UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast

Ted Bundy didn’t begin with murder. Long before the headlines, before the trials, before the mythology took hold, there were patterns—behaviours that escalated, fractures that widened, and warning signs that, in hindsight, feel impossible to ignore.
In this episode of UNMARKED, we step back from the crimes themselves and examine Bundy at the point of origin. Drawing from psychological analysis, original records, and the work of those who studied him closely, this isn’t a retelling—it’s an investigation into how someone like Bundy takes shape.
Because the public story often begins at the moment of violence. But the real story starts much earlier.
Through the lens of his psychologist, we look at the early formation of control, manipulation, and detachment, traits that would later define one of the most studied serial killers in modern history.
This episode doesn’t mythologize Bundy. It strips the story back to behaviour, evidence, and pattern—so you can see where it actually begins.
If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself.
Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7
For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.
Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast
Follow UNMARKED for additional case material, updates, and short-form analysis:
• YouTube: @Unmarked_Podcast
• Instagram: @unmarked_podcast
• TikTok: @unmarkedpodcast 
• Patreon: /Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast
If you want to follow the cases as I’m working on them, you can find me on Instagram — @jamesbuddyday
UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom.

Danny Rolling’s murders in Gainesville shocked the country. But they didn’t begin there. In this episode, I travel to Florida to investigate the Gainesville Ripper — speaking with journalists, authors, and witnesses who lived through the panic — and trace the case back to where it really starts.
Long before the murders, there were warning signs: documented abuse, escalating behavior, and multiple points where intervention could have happened… but didn’t.
This isn’t just the story of what Danny Rolling did. It’s the story of how he got there — and how those failures followed him across state lines.
Featuring interviews with Emmy-winning investigative journalist Mike Deeson and author J.T. Hunter, this episode examines the psychology, the escalation, and the systemic blind spots behind one of the most disturbing cases in modern true crime.
If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself.
Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7
For those who want to examine the evidence directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.
Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast
Follow UNMARKED for additional case material, updates, and short-form analysis:
• YouTube: @Unmarked_Podcast
• Instagram: @unmarked_podcast
• TikTok: @unmarkedpodcast 
• Patreon: /Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast
If you want to follow the cases as I’m working on them, you can find me on Instagram — @jamesbuddyday
UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom.

In the final year of his life, I spoke with Charles Manson on the phone multiple times. Those conversations became the foundation of a decade-long investigation into the people who once called themselves the Manson Family.
In this episode, I track down the surviving members of the Manson Family — speaking with former followers, examining trial records, and revisiting the places where the group formed, radicalized, and ultimately collapsed.
What emerges is a story far more complicated than the word “cult.” The Manson Family began as a loose commune of runaways and outsiders drifting through the counterculture of the late 1960s. Over time, isolation, fear, and loyalty transformed that group into something far more dangerous.
Through interviews with former members, firsthand witnesses, and people who knew Charles Manson personally, we examine how the Family formed, why people followed him, and what became of them after the murders.
The research behind this episode comes from years of interviews with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself. I document that investigation in my book Charles Manson: The Last Words.
Read it here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7
For those who want to examine the Manson material directly, complete phone calls and documents are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes.
Join here:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast
Follow UNMARKED for additional case material, updates, and short-form analysis:
• YouTube: @Unmarked_Podcast
• Instagram: @unmarked_podcast
• TikTok: @unmarkedpodcast
• Patreon: /Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast
UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom.

Serial killer Hadden Clark is one of the most unsettling figures in modern criminal history — a man whose crimes, confessions, and psychological unraveling have baffled investigators for decades.
In this episode of UNMARKED, we examine the case through the original record. Former FBI agents, primary documents, and Clark’s own words reveal a deeply fractured personality and a disturbing window into the mind of a killer.
Clark’s writings and statements — including letters he sent from prison — offer rare insight into how he saw himself, his crimes, and the strange identities he adopted along the way.
But the deeper question remains: when investigators confront someone like Hadden Clark, what are they really looking at — manipulation, madness, or something far darker?
For those who want to examine the material directly, the complete letters are available inside UNMARKED: Case Files, our research portal, along with ad-free episodes:
https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

Follow UNMARKED for additional case material, updates, and short-form analysis:
• YouTube: @Unmarked_Podcast
• Instagram: @unmarked_podcast
• TikTok: @unmarkedpodcast
• Patreon: /Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast
If you want to go deeper into the Charles Manson case, my book Charles Manson: The Last Words documents years researching the story and speaking directly with members of the Manson Family — including Charles Manson himself: 
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7
UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom.

I’m in Phoenix, Arizona, sitting down with a group called “Jodi Arias Is Innocent.” They aren’t arguing that Travis Alexander wasn’t killed — they’re arguing the case is more complicated than the verdict suggests. 
For this episode, I read Jodi Arias’ full appeal (300+ pages), spoke with her supporters, revisited the evidence, and re-examined what the trial did — and what it may have failed to weigh. 
We walk through the relationship, the timeline, the forensic sequence, and the competing interpretations — then we get to the part that won’t go away: allegations of misconduct, a media spectacle, and why the question at the center of this case is still open.

At the end, you decide: not just what happened — but whether we got this right. 

Extended interview content referenced in the episode is available inside UNMARKED: Case Files our research archive on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast

Follow UNMARKED for additional case material, updates, and short-form analysis:
• YouTube: @Unmarked_Podcast
• Instagram: @unmarked_podcast
• TikTok: @unmarkedpodcast
• Patreon: /Unmarked_TrueCrimePodcast
For readers interested in primary-source work on the Manson case, see Buddy’s book, Charles Manson: The Last Words: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ6QRVQ7
UNMARKED: A True Crime Podcast is hosted by Audioboom.