Homocidal Tendency: A Queer True Crime Podcast

In celebration of October and spooky season, We are headed into the Hollywood Hills to uncover the tragic true crime history and heavy paranormal lore of 1920s silent film star Ramon Novarro. 

We discuss his rise to fame, the agonizing isolation of the Hollywood "Velvet Closet," and the brutal Devil's Night murder that birthed a trauma haunting at his Laurel Canyon estate.  

​In this episode, we cover:

​The Laurel Canyon Haunting: 

Modern residents of 3110 Laurel Canyon Boulevard report suffocating, aggressive paranormal activity in the...

Halloween night, 1958. Charleston, South Carolina. 

Beneath the veneer of old money and polite society,  company executive Jack Dobbins was forced to navigate the dangerous reality of living as a closeted gay man in the conservative South. 

After a night out at a local mixed bar, Jack invited a 18-year-old Air Force airman into his historic Queen Street home. 

The next morning, Jack was found brutally bludgeoned to death in his parlor.

​This week, we kick off our October spooky season marathon by stepping over the threshold of that Queen Street home. 

We...

** This is a Re-recording of Episode 40 the audio was just not hitting my standards **

In September 1988, the mummified remains of a woman were discovered concealed in Florida’s Green Swamp. 

What should have been a standard homicide investigation was instantly derailed by a single, catastrophic scientific error on the autopsy table. 

For 37 years, investigators chased a ghost a cisgender mother dubbed "Julie Doe" while the real victim's identity sat locked away in her DNA.

​This week, Matt breaks down the fatal 1988 misclassification of pelvic bone remodeling, the brutal reality of underg...

It’s the mid-1970s. Downtown Toronto is caught between the liberation of the disco era and a suffocating, deeply ingrained societal paranoia. 

For the men drinking under the glow of the St. Charles Tavern clock tower, the Village is a sanctuary. But sanctuaries are only safe until a predator finds the door.

​This week on Homocidal Tendency, we step into the neon-lit grit of the Yonge Street strip to track a terrifying string of 14 brutal, unsolved murders. 

We are breaking down the horrifying signature of overkill left behind by a phan...

In September 1988, the mummified remains of a woman were discovered concealed in Florida’s Green Swamp. 

What should have been a standard homicide investigation was instantly derailed by a single, catastrophic scientific error on the autopsy table. 

For 37 years, investigators chased a ghost a cisgender mother dubbed "Julie Doe" while the real victim's identity sat locked away in her DNA.

​This week, Matt breaks down the fatal 1988 misclassification of pelvic bone remodeling, the brutal reality of underground gender-affirming care in the 1980s South, and the agonizing five-year genetic genealogy battle.

 Discove...

​On the night of March 23, 2004, 31-year-old Kevin Clewer stepped out into the neon-lit sanctuary of Chicago’s Boystown district for a casual Tuesday night of barhopping. 

He was charismatic, deeply loved by his community, and completely unaware that a chance meeting with a stranger would shatter his family forever.

​The man went by "Fernando." 

By 4:00 AM the next morning, Fernando walked out of Kevin’s apartment and vanished into the pre-dawn darkness, leaving the young man dead from 42 stab wounds in a horrific display of overkill.

​This week, we step back into the 200...

This week, we are stepping away from the grim and the gruesome to explore one of the most bizarre, darkly comedic true crime stories in history.

​Meet Steven Jay Russell, the "King Con." 

He didn't use shivs, explosives, or violence to beat the Texas justice system. 

Armed with a 163 IQ and weaponized confidence, Steven conned his way into a corporate CFO position, embezzled $800,000 to fund a luxurious lifestyle for the man he loved, and then proceeded to walk out of prison four separate times using nothing but a walkie-talkie, a telephone, a typewriter, and...

The Freeway Killer Saga Part 3 : Randy Kraft " The Scorecard Killer "

The 1970s Southern California hitchhiking culture met its ultimate predator not in a windowless van, but in a pristine Toyota Celica. 

In the grand finale of our massive 3-part Freeway Killer Saga, we expose the most sophisticated and deadly of the three phantoms: Randy Steven Kraft.
​

While law enforcement was entirely consumed by the media panics surrounding Patrick Kearney and William Bonin, Kraft a highly affluent computer programmer used their chaos as a brilliant smokescreen. 

This episode decodes the...

The Freeway Killer Saga - Part 2  William Bonin

​In Part 2 of our Freeway Killer Saga, we track the terrifying escalation of William Bonin. 

We explore how a catastrophic failure by a state hospital and a backlogged court system allowed him to transform a pale green Ford Econoline van into a mobile, soundproof slaughterhouse.

But Bonin wasn't hunting alone. We dive into the dark psychology of the drifters and occultists he recruited to help overpower his victims and detail the poetic justice of how those exact accomplices ultimately sent him to the exec...

The Freeway Killer Saga - Part 1 

Patrick Kearney " The Trash Bag Killer "

Southern California in the 1970s was a sun-drenched paradise, but its massive, sprawling freeway system became the ultimate hunting ground for a terrifying killer. 

In Part 1 of our exclusive 3-part Freeway Killer Saga, Matt dives deep into the chilling mind and methodical crimes of Patrick Kearney the pioneer of the California highway panic. 

​Known as the "Trash Bag Killer," 

Kearney used his genius-level IQ, his unassuming appearance, and his background as an...

​If you grew up in the eighties, you know exactly what a bootleg VHS tape looks like. 

The tracking is warped, the shadows are pitch black, and the audio sounds completely demonic. 

Well, in 1987, Scotland Yard intercepted one of these heavily degraded tapes and immediately launched a multimillion-pound tactical manhunt. 

Why? Because they were dead certain they had just uncovered a horrific underground snuff film.

​It is one of the wildest, most embarrassing police screw-ups in British history, and the legal fallout is absolutely infuriating.

​I just dropped a full, dee...

There is a specific kind of isolation built into the architecture of a Japanese love hotel. 

You enter a soundproof room, you pay through frosted glass, and you vanish into the neon-soaked streets. 

But in July 2023, the anonymity of Sapporo’s Susukino red-light district was weaponized to hide a flawless, horrifying crime.

​This week on Homocidal Tendency, we are breaking down one of the most twisted psychological horror stories in modern Japanese true crime: the Sapporo headless corpse case. 

When 62-year-old Hitoshi Ura was found decapitated in Room 202 of the Hotel Let's...

In February 1961, Houston high society violently collided with the city’s underground margins. 

What started as a $30 encounter ended with a wealthy real estate tycoon shot six times, doused in high-octane gasoline, and set ablaze in a vacant lot.

​This week on Homocidal Tendency, Matt shifts gears from our recent heavy cases to dive into one of the most absurd, chaotic, and heavily sensationalized true crime stories in Texas history. 

Welcome to the saga of the "Beatnik Killers."

​We break down the chaotic shootout between Fred Tones, a 17-year-old runaway named Carolyn...

In late summer 1997, a gruesome discovery on the quiet shores of Hog Island, Rhode Island, shattered a family’s hope and changed a missing persons investigation into a cold case mystery. 

But the severed foot that washed ashore was just the tragic end to a story filled with missed opportunities and institutional betrayal.

​This week on Homocidal Tendency, we rewind six months to follow the timeline of 18-year-old Bryan Nisenfeld. 

Bryan was a sensitive, artistic freshman who vanished from Roger Williams University without a trace, leaving behind an open window in the dead of win...

By day, Virginia’s Colonial Parkway is a scenic, historic drive. By night, in 1986, it was a suffocating, pitch-black trap.

​In Episode 31 of Homocidal Tendency, Matt dives into the heartbreaking and brutal 1986 murders of Cathleen "Cathy" Thomas and Rebecca "Becky" Dowski.

As a same-sex couple navigating the rigid, hostile climate of the 1980s, Cathy and Becky sought refuge in the deep isolation of a Parkway lover's lane. Instead of a safe haven, they found a monster waiting in the dark.

​Their murders were the first strike in a terrifying reign of terror that became...

Washington D.C. is a city built on carefully managed reputations and dangerous secrets. 

On February 10, 2015, the pristine public life of high-profile intellectual property lawyer David Messerschmitt collided with a dark, hidden reality. 

Found brutally stabbed in Room 400 of the upscale Donovan Hotel, David’s death sent shockwaves through Capitol Hill.

​In this episod  of Homocidal Tendency, we unravel one of the most chilling D.C. true crime cases of the decade. 

We break down the digital footprint that blew the case wide open from burner Gmail accounts and Grindr profiles to the f...

What connects a 3:30 AM execution on a freezing Idaho dirt road to a white Dodge Durango abandoned in the Arizona desert nine years later?

In the late 90s, Gary and Barbara Loesch were systematically hunted and murdered in Post Falls, Idaho, for a half-million-dollar insurance payout. But the masterminds who orchestrated this brutal conspiracy weren't strangers they were family.

​We untangle the terrifying web of Tina Loesch and Skye Hanson. 

Discover how this couple hired a hitman, staged a bizarre hot tub accident, and triggered a real-life, decade-long fugitive manhunt that ended with a d...

​The Fourth of July is a celebration of freedom, but in the summer of 1999, one soldier learned that the most dangerous place he could be was in his own barracks, surrounded by his brothers-in-arms.

​In this episode of Homocidal Tendency, Matt dives into the tragic and enraging case of Private First Class Barry Winchell. 

Stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Barry was an exemplary infantryman with dreams of flying helicopters. But his life was brutally cut short over the Independence Day weekend after rumors surfaced about his relationship with Nashville showgirl Calpernia Addams.

​We unravel...

​What happens when the justice system itself becomes the monster? In Episode 27, we are stepping away from our usual murder cases to uncover one of the most chilling examples of systemic corruption and moral panic in American history: the 1955 Boys of Boise scandal.

​At the height of the Cold War and the Lavender Scare, a single local incident in Boise, Idaho, was weaponized by police, politicians, and the Idaho Statesman newspaper into a massive, city-wide witch hunt. 

We explore how a community turned against its own citizens utilizing off-the-books interrogation rooms, FBI agents, and the threa...

A missing two hours. A blood-soaked staircase. A medical paradox that defies the laws of blunt-force trauma.

​In Episode 26 of Homocidal Tendency, we strip away the sensationalism to examine the chilling death of Kathleen Peterson and the ensuing trial of her husband, Michael Peterson. Known globally as "The Staircase" case, this investigation remains one of the most polarizing mysteries in modern true crime history.

​How does a victim sustain seven massive scalp lacerations without a single skull fracture or defensive wound? 

We break down the forensic anomalies, the prosecution's weaponization of moral panic, and t...

We just wrapped our mid-season finale with Episode 25, and while I am taking a brief hiatus to recharge the batteries, the feed isn't going dark. 

In this special, fast-paced bonus episode of Homocidal Tendency, we plunge into a chilling 1972 cold case that permanently altered the course of history in Australia.

​The drowning of Dr. George Duncan in Adelaide's River Torrens wasn't merely a tragic loss of life; it exposed a terrifying reality of systemic police corruption and violence directed at the LGBTQ+ community. 

When the local Vice Squad treats hunting marginalized men as a sp...

In Episode 25, Matt takes you back to the gritty, neon-lit streets of 1970s New York City to investigate one of the most chilling and frustrating unsolved mysteries in true crime history: The Bag Murders.

​Between 1975 and 1977, the dark waters of the Hudson River surrendered a terrifying secret. Six unidentified victims were discovered along the Greenwich Village waterfront. But how does a serial killer dismantle six victims in the heart of Manhattan without leaving a trace? And why did the authorities completely look the other way?

​Today, we are stripping away the Hollywood urban legends to exam...

Behind the blinding neon lights, free-flowing champagne, and pulsing techno of the 1980s Paris underground, a predator was using high fashion as camouflage to hunt in plain sight. 

This week on Homocidal Tendency, we step off the dance floor of Le Palace and into the quiet, winding stone stairwells of the 18th arrondissement to track one of the most anomalous and terrifying true crime cases in modern French history.

​We break down the lethal folie à deux of Thierry Paulin and Jean-Thierry Mathurin a toxic partnership fueled by extreme narcissism, heavy cocaine addiction, and an insatiable lust...

This week, Matt takes you on a chilling journey into the pristine, frozen passes of 1980s Switzerland a place synonymous with safe neutrality, immense wealth, and postcard-perfect landscapes. 

But beneath the snow, a predator is hunting. In this episode, we deep dive into the case of Michel Peiry, the charismatic, well-dressed soldier known as "The Sadist of Romont," who weaponized Swiss society's trust and indifference to target an entire generation of marginalized young men.

We explore the complex psychology of a killer, the incredible survival story of a 16-year-old victim, and the systemic failure that a...

The monsters aren't always hiding in the shadows... sometimes they are standing right next to you under the neon lights.

​In the mid-1990s, the underground clubs of Hillbrow, Johannesburg, served as a rare sanctuary for the LGBTQ+ community. 

But for Samuel Jacques Coetzee and John Frank Brown, that vibrant sanctuary was a hunting ground.

​This week on Homocidal Tendency, Matt breaks down a deeply unsettling case of folie à deux a shared psychosis fueled by jealousy, control, and a thirst for blood. 

We explore how Coetzee used his glamorous drag persona as the...

Need a breather from the blood and guts? After a few incredibly heavy weeks, Homocidal Tendency is taking a detour from our usual grisly crime scenes to dive into a completely different kind of underworld. 

This week, we travel back to the gritty, neon-lit streets of early 90s New York City to explore the desperate, brilliant, and entirely analog crimes of Lee Israel.

​Once a New York Times best-selling biographer, Lee found herself blacklisted, broke, and backed into a corner with a sick cat and no way to pay the bills. 

Her solution? A vi...

In March 2007, a land surveyor pushing through the thick palmetto scrub off Arcadia Street in Fort Myers made a chilling discovery a sun-bleached human skull. By the time the cadaver dogs and forensic anthropologists finished their work, the brush had yielded the skeletal remains of eight different men.

​In this special bonus companion episode of Homocidal Tendency, we return to the lethal Florida scrub to uncover the mass graveyard they missed. 

We break down the horrifying realization that Daniel Conahan didn't just abandon Fort Myers for the Hog Trails—he was managing two separate boneyards at th...

​In the mid-1990s, the suffocating palmetto scrub of Southwest Florida hid a terrifying secret. A calculated predator was cruising the highways, cheap motels, and day-labor spots, luring transient and marginalized men into the woods with the promise of quick cash for a "nude bondage photoshoot." But once the ropes were pulled tight against the rough bark of the trees, the trap snapped shut.

​In this episode of Homocidal Tendency, we delve into the deeply disturbing crimes of Daniel Conahan, the man who turned the Charlotte County woods into his own personal slaughterhouse. We break down his chil...

In the 1980s and 90s, the decaying shipping warehouses of Manhattan’s West Village were a world entirely of their own. 

For thousands of marginalized queer youth, trans women, and outcasts pushed to the fringes of the city, the rotting timber and pitch-black labyrinths of Piers 45, 46, and 50 offered a vital sanctuary. 

It was the cradle of the underground ballroom scene and a place of unapologetic freedom.

​But the dark hides everyone equally.

​In this episode of Homocidal Tendency, we step off the cobblestones of West Street and into the shadows to explore...

A sprawling 40-acre estate in the Rhode Island woods. A disconnected phone line. Millions of dollars vanished into thin air. The only witnesses? A pack of 50 prize-winning dogs.

​This week on Homocidal Tendency, we are traveling back to the 1980s to unpack one of the most infuriating and heartbreaking cases of the decade. We explore the life of Cam Lyman, a transgender millionaire who built an isolated fortress to protect himself from a hostile society, only to be betrayed by the one person he let inside the gates.

​From the forged letters and the missing brie...

The Cleveland Torso Murders | The Butcher of Kingsbury Run

​Episode Description:

In the grip of the Great Depression, the soot-choked city of Cleveland was brought to its knees by a phantom. Between 1935 and 1938, a brilliant, meticulous monster turned the shantytowns of Kingsbury Run and the illicit vice district of the "Roaring Third" into his own personal slaughterhouse.

​This week on Homocidal Tendency, we descend into the shadows of the Rust Belt to hunt the Mad Butcher. We explore the gruesome, surgical signature of the killer, the escalating cat-and-mouse game that ultimately brok...

​There is a specific kind of thrill we look for in a dark ride. We willingly plunge into the pitch black, waiting for the jump scare, knowing that eventually, the track leads back out into the light.

But on the freezing night of June 9th, 1979, the fake monsters inside Sydney’s Luna Park Ghost Train were replaced by a very real, lethal threat.

​This week on Homocidal Tendency, we head to the neon-lit, gritty waterfront of 1970s Sydney, Australia, to uncover a mass-casualty event that was quickly swept under the rug by a deeply corrupt police...

Episode 15: The Atlanta Hustler Murders

​Episode Summary:

The monsters aren’t always wearing masks in the woods. Sometimes, they are waiting in the exact spaces the rest of the world decided to ignore.

​In the mid-1980s, Atlanta was aggressively branding itself as the gleaming capital of the "New South." But just blocks away from the shining new skyscrapers, a perfect storm of systemic racism, deep-seated homophobia, and the terrifying peak of the AIDS panic was pushing the city's most vulnerable citizens into the shadows.

​This week, Matt tak...

Imagine risking your freedom, your career, and your country for a forbidden romance... only to realize you don’t know the first thing about the person sleeping next to you.

​This week on Homocidal Tendency, we are stepping out of the shadows of Beijing and into one of the most bizarre, devastating, and theatrical true crime cases of the 20th century. In 1964, a lonely French diplomat named Bernard Boursicot fell in love with a beautiful, mysterious Beijing Opera singer named Shi Pei Pu. What followed was a 20-year web of international espionage, stolen classified documents, and a lie...

How does a killer commit a frenzied, brutal murder in the middle of a bustling university building in broad daylight, and walk away like a ghost?

 This week, we are unlocking the doors of 1 Spadina Crescent a massive, 19th-century gothic fortress with a dark history to explore one of Toronto’s most baffling unsolved cold cases.

​In January 2001, beloved Fine Arts professor and brilliant queer artist David Buller was found slaughtered inside his secluded studio office. With zero DNA left behind, a missing murder weapon, and an eerie silence surrounding the attack, investigators were left with...

What happens when a monster only hunts other monsters? This week on Homocidal Tendency, we descend into the subterranean basement of HMP Wakefield to unlock the terrifying, tragic truth behind Britain's most isolated prisoner: Robert Maudsley.

​For over 40 years, Maudsley has lived inside a custom-built, bulletproof glass cage. The British tabloids branded him "Hannibal the Cannibal" and "The Brain Eater," painting him as a boogeyman so lethal he couldn't be housed with other human beings. But the truth is far more complicated, and deeply rooted in the marginalized, vulnerable queer underground of 1970s London.

​From the...

To the outside world, Christine and Léa Papin were the "perfect pearls" of Le Mans. 

They were quiet, submissive, and kept the Lancelin household running with terrifying perfection. 

But behind the walls of No. 6 Rue Bruyère, the silence was deafening, and a deadly psychological pressure cooker was whistling.

​On a rainy night in February 1933, a simple blown fuse triggered one of the most gruesome and infamous crimes in French history. What happened on that dark staircase wasn't just a murder; it was an obliteration.

​This week, we are tearing down the...

In 1913, New York City was captivated by a horror story that seemed too gruesome to be true. A handsome, intellectual Catholic priest living a double life: performing Mass by day, and running a counterfeiting ring and a slaughterhouse by night.

​In this episode, Matt deep dives into the twisted life and crimes of Father Hans Schmidt—the only Catholic priest ever executed in the United States. From his blood-soaked childhood in Germany to the secret "love nest" in Harlem where he married his housekeeper in a fake ceremony, we uncover the man behind the collar.

​"Say goodbye to your friend Larry, because you won’t see him after tomorrow."

​It was February 12, 2008, inside a computer lab at E.O. Green Junior High in Oxnard, California. The only sounds were the clack-clack-clack of keyboards and the low hum of teenage chatter.

​In the front row sat 15-year-old Larry King, wearing his signature knee-high brown suede boots and makeup. He was bold, gender-nonconforming, and—in the eyes of many—a "problem" to be solved.

​Directly behind him sat 14-year-old Brandon McInerney, a popular athlete hiding a dark...

San Francisco, 1974. The "Summer of Love" has faded into a gritty, neon-soaked reality. In the shadows of the Castro and the Tenderloin, a predator is hunting. But he doesn't use a gun or a mask. He uses a sketchbook.

​He is "The Doodler"—a serial killer who charmed his victims with charcoal portraits before luring them to their deaths in the dunes of Ocean Beach. He killed five men. He assaulted countless others. And then, he vanished.

​In this episode of 
Homocidal Tendency
, we open the file on one...