DALLAS, TX — May 25, 2022 – Robert Riggs an executive producer of Freed To Kill and creator of the True Crime Reporter® podcast announced today that the TV documentary was honored with a 2022 Silver Telly Award. 

Freed To Kill is a spinoff of the first season of the True Crime Reporter® podcast about serial killer Kenneth McDuff.  Peabody Award-Winning Investigative Reporter Robert Riggs exposed how the death row inmate was released on parole in Texas under a cloud of corruption. 

Prior to the release of the 5-part documentary series on Fox Nation Streaming in March, podnews asked the question, “Is Robert Riggs the first independent podcaster to turn a podcast into a TV show?”  While not the first, Riggs’ hit show co-produced with Big Media TV, may be among the biggest budget productions to crossover from a podcast.

The Bubble Lounge Podcast in Dallas recently described Riggs as a “prolific storyteller in the spirit of fellow Texan Taylor Sheridan, the creator of Yellowstone and 1883. 

Freed To Kill features Riggs as the principal storyteller and includes decorated former U.S. prosecutor Bill Johnston who launched the manhunt for McDuff. Johnston joined Riggs on the podcast in 2022 to tell “real-life” crime stories based on their respective careers. 

The duo has been up close and personal with serial killers, mass murderers, sexual predators, and terrorists.  Every episode takes listeners inside the yellow crime scene tape where most podcasters have never dared to go. 

Riggs and Johnston are currently spinning off more television shows from their podcast episodes titled, Texas Ranger Case Files – Untold Stories of Murders, Kidnappings, and Cold Case.  Based on their reputation, the leadership of the  Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Rangers have pledged unprecedented support for their work.  

Russell Molina, The Chairman of the 2023 Texas Ranger Bicentennial invited both Riggs and Johnston to serve on its host committee along with President George W. Bush and Ross Perot Jr. stating, “When it comes to the Texas Rangers, Riggs is the quintessential journalist to tell their story and Johnston has worked elbow to elbow with Rangers to solve crimes.”

Riggs is a member of the FBI’s North Texas Chapter of InfraGard, established in response to the 9/11 terror attacks. He has received honors from the Dallas Crime Commission and the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award. 

Riggs has also received three coveted Alfred I. duPont Columbia University Journalism Awards for Investigative Reporting — one for his coverage of Gulf War I.

The Big Media Production Team cited for The Telly Award also includes Executive Producers; Glenn Kirschbaum, Seth Isler, Ron Frank, Danny Wilk, Martin Kase, Jon Loew, And Producer; Susan Sullivan. 

Seiler Burr, the audio producer of the True Crime Reporter® podcast also worked as a production assistant on Freed To Kill. Max Montoya a Senior Director of Big Media TV played a key role in developing the podcast for television. 

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The Bubble Lounge Podcast talks about Riggs’ new hit true crime series on Fox Nation titled Freed To Kill.

Cohosts Martha Jackson and Nellie Sciutto asked the questions that every woman who loves true crime wanted to know during their exclusive interview with Robert Riggs about his new hit television show Freed To Kill in their Dallas Studio.

Riggs revealed that in the wake of the success of Freed To Kill that he has a half dozen more true crime shows in development in Texas. Riggs said, “everything is bigger in Texas, especially crimes that are stranger than fiction.”

The disclosure prompted the Bubble Lounge’s co-hosts to declare that, “Riggs is a prolific storyteller in the spirit of fellow Texan Taylor Sheridan the creator of the hit TV shows Yellowstone and 1883.”

Riggs took Martha and Nellie inside the mind of serial killer Kenneth McDuff who spread a wave of terror through the heart of Texas randomly abducting, assaulting, torturing, and murdering countless women.

His investigation of the release of McDuff who had once been on Texas death row for murdering three teenagers was featured in the first season of his True Crime Reporter™ podcast.

Riggs and his podcast co-host former U.S. prosecutor Bill Johnston take fans of the True Crime Reporter™ Podcast “inside the yellow crime scene tape” with real-life stories from their careers and interviews with investigators as well as crime victims.

The new television series features Johnston’s role in launching a nationwide manhunt for McDuff and later prosecuting the Chairman of the Texas Parole Board who released the serial killer under a cloud of corruption.

The podcast was honored for Best True Crime Podcast along with NBC’s Dateline and the BBC in the 25th Annual Webby Awards in 2021. 

Riggs revealed how the podcast was picked up for television by Big Media TV which produces shows around the world. In a co-production deal with Riggs, Max Montoya of Dallas and Danny Wilk the President of Big Media developed and sold a 5-part documentary series to Fox Nation Streaming which premiered on March 18th of 2022.

To produce Freed To Kill in a short ten months, they assembled what Riggs described as a “dream team” headed by Showrunner and Executive Producer Seth Isler. The other key members included Susan Sullivan, Line Producer; Glenn Kirschbaum, Writer/Producer; Kevin O’Brien, Director of Photography; Ron Frank, Editor; and Martin Kase, Producer and Director of Big Media’s Studio in Prague. Riggs beefed up the team with Texas’ field producers/grips Seiler Burr who produces the True Crime Reporter™ Podcast and Brandon Billington from Texas A&M University.

Freed To Kill features Riggs’ interview with legendary CBS News Anchor/Correspondent Bob Schieffer. Schieffer was the lead police beat reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram who covered McDuff’s murders in 1966. McDuff was dubbed the “Broomstick Killer” for the unthinkable cruelty of his murder of a seventeen-year-old girl.

Riggs, a Peabody Award-Winning Investigative Reporter, got Schieffer to reveal for the first time ever how he ended up face to face with McDuff in an exclusive interview and how he was present for the confession of McDuff’s accomplice. Reporters are amazed by Schieffer’s account!

Schieffer also helped fellow Texas Riggs get his start in television news back in 1978.

The Bubble Lounge Podcast is the only weekly podcast show for women living in the upscale communities of Highland Park and University Park, Texas.

With more than 80-thousand listeners, Jackson and Sciutto are the go-to place for everything women need to know about living in the Park Cities — from who to know, where to go, and what to do.

You can listen to the Bubble Lounge’s podcast interview with Robert, The Worst Serial Killer In Texas You Never Heard Of — An Interview With Robert Riggs of the True Crime Reporter™ Podcast:

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True Crime Reporter™ is a copyrighted and trade-marked production by True Crime Reporter, LLC, in Dallas, Texas.