50 episodes listed below
Houston crimes, told between needling banter and hard facts.
Kat researches a crime from Houston or the nearby Gulf Coast and walks Charles through it, while he answers with questions and early guesses at the culprit. Each case comes wrapped in the same routine: a new alliterative nickname for Charles, teasing about his lack of preparation, and photos posted afterward.
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Clueston takes real crimes from Houston and the surrounding Gulf Coast and runs them through a two-person conversation. Kat is the host, and she does the research. Charles is the other voice at the microphone, and each opening introduces him under a fresh alliterative nickname: Cheshire Charles, the Svelte Snake, the hot hooligan, the lingering malingerer. Thinking up that name is, as Kat reminds him, the only thing he has to prepare. He often arrives without one. That affectionate needling sets the tone for everything after, as Kat lays out a case and Charles interrupts with questions, suspicions and early verdicts, only to be told he has to wait. The material underneath is grim. The episode titled 'Clueston 55: Back The Clue, The Murder Of Officer Elston Howard' quotes Houston police officials on robberies at adult bookstores, including a spokesman who had no explanation for why the information never reached other divisions. The conversation also stops on how taboo those stores once were, and how hard that is for a younger generation to grasp. Another case follows a man with a known history of mental illness, two hospitalizations and a rooftop rescue by firefighters, and the pair ask whether his psychiatric care should have seen the danger coming. One story concerns a young girl taken by a stranger, told in difficult detail. Another centers on Mark Castellano and Michelle: the hard drives are missing, there is a trail of bleach to the front door, and Mark put an eight-hour drive through the night down to helping his son. That episode closes by thanking Michelle's daughter for a five-star review, then ends with a recording the daughter made of her mother singing at a wedding reception. It is a small choice, and it keeps a victim from shrinking into a case file. Away from the cases, the humor is loose and self-mocking. The two joke about how long it has been since they last recorded. They also joke about the ads they switched off after political spots appeared, which left them with no income from the show. In one episode their daughter Madeline, home from medical school, sits in, renames Charles Happy Hagrid and ends up as the Mad Medic herself. The episode titles bend 'clue' into puns, such as 'Clueston 52: If The Clue Fitz.' and 'Clueston 54: One Clue Over The Cuckoo's Nest'. One episode thanks someone named Dina for recommending its case. The close follows a set pattern: the photos they took go up on the show's Instagram and its Facebook group, listeners are asked for reviews on Apple Podcasts, and a sign-off turns p's and q's into a clue pun.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants true crime rooted in Houston and nearby Gulf Coast towns, told with running jokes and teasing between two familiar voices. It also means being comfortable with grim details of murders and crimes against children.
What sets it apart: Clueston keeps its cases close to home in Houston and along the Gulf Coast and wraps them in a teasing routine of alliterative nicknames, clue-pun titles and photos taken for the cases. It also makes room for victims as people, closing one episode with a recording of Michelle singing at a wedding reception.
Clueston is true crime podcast focused on terrifying incidents that occurred in Houston, Texas and the surrounding Gulf Coast region. The subject matter is limited to Southeast Texas because it allows the show’s host to travel to crime scenes and other relevant locations so she can provide listeners with a more immersive experience.
That bleach trail is going to bother you; Kat and Charles are already arguing about it.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A Houston officer's murder opens into a tense debate over robbery patterns, response time, and what HPD failed to share.
Officer Howard's murder is framed as part of a larger run of bookstore robberies, with the episode circling missed communication inside HPD and the uneasy question of whether a second officer might have changed the outcome.
A Houston-area murder case examines warning signs, psychiatric care, and the limits of hindsight.
This single-episode review centers on a murder case shaped by troubling questions about John's mental illness, earlier calls to his home, and whether anyone had enough warning to intervene before the violence.
A Houston-area true crime episode where vivid physical detail meets Clouston's unvarnished host chemistry.
Clouston opens with Kat and Charles in loose, personal conversation before turning into a much darker account: a girl taken from a parking lot, badly wounded, and left in a field. That contrast gives the episode its charge.
A Palo Alto murder case turns on cell-phone records, a shaky alibi, and questions of motive.
Kristen Fitzhugh's death in Palo Alto gives Clueston a case built around a spouse's account, cell-phone records, and the slow collapse of an alibi.
A suspicious disappearance builds force through physical clues, disputed explanations, and uncertainty that never fully clears.
Michelle's disappearance is framed through details that keep Mark Castellano's account difficult to pin down: alleged burner phones, computers missing hard drives, a bleach trail he said came from old off-brand carpet-cleaner stains, and a late-night eight-hour drive to Odessa…
Ruhr crime, patiently taken to court.
Boston's crime history, told by a working investigator.
ABC Audio's Theranos fraud series that also introduces its other true-crime podcasts.
Clueston: True Crime in Houston, Texas follows the July 19, 1988 killing of HPD Vice Officer Elston Howard at Mr.
["Nancy Shank was stabbed to death on December 8, 2010 at 3714 Overbrook Lane in Houston's Royden Oaks, and neighbors saw her 20-year-old son John Shank flee in a Jeep.", "The episode traces Nancy Hiller Shank from Shreveport, Louisiana Tech, and St.
["On Clouston, Kat and Charles cover Dina's listener suggestion about the 1990 Dickinson, Texas attack on 8-year-old Jennifer Shewitt, who vanished from her apartment and was found later that day with a severe throat wound.", "From John Sealy Hospital, Jennifer wrote notes that described a tall white man named Dennis, his mustache and scar, a dented older two-door car, beer cans, and the cigarette brand he smoked.", "Forensic artist Lois Gibson turned that description into a composite, and 19 years later new DNA testing linked the clothing evidence to Dennis Earl Bradford of North Little Rock, Arkansas.", "The episode also tracks Jennifer's later victim-impact process and a Houston fertility specialist, Dr.
Clueston 52 follows Christine Peterson Fitzhugh, a Palo Alto elementary music teacher found dead at the base of her basement stairs on May 5, 2000.
A listener review sends Clouston into Michelle Lee Warner's Houston disappearance, and the hosts tie it to Dr.
The host introduces the show and her family co-hosts before beginning a true crime case from Houston.
Host Kat and co-host Charles introduce a heavy true crime case from Houston, Texas, with banter about their nicknames.
The host and her spouse banter before diving into a true crime case from Houston, Texas.
The host introduces the podcast and reads a sponsor message from a local restaurant.