MFM Minisode 220

[0] This is exactly right.

[1] Guys, today is the season three premiere of Tenfold More Wicked, and we're sharing the new season trailer at the end of this episode.

[2] The podcast was recently included in Newsweek's top true crime podcasts and most gripping true crime podcast of 2021.

[3] Written, researched, and hosted by Kate Winkler Dawson, season three of Tenfold More Wicked is called Murder in the Court.

[4] It's a historical true crime story about a fractured family in 1930s, Texas.

[5] On one night in April of 1935, revered Associate Supreme Court Justice William Pearson and his wife, Lena, were murdered.

[6] And the suspect shocked everyone with a controversial defense that still angers people today.

[7] Check out the season three premiere of Tenfold More Wicked available now.

[8] And tune in every Monday to see how it all unfolds.

[9] Plus, if you haven't listened to Tenfold More Wicked already, check out Season 1 called All That Is Wicked and Season 2 called The Body Snatcher.

[10] Subscribe to Tenfold More Wicked on Stitcher.

[11] podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

[12] And if you're already a fan, please write a review of the show.

[13] Follow on Instagram at 10Fold More Wicked, Facebook at 10Fold More Wicked, and Twitter at 10Fold more.

[14] Goodbye.

[15] Hello.

[16] And welcome to my favorite murder.

[17] The minisode.

[18] That's Karen Kilgariff.

[19] That's Georgia Hardstock.

[20] And away.

[21] Oh, wait.

[22] There you go.

[23] Goodbye.

[24] Do you want to go first this week?

[25] Absolutely.

[26] Great.

[27] Um, if you're new to a minisode, this is where we read your emails back to you based on all kinds of subjects we've asked for over the past five full years.

[28] And hey, if you're starved for more minisodes, as of right now, we're going to start doing a separate fourth each minisode.

[29] It's called what?

[30] Mini, Mini, Mini, so that's just for the fan cult.

[31] Yep, so two extra minisodes for your listening pleasure.

[32] your fan cult only.

[33] So if you want to be a part of that and you're not in the fan cult, then you need to join.

[34] My Favorite Murder .com.

[35] And there's merch discounts.

[36] There's merch upon signing up.

[37] There's a forum.

[38] There's cool shit going on.

[39] When we finally tour again, there's advanced tickets.

[40] And until then, there's exclusive content like the mini, minisode.

[41] Hey, oh.

[42] Brand name.

[43] Copyright trademark.

[44] All right.

[45] Here's the first email.

[46] And the subject line is home.

[47] Homefire.

[48] Hello, all y 'all.

[49] Are you still interested in home fire stories?

[50] If so, then I have one for you.

[51] I'm from a northern Canadian town and I lived with my husband and three young kids on a hobby farm in the country.

[52] On days with a lot of snow, the kids would stay home as it was too dangerous for the bus to transport them to town from school.

[53] One such snow day, I was headed out to the barn to do chores and thought I would quickly grab the cold coals from our fireplace and take them outside to dispose of them.

[54] parentheses.

[55] You see where this is headed.

[56] I grabbed a stray cardboard box, parentheses.

[57] Yes, I said cardboard.

[58] Now you really know where this is headed.

[59] I shoveled out the fireplace into the box and tossed it out back to grab on my way to the barn.

[60] Feeling confident that all the coals were cold and there was so much snow to damp the potential fire that I went in, got on all my warm gear and told the kids where I was headed.

[61] I believe they were in middle school at the time, so well equipped to look after themselves.

[62] I went out to the barn and did my chores and turned to come back and noticed a big black cloud of smoke coming from the house, specifically the deck by the back door of my house.

[63] I ran to find my deck on fire to the point of coals rolling from the hole it had created towards the wooden wall of my house.

[64] Oh my God.

[65] I ripped the door open and screamed at my kids to quote all caps, bring me water, the deck is on fire.

[66] I began shoveling snow on and it hissed, but it hissed at me, but kept smoldering.

[67] The boys came out with two glasses of water.

[68] And my middle guy said, I came out with water to put it out before.

[69] But Sheldon, and then in parentheses, my oldest child, said, you must be doing something.

[70] So we went out to play our game.

[71] Oh, my God.

[72] So we went back in to play our game.

[73] Oh, my God.

[74] Teenage boys.

[75] Oh, Sheldon and his little brother.

[76] Oh, I love that show.

[77] I don't know if I should be proud that they think I'm quirky enough to be creating some kind of fiery project on the deck and that they would leave me at my quote -unquote art or alarmed that they think I'm capable of lighting the house on fire while they are in it and just walk away.

[78] Regardless, they've made it to adulthood and the big black hole on our deck was a good story for many years.

[79] Stay sexy and don't put coals even if you think they're cold in cardboard boxes.

[80] No name.

[81] Oh, that is a good cautionary tale.

[82] Because I feel like people underestimate the power, the burning power of coal.

[83] Of coal.

[84] This episode is brought to you by the coal industry.

[85] By the burning power of coal.

[86] Wow.

[87] What is a hobby farm, A?

[88] That's just when you raise animals, but until they die or just for fun.

[89] That's nice.

[90] You're not competing at the fair.

[91] You're not selling off your stock.

[92] No one gets eaten at Thanksgiving.

[93] All right.

[94] Unless they're very bad.

[95] Okay.

[96] Gunshot wound.

[97] What injury national park?

[98] Yes, thank you.

[99] What is my ideal birthday party?

[100] Hey, hi, hello.

[101] I'm a park ranger from one of the country's most visited national parks.

[102] I know I should stay out of the forest, but too late.

[103] Yellowstone.

[104] As part of the park's search and rescue team, I go out on calls to help people who have been injured.

[105] Typically, these are broken or twisted ankles, altitude sickness, and other somewhat boring ailments.

[106] last summer we got a call that was definitely more exciting two gunshots were reported near the park's most popular destination an alpine lake about two miles up trail as i'm gearing up and our team is gathering to head out to the call the story develops every detail is more strange than the last here's the scoop these are the emails we live for national park scoops that's right on the next a man in his late sixties decided to carry up firearm for the first time in his life while in the park with his daughter and young grandchildren for quote wildlife safety purposes I understand the concern about wildlife encounters especially for folks who are not used to this environment he had nothing to worry about though as he was in the most populated part of the entire park and would be more likely to come upon teenage skinny dippers or a group of Christian campers playing their music way too loud than bears or cougars blow him out of the water either way Blow him away Naked Christians Get those Christian guitar playing hippies And blow him out of the water Grandpa Well at the lake His old time you revolver Got caught on something Inside his fanny pack Fired And shot him in the back side Of his upper thigh Sorry you said Old time revolver Old time you revolver That's the gun He decided to fucking bring with him Like an old cult 45 Yeah Oh, shoot.

[107] So he shot himself in the butt.

[108] She says, let's just call it what it is.

[109] A gunshot wound in the butt.

[110] An FBI agent just so happened to be off duty at the lake with his own family.

[111] And when he tried to confiscate and unload the gun, he shot another roundoff into the lake.

[112] Oh, my God.

[113] Grandpa.

[114] How old was this gun, Civil War?

[115] I don't know.

[116] But this is why once law enforcement rangers entered the scene and determined it was not, in fact, an active crime scene.

[117] We were able to rescue the injured man. We bandaged him up, put him on our mountain adapted stretcher, and rolled him on down the hill.

[118] So humiliated.

[119] I know.

[120] Nauseous.

[121] Stomach.

[122] Yeah.

[123] Down the hill.

[124] Nause.

[125] I'd love to see them just like push him.

[126] Woo!

[127] Like a sled.

[128] We'll meet you down there.

[129] Yep.

[130] Nossus and drugged up.

[131] He asked our lead why he was hearing, quote, so many female voices.

[132] well you have a lot of female rangers helping take care of you today to which he responded i know a lot of guys who shoot themselves in the ass on purpose just to be carried down a mountain by some beautiful women yes it's fun to know that even with a bullet inside their bodies and the knowledge that they could have accidentally shot their seven -year -old grandchild old white men still have the capacity to make a pass at you while you're sweaty frustrated and carrying their body down a mountain out a week later that this man's butt shot was somewhat of a blessing in disguise.

[133] Through his hospital visit and testing, he discovered he has cancer and is now able to seek treatment.

[134] Oh my God.

[135] Turns out shooting himself and the ass might have saved his life.

[136] Yes.

[137] Stay sexy and don't carry your gun in a fanny pack.

[138] Say it with us, everyone.

[139] A, she, her.

[140] Oh, my God.

[141] Twist and turns.

[142] How old was that gun I need to know?

[143] know he bought it at like some kind of a weird exhibition where it has a pearl handle and they told him that like they told him that uh general custer yeah there's nothing billy the kid's brother lent it to him i just see him with two hand gun in each hand shooting in the fucking uh what was his name in the cartoon yosemite sammy sonny fucking samming it up oh i wonder if it was yosemite i mean it would be the perfect thing Oh, Grandpa.

[144] I guess I'll just bring my gun camping with my family.

[145] That's right.

[146] I might need a friend off a bear.

[147] You know, in case a bear comes.

[148] This guy needs to stay out of the forest, if anyone.

[149] This guy needs to stay away from everybody.

[150] Okay.

[151] Let's see.

[152] The subject line of this is Sleepy English Village, Murders, Hauntings, and a Highway Woman.

[153] Yes.

[154] A special hello to Frank.

[155] My dog is also called Frank, but he is an asshole.

[156] Mine is, too.

[157] He was just laying here licking the carpet.

[158] Right.

[159] Look him.

[160] Oh, Frankie.

[161] Great.

[162] Good boy.

[163] Happy, happy, happy.

[164] He's like, I can smell something.

[165] It's a latte, Frank.

[166] Okay.

[167] I grew up in a traditional little English village called Wheat Hampstead.

[168] Hmm.

[169] I bet you that's not how it's...

[170] Huitmstead.

[171] Wethamstead.

[172] Wethamstead.

[173] Wethamstead.

[174] Weathamstead.

[175] Weathamstead.

[176] In Hertfordshire, Wethamstead.

[177] I'm sorry, no, it hurt for sure.

[178] Wheathamstead, Wheathamstead is the epitome of the typical idyllic village.

[179] So obviously we have a long history of murders.

[180] In the 17th century, there was a spate of highway robberies on Ferrer's Lane, a street named after the rich aristocratic family that owned most of the parish.

[181] At this point in time, highwaymen were not uncommon.

[182] However, during one raid, the highwayman was mortally wounded, and upon checking the body, they found it was not a highway man, but in fact, a highway woman.

[183] The woman was later identified as Lady Catherine Ferrer, the only child and sole heir to the Ferrer's fortune.

[184] Catherine was raised as a lady, but by age 14, she had been orphaned and married off to a man who took control of her entire estate.

[185] Her husband wasted no time in selling off her family's assets.

[186] To build back her dwindling wealth, she took to the night and became the infamous highway man. Wow.

[187] Slash woman, where she ultimately met her demise.

[188] She was later nicknamed the Wicked Lady and is said to haunt the area surrounding Ferrer's Lane called the Devil's Dyke.

[189] Now, this is where it gets creepy.

[190] In 1957, a local girl was abducted and murdered, 1957, a local girl was abducted and murdered on her way home from a dance hall and her frozen body was found a months later in the Devil's Dyke.

[191] Police concluded that she must have been kept in a chest freezer and the case was coined the deep freeze murder.

[192] Only a handful of people at the time actually owned chest freezers.

[193] So it should have been easy enough to identify the killer.

[194] However, the murder remains a cold case to this day.

[195] In 1977, the body of Janie Shepard and Australian heiress was also found in the Devil's Dyke.

[196] The case was later linked to the beast of Shepard's Bush.

[197] In 2009, a suitcase containing a human arm was found by a dog walker on the con. It was discovered that a man named the jigsaw killer murdered his landlord, 49 -year -old Jeffrey Howe, and scattered his body parts around herfurtshire and Leicestershire.

[198] The killer is now serving 36 years.

[199] And sadly, these are not the only cases of bodies being found on Ferrer's Lane.

[200] But that doesn't stop it from still being used as a popular location for dog walking, cycle rides, and cricket matches.

[201] Oh, my God.

[202] Hope you like this.

[203] I know, right?

[204] Ily like this.

[205] if you like this little collection of sleepy English English village murders thanks for all you do E. Love the idyllic setting I mean this is like your favorite TV show essentially and you know what would be an amazing it was a British it's the amalgamation of all my favorite TV shows because it starts in the long ago village era the 1700s village era and it moves all the way through and it's like layers of Is it the same guy who's like a vampire?

[206] It could be like a fantasy thing.

[207] It could be bad forest spirit.

[208] Eternal evil that lives in a certain area of the forest that's been unlocked that that plays upon the idyllicness of the shire.

[209] What about a generation of like the grandpa was the great grandpa, the grandpa, and then current day and needs to stop with this line?

[210] They're so greedy.

[211] that they no longer want for money because they have all the money.

[212] Now they want human.

[213] Whatever.

[214] What if like they test the DNA from the 1700s ones and realize that the killers DNA matches the killers from because they're, I want to stick with the grandpa thing.

[215] You seem to really like the Dracula style.

[216] It feels like a vampire or like an eternal being kind of vibe.

[217] Yes, I do.

[218] Yeah, I do too.

[219] I do too.

[220] I don't mind it at all.

[221] The occult is always very interesting because then it's that thing of like, well, this could never happen in our town.

[222] It must be a gateway to hell.

[223] Right.

[224] Right.

[225] That's underneath the richest town.

[226] Instead of the realistic thing.

[227] Like, we want to pretend it's more sinister than just plain old terrible.

[228] Right.

[229] Hello, people and pets.

[230] If there's anything to be thankful for in the shithole of COVID, it's that my dad finally got enough whiskey in him to give me the details on his connection to our hometown murder.

[231] Well, our hometown apprehension.

[232] I grew up at a small farm town outside Sacramento, and yes, I can confirm that sack is just as shitty as Karen describes.

[233] Thank you.

[234] A town that's home to an elementary school, two churches, and for no logical reason, a nudist colony.

[235] What?

[236] It must be near the river.

[237] Yeah, right.

[238] The town that's home to an elementary school, I already fucking said that.

[239] The colony over -enthusiastically named Laguna del Sol sits at the end of a a country road just about a mile or so away from where I grew up.

[240] Back in 1991, I was at the ripe old age of six and my dad was working as a realtor.

[241] His office's secretary, a lovely woman in her late 60s, was a permanent resident of the nudist colony.

[242] A life decision she decided to share with everyone she worked with.

[243] A perfect visual.

[244] One day, her and a couple of her friends were lounging by the pool when her friends realized the guy at the other end of the pool looked.

[245] a little familiar.

[246] Where had they seen that face?

[247] And hopefully it was only the face they recognized before.

[248] It was the guy from a recent Bolow, aka Beyond the Lookout, that had been blasted out across California, the one and only Carrie Stainer.

[249] Oh, no. The piece of shit, Yosemite Hiker.

[250] We've covered that before, if you want to look for it.

[251] It's fucked up.

[252] That's early days, yeah.

[253] As a story goes, they realized who he was, likely shit.

[254] their non -existent pants and then called the cops.

[255] Good play on words there.

[256] As they waited for the cops to come, they got a little worried Stainer might realize what was happening and try to leave.

[257] I can't imagine three nudists sprinting away from the pool was very discreet.

[258] So they figured out what car was Stainers and then parked their car directly behind it to block him in.

[259] At the end of the day, Stainer didn't try to leave and was arrested inside the nudist colony in an oddly calm manner.

[260] So that's the story of how Carrie Stainer was arrested down the street from my childhood home.

[261] And it only took 21 years for my dad to clue me in on the details.

[262] Here's the obligatory and well -deserved shout -out.

[263] Thank you to you ladies.

[264] I've been working full -time and going to law school at night for the past three years and you have no idea the sense of sanity that you've provided.

[265] One more year of school and then I hope to be advocating for victims' rights, inspired every day by ladies like you.

[266] stay sexy and don't get naked with serial killers, Jenna.

[267] Twisty tourney.

[268] That was a good one.

[269] And it involved a national park again.

[270] That's right.

[271] That's the theme.

[272] I seem to remember because I'm pretty sure I'm the one that did the Carrie Steiner's story.

[273] And I remember that being the ending and that he stood out at that, if I'm remembering correctly, he stood out at that nudist colony because it was mostly like retirees and older people.

[274] Right.

[275] Wasn't that the thing where the older nudists were kind of freaked out by him?

[276] I somehow didn't remember that there was a nudist colony involved, but you must, you would have covered it.

[277] I think I did.

[278] But now I have, it truly was a full five years ago.

[279] I love naked, 60 year old woman, nudist colony, saves the fucking day, heroic, badassery.

[280] With no tan lines.

[281] That's the key.

[282] She is everyone's hero.

[283] I feel like if I didn't have to look at other naked people, I would.

[284] be a nudist.

[285] So maybe I'd just like to be naked alone with Vince.

[286] Yeah.

[287] I mean, yeah.

[288] I think that's what your house is for.

[289] Right.

[290] You can be a nudist.

[291] My house is a nudist colony.

[292] Yeah.

[293] I think a lot of people's houses are.

[294] They just don't discuss it that much.

[295] Is that a dig?

[296] It's when you, it's no, no, no. Not at all.

[297] No, I meant like, it's when you feel the need to play volleyball all the time.

[298] Exactly.

[299] What is the fucking thing?

[300] At that point, I think that's an old bit.

[301] I think you're more of an exhibitionist than a nudist at that point.

[302] Yeah.

[303] Or maybe you have like a really intense case of body horror where you're like, you know what I need to do?

[304] Jump up and down.

[305] That's what's going to really do it for me in terms of freedom.

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

[307] Absolutely.

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

[309] Exactly.

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

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

[312] That's right.

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

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

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

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

[324] Goodbye.

[325] The subject line of my next one is The Lion, the Witch, and the Medicine Cabinet to Hell is no longer a thing.

[326] Oh.

[327] Hi, MFM.

[328] After Karen's story this week, which was the Ruth, T. May McCoy story of somebody coming through her bathroom mirror.

[329] I thought you might be concerned that architects are still designing bathrooms with medicine cabinet murder portals in them.

[330] So I wanted to allay some of your concerns.

[331] This situation is no longer permitted by code for a few reasons.

[332] There is no code section on Candyman.

[333] So they're all boring reasons that sound like sound transmission and stuff.

[334] Now that you're a fire safety podcast, you may be happy to know.

[335] Why did that make me want to fucking lose it?

[336] That is some sweet, sweet sarcasm right there.

[337] Yes, sir.

[338] Now that you're a fire safety podcast, you may be happy to know that one of the reasons have to do with preventing the spread of fires.

[339] Walls between apartment units are required by code to have a fire resistance rating of at least one hour.

[340] There are ways to maintain that fire rating around a recessed medicine cabinet, but all of those ways would result in a tight seal that would not allow your neighbor to simply take out the cabinet and hop through.

[341] The code also requires that certain acoustic standards are met by the walls separating apartment units and specifically requires that the openings for recessed cabinets are sealed, lined, and or insulated to maintain the sound transmission class of the wall.

[342] There is the Fair Housing Act, which requires that all apartments and buildings that have four or more units meet certain baseline accessibility requirements.

[343] medicine cabinets over sinks are not prohibited by the terms of the Fair Housing Act but are not typically considered all that accessible to people who use wheelchairs or people of short stature because most of the shelves within them would be out of reach and placing the cabinet low enough to be useful as a mirror could create a clash between the cabinet door and the sink faucet all this complication and inconvenience of putting a medicine cabinet over a sink in a wall between two apartment units means that you almost never see it done in new apartment buildings anymore.

[344] If there is a medicine cabinet at all, it's often to the side of the sink in the wall that does not separate apartments.

[345] If despite all this, there is a medicine cabinet in the wall between one unit and another, it would have to be fully sealed to prevent the passage of fire, smoke, and sound.

[346] Obviously, as TikTok has reminded us, there are plenty of buildings that were built long before summer all of these things became requirements, but at least newer buildings do not have this issue.

[347] This concludes my lecture on medicine cabinets, please feel free to promptly forget everything I just said.

[348] Stay sexy and don't drink the liquid in bottles you find on construction sites because it's never not Maria.

[349] Learning so much from Maria.

[350] Maria had a lot of really good structural engineering information to share with us and fire safety.

[351] Start your own.

[352] Maria teaches YouTube and teach us everything you know.

[353] that was great it actually does quell that fear that that could happen again it's like all the things that came together to make that possible and for me as someone who enjoys a good close up glance in the mirror while I wash my hands I now appreciate why sometimes the medicine cabinet isn't over the sink and can understand and I'm like and I feel okay about it now I can come to terms with it it seems only fair because it has to be reachable And you've got to be able to swing around and get that one like whisker on your chin that you can feel but not see.

[354] And what better time than doing a thorough hand washing, which we're all doing these days, I hope.

[355] Not anymore.

[356] Not anymore.

[357] It's over.

[358] And thanks everybody that wrote in this week, all these.

[359] So there was so much information.

[360] There was so much of forestry.

[361] There was laughter.

[362] And there was poignant.

[363] And there were naked people playing volleyball, as usual.

[364] So I think we've done it.

[365] We've done it all.

[366] So now all there is left is for you to stay sexy.

[367] And don't get murdered.

[368] Goodbye.

[369] Elvis, do you want a cookie?

[370] The story had everything except sex.

[371] You had family problems.

[372] You had mental illness.

[373] You have violence.

[374] You have all of the politics.

[375] I'm Kate Winkler Dawson, the host of 10.

[376] Fold More Wicked on Exactly Right, and our third season is set in my home state of Texas.

[377] It's a wild story about a prominent family ripped apart and a killer that might have gotten away with murder.

[378] It was a memorable story.

[379] You don't have an associate justice being murdered very often.

[380] This season is about a Titan in Texas politics in the 1930s who was murdered one night, along with his wife.

[381] He comes across as a pretty caring, nice man, which I'd like to believe that he was.

[382] Very respected, politically influential.

[383] It's about a killer with a grudge and some serious problems that were never treated.

[384] He had these resentments, which were, you know, understandable.

[385] But I also think he had voices telling him that he should do something about them.

[386] That just doesn't sound like something that would happen as an accident.

[387] What it sounds like is a failed suicide attempt.

[388] It's about how we treat people with mental illness in the justice system in America.

[389] Most people would agree that, yes, mental illness is, in fact, an illness, and people shouldn't be held accountable for something that they didn't have control over.

[390] Unless you're the victim of that crime, then obviously you feel very differently.

[391] I didn't really, like, know that I had been stabbed.

[392] I just realized I couldn't move my hand, and I saw blood.

[393] You just want them to feel the pain that you felt.

[394] It's about family secrets.

[395] You know, my grandfather was the town angel and the home devil.

[396] And most importantly, this season is about why these murders happened.

[397] The question is, at what point is delusion profound enough for you to be forgiven from murder?

[398] I'm Kate Winkler Dawson, and this is Season 3 of Tenfold More Wicked, a podcast about a fractured family in 1930s, Texas.

[399] Season 3 of Tenfold More Wicked is now available on Exactly Right.

[400] Subscribe now on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen.