New podcasts 2021: Deathbed Confessions is the next big armchair detective podcast

Deathbed Confessions podcast

Credit: Deathbed Confessions

Earworm


New podcasts 2021: Deathbed Confessions is the next big armchair detective podcast

By Hollie Richardson

4 years ago

Calling all true crime fans: this new podcast series from Spotify will keep you playing armchair detective throughout summer.

In 1922, film director William Desmond Taylor was found dead in his bungalow early one morning. This led to a frenzy of fabricated newspaper articles at the time, and remained an ongoing mystery. It was a murder crime that was never solved, despite there being several suspects and witnesses. Over 40 years later, in 1964, Hollywood film actress Margaret Gibson was experiencing a heart attack. She called for a priest to be by her side. In her dying breath she uttered the words: “I killed William Desmond Taylor”.

Intrigued? Of course you are – we are a generation obsessed with true crime stories, delighting in playing armchair detective while plugged into a true crime podcast (just look at the popularity of The Missing Cryptoqueen, Fake Heiress and British Scandal). And you can unravel this particular scandal between Gibson and Taylor with Spotify’s gripping new podcast series, Deathbed Confessions.

Spotify’s latest original podcast from Parcast is produced in partnership with Noiser, which is the studio behind podcasts such as Real Dictators, Real Narcos and Short History Of… It uncovers the fascinating real-life stories behind the long-held secrets and the deep, dark confessions made by people taking their final, dying breaths.

Listen to the trailer for Spotify’s Deathbed Confessions

As well as the Taylor murder, other captivating stories that will be covered across the series include:

● Building contractor Frank Thorogood confessing to the murder of Rolling Stones founding member Brian Jones, after his death in a swimming pool had long been ruled by police to have been an accident.

● The conspiracy surrounding CIA officer E. Howard Hunt and his role in JFK’s murder.

● After taking a lethal dose of paracetamol, Jeffrey Gafoor confessed to a brutal murder in Cardiff, where a woman had been stabbed 50 times.

● Ottis Toole was serving five consecutive life sentences for murder, and while on his deathbed he claimed sole responsibility for the horrific murder of six-year-old Adam Walsh in 1981.

The first episode of Deathbed Confessions is available to stream on Spotify now, with new episodes landing weekly.

Images: Spotify

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