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foreign [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that once he finally got his ducks in a row they flew
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south for the winter he is the captain well having some ducks as pets is not all that it's quacked up to be it's good
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to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling my friend
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today we are drinking Duckpin pale ale by Union craft brewing company in Baltimore garage grade 4 out of five
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bottle caps this is a generously hopped pale ale brewed with lots of Pacific Northwest and New Zealand Hops and my
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favorite part Duckpin has big Citrus and tropical fruit Aroma you have Aroma and
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Duckpin was brought to us by first up we have Amira in Santa Monica California another frisky bugger we have Becks over
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in Leeds UK next up we have Berto in Waterford Michigan and a big weed like your jib to Jess in Oklahoma and we are
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sending a long distance cheers to Katie and Isaac in Albuquerque New Mexico and last but not least we have Kimberly
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right here in beautiful gray Columbus Ohio welcome to Ohio and it pains me to say
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this but they did win last night so Roll Tide Roll Tide thank you to everybody for helping us with this week's beer run
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if you want to help us out with next week's go to True Crime garage.com and click on the Donate button and there you
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can find our blog our old episodes and bonus episodes you can also find the old episodes and bonus episodes on iTunes
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all right that's enough of the business everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
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foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] the following is a letter written and sent from a Maryland prison
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you were always asking me about my murders well here is one that no one knows about
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that's right pal I have never told anyone about this murder I never had to go far to find a victim
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for most all truck stops across the U.S had [ __ ] working in and around them this is a story of a young prostitute I
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killed in October of 1995. she was working the 76 Truck Stop in Reno Nevada I was driving a blue long-nosed
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Peterbilt I was hooked up to a freezer trailer that's a trailer with a freezer I beat and raped that [ __ ] in the
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sleeper of that truck that night until I grew tired of her then I put my hands on her neck and I
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began squeezing her screams of pain slowly dwindled down to Mere rasp of agonizing Grunts and
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groans the sound she made slowly faded away never to be heard again Sweet Death had finally come down upon
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her now her body was just a dead carcass laying in wait for the decomposition to
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start the breaking down of cells I laid there with my arms wrapped around her dead body and slept for about three
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hours I woke up to my alarm clock going off at 5 30 A.M I climbed over her and I got dressed
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I throwed a blanket over her then I started the truck up I got out of the truck locked the door
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and headed over to the coffee shop to grab a bite and check the computer for loads heading east
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the closest thing I saw available to me that I was looking for was a load of ranch house salad dressing they wanted
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taken down to Houston Texas the company was located over in Sharps Nevada which is only about 25 miles north of
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the truck stop I decided to accept the job I grabbed a coffee to go and off to the
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truck I went I climbed up into the cab and checked everything out and off I go I got to the warehouse in Sharps they
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had the load but there was no one there because it was Saturday morning the sign on the door said they were
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opened up at 9am but it was only 7 45 AM so I looked around and there wasn't a damn soul in sight
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there wasn't nothing around this little business park so I thought this would be a perfect place to ditch
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her off I dragged her dead ass out of the truck I grabbed my little army shovel and off I went to the back of that
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little Warehouse I found a nice isolated area back there I buried her in about 45 minutes
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this Industrial Park wasn't very old so the ground was pretty soft and that's where she is to this day
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it was not for another two bodies later that I would realize what a waste of all
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that good meat was only ending up being nothing more than bug and worm food I have never Shed a Tear For Those I
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have killed nor will I down the road those sweet young drug-addicted prostitutes that I killed back in my
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past were pretty much dead to the world long before I killed them they were nothing more than walking
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zombies looking for a few moments of pleasure from their sick twisted daily lives of
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Shame I feel I've done those poor souls of favor if I feel anything for them I feel only
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some jealousy for their pains are over and mine will continue as I sit Behind These Bars until the day
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I die I have enclosed my tooth for you we never met but now you will always have a part of me with you
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you take care be safe out there my best friend signed with a thumbprint pressed in
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blood [Music] December 8th 1996 Baltimore Maryland and Captain while I would consider the great
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state of Maryland to be a beautiful beautiful state in Baltimore to be a beautiful city as well well I would not
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consider the couple of city blocks where our story starts off to be anywhere near
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beautiful shout out to Rockville Maryland this is a dingy undesirable couple of city blocks on the city's
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Southwest side back in December of 1996 Joe Metheny is 46 years old he's about six foot one inches tall and almost 300
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pounds so we're talking about a pretty big guy here big boy on the night of the 8th he met a woman by the name of Rita
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Kemper who is 37 years old he met her at the borderline bar now Joe is at this bar nearly every night drinking B here
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in Southern Comfort the bar is right by where Joe Metheny Works Joe works for the Joe Stein and
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Sun Pallet company for those of you that may not know pallets are those wood skids manufactured primarily for
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stacking cargo when loading you know onto semi trucks or trains anyway not only does Joe work there but he is
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living there so Alex I'll explain Joe is a forklift operator at the Joe Stein and
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Sun Pallet company he's a forklift operator by day but by night he is a night Watchman Joe is a well let's say
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he's a very persuasive personality he's outgoing he's quite the talker so my guess is Joe had nowhere to live and he
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cut a deal with his boss you know you need someone to watch this place at night and I work here during the day you
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know me you trust me so they work out this deal I think they only paid him an additional twenty
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dollars a week for his night Watchman duties right but he got to stay there and sleep there at night
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the Joe Stein and Son Pallet company is located at 3200 James Street which is in
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the southwest corner of the city of Baltimore the company is situated on a lot which is adjacent to a wooded area
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the company has a locked entrance gate and is surrounded by an eight foot high chain link fence with barbed wire on top
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the lot is approximately the size of a city a square city block there is a warehouse and an office
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building there that is surrounded by literally thousands of wooden pallets which are stacked at varying Heights
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throughout the lot there is no business conducted at this company or surrounding companies during
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the evening hours James Street is a dead end Street where there is very little to
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no pedestrian traffic Joe lived in a small one-room trailer located on the South fence
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the nearest residential development to The Pallet company is approximately two blocks away on this particular night
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apparently his Watchman duties included inviting Rita Kemper back to his trailer
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read on the bar yes Rita had joined Joe at the trailer on at least one other occasion now I don't know the
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particulars of that visit but I do know the particulars of this one and it goes like this Joe invited Rita back to join
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him at the trailer with the promise of drinks and cocaine well at some point Joe starts attacking
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Rita she manages to get out of the trailer she raced towards the front gate but Joe
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is chasing after her Rita Kemper reached the gate but it was locked when she turned around to look for another way
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out Joe had caught up to her and he punched her his big fat fist smashing into her jaw rendering her unconscious
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Joe then dragged her back into the trailer by her hair once Joe had Rita back in the trailer he
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pinned her down which is probably pretty easy for him once he got on top of her to hold her down I mean he's almost 300
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pounds at this time I don't know the size of this poor woman but I'm guessing she's outsized by quite a bit once
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pinned down Joe starts pulling down Rita's jeans she starts screaming Joe yells at her
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um and she's yelling at Joe but Joe's not terribly worried about the screams because where this is located where the
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trailer is located this lot it's it's likely that not anyone would hear her especially at this hour of night I mean
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like you said there's no pedestrians walking by correct and there's no business being conducted in this area at
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this hour Rita begs Joe to stop attacking her he ignores her she starts praying out loud and Joe's reaction to
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this well he he finds this to be funny then Joe tells Rita that he's going to rape her and when he's done he's going
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to kill her and once she is dead he is going to bury her in the woods with the other girls
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Rita Kemper decides that she is not going to die not that night not by the hands of this loser well she started
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kicking and she kicked her legs out of her pants remember he was trying to pull the pants off right and he she rolled
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underneath of Joe as he was trying to keep her pin down this rolling allows her to break free
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now she's on her feet and she's sprinting out of the trailer and looking for a way out of the fenced-in yard
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now Joe is up and he's running after her and he's still got her pants in his hand
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Rita ran toward one of several large stacks of pallets now there are hundreds of course of
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these pallets there are probably you know piles and stacks of these things all along the fences
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Rita starts climbing one of these Stacks Joe runs up to the stack she's climbing
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and he's trying to grab her as she continues to climb I mean this is like a scene out of a horror movie Rita feels
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Joe's hand nearly grab her ankle she gets to the top of the stack and she leaps jumping over the top of the fence
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she slams to the ground but thankfully on the other side of the fence from Joe Metheny
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she gets back on her feet and runs down the hill screaming and waving her hands she's trying to flag down a vehicle then
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she sees the lights of an approaching car am I wrong I mean that's like the ending of the first Texas Chainsaw
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Massacre right waving down a vehicle yeah yeah yeah I mean you have this woman who it seems like if you if you
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looked in on this area it would feel like there was nothing around this trailer and nothing around this
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fenced-in pallet yard she's basically trapped with inside that fence figuring out this masterful way to
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get out leaping over the fence and now she's free but she's still got this Maniac inside the fence
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trying to get to her yeah and you just wanted a little bananas and blow and uh now you're jumping over fences well
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she's outside the fence she's trying to flag down a car she sees a car this car starts to slow down and to her surprise
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it's a police officer she tells the officer what had just happened and how she was attacked and
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how Joe had told her that he was going to rape and kill her the officer drives up the hill and around to the front of
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the gate Joe is inside the fence near the gate and in his hands he still has a hold of Rita's pants
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the officer orders Joe out and into his car Joe spent the night in jail and he was going to be charged with assault
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kidnapping and attempted rape but the thing here is though Captain they didn't hold him long he was not
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going to have to stay in jail for very long to wait for the trial right and he also knows where his victim you know
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goes to hang out he knows probably her friends maybe knows where she lives yeah and I I I'm guessing she won't be
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returning to the borderline bar anytime soon especially with him being out so they well I'm pointing out that the
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police are not protecting her right and they end up releasing him it's just a day or two after this attack so when Joe
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gets out guess where he is Captain goes to the bar that's right he's right back at the borderline bar sitting on a stool
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drinking Southern Comfort and beer telling jokes now not too long after being released from jail Joe is back at
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the bar and on this particular night he's hanging out with a guy named William Ashbrook Jr now William works
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with Joe at The Pallet Company they are at the borderline bar most of the night boozing it up Joe invites
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William back to the trailer just to be clear there's no crime or shame in that and
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boozing it up with with your buddy from The Pallet Company no I mean just being out of the bar and boozing it up right
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right so Joe invites William back to the trailer they get to the trailer and they start
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snorting cocaine that's a crime okay thanks for the clarification to let you know
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and after a few snorts Joe asked William for a favor sir Joe go ahead no I almost choked on my
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beer Joe tells William that he needs help in the line after a few lines not after a few snorts you snorts
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we're changing we're changing the lingo after a few snorts continue yeah Joe asked William for a favor he wants
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help moving a body and he thinks maybe William would help him with this William thinks Joe is messing around with him he
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doesn't believe Joe so Joe then takes William into the woods and Joe starts pushing away debris and trash and
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underneath this debris and trash sure enough there is a rotting nude body of a dead woman
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William tells Joe that he's going to vomit and that he's not going to help him move the body yeah he does
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offer to go get more cocaine yeah I wonder when he's saying hey look I'm going to puke I can't help you I
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wonder what Joe's demeanor was at this time was he getting angry at him did he sense uh you know did he feel threatened
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like if I don't help him is he gonna attack me yeah yeah it makes you wonder and I almost feel like we have Joe
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Metheny at this point that's got probably so much beer and Southern Comfort and cocaine in him he might even
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be very casual about this whole thing yeah hey what you want to go help me move this
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body well I like this little escape plan that that William has here he's like I'm
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not going to help you move the body but I'll go get some more cocaine for the both of us yeah well with this he leaves
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and he does not come back that night the next day I'm not sure if this is at work
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remember they work together or if this was at the bar after work but William asked Joe about the body that he was
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asked to help move Joe plays Dumb and acts like he doesn't know what William is talking about right well William
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starts to get scared of his friend Joe he starts getting scared of this stuff that he knows he starts thinking
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you know if if I know about this dead body that Joe showed me maybe I'm the only one that knows about it well Joe
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could easily take me out and then nobody knows about this body right yeah So eventually just within a couple of days
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William reports the story to the police on December 15 1996 at approximately 1 40 a.m members of the Baltimore City
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police department and an FBI task force arrest Joe Metheny get this they arrested Joe at the Joe
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Stein and Sons company Christmas party and it does not take them long to find a dead body just 10 feet from the trailer
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that Joe slept in they find the body of a woman who is wrapped up in a red tarp and that would be the body I'm assuming
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the dead body would later be identified as Kimberly Lynn Spicer age 26. so after
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he is arrested a Baltimore Police Officer transported him to the homicide unit of the police department during the
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course of the investigation of the recovered body of Kim Spicer Joe gave several statements to detectives but he
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starts telling them about someone other than Kim Spicer he tells them he met a woman
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about two years ago he described the woman as possibly having brown hair her build
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according to Joe was she was a little thin and she was a little tall in stature he believes this would have been
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one night back in July 1994. Joe is very judgmental yeah he says that this would
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have been around eight or nine PM that night he tells the officers that he took this
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woman to his trailer located at The Pallet company and while in his trailer he had sex with her while she was
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partially clothed she had been in his trailer for approximately one hour when Joe started
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to strangle her when the detective asked Joe Metheny how did you strangle her did you strangle
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her with your hands methany responded Yes with my hands the detective further questioned did you use anything else to
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which he answered I used an extension cord I took the end of the cord and strangled her
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to clarify he's saying that he choked her with his hands until she passed out once she passed out he put the extension
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cord around her neck and killed her then according to Joe he drug her back into the woods then buried her in a
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shallow grave he then took her purse and clothing and buried them in a separate location now we said that Joe did not
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know the woman's name but he gave identifying information stating that he believed that the victim's first name
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was possibly Kathy and that she was approximately five foot six to five foot seven and about 120 to 130 pounds she
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was also missing a couple of Upper Front Teeth she had been wearing cut off jeans white
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tennis shoes and a white pullover sweater and she had a purse with her and like you said he's he's basically living
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on the property of his work and it's a fenced-in property and so it's a big area but outside that fence is where
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he's been burying these individuals yeah there's there's that wooded area so he's
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going to draw a diagram of what he can you know best remember to try to help them locate uh this victim yes they're
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go they're going to look for where he buried the body he says it would have been a shallow grave he said
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approximately two feet deep he further stated that when he buried her she was not dressed additionally Joe
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indicated that after the body had been buried for about six months he went back to the burial location and dug up and
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removed the skull afterwards he threw the skull in a trash box why why did he do that
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um I mean does it say yeah well he in his words I mean actually I should I should
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clarify I don't know if these are his words maybe a reporter cleaned it up right but from the report that I read he
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dug up the skull that had been there for approximately six months cleaned it and
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then made love to it um uh romantic yeah and then he he threw the skull in a trash box the Box
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containing the skull was later removed from that location and transported to according to Joe Oxford Pennsylvania so
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he must know where this trash is being sent to yeah and basically he's telling you you're going to find this body
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roughly in this area on the diagram that I drew you're gonna find a naked woman headless
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naked woman yeah well also if you're living in this you know work compound basically
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and you know when trash is leaving then this is a great way for you to be able to hide evidence right
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he should have probably put the whole thing in the you know in this trash box that would have been transported far
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away right but for whatever reason he felt more comfortable burying her in that shallow grave in the woods so the
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next day the police took Joe in cuffs and shackles back to the Pallet Company escorted by detective Pennington this is
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one of the detectives that was involved in the questioning of Joe they took him there for the purpose of pointing out
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where he had buried the female victim foreign [Music] [Music] cheers mates so we're talking about Joe
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Metheny the Killer um not to be confused with like somebody like Pat Matheny they're they're spelled
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the same way but and if you look up some reports they will say Joe Matheny but it's actually Joe Metheny yeah we got
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that from local Baltimore reports so him being from Baltimore we're going with that with that pronunciation so where we
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left off Captain they had returned Joe to The Pallet company in hopes of finding this buried female victim that
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Joe had told the investigators about now on that first day the search team was unsuccessful in locating the body Joe
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could not seem to show them the right spot and there had been a good deal of rain around that time so they brought in
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cadaver dogs to pick up a scent however possibly due to all this rain they were unable to find the location so finding
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nothing they had to call off the search and then later again get permission to remove Joe from the Baltimore City
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Detention Center with permission granted detective Pennington again transported Joe back to
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the Joe Stein and Sun Pallet company to assist locating the body this time after
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some hesitation methany indicated to detectives there's an area approximately just 10 feet from a previous location
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that he had pointed out to them okay so bring in the excavation team right the team used techniques to carefully
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unearth The Remains and they were exactly exactly in the condition that Joe said that they would be the doctor
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at the excavation site noted that the cranium was missing the skeletal remains were recovered from a very shallow grave
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and transported to the office of the chief medical examiner where later with dental records the remains were found to
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be that of Catherine magazineer and Catherine would have been 45 at the time of her murder yeah and I know it's a bit
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confusing Captain because we said that the cranium was missing but remember the body had been buried for approximately
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six months so when Joe dug up the body and took the skull the lower jaw by this time had already fallen off the lower
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jaw was located with the rest of the body and that's what they used to get the dental records they're also going to
00:27:58
be able to determine that Joe was telling the truth when he said that her death was by strangulation yes and
00:28:05
here's a little thing here Joe was asked why he had killed Kathy he said that it
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gave him a sense of power stating I don't know I got a rush out of it I got high out of it yeah adding call it what
00:28:18
you want I had no real excuse other than I like to do it I don't know how to describe it so now Captain we have this
00:28:26
man we have him he's locked up he's been arrested we found two bodies he's attacked another woman that got away
00:28:34
thankfully yeah so who is this guy okay so we but we found the one that wasn't buried that's the one that he tried to
00:28:43
get his co-worker to help him bury yes that was for the body Kim Spicer she was wrapped up in a red tarp yeah and then
00:28:51
we found Catherine she is Buried buried in that wooded area near the Pallet Company both died of same cause uh
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believed to be strangulation in both both deaths yes and then we have an attack on this was the Rita Kemper who
00:29:06
was attacked and got away now one thing I do want to point out here Captain regarding the cause of death with these
00:29:12
two women is that Joe unfortunately he he when he attacked these women he beat them quite a bit as well
00:29:21
um so they would have seen injuries on the bodies to indicate that as well so who is this guy that we have locked up
00:29:30
you know what can we figure out about his background well we can tell that he's a real piece of [ __ ] well Joe was
00:29:39
born in Baltimore County but lived in West Virginia from the ages of two to six later according to Joe pay attention
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to that according to Joe he was shuffled among foster homes in the Baltimore area
00:29:53
he completed the eighth grade but he earned his high school equivalence equivalency and studied physics for a
00:30:01
year and a half while in the Army where he was a field artillery soldier from 1973 to 1975. he was honorably
00:30:10
discharged after that he worked at various jobs including a shipyard a liquor distributor and he was also a
00:30:18
long-haul truck driver for some time methany spent about 20 years in a world few people ever see he drifted in and
00:30:26
out of Baltimore city's homeless camps composed of filthy tents and sleeping bags under bridges and over sewer
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gratings for a while he lived in row houses under the Patapsco River Bridge and a homeless Community called Tent
00:30:43
City then later in 1988 he began working at the Joe Stein and Sons Company where
00:30:50
he lived in the trailer at The Pallet Company now at The Pallet Company Captain according to his co-workers Joe Matheny
00:30:58
he made people laugh they said he would joke about anything and his bosses at work stated he was a pretty smart guy he
00:31:05
would come up with solutions to problems stating that if we had a problem he would be the one that would come up with
00:31:11
a way to figure it out but these same co-workers described a complex personality many of them saying in one
00:31:18
respect he is a gentle giant that they nicknamed tiny standing more than six feet tall weighing almost 300 pounds
00:31:25
stating that he loves to draw large cartoon characters and play video games so he sounds kind of like a big kid yeah
00:31:33
but enough with this uh what's called the big guy tiny let's come up with some better names than that that does happen
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a lot but but here's where the complex personality comes into play they state that he also had a temper and at times
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had threatened co-workers and also threatened patrons of the bar where he hung out nearly every night playing pool
00:31:53
does it right but does it say what kind of threats because there's a difference between hey man I'm gonna kick your ass
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and hey man I'm gonna kill you uh I don't have any specifics I don't have any specifics just co-workers stating
00:32:06
that they were aware that he had threatened them at times as well as people at this bar what and I think also
00:32:13
because you're living at your job then you know that you know if you make these threats and then your employer
00:32:20
comes down on you not only do you lose your job you're going to lose your home well he also drank very heavily
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according to the people that knew him they believed that he went through a bottle of Southern Comfort whiskey each
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and every night whether it be at the bar or back at the rundown trailer that was
00:32:41
furnished simply with two chairs a couch and a television set an electric heater
00:32:47
he Joe had surrounded the trailer with stacks of pallets methany told his attorney that he was
00:32:55
one of six children born into a poor family and that he was neglected as a child and shuffled off to foster homes
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by his parents and telling his attorney by the time of his arrest both his parents were dead
00:33:09
okay now Captain as you know we are about to get into our first discrepancy in this serial killer profile case Okay
00:33:17
because here we try as we did with Ted Bundy and John Gacy to study their crimes their backgrounds and their words
00:33:25
to try to get a better sense of who these killers are why they did what they did and what made them this way now Joe
00:33:34
I wouldn't consider to be a human in any sense that we can see from the crimes that we have already discussed you can
00:33:42
see he's just an evil waste of life but when we look at Joe's crimes his background and especially his words to
00:33:49
try to figure him out this is where we run into one major problem Joe would later in life tell us a lot about his
00:33:57
crimes and background but at some point we have to start to wonder how much of this that he is telling us is true among
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other things he told his lawyer that his mother was dead which came aim as a surprise to his mother right he says
00:34:13
both of his parents are dead well Presto Chango Captain Joe's mom is alive so not
00:34:18
only did he get that wrong or lie but his mother's Recollections contradict some of Joe's statements all right so
00:34:25
what does his mother say his mother was tracked down by a reporter at her home in Markleysburg Pennsylvania her name is
00:34:33
Gene methany and at the time of this she was 78 years Young when the reporter tracked her down uh she you mean old
00:34:42
yeah well both when she was told that her son Joe described her as dead she responded maybe he just wishes I was
00:34:51
right adding that he pushed his family away a long time ago Gene methany described her son as growing up to be a
00:35:00
normal boy saying he was smart and he had a good childhood she said this and this next statement should shouldn't
00:35:06
make me laugh but it does Jean said if Joe was neglected it was his own fault hey that's just does that seem weird or
00:35:16
what that sounds neglectful yeah hey if uh you were neglected it's your own damn
00:35:21
fault yeah she said that their home was a pretty good one adding that none of her children were ever placed in other
00:35:28
homes but if it wasn't a good home it's your own damn fault Bethany she said her husband was a
00:35:36
laborer the two of them struggled to make ends meet and moved to the North Point Boulevard area of Essex shortly
00:35:43
before Joe methany was born when Joe was six his father was killed in a car accident she said his death was very
00:35:51
very hard on the family right Gene had to work to support the family she said that she did everything she could to
00:35:58
keep the children together and the years after her husband's death Gene says she
00:36:04
worked as a waitress a bar maid and as a canteen truck driver who delivered lunches to workers at Sparrows Point
00:36:12
Shipyard she said she could not be with her family every single minute of the day but it was a normal family
00:36:20
she said we weren't rich but we always had something to eat and we always had a roof over our heads and that becomes a
00:36:27
difficult situation because the father at that time especially in that time period he probably was the breadwinner
00:36:34
and now she's gonna have to take on these jobs and a lot of times you'd see that the mother would stay at home and
00:36:40
raise the the children why the father can focus on his career and so she might not want to build up some of those
00:36:48
skills so she would had to take on jobs like being a waitress or something that wouldn't pay her as much per hour so she
00:36:54
wouldn't be working that normal 40-hour week she'll be working 60 hours a week well not only that Captain I'm guessing
00:37:00
that when she mentions that she has you know at times she worked as a waitress or a bar maid or the truck driver right
00:37:06
I'm also wondering because they have six children and she's a single parent if at
00:37:12
a lot of those times if she was working more than one of those jobs together no that's what I mean I I'm I'm assuming
00:37:18
that she's working anywhere from 60 to 70 hours right and that you know is that a normal childhood for some people yeah
00:37:28
but you know you have six kids then where did they go who's watching them yeah and I mean I don't mean to attack
00:37:35
Gene here not no not at all not at all but I do question where where I hear her say that she's working all these jobs
00:37:43
it seems to me like maybe neglected is not that big of a stretch well no because in her defense she's
00:37:52
doing everything she can to put food on the table keep the lights on so that's not you know it's not neglect right
00:37:59
right maybe that's the wrong word what I'm getting at though is we have one parent gone who passed away I'm just
00:38:05
saying that we have another that's that may not be home hardly ever and yeah and
00:38:10
we all know how tough it can be to live in a single uh parent home uh and then especially in this time to have a single
00:38:19
mother home you know so I applaud her for putting the family on her shoulders and trying to do what she can
00:38:26
she did go on to tell us that she and the family never went on welfare and she remembers her son Joe as an avid bike
00:38:33
rider and an above average student and adding that he was always polite well if you're scoring at home trying to
00:38:41
keep track of Joe's lies or truths um so Dad dead yes check Mom not dead no check for Joe but maybe dead in his mind
00:38:53
she did agree that uh that Joe did serve you know that Joe spent time serving this great country in our nation's
00:39:02
military and give some detail stating that when he turned 18 in 1973 Joe entered the Army and was stationed in
00:39:10
Germany where he met a woman that he seemed to be very close to we don't have any more information on this woman but
00:39:16
she brings him her up for some reason Joe Metheny told his attorney that he served in Vietnam and became addicted to
00:39:26
heroin during his Tour of Duty in the artillery unit right but his mother said that she does not recall him having
00:39:33
served in Vietnam the Articles where I found this information stated that the military
00:39:39
records for Joseph Matheny were not available when they wrote this I was unable to confirm if he had actually
00:39:46
served in the war or if he was just stationed in Germany like his mother had said well tough thing here though too is
00:39:54
I mean if if the death of the father was really tough on the family and then you again
00:40:00
you have six kids and then I mean is there any truth to the whole foster care thing
00:40:06
that seems to be an item that they cannot agree on she stating that she did everything she could to keep the
00:40:14
children together and did they mean that they did that's true that's what that's
00:40:18
why I find her statement strange right because she doesn't she doesn't definitively say the kids were always at
00:40:24
my house and in my care right she says that she did the best that she could to keep the children together right and so
00:40:31
he goes off into the army maybe he served maybe he didn't maybe she doesn't know because they weren't that close
00:40:38
afterwards I do think um she did at some point definitively say that they did not live at any other
00:40:44
homes but it seems like a now mind you she's 78 when she's giving this interview uh
00:40:52
so some of these answers seem a little bit uh of a roundabout way of getting to them now once he had left her home this
00:41:00
is according to his mother Joseph seldom called or wrote to his mother right right
00:41:06
um the relationship she said eventually disintegrated and the two didn't speak for about 10 years stating that he just
00:41:14
kept drifting further and further away and she does agree that Joe at some point developed a drug problem
00:41:22
um here's one thing I wonder about Captain if they hadn't spoken so long and I really wonder about Joe's drug
00:41:31
issues I think I think he was a severe alcoholic and probably very addicted to drugs
00:41:39
um right and I'm I'm betting that this had gone on for quite some time leading up to the point of his arrest with his
00:41:47
mother being 78 and them not having spoke for so long do you think where the public would
00:41:53
later call Joe a liar for stating that his mother is dead do you think there's any chance that he may have just thought
00:41:59
she was dead that he didn't keep track with her I mean you're talking about a guy that he
00:42:04
went he woke up in the morning probably hung over as hell and went and worked as
00:42:10
a forklift operator and then went straight to the bar every night after work where he got wasted drunk right and
00:42:17
would do drugs if he could get his hands on them and then wake up and repeat the
00:42:21
same thing the next day we're not talking about somebody that's keeping tabs on family members or or living any
00:42:27
kind of normal life well no contact for 10 years so maybe at some point he's either just assuming or like I said I
00:42:34
think more of that is psychologically that she's dead to me let's yeah yeah I agree with that and and I I obviously he
00:42:42
has some issues with women well let's get to the trials regarding the charges that Joe is facing he was first charged
00:42:51
with the attack on Rita Kemper we'll call her The One That Got Away this won't be a very tough trial though it
00:42:58
shouldn't be at all I mean we have a live giving witness slash victim and she ran directly from the attack and fled
00:43:05
into the arms of a police officer yeah so we have her testimony and we have the police officers testimony as well
00:43:12
regarding the victim the arrest and any evidence found in both so that's an easy
00:43:17
case Joe gets 50 years and that seems good that feels good right Captain he gets 50 years for the attack for the
00:43:25
attack on Rita Kemper on the on the the woman that thankfully got away from him yeah the thing here is when I was when I
00:43:33
was writing down this sentence that he got sentenced to 50 years something immediately popped in my head and I have
00:43:39
to bring this up with you because I know you're you're a fan I recently read one
00:43:43
of Robert Kessler's I'm sorry Robert wrestler's books uh I was inspired to do so because
00:43:50
of the the show mind Hunter on Netflix you and I both loved the Mind Hunter yeah I didn't love it at first I I think
00:43:58
it was like the first episode I I thought the main character was I was like yeah I'm not really into this guy
00:44:03
by the second episode I'm not a huge car guy even though I own a garage um the cars in the show from the time
00:44:12
period and then it was his partner the old school cop the old school detective bill yeah Bill he grew on me
00:44:22
um much like the captain would grow on you no but then by like the third episode I was in love with everybody uh
00:44:31
and I just think it's a amazing show the first I'm getting a little off track here but the first uh episode opens up
00:44:38
with that hostage scene where the the hostage taker ends up blowing his own head off in that hey I was hooked right
00:44:45
there hey spoiler it's it's a season-long thing that's like the first 10 minutes of the hey spoiler okay so
00:44:53
here send hate mail here's the deal I was reading garage.com I was reading a book by Robert Ressler okay and the
00:45:00
reason why I did this is I'm not certain I'm not 100 certain but you had mentioned the older agent bill right who
00:45:08
eventually recruits Holden to the BSU right I believe Bill's character is based off of the real life person Robert
00:45:18
wrestler yeah so having watched this it inspired me to go back and read one of wrestler's books and in one of them this
00:45:25
is not a direct quote but trust me this is very close he's talking about punishing criminals and of course
00:45:31
throughout his career he has faced and been involved in conviction in the conviction process of probably the
00:45:38
absolute worst people you can imagine yeah he says in his book unfortunately we live in a time where the sentence of
00:45:47
death doesn't always mean death life doesn't always mean life and 25 years can mean 12 or even six yeah so just
00:45:55
keeping that in mind I think is important here because I I'm quick too to go well we're taking a man that's in
00:46:03
his 40s and we're giving him 50 years in prison and that's the same as locking him up and throwing away the key when in
00:46:10
reality it's absolutely not so it's very important that we have these other two trials for Joseph Metheny to face
00:46:19
Justice for the murders of these other two women the second and the third trial will be different because in those
00:46:26
trials Joe is charged with murder and facing the death penalty in each of the cases the first murder trial is for the
00:46:34
murder of 23 year old Kimberly Spicer Joe was possibly facing the death penalty because the prosecutor was
00:46:42
charging him with not only murder but with robbery and sexual assault it was necessary for the prosecution to prove
00:46:52
robbery or sexual assault in addition to the murder in order to get that death penalty under Maryland law
00:47:00
defense lawyers called a surprise witness in an effort to help Joe avoid the death sentence yeah this was
00:47:08
Baltimore homicide detective Homer Pennington that we had mentioned earlier the lead homicide detective who
00:47:15
investigated the gruesome killing he was asked did Mr methany discuss his necrophilia acts with you to which
00:47:24
Pennington said yes the lawyers this is this is one of the strangest things I've ever come across
00:47:30
in in in Trials here but the lawyers are trying to show that Joe does not deserve
00:47:36
the death penalty because he did not commit an aggravating crime such as sexual assault and then murder the woman
00:47:45
they called the detective to make a bizarre but important point that Joe preferred to have sex with dead women
00:47:53
and necrophilia is not considered a crime in the state of Maryland that's ridiculous just kind of just kind
00:48:01
of sit and soak that in for a minute yeah yeah well it should be so listen to this they should just say
00:48:07
pause the trial hey by the way that's now a new law hey can can we get voters to come out and just put this into into
00:48:15
the process immediately necrophilia should be a crime yes everywhere yes that ain't right anyway so his defense
00:48:26
lawyers they did not contest the claim that Joe performed a sex act with Spicer's body but this
00:48:35
was after her death right in fact they added that that methane violated Spicer with a bottle after she was dead
00:48:44
but they denied that he had sex with her while she was alive all right well another strange part to this trial
00:48:52
the defense attorneys considered calling Spicer's mother to the stand as a witness you don't need to call her well
00:48:59
this is what for what this is what's strange about it okay Joe then persuaded them not to call her he reportedly told
00:49:08
the attorneys please do not do this Spicer's mother this is uh Kathy's Kathy Price was not called to the stand it's
00:49:18
just so crazy to me all these serial killers that have issues with their mothers
00:49:22
well just over and over right yeah and but you're talking about he did some horrible things to this Kimberly Spicer
00:49:30
right and then he he's it's almost like okay to do what he did you you basically I don't think you
00:49:38
can have remorse if you do what he did and then you did it again to somebody else I don't see any any form of remorse
00:49:45
there however him crying at the trial when she when she's to be called and saying hey don't do this then you start
00:49:51
to question is he remorseful is he you know sad about what he did is he sad for this victim for the mother's victim well
00:50:00
I think the victim of his mother I'm not saying that right at all it's a mother of a mother I'm trying to say the the
00:50:07
victim's mother that maybe he felt bad for the victim's mother go ahead right but I possibly but uh also with the
00:50:16
whole situation with his mother you know he seems like somebody that's stuck in his past and maybe by that braining
00:50:23
being brought up to that Forefront that maybe he this is gonna sound weird but maybe on some way psychologically he's
00:50:32
reverted back to a time where he wasn't this crazy piece of [ __ ] you know what I
00:50:37
mean back in a time where maybe he was a Sweet Child you know I mean um yeah and that kind of goes you know a
00:50:44
lot there's a lot of arguments are killers born you know or they are are they made and
00:50:50
it's probably just more selfish than wanting to spare uh Kimberly Spicer's mother the agony of going on the stand
00:50:57
it's probably more selfish and just that it bothered him that it made him upset and he's saying hey don't do this right
00:51:04
right now I I did make a I misspoke earlier Captain Kimberly Spicer was stabbed 26 times that was the cause of
00:51:12
her death Joe was found guilty of first degree murder in her horrific murder right but he was spared the death
00:51:21
penalty by the judge who ruled that Joe did not Rob or sexually assault the woman before he killed her now a day
00:51:29
after escaping the death penalty Joseph was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility
00:51:37
of parole after the trial Kim Spicer's mother said to reporters I'd like to ask him why he killed Kim right but stating
00:51:47
that we will never really know he's just a killer and some people there is just evil yeah
00:51:55
but did she ever ask him I don't think she ever had a conversation with with Joe uh outside of
00:52:02
the courtroom Juan he also liked to write people so I don't you know but that would be a sign of remorse to write
00:52:07
a letter to the victim's mother I just don't think he has that in him the second murder trial took place about
00:52:14
five months later and again Joe was facing the death penalty this time he is accused of killing uh Kathy magazineer
00:52:21
who was decapit her decapitated body was found on the grounds of Joe Stein and Son Pallet Company
00:52:28
no she was she was also a decapitated post-mortem yes and I should stop myself here and add that Joe was actually
00:52:36
facing three murder charges in three separate cases originally charged with two but once those trials were set law
00:52:45
enforcement they then then identified a third body in connected it to this case this was Tony Lynn and Gracia she was
00:52:55
only 28 years old at the time of her death her Father John described Tony simply telling reporters that she was a
00:53:02
good girl she had some problems with drugs but she was trying to get help and I hate to report this here but
00:53:10
there's very little out there on this case all that I could find is that um she she okay so her body was found basically
00:53:20
dumped on the side of a road right and when he was arrested they connected this case to him I don't know what evidence
00:53:28
they used to connect him to this case my guess sometimes I don't use any evidence they just go this guy's behind
00:53:35
bar maybe he did this one well and I'm kind of throwing this in as a side note that he was charged with this third
00:53:42
murder because eventually it's thrown out they they drop the charges due to insufficient evidence yeah they couldn't
00:53:50
take it to trial right and my guess here is that is he connected to it we may never know
00:53:56
but I know that her case is still unsolved as far as I could see if anybody can find any information on that
00:54:01
make sure you post it on our blog at truecrime garage.com but I'm guessing captain that it's a simple
00:54:08
thing that she was probably running around in in circles that Joe may have been running around in possibly and uh
00:54:15
she may have had connections to that area that he was known to frequent right but it's also look you're going to the
00:54:21
bar you're drinking you're doing drugs you know something like cocaine that's a very social drug
00:54:28
so then your circle becomes wider and wider yeah but what I'm getting at is I think
00:54:35
it's just a simple thing that she fits the victimology of Joe yeah and he's he's locked up he's certainly capable of
00:54:42
it let's go ahead and charge him with it meanwhile we can't find any evidence to
00:54:46
support our Theory well and also maybe their thought was hey let's charge uh Joe with it because he's also a guy that
00:54:53
starts speaking that's true and it could be as simple as hey we believe that you
00:54:58
are responsible for this murder of this young lady and he just goes yeah and this is what happened yeah and then it's
00:55:06
an open and you know open and shut case um you know I don't know it's clever I didn't think of that I didn't I mean
00:55:13
because what does it hurt they yeah you can always charge somebody else with it exactly so in Joe's second murder trial
00:55:21
the murder of Catherine magazine or uh this should be a pretty open and shut case as well because remember just after
00:55:27
Joe was arrested for Kim Spicer's murder three days later he led police to a shallow grave on the property which held
00:55:35
the decapitated remains of Kathy now one thing that I I want to point out here Captain is why they have the person
00:55:44
take them to the body and we we know on it obviously is this on the surface that we need to locate
00:55:52
this body right so we can charge this individual with the actual murder was essentially a confession
00:56:01
right I mean well in what buried her over there right and but what they do the reason why they bring a person like
00:56:08
Joe to the actual body is that later if he decides he wants to recant his confession they can still say in court
00:56:16
well yeah we can't use your confession against you but you were the one that physically led us to this body right
00:56:23
like like I said it's almost like a second confession um one that they can't take away exactly
00:56:31
so some highlights from this trial the final prosecution witness was an FBI agent this is James Fitzsimmons sounds
00:56:41
sounds like a FBI agent yeah oh James Fitzsimmons works for the FBI he told the bureau he told how the bureau had
00:56:49
been investigating a range of alleged criminal activities coming from the Joe Stein and Sons Company when they
00:56:56
received a tip that methany had been harboring a corpse these are his words now the defense attorney in my opinion
00:57:04
Joe had very good counsel at his trials which I was a little surprised yeah forgive me out there if this is rubbing
00:57:12
anybody the wrong way for me being surprised but we're talking about a drug addict that has no money I mean he was
00:57:18
working making seven or eight dollars an hour as a forklift operator getting paid
00:57:23
an extra 20 a week and blowing all of his money on drugs and alcohol on these crimes are horrendous and he is
00:57:30
confessing to them in multiple ways so what great defense attorney is going to step up and say hey maybe I'll help this
00:57:38
guy and if and these are cases that you're going to lose you know you're going to lose them yes and but from his
00:57:45
attorney's actions I I'm just saying I'm giving it a grade A I think that he had
00:57:50
good representation yeah that a representation than like Adnan Syed and well and like you said these are losing
00:57:57
cases so your whole your whole Battleground here is to make sure he doesn't get killed he doesn't get the
00:58:03
death penalty right so that's probably why they jumped on board it was probably somebody that is against the death
00:58:10
penalty that's true and should not be in our legal system and they said hey you know what I'm going to step up and I'm
00:58:16
going to defend that principle not defend this monster but I'm just going to try to get it you
00:58:22
know where he doesn't get the death penalty his attorney's name was Margaret Mead
00:58:27
um you know if I'm giving her a grade A I should at least mention her name one thing she did during the course of the
00:58:33
trial was she questioned the FBI agent about payments that the FBI made to the owner's son of The Pallet Company huh uh
00:58:42
yeah and they also made payments to this William Ashbrook remember he was the guy
00:58:47
that had called and told police this guy asked me to help move a body for it okay
00:58:53
so it goes like this um they she brought up a report that showed the FBI had spent
00:59:01
approximately twenty five thousand dollars on ashbrook's behalf this was they paid him to go to a drug
00:59:08
rehabilitation program they paid for well they didn't pay him to go there they paid for the program itself and
00:59:15
they covered his rent uh for some time while he went into hiding as a cooperating witness the FBI also
00:59:23
reimbursed the owner of a house where Ashbrook had once stayed and the owner accused him of stealing tools valued at
00:59:30
five thousand dollars I don't fault them for doing that I mean because at the end
00:59:35
of the day they're getting evidence but they're also not just handing this guy money they're trying to straighten up
00:59:40
this guy's life and they probably said hey look you have a drug problem yeah I got a drug crop problem hey
00:59:46
for for you helping and cooperating with us we're going to try to get you clean right and we're going to do so by
00:59:52
sending you to rehab but we're also going to pay your rent for a while so you have nothing to worry about while
00:59:57
you're in hiding from this 300 and some pound you know Monster of a dude yeah the FBI also spent about ninety four
01:00:05
thousand dollars to relocate Joe Stein Jr and his family after he began cooperating with the investigation well
01:00:14
that's a little excessive I think that um yeah so they're kind of they're kind of protecting these people from a guy
01:00:22
that's locked up um I'm not saying that's wrong I'm just pointing out something that I found
01:00:27
interesting in the trial I guess the the attorney was possibly trying to imply that they paid these two in some form to
01:00:35
testify against her client yeah I think it's I think it's a reasonable argument whether or not you can prove that is
01:00:43
another thing I think it's fair to bring it up at the course of the trial Council
01:00:48
also was asking the jury to spare the death penalty because Joe was addicted to drugs and that the slangs occurred
01:00:55
while he was under the influence of heroin cocaine or alcohol and pointing out that Joe has a good deal of remorse
01:01:03
for what he has done his attorney stated that Joe said he wanted the killings to
01:01:09
stop she added that he's very polite respectful and intelligent he understands far more than most people
01:01:16
it's very indicative that when he is under the influence of various narcotics that that is when there seems to be a
01:01:24
personality change Joe himself described this as a rage that comes forward through drugs he described this as being
01:01:33
very frustrated with his life being very frustrated too about how he grew up and
01:01:39
all of the life experiences he had had yeah Joe Metheny seems like a guy that's just stuck in a prison of his past
01:01:48
yeah and the thing Captain is this you know I went through a couple of the quote-unquote highlights of the trial
01:01:55
but the the strangest thing that happened in the trial was after Joe was found guilty
01:02:00
this is where Joe decides to address the jury and I mean this cannot be a smart move
01:02:07
at all but you you can't make this guy stop right he addresses the jury and I'm not going to give any direct quotes
01:02:14
but he starts telling them that they should kill him they should sentence him to death because he is not sorry for
01:02:22
what he has done he will never be sorry for what he has done he then goes on to describe digging up the skull of one of
01:02:30
his victims saying that he made love to it yeah then he's telling the jury that he
01:02:36
is happy to go to hell for his crimes and he talked about when he when when the medical examiners had performed the
01:02:45
autopsy on another one of his victims that they had found that she had and this is his terrible words here
01:02:54
that she had given birth to a bouncing baby beer bottle that was his way of describing the
01:03:00
bottle that the medical examiner had found so he was facing the death penalty and I'm happy to report that he got the
01:03:09
death penalty yeah kind of a weird thing though because you know he comes out he confesses then he
01:03:17
cries at trial maybe shows some sign of remorse and maybe he was smart enough to know if I
01:03:24
address if I address the juries and maybe it was as simple as this person's trying to defend me but they're only
01:03:31
trying to defend me because they don't want the death penalty and they don't believe in the death
01:03:36
penalty but they don't give a [ __ ] about me and you know well I hate women so [ __ ] her too you know
01:03:44
what I mean and I'm I'm gonna throw this whole trial right well possible or he's
01:03:49
saying I have to live with myself and I'm such a gigantic pile of dog manure that I don't want to live anymore so I'm
01:03:59
going to say these horrible things whether or not you know that's just for somebody to decide you know does he
01:04:06
believe in what he's saying or does he not it's possibly a suicide wish from him I could see that with the depressing
01:04:14
statements that he's made over the years um one thing though I question is everyone that describes Joe they
01:04:22
describe him as a smart and and intelligent man right here's what I wonder Captain haven't already received
01:04:30
50 years for kidnapping and then a life without the possibility of parole sentenced in the first murder trial so
01:04:38
and then they add that now he's facing the death penalty again and he's been convicted but but not sentenced he goes
01:04:46
to the jury and puts on this whole crazy role I'm wondering if that was some plan
01:04:51
inside of his head that he's like well maybe I can convince these people that I'm crazy that during the course of this
01:04:58
trial I'm going to show that I'm remorseful I'm going to have my attorney point out out that I'm remorseful that I
01:05:04
was addicted to drugs and the drugs caused me to kill people and when it's all said and done if I have my last card
01:05:13
to play is the crazy card yeah and I mean nobody in their right mind would get up and say
01:05:20
the things that he said to the jury so but like you said he's I mean he is not human
01:05:26
yes and but but I have so many questions about Joe though because he's also one of these guys that comes off as defiant
01:05:33
to the end for me maybe this is just a oh well you got me there's nothing I can do about it so I'm going to rub your
01:05:38
faces in it for a while while I can foreign [Music] until tomorrow be good be kind and don't
01:05:55
litter [Music] foreign