Apparently I'm so oblivious to my surroundings, that I did not see this for quite a few days, in spite of walking by that exact spot on a very consistent basis.
Ever find yourself at that turning point when your favorite genre simply isn't doing it for you anymore? That somehow the chosen themes that you enjoy so much somehow becomes stale, and you find yourself looking for other themes to peruse within your chosen genre to satiate that hunger?
Well I've been experiencing a multi-decade long rut with a couple of my favorite genres of choice: True Crime and US Civil War.
Today's post will cover the myriad of ways that I've tried to satiate the hunger for True Crime, while next week's post will cover the ways that I've tried with the US Civil War.
With True Crime, I started off like a lot of other young people do, by reading about serial killers and the Mafia. However, once we had exhausted those particular niches, we had to find other sub-genres to explore, and up to about ten years ago, I was quite successful.
We started our next exploration by reading about well known events, then gradually switched to lesser known events. We then pivoted to the other side of True Crime: namely, the less publicized, but equally important related tangents.
For example, I started reading about crime scenes, such as ones that I had purchased a few years back that death with the LAPD archives (plus one that an LAPD dectective produced for himself) and one that dealt with the NYPD. The stories behind them were both incredibly eye-opening and depressing. Then we dabbled a little further in the nitty gritty by purchasing a book about the death penalty in Texas, specifically when they had switched over from electric to pharmaceutical.
Eventually, even dabbling in those interesting topics grew stale, so we made yet another pivot, albeit quiet briefly, back to well known historical events. I read about one that is a well known haunted house in Kansas, where an entire family involuntarily departed this world, yet it wasn't an isolated incident.
Then we pirouted one final time to killer objects. For example, I read a book about axes and how they were used to relieve people of their capacity to breath, and the history behind them.
Finally, the one book that we had talked about previously on this blog, which was about a woman who was childhood/high school friend with Gacy's final victims and was instrumental in bringing him to justice.
By this point of this particular book, which was in 2025, I was exhausted in trying to find something that one, I hadn't read about before, whether a person or event; and two, wasn't slanted to make the criminal the victim.
Fortunately for me, even though I had given up the reading portion of True Crime (was never really interested in the video portion), I tripled down on the audio portion of True Crime podcasts.
Being quite late to the podcast world (2018 when I had bought my first smart phone), it took me quite awhile to find some podcasts that piqued my curiosity long term. So let me tell you about five that have become permanent podcasts of my playlist, and all five I highly recommend.
1} Small Town Dicks: hosted by Yeardley Smith (aka Lisa Simpson), this focus on crime in the proverbial small town USA, and each episode features the person who actually worked the case. They have done special episode arcs like the first case in the UK to feature rudimentary forensic science (1920s if I recall); a mini story arc about the OKC bombing and this summer featured a ten episode arc about the Golden State Killer that one of the co-hosts was directly involved with. Has been around for sixteen seasons (about 8 years, give or take).
2} Park Predators: this one has a specialized focus on true crime that takes place in our great national park system. Highly informative and expertly researched, it originally started off as a summer only podcast but eventually switched to year round. I think it's been around since pre-pandemic.
3} Dark Down East: its true crime focus is exclusively New England and covers the occasional case from the 19th century, in addition to the 20th & 21st century. Expertly researched and written, and if you enjoy true crime with a regional focus, this podcast is for you.
4} The Casual Criminalist: this one dabbles in True Crime from around the world, from the 19th thru the 21st. Expertly written, with a twist that the narrator didn't set eyes on the script until he sat down to record it, it also doubles as a YouTube channel. Been listening for several years.
5} Blood Trails: this was a recent discovery via another podcast from the same media company (Meat eater). This one is also a seasonal, although it looks like it's going to be two seasons per year (about 16+ episodes per calendar year). This one covers the great outdoors (hunting, trapping, fishing, etc.) in the US.
This next one doesn't quite fit the category that was being used by the aforementioned podcasts, but this media company's output is more historical than true crime outright.
6} Black Barrel Media: they have two podcasts that fall under the historical true crime categories: Infamous America and Legends of the Old West. The former focuses mostly on true crime, while the latter has a mixed focus on true crime and history. They can also be found on YouTube.
So even though I don't read books in the True Crime genre that much anymore, I can satiate my need by listening to podcasts that cover true crime outside the norm: small town, New England, the outdoors, the national parks, worldwide and historical.
And that to me, means that I can still stay well read and well informed, even it it's now down in audio form.
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