The natural born podcasters are back with another installment of Fifty States of Murder! The setting is the Midwestern powder keg of 1950's America when a teenaged boy with nothing to lose joins forces with his questionably-aged girlfriend and lights the fuse on a killing spree that leaves eleven people dead and a community terrorized by its own greatest fear: juvenile delinquency. Charles Raymond Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate have been elevated to cultural icons, romanticized, fictionalized, misunderstood, denigrated in the media, condemned by the courts, and ultimately became a mirror held up to the darkest aspects of American society. The forces that drove them to strike back against an unfair world hit a little too close to home even today in... Nebraska!

Fifty States of Murder puts the pedal to the metal and takes on one of the biggest cases of serial murder in American history: BTK, aka Dennis Rader. His brutal crimes went unsolved for decades as he taunted the police through cryptic letters, dropped out of sight for years at a time, and crafted a wholesome public persona. Dark humor abounds as Eli and Mel try to reconcile the antics of a man who consistently flubbed the details of his attacks while also leaving a trail of bodies behind him and was so good at living a double life he was able to fool both his family and his entire community. In fact, his identity might still be a mystery today if he hadn't gone one step too far with the cops in... Kansas!

What do mashed potatoes have to do with murder? Tune in and find out as Eli and Mel travel back in time to 1981 to investigate the family values of John Mathis, a mid-western pig farmer who may or may not have used a .22 caliber to re-enter the singles market. As a bonus for our loyal listeners Eli shares his top-secret recipe for garlic pudding. YUM! So if you're about to ride a horse into a public fountain you better make sure it's wearing pants in... South Dakota!

The wait is over! The update is finally here! Eli and Mel dive straight into the deep end as they revisit one of the first cases the DUSE covered way back in 2022: the quadruple murder of four college students in Moscow, Idaho. Sure, Eli's theory about a local cult having a hand in the brutal slayings was wrong -- very wrong -- but the truth is even harder to believe. From the bizarre story of the surviving roommates to the bungling of the investigation at every level, including the FBI, there's just nothing satisfying about this case. Bryan Kohberger took a plea deal to avoid the death penalty, and maybe he really did do it, but if you're looking for conclusive evidence you're better off watching an episode of Law & Order in... Idaho!

It's a very merry murdery Deliver Us Some Evil Christmas special! Eli and Mel slide down the chimney to share the gruesome story of one family who just didn't have what it took to get through the holidays in one piece. It might not have been a dark and stormy night back in 2013 but Christmas morning revealed something much worse than a stocking full of coal to the windy city when eighteen-year-old Alexis Valdez dialed 911. And if that's not enough to jingle your bells, Eli reaches back into his own personal history for a heartwarming story of his own, one that luckily had a different ending. So deck the halls and spike that eggnog 'cause Old Saint DUSE is coming to town in... Illinois!

The DUSE rises to #33 on the top Fifty States of Murder chart with a damning expose on the fraud, hypocrisy, dirty dealings, and general scumbaggery just beneath the surface of the country music industry. It all came as a surprise to Kevin Hughes when he took a bullet for daring to demand honesty instead of a bribe. It was 1989 and even the cops couldn't fathom corruption so deep it could cost a man his life for only a few thousand dollars. Whodunit? Find out as Eli and Mel belly up to the bar for a double shot of payola in... Tennessee!

What do you get when a rich woman goes missing, there's no shortage of suspects, but almost no evidence? The latest episode of Fifty States of Murder, of course! Eli and Mel document the unsolved disappearance of Jacqueline Levitz, a wealthy social climber who went through three husbands before vanishing in late 1995. Was she bumped off by jealous relatives? Or maybe it was one of the working stiffs she stiffed when she liquidated her husband's assets? Or was it a robbery gone horribly wrong? We're not sure of much, but we're pretty sure she never stood a chance in... Mississippi!

The DUSE waxes philosophical in our latest episode of Fifty States of Murder as Eli and Mel paint a picture of innocence lost in post-WWII America and the influence of pivotal thinkers like Soren Kierkegaard, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and of course Friedrich Nietzsche. What does existentialism have to do with murder? We're glad you asked! It took disenchanted jazz musician Melvin Rees to figure it out after he dropped out of college and turned his deep conversations about the morality of murder into a real world experiment. It was a dark time in America, and The DUSE pulls no punches, taking a hard look at our violent origins and how a man like Rees might just be more American than apple pie in... Maryland!