Early True Crime

There’s no doubt that the explosion of podcasting as a mass medium can be traced, in large part, to the true crime genre.  Listeners flock to serialized stories of scams, murders, cults, and the missing.  But early true crime reporting often took the form of an hourloung documentary, allowing for a different type of immersion in story.  With a condensed structure, the details of the crime cede time to the humanity of criminals, victims, and law enforcement.  The pieces we’ve chosen for this collection represent different parts of the true crime landscape: victims, offenders, and law enforcement. They explore the ripple effects of crime, punishment, and rehabilitation and we hear from the people directly living in those outcomes.  They transport us with tape capturing the sounds of lock up and death in prison, victims’ experience of rage and regret, and the intrigue of investigation and dogged pursuit.  These works lay the foundation for shows like Ear Hustle and Criminal.  And they also give rise to the serialized narrative we hear in Serial, Dirty John, and their progeny teasing out these stories by releasing them over time to create suspense and a dialogue in pop culture. These four works are beautiful and solemn, but they reflect a human fascination with crime, punishment, and judgment.  Dave Isay’s early sound portraits of lifetime prisoners and execution teams are intense and satisfying.  Samantha Broun and Jay Allison’s lookback to the ripple effect of a 20-year old crime offers a victim’s perspective we rarely hear.  And by the 2015 release of KRCC’s protopodcast, you can hear a genre on the verge of erupting.  A quick look at the podcast charts today will reveal the outcome.