Cardinal Crimes

On February 8, 1983, a routine plumbing job in North London uncovered human remains that would lead to one of Britain's most disturbing serial murder cases. The discovery of Dennis Nilsen — and his confessed 15 victims — revealed critical gaps in how European police tracked predatory killers operating within urban anonymity.

Dennis Nilsen, a Scottish-born serial killer, murdered a minimum of 12 young men and boys in London between 1978 and 1983. His crimes went undetected for years until a plumber's discovery in February 1983 led to his arrest and eventual confession to one of Britain's most shocking killing sprees.

Host Stine Bolther investigates a case in Djursland near Randers, Denmark, that involves a meticulously planned murder, a pregnant woman, and audio evidence so damning that the victim reportedly warned relatives it might happen. The 43-minute episode premiered February 3, 2026, on the true crime podcast Danske Drabssager.

Martin Hylander produces True Story, a Danish true crime podcast that examines real criminal cases across Scandinavia and beyond. With over 5 million listens, the show combines documentary-style storytelling with meticulous research into some of Europe's most compelling murder cases.

On the night of August 6-7, 1985, five members of the Bamber family were shot dead at their Essex farmhouse. While police initially suspected the victims' adopted daughter, her brother Jeremy was later convicted—but questions about what really happened continue to circulate nearly four decades later.

Two award-winning Danish journalists have documented 80 years of organized crime history in a comprehensive new book, revealing how a small Nordic nation became a hub for international criminal networks. From cigarette smuggling rings to biker gang warfare, the chronicle exposes Denmark's transformation into a strategic outpost for transnational crime.

Alphonse Gabriel Capone rose from Brooklyn street gang member to boss of the Chicago Outfit during Prohibition, controlling bootlegging, gambling, and rackets across the city's South Side. By 1931, federal prosecutors brought him down not for his legendary crimes, but for tax evasion—landing him in Alcatraz and reshaping organized crime history.

On April 16, 1985, Aldrich Ames, a CIA counterintelligence officer with 31 years of service, walked into the Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C., and offered secrets to the KGB. What began as a calculated scheme to solve his financial troubles became a nine-year espionage operation that would rank among the most damaging intelligence breaches in American history.

On February 16, 2003, Italian master thief Leonardo Notarbartolo and his associates broke into the Antwerp Diamond Center in Belgium and stole over $100 million in loose diamonds, gold, and jewelry. Five days later, a half-eaten sandwich would help police solve the crime.

On August 6, 2005, thieves executed an audacious heist at a Banco Central branch in Fortaleza, Brazil, tunneling 80 meters from a rented property to breach the bank's vault and steal approximately 160 million Brazilian reais—equivalent to roughly 70 million USD at the time.

The DeCavalcante crime family, operating across New Jersey and New York as part of La Cosa Nostra, inspired HBO's The Sopranos. Between 1998 and 2015, the FBI launched major operations that would ultimately dismantle the family's leadership through informants, undercover agents, and the unprecedented cooperation of made members.

Between 1982 and 1988, Dorothea Puente ran a boarding house in Sacramento, California, where she systematically poisoned elderly and mentally disabled tenants, buried their bodies in the yard, and cashed their Social Security checks. Her arrest in 1988 uncovered one of California's most disturbing serial killing cases.

The Genovese Crime Family, one of the Five Families that dominate organized crime in the United States, traces its power back to Lucky Luciano's ruthless consolidation of mob authority in 1931. From Luciano's prison cell to Vincent Gigante's reign of silence and Liborio Bellomo's modern leadership, the family has maintained its grip on New York, New Jersey, and beyond for nearly a century.

Between 1895 and 1901, Jane Toppan, a highly regarded private nurse in Massachusetts, poisoned at least 31 people—and possibly over 100. Known as 'Jolly Jane' for her warm bedside manner, she used her trusted position to administer lethal doses of opium and strychnine to elderly patients and their families.

Rembrandt's 'Portrait of Jacob de Gheyn III' holds an unusual distinction: it is officially the world's most stolen painting. Between 1966 and 1986, this 30-centimeter work vanished four times from London's Dulwich Picture Gallery, each theft more audacious than the last.

James Riddle Hoffa, the powerful president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, disappeared on July 30, 1975, from a restaurant parking lot in Michigan. His case has become one of America's most enduring unsolved mysteries, with the FBI pointing to organized crime involvement but no body ever recovered.

Judy Buenoano, known as Florida's Black Widow, was executed on March 30, 1998, for a calculated series of murders spanning decades. The 54-year-old had poisoned her first husband, her son, and a boyfriend with arsenic while collecting approximately $240,000 in life insurance—crimes that made her the first woman executed in Florida since 1848.

John Z. DeLorean, the former General Motors executive who became famous for designing the iconic DMC-12 sports car, faced two separate federal criminal trials in the mid-1980s—one alleging drug trafficking, the other accusing him of defrauding investors of $8.5 million. He was acquitted in both cases.

Between 1972 and 1978, John Wayne Gacy murdered at least 33 young men and boys in suburban Chicago while maintaining a public persona as a friendly clown performer. His arrest in December 1978 exposed one of the most disturbing double lives in criminal history.

On 12 July 1987, an organised gang broke into the Knightsbridge Safe Deposit Centre in London and emptied a large number of security boxes in what is regarded as one of the biggest robberies in British history.