Crime Writers On...

Willy Nast was a passing acquaintance of Jeff Signorelli, an Aurora, IL teen who was killed in 2002 when a bullet went through a wall at a party. As a college student, Nast interviewed Signorelli’s parents for an essay on the crime and the community it happened in. With plans for a sprawling book, Nast continued to interview Al and Mary Ann Signorelli over the years, documenting the ways they turned their grief into action. It included stints in local politics and nonprofits, but time and again city leaders dismissed them as inconvenient gadflies. While Jeff’s murder remains unsolved, his parents have found themselves battling both their grief and a system resistant to their efforts for change.

The independent podcast “City of Lights” looks beyond Jeff’s murder, becoming a profile of the parents affected by the crime, as well as the community institutions it did not. After decades of work on the project, Nast shares his soul searching about his place in the hometown story and why the case continues to animate his work.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "CITY OF LIGHTS" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 10 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

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This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.

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A small Ohio city was stunned after a teen crashed her car into the side of a building, killing her boyfriend and a back seat passenger. Mackenzie Shirilla said she couldn’t remember what happened before she slammed head-on into a brick wall at 100 MPH, but said the fatal collision was an accident. Classmates described Shirilla as a spoiled mean girl whose socials were filled with videos of her expensive taste in clothes, the latest TikTok trends, and clip after clip of her smoking marijuana. Investigators learned her relationship with Dominic Russo was volatile, and details of the crash weren’t adding up. They believed the image-obsessed teen didn’t black out behind the wheel…they thought she drove into the brick wall on purpose.

The Netflix documentary “The Crash” recounts the 2022 case, examining evidence which suggests the high-speed collision was a purposeful act. Featuring interviews with the parents of all three occupants and with Shirilla herself, the film invites the audience to draw their own conclusions on whether the crash was intentional and why. The film looks at how Shirilla’s online persona influenced the narrative around her, raising the question of whether investigators misinterpreted Gen Z culture with motivation for murder.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "THE CRASH" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 13 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

In Crime of the Week: shave off the hair of...two bits!

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This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.

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Clayton Echard was trying to bounce back from his disastrous appearance on “The Bachelor" when he hooked up with a potential real estate investor. Though he claimed they only had oral sex, Laura Owens said she was pregnant with his twins. What came next from her was an unrelenting mix of romantic overtures and legal threats. Clayton became suspicious of Laura’s evasive actions to prove her pregnancy was real. When the reality TV scandal hit the news, Internet sleuths began to pick apart her story. And information emerged that the former Bachelor was not the first man Laura had accused.

From Glass Podcasts and iHeart Podcasts comes “Love Trapped.” Host Stephani Young goes deep into all the twists and turns in the sensational case involving a reality TV celebrity, an unreliable accuser, and the online community obsessed with the story. The series explores whether Laura’s unwavering insistence in her dubious claims are a long con or the product of a disturbed mind.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "LOVE TRAPPED" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 13 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

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This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.

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Marcellus may be just an octopus, but he’s very observant of what’s happening around him in the aquarium. Tova the cleaning lady is considering selling her home. And when she sprains her ankle, cash-strapped Cameron takes a temp job helping clean. Marcellus can sense the deep sadness in each of them. Tova has questions about her son’s mysterious death at sea and Cameron has come to town to confront the rich father he never knew. But from inside his tank, Marcellus has the answers both are searching for.

“Remarkably Bright Creatures” stars Sally Field, Lewis Pullman, and Alfred Molina. The Netflix film keeps some of the mystery and all of the emotion from the best-selling novel about an octopus who can see things in the people around him that they can’t see for themselves. What unfolds is a gentle story about loss, second chances, and the strange ways we find our way home.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 13 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

In Crime of the Week: pud pulling.

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This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.

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In the 1960s, United Mine Workers advocate Jock Yablonski bucked his own union for giving into coal companies on critical issues — including cases of black lung disease and mine safety. And when evidence revealed union president Tony Boyle had been making secret deals with the companies to enrich himself at the expense of workers, Yablonski mounted a campaign to unseat the labor boss. But a challenge to Boyle’s iron grip on the UMW was a dangerous proposition. After Jablonski was mysteriously gunned down in his bed, a group of young upstarts discover the only way to get justice and achieve reform is to bring down the untouchable union boss.

In the latest season of the podcast “Shadow Kingdom” from Crooked Media and Campside Media, “Coal Survivor” recounts the deadly struggle for power within the United Coal Miners union. Host Nicolo Majnoni unpacks the plan to silence a reform candidate and the struggle to reorganize organized labor to improve conditions for union members — and not for the comforts of their leaders. 

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "COAL SURVIVOR" BEGIN IN THE FINAL 10 MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

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Sign up for our newsletter at crimewriterson.com.
This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.