When Nerds Attack - Raging Fool: The Crimes of Charles Severance

True Crime Campfire

Society & Culture, History, True Crime

4.7 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2026

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Anger can be useful. If you need to defend yourself or those you love, or if you need to stand up against some outrage in your community, anger can give you the necessary fire to get things done. It can also be poisonous, eating away at a soul until there’s not much left but dense fury that constantly leaks out like oil from a ruptured tanker. This week’s story is about a man who let his anger consume not only himself, but the lives of three innocent people. Join us live at Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camp in Equinunk, PA, September 10-13th! Visit ⁠badmagicproductions.com⁠ for more info and to buy tickets. Tickets are on sale now for CrimeWave 2.0! Visit crimewaveatsea.com/CAMPFIRE to get your discount code for $100 off your cabin and a private meet-and-greet with us! The cruise is Feb. 8-12, 2027. Sources: The Parable of the Knocker by Bryan Porter ID's See No Evil, S9E6, “Shaken and Disturbed” https://web.archive.org/web/20160215131616/http://mentaldisorder.com/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/mother-of-severances-son-testifies-of-frightening-threatening-letters/2015/10/14/270a887c-729d-11e5-8d93-0af317ed58c9_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/at-severances-trial-nancy-dunnings-son-describes-finding-her-dead/2015/10/15/5375017c-7364-11e5-8248-98e0f5a2e830_story.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/alleged-alexandria-serial-killer-scheduled-to-appear-in-court/2015/09/16/472604b2-5bc6-11e5-b38e-06883aacba64_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/police-look-for-gunman-clues-in-fatal-shooting-in-alexandria/2014/02/07/da370d26-9004-11e3-b46a-5a3d0d2130da_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/virginia-serial-killer-charles-severance-sentenced-to-life-in-prison/2016/01/20/0ba176c6-bfb0-11e5-bcda-62a36b394160_story.html https://northernvirginiamag.com/culture/2020/04/22/recently-released-the-parable-of-the-knocker-sheds-new-light-on-charles-severance/ Follow us, campers! Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfire https://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/ Facebook: True Crime Campfire Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truecrimecampfire/?hl=en Twitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfire Email: truecrimecampfirepod@gmail.com MERCH! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, campers. Grab your marshmallows and gather around the true crime campfire. We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie. And I'm Whitney.
0:08.1	And we're here to tell you a true story that is way stranger than fiction. We're roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime campfire.
0:18.8	Anger can be useful. If you need to defend yourself for those you love or if you need to stand up
0:24.1	against some outrage in your community, anger can give you the necessary fire to get things done.
0:30.6	It can also be poisonous, eating away at a soul until there's not much left, but dense fury that
0:36.7	constantly leaks out like oil
0:38.5	from a ruptured tanker. This week's story is about a man who let his anger consume not only
0:44.6	himself, but the lives of three innocent people. This is when nerds attack, Raging Fool,
0:51.3	the Crimes of Charles Severance.
1:01.5	Music Raging Fool, The Crimes of Charles Severance. So, campers, for this one, we're in Alexandria, Virginia, January 1997.
1:07.7	Adrian Miller was an experienced police officer who was currently working as a field training officer for a rookie.
1:14.4	Right now, on this cold night, they sat in their patrol car in the parking lot of a grocery store,
1:19.7	while the rookie finished writing up a report.
1:22.9	Miller watched the front of the store, and as soon as a man stepped stepped out her spidey sense started tingling.
1:29.3	The guy was of average height with dark hair receding from a widow's peak above a gaunt face
1:34.6	and as soon as he walked out of the store he stopped and stared right at the police car across the
1:40.1	parking lot. Miller was pretty sure he couldn't actually see that there were officers in the car,
1:45.6	but his gaze was intense, creepy. He stared at the car for maybe 20 seconds, then walked on away from
1:52.7	the store. Out front, the store had parked a shopping cart full of canned goods, with a big sign
1:58.7	next to it reading Christmas campaign to help the homeless,
2:01.7	a donation drive.
2:03.6	As Miller watched, the strange man stopped beside the cart and looked around to see if anyone
	...

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