The Emerald Order

Fear of punishment is one thing. But is it ever a reason for murder?

Joshua Phillips claimed he killed 8-year-old Maddie Clifton not out of rage, not out of cruelty—but out of fear. Not fear of her… but of what his father would do if he found out she was at the house.

Does that make it more disturbing? Or less?

This wasn’t a snap moment of violence that ended in a panicked 911 call—it was a cover-up that lasted days. So here’s where I pass the mic to you, Emerald Order:

🟩 Do you believe him?

A pizza delivery, a collar bomb, and a scavenger hunt from hell.

Evil Genius isn’t your average true crime binge. It starts with a man walking into a bank with a bomb locked around his neck—and somehow, things only get weirder from there. Manipulation, mental illness, conspiracy, and a trail of lies buried under decades of dysfunction.

Some people say Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong was a criminal mastermind. Others say she was a deeply disturbed woman used as a pawn in a much bigger game.

🧠 Do you think she was the “evil genius” the title suggests?

💣 Was the collar bomb heist really as chaotic and improvised as it seemed?

Jerry Brudos didn’t just kill—he collected. Shoes, underwear, photographs, and worse.

His case leaves behind a thousand questions, but let’s start with just a few:

🔹 When does a fetish cross the line into danger?

🔹 Could early intervention have prevented his crimes, or was Brudos always headed down this path?

🔹 Do you think the media’s lurid focus on his shoe obsession helped or hurt the understanding of his actual crimes?

Some documentaries leave you disturbed. Abducted in Plain Sight leaves you staring at your screen, whispering “What the hell did I just watch?”—and then rewinding to make sure you actually heard that right.

Released in 2017 and streaming on Netflix, this jaw-dropping documentary tells the story of Jan Broberg, who was kidnapped twice in the 1970s by her neighbor and family friend, Robert Berchtold. But “kidnapped” doesn’t begin to cover it. Berchtold didn’t just groom Jan—he manipulated her entire family with such eerie ease, it feels like psychological warfare. We’re talking aliens, seduction, blackmail, and one of the most bizarre cases of familial denial you’ll ever witness.

It’s not just the crime that’s shocking—it’s the trust, the complicity, the complete collapse of boundaries. And the way it's told? Calm, matter-of-fact… and more terrifying for it.

🗣 Have you seen Abducted in Plain Sight?

What stuck with you most—the alien abduction narrative, the…

What drives someone to murder? For Donna Perry, prosecutors painted a picture of deep resentment, identity turmoil, and cold calculation.

Three women—Yolanda Sapp, Nickie Lowe, and Kathleen Brisbois—were found dead in 1990. The case sat unsolved for over two decades… until DNA from a gun seized in 2012 pointed to someone who no longer existed. Douglas Perry had become Donna Perry—and the defense claimed Donna wasn’t responsible for what Douglas had done.

But a jailhouse confession painted a darker motive: jealousy. Perry allegedly resented sex workers for their ability to have children, something she could not. The prosecution went further, accusing her of transitioning to throw off suspicion—a radical reinvention to outrun her crimes.

⚖️ The jury didn’t buy the split-self argument. Perry was convicted on all counts.

So let’s discuss:

He blamed a demon dog. He later recanted.

He claimed it was part of a cult. He later denied that, too.

So—what was the real motive behind David Berkowitz’s killing spree?

Was it untreated mental illness? A thirst for attention? A need to feel powerful after a life of rejection and isolation? Or do you believe there’s more to the cult theory than he let on?

📌 Do you think Berkowitz wanted to be caught—or was he just sloppy?

Ever get too cozy with a true crime show and then feel weird about it later? Same. This week’s Watchlist Wednesday pick is The Thing About Pam — a campy, darkly comedic six-episode miniseries starring Renée Zellweger as the notorious Pam Hupp. It’s based on a real murder, narrated by the one and only Keith Morrison, and somehow manages to be hilarious and horrifying.

It’s not a documentary, it’s a dramatized dive into sociopathy, manipulation, and Dateline’s most memeable villain.

Is it okay to laugh when the absurdity is real?

Or does the tone undercut the tragedy?

Tell me what you think:

Over the course of eleven years, cattle breeder and self-styled shaman Ahmad Suradji murdered 42 women and girls in Indonesia. The youngest was 11. His victims came to him seeking charms for love, beauty, or good fortune. What they got instead was ritual execution, strangled while buried waist-deep in a sugarcane field.

Suradji claimed his father’s ghost visited him in a dream with a command: kill 70 women, drink their saliva, and grow stronger with each death. Each body was buried facing his house to “channel” power back to him. Some of the women were brought by friends or family, unknowingly delivering loved ones to their deaths.

His motive wasn’t rage. It wasn’t revenge. It was supernatural ambition — a twisted pursuit of status and strength.

Do you believe Suradji was a con man who believed his own con? Or just a predator using ritual as a cover?

Let’s talk…

Okay. We need to talk. I watched Love Has Won about a year ago and I’m still not the same. This doc isn’t just disturbing—it’s metaphysically offensive. Cults are usually bizarre, but this one? This one is wrapped in sparkles, live-streamed delusions, and a woman called “Mother God” who thought she was the reincarnation of Jesus, Marilyn Monroe, and a sentient cosmic lightbeam or whatever the ether told her that day.

There’s a mummified corpse, a blue face, galactic ascension babble, and a quote so deranged I actually yelled at my screen:

“To the untrained mind, this may look like alcoholism…”

Excuse me??

This three-part doc on Max messed me up. Every cloud looks suspicious now. And the color blue? Forever cursed.

Herbert Mullin believed he was saving California from a devastating earthquake. Between October 1972 and February 1973, he killed 13 people in a brutal spree fueled by untreated paranoid schizophrenia, apocalyptic delusions, and the eerie conviction that human sacrifices were needed to satisfy Mother Earth.

Mullin’s victims ranged from hitchhikers and a priest to a mother and her children. The variety in victims and methods made his crimes hard to track—especially since another killer, Edmund Kemper, was simultaneously active in the same region. Mullin confessed that he was following telepathic commands, often hearing the voice of his father instructing him to kill.

Though diagnosed as mentally ill and previously committed to psychiatric facilities, Mullin was ultimately found legally sane at trial. He died in prison in 2022, denied parole eight times.

🕵️‍♀️ What do you think—does Mullin’s delusional belief system change the way we interpret his crimes? Should his mental…

Today’s Motive Monday is a wild one. Dana Sue Gray killed to fund a shopping addiction so intense it cost people their lives. She wasn’t struggling to survive — she was chasing the high of luxury malls and boutique spending.

What do you think — is this greed taken to its extreme, or something deeper? Compulsive disorder? Sociopathy wrapped in silk? Drop your thoughts below — let's break it down like a clearance rack after Black Friday. 🧵👇

Netflix's The Keepers digs deep into the troubling murder of Sister Catherine Cesnik, unveiling unsettling accusations of abuse and potential cover-ups involving authorities and the Catholic Church. Many questions remain unanswered, sparking heated debates about justice, truth, and institutional accountability.

Have you watched The Keepers Yet? Do you think there's been a deliberate effort to bury the truth? How far-reaching do you believe the cover-up goes? Share your theories and insights below—let’s unravel this mystery together.

Order Members — gather ‘round the evidence board.

This week’s Watchlist Wednesday pick is The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, Season 1 of Netflix’s Crime Scene docuseries (2021). It revisits the haunting disappearance of Elisa Lam — a young woman who vanished while staying at the notoriously grim Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles. Her belongings were untouched. Her final moments captured on surveillance… and then, nothing.

We’ve all seen the elevator footage. We’ve heard the theories — the good, the wild, and the irresponsible. But the doc itself? That’s the real mystery.

Did Berlinger’s series uncover anything new, or just repurpose old speculation?

How did it handle tone, victim focus, and the chaos of online sleuth culture?

What stuck with you… or rubbed you the wrong way?

This week’s Motive Monday isn’t about shock value — it’s about warning signs ignored, systems failed, and what happens when delusion turns deadly.

Here’s a partial case breakdown: Richard Chase didn’t kill out of greed, revenge, or ideology. He killed because he believed the Nazis were turning his blood into powder via poison hidden under his soap dish. This wasn't metaphor—it was delusion. *Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, Chase was in and out of institutions, deemed “not a danger” despite a growing fixation on blood. In 1977, he murdered six people in a span of one month in Sacramento, California, committing acts so brutal they earned him the nickname The Vampire of Sacramento. But beneath the horror lies a deeper tragedy: a man clearly unwell, clearly spiraling, and repeatedly released back into society without adequate care or oversight. His story isn’t one of evil genius—it’s a cautionary tale about what happens when mental illness…