The Onion is an American digital media company and newspaper organization that publishes satirical articles on international, national, and local news. The company is based in Chicago but originated as a weekly print publication on August 29, 1988, in Madison, Wisconsin. The Onion began publishing online in early 1996. In 2007, they began publishing satirical news audio and video online as the Onion News Network. In 2013, The Onion stopped publishing its print edition and launched Onion Labs, an advertising agency. The Onion was then acquired three times, first by Univision in 2016, which later merged The Onion and its several other publications into those of Gizmodo Media Group. This unit was sold in 2019 to Great Hill Partners, forming a new company named G/O Media. G/O Media then sold The Onion in April 2024 to Global Tetrahedron, a firm newly created by former Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson, which revived the print edition in August that year.
True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines a crime and details the actions of people associated with and affected by criminal events. It is a cultural phenomenon that can refer to the promotion of sensationalized and emotionally charged content around the subject of violent crime, for the general public. Many works in this genre recount high-profile, sensational crimes such as the killing of JonBenét Ramsey, the O. J. Simpson murder case, and the Pamela Smart murder, while others are devoted to more obscure slayings.
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets is a 1991 book written by Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon describing a year spent with detectives from the Baltimore Police Department Homicide Unit. The book received the 1992 Edgar Award in the Best Fact Crime category.
The backpacker murders were a spate of serial killings that took place in New South Wales, Australia, between 1989 and 1993, committed by Ivan Milat. The bodies of seven missing young people aged 19 to 22 were discovered partially buried in the Belanglo State Forest, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) south-west of the New South Wales town of Berrima. Five of the victims were foreign backpackers and two were Australians from Melbourne. Milat was convicted of the murders on 27 July 1996 and was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences, as well as 18 years without parole. He died in prison on 27 October 2019, having never confessed to the murders for which he was convicted.
Krystian Bala is a Polish murderer, self-published writer, and photographer.
Sarah Koenig is an American journalist, public radio personality, former producer of the television and radio program This American Life, and the host and executive producer of the podcast Serial.
Serial is an investigative journalism podcast hosted by Sarah Koenig, narrating a nonfiction story over multiple episodes. The series was co-created and is co-produced by Koenig and Julie Snyder and developed by This American Life; as of July 2020, it is owned by The New York Times.
Making a Murderer is an American true crime documentary television series written and directed by Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos. The show tells the story of Steven Avery, a man from Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, who served 18 years in prison (1985–2003) after his wrongful conviction for the sexual assault and attempted murder of Penny Beerntsen. He was later charged with and convicted of the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach. The connected story is that of Avery's nephew Brendan Dassey, who was accused and convicted as an accessory in the murder of Halbach.
Criminal is a podcast that focuses on true crime. It is recorded in the studios of WUNC in Chapel Hill, NC, and is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. The show describes itself as telling "stories of people who've done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle."
Ronald William Iddles is an Australian former police detective. His conviction rate was 99% and he was dubbed "Australia's greatest detective". After a career spanning some 43 years investigating serious crime, he took up the role of Secretary of the Police Association of Victoria between 2014 and 2016. He retired in 2016, but he was lured out of retirement the following year and is currently Victoria's inaugural Community Safety Trustee.
My Favorite Murder is a weekly true crime comedy podcast hosted by American comedians Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. The first episode was released in January 2016. The podcast debuted at #25 on the iTunes podcast charts and peaked at #3 on April 27, 2018. Weekly episodes regularly land within the iTunes' Top 10 Comedy Podcast chart. As of 2020, the podcast gets 35 million downloads per month.
Marvel's Wolverine is an audio drama podcast series featuring the Marvel Comics character Wolverine. The show is Marvel's first scripted podcast produced by Marvel New Media and Stitcher. Marvel had previously retold comic book stories through audio in 1974 with a Fantastic Four radio series and a Spider-Man: Rock Reflections of a Superhero concept album. It was dubbed one of the Best Podcasts of 2018 by Apple while also winning the 2019 iHeartRadio Award for Best Scripted Podcast. A comic adaptation was published by Marvel due to the podcast's success.
In the Dark is an investigative journalism podcast hosted by Madeleine Baran, and produced by Samara Freemark, The New Yorker, and Condé Nast Entertainment. The series launched in September 2016 at American Public Media (APM), featuring in-depth reportage from APM's investigative reporting and documentary unit, APM Reports. Two full seasons were produced, each focusing on a high-profile case and the actions and conduct in the policing or prosecuting of those cases—the kidnapping/murder of Jacob Wetterling and the quadruple homicide case for which Curtis Flowers was tried 6 times. A subsequent "Special Report" series, released in spring 2020, reported on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Mississippi Delta. The series was cancelled in May 2022 as part of APM's dissolving of APM Reports and "incorporating select programming elements" from the unit into its MPR News operation.
Crime Junkie is a true crime podcast hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat, based in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The Vanished is a weekly podcast that focuses on the stories and circumstances of missing people, hosted by Marissa Jones. Most episodes feature interviews with the friends and family of the missing person, and sometimes the local law enforcement.
This Sounds Serious is a Castbox original fictional, comedic true crime podcast that debuted on April 1, 2018. The podcast, now in its third season, is a "parody anthology of sorts" that follows a different fake, satirical crime every season through investigative radio journalist Gwen Radford.
The Root of Evil: The True Story of the Hodel Family and the Black Dahlia or simply, Root of Evil, is an American investigative crime podcast covering the Black Dahlia murder and suspect George Hodel. The podcast was produced as a partnership between Cadence13 and TNT as a companion to the fictional television series I Am the Night. The podcast was created by Zak Levitt, and hosted by Yvette Gentile and Rasha Pecoraro, George Hodel's great-granddaughters. It features interviews with those who were impacted by the murder, including Hodel's relatives: Fauna Elizabeth Simon, Peace Hodel, Joy Hodel, and Love Hodel. The podcast charted in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, reaching the number one spot in the United States on April 21, 2019.
West Cork is a non-fiction podcast series reported and hosted by Sam Bungey and Jennifer Forde, about the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in Drinane, County Cork on 23 December 1996. The 13-episode series premiered as an Audible original on 8 February 2018, as a binge, and was made freely available widely as a podcast in 2021. A new episode of the series was released on 14 May 2021, detailing the trial in absentia of the main suspect.
Ashley Flowers is an American podcaster, writer, and entrepreneur. She is best known as the creator and host of the hit true crime podcast, Crime Junkie. In August 2022, Flowers' debut novel, All Good People Here, became a New York Times bestseller.
