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wait guys serious question did you get your invite to our next weirdos audio book club no oh my God I'm so sorry well
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consider yourself invited this time you guys we are covering the audible title Blue Beard a suspenseful radio style
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dramatization of True Life events leading to the capture of Infamous the infamous Blue Beard Watson who conned
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and killed countless women in the early 1900s join us in a special guest on Friday the 13th of December while we
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talk about this title join the conversation on Instagram Friday December 13th weirdos audio book
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[Music] club cute way of talking you got the B ideas does he actually say the baddest ideas or I
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don't know that song you don't know that song is it old yeah it is I love how you're like
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songs isn't it old you must know it hold on you got a cute [Music] way you know what I'm not good you've
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seen it before you'll sing a song and I'll be like I don't know what that song is and then I'll listen to it and I'm
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like oh I know this song you absolutely I'm just not going to like catching it when someone else sings it it's the one
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that's like You Make Me Feel Like Dancing I'm going to dance the night away you make me feel like danc
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M and Pua definitely played this song Please Hold You Make Me Feel oh I think I have heard this I I
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don't think it played often in our house though this does not hit a Nostalgia button at all for me I love that song
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like I think maybe I've heard that like once wow you have to say hey weirdos oh yeah hey weirdos I'm Molina I'm Ash and
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this is morbin and you make us feel like dancing [Music] I don't know why I thought he said you
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have the baddest ideas when he says you got the better of me your interpretations of lyrics are incredible
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thank you it's a specialty of mine what the pecan pie oh it's they're so and the
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um uh ice queen Ice que oh that's one of my best we've told them that one but the
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have we told them the uh is that Empire of the Sun yes it's not walking on a dream is it yeah it is is it yeah now I
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have you got me feel like dancing in my head so I can't think of my version hold
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on when he says is it real now when two people become one I say is it grandma is she making PE and Pie and
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then I say can I have some can I have some PE pie if you listen to it you can hear the grandma a little bit Yeah it
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Trails off a little I think the the the pean pie was like a joke felt right at the moment yeah it that was for the bet
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that was for the plot for the plot for the plot and that's lyrics with ashel thanks for tuning in folks I love it
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thanks how are you you got the baddest ideas you got the better of me when you were singing that I was like what cuz
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you like it's old I was like I feel like that wouldn't be what they would say no
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when I was thinking that I also was like that's definitely not it but it just felt good you commit and like baddest
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now is good like you're the baddest [ __ ] you got the baddest ideas and it's kind of like oh you got the baddest
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ideas girl you know what I mean you know what I mean oh my God you crazy girl oh
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here we are I put a lot of coffee creamer in my coffee today so she's on a different level I'm in like Baja Blast
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Terr excuse me bajaa blast territory it's true I become unhinged and we love it thank you we've got an unhinged case
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that we're going to talk about we do we cuz we're going to be covering James P Watson the Blue Beard killer oh and then
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uh we're going to be following this up with the weirdos audio book club honey heyya so we're covering the case and
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then we're going to read the title and we're going to discuss it with a special guest a special guest we're not
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announcing yet but I think you know him and I think you love them and we do too and of course we do too of of course
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he's stuck with us forever it's true he knows be yeah yeah he said he's happy being stuck with us forever so who do
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you think it is not John or Drew but they're also stuck with us forever uh so this story is very complex
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yeah there are many names quite like the kind of like the one that you were doing
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yeah the murder of Carol Thompson yeah that would that had a lot of names very um so many criminals see and this
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is just one criminal who is goes by many names oh we have another Alias kind so many aliases I love so many an alasi an
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alas did they become alasi this is a a wild one so we're going to start out a place and then I'm going to take you to
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the beginning when Katherine wacher suspected her husband Walter Andrew of having an affair in the spring of 1920
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she hired um you know a private detective she was she was on her [ __ ] she was like I'm not letting this just
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go Queen also back in 1920 in 1920 she hired a private detective to follow him on one of his many out of town trips
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that he would take and they had only been married for a short period of time and he had been on many out oftwn trips
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so she was like something's weird here yeah but rather than follow Walter out of town like the private detective
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thought he would be doing he tracked the man less than a mile away from his home
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with Catherine what in Hollywood where he discovered that Walter had had indeed been carrying on a relationship with
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another woman he was having an affair but that was the Le Beast of Catherine's issues here oh No in fact his real name
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was James Watson and that was not the only name he was known by uhoh so let's go back to the beginning who the [ __ ] is
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James Watson cuz what are you doing sir yeah is what I say yeah a less than a mile away from your home that's CRA and
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all that time she thought he was like going Here There and Everywhere out of town L than a mile away but right under
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her nose he was going out of town sometimes because that was not the only thing he was doing oh I'm I don't so
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scared to know what he was doing as you should be um in the interviews he gave just after his arrest because he would
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be arrested later uh Watson claimed to have very little memory of his early life that tended to be his uh go-to
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thing when when he didn't want to talk about something he go you know it's crazy I just don't remember he pleed the
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fifth a lot good um he would go so far as to tell a reporter that he grown up in an orphanage and couldn't remember
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which state he resided in okay um he only knew that it was in the south now when asked what he knew of his parents
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he again claimed he really didn't have any memory of either his mother or his father uh but he did have vague memories
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apparently of both parents appearing at one point or another to claim him at the
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orphanage okay he said in an interview it appears that a man came and they said they must hide me for they didn't want
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him him to have me and I think I heard someone say he was my father it seems to me they put me under the bed or in the
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closet just before he came and I stayed there until he went away and do we think
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this is true oh uh survey says that's a lie okay so yeah no one really knows why
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Watson told these stories at this time especially yeah they were basically all lies like he just kind of bullshitted
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his whole life I guess it makes his life sound more interesting yeah he's very um
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he's HH homes esque to he's got that it had that Vibe yeah where he lies a lot he embellishes a lot he goes by many
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aliases to get away with different things like all very Fantastical lots of marriage is happening here um but he
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would also claim that he couldn't remember details of something when one he wanted to get away with something or
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just be a dick but he also they found that he would do this when the reality of the situation was too painful so he
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did have some trauma yeah I was going to say that's definitely a trauma response
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and this would make sense for him because again his early life was definitely not great there was a lot of
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abuse a lot of neglect it was he did not grow up in a loving home yeah he feel for the kid version of him now James
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Watson was not born James Watson had a feeling uh he was born Charles Gillum in car great name why change it Charles
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Gill I love the name Charles he was born in Carol County Arkansas on July 3rd 1871 uh his father was a dick and
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abandoned the family when Watson was just an inant infant just took off great um and his mother was also a dick uh she
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was super volatile uh and would honestly direct all her rage and anger at her only son awesome yeah when James was
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still very young his mom remarried and changed his first and last names yeah relatable yeah rechristening
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him as Joseph Holden oh okay so she maybe like maybe to have a more holy name I guess I'm not really sure I I
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think just just shenan on her part yeah moms that change their kids' names are weird yeah it's a little strange now at
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the time of his mother's remarriage his stepfather already had several children of his own and neither parent made any
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effort to integrate James into that new family he was just kind of kicked to the
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side yeah uh so his mom's a complete piece of [ __ ] and his new stepfather was also a complete piece of [ __ ] yeah [ __ ]
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him um yeah they just didn't do it instead they just kind of used him as a scapegoat for whatever went wrong and
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would just kind of like torment and abuse him his entire childhood why why have children so those two are [ __ ]
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[ __ ] um when he was just 12 years old he left home for good wow took off was like I'm good with this this [ __ ] he
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must have seen and experienced by 12 yeah to leave to leave permanently yeah he left home for good he drifted around
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the Southern United States taking jobs wherever he could find them um in his version of events and remember you have
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to take all what he's saying as a grain of salt because he's a liar a true true liar right um but I mean I guess it
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wouldn't really serve him too much to lie about this part but who knows you never know yeah um in his version of of
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events he was adopted and his new family traveled around the South working as Farm laborers according to Watson and
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his mid- teens he spent a long period in Kansas working on a farm with a man who
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served as the area's blacksmith um he told the a reporter for the Los Angeles Times he used to make me
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work on the farm if I didn't do my work I didn't eat and then he said good the blacksmith was physically abusive and
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would often hit and whip him for things he didn't realize he had even done wrong
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Jesus yeah what is wrong with all these adults truly according to Watson he ran away from the blacksmith's farm for
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about a year and then he changed his name again to Dan Bolton Okay uh from this point he continued traveling
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through the South as kind of just like working as a laborer whatever he could do eventually he made his way up to
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Canada and he settled in a place that I didn't know existed and I love the name of it Moosejaw Saskatoon hell yeah Moose
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Jaw Saskatoon oh hey where are you from uh I come from uh moose Moosejaw cat what Moosejaw Saskatoon I come from
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Moosejaw Saskatoon it has a very nice mouth feel when you say itas sason it's the Saskatoon of it all yeah it's very
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smooth CU you do the and then the C and then the T and then the and the O I like
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the Saskatoon yeah yeah and Moose Jaw is just great I feel like you know how people like call their animals crazy
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things I could see you calling your dog Saskatoon oh hell yeah come here you little SAS come here you little
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Saskatoon I love it oh that was the Bubba was gination station oh yeah for a long time she was many many things but
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gation station was a station I just call my cat sexy man and she was like that's
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weird he's like and I'm like whatever so so here he goes he settles in Moose ja Saskatoon in 1912 and he
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changed his name again that's when he changed it to James Watson okay now in the year that follow followed he found
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work at a mill in Calgary and then from there he traveled to Vancouver he went into business for himself and operated a
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collection agency you're in a place of Canada lately I am in a place of Canada lately I get it it's fun I mean Canada
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Canada am I right right now in 1913 Watson met and married Katherine Cruz in Nelson which is a small City in
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the mountains of Southern British Columbia there's not a lot known about Catherine but um through like some
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articles Publications they list her as either his first or his fourth wife oh big difference there yeah and and you as
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you'll see it's there's countless so it's really it's hard to keep it track in a letter to a friend Katherine wrote
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James certainly knew about how to get married quickly we were married without any of our friends knowing about
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anything about it my parents did not know of it until sometime afterwards oh that's really sad and when she says
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James certainly knew how to get married quickly that's an understatement oh yeah
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yeah now as a collection agent Watson would have to spend a lot of time traveling you know to collect on debts
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do all that kind of stuff yeah so on his frequent trips away from home he was doing something that didn't seem
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suspicious to Catherine at the time like that he travels for work yeah like it wasn't hard to convince her sure so he
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would what was a little suspicious was he would was he would come back from these trips a lot of time with women's
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clothing and jewelry that's upsetting and he would tell his wife these items were seized payment of overdue debts or
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mortgages and so now you get them and she was like okay but she was like [Music]
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weird now because Watson was a consumate liar who by the end of his life couldn't
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even tell which parts of his own history were true and false like he muddled his
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own memory so much that's scary yeah it's really difficult to know where his habits went from bigamy to murder like
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where exactly it happened um between 1915 and 1918 he was juggling several marriages at the time marriages too not
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just like women like girlfriends marriages like how and some of those his wives would just disappear Without a
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Trace oh no yeah and as a result it's impossible to know precisely when his murder spree began or even identify his
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very first victim okay um but specifically since he frequently claimed to have forgotten so many details it
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gets very muddled um it should also kind of be noted that while he did confess to
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many murders there's no exact list of how many wives he even had or how many of them were victims like there could be
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more many more um even the details of those that are known to have been killed are so obscured and vague it's kind of
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difficult to put everything together it's not impossible to put together like an accurate chronology of the events at
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least like to some extent yeah but I guess even like modern sources will tell you like it's difficult to put dates and
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names with victims to a tea like things get muddled in here now in October 1917 while he was still married to Katherine
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Cruz Watson going by the name Charles Newton Harvey now Jesus Christ oh yeah we're only at the tip of it he he was
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married to Katherine Cruz yes now he is going by the name Charles Newton Harvey and he's married marrying another woman
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now while he's married to Katherine named Alice Lon in Port Towns in Washington it's worth noting that he was
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technically still married to Katherine Cruz but he had abandoned her several years earlier oh like maybe even as
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early as 1914 just abandoned her nice yeah with the exception of maybe Cru it looks like Watson's method of meeting
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women was typically placing an ad in the Lonely Hearts section one of those people uh he would advertise himself as
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a wealthy man looking for a wife and this was exactly the kind this was the advertisement that he placed under the
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Alias HL Gordon a gentleman need appearing of C of courious disposition well connected in a business way has
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quite a little property and has connected several Corp corations his b his nice bank account has nice bank
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account as well as considerable role of government bonds would be pleased to correspond with refined young lady or
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Widow objective matrimony this advertisement is in good faith all answers will be treated with
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respect which you can see why people responded to that he seems nice he's got money he's got property he's looking for
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marriage he's going to give you a chance no matter what yeah all right I'm saying
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I'd answer back then once the advertisement would get some responses he would evaluate each one and he would
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pick out the wealthiest women it's like a game for him it absolutely was and once he picked out that list of wealthy
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women he would start a rapid fire courtship and urge a very early marriage with them scary after the marriage he
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would ask his new wife for a list of her closest friends her closest relatives saying he wanted to make sure he knew
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who was close to her so he could notify them in case of emergency uhhuh from that point forward he said about you
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know fleecing them of money essentially property various other assets by either asking for small to bigger size loans or
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claiming you know what why don't we just combine our assets together roll our wealth into each others and that would
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give him free access to their money you know what this makes me wonder I wonder when prenups started I know I'm going to
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Google that really quickly cuz that's a good call it popped into my head now in the early Decades of the 20th century
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and for many decades later the concept of a Serial or spree killer was still unfathomable like I mean yeah serial
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killers spree killers were not a thing that people were studying or thinking could even happen and the majority you
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know of Americans were naive to the fact that men would prey on women to the extent that Watson did it just wasn't
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something that happened yeah like all the time so it never occurred to any of Watson's wives that Not only was he only
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marrying them for the money but he also intended to kill them once they were no longer of any use or value to him right
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that never crossed their mind it wasn't like they were looking at this ad being like Oh I wonder if he's a murderer like
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we would yeah like like modern women probably would immediately be like but this guy could be a serial killer yeah
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like probably most likely never crossed their mind of and shouldn't have because
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it wasn't a big thing it just wasn't a thing that they had to worry about and also being married was like a a huge
00:19:21
thing back then like that a thing you were looking to get married you were looking to like combine assets you were
00:19:27
looking to and it was place of St that was your societal standing exactly and by the way um prenups actually go back
00:19:34
to ancient Egypt wow which is crazy yeah according to uh AI on Google uh prenuptual agreements also known as
00:19:42
marital contracts date back to ancient Egypt where some of the earliest known prenups were written on uh papus Scrolls
00:19:47
over 2,000 Papyrus Papyrus Scrolls excuse me 2,000 years ago but I think the prenup as we think of it like the
00:19:55
more kind of legal document legal document became more popular in the 1980s oh okay but that's so cool to
00:20:01
think about that there was some kind of discussion of like what we're going to divvy up or what we keep and you get
00:20:07
yeah and if you think of it too like in like more medieval times it was like dowries and stuff like that was your
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kind of their version of like a prenup yeah it was like leading up to the more formal one yeah interesting but yeah
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these women back they didn't have any reason to really be thinking that this is what they were encountering here in
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fact many of the women looking for love and companionship and newspaper were older and more socially established
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already so it made their pool of potential suitors a little smaller not only were they less likely to be
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suspicious of a man who seemed pretty psyched to move into like forward with the relationship quickly but they were
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also sus susceptible to the Grand romantic gestures that Watson made and the promises of exotic vacations you
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know they had already been through this rigoll so there's like another one let's
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go yeah unfortunately for many of Watson's wives those exciting and exotic vacations would turn out to be their
00:21:01
last MH starting with Alice ludwigson in 1917 according to his confession later the two of them took a fishing trip on a
00:21:09
river in Idaho and while out on the water in their small rowboat the boat became jammed up against some logs that
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had been SEC like secured to the riverbank and Watson said he claimed that Alice started to push against the
00:21:22
logs with her hands and he was pushing with his feet and when the boat finally like dislodged she lost her balance and
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fell from the boat oh and he said his first impulse was to rush to one of the logging camps in the vicinity and asked
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for help but he was a stranger in the neighborhood and fearing that he might be suspected of being the cause of the
00:21:42
woman's death he finally decided to say nothing about the matter I feel like this went differently he definitely
00:21:49
murdered her yeah absolutely like drowned her most likely her body was never recovered and her death only came
00:21:55
to light after he was arrested wow yeah it was definitely a murder like for sure
00:22:00
yeah um but he claimed it was an accident and he claimed that it gave him the idea that he could oh conveniently
00:22:08
get rid of his wives once he secured access to their finances and then he could move on to a new woman you know
00:22:14
using the Lonely Heart section of the newspaper and keep doing it right the next several murders happened in quick
00:22:20
succession all in a very similar manner to Alice um there was beatric Andre wartha a widow who was described as
00:22:28
having a particularly lovely disposition oh um Watson married her in Tacoma Washington in the summer of 1918 under
00:22:36
the name Harry Lewis they took a trip to Lake Washington a few months later where
00:22:41
beatric drowned under mysterious circumstances so he likes to drown people yeah he changes it up a little
00:22:47
bit okay um Agnes Wilson he married in September 1918 now remember 1918 that's the same year same year so his previous
00:22:57
beatric drown he marries Agnes in the same year damn and in the same year she met the same fate in Lake Washington the
00:23:06
same exact Lake when she fell from the boat quote unquote and drowned in the Rough Waters of Lake Washington Bertha
00:23:13
Goodrich also referred to in some sources as goodnik um she married Watson and also quote unquote fell from a boat
00:23:21
on Wake Washington one afternoon when they went out on the water according to Watson he said she tried to travel from
00:23:28
the Stern to the center of the craft and lost her balance and fell mhm but later
00:23:34
he slipped up because he referred to this death explicitly as a murder wow yeah so it's like how could that be a
00:23:42
murder if she just slipped he would just forget what he referred to as an accident when he didn't of course now
00:23:46
initially Watson framed the deaths of these wives like I said as accidental drownings and he said he just you know
00:23:52
he would capitalize on it by taking control of the women's Estates but in interviews with investigators after he
00:23:58
was arrested he would claim he was quote impelled to do these acts by some dominating force that he could not
00:24:05
understand he said that the impulse to kill would come upon him and that he would feel that some mighty power was
00:24:10
instructing him and forcing him to commit murder okay yeah now according to him he
00:24:17
would resist the urge for a little period of time until he was no longer able to control himself and he would
00:24:22
kill and after that he said he would always feel a sense of relief a feeling he described as having done well okay so
00:24:30
he's a straight up murderer yeah like he was made into a monster and he like very
00:24:35
much enjoys it does it because he wants to and I think the money is just like a happy thing he also likes it during it
00:24:41
right now the deaths of these women seem to have been committed opportunistically
00:24:45
so far yeah or at least orchestrated to appear as accidents at some point in early 1919 though only the following
00:24:52
year after all those it seems that the kind of accidental nature of these deaths was no longer sufficient to
00:24:59
satisfy his need to kill uh this is evident in the murder of Marie Austin who Watson married in Calgary very
00:25:06
shortly after the wedding they honeymooned in cordelan and on a trip to Lake cordelan he struck her on the head
00:25:13
with a rock holy [ __ ] and drowned her in the lake oh my God after she was dead he
00:25:18
waited her body down with rocks and sank her to the bottom of the lake my God so
00:25:22
he really escalated yeah her death was followed quickly by the death of Eleanor Fraser whom Watson married in Seattle in
00:25:31
the same exact year early 1919 for their honeymoon the couple visited the waterfalls in
00:25:38
Spokane while looking out over the falls the waterfalls admiring The View Watson
00:25:45
came up behind Eleanor and hard pushed her into the waterfall holy [ __ ] and she
00:25:51
drowned and when he told detectives of this later he said there was no controversy just an Impulse to kill so
00:25:58
he was like there was nothing wrong we weren't fighting I just pushed her over and she's just having this moment where
00:26:02
she's probably thinking like wow what a beautiful life I'm living I'm on my honey moon and he pushes her into the
00:26:08
Falls holy [ __ ] so although it's difficult to pinpoint the specifics of names and dates you know it's very clear
00:26:17
that he is increasing in violence as he goes uh a few months after Fraser's death Elizabeth prior who Watson married
00:26:25
as Milton Lewis in cordelan uh on March and that's an Idaho on March 25th 1919 this is the same year um so
00:26:34
he's now on wife three for year and we are only in March which is insane uh she died a similarly violent death according
00:26:42
to Watson's confession shortly after them U they got married they got into a little argument and in what he called a
00:26:48
house near Olympia Washington and he said prior attacked him with a hat pin okay and Watson claimed that he pushed
00:26:56
her away violently and she fell to the floor but hit her head on the corner of a box based on the amount of blood
00:27:02
Watson assumed she was dead but to make certain he said he got a hammer and struck her in the head with it now
00:27:10
that's not entirely true okay he didn't just hit her on the head with a hammer he literally crushed Elizabeth's skull
00:27:16
with a sledgehammer a sledgehammer what the [ __ ] the way that he just started drowning people and and like pushing
00:27:24
them over Cliffs like that's almost passive in a way you know what I mean but then to beat somebody about the head
00:27:30
with a sledgehammer and for him to claim that she fell and hit her head first that's I think that's [ __ ] because
00:27:36
you could never tell that that was he crushed her skull there was no way to tell that she had hit her head before
00:27:41
that my God and after killing her he placed her body in a large hole in the yard in the yard from a um and it was
00:27:48
like a large hole that was from a tree that had been uprooted and then he covered her over and buried her with
00:27:53
dirt he went back to the house and he said he found the room was so covered with blood that he could not possibly
00:27:59
clean it all up so he just set the house on fire I have a feeling that's what he
00:28:04
was going to [Music] do in the three years leading up to Elizabeth prior's death Watson estimated
00:28:24
that he married about 20 women I love that even he's not sure yeah he's not he's like it's probably like ballpark 20
00:28:31
and some estimates are as high as 40 really yeah holy [ __ ] some of them disappeared some of them were murdered
00:28:40
and it occurred to Watson that it was getting a little risky to operate in the Pacific Northwest now so he packed up
00:28:45
his things abandoned his many wives without any words cuz you're just like taking out everybody everywhere and he
00:28:50
traveled Southwest to California settling in San Francisco in the fall of 1919 we are still in 1919
00:28:58
just hello yeah once there Watson met and married Nina deloney um as well as two other women great so we married
00:29:06
three women right off the bat whose names he claimed to have forgotten by the time he was arrested he probably did
00:29:12
so crass and like awful but I believe it yeah nah deloney arrived in California from Montana in November 1919 and on
00:29:20
December 5th within weeks of her arrival she was married to Watson who she knew as Charles and Harvey on January 12th
00:29:28
1920 they registered at a hotel in Santa Monica and they spent their honeymoon there on January 26th only like a week
00:29:35
later they left Santa Monica for a camping trip near Signal Hill Hill in Long Beach don't go on camping trips no
00:29:42
with these men just don't do it at some point during the trip nah became suspicious that her husband was having
00:29:48
an affair because he was with many other women so many women because and she found several letters from other women
00:29:55
in his possession yikes the two got into a heated argument and after losing his temper entirely he struck nah in the
00:30:02
head with a hammer then smothered her with a blanket oh after smothering her he struck her several more times with
00:30:08
the hammer just to make sure she was dead yeah oh just the brutality yeah the violence is insane that night he wrapped
00:30:18
Nina's body in a blanket and drove South to the Imperial Valley and buried her in
00:30:22
a shallow grave along a Mountain Road about a month later one of Nina's friends in Kentucky received a telegram
00:30:29
from her saying she was in Tijana stop it so he would also and we find out later he would follow up with letters to
00:30:35
all their family members to try to make sure they thought they were alive so which is why he asked for those contacts
00:30:41
these are like multiple multiple women that he's killing and maintaining relationships with their family members
00:30:47
as them he had to have been kept keeping like crazy logs of whose family was who
00:30:54
he did and he kept all their letters I love that he can't remember certain Wom names that he was married to somehow was
00:31:00
able to keep track of all all of that for someone who has a shitty memory later in life he was able to
00:31:06
hold many different people and I can't even remember people's names who I literally just shake their hands true I
00:31:13
forget names immediately and it's not because I don't give a [ __ ] it's because
00:31:16
I just don't hold a name some people just don't have I don't have that ability and this guy is literally
00:31:22
holding all these facts with people maintaining communication with their family members and then later is like
00:31:27
yeah yeah my memory is just crazy I'm like no that doesn't make any sense now among the more uh Curious aspects of the
00:31:35
case for investigators and the public honestly was how Watson was able to do just that how was he able to manage
00:31:42
multiple wives at one time like logs married couples see each and logs are one thing but married couples see each
00:31:49
other most days see Drew like every day it's crazy like you pretty much live with your spouse like that's something a
00:31:58
lot yeah so juggling as many as four or five wives at once would require uh a lot of absences yeah for each of them
00:32:06
yeah Watson's solution was to tell each wife that his job required him to travel
00:32:11
often either as a collections agent or a secret service or other government agents of course he's like I'm in the
00:32:17
CIA yeah to the ordinary American in the early 20th century those jobs were familiar titles they that wasn't weird
00:32:25
like collection agent you know um but they were vague enough that no one was going to like pry any further and in the
00:32:31
event that one of the wives would become suspicious he would just quickly pack up
00:32:35
his and usually her things and disappear or just murder her yeah those were his two options steal all her [ __ ] and
00:32:41
disappear or murder her yeah now the latest of C Watson's wives Katherine Wacker you may remember from the
00:32:48
beginning I do indeed became suspicious when her husband whom she knew as Walter
00:32:52
Andrews had been gone for extended periods of time and during one of those extended periods of time that was when
00:33:00
he murdered and married nah deloney okay so he had left being like I'm going out
00:33:05
on business and married and murdered a woman and then wrote letters family members Catherine was a dress maker from
00:33:12
Spokane Washington who married Watson in late 1919 were still in 1919 how many people did he marry in 1919 my God so
00:33:20
many and before he left the area and relocated to California and at the time of the marriage he told his new wife
00:33:27
that he worked as a federal agent and required they required a lot of traveling around yeah to investigate
00:33:32
thefts uhhuh despite this impressive and you know what you would presume to be a
00:33:38
lucrative employment you know yeah Watson seemed particularly interested in Katherine's finances and within weeks of
00:33:45
their marriage he was asking her for loans of several thousand no I'd be like I thought you had a good job why you
00:33:52
need my money yeah Katherine soon grew tired of this whole thing and was like you're gone a lot and I think it's weird
00:33:58
and in early 1920 she followed him to California herself showing up unexpectedly at his residence she's a
00:34:05
badass how scary though to think what he could have done to her I true and with Catherine unwilling to return to
00:34:10
Washington without him he had no choice but to set up a new resonance with her in Hollywood she was like I'm not
00:34:15
leaving so incredible figure it out incredible so the new apartment in California didn't do a lot to settle her
00:34:21
anxieties about him though he still disappeared for long periods of time he seemed more secretive than he had ever
00:34:28
been and among the more sensitive topics that she would get into with him was the
00:34:32
large Black Satchel that he carried with him everywhere he went and the bag was always locked it had a lock on it and he
00:34:40
was Cy and sometimes combative when she would ask him what was inside of it it's
00:34:45
shocking that he didn't just murder her as quickly as he murdered these other women especially because she's asking
00:34:51
questions question some of these other they're just looking out over Cliffs and he pushes them off a cliff or hits them
00:34:56
in the head with a Hammerly for literally nothing actually kind of on to him she is so assuming her husband was
00:35:04
carrying on an affair with another woman that was like the most she was upset about Katherine hired Nick Harris who
00:35:10
was an LA private detective love PD right and she was like follow and this is 1920 too so it seems very uh and she
00:35:17
was like follow my husband find out what he's up to and chain smoke while you're
00:35:20
at it exactly like Catherine Harris assumed the case was you know infidelity like pretty simple it's going to be
00:35:27
straight sure he dealt with that a lot yeah and he began following Watson in early April and when he that's when
00:35:33
Watson had told Catherine he had to go out of town to investigate a diamond smuggling ring shut in Northern
00:35:38
California do you ever notice how these guys who do this [ __ ] they always overinflate yes they always turn into
00:35:44
like I I have to investigate a diamond smuggling ring like there so he's like I'm a CIA agent it's like oh my God
00:35:51
you're just a stupid murderer you're just an [ __ ] in a waste of space so gross uh but rather than follow him to
00:35:58
Northern California as he was expecting to do since that's where he told Catherine he would be going the
00:36:03
detective assigned to the case G JB Armstrong followed Watson to a small house less than a mile away where he
00:36:12
watched Watson go inside and not come out until the following morning oh he's got a
00:36:18
girlfriend Armstrong waited until Watson left the house for an extended period and then he contacted the Sheriff's
00:36:24
Office and was like yo I need your help breaking into this house it's unclear what grounds they were able to enter
00:36:31
that home on without consent uh Shaky Ground for sure but an article published a few days later stated that Walter
00:36:38
Andrews James Watson was suspected of complicity in the recent attempt to burglarize the Hines Banks which
00:36:45
theoretically could have given them cause Okay probable did they make it up maybe I don't know they might not have
00:36:51
though maybe they had some evidence here uh but once inside they did get inside the men located Watson's face is black
00:36:58
bag oh he left his b he left it I'm so scared what what in the bag BR they broke the lock and discovered three
00:37:05
marriage licenses under three different names including a marriage to nah deloney as well as jewelry money and
00:37:12
other valuables believed to be from women he had married abandoned or killed and he's just he's got all this walk
00:37:18
around with it yeah and also in the bag was a list of 20 women with whom he had been cons corresponding 20 along with
00:37:26
some of the letter letters from those women indicating he had no intention of stopping he was on to the next big shot
00:37:33
yeah he was just on to the next 20 women he was corresponding with I can't answer
00:37:38
a text you can't and this man is corresponding with 20 different people couldn't be me and Via snail mail
00:37:45
couldn't be me no we honey it could never be never be me like holy [ __ ] back at the Sheriff's Office the deputies
00:37:53
with the help of the Harris agency sent telegrams to law enforcement officials in the area where the marriage licenses
00:37:59
had been issued and it was from those agencies that investigators learned their suspect who they knew as Walter
00:38:04
Andrews had quote deserted his wives after they had given him sums ring ranging from $600 to
00:38:12
$4,500 damn based on the multiple marriage licenses the Sheriff's Office got a warrant for Watson's arrest on the
00:38:18
charge of bigamy yep and on April 9th they returned to the house to arrest him and return him to San Diego to be
00:38:25
questioned for other crimes including the death of Nina do um delone because her marriage license was in there
00:38:33
however when they arrived at the house and announced that they were going to be arresting him for several crimes he
00:38:38
pulled out a pocket knife from his pocket and cut his own throat no yeah but he lived because he he says [ __ ] he
00:38:46
was rushed to the nearest hospital for treatment and while they awaited word from doctors they started investigating
00:38:51
and unraveling the giant puzzle that was James Watson's [ __ ] life it took some
00:38:56
time but using the information contained in the bag and the additional documents
00:39:01
and information provided by Katherine Wacker queen queen investigators in California were able to connect a lot of
00:39:08
the dots from one alien Alias and wife to another because there's so many aliases and wives so they put together a
00:39:16
truly shocking picture by the time he had been stabilized a few days later detectives had connected Watson to at
00:39:22
least 17 wives officially like at this point my God including several who had gone Miss in under mysterious
00:39:29
circumstances also they were surprised to find his activity extended far beyond the borders of California and included
00:39:35
wives in States up and down the west coast and several in Canada my God because most had been taken for various
00:39:43
sums of money and were [ __ ] pissed like a lot of them had just been taken for money and abandoned yeah all of the
00:39:50
wives that police in California were able to connect contact had no hesitation talking to them they were
00:39:56
like let's go sit down let me tell you everything according to Elizabeth Williamson
00:40:02
Watson's wife in Sacramento her husband who she knew as Richard Hurt was a quote
00:40:07
woman hater and resorted to many marriages as revenge on women as a sex for sufferings caused to him by a few
00:40:14
beginning with his mother so she's saying always goes back this is him being a [ __ ] woman hater his mom
00:40:21
[ __ ] him up and he's angry at women and he's going to punish us all she pretty much hit the nail on the head
00:40:26
according to William she had arrived at the conclusion based on many states statements he had made to her about
00:40:32
women she's like he's a piece of [ __ ] yeah now within a week of Watson's arrest investigators had found
00:40:37
additional evidence connecting him to several other women much of which was stored in a safety deposit box in San
00:40:44
Diego so now he has all different [ __ ] storage things it was at this time that he was also connected to
00:40:50
Bertha Goodrich sometimes referred to as goodnick um and Alice Linson the the ini
00:40:57
like accidental quote death victim pretty much also by this time investigators had identified several of
00:41:03
the names Watson had used in his marriage schemes including but not limited to Walter Andrews Walter Andrew
00:41:10
Watson Charles Newton Harvey Harry leis Lewis a Hilton Andrew hurt James Wood Cen Harvey Edward Huff Dan Holden James
00:41:20
R ruitt and HL Gordon that's 12 and that's all that's like not limited yeah as they followed the clues from one wife
00:41:28
and Alias to another it was coming increasingly clear that there was more to the story than simple bigamy and
00:41:35
financial fraud right in a storage unit in La rented under the name Cen Harvey detectives found a large amount of nah
00:41:42
delone Furniture oh as well as typewritten letters from several of Watson's wives which it would later be
00:41:49
learned that he used to fool family members into thinking their loved ones were still alive and they were all a lot
00:41:55
of them were like stored in this box that's like a that's like something all on its own
00:42:00
like convincing their family members that they're still alive sitting down and writing as that person to convince
00:42:06
them that's a whole other layer [ __ ] up exactly yeah one of those letters signed by Alice lingon informed her
00:42:13
family that she would be taking a long trip to South America and wouldn't be able to contact them for some time oh
00:42:22
[Music] they also began assembling a large file of newspaper clippings uh where Watson
00:42:39
was Finding and meeting his wives as well as several marriage announcements including one from
00:42:44
1913 announcing the marriage of James Watson to Katherine Cruz H finally they also discovered a bloodstained map of
00:42:53
the barago valley which investigators believe would lead them to where nah delon's body was and it was Blood
00:43:00
Stained that's so horrific to think about while law enforcement officials worked cooperatively which is nice to
00:43:06
hear cuz there are so many of them that have to work together and this could have been an absolute [ __ ] show of Egos
00:43:14
and [ __ ] yep we've seen that happen oh yeah they they worked very cooperatively to just disentangle this
00:43:23
whole thing nice um headlines and papers across California and the Pacific ific Northwest were full of stories of who
00:43:29
they were now referring to as a modern day Blue Beard that's a reference to the 17th century French folk tale of of a
00:43:36
wealthy man who murders his wives it's also got pirate Vibes it does and we all agreed with that me Mikey and Ash were
00:43:44
like I thought this was a pirate yep 100 thought this was a pirate as soon as I heard about Blue Beard I was like oh a
00:43:49
pirate like it feels piratey yeah i' had never heard of that Grim fairy tale is Blackbeard a pirate Blackbeard's got to
00:43:57
Blackbeard's a pirate maybe that's a pilot too maybe who knows it's Blackbeard right yeah that's why we I
00:44:03
think that's where we were all yeah going just you know colorful beards he was an English pirate yeah I knew it so
00:44:10
there you go we're not far off no um but each day would this case seem to bring more reports of another wife and you
00:44:18
know more disturbing details and new questions about the missing women as well mhm but what seemed to baffle the
00:44:25
press and police alike was how very little Watson seemed to fit the description of somebody they thought
00:44:31
could be a murderous Maniac who was also Charming all these women yeah um especially back then too like they're
00:44:38
like they don't understand this whole concept they're not seeing it so rather than being the stereotypically Mad
00:44:44
killer they expected doctors and detectives found Watson to be a quote gnome like
00:44:50
fellow a gnome like fellow a gnome like fellows tricking all these ladies a gnome a gnome like fellow who whined
00:45:02
and dined his prospective Brides at fancy restaurants and even endeared himself to the widowed ones with
00:45:08
children which is so [ __ ] up oh I hate that he was one journalist wrote a man of average looks and build well spoken
00:45:16
and intelligent so he was just your everyday gnome like fellow you know a gnome a g like fell G sent me almost two
00:45:23
weeks into their investigation police and La were notified about the discovery of Elizabeth prior's body in Plum
00:45:29
Station Washington it didn't take long for the news to hit the papers and soon after it made its way back to Watson
00:45:35
that they had found her body he was still in the hospital recovering from that self-inflicted neck wound he heard
00:45:42
the news and he made another attempt to end his life by cutting his wrists wow but the hospital staff stopped him this
00:45:48
is so crazy that I actually forgot that he slid his own throat yeah upon arrival
00:45:52
much happening I was like wait what happened I was like oh wow he SL his own throat and then he heard that they found
00:45:57
Elizabeth prior's body and he tried to slice his wrists but the hospital staff was able to intervene good so for weeks
00:46:05
Los Angeles County district attorney Thomas woolwine had been interrogating Watson trying to get him to confess but
00:46:11
they'd made very little progress with him at this point he was frequently claiming he had no memory that was it
00:46:17
pleading the fifth I I I just can't remember yeah and following the discovery of prior's body in Washington
00:46:24
though Watson probably accepting the fact that he had no [ __ ] way out of this at this point asked to speak with
00:46:31
woolwine and in the course of a few days he confessed to killing four of his wives by four yeah that was just the
00:46:38
beginning but by the time the case was closed he had confessed to killing at least nine of his wives at least that
00:46:44
was only what he confessed to oh he said he told wol wine something just told me
00:46:49
to go and marry them and yet Something Told Me Not to yet I would go do it and it seemed all at once an Impulse came
00:46:55
over me to go someplace and make away with them it seemed like I had done something I was ordered to do that's
00:47:02
scary cuz you're like like what the and obviously back then there was not really
00:47:05
any way to like psychologically evaluate him to I mean they they tried to for sure like they always I mean like like
00:47:11
how they could in modern times as now and there's so many things that didn't even have names yet so thing you just
00:47:18
wonder what what he was what he had yeah after giving his confession he led detectives to the mountain in El Centro
00:47:26
where he buried Nina delone but he couldn't remember exactly where the grave was but they did eventually find
00:47:32
and exume her from the shallow grave um his confession was published in Parts in
00:47:37
papers across the country and people were demanding he be executed for his crimes both those he' confessed to and
00:47:44
those he was assumed to have been committing but in exchange for his confession and directions to nah delon's
00:47:50
body W wine offered him a sentence of life in prison you can understand that hon
00:47:57
I'm sure Nina's family would have rather had their loved one back than another person de exactly on May 3rd 1920 just
00:48:06
before leading police to nah delon's body James Watson made a public statement through his attorney J Morgan
00:48:12
marmaduk like sir nobody wants that no also marmaduk right and he tried to defend himself as mentally ill he said
00:48:19
he does sound mentally ill he does but when you when you hear the statement you're like you're like real self-aware
00:48:25
like I'm like I like that seems pretty self-aware well it's also like he seems mentally ill but he's also able and like
00:48:31
yeah has the wherewithal to keep track of most of this thing he's I think he's mentally ill but I think he is sane and
00:48:38
knows what he was doing knows it was wrong I don't think he should be put in a institution or a hospital I think
00:48:45
completely agree yeah so he said is it even reasonable to think my acts are the work of a sane man who was in a position
00:48:51
to control himself my Every Act shows I am to be pied more than to be blamed disagree [ __ ] off yeah no I don't pity
00:48:59
you at all you're a fool but I don't pity the fool and then he urged the public to consider the circumstances
00:49:04
before passing judgment he said if they will do this I believe the public will not ask that I should receive the same
00:49:09
punishment as if I were a normal person like do don't no yeah you're definitely not a normal person but you you kept
00:49:16
logs like let's not pretend that you were like oops I did that and now I'm moving on that's the thing like you were
00:49:21
sayane enough to make sure you didn't get caught for a long time the fact that you were using aliases tells me
00:49:28
everything I need to know you made a new identity so you wouldn't get caught right which means you understand can't
00:49:32
claim to be insane or not understand the consequences of your actions now exactly
00:49:37
that [ __ ] you yep uh on May 6th he appeared in Superior Court of Los Angeles where he pleaded guilty to the
00:49:43
murder of Nina deloney four days later he was back in Superior Court where judge Frank Willis handed down a life
00:49:49
sentence to be served at s quent in prison he was like he said your crimes as recorded in this court are the most
00:49:55
heinous in the annals of criminal jurisprudence and he told Watson though he acknowledged that he does think he
00:50:01
was mentally ill he believed that the district attorney had made the right decision in offering a plea deal he was
00:50:07
like you do not belong in a hospital I think you are me and he was kind of saying what we were I think you're
00:50:11
mentally ill but you knew what you're doing saying on May 18th he arrived at San Quinton to begin serving his
00:50:17
sentence and that's a rough pris good luck there Jamesy poo yeah so for months the story of James Watson dominated
00:50:25
newspapers across the country but when he entered prison in May most people were assuming it was just going to kind
00:50:30
of come to a stop and for the most part it did but at San Quenton the guards and
00:50:35
other inmates were baffled by this man they were like this is the guy who woed more than 20 up to 40 women this gnome
00:50:43
looking [ __ ] what this gnome looking [ __ ] s Quenton Warden James Johnson told a reporter in 1946 I
00:50:50
had to turn away a number of women who had no legitimate reason for calling but faked excuses in the hopes of getting a
00:50:56
chance to see him which ladies I have to say let's get it together okay let's make a collective promise to each other
00:51:04
to get it the [ __ ] together what are we doing what are we doing did y watch it
00:51:09
ladies he's killing wives he's killing wives and taking their money or he's just straight up abandoning them after
00:51:16
robbing them blind what the [ __ ] do you want to see this man you know what it is
00:51:20
it's the I can fix mentality no one can fix this man you can't do it he hates women is it worth it no Queen fix
00:51:28
yourself no he was a gnome likee [ __ ] he's no no no but while in prison he took up writing and tried to
00:51:35
get his poetry published in papers around the country oh just what we need a tortured man's poetry no one was
00:51:41
interested in it so they didn't get a published uh he did find another way to keep himself in the Limelight though
00:51:45
beginning in 1925 he began a correspondence with Los Angeles journalist W Cliff Hill and he convinced
00:51:52
that reporter that he'd hidden his Treasure of more than $50,000 somewhere in Los Angeles I'm so sure over the
00:51:59
course of 5 years the newspaper Hill worked for published a series of Stories That Sent the public running all over
00:52:06
California deserts digging around for the treasure what are you doing believing this guy he duped countless
00:52:13
women and you are all running around looking for his treasure well and also his treasure is stolen from murdered
00:52:20
women yeah you want that so if you find that treasure you going to feel good about putting that in your goddamn bank
00:52:24
account hello like what are you doing that he literally stole that that's stolen money this is a Wendy eventually
00:52:30
it really is a at this point ma'am this is a Wendy this W eventually it came to light that the paper had agreed to pay
00:52:38
Hill $20,000 for the story and the series came to an end with most believing the story about the money was
00:52:45
like most things about James Watson a [ __ ] lie yep an article in the Los Angeles Times denounced Hill and the
00:52:51
newspaper for having duped the public writing incidentally Watson is very proud of the way in which he trapped
00:52:57
those he now considers his enemies so he did that just for fun he all fell for it
00:53:02
did and that's the thing it's like he's sitting behind bars just Laing yeah you can't let him have that power back there
00:53:07
[ __ ] nman and Lain oh in 1930 Hill sued Watson for $25,000 for causing him to waste 5 years of his life on Wild
00:53:15
Goose chases well you're stupid for doing that then Watson counter sued for $50,000 in Damages alleging Hill defamed
00:53:22
him you're in prison and in 1932 a judge threw both the cases is out and both of
00:53:27
them they would have to wait until Watson was freed from prison to pursue their [ __ ] cases that's the other
00:53:32
thing I'm like what the [ __ ] are you going to do with the money in prison he was like stop wasting my goddamn time
00:53:36
you idiots he was like I got better [ __ ] to do [ __ ] off in his life at San Quenton James Watson became a model
00:53:41
prisoner because what the [ __ ] else is he going to do he's a gnome likee [ __ ] and even became an
00:53:46
assistant to the chief medical officer at the prison who allowed that not I in 1939 he died bye of pneumonia at age 69
00:53:56
pretty early rest and distress and was buried in San quent's Boot Hill Cemetery in a grave marked only with his
00:54:02
[ __ ] prisoner number loves it see you later James [ __ ] Watson what a wild gnome likee [ __ ]
00:54:10
truly gnome like [ __ ] I'm never moving on from The Gnome of it all he's a gnome likee [ __ ] who [ __ ] that
00:54:17
guy truly a gnome likee woman hating [ __ ] and [ __ ] all honestly screw all the women that were like I'm going
00:54:23
to marry him while he's in prison I'm going to call him and view him like you guys suck tooa and his parents suck yeah
00:54:30
everybody everybody sucks except Catherine and all the women that he married yeah damn [ __ ] that guy what
00:54:36
shout out to Catherine though one cine girl unravels this motherfucker's entire years long scheme she said not on my
00:54:45
watch I don't think so I don't think so I do not think so one you're definitely not going to cheat on me and two here's
00:54:51
all the documents that I can provide to the [ __ ] investigators to take your ass down and three
00:54:56
what the [ __ ] is in your Satchel yeah what's in that goddamn Satchel she found
00:55:00
out she [ __ ] around and she found out but it worked out did but she saved lives she did she literally did
00:55:05
Catherine saved more lives I love it yeah I love I love a woman coming out on top hell yeah well and you know good
00:55:12
good on all these I will say good on all these um investigative agencies that work together cuz that could have that
00:55:18
could have been a big cluster show absolute [ __ ] show we probably never would have had the story had it gone the
00:55:23
other way it's true and crazy I had never heard of this before until audible was like hey check out this this title
00:55:30
and you said [ __ ] all right and I said wow that sounds absolutely thrilling okay audible okay so yeah uh you will
00:55:36
catch us and our special guest outside outside how about that or on the next episode where we discuss the title yeah
00:55:45
so check out Blue Beard on Audible and we will see it's a bonusy bon bonus EP you'll still get your two in your one
00:55:54
yeah uh so yeah we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird but not so weird that you travel the
00:56:00
nation duping women everywhere what are you that guy from Sister Wives with the crunchy hair I'm trying to be an HH hes
00:56:08
[ __ ] but you're a gnome likee [ __ ] yeah what's that guy's name from Sister Wives Cody Cody Cody with
00:56:14
the crunch hair don't beat him don't beat him [Music] [Music]