13 O’Clock Episode 507: Family Killer Alex Murdaugh and the Murdaugh Family Saga

7 May 2026 / Jenny Ashford / Leave a comment

The Murdaugh family built a powerful legal dynasty in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, with three generations serving as solicitors and running a prominent personal injury firm for nearly a century. Alex Murdaugh, the fourth-generation lawyer, lived a double life of opioid addiction and massive financial crimes, embezzling millions from clients and the firm while his son Paul faced charges in a fatal 2019 boat crash. On June 7, 2021, at the family’s Moselle estate, Maggie Murdaugh (52) and Paul (22) were brutally shot to death near the dog kennels with family firearms. Alex, who reported the bodies, was convicted in March 2023 of the double murder after a high-profile trial featuring damning cellphone data, a Snapchat video placing him at the scene minutes before the killings, timeline evidence from GPS and phones, and a financial motive tied to his impending exposure. He received two consecutive life sentences and later pleaded guilty to dozens of financial fraud counts, receiving additional prison time. As of May 2026, his murder conviction appeal remains pending before the South Carolina Supreme Court amid ongoing scrutiny of the family’s once-untouchable legacy.

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13 O’Clock Episode 505: Child Killer Colin Pitchfork – First Killer Caught with DNA

23 Apr 2026 / Jenny Ashford / Leave a comment

Colin Pitchfork is a British child murderer and rapist born on March 23, 1960, who became infamous as the first person in the world convicted of rape and murder using DNA profiling. A baker from Leicestershire, England, he raped and strangled two 15-year-old girls—Lynda Mann in Narborough in November 1983 and Dawn Ashworth in Enderby in July 1986—both attacks occurring along secluded footpaths near his home. Pitchfork had a history of sexual offenses, including indecent exposure, and even coerced a colleague into providing a fake blood sample during the initial DNA mass screening of local men. His eventual arrest in 1987 and conviction in 1988 marked a landmark in forensic science, pioneered by geneticist Alec Jeffreys. He received a life sentence and has been repeatedly denied parole or recalled to prison after brief releases due to ongoing public safety concerns.

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13 O’Clock Episode 504: Escape from Alcatraz

16 Apr 2026 / Jenny Ashford / Leave a comment

On the night of June 11, 1962, three inmates—Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin—pulled off one of the most daring and ingenious prison escapes in American history from the supposedly escape-proof Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. After months of secret preparation using stolen spoons, a homemade drill, and over 50 raincoats fashioned into a raft, the men climbed through widened ventilation ducts, emerged onto the prison roof, scaled fences, and paddled into the frigid, current-swept waters of San Francisco Bay on a makeshift inflatable raft. They left behind lifelike dummy heads in their beds to fool guards during night counts. To this day, no bodies were ever recovered, and the U.S. Marshals Service still considers the case open, fueling decades of speculation that the trio may have survived and lived under assumed identities.

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13 O’Clock Episode 500: Bank Robber John Wojtowicz – Dog Day Afternoon

19 Mar 2026 / Jenny Ashford / Leave a comment

In August 1972, John Wojtowicz, a Vietnam War veteran and openly gay man living in Brooklyn, orchestrated a botched bank robbery at a Chase Manhattan branch in Gravesend to raise money for his transgender partner Elizabeth Eden’s (formerly Ernest Aron) gender-affirming surgery. Accompanied by accomplices Salvatore Naturile and Robert Westenberg (who fled early), the heist quickly unraveled when the vault held far less cash than expected, triggering a silent alarm and leading to a dramatic 14-hour televised hostage standoff involving seven bank employees. Wojtowicz, charismatic and desperate, negotiated with police and the FBI, ordered pizza for hostages (paid for with stolen money), tossed cash to cheering crowds outside, and publicly declared his motive on live TV in an era shortly after Stonewall. The siege ended in gunfire at JFK Airport, where Naturile was killed by agents and Wojtowicz was arrested. Sentenced to 20 years but serving only five, Wojtowicz’s story—framed by him as an act of romantic sacrifice—inspired Sidney Lumet’s Oscar-winning 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon, starring Al Pacino as a fictionalized “Sonny Wortzik.” Wojtowicz later criticized the movie for inaccuracies but embraced his folk-hero status, living out his later years in relative obscurity until his death from cancer in 2006 at age 60.

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13 O’Clock Episode 498: The Murder of Sylvia Likens

5 Mar 202612 Mar 2026 / Jenny Ashford / Leave a comment

In July 1965, 16-year-old Sylvia Likens and her younger sister Jenny were left in the care of Gertrude Baniszewski, a divorced mother of several children, in Indianapolis, Indiana, while their parents worked as traveling carnival concessionaires. What began as temporary boarding quickly escalated into three months of horrific, incremental torture inflicted by Baniszewski, several of her children (notably Paula and John Jr.), and neighborhood youths. Sylvia endured severe beatings, starvation, malnourishment, burns from cigarettes and scalding water, cuts, branding, sexual humiliation, and mutilation—including the words “I’m a prostitute” carved into her abdomen—before she died on October 26, 1965, from a combination of subdural hematoma (brain injury from blows to the head), shock, and extensive injuries. Police discovered her emaciated, battered body in an upstairs bedroom, describing the case as one of the most sadistic crimes in Indiana history. Baniszewski and several accomplices were convicted in 1966.

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13 O’Clock Episode 497: Serial Killer Richard Cottingham – The Torso Killer

26 Feb 202612 Mar 2026 / Jenny Ashford / Leave a comment

Richard Cottingham, born November 25, 1946, is an American serial killer infamously known as the “Torso Killer” or “Times Square Ripper” due to his gruesome acts of mutilation, dismemberment, and torture in several murders. Active primarily from the mid-1960s through 1980 across New York and New Jersey, he targeted women, including sex workers in New York City’s Times Square area and others in suburban locations. Cottingham was arrested in May 1980 after being caught in the act in a motel, leading to convictions for multiple murders—including high-profile cases involving dismembered torsos left in hotels—and sentences of multiple life terms without parole. He is confirmed to have killed at least 19 women, with convictions for nine and additional confessions (including cold cases from as early as 1965 and into the 1970s) obtained in later years through interviews while imprisoned, such as admissions in 2022 to five Long Island murders and more recent confessions in 2026 to older New Jersey cases. Authorities believe his total victim count may be higher, though claims of up to 80–100 killings are considered exaggerated. Cottingham, who outwardly lived as a family man and computer operator, continues to serve his sentences in a New Jersey prison.

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13 O’Clock Episode 496: Serial Killer Sean Vincent Gillis

19 Feb 2026 / Jenny Ashford / Leave a comment

Sean Vincent Gillis was an American serial killer active in Louisiana during the 1990s, primarily in the Baton Rouge area. Between 1994 and 2003, Gillis murdered eight women, many of whom were vulnerable or marginalized, including sex workers. His crimes were marked by extreme violence, necrophilia, and post-mortem mutilation, setting him apart even amid a region plagued by multiple serial offenders at the time. Gillis was arrested in 2004 after DNA evidence linked him to several killings, and he later confessed to the murders. In 2008, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, closing one of Louisiana’s most disturbing criminal chapters.

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13 O’Clock Episode 495: The North Side Gang and the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre

12 Feb 2026 / Jenny Ashford / Leave a comment

The North Side Gang: Chicago’s Irish-American bootlegging powerhouse during Prohibition, rose from street gangs under charismatic leader Dean O’Banion and waged a brutal, multi-year war against Al Capone’s Chicago Outfit. Fueled by ethnic rivalries, territorial disputes, and high-stakes hijackings, the feud escalated through retaliatory ambushes, drive-by shootings, and bombings—culminating in the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929, where seven of Bugs Moran’s men were executed in a garage. The slaughter shattered the North Side Gang, accelerated Capone’s downfall, and became a defining symbol of the violent chaos of the Roaring Twenties underworld.

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13 O’Clock Episode 492: Serial Killer Pedro López – The Monster of the Andes

22 Jan 2026 / Jenny Ashford / Leave a comment

Pedro Alonso López, known as the Monster of the Andes, was a Colombian serial killer born in 1948. He endured a traumatic childhood marked by abuse, homelessness, and sexual assault, which contributed to his later crimes. Active primarily in the late 1970s across Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, López targeted young girls (mostly aged 8-12 from poor or indigenous families). He lured them with gifts, raped them, and strangled them, often deriving pleasure from their fear. He confessed to over 300 murders, though authorities verified a minimum of 110 in Ecuador (where he led police to dozens of graves). He was arrested in 1980 after a failed abduction, convicted of multiple murders, and sentenced to 16 years (Ecuador’s maximum at the time). Released early in 1994 for good behavior, he was deported to Colombia, institutionalized briefly as insane, declared sane, and freed on bail in 1998. López disappeared shortly after in 1999, and his whereabouts remain unknown as of 2026, with occasional unconfirmed rumors of sightings or vigilante justice.

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13 O’Clock Episode 491: The Disgraced (Former) Prince Andrew

15 Jan 2026 / Jenny Ashford / Leave a comment

Prince Andrew’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein began in 1999 after an introduction by Ghislaine Maxwell, quickly evolving into a close social friendship that included frequent meetings, travel on Epstein’s private jet (the “Lolita Express”), visits to his properties (including Little St. James island), and hosting Epstein and Maxwell at royal residences such as Windsor Castle and Balmoral. Despite Epstein’s 2008 conviction for procuring a minor for prostitution, Andrew maintained contact, most notably visiting him in New York in December 2010 shortly after his release and being photographed walking together in Central Park—an encounter Andrew later described as an attempt to formally end the friendship out of a sense of “honour.” Andrew has always insisted the relationship was not particularly intimate and expressed regret only for its continuation post-conviction, while denying any knowledge of or involvement in Epstein’s criminal activities. The association, however, became the defining controversy of Andrew’s later life, leading to serious allegations from Virginia Giuffre, the disastrous 2019 BBC Newsnight interview, his withdrawal from public duties, a multimillion-pound civil settlement, and ultimately the complete stripping of his royal titles and privileges.

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The Horror Stylings of Jenny Ashford

true crime

13 O’Clock Episode 507: Family Killer Alex Murdaugh and the Murdaugh Family Saga

13 O’Clock Episode 505: Child Killer Colin Pitchfork – First Killer Caught with DNA

13 O’Clock Episode 504: Escape from Alcatraz

13 O’Clock Episode 500: Bank Robber John Wojtowicz – Dog Day Afternoon

13 O’Clock Episode 498: The Murder of Sylvia Likens

13 O’Clock Episode 497: Serial Killer Richard Cottingham – The Torso Killer

13 O’Clock Episode 496: Serial Killer Sean Vincent Gillis

13 O’Clock Episode 495: The North Side Gang and the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre

13 O’Clock Episode 492: Serial Killer Pedro López – The Monster of the Andes

13 O’Clock Episode 491: The Disgraced (Former) Prince Andrew