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    New Podcast Takes True Crime in a New Direction

    New+Podcast+Takes+True+Crime+in+a+New+Direction

    Over the past couple of years, true crime has become its own phenomena. Documentaries come out in troves, web series that garner millions of views, Reddit threads of sleuths trying to solve unsolved murders, and many, many podcasts that cover a wide range of topics within the true crime community.

    Jensen and Holes: The Murder Squad, however, is different–and exactly what every true crime fan wanted. Billy Jensen and Paul Holes host this new podcast based off of this: crowd-sourcing and social media can solve murders. Those who have spent years being fascinated by crimes to have the ability to help solve unsolved murders.

    Host Billy Jensen is an American crime writer, writing for different publications such as the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, and several more major publications. He’s worked for the past 15 years to find the truth and shed light on the forgotten. He sees the value of social media and crowdsourcing in solving crimes, presenting “Solving Murders With Social Media.” 

    Host Paul Holes is a now retired crime investigator, one of his most notable cases being that of the “Golden State Killer” Joseph James D’Angelo. He specialized in cold cases, returning in hopes of finding what was missed in order to give victims, their families, and survivors justice.

    The premise of this podcast is that Jensen and Holes spend an hour presenting the information of the case. Usually, the killer has already been caught (so far in the episodes, which they have 4 of) and there are unidentified victims they present in hopes of finding their identities. They have a guest in every episode, the most recent being Pamela Escalante, a survivor of D’Angelo and outside of the canonical 50 assault victims he had. Then if one has information, they can contact them directly on their website. The goal is to as a whole give justice, not for individual glory.

    For those who are true crime fans, it’s a good change of pace and has a goal for the greater good. In a time where true crime has become its own community, it can be seen as unnerving as it can possibly dehumanize victims and glorify killers if done wrong. The Murder Squad acts maturely as to present the facts, focus on the victims, and have the ultimate goal of solving cold cases. If you are not of a faint heart, it is a good listen and comes out weekly on Mondays.

    It can be found on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify.

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