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00:02:16
hello hello and welcome to my favorite murder that's georgia hardstark that's karen kilgariff
00:02:37
the end. And wow, what a week it's been. Wow, these past 14 days are so just perfectly 2020.
00:02:53
I mean, coming to a close of this godforsaken year. Hoping 2021. I don't know. Yeah.
00:03:03
How's it going? Good, good. I mean, as good as it can be going, you know, all things considered, I think a lot of people wrote in on Twitter last week about how sad they were that the end of the mini-sode, there was no Elvis meow.
00:03:22
Right. So Elvis, my cat of 16 years, passed away last week. I do think we should continue to put the meow, repurpose old meows at the end, don't you?
00:03:35
Totally. Absolutely. We don't need to leave those off. It's part of it. He did the work.
00:03:43
I mean, it's why we're recording all of this. So that it can all be reused in the future in some way.
00:03:49
Let's get him those residual checks. For real. So you can take it all the way to the bank.
00:03:55
Yeah. So I just want to thank everyone who reached out and who thought of him. And he's just been such a huge part of my life and so many reasons why I've been brave and happy and and like laughed for so many for so long.
00:04:21
And so the fact that he brought other people happiness to and made them laugh and, you know, means so much to me.
00:04:31
And I think he's, it's just so weird to have him gone, you know, after so long. And I'm so lucky I had him for as long as I did, but it's just so weird just that he's just not around anymore.
00:04:49
But, you know, everyone who reached out made me feel so incredible. And we did this amazing thing that you and Denton had suggested of putting, you know, cookies for Elvis on the website so you could buy a $5, you know, non-existent cookie to raise money for the ASPCA.
00:05:14
And we raised $30,000, which is so much money. I just can't believe. And it's just such a beautiful tribute to him.
00:05:24
And I just appreciate everyone's thoughtfulness and what an incredible community this is that comes together.
00:05:34
And I feel lucky to be a part of it. Yeah. Yeah. I do want to take full credit, but it was completely Denton's idea to put that.
00:05:45
Well Denton texted me and said so many people are writing in and on the fan cult and on social media saying where should we donate or get something together It like the funny thing is we had to really start putting that together quickly because
00:06:05
the second people start talking about it, it's like they're irritated. You haven't already set something up.
00:06:10
I mean, all these other people, some other people were doing it on their own already,
00:06:14
you know, and like buy this print and I'll donate all the money for it from to like,
00:06:18
you know, and all these immediate beautiful portraits. People were selling me portraits.
00:06:26
How much did you pay? That seems like they're taking advantage. No, just like the beautiful drawings that I have of him.
00:06:33
And all over my house are like Murderino memorabilia of Elvis, which is beautiful and hard.
00:06:41
But it will be easier as time goes on. But yeah, yeah, it's really I mean, just another example of how incredible the listeners we have are.
00:06:53
And yeah, they're big animal people to begin with. So this, I think, got a lot of people where they live.
00:07:00
And there was a lot of people like kind of telling stories, people that lost their pets this year.
00:07:05
And it's, you know, it's it's been a hard enough year for everybody. There's there's lots of loss this year.
00:07:12
So I think this was kind of one that even though he was 16, he still seemed, you know, it's like he sounds great every time you hear him on the show.
00:07:22
It's like, you know, only you knew like the truth of his health. Right. But I do want to say he didn't he was OK up until the last minute, like really literally the last few days.
00:07:34
and he wasn't in any pain. And, you know, we had this lovely, nice lady vet come
00:07:43
and, you know, while he was on my lap and we couldn't have been luckier to have him so long
00:07:50
and have it be a peaceful passing and then have the huge amount of support that we had.
00:07:57
And so I'm really grateful for that. Yeah. 16 years is so long. Well, do you know that's what I asked him for?
00:08:07
Like a couple of years ago, he got sick and had these kidney issues and almost died.
00:08:12
And I just said to him, you know, I just said, I just need 16 years. Just please give me 16 years.
00:08:17
That's like, I don't know why that number just like I had a cat live to be 20. I was like, I need 16 years of you.
00:08:24
And literally two months ago, he turned 16. And then he just started to kind of go downhill.
00:08:30
So, you know, he. So he understands English. You're saying he speaks English. That's right.
00:08:37
And those numbers. Loyal to the end. I don't know. There's just something special about that to me.
00:08:43
And so, you know, every. Yes. Yeah. He. Yeah. He is a very special cat. Yeah. Yeah.
00:08:52
And now he's going to live in infamy. I mean, you kind of can't ask for much more.
00:08:56
Yeah. He's legendary. Yeah. He's legendary. How about he lives in Femi instead of Infemi?
00:09:02
Oh, you didn't hear about the bank robbery? Yeah. Oh, that would be so cute. I know.
00:09:08
He would just kind of sneak in. No one's paying attention. Little bandit. One teller can't explain what's happening.
00:09:15
Right. It's so hard to describe what he looked like. Oh, that'd be adorable. Oh, I mean, yeah, I don't.
00:09:22
It's like what's funny is you've said it's like you so actively loved that cat. you know you always pulled him into everything you always wanted him to be like front and center
00:09:33
so it's not like people don't understand how much that cat meant to you how central he was to you
00:09:38
it's like you know you both kind of lived it so that's why it meant so much to people is because
00:09:44
they knew how much it meant to you because you always made that really clear so yeah you know
00:09:49
it's i think it's really kind of nice because that's your vulnerability and you basically
00:09:54
sharing a part of your life with people. And, you know, that's, that's what happens in life.
00:09:59
He made me so happy. And I wanted him. I wanted everyone else to have that too. And I think it
00:10:05
worked. So yeah, but yeah, but life, yeah, it feels different now. And I don't, I don't know.
00:10:11
So then I got a call from you like a week later. That's bombshell city. So, yeah, then I couldn't stop laughing, even though it's truly one of the worst things that's happened to me lately.
00:10:27
My dog, George, had pulled her ACL. So she's been limping. She's basically been hopping around on three legs for about a month.
00:10:36
And when I first took her to the vet, she could kind of put her foot down every once in a while.
00:10:40
And then she, over a couple of weeks, stopped doing it. Then I noticed her behavior was changing in different ways.
00:10:47
Finally, she stopped eating. So then I had an appointment set and I was like, can we move that up?
00:10:52
Because something else is going on. So I take her to the vet and then it's all COVID set up.
00:10:58
So she gets taken in and I'm just sitting in my car in the parking lot. And then they call me and the vet says, your dog has bone cancer.
00:11:06
and so then I have to decide basically and he's like basically where we can amputate her leg or
00:11:16
you can put her to sleep and your dog what was it 14 years uh she is yeah she's almost 14 and I
00:11:23
believe I've had her eight of those 14 years yeah uh very dark awful of course I picked the surgery
00:11:31
and then I had to call Georgia laughing going you are not going to fucking believe what I'm about to tell you
00:11:40
you're like I'm not stealing your thunder I'm not trying to one up you I literally said I don't think we can tell people about this because I'm going to look insane
00:11:50
I'm going to look like you're stealing my spotlight I can let her have it for a minute she can have her sorrow spotlight I need my sorrow spotlight Oh well I want sorrow too Well anyway I lucky enough to be able to say George May is making a full recovery She has
00:12:06
three legs. We're renaming her Pirate George. It all suits her very well. And she's actually
00:12:14
like, she's been she was loopy the first couple days and it was kind of a bummer and scary
00:12:20
obviously. Very weird but like on day three she popped up and I looked at her and went do you want to eat I have to spell it because she'll
00:12:30
fucking jump up but and then she just was like it was like she was kind of back to normal and
00:12:34
running she's not there's no kind of like in between you know rehab part of it she's back
00:12:42
and she's fine on three legs well I'm not in pain anymore so who gives a shit and just so hey yeah
00:12:48
So let's go up and down some stairs. So yeah, Georgia's she's had a life adjustment, but she's doing great.
00:12:58
And yeah, so let's face it out. Let's face it like a year apart. I mean, that was that thing where it's just like I was like, yeah, let's not record.
00:13:11
And maybe let's not just record for the rest of the year, because what the fuck is going on?
00:13:15
I definitely appreciate having the week, like a week or two off of like responding to people.
00:13:21
You know, it's like, well, it's not a very fun. Yeah, it's not. You're grieving.
00:13:29
You are grieving. So it's just like, what are we going to record? You know what I mean?
00:13:32
Like, that's like, that's really not the that's not what we do or how we do it. Well, I'm glad George is feeling good.
00:13:38
I have a photograph for you of some cookies that Vince and I made for the holidays, and we're going to bring you.
00:13:48
And you might just get a photograph because we've been too lazy to leave the house to bring them to you.
00:13:52
Oh, don't. The last thing I need is cookies. Honestly. I thought you'd appreciate the laziness of it.
00:13:59
If anyone's going to be like. Text them right over. Text those cookies. Yeah, I might end up eating them and sending you the photo of them.
00:14:07
I mean, I feel like also it's just I feel like if if I think all of America needs to fall down and take care of themselves this holiday season, everybody needs to lay on the couch, start a Netflix series that you don't even care about.
00:14:25
eat what you want be nice to yourself and to other people like take it easy put down social media
00:14:32
everything is hysteria everything is insanity and like you know we've had a full year of it
00:14:40
yeah a year of it that's really my plan for the next two weeks is just to be be gentle with myself
00:14:47
and uh i will say so i haven't of course wanted to watch all the dark deep depressing shit that i
00:14:55
normally want to watch. So I've been watching. Yeah, the comeback has been a real, the best,
00:15:01
real great distraction with Lisa Kudrow. Of course, I highly recommend if you need a distraction.
00:15:06
It's a little cringy. That's a good show. But it's so a little, a little. It's horrifying.
00:15:11
The whole point is that it's cringy, but it's because Lisa Kudrow is such an incredible actress
00:15:15
that she just makes it that way. It's a great show. It's so subtle. She's like the things she's
00:15:21
doing in that show it's so real it's like overtly subtle somehow well it's very realistic it's just
00:15:28
like that's she's clearly i think thinking of a specific person it's someone she knows or whatever
00:15:32
but it's just like it you never think about lisa kudrow the actress never this person um valerie
00:15:39
cherish is such a real person and you're just like gripping gripping white knuckling it yeah
00:15:46
From her house, the set of everything about it is perfection. So definitely watch the comeback if you need a nice distraction from everything.
00:15:56
Yes, it's a great series. Yeah. Now, did you watch The Stand? No, I haven't watched it yet.
00:16:03
I mean, is it great? It's good. It's funny because, you know, there was a lot of reviews of it and people kind of like playing it down.
00:16:12
And then when I went to see it, I was just like, what are they talking about? It's better than ever.
00:16:17
Like, I love this thing. So I think I just I've been waiting so long since like the first time we didn't add for it.
00:16:24
Yeah, I was so excited. But it's great. It sounds like a perfect distraction. I love that.
00:16:29
It's really good. OK, so another really pure show that I've really enjoyed and been watching is Taste the Nation by Padma Lakshmi, hosted by Padma Lakshmi, who's really smart, interesting woman.
00:16:41
And she just travels the country, the nation even, just really tasting it. But like really authentic stuff, like finding out where burritos actually come from and why they were what they were.
00:16:57
And it made us go into Boyle Heights to this like old school burrito place and get burritos because we just wanted to try them.
00:17:05
It's like a really lovely show. Were they amazing? They were incredible. It's just meat.
00:17:10
There's no like the whole like huge overstuffed burrito thing is is like a current thing.
00:17:15
It wasn't that way before. It's really fascinating. So she does all those interesting cultures and tells you about them.
00:17:21
And it's just like a it's a nice distraction show. And it'll make you really hungry.
00:17:26
And then maybe it'll make you like search out some authentic food in your town, which I think is a positive thing.
00:17:32
Is that a Netflix one, too? Yeah, that's on Netflix. I hope. Let me double check.
00:17:37
And I love Top Chef. So Padma is like a favorite. You have never watched that show.
00:17:43
Shut your face. I can't. Karen, you're going to love it. I can't believe that because it's great.
00:17:50
I never have. I think it's just one of those ones that it, I don't know, it got by me somehow and then people would talk about it and then I didn know what they were talking about So then I was like it not for me I missed it So Taste the Nations on Hulu with Padma Oh that Hulu
00:18:05
You have to watch Top Chef. It's like one of my favorite competition shows. Okay.
00:18:11
It's so good. Let me send you a good season. Like Richard Blaze's season is one of my favorites.
00:18:17
You just have to. And all these characters. Oh, my God. Now, I did watch Iron Chef,
00:18:22
which was in that thing was the greatest. The original version. Did you watch that way back
00:18:31
when? Me too. And even the current one that's not just subtitles is so fucking good as well.
00:18:39
That was my dream when we were on Cooking Channel is to be a fucking judge on Iron Chef.
00:18:43
And it never happened. I was heartbroken. Wouldn't you have to have your own restaurant?
00:18:50
I had a Cooking Channel TV show. no no i don't want to be a contestant i want to be a judge i want to taste the food right oh they
00:18:57
had all kinds of weirdos on that show the judges were like randos i could have been a judge you're
00:19:04
like why can't i be yeah oh i thought the judges were well the original one that i saw like that
00:19:10
because i think it was like late night food network wasn't it yeah like maybe even before
00:19:13
food network was like food network whatever but yeah they would have like well so the current one
00:19:19
would be like, yeah, there'd be like a restaurateur and a cookbook author. And then there'd be like a
00:19:23
random like Steve Austin, the wrestler or something like it's just some random person who loves food.
00:19:29
I like it. Yeah. Okay. So I feel like I could have done it. And then one of my favorite party
00:19:34
questions when there used to be parties was if you could be a judge on Iron Chef, what would your
00:19:38
like dream ingredient be? Because you know, it's like, you have to cook with asparagus this week,
00:19:43
or you have to cook with like, what would your like best and worst? Yeah, squid ink. Yeah.
00:19:49
gross. There was always in those early ones that were, it was Japanese, right? It was from Japan.
00:19:54
There was always a thing where I was like, because I don't like seafood at all. So then there was
00:19:59
always a thing where everything was like, I'm glad I'm not there. Oh, I'm glad I don't smell
00:20:04
them cooking that. But of course, it was always, you know, amazing. They did. That was the whole.
00:20:09
The American version was cool. Because it'd be like, it'd be like eggs, but then it'd be like
00:20:13
ostrich eggs and like, you know, like a row and just like really interesting stuff like that.
00:20:18
so I always thought that would be really cool so I'm a little heartbroken that I never got to be a judge
00:20:22
on that show well it's not too late I think it is that's what I got you for Christmas
00:20:27
you brought back Iron Chef I called Bobby Flay I said Bob's listen it's for Georgia she's been having a hard time
00:20:37
you know I had drinks with Bobby Flay once at the Soho house because he was big timing us
00:20:42
no he wasn't we just really wanted to go to the Soho Ali and I met him to like talk about
00:20:46
maybe doing a TV show and he was so lovely and a really amazing person and then we saw him make his barbecuing not
00:20:54
grilling tv show and he's just like professional but then we never heard back from him
00:21:00
the lovely guy lovely guy you want to hear about a podcast i listen to oh yeah i have a book go
00:21:07
ahead let's see well a couple i'll do it chronologically um so the first one i listened
00:21:14
do that England's owned April Richardson recommended to me when I talked to her like
00:21:20
last month. It's a T it's it's a sorry. It's a podcast called Chameleon the Hollywood Con
00:21:26
Queen. Yes. Did you listen to it? No, but it's I subscribe. It's on my list. Okay. Amazing.
00:21:32
It's unbelievable. Tell me the premise. Well, it's people who are not huge in show business
00:21:40
in Hollywood start getting conned by this woman who calls them and books them for jobs
00:21:47
in, I believe it was Singapore. Then they go to Singapore. On their own dime kind of a thing.
00:21:52
On their own dime because it's like, yes, they get talked into it. And there's a lot of parts of the business where it is that kind of thing.
00:22:00
You get there, then our travel department will pay you back or whatever. There's a lot of that kind of stuff.
00:22:06
And basically playing on the desperation of people. It's like, this is my break.
00:22:10
this is my big break yeah it's such but that's how it starts and you're like that's really fucked
00:22:15
up and then it begins to develop into a whole other thing and it's really satisfying it clipped
00:22:21
along so fast it's such an amazing story um yeah it was it was unbelievable chameleon that one's
00:22:29
like that one's like super trending right now i'm i have that one yeah it's i think it got really
00:22:34
popular because the story is it's like a dirty john level story that like everyone you know in
00:22:40
the podcast biz people are looking for like what's the story that really has it or whatever and this
00:22:45
thing is like this thing has like seven stories and when they break while the podcast is what is
00:22:51
recording and while they're reporting on the story and it breaks podcasty live it's so exciting
00:22:56
yeah yeah it has it all so yeah if you're looking for a new one chameleon the hollywood con queen
00:23:02
I'm into it. Is there not? What's the other ones that you're listening to? Oh, then the next.
00:23:08
Well, basically, then I was kind of going along because I really lately I'm loving a scam story, a really, a really, you know, journalistically investigated scam story, because I feel like the more people are going to be in peril with money, the more scammers are going to be trying to scam people in all different ways.
00:23:28
So true. But this one, it's called Smokescreen Fake Priest. And it's by the Neon Hum, the people that did Dr. Death.
00:23:39
And it is, again, one of those stories where as you're listening, you're like, sorry, what is happening?
00:23:45
Who's the fake priest? You find out. Oh, great. You will meet him. It is unbelievable.
00:23:51
And he's just calling the shit out of people into fake baptisms and stuff? It's because, and this is, again, that thing where it's he...
00:24:00
He presented himself to be a priest that did Latin mass and he was like a traditionalist Catholic priest.
00:24:09
So it was like, because, you know, Vatican II in the 60s basically was like, all right, you don't have to eat fish every Friday and you don't have to like the mass doesn't have to be in Latin and all that stuff.
00:24:18
But there was lots of people who were like, that's not the real thing if you're doing it this new this quote unquote new way.
00:24:24
You're not a real Baptist. You just have to hear it. It's just like it's unbelievable.
00:24:29
But is that kind of thing of, again, these certain areas that scam artists always gravitate to because you do not question the church.
00:24:38
You don't question religion or religious leaders. And those people scam people like crazy.
00:24:44
It's amazing. That's awful. Yeah. And then just the most recent one, I always rave about the Canadian, the CBC broadcasts and the Canadian investigative journalists.
00:24:57
I went back into the Uncover series. Oh, yeah. They're the ones that did NXIVM first.
00:25:03
Yes. But they have now, I think, eight seasons. There's so many good ones. And the most recent one is season four.
00:25:10
It's the cat lady murder. And it is it. You have to hear it. It's just another one of those ones where it's it's people scamming.
00:25:19
Oh, OK. Old people. Yeah. And the elderly. And but it's that one's actually very it's less entertaining and more like, oh, God, this is such a bummer.
00:25:29
It's so dark. The idea that people like prey upon and exploit the elderly and people in nursing homes.
00:25:36
And then it's like life saving situations. I have a friend who that happened to his the bank called, quote unquote, called his dad and was like, you need to get all your money out of the bank.
00:25:46
there's been a breach, turn it into, you know, Amazon gift cards and then call us and read us
00:25:52
the number of the Amazon gift cards. Something so simple like that, that if you just called
00:25:56
our friend, his son, and been like, this is happening, his son would have been like,
00:26:00
that's a scam. But yeah, of course, he's like, oh, this is an emergency and didn't.
00:26:05
And they, you know, in one of these, and I think it was the chameleon, they interview
00:26:11
you that woman who i talked about her book that i love so much and she talks about the con con men
00:26:18
um her name's maria but they talk about that that's one element of scam artists is it's always
00:26:26
a rush you have to you're going to get the job but you have to answer me yeah you need to answer
00:26:30
within the hour you have to it's the bank things happening you have to do it right now or so it's
00:26:35
they create a false sense of um like it's a big rush rush rush and it's emergency and
00:26:41
time, like you're running out of time. And that's how you know, that's like step
00:26:45
one of a scam, is that you can't take 15 minutes to call a younger person and go, is this
00:26:51
real? Because you have to do it right now. Or to even consider it yourself, which you probably
00:26:55
would be like, wait a minute, I shouldn't be doing this. Yeah. I know. Oh my god.
00:27:01
Guys, send us your hometowns about scams that you've fallen for, that someone you know has fallen for, that you
00:27:07
almost fell for, that you played on someone else. You can be anonymous. I want to hear scam stories, don't you?
00:27:13
Scam stories are the they're amazing. Oh, yeah. And there's there's a thousand podcasts that feature that which you can listen to all of those, too.
00:27:22
But yeah, there's but also it's good to learn from other people. And that's that's another thing they talk about is people that get scammed.
00:27:30
Don't talk about it because they're so embarrassed and they're so ashamed and they don't want anyone else to know.
00:27:35
Oh, my God. How because people go, how could you have given someone six thousand dollars?
00:27:38
And it's like, if you thought you were about to get a huge job with this, you know, the Hollywood con queen using these huge directors names, you think you're about to get this big job where it's David Fincher shooting in this place or whatever.
00:27:52
And it's not like they don't have evidence. It's not like they're just like, great, here's six thousand dollars.
00:27:56
It's like that six thousand dollars is a couple thousand over a period of time. So you're already in it deep and they've given you evidence as to, you know, quote unquote evidence as to why they're legit.
00:28:06
And so you've believed those, which makes it easier to keep believing because you don't.
00:28:11
Yeah. You don't want to get scammed at three thousand dollars. So it takes six thousand dollars to finally admit it.
00:28:18
That it's gone. Yes. And even then you don't totally know. Yeah. That's fucking crazy.
00:28:24
That's a good one. It's. Yeah. So Karen's. I'm all about those scams. Watch out.
00:28:28
Scams and flams. I'm reading a book. Well, so we were also, oh, the other thing we were watching was just bad Christmas movies.
00:28:38
Just. Yes. Karen, have you seen the movie Family Stone? Oh, my. I've never seen it.
00:28:45
Yes. Vince and I watched it for the first time and we were, I feel like I'm going to anger half the murderinos.
00:28:52
You will. This is a very divisive film. I didn't know this. I didn't know anything about it.
00:28:57
I had never seen it. And then I looked it up to read all the negative reviews and all there was is positive reviews.
00:29:03
Yeah. Well, I'm just going to say, what a movie. Wow. Wow. What a movie. I refuse to fucking indict myself.
00:29:13
Well, I will. I will indict myself. Who gives a shit? What's funny is you missed the staff Zoom meeting where we had this discussion.
00:29:23
No, you didn't. Yes, because someone recommended it. And then Katrina. Guys, we have these.
00:29:28
Can we just say our OK? We have staff meetings every Friday morning with the now huge exactly right employees.
00:29:36
Like we have what we have an 11. That's huge. It's huge to us. We have 11 employees and everyone kind of fills each other in on what's been going on that week.
00:29:45
And now we started doing this thing at the end where you just recommend something.
00:29:48
Usually it's a TV show or a book or whatever. And I was gone the week that Elvis passed away.
00:29:53
And so I fucking miss this conversation You missed the Family Stone debate It was hilarious Tell me everything It was so funny Well I busting Katrina right now but I think she would be fine with it because
00:30:06
she was just like, that movie is terrible. And then I started laughing because I'm like, I love it.
00:30:12
You do. I do love it. I could see it being one of those ones afterwards where like, God,
00:30:18
that movie, I need to watch it again. And then being like, okay, I get it. There's something about it
00:30:24
that is it's it's corny and everything but there's a christmas element to it and i'm sorry but luke
00:30:32
wilson does it for me and especially men right in that movie he's almost like a surfer yeah he's
00:30:41
like mr cash and he's kind of like he just immediately knows he well like spoiler but he
00:30:46
immediately knows he loves sarah jessica parker he's just like oh well i'm in love with you it's
00:30:51
the most natural kind of love at first sight, but a boy doing it, which you never get to see in any movie. Especially with an uptight woman,
00:30:59
you know, like an uptight anal woman, quote unquote, where it's like, oh, you still, you know, you fall in love with her. It's not like she's quirky and
00:31:07
falls down the bus stairs and then you fall in love with her, even though it's your sister, your
00:31:11
fucking fiance's sister, which that part lost me. No, it's his brother. If it's his point of view,
00:31:19
it's his brother's fiance. Yes, but I'm talking about Claire Danes' character. Right, right, right.
00:31:28
Okay. Well, it's definitely a movie. We can all agree on that. It is a movie reflective of Christmas.
00:31:36
Or the holidays in general, I guess. And then we did Home for the Holidays with, of course,
00:31:43
Robert Downey Jr. Thank you. Holly Hunter. Thank you. So that was fun. hadn't seen those before oh yeah so that's like that's another great one but it's a different
00:31:53
vibe it is what what's another good one that's like you got to watch it uh for the holidays i i
00:32:00
think people always like like to talk about on twitter how you know like die hard's a christmas
00:32:05
people and now the joke has become on twitter naming a thing that's a christmas one like one
00:32:10
tree in the background or whatever but the ryan reynolds movie best friends okay is one of the
00:32:17
greatest it is a lol for real movie they're like undercover cops or something no it's actually very
00:32:25
um it's problematic for 2020 they're all problematic well and so ryan reynolds basically
00:32:33
it's like he's now successful like uh i think he's supposed to be like a music agent or something but
00:32:38
in high school he was fat and he had this best friend who he was in love with and she would
00:32:43
she didn't think he she could ever like yeah and then he goes home for the holidays right and now
00:32:50
an arbitrary number on a scale means that he's lovable and worth exactly worthy of love and
00:32:57
right but see he has this he now is a ryan reynolds type exactly yeah so then he thinks
00:33:03
no i got it but he's actually kind of a scumbag so she's like oh you're different and it very much
00:33:09
is like she actually loved him before. Who's the she in it? I can't remember. I'm so sorry.
00:33:17
It's called Just Front. Oh, no. Look at his fat suit. I know. Amy Smart. Amy Smart. I got it first. You're fired.
00:33:24
You're fired. She's really good. She's really good. But there are jokes in this thing that are
00:33:34
I laugh out loud when I watch this movie. And it is legitimately a Christmas movie. Okay, great. I'm doing it. I love it. Yeah, that's perfect. Thank you.
00:33:42
Just Friends. Just Friends. Ryan Reynolds. Never forget that Ryan Reynolds is the real deal.
00:33:47
Okay. And I'm reading a book called Good Morning Monster by Catherine. Is it a children's book?
00:33:57
It does sound like that, huh? By Catherine Gildnayr. And it's basically this woman,
00:34:05
And it's a it's kind of a memoir type of thing. Catherine Gildnay is a therapist.
00:34:10
And in the book, she presents five of what she calls her most heroic and memorable patients.
00:34:16
So it's like five chapters of these patients that like transformed her as a therapist.
00:34:22
So one of the one I'm listening to right now is like her first patient and like how hard it how hard it was for this patient to admit that she had childhood trauma and understand that what she went through.
00:34:34
So even to everyone else, we're like, girl, you went through some shit. But like, she was like, nope, I did what I had to do.
00:34:41
But like, really, you were nine years old and abandoned. And like, she just couldn't even handle it.
00:34:46
So it's just, I think it's really good for people who are like, interested in therapy,
00:34:49
but don't know what it's like, or don't know how to sounds great. Yeah, like don't know how to break through with their own shit.
00:34:55
It's definitely helping me where I'm like, Oh, I think my life is totally normal.
00:34:59
And my therapist is like trying to knock down these walls, but she, she can't knock them
00:35:04
down. She needs me to knock them down. And so what, what am I, you know, what, what tools am I not
00:35:09
equipping myself with to knock down said I've been watching a lot of HGTV, too. I'm just trying to
00:35:16
have an open concept brain. And it's really hard. You want to put an island right in the middle of
00:35:21
your personality. And like, I can cook and then watch the kids. And all I have is ball peen hammer
00:35:27
that I'm trying to fucking knock the wall down with it. It's not working to pull that drywall
00:35:31
down with your fingernails sometimes. But I'm using a butter knife. It just doesn't make any sense. That sounds
00:35:37
great. Good morning, monster. I'm going to write that down so I can get on here and recommend
00:35:41
it in two months. Good morning, monster. That sounds great. And then let's see. Am I listening
00:35:47
to anything else? The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett. I finished and I fucking highly
00:35:51
recommend it. That was the one I talked about last time about different generations of a family but I didn realize it was really like mother relationships That really cool So I like that one a lot
00:36:05
Very relevant. That's all I got. Anything else for you? I mean, that's a lot. That's a lot.
00:36:10
42 minutes. Oh, can I do one more cottagecore new obsession? Please, there is a cottagecore corner.
00:36:18
It's cottagecore corner time. Let's hear it. This one. You made your own clock. Great.
00:36:25
I made my own time. This one combines dollhouses. Two of my loves dollhouses and decaying haunted houses.
00:36:37
So people are making dollhouses, but making them abandoned haunted houses instead of.
00:36:42
How great is that? I think that's genius. I think I found the one. A bunch of people are doing.
00:36:49
I don't know. The only one I found, it's called it's an Instagram called Southern Gothic Dollhouse.
00:36:55
And it straight up looks like the Haunted Mansion at fucking Disneyland, like cobwebs and, you know, decaying things and like using teeth as like tile.
00:37:04
It's just creepy and cool. That's great. I like that. There's so much artistry that goes into that that I think doesn't has never gotten the respect it deserves.
00:37:16
Like once we talked about, you know, could there even be mid-century dollhouses?
00:37:20
Yeah, I get pictures of them constantly on Twitter now because there are a ton. Yeah.
00:37:26
And like it's there are lots of people that are into it and do it and they're gorgeously put together.
00:37:32
Like it's it's really cool. And it's so funny because it's such a thing that's like it's it's there's no like they're doing it because they love it.
00:37:40
Like they're not going to do anything with that dollhouse. It's not like you're going to walk in there living room and be like, wow, you decorated it.
00:37:44
Well, it's like going to be a dollhouse on a mantle somewhere that only they get to enjoy.
00:37:49
And Instagram. Perhaps a child or two. What? Why? No, don't bother. That sounds boring.
00:37:56
Get them away from there. Oh, and then there's this guy. He's an artist named Ryan Thomas Monaghan.
00:38:02
On Instagram, it's what underscore the hell. And he does the most incredible, like decaying cityscapes and actually did like an abandoned
00:38:13
vintage McDonald's scene in full miniatures. That is one of the coolest things I've ever seen.
00:38:19
So check out what underscore the hell as well. Actually, speaking of, but it's a little bit rando.
00:38:26
But from the last time we recorded, we were talking about murder on Middle Beach.
00:38:31
And at one point I said, I don't know why it's called. Oh, yeah. And Liz Prince wrote to me on Twitter at Comic Nerd and RRD.
00:38:42
And she wrote regarding the conversation that Karen Kogariff and Georgia Hartstark had about why murder on Middle Beach was called.
00:38:48
that in last week my favorite murder episode number one the murder took place on middle beach
00:38:54
road yeah no that makes total sense that was the whole tweet where i was like damn it liz but then
00:38:59
there was an there was an attached tweet to that which i didn't for some reason take a picture of
00:39:06
but she basically said um their last name was beach yeah and murder on middle beach is mom
00:39:17
beach. And then she wrote number four, I'm a nerd. And so thank you, Liz, for that was help we needed.
00:39:27
That was help we were asking for. And it's so obvious now that you pointed out, but I never
00:39:32
noticed stuff like that. I mean, clearly, I didn't even retain the information that that was the
00:39:38
street they were on. And it was done in a non-showy, offy way, which we always appreciate.
00:39:43
And you were self-deprecating, which is always an ingratiating thing. It's the world that you're not getting.
00:39:49
It's nice to not be yelled at. Yeah. Are we done talking about ourselves for? I think so.
00:39:53
50 minutes? 50 or so minutes? 50 or so. I mean, look, it's nice to have company.
00:39:59
Yeah. You can't take that away from me. Speaking of ourselves, let's do exactly right news.
00:40:05
Oh, yeah, yeah. Let's talk about some shows. Well, our new show Tenfold More Wicked, which is our first limited series like kind of docu true crime by the great Kate Winkler Dawson.
00:40:20
It has actually been included in Apple Podcasts, top true crime podcasts, which is very exciting.
00:40:26
And yeah. And then just so you know, this season of it will be ending like the end of this year.
00:40:34
And then a second season is going to start next year. So she's done so much work.
00:40:40
She's got this stuff ready to go. She's an incredibly accomplished author. And her books are amazing.
00:40:47
If you haven't read any, look her up because they're so good. And so, yeah, she's got she's got that content ready to podcast.
00:40:54
That's right. Speaking of lists, that's messed up. Our SVU podcast hosted by Kara Clank and Lisa Trager is trending on iTunes, which is so rad.
00:41:04
Thank you guys so much. we're glad you love. That's messed up as much as we do. Yeah, thanks for
00:41:09
supporting it and subscribing and giving it great reviews. It really makes a difference.
00:41:14
For all the podcasts. Also, this week's episode, the legendary actress Marsha Gay Harden
00:41:23
is the SVU cast member that they interview. It's the coolest booking. It is. What an honor.
00:41:33
It's so cool. And speaking of Christmas movies on I Saw What You Did. One of my absolute favorite Christmas movies is discussed Scrooged.
00:41:43
So check that. They also cover the silent partner. So check those. Check out. I saw what you did.
00:41:47
That's another podcast that's doing really good. Yeah. It been rating in the in the movie movie and TV category which is very cool Those Millie and Danielle are the greatest If you if you even if you not super into cinema it such a great podcast where they just kind of talk about it because it gives you great ideas for movies and
00:42:07
why to watch them. And it's like hanging out with your friends. So yeah, it's really fun.
00:42:11
Then freaking speaking of lists, the podcast Bananas was on Vulture's top 10 comedy podcasts
00:42:18
of 2020, which is so huge. We are so proud of Kurt and Scotty. So make sure you check out
00:42:25
Bananas. They have incredible guests. It's such a fun, lighthearted podcast. Weird news. There's nothing funnier than weird news because it really happened. It's not just
00:42:34
people talking about bullshit. They're reading you real actual news articles from Florida and
00:42:41
around the world. And they're really good stories. Yeah. Yeah. So get exactly right.
00:42:47
Oh, also, I said no gifts. Bridger Weininger's wonderful podcast was featured on the iTunes new and noteworthy page, which was very exciting.
00:43:01
Y'all, we're trending and shit. Y'all. Y'all, thank you. You got to rate, review, and subscribe.
00:43:07
Those are the ways we get on those lists. And everyone on the network appreciates those little bumps.
00:43:13
Yeah, they do. Oh, and also, if you're looking, if you're still looking for something to watch, Stephen and Sarah on the on the podcast talk about the Garfield Christmas special.
00:43:23
Emmy nominated. The 1987 Emmy nominated. How dare you not say that? I'm so sorry.
00:43:29
A classic. A classic. An Emmy legend. A perfect activity for the holiday. Whoever wrote this.
00:43:35
that was another one that we talked about at the in the uh staff meeting because people were
00:43:42
talking about remembering it watching it when they were little loving it and it being really
00:43:47
touching oh yeah garfield christmas special yeah so check that out on the podcast
00:43:52
bro from the show last night to this drive why is it never chill because this is our life
00:43:58
backstage on the road it's loud messy real and that's the best part whole crew no plan just moving
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00:46:07
All right. Let's get into this. We've done it. We did it. We're about to introduce.
00:46:12
This is a quilt episode for you. Oh, wait. Steven, who goes first in this quilt episode?
00:46:18
Georgia. Oh. Because the former Fan Cold exclusive live show, Georgia went last in that one.
00:46:25
All right. Perfect. At least there's a logic to it. That's all that matters. You can say whatever you want and I'll believe it.
00:46:32
All right. Well, I am so excited about this one because it involves a heroic cat.
00:46:40
So I feel like it's the perfect setting. It's perfect. Right? So apt. This was from a show in Pittsburgh at the Benadim Center on March 14th, 2019.
00:46:53
So not that long ago. Very recent. Right. And this is the murder of Laurie Ann Ocker.
00:46:59
Enjoy. All right. Amazing. We're going to do the murder of Laurie Ann Ocker. Here she is.
00:47:09
That's what I didn't want you to click on. Okay. Laurie Ann Ocker. All right. So, this story is Forensic Files' fucking wet dream.
00:47:20
Like, I'm not even kidding you. The producer probably pissed him or herself when they saw this.
00:47:27
The episode's called Cats, Flies, and Snapshots. Oh. Someone was like, we've got to get this out.
00:47:34
Let's get this out and name it. And it's about, it's kind of like our theme that we like lately of pet heroes.
00:47:41
There's a tinge of that involved, too. That's right. Who doesn't like a pet hero?
00:47:47
Pet heroes. But I bet the trend to come after pet heroes is going to be pet scumbags.
00:47:53
Pets who have stolen from you. Pets. Pets who crush your car. Thanks. Steal your change from your purse.
00:48:02
Flip you off behind your back. Okay, so Lori Ann Ocker grows up in a quiet agricultural area known as Susquehanna.
00:48:15
Thank you. How many times did you say that in your hotel room? Three. The Susquehanna Valley in central Pennsylvania.
00:48:25
It's about 100 miles from Syracuse. You know what? Okay. I don't know if you guys hate Syracuse.
00:48:31
That thing where we go to a city and they hate the next town over, but we don't know.
00:48:35
So they start booing and we're like, why are you booing? We're from L.A. Okay. So she's a typical 80s teenager.
00:48:43
She's a sweet girl. Her friends all say she's just normal and lovely. She loves animals and she wants to be a vet when she grows up.
00:48:51
So she marries Robert, this dude Robert Ocker, right out of high school when she's 19.
00:48:56
He's 10 years older than her. What? And he works in a, what'd you say? Hot. It is.
00:49:04
Man knows what he's doing. It's hot when you're 19 and then you become the age that they were and you're like, what the fuck?
00:49:11
Ew, he doesn't know shit. But when you're 19? Hot. So hot. So hot. A 29-year-old wants to date me and then you become 29 and you're like, that's disgusting.
00:49:21
He just had a job. That's all I like. Yeah, he had a car and a job. So they get married.
00:49:28
He works in a warehouse. They soon have a son they named Matthew, and they need to make more money.
00:49:33
So Lori, wanting to be a vet and loving animals, gets a job at a pet store in the local Susquehanna Mall.
00:49:41
Yes, okay. You're fine. And this, you know, this isn't a pet store. Like, they sell pet products.
00:49:46
This is the 80s, so they probably sell pets. But don't get mad. It's just how it was at the time.
00:49:51
I mean, you could truly get a monkey if you wanted. You could get a full-size Gila monster.
00:49:57
There was bunnies. They were all in the same cage. You get to pet them and just put them back.
00:50:02
Touch your eyes. It was great. All at the mall. Yeah, but she loved animals. That's where she worked.
00:50:12
And she'd take her son, Matthew, there. He was like a little baby. She'd take him there whenever she wasn't working.
00:50:17
And he loved animals. And she just showed him all the animals and wanted him to be friendly with them.
00:50:22
Very sweet. Okay, so after he's born, though, Lori and Robert start having problems.
00:50:27
And Lori's not happy because Rob is super controlling. She had to answer a million questions before she was allowed to leave the house.
00:50:36
Fucking old guys. Yeah. Where are you going? What are you doing? How many fingers am I holding up?
00:50:43
I don't know. I couldn't think of another one. Shut up and take your osteoporosis medicine, Dad.
00:50:52
and he used physical discipline when he was upset with his kid so she was like fuck this shit
00:51:02
they're fighting all the time and so they separate after 18 months of marriage um and
00:51:07
laurie and her baby matthew move in with her parents while robert moves back in with his
00:51:12
parents and he has visitation rights with matthew so let's get to the day of the disappearance
00:51:18
Oh, there's a disappearance, by the way. Oh, let me show you the Sasquahanna Mall
00:51:28
Vintage. I tried to find old photos of it, but it didn't work. Sasquahanna Valley Mall.
00:51:34
Here's this dick. Is there a slight pronunciation difference? Sasquahanna. Okay, thank you.
00:51:46
Sasquahanna. That's Squehanna. Jesus Christ. If you, if you, you just wait till you get up here.
00:51:57
That's that asshole. There he is. Oh, okay. Okay. He seems so old. He's 10 years older.
00:52:04
Gross. Than what? So, okay. May 21st, 1st, 24th. May 21st? Nothing. Okay. May 24th, 1989.
00:52:16
Your favorite year. Well, it was right after my birthday, so I was still hungover.
00:52:21
My birthday's on the 11th. So Lori's getting ready to go to work. It's her normal shift, four to nine at the pet store.
00:52:33
And Matthew, the son, is with Robert that day. So she packs her lunch and leaves for work.
00:52:39
And in forensic files, because they have to do foreshadowing, she picks up her cat and hugs it and puts it back down.
00:52:45
And you're like, that's got to mean something. Stephen. Stephen, what does that cat symbolism mean?
00:52:53
And this cat must have been fucking drugged because it was just like, great. It totally let her do it in the TV show.
00:53:00
Could it have been like a Jim Henson cat puppet? Maybe. Really realistic? Yeah. I wonder how they got the cat actor because they couldn't have a budget for it.
00:53:10
So they're probably like, does anyone on set have a cat that's super chill? Could you just bring your cat and then we just don't talk about it?
00:53:15
Don't call a union? We'll give him some CBD. It'll be fine. So hugs her cat, goes to work.
00:53:23
Okay, so about a half an hour later, there's a call to her house and her dad picks up.
00:53:29
And it's her boss. Where is Lori, of course? And he's like, what do you mean? She already left for work.
00:53:34
So he drives the route thinking maybe her car had broken down. But he doesn't find her.
00:53:40
then he goes to the parking lot of her work at the mall and he finds her car there. And in the
00:53:48
car is her purse and keys No they not No they not Nothing seems out of place and her purse and keys are gone They gone Yeah Yeah Yeah They not there They not there It the opposite Yeah I had two I had 50 50 chance of getting that right
00:54:08
Hey, look, look, you're still an all-star. Thank you. Um, okay. And she's nowhere to be found
00:54:16
and her parents report her missing. Um, Lori's disappearance fucking sends this small town
00:54:21
crazy. They are all, it's like a conservative community, the normal shit. Um, and they couldn't
00:54:27
believe someone had been abducted in broad fucking daylight. So they canvassed the area,
00:54:31
they questioned employees and shoppers, but no one saw anything suspicious. And they obviously
00:54:36
immediately suspect Robert, her ex. Um, but he claims he hadn't seen Lori all day. He was
00:54:43
babysitting their son that he went shopping and then, you know, I went to these things and I did
00:54:46
this stuff. And they're like, great. Goodbye. So he has details and everything. And he said he
00:54:56
bought a dishwasher for his mom. And she was like, it's true. So they're like, great.
00:55:01
They're like, great. We'll never talk to you again. That's all we need. So the public, Felice, family, friends, and volunteers continue searching for Lori with
00:55:10
no success. But then on June 12th, about two and a half weeks after Lori's disappearance,
00:55:14
A woman jogging a few miles from the mall smells something bad, and she went to investigate, which means she was definitely an old school vintage murderer now.
00:55:24
For sure. Yeah. She went to investigate, and she spots skeletal remains in a ditch along a hillside south of an area called Seven Points.
00:55:34
So the remains—hold it. This is about to be bad. The remains are dressed in a jacket, jeans, and sneakers.
00:55:43
So it's Lori's outfit, but it's skeletal remains at that point. And there's no skin.
00:55:48
There's nothing to pinpoint how long she had been there for. But they are able to determine it's Lori's body.
00:55:57
But so... Okay. Oh, God. Okay. So he sees it's Lori. He determines from... And this is all kind of new forensic stuff back then
00:56:09
that they didn't really do anymore or yet. So, again, I almost had it. You're there.
00:56:14
You're there. So, of course, they see cut marks through the clothes and on the bones and realize that she had been stabbed at least 7 to 11 times.
00:56:26
And so she's identified by dental comparisons, but no murder weapons found at the scene.
00:56:31
And so investigators bring in an entomologist to determine the cause of death or the time of death,
00:56:36
which is kind of a new fangled thing where they check how old the bugs are. You know, have they graduated high school yet or whatever?
00:56:43
Yeah. And calculate that Lori's been dead for 19 days, which places her exactly the day that she disappeared.
00:56:51
So then police are then like, it's been 20 days. You know what we should have done?
00:56:56
They say, let's go and see if any of the mall stores had a camera facing the parking lot.
00:57:03
You know what we should do now? They said. Yeah. 20 days later. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
00:57:08
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's what they do automatically now, though. Yes. You'd hope. Okay.
00:57:16
So they discover an ATM, not an ATM machine, near the entrance of the mall. Because it is an ATM.
00:57:23
I wasn't, yeah. Yeah, ATM machine. That's right. ATM. ATM. So they find out in an ATM, there's a camera basically pointing at the parking lot.
00:57:33
It's been taped over, so it's super fuzzy, but they can still, I don't know, make it be seen.
00:57:38
I'm not a videographer. Oh, well, if you're not a videographer, you shouldn't be telling this story.
00:57:44
So they find the camera aimed in the direction of Lori's car on the day of her disappearance.
00:57:51
The images just show a man making a bank transaction. And in the background, out of focus, they see Lori's car pull in.
00:57:58
And then a car pulls in in front of her car. And an identified person is standing by.
00:58:06
But they can't fucking see anything because it's super blurry. So state prosecutors asked the Pennsylvania State Police Lab and the FBI for help.
00:58:13
Awesome. So the FBI asks NASA for help because they couldn't improve anything. Yes, this is a first.
00:58:22
We've never gone to NASA for help in the history of this show. Fucking NASA. Yes.
00:58:31
And they're like, we mostly do moon stuff, so no, sorry. But it makes total sense because they have this sophisticated digital photo enhancement technology that improves space pictures.
00:58:47
You just went from expert to non-expert in one sentence. That's me. Me too. They refer her case to a research scientist in the Ballistic Missile Field Organization.
00:59:02
whatever. And so he uses a technique similar to the one that was used to determine the cause of
00:59:08
the Challenger explosion in 1986. And he digitally enhances the black and white surveillance footage.
00:59:15
Awesome. Now we can see it. I forgot to get a photo of it for you. But it's good.
00:59:23
It's like a spaceship and a guy kind of in slow motion coming down. He puts a flag.
00:59:28
He jumps around a little bit, and there's an ATM machine in the background. That's how you know it's fake.
00:59:37
So they're able to identify the kind of car that pulled up next to Lori's car as a Chevrolet celebrity,
00:59:45
and they can even tell it was made between 1982 and 1985. Because that's the only time Chevy celebrities were made.
00:59:51
Is it? I don't know. Have you seen one lately? There's one. Oh it gorgeous Hold on a second That not the one but this is one Remember those handles Look at how they parked it in front of a mansion
01:00:06
Right. As if. Uh-huh. Tell me you wouldn't drive that. That is the poor man's Volvo right there.
01:00:15
Yeah, that's true. Look at it. It's a beauty. So they're like, oh, let's look into Robert, Lori's ex.
01:00:24
Does he own a Chevy celebrity? No, but his parents do. Made in 1984. Right in there.
01:00:31
That's it. Robert's parents told police that Rob borrowed their car on the day of Lori's disappearance,
01:00:37
and they sold the car a week after he returned it. Interesting. And neighbors were like, we saw him fucking frantically cleaning that car.
01:00:44
But so just the parents had planned on selling the car to begin with. So they're not accomplices.
01:00:49
Right. So it seems like he kind of knew that, and so took the car at the right moment,
01:00:53
because they knew it was going to be gone. But then he's dumb enough to frantically clean the car in the driveway.
01:00:59
Yeah. Rob. Murders. Come on. Jesus. It's so, like, the number one thing. Every fucking murderer has a clean car.
01:01:06
It's like the number one thing. Stop it. I mean, do it. Whatever. Stop it. Don't start it, maybe.
01:01:13
Don't kill people. That's what we mean. Okay, but guess who had bought the car? The celebrity?
01:01:21
Was it a celebrity? No. Oh, yes. A retired state police officer. Yes. Hell yes. So they're like, can we borrow that? And he's like, abso-fucking-lutely.
01:01:32
That's right. I don't know what I was thinking in the first place. You can have it.
01:01:37
How sad is this? He bought it for his stepdaughter, who wasn't old enough to drive yet,
01:01:42
so was just sitting in the garage untouched, waiting for her to be 16. Maybe she flunked her fucking driving test.
01:01:48
You'll have this celebrity when you pass here. I saw those wine coolers under your bed.
01:01:53
No celebrity for you. But stepdad, you're not my real father. You're not my real father.
01:01:59
You're just a state policeman that's really good at handling evidence. Hopefully.
01:02:04
Please, God. Okay, so they get the vehicle. They test it for prints and trace evidence.
01:02:09
They don't find anything. There's no blood, of course, because it's been cleaned.
01:02:14
But it hasn't been cleaned well enough because in the trunk, forensics people discover.
01:02:21
A couple little strands of hair. And they put it under the microscope. Guess what?
01:02:26
It's fucking cat hair. Oh. Yeah. Lint roller. Get out of here, lint roller. Suddenly, pet hair isn't so bad, is it?
01:02:41
No, it's not. No. And they also, let's see, they also find a couple strands of her hair, too.
01:02:49
but they're able to know that Robert doesn't have a cat. He never lived with them when they had the cat.
01:02:54
He has no access to a cat, it said, which is like... That's tragic. Your Honor, he simply had no cat access.
01:03:06
Not at home, not at work. He wasn't allowed at the pet store. Truly my worst nightmare.
01:03:15
If you were denied cat access... How many times have I looked at them in the cat cam today at home?
01:03:21
Six? 16. Probably. My dad's watching the cats, and when I first turned the cat cam on to stare at them,
01:03:32
it makes a noise, and I see him go, hello, like put his head in there. Hello. Marty.
01:03:39
Marty. It's the cat and dad cam, actually. just catch him eating a handful of peanuts or whatever dads do when they're alone what are like
01:03:52
you can put cat treats in the machine what if i just put peanuts in it and to get marty to come in just fucking he's jumping up and catch intercepting them
01:04:02
fighting elvis off what oh that's not the kind i like that's your kind that's not my kind
01:04:07
Just a mix of cat treats and peanuts. George's trail mix. That's right. Promo code murder.
01:04:16
Promo code murder. So, okay, so they arrest Rob for the murder of his estranged wife, Lori,
01:04:25
and based on the cat hair evidence, and during the arrest, when they tell him, Rob said,
01:04:30
you've got to be kidding me. Fucking asshole. Okay, so prosecutors believe the surveillance photos support their theory that Lori was abducted in the parking lot.
01:04:40
So they reconstruct the crime scene by the photos that NASA, you know, did school shit to.
01:04:46
Developed. And they see that the Chevy he was driving was in the mall parking lot.
01:04:53
And they see her kind of, it sounds, it seems like they, like, she got out of the car to go to work.
01:05:01
he who had the kid that day probably was like oh my god you have to come with me there's something wrong with Matthew
01:05:06
so she jumps in the car because she thinks something's wrong with her kid and then they don't really know what happens after that
01:05:10
until she's missing so prosecutors allege that he had two possible motives first was that he had taken out an insurance policy
01:05:21
on Lori and his son and listed himself as a beneficiary and he took that out after they separated
01:05:28
which I feel like you need to prove you're still married if you're going to take out a fucking life insurance policy.
01:05:32
I know there's a lot going on in this country right now, but if we could, at some point,
01:05:37
when this shit stops rolling, if we could take a look at these insurance... Yeah.
01:05:42
I mean, arrest anyone who has an insurance policy for their spouse above, what, 50 grand?
01:05:49
You know, 10. 10! Yeah. My guy fucking shot Grady Stiles for That right I mean fuck That true That true Fuck I called him my guy That embarrassing
01:06:06
You're a best friend. And the payout, oh, hey, the payout for criminal homicide was $10,000.
01:06:15
You're psychic. I mean, oh. Oh. Yes. Remember you just said that? Yes, I fucking did.
01:06:23
Irish psychic. Fear me. And of course the other was that they were engaged in a custody dispute over their kid.
01:06:31
And Lori's boyfriend at the time, this dude Malcolm, says that Robert was stalking her.
01:06:37
And Lori's mother had discovered two shotguns under her bed two weeks before she disappeared.
01:06:42
And when she asked her daughter about them, she was like, I'm fucking scared of my ex.
01:06:47
Oh, man. So one of Lori's friends testified that Lori carried mace in her purse in case Rob attacked her.
01:06:54
and the supervisors at work would say he'd come stand outside the window and she'd fucking run in the back.
01:07:00
And they would watch her leave work and walk to her car to make sure nothing happened to her.
01:07:06
But nobody fucking thought, like, on your way to work in broad daylight in a busy fucking mall parking lot, like, it just doesn't cross your mind.
01:07:13
So a background check reveals that Rob had a troubled past. shortly after marrying Lori.
01:07:21
He's convicted of a DUI and serves a stint in prison. And while he's there, okay, while he's in prison, everyone,
01:07:28
he orders a book about how to commit murder and get away with it in prison. So they have like,
01:07:35
it's almost like this classic book series where you can just order. Oh, this Encyclopedia Brown, that's fun.
01:07:43
Oh, and then also a murder book. Yeah, how did, there was no internet. There was no fucking book selling place.
01:07:49
I just feel like the warden should tighten that game up a little bit, don't you?
01:07:52
They did. They got it, and they were like, no. But they knew he had ordered it. They wouldn't give it to him, though.
01:07:59
Oh, good. They just put it in the prison library. Yeah. When you have library access, you can read your book.
01:08:06
You have to earn the privilege of learning how to murder correctly. So in March 1992, Rob Ocker is found guilty of first-degree murder and kidnapping and is sentenced to death.
01:08:18
Shit. But on appeal, the death sentence is vacated, but he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
01:08:23
Yay. Yeah. So Lori's case and NASA's involvement is the first time digital video enhancement is used on a crime scene photo, making it a forensic breakthrough.
01:08:35
and Lori's murder signified a scientific awakening. I'm reading from Forensic Files, obviously.
01:08:41
Yes, do it. I support it. In the forensic world and set a trend of utilizing this same technology,
01:08:46
which is pretty standard now. Countless crimes have been solved because of the technology
01:08:52
used to identify and prosecute the killer of Lori Ann. And that is the story of the murder of Lori Ann Ocker.
01:08:58
Nice. Wow. Bro, from the show last night to this drive, why is it never chill? Because this is our life. Backstage, on the road, it's loud, messy, real.
01:09:15
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01:10:49
And there you go. Heroic Cat. Just the kind of stories we need these days. Yeah, totally.
01:10:54
What about you? What do you have for us? Mine, it's a classic. It's from Salt Lake City.
01:11:00
our Salt Lake City show February 16th, 2018. It's the Donner Party. I mean, this is my Christmas gift to you, everybody.
01:11:11
A horrible story about people wandering in snow. Yeah, you did a great job of this one.
01:11:16
I remember that for sure. And it's a perfect story for when everyone's snuggling in this week that is Christmas.
01:11:23
Yeah, just be snuggle in and don't eat anything for days and days and days. Grateful for what you have and thankful for you.
01:11:30
That's right. Warm. I really appreciate it. You're not a pioneer. You're not trying to cross the Great Salt Lake.
01:11:37
You're not getting bad directions from anybody. No. Anyway, I'll let myself tell the story.
01:11:41
I'm first. Okay. Yeah. Great. And so, with the help of Barbara Gray and Emily Klaassen, I present to you the Donner Party.
01:11:52
What? What? That is like... Uh-uh. What? Next level. Dude. I'm impressed. Okay. Go ahead.
01:12:08
You deserve it. I'm impressed. I just like, that didn't cross my mind. Can I tell you I have a bad memory of, I wasn't in the Donner Party, but.
01:12:18
This whole thing brings up a lot of negative stuff for me. It's really hard for me.
01:12:23
When I, the first, I did Drunk History the first season. Yes, you did, everybody.
01:12:30
Thank you. The best one. My sister Laura thinks it's the best one. It's really good.
01:12:35
It's the episode of, what are they called? Lewis and Clark. But what happened was that same night, they were like, we're going to get two in one night.
01:12:44
So the second one was the Donner Party. And so 12 hours after we had started drinking and had done Lewis and Clark, then we started on the Donner Party.
01:12:52
I don't remember a fucking thing. It was unairable. For drunk history. I was hung over for the rest of my life.
01:13:01
I broke up with my fiance, like, based off of it. I was just like, no. Shut it all down.
01:13:08
Bye. Goodbye. Maybe you can bring it back. Okay. Tell me when things start to come to you.
01:13:13
Please stop me. Okay. Flashes of memory, smells, a single cigarette. I want to hear about every word of it.
01:13:21
Got it. Okay. Did I just burp right into the microphone? I didn't even notice, but now that you mention it, I think you did.
01:13:31
Who's here for the first time tonight? Who's never listened to this podcast before?
01:13:36
The poor people that come for the first time because their significant other is a controlling freak.
01:13:43
Oh, I'm so sorry. We know you want to be home watching professional wrestling. We know.
01:13:54
Okay, all right. there's a lot of details in this that I left out, and I'm not sure we're going to have about a 10-year range of accuracy issues.
01:14:07
Now I just doubt every fucking thing that comes out of my mouth. Why not? And that's our brand.
01:14:12
Excuse me. So it starts out, obviously, with George Donner, his family, his wife, Tamsin.
01:14:21
What a great name. It's his third wife. Whoa. Right? 1846, they're doing it. The flu.
01:14:29
It took a month. It's the flu. Boom. 1846, okay. That just, I don't know why the flu made me laugh that hard.
01:14:39
I loved it. I think we have an oxygen tank. Can we have it on stage? We said some weird things last night.
01:14:46
What was the thing you said about the police line or something? I don't know. Someone might know it.
01:14:55
Yes. What was it? Hoski Restages. Hoski Restages. It was Hoski Restages. Instead of to rescue the hostages.
01:15:02
It was like that moment right when you're like, oh shit, I'm too stoned to be in this record store.
01:15:06
That's what it was like. But up here holding a microphone with y'all. Much like tonight.
01:15:12
Okay, go on. Just like now. So this all starts April 14th, 1846. Okay. Quite some time ago.
01:15:20
Um, George Donner and a man named James F. Reed, they leave Springfield, Illinois, um,
01:15:27
because it's all that manifest destiny shit. They're like, let's go to California.
01:15:31
We've already killed it in the farming game out here in Illinois. Enough. Let's, let's go 2,500 miles West, uh, in wooden machines.
01:15:43
Um, word for word. My, so far the drunk history I did. It's coming back. Word for word.
01:15:47
This is exactly how you said it. Okay. So they... Forget it. Basically, the Reeds and the Donners have their own little wagon train, right?
01:16:07
Then they meet up with a bigger wagon train. It takes them a month. It's May 19th.
01:16:12
They meet up in Independence. They meet up with Colonel William H. Russell's wagon train.
01:16:18
When they meet up and they all combine, it's two miles long. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And it's a lovely spring day.
01:16:27
So then a month later, and there's so many deaths. I mean, these are people that just are out in the middle of nowhere with no doctors or provisions.
01:16:36
Like one slight bruising and they're fucking dead and buried next to the trail. So I can't mention every single person and especially child who died.
01:16:46
I'm skimming. The Wikipedia page on this story is deep and wide, and I suggest you go there.
01:16:54
It also contains the diary entries of a man, I believe he's something, Breen. His last name is Breen.
01:17:03
And he keeps a diary the whole fucking time the Donner Party is stuck at the old pass.
01:17:09
And every day, while everyone around him, oh, spoiler alert, is starving to death,
01:17:14
he gets up and the first thing he writes in his diary is beautiful day today and like after
01:17:20
the 11th one of those I was like fuck this guy, fuck these details I'm not fucking naming every name
01:17:27
alright so this podcast is not called my oh this podcast is called My Favorite Murder
01:17:36
My Favorite Murder, that's right thank you, that's Karen Kilgara that's Georgia Hardstart
01:17:41
This podcast is not called My Favorite Dahmer Murder. That's right. Jeffrey Dahmer?
01:17:47
Yes. Look, listen. So just a quick reset So then also they losing leaders Some person dies and then they like you no longer allowed to be in charge of here So Colonel William Russell resigns and then a guy named Boggs becomes the leader
01:18:05
So then they start calling it the Boggs Company, which is kind of rad. You have to admit a really good title.
01:18:12
They all head to Fort Bridger, which is in the southwest edge of Wyoming. It takes them over a month.
01:18:17
Oh, shit. Hold on. We've got some pictures. Here's these are the Donners. They look like a part of George.
01:18:25
They look like partiers. The Donner party-ers. The one standing has her head cocked ever so slightly, like, yeah, I'm drunk.
01:18:36
So what? It's the fucking 1850s. It sucks. And then here's the reads. Oh, man. Doesn't he look like Gabriel Byrne?
01:18:51
Like crazy? I don't know who that is. The Irish actor. He's your favorite. Okay.
01:18:58
Oh, yeah. She is. And she looks like the lady from Game of Thrones who nursed her child for too long.
01:19:05
Doesn't she? The most haunting image I've ever seen in my life. Ew. So great. So now you know who the players are.
01:19:19
Oh, there you go. Okay, so you guys are going to recognize that when I start talking about it right now.
01:19:28
Okay, so it takes them a month to get there. And on the way, this guy, his name is Lanford Hastings.
01:19:33
And he starts spreading a rumor that there's a shortcut across the Salt Lake Desert.
01:19:40
So normally they go this. I think this actually Stephen made a map. Oh, Stephen.
01:19:45
So check this shit out. That's amazing. Sorry. Stephen pulled a map off the internet that someone else who read books and studied and cared.
01:19:56
Okay. So they're starting over there far to the right at Fort Bridger. Okay. And they're supposed to go up, like up over there to kind of avoid all the bad parts of the desert.
01:20:06
Okay. But Landford Hastings is like, psst, you guys. Oh, man, they named it after him too because they were like, fuck you.
01:20:14
Everyone's going to remember because we're naming it after you. That's right. No, he told everybody there was a shortcut.
01:20:21
And so George Donner and Reed were like, yes, our wives are bitching at us. This sucks.
01:20:29
We need to cut at least 40 days off this trip. And everybody else in the Boggs company, it sounds like they're all wearing vests with pocket watches.
01:20:39
But everybody else in the Boggs company is like, absolutely not. What are you fucking thinking?
01:20:44
Yeah. because we know not only is it going around the worst part, but it's a trail.
01:20:51
People have gone down it before. Come to find out, Lanford Hastings had never gone down his shortcut before,
01:20:58
so it was all just an act of love. He just believed in the shortcut, and he was trying to take some people down with him.
01:21:05
So they end up... Oh, yeah, I just wrote. so they just want to get to California
01:21:14
so they can finally get tan. That's a waste of time, Karen. Just write facts down
01:21:21
and maybe it'll be a better podcast. Get the date right first. Okay. Also, just in life,
01:21:33
keep an eye out for the Lanford Hastings because they're everywhere and they'll always be like,
01:21:39
oh yeah, yeah, we're all going to go out. We're gonna go to this restaurant. It's gonna be great. And then you show up there and you have a party of 12 and there's only tables for eight or whatever and it fucks up the whole night. There's always a person that's like, I got this. And they don't fucking got it. And you have to, you have to keep your eyes peeled for these people and you have to overpower them.
01:21:57
Because if they can't plan for the group, if they can't think for the group, if it's all centered on them, no way. Get them out.
01:22:08
Got it. That is important to me. But, okay, never mind. No, you can, devils advocate away.
01:22:18
I mean, don't take a shortcut, you know? So you're on my side. Yes. I mean, yes.
01:22:27
The problem is, and this is the thing that's the overarching thing, as you know, as your mind deep down knows,
01:22:34
is that they're fighting against time. Yeah. Because it's late spring going to summer, or maybe even summer.
01:22:40
So they have to get past this past before winter actually hits. Right. Right? Yeah.
01:22:46
Yeah, but I don't want a Donner shame, but don't go. Don't follow this person you just met who probably smells real bad.
01:22:56
They all smell bad. I mean. And following was a whole big thing. That was the thing.
01:23:01
I was like, follow me to California. Yeah. Okay. All right. Follow me for 2,000 miles.
01:23:06
Get good at following me. Okay. So, uh, hold on. Okay, so then they decide. So Reed decides to go and Donner decides to go,
01:23:24
and they elect Donner to be the leader of the group, therefore retitling the smaller group that took the shortcut,
01:23:32
the Donner Party. It's a pterodactyl? Okay. Just trying to set the scene. Okay, so on
01:23:50
July 31st, 1846, get that oxygen out here quickly The Donner Party is comprised of 74 people 20 wagons They leave Fort Bridger It doesn go well So it starts off okay they in Hastings Trail
01:24:05
He's like a couple days ahead of them. They're just following where he went. Everything's good.
01:24:10
They're making good time. Five days in, they find a note left by Hastings saying that the road ahead is impassable.
01:24:16
Oh, fuck. Oh, sorry, we can only seat four people in this booth. I guess everyone else is just going to stand in the middle of the fucking restaurant
01:24:22
with their ass on other people's fucking tables. Or it's that thing where they're like,
01:24:26
well, we'll just, we'll break up and we'll just break up. And then you're left with the people you don't really know
01:24:30
and didn't work like. We're here for it. Yeah. You're not central. Yeah, you were like, I came here for that fucker
01:24:36
who didn't play over here. And now I'm just sit with your cousin. This guy that you work with?
01:24:39
And his cousin. Get out of here. And then it's high tea. You have to eat tiny sandwiches.
01:24:48
Nobody. To be quiet the whole time. So James Reed and two other guys run ahead. They fucking meet Hastings.
01:24:56
This is the best. Hastings walks them back. They go walk up to the top of a mountain.
01:25:00
And then Hastings goes, okay, so we were going to go that way. Go this way. From the top of a mountain.
01:25:05
He points to the new trail. I'm tired just hearing about it. I mean, hours and hours in a bumpy, like basically on a picnic bench that's bumping up and down.
01:25:18
Yeah. No. Okay. Thank you. On August 30th, they reach Redleum Spring. It's the last source of water before they cross the desert.
01:25:31
So they collect up, obviously, tons of water, a ton of grass for the animals. 87 people, 23 wagons, set out across the desert on the shortcut.
01:25:42
On the third day, they run out of water. Oh, that was fast. I thought you collected up all the spring water.
01:25:48
Okay. So it takes them five days altogether to get to the foot of Pilot Peak. They have lost 38 head of cattle on the way.
01:26:02
Most of them are reeds. Four wagons broke and had to just be abandoned, so people just had to leave their old-fashioned trunk of shit in the middle of the desert.
01:26:12
Imagine if you found it. So jealous. It's like a handmade cloth doll. blocks that the dad carved for the child.
01:26:25
Oh my God. But then porn. I was going to say, what if it's got the flu on it? The flu, the old flu bug that's been eradicated.
01:26:38
You're like, porn. Yeah. 1980, 18 something porn. Flu. Face full of flu. It's the episode of House.
01:26:48
Then they have to come back and inspect the trunk. All the doctors, even though no doctor would leave the hospital for you ever.
01:26:56
It's personal. It was supposed to take them a week on this shortcut. It took them a month.
01:27:03
Perfect. Right? So just how you want. They arrive. They take stock. They realize they don't have enough provisions for the rest of the trip.
01:27:11
So they send two young men, Charles Stanton and William McCutcheon, ahead to Sutter's Fort to request more.
01:27:17
Sutter's Fort is like north of Sacramento, I believe. It's definitely in California.
01:27:26
Isn't it? Pretty sure. Make it up. There it is. Yes, I was fucking right. Fuck all of you.
01:27:33
Whoops. Okay. Sorry. I didn't mean the last part. How is this our job? I know. It's so rude.
01:27:42
I apologize. Oh, no. Okay. Okay. So, after fuck you, what was I going to say after fuck you?
01:27:53
Okay. They get there. I'm going to say it. So, it's the beginning of October. The Donner Party, no time's running out.
01:28:03
They have to fucking hustle up the Humboldt River. Somewhere around October 11th, Paiute Indians kill 21 of the Donner Party's oxen,
01:28:11
which is kind of a great way to take people out. They just fucking killed a bunch of them.
01:28:15
18 are stolen a couple more are wounded so over 100 of the oxen are now gone can we leave the animals out of this shit please
01:28:24
well and also the food and the way wagons get pulled sometimes poor animals are like this fucking sucks
01:28:30
we want to stay in Chicago or Illinois or the fucker from we don't care about the sunshine in California
01:28:35
we're worshipped in Chicago they love us there California is a bunch of fucking assholes
01:28:41
for one second I thought you had said support oxen and I was like that's the best idea
01:28:45
in the world to fucking go into a sushi restaurant with a fucking bison. Like, it's, I'm so stressed out.
01:28:53
Oh my God, emotional support oxen. My emotional support oxen. You can't do shit about it.
01:28:59
I have a little blue vest for it. And that is now the law in America. He's just fucking ripping shit up.
01:29:06
I don't know, what do oxen act like? At Starbucks, I'm just eating all the sandwiches.
01:29:10
Don't stop it, Rusty. I told you no. Okay. Adopt, don't shop for oxen. Please don't buy bison anymore, you guys.
01:29:27
There's so many stray bison. Then fucking... So when Charles comes back... I'm going to keep going.
01:29:37
He has seven mules loaded with provisions and two Native American guides named Luis, or Luis maybe, and Salvador.
01:29:47
And he also brings the good news that there's still a month. The Cierras should still be open for a month.
01:29:54
They can still cross the path Great Let go for it If they like it my birthday month let fucking do this This will be great I am going to live it up this month I going to drink so many ladles of water
01:30:05
Don't even. So the problem is on October 28th, a huge snowstorm strikes and they're trapped at Truckee Lake, which is bad fucking news
01:30:16
because I went to college in my short stint at college. There were two girls from Truckee in my dorm and they were fucking scary.
01:30:22
but like i was legit scared of them oh my god it's a serious area so they're trapped at truckee
01:30:30
lake snow starts piling up they have to build shelters and cabins real fast um they can't they
01:30:37
can't move on and this is this is where it becomes this horrifying groundhog's day of people trying
01:30:45
to leave a place and climb a mountain and the snow coming and then them coming back it just keeps
01:30:50
happening over and over. It's not fun like with Bill Murray. No. There's no wonderful
01:30:56
Andy McDowell essence in it. Hair. Jesus. Okay, so they try a couple times. Weather beats them back. Their food supply is almost
01:31:08
gone. They know they have to go get help. Finally, on December 16th, they've been there for quite
01:31:14
some time. They decide the 15 strongest people that aren't slowly wasting away. People were eating shoelaces and they're giving the children animal bones to like, yeah,
01:31:28
bad news. So they make their own snowshoes and they're like, we can do it. And they go out to
01:31:35
try to get to fucking Sutter's Fort to get help. So they thought they were going to reach by their
01:31:43
maps or whatever. They thought they'd reach California in six days. Oh, also they named
01:31:48
themselves because I guess they had to just name their parties always. So just to keep it upbeat
01:31:54
and positive, they named their party the forlorn hope. Oh, oh man. People, they're like walking up
01:32:03
and then people are like shutting their curtains like such a bummer. I do not want to hang out
01:32:08
with them. So they think it's going to take six days. And it does. No. Cut to two weeks later.
01:32:20
Provisions have run out. Several members of the party have gone snow blind. They're all exhausted.
01:32:26
And then on Christmas Day a blizzard hits. And they're out in the middle of nowhere.
01:32:32
They have no shelter. Come on, Santa. Get it together. Not cool. I wish for more shoelaces to chew on.
01:32:44
They're actually, it's so bad, they're caught out in the snow, they make a ring, they take their blankets,
01:32:49
and they put their blankets over themselves like fucking children in a fort while the snow falls on them.
01:32:55
What a bummer. It is bad news. Also, I hate being cold so fucking much. It makes me so mad.
01:33:03
Anyhow. We're having fun here. We love it so much. I like being inside when it's cold outside.
01:33:10
Yeah, yeah. That makes me feel superior. But not in a blizzard outside. No, no, no, no, no.
01:33:13
Uh-uh. You don't want to touch it. So they decide, in the night, eight people die from that.
01:33:24
So they decide, oh no, sorry, before eight people die, this group, the forlorn lovers,
01:33:30
they decide they're going to kill somebody for food. Oh. So they have everybody draw lots.
01:33:39
And the one guy that gets the short lot, nobody can bring themselves to kill him.
01:33:45
So then they're like, forget it. And then another snowstorm hits. That's when the eight people die.
01:33:53
And then they're like, well, dinner's served. Exactly right. It's in there, girl.
01:33:58
I stole it from you, though. You had a minute. I'm sorry. No. Okay. Dinner is served.
01:34:04
then I'm going to own it. Okay. It's hot. Feel my hand. No, it's... Oh, shit. I feel crazy.
01:34:14
Okay. You look at your hand. I don't have oily skin. Okay. So, yes, they turned to cannibalism.
01:34:27
They, from the people who died in the night, they removed the meat from the bodies.
01:34:33
They eat it all while weeping and turned away from each other. As you do with cannibalism.
01:34:39
It's not like, oh my God, did you see that fucking tree? The leaves out here are nuts.
01:34:45
We have to come back next fall, these leaves. Oh, what a bummer. I've seen the movie alive.
01:34:52
I know what it's like. That movie, when it starts, I'm like, I can't do this. And then an hour and a half later, I'm like, we've done it.
01:35:00
Why did I get to watch that when I was 11? that was a fucking mistake because you need to know that a plane could always crash well i'm
01:35:06
never afraid i don't need all of his annex on planes now that's why that's why that and la
01:35:11
bomba i was like fuck no i'm not flying when i was a little kid that was a surprise ending in la
01:35:17
bomba i didn't see it coming as a kid he was so beautiful and he had so much to give okay
01:35:24
listen look they cut up the bodies and package it obviously because they're they still need to
01:35:33
keep eating but they label the packaging so no one eats their relative sorry it's just a fact
01:35:39
i mean great i'm glad that's awesome but still don't come on let's not so are you okay yes i'm
01:35:48
going to make this. If they can make it, I can. No, wait, they didn't make it. They had cannibalized
01:35:58
seven of their eight They thought the trip would take six days. It took them 33.
01:36:04
They finally arrive at Johnson's Ranch on January 17th, 1847. Hey, fucking men. It's five women and two men.
01:36:11
Okay, so the news of what's going on with the... Thank you. She's glad the men died and not the women, I think.
01:36:24
I'm not fucking kidding. Like, they're all bummed. They're all, can we make you guys some dinner?
01:36:33
We're here. Guess we'll go cook now. We're starving to death. And that's the day feminism started.
01:36:43
Don't cheer for that. Okay. So the word of how insane it's gotten gets back to Sutter's Fort
01:36:52
and a rescue party gets sent out. It takes the soldiers 18 days. This is also the frustrating part of doing this research.
01:36:59
everything takes 18 days and it's fucking infuriating so you think like oh the rescue
01:37:03
party and it's like it's a month away yeah um so one of the rescuers recalls when they arrived at
01:37:11
the truckee lake encampment he said at sunset we crossed truckee lake on the ice we came to the
01:37:16
spot where we had been told we should find the emigrants with an e uh we looked all around but
01:37:21
no living thing except ourselves was in sight we raised a loud hello and then we saw a woman emerge
01:37:26
from a hole in the snow. She had long, black, wet hair hanging down in front of her face
01:37:36
and a wet nightgown on. She was whispering something. As we approached her, several others made their appearance
01:37:45
in the manner coming out of the snow. They were gaunt with famine and I never can forget
01:37:51
the horrible, ghastly sight they presented. The first woman spoke in a hollow voice,
01:37:56
very much agitated and said, are you men from California or do you come from heaven?
01:38:02
Oh, honey. I'm sorry about that acting. That ruined it. Isn't that horrifying? And then they started scratching at his skin.
01:38:12
Sorry. So they're all on the verge of death. They had started eating, so they had covered their roofs in animal hides.
01:38:20
They had started eating the animal hides off the roofs because there was no food.
01:38:24
They were fighting over the animal hides. Like cotton fucking candy. Oh, that's creepy.
01:38:29
It's not good. Because you're just chewing and chewing. Babies were being fed ice melt mixed with a pinch of flour.
01:38:40
That's all they got to have. I told you about the children and the shoelaces and the animal bones.
01:38:44
11 people were dead from starvation, and there was evidence at cannibalism at this camp, too.
01:38:50
They started calling it starvation camp. It got even lower than the original depressing name.
01:38:56
Yes, exactly. They're like, oh, the forlorn bum-outs? Hold on, we can beat this.
01:39:03
In mid-February, John Sutter, who was the proprietor of Sutter's Fort, and Captain Edward Kern, the temporary commander,
01:39:11
offered $3 a day to anyone who would join a rescue party and go help. So between February 21st and April 17th of 1847,
01:39:19
they sent four relief parties to the Donner Party encampment, starved camp. Now, it seems like good news.
01:39:27
When I got to this part in my story, I was like, I'm pretty much done, and I went and had high tea downstairs.
01:39:34
But it turned out when I got back that this was when even more of the pain started
01:39:39
because, of course, there was only a certain amount of people that were in these rescue parties,
01:39:43
But there were, I think, over 80, almost 90 people altogether, less a couple that had died so far.
01:39:52
And so it was, again, this thing of they're going, they're rescuing, are you strong enough to even leave?
01:39:58
So they would leave, they would start up the mountain, the snow would hit, and they would fucking have to come back to starvation camp.
01:40:04
Fuck. Yeah. So the first relief party to get across the pass had 23 members that were strong enough to get out.
01:40:13
Two died during the journey. Two went back. They couldn't take it. The second relief party arrived on March 1st.
01:40:20
They found significant evidence of cannibalism. I think that was from up there, too.
01:40:25
Oh, no. The words are slightly different. It's probably all over the place. It's a sprinkling of cannibalism all around the mountain.
01:40:30
Yeah. Here and there, the second relief left with 17 survivors on March 3rd. A blizzard strikes on March 5th.
01:40:40
It lasts two days. Two people die. Most of them return to starvation camp. Oh, what a bummer to be like, you know what's a better option?
01:40:48
Let's go back to this fucking list. Let's go to Chicago in one of those hotels. Oh, sorry.
01:40:55
I've been saying starvation camp. It's starved camp. Is that why you guys are so mad?
01:41:00
Okay They try again in mid and they forced to return yet again When another blizzard hits by the time the third relief party arrives on March 12th more survivors had died and been cannibalized And when they left two days later they only take four survivors with them
01:41:18
Five people stay behind, including George Donner and his wife Tasman and a man named Louis Kesseberg.
01:41:25
Near the end of that month, George Donner dies. His wife dies, I think, a day or two later.
01:41:30
And then when the fourth relief arrives on April 17th, Lewis Kesseberg is the only person alive and he is surrounded by half-eaten corpses.
01:41:42
Is that true? I like to think so. So horrifying. So he was the last member of the Donner Party to reach Sutter's Fort and he got there on April 29th, 1847.
01:41:55
1847. In June of 1847, when the army fucking gets there to figure out what happened, and it takes that long because the snow was so bad on the pass, they get there, they gather up all of the cannibalized remains, put them into the remaining cabin, and they burn to the ground.
01:42:14
so 89 people were in the Donner party of those 41 died 48 survived none of the Donner adults lived
01:42:22
but most James Reed who was the guy that started out with them and it is certain
01:42:27
I didn't put this in but it's very detailed but basically at one point early on he gets into a fight with a guy
01:42:34
and stabs him to death gets ostracized from the group and then he's like tells his wife and kids
01:42:39
I'll meet you in California and he fucking bails out and then he comes back around
01:42:44
and he was in the second relief party that came to rescue people, and most of the Reeds lived.
01:42:51
Wow. So don't fucking worry about him. Okay. They did great. And, oh, the guy's name was Patrick Breen.
01:43:01
I highly recommend you go online and read Patrick Breen's diary of total fucking starvation insanity,
01:43:07
where every day is clean and crisp and beautiful, and he's just a little bit more starving.
01:43:15
That's the Donner Party, everybody. Oh, man, that is harrowing. Harrowing. Come on.
01:43:23
Great job. What a thing. Great. What a thing to have gone through. All right. And then now we're going to give you a little hometown
01:43:30
from our London show from May 12, 2018. That's right. It was from the Hammersmith Apollo.
01:43:37
Check it out. It's a good one. Boom. Boom. Do we have time for a very quick hometown?
01:43:42
Yes. Whoever told our bracelets. Okay, good. I'm going to tell you the rules really, really quick of a hometown.
01:43:55
You may have heard these before, but I'll say it for the people who've never listened to our podcast.
01:44:01
God bless your souls. I'm so sorry about everything that's happened tonight. so this is the whole part where we are going to
01:44:09
call somebody up to tell their hometown murder now listen you're going to want to
01:44:15
tell it in a concise clear, quick manner you have to remember that if you get picked
01:44:21
everyone who didn't get picked hates your guts so they're not going to watch you
01:44:25
shout out your family and do a bunch of shit just come up and tell it it really needs to have an ending
01:44:32
that's a key to all storytelling beginning, middle, end don't leave us hanging don't tell us how confused and upset
01:44:39
everyone was that they never got an answer because then we'll be mad at you because then we'll be confused and upset
01:44:45
you can't be so drunk that you can't follow your own storyline that's very we've had that one before and it's funny and charming
01:44:53
but also boring as fuck so you can be super buzz but as long as you can power through it
01:44:59
and you know hold your own line of logic that's key and I think that's it right Local. It should be local.
01:45:06
Oh, yeah. Don't bring some Arizona shit up here. No one wants to hear that. We want a fucking London murder or story, whatever you have.
01:45:14
Close by, yeah. Georgia will pick the person at random right now. Don't fuck this up, everyone.
01:45:20
Pick the moth. Pick the moth. No. Vince Abrel, everybody. What are you pointing at?
01:45:30
Oh, yeah, yeah. There he is. He looks like your prince, doesn't he? Hi, come here
01:45:38
Hi Come here, come over here It's scary, I know Hi What's your name? Hi Alice, come here
01:45:57
Here, you center up and do a nice stage picture She did the classic Me? Look around.
01:46:05
Yeah, yeah. Could it be me? Okay, where are you from? I'm from Rotherham, which is in the north of England.
01:46:12
Is it anywhere near where they shoot the television show Vera which I love A bit further a bit further north Vera Is it a bit further Okay But I going to break one rule you just said Uh It from Rotherham
01:46:27
My murder. It's from what? Rotherham's where the crime is. Oh, from where you're from.
01:46:31
Okay, no, that's fine. That's fine. And it's not a murder, but it is a pretty bad one that I'm sure you guys will like.
01:46:39
Oh, okay. Cool. So, it's the Rotherham Shoe Rapist. Oh. Ooh. I never knew about this.
01:46:48
I saw it on a documentary last year, which was pretty weird because it's like where we live.
01:46:52
So in the 80s, there was a rapist. He was getting women on their way home from nights out
01:46:58
because in the north, we just walk home. We don't get taxis. He was getting women when they were walking home
01:47:08
through parks and stuff like that, and he was stealing their shoes after he raped them.
01:47:12
so this guy did it for about six years and then he just disappeared off the face of the earth
01:47:18
there was a young junior detective at the time she was called Sue Hickman only woman's name I can remember out of the entire story
01:47:25
Sue was an absolute she got this and when she finally made detective in the early 2000s
01:47:32
she looked at quite what's going off now with the Golden State Killer she decided to look into familial DNA
01:47:40
yeah But in the UK, you can get your DNA took for pretty much anything now if you commit a crime.
01:47:48
Cool. She got some hits. 3,000. She spent four years. She got it down to six people that she thought were related to him.
01:47:58
How many years? About four or five it was, yeah. It took her that long? Yes. Well, she was only doing it part-time whilst doing, you know, crimes that were happening.
01:48:06
Rotherham's pretty rough. and she she's multitasking she was getting it all covered okay so and she was on number three of her
01:48:18
list this lady was arrested for drink driving and she gave her dna and when they did the test it was
01:48:24
she said do you have any brothers she said yeah i've got a brother but i don't talk to him anymore
01:48:27
she says all right well try and get me some information on that and left immediately after
01:48:32
she left, the lady clearly lied. She rang her brother. She told him that she just had this lady here talking about some rapes.
01:48:38
He put the phone down. Within minutes, the police were called. There was a man trying to kill himself in Rotherham.
01:48:46
By the time they got there. She loves that part of the story. She fucking loves it.
01:48:55
Well, he wasn't very good at it. His son found it, stopped it. He was an adult. He's fine.
01:49:00
so he got arrested well the police were there they thought he was pretty weird they took him to the hospital
01:49:06
and they kept an officer with him this guy was just your regular PC and he said something weird about this guy
01:49:12
he was motoring a lot of stuff and he arrested him for a crime that he did not know had happened
01:49:16
he said I think it happened in the 80s I think you raped somebody and I think there was a victim
01:49:22
and he arrested him for that when they took him down to the police station he confessed to everything
01:49:28
but this is where it gets weird to his place of work. He worked there since he was 18.
01:49:33
They pulled up the floorboards and they found 126 pairs of shoes. Oh my god! Oh my god.
01:49:43
Wait, sorry, where did he work? He worked at a printing factory in Rotherham. What?
01:49:49
Yes. It's what we're all at, right? Just out there in the shire, no one knows what you're doing.
01:49:57
so we're gonna we're gonna end it on a high and then it's just gonna go low at the end so sorry
01:50:02
about that okay okay so he got convicted he pled guilty the judge which is pretty big for the uk
01:50:09
he gave him life in prison yeah yeah that's that high then it's gonna come back down low
01:50:15
okay um in the early 2000s they said he was overturned because it's england and we believe in
01:50:21
getting people better they can leave prison again and it's probably not everybody should get that
01:50:26
and it was overturned and they let him go in 2006 and he's probably still in Rotherham
01:50:35
oh my god that's the Rotherham shoe baby he's out right now you guys give it up for Alice
01:50:55
You killed it. That was a real fucking roller coaster. Amazing. All right. Great hometown.
01:51:07
That's how you do it. Guys. This will be our I think our last personal personally recorded show
01:51:16
for the year until we see you in 2021. Yeah. Yay. Let's all be there. Let's wear a great outfit.
01:51:24
So let put on the shoes we haven worn in a year I think everybody make a list of the things you grateful for Get into that place And if you have something to spare try to figure out a way to give it to people who don because there are people that are going through really tough times these days
01:51:46
What this fucking government is doing to people is a crime. And don't forget. Oh, well, don't forget your food banks.
01:51:55
and many of you have not because when we did our Stay Sexy mask fundraiser we raised $35,791
01:52:04
for feedingamerica.org which is you guys buying those masks you guys raised that money
01:52:11
so thank you so much that is a murderinos taking action it means so much because people really need help
01:52:19
these days and keep it in mind anywhere you can spread a little joy or give people some support
01:52:25
or just let people merge in front of you or whatever. Like, honestly, it's tough times.
01:52:32
Yes, for sure. And that's an incredible amount of money raised. It's so much money.
01:52:36
I'm blown away by everyone's generosity. And then also for the MFM logo pin that we were giving all the funds to the LGBTQ Freedom Fund,
01:52:47
we raised over $22,000 for the LGBTQ Freedom Fund, which is fucking incredible. we are just blown away by everyone's generosity
01:52:59
and how incredible that is so thank you guys our listenership really they really get stuff done when they come together
01:53:05
and all your murderino your subgroups murderino city by city you guys you get together
01:53:12
you take action you support each other and you help other people it's really a beautiful thing to say
01:53:18
there's nothing more touching to me there's nothing more validating or like rewarding to me
01:53:24
about the fact that we started this podcast, honestly, then when we find stuff like that out,
01:53:29
that people raise money, or they go out and volunteer or do stuff, it is, there's this
01:53:34
really beautiful activist element to people listening to this podcast that has nothing to do with us. It's you guys doing it.
01:53:41
It's like you show up, you show up for people in need. And we're so happy to facilitate that. But we
01:53:48
are blown away. I mean, it's it's you guys. And we appreciate it so much. We love being the face
01:53:54
of it, but you guys are the body. Yeah, you've done very beautiful work this year.
01:54:00
And even little things, if you couldn't give money because you're broke yourself,
01:54:06
just stay positive and stay strong. Call a friend. Reach out. Reach out. Make sure you're talking to people.
01:54:14
Make sure that you are communicating with people. Don't get lonely and don't stay in your
01:54:19
own head. That's crucial at times like this. And remember that we love you and we're grateful for you and stay sexy and don't get murdered.
01:54:30
Goodbye. 2020. Here, let me Elvis. Do you want a cookie? Want a cookie? OK, that's there.
01:54:40
That's a positive. That's OK. Elvis, cookie. Why is it always chaos when we link up?
01:54:48
Because nobody plans anything, bro. Good thing the rug's ready like that. For real.
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and marketing all in one powerful platform no messy integrations no bouncing between tabs
01:55:52
and best of all no spreadsheets stop managing software and start managing your business with
01:55:58
one unified system try for free today at odoo.com slash iheart radio that's odoo.com
01:56:06
slash iheart radio big transfer news today who's moving me to the couch with domino's best deal
01:56:14
ever since they just added stuffed crust. Any pizza, any toppings, now with stuffed crust
01:56:18
for $9.99. It's a long-term contract with no release clause. Only $9.99? Yeah, that sounds like the move.
01:56:26
I'm heading straight to Dom. Mmm, no. Prices higher for some locations. Excludes XL and specialty pizzas.
01:56:32
Select this offer from 615 through 726. Online only. Size availability varies by crust type.
01:56:36
Max 7 toppings, 6 for pan and New York style crust. Minimum purchase required for delivery.
01:56:40
Prices, participation, delivery area, and charges may vary.