Two women strangled in two days by the same man in Jacksonville, Florida -- one killed at a motel on Christmas night, the other a beloved teacher murdered in her own home the next morning. This episode features real interrogation footage and court audio.

Leah Kline's life ended on December 25, 2019. She and Zebulon Perkins had been staying at a Westside Jacksonville motel when an argument turned violent. Perkins strangled Kline and disposed of her body in a dumpster behind the building. She was 38 years old. Her remains would not be discovered for days.

The following morning, December 26, Perkins drove to the Cedar Hills home of Vivian James, a 49-year-old chemistry teacher at Atlantic Coast High School. James had once been his teacher. According to court records, Perkins went to her looking for guidance -- and when James told him he needed to turn himself in to police, Perkins beat her and strangled her with a cord inside her home.

Vivian James had spent years in a classroom shaping the futures of Duval County students. Colleagues and former students described her as someone who gave her time and attention freely, a teacher who saw potential where others saw problems. The fact that a former student came to her door in crisis -- and that her instinct was to counsel him toward accountability -- speaks to who she was.

On December 28, a friend stopped by James' home and found her body. The friend called Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and reported James' car missing. Investigators located the vehicle at the same Westside motel where Kline had been killed. Perkins was inside. When officers searched the car, they found Perkins' bag containing sweatpants stained with James' DNA, along with her camera and three laptops. Two of James' televisions and her computer monitor were recovered from the home of Perkins' mother. DNA recovered from beneath James' fingernails matched Perkins.

In March 2024, Zebulon Perkins pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to 70 years in Florida State Prison. The interrogation footage played during court proceedings showed detectives confronting Perkins about the evidence against him -- a man who, according to investigators, showed no emotion when asked about either death.

This episode features interrogation recordings and court audio. Listener discretion advised.

Support Obscura:

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/obscuracrimepodcast/

Website: https://www.mythsandmalice.com/show/obscura/

Apple Premium: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/channel/black-label/id6443660911

Abraham Shakespeare won thirty million dollars in the Florida Lottery. Three years later, he was dead -- shot twice, buried under concrete in Lakeland, Florida. This episode features real court recordings and interrogation audio.

Abraham Shakespeare, 43, was a truck driver's assistant from Lakeland, Florida, who lived simply and was known for his generosity. Friends described him as someone who would help anyone, even when he had little to give. On November 15, 2006, Shakespeare won a $30 million Florida Lotto jackpot, choosing a lump-sum payout of approximately $17 million. He purchased a million-dollar home in a gated community, bought cars for friends, paid off mortgages for relatives, and gave cash to nearly anyone who asked. Within two years, the majority of his fortune had been spent or given away. He told relatives he sometimes wished he had never won.

In late 2008, Dorice "Dee Dee" Moore approached Shakespeare, claiming she wanted to write a book about how people were taking advantage of him. Moore positioned herself as his financial protector. Within months, she had Shakespeare sign over his home, his remaining properties, and control of his bank accounts to companies she owned. By early April 2009, Moore controlled nearly everything. When Shakespeare began pressing her about where his money had gone, he vanished. His last confirmed sighting was in the first week of April 2009.

Moore launched an elaborate deception to cover his absence. She sent text messages from his phone, forged letters in his name, and paid a man to impersonate Shakespeare on a phone call to his own mother. She told police he had planned his own disappearance. When Shakespeare's family reported him missing in November 2009, investigators with the Polk County Sheriff's Office traced the financial records. Every explanation Moore offered contradicted the evidence. A controlled phone call arranged by detectives caught Moore pressuring an attorney to maintain lies about Shakespeare's whereabouts.

In January 2010, acting on evidence from an undercover operation, authorities discovered Shakespeare's body buried nine feet deep under a concrete slab at a property on Highway 60 in Plant City, Florida. He had been shot twice in the chest with a .38 caliber revolver. On December 10, 2012, a Hillsborough County jury convicted Dorice Moore of first-degree murder after three and a half hours of deliberation. The judge called her "cold, calculated, and cruel" and sentenced her to life in prison without parole.

This episode features court recordings and interrogation audio from the investigation into Abraham Shakespeare's murder. Listener discretion advised.

Support Obscura:

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/obscuracrimepodcast/

Website: https://www.mythsandmalice.com/show/obscura/

Apple Premium: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/channel/black-label/id6443660911

For nearly a decade, a predator stalked the quiet marshlands and sugarcane fields of southeastern Louisiana, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. In this episode, we dive into the chilling case of Ronald Dominique, a man who confessed to the rape and murder of at least 23 men and boys between 1997 and 2006.Despite a victim count that rivals some of history's most notorious killers, Dominique's name is rarely mentioned alongside Bundy or Gacy. We explore the "perfect storm" of factors that allowed him to evade capture for so long—from his strategic targeting of marginalized men on society's fringes to the devastating chaos of Hurricane Katrina that overshadowed the investigation.