The Manual

Criminal

Vox Media Podcast Network

Society & Culture, True Crime

4.7 • 39.4K Ratings

🗓️ 28 November 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1993, a family was found murdered in their home. A Maryland police spokesperson described the homicide investigation as the most “exhaustive and labor intensive” in the department’s history. And then investigators found a strange manual - written by someone calling themselves Rex Feral. This episode was originally released in 2018. To hear more about who actually wrote Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors, sign up for Criminal Plus. You'll also get behind-the-scenes bonus episodes of Criminal, ad-free listening of all of our shows, invitations to virtual events, special merch deals, and more. Say hello on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Sign up for our occasional newsletter. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts. 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 Sacks Fifth Avenue.
0:03.5	Sacks Fifth Avenue makes it easy to do holiday shopping your way, whether you're looking for the right gift or the right outfit.
0:09.5	Sacks is where you can find everything from a Jimmy Chew bag for a sister who's hard to shop for to a prod a jacket for yourself to dress up for holiday dinner.
0:17.4	If you don't know where to start, Sacks.com will filter just for items that match
0:21.7	your personal style so you can save time shopping and spend more time just enjoying the holidays.
0:27.1	Make shopping fun and easy this season and find gifts that suit your holiday style at Saks Fifth Avenue.
0:33.8	It's time for Black Friday at Dell Technologies. Save big on PCs like the Dell 16 Plus featuring Intelcore Ultra Processors.
0:41.0	Shop now at Dell.com.com.
0:42.0	Okay, forward slash Black Friday.
0:45.6	Hi, it's Phoebe.
0:47.7	You're about to hear one of the stories we've never been able to stop thinking about.
0:52.0	Because there's something about it that's been a mystery
0:54.7	for decades, until now.
0:57.9	Who exactly wrote the manual?
1:01.3	We have an update about it at the end of today's episode.
1:06.3	How did you first meet Mildred Horn?
1:10.2	I was retained to represent her child, who was severely disabled,
1:19.1	in a lawsuit against a Washington, D.C. hospital for medical malpractice.
1:25.5	This is Howard Siegel. He's a lawyer, and the case he's talking about took place in 1990 after a baby named Trevor
1:33.2	Horn was injured while undergoing a procedure in the hospital.
1:37.3	The hospital's respirator failed, and Trevor Horn suffered severe brain damage.
1:42.6	He became paralyzed and would need a breathing tube
	...

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