The Hitchhikers

[0] Today's podcast features three separate unique stories that share a theme.

[1] They are stories about hitchhiking, and fair warning, the final story is very graphic, so listener discretion is advised.

[2] The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from my YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode.

[3] The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description.

[4] The first story you'll hear is called The Hitchhiker, and it's perhaps the most unlikely and unfortunate sequence of events I've ever heard of.

[5] The second story you'll hear is called That Didn't Age Well, and it's about something a passenger on a plane saw out their window as they flew over a Colorado mountain.

[6] The third and final story you'll hear is called Five Hacks, and it is a brutal, cautionary tale for anyone thinking about trying to hitchhike.

[7] But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious, delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.

[8] So, if that's of interest to you, please invite the five -star review button to be a part of your very fun, very casual neighborhood squirt gunfight, but then squirt the five -star review button with sulfuric acid, not water.

[9] Also, please subscribe to the Mr. Ballin podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts, so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads.

[10] Okay, let's get into our first story called The Hitchhiker.

[11] I'm Dan Tversky.

[12] In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York.

[13] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.

[14] What's the answer?

[15] And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

[16] Hysterical.

[17] A new podcast from Wondry and Pineapple Street Studios.

[18] Binge all episodes of Hesterical early and ad -free on Wondry Plus.

[19] Just after midnight on June 22nd, 1991, Charles Holden was on his way home from work when he decided to stop at a fast food restaurant near his house in his house.

[20] Harrington, Delaware.

[21] After grabbing a quick bite to eat, Charles left the store and got back in his truck.

[22] He turned it on and he was about to drive out of the lot when he stopped because there was this man running towards him waving trying to flag him down.

[23] So Charles put his truck back in park and he rolled his window down to see what this guy wanted.

[24] And when this stranger got close enough, he told Charles that his sister was having a baby and he needed a ride to the hospital which was about 20 minutes away.

[25] Charles couldn't tell if this guy was lying, it was super late, and he didn't know this guy, and he said a bad feeling about him.

[26] And so he told him, no, I'm sorry, it's too late, I got to get home, it's too far out of the way.

[27] The stranger immediately looked dejected and turned around and started walking away, and as Charles is watching him go, he felt bad and said, you know what, hey, come back here, I'll give you a ride part of the way there.

[28] And so the stranger smiled, hopped in his passenger seat, and they took off.

[29] Charles drove him approximately three miles in the direction he had asked to go before pulling over on the side of the road and telling him this is as far as I'm going to take you.

[30] Charles lived only about a block away, and he didn't want to drive too far away from home so late at night.

[31] But the stranger, upon hearing, he was being let out so soon, suddenly became angry and began fumbling in his pocket like he was going to get at night for some sort of weapon, and he starts screaming at Charles, hand over your keys, hand over your wallet, or I'm going to kill you.

[32] Charles, meanwhile, was on edge, just being in the car with this guy because he had a bad feeling about him, and so he immediately jumped into action.

[33] He turned off his truck, he ripped the keys out of the ignition, and he leapt out of his truck and started running.

[34] Charles saw way off in the distance was a convenience store and he figured he could run to there and get some help.

[35] But as he's running, he turns around and sees the stranger has also leapt out of the car and was now sprinting up to him with a screwdriver in his hand.

[36] And this stranger was running really fast.

[37] He was gaining on Charles.

[38] And soon Charles realized he wasn't going to make it to the convenience store before this guy caught up to him.

[39] And so at some point Charles just stops, he turns around and he puts his hands up and he says, okay, okay, okay, I'll give you a ride wherever you want to go, and then you can have my keys, my wallet, you can have anything you want.

[40] And so the stranger runs right up to Charles and he stops and he smiles because he's very pleased with this result.

[41] And he pokes him with the screwdriver and kind of gestures for him to go back to the truck.

[42] So Charles walks back to the truck with the stranger right behind him with the screwdriver periodically poking him in the back.

[43] They finally get to the vehicle and the stranger tells Charles to get in the car and then wait.

[44] But as soon as Charles sat down, he fired up his truck and sped off before the stranger could hop in the passenger side door.

[45] And so Charles is flying away from this guy.

[46] He looks in his rear -view mirror, and he can see the guy is chasing after him with a screwdriver held over his head, but he sees the stranger at some point just stops, turns around, and walks away.

[47] Charles was totally relieved that he had escaped this horrible encounter, and he was thinking about calling the police, but ultimately decided he wouldn't, because it was his decision to allow some stranger to get in his car in the middle of the night.

[48] And so Charles kind of blamed himself for the whole ordeal.

[49] What Charles was concerned about, though, was where he had ditched the stranger, was not far from his house and he was worried if he just turned around and drove right back to his house that this guy could recognize the truck and then follow him to his house and then who knows what could happen.

[50] And so Charles decides he's just going to stay outside of town and drive around for a while to make sure this stranger is long gone by the time he comes back.

[51] So after about an hour of doing just that, driving around outside of town, Charles goes back into Harrington, Delaware, and he gets on his street and he's shocked when he sees the stranger who had just tried to kill him is walking down, down the road right in front of him.

[52] But luckily, the stranger did not hear or see Charles pull onto his street.

[53] And so Charles immediately throws it in reverse and he gets out of there and he drives off.

[54] At this point, Charles decides he needs to tell police because he doesn't know if this stranger actually knows him and that maybe he's targeting him and he's waiting for him at his property.

[55] And so he calls 911 and he tells the dispatcher about what had happened earlier and how this guy is now lurking around his property.

[56] And the dispatcher tells him they'll send an officer out to him.

[57] And so a few minutes later, an officer showed up at the payphone where Charles was, and they told Charles they would escort him back to his property.

[58] And if the stranger was still out in the area, they would arrest him.

[59] And so the two of them made their way back to Charles's property.

[60] They get there.

[61] The stranger's long gone.

[62] And then Charles goes into his house.

[63] There's no sign of a break -in.

[64] There's no sign that anyone was near his property.

[65] And so Charles thanks the officer.

[66] He feels totally relieved.

[67] But before the officer leaves, he asks him if he wouldn't mind doing a quick sweep of his mother's property.

[68] She lived right behind Charles on the other side of some bushes.

[69] He told the officer her name was Dorothy.

[70] She was 70 years old and she lived alone and he just wanted to make sure nothing happened to her.

[71] So the officer said, no problem.

[72] I'll go check in on her.

[73] So the officer leaves Charles and goes across his backyard through those bushes into Dorothy's backyard and right away he can see the back window on the back door has been smashed and the door itself is slightly ajar.

[74] And so the officer draws their pistol and they go up and they enter the house and they look inside.

[75] They're yelling for Dorothy.

[76] But there's no answer.

[77] totally dark in the house.

[78] It's totally silent.

[79] And so after searching the first floor and finding nothing, they make their way up the flight of stairs and they find blood at the top of the landing.

[80] And they follow this trail of blood and it brings them into one of the bedrooms where a woman is sprawled out on a bed.

[81] It was Dorothy.

[82] She had been stabbed to death.

[83] It would turn out after Charles had ditched the stranger and sped off without him, the stranger whose name was Gilbert Cannon began looking for a place to sleep and the house he ultimately selected just happened to be charles's mother's house after gilbert broke in through her back door he saw dorothy coming down the steps to confront him and because he was worried she'd be able to identify him he attacked her with a screwdriver gilbert would later tell police that the attack on charles was completely random he was just at this fast food restaurant he saw charles get into his truck and he thought to himself if i can get in that guy's truck i bet i can rob him and then after this failed robbery when gilbert is out looking for a place to sleep and he breaks into this house, and this woman comes down the stairs that he attacks and kills, he has no idea that this woman, Dorothy, is Charles's mother.

[84] The entire night was one big, horrible coincidence.

[85] Gilbert would plead guilty to the murder and would be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

[86] Our next story is called That Didn't Age Well.

[87] On the evening of January 6, 1982, a man named Harold Bray, who was a sheriff in Jefferson County, Colorado, which is an area just west of Denver, arrived at the Denver Airport.

[88] Harold was running late because his commute into the airport had been treacherous because Denver and the surrounding areas were all getting pounded by a snowstorm.

[89] After running into the terminal and getting checked in and getting through security, he made it to his gate right as they were boarding the plane.

[90] Feeling very relieved, Harold joined the queue of other people that were getting on the ramp to go down into the plane, and then just a couple of minutes later, He stepped on board and he found his seat, which was located at the front right side of the plane.

[91] He sat down in his seat, he buckled in, and then he grabbed an in -flight magazine from the back pocket of the chair in front of him, and he waited for takeoff.

[92] 15 minutes later, as the plane was rumbling down the runway at full speed, Harold looked out the window.

[93] So as the plane began to lift off the ground, he watched as the city lights of Denver slowly faded away as they got higher and higher up.

[94] But just before their plane entered into the thick cloud that was hovering over that stretch of Colorado, Harold noticed something very odd out of his window.

[95] Located just west of Jefferson County, which is where Harold worked, was a 22 -mile stretch of road that cut through the Rocky Mountains.

[96] It was called the Gwinella Pass, and it took motorists up and over this 11 ,000 -foot mountain pass.

[97] Now, this was a beautiful scenic drive that Harold was very familiar with, but, this road was not maintained in the wintertime, so if there was snow on the ground, you simply could not get through this pass.

[98] It was impossible.

[99] Yet, as Harold looked out of his plain window down to Jefferson County below and he kind of scanned his way west up into the Rockies, he saw there were clearly a car's headlights on the Guinella Pass.

[100] And so Harold's thinking to himself, why in the world would anyone be on the Guinella Pass in the middle of this huge snowstorm?

[101] It didn't make any sense.

[102] But as Harold watched this vehicle, he saw what was going on.

[103] Whoever was in this vehicle was holding a flashlight out of their window and they were shining the light straight up into the sky, flashing it on and off, signaling distress.

[104] This motorist was trapped.

[105] Harold knew the likelihood of another plane happening to fly over this area and looking down and seeing those lights and recognizing them for what they were, an emergency, were slim to none.

[106] So Harold knew if he didn't act quickly, this motorist was doomed.

[107] And so Harold quickly got up from his seat.

[108] He climbed over the person next to him.

[109] He got into the aisle and he waved down the attendant.

[110] And then after the attendant ran over, Harold explained who he was and why his experience as a sheriff told him that this was an emergency.

[111] And so the attendant took him very seriously.

[112] They turned around.

[113] They went into the cockpit and they told the pilots.

[114] And the pilots used their radios to call down to authorities on the ground.

[115] and then just a couple of minutes later, the fire department was dispatched to Gwinella Pass.

[116] 15 minutes later, the fire chief, a man named Dave Montoya, who was driving in a four -wheel drive SUV, arrived at the start of this 22 -mile stretch of Mountain Pass, and as they're driving through the whipping snow, he sees up ahead the headlights of the stranded vehicle.

[117] And so he drives right up alongside this vehicle, which was a small pickup truck that had clearly slid off the road and gotten stuck in a big snow bank.

[118] And so Dave, he parks his SUV, he hops out, and he rushes over to the driver's side window of this vehicle.

[119] And inside was a terrified -looking 30 -year -old man named Alan Phillips, who was a mechanic who lived in the Denver area.

[120] Now, at the time, it was the middle of the night, it's negative 22 degrees Fahrenheit outside, the winds are whipping, the snow is coming down, and Alan only had on a light jacket and some jeans and a small blanket wrapped around him.

[121] So had Harold not spotted his flashlight SOS signal from the plane, it's almost guaranteed that Alan would have died that night from hypothermia.

[122] And so when Alan turned and saw Dave standing there, his rescuer, Alan began crying tears of joy and thanking God that he was going to survive.

[123] When Dave asked Alan, what happened?

[124] Alan, who was slightly intoxicated, told Dave that he had gone out drinking at a bar, and then when it was time to come home, he had stupidly decided to drive through the Guinella Pass back to his home, forgetting that this particular stretch of road was not maintained during the winter.

[125] When Dave asked Alan how he got this really deep bruise on his cheek, you know, he assumed he got it from crashing off the side of the road, Alan smiled a kind of embarrassed smile and said, no, actually, after I got stuck, I needed to urinate.

[126] And so I got out of the vehicle and I walked a few paces away from my truck and I went to the bathroom.

[127] And then when I turned to walk back, The snow was so blinding, I couldn't actually see my truck, and I ran to go find it again, because I didn't want to be trapped out in the snow, and I ran into the truck face first, and so my cheek hit the door of the truck.

[128] And so Dave, he just smiled and said, Alan, you are one lucky man. Over the next few days, local newspapers in Colorado and some national newspapers ran headlines about the miracle at Guinella Pass.

[129] However, as it would turn out, that headline would not age well.

[130] 38 years later, in 2020, it was discovered that Alan had lied to Dave about why he was in Guinella Pass.

[131] The truth was, earlier in the evening that Alan would eventually get stuck, he had murdered two hitchhikers near Breckenridge, Colorado, roughly 50 miles from the Guinella Pass.

[132] Both of these murders had gone cold, but in late 2020, DNA evidence connected Allen to both cases.

[133] Several hours before Alan got rescued, he picked up 22 -year -old Annette Schnee, who was hitchhiking, and after she got into his truck, it's believed he held her at gunpoint and then put zip -tie handcuffs on her wrists, and then we don't really know what happened next.

[134] But at some point that night, Annette was taken out of the vehicle and led into the woods, and she was shot in the back, and she was left face down in a stream.

[135] A couple of hours after he killed Annette, Alan picked up another hitchhiker, 29 -year -old Barbara Oberholz her, and when she got into his truck, it's believed he did the same thing.

[136] He held her at gunpoint and put her in zip tie handcuffs.

[137] However, Barbara was able to break out of her restraints.

[138] It's believed she struck Alan in the cheek, which is why he got that deep bruise on his cheek, and then she leapt out of his car and started running.

[139] But Alan got out, chased her down, and shot her in the chest, killing her, and then he dumped her body off the side of this cliff down into the snowbank below.

[140] So the only reason Alan got stuck in Guinella Pass is because he was attempting to flee the area where he committed these murders and he likely just didn't understand how dangerous this pass was and so shortly after turning on to it, his truck slid off the road and he got stuck.

[141] In February of 2021, Alan, who was 70 years old at the time and still living in the Denver area, was finally arrested for these two murders, and he is currently awaiting trial.

[142] Assuming he did it that Alan killed these two women, we don't know what his motivations were.

[143] It's not clear he hasn't said, and we also don't know if there are potentially other victims.

[144] Hey, all you fans of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious.

[145] It's me, Mr. Ballin, and today I have some big news.

[146] It's something I'm holding in my hands right now, and so obviously you can't see it, but this is something you're really going to want to see.

[147] It's the first ever official Mr. Ballin publication.

[148] It's a graphic novel, and it's called Mr. Ballin Presents, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious, The Graphic Stories.

[149] It's an anthology of both classic and brand new, terrifying stories that we've never covered on any of my other platforms, because we created them specifically for this first book.

[150] Each of these stories in the book are feature -length, Mr. Ballin's stories that really needed to be told visually.

[151] And the artwork in this book is, I mean, I'm looking at it, and it's just absolutely.

[152] stunning.

[153] So the book is not actually coming out until my birthday this year, October 1st, but you can pre -order it right now at book .bollen studios .com.

[154] Again, that's book .bollinstudios .com.

[155] She struck him with her motor vehicle.

[156] She had been under the influence and she left him there.

[157] In January 2022, local woman Karen Reid was implicated in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O 'Keefe.

[158] It was alleged that after an innocent night out for drinks with friends.

[159] Karen and John got into a lover's quarrel en route to the next location.

[160] What happens next?

[161] Depends on who you ask.

[162] Was it a crime of passion?

[163] If you believe the prosecution, it's because the evidence was so compelling.

[164] This was clearly an intentional act.

[165] And his cause of death was blunt force trauma with hypothermia.

[166] Or a corrupt police cover -up.

[167] If you believe the defense theory, however, this was all a cover -up to prevent one of their own from going down.

[168] Everyone had an opinion.

[169] And after the 10 -week trial, the jury could not come to a unanimous decision.

[170] To end in a mistrial, it's just a confirmation of just how complicated this case is.

[171] Law and crime presents the most in -depth analysis to date of the sensational case in Karen.

[172] You can listen to Karen exclusively with Wondery Plus.

[173] Join Wondery Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcast, or Spotify.

[174] The next and final story of today's episode is called Five Hacks.

[175] In the 1960s and 1970s, hitchhiking became very popular amongst young people in America.

[176] Hitchhiking is a form of transportation where you basically get rides from strangers.

[177] And so the way it works is a hitchhiker will stand on the side of a busy road and they'll extend their arm out and they'll kind of hold their thumb up, which signals to passing motorists that they want to hitchhike.

[178] That's the kind of universal sign for hitchhiking, and then a willing motorist, when they see a hitchhiker, they'll pull up alongside and offer a ride.

[179] Now, today, it seems unfathomably dangerous to just hop into a stranger's car, or conversely, for a motorist to pick up a random stranger on the side of the road, but back then, this was considered totally normal and socially acceptable.

[180] And so with that in mind, on September 29, 1978, a 15 -year -old girl named Mary Vincent was standing on the side of a highway just outside of Modesto, California, which is not far from San Francisco, California.

[181] Mary was a rebellious teenager who had recently run away from her home in Las Vegas, Nevada.

[182] Her parents were going through a very nasty divorce, and she just couldn't stand to be in the house anymore, and so that's why she had run away.

[183] And so she had hitchhiked all the way up to Los Angeles, California, where her grandfather lived.

[184] But after only being there for a couple of days, she became unbelievably homesick and wanted to go back and be around her parents and her family.

[185] family.

[186] And so one day when her grandfather was out, she slipped out of his house and she began hitchhiking back to Las Vegas, Nevada.

[187] And so she had hitchhiked from Los Angeles to Modesto, California.

[188] That's where the first person was willing to drive her to.

[189] And so she was on that strip of highway in Modesto looking for another ride that could take her farther south.

[190] She was on this highway with two other young hitchhikers.

[191] They all had these signs that said going south.

[192] So they weren't just holding their thumbs out.

[193] They were holding these signs.

[194] And so the three of them are huddled in a group.

[195] they're holding their signs up.

[196] And at some point, mid -afternoon, this light blue passenger van that only had one passenger.

[197] It was the driver.

[198] He was a 50 -something -year -old man. He looked pretty harmless.

[199] He pulled over when he saw their signs, and he parked on the side of the road maybe 15 feet ahead of where they were.

[200] And so Mary's companions stayed where they were, and Mary ran up to this light blue van, and she looked through the passenger -side window, which had been rolled down, and she asked this guy, hey, can you give all three of us a ride?

[201] We're going south.

[202] And this man, he would look at her and say, I can only give you a ride.

[203] I can't give the other two a ride.

[204] I can only give you a ride.

[205] And so Mary's confused because she's looking at this guy and she's seeing all this space in his van and she's thinking to herself, you know, why am I only allowed to go when they're going the same place I'm going and there's plenty of room in this van?

[206] But when she kind of gently prodded this man and said, well, you know, are you sure?

[207] You don't mind taking them too?

[208] He just said, look, I will take you i will not take them and so mary said okay well hold on let me go back and get my bag and so he stays parked she leaves the van and she runs back to the other two people she was with and you know she explains the situation and they tell her you know mary this is not good there's clearly something off with this guy but mary even though she too shared this kind of reservation about this guy she was so desperate to get home she was so homesick that she couldn't face the idea of having to wait around for another ride, which might not come until the next day or the day after, because not every motorist is willing to pick up hitchhikers, and she just did not want to wait any longer.

[209] And so she told her companions that, guys, I'm going to take the ride.

[210] And so she says goodbye to her two friends.

[211] She grabs her bag, and she runs back up to the van, and she hops in the passenger seat.

[212] As soon as she sat down and closed the door, this man pulled back out onto the road and started driving, and then he turned and looked at Mary and introduced himself.

[213] His name was Lawrence Singleton, and he was 50 years old.

[214] And then Mary, you know, she introduced herself, and then they have some small talk.

[215] And very quickly, Mary feels at ease around Lawrence.

[216] He kind of reminded her of her grandfather.

[217] He was very nice, very polite.

[218] And so when she started to feel tired pretty early on in their trip, she said, hey, Lawrence, do you mind if I doze off while you drive?

[219] And Lawrence would say, no problem.

[220] Go ahead.

[221] Go to sleep.

[222] And so Mary turned away from Lawrence and kind of curled up on the seat and pretty quickly she was asleep.

[223] A little while later, when she woke up, she looked out the window and immediately could tell they were going the wrong way.

[224] So she turns to Lawrence and says, you know, we're going the wrong way.

[225] And Lawrence would say, oh, you know what?

[226] I made a mistake.

[227] I'll get us turned around.

[228] You know, sorry about that.

[229] I had no idea.

[230] But Mary's thinking to herself, we're really far in the wrong direction.

[231] There's no way he accidentally did this.

[232] But she kind of bit her tongue because Lawrence would actually turn around and start going in the right direction.

[233] And so they're traveling in the proper direction for a little while and Mary's totally on edge but she's careful not to give that off to Lawrence because she doesn't really know this guy and even though he did make her feel comfortable she just doesn't really know what his intentions are and so she's just kind of looking around pretty apprehensively and then they pull into this stretch of highway that kind of ran through this fairly forested area where very few cars were on the stretch of road and Lawrence suddenly tells Mary that he wants to pull over because he has to go to the bathroom he wants to relieve himself and so Mary kind of apprehensively says, yeah, okay, that's fine.

[234] And so as Lawrence is beginning to pull off of the highway, Mary happens to look down at her feet, and she notices one of her shoes is untied.

[235] And instinctually, Mary just thought to herself, I better make sure that shoe gets tied, because I might need to run away from the sky.

[236] But she didn't want to reach down and start tying her shoe.

[237] It was kind of awkward because the space was small, and she was worried it would be kind of suspicious if she did it.

[238] And so she thought, okay, as soon as we pull off, I'll get out of the car and I'll tie my shoe.

[239] And so Lawrence, he pulls over, but he doesn't just pull over onto the shoulder of this road.

[240] Instead, he pulls into this access road that kind of trails into the forest.

[241] And so as soon as he turned onto this road, the alarm bells are going off in Mary's head.

[242] She knows something is wrong, but she doesn't really know what to say to Lawrence because he's not talking to her and she doesn't really want to look at him.

[243] And so she's just kind of going to go in her head what she's going to do.

[244] Is she going to run?

[245] Is she going to confront him?

[246] She doesn't know.

[247] And then eventually, after about a minute or so, when they are far enough away from the main road that no one on that road could see them, they're pretty far into this forest, Lawrence stops the car and he hops out to go relieve himself.

[248] And immediately, Mary, she hops out of the car too, and she bends down to tie her shoe.

[249] Before she could finish tying her shoe, suddenly something smacked her hard in the back of the head and it knocked her unconscious.

[250] It was Lawrence.

[251] He had hid a hammer next to his seat, and when he had gotten out, he did not go relieve himself.

[252] Instead, he walked around the vehicle and smashed her in the head.

[253] When Mary came to, she realized she was laying down in the back of the van, and as she was looking out the windows, she could see that they were still parked out in the middle of the forest.

[254] And then when she tried to move, she realized her hands, her feet, everything had been tied down to the van.

[255] She couldn't move.

[256] And so as she's wondering what's going on, Lawrence comes around, he opens the back doors to this van, he hops inside, and he begins assaulting her.

[257] Mary has no idea what to do.

[258] She's a 15 -year -old kid, and this guy is on top of her, he's not stopping.

[259] And so she just began quietly begging him to please stop, set me free.

[260] I won't tell anyone.

[261] She just kept repeating that over and over and over again.

[262] And Lawrence never spoke back.

[263] He just continued the assault for hours and hours.

[264] Finally, when Lawrence got tired, he got off of Mary and he climbed out of the back of the truck, and he went around and he climbed into one of the front seats, and he fell asleep.

[265] And so Mary probably tried to free herself from her.

[266] restraints.

[267] But there was nothing she could do.

[268] The restraints were tied too tightly.

[269] And so for hours, she must have just laid there wondering what was going to happen to her.

[270] And then at some point in the middle of the night, Lawrence wakes up again.

[271] And without saying a word to Mary, he just climbs out of the van and gets into the driver's seat and then drives the van out of the forest.

[272] He drives on the main road for a little while until he turns down another access road that takes them away from the main road, so away from any prying eyes.

[273] And he comes to a stop somewhere out in this forest in the middle of this big canyon.

[274] Lawrence parks the van.

[275] He climbs out and walks around to the back.

[276] He opens up the back doors where Mary is laying there, whimpering and crying and begging to be set free.

[277] He climbs inside and her torture continues for hours and hours until the sun finally came up.

[278] At which point, Lawrence stopped.

[279] He climbed out of the back of the van and he's standing out there and he turns around so he's facing Mary and he reaches in and he undoes her restraints.

[280] So he frees her, he pulls her out of the van and stands her up on the ground.

[281] And so she's crying, she's beaten, she's bloodied, she doesn't know what's going on.

[282] And she just gently says to him, please set me free.

[283] And he says, oh, you want to be set free?

[284] I'll set you free.

[285] And so he walks around this totally destroyed 15 -year -old girl, and he reaches into the back of his van where there's this toolbox, and he pulls out a hatchet.

[286] And so he walks back and he's standing in front of Mary, and Mary would have had a fraction of a second to see what was in his hand before, in one fluid motion, he reaches and grabs her left arm with his left hand.

[287] He grabs her on the wrist, then he raises his hatchet up, and he brings it down on her left forearm, severing her arm off right below the elbow.

[288] And so Mary falls backwards to the ground, and she looks down at where her left arm just was.

[289] She's in shock, and before she can do anything, Lawrence just walks over, and with his left hand again, he reaches over and grabs her right wrist.

[290] And now Mary knows what he's about to do.

[291] He's still holding this hatchet.

[292] And so she's screaming and she's kicking him as hard as she can to try to get him off of her, but his grip is too strong.

[293] And then he begins to chop at her right forearm over and over again.

[294] It would take four hard blows to finally sever her right arm off of her body.

[295] And so Mary falls to the ground in a heap.

[296] She's bleeding profusely.

[297] She's screaming in agonizing pain.

[298] And all Lawrence can focus on is that one of Mary's amputated hands was clutched on to his left arm.

[299] when he cut off her left hand it had gripped onto his arm and now it was stuck to him and so very nonchalantly he began trying to flick this hand off of his arm and then finally when it did come off he turned and looked at Mary and realized she had gone silent and she was limp and she was laying in a huge pool of blood and so Lawrence put the bloody hatchet back inside of his van and then he just walked over to Mary and grabbed her and began dragging her about a hundred feet down the road from the van was a culvert.

[300] A culvert is a big tunnel that goes underneath roads.

[301] It allows water and runoff to pass by the road without damaging it.

[302] And so this particular culvert underneath this access road was built about 30 feet below the surface of the road.

[303] And so if you were standing on the road over the area where this culvert was, if you walked to the edge of the road on either side, there would be a 30 -foot drop -off down to the opening of this culvert on either side.

[304] And so So Lawrence dragged Mary all the way over to this section of the road over the culvert and then chucked her lifeless body off the side, smashing it down onto the rocks below.

[305] And then Lawrence walked around very carefully all the way down to her body and stuffed her inside of the actual culvert.

[306] And then as he was walking away, he said to her, now you're free.

[307] After Lawrence left, Mary should have been dead.

[308] Really, she should have died at several points along this attack.

[309] But miraculously, Mary did not die.

[310] And in fact, she would later say she vividly remembered the entire attack.

[311] She was fully lucid, fully conscious, fully aware for the entire thing, save for the moment when she was knocked unconscious by the hammer.

[312] And so she vividly remembered having her arms amputated, and she specifically remembered one particular point in the beginning before her left arm, the first arm, had been amputated.

[313] He grabbed her left wrist, and she, in turn, instinctively, grabbed with her left hand onto his left arm.

[314] So she's clutching onto him.

[315] And so when he came down and cut her arm off, she began falling backwards.

[316] But she remembered thinking to herself, why am I falling backwards?

[317] I just grabbed onto his arm.

[318] I had a firm grip.

[319] And then as she's falling, it's like time is standing still.

[320] She literally saw her hand still clutching his arm and saw it had been cut off of her body.

[321] And then when Lawrence cut off her right arm, despite being in agonizing pain, it's like she instinctively understood that she has to pretend to be dead.

[322] Otherwise, she will die.

[323] And so she went totally limp, her eyes were half open, and she watched as Lawrence is flicking her left hand, the one that she thought she had gripped onto when she was falling back.

[324] She watched as he shook that hand off of his arm.

[325] And then she was limp as he grabbed her and dragged her the 100 feet to the culvert.

[326] And she was limp and still and didn't make a sound when he saw.

[327] threw her 30 feet down onto jagged rocks and she broke four of her ribs she was in excruciating pain but her will to survive was telling her make no sound take this punishment and you will survive and then after he left she remembers thinking you know i don't know where he is he could be waiting up on the road for me i can't just crawl out and try to save myself because then he might actually finish me off and so she laid in this culvert in this horrible position totally contorted with her arms gone and broken ribs.

[328] And then finally, after a while, she started to feel exceptionally tired, and that was from blood loss.

[329] And she said there was a voice in her head telling her, you can't go to sleep.

[330] If you go to sleep, you're going to die.

[331] And if you die, we can't catch this monster.

[332] And he's going to do this to someone else.

[333] And so she had the surge of adrenaline where she decided, I'm going to live.

[334] I'm going to get out of here.

[335] I don't know if he's still up there, but I have to get out and I have to try to save myself.

[336] And so somehow she got out of the culvert.

[337] And then once she was on the ground, she dug the nubs of her arms into the dirt and attempted to pack the wound with dirt and mud, and then afterwards she raised her arms up over her head because she didn't want the blood and muscles to fall out.

[338] And so with her mutilated arms up over her head, she managed to crawl up this embankment up onto the road.

[339] She's got no clothes on, she's covered head to toe in blood, she's in shock, and she starts running down the highway, and a car would actually come by fairly quickly, but they were so startled in what they were seeing, they didn't stop and they drove on.

[340] And so Mary would ultimately run three miles on this highway before finally flagging down a passing motorist that happened to be a young couple, and after they got over the initial shock of what Mary actually looked like, they put her inside of their car and they sped to the hospital.

[341] Mary would stay in the hospital for a month, and during that time, she would give police all this information about her attacker, about Lawrence Singleton, and using her very detailed description of him, the police were able to come up with a very good composite sketch.

[342] And Lawrence Singleton's neighbor happened to see that sketch, and they turned him in.

[343] Lawrence was ultimately sentenced to 14 years in prison for what he did to marry.

[344] It was the maximum sentence that the judge could give.

[345] The judge wanted to do more, but legally they couldn't.

[346] And so Mary, she testified at court.

[347] And so after it all ended and he was sentenced, Mary was leaving the courthouse.

[348] And as she passed by Lawrence, it was the one time she had to be physically close to him, he turned and kind of leaned into her and said, I will finish the job if it takes me the rest of my life.

[349] Eight years later, Lawrence was paroled for good behavior.

[350] And so, of course, this terrified Mary, who by now had become a wife and she had two sons.

[351] And so she's worried that now that this guy is free, he's going to come and finish the job.

[352] But Lawrence would not go after Mary.

[353] Instead, 10 years after he got out, out on parole, he would attack another woman, a 31 -year -old mother of three named Roxanne Hayes, and unfortunately, he would kill her.

[354] At Roxanne's murder trial, Mary would actually testify against Lawrence, and her testimony is what they used to secure a death sentence for Lawrence.

[355] But before he could be executed, Lawrence died of cancer in jail in 2001.

[356] When Mary heard that Lawrence had died, she felt very cheated.

[357] However, her sons were very relieved to find out that her attacker had died, and so she took some solace in that.

[358] Outrage over Lawrence's early release considering what he did to marry, and the fact that that early release led to another person being killed, led to the creation of the Lawrence Singleton Bill, which gives judges the ability to give 25 -year -to -life sentences in cases that involve torture.

[359] Meaning, under this bill, Lawrence would never have gotten out of prison after what he did to marry.

[360] Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast.

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[367] So that's going to do it.

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[374] I'm Dan Taberski.

[375] In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York.

[376] I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad.

[377] I'm like, stop around.

[378] She's like, I can't.

[379] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.

[380] It's like doubling and tripling, and it's all these girls.

[381] With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the down low.

[382] Everybody thought I was holding something back.

[383] Well, you were holding something back intentionally.

[384] Yeah, yeah, well, yeah.

[385] No, it's hysteria.

[386] It's all in your head.

[387] It's not physical.

[388] Oh, my gosh, you're exaggerating.

[389] Is this the largest mass hysteria since the Witches of Salem?

[390] Or is it something else entirely?

[391] Something's wrong here.

[392] Something's not right.

[393] Leroy was the new date line and everyone was trying to solve the murder.

[394] A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, Hysterical.

[395] Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[396] You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad -free right now by joining Wondry Plus.