The final episodes of International Infamy with Ashley Flowers, all available now on Spotify! Throughout International Infamy, Ashley explored international cases for the first time, breaking down interesting and high-profile crimes from a foreign country in each episode, while sharing the twists and turns of the case and also exploring the cultural details that make the stories unique.
In today’s final episode, Ashley Flowers wraps up her world tour to cover a dark moment in United States history in the northeastern suburbs of Los Angeles. In 1928, 9-year old Walter Collins went missing, and newspapers all over the country covered this bizarre mystery, wondering who would snatch this boy off the street and why? Months later when he was finally reunited with his mother, Christine Collins, she persists that this was not her same boy. Ashley Flowers looks into whether this child is really Christine’s and what happened when a witness comes forward with unsettling new testimony…
- Listen to “UNITED STATES: Christine Collins”: HERE
○ Description: On March 10th, 1928, 9-year-old Walter Collins vanished. Months later, police found the lost boy and reunited him with his mother Christine. But she protested that the rescued boy wasn’t her son at all, and went on to sue the police officers who pressured her to take in the child.
Last week’s episode investigated one of the strangest murders of the 21st century in the close-knit, isolated town of the religious Knutby community in Sweden. The voice of God via text message led a banished member of Knutby to do the unthinkable to prove her devotion. Ashley Flowers dives into the manipulative motives behind the crime surrounding the community’s obsession to be in God’s good graces.
- Listen to “SWEDEN: The Knutby Incident”: HERE
○ Description: This is a story of murder, manipulation, and a confession that unraveled an entire community in the small town of Knutby. In the early 2000s, what seemed like an open-and-shut case revealed layers of gut-wrenching secrets — and it all starts with text messages from God.
September 7th’s episode explored the concerning and obsessive relationship between Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme, two ordinary teenage girls turned into suspects behind The Parker-Hulme Murder in the Netherlands in 1954. When the two best friends learned of the possibility of being separated after years of their tight-knit bond, they did terrifying things to stay together. Ashley Flowers examines how their obsession drove them to compulsive and dangerous behavior.
- Listen to “NEW ZEALAND: The Parker-Hulme Murder”: HERE
○ Description: A mother, her teenage daughter, and her daughter’s friend went on a hike on a warm summer day in 1954. One of them never returned. As police investigated the site of her so-called accident, they came to a harrowing conclusion.
August 31st’s episode traveled to a working-class neighborhood in the Netherlands, where an abusive father was employed at the Heineken brewery, providing him with an unlimited supply of beer, only worsening his violent rage and temper. This led to his son, Wim Holleeder’s, hatred of the iconic green and white label, and as violent clashes increased between father and son, Wim became threatening and abusive himself, resulting in a life of crime. Wim and his best friend’s kidnapping of Freddy Heineken put them on the map as two of the most infamous men in Europe. Ashley Flowers dives into the violent gangster’s decades-long game with the authorities and his rise and fall to the top of the underworld.
- Listen to “NETHERLANDS: The Dutch Godfather”: HERE
○ Description: A small-time crook made global headlines after kidnapping Freddy Heineken, the billionaire beer heir, then spent the next decades building an empire of his own. Wim Holleeder is the Netherlands’ most notorious crime boss — an untouchable gangster whose downfall came at the hands of his own family.
ABOUT INTERNATIONAL INFAMY:
International Infamy with Ashley Flowers is the first Spotify podcast to launch day in date across the USA, Mexico, and Brazil. Every episode, Ashley will break down interesting and high profile crimes from a foreign country, sharing the twists and turns of the case while also exploring the cultural details that make the stories unique. Ashley has demonstrated her ability to tap into the mystery and history genres with her existing Parcast podcasts (Supernatural, Very Presidential), and in this new show, she returns to true crime but with an international twist.
Every few decades, there is a crime that rocks the entire country – the Lindbergh kidnapping, the Manson Family Murders, OJ Simpon, etc. – and these infamous stories have become part of America’s cultural DNA. Every country around the world has at least (1) case of this nature, some of which are almost too shocking to believe, and International Infamy will explore (15) different crimes from (15) different countries, including: in France, a conman whose charade ends in mass murder. In Mexico, a masked wrestler turned serial killer. In Iceland, six people confess to a murder that never actually happened. And more.
ABOUT ASHLEY FLOWERS:
Ashley Flowers is the Founder & CEO of audiochuck, a female-focused podcast network. In addition to her work executive producing and hosting audiochuck shows, she also hosts Supernatural and Very Presidential for Parcast. Ashley was born and raised in the midwest and has been true-crime obsessed since birth. She grew up with aspirations of becoming a detective and solving cold cases, and ultimately went to college at Arizona State University to study biomedical research. After college, she got a job doing genetics research at the University of Notre Dame. She eventually moved into software sales, and was working at a local software company in Indiana when she was drawn to the idea of working back in her original passion, and began producing podcasts.
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