00:00:00
This is exactly right. of Family Secrets on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused of fathering twins, but the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax.
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You doctored this particular test twice in so-and-so, correct? I doctored the test once.
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It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing.
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Greg Gillespie and Michael Marancini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped.
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Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences.
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Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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You think you're in control until you realize you're not. As they're having this gun battle, thousands of feet up in the air, many of the bullets start to puncture the aircraft.
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I thought we were going to die then. The Knife is a podcast about the moment ordinary lives take an unexpected turn.
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Real people, real stories, and the split second that changes everything. New episodes drop every Thursday on the Exactly Right Network and the iHeart Podcast Network.
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Listen to The Knife on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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hello and welcome to my favorite murder the mini-sode it's a miniature you know this little
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thing yeah um and we're actually recording it for the fan cult video style what's up fan cult
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fan cult with the visual yeah play what's the thing like the extra thing they give you and
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what'd you say bonus aspect uh it's a bonus aspect for sure i have a makeup on which is a rarity
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these days yeah we really got ready although i was gonna say just for the bonus i'm sorry just
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for the fan cult. I have not dyed my roots in a while. So I do have like a Polly Walnuts
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kind of look that only the fan cult gets to see. I feel like it's like inside the Akron Studio
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type of thing. Yes. You mean because James Lipton's here? Exactly. The dead body of James Lipton?
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Only for the fan cult. That's right. You're welcome. Question mark. All right. Why don't you go first
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just to change it up this week? Sounds great. I played Go Fish with a murderer. Hey, Karen in Georgia, my friends have been asking me to email you my
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hometown murder story for some time. And after listening to your podcast, I thought, well,
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why not? She's like, I mean, seriously, it can't be that bad. Yeah, you consider it for a while,
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then just do it. So here's my story. Growing up, I lived in a small town near the top of Texas,
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about 800 people total. When I was about six, my brother five, and I were staying the night
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with my grandparents. Sunday morning, a strange man walked into our church for church service.
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He told all of us that he was biking across America to raise money for charity. I forgot
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the exact charity. This year, the year is 2000. My grandparents are just the nicest people you'll
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ever meet. And being those people, they invite him to come to lunch with us at their home.
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He is just the friendliest person you'll ever meet. So friendly, in fact, that he ends up staying
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later than planned. My papa invites him to also spend the night in our den and he can begin his
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biking journey after breakfast the next morning. Kindness of strangers, you know. You can just feel
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the this is a bad idea building. And it gets worse. I bet. Can you believe it? He ends up playing cards with all of us. I remember him losing our game of go fish.
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He even picked up my little brother and spun him around like an airplane. We didn't expect anything as he didn't give us any inclination of what was to come.
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Now, let's set the scene of where this man stayed while all of us were sleeping.
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My grandparents' den. The den is where my papa kept his huge collection of knives and guns.
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While they were all in cases, some of those cases remained unlocked because the children were over.
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Right. And maybe they're going to need to. Just to kind of have an open vibe of like what's ours is yours.
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Yeah. You know, open concept living space. Now, this is open concept gun and knife cabinet base.
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Gun cases. Yeah. It's the new HGTV craze. Okay. Remained unlocked. In the morning, Scott began his bike journey.
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It was only after some time that we learned that the man who had stayed with us was Scott
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Eisenberg. And he had gone on a murder spree in Oklahoma less than a week after staying with us and
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less than 100 miles away. Oh, shit. Since I was young, I don't remember much of the process.
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the police went through to catch him. My mom and grandma later told me it was one of the largest
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manhunts in Oklahoma history. In complete honesty, my brain blocks out most of this memory. I have a
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difficult time remembering his name and have to ask my mom for details anytime a friend wants to
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hear the story. Maybe it's due to being young when this happened, or maybe some repressed trauma.
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So they didn say their name but so I looked it up And this asshole Scott Eisenberg he brutally murdered a 76 man named A Cantrell and his 70 wife Patsy
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And then he had been in their house because he was spying on his ex-girlfriend who lived across the street.
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So I think they must have come home. He killed them brutally and then went across the street and killed his ex-girlfriend's 16-year-old son and beat the grandmother.
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oh my god and then he went on a 37 day manhunt and like he uh like took some some nice family like
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drove him somewhere not knowing and they ended up pulling a gun on him and shooting him
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so he got caught wait he they did they pulled the gun on him yeah oh my god shot him he took off and
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so finally the police caught up with him 37 day manhunt how fucking terrifying it's horrifying
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Also, it's horrifying that it's grandparent age people that he did that to. I know.
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I mean, it's a child. It's a 16 year old child. It's. Yeah. Brutal. So he's still in prison.
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I think he's on death row. Wow. Yeah. That's the end. That's it. She didn't even say her name.
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She's just like, I think I might be traumatized, but and then just got up and ran away.
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She's all it says is just a bunch of Z's for three pages. Hey, look, if that is the case, so be it.
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And that's fine because that is I mean, that's really scary. It's so scary. And to think about a close call.
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No wonder she didn't put a ton of details in. It's like the close call that you had is I mean, no, that's bone chilling.
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I'm so happy that it turned out fine. I mean, your parents, your grandparents, that your grandparents generosity was not in the room full of guns and knives.
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that none of that even was a part of the story. I'm very grateful. I thought it was going to go
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differently. Yeah. Okay. This just says hometown story. I grew up in a pretty rural area where
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driving your four wheeler to the store was a common thing and kids rode tractors for fun.
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My great uncle gave me the creeps as a child. He was an alcoholic, not the first alcoholic I
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encountered, but definitely the one, the only one to make me nervous. I couldn't put my finger on it,
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But my six-year-old gut told me to stay away. He would offer me a dollar if I would shake his hand, which I would politely decline over and over until I found the courage to slowly walk over, snatch the dollar and run like hell.
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When I was eight, he developed cancer, could no longer take care of his puppy and asked if I wanted her.
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I love this dog more than anything. So I obviously said yes. She was my absolute best friend and lived to be 20.
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Oh, rewind 15 years to when my dad was a teenager. My great uncle, his uncle showed up at my dad's house with his dog.
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He was drunk and offered my dad his dog for the price of 10 cents. Growing up in a rural area, the more dogs, the merrier.
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So my dad ran, found a dime, gave it to his uncle and then gave the who then gave the dog a pat on the head, said goodbye and left.
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The next morning, the police called asking for my dad, questioning him about his uncle and the dog.
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After selling my dad his dog, he went home, waited for his wife to come home, and when she walked in the door, he shot her in the face, killing her, and then went about his evening as if nothing happened.
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Oh my God. They lived in a trailer park, so a gunshot is easily heard. The police were called, and he was arrested.
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After my dog passed, my parents decided to tell me this history of abuse, alcoholism and depression my uncle had and the two few years he spent in jail for that murder.
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It made me so much. It made so much sense why six year old me got the creeps from this man, but still confuses me to this day.
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Why my family welcomed him back into their lives so lovingly. SSDGM. And if a murderer offers you their dog, you should probably take it.
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Marie. It's just so it is. So I would question my parents that let this murderer convicted murderer
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around children, you know, and I don't know if they were ever alone with him. But either way,
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it's like predators sound like a predator, you know, it doesn't sound like they were alone,
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though. I mean, like, but also, that's that kind of thing of like family systems and what people
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are used to, if it already happened in their family, or if that was a thing. I mean, you know,
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it's just kind of like the water level must have been at a thing where guns and abuse, maybe I
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don't know. Well, I think like, you and I don't have this problem. But are a lot of families,
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it's so interesting to me, like, what is off limits to talk about and even acknowledge just
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like there's no talk about periods, there's no talk about sex, there's no talk about your murderer
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uncle you know like we don't talk about that yeah you just well yes that very true like it could have
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been the healthiest family in the world but they were just like he's gonna he's here we don't want
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him to be here it's the so-and-so's birthday so just let the kids do what they want and you know
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who knows because as a six-year-old they don't know that maybe every eye at the party was on
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that uncle every time i mean who knows we can't assume the worst all right this just is hometown
00:11:17
but this is a grandpa and a fire story. So a two in one. Nice. Hometown story. I heard an episode where Georgia talked about someone lighting their kitchen on fire and
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decided I should send in the time. My grandfather almost killed my sister and me.
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When I was about eight years old, my sister and I, she was six, went to our grandparents'
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house. This is another grandparents' house story. For a week during the summer, my grandparents lived in Wichita Falls, Texas.
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Another grandparent, Texas story. I don't even realize I picked these. I don't mind it. I bet you that it's the majority of our inbox now.
00:11:51
We've asked for it so many times. Which is about four hours away from where my parents lived One afternoon my Nana was at work so it was my grandpa job to make us some lunch My grandpa decided to fry up some French fries on the stove in a cast iron pan full of oil
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He was an old truck driver who was never home. So this was out of the ordinary. I guess while he was getting everything ready, he realized he didn't have any bread for sandwiches.
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So he left us home alone to run the store. they're eight and six and there's a fryer of hot oil on the stove this is this is going where you
00:12:29
think it's going you've seen this psa bugs bunny walks in and points to the stove and is like stay
00:12:34
away from this horrifying i was laying upside down on the side of the couch in the living room
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watching the only kids movie they had the goofy movie when i saw smoke covering the ceiling
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I walked into the kitchen. I love the visual of her lying on the side of the couch, upside down
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on the side of the couch, which is like something you can only do as a kid because the back pain
00:12:56
now would be horrendous. And when I saw smoke covering the ceiling, I walked to the kitchen
00:13:02
and the entire kitchen stove and wall was engulfed in flames. Engulfed in flames is the scariest
00:13:11
thing to walk into. You've done that. It's the scariest three words in the English language. That's right.
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I realized I needed to call 911, but I didn't know my grandparents' address, so I panicked and called my parents, who
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were four hours away. Oh, Jesus Christ. Uh-huh. By the time I finished scaring the shit out of my mother,
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my grandpa came running in through the back door that was located in the kitchen. He began screaming
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at us to go out the front door. My grandparents lived in an old house where the front door would constantly get stuck so no one would ever use it.
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So there my sister and I were trying with all of our tiny kids strength to open the front door that never opened.
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Oh, shit. I don't remember how exactly we got out, but my grandpa was rushed to the hospital with burns all up his arms from grabbing the cast iron of oil that he left on the stove and throwing it outside.
00:14:06
No. Because you can't put it out with water, right? Oil. No. No. It makes it worse.
00:14:11
You would have needed a bag of flour. But if we're using the phrase engulfed in flames, which we are, then I think that's when you get out of the house.
00:14:20
Right. The fire department has to do it. Right. It's not worth saving if you're going to get.
00:14:25
You're just going to fuck it up. A grease fire getaway. Yeah. I mean, your dad taught you that.
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I should call Jim right now and just get the confirmation on what exactly the protocol is.
00:14:36
But I mean, grease fires, you have to throw flour. Is it baking soda? dirt, baking sodas.
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Is it baking soda? There's some things that you have to make sure it's not something that's going to react,
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but it has to douse it entirely, and water makes it worse. The thing, though, is if fire
00:14:52
is on a wall, get out. You have to get out. You throwing the grease out isn't going to put the wall fire out.
00:14:59
Yeah. You're going to start one problem, which is what happened to the grandpa. He got grease
00:15:05
on himself. Burning hot grease. I mean, it's all right. Luckily, the only Only the kitchen was completely torched and not the rest of the house.
00:15:14
Oh, good. Apparently, my grandpa had gone to two different gas stations looking for a loaf of bread to feed us.
00:15:20
Because truck drivers love gas stations, I guess. Stay sexy and don't leave oil on the stove.
00:15:26
Brittany Nicole. No. Yeah. Oh, my God. And my third story is a grandpa story, too.
00:15:31
What the fuck did I do this week? Do you miss your grandparents? Is it one of those?
00:15:36
Oh, it a little. We all need a little homey grandparent vibe. Yeah. What was I going to say?
00:15:40
Oh, I remember my friend who's Bradford, who's a very good cook and now works works exactly right.
00:15:47
Teaching me, I was like, just teach me some basics, just make it so that I could make myself a casual dinner.
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I felt like it. So he was teaching me how to make some recipe he makes all the time.
00:15:56
And he was like, so, you know, here's a pan and we're going to throw this butter in it and whatever.
00:16:01
And then and we were kind of standing there talking. And then I just walked away and went into something.
00:16:05
He's like, Karen, you can't walk away. And I was like, wait, what? And he's like, yeah, if you're doing this by yourself, you can't leave the area.
00:16:13
And I was like, really? That's step one of cooking. He's like, you have to cook.
00:16:18
You have to stand there and do it. And not like, I mean, because that is me completely or just kind of get distracted.
00:16:24
Like, wait, did I write in my journal this morning? Oh, I thought I was something to put on my to do list.
00:16:29
Let me do that. No, I don't get that. I just get so stressed out by the sound of sizzling.
00:16:35
That's like one of the things that like, like makes me stressed. So I'm just like, I hover when I cook.
00:16:42
So I'm the complete opposite thing where I can't walk away. You can't walk away.
00:16:45
I get so stressed out and scared. You need to do much more boiling. Okay. But have you ever boiled water and then forgot about it and boiled it out?
00:16:54
And then your pot's hot? I've done that for sure. When you're like, part world eggs.
00:16:58
And then you leave for three hours. There's so many. It's like if you're engaging the oven and this is, you know, we're pretending to say it to other people.
00:17:08
but this is truly for myself. Like if you're near the oven and using it, that's all you're doing for the,
00:17:15
for block out two hours and just be like, this is the only thing I'm allowed to do.
00:17:19
Set a timer for every 10 minutes. So in case you walked away and the alarm's like,
00:17:23
dude, what are you doing? Oh, like, what am I doing? You're just wandering in the yard.
00:17:28
Hey Siri. Let's see. Hi all. After having listened to you guys for years, seeing you live twice and wanting to share some sort of
00:17:38
story with you, I finally decided to steal one from my mom because she had a far more interesting
00:17:42
life than I imagine I ever will. So in honor of the late Joanne, here we go. Joanne, pour one out
00:17:49
for Joanne and all Joannes My mom was a beautiful person inside and out She was a tiny thing but also someone you would well be advised to not fuck with Being the young knockout that she was in the toxic masculinity playground of the 70s she had plenty of stories
00:18:06
to share about men who are not on their best behavior. One of my favorites is when she was
00:18:11
leaving the grocery store while largely pregnant with my brother. This would have been in 1975,
00:18:16
when she was 27 years old, quite petite and all belly. As she made her way to her bright yellow
00:18:23
Mustang, a man whistled to get her attention. Turning around, she saw him sitting in his truck
00:18:28
with the door open, turned to face her and masturbating vigorously. She said she was certain
00:18:34
that when he saw her from behind approaching that Mustang, he didn't expect the pregnant belly when
00:18:39
she turned, but he was now fully committed to his disgusting endeavor. Oh my God. Being the ever
00:18:46
badass that she was and used to creepy 70s dudes, she pointed at him and began to laugh
00:18:52
hysterically. It certainly wasn't the reaction he was going for and overcome with what I can only
00:18:58
assume was all consuming shame and embarrassment. He slammed his truck door and took off. She loaded
00:19:04
her groceries and carried on about her day, irritated, but I'm sure consoled by the fact
00:19:09
that she had at least managed to somewhat emasculate him. When she told me this story,
00:19:14
she always said that shock is what someone like that is going for. And then if I ever found myself
00:19:20
in a similar situation to not give it to them. Laughing at them, she said, was my best option.
00:19:26
Fortunately, I've never had to find out firsthand. My mom has been gone for many years now
00:19:30
after a battle with brain cancer. But I still love retelling some of her amazing stories
00:19:35
and only wish I was half as fucking cool as she was. Maybe I'll write in again with the tale
00:19:40
of how she kicked out a couple who'd been staying in her apartment after they shot a hole in her TV,
00:19:45
only to have the FBI come looking for them after. stay sexy and don't be afraid to shame public masturbators
00:19:53
Lindsay Lindsay thank you for sharing a story about your mother that's a piece of advice you have to give people
00:20:01
here's the thing don't be afraid if someone's jerking off at you in the grocery store parking lot it's your right
00:20:10
to laugh at them throw shame at them ring the shame bell That's right. In 2023, a story gripped the UK, evoking horror and disbelief.
00:20:24
A nurse who should have been in charge of caring for tiny babies is now the most prolific child killer in modern British history.
00:20:32
Everyone thought they knew how it ended. A verdict, a villain, a nurse named Lucy Letby.
00:20:39
Lucy Letby has been found guilty. But what if we didn't get the whole story? The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapses.
00:20:47
I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast, Doubt, the case of Lucy Letby, we follow the evidence and hear from the people that lived it
00:20:54
to ask what really happened when the world decided who Lucy Letby was. No voicing of any skepticism or doubt.
00:21:04
It'll cause so much harm at every single level if the British establishment of this is wrong.
00:21:09
Listen to Doubt, the case of Lucy Letby. You can binge all episodes now on iHeart Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:21:18
Your husband is not who you think he is. Your body is not what you thought it was.
00:21:23
Your identity is formed by a secret history. I'm Dani Shapiro, and these are just a few of the stunning stories I'll be exploring on the 14th season of Family Secrets.
00:21:33
And just then, we felt the plane turn in the air. So much so that the bags that were under people's seats just kind of flew into the aisle.
00:21:43
Each week, we dive headfirst into the complex power of secrecy, how it shapes our identities and relationships,
00:21:49
and how it ultimately can reveal to us our truest selves. My daughter, she's pretending she doesn't know,
00:21:56
but is trying to cook and feed me and keep me alive because I wasn't eating anything.
00:22:00
And me pretending like everything was fine. He kind of shoved me out of the way and said, move.
00:22:05
and he went out the front door and he jumped in a car and drove off and that was the last time I saw him.
00:22:11
Listen to season 14 of Family Secrets on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:22:18
Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, Nick?
00:22:21
Huge news. We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. How do we actually come up with the name Hey Jonas, guys?
00:22:28
I honestly don't remember. We were talking about a fit for the podcast where people could call in and say, Hey Jonas
00:22:33
and then I wrote down on my little notepad Hey Jonas and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast.
00:22:39
But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:22:46
Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Okay. This is my last one's called Treasure After My Grandpa's Death.
00:22:55
And it just starts, hey, hey. My grandpa Perry was born in 1920. He served in the Army during World War II as a cook and then later in life helped build rockets at Rocket Dine in L.A.
00:23:08
Wow. He and my dad built a house in the 1960s on some land in Lancaster, California.
00:23:15
The house was small, but it had five acres of desert around it. It reminds me of the Perry Mason show.
00:23:22
Oh, yeah. Where he lived out there. He lived at that ranch. Yeah. He used some of the land to grow fruit trees, have a garden, a large barn slash garage and a dune buggy track in the back.
00:23:34
Cool. Side note, he'd love to take anyone out for a ride in the dune buggy right up until the end.
00:23:40
The rest of the property was just open land. My grandpa passed away just a month shy of his 90th birthday in March 2010.
00:23:48
My dad had hid from us that he had been sick, thinking it was nothing and not wanting to worry us.
00:23:52
So it came as a huge shock to me and my four siblings when we were called. I will never forget that day standing in my second grade.
00:24:00
classroom waiting for the day to start. So she was the teacher, not the second grader,
00:24:04
by the way. After his death, my dad went to help clean out the barn and get rid of the things my
00:24:09
grandma didn't want anymore so she could move to my parents' house in Washington. This is where it
00:24:14
gets interesting. Since my grandpa grew up in the Depression, he didn't trust banks. He actually
00:24:21
didn't get a bank account until he married my grandma in 1980. My dad wanted to start with the
00:24:27
barn since it was just full to the brim with things. A little while after starting, he grabbed
00:24:31
a mason jar that looked like it had just that looked like it just had baggies folded up inside.
00:24:37
Curious to know what was in the bags. He opened the jar and found bags with tightly rolled bills
00:24:42
inside. Never throw anything away without inspecting it, no matter what. Open every bag,
00:24:50
shake out every book. I once was at a state sale. You could tell it was like a really old
00:24:54
old person. And I got one of those like Samsonite, like vintage Samsonite beauty traveling cases.
00:25:02
And it was full of old like aspirin bottles and bandage, like old stuff. So I was excited to go
00:25:08
through it. And in the very back was a $20 bill from like the 60s. And then like a traveler's
00:25:14
check worth like 20 bucks. But they were both like from the 60s. It was really, I put them right back
00:25:19
in there and like put it away. Oh, that's treasure. Yeah, treasure. So never fucking throw anything away.
00:25:26
Be a hoarder. So tightly rolled bills inside. He walked in the house to my grandma and told her what he found.
00:25:31
And she was shocked. This happened day after day as he was extra carefully cleaning things out.
00:25:37
I'm sure now ones, twos, fives, tens, twenties, fives and hundreds were found. Jesus.
00:25:43
The pile of money on the kitchen table was growing very rapidly when all was carefully
00:25:47
searched through in between book pages and toolboxes really anywhere and everywhere organized
00:25:53
and cleaned out the total amount of money that he had hidden was just over $19,000. Oh my god. Yeah.
00:26:02
Oh my god. He had been sneaking out just squirreling it away every time you went out there.
00:26:08
Oh my god. Not telling anyone to look carefully through shit when he died. Yeah. Just tell one
00:26:15
person. Tell your wife. Tell your wife. Someone you trust. Absolutely. Then it says, holy moly.
00:26:22
I love the thought that he wanted my grandma to be taken care of and would stash away whatever
00:26:26
extra cash she had on hand. He was the kindest, sweetest man and would have done anything for my
00:26:31
grandma. I wish my grandpa knew just how much I wanted to call him and tell him I was expecting
00:26:37
our first finding out just a month after he passed Anywho thank you for taking the time to read my story Thanks for all you do SSDGM K That awesome That amazing But you know just it always hard to lose
00:26:55
parent to grandparent, but living to 90 is a ripe old age. I mean, that is a nice life. That's a
00:27:01
great, that's a great life. And it's always nice when a nice old person lives that old,
00:27:06
Because it's always the mean curmudgeony ones that live to be 100. And you're like, why couldn't my grandma live to be 100?
00:27:12
She was fucking nice, Grandma Molly. You know? Well, it's harder to be nice as you get older because all your pains and your arthritis is and you're sick of people and you don't understand how computers work.
00:27:25
Kids these days. It's this long, like, you know how like a lot of us feel about TikTok.
00:27:30
That's how the entire world feels to old people where you're just like, what is it?
00:27:35
I don't. How did you even make that? Yeah. Okay. This is the last one, right? Mm-hmm.
00:27:39
Okay. So many good ones this time. All right. I'll do this one. Starts. What the fuck is up, guys?
00:27:46
So when I was roughly nine years old, a group of around six kids, including my younger brother
00:27:51
and myself, would just wander the city and look for trouble. Yeah, it would. Right?
00:27:57
At one point, we even hid in my dad's van and threw balls of mud wrapped in paper towels
00:28:02
at moving cars in hopes they'd stop at our makeshift car wash we had set up. Oh, my God.
00:28:09
That is whoever thought whatever child thought of that was a genius, a marketing genius.
00:28:16
Create a problem and then create a solution for it. And then create that solution and fill that niche in your neighborhood.
00:28:22
Oh, but wait, there's more. But after about three mud balls, it became more about throwing mud balls versus actually washing cars.
00:28:28
one unlucky man had his window down which led to a mud ball i had thrown blasting him right in the
00:28:35
face all over his white shirt let's just assume he was not pleased he was not pleased you're lucky
00:28:42
you didn't get your ass beat that's right on one particular day we were playing in the alley when
00:28:48
i decided i needed more attention and then in parentheses i'm obviously a middle child
00:28:52
so I contrived a plan. I brilliantly decided I would convince my friends that I was being kidnapped.
00:28:59
Oh my God. Children are insane people. This is my favorite though. This is that kind of thing.
00:29:09
This is the way my mind worked as a child because we were alone. We either left alone a lot or in groups.
00:29:15
And it would just be that thing of like, this isn't, you know, like watching Spider-Man and eating pretzels
00:29:21
is not enough for me. I want more. I need to be engaged with I a young fertile mind and I need to pretend I being kidnapped I crave adventure and being kidnapped Okay so I ran into one of the nearby breezeways when nobody was looking and began to yell for help
00:29:39
Oh, my God. Since all of the kids were around my age, it didn't take much convincing.
00:29:44
As they'd run over toward me, I'd make it seem as if I was being pulled away and yell for help even louder.
00:29:51
What a little shit. What a fucking genius. I give them a glimpse of my face around the corner of a building with my hands grappling along the sides of the wall and then pretend to be ripped away.
00:30:03
I love this person. Genius actor. My plan was working. All eyes were on me. Finally, I had the genius idea to hide in an abandoned garage and wait for them to find me.
00:30:13
But they didn't. After a while, I noticed that I couldn't hear them anymore. So I walked around the block looking for them, but I couldn't find them anywhere.
00:30:20
After about 15 minutes of looking, I decided it'd be best to go home and wait, ready to laugh in their faces about how well I tricked them.
00:30:28
When I got home, I was greeted by all of my friends and my brother crying in my living room.
00:30:36
I mean, that's good acting. If only James Lipton was here. I was just going to say, let's get this kid inside the actor's studio.
00:30:44
This, okay. Telling, crying in the living room, telling my parents I had been kidnapped.
00:30:50
My parents were pacing the living room in a panic, just about to walk out the front door to look for me themselves when I walked in.
00:30:57
Needless to say, their fear quickly switched to anger, and I was not allowed to go back outside that day.
00:31:02
I grew up in a dangerous city plagued with violent crimes. So as an adult, I can see how this could have been believable for even my parents.
00:31:10
I can't imagine how terrifying it must have been for them in those moments that I was, quote unquote, missing.
00:31:16
For a split second, they had to live with the reality that they might never see me again.
00:31:21
To this day, I still shamefully laugh every time I think about it and pray my future children aren't as big of an asshole as I used to be.
00:31:29
Stay sexy and just know that if you stage your own kidnapping, you won't be allowed back outside for the rest of the day.
00:31:35
Sam from Redding, Pennsylvania. P.S. I, too, have an older sister who used to smash me up with a brush and would threaten to kill me in my sleep if I didn't stop playing with her toys.
00:31:45
I fully relate to Karen's battles with Laura about trying to wear her clothes. Us younger sisters got to stick together.
00:31:53
No amazing job, Sam. Sam from Reading. Sam, the thing I think about the most of that is that the parents were like, you have to stay home the rest of the day.
00:32:04
But we need you to leave like you don get grounded for a week because then you stuck at home with us for a week We just can deal with that And the shit you come up with and the ways you need attention you have to get out of here You need to go out It for our own sanity
00:32:19
I mean, I just wish I'd been in that group of kids. Like, remember when you were little and
00:32:23
then stuff would happen? Like, things would happen that would change. It was just like,
00:32:27
you're playing, playing, and then a scary thing or a weird thing or whatever. And you'd be like,
00:32:31
as a group of children, we have to do like, oh my God. And that would actually have been
00:32:35
really fucked up and scary. I can't remember doing that. A child slowly being pulled around a corner
00:32:42
of all four corners of a building. In a circle, the kidnappers just going in a circle.
00:32:49
Over here. Oh my god, that's hilarious. Well, that was a great batch. Send your stories to
00:32:57
MyFavoriteMurder at Gmail. We want to hear them. And any and all topics are welcome
00:33:01
and wanted and will be will be given the attention a middle child deserves. That's right.
00:33:09
Finally, finally, you get the attention. Finally, you'll be the rare, cherished middle child at this podcast.
00:33:19
Imagine. Else, let's just stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Goodbye. Elvis, do you want a cookie?
00:33:27
Your husband is not who you think he is. Your body is not what you thought it was.
00:33:32
Your identity is formed by a secret history. I'm Dani Shapiro, and these are just a few of the stunning stories I'll be exploring on the 14th season of Family Secrets.
00:33:42
He kind of shoved me out of the way and said, move. And he went out the front door and he jumped in a car and drove off.
00:33:48
And that was the last time I saw him. Listen to season 14 of Family Secrets on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:33:57
Joy is essential and it's also elusive. But now there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence.
00:34:06
Joy 101. It's a new podcast hosted by me, Hoda Kotb. If you're craving inspiration to maximize your joy, tune into these candid, uplifting and moving on air chats.
00:34:17
Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Joy 101 and listen now. Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb is presented by CBS.
00:34:27
How much do you weigh, Wanda? Right now, I'm about 130. I'm at 183. we should race. No, I want to leave here with my original hips. On the podcast, The Matchup with
00:34:35
Aaliyah, I pair prominent female athletes with unexpected guests. On a recent episode, I sat down
00:34:40
with undisputed boxing champ, Clarissa Shields, and comedian Wanda Sykes to talk about Wanda's
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new movie, Undercard, the art of trash talk, and what it really means to be ladylike. Open your free
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iHeartRadio app, search The Matchup with Aaliyah, and listen now. Brought to you by Novartis,
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founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports Network.