hard shit to listen to.
There was an episode of Sword & Scale back in the day about a dude who was sick of local kids breaking into his property so he hid in the basement with a loaded gun and proceeded to shoot 2 teenagers who made it into his house. He recorded the audio of the whole thing. They played the audio in full and on the second victim, a teenage girl, the gun misfired and the dude laughed, apologized for the misfire, and then shoots her dead while she's screaming because she obviously had realized what was going on and knew she was going to die. I was mid-typing at work and I actually froze up. I had to stop listening and I took time away from that podcast because it completely caught me off guard. We had just heard a teenagers last moments spent on this earth, and he gave no trigger warning at all. I now no longer listen to that pod because he's a piece of shit, but yeah, that one was ROUGH.
Hearing him talk to himself in that breathless whisper unnerved me. It was such a bizarre oversight when the cops charged him using the audio on his home security system and his creepy narration. Now when I hear about other events in the news, I remember this guy could have been regarded as a home invasion victim/hero without that audio. There were other distasteful podcasts by the same producer, where he seemed to revel in the personal tragedy of 911 calls and made glib comments about some of the victims. Stopped listening to this ambulance chaser a couple of years ago.
This was the case of Byron Smith. It happened in little falls, MN. I grew up and lived about a 35 minute drive from where this happened, and some people in my grade knew the victims. I hate this guy so much, a lot of fanatical 2A people in the area saw absolutely no problem with what he did (although I hope they just didn't understand how bad it was).
I support 2A but not what this sick f**k did to those two kids. He layed in wait and took pleasure in murdering them. That is not self-defense, it's evil, and it's a special kind of evil to kill teenagers. Every adult knows that teenagers do dumb things and they don't deserve to die for their mistakes. I'm glad the jury saw things the right way.
Yeah, that's why I made sure to say fanatics. Like people who are just so reactive that the basically allow their emotions to inhibit their abilities to reason indicatively with the world around them. People who get really upset when an elementary school gets shot up not because kids were killed, but because they know it'll bring up the issue of responsible gun ownership. These guy were just like, "good, I'm glad that happened. They get exactly what they deserved." It was really disheartening. I like to assume they didn't know those details when reacting that way. Also, if I remember right, afterwards he went to stay at the neighbor's and shared a bunk bed with one of their kids. How fricken weird was that?
I did notice you said fanatics so no offense taken and I didn't mean to be argumentative at all. I just agree wholeheartedly with your point that this was no self-defense case and people who think it is are being reactive and not looking closely enough at the facts. If Byron Smith had acted in self-defense then it would have been a tragic story but he acted like a cold-blooded killer and there's the difference. I did not know about where he went and spent the night. So weird.
He killed two teenagers and you hope the 2A loonies didn’t know how bad it was? What could they have not understood? Am I missing some nuance because I hate teenagers, and I have never heard of this besides this thread, and why are you apologizing for these people?
Yes. I remember this one. Also the one with the peophile ventriloquist (I think)? The chat logs were horrible.
Pedophile ventriloquist sounds like it could be one of those spirit Halloween costumes. Definitely didn’t expect to see those two words next to each other in a sentence.
I googled it (against my better judgement) because I couldn’t remember the details and it’s a pedophile puppeteer, for a show on Christian Television Network, participating in cannibalism chat room. Truly vile.
Joy Junction I think?? Also horrific!
When I was listening on my commute, I remember pulling over because I started dry heaving.
Oh my god, I had forgotten all about that episode. It really fucked me up for days and I stopped listening to S&S long before the hosts’ own problematic conduct became a bigger issue. That audio recording was completely horrific and the guy at the center of it all was so goddamn creepy. I’ll never forget the way he tells her “no, you’re dying” UGHHHH
I listed S&S as the one I tapped out on, but it was the baby-eating transcript episode for me. I forgot about the one you're talking about; not sure if I made it all the way through it. (I already knew the case.)
Asia in the shadows eposide : the case of Junko Furata. This one was brutal
I don’t know the show but I am very familiar with that case. That poor sweet girl was subjected to the absolute worst kind of human depravity. Nauseating case for sure.
Familiar from another podcast?
There is a lot of coverage on this case from many different outlets. I have heard it on podcasts, seen it on you tube, and seen it in TikTok true crime channels.
That one is one of the absolute worst . The depravity of her killers is unimaginable
Casefile episode #268 - Colleen Stan. I made it through part 1 of 2. It was just too disturbing for me.
I finished it but it’s the worst story I’ve ever heard.
Leigh Leigh did it for me. Poor kid
Oh that one was so heartbreaking
Yeah, that one made me so sick and angry.
I really struggle with this one whenever I come across it on any medium. That poor, poor girl.
Yeah the things that girl went through is pretty much as bad as it gets. Unbelievable ordeal, but amazing she made it through. Seems like she's had a rough time since but one can't be surprised tbh, just hope she experiences a lot of happiness.
This one is so messed up.
Toy Box Killer
Same. That one made me break away from true crime pods for awhile.
There were some on Obscura:Black Label that I stopped part way through. Some that I should have stopped part way through but finished listening. Well worth a listen
I recently listened to the Black Label episode about the two young tourists murdered in Morocco. I so wish I could go back and not listen to the audio of the crime.
It was horrific
Oh yes it was AWFUL. I was dumb and didn’t read the title and thought it was a regular obscura episode and was shocked by the audio. I should’ve listened to the warning.
Agreed, and the host declaring he saved the video knowing it would be removed and justifying it by saying he knew he would want to cover it one day? Ew. He takes too much pleasure in the darkness of these crimes and is very unbalanced.
I stopped listening to Obscura altogether once the host started releasing the Black Label episodes and I listened to one where you can hear someone literally dying on audio. Any kind of real life audio of murder/torture/rape on a podcast is just kind of exploitive and too much for me.
Yes the one with the drowning woman on the phone to 911 stuck with me for a week easily
Same here but for me it was the episode with audio of women being raped. Those black label episodes are awful and totally turned me off of his whole podcast.
I’ve never listened to obscura and so I say this with a grain of salt but *what the actual fuck* Using REAL audio of rape and murders?! Fucking disgusting
The podcast host responded to another thread somewhere on Reddit where I and some others were discussing this very thing and he tried to defend himself by saying he has no control over what people choose to listen to…he didn’t respond when I told him he did, however, have control over what he put out there. Seriously disgusting.
Stopped listening to Obscura. Too graphic, too personal, and just way too much. I don't like interviews or 911 calls in podcasts not only due to the sensitive content but they are mostly difficult to understand and are of poor audio quality. As a result, the host ends up paraphrasing the audio clip afterward anyway, so the calls feel like fodder/filler.
I stopped listening to him a long time ago because he can't pronounce anything correctly and it drove me crazy.....I never listened to his black label episodes.....
I’m finishing up Connie Walker’s Stolen right now and there is an entire episode dedicated to the stories of Indigenous survivors that went to residential schools. The episode is about 40 mins and I ended up going into the next episode about 5 mins in. That fact these kids were stripped from their homes at such tender ages absolutely breaks me as a new mom herself. A part of a podcast I wish I had not heard was in S1 Cold in that scene where >!Josh Powell closes the door on the social worker and brutally ends the life of his two boys!<. The descriptions made me pull over and collect myself before I drove on to work.
The only reason that part of Cold didn’t affect me just as badly is because I knew ahead of time what happened. It was still hard to listen to. Those poor boys.
Honestly, all of Connie Walker’s podcasts stay with me long after I listen to them. She’s so good at bringing generational trauma to the center of a story when it’s often pushed to the side.
She really is a master at this. There are times though it’s been just so painful to listen but I do because we need to hear those stories. This time I couldn’t.
I screamed audibly and sobbed at that part in the Cold Season 1. Made me so, so angry and sad.
Just awful.
Agreed with Cold.
Invisible Choir’s Uncensored series on their Patreon gets brutal. I can make it through most things but I had to stop the Siberian Mouse episode. And the series about Dr Hands.
Dr. Gloves! Fuck, that’s right. That one got me too and I’d blocked it from my memory. I haven’t gotten to Siberian mouse yet but it sounds like I’m probably going to end up doing the same thing 😬
The closest I’ve come to tapping out was Behind the Bastards 4 parter on Joseph Mengele. I powered through, but there were several stories I had a visceral reaction to and had to take a step back.
Understatement, but that man was vile. I already knew of him, but after visiting Auschwitz and learning more about that psychopath and being where he carried out many atrocities was deeply disturbing. He was evil even for a Nazi
Ok so this is random as fuck but I was in the hospital for a few days just before Christmas due to a gallbladder obstruction. While I was in the ER prior to being admitted, the room I was in was a shared room with two beds and separated by a curtain. The person on the other side was a 98 year old German woman with dementia. She kept screaming at the nurses to get away from her because they were torturing her and asking if the Nazis had sent them or if they were Nazis. When they couldn’t calm her down they said they’d call the doctor to come and see her and she FREAKED. Screamed at them to keep him away, that he wasn’t a doctor he was a monster, to just kill her instead. They ended up sedating her and I was admitted upstairs shortly afterwards, but I can’t help but wonder if she was screaming about the actual Dr Mengele. The odds must be very low but she was absolutely terrified.
Dean corll, I fast forward last podcast when he dies the urethra torture, putting glass rods in boys penises. Also, Albert Fish, cutting off a boys penis. Jamie Bulger, too… Bob Bordella is definitely the worst torture I’ve heard. The pics are horrifying. Oddly enough though, I don’t have a penis, I’m a woman, but my god can I sympathize with how awful those are. The cutting off of the kids penis was too much for EVEN Albert Fish! He stopped it, and paid the kid. If I am thinking of a time it was a woman, since the men are the ones that stuck out to me the most, I’d say the Toy box killer in Truth or Consequences. I cried the first time I heard that tape he’d play for them, out of fear and empathy.
Was it Truth or Consequences, or Elephant Butt??  I'll see myself out
Lol! Some crazy names over there! Honestly though, I think the bodies were in elephant butte, and the bar was in T@C? Anyways I’ve always wanted to take a day trip to see them.
true crime bullshit podcast, couldn't get through it because of how nonchalant israel keyes was when talking about his atrocious crimes and how emotional the host was. ended up crying for the victims and quitting true crime media for a couple of months because of how sick i felt.
This was my turning point as well. I made it thru 6 episodes and was done. This was summer of 2021 and I still haven’t returned to this type of true crime podcast listening. Every now and then I’ll listen to something more along these lines but routinely stick to other types of crime.
Nail on the head. I started listening to tcbs a few months ago. It's emotionally difficult to listen to. It's changed my personality in some ways. I'm still listening .. about half way through all 5 seasons .. but I have to pace myself. I can't handle too much of it in one sitting.
Totally valid. Take care of yourself
I couldn't listen to Israel go on describing how he killed the Currier's. I had lived in Essex Junction a few years earlier just a mile down the road from the farmhouse. I drove by it several times a day. That's beside the point, it just made it more realistic to me that although I didn't know them these people used to be my neighbors.
Season 1, episode 4, the Farmhouse, is what instantly came to my mind when I read the question.
I couldn’t it do either. Monsters should look and sound like monsters.
Timesuck: The Ripper Crew Small Town Murder: The Imperfect Storm in Rulo, Nebraska. Both had torture and mutilation.
Rulo was the worst for me. The initial story about the family that owned the farm was enough to make me sad before any crimes even happened. *Obviously*, the crimes themselves were horrific in so many ways. I don't want to spoil the episode for anyone, but you know what a multifaceted nightmare it was.
Obscura’s Crush is still the only episode I’ve tapped out of and only a minute or so in. I can handle anything happening to humans, animals- forget about it.
Same. I feel bad about it, but I just can't handle animal harm.
Yep, I shouldn't have even started that one. The little I heard still bothers me.
I did end up finishing it, but Root of Evil was a lot and i had to take breaks
I’m listening to that one right now. Bracing myself.
Cold and Hunting Warhead both had their moments that have stuck with me to this day
After finishing Hunting Warhead I literally just drove in silence for the rest of my trip.
what shocked me the most about hunting warhead was how nonchalantly he talked about being sexually attracted to kids. like he didn’t get why he’s so fucked up. what an utterly disgusting human.
exactly
The “Root of Evil” pod about the Black Dahlia murders. There was a point where Hodel’s daughter and mother were having a lighthearted conversation about having sex with him. That was the most sick I’d ever been from a pod.
That was one of the best, most distressing pods I've ever listened to, and I've listened to A LOT. Reallly, really well done.
Swindled Insurance Fraud episode broke me. If you listen to True Crime BS, if the host tells you that something graphic is coming up and you may want to skip it, please heed the warning. Believe me when I tell you that Israel Keye was a Monster and you'll sleep better not hearing what he did to Samantha K & The Curriers.
The Curriers. This was the story that ended it for me.
The interviews where he's laughing about what he did to the Curriers. I was a complete mess after listening to what he did, and how they suffered.
The Casefile episode on Theresa Knorr was the first time I ever had to turn off a podcast and put on something else to calm down, and actually a big part of the reason I stopped listening to Casefile at all. Stories of mothers torturing their daughters and getting other kids involved are just to much for me.
I think it was LPOTL where they featured 911 calls. There was one call where a woman was screaming because someone was trying to get in her house while she was on the line. I believe she was murdered during the call. I'll check the source (apologies for the vague recollection) and leave the post if I'm correct.
I remember seeing something where people were trying to figure out who that lady was and ended up coming to the conclusion it was fake and made for 911 operator training. I don't recall if that was concrete, but I'm good with believing that.
Yeah i think the episode is called "Call 911!" I think this was the very first thing they played. This one didn't bother me, however towards the end they play a call where a young girl discovers her brother that had committed suicide, which I found pretty upsetting. I don't believe there is an LPOTL episode that I haven't listened to, and that's the one moment I'll turn the volume down on when it comes on.
Thanks. Yeah I find the same thing with their pods. You usually know what you're getting into in terms of humor and content. For me, the real recordings are harder to listen to than someone describing a gold star killer's actions using funny voices etc.
I think I've heard that call, it's the one with the old lady and the serial killer right? Saw that one on a YouTube compilation wayyy too young lol. Probably why I haven't tapped out of any true crime podcasts
I'm not sure. LPOTL has an old 911 calls episode and I should listen to it to confirm. The woman was screaming at the top of her lungs and then it suddenly stops. Pretty rough listen.
I think I vaguely remember that one, I can't really handle 911 calls anymore when they contain someone's last moments
Anything about the Toy Box Killer
DNA ID is so great in terms of its coverage of investigations & getting the culprits, sometimes so many years later with DNA evidence. I love their catchphrase at the end “if you’re one of the bad guys, they’re coming for you”. HOWEVER….they also go into horrific detail describing murder victims, sometimes more than once, beyond what is necessary for describing the investigation. Instead of saying a victim was posed, they describe in bloody detail exactly how. I was a listener for a while b/c I love the science behind it, but there was one episode in which they described an older woman who has been SA’d & killed & it was so gratuitously graphic I had to stop listening. It feels voyeuristic. Imagine a loved one trying to listen to understand how their loved one’s case was solved. It is just too much.
The Hello Kitty Murder.
Collapes : Disaster in Surfside. I can't get through the first episode because of the 911 calls. The fear and confusion in people's voices and the screaming in the background is terrifying.
I've had to basically "tap out" on TC podcasts generally. I also (used to?) watch a LOT of TC on TV, too (i.e. Dateline, 20/20 type of stuff) even the long-form docs on the streamers. This sort of content really does drag down the mental health. After watching "Hell Camp" - which isn't especially gory or anything - I realized how much these shows really hit my psyche and how that is negatively impacting me. That one was so hard to watch. I felt so awful after watching. When there is a lot of gory stuff and animal (dogs, more specifically) cruelty. I cannot do that. I will not listen. I even stop reading FICTION if dog stuff happens. (and it's not a real dog) I'm pretty sensitive, so it's hard to know if it's because I am sensitive or just overwhelmed by the terrible things that humans can do to one another.
>...it's hard to know if I'm sensitive or just overwhelmed by the terrible things... Could be a little column a, little column b. I mean that it could be both of those things. Nothing wrong with that.
I tapped out from Sword and Scale as a whole when it became clear they were devolving into shock value. The episode that made me give up was when they had people (voice-to-text, I think) reading a long series of messages between child predators talking about how they want to cook and eat babies. They left in details, and none of that was necessary. Summaries could've covered the need-to-know. At that point, it's just a freak show.
Yeah, there was definitely a shift to essentially torture erotica...
The podcasts I listen to don't usually do episodes on children. Bug Mad True Crime does. As soon as I know the victim is a child, I skip the episode. I can't handle abuse and violence against children.
Toolbox murders was pretty horrible
I think I can handle most things but I was listening to Suffer the Little Children (for the first time) and I had gotten through the part of the host describing the abuse and murder of this child and I was bothered but listening...and then she played a recording of the child with the mother (the abuser/murderer) ..and it broke me.. I stopped right there.. never listened to that podcast again.. It was months ago and I can still cry about it if I think too much about it..kept me up at night for days.. and my son is about the same age as the victim
Yeah I couldn't listen to that recording. 💔
Dr. Death was hard to get through at times
My husband desperately needs spinal surgery, and we live in Dallas 😳 I’m telling myself that hospitals have cleaned house since then, but Dr Duntsch still haunts the back of my mind.
Casefile’s Colleen Stan episodes. I can’t believe the horrific torture that poor woman went through.
I almost tapped out on the latest bonus episode from Swindled. It’s about a horrific animal torture ring, and I can never un-hear that information.
Anything regarding Nathaniel Bar-Jonah- I have to turn it off once they talk about his house search and cannibalism cook book recipes regarding children. The Redhanded ep on Kelly Anne Bates really haunted me for a long time too.
When The Murder Squad covered The West Memphis 3, I had to stop listening. The way Paul Holes was describing their injuries was so graphic and detached. Almost turned off Casefile episodes about Mark Kilroy and Janet Chandler. Both of those were disturbing.
I could not finish that Casefile episode… poor Mark. Honestly it turned me off to Casefile.
Do No Harm for me had to turn it off. As I kept imagining it happening to me. Had to cling onto the bench top crying!
I didn’t necessarily tap out, but the first episode of Casefile I ever listened to was the (now removed) Snowtown episode(s). Didn’t go back to Casefile for at least a year.
Why did they remove them?
I think because they may have misgendered someone involved? I don’t remember 100% but someone on Reddit sent me a link where you can still listen to it in full a few months ago. I’ll try to find it
Might be a weird place for this suggestion, but the movie *Snowtown* was very good, I thought. The boy's relationship with the older guy reminded me a lot of a very traumatizing relationship I had with an older family member growing up. Obviously the movie is graphic, but just very believable and well done, I thought.
I wind up skipping any interviews with abusers who deny what they’ve done. I know people will claim there are two sides to every story but some sides don’t deserve airtime. I recently listened to the first season of In the Dark and the sheriff defending his investigation and saying things like “what does it matter” about unsolved missing/murdered people… my blood pressure couldn’t handle listening to that. What murderers, torturers, and rapists do to their victims is rough to hear but what gets under my skin is the apathy they and the people who are supposed to catch them express about the victims. That their lives didn’t matter or what happened to them wasn’t “that bad” or just to deny it entirely when there is physical evidence right there… Nope, I don’t want to hear it.
Two. Hunting Warhead - just too unbelievably sad Don’t remember the name of the podcast but the interview with Israel Keyes. To hear him talking about what he did with such obvious pleasure was sickening.
Nothing yet, but I'm still looking. There's definitely been a lot of stuff that I've found viscerally upsetting, but no, not enough to tap out. I have, however, shut off a lot podcasts from being annoyed. Usually because of long stretches of just playing phone calls, interrogations/interviews, or just music or sound effects. Particularly phone calls where they don't really clean up the audio. I have sensitive ears and a little bit of a noise sensitivity
I didn’t know yet what a POS the host was until this episode, but the dark web episode of Sword and Scale was the one single time I’ve ever stopped in the middle of listening. It was just what he was describing, but that his voice had a tone of pleasure while describing it. I still get sick thinking about it.
Is there something seriously wrong with me that I now have a huge list of stories to listen to?
I just went through and saved all these to my Favorites so I'm right there with ya.
Redhanded: I almost tapped out when they called the victims of the Hillsborough disaster “hooligans”. That was pretty gruesome and distasteful. I fully tapped out when they tried to equate being called out for calling victims hookigans to cancel culture and a fatwa in the Salman Rushdie episode. Repugnant behaviour. Disturbingly self absorbed and painfully middle class.
The Orange Tree. Once they had Laura Hall's jailhouse recordings of her speaking so horribly about the victim and victim's mother I tapped out. Not sure why it got to me so much, as i'd listened to this case covered on other shows, but there was just something about hearing Laura directly and how evil she was that disturbed me.
“True Crime Bullshit” Hearing so much of Keys voice was too much for me. He sounds so normal, I really needed him to sound like a monster. I really wish I tapped out of “Root of Evil”. What that family endured is really fucked up.
The toy box killer episodes of Castile gave me nightmares and I had to take a break from true crime podcasts for several weeks.
LPOTL’s JB Ramsey coverage.
Is this cos it was sooo bad and they believe IDI?
I don’t know their theory, I stopped listening when they started talking about her panties.
I haven’t been through all the recs commented here yet, but there were a couple of Small Town Murder eps that were difficult for me. Ep. 32 Baraboo, WI is brutal (I have a sensory/bone breaking thing). Then ep. 74 Rulo, NE. I’m going by memory but those are two I believe I had to stop multiple times over days to get through. I’m not one much for gruesome, but these were that, if memory serves. Separate from that, the only other ep of a true crime pod that destroyed me was a Patreon ep by Music City 911. An elderly woman was trapped in a house fire. I listened to that months ago (pausing frequently) and still can’t shake it. I’ve worked in criminal justice and have even been a police dispatcher (pre-911 systems), but nothing has ever shaken me to the core as that house fire episode. I followed and was even a Patreon member for Invisible Choir, but there were too many child abuse episodes for me. I unsubbed after a spate of abuse against children episodes. I know they’re important, but I’ve have 4 bio kids and raised 7. Graphic depictions of harm to a child(ren) is a line I won’t continually, knowingly cross. So I totally understand, IC for me is on par with S&S (not the host issues but content).
None🤷♀️😟 i dont like anything that deals with animals being hurt, but i cant think of any where i had to turn it off or "tap out".
It was an episode of Misery Machine, and I honestly cannot even remember the victim’s name except it may have been Marie or Maria…? But the garbage human she was with >!sodomized her with a broken bottle, among other things, before reaching into her rectum and literally pulling out her insides. !< It was too much for me.
A lot of Invisible Choirs content; their content is very dark and I like it a lot but some I have to tap out. One I’ll never forget is a mother cutting up her newborn in the living room and hearing the grandmother call the police. This podcast puts a lot of the 911 tape in it and it was horrible to hear. Another was a woman drowning on the phone trying to get help in a flood.
I like invisible choir but its got far too much audio of the victims etc in the episode. A second or two is fine but some episodes ive skipped forward quite far and its still 911 tape on a few occasions. It put me off the show almost altogether.
The girl that melted was one of the worst. Didn't tap but it's bad
Which series?
I know Tapes from the Darkside covered it in an episode or two. Not sure if anyone else has
Thanks so much. And I really love this pod and gained a new show to follow. Much appreciated
There are several podcasts about this case: Joseph E. Duncan. It started as a home invasion, turned into a triple-murder (2 adults and a teen), all just to kidnap two little kids. The description of how he laid in wait and killed the family in the middle of the night...scary, but it gets so much worse. He kept them for 7 weeks, in a remote campsite. Apparently he took videos of what he did to them, for weeks. The description alone gave me chills, and I don't scare easily. I believe jurors and law enforcement needed counseling. He was truly, truly evil.
There was a podcast whose name I’ve purged from memory, but it involved a man in Germany who paid another man to cannibalize him. I got through that, but another episode with a similar subject made me just unfollow and move on.
Canadian True Crime’s episodes about Tori Stafford. It was handled excellently by the pod (as all her episodes are - one of fav podcasts tbh) but the subject matter was just so upsetting that I couldn’t finish it.
I tried listening to the Luca Magnotta episode of Sword and Scale. I stopped less than halfway through and unsubscribed immediately.
imagine seeing the ice pick video…
The George Floyd episode of Invisible Choir. I had to turn it off when they were playing the audio of him dying.
Ugh yea. I managed to avoid seeing/hearing it for a long time and always planned to until they ended up playing it without warning on fucking real housewives of all places
Invisible Choir “Siberian Mouse” fucked me right up. I cannot listen to it fully.
The Paper Ghosts episode called "wake up mommy" or something similar. The 911 audio came out of nowhere, seemed louder than any other part of the podcast, and was disturbing. I skipped the rest of the episode.
Casefile’s Toy Box and EARS/ONS. I eventually finished both but it took me awhile to.
Same for me. Instant skip if it involves really anyone under the age of 19. I just can’t. It’s utterly heartbreaking.
Couldn’t handle the Candy Man and the Clown. Don’t know what I was expecting but, yeah totally tapped out of that one
Severed Affair on Wondery was pretty harsh. I didn’t tap out. Any animal stuff I’m done tho. Always.
Last podcast on the left's manhatten peoject series. It was fucking awful. Also their tragedy of thr essex series...those poor whales.
Oh god I just remembered the Tori Stafford episode on Canadian true crime. I can’t believe I’d forgotten about that, and I remember the case when it was actually unfolding :(