A true crime case built from a teenager's price list: $40 for a gas leak, $50 for a major police response, $75 for a bomb threat. Alan Winston Filion — online alias "Torswats" — ran a swatting-for-hire operation from his bedroom in Lancaster, California, starting at age 15. Over 18 months, he made more than 375 swatting calls targeting mosques, schools, historically Black colleges, the Pentagon, members of Congress, and a federal agent's home at 2:45 in the morning.

A private investigator infiltrated his encrypted channels. A gamer recognized his typing patterns from five years earlier. The FBI seized 13 devices — and Filion kept making calls.

In this episode of True Crime Cases You Haven't Heard, host Steve Rhode examines United States v. Alan Winston Filion using federal court documents, the plea agreement, sentencing memoranda, and investigative journalism from WIRED and Vice.

What you'll learn:

• How a 16-year-old built a criminal business with cryptocurrency, AI-generated voices, and caller ID spoofing

• Why it took 12 months from evidence to arrest — and what Filion did with those months

• The sentencing math: 375 calls, no deaths, four years — and whether that's proportional justice

This ethical true crime episode is built entirely from court documents and official records. Case files available exclusively on Substack — search True Crime Unheard.

TrueCrimeUnheard.com