What Jail Calls Tell Us About Donna Adelson
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 907 Ratings
🗓️ 19 August 2025
⏱️ 16 minutes
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Summary
Even behind bars, Donna Adelson’s voice reaches far beyond her cell. In this episode, Hidden Killers analyzes how the accused matriarch of the Adelson family uses her recorded prison calls to control the narrative surrounding the Dan Markel murder case.
From inclusive “we” language designed to bind family members to her cause, to carefully omitting specifics when topics get close to incriminating details, Donna’s communication style is deliberate. We explore audience-specific tailoring, the reframing of past events, quick laughter after serious points, and the strategic use of denial — all part of maintaining influence over both family and public perception.
Is this instinctive habit or calculated strategy? And how much of it is aimed at the people on the line versus the people she knows will hear these calls later — prosecutors, jurors, journalists, and the court of public opinion?
#DonnaAdelson #DanMarkel #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers #PrisonCalls #NarrativeControl #TrialStrategy #FloridaCrime #CharlieAdelson #KatherineMagbanua
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A Better Help ad. |
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| 0:07.6 | I struggle most weeks to get up, get myself up and ready and go to therapy or whatever. |
| 0:13.0 | Even like to open the laptop to talk to, my therapist sometimes could be really difficult. |
| 0:17.4 | But I do it because I realise how important it is for me to continue to feel |
| 0:21.3 | good. Because I felt the best I've felt in a long time through therapy. |
| 0:25.6 | Learn more about online therapy at betterhelp.com. |
| 0:29.5 | A better help ad. |
| 0:31.5 | Lewis Capaldi partnered with BetterHelp to get word out about how important therapy can be. |
| 0:36.8 | I struggle most weeks to get up, get myself up and ready and go to therapy or whatever. |
| 0:42.2 | Even like to open the laptop to talk to, my therapist sometimes could be really difficult. |
| 0:46.6 | But I do it because I realise how important it is for me to continue to feel good. |
| 0:51.0 | I felt the best I've felt in a long time through therapy. |
| 0:54.8 | Learn more about online therapy at betterhelp.com. |
| 0:58.5 | This is Hidden Killers with Tony Brewski. |
| 1:01.7 | Here now, Tony Brewski. |
| 1:04.6 | When the trial begins, jurors, |
| 1:05.7 | we'll hear the call, see the checks, |
| 1:07.5 | read the words in those filings. |
| 1:09.0 | They'll watch Donna at the defense table and try to |
| 1:11.6 | map what they see onto what they've heard. And they'll be left with that central choice, |
| 1:19.3 | grandmother or architect. Because if they decide she was the latter, every other role she's |
... |
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