32 episodes
Murder in Illinois iHeart True Crime
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- True Crime
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3.0 • 80 Ratings
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In 2007, Chris Vaughn was arrested during a funeral for his wife and three children. He would be tried and convicted of their murders. To this day he maintains no memory of what occurred that tragic day 20 years ago. Murder in Illinois follows the complicated circumstances that led to Vaughn’s conviction, as well as the forensic evidence his supporters believe proves his innocence- in attempt to answer one question: Who killed the Vaughn family?
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Miami - MIM E1
Phil Stanford leaves political reporting in Washington D.C. to cover crime stories and stumbles directly into the dangerous, cocaine-fueled world of Miami in the early 1980s. In the process he finds himself intertwined with an unsolved murder after a chance encounter at a dive bar with a private detective named Clay Williams.
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Introducing: "Murder in Miami"
In the 1980s crime journalist Phil Stanford dove into the decadent and dangerous world of Miami just as the city was becoming the cocaine- and murder- capital of the United States. His path would place him in the crosshairs of a federal investigation focusing on a mysterious and controversial drug smuggling pilot who claimed to be an operative of the American government- all while flaunting his extensive illicit activity. Murder in Miami traces the connection between the murder of a missing Miami private investigator to the sprawling roots of an international money laundering scheme as Stanford tries to make sense of his role in a surreal story of spies, smugglers, killers and corruption. All reaching to the highest levels on both sides of the law.
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The Tragedy - MII E1
In the quiet pre-dawn hours of June 14th, 2007 the Vaughn family- Christopher, his wife Kimberly and their three children- set out for an impromptu trip to a waterpark. The family would never arrive.
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Before - MII E2
Before Christopher Vaughn was known as a convicted killer, he was a son and a brother in the Vaughn family of Missouri, the eldest of Gail and Pierre Vaughn’s three boys. He would meet his wife- and become a father- while he was still a teenager.
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Family Dynamics - MII E3
As a young couple Kimberly and Christopher struggle with financial insecurity, the pressures of parenting and the growing dysfunction between their two families.
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Devastation - MII E4
Gail receives an unfathomable call as news of the horrific family massacre dominates the media. Chris Vaughn is interrogated, while still in a hospital gown, within hours of the killings.
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Customer Reviews
Some good/some bad
I share some of the concerns of others that this podcast is too partial to the side of innocence and the Vaughn family. However, I do think it’s a fact driven show for the most part and definitely makes any open minded person have some concerns over the conviction and investigation. It’s an interesting listen, well produced (apart from that weird song that sounds like a song a witch might sing in a Disney cartoon) but it had about 10 minutes of advertisements over a 30-40 minute episode so is had to immerse yourself into the show. Unfortunately something most I heart radio podcasts suffer from due to the amount of forced promotion.
Listenable (if you skip through theme song) But Biased
The theme song is a hoot. Probably fine in another context but here it made me laugh every time I heard it because it’s so incongruous and sounds like madness! The first few episodes were relatively interesting but hearing only one half of the family perspective (the relatives of accused) felt deeply problematic. While the host makes much of the fact that the victim’s family were asked for comment, by airing one family’s biased and bizarrely judgemental views (goddamn ‘academics’) I felt that the general tone of the podcast was skewed from the start. The early episodes’ reliance on Chris’s family’s audio automatically gave unfair credence to their story. By the end it seemed the host was clutching at any tenuous evidence of Chris’s innocence in a way that felt like straw clutching in what I cynically read as an attempt to prolong the podcast.
Disgusting example of true crime profiteering off tragedy
“He couldn’t have done it because I saw his picture and he had nice eyes! So I decided to investigate his conviction”. Disgusting. Horrible podcast.