Grim true cases, beer-can banter, and a stay-safe sign-off.
Donnie and Dale cover cases ranging from a man searched for along the Susitna River to the basement crimes of Gary Michael Heidnik. The openings are pure ribbing at Dale's expense, and the retellings that follow are frank, detailed and mindful of the families left behind.
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Crack House Chronicles is a true crime podcast carried by two voices, Donnie and Dale, and by the contrast between how an episode starts and where it goes. The start is a joke. Donnie introduces Dale with a fresh one-liner: a man whose clothes come in three categories, summer, winter and in case he loses weight, or a man whose emergency contact is 9-1-1. Dale takes the bait. There is talk of black shirts and 12-ounce curls, a trade of 'same old, same old,' and then the case. From there the register changes completely. The back catalog runs to hundreds of episodes, and the case names show how wide it ranges: the Palmer brothers, Gary Michael Heidnik, Harrison Frank 'Marty' Graham, Linda Slaten and Troy David Whisnant. That covers disappearances, serial killers and killings inside families. The telling is conversational rather than scripted. One voice walks through the timeline while the other confirms, reacts and checks the order of events, for example asking whether a shooting happened right after a family got home from church. The effect is closer to hearing a case talked over than hearing it read out. Specifics carry the weight: tracking dogs that found no scent near the Susitna River, roughly four square miles of woods searched without result, and a nailed-shut door with Marty carved into it. Official accounts are quoted along the way, including a state trooper explaining why the search moved from the river to land. Nothing is softened. The Heidnik material describes abduction, confinement and abuse directly, and the Linda Slaten account includes a scream at an apartment complex that brought a worker running and then the police. At least one episode features a guest. Wade Keener joins the pair and gives a first-hand account of handing Troy over to a deputy. The warmth is real, too. One conversation closes with prayers for Jason's family, his wife and two boys. Another ends on a man, now 94, who said it was the one case he could never get over. Small local asides turn up as well, like a mention of ponds where trout are raised and visitors can feed the fish. The sign-off is a warning: be careful, stay aware of your surroundings, because the next episode could be about you.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants true crime as plain talk between two people rather than a polished documentary, and who can handle graphic detail about abduction, abuse and murder.
What sets it apart: Each case is retold as a two-way exchange: one voice lays out the facts while the other questions and reacts. That exchange sits between a joking introduction of Dale and a sign-off warning that the next episode could be about you.
We are a True Crime and Mysteries Podcast. Each week Donnie and Dale dive in to a weird and unusual case with our own views and perspective. Join us, shall you?website: www.crackhousechronicles.comFollow us on facebook https://www.facebook.com/crackhousechroniclesemail: [email protected] will be provided in each episode show notes.
First a joke about 12-ounce curls; then you follow Donnie and Dale into the awful particulars.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
The Susitna River search finds no answer, while party accounts leave possible foul play unresolved.
Mike's disappearance plays less like a case with a trail than a case defined by where the trail runs out. The search moves from the clear water and log jam of the Susitna River, where nothing tied to him was found and tracking dogs could not pick up his scent, into a…
A grim, scene-driven account of seven vulnerable Black women discovered after police break down a nailed-shut room.
Crack House Chronicles places Marty inside a bleak, highly physical crime scene: a filthy apartment, a nailed-shut door with Marty carved into it, no doorknob, and police looking through a keyhole at the legs of a naked Black woman inside.
A grim, conversational account of Sandra Lindsey's confinement and death in Gary's basement prison.
Gary's basement prison gives Crack House Chronicles its bleak center, with Donnie and Dale tracing Sandra Lindsey's abduction, confinement, and death across 1986 and 1987.
A stark murder discovery becomes a story about Linda Slaten's sons, lasting grief, and the detective who never forgot the case.
Crack House Chronicles frames Linda Slaten's murder through the horror her sons wake into, with one boy being led past the bedroom door and the discovery unfolding in painful, concrete detail.
A grounded return pairs grief around Jason with a firsthand account of transferring Troy Whiston to a deputy near the National Forest.
Crack House Chronicles returns with Donnie and Dale easing in through beer-and-exercise banter, then shifting into a more personal check-in after a week away for family loss.
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.
Donnie and Dale introduce their true crime podcast, read a five-star review praising their humorous storytelling, and engage in lighthearted banter.
Donnie and Dale introduce their true crime podcast with comedic banter and preview a crazy story.
Donnie and Dale discuss a follow-up to a previous episode and shout out a listener, maintaining their humorous banter while covering true crime cases.
The hosts banter about aging and local fair before introducing a true crime case.
Crack House Chronicles follows the Palmer family of Wasilla, Alaska, where 15-year-old Mike Palmer disappeared on June 4, 1999 after riding a bicycle with Tommy and Dustin toward graduation parties near Meadowlake subdivision.
Crack House Chronicles profiles Harrison Frank "Marty" Graham, a Philadelphia serial killer whose birth date is listed as either September 9, 1959 or October 9, 1958 and whose IQ was later put at 62-63.
["Crack House Chronicles follows Gary Michael Heidnik, who built the United Church of the Ministers of God, a Merrill Lynch account, and a basement pit in Philadelphia.", "The hosts trace his 1961 U.S.
Crack House Chronicles covers the 1981 Lakeland, Florida murder of Linda Slaten, born Linda Joyce Patterson, and the cold-case work that followed after Judy Butler found her through a bedroom window on Brunel Parkway.
Crack House Chronicles centers on Wade Keener's account of Jason Crisp, canine Morris, and Troy Whiston in McDowell County.
Troy Wisnant kills U.S. Forest Service officer Jason Crisp, then shoots Crisp’s canine partner Moros.
Dr. Maggie Zingman describes Brittany Phillips as fearless, artistic, and "a science nerd" who wanted cancer research.
Paul Rolls was caught because a bandage came off Linda Fida's foot and left a toe print.
Crack House Chronicles follows Tiffany Sessions, a University of Florida finance student who vanished near Williston Road on February 9, 1989.
Crack House Chronicles episode 301, "Dean Corll - The Candy Man," follows Dean Arnold Corll from his 1939 birth in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to the Houston Heights candy business that earned him the "Candyman" nickname.
Donnie and Dale introduce their true crime podcast, read a five-star review, and banter about their personal lives.