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10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

The Jeannette DePalma Case: When Satanic Panic Destroyed a Murder Investigation

10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

Joe

Entertainment News, True Crime, Documentary, News, Society & Culture

4.9 β€’ 638 Ratings

πŸ—“οΈ 21 October 2025

⏱️ 14 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Jeannette DePalma Case: When Satanic Panic Destroyed a Murder Investigation

What really happened to 16-year-old Jeannette DePalma in 1972? For over 50 years, wild stories about devil worship and ritual sacrifice have overshadowed the truth about a teenage girl who never made it to her friend's house. We're talking about a case where a religious community's fear, sloppy police work, and media sensationalism buried the real investigation under layers of absolute nonsense. And here's the thing: in 2024, we finally got proof that everything you thought you knew about this case was wrong. We're digging into missing evidence, a serial killer's confession, and how moral panic can literally let a murderer walk free. This is the story of Jeannette DePalma, and it's time someone told it right.

#JeannetteDePalma #RichardCottingham #TorsoKiller #SatanicPanic #TrueCrime #UnsolvedMurders #ColdCase

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I really need to tell you about big fork brands because they make bacon sausage, which is about

0:05.3

the most American thing I've ever heard. It's not sausage with bacon in it. It's bacon literally

0:11.1

woven into premium pork sausage. Five flavors, including maple and brown sugar, which is delicious.

0:17.7

They also make these Chicago-style sauces that have all seven toppings of a Chicago

0:22.4

hot dog in one bottle, because apparently Chicagoans are tired of trying to open seven different

0:28.0

jars. And by the way, one reviewer called the bacon sausage, life-changing, which feels dramatic,

0:33.2

but it's probably accurate. Try it yourself and let me know. I've got you 20% off the best deal they offer,

0:39.3

code 10M at big forkbrands.com. Bigforkbrands.com. And it's very important to use the code

0:47.2

so that you get the discount. In September 1972, a dog came home carrying a human arm.

0:57.7

What police found next launched 50 years of ghost stories, conspiracy theories, and absolutely

1:04.0

zero answers.

1:05.6

But in 2024, everything changed.

1:08.7

This is the real story of what happened to Jeanette De Palma. So here's what actually went down in Springfield, New Jersey in 1972.

1:40.1

And I promise you it's wilder than any horror movie because this is real, and it involves

1:45.7

some of the worst police work you've ever heard.

1:49.2

August 7, 1972, Jeanette De Palma was 16 years old, about to turn 17 in a few days.

1:56.3

She told her mom she was taking the train to visit a friend. Totally normal teenage plan. She walked out of the

2:01.8

door of her family's home in Springfield, New Jersey, and that was it. Nobody saw her alive again.

2:08.1

Now, Jeanette was complicated in a way that most teenagers are complicated. She loved rock music,

2:14.1

went to parties, hung out with friends. But she'd also gotten really involved in this

2:18.3

thing called the Jesus Movement, which was basically the Christian version of hippie counterculture.

2:24.9

She'd been through some stuff with drugs and was actively counseling other kids about staying

...

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