Podcast: 'In the Dark' Examines a Crime That Went Unpunished

The New Yorker investigative podcast asks why one of the most high-profile war-crimes prosecutions in U.S. history failed to deliver justice.

In the spring of 2006, a small group of U.S. Marines appeared to be in grave legal jeopardy. The previous November, they had killed twenty-four civilians in Haditha, Iraq. The military launched an investigation, and President Bush promised that the public would see its results. The incident attracted widespread media coverage, but the attention faded, and the cases against the Marines quietly unravelled. In the end, no one served a day in prison.

The killings and their aftermath are the subject of the third season of In the Dark, the award-winning podcast hosted by Madeleine Baran. The new series, a product of four years of reporting, is based on hundreds of interviews and thousands of pages of previously unreleased government documents. In nine episodes, the podcast reconstructs what happened that day in Haditha, and sheds light on the failure of the U.S. military to bring the men responsible to justice.

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In the Dark, which joined The New Yorker’s slate of podcasts in 2023, is among the most acclaimed programs in long-form audio journalism. A two-time Peabody Award winner, the show became the first podcast to win a George Polk Award, one of the top honors in journalism in 2019. Its first season asked why the murder of an eleven-year-old boy named Jacob Wetterling went unsolved for nearly twenty-seven years. Season 2 examined the case of Curtis Flowers, a Black man from Mississippi who faced execution after being tried six times for the same crime. In 2024, In the Dark released “The Runaway Princesses,” a four-episode series about why the women in Dubai’s royal family risked their lives to escape the emirate’s ruler.

Season 3 episodes are below. For more information about Season 3, visit newyorker.com/season3.

To listen to previous In the Dark episodes, click here.

Season 3 Trailer

A crime committed. A crime forgotten. A crime unpunished.

Season 3, Episode 1: The Green Grass

A man in Haditha, Iraq, has a request for the In the Dark team: Can you investigate how my family was killed?

Season 3, Episode 2: I Have Questions

A trip to a Marine Corps archive reveals a clue about something that the U.S. military is keeping secret.

Season 3, Episode 3: Sounds Like Murder 

We travel around the U.S. to find the Marines who were on the ground in Haditha on the day of the killings.

Season 3, Episode 4: What They Saw

Two conflicting stories about what happened that day emerge—one from the Marines involved in the killings, and another from a very different perspective.  

Season 3, Episode 5: Four Brothers

Was it a face-off with insurgents or the murder of four innocent brothers? We investigate what happened in the final house the Marines entered that day. 

Season 3, Episode 6: The Full Picture

Startling new information emerges from deep within the investigation files. Then, the In the Dark team gets a big break. 

Season 3, Episode 7: Innocent in My Eyes

The conflicting narratives about what happened in Haditha make their way through the opaque inner workings of the military justice system, until they reach a top commander who decides which story to believe. 

Season 3, Episode 8: On Trial

The case against the squad leader, Frank Wuterich, finally goes to trial. 

Season 3, Episode 9: Patient #8

For years, we’d thought what everyone thought: that there were twenty-four civilians killed by Marines in Haditha on November 19, 2005. But maybe everyone was wrong.