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What Makes a Killer

What Makes a Killer

Written by: Audioboom Studios
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 A look into the life and crimes of the world’s most infamous serial killers. Featuring interviews with family members, forensic experts, law enforcement, and witnesses.

From John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer to the “Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez and the Butcher of Plainfield, Ed Gein and "Son of Sam" killer, David Berkowitz – What Makes a Killer explores how they became killers.


 Social Sciences True Crime World
Episodes
  • S5 Ep13: Bobby Joe Long

    S5 Ep13: Bobby Joe Long
    Oct 26 2023
    In this last episode of season five, we'll examine Floridian serial killer Bobby Joe Long...

    1984. Tampa, Florida.

    A 17-year-old girl named Lisa was on her way home from work, when she was abducted from the side of the road. For the next 26 hours, she was subjected to a terrifying imprisonment by a sadistic sexual predator, who had already killed several young girls. But, unlike the other victims, Lisa was the only one to survive.

    As bodies were being discovered every other week, Floridian authorities realized a serial killer was on the loose. Investigators didn't know it yet, but the killer was a 31-year-old army veteran and divorced father of two hiding in plain sight. And over the course of eight months, ten women would die by his hands in the Tampa area.

    This episode is sponsored by:
    BetterHelp

    Original music by Kai Engel, Ben Krejci, and Kevin MacLeod. Additional music and sound effects provided by Epidemic Sound.

    Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License.
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    39 mins
  • S5 Ep12: Christopher Hightower

    S5 Ep12: Christopher Hightower
    Oct 19 2023
    September 22nd, 1991. Guilford, Connecticut. Early that evening, a mysterious man visited the home of Christine Brendel and delivered some shocking news – her brother Ernest and his family had been kidnapped, and were being held for ransom by the Mafia. It turned out the man at the door, 42-year-old Christopher Hightower, was a pathological liar and a killer. He claimed he needed $75,000 to release the family, but in reality, they had already met their fate. Most shocking of all was Hightower's methods. He killed Ernest – who was a friend of his – with a crossbow, strangled his wife Alice, and then drugged their eight-year-old daughter Emily, and dumped her in a shallow grave. But in court he continued his lies, claiming he saw the mob carry out the killings.

    What Makes a Killer is sponsored by BetterHelp & Sinisterhood.

    Original music by Ben Krejci, Lee Rosevere, Kai Engel, and Daniel Birch. Additional music provided by Epidemic Sound.

    Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License.
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    46 mins
  • S5 Ep11: Vincent Tabak

    S5 Ep11: Vincent Tabak
    Oct 12 2023
    Christmas day, 2010. A couple was walking their dog along a remote road in Clifton, an English port city of Bristol, when they happened upon the body of a 25-year-old Joanna Yeates.

    32-year-old Dutch engineer Vincent Tabak, who was obsessed with violent pornography and rough sex, would soon be identified as Joanna's killer. Tabak strangled the young woman to death in her own apartment, and then dumped her body 3 miles away from where they both lived.

    A nationwide hunt had come to a tragic end and the prime murder suspect was Joanna’s landlord and neighbor, Christopher Jefferies. But the police had arrested the wrong neighbor!

    Original music by Kai Engel, Ben Krejci, and Lee Rosevere. Additional music and sound effects provided by Epidemic Sound and Freesound.

    Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License.
    Show More Show Less
    36 mins
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