10 episodes

Vigilante is a podcast about regular people who take justice into their own hands - for better, or for worse. Hosted by Sarah James McLaughlin.

Vigilante Opportunist

    • True Crime
    • 4.2 • 1.4K Ratings

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

Vigilante is a podcast about regular people who take justice into their own hands - for better, or for worse. Hosted by Sarah James McLaughlin.

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

    Marvin Heemeyer: The Killdozer

    Marvin Heemeyer: The Killdozer

    Marvin Heemeyer was nearing his breaking point after a decade-long battle with his local zoning commission.

    He believed they were conspiring against him.

    Heemeyer demanded justice, and in an effort to secure the justice he believed he deserved, he turned to an armored bulldozer and terrorized his local community.

    • 50 min
    Varnamtown! Available Now!

    Varnamtown! Available Now!

    Two years ago, Kyle MacLachlan, the star of Twin Peaks, called investigative journalist Joshua Davis with a strange story. Kyle had heard a rumor that Pablo Escobar did a deal in the early 1980s with a remote, coastal Southern town of 300 people. In exchange for vast wealth and limitless cocaine, Escobar would be allowed to land planes and ships in the area. Over the last 24 months, Josh and Kyle investigated the rumor, journeying to Varnamtown to knock on doors and find out what really happens when a firehose of money and cocaine is turned on a small, tight knit community.

    Listen to and follow Varnamtown at Apple Podcasts now! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/varnamtown/id1725195343

    • 3 min
    Scambaiters: A Brilliant Game

    Scambaiters: A Brilliant Game

    "In a weird, f****d up way, you're doing good."

    Listen to Vigilante ad-free on Amazon music, at https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/f8759a8f-17e7-4e15-a42b-99161907255b/vigilante.

    Chaim Levin: The Plaintiff

    Chaim Levin: The Plaintiff

    "They were thriving on the secrecy. The secrecy was their currency."
     
    If you have recommendations for people we should profile in futures seasons of Vigilante, please leave them in a review in Apple Podcasts

    Listen to Vigilante ad-free on Amazon music, at https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/f8759a8f-17e7-4e15-a42b-99161907255b/vigilante.

    Tim Miller: Epilogue

    Tim Miller: Epilogue

    Host Allie Conti joins Hannah Smith (The Opportunist) in conversation about the making of Vigilante, season one.
     
    If you have recommendations for people we should profile in futures seasons of Vigilante, please leave them in a review in Apple Podcasts.

    • 40 min
    5 of 5: Squaring the Circle

    5 of 5: Squaring the Circle

    What really happened to Laura Miller?

    • 46 min

Customer Reviews

4.2 out of 5
1.4K Ratings

1.4K Ratings

dsharp987 ,

Interesting content, good production quality

I listen to podcasts for several hours each day while working, dog walking, chores, driving, etc and I have pretty high standards for production quality and content. I’m writing this review after listening to the story on Tim & his search and recovery organization.

Pros: the intrigue of the story itself, production quality (minus a couple hard-to-hear phone convos), & the honesty and fairness of the host. She’s open about this being her first foray into ‘podcasting investigative journalism’ and I found myself both rooting for her and worrying for her alongside wondering what would happen next in the story. This made it refreshingly different than other true crime podcasts I listen to. In addition, I appreciated that there weren’t horrific, drawn-out descriptions of violence like in some other true crime podcasts. Finally, I felt that she delicately approached the conundrum of Tim’s approach to his work… yes, he’s doing much-needed work that helps others, but sometimes that’s at the risk of putting his own people in danger. This is, I feel, a fair assessment on the part of the host. I don’t think she’s being unnecessarily harsh when she questions Tim’s methods. After all, don’t we want an investigative reporter to question everything to some extent?

Cons: we didn’t hear the “assumed serial killer’s” side of the story BUT the host disclosed valid concerns - the most important being safety (+1 for trusting your gut). In addition, Clyde wasn’t very honest on the phone so it’s difficult to believe an in-person meeting could be any more informative. BUT I did find the incredible amount of “missing evidence” to be very perplexing…. I wish the host would have investigated that further. How could a police department be so incompetent that they lost multiple pieces of evidence? I started wondering if the medical examiner himself could have be involved, stealing evidence for “trophies.” The fact that he took the evidence home with him is so bizarre. Honestly the failures of law enforcement in this story probably provide enough content for a whole podcast of its own.

Re: content for future episodes, might be worth looking into the shockingly large volume of missing and murdered indigenous women.

driven2review ,

Hooray! It’s back!

Love this show.

It’s up there with Criminal for me.

DatGirlVee ,

Great content, poor ad placement

Really liked the show and the hosts reporting. But like many of the other reviews have said, the ads are terribly placed throughout the show. Placing an ad mid-sentence is pretty low quality production work. I’ve noticed this on other Kast media shows as well. While I would love to subscribe to the show and have no ads, there isn’t enough content/shows I have found from Kast that I can justify the cost. Therefore, I just skip over the ads as they come. I just wish they were cut into the show better than they are currently.

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