Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén
Welcome to your weekly journey into the darkest corners of human nature. Join Harvey Guillén every Monday as he explores crimes that seized the public’s attention, from jaw-dropping heists and devastating cons to serial murders and deadly rivalries. Each episode unfolds a single case, examining not just the events themselves, but what continues to linger beneath the surface.
Killer Stories is a Spotify Podcast. New video episodes on Mondays!
401
“Night Caller” Eric Edgar Cooke Pt. 1
Born in 1931 to a caring mother and alcoholic father, Eric Edgar Cooke had a turbulent home life.
37 min
402
“Double-O Swango” Joseph Swango Pt. 2
While Joseph Swango’s patients died at alarming rates, few people seemed capable of connecting the mysterious deaths with the doctor-in-training.
39 min
403
“Double-O Swango” Joseph Swango Pt. 1
As a teenager in the ‘70s, Joseph Swango had an intense fascination with the macabre, even keeping a scrapbook full of newspaper clippings about murder and car crashes.
37 min
404
“Damsel of Death” Aileen Wuornos Pt. 2
In the late ‘80s, Aileen trolled the highways outside of Daytona, Florida looking for johns.
35 min
405
“Damsel of Death” Aileen Wuornos Pt. 1
More abused than loved, Aileen Wuornos suffered through her childhood in 1960s Michigan.
35 min
406
“Programmed to Kill” Charlie Brandt Pt. 2
For decades, it seemed like Charlie Brandt's first murder was a shocking, unexplainable anomoly—something he would never repeat.
37 min
407
“Programmed to Kill” Charlie Brandt Pt. 1
In January 1971, 13-year-old Charlie Brandt retrieved his father's gun and committed a shocking murder, saying it was like he “was sort of programmed to do it.”
34 min
408
“The Sunday Morning Slasher” Coral Eugene Watts...
By the early 1980s, Watts had stabbed three women to death.
38 min
409
“The Sunday Morning Slasher” Coral Eugene Watts...
Unable to contain his dark fantasies and suppressed rage, Coral Eugene Watts targeted women in Michigan and Texas starting in 1974, and continuing for nearly a decade.
31 min
410
“The Racist Killer” Joseph Paul Franklin Pt. 2
Still desperate to ignite a race war in the United States, Joseph Paul Franklin sought more prominent targets, hoping to draw attention to his cause.
35 min
411
“The Racist Killer” Joseph Paul Franklin Pt. 1
He studied Mein Kampf. Changed his name. And joined white supremacist groups across the country.
38 min
412
“The Torso Killer” Richard Francis Cottingham P...
In 1977, Cottingham was married with three kids, two secret girlfriends, and an itch for abusing sex workers.
39 min
413
“The Torso Killer” Richard Francis Cottingham P...
He had an idyllic childhood in the 1940s and ‘50s, but as Richard Francis Cottingham grew, he began having dark, dehumanizing sexual fantasies about women.
39 min
414
“The Toolbox Killers” Lawrence Bittaker and Roy...
In 1979, Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris sexually assaulted and murdered five teenage girls.
36 min
415
“The Toolbox Killers” Lawrence Bittaker and Roy...
They each lived lonely lives, bouncing from jail to jail until a chance meeting in California brought them together in 1978.
35 min
416
“The ABC Killer” Moses Sithole
At a young age, Moses Sithole was abandoned by his mother, forcing him to go in and out of a traumatic foster care system.
39 min
417
“The Chicago Abductor” Brian Dugan
In the early ‘70s, a teenaged Dugan had an encounter with one of the most notorious serial killers in the U.S.—a killer whose infamy Dugan would soon match, with a murder spree throughout Chicago’s rural suburbs.
33 min
418
“Milwaukee North Side Strangler” Walter E. Ellis
In his youth, Walter Ellis was prone to fits of physical violence.
34 min
419
“The Hitchhiker Killer” Thor Nis Christiansen
Growing up in the California town of Solvang, Thor Nis Christiansen was the quiet son of Danish immigrants.
37 min
420
“A Chaotic Life” Andrew Urdiales
He endured extreme childhood abuse, served in the Marines, and was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia.
35 min
421
“Crazy Charlie” Charles Ray Hatcher
He spent his life trying to escape jails, mental hospitals, and his urge to kill.
36 min
422
“The Boy Torturer of Boston” Pt. 2: Jesse Pomeroy
Sent to a reform school for the remainder of his childhood, Jesse Pomeroy, and his distraught mother, had one shared goal in mind: early release.
33 min
423
“The Boy Torturer of Boston” Pt. 1: Jesse Pomeroy
Born in 1859 with a cleft palate, Jesse Pomeroy's father looked upon his son as weak, and brutally abused him throughout his childhood.
35 min
424
“Hannibal Lecter of Sweden” Sture Bergwall
He claimed to be Sweden's first serial killer.
39 min
425
“Warwick Slasher” Craig Price
Growing up as one of the few black kids in Warwick, Rhode Island was not easy.
32 min