Once Upon a Crime in Hollywood

Mar 15 2024 1
Once Upon a Crime in Hollywood Podcast artwork

Once Upon A Crime In Hollywood is a true crime podcast hosted by Kelly Hyman. The series focuses on some of Hollywood's most compelling cases with key experts and investigators involved in them. Season 2 focuses on The Hollywood Ripper story out of California and Illinois. Kelly explores the gruesome case of a serial killer that hunted his victims over 25 years. The investigation spanned multiple jurisdictions and took the work of four separate police agencies to bring the suspect to justice.

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S2: The Hollywood Ripper EP 07 The Trial Pt. 2

Mar 15 2024 50 mins  
The Hollywood Ripper trial shifts its focus to the two California murders - Ashley Ellerin and Maria Bruno. Ashton Kutcher, the most famous witness in the trial, takes the stand to detail the night he went to pick up Ellerin before she was found dead. Michael Gargiulo's defense team hammers Ellerin's former apartment manager about his version of events the night of her murder, and

S2: The Hollywood Ripper EP 06 The Trial Pt. 1

Mar 15 2024 47 mins  
The Hollywood Ripper trial begins nearly 28 years after the murder of Tricia Pacaccio. Michael Gargiulo is on trial for the murders of Ashley Ellerin and Maria Bruno, as well as the attempted murder of Michelle Murphy. Due to California law allowing "prior bad acts" evidence to be introduced, prosecutors also detail the murder of Tricia Pacaccio to show a pattern of behavior and th

S2: The Hollywood Ripper EP 05 Survivor

Mar 15 2024 48 mins  
With no suspects in Maria Bruno's murder, L.A. County Sheriff's Deputy Detective Mark Lillienfeld continues the search. Michael Gargiulo marries, then moves to Santa Monica, California, with his wife. Across the alleyway, 26-year-old Michelle Murphy lived in an apartment nearby. One night, Murphy woke up with a man on top of her, stabbing her repeatedly with a knife. She manages to

S2: The Hollywood Ripper EP 04 The Blue Bootie

Mar 15 2024 43 mins  
After Cook County's State's Attorney chose not to prosecute, Michael Gargiulo is once again a free man. He moves into an apartment in El Monte, California with his girlfriend, where a 32-year-old woman named Maria Bruno moves in across the complex. Less than two weeks after she moves in, Maria Bruno is killed. Her estranged husband, Irving, finds her stabbed, mutilated, and left fo

S2: The Hollywood Ripper EP 03 Casual Contact

Mar 01 2024 44 mins  
Cook County detectives are looking for Michael Gargiulo in California, and connect with L.A.P.D. homicide detective Tom Small to help locate him. Armed with a search warrant, detectives track him to an apartment listed under his girlfriend's name, and arrest him. They submit his DNA for testing and get a match with the DNA collected from Tricia Pacaccio's fingernail clippings. When

S2: The Hollywood Ripper EP 02 The Furnace Guy

Mar 01 2024 38 mins  
Seven years after Tricia Pacaccio's murder, Cook County's Sheriff's Office were now treating it as a cold case. A new investigative team submitted Tricia's fingernail clippings taken from the crime scene as DNA evidence, hoping to get a match. Meanwhile, Michael Gargiulo had moved to Hollywood, where he met 22-year-old Ashley Ellerin, who lived a few blocks from his house. After in

S2: The Hollywood Ripper EP 01 Murder in Cook County

Mar 01 2024 35 mins  
The Hollywood Ripper story begins in Glenview, Illinois - an unincorporated suburb of Cook County, where 18-year old Tricia Pacaccio was just finishing high school. Tricia attended a road rally with her friends, one of the last times they would get to see each other before leaving for college. When she returned home, she was attacked at her side doorstep and stabbed over a dozen ti

S1: The Ronnie Chasen Story EP 06 New Documents Revealed

May 01 2023 31 mins  
With Ronni Chasen's investigation officially closed, Beverly Hills Police would be challenged over the next several years to release over 200 pages of semi-redacted documents relating to the investigation. Those documents, reviewed by the Hollywood Reporter, show conflicting information about the evidence implicating Harold Smith, and call into question some of the police departmen

S1: The Ronnie Chasen Story EP 05 Missing Pieces

Mar 27 2023 28 mins  
With Beverly Hills Police all but wrapping up the investigation into Ronni Chasen's murder, media speculation continued about other possible theories, including a murder-for-hire and a rumored gambling debt involving Ronni's brother, Larry Cohen. The rest of Ronni's family drew the spotlight when a copy of her will was published by TMZ, putting scrutiny on who was a beneficiary of

S1: The Ronnie Chasen Story EP 04 Case Closed?

Mar 27 2023 32 mins  
The media frenzy continued in the aftermath of Harold Smith's fatal interaction with police at the Harvey Apartments. Beverly Hills Police requested the gun Harold Smith used to commit suicide to be turned over to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Crime Laboratory for further testing. After announcing they had a "preliminary ballistics match" to the weapon that killed Ronni Chasen,