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Criminal Reading List

Criminal Podcast reading list that features key books used in episodes throughout the show. Dive deeper into your favorite stories. Updated weekly!

Launched in 2014, Criminal is an award-winning true crime podcast. They tell stories about people people who have done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle. Host and Co-Creator, Phoebe Judge, has led the podcast to multiple ‘Best Podcast’ titles.

This Criminal reading list contains sources used in episodes of the podcast, offering a captivating journey through the literature that has inspired and informed some of the most intriguing stories explored on the show. Continuously curated to stay current, this Criminal reading list is regularly updated with new sources featured in episodes released each week, ensuring a fresh and dynamic selection for avid listeners and crime enthusiasts alike.

Search by episode number, episode name, or subject matter to dive deeper into topics covered on the show.

Right of Way

Episode 267

Fighting Traffic, by Peter Norton

The Strike

Episode 264

Blood Passion: The Ludlow Massacre and Class War in the American West, by Scott Martelle

Indelible Ink

Episode 262

Adolfo Kaminsky: A Forger’s Life, by Sarah Kaminsky

The Hiss

Episode 261

Acts of Manhood: The Performance of Masculinity on the American Stage, 1828–1865, by Karl Kippola

The Dial Painters

Episode 260

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women, by Kate Moore

If I’m Long Unheard From

Episode 259

To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse, by Howard Fishman

Off Leash

Episode 258

Living With Conviction, by Toby Dorr

48 Hours

Episodes 252 & 253

Victim F, by Denise Huskin and Aaron Quinn

Send Her To The Island

Episode 247

Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York, by Stacy Horn

Fine Art and Meat Cleavers

Episode 244

Rise Up Women!: The Remarkable Lives of the Suffragettes, by Diane Atkinson

The Liverpool Exchange

Episode 243

Undoing Drugs: How Harm Reduction Is Changing the Future of Drugs and Addiction, by Maia Szalavitz

The Spy

Episode 240

Deep Undercover: My Secret Life and Tangled Allegiances as a KGB Spy in America, by Jack Barsky

Under the Crabapple Tree

Episode 236

Blood and Ink, by Joe Pompeo

The Seances

Episode 234

The Confidence Men, by Margalit Fox

Iceland Noir

Episode 233

Reykjavík, by Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir and Ragnar Jónasson

Wolf 10

Episode 232

The Killing of Wolf Number Ten, by Thomas McNamee

The Perfectionist

Episode 230

An Assassin in Utopia: The True Story of a Nineteenth-Century Sex Cult and a President’s Murder, by Susan Wels

Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and Cleveland’s Torso Murderer

Episode 224

American Demon: Eliot Ness and The Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper, by Daniel Stashower

The Parametics

Episode 222

American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America’s First Paramedics, by Kevin Hazzard

Shipwrecked

Episode 220

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, by David Grann

The Fasting Cure

Episode 212

Starvation Heights, by Gregg Olsen

Crazy Eddie

Episode 211

Retail Gangster: The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie, by Gary Weiss

Out of the Box

Episode 210

Out of the Box: The Highs and Lows of a Champion Smuggler, by Marcus and Julie McSorley

Across the Atlantic

Episode 202

Supper with the Crippens: The True Story of One of the Most Notorious Murderers of All Time, by David James Smith

The Divorce Colony

Episode 194

The Divorce Colony: How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier, by April White

A Ring and a Bottle

Episode 193

The Divorce Colony: How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier, by April White

The Sailor's Teeth

Episode 191

Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System, by Chris Fabricant

Day In, Day Out

Episode 190

Just Pursuit: A Black Prosecutor’s Fight For Fairness, by Laura Coates

The Magpie

Episode 186

Hello Maggie!, by Shigeru Yabu

The Princess

Episode 185

Fictions and Fakes: Forging Romantic Authenticity, 1760-1845, by Meg Russett

Breaking Into the FBI

Episode 183

The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI, by Betty Medsger

The Boycott

Episode 180

Along Freedom Road, by David Cecelski

“The experiment requires that you continue.”

Episode 178

Behind the Shock Machine: The Untold Story of the Notorious Milgram Psychology Experiments, by Gina Perry

Ghost Racket Crusade

Episode 175

Houdini’s Girl Detective: The Real-Life Ghost-Busting Adventures of Rose Mackenberg, by Tony Wolf

The Loves

Episode 174

The Redemption of Bobby Love: A Story of Faith, Family, and Justice, by Bobby and Cheryl Love

Roselle and Michael

Episode 172

Thunder Dog, by Michael Hingson

Sealand

Episode 171

Principality of Sealand: Holding the Fort, by Michael Bates
Sealand: The True Story of the World’s Most Stubborn Micronation and Its Eccentric Royal Family, by Dylan Taylor-Lehman

Ian Manuel

Episode 170

My Time Will Come, by Ian Manuel

48 Hours

Episodes 167 & 168

Victim F, by Denise Huskin and Aaron Quinn

On Fire

Episode 166

American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land, by Monica Hesse

Unfit

Episode 165

The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt, by Audrey Clare Farley

The Ghoul of Grays Harbor

Episode 163

The Port of Missing Men: Billy Gohl, Labor, and Brutal Times in the Pacific Northwest, by Aaron Goings

I Fought The Law

Episode 162

I Fought the Law: The Life and Strange Death of Bobby Fuller, by Miriam Linna and Randell Fuller

Spiritual Developments

Episode 159

The Strange Case of William Mumler, Spirit Photographer, by Louis Kaplan

"If it Ever Happens, Run."

Episode 158

Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy, by David Zucchino

The Short Life of Qandeel Baloch

Episode 157

A Woman Like Her: The Story Behind the Honor Killing of a Social Media Star, by Sanam Maher

Sister Helen

Episode 156

Dead Man Walking, by Sister Helen Prejean

The Many Lives of Michael Malloy

Episode 151

On the House: The Bizarre Killing of Michael Malloy, by Simon Read

Dr. Parkman is Missing

Episode 149

Blood & Ivy: The 1849 Murder That Scandalized Harvard, by Paul Collins

Ten Doors

Episode 146

Escape from Pretoria, by Tim Jenkin

Learning How to Forgive

Episode 139

When Should Law Forgive, by Martha Minow

Wolf 10

Episode 137

The Killing of Wolf Number Ten, by Thomas McNamee

Herrin Massacra

Episode 132

Herrin Massacre, by Scott Doody
Herrin: The Brief History of an Infamous American City, by John Griswold

The Reverend

Episode 127

Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee, by Casey Cep

A New Kind of Life

Episode 126

Undying Love, by Ben Harrison

The Less People Know About Us

Episode 125

The Less People Know About Us, by Axton Betz-Hamilton

A Bucket, a Mop, and a Sledgehammer

Episode 124

The Trauma Cleaner, by Sarah Krasnostein

Mrs. Sherlock Holmes

Episode 123

Mrs. Sherlock Holmes: The True Story of New York City’s Greatest Female Detective and the 1917 Missing Girl Case That Captivated a Nation, by Brad Ricca

Professor Quaalude

Episode 122

The Strange Case of the Mad Professor, by Peter Kobel

The Lake

Episode 117

The Unforgiven, by Edith Brady Lunny and Steve Vogel

Philip and Becky

Episode 114

The Good Death: An Exploration of Dying in America, by Ann Neumann

Baby Snatcher

Episode 110

The Baby Thief, by Barbara Raymond

The Numbers

Episode 108

The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother’s Life in the Detroit Numbers, by Bridgett Davis

The Widow and the Winchester

Episode 107

The Gunning of America: Business and the Making of American Gun Culture, by Pamela Haag

Witness

Episode 104

WITSEC, by Gerald Shur

On the Run

Episode 96

No Way Home, by Tyler Wetherall

Dementia Americana

Episodes 91 & 92

American Eve, by Paula Uruburu

Casper Wyoming

Episode 87

The Darkest Night, by Ron Franscell

Photo, Hair, Fingerprint

Episode 80

Ghost of the Innocent Man, by Benjamin Rachlin

The Botanist

Episode 78

Forensic Plant Science, by Jane H. Bock and David Norris

The Escape

Episode 77

Escaping Alcatraz: The Untold Story of the Greatest Prison Break in American History, by David Widner

Catastrophe

Episode 74

Damned to Eternity, by Adam Pitluk

Bully

Episode 66

In Broad Daylight, by Harry MacLean

Vanish

Episode 61

Playing Dead: A Journey Through the World of Death Fraud, by Elizabeth Greenwood

In Plain Sight

Episode 59

Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom, by William and Ellen Craft
Love, Liberation, and Escaping Slavery: William and Ellen Craft in Cultural Memory, by Barbara McCaskill