00:00:00
My name is Special Agent Rebecca Henderson. >> Thursday on NBC. >> There was an explosion at a top secret
00:00:07
prison. Some of the most infamous killers broke free. >> The hunting party is back.
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>> We're going in loud. >> FBI. >> The stakes have never been higher. >> The longer they're out there, the more
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dangerous they're going to become. >> And the killers never seen anything like this before. Not even close.
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>> Have never been more twisted. >> This is next level. >> The Hunting Party. The thrilling season
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premiere Thursday on NBC. >> Finding ways to be financially [music] savvy is a smart move. And knowing you
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could be saving money for the things you really want, like that dream home or new
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[music] Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks
00:01:44
[music] for listening. I'm your host, Nick, and with me as always is a man who knows that football is just a [music]
00:01:50
ploy to sell food. Here is the captain. And man, oh man, I'd like a chili dog. It's good to be seen and [music] good to
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see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend. This week we are drinking Wake Me Up by
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Weedman Brewing Company in Cincinnati, Ohio. Wake Me Up is a hazelnut coffee milk stout. And we all could use some
00:02:17
waking up after the holidays. And if there ever was a beer to bring you out of your long winter's nap, it is this
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delicious coffee stout right here. ABV 6.5% garage grade 3 and 3/4 bottle caps out
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of five. And let's give some thanks and praise to our good friends and some new year holiday cheer to our good friends
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that helped us fill up the old garage fridge for this week. First up, a shout out to Ryan Newart from Cheshire,
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Connecticut. [music] >> And a big we like your jib goes out to Katrina from Rutland, Vermont. Next up,
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we go international captain with the cheers to Tara in London, Ontario, Canada. And also up in Canada, we have a
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triple cheers to Katie, Finn, [music] and Maddox from Aurora, Ontario. Everyone we just mentioned, near and
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far, contributed to this week's [music] beer fund, and for that, we thank you. >> Yeah. Yum, yum. Get you some BWR beer
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run. Go to true crimegar.com. Sign up on the mailing list and you'll be in the know. And Colonel, that's
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enough of the business. All right, everybody, gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime.
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[music] >> [music] >> We want to welcome everybody into the new year 2026. [music]
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Never thought I would make it this far, but here we sit and here we stand [music] together. And guess what? When
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it comes to true crime, you have been listening. We have been listening, but we've also been watching. And today we
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wanted to ring in the new year and celebrate 2025 with some of our favorite true crime
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viewing pleasures of 2025. These would be documentaries and dramatizations of real life true crime stories. And what a
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great year it was for those of you on streaming services. really a lot to choose from and to watch this year. It
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was hard for me to narrow it down to just three today, Captain, but both of us are going to offer up three for the
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beautiful listeners. And these are coming with a strong recommendation to sit down and watch with your friends
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when you have the opportunity. If you don't mind there, Captain, I will kick things off with my third favorite of the
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year of 2025. And this was a documentary on Netflix. This one was a surprise to me. I'm not
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going to lie, I'm a little out to lunch when it comes to knowing that these documentaries are going to come out.
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Uh-huh. >> I thank you and I also thank some of the folks following me on X because it's
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it's usually you or somebody on X that will inform me that, hey, next week or later this month there's this
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documentary coming out on case A or case B. >> And usually I'm getting notified when
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it's a case that we've covered, especially when people can hear it in my voice that it's a case that I'm
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passionate about. This was a case that I knew very little of. It was one of those
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moments for me. I love when you find the surprise, right? When you when you sit down,
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>> you open up that cracker jack box and you find the surprise. >> Some of the best movies and shows that
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I've watched in this lifetime come about that way where it's a surprise where I sit down, I'm like, uh, this will
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probably be okay. It'll fill some time. It'll entertain me for the evening. This
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one was uh was a surprise to me. I actually sat down with the thought that I would probably be turning it off
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within 15 or 20 minutes and that didn't happen. In fact, it made my top three. So, my third favorite of 2025 was a
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documentary. It's The Perfect Neighbor from Netflix. This one, what I loved about it was this reminded me of Well,
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hold on. We should tell the listeners there might be some spoilers, right? >> Correct. Correct.
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>> So, you have been warned. >> Yes. True. When But when I sit down to watch a a true crime documentary, I
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usually they they give away quite a bit in the trailer. >> Yeah. >> One, and then two, I usually anticipate
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that we're going to be dealing with a murder of some sort, whether it be unsolved or solved or what have you. But
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this one, The Perfect Neighbor, the thing that I loved about it the most was it reminded me of being a kid and when I
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first got captivated by the show Cops, right? Bad Boys, Bad Boys, what you going to do?
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>> What you going to do when they come for you? Bad boys. Bad boys. >> That show, while I'm not going to sit
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here and say that that show was like brilliant or highly educating or anything like that, it was
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groundbreaking. They could have called the show The Dumbest People on Earth. >> It was groundbreaking as far as back
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when that show came out, we didn't have live TV outside of sports or much in the
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way of reality TV, if you will. And that and Cops very much was that. And it was
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like train wreck reality TV, right? You can't turn away from it. It's it's cops show up to the trailer park to arrest
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the boyfriend who's been slapping the girlfriend and then she's screaming, "Don't take him away. I love him. I love
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him." >> You know, it's it's >> We shouldn't laugh about that. But one of my favorite parts about cops as a kid
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was like the amount of people that would, you know, can you step outside, sir, so we can talk to you? And they're
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not wearing a shirt. There was just a a lot of people that was talking to the cops that didn't have a shirt on, maybe
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didn't even have pants on. And then I also loved when there was a chase. >> Oh, the car chases on cops are
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incredible. >> No, I'm not even saying car chase. I'm talking about uh >> Oh, the foot chases through people's
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backyard. >> Elementary school showdown foot race. >> Oh, that's crazy. I now that I think
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about it, I don't know which one I like better, the car chase or the foot chase.
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I like when they pin the guy down and and he's like in a field, but they don't know where he is in the field and so
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they just send in the dog and the dog gets the guy. >> My favorite is when they get the guy
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down and he's clearly resisting arrest and he's like, "Hey, man, you're hurting me." And they're like, "Well, stop
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resisting." He's like, "I'm not." But he's he's still resisting. the car chase too when they have to when they have to
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take the car out. Like the guy's just refusing to stop and now he's burned up two or three of the tires and he's just
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driving on the rims and they have to they're like, "You know what? We're just going to have to slam into this guy at
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some point." All right, we got a little off here. >> Do what we want. And in 2026,
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this show does what it wants. But that's why this movie, this documentary to me,
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The Perfect Neighbor, was so good and so captivating. >> Now, hold on one second. I just I have
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to tell you the truth. I haven't watched this one yet. Even though I've been told
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a 100 times, you need to watch this one. >> Well, the the thing that makes it unique
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is that I would say 95% of it is from body cam footage from the cops. So you're this is not it none of
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this is scripted right and it's it's so unfiltered because it's it's not a documentary in
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the way that we are used to them this is just a collection of the body cam footage and I say 95% because there are
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some news clips that are added to the film but the body cam footage is I think it's so brilliant because it allows the
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viewer to see the cops showing up on scene and in the scene they're taking the complaint. They're then they're
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addressing the person that the complaint is against. And so in every situation and scenario, you are just it's like
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you're sitting on the shoulder of the cop and just viewing it and you are allowed to decide for yourself what you
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think has happened in that particular scenario or who is at fault and the it's very appropriately named because it's
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all about a dispute between a group of neighbors. It's from a recent incident that took place in the summer of 2023
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down in Okala, Florida. And I won't get too deep into the specifics of it. This is one that the body cam footage is
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incredible. There's a lot of moments too where if you're watching it with other people where you are very much inspired
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to hit pause and kind of add your opinion to what you just witnessed. It's one that I watched with a couple of
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people and it took us a while to get through it because we found ourselves pausing to kind of discuss things that
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we were viewing as we went along. So, it was really a fun experience. And then to
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add to the credibility of this documentary, the when it premiered, this was at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival
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back in January of 2025. It won the directing award at the Sundance Film Festival. It was a limited theatrical
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release in October and then globally released on streaming on Netflix on October 17th. It was one that I think I
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watched it probably late October was at dinner with friends that weekend and brought it up and they
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had everything I just said, the reasons why I liked it. They shared those same opinions. So, this was it all is sort of
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based around not just this body cam footage, this neighborhood and sort of these squables going on in the
00:13:03
neighborhood, but it also has a lot to do with Florida's stand your ground laws as well. So, my number three pick here,
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Captain, is The Perfect Neighbor. And that one is still available to watch on Netflix. Yeah, like I said, that's
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definitely has been on my list to watch, but as you know, my friend, some [laughter]
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some weeks we get done with the show and we got to get on to that next case and after however many hours you put in that
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day, sometimes you don't want to turn on a true crime documentary. I think Joe Rogan's podcast says, uh, all day, all
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night. Well, sometimes I'm just true crime all day and not all night. And sometimes I'm just true crime all night.
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But my number three, I think maybe you'll agree with me. I and this is just my guess and maybe it's just cuz of the
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my friends and the people I know online and but it seems like every year there's
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the big true crime doc that everybody watched. So, my number three is Amy Bradley is Missing. It was a Netflix
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documentary, I think, because we have a little bit of behind the scenes of how these documentaries were made. I think
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it was shot really well. It was entertaining. I think they told a compelling story. I think it's a
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three-part series, but it kind of reminds me of the style of Unsolved Mysteries. So, I feel like if you like
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Unsolved Mysteries, you'll like this documentary. It's obviously about Amy Bradley going missing in 1998
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on a Caribbean cruise ship. She was 23 years old at the time. But I thought it was very enjoyable, very entertaining.
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And I also kind of like the fact that if you dive into a case afterwards, you you
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will see that they don't put everything into a documentary. They leave out some possible story lines or maybe even
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possible theories of what happened. But this one was kind of surprising. Even though I really liked it, I feel like
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they left out a lot. >> Yeah, I agree. I think they left out a lot, too. But I think that was
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pleasantly strategic. I'll label it that because I feel like while it's a story that you could tell in a
00:15:31
6 to9 hour form, right? >> I think I would have checked out two hours into that 6 to9 hour form. So, I
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think they, you know, while they had to pick and choose some of that, I'm on board with it. And and then your
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observation there of unsolved mysteries I think is spoton. It's for me I thought
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it was very much like taking the unsolved mystery style with the longer format of a dine
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>> or 2020 48 hours episode. >> Yes. >> And then mashing that together. So, I mean, that is one way of saying that we
00:16:14
hold that documentary, the Amy Bradley documentary in high regard to put it in the names with Unsolved Mysteries and
00:16:22
and all of those other fine outfits. Yes, I I thought that was a good one. And the my favorite part of that
00:16:28
documentary coming out this year was the conversations that it inspired. I went to multiple places just out on my daily
00:16:38
routine or winding down in the evening and when I would pop into a place I would walk by people and hear them
00:16:45
talking about the Amy Bradley case. So it inspired a lot of conversations >> and that was really interesting and it
00:16:53
inspired our conversation with James Rener him he was kind enough with his time to come on our show to talk about
00:17:00
the Amy Bradley case. >> Yeah. And I believe he he is working on a book. Maybe it'll be out in 2026. But
00:17:07
surprising again, we both like this documentary. It's my number three, but Rotten Tomatoes only gives it a 67%.
00:17:18
My number two is again from the fine folks over at Netflix. It is a traditional true crime documentary. This
00:17:26
one too. I This one I was really surprised by. And this one got me in my heart and in my soul. It's called My
00:17:35
Father, the BTK Killer. And it centers around Dennis Rider, the BTK Killer, his daughter Carrie Rosson. I flipped this
00:17:44
one on late one night thinking I would fall asleep or just shut it off because I' I feel like I've seen everything
00:17:51
under the sun, read everything under the sun about BTK to the point where Dennis
00:17:56
Rder annoys me for a million reasons, but this documentary really made me feel something for Carrie.
00:18:05
>> Yeah, >> I liked that. I I And this is weird, man. It felt like therapeutic for me to
00:18:11
feel something for her. And it's not that I've had any ill will against Carrie. It was just like I wanted to
00:18:20
kind of grab her and go, "Oh my god, what you've been through." >> Yeah. >> And then to have such strong criticism
00:18:27
thrown her way. And look, I'm not going to shy away from it. Folks that have been listening to our show for 10 years
00:18:34
know that way back in the first year we were doing this, I did make a comment about Carrie Broson. She had commented
00:18:43
regarding Stephen King, his short story, A Good Marriage, >> right, >> which is a is a brilliant piece of
00:18:52
literature. But he had said in an interview the BTK, Dennis Raider, his that story inspired the good marriage
00:19:02
story. Carrie went on the attack with that and said, "Look, doesn't you know, hasn't he sold enough books? What does
00:19:10
he need to exploit our family to sell more books to make more money? Hasn't he made enough money?"
00:19:17
And I can tell from her statements in this documentary, she regrets that statement. My my only critique of her
00:19:25
was that statement. And maybe it was just me being a fanboy and enjoying Stephen King's book too much,
00:19:32
>> right? >> But I I thought that, you know, I I'm a believer that most works of fiction
00:19:40
are often inspired from real life situations, real life stories. This was no different. The thing with Carrie
00:19:48
though that I that I loved about her was I look, it's not easy for folks to do this. I like to think that I have the
00:19:57
ability to do so, but when you're wrong, say you're wrong. And even if it takes you a long time to get there,
00:20:04
don't be afraid to tell people, look, I was wrong about this. And that's what she says. She says, look, 10 years ago,
00:20:11
I was very angry. I was very confused. Of course she was angry and of course she was confused. She was blindsided by
00:20:18
her father. She woke up one day. The guy that she thought was just a normal dad.
00:20:23
>> Boring dad. Yeah. >> They had raised her, had taken her fishing, had hung out with her, had been
00:20:29
the the disciplinarian, had been the strict parent of the two. And then she wakes up one day and he's the most
00:20:38
notorious serial killer of her region, >> right? that flew under the radar for decades. I couldn't imagine the shock.
00:20:47
And what I could tell from watching her in this documentary is she's still very much in shock. She's still very much
00:20:56
confused about the situation. And I point that out because it's not a flaw. It would be weird if she wasn't confused
00:21:03
about the situation. >> Yeah. She's still trying to grapple with the idea of this was just a normal dad for, you
00:21:11
know, 20, 30 years and then he's a light switch flips and he's a monster. Like, how do I reconcile that? How do I what
00:21:20
what do I do here? Because I spent the first part of my life loving and respecting this man and now I don't know
00:21:28
who he is and I have nothing but hatred for him. And then and then that's all blurred. by confusion and emotion.
00:21:39
It's she has been down an incredibly difficult and rocky road and I don't think that the general public at large
00:21:49
has been sympathetic enough to her. >> No. And I think as true crime enthusiasts, right, people that are
00:21:57
interested in this genre, when you see a killer like BTK, you we we have all these questions and and we're fascinated
00:22:05
by even the littlest details. Well, what kind of car did he drive? What kind of house did he live in? Was he married?
00:22:13
Well, what was she like? Oh, he had kids. I wonder how they're going to turn out. And then sometimes I think we
00:22:21
forget that. So you got the serial killer. He has all his victims and all those victims have families and friends.
00:22:30
And so they become victims. But also the people that knew that person as something other than a serial killer
00:22:37
like a daughter or a wife, they be they become victims as well. And I think sometimes we don't show them as much
00:22:46
grace as we show the other victims. >> And the part that I liked about it was it did include enough of the BTK case,
00:22:56
right, to inform you enough about the case and what BTK did and the capture of Dennis Raider. It it gives you just the
00:23:06
right amount of that because I I think there's no way to tell Carrie's story without telling the bigger story of BTK,
00:23:14
>> right? >> And so I thought it had just the right amount of that in there. And I will
00:23:23
>> I I feel like it was just one long documentary. I'd have to look it up. It's been some time since I've seen it.
00:23:31
But I I will go out of my way to say this because I've seen people in the comments regarding Carrie Rosson. Some
00:23:40
folks are quick to point out that, hey, you got on to podcasters. You got on you
00:23:48
you were critical of people who wrote books. you're critical of Stephen King saying that it was just a money grab or
00:23:57
or how who are you to tell our our story? Look, she's explained that. She said, "I was angry. I was very angry. I
00:24:06
I I was lashing out when, you know, when we were kids, a great song by the band 311 misdirected hostility
00:24:14
very much." Carrie Carrie was misdirecting her hostility. She was mad. Who was she mad at? She was mad and
00:24:22
angry with her father, mad and angry at her situation. And yeah, she probably took it out on some podcasters and some
00:24:29
authors and things like that. But today where the folks in the comments come after her and say, "Look, you you came
00:24:38
after these people and criticize them and then you went on to release a book. You went on to do a documentary. Isn't
00:24:43
that the pot calling the kettle black? Isn't that hypocritical? You, my friend, are now doing the misdirected hostility.
00:24:50
There's nothing wrong with her writing a book. There's nothing wrong with her doing a documentary. And I'm glad that
00:24:54
she has done both. And I'm glad and I'm relieved. And I think it's actually a wonderful thing that she can stand in
00:25:04
front of us and say, "Look, I was angry. I was I was wrong. I said some things that I regret."
00:25:08
>> Well, I think she needs to grow up a little bit. >> I give her a lot of kudos for that. And
00:25:12
and I'm hoping I'm hoping that I I get the opportunity to meet her at a future Crime Con or at some future event
00:25:19
because I I would just like to Well, no, I would just like to tell her that >> she slaps you in the face.
00:25:25
>> What she's done is takes a level of bravery that I don't think many people out there have.
00:25:32
>> No. and and she spoke up for Rex Herman's family because like again this ogre is arrested and we become
00:25:42
fascinated with his life and every detail and then we nitpick that family and how they act in the BTK case at
00:25:51
least he confessed to the crimes and so she gets more of the answers and then in
00:25:58
these other cases the these victims the family of the killers. If they're being lied to by
00:26:06
that killer, they're continued to be victimized by that killer. Maybe she doesn't have all the answers or know the
00:26:14
full truth, but at least she has a a better picture and then she can because again there's going to be a lot of
00:26:21
trauma when you think your world is one way and you wake up and I mean I couldn't imagine, you know, I mean I've
00:26:29
heard like stories that should be somewhat joyful where like somebody years down the line finds out that they
00:26:36
have a a kid that was looking for them and they never knew that they existed. nobody ever told him. But even those
00:26:43
situations, eventually the outcome turns out to be like, well, it's great. I have
00:26:47
this daughter I didn't know about and now I have this new amazing person in my life. But there's a time period where
00:26:53
the whole family is uh wrestling with this new reality. It's it's almost a reality shift in a way, but that there
00:27:03
can be positive reality shifts and but waking up to find out that your father is a sick, sadistic serial killer
00:27:14
and that he did these horrible things. And it and it's not like that information about his crimes
00:27:24
weren't hard to find and find details about. I should say too here, Captain, that I was surprised.
00:27:32
There was some information in there that was new to me in this documentary. So, where I think I had seen and read and
00:27:42
heard it all with BTK, there's still was more information via this documentary. And once again,
00:27:51
that was My Father, the BTK Killer, available on Netflix. and we'll get back to our list right after this quick beer
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life. Mhm. You filthy animals. All right, so my number two, and this is one that like
00:33:56
I I actually turned on cuz I I mean I heard people were watching this, but I I thought it was just going to be more of
00:34:05
a a silly documentary. It's called Unknown Number: The High School Catfish. You have a teen girl and you have a you have
00:34:15
her boyfriend. I think it's her first boyfriend. where they start getting these harassing text messages from an
00:34:22
unknown caller. Probably the first like I don't know maybe 10 15 minutes you're just like oh this is going to be some
00:34:30
kind of silly ending and it wasn't. It was it it felt really dark. It felt very sad. I know I said that there will be
00:34:41
spoilers but if you've seen this I believe I watched this on Netflix. So, if you've seen this on your Netflix dial
00:34:49
and you have passed on it, I would give it a watch. I thought that was pretty good. Like with Amy Bradley is Missing
00:34:57
documentary that was a three-part series because of the true crime genre blowing
00:35:02
up so big in the last 10 years. These producers took a lot of stories that could have been summed up in an hour and
00:35:10
a half and turned them into six-part series, eight-part series when maybe they shouldn't have been. This is a 1
00:35:18
hour and 34 minute documentary, so you can get through it in one sitting. And it's kind of like what you're saying
00:35:28
about The Perfect Neighbor. This is one as it's going, you stop and you talk to who whoever you're watching it with or
00:35:38
you just talk to yourself about it. But I thought it, you know, it was well worth the watch. Rotten Tomatoes gives
00:35:46
it a 85%. >> Yeah, this is one that I've seen in the queue and have considered watching. It
00:35:54
looks good and uh yeah, I just haven't got to it yet. When I started it, maybe 10 minutes in, 15 minutes in, you're
00:36:02
like, "Okay, this is a little silly and I don't even know if I want to keep watching." Just keep watching. It's It's
00:36:08
worth it. >> My number one here, Captain, this one just came out, so maybe it's a little
00:36:14
recency bias. >> Okay. >> Um, but I thought it was really good. And the part of it was the opening.
00:36:25
Okay. This was the exact opposite of the last two, right? Where I said, I thought
00:36:31
maybe I'd sit down, might lose interest. I sat down with the intention of watching The Perfect Neighbor. The My
00:36:42
Father, the BTK Killer, was just I had some extra time later that night, wasn't tired yet, decided to put something on.
00:36:50
This one I set aside some time to devote to it because watching the trailer, which is the majority of the trailer is
00:36:59
is really the opening to this documentary and it gets its hooks in you right away
00:37:06
where it's just like, "All right, I'm going to sit down. I'm watching this. I don't care if it's terrible. I'm going
00:37:11
to ride the storm out. I'm going to see it through till the end." And I think the title of it
00:37:20
is highly suggestive of that mission to watch the entire documentary. So this was a standalone documentary originally
00:37:31
I believe on Investigation Discovery the ID channel which then once at some point
00:37:40
becomes absorbed I believe by HBO Max. I watched it on HBO Max. How it got there,
00:37:46
that's a mystery for another day. Anyway, this documentary is >> Welcome to Unsolved Mysteries.
00:37:53
>> That's right. We'll we'll have to have a a sit down with the the board members of
00:37:58
those outfits. Uh this documentary is titled The Secrets We Bury, and this is about the Carol siblings quest for
00:38:08
answers about their missing father. So these kids, they grow up. The opening of the documentary and really the a large
00:38:20
part of the documentary focuses in on the youngest of the Carol siblings. And he's saying, "Look, it's that old story
00:38:29
of my father went out for a pack of cigarettes one day and he never came home." >> Yeah.
00:38:35
>> He left us. Mom said he was a bad guy. You can hear it in this guy's voice. He's saying, "Look, he didn't love us."
00:38:42
Or if he did, he loved something a lot more. He He loved that thing that he he left us for more than he loved us. And
00:38:49
other than that, I don't know why he left. The youngest one is saying, I think he's 60 or in his early 60s when
00:38:57
they're filming the documentary. He was born in that house and he's still living
00:39:02
there when they're filming the documentary. I don't know if he ever I mean, he would have moved out at some
00:39:08
point to go off to college. He may have had his own home at some point, but I think later in life he was
00:39:16
taking care of his mother and maybe that's how he ended up back there. I I I don't remember that detail of it. But it
00:39:22
was very interesting that this man was living in the home that he was born into that he grew up in and he's saying,
00:39:30
"Look, this backyard, this is where we played whiffle ball. This is where we had these memories." And the cool part
00:39:34
of it is they are they intertwine old family footage with current day filming from ID or HBO. And
00:39:46
so you can kind of you you get to see how that house and the yard and the property looked way back when
00:39:55
and how it looks and compare it how it looks today. He never knew his father. He he doesn't have any memories of his
00:40:02
father. And then you have two older siblings who have memories of their father. The the middle child, he is
00:40:10
saying, "Look, the older I get, the fuzzier it gets, the less memories and the more blurry the memories I have of
00:40:18
my dad have become over the years." And so the three, they have this mystery of what happened to their father. It gets
00:40:28
complicated very quickly into the documentary when you start hearing this story and how their mother remarried.
00:40:39
They didn't like the stepdad too much. The stepdad has a kid with their mom who they still are, you know, their siblings
00:40:47
with still to this day. It gets very difficult for me to give too many details here on this story without
00:40:55
giving anything away. But the secrets we bury is a very appropriate and really the perfect title for this documentary.
00:41:07
Again, it's a single standalone documentary. I think just under two hours, but it's really a story about
00:41:15
uncovering not just the questions and the mysteries of their vanished father, >> right? Revealing a darker family history
00:41:24
than they had suspected and really deep-seated secrets within this family and the family's
00:41:33
history and especially about the father's disappearance. It's so brilliantly done. You know, I I know we
00:41:40
referenced earlier that the the Perfect Neighbor received the directing award at the
00:41:48
Sundance Festival. The thing that I thought was so brilliant about this documentary
00:41:55
was this is such a complicated story to tell. You have to be a freaking genius to be able to lay this out in in such
00:42:03
the masterful way that they did. So, I want to give a shout out to Patricia Gillespie.
00:42:10
She's also done a documentary called They Called Himly Harmless. Some folks listening will know that one. Patricia
00:42:18
Gillespie, you did a masterful job on this one. In my opinion, this one I would sit down and and watch again.
00:42:28
It's complex. It's shocking. It really, I think, challenges the viewer by the end. it it sticks with you and it and it
00:42:38
has you still while it answers a lot of questions, it has you coming up with your own questions once you're able to
00:42:46
absorb and take in all the information. >> And you said that one was on HBO, >> correct?
00:42:52
>> So, that kind of is a nice segue into my number one. the the king the original
00:42:59
king of true crime docs I would say hands down was HBO but this one comes to us by the way of Peacock and if you
00:43:08
would have told me two or three years ago that Peacock was going to do some great true crime documentaries I I don't
00:43:15
know if I would have believed you but this one I thought was great and we were talking before we did the list well it
00:43:23
could be a true crime documentary entry or it could be like a biopic. And as I'm
00:43:29
looking this up to talk about it, they call it a docu drama. Devil in disguise, John Wayne Gazy, based on a true story.
00:43:39
I believe this came out in October. It's a eightpart series, so it is long. I believe it's 7 hours and 34 minutes, but
00:43:49
this one was this I can't say it enough. I thought it was great. It might just be
00:43:56
okay. But this is what I started watching after Monster the Edge Gene >> series. And that took so we're not going
00:44:08
to make a a top three list of what not to watch, but you might watch Ed Gene and like it at the end of each episode.
00:44:16
I wasn't excited to move on to the next one. It felt like uh you know when you you have um documentary like Amy Bradley
00:44:27
is missing. You watch the first episode, you don't want to go to bed. You just want to hit play and watch the next
00:44:34
episode. But with the Edge Gene monster series, it was just like um this is going to take me forever to get through.
00:44:42
It took me weeks to get through. >> It felt like a chore. Like a chore. And and look, I think and it's not just
00:44:51
true crime podcasters or I just think when true crime is it's a percentage of you, right? For some people it's just
00:44:59
10% of who they are. For some people it's 50% of what they are. But sadly after like I want to say maybe the
00:45:07
second episode of the Edge Gene monster series, I was just like I don't know if I want to continue to watch this. I
00:45:14
didn't find it that fascinating. And then I knew that half the stuff that they were presenting didn't happen in
00:45:20
real life. So, but I think I I had this weight on me that was like, but hey, Captain, you're you're the captain of
00:45:31
true crime. You you have to watch this. So, like you said, that kind of felt like a chore. So then when I started
00:45:39
Devil in Disguise, which the trailers were amazing, but I was just like, well, we'll see how this goes. One of the
00:45:46
things I really liked about it is the other the other biopics about John Wayne Gasey, they normally focus more on the
00:45:57
criminal side of him. the way they present this, you kind of see the multiple characters that he played in
00:46:06
his own life. Um, what did he call it? Cuz BTK calls it what? Cubism. >> Yeah, BTK, Dennis Rder, he referred to
00:46:15
factor X. And so cubism would be what front does he choose to show you or choose to be in that moment, right?
00:46:25
Where Dennis Rider is one side of that cube. Factor X is another side of that cube. But it was Factor X that was
00:46:32
within him. And according to Dennis driving him to to kill and to do the the the evil bad stuff in his life. It
00:46:41
wasn't him. It was Factor X. >> In this series, the character, the guy playing John Wayne Gay, he talks about
00:46:49
that, how there's multiple sides of him. You kind of see how he could be a successful person. You can also see how
00:46:58
he could probably manipulate people and and then I actually think you learn a lot about it because it is it is a long
00:47:06
series. And so when you find out that there were so many victims and so many people trying to get the cops to look
00:47:16
into this guy and I think again it would be difficult to look into somebody and on the outside you just don't see the
00:47:25
monster that they're hiding. So anyways, Devil in Disguise, John Wayne Gasey. It
00:47:30
was on Peacock. It's eight episodes, seven [laughter] hours in >> but it looks great. it. I mean, it looks
00:47:37
very well polished, well put together, and really packaged up nice. Like the the cinematography on it looks
00:47:46
incredible. Well, I also like things and maybe this is a little bit of nostalgia,
00:47:51
but you know, if you grew up in the 80s, a lot of the decor that you were around
00:47:59
was from the '7s and maybe from the '60s because a lot of people that were buying
00:48:06
homes in the '60s, you know, come from the Great Depression. So, they didn't throw much away. So, you know, we live
00:48:13
in this consumer world now where it's like you have to replace your couch every 2 years. I remember going to my
00:48:20
friends houses and it' be like, "Well, man, this couch looks old." Well, we got it from my grandparents, you know, and
00:48:26
and then that was just the couch that you always had. So, I think there's uh a little bit of visually a nostalgia there
00:48:36
for this and and it's also really good acting. And it kind of reminds me like if somebody said to me, "Oh, this this
00:48:44
was made by the guys that made Mine Hunter," which it wasn't, but if it was, I'd go, "Yeah, that that checks out."
00:48:51
Cuz it it feels similar. All right. So, your top three are >> My top three are in order, counting them
00:49:01
down from three to one, The Perfect Neighbor on Netflix, My Father, the BTK Killer, also on Netflix, and
00:49:10
my favorite one of 2025, The Secrets We Bury, available on HBO. And my number three is Amy Bradley is Missing. That's
00:49:20
on Netflix. Unknown number, The High School Catfish. That's also on Netflix. And then my number one is Devil in
00:49:30
Disguise, John [music] Wayne Gazy. And that is on Peacock. [music] Want to thank you guys so much for
00:49:45
joining us here in the garage each and every week and each and every year. 10 years of true crime garage. Thanks for
00:49:52
telling your mother. Thanks for telling your brother. Colonel, do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful
00:49:59
listeners? >> We have some recommended listening and I'm excited about this one. Look, it's
00:50:05
not lost on us that we just did an entire episode of recommended viewing. We know because you guys are hardcore
00:50:12
into it. You've probably watched a lot of the same great >> documentaries and true crime materials
00:50:20
that we enjoyed in 2025. This is new for 2026. And this is rare that I do this where I recommend something that I have
00:50:30
yet to have enjoyed because as of this taping, this is not out yet. But by the time it hits your earballs, it will be
00:50:40
out for your listening pleasure. And the reason why I know I can recommend this one is because it comes from one of our
00:50:46
good friends, Mike Morford. He is from Abjack Entertainment. They have great shows. We've collaborated with them over
00:50:55
the years. We work with Jessica Bettincourt who does DNA, done crossovers with their missing persons
00:51:02
podcast. We've had Mike on our show for our Zodiac episodes because he's a Zodiac expert and I've been lucky enough
00:51:12
to be a guest on Beyond Bizarre True Crime. So, their new show from Abject Entertainment is called Below the
00:51:20
Surface. You are about to hear a preview for their brand new podcast, Below the Surface. It's hosted by Olivia McKenzie.
00:51:29
And in every episode, you'll hear about a different fascinating, bizarre case. Some are solved, some are unsolved, but
00:51:37
there's always one common theme. There's a water connection. The first two episodes are out now, and you can find
00:51:46
below the surface everywhere you listen to podcasts. A missing person, [music] a strange
00:51:54
death, a vanished vehicle, a series of unanswerable questions. [music] In so many true crime mysteries, the answers
00:52:01
remain elusive. But in many instances, the clues lead right to the water's edge. [music]
00:52:07
And sometimes the truth lies below the surface. Hi listeners, my name is Olivia and I'm the host of the true crime
00:52:14
podcast, Below the Surface from Abjack Entertainment. the podcast that features bizarre cases with a common [music]
00:52:20
theme, water. You can listen to Below the Surface on every major podcast platform or app. Be sure to subscribe
00:52:27
today so that you don't miss an episode. Hey, we gave you a whole show for your eyeballs and we gave you a little bit of
00:52:36
recommended listening for your ear balls. It's going to be great 2026. We have a lot of exciting things in store.
00:52:43
Until the next episode, >> be good. Be kind. And don't litter. [music] [music] [music]
00:53:15
>> [music] >> Hey everybody, it's Rob Low here. If you haven't heard, I have a podcast that's
00:53:32
called Literally with Roblo. And basically, it's conversations I've had that really make you feel like you're
00:53:39
pulling up a chair at an intimate dinner between myself and people that I admire
00:53:45
like Aaron Sorcin or Tiffany Hattish, De Moore, Chris Pratt, Michael J. Fox. There are new episodes out every
00:53:54
Thursday. So, subscribe please and listen wherever you get your podcasts.