HELLVILLE is an investigative true crime podcast hosted by award winning journalist Petra Sterling, who reopens one of California's most infamous unsolved murder cases nearly four decades after the Hellville Massacre. Through exclusive interviews, forgotten evidence, and newly uncovered recordings, Petra peels back the layers of a mystery that has haunted generations.

What begins as an investigation into a teenage killer soon uncovers a far more disturbing story involving a controversial psychiatrist, a disgraced carnival, missing evidence, and a family whose darkest secrets may have changed Hellville forever.

New listeners are advised to begin with Episode 1.

THE LAST WITNESS

Retired Sheriff's Deputy Harold Thompson has spent thirty-seven years refusing to speak publicly about the Hellville murders. In his first ever interview, Thompson revisits the earliest days of the investigation, the first victim, the mistakes that shaped the case, and why police arrested the wrong man before ever suspecting Darren Grieves. As old memories resurface, Thompson leaves Petra with a single name that will change the course of her investigation forever: Robert Hodder Wainwright.

Coming soon

EPISODE 2: THE CARNIVAL THAT WOULDN'T DIE

EPISODE 3: I WAS SUPPOSED TO DIE THAT NIGHT

EPISODE 4: THE FEAR ENGINE