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We Saw the Devil: Crime & Political Analysis

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Rating
★★★★☆
4.2
from
956 reviews
This podcast has
404 episodes
Language
English
Explicit
Yes
Date created
2010/11/19
Latest episode
2026/10/27
Average duration
73 min.
Release period
4 days

Description

We Saw the Devil is the podcast that refuses to separate murder from power, violence from policy, and crime from the systems that create it. Hosted by Robin, a veteran true crime researcher and political commentator, We Saw the Devil digs into the cases that expose the rot at the heart of American institutions. This isn't your typical true crime podcast. We don't just ask "who did it" — we ask who allowed it, who covered it up, who profited, and whose bodies are always the ones that end up in the ground. From serial killers protected by police to political violence disguised as law enforcement, from cold cases buried by corruption to state sanctioned murder carried out in broad daylight — We Saw the Devil connects the dots between crime, politics, and power that other podcasts won't touch. What makes this show different: Every case exists within systems — police departments, courts, prisons, immigration enforcement, political machines. We examine those systems. Cases others won't cover. Police killings. Political assassinations. Government adjacent violence. Crimes committed by the powerful against the powerless. Deep research, not just Wikipedia. Court documents. FOIA requests. Original interviews. First person sources. We do the work. No cop worship. We respect victims and survivors. We don't lionize law enforcement or assume the official story is true. Intersections of crime and politics. How true crime and political crime overlap: corruption, cover ups, state violence, and the bodies left behind. Episodes covered: Cold cases and unsolved murders Serial killers and the systems that enabled them Police violence and law enforcement killings Political crimes and government corruption Missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) Immigration enforcement and border deaths Wrongful convictions and prosecutorial misconduct Historical true crime with modern political resonance Breaking cases with political dimensions If you believe that true crime isn't just entertainment, that understanding violence means understanding power...this is your podcast. New episodes weekly. Subscribe, leave a review, and join the community. Content warning: This podcast contains explicit language, detailed descriptions of violence, and discussions of politically sensitive topics. Listener discretion advised. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/we-saw-the-devil-crime-political-analysis--4433638/support.

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Check latest episodes from We Saw the Devil: Crime & Political Analysis podcast


I'm Not Sorry: Violence Against Women, the Manosphere, and Why So Many of Us Are Done
2026/10/27
Six in ten American women have experienced intimate partner violence. Nearly one in five have survived the kind that can kill. The US ranks 31st in the world on women's wellbeing. A third of Gen Z men surveyed globally say a wife should always obey her husband. And two of the loudest voices selling masculinity to boys are facing rape charges. This episode is about why so many women are saying out loud that they hate men, and why Robin's not apologizing. In this episode: -The "last woman on earth" question and what history says happens to women when society collapses - New national data from Tulane and UC San Diego, Georgetown's Women, Peace and Security Index, and femicide - Andrew Tate's new indictment and the Clavicular arraignment - The Lindsay Clancy mistrial, the holdout juror, and why men couldn't let it go - Five of Donald Trump's most misogynistic quotes - Pauline Harmange's "I Hate Men" and the French official who tried to ban it - Reality Check: what men, women, and institutions can actually do Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/we-saw-the-devil-a-true-crime-podcast--4433638/support. Website: http://www.wesawthedevil.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/wesawthedevil Robin's Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/robin_wstd Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/WeSawtheDevil Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/wesawthedevilpodcast TikTok: tiktok.com/@wesawthedeviltruecrime
Updates: Christa Pike, Lindsay Clancy, Linda Henning, & the End of the Olney Search
2026/10/26
Four updates this week, and the strangest is out of New Mexico. In 2002, Linda Henning stood trial for her life in the 1999 disappearance and presumed murder of Girly Chew Hossencofft, a bank teller whose body has never been found. Last week a judge ruled Henning had been so delusional she believed she was on trial over "golden discs." The judge threw out the conviction, ordered a new trial, and on Friday let her out after 27 years in custody. We go through the con man who called himself a surgeon, the lizard-people seminar, the blood evidence, the defense that backfired, and why trying someone who can't understand their own trial is unconstitutional. Also in this episode: OLNEY: The FBI and Philadelphia police have wrapped their search of 417 W. Chew Ave. No human remains found. Animal bones, a safe hidden in a wall, adipocere ("grave wax"), and DNA still being tested. Seven women are still connected to the house. LINDSAY CLANCY: A judge rejects the defense bid to investigate the holdout juror, and a new poll says nearly half of Massachusetts voters want her retried. CHRISTA PIKE: Tennessee tried to execute her in Nashville on Sept. 30 and failed. We cover what happened in the chamber, what's happened since, this week's new court filing, and whether the state can try again. Olney tips: Philadelphia Police, 215-686-TIPS (8477). Homicide Unit: 215-686-3334. Next episode: an update on the Matthew Farwell trial. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/we-saw-the-devil-a-true-crime-podcast--4433638/support. Website: http://www.wesawthedevil.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/wesawthedevil Robin's Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/robin_wstd Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/WeSawtheDevil Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/wesawthedevilpodcast TikTok: tiktok.com/@wesawthedeviltruecrime
The Matthew Farwell Trial, Week 2: Sandra Birchmore in Her Own Words
2026/10/21
"If anyone should be scared it's not you." Sandra Birchmore wrote that to Matthew Farwell in December 2020, weeks before she was found dead in her Canton apartment. This week the jury in Farwell's federal trial stopped hearing about Sandra and started hearing from her. Over three days on the stand, an FBI agent read their messages aloud: the October 2020 ultimatum after she learned his wife was pregnant, the sign announcing her own pregnancy, his reply calling her "the worst person on the face of the earth," and his texts the night a friend called his police department. Then a Stoughton dispatcher told jurors what Farwell's face did when he heard about that call. In this episode: Monday's direct: the 49 meetings the FBI charted, including whether he was on the clockThe October 2020 ultimatum, in Sandra's wordsHis January 2021 text about chokeholds, 24 days before her death"A complete 180": the key, the closet, and the week prosecutors call the lullThe defense cross: the baby's biological father, and Sandra's mental health in her own wordsSandra's OB-GYN: a viable pregnancy, no suicidal ideation, "no indications of her destabilizing"The dispatcher who took the January 20 call, and the desk officer who said forget itA Winnie the Pooh onesie and a Valentine's Day announcement she never got to makeThe judge's rulings on exhibits and the three affair witnessesUpdated verdict predictionReality Check: When Grooming Comes With a Badge. How grooming by a police officer differs from grooming by an ordinary adult, from authority bias and the psychology of uniforms to why ride-alongs became a pipeline for abuse. Plus the Marshall Project's findings on Police Explorer programs, Massachusetts's new law closing the age of consent loophole, and why "she participated" is one of the most dishonest things you can say about a child and the adult with power over her. Matthew Farwell has pleaded not guilty to killing a witness or victim and to causing the death of an unborn child. He is presumed innocent. All charges are allegations. The defense has not yet presented its case. William Farwell has never been charged with any crime. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/we-saw-the-devil-a-true-crime-podcast--4433638/support. Website: http://www.wesawthedevil.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/wesawthedevil Robin's Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/robin_wstd Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/WeSawtheDevil Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/wesawthedevilpodcast TikTok: tiktok.com/@wesawthedeviltruecrime
The Matthew Farwell Trial: Week One Recap
2026/10/19
"We wanted to make sure we got a statement out of him, whether truthful or otherwise." That's the Massachusetts state trooper who investigated Sandra Birchmore's death, explaining to a federal jury why he and his supervisor interviewed the married Stoughton detective at the center of her life in a school parking lot. No recording. No notes. Week one of United States v. Matthew Farwell is in the books, and the federal government is prosecuting two things at once: the former detective accused of killing Sandra, and the state investigation that called her death a suicide for three and a half years. We go day by day through opening statements and the first four days of testimony, then give you our current verdict prediction. In this episode: Opening statements: the government's "ultimatum" theory, the January 20, 2021 call to Stoughton police, and the closet texts eight days before Sandra diedThe defense case: an affair, a breakup, a suicide ribbon search, and a fight over the science, the DNA, and the maskThe weekend motions: three women, "any one of you," and why one sentence raised the judge's eyebrowsTrooper Matthew Dunne under fire: the broken necklace, the duffel bag, and the parking lotSgt. Robert Kuhn, Lesley Davis, Chief Donna McNamara, and Nicholas Guarino (yes, that Guarino)"Mfarwell1," lost files, an Apple Watch nobody could open, and a recording of the January 20 call that automatically purgedThe FBI takes the stand: her phone's last steps at 9:40 p.m., a baby name list, and the Cellebrite searchesReality Check: where the case stands SOURCES Rough transcript of opening statements (U.S. Attorney's Office, D. Mass.): https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/media/1465501/dl CBS Boston, openings: https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/matthew-farwell-sandra-birchmore-trial-opening-statements/ CBS Boston, Oct 13: https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/matthew-farwell-trial-sandra-birchmore-stoughton-ma/ CBS Boston, Oct 15: https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/matthew-farwell-trial-updates-sandra-birchmore/ CBS Boston, Oct 16: https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/matthew-farwell-trial-testimony-sandra-birchmore-massachusetts/ Boston Globe, Oct 15: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/10/15/metro/sandra-birchmore-trial-live-updates/ Boston Globe, Oct 16: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/10/16/metro/sandra-birchmore-trial-live-updates/ NBC Boston, affairs motion: https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/matthew-farwell-trial-prosecutors-want-3-women-he-allegedly-had-affairs-with-to-testify/4029669/ LA Magazine: https://lamag.com/crimeinla/cop-accused-of-murder-wore-mask-only-at-crime-scene-witness-tells-jury/ Pew Research Center: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/06/14/fewer-than-1-of-defendants-in-federal-criminal-cases-were-acquitted-in-2022/ Support the show: We Saw the Devil on Patreon Instagram: @wesawthedevilpodcast | @robin_wsted | X: @wesawthedevil | TikTok: @wesawthedeviltruecrime| Facebook: wesawthedevil Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/we-saw-the-devil-a-true-crime-podcast--4433638/support. Website: http://www.wesawthedevil.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/wesawthedevil Robin's Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/robin_wstd Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/WeSawtheDevil Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/wesawthedevilpodcast TikTok: tiktok.com/@wesawthedeviltruecrime
The Olney House Update: A Week of Bones
2026/10/18
Luminol on Monday. Human DNA on Tuesday, per police sources. An excavator in the backyard, a shed torn down, and dirt sifted three feet deep like a mass grave. Then on Thursday, the medical examiner pulled up to 417 West Chew Avenue because somebody found bones. Nobody knows yet whether they’re human. Philly PD isn’t confirming a damn thing. And Eugene Horsch’s lawyer went on CBS Philadelphia to call the whole investigation a “runaway train,” which is a bold choice for a man whose client was arrested with a cattle prod in his car. This week I walk through the entire Olney case from the beginning. A park ranger, an illegally parked BMW near the Liberty Bell, and a woman saying “you’re going to hurt me.” Then everything that’s happened since, through the biggest week of the investigation so far. In this episode: The June 19 traffic stop: fake DEA and FBI credentials, a missing woman’s ID, and a car full of weaponsWho R.C. Horsch was: counterfeiter, meth cook, pornographer, and self-described “empathetic serial killer”His book “Empathy” and why Amazon pulled everything he wroteThe 2025 narcotics search that walked through the house and never mentioned a missing womanGabrielle Amarando, Amy McHale, Maribel Fresses, Nicole Fusaro, and Blair TonzelliWhy women from Kensington fall through the cracks, and how a predator used that gapThe basement lab, the 55-gallon drum, five urns, and more than a million images and videosThis week, day by day: luminol, DNA, the backyard dig, and the bonesA Jane Doe’s account of the second-floor bedroomWhat alkaline hydrolysis is, and why the bones may or may not matterEugene’s lawyer, his negotiations with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and where Eugene’s case standsWhat to watch next week, including the Chalfont house nobody has searched R.C. Horsch died in 2025 and was never charged. Eugene Horsch faces federal gun, drug, and fake-credential charges. He is not charged in connection with any woman’s disappearance or death. As of recording, police have not publicly confirmed any human remains. If you have information: call the Philadelphia Police tip line at 215-686-TIPS (8477), or reach the homicide unit directly at 215-686-3334. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/we-saw-the-devil-a-true-crime-podcast--4433638/support. Website: http://www.wesawthedevil.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/wesawthedevil Robin's Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/robin_wstd Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/WeSawtheDevil Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/wesawthedevilpodcast TikTok: tiktok.com/@wesawthedeviltruecrime
Mica Miller - 528 Days (Part One)
2026/10/10
February 6, 2024. A pastor calls Horry County police and reads them his wife’s location in real time. He isn’t following her, he explains. He’s “watching her on the map.” Over the next ten weeks, Mica Miller contacted police at least fourteen times for help involving her husband, John-Paul Miller, pastor of Solid Rock Church in Myrtle Beach. Five of those contacts involved tracking devices. South Carolina already had harassment and stalking laws built for exactly this kind of pattern. Mica used them herself. On March 26, 2024, her restraining order case was dismissed without prejudice. Netflix gave you her life. This series is the paper: police reports, dispatch logs, sworn affidavits, and the federal docket. In this episode: The Company Town: Solid Rock, the son who bought the church from his father, the nanny, and the fight over how old she wasThe Marriage: the signature tattoo, the postnup, the November 2022 hospitalization, and the two stories about MicaFourteen Calls: the February commitment, the car, March 11, the trackers, and the restraining order she filed herselfSix Hundred Days: the official findings on her death, his texts and email, the FBI, and the federal indictment Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/we-saw-the-devil-a-true-crime-podcast--4433638/support. Website: http://www.wesawthedevil.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/wesawthedevil Robin's Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/robin_wstd Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/WeSawtheDevil Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/wesawthedevilpodcast TikTok: tiktok.com/@wesawthedeviltruecrime
Olney House of Horrors (Part 4): R.C. Horsch Now Officialy Named As Suspected Serial Killer
2026/10/07
"Basically, I'm a sociopath, always have been." R.C. Horsch said that into a public radio microphone in 2014. This week, law enforcement sources told CBS Philadelphia they consider him a suspected serial killer, and the FBI and Philadelphia police began taking his Olney house apart. This week in breaking news:  - What "suspected serial killer" means for a man who can never be charged - Peter Crimmins' lost WHYY interviews with Horsch: the sociopath line, the stolen name, and the imaginary patron in Boca Raton - Phase Two of the search: hazmat suits, the basement lab, luminol, and two clogged sewer pipes - Can you prove murder without a body? - Reality Check: why the same women keep disappearing, and what you can do Seven missing women are connected to 417 West Chew Avenue. Police believe five are dead. No remains have been found. R.C. Horsch died in 2025 and was never charged. Eugene Horsch faces federal gun and false ID charges, is not charged in connection with any of the women, and is presumed innocent. Tips: Philadelphia Police, 215-686-TIPS (8477) Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/we-saw-the-devil-a-true-crime-podcast--4433638/support. Website: http://www.wesawthedevil.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/wesawthedevil Robin's Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/robin_wstd Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/WeSawtheDevil Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/wesawthedevilpodcast TikTok: tiktok.com/@wesawthedeviltruecrime
Sandra Birchmore: The Matthew Farwell Murder Trial Begins Today (Breaking News)
2026/10/06
February 1, 2021. A blizzard is closing in on Boston. According to federal prosecutors, a Stoughton police detective texts 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore and asks if he can come by for a second. At 9:40 p.m., her phone logs eight steps. It never moves again. Three days later she's found dead in her Canton apartment, eight to ten weeks pregnant. By May, Massachusetts had ruled it a suicide. Today, jury selection began in federal court in Boston in the trial of former Stoughton detective Matthew Farwell. Prosecutors say he killed Sandra to keep her from exposing federal crimes, including sexually abusing her beginning when she was 15, and that he caused the death of her unborn son. Farwell has pleaded not guilty. His defense says Sandra died by suicide. In this episode: - How Sandra met Farwell through the Stoughton Police Explorers youth program - The twelve days between a friend's call to the police department and Sandra's death - The investigation that ruled suicide, and the medical examiner who says she was never told the death was suspicious - The laptop data state police lost four days before Farwell's arrest - Why this is a federal case, and why prosecutors have to prove more than who killed her - DNA, the hyoid fracture, the paternity twist, and the phone search fight that broke days before trial - The witness lists, the Karen Read crossover, and what to watch when openings begin Friday - Reality Check: abuse in police Explorer programs, strangulation as a predictor of homicide, and what families can do when a death ruling doesn't fit Plus the Commonwealth Docket Forecast, because Massachusetts now schedules murder trials the way other states schedule farmers markets. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/we-saw-the-devil-a-true-crime-podcast--4433638/support. Website: http://www.wesawthedevil.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/wesawthedevil Robin's Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/robin_wstd Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/WeSawtheDevil Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/wesawthedevilpodcast TikTok: tiktok.com/@wesawthedeviltruecrime
"Free Pus*y Upstairs": The Cornell Seven
2026/10/05
NOTE: For whatever reason, even after correctly stating her age multiple times, around 22 minutes in, Robin incorrectly refers to Jane Doe as 21 years old.  At 1:42 a.m. on October 20, 2024, according to a civil lawsuit, a Chi Phi brother at Cornell University told a Snapchat group of more than fifty fraternity members there was "free p*ssy upstairs." Upstairs was a twenty year old sophomore. Not one person in that chat went to the police. Two years later, nobody has been charged. Then Jane Doe sued, the Tompkins County DA reopened the case, Governor Kathy Hochul pulled it from him, and New York Attorney General Letitia James opened an active criminal investigation. This update covers everything that has broken since the lawsuit was filed. The seven men named in the suit: Matthew Ingalls, Johnathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar. None has been charged. All seven deny wrongdoing. We go through what each man is accused of, and exactly how Cornell disciplined each one, from expulsion to reflection papers. The night, three ways: the lawsuit, the six page statement the DA built his decision on, and the police interview transcript he says he never saw. Where they agree, where they don't, and a correction on air about what her signed statement actually says. The group chat: the photo, "Shop still open?", "Boys come whip it out," and the brother who went upstairs to "check on her" and reported back. The texts: why Jane Doe told one of the men "non of the sexual stuff was illegal," why she reassured the people she later accused, and why survivors do exactly this. Breaking: according to Cornell's Title IX record, one of the accused men called a sorority member the next day asking her to keep a friend quiet. Asked how the brothers handled the rumors, he told investigators: "We were just in the idea of just deny." Plus the witness statement nobody can find. Why nobody was charged: New York's voluntary intoxication rule, which says a woman who chose to drink may not count as incapacitated, and a prosecutor who may not have had the whole record. The circus: #IAmJaneDoe, the doxxing attempts, the mob going after the wrong people, and the men online who audited her texts before they ever audited the chat. Reality Check: what fifty silent men actually tells you, and why trying to unmask Jane Doe is the most disgusting part of this entire story. If you or someone you know needs support, the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline is 1 800 656 HOPE (4673), or online at rainn.org. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/we-saw-the-devil-a-true-crime-podcast--4433638/support. Website: http://www.wesawthedevil.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/wesawthedevil Robin's Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/robin_wstd Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/WeSawtheDevil Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/wesawthedevilpodcast TikTok: tiktok.com/@wesawthedeviltruecrime
BREAKING: Tennessee's Botched Execution of Christa Pike
2026/10/01
On Wednesday, September 30, the State of Tennessee tried to execute Christa Pike. It couldn't. Pike was convicted of the 1995 torture and murder of Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old fellow student at the Knoxville Job Corps. After a morning stay from the Sixth Circuit and an evening reversal by the U.S. Supreme Court, she was given two rounds of pentobarbital at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. According to media witnesses and her lawyers' court filings, she stayed conscious, said her arm felt like it was about to burst open, and was still audibly snoring behind a closed curtain when reporters were walked out. Then the state put her in an ambulance. The Death Penalty Information Center says no one in the U.S. had ever survived after receiving the drugs before. In this emergency episode: The night, minute by minute, from the people who were in the roomThe vein-access warnings Pike's lawyers raised in August, and the Attorney General calling them "speculation"Tony Carruthers in May, Byron Black in 2025, and Tennessee's track recordGovernor Bill Lee's demand that executions be "effective," and his second outside review since 2022The state admitting, six weeks before her date, that Pike was abused as a childColleen Slemmer, her mother May Martinez, and thirty-one years of waiting"What if it were your child?" Answered by parents who lost theirs and still opposed executing the killersWhy the state should never hold the power to kill its own citizens Reality Check: the study estimating at least 4.1% of people sentenced to death are innocent, 203 death row exonerations since 1973, and what Tennesseans can demand from the Governor's review. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/we-saw-the-devil-a-true-crime-podcast--4433638/support. Website: http://www.wesawthedevil.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/wesawthedevil Robin's Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/robin_wstd Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/WeSawtheDevil Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/wesawthedevilpodcast TikTok: tiktok.com/@wesawthedeviltruecrime
Lindsay Clancy & Christa Pike: Pink Ribbons and a 10am Execution
2026/09/30
Lindsay Clancy was back in court for the first time since her murder trial ended in a mistrial, and it was chaos. Plus, Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee's death row, is scheduled to be executed at 10 a.m. CT on September 30, 2026, after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to step in. Yesterday, Lindsay Clancy appeared in Plymouth Superior Court. The former Duxbury, Massachusetts labor and delivery nurse is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of her three children. She pleaded not guilty, and her jury deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of not guilty by reason of insanity. Defense attorney Kevin Reddington argued the Commonwealth never proved she caused the deaths. Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham called that argument "laughable." In this episode I break down: - The Rule 25 motion for a required finding of not guilty - Martin Weinberg's double jeopardy motion to dismiss - The fight over sealed jury notes and sidebar records - The "Juror Doe" motion aimed at the holdout juror - The DA's push for a gag order on Reddington - Why nobody will commit to a retrial date Plymouth County DA Timothy Cruz still won't say whether he'll retry the case. The next hearing is November 2. CHRISTA PIKE:  In 1995, Christa Pike was 18 when she tortured and killed Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old fellow student at the Knoxville Job Corps Center. Sentenced to death at 20, she has spent 30 years on death row, most of it as the only woman there. We cover the crime, Colleen's life and her mother's 30-year wait, the defense arguments about age, childhood abuse and mental illness, Governor Bill Lee's clemency denial, the Supreme Court's denial, and Tennessee's lethal injection protocol after the abandoned Tony Carruthers execution attempt. If carried out, it would be the first execution of a woman in Tennessee in more than 200 years. One woman gets supporters in pink outside the courthouse. The other gets AI-generated videos of herself crying. What the public reaction to both cases says about who gets mercy in America, how jurors became targets, and why death penalty support is at its lowest point in 50 years. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/we-saw-the-devil-a-true-crime-podcast--4433638/support. Website: http://www.wesawthedevil.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/wesawthedevil Robin's Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/robin_wstd Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/WeSawtheDevil Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/wesawthedevilpodcast TikTok: tiktok.com/@wesawthedeviltruecrime
Tennessee, Christa Pike, and an Execution Scheduled for Next Wednesday
2026/09/26
***Show note: Robin is still insanely sick with COVID and this episode is not closely edited.   On January 12, 1995, 18-year-old Christa Pike lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer to an abandoned steam plant on the University of Tennessee's agricultural campus and tortured her to death. She took a piece of Colleen's skull back to her dorm and showed it off at breakfast. She confessed. She has never denied any of it. She was also sexually abused from the age of two. At five, she drew her abuser for a kindergarten teacher, and the school called her parents. At eleven, a neighbor raped her, pleaded down, and served no prison time. At seventeen, a stranger raped her, and nobody was ever arrested. She was born with brain damage and had bipolar disorder and PTSD, none of it diagnosed until years after a jury sentenced her to die. That jury never heard any of it. Before trial, prosecutors offered her life without parole. Her lawyers spent about ninety minutes on it and didn't advise her to take it. Her co-defendant, who testified years later that he carved the pentagram, was seventeen. He got life with parole and is eligible now. The third participant got probation. On Wednesday, September 30, Tennessee plans to execute her. It would be the first woman the state has executed since 1819. The physician overseeing it is the same one who spent over an hour failing to find a vein during Tony Carruthers' execution attempt in May. Her clemency petition sits on Governor Bill Lee's desk. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/we-saw-the-devil-a-true-crime-podcast--4433638/support. Website: http://www.wesawthedevil.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/wesawthedevil Robin's Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/robin_wstd Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/WeSawtheDevil Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/wesawthedevilpodcast TikTok: tiktok.com/@wesawthedeviltruecrime
The R.C. Horsch Olney House Crematorium Link | Clavicular Rape Charge | Nolan Wells No Indictment
2026/09/24
Robin has COVID, a 103 degree fever, and a voice held together with tape. The episode goes out anyway, because Olney won't stop breaking. It is 100% unedited, so what you're hearing is what you're getting. Sorry, folks.  THE OLNEY HOUSE, PART THREE: ACCESS New reporting from the Philadelphia Inquirer says the late pornographer Raymond "R.C." Horsch had access to a Kensington crematorium connected to the Garzone Funeral Home. The owners of that funeral home later pleaded guilty to selling more than 240 corpses for body parts. Sources say Horsch paid an employee in drugs and cash so he could photograph and film the dead. Years later, he staged a gallery show that ended with a woman's body going into an incinerator. We also cover: - Two women who posed for Horsch inside the Chew Avenue house describe the smell, the mold, and the one rule about the basement - Blair Tonzelli's former roommate tells 6abc the Horsches used Kensington's streets as a hunting ground - New details from the June traffic stop that started the case - Eugene Horsch's federal trial moves to March (a correction to our last episode) - The self-written Wikipedia page, the pen name, and the 1973 film title that says it all - Why the same number, 58, keeps coming up - Police plans for a deeper search that could mean removing walls and floorboards Seven women are connected to the house, and police believe five are dead. No bodies have been recovered and no one has been charged with homicide. R.C. Horsch died in 2025 and was never charged in connection with the missing women. Eugene Horsch faces federal weapons and false credential charges, is not charged in connection with any of the women, and is presumed innocent. NEWS DROP: CLAVICULAR Braden Peters, the 20 year old looksmaxxing streamer known as Clavicular, is charged in Orleans District Court in Massachusetts with rape, drugging a person for sexual intercourse, and procuring liquor for a person under 21. The charges stem from an alleged May 2025 incident in Chatham involving a 17 year old. Peters denies the allegations. He has not been arraigned and has not entered a plea, and he is presumed innocent. His arraignment is set for October 14. We also look at the podcast circuit that kept booking him all summer. NEWS DROP: NOLAN WELLS A Jackson County, Mississippi grand jury returned no indictments in the death of 18 year old Nolan Wells. His body was found off Horn Island after a Fourth of July boat trip. The grand jury found his death consistent with drowning, while both the state medical examiner and the family's pathologist ruled the cause undetermined. We cover what the report found, what it didn't, and the district attorney's handling of the announcement. We also cover the online mob that doxxed and threatened his friends. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/we-saw-the-devil-a-true-crime-podcast--4433638/support. Website: http://www.wesawthedevil.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/wesawthedevil Robin's Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/robin_wstd Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/WeSawtheDevil Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/wesawthedevilpodcast TikTok: tiktok.com/@wesawthedeviltruecrime
The Olney House, Update #2: Seven Women, One House, and the Man Who Told Us Exactly What He Was
2026/09/20
In June, a federal park ranger wrote down a license plate on Independence Mall. Three months later, Philadelphia is running the strangest death investigation in the city since Gary Heidnik, and it has no bodies in it. This is the second episode on the Olney house. Since I last covered it, the numbers have changed completely. Four missing women became seven. Two believed dead became five. Five percent of the digital evidence reviewed became thirty percent, out of more than a million images and videos, with fifty eight separate human beings identified inside them. Robin walks through everything that broke at the September 16th press conference: the new name, Nicole Fusaro, and the video Philadelphia police say shows Raymond "R.C." Horsch tightening a zip tie around her neck with a plumbing tool. The sixth woman her family asked not to name. The seventh woman who has no name at all. The 2017 metadata that gives investigators a window and gives one defendant an alibi. The sixteen survivors who were found alive and refused to help police, and the reasons that is completely rational. Then the part that makes this case nearly unprosecutable: some women who appear dead in that footage have been found alive. R.C. Horsch spent fifty years manufacturing images of women pretending to die, and he was good enough at it that homicide detectives in 2026 cannot tell his performances from his crimes. He published the disposal method in a 2014 book under his own name, described himself as a natural at playing a perverted serial killer on a 2013 podcast, and died in his own bed at eighty two without ever being charged. And the spine of the episode: every single time the state of Pennsylvania was already standing in the room. A 1985 psychiatric report that a retired FBI agent says describes a potential serial killer. A 2009 search warrant that turned up other women's IDs and a police chief who never heard what became of them. A 2016 sit-down interview with the last man to see a missing woman alive. A 2025 search of the house itself, written up as a narcotics matter. Families pointing at the address for years. Five chances. Zero response. One parking ticket. Plus: a cousin taking the Philadelphia Police Department to the DOJ Civil Rights Division, five urns with three tentative answers, fifty containers of something sitting in a federal lab in Chicago, and a safe sealed in a foundation in Bucks County that nobody has opened. Housekeeping this week: Robin is back from a week in Philadelphia, which included Circa Survive, the Mütter Museum, the Liberty Bell, Reading Terminal Market, two cheesesteaks, a near-death experience in the pit sixty seconds into the first song, and a serious argument about Kathleen Hanna, Bikini Kill, and who a room's default actually serves. Their names are Gabrielle Amarando, Amy McHale, Maribel Fresses, Nicole Fusaro, and Blair Tonzelli. There are two more. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/we-saw-the-devil-a-true-crime-podcast--4433638/support. Website: http://www.wesawthedevil.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/wesawthedevil Robin's Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/robin_wstd Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/WeSawtheDevil Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/wesawthedevilpodcast TikTok: tiktok.com/@wesawthedeviltruecrime
Lindsay Clancy & The Holdout Juror: What Massachusetts Law Actually Says & Where We Go From Here
2026/09/12
Eleven jurors voted to acquit Lindsay Clancy. One didn't. Six days later his dismissed charge, his divorce, and his eviction were on national television. He has never spoken to a reporter. He has never been named. He showed up for jury duty and then did the one thing we tell every juror to do, which is refuse to move when you don't believe it. This week the entire country argued about whether he should have been allowed in the building. Almost nobody arguing bothered to read the statute that answers it. Motions are heard September 29th. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/we-saw-the-devil-a-true-crime-podcast--4433638/support. Website: http://www.wesawthedevil.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/wesawthedevil Robin's Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/robin_wstd Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/WeSawtheDevil Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/wesawthedevilpodcast TikTok: tiktok.com/@wesawthedeviltruecrime

Podcast reviews

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4.2 out of 5
956 reviews
★★★★★
nurseperdien 2026/10/14
On the host question about nation wide bloodlust
Don’t forget that someone made a post card of young black people who were lynched and people purchased and used them as postcards on purpose. Yes, it’...
★★★★★
BeeCuzThatsWhy 2026/08/21
💙💙
Great podcast. Thank you Robin - your advocacy matters. 👏🏾👏🏾
★★★★★
Buddercups679 2026/08/12
Louder for those in the back
Refreshing. Accurate. And everything I feel. Found during primaries, and didn’t stop. Dropping facts.
★★★★★
Crystalivie 2026/07/24
Excellent story-telling, Can’t wait for updates
I found this podcast because my friend was a guest on it (Brooke Linville). Since then, I have listened to every episode, and I am a member of the Pa...
★★★★★
Hotrod&dolce 2026/04/06
Love the podcast 2.0
“Dogs and Food.” lol. Keep up the good work!
★★★★★
karwit 2026/03/31
Loving the shift into politics
From an appreciator of true crime pods, this is a chef’s kiss pivot into reporting on crimes at a national and global scale. Laughing through the tear...
★★★★★
mysterymach 2025/12/05
what a refreshing pod.
Just listened to "The Death of Ethel Cain" and I am so impressed. Great analysis and its great to hear a podcaster with such a calming cadence. Subbed...
★★★★★
jzAristo 2025/11/16
Excellent
Hi Robin! Congrats for wrapping up the Chris Chan podcast I love your analysis for politics too
★★★★★
MD11125 2025/10/26
Captivating
I love this podcast! Robin is a captivating storyteller and I could (and have) listen to episode after episode for hours.
★★★★★
HeyGigi! 2025/10/19
Thank you!
Love your content lately! Yes girl! We need intelligent women to be speaking up and I appreciate you for it! Can’t wait to finish the Red White and Br...
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