True crime with the myth stripped away.
Once Upon A Crime favors patient reconstruction over shock value. Esther guides cases through dates, records, courtroom moments, witness accounts, and public myths, keeping the story clear while staying close to the people harmed.
PRESS PLAY
Once Upon A Crime treats true crime as a story that has to be put back in order before it can be understood. The show favors chronology, evidence, and plain language over theatrical mystery. Recent episodes spend sustained time on Ted Bundy and the gap between the public myth and the person described by witnesses, records, escapes, arrests, and courtroom behavior. That distinction matters. The series is not interested in preserving the image of Bundy as uniquely brilliant or magnetic; it works instead to show arrogance, fantasy, grievance, and violence as parts of the same pattern. Courtroom scenes are handled with particular force, especially when Bundy's self-representation turns from strategy into exposure. The writing keeps returning to concrete actions: a jail escape, a stolen ID, a fake name, a witness noticing a license plate, a juror reacting to testimony. Those details give the show its shape. They also keep the victims and surviving witnesses from disappearing behind the reputation of the offender. Once Upon A Crime can be hard to hear because the cases are hard, but its seriousness feels purposeful rather than sensational. Bonus episodes change the texture without abandoning the mission. A Black Dahlia follow-up weighs media attention, suspect theories, documentary records, and the danger of reducing careful research to a single provocative angle. An interview with Crystal Gutierrez centers the disappearance of Anthonette Cayedito and the ongoing work of keeping a missing child’s case active. The show also makes room for Q&A and series wrap-ups, where the research process and historical context come closer to the surface. Across formats, the guiding habit is the same: name the myth, test it against the record, and return attention to the people affected. The narration is grave but accessible. It uses legal, forensic, and investigative details without letting them become a wall between the case and the audience. This is a show for true-crime followers who want the story, but also want the story corrected.
Made for: Best for true-crime listeners who prefer careful chronology, case records, courtroom detail, and victim-centered context over quick-hit sensationalism. It suits audiences comfortable with grave material and multi-part investigations.
What sets it apart: Once Upon A Crime stands out for its evidence-first myth correction: notorious figures are examined through behavior, records, and consequences rather than reputation. Its bonus interviews and case updates also keep older crimes connected to living questions and ongoing advocacy.
Step into the darker side of history with Once Upon A Crime, a true-crime podcast that delves deep into some of the world’s most gripping cases. Hosted by an expert storyteller, Esther Ludlow, each episode unravels the mysteries behind notorious crimes, exploring the lives of victims, perpetrators, and the intricate details of the investigations that followed. With carefully researched narratives, thematic series, and thoughtful insights, Once Upon A Crime offers listeners a captivating blend of suspense, history, and human psychology. Whether you're a seasoned true-crime fan or just curious about the stories that shaped headlines, Once Upon A Crime promises to keep you on the edge of your s…
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Once Upon A Crime revisits familiar cases with detailed narration, historical context, and careful attention to the people obscured by criminal mythology.
Esther builds Once Upon A Crime around detailed case narratives, often giving a single subject room to develop across several installments. The Black Dahlia and Ted Bundy series combine historical context with close attention to investigative records, courtroom testimony, public…
The Black Dahlia was Beth; Esther makes you reckon with the distance between those names.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A courtroom chapter that turns Bundy's need for control into his undoing.
This episode centers on Bundy's courtroom collapse, with Esther keeping the lens on how his drive to control the room becomes his undoing. The testimony moves through the Tallahassee killings in blunt detail, and the jurors are shown reacting badly as the officer lays out the…
Bundy's escape story becomes a grim inventory of panic, bad disguises, and vanishing control.
The account frames Ted Bundy's December 30, 1977 escape from the Garfield County Jail in Glenwood Springs as a frantic break rather than a cool, controlled move.
A grounded wrap-up that keeps the Black Dahlia case tied to place, trauma, and evidence.
Esther closes out Broken: The Black Dahlia Murder with a steady focus on place, wartime context, and the case's hard details. The path runs through Long Beach and San Diego as major military centers, then into post-war trauma, shell shock, and the limits of what people in 1947…
A final pass on the Black Dahlia that keeps dragging the story back to Elizabeth Short.
The episode closes out the Black Dahlia series by taking on the two theories that have spent decades crowding out Elizabeth Short herself, from the Black Dahlia Avenger to Steve Hodel's claims about Dr. George Hill Hodel.
A careful Robert Durst episode that tracks the case from Catherine L. Durst's disappearance toward Galveston.
Once Upon a Crime revisits Robert Durst by keeping the tension in plain view: his worldwide notoriety, and the fact that no charge was brought in Catherine L. Durst's disappearance.
A bank robbery story built from cash, a Buick, and a quick police catch-up.
This episode follows a bank robbery with a plain, almost stubborn clarity: an elderly woman asks for $13,000 in small bills, witnesses watch her leave in a Buick with a handicap registration tag, and police catch up with her about two miles later at a veterinarian clinic.
Evidence first, rumors on trial.
This episode introduces the story of Ruth Ellis, the last woman executed in the UK, exploring whether she was a cold-blooded killer or a desperate victim.
This episode of Once Upon a Crime revisits the case of Robert Durst, focusing on how he evaded justice for the murder of Morris Black in Galveston, Texas.
Host Esther Ludlow wraps up 2023 with a true crime year-in-review featuring five podcast guests.
Once Upon A Crime host Esther Sanchez-Ledlow traces how Taylor Parker, born December 8, 1992 in Mount Pleasant, Texas, built layered false identities, including an "oil and syrup" fortune, claimed illnesses such as multiple sclerosis and a brain tumor, and a pregnancy she could not have had after a hysterectomy.
Once Upon a Crime examines Mackenzie Shirilla’s July 31, 2022 crash in Strongsville, Ohio, which killed Dominic Russo and Davian Flanagan.
Once Upon A Crime's 'Ted Bundy for the Defense - Part Four: Reckoning' follows Ted Bundy's Florida court fight from the Leon County jail lobby to the Miami courtroom.
Once Upon A Crime's "Ted Bundy for the Defense - Part Three: Bundy Unhinged" tracks Ted Bundy's December 30, 1977 escape from Garfield County Jail in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, then follows his movement through Vail, Denver, Ann Arbor, and Tallahassee.
This episode of Once Upon a Crime explores the early suspicions and warnings about Ted Bundy as women began disappearing in Seattle in 1974.
Once Upon A Crime's "Ted Bundy for the Defense - Part Two: The Mask Cracks" follows Ted Bundy's 1975 arrest in Granger, Utah, the evidence recovered from his Volkswagen, and his aggravated-kidnapping case.
A bonus episode revisiting the Black Dahlia case, discussing a new suspect theory and William J.
This episode begins a series on Ted Bundy, debunking the myth of his brilliance and exploring his descent into violence.
Interview with Crystal Gutierrez about the unsolved 1986 disappearance of nine-year-old Anthonette Cayedito and efforts to reinvestigate the case.
Once Upon A Crime wraps the Black Dahlia series with Lorena, using listener questions to separate Bill Mann's research from decades of rumor around Elizabeth Short.
Host Esther Sanchez Ludlow concludes a six-part series on the 1947 Black Dahlia murder by evaluating the two most famous theories: the 'Black Dahlia Avenger' letter campaign, which detectives ultimately deemed a hoax by thrill-seekers, and retired LAPD detective Steve Hodel's 2003 book accusing his father Dr.
Legal expert Brian Buckmire updates the case against Sean 'Diddy' Combs, covering new charges, jail life, and the upcoming trial.
An interview with Marcia Clark discussing her experiences as lead prosecutor in the O.J.