Episode 204 - Dennis Nilsen: The North London Necrophile

Imagine a building as tall as the Empire State Building, that stretches for more than 100km through the Saudi Arabian desert. Inside are nine million people – with robot maids and a giant fake moon – living in self-sufficient pods where everything they need is a five-minute walk away. It’s part of NEOM, a futuristic megacity complex, which the Saudi government has already started building. And if you believe the PR, it’ll be a car-free, carbon-free, utopian existence – the most equitable and sustainable society in human history. But will it happen? And what is the financial (and human) cost? For our first ShortHand back in 2026, we’re looking at the most ambitious and controversial building project ever: The Line. -- Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes TikTok / Instagram Sources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com

When the son of Mormon family vlogger Ruby Franke turned up bound, emaciated and apparently covered in blood – it horrified the police, the internet and Franke’s millions of followers. The uber-strict brand of parenting advice she preached on her YouTube channel, “8 Passengers”, had been drawing online criticism for years. But even her loudest detractors couldn’t know how despicable and unhinged her punishments had grown. That is, until a diary, found among evidence of torture in a windowless basement, revealed the depths of her abuse to the world. -- Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes TikTok / Instagram Sources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com

As RedHanded takes a festive pause, we've picked two of our favourite Patreon Bonus episodes from 2025. To get a full-length, bonus episode of RedHanded every month (plus weekly video episodes of Under the Duvet and much more besides) head to Patreon.com/redhanded and sign up. Or, head to patreon.com/redhanded/gift to buy a membership for someone else! -- Remember that time a bunch of wristband-wielding Western teens went on a mission to save the world from a megalomaniac Ugandan warlord with an army of literal children in his ranks? Well, back in 2012, American filmmaker Jason Russell was determined to make the whole world know Joseph Kony's name. Featuring one of the first YouTube videos to ever go viral, cringey musical numbers, unhinged memes and a big old splash of charitable scammery, in this week's bonus episode we're unravelling the bizarre story of a social media campaign that virtue-signalled too close to the sun – and ended up crashing and burning. -- Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes TikTok / Instagram Sources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com

As RedHanded takes a festive pause, we've picked two of our favourite Patreon Bonus episodes from 2025. To get a full-length, bonus episode of RedHanded every month (plus weekly video episodes of Under the Duvet and much more besides) head to Patreon.com/redhanded and sign up. Or, head to patreon.com/redhanded/gift to buy a membership for someone else! -- When Santa Claus robbed the First National Bank in Cisco, Texas, two days before Christmas 1929 – it was just the beginning of a wilder-than-fiction festive tale. What followed was a calamitous string of bungled carjackings, high-speed chases, oil-field shootouts, a trail of dead and injured townsfolk, and mishaps aplenty – all under a hail of gunfire from the entire town of Cisco, who in true Texas fashion were all armed to the teeth, and desperate to be the one to nail Santa… -- Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes TikTok / Instagram Sources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com

The important bits: At the end of this year we'll no longer be a Wondery show. New ShortHand and early-release episodes will no longer appear in Wondery+ and Amazon Music subscriber feeds after 29th December. The good news is that ShortHand will be free for everyone and living its best life on the main RedHanded feed! If you're reading this, you're already on our main feed and don't need to go anywhere. See you in 2026!