Accused: the true-crime podcast

21/03/2024

Hi, all! This is the biggest project I (Amber) have had since Accused. It's rare for a journalist these days to get a year-plus to tackle an investigation, but that's exactly what my colleague Dan Horn and I got here. It's a wild story about jailhouse 'snitches,' incentivized testimony and murder cases that unraveled. Please read and share your thoughts.

Police and prosecutors repeatedly used informants who traded their testimony for plea deals that cut years off their own sentences.

07/02/2024

Hi, all! It's been a long time since we've done a proper update here. It's been more than a year since Gannett de-funded Accused, and, despite Amber's annoyingly persistent pestering, it seems safe to say now that all attempts to resurrect the show as it previously existed have been exhausted. That said, Amber and Amanda do plan to launch new investigations in the same vein as Accused soon. If you'd like to keep posted on their progress, please consider joining their Patreon at www.patreon.com/grabbagcollab. The free tier will get you updates on upcoming podcasts. If you're interested, the $5 tier will get you access to multiple other podcasts in a variety of genres -- hence the name Grab Bag Collab. We're doing cool work over there and have big plans for 2024 (including newly branded Accused-like work). - Amber

Grab Bag Collab provides like-hearted podcasters a platform.

31/05/2023

🚨A bit of a long post here. 🚨
A lot has changed in a few months: Accused has been put on hold for a bit as we work through some things. In a recent round of cuts, Gannett decided to reallocate staffing and funding from the Accused podcast to other areas. Amber Hunt is now doing full-time investigative work for the Cincinnati Enquirer and producer Amanda Rossmann and editor Amy Wilson are no longer with the company. That said, we are not ready to call it quits on podcasting or Accused. In fact, Amber and Amanda have decided to expand and have now launched a network of like-hearted creators!
We plan to bring future seasons of Accused on our new Patreon page at Patreon.com/grabbagcollab (http://Patreon.com/grabbagcollab).

Along with keeping everyone updated on any news from our previous Accused seasons, we will be providing all-new shows exclusively on this Patreon page. It’s meant to be a sort of dirty, hippie commune of a platform where we create a community that gets exclusive access to a variety of shows created by like-hearted people. Amber's friend and Obsessed Network colleague, Daisy Eagan, is hosting an advice pod called Dear Daisy every other week. Also, Amber will be hosting a true-crime show written by Amanda called The Catalyst. And we aim to begin helping other's create, produce and release all kinds of shows — fiction, trivia, investigative, anything you can imagine — hence the name Grab Bag Collab.

To make this the community endeavor what we know it can be, we need community members, so come join us at Patreon.com/GrabBagCollab (http://Patreon.com/GrabBagCollab) and get in at the beginning ❤️

We figure it's a lot to ask for monthly support so we also produce an additional monthly podcast called -30- to touch base with fans and discuss criminal justice issues with a variety of guest journalists who cover them. We will also release bonus episodes from our core bi-weekly podcasts.

16/03/2023

Nearly eight years after William Virgil's murder conviction was overturned, his family will get $28 million in a wrongful-conviction settlement.

10/03/2023

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/crime/2023/03/10/appellate-court-denies-prosecutors-appeal-elwood-jones-case/69994039007/

Elwood Jones, the man at the center of the last Accused season, just learned he’s not going back to death row:

Hamilton County prosecutors lost their "best hope" of overturning a judge's decision to grant Elwood Jones, a former death row inmate, a new trial.

20/12/2022

This morning Elwood Jones’ conviction was overturned. A new trial has been ordered in the case we covered on Accused Podcast’s fourth season.

Elwood Jones, whose conviction was the focus of season 4 of "Accused," was granted a new trial.

23/08/2022

Hi, all! We’ve been quiet for a bit but not because we weren’t working. Here’s some proof.

For 30 years, Elwood Jones has maintained he didn't cause Rhoda Nathan's death in a Blue Ash motel room. But that won't get him a new trial.

10/02/2022

It’s been a long journey to get here, but Season 4 has begun. The first two episodes of Accused: The Impending Ex*****on of Elwood Jones is here. Please listen and share to help spread the story. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/accused/id1145990861?i=1000548383904

‎Show Accused, Ep Chapter 1: The Crime - Feb 8, 2022

25/01/2022

It's coming! https://fb.watch/aMajPNcLz8/

Reminder: We keep things updated on our Patreon, so if you're interested in supporting the crew and the Enquirer newsroom directly while also getting weird but interesting bonuses, we're at www.patreon.com/accused

Become a patron of Accused today: Get access to exclusive content and experiences on the world’s largest membership platform for artists and creators.

11/10/2021

If your ears were burning …

06/10/2021

When members of the incredibly wealthy Osage Nation started dropping dead of mysterious ailments in 1920s Oklahoma, few people in state power paid it much mind. After all, many of those who could do something about it were benefitting from the deaths. Eventually, with the help of a still-evolving agency called the FBI, federal authorities uncovered an unthinkable conspiracy known today as the Reign of Terror.

31/08/2021

A big Halloween party at an apartment complex in Redmond, Washington. Themed rooms and costumed partygoers. But by the end of the party, one of the hosts is dead. The police look to the partiers as the prime suspects: was it the guy in the devil mask, the bank robber, the construction worker? As investigators comb through forensic evidence, witness testimony, DNA, and even consult with a psychic, they zero in on one suspect in particular. But for what reason? Host and reporter Matthew Shaer (Over My Dead Body) returns to the scene of the crime, speaks with everyone about a night that still haunts them years later. It’s a series about race and policing, mislaid justice, cutting-edge science, and the kinds of weighty choices that cops and prosecutors make every day -- choices that, once made, are difficult to reverse. Listen to SUSPECT: wondery.fm/Suspect_Accused See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy -not-sell-my-info.

13/07/2021

Bath was near Lansing, the state’s capital, and was largely rural. Lots of farmers lived in the area. Lots of kids, too – many of whom worked the farms with their parents. But in the 1920s, a bigger emphasis was being placed on education. The Bath Consolidated School, built in 1922, was state of the art – which required money. To raise that money, property taxes were increased.

Photo: The University of Michigan Press

16/06/2021

This week's Crimes of the Centuries case is one that barely anyone knows about today -- and yet it helped change Oregon state law when it happened.

When Daisy Wehrman and her son, Harold, were discovered by sheriffs, they were found lying dead together on the bed. Daisy was half n**e, and there were signs of sexual assault. Authors Rachel McCarthy James and Bill James looked to see if this case was committed by the same madman who killed in Villisca the next year, but decided it was unlikely. That’s because, first glance aside, Daisy and Harold hadn’t been axed to death. They had been shot.

Photo: oregonnews.uoregon.edu

06/06/2021

Good talk with Kate Wallinga.

What do podcasting, criminal justice, journalism and parenthood (including really bad dad jokes) have in common? Humanity. Guest: Amber Hunt, Accused and Crimes of the Centuries ——& #821…