65 - Pre-Milked Cereal

[0] This is exactly right.

[1] Hey, this is exciting.

[2] An all -new season of only murders in the building is coming to Hulu on August 27th.

[3] Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez are back as your favorite podcaster, detectives.

[4] But there's a mystery hanging over everyone.

[5] Who killed Saz?

[6] And were they really after Charles?

[7] Why would someone want to kill Charles?

[8] This season, murder hits close to home.

[9] With a threat against one of their own, the stakes are higher than ever.

[10] Plus, the gang is going to Hollywood to turn their podcast into a major movie.

[11] Amid the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles, more mysteries and twists arise.

[12] Who knows what will happen once the cameras start to roll?

[13] Get ready for the stariest season yet with Merrill Streep, Zach Alfinacus, Eugene Levy, Eva Longoria, Melissa McCarthy, DeVine, Joy Randolph, Molly Shannon, and more.

[14] Only murders in the building, premieres August 27th, streaming only on Hulu.

[15] Bye.

[16] Should we podcast?

[17] Are these the new mics?

[18] Yes, let's podcast.

[19] Okay, let's podcast.

[20] So early in the day, doesn't this podcast feel like we should do it at night?

[21] Yes.

[22] This is definitely a nocturnal podcast.

[23] Yeah, like with the lights off.

[24] Should we shut some stuff down?

[25] Maybe make it spooky?

[26] Should you get your central system to shut it all?

[27] Oh, you know, the clapper for the entire thing I have?

[28] Because I'm rich.

[29] Oh, nothing happened.

[30] Oh, hi.

[31] Hey, guys.

[32] This is my favorite murder.

[33] That's Karen.

[34] Kilgarra.

[35] And that's Georgia Hard Stark.

[36] We're here to talk to you about true crime.

[37] Are you ready for this?

[38] We haven't planned any of this conversation.

[39] No, not at all.

[40] Although it did have a kind of a lilting choreographed quality, that's just how we naturally are with each other.

[41] That's just us.

[42] That's us.

[43] We don't write anything down.

[44] We don't prepare in any way.

[45] We're just like the TV show, This Is Us.

[46] That's us.

[47] Same exact thing.

[48] No. I'm sure it's great, though.

[49] Speaking of TV, this is a good segue that we wrote, that we rehearsed four times.

[50] Oh, it just turns out.

[51] Oh, that's weird.

[52] I just got real TV again after like moving in and being like, we don't need TV.

[53] Let's just, we'll just do Roku and blah, blah, blah, and all these things.

[54] Didn't work?

[55] No, and I was like, I just want to turn like a food show on while I stuff at Tamale into my mouth in the middle of the day.

[56] Yeah.

[57] Like I don't want to have to beep, boop, and find the thing.

[58] And then like, watch the thing.

[59] Yeah, you just want to watch HDV for five minutes.

[60] You want to dive into the stream of TV that's already happening as opposed to hunt out specific.

[61] Because I find when I go hunt out specific things, I don't like it when I find, like, it makes me go, oh, I don't actually like this.

[62] Like my food gets cold while I'm like, because I can't eat in silence.

[63] I have this problem with that.

[64] Me too.

[65] So, yeah, it's like you're scrolling and like, fine, I can watch an episode or like five minutes of friends while I'm fucking eat this tamale again the tamale i mean let's be honest i mean cereal for lunch um was tamale the choice you made like this will impress people no because they're frozen tamales from trader joes those ones that are like that i just heat up and put salsa on and then i'm like they're half cold the way you just said that made it sound like you're like fine i'll admit i'm eating cereal i want you to think i'm sitting here eating tamales homemade tamales okay fine it's homemade cereal you know like i like to do but you made it yourself right i yeah it's not that pre -packaged pre -milked cereal gross pre -melt pre -milked I said it what if you what was it like powdered milk and you pour water into it and it's like cereal and I bet the army has that yeah I bet they do so it's like there's powdered milk and then there's a little capsule of water and then you break it and there's like a fucking like shitty spoon attached to the whole thing it's part of the thing you break it's part of the thing you break a thing Stephen trademark that wait that just reminds me So, our friend Guy Brannum had a Passover Cedar.

[66] Sater.

[67] Sater.

[68] Fuck, I do it wrong every time.

[69] What if he just had a Passover Cedar tree in his house?

[70] That's how I remembered it that way.

[71] I thought Sater, because Sater's like the animal, like the, you know, a guy with goat legs.

[72] Really?

[73] Sater, S -A -T -Y -R.

[74] You know, they play the weird heart.

[75] Sure, sure, sure.

[76] Anyhow.

[77] It doesn't matter.

[78] Yeah, Guy Brannum Sater.

[79] How is it?

[80] It was, of course, lovely.

[81] He writes basically, like, a whole play.

[82] Everyone at the table has parts, and you have to, like, follow along.

[83] You say the prayers, but then there's other things, and we play games.

[84] It's hilarious and really fun.

[85] But at one point, he served quail.

[86] What?

[87] He served quail, and I was eating it, and then I flicked out the tiniest wishbone.

[88] And then I did the, I was sitting next guy named Matt.

[89] It was super cool, who's a writer that I now know.

[90] And so we snapped the wishbone and I fucking won.

[91] I got my wish.

[92] Man, I haven't had a wish phone since I was a kid probably out of Sater.

[93] That makes me so excited.

[94] Isn't that funny?

[95] And it was a tiny one because it was from a quail.

[96] So it was like, it flicked out.

[97] And then I was like, hold on a second.

[98] I think I just found a wishbone.

[99] It was like that big.

[100] Cue the email from fucking animal rights activist saying, Karen, you know that wish phone was part of this animal's life and happiness.

[101] that's right no it's part of my happiness because it's going to bring me my wish give it what was your wish tell us we won't tell anyone because then it won't come true right that's not a thing just eternal love that's all well now it's not going to come true well you tricked me um did you eat a filter fish no that's my favorite uh it wasn't served he did so every year he does a different theme oh It's not standard traditional Jewish food.

[102] So it was Syrian food.

[103] Oh, wow.

[104] It was a series of dishes that won more delicious than the next.

[105] A series of Syrian food?

[106] A series of Syrian food.

[107] Series of Syrian serving?

[108] No. Forget it.

[109] No, you had it.

[110] Well, there are Syrian Jews.

[111] I mean, that's cool.

[112] Are there?

[113] Yeah.

[114] Tell me about them.

[115] I have never met them, but I'm sure they're there.

[116] I bet they are.

[117] Okay.

[118] That's amazing.

[119] Television.

[120] Oh, and speaking of, you really quickly plug the Guy Brenham TV show that you're on.

[121] Because we're talking about TV and Guy Brenham.

[122] It's so funny.

[123] And again, what a great segue.

[124] Thanks for remembering your line.

[125] Except we never get to what we're actually talking about.

[126] It's all scripted, but we never actually, the segways are great, but they never talk about.

[127] Yeah, they just lead us away from topics.

[128] That's why people hate this podcast.

[129] I am on a television show called Talk Show the Game Show Guy Brandom is the host He's also our legal representative But he is also a talk show host On a game show on the True TV network It's so good It's Wednesday night at 10 o 'clock Two episodes have already played Tomorrow night will be the third episode Is that Friday night or Wednesday night?

[130] Wednesday night oh shoot So last night So next week Whatever shit I always forgot I'm sure that they're playing it I've seen it constantly They're playing it over and over Yeah, I bet they repeat it.

[131] And, but, but I wish this was earlier because I think this, they're like, now it's all they're watching the ratings to see if they're going to pick it up.

[132] Please everyone, Wednesday.

[133] Uh, set your alarm clocks.

[134] I guess I'll tweet about it.

[135] But anyway, anyway, um, it's fun.

[136] So TV, I got TV finally.

[137] And then I watched the, which means I get all access to fucking ID and, you know, Dateline and all this shit.

[138] And everyone's like, did you watch Casey?

[139] the like three -part Casey Anthony thing.

[140] Right.

[141] And so I was like, all right, this is my job.

[142] I'm going to do this.

[143] Can I just say I saw all those tweets and questions and hey, watch this and whatever.

[144] And I purposely don't watch anything about Casey Anthony.

[145] I don't like that.

[146] I don't find anything in that story.

[147] I was just going to say that.

[148] Really?

[149] I just don't give a shit about her.

[150] I don't want to know.

[151] I don't want to know because I hate that story so much.

[152] Me too.

[153] And I was going to say, I just fucking couldn't watch it.

[154] Like, I know it's like, my job, and I should watch it and talk about it.

[155] I was just like, fuck this cunt, man. She just sucks so hard.

[156] But I don't understand why she, is this the glamorization of female criminals in that way where it's like, so she's a young hot girl that has a child that went to a party and maybe killed her child, but like, are we reporting about her more than other people because she's like a skinny white girl?

[157] that was like at a party.

[158] Is it the same thing as that other girl that killed her boyfriend that...

[159] Right.

[160] I think they get lumped together a lot.

[161] I think what it is is the cold -heartedness in which...

[162] Like, it just...

[163] She's such a deep, deep narcissist that it's hard to watch.

[164] Like her jail cell, you know, conversations with her parents where, you know, when she first gets arrested is like, me, me, me, me, not my daughter's dead.

[165] There's nothing about, out like my baby is dead.

[166] It's like, I can't believe this is happening to me. And I, this isn't fair.

[167] And it's just like her poor parents have to come to the realization that they raised a piece of shit narcissist who killed what could have been a not piece of shit narcissist or grandchild.

[168] And now they like have to stick with her.

[169] It's almost like this thing of, this is all we have left is to stick with this kid, the one who sucked.

[170] I can't tell if it's because I haven't had enough Diet Coke today, but I feel nauseous right now talking about her.

[171] Like, she, that, it makes me nauseous because there's other cold -hearted bitches in the world, but this is like saying, let's pay more attention to her because she weighs 97 pounds.

[172] I just hate the Nancy Grace of it all for this particular story.

[173] And it's the same one with the other one where I would, I was always like, why are we talking about her?

[174] Yes.

[175] Why are we talking about her?

[176] And it's the same thing.

[177] It's this kind of like, can you believe this hot, hot, bitch is this much of a cunt basically.

[178] Can you believe hot bitches are cunts?

[179] Who knew?

[180] Yes.

[181] Who fucking knew?

[182] There's so many different types of cunts out there.

[183] Yeah.

[184] It's like, can you believe not hot bitches are funny?

[185] Yes, because that's what they fucking needed to do.

[186] Yeah, that's the standard actually.

[187] Yeah.

[188] That's the most common is we're not hot.

[189] That's why we're funny.

[190] We didn't grow up.

[191] I'm not talking to you.

[192] I meant that for, I didn't mean that in an accusatory way.

[193] you should see some photos with me as a kid because you ain't wrong.

[194] Oh my God, I got a perm and I have braces.

[195] Anyways.

[196] Yeah, so Casey Anthony, no thanks.

[197] Stupid idiot.

[198] Awful.

[199] It's just sad and then awful.

[200] There's nothing in there that I go, ooh, this is fascinating.

[201] I just go, this is a tragedy.

[202] Yeah.

[203] Yeah, it's ugly.

[204] Rough stuff.

[205] I wrote shit down.

[206] Do you have any, what do you want to?

[207] Oh, I do.

[208] do.

[209] Well, this is, I wanted to read you because I read this morning on Twitter.

[210] It's a, there's a, I guess, a website called L .A .S. And it basically is all the stuff around L .A. L .A. Oh, I love L .A .S. Yeah.

[211] They do it in all different cities.

[212] Yeah.

[213] Surely it's owned by Rupert Murdoch or someone like that.

[214] But it brings me my local news.

[215] And the headline this morning was dead body found in car parked in Filipino town.

[216] and let me just this is a short thing I will read you a body was discovered inside a vehicle parked in the middle of the street along the 300 blocks of West Lake Avenue or is that stopped that's that's well turns out they people found it at 210 in the morning the body of a male Hispanic in his 30s was found in the back seat of a black Hyundai it had an Uber sticker it's believed to have been towed to that location that it was discovered at not driven, towed there.

[217] A spokeswoman for the LAPD said, told LAS.

[218] My mouth is just, I'm not being quiet.

[219] My mouth has just dropped open.

[220] It's crazy that the department cannot confirm these claims that detectives and the coroner are continuing their investigation of the case.

[221] So basically, this is what probably they got the scoop on the scene, but no one's going to confirm those things.

[222] We're never going to hear about it again.

[223] That's what's so crazy about these things that you hear about.

[224] And then there's just a couple tweets of the pictures of the car.

[225] sitting there with cops all around it.

[226] Oh, my God.

[227] But the idea, it's so scary.

[228] I've been taking Uber over and over for the past, like, couple weeks.

[229] My first thought is that he's a driver.

[230] Right.

[231] Right.

[232] Yes, me too.

[233] Yeah.

[234] And someone put him in the back seat after killing him.

[235] Oh, my dad's about to start driving Uber, so that ain't happening anymore.

[236] Oh, yoy.

[237] You know, he used to be a taxi driver in, like, North Hollywood.

[238] Marty was?

[239] Yeah.

[240] and like down the street from where he was like parked waiting late at night to get his next call some dude some cab driver got shot in the back of the head for the back of the seat and he's like quitting yeah so now he's thinking becoming an Uber driver and it's like fuck dude either you're going to have a really great story stories to tell or you're going to be parked in the middle of fucking Filipino town well who knows I mean like who knows I want to hear about this story so bad that's so crazy i thought that's that's bananas like what i want the story yeah um the boot -bop oh i have a podcast recommendation corner so this podcast called the vanished which obviously talks about people who vanished it's like a true crime podcast i mean let me explain this to you no i needed a little bit of an underlined don't worry so they have this one episode, oh, I forgot what number it is, but it's the episode called the Mimi Lewis story.

[241] Oh, no, what number is it?

[242] Stephen!

[243] No, it's called the Mimi Lewis story.

[244] And it's really incredible because it's not about, it's about this girl Mimi Lewis who vanished.

[245] She was 14.

[246] But the whole episode is a conversation with this woman named Sandy Roberts who runs this nonprofit called Halo's investigation where they try to find missing teens.

[247] and their like their mission is to stop getting the label runaway put on teens and juveniles who disappear yeah and it's it's really good episode especially for parents like of teenagers and young kids about what like how this happens what happens how they're lured the internet and they're they're saying she's saying let's stop saying that they're runaways and let's start saying that they were lured away which is is like suddenly makes you care so much more.

[248] Yes.

[249] Because it's this like automatic thing of when you're like, oh, she ran away, then she deserves whatever happened to her.

[250] Yeah.

[251] But it's like, no, if someone manipulated her and, you know, that kind of thing.

[252] And she was having a hard time at home and, you know, and was lured away.

[253] And there's like a bunch of stuff about sex trafficking and what that means, which is, I mean, it's a really good episode.

[254] Wow.

[255] That's very cool.

[256] It kind of moved me a lot.

[257] And that's vanished.

[258] Vanished.

[259] The vanished.

[260] It's the Mimi Lewis episode.

[261] Cool.

[262] Oh, my sister sent me, so my sister is a big creeper on the Facebook page.

[263] She likes to go on there and look around silently and secretly.

[264] And then she'll text me things that she sees and likes on there.

[265] She's like betting it for you.

[266] Exactly.

[267] And so this one was the day after the Milwaukee show.

[268] And she sent me a text that said, this made me tear up a little look.

[269] at the amazing community you guys created.

[270] And then it said, went to see the MFM last night in Milwaukee.

[271] My friend and I went to get dinner beforehand and it was like murderinos descended on Milwaukee.

[272] It was the best ever.

[273] Basically, everyone we passed, I would whisper, shoot, I would whisper to my friend, they're totally here for the show, definitely a murderino.

[274] When we were at bars before and after, you slowly watched groups growing larger and larger, as separate groups would realize that we all were murderinos and joined together.

[275] Why can't that be the normal bar scene?

[276] That would be a dream.

[277] Thank you, Karen, and Georgia.

[278] And all, I think it cuts off at the bottom.

[279] It says, I think it says, and all murderinos everywhere.

[280] But I love that so much.

[281] Because actually, we didn't create this community.

[282] You guys have created it for yourselves.

[283] And we're just up here kind of like reading these stories.

[284] and recording these podcasts but you guys are the boots on the ground that are like every time we have a VIP meet and greet after a show people will tell us I met them in line I'm now I'm hanging out with that girl like it's the cutest thing in the world I think that's what the live shows have done probably the most for us is make us like actually see all of these people who are like the shows are so positive and I'm always like if people are like I'm scared to go alone it's like, no, you're going to meet a hundred fucking cool people that are your friends.

[285] It's just such a cool thing.

[286] And it's not, and it's not like they all get together because of our podcast.

[287] They get together over their love of true crime, which we all feel so in the dark about because you're not supposed to talk about it.

[288] And then it's people I think who aren't really the types of people.

[289] Like, it's like somebody like me who I'm not going to be the kind of person.

[290] It's like, hey, what are you interested?

[291] I'm always like, arms crossed.

[292] And I think when people, they have, it's a, you know, I just a second ago said it's so cute and that's the worst.

[293] I hate that word.

[294] I don't know why I used it.

[295] Because what it really is is a very empowering, cool.

[296] Like, it's almost like skipping over.

[297] It's almost like a weird Tinder for friends where you don't have, you go, oh, I know this person already.

[298] Yeah.

[299] I don't have to like excuses or pretend I don't like a thing I like.

[300] Yeah.

[301] I already have this thing in common and then we go from there, which is very cool.

[302] Yeah.

[303] And it's just, um, to us, it's just.

[304] just of, it's thrilling to be able to be a part of this thing that you guys are doing.

[305] Definitely.

[306] This is, listen, we didn't know this would be a thing.

[307] Hey, listen.

[308] Hey, listen and look and listen.

[309] Listen and learn.

[310] Listen and kind of learn.

[311] We didn't know and we fucking love it and we're so.

[312] We're proud of you.

[313] Blessed.

[314] We're proud of you.

[315] We're grateful.

[316] We're proud of you for going to shows and getting into the mix.

[317] Yeah.

[318] Thank you for supporting us.

[319] hey is it birthday corner oh it is birthday corner is it birthday corner is it birthday corner that's right it's stephen's birthday corner it's stephen's birthday corner hey hey hey i thought yeah i thought you're gonna give a good hi oh hi birthday boy hello it's like we're at tgai fridays and he knows that someone's about to come singing and we're all just like oh it's gonna come so worst feeling or you're waiting for that sombrero to get thrown down on your head have ever done that to someone whose birthday it wasn't oh shit do you that's twisted can i tell well i won't tell it now because we're trying to give a birthday greeting but one time people did that and they were talking about me before i came back from the bathroom and i thought they were talking shit about me and i started crying and then they were like and then i just sat down at the table like full pouting and everything got super uncomfortable and then it was like happy and when i realized what it was like they were actually doing the nice that's like so shows you what your brain does the worst.

[320] That's incorrect.

[321] Yeah, when you're in a bad situation, it was already a bad situation.

[322] And it's like, okay, anyways, Stephen, this is about you.

[323] This is about you.

[324] For one second.

[325] Here's the thing in a card.

[326] Yes.

[327] It's a big old thing of whiskey.

[328] George's presenting Stephen with his birthday gift from us.

[329] It's organic.

[330] And we're making you open it on, on camera.

[331] So much pressure.

[332] On camera.

[333] There's so much pressure to like this.

[334] I can do it with one hand.

[335] Okay, good.

[336] There's cat fur on the tape.

[337] It's great.

[338] Perfect.

[339] Part of the present, right?

[340] Don't judge me. It's a lot.

[341] It's just.

[342] It's a lot.

[343] Don't judge me. It's From Elvis and Mimi, they wanted to add something.

[344] That's what they...

[345] Oh, I didn't add that.

[346] It's all they could afford.

[347] Elvis.

[348] It says California, Six Woods, Malt.

[349] No, don't give them a shout out.

[350] They didn't.

[351] We paid for this.

[352] I'll cut that out.

[353] Yeah, yeah, yeah, cut that out.

[354] Steven.

[355] Slend.

[356] It's organic whiskey.

[357] That's so cool.

[358] Oh, my favorite.

[359] Okay, open the card, though.

[360] The card's the important.

[361] Organic whiskey, my favorite.

[362] Organic whiskey.

[363] My favorite.

[364] It's vegan gluten -free whiskey with a bear on the front.

[365] It's also non -alcoholic.

[366] I hope that's it.

[367] We're worried about you.

[368] It's just root beer.

[369] This is an intervention.

[370] Oh my gosh.

[371] Oh, should I read it?

[372] Yeah.

[373] Oh, okay.

[374] We want you.

[375] Dear Stephen, thank you so much for everything.

[376] We've donated $300.

[377] Oh, my gosh.

[378] To Santador in your name because you know you love the kitties.

[379] Happy birthday, Karen and Georgia.

[380] Oh, thank you.

[381] Santa Dore is a really great catch.

[382] I don't want to call a shelter.

[383] Yeah, it's rescue.

[384] Cat rescue down close in our neighborhood.

[385] Yeah, it's, oh my gosh.

[386] That you love.

[387] Yeah, yeah, I've done work with them before.

[388] The Christy Keefe has been on my podcast, the podcast.

[389] This is so amazing.

[390] Yeah, it's like, because I've seen that you can do that.

[391] You can like basically like sponsor a cat.

[392] Oh my God, thank you.

[393] So we just gave it to them.

[394] I said, this is for Stephen Ray Morris.

[395] I like that that actually, the feel of all of that really turned into a look what we did for you.

[396] I know.

[397] Look at how good we are.

[398] Can I say that Vince was like pushing hard for like the past month?

[399] We're like, what do I get Steven?

[400] And he just kept saying, what about a house school?

[401] kimono he can wear around the house he just kept and i was like what the fuck are why are you fucking pushing for this he's like i don't know i can just see stephen enjoying a house kimono and i was like he has a roommate just lounging around yeah i mean this is great i mean for a second you were it was like pull out a cat and just like here's a new cat we got you a cat do you want a cat you want a cat you can you can take that where we take the three hundred dollars back and then buy a cat like at a cat what are they called mill oh no uh this is much better oh my gosh thank you so much happy birthday 30th yeah 30th oh my god yeah the big 3 oh i wanted people to think i was 20 but um also you're fired oh okay oh yeah we don't have anyone over 30 in our oh no it's ageism we totally support it's fine stephen what are you going to in your next 30 years let's hear a short -term goal uh let's hear a long -term goal How are you going to re -position yourself for the next 30?

[402] I like it.

[403] I like it.

[404] Ooh, I want to invest in real estate.

[405] I feel like that's smart.

[406] It is.

[407] It's like, what would we say?

[408] I want to eat a million things.

[409] Have more donut companies make donuts of my face.

[410] Yes, that's smart.

[411] And then have like a cat ranch, maybe just open up.

[412] Dude.

[413] That sounds amazing.

[414] Really huge cats, like horse -sized cats.

[415] Cool.

[416] Like it's all Maine Coons, like the biggest cats you've ever seen.

[417] Children riding cats.

[418] I think that's, I mean, that feels like giving back, you know.

[419] Yes.

[420] Smart.

[421] These are all positive things.

[422] What's one insane, stupid thing you're going to do?

[423] I mean, the one, like, because I kind of feel like I'm doing what I love for living now, and I feel really lucky to feel that way.

[424] But there's always, like, that one insane thing that you're like, oh, if I had this, like, I've always wanted to learn how to fly an airplane.

[425] Oh.

[426] That's one thing that, like, I feel like when you can afford the gas money, because, like, renting, like learning how to fly isn't that expensive but renting the buying the gas is the expensive part that's interesting and I've always wanted to like learn how to fly a plane Stephen here's okay now we're going to make a solid plan you do that you take the next how long does it take 18 months learn to fly planes and then we get a private plane I knew you were going there right yeah and we go international now fly over international waters yes exactly no rules apply nope we're going to buy plan And Karen and I are on the wings the whole time.

[427] We Amelia Earhart the fuck out of this tour.

[428] That means we die on an island.

[429] Yep.

[430] Cool.

[431] Oh, is that how it ended?

[432] Oh, yeah.

[433] They're pretty sure they found off an island.

[434] They found like.

[435] Wait, really?

[436] Yeah.

[437] Oh, sorry.

[438] Oh, no, no, no. She's still alive.

[439] Happy birthday.

[440] Amelia Earhart's like died of starvation.

[441] 30 is your bad news birthday.

[442] It turns out Amelia Earhart is dead.

[443] Can I just say to that.

[444] It's part of growing up.

[445] Yeah.

[446] Santa's not really.

[447] Oh, shit.

[448] Careful, careful.

[449] The 30s, 30s are your best.

[450] The 20s, you couldn't fucking pay me to you my 20s again.

[451] No, I'm stoked to be 30.

[452] Yeah, I'm really excited.

[453] Good.

[454] 20s are a disaster.

[455] But 30s, I would say this about your 30s.

[456] 30s because you're out of your 20s, you think now I know, now I get it.

[457] Just remember that you do not know.

[458] Yeah.

[459] And that once you're in the position of that, then you can kind of like be flexible.

[460] But my big mistake in my 30s is like, ugh, I'm so much smarter now.

[461] And I think that that made me even stupter.

[462] Mine was that I have to grow up.

[463] now and I'm like and you don't have to like people who are like I'm 32 and I'm going to marry my boyfriend and I'm like don't fucking do that you don't even you're 32 like just don't don't take anything like relationships and jobs and whatever situation you're in as seriously as you think you're supposed to when you're in your 30s like you can wait till your later 30s which I'm about to be to do that yeah nice yeah thank you Stephen oh my gosh and now you give us advice well the cat ranch thing was kind of in the real estate you're right real estate that was good like I was kind of hinting that you two idiots who don't spend your money well should happy birthday to our friends Stephen well done we're glad you're here yeah we're very glad we have you here yeah thank you and soon you'll be paid for your work can't wait someone we were getting interviewed for something and someone was like can I just ask do you pay Stephen like almost like you put him there's so much shit.

[464] Do you at least pay him?

[465] And I'm like, yes.

[466] People are, they're very concerned that we really are mean to you in real life.

[467] Yeah.

[468] Which is not true.

[469] So there's $300 of charity to prove or not.

[470] Your dick.

[471] Oh, no. I love it.

[472] Okay, good.

[473] It's why he's here.

[474] You got a sister.

[475] You know what it's like to be treated like shit.

[476] All three of us know what it's like to be treated like a sibling.

[477] Anyways.

[478] That's right.

[479] That's why we treat.

[480] at will what however we want um coming from a victim stance now i do have a corrections corner okay um we talked about it a little bit in both indianapolis milwaukee and chicago but i am forced to say to the nation and the world i forgot about it everyone's holding their breath cherry hill everyone knows cherry hills in new jersey everyone knows that every every single person on this planet i don't i certainly didn't And neither do the producers of City Confidential because they really led me to believe that Cherry Hill was in Pennsylvania.

[481] Tell everyone, because I just love this where it's like, so you did your murder a week ago before the live show aired.

[482] Yeah.

[483] And it was about Fred Newlander.

[484] Right, the murdering rabbi.

[485] Yeah.

[486] And I thought maybe you were like, I did it once on accident, but you thought it was there.

[487] I didn't know.

[488] Yeah.

[489] Now, the problem with it really is that I think.

[490] feel like some other part of my brain did know that, like, the first indoor mall was in New Jersey.

[491] That just makes good sense.

[492] I guess, yeah, you're right.

[493] Who the fuck?

[494] No. Context clues.

[495] No. No, you're right.

[496] I mean, I don't.

[497] I'll just write down whatever and then say whatever.

[498] In the middle of Pennsylvania, like middle of nowhere, not near Pittsburgh, has to be so boring that they're like, put a mall here because everyone's so bored.

[499] All they do is like cause trouble.

[500] Let's give them a place to go.

[501] Give them a nice indoor mall.

[502] Give them a mall.

[503] Like, New Jersey is kind of fun.

[504] They have, like, cool, weird shit to do, don't they?

[505] I don't know.

[506] I don't either.

[507] I clearly don't know anything about any.

[508] What I said to people when we were on tour was in California, you can't just go to another state real fast, which is how they were making it sound in the city confidential.

[509] Like, the daughter lived in Philly, and so she, like, drove into Cherry Hill.

[510] Yeah.

[511] So, like, that just led me to believe.

[512] You can't just drive in.

[513] If you're in L .A., and you want to drive in from Nevada, that's going to take a while.

[514] I don't.

[515] I mean, it just doesn't make sense to someone that lives on this part of the planet.

[516] You know what?

[517] Fuck it all.

[518] Who fucking cares.

[519] Fuck it all.

[520] That's the tagline.

[521] Why am I the one singing now?

[522] Because it's fun.

[523] You've got to do it.

[524] And also, you can do it.

[525] You try to act like you can't and you can't.

[526] Okay.

[527] You just did it.

[528] You're right, I did it.

[529] Hey, this is exciting.

[530] An all -new season of only murders in the building is coming to Hulu on August 27th.

[531] Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez are back as your favorite podcaster, detectives.

[532] But there's a mystery hanging over everyone.

[533] Who killed Saz?

[534] And were they really after Charles?

[535] Why would someone want to kill Charles?

[536] This season, murder hits close to home.

[537] With a threat against one of their own, the stakes are higher than ever.

[538] Plus, the gang is going to Hollywood to turn their podcast into a major movie.

[539] Amid the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles, more mysteries, And twists arise.

[540] Who knows what'll happen once the cameras start to roll?

[541] Get ready for the stariest season yet with Merrill Streep, Zach Alfinacus, Eugene Levy, Eva Longoria, Melissa McCarthy, Devine, Joy Randolph, Molly Shannon, and more.

[542] Only Martyrs in the building, premieres August 27th, streaming only on Hulu.

[543] Goodbye.

[544] Karen, you know I'm all about vintage shopping.

[545] Absolutely.

[546] And when you say vintage, you mean when you physically drive to a store and actually purchase something with cash?

[547] Exactly.

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[560] Important note, that promo code is all lowercase.

[561] Go to Shopify .com slash murder to take your retail business to the next level today.

[562] That's Shopify .com slash murder.

[563] Goodbye.

[564] Should we talk about the theme of this podcast?

[565] Yes.

[566] Murder?

[567] Oh, not singing.

[568] Not Elvis.

[569] Do I go first?

[570] You go first.

[571] Stephen.

[572] Karen goes first.

[573] Is it me?

[574] Cool.

[575] All right then.

[576] It's your birthday.

[577] You've got to pick whoever you want to go first.

[578] Steven, it's your birthday.

[579] Okay.

[580] Well, tonight, today, this afternoon, I'm going to do the murder of Hollywood.

[581] super publicist Ronnie Chasen.

[582] Do you know this one?

[583] Is it a she?

[584] Yes.

[585] I think, I don't know anything about it.

[586] Okay.

[587] Take me there.

[588] I'm taking you back to 2010.

[589] Where were you in 2010?

[590] Where did you live?

[591] I was 30.

[592] What?

[593] Yeah.

[594] Yeah.

[595] Dude, I'm liking this.

[596] I was 30.

[597] I was living in a studio apartment in Hollywood.

[598] It's really cute.

[599] It was like $800 a month, which is the most hilarious thing I've ever heard.

[600] I thought you said I was really cute.

[601] I was really cute.

[602] Yeah, that's it.

[603] Go ahead.

[604] I had a shitty desk job that I fucking hated and I had no idea that my life would be what it is today.

[605] And I am so glad I didn't because then it wouldn't have happened.

[606] Did you wish and wish and hope that it, that you would not work at a desk anymore?

[607] Oh my God.

[608] Because I have to tell you when I, I had two different jobs in my early 20s that both brought me such intense soul -sucking sorrow.

[609] That was my life until I was 30.

[610] Yeah.

[611] And I thought it would be that forever.

[612] But I feel like when you're going through that, you think this, because I feel this bad about it, that means it's going to happen forever.

[613] But actually, if you feel that bad about it, it means it won't continue on, in my opinion.

[614] I fucking hustled my ass off to grasp anything that wouldn't get me there, that wouldn't keep me there.

[615] And that turned into a blog, a blog.

[616] Yeah.

[617] I, like, used to think, like, maybe if I just get married and have a baby, I can have some time off.

[618] Like, that's how bad it was.

[619] I was just like, get me out of here.

[620] I'll have a baby.

[621] Yeah.

[622] I mean, they do solve that problem.

[623] They do.

[624] But babies will get you out of the office.

[625] That's for sure.

[626] Yeah.

[627] And sometimes keep you from ever returning.

[628] Let me make this about me. You asked.

[629] I did ask you.

[630] I want to know.

[631] Because it was, it's weird to think.

[632] So it was seven years.

[633] ago.

[634] So, Stephen, you were 23.

[635] What were you doing?

[636] What were you doing, Stephen?

[637] I was just about to go to grad school in London.

[638] He's better than us.

[639] Bonjour, bonjour.

[640] I dropped out immediately, so.

[641] Oh, great.

[642] Bonjour, bonjour in London.

[643] Karen doesn't know where Cherry Hill is.

[644] She's no language.

[645] I get offended by anyone that leaves the country or gets an education.

[646] It really puts me out.

[647] Me too.

[648] um me myself if it was seven years ago where were you where was Karen i was um god i was in a you're married no i i you know where i was in new york i had just left my ex i was like i can't do this and i bailed and went to new york and i was in new york this is when i got into podcasts because i was in new york i knew about three people in the entire city i had a job um luckily and i would just come home i would work all week and then i would come home and on the weekends i would sit at this weird little chopping block table in the kitchen i would smoke out the window don't smoke it's bad for you and i would listen to dave anthony and Greg barrens podcast walking the room oh my god and they would fight and blather and like it was the funniest thing it was just like and it was just like being in the room with them yeah so it was a weird way that's why when people freak out and go like, I can't believe I'm meeting you, you don't understand.

[649] And I always grab them and I'm like, I do understand.

[650] It's like everybody goes through awful things and needs that kind of like companionship.

[651] And that's, it got me through kind of one of the hardest times of my adult life was pretending that I was having a conversation with Dave Anthony and Greg Barrett.

[652] My whole studio apartment was painted while I listen to podcasts.

[653] Yeah.

[654] On a like huge iPod.

[655] But like someone had given me. One of those big things.

[656] thick, blocky ones?

[657] Yes.

[658] You guys, we get it.

[659] We understand.

[660] So who got killed?

[661] Okay.

[662] Now, I take you back to November 16th of that year.

[663] In Hollywood, so, one of Hollywood's most powerful and beloved publicist, Ronnie Chaston, has just left the premiere party for the movie Burlesque.

[664] The Christina Aguilera share joint burlesque at the W. U. Hotel.

[665] Ronnie's the publicist for the movies.

[666] We were there last night.

[667] What's that?

[668] We were there yesterday.

[669] Yeah, that's right.

[670] Oh, this one's really folding it over and over.

[671] So she was the publicist for the movie's producer Donald Deline.

[672] She was also the publicist for the lighting designer, Peggy Eisenhower, and for the composer Diane Warren, who'd written a song for this movie.

[673] She worked the room, and she was now driving home down Sunset Boulevard.

[674] It was 12 .28 a .m. when Ronnie's Mercedes.

[675] came to a stop at the left turn lane and the intersection of wittier and sunset.

[676] So if you've never been to L .A. before, most people know about the sunset strip, which is like the most famous part of Sunset Boulevard.

[677] It starts, the sunset strip starts at Crescent Heights, and it goes all the way down a little bit past Doheny.

[678] And basically, along that strip, you've got the Chateau -Marmont Hotel, you've got the Comedy Store, you've got the Viper Room, you've got the whiskey, and you've got the Roxy.

[679] It used to be, Tower Records is there, book soup is there.

[680] There's a little, a very tony, she chishy chunk called the Sunset Plaza that has restaurants and like the Armani store, fancy shopping, fancy eating.

[681] And it's basically the, it takes you right into Beverly Hills.

[682] So once you get past that part, the Sunset Plaza portion basically takes a turn.

[683] And then suddenly there's trees and there's big tall greenhead.

[684] that are blocking off humongous mansions that they don't want you to look at and it becomes like this gorgeous green drive and um a little further down on that drive you've got the beverly hills hotel that it cost a thousand dollars a night to stay there seriously did you know that how much does it a cost a thousand dollars a night did you say a thousand dollars a night at the beverly hills hotel yeah are you fucking kidding yeah i i was clicking to see how far down sunset it was and when you click on it that hilarious Google thing happens where it's as if you're trying to book yourself there and it's like over it's like I think it's 1098 a night yeah because it's like you know the polo club it's like that's so much money yeah they only want rich people there oh fuck you or people that saved up whatever no go stay somewhere else um but anyway what I'm saying is this is the end of Sonsa Boulevard because if you keep on driving you end up at the beach basically you You would drive past Bel Air, which is the richest, richest, richest, UCLA, and then ultimately the beach.

[685] And that's a sharp contrast to where Sunset Boulevard starts, which is on basically Oliveira Street, downtown.

[686] 13 miles away, it has, I would say, near the majority of Los Angeles has 47 ,000 homeless people.

[687] So the two ends of this street couldn't be more different.

[688] Totally.

[689] And when you get into Beverly Hills, the weirdest thing about this, anybody that lives in Los Angeles knows, like, you don't go into Beverly Hills if you don't have a reason to go there.

[690] Right.

[691] Especially at night.

[692] It's empty, basically.

[693] So it's like if you, she's driving on sunset at 12 .38 at night, there's no cars on the road.

[694] There's certainly no pedestrians ever.

[695] It's a big wide street.

[696] and it's empty.

[697] It's pristine, perfect, not a drop of litter anywhere, and it's completely empty.

[698] So most people, because L .A. and Hollywood is an industry town, most people are in bed at that time.

[699] All those rich people that live behind those hedges work their asses off and get up at five in the morning.

[700] So it's always, you know, like lights out at 10 o 'clock over on that side of town.

[701] Unless your job is premier parties, which was Ronnie Chason's job.

[702] that keeps you out a little bit later so by 2010 ronnie jason's clients had netted around 150 oscar nominations oh my god um seven of them had won best picture including a three -peat between 2008 and 2010 so she represented people that either worked on or made no country for old men slumdog millionaire and the hurt locker wow but tell us what a publicist does exactly not just the people listening, but myself as well.

[703] Okay, so a publicist is the person that make sure that the press and the media know about their clients' successes or career at the time.

[704] So, like, for her, like for publicists, like, around Oscar time or award season is like the busiest time, because that's when they want everybody to be on talk shows.

[705] They want everybody to be interviewed for newspapers and magazines and stuff.

[706] And they don't reach out to you.

[707] Publicists reach out to them.

[708] Exactly.

[709] So they're basically, they would call and say, you know, um, uh, my client, Stephen has this amazing podcast called the Purrcast that everyone's talking about these days.

[710] And you've got to get him before he goes big.

[711] So let's get some placement here, here and here.

[712] And they basically are like, like an amazing stage mom where they, they talk about you, like you are going to be the next.

[713] next thing.

[714] And because everything in L .A. is about you, you don't want the current hot thing.

[715] You want the next big thing.

[716] So that's the publicist deal in the world of that.

[717] Then they also just deal in the day to day of actually booking people on talk shows.

[718] And like all the stories of my experience of working on talk shows is when something bad happens, like say someone cancels or flakes or say your show has to go down because like the electricity went off or something.

[719] The people you don't want to have to deal with are the publicists because they're the people that come in and act on behalf of celebrities and they're the bad guy.

[720] So a celebrity will never be the one that's like, I don't want to do your show.

[721] A publicist will be the one that's like they can't do it for this reason, this reason, but we can do it here.

[722] And because I know you're disappointed, I can also get you this person.

[723] So they're just a master politician.

[724] They are a, they're a cheerleader, and they hustle 24 -7.

[725] Okay.

[726] It's an insanely hard job.

[727] I would never want to do it.

[728] And it's a certain type of person that can do it.

[729] Because you really do have to...

[730] I couldn't fucking do that.

[731] Are you kidding me?

[732] No way.

[733] I mean, you're on the phone all the time.

[734] Yeah.

[735] And you have to like...

[736] You have to like play the game the hardest, I think, because you are really like a salesperson, but for people.

[737] Yeah.

[738] And so it's sometimes it's that...

[739] I mean, you've seen...

[740] You can watch it in movies.

[741] There's all kinds of movies about...

[742] insider Hollywood stuff, but like there are those times where publicists can make a star because it's like you, just by a series of happenstance, it's like something will happen happen on a production and say somebody drops, somebody breaks their leg and they drop out and then they have to get replaced.

[743] Well, those, that person, like a team comes together and then starts pitching and fixing and what I mean, this is a completely made up scenario.

[744] I don't know what the actual technical thing is.

[745] But a publicist is the kind of person that can come in and sell you on an unknown and actually make someone's career.

[746] And they do that more often than like a direct, you know, it's always like a director discovered me or whatever.

[747] And it's usually like a publicist or a casting director also.

[748] They're women who like believe in people and watch people and like vouch for people essentially.

[749] And if someone owes them a favor, they could be like, we'll put this person in your movie, he's my client.

[750] Exactly.

[751] It's all about favors and what, if something happens, then you owe them a favor or they owe you a favor.

[752] So then you get, or they're reliable.

[753] They always bring me the right people.

[754] And this is the person I call first.

[755] In TV, that's what it all is.

[756] Like, when you start to learn, and I barely know that side, because that's the booking side, which I never had to deal with.

[757] And I wouldn't have been able to because I can't organize anything.

[758] And they're the most organized people in the world.

[759] but that's all they do all day is have those conversations where it's like, well, since you owe us the one from that, now we want this person on the day that their show comes out.

[760] It's all like, it's crazy politics.

[761] It's amazing.

[762] So she was friends with a woman named Lily Zanick, and she has a second name in there, and I didn't write it down, and then I couldn't find it.

[763] It's something Zanic, and I don't know if that means that she was married to...

[764] It was hyphenated.

[765] It was hyphenated.

[766] So maybe it's just important to her that her original name was in there, but I didn't write it down.

[767] Anyhow, this woman was friends with Ronnie Chasin, and she was also a producer who won Best Picture with her husband, Richard Zannock.

[768] They made Driving Miss Daisy.

[769] Oh, wow.

[770] And Lily Zanick was quoted as saying the Driving Miss Daisy campaign was all Ronnie, and that's why I thanked her twice at the Oscars.

[771] Wow.

[772] Yeah.

[773] So it's just that kind of like the people in the business know who may. makes the engine go, basically.

[774] And a lot of times it's publicist.

[775] So Ronnie Chasen was born Veronica Cohen in Kingston, New York in 1946.

[776] She grew up in the Bronx.

[777] She moved to L .A. to be an actress.

[778] And she changed her last name so that she had the same name as the famous restaurant Chasins.

[779] Oh, wow.

[780] Yeah.

[781] Smart.

[782] Yes.

[783] It's super smart because it's like Chasins is like an insider celebrity restaurant back in the day.

[784] Is she or isn't she part of that family?

[785] Yeah.

[786] You just are like, oh, yeah, you better get a Chason in here.

[787] Um, she was on guiding.

[788] light.

[789] She was on the Patty Duke show.

[790] She's gorgeous.

[791] Like, just she looked like every other blonde actress in the 60s and or 70s.

[792] I should, I'm not actually sure.

[793] I'm sure she would hate me saying exactly when she was at that age.

[794] But basically, eventually she transitions into PR and she builds this huge career.

[795] And she's just a hustler and she's, everyone said she was just, she was known for being brassy and unapologetically pushy.

[796] She just didn't give a shit.

[797] And she was also really honest.

[798] So she would tell people to their face, like, she said, oh, she had a friend named Kathy Berlin, who was a New York publicist.

[799] And Kathy Berlin said, I used to say that Ronnie got half her pieces placed because she would, people would just say enough already.

[800] Like, they would just, she would just wear them down.

[801] Oh, my God.

[802] So she was also known as being real.

[803] People adored her, obviously.

[804] Yeah.

[805] people like to talk about people being big assholes in this business, but in my opinion, especially for women, you can't be that big of an asshole and get by.

[806] Right.

[807] You have, you know, people have to love you and you have to have loyalty.

[808] There's to be some charm thrown in there.

[809] There's got to be, yeah, you've got to build loyalty to be as successful as this woman was.

[810] And there's a story that someone told, because someone who really loved her who said she got a lot of flack because she used to always take a doggy bag home, no matter what fancy dinner she was at, no matter what fancy restaurant, everybody being trying to be Hollywood, she'd always take her food home in a doggie bag.

[811] And so people would, like, whisper, oh, she cheap, or oh, she, whatever.

[812] And what she actually did was she would take her food, her leftovers to her mom's house.

[813] So her mom could eat the fancy food that she was eating and, like, and she would share the, like, Hollywood night with her mom.

[814] Isn't that lovely?

[815] That's so sweet.

[816] I know.

[817] It's really hard for me to learn that you can't take half your food home at meetings.

[818] I mean, you can.

[819] No, you can't.

[820] I'm so bad at wasting food that I'm like, I know I'm done.

[821] I could eat that at home in my underpants.

[822] Yeah, but I have to say this.

[823] My dad told me this a long time ago.

[824] My dad told me this when I was like seven where I was like, really thanks for this amazing advice, but he was like, don't salt your food before you taste it.

[825] Right.

[826] And it was that whole story of there was like somebody lost a job.

[827] because it shows that, like, you need to be able to try things and decide how they are as they are.

[828] Don't just decide you need to salt it.

[829] You're assuming things.

[830] That's right.

[831] Hey, seven -year -old.

[832] Thanks, Dad.

[833] That's really helped me. You'll always get by, kid.

[834] And I have.

[835] Yeah.

[836] So that's, I was just going to say that's a similar thing where there could be somebody that you eat with that watches you take your food home because you want to keep it and goes, she's a smart, frugal.

[837] Right.

[838] Customer that doesn't give a shit who's watching her.

[839] Totally.

[840] Those are always the stories in Hollywood anyways.

[841] People not going along with the flow and being like, I want my fucking doggie bag full of grilled cheese or whatever.

[842] Anyhow, let's get back to biz.

[843] So we're now, it's a long, hard night of work for Ronnie Chasin.

[844] She pulls up at this intersection in Beverly Hills between sunset and Whittier.

[845] No other cars, as we've said, no pedestrians.

[846] In that situation, it's not unheard of for a Hollywood big, wig to just go ahead and take a left on a red.

[847] It's their, it's their neighborhood.

[848] They do what they want anyway.

[849] They take forever those lights.

[850] They take forever and no one's going to see it.

[851] No one's going to see it.

[852] But Ronnie didn't do that.

[853] She waited for the green and that's when she was ambushed by a lone gunman.

[854] He approached the passenger side of her car and he shot her four times through the window.

[855] Holy shit.

[856] She was hit twice in the chest once in her upper right arm.

[857] and once through her right shoulder that bullet went into her heart and it was that shot that was believed to have killed her.

[858] Her car then took the left and drove down Whittier South and glided a quarter of a mile down that windy street until it hit a light pole and crashed and set off the passenger airbags and was basically a car accident.

[859] A couple minutes later a car, a couple passing in a car spotted the accident and you pulled over, saw what happened, called 911, but people had already called because they heard gunshots in Beverly Hills.

[860] So everybody was calling the Beverly Hills police.

[861] Ronnie Chasen was rushed to Cedars Sinai Hospital and she was pronounced dead at 112 a .m. So most people assumed when they heard about this, it was either a carjacking or someone had taken out a hit on her.

[862] Yeah.

[863] Because it's such a weird, the idea.

[864] Yeah.

[865] In, just to give you a sense, I got most of this information from an article that Gary Baum, not Guy Brannum, Gary Baum wrote for the Hollywood Reporter.

[866] And when he wrote this article, it was 2016.

[867] And in the article, he said, there have been no homicides in Beverly Hills since 2011.

[868] What?

[869] So in that five years, zero homicides in Beverly Hills.

[870] I think someone would want to kill his wife or whatever.

[871] I mean, there had been, the five years previous, there had been five homicides.

[872] Two of them had been that exact thing, domestic abuse, domestic homicides.

[873] And those were solved.

[874] And then there were two other ones that were solved.

[875] And one was the shooting death of Mark Ruffalo's brother, which I'd never heard of.

[876] Mark Ruffalo was a, Mark Ruffalo was a, Mark Ruffalo.

[877] Ruffalo's, had a brother, I believe his name was Scott, and he was a hairdresser, and he lived in Beverly Hills, and he was shot to death in his house.

[878] What the fuck?

[879] Yeah, and they never solved it.

[880] Who did it?

[881] They don't know.

[882] Karen Tawley.

[883] I know, right?

[884] So, anyway, that's like it for Beverly Hills.

[885] Now we talk about fucking, you know, Filipino town, the thing we were just talking about earlier, where it's like, how many homicides are there in a month, much less in years and years.

[886] In 10 years, they'd had five.

[887] And then there was this.

[888] So it's insane.

[889] Anyway, which is the reason the movie Beverly Hills Cop worked so well.

[890] Because truly nothing bad happens there.

[891] It's the home of all the rich people.

[892] Yeah, everyone watch it.

[893] It's such a good movie.

[894] It holds up.

[895] It holds up so well.

[896] Okay.

[897] Sorry, so I lost my place.

[898] So also just know this.

[899] Ronnie Chasen's estate was worth $6 .1 million at the time of her death.

[900] shit.

[901] Yeah.

[902] So she was doing very well for herself.

[903] She was also single, no kids.

[904] She's, you know, like a working lady.

[905] So three weeks after the night of the shooting, the Beverly Hills Police Department holds a press conference and states that the case has been closed.

[906] The suspect was an ex -con named Harold Smith, who had served time twice for robbery once in 1998 for purse snatching where when the woman resisted he broke her jaw um and that happened on doheny boulevard which was about a quarter of a mile east of where ronie chason had been shot um and so this is how they found harold smith a neighbor of his so he lived in this place called the harvey apartments which is on santa monica boulevard uh just it's actually just north of santa monica boulevard kind of behind Paramount over there.

[907] It's basically Santa Monica and Western, which is not a great neighborhood.

[908] Not a great neighborhood.

[909] And this apartment building was not good at all.

[910] It was mostly, it was a lot of drug addicts and just people who were just getting by.

[911] It was bad news.

[912] So a neighbor of Harold Smith calls in a tip to America's Most Wanted saying that, that he had shown up, Harold Smith had shown up at this neighbor's apartment 90 minutes after the killing in Beverly Hills, asking if anything had been reported on TV and then saying that he needed to go back to Beverly Hills because he had left his bike there.

[913] Oh, no. And then the neighbor said he saw the report of Ronnie Chasen's murder on the news and he knew he put it all together.

[914] Right.

[915] So at 5 .30 p .m. on December 1st, after Beverly Hills, please get this tip they go out to question Harold Smith they find him in the lobby of the Harvey apartments and when they identify themselves to him as police Harold pulls a 38 out of his pocket and shoots himself in the head shut the fuck how did I not fucking know this part I know it's crazy I've never heard this part I knew about this shooting yeah me too but I've never heard this part oh my god okay so this neighbor um that had called the tip, he had been keeping some boxes for Harold Smith because Harold had been evicted from the Harvey apartment six days before.

[916] And that's why Harold came back to that guy's house that night.

[917] Some of his stuff was there.

[918] So the police find this out or know this and go up to the neighbor's house and start looking through Harold Smith's stuff that's in the neighbor's apartment and there they find four spent shell casings among Smith's belongings and they test those against the ballistics and the Ronnie Chase murder.

[919] They're a match.

[920] The police announced they have their guy and the case is closed.

[921] They took such a confident position at this press conference that even though they had not looked into her bank statements, they had not looked onto a hard drive of her computer, they had not checked herself on records.

[922] They eventually got to that the following March.

[923] But at the time they made that announcement, they had not looked into almost anything in her life.

[924] And the fact that she, a lot of people make note of the fact that she had an estate with no heirs worth $6 .1 million.

[925] And a family, you know, she, sorry, so I'll just finish this.

[926] The following July, Beverly Hills Police issued a news release stating that it completed the exhaustive investigation, and without a doubt, it's the conclusion of robbery homicide detectives that the sole perpetrator of this heinous crime was Harold Martin Smith.

[927] So, last year, the Beverly Hills Police finally released the files on this case.

[928] And they were partially redacted.

[929] So you couldn't read everything in them.

[930] But this reporter that wrote for the Hollywood reporter read the ballistics report.

[931] And it actually, the ballistics report actually says that although the two guns in this case have similar characteristics, they're not, they're too insignificant for identification.

[932] So actually the ballistics report does not confirm that he was their guy at all.

[933] The files also reveal that the police did not dust for fingerprints on the right side of the car, which was where the shots were fired from.

[934] No fingerprints dusted over there.

[935] They also never released the security camera footage from the neighborhood, the night.

[936] Everyone has security cameras.

[937] It's fucking Beverly Hills.

[938] And a man named T .T. Williams Jr., who was a retired LAPD Homicide Detective, who he gets called to testify about police procedure a lot he was stated as saying this about the lack of video footage memorializing Smith near the crime he said quote there has to be some security cameras in that neighborhood that would have caught him I mean Beverly Hills give me a break you've got a black man supposedly on a bike in the middle of the night he'd be stopped 15 times he would have stood out like a sore thumb seriously um and not surprisingly they never released the footage from the lobby of the harvey apartments the night of harold um harold smith's suicide and they had security um cameras in that lobby so that whole moment where the cops identify themselves that's all on camera no one's ever seen that footage.

[939] Also of note, the gun that Harold Smith pulled out of his pocket and shot himself to death with was later determined to have been reported stolen three years earlier by a retired LAPD officer from his home in Santa Clarita.

[940] Oh, okay.

[941] Just a little, a bit of a question mark there.

[942] Guns get stolen on the time, then they go on the black market, anyone can have them.

[943] yes okay but the fact that it was a cop's gun a retired policeman's gun isn't i think isn't good totally isn't that's a it's a it's the oh i said oh it's exactly that of oh i can connect those which i'm not going to say but well i mean what's all it just so i'll end with this which i think is very interesting it's a quote from a man named stan kepphart who is a former police chief in arizona and he also serves as an expert witness in cases involving law enforcement operational standards.

[944] And he said this, it's not what you think about a suspect, it's what you can prove.

[945] And it appears that there is room for doubt that Harold Smith is the perpetrator in this case.

[946] Holy shit.

[947] They didn't really prove factually that he was the perpetrator.

[948] They just basically said he was unclosed the case and he's dead.

[949] Yeah.

[950] He can't defend himself.

[951] Wow.

[952] It's so interesting when you hear like, well, he had the.

[953] this and he did this that night and this thing happened and he's done this in the past and you're like yeah okay he's obviously he obviously did it the end but you don't think about the like the deep the deep evidence or the basic things like fingerprinting that side of the car or the obvious things like security cameras you just hear these blanket statements and you're like duh but well you go that's easy like that's an easy you tell me that a black ex -con is shot somebody oh this here's the other thing her purse was still in the car it's a prod a bag it was on the passenger seat so he so they're saying that he shot into this car four times and didn't take anything there was nothing taken from the car so he just it's not a smash and grab it's not his style it's not his MO which we do know can escalate but in this case he didn't even steal anything so now he's gone straight to murder so basically he's not even a it's not robbery anymore it just doesn't make sense for someone to do that there either you don't because you can't blend blend in the rest of the city you can't go hide in someone's backyard no you're just you're like a waiting what do they call it duck a sitting duck Well, also you, um, so that actually takes apart a bunch of things because they figured out that that neighbor who said that, um, that he put it all together because he knew then it was Ronnie Jason's murder.

[954] Her name wasn't released until the next morning.

[955] So there was no way he could have known that during that conversation.

[956] Um, also, if he, if it was 90 minutes after the, the shooting took place, how did he get back to those apartments that fast?

[957] That's true.

[958] especially if he left his bike.

[959] So what did he leave his bike and jump on a night bus from Beverly Hills into Hollywood?

[960] And in that case, then they should have had the bus driver testify.

[961] Right.

[962] Or that would have been in the report.

[963] Totally.

[964] Someone had seen him coming back.

[965] That would have all been added to the argument that it was him.

[966] You're right.

[967] Also, there were, and I mean, this isn't even speculation.

[968] It's just like kind of random facts.

[969] But there were family members in, in her family that in her she had rewritten a new will in 2006 but they couldn't find that will so they went off of her 1994 well and in that will she gave the majority of her estate to one of her nieces oh no and she had another niece that in the will it said i knowingly and and what being aware of the implications this might cause leave you ten dollars 94 I mean maybe she was a drug addict then and sucked and then 96 they're like all right I just don't understand how don't you have to file a will like with a lawyer no in fact I watched this thing joy it was whatever it may be headline news whatever Joe Joy Beehart was the host of it it was just a YouTube video but this woman on it said you actually can write on a napkin this is my last will in testament it doesn't have to be filed anywhere if you sign it and you are of sound mind it's legal that seems so absurd because it's like it's just then someone can pick it up out of your fucking sock drawer light it on fire and there's no will and i'm the next of kin you know what i mean like you would think you wanted to get you'd want to get it notarized and give it to someone but well you should keep it in a safe place yeah definitely but you but it's just the legality of it it doesn't need a lawyer's anything this is what this woman on this thing said that it doesn't need any it doesn't need a notary or anything yeah it seems such such a it's like it's the thing of like well if you can get away with it then congratulations there's no no one will look into it with what what are you talking about with burning someone's will or like oh getting rid of the 2006 will right then yes that's exactly right congratulations well yeah but that i mean that's why you keep things in you know something like a will you would keep in a, what do you call that a safety deposit box?

[970] Yeah, but what if she goes and, I don't know, whatever, yeah, totally.

[971] When you don't give out those keys.

[972] Yeah.

[973] I've never had a safety deposit box, but I'll only have one key when I do.

[974] I have a PO box and it's very exciting.

[975] It's like, you feel like a grown -up.

[976] Anyway, I think that's a fascinating one because I saw, oh, there's a show called Demons in the City of Angels.

[977] Oh, I. Come on.

[978] Which is, which, it's hilarious.

[979] that it's like specific only to Los Angeles but this that's what caught my attention because it started and I watched it going oh I do want to know how this turned out because I remember hearing about it and then hearing nothing yeah and basically it's just them going um we kind of don't buy it and isn't it interesting that you and I who remember this happening and it kind of being you know if you know it was in your industry than mine like we had never heard about it again like It's almost like, yeah, they got the guy really low key, maybe not letting a lot of reporters into the press conference.

[980] Does that make sense?

[981] Yeah.

[982] You know what I mean?

[983] It's interesting that we never heard anything more about it.

[984] She had a bunch of friends in this article.

[985] It made me sad because it's like you know this type of woman.

[986] You know, you know this lady.

[987] Oh, yeah.

[988] It's like she's smart and sharp and like pushy enough to make, to be the top of, in the top of the business and such a hard business.

[989] Yeah.

[990] Um, they all her friends say, if it was her friend that died in a suspicious way, she wouldn't rest until she found out what really happened.

[991] And she wouldn't take no for an answer.

[992] And she would.

[993] So that's, it's really sad because I think it's that thing of like, there's a lot of people going, I wish I could do something or I wish I knew something.

[994] Or maybe they're right.

[995] And am I supposed to do something even if I think the cops are right?

[996] Like, what do I do, you know?

[997] It's just so, it's just too convenient.

[998] Like to find who the fuck keeps force?

[999] spent shell casings in their, like, box, in their boxes in their shitty apartment.

[1000] You didn't check them into the L .A. River as you were walking home in 90 minutes.

[1001] But you leave your bike at the scene of the time.

[1002] Sure.

[1003] Well, like, sure.

[1004] None of it.

[1005] Also, how do you get, how do you get back across town and night?

[1006] You can't get anywhere in 90 minutes in Los Angeles.

[1007] No, not even in a fucking car.

[1008] I mean, the traffic.

[1009] Anyway.

[1010] That's great.

[1011] That was really interesting.

[1012] I never followed up on that.

[1013] Hopefully.

[1014] We'll hear more about it soon.

[1015] they were trying to make a documentary about it but yeah um they were having a lot of problems well it's funny because we're having a theme today oh really los angeles um what did the lAPD do question mark really um racial issues what happened tampering etc wow but first they have to pee sorry this is where the commercial will go so this is one I wanted to do for a while but it's scary to tackle because it's kind of big it's and it's every time I go back to look into it it's just like it's a lot okay this is the story of my Trees Richardson do you know this one you probably won't I tell you so 7 p .m. around 7 p .m. on the night of September 17th, 2009, 24 -year -old Maitrice Richardson pulls her Honda Civic into the parking lot of Joffreys, which is a fancy pants restaurant on the Pacific Coast Highway.

[1016] Do you know what I'm talking about?

[1017] No. It's one of those like Joffreys.

[1018] It's like super fancy fans.

[1019] Like on the coast?

[1020] Like on the coast in Malibu.

[1021] Yeah, yeah.

[1022] Okay.

[1023] It's very like it's spelled Joffrey, not Jeffrey.

[1024] You know what I mean?

[1025] Um, while she's there, From the valet to ordering her food, interacting with other patrons.

[1026] Her behavior is erratic and bizarre, but she wasn't threatening in any way.

[1027] When the bill came for 89 .51, Matrice couldn't pay.

[1028] So when she was confronted by staff, she announced that she had come to avenge Michael Jackson's death.

[1029] Oh, no. I know.

[1030] Management decides to call the police, and they say, we have a guest here who was refusing to pay her bill, and we think she may, she sounds really crazy, she may be on drugs or something.

[1031] But Mytreece Richardson wasn't on drugs.

[1032] She's a 24 -year -old, smart and beautiful African -American woman from South L .A. She graduated from California State University, Fullerton, with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology the year before, and at the time she worked as an administrative assistant at a freight company, but she, She wanted to work with children, and at the time she volunteered as a mentor for at -risk children and worked with kids at a cheerleading camp.

[1033] So it's not really known why she was in Malibu, though, which was 40 miles from her home.

[1034] They think maybe she was visiting the campus of Pepperdine, which is right by Joffreys, you know, to look at the campus.

[1035] But just sorry, side note, I told my mom when I was a junior in high school that I wanted to go to Pepperdine because my friend Jen Mason's older sister, Becky, went there, and my mother laughed in my face and said who's going to pay for that.

[1036] Yeah.

[1037] Because Pepperdine is insanely expensive.

[1038] Volleyball college on the beach, basically.

[1039] It's Tony.

[1040] It's for the rich.

[1041] It's for rich people.

[1042] As is Joffreys, which is how you build an $89 dinner for one person.

[1043] I could do that at Applebee's.

[1044] I mean, let's be honest.

[1045] I had a $60 lunch today with Vince, so let's be realistic here.

[1046] I swear to God, sometimes when I start, when I get a pretzel as a appetizer, I could just eat nine pretzels.

[1047] Do it.

[1048] Okay.

[1049] Cheese sauce?

[1050] Well, I mean, that's crucial.

[1051] Yeah.

[1052] I'm not going to eat them dry.

[1053] What do I look like?

[1054] Big and soft and then have like a thing of that cheese sauce.

[1055] Am I a monster?

[1056] Mustard.

[1057] I hate when they try to get creative.

[1058] Mustard.

[1059] Okay.

[1060] I hate when they try to be like, this stupid aoli or whatever the fuck.

[1061] Oh, no, no, no. And then, oh, like a, it's a mustard that's got spicy honey in it.

[1062] No, no. Just give me cheese sauce like they serve at apple beef.

[1063] That's all we want.

[1064] It's all anyone wants.

[1065] Cheese soup, but we can't and we know it because a polite society says it's not okay unless you're in like Wisconsin.

[1066] Right.

[1067] So give me a bread to dip it in it and be okay with that.

[1068] Fine, I'll pretend it's a dip.

[1069] Fine.

[1070] Fine.

[1071] Fine.

[1072] It's the same thing with onion soup.

[1073] Like, I just want to eat bread and cheese with a spoon.

[1074] But fine, you can put a little broth underneath it.

[1075] Whatever.

[1076] If you need me to be that way.

[1077] Okay, sorry.

[1078] That was a real left turn.

[1079] Cheerleading camp.

[1080] So they don't know why she was there, but it seems that she was suffering at the time of a previously undiagnosed manic episode, which is also evidenced by her Facebook posts recently.

[1081] which were incoherent and rambling.

[1082] She said things like, there are signs everywhere, with a smiley face.

[1083] And then another said, I just want to sleep, lull, but you know me and my crazy ideas.

[1084] Let's see where they take me, smiley face.

[1085] Yeah, so that's like.

[1086] Did she not know she was manic?

[1087] From what I can tell, no. And her mom, I think they were all very surprised by it, by the fact that this is, they think that's what happened for sure, but nobody knew.

[1088] it was going to happen.

[1089] It seems like it was undiagnosed and unknown.

[1090] I'm sorry to ask this, but when, when was this?

[1091] 2009.

[1092] Oh, wow.

[1093] Yeah.

[1094] Okay.

[1095] No, no one listens in the beginning of what year it is.

[1096] You know what I mean?

[1097] It's hard to focus.

[1098] I like, get to the story.

[1099] Yeah.

[1100] I settle down.

[1101] I'm still thinking of stuff I said.

[1102] My story, my thing.

[1103] 2009.

[1104] Where were you?

[1105] 2000, you were near 2010.

[1106] Oh, my God.

[1107] This is like, it's like we picked a theme for this episode.

[1108] That's so true.

[1109] Oh, you didn't.

[1110] That weird chunk of time.

[1111] We're just like, it's like our periods are synced, but our murders are synced instead.

[1112] It's all coming together in the red tent, Stephen.

[1113] Yeah, Stephen's writing this one down because he's blushing so hard.

[1114] He loves a good period joke.

[1115] Signs.

[1116] Three nights after that last post, she wrote, she's at Joffreys going through this shit.

[1117] Three LAPD deputies arrive.

[1118] They call matri.

[1119] It's Maitrice, I believe, not Maitrice's great -grandmother who offers to pay the bill, but she would have had a fax and image of her credit card, which she wasn't able to do because who the fuck has a fucking fax machine.

[1120] In 2009, yeah.

[1121] Don't you hate that?

[1122] Yeah.

[1123] So they were like, nope, sorry, grandma.

[1124] Sorry, great -grandma.

[1125] You can't do this.

[1126] They search her car and they find a very small amount of marijuana as well as bottles of vodka and tequila and half a case of beer.

[1127] they gave her a field sobriety test and she passed.

[1128] Okay.

[1129] So I'm sorry, but the officers could have placed matrice in an involuntary psychiatric hold based on her odd behavior, but they said that that would require a lot of paperwork and a trip to the hospital, so instead they arrested her on charges of suspicion of not paying for the meal and possession of less than one ounce of marijuana, and they took her to Lost Hills police department.

[1130] Uh -oh.

[1131] I know.

[1132] Upon her arrest, her phone, purse and money are locked in her car and the car is towed to a tow yard.

[1133] What?

[1134] Why?

[1135] Do you're going to need that after?

[1136] Oh.

[1137] Lost Hills Police Department, again, fancy pants, police department and a fancy pants part of Malibu.

[1138] Like, really nice area.

[1139] It's the same station where Mel Gibson was taken after being pulled over for drunk driving and yelling.

[1140] anti -Semitic slurs, same station.

[1141] But they let him keep his purse.

[1142] Well, they escorted him from Lost Hills to his towed car because they treat famous and rich people, which is what their neighborhood is.

[1143] And white people.

[1144] Remember in the Big Lobowski, stay out of my beach community.

[1145] You throw some mug at Big Loboski's face.

[1146] It's like that.

[1147] Yeah.

[1148] And stay out of my beach community.

[1149] It's just like that.

[1150] Unfortunately, my Trace didn't receive the same treatment as a famous asshole.

[1151] My Trice's mother called the Lost Hill station around 10 p .m. And all of these phone calls you can hear on YouTube.

[1152] And I fucking listen to them.

[1153] Oh, no. She's asking if they're going to book her and release her that night and saying, it's dark and she doesn't have a car and I don't want her wandering.

[1154] And she's like, I'll come pick her up right now.

[1155] But if you keep her overnight, that's fine.

[1156] I'll get her in the morning.

[1157] I just want to know you're not going to release her.

[1158] and this woman is you know she's clearly upset but she's just like I don't know what's happening I'll deal with it she's a together woman yeah um she's the mother said she's not from that area and I would hate to wake up into a morning report saying girl lost somewhere and her head chopped off but the deputy assured my Teresa's mother not to worry I can't breathe hold on okay but yet at 1230 in the morning my trees with only the clothes on her back and without a purse money or her phone was released into the darkness and cold of the santa monica mountains why which you and i like let's let's set the stage again from beverly hills to santa monica mountain in malibu it is fucking remote it's huge houses on a lot of land that butt up against the santa monica mountains which are not pretty hiking trails their fucking wilderness yeah it's scrub brush it's there's no there's nothing commercial around there because i well that's what they said too is nothing was open at that point all businesses are closed they closed at like six yes and there's it's like even the businesses that are there are really few and far between it's not like you're gonna walk up and get yeah you have to basically be down in the city of malibu yeah to be close to anything and the sanamanica mountain is where all the mountain lines live and uh it's really Rocky and hilly.

[1159] I went to Jewish camp there and it was totally wilderness.

[1160] I mean, it was not cute.

[1161] Yes.

[1162] It's not the city.

[1163] No, it's really not.

[1164] And this is a city girl who had never been out in the wilderness like this.

[1165] So all businesses are closed.

[1166] Public transportation doesn't really exist out there.

[1167] You know, they have like bus to the shopping center and back, but not, you know, real transportation.

[1168] And she's 11 miles from her car at the Malibu tow yard.

[1169] The walk would have taken her up and down hills through a tunnel along the shoulder of a highway winding through the mountains, which I fucking have driven there and you get car sick just from driving.

[1170] It's a crazy mountain.

[1171] Also, I'll tell you this, from my research, 11 miles, just so you know, it's 13 miles from Beverly Hills to downtown Los Angeles.

[1172] So she would have had to walk slightly less than that long all the way down sunset.

[1173] That's ridiculous.

[1174] That's a day's walk.

[1175] So when her mom calls the next morning, she finds out that my trees had been released.

[1176] And I listened to the fucking message, the call, and it's, they're blowing, the officer is blowing her off.

[1177] And she's like, how long do I have to wait to file a missing person's report?

[1178] And he's like, well, wait a couple hours and then call us back.

[1179] Like, they're very, being very casual.

[1180] And she's like, she doesn't know the area.

[1181] She didn't have anything on her.

[1182] What the hell's going on?

[1183] and they were very flippant about it.

[1184] And we're like, let me try to track things down.

[1185] Call me in a couple hours.

[1186] Which is like, can you imagine waiting for your child for a couple hours?

[1187] And then, and then she said, you know, she doesn't know the area and she's in a depressive state.

[1188] So she probably had some clue, you know, that something was triggering.

[1189] Yeah.

[1190] So at 5 .30 that morning, a homeowner in Cold Canyon, which is right next to the actual Santa Monica Mountain Canyon, called Lost Hills to say that there was a prowler walking around.

[1191] He told the dispatcher that the prowler had been sitting kind of sprawled out on these wooden steps in the back of the house, but had disappeared into the surrounding wilderness.

[1192] And other neighbors said that they heard and saw Maitrice either leaving or attempting to enter the man's home and that they heard loud screams in a vacant home around the time that she went missing.

[1193] But they searched the area and didn't find anything.

[1194] and later they searched the area.

[1195] They called the police.

[1196] I don't know if they came.

[1197] That was the last time my trees was seen alive.

[1198] She disappeared into the Santa Monica Mountains, and for five months, the Lost Hills.

[1199] So she disappeared.

[1200] Super crazy wilderness, gone with only her clothes that she had on, T -shirt, jeans, sneakers.

[1201] So for five months, Lost Hills, insisted that there was no surveillance tape of the police station because they wanted to see this, you know, like what happened?

[1202] When did she leave?

[1203] What state was she in?

[1204] But they miraculously found the tape five months later sitting on a desk.

[1205] According to my Teresa's mother, the tape shows her daughter in an obvious psychological distress inside the intake cell.

[1206] She clutches, quote, she clutches at the mesh screening and is rocking side to side like a small child, says a cousin of hers.

[1207] But a spokesperson for the department said about releasing her, she exhibited no signs of mental illness or intoxication.

[1208] She was fine.

[1209] She's an adult.

[1210] Okay, but you don't let them go without a fucking wallet or cell phone.

[1211] Yeah, none of this makes sense.

[1212] Like, it doesn't add up.

[1213] Is she an adult?

[1214] Then what's, like, then why are you treating her?

[1215] Why would you lock her purse away?

[1216] Yeah.

[1217] and not answer questions to her parents.

[1218] Okay.

[1219] Don't worry.

[1220] It gets worse.

[1221] I'm like it always does.

[1222] So the station log shows that Maitrice made four phone calls to her grandmother, but AT &T phone records don't reflect those calls for whatever reason.

[1223] So the surveillance tape also shows a deputy leaving the station right after Maitrice was released, like leaving towards where she was going.

[1224] But the deputy maintained.

[1225] that he wasn't at the station before the tapes were released.

[1226] He said he wasn't there that night.

[1227] Then when he was caught in his lie, he stated, the night this nonsense happened, I was one of the guys that kept away from this, minding my own business.

[1228] Which is like, what, that insinuates that something was going on that you kept out of.

[1229] Yes.

[1230] Well, also, it's your job to be at the police station and take care of the people that are at the police station.

[1231] That's not nonsense.

[1232] Right.

[1233] That's your job of a person's in distress.

[1234] This isn't, this is a person that is in mental distress.

[1235] Well, the nonsense could have been, you know, the actions police took when she got there, whatever happened to her there.

[1236] If anything happened to her there, I'm speculating.

[1237] So that's the nonsense he could have been talking about.

[1238] You know what I mean?

[1239] So three, it wasn't how three months later, January 2010, that Los Angeles County sheriff's department conducted, so three months later, conducts one of the largest scale searches in the history of the department.

[1240] Over 300 volunteers trained in search and rescue, participate in the 18 square mile search of the area of Malibu Canyon and the hills of Malibu Creek State Park.

[1241] They find racially and sexually offensive graffiti on the walls of a culvert in the canyon.

[1242] The graffiti was freshly painted and the paint, hands, brushes, and other potential evidence was left at the scene.

[1243] and Matrice wasn't found.

[1244] Finally, almost a year after she disappeared from the station, in August 2010, park rangers who were looking to see if marijuana growers had returned to Dark Canyon, they stumble on Matrice's naked, mummified body.

[1245] She was in a very secluded creek bed in Malibu Canyon, with the clothes she was wearing the night she disappeared scattered around.

[1246] Oh, so they were, had been taken off of her.

[1247] Yeah.

[1248] Or she took them.

[1249] Now, here's the most fucked up thing.

[1250] Okay.

[1251] Deputies, by protocol, should have waited for the coroner to arrive so that Mitrease's remains could be photographed, the site inspected for clues, and the crime scene established.

[1252] Instead, against orders by the coroner who later said that he, quote, was very clear with officials, the deputies bagged Richardson's remains and airlifted them by helicopter.

[1253] Whoa.

[1254] Before the coroner could even get there.

[1255] Whoa.

[1256] This is, okay.

[1257] The coroner said that he could not think of another case in which police agency had moved entire skeletal remains without coroner's approval.

[1258] To prove this point, months later, Maitrice's mother, so I can, so this is proof, my Trees, how badly it was done.

[1259] My Trees' mother was visiting the site where her daughter's body was found and found a fingerbone that belonged to Maitrice left behind in the desert, in the dirt.

[1260] Oh, my God.

[1261] I think there's an article that they're with her, and they find that.

[1262] That's insane.

[1263] Finds in the spot, oh, look, and digs out a fucking finger bone that have been left behind because the proper people didn't.

[1264] Did they eventually prove it really was hers?

[1265] Yeah, it was her for sure.

[1266] And there have also been small toe bones, finger, and vertebrae found left behind.

[1267] And also the bones from her neck, there's bones from her neck, foot, and hand missing.

[1268] from, you know, her body.

[1269] Her remains.

[1270] So what?

[1271] Yeah.

[1272] The fuck.

[1273] This was such a crazy case because I followed it step by step.

[1274] So her leaving, I was like, what happened?

[1275] And everyone was like, what could have happened to her?

[1276] And then you see the surveillance video and you're like, oh, that's some shady shit.

[1277] Then they find her body.

[1278] And then the bones are fucked.

[1279] It's just like, it just keeps getting worse.

[1280] Yeah.

[1281] So the disturbance made it so that the coroner was unable to determine.

[1282] and how she died.

[1283] Right.

[1284] I think that would be the idea.

[1285] And the jeans belt and black bra that were discovered a few freet from her body, they were found, but they were not tested for signs of foul play and were buried along with her.

[1286] So they weren't tested for any DNA, any, you know, ripping or anything that would have, uh -huh.

[1287] This is like that thing.

[1288] It's, it just reminds me of, like, it, it, where, where you don't know what things you need to be in place until you realize they're not in place.

[1289] So it's like once a coroner tells people don't move that body and the police airlift the body away, shouldn't then those police be frozen in no longer, they're no longer active duty in this case because they're clearly hiding something.

[1290] Like there should be protocol for the coroner to then go to some other police chief.

[1291] Yeah.

[1292] And this is where, so this article I was going to, like a lot of them from, it's a Newsweek article by Alexander Nazarian, who this article is really great because he talks a lot about the LAPD corruption and why this could have taken place.

[1293] And they were like rampant racism that was going on at the time, to a point where, you know, the second in command is going to prison for 15 years because of corruption.

[1294] So it's incredibly corrupt.

[1295] there's like, you know, rampant anti -rampen racism.

[1296] And so he tells, I don't talk about it a lot in this, but he tells background of why this is so obvious and, you know, could have happened this way.

[1297] When you, and I think most people that are into true crime watched the ESPN 30 by 30 of Jay Simpson, that part, of the Daryl Gates era of the LAPD was so shocking and eye -opening to me. And it going all the way back to the riots in the 60s, it's just so crazy how long this has been a humongous problem in Los Angeles that has never, that hasn't been solved or even really addressed.

[1298] No, for sure.

[1299] And it's not happening anymore, you know, it's, it hasn't changed.

[1300] at all.

[1301] No. No. It's just hidden better and you know, we've put a band -aid over some of the things to make it look less horrifying but it's still there.

[1302] Well and also it's just the it's the rationalist, the justification of using the violence and the crime that happens in the day to day to then justify any behavior on the part.

[1303] I mean it's just it sucks.

[1304] I have plenty.

[1305] I have a bunch of people who are police people in my family.

[1306] Yeah, you do.

[1307] I'm not anti -police.

[1308] It's down to the person, though.

[1309] Yeah.

[1310] Especially in this day and age, it's down to the person because there's, because it's just such a, it's like such a closed, you know, like it's a frat, basically.

[1311] Well, yeah, and in L .A., and I'm sure a lot of other cities, specifically, the cards are stacked against you if you're not white and you don't have money.

[1312] Yes.

[1313] And you're, you know, the cards are stacked against.

[1314] do you're not you don't start at zero sum yeah at all yeah and i yeah i don't you know i don't want to forget that as someone who lives here and knows that i'm fucking privileged as shit to be where i'm well and also just we don't have to think about totally how bad it could be i mean this is like this is like saying you can't be mentally ill or you will just be almost literally thrown to the It's insanity and what did happen to her at that police station.

[1315] Then it opens up that whole door.

[1316] The mental illness thing is incredible because it's like you should have taken her and admitted her for psychiatric treatment because she was mentally unstable and unsound to make her own decisions.

[1317] And not only did you not do that and keep her in prison or keep her in jail until her mother could come or someone could come, you let her out without money, without a jacket, without any you knew she wasn't going to get anywhere it's not like she could have hitchhiked or maybe she did hitchhike and that's what happened but they're still culpable right well yeah also what's the if you know see that's the thing is this isn't just a random person that they don't know and like well too bad for you and you're an adult yeah there's someone contacting you what the situation is telling you there are concerns and you still do the thing against that person's wishes.

[1318] That's what leads me to believe something else was taking place.

[1319] Because why would you hide?

[1320] Why would you say, we just let her go and she left and it's not our problem?

[1321] She's an adult.

[1322] It makes that feels like cover up, cover up, cover up.

[1323] Well, it's so crazy.

[1324] The mom specifically was like, she doesn't know the area and I don't want her to get killed.

[1325] Yes.

[1326] But what's so frustrating to me, listening to the tape of her mother calling is like this feeling of nobody, like, I think a lot about when you call the cops and they don't help you what do you you can't call the cops again on like like that's your last yes that's your last that's supposed to be the last option is you call the cops and they help you yeah but it's so sad to be like the moment the minute they told her to wait two hours and she hung up the phone i picture her in her house and her family having to wait two hours yeah that's insane yeah and she's not a runaway you know you let you guys guys let her out and the minute they're like oh shit then they're culpable and they're open for when also it doesn't make sense because it's like oh if you're going to treat this person like oh there look she went to a restaurant she ate 80 dollars worth of food and she couldn't pay for it and we arrested her okay got it yeah all of that makes sense to me yeah it is illegal to do that thing and there but there then you learn there are extenuating circumstances and it so clearly it wasn't that big of a crime to you if you just released her the next day.

[1327] So you didn't, this isn't, you're not holding her for a robbery or what would that be.

[1328] You're not holding her.

[1329] That's not stealing.

[1330] Well, when I, when I was a teen, no, like in seventh grade and got caught stealing, you know, they give you a ticket, like they ticket you, like cop would.

[1331] Yeah.

[1332] And you move on, you know?

[1333] Yeah.

[1334] It's like, well, why didn't that just happened?

[1335] Well, it's because they've been searched her car.

[1336] and found, you know.

[1337] But then they're not holding her for drugs.

[1338] They're not holding her for liquor.

[1339] No, because she took a sobriety test and she passed.

[1340] It doesn't, it's just like you can't justify the police action in this because nothing is adding up to this is a criminal and so we treated her like a criminal.

[1341] It's like, you know, this is a person, this is, say, a criminal who ate $80 worth of food that she couldn't pay for in a manic episode where people do way crazier shit.

[1342] Well, yeah, we've talked about Lisa Lamb and how that could have been how she got in the water tank, which, you know, if you compare these two cases, it's like, yeah, you do crazy shit when you're going through a manic episode.

[1343] Yes.

[1344] But also, the lost, I feel like you're talking about, we're talking about a police department or a police, yeah, police department, Lost Hills.

[1345] that deals mostly with rich, white people upset about something.

[1346] They don't know how to deal with something like this.

[1347] And so they, I don't know.

[1348] Yeah.

[1349] So I think that makes a big difference.

[1350] It's not like it was, you know, the Hollywood Police Department, which also wouldn't have been as big of a deal because if they let around in Hollywood, she'd have fucking places to go.

[1351] Well, and also I would think that they would be much more used to dealing with people with mental illness, the Hollywood Police Department.

[1352] Like there's that one on Wilcox that's just, like never not hopping day at night.

[1353] There's somebody pulling in or pulling out of that because that's my sneak up to get out of Hollywood and go home.

[1354] Don't tell anyone the sneaks.

[1355] Wilcox.

[1356] That's my sneak at Wilcox.

[1357] Man, that's like, that's the north -south fountain.

[1358] But I mean like, you're right.

[1359] It's like, it's almost like a privileged police department because they don't have that much happening there.

[1360] So they don't have experience with these sorts of things.

[1361] And when they do, it's like some crazily rich, drunk white woman in her Mercedes who's like fuck you or Mel Gibson who or I think oh didn't also they pull over Reese but there's been and she said do you know who I am is that I met you're right I'm pretty sure that happened in Malibu yeah anyway whatever that's that kind of thing of like everyone's kind of living up to this certain so it's suddenly like oh there's a black girl that ate ate food she couldn't pay for and she's acting a little bonkers yeah so now we're going to treat her like the criminal she is well okay but then that means you would that would mean process her in a criminal way that keeps her safe at least that the thing of the mom going please don't let her go that's just we have to get plumbers so my beautiful new house is now having plumbing problems is everybody they don't know but I hope that's not a ghost it's just plumbing problems it just suddenly starts like it's about to overflowing with like fucking with racial tension all right uh yes all of that is correct they find her body all these bones are missing they can't determine how she died um and then her shit's not tested for foul play okay then there's no explanation given for why investigators were never able to find her vans, sneakers, or her t -shirt that she was wearing when she disappeared.

[1362] Oh, I don't like that.

[1363] Her jeans, belt, and black bra were there, which is like, you could be like, well, animals came and got them, but it's like, why would they pick a pair of shoes and a t -shirt and not all this other stuff?

[1364] And her body wasn't messed with?

[1365] It's not.

[1366] Right.

[1367] Also, that makes me think of those stories about the deaths on Mount Hood.

[1368] I mean, was, no, Crater Lake, the Crater Lake stories that I did in Portland.

[1369] And one of them, there was a guy that they found his body, like, years later, and it was a skeleton sitting in jeans.

[1370] Like, jeans don't just come off.

[1371] It's not, animals can't take your jeans off.

[1372] Right.

[1373] Right.

[1374] Yes.

[1375] Animals can't take your jeans off is what Steven's writing down right now.

[1376] I can tell.

[1377] Don't think about what he's.

[1378] Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.

[1379] We need a, like, a booth to put him in where we can't see him.

[1380] But also, going back to the Elisa Lam thing, she took her clothes off too.

[1381] Right.

[1382] That's the thing that happens to manic people.

[1383] Yeah.

[1384] And, you know, I think another thing people don't understand is how fucking cold it gets in the, I know L .A. is like warm all the time, but in the mountains in L .A., and especially in Malibu by the ocean.

[1385] You're next to the ocean.

[1386] Really fucking cold.

[1387] It's cold.

[1388] So maybe she was having hypothermia, which is a thing that they take their clothes off, but then why wouldn't they have found the rest of them, you know, traced her the trail she took and found the other stuff?

[1389] Okay.

[1390] Mitreisa's parents have maintained that their daughter should never have been released on her own by the sheriff's department.

[1391] They filed several lawsuits against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for releasing her from jail, even though they claimed she was experiencing severe bipolar disorder at the time.

[1392] In 2011, they won a civil law.

[1393] lawsuit against the county.

[1394] However, two reports by the Office of Independent Review found the LAPD not culpable for Mitrease's death, deeming it was not a homicide and there was no foul play.

[1395] Then why do they airlift the fucking body against the coroner's wishes?

[1396] And the coroner couldn't say how she died, so how can you definitively say it was a homicide?

[1397] It was not a homicide.

[1398] Yeah, because, yeah, you don't know.

[1399] You gave that report.

[1400] Yeah.

[1401] Well, you don't have the neck buns to test to see if she was choked to death because you fucking left them behind yeah it's months later yeah the body has been out there for months yeah sorry yeah no so i'm yelling at you you're the one that told me the story da da da da da um and they also they were also cleared of any wrongdoing in how to how it handled discovery of her remains so they were like and also it's fine I know.

[1402] Okay.

[1403] Sounds great.

[1404] Ronda Hampton, who's the woman that Alexander Nazarian from the Newsweek article, it kind of goes around with and interviews her.

[1405] She was a psychologist at one time in an office where Mitreisa had interned, so she's really devoted to finding answers.

[1406] She's just this really awesome woman.

[1407] She filed a dozen complaints about the various deputies involved in Mitrease's case.

[1408] Nine of these were registered with the Internal Criminal Investigations Bureau, but they are treating them as, instead of, instead of, let's see, they're treating them as service complaints, not matters of potential criminality, which is like they're just belittling them, you know, or, yeah, minimizing them.

[1409] On December 30th, 2016, which is recently, results of the criminal investigation into the handling of Mitrease's case concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support criminal prosecution of anyone involved in the handling of the case and either way the statute of limitations for concealment or tampering of evidence like the surveillance tapes had passed the end i mean that sucks yeah that's just straight up shittastic and i mean fuck man so that was a theme of the day of sucktastic shit it's almost well it's like rich cop rich um police departments getting caught doing what they want and then covering it and not getting any kind of not getting in trouble for it yeah that's the thing about opening the door to prosecuting police then opens the door to it I understand that thinking that it opens this door to like anybody but yeah it's like it goes deeper and deeper and you know but still it has to get solved because there are such it's like it's the most natural thing in the world the the exploitation of power it's like you give a man a gun and say you have the legal right to use this on whoever you want you know to your discretion is so much power for one person to have man or one or whoever has them.

[1410] They're just people.

[1411] There are people like you and me that just are now police.

[1412] Like they're not, they're my neighbor.

[1413] They're like any old dude.

[1414] They're your fucking ex -boyfriend or girlfriend.

[1415] They're not.

[1416] And there are also people who are being traumatized by what they see in the streets every day.

[1417] Or like, um, uh, what's it called when you just stop caring about it?

[1418] Apathy?

[1419] Yeah.

[1420] Yeah.

[1421] So, but there's like real things going on.

[1422] Did you ever watch Southland?

[1423] It was such a good show no such a good show um my good friend sean had to see was one of the stars but and he was the best but um there was a character on it that used to take a ton of pills because he had like an on -the -job injury but he didn't want he couldn't go out on disability so he was just in tons of pain all the time and then just taking tons and tons of like pain killers and it just as like it was just the most fascinating like it's there's a why behind all of this it needs to get analyzed and it needs to get fixed yeah and that's like part of it is that where it's just like you're going out there you're in pain you're you deal with the worst society has to offer every single day as your job and you have to make split second decisions on what's going to happen to who and why yeah and you you have to stand behind those or else you're going to look weak and your whole department's going to look weak.

[1424] And you can't, yeah, it's just, it's, it's, it's rough.

[1425] I do have a good piece of news.

[1426] We could actually finish this on like an uptick.

[1427] Let's do it.

[1428] Which is kind of interesting because, again, on the LAist, I saw an article this morning that the LAPD is revising their use of force policy with an eye toward de -escalation.

[1429] Oh my God, I love that.

[1430] Can you fucking believe that shit?

[1431] That's the word that needs to be in place constantly de -escalation.

[1432] You're, you can do that.

[1433] So it said on Tuesday, the Los Angeles Police Commission approved a revised.

[1434] I'm trying to read this article and someone's calling me. Who is it?

[1435] I almost picked it up.

[1436] Oh, shoot.

[1437] I have to text somebody now.

[1438] Now I have to wait until they stop calling me. so I can go back to my thing.

[1439] Who calls anybody?

[1440] I mean, come.

[1441] Okay.

[1442] We'll come back in here.

[1443] On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Police Commission...

[1444] Don't cut that, Stephen.

[1445] Don't you dare.

[1446] That's real.

[1447] I was bragging about getting calls.

[1448] On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Police Commission approved a revised use -of -force policy that favors de -escalation over use of deadly force.

[1449] The new policy requires officers to try and de -escalate situations using non -lethal force whenever possible before firing their guns.

[1450] That's a huge step somewhere.

[1451] It always blows my mind when, yeah, it always blows my mind when a cop shoots to kill someone when you could have just shot them in the shoulder or in the knee or anywhere.

[1452] You don't have to shoot them in the head.

[1453] Like on Los Felas Boulevard near where we live, like not a few months ago, some guy, I don't know what he was doing, but cops shot him right in the fucking head.

[1454] Yeah.

[1455] And it's like if you thought he was, he was burglarizing someone, he definitely didn't have a weapon.

[1456] Just shoot him in the fucking knee, man. Yeah, there just needs to be more tools and more options.

[1457] I think it's becoming such a like, all or nothing.

[1458] Yeah.

[1459] I mean, who knows?

[1460] I don't know.

[1461] I'm just saying from what I read and these reports and the fact that, you know, these videos that go up where it's like the cop that just, there was a Jay Walker.

[1462] Did you see that?

[1463] No. Yeah, it's just another one.

[1464] It's a video that during all the other horrible things that are happening, people are going, can we please retweet this and make this a story too?

[1465] Because it's a guy that's jaywalking.

[1466] The cop comes and just fucking cold cocks him and gets him on the ground and just starts beating the shit out of him.

[1467] He's jaywalking.

[1468] It's that stuff where it's just like, that stuff has to stop.

[1469] Yeah, and that's that one guy who's a fucking piece of shit, you know?

[1470] It's not like that, unfortunately, he represents the entirety of his, you know, of tired of police but it's probably this fucking asshole and maybe his partner's like Jesus I've been warning them that this guy's insane or whatever I mean yeah it's just it's awful I know so yeah can I'll tell you nothing that's funny so Vince sent me this article today that this this this wife this her husband's dying of cancer that's not funny um and he's like a couple days away from dying he's kind of out of it and she wanted him to die with a happy thought in his head so she told him that trump had been impeached i almost started crying when i heard that because it's not sweet and he believed it and he was like okay i'm so glad to hear that and then he died it's so touching but it's also so awful it's it's where we're at hey man it is it is where we're at.

[1471] Making the best of it by talking about murder.

[1472] We're doing it.

[1473] Happy birthday, Stephen.

[1474] Happy birthday, Stephen.

[1475] Please do something about police corruption as soon as you can in your 30s.

[1476] Steven!

[1477] Did you please?

[1478] You have one job to stop police corruption.

[1479] Please.

[1480] Can we please?

[1481] And thanks for listening, you guys.

[1482] You were fucking gorgeous people with beautiful souls and hearts.

[1483] Thank you so much.

[1484] And stay sexy.

[1485] don't get murdered.

[1486] Oh, Elvis.

[1487] Elvis.

[1488] Do you cut this part where we are just talking and he doesn't come?

[1489] Sometimes.

[1490] Elvis, you want a cookie?

[1491] Oh, come on.

[1492] Elvis, you want a cookie?

[1493] No. Oh, he's just a dick about it now.

[1494] He waited until he got to the mic.

[1495] Elvis, you want a cookie?

[1496] Yeah.

[1497] All right.

[1498] There it is.

[1499] You want a cookie?

[1500] Yeah.

[1501] Good boy.

[1502] Mimi, go to sleep.

[1503] Stay sleeping.