There is no denying the surge in popularity of true crime podcasts in recent years. Many have called the ethics of the genre into question, and the urge to consider the families of victims when indulging in a true crime fixation is a view regularly expressed by critics. 

My Mother’s Murder, a podcast exploring the politically-charged murder of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galicia, flips these criticisms on their head. The writer and host of the podcast, Paul Caruana Galicia, is an award-winning investigative journalist based in London – and also Daphne’s son. In this podcast, Paul takes us on a journey through both Malta’s political history and the circumstances surrounding Daphne’s death due to a planted car-bomb in 2017. Discover Pods had the honour of speaking directly to Paul about the incredible feat of putting together a podcast series exploring his own mother’s assassination.

The story of the podcast’s creation is extraordinary in itself. On 19th November 2019 Paul and his producer, Gary Marshall, travelled to Malta to conduct research and interviews. Serendipitously, this was also the day that the man Paul’s family had long suspected to be the mastermind behind Daphne’s murder was arrested in connection to her assassination. This meant that Paul and Gary were on the ground in Malta watching public reaction to the arrest happening in real-time. In the midst of this huge turning point in his mother’s murder case, Paul was gathering journalistic information and recording the facts of the arrest. As a listener, one cannot help but draw a parallel between Paul’s actions and the stories we hear of Daphne – a writer who clearly valued the truth above all else.

One of the stand-out features of this podcast when compared to other true crime series is the political and social element it brings to the table. It flits between broader stories of Malta as a nation, and personal family interviews about Daphne’s life. Paul points out in the first episode that in order to fully tell his mother’s story, he must also tell the story of Malta – and interweaving the two in as seamless and accessible a manner as he accomplishes is no mean feat. ‘’It was difficult for me personally, but it was also a technically difficult project – a lot of threads, characters, and events’’, he explains.

Another striking feature of My Mother’s Murder is the balanced way in which someone so intimately involved in an ongoing case manages to present the facts of the situation. This is made even more impressive by the fact that Paul only took his first journalism job a year ago – a choice he made ‘’in part to pay tribute to my mother’’. Throughout the production, he was determined that his roles as journalist and Daphne’s son would not blur. ‘’The facts are so extraordinary that I thought the only way of doing the podcast was to recount the story and bear witness to my mother’s life and work. Anything else would have got in the way’’, Paul muses.

Paul’s motivation for sharing his mother’s story is twofold. This is an active case, with many unanswered questions – and Paul’s family hope that public interest generated through My Mother’s Murder will increase pressure and momentum for these questions to be answered. ‘’We have been campaigning from day one for justice for my mother and her work. We are now getting closer, but we still have some distance to go. The more people learn about what has happened to Malta and what was done to my mother, the closer it brings us to justice.’’

In addition to this, Paul wishes to inspire others by telling the world about his mother’s integrity and pursuit of facts in the midst of national turmoil. ‘’My hope is that her story inspires people to fight against corruption, for the truth, and to do journalism that matters’’.

Days after the murder of his beloved wife, Paul’s father addressed the European Parliament with a rousing speech, an excerpt from which is played in the first episode of My Mother’s Murder. One particular quote from this speech stays with the listener long after the recording ends. ‘’To say my wife was brave is true, but bravery alone has little value without a sense of purpose, without a sense of injustice, and without the capacity for outrage’’. Listening to this podcast, it is infinitely clear that such bravery runs strongly in the Caruana Galicia family. 

My Mother’s Murder is a Tortoise Media production and is available on all major streaming platforms. It is written by Paul Caruana Galicia, edited by Ceri Matthews, and produced by Gary Marshall. 

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