“The Slave Master” Pt. 1: John Edward Robinso...

A charismatic leader convinces his devoted followers that salvation awaits aboard an alien spacecraft trailing a comet—leading the Heaven’s Gate cult to a tragic, otherworldly mass suicide that exposed the dangerous power of blind faith and cosmic delusion.Sources for this episod ...  Show more

A brilliant con man turns his life into a high-stakes romantic heist, embezzling fortunes and pulling off mind-bending jailbreaks—all to keep the man he loves in the lifestyle he thinks he deserves. Sources for this episode include: I Love You Phillip Morris : A True Story of Lif ...  Show more

By the time Gerald Gallego was 30, he was already a lifelong predator whose twisted crimes reached back into his childhood. When he met Charlene Williams in 1977, she became the newest target of his abuse — until she proposed a plan that made her his accomplice. Learn more about ...  Show more

Originally billed as an education center for people with intellectual disabilities, the Fernald School exploited thousands of kids for free labor. The institution was rife with abuse even before it became a testing ground for radiation experiments in the 1940s and ‘50s. Learn mor ...  Show more

In the 1950s, at the height of Communist paranoia, Republican Senators Styles Bridges and Joe Welker went after Democratic Senator Lester Hunt in an attempt to blackmail him into giving up his coveted seat in Congress. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/ad ...  Show more

The theoretical physicist vanished after sending a cryptic letter to his employer. Seventy years later, a man came forward with new information that changed everything. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices