True Crime Campfire

In the military, a “gray man” refers to a service member who neither outperforms or underperforms his or her comrades. Someone who seamlessly fits into the group and gets the job done and doesn’t get unwanted attention while doing it. In that line of work, that can be a talent. In today’s story, we’re talking about a man who made a career out of being unnoticed, whose entire personality could be described as “gray,” and yet, had a violent and hateful nature resting just under the surface. When all was said and done, two women would be dead and countless others would never feel safe in their homes again.

Join us live at Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camp in Equinunk, PA, September 10-13th! Visit ⁠badmagicproductions.com⁠ for more info and to buy tickets.

Tickets are on sale now for CrimeWave 2.0! Visit crimewaveatsea.com/CAMPFIRE to get your discount code for $100 off your cabin and a private meet-and-greet with us! The cruise is Feb. 8-12, 2027.

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Sources:

Appleby, Timothy. A New Kind of Monster: The Secret Life and Shocking True Crimes of an Officer . . . and a Murderer (Function). Kindle Edition.

The Fifth Estate, Above Suspicion

 https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna39556963

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I don’t know about you, campers, but I like to have emergency plans for any eventuality. For example, what if I find myself in the center of a maze with only my wits to get out? What would I do? Of course, the secret to escape a maze is to keep your hand on one wall while you walk and eventually, you’ll find yourself at the exit. This case is a little bit like a maze. Every time the investigators thought they had a break in the case, they found themselves at yet another dead end, but luckily, they kept pushing forward and eventually found sunlight. This story is about betrayal and loss and family.

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Join us live at Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camp in Equinunk,
PA, September 10-13th! Visit ⁠badmagicproductions.com⁠
for more info and to buy tickets.

Tickets are on sale now for CrimeWave 2.0! Visit
crimewaveatsea.com/CAMPFIRE to get your discount code for $100 off your cabin and a private meet-and-greet with us! The cruise is Feb. 8-12, 2027.

Sources:

Military Justice For All: https://militaryjusticeforall.com/tag/remano-campbell/#:~:text=Remano%20served%20seven%20years%20in,after%20his%20home%20caught%20fire.

AL.com: https://www.al.com/live/2014/04/prosecutors_allege_boyfriend_o.html

https://www.al.com/live/2014/03/iraq_combat_veteran_killed_in.html

The Cinemaholic: https://thecinemaholic.com/remano-campbell-murder-where-are-eugenia-campbell-and-alexander-williams-now/

Investigation Discovery's "Diabolical," S2 E8

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People can be pretty strange. And not just people—as we’ll see in one story of this week’s episode, you can add all our extended family of primates to that. If you have a big brain and opposable thumbs, there’s a good chance you’ll be getting up to shenanigans. But as we’ll see in our other story, human beings still wear the crown for weird, ridiculously confident nonsense.

Join us live at Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camp in Equinunk, PA, September 10-13th! Visit ⁠badmagicproductions.com⁠ for more info and to buy tickets.

Tickets are on sale now for CrimeWave 2.0! Visit crimewaveatsea.com/CAMPFIRE to get your discount code for $100 off your cabin and a private meet-and-greet with us! The cruise is Feb. 8-12, 2027.

Sources, Monkey Invasion case:

Smithsonian Magazine: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-170-wild-monkeys-escaped-from-a-jungle-camp-and-terrorized-new-york-180985537/

NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/1935/08/23/archives/monkey-runaways-still-number-111-32-simian-flagpole-sitters-are.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1935/08/22/archives/150-monkeys-flee-camp-stop-train-simians-escape-from-frank-bucks.html

Farmingdale Local History Blog: https://farmingdalelocalhistory.blogspot.com/2018/07/frank-bucks-jungle-campmassapequa-zoo.html

https://omeka.hofstra.edu/exhibits/show/long-island-business-and-indus/frank-buck-collection--1935-19

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1935/08/30/issue.html

https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-174-monkeys-skip-jail/159743530/

https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84026749/1935-08-24/ed-1/?sp=1&q=MASSAPEQUA&r=0.241,0.976,0.311,0.229,0

Sources, Alison Gu case:

U.S. Court of Appeals filings: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-2nd-circuit/2140129.html

https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/6943f1bbcfa51735e29ca3b7

Bennington Banner: https://www.benningtonbanner.com/local-news/former-winhall-woman-back-in-court-more-fraud-charges/article_f37d8ad2-dd24-11ec-94e0-4f8b05aedbae.html

"Lowering the Bar," Kevin Underhill: https://www.loweringthebar.net/2025/07/defendant-recruited-seven-actors-to-testify-in-fraud-trial.html

Manchester Journal: https://www.manchesterjournal.com/local-news/former-winhall-woman-headed-back-to-prison/article_63203790-1e66-11ed-ba8a-77d4d5eff5ee.html

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Today we’re sharing something a little different from our friends at ABC News and 20/20. It’s the first episode of a brand new original true crime series called "Blood and Water."  In 2001, Leslie Preer was found brutally murdered, her body left in the shower of her home in the wealthy suburbs of Washington, D.C. Investigators initially set their sights on Leslie’s husband as the prime suspect — until bombshell DNA evidence revealed the presence of an "unknown male" at the scene. With extensive access to the original police tapes and interviews with the cold case detectives who worked to solve the crime, Blood and Water tells an in-depth story of the decades-long wait for justice for Leslie’s daughter, and the cutting-edge investigative techniques that finally caught the killer.  To hear the rest of the series, follow "Blood and Water" on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon Music⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

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I’m sure most of you have heard some variant of the phrase, “nobody wants to see how the sausage gets made,” which refers to the often messy procedures behind getting things done in, say, business or politics. But it’s also a literal truth that most of us don’t want to see how sausage gets made, and that goes double if the person making it cuts corners and develops a wildly aggressive attitude to any kind of government oversight.

Join us live at Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camp in Equinunk, PA, September 10-13th! Visit ⁠badmagicproductions.com⁠ for more info and to buy tickets.

Tickets are on sale now for CrimeWave 2.0! Visit crimewaveatsea.com/CAMPFIRE to get your discount code for $100 off your cabin and a private meet-and-greet with us! The cruise is Feb. 8-12, 2027.

Sources:

LA Times: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-oct-18-mn-38382-story.html

SFGate: https://www.sfgate.com/news/baycitynews/article/sausage-king-guilty-of-killing-3-meat-2641380.php

https://www.sfgate.com/news/baycitynews/article/girlfriend-says-sausage-king-wanted-to-grind-up-2758522.php

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/oakland-sausage-factory-secretary-tells-of-fear-2721223.php

East Bay Times: https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2004/06/10/survivor-recalls-shooting-spree-in-sausage-factory/

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2004/04/29/ex-meat-inspector-describes-factory/

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2004/05/21/linguisa-not-safe-to-eat-expert-says/

https://web.archive.org/web/20160527100913/http://www.mindfully.org/Food/sausage-king.htm

KCBS Radio Podcast, “The Sausage King”

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