LGBTQ true crime with teeth.
Beyond the Rainbow Podcast covers murders, disappearances, and suspicious deaths involving LGBTQ people with fast, openly opinionated narration. The show favors lesser-known cases, victim detail, and direct frustration at family silence, police failures, prejudice, and avoidable harm.
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Beyond the Rainbow Podcast is true crime with an LGBTQ center of gravity and a sharp editorial pulse. It is not a quiet case-file show. The narration moves quickly, stacking biography, timeline, suspicion, outrage, and side commentary into episodes that feel personally argued as much as reported. Stories include Tony's murder by Michael Lupo, Jack Duane Morgan's disappearance, the murder of Tim Ivy and kidnapping of Amanda Siebe, the suspicious death of Ed Cornes, Harvey Marcelin's history, the murder of Phoenix Netts, and the fatal assault on Philip Walsted. The show repeatedly returns to the cost of being ignored. Families wait. Evidence goes missing. Police departments make calls that deserve scrutiny. People close to victims stay silent, and the show refuses to make that silence sound neutral. The LGBTQ frame is not decorative; it shapes which cases are chosen and how motives, stigma, family rejection, predatory behavior, and institutional bias are examined. Victims are given names, details, relationships, and unfinished futures. Then the show asks who failed them. Sometimes the answer is a killer. Sometimes it is a household, a police force, a culture, or all of them at once. The tone can be harsh, but the harshness has a function: it keeps the listener from drifting past cruelty as background noise. Episodes also leave room for community notes, queer news, and quick jokes, which gives the series a strange but recognizable pattern of grief, fury, relief, and defiance. The result is best suited to true-crime fans who want lesser-covered LGBTQ cases told with speed, opinion, and victim-centered insistence. It is graphic, emotional, and deliberately unsanitized, while still aiming its strongest attention at memory and accountability.
Made for: For true-crime listeners who want LGBTQ-centered cases, direct moral commentary, and lesser-covered stories rather than polished detachment. Best for audiences comfortable with heavy violence, blunt judgment, and quick shifts between case detail and community notes.
What sets it apart: The show pairs case chronology with visible outrage about homophobia, family silence, police handling, and the ways victims are erased. Its closing rhythm of LGBTQ news, jokes, and community sign-offs gives the darkness a distinct community frame.
Beyond the Rainbow Podcast a.k.a. Rainbow Crimes is a show about crimes committed by and against the LGBTQ plus community. Join host C.J. for an array of true crime stories from all over the world, especially lesser known cases. Remember, it's not a crime to be gay...unless you're a murderer... Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/beyond-the-rainbow-podcast--4398945/support.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
CJ pairs detailed case timelines with victim-centered accounts of crimes and unresolved disappearances involving LGBTQ people.
Beyond the Rainbow Podcast follows crimes involving LGBTQ people through detailed, case-by-case narration. CJ moves between unresolved disappearances, suspected hate crimes, domestic violence and killings linked to prejudice, while carefully establishing who each victim was…
After grim case details, CJ tells you that you matter; sometimes that's the exit you need.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A Brixton killing told through Tony Connolly's style, Michael's violence, and the ugly delay after death.
This episode traces Anthony Connolly, known as Tony, from an art degree and teaching work in Newcastle into London club life and the night he met Michael at a gay London club.
A San Diego teen's disappearance is revisited through family memory, Donna Holland's stated belief, and an unresolved investigation.
A 15-year-old boy's 1996 disappearance in San Diego is handled as a story of grief, suspicion, and a family left without a clear answer. The episode follows CJ's account of Jack Dwayne Morgan, also said to have gone by Jason or JD, and lingers on memories of him as a good…
A grim case history connects psychiatric institutions, intimate betrayal, and Attica while staying focused on escalating violence.
Harvey Marcelin's story is traced from adolescent institutionalization and a 1957 burglary arrest through drug use, psychiatric diagnoses, and a strained marriage before it reaches the 1963 killing of Jacqueline Bonds.
A lockdown murder case built around fake voice messages, suitcases, and repeated trips to the Forest of Dean.
The episode frames Phoenix's killing as a lockdown-era true-crime case, tracing Garika from the stabbing through the effort to keep Phoenix's family off course.
A Tucson case that stays centered on the victim, the evidence, and the people left searching.
Philip Arthur Walstead's death is treated with quiet, methodical care. A man is found badly beaten in Tucson, detectives work through the blood and clothing at the scene, and a fingerprint match finally gives him a name.
A focused follow-up that keeps tightening the grip on one unsettling pattern.
CJ's Smiley Face Killer series keeps widening its reach in part two, moving past Pennsylvania and into other states while holding tight to the same troubling pattern: young college-aged men disappear after drinking with friends and are later found drowned in water.
A jealous friendship turns grim, and the episode is strongest when it stays with the case details.
The episode works best when it keeps close to the facts around Missy Avila's death, tracing how schoolyard jealousy hardens into a creekside murder.
Faith, testimony, and missing-person advocacy.
ABC Audio's Theranos fraud series that also introduces its other true-crime podcasts.
LA Times reporter Christopher Goffard traces con man John Meehan's fraud, abuse, and its Bravo TV adaptation.
This collaboration episode between Beyond the Rainbow Podcast and Book of the Dead Podcast explores two true crime cases involving frenemy relationships that turned deadly.
This episode of Rainbow Crimes discusses intimate partner abuse leading to death, focusing on cases from marginalized communities in the Pacific Northwest.
This episode discusses the murder of Ryan Zimmerman, with a focus on the investigation and community impact.
A true crime podcast episode about the murder of Nadine Esterhuizen in South Africa, hosted by CJ with a political rant introduction.
This episode of Rainbow Crimes covers the murder of Sean Kennedy in Greenville, South Carolina.
This episode of Rainbow Crimes covers the murder of Jamie Liang, a case within the LGBTQ+ community.
Host CJ continues the Smiley Face Killers series, exploring cases of young college-aged men who vanish after drinking and are later found drowned.
CJ, host of Beyond the Rainbow Podcast, covers the 2011 murder of 49-year-old Alan Lanteigne in his Toronto home, which she frames as a case of psychological and financial abuse.
Michael Lupo, also identified as Michel Del Marco Lupo, was born in Bologna, Italy on January 19, 1953, later moved to London in 1975, and worked as a hairstylist after a job at Yves Saint Laurent.
CJ examines the 1996 disappearance of 15-year-old Jack Dwayne Morgan from San Diego, noting that he left 2203 Hanneman Drive without a jacket, wallet, money, backpack, clothing, or note after arguing with his father.
Beyond the Rainbow Podcast examines the 2021 Evansville, Indiana case involving Heidi Kathleen Carter, Carrie Hammond, Amanda Seabee, and Tim Ivey.
A mini-sode where the host shares a personal camping story before briefly mentioning the suspicious death of Ed Cornes.
A true crime podcast episode introducing the case of Harvey Marcelin, with a focus on victim advocacy and behind-the-scenes insights.
Beyond the Rainbow Podcast links Phoenix Netts' 2020 death in Birmingham, England, to the COVID-19 lockdown and to Garika Gordon's searches like "how do killers get caught." CJ also recounts Gordon's use of Phoenix's phone, a voice-mimicking app, and trips to the Forest of Dean with two suitcases.
David Higdon was arrested after police found Philip Walsted’s driver’s license, a bloodied baseball bat, and David’s bloody clothing.
Beyond the Rainbow Podcast examines the July 6, 1983 disappearance of 18-year-old actress and pageant competitor Tammy Lynn Leppert from Rockledge, Florida.
A spree killer's acts are frantic with little cool-down, unlike serial killers who wait weeks, months, or even years between victims.