For ten years, a fire bug terrorized Southern California, burning down businesses in broad daylight. Four people had died. Then a manuscript for a novel leads investigators to the last person they would have ever suspected. From Truth.Media, host Kary Antholis and executive producer Marc Smerling (The Jinx, Wilderness of Error, Crimetown) comes the true-crime series Firebug. The series launched July 21st.
Hey, everyone.
I'm super excited to tell you about a new true crime podcast I think you're really going to love.
Called Firebug.
It comes from the creator of crime Town, the jinx, and morally indefensible true crime legend marks Merling.
In the 1980s, an elusive serial arsonist terrorized southern California, lighting up whole neighborhoods and burning down businesses in broad daylight.
Investigators spent years trying to track him down, but the fires never stopped.
That is, until a cryptic manuscript circulating Hollywood led them down a new path.
Take a listen.
Every fire has a starting point.
The layers of soot, the torched furniture, the chart patterns on the wall, all of it leads back to a point where the fire started with a spark.
In the world of arson, it's called the point of origin.
That was the name of the book I heard about on the radio 30 years ago, points of origin.
Now I have a copy of it in my hands.
It describes a lot of fires set by an arsonist named Aaron Stiles.
But the first and most deadly was at a hardware store called Cals.
The hardware business prospered in the small communities south of Pasadena.
Hardware stores such as cals did well.
Madeline Paulson went to the cluster of stores at least twice a week to shop.
Tonight, she was babysitting with her three year old grandson, Matthew.
She took him to the Baskin Robbins ice cream store, and while standing in the parking lot sharing a chocolate mint cone, she decided to entertain Matthew further by walking through cows.