Sword and scale contains adult themes and violence.

It is not intended for all audiences.

Listener discretion is advised.

Theirut. Hello and welcome to Sword and Scale, episode 56, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real.

This is the season two finale.

Music real. This is the season two finale. If you heard last year's season finale, you'll know that this episode isn't like most.

So if you're just starting out listening to this program, you may want to listen to a different episode to get a better feel for what this podcast is typically like.

But throughout the year, we've spoken to writers, psychologists, and scientists, forensic examiners, victims, and their families.

And after every interview, we asked them a simple question.

The same question.

And today, we'll present you the answers, coming from

many different points of view. To break it all down, we're joined in the studio by criminal defense

attorney Christopher Zervick. But before we get to that, I just wanted to say that we've just

celebrated Sword and Scale second birthday a few weeks ago, and it's been an incredible run so far.

In that time, we've gained hundreds of thousands of listeners, dozens of write-ups and

entertainment blogs and magazines, and we've finally cracked into the iTunes Top 100.

Our neighbors at that altitude are podcasts such as Real Time with Bill Maher, the Savage Lovecast, and the Adam

Carolla show.

And we got there without the support of any corporations or media networks, or even any major

press.

We got there completely organically, with nothing but the help of listeners like you.

The support has been incredible and something that I could have never

...