The Veil - A True Crime Podcast with Ryan Wolf

• E07 | The Zodiac Killer

  He called himself The Zodiac. A man who murdered without mercy, taunted without fear, and wrote his name into the history of American crime with ink, blood, and code. Between 1968 and 1970, he struck across Northern California — couples on quiet roads, a taxi driver in San Francisco, and perhaps others still unknown. Then he disappeared, leaving behind only letters, ciphers, and a symbol that came to define him: a circle and a cross.In this episode of The Veil, we return to those nights — to the still air over Lake Herman Road, the gunfire at Blue Rock Springs, the terror by the water at Lake Berryessa, and the quiet horror in Presidio Heights. Using only verified evidence and original records, we unravel the investigation that followed — the mistakes, the suspects, and the trail of arrogance the killer left behind.From Arthur Leigh Allen to the Case Breakers’ modern claim, from the unsolved ciphers to the endless theories, the story remains the same: a man who wanted to be both invisible and unforgettable.More than half a century later, the Zodiac’s true identity is still hidden — but his voice still echoes. “This is the Zodiac speaking,” he wrote. And maybe that’s the point. The murders ended, but the message never did.Because behind every mystery, there’s a darker one waiting — and the Zodiac still waits behind the veil.While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts.If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.comSubscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work.This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• E06 | Arthur Allen Thomas & The Crewe Murders

  In June 1970, Harvey and Jeannette Crewe vanished from their quiet farmhouse in Pukekawa, New Zealand. Five days later, their infant daughter was found alive in her cot, weak but still breathing. Weeks later, their bodies surfaced downstream in the Waikato River — bound, weighted, and shot. What followed became one of the most infamous miscarriages of justice in New Zealand’s history.Police arrested neighbour and farmer Arthur Allan Thomas, claiming his rifle had fired the fatal shots. He was convicted twice and spent nine years behind bars before a Royal Commission revealed the truth: key evidence had been fabricated by detectives. Thomas was pardoned, compensated, and freed — but the real killer was never found.Fifty years later, the Crewe murders remain unsolved. Theories persist about family rifts, mysterious visitors, and hidden hands inside the investigation itself. The evidence that remains — blood, bullets, wire, and silence — tells a story of ambition, corruption, and the fragility of truth.In this season of The Veil, investigative journalist Ryan Wolf revisits the case that shattered public trust and forced a nation to look at itself. Because behind every official story, behind every file stamped closed, there are darker truths waiting to be seen.When you pull back the veil, what you find isn’t always evil — sometimes it’s something far more dangerous: ordinary people, making extraordinary mistakes.While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts.If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.comSubscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work.This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• E05 | The Snowtown 'Barrel Bodies' Murders

  In the late 1990s, the quiet South Australian town of Snowtown became the unlikely epicentre of Australia’s most infamous serial murder case. Behind the doors of an abandoned bank, police uncovered six plastic barrels. Inside were the acid-preserved remains of eight people — men and women who had been strangled, tortured, mocked, and discarded by John Bunting, Robert Wagner, and their small circle of accomplices.Over seven years, twelve lives were taken. Victims included neighbours, friends, even family. Some were killed for their sexuality, some for their disability, some simply for being inconvenient. At trial, jurors were confronted with not only photographs and forensic evidence, but also tapes — audio recordings of victims being humiliated and begging for mercy while their killers laughed.The Veil pulls listeners inside the full story: Bunting’s twisted rise from a childhood of cruelty to self-styled leader; the spider’s web chart that mapped out his hatred; the growing group of followers who became entangled in his violence; and the police operation that finally exposed what lay hidden in the barrels.But Snowtown is more than a catalogue of murders. It is about betrayal, complicity, and the fragility of trust in the most ordinary of places. It is about how prejudice can mask cruelty, and how silence can allow horror to thrive.Behind every closed door is another veil. In Snowtown, when it was torn open, the truth was almost too grotesque to comprehend.While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts.If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.comSubscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work.This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• E04 | Scott Watson - Murder in the Sounds

  New Year’s Eve, 1997. Hundreds of revelers pack into Furneaux Lodge in the Marlborough Sounds, celebrating the end of one year and the beginning of another. But by dawn, two young friends — Ben Smart and Olivia Hope — have vanished. What follows is one of New Zealand’s most infamous and enduring mysteries.The Veil takes you back to that night and deep into the investigation that gripped a nation. At the centre of it all is Scott Watson, a young yacht owner whose steel-hulled boat, Blade, becomes the focus of police suspicion. The Crown’s case builds on circumstantial evidence, witness identifications, and forensic claims — most controversially, two strands of blonde hair said to belong to Olivia. Wiretap recordings and the words of jailhouse informants are presented as glimpses of guilt, while Watson’s repainting of his yacht is framed as concealment. But holes appear: no bodies, no weapon, no direct evidence linking Ben and Olivia to Blade. Witnesses describe a mysterious ketch police insist never existed, and questions of contamination, tunnel vision, and confirmation bias cloud the trial.Decades later, Watson remains behind bars, proclaiming his innocence. Appeals, media investigations, and public doubt have kept the case alive, dividing opinion between those convinced the jury was right and those certain justice miscarried.This is more than a murder mystery — it’s the story of how memory, science, and suspicion collide, and how the search for truth can become tangled in shadows that may never lift.While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts.If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.comSubscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work.This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• E03 | The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann

  On the night of May 3rd, 2007, three-year-old Madeleine McCann vanished from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal. What followed became the most famous missing child case in the world. From the frantic first searches and questionable police work, to the media circus that hounded her parents Kate and Gerry, every step deepened the mystery and divided public opinion. Were the McCann's victims of a terrible crime — or suspects in a dark cover-up?This episode of The Veil takes you inside the investigation that spanned continents and decades. We unravel the flawed witness accounts, the cadaver dog alerts that ignited suspicion, the battles in court and the press, and the extraordinary scale of the global campaign to “Find Madeleine.” Finally, we confront the case’s most chilling turn: the emergence of German drifter Christian Brückner, a convicted rapist and pedophile, whose presence in Praia da Luz that night — and alleged confessions — put him at the center of prosecutors’ claims that Madeleine is no longer alive.Sixteen years on, Madeleine’s fate remains unknown. But in the shadows of the Algarve, her absence still haunts — a story without closure, hidden behind the veil.While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts.If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.comSubscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work.This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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