Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Cannibal” Joe Metheny

Episode Date: October 25, 2021

Joe Metheny tended to exaggerate and lie about his own life, but if half the atrocities he confessed to are true, he certainly earned his gruesome moniker.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of drug abuse, murder, rape, necrophilia, and cannibalism that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. On a summer night in 1995, Joe Mathini marched through the destitute streets of South Baltimore's tent city. Passers-by stared at Joe before scuttering away. It wasn't every day you see a hulking man carrying a woodcutter's axe. Eventually, the 40-year-old reached the underbelly of Hanover Street Bridge and began searching for his ex-girlfriend who will call Rachel.

It was finally time for Joe to get his revenge, and his blood boiled in anticipation. But as he overturned tents and called out Rachel's name, there was no sign of her. Joe's rage pounded through his heartbeat. He clenched the axe tighter. The only people Joe found were Randall Brewer and Randy Piker, two 33-year-old men sleeping on a mattress. They looked somewhat familiar, and Joe thought he remembered the pair spending time with Rachel. That might be why the sight of these men caused Joe's fury to spill over. He no longer cared who bore the brunt of his wrath.

He just wanted blood. He raised the axe above his head, then brought it down with all of his strength on each man's skull. A rush of power and ecstasy flowed through Joe as he slammed the weapon down over and over. Even when his blows stopped, Joe's adrenaline continued to surge. He turned on his heel and walked back toward the main drag of Tent City. He was sure he could find fresh meat before the night ended. Hi, I'm Greg Poulson. This is serial killers, a Spotify original from Parcast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers.

Today, we'll explore the twisted life of Joe Mathini, a sadistic killer sometimes known as The Cannibal. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. In the first part of this episode, we'll dive into Joe's murky upbringing, as well as his descent into a life of drugs, homelessness, and violence. Later, we'll watch as Joe develops a taste for killing and learn about his unconventional and monstrous methods for disposing of bodies.

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the surge of adrenaline unlocks something else entirely. Something violent, evil, and decidedly not normal. But instead of being ashamed of this reaction, these people become addicted to the blood-pumping outpouring of power, and they'll do anything to feel that way again. Where this lust for anger comes from is a mystery. Does the capacity for violent rage lie within all of us? Or are some people born different? In the case of the infamous Joseph Mathini, nobody noticed the true danger behind his temper until it was too late. To be fair, when Joe was born in 1955, he seemed like a perfectly normal baby. His parents moved from Baltimore County to West Virginia when he was two years old, and they spent the next several years there.

We don't know much about Joe's childhood or what it was like growing up in the Mathini household, but with six children, Joe's parents struggled to make ends meet. It probably didn't help that Joe's father allegedly struggled with alcoholism. It's unclear if his father's condition affected his attitude or the treatment of his wife and children. Whatever the case, the family relied on him to get by, but the relative stability wouldn't last forever. her. In 1961, when Joe was six, his mother, Jean, got a phone call. Her husband had died in a car accident. The family was crushed by the news, but Jean was a no-nonsense, determined woman. She moved her family back to Baltimore and took on several odd jobs. Too proud to collect welfare,

she waitressed, tended bar, drove a truck, and more, just to keep their heads above water. While Joe later claimed he bounced around between foster homes, during this time. His mother denied that this was true. She says she did her best to keep the family together. But it's possible that Jean's packed schedule may have been difficult on our children who had their own grief to deal with. Vanessa's going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but we have done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. Grief is a natural response to death, but it's an entirely different process for children compared to adults

who can fully understand the concept of losing a loved one. A 1984 book on bereavement by an Institute of Medicine Committee found that some children interpret a parent's death as deliberate abandonment. So it's possible that Joe believed his father left him behind, and now that his mother was absent all day and night, he felt completely rejected. However, if Joe was struggling, it was a little bit of, apparently difficult to tell from an outside perspective. According to later interviews with his

mother, Joe did well in school, never got into trouble, and loved riding his bike. As far as we can tell, Joe's teachers and neighbors found him exceptionally polite and thoughtful. Everyone thought the young boy was on a good path, but things took a turn when Joe reached his teenage years. It's not clear why, but Joe dropped out of school after eighth grade. As Vanessa mentioned, he didn't have any behavioral issues that we know of, so it's possible he started working to help support his family. But a life working odd jobs in South Baltimore wasn't enough for him. In 1973, when he was 18, Joe enlisted in the Army, which gave him a fresh start. He earned his high school equivalency, plus a year and a half of physics education.

Still, despite the opportunities he now had, Joe began acting strangely. At first, while stationed overseas, Joe sent letters home to update his family on his life. But slowly, Joe stopped sending and responding to letters. We aren't sure why Joe cut communication with his family, but it seems his silence was more than forgetfulness. It was intentional. Joe spent two mysterious years in the Army before he was honorably discharged in 1975. After that, he returned to South Baltimore, and at first he'd didn't bother visiting his family. When he finally did, there was something off about the once-sweet

and thoughtful son. Despite his family believing that he'd been stationed in Germany, Joe insisted he actually served in Vietnam. He spun stories about escaping danger and being heroic and was standoffish when anyone questioned him. The family was right to be suspicious. Though Joe's presence in Vietnam can't be disproven, it's unlikely he experienced. the brutal guerrilla warfare that occurred there. U.S. armed forces pulled out of the country around the time Joe enlisted. On the other hand, there were about 250,000 U.S. soldiers stationed in Western Germany in the 1970s, so it's much more likely that Joe did serve in Germany. So why might he have lied about where he was stationed? It's likely that Joe created stories

about his service because he wanted to be seen as a hero. This kind of self-aggrandizement is a common sign of narcissistic personality disorder. Though to our knowledge, Joe was never diagnosed with the condition, his exaggerated war stories were only the beginning of a string of narcissistic tendencies. He liked to paint himself as the good guy and deflected blame for causing any trouble, and Joe was causing quite a bit of trouble. Instead of using his newly earned high school certification and physics education to get ahead, Joe took simple odd jobs that paid the bare minimum.

Then he spent most of his money on booze. Joe frequented South Baltimore bars, getting wasted, talking with the regulars, and playing pool until the late hours. But whiskey wasn't the worst of Joe's vices. After getting drunk with friends, they'd take off into the night to score something stronger, crack cocaine and heroin. It's unclear when Joe started using drugs. He told anyone who would listen, concerned family members, bar mates, fellow drug users, that he became hooked in Vietnam. The traumatized U.S. troops who served in Vietnam did have extremely high rates of drug use,

so it was a believable story. However, this could have been another narcissistic attempt to cast the blame off of himself. It seems more likely that Joe started using drugs while stationed in Germany. In the 1970s, there was a prominent counterculture movement among young, left-eastern. Germans, which involved a lot of recreational drug use, just as in the United States. That's hardly a story that invites sympathy. The Vietnam narrative made Joe's addiction more tragic and justified. Whatever the truth behind his habit, it seems Joe was addicted before he returned to South

Baltimore. Once there, he surrounded himself with fellow drug users, choosing to spend his time in a homeless camp called Tent City. He lived on the streets when he couldn't afford housing, which was often. thanks to his drug habit. People in the community knew and liked Joe. At 6'1 and around 230 pounds, Joe earned the ironic nickname, Tiny.

But the name also fit the polite, thoughtful personality Joe had. He had a reputation for being a gentleman, at least when he was sober. When Joe ingested drugs or alcohol, a switch inside of him flicked. He became loud, rude, and even violent. Once Joe was hired, drunk, he craved. he craved a fight. He wanted to overpower someone, to win, to humiliate them. On these nights,

nobody dared call him tiny. For nearly 20 years, Joe carried on this way, fighting, drinking, and getting high. Because he existed on the fringes of society, it's hard to know exactly how he spent his time. We do know that Joe met a woman who will call Rachel. She was also a drug user, and the two had a volatile relationship that seemed largely based on scoring cocaine and heroin. Around 1984, Rachel and Joe had a son who will call Matt. Very little is known about the boy, but it doesn't seem the new parents changed their habits once he arrived. Joe also sustained his pattern of violence against random bargoers and potentially against his family. He racked up several charges of assault plus drunken disorderly conduct,

which earned him the occasional night in jail. Joe's rap sheet of intoxicated fights grew longer year by year, but the list of offenses made him seem more like a drunk with a temper than what he really was. A ticking bomb. And it was just a matter of time before he exploded. Coming up, Joe snaps when his son is taken from him. Hello, I'm Hannah McGuire. And I'm Sarutie Bala, and we're the hosts of the new Spotify original from Park

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Work enough to afford whiskey and drugs before going home to his partner and their young son, Matt. And after years dipping in and out of homelessness, Joe had managed to find a stable work and living situation. The Army vet got a job at Joe Stein and Sons Pallet Factory, earning $7 per hour driving a forklift. His coworkers seemed to like Joe. He was a dedicated worker who was extremely good at problem-solving. The trust in Joe was so strong that the company owner agreed to let him live in a trailer on the property in exchange for watching over the grounds.

With an eight-foot barbed wire fence surrounding the property and thousands of stacked wooden pallets, Joe could have complete privacy. Joe moved into the single-room trailer with Rachel and Matt, at least for the time being, the family of three was out of Tent City. In July of 1994, however, Joe came home from work and opened his door to an empty trailer. Everything inside, including Rachel and Matt, was gone. Joe later claimed he was glad that Rachel was gone, but the fact that his son was missing sent him into a panic. Not knowing what else to do, Joe likely headed to a favorite bar to calm his anxieties with whiskey and drugs.

It wasn't the first time Joe found solace in substance abuse, and it wouldn't be the last. When people get sudden threatening news, their amygdala, which in part controls fear, reacts quickly, triggering a fight or flight response. This overrides the part of the brain that controls thought and judgment. The frightened or threatened person then experiences a burst of energy. When people are in trouble, this boost is supposed to help them escape danger. But when they're just angry, with no target or need to flee, they may be launched into action without purpose. For Joe, action meant going to bars, fighting, drinking, and doing drugs. It's possible that Joe never learned how to handle emotional stressors, and once he found drugs, they became his crutch.

To feel okay, he needed a rush, but this time, whiskey, cocaine, and heroin weren't enough. After getting drunk and high, Joe took to the streets. Blood boiling, he started looking for Rachel. Joe thought he wanted revenge, but on a biological level, perhaps what he really craved was release. The neurotransmitters in his brain, combined with the drugs, pushed him into action, and he had to see it through. So when he saw 39-year-old Kathy Magizener, tall and thin,

he knew he'd found his fix. Joe invited Kathy back to his trailer, perhaps offering her some drugs. Once they got there, the two started having sex. After an hour of fooling around, Joe felt an urge to dominate his partner, and he knew exactly how to do that. He wrapped his hands around Kathy's throat and squeezed as hard as he could. When he couldn't get the job done with just his hands, Joe wrapped an extension cord around her neck and continued throttling her.

Adrenaline and arousal coursed through him as Kathy's eyes rolled back in her head and her pulse stopped. But even though she was dead, Joe was nowhere close to Don. What happened next is from Joe's own account, so there's a chance it's nothing more than a lie or even a sick fantasy. But what Joe says he did to Kathy, either in his mind or in reality, shows just how disturbed he was. Joe claimed that he removed Kathy's clothes, then cut some of her skin off. He stored pieces of Kathy's body in Tupperware. He wanted to save it for later. When he was done, Joe dragged Kathy's body outside, about 40 feet away from his trailer.

He dug a shallow grave, then threw her inside. He stared down at the body. He was hungry for something more. He just didn't know what. Shaking off the feeling, Joe buried Kathy's clothes and purse in a different location on the property. As his heart rate slowed, he finally sat back. The pumping need for action was gone for now. For a while, this vicious slaying quelled Joe's need for a rush.

He spent a few quiet months living and working at the pallet company, stepping over Kathy's mutilated corpse buried just under his feet. But Joe couldn't stop thinking about the body. He had an urge that he couldn't explain, and it was only a matter of time before he stopped resisting. About six months after the murder, Joe returned to Kathy's grave. He dug up her corpse to find she was already decomposing. He took her skull out of the dirt, turning it over, letting the feeling of arousal build inside of him. Finally, he took the head inside his trailer and attempted to have sex with it.

This urge unlocked an entirely new and disturbing level of Joe's mind. It was almost like a drug-fueled crime of passion, but even after he regained control, he mutilated the body again, which suggests that his violent urges weren't solely motivated by fleeting emotions. Between allegedly eating Kathy's flesh and defiling her skull, it seems that Joe was enthralled by the utter domination and control he felt over his victim. According to a 2020 study published in the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, necrophilia is a sign of sadism. This psychosexual disorder causes a person to seek sexual gratification by inflicting pain

on another person, typically without their consent or enjoyment. Joe's sadism not only provides insight into his impulses and motivations, but it potentially explains his thoughts afterward. The 2011 study published in law and human behavior found that sexual sadism shares many characteristics with psychopathic personality disorder. The two disorders are often linked, allowing a psychopathic sadist to inflict pain without feeling empathy or remorse for their victim. It certainly seemed that Joe felt no regret for his violence.

The only things he took away from Kathy's murder were a few horrific new vices. he was done with Kathy's skull, Joe got rid of it. For several more months, he kept a low profile, but he didn't stay quiet for too long, not after he heard some shocking news. Months after Rachel left him, Joe finally got wind of his ex's fate, and more importantly, his sons. Rachel had gone to live in Tent City with her new boyfriend, an alleged pimp, but after a few weeks, police busted the pair for drug use and sex work, as well as child abuse and neglect of six-year-old Matt. Matt was placed into the state's care, which made Joe furious.

He knew that with his criminal record, he'd never be granted custody over his own son. That meant that Matt would face the same feelings of rejection Joe had experienced as a child after his father's death. Enraged, Joe spent the summer of 1995 searching for Rachel and her new boyfriend. Now that he knew how much he liked killing, They were his number one targets. He knew they were staying somewhere in Tent City, but he wasn't sure where. That meant he'd have to hunt.

One night in late July, Joe wandered over by the Hanover Street Bridge, looking for Rachel and her boyfriend. Finally, Joe could get the vengeance he was looking for. He left his trailer heading for the bridge. But first, he wanted a weapon. Luckily, his time spent wandering Tent City had uncovered some useful, secrets. He knew there was a woodcutter's axe hidden underneath a rotting sofa. He picked it up on the way and tested its heft. It was perfect. It's important to note here that the only account of this

night came directly from Joe himself, and his version of events has been debated for years. So it's important to take the story with a grain of salt. According to Joe, when he got to Hanover Street Bridge, Rachel and her new man were nowhere to be found. The only only one of the only Only people in sight were 33-year-old's Randall Brewer and Randy Piker, who were passed out on a mattress. At this point, Joe could no longer contain his rage. Someone had to pay for what had happened to his son, and it may as well be these two men. So he slammed the axe into Brewer and Piker's heads, killing them both in seconds. He left their bodies out in the open, but he wasn't done.

Refusing to give up on his quest, Joe dropped the axe next to his victims and journeyed out from under the bridge, looking for people who might know where Rachel was. He claims he lured two different women into the shadows, got them high, then pressed them for information on his axe. When they didn't know about Rachel's whereabouts, Joe claimed he raped and murdered both women before dumping them into the Patapsco River. While rolling one of the corpses into the water, Joe looked up and realized he was being watched. Along the river, a fisherman sat in stunned silence. Joe was so caught up in his murderous rage that he didn't hesitate. He grabbed a pipe from the ground and charged the witness. He beat the fisherman to death, relishing the feeling of killing for the fifth time that night. Leaving his weapons behind, Joe went back to his trailer. He believed he'd killed everyone who saw him that night,

but the evidence trail wasn't as clean as he thought. In August of 1995, shortly after his killing spree, police found a lead that connected Joe to the only two bodies he didn't push into the river, Brewer and Piker. With this evidence, investigators arrested Joe for double homicide. Joe waited for his trial in a prison cell for months on end. Without a scapegoat, he was sure a jury would find him guilty. But unbeknownst to him, he was not the only one who'd use the woodcutter's axe for revenge.

After Joe killed Brewer and Piker, a homeless man found the axe Joe abandoned under the Hanover Street Bridge. In a completely unrelated dispute, this man used the axe to murder another resident of Tent City. When that man was caught, investigators on the Brewer and Piker homicide case suddenly faced another possibility. Several of the people in Tenth City were caught up in this turf war. Suddenly, it seemed possible that Brewer and Piker were just two more victims in a deadly battle of the streets. Eventually, prosecutors chose to believe the turf war story and charged the homeless man for Brewer and Piker's murders. Joe was acquitted for the crime and released from prison. By the time he walked free, Joe had spent nearly a year in prison waiting for his trial. After months

behind bars, all he could think about was killing. And he got straight to work. On November 11, 1996, Joe met 23-year-old Kimberly Lynn Spicer at a bar he frequented. She was the little sister of the bartender named Connie, someone he'd become acquainted with. Connie thought Joe was always so courteous and kind. Kimberly likely thought the same thing. So when Joe asked Kimberly to come back to his trailer, it seemed like there was nothing to worry about. However, once they were back in his trailer, Joe's mood flipped suddenly. He tried to rape Kimberly so she tried to get away. Furious that she would dare fight back, Joe picked up a knife and stabbed the young woman over and over.

Then, in another act of brutality, he violated her dead body with a beer bottle. Once he was done, he took her to a nearby wooded area, where he dumped her in a hasty, shallow grave. After that, Joe walked home to his trailer, tired but happy. Grabbing his favorite drink, Southern Comfort Whiskey, he likely settled in for a night of booze and drugs. Coming up, Joe reveals exactly what he did with his victim's bodies. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? Zepbound terseptide may be able to help.

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Try Activia today. Enjoying Activia twice a day for two weeks as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle may help reduce the frequency of minor digestive discomfort, which includes gas, bloating, rumbling, and abdominal discomfort. Now back to the story. In 1996, 41-year-old Joe Mathini had just murdered Kimberly Spicer, his fourth confirmed victim, and possibly his seventh. With her corpse stashed in the woods, Joe was nowhere close to finished.

But before he could claim another victim, Joe had work to do. He was nervous about leaving evidence behind, especially since he'd splattered Kimberly's blood all over his trailer. He wasn't sure if he'd cleaned it well enough. And after thinking it over, Joe decided he wanted to move Kimberly's body closer to the trailer. Perhaps he felt unsure about the location he left her in, a dense, wooded area, or maybe he just wanted his victim's rotting body to be closer to him. After all, he'd attempted to have sex with Kathy's body six months after her death. Whatever his reasons, he decided he needed

some help moving her. A week or two after the murder, Joe was drinking and doing cocaine with one of his friends, William Ashbrook Jr. Joe told William that he had killed the woman who owed him money and that he needed help moving the body closer to his trailer. At first, William didn't believe his friend. He knew Joe had a temper, but never suspected he was capable of murder. But Joe insisted that he wasn't lying and even offered his show William the corpse. Joe's willingness to show off Kimberly's body could have come from his psychopathic and narcissistic tendencies. Researchers at the FBI's critical incident response group published a study on serial murder,

which explained that psychopathic serial killers often desire credit for their intelligence, cleverness, and skill in evading capture. As Joe led William into the woods, it's likely he felt a sense of pride, not shame, at the thought of showing off his handiwork. Once they reached the makeshift grave, Joe pulled back some leaves and bushes, revealing Kimberly's decaying body. He told his friend to help him wrap it in a tarp and carry it to a dumpster. William was shocked and certainly didn't want to help.

He made an excuse, then took off on his bicycle. Joe watched him go, wondering if he'd just made a huge mistake. But it was too late to back out now. He grabbed the rotting corpse and lugged it back home, bearing the body right outside his door. The next day, William told Joe's employers about what he'd seen. Disturbed at the thought of a murderer living on their factory grounds, the Steins contacted the police. Of course, authorities couldn't just take William's word for it.

They needed proof of the murder. So they put a wire on William and sent him back to Joe's to get a confession. However, Joe had grown suspicious of his friend by now. The next time he hung out with William, he refused to talk about the incident in the woods. Without a confession, it's unclear what the police did next. Regardless, Joe's silence bought him some more time to find his next fix. On December 8th, Joe decided it was time to murder again. That night, he invited his friend 37-year-old Rita Kemper to his trailer to do drugs.

Once they were in the trailer, Joe demanded sex and ordered Rita to take off her pants. She tried to leave, but Joe ran after her and tackled her. outside the trailer, dragging her back through the door. The property was so isolated that nobody heard her screams. He beat Rita for a while, laughing while she cried and yelled for help. He always felt invincible when he killed, so he enjoyed playing cat and mouse with his prey. He teased her, daring her to try to escape. Then when Joe turned his back for a moment, Rita ran out of the door again. Still, he was fairly comfortable. She was confident she had nowhere to go.

After all, the property was surrounded by an eight-foot-high barbed wire fence, and there were pallets stacked everywhere. Nobody could see in, and Rita couldn't get out. Or so he thought. Propeled by fear, Rita climbed up the stacked pallets and leapt over the fence, barely feeling the barbs on her skin. Joe watched in disbelief as she sprinted away. In times of stress, Joe's fight-or-flight instinct,

He probably launched him into action, but now he stood frozen. He couldn't move. After reaching a gas station, Rita called the police to tell them what happened. She was safe, but as far as we can tell, the police didn't follow up on her report for a week. In the meantime, they searched the woods around Joe's trailer and found the body of Kimberly Spicer, right where Williams said it would be. was enough to finally make a move. And on December 15th, Joe was arrested on his way out of a Christmas party. At the police station, Joe sat across from his interrogators. The cops thought it

might be tough to break this huge, intimidating criminal. But to their surprise, Joe confessed almost immediately. He told them that he'd done more than they realized and even offered to help. Thanks to his psychopathic and narcissistic tendencies, Joe couldn't stand the idea of the world never knowing just how devious he'd been. When authorities discovered a second body buried near Joe's trailer, he revealed that it belonged to Kathy Magiziner. He also confessed to murdering Randall Brewer and Randy Piker. It always bugged him that someone else had gotten credit for his murders. Once he started talking, Joe couldn't stop. He told authorities about the three other people he killed the night he murdered Brewer and Piker. After that revelation, officials searched

the river where Joe said he dumped the bodies. But when they didn't find anything, they began to wonder if Joe was lying to them, especially because the more Joe confessed, the more extreme his body count grew. Joe smugly claimed that he'd murdered 10 people. Shocked, the authorities pride Joe for more information, but Joe's stories were boastful and inconsistent. It seemed he intentionally targeted women who were homeless, addicted to drugs, or sex workers. He knew most of them didn't have family or friends to notice when they disappeared. Without details or proof, Joe seemed to be making up a more dramatic account of his murders, but one thing kept the police from dismissing his claims. Joe remembered the name of at least one of his victims, Tony Lynn and Garcia. Tony's body had been

found many years earlier, dumped on the side of a busy street. Though she was clearly murdered, the case quickly turned cold. Joe had no reason to know about or claim the death of this woman, unless he was telling the truth. But Joe wasn't done with his confession. He wanted his captors to know exactly how evil he was, and what he admitted next cemented him as one of the most vile and terrifying serial killers in recent memory. To start, Joe bragged that he tasted his victims flesh and stored it in Tupperware. But he told investigators he didn't eat the human meat all by himself. He claimed that he mixed it with pork and beef. And he wasn't the only person to try this recipe. Using this mixture, Joe allegedly opened a small, informal barbecue stand outside his

trailer. There he cooked and sold his victims to unsuspecting customers. authorities could only sit in stunned horror as Joe laughed at their discomfort. They hoped he was lying, but as with many of Joe's crimes, it was hard to sort the fact from fiction. But as soon as Joe's lawyer started taking interviews with the media, she spun a completely different tale. She told the public Joe was ashamed of his crimes and that he'd faced a horrible life. Based on lies, Joe told her, she claimed he was an orphan who bounced her. around foster homes as a child, and that he was a Vietnam veteran who became hooked on drugs. Despite his defense's effort, public perception of Joe was not sympathetic.

Word spread about his extensive body count and brutality. It seemed Joe wanted to be famous for his crimes. He was getting his wish. Before long, everyone in Baltimore knew Joe Mathini was a monster. This reputation likely influenced Joe's trials. First, in 1997, he faced charges for attacking Rita Kemper. Due to lack of evidence, he was acquitted for the attempted murder charge. However, he was found guilty of kidnapping and attempted rape and sentenced to 50 years in prison.

Joe accepted his first sentencing. After all, he'd wanted the notoriety. He'd been in prison before for a brief stint after he murdered Brewer and Piker. he felt like he could handle the punishment. But in 1998, when he was 43, the state of Maryland found Joe guilty for the murder of Kimberly Spicer. Because it was a capital case, the judge sentenced Joe to death. That year, Joe also received a life sentence for the murder of Kathy Magizener. It was his final trial.

None of Joe's other claimed murders, including Tony Linan Garcia, had enough proof to go to court. For the next two years, Joe's says, that in a Maryland prison waiting for death. The obese, tattoo-covered prisoner still spun tales of his crimes, but the details sometimes changed without explanation. It's hard to say if this was the sign of a memory affected by long-term drug addiction, or if Joe was still lying for the fun of it. In 2000, Maryland overturned the death penalty in Joe's case and gave him a second life sentence. Joe would be forced to live with his crimes, not die for them. For another 17 years, Joe tolerated his jail life,

telling his fellow inmates' tales about eating human flesh. Then on August 5, 2017, the 62-year-old was found dead in his cell. The cause of death was never released. It was assumed to be natural. Much like his life, Joe Matheny, death was shrouded in mystery. The extent of Joe's killing sprees and the truth about his barbecue stand will likely never be known.

Not really. His story lives on in infamy. In Baltimore and beyond, he's remembered as the monster he was. Thanks again for tuning into serial killers. We'll be back soon with a new episode. You can find more episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parkast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time.

Have a killer week. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cutler, sound designed by Michael Motion, with production assistants by Ron Shapiro, Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Joshua Kern. This episode of serial killers was written by Kit Fitzgerald,

with writing assistance by Joel Callan, fact-checking by Claire Croning, and research by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood. Serial killers stars Greg Paulson and Vanessa Richardson. You aren't supposed to know about them unless they want you to. Powerful groups with their own very specific agendas. And if you find yourself on the inside, good luck getting out. Hi, I'm Hannah Maguire.

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