Los Angeles Times
25 episodes listed below
A courthouse feud becomes a murder trial.
The Trials of Frank Carson traces how a missing small-time thief became the center of an extraordinary murder prosecution. It is courtroom true crime with a hard procedural spine, built from police interviews, legal strategy, local suspicion, and the uneasy power of reputation.
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The Trials of Frank Carson is a true-crime series about a defense attorney who spent his career attacking police and prosecutors, then found himself accused by them. Its central figure is Frank Carson, a Modesto lawyer with a courtroom style described through confrontation, thrift-store polish, delay tactics, and stubborn confidence. He is not introduced as a smooth television attorney. He arrives with a cane, a cracked black leather satchel, dusty shoes, and a reputation large enough to fill the courthouse before he speaks. The case begins with Corey Kaufman, a missing man connected to scavenging, scrap metal, drug use, and the rough edges of Turlock life. That disappearance pulls investigators toward Carson’s property, old thefts, neighborhood suspicion, and the theory that anger over repeated trespassing may have turned fatal. The show does not rush the accusation. It builds the file piece by piece. Kevin Pickett’s attempts to account for his stepson’s final movements sit beside police interviews, defense objections, and accounts of alternate suspects. The result is a story where certainty keeps arriving too early, then having to defend itself. Carson’s enemies saw a man capable of crossing a line. His defenders saw a prosecution warped by tunnel vision. The series keeps both pressures in view. It follows the preliminary fight, the alleged plea overtures, the long courtroom grind, and the personal stakes for Carson’s wife Georgia and stepdaughter Christina. It also gives weight to the co-defendants, including Bobby Atwal, whose preparations before the verdict are rendered through practical family details and religious resolve. The courtroom material has the density of a legal record, but the storytelling keeps returning to ordinary human images: a man standing in the sun after jail, a receipt for scrap metal, supplies bought in case prison becomes real. That balance gives the show its force. It is grave without being ponderous. It is skeptical without pretending every theory is equal. The reporting is especially strong on how a local justice system can become personal, with reputation, politics, and professional grudges pressing against the evidence. For listeners drawn to criminal defense, police procedure, and contested prosecutions, this is a case study in how a murder trial can become a trial of an entire courthouse culture.
Made for: For true-crime listeners who prefer legal records, police interviews, and contested theories over quick twists. It also fits anyone interested in criminal defense work, local power, and cases where the investigators themselves become part of the story.
What sets it apart: The show stands apart by making the defense attorney’s role the central pressure point: Frank Carson is both a feared courtroom operator and the accused. Its strength is the collision between procedural detail and small local facts that keep changing the case’s meaning.
From Christopher Goffard, the Los Angeles Times reporter and host behind the hit podcasts “Dirty John” and “Detective Trapp,” comes a new eight-episode true crime podcast, “The Trials of Frank Carson.” “The Trials of Frank Carson” is a story of power, politics and the law in California’s Central Valley. Frank Carson was Stanislaus County’s most controversial defense attorney, a wizard with juries and a courtroom brawler with an unapologetically caustic style. He racked up legal wins for decades. He was the terror of police and prosecutors, often accusing them personally of corruption. When a small-time thief disappeared, police — some of them Carson’s...
Christopher Goffard turns a shifting interrogation into a stress test for your certainty.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A missing-person case opens into a theory-led investigation, with local names and dead ends crowding the frame.
Corey Kaufman's disappearance gives the story its first jolt, but the real pull comes from how that missing-person case keeps getting folded into a wider criminal theory.
A grounded courthouse portrait that turns a failing body and a hard edged defense practice into suspense.
Frank Carson's slow climb up the Modesto courthouse steps sets the tone right away. It gives the piece a worn, immediate feel: a defense lawyer whose body is failing while his reputation still carries weight around Stanislaus County.
A bonus episode that shows how local credibility and courtroom suspicion shape a case.
This bonus episode steps away from case retelling and looks instead at how the reporting gets built. Chris Goffert sits with editor Steve Clough to revisit the first episode of The Trials of Frank Carson, reflect on the third podcast they have worked on together, and trace a…
A stark jail-cell chapter that builds its case through custody, texts, and surveillance.
This chapter keeps Frank Carson in a cold Stanislaus County Jail cell, and the routine around him feels punishing in its own right. It is strongest when it stays with that pressure: the cold, the sleeping conditions, the repeated motion-writing, and the lonely meals carry more…
NHPR's Jason Moon investigates the Bear Brook barrel murders and a New Hampshire wrongful-conviction case.
Payne Lindsey's season-long investigation into two disappearances from Nome, Alaska.
CBC's true crime feed tracing Cleo's case into cold cases across its investigative podcast network.
Journalists chase a decades-long trail through a coronial inquest and Rick Bloom's dozens of aliases.
A New York Times reporter reinvestigates Laramie's unsolved 1985 murder of Shelley Wiley.
This episode covers a preliminary hearing where Frank Carson, an alleged godfather in a murder plot, rejects a plea deal offer that would drop charges against his wife and stepdaughter in exchange for cooperating against the outlaws.
This episode explores the emotional and practical preparations of defendants Frank Carson and Bobby Atwal as they await the verdict in their trial, highlighting their personal struggles and coping mechanisms.
This episode examines the police investigation into Corey Kaufman's disappearance, focusing on suspect Jason Armstrong's background and contempt for Kaufman, while revealing multiple arrests including attorney Frank Carson.
This episode discusses the disappearance of Corey Kaufman, featuring insights from authorities and his stepdad Kevin Pickett as the investigation unfolds.
Frank Carson, at 61, is held without bail in Stanislaus County Jail.
Chris opens the first bonus episode of The Trials of Frank Carson by sitting down with Los Angeles Times deputy metro editor Steve Clough.
This episode reports on breaking news about a coup in Russia by the Red Federation, which has launched nuclear missiles at the United States, hitting Minot Air Force Base.
This episode presents a fictional news broadcast from Chicago, blending elements of a UFO sighting, cyber attacks, and an astronaut interview before abruptly shifting to breaking news about explosions.
This episode recounts a dramatic 2015 arrest where Carson defiantly confronted a SWAT team in Turlock during a morning raid.
The Trials of Frank Carson, hosted by Los Angeles Times reporter Christopher Goffard, examines how Robert Woody became the prosecution’s key witness in Corey Kaufman’s murder case.
This episode introduces Season 4 by discussing Alex Baber's use of AI and computing to analyze the Z-13 cipher in the Zodiac killer case, exploring potential solutions to reveal the killer's identity.
The Trials of Frank Carson continues its true-crime investigation into the 2012 disappearance of Corey Kaufman, a methamphetamine-addicted scrap metal thief from California's Central Valley.
The LA Times' narrative podcast The Trials of Frank Carson opens its first episode by establishing the central figure: Frank Carson, a 64-year-old criminal defense attorney in Stanislaus County, California, who is simultaneously representing other defendants in the courthouse where he has been on trial for murder for more than a year.
This podcast introduces 'The Trials of Frank Carson,' exploring the controversial case where a renowned criminal attorney becomes the prime suspect in an elaborate murder conspiracy in California's Central Valley.