When Justice Fails | Bryan Kohberger’s Profits & The Abby Zwerner Trial
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 907 Ratings
🗓️ 31 October 2025
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Idaho, Bryan Kohberger could legally make money off his own murders. In Virginia, a first-grade teacher named Abby Zwerner was shot after four separate warnings were ignored. Both stories show how America’s justice system has traded accountability for excuses — and how law, morality, and bureaucracy keep collapsing under their own contradictions.
Tony Brueski and former prosecutor Eric Faddis connect these cases in one of their most morally charged episodes yet. The first half, When Infamy Becomes an Industry, explores how constitutional loopholes turned the First Amendment into a profit shield for convicted killers. The Supreme Court’s Simon & Schuster decision gutted Son of Sam laws nationwide — and states like Idaho never replaced them. Tony and Eric unpack how “free speech” became a business plan for murderers and why politicians are too afraid to fix a law that lets killers cash checks while victims’ families get nothing.
The second half, The Price of Ignorance, turns the spotlight on institutional cowardice. In Newport News, Virginia, teacher Abby Zwerner was nearly killed after school officials ignored every warning about an armed six-year-old. Tony and Eric examine how fear of optics, legal liability, and self-preservation led to tragedy — and what that means for every teacher still walking into a classroom unprotected.
Together, these stories reveal a single truth: justice in America doesn’t end at the verdict — it just changes platforms. Whether it’s a killer monetizing murder or a school hiding behind procedure, the result is the same. Profit over pain. Policy over people.
#BryanKohberger #AbbyZwerner #TrueCrime #JusticeSystem #SonOfSam #SchoolShooting #TonyBrueski #EricFaddis #VictimsRights #CrimePodcast #LegalAnalysis #WhenJusticeFails #FreeSpeech #Accountability
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brewski, Stacey Cole, and Todd Michaels. |
| 0:07.9 | We love to tell ourselves that justice ends at the verdict. |
| 0:13.2 | But in America, justice often just kind of changes platforms a little bit. |
| 0:17.6 | Brian Coburger can't leave his cell, but his story sure can. |
| 0:20.8 | And in Idaho, that's where there's no son of Sam law. |
| 0:25.0 | That story could make him money. |
| 0:27.6 | Free speech is sacred, but freedom to profit from murder? |
| 0:32.5 | That's not right. |
| 0:34.3 | That's an oversight. |
| 0:36.3 | Eric Fattis is joining us to discuss, former prosecutor and defense attorney. |
| 0:41.2 | Eric, when you hear that convicted killer, Brian Koberger, could legally make money off of his story, off of his crimes. |
| 0:52.3 | What's your first reaction as a prosecutor or just as a human being? |
| 0:58.2 | Yeah, Tony. |
| 0:59.3 | I mean, when you go out and slaughter innocent people, |
| 1:04.5 | you shouldn't be entitled to some kind of benefit for that, |
| 1:07.9 | some kind of monetary windfall for those horrible misdeeds. |
| 1:13.1 | And so that's my initial impression. |
| 1:15.0 | I think that's how a lot of society sees it. |
| 1:17.2 | You know, on the other hand, there are interests regarding free speech and that kind of thing. |
| 1:22.0 | And so it's sort of a balance that the courts and legislators have to look into it. |
| 1:27.7 | And it looks like it wasn't adequately looked into, at least in Ohio. |
| 1:31.5 | And the thing is, with the son of Sam laws, it's kind of a quilt of it across the United States. |
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