The Clock Starts Ticking

Criminal

Vox Media Podcast Network

True Crime, Society & Culture, Documentary

4.7 • 38.4K Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On October 11, 2008, an 18-year-old was shot by someone firing a gun from the back seat of a car. A couple of hours later, homicide detectives arrived on the scene. And so did the camera crew for a reality television show. Say hello on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Sign up for our occasional newsletter. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts. Sign up for Criminal Plus to get behind-the-scenes bonus episodes of Criminal, ad-free listening of all of our shows, special merch deals, and more. We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for Criminal comes from BetterHelp.
0:02.9	When you decide to do something to improve your mental health,
0:05.7	it's easy to feel overwhelmed by picking a therapist who's the right fit for you.
0:11.0	BetterHelp is over 30,000 therapists,
0:13.5	and they'll help recommend you someone to match with.
0:16.4	And if your first match isn't perfect, you can switch therapists at any time.
0:21.3	Talk it out with BetterHelp.
0:22.9	Visit BetterHelp.com slash criminal to get 10% off your first month.
0:27.3	That's BetterHelp, hlp.com slash criminal.
0:32.8	Who was Jesse Michelson?
0:35.2	Jesse was an 18-year-old high school kid.
0:39.3	He was an aspiring musician.
0:41.3	He was kind of getting a kind of a little rap career off the ground.
0:45.3	He was characterized by some of the detectives who wound up, you know,
0:49.3	investigating what happened as just a pretty good kid.
0:53.3	Jesse Michelson lived on the south side of Minneapolis with his family.
0:58.6	On October 11, 2008, his family was throwing a party for his cousin's 13th birthday.
1:05.2	A bunch of the kids were playing at the top of the alley behind his house, throwing a football around.
1:11.7	Across the alley from Jesse's family's house was the house of a high school classmate of Jesse's,
1:18.6	somebody he recognized.
1:20.7	Jessica Lesson Hop is a reporter for ProPublica.
1:24.6	He sees this person he knows from high school. He goes over there. He crosses the
	...

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