Murder Blueprint

In this episode of Murder Blueprint, retired Kansas City Police Detective Gary Jenkins examines one of America's most chilling unsolved serial murder cases—the Texarkana Moonlight Murders of 1946.   Known to history as the work of the mysterious Phantom Killer, these attacks terrorized the twin cities of Texarkana, Texas, and Arkansas during a ten-week reign of fear.

Young couples parked on lonely lovers' lanes became targets as the masked gunman brutally attacked eight people, killing five while leaving investigators with few answers and no arrest.  

Gary reconstructs each attack in chronological order, beginning with the savage assault on J...

In this breaking-news bonus episode of Murder Blueprint, retired Kansas City detective Gary Jenkins examines a disturbing investigation unfolding at a Philadelphia home connected to several missing women. Police reportedly discovered an enormous collection of graphic photographs and videos involving dozens of women. Some appear unconscious, injured, or possibly deceased. Investigators have identified several missing women among those depicted, including Nicole Fusaro, Maribel Fresses, and Gabrielle Amarando.

Gary compares the discovery to the Kansas City investigation of serial killer Robert Berdella, whose photographs documented the torture of his victims.

Authorities are still reviewing the Philadelphia evidence...

In this episode of Murder Blueprint, retired Kansas City Police detective Gary Jenkins sits down with retired KCPD homicide detective Mike Luster to go inside the investigation that finally identified Kansas City serial killer Lorenzo Gilyard.  

For years, women were found murdered around Kansas City, many of them vulnerable women working the streets. The cases stretched back decades and initially appeared to be separate homicides. Then advances in DNA technology began connecting them.  

Luster explains how he started digging through old homicide files and discovered striking similarities among the victims. What began with a few DNA-linked mu...

The interview introduces Ann Spry, a longtime editor and former newspaper publisher, and discusses her work with the host on several books. The main topic is Ann’s book, Searching For Summer: A Solved but Unresolved Missing Persons Case. This is the story about the disappearance and killing of Summer Shipp.

Ann says she met Brandy Shipp, Summer’s daughter, after moving to Kansas City and having home remodeling work done. Brandy later introduced herself, and Ann asked whether she had considered writing about her mother’s case. Brandy had been approached before but was not ready at the ti...

A short episode to update listeners on the outcome of jury deliberations in the Lindsay Clancy trial.

Subscribe to Murder Blueprint wherever you get your podcasts, and join us each week as we uncover the stories buried beneath the headlines—and the bodies.

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This episode of Murder Blueprint examines the Lindsay Clancy case as the jury deliberates her fate. At the center of the trial is a difficult legal question: how should severe mental illness be weighed against criminal responsibility?

We review the defense case, including testimony that Clancy sought help from numerous medical providers, received multiple psychotropic medications, visited emergency rooms, contacted crisis and suicide hotlines, and participated in outpatient treatment, partial hospitalization, and a psychiatric admission.

We also discuss concerns that her mental-health treatment was fragmented and lacked a single provider coordinating her...

In this episode of Murder Blueprint, retired Kansas City police detective Gary Jenkins talks with Los Angeles crime writer and researcher Joan Renner about George and Stefan Spitzer, identical twin brothers who became known as the “Roofie Romeos.”

The brothers were convicted in 1998 of using Rohypnol to drug and sexually assault women in Southern California. Investigators searching their apartment discovered boxes of Rohypnol and videotapes documenting assaults. Sixteen women eventually came forward, although investigators believed there may have been additional victims. George Spitzer received a 60-year prison sentence and Stefan received 37 years.

Joan explains how the twin...

In this episode of Murder Blueprint, retired Kansas City Police detective Gary Jenkins examines the disturbing Lindsay Clancy case and the central question at the heart of her murder trial: Was she legally responsible for killing her three young children, or was she suffering from a severe postpartum mental illness that prevented her from understanding her actions?  

The episode begins with listener Lilly outlining the case and the deaths of five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson, and eight-month-old Callahan. Gary then examines the prosecution’s case, including the narrow window of time while Clancy's husband was away, fitness-tracker data, her beh...

What would you do if your phone rang and you heard your child crying for help?

In this episode of Murder Blueprint, Gary Jenkins examines a disturbing form of fraud that uses AI voice cloning, caller ID spoofing, social media information, and psychological pressure to convince victims that a loved one has been kidnapped, injured, arrested, or is otherwise in immediate danger.  

The episode begins with a frightening case from Arizona. A mother receives a call from what appears to be her daughter, who sounds terrified and says she is in trouble. A man then takes o...

In this episode of Murder Blueprint, retired Kansas City Police Detective Gary Jenkins examines one of South Carolina's most baffling unsolved homicide cases—the infamous Superbike Murders.   On November 6, 2003, four people were executed inside Superbike Motorsports in Chesnee, South Carolina. Owner Scott Ponder, his mother Beverly Guy, service manager Brian Lucas, and mechanic Chris Sherbert were all shot to death in what appeared to be a targeted execution. Strangely, no money was taken, valuable property remained untouched, and investigators were left with virtually no forensic evidence or credible suspects.  

Gary walks listeners through the investigation from the perspective of a...

In Part Two of this special Murder Blueprint series, retired Kansas City Police Detective Gary Jenkins continues his conversation with retired detectives Joe Langer and Tom Robinson as they reveal how investigators captured one of Kansas' most notorious serial killers—Richard Grissom Jr.  
The detectives take listeners inside the Johnson County Metro Squad investigation as hundreds of officers and investigators worked around the clock to locate Grissom before he could claim another victim. You'll hear how a nationwide manhunt stretched from Kansas to Chicago, Corpus Christi, and Dallas, where a carefully coordinated operation finally brought Grissom into custody.  

In the first of a two-part series in Murder Blueprint, retired Kansas City Police Detective Gary Jenkins is joined by retired detectives Joe Langer and Tom Robinson to examine the opening phase of one of Kansas' most disturbing serial murder investigations.  

What began as the disappearance of Joan Butler in June 1989 quickly escalated when Christine Rusch and Teresa Brown also vanished within days. All three young women lived in Johnson County apartment complexes, and detectives soon realized they were facing far more than isolated missing persons cases.  

Joe and Tom take listeners inside the investigation as la...

Two condemned men. Two completely different cases. One execution day.  

In this episode of Murder Blueprint, retired Kansas City Police Detective Gary Jenkins examines two Florida death penalty cases that reached the same conclusion on the very same day.  

The first case follows Dominic Anthony Occhicone, whose long history of anger, alcoholism, and obsession with a former fiancée ended in the murders of her parents. Gary breaks down the evidence that prosecutors used to prove planning and premeditation, leading to a death sentence that survived decades of appeals.  

The second case explores the cont...

In the second of two episodes on the Kansas City Serial Killer, Bob He Butcher Berdella, Gary continues his interview with retired Kansas City police sergeant Troy Cole. They discuss the investigation into Bob Berdella after Christopher Bryson escaped from his house in 1988. 

Listeners learn how police found Polaroid photographs, human remains, and other evidence of abuse. Cole explains how detectives identified the previously unknown victims through photos, documents, dental records, fingerprints, and Berdella’s torture logs.

They learn that young men named Robert Sheldon, Jerry Howell, Larry Pearson, James Ferris, Mark Wallace, and Todd Stoops. The...

In this inaugural episode of Murder Blueprint, retired Kansas City Police Detective and Gangland Wire host Gary Jenkins is joined by retired Kansas City Police Sergeant Troy Cole to begin a gripping multi-part examination of one of the Midwest's most infamous serial murder investigations—the Bob Berdella case.  Get the book by Troy Cole, Rites of Burial. 

The investigation begins on April 2, 1988, when a terrified young man escapes from Berdella's Hyde Park home wearing nothing but a dog collar. His shocking story initially sounds almost unbelievable, but responding officers quickly discover injuries that support his account of being held...

What makes a killer? Is it rage? Revenge? Obsession? Opportunity? Or is there something else—a pattern, a design, a blueprint—that investigators learn to recognize before anyone else?

I'm Gary Jenkins, and after spending 25 years as a detective with the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department, I learned that many violent crimes don’t happen by accident. Whether it's a serial killer, a domestic violence murderer, a child abductor, or a predator targeting victims, there is almost always a blueprint. The challenge is recognizing the pattern before another life is lost. You may already know me as the host o...