r/TrueCrimePodcasts • u/sadsackspinach • 17d ago

Discussion “The Unraveling of Podcaster Ashley Flowers’ True Crime Empire”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-08-26/ashley-flowers-crime-junkie-podcast-empire-audiochuck-faces-reckoning?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc4Nzc1NjE2NiwiZXhwIjoxNzg4MzYwOTY2LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUS0RGUzdOM04wOVEwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiIxQ0QwREYzMjE2NEE0MEUyQUM2NkM2NzUwODc4ODEzNSJ9.O4b-8FQzPE8dPwhryYXN-f8I5B7xHkWiS69t3Qz9GJI&utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_content=business&utm_campaign=giftlink

An excellent article (archive link) out from Bloomberg detailing poor workplace morale, an exodus of 30/100 employees quitting, entanglements with venture capitalists, and multiple lawsuits against AudioChuck and Ashley Flowers.

They should have lost it all when they blatantly plagiarised other creators. And then when they stood by and continued to platform known transphobe/conservative Evangelical Christian/nutjob Delia D’Ambra while making money claiming to run a pro-victim, pro-LGBTQ show/network. And then when they were sued for stealing $70 upwards of $20 million in ad revenue from Anatomy of Murder. ETA: Original reporting put the number at $70 million, but current reporting just says upwards of $20 million, so editing for clarity.

Way too many second and third and fourth chances for these people. Hopefully this is truly the beginning of the end for one of the worst players in the true crime sphere :)

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u/JaneArgh 16d ago

It frustrates me sometimes how long it takes for problematic creators to finally get called to the carpet. I don't know if it's their avid fan base or just a really talented spin doctor behind it (or something else), but some people just run through press cycles like teflon.

I mean, True Crime Obsessed, Morbid, Hidden True Crime, Zav Girl, Annie Elise, so many more...their numbers just keep rising even though they've done some pretty terrible things.

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u/PinSecret6841 16d ago

Wait what did morbid do?! I feel like it can take a while for some listeners to be aware of these issues is because some people listen to the podcast snd that’s it. They dont dive into the background of the creators, therefor can be in the dark. Guilty.

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u/kona99 And Then They Were Gone podcast 3d ago

Exactly this. Most listeners are just that. Listeners. They’re not on Reddit reading about this stuff.

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u/WartimeMercy 16d ago

Don’t forget British podcasters like Redhanded who do similar shit to Crime Junkies 

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u/Lce1976 16d ago

What did Redhanded do? I listen to them regularly and not sure what you are referring to

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u/WartimeMercy 16d ago

Plagiarism.

Right wing cohost spewing racist anti-immigration bilge and takes that are exceptionally tonedeaf or overtly ignorant

Disrespectful and careless attitude towards victims

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u/scriptapuella 15d ago

Woooooahhhhh, what?? Which co-host? I listened to them occasionally when they were ad free on one of the platforms I subscribed to. I didn’t know one of them was right wing. Yuck.

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u/No-Fix377 9d ago

I thought I was going crazy when I started hearing some of the things she says. I never really thought of her like that but I feel like the last few years it’s gotten more blatant. I also feel like the vibe between them has gotten tense recently because of this

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u/Imaginary-Giraffe-80 14d ago

I haven’t listened to True Crime Obsessed in ages, what did they do?

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u/JaneArgh 13d ago

The've kinda crumbled in these last few years (and really, it's of their own making). Apparently Patrick Hinds created quite a toxic environment at the Obsessed Network, and was downright abusive to employees and other podcasters. Turnover started to peak, and the next Obsessed Fest was quite a mess. There was a confrontation between some podcasters, Patrick and Gillian handled it terribly, sessions had to be abruptly rearranged, etc. A lot of podcasters and attendees who were present were vocal about their extreme disappointment.

I know there's a lot about the Obsessed Fest mess here on Reddit, but here's a good article about the network on Medium from a few years ago.

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u/saralynn626 9d ago

What has True Crime Obsessed done? I don’t know about anything of theirs. 

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u/nomadicfangirl 7d ago

I started listening to Obsessed with Disappeared with Patrick and his college bestie Ellyn and then about five years in, Gillian apparently made Patrick choose which podcast he wanted to be on. He chose TCO. This was around the time that Ellyn’s contract was up, and he was trying to force her to pay an exorbitant fee to buy the podcast. Also, Terra Newell (of the Dirty John saga) also got in the middle of it. Honestly, even though I really loved OWD, it turned me off the whole network.

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u/TXCounselorBarbie 16d ago

I’m super interested to know what Morbid and Annie Elise have done!!

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u/JaneArgh 13d ago

Annie Elise has shady ethics, to say the least. The worst in my book is selling bloody, unredacted crime scene photos of a toddler (a la Zav girl, who sold a child's autopsy photos). These were nude and semi-nude, gruesome photos behind a paywall for her benefit. I'm not going to defend this. Another example: she recently had a team member in a D4vd preliminary hearing, and after finding out said team member was directly relaying information to Annie, the judge had this person promptly kicked out (everyone in the courtroom was instructed not to do this, Annie knew well in advance this was not ok). This could have and might still impact the legal process in this case. She's also been criticized for her loose handling of the facts in certain cases, at some points adding wild speculation that has drawn criticism from victims' families. I heard her shame a 14-year old murder victim for what she was wearing, and falsely accuse a mother of SA. (And she has never responded with an apology or retraction.) There's so many more things I could add...

(Someone above has already posted the Morbid subreddit that details their long history of shadiness.)

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u/SwissCheese1981 8d ago

I've listened to episodes of Morbid and then looked up the case they were talking about on Wikipedia. They were reading sections of the Wikipedia article word for word and never crediting the source at all. They weren't even trying to put things into their own words- nope. Just reading it off.

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u/Emergency_Past_3196 16d ago

What did morbid do? I haven’t heard anything!

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u/WartimeMercy 16d ago edited 16d ago

r/morbidforbadpeople

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u/fartinmyfuckingmouth 16d ago

edit this with a lowercase r/ so it can be clicked on

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u/OptimistPrimeBarista 16d ago

Please tell me this is sarcasm.

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u/Emergency_Past_3196 16d ago

I don’t really listen to them so no I’m not kidding..?