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/

  
  

Candy canes feel harmless — festive, nostalgic, impossible to take seriously. But this episode asks a simple question: why do we trust sweet, familiar objects so easily?

We start with a real-world reminder that even a cane can hide danger, then trace the history of sugar itself — from chewed sugarcane in Southeast Asia to hand-pulled sugar sticks in medieval Europe. By the 1600s, refined sugar had become a global luxury, produced almost entirely through enslaved labor on Caribbean and Brazilian plantations. Those early sugar sticks — the ancestors of candy canes — were symbols of wealth built on violence and exhaustion.

As sugar became more refined, it also became more abstract. Stripped of its origins, shaped into sticks, bent into hooks, and flavored with peppermint, sugar slowly transformed into something decorative, innocent-seeming, and easy to forget.

Candy canes didn’t just sweeten the holidays — they polished history smooth.

1. History of candy canes & sugar sticks
   History.com — Who Invented Candy Canes?
   https://www.history.com/articles/candy-canes-invented-germany

2. Sugar’s role in slavery & global trade
   Smithsonian Magazine — The Bitter Truth About Sugar
   https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/bitter-truth-about-sugar-180953268/

3. Sugarcane origins & early use
   Encyclopaedia Britannica — Sugarcane
   https://www.britannica.com/plant/sugarcane

4. Sugar, refinement, and colonial economies
   National Museum of American History — Sugar and the Atlantic World
   https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/sugar

5. Modern reflections on sugar labor exploitation
   The Guardian — How Sugar Fuels Exploitation Today
   https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/mar/07/sugar-slavery-modern-exploitation

6. Candy cane evolution in American culture
   Smithsonian National Museum of American History — The History of the Candy Cane
   https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/candy-cane-history

In this hilarious and surprisingly fascinating episode of True Crime Culinary, host Leah dives into the real-life story of a liquor-store break-in unlike anything you’ve heard before — featuring a very drunk raccoon, a bathroom floor, and a trail of shattered whiskey bottles that left employees wondering if they’d walked onto the set of The Hangover: Woodland Edition.

From that chaotic crime scene, we follow the pawprints into a deeper look at the history of prison alcohol, better known as pruno, hooch, or jailhouse wine. Leah breaks down how prison-made alcohol works, why inmates started making it centuries ago, the surprisingly creative ingredients (including fruit, bread, candy, ketchup, and rice), and the science behind illegal fermentation.

You’ll learn about:
• the viral story of the drunk Virginia raccoon
• why pruno became notorious in modern prisons
• the evolution of prison alcohol from the 1700s to today
• how inmates innovate with limited food supplies
• the real dangers of jailhouse fermentation (including botulism!)
• the strange-but-true world of candy wine, rice wine, buck, and “toilet wine”

This episode blends wild animal antics, true crime storytelling, and food history in a way only True Crime Culinary can. If you like funny crime stories, weird food facts, or quirky prison history, this is the episode for you.

References

• PunchDrink. A Handy Guide to Drinking in Prison. https://punchdrink.com/articles/a-handy-guide-to-drinking-in-prison/
• Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site. History of Eastern State Penitentiary. https://easternstate.org/about/history-of-eastern-state-penitentiary
• The Atlantic. How Not to Die of Botulism. 2013. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/12/how-not-to-die-of-botulism/281649/
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention / NIH. Outbreak of Botulism After Consumption of Illicit Prison-Brewed Alcohol in a Maximum Security Prison — Arizona, 2012. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7182035/
• The Guardian. Drunk raccoon found passed out in Virginia liquor store. 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/03/drunk-raccoon-virginia-liquor-store

What do you do when your late-night poutine order shows up… with a handful of Viagra at the bottom of the bag?

In this episode, we unpack one of the strangest food-adjacent crimes in Canadian history — a 2015 drug ring run out of an ordinary Québec poutine shop, where delivery drivers quietly offered cannabis, magic mushrooms, and pharmaceuticals alongside fries, gravy, and cheese curds.

But the story doesn’t start with the drug bust. To understand why this crime became an instant legend, we trace the tale back centuries — to the Indigenous nations along the St. Lawrence River, the arrival of the French in the 1500s, and the birth of a new identity that still defines Québec today.

We explore:

• how French settlers became “Québécois,”

• why Québec still sees itself as a nation within a nation,

• how Indigenous history shaped the region long before colonization,

• and how one messy comfort dish became a cultural symbol.

Then we settle the biggest question of all:

Where did poutine really come from?

Hear the three famous origin stories — Warwick’s “damn mess,” Drummondville’s first menu listing, and Victoriaville’s DIY fries-and-curds ritual — and how gravy eventually joined the party.

It’s crime, colonization, cuisine, and comfort food — all wrapped into one warm, chaotic bowl.

Primary Keywordspoutine historyQuébec historyQuébec culturepoutine origin storiespoutine crimefood crimesCanadian true crimeCanadian history podcastIndigenous history CanadaNew France historyDrug ring poutine storyWarwick Québec poutineDrummondville poutineVictoriaville poutine originsFrench colonization Canadapoutine documentary podcastcomfort food history podcast

(You can add all of these to Spotify/Apple show notes or hide them below a “More” fold.)

• Eater Montréal summary of the 2015 case:
  https://montreal.eater.com/2015/3/27/8300031/quebec-police-bust-restaurant-delivery-drug-ring

• Overview of New France:
  https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/new-france

• Battle of the Plains of Abraham (1759):
  https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/plains-of-abraham

• Québec identity, culture, and history:
  https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/quebec

• Indigenous peoples of the St. Lawrence region:
  https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/indigenous-peoples

• CBC history of poutine:
  https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/a-cheesy-history-of-poutine

• Warwick origin story / Fernand Lachance:
  https://www.lesproducteursdelaitduquebec.qc.ca/en/blog/history-poutine/

• Drummondville claim / Jean-Paul Roy:
  https://www.lapresse.ca/vivre/cuisine/201904/19/01-5222567-jean-paul-roy-pere-de-la-poutine.php

• Victoriaville DIY roots (VICE article):
  https://www.vice.com/en/article/8q89aa/who-really-invented-poutine