iHeartPodcasts
26 episodes listed below
iO Tillett Wright investigates her mother's boyfriend's unsolved 1982 East Village murder.
The Ballad of Billy Balls follows an East Village killing through family memory, legal detours, and raw recorded conversations. It is less a case file than a search for what grief does when nobody gets a clean ending.
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The Ballad of Billy Balls is structured as a single season-long investigation rather than a case-of-the-week anthology. Host iO Tillett Wright (rendered in episode transcripts as Ayo Tillett-Wright) narrates the search into what happened to Billy Heitzman, shot in an East Village storefront apartment in 1982 while dating her mother, Rebecca. Crimetown producer Austin Mitchell works alongside Wright throughout, at points conducting interviews directly, such as with Billy's daughter Amanda, when Wright is unavailable. Episodes combine on-the-record interviews with people who knew Billy, including friend Gita Gash and daughter Amanda, with archival and records research, and scenes of the host confronting family members with new information. Recurring subject matter includes the 1970s downtown New York punk and music scene, heroin and methamphetamine addiction, domestic violence, and child neglect. The investigation also follows practical threads, such as tracing Billy's unmarked grave to Hart Island and reconciling conflicting accounts of his death, including an alleged undercover police shooting. A bonus behind-the-scenes episode shows the show's own production process, including last-minute editorial calls by creators Mark Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier and a near-missed music placement for the series' theme song. The show is produced by Crimetown/ZSP Media with Cadence 13 and iHeartPodcasts. Listeners drawn to memoir-inflected true crime, family secrets, and downtown New York music history in the 1970s-80s are the core audience. The feed also includes trailers for unrelated true-crime series from the same producers, such as The Confessions of Anthony Raimondi and Beyond All Repair, which are cross-promotional inserts rather than part of the Billy Balls narrative.
Made for: Listeners of memoir-driven true crime who want a personal, single-case investigation rather than a case-of-the-week format.
What sets it apart: The host is personally connected to the victim, turning the investigation into family memoir as much as cold-case journalism, rather than a reporter examining a stranger's case.
It’s 1982, and a man bursts into an East Village storefront apartment and shoots punk musician Billy Balls. Author and activist iO Tillett Wright and Crimetown Producer Austin Mitchell unravel a mystery of love and loss, the tender binds of family, and the stories we tell ourselves just to survive. Created by Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
It makes the gap between family memory and verifiable evidence central to a deeply personal investigation.
The Ballad of Billy Balls follows iO Tillett Wright and Austin Mitchell through an investigation shaped by family memory, recorded testimony, and field reporting.
This is the mystery that hands you a police report, then makes you sit with the family.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A tense handoff into Sophia Johnson's fight to answer a murder accusation and reach the son she has never met.
The Ballad of Billy Balls hands its feed over to Beyond All Repair, a WBUR and ZSP Media true crime series hosted by Anne-Marie Sievertson. The case is blunt and strange from the jump: Sophia Johnson was accused of killing her mother-in-law with fireplace tongs, says she did not…
A loose, intimate bonus about the studio, collaborators, and late musical choices behind The Ballad of Billy Balls.
This bonus episode steps away from the Billy Balls case and into the room where the show was made. The conversation is loose and intimate: Ayo settles into a studio that feels safe, Zach is pulled in as editor, and the team circles back to the last-minute choice that helped…
A loose legal-side bonus built around Ron Kuby, the Hells Angels, a Cleveland deli, and a briefcase of cash.
This bonus episode of The Ballad of Billy Balls drifts into the legal orbit of the story through Ron Kuby's memory of William Kunstler's firm being asked about a Hells Angels case.
Billy's grave is finally found, and the episode lets tenderness matter more than case mechanics.
Billy's story reaches one of its quietest and heaviest turns as the host goes to his mother's house to tell her Billy's body has been found on Heart Island.
A tense, intimate portrait of Billy Balls, where affection and fear sit uncomfortably side by side.
Amanda lingers with people who knew Billy Balls close enough to remember the pull and the damage in the same breath. The episode's strongest moments come from that uneasy interview space, where love, fear, drugs, and old family chaos all blur together.
True stories of scams, aliases, frauds, and lives built on lies.
Payne Lindsey and Tenderfoot TV revisit the Atlanta Child Murders and the wider Monster franchise.
Host Jake Brennan traces the crimes and scandals behind musicians from Elvis to Taylor Swift.
Karina Longworth narrates the Manson murders as a story about Hollywood's collapsing 1960s dream.
A wilderness hoax, a trusting BC town, and the brothers who fooled it.
A mystery about love, access, and letting go.
This trailer introduces "The Confessions of Anthony Raimondi," a true-crime podcast series from USG Audio and Truth Media.
This is the premiere episode of Beyond All Repair, a true crime series from WBUR and ZSP Media hosted by reporter Anne-Marie Sievertson.
Light Asylum comes in late.
Ron Kuby gets pulled into a strange errand.
Ayo Tillett-Wright and associate producer Kevin Shepard call listeners who left voicemails about The Ballad of Billy Balls, including a woman listening from a Publix parking lot in Boone, North Carolina.
Billy's body has been found.
Drugs made the relationship hard to hold together.