Podcast Corner: Murder of Chippendales' choreographer is in new true crime series
Natalia Petrzela presents Welcome to Your Fantasy. Picture: Julian Budge
"This series contains depictions of violence, assault, and murder. Listener discretion is advised."
If such warnings pique your interest and get your blood flowing, read on for three new true crime podcasts to check out.
The latest series from Pineapple Street Studios (Missing Richard Simmons, Wind of Change) weaves a dark story of greed, corruption, and murder through the "male exotic dancers" of Chippendales, the none-more-'80s, tanned, mulleted, cultural pop phenomenon.
Within the first four minutes, Natalia Petrzela, host and historian, tells us that Nick de Noia, the rising-star choreographer and visionary of Chippendales, was shot and killed in 1987, when the show was at its zenith. But who would want to kill him?
With that plot as its centrepiece, Welcome to your Fantasy, an eight-part series only available on Spotify (the last episode drops on Wednesday) revels in the tale of deals made on the back of napkins, the printing of 1m calendars with all the months featuring 31 days, police busting dancers for prostitution, cocaine-fuelled escapades in 1980s New York and LA, sexually oversuggestive exercise videos, cyanide, and racism.
It's hedonistic in the best way.
A podcast set in 1970s San Francisco can only mean one thing: Serial killer.
This isn't about Zodiac or the Golden State Killer, but the lesser known Doodler, who sketched his victims before murdering them. It's hosted by Kevin Fagan, who's been a reporter with the San Francisco Chronicle for 28 years. Why wasn't the Doodler's name bigger, more mainstream news?
Because his victims were mostly young gay men, whose stories Fagan tells here, as he searches for more clues that may have been missed nearly 50 years ago.
Three episodes into an eight-part series, The Doodler available wherever you get your podcasts.
Another Spotify original, this time we're in Missoula, Montana, in 2018, trying to figure out what happened to Jermain Charlo, who left a bar in the city and was never seen again.
She's one of the thousands of missing or murdered indigenous women/girls in the US, says host Connie Walker, who points out how recent the case is - finding Jermain, and solving the mystery of her disappearance is not only possible, she says, but it's tantalisingly close.
Another eight-parter only available on Spotify, it's five episodes in.
