My Favorite Murder: Carl Tanzler and Buried Alive

Key West, Florida, 1930s. A hospital radiologist falls obsessed with a young patient. She dies. He doesn't let go. Years later, people in town start whispering about what he's keeping at home.

That's the first story in My Favorite Murder Episode 186, "Sprankers!" Hosts Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark dig into Carl Tanzler, the man history remembers as Count von Cosel. It's one of the strangest, most unsettling tales in true crime. It's also a story about grief, delusion and what happens when no one stops a man who has convinced himself he's the hero.

Then the episode turns to a fear that has haunted people for centuries: being buried alive. The hosts walk through real-world accounts and the 19th-century panic that fueled safety coffins and other odd inventions. It's creepy, it's weirdly fascinating, and it's told with the show's signature mix of dark humor and real empathy for the people at the center of each story.

Here's the question that sticks with you long after the episode ends. How much did people around Tanzler see, and how long did they look the other way? Don't spoil it for yourself. Press play tonight and listen on iHeart, or find it wherever you get your podcasts.