Inside a Charleston Frat's Multimillion-Dollar Xanax Ring

Inside a Charleston Frat's Multimillion-Dollar Xanax Ring

In 2016, nine men tied to the College of Charleston's Kappa Alpha fraternity were arrested in what police initially described as a 40,000-pill Xanax bust. The real number was closer to three and a half million, along with cocaine, LSD, weed, luxury watches, a fleet of cars, and a grenade launcher. The crew had spent years pressing counterfeit pills in rented beach houses and shipping them across the country in Skittles bags, fueling an unregulated drug economy that ran straight through one of the most beautiful college campuses in America. Jed talks with journalist Max Marshall, author of the book "Among the Bros," about how he embedded himself in this world, his hundreds of hours of late-night phone calls with an imprisoned ringleader, and what the case reveals about American fraternities and the lives of the men inside them.  Max Marshall's book is "Among the Bros: A Fraternity Crime Story"  https://shorturl.at/ynPGO [https://shorturl.at/ynPGO] Subscribe to our newsletter:  ⁠ [https://jedlipinski.substack.com/]https://jedlipinski.substack.com/⁠ [https://jedlipinski.substack.com/⁠]  Connect with Jed Lipinski: ⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/gonesouthpodcast/] https://www.instagram.com/gonesouthpodcast/⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/gonesouthpodcast/⁠] https://www.facebook.com/groups/gonesouthpodcast/⁠ [https://www.facebook.com/groups/gonesouthpodcast/⁠] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jed-lipinski/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jed-lipinski/]

Murder in Mississippi

When Australian comedian John Safran flew to Rankin County, Mississippi to confront a white nationalist named Richard Barrett with a surprise DNA test, he had no idea the man would be killed eleven months later — by a 22-year-old Black neighbor he'd hired to do yard work. Safran returned to Mississippi to write his first true-crime book, expecting a clear-cut story about racism and a perfect victim. What he found instead was something stranger: a town built on things left unspoken, a killer who scammed him for gift cards from jail, and a relationship between victim and killer that defied the assumptions he'd brought with him. Jed talks with Safran about his book "Murder in Mississippi," the ethics of crime reporting, and what an outsider notices about the South that the rest of us miss. John Safran's book is "Murder in Mississippi"  https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Mississippi-John-Safran/dp/034913426X [https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Mississippi-John-Safran/dp/034913426X] Subscribe to our newsletter:  ⁠https://jedlipinski.substack.com/⁠ [https://jedlipinski.substack.com/]  Connect with Jed Lipinski:⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/gonesouthpodcast/] https://www.instagram.com/gonesouthpodcast/⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/gonesouthpodcast/] https://www.facebook.com/groups/gonesouthpodcast/⁠ [https://www.facebook.com/groups/gonesouthpodcast/] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jed-lipinski/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jed-lipinski/]

The Georgia Church Murders Part 2: Dennis Perry's Story of Wrongful Conviction and Redemption

In 2003, Dennis Perry was convicted of the 1985 murders of Harold and Thelma Swain at Rising Daughter Baptist Church in Spring Bluff, Georgia. He was innocent. He would spend the next 20 years, six months, and ten days behind bars. This episode of Gone South tells the Georgia Church Murders story through Dennis's eyes — from his arrest and interrogation by detective Dale Bundy, to his trial, his two life sentences, and the years he spent inside Jimmy Autry State Prison waiting for someone to believe him. It's also the story of Brenda Perry, the woman who knew Dennis his whole life, married him in a prison chapel, and never stopped fighting for his freedom. After reporter Josh Sharpe of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution exposed the truth and the Georgia Innocence Project secured his release, Dennis was fully exonerated. This is what survival looks like. Subscribe to our newsletter: https://jedlipinski.substack.com/ [https://jedlipinski.substack.com/] Connect with Jed Lipinski: https://www.instagram.com/gonesouthpodcast/ [https://www.instagram.com/gonesouthpodcast/] https://www.facebook.com/groups/gonesouthpodcast/ [https://www.facebook.com/groups/gonesouthpodcast/] https://www.linkedin.com/in/jed-lipinski/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jed-lipinski/]

The Georgia Church Murders Part 1: A Wrongful Conviction, a Fake Alibi, and the Reporter Who Cracked the Case

In 1985, Harold and Thelma Swain were shot and killed during Bible study at Rising Daughter Baptist Church in Spring Bluff, Georgia. The double murder went unsolved for years — until a man named Dennis Perry was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to two life terms for a crime he almost certainly didn't commit. In 2019, Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Josh Sharpe began investigating the case for the Georgia Innocence Project. What he found was damning: a botched investigation, unreliable witnesses, and a key suspect — Eric Sparre — whose alibi turned out to be completely fabricated. This episode of Gone South follows Sharpe's six-month investigation into the Georgia Church Murders, the wrongful conviction of Dennis Perry, and the evidence pointing to the man many believe actually pulled the trigger. Based in part on Sharpe's book, The Man No One Believed. Subscribe to our newsletter:⁠https://jedlipinski.substack.com/⁠ [https://jedlipinski.substack.com/] Connect with Jed Lipinski: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/gonesouthpodcast/⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/gonesouthpodcast/]⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/gonesouthpodcast/⁠ [https://www.facebook.com/groups/gonesouthpodcast/]⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jed-lipinski/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jed-lipinski/]

The Axeman of New Orleans

New Orleans. 1918. A killer the papers call “The Axeman” breaks into homes at night, mostly targeting Italian grocers, and attacks with an axe taken from inside the house. No robbery. No clear motive. Just terror. The case is never officially solved. In this episode of Gone South, former Times-Picayune editor James Karst walks Jed Lipinski through what the archives actually show: the earliest attacks, the infamous Axeman letter demanding jazz music, and the overlooked suspect Joseph Mumfre, a Black Hand linked extortionist whose name keeps resurfacing. Subscribe to our newsletter:⁠https://jedlipinski.substack.com/⁠ [https://jedlipinski.substack.com/] Connect with Jed Lipinski: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/gonesouthpodcast/⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/gonesouthpodcast/]⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/gonesouthpodcast/⁠ [https://www.facebook.com/groups/gonesouthpodcast/]⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jed-lipinski/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jed-lipinski/]