Criminal is a podcast about people who’ve done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle. NYT Best Podcast of 2023. Hosted by Phoebe Judge.
Thank you @ApplePodcasts - and thank you to all of you for listening for more than a decade! Excited for what's to come. ✨ Find us at apple.co/Criminal.
Forget everything you thought you knew about crime storytelling, because this Creator We Love is changing the narrative.
For over a decade, @CriminalShow host @PhoebeVJudge has been reporting on unusual cases of wrongdoing and mischief.
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When Sister Helen Prejean was young, she declared that she would either grow up to be the President or the Pope. Instead, she became a nun — and later, a spiritual adviser to men on death row. Meet Sister Helen: buff.ly/mxxh4Nn
ALT Blurry photo from 1967 of Sister Helen Prejean wearing a Catholic nun’s habit, standing outside, with trees and a house in the distant background.
“And I said to him, you are not going to die without seeing one face in that witness room that loved you. And when they do this, you look at me, I will be there for you.” Listen to our latest: buff.ly/mxxh4Nn
ALT Clipping from 1993 newspaper showing Sister Helen Prejean entering a row of cells at Angola Louisiana State Penitentiary, followed by a correctional officer.
“I want to live to the full… which means to love as fully as I can. And when it comes to loving in the criminal justice system, it means working really hard for justice and for people’s voices to be heard.” buff.ly/mxxh4Nn
ALT Black and white abstracted depiction of a rosary. Text reads: Criminal, Episode 346: Sister Helen.
In 1982, Sister Helen Prejean was invited to write a letter to a man on death row. She told us, “I thought that all I was going to be doing was writing letters. And lo and behold, two years later, I am in that execution chamber.” buff.ly/ZufS2RA
ALT White text on a black background that reads: “Every human being is worth more than the worst thing they’ve ever done.” - Sister Helen Prejean. The Criminal logo is on the lower right corner.
Earlier this year, the Denardo family took a road trip. They’d been driving for about a hundred miles on a highway when they stopped for gas – and found their cat, Ray Ray, standing on the roof of their van. More stories about animals really going for it: buff.ly/ZufS2RA
ALT A gray tabby cat wearing a harness, collar, and leash, sitting on top of some kind of flat black surface, with the lights and crowds of Times Square behind him.
ALT A gray tabby cat peering out of a backpack-style cat carrier. The carrier is sitting on the indoor ledge of a window looking out over Manhattan.
ALT A man wearing blue athletic gear and wearing the number 23 near the finish line of a race. He's holding a gray tabby one arm and waving with the other.
One day last year, police in Switzerland noticed that a speed radar camera had been triggered by something that wasn’t a car. Stories of animals gone wild in our latest: buff.ly/ZufS2RA
ALT A photo captured from a speed radar camera, showing a duck flying through a street in Switzerland. A banner at the top of the photo reads: Limit 30, speed 52.
In Cornville, Arizona, a javelina once got stuck inside a Subaru after climbing in to get to a bag of Cheetos. “It seems that the javelina was having a midnight snack, for lack of better terms.” Listen to our latest: buff.ly/ZufS2RA
ALT A javelina - an animal that looks kind of like a pig - peering out the rear window of a Subaru. There's a Sedona bumpersticker on the window.
Leo has stolen 300 items of clothing from about 40 different houses. His owner has a WhatsApp group with her neighbors – she takes photos of all the clothes Leo brings home, and people respond with their items circled. Stories about animals gone wild: buff.ly/ZufS2RA
Heidi Taylor’s goat Joshua had never escaped before – until the day their town held its first half marathon. “When they were running by, he must have thought, ‘I’m going with them.’” Today, our 5th annual episode about animals really going for it: buff.ly/mxxh4Nn
ALT A brown and white goat running across a street onto a paved path. A man in athletic gear is running behind him.
ALT A group of runners running along a gravel path, pictured from behind. Alongside them is a brown goat.
ALT A brown and white goat wearing a half marathon medal around its neck.
ALT A grainy photo of a brown and white goat running along a paved trail.
Phoebe: You must have been thinking, what the hell just happened?
Laura: Yeah. And it was one of those things where you kind of felt the need to keep telling the story, to make sure it was real. buff.ly/mxxh4Nn
On Christmas morning, Laura Nowlin was in her living room with her infant son. They were getting ready to leave to spend the day with family. buff.ly/O7YyHxb
ALT White text on black background that reads, "And I heard someone running up the stairs. And the stairs were incredibly icy. The whole city had been shut down because of the ice. And so when I heard the running, I thought, 'That's crazy.' And then, just a frantic knocking on the door." The Criminal logo is in the bottom right corner.
Got someone in your life who might like a Phoebe Judge hat? It's our first exclusive merch item for Criminal Plus members - get yours (with a 20% discount) by signing up for Criminal Plus!
buff.ly/o2H26jX
Sarah Cornell worked in textile factories and mills all over New England. She started attending Methodist meetings and met a minister named Ephraim Avery. In the summer of 1832, Sarah told her sister that she was pregnant. A few months later, she was dead. buff.ly/O7YyHxb
ALT Illustration of Sarah Cornell and Ephram Avery standing facing each other and holding each other’s hands, with the text “the meeting of Rev. E.K. Avery and his victim” underneath. It is taken from a pamphlet called “Life and Trial of Rev. Ephraim K. Avery for the murder of Miss Sarah M. Cornell.”
During Ephraim Avery’s trial, his lawyers called over 150 witnesses to the stand. Many of them gave testimony, not about Ephraim Avery, but about the woman he was accused of murdering - Sarah Cornell. buff.ly/O7YyHxb
ALT White text on a black background that reads: “It is a parade of women who Sarah was close to, and these women all sit on the stand and just decimate her character.” The Criminal logo is in the bottom right corner.
In 1833, writer Catharine Williams began working on a new book. She’d published books of poetry and about the Revolutionary War before, but this book was going to be different. It was going to be about a Methodist minister, a mill worker, and a murder. buff.ly/O7YyHxb
ALT Black and white illustration of a map of the town of Fall River on the Massachusetts and Rhode Island border.
Today, a look at what's been called the first true crime book. "The book was beyond biased." buff.ly/O7YyHxb
ALT A black and white picture of a portrait of Catharine Read Williams, she is looking up and writing with a quill.
ALT Title page of Catharine Williams’s book, it reads: Fall River: An Authentic Narrative. By the author of “Tales, National, Revolutionary,” &c. &c. It has an epigraph: “Oh for a Lodge in some vast wilderness, some boundless contiguity of shade, where rumour of oppression and deceit Can never reach me more. My soul is sick with every day’s report of the world’s baseness.” Sold by Lilly, Wait & Co. Boston: Marshall, Brown & Co. Providence 1833.
In our new bonus episode, Phoebe talks about meeting Santa in an unexpected place - and about one of her audiobook pet peeves. Join Criminal Plus to listen: buff.ly/6ew98qG