Afleveringen
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When retired art teacher Joseph Gatto was shot to death inside his Silver Lake home in 2013, the LAPD theorized that a fleeing car burglar might be the killer. The victimâs son, a prominent California legislator, found that story increasingly hard to believe.
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Iva Toguri was a Los Angeles native who became trapped in Japan during World War II. When she returned home, the U.S. government put her on trial as a traitor for her wartime broadcasts. Her name became synonymous with a myth, her conviction fueled by lies and political pressure.
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Aimee Semple McPherson built a religious empire in Los Angeles and became one of the most influential evangelists in America. When she vanished from a California beach and reappeared weeks later with an unbelievable story, the scandal that followed threatened to destroy everything she had built.
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On todayâs episode, we discuss one of the pivotal events of the 1960s: the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, a promising presidential candidate at the time of his murder. Though the gunman was caught at the scene, confessed at trial, and even bragged about the shooting, his motives have largely been forgotten. In that collective amnesia, conspiracy theories have flourished.
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Orange Countyâs most prolific mass shooter admits his guilt, but a series of explosive hearings uncovers a longstanding jailhouse snitch operation that taints many other cases. Jailers plead the 5th, the judge makes a startling ruling, and a victimâs husband forms an unlikely friendship with the killerâs crusading defense attorney.
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In 2012, the judge presiding over Orange Countyâs worst mass-shooter case gave a seemingly simple order. He told the Sheriffâs Department to reveal information about a mysterious jailhouse informant. When defense attorney Scott Sanders probed deeper, he announced that he had discovered a wide-ranging and illegal cell-block informant operationâand a conspiracy to cover it up.
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In the final episode of this four part series, weâll talk to historian William J. Mann about his new book on the Dahlia case, which points to the same long-forgotten suspect whose name has been linked to a Zodiac cipher.
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Were the Black Dahlia and Zodiac murders the work of the same man? A new theory argues a disturbed World War II veteran was responsible. In this episode, a former FBI profiler explores the psychology behind both cases, examining where they overlap and where they diverge.
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Marvin Margolis was a promising early suspect in the Black Dahlia murder, but he managed to slip through the cracks. So who was this man of many pseudonyms? In this episode, weâll explore what Margolis did during and after the Dahlia investigation, and a key piece of evidence that potentially links both the Dahlia and Zodiac cases.
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The identity of the Zodiac Killer has remained a mystery for decades, but new developments may finally point to an answer. At the center is the infamous Z13 cipher, a 13-character code sent to the San Francisco Chronicle that has long defied experts. Self-taught codebreaker Alex Baber used artificial intelligence and exhaustive analysis to narrow millions of possibilities down to a single name. As his theory gained traction, former detectives and intelligence experts began testing its credibility. The result is a provocative possibility: the name hidden in the cipher may also belong to the man behind another infamous California murder â the Black Dahlia.
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On this season of Crimes of the Times, Los Angeles Times journalist Christopher Goffard explores criminal cases that have left a mark on California history. This seasonâs stories include new developments in the Black Dahlia and Zodiac cases, the snitch scandal that rocked Orange County, the plight of the Japanese American woman known as Tokyo Rose, and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.
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Attorney Frank Carson spent decades defending the accused in California's Central Valley. He made powerful enemies among law enforcement. When they put him on trial for murder, he insisted he was being framed. He was acquitted after a lengthy trial, but his widow says the ordeal destroyed his health and hastened his death. As part of a malicious prosecution lawsuit, the man who once served as the stateâs star witness against Carson admitted his testimony was a pack of lies. In April, Stanislaus County agreed to pay $22.5 million to settle the suitâone of the largest payouts of its kind.
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In 1986, 29-year-old Sherri Rasmussen was just starting her married life when she was brutally murdered in her Van Nuys home. The LAPD called it a âburglary gone bad,â ignoring red flags pointing to one of their own for years. Detective Stephanie Lazarus might have gotten away with it if she hadnât left behind a key piece of evidence.
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When a helicopter crash killed actor Vic Morrow and two children on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie, the filmmakers called it an unforeseeable accident. An LA County Sheriffâs detective saw something else: broken laws, reckless risks, and an A-list director who ignored warnings.
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On the summer solstice in 1990, a UCLA student with an interest in the occult was stabbed to death in a railway tunnel in the San Fernando Valley. Rumors of ritual violence swirled in the era of the so-called Satanic Panic. Police investigating the murder of Ronald Baker found his killers knew him well. One of them had even carried his casket.
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When 21-year old college dropout Christopher Boyce got a job as a clerk at the TRW Defense and Space Systems complex in Redondo Beach, he was given access to some of the countryâs biggest government secrets. And under a Robin Hood-like ethos, he and his childhood pal Andrew Daulton Lee began sharing those secrets with the Soviet Union. Their story lived on in the 1985 film âThe Falcon and the Snowman,â but their friendship had a much shorter shelf life.
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When comic John Belushi died of a speedball overdose at Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont, it wasn’t clear there had been a crime—until the National Enquirer got involved. This episode follows the tabloid reporter who hunted down Belushi’s dealer, coaxed a confession, and transformed a drug overdose into a homicide investigation.
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James Sexton endures weeks of solitary confinement in federal prison, as prosecutors finally gear up to take Lee Baca to trial. Bacaâs lawyers claim he has Alzheimerâs Disease. Itâs late 2016, and the recent presidential race has made the FBI unpopular in liberal Los Angeles. Sexton testifies for the government and is released early, a humbled man, to begin rebuilding his life. The jury deadlocks at Bacaâs trial, only one wants to convict him, but prosecutor Brandon Fox presents a more fleshed-out case and wins a conviction in March 2017. A judge gives Baca a three-year sentence. In his late 70s, he goes to prison. Anthony Brown, in prison for life, wins a $1 million settlement against the county, while Leah Marx is promoted to the FBIâs behavioral science unit.
The conviction of Sheriff Lee Baca marked a rare prosecution of a lawman at his level and closed a turbulent chapter in Los Angeles history. What began with a smuggled phone ended with the countyâs top law-enforcement officer in prison. The series is told by Chris Goffard, whose reporting on Dirty John reached millions around the world.
Topics in this episode include: Sheriff Lee Baca trial, Los Angeles jail corruption, James Sexton prison, FBI investigation, Anthony Brown settlement.
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The feds interview Bacaâs flinty #2 man and heir apparent, Paul Tanaka, who professes ignorance about who gave the order to hide Anthony Brown. In 2013, as the FBI probe enters its fifth year, feds finally get a chance to grill Baca. He touts his achievements as a reformer but admits he resents that the FBI excluded him from the jail probe and snuck in the cell phone. His answers are evasive and riddled with falsehoods. In Jan. 2014, as the feds close in, he resigns after 15 years as sheriff. Tanaka is convicted of conspiracy and obstruction of justice. Baca enters a plea that will give him a maximum of six months in prison, but a judge deems it too lenient, setting the stage for the sheriffâs trial.
Their questioning showed how politics and power shaped Los Angeles law enforcement. What began as a probe into jailhouse abuse had reached the top of the nationâs largest sheriffâs department. Chris Goffard, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and host of Dirty John, explains how the scandal unraveled the careers of two of the countyâs most powerful figures.
Topics in this episode include: Sheriff Lee Baca, Paul Tanaka conviction, FBI interrogation, Los Angeles jail scandal, obstruction of justice.
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James Sexton thinks Operation Pandoraâs Box is behind him. When he reports a superior officer for misconduct, he is branded a snitch and treated as a pariah. Ostracized and scared, he does what he once thought unthinkable: he begins feeding information about the Sheriffâs Department to the FBI, and tells a grand jury about the scheme to hide Anthony Brown. In the U.S. Attorneyâs first major thrust against the sheriffâs department, Sexton becomes one of 18 current or former sheriffâs employees to be indicted. Desperate to keep his badge, he decides the fight the charges, and his lawyer portrays him as the âWalter Middyâ of the scandal, a man who exaggerated his role. Nevertheless, a jury finds him guilty and he begins his prison sentence.
Sextonâs decision to talk to investigators opened a rare window into the inner workings of the Sheriffâs Department. His testimony about Anthony Brown tied deputies and supervisors to a widening obstruction scandal. The story is reported and narrated by Chris Goffard, the Los Angeles Times journalist behind Dirty John.
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