First True Crime

Mix in murderous maids, bumbling burglars, and unflinching local heroes and you have True Crime Philadelphia.

Murder, terrorism, and mass killings were prominent in the news for 2018, and in this true crime anthology, you will find the cases that made international headlines from January to the end of December.

On September 6, 1949, 28-year-old Howard Barton Unruh shot 13 people, in less than 12 minutes, on his block in East Camden, New Jersey. The shocking, true story of the first recorded mass-shooting in America has never been told, until now. Through the eyes of the young boy who visited Howard regularly to listen to his war stories, and the mother trying to piece together the disturbing inner-workings of her son’s mind, Ellen Green uncovers the chilling true story of Howard Unruh - the quiet oddball who meticulously plotted his revenge on the neighbors who shunned him.

Listen as five criminals tell their stories. Jay Jay found trouble young, very young. Serving time at age 12 is not the beginning of Jay Jay’s descent into criminality. Cjay has been in nearly as many prisons as she has fingers, yet nothing in her upbringing predestined her for crime. Lawrence, a child raised in American ghetto circumstances, became the epitome of extreme violence while at the same time holding tight an inner secret of female identity. Brian was a young man with a twinkle in his eye and a propensity for getting caught.