40 Fun Facts About My Favorite Murder

What do My Favorite Murder fans call themselves, a name loosely inspired by a Ned Flanders line?

Murderinos define the word as someone with a borderline obsessive interest in true crime. The hosts say a listener first used it in a thread on the show's old Facebook page and everyone ran with it.

Which of Georgia Hardstark's cats is heard meowing at the end of My Favorite Murder episodes?

Elvis, a Siamese, closed each show with a meow, at first live in the room and later from a phone recording. The clip kept its place at the end of episodes after he died in December 2020.

The hosts of My Favorite Murder discovered their shared love of true crime at a party for which occasion?

Halloween brought them together: Kilgariff, dressed as a scrub nurse, was describing a car crash she had witnessed, and Hardstark approached her about it.

The My Favorite Murder hosts ranked second on Forbes's first list of top-earning podcasters, behind which host?

Joe Rogan topped the 2019 list with an estimated $30 million, double the $15 million Forbes credited to Kilgariff and Hardstark.

The My Favorite Murder hosts named their 2018 podcast network after which phrase Karen Kilgariff often says on air?

Exactly Right launched in November 2018 with five shows, My Favorite Murder among them, and began releasing original series of its own the following year.

Which serial offender, unidentified for decades until a 2018 arrest, featured in My Favorite Murder's first episode?

Golden State Killer was a name coined by writer Michelle McNamara, whose work the hosts discussed from that debut. When Joseph DeAngelo was arrested, they rushed out a special episode.

In January 2026, My Favorite Murder began appearing as a video podcast on which streaming service?

Netflix began streaming video episodes on January 26, 2026, in an exclusive deal that arrived a decade after the podcast's first release.

At the Chicago Podcast Festival, My Favorite Murder covered which local killer who entertained at children's hospitals?

John Wayne Gacy performed as Pogo the Clown, a character he created after joining a clown club in 1975. The hosts told his story live in November 2016.

Which painkiller brand was laced with cyanide in the 1982 Chicago poisonings that My Favorite Murder covered?

Tylenol capsules spiked with potassium cyanide killed at least seven people, and nobody has ever been charged with the killings. The case brought tamper-resistant packaging and federal anti-tampering laws.

My Favorite Murder episode 32 told the story of which Tejano singer, shot in 1995 by her former boutique manager?

Selena was shot at a Days Inn motel in Corpus Christi by Yolanda Saldívar, whom her family had confronted weeks earlier over embezzled money. The episode also covered the Zankou Chicken murders.

Episode 35 of My Favorite Murder was devoted to the 1996 death of which six-year-old in Boulder, Colorado?

JonBenét Ramsey was found in the basement of her family's home hours after being reported missing, and the case remains unsolved. Her story also featured in the podcast's debut.

By which nickname is Elizabeth Short, the 1947 Los Angeles victim discussed on My Favorite Murder, best known?

Black Dahlia may echo The Blue Dahlia, a film noir released the year before she died. Her killing is one of the oldest unsolved cases in Los Angeles County.

Cary Stayner, covered in My Favorite Murder episode 30, killed four women in 1999 near which national park?

Yosemite lay just beyond the Cedar Lodge motel where Stayner worked as a handyman. His younger brother had been famous years earlier as a kidnapping survivor.

Which serial killer, chased down by Los Angeles residents in 1985, did My Favorite Murder cover in episode 20?

Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, was recognized after police released his mugshot, and East Los Angeles residents chased him down and held him until officers arrived. He died in 2013 while awaiting execution.

Which tech giant, with its studio Wondery, acquired exclusive early-release rights to My Favorite Murder in 2022?

Amazon released episodes on its music service and Wondery+ a week before other platforms. The hosts announced the end of that arrangement in January 2024.

Before My Favorite Murder, Karen Kilgariff was head writer for which host's daytime talk series, launched in 2003?

Ellen DeGeneres hired Kilgariff to help write a 2003 stand-up special, took her on tour as an opening act, then made her head writer when the daytime series began.

Which comedian appeared on My Favorite Murder in 2018 to discuss his late wife Michelle McNamara's unfinished book?

Patton Oswalt joined an episode recorded at Skylight Books alongside the two collaborators who helped complete the manuscript. He described finishing it as bittersweet.

My Favorite Murder episode 52 told how which child-abduction warning system, named for a Texas nine-year-old, began?

Amber Alert honors Amber Hagerman, abducted while riding her bike in Arlington in 1996. Officially the letters stand for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response.

Which 1964 New York murder victim, long linked to the bystander effect, did My Favorite Murder cover in episode 24?

Kitty Genovese became a textbook case after a newspaper claimed 38 neighbors watched and did nothing. In 2016 the same paper called its report flawed and the witness count grossly exaggerated.

On My Favorite Murder, what name is given to the listener-submitted stories read in the shorter Monday episodes?

Hometown murders began as crimes from listeners' own towns and now take in ghost stories, family secrets and tales from first responders. The short episodes that carry them are called minisodes.

Who became My Favorite Murder's producer in June 2016, first appearing in the podcast's twenty-third episode?

Steven Ray Morris became a regular voice on the show as well as its producer. His cat podcast, The Purrrcast, was one of five launch shows on the network the two hosts founded.

Georgia Hardstark of My Favorite Murder first went viral in 2009 with a how-to video for which invented cocktail?

McNuggetini plans were drafted on the back of a popcorn bag at a Los Angeles dive bar. The video's success brought Hardstark and her co-creator a run of cocktail and travel shows on cable.

Which downtown Los Angeles hotel, where Elisa Lam died in 2013, featured in an early My Favorite Murder episode?

The Cecil had complaints of flooding and low water pressure before a maintenance worker found Lam in a rooftop tank. Elevator footage of her from the day she vanished had already gone viral.

A 1919 letter signed by the Axeman of New Orleans, covered on My Favorite Murder, promised to spare homes playing what?

Jazz filled New Orleans on the night the letter named: dance halls were packed and bands played at hundreds of house parties. Nobody was killed that night.

What did My Favorite Murder name the paid membership club it launched in 2018, with forums and ticket presales?

Fan Cult members pay a yearly fee for exclusive merchandise, extra content and first access to live show tickets. By early 2020 the club had about 55,000 members.

Which recurring My Favorite Murder segment lets the hosts fix factual errors made in earlier episodes?

Corrections Corner appears in many episodes, where the hosts answer listener criticism and correct mistakes from earlier shows. They have said they are not journalists, which leaves them free to editorialize and go off on tangents.

My Favorite Murder's Karen Kilgariff was a cast member on which HBO sketch series led by Bob Odenkirk and David Cross?

Mr. Show featured Kilgariff in its third and fourth seasons, and she returned for the 2015 reunion series W/ Bob & David.

Which retired cold-case investigator, a surprise guest on My Favorite Murder in 2018, later co-hosted Buried Bones?

Paul Holes spent years hunting the man finally identified as Joseph DeAngelo and retired weeks before the arrest. He launched Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson in 2022.

This Podcast Will Kill You, a launch show on the My Favorite Murder hosts' network, is devoted to which subject?

Infectious diseases are the beat of hosts Erin Welsh and Erin Allmann Updyke, both disease ecologists and epidemiologists, who take on a different illness each episode.

Which English family doctor, among history's most prolific serial killers, did My Favorite Murder cover in episode 15?

Harold Shipman is estimated to have killed about 250 patients over roughly 30 years. He was caught after a will leaving him a patient's estate raised her daughter's suspicions.

What job did Jim Kilgariff, father of My Favorite Murder host Karen Kilgariff, hold in San Francisco?

Firefighter Jim Kilgariff worked in the city while his wife Patricia was head psychiatric nurse at the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute.

When the My Favorite Murder hosts bonded, Karen Kilgariff was recounting a crash she had seen at which festival?

South by Southwest was where a driver plowed into a crowd of dozens of people as Kilgariff looked on. Her retelling fell flat until Hardstark ran over wanting every detail.

Which Ologies podcast host made cocktail and travel shows with Georgia Hardstark before My Favorite Murder?

Alie Ward teamed with Hardstark on series such as Tripping Out with Alie and Georgia, and the pair also hosted a podcast called Slumber Party.

My Favorite Murder co-host Karen Kilgariff grew up outside which Sonoma County city north of San Francisco?

Petaluma is also where Kilgariff went to a Catholic high school, before she started out as a stand-up in Sacramento in the 1990s.

Which podcast did Karen Kilgariff start with comedian Chris Fairbanks in 2014, two years before My Favorite Murder?

Do You Need a Ride? began with the two hosts talking to a guest while driving them around in a car. It later became one of the five launch shows on Kilgariff's own network.

Which comedian, who married Georgia Hardstark in 2016, has served as tour manager for My Favorite Murder's live shows?

Vince Averill co-hosts the podcast We Watch Wrestling and travels with the show on tour. He also told a local story of his own in the podcast's eighth episode.

Which podcast company signed a 2019 development deal worth about $10 million with the My Favorite Murder hosts' network?

Stitcher provided funding, advertising and development tools under the two-year deal, which set a plan for more than a dozen new shows.

My Favorite Murder began on which Los Angeles podcast network, later shut down after allegations against its founder?

Feral Audio was also home to Harmontown and to Hardstark's earlier podcast Slumber Party. My Favorite Murder had moved to Midroll Media months before the closure was announced in January 2018.

My Favorite Weekend, a 2019 live event staged by My Favorite Murder, took place in which California coastal city?

Santa Barbara hosted the weekend in November 2019, with live shows at the Arlington Theatre that were later released as episode 195.

Which actor helps narrate the audiobook of Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered, the My Favorite Murder hosts' joint memoir?

Paul Giamatti joins the two authors on the recording of the 2019 book, a dual memoir whose chapter titles are taken from sayings on the podcast.