Unforbidden Truth

Lazale Ashby is a Connecticut inmate whose legal saga stems from the December 2002 rape and murder of 21-year-old Elizabeth Garcia in her Hartford apartment; DNA evidence and his own statements led to his arrest and a 2008 conviction on multiple counts, including capital felony, for which he was sentenced to death — making him one of the state’s youngest death row prisoners — but after Connecticut abolished the death penalty, that sentence was converted to life plus 125 years. However, in 2020 the Connecticut Supreme Court overturned his conviction because his rights were violated at the original trial, and Ashby later pleaded guilty in 2023 and re...

Andrew speaks with recently released California prisoner, Rebecca Martinez. Martinez was released after serving a 32-month prison sentence. Rebecca Martinez has been convicted of burglary, vehicle theft, battery on an officer, murder, accessory to murder, kidnapping, carjacking, battery, assault with a deadly weapon, resisting arrest and felony evading.https://linktr.ee/UnforbiddentruthBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/unforbidden-truth--4724561/support.

Steven David Lampley is a former police officer and undercover sex-crimes (SVU) detective with more than two decades of law-enforcement experience who has since become a bestselling true-crime author, speaker, and expert on deception and forensic investigation. He’s worked high-profile cases featured on television programs such as America’s Most Wanted and Investigation Discovery./linktr.ee/UnforbiddentruthBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/unforbidden-truth--4724561/support.

When he was 15 (later described as 16 when sentenced), Betournay was tried and convicted for killing his 14-year-old sister (April Betournay) and her 14-year-old friend (Beth Garbe) on December 14, 1994. He bound the girls’ wrists and ankles with duct tape, then sealed plastic bags over their heads — suffocating them. He later confessed. Although his defense argued that mental illness and diminished capacity should preclude a first-degree murder charge, a judge ruled he was competent to stand trial as an adult. A jury convicted him of two counts of first-degree murder after 6½ days of trial and about seven hours of deliberation.At se...

American Skyjacker (2025) is a true-crime action documentary that chronicles the story of Martin McNally, who in June 1972 hijacked an American Airlines Boeing 727, demanded $500,000 in ransom, and parachuted out of the back — modeling his crime after the infamous D.B. Cooper hijacking. McNally narrates the tale in his own words, with cinematic reenactments showing not just the hijacking but the manhunt, his prison escape attempts, and a later hijacking in 1978.Website / Screening Informationwww.americanskyjacker.comhttp://cinedump.com/Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/americanskyjackerRotten Tomatoeshttps://www.rottentomatoes.co...

Please note that the live was done on a cell phone, due to Randy being unable to access a laptop/tablet.Ronnie Lee Gardner was a convicted murderer from Utah whose violent criminal history and dramatic courtroom escape attempt made him one of the state’s most infamous prisoners. Born in 1961, Gardner endured a troubled childhood marked by abuse, neglect, and frequent run-ins with the law. By his early twenties, he was already incarcerated for violent crimes. In 1985, while being transported to court for a hearing on a murder charge, Gardner attempted to escape and fatally shot attorney Mi...

In March 1998, Jeffrey Franklin, a 17-year-old high school student from Huntsville, Alabama, brutally attacked his family in their home in the Camelot subdivision. Armed with a hatchet, sledgehammer, and knife, Franklin killed his mother, Cynthia, and father, Gerald, and severely injured three of his younger siblings. Two other siblings managed to escape the attack unharmed. When police arrived, they found a horrifying crime scene described as one of the most gruesome in Huntsville’s history. Franklin, who had fled in his parents’ car, was captured a short time later after a police chase. Investigators later uncovered Franklin’s journal...

In April 2015, Amanda Taylor, a 24-year-old woman from Virginia, committed a shocking and highly publicized murder that would earn her the nickname “The Selfie Killer.” Still grieving the suicide of her husband, Rex Taylor, Amanda blamed his father, Charles Taylor, for his death. On April 4, she and her friend Sean Ball went to Charles’s home in Montgomery County under the pretense of a visit. Once inside, Amanda brutally stabbed Charles more than 30 times with a knife, while Ball helped restrain him, killing him in cold blood.After the murder, Amanda displayed a chilling lack of remorse. She posted...

In January 2014, Julie Lane Kennedy Griffith (age 55) was found dead in her home in Reidland (near Paducah). Investigators later determined that she had been shot three times in the chest, and her house was then set on fire in what was believed to be a cover-up of the murder. Two dogs inside the residence also died in the blaze.Her husband, Keith Griffith, was later charged with her murder, arson, tampering with evidence, and animal cruelty, among other charges. In February 2015, the trial ended in a mistrial due to a deadlocked jury. In January 2016, Keith Griffith pleaded guilty t...

Steven Nigg is a former federal inmate best known for his 2016 assault on notorious sex offender Larry Nassar’s fellow high-profile prisoner, former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle. While serving time for a firearms conviction at a low-security prison in Colorado, Nigg became enraged that Fogle was housed with other inmates in relative comfort despite his crimes against children. In January 2016, Nigg attacked Fogle in the prison yard, punching him repeatedly and leaving him with injuries to his face and neck. Prison officials quickly intervened, and Nigg was placed in disciplinary segregation after the assault.The incident drew national at...

Luis Bracamontes, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, was convicted of murdering two sheriff’s deputies in Sacramento, California, in 2014. Bracamontes, who had previously been deported multiple times, carried out a violent shooting spree that left Deputy Danny Oliver and Detective Michael Davis Jr. dead. During his 2018 trial, he showed no remorse, even boasting about the killings and threatening to kill more officers in the future. His violent past and repeated illegal reentries into the United States drew widespread national attention.In 2018, a jury found Bracamontes guilty of murder, attempted murder, and other charges. He was sentenced to death in...

In April 2006, 23-year-old Christopher Lampkin was murdered in a Salem apartment, shot execution-style, and dismembered by Leonardo Garcia Gonzalez and Victor Gonzalez. His remains were stuffed into a duffel bag and fed to pigs at a Yamhill County farm, where police later recovered partial remains in a feed barrel. The killers were ordered to pay Lampkin’s family $1 million, while charges against the farm owner and apartment complex were ultimately dismissed.https://linktr.ee/UnforbiddentruthBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/unforbidden-truth--4724561/support.

Theresa Knorr is convicted of murdering 2 of her 6 children. Theresa has been married a total of 4 times. Her first husband, Clifford Sanders died of a gunshot wound to the back of the head, inflicted by Theresa. Theresa was acquitted of his murder. Theresa was known to be physically, psychologically and verbally abusive to her children. She would abuse and torture her kids in different ways, including: throwing knives at them, burning them with cigarettes, beating them and force feeding them. Theresa would go on to murder her two daughters, Suesan (17) and Sheila (20). Theresa is currently serving two life sentences. She...

Please note the prisoners were on speaker phone, on a prison tablet, so that's why it is so loud/why the quality is the way it is. This was a live interview I conducted on tik tok, which i occasionally do on Tuesday's. @unforbiddentruthpodcast is my username.Donald Ray MiddlebrooksIn 1987, Donald Ray Middlebrooks, along with his then-teenage wife Tammy Middlebrooks and accomplice Robert Brewington, kidnapped and brutally tortured 14-year-old Kerrick Majors in East Nashville. The attack followed Majors accidentally breaking a vase at a makeshift flea market, and descended into a racially charged and horrific...

Prentiss Williams, of Toledo, Ohio, ultimately pleaded guilty to four murders committed in the mid‑1990s—specifically those of Shelley Johnson, Robert Hendricks, Carmita Dickey, and Jonathan Booker—and was also implicated in a jail incident in which he obtained a weapon and fired shots (with no one injured) after a counselor smuggled contraband to him.https://linktr.ee/UnforbiddentruthBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/unforbidden-truth--4724561/support.

Christopher “Life” Willars is a renowned motivational speaker, prison‑rights and mental‑health advocate, and successful social‑media content creator who, after spending 17 years incarcerated, emerged to co‑found and lead a cosmetology vocational school outside Atlanta called Lasting Layers of Beauty with his wife. He also founded The Life Unit, providing re‑entry support and coaching to those affected by the criminal justice system, helping countless individuals find resilience, purpose, and transformation.https://linktr.ee/UnforbiddentruthBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/unforbidden-truth--4724561/support.

Peter Vronsky is a Canadian historian, true crime author, and filmmaker specializing in serial killers and criminal history. He has extensively interviewed serial killer Richard Cottingham, also known as the "Torso Killer," and has worked on uncovering Cottingham’s previously unknown crimes, contributing to cold-case investigations and appearing in related documentaries like Netflix’s Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer.https://linktr.ee/Unforbiddentruthhttps://www.petervronsky.org/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/unforbidden-truth--4724561/support.

On June 30, 2008, in the Circuit Court of the City of Portsmouth, Demetrius L. Neely was convicted on multiple drug‑ and firearm‑related counts. Those convictions included: possession of cocaine with intent to distribute (second offense), possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a Schedule I/II controlled substance while in possession of a firearm, and possession of marijuana. For these crimes, he received a total sentence of 50 years and six months, with nine years suspended.https://linktr.ee/Unforbiddentruth.Change.org Petition: https://www.change.org/p/virginia-governor-demetrius-neely-clemency-petitonBecome a supporter of this...

Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, is an American former zoo operator and convicted felon who gained international fame as the eccentric, flamboyant star of the Netflix docuseries Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness (2020). He owned and operated the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Oklahoma, where he bred and exhibited big cats and other exotic animals. Known for his wild personality, outlandish style, and outspoken behavior, Joe Exotic became infamous not only for his controversial animal practices but also for his feud with animal rights activist Carole Baskin. In 2020, he was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison...

In 2006 in Cleveland, Ohio, 16-year-old Victor Mercado allegedly shot and killed a man named Anderson. Mercado was identified as a suspect based on eyewitness descriptions. Mercado was convicted and was facing life in prison but was sentenced to 18 years.https://linktr.ee/UnforbiddentruthBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/unforbidden-truth--4724561/support.