A killer, a stalker and a mother’s search for justice — two gripping new podcasts

On a recent flight to Zurich, I was struck by how wealthy some of the passengers seemed. One toddler appeared to have been dressed not for the cold but for a Joshua Reynolds portrait, in knickerbockers and crested velvet slippers. Mostly the affluence was worn discreetly: the signifiers were tailoring, leather weekenders and kids sitting with staff although their parents were on board elsewhere.

Zurich’s moneyed “gold coast” is the backdrop to the clunkily titled (In)Justice: Killer Privilege, a new six-part true crime podcast series from Wondery and the Evening Standard. Katie Strick, a Standard journalist, revisits the bludgeoning to death of the 23-year-old Londoner Alex Morgan in 2014 and his mother’s legal fight to ensure her son’s playboy killer, Bennet von Vertes, was brought to justice. For those fascinated by “rich f***-ups” (and who, from Henry James readers to White Lotus viewers, isn’t?) there is a rubbernecking element here, as Strick explores the psyche and lifestyles of the jet-set elite.

Morgan’s mother, Katja Faber, had moved from London to Zurich after her separation from Alex’s father, the Scottish financier Benedict Morgan, believing it a safer place to bring up three children. Apart from a few years boarding at Gordonstoun, Alex had been schooled in Switzerland, mixing with a privileged crowd.

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But it was as an undergraduate at Regent’s University in London that Alex had become friends with von Vertes, the son of an international art dealer with a Zurich gallery. On December 30, 2014, they went out with friends before taking a taxi to von Vertes’ family villa in the lakeside village of Küsnacht.

There, in the small hours, the drug-taking and drinking continued until something prompted the 6ft 5in von Vertes, high on cocaine, ketamine and alcohol, to throw his friend against a glass table and attack him with a heavy candlestick, before shoving a candle down Alex’s throat. After his friend had choked to death, von Vertes showered, dressed and called the police, complaining of a bleeding hand and claiming self-defence.

Faber was at her avocado farm in southern Spain when a Zurich friend called, having heard distressing rumours. When the police arrived hours later, Faber knew to assume the worst.

But nothing could have prepared her for the gory details of her eldest child’s violent death, the callousness of Swiss bureaucracy (she was charged for plastic sheeting used to remove his corpse, and offered the candle along with his personal effects) or the gruelling legal slog ahead.

In 2017 von Vertes was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, along with a separate rape charge, and received a 12-year sentence. But in 2019 he successfully overturned his conviction of “intentional homicide” (a Swiss legal term for unpremeditated murder), claiming drug-induced psychosis. Faber sold her Zurich flat to finance her fightback.

This is a gripping, if not entirely unknown story. Strick, who has a great broadcast voice, tells it compellingly, bar the occasional wincing lurch into cliché about “grieving journeys” or fangirling about the steely Faber.

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Another podcast series with a cautionary tale about the allure of the wealthy is the BBC hit Stalked. Hannah Mossman Moore, a young Edinburgh University graduate, wanted to break into jewellery design. While on an internship, she was befriended at London Fashion Week by a Hong Kong businessman who seemed to have access to all the hottest international events including Dolce & Gabbana’s Milan show and the Cannes Film Festival. An invitation to Art Basel Miami seemed too good an opportunity to pass up.

The trip went weirdly wrong, but what followed was worse: multiple hacks of Moore’s phone and years of online abuse, as well as impersonation by malevolent actors who always seemed to know where she was. Vile, misogynistic versions of her were created online. Employees and friends were duped, her parents and new boyfriends targeted. She moved jobs, countries and still it continued, throughout what should have been her most carefree years.

A small piece of luck for Moore is that her father’s ex-partner is the renowned investigative reporter Carole Cadwalladr. When Cadwalladr introduced her to a BBC producer, the harassment suddenly abated.

Six episodes into the ten-part series, I am beginning to worry that Stalked may not sustain itself. But the initial episodes are fascinating. There is a modern cautionary tale of naivety here, as well as an age-old story about what happens when a woman’s reputation is threatened.

Which podcasts have you enjoyed recently? Let us know in the comments below