This is absolutely one of the best podcasts i have ever heard, and I am a podcast junkie. And unfortunately many true crime podcasts miss the mark, some hosts try and make them comedic (that will never make sense to me), be an excuse to drink wine while talking about crime, or some other ill-conceived approach that robs it of its gravity. This is amazing, and I love the careful consideration each case is given, and its great hearing from women who were on the force or are on the force today. HOWEVER- The Pardos are hacks, people who churn out books on true crime that wind up in the bargain bin. The daughter sounds like a valley girl and wow, I could NOT believe it when she said "I never even heard of the word tantamount, i had to look it up. "GIRL YOU ARE A WRITER. A Hack writer, but a writer nonetheless, and your vocabulary is that poor? Like ambulance chasing personal injury lawyers, these kinds of writers are best not dignified by including them in a pod.

Celeste Headley does outstanding work here. Jam packed with footage from family of 5+ murders from 70’s. Solid facts, shocking details but very well delivered. I enjoyed this podcast so much. My heart breaks for these families. The details are raw, emotional and make you think. But it not disturbing or gory. I would give it 10 stars if possible! Excellent work. This collaboration absolutely did their homework on this podcast. Bravo! 👏 This kind of devotion to fact, detail and analysis are why I listen to true crime. I certainly hope there will be more like this to come from Celeste Headley,Payne Lindsey, & Black Barmitzvah. (Forgive me if I left anyone out) Thank you. Birmingham AL

OK, I’m on episode eight. They’re talking about the new profile before I go any further in listening I’m wondering if he could be some type of coach PE teacher

I think the investigation in this podcast was excellent and the insight of the guests were great. However, it’s a bit woke, wanting to spin the race card in places they prob don’t belong - I’m not saying racism and prejudice did not exist in the 1970s because it very much did but this podcast doesn’t focus on the evidence that the highway phantom was likely a BLACK man. One of the cold case detectives on this even thought so herself, and she was a black female detective. You gotta laugh at the audacity to put aside somethings that make minorities look back and blame it all on the white folks. At another point a guest is asked “why isn't there more coverage on news media when a black or brown child goes missing?” And the guest did everything BUT respond to the question and somehow it circled back to racist law enforcement. What isn’t spoken about is culture - it’s all put on race. Not much on how people in these neighborhoods probably saw something and did not speak up to police yet are angry at police for not solving the crime 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ It’s not ALL about race. And as long as we keep playing that constant race card in this day and age it will continue to exist. Now what they should have been talking about was how a person from within the black community who was black was likely the one victimizing their own people - how do you figure that??! We should touch on that because these baby girls deserve every avenue to be explored. Otherwise, a good podcast. You can chew the meat and spit out the bones when it comes to the woke stuff. And I am Hispanic, female, grew up in the hood and work in my community FYI.

I like how Ben reads the police report in episode two. That’s been from stuff they don’t want you to know podcast. That was a nice surprise.

Tina is a God send! It would be amazing if she could do this country wide, a house in every state. This is needed.

I am from SW Virginia and have never heard of this. I was born in 1980’s so that probably why. After hearing everything I can’t help but feeling that could it have been a mail carrier? I am one. I’m a familiar face people trust. We see everything and know everybody. Also, we hire veterans which match the profile. There was a major strike in the 70’s with the postal workers and the US government. Just an idea of looking into. I was totally invested while listening. Looked up the girls and all. Great podcast. Reason for 4/5 is he is still out there.

A must listen. So well done and so important to shed light on the disparity that exists in the media.

I’m sorry, are you suggesting that supportive housing would have led Shamika Young to actually report her daughter’s disappearance before 4 weeks had lapsed rather than actively hiding her disappearance from officials? The difficulties of poverty alone don’t absolve that woman of how extremely she failed Relisha. Yes, the systems failed Relisha over and over. But any other mother under the exact same circumstances might’ve at least kept her alive by reporting her abduction immediately. It’s one thing to let a “godfather” take your kid on outings, quite another to hide the fact he’s taken her god knows where for weeks. Shamika Young has NO defense. Anyway… not entirely sure why a podcast called “Freeway Phantom” veered off into a discussion of missing kids in general for SEVERAL episodes. I’d happily listen to a podcast about missing kids, systemic issues, and racial inequalities in said cases (and do!) but at least label it correctly. As for the Freeway Phantom episodes… they were good listening but as others have pointed out, there seems to be zero investigative effort here to follow up on some useful details that were brought up. As it went on, it also became increasingly clear that the authors that were repeatedly featured are actual morons (particularly the dad). He makes a few statements that just don’t stand up to logical scrutiny, and it’s disappointing this podcast puts so much weight in what these authors (who supposedly didn’t know the meaning of the word “tantamount” ?!) have to say. This podcast tells a story but it definitely doesn’t examine it.

Why? This is the best you could do? I do believe the 60’s are over and that term is considered derogatory and offensive.

Amazing podcast! So informative and well researched. Really hoping these families get closure in the future…

The only thing I could say was I would like the game but it would have been better to get more coins and I could play the same level of games

This is a story that needs more attention. The host is great and its easy to follow along.

Very well done!!!! I especially listened for Mrs. Romaine Jenkins, she is amazing

This podcast covers the same ground over and over. It’s a sad and tragic story, but it’s very long-winded and becomes a snoozefest pretty quickly. The podcast doesn’t present any new material about the cases nor does it speculate about any potential perpetrators. Decent but repetitive reporting which made me aware of these old cases, but boring aside from that.

Thank you for bringing light to these cases. You were respectful to the victims and their families. Hopefully, this case can be solved.

Episode 4: they talk to a “Rita” who was supposedly almost kidnapped by someone who “could have been” the Freeway Phantom. The police catch the guy and take him in. Rita never hears anything else about what happened to him, never finds out his name. The podcast host says they should find out more about this guy. Their version of that is talking to Rita who describes his appearance, but again, knows nothing more than that except that it happened on his birthday. Then they move on. If the police took him in, wouldn’t there by some sort of record of that, that would include, I don’t know, maybe his name and what happened with him? Did no one ever even try to find if such a record existed. Clearly no effort was actually put in here trying to look into the details. Very frustrating.

This is one of my favorite. Excellent guest interviews, excellent pacing, great unveiling of the story to really tell us about the girls and their families in an honest and dignified way. Good level of detail about the investigations over the years. This story is really complex but the producers kept the material well organized.

there obviously was negligence in the initial investigation but somehow this podcast manages to side step any guilt of the police department in their failures and sweep it under a broad mention of racism. the police being interviewed now claim that there is no longer any racism in the department. using horrific crimes on one of the most marginalized group in america as a back drop of promoting the police who were the ones who failed these girls is extremely bleak and effed up.

For awhile, I thought it was really good, well reported, well edited and straight forward. But I guess it has now ended(??!) with a litany of episodes about: …social activism, politics and the ramifications of law enforcement investigators are racist. Like, totally unrelated to investigating THIS case. I’d assume there would be an ending to the actual purported plot of the podcast but turned out to be one of the most unfulfilling things I’ve heard. I would’ve rated it 5 stars had it continued or at least had some episode to provide closure to a podcast about “the freeway phantom”. For like, 4+ episodes, they have been going on and on about racism, injustice GENERALLY related to black victims of crime. That is fine and I agree with the premise but make a new podcast about it or categorize those as bonus episodes or something.

Love the guest voices too!!

Mainly just a series of personal testimony from individuals that were touched by this tragedy. If you’re looking for cold hard facts or interesting details of a mysterious crime (like the amazing Atlanta Monster series), this ain’t that.

It was stated as a fact these murders were not investigated. They were. Why is this narrative continually supported ?

I’m under 40 yrs old. I have lived in DC my entire life and never heard of these cases. I asked my mom, who was around the age of the girls and she barely remembered. Thank you for sharing this grim DC history and also imparting so much information about communities of the time and the MPD. I spent a great amount of time reading news articles of the time while listening. I hope these families get a resolution.

This is such a sad story about victims being overlooked due to race. The podcast is done so well and the reporting is very good.

This is a pretty solid podcast but I DESPISE hearing ads about Ronald Regan who devastated our country by putting cocaine on our streets

This was an outstanding podcast. I hope this results in solving these cases for the families. They have suffered so much and deserve answers. I hope the perpetrator is alive so justice can be served. PS - I’m obsessed with Romain Jenkins. She’s like a superhero. She needs her own podcast. So much knowledge and she busted through that glass ceiling for all who came after her.

Well written and researched. An important story. The damage is done in some poor voice acting/effects for dramatic effect that neither the listener or story needs and some man who did research or a book on it that just goes on and on in his pinched, privileged voice about how “disturbing” a particular aspect of the case was and he uses that word about 12 times in a row. Gather yourself, man.

I’ve loved listening to this podcast so much that I can’t wait for the next Wednesday! As someone who lives in DC, it has been so informative and engaging!

This show was okay and highlighted stories that don’t get enough attention… BUT then they platformed a criminal profiler! He contributes throughout the show, but episode 9 is almost exclusively about his “profile.” Criminal profiling is an unreliable pseudoscience with very low accuracy. Yikes.

Amazing exploration of a case that’s close to my heart. Very victim-centered storytelling and I really appreciated the thoughtful and nuanced discussion of race (which is an important element in this case and cannot be ignored).

This a pretty good podcast about the Freeway Phantom murders. It could have been excellent, but Blaine Pardoe and his dumb daughter’s unintelligent conclusions really brought it down. “It doesn’t make sense,” is not a reason to include or exclude theories. One would think a true crime writer would know that. Why were these two included? Together they have the critical thinking skills of a gnat. This podcast should have stuck with just the interviews of the law enforcement officers.

First I just want say that I love Detective Romaine(?) Jenkins. I just want to say thank you to her and all the people she served during her time on the job. What a trailblazer for women and African Americans!. Our nation needs more people like her. I bet she was a mentor to many. So thank you for your service.

In this latest episode one interviewee said “some of these rapes were pretty brutal…” ALL rapes are brutal. Someone should have pointed this out to this guy. It shows how little male cops can understand rape.

TaraLisa_18 I thought the same thing! I couldn’t help but think that this could be linked to the Atlanta Child Murders too. Great podcast! I hope that this will reignite the DNA testing of the remaining evidence so that these victims and their families get some answers.

42:11. “Luminol” (sic.)

Test

I listened to Paynes podcast The Atlanta Child Murders & now this. Hear me out… have they been linked? One of the victims found was a girl but all the same background and it just feels given the time, the way the it was the black community and young children. I don’t know but it’s definitely giving Atlanta Child Murders and it’s an evident link. Be curious to see if you all thought the same. Either way my heart goes to all the families. I’m so so sorry

The storytelling, production and content of this podcast is top notch. The story itself is heartbreaking and compelling. I recommend this podcast to everyone I know!

This is a truly excellent podcast about heartbreaking murders. The host is superb. Hopefully this show will lead to some tips and get this closer to being solved.

Fentanyl vs Luminol?

Man, this is podcast is so good, I have enjoyed it. I’m from the NW dc not too far from 14th and U street. I am so shocked that I never heard of these case. It makes me so sad that as a teenager in DC in the 1980s we never heard about this killer and we were not warned about it. He. Puke have been active in the 80, 90s.

It is lovely that someone would even think about solving this case I am a young girl of color not far from DC so even if there is a chance that the serial killer has passed on it is a relief for any female of color but especially for descendants of the family’s or parents and siblings so thank you are beautiful

Thank you for bringing this case to light. I’d never heard of it until this podcast.

Monetizing for your gain! This case, families and DC deserve more respect. I challenge Tenderfoot, Black Bar Mitzvah and any other associated production companies to give all money gained from subscription to this podcast or money gained from promoting of this show to the case and resources needed. Let’s solve this case!!! Every clue and detail deserves to be heard. This could be pivotal in someone speaking up or providing information that could help the police. Please think of the families for once…

Good quality podcast.

Phenomenal journalism

Please do more.

Thank you so much for doing this series. It’s so under the radar! People in & around even the DC area don’t even know about! I hope this stirs uo something & these families get the recognition & justice they deserve!

Great true crimes podcast that tugs at your heart! But i tire of the narrative of how cops dont work to solve cases in our community without people pointing out how our community has this no snitching policy or is slow or never moves to help! So don’t expect results when you’re not willing to be a part of the solution instead of the problem!