Murder Tales Podcast

Murder Tales Podcast is a two-hander about murder, made by H. N. Lloyd, the crime historian behind the Murder Tales book series, and Chris Britton. The credits are precise about who does what. Britton presents, edits and produces. Lloyd created the show, writes it and co-presents, and on air he goes by his nickname, 'Lloydy'. The openings are loose and teasing. There is talk of Lloyd's newly shaved head and a sweltering recording day, an apology for gaps between episodes blamed on a house move, and a joke that the podcast is not anyone's therapy. Then the register drops. Cases are told in parts, and the Fred and Rose West story runs across episodes titled 'Fred & Rose - Part Four' to 'Fred & Rose - Part Seven'. Those parts cover a pause in the killings between 1975 and 1978, a confession Fred gave to a solicitor in a private meeting rather than to police, and the violence inside the West household. The conversation raises the suspicion of a police cover-up. It also follows Anna Marie West, whose dread of teachers seeing her bruises at a school swimming lesson ended with her fainting and being taken to Gloucester Royal Hospital. The pair also argue. On Rose, one reading holds that she was a child herself when she met Fred and may have begun hesitantly before taking part for her own reasons. On a victim named Lucy, they weigh whether she was forced into a van or befriended beforehand, and they point to Fred's bread deliveries in the village where she grew up. The aftermath gets room as well: whether Fred was entitled to a funeral, and a family quarrel over his ashes. The murder of Alice Rye takes two episodes, 'Murder At Christmas: Alice Rye - Part One' and 'New Year Special: Alice Rye - Part 2', recorded back to back as an outdoor walk and talk in wet December weather. The first stays close to the street. A neighbour named Phyllis notices that the gates to Alice's house stand open, and she and another neighbour, Jeffrey, let themselves in. The narration corrects itself here: the house, once described as ransacked, had only been untidy. The second part turns to forensic evidence against a man named Morrison, including fibres in a caravan that matched Alice's cardigan, and his not-guilty plea at Liverpool Crown Court. Morrison blamed another man, Darlington, and claimed Alice had been picked from an electoral register as an elderly woman living alone in an affluent area. Descriptions of sexual violence and child abuse are direct and unsoftened. Several episodes start with a spoken advisory telling children under 12 and sensitive listeners to switch off. The closing credits point to the Murder Tales books, and one sign-off asks for likes and shares because the podcast is independent.