Wicked Words - A True Crime Talk Show with Kate Winkler Dawson

Steve Meyers + Shawn Johnson: How to Rob a Bank

In the 1990s, a bank robber known as “Hollywood” robbed at least 19 banks in the northwest. He was pursued for years until one final robbery ended in violence. My guests

Kimberly Sheeter: Air-Minded

My next guest is an author who began writing a biography and then turned it into a novel. And I don’t blame her. The story of Earnest Pletch may be largely unknown now, b

Dawson Fearnow: Incognito Inc.

This is the third time I’ve had Dawson Fearnow on the show—he writes about Arizona and some of the bad things that happened there. He’s talking to me about a piece he wro

Tori Telfer: Criminal Broads

Alright, I have a great podcast for you. It’s called Criminal Broads and it’s hosted by Tori Telfer. The stories focus on women as criminals. She tells me about a bank ro

Maurice Chammah: The Last Twelve Weeks

I’ve had my buddy, Maurice Chammah, on the show before. He’s a journalist with the Marshall Project, and a leading authority on the death penalty. He has a podcast out ca

Kate Casey: Martha Moxley

The 1975 murder of 15-year-old Martha Moxley made national headlines because of its brutality, but also because the main suspect was a cousin of the Kennedys. Michael Ska

Justine van der Leun: Unreasonable Women

My next guest has done something extraordinary: she traveled across America collecting stories of criminalized survival. Shocked to find how many women were convicted for

Eva Benefield: Ghost Girl

If you followed the so-called Black Swan murder case, you probably saw a teenage girl, trying to get justice for her father. In 2020, Ashley Benefield shot and killed her

Emily Winslow: Jane Doe January

Author Emily Winslow is a fabulous crime novelist and she’s also a sexual assault survivor. In 1992, she was a young drama student at an elite conservatory in Pittsburgh.

Pamela Colloff: Catch the Devil

Journalist Pam Colloff is one of my favorite people. She’s an outstanding criminal justice reporter who is now publishing her first book. And it’s a doozy.  It’s about a

Michelle Pitcher: Riding Shotgun

A man was convicted of capital murder in Texas in 1999 and much of the case depends on eyewitness testimony. But there’s a twist: one of the witnesses was hypnotized. Sho

Axton Betz-Hamilton: The Less People Know About Us

Millions of us have had our identities stolen—the thief can be a stranger, or someone very close to you. Author Axton Betz-Hamilton grew up in fear in rural Indiana becau

Robert Hilland: Chasing Evil

In 1998, FBI agent Robert Hilland was at a dead end with a cold case, until he got a huge break… from a famous psychic, John Edward. Hilland was a skeptic, but not anymor

Jessica McDiarmid: Highway of Tears

For decades, scores of Indigenous women and girls have vanished from an isolated stretch of highway in northwestern British Columbia called The Highway of Tears. Journali

Liam Le Guillou: An Unknown Compelling Force PT 2

We’re back talking to filmmaker Liam Le Guillou about his documentary An Unknown Compelling Force: The Dyatlov Pass Incident. We learn more about the victims, and we hear

Liam Le Guillou: An Unknown Compelling Force PT 1

Filmmaker Liam Le Guillou was fascinated with the mystery surrounding the deaths of nine experienced Russian hikers in the Ural Mountains in 1959. Paul Holes and I talked

Naomi Clifford: Women and the Gallows

Throughout history, women have been convicted of crime, sometimes violent crimes, we know that. But most were not sent to the gallows. Historian Naomi Clifford decided to

Diane Fanning: Bitter Remains

Author Diane Fanning is known for covering high profile cases like Casey Anthony and JonBenet Ramsey. But not with this book. In the summer of 2011, Laura Jean Ackerson l

Patrick Radden Keefe: London Falling

In 2019, surveillance cameras at the headquarters of Britain’s spy agency in London recorded video of a 19-year-old man. He was pacing back and forth on a high balcony of

Andrea Dunlop: The Mother Next Door

One type of crime we don’t talk about much is Munchausen by proxy. It’s a mental health condition and a form of child abuse. It's where a caregiver exaggerates, makes up,