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432 - Here's My Personality

June 13, 2024 /

This episode of My Favorite Murder covers the tragic murders of Morris Blankenbaker and Gabby Moore, exploring themes of betrayal, obsession, and the consequences of crime. Hosts Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff discuss the complex relationships between the characters involved, including Morris, Deanne, Gabby, and Tuffy Pleasant, who played pivotal roles in the unfolding drama.

The story begins with Morris Blankenbaker's murder in Yakima, Washington, after his wife Deanne leaves him for his former coach Gabby Moore. Gabby's alcoholism and obsession with Deanne lead to a series of events that culminate in Morris's death, which initially appears to be a tragic crime.

As the investigation unfolds, Gabby becomes a suspect, but he has a solid alibi, being hospitalized at the time of Morris's murder. However, Gabby's behavior raises suspicions, and he ultimately becomes a victim himself when he is shot dead shortly after Morris's murder.

Detectives discover that Tuffy Pleasant, a young wrestler and Gabby's protégé, was involved in both murders. Tuffy is manipulated by Gabby into committing these crimes, leading to his eventual conviction and imprisonment.

The episode highlights the ripple effects of violence and betrayal, as Deanne eventually rebuilds her life after the tragedies, while Tuffy learns to take responsibility for his actions in prison.

TLDR

Morris Blankenbaker and Gabby Moore's tragic deaths reveal betrayal and obsession, leading to a shocking conclusion about loyalty and crime.

Episode

1:22:10
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Data accurate as of 2020-26. This is Matt Rogers from Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.
00:01:10
This is Bowen Yang from Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. You know when people try a new food and suddenly it's like,
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okay, hold on, I got a new favorite food. That's the reaction a lot of people are having when they first try Kewpie mayo.
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Yeah, it's the one with the red cap and the little baby on the bottle. You've probably seen it at the grocery store.
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And this mayo is different. Mm-hmm. Most mayonnaise uses whole eggs. Kewpie only uses egg yolks, which gives it this rich umami flavor.
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It's smoother, deeper, almost buttery. Once people try it, they start putting it on everything.
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Egg sandwiches, fries, burgers. Chefs use it. Restaurants use it. People who really care about flavor use it.
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Put it on just about anything. Then you'll understand. Kewpie, the original Japanese mayonnaise.
00:01:58
My favorite murder. Hello! And welcome to My Favorite Murder. That's Georgia Hardstar.
00:02:13
That's Karen Kilgariff. And this uncanny presence that you feel in your head and ears right now is us being together in the studio.
00:02:24
That's right. We're in a studio. We're together. All these things are all brand new.
00:02:29
Can you handle it? It's so creepy for me, at least. Is it? It's weird, right? Talk about your feeling.
00:02:34
Just say stuff off the top. I don't know. It just like feels very official. It doesn't feel chill.
00:02:38
I don't have pajama pants on. Like we're sitting across from each other at a like table.
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Yeah. I think this, what I believe to be a walnut stained soundproofing behind us is also because
00:02:49
this is what all of the podcasters have in their background. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's like we've finally come into the realm of real podcasters.
00:02:58
Yeah. I don't know. It's been so long. Like maybe there were a couple episodes where we were together at one of our houses.
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But other than that, like through the pandemic, we have not been together. And I've just gotten used to like feeling like no one is watching me because no one was watching me.
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Yep. And now people are watching. I can't take my eyes off you. I'm staring right down the barrel here.
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Thank you. Thank you. That's not a compliment, but thank you. I do hate that when someone's like, oh my God, your hair.
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And you go, thank you. Thank you. And they didn't fucking say if they liked it or not.
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That's how you take reality and you mold it to what you need it to be. No. You're like, oh, are you parking here?
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Thank you. Thank you. I am. What's so weird is having a control room full of people and Stephen's mustache isn't one of them.
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You know what? we might have to reach out to Stephen and say great live your life get your life
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could you please shave off your mustache and send it to us so we can put it up on the wall
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what if we got a framed portrait of Stephen for the it goes right here yeah that would be amazing
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and he's like and we make him do it like a it's like an oil portrait like he's the president of
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a bank but it's Stephen yeah just kind of touching dials yeah I love it and his mustache
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We missed you, Stephen. We miss you. I actually did bring in a piece of, I wouldn't call it true crime news.
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It's more, sometimes I walk by the old dilapidated haunted house that is Twitter, that I guess they're calling X, but they shouldn't at all.
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And I just see if anybody has anything to tell me or is mad about or needs to correct me on.
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You just want to like, what's the state of the world, my world right now? Anything could be happening anywhere. And I'm certainly not checking. So I go on there just to like, just in case. And thank God I did this time. Because there is a person on Twitter, whose name is Andrew Patty. Okay. And that's a guess or Patty, or there's, you know, probably four other pronunciations that I could make up.
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but Andrew tagged me in this post and the original post is by someone whose handle is
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Cliff off underline Vermont or VT. And they say, I'd like to inform you, the people are stuffing
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cash between the Mothman statues, ass crack again. So the Mothman statue, which we've been sent
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pictures of, and you've seen that, right? That's that silver statue. Yeah. Based on the Mothman
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story you covered a million episodes ago. Yes. And I actually like to tell myself they poured that statue after I told that story.
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But did we ever, maybe we talked about that the Mothman statue has cakes for days.
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And so this is why people are stuffing cash into that ass Look at it It like that what they wanted Why does the Mothman have a a an ass B a crack in it C a crack large enough to literally stuff dollar dollar bills
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into? I mean, that Mothman, I don't know. I think first of all, there's a quarter that's
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very poorly placed in there. It looks like incredibly rated X. I just thought it was
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kind of a nice update for like what's going on in the world because it feels like you know the
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mothman really scared people the mothman foretold of a horrible tragedy on that bridge now the
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mothman's being celebrated now the mothman's being objectified it's good to like laugh at your fears
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you know what i mean and to like make light it makes it feel less scary you know and then maybe
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tell your fears that they're a slut. Right. But what if your fear is getting money stuck in your
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ass crack? Then you're totally fucked with this situation because there's easily $7.25 stuck into
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the mothman's ass crack. Do you know there's this like phenomenon that on like on the web,
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on Reddit, on curly pasta, that's not a scary pasta. You're thinking of lunchtime. I'm actually
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thinking of food where people are like, there's this phenomenon like getting in the shower.
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ghosts must do this because suddenly quarters like get thrown over the shower like onto you
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like that's like a thing that ghosts do is throw quarters at you or change at you in the shower
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yeah except when you lay down and you're sleeping and sweaty on the couch and all your change is
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falling out of your pocket it gets stuck to your back and you get in the shower and it starts
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coming off and people are like they think that like ghosts throw quarters at you or jesus why
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didn't they go religious with it and be like, God, God gave me 75 cents for cleaning myself
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really well. That is so funny. Yeah. It's not, there's nobody throwing quarters at you. You
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wish there was, but there's not, you're sweaty. It's too bad that there can't be. And this maybe
00:07:57
is what the afterlife is, is a book of explanations of crazy shit. That's like actually the most
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mundane thing where it's like, no, no, you were sleeping in your own sweat and a handful of
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changed. That's all. Or like, no, you didn't see a ghost actually, like you were being poisoned a
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little bit by the gas. Yes. You and your family were a group hallucinating that old lady in the
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sweater. Oh my God. Yeah. Well, that's kind of how ghost hunters started where they were plumbers
00:08:26
and they kept going to check the pipes. No way. Yeah. Because people would be like, there's a
00:08:30
ghost in the basement. And they'd be like, no, this whole thing is, and then they'd bring them
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all down. But then there were times where they couldn't explain it. We're into ghosty stuff. We
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like hearing about it. We're not hardcore believers. Do you think anything paranormal
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has actually happened before? Can you give me the beginning of that question again? Do you think?
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Oh, JK. okay i just mean what are you talking about uh like being on the fence about do ghosts exist or
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not does paranormal stuff happen or not like definitively would you say yes only because
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we could have defined it as like a floating cheat right that's like whoo mixer it's very specific
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how we've told each other what it actually is or what it means. Meanwhile, like there's things happening in the ocean
00:09:26
that no one knows or could explain. So like we don't actually fucking know anything.
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Okay, you heard it here first. The ocean is haunted. Karen Kilgariff coming in hot.
00:09:38
Well, here's my hot take. Ghosts are caused by salt. And where's the most salt? The ocean.
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Oh my God. Hi. Yeah. Hot take girl summer. Get ready for me. Yeah. My summer's just going to be hot takes of me making shit up.
00:09:54
I mean, let's go back to the pre-internet times where you could just make shit up and no one would ever know.
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I miss that. And I want it to be real. I used to be so smart. So sad. Those times are over now.
00:10:06
Let's see. What else have you got? What else is there? I watched the movie Shampoo for the first time in my life.
00:10:12
And I thought you'd make that face. I thought you'd make that shocked what the fuck face.
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How did you feel about it? I loved it. I couldn't believe I'd never seen it. Vince and I both were like, that's weird.
00:10:23
Somehow we missed that. I think I was like, no, no, I've seen that before. I've seen Hairspray.
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I thought it was Hairspray. I didn't realize there was another movie called Shampoo and one called Hairspray.
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I've seen Saw. What? Sharp Instrument movie? Yeah. But what did you like about it?
00:10:40
Okay, Warren Beatty, he's this like juggalo. The juggalo barber? Gigolo barber around town LA, which I love the like scenes from LA.
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70s LA. It's like kind of gross. The sexual revolutions going on. You know, what's her face is the cutest thing on the planet.
00:11:01
Julie Christie? No, the other cutest thing. Goldie Hawn. Goldie Hawn is like, are you kidding me?
00:11:06
How's that a real person? Right. It was scandalous. But I liked it. But I liked it.
00:11:11
It was like nothing is going on. We were both like nothing is happening. There's no point of this movie.
00:11:17
There's no plot, but I can't stop watching it. That's they used to be able to make movies like that.
00:11:21
So that's Hal Ashby, if I'm not mistaken. Hal Ashby is a director who did Harold and Maude.
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Oh, many other incredible films that you kind of go, wait, I was just transported somewhere.
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And it wrapped up without a good ending, like without a solid. It didn't make me feel good in the end at all.
00:11:40
Yeah, because look around this dirty town. Yeah. Like this is the way it is here.
00:11:45
like all those kind of like i love the way he just lies he's lying to goldie hon the entire
00:11:52
fucking time as he falling in love with yeah julie christie spoiler alert it just but it visually like when he gives her that haircut oh my god that bob the largest bob that ever happened it like up and out from her head yeah
00:12:08
i it's one of my favorite like when the first time i saw it i was like all these visuals are feeding
00:12:13
me it was great yeah it was a very like oh let's throw this on maybe it won't be good i can't stop
00:12:18
watching this wait it's over that's the ending so yeah yeah shampoo everyone like yeah like why did
00:12:24
you get me involved if you weren't going to give me anything? And then directors of the 70s say, ah, that's what you get.
00:12:30
That's how life is or whatever. I don't know. There's always a lesson. Always a lesson.
00:12:35
That's a good one. What's a... I want to see Furiosa in the theater very badly, but I haven't done it yet.
00:12:43
Okay. I'll see it at home. You'll go ahead and stay home for that. I'll stay home for almost everything.
00:12:49
But do you remember that we saw The Last Mad Max in the theater together? Yeah, it was so loud.
00:12:54
I remember that. Hilariously loud. And it was like everyone was on meth. So it was fast and really disturbing.
00:13:04
And it was one of the first like social things we did. Oh, like as friends. So you, I think, weren't comfortable telling me I don't like going to the movies.
00:13:13
I don't like going to the movies. I didn't think I had to bring earplugs, which is like, that's such a dorky thing to do.
00:13:19
You know, like pull out earplugs in the middle of it. Especially that one where it was like knives in your ear.
00:13:23
Totally. It's like, well, why did you come to this if you didn't want, you know, full on stabbing in your eardrums?
00:13:29
In the Cinerama dome. Yeah. Surround sound. And that was 200 years ago. Well. All right.
00:13:38
Well, from that time, Furiosa's arrived, which means we are back recording in the same room.
00:13:45
Yeah. It's really nice. It's been a, what's it called? Decade? Circle. No, I'm doing a circle with my fingers. I was just like, that's supposed to.
00:13:53
Full circle? Yep. Thank you. Full circle I couldn't come up with as I was circling my fingers.
00:14:00
Right. Because you were thinking about not thinking, not being able to say it. Right. And I'm drinking a can of wine. I brought one can of wine to drink for this entire episode.
00:14:09
Slam it. Shotgun it right now. No. Did you put that in your purse? Like, I'm going to take this and I'm going to bring this with me?
00:14:17
Yeah. Actually, no. It's more embarrassing than that. Oh. Okay. Vince. You stopped at the liquor store?
00:14:22
No. worse. Vince got it for me. I was like, I want one can of wine, like just for the episode. I don't
00:14:28
want more. I'll drink it. So he got it for me. It was warm. He got a little cooler, filled it with
00:14:33
ice for the one can. And I drove over here and it was cold by the time I got here. And you're still
00:14:40
divorcing him? It doesn't make sense. Can you imagine? Why? Someone who does something so
00:14:45
thoughtful. I was like, I could just put ice in a cup and pour it in. He's like, no, no,
00:14:48
you're doing this no watch this yeah he's the fucking best you know what he got me for my
00:14:53
birthday this past weekend well oh by the way can we all stop happy birthday georgia hardstar
00:14:59
i feel so old thank you there's this company called silver lake socialite that does these
00:15:04
incredible like cheese boards they're like if you've seen the grammys and they have those
00:15:08
cheese boards on all of them she did them all wait sorry do they feature cheese boards on the
00:15:13
Grammys. No, but they were like on the tables this year. Oh, really? Yeah. They're like, nice.
00:15:18
Like Jay-Z was like, this is nice. So she now does a fucking caviar board. Oh, shit. I know.
00:15:25
So he got me that for my birthday. And I got you this for your birthday. He told it to me one night.
00:15:30
I'm like, cool. I'm going to invite all my girlfriends over to have it. And I was like,
00:15:33
oh, wait a minute. You might want to have done that with me. That's maybe why you got it.
00:15:37
was he like forget it yeah essentially i mean how much caviar can you eat it's just a little
00:15:44
thing of caviar and then it's a bunch of little things that you would eat with it all over the
00:15:47
place oh good because i i thought the whole thing was no no caviar like cheese on a charcuterie
00:15:52
board you know that entire thing out it's boring um no it wasn't that's a that's a good gift okay
00:15:58
let's do a couple more gift suggestions caviar's good gift it sounds so bougie though it's pretty
00:16:05
bougie but that's what makes it like it's a special occasion yeah because would you get that
00:16:10
normally no absolutely not caviar remember we went we went to a caviar restaurant in beverly hills
00:16:17
one time not beverly hills like by the beverly center yeah you don't eat caviar why did we do
00:16:23
that because we were trying to be like we were trying to celebrate oh that's right we had just
00:16:28
yeah i remember where i had been that's right so it was like let's be fancy with these russians
00:16:33
And then it was the most, I was like, this is too expensive and ordered like an egg.
00:16:37
It was so expensive and so like, it felt like we went to someone's controlling grandma's house.
00:16:42
I was kind of scared the whole time. They knew we weren't supposed to be there. They could tell.
00:16:47
Yeah. They saw the hay in our hair. They're like, if you just had to ask what the market price is, then you don't, you can't afford the market price.
00:16:55
Well, you know what? We should call them right now and say, guess what? We're about to tell our listeners what's going on in our podcast network.
00:17:01
So I guess we win. Whose market price is highest now, bitch? Hey, who wins the Caviar Wars now?
00:17:09
What? Caviar Wars. What? Okay. We have a podcast network. We're sitting in the podcast network studio right now.
00:17:14
That's right. Should we tell everyone about a couple of things about the podcast network?
00:17:18
Yes. Over on I Saw What You Did, Millie and Danielle are back with a double feature of
00:17:24
Oh, there will be blood from 2007 and Georgia's Halloween costume from two years ago.
00:17:31
Or was it three? The Royal Tenenbaums from 2001. Hell yeah. And then also Kate Winkler, Dawson and Paul Holes cover a brutal historical murder on Buried Bones.
00:17:42
They discuss the Purrington family murders from 1806 in Augusta, Maine. And then over on I Said No Gifts this week, Bridger's guest is actor E.R.
00:17:53
fight master from shrill and from Grey Academy Nope I was literally like five sentences over in that direction Like I had stopped looking at the page
00:18:09
Leave that in. I have to leave that in. I'm so sorry. Please. They were not in Grey's Academy. For real, you are a fight master. I sincerely apologize.
00:18:20
You were actually in Grey's Anatomy. That's what really happened. Grey's Academy.
00:18:26
That's my new TV show. That's our new TV show. It's a spinoff. We're like, yeah, they're going to school to become doctors.
00:18:32
Bad doctors. Before they became doctors, they had to go to school. Prequel. Prequel?
00:18:37
Like NyQuil? Prequel. It's a prequel. It's a prequel. And then Hot Dog Summer continues.
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The MFM merch store now has SSDGM hot dog koozies for all your summer beverages.
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I wish I had one right now. And we need to get some for the office. Yeah, we do.
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And both of the t-shirt styles of the hot dog have been restocked. I have one at home.
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I just wore it the other day. I mean. It's a hit shirt. It is. I believe Erin Brown, who runs our merch department, said it's one of our best selling shirts.
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Amazing. So visit exactlyrightstore.com for all that and other merch. Do you like hot dogs?
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I wonder. Yeah, prove it by wearing a shirt with a hot dog on it. It's the only way.
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All of that available at MeaningfulBeauty.com. Hey everyone, it's Cal Penn. I'm the host of Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club.
00:20:30
This week on the podcast, I am sitting down with Ray Porter, the narrator of Andy Weir's audiobook Project Hail Mary,
00:20:38
massive sci-fi adventure about survival and science, and what happens when you wake up alone very far from Earth.
00:20:46
I really had to make a decision because I caught myself getting that frog in my throat and starting to get teary as I'm narrating some of these sections.
00:20:53
And it's like, OK, yo, yo, yo, is this indulgent? And I really thought about it.
00:20:57
I was like, no, at this point, it would kind of be betraying the trust the author and the listener have in telling this story if I don't go through it.
00:21:06
But there's places in this book that deeply emotionally affected me. And I left it on the mic.
00:21:12
That's great. Because it served the story. People will say like, oh my God, I cried at the end.
00:21:17
It's like, yeah, dude, me too. Listen to Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club
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Data accurate as of 2020-26. Well, I think you're first this week, right? I'm first. Yes. Here we go.
00:22:32
Are you ready to do it in person? I don't know if I could do this. Can you tell me a story in person?
00:22:37
I can try. It might be messy. Okay. Chaotic. Oops, it is. Oh, I already. She broke the microphone.
00:22:44
There we go. Oh, no. Alejandra, she broke it. Don't tell Alejandra on me. It's broken and everyone's staring at you.
00:22:51
Get your fucking eyes away from me. There. Stop turning to the side. Everything's fine.
00:22:58
We had a sound guy that used to get so mad because anytime anyone goes at an award show,
00:23:04
goes up to speak in the microphone when it's those ones that are kind of set there.
00:23:09
The skinny, like, long ones? Yes. Yeah. people always go up and just start moving it around.
00:23:13
They want to touch it. Yes. And our sound guy used to always be like, those are set perfectly for anyone of any height.
00:23:20
You do not have to move. What is that need and want to move the microphone? It's like here, hold on a second.
00:23:27
I'll do it. I know better. Here. And it's also, this is more comfortable for me,
00:23:32
which is like, great. Now you've fucked the sound up. Yeah. Well, and that's why we're talent.
00:23:37
And that's why we're talent with a capital T. Listen, this has it all. Great. There's a mob connection in it.
00:23:44
I know you love that. My favorite. The story is from the 1950s. And it's one of New York's most notorious unsolved mysteries that I hadn't heard of before.
00:23:53
It starts with an affable bank robber and it ends with a possible mob hit. Perfection.
00:24:00
My perfect night. The main sources I used for this story were articles from the New York Times.
00:24:06
Oh, the number one. The. And the Daily News. And the rest can be found in our show notes.
00:24:11
Okay. Our story begins with a bank robber named Willie Sutton. Like, classic. It sounds familiar.
00:24:19
Yeah. Yeah. Right. Willie is born in Brooklyn in 1901. He starts robbing banks in the 20s.
00:24:25
He's known as the gentleman bank robber. Finally. I know because he's so polite.
00:24:31
He said to avoid hurting people during his robberies. And one witness to one of his robberies says it was like being at the movies, except the usher was holding a gun.
00:24:41
Like right this way, ma'am. Come to your seat. So a hand on the small of your back.
00:24:47
A nice, like confident hand on the side, on the small of your back. Just here. We're going this way.
00:24:53
Yeah. But then also just a light poke in the rib. Yeah. The hand is a gun. It's actually a gun.
00:24:57
Hand is the gun. And then the poke in the rib is the Snickers that you got at the concession store.
00:25:03
Yeah. He's known to be a pretty affable guy. And whenever he does get caught, he's a good sport about it.
00:25:08
Ah, you got me. You know what I mean? Hey, you guys. You guys got me. Good on you kind of a thing.
00:25:13
You know, if that's the only thing that Make America Great Again meant, I would be like, I agree too.
00:25:20
I wish the affability factor was more at play these days. Sure. And the gentlemanly, kindly violent crime.
00:25:30
Yeah. With less guns. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe. Willie's nickname, his bank robber nickname is the actor because he and his crew use costumes.
00:25:39
It's not a great name, really, honestly. I don't know who made it up, but they use costumes.
00:25:42
So they dress up as a postal worker, police officer, messengers or maintenance workers.
00:25:47
So someone came up with the actor like you could have done better than that. Yeah.
00:25:50
What about the costumer? Yeah. Right. What about that guy I didn't expect to rob me?
00:25:56
Right, right. That's too long. Yeah. But when he's off the clock, Willie is known for his impeccable style.
00:26:03
So he dresses like that when he's robbing banks. But when he's off the clock, he's like fucking suited up.
00:26:08
Looks so good. Fats, tails, tops. Yeah. And he's known for his love of expensive clothes.
00:26:14
I mean, who wouldn't be? So he has to rob banks so he can have a wonderful wardrobe?
00:26:18
Sure. Love it. In 1931, Willie is caught and sentenced to 30 years in prison, but he escapes a year and a half later.
00:26:26
He had somehow, he had somehow walking around the yard at the fucking prison, found two ladders.
00:26:35
He had happened upon two ladders, as you do in prison. He's the only one that found them.
00:26:41
He took one, stacked the other one on top and clumb out of the fucking prison. Just like Bugs Bunny would have.
00:26:47
Like legit Bugs Bunny. And at that point, I'm like, OK, then he deserves then like his sentences.
00:26:54
It's kind of on you guys. He won that. He won that one. He won that one. Yeah. Georgia, really quick.
00:27:00
You said clumb. That's a joke. I know. That's comedy. Oh, I know what I said. Leave that in.
00:27:08
OK. He's caught again in 1934. In 1941, he attempts an escape by making an incredibly realistic plastic sculpture of
00:27:17
his head and his hand. And so he took real hair from the prison barbershop. He like put it on the
00:27:24
head, maybe the hands. I don't know how hairy he was. And he touched every little hair on the finger
00:27:29
is perfectly glued on. Right. And they're like, oh, it's him. He's sleeping. And they like tucked
00:27:33
it into bed. So it looked like he was sleeping in his hand. Like his hand was there, too.
00:27:37
Like a little baby hand under his cheek. Yeah. It's like a perfect cartoon of like the snoring,
00:27:41
you know, and that attempt is foiled because it's just so happens that that same night,
00:27:46
some other prisoners were attempting an escape. So they're like locked down. And he's like, fuck.
00:27:52
But in 1945, he successfully tunnels his way out this time. That time he's caught just one day later,
00:27:59
two years after that, February 10th, 1947. And Willie is in the Philadelphia County prison.
00:28:05
And one night he and two other prisoners dress as prison guards. Where did you find this fucking outfit?
00:28:09
Yeah. Like they keep finding shit. Over the years, it's like they find a belt here
00:28:14
and like part of this shirt here. Maybe. But multiples of those? They have, at that prison,
00:28:19
they have a litter problem because people are throwing things away. Higgledy, biggledy.
00:28:25
Oh, man. You hate to see it. They dress as prison guards and they carry two ladders
00:28:30
across the prison yard. Again, they found two ladders. And this is... For real? Yes.
00:28:35
At one point, the prison searchlights fucking find them, beam down on them in their prison uniforms
00:28:40
and ladders. Don't touch me. And Willie just yells out, It's okay. That's what he yells out. And guess what? It is okay.
00:28:48
And it turns out it is okay. It's okay. Everyone's like, sounds good. You just keep it up.
00:28:53
Sounds good. You know how prison guards like to take ladders to the wall and scale them.
00:28:59
We got it. It's okay. Cool. Then they hijack a milk truck and skedaddle. And he's on the lam for the next three years. So this one works.
00:29:09
I want to tell you really quickly as an aside, this is apropos of episode 430 about Richard Dadd, the artist that you covered.
00:29:19
Yeah. Someone brought the head and hand sculptures onto Antiques Roadshow. Oh my God.
00:29:25
Someone had the like barbershop head in hand. I'm going to sneak out. Oh my God.
00:29:31
And they brought them to the Antiques Roadshow. At the time in 2017, they're valued to be worth between, you want to guess?
00:29:38
$27,000? no it's one of those like oh my god but then it's like it's 500 no it's better than that it's it's
00:29:46
worth in 2017 between 2500 and 3500 too low which is crazy like i want to i should watch this how
00:29:53
did they get them i bet their grandpa was a warden that right yeah and in 2021 their value to be worth now their value to be worth to That more like it Yeah Also what a weird like you buy that and
00:30:08
put it on your mantle. Yeah. Or your guest room. Your guest bedroom. It's always in the guest
00:30:15
bedroom. Yeah. You always have guests. Willie Sutton is one of those criminals who's pretty
00:30:21
much a household name at this point. So like people love him because of his reputation for
00:30:26
being a nice guy. He's also kind of a folk hero. And so during his time on the run at the New York
00:30:31
City St. Patrick's Day parade, some kids possibly spot him. They get so excited that they leave the
00:30:37
crowd and chanting his name, which is like you're fucking harshing my mellow, bro. Like
00:30:42
if you like him that much, you don't yell his name and point him out. Yeah. You know,
00:30:46
cop it's kind of it's kind of like narky well but they're that excited that it's like yes like a star
00:30:53
is there and so he isn't caught i don't know if it's definitely him or not but that happens and
00:30:58
he's not caught he pulls a the a richard i won't be able to make the reference dad no i was just
00:31:07
like he's in a he's in a parade and then he ditches them which is a richard thing from the movie the
00:31:13
thing. Forget it. I don't know. I don't either. Shampoo. No. I want to help you.
00:31:21
I can't. Okay. I'm going to keep on thinking about it and figure it out. So then in
00:31:25
March of 1950. The fugitive. Never seen it. That's why I couldn't help you. What? I know. I don't know what's wrong with me.
00:31:35
I know. I know. I know. I know. I will. Please will you do it? Yes. You won't regret it.
00:31:40
you won't. Okay. It's a perfect movie. As long as I won't regret it. Spending two hours watching.
00:31:45
Stem to CERN. Don't you like Tommy Lee Jones? Of course I know. Haven't you always supported Tommy Lee Jones?
00:31:50
Yes, and I don't know how. I haven't seen it. I know exactly what movie you're talking about.
00:31:53
I bet my dad put it on and I would leave the fucking room because it looks so boring.
00:31:57
It's perfection. It's the opposite of boring. Okay. Okay. Just a dad movie though, you know?
00:32:01
No! I don't know that. It starts with a horrifying murder. Oh, no. Okay. I'm there.
00:32:09
I'm there. Okay. Okay. Then in March 1950, the FBI comes up with its first ever most wanted list and Willie is on it.
00:32:17
Oh. Yeah. Big time. There's just been a bank robbery in Queens and the robbers were exceedingly polite, but they left him on $67,000, which in today's money would be.
00:32:30
$800,000? $740,000. Oh, I was close. Yeah, you were. The agents are like, this has to be Willie.
00:32:38
I bet this is him. they do this thing, which is really smart. They circulate his picture, like his most wanted picture
00:32:45
in tailor shops because he's well known for his love of expensive clothing. Yeah. Smart.
00:32:51
Yeah. So like that's where he'll be. Do you recognize this man's inseam? Right. Come on. Still got it. Back in the studio.
00:33:00
So on February 18th, 1952, Willie Sutton has been on the run for two years. He's still robbing
00:33:06
banks. He starts to feel kind of comfortable probably because he has ridden under the flown
00:33:11
under, ridden under, been under the radar for so long. So he feels comfortable with taking a New
00:33:16
York City subway in broad daylight. He's just living his life. He gets on a train at Union
00:33:21
Square in Manhattan and rides a couple of stops into Brooklyn. And this will be a fatal error,
00:33:27
not for Willie, but for the man who recognizes him. Oh. Pause for water. Pause for dramatic
00:33:35
effect. First of all, I kind of love how this story is. I thought it was going to be different.
00:33:41
It's not. It's not at all. It's good. It's one thing. It's another. So at the stop before
00:33:47
Willie's, a young man named Arnold Schuster gets on the train. He's a pretty typical,
00:33:53
normal 24-year-old guy. He lives in Borough Park in Brooklyn. Arnold's father is a tailor.
00:34:00
Remember that? Remember that? Yes, I do. And clothing salesman. And Arnold works in his
00:34:05
shop. What guess what he saw when he was there? The Willie. The flyer. No, the most wanted flyer.
00:34:15
Just the face. Yeah. He's like that, you know, because that's where they put them. Oh, my God.
00:34:19
Arnold is also a huge fan of Detective Magazine. And so he reads every story about gangsters that
00:34:24
he can find. So when he gets on the subway in downtown Brooklyn and sees a sharply dressed man
00:34:30
on a train, he does a double take. What he does is he shits a brick. You'd love it.
00:34:36
It would just be like, I just know that. That's my chance. The man that we now know is Willie, notices Arnold
00:34:43
looking at him. He ducks his head. Arnold is pretty sure this is Willie Sutton. Willie's like, fuck, he can tell by the
00:34:49
way that brick just got shit. And so he gets off the train and starts walking and Arnold, without even thinking about it, starts to
00:34:57
follow him. It would be hard not to. Yeah. So he's tailing him. Willie gets into a car, but the car won't start. And Arnold watches as he goes across the street to a gas station and comes out with a car battery and starts working on the car. So maybe he didn't know he was actually being followed. Right. Well, there's nothing you could do about it either way. Right. Right. I mean, you could run and leave your car.
00:35:18
Did it? Sorry. Did it say how old this kid was that was following him? 24. Oh, yeah. He's a young one.
00:35:24
So Arnold is like, do, do, do, keeps walking. He's like, sure, this is Willie Sutton.
00:35:29
Once he's around the block, he flags down two police officers and he says, quote,
00:35:32
you'll probably think I'm crazy, but I just saw Willie Sutton. The cops think this will probably be a wild goose chase.
00:35:38
They're like, whatever. But they go to the guy working on the car on the next block and say, quote, are you Willie Sutton?
00:35:46
end quote not surprisingly willie the bank robber known as the actor says he isn't and then his name
00:35:52
is gordon have a nice day he shows them his car registration it under the name charles Gordon And then he shows them a collection of different hats See See Captain Bowler
00:36:07
And so the two B cops are like, great, that's enough for us. And keep moving. They're not going to stay later doing paperwork that day, you know?
00:36:13
Well, and also if it is that name on the thing that it's just like, yeah, we're bothering a guy.
00:36:18
Yeah. And like, there's no other way in the 50s to like look up someone's identity, right?
00:36:23
No, I think you had to you it would have had to have been passed down in your family.
00:36:28
Right. Known what that person's name was. Right. So they go back to the station.
00:36:32
Arnold, the 24 year old, watches all of this from a distance. And when he sees the police leave, he goes home disappointed.
00:36:38
He was like, I sure I was sure I had this. Those two police officers, when they go back to the station, tell the story to their boss, a detective who decides to go follow up himself.
00:36:48
He's like, these two guys aren't very bright. Let me just do this on my own. so he does go back and finds the man still working on his car you think he would have left after that
00:36:58
he was posted up really he was like in the craigan parking lot really trying to get his he really was
00:37:04
and he's like hey dude sorry to bug you but can you come back to the station and go over
00:37:09
like who you really i need to check and make sure you're who you really are and so willie
00:37:14
obliges and at the station he you know he's affable doesn't take long before he gives up
00:37:21
And he says, OK, fellas, I'm Willie Sutton. He's not wasting anyone's time. He could have outsmarted them and gotten out of it.
00:37:28
He also could have made three different decisions and gotten away from that broken down car.
00:37:33
Yeah. Weird. Like he kind of wanted to get caught, maybe. He was wrapping it up.
00:37:37
Yeah. So that night at home in Borough Park, Arnold, our guy from the train, hears on the radio that the famous bank robber Willie Sutton has been apprehended in Brooklyn.
00:37:48
It turns out that for almost three years, Willie had been living near where he was arrested in a small apartment on Dean Street, just three blocks from the police precinct.
00:37:58
Anything is possible in New York City. It's true. The killer could be right around the corner.
00:38:04
Shit. Arnold listens as the two officers that he had pointed out fucking Willie Sutton's right there and they had been like, nope, and left.
00:38:12
They are mentioned by name and heartily congratulated. Like they're the heroes of the day.
00:38:17
the police commissioner, a man named George Monahan, is beside himself with excitement.
00:38:23
That night at a press conference, he hugs the two police officers and the detective
00:38:27
and gives them all promotions right on the spot. Wow. And he says there's going to be a ceremony at City Hall in their honor.
00:38:35
I mean, Arnold must be furious. He was. And that sets in motion some shit. Okay.
00:38:44
Arnold's a little upset. he wants credit for having recognized Willie Sutton. And more importantly, in the detective
00:38:49
magazines and in articles about Willie Sutton, there's been a mention of a reward for information
00:38:54
leading to his arrest. Some articles say it's worth 70 grand back then. Whoa. Which in today's
00:39:00
money. 500 grand. 828. Whoa. That's a fucking shit ton of money. It's so much money. Yeah.
00:39:07
So he's like, what the fuck? You know, I want credit and I want money. So he calls the police
00:39:13
station asking about the reward. He can't get anyone on the phone. Shocking. So then he hires
00:39:19
a lawyer and goes wide with his story. He tells reporters that he was the one who first noticed
00:39:23
Willie. And he gives his own press conference telling reporters about how he recognized Willie
00:39:28
from the FBI flyer that had been hanging in his father's shop. The police commissioner confirms
00:39:33
that that was, you know, it was him who really started this ball rolling. And so he cancels the
00:39:39
celebration for the police officers but they still get their promotion oh half measure yeah
00:39:44
so almost immediately after coming forward arnold starts getting threatening letters in the mail
00:39:50
because you know that they fucking interviewed him put his address down yeah arnold schuster of
00:39:56
you know yeah exactly that's how they do it apartment b right but also he turned in a guy
00:40:02
who had connections. Then he fucked over the cops, which is very bad. That's a good point.
00:40:09
It's as bad as fucking over criminals. Yeah. Who could it be? Right. The Schuster family gets a total of 12 letters
00:40:19
and so many threatening phone calls that they change their phone number. Because even though their phone number
00:40:24
was just in the public as well, I'm sure. According to some articles at the time,
00:40:28
the NYPD offers Arnold around-the-clock protection and he declines. But they still check on the Schuster family home periodically.
00:40:36
The Schuster family will later deny that any protection was ever offered. Also, why would you want protection from the people that could potentially be the ones threatening you?
00:40:45
Right. It's wild. So on March 8th, 1952, less than a month after Arnold reported seeing Willie, Arnold takes the bus home to Borough Park in the evening.
00:40:55
After he gets off the bus at about 9 p.m., he starts to walk home. then someone comes out from the shadows and shoots him four times with a 38 just on the street
00:41:05
killing him wow yeah there's like a photo of it like a vintage crime scene photo he shot once in
00:41:10
each eye oh once in the head and once in the groin oh yeah personal ducked up right once in
00:41:19
each eye is too much well it turns out that that's a symbol of a mob hit like you witnessed this thing
00:41:25
and you're in trouble for it. Okay. I don't want to tell the mob what to do, but that's overkill.
00:41:31
It's too much. Yeah. I mean, and then it's like, okay, but then, so then the NYPD launches a massive investigation.
00:41:39
They interview more than 4,000 people, but guess who's going to say anything to the cops at this point?
00:41:45
You know, they sent the message and the message worked. Yeah. He's not talking. Nobody's talking.
00:41:50
Yeah. No one's talking. There was a potential eyewitness and they were like, nope absolutely not I not talking I didn see anything Commissioner Monaghan says quote more than anything else in my public life I want to break this case Like he was he said he really wanted to break this case And the story spreads through the country and ignites a public outrage But like
00:42:10
basically an innocent bystander who tried to do the right thing gets murdered, gets murdered for it.
00:42:15
And also just to say in my always suspicious mind that the cops could have easily murdered him,
00:42:22
made it look like a mob hit because those are all the telltale signs, quote unquote.
00:42:27
Yeah, that's very true. I'm sure it was embarrassing, though, too, that he was killed.
00:42:32
I think that like it just looked bad on their reputation, too, if they didn't do it, let's say.
00:42:36
Right. People suspect certain of Sutton's friends. There's a man named Frederick Tenuto. He's a convicted
00:42:44
killer who escaped prison with Willie in 1947. Tenuto himself is added to the FBI's most wanted
00:42:50
list, but he isn't apprehended. He eventually dies in the 1960s while still on the lam.
00:42:55
There's also a legend in mob lore, your favorite. Oh, ask me anything. That the mafia boss,
00:43:02
Albert Anastasia, ordered the hit. So this guy, Albert, is the head of what would become
00:43:08
the Gambino crime family. The Gambino crime family, as I live and breathe. Exactly. The story
00:43:15
is that this is the story that Albert didn't even know Willie Sutton, that he saw the story
00:43:20
on TV and said, quote, I can't stand squealers, end quote, and sent someone to go kill Arnold.
00:43:28
Like, no, just like was so angry at the like, you know, the morals, I guess you could say of it,
00:43:35
like being a snitch of being a snitch. Yeah. Yeah. He sent someone to go kill this poor kid.
00:43:40
Wow. Yeah. Wait, sorry. Was that a theory or they found out that that is true? So that's a
00:43:45
theory. However, it would be out of character for the mob to order a hit on someone they had
00:43:51
nothing to do with at all. Like that's not kind of their thing. Right. Their scene. Yes. People
00:43:56
say Albert, though, had become unhinged at this point. And in his memoirs, Lucky Luciano. Yeah.
00:44:04
Hints that this actually did happen. Oh, he had Albert killed. But in 1963, the first ever mafia
00:44:11
a member to break the organization's code of silence, becomes an informant. His name is Joseph Valachi, and he will to attest that Albert ordered the hit.
00:44:23
Oh, sorry. Liana's art. Oh. She was squalachi. I was like, wait a second. Squalachi.
00:44:30
Valachi. Wait a second. Valachi. Valachi. Yeah. Yeah. So it's probable. Yeah. Yeah.
00:44:38
It also turns out that the $70,000 reward that Arnold had been trying to get wasn't even real.
00:44:43
It had been misreported. Oh, so he's all keyed up about something that he couldn't have gotten anywhere.
00:44:49
Exactly. His family does sue the New York City for failing to protect their son,
00:44:54
and the city settles with them for $41,000, which in today's money would be... $250,000?
00:45:02
$473,000. Oh, that's half a million dollars isn't bad. Yeah. so when Willie Sutton
00:45:07
hears about the murder remember fucking affable bank robber the actor I do so he's fucking sitting in jail
00:45:13
because he had gotten caught because of Albert right right he's sitting in jail he hears about the murder
00:45:18
he is so bummed about it well of course he's a gentleman yeah he can't believe someone got killed
00:45:27
for giving him up in his name like he's actually so upset about it he says quote
00:45:31
I could have fallen off the bed this sinks me oh I know. He writes to the Schuster family and offers his condolences.
00:45:40
So this guy, if it was up to him, it was a fair game. The guy who caught him, caught him. You know what I mean?
00:45:45
Yes, of course. So a real reward is offered for information leading to the arrest of Arnold's killer.
00:45:51
And Willie offers to contribute $10,000 to that reward. Come on. I know. This guy is a dream bank robber.
00:45:58
Dream. Authorities decline his money, though. They're like, that might be inappropriate.
00:46:04
You know what? No. Yeah. We're going to go no. If you want to just give some money to the family, fine.
00:46:11
Yeah. But this looks bad. Willie is eventually sent to Attica Prison in upstate New York with multiple life sentence.
00:46:18
But he's released due to poor health in 1969 where he met Karen and you guys got married.
00:46:23
Hey, wait a second. That was one year before I was born. But he multiple life sentences just for robbing banks.
00:46:31
Wow. Yeah. I think it's pretty serious. Well, gun. It's like. Yeah. I should also say that, though, in the beginning, he is charged with assault.
00:46:39
So take all that with a grain of salt. So he might have hit someone with a gun in the head at one point.
00:46:45
Perhaps not always the perfect gentleman. Right. Right. That's how actors are. So Willie Sutton dies in Florida in 1980.
00:46:54
But before that, he publishes a book about his life, about Arnold Schuster. He writes, quote,
00:47:00
Throughout my career, I had plotted and planned my jobs to make sure that I would not have to hurt anybody.
00:47:06
And now after it was over and I was sitting in jail, a good looking, promising young man had been killed because of me.
00:47:14
The laughter of the gods, end quote. Wow. Yeah. And that is the story of the unsolved murder of Arnold Schuster.
00:47:25
Amazing story. Thank you. Right. And well told. I said thank you to something you didn't compliment me on.
00:47:31
I tricked you. I pulled you right in. But here's the thing about fucking crime. It's like he's sitting there.
00:47:38
This is such a story from the 40s and 50s, right? Because he's like, it's the gentleman.
00:47:44
We all love him. But it's like, yeah, but that's exactly what happens when you start fucking around with crime and guns and all this shit.
00:47:52
You control all the circumstances as much as you want to. And you have a plan and you're this kind of person.
00:48:00
It's now out of your hands. Take those morals, get a job at the fucking grocery store.
00:48:04
That's right. And slug it along with everybody else. I heard Costco's a great place to work.
00:48:08
I love it. They're hot dogs. You know, me and my sister went and got hot dogs there the last time I was.
00:48:15
No. I didn't tell you that story. No. I could have sworn because we've been so hot dog themed lately.
00:48:20
Yeah. Every time you eat a hot dog, I have to know. I know. I should report in. I wish you would.
00:48:24
But we were sitting in the parking lot. I lost it. something funny happened as we were both eating these hot dogs. Oh, I found out my sister does not
00:48:34
like relish after all this time. I was going to ask you what you put like put everything on. What's
00:48:39
the deal? She's ketchup and mustard, which repelled me and made me go like, have I not ever looked at
00:48:44
you? Why are you only mustard? Mustard relish. Oh, listen, that plus ketchup. I'm happy. No,
00:48:52
I'll put fucking any condiment on a hot dog that's like there to be put on a hot dog.
00:48:56
what hold on let me think of when you wouldn't onions chili cheese shredded cheese pickles
00:49:05
those all sound good but together i think i'm talking about mixing would you put mayo on a
00:49:11
i don't put me on anything fuck no so gross fuck your mayo no if you put mayo on your hot dog right
00:49:18
into my favorite murder at gmail hold on uh-oh the dirty dog that you get in la outside of sports
00:49:25
arenas and clubs that are grilled right on the fucking flat top there. Hell yes.
00:49:29
I just let them make it for me because it's made a certain way. It's everyone. You have to have a dirty dog.
00:49:34
It's a bacon wrapped hot dog. That's like sold on the streets in LA. It's so delicious.
00:49:38
Fucking incredible. Always good. And they put mayo on it. Like I don't, I'll never say no mayo because they know best what it's supposed to taste.
00:49:44
Very true. Smart. I will eat. Yes. So mayo. I'll do mayo. And do they put the mayo on it?
00:49:48
Like they put it on the corn? Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of funny. It's like, well, yeah, this is good.
00:49:54
This is like a good way to eat this kind of travel food. Yeah. You got to have mayo.
00:50:01
I fucking can't stand mayo. I think it's the most disgusting thing. But I will eat it on some things.
00:50:07
I mean, it's necessary purely for moisture on many things. Right. And then you have to get Duke's too.
00:50:14
Have you had Duke's mayo? No. Vince is like, we're not allowed to have any mayo in the house with Duke's.
00:50:19
Is it a Midwestern thing? I think it's a Midwest or East Coast-y thing. Someone will yell at us about that.
00:50:24
Because my mom, the rule was no mayo, but best foods. Never had that. That's the one with the blue.
00:50:30
It's like the classic. Yeah. Miracle Whip? No. You looked so disappointed in me when you said that.
00:50:38
Well, only because my mom was such a hard ass about best foods that the first time I had Miracle Whip, it was like someone put a packet of sugar into the mayo.
00:50:45
It was the weirdest experience. Okay. Best Foods is real mayo. Miracle Whip is the fucking weird shit.
00:50:53
It's the weird shit. But it's like, whatever. It's just they put a little zing in it because it's supposed to be like, you know, it's something a little different than mayo.
00:51:00
A little classier. And man, like that first bologna and cheese sandwich, I was like, what is happening?
00:51:07
Someone loves that. That's someone's like hangover treat. We're actually starting a huge fight on the Internet right now.
00:51:14
What about you? Are you a Kewpie mayo person? Hi, I'm Cindy Crawford and I'm the founder of Meaningful Beauty.
00:51:22
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00:51:43
Meaningful beauty. Confidence is beautiful. Learn more at MeaningfulBeauty.com. Hey, everyone. It's Cal Penn. I'm the host of Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club.
00:51:59
This week on the podcast, I am sitting down with Ray Porter, the narrator of Andy Weir's audiobook Project Hail Mary,
00:52:07
massive sci-fi adventure about survival and science and what happens when you wake up alone very far from Earth.
00:52:16
I really had to make a decision because I caught myself getting that frog in my throat and starting to get teary.
00:52:21
as I'm narrating some of these sections, and it's like, okay, yo, yo, yo, is this indulgent?
00:52:25
And I really thought about it. I was like, no, at this point, it would kind of be betraying the trust
00:52:30
the author and the listener have in telling this story if I don't go through it.
00:52:35
But there's places in this book that deeply emotionally affected me, and I left it on the mic.
00:52:42
That's great. Because it served the story. People will say like, oh my God, I cried at the end.
00:52:46
It's like, yeah, dude, me too. Listen to Earsay, The Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club
00:52:51
on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Calorie info at hero.co.
00:53:20
34 to 48% fewer calories than regular products. Calorie content has been reduced on average from 162 to 92 calories per serving.
00:53:25
Data accurate as of 2-20-26. Okay, well, great job. Thank you. We're definitely going to turn.
00:53:32
Okay. I don't know how many degrees, though. Okay. We're just going to have to feel it out.
00:53:37
I'm about to tell you a story that starts on the night of November 22, 1975. Okay.
00:53:43
In Yakima, Washington. It's so cold, the ground actually has snow on it. But inside her home Deanne Blankenbaker who in her late 20s is warm asleep in bed until sometime around 2 a when she wakes up to a loud noise outside She thinks it the slam of a car door doesn think much about it She goes back to sleep She wakes up again around
00:54:07
5 a.m. and she realizes that her partner, 32-year-old Morris Blankenbaker, is not there.
00:54:14
So Morris is a high school coach by day. At night, he works as a night shift bouncer at a local club.
00:54:21
Doubt there's a day shift bouncer, but you never know what kind of clubs. So he should have been home hours ago.
00:54:29
It was totally not normal that he wasn't there in bed. So Deanna, of course, is worried.
00:54:34
She checks every room in the house, including her two young children's bedrooms.
00:54:39
But he is nowhere to be found. She thinks, oh, maybe he was so tired when he got home that he like fell asleep in his car in the driveway or something.
00:54:47
So she goes outside. His car is there. He is not inside. Now she's getting really worried. So she figures if his car's here, he's here somewhere. So she starts to walk around the outside of the house. And as she turns the corner to walk around the backside of the house, she finds Morris lying dead in the snow.
00:55:08
So she screams for help. And when investigators arrive on the scene, they discover that Morris has been murdered, shot three times and left to die.
00:55:18
So tragically, Morris Blankenbaker won't be the only man in Deanne's life to die during that holiday season in 1975.
00:55:26
And he isn't even the only high school coach in Yakima to be murdered that winter.
00:55:32
What? This is the story of the strange deaths of Morris Blankenbaker and Gabby Moore, whose murders and their investigations left their small city scandalized.
00:55:42
Okay, I'm here. Okay, and here's really why you're here, because the main source of this story is Anne Rule's book, A Fever in the Heart.
00:55:52
And there's other sources, of course. Please check them. They're in our show notes.
00:55:58
But, of course, always read Anne Rule's books. Always. Any chance you get. So let's go back to the mid 60s when Deanne and Morris Blankenbaker first get married. They're a perfect match, completely in love. They're devoted to one another and to the outside world. They seem like a great couple. They're objectively attractive people. Deanne has beautiful jet black hair and a very pretty face.
00:56:23
Morris is handsome, sporty. Ann Rule describes him as, quote, like a young Greek god with bulging biceps and a washboard stomach that's rippled with muscles.
00:56:32
Okay, Ann's a little thirsty right now. And you know what else? He actually has a very 70s look.
00:56:39
Like he kind of looks, his face is, he looks like a stuntman from a movie or a TV show.
00:56:46
He has kind of like a big face with a, I can't explain it. He's like attractive and also looks like he can take a car engine apart.
00:56:54
Sure. So it's no surprise that athletics are important to Morris, have been all his life.
00:57:01
He was the star athlete in high school where he wrestled and played football. He actually earned a four-year athletic scholarship to Washington State University, and he got
00:57:11
offers to play professional football after college. but instead he decided to settle down in Yakima with Deanne because his lifelong dream was to
00:57:20
become a coach. So in the early 70s Deanne and Morris have two small children and they're going
00:57:27
strong. They both work hard to make ends meet. Deanne works at a local bank and Morris coaches
00:57:34
at a nearby high school and then does his shifts as the bouncer a late night. So they seem to have
00:57:41
a happy home life and they're beloved in their community. Morris is the kind of guy that like
00:57:46
everybody thinks is their friend and everybody in Yakima knows both of them. They say he's kind
00:57:52
hearted, cool headed to things that would really come in handy in both of the jobs that he has
00:57:57
actually. So it makes sense that in late 1973, a man named Glyn Gabby Moore, Gabby is his AKA,
00:58:06
would go to his old friend Morris for help. Gabby and Morris go way back. They have a special bond because Gabby was Morris' high school wrestling coach.
00:58:19
Ann Rule writes this about it. Quote, Morris met Gabby for the first time at Washington Junior High.
00:58:25
He viewed him as the hero figure that most boys see in their coaches. Coaches, good coaches, shape the lives of their athletes forever after.
00:58:36
They're often the father figure that some boys and girls never had. They can instill a sense of self-worth and inner confidence that lasts a lifetime.
00:58:44
End quote. Vince's dad was a PE teacher and the track coach. Oh. I know. I know.
00:58:50
I mean, it's really true, though. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I remember my coaches that believed in me when I did not deserve believing in.
00:58:57
Yeah. For sure. Yes, you did deserve it. Just because you were smoking and doing illicit drugs.
00:59:04
You're right. You deserved it more. Thank you. But you're right. It's that kind of a good coach is like the best parent.
00:59:11
Yeah. But in a kind of detached way of like, now I'm going to teach you how to take all that and use it in the world.
00:59:16
Right. Because it's not about their feelings as well. Parents are like, oh, never mind.
00:59:23
There's a book about it. There's probably a self-help book about it out there. I don't need to tell.
00:59:27
How to coach your way into better parenting. How to detach from your children and fucking coach them.
00:59:32
And yeah. Okay. Okay So Morris reveres his old coach The entire city of Yakima actually does because Gabby is such an excellent coach and has been for years And he coaches championship teams which of course that the people love that So he a local big shot Gabby But then something happens that flips Morris and Gabby power dynamic completely which is in the early 1970s the two go on a whitewater rafting trip together
01:00:05
Gabby falls in and Morris jumps in after him and saves his life. But basically he was going to drown in the whitewater rapids.
01:00:15
But Morris is such a strong swimmer and such a great athlete that he basically rescues him.
01:00:20
So they already share a strong bond. Now, you know, besties for life. So when Gabby reaches out and asks Morris for help, he's like, of course, whatever you need.
01:00:32
Turns out Gabby and his wife are getting a divorce and he needs a place to stay until he irons things out at home.
01:00:39
So Morris goes to Deanne, explains what's going on, asks if Gabby can move in. Deanne isn't crazy about the idea because they have two preschool age children.
01:00:49
another adult it seems like it's going to be like too busy too hard yeah they got routines
01:00:55
they got routines they don't have a ton of money you know probably space in their house yeah yeah
01:01:00
exactly i get it don't take my chair type of stuff but eventually deanne does give in and in december
01:01:06
of 1973 gabby moves into the blank and baker home and not long after the relationship between the
01:01:14
two men shifts. And this is because it shifts again in a way because Gabby is a huge secret
01:01:21
alcoholic. Oh no. Yeah. He's very good at hiding it. Deanne does not see it at all. Morris completely
01:01:30
catches on and is like all over it. And Gabby's drinking troubles him because it's totally unlike
01:01:36
him. This is not the man he knows him to be. And when Gabby was Morris's coach, he didn't touch
01:01:42
alcohol. He preached, you know, sober living and healthy living. So the fact that Gabby is not
01:01:50
only drinking, but drinking an alarming amount of liquor. And then when he does that, he gets like
01:01:55
angry and aggressive. All of that, Morris is like, what the hell is going on? So to keep the peace,
01:02:02
Morris basically is doing everything he can to keep this drinking away from Deanne. So she just
01:02:07
doesn't have to deal with it. And it kind of works. Deanne doesn't notice anything and thinks
01:02:14
everything's fine. A couple months pass and Gabby not only hasn't reconciled with his wife,
01:02:20
but he basically admits that he's fallen in love with another woman. And in a twist that Morris
01:02:29
never sees no coming no the woman is deanne no yes yes and deanne actually falls for gabby
01:02:38
she thinks he's this old town legend hero great coach doesn't really know yeah so here's what
01:02:46
ann rule writes about this quote at first glance it seemed highly unlikely that gabby would be
01:02:51
attracted to Deanne. He was 42 years old. Nowhere near as handsome as Morris, but Gabby had one big
01:03:00
advantage. He was an unknown quantity to Deanne. She'd been with Morris since she was 17. The very
01:03:06
fact that Gabby was 15 years older than Deanne may have drawn her to him. His charisma and ability
01:03:12
to inspire confidence drew her to him just as he inspired athletes. No, don't do it.
01:03:18
So things between Gabby and Deanne move quickly, as you would imagine. Less than three months after Gabby moves into the Blankenbaker home, Deanne tells Morris she's leaving him.
01:03:31
Not long after that, June of 1974, after nine years of marriage, Morris and Deanne divorce.
01:03:38
Then in September of that year, exactly one year after Gabby first moved in with the Blankenbakers, Deanne and Gabby get married.
01:03:46
Wow. So as fast as humanly possible. Ouch. I wonder, too, how this lines up because it's one of my favorite kind of factoids because I remember it happening when I was around like seven or eight years old.
01:04:01
And I don't know if it was nationwide or if it was California or what, but all of a sudden everyone's parents got divorced.
01:04:08
Yeah. And it was like one of those things where I wonder if like it had started to become normalized.
01:04:14
Right. She was like, oh, I can not only stop doing this, but I can start doing something else almost immediately.
01:04:20
Like, interesting. It felt like it was a thing a lot of people were doing. I bet there was some, you know, famous couple that divorced or some law that got changed and suddenly everyone was divorcing.
01:04:33
Yeah, I think if I'm not mistaken, it was no fault divorce. Where it's like, so you could just do it and be like, you know what, let's call it and I don't have to necessarily pay you 50% or whatever.
01:04:44
I don't know. We'll never know because that's not really our specialty here on this podcast.
01:04:48
We'll never know because no one will ever comment who's a lawyer, a historian, and tell us the truth.
01:04:53
And tell us exactly how right and wrong the theory is. Please do. So this entire affair becomes the talk of the town, as it should.
01:05:01
Sure. That's juicy as hell gossip. So juicy. It's the definition of a scandal, and Morris is the victim of two betrayals.
01:05:09
So, of course, the love of his life, Deanne, has deceived him. and then his best friend and mentor who he was currently helping out in a bad situation
01:05:19
and whose life he had already saved. Just so it's like a fuck you in every way, in every direction.
01:05:27
Just nasty. And Morris, being the great guy that everyone loves, he does his best to respect his wife's decision.
01:05:34
He moves out of the house in a state of total grief. But shortly and shortly into her new marriage,
01:05:42
Deanne realizes that she has made a huge mistake. Oh God. Gabby can't hide his drinking anymore.
01:05:48
I'm sure they got married. They went and had some fun. And then it was like, oh, on our wedding night,
01:05:52
you're going to scream or whatever. That a total gas conjecture But it that kind of thing where it like oh you comfortable together now and you free Right It going to get real Oh dear And Deanne now sees how scary Gabby can be when he drunk
01:06:07
She will later say, quote, he loved you one minute and the next minute he just kicked you out of the house.
01:06:12
And I was getting a little bit scared of him. He drank very heavily. Within a two or three hour period, he would drink a fifth of bourbon.
01:06:19
That's too much. That is so much brown liquor. I feel weird taking a sip of my canned wine right now but
01:06:26
do it now you have to do it so much brown liquor and you know like it was the 70s
01:06:31
so he wasn't well hydrated or like eating good protein or anything like that smoking the entire time
01:06:35
oh god yeah that's so much brown liquor is always the biggest mistake you make when you first start drinking
01:06:43
where it's like I remember being like here's my personality I like right Captain Morgan's spiced rum
01:06:51
ew Oh, rough. On the rocks? With like pineapple juice mixed into it or something like.
01:06:58
That sounds like already vomit. Yeah. Like pre-vomit. It made it so easy for me to vomit everywhere.
01:07:05
And whenever I felt the meat. Okay, so. Order that drink as drunk, Karen. Sush that a little bit of.
01:07:18
Here's the thing I want. A little bit of Captain Morgan. Do you have that? We don't have that, ma'am.
01:07:24
Do you have any, Captain? I guess we have, yeah. Or anybody named Morgan. This is a Burger King.
01:07:31
You better get me pineapple juice. Oh, my God. The other day, I got the old number seven at McDonald's.
01:07:39
They have orange high C again. I don't know if that impacts your life at all. That's all I ever got is the orange drink.
01:07:45
I guess they took it away. it may have come back sooner than just my experience but I didn't know it was back
01:07:51
and I got to have some and it was fucking great two cheeseburger meal? how did I know that?
01:07:56
yes because we have lived together for fucking years why we are friends you simply must know
01:08:04
and yours is filet of fish and a hot tea that's the most disgusting combination no joke
01:08:11
a guy went to high school with ordered that one time when we were at McDonald's and I was like seriously are you trying
01:08:17
to get the shit beaten out of you. What are you doing? That's the most disgusting ever. And then you dip the filet of fish into the hot tea.
01:08:26
It flakes off into your tea and becomes like a slush, a hot slush. Okay, let's focus on the fundamentals. In July of 1975, less than a year into this marriage,
01:08:39
Deanne separates from Gabby and she goes and reconciles with Morris. What does Morris do
01:08:44
when she goes to him and says, I made a mistake. I love you and I missed you. That's right.
01:08:48
And come back home. Oh, no. He forgives her and they plan to remarry. So Gabby moves into a rented apartment.
01:08:58
Basically, it's like this whole experiment is over and this is insane. Going back to normal.
01:09:03
Gabby goes into a rented apartment and he basically becomes obsessed with Deanne.
01:09:07
Oh, no. And with getting her back. Deanne will say, quote, he would call daily, stop by a couple times,
01:09:14
He would call me at work and then he would call me at home. He even came out to the bank. He would often say that he would like to commit suicide in front of me so that I would be on the fifth floor of Memorial, which is the psychiatric ward.
01:09:29
Wow. So this is a person that's like in a true kind of end stage alcoholism. Yeah.
01:09:36
Bad time. Yeah. So now this brings us back to the night of November 22nd, 1975, when Deanne finds Morris's body at the house.
01:09:46
So after all of that. Yeah. She finds him dead. And this is just two years shy of Gabby first moving into the Blankenbaker's house.
01:09:56
So at this point, Deanne's been separated from Gabby. She's back with Morris for about four months.
01:10:02
And the whole four months, Gabby has just been harassing her constantly. And Gabby is immediately viewed as a suspect when Morris is found.
01:10:10
But there's little evidence at the seam. There are no witnesses to Morris's murder.
01:10:15
And Gabby has a rock solid alibi. He was actually checked into the hospital at the time because his blood pressure was extremely high.
01:10:24
Oh, yeah. That's weird. Right? So around 2 a.m. on November 22nd, when Morris is believed to have been killed, when Deanne heard the sound that she thought was a car door slamming, records prove Gabby was actually in the hospital.
01:10:40
So still, police wonder if Gabby could have slipped out of the hospital and then snuck back in after he killed Morris.
01:10:47
That's ruled out because there's various ways to exit the hospital, but getting back into Gabby's room undetected would have been virtually impossible.
01:10:55
The doors are locked after visiting hours, even if he made it back to his assigned floor, past the various hospital employees he would have been having to sneak by or the locked doors he would have had to bypass.
01:11:09
His room was literally right in front of the nurse's station. Three nurses were on duty the night Morris was killed.
01:11:15
Ann Rule writes, quote, Unless Gabby Moore had perfected the art of astral projection, the most viable suspect in the murder of Morris Blankenbaker had just been eliminated from the list of possible suspects.
01:11:28
Yeah. But Gabby's behavior after Morris's death is suspect to say the least. And as the Blankenbakers enter the holiday season, mourning the loss of their father and their husband, Gabby is still trying to shoehorn his way back into Deanne's life.
01:11:47
Deanne's more repulsed by him than ever, of course. And she's becoming increasingly convinced he had something to do with Morris's death.
01:11:54
I mean, it's a really great alibi to be in the hospital. So, like, who was doing the dirty work when you had a great alibi?
01:12:00
There you are. And here we arrive. Because it's almost like it's too perfect of an alibi. Oh, you had the room right across from the nurse's station? So everyone had their eye on you the whole time? Amazing. But Gabby is adamant that he was not involved. And he starts telling everyone around him he's actually the victim of a stalker and that strange men have been calling him at all hours and threatening his life. And they're harassing his mother, too.
01:12:26
And then Gabby reports someone shot out a window at his apartment. So over the next few weeks, Gabby is so afraid for his life, he plans out his funeral with his daughter just in case.
01:12:42
So now it's Christmas Eve, and it's been about a month since Morris' death. And Deanne and her children are just trying to get through their first holiday without him.
01:12:51
Meanwhile, Gabby's at his apartment alone. And at some point in that night, just as he feared, someone breaks into the apartment and shoots Glenn Gabby Moore to death.
01:13:03
What? So detectives are stunned. Yeah. The man who they're convinced was involved, if not like the spearheading Morris's murder, is dead.
01:13:14
So any information, obviously, he might have been able to share or admit later on or confess to all off the table.
01:13:21
And Gabby's claims that his life was being threatened now seem credible. The detectives must be wondering if up to this point they had just gotten it all wrong.
01:13:30
So as they investigate Gabby's apartment, they're left with more questions than answers because everything seems to be in order.
01:13:38
There are no signs of a struggle. Although the body is found lying face down, it is noticeably not bloody at all.
01:13:48
Very little blood. So at first, they think Gabby might have had a heart attack. It's plausible, given his recent stay in the hospital for blood pressure.
01:13:57
But that theory is quickly tossed out when they find a gunshot wound and a small blood stain near Gabby's shoulder.
01:14:05
So, of course, this adds actually more mystery because it means Gabby was, in fact, shot.
01:14:10
But the location and size of his wound don't seem to be particularly deadly. So it doesn't make sense that he was shot dead, like, through the shoulder.
01:14:19
Then they find a .22 caliber bullet casing near Gabby's body, and that when they run ballistic tests, they eventually determine both Gabby and Morris's gunshot wounds were caused by the same type of bullet.
01:14:32
So for investigators, this leads them to a new theory, which is that the same man killed both coaches, but they don't know why.
01:14:41
So for weeks, the detectives work the case. They don't get anywhere. and then two months after Gabby's death,
01:14:47
a couple of local kids are fishing in a Yakima River and they pull out a rusty Colt 22 pistol from there.
01:14:55
Oh my God. Were they fishing with magnets? I would love to know. Either way, they find an old gun,
01:15:01
they turn it in, the police release this information to the public because they figure someone out there knows something
01:15:08
and they'll just hopefully come forward and like fill in the gaps. And they do. A young woman that Ann Rule identifies as Loretta Scott calls in with a tip and she tells detectives she's the owner of the gun and she's also the person who tossed it in the river, but she's not the killer.
01:15:26
Okay, what now? Yeah. Yakima was one big question mark at this point. Sure. But Loretta does know who the killer is.
01:15:34
It's her cousin. So he borrowed the gun twice, once in November and again on Christmas Eve.
01:15:40
So when she learns those dates perfectly align with both Morris's murder and Gabby's murder or Gabby's death, Loretta got worried that she was hanging on to a murder weapon.
01:15:51
So she panicked and chucked it into the river. Literally Maren's exact words, chucked it into the river.
01:15:59
Honey. And so Loretta tells police her cousin's name is Angelo Pleasant, but everyone in town knows him as Tuffy.
01:16:08
Tuffy. That's right. His name is Tuffy Pleasant. Don't fuck around with Tuffy Pleasant.
01:16:13
Oh, you think are you thinking of a little Lhasa Apsu when you hear that? Nope. Fuck around and then find out.
01:16:19
He is afterwards. Yeah. In 1975, Tuffy Pleasant is a 22 year old college student from Yakima with an impressive wrestling record, which is how Morris Blankenbaker was described in his heyday.
01:16:34
Yeah. Morris was about 10 years older than Tuffy and just like Morris Tuffy wrestling coach was Gabby Moore Morris Blankenbaker was a great athlete but Tuffy Pleasant is in a league of his own Under Gabby training Tuffy on track to be an Olympic level wrestler And he actually
01:16:54
been competing. He's competed as far away as Tokyo. Even after Tuffy began to work with new coaches
01:17:01
in college, he still idolized Gabby. It's same thing of like, that's his coach. So just as it
01:17:07
was with Morris, Gabby and Tuffy had a close relationship and Tuffy held the same reverence
01:17:12
and adoration for his old coach. Needless to say, Tuffy was there when Gabby went through
01:17:18
both his divorces, his descent into alcoholism and his depressive spiral. And Tuffy will later say,
01:17:25
quote, it was Deanne this, Deanne that. We were so close that what he felt, I felt. If he shed a
01:17:32
tear i shed a tear this man he's just tore up he's not himself he's just bleeding inside he said if
01:17:39
you have a problem you eliminate it and morris was his number one problem oh no end quote so
01:17:46
toughie agrees to kill morris blankenbaker for gabby while gabby is hospitalized he's called it
01:17:53
right we're so smart we're so after eight and a half years of this same fucking story over and
01:17:59
over again. Can't get anything by us. They planned the murder together, these two men,
01:18:03
and then Gabby made the phone call to Tuffy from the hospital to set that plan in motion.
01:18:11
And then months later, to dispel this growing suspicion that Gabby was involved in Morris's
01:18:15
death, Gabby went back to Tuffy with another request. One last favor, he wants Tuffy to shoot
01:18:22
him. Oh. So Tuffy is an adult man. He's got the Olympics, potentially the Olympics ahead of him.
01:18:31
And yet he's going to risk it all for his old wrestling coach. Yeah. Doesn't make a ton of
01:18:36
sense. Although good coaches shape the lives of their athletes forever, as Ann Rule said.
01:18:42
Young impressionable. Right. And clearly Tuffy felt indebted to Gabby and loved him clearly.
01:18:49
and Gabby knew that it would be incredibly difficult for Tuffy to say no to him.
01:18:54
So Tuffy agrees to shoot Gabby in the shoulder and Gabby thinks then he'll have like a mindful, a minor, although painful injury.
01:19:05
Unmindful. And ultimately mindful. You really think about what matters. So the plan was Tuffy shoots Gabby in the shoulder.
01:19:14
he then crawls, wounded and bleeding, down the street to Deanne's sister's house.
01:19:21
And then that'll get him off the hook for being suspected in Morris' murder. And it will also win him sympathy from Deanne's sister and therefore then pulling Deanne back into his life.
01:19:33
That's stupid. Very alcoholic plan. Yeah. Very familiar to me. So on Christmas Eve, Tuffy fires the weapon at Gabby and Gabby is very drunk.
01:19:45
And the theory is that he kind of like stumbled as the gun went off. So the bullet hits slightly lower than as planned.
01:19:55
And Ann Rule writes, I kind of love this story because it's just like reading you great parts of an Ann Rule book.
01:20:02
Totally. That could be a podcast in its own. Yeah. quote probably the wound would not have been fatal except for one peculiarity of a 22
01:20:10
it can spiral inside the body if it hits a bone an autopsy would show that this was what happened
01:20:18
the bullet had changed course after hitting the fourth rib and it had penetrated both lungs and
01:20:24
heart resulting in almost instantaneous death holy shit so gabby's body wasn't bloody and first
01:20:32
responders thought it was a heart attack because all of the fatal wounds and the bleeding were
01:20:38
internal. He was just literally torn up inside. Oh my God. So in August of 1976, less than three
01:20:45
years after this entire saga began with Gabby moving into the Blankenbaker home, Tuffy's found
01:20:51
guilty of murdering Morris Blankenbaker and convicted of manslaughter in the murder of Gabby
01:20:57
Moore. So he still, it's like, even though it was, you didn't mean any of that to happen,
01:21:03
you're still going to get manslaughter. Oh, by the way, Tuffy is a black man. So that probably
01:21:09
has a lot to do with it as well. So he winds up getting a life sentence for Morris's murder plus
01:21:15
20 years. So as Anne Rule finishes her book, Fever in the Heart, she says, quote, life does go on,
01:21:22
even after the most horrendous tragedies, even after so much heartbreak. When Gabby Moore fastened his obsessive eye on Deanne Blankenbaker his hell manipulations ultimately changed the course of many lives Nothing was ever the same again but people went on following the new paths that loss and grief cut out for them
01:21:42
Ooh, Ann, great one. Such a good last line. In the maximum security prison where Tuffy Pleasant is incarcerated, he eventually learns to sew.
01:21:50
And in a Los Angeles Times article from the early 90s, he notes that he's part of a program that teaches inmates how to, quote, sew pockets on fleece outerwear, including ski parkas, swimwear, and products sold in department and specialty stores, end quote.
01:22:07
This job pays a minimum wage to the incarcerated workers and some of that money going to victim restitution.
01:22:14
And Tuffy is quoted in this article saying, quote, this program has allowed a lot of us guys a chance to give something back, not just to families who have suffered as a result of what we've done, but to our families as well.
01:22:28
This program has given me patience, end quote. Tuffy Pleasant ultimately spends 20 years in prison and then he's paroled.
01:22:36
What I think is incredible about that quote is that he is taking so much accountability for his behavior that he was entirely coerced into participating in.
01:22:49
Yeah. But you make the decisions that you make. You do. For whatever reason. But if there is any, it's like the people who suffered for what you did because someone told you you had to.
01:23:02
Right. Played upon, like manipulated. Yes, you totally chose to do it. But goddamn.
01:23:07
If only everyone could take their fucking responsibility. Step back. If only everyone.
01:23:15
Back in Yakima, Deanne eventually moves on from her job at the bank, and she becomes a successful stockbroker.
01:23:22
Oh. Badass. Good for her. She remarries, and she and her new husband leave Yakima for good.
01:23:29
Yeah. Thank God. Let's go. Yes. and Anne Rule actually meets with Deanne while she's writing A Fever in the Heart
01:23:35
and she says, quote, I saw that she had changed from the vulnerable, shocked young woman
01:23:41
I had watched testify at Tuffy's trial. She had clearly become a woman in control of her life
01:23:47
and both of she and Morris' children had grown up to be happy, well-adjusted adults.
01:23:52
I did not blame Deanne for demuring when I asked about her feelings after the murders of Morris and Gabby.
01:23:58
Those days were all in the past for her And whatever regrets she might have had, she chose to keep private.
01:24:05
End quote. Wow. Love and rule. Beautiful. And that's the story of the murder of Morris Blankenbaker.
01:24:12
I had never, ever heard that. And I was expecting it to be a cold case for the way you started.
01:24:19
Oh, really? Yeah. I tricked you? You totally tricked me. Love it. That's what we're trying to do.
01:24:25
That's all we're trying to do here, ladies and gentlemen. Oh, my God. That's so tragedy upon tragedy.
01:24:33
Those poor kids. Those poor kids. I truly, that last chunk, I was like, oh, thank God.
01:24:38
Oh, thank God. Yeah. That's the magic of Anne Rule. Yeah, she's so good. She knew the story.
01:24:43
She knew the story people actually wanted to hear. She knows the details you want to hear.
01:24:48
Yeah. Rippled muscles in the beginning. Everyone is going to be okay in the end.
01:24:54
Thank you. Oh, good job. Thank you. All right, let's end on some, what do we call them?
01:25:03
Oh, hashtag, what are you even doing right now? Where you guys tell us what you're even doing right now
01:25:07
while you're listening to My Favorite Murder. We love the idea of just getting a little picture,
01:25:12
just a little idea of what the hell's going on out there as we do this in here. What kind of listeners do we have?
01:25:18
This is from Instagram, from me, underscore butterfly, underscore girl. And I appreciate this because I've just found my new hobby.
01:25:26
Oh. What are you even doing right now? I'm bopping around a field with a horse named Sue checking milkweed for monarch butterfly eggs and caterpillars.
01:25:37
Raising butterflies was a COVID lockdown escape for me. I didn't even think you could fucking do that.
01:25:42
I didn't either. Jesus. I could wander a field far from anyone else. I feel like this is, she's like Nicole Kidman right now.
01:25:49
Far from anyone else and find some beauty. As of today, I have successfully released nearly 400 monarchs and counting.
01:25:57
Oh my God. congratulations cut to the crow that sweeps in and just eats seven of them as that's my fault
01:26:04
because i keep feeding the crows in your neighborhood oh my god isn't that beautiful
01:26:10
very important work i thought about getting a beehive for my backyard but i could do moths and butterflies instead do is there anything that could bite you or sting you more Jesus Okay here this one
01:26:23
This is from Instagram also, and it's kiss underscore my underscore Cartier underscore
01:26:29
1021. And it says, I'm on my 35 minute commute back home and can barely see through the tears
01:26:36
in my eyes listening to Karen speak about George Denning. His story of black resilience and courage in the face of injustice has touched me deeply.
01:26:43
Thank you and the entire MFM team for showcasing black stories that are oftentimes forgotten.
01:26:49
They help propel me forward and show that I stand on the shoulders of greatness.
01:26:54
Thanks again. Oh, my God. I mean, that's beautiful. It goes perfectly hand in hand with Lisa Michelle, who said, what are you even doing right now?
01:27:06
Overthinking everything I said yesterday and will say today and possibly tomorrow.
01:27:11
Hey, me too. We have the same hobby. Oh my God, that's crazy. I've been raising that in my backyard this whole time.
01:27:20
Self-doubt. Cultivate it. It's all kinds of experiences people could be having while they listen to this podcast.
01:27:27
Why don't you tell us what you're doing? Please. We want to know. I bet it's something mundane or awesome.
01:27:33
Either way. You contain multitudes. You do. We do. We're here for it. That was fun.
01:27:38
I'm so excited we're back in the studio. Me too. I need a more comfortable seating though.
01:27:42
I like, we're a cute dress today. We're sitting in chairs and I just like, my feet need to be up.
01:27:48
Up where? On anything. Where? I don't know. Just like. You have a dress on. I can't sit like a lady for more than an hour.
01:27:56
This is hard, but also. Yeah. There's not a good. Maybe we get like plywood that pushes us forward.
01:28:04
Yeah. Look, we're not Phoebe Judge. We can't fucking all be like professionals and shit.
01:28:10
Yeah. Stop asking us to. We've been Zooming for almost five years. And now we're back.
01:28:16
I'm missing a lot of cats in here, too. There's very little animal hair. We should bring bags from home and sprinkle it around.
01:28:25
Done. And then, oh, should we roll a tape of Frank Barking? Oh, absolutely. We need that.
01:28:29
It's a necessary part of this podcast. Oh, and then also stay sexy. And don't get murdered.
01:28:36
Goodbye. Elvis, do you want a cookie? Ah! Searchers are Maren McClashen and Allie Elkin.
01:29:02
Email your hometowns to MyFavoriteMurder at gmail.com. Follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at MyFavoriteMurder and Twitter at MyFaveMurder.
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Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 90
    Most heartbreaking
  • 85
    Most shocking
  • 85
    Biggest twist
  • 80
    Most dramatic

Episode Highlights

  • My Favorite Murder: Studio Reunion
    Georgia and Karen reunite in the studio after a long time apart.
    “It's so creepy for me, at least.”
    @ 02m 29s
    June 13, 2024
  • Caviar Wars
    Georgia and Karen discuss their podcast network and the rise of caviar culture.
    “Whose market price is highest now, bitch?”
    @ 17m 09s
    June 13, 2024
  • Willie Sutton: The Gentleman Bank Robber
    Known for his politeness during heists, Willie Sutton became a notorious figure in the 20th century.
    “He said to avoid hurting people during his robberies.”
    @ 24m 31s
    June 13, 2024
  • Arnold Schuster's Fatal Recognition
    Arnold Schuster recognized Willie Sutton on the subway, leading to his tragic fate.
    “Someone comes out from the shadows and shoots him four times with a 38 just on the street.”
    @ 40m 55s
    June 13, 2024
  • The Murder of Arnold Schuster
    An innocent bystander is murdered for trying to do the right thing.
    “Basically an innocent bystander who tried to do the right thing gets murdered.”
    @ 42m 10s
    June 13, 2024
  • Willie Sutton's Regret
    Sutton expresses deep remorse over the murder of Arnold Schuster, whom he felt responsible for.
    “I could have fallen off the bed, this sinks me.”
    @ 45m 31s
    June 13, 2024
  • Deanne's Quick Decision
    Less than three months after moving in, Deanne leaves Morris for Gabby.
    “So as fast as humanly possible.”
    @ 01h 03m 46s
    June 13, 2024
  • Morris's Shocking Death
    Deanne finds Morris dead, leading to a complex investigation.
    “So after all of that.”
    @ 01h 09m 46s
    June 13, 2024
  • The Mysterious Gun
    A rusty Colt 22 pistol is found in the Yakima River, linked to the murders.
    “Oh my God.”
    @ 01h 14m 55s
    June 13, 2024
  • Tuffy's Confession
    Tuffy admits to killing Morris and Gabby under Gabby's influence.
    “Don't fuck around with Tuffy Pleasant.”
    @ 01h 16m 08s
    June 13, 2024
  • Deanne's New Life
    Deanne becomes a successful stockbroker and moves on from her past.
    “Good for her.”
    @ 01h 23m 23s
    June 13, 2024
  • Returning to the Studio
    The hosts express excitement about being back in the studio after a long time.
    “I'm so excited we're back in the studio.”
    @ 01h 27m 37s
    June 13, 2024

Episode Quotes

  • The ocean is haunted.
    432 - Here's My Personality
  • Get your fucking eyes away from me.
    432 - Here's My Personality
  • There's just been a bank robbery in Queens and the robbers were exceedingly polite.
    432 - Here's My Personality
  • The laughter of the gods.
    432 - Here's My Personality
  • Life does go on, even after the most horrendous tragedies.
    432 - Here's My Personality
  • This program has allowed a lot of us guys a chance to give something back.
    432 - Here's My Personality

Key Moments

  • Kewpie Mayo01:20
  • Mob Hit Symbolism41:19
  • Mob Hit41:25
  • Deanne's Dilemma1:02:20
  • Morris's Death1:09:50
  • Gun Discovery1:14:50
  • Tuffy's Confession1:16:08
  • Butterfly Release1:25:52

Tension Over Time

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown