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Monstrous

di Carrie Canny

The Green River Killer Part 4

Years into the Green River investigation, detectives still did not know the identity of the man responsible—but the discoveries were far from over. In Part 4, we follow the cases of Tracy Winston, Maureen Feeney, Kimberly Nelson, Cindy Smith, Debra Estes, Andrea Childers, Marta Reeves, Roberta Hayes, Patricia Barczak, and Patricia Yellowrobe. Some were found years after they disappeared. Others were not immediately connected to the Green River case at all. As the case dragged on, the task force faced shrinking resources, pressure from above, and the painful reality that women and girls were still being overlooked—even as evidence suggested the killer had not truly stopped. This episode also explores the warning signs investigators missed, the victims whose identities and stories were lost in paperwork and assumptions, and the long silence before new technology finally brought Gary Ridgway into focus. Part 4 ends just before the breakthrough that would finally bring the Green River Killer’s name to light. 📧 Send us case suggestions and listener stories: monstroustcpod@gmail.com 📱 Follow us on all social media links here: https://linktr.ee/monstrouspod

The Green River Killer Part 3

In Part 3 of our Green River Killer series, the discoveries keep coming—and each one reveals more about the scale of the horror unfolding around Seattle. As investigators search wooded areas, airport-adjacent fields, and remote dump sites, more victims are found. Some are identified quickly. Others remain known only as “Bones” for decades before DNA and forensic genealogy finally give them their names back. We talk about the women and girls at the center of this case, including Wendy Stephens, Cheryl Wims, Colleen Brockman, Mary Sue Bello, Martina Authorlee, Carrie Ann Rois, Sandra Major, and Lori Anne Razpotnik. And then there is Ted Bundy. While sitting on death row in Florida, Bundy reached out to investigators with supposed insight into the Green River Killer. Was he helping—or was he using the investigation as another opportunity to talk about himself, delay his execution, and manipulate the people across the table from him? 📧 Send us case suggestions and listener stories: monstroustcpod@gmail.com 📱 Follow us on all social media links here: https://linktr.ee/monstrouspod Ted Bundy: Dialogue with the Devil: https://www.hulu.com/series/e8344893-aef9-4085-bdd0-0bb5f4b25828?play=false&utm_source=shared_link

The Green River Killer Part 2

The Green River Task Force is reaching a breaking point. As the victim count rises through late 1983, investigators shift from reacting to bodies to flooding Pacific Highway South with undercover surveillance, decoys, and early computer databases. But despite tracking leads on primed pickup trucks and ordinary-looking drivers, the killer manages to blend into the background. In this episode, we trace the heartbreaking stories of Gail Matthews, Mary Bridget Meehan, and other young women lost to this spree. We examine the moment police stood face-to-face with Gary Leon Ridgway at his front door—and how an anonymous, cryptic letter sent to a local reporter held the truth decades before anyone realized it. 📧 Send us case suggestions and listener stories: monstroustcpod@gmail.com 📱 Follow us on all social media links here: https://linktr.ee/monstrouspod

The Green River Killer Part 1

Before the Green River Killer became one of the most infamous serial killers in American history, he was just a name no one suspected — while bodies were already beginning to surface. In Part 1 of our Gary Ridgway series, we trace the terrifying early timeline of the Green River case, from the first victims to the moment investigators realized they were facing something far darker than a string of disappearances. This is where the case begins, and where the pattern starts to emerge. 📧 Send us case suggestions and listener stories: monstroustcpod@gmail.com 📱 Follow us on all social media links here: https://linktr.ee/monstrouspod

The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway

Natalee Holloway was 18 years old when she vanished on a graduation trip to Aruba, and the nightmare that followed would stretch on for nearly two decades. In this episode of Monstrous, we follow the disappearance, the chaos of the early investigation, the endless lies, and the dark trail that finally led back to Joran van der Sloot. Even after the confession, one devastating question still remains: where is Natalee? 📧 Send us case suggestions and listener stories: monstroustcpod@gmail.com 📱 Follow us on all social media links here: https://linktr.ee/monstrouspod

When Mass Hysteria Spreads

In this episode of Monstrous, we’re diving into three real cases of mass psychogenic illness that left investigators searching for answers. It starts in 1962, when a laughter outbreak swept through a Tanzanian boarding school and spread into surrounding communities. Then we move to a North Carolina factory, where workers began reporting strange symptoms after fear took hold on the floor. Finally, we head to the West Bank, where fainting episodes spread across multiple schools in the middle of growing panic. We also look at a more modern example from LeRoy, New York, where teenage girls developed sudden tics and twitching that sparked the same kinds of questions all over again. Different places. Different symptoms. Same unsettling pattern. What happens when fear spreads faster than logic — and a whole group starts reacting before anyone understands why? 📧 Send us case suggestions and listener stories: monstroustcpod@gmail.com 📱 Follow us on all social media links here: https://linktr.ee/monstrouspod

The Meowing Nuns

A convent in France. Silence, ritual, and devotion. And then, according to later accounts, the sound of cat-like cries breaking through the stillness. In this episode of Monstrous, we unravel the eerie story of the meowing nuns — a medieval tale that lives somewhere between legend, historical memory, and psychological mystery. We explore what people believed was happening, why the story survived, and what it reveals about fear, control, and the fragile line between order and collapse. We also dig into the symbolism of cats in medieval Europe and the possibility that the tale reflects something deeper about shared distress and collective behavior. 📧 Send us case suggestions and listener stories: monstroustcpod@gmail.com 📱 Follow us on all social media links here: https://linktr.ee/monstrouspod

The Dancing Plague of 1518

In 1518, the city of Strasbourg witnessed an event that still defies explanation. A woman known as Frau Troffea began dancing in the street—and continued for days. Within a week, dozens had joined her. Within a month, that number may have reached into the hundreds. There was no music. No clear cause. And no way to stop it. Contemporary records describe people dancing to the point of exhaustion, injury, and in some cases, death. Authorities, believing the condition was caused by “overheated blood,” encouraged the dancing—only intensifying the outbreak. Historians and scientists have proposed explanations ranging from ergot poisoning to mass psychogenic illness. But none fully account for the scale, duration, and physical toll of what occurred. In this episode of Monstrous, we examine the historical accounts, the leading theories, and the deeper question behind them: How does something spread through a group—not physically, but psychologically—and become real in the body? 📧 Send us case suggestions and listener stories: monstroustcpod@gmail.com 📱 Follow us on all social media links here: https://linktr.ee/monstrouspod

Ted Kaczynski Part 2

In Part 2 of our two-part Unabomber series, we continue the story of Ted Kaczynski — the man who terrorized the United States for nearly two decades with a bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 more. From the first bomb at Northwestern University in 1978 to the final fatal attacks in 1995, we walk through every device, every victim, and every mystery that made this one of the longest-running domestic terror investigations in U.S. history. Listen as we uncover the turning point that finally broke the case: a 35,000-word manifesto published in the Washington Post, and the brother who recognized his own sibling’s writing style. We detail Ted’s arrest at his isolated Montana cabin in 1996, his refusal to confess despite overwhelming evidence, his life sentence at ADX Florence (“Bombers Row”), and his death in 2023 at age 81. Key Facts: • 16 known bombing devices (9 mailed) • 3 killed: Hugh Scrutton (1985), Thomas Mosser (1994), Gilbert Murray (1995) • 23 injured across 7 states • 17-year campaign (1978-1995) • Ted arrested April 3, 1996 in Montana • Never expressed remorse, pleaded guilty in 1998 to avoid death penalty • Died at Federal Medical Center Butner, North Carolina in 2023 📧 Send us case suggestions and listener stories: monstroustcpod@gmail.com 📱 Follow us on all social media links here: https://linktr.ee/monstrouspod

Ted Kaczynski Part 1

This is the story of how a math prodigy became the Unabomber. Born in Chicago in 1942, Theodore Kaczynski was a brilliant but isolated child who skipped grades, spent months in hospital isolation as an infant, and never learned how to connect with other people. By 16, he was at Harvard studying mathematics. By 25, he was an assistant professor at UC Berkeley—the youngest professor ever hired by the university’s math department. But he quit. He walked away from academia and moved into an off-grid cabin in rural Montana, with no electricity, no running water, and no contact with society. What happened out there changed everything. Industrial noise invaded his silence. Logging destroyed his favorite hiking spots. The wilderness he loved was being eaten by modern society. And Ted’s resentment turned into ideology. He began writing. He began blaming. And he began justifying violence. On May 25, 1978, the first bomb appeared—a package at the University of Illinois-Chicago that exploded when opened, injuring a security officer. That was the first spark of a 17-year bombing campaign that would kill three people, injure 23 others, and terrorize the United States for nearly two decades. In Part 1, we go back to the beginning. We explore how Ted Kaczynski became Ted Kaczynski—his childhood, his Harvard years, the psychological experiments he was secretly enrolled in, his academic career, and his retreat into the wilderness. We trace the slow, quiet drift from an innocent child into someone who sent bombs through the mail and killed people. This is not a story of a sudden explosion. It’s a story of a lifetime of isolation, intelligence, and bitterness that built into something monstrous. Part 2 continues the story with the deadly bombs, the manifesto, and the hunt for the Unabomber. 📧 Send us case suggestions and listener stories: Monstroustcpod@gmail.con 📱 Follow us on all social media links here: https://linktr.ee/monstrouspod

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