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00:01:36
Hi, everyone. Happy Halloween. Hi, we have a big, exciting announcement for you.
00:01:41
That's right. We're here at the Microsoft Theater, about to go do our huge live show for 7,000 people.
00:01:46
No big deal. Nope. But first, we wanted to tell you guys that we are announcing our 2019 winter tour.
00:01:53
Yeah, we're going to go to a bunch of cities we've never been to before. That's right. What's up, Hawaii?
00:01:57
among other places. That's the only one we can think of. Presale goes on November 5th.
00:02:04
That's right. And first tickets presale go to the Fan Cult. So if you're not a member,
00:02:09
go to MyFavoriteMurder.com, join the Fan Cult. There's a bunch of other bonuses.
00:02:12
And keep your eye peeled because we want to see you in 2019. Yeah, we'll see you then.
00:02:17
Stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Bye. My favorite. What's up, Los Angeles? Wow.
00:03:26
We're Lady Gaga. Spooky Halloween. Oh, my God. My heart is racing. It's just racing.
00:03:41
Listen to that shit. Wow, there's a lot of you. Cheeses. Yeah. Thank you for showing up.
00:03:52
Thanks for coming on Halloween. On Halloween of old nights? I feel like that means most of you guys aren't parents of small children.
00:04:01
Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, us too. Thank you for doing that. Good of you. So, um... We should explain our cost.
00:04:16
Yes. probably be a good idea it's not what you're you were expecting maybe us either would you say it's
00:04:25
not what they were expecting i i swear to god i just heard footsteps over here i'm not joking
00:04:30
and a an icy cold hand touched my shoulder and said do you want a pretzel i was like no thank
00:04:39
you was the answer yeah okay as you know george and i met at a halloween party that's right
00:04:46
Four years ago? Something like that. Hosted by a friend, Matt McCarthy. Matt McCarthy is in the house tonight.
00:04:54
He loves wrestling. Of the We Watch Wrestling podcast. Yes, that's right. And this is essentially what we were dressed as.
00:05:02
And there were 7,000 people there. It was such a crazy party, you guys. You were a nurse.
00:05:12
I was. my mic is insanely loud i was the ebola nurse ladies and gentlemen that's right
00:05:21
you remember a time when ebola was the scariest thing happening in this country remember oh just a wonderful wonderful time what i wouldn't give for ebola
00:05:32
trade it in for today's bullshit yes just a tiny sip of ebola to make everything else go away
00:05:42
Am I right? But mostly I picked this outfit because, or this costume, because they used to sell scrubs
00:05:50
at CVS. So it was like the easiest costume in the world And also it not a costume really It just kind of like wearing very light cotton sweats to a party which is my thing
00:06:05
But with pockets. But with pockets! Yeah, that's right. And rubber gloves! I put those in there, they didn't come with it.
00:06:16
Those are my personal ones. And then, of course, Georgia. Well, listen. Okay, I was dressed as Glenn Danzig.
00:06:25
Thank you, from the band Nisfits. And Vince was dressed, we were a couple's costume.
00:06:30
He was dressed as Henry Rollins. It was this adorable, you know, whatever. It was a lot more punk rock because I wasn't in front of 7,000 people.
00:06:39
And then when I went backstage, I was like, I don't want to look like Squiggy all night.
00:06:46
So I have my bangs. Listen, we did it the My Favorite Murder way, which is kind of half-assed.
00:06:53
But we're like, you'll like it. You'll like it fine. Who cares? Who cares? I feel like all of Halloween is just this weird day of
00:07:02
sweaty scramble and then you like slowly begin to resent your friends for some reason. It's like
00:07:08
these fucking assholes making me do this. Yeah. I want to stay home and eat candy like I do every
00:07:15
night. But no, they make me go stand at a party. So if you don't know, the rest of the story is
00:07:21
I showed up to this party alone, which is simply, I don't know how I did it. I don't know why I did it, really.
00:07:29
I think someone, usually someone has to say to Karen, if you don't come, I will not be friends with you anymore.
00:07:34
Oh, it was Matt McCarthy. That's right. It was his party. That's right. It was his party, and he threatened my life.
00:07:40
So I was like, fine, you matter to me. So I showed up and then almost immediately told a story about watching a car mow down 30 people.
00:07:51
which really did happen to me but I was kind of telling the story as a brag and to get like pity and attention it was a weird move for the beginning of a party
00:08:01
very sober move and I watched the three people I was talking to who had just smoked a hint of pot
00:08:09
all their faces dropped and turned gray and I was like oh no I've done it again and then from behind them but like but like this this little hand tell me everything
00:08:25
because all i want to talk about is parties is horrible terrible things and so i got so excited that this person was doing that and she saved my life and then we
00:08:36
started a podcast yeah thank you what we're saying is go to parties go to parties and tell
00:08:45
Terrible, terrible stories when you're there. Go to parties, be nauseating, see what happens.
00:08:52
Anything can happen. Anything can happen. Should we... We have some photos of ourselves when we dressed up as kids for Halloween.
00:09:03
I have to say this. We've never played to 7,000 people before. You know who else hasn't?
00:09:14
any podcast ever. This is the largest live podcast ever. Yeah. What the fuck? It's on.
00:09:23
It's on. It's bananas. And now, you know, the people from Things My Dad Fucked are going to be like,
00:09:32
I have to do that too, or whatever. Go ahead. So we were like, what if, because we actually came here to see,
00:09:41
I'm sure you've seen the commercials for the Chinese dance troupe Shen Yun. We came here to see them, to see that show.
00:09:52
We were over there. And we were like, this is going to be beautiful and culturally interesting.
00:09:59
And it was a cult. It was a cult. Literally a cult. And we bailed at intermission, and people tried to grab us and pull us back in.
00:10:11
we went to the yard house where we that's our cult never never been happier to be in the
00:10:19
motherfucking yard house i was like yay frat boys oh my god what a miracle but as we were sitting there we knew the show was booked it was but it was a really long time ago
00:10:32
and i the whole time just in there going how the fuck are we gonna do this we don't we don't have
00:10:37
a dance troupe? We don't have a cult, but actually we did. It turns out. That's exactly right.
00:10:50
So, we've just done a lot of pre-production and we thought we'd show you some pictures
00:10:55
to kind of get through the top half of the show. Dazzle you, Shen Yun style. So,
00:11:01
these are, I think is mine first? I think yours is first. We're just going to go and we're going to show you our favorite Halloween costumes of life.
00:11:10
Can we see the first one? Aww. What? Karen. Now, drink it in. Drink her in. That's so cute.
00:11:23
Baby Karen. That looks itchy. It is. It is. It was the world's worst. This is proof that my parents hated my fucking guts right there.
00:11:37
It was a torture device for a five-year-old. Because that netting, so it was my cousin Lisa's costume from the netcracker from eight years previous.
00:11:49
And underneath the intensely barbed wire brown netting on the outside I wearing brown tights and a brown leotard which as we all know when you the kind of kid that has to pee every 10 minutes
00:12:05
is probably the worst outfit you could wear. But we went to, now I'm having recovered memories,
00:12:13
we went to, I think I like the hat part though, it's comforting. You can tell by my smile that
00:12:22
I'm having a wonderful time. I've always been very photogenic. After this, we went to a 4-H Halloween party,
00:12:35
because I'm from a farm. Remember? That's right. 4-H, it's like a group for kids
00:12:43
that walk around in fields all day long and don't have friends. So we went to this 4-H party,
00:12:51
and it was in a big barn. I mean, for five-year-old me. When we walked in, it was like Halloween Wonderland.
00:12:59
They had decorated it and there was like hay bales and there was candy stacked all over the place.
00:13:04
I was just like, where have we come to? So they had a guess how many jelly beans are in the jar contest.
00:13:11
And when I walked up, the girl, some 15-year-old that was taking all the guesses, wrote my name down
00:13:18
and goes, how many jelly beans do you think are in the jar? And I go, 15? And she goes, 500?
00:13:24
Okay. And writes that down. And then I fucking won. Yeah. She knew. She knew what I needed.
00:13:33
She was like, that girl looks really uncomfortable. I'm going to make her a night.
00:13:37
Aw. I had a jar like this. I rode home in the car. Hell yeah. I don't even like jelly beans, but I won.
00:13:44
And she still has it today. It's going to be a prize at the end of the night. Moldy jelly beans.
00:13:51
All right, let's see yours. Okay, let's see mine. That's not it. Okay. There she is.
00:14:03
Are you baked Alaska? No, I'm like a 1950s person, but look at my shoes and the carpet.
00:14:11
Oh. Have you seen dirtier shoes? Oh, you had been gardening that day. Yeah. No, that's just what my life was like.
00:14:21
Just the dirtiest shoes. Always. Disgusting. That's really good. That's it. Was it a grease? Were you trying to do a grease?
00:14:32
Sure. We were just really into Oh, you know what we were into at the time? La Bamba.
00:14:38
We had just seen that movie. And I just wanted to be like a greaser style. So I dressed like this
00:14:47
but I refused to get on a plane because I thought I was going to crash and die like in the movie La Bamba.
00:14:52
You had a flight that night? What? Yeah. So that's that. She looks stoked. I mean, she's probably so sugar high at that moment.
00:15:01
Of all the movies, you told me, you know my favorite movie as a kid? Fucking La Bamba.
00:15:07
It was like, there's so much story and it really happened. And so sad, but also a huge victory in a lot of ways.
00:15:16
yeah that's that oh i have a photo to show you i dressed someone up today so someone on our last
00:15:25
weekend in the bay area someone makes costumes for cats uh-oh her name is maddie at miss maddie
00:15:34
makes at etsy and she gave me something for elvis so i put it on him and he hates my guts now but i
00:15:41
had to do it for you. Here we go. Let's see. Oh, that's yeah. It's a cookie monster hat.
00:15:52
This is so degrading. It's not right. Pets don't like this. They don't like it. He loves it.
00:16:00
He loves it. Look at the look on his face. That's just his face. He's about to take out one of your corneas.
00:16:07
That's just his face. Look at how happy he looks His ears are flat against his head
00:16:14
I know Vince, when I brought him out Vince was like, I thought they were ear holes
00:16:17
And I'm like, there are His ears are just all the way You can see his ears Look at him
00:16:24
He does look exactly like the Cookie Monster, though He really does It's uncanny
00:16:30
Truly Oh, it made me so happy He took the hit for you He did Every time people are like, look, my little dog is an elephant.
00:16:41
It's like, your dog is pissed off. Don't be so mystified when he shits on your new duvet next week.
00:16:48
It's A plus B. Right. And we have one more photo of a child in a Halloween costume.
00:16:56
Okay. It's Steven. That's right. Let's have him explain it to us. Oh, yeah. It's Steven.
00:17:07
There he is! Oh, yeah. Get out here. Yay. Say hi. I'm free. This is who I was about to be.
00:17:26
This is who he was. There we go. It really is him. Take this off so we can prove it.
00:17:35
That we didn't murder you. There it's Steven. Yay. That's you. That's me. Oh, yeah.
00:17:46
So cute. And that's my sister. She's dressed as a witch. Oh, that's what it is. Steven do you have any memories from that day I feel like I got really sweaty inside that costume How are you doing right now inside that costume I a little parched in here
00:18:05
But, you know, it's cozy. It's like pajamas. And show them what it has. Oh, it has pockets.
00:18:12
Pockets! All right. Thanks, Stephen. Good job. Stephen! We're going to have him cut that whole part out.
00:18:26
Stephen. Oh, this is my favorite murder of the podcast. Yes, the comedy. Yes. Thank you.
00:18:34
This is Karen Kilgariff. This is Georgia Hardstart. Yes. Thank you so much. Thank you.
00:18:44
Yeah. Get that out of here. Yeah. Please. Please. Uh-huh. It's just weird. You're being so good.
00:18:55
We were really prepared for, like, insane, drunken screaming. Like, I'm a pirate.
00:19:00
Talk to me. Yeah, you can do it now if you want to. Yeah, one now. Get it out. We can't understand anything you say anyway when you scream.
00:19:09
I think that's the thing people don't understand when they scream at us from the audience.
00:19:13
We can't hear what you're... It sounds like you're yelling about leaves and trees and...
00:19:17
It's like, oh, there's an arborist. here. That's rad. It's really strange. But thank you so much for being here. We're stoked.
00:19:25
Oh, we have a surprise rug from the Microsoft Theater. They made us a rug. They made us a rug.
00:19:33
Look at it. Can you see it? You're too flat. Don't stand up. Look at it. It says look and listen.
00:19:41
It's gorgeous. There's all decorations on the side. Oh, sweet shot. Is there a drone in here? How are they getting that shot? Oh, that's my doggie. It's your dog and it's my
00:19:56
cat. She's going to be livid. Look at it. I love that there's a telephone. Call your dad. You're
00:20:05
in a cult. Got it. It's like someone listens. It's like they pay attention to it. I know. We're not
00:20:12
used to it. Usually we get to a venue and the grizzle people who work there are like, what's a
00:20:17
podcast. And then they're like, it's two women? And then they're like, there's so many women in
00:20:23
the audience. And we're like, absolutely. Yeah. And then afterwards, when they hear everyone screaming and they know
00:20:33
that we sold out, they're like, you guys should come back. We love podcasts now.
00:20:36
We're changing everyone's mind. One long talking show at a time. It's just two women talking?
00:20:45
Why? Should we sit down? Is it time? Yeah. Look at these. These are fucking high-class chairs.
00:20:57
I mean, truly never in the history of our live shows. Also, this is like a backgammon table.
00:21:04
It's a little backgammon-y. That's so classy. We could play checkers or chess, I guess, while we talk.
00:21:12
We could do so many. Get yours? Yeah, that shouldn't go in there. All right. Oh, this is a true crime comedy podcast, everyone, just so you know.
00:21:21
They know. They know. Anyone who was, you know, invited along because they had nothing to do on Halloween.
00:21:30
Yeah, I bet there's a lot of drag alongs tonight, probably. They were promised dinner.
00:21:35
Welcome. Yes. My mom's boyfriend, for example. He's been with us since the beginning.
00:21:43
Yeah, he has. He's a total MFM head. We always like to warn people, though, because it's staff or, you know, partners or whoever, people that might not listen to the podcast.
00:21:56
They don't know what's happening or why. And so we just like to explain at the top that this is true crime combined with comedy, which some people actually take offense to.
00:22:08
Or they think that that's inappropriate, that you shouldn't talk about those two things together.
00:22:13
and we do and want to because that's how we talk and that's actually how most people talk about
00:22:24
horrible things life is equally as horrible as it is wonderful and you get to talk about it
00:22:28
however you fucking want so if you're offended you can get the fuck out thanks um doesn't really apply to this show where people really busted their ass to come
00:22:42
yeah to the micro pay for parking pay for parking thanks to all you parkers out there
00:22:48
big up parkers thank you parking your ass off just for us every parking everywhere it's just
00:22:56
I mean does anybody here come to LA live just to chill out and like season pass holder oh just to
00:23:04
see the lights at night I just love to get a bite at the yard house it's my favorite see my friends
00:23:09
at the yard house and then go up to Lucky Strike yeah a few just fucking bowl with some superstars
00:23:16
of LA and I don't know it's just I can be myself at LA live yeah it's like it's like my level of
00:23:26
parking payment is like where I like it. Yeah. I know my car is safe. I, you know, sometimes like,
00:23:32
oh yeah, you put your credit card in and pay $2 for parking. Yeah. I want to pay $98 for parking.
00:23:37
That's what I, it's how I feel most myself. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you go first or do I go first?
00:23:44
I think you do. Is that right, Stephen? Stephen, you're going to have to, I went first,
00:23:49
Stephen's backstage stripped naked out of that dinosaur costume. You know, looking through our
00:23:54
I have to say too that Vince, my husband slash our tour manager slash kind of Karen
00:24:00
A little bit. I get a touch of it. It's pretty nice. I'm looking into it. He's been hiding his costume from me all week.
00:24:10
Oh. So he said that he brought us out, and then he was like, I'm going to go backstage and get my costume.
00:24:14
He gave me, like, a warrant. Don't go and look in my closet. Don't open packages that aren't yours.
00:24:19
So either he's hiding a body. Yeah. Or he's got a costume going on that I don't know what it is yet.
00:24:26
Is he going to come out, like, when he feels like it? Yeah, he'll come out like he normally does, but he'll be dressed as God knows what.
00:24:33
A little nervous. A little scared. Well, I think it's perfect for Halloween. Yeah.
00:24:40
Okay. Is anyone trick-or-treating in this audience tonight? Just going to walk around and beg for candy?
00:24:48
Someone's passing out candy? They set it up so that you can? Some lady's handing out candy?
00:24:55
Don't fucking eat that candy. Candy. How many times do we have to tell you people?
00:25:01
Oh, a lady's giving candy. Are her eyes really close together? Does she have full eyebrows?
00:25:08
What are you... Don't do that. This isn't a safe place. This is not a safe space.
00:25:14
There's no safe spaces. Don't you let your guard down just because you're amongst friends.
00:25:21
you know what we'll do you can start at your first picture we'll see who went first that's fun
00:25:32
that's right okay alright so we decided to do interesting stories that are just about
00:25:41
weird it's Halloween listen look we're doing we didn't want to be restricted to the
00:25:48
city we wanted to develop out into the theme of what does Halloween mean to you? And to me, it means the satanic panic. Yeah.
00:25:58
And specifically, the daycare sex abuse, mass panic of the McMartin trial. Fuck. That's what you're doing? Yeah. Oh, shit, girl. Shit, girl. Y'all ready for this? Okay.
00:26:11
the majority of this nay all of this I got from a great article from the website Vox
00:26:20
by a woman named Aja Romano so fucking great writing I'm going to just screw it completely up
00:26:26
right now with my Aja! so everyone remembers the Reagan era right Karen? we're living it
00:26:36
a lot of red dresses belted right at the waist Yes. Like if you had a boxy waist, you were fucked.
00:26:44
Truly. Shoulder pads. Everywhere. Ugh, just widen it out. Get them up there. Look like a scarecrow.
00:26:52
Well, it was also a time of population growth, urbanization, and the rise of a double-income
00:26:57
family, meaning your mom had to get her ass to work. Right, Mom? Janet! She remembers that.
00:27:03
Janet! That sucked! Okay. Okay. So it necessitated a lot more daycares to be open, and that was going on and everything,
00:27:14
and it freaked people who were obsessed with nuclear families, fucking fundamental religious
00:27:21
people, lost their fucking shit over this. They were like, the family, you know, think of the
00:27:25
children and all this. And also at that time, there was this fear of the unknown, so that's
00:27:31
when the milk carton, children on milk cartons started, and stranger danger became this big thing,
00:27:37
and the idea that evil was lurking around every corner. It was. Crack, AIDS. It was not a good time.
00:27:45
I was there for all of it. Oh, nuclear annihilation. Anyway. And through it all, our good friends of the podcast,
00:27:54
the Christian Fundamentalists. Sponsor of tonight's show. That's right. And their literal belief in angels and devils.
00:28:04
Like, you guys know, like, they fucking literally believe in the devil, right? Okay, more on that later.
00:28:09
Excuse me. What? I totally believe in the devil. No, you don't. I think he is so special.
00:28:17
What if I just got hit by a lightning bolt right now? By the devil? By the devil.
00:28:23
He doesn't do lightning bolts. Okay. That's the J-man upstairs. I feel like, yeah.
00:28:28
devil stuff would be like all of a sudden my neck would go all the way back right and i'd be you'd be like are you okay is your neck and they're like
00:28:38
yeah but that's also the symptoms of you having a seizure yes or no well i am a witch so that's where it's all from this whole time we could have been having so much
00:28:52
fun. Okay. So fundamentalist preachers like good friend of the podcast, Jerry Falwell,
00:28:58
and his moral majority, they gained prominence across the country because they were preaching
00:29:04
this literal fire and brimstone style of Christianity, fucking blah, blah, blah, calm down, everyone.
00:29:11
Enter the satanic panic. Everyone's favorite panic, I think. I like manic panic. It's more fun for the hair.
00:29:22
Sure. But we don't have to pick favorites right now. Well, we kind of do. Okay. By the mid-'80s, a wave of, oh, my God, amazing, amazing.
00:29:31
Please go on YouTube later tonight and find the videos, seminars, tutorials, and educational videos
00:29:37
aimed at authorities and religious fanatics, teaching them, like cops and therapists and preachers
00:29:42
and born-again Christians, teaching them what to look for when dealing with Satanists.
00:29:48
I have a photo from the law enforcement guide. What's up? Legit. This is from Oh hello Walking through the park Oh my God This video is a fucking treasure
00:30:06
and I highly recommend you watch it. It's called The Law Enforcement Guide to Satanic Cults.
00:30:10
This is fucking real. Also, that is not the right way to make a fucking pentagram.
00:30:17
Yes or no? I've not even seen this. Yeah. Also, whose side is he on? I know. I don't.
00:30:25
I think he's on the U2 side. He's like, he's the first cop Satanist I've ever seen in my life.
00:30:32
You can trust him because he's got a fucking mullet. He's Tom Petty's stuntman. Why does Tom Petty need a stuntman?
00:30:42
So many questions, so many questions. Remember the video where he cut the girl up because she was cake?
00:30:48
Yes. That's going to be my reason. I mean, truly amazing stuff. Okay, so everyone's losing their shit over Satan, blah, blah, blah.
00:30:58
Okay, the media, of course, too, was like, let's get up on this and scare the shit out of everyone.
00:31:04
Ratings, jump, right? So it soaks the fuel and misconceptions surrounding occult practices.
00:31:12
In 1988, our good friend Geraldo Rivera made a documentary that went on TV. It was called Devil Worship.
00:31:22
and I need to say it in his voice, devil worship exposing Satan's underground. It became the highest rated televised documentary
00:31:29
to air up until that point. People were like, let Geralda tell me everything. I trust that mustache.
00:31:37
Yep. If anyone knows about the devil, it's that motherfucker. And Vince Unprompted told me that
00:31:44
when he was a little kid when this came on, so he was like 10, he watched this documentary, scared the shit out of him.
00:31:49
The next morning he woke up with the flu and thought that the devil had possessed him.
00:31:53
Like, that's essentially what it did to everyone in America, you guys. Except for me, because I was so drunk, I didn't know what was going on.
00:32:03
88? Oh, that was my prime wine cooler time. You had no time for Satan. No, I was Bartles and James only.
00:32:14
Okay, and then, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, all these accusations of satanic ritual abuse came around.
00:32:21
They were attached to a string of daycare centers throughout the 80s because people got really into, I don't know, they just, listen, it's complicated.
00:32:33
There's lots of reasons. So for some reason, daycares, they thought that they were bringing all these people
00:32:39
who worked at daycares who were like, all I want to do when I grow up is take care of children.
00:32:43
and they thought that they were somehow trying to, I don't know. Molest them? Yes.
00:32:49
Okay. So, thank you. That brought about the daycare sex abuse mass panic. And among the many prosecutions, many, many prosecutions,
00:32:57
of satanic ritual abuse in daycares was the McMartin trial, which became the largest, longest, and at a price of $15 million in 1983 money,
00:33:07
which today is $2.3 million. Thank you. Oh, wait, I went down. Well, it was the 80s, right?
00:33:16
They were having a lot of money. Damn it. It was 100 million bags of cocaine in today's, in that money.
00:33:23
I got so nervous for stage math. It's scary. I panicked. I'm sorry. Satanic panicked.
00:33:30
Maybe it was Satan. The devil made me do bad math. That's what it is. Lord, Lord.
00:33:36
Do a thingy. Do a thingy. There you go. That's the one. That's the Catholic one.
00:33:49
That's how you know. Okay. So it began in 1983 when a parent of a child who attended the McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach, California.
00:34:06
That's right. Tasteful. That was a tasteful yell. Yeah. You know, right over there.
00:34:12
A 39-year-old woman named Judy Johnson, okay, she notices that her two-and-a-half-year-old son had some issues.
00:34:23
Listen, how do I say this? He had some butt troubles, okay? He had an itchy bottom.
00:34:29
Got it. The mom took him to a doctor to make sure everything was okay. The doctor's like, he's fine.
00:34:35
And she was like, well, I'm obsessed with Satanism, and I think something's going on.
00:34:42
Like Geraldo Rivera. Right. So you're wrong, doctor. So she insisted that he wasn't, there was something wrong with him and something going on, even though he also said there wasn't.
00:34:51
I mean, he was two and a half years old. How much can he say? You know, it's like.
00:34:55
He's like, mom, my butt's fine. Yeah. This is normal stuff. But she ignored the doctor.
00:35:02
And on August 12th, she called the police to say that her son had been sodomized by a teacher at the McMartin preschool, the daycare he had been attending for two weeks.
00:35:10
And by the way, it was a daycare. Okay, we're later going to find out that Judy Johnson has some mental issues.
00:35:17
Sure. We knew. I know. Yeah. So she told the investigators that her son, her two-and-a-half-year-old son,
00:35:25
said that a McMartin teacher named Ray Bucky taught him to play doctor and forced him to wear women's clothes.
00:35:31
Oh, the horror. And that he had been molesting him. And that he said that other parents had said similar abuse stories.
00:35:40
So they listened to this woman. They believed everything she said. Ray Bucky is a 25-year-old.
00:35:46
He is the only male teacher at McMartin. It's been around for like 30 years. It's just really well-respected preschool.
00:35:54
Everyone loves them there In the 1995 HBO made movie TV movie uh indictment the McMartin McMartin trial He played by Henry Thomas who is as an adult no no no The teacher played by him Right
00:36:09
Who is the boy from E.T. Yes. What did you, what did you think I meant? I thought you meant like
00:36:15
Elliot as a little boy played the little boy. Why did you say, oh, okay. I get it. Cause it's,
00:36:21
Because it's Elliot? I don't know. It's adorable. Don't they make you say aww when you talk about E.T.?
00:36:27
I thought you were saying aww about the adult actor. And I was like, what? No. You know what? It was the wrong response.
00:36:34
Now that I think about it, I need to come back into my body and start doing better math
00:36:40
and responding more accurately to what's being said. Why? I was thinking about how fucking boxy scrubs are
00:36:50
and like this is like you know how like made well is doing shirts right now that are like
00:36:56
fucking 15 feet wide and you're like how am i supposed to wear that i tits like this is
00:37:01
it's just i'll pay more attention oh if only if you don't mind if it wouldn't bother you oh may i i only type this up and print it up for you oh i only worked
00:37:16
on this for 30 minutes. No, that's not true. We have a photo of our friend Ray Bucky. There
00:37:25
he is. Obviously, that's him in trial, so spoiler alert. This goes to trial. Okay.
00:37:33
He's like, this fucking sucks. Yes, that's not a happy face. No. So he was the grandson
00:37:40
of the owner of the McMartin preschool. Her name is Virginia McMartin. She's 76 and played
00:37:45
by Seda Thompson. Seda Thompson. I don't know. Oh, she's from the theater. She had founded the school in 1966, and until this accusation, the school had a stellar
00:37:58
reputation. So the same could not be said of Judy Johnson, the mother. She was a deeply troubled woman.
00:38:05
She was an alcoholic with a history of mental illness, which I'm like, who among us isn't?
00:38:09
But she was like, problematic. You know what I mean? Who among us? But when you're drunk and a little fucked up in the head, you get theories.
00:38:18
And then you're like, you know what? I'm going to put this in my diary. I'm not going to take this to the public right now.
00:38:24
Yeah. You know what you're saying? I'm going to scream this at everyone. And then they're going to believe me.
00:38:30
And at the time, she was going through an ugly divorce. And so not only did she accuse Bucky of molesting her son, she also accused her ex-husband, which didn't come to fruition.
00:38:42
And in September, investigators set out to find more evidence against Bucky. They took him into prison, and before any files were charged or anything,
00:38:51
they did a really rational, calm thing of sending a letter to 200 parents of children
00:38:59
who were and have been students at the McMartin School. Oh, like people who had graduated from preschool already?
00:39:05
Anyone who's ever been there, they sent them all a letter. And in it, they asked, among other things, they said,
00:39:11
Ray Bucky's been arrested for potentially molesting a child. Calm down. Don't worry. Everything's fine.
00:39:18
And then they said, quote, please question your child to see if he or she has been a witness to any crime
00:39:24
or if he or she has been a victim. Our investigation indicates that possible criminal acts include,
00:39:30
you guys ready for a fun list? Oral sex, fondling of genitals, buttocks, or chest area, and sodomy.
00:39:37
possibly committed under the pretense of taking a child's temperature. Also, photos may have been taken of the children without their clothing.
00:39:45
And then they were like, please keep this to yourselves. Please don't panic. I'm not fucking kidding.
00:39:50
This is totally, it all happened. Go ahead. I kind of couldn't understand. Was the first thing on that list horse sex?
00:39:57
No. Oral. Got you. Yes. No, I know what that is. I do. We have a photo of it. No.
00:40:06
No. Stop it. All the lights go out. Yeah. Just fucking. That's MFM after dark. Look for us on Cinemax.
00:40:17
The letter also noted that the teacher might have forced the children to pose naked for pictures.
00:40:23
I already said that. The message didn't at all send the parents into a fucking panic.
00:40:28
No. I wrote. At the end of that letter, it said, and maybe anything else you've ever feared in your life.
00:40:35
Yeah, the parents put it down and immediately started screaming in their child's faces,
00:40:39
asking if they'd been molested. And the children were all reacted calmly and, you know, I'm sure it went great.
00:40:45
I said that it didn't make them scream, ask their children if they'd ever been molested.
00:40:50
So immediately you have these parents who are in a panic and these children that they are scaring the crap out of who don't understand what's going on.
00:41:00
And so the DA turned to Children's Institute International. This is an organization that works with abused children
00:41:07
to interview the McMartins. They interview children who have been molested and that sort of thing.
00:41:13
And so they hire them to talk to the McMartins students and see if there's any basis behind the accusations.
00:41:21
Unfortunately, the Institute's head named Key McFarlane is this woman who's a little fucking crazy herself.
00:41:29
so they she was like she got out of college and she was like what do i want to do with my life
00:41:36
unfortunately she didn't go to college oh she had a welder's certificate that was the extent
00:41:43
of her education i'm not fucking kidding what yeah a welder certificate like in flash dance
00:41:49
that hot why wouldn she stay doing welding who knows that how crazy she is girl i know No even like Psych 101 shit Unlicensed psychotherapist had no psychological or medical training
00:42:05
Okay. Problematic. Again, fucking the 80s need to go to jail. Yeah, they did. They did.
00:42:13
But don't worry. She only had to examine and interview a handful of kids who had come forward after this letter came about.
00:42:21
Only 400 children. so don't worry so she and two other unqualified assistants were allowed to conduct their investigations
00:42:33
they famously used anatomically correct dolls you know like show me on this doll
00:42:39
where the bad man touched you and I think we have a photo of Kay or Key I mean let's see her photo
00:42:45
I think yeah that's problematic a bald eagle fuck that's the problem this is i'm just saying it doesn't
00:42:57
look at these monsters i know and then she would do this thing where she'd be like what's that back
00:43:03
there fuck karen there's nothing there what what there's no face there there hasn't been a doll
00:43:13
like that. 25 years. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you. That's my character. There hasn't
00:43:21
been a blank like that around here. And now it's 25 years, which isn't that long ago. No, it's not that long.
00:43:27
I don't know. It's still one of my favorites. Followed closely by drunk Karen. She's here.
00:43:35
She'll make an appearance tonight. And then I'm going to have a ladder rolled out and do my one-woman show.
00:43:41
It's going to be a so good. Okay, so they were, this fucking chick, and there's like transcripts of it where she's just
00:43:49
like, hey, Billy, all your friends said that Mr. Bucky touched you. Are you stupid? I literally
00:43:57
said, are you stupid or do you know that this happened? Like, I'm not kidding you. And the kids
00:44:01
would be like, I don't think that happened. And they're like, well, I think you're lying to me
00:44:04
or you're just dumb. I swear. She was just like berating them until she got the answer she wanted.
00:44:09
Jesus fucking Christ. It's absolutely right. And was it the kind of thing of like, she's like, I need to do my work.
00:44:16
No one else of like a responsible adult gets to be in the room. Well, everyone believed it.
00:44:22
Everyone thought that this was really happening. I mean, everyone believed her. And when she pulled out the bald eagle and crocodile puppets, no one was like, you know what?
00:44:29
Let's take a pause and regroup in the conference room. That's how they did like childhood psychology and therapy back then is you act shit out.
00:44:37
but you don't lead the witness who's a fucking three-year-old child into being like, yeah, you know what, now that you mention it,
00:44:44
and hey, let me read you some of the shit that they ended up saying. You also don't lead a child into just a fucking full-on insult to their face.
00:44:51
Right. Dummy. These extremely coercive interview processes led to false memories among children,
00:45:01
meaning children are, I mean, we all know here children are liars. No one has one here, right, because otherwise you'd be home with them.
00:45:06
Children are liars. They love lying almost as much as they love Halloween candy.
00:45:12
They're both delicious. And then it led to highly fantastic claims of abuse directed at the entire staff at McMartin High School.
00:45:26
Where are we? Preschool. Out of 400 children, the interviewers ended up coming out
00:45:34
and saying that 359 of them had been abused. Fuck. Okay, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:45:39
All right. Among the many outlandish claims that children made in the case were that the daycare owners
00:45:46
would flush them down toilets into secret underground tunnels under this tiny little school
00:45:54
that led them to transport them to ritual ceremonies that teachers ritually sacrificed animals
00:46:03
in front of the kids, clubbed a horse to death with a baseball bat. No. No, don't worry.
00:46:09
It didn't fucking happen. Calm down. How did the horse get down the toilet? How?
00:46:16
Seriously. Just someone ask one fucking question. Number one question. Number one.
00:46:22
How small was that horse? Can I see that horse? Can I feed that horse a carrot? Because that's the cutest fucking horse of all time.
00:46:29
Absolutely. That they, uh, even then I don't think it would fit down a toilet. Like, let's think rationally, people.
00:46:41
Let's think about toilets. Yeah. Let's get one out here. Come on in. That they sacrificed a baby in a church.
00:46:49
So, like, in the middle of the day in preschool, they were like, kids, we're going to a church.
00:46:53
We'll have you home by nap time. Grab your cloaks. It'll be fine. made the children drink blood
00:47:00
and that the teachers dressed up as witches and legitimately flew through the air.
00:47:04
So everyone's like, oh my God, I knew that fucking Jerry Falwell was telling the truth.
00:47:10
Said no one ever. And took the kids to orgies at airports and car washes, which everyone knows is the best place to go for an orgy.
00:47:20
Because you're just immediately clean walking through a car wash. That's right. I'm, is it like at the Southwest gate?
00:47:31
How do you at the airport, how do you at the airport? Has anyone ever at the airport?
00:47:37
How? You know, when I'm my horniest is when I'm at an airport. No. Oh, you're like, look at it, Chili's too.
00:47:44
Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm. Mm, mm, mm, mm. You know what I love? Satan. No. So, after six, okay, I mean, this goes on so long.
00:47:57
I'm not going to do it. Also, I just want to say... Clearly they were led because there's so many ideas here that are not preschool level children ideas at all.
00:48:05
It's like, what three-year-old talks about the fucking airport? Yeah. At all. One kid's like, I love a car wash.
00:48:13
And she's like, you were molested at a car wash. What's that you say? Yeah. But can I have candy?
00:48:18
Okay, yeah. I'll do what you say. Good job, dummy. It's the only part of this story I like.
00:48:26
So essentially, all these charges are dropped with the other teachers, but they're all brought.
00:48:33
It's a six-year fucking trial. Six years of this while they're in prison the whole time.
00:48:39
Including, so it was only, after a while, it was only Ray Bucky and his mom, Peggy Martin Bucky.
00:48:44
Let me show you a photo of this fucking Satan-worshipping psychopath. I mean, I know that monsters are hiding among us.
00:48:55
You know, they look like us. They look like everyday fucking people. But I bet you anything she's not into Satan.
00:49:03
You know what she's into? Making you lasagna. That's all she wants to do. Look at her afghan that she's clutching at court.
00:49:12
Jesus. If you bring an afghan to court, there should be a rule that you're innocent immediately.
00:49:16
Get out of here. And you're like, see, I knitted it myself. Ma'am, get me my gavel.
00:49:22
I have to get you out of here. I'm glad I brought this stethoscope out here. It was a good idea.
00:49:30
It was worth it. It was so good. So after six years of investigation and litigation,
00:49:37
the case ultimately goes away due to a lack of utter evidence. The original accusing parent, remember our friend Jill?
00:49:45
I do. She's eventually diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. Oh, no. And the investigation techniques used by the Children's Institute
00:49:54
our friend Key, were thoroughly discredited by the psychological community. After six years, finally in 1990, little old lady Peggy is acquitted,
00:50:03
and Ray Bucky eventually had all charges dismissed as well. The jury was like, what have we been doing for six fucking years?
00:50:11
These poor people. Then they found out that the Children's Institute was just a spiral notebook
00:50:16
that lady had in the back of her car. She's like, I have ideas about fucking everybody's life up.
00:50:23
And toilets. and toilet horses. She was like, oops, this was supposed to be a novel, a fiction.
00:50:32
I fucked up and I brought the wrong notebook for six years. She was supposed to write Harry Potter, but she fucked it up.
00:50:39
She fucked it up. She got selfish. Then, da-da-da-da-da. They got lucky, though, because this happened all over.
00:50:49
I mean, think of the fucking West Memphis 3. It's the same thing with the Satanic Panic.
00:50:53
And in fact, there were two owners, this married couple of a preschool in Oak Hill, Texas, who had similar charges brought against them.
00:51:00
But they spent 23 years in prison before being released in 2013. That was a couple of years ago, you guys.
00:51:10
Despite no evidence ever found that they had done anything they'd been accused of.
00:51:14
I remember seeing that on, I think it was a 60 Minutes maybe. And you could tell they purely did it because they didn't like the look of them.
00:51:21
It was like you could tell the people that were in charge were like, oh, get him.
00:51:25
You know, that guy has long hair. It was that kind of thing. Well, were they wrong?
00:51:29
No. Well. I'm kidding. They were wrong. Okay. McMartin Preschool Building in Manhattan Beach was raised in 1990,
00:51:37
and the satanic ritual abuse claims relied, essentially, that was found to rely on overzealous law enforcement,
00:51:43
abstinence, substantiated? What did you say? Unsubstantiated statements from children and false memories
00:51:50
implanted during therapy, and above all, coercive and suggestive interrogation by therapists and prosecutors.
00:51:57
Again... And car washes. Yeah. Shout out to Aja Romano from Vox for all her amazing information.
00:52:03
And that is the daycare sex abuse mass panic of the McMartin trial. Ugh. Ugh. Awful.
00:52:12
Sweating. I mean, that was a sweaty one. That was a sweaty one. That's rough stuff.
00:52:18
Oh, sorry I keep doing that. Jesus Christ. Okay. Thank you. I'm going to now tell you guys.
00:52:26
Great job, by the way. Thank you. Thank you. That was very, very, very upsetting.
00:52:33
Just like we like on Howloween. I'm going to tell you guys all about the mannequin at the carnival.
00:52:40
The what? It's my new book of poetry. The mannequin at the carnival. Okay. This all takes place at an old amusement park in Long Beach called The Pike.
00:52:54
Yeah. Either someone's from Long Beach or they're getting stabbed right now in the avenue.
00:53:01
That was blood curdling. That scream. Although if you're from Long Beach, you would kind of blood
00:53:07
curdle scream for yourself, I would think. You would, you got to. Okay. And the turn of the century Long Beach.
00:53:16
You know how I like to talk about the turn of the century. Karen will not shut up about the turn of the century Long Beach.
00:53:22
So the big thing to do in Southern California, obviously, was go to the beach. Long Beach had this big old pier.
00:53:29
I think we have a picture. And they had a bathhouse called The Plunge. Hell yeah.
00:53:33
Look at it. Look at them. So this is what people who are dressed from their neck all the way to the tips of their toes,
00:53:41
They love to haul their asses on down to the beach and stand in the sun for hours.
00:53:46
Nothing is more fun than just slowly strolling in uncomfortable tiny shoes. Yep.
00:53:53
Corsets and of course everyone wearing their funeral blacks Uh huh Important I bet everyone smells so bad Yeah It like powder and decay And B Yeah Yeah
00:54:05
So there was a red car line that went from Los Angeles down to Long Beach so people could get out of the city for the day and then go down here
00:54:15
and chill out on the beach because they can't go to the beach in L.A. Anyway, don't think about it.
00:54:22
so it gets so popular um they start adding there's a carnival um concessions rides they string lights
00:54:32
above the walkway um charming right they call it the walk of a thousand lights this was back when
00:54:40
lights were a big deal oh right yeah right yeah okay they're like electric light is it god himself
00:54:50
as its popularity grows they build a midway um that has now like a the seaside studio souvenir
00:54:59
photography studio um the loof carousel magruder saltwater taffy i mean all the things that us here
00:55:09
would just have loved to do yeah all the time saltwater taffy is gross and tastes bad
00:55:19
and then it rips all your fillings out and i bet back then they had like one flavor yeah it was
00:55:27
just sand flavor alfalfa yeah um there was but there was your favorite pitch and skill games
00:55:35
pony rides goat carts fortune tellers a weight guesser shut up i know what you don't know it
00:55:44
and a variety of dark thrill rides, amusements and attractions. Oh, here's this picture I found
00:55:52
that I just kind of like I don't know if it's an attraction or if it's oh, Stephen actually put Long Beach
00:56:02
Trolley there as if that's the name of it but I just called it a trolley because I didn't
00:56:06
know what else to call it. I like it Please don't anyone go and write your thesis about the Long Beach
00:56:12
Trolley. This is just another one of my lies. Okay. Oh, I think there's another one. No, there's going to be a bunch, Georgia.
00:56:25
This story is mostly pictures. The next picture, I think there's, yeah. Oh, shit. Look how
00:56:32
rad that kid is. That kid wants to fight me. That kid is like, that kid saw the photographer
00:56:38
and he was like, fucking come at me, bro. I'm filled with saltwater taffy and I'm going
00:56:43
to kick your ass. Oh my god. Look at him. He has two jobs and he smokes. Yay. Look at,
00:56:54
and those are little flags and that's where the lights are. That's the walkway of lights.
00:56:59
There's salty old Virginia. She's got a full bottle of gin in her purse. Oh, totally. Yeah.
00:57:06
Where you want to go? The pier? Ugh. All right. There's a penny. Leave me alone. Yeah. Get out
00:57:11
of here, kid? Gary. His name's Gary. It's baby Gary. It's baby Gary. Yay. All right. Then in 1930,
00:57:23
they build the humongous roller coaster, the Cyclone Racer. Have you ever seen this thing?
00:57:28
No. Okay. It's rad. This is the entrance. It's a hundred feet tall. It's all made of wood. You
00:57:35
know, no. I don't want to go. Are you going to make me go on it right now? Yeah, you have to.
00:57:38
And can we do the wide of it? Because it went out, essentially. The next picture is the wide.
00:57:45
It goes out into the sea. Guys, no. So what is your fear? Heights, we got you covered.
00:57:53
The ocean, we've got you covered. Yeah. Weird deaths, we're there. Like early architecture that's made by alcoholic hobos who just don't give a shit.
00:58:06
And then, like, no licensing and no, like, checks and balances. They were like, I like roller coasters, so I'm going to build one, see?
00:58:14
Yeah. Right over the ocean. Yeah. Insurance. We don't need insurance. Don't be crazy.
00:58:21
It's all that little kid's idea. Gary is such an entrepreneur. More than a few drunken sailors who had gone down to the pier,
00:58:33
because there's lots of sailors stationed down in Long Beach, ignored the do not stand up sign.
00:58:39
And why wouldn't you? I mean, it's your special day. If it's your day and you want to have fun your way,
00:58:45
stand up on this insane roller coaster with no safety features whatsoever and die, die, die, die, die.
00:58:54
So it had dual tracks, hairpin turns, a skeletal frame that dangled out over the ocean,
00:59:03
like myself. and by World War II, the pike, the whole amusement area had grown to 15 acres
00:59:13
and then they had, they added freak shows, they added arcades, shooting galleries, dance halls,
00:59:20
bars, tattoo parlors. It was filled year-round with tourists and quote thousands of salty sailors
00:59:26
stationed in Long Beach. Sorry, before I go any further, I got all this information from an article
00:59:32
on slate.com on a website called all that's interesting.com. But it's just this story.
00:59:40
And then there's a guy named Charles Phoenix who has a website. You know that guy? It's all like
00:59:45
retro stuff. And he kind of explains like, it used to be nice down here. Look at these pictures.
00:59:51
So that the salty sailors quote is from his website That what reminded me All right So in 1950 they hold a contest to rename the Pike Okay Do you want to do a guess of like a what a better name for the Pike Amusement Park
01:00:06
Oh, um, Drunk People Everywhere. That is good. No. The Fighting. The Fighting. Wave Tectonics.
01:00:18
Yes. How did you do that? Is that right? They renamed it the New Pike. so so so okay
01:00:30
I should have just called it Piker right? Piker like more than Pike? yeah, New Pike, Piker
01:00:37
Piker, Piker well you should have entered the fucking contest then that's the thing
01:00:41
clearly that's the thing is they hold a contest and it's like the fish bowl is out on the desk
01:00:46
and there's just that one piece of paper that says New Pike inside and they're like
01:00:49
any else? any other people have ideas? anyone? seriously Just say anything. It could be like wave tectonics.
01:00:57
It could be wave tectonics. Anything. So by the 70s, this place turned into like this shitty rundown carnival
01:01:07
that looked like somewhere you would not have a ride away from and then be like, oh, this is it for me.
01:01:14
Do we have a picture of what it ended up looking like? After it was like 70s new Pike is pretty sad.
01:01:21
Cool. I like this shit. Close your eyes and picture it in your mind. You're going to.
01:01:27
Did I not have the new Pike? Uh-uh. I might have skipped that one. Well, if it comes up, it comes up, and Stephen is fired.
01:01:35
Anyway, this is where our story begins. I actually wrote that down because I was like,
01:01:40
you're talking about this carnival so much, no one knows what's going on anymore.
01:01:44
You're supposed to be doing a Halloween show where everyone's creeped out, and it's spooky Halloween,
01:01:49
and instead it's like, Carnival Days. In Long Beach. So, in 1976, they're filming the $6 million man at the New Pike.
01:02:02
Cool. I think that was my mom. I swear to fucking God. Look at that hot piece right there.
01:02:09
In his whip-stitched jacket. That is a motherfucking button nose if I've ever seen one.
01:02:14
He's just a precious man, that's all. Okay. God, that guy. He was like, when I was growing up,
01:02:23
because this show was on from 74 to 78, I think, and this is just like some of my most baseline memories,
01:02:29
is like, oh, it's my mom and my dad, and fucking that guy in the background. Oh, wait, he was everywhere.
01:02:35
He was humong. Okay, so just if you don't know, you're like, I'm a millennial, and I won't pay attention to anything before 1999,
01:02:46
then I'll tell you this was a television show this is what we watched before YouTube
01:02:53
and it ran from 74 to 79 it was about a former astronaut named Colonel Steve Austin who was played by Lee
01:03:00
Majors, that's him very talented man he had been given super human strength because the government
01:03:08
had given him bionic implants it's a fucking true story too you guys, they just don't want you to know
01:03:14
about it Yeah. He just wasn't super hot, the guy that they actually did it to. No, he was kind of plain.
01:03:21
Steve Austin could run super fast, but you knew that because he was running in slow motion.
01:03:27
And then there was like a machine sound that they laid over the top of slow motion running,
01:03:32
and they were like, God, he's so fast. And that was CGI back then. Yes. Just some layers.
01:03:39
Yeah. And then he also had one real weird eye. Just a real sharp eye. Bionic. He's bionic.
01:03:48
Don't worry about it. One time, Steve Austin met up with Bigfoot. Do we have that next picture?
01:03:53
Yeah, he did. Look at him. Holy shit! I mean, like, 74 to 79, it's a long fucking time.
01:04:01
Like, that fifth season writer's room, they're like, we did the thing where he fought against Russian Sput.
01:04:07
We did that already. Did he ever meet up with, and I remember this happening, like this was a rule that had to happen on every show, the fucking Harlem Globetrotters?
01:04:17
You ever have to team up with them? They're all inside this Bigfoot suit. Oh my god! Amazing.
01:04:23
This is actually one of a very distinct memory I have, because when, I don't know if they were fighting, or if they were just having fun in the forest, but Bigfoot was throwing huge logs.
01:04:34
I mean, we had no choices back then in our entertainment. We're just like, no, I love this.
01:04:40
I love this. I want a lunchbox with this on it. Motherfuckers. So, and now our story begins.
01:04:51
Okay. So, so they're shooting an episode of the $6 million man at the new Pike Carnival.
01:04:57
And it's an episode where for some reason, Steve Austin, the $6 million man, goes on a spooky funhouse ride.
01:05:06
Sure. That's dignified. Yeah. You know how like government operatives when they're fighting crime
01:05:13
sometimes go on a funhouse? Yeah. To do so? Yeah. Perhaps he was chasing a criminal
01:05:19
that also wanted to have fun real quick. Sure. Before he got away? Absolutely. So they actually went on
01:05:27
a real ride from the new pike and it was called Laugh in the Dark. and I think we have a picture of it.
01:05:34
This is one of the only things, look at it, left over. Wow. Yeah, that's real. Okay.
01:05:41
And it was really there. Okay. And it's the kind of thing where just like the Children's Institute,
01:05:46
you're like, somebody made this up and it's not a good idea. Laugh in the Dark is dumb.
01:05:53
Yeah, yeah. It a bad name Yeah and it not spelled right It not spelled right and it doesn look fun funny or scary It just looks like it almost looks like where the bathrooms should be
01:06:07
Okay. Picture, if you will, the prop man from the $6 million man has to go into Laugh in the Dark
01:06:15
and look at all the shit that's been stuck in there and be like, okay, well, if the shot goes through here, we're going to be looking at this, this, this, and this.
01:06:22
Is this what we want? Or do we actually bring in things that are interesting looking?
01:06:26
And so as he does that, it says, in the ride there's a tunnel where various ghosts, ghouls, skeletons, and demons
01:06:35
pop out at you as your car is jerked side to side in the dark. Sounds fun. I mean, you know what would make you do?
01:06:42
L-A-F-F laugh. That's for sure. So the prop guy is fixing shit up. he sees there's a mannequin hanging from a noose in the corner.
01:06:55
So he probably was like, I don't know if the kids will love that. Now that we've got the Bigfoot crowd following us,
01:07:01
we might want to take the noose out of the shot. He goes up to grab the mannequin, and he ends up pulling its arm off.
01:07:09
And then when he looks at the arm, there's a bone inside of it. Spooky Halloween!
01:07:16
Spooky Halloween! Not only a bone, but tissue-like flesh around the bone. Gross.
01:07:23
So he puts that arm down very gingerly, and then he proceeds to scream for 11 days in the dark.
01:07:33
He stays there. He stays there. Right in the dark, screaming. 11 days. Where did I go?
01:07:41
Oh, that's right at the bottom of the page. Wow. Oh, I put screams for 11 years.
01:07:45
Days is funnier. Yours is too long. We have to edit on the fly. We have to know that everything is fixable.
01:07:55
Who's she? That's the opposite of drunk Karen. I hate her. This. Okay, prepare yourselves.
01:08:03
If you brought like a baby or something, turn it away. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, seriously?
01:08:08
This is what was found. Oh, shit. No. In the dark. How? Why? See where the arm was broken off?
01:08:22
That's how it was hanging. No. When the guy still thought it was a mannequin over there.
01:08:28
No, that looks... No. No, right? The answer is yes or no. No. No. I don't want to go on this ride either, please.
01:08:35
Are you going to make me go on this ride? Yeah, you have to. No, you have to. That's horrible.
01:08:42
Also, I can't tell if somebody Photoshopped it red, which if you did, hats off to you, because it makes it, that picture is awful, and it looks
01:08:51
like something that would be like a creepypasta you're reading, where you're like, this isn't real.
01:08:56
A child wrote this, and then that would be the picture underneath the article. This, on the other hand, well, that looks like tandoori chicken, which is delicious.
01:09:07
It's scary in a different way. It's scary in a, it's heightened. Okay. Oh my God.
01:09:14
So here's what's happening. It turns out the mannequin was Elmer McCurdy, an Old West outlaw who died in a gunfight with police 65 years earlier.
01:09:24
Holy shit. Right? In 1911, Elmer McCurdy, the miss just making vagabond. That's the best nickname of all time.
01:09:34
It's super long. You can't remember it. He robbed a train in Oklahoma, and then he took his $46 and bottle of whiskey.
01:09:43
which at that time was $17,000. And he fled to Kansas. When the police found him,
01:09:53
they, uh, they, he hid in a big haystack because this is a Bugs Bunny cartoon and
01:09:59
they start a shootout. He says, you'll never take me alive. And they're like, sounds great.
01:10:04
It's a deal. And they kill him. And then his body is taken to a funeral home. It sits at the funeral
01:10:11
home. No one ever claims it. So the undertaker who saw it's 1911. So he's like, I need money.
01:10:19
We all need money. This is the wild west. So what he does is he puts Elmer's body out in front of
01:10:24
the funeral home, still in his casket. And whose setup is you can come look at him if you put a
01:10:32
nickel in his mouth. Do we have the picture? No. You have a photo? What the fuck? Go right up. Go right up, little girl. What's wrong? He looks like Ted Bundy, kind of. Well, no, I see how you think he's cute. I did not. I never said. I didn't. Oh, my God, that is terrifying. Man, you try to live your life as a bank robber or whatever with respect.
01:11:02
And you end up being a fucking bank for children. Yeah. Not cool. That's not cool.
01:11:09
But it doesn't end there. Okay. Because that goes on for a while. And then in 1915, two guys from a carnival come and say they're Elmer's brothers,
01:11:20
and they're there to take him away to be buried. I don't believe him. And the undertaker's like, oh, okay.
01:11:26
And then he, like, opens up his butt and all the nickels fall out. Stop it. Stop it. That's not funny. Don't say that.
01:11:35
It's like a gumball machine. How else do you get the nickels out? Like, what's the thinking?
01:11:41
What was he going to do? Yeah, we wanted to know. How'd you get them nickels? So the two brothers aren't real brothers. They're other carnival owners.
01:11:54
And so Elmer then becomes an attraction at their traveling carnival. And he's displayed as the bandit who would
01:12:00
Give up. Jesus. This sounds like a Scooby-Doo cartoon. Yes. There should definitely be a big stacked up sandwich somewhere in this.
01:12:09
Oh, how? You eat one bite. How did he do it? He was so thin and he could eat all the tall sandwiches he wanted.
01:12:15
So jealous. I hate shaggy. Okay. So when the body is considered no longer in mint condition.
01:12:25
Oh, sorry. There's always these beauty standards that we have to live up to. They change the act, and he then is displayed as the 1,000-year-old man.
01:12:38
Great. Yeah. The hits keep coming. Yeah. Carl Reiner's like, that was my idea. Thank you.
01:12:48
Someone listens to comedy records from the 40s. I'm not alone anymore. This goes on for 60 years.
01:12:57
Yes. Too many. Displaying this man willy-nilly at carnivals, wax museums, haunted houses,
01:13:03
and then he finally ends up at Pike's Amusement Park, where they applied a nice coat of paint to him.
01:13:12
Great. And they hung him and laughed in the dark. They thought the, whatever you call, authorities believed that he was hanging there for four years
01:13:22
before he was discovered. They took his body back to Oklahoma and buried him in 1977,
01:13:28
which we have a picture of. Is it going to be his body? Oh, great. Finally. That's nice.
01:13:35
Although, after they buried him, they did pour an extra slab of concrete over his casket
01:13:40
so he wouldn't get out and wander about again. You guys, that doesn't happen. And also, he didn't do it in the first place.
01:13:50
They did it to him. Right. He wasn't like, you know where I want to go next. And he's like, I don't know.
01:13:56
You stay down there. I'd love to, motherfuckers. I wanted to do this 65 years ago.
01:14:01
And that's the story of Elmer McCurdy, the mannequin at the carnival. Amazing. I found that one so long ago.
01:14:10
I'm so happy for you. No, I really. I'm so happy for you. No, that was, yeah, that was a good one.
01:14:19
Thanks. Good job. Thank you so much. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile, with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much.
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equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available.
01:14:51
Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at MintMobile.com. Hello, beautiful. I'm Amy Erick, founder of Madison Reed, a hair color company I named after my daughter.
01:15:00
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01:15:17
The future of hair color is here at Madison Reed. Hey, everyone. It's Cal Penn, host of Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club.
01:15:31
This week on the podcast, I'm sitting down with Will Wheaton, who played Gordie Lachance in Stand By Me 40 years ago and now narrates Stephen King's The Body, the novella that inspired it all.
01:15:43
We talk about what it's like to return to a story that shaped his life, channeling his memories of River Phoenix and the recording booth, and why the friendships you have at 12 might be the most important ones you'll ever have.
01:15:56
I know Gordy Lachance. I am Gordy Lachance. Like, I mean, even when I was a little kid, I was Gordy Lachance when I didn't know it.
01:16:04
Listen to Earsay, the Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
01:16:11
Do we have time for a costume contest? It's a costume contest. You want to see? Watch this.
01:16:16
Here we go. Oh, my God. It's time. I'm dressed as Elvis. Yes, you are. Vince Averill, everybody.
01:16:28
Tour manager. Vince Averill. Vince, if I hadn't already married you, I would marry the shit out of you right now.
01:16:37
Just for this? Yes, truly. Real quick, the Bigfoot on Six Million Dollar Man, Andre the Giant.
01:16:45
Oh, what? Are you serious? Absolutely. Absolutely. Double marry him. Double marry.
01:16:51
Now it's a double wedding, me and you and him. Trick or treat, ladies. I'll be right back.
01:16:57
Thank you. Oh, my God. He's also in character as Elvis. I know. He's not just wearing the outfit.
01:17:04
Our cat is named Elvis, guys, for anyone who's new. Get it? So Vince went around and pulled some interesting, some of interest costumes out of the audience.
01:17:16
If you're sitting there with your perfectly put together girl from the ring and you're like, mine's better, it might be.
01:17:23
Yep, you're probably right. We just wanted to highlight some efforts. Yeah, just a couple of cool people.
01:17:29
Why are we so defensive about the costume contest? You all look great, by the way.
01:17:33
You really do. Thank you so much. Those of you dressed up Where are they, Vince?
01:17:40
They're all backstage Just chilling out Cute, because get it? My cat's Elvis I do, it's like a play on words
01:17:49
It's so cute It's so not like him I'm just really happy about that He doesn take big swings He a very low person And with the gesturing I don know what we waiting for right now He fired clearly Everyone fired tonight at the entire Microsoft
01:18:07
You know, today, when I was driving to work, there was a girl wearing a really tight rogue costume.
01:18:15
She was dressed as rogue, but like in real latex, I think. Or like, it was just this thing.
01:18:20
And she had the hugest butt. And so as I drove by, I was like, yeah! It's like, on Halloween, you put it out there,
01:18:28
and if you're going to put it out there, you should be supported by other big-blooded girls, I think.
01:18:33
Put it out there. People like it. They love it. I love it. All right, let's get our, let's pick these costumes.
01:18:40
Let's see what he's brought out. What should we got? Yay! Oh, my God, I love that movie.
01:18:47
You look amazing. What's happening? It's Leeloo. Hi. What's you guys? What's your name?
01:18:54
My name is Jessica, but I'm also the Supreme Bean. Say it again. I'm Jessica, but I'm also the Supreme Bean.
01:19:01
The Supreme Bean? Yeah. That's right. I thought the Supreme Bean was that lady that sang opera.
01:19:06
Nope. It's me. I'm going over here. I protect you. Oh, wait a second. It's two-partner.
01:19:12
It's Ruby Rob. What's your name? Katie. You look amazing. It's Katie. You're such a little peanut.
01:19:19
I love it. I love peanut. Oh, there she is. It's a notorious RBG. A notorious RBG.
01:19:27
Amazing. What's her name? Jolie. Thank you so much. Great job, you guys. Good job.
01:19:33
Thank you for dressing up. You look incredible. That's her Wednesday outfit. It's just my Wednesday outfit.
01:19:42
Yes. I love it. Cool. I don't know. What do you guys want to do now? I was just going to stand here for the rest of the night.
01:19:52
Okay, cool. It's my bedtime, but I mean, is there a contest? Well, I think you guys all three already won.
01:20:01
Here, I have... Oh, what you got? Georgia's got some prizes for you. I have some...
01:20:06
It's not candy. Relax, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for Christ's sake. Here, I'm going to give you my pin, because I didn't bring three.
01:20:15
The pin off your jacket? Oh, because you only have two? There you go. Good job, everybody.
01:20:19
Good job, thank you. Good job, everyone. Give them a hand. Thank you. I think that's it.
01:20:27
Thank you so much. I do have to give a shout out to my girlfriend, Lisa. Hi, Lisa.
01:20:32
Oh, do you hang her on? A little bit. I'm trying to become a murderino. Get out.
01:20:39
Oh, you're too late. Too late. Good job. Hi, what's your name? John. John, where the fuck were you?
01:20:49
Lost. Really? Really? I have no idea where to go. Did you have to get up here by yourself?
01:20:55
Well, no one said my name. Oh, that's because you didn't get picked. God, Halloween is tough sometimes, isn't it?
01:21:04
Do you have another pin for John? No, I don't. I'm sorry. What you got? My food.
01:21:13
Perfect. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Give my hand. Yeah, that's it. That's all. Good job.
01:21:22
We didn't really have a plan. No. Yeah, good job. Thanks, you guys. You can just go get lost, kind of wander backstage.
01:21:30
I think there's hockey next door. Oh, there's one more. Oh, oh. He's dressed as a serial killer.
01:21:38
Is there? Let's see. Uh-oh. It's fucking Ed Kemper. Oh, my God. You guys, it's Cameron Gritt.
01:21:47
It's Cameron Gritt. Hi. Cameron Britton from HBO's Mindhunter is here. Right? We had a reason for doing that.
01:22:03
It was a big mess. Here, come sit down with us. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How'd you like our costume contest, Cameron?
01:22:12
Pretty good? Hello. It was. It was great. This is my version of my own costume. It's not great.
01:22:21
It's really good. Yeah, I didn't have tennis shoes on, like New Balance on the day.
01:22:26
But this was what I auditioned in. This was the shirt. Is that true? Really? Yeah.
01:22:30
How many times did you have to audition? I auditioned six times. Really? Wow. And they told me that no one else had to, so I don't know.
01:22:40
Nobody else. Jonathan Groff was like, no, I did it twice. Wow. Maybe they just wanted to see you act more.
01:22:48
Yeah. Did you know who Ed Kemper was when you went in? No, I had no idea. You didn't?
01:22:52
No, but I could tell by the script that I was sent. I was only sent a few pages.
01:22:59
There was something about it. It just didn't seem like it was made up by a writer.
01:23:03
It seemed like quotes. Yeah. Very grounded. Yeah. Very grounded writing. I just got a feeling I typed Ed Kemper into YouTube,
01:23:11
and I went down a rabbit hole of a long time. I'll never forget. We went that night.
01:23:18
I did a self-tape and then we went to a bar in North Hollywood and my friends and I were talking about
01:23:25
okay, I just had this audition. This guy really did. And I went through the list of all the things
01:23:30
he did to his mom and we're all just drinking. Oh my God, that's the craziest thing.
01:23:35
And then I was like, you guys, I got a callback for that. Really? And then I was like,
01:23:38
you guys, I got another callback for that. And they're like, that's great. And I was like, guys, I've got another callback.
01:23:42
It just kind of kept going over six weeks. Wow. But then it ended up that you got an Emmy nomination for that one that you did.
01:23:54
That a pretty good feeling right Yeah it was pretty emotional actually It was my first guest star at 31 and it led to being here talking to 7 people
01:24:06
Look at it. This could all be yours. This could all be yours. And we had the Emmys there, and I sat right down there.
01:24:12
Oh, that's right, because they held them here. I was right next to Jane Lynch. The Emmys were a practice for this show.
01:24:19
Yeah, that was what it was. And I didn't get on stage that night, but I'm here now.
01:24:24
So I'm on stage. That's right. And we're giving you our version of an Emmy. Oh. The Steffi.
01:24:37
So how long did you have to, because you played Ed Kemper so beautifully that it made me a little terrified of you when I met you earlier.
01:24:45
Yeah. Because it was so good and real. How long did you have to practice being the biggest creep?
01:24:53
Well, TV never rehearses, but we rehearsed. We rehearsed a lot, actually. We discussed it a lot, and I had a few months before the first shoot,
01:25:03
which we shot it in order, and then maybe a few months later I did the next one.
01:25:10
So it was nine months in character. I just kind of passed up auditions and stuff.
01:25:14
So I just focused on him for nine months, which in TV, again, as a guest star is impossibly rare.
01:25:20
Yeah. And that's the show. If anyone there hasn't seen it, it goes all out in making it as authentic as possible.
01:25:32
There's no, I love Hannibal Lecter, but it's so over the top. This is much more grounded.
01:25:39
Well, because they're real people. I mean, it's that thing where we read these stories and we talk about the facts of these cases that are so,
01:25:46
you just can't believe you know a guy cut his own mother's head off and buried her in the backyard
01:25:51
facing the house it's like shit where you're like what but then it's like it's a real person
01:25:56
it's a real person that did that yeah yeah i still can't believe it's weird because you know like
01:26:02
stalin murdered millions of people but still like if you cut your mom's head off and you have sex
01:26:07
with it, we're still like, what? What? No, you didn't. And then he's 6'9", and his IQ is like 145.
01:26:17
I mean, the guy's just... You're not 6'9". I'm 6'5". I mean, I didn't mean that as an insult.
01:26:23
No. Plenty tall. No. But did you have to wear heels? I did. Did you really? High heels? Yeah, it was boots
01:26:33
with high heels on it. And then, I mean, those hurt like hell. Yeah, they fucking do.
01:26:39
Finally. Try it at 300 pounds, girls. But a lot of that stuff, like I took my shoes off,
01:26:48
so not to take you out of the moment, but if you're watching the show and my feet are under a table,
01:26:53
there's a good chance I have no shoes on. I'm just chilling back. Hippie at Kemper.
01:26:59
Secrets of Hollywood. You know what's really funny, too, is that like talking to you,
01:27:03
it's not totally dissimilar. It's not like this, you know. But when you were at Kemper, there was no light in your eyes.
01:27:12
You were the most dead-eyed reptilian person. Thank you. Right? Yes. That's crazy.
01:27:20
I worked really hard on that dead-eyed thing. You turned that light out real good.
01:27:24
Christian Bale talked about he based a lot of American Psycho off of Tom Cruise because he noticed that his smile never reaches his eyes.
01:27:33
Whoa. So there is a way, actors. You can practice just killing your eyes. Oh, my God.
01:27:42
We should start a Hollywood gossip podcast. Absolutely. The three of us. Yeah. Yeah, let's start one.
01:27:48
Right here tonight. Oh, my God. Russell Crowe and Dakota Fanning went out. No, I doubt they did ever.
01:27:55
You have a hometown murder story, right? I do. I do. I do. The hometown murder story.
01:28:05
It's an old family secret that my grandmother, she didn't know that she had two uncles until she was 18 years old.
01:28:15
It was so secret. But all the people involved are dead now, so they don't care. So I'm going to tell you.
01:28:21
Those are the best ones, the best ones. You can make the most jokes on those ones.
01:28:25
Let's talk about the dead. So let's go back to 1897. This house was built on this property my family still has.
01:28:34
We still camp on it, but at that time it was sheep herding country. Where is this?
01:28:39
This is in Casadero, California, which you may know. There's no way. There are, to this day, 400 people living in the town.
01:28:51
They're not here today. They're all here tonight. They're all here. Yes, even the mayor.
01:28:56
We could all become our own army and just take over Casadero, all of us in a whim.
01:29:03
So this is even further up north than that. This is way out in the woods of northern California.
01:29:10
And my great-grandfather grew up in this house, and he'd ride a mule to school and everything.
01:29:16
I'm not kidding. So his two older brothers, Don and James, James murdered Don. spoiler alert
01:29:27
James was he had a complicated birth so they think he had a lack of oxygen so he had like the mind of like an 8 year old
01:29:36
and he his mother Anna brought him to a mental institution and brought him in and
01:29:42
looked around and then decided no it's not right for him which is unfortunate because sometime later
01:29:48
Don and James were down at the barn and we're really not sure on the dispute We think Dong was heading to San Francisco and that made James jealous because in that day just going to San Francisco was amazing It a big deal It was just like oh you the coolest guy I ever met That how it was in my town too when I was growing up
01:30:06
Wait, how old were the boys? They were in their 20s at this point, but my great-grandfather's, the younger brother, he was like seven.
01:30:13
So I'm whispering. I know. Excuse me. Gather round. Gather round, everyone. I love you guys.
01:30:20
So then, so they're having a dispute, and James was known. The children were all scared of him growing up for these violent outbursts he'd have.
01:30:28
And they got in a dispute, and he grabbed the axe off the barn door, and he murdered Don.
01:30:34
And Anna, the mother, heard it and ran down to the barn and found James covered in blood.
01:30:40
And when my mom tells it, she goes, and it's really upsetting for James because he was a clean freak.
01:30:46
I don't know if you need the icing on the cake. Also, he was upset because of all his brother's blood on him.
01:30:53
It's sticky. But Anna is kind of a baller. I still can't believe that she would do this.
01:31:01
She said, I got it handled. And she stayed with James alone in this wilderness with her son who just murdered her other son.
01:31:10
and she sent George, my great-grandfather, at seven years old to the nearest house to get help.
01:31:18
And that was two miles away in the dark in the woods. In the dark. In the woods.
01:31:22
In the dark in the woods. So it's like a bad day and then it's like a really bad day.
01:31:26
You know, it's not great. And thankfully he doesn't remember much of it. But James went to a mental institution and he died there.
01:31:35
And yeah, my grandma never knew until she was 18. and then four more people died of old age
01:31:43
or just the stuff that people died of all the time in the day. And in that house, and that house got very haunted.
01:31:51
My mother seen ghosts in there. And then we would go camp and sleep in this house
01:31:55
and we'd be like, we want to go to Disneyland. And she'd be like, no, we're going.
01:31:59
You've got to remember your history. But our history is horrifying. Don't remember your history.
01:32:04
Don't remember your history. You can learn nothing. And so, and that's really it.
01:32:13
What more do you want? I mean, layer upon layer. That's crazy. So good. So good.
01:32:22
And do you think, did you bring a little James into the Kemper characterization?
01:32:27
I don't know. Maybe he's in there. Maybe he's in there right now. You know what was in there was Robert California from The Office again.
01:32:35
Not to ruin it. But it wasn't like I was like, and a little Robert California, like sprinkling.
01:32:42
It just happened. And then James Stewart, I just felt like there was a little bit of a polite,
01:32:48
polished. Yes, the formality, you're right. And then a lot of my dad. Who is Ed Kemper, right?
01:32:55
Yeah. That's another hometown of this story for a different day. What's next for Cameron Britton?
01:33:02
Yeah. Oh, Girl on the Spires Web comes out November 9th. Claire Foy's the best. She's everything you'd hope she'd be.
01:33:10
And then, okay, so February 15th, a new Netflix show called Umbrella Academy comes out.
01:33:17
What's that about? That one is a comic book series brought to live action. Mary J. Blige and I play two assassins.
01:33:25
Nice. Yes. Yeah. Give it to me now. It's me and Mary J. Blige traveling through time
01:33:31
and assassinating the good guys. Did you win the lottery? The two twins from The Shining are walking by.
01:33:40
Oh, they're so upset they have to leave. You upset the twins from The Shining. Oh, I'm not playing with you forever and ever and ever.
01:33:50
We're not there. What are you talking about? I don't see any twins from The Shining.
01:33:54
Bye. And we can't talk about whether or not you're on the next season of Mindhunter,
01:34:02
but you can tell us one thing about someone else who's on it, right? I found out that they'll have Charles Manson as an interview.
01:34:14
You heard it heard first, kid. The same actor is actually playing Manson again in Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
01:34:24
So this guy is so good at it. He's Australian. And they got the makeup artist from The Darkest Hour who just won an Academy Award.
01:34:32
So this dude looks like Manson. And then they'll cover the Atlanta child murderers.
01:34:37
Wow. Creepy. Yeah. So you're going to see Holden Ford not just do studies. He's going to be in the field practicing and trying to actually catch bad guys.
01:34:48
And we're going to see a little of that BTK, right? Because that got laid in real subtle.
01:34:52
Yeah. My favorite thing is people who don't follow true crime, and they would watch Mindhunter and then go,
01:34:58
who's the guy with the mustache? Really upset, and I'd be like, it's BTK. I don't know.
01:35:03
I knew it immediately, but whatever. Type in Wichita, Kansas, and then serial killer,
01:35:09
and then go down another rabbit hole. Just keep going down those rabbit holes. Goodbye.
01:35:14
When he got arrested because he sent a floppy disk in in 2001, did you guys cover him?
01:35:21
BTK? I think I did. I can't remember. So he sent in a floppiness to the cops, and he said,
01:35:28
will you guys be able to pull up deleted files? And they said, no, we can't do that.
01:35:36
And then they pulled up deleted files, and they found him, and they pulled him over,
01:35:40
and the cops said, you know why I pulled you over? And Dennis Rader said, I have a pretty good idea.
01:35:46
And that's the story. Oh, my God. What a creep. I cannot wait for Mindhunter. And we were so, we thought of this, of having you, and then we're like, because it was truly
01:35:56
like dream, the dream idea. And the idea. You said yes and that you're here with us tonight is so awesome.
01:36:02
Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Absolutely. So exciting. Thank you, guys. Cameron Britton, everybody.
01:36:08
Cameron Britton! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I really appreciate it. Yeah. Yay.
01:36:17
Celebrities. He went straight up in the air. Oh, my God. He has a lot of ballet training.
01:36:30
We have another guest. We have one more guest. Yes. It's very exciting. It's Josh Mankiewicz from Dateline.
01:36:38
Josh Mankiewicz from Dateline. Come on out here. Come on out. We have to rehearse our cues.
01:36:45
We're not good at this. Look, it's Josh Mankiewicz from Dateline. It's your dayline.
01:36:56
Hello. Hello. I said that too fast. It was good. Here, come sit here. Let's pull our chairs back a little.
01:37:04
You know, if you work for Dateline, you'd dream about one day sitting in the chair that Ed Kemper sat.
01:37:14
The voice, you guys. It's Josh Beckwith's voice. Okay, all I'm going to tell you about the voice is that when I started in this business,
01:37:23
which was before either of you were born. I worked for a different network. I will not identify that network, but its initials are ABC.
01:37:34
And they sent me, because I had this voice, they sent me something like $50,000 to $100,000 worth of voice coaching lessons
01:37:43
to get me to sound like every other announcer on the radio. And I did my absolute best.
01:37:50
but I tried but it didn't work. This is the voice I went in with this is the voice I came out with
01:37:56
I love it we're glad it works for us now you guys Dateline, you guys have followers
01:38:04
that have a name for themselves right? we you mean like murderinos? yeah, aren't there
01:38:12
Dateline heads or something? Dateline on Twitter There's a group called Dateline Divas.
01:38:22
Yes. Yeah, there may be some of them here today. Sure. Yeah, it's a big community, not tremendously unlike this one, devoted, and they know all the details of the stories.
01:38:38
Like, people come up to me in airports, and they inevitably say two things. One is they say, I was watching Murder at the Crossroads, and I fell asleep.
01:38:48
What happened? Oh, my God. You're just supposed to tell the rest of the case. Clearly, I've put millions of Americans to sleep.
01:38:59
It's the voice. Yeah, they're out. And the other thing is they say to me something that they saw not on Dateline,
01:39:07
but where Dateline gets repurposed on ID or one of the other channels that it runs on.
01:39:11
And they say, they talk about a murder from like six or seven years ago. They go, okay, the guy who killed his wife.
01:39:22
I'm going to need a little more than that. And then eventually we figure it out.
01:39:27
I always think when you guys are interviewing, like, you know how sometimes you interview the husband because he's claimed that he's innocent, that whole thing.
01:39:35
like have you ever had an experience where you're interviewing one of those people and it's like
01:39:39
creeping you out or you have to take a break or like you know they're full of shit in some way
01:39:44
well frequently you know that they're full of shit but but uh which we can't really say on
01:39:51
dateline but uh uh you know first of all frequently by the time we're talking to someone who's the
01:39:58
accused murderer they're either the accused murderer or by the time we're talking to them
01:40:02
they the convicted murderer But we try and talk to everybody in the story and everybody gets their say That doesn mean that I don get to poke holes in whatever their defense was But usually
01:40:16
by the time people are sitting across from me, they are on their best behavior, because they're
01:40:22
trying to, you know, this is all a big conspiracy, my wife's family is out to get me, I'm really not
01:40:29
guilty. So usually they're not scary. Now there was a guy last year in Montana whose girlfriend
01:40:36
disappeared and has not been found. Yeah, shout out to Montana with all those places to hide a body.
01:40:46
Congratulations. She's never been found. And we were speaking with him and he was locked up at
01:40:54
this point. And he got very angry that I was questioning his version of events. And he
01:41:03
started yelling at me. And normally they're shackled. And normally, like if we're on camera,
01:41:09
like right there is some big corrections officer. But in this case, they were sort of out in the
01:41:17
hall and he wasn't actually shackled. And I thought to myself, this guy's going to kick my ass
01:41:24
because he's a lot bigger than I am and a lot younger. But then he, I think, realized that that
01:41:30
was not going to be the preferred part of the correctional experience. And he did not. And he
01:41:37
calmed down and then he got up and laughed and then we got him to come back. And, you know,
01:41:41
it ended up, it worked out okay but no, I mean, freaked out no, and right and afraid for my safety probably only
01:41:50
that one time, but most of the time, like, you're talking to somebody and you either know or believe that
01:41:58
the story they're telling you is not true, but you know, you're sort of more interested
01:42:02
in the give and take of the interview it is great when they think they're getting
01:42:06
away with lying, or like, that they really are look, I'm so smart, I'm going to convince you. Is there a case that's either your favorite or least favorite or the one you get
01:42:15
asked about the most? The one I get asked about all the time is the murder of Tom and Jackie
01:42:19
Hawks right here in Southern California off the coast by Newport. I'm sure you know this,
01:42:25
many of you know this story. A guy wanted to steal their boat. They put it up for sale and he
01:42:32
persuaded them to take them, to take him out on essentially a test drive. He brought along a
01:42:39
friend of his who was a gang member that he'd hired off some corner, I think in Long Beach.
01:42:45
And they, yeah, again, shout out to LBC. They know. The LBC knows who they are. And they took him to the Gap to dress him in a way that made him look inoffensive.
01:42:59
Yes. The Gap's not like a sponsor of yours or anything. Yeah, it is. Pick up some socks this week.
01:43:05
Three for five. So they took this gang member to the Gap, and then these people let him on the boat,
01:43:13
and they ended up paying for it in a horrible way. And that's the story I get asked about all the time.
01:43:20
All the people involved, they're locked up now. Yeah, that's good. That's so creepy.
01:43:25
I hate those ones that are the cold case ones. What was your first, can you remember the first one that you ever reported on?
01:43:31
The first murder? Yeah. Brianna Denison in Reno, Nevada. I'm still in touch with her mom.
01:43:36
Really? Oh. Yeah. Well, you know, you end up, if you're doing this, or at least if you're doing it right,
01:43:44
you end up sort of staying in touch with these people in your life. Because you spend a lot of time with them over a very short period of time,
01:43:53
and you end up becoming very close to them sort of as you talk about their story.
01:43:57
Because you're talking about, you know, the thing they're never going to get over.
01:44:01
Yeah. I mean, there's this myth that locking people up somehow makes everything okay for the families.
01:44:08
It doesn't. And so you end up getting much closer to these people than maybe you otherwise might And so yeah I still in touch with a lot of these people And that was a terrible story
01:44:22
Amazing. Like all of them. And that was in, I think, 2006, 2007. By which time, I've already been at Dateline 10 years.
01:44:29
But we didn't start doing true crime until then. Yeah. Wow. Do you want to plug anything?
01:44:34
What's coming up next? Well, let's see. I have like three or four things in production right now,
01:44:39
but I don't know when they're going to be on the air. Are any of them with Mary J. Blige?
01:44:44
None of them. Okay. I can't say. Okay, okay. No, you're right, you're right. That would be inappropriate.
01:44:52
This Friday is a great story in South Carolina that's reported by Andrea Canning.
01:44:58
The story that took place, I think, in 2013, like two or three different trials.
01:45:04
and you know the stories that that i mean at dateline we always try and sort of draw a line
01:45:12
in between the story which is extremely sad and the storytelling which can be kind of fun
01:45:18
and i mean we don't say uh here's a story about a guy who was accused of killing his wife but
01:45:23
turned out to be the next door neighbor now stick around for 59 minutes yeah right we we draw it out
01:45:29
as you know. So the hardest stories to tell are the ones in which the obvious suspect ends up being
01:45:37
the guilty party. This is not one of those stories. There's a bunch of different places to go with the
01:45:42
narrative, and Andrea Canning does a great job with it. So that's this Friday on Dateline.
01:45:46
Awesome. Cool. Well, we've been Twitter friends with you for so long. I'm so glad we finally
01:45:53
got you on. I'm so thrilled to be here. Thank you so much. And you know, I fly around the country all the time
01:46:00
doing these stories. And now when I fly around the country, I'm listening to the two of you.
01:46:05
Uh-huh! What? Come on! You guys! Amazing. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Josh Megowitz, everyone.
01:46:15
Josh Megowitz from Dateline, everybody. Thank you. Good job. Thanks so much. Thank you so much.
01:46:26
Yes. Happy Halloween hymn off the stage. Oh, my God. No. You guys, we did it. We Halloweened.
01:46:40
I can't believe what an incredible audience you guys have been. You were triple the size we're used to talking to,
01:46:47
and you were twice as quiet as any. I mean I in my mind I was backstage telling Georgia
01:46:55
who's just like look they're gonna be talking the entire time you have to get ready
01:46:59
for that you need to be prepared that's all I do to her all day long we'll start by telling them
01:47:02
to shut up and we'll yell at them I bet the bar lines were really long and everyone couldn't
01:47:06
get shit faced oh that's right you went from there's people in the front row going
01:47:12
that's fucking right you owe me four drinks they spent all their drink money on parking
01:47:19
so they didn't have We get it. We owe you one. We should have snuck you a Coors Light.
01:47:24
That's right. Damn it. I'm so sorry. You can go to the art house. All our friends are there.
01:47:31
So we really did start talking and became friends at this Halloween party. And we had talked all night.
01:47:38
And we were like, let's meet for lunch. I want to talk to you more. We were talking about true crime.
01:47:41
And we met and talked for five hours. Cafe 101. You guys know that place. They let you sit there for five hours.
01:47:50
and just keep drinking coffee. It's pretty chill. And a little while later, I think I texted you,
01:47:55
do you want to start a true crime podcast with me? Because all I wanted to do was keep talking to Karen about true crime
01:48:00
because I hadn't met anyone who was excited to talk about theories and favorite cases and all these horrible things,
01:48:08
these things that happen that are so awful, but I felt like I could talk to her about it.
01:48:12
And so we started this podcast in my old little apartment in... 2016 right Yeah and little Armenia And now In real Armenia Yeah It was a war summer
01:48:28
And now we're downtown at the Microsoft Theater doing the largest fucking live podcast ever.
01:48:34
Unbelievable. I can't believe it. Honestly, I'm blown away. We're so fucking honored and thrilled to be here
01:48:44
and appreciate you guys so much showing up on Halloween and supporting us through this whole thing.
01:48:49
It's incredible. We do spend a lot of time in between trying to answer emails quickly.
01:48:57
We spend a lot of time staring at each other going, what the fuck is going on? And you guys have basically given us this humongous gift.
01:49:06
For some reason, it was like you were all just sitting there waiting to have this conversation with us.
01:49:12
And you were there from day one. You've turned out show after show. Everything we do, you're so supportive.
01:49:21
And you're also creating communities with each other. And it is such a powerful thing to watch all of these people come together under the guise of true crime.
01:49:30
And actually raise money and make friends and deal with anxiety. And do stuff that's such a hard thing to do alone.
01:49:37
And now you're not alone anymore. It's the fucking coolest thing. And you're doing it.
01:49:41
You guys are doing it for each other. Thank you guys for letting us do this. This is our dream job.
01:49:48
Thank you for being here. And we have to thank Microsoft Theater. They made us a fucking rug
01:49:55
among many other things. They're so supportive and excited. There's a lot of, apparently,
01:50:01
we've been told murderinos that work here, which is the coolest thing. But we also have to thank our agent,
01:50:07
Joe Swartz, the first year of touring. He goes, what if you did a live show on Halloween?
01:50:12
And we're like, shut up. And then he was like, how about the Microsoft 7,000 people?
01:50:19
And we're like, shut up. No one will come. Why are you trying to set us up for failure all the time?
01:50:26
But he did it. He convinced us to do it. And you guys sold it out. And so thank you, Joe Schwartz, for letting us sass you constantly.
01:50:37
And for setting up these tours and these live shows. and thanks you guys for buying these tickets
01:50:42
and making it a thing. We're so thrilled. That's right. We're just so thrilled. Thank you to Stephen and to Vince for supporting us.
01:50:48
Yes. We love it. Thanks, you guys. Stay sexy. And jump in! Bye. Thank you. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile.
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