Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network

Show Name: Real Cases Fictional Minds

Episode Title: Pig Farm Killers

You are listening to Real Cases Fictional Minds, the podcast with your host Jaylli Kushi.

In this episode of Real Cases Fictional Minds Podcast we discuss: Season 4 Episode 25 and 26 titled “To Hell… and Back” and how it's considered one of the most heavily real-life-inspired Criminal Minds stories of Robert Pickton.

Listener engagement: For my last episode of my podcast, I would like to thank my listeners for coming along for the scary and suspenseful ride of the criminal minds world mixed with the true crime world. If you'd made it this long and enjoyed the show, I'd love your support. Take a moment to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and leave me a review; it really helps me reach more people like you. Thanks for tuning in, and I hope you enjoy this last and very disturbing episode!

The episode begins in Detroit, Michigan, with a man moving quietly through the streets of a homeless area, carrying a gun, searching desperately for his sister. His search leads him to a motel, where he impulsively grabs a random man and holds him hostage, the gun pressed to his neck. They drive toward the Canadian border, tension rising with every mile, until they crash into a toll booth and are finally stopped by border control and Detroit police. Calmly, almost eerily, the man tells the authorities, “You’re going to want to call the police. I’ve killed 10 people in the last month,” pointing them toward photographs of homeless people in the car, claiming he’s responsible for all of them. Back at Quantico, the BAU pieces the case together and identifies the man as William Hightower, a former U.S. Army sergeant who served two tours in Iraq and lost his left leg in a roadside ambush, earning a Purple Heart before being discharged just two months earlier. William has been documenting the missing people, recording their names, taking photos, and noting dates, all from Detroit’s Cass Corridor, an area notorious for drugs, prostitution, and homelessness. Agents Morgan and Prentiss take to the streets, talking to locals about William and the missing people. Some victims haven’t been seen in days, and while William is a familiar figure in the area, nobody interferes with him because he carries a gun. Meanwhile, Agent Hotch interviews William to understand where the victims went, and the situation quickly becomes tense. William reveals he didn’t actually kill anyone, but he has been tracking people on the streets because he knows many are missing. Hotch asks him about the night he tried to cross the border, and William explains that every night he goes out to do a headcount, not just for protection but out of love, searching for someone specific — his baby sister, Lee. After returning from Iraq, his mother told him she was living on the streets. He once found her and brought her home, but two weeks later, she returned to the streets. William keeps all the information he has gathered about her hidden in a spare tire in his car. The team listens in on a phone call from Lee that night — she is scared, confused, and says a man is taking her somewhere, the fear in her voice making the stakes painfully clear. Meanwhile, the unsub is introduced: an older white man on a pig farm, a seemingly quiet property hiding unimaginable horrors. He keeps victims chained in a barn, using the pigs on the farm to dispose of bodies, a method as shocking as it is methodical. Back at Quantico, the team gains custody of William to help locate potential victims. Garcia uncovers that on five of the nights victims disappeared, Detroit police reported break-ins at medical facilities, with stolen items including anesthesia,...

Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network

Show Name: Real Cases, Fictional Minds

Episode Title: The Hostages of Ariel Castro

You are listening to Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast with your host(s) Jaylli Kushi.

In this episode of Real Cases, Fictional Minds the Podcast, we discuss: Criminal Minds Season 11 Episode 14 titled “Hostage” and how it is based on the real-life Ariel Castro Case.

The episode starts in a dark basement where two girls are being held captive, and one girl tries to escape while the other begs her to stop because she is scared they will get caught. The episode takes place in Missouri, and we are then shown another kidnapped girl who is pregnant and very sick, showing that these girls have been held for a long time. The unsub comes home and sees a broken window, and the girls apologize and say they tried to stop the escape. The unsub stays calm and tells the healthier girl that they need to leave, and he leaves the pregnant and sick girl behind, saying she would slow them down. The girl who escaped is Gina Bryant, and she flags down a police car and is taken to the hospital. Gina was kidnapped when she was eight years old and is now eighteen. She tells police she was held with another girl named Sheila Woods, who is now fifteen and was kidnapped seven years earlier. Gina describes the unsub as an older white man named Tom. Gina takes the police to the house where she was held, and they discover it belongs to Clara Riggins, a 108-year-old woman whose bank accounts are still active, leading the team to believe she is dead and the unsub has been using her house and money. While flying to Missouri, the team realizes both Gina and Sheila were kidnapped at age eight, just a few blocks from their homes, which suggests the unsub stalked them and learned their routines. Garcia tells the team that none of Clara’s neighbors have seen her in over twenty years, but they remember a man named Tom who drove a blue van, and she begins searching for men named Tom who own blue vans. At the hospital, Reid, JJ, and Hotch talk to Sheila and learn she had a miscarriage and has old whip scars on her back. Gina’s condition is worse, as she is malnourished, dehydrated, covered in cuts and bruises, has broken bones that were never treated, and has the same scars as Sheila. The next scene shows Violet with the unsub, and she trusts him and calls him Daddy. Reid and JJ interview Gina, and she explains that when she was kidnapped, she saw Violet at the park, and Violet was used to tricking her. The unsub pretended to be Violet’s dad and used a puppy to lure Gina into the car. Gina explains that Violet and Sheila were the good ones because they obeyed him and called him Daddy, while she never received special treatment because she always fought back, and he called her Rose. Gina tells Reid and JJ that the unsub sometimes lets them go outside to plant flowers for Clara, which leads Morgan and Rossi to find Clara buried under rose bushes. Morgan and Rossi also search the basement and find children’s drawings, blood, and a torture room filled with tools, and they see that the unsub is very organized, works with wood, and needs total control, leading them to believe Violet was either his first victim or possibly his daughter because of how much he cared for her. Back at the hospital, Sheila’s mother describes the day her daughter was taken as a normal day, just like Gina described, and Gina later helps police create a composite sketch. While in intensive care, Sheila sadly dies. Using the sketch and the blue van, Garcia identifies the unsub as Michael Clark Thompson, a construction company owner. The team learns that his father had multiple violent marriages and a history of abuse, and they believe Michael learned his behavior from him and enjoys power...

Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network

Show Name: Real Cases, Fictional Minds

Episode Title: Teenage Killing Spree

You are listening to Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast with your host(s) Jaylli Kushi.

In this episode of Real Cases, Fictional Minds the Podcast we discuss: Season 6 Episode 13 of Criminal Minds titled “The Thirteenth Step” and how it's based on Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate who were a duo of teenagers on a killing spree.

Today, we are going to start with something different. I went to a fellow Criminal Minds fan and asked them a couple of questions about their favorite show. I have Paola here, who has been watching Criminal Minds since it first came out in 2005, and I'm just going to ask her a couple of questions.

Question: Who is your favorite serial killer in the show? And why?

Answer: The serial killer with the split personality, where one personality didn't know that the other was killing people.

Question: What is your opinion on some of the fictional serial killers being based on real-life ones?

Answer: I think it is really interesting that some killers are based on real-life ones, and I think about all the research the writers have to do in order to make those specific episodes.

Question: Which one of the agents do you think has the biggest impact on solving the crimes?

Answer: I would have to go with Agents Reid and Garcia because of the great attributes they bring to the team.

The episode starts in Montana. A couple gets triggered while shopping at a gas station and decides to kill eight people in the store, and when leaving, they blow up the store. The team goes over the case and decides that there was no robbery or motive, and that spree killers often repeat themselves, so it’s bound to happen again soon. When they arrive at the crime scene, they learn that this couple has been killing for a little longer than they realized, and they are now up to fourteen victims. Agents Reid and Prentiss learn that the killers used guns and a crowbar to kill their victims. Meanwhile, Agents Morgan and Hotch are at the crime scene and they find rice all over the ground but no rice bags in the gas station, and this leads them to believe that they were just freshly married because throwing rice is a tradition to do after you get married, and this leads them to conclude that this killing spree is a part of their honeymoon. Agent Garcia finds thirty-one couples who have records and are freshly married, and she also finds out that they have been killed in gas stations before and took most of their anger out on the store clerk. The scene switches to the unsubs but the girl is alone in the car while her husband sits in an AA meeting to talk about his alcoholism, and while in the meeting the husband gets triggered by questions being asked in the group and he decides to kill everyone there, and while the wife is out in the car a man approaches her and triggers her enough to kill him, and after she kills him she joins her husband in the meeting and finishes killing everyone, and the couple flees into the night after another killing spree. The team arrives at the crime scene and guesses that the unsubs met at an AA meeting, and they think that they are really struggling with sobriety, and they are on their final steps, which are seven, eight, and nine, which are acknowledging your shortcomings, accepting responsibility, and making amends, but these unsubs are taking all these steps too literally. The scene switches to the unsub and the wife is trying to convince her husband that they need to go through with the next steps, and the watchers learn that the husband has trauma from his father and might be the reason because of all this, so the wife is implying that they go...

Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network

Show Name: Real Cases, Fictional Minds

Episode Title: Isla Vista

You are listening to Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast with your host(s) Jaylli Kushi.

In this episode of Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the Podcast, we discuss: Season 12 Episode 15 of Criminal Minds, Episode titled “Alpha Male,” and how it is based on the killer who was behind the Isla Vista Killings.

In this episode, the BAU is called to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where a string of brutal acid attacks has left young people scarred and terrified. In two separate incidents just half an hour apart, a man and a woman in their twenties are doused in acid right in public places, their faces burned and their lives changed forever. These attacks follow two other acid assaults that happened just a week earlier, meaning there are now four victims, each left traumatized and struggling to explain what happened to them. The team arrives and immediately starts piecing together what little evidence there is. The three victims who were able to describe their attacker all say the same thing: he was a male wearing an overcoat and a baseball cap, and just before he sprayed them with acid, he muttered something unfamiliar—something that doesn’t sound like an ordinary threat. While the rest of the team focuses on the investigation in Philadelphia, Dr. Spencer Reid is dealing with his own nightmare back home. Back in Philadelphia, Garcia starts digging through digital evidence, searching for anything that connects the victims or explains the attacker’s motive. What she discovers is a manosphere singles’ website, a place where lonely men compare themselves to so‑called “alpha males” and bitterly rant about women and relationships. On this site, the unsub has posted photos labeling certain people as “alpha males” and others as “bitches,” and shockingly, the victims in Philadelphia bear a striking resemblance to the pictures he tagged there. This digital link becomes the breakthrough the BAU needs. The team realizes that the attacker is targeting people who represent what he feels he could never have—confidence, success, relationships. He isn’t just throwing acid randomly. He’s punishing people he believes represent the life he was denied. That realization changes the investigation from random violence to something much more personal and ideologically driven. Garcia also finds a manifesto written by a suspect named Alan Crawford, where he openly describes his hatred and his plans for a larger attack. That gives the team enough to narrow their search down to him. They know he’s planning something big, and now they just have to find out when and where. As the BAU watches Crawford’s movements, they are able to track him to a singles’ social event in Philadelphia, where he intends to use a modified sprayer to attack a large group of people at once. The team rushes in, and in a coordinated move, they stop him before he can hurt another person. When Crawford is taken into custody, he shows no real remorse. Instead, he defends his actions as justified, claiming that society owes him what he never got. His anger isn’t about individual people. It’s about the idea that others have what he believes should have been his. The way he frames his own sense of loss and entitlement reveals how dangerous unchecked resentment can become. “Alpha Male” is disturbing not just because of the violence itself, but because of how calculated and ideologically motivated it is. The BAU doesn’t just catch a random attacker. They track someone whose rage has been validated and amplified online, whose resentment has turned into real‑world violence. The victims, young men and women living normal lives, were all chosen not because of who they were, but because of who the unsub thought...

Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network

Show Name: Real Cases, Fictional Minds

Episode Title: Lipstick Wheel

You are listening to Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast with your host(s) Jaylli Kushi.

In this episode of Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the Podcast, we discuss: Season 4 Episode 22 titled “The Big Wheel” and how it is based on the real-life case of the Lipstick Killer.

This episode starts in Buffalo when the BAU receives a mysterious package containing a DVD from the killer himself. In the video is footage he filmed of one of his murders, he records as he follows a woman into her home and kills her. And over the video, he has added a text message directed at the FBI saying: “Help me". The plea sets the tone for the entire case. The unsub isn't taunting them, he's begging them. The victim in the video is a woman killed quickly and efficiently, with no sign of torture or struggle. The attack is almost mechanical. But the emotional intensity comes from the fact that the unsub filmed the entire thing, suggesting he is compelled to watch his own violence, almost as if he's horrified by himself. As the team digs into the case, more victims emerge. They're all women killed inside their homes, with little to no defensive wounds, meaning he surprises them and finishes the attack rapidly. His murders are methodical, not frenzied, each one carried out with the same precision, rhythm, and emotional detachment, but the most important behavioral clue comes from his filming Style. He records from behind doors, through windows, or from angles that prevent the victims from ever seeing him. is as if he's watching life from the outside, and he will connect, repeating the cycle again and again. The team builds a profile for the unsung, a white male and is 30 to 40s, intelligent but socially isolated, living with high-functioning autism, contributing to the rigid behavioral patterns. He is killing as part of a compulsive cycle triggered by guilt, not anger or sexual gratification. So how did the BAU actually figure out who the answer was? well in the video that he sent them in the beginning of the episode, he accidentally gave them a clue. well entering the victim's home, the camera briefly caught a reflection showing part of his face. The team noticed something unusual, he had a rare eye condition. One of his pupils doesn't respond normally, something called heterochromia with a defect. It was subtle but distinctive. Because it was so rare, the BAU is able to cross-reference medical and local records to narrow down the list of placental suspects. When they found a man who matched the condition, lived in multiple crime scenes, and had a personal history consistent with the behavioral profile, the pieces fell into place. The unsub's name was Vincent Rowling, a solitary man who lives alone, works minimal jobs, and struggles with severe emotional trauma. He also has high-functioning autism, which affects his social interactions and contributes to the way he obsesses over patterns, routine, and repeated imagery. The team learns that years earlier, he witnessed his mother's death in a traumatic accident involving a ferris wheel. That moment became the core of his lifelong emotional pain. They also learn that he is secretly watching over a young blind girl named Stanley, who lives in his neighborhood. She represents the innocence of someone he wants to protect, not harm. His connection to her shows that he isn't a sadist or through a pillar. He's someone trying to balance the violence he can't stop with a desperate wish to do something good. That internal conflict is exactly why he reaches out to the bau. He isn't proud of his crimes. He's terrified of who he becomes when he kills. has been since stress escalates, his patterns become more unstable. He...

Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network

Show Name: Real Cases, Fictional Minds

Episode Title: Barbie's Dreamhouse

You are listening to Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast with your host(s) Jaylli Kushi

In this episode of Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast, we discuss: Season 2 Episode 3 titled “The Perfect Storm” and how it is based on the real-life serial killers known as the Ken and Barbie Killers, Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.

This episode starts in Jacksonville, Florida. A couple gets mail from their daughter in college, thinking it is going to be pictures of her, but it was a DVD of their daughter getting tortured. The victim’s name is Laura Clemensen. She is 20 years old, blonde, a sophomore at the University of Jacksonville, Florida, and she is assumed to be the 5th in a series of rapes and murders over the past 2 years. Jacksonville PD has been looking for this killer for years. The team flies to Jacksonville, Florida. While on the plane, they start talking about the second offender, saying that these 2 are clearly deranged and acting out their worst sadistic fantasies. They learn from Garcia that the Jacksonville PD just found Laura Clemensen’s body under a bridge.. Gideon and Morgan go to the crime scene. They learn the victim has deep lacerations on her neck, chest, and thighs. The color of her bruising indicated torture had been going on for multiple days, and CSI believes that because the cause of death was strangulation, it is consistent with the other victims. Garcia sends over a list of all the unsolved rapes and murders in the past 2 years. There were 2 that stuck out to Reid. The victims share similar physical traits, and they were also posed after being killed in an interesting manner. The only difference is that they were manually strangled. While going over evidence, JJ finds that the Unsubs are targeting the mothers. All of the DVDs were only addressed to the mothers of the victims, so sending the videos only to the mothers is a message itself. The team has up to 7 victims now. They give a profile for the 2 UnSubs to the police. One is submissive, and one is dominant. If the criminal desire wasn’t present, their partnership wouldn’t work. In the middle of giving the profile, they find out there is another girl missing named Tiffany. The night before, she had gone for a run and didn’t come back home. Tiffany Spears was abducted from Middleberg, which is almost an hour away. While searching for how the unsub is traveling from place to place they learn that the Unsubs would take the cars of the victims and sell their parts across state lines, so no one in Jacksonville would be able to find them. Those sales were traced to Joseph Davin, who lives in Jacksonville. He’s been in and out of jail since he was 17. He is 27 years old and has a number of charges, including car theft with a partner, making him a prime suspect. When the team finds an address, they go to his house. His dad answers the door, and Joey appears in the living room with a gun, telling Agents Morgan and Gideon, and the main detective to get out of his way. They tell him to drop the weapon, and he doesn’t, forcing the detective to shoot him. Joey was their only link to finding where Tiffany could be. They talk to his father and learn that Joey works at a garage with a bunch of ex-cons. They find out that when he was in jail, he shared a cell with Tony Canardo, and they were both released 3 years ago. They went to Joey’s workplace and learned that he had been fired because he wasn’t good at his job. His ex-con friends would come around his workplace, and Tony Canardo was part of the crew Joey would hang with. They arrive at Tony’s house, and his wife answers, telling them he will be home soon. Morgan waits for him outside. Back at the...

Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network

Show Name: Real Cases, Fictional Minds

Episode Title: BTKeystone Killer

You are listening to Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast with your host Jaylli Kushi.

In this episode of Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the Podcast, we discuss Season 1 Episode 15, titled “Unfinished Business,” and how it mirrors the BTK Killer.

Former FBI agent Max Ryan is hosting a meet-and-greet for his new book, one of his biggest unsolved cases, the Keystone Killer. Back in the 1980s, he murdered 7 women around Philadelphia and then just disappeared. During the event, Ryan handed a letter that looked exactly like the ones the Keystone used to send, same handwriting, same crossword puzzle. The letter says that he is still alive. Inside are 2 driver's licenses: One from Amy Jennings, the last known victim back in 1987, who was strangled to death in 1987, and another from a woman named Carla Bromwell. The BAU is called into their own office and begins to review all the evidence, which is now considered a new development in the Keystone Killer case. While looking at the evidence, Agent Reid finds something, hidden within the crossword puzzle, are details about what Amy Jennings was wearing 20 years ago when she was found dead. When the police go to the address on Carla Brownell's license, they find her dead in her apartment. She's been suffocated with a plastic bag, but this time the killer used flex-cuffs instead of rope. The old victims were strangled with a specific knot, so the team realizes something's changed. At the new crime scene, the BAU starts noticing weird inconsistencies. For example, the crossword mentioned a “ rear window,” but Carla's room was in the front of the house. Then they find another note in a completely different room. It feels like someone's copying the killer, or maybe the real killer is trying to mess with them. They build a profile for the local police: While male in his late forties, he is organized, probably with a military background. Someone who lies in control collects trophies, and enjoys playing games with law enforcement. But the new murders totally line up. The killer is getting older, and so are the victims; the crimes are less controlled, and his signature, the tied knot, is gone. The team starts to wonder if something happened to him, maybe an injury that forced him to change his methods. While going over evidence with the team, Reid finds a name in the crossword puzzle in the new letter, Scott Harbin, which is also a name on Ryan's original suspect list. Scott has been in jail for 30 years, making him halfway through his sentence. He was put on parole 3 months ago, and he missed his last appointment, making him a prime suspect. The team, accompanied by law enforcement, storms his house, and after a short chase through the house, they catch him. They inspect his house and realize he is super neat and organized, and his clothes were folded with military precision, total control freak vibes, but when they check under his bed, they find a woman tied up and still alive. It's disturbing, but something still doesn't add up. As they are leaving Scoot's house, Ryan sees he's received another letter, placed on his car, this time from the real Keystone Killer. It reads, “Scott Harbin isn't the man you're looking for,” bringing them back to square one. Since they figured he must have been injured sometime after the killing, maybe losing mobility on one side, they started searching for men who fit the profile and have had major injuries in the past 18 years. Then they find something, an old car accident on I-95 near the airport. One of the drivers was a man named Walter Kern, a 48-year-old man who used to serve in the Air Force and now works as a home alarm installer. Due to his car accident he lost partial movement on his right side. It turns out, Walter worked with Scott Harbin, the guy...

Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network

Show Name: Real Cases, Fictional Minds

Episode Title: Richard Ramirez, the Prince of Darkness

You are listening to Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast with your host Jaylli Kushi.

In this episode of Real Cases, Fictional Minds, we discuss Season 5, Episode 23, titled “Our darkest hour,” and Season 6, Episode 1, titled “The Longest Night,” and how they mirror the life of Richard Ramirez.

This episode ends on a cliffhanger and continues into the next season. The BAU is called to Los Angeles to investigate a string of home invasions escalating into homicides. The city is in the middle of a heatwave and rolling blackouts. The killer uses darkness to get his advantage, and security systems go down, making it easy for him to get inside homes. It starts with him murdering a couple during a blackout, leaving their son alive to witness it. That's part of his MO, meaning method of operating. The BAU works with LAPD Detectives Matt Spicer and Adam Kurzbard and realizes that the killings are a part of a decades-long killing spree. The UnSub always strikes during blackouts and leaves a child witness behind. Garcia digs through crime data and finds similar murders years ago across multiple states, proving he was active long ago, stopped, and now returned. They focus on the first recorded blackout murders 25 years earlier. To stop him, local authorities cancel the remaining rolling blackouts, but it backfires, overriding the grid and causing a massive citywide outage. While digging into old cases, Garcia discovers that the UnSubs' first La victims were Joe and Sylvia Spicer, the parents of Detective Matt Spicer. Matt was the child left behind during that invasion. He has a sister, Kristin, and a daughter, Ellie. The BAU realizes the UnSub is tainting Spicer; he sees himself as the “creator” who made Spicer who he is. Now he's targeting Spicer's daughter and sister. When he learns this, Spicer returns to his childhood home with Agent Morgan, but things go horribly wrong. They find Kristin and Ellie tied up and the homeowners dead. The UnSub ambushes Morgon, knocks him out, and when he wakes up, he's tied with duct tape, forced to watch, just like the kids the UnSub leaves behind. Spicer enters and sees the UnSub pointing a gun at Ellie. Morgan pleads for him not to drop his weapon, but Spicer surrenders to protect his daughter. On his knees, he begs for their lives. The UnSub says, “Your sister grew up very pretty.” Spicer asks Morgan to promise Ellie will be okay. Morgan promises. The UnSub confirms it, then shoots Spicer point-blank. Kristin screams as the UnSub drags Ellie away, saying, “I don't usually take kids. This one's just special.” The episode ends with Morgan tied up, Spicer dead, Ellie abducted, and the rest of the BAU cut off by the blackout. The next episode, “The Longest Night,” picks up immediately. The BAE is still chasing the UnSub, who escaped from Spicer's childhood home with his daughter, Ellie. When the team arrives at the house, Morgan refuses medical help and focuses on finding the UNSUB. During her interview with the team, Kristin tells Prentiss the UnSub’s name, Billy Flynn, and that he drives an old, filthy RV. Garcia digs into his past and learns he's been killing for over 25 years. His mother, Nora Flynn, was a sex worker. As a kid, Billy hid in her closet and watched her with clients. When he was 13 years old, he murdered one of the men that his mother was working with. He was sent to juvenile detention and released at 18. His crimes ever since have mirrored his childhood trauma- leaving children alive to relive what he once saw. Flynn forces Ellie to help him with break-ins. When she tries to get help from a homeowner, warning him that she is being kidnapped, Flynn realizes she is trying to tip them off, and he kills the man for not letting her in. Ellie proves smart and...