Showing results for "Hollywood" in True Crime

Journey deep into Charles Manson's early years to learn how a troubled boy became the charismatic cult leader behind one of America's most infamous killing sprees. Then follow the disturbing saga of Rodney Alcala, who charmed his way onto a popular dating show while hiding his brutal secret life as a serial killer. Finally, step into the drug-fueled underworld of early 80s Los Angeles with the Wonderland Murders, where adult film legend John Holmes became entangled in a bloody massacre that rocked Laurel Canyon.

Desi Jedeikin and Rachel Fisher discuss true tales of crime and scandal involving celebrities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this documentary podcast, best-selling crime novelist Michael Connelly returns to his roots in journalism and examines the Wonderland Murders, an iconic and brutal mass murder in a city known for its murders.

Reclaiming Parkland details the failed attempt of Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman - cofounder of the production company Playtone - to make Vincent Bugliosi’s mammoth book about the Kennedy assassination, Reclaiming History, into a miniseries. It exposes the questionable origins of Reclaiming History in a dubious mock trial for cable television, in which Bugliosi played the role of an attorney prosecuting Lee Harvey Oswald for murder, and how this formed the basis for the epic tome.

When cocaine queen-pin Lanie Jacobs ditches Miami for Los Angeles, she meets Roy Radin - a washed-up theater producer with big dreams (and even bigger demons).

From the Demon Dog of American literature comes James Ellroy’s Hollywood Death Trip. Dig into a quintet of highly stylized true crime that delves into some of the most notorious, unsolved, midcentury-Hollywood murders. Ellroy’s wicked baritone draws listeners into a series of hellacious crimes; beginning with the heartbreaking and gruesome murder of his own mother. Next, it’s the Karen Kupcinet Killing - her body, found strangled just days after JFK’s assassination. Beautiful Stephanie Gorman, a debutante killed by a stranger, made Los Angeles lock its doors at night. The series concludes with the salacious snuff of actor Sal Mineo, whose death is a fitting epigraph for a series set in “Hollyweird”.

**THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER** HOLLYWOOD PARK is a remarkable memoir of a tumultuous life. Mikel Jollett was born into one of the country's most infamous cults, and subjected to a childhood filled with poverty, addiction, and emotional abuse. Yet, ultimately, his is a story of fierce...

The name “Hollywood” conjures up fantastical images of bright lights, glamorous dreams, and impossible riches. From its humble beginnings as a ranch sprawling northwest of Los Angeles in the late 1800s, Hollywood has spanned lifetimes as a factory of dreams, a dazzling place where all things are possible.

Gianni Russo was a handsome twenty-five-year-old mobster with no acting experience when he walked onto the set of The Godfather and entered Hollywood history. He played Carlo Rizzi, the husband of Connie Corleone, who set up her brother Sonny, played by James Caan, for a hit. Russo didn't have...

Hollywood Horrors explores the murders, mysteries, scandals, and unexplained deaths that have haunted the entertainment industry from the 1920s to the present day. Each episode is meticulously researched and cinematically narrated, separating documented fact from enduring myth to uncover the true stories behind Hollywood's darkest chapters.From silent film stars and studio cover-ups to modern celebrity tragedies, this series reveals the crimes, mysteries, and scandals that forever changed the history of the world's most famous entertainment capital.

From the outside, Hollywood starlet Lana Turner seemed to have it all—a thriving film career, a beautiful daughter, and the kind of fame and fortune that most people could only dream of. But when the famous femme fatale began dating mobster Johnny Stompanato, thug for the infamous west coast mob boss Mickey Cohen, her personal life became violent and unpredictable. Lana's teenage daughter, Cheryl, watched her beloved mother's life deteriorate as Stompanato's intense jealousy took over. 

In the 1950s, Confidential magazine, America's first celebrity scandal magazine, revealed Hollywood stars' secrets, misdeeds, and transgressions in gritty, unvarnished detail. Deploying a vast network of tipsters to root out stars' sexual affairs, drug use, and sexuality, publisher Robert Harrison destroyed celebrities' carefully constructed images and built a media empire. Confidential became the best-selling magazine on American newsstands in the 1950s, surpassing Time, Life, and the Saturday Evening Post. Confidential's spectacular rise was followed by an equally spectacular fall.

Leonardo DiCaprio. Alex Rodriguez. Tobey Maguire. Affleck. Damon. Cassavetes. What do these people have in common? Not just fame and fortune; all these men are also alumni of the ultra-exclusive, high-stakes poker ring that inspired Aaron Sorkin's Oscar-nominated film, Molly's Game. But Houston Curtis, the card shark who co-founded the game with Tobey Maguire, knows that Sorkin's is the whitewashed version. In Billion Dollar Hollywood Heist, Curtis goes all-in, revealing the true story behind the game. 

The dust had yet to settle on the global financial crisis in 2009 when an unlikely Wharton grad set in motion a fraud of unprecedented gall and magnitude--one that would come to symbolize the next great threat to the global financial system. At the centre of this fraud was Jho Low--a character so preposterous he seems made up. Federal agents who helped unravel Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme say the Jho Low affair, when its full contours become known, will become a textbook case for tracking transnational fraud in the modern age.

UNION FOR THE HEADLINES, A TRIAL FOR THE TIME Celebrity romances have always captured the public’s imagination, playing out like soap operas seized upon by fans and tabloids alike. By the same token, high-profile trials can take over the mainstream media cycle, with both news pundits and the...

Like sharks to blood in the water, the mob arrived in Hollywood greedy and ready to tear away huge chunks of cash. Opportunistic mobsters saw labor unions as the means for muscling into the movie industry and extorting millions of dollars from studio bosses. Control the unions to which projectionists, art directors, cinematographers, electricians, scene designers, stagehands, extras belong, and you control the whole industry.

“No one knew more about the mob, Hollywood and Las Vegas than Johnny Rosselli, and Lee Server got it all in Handsome Johnny.” — Nicholas Pileggi, bestselling author of Goodfellas A rich biography of the legendary figure at the center of the century’s darkest secrets: an untold story of...

Another gripping true story from Terry Moogan takes listeners deeper into his life of crime. It reveals fresh details about how a difficult, poverty-stricken childhood in Liverpool, England, led to extraordinary armer robberies that no one had ever attempted before and spectacular escapes. His ingenious mind came up with a way to sail for free on the luxurious Queen Elizabeth II cruise ship.

Hollywood vs Reality is a forensic documentary podcast that takes the mob and crime stories the movies mythologized and reconstructs what actually happened, from the record - the real men behind the legends, no glamour, no myth. Companion video on YouTube.

Terry Moogan found himself as a young adult embroiled in a life of crime, hijacking Securicor vans as a means of rebellion. His actions eventually led to his arrest and an 18-year prison sentence, during which he engaged in daredevil escapes. Moogan’s life took a huge turn when, after working as a butler on the Queen Elizabeth II cruise ship, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton took him under their wing.