00:00:00
This is exactly right. Isn't some far off concept? It's already here. Next starts now.
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Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA. Goodbye. When a charming neurosurgeon rode into Frontier Town
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selling a persona of confidence and care, patients trusted him. He wore cowboy boots in the operating room
00:00:45
and became sought after by patients. He promised to heal them. Instead, he left a trail of broken bodies.
00:00:51
This is a story of greed, betrayal, and a fight for justice. Listen to Dr. Death the Cowboy wherever you get your podcasts
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or binge the entire series right now only with Audible. Goodbye. This episode is brought to you in part by Vital Farms.
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00:02:08
Hello and welcome to My Favorite Murder. That's Georgia Hartstar. That's Karen Kilgareff.
00:02:31
And we are professional broadcasters. Have you heard? Haven't you heard the word about us in broadcasting?
00:02:37
It's a good word. Do you like that I'm, and this is just for the YouTube audience, wearing a shirt that kind of looks like I might just be sitting here with no shirt on?
00:02:46
Yeah, but also you're insanely tan. Oh, well, yeah. What happened? I'm just going outside. It's so hot outside. I'm just going out by the pool and spending. I mean, for me, it is.
00:02:57
Like, I don't remember having seen your arms in a long time and they're tan as fuck, it turns out.
00:03:03
You know what it is? I should have first revealed my pay alarms to you and then had told you.
00:03:08
Had I known. Listen, I'm going to go out onto the patio this weekend and really do some stuff.
00:03:14
Be careful now. There's UV rays. I'd put fake tanner on. It's a little orange. It looks fine.
00:03:20
I'm like trying a bunch of them out for like tour, before tour, like so I don't look.
00:03:24
In stripes. You'll see which one is most natural. Yeah. What can you see from the stage? Like, do I look orange?
00:03:29
Actually, you know what's funny about that is I have a dress I tried on that is especially plunging neckline.
00:03:35
And I'm like, I think I'm going to have to use fake tanner on this part of my chest that's never been seen by the outside world.
00:03:41
The cleavage. The lower cleave that has stayed indoors for 10 years. I mean, you have your own backyard.
00:03:48
You have to lay out topless. That's like one of the joys of having your own backyard.
00:03:52
But one of the joys of the house that's next to you being kind of above you is that you just I would feel so self-conscious the whole time.
00:04:01
Tan those titties. Fuck them. Fuck them all. Say you're welcome, motherfuckers. You're welcome.
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Just keep winking and finger gunsing up at them. Why is she doing that? Yeah, that's right.
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Put your tits away. Why is she doing that? Why does she keep winking at us? Why does she have her tits out?
00:04:22
Speaking of touring and tits, I guess, no, what do you have? No, that was a perfect segue.
00:04:27
Get in there. We're going on tour. I think the tan thing we should say, I could say, we should say, we might say, when this goes up, we'll be in Denver for our first live show in eight, six years?
00:04:38
Yeah, six or seven. Six or seven years. What's your number one fear about that first night on stage in Denver?
00:04:45
God, there's just so many. Actually, there aren't any. Everything leading up to it, I'm terrified of.
00:04:52
But once you get up there, I'm like, we got this. It's that thing of like, I'm not nervous about how it's going to go.
00:04:58
I think it's going to go fucking great. Oh, good. And I'm just excited about that.
00:05:01
Okay, great. Maybe like I could trip on the way in, but even that would be like kind of funny.
00:05:05
I think we've done that though. Yeah. And so hopefully someone gets it on video and it's fine.
00:05:08
Yes. Content, content, content. Always. Everything is content. I think I just had that feeling of like, you can't go back or like you can't recapture
00:05:18
the old times. and I loved the old times so much. Yes, you can. You can? Yeah. Okay.
00:05:24
Why not? It's the same now. It's just time is different. True. True. And that bitch is linear.
00:05:31
Isn't linear. That's right. Is not. Is not linear. Whose side are you on? Georgia said time is not linear
00:05:37
or mine rooted in science. Denver's going to go well or Denver's going to go terribly.
00:05:43
Denver. What if the best show we ever did was the Bananas show we guested on in Denver?
00:05:47
That was really fun. And truly we peaked. Yeah. I mean, it was amazing. You should come to our live shows.
00:05:53
There some cities that and some nights in certain cities that aren selling out San Diego We really disappointed in you San Diego San Diego why Get it together We were there for you We were so there for you
00:06:05
We have great stories from there, too. Or at least I do. What? That diorama was given to us in San Diego.
00:06:11
I could almost bet on it. See, they used to love us. I mean, they would make us stuff.
00:06:15
They made us stuff. But here's the difference. Six years in time. They've taken all of the money out of the normal person's hands and stolen it away.
00:06:23
Oh, OK. Who has an extra however much money this is to go? Yeah. There's some exciting things going on at the live shows that we can't talk about and won't talk about, refuse to talk about.
00:06:33
Salami wheel. There's going to be a salami. So you're going to want to go. I think it's going to be a great tour, and I'm looking forward to it.
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I'm looking forward to my tan. Yeah, we're now in a tan contest, Georgia. You have to beat this level.
00:06:44
Good luck. There's a lot of freckles that might be visual. That's very Italian tan.
00:06:49
I can't achieve as an Eastern European woman. But, you know, if you've ever gone to Circus Vargas, then you're going to love what's happening at our live shows.
00:06:58
So get over here. Yes, that's an old reference, but we need you, the over 40s who know that reference.
00:07:05
Yes, that's right. Gen Xers and above. Circus Vargas, Circus Vargas. I fucking remember Circus.
00:07:10
Remember? And it would just be like a gigantic elephant in the commercial. Like their foot came toward the camera.
00:07:16
You can't do that anymore. You can't abuse the most beautiful, sensitive animal on the planet anymore.
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It's for the best. It's probably for the best. And that's why we're going on tour.
00:07:26
It's because you can abuse us as much as you want. But leave the elephants alone.
00:07:32
And we're not going to say it again. No, we won't. Go to MyFavoriteMurder.com slash live.
00:07:37
Get your tickets and see us there. And find out. I think if you go to MyFavoriteMurder.com, it'll let you know where to go for those tickets.
00:07:45
Just in case. But what if they don't know? No, no, you're right. That's the exact address.
00:07:48
But I'm just saying, I think that landing page is going to direct you as well. You don't have to remember it.
00:07:53
No. Just in case. Should we do a little business about our network? Sure. Yeah. Let's do it.
00:07:59
We have a podcast network. It's called Exactly Right Media. Here's some info. This is some very exciting breaking news because everyone loves a Nick Terry MFM animated.
00:08:09
And he is back with his brand new episode called Crow Omen. It's based on Georgia's story about finding a crow in her pool from MFM episode 484, Cops of Trees.
00:08:20
And please, all you day one listeners, keep your eyes out because there is a Vince cameo in this Nick Terry video.
00:08:26
I love when there's an MFM animated Vince cameo because Nick Terry gets Vince's beard and he's like a calico cat beard.
00:08:36
And he gets it so spot on. Yes. I love it. He's such a good artist. It's such a good episode.
00:08:42
You show up as a witch. It's just like so fucking funny. It has everything. I did have the idea the other day where I was like, what if Nick Terry made the before the show starts, let's all go to the lobby video, but we make a new version of it.
00:08:58
I love that. I was going to pitch a preview of like video and shots and stuff like that of My Favorite Murder.
00:09:04
But Nick Terry. Yeah, great. Some sort of Nick Terry like, yeah. Oh, my God. And then we get him to do a spoof of Nicole Kidman.
00:09:12
Like heartbreak feels good in a place like this. I mean like we could just go to town and be like
00:09:18
Oh my god Nicole Kidman what are we talking about The way she was like jumping for joy when she divorced
00:09:24
Like I don't know which Nicole Kidman You're referring to in this That'd be really good
00:09:28
We should do it now Why isn't the red phone Pick up that hot dog phone Nick Terry calling Nick Terry
00:09:36
While you're on YouTube we've also got full episodes of Buried Bones This podcast will kill you and My Favorite Murder
00:09:41
So go check that out at youtube.com Slash exactly right media Please and thank you.
00:09:46
And you go first this week. All right. I'm going to do it. Okay. So for my story, we are firmly in the 1990s.
00:09:53
Oh. Your favorite? I mean. Or at least favorite. I did some good work back then, I feel.
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It was the best of times. And the very, very worst of times. And 29-year-old Anne-Marie Fahey was smart, vibrant, and she was going places.
00:10:08
But behind the scenes, she was caught up in a secret relationship with a man who was respected and powerful,
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But underneath, he was hiding something dark. And his actions sent shockwaves through multiple interconnected small communities in none other than Delaware.
00:10:24
Have we ever done a story from Delaware before? No, I honestly thought you were going to say D.C.
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Yeah, it's because it sounds like Chandra Levy. Yes. It's not. Yeah. But it totally has whispers of that.
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It's like a parallel crime. Yes. But no, Delaware. Delaware. D.C.'s sister city.
00:10:40
Okay. It's true. 2,000 people are furious that you just said that. This isn't just a story of a missing woman.
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It's a story about power, corruption, and how far someone will go to protect their image.
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And we got so many emails to our email account from murderinos about this story because Delaware,
00:10:57
in this area specifically, in Wilmington, is such a tight-knit community. Someone said, like, it's the song for Cheers.
00:11:04
It's the same thing. Everyone knows your name. Everyone knows everything. Like, everyone's up in each other's business.
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It's a little big city kind of a thing. So this is like everyone from Delaware's hometown, like what got them into true crime, essentially.
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And it's really heartbreaking. The main source for this story is a book by Anne Rule.
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That's right. Called And Never Let Her Go. Do you sometimes get upset that we are psychically connected?
00:11:28
Because I do. I always knew exactly who you were about to say. Stephen King? No.
00:11:32
I mean, there was no. And you're not some other author. Who else is there? The rest of the sources can be found in the show notes.
00:11:39
but also there is a 2001 miniseries about this case called and never let her go starring mark
00:11:46
harman as the main dude okay i bet you've seen it mark harman is like the buttoned up suit and tie
00:11:53
older man yes sexy older man guy he the star of ncis yeah and summer school oh that okay Oh Summer School That full range And then the woman who plays Anne Fahey is the actress Catherine Morris
00:12:07
And I was like, who is that? And then I look it up and she's like, she's in everything. The show
00:12:12
Cold Case. Did you ever watch that? The blonde. She is the main character in that. And I see her
00:12:16
face on a regular basis because every time I Google Cold Case to like look at Cold Case news,
00:12:20
that fucking show comes up first. So I see her face every day. Yes. And she's been in Murder, She Wrote twice.
00:12:27
She's been in Silk Stocking. She's been in Death of a Cheerleader, that one made-for-TV movie.
00:12:32
So like she's been in all the things. She is the female Mark Harmon. Turns out. They just, now it's two powers meeting.
00:12:38
I have to say this too. The second you said the disappearance of Anne-Marie Fahey.
00:12:43
Yeah. The name Anne-Marie Fahey is such a, that's my cousin, that's my Anne-Marie.
00:12:48
to me being Irish sometimes feels like a small town because everyone has the same
00:12:52
lilt the same thing and you can kind of like I can see her feel her yeah yeah that's exactly right
00:12:59
so we're gonna start on Saturday June 29th 1996 and we're in Willington Delaware and a 30-year-old
00:13:07
man named Mike Scanlon is supposed to have dinner with his 29-year-old girlfriend Anne Marie Fahey
00:13:12
along with her brother Robert and his family but Anne Marie never shows up to meet Mike to head
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over to dinner. Anne-Marie works as the scheduling secretary for the governor of Delaware, a Democrat
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named Thomas Carper. She's worked for him since he was a congressman. And she is like political
00:13:29
and going places and really passionate about it. I read this one little detail and like almost made
00:13:34
me cry. She keeps a collection of her ratty childhood stuffed animals at her apartment,
00:13:40
and they all have women's rights buttons pinned on their lapel, like pinned on them.
00:13:44
Because that's like the generations. You know what I mean? It's like, here's me as a kid, then here's me as like teenager or getting older.
00:13:50
Here's what I'm passionate about. I'm a woman in the world and I understand what I'm up against.
00:13:55
Yeah. And it just kind of like, I see that person so well based on that one little detail.
00:14:00
Yeah. You know. So Anne-Marie, who most people call Annie, is one of six siblings in a close family, which is also very involved in the tight knit Irish American community in Wilmington.
00:14:10
That's the thing there. I dated a guy from Wilmington and I don't know anything about it except they eat scrapple a lot
00:14:17
Scrapple? Scrapple, yeah What's that like a nice hash with your eggs? Absolutely not. It's like a spam toast
00:14:24
I'm gonna get yelled at for this spam toast like avocado toast, but spam I think it's like spam like a chopped up meat a lot of chopped up meat
00:14:32
Let's like guess other even worse stuff so that people get angry and angrier and write in more and more about what scrapple is
00:14:38
I think it's a cousin of spam. Okay. Correct me if I'm wrong. I don't even need to say that.
00:14:43
I know you fucking will. And I appreciate it. Annie is the baby of the family. She has four brothers and one sister.
00:14:49
So they're all a little older when she's born. So, of course, they're super protective over little Annie.
00:14:54
Annie's mother, Kathleen, had died of lung cancer when she was only nine years old.
00:14:57
And her father, Robert, is never the same after this. He struggles with alcoholism.
00:15:02
He stops being able to take care of the family. Some of the older kids who are now young adults by this point step in to take care of Annie and they do their best.
00:15:12
While they're putting themselves through school, almost all of the older Fahey kids work at a pub, the local pub called O'Freels, owned by their close family friends.
00:15:21
So it is small town. Small town. Also, that's just the tragic mom dying of cancer when you're nine years old is like the most painful thing.
00:15:30
Absolutely. And then the dad loses it. It sounds like he was not able to hold it together.
00:15:34
He finally loses the family home when Annie is 15. And so he moves into an apartment.
00:15:40
And Annie, who's an athlete and a great student, winds up living with the family that she babysits for in order to stay in her high school.
00:15:47
Oh, because she doesn't want to be out of the district. Yeah. And they adore her.
00:15:50
They consider her part of the family. But she's just not totally comfortable, you know, living there.
00:15:55
She just feels weird. It's like you're a guest your whole life. Totally. That's awful.
00:15:59
Absolutely. And so that arrangement ends towards the end of high school. And at that point, Annie briefly moves back in with her dad and then lives with her two eldest brothers.
00:16:08
She's also working in a restaurant and is essentially like a self-sufficient adult, even though she's just 17.
00:16:13
It's like that. Take care of yourself. Because you have to. You have to. Yeah. And she actually fucking thrives and makes it.
00:16:20
She graduates from high school, goes on to college. She initially flourishes in college and then struggles with depression and has to take a break.
00:16:27
But she gets therapy and graduates. She does struggle with anorexia as well as so many young women do.
00:16:35
The Fahey kids, bolstered by that great community that they're part of, had all managed to do well in school, get good jobs, and generally make nice lives for themselves.
00:16:44
Like, they beat the fucking odds and they really went for it. Probably because they have community, it sounds like.
00:16:50
It seems like it's a very helpful thing. Yeah. Yeah. It's big. Like, there's a family that's like, please come and live with us while this is happening to you.
00:16:57
Or like having other adults to count on when you're a kid who can't count on your parents is just a huge part of it.
00:17:03
Yeah. Of like making it. Back in 1996, when Annie goes missing, it's the last week of Delaware's legislative session.
00:17:11
So at first, Annie's brother and boyfriend think it's possible that she had been caught up working late the night that she was supposed to meet them for dinner.
00:17:17
It's normal for staffers in the governor's office to spend the night working at crunch times like this.
00:17:22
But then at 9 p.m., Mike, the boyfriend calls Annie's older sister, who's very concerned right off the bat.
00:17:28
And she starts calling Annie's friends. And one of the friends who work with her says that she's not working late.
00:17:34
So she is just missing. And Mike had driven past Annie's apartment earlier in the day before they were supposed to meet to go to dinner and had seen her car there.
00:17:42
And it's still there, even though Annie isn't picking up the phone in her apartment.
00:17:46
Annie's landlady says she hasn't seen her in the last two days. No one's really talked to her.
00:17:51
Basically they realize no one heard from her since Thursday the 27th and now it Saturday So the landlady lets them into the apartment and it really out of character the way her apartment is left It really strange for her because she very neat
00:18:05
and organized. She's so neat and organized that she stacks her pennies so that each coin has
00:18:11
Lincoln's profile facing in the same direction, which I'm just picturing Vince, like he has to
00:18:16
have his bills facing the same way and in the right order. And he's really precise about that.
00:18:21
Yeah, because when you are a child and you grew up in this situation where things are out of your control all of the time, you learn to get some control in the places that you can get it.
00:18:31
Totally. Totally. She also never lets trash sit in her apartment, always taking like smaller bags out whenever she leaves.
00:18:39
But when they get into her apartment today, there's rotting produce all over the kitchen counters because she hadn't put her food away, her groceries away in the kitchen.
00:18:48
So there's like a rotting smell, which is so not like her. They also find leftovers from a restaurant in Philadelphia called Panorama that are in the fridge.
00:18:57
They don't look super old, but they are dry. So they're not like super recent leftovers.
00:19:02
So they've definitely been sitting there for a few days. Mike says he and Annie had not eaten there together.
00:19:07
Philadelphia is about a 40-minute drive from Wilmington. There's other weird stuff in the kitchen.
00:19:12
There's samples of prescription medication scattered around and packages of food on the counter but not put away.
00:19:18
Annie's purse is also in the kitchen. Her wallet is there with cash in it, but her keys are missing.
00:19:23
Her house and car keys are missing. Other than that, the apartment looks mostly the way Annie would leave it.
00:19:30
A couple of small things are different. It's a small apartment, modestly furnished, but decorated with Annie's little touches.
00:19:36
As I said, she keeps her stuffed animals with those pins on them. So at midnight, everyone's worried.
00:19:41
Annie's sister calls the police. And once they eventually get there, one of Annie's friends mentions that she has unheard
00:19:48
messages on her answering machine. Remember, there's no cell phones. There's a blinking answering machine. They listen to the messages, which are almost entirely from everyone in the room. But all of them are from Thursday afternoon on. So she hadn't listened to them, which is very unlike Annie. She always listens to her messages and calls right back.
00:20:06
So Annie's sister Catherine then shows the police something she had found before the police arrived.
00:20:11
She'd been looking through the letters and cards in Annie's drawers and found a letter that ends with, quote,
00:20:16
all I want to do is make you happy and be with you. I love you. End quote. It's not signed, but it's on a letterhead that says from the desk of Thomas Capano.
00:20:28
So that is here is Mark Harmon. Right. OK. The name Tom Capano is familiar to Kathleen, the sister she knows of him.
00:20:37
He's a prominent lawyer and political advisor from a prominent real estate family.
00:20:41
But she's weirded out by this letter, obviously, both because of the way it ends and because she, Kathleen, is briefly mentioned in it.
00:20:49
So it's a long letter that talks about Annie's family with a lot of familiarity as if he and Annie have talked a lot.
00:20:55
And she's never even heard of like this dude in relation to Annie. Right. She doesn't know him personally.
00:21:00
Yeah. Yeah. Tom is very involved in politics. He's worked as a legal counsel for a previous governor, not the one Annie worked for, and is a political consultant.
00:21:10
Tom's father is a very successful real estate developer and Tom's a very successful lawyer.
00:21:14
But he has three younger brothers, Louie, Joey and Jerry, and none of them are nearly as buttoned up and professional as Tom seemingly is.
00:21:23
They've all been involved in various degrees of crime in their personal lives and professional lives.
00:21:28
Jerry, as Anne Rule puts it, quote, seemed to care for nothing but guns, shark fishing, big game hunting,
00:21:35
and girls with big hair and clothes that fit like a second skin, end quote. That's Anne Rule for you.
00:21:41
She's going to say it. She's not going to spare anyone's feelings. Can you imagine if that was like, your big interest is shark fishing?
00:21:48
No, leave them alone. Get away from big game. Stop it with the elephants and the sharks.
00:21:54
So Louie and Joey, two of the brothers, work in the family real estate development business.
00:21:58
Jerry is the loosest canon. He can't be in an office setting. Me neither. And starts a landscaping business and has a lot of client overlap with his brothers.
00:22:08
Tom also has an older sister, Marion, who's played by Olympia Dukakis. Fucking legend.
00:22:14
My favorite. Such a legend. And she's completely excluded from the family business.
00:22:18
She's supposed to get an allowance from her brothers, but they just always fight instead.
00:22:23
All this to say, Tom has a very good reputation, but his family does not. When Tom and Annie meet in 1993, three years before her disappearance, he's about 43 and she is about 26.
00:22:36
This is years before she meets Mike, her new boyfriend. Tom is married at the time and has four daughters.
00:22:42
But he also has a mistress named Debbie who he's been seeing for years. Annie and Tom meet at a political fundraiser and have a lot of people in common, including those close family friends who own the pub because they're also very involved in local politics.
00:22:57
So they kind of just meet and click. And they're both from big Delaware families, from adjacent immigrant communities.
00:23:05
She's Irish and he's Italian. And it's just like this insular community. So they kind of...
00:23:10
You can hear the accordion music playing in the background. Yes. So Annie and Tom have a work lunch together after they meet.
00:23:16
But quickly after that, they start having dinner dates. Annie and her friends are all just starting out, not making much money.
00:23:22
and Tom takes her to nice restaurants, gives her that access to the kind of life
00:23:27
she hasn't been able to have before. Yeah. You know, grooming. That's what they call it, yeah.
00:23:33
Over the next couple of years, Tom and Annie are sort of on and off again. And in between, Annie dates other people.
00:23:39
During this whole period, Annie struggles with her mental health, particularly with her anorexia.
00:23:44
And she experiences a huge setback when her psychologist is killed in a drunk driving accident.
00:23:50
Terrible. Yeah. It takes Annie a while to find a new one, and in this period she leans on Tom a lot more.
00:23:57
All this time she writes in a diary documenting Her relationship with Tom and other things going on in her life.
00:24:03
By 1995, when she's 28, she confides in her work friend, Jill, that Tom seems like he's trying to control her.
00:24:11
I mean, you know, he's in his late 40s and he's a professional and he's married and he has children.
00:24:15
It's just that thing that you can picture that happens all the fucking time. Right, because it's like that is part of why he's doing it.
00:24:22
You know, he's showing himself, but then he can't. And he has to control her because if she steps out of line for one second, he's got all these things at risk.
00:24:31
A lot of things could go wrong. That's not in no way am I saying that he was right for that.
00:24:37
No, no, no. It's disgusting and weird. So he's starting to try to control her. He makes her interview for a job being a personal assistant to his brother, Louis, the sleazy real estate developer.
00:24:47
And it's clear that Tom just wants to keep Annie close and under his control. Thankfully, Annie doesn't take the job.
00:24:53
But Tom tries to control how she dresses. He tries to isolate her from her friends and becomes upset when he thinks she's spending too much time with them.
00:25:01
It's all just it's textbook control abuse. Why are all the boyfriends that are so terrible the ones that have like six girlfriends?
00:25:09
It's like, can you just do this to one person and then hang it up? Get yourself a therapist?
00:25:15
Seriously. Jesus. He also repeatedly tells her that they should end the relationship and then abruptly changes his mind.
00:25:21
And there are times when Annie also tries to end a relationship, but he always guilts her into changing her mind.
00:25:27
Around this time in September of 1995, Tom and his wife separate. But this is also when Annie meets Mike.
00:25:34
And it's actually the governor of Delaware who sets the two of them up, which is like you legally have to get married now.
00:25:40
The governor of Delaware is like, hey, I got a nice guy for you. Have you ever seen or heard of the governor of Delaware?
00:25:48
No, because he's. They're not real. I don't think they're real. Mike is kind and he's the same age as Annie and they start seriously dating in October.
00:25:58
And at the same time, Tom is telling both Annie and his other mistress that he has left his wife for them.
00:26:05
OK. Got it. The women don't know about each other. Annie tells Tom she's seeing someone and wants to break it off.
00:26:11
And Tom starts calling her 20 times a day. He threatens to tell Mike, the new boyfriend, about their relationship, even though it seems like they're not really seeing each other anymore.
00:26:20
On one occasion, he bursts into her apartment and gathers every item he's ever given to her.
00:26:26
And at this point, in addition to promising to marry Debbie, the mistress who predates Annie, Tom is also having a different affair with a woman from work.
00:26:35
Surprising to nobody. So he's just fucking around. Four total? Three now. Because the wife was probably like enough already.
00:26:43
Yeah, right. So spring goes better for Annie. She finds a new therapist. She keeps seeing Mike and Tom seems to be busy with his multiple other women.
00:26:51
He's mostly leaving Annie alone. But at the end of April, he turns up again, sending a ton of emails from his work email to her.
00:26:58
He starts out by eliciting sympathy by talking about one of his daughter's health issues.
00:27:03
And soon he's sending little jokes. He just kind of reels her back in offering to pay for a new windshield, that crack that she needs help with.
00:27:12
And is stressed about just doing those things. Yeah, just like white knighting wherever he can.
00:27:19
And despite progress in therapy, Annie's at a point where she's really struggling with her eating disorder.
00:27:24
And on June 12th, about two weeks before her disappearance, she faints at work. I've done that.
00:27:30
Mike, the boyfriend, is aware of her history of anorexia, but she still doesn't want him to know how bad it is at the moment.
00:27:37
I've totally done that before where I used to have an eating disorder. I don't anymore and I faint.
00:27:42
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, also, that's talk about a control issue. That's like eating disorders.
00:27:48
Totally. So it's kind of, you know, it's like bad to worse for her because it's like she already has this issue.
00:27:54
And then the people that she has in her life. Right. Aren't the people that you want helping you in that moment.
00:28:00
Absolutely. And so she's too embarrassed to tell her new boyfriend that this is going on right now.
00:28:06
And so she calls Tom. He knows all about it. He's been there for years. and he picks up the phone and he drives her home after she thinks.
00:28:14
So Tom interprets this as Annie choosing him over Mike. So he keeps contacting her after this.
00:28:20
He offers to buy her things. She keeps saying no. He offers to get the cracked windshield fix and she refuses.
00:28:27
And she does so very politely in emails, but she's still firmly refusing to accept anything from him.
00:28:33
Like it wasn't an invitation to come back in her life. Yeah. Then at the end of June, he invites her out to dinner with him on the Thursday night that she was last seen. Annie doesn't reply in the email. So if she does accept, it seems like she did so over the phone. So there's no record of it. And she doesn't tell anyone about the invitation or whether or not she accepted it.
00:28:53
I hate that, like, we've talked about that scenario before where you kind of paint yourself into this corner of no one knows where you are.
00:29:00
Yeah. Because you think, for whatever reason that you think that, it's, I hate that.
00:29:06
Yeah. Just tell someone. So with Annie missing, her close friends confirm their relationship with Tom to the police and tell them that Annie had complained about him being controlling.
00:29:17
There's more correspondence from Tom on his firm stationary. Annie had her detailed diary as well that lays out the whole story of their relationship.
00:29:26
One of the most recent entries talks about breaking it off and says, quote, I finally have brought closure to Tom Capano.
00:29:33
What a controlling, manipulative, insecure, jealous maniac, end quote. Oh, yeah.
00:29:40
So now the police are trying to confirm if Annie went to dinner with Tom on that Thursday, June 27th, last time she was seen.
00:29:46
It seems that way because of the leftovers that were from the Philadelphia restaurant in her fridge It a place they had gone to before together Tom had told his longtime mistress Debbie that he had plans in Philadelphia that evening but that he would probably be done by 930 So it seems like the plans were with Annie And then he was going to go to his mistress house
00:30:07
At 3.30 a.m. on Sunday morning, the 30th, two detectives knock on Tom's door. Tom says he's aware that Annie is missing.
00:30:14
He tells the police that the last time he saw her was that Thursday night, confirms they went to dinner and that he drove her,
00:30:19
that they stopped briefly at his apartment to pick up some groceries he had bought for Annie
00:30:23
and then went back to her apartment. He says he put the grocery bag down on the counter, gave her another gift,
00:30:29
and used the bathroom and left. And that was the last time he saw her was when he left her at the apartment.
00:30:34
The detective asks if they can look around the house, but Tom says that his daughters are asleep upstairs
00:30:38
and doesn't want them to get scared and refuses to let them in, and they don't have a warrant.
00:30:44
And so they come back the next morning, And so who knows what evidence they would have found if they had insisted on coming in or had a warrant.
00:30:52
And when they do come back at 10 a.m., Tom isn't there. They finally track him down.
00:30:56
He takes them back to the house to look around. We're not doing a full search. But the house looks very clean, is what they say.
00:31:03
The detectives are bracing for an uphill battle and for publicity. Tom is a well-known and well-respected lawyer with a lot of connections.
00:31:11
His brothers are known to be in trouble with the law from time to time, but not Tom.
00:31:16
So everyone is pretty shocked about this. Actually, there's some Rutterinos who wrote in that said their dads used to like hang out with him, like in groups with him sometimes.
00:31:24
And everyone was very surprised that he was implicated. Okay. Just, you know. He's the good boy.
00:31:30
Right. On the outside, he kept his shit together. Well, and also that's the ultimate position to be in.
00:31:35
Because if you're the one that like gets your homework done and goes to school and becomes a lawyer and then you have these kind of like dirt baggy brothers to a degree.
00:31:43
We don't know these people, but you always look good no matter what. And you can always make yourself look good because you're just playing that.
00:31:50
You're playing your position, essentially. Right. So at this point, the Fahey siblings are all working hard to get Annie's disappearance out to the press.
00:31:58
And she's on the front page of all the local newspapers. It becomes a huge story because stuff like this does not happen in Wilmington or in Delaware at all.
00:32:06
of Friel's, the pub that was the hub for the Fahey's community, hangs a banner with a photo of Annie advertising a $10,000 reward for information
00:32:14
leading to her recovery, which in today's money, $10,000. This is 87? 96. 96. Yeah.
00:32:23
It's less than you think it would be. 40,000? 20,000. That's way less. 500, I know.
00:32:28
Yeah. Annie's therapist comes forward and tells police that she's worried that Tom has abducted Annie
00:32:35
because Annie had brought this up as something she worried about in therapy, him abducting her.
00:32:41
She was specifically worried that Tom would hire people to do it. They discussed this at their very last session before Annie disappeared.
00:32:48
And she said that she urged Annie to report him to the attorney general's office.
00:32:52
Some people believe that Annie did threaten him that night to do that. And that is what maybe set Tom off.
00:32:58
Yeah, that would make sense. I mean, that's horrifying. And it just makes me think of every that's like every part of law and order when they go to the therapist and they're like, I can't tell you.
00:33:07
And they're like, someone could be dead. It's like to get that therapist who I'm sure was very motivated to be like, I need to tell you what the last thing she told me.
00:33:17
Right. Because it's exactly what's happening right now. Horrifying. As investigators learn more about Tom, they learn that he's had other affairs and has a history of becoming threatening and possessive.
00:33:28
In one case, in the late 70s, long before Annie, he had been having an affair with an engaged woman while he was newly married.
00:33:35
He showed up at her bachelorette party and at the wedding and wrote her obsessive letters for months.
00:33:41
So he was just unhinged. Yeah, he couldn't stop. Well, again, because it's control.
00:33:46
Right. He's like a stalker. Then he tried to hire a man to beat her up or hit her with a car, specifically requesting these two things.
00:33:54
But the man he tried to hire went to the FBI with tapes of Tom's phone calls. I love when hit men do that.
00:34:01
100%. It's not that common, I don't think. But like every once in a while, they'll be like, you know what?
00:34:06
No, this is wrong. This is against my code of conduct. And I'm a hit man. And like, who the fuck are you?
00:34:11
Yeah. It's terrifying. But also there's that idea. It's like hiring someone to hit them with a car.
00:34:18
Disgusting. That's awful. But authorities essentially at that time give Tom a slap on the wrist and send him on his way.
00:34:25
Wow. I know. The FBI is called into Annie's case at the personal request of Governor Carper, who's Annie's boss.
00:34:33
And in July, they do an extensive search of Tom's house. They find out that Tom had replaced.
00:34:37
This is just like textbook. Replaced the carpet and the sofa in his living room the weekend Annie disappeared.
00:34:44
Oh, my God. I know. He also had gone to a drugstore and bought a cleaning product with this fucking name that is just, are you ready for this?
00:34:52
It's called Carbona Blood and Milk Remover. Oh, sir. What? That's a confession. Yeah.
00:34:58
At the Ace Hardware. But why milk, Carbona? I want to ask the Carbona family. Like, can you just do blood?
00:35:03
I wonder if milk stinks and even when you get it up, like it still keeps stinking if it's in there.
00:35:08
You're a farm girl. There you go. I'm a farm girl and I've dropped many a latte in my car.
00:35:13
so many more latte smell in the car it's sour you're just like it's fine i like vanilla lattes
00:35:20
and then like a week later like why does everything turn out this way okay you explain sorry carbona
00:35:25
family don't at me i get you now they're like this do you understand what milk is like in
00:35:30
carpeting milk blood milk blood it's all in there the search also turns up blood stains on the
00:35:38
woodwork in the living room and on a radiator and on the door of a laundry closet, like blood.
00:35:44
And you're, yeah. So when the cops knocked, he was standing there. Right. If they had just walked in and looked at that room, something might have been there.
00:35:51
Yeah. And they didn't have a warrant, but they could have maybe gotten one. But also he was political So maybe it would have been impossible Who knows You know it just a missed opportunity But they don have a body to match the blood to right Because Annie is missing
00:36:06
So the agents learn that Annie donated blood very regularly. They locate, they track down her last donation right before it gets shipped overseas to test it.
00:36:17
Wow. In the nick of time and the blood is found to be a match. That is some detective work, right?
00:36:24
And also fully makes up for having to stand at that doorway, not do anything. That might have been the FBI.
00:36:31
And then that might have been the local. But thank God. Yes. Because also that kind of thing, if it is that overt and horrible of a murder where he just killed her in his living room because he was angry or something.
00:36:43
Blood everywhere. Yeah. But there's no body. And at the time, it is very rare for anyone to be arrested, for anyone to be tried for murder without a body.
00:36:55
Right. It's 1996. But around this same time, when they find all this evidence of blood, Tom's brother, Jerry, Tom and Jerry, is arrested on drug and weapons charges.
00:37:06
And you know what happens to like regular criminals. They snitch. Exactly. So he's like, I'll cooperate with you to get a better case on the shit that I'm in trouble with.
00:37:18
And essentially completely throws his brother under the bus. Oh, wow. Completely rats his brother out.
00:37:25
Wow. Louie, one of Tom's older brothers, also winds up cooperating. So Jerry and Louie tell police that Tom did kill Annie at his own house and that he put her body in a fishing cooler.
00:37:37
The day after she was last seen, Tom and Jerry used Jerry's boat to go about 70 miles off the coast of Stone Harbor.
00:37:45
But then the cooler wouldn't sink. So instead, they wrapped two anchors around Annie's body and let her sink into the Atlantic.
00:37:52
And then they threw the empty cooler into the water. And when the story is made public, two fishermen come forward saying they had found a cooler in the ocean, like the one described, off the Jersey Shore.
00:38:04
and they had used it to store fish, but the cooler is found to match the one Jerry described
00:38:09
cooperating his story. I'm pretty sure, and I could be wrong with all the things
00:38:14
we've looked at over the years, but I'm pretty sure I've seen the clip of those fishermen
00:38:17
who talked to the news because they found that. Because it's like they show it like a floating out here
00:38:24
in the middle of it, whatever. And it is so disturbing. Like this idea where there are people,
00:38:30
as we know, in this world that if they want you gone, you're gone. Because they know how to do it and they know those kinds of details.
00:38:37
It's awful. I can imagine. Yeah. The case goes to trial October of 1998. In court, Tom tells a different story than anyone's ever heard before.
00:38:46
His brothers have ratted him out. He kind of can't fight that. So he confirms that he brought Annie to his house after dropping the gift and groceries at her house.
00:38:55
Wait, can I guess? She did something to him. Even worse. The mistress did it. Her name's Debbie.
00:39:01
I'm not saying her last name because it's just such bullshit. But he's saying that Debbie shows up, discovers them together.
00:39:07
She's upset. There's a scuffle. And Debbie has a gun. And he grabs Debbie's arm and the gun goes off.
00:39:15
That's what he says happened. He admits to hiding Annie's body and claims Debbie helped him do it.
00:39:20
Debbie testifies, too. And she vehemently denies being at his house that night. Although she does say one time Tom had asked her to buy a handgun in her name, and she did.
00:39:30
She says she gave it to him and never saw it again. So all she does is fucking point the finger that he actually has a gun.
00:39:37
Well, she better because he was like, oh, no, here's who I'm going to throw under the bus.
00:39:41
And she's like the one person that actually loved you that thought this was all real.
00:39:47
And now is finding out you have, you know, all these other mistresses and whatever.
00:39:51
And you're going to blame me. I have shit on you, bro. Just like when does it it's Craven.
00:39:57
Fucking Mark Harmon. Tom is found guilty of first degree murder. And it's the first time in Delaware history that someone is convicted of murder in the absence of a body or a murder weapon.
00:40:08
So they don't have either, but they're still able to convict her. At first, Tom is sentenced to death.
00:40:12
But on one of his appeals, the death sentence is overturned since it had been decided by a jury verdict that was not unanimous.
00:40:19
He is sentenced to life in prison instead. He appeals several more times and his conviction is affirmed each time.
00:40:26
Tom dies in prison at the age of 61 in 2011 of heart failure. Annie is remembered as a bright light in the Wilmington community.
00:40:35
And in Brandywine Park, there's a bench dedicated to her memory. O'Friel's Pub, where all the Fahey kids worked and where Annie first met Mike, closes in 2001.
00:40:45
But until it does, the banner with Annie's picture advertising the reward for information leading to her return remains hanging.
00:40:53
Oh, that kills me. And I think there's so many murderinos that started with this case from Delaware.
00:40:59
So many people wrote in. I mean, it's just. Oh, they kept a sign up. I know. And that is the story of the murder of Anne Marie Fahey.
00:41:08
What a loss. Yeah. Horrible. Yeah. Always. But I mean, always. Always. But man, this one.
00:41:16
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00:41:48
Hey, everyone. It's Cal Penn, host of Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club.
00:41:53
This week on the podcast I sitting down with Will Wheaton who played Gordy Lachance in Stand By Me 40 years ago and now narrates Stephen King The Body the novella that inspired it all
00:42:06
We talk about what it's like to return to a story that shaped his life, channeling his memories of River Phoenix and the recording booth,
00:42:13
and why the friendships you have at 12 might be the most important ones you'll ever have.
00:42:18
I know Gordy Lachance. I am Gordy Lachance. Like, I mean, even when I was a little kid, I was Gordie LeChance when I didn't know it.
00:42:27
Listen to Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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00:44:33
That's Redfin.com. Okay, I'm going to turn it around. Are you ready? I'm so fucking ready.
00:44:40
Okay, because I was tough. Yeah. But there are good things that happen in the world.
00:44:46
Remember? When? I'll tell you. There's a Twitter account called Historic Videos, but then the handle is History and Memes.
00:44:54
And so I saw this Reddit nice three-paragraph tweet. Great. And I was like, I've never heard this story, and I think other people should know this story.
00:45:03
And especially you and I, you being a native of L.A., me being a longtime citizen, if you live in L.A. or you watch the Kardashians,
00:45:11
you know what a big part of the culture here Armenians are. It's apparently the largest concentration of Armenians outside of Armenia is in Glendale,
00:45:21
which is a suburb of L.A. And so when I started reading this, I was like, oh, well, this is great.
00:45:28
This is there's lots of people are going to like this story. So if you don't know, Armenia is a small landlocked country about the size of Maryland.
00:45:36
I would wonder how it competes with Delaware, but don't know anything about our states.
00:45:42
It's a beautiful country and it's actually filled with beautiful lakes and waterfalls and mineral springs.
00:45:48
But the history in Armenia is incredibly heavy. In 1915, toward the end of the Ottoman Empire, around 1.5 million Armenians were murdered in a devastating state-sanctioned genocide, which is why there are so many Armenian immigrants in L.A.
00:46:06
So the story I'm about to tell you takes place 60 years after that, when Armenia is under Soviet rule.
00:46:13
It is a late September evening in 1976. The workday is coming to an end. And dozens of communers are making their way across Yerevan, which is the capital of Armenia and the largest city in the whole country.
00:46:26
It's a typical rush hour, but it's interrupted by the sound of screeching metal and then a big crashing boom.
00:46:32
and people scream in terror as they watch a packed trolley bus veer off its tracks along
00:46:41
Lake Yerevan, a huge reservoir in the city. Later on, they'll say that per investigation,
00:46:48
the driver was speeding, but witnesses will actually come forward and report that he had
00:46:53
been trying to prevent a pickpocket from leaving the trolley bus. And so he refused to brake to let
00:47:00
that person off. And then he was hit over the head with a metal bar and knocked out.
00:47:05
Holy shit. So then the trolley bus not only didn't break, but kept speeding. And it flies over a curb
00:47:11
and then slams nose first into the concrete perimeter that runs around the reservoir.
00:47:17
It flips a few times and then it rolls into Lake Yerevan. And there are nearly 100 people,
00:47:24
school kids, factory workers, housewives, retirees that are trapped inside and seconds
00:47:31
from drowning in this very cold lake water. But they are not helpless because one particularly
00:47:37
capable bystander immediately springs into action. Superman? Kind of. This is the story of a truly heroic Armenian athlete named Shavarsh Karapetyan.
00:47:48
Yes. Have you heard of this? I've read it in the same style that you found it in on like random history.
00:47:54
Interesting history. Right? Yes. So the main source used in today's story is a 2014 Grantland article by a writer named Carl Schreck entitled The Plunge, and the rest of the sources are in our show notes.
00:48:09
So we're going to go back 20 years before the crash I just described to 1953 when Shavarsh was born into a working class Armenian family.
00:48:19
His path in life is more or less decided for him because his father, Vladimir, has dreams for his three sons, Shavarsh, Kamo, and Anatoly, of them all becoming world-class athletes.
00:48:33
It's a partially strategic dream that he has because excelling in sports is one of the few ways Armenians, especially those from humble backgrounds, can have any kind of upward mobility without drawing too much attention from Soviet authorities.
00:48:48
Sure. So it's like a way to get ahead. So Vladimir signs his boys up for gymnastics under an incredibly accomplished Armenian athlete and Olympic gold medalist named Albert Azarian.
00:49:01
Immediately, Shavar shows a ton of potential. He's said to have a, quote, commanding build, quick reflexes and relentless ambition.
00:49:11
Me too. It's the commanding build that really, I think, has gotten you so far. Me, definitely.
00:49:17
That's what they all say. A lot of muscle muscle flexing. But even with such raw talent, Shavarj's coaches don't think he can make a career out of gymnastics because he begins training when he's a little too old in a sport where competitors peak in their early teens.
00:49:35
And he's like in his mid-teens. But nobody wants to see him leave competitive sports because he's so kind of such a natural.
00:49:43
So one coach suggests he pivots to swimming. And this is out of left field, as reporter Carl Schreck explains in 2014, quote, Armenia is not a nation of swimmers.
00:49:55
The country is home to just a handful of public pools. A few of Armenia's lakes and rivers are suitable for swimming.
00:50:01
the president of the Armenian Swimming Federation estimates that only 30 percent of the population knows how to swim.
00:50:08
A figure he says has changed little since Soviet times. Interesting. I guess if you're landlocked, right, you're not like.
00:50:15
Maybe they do a little more like standing around and splashing the water up onto themselves in a lake or a stream.
00:50:21
Always nice. But no, they won't get their face wet like my mom at Blue Lake when she would be like always worrying about her hair and makeup.
00:50:29
But Shavarsh commits himself to the sport and he eventually joins a league dedicated to developing professional Soviet swimmers.
00:50:36
And sure enough, Shavarsh is good. He's particularly fast in backstroke and freestyle events, and he quickly earns a reputation for being one of Armenia's most promising young swimmers.
00:50:48
But over the next several years, he starts to lag behind the other swimmers in his age group.
00:50:53
It's said that as he grows older, he becomes less flexible, and he just starts having a hard time nailing down his stroke technique, and that slows him down.
00:51:03
And then at just 17 years old, Shavarsh is dropped from his swimming league. Of course, this is a huge gut punch for him.
00:51:11
His dreams of becoming a champion swimmer are gone, so he hits a bar that night with a fellow swimmer, presumably to drown his sorrows.
00:51:19
but that same friend happens to be recruiting athletes for a fin swimming team. I don't know what that is.
00:51:26
Luckily, there's a paragraph right under here that will tell you. Fin swimming is pretty much what it sounds like.
00:51:32
It's an event where competitors race one another with fins strapped to their feet.
00:51:36
It might be two fins like scuba divers, like they wear, or it could be what's called a, quote, monofin, which is one big single fin.
00:51:45
Oh, like a mermaid. That you're playing mermaid in the pool. I was picturing like, why would they put a shark fin to look like a shark?
00:51:52
Yeah. And then they chum the waters. It's really strange. It's role play. Don't worry about it.
00:51:57
Yeah. It's shark role play. So Shavarsh is interested and he doesn't feel like he has any time to waste.
00:52:03
So even though he was drinking a combination of vodka and beer all afternoon, he says, quote, I took a taxi home, rested up a bit and came back for my first workout.
00:52:13
OK. When you're 17, man, you can do fucking anything. Yeah. And also there's part of it that's like, I got to do this for my entire future.
00:52:22
Yeah. It's not a hobby. Okay. Fair enough. So even for a seasoned athlete like Shavarsh, who's been training in gyms and pools since he was a little kid, Finn's swimming workouts are next level.
00:52:32
Oh, God, I bet. And many of them happen outside of the pool and they're geared at body conditioning.
00:52:37
To paint a picture, Shavarsh's training might entail running upwards of 18 miles around town with a backpack filled with sand strapped to his back.
00:52:46
Mm-hmm. It's the OG weighted vest. Yes. And here's the OG-er weighted vest. He also might run around with a fellow swimmer on his shoulders.
00:52:57
I mean. Weighted vest. Steve. Steve the weighted vest. Chicken fighting. It's all classic training.
00:53:04
He also climbs hills on his arms. Oh, fuck. Army crawling up a hill? Oh, wheelbarrow style as a teammate holds his legs.
00:53:13
How cute. So he has to like get out there. So they're just trying to make it's kind of like Rocky when he fights the Russian guy.
00:53:20
It's like the workout is insane. But the Russian guy is the pool. That's right. The pool is fighting him.
00:53:26
Shavarsh also becomes known as the guy who jogs with ski boots attached to big planks of wood around his neighborhood to strengthen his ankles and feet.
00:53:34
OK. He's in it. He's showing off. He's 18 at this point. 17, 18. One of the most important skills that Shavarsh develops in this training is breath control.
00:53:44
In fin swimming, competitors might use snorkels for longer distance races, but in sprints, they typically hold their breath the entire time.
00:53:52
So according to experts you can safely hold your breath for around a minute Some people can go longer but then you getting into dangerous territory where you can actually damage your heart and your brain So we don
00:54:05
have an exact number for how long Shavarsh could hold his breath. We know it's several
00:54:09
minutes, which is pretty unbelievable. Do not try this at home. No, I swear I saw recently like the record just got broken for the longest breath holding.
00:54:18
Yeah, like some sort of a deep free swim dive or something. Are you a scientist and you know a lot about it?
00:54:23
Write in at MyFavoriteMurder.com and tell us everything about breath holding. I know, because I thought there's some people could do like three minutes or something.
00:54:31
But then like, I swear recently it was like five minutes, but that doesn't sound right.
00:54:35
And like the damage that's like. The damage, unless it just pops you right into being a mermaid.
00:54:40
We found an article where it's 30 minutes. 30 minutes? No. Okay, zero? You need to hear, we need, what do we need?
00:54:48
Breath doctors to tell us all about it. I mean, Jesus Christ. For a mini-sode, my favorite murder.
00:54:52
Also, is your midsection super wide if you can hold your breath for a half an hour?
00:54:57
You're like a pufferfish. Okay. Wow. Love to discuss breath-holding further murderinas if you would please engage.
00:55:03
Someone at home is like, my time to shine. Finally. I've written you 10 hometowns of actual true crime, and now...
00:55:11
It's my cousin Stevie who used to hold his breath to make himself pass out so that he wouldn't be in trouble with my aunt.
00:55:17
Okay. So all of this strength training and breath training pays off big time because
00:55:23
Shavarsh becomes an excellent fin swimmer. He rips through pools like a torpedo and he rarely
00:55:29
has to surface because he can hold his breath for so long. Not that long. 30 fucking minutes.
00:55:35
I mean, but also I wonder if one minute wasn't just a mistype of Marins and it was supposed to
00:55:40
be like 15 or something. Because one minute is, I feel like we could do that. No brag. Okay.
00:55:46
Give me a week and maybe I could do it. Yeah, we'd have to do some exercise. I have to get some bags of sand vest for you.
00:55:52
Steve. Gotta get Steve the weighted vest. Get up there. So at just 19 years old, Shavarsh fulfills a childhood dream.
00:55:59
He competes on behalf of the Soviet Union in the 1972 European Championship Games in Moscow.
00:56:05
And he walks away with gold medals in the 50 and 100 meter fin swimming sprints and all the glory he could hold.
00:56:13
A Soviet magazine writes, quote, It's safe to say we'll see this young athlete from Armenia at many more major championships.
00:56:21
And Shavarsh does fin swim as part of the Soviet team in the next two European championships, 73 and 74.
00:56:28
He sets world records and takes home a total of eight gold medals. But at this high point in his career, when he's only in his early 20s, he's inexplicably dropped by the Soviet team.
00:56:39
Yeah. The reason why is a mystery even today. Shavarsh's best guess is that Soviet sports officials wanted to showcase more Russian athletes on the team.
00:56:51
But Shavarsh has gotten used to having the carpet pulled from underneath him. Competitive sports are his life and livelihood, so again, he refuses to give up.
00:56:58
He figures that his best move is to practice harder than ever has before until he's so singularly impressive in the pool that the Soviets can't help but bring him back to the team.
00:57:09
And that's what Shavarsh Karapetyan was doing on September 16th, 1976, the day of the trolleybus crash.
00:57:18
I almost forgot about it. He is now 23 years old, running near the reservoir on another one of his grueling training sessions.
00:57:25
And he had already run 13 miles with 45 pounds of sand strapped to his back in a backpack.
00:57:33
Which in today's money is like three marathons. I mean, that much sand for me would be like 300 pounds of sand.
00:57:39
I'd be like, I can't lift this, and I don't know why you're being so unreasonable.
00:57:43
He's joined by his brother, Kamo, who's also a competitive athlete in swimming and other events.
00:57:50
So Shavarsh and Kamo hear this crash of the trolley bus as it flies off its tracks into the lake.
00:57:56
And before Shavarsh can even figure out what he's doing, he finds himself running in the direction of the explosion.
00:58:03
Kamo rushes after him. The trolley bus hits the lake bed and sinks quickly, kicking up a cloud of heavy silt, and it ends up resting about 15 feet underwater.
00:58:14
Shavarsh, acting purely on impulse and adrenaline, rushes down to the lake, strips to his underwear, throws off his backpack, and jumps into the water.
00:58:22
Years later, his brother Kamo will tell writer Carl Schreck that, quote, So to this day, I ask myself, if I had sprinted to this scene and hadn't seen Shavarsh in the water, would I have jumped in?
00:58:33
The answer is always the same. 50-50. Wow. 50-50. Maybe. I think that's really honest.
00:58:41
Yeah. My first instinct wasn't to save people completely. That's what a big deal my, what my brother did was.
00:58:47
Which is really cool. Generous. Very generous. It's Ottoman Armenia, so it's cold outside and the water's freezing.
00:58:53
On top of that, Lake Yerevan is polluted. This reservoir is not a place where most people would willingly swim at all.
00:59:02
But the brothers aren't thinking about that. They can see the trolley pole sticking out of the lake so they know where the trolley bus is underwater.
00:59:10
So they dive down and they start circling it, looking for some sort of entrance that they can pull people out of.
00:59:17
But all the windows and doors are shut. None of them are broken. Only seconds have passed since the crash, but already, of course, time is running out.
00:59:25
When the brothers come back up for air, Shavarsh instructs Kamo to stay at the surface while he goes back under.
00:59:31
He figures Kamo will be safer, but he can also call for help if Shavarsh himself gets stuck or runs out of energy and needs to be rescued.
00:59:40
Then he dives back down to the trolleybus, and despite all the silt making the water murky, he somehow manages to find the back window.
00:59:48
And when he does he quote brought his legs to his chest and thrust his left leg through the window with what he describes as quote a karate kick Can you imagine being in there and like through the silt suddenly you see this probably handsome fucking guy You want to see
01:00:05
Yeah. Oh, he's very handsome. Coming to save the day in the water. It's like, hi.
01:00:13
Hi. Oh, he's cute. Hi, how are you? I'd love to save you in my small bathing suit.
01:00:17
I would love that, too. And my beefy chest. Such a beefy chest. That's a man that's been running around with weights on his body.
01:00:25
Yeah. Save the day. And then that what a face. Sweet little face. What a face. Yeah. So it's a Hawkeye kicking in the window.
01:00:33
Hell yeah. Hell yes. So this kick works. He breaks in. He also slices his leg in the process.
01:00:39
Just part of it. So he has this huge gash on his leg. But he's now created a six foot wide opening in this trolley bus window without being able to really see.
01:00:50
He starts feeling around for bodies before pulling someone through the window and then surfacing with them.
01:00:57
Shavarsh hands that survivor over to his brother, who now is able to bring them to some first responders who have just rode out on kayaks.
01:01:06
And then Shavarsh immediately heads back down. He moves unbelievably fast for someone who has just run 13 miles with 45 pounds of sand struck his back.
01:01:15
Or like not at all. He moves fast for a person. Just for one of us. So he swims back down to the opening and grabs another person, brings them up to his brother, goes back down, grabs another, and so on.
01:01:28
He then realizes when he first comes up out of that area, he can swim above the roof and then push off from the roof and basically launch himself up to the surface way faster.
01:01:39
So he starts doing it that way. He also pulled the glass of that six-foot window out by hand.
01:01:45
So he made it so that no one else would cut themselves the way he cut himself. Oh, my God.
01:01:50
So now there's a crowd gathered to watch this harrowing rescue mission play out.
01:01:54
And one of the men in the crowd is Shavarsh's father, Vladimir, who was also coincidentally just in the area when the trolley bus went into the lake.
01:02:02
He is so stunned to realize that the men in the water are his two sons. He later says, quote, I thought to myself, it's a good thing I made sure they learned how to swim.
01:02:13
Sorry, I love Armenian style. They're so like they don't get riled up. Yeah. Yeah. They're not extra. No. They're real. So true. He's not like, those are my boys. He's not bragging. He's just like, wow, thank God we've got those swim lessons going. Love it. Vladimir will later recall how tense and anxious these onlookers were. Of course, they have no idea who Shavarsh actually is. At one point, he doesn't resurface after a minute or two. And there is a palpable feeling in the crowd that he might have drowned mid rescue.
01:02:46
you. Vladimir says, quote, when he finally came up, there was a massive communal sigh of relief.
01:02:52
I'm like holding my breath right now. I know. So down below, Shavarsh is still moving very fast
01:02:57
with no time to be diligent or to think about what he's doing. At one point, he grabs what he
01:03:02
thinks is a person, but realizes upon surfacing that it's a seat cushion. Oh, no. It pains him
01:03:08
very much. And he will later say, quote, that cost one life. Only a few minutes have passed
01:03:15
since this bus actually went into the water and Shavarsh has already pulled dozens of bodies
01:03:20
through that one broken window. We don't know the exact number, but it's estimated that he saves around 20 people
01:03:27
from drowning. Holy shit. 20 people, one guy. But as precious seconds passed, Shavarsh realizes there are no survivors left.
01:03:36
Oh. So in addition to the 20 people he saves, he recovers the bodies of around 15 victims.
01:03:42
He keeps doing it even though it's hopeless. Oh. Yeah. He winds down his rescue mission, but he doesn't rest.
01:03:49
Cranes have just arrived at Lake Yerevan to lift the trolley bus out of the water, basically to get the rest of the bodies up out of the water.
01:03:57
But the crane operators need to figure out how to wrap the crane's cables around the trolley to get it out.
01:04:04
It's a dangerous job, but Shavarsh and his brother, Kamo, do it. No, you guys have done enough.
01:04:09
They're like, don't anybody else get in this water. Yeah. Let it just be us. Basically, Shavar has to take a crowbar underwater, break out more windows and then thread the cables through those broken windows by swimming through them through the cab of the trolleybus.
01:04:25
Where there's like bodies. Yeah. And they kind of can't see. Oh, God. And I'm sure he didn't clear out the broken glass.
01:04:33
Right. I mean, it's just he's doing it himself. And ultimately, he's successful.
01:04:36
The cranes are able to lift the trolleybus from the water and the rest of the victims' bodies are recovered.
01:04:42
when Shavarsha is finally about to get out of the lake. All of this exertion has taken a real toll on him,
01:04:49
plus the polluted water. His legs start shaking. His vision gets spotty. So his father, Vladimir, takes him home
01:04:56
and urges him to rest. But Shavarsha's condition gets worse. His fever spikes at 104 degrees.
01:05:03
He gets delirious. He starts convulsing. Because he's got that cut, and then the pollution went in it.
01:05:09
Yes, horrifying. And also the sheer trauma of what he basically got himself into and then had to continue doing.
01:05:18
That's just him by himself with both survivors, but then bodies. That's too much.
01:05:25
Okay, so he's taken to the hospital where he's diagnosed with a severe case of pneumonia.
01:05:29
He's pumped with the antibiotics, and he has to spend the next three weeks confined to a hospital bed.
01:05:35
Years later, one of Shavarsh's doctors will talk about how close of a call this was.
01:05:40
And they'll say, quote, to be honest, I was surprised that we were able to save his life from that infection.
01:05:46
It was the healthy system of an athlete that fought. And after he fought for the lives of others, God now gave him the strength to fight for his own life.
01:05:56
So all of this happens and he goes to the hospital He basically in the hospital for about a month And essentially the people that were there and watched it happen know about it
01:06:06
And so that gets talked about. But most people in Yerevan don't know about the trolleybus accident.
01:06:12
And they certainly don't know about Shavarsh's heroic response to it. Although the local government has given him and Kamo 48 rubles, the equivalent of a quarter of the typical monthly wage at the time.
01:06:25
And that's all they get. Even though it's an incredible newsworthy story, no outlets pick it up.
01:06:31
It seems very intentional because it's basically about a tragic infrastructure failure.
01:06:37
And the Soviets don't want people hearing about that. Even the official report that documents the trolleybush crash is classified.
01:06:44
but Shavarsh didn't do it for attention or for glory and actually when he marries his wife Nellie
01:06:51
later on he never tells her about what he never tells oh my god dude I know bragging rights
01:07:00
like you earned that you earned it Shavarsh feels like he has more pressing concerns
01:07:06
he's supposed to be working on his big comeback for the fin swimming team you did it that was
01:07:14
comeback. I mean, yeah. Just three weeks after leaving the hospital, he goes back to training.
01:07:19
So he's in the hospital for almost a month. That's insane. Basically takes a month of like
01:07:23
getting his strength back. And now he's back. Well, it was much harder for him at that point.
01:07:27
He says, quote, when I started heavy training, I couldn't handle it. Mucus was coming up from my
01:07:32
lungs. I was coughing all the time. You had pneumonia. Yeah. Like less than a month ago.
01:07:38
Put the sandbag down, buddy. Shavarsh also finds himself getting very tense when he has to be in water.
01:07:45
Oh, shit. Which is understandable because of the trauma. But he is so eager to prove himself to the Soviet sports officials,
01:07:52
he pushes through all of that fear and pain and trauma. And just a few months later in the spring of 1977,
01:07:59
he makes it to the Soviet championship games once again, this time in Baku, Azerbaijan.
01:08:08
Your favorite country. I love it there. Azerbaijan was the reference country at the first writing job I ever had.
01:08:16
Somebody very smart and funny made that reference. And then I was just like, that's a country.
01:08:21
So now you know, like you really, really know that one. I really know it. Got it.
01:08:25
Yeah. I would never reference it because I don't know anything about it and I can't pronounce it.
01:08:30
Except for that the 1977 Soviet championship games were there. Which you've always known.
01:08:35
Which I've always known because I'm a big fan of Soviet championship games. Shavarsh is up against powerhouse Soviet swimmers.
01:08:43
Two of his competitors have set world records. But he's here on a mission to prove himself to be the best Finn swimmer in the USSR.
01:08:51
And when he hears the starting gunfire, he leaps from the platform. He dives into the water.
01:08:56
And as he puts it, quote, I swam to the death. I never raced so angry before. And in this race, the now 24-year-old Shavarsh sets a new world record.
01:09:08
Damn! Fucking swim angry. That's what we're learning here. Swim angry, baby. Gotta do it. Get in there and really want it.
01:09:15
Later that year at the European Championship Games, he'll win four more medals, three silvers and a gold.
01:09:22
Almost no one in the crowd has any idea that less than a year before, this champion almost died saving the lives of 20 people.
01:09:31
It's not until the early 80s when a reporter named Sergei Leskov covering a swimming competition in Moscow hears about champion Armenian fin swimmer who once quietly saved 20 people in Yerevan.
01:09:44
And when Sergei brings the story back to his editor, he's immediately sent to Armenia to get the whole story and cover it all.
01:09:51
As Carl Schreck writes in his, I just realized that Carl Schreck's last name is Schreck.
01:09:56
You just realized that? Yeah, I'm just reading it because it's spelt with a C-H.
01:10:01
I've been hearing Shrek the whole time. He's just got a very light green complexion.
01:10:07
The first time he said it, I was like, that had to suck that moment that that movie came out.
01:10:11
It had to. I just was like, oh, no. Oh, no, it's me, Carl Shrek. Yeah, forever. Will you marry me, princess?
01:10:19
No? Sounds good. Carl Shrek, please write in if you're good looking. Okay, so this writer who wrote the piece for Grantland, The Plunge, Carl Schreck says, quote,
01:10:33
It's unclear why local authorities decided to hand over documents about the accident to Leskov after keeping it quiet for so long.
01:10:41
Perhaps they feared repercussions from Moscow if they stonewalled a leading national paper's attempt to publish an ideologically sound lionization of a Soviet athlete.
01:10:51
So maybe it's like now he, Shavarsh has legitimized himself in the story. He's earned the right to brag about the thing he did.
01:10:59
Yeah. Got it. Yeah. Regardless, in October of 1982, the story runs in this one Soviet newspaper under the headline, quote, a champion's underwater battle.
01:11:11
Mind you, it implies that Shavarsh saved everyone on the trolley bus, which I think that happens in stories like that.
01:11:19
And it also does not list the names of the victims. But this amazing Armenian hero is finally getting his long overdue recognition.
01:11:28
So word spreads throughout the USSR. And one year later in 1983, the most prominent newspaper in the Soviet Union picks up this story and spotlights Shavarsh in a lengthy article.
01:11:40
It has a very wide reach. And for many of the people Shavarsh has saved, this is the first time they've ever learned his name.
01:11:48
Because like, yeah, it all went under wraps. Totally. So they were like, a guy got me out. All these other people died. And they're like, we don't know who he is. And they find out not only he's him, but he's.
01:12:00
He's like this gold medal winning swimmer. Totally. This is also the first time Shavarsha's wife, Nellie, learns about her husband saving 20 lives.
01:12:09
Hey, honey. How do you think that went? I read the newspaper today and is there something that you've been meaning to be like, tell me?
01:12:17
Whatever you need. Whatever you need or want to communicate to me or not communicate to me.
01:12:22
You're fine with it. Do it. Because you're so hot. Never speak to me again. Smoke cigarettes in the pavilion's parking lot all day long.
01:12:30
About a month after that article runs, the USSR awards Shavarsh the first of many medals recognizing his courage.
01:12:39
And over time, he becomes a verifiable legend across the region. Finally, the press allows him or the powers that be allow him to get this credit that he so rightly deserves.
01:12:51
But he's not going to stop there because 10 years after the trolleybus accident in 1985, a fire breaks out.
01:12:59
at a Yerevan arena, and Shavarsh bursts into the burning building shoulder to shoulder with the firefighters,
01:13:07
helping to look for survivors. Is he in a speedo? I mean... Because that would be funny.
01:13:13
He's got one fin on his back. We don't know much more about the details of that scenario.
01:13:18
We just know that he went in, he suffers burns in the process, but afterwards he will nonchalantly say,
01:13:26
quote, Anyone can find himself in a place where somebody needs help and more than wants to.
01:13:31
The main thing is to remember what makes you human. Ugh. Amazing. He's like, I'm fine with whatever kinds of rescues I have to do.
01:13:40
Shrash becomes such an important cultural figure that during the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi,
01:13:46
he was asked to carry the Olympic torch into the Kremlin. Damn. And you might remember him doing it because on his last leg of the journey, the flame kept going out while he was running.
01:13:59
And at one point he actually stopped and asked the security guard to relight it with the Zippo.
01:14:04
I remember that. That's our boy. Dude, he's like, I can get things done. He's like, what's going on?
01:14:11
But also I kind of remember that guy and being like everybody else looked like a runner, looked like whatever.
01:14:18
And Shavarsh looks like older guy running. At that point, he was probably in his 60s, I think.
01:14:25
So today, Shavarsh is around 70 years old. He lives in Moscow. And while many years have passed since he dove into the reservoir, he has since become quite the entrepreneur.
01:14:36
Shortly after moving to Moscow, he opened a shoe repair shop. It did so well that over the years, he opened several more businesses, including restaurants, clothing, and grocery stores.
01:14:47
Damn. I mean, just doing it. Yeah. And I wonder if it's because people are like, that guy's great.
01:14:52
I want to get my shoes from that guy. I trust that guy. Yeah. I'd like to just go talk to him a little bit.
01:14:58
Yeah. In his 2014 Grantland piece, Carl Schreck asked about the night that made Shavarsh a legend.
01:15:05
And what Shavarsh says about it is simply, quote, there was no other choice. I knew that it wouldn't be right if the world's fastest underwater swimmer was there and didn't even try to help.
01:15:15
nature and humanity would have judged me. God probably would have judged me. And that's the story of Armenian hero,
01:15:22
Shavarsh Karapetyan. Wow. Damn, a good one. It was a good one, right? Yeah. A disaster, a hero.
01:15:33
Like, yeah, that was good. A backup, humility, people that aren't doing it for the glory.
01:15:40
His brother, is he okay? I mean. Did he get any fucking cred? It doesn't sound like it.
01:15:45
and the younger siblings never get the fucking you stay over there yeah i'm in charge you stay
01:15:51
over there and i'll hand you the people wow good episode i think episode and a couple honking
01:15:59
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and start owning. That's redfin.com. we're back with another honking hooray presented by hyundai we're so excited to be doing your
01:19:59
hoorays and in the ionic five that's right what a combination you want to go first sure okay
01:20:05
can contain my excitement listening to you ladies talk about tv weather people nor should you get get out here and hooray it up as a weatherino i was beaming with pride you ladies were with me through the worst breakup of my life and now i getting married to the l
01:20:23
love of my oh nice okay good good hooray for science and love felicia combs at uh and that's
01:20:31
on instagram congratulations felicia congratulations weatherinos the weatherinos are behind us oh no
01:20:38
Okay, this says, hooray from New Zealand. It's an email. act. Instead, I find that I'm living with two smart, funny, curious, insightful, independent,
01:21:13
affectionate young people. They are fiercely loyal, roast me daily in ways that I can only admire,
01:21:19
and constantly make me see things from a different perspective. Their friends are aghast. I get to
01:21:24
listen to new music, so I've never said kids these days don't know what music is. A phrase that
01:21:30
indicates your readiness to be checked into a home for the elderly because they get into retro as
01:21:35
Well, I get to relive my own teenagehood by listening to everything from Guns N' Roses to TLC in the car.
01:21:43
That was like MTV in 1997. Of course, there are challenges, but I certainly did not expect the sheer joy of having teenagers in my life.
01:21:53
Stay sexy and sing along to November Rain. Roshni from Outaaroa, New Zealand. Wow.
01:22:03
Teenagers. Someone cool. Stepping up and saying, give teenagers a break. Finally.
01:22:09
Finally. Okay. This is an email that says, hooray, my daughter is completing her first week being back at school after having a two kilogram tumor removed from her chest.
01:22:21
What? She's six years old and is a murderino in the making. She's been through two 10 hour surgeries and has maintained her sunny disposition with just the right amount of sass.
01:22:31
and it says to her brother when he couldn't find something, well, how about looking for it with your eyes open?
01:22:36
Ooh, damn. Hurrah to the NHS, UK, and the amazing staff at the Bristol Children's Hospital
01:22:43
from Rachel, she, her, and Bea, six, ball of joy, XO. Stay strong, Bea. Hey about this.
01:22:53
And to everybody at the Bristol Children's Hospital, man. Just doing the Lord's work.
01:23:00
Okay, here's an email. and it just says, I just turned in my final capstone for my master's.
01:23:06
I don't know what a capstone. Of course, we don't know. I'm a teacher and I decided to get my master's
01:23:11
in film analysis to teach film analysis one day. My capstone paper, maybe it's like thesis.
01:23:19
It's a thesis in a different country. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what we'll say it is.
01:23:24
My capstone paper, which was 60 pages, discussed the psychology of horror films.
01:23:28
While the paper was fun to write, I'm so happy to be done with it. Hooray for never having to write an academic paper again.
01:23:35
Justine. 60 pages. Congratulations, Justine. You did it. You did. And you did it without AI.
01:23:41
Hopefully. I mean, we don't know you, Justine. What are you doing? Okay, here's what, this one says,
01:23:48
Hooray for Pedro Pascal. I mean, hey. It could just start and end there, but seeing as the entire world has simultaneously
01:23:56
fallen deeply in love with this man, It feels important to note the glimmer of hope I feel in so many of us, all genders, devoting all of our parasocial desires to a man who challenges every function of toxic masculinity in our culture.
01:24:09
If all of us can love a man who is hell on protecting our trans community is resisting systems of oppression on the daily is constantly being lovingly snuggled by other healthy handsome men in his life and is the living embodiment of a human cinnamon roll I think that speaks to the changing zeitgeist for how we define sexiness and healthy masculinity
01:24:33
Yay for Pedro Pascal being all of our daddies. And hooray for those arms. Dang. Stay sexy and keep loving the Pedros of the world at Lauren Oscopy.
01:24:46
Lauren, I think that that comparison that he is a human cinnamon roll is one of the most perfect things I've ever heard.
01:24:52
He is all of our daddies. What big good are you? Oh, my gosh. I'm a Danish. Clearly Danish.
01:25:01
Okay, well, I have a celebrity one, too. This was from the email, and it just says,
01:25:04
I just passed Michelle Boutot on the street. I said nothing, because as a native New Yorker, I just let people be people.
01:25:11
But I may have gazed at her longingly for half a beef. And then it just says, hooray, period.
01:25:17
And then there's an asterisk at the end of, I just let people be people. And then down here, the asterisk says, this rule does not apply to any and all possible Pedro Pascal sightings.
01:25:27
Oh, my God. It's so good. So good. And that was from Amy Elizabeth Bravo. Oh, my God.
01:25:34
She's like the one. He's the one person that. Yeah. That she's like, I can mob you.
01:25:38
We're not going to break this rule for Michelle Boutot, but we are definitely breaking it when that guy rolls up.
01:25:44
All Pedro Pascal bets are off. First, you smell the cinnamon. And you're like, what is that?
01:25:50
There's someone nearby. Thank you guys for listening to these honking hoorays. Thank you, Hyundai, for sponsoring these honking hoorays.
01:25:57
Thank you, Hyundai. And thank you to Pedro Pascal, especially. Thank you to all cinnamon rolls everywhere.
01:26:01
Stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Bye. Elvis, do you want a cookie? This has been an Exactly Right production.
01:26:16
Our senior producers are Alejandra Keck and Molly Smith. Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo.
01:26:20
This episode was mixed by Liana Squalacci. Our researchers are Maren McGlashan and Allie Elkin.
01:26:26
Email your hometowns to myfavoritemurder at gmail.com. Follow the show on Instagram at myfavoritemurder.
01:26:31
Listen to My Favorite Murder on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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And now you can watch us on Exactly Right's YouTube page. While you're there, please like and subscribe.
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