Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network

Show Name: Real Cases, Fictional Minds

Episode Title: Lipstick Wheel

You are listening to Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast with your host(s) Jaylli Kushi.

In this episode of Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the Podcast, we discuss: Season 4 Episode 22 titled “The Big Wheel” and how it is based on the real-life case of the Lipstick Killer.

This episode starts in Buffalo when the BAU receives a mysterious package containing a DVD from the killer himself. In the video is footage he filmed of one of his murders, he records as he follows a woman into her home and kills her. And over the video, he has added a text message directed at the FBI saying: “Help me". The plea sets the tone for the entire case. The unsub isn't taunting them, he's begging them. The victim in the video is a woman killed quickly and efficiently, with no sign of torture or struggle. The attack is almost mechanical. But the emotional intensity comes from the fact that the unsub filmed the entire thing, suggesting he is compelled to watch his own violence, almost as if he's horrified by himself. As the team digs into the case, more victims emerge. They're all women killed inside their homes, with little to no defensive wounds, meaning he surprises them and finishes the attack rapidly. His murders are methodical, not frenzied, each one carried out with the same precision, rhythm, and emotional detachment, but the most important behavioral clue comes from his filming Style. He records from behind doors, through windows, or from angles that prevent the victims from ever seeing him. is as if he's watching life from the outside, and he will connect, repeating the cycle again and again. The team builds a profile for the unsung, a white male and is 30 to 40s, intelligent but socially isolated, living with high-functioning autism, contributing to the rigid behavioral patterns. He is killing as part of a compulsive cycle triggered by guilt, not anger or sexual gratification. So how did the BAU actually figure out who the answer was? well in the video that he sent them in the beginning of the episode, he accidentally gave them a clue. well entering the victim's home, the camera briefly caught a reflection showing part of his face. The team noticed something unusual, he had a rare eye condition. One of his pupils doesn't respond normally, something called heterochromia with a defect. It was subtle but distinctive. Because it was so rare, the BAU is able to cross-reference medical and local records to narrow down the list of placental suspects. When they found a man who matched the condition, lived in multiple crime scenes, and had a personal history consistent with the behavioral profile, the pieces fell into place. The unsub's name was Vincent Rowling, a solitary man who lives alone, works minimal jobs, and struggles with severe emotional trauma. He also has high-functioning autism, which affects his social interactions and contributes to the way he obsesses over patterns, routine, and repeated imagery. The team learns that years earlier, he witnessed his mother's death in a traumatic accident involving a ferris wheel. That moment became the core of his lifelong emotional pain. They also learn that he is secretly watching over a young blind girl named Stanley, who lives in his neighborhood. She represents the innocence of someone he wants to protect, not harm. His connection to her shows that he isn't a sadist or through a pillar. He's someone trying to balance the violence he can't stop with a desperate wish to do something good. That internal conflict is exactly why he reaches out to the bau. He isn't proud of his crimes. He's terrified of who he becomes when he kills. has been since stress escalates, his patterns become more unstable. He...

Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network

Show Name: Real Cases, Fictional Minds

Episode Title: Barbie's Dreamhouse

You are listening to Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast with your host(s) Jaylli Kushi

In this episode of Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast, we discuss: Season 2 Episode 3 titled “The Perfect Storm” and how it is based on the real-life serial killers known as the Ken and Barbie Killers, Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.

This episode starts in Jacksonville, Florida. A couple gets mail from their daughter in college, thinking it is going to be pictures of her, but it was a DVD of their daughter getting tortured. The victim’s name is Laura Clemensen. She is 20 years old, blonde, a sophomore at the University of Jacksonville, Florida, and she is assumed to be the 5th in a series of rapes and murders over the past 2 years. Jacksonville PD has been looking for this killer for years. The team flies to Jacksonville, Florida. While on the plane, they start talking about the second offender, saying that these 2 are clearly deranged and acting out their worst sadistic fantasies. They learn from Garcia that the Jacksonville PD just found Laura Clemensen’s body under a bridge.. Gideon and Morgan go to the crime scene. They learn the victim has deep lacerations on her neck, chest, and thighs. The color of her bruising indicated torture had been going on for multiple days, and CSI believes that because the cause of death was strangulation, it is consistent with the other victims. Garcia sends over a list of all the unsolved rapes and murders in the past 2 years. There were 2 that stuck out to Reid. The victims share similar physical traits, and they were also posed after being killed in an interesting manner. The only difference is that they were manually strangled. While going over evidence, JJ finds that the Unsubs are targeting the mothers. All of the DVDs were only addressed to the mothers of the victims, so sending the videos only to the mothers is a message itself. The team has up to 7 victims now. They give a profile for the 2 UnSubs to the police. One is submissive, and one is dominant. If the criminal desire wasn’t present, their partnership wouldn’t work. In the middle of giving the profile, they find out there is another girl missing named Tiffany. The night before, she had gone for a run and didn’t come back home. Tiffany Spears was abducted from Middleberg, which is almost an hour away. While searching for how the unsub is traveling from place to place they learn that the Unsubs would take the cars of the victims and sell their parts across state lines, so no one in Jacksonville would be able to find them. Those sales were traced to Joseph Davin, who lives in Jacksonville. He’s been in and out of jail since he was 17. He is 27 years old and has a number of charges, including car theft with a partner, making him a prime suspect. When the team finds an address, they go to his house. His dad answers the door, and Joey appears in the living room with a gun, telling Agents Morgan and Gideon, and the main detective to get out of his way. They tell him to drop the weapon, and he doesn’t, forcing the detective to shoot him. Joey was their only link to finding where Tiffany could be. They talk to his father and learn that Joey works at a garage with a bunch of ex-cons. They find out that when he was in jail, he shared a cell with Tony Canardo, and they were both released 3 years ago. They went to Joey’s workplace and learned that he had been fired because he wasn’t good at his job. His ex-con friends would come around his workplace, and Tony Canardo was part of the crew Joey would hang with. They arrive at Tony’s house, and his wife answers, telling them he will be home soon. Morgan waits for him outside. Back at the...

Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network

Show Name: Real Cases, Fictional Minds

Episode Title: BTKeystone Killer

You are listening to Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast with your host Jaylli Kushi.

In this episode of Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the Podcast, we discuss Season 1 Episode 15, titled “Unfinished Business,” and how it mirrors the BTK Killer.

Former FBI agent Max Ryan is hosting a meet-and-greet for his new book, one of his biggest unsolved cases, the Keystone Killer. Back in the 1980s, he murdered 7 women around Philadelphia and then just disappeared. During the event, Ryan handed a letter that looked exactly like the ones the Keystone used to send, same handwriting, same crossword puzzle. The letter says that he is still alive. Inside are 2 driver's licenses: One from Amy Jennings, the last known victim back in 1987, who was strangled to death in 1987, and another from a woman named Carla Bromwell. The BAU is called into their own office and begins to review all the evidence, which is now considered a new development in the Keystone Killer case. While looking at the evidence, Agent Reid finds something, hidden within the crossword puzzle, are details about what Amy Jennings was wearing 20 years ago when she was found dead. When the police go to the address on Carla Brownell's license, they find her dead in her apartment. She's been suffocated with a plastic bag, but this time the killer used flex-cuffs instead of rope. The old victims were strangled with a specific knot, so the team realizes something's changed. At the new crime scene, the BAU starts noticing weird inconsistencies. For example, the crossword mentioned a “ rear window,” but Carla's room was in the front of the house. Then they find another note in a completely different room. It feels like someone's copying the killer, or maybe the real killer is trying to mess with them. They build a profile for the local police: While male in his late forties, he is organized, probably with a military background. Someone who lies in control collects trophies, and enjoys playing games with law enforcement. But the new murders totally line up. The killer is getting older, and so are the victims; the crimes are less controlled, and his signature, the tied knot, is gone. The team starts to wonder if something happened to him, maybe an injury that forced him to change his methods. While going over evidence with the team, Reid finds a name in the crossword puzzle in the new letter, Scott Harbin, which is also a name on Ryan's original suspect list. Scott has been in jail for 30 years, making him halfway through his sentence. He was put on parole 3 months ago, and he missed his last appointment, making him a prime suspect. The team, accompanied by law enforcement, storms his house, and after a short chase through the house, they catch him. They inspect his house and realize he is super neat and organized, and his clothes were folded with military precision, total control freak vibes, but when they check under his bed, they find a woman tied up and still alive. It's disturbing, but something still doesn't add up. As they are leaving Scoot's house, Ryan sees he's received another letter, placed on his car, this time from the real Keystone Killer. It reads, “Scott Harbin isn't the man you're looking for,” bringing them back to square one. Since they figured he must have been injured sometime after the killing, maybe losing mobility on one side, they started searching for men who fit the profile and have had major injuries in the past 18 years. Then they find something, an old car accident on I-95 near the airport. One of the drivers was a man named Walter Kern, a 48-year-old man who used to serve in the Air Force and now works as a home alarm installer. Due to his car accident he lost partial movement on his right side. It turns out, Walter worked with Scott Harbin, the guy...

Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network

Show Name: Real Cases, Fictional Minds

Episode Title: Richard Ramirez, the Prince of Darkness

You are listening to Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast with your host Jaylli Kushi.

In this episode of Real Cases, Fictional Minds, we discuss Season 5, Episode 23, titled “Our darkest hour,” and Season 6, Episode 1, titled “The Longest Night,” and how they mirror the life of Richard Ramirez.

This episode ends on a cliffhanger and continues into the next season. The BAU is called to Los Angeles to investigate a string of home invasions escalating into homicides. The city is in the middle of a heatwave and rolling blackouts. The killer uses darkness to get his advantage, and security systems go down, making it easy for him to get inside homes. It starts with him murdering a couple during a blackout, leaving their son alive to witness it. That's part of his MO, meaning method of operating. The BAU works with LAPD Detectives Matt Spicer and Adam Kurzbard and realizes that the killings are a part of a decades-long killing spree. The UnSub always strikes during blackouts and leaves a child witness behind. Garcia digs through crime data and finds similar murders years ago across multiple states, proving he was active long ago, stopped, and now returned. They focus on the first recorded blackout murders 25 years earlier. To stop him, local authorities cancel the remaining rolling blackouts, but it backfires, overriding the grid and causing a massive citywide outage. While digging into old cases, Garcia discovers that the UnSubs' first La victims were Joe and Sylvia Spicer, the parents of Detective Matt Spicer. Matt was the child left behind during that invasion. He has a sister, Kristin, and a daughter, Ellie. The BAU realizes the UnSub is tainting Spicer; he sees himself as the “creator” who made Spicer who he is. Now he's targeting Spicer's daughter and sister. When he learns this, Spicer returns to his childhood home with Agent Morgan, but things go horribly wrong. They find Kristin and Ellie tied up and the homeowners dead. The UnSub ambushes Morgon, knocks him out, and when he wakes up, he's tied with duct tape, forced to watch, just like the kids the UnSub leaves behind. Spicer enters and sees the UnSub pointing a gun at Ellie. Morgan pleads for him not to drop his weapon, but Spicer surrenders to protect his daughter. On his knees, he begs for their lives. The UnSub says, “Your sister grew up very pretty.” Spicer asks Morgan to promise Ellie will be okay. Morgan promises. The UnSub confirms it, then shoots Spicer point-blank. Kristin screams as the UnSub drags Ellie away, saying, “I don't usually take kids. This one's just special.” The episode ends with Morgan tied up, Spicer dead, Ellie abducted, and the rest of the BAU cut off by the blackout. The next episode, “The Longest Night,” picks up immediately. The BAE is still chasing the UnSub, who escaped from Spicer's childhood home with his daughter, Ellie. When the team arrives at the house, Morgan refuses medical help and focuses on finding the UNSUB. During her interview with the team, Kristin tells Prentiss the UnSub’s name, Billy Flynn, and that he drives an old, filthy RV. Garcia digs into his past and learns he's been killing for over 25 years. His mother, Nora Flynn, was a sex worker. As a kid, Billy hid in her closet and watched her with clients. When he was 13 years old, he murdered one of the men that his mother was working with. He was sent to juvenile detention and released at 18. His crimes ever since have mirrored his childhood trauma- leaving children alive to relive what he once saw. Flynn forces Ellie to help him with break-ins. When she tries to get help from a homeowner, warning him that she is being kidnapped, Flynn realizes she is trying to tip them off, and he kills the man for not letting her in. Ellie proves smart and...

Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network

Show Name: Real Cases, Fictional Minds

Episode Title: Episode 2: Dinner is Served

You are listening to Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast with your host(s) Jaylli Kushi.

In this episode of Real Cases, Fictional Minds, we discuss: Criminal Minds Season 3 Episode 8, Lucky, and how it is based on the true crime killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

In this dark and disturbing episode, the BAU travels to Bridgewater, Florida, after being called in after the torso of a college student, Abby Kelton, is found in the Everglades, a swamp in Florida. The lower half of her body had been eaten by alligators, and there seems to be an inverted pentagram carved into her chest, along with her throat being slit. The BAU turns the body over to the coroner, and the autopsy reveals Abby was force-fed ten severed fingers. The forensics team determines the fingers belonged to 10 different women, none of whom were Abby, hinting at a signature or message from the unsub. This evidence leads the team to think the killer has been active for years. Since each finger belonged to a different woman, the forensics team was able to obtain fingerprints. Garcia, who is their technical analyst, used those fingerprints to identify the women as 10 missing sex workers from the area. This led the BAU to confirm that Ferrel had been killing for some time without being noticed. The number of fingers proved that the unsubs' crimes were not a recent occurrence. The team profiles the killer as a white male in his 30s, socially isolated, and likely previously institutionalized for mental health issues, and is no longer taking medications because of the brutality of his crimes. They called him an “adaptive satanist”, someone who twists religious passion to justify his twisted fantasies, and who's now deliberately trying to get noticed after years of flying under the radar. The unsub's actions suggested an obsession with false Satanic rituals, which are not based on real beliefs but delusions. Rossi, one of the seniors on the team, had expertise on Satanic cults, which was crucial to the case; he believes true ritualistic killings are rare and that the symbolism is often a cover for other violent urges. Agent Prentiss and Rossi go to examine a crime scene where another victim, Tracey Lambert, was abducted. Inside the public restroom stall, they discovered a small stack of books nearly piled on top of the toilet, which is super weird and has very odd placement and is completely out of place for a public bathroom, which immediately drew Rossi’s attention. He explains to Prentiss that this meticulous act of how he ordered the book is something that severely mentally ill individuals often do, because they have chaos in every aspect of their lives, and they are trained to create a sense of order, such as keeping their belongings clean and neat. Prentiss then calls Garcia to have her research local institutions, which directs the team's focus to a psychiatric facility in Bridgewater. Hotch and Reid, the other agents on the team, ask Garcia to cross-reference records of local institutions, looking for patients who had been committed for violent acts, especially with a history of arson. Why? Because the records they needed were believed to have been destroyed in a fire in Hazelwood Hospital for the Criminally Insane, which suffered a fire years earlier that destroyed most of its files. Hotch and Reid visited the burned-out hospital and found out that one staff member, Dr. Lorenz, they needed to talk to, had died in the fire while trying to save a patient's file. Luckily for the team, Dr. Lorenz’s salvaged notes and journal provided the information the team needed. Reid was able to read the doctor’s journal, which documented the institutionalization of a 7-year-old boy named Floyd Feylinn Ferell. The journal said he had been institutionalized for attacking

Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network

Show Name: Real Cases Fictional Minds

Episode Title: Episode 1: Jack The Ripper Returns

You are listening to Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast with your host Jaylli Kushi.

In this episode of Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the Podcast, we discuss: Season 2 Episode 18 of Criminal Minds titled 'Jones' and the real case of the famous serial killer of London, Jack the Ripper.

In this episode of Criminal Minds, the BAU is called to New Orleans after a chilling letter arrives, signed by a supposed serial killer who had gone silent for over a year. Back in 2005, before Hurricane Katrina, 3 victims were murdered, their throats slit and organs carefully avoided while being mutilated, suggesting medical experience. Then suddenly… the murders stopped. But in 2007, another body appeared, and with it, a letter to Detective William LaMontagne, taunting the police, just like Jack the Ripper did in 1888. All four murders happened in a tight, 10-block radius, and the victims, all men between 22 and 35, were lured away at night, in public places, then killed with precision. The team quickly realizes this is a copycat killer, mimicking the infamous Ripper, down to the letters addressed to “Boss” and even promising to cut off an earlobe, just like the real Ripper did before his double murder. The profile for a possible unsub? Someone organized, charming, and calculated, but there's one twist. After linking a similar murder in Galveston, Texas, they realize the unsub is actually a woman, the only explanation for how she could lure men away from bars unnoticed. And she's not just a killer… She sees herself as a vigilante, sending a message to wipe away the entire race of men. It turns out, the unsub is Sarah Danlin, a woman who was raped in 1988 at a bar called Jones, and now she's hunting down men who remind her of her attackers. For her, each murder is revenge… justice… and reclaiming control. In the end, the case becomes more than just about a killer copying Jack the Ripper. It's about how trauma, identity, and rage can twist into something just terrifying. This episode demonstrates how Criminal Minds frequently draws inspiration from real-life horrors, such as the Jack the Ripper murders, and transforms them into modern psychological stories.

• Serial killer and New Orleans who killed 3 victims before Hurricane Katrina
• Taking place in 2007
• A year later, another victim came up and sent a letter to William Lamontagne claiming to be the killer from a year ago
• Killed 3 times then stopped for 18 months before another
• Ages ranging from 22 to 45
• All 4 murders occurred within a 10-block radius
• The unsub seems to have experience with the slaughter because he cut around all organs without severing any of them
• All 4 victims were found with their throats slit
• The unsub wants the police to think he is the modern-day Jack the Ripper lost in New Orleans
• “The murders were perpetrated in semi-public places after dark. Investigators taunted with letters addressed to ‘boss.’ The only difference is that the case was 100 years ago and the murders took place in London."
• The unsub profile was: agile, friendly, somewhere between 30-35, allure with charm and kill with rage. Believed to be murdering men to gain power. Organized, calculating, might be stalking the victims days before the murder. He is mimicking Jack the Ripper because he has lost his own identity, maybe through years of child abuse or a traumatic event, holds a powerful position at his job, and also might have medical training so considering doctors and EMT's.
• Their technical analysis found a similar case in...

Real Cases, Fictional Minds is a student-run Podcast that researches different episodes of Criminal Minds that were based on real-life crime cases. Join podcast host Jaylli Kushi as she breaks down many episodes of Criminal Minds and tells you which real-life cases they were based on. These episodes have been tweaked in their own way to focus more on the criminal profiling aspect of the show, so she will also compare the episodes to see how different they are from the real-life cases.