Bone Valley
Bone Valley
Behind every Bone Valley season is a conviction: the right story, told with purpose, humanity, and craft, can have an enormous impact. Award-winning investigative documentaries from the fault lines of America's justice system. In Season 1 of Bone Valley, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gilbert King tells a story of a man, Leo Schofield, fighting to prove his innocence in the case of his wife Michel…Social links:
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Introducing: My Mother's Lies
In the summer of 2000, Jessica Currin was found murdered in a small Kentucky town. Ray McCord’s mom Susan Galbreath had been integral in solving the crime, and even helped law enforcement put a man, Quincy Cross, in prison for life. After Ray inherited a box of files from his mom, his world is tu…
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Introducing - Blood Will Tell
Sharing a special episode this week from a new podcast called Blood Will Tell. When a birthday party in suburban San Jose turns deadly, 18-year-old identical twins are arrested for suspected murder. One brother spends nearly two years in jail before the truth comes out: authorities locked up the wr…
10:20Explicit
Chapter 8 | Bondage to the Law
Earwitness: Chapter 8 | Bondage to the Law In an unusual turn, District Attorney Danny Carr and original prosecutor Jeff Wallace push against Toforest Johnson’s conviction, even as he remains on death row. Beth Shelburne traces a system reluctant to admit its failures, while Toforest’s children re…
45:21Explicit
Chapter 7 | Messy
Earwitness: Chapter 7 | Messy Years after the conviction, the original prosecutor, Jeff Wallace, begins questioning Violet Ellison’s story, while Beth Shelburne uncovers a troubling pattern. Ellison’s moves through the legal system blur the lines between cunning and deceit, revealing a figure far …
38:43Explicit
Chapter 6 | Misfiled
Earwitness: Chapter 6 | Misfiled Beth Shelburne uncovers the murky story behind Violet Ellison, the ‘earwitness’ whose $5,000 payoff shaped Toforest Johnson’s fate. Decades of denial give way to uneasy facts, revealing a conviction propped up by money, influence, and half-truths. To learn more an…
46:38Explicit
Chapter 5 | Anybody Will Do
Earwitness: Chapter 5 | Anybody Will Do Beth Shelburne digs into how Toforest Johnson was convicted without a shred of physical evidence, as prosecutors leap between ever-shifting theories of Deputy Hardy’s murder. Confronting the prosecutor who once sought a death sentence, she uncovers a case wh…
57:07Explicit
Chapter 4 | Witness or Defendant
Earwitness: Chapter 4 | Witness or Defendant Digging into the Hardy murder investigation, Beth Shelburne follows a trail narrowed by tunnel vision and vanishing alternatives. As detectives chase certainty over truth, witnesses falter, leads evaporate, and a case emerges driven more by obsession th…
47:07Explicit
Chapter 3 | Police Girl
Earwitness: Chapter 3 | Police Girl When Yolanda Chambers admits to perjury, Beth Shelburne sets out to understand Chambers’ motivations. Tracing a life shaped by trauma and hidden alliances, her story slips between villain and victim—leaving behind questions that linger far longer than answers. …
43:38Explicit
Chapter 2 | Don't Know Diddly
Earwitness: Chapter 2 | Don't Know Diddly In the raw hours after Deputy Hardy’s murder, Beth Shelburne digs through a story that pulled 15-year-old Yolanda Chambers into its orbit and put Toforest Johnson in the frame. A confrontation with lead detective Tony Richardson exposes a case built on pre…
47:37Explicit
Chapter 1 | Behind the Crown
Earwitness: Chapter 1 | Behind the Crown Beth Shelburne dives into the shocking conviction of Toforest Johnson for the murder of Deputy William Hardy, following a case that never stopped bleeding questions. With former Attorney General Bill Baxley as her guide, she moves through a justice system w…
43:08Explicit