Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network

Show Name: Real Cases, Fictional Minds

Episode Title: Isla Vista

You are listening to Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast with your host(s) Jaylli Kushi.

In this episode of Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the Podcast, we discuss: Season 12 Episode 15 of Criminal Minds, Episode titled “Alpha Male,” and how it is based on the killer who was behind the Isla Vista Killings.

In this episode, the BAU is called to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where a string of brutal acid attacks has left young people scarred and terrified. In two separate incidents just half an hour apart, a man and a woman in their twenties are doused in acid right in public places, their faces burned and their lives changed forever. These attacks follow two other acid assaults that happened just a week earlier, meaning there are now four victims, each left traumatized and struggling to explain what happened to them. The team arrives and immediately starts piecing together what little evidence there is. The three victims who were able to describe their attacker all say the same thing: he was a male wearing an overcoat and a baseball cap, and just before he sprayed them with acid, he muttered something unfamiliar—something that doesn’t sound like an ordinary threat. While the rest of the team focuses on the investigation in Philadelphia, Dr. Spencer Reid is dealing with his own nightmare back home. Back in Philadelphia, Garcia starts digging through digital evidence, searching for anything that connects the victims or explains the attacker’s motive. What she discovers is a manosphere singles’ website, a place where lonely men compare themselves to so‑called “alpha males” and bitterly rant about women and relationships. On this site, the unsub has posted photos labeling certain people as “alpha males” and others as “bitches,” and shockingly, the victims in Philadelphia bear a striking resemblance to the pictures he tagged there. This digital link becomes the breakthrough the BAU needs. The team realizes that the attacker is targeting people who represent what he feels he could never have—confidence, success, relationships. He isn’t just throwing acid randomly. He’s punishing people he believes represent the life he was denied. That realization changes the investigation from random violence to something much more personal and ideologically driven. Garcia also finds a manifesto written by a suspect named Alan Crawford, where he openly describes his hatred and his plans for a larger attack. That gives the team enough to narrow their search down to him. They know he’s planning something big, and now they just have to find out when and where. As the BAU watches Crawford’s movements, they are able to track him to a singles’ social event in Philadelphia, where he intends to use a modified sprayer to attack a large group of people at once. The team rushes in, and in a coordinated move, they stop him before he can hurt another person. When Crawford is taken into custody, he shows no real remorse. Instead, he defends his actions as justified, claiming that society owes him what he never got. His anger isn’t about individual people. It’s about the idea that others have what he believes should have been his. The way he frames his own sense of loss and entitlement reveals how dangerous unchecked resentment can become. “Alpha Male” is disturbing not just because of the violence itself, but because of how calculated and ideologically motivated it is. The BAU doesn’t just catch a random attacker. They track someone whose rage has been validated and amplified online, whose resentment has turned into real‑world violence. The victims, young men and women living normal lives, were all chosen not because of who they were, but because of who the unsub thought...

Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network

Show Name: Real Cases, Fictional Minds

Episode Title: Lipstick Wheel

You are listening to Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast with your host(s) Jaylli Kushi.

In this episode of Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the Podcast, we discuss: Season 4 Episode 22 titled “The Big Wheel” and how it is based on the real-life case of the Lipstick Killer.

This episode starts in Buffalo when the BAU receives a mysterious package containing a DVD from the killer himself. In the video is footage he filmed of one of his murders, he records as he follows a woman into her home and kills her. And over the video, he has added a text message directed at the FBI saying: “Help me". The plea sets the tone for the entire case. The unsub isn't taunting them, he's begging them. The victim in the video is a woman killed quickly and efficiently, with no sign of torture or struggle. The attack is almost mechanical. But the emotional intensity comes from the fact that the unsub filmed the entire thing, suggesting he is compelled to watch his own violence, almost as if he's horrified by himself. As the team digs into the case, more victims emerge. They're all women killed inside their homes, with little to no defensive wounds, meaning he surprises them and finishes the attack rapidly. His murders are methodical, not frenzied, each one carried out with the same precision, rhythm, and emotional detachment, but the most important behavioral clue comes from his filming Style. He records from behind doors, through windows, or from angles that prevent the victims from ever seeing him. is as if he's watching life from the outside, and he will connect, repeating the cycle again and again. The team builds a profile for the unsung, a white male and is 30 to 40s, intelligent but socially isolated, living with high-functioning autism, contributing to the rigid behavioral patterns. He is killing as part of a compulsive cycle triggered by guilt, not anger or sexual gratification. So how did the BAU actually figure out who the answer was? well in the video that he sent them in the beginning of the episode, he accidentally gave them a clue. well entering the victim's home, the camera briefly caught a reflection showing part of his face. The team noticed something unusual, he had a rare eye condition. One of his pupils doesn't respond normally, something called heterochromia with a defect. It was subtle but distinctive. Because it was so rare, the BAU is able to cross-reference medical and local records to narrow down the list of placental suspects. When they found a man who matched the condition, lived in multiple crime scenes, and had a personal history consistent with the behavioral profile, the pieces fell into place. The unsub's name was Vincent Rowling, a solitary man who lives alone, works minimal jobs, and struggles with severe emotional trauma. He also has high-functioning autism, which affects his social interactions and contributes to the way he obsesses over patterns, routine, and repeated imagery. The team learns that years earlier, he witnessed his mother's death in a traumatic accident involving a ferris wheel. That moment became the core of his lifelong emotional pain. They also learn that he is secretly watching over a young blind girl named Stanley, who lives in his neighborhood. She represents the innocence of someone he wants to protect, not harm. His connection to her shows that he isn't a sadist or through a pillar. He's someone trying to balance the violence he can't stop with a desperate wish to do something good. That internal conflict is exactly why he reaches out to the bau. He isn't proud of his crimes. He's terrified of who he becomes when he kills. has been since stress escalates, his patterns become more unstable. He...

Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network

Show Name: Real Cases, Fictional Minds

Episode Title: Barbie's Dreamhouse

You are listening to Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast with your host(s) Jaylli Kushi

In this episode of Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast, we discuss: Season 2 Episode 3 titled “The Perfect Storm” and how it is based on the real-life serial killers known as the Ken and Barbie Killers, Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.

This episode starts in Jacksonville, Florida. A couple gets mail from their daughter in college, thinking it is going to be pictures of her, but it was a DVD of their daughter getting tortured. The victim’s name is Laura Clemensen. She is 20 years old, blonde, a sophomore at the University of Jacksonville, Florida, and she is assumed to be the 5th in a series of rapes and murders over the past 2 years. Jacksonville PD has been looking for this killer for years. The team flies to Jacksonville, Florida. While on the plane, they start talking about the second offender, saying that these 2 are clearly deranged and acting out their worst sadistic fantasies. They learn from Garcia that the Jacksonville PD just found Laura Clemensen’s body under a bridge.. Gideon and Morgan go to the crime scene. They learn the victim has deep lacerations on her neck, chest, and thighs. The color of her bruising indicated torture had been going on for multiple days, and CSI believes that because the cause of death was strangulation, it is consistent with the other victims. Garcia sends over a list of all the unsolved rapes and murders in the past 2 years. There were 2 that stuck out to Reid. The victims share similar physical traits, and they were also posed after being killed in an interesting manner. The only difference is that they were manually strangled. While going over evidence, JJ finds that the Unsubs are targeting the mothers. All of the DVDs were only addressed to the mothers of the victims, so sending the videos only to the mothers is a message itself. The team has up to 7 victims now. They give a profile for the 2 UnSubs to the police. One is submissive, and one is dominant. If the criminal desire wasn’t present, their partnership wouldn’t work. In the middle of giving the profile, they find out there is another girl missing named Tiffany. The night before, she had gone for a run and didn’t come back home. Tiffany Spears was abducted from Middleberg, which is almost an hour away. While searching for how the unsub is traveling from place to place they learn that the Unsubs would take the cars of the victims and sell their parts across state lines, so no one in Jacksonville would be able to find them. Those sales were traced to Joseph Davin, who lives in Jacksonville. He’s been in and out of jail since he was 17. He is 27 years old and has a number of charges, including car theft with a partner, making him a prime suspect. When the team finds an address, they go to his house. His dad answers the door, and Joey appears in the living room with a gun, telling Agents Morgan and Gideon, and the main detective to get out of his way. They tell him to drop the weapon, and he doesn’t, forcing the detective to shoot him. Joey was their only link to finding where Tiffany could be. They talk to his father and learn that Joey works at a garage with a bunch of ex-cons. They find out that when he was in jail, he shared a cell with Tony Canardo, and they were both released 3 years ago. They went to Joey’s workplace and learned that he had been fired because he wasn’t good at his job. His ex-con friends would come around his workplace, and Tony Canardo was part of the crew Joey would hang with. They arrive at Tony’s house, and his wife answers, telling them he will be home soon. Morgan waits for him outside. Back at the...