And That's Why We Drink - E178 Christine's News Network and a Confused Conflagration

Episode Date: July 5, 2020

Join us this week as Em continues to sit on their throne and Christine continues to project into the studio like the great Oz! Em takes us to Manila this week for the wild and vanishing story of Cornelio Closa and his potential alien encounters. Then Christine covers the heartbreaking and extremely recent murder of Dominique Fells in Philadelphia. If you have any information or want to donate to organizations protecting Black trans lives, please see the links below. Also, please normalize pronouns in 2020 and 2021 too... and that's why we drink! How to contribute to the fight for justice for Dominique Fells and Black trans lives: If you have information regarding the whereabouts of Akhenaton Jones please call the Philadelphia Police Department tip line at 1-215-686-TIPS.The Okra Project: https://www.theokraproject.com/The TGI Justice Project: http://www.tgijp.org/The Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative: https://www.snap4freedom.org/Emergency Release Fund: https://emergencyreleasefund.com/Harper's Bazaar, "Where to Donate to Support Black Trans Lives": https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a32870451/how-to-help-black-trans-lives-donate/Please consider supporting the companies that support us: Try 5 pairs of Warby Parker glasses at home for free at http://www.warbyparker.com/drinkGet a 4-week trial, free postage and a digital scale when you go to Stamps.com click on the Microphone at the TOP of the homepage and type in DRINKGo to HelloFresh.com/80drink and use code 80drink to get a total of $80 off, including free shipping on your first box!

welcome hello everyone fellas and fellies and everyone in between as we always say as we always say i like um i recently posted something about gentle thems and theydies, and I was like, I'm about that. That sounds super fun. So maybe we should throw that in the mix every now and then, like a salad, just kind of toss it in. Just when we're feeling really poised and professional, which is very rare. Except today, I feel it very strongly. Okay. Hi, Christine.

How are you? I'm great. I'm still on the computer, and I'm still apparently Wizard of Oz style on a big monitor in front of Em. Okay, I'm Kip Osbull. You're the Wizard of Oz. Basically, so yes, we're still figuring out the best way to do this. I'm looking into the lovely eyes of the viewer right now. However, Christine is down here, and so every now and then I'm like, hello, Christine. It looks like M's on a throne. Like truly. I'm not gonna, I didn't tell them to change it. I just said, keep it this way. I like it this way. And also you are, as you said,

Wizard of Oz-ing right here. So like, I've got several situations of where I'm looking and none of them are at Christine. She's just like here for the ride. Do you guys know what Em said earlier? Em literally said to someone helping with the visuals and stuff, they moved the computer closer and Em was like, yeah, bring Christine a little closer as long as it doesn't ruin my aesthetic. And I went, what the? I see what I mean to you. Even from Ohio, you mean very little. Don't worry. In case you forgot how much I miss you. I'm like, I love you enough. Just stay over there. I love you the right amount, the regular amount. The exact perfect below average amount. Also, we were just talking about Cheesecake Factory again.

If anyone is currently listening to us and eating Cheesecake Factory, we're very jealous of you. Also, Cheesecake Factory, please sponsor us. Christine, take it away. How are you? Oh, you keep looking at your paper. I'm like, it looks like you're about to read a statement. I know. I know.

I'm nervous about this story. I'm nervous because the story that we're doing for this episode is a little shorter than normal, but someone recommended it. And it's like I'm surprised that I've never heard of this story and I'm kind of fascinated by it. So I'm nervous for how I'm going to present it, but it'll be fine. Well, I know you said it's short, but like we'll make it not short. So don't worry. That's a darn fact. I do have a couple.

Okay. First of all, speaking of Ohio, it is thunderstorming here, which is something A, I'm not used to. B, Gio's not used to. So if there's I'm so jealous of you of the thunderstorm. Yeah, it's like good until geo starts crying in the middle of the night. And then I feel like I have a newborn baby. But otherwise, it's all fine. Every mother is yelling at you right now, by the way. I know, including my own who just hates when I say shit like that. So okay, I do have a couple corrections that I've been meaning to say, and I'm going to just bundle two of them together here.

Let's do it. So they're both, I think they're both my fault. So good for me. Okay. Well, it was either you or me. So 50-50 chance. So the first one was from episode 176 when I covered the case of Kendrick Jackson. I mentioned in the beginning the Lowndes County supervisor, Harry Sanders, who had these like really horribly blatantly racist comments. Yes. So turns out Harry Sanders is a supervisor of Lowndes County, Mississippi, not Lowndes County, Georgia. I see. And a couple people have like pointed that out to me, some people in the areas who were like, yeah, he's a shithead, but like, he's Mississippi's

shithead, not Georgia's. And I was like, okay, got it. And then someone, someone also made a really good point that like, mixing those up was really not good research on my part, which is very true. And it also kind of feeds into the larger problem of what we were talking about, which is like, you know, taking the South and bunching them all together as like one big group and one problematic group, which is definitely not what I was trying to do, but is kind of what I did by just assuming Lowndes County, Georgia was, you know, so I just, I wanted to point that out and apologize for that. And I am not trying to umbrella term the South at all. And so I apologize for any frustration or irritation that I caused with that. I have a hunch we still love you. So I think I hope so. I think you're good. And then the other one was one that so I also want to add that like,

I rarely look at my DMS, um, on Twitter or Instagram. I'm just very bad at keeping up with them. And then the second they start building up my anxiety, just like also builds up and also builds up exactly like a nice little chart and, um, hides, hides that whole folder in the back of my mind. So I, that's how I'm discovering these things. Somebody pointed out a while ago when when I covered Heaven's Gate, I mentioned the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, also called Hare Krishna. And I just like, kind of offhandedly referred to it as a cult. And someone wrote in and was like, Hey, that's hurtful. And also ignorant. And so I was like, okay, got to do some research. I'm ignorant, too I also, I didn't know that. Okay, got it.

So we're both at fault on that one. But you didn't say, but I mean, I appreciate it, but you're not the one who blatantly said it out loud. So I will also like equally, there could be the argument that I didn't stick up. I didn't say anything against you. So we're both, it's both our show. It's both our problems. Yes.

Anyway, look, I'm just going to jump under the bus with me and it makes me very happy. So thank you. Blind loyalty to this one. And also, like, I'm just in, like, a very good mood. So, like, if someone said I did something wrong, I'd be like, I'm in a great mood to apologize. Like, I'm, like, on top of it. I mean, you're literally on a throne. So, yeah.

There's something about the, again, the aesthetic. Like, Christine isn't here and I have a throne to myself. So I'm feeling good. But, no, I understand. That Christine isn't here and I have a throne to myself. So I'm feeling good. But no, I understand. That was fucked up of us. Yeah, it was something I should have been more careful about. And ISKCON, which is the International Society for Christian Consciousness, is a legitimate and respected branch of Hinduism.

You can go to ISKCON.org to look at more information on that. And I wanted to apologize again if my kind of flippant comment hurt anyone um and those are my those are my like personal corrections updates okay um and then I just have a true crime update on uh the Golden State Killer I don't know if you want me to do that now or after I want you to do it after I make my update because it's a perfect sagoo if you will and to what I have to say what you just said so I have to apologize for something. I have to apologize to you and to myself and really to Allison, because yes, to all the people screaming at me across every platform on social media. the way and I uh I have learned and I know you've probably seen it too by now Christine because people were screaming at both of us that apparently the blues clues wardrobe is not the blues clues wardrobe oh I I listen blind loyalty I ignored every single comment and thought M knows what

what they're talking about I had blind loyalty to this complete stranger too because I actually like in the drawers there were barcodes for that like were prop companies that i know of and so like she even showed me like oh no this is and to be fair like it genuinely could have been on the blues clues set and been like logged away and their prop catalog is like like oh this is the blues clues wardrobe but it apparently looks like it's so cartoonish it could have just been purchased for like apparently it's from ikea and it's like apparently it's this um not expired outdated it's like an old model that you can't get anymore no longer in season exactly it's like

not in stock anymore but it used to be years ago probably during blues clues um and i guess uh and i did check it is on it was an old ikea item but i will stand by the fact like it probably was purchased by a like a set decoration buyer and saw it at ikea and was like this is like obviously cartoonish enough that it could fit on the set. And it really did have like, as someone who like was in the prop world, I can tell you it had like valid stickers on it, that it was part of the set. So I think the person I got it from who also got it from someone else who got it from someone else legitimately just heard it's from blues clues.

And I fell for it without looking up Ikea backlogs. So unfortunately it's an archived item. But I'm still going to say that literally, it's the only one that Steve interacted with. That's what I'm going to stand by. And people can be mad about it, but I don't care. Well, you know, I saw people mentioning that in the Instagram live. Yeah. And I kept being I kept seeing it. And then I was like, if this person thinks we're just gonna like open this baby wide open in the next 10 minutes that we have left, I'm going to put this, again, with my DMs in the back of my brain and hope it just someday explodes out of my head. It also happened on, for those of you who don't know, I still do Marvel Mondays every Monday at 5 Pacific Standard Time, where I watch a Marvel movie and answer your questions while I indulge. And there was so many people screaming at it,

at me about it during Marvel Monday. And I was like, look, if you know that I'm clearly ignoring these, like just assume I'm going to say something later on the show. So anyway, I'm sure like about 3000 people who were used to be blues clues or Ikea fans have let me know in the last week. So, uh, I, I hear you and you were right, but I'm also kind of a little right. At least that's what I'm going to stand by. Oh man. Well, it, the, it, the thought and intent behind it is what matters. I will also say like, it's tough because you know, like you said, the person

who had it before you probably thought legitimately that's where it was from. And like the problem is with the show like this, it's not a problem. It's well, it's very much a first world problem. But the problem is like we can't delude ourselves because people will be like, hey, you're wrong. So we can't like fake things because people will point them out even if we want to believe them. And maybe I'm just like easy to trick. But I don't think the person selling it to me thought she was like conning me. She legitimately seemed like she wanted to go to a good home

because of its like history, historical value. Well, now we've added some weird fucking history to its story. So if anyone wants to buy it in 20 years, like if this particular wardrobe had like a Wikipedia page, we're now attached to it. But that's like all I could ever ask for. I do want to, I haven't even told Allison, by the way. So she's actually hearing, she only listens to our podcast while she's showering. So I know she's showering right now. And Allison, I'm so sorry that I made you drive all the way

to Santa Ana and take a U-Haul just to pick it up. She's going to rip that shower curtain down and come punch you in the face. I'm going to hear the glass shattering on the door and I'll know I need to run. Anyway, thank you for all your hard work that apparently meant really nothing at the end. But it made us happy for a week. Well, my being in the box was not faked. So nobody can pretend that was not real. That one was very genuine. That was actually, that box was from Ikea.

So you need to watch your mouth. The box is actually an old burrow couch box that I happened to fit in. So as genuine, it was genuine, genuinely from my garage and probably filled with spiders. So anyway, well, thank you for your honesty. Thank you. And thank you for the gift. Mine was definitely less brave of a of something than as yours but um anyway but to be fair i mean now we've probably attached plenty of ghosts and

spirits and haunts to it so oh yeah it'll have its own history ruin its its uh reputation in some way we'll find a way to really like stick our name to it. Oh, boy. So tell me about, I've been hearing about this on Instagram Live. I heard about it in Marvel Mondays. I was very confused, but I assumed you would have something to say.

So I did not look anything up, but apparently there's something going on with Eurons. Correct. Okay, so I'm very excited for this update. This is like the third time we've talked about a topic on the show. Definitely a record breaker for us. It is. It is because we had the original Golden State Killer Euron's episode.

I don't know how long it was. Probably like 2017. And then we had an update in 2018. And now we have the 2020 update, which is probably not even the last because I'm sure. Well, I'll just tell you the update and then we can decide. But OK. Or like the rest of the world can decide. Not me.

I don't know why I get to decide. But yeah, you're not a throne. So I don't have a throne. OK, this is an update on the Golden State Killer, a.k.a. original Night Stalker, a.k.a. Eurons, a.k.a. Vesalia Ransacker. golden state killer aka original night stalker aka urans aka vasalia ransacker um so as many of us know back in 2018 a free genealogy database led authorities to joseph james d'angelo who was

subsequently arrested in connection to the golden state killery burglary sorry killer burglary rape kidnapping killery very killery though of him very killery uh the golden state killer burglary rape kidnapping and murder sprees of the 70s and 80s in california so as of this recording this is according to cnn as of this recording uh yesterday june 29 2022 nope 2020 jesus lord this is why i never became a real life reporter i, I suppose. LOL. Joseph James D'Angelo has officially pleaded guilty to 13 counts of first-degree murder and special circumstances, including murder committed during burglaries and rapes, as well as 13 counts of kidnapping. And he acknowledged more than 50 rapes that he was not charged for because of California's

statute of limitations. Wow. Yeah. So basically the golden state killer allegedly has now become the golden state killer officially, um, by, by, uh, pleading guilty. So his plea means that his victims can give their impact statements starting August 17th, which is much quicker than if he had gone to trial. Um, because this might've taken like 10 years for this to go to trial. He's very old. He's very frail. So I don't know if we'd ever would have even gotten to

that point. Right. But now because he has pleaded guilty, witnesses can start giving their I'm sorry, victims can start giving their statements in August, which is great. Do you know how old he is now? Like, like what age? He was born 1945. He is 74. Wow. Okay. Wow. I mean, that makes sense because when we, one of our updates in 2018 was we had just gone to CrimeCon and we got to, we met the youngest victim of his. Yes. That's so true. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Exactly. She was 13 at the time or something. I think so. And was now like a whole adult. So. Yeah, it's really crazy. And many of the, and that was before he had been caught. Yeah.

a whole adult. So yeah, it's really crazy. And many of them, and that was before he had been caught. Yeah. So many of them are still alive. Um, and, and are like, it's really great that they can see, you know, justice be served or be vindicated. They can be vindicated. Um, and it was like, people were nervous because when he was, uh, you know, sitting there, he looked extremely frail. Like he was, and people were like worried that it would kind of give him an edge that he looked so kind of old and, you know, fragile. Yeah. Or just like not take him as seriously. So that was a big concern among some people. There's the thunder. Oh, my goodness. I loved that. Oh, I got chills from across the country. Me too. Oh, gosh. So, yeah. So that's kind of an update.

According to CNN, as part of the plea deal, prosecutors from the counties where D'Angelo committed his crimes read the specifics of each offense, laying out horrific details about him binding, robbing, raping, sodomizing, beating, and killing various victims. And after one double murder in 1979, a prosecutor said D'Angelo snacked on leftover Christmas turkey from a victim's fridge and like left the bones behind. And I mean, there were those stories where he would stack plates on the male partners and say, you know, if you if one of these drops, I'm going to murder your wife or girlfriend while I'm in the other room assaulting her. And so there's just a lot of details that were kind of confirmed during this. And he also agreed to plead guilty to avoid the death penalty. So he'll likely serve 11 consecutive terms of life without parole with 15 concurrent life sentences and additional time for weapons charges. And his sentencing

is also set for August. So i wonder while he's still alive if there's going to be i don't know if this is even like i know nothing about the forensic world so i don't know if this is like something people do or like something i just want them to do but it'd be interesting to have like uh like criminology like psychologists like just studying the shit out of him now that they know like they can ask him all the questions they want to right build up his the profile that he created for a future perpetrators or well that happened with ed kemper where they just you know the mind hunter and everything they were able to just gather so much just evidence of him telling his own anecdotes and like right feelings and thought processes it's it, it's very creepy. So yeah, you're right.

It's like an insight into like a really big motherfucker. And I, as that's what CNN said, not me. CNN don't sue us. That's Christine's news network, by the way, if anyone's wondering. The Michael Scott, Wayne Gretzky thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where it's like CNN, Christine Schieffer. Christine Schieffer again. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, yeah, and I mean, he was a, so what we did know, I remember the most shocking thing when they arrested him through DNA was that he had been a police officer during the crime. So it's also timely in a way of like, you know, a police officer facing justice for crimes. I mean, it's just a very wild year. So did I I don't know if this was part of the original story or if this might be something that comes out now. But do we believe that since he was a cop, he was like one of those situations where he was investigating his own crime and helping like keep people off the scent i believe yeah i believe so and i think he also had his own intel into like what people were looking for and um that helped him kind of reroute so that he could avoid being caught um

so he was able to have like insight into what people were suspecting and what evidence they were collecting. Sorry, I didn't mean to like challenge you on all your questions. I just don't remember the story. It's so fascinating. I love the story so much. And HBO has their series out, Michelle McNamara's book. What's it called? Oh, geez. I'll Be Gone in the Dark. I don't know why I can never remember the name. So that was an awesome book. But now HBO is doing a series on it,

which is really good. I just started it. And so yeah, it's just really cool. And it's still very timely, even though it happened so long ago. And the fact that so many victims are still alive and can kind of give their piece is really great. And the I mean, part of the reason that they weren't able to catch him is that he was, they didn't even know it was the same person because they had the Vesalia ransacker they had. And so it was like Northern and Southern California, and they weren't sure if it was the same guy. So it's just very crazy that this is all happening because of DNA, which I find so fascinating. Anyway. Sorry. Talk about updates, huh? I know, right? So that's the, that's the big crime update.

Okay. So this story, but I've got the one I'm very excited for. I don't know how I've never heard of this at all. It is a, I don't know what it is. It's a phenomenon. What? It's not necessarily a ghost. It's like kind of mythical, kind of lore, kind of a true story, kind of a demonic possession. It's weird. Oh. It's a lot of things. Everything but like aliens. I'm intrigued. Everything but Bigfoot and aliens.

Okay, so this is the story of Cornelio Closa. Hmm. Hmm. What could that mean? What is that? He's also known as the Invisible Boy. And he's also apparently, according to one article, it's known as the Peter Pan Possession. What?

So this is in the Philippines. This is in 1951. And Cornelio Closa is 13 the Philippines. This is in 1951 and Cornelia Closa is 13 years old and he's walking home from Zamora Elementary and this is in Manila. Is that how you say it? Manila? I always want to call it

Mania because I always think there's two L's and then there's not. So and then I'm stupid and ignorant. At least you got your phonetics right. Manila like the folder? Yeah. Okay.

Okay. We're good. Manila like vanilla. Okay. So, in Manila in the Philippines, he was walking home from Zamora Elementary and he's walking back with his friend named Rodolfo. And apparently when they were walking through an open field out of nowhere, Cornelio, who I keep wanting to call Cornelia because. I know. Me too.

Okay. Agricola. Eke. Okay. Eke Romo. It's never not funny. I don't know why. Okay, Roman.

It's never not funny. I don't know why. I guess in this case, it's eque un espectora es un puer nomine Cornelio. Wow, you really pulled that out of your ass. I don't even know where that came from. Latin's my first language. So. Well, that's a diss. When they're walking through an open field, Cornelio stops dead in his tracks,

and he apparently just goes fully catatonic. And Rodolfo ends up saying that he had a super pale face. His eyes were basically bulging out of his eye sockets. And then literally out of nowhere, so Cornelio points into the middle of the field where nobody is and he says don't you see that girl there is a girl and she's floating and she has really long blonde hair and she's wearing a white dress and when he looks he's like i don't see anyone and like that he just disappears like cornelio literally just vanishes in thin air like just is gone like teleports no

and so and rodolfo's just in this field by himself now and he's like okay i gotta go what the hell do you even do got a blast and so uh he starts sprinting all the way home and he goes he tries to go to cornelio's house to tell his parents what's going on and cornelio's already there whoa and keep in mind rodolfo was like sprinting so there's no way cornelio got there before him like he literally teleported okay and so apparently cornelio was still in a weird daze he He said that when he saw, that he remembers seeing the girl and being in the field with him. So, like, Rodolfo did not, like, have a fever dream. Like, this all really happened.

Oh, okay. And Cornelio said the girl floated over to him after he saw her in the field. Floated over to him. Spoke to him without ever moving her lips. Absolutely not. No, thank you. And touched his hand and when she touched his hand he said he felt incredibly light and all of everything around him just kind of faded away

and that must have been at the same which who would be right truly i mean probably rodolfo wasn't either to be quite honest with you i have a hunch rodolfo also is not the same i have a hunch their friendship was also not the same ever again can you imagine if all of a sudden i just go boop and I'm just gone and then I'm like, let's go back to normal. And then I like find you at Linda's house, like in your childhood bedroom. And you're like, I don't know what you're talking about. I was just in the field with you. I was in the field and someone talked to me without moving their mouth.

You're acting weird. Okay. So Cornelio apparently was originally a very happy boy. Cornelio apparently was originally a very happy boy, and it pretty quickly after this event became very angsty and irritable, and he started causing a lot of trouble at school. One article said that he even started acting like an animal. Oh. And he would go from causing problems at school or even at home to just blankly staring at the walls and sometimes even attacking his father. Um, his mother is quoted saying, uh, I tried everything. I was so kind to him. I tried being harsh with him. All I knew is that I'd lost control of him. And, uh, I thought he probably,

it was probably the bad company he was keeping. So I decided to practically imprison him at home. Cornelio refused to study. He would sit in one corner of his room. He would just sit there staring at his plate, refusing to eat. Oh, and they're like, the bad company. Poor Rodolfo's like, stop blaming me for this. Rodolfo's like, I didn't make him leave the field. Like, it's like, leave me alone.

Oh, poor Rodolfo. So he also, that wasn't an isolated event so cornelio literally began just vanishing all the time oh wait sorry i was not expecting that no one was that's why i wanted to make sure i said so yeah he started vanishing and then like reappearing all the time like that's why i'm wondering why i've never heard of this because it was right public information like he could not control it like his parents saw this happening like his classmates saw this happening what the fuck he just fucking disappeared all the time um okay so he said he would only so this is cornelio he said he would only, so this is Cornelio.

He said he could only vanish whenever the girl came to visit him. So he couldn't do it on his own. It was just when the girl was around. But when she did show up, he said he himself did not feel real anymore. He didn't feel like he was himself. Oh, no. So this is also, apparently Cornelio said that the traveling, that's what he called it, the traveling, traveling all the time made him so hungry that he started. This is where it gets kind of complicated because I'm not sure if it's teleporting or astral projecting or jumping like into different dimensional.

Yeah. It sounds almost like time like quantum time leaping yeah and at different times um these are direct quotes from cornelio's family by the way like these are um years later he ends up doing an interview about this um and at different times it sounds like almost like he was a ghost because okay would travel, but he could see everyone around him. It got to a point where he knew where he was, but nobody else could see him and he would just be invisible. So it's like, is it invisibility or is it going away or is it being there? Yeah. Cause if you're still witnessing what's happening, but no one can see you.

It's like you vanished to some people, but like you're still there, but also other times. So let me just read some of these quotes to you and you, you gentle listener. Um, tell me you, you come up with your own opinion, gentle baby. Um, so Cornelio said that the traveling made him hungry all the time. And while he was in this stage or in this phase or whatever, um, he, because he was also causing trouble at home. Remember he would get so hungry that he would completely empty out the fridge

and the pantry just to spite his family. He would also, uh, he would hide his dad's glasses and slippers and odd spots for the week, just truly to bother him. Um, and then he, so stuff like that was kind of silly,

but then Cornelio later said, um, sorry, quote, I began taking money from neighbors, even strangers. So he's not like invisible or vanishing and robbing people. Um,

okay. I began taking money from neighbors, even strangers. If I was caught and like the real world, if he started like acting up and doing this stuff when he hadn't vanished, if he was like continuing to do this stuff, he would fight back and start acting animalistic again. Oh, um, I was becoming really sickly and pale. I was hungry, but I could no longer eat. I would put food in my mouth and I would spit it out. I began breaking dishes and glasses. I wanted to break and smash anything I touched.

Oh, my God. So it's like when he is here, he's not himself at all. And then when he's traveling around with this girl that's floating around him, he's more at peace doing kind of goofy stuff, but he at least doesn't feel sick anymore. He's just taking people's money. he's just taking people's money he's saying to be fair though like if any of us turn invisible i feel like we would probably engage in like not so legal activities just like spying on people i mean you and i would just spy on everyone i'm not gonna like i would i'm not gonna say for legal reasons this is a joke

but like i i'm not going to sit here and pretend like if I became invisible and I knew I could get away with it, I wouldn't think about robbing a bank. Like I wouldn't think I would think about taking money if I knew I could get away with it. And here I am going like, oh, I would like spy on my mom. Like what would I do? And you're like, I'd rob a bank. I wouldn't listen to my mom like what would I do and you're like I'd rob a bank I wouldn't listen to my mom that would hurt my feelings no I couldn't do that either I don't I don't want to hear the the gossip about me I just don't want to know what kind of gossip what kind of nonsense she's spewing but I would I would look in her bank account I just to see just to see maybe out of curiosity maybe take a fiver who knows um maybe go to cheesecake

factory oh you and i would probably listen this is a joke for legal reasons but like the cheesecake we could acquire by any means necessary if we could all of a sudden just pick up an entire cheesecake just scoop it up and then just go away and then we didn't go to jail for it i would do that every day if the two of us were in this together and one of us got caught, I mean, it would just be the ideal operation where we could just trade off, you know, unstoppable. We would just be each other's alibis every time. Okay. Oh, the cheesecake we would eat. Oh, if you're, if you're a cop, we said literally nothing. That was all an april fool's joke in june okay um so anyway he's off the fucking charts whether or not he's in this realm he is not acting right um so he also

like i said he started to vanish whenever he saw the girl around um and whenever he remember i said earlier whenever she was around and he was in this like astral plane of some sort, um, he didn't feel like himself, but he also says later that he no longer at least felt sick or tired or hungry. So it kind of sounds like they were feeding off of each other. Energy wise, like they were helping each other, you know? Um, and his being rowdy and troublesome was also going into school um his teacher actually said that cornelio who used to be a great student was now a nuisance

to a point where she didn't even want him in her class anymore um and he was like great bye he was like i didn't want to be here either. Cornelia Puer out. Eke, un espectro is no Puer. Oh. No boy. Okay. I probably didn't say that right.

I'm sure you said it exactly correct. Don't, we'll find out. It is your first language. Someone open up an Eke Romani book really quick and tell me. So the teacher's account, this is actually mentioned in a book called Alien Entities, which was, I think, written by a guy I'm going to mention later in this, in this, in my notes. But the book is called Alien Entities. And apparently the teacher's account is in here. The teacher says, the strange thing about the fights that Cornelia would get

into it because he's getting rowdy as small as he was, he would take on three or four boys larger than himself. And together the larger boys could not hold them down. He had superhuman strength. A few days later, I called him to the front of the class to give the, to give a lesson. And he went to the blackboard,

stood there for a few moments and then simply evaporated and i was terribly affected by these happenings in my class well obviously well yeah i decided before i lost my mind completely i would resign she quit i remember how the chain of events made cornelio laugh and laugh it was a hideous kind of laugh it did not belong to a boy in fact it belonged to no human being oh no is this like her talking to her therapist it sounds like it maybe her therapist is the book alien entities but this is just i also don't blame her at all and that can you imagine like you're a teacher, a boy comes up to the board, literally just fades away. And the first thing you do is go, I'm out. Like, I don't blame her at all. Not even a little bit. That's the first thing I would do. That's like babysitting a kid who's

talking about demons standing behind you. It's like, well, I'm gone. This is, this has been fun. Yeah. Yeah. It hasn't though. It hasn't really been very fun, but thank you anyway. has been fun yeah yeah it hasn't though it hasn't really been very fun but thank you anyway oh so uh cornelio is still hiding things from his family he's now breaking furniture he's growling at people he's continuing to steal he's like just straight up like skipping class because no one can control him they can't say like go to school he'll just go okay and then like fade away and then go somewhere else so like he's like's like sneaking out of the house. He's literally evaporating out of the house, not going to school. There's nothing the parents can do. A parent at one point, his dad was like nailing windows and doors shut. And I can only imagine Cornelia was like rolling his eyes. Like you're so stupid. Like

I'm just going to walk through the wall anyway. What the hell? And by the way, he did start doing that. He started not just evaporating and fading away, but he would walk through solid objects. And apparently whenever this would happen, there would be a really awful smell where it left everyone else in the room like throwing up. Ew. So let's keep in mind, he has superhuman strength. He's irritable for no reason whatsoever. He all of a sudden isn't hungry or tired or sick when this being is near him.

Oh no. He's growling at people. He's breaking things. He is leaving a really putrid, rotten odor. Anytime he does something pretty supernatural. That's a grade A demon. That's a grade A pretty supernatural that's a grade a demon that's a grade a demon that's a grade a plus demon um and apparently cornelio got really really good at vanishing to a point where he was now not coming back for several days on end

um so my god his parents were like i mean i didn't see this in the notes but i imagine they were like do we put out a missing persons or do we just hope he'll end up here? Like he'll come back. Yeah. Was he like, because if he could be gone for days, like, and he wasn't on the, it was, you know, not the human plane. Like, was he just starving? Like, was he disappearing? I'm glad you said that because I'm about to tell you.

Oh, great. So, uh, so he started getting really good at vanishing. Um, he was, uh, going missing and there were days where like, there was a really not, probably not funny to them, but funny to me quote of like, the family would just all be together playing a board game. And then out of nowhere, he would just like not be there anymore. And then everyone just throwing up in the room. Cause it smells so bad. And then three days later they find him sleeping in bed and they're like what is going on with my fucking kid and he stole all the monopoly money i was gonna

say what a great way to get out of losing you know like losing that's true imagine being so competitive that when you see like your chances are kind of low you're just like i'm out goodbye you end up in jail on monopoly and you just are like fuck this i can walk through the damn wall so uh he also begins losing more and more sleep which is causing him to have more violent urges um and in an interview when someone asked like what were you doing on these random planes apparently the interviewer was christine cornelio said uh this is kind of um he was answering a lot of questions at one time. So he says, sleep for me was almost impossible. I would perspire profusely. Okay, well, that's Christine. Well, wait, hold on. It seemed as if my clothes were burning.

Then if I would open my eyes, there would be the face of my friend looking at me, beckoning me to follow her goodbye every time her hands touched me i would feel as if i were floating on air then i would be gone from date i would be gone from home for days i could not explain to my family just what was wrong the girl made me promise i could not tell i just felt tremendous heat in my body whenever anyone spoke to me i would answer rudely or shout um and i did not want to snarl but i couldn't help myself when no one bothered me in the house i would just sit and wait for the girl so he's basically when he's on this plane he's doing nothing but like almost feeling like

um he's feeling like lost without her and like feeling this attachment that needs to be there and then when they are together they're going on really fun adventures. Oh, no, no, no. To almost entice him to want to hang out with her whenever possible. So he said that a lot of times they would literally go out to the movies or go out to eat. They were like going on little friend dates. To Cheesecake Factory. I bet.

I bet you a million dollars. Literally at restaurants, they would vanish before having to pay the bill. Well, okay, this explains everything. So that, again, makes me wonder if this is like being invisible or if this is teleporting. Because it seems like she's almost like floating him away to a different location just for him to be visible again and have these experiences. And then when it's convenient, then he's invisible. I don't understand. Right. Like, is he talking to somebody when he's sitting there eating? I don't know. Yeah. I don't know what I mean. I would think, why would you need to vanish before

the bill gets there if you've been invisible the whole time? Yeah. Can't you just take the cheesecake out back and eat it there like Emma and I would do? That's exactly what I'm talking about. Can't you put it within the trunk with the other cheesecakes that we've been stealing? And then go to the bank where you still have the money for more cheese. It's a whole, listen, we have blueprints. Don't worry about it. I'm just going to grab a fiver. I don't know how many times I have to say this. Um, but no, I it's, I don't understand entirely if he is invisible temporarily or if he's actually projecting to these restaurants. Because like other people can't see her, right? Right.

I mean, we know Rodolfo's story. He couldn't see her. Yeah. So I don't know. I just know that he's at restaurants and at movies when he should be in bed. And then he's also not coming home for several days. Also, she's probably a demon. Also demon and also cheating at Monopoly.

So it's all around bad. A lot of things are going on here. So whenever he was not near the girl, he would feel moody, hungry, and tired. Whenever she was around, he felt fulfilled. And he wasn't, oh, his parents were trying desperately to keep him to, his parents were desperately trying to keep him going to school instead of skipping. And so they started bringing him like in person, they started taking him to school. Cause they couldn't trust that he wouldn't just like vanish once he like stepped out of the house. Um, and even then I imagine there were times where they were walking like down the sidewalk to school and he would just leave and they'd be like on the sidewalk by themselves like where's my kid this is awful

so his parents took him to doctors who could not help they literally just said like essentially a boys will be boys bullshit line okay um they also took him to a welfare center and a juvenile center they literally had like correctional officers tying this kid up like oh in like uh solitary confinement because they're trying to figure out what's going on with this kid who like by the way like i don't know why the parents aren't grasping that like he can just vanish like no physical bound binds are gonna like keep him down yeah but nobody's like doubting that he can disappear like no one's saying like no it's fake they're just saying like we're just trying to hold him unless you've got some like kry Like no one's saying like, no, it's fake. They're just saying like, we're just trying to hold him. Unless you've got some like kryptonite rope that's holding him down.

Like it's not going to work. But so there was literally nothing anyone could do. So they ended up sending him back from like juvie essentially. And it got to a point where they just kind of gave up and they were like, I guess this is just what we live with. But keep in mind, they weren't even so worried about him vanishing all the time. They were just worried about how like he was progressively getting worse and worse and angrier and more violent. And so they were like, yeah, we don't want to live in a house with this kid. But a year went by.

Things kept getting worse. Nobody could help. So eventually they go to the church. could help. So eventually they go to the church. Cornelio's dad, I guess, had lunch with a pastor and the pastor heard a demonic voice coming from Cornelio and said there was a devil inside of him. And different articles told me that he actually tried to help. Um, like, I guess he like put his hands on Cornelio and Cornelio like vanished through his fingers. So the pastor was like, like vanished through his fingers so the pastor was like okay so i i don't know what to do so the pastor was like i know someone else who could probably help and so he got uh cornelio in touch with an evangelist missionary named dr sermal a sumrall sumrall um who also i think wrote alien entities and dr sumrall uh decided that he

was going to invite cornelio to his church but as cornelio said in an interview later quote as soon as i entered the church doors i saw the girl standing there at the threshold only this time she was not pretty but rather her features were twisted and horrific okay so okay the girl was probably slash absolutely a demon in disguise because was such a wonderful gal to hang out with until all of a sudden you walk into a church and then she's like all well i mean you always tell us like talk about how they'll present as something, like, cute or as something, like, approachable so that you get attached. You're vulnerable. Yeah, you will, like, allow it to, like, leech onto you.

So that's exactly what happened. And Dr. Sermal knew that something spiritual was wrong and immediately, like, that day performed an exorcism on him. And Cornelio never saw her again. Oh, what? Really oh that was it like dr samaral like if you're still out there i know this was like in the 50s but i want to take notes from you really quick on a few things just to make sure that we're always safe uh but so yeah he never saw the little girl again. He says he originally assumed that the little girl was an angel until he realized that she did not like him in a church. And this interview happened, I think, 14 years later in 1965. And Cornelio gave a full interview of his experiences to the United Press International.

And Dr. Sumrall also wrote a story. I think he wrote a documentary about this too, called The Invisible Boy. And he, this is a quote from Sumrall himself. The story of The Invisible Boy is true. I hired people to check out the validity of this story, including policemen who took signed affidavits about it. We investigated the whole matter very carefully. We didn't want the slightest possibility of falsehood or misrepresentation in it. We investigated the whole matter very carefully. It is interesting to note that a religious leader, Reverend Baker, traveled from the United States to the Philippines just to verify facts of the case. He later discovered that it was all absolutely true. And Reverend Baker said, quote, no doubt this is the greatest miracle

outside of the Bible and as great as any miracle in the Bible. So, whoa, I don't know. You know, you could argue that like, because they were like, they probably wanted to see something or they wanted to help, or maybe they wanted to make a documentary and they could have obviously like exaggerated some of the story. But I mean, a lot of the story I told you were direct quotes from Cornelio and his family. You could take it one of two ways when that this is entirely true. You could also assume that like maybe Dr. Summerall like wanted to have a story that like really like up the ante or like really made him look good when it comes to like

being a a servant of god or whatever so yeah it could be exaggerated but most of the wanted a promotion right right he just i don't know what that promotion he's like i want to be pope i want to be an angel um but apparently most of the things i said were direct quotes from cornelio and his family so unless they were like co-conspiring with the priests, you know, it sounds like the parents were not having a good time and were not enjoying themselves. So that's what I, that's what I see. I mean, it's hard to believe because I literally cannot believe this, but, um, I want to, it sounds really interesting. I just don't know why it's not more popular, especially if like someone is still around and openly talking about it.

Yeah, I'm surprised there's not like more lore around it or like more stories about it or more movies. And there's only like five or six articles. Like it was like compared to the haul of information I usually try to break down. There really wasn't too much out there. Wow. At least in English, there was a few sites I couldn't read. Well, I guess we've just added another source to the story. There you go. All right. So I have a story for you and it's a doozy. Is it one I know? I never know them, but is it one I know?

I don't know because it's very current, like this month current. Oh, maybe I have a chance. Okay. Perhaps. So I was initially going to do Tamla Horsford, and I've actually done most of the research and notes on that. But then I found out Crime Junkie and Morbid just released episodes on Tamla this week. Also, guys, sorry, like you weren't here

for this, but I ran downstairs to shut Gio up because he was barking so much at the thunder, literally. So I'm out of breath because I'm really out of shape. This is why I don't want like everyone. I swear every single day I get at least 10 comments from people like, why don't you have your own dog? And I'm like, because I might have to run upstairs. Because you like watch me and you're like, no, so anyway I was going to do Tamla Horsford um I've done a lot of the research and notes but then I found out Crime Junkie and Morbid released episodes on Tamla this week so I'm gonna like wait a few weeks to kind of spread it out a little bit I mean it's just because people get really upset when two crime podcasts release on the same day as if

we all know each other's schedule in advance. We don't. I promise. It's okay. A couple weeks ago, I got yelled at for plagiarizing last podcast on the left because we both put out Jeff the Talking Mongoose within like the same couple days. I was like, why does that mean I'm plagiarizing? Because we just did the same episode. That's the thing that drives me crazy is like, I mean, I wish I were friends with those guys well enough to like know what they were covering. Also, it's not like all of us like get together and like have like a board meeting and we're like, okay, so we're all going to release the same story at the same time. That'll really piss them off.

Piss everyone off. You know me do. I know. But yeah, so I just don't want to, you know, whatever. I want to do a different story. And I'm also sure it's frustrating. Like when you, like, let's say people, their top three favorite true crime podcasts are ours, morbid and crime junkie. And they're like, God damn it. Like the same story. And that happened one week with my favorite murder, like early on when we were doing the

show. And I, I don't know how it even happened but the same week we released um the same exact crime story as my favorite murder and people like this girl like wrote in we didn't even have a huge audience then but this girl wrote in was like i will never listen to you again and i was like why i didn't do it someone said they'd never listen to us again after the jethataki mongoose and i was like if that's the thing that makes you so upset in this world like i don't know how to help you okay fine so and I did want to mention it too because a lot of people are requesting it so I do plan on covering it so do not worry it's on the roster I'm just holding off a few weeks because I mean we might as well tell the story in a few weeks when other shows aren't covering it anymore so So we'll just wait on that. But because

of that, there was this like fateful conflagration of events. Whoa. Holy. Is that a real word? I've never, you know, you're a real asshole for telling me that English isn't your first language and then you pull out shit like that. I don't even know what you just said. What, what does that mean? Conf, say it again. A conflagration. I think that's a word, right? I sure hope so. Otherwise, you're gonna look real stupid. I currently look really stupid if it is. It says an extensive fire which destroys a great deal of land or property. Metaphorically, that's kind of our podcast. Just a goddamn nightmare. Just a disaster. Oh my god, that is like not what I meant.

You know what? The fact that you knew that word existed makes you smarter anyway. Conflation. Like they're two combined. Yes. Okay. Sorry. I meant conflation. Like when two things conflate. Okay. Whatever. I meant conflation. You know what's interesting? There's a few people I love as much as you. One of them is Chris Evans. And the two of you really like to throw out some wild words. And like, I always try to watch any interview that Chris Evans does, because obviously, like Captain America is the only man for me. And every time I listen to him talk, I'm like, I kind of don't know what you're saying. Like, he's so smart. And you just made me feel like that. I was like, wow, are you Captain America?

Apparently, I didn't even use the right word. So like, whatever. I mean, I'm also the one who Okay, so you're like knockoff Captain America. I'm like knockoff. I also said donator that one time and pissed everyone off. So I meant conflation. English is not my first language. I add extra syllables where they don't belong. Full circle there, Christine. Okay. I am so full rhombus. I, yes, that's me. So I apologize, but I meant a series of events conflated. And it turned out that this story actually was like very topical, even maybe more topical than Tamla.

Simply because I know we're rounding up June. I mean, today is literally the last day of June that we're recording this. This does come out in July. But listen, pride lasts all year long, right, Em? I mean, ain't that the darn truth? Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness, yes. Let's pretend i'm making a statement by posting my pride stories later well isn't this i know i am not as um what's the word you tell me conflagration no there's a i haven't been keeping up with uh gay twitter recently which like i fucking love gay twitter if you don't follow it or queer twitter i don't know if they've changed their name, but like not cisgender straight Twitter where everything is very sassy and about, uh, uh, queer lives. Um, but they usually at the first of every month, we'll regularly talk about how

it's like a different pride month. So like, we just like, I think this, we've now gone into wrath month or something like of different sins. Oh, I don't know how to, how to phrase it properly. Cause I'm like sloth. Yeah. Like there's like different, like there's like, like the month of gluttony and the month, but they make it like, cause if there's pride month, you might as well have wrath month and things like that.

So, oh, this is for sure. Wrath month. It has been, we find reasons to, uh, celebrate with or without pride being part of the title. Yeah. Okay, good. Well, so this will probably inspire some wrath. Perfect. Let's go with that.

Okay. So this was originally going to be like a one, like two stories in one. Because I didn't think there would be as much information. But as I did the research, it became clear that both stories, to me, I think, deserve their own episodes. So this is the first time in history that I'm doing a kind of two-parter. Oh, hell yeah, Christine. Also, this works super well because we're recording two episodes back-to-back today. So I'll actually know what you're talking about next week because it will still be fresh.

That's very true. Oh, that's a good point, actually. Yeah. Well done. Well, thank you so much yeah this was going to end up being like four hours if we did one uh at a time and that just was i was not going to make you do that um i say so and make myself do that and make all our listeners do that so i'm going to do a mini back-to-back series discussing the murders of dominique remy fellells and Rhea Milton, who are two black trans women who were murdered the same week, like literally within the same 24 hours. Okay. This

June. So currently this month, when this comes out last month, at the start of Pride Month, during the midst of the Black Lives Matter protests and demonstrations, and during the anniversary week of the Pulse nightclub shootings four years ago, just like, maybe it is a conflagration, like a giant fire. Actually, wait a minute. You've really stumbled into something. That's what it sounds like. That's what we do on the show. We stumble into things and pretend like we did it on purpose. We stumble until we land and stick it like we always meant to. Right on our faces. Yeah. Gravel in my face. Yeah. So I i'm gonna start this week with the story and this is a heavy one i mean

they're all heavy ones i know that but this one's very fresh so just a warning to everybody um i'm going to cover the murder of dominique remy uh fells this week and uh i guess let's just fucking get into it let's crack into it let's crack into it. Let's crack into it. Okay, so this takes place in Philadelphia. The Schuylkill River. I looked up how to pronounce it. On the evening of June 8th, 2020, the body of 27-year-old Dominique Remy Fels was found in Philadelphia's Schuylkill River, having been dismembered and repeatedly stabbed and beaten. Holy shit. Okay.

Yeah, it's a rough one and i like as much as i'd heard probably from queer twitter or other places where they were just like you know headlines coming out and sure um other places as well but obviously it was very relevant in some of the like communities we follow um i didn't know the details and like how gruesome some of this was. So I was very like surprised by some of it. So she had been dismembered and repeatedly stabbed and beaten. According to Out Magazine, both of her legs had been severed mid thigh. Oh, no. I know how you don't like disembodied.

No, I don't. And also, I know we say this a lot, but when you tell true crime stories, usually they're several decades away. And so this probably isn't fair at all, but my brain is able to kind of categorize it as something that like, oh, that doesn't happen today. And the fact that this is literally, what days ago uh yeah makes it feel more real and it's part of you're also part of my community also yikes yeah no and it's it's just like yeah it's very current very relevant very fresh um which you're right i mean even if it's not necessarily accurate it makes it feel worse to swallow like just harder to cope with so i will give you that caveat for both of these episodes um but so both of her legs were severed mid-thigh initially leading authorities to suspect she may have been run over by a train so that was like the initial

thought that like maybe she'd been laid on a train track and that's how her legs had been severed i know that was the like intentionally laid down on the track. I don't think they knew whether it was intent. I mean, I guess she had been stabbed. So, yeah, probably. Oh, shit. Okay. Fuck.

So that was the first thought. And they actually were not able to find her legs at first. And according to NBC Philadelphia, it wasn't until authorities were conducting an unrelated search for the bodies of two teens who went missing in the river that same week that dive teams discovered Dominique's legs in bags in the same area where her body was found. So her legs were eventually found. In bags. So that was for sure intentional. Yes. Okay. Just so we're clear. Okay.

Yes. So now it was confirmed that it had been fully intentional to get her legs off her body okay um so now this is where things get really like wrath inducing i mean obviously they already are but it just gets worse as it tends to do on the show so dominique was originally misgendered by sixABC and Philly Voice, and this led to confusion and a delay in identifying her as a victim. And it took police days to figure out who she was, who the remains belonged to. According to the Philadelphia Gay News, it was sources from the Morris Home, which is a recovery residence for transgender and gender nonconforming individuals who realized that the victim was one of their own. And they were like, that's Dominique. We know her. She's like one of their own. And they were like, that's Dominique. We know her. She's like one of our own.

And she was described by one friend as a unique, beautiful soul. She was the older sister of three kids, left behind two parents as well. Friends and family said they were beside themselves over the loss, obviously. Her aunt and uncle, I mean, this is the best name I ever heard, Jermise. Ooh. I know. I love it. G-E-R-M-Y-C-E. best name I ever heard. Jermise. Ooh. I know. I love it. G-E-R-M-Y-C-E.

Okay. I love that. Aunt Jermise and Uncle Roland. They were interviewed and they said Dominique had a promising future in cosmetology and had a personality that could brighten any room. So as soon as Dominique had been positively identified, that's when tips started to come in from friends and acquaintances. Friends reported having seen her arguing with a man shortly before her death. So that was kind

of the first like real clue as to what may have happened. And on June 16th, an arrest warrant was issued for 36-year-old Akhenaten Jones. And he's described as an acquaintance of Dominique's. And as far as I can tell, in the most recent news sources, they describe Jones as wanted but not in custody yet. So this is, again, like unfolding now. So this may have changed by the time this comes out. Sure. But as for right now, excuse me, he is, there's an arrest warrant out, but he has not been taken into custody yet. But detectives did stop by at his home and they found several things, several alarming things, including drugs, a hazmat suit, bloodstains, a grinding tool covered in blood.

What? And a saw. Oh, okay. Yeah. Which is what they believe may have been used to dismember Dominique. So the train theory apparently did not hold up. Okay. Police believe Jones is not currently in the Philadelphia area,

but law enforcement officials hope that he'll turn himself in before they're forced to search for him. According to action news and obviously Dominique's family are urging anyone who knows where the hell Jones is to come forward and, you know, bring him out because he's in hiding right now. And in response to the arrest warrant, Dominique's aunt, Jermaine, said, turn him in. This was a gruesome death. How anybody could do this to another human being is just so heartless and cruel. No mother should have to go through this.

And I'm speaking for my sister-in-law. Wow. So it's, so that's like the most recent news. Police haven't released any further details regarding the murder and whether or not they believe it was a hate crime. Though advocates insist that black trans lives are not being protected, especially considering they're among the most high risk of becoming victims of violent crime. So at that point, it's like, well, 2019 alone saw at least 26 transgender or gender nonconforming people fatally shot or killed by other violent means. And that was within 2019 alone. They explained they say that they say at least sorry, because too often, obviously, stories go unreported or misreported or misgendered. Right. Dominique herself is believed to be the 13th transgender or gender nonconforming murder victim in the U.S. this year.

Yeah. Sadly, not surprising. No. And that's the most horrific part, like in 2020 already. Reports from the HRC also show that at least seven transgender women have been murdered in Philadelphia since 2013. And there's that at least again. So Tatiana Woodward, excuse me, is a transgender activist and community health engagement coordinator at the Mazzoni Center in Philly. And she is a black trans woman herself. And she told reporters, it's a risk to be living in our truth and live who we want to be and authentically in response to Dominique's murder. And the city of Philadelphia's Office of LGBT Affairs, which is headed by also a black trans woman named Selena Morrison, released a statement on Fels' death as follows.

As thousands take to the streets to proclaim that black lives matter, it is critical we remember that this includes black trans lives. Dominique Remy Fs life mattered. We are reminded with this and countless other painful losses, especially within our transgender communities that there's much left to do until we achieve full equality, respect and support for us all. The murder of transgender people, especially those of color is truly an epidemic and a crisis that we cannot afford to allow to persist any further. Let us uplift her memory together. So it's just like the most horrifically heartbreaking and like frustrating. I mean, it's literally like you said, 22 days ago. Yeah. Of right now. And this is part one of my two part series. Like, great. Oh, yeah, it's Yeah, it's just awful i can't i don't know how people can be so cruel and a

with the really horrifically ironic part is that without black trans lives the queer community entirely would not be where they are today without them and yet they're the ones most in danger at all times right it was so frustrating no you're totally right because even seeing like during um all the demonstrations when people were posting like, Oh, like you need to make change with peace. And like, people were like, do you even know about Stonewall? Do you know anything about how anything has happened in this country? Like not by peace. Have you considered doing Stonewall soon? That'd be a great story. Yes, that that was but my favorite murder just covered that so well i've had to be very like uh intentional about like choosing stories that will spread out one day i mean it's a

good thing because it's like it's good you know other bigger shows are covering it sure um and so that way i can like you know cover in a few months and it'll still be i mean it'll always be timely right timely is kind of a shitty word in some ways but it'll always be timely. Right. Timely is kind of a shitty word in some ways, but. It'll always be timely until all of a sudden everyone has equality, which who knows when that'll fucking happen. All of a sudden. Right. All of a sudden. So that's kind of the big story of it. I mean, anyone with information regarding Jones's whereabouts, unless somehow all of a sudden, quote unquote, he is captured by next week.

God damn it. Do we know at all how quickly she stopped being misgendered in the press? You know, I think it was relatively quickly. I think that like it was kind of one of those things where it trickled down. And then when kind of news outlets got a hold of now, the story was that this this trans woman is being misgendered. That added, you know, a whole obviously layer and element to the story. So I think that's kind of when it became corrected.

On a totally personal and selfish level, like I cannot imagine something that horrific happening to you and then in death you're still being disrespected. Exactly. And like people not doing their due diligence and like figuring out how you should be honored yep and i mean it's it's just like traumatizing all over again for the family and for it's like an extra layer of trauma for friends and family who are like that's not even yeah my sister or you know yeah like she would have been so hurt to see this or feel this or whatever so horrified i mean like fyi like if i go anyone listening if i go like make sure they use my right fucking pronouns in the press if i if the

press even feels like i'm worth being written about but like i'm the press i'm christine news network cnn whoever is like on site and sees it happen just fucking tweet out to all news outlets like by the way before anyone writes anything these outlets. Like, by the way, before anyone writes anything, please write pronouns. Which, by the way, should be a system that everyone goes by. Not just if you're queer. Like, normalize pronouns 2020. I don't know how else to make this so clear. Everybody needs no pronouns. And, like, the worst part is we're literally more than halfway through 2020

and, like, well, not working yet. All right, 2021. Looking forward to try again. Somebody literally brought up for, like like the millionth time today on Twitter. And I was finally like, maybe I should say something that in like the first episode of the year, I went on this rant about how everything's so great. This is our year. Things are going to be so positive.

Like they literally quoted parts of it. And I was like, oh, no. And it was like, and then I literally said at the end, I hope I didn't just jinx 2020 I'm like what have I done thanks Christine for everything that's happened this year you're so welcome um so my bad well my bad thank you guys for listening uh wait no there's more there's more sorry the story's not over I was just kind of... Well, thanks for listening. Keep it up. Okay. What is it? Sorry. So what is it? Okay. Well, the story itself is over, but I have like, you know, some ways to help and contribute and that kind of thing. Okay, perfect.

So anyone with info regarding Joan's whereabouts is urged to dial 911, contact the PPD tip line at T15686 tips, or you can submit an online tip. You can also contribute and help in other ways. So Dominique's GoFundMe was set up by her family to cover funeral costs, but thankfully has already reached its goal and has been closed. But there are obviously so many other ways to help support black trans lives. There are tons, but I'm just going to list a few that I know of personally. So the Ochre Project provides resources and meals to black transgender people across the world, and you can donate and check them out at theochreproject.com. The TGI Justice Project fights against imprisonment and human rights abuses of transgender,

gender variant, and intersex people, and you can figure them out. You can look at them at tgijp.org. Then there's the Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative, which is an Atlanta-based organization working toward abolition, and they provide financial support, organizing, and direct action training, an internship program, and more to the LGBTQ plus community. And you can see them at snap4fre freedom.org. And finally, the emergency release fund and they use donations to bail out those facing pretrial detention, prioritizing the release of those in the LGBTQ plus community. And you can see them at emergency release fund.com. And I will say I found a really long list on Harper's Bazaar. And they listed a really long

list of resources where you can directly help and support and protect black trans lives. So I'm going to have Eva put that in the show notes just to link directly there. And you can go through like the entire list. I mean, it's obviously not an exhaustive list, but there are a lot on there that you can kind of see which ones speak to you, I guess. And then I guess the only thing I want to say is as a, you know, cis woman myself, I know, obviously we're all discussing this in the light of literally everything that's going on the past couple months, but, you know, check your biases. Even like I saw MU posted something today that was really cool on Instagram that was like, even if you're like anti-racist, even if you're this, that, the other, like,

cool on Instagram that was like, even if you're like anti-racist, even if you're this, that, the other, like we all have internalized shit that we need to, this is not what it said. This is me paraphrasing. But you're right in that. I'm glad you said something. Cause that is one of the things that I'm currently struggling with the most during everything that's been going on in the last few months is like, I've really had to look at the things I used to say and do when I was younger. And I never at all saw myself as homophobic or racist. I'm sure most people don't. But I still acted in really ignorant, uneducated ways. And I would like to make the caveat that I was younger and the times were different.

But that's still not an excuse. It was still wrong. I just didn't care to educate myself at the time. And I'm, I hate that, um, about myself. So the only thing I can do at this point is be a more educated person and be aware of the, like, yeah, I grew up with some weird indoctrinations that I'm not proud of. And it's all of our responsibilities now to try to get ourselves away from those prejudices that we were born with, not born with, but were raised with. Sure. Yeah. And like surrounded by, and I mean, I think even just looking back and saying like, oh, that's how I used to behave. But I feel

like there's times now too, where I look at myself now and I'm like, okay, I got to like, really come to a realization that I'm doing things now that I don't necessarily even realize where I'm like, oh no, I'm so different from 10 years ago. But it's like, no, there's still shit that that's there that needs to be addressed. I said this to you last week or whenever we had our sleepover. But like I realized that I've had I still had something like internalized prejudice and just like, I guess, more conservative beliefs than I was like, than I'm proud to admit only a few years ago. And like, yeah, luckily, like this podcast, being friends with you,

moving to LA and a much more progressive world. Oh my God, it has changed my life. Dating Allison, who is like the, just like desperate to save the world in so many wonderful ways. Like I have just surrounded myself with so many people who helped me like check my privilege and check what I was saying out loud and like, didn't even realize how it could be hurtful to someone. And again, I was never outwardly hateful. I never thought of myself as hateful. I just said things that like, I grew up in such an entitled white world that like I never thought to educate

myself. Cause no one around me was telling me that that was necessary so it's been really really you know it's scary because we're in such like a cancel call out culture um I like hope I never get canceled because of some stupid thing I did when I was 12 but like it's also I'm so glad that I'm educating myself. It's better late than never. So if you're not doing it, please, I we encourage you to do that. We are a better version of yourself. I think some of that internalized stuff is even more dangerous, not more dangerous than the blatant stuff, obviously, but it's definitely still pretty insidious just because it perpetuates the stuff we, yeah, it perpetuates the bigger stuff. And

then it also, you know, doesn't necessarily get addressed. And so, yeah, that's kind of something that I'm also really trying to be conscious of. You know, so let's reroute our thinking and also, also be, be actionable about it. Be anti-racist, be anti-transphobic, call people, speak up, anti-racist be anti-transphobic um call people speak up fucking vote by the way um and so last day of pride for humanity's sake please normalize fucking pronouns i promise you the world's going to be so much happier your grandchildren are going to be thankful for it one day who your grandchildren are gonna be like thank god i didn't have to you know do it for your grandkids yeah so do it for the grandkids um that's what we should just start doing okay do it for the grandkids that's like 20 year olds

one day they're gonna look at us and you know what we have footage that they're gonna probably listen to one day and be like okay well i see where you were going with that they might be they'll probably look at that and go wow they were misguided because who knows what the fuck in 50 years we're probably so wrong about but But yeah, so anyway, I want to put like, also say everything that I'm referencing as far as links and stuff will be in the show notes. I like put a little, I'm rarely this organized, but I made sure to keep like an actual list for Eva. So that is the story, my friends. And thank you, Em, for having to sit through, you know, a really dark, heavy, heavy topic. Yeah, but one people need to hear. So thank you so much for listening. Also to our rant at the end, but it was, again, something people need to hear. And I guess visit us on That's Why We Drink.com.

You can submit your listener stories there. You can find out pretty much anything you need there. We also have our happy hours on Instagram Live every Thursday at 3 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. Yes, and 6 Eastern. 6 Eastern. I also have Marvel Mondays. Christine's doing her own thing on her YouTube channel, The X-Teen Files. Yeah, that's pretty much it we're having fun and we miss each other but

you know we're working with what we got and that's why we drink yay and normalize pronouns 2021