Voices for the Victims
Criminal Broads is a true crime + history podcast about wild women who’ve ended up on the wrong side of the law, whether for leading a cult, serially murdering their husbands, swindling billionaires, or faking ectoplasm. The podcast is hosted by Tori Telfer, author of “Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History.”
80 most recent episodes
Visit website →There was something off about the little mom-and-pop doctor’s office in the Los Angeles strip mall. The wait was too long. The patients were too…antsy. And the doctor? She was making millions of dollars. What in the world was going on in Dr. Lisa Tse
Life was hard for Toni Jo Henry in 1940s Louisiana. She was in the forced-to-grow-up-too-fast, creepy-men-all-around, dead mom, and alcoholic father club. So when she finally met a man who loved her for who she was, she was all in. But then her new h
Julius Caesar is dead, and Cleopatra has a new powerful man hanging around. When she and Mark Antony party a little too hard and public opinion begins to turn against them, how will they maintain their golden image? And what happens when Rome declare
When a queen dabbles in both fratricide and sororicide, is she on the wrong side of the law? Or is she the law itself? When you’re Cleopatra, the richest woman in the entire world, the legality of your actions is…irrelevant. More pressing matters inc
When bank after bank kept getting robbed in 1990s Dallas, the feds were convinced they had a male criminal on their hands. I mean, the guy wore a cowboy hat! His mustache was so…manly! And most importantly, he was damn good at what he did. Surely the
What’s a young married showgirl to do in 1920s Los Angeles when her husband gets a wandering eye? Buy a hammer, of course. Criminal Broads kicks off a new season with a roaring twenties tale of gore, featuring Clara Phillips, a dancer with a bad temp
The ugly: Nazis. The bad: a husband killed in battle. The good: a young woman with a machine gun.
Sharon Wiggins killed a man in a bank robbery gone wrong when she was seventeen. Her state locked her up for life, no chance of parole.
In 1978, a man left Mary Vincent for dead. Ten years later, she told a journalist she’d never get over it.
Two teenage girls became best friends. And then they began to dream of murder.
“Imagine at the age of 16 being sex-trafficked by a pimp named Kutthroat.” That was how the meme about Cyntoia Brown started.
One night in September, a white lady in a long green dress reported that she’d been the victim of a horrific crime.
Hannah Overton loved kids. But then she found herself in court, with the media calling her a baby-killer.
Poor Pam Hupp and her bad luck. First her best friend Betsy gets stabbed 55 times. Then her mother falls off a balcony...
Catherine Pileggi went from a flight attendant to a multimillionaire’s girlfriend. But after eighteen years, her relationship was on the rocks.
When Blanche Wright was captured in 1980, police said they’d found a vicious killer.
How could I conclude sister month without interviewing MY OWN SISTER?
Meet June and Jennifer Gibbons, who didn't speak to anyone but each other.
Hi, my loves! I'm super excited to introduce you all to Sinisterhood, a true crime comedy podcast that covers all things creepy and gives you the deep dives and thorough research you want. Best friends and long time comedians Christie Wallace and Hea
The three Khachaturyan sisters liked to take selfies and go to the movies—but behind the scenes, they were locked in a house of horrors.
In the midcentury Dominican Republic, three sisters face off against notorious dictator Rafael Trujillo.
Christine and Lea Papin do everything together. They work together. They live together. They kill together.
A surreal story of abuse and revenge, one that starts in poverty and ends in power.
We’ve covered over fifty broads on this podcast—but their stories don't end when the episode does.
One of the most powerful offices in the country is up for grabs this year, and it’s never been held by a woman.
Last time we encountered Marie Hilley, she was running from the FBI. Now, she’s changed her name and her backstory and (eventually) even her hair color.
Marie Hilley grew up thinking she was special. Marie Hilley started carrying around hypodermic syringes.
Behind the bravado and the $400 eyelash extensions, what can we say about the real Anna? …Is there a real Anna?
It was a crime made for the headlines: GOOD TWIN VS. EVIL TWIN.
Nobody conquered crime quite like Sophie Lyons, who grew from a childhood pickpocket to a career criminal with a talent for disguises, netting husbands, and talking her way out of sticky situations.
Somewhere on the icy sidewalks of New York in 1910, an heiress vanished into thin air.
On January 17, 2014, Sister Eli decided not to go to a party because she was too pregnant. Three years later, she was taking a plea deal for something she hadn't done that night.
Meet the woman whose face launched a thousand death threats.
In 1992, the body of a young nun named Sister Abhaya was pulled from a well with fingernail marks on her neck. Why did it take thirty years for anyone to be charged for her murder?
Rebekah Sebastian has interviewed pretty much everyone in the true crime universe on her podcast Die-Alogue. Now I’m interviewing HER!
The story of a fortune teller, a romance novelist, and millions and millions of missing dollars.
Amy Bishop was obsessed with her Harvard degree, but the rest of the world failed to bow down to her, and she couldn’t take it.
In 2007, Jennifer Mee got her fifteen minutes of fame when she couldn’t stop hiccuping. In 2016, she was once again on TV—this time on a show called “Killer Women.” Fame is a curse, and it had cursed her.
Marie Dean Arrington looked out her window, saw a car parked outside, and knew it was the FBI.
Defending murderers and professional jail-breakers isn't for the faint of heart, but thankfully, 1930s defense lawyer Jessie Levy was anything but fainthearted.
Bobbie Jo Stinnett was about to live a nightmare. But the nightmare was already with Lisa Montgomery, turning her into the sort of person that would knock on Bobbie Jo’s door with a knife beneath her jacket.
Meet Juana Barraza, who loved wrestling and her children, who hated elderly women and her mother.
A quick state of the Criminal Broads union.
Midnight. A hospital ward. A young woman writhes in her bed in pain. But wait—here comes the night nurse, Jane Toppan, with a cool glass of water, promising to make it all…go…away…
On Halloween night, a young woman sneaks her boyfriend into her house…to kill her parents. Meet Suzane Von Richthofen, Brazil’s biggest teen girl psychopath.
The prosecution said she was a vicious seductress. The defense said she was an innocent angel. Who in the world was Joan Little?
Why do women love true crime? Why do people love true crime? Author Rachel Monroe comes on the podcast to deconstruct our appetite for horrifying true stories.
On the night of January 15, 1978, Kathy Kleiner opened her eyes to see the serial killer Ted Bundy standing over her bed. This is her story, in her own words.
Fifty years ago, a wild-eyed maniac named Charles Manson sent a gaggle of his girls into the night to murder seven people. This is the story of the girl who stayed home.
Tanya Nelson believed everything her fortuneteller told her—until her fortuneteller’s predictions stopped coming true, and Tanya decided to take fate into her own hands.
The true stories of five women who fought—and killed—the Nazis.
They called her the Hyena of Auschwitz, the Beast of Belsen. In the midst of Hitler’s concentration camps, prisoners learned to spot her blonde head and translucent whip coming from a mile away—and hide.
History remembers them as beautiful booze-hounds. Hollywood turned them into fame-hungry starlets. But who were Belva Gaertner and Beulah Annan, really?
Isabella Goodwin thought she’d be a humble police matron forever…until one day, her boss asked if she’d like to take a crack at going undercover.
In the spring of 1941, California had never executed a woman. By the fall of 1941, all that had changed.
She strangled her coworker, changed her name, and went on the run—for fifteen years.
You know them by their autopsy photos. But who were they in real life?
When we talk about Jack the Ripper, we talk about a dangerous, mysterious man. But what if we’ve been looking at the wrong person all along?
Victorian women were expected to be wives and mothers—not killers. Enter Adelaide Bartlett.
In 1930s New York, a single man ruled the entire city with extortion, racketeering, and a healthy dose of murder. Nobody could take him down—until a black girl from Atlanta decided to try her hand at it.
You know her brother-in-law: Clyde Barrow. You know her brother-in-law’s girlfriend: Bonnie Parker. But do you know anything about her?
Anne Hamilton-Byrne wanted to be an actress and a mother, but ended up playing God on a purple throne, ruining the life of every child she touched.
Cash, cocaine, and Colombian cartels? All of that was a man’s world—until Griselda Blanco stepped up to the plate.
This is the story of Lois Gibson, the world’s most successful forensic artist.
Beneath the soft green grass of the Last Supper cemetery, most regular, God-fearing residents of Mobile, Alabama had one family member resting. Maybe two. Rhonda Belle Martin had eight.
A teenage girl kills three grown men in one night. She’s got a gun in one hand and a phone in the other. On the other end of the phone? Her lover—her pimp—is urging her to shoot.
While many remember the 1978 Jonestown massacre as a dark monument to the power of a single man’s paranoia and fanaticism, the tale of Jim Jones’ lover, Carolyn Layton, reveals a more complicated narrative—and a more frightening truth.
Is the vampire scene a total boys’ club? Or have women left their mark on it, too? Join me as we travel through the world of real-life lady vampires, moving from 1600s Hungary to 1890s Rhode Island to 1990s Australia. There will be blood.
In 1930s Sydney, there was only room for one fabulous, flashy, fearless, diamond-obsessed, Pomeranian-owning female crime boss. Unfortunately, there were two.
Phoolan Devi, born to a lower caste in Northern India, seemed destined to endure horrific abuse from rich men until the end of time…until she picked up a rifle.
We all know the story: Lizzie Borden may or may not have taken an ax (okay, a hatchet) and given her mother (okay, stepmother) forty whacks (okay, nineteen). But something sprung to life the day of that brutal double Borden murders: the Lizzie Borden
Meet Madame Cheng, a pirate who controlled more ships than Blackbeard, commanded more men than Calico Jack, and terrified more government officials than Henry Morgan.
He said she was the "most trigger happy person" he had ever met. She said she’d never killed anyone.
Harold Schechter joins us to tell the story of Belle Gunness—a great cook, a passionate writer of love letters, a ruthless butcher of men.
Beatrice Munyenyezi had neighbors on two continents. Her New Hampshire neighbors knew her as a hardworking, quiet mother of three. Her Rwandan neighbors knew her as a woman without mercy.
Amy Archer Gilligan’s convalescent home was designed for people nearing the end of their lives. Unfortunately, the end came far sooner than anyone could have predicted.
In the 90s, a guru rose out of Australia. She preached one simple thing: stop eating. Forever.
The sisters that slay together go to jail together.
A beautiful woman walks into Kansas in the 1870s. When she walks out, she leaves death behind.
They say Lavinia Fisher was America’s first serial killer—but then where are the bodies?