The DUSE rises to #33 on the top Fifty States of Murder chart with a damning expose on the fraud, hypocrisy, dirty dealings, and general scumbaggery just beneath the surface of the country music industry. It all came as a surprise to Kevin Hughes when he took a bullet for daring to demand honesty instead of a bribe. It was 1989 and even the cops couldn't fathom corruption so deep it could cost a man his life for only a few thousand dollars. Whodunit? Find out as Eli and Mel belly up to the bar for a double shot of payola in... Tennessee!

What do you get when a rich woman goes missing, there's no shortage of suspects, but almost no evidence? The latest episode of Fifty States of Murder, of course! Eli and Mel document the unsolved disappearance of Jacqueline Levitz, a wealthy social climber who went through three husbands before vanishing in late 1995. Was she bumped off by jealous relatives? Or maybe it was one of the working stiffs she stiffed when she liquidated her husband's assets? Or was it a robbery gone horribly wrong? We're not sure of much, but we're pretty sure she never stood a chance in... Mississippi!

The DUSE waxes philosophical in our latest episode of Fifty States of Murder as Eli and Mel paint a picture of innocence lost in post-WWII America and the influence of pivotal thinkers like Soren Kierkegaard, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and of course Friedrich Nietzsche. What does existentialism have to do with murder? We're glad you asked! It took disenchanted jazz musician Melvin Rees to figure it out after he dropped out of college and turned his deep conversations about the morality of murder into a real world experiment. It was a dark time in America, and The DUSE pulls no punches, taking a hard look at our violent origins and how a man like Rees might just be more American than apple pie in... Maryland!