00:00:00
This is exactly right. Isn't some far off concept? It's already here. Next starts now.
00:00:33
Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA. Goodbye. When a charming neurosurgeon rode into Frontier Town
00:00:39
selling a persona of confidence and care, patients trusted him. He wore cowboy boots in the operating room
00:00:45
and became sought after by patients. He promised to heal them. Instead, he left a trail of broken bodies.
00:00:51
This is a story of greed, betrayal, and a fight for justice. Listen to Dr. Death the Cowboy wherever you get your podcasts
00:00:58
or binge the entire series right now only with Audible. Goodbye. Where does summer take you?
00:01:05
Maybe it's a coastal road trip or a quiet morning with the windows wide open. Summer smells like bright citrus, warm sand,
00:01:11
and endless possibilities. With Pura's smart diffusers and the new summer collection,
00:01:15
you can restore your sense of place and bring those unforgettable moments right into your living room.
00:01:20
Find your summer escape today. Visit Pura.com to learn more. Goodbye. My favorite murder
00:01:35
Hello! And welcome Yep, to My Favorite Murder The Minisode They still got it, baby!
00:01:52
Boom! Easy! Learned. Lines learned. In and out. No biggie. Want to go first? Sure.
00:02:00
I have a neighborhood bar story. You know, we were talking about house bars in neighborhoods.
00:02:06
Oh, yes. House bars. House bars. We already got one. Amazing. Hi to whoever is reading this.
00:02:12
It's me. You asked for neighborhood bar stories. So here we go. Let's set the stage.
00:02:17
It's February 1950 in West Newton, Pennsylvania. My great grandparents, Mary and Pietro, had been married for 30 years
00:02:26
and were operating a bar called the Ideal Hotel. It's like a series on TV, doesn't it?
00:02:33
Yes, it does. Picture a two-story house close to the main road of a small town. Mary was sterilizing beer glasses when in walked a man wearing a blue jacket
00:02:42
and a dark cap pulled over for his forehead. He yelled at Mary to hand over all the money from the cash register.
00:02:48
Not one to take nonsense from literally anyone, my sassy 45 year old ancestor threw a glass full of hot water into the man's face hell yes nice one
00:02:59
sterilization hot water is hot it's hot threw into the man's face drop below the bar grabbed
00:03:05
the 38 caliber revolver that was conveniently kept there and started shooting through the bar
00:03:11
at her attacker shit yes she didn't need to pop up like fucking duck hunt or whatever she's just
00:03:17
like through the bar. Did she go to the FBI training academy? Because that's some serious.
00:03:23
That is some Clary's darling shit. Not surprisingly, he peaced out without the money he demanded.
00:03:29
According to newspaper articles written about the incident, Mary had to take a sedative to calm down
00:03:34
afterwards. But it says, wouldn't we all? Mary and Pietro had quite the life together.
00:03:39
They had an arranged marriage when she was 15 and he was 20. Wow. Pietro spent some time in prison
00:03:46
for violating the liquor law and gambling during Prohibition while also doing small jobs for the
00:03:51
mafia. Don't worry, he got out when people started to disappear. That Pennsylvania mafia life.
00:03:57
Serious, yeah. Later in life, Mary worked as a travel agent and took her grandsons with her to
00:04:02
places like the Vatican and Moulin Rouge. You know, taking care of both ends of the spectrum.
00:04:08
That's right. You go to the first one to cover the second one. I'm fortunate enough to wear her wedding ring every day, and it helps remind me to be a little
00:04:16
sassy when the situation calls for it. Then it says time for the accolades. Thank you both for
00:04:21
being a constant comfort and champion of mental health. During maternity leave with my twins,
00:04:26
I listened to you almost every day and it helped me feel less alone during bouts of crippling
00:04:30
postpartum anxiety. Oh God. Oh, those hormones. Stay sexy and don't rob a bar owned by a sassy
00:04:37
Italian question mark? Emily, she, her. Wow. I mean, how proud you must be of your family,
00:04:47
Emily, because that is just the definition of being a badass right there. Yeah. So good.
00:04:53
Neighborhood bars, man. For real. This is also a family story. It's in a slightly different
00:04:58
direction. It says my cousins were in a cult. The FBI called their dad. Three minute read.
00:05:03
All right. So dear friends. Hi, I just love you guys so much. Thank you for literally everything. Here we go.
00:05:12
It's so weird reading the accolade part, but you don't want to. I don't want to like sound like we're braggy, but I don't want to leave it out because that's like whoever like is going through fucking postpartum anxiety right now is reading.
00:05:23
They're like going to feel connected to Emily. It's so hard to balance that. It's our job to read these emails.
00:05:29
Everybody knows we're not writing these emails. Or I would hope. I hope everyone knows we're not writing these in any way.
00:05:36
Okay. Let's take it on back to the mid-80s. Picture the Robin's egg blue Thunderbird in the driveway.
00:05:42
Dad flipping burgers. My cousin and I toddling around on the front porch in our diapers.
00:05:47
My aunt is staying at her house for a couple days. My uncle and then in parentheses it says my mom brother is in the Air Force and out of the country at the time My aunt tells my mom that the distance between her and my uncle and raising three children by herself is weighing on her She feels like she needs a new start more support etc
00:06:05
After my aunt's stay is over, my mother realizes that she's left a cassette tape in my mom's car.
00:06:11
It's some young man with a southern twang preaching his views about religion and the government.
00:06:15
My mom's not very big on the evangelical type, so she tossed the tape in the trash and goes about her business.
00:06:21
Fast forward to my being seven. Very unexpectedly, my cousins and uncle are staying with us for about two weeks.
00:06:28
I haven't seen these cousins since the porch diaper days, so I'm thrilled to show them my Nintendo games and where my mom thinks she hides her stash of chocolate kisses.
00:06:37
So that is like a perfect summation of childhood to me. Yep. Now at seven, I was pretty with it kids, so I could tell that my cousins weren't like my typical friends.
00:06:48
They didn't yell like lunatics at the top of their lungs when the TV read Game Over.
00:06:53
They didn't partake in my pre-dinner candy heist. I remember being especially jarred when my uncle had to tell them it was okay to start
00:07:00
eating before they picked up their forks at dinner. And then it just says dot, dot, dot.
00:07:05
We weren't a Grace-saying family. We were animals. Nice. Fast forward again to the second time my uncle and cousins visit.
00:07:14
I'm now about 12 and drooling over the Hanson brothers and painting my velvet peace frog
00:07:20
posters. Oh my God. This is quite the email. Yeah. My mother sat me down before the visit to very
00:07:27
gently explain that my cousin who is a year older than me is still very much into Barbies and how
00:07:32
she really needs me to not be my bratty self and just play dolls with her. That she didn't get to
00:07:37
play with toys when she was younger and I just needed to do whatever my cousin wanted to do and
00:07:42
be understanding. My mom always had this way of avoiding details when it came to quote-unquote
00:07:47
adult topics, but the pleading on her face stifled any preteen tantrum she would have seen on a
00:07:53
different occasion. It wasn't until I was an adult that the whole truth was told to me. Soon after my
00:07:59
aunt's visit with my mother, she and my uncle divorced. Now my ex-aunt got remarried and moved
00:08:05
to Waco, Texas to be a part of this new church that they had discovered. That's right, my aunt,
00:08:11
her new husband, and my cousins were now living on Mount Carmel with David Koresh as their lord
00:08:16
and savior. My uncle, who had given full custody of the kids to my aunt as he was still traveling
00:08:22
the world at the time, watched helplessly as the news stations broadcast the siege for the world to
00:08:28
see. Relief came when the FBI called my uncle and told him that my cousins were released from the
00:08:35
compound with the other children who were not of David Koresh's bloodline. I'm still friends with
00:08:40
my closest in age cousin today. She and her siblings are thriving with beautiful families
00:08:45
of their own, although they still complain when Time Magazine reaches out to them every anniversary.
00:08:51
Holy shit. Right? The siege was horrendous by all accounts, wildly mishandled by the ATF,
00:08:58
incorrectly reported to Janet Reno, etc. So remember, if you're in a cult, call your goddamn
00:09:04
dad or in my cousin's case, have the FBI do it. And if your sister-in-law leaves a cassette tape
00:09:09
of David Koresh in your car. Toss that shit out. It was David Koresh all along. It was a David
00:09:15
Koresh cassette tape. Holy shit. And then it says, although I will always wonder if that would be
00:09:21
worth money today had she kept it. And then it just says Becky, she her. Oh my God, Becky.
00:09:30
Becky. That's an epic one. I can't get through the Waco documentary. It's so hard. All of those
00:09:38
things. It's just very difficult because it's kind of like the frog in the water that slowly
00:09:44
gets turned up, right? So the people that were in that room, the people that went there first,
00:09:49
people like Becky's aunt, who were just listening to cassette tapes and a guy that seemed to have
00:09:53
hot takes on how it really should be in terms of the government and Christianity,
00:10:00
just not a good combination. Like, that's how it starts. And then the next thing we know,
00:10:05
the world is on fire but they also had no idea that they would fire bomb essentially a fucking
00:10:11
place with children inside of it like right tanks rolling up i mean we all watched that it was
00:10:18
wild if you're too young to remember it watch the documentary but get a glass of wine do we
00:10:24
like what we were being told is the reason they were doing that what was the real reason
00:10:28
yeah does the do does the documentary say because like i haven't let's watch it let's watch it now okay yep okay bye
00:10:36
while the world watches the stars at the fifa world cup this summer hyundai has its eyes on
00:10:42
the next generation of talent the future soccer stars who are already turning heads at age 14
00:10:47
making plays that end up on everyone's feed scoring from angles that don't make sense
00:10:51
rewriting record books that barely had time to gather dust because next doesn't wait for an
00:10:56
invitation and hyundai doesn't either hyundai has always moved the future within reach hyundai did
00:11:01
it by making advanced safety standard on every vehicle. Hyundai did it by engineering EVs with
00:11:06
ultra fast charging capability. And Hyundai continues doing it every day. From robotics
00:11:11
that change how people live to young athletes changing the game, the future isn't some far
00:11:15
off concept. It's already here. Next starts now. Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA. Goodbye.
00:11:22
This podcast is brought to you by Squarespace. It's 2026. And if you have an alternative career
00:11:27
like food photography or professional mixtape making or witchcraft, you're going to need an
00:11:32
online presence. Whatever your thing is, Squarespace helps you build a website that's as unique as you
00:11:37
are. Squarespace provides you everything you need to offer services and get paid all in one place.
00:11:42
From consultations to events and experiences, you can showcase your offerings with a customizable
00:11:46
website designed to attract clients and grow your business. Get paid on time with professional
00:11:51
invoices and online payments Plus streamline your workflow with built appointment scheduling and email marketing tools With Squarespace collection of cutting edge design tools anyone can build a beautiful professional online presence that perfectly fits their brand or business
00:12:05
Head to squarespace.com slash murder for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use offer code MURDER to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
00:12:13
Goodbye. Summer clothes should feel easy and still look polished. Low maintenance, high reward. That's how we live our lives.
00:12:21
For summer clothes you will actually wear, there's Quince. Quince has beautiful everyday pieces like 100% European linen pants, dresses, and tops with styles starting at $32.
00:12:31
Their denim is soft and easy to wear, and their organic cotton sweaters are perfect for layering on cool summer nights.
00:12:37
Everything at Quince is priced 50% to 80% less than similar brands because they work directly with ethical factories, so you're paying for quality, not brand markup.
00:12:44
And it's not just clothing. Quince has become a destination for elevated essentials across the home, kitchen, bedding, and beyond, making it easy to bring a more premium feel into everyday life.
00:12:55
I am a fan of Quince. Yeah. Karen's wardrobe is Quince-centric. I'm a lazy basics person, and the things that I get from them, I always go, oh yeah, now I'm wearing these. They work, they're cute, they're stylish.
00:13:08
And they're classy. Like it doesn't look lazy, it looks classy. And it's so affordable.
00:13:12
Yeah. Elevate your summer wardrobe. Go to quince.com slash MFM for free shipping on your order
00:13:18
and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's quince.com slash MFM for free shipping and
00:13:25
365 day returns. Quince.com slash MFM. Goodbye. Icelandic honeymoon with a spooky twist.
00:13:34
It says Alejandra note. I added in pronunciations for the Icelandic names. wait Alejandra does that mean you did it or that person yeah I put them in I spent a lot of time
00:13:46
right Alejandra what if I hadn't even picked this one how mad would you have been
00:13:53
I wouldn't be mad at all because you know what then it's a little safer but I did a lot of research
00:13:58
wow you're so sweet I thought the author of this email was like Alejandra just so you know
00:14:04
That's what I thought too. No. No, it's just straight up all over. Thank you. I got your back.
00:14:10
Thank you. Appreciate you. Hello to Georgia Karen and the rest of the MFM crew who brought me all of my favorite podcasts.
00:14:16
Hey. And then at TYSM, thank you so much. Yeah. Deducing. YW. For our honeymoon, my husband and I embarked on a 15-day road trip around Iceland.
00:14:27
Our car actually served as our honeymoon suite too. We rented a small Jeep-like thing that came with a collapsible tent attached to its roof.
00:14:35
It says, I know, romantic, huh? It was around 11 p.m. on our fifth day when we realized we should have stopped at the campground we had passed an hour earlier.
00:14:44
Too tired to keep driving, and in the middle of absolutely nowhere, we pulled over into what we thought was a truck stop to catch some Zs.
00:14:51
That's when the wind picked up, big time. I was startled out of my sleep by the sound of a violently flapping tent and howling gusts in fucking Iceland.
00:15:00
Don't they have like gremlins and shit? Snow gremlins? I don't know. Yeah, snow gremlins.
00:15:07
There's a documentary about that too. I can't get through it. My heart was racing and I was shook.
00:15:13
I looked over at my husband, but he was out cold. He was doing all the driving, so I mustered up some self-control in order to let him sleep.
00:15:20
It was just a little wind after all, right? I managed to calm myself down and get back to bed.
00:15:25
When we woke up, my husband told me he was totally spooked the entire time we were parked
00:15:30
there. I was like, oh, cute. Join the club. As we zipped the heck out of there, we noticed there was a plaque by the other end of the
00:15:38
lot. And then it says LOL. Here's what it said. The last execution in Iceland took place here when Fredrik Sigorsson and Magnus Dardir,
00:15:51
Thank you, Alejandra. Were put to death on January 12th, 1830. They had murdered Natan Ketelson and Peter Janssen at Natan's farm in 1828.
00:16:06
Their bodies were interred without ceremony at the site of the execution where they had spent the fucking night.
00:16:12
And their heads displayed on pikes. It says this on the plaque. They were later reburied in a cemetery.
00:16:18
and then it says grand old place for a snooze, huh? I mean, it's like going to a haunted house
00:16:24
and spend the night there. An outside haunted house. Yeah. Stay sexy and don't take naps at execution sites.
00:16:30
Be from Toronto. Good advice. It also says, P.S. If this gets picked, I sincerely apologize for making you attempt
00:16:36
the pronunciation of those Icelandic names XOXO. There is a lot of, now I'm thinking of and I won't be able to remember the name,
00:16:46
But I recommended an Icelandic series on the main show one time that was kind of about, like, the creatures in Iceland coming out of the mountain.
00:16:56
And basically, it's so good. It's on Netflix. I love Iceland so much. Oh, my God.
00:17:01
It's gorgeous. It's so great. But, I mean, it is very – there's lots of old legends and lots of creatures.
00:17:07
And, like, that's the whole – Vibe. That island. Yeah. Also, they're going through it with the volcanic eruption.
00:17:15
Jesus. us. We should go there. Oh my God. I want to go there so bad. Have you seen the blue lagoon?
00:17:19
Yeah. It's like a hot, it's a hot spring. No, no, no, they have. Yes. I know. Everyone always
00:17:29
posts when they ever go to Iceland, it's like, okay, we'll post your fucking photo of you at
00:17:33
that beautiful lagoon. Put your mud on your face and put your hair in a bun and get in there. But
00:17:38
there's a hotel that's right on that lagoon. So you can actually like walk out of your room and
00:17:43
be in that hot spring. Oh my God. I want to go. That's my dream. Yeah. And of course all the tinned fish.
00:17:49
Okay. This is a hidden treasure story. It says greetings MFM fam both human and otherwise I written in a couple of times with my own stories but maybe my husband will make the cut It did High five to the husband Okay I say this in good nature because I love
00:18:07
you all so much. I know you can only take so much gashing, so I'll get down to it. Thank you.
00:18:11
Thank you. God. Appreciate it. I hate it. I was sharing a different mini episode hidden
00:18:15
treasure story with my husband. He tends to enjoy them as they remind him of his late father.
00:18:20
A little about my father-in-law. He was born in 1945 to working-class parents who were greatly impacted by the Great Depression.
00:18:28
Think canning food, stealing extra napkins from restaurants, and not trusting major banks, i.e. hiding physical money.
00:18:36
My husband's dad maintained the depression mindset well into adulthood and fatherhood.
00:18:42
He was a caring and practical man who also served in the Navy during the Vietnam War.
00:18:46
In the early 90s, my husband was an adorable eight-year-old needing a costume for a church play.
00:18:52
His incredibly resourceful mother remembered an old Navy dress cap taking up space in the basement.
00:18:58
She gave him the cap for his costume, and when the day of the play arrived, both his parents were there for the performance.
00:19:04
Upon seeing the cap being worn on stage by my little baby husband, my father-in-law completely lost it.
00:19:10
He was known for his calm demeanor, and the outburst was completely out of character.
00:19:15
My husband said it was one of the few times in his life he remembered his parents having a loud argument.
00:19:20
Whoa. So why the freak out? What's that like? Yeah. Literally, it always sounds like people are having a loud argument at our house.
00:19:30
And they're just like, basically, like, hey, what's up? What do you want for breakfast?
00:19:33
So why the freak out? My father-in-law had stashed roughly $2,700 in the inside brim of that cat.
00:19:42
and then in parentheses, it says $6,153 in today's money. Holy shit. He told my mother-in-law
00:19:51
everything except where he tended to stash actual cash. My husband is not sure how the fight was
00:19:57
resolved, but the cash hiding remained an ongoing habit. After my father-in-law was diagnosed with
00:20:03
Alzheimer's, my in-laws moved to Colorado while cleaning out the basement of my husband's childhood
00:20:08
home, they would end up finding nearly $15,000 in hidden cash. And you know what?
00:20:14
That's all they found. The fucking amount. This is where we get our goodwill. I found cash in an old fucking desk story from.
00:20:21
Exactly. Like it was some weird spot that somebody was like, no, let's be extra secretive with
00:20:27
this one. Stop it. Amazing. Along with enough napkins and sugar packets to ensure survival if society collapsed.
00:20:36
I love it. I only got to know my father-in-law for a few years before his passing.
00:20:41
Each memory I have of him is special and unique. Alzheimer's is an awful disease.
00:20:46
I wouldn't wish it on anyone. However, I am grateful for memories like these that keep him alive and with us.
00:20:52
Thank you all for the wonderful show. I've been listening since episode five. Holy shit.
00:20:58
I haven't been listening since episode five. You make me laugh. You help me learn.
00:21:04
And I appreciate all the good you do in the world. Oh, stay sexy and always check inside the cap.
00:21:11
Elaine, she, her. Elaine, that's my auntie's name. That's a good old fashioned name.
00:21:16
Yeah, that's a great name. And that was a great email. It was. I love hidden money.
00:21:21
Wow. Treasure. While the world watches the stars at the FIFA World Cup this summer, Hyundai has its eyes on the next generation of talent.
00:21:32
The future soccer stars who are already turning heads at age 14. Making plays that end up on everyone's feed, scoring from angles that don't make sense, rewriting record books that barely had time to gather dust.
00:21:42
Because Next doesn't wait for an invitation, and Hyundai doesn't either. Hyundai has always moved the future within reach.
00:21:48
Hyundai did it by making advanced safety standard on every vehicle. Hyundai did it by engineering EVs with ultra-fast charging capability.
00:21:56
And Hyundai continues doing it every day. From robotics that change how people live to young athletes changing the game, the future isn't some far-off concept.
00:22:04
It's already here. Next starts now. Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA. Goodbye.
00:22:10
When you're young, you don't really buy furniture. You either inherit something from your parents or you just drag something in from the street like you're some kind of hipster raccoon.
00:22:19
When you're ready for furniture that you actually like, check out Article. Article offers the style and durability you want at a price that actually makes sense.
00:22:27
They take great care in curating their collection, focusing on pieces that stand the test of time.
00:22:32
There's no filler. Every item is chosen for craftsmanship, design, and lasting value.
00:22:36
And with Articles' 30-day satisfaction guarantee, you can shop with confidence, knowing that if you're not completely in love with your new furniture, you can easily return it.
00:22:44
Plus, Articles' customer care team is available seven days a week, offering knowledgeable support and even free interior design services to help you get your home just right.
00:22:53
Yes, please. Don't we all kind of need that? like the eye of an expert? Yeah. Where should I put this? And also what should I move here and
00:23:00
there? And what should I even get? But Article has it all so you can get whatever there. That's
00:23:04
right. You could be like, I have this thing. Should I get this one or that one? Totally.
00:23:07
Am I Scandi or am I mid-century? Help me be boho chic, please. If you're in the market for a
00:23:11
beautiful new sofa, dining table or bed, head over to article.com. Goodbye. Summer is all about
00:23:18
saying yes, going out and bringing the mess home in your car. Sand, grass and melting snacks will
00:23:24
inevitably hitch a ride. But with WeatherTech, you can live life to the fullest. WeatherTech
00:23:29
floor liners, cargo liner, and seat protectors allow you to keep up with your summer adventures
00:23:33
without the worry. WeatherTech is built for all of those summer things, allowing you the freedom
00:23:37
to go all in. WeatherTech is an American-made premium product built to last and easy to clean.
00:23:43
If you're going all out this summer, you need WeatherTech. Visit weathertech.com today.
00:23:48
Goodbye. I'm not going to use the title of this one. Okay. But it says, short and sweet story.
00:23:56
Hi, Karen and Georgia. I've been listening since the early days, but for some reason,
00:24:00
I have never actually sat down to write this in. Now, every week when I listen to the Minnesota, I think to myself, gosh, darn it, write that
00:24:06
hometown in. So here I am. Hi. In 2015, I moved back home to Renton, Washington to live with my parents after college.
00:24:16
This coincided with my new obsession with MFM, all things true crime and reading murder
00:24:21
mysteries. My mom, a child welfare lawyer, had enough horror in her day-to-day work and could not
00:24:28
understand my new interest. fucking fair enough yes but being the supportive mom she was she tried to connect with me
00:24:34
one day in the kitchen while we're eating breakfast seemingly out of the blue she goes
00:24:38
you know and rule was my brownie troop leader when you said rent in washington i was like i feel like that's an important city for this
00:24:51
genre for some reason oh my god it is i remember just staring at her she calmly got her things
00:24:58
ready to go to work as if she hadn't just dropped an amazing true crime bomb on me. I was too
00:25:03
dumbfounded to ask any follow-up questions at the time. I know this is not much of a story,
00:25:06
but rather a neat bit of information about and rule and my mom. Who would have guessed that the
00:25:12
same woman who wrote about serial killers was also the leader of eight-year-old Girl Scouts?
00:25:18
She contained multitudes. She did it all. She did it all. She also made friends with Ted Bundy. She
00:25:24
could do anything. My mom passed away from ovarian cancer in 2021. And while we never shared a love
00:25:30
of true crime, every time Ann Rule is mentioned on your podcast, I think of her. She always tried
00:25:36
to connect with mine and my sister's interests, no matter how niche or out of her comfort zone
00:25:40
they were. She was a fiercely loyal friend, proud feminist, and my biggest supporter.
00:25:45
While she probably wouldn't be thrilled that murder makes me think of her, I am forever grateful that I get to carry this fun fact with me wherever I go.
00:25:54
Stay sexy and don't get murdered. Kayla. Kayla, your mom was the greatest. Yeah.
00:25:59
I mean, God, children's welfare lawyer. The just, the day to day. The strength it would take to do that.
00:26:09
Okay, well then you know what? I was going to do, I was going to read a different one, but now I'm going to read this one from my last email.
00:26:15
Okay. And the subject line is, and rule connection. What? Yep. And it just says, hiya, buds.
00:26:22
I've been listening since the beginning. bless you for all you accompanied me through the 2016 election alone my god when i was a teen in Sarasota Florida and then it says in parentheses beautiful to visit absolutely bonkers Republican retiree
00:26:38
shitscape to grow up in. Hi, welcome to Orange County, California. Hi. My mom was secretly developing a pain pill addiction and writing emails back and forth
00:26:51
with Ann Rule. What? My mom is an OG murderino. I remember growing up, she'd clip articles out of
00:26:57
the newspaper about local murders. And then it says the 90s version of podcasting or something
00:27:03
I should be way more worried about than I am. IDK. Then it says in 1997, a really terrible murder
00:27:09
happened in the neighborhood we had recently moved out of. 35-year-old Sheila Belich had
00:27:15
been tormented by her rich ex-husband for years, had remarried and moved from Texas to
00:27:21
Florida to escape him. Her ex, Alan, hired the cousin of his golfing bag boy. I don't know why this part seems extra dumb to me, but it just does.
00:27:30
To kill her in the house she shared with her new husband and six kids. Oh, my God.
00:27:36
With a promised extra bonus if this murder led to his regaining custody of the two kids
00:27:42
that they'd had together during their marriage. And then it just says awful. What's maybe the worst about this is that Sheila was by all accounts a very careful, caring mother who often put her quadruplets in life vests in the off chance that one of them got outside while she was dealing with any of the other five children so they wouldn't drown in the pool.
00:28:03
Holy shit. This detail may seem strange to some, but trust me, as someone who grew up in Florida and now has one child just under two, it's smart.
00:28:12
the quadruplets were found in their life vests walking in their mother's blood which is a haunting
00:28:18
detail almost always mentioned whenever anybody speaks of this murder sheila's body was also
00:28:24
eventually found by one of her older children this entire story is so trauma-filled i almost
00:28:31
didn't want to send it in but i also think the difficulty of holding these kinds of stories
00:28:35
is why murderinos talk through them together and why mfm exists oh right yeah the difficulty of
00:28:45
holding this stories in particular is probably also why my mom emailed and rule in the first
00:28:50
place she says she emailed her to tell her that she had to write a book about this story
00:28:56
fucking love that she like ann interestingly this murder is also referred to on the book jacket of the book Anne did write as the quote first true crime book written at the victim request
00:29:12
Because Sheila herself had said that, quote, if anything ever happens to me, find Anne Rule and ask her to write my story.
00:29:20
which is just like that's a woman living in constant terror and peril totally and basically
00:29:28
knowing this is the future it's horrifying then it says i'm not sure if ann researched and wrote
00:29:35
this book after hearing about it from my mom or if she was already working on it when my mom
00:29:40
reached out to her and i will likely never know because my mom was on drugs at the time so her
00:29:45
memory is wavy. The two of them did email back and forth for quite some time, though, and my mom
00:29:51
used to love to say she, quote, just got another email from my friend, Anne. When I asked her about
00:29:57
this recently, she was weirdly tight-lipped, except to say, once she called the house looking for me,
00:30:03
but I was at the office, so she hung up and called me there. She had a really high-pitched voice,
00:30:08
end quote. The office, by the way, is my dad's pediatrics office, where my mom was briefly the
00:30:13
office manager. It's crazy to imagine Ann Rule calling up a pediatrician's office a thousand
00:30:18
miles away to ask the office manager about local murder details, but I guess that's just what
00:30:24
happened. Also, I'm just realizing this now. If my mom was at the office when Ann called the house,
00:30:29
that means my sister or I answered the phone and told a complete stranger our mom wasn't home.
00:30:34
Nice. I had to really prod my mom for these Ann Rule details, and she was so weird about it that
00:30:41
I started to think maybe her interactions with Anne had been some kind of drug-fueled hallucination.
00:30:46
But when I ordered a copy of Every Breath You Take and checked the acknowledgments section,
00:30:51
there was my mom's name. No way. I think, honestly, she's just embarrassed she doesn't remember more about a friendship
00:30:59
that was probably a highlight during a really dark time for her. My mom has since recovered from her addiction.
00:31:05
It was a hard road for all of us. And for anyone out there who's dealing with addiction in their family, I feel you.
00:31:10
but I'm proud of her for getting past it and even though she might not remember much it is pretty
00:31:15
cool that she was friends with Ann Rule for a while for sure anyway sorry for the length of
00:31:21
this letter thanks for everything you guys do stay sexy and rest in peace Ann Rule smire she they
00:31:27
wow isn that fucking epic so epic holy shit she was a legend Anne Rule Yeah A double Anne Rule hometown
00:31:38
Yeah. Amazing. Write us your stories about anything that you thought of during, while you were,
00:31:44
while you were hearing these and you go, oh, I should write in about that. Write it in to my favorite murder at Gmail.
00:31:51
And thanks for listening to this podcast. Hey. Hey. And stay sexy. And don't get murdered.
00:31:59
Goodbye. Elvis, do you want a cookie? This has been an Exactly Right production.
00:32:12
Our senior producer is Alejandra Keck. Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo. This episode was mixed by Liana Squalachi.
00:32:20
Email your hometowns to myfavoritemurder at gmail.com. And follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at My Favorite Murder
00:32:25
and on Twitter at MyFaveMurder. Goodbye. If audiobooks are your thing, or if you've been meaning to listen to more of them,
00:32:37
you should check out a podcast called Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club,
00:32:42
hosted by Cal Penn. Each episode spotlights standout audiobooks on Audible across all kinds of genres,
00:32:47
sci-fi, comedy, romance, thrillers, and more, with Cal talking to guests who help break down
00:32:52
what makes each story worth listening to. It's a fun, easy way to discover your next great audiobook.
00:32:57
Check out Earsay on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:33:02
Goodbye. Vacation planning should feel like a breeze, not a deep dive into countless travel sites searching for the best deal.
00:33:09
With Cheap Caribbean's Budget Beach Finder, you can search every destination and every date all in one search.
00:33:15
You'll save time and money with the Budget Beach Finder. Say goodbye to endless scrolling and tab hopping and hello to Budget Beach Bliss at your fingertips.
00:33:22
Go to CheapCaribbean.com to try out the budget beach finder and see just how stress-free vacation planning should be.
00:33:29
Goodbye. This may surprise you, but clothes that feel good and look good don't have to be mutually exclusive.
00:33:35
Designs that make you feel as good as you look is what Hill House is known for. Hill House Home invented the viral nap dress.
00:33:41
Hill House makes fun, versatile fashion that elevates your look. I now own three nap dresses.
00:33:46
I love them. They're so comfy and cute. Pockets for days. Pockets for days. You know.
00:33:51
Get 15% off your first order of $100 or more at hillhousehome.com with code MFM15.
00:33:58
That's MFM15 for 15% off at hillhousehome.com. Goodbye.