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!

Get ready for another trip to the wild wild west as The DUSE books a room for you at the Murder Inn! The hostess is one heckuva cook so long as you like your steak dinner with a wink and a nod and a generous helping of arsenic. Then again, Polly Bartlett didn't target just any old traveler. She wanted a very special kind of man: the kind with too much cash, too few friends, and an eye for the ladies. Check-in is whenever you arrive, but don't bother with housekeeping. The only bed you'll be sleeping in is six feet under in... Wyoming!

The West Coast has seen its share of murderers but how many of them flagged down a cop and said hey, I'm thinking of becoming a murderer? TWICE! And how many cops, parole officers, and shrinks who encountered this guy just passed him off onto someone else? If you guessed all of them, you're right! Eli and Mel found no evidence of an actual clown car but they're sure there must have been one as the notorious Barfly Strangler, Carroll Cole, bounced from state to state, getting picked up for mail fraud, public drunkenness, and probably a few parking violations all while racking up a body count that might have numbered as many as fourteen women. What happened in Vegas didn't quite stay in Vegas when mistakes were made in... Nevada!

Fifty States of Murder rolls on -- right across that overgrown lawn your neighbors are always complaining about. That's right folks, it's time for another-pit stop on our cross-country tour: the story of William Devin Howell, a man who earned the nickname The Sick Ripper in a year-long rampage of violence and death. Eli and Mel are here to give you the facts, mock the fiction, and warn you in no uncertain terms to stay the hell away from that van in... Connecticut!

Happy Halloween from your friendly neighborhood true-crime pumpkin heads at Deliver Us Some Evil! And what better way to celebrate the spooky season in style than putting a new spin on an old story: the infamous Salem Witch Trials! If you think necks were stretched over religious hysteria, food poisoning, or something out of a Women's Studies class... well, YOU'RE WRONG. It was a land grab! Eli and Mel trace the roots of the conflict all the way back to Europe and the tangled history of kings, money lending, and real estate. It all came to a head in a little town called Salem when a family feud turned into a literal witch hunt in... Massachusetts!

What's the difference between a podcast host who researches serial killers as a hobby and a budding psychopath who researches serial killers as a hobby? Motivation? Destiny? Being in the right place at the wrong time? Seriously, we're asking you. We don't know. What we do know is that Eli and Mel have been doing the DUSE for three years! The only casualty has been a few marbles here and there, which is more than we can say for this episode's criminal mind: Israel Keyes. Raised in isolation in the Pacific Northwest, Keyes grew up an uber-religious White separatist who rapidly became the family's black sheep. It wasn't his grotesque acts of sadism that drove a wedge between them, or even his friendship with junior domestic terrorist Chevie Kehoe, but his declaration of atheism. That was the last straw. Shunned by the only people willing to put up with him, Keyes took his show on the road, criss-crossing the country to set things on fire, rob banks, kidnap, rape, torture, murder, and... fish? Yep. Fish. We may never know how many victims he took with him to the grave between Alaska, New York, Washington, Texas, Oregon, New Jersey, and Florida, but he definitely did some fishing in... Vermont!