quackery

German television star Walter Sedlmayr was brutally murdered in his Munich apartment in July 1990. The killing of Bavaria's most famous folk actor shocked Germany and remained unsolved for months until two half-brothers were convicted.

In November 1957, high-class escort Rosemarie Nitribitt was found strangled in her luxury Frankfurt apartment. Her black book of wealthy clients sparked one of West Germany's most sensational unsolved murder cases.

In 1975, British police launched one of the most ambitious drug investigations ever undertaken, targeting two LSD manufacturing operations run from rural Wales and London. By 1977, over 800 officers from 11 police forces had dismantled what amounted to one of the world's largest acid production networks.

Alice Feeney's novel My Husband's Wife, published around 2026 by Pan Macmillan, is a work of psychological fiction, not true crime. The book follows fictional characters in an invented seaside setting and should not be confused with real criminal cases or verified incidents.

A new six-episode podcast from Wondery examines allegations that Liberty Godparent Home, a maternity facility on Liberty University's campus in Virginia, pressured teenage residents to surrender their babies for adoption. The investigation, hosted by T.J. Raphael and released in August 2025, features interviews with former residents and staff.

A peaceful suburban community has become the focus of a criminal pattern that has left residents deeply concerned. An 82-year-old woman, who has already experienced a break-in, remains in her childhood home despite escalating security fears in a neighborhood plagued by repeated burglaries.

Between 1926 and 1950, Georgia Tann ran the Memphis branch of the Tennessee Children's Home Society, an unlicensed adoption agency that trafficked an estimated 5,000 children to wealthy out-of-state families. Her black market operation involved kidnapping, coercion, forgery, and systematic abuse—generating over $1 million in illegal profits before state investigators closed her operation.

In April 2008, Austrian police discovered that Josef Fritzl had imprisoned his daughter Elisabeth in a concealed basement chamber for 24 years, subjecting her to repeated rape and forcing her to bear seven children in captivity. The case shocked Austria and revealed systematic failures in a family home in Amstetten.

In 1989, Leo Schofield was convicted of murdering his 18-year-old wife Michelle, whose body was found in a Florida phosphate pit two years earlier. A new podcast investigation reveals the original police work was deeply flawed—and that the real killer had confessed decades later.

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.

A Michigan prisoner managed to trick American courts into awarding him a $100 million settlement against rapper Sean 'Diddy' Combs—entirely based on fabricated claims. A new seven-part investigative podcast now reveals how the elaborate fraud unraveled.

Wondery's "Scam Factory" podcast, hosted by Denise Chan, investigates Southeast Asia's hidden fraud compounds where victims are trafficked, imprisoned, and forced to perpetrate global online scams under threat of violence.

Wondery's six-part investigative series Liberty Lost, hosted by T.J. Raphael, examines allegations that the Liberty Godparent Home in Lynchburg, Virginia pressured pregnant teenagers into adoption throughout the 1990s and 2000s. The podcast features interviews with former residents who say they were isolated from family and boyfriends while being steered toward placing their babies with Christian couples.

A new generation of independent podcast producers across Denmark and the Nordic region are bypassing traditional media gatekeepers to tell stories of real crimes that sound too absurd to be factual. These self-funded ventures represent a shift in how Scandinavian true crime narratives reach international audiences.

Between 2007 and 2015, Danske Bank's Estonia branch processed approximately €200 billion in suspicious transactions, predominantly from Russian and former Soviet clients. The scheme—revealed publicly in September 2018—ranks among history's largest money laundering operations and triggered criminal charges, multi-billion-dollar penalties, and individual convictions across three continents.

In May 2022, Netflix released 'Our Father,' a documentary revealing how Indianapolis fertility doctor Donald L. Cline used his own sperm to inseminate patients without consent across the 1970s and 1980s. The crimes only came to light when adult children discovered their biological connection through DNA testing.

In July 2015, hackers calling themselves "The Impact Team" breached Ashley Madison, a website marketed for extramarital affairs, stealing personal data from approximately 37 million users across 40 countries. The incident exposed not only intimate details but also widespread corporate deception that defined the scandal.

Bill Cosby was convicted in April 2018 of three counts of aggravated indecent assault in Pennsylvania, marking a watershed moment in the #MeToo era. The guilty verdict came after decades of allegations from over 60 women, though his criminal conviction was ultimately overturned in 2021 on appellate grounds.

Founded in the late 1960s by former pastor David Brandt Berg, the Children of God grew into a global organization with an estimated 10,000 members by the 1970s. Operating across 70 countries, the group systematized child sexual abuse under religious doctrine, leaving survivors with lifelong trauma.

Perched 400 feet above the Mulde River in eastern Saxony, Colditz Castle housed some of World War II's most determined escape artists. Between 1939 and 1945, over 130 prisoners attempted to flee the supposedly inescapable fortress, with dozens succeeding against overwhelming odds.