DEVIANT

Cold Open Media

From the award-winning creator of Down The Hill: The Delphi Murders, comes DEVIANT, a new true crime series that dives into the dark corners of what human beings are capable of. Host Dan Szematowicz tells good stories about bad people who do very bad things.  Some people are wired for good. Some are wired for bad. And some are wired... to be Deviant.  Follow the show wherever you listen and across socials @deviant.podcast (IG, TT, YT)

  1. Hunter/Hunted: Christopher Dorner - Part 1

    6D AGO

    Hunter/Hunted: Christopher Dorner - Part 1

    In February 2013, a double murder in an Irvine parking garage sets off a chain of events that quickly spreads far beyond the city. What begins as a quiet, baffling crime soon escalates into a statewide emergency. In Part 1 of this two-part DEVIANT episode, host Dan Szematowicz tracks the story from the killings of Monica Quan and Keith Lawrence through the critical discoveries that identify Christopher Dorner as the suspect. As the investigation unfolds, law enforcement agencies across Southern California move into high alert, protective details are deployed, and Dorner resurfaces violently. This episode covers the first confirmed attacks on police, the widening manhunt, and the moment authorities realize they are dealing with a trained, mobile shooter who is actively engaging officers. Part 1 ends with Dorner vanishing again, leaving behind burned evidence in the mountains and forcing law enforcement into a massive, uncertain search. Part 2 continues with the Big Bear manhunt, Dorner’s reappearance, and the final confrontation. SUPPORT THE SHOW: http://www.deviantpodcast.com Visit DEVIANT's socials: http://www.instagram.com/deviant.podcast http://www.tiktok.com/@deviant.podcast Copyright 2025 Cold Open Media LLC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    24 min
  2. Encore: Witness to an Execution

    DEC 11

    Encore: Witness to an Execution

    This encore presentation revisits one of the most unsettling stories ever featured on DEVIANT. It is a firsthand account of the execution of Gainesville Ripper Danny Rolling, as witnessed by veteran South Florida journalist Michael Mayo. Mayo covered two Florida executions in his 31-year career. What he saw, and what he did not expect to feel, stayed with him. In this conversation with DEVIANT host Dan Szematowicz, Mayo walks us through the days leading up to Rolling’s death: meeting the families of the victims, entering Florida’s death chamber, hearing the condemned man sing a self-written hymn moments before the chemicals flowed, and grappling with what executions mean for justice, closure, and the people left behind. It is a stark and unvarnished look at an experience few ever witness. It also raises hard questions about punishment, memory, and the weight of what the state asks us to carry. This is a rerelease of a previous DEVIANT episode. New episodes return next week. SUPPORT THE SHOW: http://www.deviantpodcast.com Visit DEVIANT's socials: http://www.instagram.com/deviant.podcast http://www.tiktok.com/@deviant.podcast Copyright 2025 Cold Open Media LLC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    28 min
  3. The Murder Of Christy Mirack

    DEC 3

    The Murder Of Christy Mirack

    In December 1992, 25-year-old teacher Christy Mirack is attacked in her East Lampeter, PA apartment just minutes before she’s supposed to leave for work. Investigators find signs of a violent struggle and a full DNA profile from her killer, but there's no match. For more than twenty-five years, the case sits in limbo as state and national databases expand with no hits. In this episode, host Dan Szematowicz follows the investigation from the original crime scene, through decades of unanswered questions, to the breakthrough that finally identified her killer: a discarded water bottle, a strand of chewed gum, and a new forensic tool that didn’t exist in 1992. And even after a guilty plea and a life sentence, one question still has no answer...why? SUPPORT THE SHOW: http://www.deviantpodcast.com Visit DEVIANT's socials: http://www.instagram.com/deviant.podcast http://www.tiktok.com/@deviant.podcast SOURCES: Lancaster County District Attorney Press Releases Pennsylvania Supreme Court Order (2025) Pennsylvania State Police DNA Match (via DA statements) LancasterOnline / LNP Coverage Associated Press ABC27 / WGAL / CBS21 Reports WHYY / NPR Pennsylvania Court Records: Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas Copyright 2025 Cold Open Media LLC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    23 min
  4. The Dark Corners: "Supreme Gentlemen"

    NOV 26

    The Dark Corners: "Supreme Gentlemen"

    (PART 2/2) ENCORE PRESENTATION In April of 2018, Alek Minassian sits in a Toronto police station after using a van to kill eleven people. Now, investigators are trying to figure out who he is, and why he did this. Minassian is happy to talk about it all. What he spins is a tale years in the making, winding himself into the very fabric of what he calls the beta uprising...the incel revolution. Who are the incels? What do they want? How much of a threat are they today? DEVIANT host Dan Szematowicz explores all these questions, and concludes the story of the the 2018 Toronto Van Attack. JOIN OUR PATREON: http://www.deviantpodcast.com Visit DEVIANT's socials: http://www.instagram.com/deviant.podcast http://www.tiktok.com/@deviant.podcast Copyright 2025 Cold Open Media LLC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    34 min
  5. The Dark Corners: Blood in Toronto

    NOV 25

    The Dark Corners: Blood in Toronto

    (Part 1/2 ) ENCORE PRESENTATION In the spring of 2018, a beautiful Toronto day is broken by a man in a white rental van. He picks a busy part of town...a place where many people will be out and about. He pulls onto the sidewalk, and hits the accelerator. Ten minutes later, he's murdered 11 people. Police immediately arrest 25-year-old Alec Manassian. He claims to have a cause: the "incel revolution." In this multipart story from DEVIANT, host Dan Szematowicz explores this dark day, and the killer who claims allegiance to a bizarre online community. JOIN OUR PATREON: http://www.deviantpodcast.com Visit DEVIANT's socials: http://www.instagram.com/deviant.podcast http://www.tiktok.com/@deviant.podcast Copyright 2025 Cold Open Media LLC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    33 min
  6. The Springfield Three

    NOV 18

    The Springfield Three

    On June 7th, 1992, Sherrill Levitt, her daughter Suzie Streeter, and Suzie’s friend Stacy McCall disappear from a quiet home in Springfield, MO without leaving a trace. Their cars, keys, purses, and personal belongings stay behind. The women don’t. In this episode, DEVIANT host Dan Szematowicz walks through the final hours before they’re last seen… the empty house that made no sense… the contaminated crime scene… the massive grid searches… the false leads… and the men whose names rose to the top of the suspect list. And we follow the most enduring person of interest whose past, alibis, and statements have kept him in the center of the case for more than thirty years, even as investigators have never been able to tie him to the crime. Decades later, the mystery remains one of the most haunting unsolved cases in America. Three women. One house. No answers. If you have information about the disappearance of Sherrill Levitt, Suzie Streeter, or Stacy McCall, contact the Springfield Police Department or your local law enforcement agency. Follow @deviant.podcast on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for true-crime storytelling every week. SOURCES Springfield News-Leader — “Three Missing Women: Ten Years Later” (Robert Keyes) Springfield Police Department public statements and case summaries America’s Most Wanted (1992 broadcast coverage) The Charley Project — Case files for Levitt, Streeter & McCall Associated Press reporting on the investigation and Robert Craig Cox Copyright 2025 Cold Open Media LLC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    35 min
  7. Small Towns, Killer Secrets

    NOV 11

    Small Towns, Killer Secrets

    In small towns, fear doesn’t always hide in the shadows. Sometimes it writes letters. Sometimes it carries a shotgun. In this episode of DEVIANT, host Dan Szematowicz takes you inside two real American nightmares. In Circleville, Ohio, thousands of anonymous letters turn a quiet town inside out, exposing secrets, destroying lives and leaving behind a mystery that’s never solved. In Skidmore, Missouri, a man named Ken Rex McElroy terrorizes his neighbors for years while the law looks away. And then, one July afternoon, the town decides to take justice into its own hands. Two towns. Two reckonings. One truth: when fear becomes unbearable, silence breaks. Follow on Instagram and TikTok @deviant.podcast. SOURCES: State of Ohio v. Paul Freshour (1983); Columbus Dispatch archives; Circleville Herald archives; Unsolved Mysteries (NBC, 1993); CBS 48 Hours (2021); In Broad Daylight by Harry N. MacLean; Kansas City Star and Washington Post archives; FBI and Missouri State Highway Patrol case summaries. Copyright 2025, Cold Open Media LLC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    31 min
  8. The Unknown Serial Killer: Joseph Daniel Miller

    NOV 4

    The Unknown Serial Killer: Joseph Daniel Miller

    (RE_AIR)) He brags about his crimes for years, but nobody takes him seriously until 1992 ,when he’s caught in the act. Now everyone is listening as police attempt to untangle the full mystery of Joseph Daniel Miller, and the private graveyard he creates outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. DEVIANT host Dan Szematowicz takes introduces you to the serial killer you probably don't know about.  JOIN OUR PATREON: http://www.deviantpodcast.com Visit DEVIANT's socials: http://www.instagram.com/deviant.podcast http://www.tiktok.com/@deviant.podcast Copyright 2025 Cold Open Media LLC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    36 min
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Trailer

Hosts & Guests

4.5
out of 5
609 Ratings

About

From the award-winning creator of Down The Hill: The Delphi Murders, comes DEVIANT, a new true crime series that dives into the dark corners of what human beings are capable of. Host Dan Szematowicz tells good stories about bad people who do very bad things.  Some people are wired for good. Some are wired for bad. And some are wired... to be Deviant.  Follow the show wherever you listen and across socials @deviant.podcast (IG, TT, YT)

Information

  • Creator
    Cold Open Media
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2025
  • Episodes
    115
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Cold Open Media 2025
  • Show Website
    DEVIANT

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