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507 - Adult Woman

November 20, 2025 /

This episode of My Favorite Murder features a solo discussion by hosts Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff about the memoir A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold, and the story of serial killer James Weyburn Hall.

Georgia shares her thoughts on A Mother's Reckoning, a memoir by Sue Klebold, the mother of Columbine shooter Dylan Klebold. She emphasizes the themes of grief, shame, and the importance of recognizing signs of mental illness in teenagers.

The episode transitions to the chilling story of James Weyburn Hall, a hitchhiker killer active in the 1940s. The hosts recount the details of Hall's murders, beginning with the discovery of his first victim, C.F. Hamilton, in Arkansas.

As the narrative unfolds, they discuss Hall's background, including his abusive upbringing and the events leading to his arrest. The episode highlights the investigation that led to his capture and his eventual confession to multiple murders.

Listeners are taken through Hall's trial and execution, along with reflections on the impact of his crimes and the societal issues surrounding mental health and violence.

TLDR

Georgia discusses Sue Klebold's memoir and the chilling story of serial killer James Weyburn Hall.

Episode

29:16
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Hello and welcome to My Favorite Murder. That's Georgia Hardstark. That's Karen Kilgariff.
00:02:47
And this is a solo episode. It's a solo episode. Just me because we're still on tour as of this recording.
00:02:56
In a recording world. We're going to New York this week for our last live show. That's right.
00:03:01
Brooklyn, King's Theater. Wrapping it up. Saying goodbye. I can't. It's going to be crazy and so sad.
00:03:08
That last episode, I'm going to cry. Yeah. I have a book real quick. Can I, I've been waiting to, I've just been waiting to tell you about this book because
00:03:15
I'm so obsessed with it. Great. And I listened to it through the tour and I cried.
00:03:19
So it's a memoir called A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold. Dylan Klebold's mother.
00:03:26
Yes. Wow. It is the most powerful, intense, beautiful memoir I've ever listened to.
00:03:35
It is so powerful. She talks about grief and shame, loss, and a lot about mental illness and how we treat it here in the U.S. and what can be done to change things and, you know, what she knew and what she didn't know and what she wishes she had known.
00:03:51
I was just in awe of this book. Wow. Yeah. So A Mother's Reckoning. I feel like every parent of a teenager needs to read this because it's also about hiding, being a teenager and hiding stuff from your parents.
00:04:05
And I think knowing those signs and knowing and being able to recognize the little tells that they do give is so important for parents.
00:04:15
And she really hits on that and takes responsibility for not knowing what to look for because you don't know what you don't know.
00:04:22
Yeah. And as a parent, that's the weight that I'm sure is on her. It's just horrible, that idea of having to take responsibility for a thing that, you know, if you're the mother, you're going to get blamed first anyway.
00:04:33
Absolutely. And it was like the 90s. So it was just toxic. And she talks about all of that.
00:04:39
So A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold. I highly recommend it. Okay. Should we do a quick Exactly Right Media check-in?
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head of fan development for Scuderia Ferrari HP. Your pronunciation is strongly American. It's more Scuderia Ferrari.
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visit ibm.com slash Ferrari. Asked dad about it and he proceeded to blow my tiny little mind by dropping the bomb that his uncle murdered a bunch of people in the 1940s and was executed by electric chair.
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It goes on and on. I have photos of the chair where he was executed and his death mask that are kept at a state museum and would be happy to email them in.
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That's OK. We're good. Thanks for getting me through my commute to work every day.
00:09:09
Abby. So Abby suggested this and I'd never heard of it. Wow. Family. murder. That's crazy. It's disappointing when you haven't heard of a serial killer because it just
00:09:19
means there's so fucking many. There's so many. This is a story of highway killer James Wayburn
00:09:24
Hall. The main source for the story is a book called The Arkansas Hitchhide Killer
00:09:28
by Janie Nesbitt Jones. And the rest of the sources can be found in the show notes.
00:09:33
OK, so on January 17th, 1945, the body of a man named C.F. Hamilton is found on a road in Arkansas.
00:09:40
Hamilton is a barber and also a bootlegger, though prohibition has long been over.
00:09:45
And there are plenty of liquor stores. As we know, bootleggers still do good business in the area.
00:09:50
Yeah. You know. Get it driving around real fast in those souped up cars. That's right.
00:09:54
That homemade liquor. And homemade NASCAR. That's how NASCAR began. Oh, yeah. So C.F. Hamilton has been shot with a .45 caliber bullet.
00:10:03
And the scene looks like a robbery. Hamilton is black. And this is Arkansas in 1945.
00:10:08
So the police officers basically don't investigate the crime much. And unfortunately, this also means that we know less about him and his life than we know about some of the other victims who are discovered shortly after.
00:10:20
Who are white. Who are white. Yeah. About two weeks later, on February 1st, another body is found.
00:10:25
A deputy sheriff is driving along a road about 80 miles south of Little Rock when he sees an abandoned car at the turnoff for a dirt road.
00:10:33
And it's still there and he makes his return trip about 90 minutes later. So he pulls over to inspect the car.
00:10:39
The glove compartment looks like it's been rifled through and the papers are strewn on the passenger seat.
00:10:44
The deputy sheriff then looks at the dirt road and sees two sets of footprints going into the woods and only one set returning.
00:10:51
Wow. He follows the footprints and after a short walk, finds the body of a man who has been shot.
00:10:57
This man is identified by police as E.C. Adams. He has been shot with a .38 caliber bullet.
00:11:03
But Adams had been on his way to a new job and a new home at a naval plant where his wife and newborn daughter were supposed to join him later.
00:11:11
After speaking to his wife, police believe he was killed by a highwayman or a robber who steals from travelers.
00:11:18
She gives him a long list of the items he had with him, including razors, a shaving mug, a watch and two alarm clocks because he was moving.
00:11:26
And these items are all missing from the car when they inspect it. Captain Earl Scrogan.
00:11:34
I am an adult woman. I'm an adult. It's spelled like you can't help it. Just say it.
00:11:42
No. Captain Earl Scrogan of the newly formed Arkansas State Police believes the same highwayman,
00:11:48
probably hitchhiking, may have killed both Adams and Hamilton, even though they were shot with different guns.
00:11:54
They backtrack Adam route to Little Rock where they believe he picked up the hitchhiker and they alert Little Rock police About a week later on February 9th a meat truck driver named Doyle Mulherin leaves on his typical route but doesn make it to any of his stops
00:12:10
And it's very out of character of him. So people begin searching for him immediately.
00:12:15
And a grocer, who's also the mayor of the town of Stuttgart, Arkansas, finds his truck at the edge of town.
00:12:22
Were you going to say something? Just that the grocer would know that the meat guy didn't show up.
00:12:26
And be like, that's very not like him and what's happening. Like the first person.
00:12:30
Little Rock's a tiny town now. Back then in 45, it was probably just like everyone knew everyone.
00:12:36
Right. And this is outside of Little Rock, right? So that was probably the big town.
00:12:40
I mean, yeah. God, that's sad. Yeah. The next day, two fishermen find Doyle's body about 25 feet away from the highway.
00:12:48
The state police determined that he has also been shot with a .38 caliber bullet and the money from all of his collections that day is missing.
00:12:55
While retracing his steps, the state police speak to another driver whose route route is the reverse of Doyle's.
00:13:04
What do you say? Route or route? I think, well, it's like route 66 in the song. But then if I was reading it, I think I'd say route.
00:13:10
Yeah, same. The two men usually wave when they pass each other in their trucks. But this driver says that on the day Doyle died, he didn't wave at him and seemed distracted.
00:13:21
That he had a passenger with him. The passenger was a young man with wavy red hair.
00:13:26
Can you imagine the state you're in your driving past? You're trying to signal to the guy that you always wave to that you know that something is wrong.
00:13:34
So you don't wave. Like it's the absence of the normal thing that's going to hopefully let that guy know.
00:13:42
And like make him pay more attention so he can give information. It's so upsetting.
00:13:46
And also just that idea of like there was there a gun in his ribs. I mean like how this threat of.
00:13:53
Yeah. There's so many of those stories that we've heard over the years of like a girl in a car with someone trying to get the cops attention or whatever.
00:14:01
That's why I love this, that there's the hand gesture that you can do now that we all know and all should know where you just kind of hold up four fingers with your thumb on the inside of your palm.
00:14:09
I'm in danger. I'm in danger. Yeah. Amazing. In early March, a man named J.D. Newcomb Jr. is reported missing.
00:14:16
He's the state's chief boiler inspector for the Department of Labor. I know. I don't even.
00:14:22
I mean, boilers were a big deal back then. They needed to be inspected a lot. And they needed people to be at certain levels of boiler inspection.
00:14:29
Sure. Because you had to be able to come and be like, this one is about to blow.
00:14:32
I can tell something's wrong with it. So he was the chief. He was the guy. And it was a prominent position.
00:14:37
Yeah. So Newcomb had been on his way back to Little Rock when he disappeared. And he was known to offer rides to hitchhikers.
00:14:44
So fucking ominous, right? Because like we always think of like hitchhiking as being so dangerous.
00:14:48
Yeah, but this is like the mid 40s. So it's like, I bet you it's like after the depression, people being used to people just,
00:14:57
hey, look, I'm just trying to get from one place to the other. Yeah. I mean, like doing a favor for your fellow man was probably the thinking.
00:15:03
Totally. Totally. On March 8th, a badly burned body is found in the back of a burned Oldsmobile, which matches Newcomb's car.
00:15:11
The car is found in a clearing. And from the way the blood has sprayed backward, it looks like it was driven quickly before crashing.
00:15:19
Dental records determine that the body is Newcomb's and police find that his wristwatch is missing, as is his blue gray overcoat.
00:15:27
The police ask the public for tips. A bus driver reports picking up a young man near where the car was found,
00:15:33
and the driver says that the man was wearing an ill-fitting blue-gray coat. The driver can't remember where the man got off, but that his bus was headed to Little Rock.
00:15:42
On March 16th, a woman calls the state police and tells them a man she knows had loaned his car back in February to a friend
00:15:49
who had business with a bootlegger outside of Little Rock. The car's owner kept a .45 caliber pistol in the car.
00:15:58
And when the car was returned, two rounds were missing from it. Remember the guy in the beginning of the story was a bootlegger?
00:16:03
The man who owned the car had heard about the murder of C.J. Hamilton, the black man who was a barber, and fearful that he would be implicated, sold the gun.
00:16:13
Oh. Didn't call it in. Sold it. So this woman calls it in, thankfully, and is like, hey.
00:16:19
Hey, missing piece here. Yeah, I don't want this guy to get away with it. The woman says that the person who borrowed the car is a cab driver named James Weyburn Hall.
00:16:28
The state police bring this information to the Little Rock police who take James in for questioning.
00:16:32
James has wavy red hair like the person that was spotted in the truck. When police search James' wallet, they find a receipt from a parcel service.
00:16:40
And the parcel service had delivered a package to Little Rock from Camden, Arkansas, near where Adams, the man with the new Navy job, had been found.
00:16:48
Police go to the address from the parcel receipt, which belongs to a woman named Corrine Franklin.
00:16:54
Franklin admits that she's a friend of James and she produces the contents of that parcel that had been sent.
00:17:00
Razors, a shaving mug and an alarm clock. So it looks like James had mailed himself through this woman stolen items from Adam's car.
00:17:08
So basically making federal witnesses out of the Postal Service. Right. Basically.
00:17:14
And this woman whose name and address are on it. Yeah. They were just like, here's my things.
00:17:19
And the government's now involved because it's the post office. And so are you. Oh, my God.
00:17:24
Surprise. Surprise. Federal fucking. Poor man's trademark. You just trademarked your murder cash, basically.
00:17:31
Yeah. You just proved that it was yours. Kind of. Put your name on it. Yeah. I took these.
00:17:37
Don't give them to anybody else. Just one alarm clock, not both. Yeah, I don't know.
00:17:41
He liked to sell items. Oh, yeah. Right. I thought he kept two because whoever originally had them needed to wake up.
00:17:50
Oh. You know, remember before you could snooze your alarm? Yeah you have to put one in the hallway because otherwise you would not get up Drunks Remember when those alarm clocks came out that jumped off They had wheels and they jump off your dresser and like roll around the house
00:18:05
You'd like chase it to wake up. So you couldn't snooze it? So you couldn't snooze it and you had to chase it to turn it off.
00:18:11
We need the commercial for that. Brilliant, right? And there was one that was like a boggle machine, like a puzzle that you had to put back together.
00:18:19
To be able to snooze it? Yes. Incredible. There was a real oversleeping problem in the 80s, 90s, it sounds like.
00:18:26
Yes. So police also searched James's room at a boarding house where he's been living for the last few months.
00:18:31
Oh, man. Boarding houses just like give me the creeps. It's, you know, a lot of back then, especially.
00:18:37
Yeah. Transient, you know, hey, do you not want anyone to know your name? Is your last name Smith for some reason?
00:18:43
Did you just get off a boxcar? Yeah. Come here. What's that? Blood on your neck?
00:18:47
A small, fine mist of blood on your cheek? And at this place, they find J.D. Newcomb's missing watch and a blue-gray overcoat that matches the description of the one he had been missing.
00:18:57
They also find a box of .38 caliber bullets and a .38 caliber pistol. It turns out that the Little Rock police had just arrested James a few weeks prior for assault when he badly injured another man in a fight.
00:19:09
And they also tell their colleagues at the Arkansas State Police that they had questioned James six months earlier about the disappearance of his own wife.
00:19:16
when the police go back to James with the evidence from the package and from his room in the boarding
00:19:21
house he says quote okay I'll tell you all about it I killed them all oh my god straight up jinx
00:19:27
style I killed them all if you were the cop he was talking to or whoever it was you that's feeling
00:19:34
in your stomach what do you mean what do you mean all yeah also he's 24 years old at the time
00:19:39
oof that's like a child a child with probably like kind of evil eyes i mean well okay let me
00:19:47
tell you about him james wayburn hall is born in 1921 in happy valley arkansas he's the fourth of
00:19:53
11 children though one dies in infancy and from childhood on james is nicknamed red because of
00:19:59
his red hair you know every man in my dad's family is nicknamed right they call they all
00:20:03
call each other that i always forget your dad has red hair because i've never seen him with red hair
00:20:07
Not since the late 80s. So his father, Samuel Hall, is a farmer and also a preacher in the local church.
00:20:15
And as we've heard time and time again, James's childhood contains two of the common threads we might up seeing in the childhood of serial killers, abuse and head trauma.
00:20:24
From the outside, the halls appear to have a pretty idyllic life. The children are looked after by a caring grandmother.
00:20:31
James, his siblings and his cousins roam the outdoors together most days. But behind closed doors, James's father, Samuel, is abusive and he focuses most of his anger on James.
00:20:41
In his early teens, James starts leaving the home for long intervals, finding work on farms.
00:20:46
When he's 14 years old, he's hit in the head with a metal fence post. Although the story is that he ran into it or it fell on him, we're not sure.
00:20:55
It knocked him unconscious for about an hour. And some people who know James say that he was never himself again after this.
00:21:02
Although some people also say the Fence Post story is completely made up in that it was actually James's father who gave him the head trauma.
00:21:09
Oh, my God. I know. So around that same time, James drops out of school and starts riding the rails to Oklahoma and Kansas doing farm work.
00:21:18
He was six foot five, so he was a very large man. He had wavy red hair. And he also had a limp that made him very recognizable.
00:21:26
And people called him Big Jim. Just the idea of like, it's one thing to get a head injury, you know, by chance.
00:21:35
Have your father give you a head injury that changes your life forever? It's like, you know, we love to talk about trauma, but that's next level.
00:21:44
It's so horrible. James meets his first wife in 1938, a woman named Walsie McKee.
00:21:51
James is 17 and Walsie is two to five years older, according to different accounts.
00:21:56
Okay. 17. They get married, doesn't last long, and he blows in and out of town. She doesn't see him
00:22:04
often. They have two children, but the first dies shortly after being born. The second is a healthy
00:22:09
boy born in 1943, but James and Walsy divorce shortly after he's born. James is then drafted
00:22:15
into the army, but after six weeks of basic training, he's given a dishonorable discharge
00:22:20
for, quote, indifference. Oh, no. Yikes. Dead eyes. That's very full metal jacket vibes.
00:22:27
Yeah. I think within six weeks, getting discharged for that means we can't. Yeah.
00:22:33
We missed this guy in the mental health evaluation. Something's going on. Right.
00:22:37
Yeah. So that same year, James winds up in Little Rock where he meets his second wife.
00:22:41
Listen to this name. Faireen Clemens. Faireen. Faireen. Alabama, you say? Arkansas.
00:22:49
Arkansas. Hey, Faye Reed. Hey, Faye Reed. Faye Reed, come on over here. Come here.
00:22:54
Let me do your hair. Let me do your roots. She goes by Faye and they meet in December of 1943.
00:23:01
He's 22 years old. And by March of 1944, they're married. And Faye is very different from Walsy, his first wife.
00:23:08
When James gets the urge to travel, she wants to come with him. He doesn't want her to.
00:23:13
Because it's true love. Right. So by the summer of 1944, just a few months after their marriage,
00:23:19
Faye confides in her family that she doesn't think she can stay married to James, and the family thinks that he's being abusive towards her.
00:23:26
On Thursday, September 14th, James is back in Little Rock after another period on the road, and he takes Faye and a friend of hers dancing at a club called the Rainbow Garden.
00:23:36
They leave the club at about midnight, at which point the friend says he and Faye began fighting.
00:23:42
As James, Faye, and the friend walk to the car, Faye tells James that she wants to leave him and move to California.
00:23:48
He slaps her across the face and they all get in the car. And when they drop the friend off at her house, Faye and James are still fighting. And that is the last time anyone besides James sees Faye.
00:24:00
alive. That friend. I know. So sad. I know. When your friend is dating someone or married to someone that you know is fucking terrible.
00:24:08
And you're like, she's about to get beaten up and I'm getting out of the car. What do I do? What would you do?
00:24:13
Go get a guy that's six foot six. I mean, that's the problem with someone big and abusive. Those kinds
00:24:19
of bullies are hard to fight if you don't have anybody around to fight them. Yeah, they don't listen to
00:24:25
reason. Or women. Or women. Reason, meaning women. Three days later, some of Faye's cousins come by to see her.
00:24:32
James tells them that she left him three days before. The cousins tell Faye's parents about this and they come to look for her.
00:24:41
Of course, Faye's clothes are all in the closet. It doesn't look like she's gone anywhere.
00:24:45
But they give it some time hoping that maybe Faye, she said she wanted to go to California.
00:24:50
Her friend heard that. Maybe she just fucking booked it and they're about to hear from her.
00:24:53
But when a week goes by, they go to the Little Rock police. James tells the police that he last saw his wife on the night they came back from the Rainbow Garden and that she left for California, blah, blah, blah.
00:25:04
So shortly after that, James moves out of the apartment he and Faye had shared and goes out on the road again.
00:25:10
We don't know James's exact route between September and December of 1944. We do know of several murders of middle-aged men in this time period in Kansas and Oklahoma that some people will later tie to James.
00:25:23
Similar MOs. In the next few months, James stays closer to Little Rock and commits the four murders from the beginning of our story that will eventually lead to his arrest.
00:25:32
And that brings us to where we started in the story and him saying, yes, I killed them all.
00:25:37
When he finally confesses to those murders, he tells police that the first murder was only supposed to be a robbery.
00:25:43
He says that he intended on stealing the whiskey from Hamilton and that James ended up shooting him with that .45 caliber pistol and then using Hamilton's gun, which he stole from the car, to commit the rest of the murders.
00:25:57
When the police ask James where Faye's body is, James says he took her to a remote road along a riverbank and beat her to death.
00:26:04
Oh, my God. I know. James brings the police and several press photographers to the site, but they can't find anything.
00:26:11
then a woodcutter named Cecil Foster who lives nearby walks over. Cecil tells the police that
00:26:18
he found part of a skull a few weeks back and then he thought it washed down the river and he took it
00:26:23
home. He says he also saw what he thought was part of a jawbone on the riverbank. Cecil looks in the
00:26:29
spot and it's like, see, it's still there. James himself, who's there to show them where her remains
00:26:35
are says, quote, that's they all right. And points out the characteristic front tooth in the jawbone.
00:26:43
So sinister. It's so gross. And also this idea that they and maybe it wasn't him particularly,
00:26:50
but that idea of like, I'm going to get the press to come to. Right. It just is all those ways that
00:26:56
I think back then nobody knew you're feeding right into the psychopath plan and the ego.
00:27:01
Let's let him control this. Yeah. Ugh, so awful. James ultimately confesses to killing Faye and the four other men and to multiple other murders.
00:27:12
When he was 17 in 1938, he killed a woman in Salinas, Kansas. He kills a man in San Marcos Texas in 1944 And then he admits to killing 10 migrant workers from 1938 to 1944 in Arizona
00:27:29
And then he'd offer some clues and declined to talk about them. He also says he killed a Bible salesman in Texas.
00:27:36
Because of his itinerant lifestyle, he's suspected of several more murders. There are at least three similar murders in cities where he was likely to have been,
00:27:44
but there isn't enough evidence to charge him still. This is so Otis Tool. yes like
00:27:49
but real but real but then also can they prove it's real it sounds like he's not making this shit up
00:27:55
yeah you know I mean like it all fits the MO Otis Tools shit was all like right all over the place
00:28:01
anywhere they brought him he was like yes right but god it's just so I know it's so evil
00:28:07
it's so scary and he's 24 yeah with red hair and is like hey can you give me a ride
00:28:12
I'm a friendly guy can you give me a ride I have a limp fun times oh bible salesman
00:28:16
I love bibles And 24, which imagines like what would if he hadn't been caught right then, that woman hadn't called and said this gun that my friend had.
00:28:26
I think it's the murder weapon. If she hadn't called in, what would he have like ramped up to when he was like 30 and 35?
00:28:33
You know, I mean, maybe he would have gotten the car and then been like, it'll be faster if I'm picking people up.
00:28:38
Right. Like that. I mean, who knows? True crime. James is arraigned in the spring of 1945.
00:28:45
He's charged with first degree murder only for the killing of Faye, his wife, because this is thought to be the strongest case against him.
00:28:53
And it's a possibility that he'll get the death penalty in this case. So they want to try this one first.
00:28:58
James's trial begins on the same day Germany surrenders and World War II ends in Europe.
00:29:04
And because of that, the case didn't get as much national attention. But still, there are murderinos back then.
00:29:11
The courthouse is packed to the gills for the two day trial. Two days. That's it.
00:29:15
On the first day of the trial, James takes back his confessions and instead pleads not guilty by reason of insanity.
00:29:22
Blah, blah, blah. James's first wife, Walsey, testifies at the trial and brings their two-year-old son.
00:29:29
James's entire relationship with Faye, her murder, and at least four others, but likely many more, have all taken place within less than two years.
00:29:37
Oh, my God. That was all two years. James is found guilty and sentenced to death.
00:29:41
He was executed a few days before his 25th birthday in the electric chair. On January 4th, 1946, Faye's father attends the execution and says, quote,
00:29:52
May God have mercy on your soul. I can't. Yeah. End quote. And that is the story of the hitchhike killer, James Weyburn Hall.
00:30:00
Literally, I've never heard anything about this. I know. Thank you to Abby for sending this in.
00:30:05
She says that he was her grandmother's older brother. Hmm. I know. Wow. Oh, yeah, because there's 10 kids or by the time, 9 kids with him.
00:30:17
Wow. Yeah, that's a big one. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. The message for everyone paying big wireless way too much.
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00:31:24
This is Malcolm Glabal from Smart Talks with IBM. Today we're diving into a fascinating conversation with Stefano Pallard,
00:31:31
head of fan development for Scuderia Ferrari HP. Your pronunciation is strongly American.
00:31:37
It's more Scuderia Ferrari. I'm still working on rolling my R's. But what I was able to learn from Stefano was the importance of engaging the Tifosi,
00:31:47
the Ferrari superfans in the digital age. Ferrari fans and superfans want to be part of something, want to belong to something.
00:31:56
So they want to be part of a community and ultimately they want to be part of a winning team.
00:32:01
You've got Ferrari, which has a long history, design history. And now you're interacting in a kind of digital space.
00:32:11
I'm curious how you balance those two traditions. When it comes to fan engagement, it's really digital technology and digital channels are
00:32:20
enabled to create a deeper connection with our fans. To learn more about how Ferrari and IBM are using technology to build deeper connections
00:32:27
with fans, visit ibm.com slash Ferrari. Should we do a quick hooray? A tour hooray?
00:32:38
A tour hooray. Okay. Do you have one in mind? No, go. Well, I mean, the experience of this tour has been so incredible.
00:32:47
And the murderinos have just shown up in every way possible, every way we've asked them to.
00:32:52
Yeah. So my hooray, I think, would just be all of our listeners, all the people that have, like, actually gone to the shows, told their stories.
00:33:00
We've had some incredible hometown. just incredible like participation yeah it's been so cool to like be able to be out there with
00:33:08
people and how about when you kick that stuffed animal and back into the audience though
00:33:12
you guys we had a gift of a very large very scary sized stuffed animal thrown at us onto the stage
00:33:19
from the dark and it scared everybody but especially me and georgia so i then kicked
00:33:25
it back out into the audience and the audience went insane that was a pretty good one that was
00:33:29
good what about i think there's also the very first night of denver night one night show one
00:33:35
i don't think i expected the volume and the reception no getting a reception like that
00:33:41
was such a lovely gift from that denver audience totally nothing like i had completely forgot like
00:33:47
what that felt like what it sounded like how incredible and overwhelming it was and i'm going
00:33:53
to miss that after New York. It's very magical to be able to get something like that from a room
00:34:01
full of people. Yeah. It's life affirming. You forget that like people are listening when you're
00:34:05
recording in a studio and then to walk out there and be like there you are These are all the people that are not emailing in complaints in some way shape or form They like it They like it They want you to have stuffed animals
00:34:17
And we say no. No, thank you. No, thank you. Yeah, thank you for everyone who's come.
00:34:21
Thank you for all the incredible gifts you've given us. I think we're going to go through them in a video for the fan cult soon.
00:34:25
Oh, yeah. We're going to go through. We're going to unbox our boxes of gifts that we basically get to go through like raccoons real fast
00:34:33
and then have to box up and ship home. I can't wait. Yeah, it's going to be really good. That was a great story. This is a great solo. Thank you for your patience as we are on wrapping this tour up, which has been an incredible amount of work for our team on the podcast team. So thank you to the MFM production team led by C. Molly Smith, the great producer.
00:34:54
Yeah, you've made it possible for us to leave and not worry about what's going up. She was on it.
00:35:00
And our supervising producer, Jess Keck, who worked with Molly and they basically made the grids that made it all possible.
00:35:09
Right. Thanks to everybody for making all of these things that we're able to do simultaneously.
00:35:13
It's only because we have this incredible staff. Totally. Yeah. Thanks, guys. Thanks, guys.
00:35:18
Well, stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Goodbye. Elvis, do you want a cookie? This has been an Exactly Right production.
00:35:33
Our senior producer is Molly Smith and our associate producer is Tessa Hughes. Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo.
00:35:39
This episode was mixed by Liana Squalachi. Our researchers are Mary McGlachin and Allie Elkin.
00:35:44
Email your hometowns to myfavoritemurder at gmail.com. And follow the show on Instagram at myfavoritemurder.
00:35:50
Listen to My Favorite Murder on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:35:55
Or you can watch us on YouTube. Search for My Favorite Murder, then like and subscribe.
00:35:59
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00:36:41
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00:36:49
Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying.
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Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 90
    Most heartbreaking
  • 85
    Most shocking
  • 80
    Most emotional
  • 80
    Most surprising

Episode Highlights

  • Ryan Reynolds' Wireless Message
    Ryan Reynolds urges everyone to stop overpaying for wireless plans with Mint Mobile.
    “Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop.”
    @ 00m 42s
    November 20, 2025
  • A Mother's Reckoning
    A powerful memoir by Sue Klebold that explores grief, shame, and mental illness.
    “I was just in awe of this book.”
    @ 03m 51s
    November 20, 2025
  • James Wayburn Hall's Confession
    James admits to killing multiple victims, shocking the investigators.
    “I killed them all.”
    @ 19m 21s
    November 20, 2025
  • James's Troubled Relationships
    James's tumultuous marriages lead to tragedy and violence.
    “Faye confides in her family that she doesn't think she can stay married to James.”
    @ 23m 19s
    November 20, 2025
  • The Hitchhike Killer's Confession
    James confesses to multiple murders, including that of his wife, Faye.
    “I killed them all.”
    @ 25m 32s
    November 20, 2025
  • The Discovery of Faye's Remains
    A woodcutter finds evidence of Faye's murder, leading to a grim revelation.
    “James points out the characteristic front tooth in the jawbone.”
    @ 26m 35s
    November 20, 2025
  • James's Trial and Sentencing
    James is found guilty of murder and sentenced to death shortly before his 25th birthday.
    “James is found guilty and sentenced to death.”
    @ 29m 39s
    November 20, 2025

Episode Quotes

  • It's going to be crazy and so sad.
    507 - Adult Woman
  • I was just in awe of this book.
    507 - Adult Woman
  • Oh, my God.
    507 - Adult Woman
  • Have your father give you a head injury that changes your life forever?
    507 - Adult Woman
  • I killed them all.
    507 - Adult Woman
  • May God have mercy on your soul.
    507 - Adult Woman

Key Moments

  • Ryan Reynolds' plea00:42
  • Emotional farewell03:06
  • Book recommendation03:51
  • Faye's Disappearance24:09
  • James's Confession25:32
  • Murder Discovery26:35
  • Trial Begins28:53
  • Execution29:41

Tension Over Time

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown