From Valley of Shadows: The Devil's Punchbowl
Revisionist History
Pushkin Industries
4.7 • 62K Ratings
🗓️ 26 February 2026
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Valley of Shadows is a new Pushkin true crime podcast that digs into a nearly 30-year old secret buried in the California desert. On June 11, 1998, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy Jon Aujay went for a run in California’s Devil’s Punchbowl park...and never came back. Nearly 30 years later, the mystery surrounding his disappearance has only deepened. Some say Aujay is just another missing hiker, claimed by the inhospitable landscape of the Southern California desert. Some say he took his own life out there. But there’s another theory that many of Aujay’s friends and LASD colleagues are convinced is true—that he was the victim of foul play, and that his own department is covering it up. Through exclusive interviews, revealing wiretaps, and buried police files, investigative reporters Hayley Fox and Betsy Shepherd uncover vestiges of the Wild West in a small California town, where outlaw biker gangs crank out methamphetamine and local cops operate on both sides of the law.
Find Valley of Shadows wherever you get podcasts.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If there was a big rent button that would just demolish the internet, I would smash that button with my forehead. |
| 0:07.8 | From the BBC, this is the interface, the show that explores how tech is rewiring your week and your world. |
| 0:14.3 | This isn't about quarterly earnings or about tech reviews. |
| 0:17.5 | It's about what technology is actually doing to your work, your politics, your everyday |
| 0:23.2 | life, and all the bizarre ways people are using the internet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get |
| 0:30.5 | your podcasts. Bushkin. |
| 0:43.0 | Malcolm here. I want to tell you about a man named John Age. |
| 0:47.5 | He was a Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy, an ultramarathon runner, a survivalist, |
| 0:53.7 | and someone who had made a study of how to stay alive |
| 0:56.4 | in punishing terrain. And one day, he went for a run in a place called the Devil's Punch Bowl |
| 1:02.7 | in the high desert of Los Angeles, and he never came back. Some say, Arje is just another |
| 1:09.1 | missing hiker, claimed by the inhospitable landscape of the Southern |
| 1:13.6 | California desert. Some say he took his own life out there. But there's another theory that many of Age's |
| 1:20.6 | friends and colleagues are convinced is true, that he was the victim of foul play, and his own department is covering it up. |
| 1:30.2 | Hosted by journalists Haley Fox and Betsy Shepard, Valley of Shadows, explores Aege's unsolved |
| 1:37.2 | disappearance and the stench of corruption that's followed the case for nearly 30 years. |
| 1:44.0 | Through exclusive interviews, revealing wiretaps, and buried police files, |
| 1:49.7 | Haley and Betsy enter into the criminal underworld of outlaw biker gangs, |
| 1:55.1 | meth production, and crooked cops in Southern California's Mojave Desert, |
| 2:00.4 | exploring one of the state's most mysterious |
| 2:03.1 | missing persons cases. You're about to hear a preview from the show. If you enjoy it, |
| 2:08.8 | you can find Valley of Shadows wherever you get your podcast. This series includes content |
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