Living the Write Life

The Case Reader

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Living the Write Life looks closely at true crime stories and the details that keep them open to questions. Each episode follows the available evidence in a conversational voice, separating what is documented from what is still uncertain.

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Why the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum still has empty frames

Two men in police uniforms entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990 and stole thirteen works of art. The theft remains unsolved.

Why Are These Museum Frames Still Empty?

Why the FBI recorded the serial numbers on D. B. Cooper’s cash

The FBI recorded D. B. Cooper’s ransom bill serial numbers. Nine years later, they matched cash found on a Columbia River sandbar.

Why Did the FBI Record D. B. Cooper’s Cash?

The ladder outside Charles Lindbergh’s baby’s window

A ladder left outside the window led investigators to wood from Bruno Hauptmann’s attic after Charles Lindbergh’s baby was taken in 1932.

The Ladder Outside Charles Lindbergh’s Baby’s Window

What the poisoned Chicago Tylenol bottles revealed

Seven people died in the 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders. Poisoned bottles were found in separate stores, but no one has been convicted.

How Did Cyanide Get Into Chicago Tylenol Capsules?

How a family tree led police to the Golden State Killer

Police used a genealogy database and family records to identify Joseph DeAngelo through DNA from the Golden State Killer's crimes.

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Why the FBI recorded the serial numbers on D. B. Cooper’s cash