Hollywood and Crime is a brand-new true crime podcast from Wondery. Each season will investigate notorious true crimes and scandals from Hollywood. The first season began airing on January 6th and will cover the Black Dahlia Serial Killers, investigating the cases of eight women who were either brutally murdered or went missing in 1940’s Hollywood.

The podcast takes listeners back to January 1947, when the body of Elizabeth Short was discovered severed at the waist in Los Angeles. Nicknamed the Black Dahlia, Short’s infamous case remains cold to this day.

Short’s was not the only murder to occur during this time, however. Immediately following WWII, more than a dozen women were brutally murdered within Los Angeles, all of them with dark hair. Most of these women were found strangled or mutilated. In re-opening eight of these cold cases, the producers investigates to see if these murders were in fact random killings, the work of a serial killer, or the work of copy-cat killers.

Hollywood and Crime is presented as a serialized docu-drama, and is narrated by host Tracy Pattin. Throughout each episode, Pattin takes listeners through the details of that week’s case. In between her narration, crime scene investigations and interviews are re-enacted, complete with all the background sounds you would expect to hear from a crime scene, or a court room. The high production quality combined with the exceptional story telling brings the show together, transporting you back to 1940’s Hollywood.

This podcast is in its infancy, with only four episodes released. The first two episodes, Bathtub Murder and Generous Georgette examine the murder of young oil heiress Georgette Bauerdorf, while the third episode White Gardenia follows the murder of Ora Murray. The fourth episode The Vampire Slayer, investigates the murder to Virginia Lee Griffin.

Show notes and bibliographies for each episode are available online at wondery.com/wondery/shows/hollywoodcrime/. New episodes of Hollywood and Crime air each Friday, and run between 30 and 40 minutes. As a quick warning, Hollywood and Crime does contain depictions of violence, and therefore may not be suitable for all audience.

Republished from The Quill print edition, Volume 107, Issue 19, January 24, 2017.