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This is a story of greed, betrayal, and a fight for justice. Listen to Dr. Death the Cowboy wherever you get your podcasts
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Find your summer escape today. Visit Pura.com to learn more. Goodbye. my favorite murder
00:01:35
hello and welcome to my favorite murder that's georgia hardstar that's karen kilgara
00:01:49
and the winds they are a howlin tonight that's right ladies and gentlemen they are blowing loudly
00:01:56
it I was too scared to drive over to Karen's because we're in California I'm not used to
00:02:02
any kind of weather as we especially not a tornado fucking tornado came through a hurricane
00:02:08
slash hurricane slash monsoon we're not we can't we're not meteorologists we can't tell you what
00:02:13
exactly it is what we know is it's insane maybe we should get more wind audio should I open the
00:02:20
window I have a question yes is this earthquake weather you know what's funny I thought the
00:02:26
exact same thing because here's why there's a very strange marine layer in the valley yeah it
00:02:32
then began to look like a sandstorm yeah then everything turned kind of orange for a while
00:02:38
and i was like oh that's not good no no that's something weird what about the first my favorite
00:02:43
murder earthquake that happened while we were recording i you know what what we've gone through
00:02:49
fire we've gone through rain we've gone through every james taylor song you could ever deal with
00:02:55
we can handle this shit we can well i talked i've always like we're you know are we late for
00:03:00
the big one and i actually spoke to an earthquake scientist recently who was like we're always
00:03:05
overdue for the big one yes just like that and the big one the caldera in yellowstone is supposed
00:03:12
to blow oh is it there's lots of you know and also remember that those people the geologists
00:03:19
and the people that study that stuff, they look at everything on like the longest timeline.
00:03:25
So they're like, we're overdue, but they mean like in the next thousand years. Right.
00:03:30
That's what I like to remind myself is everything is by a thousand to them. Totally.
00:03:34
They don't deal with time the way we do. That's true. It's all a mystery. This universe, mysterious.
00:03:40
You never know. Don't ever know. You have to send that text. You also always have to be holding on to something.
00:03:46
That's because you never know. And you always have to screw stuff to the wall. Yes.
00:03:51
Yeah. Yeah. Put your plants on little sticky things. And I mean, seriously, right now, just outside my window, it sounds like a spooky Halloween
00:04:01
record. Oh, it's spooky Halloween again. It's spooky Halloween. And it's happening outside our door.
00:04:10
Yeah, that's true. Let's this should be a weather podcast. I disagree with those who say this is bad content.
00:04:17
They're always saying, don't do it, guys. The death of your podcast is talking about weather.
00:04:23
And we say to them, go to hell. You don't know our meteorologist's soul. That's right.
00:04:30
Can I, speaking of mysterious, creepy, weird things, have you been following this, like,
00:04:36
case of this family who died mysteriously? Yep. Altogether. What the fuck? In Yosemite.
00:04:45
In the mountains. Right? So this like family of this like lovely couple and they're like one year old baby and their fucking family dog were found dead in the Devil's Gulch area of the Merced River in the Sierra National Forest.
00:05:03
Like all together. Right. And I'm telling you this, even though you said, you know, maybe other people don't know.
00:05:09
Oh, OK. Because your tone was also writing the line perfectly of asking or telling. I couldn't tell.
00:05:15
You know what it was? So I was just waiting to see. It was reading. I was reading it.
00:05:20
Should recognize that by now. Ouch. No, that wasn't supposed to be a slam. I know.
00:05:28
So they have not ruled out toxic algal blooms. Algae blooms? But it's like, it's not algae.
00:05:34
It's like algal. But all these other like toxicology reports and like all these like, hold on.
00:05:40
It could be extreme heat. They all just like collapsed together. And died So like but I don know if they like were in the water or drink the water ruled out chemical hazards and any other kind of death Like it so mysterious to me Sorry And they did rule out the I thought they did rule out the like micro toxins and algae thing I think that I read a thing about that There one as
00:06:07
as of this article from the SF gate from September 30th, they didn't rule out from a week ago. They
00:06:15
didn't rule out that this one kind of algae thing. Right. Yeah. So I think the other thing I was
00:06:21
reading was like, because they're in mining country, that there's the possibility that some
00:06:25
mine had a gas, some kind of a gas type of thing. But, and I have to say that this is, it's scary,
00:06:33
right? Because of course, the first things you think of are all extreme or, you know,
00:06:39
was it intentional or whatever, but then it also, it's equally scary to think about the different
00:06:43
ways nature can cause. Oh yeah. So many ways. Yeah. It's fascinating. I don't feel like this
00:06:50
family would have all drank the water in the river. Like that's not your first thing is like,
00:06:55
unless it was like, it was like 109 degrees maybe. And they ran out of water, which was the parents,
00:07:00
the dog and the baby had to drink the water. Right. Which seems weird. Or if they had one
00:07:05
of those things that they thought was like a water filtration system, but they didn't put the
00:07:10
charcoal in or they didn't, it didn't work somehow. It didn't work against this one thing.
00:07:15
Yeah. Right. Where they're thinking this is what we usually do. And somehow it doesn't happen.
00:07:20
Whenever I hear about that, I'm like this kid who was swimming in this lake, this fucking
00:07:24
parasite went right up his nose and the brain eating parasite or when you use a neti pot
00:07:29
and they're like, don't use tap water. It'll just go right in your brain. That shit scares the hell out of me.
00:07:36
That stuff, black mold, all that shit scares the fucking life out of me. Well, take a deep breath because it's all around us.
00:07:44
and and also that's the kind of thing where i think that's why people begin to believe in like
00:07:50
fate and destiny and stuff like that because it counteracts that overwhelming fear of life is a
00:07:57
random series of events that you may or may not die from yeah and that's just kind of like the
00:08:02
bottom terror that everybody is either completely running away from and like blocking out or somehow
00:08:09
trying to face or somehow incorporate so that they live their lives better. Right. And more
00:08:16
aware. So hence therapy and medication for me. Yeah. I just pictured right as I was finishing
00:08:23
that sentence that I just half a tree would just come bolting through this window. He really slowed
00:08:29
down at the end of that. What would mine be? Oh, no. Jump in on this. There's no, you're like,
00:08:38
You're telling everyone to let go and let God. A fucking whole tree comes right through your goddamn window.
00:08:43
Life is a series of tragedies. It just is. It just is. Okay. Deal with it. Okay.
00:08:49
We all have to face it. Okay. Sorry, I'm yelling. No, you're not. Speaking of fucking, what about Squid Games?
00:08:57
Speaking of tragedy, finish the shit out of it. We could talk about it now. Of course, isn't it amazing?
00:09:02
Oh my God. Yeah. Did you do dubbing or did you do subtitling? subtitles. We were like debating it. I know you did dubbing. I thought we thought let's just try
00:09:12
subtitles first and see if we can handle it. I really like stuff with subtitles for some reason.
00:09:16
It like it like relaxes me and I'm paying attention instead of like drifting off and
00:09:21
thinking about trees coming through my window. I can actually pay attention to something.
00:09:26
Oh, that wasn't my original idea. You've been thinking about that all day. I mean,
00:09:28
the second the wind kicked up. Yeah, I think of different variations of trees coming through
00:09:33
windows at all times. Yeah. Well, agree. And then, so my first impression because of the pink and the
00:09:41
green and it looked like a video game or whatever, I was like, Oh, I don't think that'll interest me
00:09:44
because I don't play video games. And I heard people are like on social media talking about
00:09:50
how violent it is. I don't think this is for me. But then of course, as it always happens,
00:09:55
a friend of mine whose opinion I really respect was like, you have to start it right now. I will
00:10:00
wait for you whatever and the writing is so good the story is so great is amazing we're talking
00:10:08
about the korean tv show on netflix everyone called squid games they know because it's the
00:10:14
number one in like the world it's huge it's so violent but i never got like out of control
00:10:20
freaked out by it vince didn't know anything about it when we started it so that first game
00:10:26
that they play yeah it was like like just thinking it was just some drama or whatever and then it was
00:10:31
like our video game type of thing and then he was when i should i can i spoil everyone knows what
00:10:36
the premise is i don't know if everyone i mean it feels like everyone's yeah watching it right if
00:10:42
it's number one right globally the game the games that they have to get through you die if you lose
00:10:48
so the first time someone gets shot he was like oh wait a second this is not what i thought it was
00:10:54
Yes. Fun to watch him do that over like Junior Mints or whatever. He was just like
00:11:00
frozen Junior Mints. We already have Halloween candy in the house. It's as shocking as it is. And people want to talk about the violence. But if you if that's
00:11:11
some reason why you would stop, then just like go through the violent parts or whatever. But
00:11:16
watch the actual story because the story it's telling is really good and and so worthwhile.
00:11:22
Can we talk about how 101 is pretty hot? His name is... Which one is that? The hot...
00:11:29
The snake guy? The hot, scary snake guy? Yes, the guy with the tattoo on his face that's just like, ha ha ha, I'm gonna take your place.
00:11:40
Hot, scary snake neck tattoo guy. Snake neck. And then I looked him up on Instagram and it's like, oh shit, like you're actually a really hot person.
00:11:52
Where is he? Okay, his name is Hyo Sung Tae And he like a big actor in South Korea of course But he like fucking model sexy in real life It a little ridiculous
00:12:05
It's a great look. And I think that's... A neck tattoo is a great look? A neck tattoo
00:12:11
is a great look. Being super bossy in the middle of basically a group Russian roulette. That's hot.
00:12:17
You're like, oh, I'm an alpha. This horrifying situation we're all in. I'm going to make you scared of me
00:12:23
even though you might die in the next game i'm the one the game i'm going to kill you that's
00:12:29
awesome thank you sir you step up you fill that gap we're all distracted we hate you we can unite
00:12:36
against you yeah however it's great pretty fucking hot also what about the guy we were calling it
00:12:42
a slap envelope because we couldn't figure out what to call the initial game slap envelope yeah
00:12:46
but the guy that does slap envelope is an actor who is also in an amazing zombie movie called last
00:12:53
it's called train to busan oh and if you haven't watched it you have to because it's truly great
00:12:58
a truly great scary insane action movie and that actor slap envelope is in that and he is
00:13:06
the most beautiful man where you're just like this is kind of insane yeah it is yeah
00:13:11
uh they're doing it i love global entertainment that's what i've always been about you know that
00:13:17
i do know that did you watch any of made i watched the first episode okay so the show made
00:13:22
maid on netflix how beautiful is it the first episode was good margaret quayley who's the main
00:13:30
actress in the show may that i fucking cried the entire time it was incredible her mom is andy
00:13:38
mcdowell and her mom plays her sad mom you know what i'm saying you know yes uh it was so incredible
00:13:45
it was like just this beautiful story that was so tragic and sad and hopeful and all the things
00:13:50
how many episodes are there i think 10 oh i got through it in like 24 hours i liked it so much
00:13:57
it was really good but the not to spoiler alert so ignore this if you don't i'm just gonna refer
00:14:04
to a thing but it's a type of show where someone has mounting problems yes then i'm sitting on the
00:14:11
couch now i have mounting problems like i cannot separate my nervous system from like now we have
00:14:16
to do something about this. And so when she was doing things that I was like, that's not gonna,
00:14:21
yeah, stressing me so bad. So I really loved how they did that because it hooked you. Yeah,
00:14:28
just right in this like gut punch feeling with her. Yeah, it's about a young woman who leaves
00:14:33
an abusive relationship with her three year old daughter and has to make it through the fucked up
00:14:37
system to try to make a life for herself and her daughter. And it's yeah, the whole way through.
00:14:42
it's like that where it's just like roadblock after roadblock of like her trying to make her
00:14:47
way it's a true story too so the whole time you're like and and yeah it definitely hits really hard
00:14:54
especially if you ever have been in a position you know where you don't have money yeah being
00:15:00
broke and not knowing how you're going to get through the next month yeah but it's so beautifully
00:15:06
done and of course at the end you know she triumphs so what it's a memoir you can't have
00:15:12
a memoir that's like a bummer at the end she's like i'm writing this to you from jail
00:15:17
well i was gonna say so i watched the first episode then got super stressed out and then
00:15:25
was like it's okay i paid my bills last month um and then i was like i need to watch a comedy which
00:15:30
i find myself doing all the time now which which is the exact opposite of when quarantine began
00:15:36
And I could not could not stay with a comedy. It all had to be like, OK, post apocalyptic end of the world, like crazy shit.
00:15:44
Like be where I am now, please. Yes, please. So I switch off made, which I really did like.
00:15:50
And I get it. It's not you have to be in a certain mindset and place in your life where you can watch it.
00:15:55
It's hard. Yeah. Well, and also because something I had to do something, whatever it was, so I couldn't binge it.
00:16:02
It was like, oh, I'm only going to get this one in. Yeah. But I would have if I could have just powered through. Yes. So what I switched to just to change that feeling in my stomach, I found the show that that's come up almost every time I've gone on Netflix. And then I just looked at it and go, oh, it's just it's a comedy. I probably won't like it because it's called Working Moms. This is a Canadian show.
00:16:25
I've talked about this before. Catherine Reitman. Yes. And it is. I can't believe how funny it is, but it's really like it's in your face from the second it starts.
00:16:38
I love it. Because I was like, oh, it's mom stuff. So I won't. Right. I won't relate or whatever.
00:16:43
And it's so well written. And the people in it are so compelling and real. Yeah.
00:16:51
I love it so much. So funny. I watched the first season. I think now there's a second season out, right?
00:16:56
Which is why it's like, oh, there's I think four seasons. Oh, shit. Okay. I fucking loved it when it first came out.
00:17:02
I haven't seen it recently. I'll watch it. I'm so sorry. I didn't remember you saying it because it was like literally two years ago.
00:17:08
I stumbled on it and was just like, wait a second. This is fucking genius. And there's a scene, one of the, so they all meet in a, like a mommy and me group.
00:17:17
Yeah. So it's all these women that have like one year old children. And one of the women has really terrible postpartum and she just spends the rest of the episode kind of like trying to kill herself here and there.
00:17:30
Yeah. Is she the like super perfect blonde one that pees her pants at the movie theater one time?
00:17:35
No, she has curly hair. I mean, I don't remember that part, but it's the lady with the big curly hair.
00:17:41
There was one scene where she has her face in the pool that I was laughing out loud so hard in my home.
00:17:48
And I was like, this never happens. Yeah. Oh, it's not a good feeling. Yes. So there's now there's a bunch of seasons to watch and it's,
00:17:54
it really good Like it really good Okay Quick um exactly right Catch up just so you of all the latest and greatest news This is some breaking news So this week on bananas the bananas boys had Mary Roach on
00:18:07
So that's that's a nice crossover for the murderinos. If you haven't tried bananas, you can go listen to one of your favorite authors talking on their latest episode.
00:18:18
But they also here's some pressing information. They have a mini tour that they're about to go out on to.
00:18:23
So if you want to see the Banana Boys doing a live podcast, follow them on Instagram at the Bananas Podcast and you can get their tour dates, locations and info about an upcoming live streaming event.
00:18:37
And then Wicked Words, Kate Winkler Dawson interviews the author Dean King about Notorious Family Feud, the Hatfields and the McCoys.
00:18:46
So check that out. And then also make sure pretty pleased to follow Exactly Right on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for updates on all our awesome podcasts. We are excited that the very first episode of our new Exactly Right family podcast, Waiting for Impact, hosted by Dave Holmes, is up. It's live. Please go rate, review, subscribe, and of course, listen to it wherever you listen to podcasts.
00:19:12
and if you want to listen to it on citra premium and listen to all 10 at one time
00:19:17
um you can do that if you belong to citra premium and you can use the code impact to get it free for a month so you can try it out and you can get all your
00:19:27
shows ad free and bingeable and special content and all that stuff check that out check it out
00:19:33
come on guys okay wait oh yeah uh it's our it's our brand new segment random wikipedia article
00:19:41
so here's I thought of this as I was printing up so I hit my first article I hit random on
00:19:47
Wikipedia which maybe some people don't know we all use Wikipedia every day ladies and gentlemen
00:19:53
have you ever given them five dollars for the use and all the information it provides you you should
00:19:57
go give them some money support them so that we always have that community information service
00:20:03
that a bunch of eighth graders work on all the time we appreciate it so one of the buttons you
00:20:08
can push on the website is random article and it literally will bring up a random article and teach
00:20:13
you something brand new. So to make it truly random. So you don't think that I print, I picked
00:20:19
this or went through and hit random article until I found a good one. I printed up five random
00:20:24
articles. Oh, so now you're going to pick Georgia a number between one and five. Don't blow it.
00:20:30
You have to pick a number between one and five and I will choose the article of, of the proper
00:20:36
number. Okay, I'm sweating right now because I'm so nervous. Number, I'm going to pick two.
00:20:41
You're going to pick article number two. Yeah. Good choice. Here's showing it to you on the
00:20:47
Zoom. It's article number two. Okay, there's definitely a two on it. She's not bluffing.
00:20:51
And it's a nice short one. There was one that was five pages long. No, we don't want that.
00:20:54
If you would pick number one. Okay. Okay, this article, today's random Wikipedia article,
00:20:59
is about a person named Alberto Jimenez Marino, born September 25th, 1959. He is a Mexican
00:21:09
politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party. As of 2014, he served as
00:21:15
deputy of the LIX legislature. Perhaps that means like 63 or something. Sure. No. The legislature of
00:21:24
the Mexican Congress representing Puebla. That's the entire article. Wow. That's him, Alberto Jimenez Merino.
00:21:32
We learned something new. What's the most interesting, the one that you found the most interesting?
00:21:36
Like you were like the most like, whoa, this is a cool one. Was there any? There was one about the,
00:21:41
I think it was the 42nd or the 45th district in Michigan. And it was all the people who were like
00:21:48
district representatives or something. I don't know. That was the most interesting one.
00:21:53
Well, I mean, it wasn't the pick wasn't great because here's the thing. Most information is pretty standard.
00:21:59
It's just like, here's your. Yeah. Where is it? Where's the is it on the left? Yeah.
00:22:05
I don't know. I see it. It's down like there's a couple of blue lines that are like this, that blah, blah, blah.
00:22:10
Oh, it's like the third or fourth one. Oh, random article. Random article. Got it.
00:22:14
Hit one. OK. Stanley Switlik, a parachute pioneer born in 1890 in Galika, now part of Poland.
00:22:23
He immigrated to the United States at the age of 16. And he so he was a parachute pioneer.
00:22:30
So like he developed workable parachutes at the turn of the century? I guess so.
00:22:37
Something about Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey. controversy how he sold the property
00:22:45
to them but it was haunted with parachuters I saw this one on Scooby too his legacy is that there's a
00:22:55
elementary school named after him in Florida called Parachute Valley Elementary and the kids parachute
00:23:03
into class every day I have to say in grammar school this is such I was in Montessori
00:23:09
first through third combo class And we had a like a green parachute that like 50 kids, if you all put it up at the same time and you put it behind you and then you're inside the parachute.
00:23:20
Yes. That was some exciting stuff. That's a classic. That's a classic Montessori thing.
00:23:26
70s. Yes. 80s. Kind of. We'll make our own fun. You know, everybody. I keep hitting it.
00:23:34
Natural peanut butter. Isn't that fascinating? No, I think what it turns out is that it's kind of boring.
00:23:39
Yeah. you're boring why did I say that I don't know because you had to because it was right there
00:23:51
I'm so sorry that I interrupted you for random Wikipedia article corner but it had potential to be magical
00:23:57
I like the idea of it oops Oh, oops. I muted myself. It was like the wind took her.
00:24:10
You do. Okay. What if next week you pick some? Okay. Okay. I mean, we'll see. I might cheat, but yeah. Okay.
00:24:18
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00:27:32
Goodbye. So, as you know, Karen, today, October 11th is Indigenous Peoples Day. So I thought it'd be great to cover a couple of cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women that don't haven't gotten a lot of media coverage.
00:27:51
Great. So the sources I use today are a Guardian article written by Hallie Golden, which I used heavily.
00:28:00
An independent two spirit media video. An article for The Lily by Cecilia Noel. A CBC article written by Marnie Luke and Connie Walker.
00:28:11
a Fox 13 article written by Laura Steinbricher and a Navajo Times article written by Arlissa
00:28:18
Bacenti and a Sikangu cdc.org article. And also Murder Squad covered Amber Takaro's case back in
00:28:27
May of 2020. So check that out if you're interested. Okay, so there's been a lot of talk lately about
00:28:32
how missing and murdered indigenous women don't get the same amount of media attention as those
00:28:36
of white women. And this isn't based on opinion or conjecture. In 2018, a study found that 90%
00:28:44
of cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women were never covered by national or international
00:28:49
media. And a third of the stories that were covered included language that engages in racism,
00:28:55
misogyny, and stereotyping. So according to the Urban Indian Health Institute, in 2016,
00:29:01
the National Crime Information Center said that there were 5,712 reports of missing Indian and
00:29:09
Alaskan Native women and girls, but only 116 were logged in the Department of Justice's federal
00:29:16
missing persons database. Out of almost 7,000? Almost 6,000. There were only 116 logged.
00:29:24
Wow. Indigenous women are murdered at a rate 10 times higher than the national average,
00:29:28
according to the U.S. Department of Justice. And homicide is one of the leading causes of death for
00:29:33
young indigenous women. And for white, young white women, it's like number five and higher.
00:29:38
So number one for indigenous women, one in three native women report having been raped and 86% of
00:29:45
the offenses are committed by non-native men. And so and I think I read about how a lot of it has to
00:29:51
do with the fact that like they in these areas where there a lot of like mining towns fishing towns and places where there a large population of like transient men that come in and that you know adds to it All right So the first case I want to talk about
00:30:06
is that of missing 17 year old Kiana Jacqueline Klomp from the Yakutat Tlingit tribe. I'm going
00:30:14
to do my best. And I looked up all the pronunciations, but it's inevitable that I'm
00:30:18
going to screw something up. So apologies. Will you say her full name again? Yes, it's K-I-A-N-A
00:30:23
Jacqueline Klopp. So Kiana's mother, Terry Duchesne, told The Guardian that her daughter
00:30:30
has been missing for a year and a half, and there hasn't been a single article about her disappearance.
00:30:36
And she's not exaggerating. As of this recording, there are no articles about Kiana. There's only
00:30:41
missing person alerts that give Kiana's description and a brief summary of when she was last seen.
00:30:46
So through those alerts and an interview with Terry, I was able to find that on March 22nd,
00:30:52
2020. Kiana's father dropped her off at work. She worked at a Papa John's and she and her dad had
00:30:58
gotten into an argument. He leaves and so Kiana decides to run away from home. At first she stays
00:31:05
with friends in Post Falls, Idaho or in nearby Spokane, Washington. And then she starts staying
00:31:10
with a man who her mom, Terry, describes as being a sexual predator. Kiana disappears after staying
00:31:16
with this man and she hasn't been seen or heard from since. When Terry finds out that her daughter
00:31:21
has been reported missing, she leaves her home in Alaska and heads to Post Falls. She speaks to the
00:31:26
police who tell her they've done everything they can and that you can't find someone who doesn't
00:31:31
want to be found. Not getting the help she needs from police, Terry reaches out to the media,
00:31:35
but they don't respond and she feels, quote, left out and unimportant. Because Kiana's case
00:31:41
receives no many attention, Terry spends months putting up flyers and posting on social media.
00:31:47
And this is something that you see talked about and happen a lot in cases like Kiana's,
00:31:51
war, when law enforcement isn't interested in pursuing any case, the family and friends and
00:31:57
tribe essentially become like private detectives themselves. And it's totally and completely up to
00:32:02
them to keep the story of their missing loved one alive. Otherwise, it would just fade into
00:32:09
obscurity. No one would ever talk about it. And they call the detectives every day and every week.
00:32:15
And if they didn't do that, there was just they would never be any follow up, any information
00:32:20
given to them. So they have to become private detectives, essentially on their own. So more
00:32:25
than a year and a half later, Kiana still hasn't been found. And Terry is still desperate to find
00:32:29
her daughter. Kiana loves skateboarding and shopping. And Terry wants Kiana's story to be
00:32:35
shared. While the media often fails Indigenous women and girls, the police do as well. In the
00:32:41
United States, Indigenous women and girls are 10 times more likely to be murdered than the national
00:32:47
average. In Canada, they're 12 times more likely. Yet there are countless instances of police
00:32:53
officers not responding to an Indigenous woman's disappearance or murder in the same way they would
00:32:58
a white woman's. 20-year-old Amber Alyssa Takaro from the Mikasue-Cree First Nation is one of those
00:33:06
women. On the 18th of August 2010, Amber and her 14-month-old son Jacob and a female friend
00:33:15
leave for Fort McMurray, Alberta, and head to Nixu, a hamlet outside of Edmonton. And they're
00:33:22
going to visit Edmonton over the next few days and see friends. But they're staying in Nisku
00:33:26
because it's way cheaper. So after settling in the motel, Amber decides to head into Edmonton
00:33:32
on her own. She leaves her son with her friend and says she's going to hitchhike into the city.
00:33:38
And she's known to have gotten into a vehicle between 730 and 8 with an unknown male.
00:33:43
but Amber never comes back her friend notifies Amber's mom Vivian who reports her missing
00:33:48
to the Luddock RCMP and the police ask Vivian if Amber has ever gone missing before
00:33:54
Vivian says no and the police just say maybe she's out partying and she'll call or whatever
00:34:01
like blow it off completely Vivian's adamant that her daughter would never just run off and leave
00:34:07
her son but police completely downplay Amber's disappearance they don't take it seriously and
00:34:12
And less than three weeks later, on September 4th, a media relations officer with the Luddock RCMP tells a local newspaper, quote, we don't have any reason to believe Amber is in any danger.
00:34:23
We know she's in the Edmonton area. So the next week, police take Amber off the missing persons list, even though no one has seen her.
00:34:32
So they actually don't know what they just said. Police then destroy all of Amber's personal property that had been left behind at the motel.
00:34:40
even though no one had fucking seen her. When Vivian asks why they took her off the list,
00:34:47
even though no one's seen her, they don't have an answer. And Vivian spends the next month
00:34:52
getting Amber back on the list. So almost two years later, Amber's case is being handled by
00:34:58
RCMP's care unit, which investigates unsolved homicides and cases of vulnerable missing persons.
00:35:05
Then on October 28th and 2012, that care unit releases a recording of Amber's last phone conversation because it turns out while she was in the car with whoever picked her up hitchhiking, her brother called her from prison, which means that the call was recorded.
00:35:25
so the conversation lasted 17 minutes the police released 61 seconds of it to see if anyone
00:35:33
recognizes the man's voice it's an unknown male and in the short recording you can hear amber
00:35:39
defensively questioning where the man is taking her she's like she can tell he's not taking her
00:35:44
to edmonton even though he said he was going to and it's on speaker she's like you know yo what
00:35:50
like she goes yo we not going to the city are we like where are you fucking taking me i can tell This is not where we going He like no no we are We going to 50th Avenue like trying to convince her they are And she repeats the information he giving her to her brother But you can tell in her voice there fear in her voice There confusion And there
00:36:09
kind of like this knowledge that something is not fucking right with this dude. The last part of the
00:36:13
call is unintelligible, but you can hear the man say something, something gravel. And then you hear
00:36:18
scuffling noises before the call abruptly ends. Fucking eerie. So after releasing the audio,
00:36:24
Police say that they believe the man actually drove southeast along the rural roads of Ludic County instead of north into Edmonton.
00:36:32
And multiple women from the area contact police and say that they recognize the man's voice and they all give the name, the same name of the man.
00:36:41
Police look into this dude, but rule him out as a suspect, which to all the women who heard the voice and recognized it is totally surprising.
00:36:48
So I don't know on what context they ruled him out. Then on September 1st, four days after the recording is released, Amber's remains are found on a rural property near Luddock County.
00:36:59
And the 17 minute recorded conversation is almost the exact time someone would need to drive from the motel where Amber was staying to where her body was found.
00:37:08
So it's just almost certain that whoever she was with and whose ever voice is on that fucking recording murdered her.
00:37:16
The Luddock RCMP admit that they mishandled Amber's disappearance. Amber's mother, Vivian, files a complaint against them.
00:37:22
She says downplaying Amber's disappearance and taking her off the missing persons list hindered the homicide investigation.
00:37:29
In 2015, the Luddock police tell the CBC that their policies and procedures have changed as a result of the Amber Takara investigation.
00:37:38
However, the person who killed Amber has still not been found or arrested. Even if the police properly investigated missing and murdered Indigenous women, they would still be hampered by lack of funding.
00:37:48
According to the Navajo police chief, the recent case of missing 62 year old Navajo woman Ella May Begay is a prime example of how budget issues can affect a case.
00:37:59
on June 15th, 2021. So this past June, Ella's truck is seen in the middle of the night driving
00:38:05
down the Arizona dirt road she lives off of. Later that day, Ella's family realizes Ella and her
00:38:13
truck still aren't home. And it's completely unlike Ella, who's a caregiver, a beloved elder
00:38:18
and matriarch of the Diné Navajo tribe, and a talented master rug weaver. It's unlike her to
00:38:26
leave in the middle of the night. And especially during COVID, which she took very seriously,
00:38:30
she rarely leaves the house during the day even. So in the middle of the night for the 62 year old
00:38:35
woman to just take off is weird. She's reported missing. And by 4.35 p.m., a missing persons alert
00:38:43
is released by police. The next day, Navajo police start looking for Ella. They start around her
00:38:49
house, which the Navajo Times describes as one of the most remote areas on the reservation.
00:38:55
It's far from the maid road with no markings for where to turn. And people often get lost just trying to find her house.
00:39:02
And so from there, the search expands, leading to other states even. On June 20th, Ella's disappearance is listed as a homicide and her case is transferred to the FBI.
00:39:13
But her family wasn't notified of this change. They had to find out about it on social media.
00:39:18
Oh, my God. And of course, her family is upset with the Navajo Police Department for not providing updates and not bringing in enough help.
00:39:24
and allege they don't have the proper training to find Ella, and her family starts conducting their own searches and following leads.
00:39:32
As of this recording, Ella and her truck are still missing. However, a 21-year-old man has been named a person of interest,
00:39:38
and he's been arrested on unrelated charges in the meantime, and it's not clear.
00:39:44
You know, you can't find any information as to how he's connected to Ella. So Ella's family is unhappy with the Navajo police, of course,
00:39:52
But Chief Philip Francisco says his department did all they could before the case was transferred to the FBI.
00:39:58
He says many people are quick to say outside departments should help the Navajo police investigate, but all departments are understaffed and underfunded.
00:40:06
He says there's also a major lack of support from the Navajo Nation Council. For example, when it came time for funding, he asked about buying a helicopter to help with missing persons cases.
00:40:17
It was verified that the department needed a helicopter and that they met the funding guidelines.
00:40:23
But when $714 million worth of funding was released, the Navajo police only received money for hazard pay, which Francisco had already been paying with other funds.
00:40:34
He says the council did give him money for personal protective equipment, but that was after he'd already figured out a different way to pay for them.
00:40:42
So there's just a lot of juggling going on. Hmm. Along with budget issues, there are ongoing struggles that continue the pattern of structural violence against Indigenous people.
00:40:53
This includes lack of emergency services, Amber Alerts, counseling and family services.
00:40:58
There's also a lack of overall community awareness and education. And to make matters worse, there's poor communication between federal, state, county, city authorities and tribal authorities.
00:41:09
There is some positive news in order to help alleviate some of these struggles. In October 2020, what's known as Savannah's Act became public law.
00:41:20
It's also known as the hashtag MMIW Act, and it, quote, aims to improve tribal access to federal crime information databases and create standardized protocols for responding to cases of missing and murdered Native American women.
00:41:33
The act was nicknamed after 22-year-old Fargo, North Dakota resident Savannah LeFontaine Greywind, who was a member of the Spirit Lake Sioux Tribe, who was murdered in August 2017.
00:41:46
The Act will clarify responsibilities between agencies responding to cases of missing or murdered Indigenous people increase coordination and communication between agencies and give tribal governments resources and information that necessary to respond to cases of missing or murdered indigenous people And we increase the collection of data
00:42:06
related to missing or murdered indigenous people. There's also a big issue about how
00:42:10
indigenous women are entered into the system because a lot of times they're mislabeled as
00:42:15
Hispanic or white. So these numbers aren't able to correctly be processed. So of course,
00:42:22
this is a huge problem. There's, you know, it's very slow moving any kind of solution.
00:42:29
But there is hope that Savannah's Law and the MMU can help speed them up. And there are many
00:42:36
ways people can help missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. You can attend
00:42:39
vigils, sign petitions, reach out to lawmakers, join social media campaigns like the We Care
00:42:47
M-M-I-W-G. You can educate yourself through organizations like the National Indigenous
00:42:52
Women's Resource Center that's from the U.S. and the Native Women's Association of Canada.
00:42:57
Both offer extensive education materials as well as options to donate. And there's also
00:43:03
a documentary called Sisters Rising about this issue. The documentary is by Willow O'Farrell
00:43:09
and Brad Heck. And that is just a couple of the many, many cases of missing and murdered
00:43:16
indigenous women that are not getting enough press and media coverage. Great job. Thank you.
00:43:22
I mean, we've known we were since basically since we've started this podcast, this is one of the
00:43:28
things that our listeners have talked about. And that is a major concern, especially when we tour
00:43:33
up in Canada. It's a thing that people who follow true crime are very aware of. Yes. But it is,
00:43:40
you know, I think more and more people are starting to talk about it more in the mainstream,
00:43:44
even if it's just the story of how these numbers are, the discrepancy is so high and it's so,
00:43:51
it's so imbalanced and that that has to change. Yeah. Like the white woman syndrome is real and true and needs to be, you know,
00:44:01
the only case is getting extensive coverage of the media, which, you know, they need it too,
00:44:06
of course, but it's these blonde, pretty white women. And those are the ones who get
00:44:10
these crazy media blitzes. And meanwhile, not a single word is said about, you know,
00:44:16
all these cases that happen all the fucking time. So, yeah. So to do our little part to help,
00:44:23
Karen and I are donating $10,000 to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women USA organization,
00:44:30
whose number one mission is to bring the missing home and help the families of the murdered cope
00:44:35
and support them through the process of grief. So you can check them out on MMIWUSA.org.
00:44:42
And if you by chance have any money, which we know lots of people are strapped these days
00:44:47
and it's really hard, but even if you give like five, $10, just something to kind of acknowledge
00:44:54
that you realize what a huge problem this is, you know, that has to change. Like people just have to start putting their energy
00:45:01
toward figuring out how to change it. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Great job. Thank you. What a great way to commemorate Indigenous Peoples Day.
00:45:12
Thank you. It's really important. Yeah. Well, I feel like it's like the very literal least I can do.
00:45:19
So, yeah, but I think sometimes if that's the mindset you have toward it, it's also easy to
00:45:24
just go and doing nothing doesn't matter. Right. So I think this is like one of those topics
00:45:30
that's a tipping point where it's like it really has to change yeah and i think you know it's great
00:45:37
to talk about it and it's not the least you could do it's like you put together a series of really
00:45:42
good stories and a bunch of information that a lot of people won't would not have known and
00:45:48
wouldn't be aware of and i think it doesn't have to everything doesn't have to feel like this how
00:45:53
it feels on social media where it's people shaking their finger and saying you're wrong or you didn't
00:45:58
No, it's like, no, it's about spreading awareness and spreading action. If there's any action that you could possibly take.
00:46:06
Yeah. And becoming educated on it and not denying it when someone, someone brings it up to.
00:46:12
Yeah. Not getting defensive or like to me, we all observed in the Gabby Petito case, what intense
00:46:18
attention and like, and not just like local, it was just like immediately every major network.
00:46:23
And we, we can see that now there's no denying it. there's a certain kind of woman that, that will garner that attention every time we all know it
00:46:32
and we've seen it. And I thought it was so incredibly generous when her father spoke after
00:46:40
she, her remains were found. And, and he basically said that, that there are other people that should
00:46:47
be getting this kind of attention and they don't like what in that time, what an incredibly noble
00:46:53
and beautiful thing to say and acknowledge because it's not saying it doesn't take anything away.
00:46:59
People clearly cared about her going missing and we can care there. We have the capacity
00:47:04
to care for many more people. Yeah. Let's spread this around instead of focusing on a one person.
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Okay, let's do it. I didn't tie this to anything except for wonderment, weirdness, mystery, and, you know, spooky Halloween, like weird type of shit.
00:50:46
I'm on board for all of those things. Okay, then I'm going to tell you the fascinating and mysterious case of Larry Bader.
00:50:53
Okay. All right. I'm not going to read the names of these articles, but I'll just tell you.
00:50:57
And I'll read them at the end. Okay. So there is a Life Magazine article by a journalist named Chris Wells.
00:51:04
There is a Mental Floss article by a journalist named Jake Rawson. There's an article in the newspaper, The Dispatch, by journalist David Smothers.
00:51:14
And of course, Wikipedia is wonderful. Lawrence Joseph Bader Wikipedia page. OK, so I'll read those article names after.
00:51:23
But let me tell you, this starts on the morning of May 15th, 1957. So 30 year old Lawrence Joseph Bader, everyone calls him Larry.
00:51:34
He's a kitchen cookware salesman in Akron, Ohio, and he's leaving to go on a business trip.
00:51:39
He has to go meet with someone about some bad checks that he's received. So he's going to go see a man about a bad check.
00:51:47
So he tells his wife, Mary Lou, that after he gets his business taken care of, that he might stop off for a quick fishing trip on Lake Erie on his way home.
00:51:58
Larry loves fishing. He also loves archery. And so any chance he has, he will take to do either one.
00:52:05
Sure. Right. And Mary Lou, who's at home taking care of their three children while she's five months pregnant, suggests that maybe Larry just come right home after the business trip.
00:52:16
And he responds, maybe I will and maybe I won't. Sounds like a catch. Right. That's the kind of man you want, the life partner you want with you through the tough times.
00:52:28
OK, so he takes his suitcase and his fishing gear, packs his car and leaves for the drive from Akron to Cleveland around noon.
00:52:38
So on his way up north, he cashes a check for four hundred dollars and strangely pays some bills.
00:52:45
I guess back then you had to do it in person. Right. So he's just like, I'm going to be near the gas company or whatever.
00:52:52
The milk store. So I'm going to drop off three quarters at the milk store for the milkman, you know, the milkman.
00:53:00
The milkman. Our next door neighbors used to get their milk delivered in the 80s.
00:53:05
Well, you know, when I moved into this house that was built in 1940, there was a milk door to the outside.
00:53:11
Remember? Oh, yeah. Very cool. Milk used to, guys, teens, milk used to be a big deal.
00:53:19
Everyone drank it. People loved it. The big milk, you know, they convinced us that smoke cigarettes and drink milk and you'll live to be 100.
00:53:27
Just take a quick puff down some milk. Yep. You'll be fine. Martini lunch. Everyone's happy.
00:53:33
And then a glass of milk when you get back to the office. OK, so so Larry's paying his bills and, you know, taking care of business.
00:53:41
And one of those bills is an installment on his life insurance policy. OK. Will this come up again?
00:53:47
I wonder. Probably not. No, don't. You've got to believe. Okay, so once he arrives in Cleveland, he handles his business.
00:53:54
Then he heads over to a place called your favorite place Eddie Boathouse Sure Which is a boat rental facility that on the banks of the Rocky River right where it feeds into Lake Erie Gorgeous
00:54:05
Gorgeous. This time of year. You love that spot. Yeah. So I looked up on Cleveland.com what the weather was on May 15th, 1957.
00:54:15
Damn researcher. I mean, it's fun. I don't know. I just love to put things into the Google bar and see what comes up.
00:54:22
Listen, here at My Favorite Murder, one thing we can promise you is that this is a weather
00:54:25
podcast and we will always... We will report that weather, whether it's today or in 57 in Akron.
00:54:33
That's right. In the future, in the past, we'll tell you the weather. We don't care.
00:54:37
We want to talk about it. That's right. The wind has died down a bit. Just listener.
00:54:42
Good to know. Okay. So on Cleveland.com, it said that May 15th, 1957, the high was 79 and the low was 43.
00:54:50
How does that happen in one day? I think it's because that's how they do spring.
00:54:54
Oh. It's still snowing in April. Okay. And then they're just coming out of it and things are getting cracking at the beginning
00:55:00
of May. Okay. So probably by the water, it's a little colder than. Well, this is, it's Cleveland.
00:55:08
So it's not the weather at Eddie's Boathouse. I'm sorry. It's just. Well, I want Eddie's Boathouse's weather.
00:55:14
What did it say on that little thermometer with the flowers that they have on the wall?
00:55:17
I looked up Eddie's diary. uh okay so okay so basically on this day the mid-afternoon skies are cloudy
00:55:27
and so the guy that owns eddie's boathouse his name is lawrence cotler and he warns larry
00:55:34
this is lawrence warning larry larry that is a storm's coming larry a storm's a brewing
00:55:40
larry it's me lance you have to listen now listen up now a storm's a brewing so lake erie's
00:55:49
is apparently a shallow lake that can be tough to navigate. And so a storm would make the waters incredibly dangerous.
00:55:57
Then it's all chopped up and crazy out there. Larry doesn't care. So he plans on being back before it's dark.
00:56:04
And he tells Lawrence that he's confident he can handle the water until he gets back.
00:56:10
Lawrence cannot convince him otherwise. So he rents Larry a 14-foot motor fishing boat that also has two oars.
00:56:17
and then before he leaves larry asks for a set of lights to be put on the boat and lawrence is
00:56:24
confused because larry said he was going to come back before dark um which is four hours away but
00:56:32
larry insists upon getting the lights so lawrence is like whatever bro you're a pain in my ass get
00:56:37
the fuck out of here he sets him up it's like i warned you as many times as i could due diligence
00:56:42
done fuck off done he wiped it lawrence wiped his hands he fixed his ascot and he went back to
00:56:49
the counter to help the next person so a while later it's close to sunset and the winds begin
00:56:55
to kick up as lawrence foretold as was foretold as we're told farmers almanac yeah so then a member
00:57:05
of the coast guard sees larry out on the water and he calls out to him offering some help to get
00:57:12
him to navigate back to shore but larry dismisses him and continues on larry let me give you a hand
00:57:18
no go fuck yourself that's larry to the coast guard what a day yeah how about thank you for
00:57:25
your service every once in a while larry that's right larry okay so the next morning may 16th
00:57:32
larry's rental boat is found uh in lakewood ohio's perkins beach on lakewood ohio's perkins beach
00:57:39
this is five miles down the shore from eddie's boathouse and um there's minor damage to the boat
00:57:46
it has a scratched hull it has a bent motor propeller it's missing an oar but other than
00:57:50
that there's no sign that the boat capsized the life jackets are still on board as is larry's
00:57:56
fishing gear but the gas can's empty and the suitcase is gone and larry is nowhere to be found
00:58:02
larry so as soon as this empty boat is discovered of course his wife mary lou is notified and they
00:58:09
They start to search for Larry, the Coast Guard. They circle Lake Erie and the surrounding shores for two months.
00:58:16
Whoa. Straight. Yeah. Two months hoping to find him either alive or dead. He never turns up.
00:58:25
Authorities don't hold out much hope. They know that those choppy waters make it virtually impossible to survive for a few hours, let alone days or months without a life jacket being in the water.
00:58:37
So the two months search turns up no leads. In 1960, Mary Lou Bader's petition to have Larry legally declared dead is made official.
00:58:47
OK, so now it's eight years later. OK, February. Second, well, not from from from when this happened, not from when Mary Lou's thing became official.
00:59:00
I just did the math from when this happened. So eight years later from when Larry disappears.
00:59:05
It's February 2nd, 1965. And an old Bader family acquaintance is at a sporting goods convention in Chicago, Illinois.
00:59:15
And he sees something he cannot believe. Yeah. A man who looks just like his old friend, Larry, except for this man has a mustache and an eye patch.
00:59:27
But under. But aside from that, he's like, that's fucking Larry. that's the like that's your fucking what's it called disguise yeah do you remember that little
00:59:38
puppet thing that you could this is so 70s that you might be too young for it but it was a little
00:59:45
guy that you could put disguises on his head so it's like he was bald oh mr potato head
00:59:50
No. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember Mr. Potato Head. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah Yeah All potatoes are bald Karen No this guy was a little evil looking guy It was almost like he was a villain You could make him all different kinds of villains
01:00:07
So there was like a monocle you could stick in front of one of his eyes and a mustache.
01:00:11
I love it. Goatee. You could snap hair like Beatles hair onto his head. You should meet him for Halloween.
01:00:17
That's a great idea. Isn't it? Okay. Did you find it? No. Hold on. Steven, did you find it?
01:00:22
Is it Hugo? Yes. Yeah. show georgia that picture oh he's scary oh my god that is the most terrifying doll i've ever
01:00:32
seen in my life look at those disguises wow it looks like he's from star trek and yes and he's going to kill you and your entire family because he has a blue tunic right
01:00:45
yes he's a blue tunic oh my god okay that is the most terrifying fucking doll i've ever seen in my
01:00:53
life. It's not hilarious. It's like, give this to your nephew. Yeah. Have nightmares for the rest
01:01:00
of your life. Okay. So let's not lose sight of the fact that this friend of the family looks
01:01:07
across the room and a guy who was declared dead five years before is, he thinks is standing across
01:01:15
the sporting goods, uh, whatever you call it, conference convention. Yeah. Hugo. That is
01:01:22
a nightmare that is a nightmare this what a perfect example of what the 70s were like for
01:01:31
children totally hugo is that in a nutshell yeah we'll post the picture for everybody
01:01:36
so the acquaintance is looking across he sees a ghost he's hugo uh-huh it's hugo mostly the main
01:01:44
reason that this guy is positive it's larry bader is because he's standing in an archery booth
01:01:50
at this sporting goods convention. Very incognito, Larry. Very incognito, but everyone knew he loved fishing and he loved archery.
01:01:57
So it's just like, oh yeah, you're standing right there, the place you love. So this old acquaintance runs and calls Larry's niece, 21-year-old Suzanne Pika or Pika.
01:02:07
He swears up and down that he's seen Larry at this convention, and he tells Suzanne to come to Chicago right away to see it for herself,
01:02:14
which I live for. I live for you. Ring, ring. Yeah. Pick up the phone. I think I can.
01:02:22
I think I'm seeing your dead uncle at this thing. Drive to Chicago right now. Isn't that the most exciting drop?
01:02:30
Everything like come and do a stake out with me at a sporting goods convention. I'll follow him now.
01:02:36
Just get your ass here. Yeah. And it's the and it's the mid 60s. So there's no cell phones.
01:02:42
This is all payphone shit that they're doing. How about for your next birthday? you have to wait by the home phone
01:02:48
I call you and set up a fucking get you do a stakeout maybe I could do a treasure hunt for you
01:02:55
all planned out I don't want to do any of that kiddie bullshit where it's fake I need you to find a relative
01:03:01
that I think is dead this is the key literally it's me calling you and just being like
01:03:07
you know your uncle your grandma your grandma's 110 now she loves archery And she's right here watching her do it.
01:03:18
And I'm like, and I get there and you're like, I was lying. And she's like, honey, I have an eye patch.
01:03:25
It's not, it's not me. Okay. So she does it. She drops everything. Oh, I just wrote, I wrote drop everything and drive to Chicago so we can spy on a one-eyed
01:03:37
ghost archer. Did I tell you I got an archery kit during COVID? Did you really? I think so.
01:03:44
You must've told me. Okay. I mean did you use it not yet talk about it that's why I think I got it but I'm not positive
01:03:51
because there's a lot of weird shit in the garage that I like bought late night on Amazon it was
01:03:55
just like I'm gonna get into this now and I one of them is I got a punching bag I got I think I
01:04:00
got an archery kit all sorts of things been weird stuff from camp um I I did archery at camp every
01:04:09
year they were big into archery at the camp I went to camp St. Andrews yeah and it was super fun
01:04:14
and I was kind of good at it. I liked it. I got it a little bit. It's fun. Okay. I'll set,
01:04:20
I'll set it up for next time you're over here. Be careful. I, they're probably, um, like nerf
01:04:26
archery. I'm going to get, you have to figure out how many ambient you were on. What level of ambient was it? Okay. So Suzanne's stunned to get the call. And of course,
01:04:40
as I wrote probably stoked and feels alive for the first time in years so she does it she makes
01:04:45
the trip she they track down this yes the one the mustachioed patch eye man she is convinced
01:04:52
it's her uncle Larry Bader sure of it she walks right up to him and says pardon me but aren't you
01:04:58
my uncle Larry who disappeared eight years ago and the man laughs says his name is not Larry and
01:05:04
that he isn't anyone's uncle now and my comment on this is i absolutely agree with his approach
01:05:13
if someone walks up to you and it's like oh i'm sorry aren't you georgia hardstar no i'm not
01:05:18
sorry even with you must be mistaken okay nope never never admit it real time you don't know
01:05:23
what those people want they could be serving you with a summons they could be like you owe me 50
01:05:29
dollars get away you deny deny deny put pull down your ipad to a secure location figure out what
01:05:36
these people want i feel like you and i would be really easy to serve with the summons because all
01:05:39
you have to do is send over like a tattooed librarian girl with a cat and like are you
01:05:45
karen are you georgia yeah you think it's a murder you know and they're like you've been served
01:05:50
or you if you came over with like three balloons i be like oh my god yes those are for me Balloons It that easy to trick Karen My favorite A dead uncle or balloons Balloons either way I know what living good is all about
01:06:07
Clearly. Stakeouts and balloons. Okay, so this man introduces himself to Suzanne and he says that his name is Fritz Johnson
01:06:18
and that he's a sports director at a local TV station in Omaha, Nebraska. so Suzanne isn't buying it so she runs she calls her dad and her uncle who are Larry's brothers
01:06:31
they fly out to Chicago to confront this man as well damn in mid-60s yeah they have to like
01:06:39
call up Pan Am on a rotary phone you have to get dressed up like you can't just get so dressed up
01:06:46
yeah oh my mom used to get so mad she would see me in a sweatsuit oh yeah for the airport she'd be
01:06:53
like you're not wearing that on the plane like yeah on southwest yes i am yeah mom mom they don't
01:07:00
give a fuck no one cares about anything this is how the fucking the fucking flight attendants are
01:07:06
they have jean shorts on like what do you want put your girdle away ma'am it's over okay uh okay
01:07:15
So the brothers go. And so basically the family confronts him. Sorry, I wrote so much extra bullshit.
01:07:24
Are they like holding him hostage right now while the family gets on a plane and shit?
01:07:29
I think it sounds to me like they're milling about the sports conference because he's at
01:07:33
he is the demonstrator at the archery. OK. All right. That's why he's at the sporting goods thing.
01:07:39
So they're just kind of like, I think, staring from afar, running to the old payphone, which
01:07:44
is actually a whole booth but inside a building right yeah a bank of pay phones yeah people are
01:07:50
flying but they're but they're also it's from ohio so i don't think it's the craziest distance right
01:07:55
yeah ohio to chicago what's that nine hours um it'd be more than nine okay so okay fritz keeps
01:08:03
his cool no matter how many times suzanne or larry bader's brothers confront him with the fact that
01:08:10
they know for a fact it's him, Larry Bader, this man argues, no, I am Fritz Johnson. After a long
01:08:17
back and forth, Larry's brothers ask Fritz to go with them to the police station to get him
01:08:22
fingerprinted because Larry Bader was in the Navy. So they know that they'll be able to access
01:08:28
Larry's old prints and compare them to Fritz's fingerprints from now. Okay. Fritz agrees.
01:08:35
they all go down to the local precinct and the next day it takes a full day the next day
01:08:41
Fritz gets a call from the police station the results are in and it turns out the fingerprints are a
01:08:47
match Fritz Larry Johnson Bader one guy dude why would he go yeah I'll meet you guys there
01:08:55
screeches off why would he go yes put that on your whiteboard it's there because that's a question
01:09:03
to consider and remember. Okay. So let's talk about Larry Bader just a little bit.
01:09:08
He was born and raised in Akron, Ohio. Run-of-the-mill boy. He loved the outdoors.
01:09:13
He wants to be a dentist like his father when he's growing up, but then he gets into school.
01:09:18
He can't get good grades or doesn't get good grades. Wait, he's a real boy? Larry Bader?
01:09:23
Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were talking about Prince. Sorry, take that out.
01:09:26
Go on. He's a real boy. I thought you were telling me Prince's. Yes, I'm about to tell you this story of Pinocchio.
01:09:33
okay leave that in because that was classic no this is we're talking about larry bader the guy
01:09:41
that went on the fishing trip got it while he did some business on the way i'm here now i'm here now
01:09:45
with you so we're just giving a little background on that guy to kind of like fill in the blank
01:09:50
so he wants to be a dentist can't get the grades so instead he drops out of high school he joins
01:09:57
the Navy when he's 17 years old in 1944, serves 18 months. When he gets out, he gets his GED. He
01:10:04
enrolls in Akron University in 46, and he gets a job at a hamburger stand on campus so he can make
01:10:11
ends meet while he's going to college. But again, his grades are bad, so he ends up flunking out in
01:10:16
one semester. Larry, I've been there, Larry. We've lived it, Larry. Yeah. He keeps working at the
01:10:22
hamburger stand though and uh while working there he meets a student named mary lou knapp
01:10:26
they start dating and they get married on april 19th 1952 so larry and mary lou have three kids
01:10:34
um mary lawrence jr and stephen and the family settles into a nice neighborhood uh in akron
01:10:42
called west hills on a hamburger flipper salary that's how you could do it back then kids for real
01:10:49
I mean, we were all living off the fat of the land. Yeah. When your boomer grandparents tell you to fucking pull up your bootstraps, kick them with those
01:10:56
boots. Don't kick your grandparents. Please don't kick your grandparents. That's crazy.
01:11:01
Also, do you have boomer grandparents? I guess they do. Yeah. Yeah. This was quite a time.
01:11:06
But that was actually his problem. They moved into this nice neighborhood, but he didn't have the money to actually live
01:11:14
there. So now he needs it. He has to get a new job. so he starts working as a cookware salesman for the Reynolds Metal Corporation.
01:11:22
I believe the people who brought you Reynolds Wrap, but I'm not sure. Well, that would make sense.
01:11:28
It's a guess. One of Larry's friends describes him as red-blooded, beer-drinking, all-around nice guy who could
01:11:34
talk your ear off and you'd love to sit and listen to him. Oh, your dad. Right? For real.
01:11:39
But this friend makes a point to say that although Larry, of course, likes fun, but he isn't wild.
01:11:46
He's definitely a family man. Okay. So even with Larry's slight pay increase, he's falling behind on bills. Their mortgage is $17,000.
01:11:55
Seems like a lot back then. Yeah, huge amount back then. fourth kid on the way. And then, of course, he's got this huge life insurance plan that so he can't
01:12:07
like he makes $10,000 a year, so he can't cover expenses. And that makes it all the more suspicious
01:12:13
that he would use what little money that he has to raise that life insurance plan to $40,000
01:12:20
a year. There are for the $40,000 payout, right? With a double indemnity clause in case of
01:12:27
accidental death. Oh, honey. Shortly before. And he does that shortly before he leaves for that
01:12:31
business. Yeah. Right. Okay. So now let's talk about Fritz Johnson. Fritz Johnson, on the other
01:12:39
hand, is the life of the party. So this guy shows up on May 18th, 1957 at the Round Table Bar in
01:12:47
Omaha, Nebraska. And just so you know what we're talking about, that's 740 miles west of Rocky
01:12:55
River, which is where Larry was last seen. Wow. Okay. But he shows up there three days after Larry's disappearance.
01:13:02
Okay. And Fritz Johnson is wearing a sport coat and a jacket, which is similar to the outfit Larry
01:13:09
had on the last day, the last time he was seen. Well, I feel like every man back then, that's what they, that was, you slept in that.
01:13:15
Very true. Those are your pajamas. Was he wearing a fedora and a blazer and a tie?
01:13:20
Oh yes, that guy. And Penny Loafers? Definitely. I saw 1,000 of him on the street.
01:13:25
Okay, so, but he also was carrying a suitcase and a Navy bag and a bartender's guide.
01:13:31
And he had come to the Roundtable Bar looking for a job. He introduced himself to the owner, Mike Chiodo, as Fritz Johnson.
01:13:40
He flashes his Navy ID to confirm it and explains that he was recently discharged from the Navy after a 14-year stint because of a back injury.
01:13:48
And that stint included tours in World War II and in the Korean War. So Fritz explains that he took time to travel after getting out of the Navy, but now he's staying down at the Farnham Hotel near the bus station and he needs a job.
01:14:05
He has prior experience bartending at clubs while he was in the Navy, and he believes he'll be a good fit at the Roundtable Bar.
01:14:12
So he gets the job and he quickly makes friends with the locals. When he's asked about his odd name, Fritz explains he was an orphan in Boston and he was one of 22 boys at an orphanage.
01:14:25
They were all named John Johnson, which is Fritz's actual legal name, but they all were called different nicknames.
01:14:33
So depending on who you ask, the nickname Fritz was either given to him at the orphanage because he reminded everyone of a character from the 20s comic strip Cats and Jammer Kids.
01:14:46
There's a character named Fritz. Others were told that he got that name from his fellow naval officers because of his short haircut that made him look like a German soldier.
01:14:57
but either way fritz is so committed to being called fritz that he lists himself as fritz on
01:15:03
all of his bills and he signs his checks fritz okay just fritz like share stick with it oh sure
01:15:10
and he also has a strange habit of dating his checks by season instead of the actual date
01:15:16
that's doesn't seem legal no it does and also it's like i remember when i very first came to
01:15:24
LA and got a checking account, I got Simpsons checks. I just thought that was cool. And then
01:15:32
after using them for a couple months and feeling like just a humongous dork every single time I
01:15:40
was seen with my Simpsons checks, I realized, and that's what Fritz needed to realize,
01:15:46
writing a check is the last place where you need to be expressing your personality.
01:15:50
The person at the gas company doesn't give a shit that I like the Simpsons. It doesn't matter.
01:15:57
OK, so so when Fritz isn't bartending, he moonlights at the local radio station, KBON, where he learns about recording equipment and he practices broadcasting.
01:16:08
And within two years, he's hired as a disc jockey on KBON. And then he earns local celebrity status.
01:16:19
So everyone knows who Fritz is because he's he's a DJ at the local radio station.
01:16:24
He sounds completely opposite of that guy, Larry, who was kind of a fuddy duddy.
01:16:29
Yes. Who worked for a rental drop. Right. Right. Exactly. That guy's just like struggling to make ends meet.
01:16:35
And Fritz is like, I'm I'm out and about and like man about grabbing life by the tail.
01:16:41
Yeah. So we'll listen to this. It's even it gets better. his popularity grows even more after he sits in a box perched on top of a 50-foot flagpole
01:16:53
for 15 days to raise awareness for the station's polio charity drive. Oh. The front of this box reads Fritz on KBON on the pole for polio.
01:17:05
Oh, I was going to call him stupid until I realized it was for a good cause. It's for a great cause.
01:17:11
And then they invented the vaccine for polio. And everyone's like, great, a vaccine.
01:17:18
That's great. That prevents disease. We're going to we're going to volunteer, Stephen, to do this same thing for COVID vaccine.
01:17:27
So get up there. OK, so his friends swing by the pole. They hoist up martinis and milk bottles for him.
01:17:34
And when he finally comes down. Wait, there's a martinis and milk. Were you kidding?
01:17:41
No, that's literally what happened. We were just talking about martinis and milk.
01:17:44
I know. It sounds to me like they used milk bottles, but they poured martinis in.
01:17:49
There was no milk involved. Gross. Unless they didn't rinse them. Ew. Remember on Laverne Shirley when Laverne would make a Pepsi and milk No that disgusting It so good The show is so funny Oh God
01:18:05
Okay. So basically, his friends make sure that he's feeling no pain while he sits up in a box,
01:18:10
raising awareness for polio. And then when he finally comes down, he's whisked away in a convertible full of beautiful
01:18:16
women for a celebratory parade. That sounds great. So Fritz, he's living large. Then he transitions from radio to TV. So he takes a job as the sports director for the local TV station, KETV. Fritz, much like Larry Bader, has a deep love for archery. He competes and wins several regional championships in and around Omaha.
01:18:40
and he's hired by a Nebraska archery supply company to attend the sporting convention in
01:18:45
Chicago to demonstrate and promote their equipment. So that's how he ended up at that
01:18:51
convention. You think he'd be lying a little low, right? Well, you'd think, but I bet there's more
01:18:58
to the story. I'm going to go ahead and go out on a limb and get, Oh, hello, mister. There's this
01:19:03
photo. That's him being a TV guy. Oh, he's old timey handsome. Yeah. Pencil thin
01:19:14
mustache. Oh, pencil thin mustache. Okay, so Fritz settles into his popularity and his bachelor
01:19:20
status lifestyle. He has an apartment that he furnishes with nothing but pillows and cushions.
01:19:26
Oh, tacky. Swing and 60s, baby. Use your suit Larry over here. he's like uh would you like to lay down anywhere in this front room take a seat anywhere you'd like
01:19:37
he's nasty pillow he he uses the apartment for wild champagne parties okay um and he also buys
01:19:47
himself an old hearse from an undertaker in kansas for 150 bucks which he outfits here this is even
01:19:54
with pillows, a bar, an incense burner, and dubs it his hunting vehicle. Ew! Ew, you nasty.
01:20:06
Fritz. Do you remember his pencil-thin mustache? I hate it now. He also sports, often sports a leather beret.
01:20:16
Me too. Fucking Fritz. Fritz. God damn it. Calm down with your eye patch, Fritz.
01:20:23
he's going he fritz is going for it yeah that's that's one thing you can say about fritz you know
01:20:30
there are people that like they go to leave the house and then they go and they grab a jaunty
01:20:34
leather beret and they're like this is it tonight's the night this is who i am this is what i do
01:20:39
deal with it this i want people to see me yeah i want them to know who i am i've got my milk jug
01:20:45
full of fucking martini and i'm ready to party i'm gonna jump in that hearse i'm a hunt dog will
01:20:52
huh? Ew. Yuck. Everyone is so charmed. Sounds real fucking charming. It was easier back then to charm
01:21:02
people. Charm was very, first of all, charm was only about men. Yeah. And it was just,
01:21:08
it was also called lechery. Lechery, yeah. And remember, he's so charming. When he
01:21:16
writes a check, it says fall of 1962. Oh, that Fritz. So quirky. Oh my God. He's so different and unique.
01:21:25
I want to take off that leather beret and see what's underneath it. Fritz. Okay. So he's basically, uh, he's known as a ladies man.
01:21:35
You know, I told you about the cushions. Sorry. I lost my place. And now I'm, I'm just kind of free, free styling.
01:21:41
I'm free styling until I find it again. But it's more than his flamboyance that charms his friends in Oklahoma.
01:21:47
in Omaha. Where are we? Jesus Christ. But it's more than his flamboyance that charms his friends in Omaha.
01:21:54
It's his persistent, fun-loving spirit and his willingness to always listen to a friend in need.
01:22:00
One of these people later told Life Magazine, the only times I ever saw him depressed
01:22:04
were when his friends were in a jam. There's also a certain rebellious spirit to Fritz's independence.
01:22:11
He once told his friends, quote, all my life, I've had people tell me what to do
01:22:16
in the Navy, in the orphanage. Well, now I'm going to do what I like to do. That's right.
01:22:23
You heard me. I'm Fritz Johnson, and I'm going to do what I want to do now. Bag and rabbit.
01:22:29
I'm going to audition for Auntie Mame. Okay, so Fritz was declaring. He was declaring his freedoms.
01:22:39
So his beloved bachelor life comes to an end in 1961 when he he he's going to do a thing that you will not see coming he marries a 21 year old model named
01:22:50
nancy zimmer man nancy talk about unique talk about a different type of man what a rare bird
01:22:58
so nancy has this is actually very nice she has a four-year-old daughter from a previous relationship
01:23:04
fritz adopts that baby and later fritz and nancy have a child of their own a baby boy
01:23:11
so they have they settle down to a nice little family okay so in 1964 um fritz goes to the doctor
01:23:19
and he gets some bad news he has a malignant tumor that's developed but behind one of his eyes
01:23:26
he has to have the tumor removed which saves his life but he loses the eye oh it's not just a
01:23:33
disguise okay no it's it's not just a hugo situation he actually needs the eye patch okay
01:23:38
I'll let him have it. I'll let him have it. Yeah, he gets to he's earned it. But even still, he's quoted as saying that he's having a ball
01:23:46
and he's never been happier in his whole life. Right. So when those fingerprints come back and the news hits
01:23:53
that Fritz and Larry are the same guy everyone world is rocked especially Fritz Larry So by his account he got more than 30 years of memories as John Fritz Johnson And he has absolutely no recollection whatsoever of being
01:24:10
Larry Bader. He later says, quote, it was like a shock. Up until that moment, I had no doubt that
01:24:17
I was not Larry Bader. But when I heard that it was like a door had slammed and somebody had hit
01:24:23
me right in the face. So he's sticking with the story that he had no fucking clue. Yep.
01:24:29
That he's lying. Well, I had no idea I was lying. Right. It's not a good. Here's the thing
01:24:36
that I always am on the lookout for. Like that phrase, I had no idea I was not Larry Bader
01:24:43
is a double negative. Yeah. That that actually doesn't make you seem very honest
01:24:49
when you say it. Just say what you mean directly. is my advice to Fritz. You can't hear me.
01:24:58
Okay. We can, though. It's worse news for the widow, Mary Lou Bader, who has thought this whole time,
01:25:06
she's gone through the grieving process. She learned how to function as a single mother
01:25:10
with four kids. Then she believed she was a widow. She'd begun dating other men,
01:25:18
and she had just accepted a marriage proposal from her very serious boyfriend. But because Mary Lou is a devout Catholic,
01:25:26
she can't divorce Larry. Fuck that. And so she has to go back to her marriage that she thought was long over.
01:25:37
I'm going to vote now on that. I'm going to go ahead. Does my vote count right now?
01:25:41
I think, I mean, spiritually it does for sure. I'm going to say, Mary, go live your best life.
01:25:47
Mary, your husband's a dud. And it's also just not fair because she must have had her doubts that he that is intentional or that, you know, that quote of maybe I'll come back and maybe I won't.
01:26:02
Maybe she actually thought he did take his own life. You know, maybe she thought that.
01:26:07
But I can't imagine back then thinking like he he's skedaddled. You know what I mean?
01:26:12
I mean, what did she think? what a horrible reality to then live in and just be like well i bet she didn't have that much time
01:26:20
to consider it because she had to fucking raise four children alone yeah yeah it's intense okay
01:26:25
so she believes she has to break things off with her new fiance and honor her existing marriage
01:26:34
she ends up telling life magazine i just wish it wasn't true we'd become adjusted we'd adapted to
01:26:40
and accepted his death, it was just, well, wrong that this had to happen. You're right.
01:26:46
You're right. So meanwhile, Nancy, the young model, she vows to stick by Fritz regardless of the fact
01:26:54
that their marriage is now null and void and regardless of the fact that his name is not
01:26:59
Fritz. So these sticky familial matters aren't Larry slash Fritz's only problem.
01:27:05
There's a matter of the social security payments that Mary Lou's been receiving since Larry's
01:27:09
death which has been $254 a month as well as the $39,500 she's received from his life insurance
01:27:17
policy almost all but $500 of it which all of that has to get paid back yeah now that he's alive
01:27:25
that's on him not on him it should be on top of that you remember old Lawrence Kotler from
01:27:32
Eddie's boat ram. Well, he's the one that rented the motorboat back in 57 and he hears that Larry's actually
01:27:40
alive and he sues him for the cost of damages to his boat. Amen. Get yours. He just runs right up.
01:27:47
That's going to be $302. Say it so. Okay. Okay, Lawrence. Okay, so Fritz has managed to make a
01:27:54
decent living for himself in Omaha, but Larry was deeply in debt. And now the IRS
01:28:00
start sifting through the financial mess that Larry has landed himself in. And they make another interesting discovery that Larry Bader didn't pay taxes from 1951 to 1957.
01:28:12
So on top of all that other shit of being underwater with his mortgage and everything,
01:28:17
this is my story. He didn't pay taxes for six years. So he had accrued tax fees and liabilities and probably a lien.
01:28:27
So he was in serious debt that like that kind that's really hard to get back out of unless you have a windfall.
01:28:34
Yeah. Horrifying. Yeah. OK, so he basically was doing it to save money at the time.
01:28:41
He was like not paying taxes, thinking he could pay off all his other stuff and then catch back up.
01:28:46
Don't work like that. No, no, no. So now it's all coming back to bite him in the ass and he has to head back to Omaha and lawyer up.
01:28:54
So the first thing Larry's lawyer does is send him to the hospital for psychological testing because it's possible that he was in a boat wreck and that, you know, if there was one that he wrecked the boat during his fishing trip and he could have severe amnesia.
01:29:10
It's also possible that whatever tumor that had been growing behind his eye could have affected his memory long before that tumor was big enough to be detected by doctors.
01:29:21
Okay. which does remind me of an episode of law and order svu very disturbing very similar plot and
01:29:28
it's a real consideration yeah so if either of these possibilities are true larry can't be
01:29:33
criminally charged for anything but if it turns out he faked his own death to start a new life
01:29:39
somewhere else with a clean yeah um financial slate then he would be on the hook not only for
01:29:45
fraud, but for bigamy. So what I think that's really fascinating because why would you fake
01:29:52
your own death in this boat accident and then go immediately do stuff that that much in the public eye Totally It could be anything because this was a way back then which is a thing we can imagine
01:30:05
anymore. You could actually escape and start over. This was pre everything. We're talking about 50s and 60s where people did it.
01:30:15
Yeah. They could do it and they did it a ton. So that's definitely on the table.
01:30:19
And it makes the most sense because of that financial shit. and but then at the same time there's it just doesn't make sense because you would do that and
01:30:29
you would just go and like hide and live a peaceful life quiet quiet little life but the idea that he
01:30:34
was just like the big bachelor in town on tv mr pizzazz yeah mr pizzazz on the radio it's like
01:30:40
i don't know it doesn't make a ton of sense okay so a team of doctors examine him for 10 days and
01:30:47
they run through a whole gamut of physical and mental tests. And at the end of it all,
01:30:52
their findings are inconclusive. They think there's a real possibility that Larry has no
01:30:57
recollection of his former life at all. Although at the same time, they can't prove anything enough
01:31:04
to prove that he isn't running a scam. So it's just inconclusive enough on both sides where they
01:31:11
truly don't know what to think. So of course, local news outlets pick up on this story
01:31:17
because it's not just, oh, this fascinating human interest story. It's like the guy from local TV and the local radio show.
01:31:26
People know who he is. He doesn't appear to them to be particularly upset about the ordeal.
01:31:32
He's just confused and sort of amused. And he says that he, quote, never heard of this Bader man until the matter came up.
01:31:39
And while he acknowledges that both he and Larry Bader do look similar and they love archery,
01:31:45
he continues to maintain that he is John Fritz Johnson. But people back in Akron who knew Larry since he was a child are suspicious.
01:31:55
One childhood friend reported that Larry and all his siblings were spoiled and that they would go to daddy whenever they wanted money.
01:32:03
So they never so that Larry or his siblings never really developed any real work ethic.
01:32:09
His college acquaintances blame his poor scholastic performance on that hamburger stand job he had.
01:32:15
saying that he devoted all of his time to making a quick buck at the restaurant instead of playing the long game and focusing on school.
01:32:23
And even his own father is quoted in Life magazine as saying, quote, I can't put my finger on it, but there's something about this that stinks.
01:32:31
Oh, his dad is ratting him out. No wonder he wanted to be someone else. He wanted to see it for real.
01:32:38
That's so my dad, too. It's like, I don't know. I don't buy it. You're like, Dad, my arm was cut off.
01:32:43
See? Dad, please don't talk to the press about my thing. OK, so mounting debt that Larry's facing certainly doesn't help the situation.
01:32:54
One of his old neighbors believes that Larry, quote, wanted to be a high liver and a swinger, end quote, which is something you can't really achieve with a wife, kids and crushing debt.
01:33:04
Plus, Akron isn't exactly an open town as it's not as open in Akron as it is in Omaha.
01:33:14
You know, you know how it is. Although remember how cool Omaha was when we toured there?
01:33:20
I did like it. It's a truly cool town. It is very cool. I bet it has been for a long time.
01:33:25
So basically all of Fritz's various stunts, like the Hearst and the champagne parties,
01:33:30
and of course the leather beret, they'd be frowned upon in Akron. He would never be able to do any of those things.
01:33:37
So there is the possibility he just went and started over, started the new life he really wanted.
01:33:42
OK, so. Fritz always keeps his story consistent. There's no proof that he was running a scam. There's no charges that are ever filed against Fritz Johnson or Larry Bader. In fact, his doctors recommended he try not to access any of his former memories as Larry Bader because the very act of trying to remember could cause him severe psychological damage.
01:34:06
Come on. You just rest your pretty little head and keep up with this fucking bullshit.
01:34:11
it. Please rest your pencil thin mustache on this little block of wood and take it easy. Fritz lay
01:34:19
down on one of your many cushions. When pressed by reporters about this matter, Larry says,
01:34:26
my God, don't you understand? All of a sudden I find out that 30 years of my life never happened.
01:34:32
You see, I really do have 30 years of memories as Fritz Johnson. What am I supposed to do with
01:34:37
those 30 years throw them out the door. Yeah, that doesn't that quote, kind of in and of itself
01:34:44
makes me go, I don't know. I don't know. I'm on the fence, though. Yeah. So even though there's
01:34:50
no legal recourse for Larry, his life is Fritz is over as he knew it. Unsure of what to do with
01:34:56
the bizarre double life or amnesia due to eye tumor situation. Station KETV drops him as their
01:35:03
sports director. He gets the only job he can as a bartender, but now he's only earning a hundred
01:35:10
dollars a week. Half of that goes to Mary Lou to support the four kids that he has with her.
01:35:15
Another 20 goes to Nancy to support the two kids he has with her. He's left with $30 a week for
01:35:21
himself. He can't afford a regular apartment. He moves into the YMCA in Omaha. So this total
01:35:30
unraveling of his life becomes too much for Nancy. So she takes the kids and leaves and she tells one
01:35:36
reporter, I just don't know what to think. Oh, fuck. So Mary Lou does her best to dodge reporters
01:35:42
and she tries to process this crazy development in her life. But in August of 1965, she agrees
01:35:50
to take the kids to meet up with Larry in Chicago to try to hash things out. They have a cordial
01:35:56
conversation, no matter how much Mary Lou tries to jog his memory. Larry maintains that he has no memory whatsoever of their life together.
01:36:05
Wow. So Jesus Christ. Right. So Mary Lou actually is hopeful that Larry as Fritz will come around.
01:36:17
And then I just wrote in all caps, girl, literally anyone else in the greater Akron area.
01:36:23
There's plenty to choose from. but the next year 1966 Mary Lou's hopes are dashed when the same cancer
01:36:33
that took Larry's eye returns and Larry Bader or Fritz Johnson dies on September 16th 1966
01:36:41
they hold two services for him one is for Fritz at the First Methodist Church in Omaha Nebraska and then the
01:36:49
next day the body is buried at the Bader family plot at the Holy Cross Cemetery in
01:36:55
Akron, Ohio. Both Fritz and Larry are conclusively gone, but the mystery of whether Larry Bader had
01:37:02
amnesia or just ran away from his old life and abandoned his family to become Fritz Johnson
01:37:08
will never be definitively solved. And I'll just read you this article titles, The Man with Two Wives, Amnesia or Hoax by Chris Wells for Life Magazine. The Man Who Forgot
01:37:21
himself how presumed dead Lawrence Bader invented a new life by Jake Rossin. That's mental floss.
01:37:28
And the strange case of John Fritz Johnson, which is the David Smothers article from the dispatch newspaper.
01:37:34
And that, that's the story of Joseph Bader. I had no Larry Joseph Bader. I, if I want to call bullshit a hundred percent,
01:37:43
but that tumor gives me a little squeak of doubt, but just the tiny, yes. Otherwise I think he's both the,
01:37:51
the biggest fucking bullshitter ever or it's like what if it is some strange combination of like
01:38:01
all of those things like he wasn't happy things were going badly blah blah blah you know yeah
01:38:07
like it's a little bit of this the way he normally had thought before he had this tumor
01:38:13
yeah like i want it be interesting if we knew anything about the human brain because there you know it like there different areas where you like short term and long term memory
01:38:25
So if there's a possibility that that wherever your long term memory is was somehow being pressed by that.
01:38:31
Yeah. Interfered with in some way. Wow. Tumor scientists email us at my favorite murder at Gmail and let us know.
01:38:39
Tumor scientists. Quick Q. Q&A. Is it too, too much of a, too much. Yeah. What if I then submit my x-rays to the tumor scientist?
01:38:49
No, but I was going to say, is it too much of a coincidence that the debt, it's not like he walked away from just a plain old regular life.
01:38:57
Well, maybe the stress exacerbated something. We want to hear stories of, of personality changing tumors, essentially.
01:39:07
I mean that yeah it's fascinating and I just also think it's weird because he was so famous yeah
01:39:17
like it's it's such a it's just like such a fascinating story that I would have thought
01:39:22
I would have heard totally for now totally yeah very interesting yeah great job thank you I was
01:39:29
twisty turny. I want answers. I want a Hugo doll. All for myself. I wish I could
01:39:37
erase that from my mind with the tumor. I wish I could have amnesia about ever seeing Hugo.
01:39:46
How dare you? How dare you do that? Hugo will come to you at night and he will make you pay for this comment. That's the problem.
01:39:53
So many people. So wait, aside from the brain doctors, are there brain doctors that can tell us the kind of damage
01:39:59
Hugo did to young boys in 1975. The psyche of children. And how about Mr. Potato Head while
01:40:07
we're at it? Are we throwing him and Mrs. Potato Head right under the bus with it? I think so.
01:40:13
I wonder. I mean, I feel like that Mr. Potato Head was like the watered down version of Hugo where they're like,
01:40:20
yeah, children are crying and they feel like, you know, they're seeing visions. Why don't we just get a potato?
01:40:27
yeah you know what's neutral is a fucking potato it neutral it a nice start let just we call it a potato hit mr potato like just throw it out there as soon as possible let get those kids great let get those nightmares reversed i bet you in 75 if you put mr potato head and hugo side by side and you said
01:40:48
make a bet which one's gonna make it which one will people still know about in 2021 i bet there
01:40:54
some scientists could do a study that when mr potato head came out and and hugo was taken off
01:41:01
the market the children needing psychotherapy went down it plummeted plummeted and so they were
01:41:07
like okay well then we're just gonna get this latchkey kid thing going and that'll get us back
01:41:12
up to where we need to be stranger danger let's get it started let's go with that uh all right
01:41:20
cool i think we did it i think we did our job this week i do too uh we thank you guys for listening
01:41:27
to our stories and our blabbering. And yeah, that was a real that was a that was a real highs and lows.
01:41:35
But I but I think I think it was good. I think that was a good episode. I think that's what you can expect from my favorite murder.
01:41:41
And if you don't know that by now, I don't know what to tell you. Oh, first, if you don't know that by now, welcome.
01:41:46
Welcome. And yeah, thanks for tell your sister. Thank you for making you listen.
01:41:53
Yeah, it's great. wreck go ahead and slap your sister real hard on the back pretend that you meant it in a friendly
01:41:59
way and then when she gets mad at you later yeah like you don't know why she's mad shame her be
01:42:04
like why do you always overreact melissa melissa since you were a kid melissa this is not the last
01:42:11
act of mcbeth boom boom shut her down every time every time we have big sisters can you tell
01:42:18
And don't forget, we mentioned this already, but it's so exciting to me. Our brand new podcast hosted by Dave Holmes called Waiting for Impact, a Dave Holmes passion project.
01:42:30
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01:42:36
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01:42:41
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01:42:44
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01:43:00
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01:43:07
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