Psychopedia: True Crime & Criminal Psychology

From 2022 to 2023, 19-year-old Madison Russo documented what she claimed was a relentless fight for her life, drawing in thousands of followers and raising nearly $40,000 on GoFundMe. She said she was battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia, Stage 2 pancreatic cancer, and a tumor “the size of a football” wrapped around her spine. The story was catastrophic by design, and people responded exactly as you would expect. They donated, they shared, they rooted for her, watching closely as she posted photos and updates that felt intimate and urgent.  Except none of it was real. Not the diagnoses, not the symptoms, not the scans. What looked like a medical nightmare was a performance, constructed piece by piece, persuasive enough to convince strangers around the world to invest in a fight that never existed.  And when it finally unraveled, the only thing Maddie had actually built was a very real trail of deception.

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Abbess Mariam, better known as “Mother Rasputin,”  has been described as one of the most prolific female serial killers in modern history.  She cloaked herself in the authority of a Greek Old Calendarist Orthodox abbess while running something far darker than a monastery. Between 1939 and 1950, she was found guilty of a staggering range of crimes, including multiple murders and fraud, but the charges barely capture the reality inside her compound in Keratea, Greece. Hundreds of people - mostly women - arrived there seeking refuge, faith, and safety, and instead found solitary confinement, empty plates, and discipline that escalated into ritualized cruelty. Mariam ruled with a mix of spiritual theater and calculated brutality, presenting herself as divinely guided while systematically breaking down (and killing) the very people who trusted her. Sadistic, controlling, and untethered from any moral boundary, she has been described as one of the most prolific female serial killers in modern history.

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TRIGGER WARNING: This episode contains discussions of suicide and may be distressing to hear.  Please listen with caution.

In the tragic and recent case of Sonia Exelby, a vulnerable woman in the UK went online to arrange for her own death.  Sadly, she connected with a sadistic man in the U.S. named Dwain Hall, who framed her murder as mercy while investigators uncovered evidence of manipulation, coercion, internet predation, and calculated cruelty. Sonia was struggling, emotionally and psychologically, and Dwain positioned himself as a "mentor" who truly understood her pain.  But text messages, recordings, and witness testimony painted a different picture: he was a predator who isolated Sonia from support systems, reinforced her belief that death was the only option, and meticulously documented her "consent" as insurance against exactly this kind of investigation. What Dwain called mercy, prosecutors called premeditated murder.  This complex case is truly heartbreaking - please listen with caution!

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This is the extraordinary case of Judy Malinowski, the first person in American history to testify from beyond the grave at her own murder trial.  In 2017, Judy's life was shattered when her boyfriend doused her in gasoline and set her on fire.  She was left to endure nearly two years of relentless pain, dozens of surgeries, and the heartbreak of not being able to raise her two children. Determined to be heard and to advocate on behalf of other survivors/victims, Judy worked with prosecutors to record her testimony from her hospital bed - forever preserving her voice, her memory, and her account of what happened. After her death, that testimony was played in court, allowing her to confront her killer and help secure his conviction in a way that had never been done before. This episode traces Judy's unbelievable fight for justice, the legal impact of her groundbreaking case, and the strength of a woman who ensured that her own words would be used to help bring down the man who killed her.

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In Part 2 of our in-depth coverage of the "Devilsdorp" cult, the brutal murders introduced in Part 1 take on a new meaning.  What initially appeared to be isolated, occult-linked attacks starts to reveal a far more calculated pattern.  Because this was never about religion.  As the case progresses into trial, Part 2 unpacks the roles of those involved in the gruesome murders of 11 individuals and explores the psychology of Cecilia Steyn - the dark force at the center of it all.  For Cecilia, the carnage was a test of power measured by how far she could push others to prove her control.  

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