Hey, America doesn’t get to do all the podcasts! The rest of us can have a go too. So, it must be time for another round up of the best true crime podcasts (in English) from around the world…
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Ireland/UK
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The Nobody Zone
(RTÉ)
Was a homeless Irishman in London really a serial killer at large for thirty years? In 1983 Kieran Patrick Kelly confessed to multiple murders. Originally from Rathdowney, in County Laois, Kelly spent the majority of his youth in Dublin before moving to England in the 1950s. Like so many Irishmen who made the journey across the Irish Sea to work in Britain, he found life hard. Many fell through the cracks – drink, drugs, undiagnosed mental health issues, racism and discrimination. And when they disappeared few listened and the police took little interest. They fell into “The Nobody Zone”. Moving between Ireland and England, looking at new evidence and examining the lives of these men who did so much to rebuild post-war Britain but were all too often marginalised and scapegoated, the podcast tries to recreate Kelly’s life in London. But still the question remains – is Kieran Patrick Kelly Britain and Ireland’s largest unacknowledged serial killer?
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Australia
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Thin Black Line
(ABC Radio National)
Presented by award-winning investigative journalist Allan Clarke, Thin Black Line examines the 1993 death in custody of Aboriginal teenager Daniel Yock in Brisbane. Daniel was an 18-year-old traditional dancer and amateur boxer drinking with his mates in the city’s Musgrave Park one night. But when a police van arrives, the mood suddenly changed, triggering a dramatic chain of events. Tragic as it was Yock was only the latest in a series of Aboriginal youth to be hassled and have issues with the Brisbane Police. Clarke, who himself is a member of the Muruwari Aboriginal Australian people, investigates both the individual case of Daniel Yock and the wider disastrous deterioration in relations between the police and Aboriginal youth in Queensland.
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Scotland
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Who Killed Emma
(BBC Radio Scotland)
Emma Caldwell was a 27-year-old sex worker who was last seen getting into a car kerb-crawling Glasgow’s Red Light District in 2005. Emma had fallen into sex work after her life began to spiral downwards following a family tragedy led her to become a heroin addict and then a prostitute. Emma’s naked body was found dumped 70 miles away in isolated woodland in rural Lanarkshire five weeks later. She had been strangled. An investigation by Glasgow Police that targeted a group of Turkish men living in Glasgow spectacularly collapsed through lack of evidence. BBC journalist Sam Poling looks into a world of, rape, lies, racial profiling and murder before she finally confronts the man she believes killed Emma.
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India
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Astray
(iHeartRadio)
In the wake of the BBC’s successful drama of the hippy trail serial killer Charles Sobhraj, The Serpent, Astray is about those who go to India in search of enlightenment and never return. Take, for example, Ryan Chambers, an Australian backpacker who went missing from an ashram in 2005 and raised the issue of “India syndrome.” This arguable theory claims that Westerners traveling to India seeking enlightenment can suffer a psychological break when their high expectations when the enlightenment fails to appear. Filmmaker and podcaster Caroline Slaughter. Other theories can also explain the disappearances – a dodgy malaria medication being another possible reason for these disappearances.
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England
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Gangster
(BBC Radio 5 Live)
Gangster is the story of Paul Massey, a notorious Manchester organised crime boss who was shot dead outside his Salford home in 2015. Massey had been in trouble with the police since he was twelve years old. In the 1990s he started setting up security firms to run the doors at nightclubs, pubs and casinos in England’s second largest city and across the North West of the country – enforcement and extortion by any other name.
Gangster recreates the period when legendary Manchester nightclubs, notably the famed Hacienda, had massive drug dealing problems and Manchester became known in the English tabloid press as “Gunchester” and wildest city. Massey was a larger-than-life character and even ran for the job of Manchester Mayor while going in and out of prison. Like so many local criminal bosses he was both feared and loathed by many in his community, yet revered and supported by others.
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South Africa
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Poison
(BBC Sounds)
A podcast that’s essentially from the current affairs department, but is a mystery and an attempted murder…perhaps. Poison, presented by the BBC’s Southern Africa correspondent Andrew Harding, examines the claims that prominent figures within the African National Congress (ANC) party have been targeted for murder by assassins using poison. Among those senior figures in South Africa claiming they have been targeted by the poisoners are South Africa’s current deputy President, D.D. Mabuza and the ex-president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma.
But is this a real mass murder plot targeting key figures in Johannesburg, or just a baseless conspiracy theory designed to enhance the reputation of certain politicians currently rather discredited? Those claiming to have been targeted do have a few things in common – travel to Russia or Cuba recently for instance. However, none have made public their test results, all are accused of corruption, and all are allies of Zuma. Hoax or real threat? And is Putin behind it all?
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Philippines
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LAGIM
(Christine Abrigana)
Rather than one crime, LAGIM follows some of the most sensational murders in recent Filipino history. LAGIM is a Filipino word that means dread/terror. True crime cases include the death of well-known actress Nida Blanca in 2001, Claudine Feliciano who was caught in the middle of a criminal spree, politically-related massacres and the tragic death of socialite and fashion icon Elvira Manahan among others in this fortnightly podcast. German-Filipino host Christine Abrigana is a serious in-depth researcher and her podcasts reveal much of the wider Philippines economy, society and politics that provide the background to many of the murders.
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Wales
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Shreds: Murder in the Dock
(BBC Radio Wales)
The area of Butetown, also known as Tiger Bay, in the Welsh capital of Cardiff’s docklands has long been a tough area – deprived, solidly working class, multicultural. Thirty years ago “The Cardiff Five” was a big news story in the UK – five men, all black or mixed race, were charged and some of later convicted of the murder of 20-year-old Lynette White in Butetown on St Valentine’s Day 1988.Police appeared to dismiss reports that a white man was seen crying and covered in blood in the doorway where Lynette was killed. A massive miscarriage of justice had taken place. In 1992, after a massive public campaign the three members of the original five who were jailed were freed. Years later the real killer, Jeffery Gafoor, was caught. A police investigation into detectives and a corruption trial followed, but then collapsed. This podcast is both an investigation of what went wrong thirty years ago as well as how this miscarriage of justice that allowed the real killer to remain free for so long could have happened.
