00:00:06
Hey weirdos. I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is [Music] Morbid. This is morbid. And we're we're
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not going to get right into it, but I just wanted to say we're talking about a case today that is rough. Oh, so we
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should do some some bitty banter at the beginning. Yeah, we should prep everybody. Okay. Ahead of time. Well,
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let's see. We all in this office have brand new tattoos. We do. We went to Black Veil in Salem, of course. So, Matt
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and Ryan are besties. If you ever need a tattoo, you need to go to Black Veil. You do have to for many reasons. Yeah.
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For the company, for the aesthetic, the ambiance, the tattoos, the vibes, the vibes. You
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got to do it all. Yeah, it's true. Do it. So, that was delightful. That was super fun. It was a nice little like
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treat yourself day. Yeah, it was. Um, what else is going on? I'm trying to think what's what's the news? What's the
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hot goss? What's the 411? The 411s that I Oh, what? Mike, you just reminded me. What? Conclave. Oh,
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Conclave Watch came to a crashing halt very quickly. Yeah, it started just as quick as it ended. Yeah, I was watching
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live though. You were. So, I had it up on my computer cuz I was ready. She screamed, "Oh, new poe." I said, "Oh,
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it's happening." I said, "Oh." Soon as that white smoke came out, I said, "Oh my god, we got an American. We got"
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Which I'm shocked. That's the first time ever, right? first time ever and like especially right now I'm like wow
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shocking I know that that we managed to pull that off and we can say pope lear par
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uh he seems pretty cool as far as popes go. Yeah, I think he's like progressive and [ __ ] Yeah, very outspoken. Yeah, he
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picked a cool name. We've had a lot of Francis's. We've had a lot of John Paul's and all that shenanigans. So, you
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know, it's nice to see a Leo in there. Yeah, let's [ __ ] go. John said he's um cuz John looked him up because I've
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been obsessing over Conclave, so he was like, "I should probably know this." Uh he looked him up and apparently he's
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from Villanova, which meant nothing to me. Uh until John said that a lot of the Knicks players are from Villanova. And
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so he was like, "Uh-oh, Villanova is having a moment." And I said, "You get Pope or you get finals. You do not get
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both." No, you [ __ ] don't. So, Knicks, listen to me right now. You chose Pope. Okay, so you got Pope. You
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don't get Pope. You don't get the NBA finals. So, I know. Honestly, I think that's a good thing. John thought it was
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Villanova having a moment and that's bad. I say you get Pope or you get finals. Yeah, that's what I feel. And I
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think the the Celtics that we just have to hope and pray that they're going to make history for, you know, another
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year. Yeah, there's this is all on purpose. It's not at all. But I I know I just became a fan. So, let me have this.
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But yeah, I'm sitting here in my brand new Celtic sweatshirt. You are. We really are. Because you know what? I'm a
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fan no matter how it's going. It's true. But you should. I hope it upticks. I also hope that we are um on the
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precipice of game three. We'll let you know, guys. I know. But of course, happy Mother's Day everybody. Mother's Day
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weekend. We have to like go do stuff. There's a Celtics game. I'm like, gosh darn it. I'm going to be like that that
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sports bro at the table with my phone watching it on your phone. I know. Uh but yeah, so that's cool that um I mean
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Pope watch 2025 ended as quickly as it began. But yeah, it was still fun watching them close the doors on the
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Systeine Chapel. I was like, this is so metal. They're sealing them in there and
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they're all sitting down. It looked very like cinematic. We need more traditions.
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We don't have any like cool traditions. Yeah. Well, and I'm, you know, I don't, again, like the Pope really doesn't
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affect my day-to-day life in any way, shape, or form, but like I was interested. Yeah. Because it is nice to
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see a more progressive uh mouthpiece for Jesus uh talking. I think that's important because we don't need somebody
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spewing hate and [ __ ] um to people who will take what he says very seriously because he is seen as the word
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of of the Lord. He's young though. He's 69. So, this one might be hanging around
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for a while. Okay. So, we might we might have Leo Dynasty happening. Jesus's word
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will be pretty pretty lit for the next 20 years. For a while, let's hope. So, you know, that's that's an interesting
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interesting little update. Yeah. Thought we were going to have Conclave Watch for
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a little while. Thought I was going to get to talk about it for a little longer, but uh I did find out there was
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a weird Conclave that happened a while ago that took like 3 years, though. And I think they ended up taking the build
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like the roof off the building that they were in and everything. It was a long time ago. Wait, why' they take the roof
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off the building? Uh to force them to make a decision. They also rationed their food to bread and water. Like
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stopped feeding them actual food. That's dark. Uh well, they were like three years, pick a pope.
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Oh, let's let's do this. So maybe maybe we'll cover that cuz that seems like a very interesting little I know you
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brought that up the other day and I was like that sounds interesting. It's a weird one. Yeah. Uh but yeah, that was
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that was an interesting update that happened yesterday. Yeah. I think that's like all the news. Celtics Pope tattoos.
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Yeah. Other than that, we're going to get into a really uh shitty person. Okay. Now, I think we we have briefly
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touched upon this man. I believe in a crime countdown. Oh, okay. Uh cuz when I was reading about him, I was like, why
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do I know this? And then I was like, "Oh, that's always the worst feeling because then you're like, have I done
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this?" I know. I'm like, "We didn't cover this in full." Uh, but yeah, it's the life and death of Lobster Boy, Grady
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Styles. All right. I don't know. It's not ringing a bell in my crime countdown part of my brain. This is one of those
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things that um he So, obviously, the life and death, he dies. Uh he's murdered. Um murder is
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never okay. Um, but you are going to hear me say he's a [ __ ] bag of a human being. Oh, is this like a Ken a Ken
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Mckelroy deal? He's a he's a an abusive awful person to the to his daughters and to his wife. Oh. So,
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obviously no one deserves to be killed, but I'm just saying like you're going to
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hear me talk some [ __ ] about him because he deserves it. Yeah. You I mean, you
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got to be real no matter what. Yeah. I'm just I'm just going to let you know. Uh,
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so who is Grady Styles? Tell me. Grady Franklin Styles Jr. Not Franklin was born. I know. Was born June 26th, 1937.
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What does that make him? So I think at that point he's a cancer. He's a cancer. Okay. I don't know a lot about cancer
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men. I do. He fits. Oh yeah. Yeah. He fits. Uh the third child of Edna and Grady Styles Senior. Uh Grady Styles
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Senior was a carnival worker and performer. Uh he was buil as uh one of life's human oddities. Oh, that's
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terrible to say. There's a lot of this kind of like Yeah, carnivals were white talk quote unquote freaks and such. Um
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Grady Senior was born with electrodacty uh which is a physical deformity where one or more fingers on the hands or toes
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on the feet are missing. Oh, okay. Um, this condition though gave Grady Senior and it often gives people who are
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dealing with it the appearance of having claw-like hands. Okay. So, um, kind of like those of a lobster. Uh, this led to
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his being build on the side show circuit as the lobster man. Now, despite being a
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very rare condition, it affects actually roughly one in every 100,000 babies born. Wow. electrodactyl ran in the
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Styles family as far back as the 1840s. That's crazy. Uh in some cases, it'll occur in both the hands and feet, but in
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Grady Styles case, it only occurred in his hands, uh the senior. So, when the couple's third child, Grady Jr., was
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born, no one was really surprised to discover that this child had inherited the condition which was present in Grady
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Styles Jr.'s hands and feet. Oh, okay. Now, according to author Fred uh Fred Rosen, the Styles family had
00:08:46
always not really listened to the advice of doctors who warned against having children because of the likelihood of
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them inheriting this condition. Um because especially when it's of the hands and feet, it leads to a very
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difficult life, you know, right? Um and according to Rosen, their attitude was quote, "Hell, if a child was born a
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freak, it was the child's problem. the childs and gods. Oh, okay. That's one way to look at it. Which is like, damn,
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what an outlook. That's that's your problem, little baby. Yeah. A child that didn't ask to be brought into this
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world. Like, that's [ __ ] up in a way I can't describe. Uh, in fact, Grady Junior's sister, Sarah, had also
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inherited their father's condition, but it only affected one arm and one leg. Uh, years into her adulthood, actually,
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Sarah had her nonfunctional leg amputated and replaced with an artificial limb. Okay. Unlike his
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sister, Grady's affliction was far worse than even their father's. Oh. And prevented him from being able to walk.
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He was he had to rely on a wheelchair for mobility. Okay. Now, at the time of his birth, the Styles family was living
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in relative poverty in Pittsburgh's north side. Uh they were barely getting by on the the wages they were getting
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from the Carnival Circuit. And for Grady, early life was a challenge to say the very least. Again, you feel really
00:10:04
bad for young Grady. Yeah, he was given a lot to deal with. A lot to deal with right out the gate. Uh with his father
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constantly on the road with the sideshow, there was no one around to normalize his condition really. Oh.
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Which was a problem. And so he was treated as a spectacle whenever his mother took him out of the apartment,
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which is that must be very difficult. Uh fortunately, just a few years after he was born, they did relocate to Gibson,
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which is a small town in central Florida. And this is very interesting. In the decades that had preceded them
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moving there, um this had become a popular place to move for retired circus workers. Oh. And those who were seeking
00:10:44
refuge during the offseason of the circus and the carnival. So due to the large number of performers in town, they
00:10:51
had also the local administration had also established very like um unusual zoning laws. And this allowed the
00:10:59
residents to keep elephants, tigers, and other large exotic animals on their property. Damn. Which would solve the
00:11:05
problems also of boarding the circus animals, right? But for young Grady, this kind of solved the problem of him
00:11:12
feeling like an outcast because now he's hanging out with a bunch of circus workers and sideshow workers and the
00:11:18
kids are sideshow workers and a bunch of exotic animals. Like he fits in. He's not weird. Like he's just one of them.
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But it didn't do anything to solve their financial issues. That's um as a result,
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the Styles children were all expected to just kind of forego traditional schooling and just pitch in at the
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circus to help support the family. Uh, as the only able bo fully able-bodied child, Margaret, the oldest, worked the
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ticket booth until she actually ended up um passing away from a brain aneurysm in
00:11:47
1951 at the age of 18. Oh, wow. This family had so much to deal with. Yeah. For Grady Jr., his he was just going to
00:11:57
live a life of performing. That was what he was going to do. Uh just as his father had. Uh from one small town to
00:12:04
another, the family spent the majority of their lives traveling with the carnival and they were buil as the
00:12:08
lobster family. Oh yeah. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, circuses
00:12:14
like Ringling Brothers and Barnaman Bailey were so popular around the country, particularly during the depression and
00:12:22
war years. You know, when a family could expect a day's worth of entertainment for a very small fee and just to take
00:12:28
them away from all the [ __ ] that was going on. Exactly. reality for the carnival workers and performers. The pay
00:12:34
might not have been great, but it was consistent and the work offered, you know, a a stable and supportive
00:12:41
environment that a lot of them had not experienced outside of the circus. They kind of treated like [ __ ] Um, in fact,
00:12:48
Fred Rosen said, "In those days, the carnival was indeed a family. In those days, people joined up for the duration.
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They stayed with the same carnival through thick and thin. They were there for each other. the fat man, the bearded
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lady, the rustabouts, and the strippers. You just became like a kind of, you know, it's like um American Horror Story
00:13:05
Freak Show, how they become like a family, you know, in the present, it would obviously be very illegal for
00:13:12
parents to just take their kids out of school and be like, you're working at the circus for good reason. Like, but
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under the circumstances and given his experiences in a, you know, quote unquote ordinary community, Grady Jr.
00:13:24
was honestly happier with the sideshow than he had been just go in Pittsburgh going that's good. Not only was his
00:13:30
family be able to just be together all the time, but he also loved performing and he liked being in the spotlight like
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it he was okay seemed to feed him like he really liked it and when they weren't on the road they retired to Gibson and
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there he was treated as just any other child in town. So it was he wasn't dealing with that [ __ ] you know.
00:13:49
And he was able to live a relatively normal childhood among other children of circus workers. Yes. Like their normal.
00:13:56
I was going to say a different kind of normal. What they saw is that despite the acceptance he found in Gibson and
00:14:02
his ability to, you know, help the family by working at the sideshow circuit, Greedy Styles's life was
00:14:08
definitely one of hardship. It's not like he was just coasting through. He had a lot to deal with. And it wasn't
00:14:14
long before this kind of hardship that was just kind of hardwired inside of him was leading to a lot of bitterness
00:14:20
because again, it's not like he was treated nicely by everyone he came in contact with. You know what I mean? Like
00:14:26
he people who understood his struggles. Yeah. And some people I'm sure the people that came to the circus sometimes
00:14:31
would probably dehumanize him and like that. I'm sure that's going to live in your nervous system at some point. Yeah,
00:14:37
definitely. So he was often frustrated, often bitter. Um but he was very determined to prove himself to be as
00:14:45
capable as anybody else. Yeah. Uh he be so one thing he could do which he did like he very much fixated on was
00:14:53
building up his strength in his early teens and he developed incredible upper body strength. Really? Yeah. Um, and
00:15:01
that he used this kind of to compensate for his lack of, you know, dexterity, lack of being able to really move around
00:15:07
like he felt everybody else could. At the same time, he adapted to his condition really well and had learned to
00:15:14
use his hands in like a claw-like fashion. Um, so he could hold objects, he could write, he could do other like
00:15:20
very complex tasks with his hands. Okay. Uh, which when you look at it, you're like, at this point, you're like, good
00:15:27
for you, man. like you really like took lemons and you made lemonade out of them. Like good for you. Now, by the
00:15:34
early 1950s, Grady Senior, his father, had decided it was going to be much more lucrative for the family to go into
00:15:40
business for themselves. And they struck out on their own. Now, around this time,
00:15:45
17-year-old Grady Jr. married his first wife, Deborah Brady. That was in a small
00:15:50
ceremony in Tampa, Florida. Now, unfortunately, that was only going to last about a year before they divorced.
00:15:56
Um, and Grady ended up just really focusing on the business for a little while. Uh, it he's a horrible husband.
00:16:03
Okay, just to put that out there. It lasted a year. I not surprised by that. I don't I don't know how based on what
00:16:09
we find out later. Uh, marriage to him was not a fun time. Now, Grady didn't have to wait long to find love again,
00:16:15
though. In the spring of 1959, during a stop in Trenton, New Jersey, Grady met Mary Teresa Herszog, who was went by
00:16:23
Teresa. Okay. one of the Carnival's newest ticket booth workers and instantly they were in love. Now, by the
00:16:30
time she'd met Grady Styles, 21-year-old Teresa's experiences with men had been universally bad. Oh. Um, so when she
00:16:38
was, this is awful. When she was 6 years old, Teresa's mother divorced Theresa's
00:16:42
father and remarried a monster named Frank Tyler, who would go on to sexually abuse her for years. Oh, that's
00:16:48
terrible. Frank Tyler, piece of [ __ ] Yeah. uh given the terrible conditions of her home life, Teresa would like lose
00:16:55
herself in carnivals, you know? It was just like one of those things like escaping reality. Yeah, it really was.
00:17:00
It was It reminded me of like a movie we just watched for Scream where the devil
00:17:05
roams. One of the characters in that talks about how his father was abusive when he was younger and he would escape
00:17:11
to the circus. Yeah. Just to get out of that reality, right? Um which is just so
00:17:16
sad. Yeah, it is sad. Uh Teresa, so she found refuge in these carnivals and circuses that would travel and they
00:17:22
would come to her small Vermont town in the spring and summer months. Okay. Uh she later said, "The carnival fascinated
00:17:28
me. I guess it fascinated most young people. I thought the lights and the excitement were just great." Yeah. Now,
00:17:33
in a bid to get closer to the carnival and really like just envelop herself in it, she began working as a ticket taker
00:17:39
during the summer. Then when she turned 18, she joined up with the circus on a full-time basis. and finally got away
00:17:47
from her stepfather for good. Good. [ __ ] that guy. Yeah. Before long, she met and
00:17:51
fell in love with one of the rustabouts, Jerry Plameumber. Not Grady Styles. Not
00:17:56
Grady. And soon they were married. Now, while things started out fine in the relationship, Teresa soon found herself
00:18:02
in a relationship with yet another abusive man. For more than a year, she suffered verbal, physical, and emotional
00:18:09
abuse at her piece of [ __ ] husband's hands. Uh she was beaten with his fists. She was pushed down the stairs while she
00:18:16
was pregnant with their child. Oh my god. And at one point he even threw a pot of scalding coffee at her. What a
00:18:21
[ __ ] monster. And finally he just cuz you know he was a piece of [ __ ] in every way. He just
00:18:28
grew tired of the relationship and he didn't really want to be a father. So Jerry Plameumber took off leaving Teresa
00:18:33
to raise their daughter Deborah on her own. Probably much better off and she was earning very little money at the
00:18:38
circus. So obviously it was hard, but to her credit, she was very resourceful, very determined. So she found a lawyer
00:18:46
and scraped together enough money to file for divorce, and Jerry didn't contest it good. When Grady first saw
00:18:53
Teresa in the ticket booth, he was immediately struck by her beauty, her charm. He just was into it. The problem
00:19:00
was at the time, Grady and his father were a top draw for the circus. And there's like a hierarchy, okay? And he
00:19:08
would have been looked down upon for dating one of the ticket takers. Oh, okay. Uh cuz that's like the job at the
00:19:13
bottom of the hierarchy. Isn't that interesting? Yeah, that is interesting. Uh so he he wasn't he wasn't going to
00:19:19
move on though. He was like, I'm not moving on and finding somebody else. Like I like this girl. Yeah. So he began
00:19:24
talking Teresa up to one of the owners, Stan Wright, encouraging him to consider
00:19:29
her for a job as a Bali girl, which is apparently a term for one of the singing or dancing girls in the show. Cuz he was
00:19:36
like, "She's beautiful. like why not bring her up there. Yeah. As a ticket taker, dating a performer was off
00:19:41
limits, but as a Bali girl, she would be another performer in the show and their
00:19:45
relationship would be very acceptable. Okay. So, fortunately for everyone, Wright did see something he liked in
00:19:51
Teresa and was like, you know what, you're right. Well, that's good. Hopefully, she made some more money.
00:19:55
Yeah. And that's the thing, he gave her a chance as a performer. So, for Teresa,
00:19:59
it was a huge step up. she got some more money and she so she was able to better
00:20:04
provide for Deborah, which Teresa seems like I feel really bad for Teresa because she seems like she's had this
00:20:11
awful life. She's been really taken advantage of and treated horribly by the men in her life, but she just wants to
00:20:18
be like she wants to take care of her kids. Yeah, she wants that really does seem like there's a lot of like I really
00:20:24
just want to do right by my kids and she wasn't done right for. So, it's really hard to break that cycle, especially
00:20:30
back then when you had no like no resources really to count on as far as therapy and mental health help. Like,
00:20:36
she's not being taught how to break this cycle or that it's important to break it
00:20:40
all in her. You can just tell that Teresa does have something inside of her that just desperately wants to break
00:20:45
that cycle who she is. Um, she doesn't make she makes some poor choices later, but I do believe that like deep down in
00:20:52
there, she just really wanted to do right by her kids. Yeah. Um, but this so this move up also moved her closer to
00:20:59
the action at the center of the show and more importantly to her closer to Grady
00:21:03
cuz she liked him too. She liked him too. Within a few months she had moved up from a dancing girl to become a sort
00:21:09
of jack of all trades within the performances. One of her more prominent roles was um Blade Box Girl, which was a
00:21:15
kind of assistant to the magic act where she would step into the box and appear to be stabbed a million times with
00:21:21
swords to come out and be like, "I'm fine." Oh my god, that must have been real scary. Yeah. So, she was the lovely
00:21:26
assistant essentially. Uh, at the same time, as she was so excited to be on stage, she was so excited that Grady
00:21:34
Styles had chosen her as the object of his affection, having only ever known very negative and abusive attention from
00:21:43
the men in her life. Being with Grady, she said, was unlike anything she'd ever experienced. He was showering her with
00:21:49
gifts, with praise, attention, making her feel wanted and adored. She said Grady was such a charming man.
00:21:57
Everyone enjoyed being in his company. Yeah. Now, not long after beginning their relationship, they started living
00:22:03
together. And with Grady, Grady was now stepping in as a father to Deborah. And it seemed like everything was going
00:22:10
great. In the off season, they returned to Gibson, where Teresa found work in a Tampa shrimp factory during the offse.
00:22:16
And within a few years, their first child, Margaret, was born. Unfortunately, less than a month after
00:22:22
Margaret was born, she died from pneumonia. Oh, that's terrible. The situation repeated itself with their
00:22:29
next child, David. Oh, God. Who also died a month after his birth from pneumonia. And it was attributed to the
00:22:35
poor living conditions of life in a traveling circus. Wow. Now, the health problems continued for the Styles family
00:22:42
because a few months later, Grady Styles senior was struggling with poor health,
00:22:46
too. Finally, he decided to retire from traveling altogether. Now, unable to afford the cost of living in Florida,
00:22:54
Grady Senior moved back to Pittsburgh and found a small apartment there. Mhm. So, now Grady Jr. is worried about his
00:23:01
parents pit Pittsburgh because they're in poor health and he's in Florida. So he started renting an apartment in the
00:23:07
city so he could check on them and be around them. The apartment was a huge financial strain on them obviously
00:23:13
because it's just another expense. So to help support them in the off season, Grady Jr. began performing in a one-man
00:23:20
show to make extra money when they weren't on the road. Mhm. The work allowed him to support himself and his
00:23:25
wife, but this additional work, plus the stress of traveling back and forth to Pittsburgh and the unexpected tragic
00:23:32
deaths of two children, like a lot on your plate. It brought out a meanness in Grady that Teresa said she had never
00:23:39
seen even the slightest hint of before. So, this came She was like, "This came out of nowhere. He didn't deal well with
00:23:45
stress, which grief." A lot of people say that the death of a child will change you can change a relationship and
00:23:52
it really depends on one the strength of the relationship to begin with and you know things that are lying dormant in
00:23:59
the people that are experiencing it. So obviously something was lying dormant in
00:24:03
Grady Styles that that's just brought it right out brought it all out. Um, so the
00:24:08
bitterness, the frustration, the the rage, it all and what he saw as his constant misfortune. Uh, it led him to
00:24:16
start drinking heavily, which only exacerbated the anger. And before long, he was directing it all at Teresa. Oh,
00:24:24
no. According to Fred Rosen, Grady was a good provider. However, when he was drinking, Grady started beating Teresa,
00:24:30
taking care to keep his blows to her body so no one would see the bruises. Wow. To me that is diabolical. That is
00:24:37
diabolical cuz you know what you're doing is wrong and you're not even just to have the wherewithal to think like
00:24:43
that clearly doing somewhere that someone can see. Yeah. That's [ __ ] up. That's dark. In 1963, Teresa gave birth
00:24:52
for a third time. And this time, the baby would not only survive, but also managed to not inherit Grady's
00:24:58
condition. Okay. The healthy birth of their daughter Donna was a relief to Teresa, who' obviously already
00:25:04
experienced two traumatic births and traumatic deaths. But the girl's health, like seemingly quote unquote normal
00:25:10
mobility, seemed to fuel Grady's anger. Oh. Uh, following Donna's birth, Grady began to drink even more than he had. He
00:25:18
was staying out late with other carnese and sometimes not coming home for days. Fred Rosen said when he did come home,
00:25:25
he would genu generally make it to the living room and pass out on the floor. Sometimes he'd throw up first and sleep
00:25:31
in his own vomit. Oh, [ __ ] In the morning, Deborah and Donna would get up and they would have to step over Grady
00:25:37
to get out of the trailer. So, the children would have to just step over him and his own vomit to get out of
00:25:41
their house. That's horrific. Now looking back on her childhood, Donna reflected on her childhood saying there
00:25:50
was nothing really good I can recall. Yeah. I mean when you're stepping over your dad in his own vomit you're abused
00:25:57
at home. That's she said he always drank continually drank. I really started noticing at it at about seven because he
00:26:05
would yell at us if he was drinking at home. That's so sad. Seven years old to realize that at 7 years old is [ __ ]
00:26:11
For a time, the girls could rely on school to get away from this whole abuse, but even that was unreliable
00:26:17
because Grady would routinely pull them out of school three or four months before the end of the year to help the
00:26:22
traveling show. It's like, how are they even moving on? Exactly. In 1969, Teresa
00:26:27
gave birth again, this time to a daughter they named Catherine, who was born with the condition. Okay. Uh the
00:26:34
birth of their second daughter should have been a joyous occasion. Yeah. for any couple, but it didn't do anything to
00:26:41
stop Grady's drinking or lessen the violence in the household. Uh things finally came to a head one night in the
00:26:48
mid 1970s when Grady and Teresa got into a really bad argument. Um after the show, Donna said that night after
00:26:55
closing, he called mom out in the show. They were arguing. She came back into the trailer crying, and then he came
00:27:01
back in the trailer, pulled the door open, let it slam real hard, and he took $20 and he threw it at her. After
00:27:07
throwing the money at her, he screamed, "Take your [ __ ] kids and get out of my face." Oh, her kids. Her kids. Okay.
00:27:14
Yeah. Literally, [ __ ] this guy. Like, he's awful. Um because he does this and then when he does later, I'm like, "Go
00:27:21
[ __ ] yourself." And in front of his kids. Oh, he does awful [ __ ] To the girl's surprise. And this is where you
00:27:27
you you really see moments of Teresa just making like very smart choices for her kids. And then obviously, you know,
00:27:36
she's a very abused woman. Yeah. Very abused, very traumatized. So, she obviously makes some questionable ones
00:27:42
later, right? Uh but this is one that really shocked the girls as well because he's a scary guy. So, they were
00:27:48
surprised because their mother did not say like, "Oh, he's just, you know, drunkenly ranting like just leave him
00:27:53
alone," which often would happen. Instead, she just looked at them and she said, "Pack a bag and we're leaving."
00:27:59
Wow. and she packed her own suitcase and they all left and they got a room at a motel across the street. Once they were
00:28:05
there, she called her friend Harry Glenn Newman who was part of the circus as well. He was known, and this is what he
00:28:11
was known by back then, he was known as [ __ ] Man. Oh man. Due to his small stature. Gotcha. Um things were
00:28:18
different then. Things were real. Things were uh bad then. Yeah. Uh after leaving
00:28:22
Grady that night, Glenn became a lifesaver for Teresa. Um he allowed them all the girls and her to live in a small
00:28:30
camper until they all on his property until they all moved to Ohio to live with Glenn's mother. Wow. For several
00:28:37
months the children finally got to enjoy stability and normaly of children their
00:28:43
age like things were happy. Yeah. Without the chaos of this traveling show or you know a rageful abusive like
00:28:51
alcoholic father. Unfortunately, that was shortlived because about four month five months after leaving Grady, Teresa
00:28:58
received a summon and traveled to a Pennsylvania courthouse with the girls. Unbeknownst to her, after she left
00:29:05
Grady, he filed for divorce and petitioned the court for custody of the children, even though he literally told
00:29:11
her to leave with her children. Oh, they're Oh, they're yours now? Yeah. Okay. You get to pick and choose. Now,
00:29:17
she had been unaware of the divorce cuz he did it without her knowing, right? And he didn't she didn't know that he
00:29:22
had filed for custody. Yeah. So she didn't contest anything because she didn't know what had happened. Right.
00:29:27
And the court awarded awarded full custody of the children to Are you [ __ ] kidding me? Which is so [ __ ]
00:29:34
up. Yeah, it is. Grady took the girls back to Florida with him. Wow. Which just breaks my [ __ ] heart cuz I truly
00:29:42
believe if these girls have been allowed to live with Teresa and Glenn, they would have had a totally different
00:29:47
childhood. They could have started healing Yeah. from things. They're young enough to hopefully forget some things.
00:29:53
They get even more traumatized. Oh, no. Um, so Grady takes the girls back to Florida with him, but only long enough
00:29:59
to sell the house they lived in and get rid of all his wife's belongings. Oh, that's normal. Um, Kathy later said,
00:30:05
Catherine said he gave all of mom's whatnotss, lamps, and all of her stuff to his sister. He would not let her come
00:30:11
back to get her clothes, which included a fur coat and some evening dresses. He gave away all of her clothes. That's so
00:30:17
[ __ ] up. Yeah, that's that's abusive in its own way. Yeah, you know, oh, he's just an [ __ ] With Teresa out of the
00:30:24
picture, Grady began seeing a woman named Barbara, who quickly moved herself and her daughter in with the Styles's
00:30:30
family full-time. Catherine said later, "She wanted to put herself in my mom's place. She wanted to be our mother. She
00:30:36
tried to force herself onto us, but she wasn't trying to be like a mother. She was she cuz Teresa disciplinarian was
00:30:43
known by her children. They all agree she was a loving, caring, kind mother. Yeah. Like flat mama. She was a mama.
00:30:53
Barbara only seemed interested in playing the role to the extent that it got her closer to Grady. So she's that
00:30:58
stepmother. She's Meredith blaking it. Yeah. Rather than actually do any parenting, most of the responsibility
00:31:04
for raising the children, including Barbara's daughter, Susie, fell to Donna since Deborah had decided to move out of
00:31:10
the house after the divorce. Oh. Now, after moving the family back to Pittsburgh to be near his parents,
00:31:16
Grady's drunken violent behavior continued without interruption, including the period where Barbara was
00:31:23
pregnant with their child. In 1976, Barbara gave birth to a boy. The couple named Grady III, uh, who was born with
00:31:32
the same condition as his father and his halfsister at this point. Okay. In the meantime, Teresa kept living with Glenn
00:31:38
Newman, who turned out to be a pretty good husband and a good provider. In 1974, she gave birth to a boy, Harry
00:31:46
Glenn Jr., known as Glenny. Everybody, um, they were obviously very happy to have a new little baby boy, but she had
00:31:54
a profound sense of pain and loss of having lost her children to give Grady because he was refusing to let her see
00:32:00
them. Wow. Wow. So, she was trying her everything she could to see them or have contact with them and he wouldn't let
00:32:06
them. And it's like, why did he get full custody? I mean, very different time again, but yeah. Despite everything
00:32:12
though, Teresa was still hopeful that one day she was going to be able to have a relationship with her daughters again.
00:32:18
So, she convinced Glenn to move to Pittsburgh. Wow. And Glenn was like, "Let's go." Glenn seems like the best
00:32:25
guy. I know. He So they moved to Pittsburgh to be closer to the girls so she could start really trying to get
00:32:31
them back. Yeah. Now this pissed Grady off in a massive way. In the winter of 1976, the full extent of Grady's cruelty
00:32:41
became apparent when after some conversation, he agreed to let Teresa take the girls to visit her mother in
00:32:47
Vermont for Christmas. Oh, this is going to ruin me. But rather than have Glenn and Teresa just pick them up, Grady
00:32:53
insisted they meet him at a bar near his apartment where he proceeded to get violently drunk. After downing five or
00:33:01
six drinks, they all went back to the apartment to get the girls only to discover that none of the girls were
00:33:06
there. The place was empty. Sitting on the couch, Grady reached beneath him and pulled out a revolver. Oh god. Pointing
00:33:13
it at Glenn and Teresa. Moments later, Paul Fishbaw, who was the Sideshows known as the Fat Man,
00:33:21
emerged from another room holding a shotgun. Holy [ __ ] With Paul Fishbaw now guarding Glenn, who remember is is
00:33:29
has very small stature, right? So, this giant man is holding this smaller man, so he can't protect so he can't protect
00:33:37
his wife with a shotgun. Grady then started beating Teresa viciously in front of her husband, her helpless
00:33:44
husband. Baby Glenn was also there and was screaming the entire time. Oh my god.
00:33:51
Yeah. When he'd finally tired of hitting Teresa, he let them leave before but not
00:33:56
before telling them, "Don't bother me anymore. Next time I'm going to kill you, Glenn, and your son."
00:34:03
Wow. That was because she had agreed to to let her daughters go for Christmas. Why don't you just say no? Yeah, cuz
00:34:11
he's a cruel son of a [ __ ] He is. His cruelty continued in the years that followed, and even moving out of the
00:34:17
apartment wasn't enough to escape it. In April 1978, when Donna was 15 years old,
00:34:23
her cousin introduced her to 18-year-old Jack Lane, and the two hit it off immediately. Knowing her father would do
00:34:30
anything he could to drive Jack away, cuz why would you allow your daughters to have happiness? Uh, the couple
00:34:36
frequently met in secret, often spending time together in a park a few blocks away from the apartment. One evening in
00:34:42
September, after hearing countless stories of Grady's abuse, Jack was like, "I can't let you go back there. Like, I
00:34:50
I can't just keep sending you back to this place and hearing what he does to you." Oh. So, Jack took Donna to his
00:34:55
sister's apartment trying to give her some space to be safe, right? When she called home a few days later, Grady
00:35:03
[ __ ] lost it, screaming at her, demanding she return home immediately. And he told her, "I got detectives
00:35:09
looking for you. They'll find you and when I find that boy that's with you, I'm gonna kill him. Oh no. Now for and
00:35:16
she's telling him like he's a good guy. He just wants to keep like take care of me because you [ __ ] violent. For
00:35:23
years, Donna had listened to her father's drunken rants and threats of violence against her mother and her
00:35:28
siblings. And she'd suffer more. She'd suffered more than the others when it came to physical abuse. But when it came
00:35:34
to threats of killing Jack, Donna was like, I didn't believe that he was going to go through with it. Oh no. Like I
00:35:39
understood that he like beat the [ __ ] out of us and threatened us, but like I didn't think he would do it outside of
00:35:44
our family, kill someone. What she didn't know was on September 11th, Grady went down to Pit Loan, a local pawn
00:35:51
shop, and submitted an application to purchase a new H&R 32 caliber pistol. Donna didn't return home, but kept
00:35:59
living with Jack's sister for several more days, fearing what was going to happen if she went home. Yeah. Donna and
00:36:04
Jack decided the only way to get her away from her father for good was for them to get married. Mhm. But she was
00:36:10
only 15 years old, right? So, she would need parental consent. And in late September, she called her father and
00:36:16
explained what she wanted to do. And to her surprise, he didn't object. That's terrifying cuz it sounds like Christmas.
00:36:23
Yeah. Donna and Jack planned to get married in a small ceremony on September 28th. And in the days before it, they
00:36:30
took all the details, took care of everything, including applying for the marriage license, getting the blood test
00:36:35
you had to get back then. You had to do a blood test. On the morning of September 27th, Donna met Jack at his
00:36:41
house and the two went out to do some shopping before returning to Grady's apartment where Donna was planning to
00:36:46
clean for the wedding reception. So, like, he was going to be involved in this. It was going to be They weren't
00:36:51
running away to get married. She was doing it all. She was involving him. When they arrived, Grady wasn't home,
00:36:56
but he had instead gone down to a bar, of course, where he stayed until 700 p.m. and drank 12 double whisies. Holy.
00:37:04
Yeah. So, 24 whisies. Yeah. So, they went out to get some food for the reception and when they got home around
00:37:11
7:30, they found a very drunk Grady sitting on the couch. Uh, his wheelchair was nowhere in sight. Grady said he had
00:37:18
left it out by the front door and someone stole it. So, they all were like, "Oh shit." So, they volunteered to
00:37:23
go out into the neighborhood and look for it. As they were all leaving the house, Grady said, "Actually, Jack, why
00:37:29
don't you stay back with me?" "No." and Donna recalled. Barbara and I went around into the metered parking lot out
00:37:35
back looking for the wheelchair. We were just about halfway around and I heard a
00:37:39
bang and then I heard a bang again immediately after and I ran towards the house. When I got there, Jack came
00:37:46
stumbling out of the house. He was holding his chest in the middle. Oh god. When he reached Donna, he collapsed on
00:37:52
the ground and began coughing out blood. And they were just going to get married.
00:37:56
And he's like her protector. Yeah. And she Donna said it didn't seem real. It seemed like a joke. I looked up and dad
00:38:03
was standing on his knees looking out the window smiling at me. What a son of a [ __ ] When she asked why he'd done
00:38:10
it, he said, "Because I told you I would." Why? He is. Cruel isn't even the word.
00:38:16
And he goes so far beyond. He's a piece of absolute [ __ ] Demon. By then, they could hear sirens coming. When they
00:38:23
arrived, Barbara explained, so the stepmother explained what they believed happened and pointed them in the
00:38:30
direction. And so she was like, "He did it." Like, yeah. She was like, "That's [ __ ] up." Um, and Grady was sitting in
00:38:35
a large oversted chair, the gun sitting on an end table next beside him. And according to Detective Joseph Stoddle
00:38:42
Meyer, when the arresting officers entered the room, he said, "Take me. I'm ready." And he was arrested without
00:38:48
incident. Okay. The bullet entered Jack's chest on the left side and exited um from his right shoulder. He was
00:38:55
rushed to the hospital by ambulance, but he died a few hours later from his wounds. Oh, that's just awful. That also
00:39:01
escalated the crime from attempted murder to seconddegree murder. Grady was taken to the county jail to await his
00:39:08
arraignment. Also, I wonder why seconddegree. I think it was because he said he was going to. That's very much
00:39:13
first degree. That's what I'm saying. I think that should have been first degree, but it I don't think it would
00:39:17
have mattered either way because in the meantime, a coroner's inquest was held to determine exactly what the [ __ ]
00:39:23
happened in that in that apartment. Um, and during the inquest, Donna explained that she and Jack had run off together a
00:39:30
few weeks earlier and that her father had quote not been happy about the impending marriage, though he had
00:39:35
consented to it. During his testimony, Detective Stoddle Meer recounted Grady's statement, telling the panel of juries
00:39:43
that of the jury that Grady claimed he had heard talk in the street that Lane, which is Jack, had been saying nasty
00:39:49
things about his daughter, and he had taken all he could take, pulled out his 32 caliber revolver, and shot Lane.
00:39:55
Yeah, that's not how it happened. That's not it at all. Grady was arraigned on a
00:39:59
charge of thirdderee murder, and in early 1979, the case went to trial. Over the course of several weeks, a number of
00:40:07
family members testified that Grady had made threats towards Jack and Donna. And
00:40:12
Donna herself testified that she had been with her father when he purchased the gun. Mhm. However, several other
00:40:19
witnesses, including Grady, indicated he had purchased the gun because Barbara had been receiving threatening phone
00:40:24
calls. Okay. Testifying in his own defense, Grady told the jury that Donna had changed since she started dating
00:40:31
Jack. She was probably happier, more independent. She would sneak out of the house late at night and come home
00:40:36
sometimes with beer on her breath. Oh, honey. Okay, glass house. For real. Okay, glass house. Um, Grady also
00:40:45
claimed that once they were alone, Jack had come at him in a menacing fashion. I
00:40:49
bet. And he said, "I don't know what came over him, but I was scared, I guess, of him killing me." Okay. I doubt
00:40:55
it. Yeah. Um, the projection here is wild. Yeah. As for all the contradictory evidence and witness statements, Grady
00:41:03
claimed all those people, including the police, got together and fabricated their stories. That the police often do
00:41:08
that. That's a real dumb thing to say. For sure. Totally. On February 22nd, 1979, the jury retired for deliberation
00:41:15
and returned a little over 3 hours later to find Grady guilty of thirdderee murder. When the verdict was read, Grady
00:41:22
began weeping at the defense table. The verdict came as a surprise to many, including the prosecutor, who actually
00:41:29
expected an acquitt would come because of sympathy for his condition. Okay. However, while the verdict was like,
00:41:36
yippee, it also posed uh some complications. Primarily, was there a jail or prison in Pennsylvania capable
00:41:43
of accommodating someone in Grady's condition for as long as 15 or 20 years? And there wasn't. After careful
00:41:50
consideration, the answer was no. That's ridiculous. Yes. In the end, Judge Thomas Harper did his best to find
00:41:58
middle ground and sentenced Grady to 15 years of probation, noting, quote, "No prison in
00:42:06
the state can accommodate a person with his physical deformities." That's a quote. After reading the sentence in
00:42:11
court, he the judge said, "I'm not sure that a prison term would not be cruel and unusual punishment in this case.
00:42:18
Society doesn't require vengeance and I felt a probationary term met the best interests for society and the defendant.
00:42:25
The prosecution though disappointed with the sentence didn't make a comment. I mean that's a tough That sucks. That's
00:42:34
awful. He killed a man. Yeah. Like it sucks that nobody was willing nobody could cuz that's the thing. It's like
00:42:40
you can't just acate him. And it's like nobody could accommodate him and that now he gets to be because I wonder what
00:42:47
he what he would have required aside from like something wheelchair accessible. I think that's enough.
00:42:52
That's it, right? I think that's enough for it. And they didn't have anything. They didn't have that cuz think about it
00:42:58
just wasn't a priority back then. 70s though. Like it's crazy. Yeah. Anyway, now after Jack's murder, coldblooded
00:43:06
murder, his sister and other family members blamed Donna for his death, and refused to allow her to stay with them
00:43:13
any longer. So, she was allowed by court order, luckily, to return to Florida to
00:43:19
live with her mother, Teresa. And Glenn finally, that's great. Under the circumstances, really shitty like that.
00:43:24
She didn't do anything wrong. I know. And under the circumstances, I love this too because Teresa also insisted Donna
00:43:31
bring Catherine with her and Grady did not put up a fight. Oh wow. So they were able to go live with Theresa and Glenn
00:43:37
and those were the only two of the daughters left in his care, right? Because Deborah had moved out early on
00:43:42
and she was older. Yeah. Okay. Now throughout the 1980s though, life for Glenn, Teresa, and the kids was a
00:43:47
struggle. Yeah. Uh after his tire business went under, Glenn was forced to return to the Carnival Circus to pro um
00:43:54
to perform his role as the world's smallest man. Mhm. And once again, Teresa found herself kind of back where
00:43:59
she started trying to figure stuff out. Every year when the school year would come to an end, they would have to pack
00:44:04
up the kids and join Glenn on the road to help with responsibilities. It was seeming to like a pattern was repeating
00:44:10
here because that's difficult. Yeah, of course. And Glenn was having difficulty because he was getting older. Yeah, it
00:44:16
was not easy. For more than a decade, they had had a good marriage. He had been a stable, very constant presence in
00:44:23
Teresa's life, and he had treated her better than any other man. Um, and he was a good father to the children. But
00:44:28
as the 80s came to a close, she was starting to feel a little restless in the marriage, and she was kind of
00:44:34
growing tired of being, you know, a constant helper and just going along for the ride, you know, like having to go
00:44:40
out on the road and doing all that stuff. And she Yeah. and she she sees that she's doing the same pattern just
00:44:47
with a nicer man. You know what I mean? But it's still the same like I'm not doing right by these kids by taking them
00:44:53
on the road. It's a tough life, you know? And so in 1990, Teresa and Glenn divorced and she moved out, taking the
00:45:00
kids with her. Uh it should have been a liberating moment, you know, cuz she she
00:45:04
spent her entire life waiting on accommodating, following, having to be the assistant for men. Mhm. But she
00:45:11
quickly found herself lonely cuz she's also a human being. Mhm. In response, she called up Grady. And this is where
00:45:19
we get to uh where I say, "What? What?" Yeah. Uh what? Here's the thing, though.
00:45:28
So, he had separated from his wife, and in the years since his conviction, I know me and Mikey are literally like
00:45:35
looking at each other like, "What the fuck?" I agree. I'm with you on this. I'm shocked. I am shocked. I am
00:45:41
dismayed. Uh Grady had been on house arrest during this time because of the probation [ __ ] years for murdering
00:45:50
murdering her daughter's fiance. So he could not continue drinking the way he was on probation. So he had scaled back
00:46:00
and for the first time in many years he was pretty sober. Okay. Um so for Teresa, she thought she was seeing a
00:46:08
glimpse at the Grady. she knew when they were first dating. Okay. Because remember, she got kind of lovebombed.
00:46:15
Yes. Or not kind of, she got love bombed. Love bombed. And she saw this amazing man who was like and they had
00:46:21
gone so far as to get married happily. Yeah. Had children very happily. And then it was like everything just
00:46:27
imploded at once and then he became a heavy drinker and things got worse. So for her, I'm just trying to like I'm
00:46:34
just trying to like not [ __ ] on Teresa because like I feel like Teresa had such
00:46:38
a [ __ ] life and such hardships that I Yeah. And I just feel for the family. You know what I mean? Like I feel for
00:46:45
these children. I feel for I don't know. It's just a very sad situation. I'm sure
00:46:49
being in a relationship like that like [ __ ] alters your brain chemistry. That's the thing. I I'm trying not to
00:46:55
like judge too hard for her because I'm like I don't know what it's like to have
00:46:59
been in that kind of no turmoil children with somebody and have your children be
00:47:06
in that ter like I can't fathom it. I really can't. So while I don't understand this decision. Yeah. I don't
00:47:13
I don't understand it. I can at least stand from back here and say I don't know what your life feels like, right?
00:47:20
And I don't know what it felt for you to think you were seeing a hint of who you
00:47:25
fell in love with. You have to have empathy for the thing. So that's why I'm like stepping back from my full-blown
00:47:32
judgment here and trying to look at it from like you were seeing someone you you fell in love with or you thought you
00:47:38
were. You know what I mean? It's just a really [ __ ] up sad situation. I really
00:47:43
feel just awful for these children. For them for really especially Donna. That's
00:47:48
the thing. Well, that's the thing. That's where I say, "What the fuck?" Like, that's just a level for your
00:47:55
father to kill your husband like days before you're to marry him. Yeah. Not go to prison because of all the different
00:48:04
circumstances. Finally get away from him even though like his his family thinks that it's your fault. Then you get to go
00:48:12
live with your mother again and she brings that man back into your life right back into his. That's the thing.
00:48:18
Like Donna, all of them, all those kids I feel bad, but the person I feel most most for is Donna. I feel so horrible
00:48:27
because that's just such like trauma on top of trauma on top of trauma. And it's
00:48:33
like compounding trauma. It's also like Teresa has kind of been molded since she
00:48:41
was a child truly to bend to the whims of men and accommodate them and kind of, you know, demean yourself for them like
00:48:50
not really think of yourself as an independent person who can who can do this, who can break out on their own.
00:48:55
And even in her moments of doing it, you know what I mean? Like it's I feel like
00:48:59
she always gets sucked back in with some man who's who's kind of taking the reigns. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, she's a
00:49:05
victim. She's a victim of her own right. But then it's like these children are a
00:49:10
victim of these men and also they're unfortunately their mother's trauma of not being able to be without these men.
00:49:20
And it's like so there's this awful and that's what I meant when I was saying like you can see that there was Teresa
00:49:28
wanted to break this cycle but there was something for a time broken that was I she was struggling to fix and I think it
00:49:37
just makes me really sad that like all of these young women and all of them were embroiled in this Yeah because it's
00:49:46
like what the [ __ ] Like it's just like this guy is a monster. It's just tragic.
00:49:51
A straight up monster. And it's like Teresa wanted to break free. I That's why I just am like I wanted her to break
00:49:58
free with Glenn and those kids right off the jump. I know. Cuz it's like this would have been such a different story.
00:50:04
Yeah. But Grady had to be cruel and he had to pull those kids back just to abuse them. Right. Just to traumatize
00:50:11
them. And it's like I don't think they would have lived with this much trauma if they had lived with Teresa. So she
00:50:17
goes she goes back and does he does he step out again like so for again for Teresa this whole thing is and I'm just
00:50:25
speaking from what she's saying is that she's saying she saw a glimpse of who she fell in love with. She saw a sober
00:50:31
Grady who she thought could you know be who he was. So they were talking regularly over the phone. Mhm. Still,
00:50:39
Teresa knew her children, especially Donna, disapproved of any of this, any kind of relationship with Grady. So, she
00:50:47
wouldn't bring him up around them. But they knew. Yeah. Like, obviously. And also, why are you even doing it? If you
00:50:54
know that they can't have a part of this, it's like, why are you even doing it? It's just not something you should
00:50:58
be doing. Yeah. Um, old habits die hard. Donna later said, I still wouldn't talk
00:51:03
to him on the phone and she wouldn't talk about him with us. Okay. Following her divorce from Glenn, Teresa moved the
00:51:10
kids to Okachchobee, Florida. And and again, they're moving everywhere, all the time. And soon, Grady had relocated
00:51:16
back to Gibson, Florida, where he'd spent much of his life. Um, as he and Teresa got kind of requ reacquainted
00:51:22
with one another, she encouraged the kids to spend time with him. Okay. I can understand. I'm sure like I can't
00:51:31
understand it but I'm sure in her mind it was important for them to have their father and it's again something is
00:51:39
broken here. Yes. Like Teresa has dealt with things that and it's again it doesn't give anybody uh a past to be a
00:51:48
bad parent. No. And I think she would probably agree that this was one of the worst choices she could have made
00:51:55
because honestly uh she does regret this choice later. She does. So there's that. And we have to remember
00:52:01
that we're looking at this through a lens where like we know so much about so much now that that we didn't know about
00:52:09
back then. But again, it does not give a pass to put your children through this kind of stuff. It just doesn't. And I
00:52:17
personally I cannot understand it. I'm trying to look at it through a very logical like
00:52:23
totally kind of disconnected lens of like well this is what she's thinking because of what she said and I don't
00:52:30
want to like [ __ ] all over her because she's been through a lot. No, that's it.
00:52:33
You can't understand but you can empathize. Exactly. I can't understand I can empathize with what she's gone through
00:52:40
but I cannot understand this parenting decision. I simply cannot I'm in awe right now. Um and again all the kids and
00:52:46
they're getting older now especially too. They're like becoming teenagers and stuff. They're all reluctant to go down
00:52:51
this road again because uh you know there was there was the murder of somebody's fiance. There was that. At
00:52:59
first they were like no, we're not into this. But when they saw that Grady was trying to
00:53:04
maintain sobriety and he was showing them that he was and he was very open about the fact that he was very
00:53:11
interested in rebuilding a relationship. This is their father. Yeah. Again, I have a good dad, so I
00:53:19
can't speak from somebody who has a shitty parent who has made steps I so can to make the relationship better. You
00:53:26
know what I mean? So, actually, I can't do that. Exactly. So, I don't want to speak from this like experience to say
00:53:32
like I I don't understand how they could even, you know, entertain this because again, I didn't have I was lucky enough
00:53:38
to not have this situation. Well, I think when you have such a shitty parent, like you all you want is for
00:53:44
them to be better and all you want like abandonment issues are insane. Like these I can't imagine what these kids
00:53:51
must have felt. They can paint every single part of your life. Yeah. The rest of your life and they do like I I'm
00:53:57
fine. I'm very well adjusted, but like I still struggle with that [ __ ] I'm sure.
00:54:01
So if you if your parent is actually making the effort, that's all you want. So, of course, you're going to go along
00:54:09
with it. I mean, obviously, I've just never been in a position of somebody making effort. Well, yeah, there you go.
00:54:14
And I have people close to me, like very close to me, who had awful relationships
00:54:19
with their their parents and then their parents tried to make it right later. And it is a very conflicting, very hard
00:54:27
thing for somebody, even as an adult to deal with. Yeah. Because no matter what,
00:54:31
no matter how shitty your parents are, they're still your parents. And some weird part of you is always going to
00:54:38
want them to be your parents. Well, they're always your parents when your parents suck. I think it's so hard to
00:54:44
make those kind of decisions like when somebody is making an effort because you're always their child that Yeah. I
00:54:50
can't imagine. You know what I And you go back into the role of being the child and feeling the things that you felt
00:54:56
when you were a child like wanting your parent. Yeah. Cuz like biologically we all have an we want our parents to be
00:55:02
our safe place. And when they're not, I can't imagine how that throws you into like cuz again I'm very fortunate enough
00:55:10
that I do not have parents who made me feel unsafe. Yeah. Mom and papa rock out loud. They do. They rock out loud. So,
00:55:16
it's like I'm speaking from a place where like I can't tell you how this feels. And I know a lot of you listening
00:55:22
are speaking can come from a place of the total opposite where your parents weren't and aren't and couldn't be your
00:55:28
safe space. And I'm sorry cuz I can't imagine how that feels. And it can trans it can really transform how you make
00:55:35
decisions. Yeah. It can color every part of your existence for the rest of especially like with like I'm just
00:55:42
thinking of like how therapy just like was not a thing back then and like Not not really at all. No, I would be so
00:55:49
different if I hadn't done years and years of therapy. That's the thing. And we're adding on again. I know like
00:55:55
people I really love and care about who have gone through like dealing with parents coming back and trying to build
00:56:00
a relationship and really putting an effort. But those parents also didn't kill their uh spouse. That's a whole
00:56:06
other layer of it. That's a whole layer on to this where I'm like cuz then you had grief into it and blame and and you
00:56:14
took someone I love from me like quite literally like you literally took someone I love and that's where I say
00:56:19
like Teresa how could you ask them to do this? That's the thing with Donna. It's
00:56:24
just how can you ask her to do this? And again you're her mother. She's going to
00:56:28
want to please you. Mhm. And you're supposed to protect her. It's like and that's where the safe space gets snipped
00:56:34
for a minute. You have no safe space because that you your mother shouldn't be asking you to do this. Yeah. I also
00:56:39
think it's probably and I'm sure people listening feel this way. It's so again I
00:56:42
I can't understand but I can have empathy but it is hard to have empathy in a situation like this. Would you I
00:56:51
haven't even gone through something similar to that exactly at all. But like when so when somebody wrongs their child
00:56:58
and you're a child who's been wronged, you're just like, "God damn it." Well, that's the thing. And I have like I I
00:57:04
always have to pull myself back a little bit because I get real [ __ ] mad when people mistreat their kids. Well,
00:57:09
because you I'm not even a mistreated kid. I just I think of my kids. And I'm like, you think of your kids? And like
00:57:14
frankly, like just for everybody who thinks that me and Elena have a weird relationship, Elena's my protector. like
00:57:21
genuinely like you're people's protector and the other people in your life who have gone through similar things, you're
00:57:26
their protector. So you're like don't I'm going to [ __ ] you up like you are this kid. That's the thing. So that's
00:57:31
why you feel that way cuz cuz you're the safe space. Yes. Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. No, you are. That's what
00:57:37
I strive to be for my little You are goobins in my life. But and you are you are one of my little goobins in my life.
00:57:45
And I think of like who wronged you and I want to [ __ ] you know, become therapy. Anyway, what
00:57:53
happened? What happened? But yeah, I think it just he seemed like he was trying to get sober. He was doing his
00:57:59
best with that and then he was making it clear to them that he wanted to rebuild
00:58:04
the relationship and that he felt some kind of some kind of regret. Yeah. And remorse. And so they softened. Okay. Uh
00:58:11
but still genuine or not, he couldn't wipe wipe away the lifetime worth of horrible, abusive, violent, horrific,
00:58:20
traumatizing memories. You just can't. And Donna says, "I don't think I ever started loving my father like a dad
00:58:25
again." Which is very sad for him. Well, you know what though? It is very sad that like she didn't ever get that
00:58:31
ability to do that. He wasn't her dad. Well, that's the he took I hope she knows that that is not her inability to
00:58:38
love him again. It was his inability to be a lovable person, right? He never was
00:58:43
a father to like give that to her. How can you love somebody like a father when they're not a father to you? He was
00:58:47
never a father to and when they take away somebody who finally did protect you and wanted to protect you, right?
00:58:53
Like so that I really hope that like Donna and their kids like know that they have done nothing wrong in this
00:59:01
situation and that they they were totally valid in their feelings and their hesitation here. Now, not long
00:59:09
after Grady moved back to Florida, he and Teresa got remarried. Okay. Which seemed to have been his goal. Seemed
00:59:16
that since that first phone call Teresa made to him after her divorce. And unfortunately, once Grady got what he
00:59:23
wanted, he began sliding right back into his old ways. That's tragic. That is truly tragic for
00:59:31
everyone involved. And I'll say fortunately for some of the children, all of them had moved out by
00:59:40
then this except for Glenny who was a teenager. Okay. And he's not Grady's child. So I can only imagine how Grady
00:59:48
felt about that. Exactly. But soon enough, even the kids that were out of the house were starting to notice that
00:59:55
their father wasn't very around very often and they would call or visit and he wouldn't be there. And you know, he'd
01:00:01
be spending time at bars again. He was out for days. And eventually Teresa did admit to Donna that Grady was fully back
01:00:10
in his old ways, like spending all their money at bars. It was just right back. Yeah. Right back to it. Um, and because
01:00:17
his temper came right back. the frustrations, the anger, the rage. He was abusing her. He was abusing like
01:00:23
like it was bad. One night in late 1991, after a night out drinking, he returned
01:00:29
home and demanded that Teresa bring him a drink in bed. So Teresa did, but she handed him the drink and she said, "This
01:00:37
is the last drink I'm going to get you." Uhhuh. And in response, he grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her back
01:00:43
on the bed hard enough to pull clumps of it from her scalp. Oh, [ __ ] who do remember too, she's
01:00:51
horribly afraid of this man now. Of course she is. He's beaten the [ __ ] out of her for years, which makes it worse
01:00:56
that she is now in this position again because like I wish you had stayed away from him. Yeah, because like he has gone
01:01:03
most of his life also um keeping that upper body strength. So he's I didn't even not only is he a frightening and
01:01:10
very rage like like raging guy, he's very very strong. And when you're you have crazy upper body strength, you can
01:01:19
do a lot of damage. Yeah, of course. Um now after this whole incident happened, Teresa felt that feeling she hadn't felt
01:01:25
in years, which is I'm [ __ ] tired of this. Yeah. Um she'd had enough. And so getting she said this whole that whole
01:01:32
thing was a mistake. I should have never got she says it. I should have never gotten back together with him. Um and
01:01:38
she said but now I am facing the consequences of my actions. Oh god. there. She thought about leaving again,
01:01:45
but by then she didn't have the same resources or willpower that she'd had the last time she left him. And he had
01:01:51
been getting he had been using all their money at bars. Mhm. Um so she stayed and
01:01:56
endured the abuse, which was inevitably followed by the sense of guilt for having fallen right back into Grady's
01:02:02
trap. It's a cycle. Exactly. by November, it it really shows you how too scary the abuse cycle is. Yeah. And
01:02:11
that like people will go back into it just because of how deeply rooted the abuse cycle is. It's like really scary
01:02:19
and really sad. The fact that we treat each other this way and the fact that like we treat people we supposedly love
01:02:26
this way as like a society. We're the only species. We got to get it together. I say that every time. Like we got to
01:02:32
get it [ __ ] together. I do like this kind of [ __ ] pisses me off so much. I'm
01:02:36
like, you don't have to be this way. You do not have to be a [ __ ] cruel piece of [ __ ] to the people who look to you
01:02:43
for protection and to be a safe place. No. So, by November 1992, life with Grady was [ __ ] unbearable for Teresa
01:02:51
and Glenny. Despite his attempts at sobriety a few years earlier, he had just he was fully back fully back to
01:02:57
being abusive, cruel, an alcoholic. Um the same man who had beaten her while her husband watched helplessly by the
01:03:04
way and then had threatened to murder her son Glenn when he was a child. Yep. Uh so that Yeah. And now that same son
01:03:12
is living under the roof with him. Yep. She was desperate to get out of the house and away from him. But it seemed
01:03:18
like no matter what she did or where she looked, there was just no options for escape. In the end, it wasn't Teresa who
01:03:25
took charge of the situation. It was Glenny, but 17-year-old Glen Gene. I knew it was headed that way. He resolved
01:03:30
to do something about his stepfather, and he wanted to save his mother. That November, Glenn called up the toughest
01:03:37
person he could think of, which was 17-year-old Chris Wyant. Uh, even though he was just 17, Chris had an occasional
01:03:44
sideshow performer, had a very long criminal record, and Glenny was certain Chris would know what to do about his
01:03:50
stepfather. And remember, this kid Glenn has watched his mother be beaten by this
01:03:56
man his entire life. While his father was held down with a shotgun his entire life. Uhhuh. Just saying. I don't know
01:04:03
what happens, but that's what I have in my mind right now. You can't. Again, no one will ever say that murder is the
01:04:10
correct end game for anything. It's not a good choice. So, if you take that from
01:04:14
what we're saying, then like you didn't listen. You're clearly not listening. But but no one's saying that. But what
01:04:19
this is a clear show of like evidence of is you cannot beat someone down their entire life. You just can't like people
01:04:28
explode. You just can't do that. You can't treat someone like this for their whole life. As we saw with Ken McElroy,
01:04:34
that whole thing, you can't do that. No. Cuz you do lose people lose their humanity for you because you have you
01:04:41
have treated them subhuman your whole life. Like you know what I mean? It's like I this kid wanted to protect his
01:04:48
mom and it's like really sad and he didn't know any other option and it's like obviously he made the wrong
01:04:53
decision, right? But [ __ ] like the whole thing is just like godamn like none of
01:04:59
this happened. It's really sad. So on November 26th, Glenny and Chris met at a local park where Glenny gave his friend
01:05:07
the details of everything that was happening and said, "Can you just help me? Help me end this." The price would
01:05:13
later be disputed in court, but Chris initially told Glenny he would take care of the situation for 300
01:05:19
bucks. In the end, um he would be paid $1,500. Uh regardless of the actual price, though, Chris Chris did agree to
01:05:27
take care of Grady and Glenny agreed to pay him. Okay. A few days later, Glenny would try to call the whole thing off
01:05:34
and get his money back. So, you can tell he just he was desperate and then he was
01:05:39
like, "Fuck, I I shouldn't do this." But by then Chris had already bought a gun and spent the rest of the money. So the
01:05:45
deal went forward as planned. On the evening of November 9 29th, Glenny broke down and told his mother about the
01:05:53
arrangement, which also shows you that this he has remorse already. He hasn't he hasn't
01:05:59
even done it and he's like, I [ __ ] up. Yeah. But you can tell the desperation in this
01:06:03
case to break down and tell his mom. He's just like, I don't know what to do. Like I just want to help you.
01:06:09
Heartbreaking. Yeah. To his surprise though, his mother didn't express a sense of shock or attempt to call the
01:06:16
police to put an end to the whole thing. Instead, she and Glenny left the house quietly, leaving Grady asleep in his
01:06:22
chair watching television. A few hours later, around 11 p.m., Chris Wyant slipped into the
01:06:28
trailer through the back door they'd left open. Having been there a few times, he knew the layout, so he tried
01:06:33
to go silently and be quiet, but he made a noise and he woke Grady up. He began shouting at Chris to get out and never
01:06:40
come back. And Chris went back a few steps into the kitchen like he was going to leave. But then he aimed aimed the
01:06:45
gun and fired. And the bullet hit Grady in the back of the head and killed him instantly. Wow. Then just to be sure, he
01:06:52
fired two more shots. Both hit Grady in the head just a few centimeters from the
01:06:56
first wound. With Grady now dead, Chris ran out the back door and fled into the night. From where they were sitting in
01:07:02
the neighbor's living room, Glenny and Teresa could hear the gunshots. Uh Glenn, they're just next door. Yeah,
01:07:08
they're just next door. Glenny even remembered see looking out the window and seeing Chris run from the trailer.
01:07:14
Damn. And he said when he saw him fleeing the scene, he knew the terror they'd been living with that his mother
01:07:20
had been living with for decades had finally come to an end and that they would not have to worry about the
01:07:24
lobster boy again. Wow. That was what Glenny said. Um to detectives at the scene, things in the house were
01:07:31
immediately suspicious. Obviously, the killer had clearly entered through an unlocked door. Nothing was missing. And
01:07:38
so, they were like, "This wasn't a robbery. This was clearly a targeted assassination." Yeah. Um, a spokesperson
01:07:44
for the sheriff's office told reporters the next day, "We've got some leads, but
01:07:47
we're not saying much." So, they were being ky with the press, and it's likely because they already knew what happened
01:07:52
in the Styles house, and they didn't want to let out any details before they were ready. Um, by the time they
01:07:58
finished taking Glenn Jr.'s statement that night. They more or less had a pretty accurate understanding of how
01:08:03
things had unfolded from his contracting Chris Wyant through the murder. The following morning, they arrested Teresa
01:08:10
Glenn Jr. and Chris Wyant on a charge of first-degree murder based on the statements of Teresa and her son. So,
01:08:16
they basically just they just it wow. The trial for all three began in July of the next year with the defense attorney
01:08:24
arguing that Terresa and Glenn had been pushed to the point of murder after years of domestic violence. At the time,
01:08:30
the domestic violence aspect of the case, which was known as battered wife syndrome, Mhm. was relatively new and
01:08:38
pretty novel, but it turned out they wouldn't get a chance to try it because the judge ordered that self-defense
01:08:42
cannot be argued if it's a contract murder. Yeah. The case was further disrupted a
01:08:48
few days later when a mistrial was declared because there was issues with the jury and the prosecution moved for a
01:08:54
retrial. It turned out that they wouldn't end up they would end up waiting for like over a year for their
01:08:59
trial to start. Um and that's when they were all being tried for first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder
01:09:06
which could carry the death penalty. Yeah. But the prosecution didn't have any interest in pursuing that. Okay.
01:09:12
Under the circumstances, Chris Wyant had pretty uh limited defense since he had been identified by his two codefendants.
01:09:21
In late January 1994, he was found guilty of secondderee and guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder
01:09:28
and he was sentenced to 27 years in prison for each charge. [ __ ] Uh he was but it was going to be served
01:09:33
concurrently. He was released from prison in 2009 after serving a minimum of 15 years and he has lived out of the
01:09:40
spotlight. Okay, just out he goes. Uh, having been ordered for a new trial, though, Teresa once again offered a
01:09:47
self-defense argument. Her attorney, Arnold Lavine, told the jury she honestly believed she had no other
01:09:53
alternative but to participate in this terrible act. Uh, in response to her defense, the judge ruled that the
01:09:59
self-defense argument could be allowed, but only if Teresa was willing to admit the role she played in hiring her
01:10:05
husband's killer, which she did. The stipulation struck a lot in the legal a lot of people in the legal community as
01:10:12
like weird and unusual. Uh law professor Steven Goldstein told a reporter, "I don't understand why she has to testify
01:10:19
to it." Like saying that whether she testifies to her role or not, it wouldn't change the outcome. Right. Why
01:10:26
are we making her say she has like this much of a role in it? Yeah. Especially when she really didn't. Yeah. She was
01:10:32
just told after the fact she didn't do anything to stop it. But it's like Right. But I mean like she didn't really
01:10:38
Yeah. But regardless of whether it was an appropriate stipulation, she did confess her role and offered the
01:10:43
domestic abuse stories as her motive. All of which were backed up by testimony from her children and others who'd known
01:10:49
her over the years. All of them knew how he was with him. I mean, this is clearly
01:10:52
an abusive man. He was literally on parole for killing his daughter's fiance. I was going to say, I mean,
01:10:57
hello. In the end, her defense was moderately successful. Although the jury did find her guilty, they all agreed the
01:11:04
circumstances warranted a less charge, a lesser charge, and she was convicted of
01:11:08
manslaughter and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. It was the first time in Florida's history that a jury
01:11:14
allowed um was allowed to consider self-defense in a case of contract murder. Wow. So, this is like that's
01:11:21
remarkable. Yeah. After the verdict was read, the prosecution agreed that it was
01:11:25
a successful compromise, calling it quote, "a resolution of a very difficult issue.
01:11:30
In August, a judge sentenced Teresa to 12 years in prison for her role in the murder, followed by 5 years of
01:11:36
probation, and she was rel released from prison in 2000. Wow. A few months later,
01:11:42
Glenn Jr. was offered a plea deal in which he would confess to everything in exchange for the same sentence as his
01:11:48
mother, but apparently Teresa insisted he reject the offer and go to trial. I don't know about that. As a result, he
01:11:55
went on trial for first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. And after a very brief trial,
01:12:01
they deliberated for just over an hour and found him guilty on both charges and sentenced him to 25 years to life for
01:12:08
murder. Yeah. Why wouldn't you take a plea deal? Yeah. And when there's a charge of conspiracy and like capital
01:12:14
murder and all that or not deal Yeah. I don't know why you wouldn't take that deal. But sadly, according to the
01:12:19
Florida Department of Corrections, Glenn Jr. died on March 5th, 2014. Oh. But they didn't release any details
01:12:27
regarding his death. Oh, that's so sad. I know. So, that is that's that's it. Like that's how it all shakes out. Wow.
01:12:34
That's two of the three ended up start to finish. They're out of jail, but Glenn Jr. passed away. Did he was he
01:12:42
born with the condition? No, because he was his child son. I didn't know if it it was like complications from that
01:12:48
maybe or something. They never released his death. That's really sad. It's a really sad sad sad situation from
01:12:57
beginning to end. It just shows how dangerous it can be to I hope everyone has been able to move forward from it in
01:13:07
some way, shape or form and there's been some growth somewhere. Yeah. And I hope
01:13:13
those kids have been able to move forward from it because like [ __ ] like that's when I think it was I think it
01:13:20
was Donna or Deborah. One of them said that like they have no happy memories from childhood. Like they can't think of
01:13:27
it. And I'm like that is horrible. That's so so sad. Like how and Donna loses the love somebody she's in love
01:13:33
with her soon to be husband and then had to be around that man again and just like Glenny lost his adult life
01:13:42
because obviously again he made a poor decision. He had no childhood and then lost his whole life after. Like there's
01:13:50
just no winners in this situation at all. He was just he was trying to protect his mom. Well, that's what
01:13:54
breaks my heart is like again I don't think I have to keep saying it. No, we're not condoning murder or contract
01:14:01
murder in any way, shape, or form, but like you just see the desperation in that kid, especially the way he acted
01:14:07
afterwards where one, he tried to stop it all, and two, he went right to his mom and was like, I did something bad
01:14:13
and like I I want to stop this. It's like how desperate she was to not do anything to stop it. Yeah.
01:14:19
[ __ ] That is a really sad case, dude. Yeah. It bummed me out in like a way I can't describe. Yeah. It's just like I
01:14:26
need to do something different for my next one. Yeah, cuz like this really bummed me out. Well, we have listener
01:14:32
tales coming up, so that's Oh, there you go. You You guys will soothe. You'll be
01:14:35
like bomb on my soul. Yeah. Yeah, he'll be good. Oh man. And Nicholas will be will be on our next listener. Soothing
01:14:44
to my [ __ ] soul. Maybe he'll he'll be in a better mood. He better be. He was really reading me for filth. But he'll
01:14:50
he'll make me feel better. Oh man. Oh man. I know. Go touch grass, everyone. Go tell if you have a good parent, tell
01:14:58
them how much you appreciate them for not being so [ __ ] terrible. Yeah. And go like, if you have if you are a parent
01:15:03
or if you just like love a child in your life, go tell them that. Go be awesome to them. Go be a safe place for them.
01:15:10
Then go donate to like domestic violence causes. And if you have parents that suck ass, I'm sorry. Yeah. Thank you.
01:15:18
I'm sorry. Like that mine didn't suck that bad. That sucks. Yeah. And we're I'm I'm your parent. But you know what?
01:15:25
Okay, if you're listening and your parents suck, I'm your parent now. Yes, you're one of her gooins. You're one of
01:15:31
my gooins. It's cool to know that you can break the cycle. I think that's a very empowering thing to lean on if you
01:15:37
want to. No. And it shouldn't it's not easy. So So it doesn't if it doesn't feel easy, that's okay. And it shouldn't
01:15:44
be up to you. But sometimes it just works that way. But people are going to people people going people. So there we
01:15:50
go. God damn. Um, well, we hope you keep listening. Yeah, we hope you do. We hope
01:15:56
you And we hope you keep it weird. Uh, just not so weird that like you abuse people you love. Keep your [ __ ] hands
01:16:04
to yourself. Yeah. Stop hitting people. Don't get married if you don't like the person. Uh, it's, you know, we all have
01:16:13
free will. Don't do good with your free will. Gosh darn it. God damn. [Music] [Music]