Robert Riggs and his award-winning True Crime Reporter™ podcast series is now on LiSTNR, featuring an unparalleled catalogue that comes from Riggs’ career of reporting real life crime stories for over three decades. Riggs takes listeners inside the yellow crime scene tape where few other true crime podcasters have dared to go.
This is the first time Australians will have easy access to all of Riggs’ catalogue of work which will be published weekly. The series will include True Crime Extra – a features-based approach to his true crime storytelling, True Crime Confidential, an interview-based series of episodes, and Texas Rangers Files that delve into cases from one of the most legendary law enforcement agencies in the world.
Riggs, who has won the coveted George Foster Peabody Award for investigative reporting, and his co-host, decorated former Federal Prosecutor Bill Johnston, feature real crimes ripped from Riggs’ reporter’s notebooks and Johnston's case files. Their true crime stories are stranger than fiction.
During his distinguished journalism career, Riggs’ stories impacted millions of people during thousands of hours of reporting on television and online. Among the three Alfred I. duPont Columbia Journalism Awards for Investigative Reporting, judges described his Gulf War report about the censorship of religious services for US soldiers, “as the story every other news organisation missed.”
Riggs’ journalistic ethos is to illuminate important public issues, right wrongs, speak truth to power, and change flawed public policy, and in some cases save people from harm by violent criminals. Serial killers have been caught, terrorist networks exposed, and corrupt public officials did time in federal prison as a result of his reporting.
The duo has been up close and personal with serial killers, mass murderers, sexual predators, and terrorists. You name it, and they’ve seen it from the crime scene to the courtroom, to prison, and even the Texas death chamber. And now they take listeners with them on a journey into darkness.
The first season of True Crime Reporter™ reveals how Kenneth Allen McDuff, one of the worst serial killers in U.S. history, was set free under a cloud of corruption. Johnston launched a nationwide manhunt that led to McDuff’s capture and prosecution for capital murder. And Riggs uncovered how corrupt practices by the Texas parole system released McDuff and a hundred more convicted felons.
McDuff was literally “freed to kill”. The podcast series was named a 2021 Webby Honouree and is currently in production with Big Media TV in New York City for a television streaming series that will be distributed worldwide.
The True Crime Reporter™ Texas Ranger Files podcast also takes listeners into classic police procedurals with homicide detectives. Listeners can ride along on western-style posses as Riggs and Johnston recount stories from the case files of the legendary Texas Rangers.
Robert Riggs said: “Everything in Texas is bigger, especially the crimes. And we felt a kinship with the frontier spirit of Australia. We tell spellbinding stories about crimes most people have never heard of and could never imagine. And we are committed to educating our audience about how to avoid being a victim.”
LiSTNR General Manager of Digital Audio Grant Tothill said: “Robert is an investigative reporter who has a unique way of taking listeners behind the scenes of the crime to reveal details often not spoken about. It’s compelling listening and will now be on LiSTNR alongside Walkley Award-winning investigative journalist Adam Shand’s Real Crime, offering listeners an extensive catalogue of real crime stories and cases from both Australia and the US.”
True Crime Reporter™ is available now on the LiSTNR app.
About LiSTNR
LiSTNR is a curated and personalised, free app offering radio, podcasts, music, and news, creating a new audio destination for all Australians. Featuring a fun and intuitive onboarding process, LiSTNR delivers an audio destination that is built for individual listeners’ routines and preferences. Highly personalised, it provides listeners a new world of audio entertainment, with their own daily feed of audio and easy discovery of new content through curated recommendations. Available across a large array of devices including both iOS and Android, CarPlay and Android Auto, Google Assistant and Alexa and Android TV, LiSTNR enables a fantastic listening experience, anytime and anywhere. Open your Ears to a new world of audio – download the free app today. LiSTNR.com