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.

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Peter Karasev bombed two PG&E transformers in the middle of the night — then bicycled home to his partner and three young children.

A PhD from Georgia Tech. A senior ML engineer at Amazon's autonomous vehicle subsidiary. A $250,000 salary. And 300 pounds of explosive materials in the garage of a $1.5 million home, across the street from a high school.

Built from 167 research files and 78 court documents — including the government and defense sentencing memoranda, the indictment, and the judgment — this episode covers how a geofence warrant returned one device in a six-minute window, what investigators found inside 668 Potomac Court, and why fifteen households on life-sustaining medical equipment lost power before anyone knew it was deliberate.

Get the case files at https://truecrimeunheard.com/subscribe

A $120,000 juror bribe in a butterfly-covered Hallmark bag — this true crime case exposed the desperation behind America's largest pandemic fraud.

Five co-conspirators in the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud tracked a 23-year-old federal juror online, followed her home from the Minneapolis courthouse, and delivered $120,000 in cash with instructions to vote not guilty. She called 911 immediately.

Built from the federal indictment, five plea agreements, FBI affidavits, and sentencing memoranda filed in United States v. Farah (D. Minn.). Court documents are sent exclusively to subscribers when episodes drop — subscribe at https://truecrimeunheard.com/subscribe

Craig Lang murdered a Florida couple to fund a mercenary trip to Venezuela — then fled to Ukraine, where he was celebrated as a war hero before being extradited and convicted in one of the rarest Neutrality Act prosecutions in US history.

Built from federal court documents, trial testimony, and international extradition records, this episode traces a dishonorably discharged Army veteran from a church parking lot ambush in Estero to the front lines in Irpin — and back into a Fort Myers courtroom six years later.

Lang is now serving two consecutive life sentences. Court documents are sent exclusively to paid Substack subscribers when episodes drop — subscribe at https://truecrimeunheard.com/subscribe so you don't miss future case files.

Christina Chapman's North Korea laptop farm is one of the most unusual true crime cases we've covered. A homeless woman in Minnesota received a LinkedIn message that changed everything — and within three years, she was running 90 labeled laptops from her Arizona home, each one enabling a North Korean operative to work at an American company under a stolen name.

Built from 402 pages of federal court documents — including the 57-page indictment, sentencing transcript, and Chapman's personal letter to the judge — this episode traces how desperation became complicity, how $17.1 million flowed to North Korea's nuclear weapons program, and why Chapman was grateful when the FBI finally arrested her.

Court documents are sent exclusively to subscribers when episodes drop — subscribe now at https://truecrimeunheard.com/subscribe so you don't miss future case files.

Hassan Elliott's murder of SWAT Sgt. James O'Connor is one of the most devastating true crime cases in Philadelphia history. Elliott fired 16 rounds through a closed bedroom door — killing a 23-year veteran he never saw.

Built from 544 pages of federal court documents, this episode traces four murders and nine shootings committed by the SG1700 gang over 15 months — and the 353-day gap between a murder warrant and the SWAT raid that cost a sergeant his life.

Elliott is now serving 900 months in federal prison. Court documents are sent exclusively to subscribers when episodes drop — subscribe now at https://truecrimeunheard.com/subscribe so you don't miss future case files.

Joseph LaForte's Par Funding fraud is one of the most brazen true crime cases Merchant Cash Advance I've covered — $547 million raised under a stolen identity, then protected with violence.

LaForte — twice convicted for fraud before Par Funding existed — hid behind the alias "Joe Mack," registered the company in his wife's name, and convinced more than 1,200 investors to trust him with their savings. When his borrowers fell behind, he sent his brother James and an enforcer named Gioe to threaten, beat, and intimidate them into paying. The whole empire collapsed in July 2020 when the SEC arrived unannounced.

Built from 992 pages of federal court documents, including the amended RICO indictment and government sentencing memoranda, this episode traces the full arc — from LaForte's third financial crime scheme to his 15½-year federal sentence on March 26, 2025.

Court documents are sent exclusively to subscribers when episodes drop — subscribe now at https://truecrimeunheard.com/subscribe so you don't miss future case files.

Dr. Phillip Jensen's theft of fentanyl from his own dental patients is one of the most methodical true crime cases we've covered. For eight months, the oral surgeon pierced sealed medication vials, extracted half the fentanyl, replaced it with saline, and glued the safety caps back shut—leaving 99 patients partially conscious through oral surgery.

Built from federal court documents in Case 3:22-cr-30005, this episode reveals the seven-step method Jensen executed every single time, the child who told their mother "felt everything," patient S.M. who was struck with a surgical instrument while fully awake on the table, and the stalking incident six weeks before trial that finally ended two and a half years of pretrial manipulation.

On December 18, 2024, Judge Colleen R. Lawless sentenced Jensen to 15 years in federal prison and asked from the bench: "If you cannot trust your doctor, who can you trust?"

Court documents are sent exclusively to subscribers when episodes drop — subscribe now at https://truecrimeunheard.com/subscribe so you don't miss future case files.