MFM Minisode 189

[0] This is exactly right.

[1] And welcome to my favorite murder.

[2] The Minia Sode.

[3] We read you your stuff back.

[4] That's Karen Kilgarif.

[5] That's Georgia Hard Stark.

[6] We're your hosts and the hired readers for this production.

[7] They hired us to read to you.

[8] We audition.

[9] Uh -huh.

[10] And we beat out all the other girls.

[11] Yeah.

[12] Yeah.

[13] We got a call back.

[14] We got a call back.

[15] Then we had a network test.

[16] Foof.

[17] Intense.

[18] Can you believe it?

[19] It's hard.

[20] My mouth went totally.

[21] dry.

[22] My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth.

[23] So nervous.

[24] Still, we got it.

[25] Still, we rise.

[26] Even at your worst, you got it.

[27] You got it.

[28] What?

[29] Should we drop the, should we drop the concept that only we know right now, which is that we're about to come out with T -shirts that say this is terrible, keep going?

[30] Yeah.

[31] Because I'm so excited about those shirts.

[32] They're so good.

[33] Don't tell them what it's like.

[34] Don't tell them what it looks like.

[35] It's just, you're going to like it.

[36] Yeah.

[37] And also, how timely.

[38] Yeah.

[39] I don't usually, I'm not a big merch plugger, but I'm excited about this shirt.

[40] I am too.

[41] I am too.

[42] That's a, that's an upcoming surprise for all you.

[43] Many sewed listeners.

[44] Some call it an Easter egg.

[45] Us admitting that we were cast for this podcast is an Easter egg, even though it's not true at all.

[46] That's a, it's not true.

[47] So we call it a line behind the scenes where it's us fibbing, which is what we like to do.

[48] But also it takes you back behind the scenes a little bit of what real life is like here.

[49] Are they lying or are they not lying?

[50] I feel like I'm also behind the scenes.

[51] You just you see where we decide.

[52] Right.

[53] What reality is.

[54] Anyway, here's your first email.

[55] And we just started lying.

[56] Are you ready for this one?

[57] I think I'm going to read you the title.

[58] Okay.

[59] Because it's simply John Dillinger saved my grandma.

[60] Beautiful.

[61] Oh, hi there.

[62] Not too long back.

[63] Well before the pandemic.

[64] so it feels more like years ago.

[65] My incredible Grandma Elma, and then in parentheses, jackpot grandma name, right?

[66] Dude.

[67] Was the oldest of six on a remote farm not too far from Hicksville, Ohio.

[68] One day in 1933, a nice looking car pulls down the long dirt road leading to the house.

[69] My great grandpa is already outside doing farmer stuff, so he approaches the car as four very well -dressed men step out.

[70] The main guy introduced himself as John and politely asked my great -grandpa if they could pay him, to fill up their car with gas.

[71] Apparently, this kind of thing wasn't too uncommon since this was around the time that gas powered tractors and farm equipment had become normal so almost all farms would retain their own large supply of gas.

[72] The men stood to the side as my great -grandpa agreed and began filling up the tank.

[73] As he was filling the car, he glanced into the backseat and saw four submachine guns.

[74] What?

[75] Can you have a submachine gun back then?

[76] In 1933.

[77] You've never seen a. anything like that.

[78] It would be, it would look like a laser from Star Trek.

[79] Totally.

[80] Totally.

[81] Horrifying.

[82] Just a just an old farmer.

[83] You know he was wearing overalls.

[84] Oh my God.

[85] Okay.

[86] Uh, four submachine guns propped in the back seat.

[87] The man he was filling up the car for was no, none other than John Dillinger.

[88] I guessed it.

[89] Yeah.

[90] You know right from the title.

[91] Right.

[92] Looking, looking up, uh, looking up the timeline and location of John Dillinger's whereabouts, this was most likely one of their first stops right after Dillinger.

[93] Linger's first escape from jail in Lima less than an hour and a half away.

[94] My great grandpa, is it Lima or Lima?

[95] I wonder.

[96] My great grandpa stayed calm and continued to be polite and unassuming to the men as they did the same.

[97] When he was all finished, John walked over to my grandpa, thanked him, and handed him a $50 bill and simply left.

[98] My great grandpa or any of the family had never seen a bill that large.

[99] This was in the middle of the Great Depression and times were getting.

[100] tougher and tougher to feed a family of six and keep the farm maintained enough so that they could keep it.

[101] My great grandpa knew if he called the police, the only proof he'd have this event was the single $50 bill, which is about $770 in today's money.

[102] Holy shit.

[103] Yeah.

[104] Hi.

[105] And they would have had to take it as evidence.

[106] So he made the call to keep quiet and use the money towards saving the family and the farm.

[107] Because of this, my grandma had far more opportunities to go to bed with a full stomach at night.

[108] My grandma Elma passed away two years ago.

[109] I lived 12 hours away from her, so when we heard she was in bad health, we planned a trip as fast as we could see her.

[110] We let her know when we'd be in town and we're able to make it in time to have a great visit with her as if nothing was wrong.

[111] She passed away two days later, and I truly believe that she held out until she was able to see us one last time.

[112] Thank you, girls, for all of your fun energy.

[113] Stay sexy and tip your farmers well, Audrey.

[114] Aw, Elma.

[115] That's amazing.

[116] Shout out to Elma.

[117] Shout out.

[118] Yeah.

[119] This one just starts.

[120] Hello, MFFs.

[121] That's clever.

[122] It was September of 1994, and I had just started my senior year at high school in.

[123] An acquaintance of mine, Dominic, who was a junior, got pulled out of class the morning of September 22nd to be given the news that his mother, Mary, had been found dead near their home.

[124] Dominic and his mother lived alone together.

[125] his father being estranged.

[126] Apparently, Mary had been found on a forested path that connected two cul -de -sacs in an upper -class neighborhood.

[127] She had been stabbed multiple times.

[128] Another also interesting connection to the story, my third -grade teacher and longtime family friend was the one who found her.

[129] Oh, no. So small town.

[130] This was devastating and scary news to Dominic and our school.

[131] During that time, a sleepy, safe town with little crime that I remember as a teen.

[132] A few days went on and Mary's funeral ensued which I attended with some friends.

[133] Dominic was there receiving condolences from family and friends.

[134] I gave Dominic a hug and apologized for the loss of his mom.

[135] All caps, but then.

[136] Yes.

[137] There's always a but then.

[138] It was just waiting for that but then.

[139] Mm -hmm.

[140] On October 5th, 1994, Dominic was arrested for Mary's murder.

[141] The real story is that Dominic planned to murder his mother the night of September 21st and suggested they go for a walk that evening.

[142] He concealed a large butcher knife with him and, stabbed his mother 29 times, even after she was dead.

[143] He then drove out to the country and disposed of the weapon.

[144] He placed his bloody clothes in his backpack and took them to school the next day to throw away in the dumpster.

[145] A search warrant of the home revealed Mary's blood throughout the house and on Dominic's shoes, which were soaking in bleach.

[146] So he was arrested and logged in a juvenile detention facility.

[147] Here's the kicker, though.

[148] Since he killed his mother before Measure 11, he was not tried as an adult.

[149] He was sent to McLauran School for Boys, where he was released in 1999 at the age of 21.

[150] In fact, he doesn't even have to report to a parole officer or get mental health treatment.

[151] He can get a concealed weapons permit and can answer that he has never been convicted of a crime on job applications.

[152] Why?

[153] Because he was a juvenile.

[154] Oh, okay.

[155] He has since changed his name, and I think he's been arrested for fraud in the last few years or something like that.

[156] He never said why he did it, although he did admit to causing Mary's death.

[157] I did find him on Facebook, if you're interested.

[158] did and then gave us a link to his Facebook.

[159] Good God.

[160] Stay away.

[161] What are you doing?

[162] Don't do that.

[163] And I took all the last names in this and I took them out.

[164] Stay sexy and don't hug a mother murderer.

[165] P .S. Tonight I finished HBO's.

[166] I'll be gone in the dark and I've been crying for hours.

[167] So good.

[168] So dark.

[169] So sad.

[170] And yes, Georgia, I agree that Karen looks great and purple.

[171] Love you both so much, Robin.

[172] Yay.

[173] Robin tried to even that out at the end with a nice compliment, but that was a horrible story.

[174] It was horrible.

[175] But it is so crazy.

[176] that you can just get out and, like, live your normal life, which is what makes sense.

[177] Like, that's what the point of juvenile arrests are for.

[178] You would hope, though, that level of overkill would be treated differently than the other kids that are in juvie for stealing cars and, you know, or doing drugs or something like that.

[179] Premeditated murder.

[180] I think maybe that's what my girl oven is.

[181] I didn't look it up.

[182] But premeditated murder is a, uh, it.

[183] Yeah.

[184] I mean, crazy.

[185] But what do we know?

[186] Right.

[187] Here, we'll take a nice, we'll take a nice left turn into the, into a lighthearted area.

[188] The time my mom almost accidentally killed my dad.

[189] Hey, I'm FM fam.

[190] Last Sunday, I was playing cards with my parents and my newlywed husband.

[191] And my mom said that she had a story for me. So my dad wears a CPAP machine at night.

[192] And there's a filter system for it where you put distilled water.

[193] And my dad ran out of water.

[194] So he asked to borrow some from the gallon.

[195] My mom was used for us.

[196] ironing.

[197] Oh, no. Wow.

[198] Because he didn't want to go upstairs and get her downstairs and get...

[199] No, he'd have to leave the house.

[200] So she had the only...

[201] She had her own distilled water stash for special ironing.

[202] Got it.

[203] He didn't want to have to go down to, you know, the CVS.

[204] Okay.

[205] So from the gallon my mom used for ironing until he could go out and get his own.

[206] So the first few nights, he started sneezing and coughing really badly, but only at night.

[207] My parents couldn't figure out what was going on with him, worried it might be COVID -related.

[208] The next time my dad went to fill his water in his CPAP machine, he noticed the water looked weird, like milky and not clear.

[209] He took a closer look at the gallon.

[210] It was the bleach water that he had mixed for cleaning.

[211] My mom had accidentally given him a gallon bleach water mixture instead of her distilled water.

[212] Luckily, my dad caught it and cleaned it out, and he thinks he didn't use any.

[213] We really gave my mom a hard time since she's always watching shows like Snap and Cold Case files.

[214] We joked that this was her.

[215] clever way to poison him to death.

[216] All as well, my dad is alive and is not quote unquote sick anymore.

[217] We told him to be extra nice to my mom just in case.

[218] Thank you for bringing humor and joy and these tough times are in.

[219] My fucking hurry is that COVID -19 did not stop me from getting married.

[220] We had a very small, beautiful outdoor ceremony and I got to marry the love of my life.

[221] That's lovely.

[222] Stay sexy and label your bleach water correctly.

[223] Oh, my.

[224] She could, I wonder if that would have killed him.

[225] If he had like...

[226] It absolutely would have, just inhaling bleach night after night?

[227] You wouldn't be able to do that for that long.

[228] Dr. Reno's, let us know how long can you inhale pitch?

[229] Are you daring me?

[230] Because I have a CPAP machine and I can totally do it.

[231] Okay.

[232] Tell us what is like.

[233] Okay.

[234] Like I got it.

[235] Dreams are like.

[236] Wow.

[237] Okay.

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

[239] Absolutely.

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

[241] Exactly.

[242] And if you're a small business owner, you might know Shopify is great for online sales.

[243] But did you know that they also power in -person sales?

[244] That's right.

[245] Shopify is the sound of selling everywhere, online, in -store, on social media, and beyond.

[246] Give your point -of -sale system a serious upgrade with Shopify.

[247] From accepting payments to managing inventory, they have everything you need to sell in person.

[248] So give your point -of -sale system a serious upgrade with Shopify.

[249] Their sleek, reliable POS hardware takes every major payment method and looks fabulous at the same time.

[250] With Shopify, We have a powerful partner for managing our sales, and if you're a business owner, you can too.

[251] Connect with customers in line and online.

[252] Do retail right with Shopify.

[253] Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify .com slash murder.

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

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

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

[257] Goodbye.

[258] This one just starts, just called a hometown story and starts.

[259] While my murder story is not from my hometown, it does involve my family member, my great, great grandmother.

[260] Her name was Selma, and she was murdered in Brooklyn, New York in July 1927.

[261] Wow.

[262] Selma had owned a boarding house on Prospect Place that she lived in with her family.

[263] When she and her family moved out, she entrusted the boarding house to her friend, Sarah, 76 -year -old.

[264] And I looked it up.

[265] So this is, this sounded so far -fetched to me that I looked it up, and it's all fucking true.

[266] So I looked it up.

[267] This woman was 76 years old, Sarah Brownwell.

[268] So she entrusted the boarding house to her friend Sarah.

[269] A handyman was hired to work in the boarding house, Ludwig Halvorsen Lee.

[270] He was a Norwegian immigrant who received free room and board at the boarding house in exchange for keeping up with the maintenance for no salary.

[271] One day, a neighbor noticed something strange.

[272] Water was leaking from the cellar of the boarding house and flooding her yard.

[273] Come to think of it, she had also heard some strange noises from that same cellar the night before.

[274] When she knocked on the boarding house door to talk to Sarah, the owner, she was greeted by Ludwig.

[275] He explained that Sarah was, quote, out of town, and he would take care of the leak in the cellar.

[276] Several days passed, and the water problem was not fixed.

[277] The neighbor called my great -great -grandmother Selma, since she was the former owner and explained the issue.

[278] The neighbor watched as my great -great -grandmother entered the boarding house and never came out.

[279] Soon, mysterious packages started appearing around Brooklyn, um at prospect park a train station a church etc each unfortunate person who opened these sacks was greeted by a different severed body part what i fucking swear i looked it up it's all true even the crazy name of the dude while the police noticed that some body parts were missing from the collection they could tell that it was the body parts of two different women as they started to put two and two together the disappearances of sarah and selma the water problem in the cellar the packages of body parts, they realized they needed to investigate the boarding house.

[280] As the police entered the cellar, they were greeted instantly with the smell of death.

[281] They found the remaining body parts of Selma and Sarah stuffed in the cellar pipes causing the water leak.

[282] They also discovered several bottles of lie that had been emptied over the body parts in order to dissolve them faster.

[283] The receipt for the bottles was found, and when police checked with the store clerk, he recalled Ludwig buying the bottles.

[284] The police eventually found my great -great -grandmother's ring in a box in Ludwig's room.

[285] My great -great -grandfather had the unfortunate job of identifying the remains of his wife.

[286] The story came together at the trial.

[287] Ludwig had wanted to return to Norway but had no money since he worked at the boarding house for free.

[288] He knew that rent day was coming up and he accosted Sarah.

[289] He killed her with an axe in order to procure the money.

[290] When my great -great -grandmother Selma came to investigate the water leak, she either happened upon Ludwig chopping up Sarah's body or the already chopped up body of Sarah.

[291] She ended up becoming an unintended victim to Ludwig's axe.

[292] The defense tried to cross -examine my great -grandfather, Selma's son, and accused him of murdering the ladies since he still lived at the boarding house.

[293] However, my great -grandfather denied this, and the evidence against Ludwig was strong.

[294] Ludwig was charged with the murder and died by the electric chair in 1928.

[295] And then there's no signature.

[296] There's no opening and there's no signature.

[297] Someone's just like, hey, I have you go.

[298] The craziest hometown, essentially.

[299] That's it.

[300] They pieced out of the end of that letter.

[301] Can you imagine like in your family lineage that happening?

[302] It's so horrible.

[303] Also, so do I get this right that somebody watched their great, great grandmother walk into that boarding house and she just never returned?

[304] Yeah.

[305] So I think the next piece of information I would want to hear in that.

[306] story is how quickly did that witness go to the cops?

[307] I don't think they must not have been like, they must just have seen them go in and went about their business, you know?

[308] They were like, oh, she's taking care of it.

[309] Yeah.

[310] There's nothing to check back in with in any way.

[311] I'm not, yeah, I'm not going to knock on that door.

[312] Guess Sarah just went home.

[313] No thanks for any kind of results on what happened there with the flood.

[314] No flood in my neighborhood.

[315] No further questions.

[316] I'm out all good actually let's talk about something else right now have you been watching the new season the 1933 version of the great depression have you watched the new season oh my god it's so depressing okay you're ready for this yeah my finals yeah hello all i'm finally doing it after years of listening to other people's stories i'm finally sharing my own do it my i really put a lot of drama into that my grandparents Helena who went by Tudy and Dwayne who went by Dick amazing this is why we ask you to always give your fucking grandparents names please legendary Dick and Tootie did any did anyone's grandparents use their real names they were married for 60 plus years had five kids and a slew of grandkids they were everything grandparents should be sweet loving and cute as buttons they were always together my grandma never got a driver's license so always together and my grandpa loved to do puzzles in his retirement big puzzles i'm talking thousand plus piece holy shit um he'd work on them for days on end with no help from grandma until it was time for the very last piece he always gave her the last piece of every puzzle so she could finish it because well he adored oh my god yeah let's just take a quick break oh for crying times this is how love is supposed to work women of 2020 Vince Vince I love you so much You know what I did last night Speaking of relationships And trying to make them last 60 years I was changing my pillowcase And so I got another one for him And then just threw it on his pillow for him to do later And then I was like you know what If this were Vince he would put the pillowcase on my pillow for me So maybe take that extra fucking step And put the pillowcase on Vince's pillow And I'm just tossing it on his fucking side of the bed.

[317] Hell yeah.

[318] There you go.

[319] There it is.

[320] Feels good, right?

[321] It did feel good to do it.

[322] It's it.

[323] It was your idea and you did it.

[324] And of course, I told him so I could get credit for it.

[325] Well, yeah.

[326] Yeah.

[327] Yeah.

[328] Hell yeah.

[329] I love it.

[330] No, no. That's great.

[331] That's so sweet.

[332] Yeah.

[333] Talk about let's do some readjusted goals.

[334] How about not just, not just finding someone that texts you back?

[335] How about someone that gives you the last piece of their puzzle that they worked on?

[336] Or puts your pillowcase on, right?

[337] Or like Georgia.

[338] Or more so.

[339] puts the your pillow case on.

[340] Okay, cut to my grandpa passed away, leaving my grandma and all of us devastated.

[341] This person had been her true partner in every sense for practically her entire life.

[342] Grandma gave away all the puzzles grandpa had in the house as she didn't like doing them.

[343] And then one day months after grandpa's passing, my grandma was at her dresser, looked down, and saw one puzzle piece.

[344] She swore every puzzle in the house had been given away and the room had been cleaned and vacuumed many times during the passing months but there it was.

[345] She knew it was my grandpa reminding her of how much he loved her.

[346] Uh -huh.

[347] Yeah.

[348] In the years since grandma actually had this occur one more time.

[349] So when she passed away and we were burying her ashes under a tree next to my grandpa the two puzzle pieces went in with her and she was back with the missing piece to her puzzle.

[350] Thanks so much for taking the time to read my story.

[351] As many have said before, thank you for bringing true crime obsession, anxiety, disorders and self -acceptance to your millions of faithful listeners.

[352] A special shout out to Karen for sharing British, Nordic, Canadian crime procedural suggestions.

[353] Seriously, I barely watch anything made in this country anymore.

[354] Stay sexy and find a cute way to haunt your loved ones when you go.

[355] Dara.

[356] That was gorgeous.

[357] How am I supposed to follow that one?

[358] That was gorgeous.

[359] I guess all I have to say is in your face with someone else's puzzle story.

[360] This is a competition after all.

[361] Oh, we didn't.

[362] This is a true cram comedy competition show.

[363] Comedy competition show.

[364] It's a lot like America's got talent.

[365] Mm -hmm.

[366] But without the talent.

[367] No talent.

[368] Not a lot of America represented in the way that I think they would like to be.

[369] That was beautiful.

[370] That was lovely.

[371] Yay.

[372] Tudy and Dick forever.

[373] Tudy and Dick.

[374] Tudy and Dick.

[375] Let's go over to Tudia Dix for drinks before we go over to the Fourth of July parade.

[376] What about cocktails at Tudy and Dicks before the cinema?

[377] Tudy and Dick are making.

[378] popcorn and then we're going to go over to the I can hide candy in my purse in my enormous grandma purse go tell dick to get grandma's purse okay oh that was beautiful this wasn't isn't as beautiful but I really like it I'm not going to reach the title hello good friends of the podcast a few years ago my wife and I bought our very first home in Los Angeles the house is old originally built in the 1920s as a hunting cabin which is crazy that fucking Los Angeles was that rule that's hunting with several renovations and additions in its near 100 -year history.

[379] Fucking awesome.

[380] Out of curiosity, because the house was so old and because we needed to do some renovations ourselves, we searched for old building and renovation permits on the LAD Department of Building and Safety website.

[381] We discovered that in the 1930s, a woman named Winifred, and then it says a great name, Winifred, filed several building permits for the property, including one for a, quote, new private goat house.

[382] We both thought, what an independent lady to own a home and maybe a goat farm too in 1930s.

[383] She must have been really cool and ahead of her time.

[384] Oh, how wrong we were.

[385] Fast forward to a few weeks ago, we were FaceTiming with a friend who works for the LA public library and she mentioned how she's been searching old digitized L .A. articles about badass women through the library database.

[386] We asked her to search Winifred's name, thinking if we were lucky enough, there may be an article mentioning her prized goat rearing or something to that nature.

[387] Nope.

[388] Instead, we found six articles detailing how Winifred strangled her elderly mother in our house.

[389] Oh.

[390] Most likely our bedroom.

[391] No. Because she saw, quote, an evil spirit gleaming in her mother's eyes.

[392] Uh -oh, Winifred.

[393] Uh -huh.

[394] Fortunately, it doesn't seem our house is haunted, but still pretty shocking to discover a grisly murder took place here over 70 years ago.

[395] also if an evil gleam in her mother's eye was enough to drive Winifred to murder I'm glad she didn't live long enough to see a lesbian couple by her house from a drug dealer that's why I say this one for last I'm like I could do it I'm glad you didn't I'm glad you didn't live long enough to see lesbian couple by her house from a drug dealer anyways did you hear that part the drug dealer real estate agent I love it people people hustle in in L .A. man it's probably one of those four For sale by owner and the guy's just like, can I, I just need to get rid of this place.

[396] You can buy this house.

[397] It's haunted.

[398] I also got those really good cat mushrooms and people like, we're doing a little bit of ecstasy.

[399] It's a throwback.

[400] Anyway, stay sexy and maybe check if your house is the site of a murder before you buy M &L.

[401] M &L.

[402] Congratulations on your haunted house.

[403] Sounds fucking rad.

[404] Can you invite us over for pre -show cocktails when this COVID is over?

[405] I mean, I feel like you may be.

[406] Maybe make friends with a Catholic priest, if only for the blessing, ceremony, ritual.

[407] You know, it's up to you.

[408] But I think that's if they already haven't gotten bad vibes, I think that they're in the clear.

[409] I mean, a hundred -year -old house.

[410] You don't know what else has been going on.

[411] I mean, what did the drug dealer do there?

[412] You know, is he or she, I don't want to be sexist haunting it.

[413] We don't know.

[414] Yes, the drug dealer for getting it to, for making his investments and interest.

[415] Yeah.

[416] what's that called, divesting.

[417] You know, he's not completely, yeah.

[418] Just depending like a crutch on cocaine.

[419] Right.

[420] He's also selling home.

[421] Diversifying.

[422] Is that what you said?

[423] Diversifying.

[424] Diversifying his portfolio.

[425] That's right.

[426] Yeah.

[427] Send us your stories of haunted houses and fucking drug, drug dealers and fucking.

[428] Tell us a story about a drug dealer getting out of the business.

[429] Yeah.

[430] That's fun for COVID.

[431] Yeah.

[432] Something uplifting.

[433] Were you a drug dealer?

[434] How did you get out of it?

[435] like tell us how great your life is now that and you can you can um you can inspire other drug dealers to that's right your life or you can be like I made a parallel move into AMway and it's pretty much the same thing or did drug dealing save your life we don't know please take keep it together not especially not during COVID you don't want everything else that's going on you don't want to be addicted to some terrible drug no not at all it's hard enough it is don't go looking for problems you already have plenty as my sister likes to say to me time and again I love it.

[436] Stay sexy.

[437] And don't get murdered.

[438] Goodbye.

[439] Goodbye.

[440] Elvis, you want a cookie?