In the town of Ada, Oklahoma, the hometown of Sirens host Raven Rollins, Ron Williamson was going to be the next Mickey Mantle. But on his way to the Big Leagues, Ron stumbled, his dreams broken by drinking, drugs, and women. Then, on a winter night in 1982, not far from Ron’s home, a young cocktail waitress named Debra Sue Carter was savagely murdered. The investigation led nowhere.

Until, on the flimsiest evidence, it led to Ron Williamson. The washed-up small-town hero was charged, tried, and sentenced to death—in a trial littered with lying witnesses and tainted evidence that would shatter a man’s already broken life, and let a true killer go free.

Talked about in our episodes on Debbie Carter and Denice Haraway in a miniseries entitled "Stolen Innocence." Also talked about in my book, Allegedly.
 

Originally an HLN special, this 4 part documentary follows author Jax Miller as she dives into the Oklahoma case of Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible, two girls who went missing at the end of 1999 after Ashley's family trailer home was set on fire and her parents murdered within.

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The Freeman/Bible case was the subject of our 6 part mini series entitled "Hell in the Heartland: Where are Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible?" I speak with the book's author, Jax Miller, along with Lauria's mother, Lorene, and cousin, Lisa. Catch it now.

Unlike that Hulu Doc, this one actually provides new information regarding the case. Authors Faith Phillips and J.D. Morrison worked alongside Paul Smith to get his version of what happened all those years ago and begin to look into the suspects he thought could have been responsible.

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Catch our interview with JD and hear our take on the GSM in our episode catalog.

Waco: American Apocalypse is an American documentary television miniseries about the Waco siege in 1993 between the US federal government and the Branch Davidians, led by David Koresh. It was released on Netflix on March 22, 2023, coinciding with the 30-year anniversary of the siege.

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We talk about Waco: Truth and Lies as well as we explore the Brand Davidians, Koresh himself, Timothy McVeigh, and what lead to the Oklahoma City Bombing which happened on April 19th, 1995 - exactly 2 years after the final day of Waco - in our mini series entitled "Up In Smoke."

Candy Montgomery and Betty Gore had a lot in common: They sang together in the Methodist church choir, their daughters were best friends, and their husbands had good jobs working for technology companies in the north Dallas suburbs known as Silicon Prairie. But beneath the placid surface of their seemingly perfect lives, both women simmered with unspoken frustrations and unanswered desires.

On a hot summer day in 1980, the secret passions and jealousies that linked Candy and Betty exploded into murderous rage. What happened next is usually the stuff of fiction. But the bizarre and terrible act of violence that occurred in Betty’s utility room that morning was all too real.

Adapted into the Emmy and Golden Globe Award–winning television movie A Killing in a Small Town—as well as the new limited series Candy on Hulu and Love and Death on HBO Max—this chilling tale of sin and savagery will “fascinate true crime aficionados” (Kirkus Reviews).

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Talked about on Raven's Reviews: Candy

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills

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The film documents the events following the arrests of Misskelley, Echols and Baldwin for the murders of Christopher Byers, Michael Moore and Stevie Branch, whose naked and hogtied bodies were discovered in a ditch in a wooded area of West Memphis, Arkansas, known as "Robin Hood Hills".

Filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky interviewed numerous people connected with the case, including the parents of the victims, the parents of the accused, members of the West Memphis Police Department (WMPD) and all the defendants involved in the trial.

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Much of the community, including the detectives and the victims' parents, believe the murders were committed by the teenagers as part of a Satanic ritual. The community is shown to be politically conservative and strongly Evangelical Christian.

We will be discussing the case in Season 4 with Bob Motta from The Defense Diaries Podcast.

Henry Lee Lucas rose to infamy when he confessed to hundreds of unsolved murders. This docuseries examines the truth -- and horrifying consequences. Chronicles the life and death -and possible crimes - of Henry Lee Lucas.

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We talk about this show in depth in our 2 part episode - Raven's Reviews: The Confession Killer - available for Spotify/Anchor subscribers.

Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel is a 2021 American docu-series directed by Joe Berlinger that chronicles the death of Elisa Lam at the Cecil Hotel. It features Viveca Chow, Judy Ho and Artemis Snow and premiered on February 10, 2021 on Netflix.

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We talk about this show in depth on our episode of Raven's Reviews: Cecil Hotel

For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area.

Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called "the Golden State Killer." Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.

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Adapted as a series for HBO - utterly original and compelling, it has been hailed as a modern true crime classic—one which fulfilled Michelle's dream: helping unmask the Golden State Killer.