Casting True Crime

5 Louisiana Podcasts

Tune in this spooky season

By Jordan LaHaye Fontenot

The human lure toward the macabre is nothing new.

But over the last decade of the twenty-first century, it’s found a modern and prolific home in the podcast. If you aren’t a true crime podcast buff, you likely know one. Here, we’ve tracked down five Louisiana-focused and/or -made podcasts utilizing the mysterious intrigue of oral storytelling to explore some of the worst things that have happened here, and often to find answers to the questions behind the blood trail.

Missing Magnolias

Hosted by two redheads, the Missing Magnolias podcast was founded the way so many great podcasts are these days: on shared obsessions. In weekly episodes, Lafayette-based writer Scarlett Davis and University of Louisiana Lafayette Professor and criminologist Dr. Michelle Jeanis dig into local crime stories ranging from interviews with investigative journalists Tom Aswell and Jason Berry, to recaps of historic Louisiana crimes such as the 1891 Italian Massacre, to awareness campaigns for unsolved cases. Davis and Jeanis—through their dynamic, conversational format—aim to center their own true crime obsession, and their listeners’, with the too-often untold stories of victims. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, and at missingmagnolias.com.

Gone South

A C13 Originals documentary podcast, hosted by Emmy- and Peabody-Award nominated writer and producer, and former Times Picayune investigative journalist Jed Lipinski—in eight episodes, Gone South’s first season takes on the mysterious case of Margaret Coon, a sex crimes prosecutor murdered in St. Tammany Parish in 1987. With an investigator’s fervor, a journalist’s professionalism, and a storyteller’s instinct—Lipinski digs out long-forgotten leads, long-ago-whispered conspiracies, and once-dismissed suspects in a story that continues to perplex investigators with its twists and turns and unanswered questions. Listen on Audacy, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and at shows.cadence13.com/podcast/gone-south.

Bayou Chronicles

Hosted by Louisiana-native Krystle Smith and Florida-native Bethany Brooks, Bayou Chronicles is for the podcast listener who wants to feel as though they’re in someone’s living room—sipping wine or coffee and solving the world’s problems long into the night. Casual and unfiltered, Smith and Brooks’ dynamic is of best friends catching up after work—except that all of their conversations inevitably turn to the paranormal, the mysterious, or the violent. Covering everything from Southern folklore to missing person’s cases to conspiracy theories—Bayou Chronicles unfolds as entertaining, and often educational, musings well worth the listen. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube, and Twitch.

Real Life Real Crime

With a thick Southern accent and a sense of storytelling that reveals his Louisiana roots, former detective and polygraphist Woody Overton offers a content warning as an intro to each episode of his podcast Real Life Real Crime: “Heed my warning people, I do not get the facts for this podcast off of the internet or from some television show. The facts I’m telling you were presented to me by the victims of the crimes or the perpetrators of the crimes against the victims. My descriptions of the crime scenes, what I saw with my own two eyes. If you gonna get offended, please turn this podcast off now. Thank you.” Published weekly, Overton’s award-winning podcast reveals upclose-and-personal accounts of local Louisiana crime—and occasionally even results in a solved case and convictions, with help from Overton’s loyal followers. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or on the App store. Learn more and become a paying listener at realliferealcrime.com.

The Crimes-Picayune

Produced by host Peyton Britt, The Crimes-Picayune tells straightforward tales of more recent Louisiana crimes—particularly those that remain unsolved or involve missing persons. In measured, meticulous detail, Britt’s research extends to the cracks within so many of these cases—asking questions others might not be, and encouraging her listeners to engage in the conversation of unresolved violence in our region. This extends to the Crimes-Picayune Facebook Group, where Britt continues the discussion and offers resources for listeners to support victims. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.