WILDCIDE

Nightmare in Albuquerque

In the mid-2000s, Albuquerque, New Mexico was gripped by a fear it couldn’t quite name. People were being found dead inside their homes — with no connections and without clear motives. At first, the cases appeared unrelated. Different neighborhoods. Different victims. Different MO. No obvious pattern. Just a growing sense that something was wrong.
It begins with Carlos Esquibel, a 37-year-old designer whose welcoming nature would prove fatal, followed just days later by Josephine Selvage, an 81-year-old retired schoolteacher with Alzheimer’s who was attacked inside the only place she knew as safe. Two years later, the city was shaken again by the brutal murders of Tak and Pung Yi — beloved elders in Albuquerque’s Korean American community — a case so desperate for answers that the wrong men were arrested and imprisoned.
But the true turning point comes six days after a wedding.
Scott Pierce and Katherine Bailey were newlyweds, settling into their first home together, building an ordinary, hopeful future. In the early hours of one June morning, that future was destroyed when a gunman entered their home looking for someone else. Scott was killed defending his wife. Katherine survived — and immediately became both a widow and a suspect.
What followed was a rapid investigation, a seemingly neat explanation, and a case that appeared closed. Until it wasn’t.
When long-untested DNA from the Yi murders was finally processed, it revealed a truth far more disturbing than anyone expected: all of these deaths were connected. The evidence pointed not to a single motive or moment of rage, but to a man who moved through homes at night, escalated without hesitation, and left devastation behind while systems lagged just long enough to fail.
At the center of it all was Clifton Bloomfield — a man who blended into everyday life while committing serial violence, whose crimes reframed everything investigators thought they understood.
Nightmare in Albuquerque is a case that forces an uncomfortable question to linger long after the episode ends: How many lives are shaped — or ended — not just by violence, but by when the truth finally arrives?

Shortcide: What Are the Odds!? (ADHD Version)

HAPPY NEW YEAR WILDCIDERS! We begin 2026 with a WILD Shortcide.
In today's Shortcide, we’re diving into two of the most impossibly timed brushes with fate you’ve probably never heard of.
Bailey tells the story of a stranger who makes a split-second decision on a train platform… and ends up saving the life of someone tied to one of the most infamous chapters in American history. No one knew the full weight of it in the moment—not even the guy who did the saving.
Meanwhile, Chelsea shares a jaw-dropping tale of survival that defies all logic. Think: being in the wrong place at the wrong time… twice. And still walking away.
Two lives. Two absurd twists of fate. And one big question: what are the odds?

Hijacker: A Conversation with Martin McNally

In this exclusive Wildcide interview, Bailey gets the opportunity to sit down with hijacker Martin J. McNally and the directors of the new Netflix documentary Skyjacker, Eli Kooris and Joshua Shaffer. Together, they unpack the unbelievable real story behind the hijacking of Flight 119, the 320-mph parachute jump that stunned the nation, and the decades inside federal prison that followed. Martin reflects openly on the choices that defined his life, while Eli and Joshua share what it took to bring this larger-than-life case to the screen. This is the conversation that completes our two-part series — raw, candid, and stranger than fiction.

Hijacked: The Case of Martin McNally (Part 2)

In Part 2, we pick up where we left off: Martin McNally has made it out of the sky alive — bruised, concussed, and unaware that the FBI is already tracing the fingerprints that will lead straight to him. Within days, Martin is captured, sentenced to life in federal prison, and shipped to USP Marion — the most secure prison in America.
And inside those walls, he meets someone who will change everything: fellow skyjacker Garrett Brock Trapnell, a charismatic con man whose influence sparks not one, but two of the most shocking escape attempts in U.S. history.
First comes the daring helicopter hijacking led by Barbara Oswald, a military veteran and mother of five who believes she’s rescuing the men she loves. Then comes her daughter, 17-year-old Robin Oswald, who boards a TWA flight with what she claims is dynamite strapped to her chest — demanding Trapnell’s release in one of the strangest hijackings of the era.
Bailey and Chelsea break down the psychology of manipulation, the sociological forces that made hijackers into folk antiheroes, and the human cost paid by the women who got pulled into these men’s orbit.
This is the conclusion of a story about obsession, charisma, desperation, and the final unraveling of America’s Golden Age of Hijacking.
 
Go to: American Skyjacker for more information.
Want to recommend a wild case or just give s a shout?Contact us at Wildcidepodcast@gmail.com
For Wildcider Merch, visit www.wildcidepodcast.com  
Find us on Facebook@ Wildcide Podcast. Follow us on Instagram @wildcidepodcast
PS: Don’t forget Wildcide Wednesdays- new episodes drop every Wednesday at 6am EST. Interviews will drop every other Friday at 6am EST.Background music by Brad Parsons at Train Sound Studio. Art for the podcast was created by Kelly Steen. 
 
References:
True crime ‘American Skyjacker’ retells St. Louis hijacking | STLPR
BOARDING: ST. LOUIS TO TULSA THE UNBELIEVABLY TRUE STORY OF AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 119 - Criminal Defense Lawyer | McAlester | Wagner & Lynch
Martin J. McNally - Prison Escape - Gangland Wire
D.B. Cooper, Martin McNally, and the Golden Age of Skyjacking | OUPblog
The Final Flight of Martin McNally - St. Louis Riverfront Times

Hijacked: The Case of Martin McNally (Part 1)

Long before TSA lines and shoe removal, American skies lived through the *Golden Age of Hijacking*. Between 1968 and 1972, more than 130 airliners were commandeered — and one bored ex–Navy airplane electrician from Detroit decided he could turn that chaos into his big score.
Part 1 traces how Martin J. McNally became obsessed with D.B. Cooper, studied parachutes in the library, and convinced himself he could hijack a jet, get rich, and vanish. Under the fake name “Robert Wilson,” he boards *American Airlines Flight 119* with a sawed-off rifle hidden in a briefcase and turns a short hop from St. Louis to Tulsa into an 11-hour hostage crisis watched across the country.
As passengers slide down emergency chutes, FBI agents actually climb aboard to teach a hijacker how to wear his parachute, and a furious businessman floors his Cadillac straight into a taxiing 727, Bailey and Chelsea pull apart the psychology and sociology of a time when hijacking felt almost… normal. Part 1 ends in the dead of night, with McNally hanging off the rear stairs of a Boeing 727 at 300 miles an hour, a half-million dollars tied to his waist — and a jump that won’t go the way he planned.
Go to: American Skyjacker for more information.
 

Mark Hopkinson (Part 2): Killer by Proxy

A key witness disappears. A body is found. A grand jury convenes. And suddenly the man who ruled Bridger Valley through fear is no longer hunting—he’s being hunted.This episode takes you inside Hickey’s bombshell confession, the federal takedown of Hopkinson’s criminal network, the high-security trial that shook Wyoming, and the appeals battle that dragged on for years.This is the downfall of a rural crime boss, the story the valley whispered about for decades—and the case that still stands as the most dangerous, far-reaching prosecution in Wyoming history.
 
Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe, rate and review on your favorite podcast listening app!
Want to recommend a wild case or just give s a shout?Contact us at Wildcidepodcast@gmail.com
For Wildcider Merch, visit www.wildcidepodcast.com  
Find us on Facebook@ Wildcide Podcast. Follow us on Instagram @wildcidepodcast
PS: Don’t forget Wildcide Wednesdays- new episodes drop every Wednesday at 6am EST. Interviews will drop every other Friday at 6am EST.Background music by Brad Parsons at Train Sound Studio. Art for the podcast was created by Kelly Steen. 
 

Mark Hopkinson (Part 1): Killer by Proxy

In Part 1 of our two-part deep dive into the Hopkinson case, we trace the origins of one of Wyoming’s most shocking criminal sagas. Beginning in the quiet, rural Bridger Valley—where authority flows through family networks and reputation—we follow the early life of Mark Hopkinson, a charismatic local favorite whose charm masked a growing pattern of manipulation, violence, and unchecked entitlement.
What starts as a simple water-and-sewer dispute soon spirals into intimidation, threats, and the deadly bombing that kills attorney Vincent Vehar and his family. At the same time, investigators uncover another hidden crime: the murder of 15-year-old Kellie Wyckhuyse, buried beneath a web of lies crafted by Mark and his inner circle.
As alliances fracture and witnesses begin to crack, federal authorities reopen a forgotten bomb plot that pulls the entire valley into a larger investigation. Part 1 ends with Mark behind bars—but far from powerless—as he begins orchestrating a new series of events from inside a California penitentiary.
This episode sets the stage for a devastating second half, where loyalty collapses, secrets surface, and Mark’s reach proves more dangerous than anyone imagined.

Thanksgiving Shortcide: That's Just How the Fruitcake Crumbles

This Thanksgiving, we’re serving up something sweeter than Aunt Carol’s mystery casserole. When a beloved Texas fruitcake company started bleeding money, nobody expected the sticky fingers behind the mess to belong to the accountant who made the dough.
 
Join us as we unwrap the embezzlement scandal that turned corporate holiday cheer into a true crime feast- complete with shady spreadsheets, fancy cars and one heck of a fruitcake crumble.
It’s a slice of crime that’s nutty, rich and perfect for the holidays.

Dr. Daryl Davis: Confronting Racism One Klansman at a Time (Part 2)

Last week in Part 1, we sat down with musician, author, and racial bridge-builder Dr. Daryl Davis—a man who has spent decades sitting across from members of the Ku Klux Klan and asking the world’s most disarming question: “How can you hate me when you don’t even know me?” Daryl shared how simple human curiosity opened doors that fear had sealed shut, and how that first conversation led to dozens of Klansmen walking away from hate.
In Part 2, we go deeper.Daryl brings us inside the psychology of extremism, the anatomy of white supremacy, and the personal cost of choosing to confront hate face-to-face. He talks about confronting Klan leaders, gaining access to secret meetings, the moment he realized he could influence deradicalization, and the unexpected friendships that formed along the way. We explore what makes people vulnerable to extremist ideology, what pulls them out, and what every one of us can learn from his approach.
This conclusion is powerful, challenging, and unexpectedly hopeful.If Part 1 showed how one conversation can change a person, Part 2 shows how those conversations can change an entire movement.
To purchase Dr. Davis' books, click HERE. 

The Charrette: Ann Atwater and C.P. Ellis (Part 2)

In Part 2, we pick up inside Durham’s 1971 school charrette — the collision point where a civil rights legend and a Klan leader are forced to sit face-to-face for ten days and decide the fate of the city’s schools. What begins as shouting, sabotage, and years of rage finally cracks open into something neither of them saw coming: recognition.
Across long days and brutal night sessions, Ann Atwater and C.P. Ellis stop fighting at each other and start fighting to be heard. Their defenses crumble, their fears surface, and the truth slips out — their children are suffering under the same broken system. And when integration is finally put to a public vote, every eye in Durham waits for one man to choose who he really is.
Then C.P. Ellis does the unthinkable: he stands, admits he’s been wrong, and tears up his Klan card in front of the entire room.
What follows isn’t a miracle but rather more of a transformation. Durham moves toward full school integration, and Ann and C.P. begin a decades-long partnership that reshapes their city, their families, and ultimately, each other. From enemies to advocates to inseparable friends, their story becomes one of the most unlikely — and important — alliances in civil rights history.
This is the moment hate loses its footing… and history shifts.
**Tune into our Part 2 Interview with Dr. Daryl Davis on Friday 11/20/25**