Demonic dogs. Satanic cults. Multiple shooters. Endless conspiracies. Did David Berkowitz act alone?

For nearly fifty years, the Son of Sam case has inspired theories. David Berkowitz would later claim that multiple shooters were involved, that others participated in the murders, and that the public never learned the full story. But do those claims hold up to scrutiny?

In this episode, I examine the evidence behind one of the most persistent mysteries in true crime. Drawing on Berkowitz's on words, investigative records, crime scene evidence, and expert analysis from forensic psychologist Dr. R. Louis Schlesinger, I explore the origins of the conspiracy theories, what investigators found after Berkowitz's arrest, and whether there is any credible evidence.

Research in This Episode:

Rebekah Binger, Prison Ain’t Hell: An Interview with the Son of Sam—David Berkowitz, and Why State-Funded Faith-Based Prison Rehabilitation Progr ams Do Not Violate the Establishment Clause, 31 Pace L. Rev. 488 (2011).

Stadolnik, R. J. (2000). Drawn to the Flame: Assessment and Treatment of Juvenile Fire Setting Behavior. Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource Press.

Show Notes:

I just released my first novel called, A Plague of Steel. It’s a grimdark fantasy war story, about what war leaves behind. It’s available now on Kindle, Amazon and Kobo:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Plague-Steel-Sons-Tempering-Book-ebook/dp/B0GSPBTR49

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/a-plague-of-steel-sons-of-the-tempering-book-one?srsltid=AfmBOoqPUTLclPMZxRqd0LvWNTzrU0k9SOGBCqaWiISo1HhMQk-RkHHK

If you want to follow the cases as I’m working on them, you can find me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesbuddyday/

If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself.

Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7

For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.

Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom.

How did a man who passed every background check, every promotion board, and every security clearance manage to hide a violent double life for years?

Colonel Russell Williams was one of the most trusted men in Canada. A decorated military officer, commander of CFB Trenton, and pilot to senior government officials and members of the Royal Family. Yet behind that carefully constructed image was one of the country's most prolific sexual predators and murderers.

In this episode of UNMARKED I examine the psychology of Colonel Russell Williams, the fantasies that drove his crimes, the warning signs that were missed, and the investigation that finally exposed him. Drawing on interrogation footage, court records, and expert analysis, we explore how power, secrecy, and fantasy combined to create one of the most disturbing criminal cases in Canadian history.

Research in This Episode:

Birke JB, Jern P, Johansson A, Bondü R. Links between Aggressive Sexual Fantasies and Sexual Coercion: A Replication and Extension of a Multifactorial Model. Arch Sex Behav. 2024 Mar;53(3):1047-1063. doi: 10.1007/s10508-023-02782-5. Epub 2024 Jan 17.

Rossegger, A. (2021). "High Risk Sexual Fantasies and Sexual Offending." Sexual Offending: Theory, Research, and Prevention.

Show Notes:

If you want to follow the cases as I’m working on them, you can find me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesbuddyday/

If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself.

Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7

For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.

Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom.

In 1981, children were disappearing across British Columbia. Parents feared a predator was stalking bus stops, shopping malls, and highways throughout the Fraser Valley. What investigators didn't realize was that the man responsible wasn't hiding from police at all. He was talking to them.

In this episode of UNMARKED, I examine the case of Clifford Olson, one of Canada's most notorious serial killers. Drawing on my conversation with forensic psychologist Dr. Eric Hickey, we explore Olson's childhood, the development of his violent fantasies, his manipulation of police and journalists, and the institutional failures that allowed him to continue killing.

We also examine the infamous "cash for bodies" deal, in which the government agreed to pay Olson in exchange for the locations of his victims.

Research in This episode:

MacCulloch, M. J., Snowden, P. R., Wood, P. J. W., & Mills, H. E. (1983). “Sadistic fantasy, sadistic behaviour and offending.” British Journal of Psychiatry, 143, 20–29.

Helfgott, Jacqueline B. “Criminal behavior and the copycat effect: Literature review and theoretical framework for empirical investigation.” Aggression and Violent Behavior 22 (2015): 46–64.

Show Notes:

If you want to follow the cases as I’m working on them, you can find me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesbuddyday/

If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself.

Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7

For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.

Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom.

For nearly fifty years, Wayne Williams has insisted he is innocent. But when you step back and examine the evidence as a whole, the picture becomes far more complicated.

In this episode of UNMARKED, I dig through FBI files, surveillance reports, witness statements, and forensic evidence to understand the man at the center of one of America's most controversial murder investigations. Along the way, I speak with award-winning journalist Clemson Richardson, who covered the Atlanta Child Murders as they unfolded and witnessed the fear that gripped the city firsthand.

Together, we examine the patterns investigators saw: the dump sites, the escalating violence, the witness sightings, the fiber evidence, and the psychological profile of a man who spent decades trying to control the narrative surrounding himself.

Was Wayne Williams a psychopath? A scapegoat? Or something far more complicated?

Research Notes:

MiinChai, A. M., Yaksic, E., Chopin, J., Fortin, F., & Hewitt, A. (2022). Time After Time: Factors Predicting Murder Series’ Duration. CrimRxiv.

Stuart, R. (1981, June 22). Suspect in Atlanta: Young, big ideas, but a career of limited achievements. The New York Times, A1.

***

If you want to follow the cases as I’m working on them, you can find me on Instagram — @jamesbuddyday

If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself.

Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7

For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.

Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom.

#WayneWilliams #AtlantaChildMurders #TrueCrime #SerialKiller #UnmarkedPodcast

In 2008, 16-year-old Erin Caffey was accused of helping orchestrate the murder of her own family in rural East Texas. But nearly two decades later, one question still divides everyone who studies the case: Who was really responsible?

Using newly released police recordings, interviews, court records, and original reporting from East Texas, this episode reconstructs the psychology behind the Caffey family murders. Was Erin Caffey a manipulative teenage psychopath? Was she controlled by her older boyfriend, Charlie Wilkinson? Or did a volatile group dynamic slowly normalize violence until fantasy became real?

This investigation explores adolescent identity, religious isolation, coercive relationships, group psychology, and the dangerous emotional fusion that can happen when rebellion, romance, and resentment collide.

If you want to follow the cases as I’m working on them, you can find me on Instagram — @jamesbuddyday

If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself.

Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7

For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.

Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom.

John Wayne Gacy murdered at least 33 young men and boys. But for years after his conviction, attorney Karen Conti sat across from him on death row, trying to understand the man behind one of America’s most infamous serial murder cases.

In this episode of UNMARKED, Conti describes what Gacy was really like behind closed doors: his manipulation, emotional detachment, need for control, and the contradictions that made him so difficult to fully understand. We also examine modern psychological and criminological research surrounding psychopathy, trophy-taking, victim selection, and the environmental patterns that shape serial killers.

Why did Gacy keep victims beneath his own home when most serial killers attempt to distance themselves from the crime? What did he reveal in private that the public never saw? And what happens when someone spends years speaking directly with a man the world has already reduced to a monster?

Show Notes:

Walter, M., Beauregard, E., & Chopin, J. (2024). Trophy, souvenir, or simple theft? Taking items from the victim in sexual homicide. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 42(4), 338–353.

More from Karen Conti here: https://www.karenconti.com/

Follow James Buddy Day on Instagram: @jamesbuddyday

Lean is having a Huge Memorial Day Sale. Visit takelean.com and enter THANK YOU 25 for 25% off.

When writing Buddy uses FÜM — don’t just try to quit. Upgrade the habit loop: .https://tryfum.com/unmarked

If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, Buddy’s book Charles Manson: The Last Words: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7

For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes: https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom.

Keith Hunter Jesperson wanted to be seen. Between 1990 and 1995, the long-haul truck driver murdered women across the United States while carefully shaping the story around himself. He wrote letters to newspapers. Confessed on truck stop bathroom walls. Participated in psychological research studies about his own behavior. Even donating his brain to science after death. But beneath the “Happy Face Killer” persona is something more revealing: a man driven by grandiosity, callousness, impulsivity, and an insatiable need for recognition.

In this episode of UNMARKED, we examine the psychology of Keith Jesperson through exclusive conversations with author and investigator M. William Phelps, archival interviews with Jesperson himself, contemporary forensic psychology, and the systemic failures that allowed vulnerable victims to go unseen for decades.

You can hear more from M. William Phelps on Crossing the Line:
https://crossingtheline.biz/

This episode is sponsored by Betterhelp. Financial stress can affect us more than we know: https://www.betterhelp.com/UNMARKED

If you want to follow the cases as I’m working on them, you can find me on Instagram — @jamesbuddyday

If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself.

Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7

For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.

Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom.

Joel Rifkin confessed to the murders of 17 women in just three years—leaving their remains scattered across Long Island, New York City, and New Jersey.

And for years, no one was looking for him.

In this episode, we examine the case through the lens of N. G. Berrill—one of the first psychologists to evaluate Rifkin after his arrest. Drawing on interviews, court records, and police reports, this is a reconstruction of how Rifkin operated in plain sight—and what allowed him to continue.

From his early life in suburban Long Island, to the environments he exploited, to the moment a routine traffic stop ended it all, this episode breaks down the pattern behind the crimes.

Because this isn’t just the story of one offender.

It’s a case that exposes something larger—how vulnerable populations are overlooked, how investigations fail to connect, and how, in the 1980s and 90s, the rise of “serial killer” culture may have given offenders like Rifkin a framework to follow.

***

This episode is sponsored by Betterhelp. Financial stress can affect us more than we know: https://www.betterhelp.com/UNMARKED

If you want to follow the cases as I’m working on them, you can find me on Instagram — @jamesbuddyday

If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself.

Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7

For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.

Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

Follow UNMARKED for additional case material, updates, and short-form analysis:
• YouTube: @Unmarked_Podcast
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UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom.