Small Town Dicks takes you behind the scenes of small town crime cases with the real detectives who investigated them. Hosts Yeardley Smith, twin detectives Dan and Dave, and forensic expert Paul Holes ask the essential questions and offer their own insights so the stories always hit close to home. All seasons are available for streaming.
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The crimes continue in Southern California, with the murders of Manuela Witthuhn and Janelle Cruz. Paul Holes explains how the offender’s violence evolved, how patterns emerged across cases, and how investigators eventually linked the East Area Rapist attacks in Northern California to the Original Night Stalker homicides in the south. For a moment, Paul believes the case may finally be solved.…
After the East Area Rapist disappears from Northern California, an attack with a similar MO happens hundreds of miles away in Goleta. At the time, investigators had no reason to connect it to the Sacramento series. Paul Holes helps us understand the shift into Southern California, the jurisdictional gaps, and the violence of the Lyman and Charlene Smith case. Years later, evidence from this phase…
The East Area Rapist did not stop terrorizing victims when he left their homes. Paul Holes walks us through the phone calls, threats, and psychological cruelty inflicted on the victims long after the attacks. This episode explores fear as part of the offender’s pattern. Paul also traces the final Northern California attacks and the moment the series abruptly stops in the north before starting up…
As fear spreads through Sacramento, the public demands answers. Communities hold meetings. Newspapers cover the case. And all the while, Paul Holes believes the East Area Rapist was likely watching closely. In this episode, we examine a chilling turning point in the series: the first known attack with a man present in the home, and the possibility that the offender targeted that couple after a…
The case moves into Cordova Meadows, a Sacramento-area neighborhood that became key to understanding the East Area Rapist. Through maps, geography, victimology, and old case files, Paul Holes explains how the offender’s movements revealed familiarity, planning, and confidence. What may have looked random from the outside begins to look very different when Paul studies the streets, fences,…
The crimes move north, and a new name emerges: the East Area Rapist. Paul Holes explains how the offender’s behavior changed after Visalia, how early attacks in the Sacramento area unfolded, and how investigators struggled to understand whether they were dealing with a new offender or just someone who had evolved. As the crime spree expands, Paul begins to unpack one of the most disturbing facts…
Paul Holes begins the story in 1970s Visalia, California, when the Golden State Killer was just beginning to make a name for himself. Before the East Area Rapist, before the Original Night Stalker, there was the Visalia Ransacker, a prolific offender breaking into homes and leaving fear behind. Paul walks Yeardley, Dan, and Dave through the early crimes, the killing of Claude Snelling, the…
In the final part of this three-part series, retired FBI agent Scott brings us to the end of one of the most significant domestic terrorism cases in American history. Justice is served for the people of Oklahoma City. But for Scott, closing a case like this doesn't mean leaving it behind. Some cases stay with you. This is one of them. Retired FBI agent R. Scott Crabtree was born in Herington, KS…
In part two of this three-part series, retired FBI agent Scott comes face to face with a key second suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing. What follows is an hours-long interview that requires as much patience as it does skill. The suspect's story shifts and changes, and Scott has to navigate every contradiction carefully, pushing just enough without pushing too far. One wrong move and it all falls…
The Oklahoma City Bombing was one of the most devastating attacks in American history, and its story has been told many times. But never like this. Retired FBI agent Scott was on the case in the chaotic hours after the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. In part one of this three-part series, Scott takes us through the turbulent days immediately after the bombing, as he races to…
Paul Holes has never told the full story of the Golden State Killer case like this before. This summer, Small Town Dicks presents a special 10-part limited series: Chasing the Golden State Killer with Paul Holes. Across the series, Paul will tell the full story of his 24-year pursuit of the Golden State Killer, from the earliest case files to the DNA breakthrough that helped identify Joseph…
