My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark XX
[0] This is exactly right.
[1] And welcome to my favorite murder.
[2] The minisode.
[3] It's the mini episode.
[4] It's the short one that comes on Monday at the beginning of the week.
[5] You remember?
[6] You remember today's Monday?
[7] Sorry about that.
[8] This is a hometown baby Jessica story.
[9] Oh, hi, MFM.
[10] Every time my mom tells my birth story, it's actually largely the baby Jessica story.
[11] My mom went into labor shortly after she heard the news that baby Jessica got stuck in the well.
[12] Nearly her entire labor consisted of my mom making a deal with God that she would sustain the pain of childbirth if he would keep baby Jessica alive.
[13] Lady, you're going to sustain the pain of childbirth anyway.
[14] I hate to tell you, you're having a baby.
[15] An hour after baby Jessica was free, I was born.
[16] So on top of all the people that actually saved baby Jessica, my mom also likes to give herself a little thanks.
[17] I love it.
[18] I remember getting a really bad ear infection when I was probably like six or seven and begging God that if you made it go away, I'd be a really good Catholic.
[19] And it works.
[20] So you still have that ear infection then?
[21] That's right.
[22] It hurts so bad to podcast.
[23] Okay.
[24] I wrote in another actually heroic story of my mother a couple years ago.
[25] And since I'm talking about her and it's almost Mother's Day, here it is again.
[26] See, that's the kind of persistence we're looking for.
[27] Yeah.
[28] One night in 1992.
[29] My mom was half asleep and heard a noise.
[30] From her bed, she could see into the dining room and a man climbing through the window.
[31] Before she could pick up the phone and call for help, the stranger was on top of her, addressing her by name and telling her if she wasn't quiet, he would kill her three children, too.
[32] Oh, my God.
[33] My mom being 5 '3 and almost 110 pounds, didn't have a lot of options.
[34] So she started talking.
[35] She convinced him to murder her in the woods away from the house where her children wouldn't find her.
[36] He agreed.
[37] In the slow transition off of the bed, the phone fell off the hook.
[38] The loud noise off the hook sound surprised him.
[39] And when he looked towards the noise, she pushed in his eyeball with her long 90s acrylic nails.
[40] Holy fuck.
[41] Pushed in his eyeball.
[42] She fucking took that.
[43] I like to imagine because it was long an acrylic that it had a tiny painting of a sunset on it.
[44] And she just jammed it into his eye.
[45] Then now one -eyed intruder fled back.
[46] out the door and into the woods leaving zip ties, duct tape, and a knife.
[47] Soon after, she moved us to Southern California, a .k .a. as far away as she could.
[48] I slept through the whole thing and was only told years later when my mom was wine drunk on a school night.
[49] Yeah.
[50] Way to beat.
[51] They never caught the man, but at the time, my mom had just broken up with an abuse of med school graduate who had almost broken her arm and had threatened multiple times.
[52] that he would kill her.
[53] Maybe he didn't hire anyone to kill my mom, but it sure as hell seems like he did.
[54] Stay sexy, and if you're in think twice before going into a radiologist.
[55] Oh, my God.
[56] Go moms, go women.
[57] X .O. Annie.
[58] Wow.
[59] Shit, girl.
[60] That's horrifying.
[61] That's crazy.
[62] I can't believe they couldn't find someone whose eye was fucking punctured.
[63] Yeah.
[64] Okay.
[65] This one's called another killer dentist story.
[66] Yes.
[67] Hello.
[68] Murder Queen's furry friends and Stephen.
[69] Do you hate that whole thing?
[70] No, I like it.
[71] Okay.
[72] I was listening to a minisode where someone's mom almost dated a killer dentist and was remind, and it reminded me vaguely of my hometown killer dentist story.
[73] My first dentist when I was a child was Bart Corbin based out of Hamilton Mill, Georgia.
[74] It's really confusing when you see your own name.
[75] Based out of Hamilton Mill, Georgia.
[76] And Rural totally wrote a book about it and I reviewed it for my seventh grade book project.
[77] Nice.
[78] Very cool.
[79] also um he always seemed like a little odd but the man knew how to clean teeth and do root canals so we didn't think anything of it my aunt used to play tennis with his wife's sister and they seem like a normal family husband wife two sons white picket fence this though was not the case because in december of 2004 their oldest son who was really young at the time ran to the neighbor's house and told him that someone had shot his mom when police arrived at the scene corbin's wife jen was found with a gunshot wound of the head suicide -esque.
[80] It was quickly determined that it was a homicide framed as a suicide.
[81] The giveaway was that the hand holding the gun was neatly tucked under the covers.
[82] Oh.
[83] Yeah.
[84] It came out that their relationship had gone south.
[85] She had met someone online and he was having an affair with his secretary.
[86] She was in the process of serving him divorce papers and he lost it and killed her.
[87] Oh my God.
[88] It came out later that he had done the same thing to his ex -girlfriend he had in dentistry school, Dolly.
[89] She broke things off.
[90] He put sugar in her gas tank, stole her cat, and destroyed her final project before finally shooting her in the head and framing it as a suicide in the same way.
[91] I feel like this has been a forensic files.
[92] I'm sure it has.
[93] The name Dolly is the first girlfriend.
[94] Yeah.
[95] Yeah.
[96] The only reason he didn't get caught that time was because a rookie cop responded to the scene and picked the gun out of her hand after seeing the shot through the head.
[97] Yeah.
[98] Needless.
[99] say he was arrested for his wife's murder and it was no longer my dentist.
[100] But I did but he was arrested for his wife's murder so I began to travel to the prison to get my teeth down there.
[101] What else was I going to do?
[102] My dad was in the middle of a root canal and had to find a new dentist ASAP.
[103] He loved the new guy we went to and told my mom we should start going there since our old dentist was a murderer.
[104] A week later the new dentist was on the news for child molestation.
[105] No!
[106] I know a dentist who has never been convicted of anything, thankfully.
[107] Love the show and all you do, Mads from Georgia.
[108] Oh, Mads.
[109] Dude, don't let your dad pick down to us anymore.
[110] It's hard enough to go to the dentist plane.
[111] Yeah.
[112] Without all those threats and weirdnesses.
[113] All right.
[114] The subject line of this is a Toronto hometown.
[115] I worked with the Angel of Death when I was 15.
[116] Oh, my God.
[117] Hi, gang.
[118] I got a wicked hometown murder about a serial killer nurse for y 'all.
[119] Where are you from?
[120] When I was 15, because that's Boston.
[121] and that's the South, but this person is actually from Toronto.
[122] She's from all over.
[123] That's right.
[124] She's an Army brat.
[125] Okay.
[126] When I was 15, I worked as a student nurse's aide at this super shady nursing home in Woodstock, Ontario.
[127] Cool.
[128] No, not the Woodstock.
[129] This one is the dairy capital of Canada.
[130] That's what I was thinking of.
[131] I love to learn.
[132] So there was this nurse at the home named Beth, Elizabeth, and then full name Elizabeth Wetlofer.
[133] And I worked with her from 2010 to 22.
[134] which happened to be right smack dab in the middle of her active killing spree.
[135] In 2007, Beth started working at this nursing home, and in that first year, she tried to kill two old lady's sisters by injecting them with insulin, but they survived.
[136] Apparently, it's pretty hard to accidentally overdose people with insulin, so it's pretty intentional if someone does administer a lethal dose.
[137] Between 2007 and 2014, she killed eight seniors and attempted to kill four more, along with two aggravated assaults from before, making her Canada's first female serial killer.
[138] During her confession, Beth said she felt that God was telling her to kill who to kill next or that the seniors were mean and difficult, so she'd just kill them.
[139] Jesus Christ.
[140] Sorry, that's not funny.
[141] It's like, what are you talking about?
[142] Right.
[143] But I have a nervous reaction that when I'm very upset about things, I just start laughing.
[144] That's what this podcast is.
[145] That's why we're here.
[146] Yeah.
[147] Okay, great.
[148] So you're not mad at me?
[149] my God, no. After she was killed, after she killed, she said she felt a cackling from the pit of hell, that's in quotes, within her.
[150] And then in parentheses, what the fuck does that even mean?
[151] She apparently had confessed to the murders to a former girlfriend, a pastor, a lawyer, a narcotics anonymous sponsor, and a student nurse, and no one did anything except to tell her to stop or pray for her or some shit.
[152] Sorry to give advice again to fucking serial killers, but don't tell anyone.
[153] right I mean and also if you're going to tell someone because you want to be stopped don't pick the lamest people in your in your life or the people who won't believe you yeah or the people who kind of don't have the guts to do anything and I'm just like you should pray you're so silly what's her name Margaret you're so silly what's her name Margaret that sounds like a Margaret um okay so almost exactly one year ago today, Beth went to a mental health institution in Toronto and fessed up for the sixth fucking time, I might add, and that she'd killed eight old people and they contacted the police.
[154] Beth pled guilty immediately and on June 26th, 2017, like this was three fucking months ago, you guys, it's crazy.
[155] She was sentenced to eight concurrent life sentences in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years.
[156] Some other weird shit she did while she was actively killing.
[157] When asked if rumors about her being a murderer were true, Beth started, quote, laughing hysterically.
[158] As you do.
[159] And then finally, she published some weird -ass poems online about a woman, quote, quenching her craze by stabbing someone to death.
[160] And another about how much she likes old people, quote, their wrinkles, their frailty, their smell, knowing this is their last home.
[161] Ew, Margaret.
[162] Super fucked up, A. I also forgot to mention that Beth went to high school with my mom.
[163] Gotta love small towns.
[164] Fuck politeness and stay out of the forest, Amy.
[165] Oh, my God.
[166] That's super nuts.
[167] Margaret, stop killing people.
[168] Margaret, her name's Elizabeth.
[169] Elizabeth Margaret.
[170] Stop killing people.
[171] Margaret is short for Elizabeth.
[172] I almost said, really?
[173] I'm so gullible.
[174] Okay.
[175] This is just called hometown story.
[176] Hi, everyone.
[177] Don't want to miss anyone, so this will do.
[178] Thank you.
[179] I've never been one to do something like this, but thought this story was too cool not to share.
[180] I was born and raised in the North Jersey town of Morristown, New Jersey.
[181] Morristown is a...
[182] New Jersey.
[183] What did I say?
[184] No, no, no. They just said New Jersey twice in a rally.
[185] New Jersey in the New Jersey town of Morristown, New Jersey.
[186] Morristown is a super cute and diverse town with a picturesque town center and lots to do.
[187] This is from the tourism board from Morristown, New Jersey.
[188] When growing up in Morristown, the town's rich history is drilled into our brains while at school.
[189] Just a couple cool facts.
[190] Elizabeth Schuller was staying in Morristown when it actually.
[191] Alexander Hamilton was courting her.
[192] Washington had headquarters here during the Revolutionary War, and Peter Dinklage was born here.
[193] Hey.
[194] But one historic story that was not taught in school, but we all know is the murder of the Sayer family and subsequent hanging of Anton LeBlanc.
[195] Anton LeBlanc was a French immigrant who arrived in Morristown in the mid -19th century.
[196] He was hired by the Sayer family as a handyman, but LeBlanc was from a well -to -do European family and didn't like his meager work in the U .S. I mean, who among us, asshole?
[197] Yeah, for real.
[198] Only a couple weeks later, he murdered Mr. and Mrs. Sayer as well as their servant, Phoebe.
[199] Then he took any valuables he could with him and frantically ran away, headed towards New York City.
[200] Stupidly, he left a trail of stolen items as he tried to escape.
[201] Because of this, the murder scene was quickly discovered and he was found at a tavern in Hackensack, about 30 miles away.
[202] LeBlanc was subsequently tried and sentenced to be hanged.
[203] The story gets worse, though.
[204] After being hanged in the town center, might I add, his body was taken to Dr. Canfield's office, where they conducted experiments by hooking his body to batteries and trying to resurrect him.
[205] Still gets worse.
[206] His skin was unsent to a local tannery where a bunch of wallets, purses, book jackets, etc. were made as keepsakes.
[207] Imagine hearing this story as a child.
[208] This all sounds like a tall tale, but in the 90s, a death mask of his face and wallet made of human skin.
[209] said to be his, was found in a local collector's house after his death.
[210] I believe it's stored at the police department now.
[211] They say that all the, quote, keepsakes are scattered through Morristown and the surrounding area, maybe heirlooms kept by longstanding local families.
[212] Grandma's dead, everyone.
[213] Here's what you get.
[214] And here's a fucking face.
[215] You get a people book.
[216] A murderer.
[217] Jesus.
[218] And then she writes, and done.
[219] Sorry it was so long, but it's such a good murder slash local history.
[220] story.
[221] I've been listening to you since the beginning and always get excited to hear new episodes every week and I guess I'll do one of these.
[222] Stay sexy and don't buy antique wallets at garage sales.
[223] Francisco like San Francisco but without the sand and ending with an A. Thank you.
[224] I would have called you Francesca.
[225] So I appreciate.
[226] New Jersey.
[227] Francisco, New Jersey.
[228] Like New Jersey, but San Francisco Wow, that was Yeah, those ones It's so nice When they're from the 1700s And we can just go like, oh, people back then Yeah Deny that it's happening to this day But I do think that I'm pretty sure when they say death mask They mean the like they do a They do a mold of the face When they're dead It's not a human face I was just like they skinned his face And no Okay, no that makes more sense It's not the sounds of the lambs.
[229] I was going shrunkenhead.
[230] Act three.
[231] No, no. Yeah, okay.
[232] I'm pretty sure.
[233] Please connect me, New Jersey, if I'm wrong.
[234] Everyone in New Jersey will let you know.
[235] Karen, you know I'm all about vintage shopping.
[236] Absolutely.
[237] And when you say vintage, you mean when you physically drive to a store and actually purchase something with cash?
[238] Exactly.
[239] And if you're a small business owner, you might know Shopify is great for online sales.
[240] But did you know that they also power?
[241] in -person sales?
[242] That's right.
[243] Shopify is the sound of selling everywhere, online, in -store, on social media, and beyond.
[244] Give your point -of -sale system a serious upgrade with Shopify.
[245] From accepting payments to managing inventory, they have everything you need to sell in person.
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[247] Their sleek, reliable POS hardware takes every major payment method and looks fabulous at the same time.
[248] With Shopify, we have a powerful partner for managing our sales, and if you're a business owner, you can too.
[249] Connect with customers in line and online.
[250] Do retail right with Shopify.
[251] Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify .com slash murder.
[252] Important note, that promo code is all lowercase.
[253] Go to Shopify .com slash murder to take your retail business to the next level today.
[254] That's Shopify .com slash murder.
[255] Goodbye.
[256] Georgia, the subject line of this email is my drug addicted needle reusing oral surgeon.
[257] Okay.
[258] So I would say to anybody who is a bit creeped out by bad medical things, you're going to want to jump ahead the 30 button a couple times.
[259] I can't do that.
[260] For real?
[261] Are you no, I likey?
[262] I can't.
[263] No, I'm, you know, I love it.
[264] Okay.
[265] Put your finger up if you feel faint.
[266] No, I'm ready.
[267] I'm ready.
[268] Let's go.
[269] Hello, Georgia, Karen, Stephen, and pets.
[270] My hometown story is from a suburb of South Denver.
[271] It is my very own oral surgeon who removed not only my wisdom teeth, but my mothers and sisters as well.
[272] He was recommended to us by a good family friend who just so happened to also be our dentist.
[273] I would assume that if he'd known what this oral surgeon was doing, he wouldn't have recommended his family friends to see him.
[274] And I'm unsure how he got caught, but in 2012, 10 years after we had been to see him, it was found out that from 1999 to 2011, this motherfucker was not only committing prescription fraud and using the drugs intended for his patients and treating patients while actually on pain killers, but he was also reusing misusing misconducting.
[275] needles from patient to patient.
[276] Oh, my God.
[277] No, why?
[278] Don't do that.
[279] Right?
[280] That's just, you don't need to do that.
[281] This is, this is absolutely in the Dr. Death category of bum out things that could happen.
[282] Dr. Wise.
[283] Okay.
[284] And if you haven't our Dr. Death.
[285] I haven't.
[286] I just don't want to.
[287] Oh, right.
[288] Because if you, if you can't handle these kind of squeamish things, Dr. Death is like times 25.
[289] Okay.
[290] But if you can, it's one of the best podcasts out there.
[291] I'm into this right now, though.
[292] Go on.
[293] Okay.
[294] Letters were sent to any previous or current patients of his informing them of the situation.
[295] Myself, my mom, and my two sisters, one of which who had just had a baby.
[296] So we had the added scare of my nephew's health, along with 8 ,000 other patients of his.
[297] 8 ,000.
[298] 8 ,000 had to get tested for HIV and hepatitis.
[299] Six of his patients had tested positive for HIV or hepatitis.
[300] But of course, it is impossible to say whether or not those patients contracted it from his stupid.
[301] myself and my family all tested negative praise stephen's mustache oh my god that was in parentheses oh my god stephen look at stephen's embarrassed sunburn face i gasped genuinely a few seconds ago you're bright red but it's also because you went to the renfair name of sunburn not because you're embarrassed that's the story is already so horrible it's horrifying and then you're pulled into it Can't wait.
[302] So this family all tested negative and were able to put the whole thing behind us.
[303] The state never filed charges against this psychopath, but he agreed to surrender his dental license and license as an oral surgeon.
[304] How could they not file charges against him?
[305] I don't know.
[306] Karen, I'm mad at you.
[307] I will call the Denver PD.
[308] I wish you would.
[309] However, this guy isn't done yet.
[310] Uh -oh.
[311] In 2013, he was pulled over and arrested in Lake Tahoe for driving under the influence of cocaine.
[312] dude that's specific that's very specific like how bad are you on cocaine if you get pulled over for it you're you're talking so much you start swerving yeah um he admitted to being a drug addict after his uh issue in colorado my sister who is also obsessed with your podcast and i search to find any updated information after his arrest in lake tahoe but we haven't found anything i guess that's a good thing maybe he's sharing dirty needles in the privacy of his own home instead of with patients in a doctor's office.
[313] Anyway, thanks for your amazing podcast and the wonderful murderino community.
[314] Listening to you guys always brightens my day.
[315] SSDGM and always beware of creepy dentists, Anne -Marie.
[316] Thanks, Anne -Marie.
[317] Us too.
[318] Writing your story always brightens a day.
[319] Any kind of needle, involuntary needle sharing story.
[320] What a bummer.
[321] Like, you go to these doctors that you should, you trust.
[322] Like, why go to the trouble of getting a fucking, dental degree if you're just going to be a piece of shit about it.
[323] Well, it's those drugs.
[324] I'm sure he started with all the best intentions.
[325] And then suddenly he's like, I could save a little more money for my cocaine.
[326] If I reuse these needles.
[327] I mean, like, it's drug thinking.
[328] This one's called Human Skin Book Bindings at the Mudder Museum.
[329] Dear Karen, Georgia and co. On behalf of the staff at the College of Physicians in Philadelphia, well known for its Muter Museum, we are huge fans of your podcast, which is such an honor.
[330] That museum is so fucking cool.
[331] and badass.
[332] I'm so bummed.
[333] I've never been there yet.
[334] In your most recent episode, the question of how common was the practice of binding books in human skin came up, and we wanted to offer our expertise.
[335] Hell yes.
[336] Mutro Museum, mutter.
[337] Our historical medical library just happens to have the largest confirmed collection of Anthromo...
[338] I'm going to get this.
[339] Anthropodermic?
[340] Anthropodermic?
[341] Like, like derma?
[342] Karen, you're so smart.
[343] No, you're right.
[344] I love words.
[345] Anthropodermic books in the country, so we thought we'd share what we know.
[346] It wasn't uncommon for 19th century physicians and surgeons to tan human skin and subsequently use the leather as book bindings.
[347] Traditional 19th century tanning began by soaking an animal skin in lime water.
[348] After the skins had soaked any flesh, fat and hair was removed from the skin by hand.
[349] Ew.
[350] The defleshed skins were softened.
[351] soaked again in lime water for a few days and then soaked in baths of tannin usually derived from tree bark that were made progressively stronger over a period of weeks or months.
[352] Once tanned, the skins were dried, rolled and pressed into leather.
[353] Of course, this brings up the question of whether the doctors had their patient's permission, which in many cases can't be confirmed.
[354] Three of our five anthropodermic books came from the skin of one woman, Mary Lynch, who died of Trichonosis on January 16th, 1869 at Old Lockley in Philadelphia.
[355] One of her attending physicians, John Stockton Howe, removed a piece of her skin from her thigh sometime between her death and burial.
[356] In June of 1887, Howe used the skin to partially bind three books, all dealing with women's reproductive health.
[357] We don't know if Howe had Mary Lynch's permission or why he chose to bind books about conception and childbirth with her skin.
[358] these three books in addition to the other two anthropodermic books in the library collection represent a unique convergence of text and medical specimen.
[359] The books as collections of text remain valuable sources in the history of medicine.
[360] The books as objects force us into uncomfortable considerations of the use of human skin and bindings and whether the use of human skin diminishes the value of the text, rendering them mere objects of moral curiosity.
[361] So smart.
[362] If you're ever in Philadelphia, we would love to give you a private tour.
[363] And we'd love to take it.
[364] Oh, please.
[365] Stay sexy and don't let your skin be turned into a book without your consent.
[366] The staff at the Muter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.
[367] And then I remember that I have a friend who's this really smart librarian who was working on a book about this practice.
[368] So I looked it up and it actually comes out next month in October.
[369] How fucking weird is it?
[370] It's called Dark Archives, a librarian's investigation into the science and history of books bound in human skin.
[371] And her name's Megan Rosenblum.
[372] I just, I completely forgot, but I, well, that's, that's such good news that that book is coming out because I would love to know why they did that and what the, I mean, like, yeah, apparently, it just doesn't, it's so creepy to me. This book gets into all of that.
[373] How cool is that?
[374] Because we've heard a couple stories about creepy doctors where I'm thinking this doctor that did that with the, this story that you just told.
[375] Right.
[376] May, may have been a creep, could have been.
[377] Yeah, sounds like it.
[378] Real good.
[379] I don't know.
[380] So that then maybe in this.
[381] book.
[382] It explains it.
[383] It was like some, I don't know, what would the explanation be that would make me feel better?
[384] I'm not sure.
[385] There isn't.
[386] There can't be one.
[387] I mean, it's a bit history.
[388] Maybe for like history's sake, you know?
[389] I mean, but it's a book.
[390] I know.
[391] Just use fucking paper and leave people alone.
[392] Well, I bet you'll find out in the book, Dark Archives by Megan Rosenblum.
[393] I think that's it.
[394] Yeah, that's it.
[395] Send your hometowns to my favorite murder at Gmail.
[396] And stay sexy.
[397] And don't get murdered.
[398] Goodbye.
[399] Elvis, do you want a cookie?