S2 Ep12: Jim Jones
Cosmic Crimes
In November 1978, the remote settlement of Jonestown in Guyana became the site of one of the deadliest mass deaths in modern history. Jim Jones, the charismatic leader of the Peoples Temple, had spent years cultivating loyalty, control and fear among his followers before leading more than 900 people to their deaths in a coordinated act of murder and coercion. What began as a movement built on promises of equality and community gradually transformed into an environment of isolation, paranoia, and absolute obedience. In this episiode, we trace Jones's rise from preacher to authoritarian figure,...
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S2 Ep11: Albert Fish
Cosmic Crimes
In the early decades of the 20th century, a series of disappearances and deeply disturbing crimes slowly converged around one man hiding behind the appearance of a frail, elderly drifter. Albert Fish targeted society’s most vulnerable, moving through boarding houses, neighborhoods, and families with calculated patience while leaving devastation in his wake. His arrest revealed a pattern of extreme sadism, long-standing compulsions, and violence that spanned decades, shocking even seasoned investigators. In this episode, we trace Fish’s progression from his early life marked by...
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S2 Ep10: Israel Keyes
Cosmic Crimes
In the early 2010s, investigators uncovered a serial killer whose crimes defied traditional patterns and challenged the limits of criminal profiling. Israel Keyes operated across the United States for years, carefully planning abductions, sexual assaults, and murders while leaving behind almost no forensic trail. He buried “kill kits” years in advance, selected victims at random, and avoided familiarity that might connect one crime to another. In this episode, we trace Keyes’s methodical escalation, the chance encounter that led to his arrest, and the unsettling interviews that followed,...
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S2 Ep9: Dean Corll - The Candy Man
Cosmic Crimes
In the early 1970s, Houston became the setting for one of the most disturbing serial murder cases in American history. Dean Corll, known locally as the "Candy Man", used his access to teenage boys and the trust of their families to conceal a prolonged pattern of abduction, assualt, and murder. With the help of two teenage accomplices, Corll lured dozens of victims to his home and other locations, where the violence escalated unchecked for years. The case only came to light after one of those accomplices turned on him, exposing a scale of brutality that shocked investigators and the public...
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S2 Ep8: Ed Kemper - The Co-Ed Killer
Cosmic Crimes
In the early 1970s, California was shaken by a series of abductions and murders that would later be traced to Ed Kemper, an intelligent, articulate man whose calm demeanor masked escalating violence. Kemper targeted young women he picked up while hitchhiking, committing six murders before turning his rage toward his mother and her friend in a final act that stunned investigators. When he ultimately called police to confess, his cooperation and unsettling composure challenged traditional ideas about remorse, motive, and control. In this episode, we examine the path from his turbulent family...
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S2 Ep7: H.H. Holmes – The Devil in the White City
Cosmic Crimes
In the 1890s, Chicago’s booming South Side became the backdrop for one of the most infamous criminal legends in American history. H. H. Holmes, born Herman Webster Mudgett, cultivated the persona of a polite, educated businessman while quietly engineering a web of fraud, manipulation, and murder. Though newspapers later sensationalized his so-called “Murder Castle,” the truth is more unsettling. Holmes exploited trust, opportunity, and the anonymity of a growing city to carry out his crimes. In this episode, we trace his rise from medical student to accomplished con man, follow the...
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S2 Ep6: Robert Hansen – The Butcher Baker
Cosmic Crimes
In the 1970s and early 1980s, Anchorage, Alaska, was stalked by a predator hiding in plain sight. Robert Hansen, a quiet baker, devoted father, and seemingly ordinary member of the community, was secretly hunting women in the wilderness, kidnapping them, assaulting them, and releasing them into the remote woods before tracking them like game. For years, his crimes went unnoticed, protected by his reputation and the harsh, isolated landscape he knew better than anyone. In this episode, we follow the investigation that finally exposed the Butcher Baker, the survivors who helped break the case,...
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S2 Ep5: Ted Bundy
Cosmic Crimes
In the 1970s, a wave of disappearances swept through the Pacific Northwest as Ted Bundy, seemingly intelligent, ambitious, and disarmingly charming, lived a double life that concealed one of the most prolific serial killers in American history. To friends and colleagues, he was a law student with political aspirations; to investigators, he became the elusive predator responsible for a multistate trail of abductions, murders, and brazen escapes. In this episode, we chart Bundy’s progression from his early crimes in Washington to the brutal attacks at Florida State University’s Chi Omega...
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S2 Ep4: Paul Michael Merhige – The 2009 Thanksgiving Murders
Cosmic Crimes
In 2009, a Florida family gathered for what should have been a warm, ordinary Thanksgiving, until the night erupted into one of the most devastating family massacres in modern true-crime history. Paul Michael Merhige, long described as the “golden child” with a quiet brilliance and a history of untreated mental illness, arrived at his relatives’ home in Jupiter with a calculated plan he had concealed for years. Before the night was over, four family members were dead. In this episode, we trace the years of decline that led to that holiday tragedy, the red flags, and the chilling callous...
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S2 Ep3: Ed Gein – The Ghoul of Plainfield
Cosmic Crimes
In the winter of 1957, the rural town of Plainfield, Wisconsin, was thrust into national horror when investigators stepped inside the farmhouse of Ed Gein, only to uncover a nightmarish collection of human remains turned into masks, clothing, and household décor. Gein, a reclusive handyman shaped by an obsessive devotion to his mother and a lifetime of isolation, blurred the line between grief, delusion, and ritual. His crimes would go on to birth some of the most iconic monsters in American film, but the reality was far stranger than fiction. In this episode, we trace the path from Gein’s...
info_outlineOn a December night in 1991, four teenage girls were found bound, gagged, and burned inside an Austin yogurt shop, a crime so brutal it stunned the nation. For years, police pursued a tangled investigation that led to false confessions, overturned convictions, and lingering doubt. Decades later, advances in DNA testing would upend everything, pointing not to the four accused young men, but to an unknown perpetrator whose identity remains elusive. In this episode, we revisit the case that defined a generation of true-crime skepticism, unpack the missteps that derailed justice, and explore how the cosmos of that night mirrored the tension between illusion and truth, a tragic reflection of innocence lost and faith in the system forever shaken.
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SOURCES:
ABC News. “Genetic Genealogy, Police Work Credited with Solving 1998 Murders of a Woman and Her Daughter.” ABC News, 5 Oct. 2018.
Associated Press. “I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt Murders: The DNA Breakthrough.” AP National Wire, 27 Sept. 2025.
City of Austin. “Austin Police Make Significant Breakthrough in 1991 I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt Murder Case.” AustinTexas.gov, 26 Sept. 2025.
District Attorney’s Office of Travis County. Yogurt Shop Murders Case Resolution Notice. Public statement by District Attorney José Garza confirming DNA match to Robert Eugene Brashers, Sept. 2025.
FBI Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP). Cross-Jurisdiction Violent Offender Profile: Robert E. Brashers. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Genealogical Forensic Unit Records, 2025.
Greenville News. “DNA and Genetic Genealogy Link Robert Brashers to Zitricki Murder Across Three States.” GreenvilleOnline.com, 5 Oct. 2018.
KFVS-TV. “‘My Father Was a Serial Killer’: Robert Brashers’ Daughter Speaks Out.” KFVS12.com, 5 Feb. 2019.
KUT / Texas Standard Public Radio. APD Confirms Genealogical DNA Match in 1991 Yogurt Shop Murders. Broadcast segment and transcript, 28 Sept. 2025.
Missouri State Highway Patrol Records Archive. Incident Report: Self-Inflicted Gunshot Death of Robert E. Brashers, Kennett, MO, Jan. 1999.
People. “Austin Police Make ‘Significant Breakthrough’ in Murders of 4 Teen Girls at Yogurt Shop, Name New Suspect 34 Years Later.” People.com, 27 Sept. 2025.
The Austin Chronicle. “Case Against Springsteen and Scott Collapses After New DNA Evidence.” Austin Chronicle Archives, June 2009.
The Guardian. Dodd, Vikram. “Men Freed After DNA Fails to Link Them to 1991 Austin Yogurt Shop Murders.” The Guardian, 2009.
The New York Times. “Cold Case Cracked by Genealogical DNA: Texas Yogurt Shop Murders Linked to Serial Offender.” NYT National Desk, 29 Sept. 2025.
The Washington Post. “DNA Testing Links Dead Man to Texas Yogurt Shop Killings, Police Say.” The Washington Post, 27 Sept. 2025.
Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office. Yogurt Shop Homicides: Autopsy File Compilation, Case Nos. 91-12-07-A1 to A4 (including soot inhalation determination for victim Amy Ayers).
WYFF-TV. “Suspect in 1991 Texas Yogurt Shop Murders Tied to 1990 Greenville Killing.” WYFF4.com, 29 Sept. 2025.