423 - Crack It!

[0] This is exactly right.

[1] Are you ready to podcast?

[2] Baby, I was born already.

[3] I was born podcasting.

[4] Oh, and welcome to my favorite murder.

[5] That's Georgia Hard Stark.

[6] That's Karen Kilcariff.

[7] These are the stories.

[8] Oh, have you watched the homicide, like life on the street?

[9] In New York?

[10] Yeah.

[11] The Netflix series that Dick.

[12] Wolf produced, yes, I watched it, I binged it this weekend.

[13] It is so good.

[14] It is so good.

[15] And my boyfriend is Mike Mooney, that big silver fox guy with a deep voice that's like, I'm actually a philosopher and a genius.

[16] And I'm into Grateful Dead.

[17] The first one I watched was the case of the woman who worked in the high -rise, she's a cleaning lady in the high -rise building, and she just disappears inside the building.

[18] Yeah.

[19] Like maddening.

[20] So maddening.

[21] Yeah.

[22] Yeah.

[23] I had never heard of any of those cases and they were, I was riveted.

[24] I wonder if they're just going to start doing that all over or just in New York.

[25] I mean, because that was a show that they tried to release on regular TV, right?

[26] Oh.

[27] This is my guess because I think this is what I saw, but I could absolutely, as we all know, be wrong.

[28] 2017 they release it on regular TV and it just has like a regular run and that doesn't get renewed and people are like how could a dick wolf show not get renewed and then watching it now it's like oh this was visionary true crime content this was advanced storytelling sensitivity all the different things like yeah very cool it was definitely like the best regular true crime show that like the ones we fucking grew up watching you know Like, we're so good at a certain time.

[29] It was that.

[30] Yeah, we binge it.

[31] I hope they do more.

[32] I do too, because there was, I don't know how to talk about it correctly.

[33] But it just was that thing where it's like until the time where we figure out how to fix policing and how to fix the justice system and how to, first of all, address, like, just say in L .A. alone, the budgetary issues where schools have zero.

[34] Yeah.

[35] Mental health services have zero and the cops have like 50 billion or something that's like to a degree that is just wild.

[36] All of that exists.

[37] I have very progressive voting beliefs on all of it.

[38] I want it changed.

[39] I want it done quickly.

[40] Of course.

[41] At the same time, meanwhile, every single day horrible things happen in this city, let's just say by itself.

[42] In this city, horrible things happen and horrible people do horrible things.

[43] And there are people out there trying to figure out who those horrible people are and put them in jail.

[44] Yeah.

[45] It's not as simple as it was when we first started enjoying true crime.

[46] It's never been that simple.

[47] I won't, I'll say it this way.

[48] It's never been that simple.

[49] We've always been copagandaed our whole lives.

[50] Ooh, I've never heard copaganda.

[51] Oh, yeah.

[52] That's a new one for me. Copaganda, which is just what law and order is, what any of those things are to say, hey, the justice system works great.

[53] it happens they they track this stuff down and it happens in three weeks so you get an answer blah blah whatever but as i watch this series it was just like all of that aside these people hear about this lady missing in this building and they bust their ass until they get an answer and that's just yeah how it happened separate from everything else it's like spotlighting the people who care yeah and that does give you hope for sure that fucking poor d -a dude who was like yeah i quit after that fucking case because I realized it wasn't for me, you know?

[54] Most people cannot do it.

[55] The average person cannot work in any kind of like, you could consider it maybe like social services in a way.

[56] Yeah, yeah.

[57] Where you are there to service the public.

[58] Yeah.

[59] It is terrible.

[60] You see terrible things.

[61] Terrible things happen in front of your eyes.

[62] And you just have to keep helping somehow.

[63] Yeah.

[64] Speaking of, I'm listening to a book about a, like, serial killer case I had never heard about.

[65] What are those called?

[66] It's not a documentary.

[67] True crime?

[68] Yeah, but nonfiction, nonfiction.

[69] What if you suddenly forgot what true crime was?

[70] I meant nonfiction, but yes, true crime as well.

[71] About a serial killer in New Bedford in like the late 80s, New Bedford, Massachusetts, which I fucking knew nothing about.

[72] And now I want to go to.

[73] But there's a serial killer who's killing.

[74] sex workers there.

[75] All these bodies, like nine bodies were found and 11 were counted as possible victims.

[76] I'm still listening, so I don't fucking know what happens, but it's good.

[77] It's called Shallow Graves by Maureen Boyle.

[78] That sounds good.

[79] Wait, that's an audio book you're listening to?

[80] Yeah.

[81] Yeah.

[82] New Bedford.

[83] Who knew?

[84] I am still watching, totally dedicated to, blown away by, and yet feel so stupid watching Shogun, I cannot read those closed captionings as fast as they go.

[85] Oh, yeah.

[86] I can't keep up.

[87] And I also can't stare straight ahead long enough to read them, I think.

[88] Like, you want to be on your phone kind of a thing?

[89] Slowly sneaking my phone into my line of sight as I'm trying to read.

[90] Karen's phone just snuck into the Zoom as we were sitting here.

[91] As an example of very, very casually sneaking a look at my phone while I'm trying to read about this ancient Japanese warlords.

[92] It's so good, though.

[93] I mean, it's just so well done.

[94] Is it?

[95] Okay.

[96] It's becoming the war of the women, which is like very unexpected.

[97] Spoiler alert.

[98] Did you see this movie from last year that I watched over the weekend that I can't stop thinking about?

[99] It stars, of course, everyone's favorite hot priest.

[100] Andrew Scott.

[101] Yeah.

[102] And Paul Mescal called All of Us Strangers, and it is, did you watch it?

[103] No, I've heard about it and I watched the two of them do a lot of press junkets, but I didn't watch it.

[104] Okay.

[105] It is heartbreaking.

[106] Watch it to the end.

[107] Basically, this man gets to go back and visit his parents who died when he was 12 and they just like, everything's the same.

[108] They interact like everything is normal.

[109] They did die when he was 12 and they were meeting their adult.

[110] son and he gets to like tell them all these things about i mean it's just like he gets to have like a reckoning and meanwhile he's falling in love there's this beautiful love story it's like heart wrenching sorry is it slightly like fantastical like his dead parents can't have come back somehow yes oh those ones get me i can't that one that gets me this will get you so freaking hard the last 10 minutes broke my heart oh you have to watch it It's beautiful.

[111] It's so beautifully done.

[112] It's weird because I thought you were going to say Andrew Scott, because of Ripley, which is another new Netflix series, and it is basically a retelling of the talented Mr. Ripley.

[113] Oh, wait.

[114] I was going to say the fabulous, Mr. Ripley.

[115] Some would call him.

[116] Some probably have called him.

[117] Some may have referred to him as, but this one's just called Ripley, and it's black and white.

[118] And when I started it, I didn't know anything about it.

[119] I started it, and I was like, I don't know what's going on.

[120] And then I, you know, left the house, whatever.

[121] And then Bridger's like, have you been watching Ripley?

[122] And I'm like, no. And he's like, oh, you have to.

[123] Oh, okay.

[124] Is it not boring?

[125] And he was like, don't do that.

[126] That's what I thought.

[127] You know, it's so funny because Vince was gone for WrestleMania over the weekend.

[128] So I put on whatever.

[129] I put that on.

[130] And I knew in five minutes that if I was watching it with Vince, we would have turned it off because we give things five minutes.

[131] Yes.

[132] But it's a slow build.

[133] But it's an incredible story, like kind of supernatural.

[134] natural.

[135] So that hooked me. Yeah.

[136] And then towards the end, I was like, okay, I get it.

[137] And then the end, the last 10 minutes are wild.

[138] So I like, I would not have finished it.

[139] So I'm like everyone, not because I didn't like it, because I'm fucking impatient.

[140] Yes, because we all, we've all had our dopamine, you know, rewired, reset.

[141] Just ruin to a degree where we can't really do anything.

[142] But nothing brings joy.

[143] I'm going to do a parallel.

[144] This is a fun way to do a recommendation.

[145] If you like a story where somebody who's dead comes back to talk to the people that miss them, then there is a movie.

[146] Of course, I'm blanking on the name right now.

[147] I was about to go, my favorite movie of all time, and I'm sure I've actually said this to before.

[148] Back to the future.

[149] Listen, let me tell you how it goes.

[150] Michael J. Fox is dead the entire time.

[151] He's a ghost.

[152] So's Bruce Willis.

[153] No. It's a movie called.

[154] Truly Madly Deeply?

[155] Yes, God damn it.

[156] It's a movie called Truly Madly Deeply.

[157] And I believe it is.

[158] Alejandro, are you still on that page?

[159] I think there's a famous director and it's one of his first movies.

[160] Directed by Anthony Minghella.

[161] Anthony Minghella, who did the English patient.

[162] Oh.

[163] And the tail of did Mr. Ripley.

[164] What?

[165] What?

[166] Oh.

[167] It's all coming together.

[168] Full circle.

[169] So, yeah, that movie, if you have an alone Saturday, where no one's going to be around for a while.

[170] And you like that feeling of, like, Trix Sob, we're like, oh, this is kind of a nice little movie.

[171] And all of a sudden, you're crying your heart out.

[172] That's truly madly, deeply.

[173] It is so cathartic and amazing.

[174] Trick Sob is the new genre.

[175] I love that.

[176] Tricksob.

[177] Right?

[178] Because you're like, I'm not here for that.

[179] What's going on?

[180] And then suddenly you're like, oh, no, I'm processing eight years of grief.

[181] Perfect.

[182] Tricksawb.

[183] I love it.

[184] Could I tell you really quickly?

[185] It was something I did.

[186] It just reminded me. because my dad just texted me. I was texting with my, I just need to say this because it's so embarrassing.

[187] I was texting with my sister about cats because that's all we text about.

[188] That's our relationship.

[189] And so I sent her this photo of Mo like sprawled out on this like fake sheepskin rug.

[190] And I sent her that picture.

[191] And it reminded me of the picture that like vintage Playgirl picture of Bert Reynolds, naked, all hairy, spread out on a bear skin rug.

[192] So I found the picture, hit send, then realized I had sent that picture with no caption or anything to my dad.

[193] And then I, like, deleted it from him.

[194] Because, like, if you catch it soon enough, you can delete a text, you know, that's good to know.

[195] It's like, it's to be really quick.

[196] And so I was like, oh, thank God.

[197] Then the next day, and my dad never takes time texting back to me. Like, you know, he's my dad.

[198] He responds immediately.

[199] Yeah.

[200] The next day, he wrote something like, oh, I remember.

[201] like he didn't know how to respond to it for 24 hours had to figure out a way to respond to his daughter sending him a fucking naked sexy photo of Burt Reynolds and then because I didn't delete it fast enough oh shit I'm so sorry that's hard that's a tough one of all hardest for Marty because what the hell he's just like uh oh oh oh I did a similar thing I don't know why well my dad and I over Christmas were just like churning through shows and so we're trying to think of something to watch and I was like wait a second and I remember seeing the trailer from the most recent jackass movie where they have a girl pitching softballs into their nuts essentially and that they're making people stand and basically just get soft balls pitched at them but this girl she pitches like a hundred miles an hour like it's crazy so she alone is really good and then And it's like a prank on them, which is very funny.

[202] But we start at the beginning of the movie.

[203] So within 10 minutes, all of a sudden, we're seeing full -on butt holes.

[204] Like, because they're trying to do some trick where if this happens, that happens.

[205] And my dad goes, hey, Jesus, can we turn this off?

[206] I'm like, I cannot believe I made my dad sit through this.

[207] It's jackass.

[208] What do you think it was going to be, like, handholding and fucking...

[209] No, but I thought it would be like, funny print like in the whatever they started with was a little lighter and it was like funny and whatever yeah they'll do like paper cuts on your mouth or something stupid like yeah or just like just people getting like t -shirt gun to the back of the head as they walk out of the bathroom and you're like right right right right right gotchas big gotchas it's just getting us through the next three hours then we can talk about it later yeah he thinks things like that are funny but i did not realize they were like that gross.

[210] I didn't know.

[211] I was going to say immediate balls.

[212] Like, that's what I thought you were going to say.

[213] Just immediate balls.

[214] Basically, but worse, kind of.

[215] It was like normally when my dad, when sexual stuff comes up in TV shows or movies, my dad, he acts like he's mad and he like storms out.

[216] Come on.

[217] Okay, I guess you're uncomfortable.

[218] But this one, he was more like, why are you doing this to me?

[219] Like, you're like, I saw this great movie.

[220] Let me show this to you, dad.

[221] Dad, this is one of my favorites.

[222] favorite films of all time.

[223] And I wanted you to share it the art. Jesus.

[224] Poor Jim.

[225] Poor home gym.

[226] But I swear to God, I remember seeing that Bert Reynolds layout.

[227] Oh, wait.

[228] Was it in Playgirl or was it?

[229] It was in like cosmopolitan or something.

[230] Okay.

[231] I think he was partially covered up, but like mostly nude.

[232] You can't see his dong, but it's definitely like suggestive.

[233] He's on like a bare skin rug, I think.

[234] Yeah.

[235] Yeah.

[236] And he's just so hairy.

[237] and it's just so 70s.

[238] It's very funny.

[239] He might as well, like, I remember it, but this probably isn't factually true that he has a toothpick in his mouth.

[240] Oh, I could see that.

[241] I could see that.

[242] But maybe that's just smoking the bandit and I'm combining the two.

[243] Well, don't send that to your parents, everyone.

[244] Don't be like me. Hey, we have a podcast network.

[245] Do you want to hear some highlights about it?

[246] We'd love to tell you about it.

[247] Our newest True Crime Limited Series The Butterfly King is a bona fide hit.

[248] Thank you all so much for listening.

[249] And just know the fifth episode is out now.

[250] It's an amazing journey.

[251] Please go take it.

[252] We really think you're going to love it.

[253] And this week's guest on Adelting with Michelle Boutot and Jordan Carlos is Black Thought, the co -founder and lead MC of the legendary roots crew.

[254] Over on Buried Bones, Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes embark on the first episode in a two -parter based in 1870s, Connecticut, kit where a bride to be goes missing before her big day.

[255] And hey, guess what?

[256] If you haven't heard, we're on TikTok.

[257] Do you guys know that?

[258] TikTok.

[259] Last week, we launched our first new series.

[260] It's called Sinkhole Saturdays where Karen reviews popular sinkholes.

[261] I love it.

[262] So please be sure to follow my favorite murder on TikTok so you don't miss out.

[263] And if you have a sinkhole in your area, you'd like me to review, please send it over to, I guess, my favorite.

[264] Murder at gmail .com or tag us on TikTok?

[265] I don't know how that works.

[266] Yeah, social media would probably be the fastest way or snail mail.

[267] And lastly, here's the thing, fuck everything bug with vanishing ink is back in the MFM store.

[268] Do you work at a church?

[269] Here's your chance to be dirty.

[270] Head to my favorite murder .com and shop today.

[271] Yay.

[272] Who.

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

[274] Absolutely.

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

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[292] Goodbye.

[293] You're first.

[294] Okay, great.

[295] Okay, so about a year ago, I got a tweet from Tessa, whose handle is Tesca on Twitter.

[296] I'm just calling it Twitter, recommending this story.

[297] And it was one that is from the Bay Area that I had never heard of before.

[298] And it truly is, it's like a horror movie.

[299] and it happened in this very wealthy area in the 80s to two girls who were exactly my age at the time.

[300] So it's very close to home and also it's the kind of thing where you go, how did I never hear of this when it was literally an hour away from where I grew up?

[301] Wow.

[302] It's chilling.

[303] Yeah.

[304] So the main sources I'm going to use in this story today or an article from S .F. Gate.

[305] So SF.

[306] Gate is like a still like a weekly independent newspaper in the Bay Area that we use all the time because they write really good true crime articles.

[307] And they do kind of like true crime from the past in the Bay Area.

[308] They cover a lot of really good stories.

[309] And there's a writer named Katie Dowd who writes a lot of the articles.

[310] So I've quoted Katie Dowd on this podcast multiple times.

[311] So shout out to our partner in true crime, Katie Dowd for writing for SFGate, she wrote an article called Murder and Intrigue at California's last great Gilded Age mansion.

[312] And I think that right there tells you everything that you need to know.

[313] The rest of the sources are in our show notes.

[314] Today, I'm telling you the story of the Carolands Estate Predator.

[315] First, we'll talk about the location.

[316] So the Carolands Estate was built in 1914 in Hillsborough, California, which is about 20 miles south of the city, San Francisco.

[317] And it was the brainchild of this woman, Harriet Pullman, was the heir to the Pullman train car fortune.

[318] So you can imagine how much money she had because her dad invented train cars, essentially.

[319] Jesus.

[320] Pullman train cars.

[321] And she had married an equally wealthy man named Frank Carillon, and they owned several properties around San Mateo County, and they lived in a city called Burlingame.

[322] But then Burlingame gets too crowded.

[323] There's too many, quote, regular people encroaching on their property, and they're starting to, like, literally, Frank Caroleon is complaining to the city that he can hear other people at his house, and that makes him mad.

[324] And the last straw is when the Burlingame city government asks Frank to build a sidewalk around his polo field, then he's like, we're getting out of here.

[325] This is too much.

[326] This is insanity.

[327] They want me to pour cement around my polo field.

[328] So they start buying property up in the mountains in Hillsborough.

[329] This truly is, and I think it still is today.

[330] It's like basically between Stanford University and San Francisco, this is like that area kind of along the coast, very elite, incredibly wealthy.

[331] down there.

[332] So Harriet and Frank by 554 acres of land up on the highest perch of the hills and Hillsboro.

[333] And the amount of land that they owned and that this estate was on was one sixth of the size of the entire city of Hillsborough.

[334] Wow.

[335] So big time.

[336] They were big time in it.

[337] And basically Harriet had a vision that she was going to put like a Louis the 14th inspired French chateau up there on this, like, on this property.

[338] And it was going to be the quote, the wonder and admiration of America.

[339] So she was a rich lady with a dream.

[340] They build it.

[341] The estate has 98 rooms.

[342] Holy shit.

[343] Yeah.

[344] Nine full onsuit bedrooms.

[345] Three 18th century French salons, literally the walls, floors and ceilings of three rooms imported from France.

[346] Oh, my God.

[347] Uh -huh.

[348] And also during World War I. Oh, wow.

[349] She wanted this stuff shipped in, and she somehow went over and got it there.

[350] Wow.

[351] They have a 30 ,000 volume library, pristine manicured gardens and grounds, an unobstured hilltop view that stretches from Hillsborough all the way to San Francisco on a clear day.

[352] How many clear days are there a year?

[353] in this area, about 11.

[354] But when they're there, you can really see.

[355] You can see up to the city.

[356] The construction of this mansion around the time costs a million dollars, which is roughly how much money in today's money.

[357] A million in 1914 -ish?

[358] Yes, exactly.

[359] Almost somewhere around 1920.

[360] Jesus, that's got to be 36 million today.

[361] It's 28, but you're kind of close.

[362] Okay.

[363] A little bit close.

[364] So Harriet clearly has the taste for the finer things in life.

[365] She's probably never seen like a hamburger in her life.

[366] So she needs all the best around her.

[367] And of course, the Carolina Estates really demonstrates this.

[368] I was looking at pictures and you could film any Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice type of remake in this house.

[369] It is like they have the checkerboard floors, you know, the black kids.

[370] white tile floors, crazy huge ceilings with big glass, like skylighty things and the grounds that are like perfectly manicured.

[371] It's, it's really unbelievable.

[372] Grand.

[373] It sounds grand.

[374] It's quite grand.

[375] So Frank and Harriet move in to Carolina States in 1916, but by the time they actually move in, so they start this plan, work on it for, I think, four years, two years or four years.

[376] By the time they move in, their relationship is and shambles.

[377] They don't ever really spend time together at Caroland.

[378] They end up just living at their own separate houses because they each have their own other houses.

[379] Then in 1923, Frank dies of a heart attack.

[380] Harriet remarries in 1925.

[381] She spends the summer at Carolands with her new husband, but then decides it doesn't feel like home, so she decides to sell it.

[382] Now, the problem with this, which M .C. Hammer ran into this exact same problem when he built a similar mansion is when you build big and crazy like that, it is very hard to sell.

[383] There's not a big pool of people that are like, I also want to spend my money on this exact type of stuff.

[384] Right, right.

[385] So several members of the elite consider buying Carolans Estate.

[386] The Duke of Windsor and Duchess Wallace Simpson were in the market for a while, American socialite and heiress Barbara Hutton and the Danish count that she was married to at the time.

[387] Congress even actually thought of buying it in 1939 to use it as the summer house for the White House.

[388] Wow.

[389] Which is kind of crazy, yeah.

[390] But none of those plans go through.

[391] The land is eventually subdivided and it leads to more homes in the area.

[392] They're kind of mansiony houses, but they're, of course, nothing like the estate.

[393] while the Carolands falls into disrepair.

[394] In 1950, a real estate company has plans to buy the estate so they can level it and build basically a little suburban community up in those hills.

[395] But before they can do that, another wealthy heiress named Countess Lillian Remyard Dandini, who she was the heir, her family was in construction, and they were the construction company that rebuilt San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake.

[396] So she had a couple nickels to rub together herself.

[397] She swoops in, she buys Carolina Estates, and for the next 23 years, she uses it as an event space for the community.

[398] She hosts parties, charity gala, even events for local students.

[399] And then when Countess Lillian -Remeyard -Dandini dies in 1973, she leaves Carolands to the city of Hillsborough so that they will convert it either into a museum, or public library, something like that.

[400] But the problem is the upkeep is far too expensive for the city to handle.

[401] It's a gigantic, crazy person's estate.

[402] So the city transfers the ownership to the state of California, but the state of California also neglects it.

[403] They also consider leveling it because it is too expensive.

[404] Like the upkeep is too expensive.

[405] But when they announced that they might knock it down, architectural enthusiasts apply for the carolands to receive historical landmark status.

[406] And they actually win that status in 1975.

[407] So they can't knock it down.

[408] But the government is not willing to spend the money to restore it to its original grandeur.

[409] So for the next 10 years, it just sits there.

[410] And it is not being tended to or kept, but watched over by security guards.

[411] And that's it.

[412] So, basically they have people there to make sure no one squats, no one, God forbid people live in this gigantic fucking house.

[413] So it's of course legally off limits and there's people being paid to be posted up there to keep people out of it.

[414] But as you would imagine, it becomes an open secret among teenagers of San Mateo County that some of the security guards will actually give you a tour of this place secretly.

[415] Oh my God.

[416] And that Rumor goes around.

[417] There's rumors going around that it's happened, that you can go up there, whatever.

[418] And this rumor hits the ears of 16 -year -old Janine Grunsell and 17 -year -old Lori McKenna.

[419] They're junior and seniors at San Mateo High School.

[420] Janine recently got her driver's license, and for her birthday the month before, which was January 9th, 1985, her parents gave her a car.

[421] And that's what she was driving on the morning of Saturday, February 5th, 1985.

[422] when she goes and picks up her friend Lori because they have decided they want to try and go get a tour of Carolands.

[423] So together they drive up the hill to the gates of the estate and they approach the security guard on duty that day, a 23 -year -old named David Allen Rayleigh.

[424] Raleigh had just been interviewed by a local journalism student about giving unofficial tours at Carolans and in that article he claimed, quote, you wouldn't believe the things girls offer me in exchange for a tour.

[425] food, money, sex, anything to get inside.

[426] So these are the kind of things that we talk about in 2024, and it seems so egregious and insane, that he would be saying that and basically like bragging about it.

[427] And then we know that we're at the beginning of a true crime story right now, so this is all bad omens.

[428] But it is so wild that we have just come out of an era where like that kind of thing, this is a grown man with a job and saying teenage girls have to like give him something to get onto this property.

[429] It's like, and he's just like proudly telling of course other dudes about it.

[430] Yeah.

[431] It's also rumored that David Raleigh has cornered teen girls during his tours in the past pressuring them for sexual favors.

[432] He allegedly once asked a girl to go into the safe vault that was in the basement and scream as loud as she could so she could see that sound would not penetrate the walls of that house.

[433] So it's not just like funny, ha -ha or cute or flirt.

[434] It's all threatening.

[435] It's all creepy.

[436] It's all like tit for tat and weird.

[437] And I think that was also part of like when you were a teenager back in the time, it's like, well, let's just go see.

[438] Yeah.

[439] It was like dangerous and yet other people did it.

[440] I guess we'll try to do it too.

[441] Yeah.

[442] So Janine and Lori drive up.

[443] They ask Rayleigh if he will take them on a tour.

[444] He agrees, but he tells them that they need to park their car further down the road so no one will know that they're there.

[445] They follow his instructions, and then he takes them onto the grounds.

[446] He gives them a tour, and then the tour ends around noon, and then really pauses cautiously, and then he tells the girls, he can hear dogs barking, and he thinks the police are coming, so he rushes them down into the basement into that vault.

[447] And so, they go into the vault he tells them they have to hide in there and he's going to basically shut the door and then when the police go away then they can come back out but the girls are so scared and creeped out by the vault they're begging him not to shut the door he says he won't but the second they step inside he shuts it oh my god so they're in the vault alone in the dark for like five minutes and then they can hear him like in a single song voice calling out Lori's name.

[448] And so the girls demand he let them out, but he says they're only going to get out of there if they take off their clothes.

[449] They refuse.

[450] Then he opens the vault door and shows them that he is wielding a knife.

[451] And so the girls strip down to their underwear.

[452] He lets them out of the vault.

[453] He handcuffs both of them.

[454] He ties Lori to a bench and at knife point he forces Janine into the next room and sexually assaults her and Lori is forced to sit there and listen to her friend's scream helplessly then Rayleigh tells the girls if they stay quiet he'll let them go and then he takes Lori at knife point into the other room and assaults her.

[455] He is much bigger than both of these girls obviously he has a knife they still try to fight him off as they try to fight him off he starts stabbing them.

[456] They're both stabbed dozens of times.

[457] Oh, my God.

[458] Then Raleigh beats Lori over the head with a claw hammer.

[459] And she will later say that she just thought she was going to die.

[460] She says, quote, I kind of waited for the lights to go out.

[461] Oh, my God.

[462] End quote.

[463] But they don't go out.

[464] Raleigh then ties Janine up with a rope.

[465] He wraps Lori up in a carpet.

[466] And then he puts both girls in the trunk of his 1973 Plymouth.

[467] and then he goes back to work.

[468] What the fuck?

[469] Yeah.

[470] So they are in there, in his trunk, stifling for, you know, it seems like about three hours.

[471] Oh, my God.

[472] At one point, a police officer stops by to talk to Rayleigh because Rayleigh was known kind of around town as like a cop worshiper, you know, like, so he wanted that, you know, he was like one of those security guard guys that actually.

[473] actually wanted to be a cop and was always trying to impress them.

[474] When Rayleigh's unsuspecting boss comes by to relieve him at 515, Rayleigh gets into his car and makes an hour -long drive home where he lives with his sister and his dad in South San Jose, and Janine and Lori are still in his trunk and they're still alive.

[475] Holy shit.

[476] When Rayleigh gets home, he parks his car into the garage, he goes into the house, and he watches TV, he eats dinner, He even plays Monopoly with his sister.

[477] Like, he just chills out with his family.

[478] Oh, my God, what a psychopath.

[479] And in between doing that, he come out to the garage and check on the girls in the trunk.

[480] At one point, he actually lets them get out and, like, stretch their legs and he brings them a blanket.

[481] But then he hears a noise and, like, freaks out and makes them get back in.

[482] So it sounds like he's obviously, like, he's either really mentally not okay.

[483] which is, I think, it's very safe to assume, but also he doesn't have a plan, which seems kind of dangerous for this person.

[484] And he tells them, stay quiet or my friend Bob will kill you.

[485] Like there's somebody in the garage, like watching over them.

[486] Of course, there's nobody.

[487] So around midnight, while his family is sleeping, really sneaks out to his car and drives about 10 miles south to a remote stretch of South San Jose's Silver Creek Road, and there he takes the girls out of the trunk, and then he beats them again.

[488] So he gives them, like, a final beating, and then he throws both of them down a steep ravine.

[489] Holy shit.

[490] Yeah.

[491] These poor girls.

[492] Janine and Lori land in a shallow creek at the bottom of this ravine, and locals would sometimes dump garbage down there.

[493] Like, that's how he knew that that spot was there.

[494] It's dark.

[495] It's near freezing.

[496] it's starting to rain.

[497] Janine and Lori are so afraid that Rayleigh is waiting for them at the top of the ravine that they don't move.

[498] They just stay exactly where they are until the sun comes up the next morning.

[499] And then the girls start to muster the courage to try to go find help because they know he's not there anymore.

[500] But Janine's injuries are much too severe for her to climb the ravine.

[501] Lori isn't in good shape.

[502] Her hands have horrible lacerations all over them.

[503] But she, realizes her climbing up that ravine is their only chance.

[504] So what she does is she commando crawls up the ravine using her elbows.

[505] This is Mary Vincent's stuff.

[506] Oh my God.

[507] This is Mary Vincent's story, which is the Mary Vincent story is so upsetting and disturbing and should have never happened.

[508] There's no world we should be fucking living in where you and I are going, this is Mary Vincent's story about yet another teenage girl or two teenage girls like it's so disgusting it's so insane you want to know why women talk about true crime and are interested in true crime because what the fuck is this that's that's why how are how is this happening how are we marry vinsoning again how can that fucking security guard joke about teenage girls giving him sexual favors to get a tour as if it's not a big deal, and it's fine.

[509] Like, that's, you know, that's a problem.

[510] It took all of us a really long time to put it together, where it's like those jokes, a peeping Tom, like all of the red flags that actually amount to women being murdered really matter and need to be paid attention to and need to be discussed so everyone knows what they are.

[511] Totally.

[512] If you go to a place where a guy thinks it's really hilarious to threaten your life, don't go anywhere with that guy ever again tell other people about it like it was that kind of thing where in you know the 80s like that idea of like oh well if you said anything about that guy god don't be such a bitch about it yeah oh okay but he could be practicing you never know right he could be the funniest security guard you ever met or he could be practicing totally i'm sorry I'm lecturing you so much this episode Georgia oh is that directed at me yeah this is all on you This is all your responsibility.

[513] Okay.

[514] So Lori McKenna crawls up a ravine with her hands lacerated so badly that later she will have to be in surgery for hours with the amount of cuts, defensive wounds that she has on her hands.

[515] But she gets to the top.

[516] She waves down a car and they drive away.

[517] It's literally exactly Mary Vincent's story.

[518] And then a second car comes up and drives away.

[519] And finally, two guys in a pickup truck pull over, they call the police, they basically get it taken care of.

[520] They try to comfort her and she freaks out where it's like, no, no, don't try to comfort anybody.

[521] Like, let's just get her to the hospital.

[522] Yeah.

[523] So Lori spends the next three days at Santa Teresa Hospital undergoing surgeries on her hands and wrists.

[524] Janine Grinzel makes it into surgery, but she ends up dying on the operating table.

[525] Janine Grinzel suffered a total of 41 stab wounds, a skull fracture, blood loss, shock, and hypothermia.

[526] She was 16 years old when she died.

[527] Oh, my God, a poor baby angel.

[528] And Lori got stabbed alike.

[529] I think Lori's stab wounds were in the 30s.

[530] Jesus.

[531] But still an insane amount.

[532] Like, this man ravaged these two girls.

[533] Yeah.

[534] The only real positive in this story is that Jeanine and Lori were both able to.

[535] to identify their attacker as they were arriving at the hospital.

[536] So the police were given David Raley's name, and he was arrested within hours of the girls being brought in.

[537] On February 6th, David Raleigh is arraigned on first -degree murder, attempted murder, two counts of sexual assault with intent to rape, and two counts of kidnapping.

[538] And because of the gruesome torture involved with the attack, the death penalty is on the table.

[539] so his trial begins in March of 1987 of course he tries to defend himself by saying he wasn't the only security guard who gave tours that jeanine wouldn't have died if she had gotten medical attention sooner like weird horrible disrespectful things to be saying just to try to throw up a smokescreen i hate that i hate that it's horrible and then the families who absolutely have to be there they're like standing on witness for their dead daughter or their attacked daughter and they have to sit through that yeah it's that's disgusting like just fucking plead guilty dude and like let them go on with their lives but i mean the idea of like she wouldn't have died if she'd gotten to the hospital sooner right it's all you dude it's all it's all on you yeah there's no you can't parse it that way no after the fact so the argument doesn't work on April 22nd, 1987, the jury convicts David Allen Rayleigh of first -degree murder, attempted murder, and kidnapping with special circumstances.

[540] A separate trial is held on May 5th to determine whether or not Rayleigh will receive the death penalty.

[541] The jury's deadlocked.

[542] A judge declares a mistrial on May 15th.

[543] He's retried the following year.

[544] He is given the death penalty on May 17, 1988.

[545] Years later, he will attempt to appeal this decision, but it It is denied, and David Raleigh remains on death row in San Quentin to this day.

[546] What?

[547] Yeah.

[548] In the wake of the attack, Lori McKenna is overcome with grief.

[549] She feels like she'll never be happy again.

[550] I mean, she's a teenager.

[551] Yeah, yeah.

[552] She was the senior in high school when this happened.

[553] Oh, my God.

[554] So, of course, she spends some time just basically staying in her house.

[555] Then she wants to get away because she wants to get away because she wants to.

[556] get away from that, you know, the area where she's in that reminds her of it so much.

[557] So she has some friends that go to UC Santa Barbara.

[558] So she moves down to Santa Barbara to go to Santa Barbara City College to basically kind of start over and like start over fresh.

[559] And it actually works for a little while.

[560] I mean, Santa Barbara would a gorgeous place to be able to go to and like the perfect vibe.

[561] But it turns out that Lori had to have gallbladder surgery related to, problems from some of her injuries so she ended up having to move home because she basically had continuing medical issues from the attack eventually grief does loosen its grip on lorry she starts living a more normal life but she does start to get crippling anxiety attacks of course she knows she can't just will the trauma away so she starts seeing a therapist and over time she gains the tools she needs to move beyond the horrible thing that she lived through and basically start trying to live the life that she deserves.

[562] She ends up marrying a retired baseball pitcher from the San Francisco Giants.

[563] They end up moving to Bogart, Georgia.

[564] They remodel a big, beautiful home, and they raise two daughters together.

[565] And the principal owners of the Giants, Anne and Charles B. Johnson, a couple billionaires, they go and they buy the Carolans estates, and they spend millions of dollars restoring it.

[566] They actually live there for 10 years, and then they turn it over to the Carolands Foundation.

[567] Today, free tours are offered.

[568] There's a lottery system, so you have to sign up for the lottery, and then if you get in, you can get a tour of this estate, and it has been renovated back to its, like, original pristine condition.

[569] It's really incredible looking.

[570] It would be a very cool tour to take.

[571] So there was, I found this quote from this L .A. Times article from May of 1988, which was two years after the attacks.

[572] And they were interviewing Lori McKenna.

[573] And it says, out of the whole ordeal, the death of her friend will probably have the most lasting effect.

[574] Janine Grinzel's birthday, January 9th, will always be the toughest day of the year for her, McKenna believes.

[575] I will always be sad on that day.

[576] She said, I remember her last birthday.

[577] She had just gotten her car.

[578] she was so happy.

[579] McKenna still finds it hard to believe that she survived and Janine Grinzell didn't.

[580] Janine Grinzell was a fighter, she said.

[581] And then a little later on, Lori goes on to say, it's not that I'm a basket case, but they just don't know how to deal with it.

[582] Oh, she was talking about whether or not she was going to have a boyfriend, which is such a creepy kind of question that maybe a reporter asked her two years after this attack that I edited it out, but then you kind of have to know that.

[583] But she basically is saying, I'm not a basket case.

[584] They just don't know how to deal with it.

[585] People don't want to deal with yucky things.

[586] But what happened to me is a part of me. It's not something I can change.

[587] There's nothing I want to hide.

[588] Wow.

[589] And that is the story of the Carolan's estate attacks and the murder of Janine Grinzel.

[590] Holy shit.

[591] That is heartbreaking and infuriating.

[592] And they had a warning about him, the public.

[593] But it's journalism students.

[594] So we don't know if that article like went out and everyone read it and said that was fine.

[595] And that was a time where that wouldn't happen anyway because there were so many of those things that just weren't in anybody's awareness of like, oh, this is this is very, very red flag behavior.

[596] Yeah.

[597] Wow.

[598] That is awful and great job telling it.

[599] Thank you.

[600] All right.

[601] take a fucking sharp left then get out of this let's take a fucking 20 minute break and just have some silence let's have some snacks and some silence some deep breaths i'm going to tell you about a spy okay a guy who tried to become a spy his attempt was at the turn of the 21st century so early 2000s that showed america just how dangerous computers and the internet can be without proper protections.

[602] This is the story of Brian Regan, the spy who couldn't spell.

[603] Do you know the comic Brian Regan?

[604] Oh, yeah, yeah.

[605] Truly one of the funniest human beings on the planet.

[606] Like so, one of the best stand -up comics of all time.

[607] He's the one that goes, yeah, you too, you too.

[608] When you say you two back to a person that's like, enjoy your donut and you go, you too.

[609] Well, this is a, turns out he was a spy at one point.

[610] Did you know that?

[611] I see.

[612] Love it.

[613] I know.

[614] The main sources used in today's story include an article from CNN.

[615] And this guy also wrote a book about this case.

[616] His name is Udigit Badachari.

[617] And he was also in an episode of Wicked Words with Kate Winkler Dawson in November of 2022 discussing the case.

[618] So all this stuff is from him.

[619] There's also an article, a talk given for the International Spy Museum that he did.

[620] His book is called The Spy Who Couldn't Spell.

[621] That's like his catchphrase.

[622] Cool.

[623] So all the other sources are listed in the show notes.

[624] So here we go.

[625] On December 4th in the year 2000, that was what, five years ago or so?

[626] Kind of.

[627] December 4th in the year 2000, special agent Stephen Carr of the FBI received some coded letters that have been sent to the Libyan consulate and written by an anonymous source.

[628] He decodes the letter and the opening of the letter reads, quote, I am a Middle East North African analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency.

[629] I am willing to commit espionage against the U .S. by providing your country with highly classified information.

[630] I have top security clearance.

[631] I have access to documents, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[632] Like, basically like, hey, Libyan consulate, do you guys want some spy material?

[633] Sorry, you said this was written in an email?

[634] No, it's a letter.

[635] coded letter snail mail snail mail it's coded special agent stephen car figures it out and sees that okay okay and there are also 23 pages of copied secret information like a tease to prove that the sender actually has all that information he's just like here's a taste boom and there are mostly aerial images of a middle eastern military sites taken by u .s satellites so that is like not for enemy hands essentially and remember this is like early 2000 so it's like not a great it's not a good time no not a good time step and so stephen car realizes that he has a real spy threat on his hands so he gets to work trying to figure out who this mysterious sender could be there's a marking on the image that shows they're printed from something called intel link which is basically a private internet server that only select government and military officials with the proper security clearance can access so car from this believes the spy is a government insider.

[636] And the fact that some of the sample information is top secret also helps narrow it down to a pool of suspects to these individuals with top secret clearance.

[637] This an honest person is legit.

[638] Yeah.

[639] But even that number is in the tens of thousands.

[640] So then Carr looks at the type of code being used like this person had made up a code.

[641] And the sender uses something called brevity codes, which are two character short hands for bigger words.

[642] So like AP would be the word anonymous.

[643] I don't know how coding works.

[644] Don't try to explain coding to me. I'm gonna.

[645] I love it.

[646] It's like AP is for anonymous because you know that P and anonymous really.

[647] Yeah.

[648] They really, I mean, that code, I would never be able to break it.

[649] No. I'd be like, what?

[650] AP stands for anonymous?

[651] We wouldn't be code breakers, you and I, I don't think.

[652] How?

[653] Just be arguing it the whole time.

[654] Whatever it is, this kind of code.

[655] is common practice for U .S. military, so Carr's like, okay, this person also has a military background.

[656] She's just like gathering information.

[657] Then there's a third clue that Carr makes note of.

[658] The letter of instructions and the brevity code, so like the letter that this is an honest person wrote is riddled with spelling errors.

[659] And so it's like this person's really smart, obviously.

[660] They have top secret clearance, but how could someone that's smart also fail to use spell check or like not spell very well.

[661] And the errors are so egregious that when Carr reaches out to the CIA and NSA, thinking perhaps the sender can come from one of the two departments, they shut him down.

[662] They're like, we would never hire someone who spells so poorly.

[663] Yeah.

[664] With no leads, the search goes on for a couple months, but Carr finds no suspects.

[665] So he turns back to the documents themselves for clues.

[666] The digital forensics teams are able to determine that the documents came from the NRO in Chantilly, Virginia, which is the National Reconnaissance Office.

[667] So, like, high -level security.

[668] And when Carr investigates the personnel there, it isn't long before the pattern of spelling errors point him to his prime suspect.

[669] A man in his late 30s named Brian Regan.

[670] So essentially, like, his spelling errors are what got him caught.

[671] So embarrassing.

[672] I know.

[673] I've been there.

[674] I've been there.

[675] There's so many people on the internet that would get caught.

[676] Oh, yeah.

[677] Luce and lose.

[678] Breathe and breath.

[679] That's right.

[680] That's right.

[681] It's amazing.

[682] So let me tell you about Brian Regan, not the comedian.

[683] He's born on October 23rd, 1962 to Irish immigrants.

[684] He grows up on Long Island, New York.

[685] The thing is, he is severely dyslexic.

[686] And that's why his spelling is so egregiously poor.

[687] And he also has some odd personality traits.

[688] He has memory lapses and little things that to the outsider make him seem less intelligent than he actually is.

[689] He is very smart.

[690] And he's generally pretty socially awkward as well.

[691] So he doesn't really fit in.

[692] He's bullied for those reasons.

[693] He might not be very popular socially, but he does do really well in school.

[694] He is smart.

[695] He excels in math and sciences.

[696] In 1980, he takes his talents to the U .S. Air Force, where he works as a signals intelligence analyst, which is someone who intercepts signal transmissions in an effort to gather Intel.

[697] So like, hey, you got to be smart to do that.

[698] Yeah, I would hope.

[699] He serves during the First Gulf War and is a standout success.

[700] He earns several accommodations for his work.

[701] In 1995, Brian is assigned to the NRO, the National Reconnaissance Office, and he works on a team that manages the U .S .'s spy satellites.

[702] He does really well here, too, but all his talents and hard work still don't earn him the respect of his coworkers.

[703] And this is pretty sad.

[704] He's still socially awkward.

[705] His dyslexia bleeds into his daily communications in his emails because they're riddled with spelling errors.

[706] So even as an adult, he still gets picked on and is the butt of people's jokes.

[707] Yeah.

[708] And worse than that, his supervisors while they value his work, they don't value his personality.

[709] So he's routinely given average evaluation scores.

[710] He isn't promoted as he would be otherwise.

[711] And it's really upsetting for Brian.

[712] And by 1999, He's also found himself in a lot of debt because of his bad spending habits.

[713] And he's not getting those raises and those promotions as well.

[714] And he and his wife Annette have three kids together and a fourth on the way.

[715] And he's the sole breadwinner of the family.

[716] So things aren't great.

[717] I mean, I used to know someone that they would say a thing of like, you'd do it if you wanted to kind of, that was that kind of thing.

[718] And I'm not saying, you feel alienated, oftentimes the more you try to fix it, the worse you make it.

[719] That becomes a spiral because you have an agenda.

[720] People don't like agendas.

[721] You're trying to say, don't think of me this way.

[722] Think of me this way.

[723] People go, ew, what are you talking about?

[724] And recoil more.

[725] That piece of it is very sad and difficult.

[726] But he has a marriage and children.

[727] So he's like a grown man. He has a life, it sounds like.

[728] It's just, it sucks.

[729] It sucks.

[730] It's like.

[731] And it's, you know, it just seems like he's maybe not neurotypical.

[732] And so, you know, in the 90s and still today, it's, you're just, he's treated differently.

[733] Yeah.

[734] And it sucks.

[735] And he's clearly very smart and just doesn't learn the same way other people do.

[736] And so therefore people think he's stupid.

[737] It's just like, it sucks.

[738] It's insulting.

[739] And it's kind of like any other problem if it was on paper, he could fix it.

[740] Right.

[741] This is the kind of thing that has that social nuance where he can't fix it and he's making it worse.

[742] Right.

[743] Exactly.

[744] Or it just is getting worse.

[745] Yeah.

[746] So Brian's set to retire from the Air Force in August of 2000.

[747] I guess I don't know how that works.

[748] He's only in his late 30s, so I don't know how retirement works in the Air Force.

[749] You just get to leave when you want to.

[750] Yeah.

[751] He has a pension, but the pressure of paying off his debts maybe too much for his retirement plan to handle.

[752] So it's not going to cover it with no promotion prospects and little hopes of finding another job that pays him the same or more because his field is very very niche.

[753] And also, again, his social awkwardness makes him a tough interview and hire.

[754] Brian's back is against the wall.

[755] That coupled with coworkers who undermine him at every turn stirs up a lot of resentment in Brian.

[756] He knows he's smart, much smarter than he's given credit for, but perhaps has a little too much confidence in his abilities.

[757] And this combination of anger and arrogance grows to dangerous heights.

[758] He comes up with the plan that can both help him pay off his debts and show the world just how smart he really is.

[759] So there's like, you know, reasoning behind here more than just getting money.

[760] It's ironic though.

[761] Why?

[762] Because it's like going, I'm going to show everybody how smart I am by doing the fucking stupidest thing.

[763] Like anytime I hear a story where it's like they got caught selling secrets to whatever enemy.

[764] Yeah.

[765] And just like, yeah, of course you would.

[766] That's the one thing they're paying attention to.

[767] Yeah.

[768] And I'm going to go on to tell you how he did it.

[769] And it's not very well, is the point.

[770] So, yes, you are correct.

[771] Also, I want to have an image.

[772] Because when I have an image in my head of a spy, I think of someone, I don't know, like nerdy and like bookish, right?

[773] I think of Inspector Gadget immediately.

[774] Yeah.

[775] This guy looks like a totally normal average joke, like someone you'd see at like, what's that Hot Wings restaurant?

[776] Well, there's a bunch around town.

[777] Just like at a sports bar, like a normal dude.

[778] your brother -in -law's friend from college.

[779] Like, he just looks like a normal guy.

[780] He's got a goate, you know, he's not bookish.

[781] Buffalo Wild Wings?

[782] Yes, thank you then.

[783] God, that was driving me insane.

[784] Everyone was yelling it.

[785] Okay.

[786] So, Brian agrees to retire from the NRO and the Air Force in August of 2000, but before he does in 1999, he's like, let me gather some intelligence.

[787] So he uses his top secret security clearance permissions and downloads a bunch of confidential information from that Intel link site.

[788] But while the network is secure, the people with access to it aren't monitored at all.

[789] They're like, once you get your security clearance, we trust you.

[790] Goodbye.

[791] Good luck.

[792] Yeah, good luck.

[793] Brian's plan is to steal as much sensitive information as he can before his retirement, then reach out to foreign dignitaries to try and sell that information.

[794] Just kind of get out there, do some ice breakers, pass your card around.

[795] It's me, the guy with the info.

[796] The guy you met at the bar at Buffalo Wild Wings, he has got.

[797] connections.

[798] The guy that keeps whispering at Buffalo Wildlings where you can't hear anything because there's 25 TVs on with all the sports at once.

[799] He keeps sort of a white Russian and going, hey, eh, eh?

[800] See?

[801] White Russian?

[802] It's fine.

[803] Okay.

[804] So it's obviously a huge risk, but the money he could charge for such espionage services is massive.

[805] He gathers all this information.

[806] And in total, when he does go forward with it, he asks for a total of $13 million.

[807] Oh, yeah.

[808] So it's the first time anyone on American soil has realized the potential of stealing digital information.

[809] Because remember, this shit's all new guys at home, young ones.

[810] This is the beginning of data mining.

[811] That's right.

[812] This is before Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning.

[813] So pulling this off would really make Brian a pioneer and like give him a name without naming him because he's trying to be a spy.

[814] And the process of stealing the documents is really easy.

[815] All he has to do is print out whatever he wants during the workday.

[816] He steps it in the bottom of his gym bag.

[817] just walks out the door.

[818] No security checks or anything.

[819] It's so easy that he's able to do it for months and months.

[820] And once he's got a solid collection of documents, videotapes, CD -ROMs, etc., he wraps the materials up in garbage bags, seals them in Tupperware, and drives out in the middle of the night to two different D .C. area state parks and then fucking buries that shit.

[821] Dude.

[822] This is his plan.

[823] And then here's you and your friend drinking in the park that night.

[824] You stumble upon him.

[825] Here goes the...

[826] international thriller, spy thriller.

[827] I mean, Jesus Christ, be more suspicious with your Tupperware and your burying.

[828] He uses night vision goggles even.

[829] No. Yeah.

[830] Yeah.

[831] Yeah.

[832] He's having a little adventure on his own is what's happening.

[833] He is.

[834] He buries the packages.

[835] He writes down the coordinates of each package's location.

[836] And then once, so the plan is that once a buyer bites, he'll hand over the coordinates, and then they can go dig up the Tupperware.

[837] Like geocaching.

[838] Exactly.

[839] But with horrible weapons.

[840] Right.

[841] And the buyers he's targeting NVD are just Libya, Iraq, and Iran, you know.

[842] You know, some of the big boys.

[843] And also like people you don't want to be fucking around with.

[844] Well, not solo, not as an indie salesman in the park.

[845] Indy spy is not a thing.

[846] No. That seems dangerous as hell.

[847] You need support.

[848] You do.

[849] You do.

[850] Of course, yeah.

[851] And the problem is he doesn't have any preexisting relationships with foreign entities.

[852] Like, no, he's an average dude.

[853] He doesn't like meet people at gala.

[854] He doesn't go to gala's, you know?

[855] He's, again, goes to Buffalo Wild Wings.

[856] I don't know if it existed back then, but let's say.

[857] He's literally cold calling Libya and being like, I think I have something interesting for you.

[858] Just call me back.

[859] So basically, that's what he does.

[860] He cold calls.

[861] with letters, cold letters.

[862] He writes up code.

[863] He sends out three different letters from three different places in case one's intercepted or whatever the fuck.

[864] And fortunately for Brian, all three envelops do make it safely to his first target, the Libyan consulate.

[865] They do fucking make it there.

[866] Unfortunately, the recipient, an anonymous person, receives that letter and sends it to the FBI.

[867] So he's trying to be a spy and a fucking spy in the, the Libyan consulate receives the letter and is like, boom, spy versus spy.

[868] Oh, so it is, it's like an American spy that's already set in there?

[869] Maybe, yeah.

[870] Or someone who's like, maybe we shouldn't like stir this pot.

[871] But the person who sends it to the FBI is never identified.

[872] So I think it's another spy.

[873] Or if it's just like a guy that's like, hey, look.

[874] Yeah, yeah.

[875] We're just trying to get by in this world.

[876] You should know.

[877] We don't want this bullshit.

[878] Yeah.

[879] What are you doing?

[880] You guys are gigantic.

[881] We don't want.

[882] shit from you.

[883] This looks like a trap.

[884] I'm not fucking stupid.

[885] Here, FBI, try again.

[886] Like, who knows?

[887] Hey, FBI, come get your boy, as they like to say.

[888] Exactly.

[889] So that's where a special agent Stephen Carr comes in.

[890] He figures out it's Brian a couple of months later.

[891] And so he's like, this is our dude.

[892] Let's get him.

[893] So in April 2001, Brian had left his job and he still needs to work, though.

[894] So he starts working with the defense contractor TRW, which often works with the NRO where he used to work.

[895] So essentially, it's a way for him to get back into those old offices where he got all that information because he still wants to work there because he still wants to get more information.

[896] Sure.

[897] By May 2001, he's just waiting for his security clearance to be reinstated so he can go back to the offices.

[898] And so Stephen Carr is like, yo, NRO, here's what I want you to do, grant brian his clearance tell him all as well and he'll go back to work and we can monitor him from there and like that's how we're going to get all our you know evidence the nRA is like fuck no we're not in the we're not in the game of hiring like potential spies and finally they go back and forth and they're like okay you can do it for 120 days get what you need that's it so they rig up his computer so that every keystroke is recorded and monitored there is a hidden camera in his office And on top of that car and the FBI agent's tail Brian outside of work, so he's being watched around the clock.

[899] So they're on his tail.

[900] Sure enough, like the day he gets back to work at the NRO headquarters, he starts downloading top secret files again immediately.

[901] Just doesn't even have a cup of coffee.

[902] It just goes straight, straight to his desk.

[903] That's right.

[904] This time he's downloading aerial shots of missile sites in the no -fly zone over northern Iraq, along with other aerial surveillance shots of weapons depots and other missile sites.

[905] So like, shit, we should not be giving to the fucking our enemy.

[906] You know what I mean?

[907] He's definitely not starting small, that's for sure.

[908] He's not like slowly feeding them anything.

[909] He's just like, go for the big guns and get out.

[910] I don't know about you, but I'm anti -war.

[911] We're pacifists, but still, you can't do this.

[912] You know what I mean?

[913] Yeah.

[914] Like, this is bad for everyone.

[915] Yeah.

[916] And now it also appears that he wants to expand his pool of potential buyers to include our friends, China.

[917] Oh, yeah, that'll expand it quite a bit.

[918] Right.

[919] So, like, really bad.

[920] They find that he goes to the library.

[921] And when he's there, he does all this stuff on the computer and the FBI's like, what is he doing?

[922] He leaves open his browser at the public library.

[923] And they're able to just go back, back, back and see everything he had looked at.

[924] Sir, sir.

[925] What they find is that he's been searching for the addresses of Libyan and Iraqi embassies in Europe.

[926] And they figure out that he's like, fuck it, I'm just going to go straight fucking there.

[927] Like he didn't get a bite.

[928] Nothing happened when he sent out the letters to the Libyan embassy.

[929] So he's like, I'm going to go straight to the source in Europe.

[930] So they just can't believe he's brazen or confident or arrogant enough to do this.

[931] But they're like, oh, no, we got to keep an eye.

[932] on him.

[933] And then to do it at the library.

[934] Yeah.

[935] Or it's like, hey, people are trying to do their history report.

[936] Can you clear the computer, please?

[937] And take your international intrigue somewhere else.

[938] Yeah.

[939] It's insane.

[940] That's like spy school day one.

[941] Like clear your browser history, bro.

[942] Keep it on your personal laptop.

[943] They don't have those yet, though.

[944] Oh, you can only get like an old Mac at the library.

[945] That's why he's going there.

[946] Right.

[947] Or like, yeah, he doesn't want to do it on his Dell at home.

[948] or what the fuck.

[949] So they're like, oh, no, he's going to go to Europe.

[950] So basically, when someone with a security clearance as high as Brian's wants to leave the country, they can't just go on a vacate.

[951] They have to have a sit -down interview with the head of their government department.

[952] The NRO then has to know specifics of the trip, the location, the timing, the reason for the trip.

[953] It's all on record.

[954] You're not just allowed to go to Paris for the fucking Christmas or whatever.

[955] Right.

[956] So Brian doesn't want to go for this shit, obviously.

[957] So he lies and tells his supervisors that he's taking his kids on a family vacation to Orlando, Florida through like from August, like late August.

[958] He's like, I need some time off.

[959] We're just going to go to Orlando.

[960] Hi, summer in Orlando.

[961] Can't beat it.

[962] Oh.

[963] Do you like stepping into a hot, hot, steamy shower, but actually wearing clothes and being outside in public?

[964] Welcome to Orlando.

[965] Do you want to make out with a mosquito?

[966] Hi.

[967] So on the day he's set to leave, August 23rd, 2001.

[968] Obviously, the FBI are like, we need to get him before he leaves the country, right?

[969] So they are able to gather just enough evidence from their surveillance of Brian to justify an arrest and get their arrest warrant.

[970] They get him just in time for his flight.

[971] They show up at Washington Dulles Airport that afternoon and apprehend him.

[972] They place him under arrest.

[973] They go through his belongings.

[974] They find a manila folder containing four sheets filled with various codes, a piece of folded -up paper.

[975] hidden between the inner and outer souls of his shoes with the addresses for several Chinese embassies and consulates in various European countries and just like a bunch of other coded stuff.

[976] So like clearly that's what he's going to do.

[977] Sorry, he wrote down the embassy addresses folded up the piece of paper and stuck it into the inside of his shoe.

[978] Uh -huh.

[979] It doesn't seem to me he has like the spy training that like I've seen on cable television.

[980] Yes.

[981] However, the date is August 23rd, 2001.

[982] This is before, right?

[983] This is right before security at airports is about to go haywire.

[984] Yes.

[985] So it's actually a little easier.

[986] A little lax.

[987] Okay.

[988] So faced with all this evidence against him, the smart thing for Brian to do at this point would be to try and cut a plea deal with the federal government because espionage charges are severe.

[989] So he really should try to do anything he can to lessen a potential.

[990] sentence.

[991] But Brian's cockiness gets the better of him.

[992] He's convinced he's smart enough to outwit the FBI.

[993] So instead of fessing up to his crimes, he tries blackmailing the U .S. government.

[994] Yes.

[995] There we go.

[996] There it is.

[997] Doubles down.

[998] Solutions.

[999] He issues a statement through his lawyer that he's got, quote, secrets buried out there that could start a war, end quote.

[1000] And then the only way, and he says the only way he'll reveal his hiding places is if he's guaranteed a lesser sentence.

[1001] So he's essentially like, I'll give it up with a lesser sentence, not I'll give it up and then I get a lesser sentence.

[1002] It's I get a lesser sentence and then I'll give it up and they don't fucking like that.

[1003] Yeah, because he's not in charge.

[1004] It's like Brian, sir.

[1005] Yeah.

[1006] No. Your stance is inaccurate to the scenario.

[1007] Yeah.

[1008] Of course the FBI and the Department of Justice don't fuck around with blackmailing traders.

[1009] That's not in their rulebook.

[1010] No. Instead, they tap FBI cryptanalyst who's a person who deciphers codes without a key.

[1011] So like the smartest guy at any party, I'm sure.

[1012] Who I bet can spell real good.

[1013] Oh yeah.

[1014] His name's Daniel Olson and they're like, try and crack this.

[1015] This is Brian's code.

[1016] Find the very documents.

[1017] We'll do it our fucking selves.

[1018] Do you know Daniel Olson is the guy to find at that cocktail party?

[1019] Like probably not easy to access, probably a bit of an introvert.

[1020] Yeah.

[1021] But if you happen by him near like the cheese tray and figure out the right topic you're in for it can you imagine Daniel Olson is a gift I just picture him he's the guy who wears the like suit jackets with the elbow patches yeah right that's right but also he is kind of floppy hair he's kind of like oh I don't I can't remember where I parked my car but here's the answer to the mysteries of the universe he's always losing his keys however yeah he knows that time is relative and how it's relevant I don't know Exactly.

[1022] He knows exactly what Einstein was talking about in a way that most people know.

[1023] He also is like looking around and can like put things together.

[1024] Now we're writing a TV show where it's like a code breaker and what that means throughout your day to day life where that's a man that can put two and two together and actually see what the fuck is going on.

[1025] That's exciting.

[1026] Plus time travel just for fun.

[1027] What?

[1028] Oh, just throw it in.

[1029] Yeah.

[1030] Like he goes back in time and solves codes because I want the Zodiac letters to be involved in this.

[1031] Oh, okay.

[1032] That could be the big season one finale.

[1033] Yes.

[1034] What if he has a magical coat closet in the front of his apartment?

[1035] He got drunk and fell into one day and then fell into 1969, the summer of love.

[1036] And he's like, what the fuck?

[1037] I got to crack this.

[1038] The show's called Crack This or something.

[1039] What's happening?

[1040] We're not supposed to be doing this on the show.

[1041] No, stop it.

[1042] Stop it.

[1043] Okay.

[1044] I'm not talking.

[1045] anymore.

[1046] No, please do.

[1047] Please do.

[1048] Okay.

[1049] Crack it.

[1050] So he works out of the FBI lab in Quantico, of course, because that's the coolest place to work.

[1051] And he and Daniel Olson's the best in the biz at deciphering codes, but even he can't crack it.

[1052] So Brian Regan is smart enough that the fucking best code cracker at the FBI in Quantico, Virginia, who's also beautiful, who's also gorgeous and a time traveler, has -sensitive.

[1053] Has stumped it.

[1054] him.

[1055] He has cats.

[1056] He's got like this cat name Einstein that he talks to.

[1057] Okay.

[1058] So Brian Regan is right when he is embittered toward the world because he is really smart and he is misunderstood.

[1059] Yes.

[1060] And he does have, he has it to be.

[1061] And what if we fold Daniel Olson into this plot a lot sooner so that we set up a direct thing to be upset by?

[1062] Because he's like, I knew that before he said it.

[1063] It's that life.

[1064] It's like Lex Luther where you're like, well, he has a point.

[1065] point.

[1066] Yeah.

[1067] You know?

[1068] He's right to be so bitter.

[1069] Yeah.

[1070] Like I'm kind of on his side.

[1071] He decifers just a small piece of code.

[1072] So they're like stumped on this now.

[1073] Okay.

[1074] About two weeks after Brian's arrest, what happens?

[1075] Motherfucking 9 -11.

[1076] Oh.

[1077] Yeah.

[1078] So obviously the world changes completely.

[1079] Life is in turmoil.

[1080] Our country's devastated.

[1081] Obviously the story overshadows Brian's in the news.

[1082] So that's probably why we've never heard of it.

[1083] Right.

[1084] But now, given the existing threat on Americans' safety, the government officials investigating Brian are now like, we have to double down and recover these stolen documents.

[1085] Because now national security is such a big fucking deal because we were attacked on our own soil, right?

[1086] So we're not ignoring this.

[1087] Especially since one of the countries Brian was targeting to sell to was Iraq.

[1088] Now the Pentagon, the DOJ, the FBI, and the NRO are all involved in getting Brian to try to cooperate and tell them where he hid those documents and they all want to prosecute him to the full extent of the law.

[1089] The fullest extent of the law for this charge would be to seek the death penalty against him.

[1090] That's right.

[1091] It traders at that level.

[1092] Yeah.

[1093] It usually are like shot by firing squad or that's the old way.

[1094] Yeah.

[1095] I mean, it sounds extreme.

[1096] It's like, you know, hard to wrap your brain around, but like that's how serious it is to the government when you do shit like this.

[1097] When you go against your own country and you're like, eh, I guess I'll just do what's good for me and everyone else can suck it.

[1098] Because it would have put so many lives in danger if it had gone through what he did.

[1099] Yeah.

[1100] So if it goes through and he gets that, Brian will be the first spy in over 50 years to receive the death penalty.

[1101] Of course, the last time a spy received the death penalty was in 1951 at the Rosenberg trial where Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for providing details about the design of the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.

[1102] How have we not covered that one?

[1103] That one's such a bummer.

[1104] It's all about the like red scare and all the different things where it's like these days it's like what really happened with the Rosenbergs is what you'd probably want to hear.

[1105] Yeah.

[1106] And they give such grandma and grandpa vibes that you're like, oh, this sucks.

[1107] So crazy.

[1108] Did you ever see angels in America?

[1109] No, but I know it's good.

[1110] It's so good.

[1111] Merrill Street plays Ethel Rosenberg.

[1112] Oh, wow.

[1113] It's unbelievable.

[1114] It's so good.

[1115] Okay, I'll watch it.

[1116] Okay.

[1117] All of this, the death penalty on the line, all this shit, Brian is not dissuaded.

[1118] No. Instead of caving to the pressure and cooperating with the investigators, Brian writes a somewhat coded letter to his wife asking, this is so weird, asking her to bury little trinkets, like little toys, little worth, toys as part of a scavenger hunt for their kids.

[1119] So I think he's trying to like throw off the FBI by being like, here's other things that are buried.

[1120] Maybe it has nothing to do.

[1121] I don't know.

[1122] I don't understand it completely.

[1123] He's definitely trying to like do a double blind, smokescreen, spy stuff.

[1124] Right.

[1125] And she thinks he's innocent, his wife.

[1126] So she does what he's asked.

[1127] She buries those little trinkets.

[1128] But the FBI finds out about Brian's plan.

[1129] And now they have the grounds to prosecute his wife for obstruction of justice, even though she innocently believed her husband wasn't trying to be a spy.

[1130] So now the FBI are able to use this to their advantage and tell Brian that if he helps them locate the very documents, they won't pursue any charges against his wife.

[1131] So if it's against him, he doesn't care, but now it's his family.

[1132] They have four young children now.

[1133] He's like, okay, that's isn't going to happen.

[1134] And they say that if he helps them, she'll still be able to receive his military benefits, his pension and health insurance.

[1135] So, like, knowing he's kind of fucked.

[1136] He's like, I'm not going to fuck over my wife.

[1137] Yeah.

[1138] Don't burn it all down, you fool.

[1139] Yeah.

[1140] So finally, after two years of holding out information, Brian finally agrees to cooperate, but not before he has tried and convicted of espionage in March of 2003.

[1141] He doesn't receive the death penalty, but he does get life in prison.

[1142] He admits to bearing these packages, these temper wares, and two state parks.

[1143] There's 12 packages in Pocahontas State Park in Virginia and seven packages in the Patapsco Valley State Park in Ellicott City, Maryland.

[1144] He also admits about the code.

[1145] He says cracking the code would reveal the coordinates.

[1146] The code's super elaborate and nearly unsolvable, as the FBI had found out.

[1147] But he's like, but hey, you don't even need to do that because I also buried a key to the code in a plastic travel toothbrush holder.

[1148] And he tells them, are you being serious?

[1149] I swear to fucking God.

[1150] He tells them where to find that.

[1151] And within hours, Stephen Carr and the FBI agents are there.

[1152] They dig up the toothbrush holder.

[1153] They find the coordinates.

[1154] They go to Pocahontas State Park in Virginia.

[1155] They find 11 of the 12 packages that same day because of the code.

[1156] And then they find the 12th when our friend Dan Olson is able to finally crack one of the codes.

[1157] And they find the 12th one.

[1158] So he did help.

[1159] Ha ha.

[1160] He came back.

[1161] came back.

[1162] He's back.

[1163] That's actually all a little bit soft and gentle version of Israel keys, varying caches and going around.

[1164] Because you're making everything so, and maybe this is his thing, coordinates, whatnot.

[1165] But it's just like, why wouldn't you just put him in a safety deposit box?

[1166] Put him in a storage container.

[1167] Because that's not like fun for him.

[1168] No. It's not an adventure, you know?

[1169] Right.

[1170] I wonder how much.

[1171] I wonder how things are buried out there like on that level that are never going to be found like in state parks or like in city parks where people are just like we'll just put this here for now oh my god okay so then that leaves the seven packages that are buried in patapsco valley state park in maryland brian have buried the seven packages about a year and a half before he buried the packages in pocahontas and he did it using a completely different code so this guy can like come up with codes I don't know if that's hard or easy.

[1172] So they find the other toothbrush holder for these packages.

[1173] I mean, he just needed to clean his bathroom out.

[1174] That's what it sounds like to me. Just recycle, sir.

[1175] So because he wrote this code so long ago, though, he doesn't remember exactly how it works.

[1176] He forgot how to decode his own shit.

[1177] All he can remember is that he built the code off some of the content in his junior high yearbook, like letters coordinating to this.

[1178] person to that person to number.

[1179] I don't know how codes work.

[1180] So he doesn't know like where his own key is or he doesn't remember?

[1181] I think that they don't know where the key is.

[1182] Yeah.

[1183] So they all work together.

[1184] They go through his yearbook.

[1185] They sit down and they try to crack the code.

[1186] Fast forward for time's sake.

[1187] They figure it out.

[1188] So now they have the coordinates for the seven packages.

[1189] But the problem is Brian didn't use the same key that he did.

[1190] And because the GPS coordinates aren't exact, the FBI have to dig massive holes.

[1191] They finally, after weeks of digging, Carr has to jump through these hoops to get Brian a supervised release so he can come to the state park in Maryland.

[1192] And even though he doesn't remember his code, he remembers exactly where each, like he's got that brain, you know, that works his way.

[1193] And he's able to find every single package just by looking at the fields.

[1194] A park.

[1195] A park, yeah.

[1196] Wow, that's crazy.

[1197] So they recover all the packages here's a fucking funny enough story inside one of the packages Brian had mistakenly left an old sticky note from his days of working at the NRO with his name on it so had the packages just been recovered without Brian's help he still would have been caught he wanted to be caught I know he wanted to he wanted the name of like this guy for all his smarts and cunning Brian's obviously still has lapses in judgment that left him exposed this earns him the nickname given by one of the FBI agents of Mr. 80%.

[1198] I know, I know.

[1199] That's the meanest nickname because that's exactly what made him so upset his whole life.

[1200] Yeah, yeah.

[1201] Like, that's it.

[1202] You basically got the exposed nerve and then you were like, ha -ha, here it is.

[1203] That one cuts deep, for sure.

[1204] Yeah, that's rough.

[1205] When all the documents are recovered, the FBI discovered Brian had stolen and hidden more than 20 ,000 pages, videotapes, and CD -ROMs of top secret and classified government and military information.

[1206] Brian is now 61.

[1207] He continues to serve his life sentence at the federal correctional institution of Hazleton in Preston County, West Virginia.

[1208] He is, as he put it, quote, going to serve more time than any other spy ever, end quote.

[1209] Well, then, hey, you're number one, buddy.

[1210] Yeah.

[1211] And that is the story of Brian Regan, the spy who couldn't spell.

[1212] Dang.

[1213] I know.

[1214] That is truly fascinating, kind of upsetting.

[1215] Also, like, I always thought 80 % was pretty good.

[1216] Oh, I'll take it?

[1217] That's a B. That's a solid B average.

[1218] It's a solid B. I'll take a solid B. Oh, wow.

[1219] Yeah.

[1220] Nice one.

[1221] Thank you.

[1222] This podcast is Mr. 80%.

[1223] This podcast is a solid 76 at all times.

[1224] Yeah.

[1225] I was just thinking that, I think we've talked about this before, but all the things we lost because 9 -11 just took over when they were equally important and equally pressing and then all of a sudden everything just got pushed to the side.

[1226] Yeah.

[1227] There's so, so, so many of those things.

[1228] Yeah.

[1229] I mean, it was unprecedented, literally, obviously.

[1230] And that's why it was.

[1231] Yeah.

[1232] So crazy.

[1233] Yeah.

[1234] We lived through it.

[1235] We did.

[1236] And we lived through this episode too.

[1237] And you guys lived through this episode.

[1238] And, hey, we appreciate that about you.

[1239] Good job.

[1240] You did it.

[1241] We did it.

[1242] You nailed it.

[1243] We all nailed it together.

[1244] Well, thanks for listening.

[1245] We've done it again.

[1246] Two solid stories to really get you through your, what, work day, commute?

[1247] All of it.

[1248] Yeah.

[1249] All of it.

[1250] Life.

[1251] You're just laying there.

[1252] Yeah.

[1253] We get it.

[1254] We get it.

[1255] Painting your nails?

[1256] Maybe you're painting your nails.

[1257] I mean, who knows?

[1258] Maybe you're spying somewhere and burying Tupperware in the forest.

[1259] Oh, my God.

[1260] Listen, send us an anonymous home.

[1261] of what you're doing.

[1262] Just tell us.

[1263] We need to know.

[1264] We won't give you away.

[1265] My favorite writer at Gmail, please.

[1266] We're not snitches.

[1267] No, we are not.

[1268] One other request, stay sexy.

[1269] And don't get murdered.

[1270] Goodbye.

[1271] Elvis, do you want a cookie?

[1272] This has been an exactly right production.

[1273] Our senior producer is Alejandra Keck.

[1274] Our managing producers, Hannah Kyle Crichton.

[1275] Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo.

[1276] This episode was mixed by Liana, Our researchers are Marin McClashin and Ali Elkin.

[1277] Email your hometowns to My Favorite Murder at gmail .com.

[1278] Follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at My Favorite Murder and Twitter at MyFave Murder.

[1279] Goodbye.