15Minutes2Kill

D.J. Swales
  • 5.0 (2)
  • True Crime

"In the hunt for a serial killer nicknamed the Gay Slayer, the U.K.’s top crime show outed me to the entire country. Then doubled-down, comparing me to a gay teenage street prostitute." Those are the words of your host, D. J. Swales, night walker of the Dark Earth and possibly reformed prostitute. Author, podcaster, and human tumbleweed, D. J. fled the bloody Northern Ireland conflict as a child, then kept on going. Since that wet night on a ferry to Liverpool, D. J. drifted across 120 countries and 45 US states. But he'll always see the world through the lens of what he calls Belfast Gothic. D. J. kept travel journals all his writing life. Most of them burned with his home in Seoul, South Korea. A dozen more disappeared in the red dust of West Texas. But their curious, kamikaze, and bookish spirit lives on in 15minutes2kill. If the 15minutes2kill podcast was a happy hour cocktail in a Times Square dive joint, and author D.J. Swales was your bartender, what would the recipe be? Well, first the glass would be salted with Angela’s Ashes, then sweetened with syrup of Rotten Mango. Mixers would be Morbid, The X-Files, and The Amazing Race. David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs would deejay in the corner. Empty barstools would be occupied by the ghouls of Times Square-past, courtesy of Tales from the Crypt and Most Haunted. Chasers, if required, would be flaming shots of Baby Reindeer, Crazy Rich Asians, and Encyclopedia Britannica. And if you slam back the Youtube version of this cocktail, you can expect calligraphy to flow like margaritas in Cancun. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episodes

  1. 8h ago

    EP 5 | 13 Japanese Tales Spooky Season Countdown | The Goblin of Adachigahara: Never Look in the Back Room | 15Minutes2Kill

    Spooky Season greetings from a real-life haunted house in a woodland just a crow’s swoop from Sleepy Hollow, in New York’s Hudson Valley – a place of incredible autumnal beauty, where the damp soil is soaked with the blood of tortured histories. 120 countries and counting . . . welcome, fellow traveller, fellow drifter across this Dark Earth. Tonight: a weary Buddhist pilgrim, lost at nightfall on a haunted plain, is offered shelter by a kind old woman in a tumbledown hut. She asks only one thing of him while she gathers firewood: whatever happens, he must never look into the back room. ‘The Goblin of Adachigahara’ is tale three of my ‘13 Japanese Tales Spooky Season Countdown’ – thirteen ghost stories and tales of dark folklore from my former home of Japan, as we approach Halloween. I invite you to join me on the road this month and beyond, as I record them from a haunted house near Sleepy Hollow, and whilst journeying through New York City, the Hudson Valley, Sonoma’s Russian River, San Diego, and Joshua Tree National Park. Tonight’s tale was preserved by Yei Theodora Ozaki, who was born in London in the early 1870s to an English mother and Baron Saburō Ozaki, a statesman from an old Kyoto samurai family. With her feet in both worlds, Ozaki collected and translated many of Japan’s tales for a Western audience, at a time when Japan and the West were engaged in a hot and heavy cultural love affair. ‘The Goblin of Adachigahara’ comes from her anthology The Japanese Fairy Book, published in 1903. By chance, Ozaki married Yukio Ozaki, then mayor of Tokyo, after years of their mail being misdelivered to one another. He later sent three thousand cherry trees to Washington DC, where they bloom to this day. Please note: these are my own retellings. I may sparingly edit elements of vintage tales to suit a contemporary audience, as part of my work to research, narrate, and compile these often lost stories for collections I plan to publish at a future date. Dark travel journals, true crime, and creatures of shadow. Welcome to 15Minutes2Kill. ‘In the hunt for a serial killer nicknamed the Gay Slayer, the UK’s top crime show outed me to the entire country. They then doubled down, comparing me to a gay teenage street prostitute. Everyone has their own path to the world of true crime. That was mine . . .’ Author D. J. Swales, international tumbleweed of 120 countries and forty-five US states, invites you to explore the Dark Earth. Discover a new perspective on the paranormal, true crime, dark travel journals, serial killers, twisted history, mysteries, cryptids, and terrifying folklore. Bonus episodes include selected short fiction and little-known tales. See the Dark Earth through the eyes of someone who has lived it. His only constant companion: a huge suitcase called Letitia. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    EP 5 | 13 Japanese Tales Spooky Season Countdown | The Goblin of Adachigahara: Never Look in the Back Room | 15Minutes2Kill

  2. 3d ago

    EP 4| 13 Japanese Tales Spooky Season Countdown | The Corpse Rider: A Night Astride the Vengeful Dead | 15Minutes2Kill

    Spooky Season greetings from a real-life haunted house in the woods near Sleepy Hollow, in New York’s Hudson Valley, where tonight’s chill demanded the season’s first fire. 120 countries and counting . . . welcome, fellow traveller, fellow drifter across this Dark Earth. Tonight: a woman dies of grief and rage, and her body will not rot. She lies waiting for the husband who divorced her. A master of the mystic arts offers him only one hope of surviving her vengeance. ‘The Corpse Rider’ is tale two of my ‘13 Japanese Tales Spooky Season Countdown’ – thirteen ghost stories and tales of dark folklore from my former home of Japan, as we approach Halloween. I invite you to join me on the road this month and beyond, as I record them from a haunted house near Sleepy Hollow, and whilst journeying through New York City, the Hudson Valley, Sonoma’s Russian River, San Diego, and Joshua Tree National Park. Like ‘Ubazakura’, tonight’s tale comes from the collected stories of Lafcadio Hearn – or Koizumi Yakumo, as he is known in Japan. An Irish-Greek author, Hearn lived and died in Japan, but was also said to have been a friend of an ageing Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, when he lived there among the demi-monde. ‘The Corpse Rider’ comes from Hearn’s lesser-known collection Shadowings, published in 1900 – four years before his death in Tokyo. In Kumamoto, Japan, several years ago, I lived near Hearn’s former home, a Meiji-era residence which I often visited, and which is now a museum dedicated to his life. Please note: these are my own retellings. I may sparingly edit elements of vintage tales to suit a contemporary audience, as part of my work to research, narrate, and compile these often lost stories for collections I plan to publish at a future date. Dark travel journals, true crime, and creatures of shadow. Welcome to 15Minutes2Kill. ‘In the hunt for a serial killer nicknamed the Gay Slayer, the UK’s top crime show outed me to the entire country. They then doubled down, comparing me to a gay teenage street prostitute. Everyone has their own path to the world of true crime. That was mine . . .’ Author D. J. Swales, international tumbleweed of 120 countries and forty-five US states, invites you to explore the Dark Earth. Discover a new perspective on the paranormal, true crime, dark travel journals, serial killers, twisted history, mysteries, cryptids, and terrifying folklore. Bonus episodes include selected short fiction and little-known tales. See the Dark Earth through the eyes of someone who has lived it. His only constant companion: a huge suitcase called Letitia. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    EP 4| 13 Japanese Tales Spooky Season Countdown | The Corpse Rider: A Night Astride the Vengeful Dead | 15Minutes2Kill

  3. Oct 20

    EP 3| 13 Japanese Tales Spooky Season Countdown | Ubazakura: The Nurse Who Traded Her Life | 15Minutes2Kill

    Spooky Season greetings from a starlit night in Joshua Tree, among the coyotes of California’s high desert. 120 countries and counting . . . welcome, fellow traveller, fellow drifter across this Dark Earth. Tonight: a devoted nurse strikes a bargain with a temple deity, offering her own life in exchange another – and a cherry tree keeps her secret in blossom for 254 years. ‘Ubazakura’ is tale one of my ‘13 Japanese Tales Spooky Season Countdown’ – thirteen ghost stories and tales of dark folklore from my former home of Japan, as we approach Halloween. I invite you to join me on the road this month and beyond, as I record them from a haunted house near Sleepy Hollow, and whilst journeying through New York City, the Hudson Valley, Sonoma’s Russian River, San Diego, and Joshua Tree National Park. I selected tonight’s tale, and several others, from the collected stories of Lafcadio Hearn – or Koizumi Yakumo, as he is known in Japan. An Irish-Greek author, Hearn lived and died in Japan, but was also said to have been a friend of an ageing Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, when he lived there among the demi-monde. In Kumamoto, Japan, several years ago, I lived near Hearn’s former home, a Meiji-era residence which I often visited, and which is now a museum dedicated to his life. ‘Ubazakura’ comes from Hearn’s collection Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, published in 1904. Some of the collection’s tales were also adapted for the 1964 film Kwaidan, by director Masaki Kobayashi. Please note: these are my own retellings. I may sparingly edit elements of vintage tales to suit a contemporary audience, as part of my work to research, narrate, and compile these often lost stories for collections I plan to publish at a future date. Dark travel journals, true crime, and creatures of shadow. Welcome to 15Minutes2Kill. ‘In the hunt for a serial killer nicknamed the Gay Slayer, the UK’s top crime show outed me to the entire country. They then doubled down, comparing me to a gay teenage street prostitute. Everyone has their own path to the world of true crime. That was mine . . .’ Author D. J. Swales, international tumbleweed of 120 countries and forty-five US states, invites you to explore the Dark Earth. Discover a new perspective on the paranormal, true crime, dark travel journals, serial killers, twisted history, mysteries, cryptids, and terrifying folklore. Bonus episodes include selected short fiction and little-known tales. See the Dark Earth through the eyes of someone who has lived it. His only constant companion: a huge suitcase called Letitia. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    EP 3| 13 Japanese Tales Spooky Season Countdown | Ubazakura: The Nurse Who Traded Her Life | 15Minutes2Kill

  4. Trailer

    TRAILER | 15Minutes2Kill | Find Out More

    Whether you have fifteen minutes to kill, or longer, you've found your new favourite podcast for digestible distractions that delve deep into the Dark Earth. Welcome to 15Minutes2Kill: Dark Travel Journals, True Crime, and Creatures of Shadow. From Berlin to Beverly Hills, 120 countries, forty-five US states, and counting . . . an industry CEO told me I was too old and ugly for podcasting, but here we are. I'm horror author D. J. Swales, your new tour guide around this Dark Earth. Tour Guide of the Damned, some might say . . . and this is your one-way ticket into the void. So pack your bags and grab a scone or two – we've got places to go. First class or cattle class, it's wonderful to meet you, but don't forget your travel insurance for this whirlwind of dark journeys and investigations. I'm the sole writer, producer, and host of this show. An unholy trinity of tasks allowing me to explore the macabre and the mysterious of life. The footprints of dark history, and the wretched things that lurk in plain sight, or watch us from the shadows. Join me as I continue to chase the ghost of my Irish sea-dog grandfather around this Dark Earth, from Manila to Melbourne, from Jakarta to Jacksonville. A Dark Earth my sailor grandfather circled for years, until the fateful day he was knocked down the hold of a ship in Hamburg. But I've sensed his spirit in harbours around the world, from Hamburg to Hong Kong. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    TRAILER | 15Minutes2Kill | Find Out More

  5. May 20

    EP 2 | 15Minutes2Kill | Tokyo Underworld: Airi Sato and the Murder Behind the Livestream | Pt 2 of 2

    Before the murder, there was the world that spawned it. Where parasocial obsessions met the grind of content creation. Airi Sato was a social media influencer and live streamer murdered on the streets of Tokyo by a former fan. Discover the details of the crime after a short introduction to Japan's largest red light districts. Places where your host, D.J. Swales, has often wandered after dark, to write in the windows of 711 convenience stores, and watch the neon-bathed workers and clients of Japan's underworlds whisk by. Dark travel journals, true crime, and creatures of shadow. Welcome to 15Minutes2Kill. Recorded in Times Square, New York City. KEY WORDS: TOKYO UNDERWORLD, AIRI SATO, STALKER, PARASOCIAL, LIVE STREAM, RED LIGHT DISTRICT, K-POP, HYUNAH, PARIS FASHION WEEK, TUILERIES PALACE "In the hunt for a serial killer nicknamed the Gay Slayer, the U.K.’s top crime show outed me to the entire country. They then doubled-down, comparing me to a gay teenage street prostitute. Everyone has their own path to the world of true crime. That was mine. . ." Author D. J. Swales, international tumbleweed of 120 countries and 45 U.S. states, invites you to explore the Dark Earth. Discover a new perspective on true crime, dark travel journals, serial killers, twisted history, mysteries, cryptids, and terrifying folklore. When D. J.'s travel journals burned in Seoul, he wrote new ones. Enjoy all your favourite dark themes from wanderings on the open road. From the dangerous world of London rent boys, to familiar places seen from dark paths after midnight. Discover the Dark Earth through the eyes of someone who has lived it. His only constant companion, a huge suitcase called Letitia. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    EP 2 | 15Minutes2Kill | Tokyo Underworld: Airi Sato and the Murder Behind the Livestream | Pt 2 of 2

  6. May 9 ·  Bonus

    EP 1 | 15Minutes2Kill | Tokyo Underworld: Airi Sato and the Murder Behind the Livestream | Pt 1 of 2

    Before the murder, there was the world that spawned it. Where parasocial obsessions met the grind of content creation. Airi Sato was a social media influencer and live streamer murdered on the streets of Tokyo by a former fan. This prelude and Dark Journal takes the listener from the host bars of Shinjuku to the front row of Paris Fashion Week — where your host D.J. Swales worked alongside K-Pop megastar HyunA and the late designer Kenzo. With a detour through history, we go from the glittering heights of live streaming to its perilous shadows. The same tool. Very different worlds. Meet Yuriko: fictional, but completely real. A farm girl turned Kabukichō hostess, live streaming her way through Shinjuku's neon alleyways, feeding the algorithm and ignoring the creeps in the comments. Yuriko is every brave young woman who believes that visibility should never have to compromise safety.  Dark travel journals, true crime, and creatures of shadow. Welcome to 15Minutes2Kill. Recorded in Times Square, New York City. KEY WORDS: TOKYO UNDERWORLD, AIRI SATO, STALKER, PARASOCIAL, LIVE STREAM, RED LIGHT DISTRICT, K-POP, HYUNAH, PARIS FASHION WEEK, TUILERIES PALACE "In the hunt for a serial killer nicknamed the Gay Slayer, the U.K.’s top crime show outed me to the entire country. They then doubled-down, comparing me to a gay teenage street prostitute. Everyone has their own path to the world of true crime. That was mine. . ." Author D. J. Swales, international tumbleweed of 120 countries and 45 U.S. states, invites you to explore the Dark Earth. Discover a new perspective on true crime, dark travel journals, serial killers, twisted history, mysteries, cryptids, and terrifying folklore. When D. J.'s travel journals burned in Seoul, he wrote new ones. Enjoy all your favourite dark themes from wanderings on the open road. From the dangerous world of London rent boys, to familiar places seen from dark paths after midnight. Discover the Dark Earth through the eyes of someone who has lived it. His only constant companion, a huge suitcase called Letitia. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    EP 1 | 15Minutes2Kill | Tokyo Underworld: Airi Sato and the Murder Behind the Livestream | Pt 1 of 2
  • 1 Trailer
    5 Episodes

Trailer

5
out of 5
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About

"In the hunt for a serial killer nicknamed the Gay Slayer, the U.K.’s top crime show outed me to the entire country. Then doubled-down, comparing me to a gay teenage street prostitute." Those are the words of your host, D. J. Swales, night walker of the Dark Earth and possibly reformed prostitute. Author, podcaster, and human tumbleweed, D. J. fled the bloody Northern Ireland conflict as a child, then kept on going. Since that wet night on a ferry to Liverpool, D. J. drifted across 120 countries and 45 US states. But he'll always see the world through the lens of what he calls Belfast Gothic. D. J. kept travel journals all his writing life. Most of them burned with his home in Seoul, South Korea. A dozen more disappeared in the red dust of West Texas. But their curious, kamikaze, and bookish spirit lives on in 15minutes2kill. If the 15minutes2kill podcast was a happy hour cocktail in a Times Square dive joint, and author D.J. Swales was your bartender, what would the recipe be? Well, first the glass would be salted with Angela’s Ashes, then sweetened with syrup of Rotten Mango. Mixers would be Morbid, The X-Files, and The Amazing Race. David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs would deejay in the corner. Empty barstools would be occupied by the ghouls of Times Square-past, courtesy of Tales from the Crypt and Most Haunted. Chasers, if required, would be flaming shots of Baby Reindeer, Crazy Rich Asians, and Encyclopedia Britannica. And if you slam back the Youtube version of this cocktail, you can expect calligraphy to flow like margaritas in Cancun. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

  • Creator
    D.J. Swales
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    6
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © David Swales
  • Show Website
    15Minutes2Kill