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Families Who Kill

Families Who Kill

Trooper Entertainment

In the era of some of the most heinous serial killers of all time, one murderous family went curiously unnoticed: The McCrarys. Led by a psychopathic patriarch and his cunning son-in-law, this Texas clan roamed the country robbing, kidnapping, and killing up to 20 people, most of them taken from donut shops. “Families Who Kill: The Donut Shop Murders” recounts the wild and deeply disturbing story of an unhinged American family and the terrible brutality they unleashed. The podcast features the taped confessions of one of the killers, given when he was serving a life term in Colorado.

All episodes of Families Who Kill are available now. You can binge the series ad-free on Wondery+ or on Amazon Music with a Prime membership or Amazon Music Unlimited subscription.

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Top 10 Families Who Kill Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Families Who Kill episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Families Who Kill for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Families Who Kill episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Families Who Kill - The Donut Shop Murders | Donuts and Death
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01/04/22 • 45 min

Lifelong petty thieves Carl Taylor and Sherman McCrary, facing heat in their hometown of Athens, Texas, gather their family and take to the highways in search of criminal opportunities in the American West. In Utah, Carl and Sherman’s small-time cons suddenly escalate when they rob and kidnap 17-year-old Sheri Martin from a Winchell’s Donut Shop, killing her in the Nevada desert. The men’s bloodthirst is awakened.

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After their murder in Portland, the police probe begins to tighten like a vise around the McCrarys. They stop the killings and move to Santa Barbara, CA, to focus on armed robberies. As Sherman’s alcoholism spirals out of control, Carl attempts to rob a large supermarket on his own but screws it up and winds up shooting a patrolman at the scene. Meanwhile, Texas police issue a nationwide “Traveling Criminals Bulletin” fingering the McCrarys as a violent clan who may have committed up to 20 murders in six states. Finally, the Benders story concludes as the murderous family is run out out of Kansas.

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An intriguing debate emerges: Were the McCrarys, in a technical or criminological sense, serial killers? Or were they spree killers, or something else? Experts debate the similarity of the McCrarys’ killings to those of John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, and Andrew Cunanan. The family heads to the Pacific Northwest, where Carl and Sherman kidnap and kill a bizarrely nonchalant young hippie named Cynthia Glass. The Bloody Benders story continues as the family kills a dozen people at their inn in Labette, Kansas.

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Families Who Kill - The Donut Shop Murders | One Terrible Night in Texas
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01/11/22 • 39 min

Carl and Sherman, now accompanied by Sherman’s son Danny, kidnap a young couple, Forrest and Jena Covey, from a Mesquite grocery and ruthlessly murder them in an old barn. In harrowing testimony from Carl, we learn how Forrest was killed first as Jena was forced to look on. Jenna Covey’s niece recounts the brutalizing effects her aunt’s murder had on her father and her family in general. Meanwhile, we learn the tale of the Bloody Benders, a 19th century clan of killers who bear similarities to the McCrarys.

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Families Who Kill - The Donut Shop Murders | A Detective Named Fanciulli
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01/04/22 • 44 min

Carl, Sherman, and the fam head to the peaceful suburban community of Lakewood, Colorado, and strike again — this time robbing, raping, and killing 20-year-old donut shop cashier Leora Looney. As police circle the McCrary family they skip town and return to their homebase of Athens, Texas. A razor-sharp young detective, Joe Fanciulli, is on their scent, but his efforts are hindered by glacially slow 1970s police forensics.

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Families Who Kill - The Donut Shop Murders | Cornered in California
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02/01/22 • 58 min

Santa Barbara cops chase Carl Taylor and his wife all the way back to Texas, where Carl and his wife are cornered and arrested. Sherman and his wife are arrested back in California. During the trial, Carl and Sherman, once close partners, turn on each other, each saying the other pulled the trigger. Carl mounts an insanity defense, claiming he was not of sound mind during the killing spree. The family’s brutal saga comes to an end.

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In the era of some of the most heinous serial killers of all time, one murderous family went curiously unnoticed: The McCrary family. Led by a psychopathic patriarch and his cunning son-in-law, this Texas clan roamed the country and his cunning son-in-law, this Texas clan roamed the country robbing, kidnapping, and killing up to 20 people, most of them people taken from donut shops. “Families Who Kill: The Donut Shop Murders” recounts the wild and deeply disturbing story of an unhinged American family and the terrible brutality they unleashed. The podcast features the taped confessions of one of the killers, given when he was serving a life term in Colorado.

All episodes of Families Who Kill are available now. You can binge the series ad-free on Wondery+ or on Amazon Music with a Prime membership or Amazon Music Unlimited subscription.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Families Who Kill - Wondery Presents Generation Why: Kalief Browder
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04/17/23 • 4 min

The Generation Why Podcast released its first episode in 2012 and pioneered the true crime genre in the podcasting world. Now, in a special, 4-part series, The Generation Why podcast unravels the story of Kalief Browder. A young boy who was falsely accused of stealing a backpack and held without bail at Rikers Island for 3 years. He endured consistent abuse by prison staff and inmates, and was held in solitary confinement for more than seven hundred consecutive days. This is a story about a young life unfairly caught in the middle of the (in)justice system.

Listen to this 4-part series on Kalief’s story by following Generation Why wherever you get your podcasts: Wondery.fm/FWK_GenWhyMini

Hey Prime Members, you can listen to Generation Why ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Families Who Kill - Listen Now: Suspect "Five Shots in the Dark"
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07/17/23 • 6 min

Suspect is an investigative series about mislaid justice and the kinds of weighty decisions that detectives, lawyers, and jurors make every day - decisions that, once made, are almost impossible to reverse.

Season 3: Five Shots in the Dark follows Leon Benson, who spent 24 years in an Indiana state prison for the 1998 murder of a young man named Kasey Schoen. His conviction hinged on the testimony of two eyewitnesses – but what if their memories turned out to be wrong? And what if the people who knew what really happened had never been allowed to speak? Suspect Season 3: Five Shots in the Dark is the story of two victims: one murdered, one sentenced to life. Follow host Matt Shaer and attorney Lara Bazelon as they investigate how the justice system failed both Leon and Kasey, and who the real killer might be. Join this unprecedented look inside the attempt to overturn a wrongful conviction and find out if justice will finally be served.

Follow Suspect wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Suspect: Five Shots in the Dark early and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

Listen to Suspect: Wondery.fm/Suspect_S3

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Families Who Kill - Wondery Presents: The Execution of Bonny Lee Bakley
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06/20/22 • 5 min

On May 4, 2001, Bonny Lee Bakley was found fatally shot in a car on a dark North Hollywood street. The prime suspect was her husband, famed actor Robert Blake. But Bonny, a longtime con artist, had plenty of enemies. She left behind a trail of men she’d scammed, and she had a volatile relationship with Christian Brando, the troubled son of movie star Marlon Brando. 

Not since the O.J. Simpson case had the eyes of the nation been so fixated on a homicide. The search for Bonny’s killer took detectives on an eleven-month odyssey across the country and through Hollywood's underbelly of hustlers, drug addicts, and would-be hitmen. It would be the most expensive murder investigation in LAPD history to date. 

This is the story of Robert and Bonny’s toxic relationship, her shocking murder, and his chaotic trial. Did actor Robert Blake kill his wife? Or was the murder someone else's vendetta?

From Wondery, and the team behind the hit series Hollywood & Crime (The Dating Game Killer, The Wonderland Murders, Death of Starlet) comes a six-part series about love, obsession and fame gone wrong. Co-hosted by Tracy Pattin and Josh Lucas.

Listen to The Execution of Bonny Lee Bakley: wondery.fm/TDSM_TEOBLB

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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FAQ

How many episodes does Families Who Kill have?

Families Who Kill currently has 19 episodes available.

What topics does Families Who Kill cover?

The podcast is about True Crime and Podcasts.

What is the most popular episode on Families Who Kill?

The episode title 'The Donut Shop Murders | Donuts and Death' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Families Who Kill?

The average episode length on Families Who Kill is 19 minutes.

How often are episodes of Families Who Kill released?

Episodes of Families Who Kill are typically released every 34 days.

When was the first episode of Families Who Kill?

The first episode of Families Who Kill was released on Dec 7, 2021.

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