In 2002, Gwen Araujo, a 17-year-old transgender girl, was murdered in California for living openly as herself.

In this episode of True Crime Culinary, host Leah Llach tells Gwen’s story with care, personal reflection, and historical context — examining how everyday cruelty escalates, how violence is excused, and how one case helped change the law.

We follow Gwen’s life, the night of the attack, and the aftermath that led to the Gwen Araujo Justice for Victims Act, which limited the use of the so-called “trans panic” defense in court.

Then, through the show’s culinary lens, we step back to examine the object at the center of the crime: a can of food.
Invented to preserve life — to feed armies, families, and people facing scarcity — the can represents humanity’s long struggle to protect what matters. This episode asks what it means when something designed to sustain becomes a weapon instead.

This is a story about memory, dignity, and the responsibility to see people as fully human — before harm is done.

📚 References & Further Reading

• Wikipedia — Murder of Gwen Araujo
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Gwen_Araujo
  (Chronology, trial details, and legal outcomes)

• ACLU of Northern California — Trans Panic Defense and Legal Reform
  https://www.aclunc.org

• The New York Times — Coverage of Gwen Araujo trial and aftermath

• Smithsonian National Museum of American History — The History of Canning
  https://americanhistory.si.edu/

• Encyclopaedia Britannica — Food Preservation / Canning
  https://www.britannica.com/topic/canning-food-processing

• National WWII Museum — Canned Food and Military Rations
  https://www.nationalww2museum.org

n November 1939, a lone German carpenter and clockmaker came within minutes of assassinating Adolf Hitler — inside a Munich beer hall.

In this episode of True Crime Culinary, we explore the Beer Hall Bombing, one of the closest and least-known assassination attempts of World War II history, and the everyday objects that filled the room where it nearly happened.

Beer halls weren’t just bars in early 20th-century Germany. They were political spaces — places where people gathered to eat, drink, listen, and belong. They were instrumental in the rise of Nazi ideology. And they were furnished with heavy stoneware beer steins, objects designed for comfort, ritual, and staying put.

We tell the story of Georg Elser, a working-class German who acted alone, building a bomb hidden inside a pillar of the Bürgerbräukeller beer hall — and missing Hitler by just thirteen minutes.

Then we step back to explore the deeper history:

• why beer halls mattered so much to political power

• how beer steins evolved from sanitary tools into cultural symbols

• and how ordinary food spaces can quietly shape history

This episode looks at true crime through material culture — where food, objects, and violence intersect — and asks what it means when history unfolds in places meant to feel safe

References

• German Resistance Memorial Center — Georg Elser: The Assassin Who Acted Alone
  https://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/research/biographies/biography/georg-elser/
  (Authoritative historical archive on German resistance movements)

• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — Georg Elser
  https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/georg-elser
  (Contextual biography and historical verification)

• BBC History — The Man Who Nearly Killed Hitler
  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50367544
  (Accessible overview of the 1939 assassination attempt)

• Encyclopaedia Britannica — Beer Hall Putsch & Bürgerbräukeller
  https://www.britannica.com/event/Beer-Hall-Putsch
  (Background on the beer hall’s political significance)

• GermanSteins.com — History of German Beer Steins
  https://www.germansteins.com/about-german-beer-steins/
  (Overview of stein materials, lids, and cultural use)

• Wikipedia — Beer Stein
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_stein
  (General reference; used for cross-checking dates and terminology)

A man dressed as Santa walks into a bank… and no one hits the alarm right away.

In this episode of True Crime Culinary, we start with a real holiday robbery and follow the trail all the way to a plate of cookies left out in the dark. Why does Santa work as a disguise? Why do we trust him so completely? And why, of all things, do we leave him cookies?

From medieval European Christmas baking and spice-laden survival cookies, to Scandinavian hospitality rituals, to the Great Depression origins of milk and cookies in the U.S., this episode explores how food became a symbol of trust — and how that trust can be exploited.

It turns out the cookies were never really for Santa.
They were practice.

• Crime + Investigation — Criminals Who Were Dressed as Father Christmas
  https://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/articles/9-criminals-who-were-dressed-father-christmas

  • History.com — The History of Leaving Cookies and Milk for Santa
    https://www.history.com/articles/dont-forget-santas-cookies-and-milk-the-history-of-a-popular-christmas-tradition
• • 
    

  • Food Republic — Why We Leave Cookies for Santa
    https://www.foodrepublic.com/1445587/why-leave-cookies-for-santa-christmas-history/

  • Tasting Table — The Feast-Inspired Tradition Behind Cookies for Santa
    https://www.tastingtable.com/1445843/feast-inspired-tradition-leaving-cookies-santa/

  • Smithsonian Magazine — The History of the Peanut (context on food rituals & trade; useful comparative reading)
    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/history-peanut-180974623/

  • Wikipedia — Gingerbread
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gingerbread

  • Wikipedia — Pfeffernüsse
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfeffern%C3%BCsse

  • Wikipedia — Sju sorters kakor (Swedish Christmas cookie tradition)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sju_sorters_kakor

  • Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian — Maple Sugaring Traditions
    https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/infrastructure-gold/maple-sugaring

  • Library of Congress — American Holiday Food Traditions
    https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/immigration/irish/holiday-traditions/