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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, an ...
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In this powerful conversation, I sit down with Robin Dreeke — retired FBI Special Agent and former head of the Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program — for a deep dive into the psychological collapse that happened inside the Delphi investigation. This isn’t about evidence. This is about behavior. The behavior of the investigators who shaped the case.
The depositions reveal an investigative team working under immense pressure. And according to Robin, that pressure didn’t make the team sharper — it made them fracture. He explains how emotional fatigue, leadership confusion, and cognitive bias can break down an investigation from the inside long before the public ever sees the cracks.
We talk about why investigators remembered key events differently. Why deeply contradictory testimony came from people sitting at the same table. Why timeline elements were reframed. Why symbolic evidence was ignored. Why the BAU’s early assessment seemed to vanish. Why investigators became anchored to a single suspect. And why potential alternative suspects weren’t pursued with even basic curiosity.
Robin walks us through the behavioral science behind all of this: how fear reshapes memory, how teams under stress cling to simplistic narratives, how cognitive overload leads to dismissing complex information, and how internal uncertainty creates outward certainty that doesn’t match the reality behind the scenes.
This is not a takedown of law enforcement — it’s a human analysis of what happens when people face overwhelming expectation, limited resources, and a community demanding closure.
If you've always felt something “off” about the way Delphi unfolded, this episode will help you understand exactly what that “off” feeling is — and why the depositions expose a psychological unraveling at the heart of the case.
#DelphiCase #FBIAnalysis #RobinDreeke #TrueCrimeDeepDive #BehavioralScience #RichardAllen #JusticeAnalysis #MentalBias #InvestigativeFailures #HiddenKillers
Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video?
Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod
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Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/
Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod
X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod
Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872
The depositions reveal an investigative team working under immense pressure. And according to Robin, that pressure didn’t make the team sharper — it made them fracture. He explains how emotional fatigue, leadership confusion, and cognitive bias can break down an investigation from the inside long before the public ever sees the cracks.
We talk about why investigators remembered key events differently. Why deeply contradictory testimony came from people sitting at the same table. Why timeline elements were reframed. Why symbolic evidence was ignored. Why the BAU’s early assessment seemed to vanish. Why investigators became anchored to a single suspect. And why potential alternative suspects weren’t pursued with even basic curiosity.
Robin walks us through the behavioral science behind all of this: how fear reshapes memory, how teams under stress cling to simplistic narratives, how cognitive overload leads to dismissing complex information, and how internal uncertainty creates outward certainty that doesn’t match the reality behind the scenes.
This is not a takedown of law enforcement — it’s a human analysis of what happens when people face overwhelming expectation, limited resources, and a community demanding closure.
If you've always felt something “off” about the way Delphi unfolded, this episode will help you understand exactly what that “off” feeling is — and why the depositions expose a psychological unraveling at the heart of the case.
#DelphiCase #FBIAnalysis #RobinDreeke #TrueCrimeDeepDive #BehavioralScience #RichardAllen #JusticeAnalysis #MentalBias #InvestigativeFailures #HiddenKillers
Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video?
Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/
Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod
X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod
Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872
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