Bone Valley

Lava for Good Podcasts

87 episodes listed below

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Wrongful-conviction reporting with a steady hand.

The gist

Bone Valley follows criminal cases where the official story keeps fraying under closer inspection. Its reporting lingers on witness pressure, investigative logic, grief, and the small procedural choices that can redirect a life.

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About Bone Valley

Bone Valley is a long-form true-crime series about wrongful convictions, contested guilt, and the fragile evidence that can carry a murder case for years. It is not built for quick shock. The show moves slowly through records, interviews, memories, and field reporting, letting the listener hear how uncertainty enters a case and then becomes official history. Recent chapters return often to Ear Witness, where witness accounts, police pressure, and later doubt sit at the center of the story. A reluctant witness matters. So does the way investigators ask questions. The show pays close attention to that space between a useful statement and a reliable one. In one chapter, the reporting follows a back road near Bessemer, west of Birmingham, using a physical location to test what a witness claimed and what investigators believed. In another, a recap turns on whether someone heard guns. Small details do heavy work here. Bone Valley also reaches toward the Graves County material, including the murder of Jessica Kern and the suggestion that a key piece of the story has not yet been fully accounted for. The show’s best moments come from that patient narrowing of focus: a name, a file, a road, a recorded interview, a person trying to explain what happened years earlier. It can be emotionally heavy. It is also procedurally absorbing. The series gives tape room to breathe, even when the tape is uncomfortable or unresolved. Its skepticism is quiet. Rather than announce outrage, Bone Valley shows how a case can become fixed in place while the people inside it remain uncertain, grieving, or unheard.

Made for: For listeners who prefer investigative true crime with records, witness tape, and procedural doubt at the center. It fits people who can sit with unresolved evidence rather than chase constant reversals.

What sets it apart: Bone Valley stands apart by treating witness credibility and institutional certainty as the story itself. The show lets interviews and scene reporting do the work before drawing out the larger pattern.

In their own words

In Season 1 of Bone Valley, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gilbert King tells a story of a man, Leo Schofield, fighting to prove his innocence in the case of his wife Michelle’s murder. In Season 2, Jeremy Gilbert King brings us a story about her actual killer, Jeremy Scott, fighting to prove his guilt. The State of Florida does not believe either man. Bone Valley Season 3 | Graves County is a new story about a new case. Maggie Freleng, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and one of the hosts of Lava For Good’s Wrongful Conviction, takes us to a small town in Graves County, Kent...

As heard by us

Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026

Its comparison of shifting witness accounts, recorded questioning, and physical evidence makes the machinery of a contested conviction legible.

Bone Valley rebuilds a murder case by staying close to the people whose memories and testimony shaped it. The reporting moves between recorded police questioning, conversations with Jessica Curran's friends and family, and visits with people connected to the case.

Read our full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

A police interrogation changes shape in real time, and you hear every uneasy turn.

Press play if you want

  • to test witness statements against the evidence instead of accepting the neat version
  • to understand Jessica as a brave, complicated person rather than merely a case
Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
wrongful convictionsmurder investigationswitness credibilitypolice interviewscase files and recordsGraves County reportingEar Witness recaps

Talks about

Best episodes of Bone Valley

Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.

Chapter 7 | MessyFeb 4, 2026

A careful look at credibility, relationships, and a protective-order violation.

The chapter keeps its focus on how a case can turn on memory, loyalty, and resentment that never stay fixed for long. It follows a journalist at a mailbox and then into a living room, where George Holloway offers a blunt, skeptical account of Violet Ellison and the relationships…

Gilbert King Presents: Bone Valley Season 4 | EarwitnessJan 21, 2026

A plainspoken review that values restraint over flash.

The piece keeps its footing by staying plainspoken. It does not chase drama, and that restraint gives the review a steady, unhurried shape. The language stays clear, and the argument is easier to follow because it refuses to dress itself up.

Chapter 5 | The ReceiptsOct 8, 2025

A steady promo reel that keeps its focus on hosts, angles, and where to listen.

The chapter plays like a run of promos rather than a single story, moving from Two Percent to Look Back At It and Learn the Hard Way with a steady push to listen.

Chapter 3 | Persons of InterestSep 24, 2025

A careful interrogation chapter that keeps the contradictions front and center.

The chapter keeps the murder investigation in a tight, uncomfortable space, following Victoria and Venetia as their accounts of Jessica Curran shift under KBI questioning.

Chapter 2 | JessicaSep 17, 2025

Jessica Curran's story is handled with patience and restraint.

Chapter 2 keeps Jessica Curran at the center without turning her into a file folder. Friends, a police interview, and the host's reporting build a picture of someone sweet, loving, feisty, and brave, with a habit of standing up for the people around her.

Chapter 1 | Something StinksSep 17, 2025

A polished sampler that keeps moving, even if it never settles into one clear story.

The piece moves like a promo reel, not a single settled story. The voice is polished and certain, and it keeps shifting across recovery, resilience, marketing, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy. That breadth gives it energy, but it also keeps the piece at arm's length.

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Episodes

  1. 1

    Chapter 2 | The Go-Between

    Oct 7, 2026·34m
  2. 2

    Chapter 1 | Remember Me

    Sep 30, 2026·32m
  3. 3

    Introducing - Bone Valley Season 6 | The Devil’s Quarry II

    Sep 23, 2026·3m
  4. 4

    Introducing - Death of an Artist: Petra Mathers and Her Michael

    Aug 26, 2026·2m
  5. 5

    Introducing - The Burden: Bad Cops

    Aug 11, 2026·2m
  6. 6

    Chapter 8 | Chapter and Verse

    Jul 22, 2026·41m
  7. 7

    Chapter 7 | Lucky Tuna

    Jul 15, 2026·34m
  8. 8

    Chapter 6 | The Snake

    Jul 8, 2026·47m
  9. 9

    Chapter 5 | Hour of Need

    Jul 1, 2026·40m
  10. 10

    Chapter 4 | Cemetery for the Living Man

    Jun 24, 2026·30m
  11. 11

    Chapter 3 | A Knife in the Heart of My Freedom

    Jun 17, 2026·44m
  12. 12

    Chapter 2 | Ride or Die

    Jun 10, 2026·32m
  13. 13

    Chapter 1 | Criminal Mischief

    Jun 10, 2026·32m
  14. 14

    Introducing - Bone Valley Season 5 | The Devil's Quarry

    Jun 3, 2026·3m
  15. 15

    Gilbert King Presents: Bone Valley Season 5 | The Devil's Quarry

    May 28, 2026·37m
  16. 16

    Introducing: My Mother's Lies

    This episode features promotional trailers for multiple podcasts including Two Percent on mental toughness, Thanks Dad with Will Ferrell, and a true crime story about women targeting a con artist, ending with a teaser about Jessica Kern's murder.

    Apr 9, 2026·9m
  17. 17

    Introducing - Blood Will Tell

    Hidden gem

    Blood Will Tell is a narrative true crime podcast from Campside Media, hosted by Washington Post reporter Jen Miller.

    Mar 19, 2026·10m·1 clip
  18. 18

    Chapter 5 | Anybody Will Do

    This episode features a podcast promo for 'two percent' discussing the science of mental toughness, fitness, and resilience, along with a snippet from 'thanks dad' about advice on quitting when things aren't fun anymore.

    Feb 4, 2026·57m
  19. 19

    Chapter 3 | Police Girl

    A true crime podcast investigating a murder case, featuring police interrogation of a reluctant witness.

    Feb 4, 2026·44m
  20. 20

    Chapter 6 | Misfiled

    A podcast investigating a murder case and the fight to prove innocence or guilt.

    Feb 4, 2026·47m
  21. 21

    Chapter 7 | Messy

    George Holloway is approached at his mailbox.

    Feb 4, 2026·39m·3 clips
  22. 22

    Chapter 2 | Don't Know Diddly

    This transcript consists of promotional segments for multiple podcasts, including Two Percent, Thanks, Dad, and Ear Witness, without substantive content from a specific episode.

    Feb 4, 2026·48m
  23. 23

    Chapter 1 | Behind the Crown

    This episode features a podcast trailer for 'Two Percent' discussing mental toughness and resilience, followed by ads for other shows like 'Thanks Dad' and a true crime story, with no clear substantive content from the main episode.

    Feb 4, 2026·43m
  24. 24

    Chapter 4 | Witness or Defendant

    This transcript features advertisements for Point S tires, the Two Percent podcast on mental toughness, and the Thanks Dad podcast with Will Ferrell, followed by a teaser for Ear Witness.

    Feb 4, 2026·47m
  25. 25

    Chapter 8 | Bondage to the Law

    This episode features promotional content for multiple podcasts, including 'Two Percent' which focuses on the science of mental toughness and resilience, and 'Thanks, Dad' with Will Ferrell discussing advice about perseverance and quitting.

    Feb 4, 2026·45m
  26. 26

    Introducing - Bone Valley Season 4 | Earwitness

    Gilbert King introduces a new season of Bone Valley focusing on the Alabama death row case of Tafaris Johnson, highlighting the impact of investigative storytelling on wrongful convictions.

    Jan 28, 2026·5m
  27. 27

    Gilbert King Presents: Bone Valley Season 4 | Earwitness

    Hidden gem

    Gilbert King introduces Ear Witness and Tafaris Johnson’s Alabama death-row case, then frames it alongside Bone Valley’s earlier wrongful-conviction coverage of Leo Schofield and Quincy Cross.

    Jan 21, 2026·35m·1 clip
  28. 28

    Introducing - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance - Preview

    Dec 2, 2025·13m
  29. 29

    From the Mic to the Page: No. 1 of 5

    A true crime podcast series investigating a murder case and the fight for justice.

    Nov 13, 2025·19m
  30. 30

    Chapter 6 | Something Rotten

    A journalist investigates the Jessica Kern case, uncovering that a key witness recanted and the prosecution's case against Quincy Cross is weakening.

    Oct 15, 2025·45m
  31. 31

    Chapter 6 | Something Rotten

    This is a promotional compilation featuring ads for multiple podcasts including Two Percent on mental toughness, Thanks Dad with Will Ferrell, and a true crime story about women targeting a con artist.

    Oct 15, 2025·45m
  32. 32

    Chapter 5 | The Receipts

    Hidden gem

    Chapter 5, "The Receipts," centers on Miranda Hellman's claim that Kentucky law enforcement paid and pressured witnesses in the Jessica Curran case, including Rosie Kreiss and Victoria Caldwell.

    Oct 8, 2025·42m·2 clips
  33. 33

    Chapter 5 | The Receipts

    This episode promotes multiple true crime podcasts, including a case of a con artist, a pregnancy hoax, and a murder investigation in the outdoors.

    Oct 8, 2025·42m
  34. 34

    Chapter 4 | My Girl Susan

    This episode features promotional clips for multiple podcasts including Two Percent on mental toughness, Thanks Dad with Will Ferrell discussing fatherly advice, and Love Trapped covering a Bachelor star's pregnancy hoax scandal.

    Oct 1, 2025·47m
  35. 35

    Chapter 4 | My Girl Susan

    The episode promotes multiple true crime podcasts, including a story about women targeting a con artist and a case of a faked pregnancy involving a Bachelor star.

    Oct 1, 2025·47m
  36. 36

    Jeremy Lynn Scott April 29, 1969 – September 20, 2025

    Sep 26, 2025·1m
  37. 37

    Chapter 3 | Persons of Interest

    Venetia looks wiped out.

    Sep 24, 2025·57m·5 clips
  38. 38

    Chapter 3 | Persons of Interest

    Sep 24, 2025·57m
  39. 39

    Chapter 2 | Jessica

    Jessica was sweet, loving, and tougher than that first impression allows.

    Sep 17, 2025·46m·4 clips
  40. 40

    Chapter 2 | Jessica

    Sep 17, 2025·46m
  41. 41

    Chapter 1 | Something Stinks

    Sep 17, 2025·41m
  42. 42

    Chapter 1 | Something Stinks

    The excerpt barely gets to the case.

    Sep 17, 2025·41m·3 clips
  43. 43

    Gilbert King presents: Bone Valley Season 3 | Graves County

    Sep 16, 2025·31m
  44. 44

    Gilbert King presents: Bone Valley Season 3 | Graves County

    Sep 16, 2025·31m
  45. 45

    Introducing - Bone Valley Season 3 | Graves County

    Sep 10, 2025·3m
  46. 46

    Introducing - Bone Valley Season 3 | Graves County

    Sep 10, 2025·3m
  47. 47

    Kevin is Next - Part I

    Sep 3, 2025·31m
  48. 48

    Kevin is Next - Part 2

    Sep 3, 2025·36m
  49. 49

    Introducing: Culpable Season 3

    Aug 25, 2025·2m
  50. 50

    Bone Valley Book Announcement

    Aug 21, 2025·4m
  51. 51

    Bone Valley Book Announcement

    Aug 12, 2025·4m
  52. 52

    BONE VALLEY SEASON 3: GRAVES COUNTY - SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

    Jul 31, 2025·1m
  53. 53

    Introducing - Bone Valley Season 3 | Graves County

    Jul 23, 2025·3m
  54. 54

    Bone Valley Q&A with Gilbert King - Hosted by Maggie Freleng

    A Pulitzer Prize-winning author investigates a man's fight to prove his innocence in his wife's murder.

    Jun 19, 2025·40m
  55. 55

    Introducing: Bone Valley - Season 1 & 2

    Jun 17, 2025·4m
  56. 56

    Introducing - Absolute: Taser Incorporated, Teaser

    May 21, 2025·10m
  57. 57

    Walk Down that Road

    May 7, 2025·44m
  58. 58

    Like a Little Kid

    Apr 30, 2025·38m
  59. 59

    Horse and Buggy

    Apr 23, 2025·50m
  60. 60

    Never Turned Her Back on Me

    Apr 16, 2025·32m
  61. 61

    Destroyer

    A podcast series investigating wrongful convictions and criminal cases, focusing on individuals fighting for justice.

    Apr 9, 2025·36m
  62. 62

    You Told Me No

    A Pulitzer Prize-winning author investigates a man's fight to prove his innocence in his wife's murder.

    Apr 9, 2025·36m
  63. 63

    Introducing - Bone Valley Season 2: Jeremy

    Mar 31, 2025·3m
  64. 64

    Introducing: Someone Knows Something

    Dec 9, 2024·36m
  65. 65

    Introducing: Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freleng Season 4 - TRAILER

    Sep 1, 2024·2m
  66. 66

    Halfway Home

    A Pulitzer Prize-winning author investigates a man's fight to prove his innocence in his wife's murder.

    Jun 7, 2024·46m
  67. 67

    Leo's Parole Hearing Comes to a Close but it's not Over

    A podcast about a man fighting to prove his innocence in his wife's murder, with a parole hearing approaching.

    Apr 18, 2024·26m
  68. 68

    BREAKING NEWS | Leo Schofield’s parole hearing set for April 17th

    Apr 5, 2024·1m
  69. 69

    Bonus Episode | Restoring the Way

    A true crime podcast investigating a wrongful conviction case where Leo Schofield fights to prove his innocence in his wife's murder.

    Dec 21, 2023·21m
  70. 70

    #403 Jason Flom with Gilbert King on the Groveland Four

    A podcast investigating a murder case and a man's fight to prove his innocence.

    Nov 2, 2023·43m
  71. 71

    Bonus Episode | Nothing but a Meatball

    A podcast investigating a murder case and a man's fight to prove his innocence.

    May 5, 2023·1h 3m
  72. 72

    Bonus Episode | Heading to the Parole Hearing for Leo Schofield

    May 3, 2023·1m
  73. 73

    Bonus Episode | Prepping for the Parole Hearing in the Case of Leo Schofield

    A Pulitzer Prize-winning author investigates a man's fight to prove his innocence in his wife's murder.

    Apr 19, 2023·43m
  74. 74

    Bonus Episode | Leo Speaks

    A podcast series investigating a murder case and a man's fight to prove his innocence.

    Mar 8, 2023·34m
  75. 75

    Bonus Episode | The Lion, the Boat, and the Lighthouse

    A podcast series investigating wrongful convictions and criminal cases, hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists.

    Jan 17, 2023·25m
  76. 76

    Bone Valley Q&A with Gilbert King and Kelsey Decker - Hosted by Maggie Freleng

    Nov 23, 2022·51m
  77. 77

    Chapter 9 | Coming Clean

    Nov 9, 2022·1h 13m
  78. 78

    Chapter 8 | Dear Mr. King

    Nov 2, 2022·1h 10m
  79. 79

    Chapter 7 | I Lost It

    Oct 26, 2022·1h 7m
  80. 80

    Chapter 6 | Know That I Know

    Oct 19, 2022·1h 2m
  81. 81

    Chapter 5 | Bam Bam

    Oct 12, 2022·51m
  82. 82

    Chapter 4 | Dog with a Bone

    Oct 5, 2022·1h 2m
  83. 83

    Chapter 3 | Trial by Ambush

    Sep 28, 2022·53m
  84. 84

    Chapter 2 | Combee Critters

    Sep 21, 2022·1h 2m
  85. 85

    Chapter 1 | God Help Us

    Sep 21, 2022·53m
  86. 86

    Bone Valley Trailer #2

    Sep 14, 2022·3m
  87. 87

    Introducing: Bone Valley

    Sep 7, 2022·3m