BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) – Since true crime is the No. 4 genre in America in terms of podcast popularity it only stands to reason that this news-making city an hour north of L.A. should have one such show.
And it does, thanks to Robert Peterson, who is spending his retirement years as an amateur historian.
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His Notorious Bakersfield Podcast is a 20-minute bite of a dark history that has spawned two books. Petersen researches and records the weekly show in this bedroom walk-in closet – which he refuses to allow anyone to see.
From infamous murders like the 1938 slaying of miserly recluse Matthias Warren – father of future governor Earl Warren – to the tales of brutal killers Robert Courtney and Vincent Brothers, Peterson spins tales that explore the dark side of the human psyche.
“I just wanted to retell these stories, for people, because if I hadn’t heard them, a lot of other people hadn’t heard them,” he said. “So I just wanted to re-tell them for generations to come.”