Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast · Blue Ewe Media

409: The Scientist & the Serial Killer w/ Lise Olsen

·1 hr 30 min·5 clips

Bernie Milligan, 15, was chased through the Heights by Dean Corll in a convertible after refusing a ride.

Eric Riveness opens the show and welcomes Lisa Olson. Olson is introduced as an investigative reporter, editor, and author based in Texas, with experience at the Texas Observer and the Houston Chronicle. Her book *The Scientist and the Serial Killer, The Search for Houston's Lost Boys* sits at the center of the conversation. The discussion begins with how she first came to the serial murder case, then keeps circling back to the question of how the victims were identified. The case is presented as something that had to be pieced together from fragments. Some of the boys had been dead for years before the bodies were recovered, including people killed in 1970, 1971, and 1972 whose remains were not found until 1973. That gap made identification slow and difficult. Dental evidence matters. So do the memories of the men who helped name at least one victim. Frank is one of the people discussed in detail. His body was found on the beach. The identification came from a mix of his body's condition, family dental work, and the killers' own recollections. That blend of evidence gives the conversation its grounded tone. It is less about big reveals than about the practical work of figuring out who the dead were. The episode also follows where the bodies were found. One place was in the woods near Broadus, Texas, by Sam Rayburn reservoir. Another was High Island, on the coast northeast of Houston. A third was a rented boat shed inside Houston city limits. Those locations matter because they show how far the crimes reached across both ordinary and remote ground. The cabin near Sam Rayburn is part of the story as well. It belonged to the killer's father's family. He used that setting to lure some of the boys with the promise of a fishing trip. The conversation makes clear how ordinary offers and familiar places became part of the murder process. That is one of the episode's most disturbing points. The crimes did not begin in darkness alone; they relied on trust, geography, and routine. Eric's questions stay compact and direct. Olson answers at length, with chronology and context doing the heavy lifting. The result is a measured historical true-crime discussion rather than a sensational retelling. It leaves room for the social world around the case, and for uncertainty where the record is incomplete. The interview keeps its attention on the victims. It treats the recovery of names as part of the story, not a footnote. It also gives listeners a sense of the reporting behind Olson's book. By the end, the episode feels like a careful reconstruction of a grim case and the work it took to understand it.

As heard by us

Careful true-crime history that leans on evidence and identification instead of spectacle.

Most Notorious takes a careful look at the Houston killings behind The Scientist and the Serial Killer, with Lise Olsen tracing how the case was built from burial sites, body identification, and forensic evidence.

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Why you'd press play

Follow Lisa Olson's reporting on how Houston's Lost Boys were identified years after the killings.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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