Conspiracy Theories, Cults, & Crimes

In 1875, a mild-mannered Civil War veteran named Charles Boles began robbing Wells Fargo stagecoaches across Northern California. He was always polite, never harmed passengers, and occasionally left handwritten poems behind. In this episode of Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes, Vanessa Richardson traces how Boles built a double life as a San Francisco socialite while becoming the West's most wanted highway bandit. After 28 robberies and years of near misses, a single laundry mark would unravel everything. And yet, his ultimate fate remains unsolved to this day.
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In this episode of Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes, Vanessa traces how Guy and Edna Ballard built the I AM Movement, a Depression-era spiritual empire claiming contact with immortal "Ascended Masters," and turned it into a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme. When federal prosecutors charged them with mail fraud for promising supernatural miracles they could never deliver, the Ballards fought back all the way to the Supreme Court, and won a landmark ruling on religious freedom that still shapes U.S. law today.
Head over to our Conspiracy Theories, Cults, & Crimes YouTube channel to WATCH our video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@Conspiracytheoriescultscrimes
If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes to never miss a case! To hear episodes ad-free and released a day early, subscribe to Crime House+. Join at crimehouseplus.com or if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, tap “Try Free” at the top of this show’s page. Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios.
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In southeastern Massachusetts, a stretch of land known as the Bridgewater Triangle has been a magnet for paranormal activity for centuries: cryptid sightings, UFO encounters, ghostly apparitions, and evidence of occult rituals. Many trace the darkness back to King Philip's War of 1675-76, one of the deadliest conflicts per capita in American history, which left the land scarred by massacre, displacement, and loss. In this episode of Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes, Vanessa Richardson explores the history, the hauntings, and whether the Triangle's strange reputation is rooted in something real or something we need to believe. With archaeological sites dating back over 8,000 years, the answers may run deeper than any single legend.
Head over to our Conspiracy Theories, Cults, & Crimes YouTube channel to WATCH our video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@Conspiracytheoriescultscrimes
If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes to never miss a case! To hear episodes ad-free and released a day early, subscribe to Crime House+. Join at crimehouseplus.com or if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, tap “Try Free” at the top of this show’s page. Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios.
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In 2011 and 2012, a small crew of men systematically drained nearly $19 million worth of maple syrup from the world's only strategic reserve, barrel by barrel, night by night, and replaced it with water. Vanessa Richardson of Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes is joined by Ashley and Ricky from Crime Salad to trace how a government-sanctioned monopoly, a decade-long grudge, and almost no warehouse security made the most audacious commodity theft in Canadian history possible. No guns, no masks. Just forklifts, burner phones, and a black market network stretching from rural Québec to buyers in New England.
Head over to our Conspiracy Theories, Cults, & Crimes YouTube channel to WATCH our video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@Conspiracytheoriescultscrimes
If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Conspiracy Theories, Cults, & Crimes to never miss a case! For Ad-free listening subscribe to Crime House+ on Apple Podcasts. Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios
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In this episode of Conspiracy Theories, Cults, and Crimes, host Vanessa Richardson traces Breatharianism from its fringe origins to a worldwide movement that has been linked to at least six deaths. Beginning with con man Wiley Brooks in the 1980s and culminating with Australian guru Jasmuheen, whose 21-day fasting plan killed three people in under two years, the episode examines how a pseudoscientific belief system survived scandal, criminal trials, and a failed televised experiment to keep attracting followers. Contains descriptions of death by starvation and neglect, and the physical and emotional abuse of a child.

Head over to our Conspiracy Theories, Cults, & Crimes YouTube channel to WATCH our video episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@Conspiracytheoriescultscrimes

If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow Conspiracy Theories, Cults, & Crimes to never miss a case! For Ad-free listening subscribe to Crime House+ on Apple Podcasts. Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios

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Listen to other Crime House Originals Clues, Crimes Of…, Serial Killers & Murderous Minds, Crime House 24/7, Murder True Crime Stories and more wherever you get your podcasts!

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