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MFM Minisode 382

May 06, 2024 /

This episode of My Favorite Murder covers stories of survival, fear, and unexpected twists. Key topics include a near-attack by the Hillside Stranglers, a lightning strike incident, and a successful strategy for winning tickets at Chuck E. Cheese.

One listener shares a chilling story about her mother who was almost attacked by the Hillside Stranglers in 1977 Los Angeles. The mother was saved by a passing driver, and later learned that the men who followed her were linked to the serial killings.

Another story recounts a childhood experience of being in a house struck by lightning during a severe storm. The listener describes the chaos and fear as the lightning created a hole in the roof, but thankfully, everyone emerged unscathed.

A third story highlights a proud aunt's moment at Chuck E. Cheese, where her nephew used a clever strategy to collect 275 tickets in the ticket blaster booth, creating a memorable birthday experience.

The episode features humor and reflection on childhood fears, survival instincts, and the importance of clever thinking in unexpected situations.

TLDR

Listeners share survival stories involving serial killers, lightning strikes, and a winning strategy at Chuck E. Cheese.

Episode

28:41
00:00:00
This is Exactly Right. I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt Season 2 podcast.
00:00:40
This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumpwright became the victim of a random crime.
00:00:50
The perpetrator was sentenced to 99 years until a confession changed everything.
00:00:57
I was a monster. Listen to Burden of Guilt Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:01:27
but thanks for remembering that guys listen to hey jonas on the iheart radio app apple
00:01:32
podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts just listen we don't care where you hear it
00:01:36
Hello and welcome to My Favorite Murder, the mini-sode, where we read you your stories about your grandpa.
00:02:02
Do you want to go first, Grandpa? Sure, Grandma. Okay. This one's called Another Mom's Brush with Death.
00:02:10
I sent this in a while ago, and now I'm trying again because someone else's similar story got
00:02:15
picked recently. And then it says, I'm not bitter. It worked. It was December 1977 in Los Angeles,
00:02:23
and my mom was working for a small company in Echo Park. She was 20 years old and newly living
00:02:30
on her own. One night when she was leaving work, she saw two young men just standing around across
00:02:34
the street. There was a bar next door, so it wasn't unusual for people to be around, so she ignored
00:02:39
them and started walking to her car, which was parked down the street. At the time, the female
00:02:43
employees weren't allowed to park in the company's parking lot. She felt like something was off, so
00:02:48
she looked back over her shoulder, and the two men were now walking in the same direction. When she
00:02:54
sped up, they matched her pace, and then they started crossing the street towards her. That's
00:02:58
when she started running. She could hear them chasing her, and all she could feel was fear,
00:03:03
but she focused on getting to her car. But in her panic, she struggled with her keys to unlock the
00:03:08
door. The men were so close now that she was sure they were going to get her. That's when all of a
00:03:15
sudden a lone car turned the corner onto their empty road. The driver seeing what was happening
00:03:21
and acting quickly, put his foot to the floor and barreled towards the men, chasing them away.
00:03:27
Oh shit. When they were gone, he went back to check on my mom and made sure she got in her car.
00:03:32
She thanked him and told him what happened, then went home completely shaken from the event.
00:03:37
The next day, my mom went back to work because just because you almost got attacked didn't mean you could skip work.
00:03:42
That's right. And found out the female employees were now allowed to park in the employee parking lot.
00:03:47
Apparently, the man who saved her went to her work and told them what happened. Who was this man?
00:03:53
I don't know. Listen to this part. A couple nights after the incident, a body was found in Echo Park, not far from my mom's work.
00:04:02
She turned out to be Kimberly Diane Martin, one of the victims of the Hillside Stranglers.
00:04:08
Yeah. Wow. My mom knew about the strangler, but at the time, no one knew there were two killers.
00:04:14
It wasn't until later when their pictures showed up on the news that she made the connection.
00:04:18
They were the same men who had followed her that night. Jesus Christ. I know. I mean, and the fact that a body was found later in Echo Park, which isn't a large area,
00:04:29
it just confirms it. Yes. It could have been her if not for like basically fate and that man.
00:04:36
It blows my mind how close my mom came to being one of their victims. I can't believe she never told me this story.
00:04:41
And then she told it so casually. What the heck, mom? If it hadn't been for that driver, I probably wouldn't be here now.
00:04:48
Unfortunately, she never saw him again, but I wish I could thank him. Thank you if you read all the way through this.
00:04:54
I know it's long. Stay sexy and let women park in the employee parking lot. ronnie she her i mean amazing story ronnie but like sorry are you saying that only men could
00:05:06
park in the employee parking lot i think no one could no one could there was a known serial killer
00:05:11
out and about and they still wouldn't let the females park in the parking lot fucking assholes
00:05:16
you know what i mean yeah i mean there's no job i've ever had where i've been allowed to park in
00:05:21
the parking lot like retail and you know true true yeah yeah oh i get it i wasn't i was totally
00:05:27
think of like an office job where it's an employee parking lot and they, cause it's like the employee
00:05:31
parking lot. Yes. Yes. No. I like, you know, when you work at a clothing store and you have to park
00:05:36
down the fucking street where there's not two in LA, don't get me started. Don't even, but on Melrose, are you kidding me?
00:05:43
It's so strange about that too, is after you get off work, when I leave a bar and walk to my car,
00:05:48
I'm very aware what's going on and careful. When I leave work, I'm like at night,
00:05:52
where when I used to I be like I leaving work This is part of the work day and they didn pay as much attention you know Yeah I also what flashed in my head as we were talking about that because that was like Hellside Stranglers was late 70s
00:06:05
early 80s, right? It was like 79 or 80s. This was from 77. So yeah, yeah. Oh, 77. Yeah.
00:06:11
Oh, they got caught maybe in those later years. But what a total, because you go like,
00:06:16
how could they have done that? How could they have whatever? Think about what things were like
00:06:21
in the 60s where it was like astronauts and like the Kennedys and you know basically the American
00:06:27
dream shit and then you flip over into the 70s and go into literal hell on earth and especially
00:06:34
in Los Angeles in Los Angeles in Seattle do you know why why there's a theory on this what was the
00:06:41
I listened to this podcast recently about lead poisoning and in the 1930s they started using
00:06:48
leaded gasoline. And there is a direct correlation between, if you look on a chart, the uptick in
00:06:57
lead in the air and the uptick in violent crime matches because it fucks with your prefrontal
00:07:03
cortex. And so the 1970s is when it peaked. And when all the people who had babies in the 30s,
00:07:09
40s, 50s, those babies started becoming older, that's when this violence broke the fuck out.
00:07:16
Oh my God. That's unbelievable. And also so fucking sinister. Cause it's like, this is one of yet another example of like capitalism's killing us where, you know,
00:07:29
got to fill those cars with gas. You got to, you know, especially in LA. Well, and also because it was only because there was a pinging noise in the gas tank
00:07:37
and the lead got rid of it. And they knew though, that it was like toxic. So the podcast is called
00:07:43
what a day, what a day. And the episode's called How We Got Here, How Lead Poisoning Rewired
00:07:49
America. I mean, holy shit. I know. And they think that's why there's so many serial killers
00:07:54
in the 70s and stuff. And it would make sense that there were so many serial killers in Los
00:07:59
Angeles because Los Angeles had the most cars, the most polluted air. There were days my mom
00:08:04
wasn't allowed to go to elementary school because the air was so bad. Oh, shit. Yeah.
00:08:09
It says it's a show. What Fox and Friends would sound like if they were hosted by people whose parents read to them as children.
00:08:17
That's the fucking funniest thing I've ever seen. Oh, my God. I love it. I thought I read it.
00:08:23
I thought I read it wrong. Oh, my God. Oh, that's so sad. I'm giving What A Day a listen for sure.
00:08:30
All right. Love it. Okay. Here's my first one. The subject line is, I survived a natural disaster plus Norwegian grandma.
00:08:37
Hello, podcast royalty. Oh. Hi. Hi. That's us. You recently did a story about a Norwegian survivor, and in my attempt to get you to read my story,
00:08:49
I'm resubmitting this because it has a Norwegian tie-in. Did it work? I guess we'll find out.
00:08:56
When I was about seven or eight, my sister, hi Kelly, and I were staying at our parents' friend's house for a weekend while they were out of town.
00:09:03
They had two daughters the same age as us, so we were four peas in an early 90s pod.
00:09:09
Hours before my parents were due home, a massive monsoon came rolling through. The four of us, being the Arizona babies we were, gleefully danced barefoot in the rain until the thunder and lightning got a bit too threatening and we were forced inside.
00:09:23
At some point, my parents showed up. A babysitter was there too. For a reason I can only imagine means that they were planning on leaving us mere moments after they returned to have some welcome home drinks with their friends.
00:09:36
It's tough. Soon the storm took a turn. Summer monsoons in the 90s were absolutely insane.
00:09:43
Windows rattling to the point of shattering. Rolling power outages. Shingles from roofs were even known to slice into block walls from the near hurricane winds.
00:09:53
This was one of those storms. The four of us sat huddled in the middle of the house, crying, scared shitless from the now biblical level storm, while the parents chatted in the kitchen, completely uninterested in our wailing.
00:10:05
Suddenly and simultaneously, there was a flash of light so bright we were momentarily blinded and the house shook so violently from the thunder that it felt like it was going to implode.
00:10:16
Yep, we were in the house when it got struck by lightning. we saw with our very own eyeballs a ball of light race through the house from the guest bathroom
00:10:26
where the lightning initially struck into the kitchen to the landline phone which was in the
00:10:32
hand of the babysitter who was at that moment reassuring her mom that she was safe from the
00:10:38
storm holy shit seeing this as a child lightning in your house lightning in the house watching it
00:10:45
go around the house. Everyone froze. What does one do when you're in a house that is struck by
00:10:50
lightning and you physically see the bolt shoot through multiple rooms into the unassuming hand
00:10:54
of a 15 year old girl? Fuck if I know. Somehow she was completely unscathed, but her mom probably
00:11:01
felt validated for worrying. The house didn't fare as well. There was now a three foot wide hole in
00:11:08
the roof over the guest bathroom directly above the toilet slash shower, near feet from where we
00:11:14
were. The rain kept the house from catching on fire, but that also meant that the bathroom was
00:11:19
quickly becoming flooded. So my dad, his friend, and a neighbor proceeded to, all caps, get on the
00:11:25
roof to cover the hole in a severe thunderstorm. Lightning can't strike twice, right? Thankfully,
00:11:32
the sentiment held true. After that, it's a bit of a blur, but the best part was that our friends
00:11:36
then got to stay at our house on a school night. Best night ever. Where's the Norwegian grandma
00:11:42
tie-in I promised you ask it may be a bit of a stretch but here she is my dad's mom my grandma
00:11:48
Orla and then it says in parentheses amazing name was struck by lightning not once but twice and lived she was also once gored by a bull and served during World War II as an accountant and the only woman in her unit She died from her second bout of cancer on my second birthday
00:12:07
but from these and countless other stories, she certainly was one badass Norwegian lady,
00:12:12
much like her countrymen. But maybe she could have refrained from passing down her lightning
00:12:16
raw genes to my sister and me. Stay sexy and don't take a shower in a thunderstorm, Sarah.
00:12:22
That is, I didn't even think about a lightning bolt hitting a house and what would happen.
00:12:29
I've never thought about that. My God, I've never thought that was a possibility that it would come into the house.
00:12:34
Yeah. And then bust a hole through too. That's wild. And then go to the landline.
00:12:41
Thank God we don't have landlines anymore. I mean, it's giving poltergeists. You know what I mean?
00:12:46
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt Season 2 podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families.
00:12:58
Late one night, Bobby Gumpwright became the victim of a random crime. The perpetrator was sentenced to 99 years until a confession changed everything.
00:13:09
I was a monster. Listen to Burden of Guilt Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:13:45
Welcome to It Girl with Bailey Taylor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:13:51
I'm Anna Navarro, and on my new podcast, Bleep with Anna Navarro, I'm talking to the people closest to the biggest issues happening in your community and around the world.
00:14:01
Because I know deep down inside right now, we are all cursing and asking what the bleep is going on.
00:14:08
Every week, I'm breaking down the biggest issues happening in our communities and around the world.
00:14:13
I'm talking to people like Julie K. Brown, who broke the explosive story on Jeffrey Epstein in 2018.
00:14:19
The Justice Department, through we counted four presidential administrations, failed these victims.
00:14:26
Listen to Bleep with Anna Navarro on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:14:34
Okay, Six Flags Ride Mishap. Dear Karen Georgia and the whole MFM family, Thank you for the laughs for all these years and creating a common ground for my sister and I.
00:14:45
You asked for Six Flags stories. Okay. Sure. So here goes nothing. I grew up in Fenton, Missouri, just outside of St. Louis, about 20 minutes away from the nearest Six Flags.
00:14:56
I am the oldest of three siblings with a 15-year age gap between me and my youngest sister, Maddie.
00:15:02
When I was home from college one summer, I took her to Six Flags when she was about seven.
00:15:06
My family isn't particularly blessed in the height department, so at age seven-ish, Maddie was barely tall enough, or really not even tall enough, to ride the thrill rides.
00:15:16
I was tired of spending time in Looney Tune land and wanted to ride something fun, so forcing her to face her fears, I coaxed her onto the park's iconic ride, the Scream Eagle.
00:15:27
A 1976 built wooden roller coaster. Ugh. Uh-huh. we waited in line and I told her how much fun the ride would be we get onto the ride somewhere in
00:15:38
the middle sit down in our seats and pull down our lap bars the ride takes off gets pulled slowly up
00:15:44
the hill in a jarring fashion up the old chain oh god wooden roller coasters no yeah and we make
00:15:50
our way to the first drop it was on the first drop that I realized that the height restrictions
00:15:55
were there for a reason as we went down the large hill Maddie slipped out of her lap bar
00:16:02
and the Yann screaming in earnest. I immediately grabbed her and held her into the cart
00:16:08
as we proceeded to go up and down the remainder of the hills. Shit. All the while saying to her,
00:16:13
wee, isn't this fun? Trying not to let on that I am shitting myself in terror that my baby sister is going to go flying off the old coaster.
00:16:22
It'll be your fault. If she does, it'll be your fault. The ride finally ended and thankfully Maddie was still in my arms crying.
00:16:30
Needless to say, it took several years for her to get back on any roller coaster.
00:16:34
And now I believe the Scream Eagle has seatbelts in addition to the lap bars. Good idea.
00:16:40
Today, Maddie has grown up to be a fellow murderino and continues to ride roller coasters,
00:16:45
despite me traumatizing her earlier in life. Stay sexy and obey height restrictions on thrill rides, Megan and Maddie.
00:16:52
What a way to learn that like the signs there for a reason. I mean, that is what sisters, that's a sister story I've ever heard in my life.
00:17:02
It is. It's why I have insane levels of trust issues. Yeah. I can't tell you how many times my sister and my older cousins are like, come on, just do it.
00:17:11
It's not that big of a deal. And like you get weirdly pressured. You're being a baby.
00:17:15
And then you're just hanging by a finger somewhere and they're like, we have to go.
00:17:18
Come on. Stopping such a baby. Okay. Oh, okay. The subject line of this one is the deepest murderino. And then in parentheses,
00:17:29
it says, you asked for this. Hello, exactly right. Family on Minnesota 338, you asked us to beat the
00:17:35
murderino minor. So here I come. And minor ER. So there was a person who is a underground minor
00:17:43
that wrote in and we're like, oh my God, a minor listens to us. Karen, you asked us to write in if
00:17:49
someone had been to the bottom of the ocean. What? What? I don't remember that. Man we must have been fucked up We get so drunk before we record these And then it says so you asked us to write in if someone has been to the bottom of the ocean
00:18:06
Well, I have. And you have certainly been there with me. I'm a biologist, just graduated a month ago.
00:18:12
And last year, December 2023, I had the opportunity to go and explore the deep sea of my country.
00:18:19
I'm from Costa Rica and our territory is 92% ocean. oh i didn't know that i didn't either but i bet it's gorgeous i bet oh yeah we were 200 kilometers
00:18:29
which is 124 miles in today's money off the shore for over two weeks in the middle of the ocean
00:18:35
exploring the seamounts mostly around 3 000 meters or 9 842 feet under the sea whoa we officially
00:18:44
named the first seamounts of the country and found at least four new species of octopus for science
00:18:51
Not to mention, we found not one, but three whale fossils, probably from the Miocene and the super cool microbiome studies from the hot water vents at the bottom where the octopussies lay their eggs.
00:19:04
And yes, we saw baby octopussies being born. I, period, love, period, my, period, job, period.
00:19:10
I love your job too. I know. It's amazing. You've been with me during my years of studies, a semester abroad, and now an upcoming internship
00:19:19
while applying to master programs to become a molecular biologist advocating for ocean
00:19:25
conservation and a neurobiologist. Oh my God, smarty pants. I mean, geez-o Pete.
00:19:33
Can you imagine having a brain like that? And then listening to this fucking podcast?
00:19:37
Good luck. You got to get dumb. You got to get back to normal somehow, right? It's just like, I'm so sick of my brain working at like optimal.
00:19:46
Yeah, I'm sick of being able to move stuff with my thoughts. So it kind of creeps people out.
00:19:52
That's like the, it's the podcast version of getting high, basically. And then she wraps it up by saying, thank you for being you.
00:19:59
Keep doing what you do. Stay sexy. And yes, the correct plural form of octopus is octopuses.
00:20:06
Love, Valeria. Valeria, that was amazing. This is our first email, I believe, from Costa Rica, although there was that creepy thing that happened on the beach that also could have been in Costa Rica.
00:20:19
But Valeria, what an honor to go to the deep sea with you. Yeah, yeah. Let's get honorary degrees somewhere.
00:20:30
A Chuck E. Cheese pizza time theater. Oh my God, I went to Chuck E. Cheese recently with my nephews for the first time since I was a kid.
00:20:37
It smelled like feet in there. It smelled like feet. And it turns out that being good at skeeball is hereditary because my fucking nephew.
00:20:46
Nailing it? Nailing it. Love it. I know. I haven't even thought about skeeball since before the pandemic.
00:20:53
And now I'm becoming slowly filled with the need to immediately play skeeball. Okay.
00:20:58
In the Arts District downtown, the Arts District Brewery is just wall-to-wall skeeballs.
00:21:03
Are you serious? And it's, last I checked, it was free on Monday. So you just go in there and skeeball your little heart out.
00:21:11
Okay. So this is separate. I can't record this Monday. I'm really sick. That was good acting, right?
00:21:18
You believed it. I did. I was there. I'm like, me neither. I'm sick too. And then we see each other.
00:21:25
We all feel terrible. Yeah. Then we're in there just viciously competing to who can get the most tickets.
00:21:31
Wait, what are the prizes? Oh, the same kinds of, oh, at the, no, there aren't any.
00:21:36
oh it's just for fun times it's just for fun it would be cool if you get like free drinks and
00:21:40
stuff but it's just for fun i want fucking some nachos yeah maybe they do nacho like they should
00:21:45
do something i'll go down and start complaining immediately yeah let me take care of this bring
00:21:49
a bunch of erasers and be like give these to people who do good i don't know will ferrell's
00:21:56
big money players and i heart podcast presents soccer moms so i'm leanne yeah this is my best
00:22:02
I'm Janet. Hey. And we have been joined at the hip since high school. Absolutely.
00:22:05
A redacted amount of years later, we're still joined at the hip. Just a little bit bigger hips.
00:22:10
This is a podcast. We're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey.
00:22:15
With all the snacks and drinks. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer? Oh, they had a BOGO.
00:22:22
Well, then you got them. Listen to Soccer Moms on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:22:28
When a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist, they take matters into their own hands.
00:22:37
I vowed I will be his last target. He is not going to get away with this. He's going to get what he deserves.
00:22:43
We always say that, trust your girlfriends. Listen to The Girlfriends, Trust Me Babe,
00:22:50
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Bailey Taylor, and this is It Girl.
00:23:02
This podcast is all about going deeper with the women shaping culture right now.
00:23:06
Yes, we will talk about the style and the success, but we are also talking about the pressure, the expectations, and the real work behind it all.
00:23:14
As a woman in the industry, you're always underestimated. So you have to work extra hard in a way that doesn't compromise who you are and your integrity.
00:23:22
You know, I like to say I was kind of like a silent ninja. Listen to It Girl with Bailey Taylor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:23:33
Okay, this is a story about a magic comb. This is my last one. Hi, ladies. Love you, admire you, etc.
00:23:41
You asked for stories parents would make up to get their kids to do things. And boy, do I have a traumatic one for you.
00:23:49
It is really traumatic. So my two older brothers and I grew up with very thick and unruly hair.
00:23:55
My mother's solution to this was to make a sit down, one at a time, on a stool the bathroom as she went at our bird's nest with a fine tooth comb, trying to get the knots out as
00:24:05
best she could. Ouch. She was not gentle about it by any means either. She was a mother of three
00:24:11
on a mission, you could say. As determined as she was, this did not stop us from crying and wincing
00:24:18
and whining anytime she tugged too hard. Yeah. Yeah. She was fucking pulling your scalp and it
00:24:23
hurt really bad. It's painful when you get your hair pulled, turns out. Also, sorry, but I think
00:24:28
hopefully most parents know this now, but you can hold the hair and then brush it on the other side
00:24:34
of your hand and it won't hurt the child. Oh my God. I definitely cried a lot getting my hair
00:24:38
braided as a kid. Just fucking. My dad used to have to do our hair for ballet because my mom was
00:24:44
at work and he would be the one home and it was a disaster. I'm just picturing like rubber bands
00:24:50
that came from the newspaper that morning, you know? Yes. The ones that actually rip your hair
00:24:55
Yeah. Oh, Jesus. Okay. The complaining obviously slowed her down. So she came up with a plan.
00:25:01
She introduced, quote, the truthful comb to us. This was a comb that had the magic ability to get
00:25:07
us to confess anything we might have lied about. How, you may ask? Well, any pain from the comb
00:25:14
meant the comb sensed bad behavior. Jesus Christ. Anytime she tugged a little too hard or got caught
00:25:21
and we would cry out or complain, my mother in her sweet and soft angelic voice would say,
00:25:27
uh-oh, the truthful comb knows something. What did you do? In a nice voice? That's so creepy.
00:25:34
I know. This got us to confess loads of things from sneaking cookies from the pantry
00:25:39
to my brothers confessing to when they would pick on me. The comb knew it all. It was the ultimate
00:25:45
snitch. This is like she made up her own religion. That's insane. Yeah. We learned very quickly not to make a single sound or move an inch. When we got our
00:25:54
hair combed though, we became perfect little angels. It's called sucking up the pain.
00:26:01
It's not right. It's not the fix. It's not the fix. It's not. It's pretty brilliant, but it's not.
00:26:07
It's not. As adults now, we mentioned the comb to my mom and she just laughs and says,
00:26:11
hey, I thought it was genius. So I still talk to her at least. Yeah, that's good.
00:26:16
As traumatic as the truthful comb was, I loved my mom. And I think back on my childhood fondly.
00:26:21
It's called the trauma response. That's right. What choice do you have? She's always been a clever and badass woman.
00:26:28
And I love hearing her stories of raising us with my dad from her perspective. Just a woman trying her best, even if that meant resorting to magic sentient combs that
00:26:37
could get your kids to fess up on who rode a bike through mom's flower garden. Pretty clever, honestly.
00:26:43
Stay sexy and don believe in magical combs You probably just tender headed Meg It so rough
00:26:53
It's similar, but way less pain was involved. My mom, like almost confiding in me when I was like four years old, was like, oh, I always
00:27:02
know when you're lying. I can see it in your face. And of course, you can't see your own face, right?
00:27:08
I wouldn't be like talking to her in a mirror or anything like that. So I have a very difficult time lying because I think that's still true somewhere in my mind.
00:27:18
I'm not a great liar. Where it's just like. Oh, they can tell. They can tell. Oh, my God.
00:27:24
Yeah. Smart. I mean, they had to, you know, they had to make up shit. Yeah. Back then.
00:27:30
Wait a second. What? This is so crazy. I guess this is probably why I said it. I thought this was the master coincidence.
00:27:37
Now I'm like, oh, no, this is me. I did it. the subject line of this email is money booth heartwarming and it just starts yell i'm so
00:27:45
excited about what just happened i had to write in i've been listening to mfm for years and i've
00:27:50
particularly enjoyed the minisode stories about money booths from that first money booth story
00:27:55
i've been determining what my strategy would be in the unlikely event that i a grown-ass woman
00:28:01
should wind up in a money booth well today was not my big day but my long plan strategy did pay
00:28:06
off for my six-year-old nephew Cooper when he got into the ticket blaster booth at Chuck E. Cheese
00:28:12
for his birthday. Yeah. I mean, it's kind of weird, but I guess, yeah. I kind of did it.
00:28:17
Did I say it? No, you said it. Yeah. It was laid in to the lasagna of emails in my brain.
00:28:24
If you haven't been to Chuck E. Cheese before, this is like, what a classy thing to do to help
00:28:29
out people who might not know. Do you live in England? You may never heard this before.
00:28:33
If you haven't been to Chuck E. Cheese before, it's a place where kids can play arcade games to win tickets to exchange for prizes, all while eating subpar pizza and watching a giant animatronic mouse and accompanying band perform on stage.
00:28:48
If you haven't been to Chuck E. Cheese recently, you will be relieved to know that they have since removed the animatronic band and replaced it with a large screen with colorful graphics and videos of kids performing approachable dance moves.
00:29:01
That's actually great. Mm-hmm. Those animatronic guys, though, those were epic. Yeah, but like the clicking and clanking of the machines was louder than the music, which wasn't great.
00:29:12
Yeah, but it was such a, I mean, it was such a time and place. It was too sax heavy.
00:29:17
Okay, anyway. Today, the other kids who were also having birthday parties weren't faring so well in the ticket blaster booth.
00:29:25
They were trying to grab what they could, but they were coming out with maybe five tickets.
00:29:30
You can even get a dum lollipop these days courtesy of old Charles Entertainment Cheese Did you know his middle name Entertainment Yes Chuck E Cheese Chuck E Cheese When it was time for Cooper to go into the ticket blaster
00:29:43
I knelt down and I grabbed him by the shoulders like I was Danny freaking Tanner in Full House.
00:29:48
And I said, Cooper, when you get in there, I want you to go like this. And then I pulled the bottom of my shirt
00:29:54
straight out in front of me. He copied me without a word. He seemed to understand,
00:29:59
but the other grownups and I were not convinced he would grasp the importance of holding the strategy for the full 30 seconds.
00:30:05
Well, I am thrilled to report that Coop got in there with his goggles on and held the bottom of his little Minecraft sweatshirt
00:30:12
out straight in front of him the entire time. We watched as ticket after ticket flew right up his shirt
00:30:18
until hardly any were left in the booth at all. When he came out and shook out his shirt,
00:30:24
tickets fell out in droves. We even had to pat him down to get the ones that were stuck in his sleeves.
00:30:30
y'all he got 275 tickets holy shit they were not expecting that no in all caps it says 275
00:30:40
that's like two tiny toy cars and at least six and a half dum-dums it was legitimately one of my proudest moments of my life
00:30:48
yeah and like the ant points that you got for that like he'll never what is he was six he'll
00:30:56
never forget that. No, that is crucial. Like I believe my job as being Nora's aunt is to bring
00:31:02
the almost anti-establishment, remembering what it's like to be a kid, not having to worry about
00:31:08
schedules or issues or anything. And just being like, Hey, did you know if you did this and you
00:31:13
can have that? Like that's, that's my job as the guide. Like how to beat the system,
00:31:17
how to beat the system. Entirely. This was, this was such excellent anting. It was legitimately one
00:31:23
of my proudest moments of my life. And I will never forget that moment with Cooper or the gigantic
00:31:27
smile on his face. Wait, now I'm going to start crying. Oh, I love it. Or the gigantic smile on
00:31:33
his face when he saw all those tickets, like she helped him cheat to win. I love it. That's not
00:31:39
cheating. That's strategy. No, you're right. It's not cheating. It's being excellent at what you do.
00:31:44
I got it. That's not cheating. That's not cheating. It doesn't count. Thanks for being you and for
00:31:49
helping my nephew and I create a core memory together. Oh, we're a part of this. Stay sexy
00:31:54
and always hold your shirt out in the money booth. Megan. She cracked it. Megan, congratulations.
00:32:02
That is better than if she had gone in herself and gotten like dollar bills for sure. I think so too,
00:32:08
because as a kid, first of all, it's so funny, like Chuck E. Cheese, it's like this world of
00:32:14
wonder when you go in there and it's like, oh my God, it's perfect. When you go in as an adult,
00:32:19
You like this is so disgusting and weird And the pizza bad whatever And everyone all the adults looked so miserable Yes But the kids it like truly engineered for kid stuff So then it not only his birthday
00:32:32
he's not only a Chuck E. Cheese, but then he just fucking dominates the ticket booth.
00:32:38
Amazing. Love it. Congratulations, Cooper, you're number one. Happy birthday. Oh my God.
00:32:45
Right in your fucking story of the best moment of you as an aunt or uncle in your life.
00:32:51
Yeah. Or whatever. And anything, truly anything else that you think is worth a read.
00:32:56
We love your stories. Thank you for writing them in, everybody from this episode.
00:33:01
And stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Goodbye. Elvis, do you want a cookie? Ah.
00:33:15
This has been an Exactly Right production. Our senior producer is Alejandra Keck.
00:33:19
Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo. This episode was mixed by Liana Squalacci. Email your hometowns to myfavoritemurder at gmail.com.
00:33:28
And follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at My Favorite Murder and on Twitter at My Fave Murder.
00:33:33
Goodbye! Your husband is not who you think he is. Your body is not what you thought it was.
00:33:43
Your identity is formed by a secret history. I'm Dani Shapiro, and these are just a few of the stunning stories I'll be exploring on the 14th season of Family Secrets.
00:33:54
He kind of shoved me out of the way and said, move. And he went out the front door and he jumped in a car and drove off.
00:33:59
And that was the last time I saw him. Listen to season 14 of Family Secrets on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:34:08
Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and iHeart Podcast presents Soccer Moms. So I'm Leanne.
00:34:13
Yeah. This is my best friend, Janet. Hey. And we have been joined at the hip since high school.
00:34:18
A redacted amount of years later, we're still joined at the hip. Just a little bit bigger hips.
00:34:23
This is a podcast. We're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey.
00:34:28
With all the snacks and drinks. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer? Oh, they had a BOGO.
00:34:34
Well, then you got it. Listen to Soccer Moms on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:34:41
You think you're in control until you realize you're not. As they're having this gun battle, thousands of feet up in the air, many of the bullets start to puncture the aircraft.
00:34:53
I thought we were going to die then. The Knife is a podcast about the moment ordinary lives take an unexpected turn.
00:34:59
Real people, real stories, and the split second that changes everything. New episodes drop every Thursday on the Exactly Right Network and the iHeart Podcast Network.
00:35:10
Listen to The Knife on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:35:15
Thank you.

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 80
    Most shocking
  • 75
    Most heartwarming
  • 75
    Biggest twist
  • 70
    Most dramatic

Episode Highlights

  • A Horrendous Lie
    This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families.
    @ 00m 40s
    May 06, 2024
  • Mom's Brush with Death
    A terrifying encounter with potential killers and a heroic stranger.
    “It could have been her if not for like basically fate and that man.”
    @ 04m 30s
    May 06, 2024
  • Lightning Strikes
    A childhood experience of a house being struck by lightning.
    “What does one do when you're in a house that is struck by lightning?”
    @ 10m 50s
    May 06, 2024
  • The Truthful Comb
    A mother's clever strategy to get her kids to confess their misdeeds.
    “This got us to confess loads of things from sneaking cookies to picking on each other.”
    @ 25m 39s
    May 06, 2024
  • Cooper's Ticket Blaster Triumph
    Aunt and nephew create a core memory at Chuck E. Cheese with a clever ticket strategy.
    “He got 275 tickets, holy shit!”
    @ 30m 30s
    May 06, 2024

Episode Quotes

  • It blows my mind how close my mom came to being one of their victims.
    MFM Minisode 382
  • I didn't even think about a lightning bolt hitting a house and what would happen.
    MFM Minisode 382
  • As a woman in the industry, you're always underestimated.
    MFM Minisode 382
  • It's called sucking up the pain.
    MFM Minisode 382
  • As traumatic as the truthful comb was, I loved my mom.
    MFM Minisode 382
  • Stay sexy and don't get murdered.
    MFM Minisode 382

Key Moments

  • Horrendous Lie00:40
  • Mom's Encounter02:15
  • Heroic Stranger03:21
  • Lightning Strike10:20
  • Silent Ninja23:22
  • Traumatic Childhood23:49
  • Ticket Blaster Strategy29:50
  • Core Memory31:27

Tension Over Time

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown