Criminal Records Podcast

Criminal Records Podcast is a history show exploring the weird history of crime and punishment, from the earliest recorded murder case to the origins of laws that are in effect today. Join hosts Isaac Meyer and Demetria Spinrad on a wild journey through criminal justice systems all over the world. You can listen to our episodes in any order, but we recommend starting with our most recent cases and working your way back through our catalogue. We’ve learned a lot about audio editing and structuring hour-long episodes since we first started in 2018!

Mickey Cohen 09/26/2024

Mickey Cohen Mickey Cohen had friends in high places, from celebrities to televangelists to the LAPD. So what happened when one of the nation's most notorious mobsters tried to file his taxes as a legitimate hat salesman? /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/33212552

One week episode delay 09/17/2024

One week episode delay Heads up that due to the usual September bout with illness that plagues all new teachers, there will be no episode this week. We'll record part 2 on Mickey Cohen next week. /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/33099272

Mickey Cohen, part 1 09/05/2024

Mickey Cohen, part 1 It's an illegal gambling, Nazi-punching, tax-paying good time with Mickey Cohen, a gangster who rose through the ranks during one of America's most infamous eras of organized crime. Just don't ask about who he might have shot on his way to the top. /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/32905367

No episode this week 08/29/2024

No episode this week Sorry for the delay folks! Isaac's school year just started and Demetria has been sick, so we'll have a delayed release for this next episode. /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/32786017

Sovereign Citizens, part 2 08/15/2024

Sovereign Citizens, part 2 As the internet creates new unmoderated spaces for ideas to spread, the sovereign citizen movement moves on to new audiences and finds a lot of angry divorced dads who don't want to pay child support. Content notes: This episode continues our discussions of fascist ideology, racism, and antisemitism from part 1. /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/32583927

Sovereign Citizens, part 1 08/01/2024

Sovereign Citizens, part 1 Don't feel like paying your taxes? Want to start your own posse? Still mad about the gold standard? Looking for an excuse to blame all your problems on the Jews? Have we got a legally dubious ideology for you! Content notes: This episode contains discussion of fascism and anti-semitic ideology. Some violent incidents such as Ruby Ridge and Waco are mentioned but are not discussed in detail. /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/32379137

The Principality of Hutt River 07/18/2024

The Principality of Hutt River When you're unhappy about the price of wheat, there's only one solution: Send a telegraph to the Australian government declaring war. /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/32191767

The James Flint Incident 07/11/2024

The James Flint Incident When an Englishman with the rare ability to speak Mandarin Chinese got into a dispute with a corrupt local official in Zhejiang, he took his complaints all the way to the top, kicking off a diplomatic incident involving the emperor himself. /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/32091862

Episode delayed by one week 07/02/2024

Episode delayed by one week Hi all, Due to the 4th of July holiday there won't be an episode this week. But we'll have one for you next week! /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/31981322

Simas Kudirka 06/21/2024

Simas Kudirka A negotiation over fishing rights took an unexpected turn when a Lithuanian fisherman jumped onto an American Coast Guard ship to seek asylum. But as investigators dug into the story of this Soviet citizen's attempt to defect, they discovered that the defector's legal status was far more complicated than anyone—even Kudirka himself—could have guessed. (Sorry for the late post this week, I'm getting over a migraine!) /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/31831567

ONE Magazine 06/06/2024

ONE Magazine In a country where gay sex is illegal, is a magazine for gay people a publication for criminals? Is the content obscene, even if there's no sexual content on the page, just because sex might be suggested somewhere off the page or in the pages of an entirely different publication? And most importantly, can you put this magazine in the mail? /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/31626267

We'll be back in a bit! 05/03/2024

We'll be back in a bit! Hello listeners! Isaac is entering final paper grading/rec letter writing season on top of planning an international exchange school trip for some of his students in May. I've also got plans to visit family on the east coast this month. Instead of rushing out episodes to cover the time we'll be too busy to record, we decided to hit pause on Criminal Records Podcast for a month. If you're a patron, we've paused billing for the month of May so you won't be hit with charges for content we're not putting out. We'll be back in June with some new weird cases! /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/31098403

The Ulysses Trial 04/18/2024

The Ulysses Trial If the obscene material you're distributing is so avant-garde that most readers can't tell it's actually obscene, did you commit a crime or not? This week, we're getting into the trial of the scandalous literary magazine editors who brought the work of James Joyce to America. /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/30879303

Two small scams 04/04/2024

Two small scams Not all scam artists prey on suckers’ desire to get rich quick or cheat the system. Some of them prey on their marks’ better impulses, like their love for their pet dogs or their willingness to help a stranger in an emergency. Content note: This episode contains discussion of animal cruelty and inhumane and misguided medical practices. It contains some outdated language about epilepsy. /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/30673648

British Prison Reform 03/21/2024

British Prison Reform With options for getting rid of its convicts drying up, Britain started thinking about reforming both its prisons and the prisoners inside them. The intention behind these prison reforms was great. But attempts to create a better prison system involved wild philosophy experiments in real life, a lot of Bibles, a lot of time to think in silence, and... treadmills? /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/30472608

Abortion in Modern Japan 03/07/2024

Abortion in Modern Japan Is abortion legal in Japan? No, but also yes. Join us on a journey through history to learn about how modern abortion law developed in a legal system that didn't treat fetuses as legal persons but did want to count them as future taxpayers. Content note: This episode is about abortion. It contains discussions of miscarriages, the complications of improper administration of abortifacients, forced sterilization, sexually transmitted diseases, and sex work. /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/30266033

The Yakuza 02/22/2024

The Yakuza We're out of the country for a family memorial service and didn't have time to record a Criminal Records episode for the week. But that doesn't mean we're out of crime content! This week, we've cleaned up and cut together some of Isaac's very, very old History of Japan audio to bring you the history of Japanese organized crime. /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/29990348

The Bloody Code 02/08/2024

The Bloody Code Under Britain's most notorious era of criminal law, you could be sentenced to death for everything from destroying a fishpond to being a particularly malicious 7-year-old. But how many criminals actually died thanks to this wave of harsh legislation? Getting the answer requires a deep dive into the very weird world of crime and punishment in the industrializing United Kingdom. Content note: This episode is about capital punishment in British law and will include a lot of information about the state executing convicted criminals. The show notes contain images of hangings. I'm sticking with our general policy of choosing illustrations for our show notes instead of photographs of dead bodies. /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/29852253

Emma Goldman, part 2 01/25/2024

Emma Goldman, part 2 The law was out to take Emma Goldman down on a range of charges from distributing obscene material to assassination to sedition. But did the woman the papers called the Queen of Anarchy deserve her lengthy rap sheet? /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/29623763

Emma Goldman, part 1 01/11/2024

Emma Goldman, part 1 Something seemed a little less than ideal about governments and economies around the world in the late 1880s. One woman's solution? Anarchy. /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/29437338

Bonus Episode: Babylon Berlin 12/28/2023

Bonus Episode: Babylon Berlin Thanks to Demetria's brilliant decision to get as many vaccines as possible on the same day, there's no new episode this week. Instead, we're releasing a bonus episode from our Patreon archives about one of our all-time favorite works of historical fiction. We'll be back on our regular posting schedule in 2024! Content warning: Babylon Berlin is set in the Weimar Republic and contains some admirably frank depictions of the rise of fascism, so there's a lot of discussion of antisemitism and Nazis in this episode and on the show. /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/29264493

CW "Shorty" Young 12/14/2023

CW "Shorty" Young On one side, a crooked saloon owner with a side business running brothels and opium dens. On the other side, a moralistic tycoon with rail car full of beautiful vegetables. Which one of them did more damage to a frontier town in Montana? /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/29070798

The Reichsbürger movement 12/01/2023

The Reichsbürger movement Want to crown yourself the king of Germany? Want to conquer Europe because you have really strong opinions about public transit? Want to get rich quick selling fake government ID cards? With this one completely nonsense legal strategy, you too can claim the government of Germany isn't real and join the ranks of some very iffy far-right extremists. /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/28879153

Episode delay this week 11/28/2023

Episode delay this week Hi everyone, Owing to a bout of illness, we're bumping back the release date for this week's episode by 24 hours. We expect to still be able to get it out there by Friday morning (Pacific Time). Sorry for the delay! /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/28834083

The Stone of Destiny Heist 11/16/2023

The Stone of Destiny Heist To crown the monarch of the United Kingdom, you need a 336-pound block of sandstone. But who really owns that big chunk of stone, and who was the thief who stole it from its rightful place? /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/28665008

The Osaka Incident of 1827, part 2 11/02/2023

The Osaka Incident of 1827, part 2 If you're going to accuse a gang of spirit mediums of practicing a banned religion on the down low, you have to prove they're actually members of that religion. But what if your only understanding of how this religious group worships comes from stories about outrageous magical villains? /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/28482275

The Osaka Incident of 1827, part 1 10/19/2023

The Osaka Incident of 1827, part 1 A group of spirit mediums found a way to use their psychic prowess to get rich in the physical realm. But when an investigator started looking into a suspiciously successful prosperity scheme, he uncovered a case of divine fraud. /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/28363178

Lie Detector Tests 10/05/2023

Lie Detector Tests Let's dive into the dangerous, divine, and occasionally kinky history of trying to figure out who's telling the truth. /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/28219673

James Reavis, Part 2 09/21/2023

James Reavis, Part 2 In the second part of our story, the Baron of Arizona has to create a Baroness so he can rise to great heights in Europe and use his connections to keep swindling in America. But while the upper crust in the old country buy into his wild story, Americans are starting to unravel his fraud. /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/28098443

James Reavis, Part 1 09/07/2023

James Reavis, Part 1 James Reavis was a failed real estate investor, but he had a knack for document forgery. And if you lose all the land you own legally, why not acquire some more with the help of a few doctored papers? /episode/index/show/criminalrecords/id/27963882

Criminal Records Podcast

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