MFM Minisode 288

[0] This is exactly right.

[1] And welcome to my favorite murder.

[2] The minisode.

[3] That's being recorded for the fan cult, if you feel like looking at us right now.

[4] If you're visually oriented in terms of storytelling, you might want to sign up for the fan cult because you can see how this actually went down.

[5] Right.

[6] It's like TV.

[7] It's like podcasting with TV.

[8] It's like the worst produced TV you've ever seen in your life.

[9] Should I go first this time?

[10] Sure.

[11] Okay.

[12] This is called Finally.

[13] a story from Wales.

[14] True.

[15] Hi, I'm Mustash Man and or email reader.

[16] Please give this to K &G for me to finally represent the people of Wales.

[17] Long -time listener, but very lazy email writer, even though I have many you should probably hear, including a family curse.

[18] How my grandma was the Beatles backup dancer.

[19] Yes.

[20] How I grew up next to an abandoned World War II army camp that is now an overgrown forest.

[21] Oh, and also Ryan Reynolds just.

[22] spot our hometown football, and then it says soccer club for some reason, question mark.

[23] Anyway, here's the hometown village, question mark again.

[24] I don't know my story of the Graysford Mining Disaster.

[25] Oh.

[26] Yeah.

[27] My home village of Graysford, Grasford, it's Grasford.

[28] I'm going to say Grasford is between two large towns.

[29] And then it says Rexum and then in parentheses says, say rec sam, which I appreciate.

[30] Wales and Chester, England, and has very little to it but two pubs, a corner shop, and gorgeous countryside walks.

[31] What we do have, though, is a grim history.

[32] From 1908 to 34, our small village was a hugely successful mining hub.

[33] Do you know this story?

[34] I think so.

[35] You're nodding.

[36] It could be something else, but it may have just...

[37] It's bad.

[38] That supplied most of Wales with its coal.

[39] The mine employed 1 ,850 men working in the underground tunnels and 350 working on the surface to process what was brought up.

[40] This was very prosperous for the local Welsh town of Wrexham and a huge source of work.

[41] Until 1934, when an underground explosion and resulting fire of the coal igniting claimed the lives of 266 of the underground workers.

[42] The cause of the explosion was investigated but never released to the public as the records were sealed to protect the local mining industry businesses.

[43] Coal and slate mining were the two largest industries in Wales at the time, and any further information being released was deemed that it would harm the industry too much.

[44] Due to the records being blocked and sealed, no efforts were ever made to recover the bodies.

[45] Only 11 bodies of the 266 deaths were ever recovered from the site, and this is only because they're the men that tried to dig themselves closer to the surface to escape the flames.

[46] I know.

[47] Getting dark on this one, sorry.

[48] In the investigation to determine the cause, they found multiple safety breaches, terrible management practices, and dangerously long shifts, and the company that owned the mine was only ever fined six pounds in total for the disaster and continue to run other Welsh mines long after.

[49] Then it says, Hey, Georgia, six pounds is the equivalent of 634 pounds now, which is still a huge spit in the face of the uncompensated families.

[50] I hope this makes it through.

[51] And if it does, maybe I'll even write in about how Wrexham Lager was the beer of choice on a very famous ship that sank because it hit a bit of ice and then Leo got really cold and some water.

[52] Tootles and be thankful I wasn't cruel trying to get you to say more Welsh words love Ben.

[53] Yeah, Welsh words are the hardest.

[54] Yeah.

[55] It's rather ancient.

[56] I actually was thinking of a different mining accident that happened around the same time.

[57] Yeah.

[58] which was the one that was featured in the series The Crown.

[59] That was so awful that it was just like, oh, my God.

[60] But this one is equally awful.

[61] It's, yeah, horrifying.

[62] And also, so it's like a small village.

[63] And this is, again, constantly referencing that TV show, Godless, that was so amazing.

[64] But the same thing in that where there's a mining accident and all of the men of the town are killed.

[65] That's right.

[66] That's right.

[67] They all must live there.

[68] Yeah.

[69] Yeah.

[70] So then it's like this town that suddenly has 250.

[71] less men, and it's not London.

[72] You know what I mean?

[73] Like...

[74] Yeah.

[75] Yeah, that's like a big fucking amount there.

[76] I'm writing down Godless because I keep forgetting to...

[77] Merritt Weaver.

[78] Our girl...

[79] Oh, so good.

[80] She's the Clint Eastwood of that show.

[81] Okay.

[82] My first email, the subject line is bank worker crazy happenings.

[83] Hello, everyone.

[84] I'm answering your call for bank teller stories.

[85] I went to school for broadcasting, so that means all of my adult life.

[86] I've had two jobs, and a couple of times that means I'm...

[87] I was a bank teller.

[88] Side note, back in the day, it was the best job to have as a single woman.

[89] I'd get asked out daily and knew how successful they were, and if I wanted to say yes.

[90] Oh, my God, that's kind of brilliant.

[91] Also, to be like, what does he spend his money on?

[92] Let's see.

[93] Oh, I mean.

[94] Illegal as fuck, but brilliant.

[95] Well, but also kind of just like, you must, as a person who's the customer of the bank, you must have known you were pretty exposed.

[96] Right.

[97] Oh, the next sentence is, yes, I know shallow, but I was in my early 20s.

[98] That's all.

[99] Now on to the craziness.

[100] Fair enough.

[101] I love that.

[102] Yeah, don't apologize for it.

[103] Just say that's all.

[104] That's all.

[105] Yep, that's all.

[106] When I worked in a small town bank, a local lawyer brought in a hand -drawn check on a lined piece of paper and wanted to cash it.

[107] I very much thought that was a joke, but the bank manager cashed it because that was how the inmate was paying his lawyer.

[108] And apparently, he did have the funds to cover it.

[109] So who would have thought?

[110] So apparently it's like, if you basically say, this is my bank account, I know the number, and I want this much money to go to this person, you can draw your own check.

[111] Oh, my God.

[112] Like, this is a representation of a check.

[113] And it's, oh, my God, that doesn't seem okay.

[114] But that is fascinating.

[115] But the bank manager's looking at it, like, well, he signed it.

[116] All the information's there.

[117] It's right.

[118] Yeah.

[119] For sure.

[120] Kind of genius.

[121] Don't wait six weeks to get those Simpson checks like I did.

[122] Okay.

[123] When I moved to the metro Detroit area, I got a job at a bank, and I didn't realize the sketchy neighborhood that it was in.

[124] Once a lady came in to cash a check, not knowing that her picture was posted at every teller window for stealing checks from her former boss.

[125] The teller she went to freaked out and came to me behind the wall by the drive -thru.

[126] I let her call the cops while I went out to stall the nervous woman.

[127] I told her that the money machine wasn't working right and that her teller would be right back.

[128] What's a money machine?

[129] What is that?

[130] literally says that with a bunch of exclamation points and question marks.

[131] Playing it cool.

[132] Anyway, I then chatted with her for about five minutes before she saw the cops coming in the door, and she bolted to this side employee door.

[133] I just pointed, and the cops took her out into the parking lot.

[134] I was just thankful that she didn't hop the counter and come for me for setting her up.

[135] Seriously.

[136] Kind of getting involved there.

[137] Yeah.

[138] I missed the Friday that the branch was robbed, but the last draw for me came when I showed up to work one Monday.

[139] Our branch was under construction, so nothing stopped me from walking through the door to go behind the teller counter, only to come up short when someone was already working my usual window.

[140] I looked around and realized that I knew no one.

[141] At first, I was really confused, wondering if I was in the right place, but how could I not be?

[142] I asked one of the people working there where Christina, my manager, was, and she said she didn't know who that was and went back to working, like having a stranger in her teller window was no big deal.

[143] Finally, someone that I recognized came out of an office and told me that all of our other co -workers were fired on Friday for stealing.

[144] What?

[145] The whole bank was fired.

[146] Oh, my God.

[147] I was young and super surprised that people I knew and went to lunch with could do something like that.

[148] I had someone count out my drawer with me so that they couldn't pin any theft on me, and I left before I was wrangled into any other craziness.

[149] Stay sexy and don't take it.

[150] what isn't yours, Heather?

[151] Stealing from a bank, I mean, seems like such a place of work that you steal from, the worst place to steal from.

[152] The absolute, a place that professionally tracks money isn't going to somehow look aside askance at your $2 ,500 you're taking home.

[153] Like, what are you doing?

[154] Oh, my God.

[155] That was exciting.

[156] That was a great one, Heather.

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

[158] Absolutely.

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

[160] Exactly.

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

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[163] That's right.

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[170] Connect with customers in line and online.

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

[173] important note, that promo code is all lowercase.

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

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

[176] Goodbye.

[177] Let's see.

[178] This one's called Museum Blood Trail Story.

[179] Hi, all.

[180] In Minnesota 268, you asked for museum stories, and boy, do I have one for you.

[181] This is the story of a blood spattered trail in a historic house museum.

[182] I worked for a few years from my state's historical society at tour guide at a few different historic sites.

[183] Lots of answering the same questions, telling people not to touch, sit on, or lick the historic furniture.

[184] It says, yes, that happened.

[185] I could go on and on about all the antics of museum guests.

[186] Bottom line, don't touch stuff.

[187] I'm keeping the name of the site private, even though I no longer work there, but it's a gilded age mansion with five floors, beautiful woodwork, and lots of gorgeous furniture, art, and stained glass.

[188] I'm I'm going to go tour a fucking house.

[189] Is it the Winchester Mystery House?

[190] Ooh, the Astor, Astor House.

[191] I was wrapping up my tour one afternoon, the last tour of the day, and was ushering the guests out of the massive double front doors when I noticed my supervisor and several guides gathered at the front desk.

[192] Not so unusual.

[193] We all got along really well and often hung out at the front desk to swap stories and gossip about our guests.

[194] Yes, we talk about you behind your back if you're a weirdo.

[195] Sure.

[196] Something seemed off.

[197] So I asked my supervisor, what's going on?

[198] We've been robbed, she said.

[199] Turns out, someone on the tour ahead of mine had split from their group and searched parts of the house for valuables.

[200] They had first ransacked a collections closet, then the bedrooms, where they broke a photo frame to steal the picture.

[201] Then they hid in the servants' quarters where we don't take guests.

[202] It's used for storage or a teeny tiny nap.

[203] They went into the attic, also storage, then down around the second floor, then out the front door on the first floor.

[204] Here's the creepiest thing.

[205] We guides would go back into the third floor servants quarters mid -tour while the guests were in a different room watching a short video.

[206] I had done that on my tour.

[207] I was hanging out back there for 10 minutes while the thief was rummaging around back there, leaving bloody handprints on historic rugs and opening all the doors searching for treasure.

[208] How do we know this?

[209] the blood trail.

[210] We figured out later that they must have sliced their hand on the broken frame.

[211] As a result, there were contact smears of blood and droplets all over three different floors of the house and even a thumbprint on a door in the attic.

[212] It was so extensive that we found drops of blood on radiators in the bathroom, inside the stalls, on every door handle, all over the floors, the railings, you name it.

[213] It's as if this person sliced their hand open and then flailed it around on purpose, like one of those car dealership inflatable air dancers.

[214] So awful.

[215] Fully blossomed murderino that I am, I took pictures and made notes of the blood spatter for the police report.

[216] The house is old enough that it doesn't have a security camera system set up so the thief was never caught.

[217] To this day, I look back at the pictures of the blood spatter and wonder what would have happened if I had come across this person while in the servant's quarters.

[218] Anyway, sorry for the long email, but thanks for the time.

[219] chance to tell my favorite museum story, stay sexy and support museums, Sophie, she, her.

[220] Don't you think what would have happened is that they would have come around the corner and like an emo goth stoner, child of divorce would be standing there, rebelling and with their hand cut, not knowing what to do?

[221] Yeah, it's really amateur hour over here, for sure.

[222] It doesn't feel like a true burglary.

[223] It feels like rebellion at the mansion tour.

[224] Like, Grandma made me come That's right.

[225] I had to stay with my divorced dad this week, so he's making me come here.

[226] I'm bored out of my mind.

[227] I'm a total goth.

[228] Right.

[229] I think that you're completely right about all that.

[230] It's like you weren't really in danger.

[231] Also, blood spatters a junk science.

[232] Now that we know that, let's keep it in mind.

[233] Okay.

[234] The subject line of this email is, I was a spy and the Chippendales were my target.

[235] Hello to all y 'all.

[236] Back in the mid -90s, I was a grad student putting myself through school by being a teacher's assistant and bartending.

[237] For a while, I also had the most fabulous job ever that was passed along from grad student to grad student being a spy for ASCAP, i .e. the American Society for Composers, authors, and publishers.

[238] This is the licensing service for musical artists that ensures that they get their royalties.

[239] If the business plays music, they need to have a music license.

[240] And if the places tried to get around this, well, that's where we spies would come in.

[241] Isn't that mind -blowing?

[242] Yes.

[243] What a cool job.

[244] It's like a secret shopper from music.

[245] Exactly.

[246] Okay.

[247] I think they may say this here.

[248] Okay.

[249] We would be assigned in pairs to go to an establishment and be a fake customer, dining and drinking and keeping a surreptitious list of the songs played along with the times.

[250] The targets would usually be restaurants or bars, with restaurants being the especially exciting assignments because we were reimbursed for our meals and drinks.

[251] Yes.

[252] And remember, this was back in the mid -90s, before cell phones, there was no Shazam.

[253] You had to be well -versed in pop music and able to identify songs.

[254] My mind is blown right now.

[255] This is, like, the people who could get this job.

[256] Yeah.

[257] And, like, ugh.

[258] I also didn't know, like, a restaurant can't just play fucking, you know, Wham or Billy Joel or whatever, and then, like, have to pay for it.

[259] Yeah, I guess they have to license it somehow.

[260] They have to pay, whether they pay a service to send them, like, tapes or something.

[261] Okay, got it.

[262] I mean, maybe if it's a franchise doing it.

[263] Oh, that makes sense.

[264] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[265] Huh.

[266] I don't know.

[267] We should write.

[268] We should write and ask.

[269] Honestly, though, they had me at free food and drink.

[270] One night, my partner and I were assigned to go to the club in Lake Hoppet Kong in the middle of New Jersey.

[271] Our target was a Chippendale show.

[272] Oh, my God.

[273] We had the most fantastic time, ironically, and as well, as really and truly enjoying our time amidst a screaming throng of women watching slick men dancing.

[274] Slick men.

[275] They're slightly damp men dancing.

[276] Oh, no. I had a ridiculous amount of fun writing up my report afterwards, describing what song was playing when the dancer with the mole on his right cheek was dancing and expensing my dollar bills stuffed into speedos.

[277] You better believe its raining men was played that evening.

[278] The gig was also really far from our home base, so we made a lot of mileage money.

[279] I got to eat and drink and watch the Chippendales all on Ask Cap's dime.

[280] It was pretty much a perfect evening.

[281] I can't end without telling you how incredibly valuable your support and normalization of mental health struggles has been for me and so many others.

[282] XOXO