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Crimetown

by Gimlet
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From our lists

Each season covers organized crime in one American city, starting with Providence, Rhode Island and its mob-connected mayor Buddy Cianci.

In 15 Podcasts Like Serial

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Latest episodes

  • Fake News

    July 11, 2019 · 38 min

    As rumors about a wild party at the mayor’s mansion continue to spread, Kwame Kilpatrick must fend off an increasingly unsympathetic media. Meanwhile, his opponent in the next election has a double-digit lead. Can the hip hop mayor…

  • The Hip Hop Mayor

    July 4, 2019 · 36 min

    To his supporters, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is a new breed of politician: young, cool, and in touch with black culture. To his critics, his flashy appearance and taste for nightlife are evidence of his immaturity. Rumors about Kilpatrick…

  • Right Here, Right Now

    June 27, 2019 · 31 min

    When Mayor Coleman Young dies after twenty years in office, he leaves a yawning vacuum in Detroit’s power structure. But a successor quickly arises: a young, ambitious state legislator named Kwame Kilpatrick. He’s charismatic, larger than…

  • Dimitri

    June 20, 2019 · 40 min

    Dimitri Mugianis is a rarity in Detroit: a white kid whose family stayed after everyone like them left. Growing up, he throws himself into the city’s avant-garde underworld, playing in art-punk bands and partying in gay clubs. But when his…

  • Operation Backbone

    June 13, 2019 · 41 min

    Still hung up on the unsolved murder of Damion Lucas, FBI agent Herm Groman devises an elaborate sting to ensnare the corrupt cops of the Detroit Police Department. Will it bring down Mayor Coleman Young, too?  For bonus content from this…

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  • Who Killed Damion Lucas?

    June 6, 2019 · 36 min

    A thirteen-year-old boy is murdered in a drive-by shooting. The Detroit police quickly apprehend a suspect. But the FBI is convinced that the wrong man is in jail — and that the real killers are escaping justice thanks to friends in high…

  • The Mayor, the Barber, and the Babysitter

    May 30, 2019 · 30 min

    Coleman Young has more underworld connections than you might expect of a big-city mayor. Sometimes those connections come in handy. But when his favorite niece starts dating an infamous drug dealer, Mayor Young must choose between keeping…

  • YBI to the Day I Die

    May 23, 2019 · 39 min

    It’s the early eighties, and a new organization is revolutionizing the heroin trade: Young Boys Inc. Unlike other drug operations, YBI recruits juveniles, brands smack as if it were designer clothing, and moves the industry out of the dope…

  • The Kingpins' Kids

    May 16, 2019 · 31 min

    When a hungry young DEA agent arrives in Detroit, he picks the perfect case to make his bones: taking down Eddie Jackson and Courtney Brown’s sprawling heroin organization. But if the drug kingpins fall, what will happen to their kids? As…

  • The Fat Man and the Field Marshall

    May 9, 2019 · 33 min

    Eddie Jackson and Courtney Brown are childhood friends from a poor neighborhood. Eddie is the troublemaker, drawn to Detroit’s seamier side; Courtney is his quiet, serious sidekick. As they grow older in a city with dwindling job options…

  • The Battle for Detroit

    May 2, 2019 · 32 min

    A police shooting outside a community center leaves two black teenagers dead. Protesters take to the streets, igniting a movement to elect the city’s first black mayor. As election day approaches, the future of a racially polarized city…

  • Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets

    October 1, 2018 · 33 min

    Detroit, 1971—a city riven by blight, racial strife, and rising crime. In the first episode of Crimetown Season 2, the police form a controversial undercover unit called STRESS—Stop The Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets. One of the unit’s cops…

Full episode archive on Apple Podcasts →

About the show

Welcome to Crimetown, a series produced by Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier in partnership with Gimlet Media. Each season, we investigate the culture of crime in a different city. In Season 2, Crimetown heads to the heart of the Rust Belt: Detroit, Michigan. From its heyday as Motor City to its rebirth as the Brooklyn of the Midwest, Detroit’s history reflects a series of issues that strike at the heart of American identity: race, poverty, policing, loss of industry, the war on drugs, and our universal desire for a savior. Detroit’s a tough town, and its residents are even tougher. They’ve weathered riots, a drug epidemic, political scandal, and innumerable other hardships, but they’re still here—and they have stories to tell.