Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast

In 2005, Tanya Jaime Nelson traveled from North Carolina to Westminster, California, with her accomplice, Phillipe Zamora, to murder her longtime psychic and friend, Ha "Jade" Smith, and Smith's 23-year-old daughter, Anita Vo.

In 2014, Heather Cho (Cho Hyun-ah), a vice president of Korean Air and daughter of the airline's chairman, sparked an international scandal known as the "nut rage" incident aboard a flight departing New York's JFK Airport.

Hannah Sabata is a Nebraska woman who gained internet notoriety in late 2012 after robbing a bank, stealing a car, and immediately uploading a YouTube video bragging about the crimes.

Susan Lorincz is a Florida woman currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for the June 2, 2023, fatal shooting of her neighbor, Ajike "A.J."Owens. The incident, which took place in Ocala, Florida, began as a neighborhood dispute and escalated when Lorincz shot Owens through a closed, locked front door.

A True Story compilation of the craziest survival stories

Mahek Bukhari is a high-profile British TikTok influencer who, alongside her mother Ansreen Bukhari, orchestrated a fatal ambush that resulted in a double murder.

Suge Knight, the notorious co-founder of Death Row Records, is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility following a fatal 2015 hit-and-run. The incident occurred in January 2015 outside a Compton burger stand, where Knight got into an altercation with a technical advisor for the film Straight Outta Compton, Cle "Bone" Sloan. Surveillance footage captured Knight backing his pickup truck into Sloan, injuring him, before driving forward and running over businessman Terry Carter, who died from his injuries.

In 2005, Washington, D.C. administrative law judge Roy L. Pearson Jr. dropped off a pair of suit trousers for alteration at Custom Cleaners, a small neighborhood business owned by South Korean immigrants Soo and Jin Chung. [1, 2]When the cleaners misplaced the pants—and later presented a pair that Pearson vehemently insisted was not his—the dispute rapidly escalated into a notorious symbol of frivolous litigation. Acting as his own attorney, Pearson filed a massive civil lawsuit under D.C. consumer protection laws, pointing to the storefront's "Satisfaction Guaranteed" and "Same Day Service" signs to demand a staggering $54 million

Mark Redwine was convicted of second degree murder after the November 2012 disappearance and murder of his son, Dylan Redwine, during a court-ordered Thanksgiving custody visit in Vallecito, Colorado.

In 1933, a homeless man named Michael Malloy became the target of a deadly $3,500 life insurance fraud scheme orchestrated by a five-man gang. Assuming Malloy's severe alcoholism would make him an easy victim, the conspirators repeatedly attempted to kill him for the insurance money.

A compilation of True Stories about celebrities who were robbed and scammed, including Dane Cook, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, David Letterman, and more

In 2003, 18-year-old Devin Moore shot and killed two police officers and a radio dispatcher inside a Fayette, Alabama police precinct after being brought in on a suspected car theft charge. His lawyer later blamed it on the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise.

In 1986, just days after walking away from his own minimum-security assignment, Ronald McIntosh- a Vietnam War veteran and skilled pilot- chartered a helicopter under a false identity, held the pilot at gunpoint, and flew the aircraft directly into the exercise yard of FCI Pleasanton to rescue Samantha Lopez, who was serving a 50-year bank robbery sentence. The couple successfully fled the prison grounds amid cheering inmates, but their cinematic freedom lasted only ten days.

Thomas J. Mascia is a former New York State Trooper who was sentenced to six months in jail and five years of probation on October 22, 2025, after pleading guilty to staging his own shooting on Long Island

In 2023, former Bachelor star Clayton Echard became the target of a multi-year pregnancy fraud scheme when Laura Owens falsely claimed she was pregnant with his twins following a brief encounter, leading to a public legal battle.

Sean "Diddy" Combs was reportedly hospitalized with a severe head injury following a prison fight at FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey with notorious Jamaican drug lord Christopher "Dudus" Coke.

Duane "Keffe D" Davis is a former South Side Compton Crips gang leader who was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for orchestrating the 1996 drive-by shooting of rap icon Tupac Shakur. Following decades as a cold case, investigators utilized Davis's own public grandstanding, media interviews, and his 2019 tell-all memoir, Compton Street Legend, as primary evidence to arrest him in September 2023.

A True Story compilation of celebrities that have crazy and dangerous stalkers, including Eminem, Britney Spears, Post Malone, Bjork, and more

Uloma Curry-Walker is an Ohio woman currently serving life in prison without parole for orchestrating the 2013 murder-for-hire plot of her newlywed husband, Cleveland Fire Lieutenant William Walker.

The Alex Malarkey story centers on a high-profile evangelical hoax surrounding the 2010 bestselling memoir, The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven. Following a 2004 car accident that left Alex permanently paralyzed, his father, Kevin Malarkey, concocted a narrative that his son had visited heaven, met Jesus, and seen angels while in a two-month coma.

Laren Sims utilized at least 38 aliases to execute various fraud and grand theft schemes. She met and married wealthy personal injury attorney Larry McNabney, later embezzling money from his firm. In 2001, Sims and her friend, law firm secretary Sarah Dutra, fatally poisoned McNabney with a lethal dose of horse tranquilizer

In 2007, 19-year-old former college tennis player Heather Johnston gained international notoriety alongside her roommate, Ashley Miller, when they were dubbed the "Barbie Bandits" after being caught on surveillance footage laughing in sunglasses during a $11,000 heist at a Bank of America branch inside an Acworth, Georgia grocery store.

Sharee Miller was convicted of second-degree murder and conspiracy in 2000 for orchestrating what became known as the internet’s first highly publicized murder trial. Living in Michigan with her husband, Bruce Miller, Sharee engaged in an intense online affair with a former Missouri police officer, Jerry Cassaday.

Dieter Dengler was a German-born U.S. Navy pilot who became one of the few American servicemen to successfully escape enemy captivity during the Vietnam War. After fulfilling his childhood dream of flying by immigrating to the United States and joining the Navy, Dengler's A-1 Skyraider was shot down over Laos in February 1966.

A True Story compilation of women who killed their partners

The Laverne Pavlinac story is a bizarre case of a false confession that derailed a murder investigation and allowed a serial killer to remain free. In 1990, following the murder of 23-year-old Taunja Bennett in Portland, Oregon, 57-year-old Pavlinac concocted a detailed lie to frame her abusive boyfriend, John Sosnovske, as a desperate way to get him out of her life. She eventually implicated herself as an accomplice, leading to both of them being convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1991, despite Pavlinac recanting her story at trial. Because police closed the case based on her fabrications, the real perpetrator—the notorious "Happy Face Killer" Keith Hunter Jesperson- went undetected and murdered at least seven more women over the next several years.

The 2004 Transylvania University book heist was an audacious, movie-inspired plot orchestrated by four affluent Kentucky college students- Spencer Reinhard, Warren Lipka, Eric Borsuk, and Chas Allen- who attempted to steal over $5 million worth of rare books from the university's Special Collections Library.

Hamish McLaren (born Hamish Watson) is a notorious Australian serial fraudster and con artist often dubbed the "Bondi Swindler" or "Australia's King Con". Over a deceptive career spanning three decades and four continents, he is estimated to have scammed between $60 million and $70 million globally from victims in Australia, the US, Canada, Britain, and Hong Kong.

Brittany Norwood is a former Lululemon employee convicted of the brutal 2011 murder of her coworker, Jayna Murray, inside a Bethesda, Maryland retail store.

Christa Pike is an American convicted murderer who became one of the youngest women in modern U.S. history to be sentenced to death. In 1995, Pike, her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, and an accomplice lured their classmate Colleen Slemmer into a secluded wooded area in Knoxville, Tennessee, where they murdered her.

Caleb Flynn, a 40-year-old former American Idol contestant and Ohio worship pastor, was sentenced to life in prison on October 5, 2026, for the aggravated murder of his 37-year-old wife, Ashley Flynn.

A True Story Compilation of entitled teens who think they can get away with murder

Joel Guy Jr. committed the gruesome premeditated murders of his parents, Joel Guy Sr. and Lisa Guy, at their home in Knoxville, Tennessee. Motivated by financial greed after his parents planned to cut off his lifelong financial support

Sabrina Limon and her firefighter lover, Jonathan Hearn, conspired to murder her husband, railroad worker Robert Limon. Although Sabrina and Robert had been in an open marriage, Sabrina kept her intense relationship with the younger Hearn a secret.

Carl Gugasian is known as "The Friday Night Bank Robber" and is widely considered the most prolific bank robber in U.S. history. Over a 30-year criminal career, he meticulously planned and executed more than 50 bank robberies, stealing more than $2 million.

In 2018, Jake Thomas Patterson committed a highly publicized double murder and abduction when he broke into a home in Barron, Wisconsin, and fatally shot James and Denise Closs. And then kidnapped Jayme Closs.

Anthony David Flores, a former Fresno hair salon owner and grifter, orchestrating a malicious fraud scheme alongside his then-girlfriend, actress Anna Rene Moore, that targeted Dr. Mark Sawusch, a wealthy Malibu ophthalmologist suffering from severe bipolar disorder.

In 2010, debt-ridden California community theater actor Daniel Wozniak executed a gruesome double-murder plot to steal $62,000 in combat savings from his neighbor, 26-year-old Army veteran Samuel Herr, to finance his own upcoming wedding and honeymoon.

A Compilation of the creepiest true stories we've covered

Diane Staudte is a Springfield, Missouri woman who was convicted of first-degree murder for fatally poisoning her husband and son with antifreeze. Alongside her favorite daughter, Rachel Staudte, she orchestrated what became widely known as the "Antifreeze Murders," a series of planned family poisonings carried out between 2012 and 2013.

Ghyslain Raza, famously known as the Star Wars Kid, became one of the internet's very first viral phenomena after a private video he recorded in 2002 was leaked online without his consent.

Joyce McKinney is a former Miss Wyoming who became an international media sensation in 1977 after allegedly abducting Kirk Anderson, an American Mormon missionary, in England.

In 1972, American novelist Clifford Irving orchestrated one of the most audacious literary frauds of the 20th century by concocting a completely fabricated autobiography of the notoriously reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes.

Ippei Mizuhara, the longtime personal interpreter and close friend of Major League Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani, was at the center of a massive sports gambling and theft scandal.

In 2022, 23-year-old Juan Baron strangled his 73-year-old lover, Gary Ruby, inside Ruby's multimillion-dollar mansion in Honolulu's exclusive Hawaii Loa Ridge neighborhood.

A Ray William Johnson True Story compilation of people who went viral getting in trouble with the law.

In 1994, part-time handyman Darryl Kuehl shot and killed 53-year-old retired schoolteacher Paul Gruber at his home near Muskrat Lake in Sandpoint, Idaho.

In 2007, former NFL star O.J. Simpson led a group of armed men into a room at the Palace Station hotel-casino in Las Vegas to confront sports memorabilia dealers Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong. Simpson claimed he was merely reclaiming personal mementos, family photos, and sports artifacts that had been stolen from him years prior. However, because members of his group carried firearms and used force to take the items, Simpson was arrested and later convicted in 2008 of multiple felonies.

John Arthur Getreu was an American serial killer whose decades-long evasion of justice finally ended through modern investigative genetic genealogy.

Tyler Barriss is a California man who was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison after orchestrating a deadly December 2017 swatting hoax that resulted in police killing an innocent man.