Let's Go To Court! - 114: The Biggest Idiot Ever & a Woman Who Refused to Marry a Rapist

Episode Date: March 25, 2020

Picture it. Sicily. 1963.  Franca Viola was 15 years old, and engaged to a mafia member named Filippo Melodia. When Filippo went to jail for theft, Franca broke off the engagement. She moved on with her life. She became engaged to a childhood friend. Life seemed pretty good, until Filippo came back into the picture. He stalked her. He threatened her. Then, he and a band of douchebags stormed her family’s home. They beat up her mother. They kidnapped Franca, and her little brother, too. Filippo held Franca captive for eight days. He sexually assaulted her many times. He was pretty pleased with himself. After all, in those days, that meant he’d found a bride. Then Brandi tells us a story about Paul Warner Powell, the biggest idiot to walk the planet. In January of 1999, Paul was a 20-year-old self described neo nazi who had a crush on his 16-year-old neighbor, Stacie Reed. One day when Paul was over at Stacie’s house, he became incensed to find out that her boyfriend was black. He attempted to rape Stacie, then murdered her as she fought back. Paul went on to commit more crimes against Stacie’s family that day. At one point, he thought he’d gotten away with everything. So he began bragging.   And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases. In this episode, Kristin pulled from: “A brave young woman fought a centuries-old cruel Sicilian tradition and won,” by E. L. Hamilton for The Vintage News The book, “Italian Sketches: The Faces of Modern Italy,” by Deirdre Pirro “Franca Viola says ‘No’” by Daisy Alioto for Mashable “Franca Viola” entry on Wikipedia In this episode, Brandi pulled from: “Paul Warner Powell” imsurroundedbyidiots.com “Paul Warner Powell” clarkprosecutor.org “Inmate Lands Back on Death Row for Taunting Letter He Sent to Prosecutors” lifedaily.com “Death-row defense argues double jeopardy” The Washington Times “Powell v. Kelly” findlaw.com

One semester of law school. One semester of criminal justice. Two experts. I'm Kristen Caruso. I'm Brandi Egan. Let's go to court. On this episode, I'll talk about a woman who refused to marry a rapist. And I'll be talking about the biggest fucking idiot I've ever heard of.

Brandi, don't talk about me like that. It sounds a little bit funny and a little bit lighthearted. It's the worst case I've ever covered. I promise you. Oh, oh, my God. Brandy, people have enough problems. I know. I'm sorry.

Thanks a lot. We sent it in and it is very interesting and it's terrible. Oh, well, mine's just a lighthearted case about rape. So good. So for everyone who's tuning into this as a little break from corona it sucks it does suck but let's let's take a minute because i know we have a lot of nurses who listen to the podcast we've um got some grocery store workers i'm sure we've got you know all the real heroes who are dealing with this stuff.

We definitely have an assortment of all of them listening. So thank you for all that you're doing. Yeah. Thank you for anyone whose job is a whole hell of a lot harder because of this. Thank you for doing what you do. Thank you to everyone who's staying home when they can. Yeah. Let's all wash our hands.

Yeah. Brandy and I. Should we tell them? Yeah. We both have cuts on our hands from aggressively washing our hands so much. Over washing our hands. We both have sores. I am just like, you know, I no sooner lube up my hands with lotion than I have to wash

them again for 20 seconds, which really alarms me. Like, how long was I washing them before? Not even close to 20 seconds, I can tell you. Yeah, I am like suds up to my elbows. Yes, you're doing a full surgery scrub. The irony is Norman and I already lived like we were quarantined. Right. Yeah. We both work from home, have very few friends. We are not going out to eat though we are currently monitoring the uh six foot separation right now yes yes kirsten and i are we're at least six feet apart hell yeah we are yeah like i'm gonna get near your nasty butt okay excuse me no i say it with love no our our desks are

always this far apart yes but we did just film a video for the patrons and we sat way too close in that one. And then we both doused ourselves in hand sanitizer. That's right. That's right. And this has all been a plug for the patron. For the patron. Or the Patreon. Sorry, which I'm not saying right.

If you just have to hear more from us, if you listen to this very sad episode, you're like, I need to feel worse we've got more for you on patreon that's right at the five dollar level we've got bonus episodes and get to get in the discord to chat with everybody at the seven dollar level you get all that plus you get a sticker with our lovely autographs and you get a monthly video uh brandy tell them what we did this month. This month we did a... Will our video be out by the time this episode comes out? Call me now for your free

tarot reading. I don't know. So if it's not out by the time this episode comes out, it will be out shortly. And we did a 90s pop culture quiz. I think we did quite well. I'm disappointed in our performance. Okay, yeah. Brandi gets weirdly competitive about everything.

And we didn't get 100%, which means that we lost all the prize money that was at stake. We did lose. You know, it's just not a great week for me. I found out their trivia night is canceled because of coronavirus and pretty upset about it yeah okay things things are kind of nuts have you been to the grocery store lately yeah what's been your experience um like very busy busier than I ever remember seeing like it's like a snowstorm is coming every day yeah and then yeah out of like essentials so bread and milk and stuff like that if you're not getting it in the morning, you're not getting it.

Yeah. We went really late last night. It really wasn't bad. And it seemed like everything was really well stocked. But every now and then you'd be like, oh, I want eggs. And there's no eggs. Yeah. You know, just like.

And potatoes. Potatoes are out like everywhere. I don't know what people are doing with their potatoes. We bought a big thing of potatoes. So if you want some, I'll sell them to you for ten dollars. Ten dollars per potato. Did you hear about that guy who bought up all the Purell? Yeah. Did you see what they made him do?

Give it all away. Yeah. Good. Yeah. People. Fuck that guy. Yeah. People are being turds. And also, sorry, guys, this is a very long intro. Oh, no. Are you going on tangent? Whole Foods.

Oh. Whole Foods. Whole fucking Foods. Super wealthy company owned by Amazon and. Which is owned by Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world. Yes. In case you didn't know. Thank you.

Yes. They sent an email to their employees letting them know that they could donate sick time to one another a company that rich can afford to do the right thing and let their workers have paid time off yes ma'am that doesn't come from the bank that they have earned correct these are not normal times. Our normal PTO system is set up for like, you have a cold, your kid gets sick, you know,

normal stuff. These are not normal times. So anyway, Jeff Bezos can kiss my ass. Oh, and my cat is climbing all over my computer. It's a beautiful life. Okay.

I'm sorry. I had to say that.'s okay tangent adjourned yeah are you off your soapbox now it makes me so oh it makes me mad too yeah i mean it's terrible i just feel like they could very easily do the right thing pay all of these people to be off and it would have no impact on them yeah if anything i would think it would have a positive impact a pr impact because i like to hear yeah okay this this business did right by their employees bath and body works closed all their stores paying all their employees while they're closed awesome yeah hey yeah good job bath. I know. They don't have Amazon money.

No, they don't. But, huh, and you know what? They could probably be making a decent business now with, like, soaps and stuff. Okay. All right. Yeah. All right. I also read that Menards has gotten in trouble for jacking up the price of cleaning supplies.

Illegal. So there's lots, lots of groups on my shit list. I guess. But also, okay, here's, and I'm sorry, and then I'll wrap it up because this is ridiculous. I told you just now, the problem is I've not talked to anybody. Right. I've not had a social outlet and here you are. So you're getting all of it.

I think what's frustrating to me is seeing big businesses with tons of money not doing the right thing but then like just in my neighborhood you know people sending around really positive emails and stuff and just like people you know kind of normal yeah middle class people trying to help each other out, it shows you how easy it is to do the right thing, how everybody could be doing it. Yeah. Yes. We hope you guys are all out there being safe and staying healthy.

And Jeff, if you're listening to this. Jeff Bezos, huge fan of the podcast. He turned it off now. He's very upset. But he is rethinking um what whole foods is doing all right all right should we talk about rape okay my case involves rape too so this is a rape episode okay we don't really do trigger warnings we're a true crime podcast like yeah that is the trigger that is the trigger warning we do show notes to give you an idea of what it is over

but just so you know going in there's terrible rape in my case. And I'm guessing your rape is terrible, too. Oh, no. Mine's a really nice one. That's a thing, right? Yeah. Like a real light, fluffy rape case. Oh, God.

Two bunnies. Kristen. I'm sorry. Okay. So first off, big shout out to an article in the vintage news by el hamilton and also big shout out to wikipedia also i feel like people who haven't listened to patreon episodes don't know about this disclaimer so i'm introducing it to you excellent international disclaimer so what that means is this is an internet means is this is an international case,

which means that the vast majority of really detailed articles were probably written in Italian. So I am dealing with... That means it took place in Italy. Very good, Brandy. I'm like a detective. In so many ways. Mostly just the fedora. Yeah.

And this tweed cape yeah you should really stop smoking when you're pregnant no so the thing about the wikipedia entry that makes me a little nervous is anytime i go on wikipedia i like to go check the cited sources um when i went to go do that they were all in italian Okay. So, you know. Yep. You didn't learn Italian for this episode? Bubba da boopie. No. See, does that sound not Italian?

No. Yeah, so I learned Italian and here we are. Here we are. Rosetta Stone works. Picture it. Sicily, 1963. You've been waiting forever. I am dying. The moment has come. I'm going to say it again. Picture it. Sicily 1963. You've been waiting forever. I am dying. The moment

has come. I'm going to say it again. Picture it. Sicily 1963. Yes! No, really? For real? For real it's in Sicily? Oh my gosh. And if you guys don't know why we're excited, drop everything and watch the Golden

Girls. What are you doing? All of them. Except for the episodes where they are like hey do you remember that time that that thing happened and it was flashback episodes when they've run out of budget oh my god not okay yeah i mean that's probably what we'll have to do when you're pregnant when you give birth that's right and it'll be fine when we do when we do it it's fine when the golden girls. When we do it, it's fine. When the Golden Girls do it, absolutely not. They're held to a much higher standard. Yes. Which Golden Girl are you, Brandy?

Oh, I don't know. Okay. You really don't fit any of the molds. I don't. I really don't. I'm a mashup of the Golden Girls. Okay. You're Dorothy.

Okay. Okay. I can accept that. Is Norman Stanley? Yes. Okay. We're in Alcamo, Sicily, which is a hundred percent how you pronounce it. I'm totally sure. Definitely. Which is a small rural coastline city. Franca Viola is 15 years old and she's engaged to a 23 year old mafia member named Filippo Melodia. Okay. It says mafia member. It sounds like maybe his uncle was a bad guy and he's just some dipshit who's loosely affiliated. Anyway, you get the idea. So they're all set to get married, but you know, the danger of being engaged to a guy in the mafia, and you know this well, Brandy, is that sometimes they get arrested.

Yeah. And that's exactly what happened to Filippo. He was arrested for theft. And Franca's father, Bernardo, was like, I don't like this guy. Franca, you need to break off the engagement. I don't like this guy, Franca, you need to break off the engagement. I don't know to what degree she also felt this way, but at any rate, she decided, okay, I'm breaking off the engagement. And all was forgotten.

Filippo ended up moving to Germany, and two years later, Franca was engaged to a childhood friend named Giuseppe. Giuseppe. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Giuseppe? Giuseppe. Oh yeah? Yeah. Giuseppe Ruizzi. Sure. Okay. Except all was not forgotten. And Franca's father had been right to have a bad feeling about Filippo. Suddenly Filippo came back. He wanted to get back with Franca. But, you know, she'd moved on. She was done. So Filippo was like, you know, okay, cool. I respect your boundaries. And, you know, every woman has a right to reject a guy's advances.

I respect you. You didn't do any of that. Okay, that did not happen. He felt entitled to her. And so he began stalking her oh good yeah like you do he threatened her father he threatened her fiance none of which worked obviously yeah franco was not interested in him and the fact that he was being a big creep did not make him magically more appealing i don't know what weirdos need to hear this right now but like stalking doesn't work yeah fast forward to the day after christmas

1965 sicily i just had to say it's the middle of the night that's when filippo and 12 other men all armed broke into franca's family home. Oh, my goodness. It was terrible. They beat up Franca's mom. They grabbed Franca and started dragging her out of the house. But her eight-year-old brother, Mariano, was right there, and he wanted to stop the whole thing, so he grabbed hold of her leg. So the men were there, and they were like, let go of her. We're taking her.

But little Mariano refused to let go. So they took Franca to the car and basically dragged her brother along too. So they ended up kidnapping both of the kids. Oh my gosh. It was terrifying. The men let Mariano go after a few hours, but they took Franca to a farmhouse outside of town

that belonged to Filippo's sister and brother-in-law. And over the next eight days, Filippo raped Franca. But you know, Filippo was pretty pleased with himself. He had wanted to marry Franca, and she'd said no. So he'd raped her repeatedly. Okay. Well, in those days, in Italy, that meant he'd found himself a bride.

Because he wanted to marry her? Because he'd raped her. What? Okay, so here's the deal. A woman had to marry the first man she had sex with, which I hate to call it sex, because it's not sex. She had.

Or the first man who raped her, because because otherwise she was a dirty slut goblin. Oh, is that a phrase people are saying? I just made it up. Oh my gosh. I mean, the bottom line is, the bottom line you have to know is in this situation, she was the bad person. Yeah. You know, not him. Wow.

Yeah. Okay. No social, not him. Wow. Yeah. Okay. No social penalty for being a rapist. So at that time, any woman or girl who lost her virginity outside of marriage, which I also don't like the term lost her virginity. But anyway, there are so many terms I hate. Definitely taken from her. Just, yeah. Was considered a woman without honor.

So in effect, by raping her, Filippo had made Franca a woman without honor in the eyes of her community. And she'd brought shame on her family. Wow. Yeah. But, see, you look sad right now. And don't worry, I have wonderful news. I don't think you do. Oh, it's the solution to this problem. Okay. As her rapist,

he could also be her savior by offering her what was called a rehabilitating marriage. In other words, look on your face. In other words, they get married, and bada bing, bada boom, Franca and her family get their honor back. Oh, good. So this practice seems to have been more common in rural areas, but it was ingrained in Italian law. Under Italian law at that time, if a rapist and the rape survivor entered into a rehabilitating marriage,

the rapist's crime was totally forgotten in the eyes of the law. Wow. It was no longer a crime. Oh, my gosh. Because at that time, rape was not categorized as a crime against another person. It was categorized as a crime against public morality. It was categorized as a crime against public morality. So once you made things nice and pretty by marrying the woman you've raped, then I guess all is good with the true victims.

Yeah. The general public. Right. This is I'm sorry. This is terrible. Yeah. So on December 31st, Filippo reached out to Franca's dad, Bernardo. And I obviously don't know exactly what was said, even though I speak Italian fluently now.

But the gist of it was, I think you know what happened here. And yada, yada, yada. Now Franca and I are eloping and we want your blessing. We want you to go along with this. Which I don't know why her dad's permission was suddenly so right. Yeah. Get consent from the dad, but not her. So Bernardo obviously had no intention of giving Filippo his blessing. By that point, he was already working with the police and he just wanted to get his daughter back. So he said what he had to say. He was like, oh, oh, great. Okay, sure, sure. I'm totally fine with you two getting married. God bless. I'll get you guys a toaster. Now that you have my consent, why don't you let her go? And Filippo did. On January 2nd, 1966, Filippo and the other

kidnappers released 17-year-old Franca back to her family. Wow. So the family talked. Franca did not want to marry her rapist slash stalker slash kidnapper, obviously. Yeah. And her family supported her decision. Oh, good. This was incredibly brave.

They decided right then and there that they were going to fight this rehabilitating marriage. As insane and infuriating as this is, Franca and her family's decision to punish a rapist and kidnapper rather than reward him with marriage was viewed very unfavorably in their local community. People in town harassed them. Her father received death threats. People burned down the family's vineyard. They burned down the family's barn. Were there animals inside? Is that what you care about? No, I'm just kidding.

I assume there were. There were 12 dogs. Kristen. All of them cute? You stop it. All of them dead? Stop it! What is the matter with you?

Well, I mean, if they burned down a barn, I'm assuming, yeah, animals were hurt. That's sad. Well, this whole thing is sad. Yes, it is. I agree. You seem especially hurt by the animals that we have not confirmed actually died. I'm not any more hurt for them. Really? Just adds another

layer on it. Because I can see your face. I know they can't. I can see your face. Adds another layer, Kristen. So, Franca and her family picked up the corpses of the dead dogs. And a mouthful of water!

What if I would have sprayed that all over my computer and I wouldn't have been able to do my case? Worth it. Although, that'd be a hell of a way for me to catch coronavirus. I'm sorry, my friend spat directly into my face. We were trying to maintain six feet of distance, but she spat in my face. Oh, gosh. Anyway, okay. Franca and her family kept fighting.

But it wasn't enough for Franca to just refuse the marriage. Franca and her family wanted justice. So they made the even more shocking decision to look themselves in the mirror and say, Let's go to court court this woman was brave as no shit and her family was too yeah by this point franco's story was widespread she became known as one of the first italian women to refuse to marry her rapist wow which is okay everybody gets it it's bad bad real bad We've picked up on it. Have you?

Yeah, there's 12 dead dogs, Christy. And public opinion shifted toward her side. Wow. Yeah, I think once it became more widespread news in all of Italy, people were kind of like, ooh. At trial in December of 1966, the prosecution laid out what happened. Filippo and a gang of dirtbags had kidnapped Franca

and they terrorized her family and then Filippo had held her captive for eight days, raping her. But the defense was like, classic he said, she said. You can't get away with anything anymore. You gotta be so careful. Oh my gosh.

Everybody's so sensitive these days. You know, the problem is PC culture. No, so here's what they said really happened. Are you ready for the truth, Brandy? Yeah, she made up the rape story to cover up that she'd had sex with him out of wedlock. Wow, you are very bright. I mean, clearly you know that women do this all the time. Oh my gosh.

Can we punch all those people in the dick? I mean, I'm assuming dick. Yeah, they all have dicks. For sure. Okay, here's what really happened. all those people in the dick. I'm assuming dick. They all have dicks. For sure. Okay. Here's what really happened. Franca loves Filippo. Always has.

Always will. She was in on the whole thing. In fact, he never kidnapped her. She was running away. Don't look away, Brandy. She was running away with him. Uh-huh Brandy. She was running away with him. She wanted to be with him. This is a couple that is deeply in love. The problem is Frank is dad. He's trying to tear them apart.

So sad. And now he's on trial for rape like some kind of creep, like some kind of bad guy, when clearly her dad's the bummer. Interestingly, though, when she testified, Franco was crystal clear. She did not love Filippo. She did not want to marry him. She wanted to marry her actual fiance. She did not like green eggs and ham.

She did not like them, Sam. Wow. Wow. She wanted to marry the man she loved. Yeah. The court. Oh, who they believe. Who'd they believe, Brandy?

Who did they believe? Well, I want them to believe Franka. Well, obviously, that's whose side we're on. But who do you think the court believes? What if I was like, gosh, i really hope they believe the defense i mean they they made some really good points bitches be crazy they believed franca that's my that's my prediction yeah good um so i didn't find obviously a ton of stuff on the court stuff but i think the fact that they'd gone in beaten up her mom you know like they'd taken the little boy i mean come on

filipo was sentenced to 11 years in prison his friends who'd assisted with the crimes were also brought to justice kinda five of them were acquitted and seven of them received four year sentences franca viola was a trailblazer but a lot of reporters including one for the new york times wrote articles that were and i looked this up on newspapers.com it's infuriating supportive of her stance like okay yeah great don't marry your rapist that sounds like it would suck but oh boy i mean it's great that she wasn't forced to marry her rapist but who's gonna want her now oh yep yep oh that was the New York Times take in the late 60s. That's terrible.

The headline in the New York Times was, no admirers call on Cicely's Franca. Oh, my gosh. Which I should mention wasn't even true. She stayed engaged this whole time to her fiance. So to me, that just sounds like some douchebag had a story he wanted to write and the facts didn't fit and that didn't really matter. Yeah. So anyway, in conclusion, those concerned trolling reporters can go shit in their own hat and then put it back on because Franca was still engaged to Giuseppe. Like I said, he stood by her this entire time.

People had been awful to the two of them about their decision to stay engaged, but Giuseppe said he didn't care. He said he loved Franca. He didn't care what people said. And then he got a gun and was like, come at me if you've got a problem. Giuseppe's not fucking around. No, and I imagine you wouldn't after all that. And so in December of 1968, in the wee hours of the morning, to avoid a ton of looky-loos, Franca Viola married the man she wanted to marry. Very good. They had powerful friends on their side.

The Italian president, Pope Paul VI powerful friends on their side. The Italian president, Pope Paul VI, publicly supported their marriage. The president sent them 40 bucks, which I think is like 300 bucks adjusted for inflation. All right. Yeah, nothing to sneeze at. Yeah. The transportation minister gave them a month of free rides on the railway, and the pope met with them in a private session. Wow. rides on the railway and the pope met with them in a private session wow meanwhile filippo and

you'll be sad to hear this was just rotting away in prison yeah pretty upset about that i know i i know you were on his side this entire time brandy sometimes bad things happen to good people. On appeal, his sentence got reduced to 10 years. So he got out of prison in 1976 and two years later he was murdered. Kristen, why did you smile when you said that? Because I just don't care about this guy.

He raped someone repeatedly and then was like, oh, because you're awful and you have no honor you have to marry me now ha ha ha and it didn't work out for him and then he got murdered yeah i'm not i'm not sad it was a mafia style execution stop smiling like that is that rude of me oh my gosh i'm sorry hang on let's take two electric boogaloo it was a mafia style execution much better tone thank you and I'm just torn up about it

but this isn't the story of one woman standing up to horrific injustice this case started a conversation that would eventually change italian law wow thank fucking god no kidding but it took a while a very long while how long is a very long while in 1981 it's a hot minute uh-huh wait wait okay hold on 63 is when this started um that's when they got engaged i believe the rape happened two years later in 65 excellent excellent 63 is when my dad was born 81 is when he graduated high school so it was 18 years would have passed you know what i think a lot of people were wondering like when when was brandy's dad born and when did he graduate high school so that answers everybody stop asking about it okay okay she finally answered

my point was uh-huh 18 years very good very good fuck off kristen in 1981 which is brandy has pointed do you want to say it again no i think everybody has caught on italy finally abolished the law that allowed a rapist to get off scot-free as long as he married the rape survivor very good and then a moment too soon well here's another one that didn't happen a moment too soon in 1996 rape was finally categorized as a crime against another person and it was no longer a crime against 96 yeah i don't even know what my dad was doing in 96 we would have been in fifth grade we would have been 10 i would have been 10 okay we're watching the olympics always

it's the year of the atlanta olympics so that was the year that your dad watched the atlanta olympics oh my god everybody get that down on your calendars. And what is your dad doing today? Today, right this minute, he's at work. Okay. I saw him this morning. Franca and Giuseppe went on to have two children, or is it three? Depends on what source you look at. And to this day, they live in Alkamo. Very good. I think that's amazing because it was so courageous for her to not think that that's what that was. Yeah, it was courageous for her to not think that that's what that was. Yeah. It, it was courageous for everyone. I mean, courageous for her and good on her parents for not being old school weirdos who were like, sorry, this is what happens now. I just can't believe that the sixties weren't that long

ago. And that was the expectation that you had to marry a rapist? Yeah. That's when my dad was born. Wow. My God. What's your dad's favorite color? I think we all want to know that. Um, I'd have to guess. Oh, don't, please do not guess. Please report back next week with facts about your dad. Every week we start sharing a fun fact about my dad this episode is sponsored by facts about brandy's dad as far as rape stories go that was an uplifting rape story kristin oh could we put that on a t-shirt no i mean my god uplifting rape story had a great like it changed the law well slowly the movement that changed yeah yeah it is amazing what she did and the pictures of her from this time she's just this

young i mean she's like 17 i mean she's so young going through this horrible ordeal i yeah that's a rough one. Ready? Now, I blame you entirely. What? But your intro was very intriguing. And I know you've told me that this is going to be terrible. It is. But it sounds like it's going to be hilarious.

It sounds like it's going to be like, OK, you know one of my favorite ones you've ever done? Huh? That court hearing where the guy kept telling the judge to suck his dick. Suck his dick. Yeah. It's not funny like that. Oh.

OK. But this guy is an idiot. And it ultimately, like like it comes back to bite him in the ass huge so in his huge ass in his huge ass okay yeah well now i'm jealous okay shout outs to rachel on patreon she sent in this case suggestion and she was like i remember yeah it's totally a brady case but this guy's an idiot and i looked it up like while we were sitting here after recording and i was like oh god this is bad it's really really bad but i think i have to do it and then second um to this person suzuki nathy i don't actually know this person okay um but i guess i don't know suzuki's gender either i almost said she i was just an assumption yeah I don't know Suzuki's gender either. I almost said she. It was

just an assumption. Yeah. I'm not sure. But Suzuki runs this blog called Suzuki's Thoughts. And on it was a really great piece about this case, which I didn't really use for a source because I don't like to use a blog. Yeah. It led me in the direction of being able to look up a lot of additional information. Oh, cool. Yeah. Yes. All right. Thank you, Suzuki's thoughts. Yes. Okay. It was January 29th, 1999, and Stacey Reed had gotten home early from school. Stacey was an excellent student.

She was like 16 years old. She was in like the ROTC at her school. What year did you say? 1999. Wasn't that the year your dad shot up? what year did you say? 1999. Wasn't that the year your dad shot up? I just feel like that was a big year

for your dad. It was a big year for my dad. He was stocking up because of that Y2K bug. That's right. So on this particular day there had been like testing or something at school so Stacy got out early and she got home around noon. We're in a small town in Virginia near Manassas, which I'm not familiar with. Are you? They live

in the town of Yorkshire, which is just outside of Manassas, which I'm thinking is not very far from Washington, D.C. Okay. You know what I'm going to do? You're going to Google it? Get on my Google machine. Hmm. Hmm. Yeah, I would not classify that as very close to Washington, D.C. Well, the reason... It's not super far. The reason I thought that is because the perpetrator in this case is arrested in Washington, D.C. And they didn't make it seem like it was this big manhunt.

Okay. Yeah, I mean, you know. Anyway, they're in Yorkshire, which is near Manassas. So she's home early from school. She fixes herself some lunch and she's like talking on the phone to her boyfriend. And this guy shows up at her house. He's a 20 year old guy. He lives in the neighborhood.

His name is Paul Powell. Differing accounts on how well Stacey and Paul knew each other. One source says that they had been like friends since childhood. Another said that they were like acquaintances because they lived in the same neighborhood, but had only been like friendly for a short amount of time. Okay. Doesn't really matter. He shows up at the house to try and hang out with her.

And he's like really irritated because again, remember she's 16, he's 20. He's super into her. Ew. And she has a boyfriend. And our buddy Paul here is a self-proclaimed neo-Nazi. Oh. And Stacey's boyfriend is black. Oh, okay.

And so he's got just lots of lots of opinions about that. So he comes in the house. I assume she lets him in the house. Right. He gets her to get off the phone with her boyfriend and then he's like, you need to break up with him.

Like, you need to be with me instead of him. Like, you shouldn't be with this black guy, whatever. And Stacey's totally like brushing him off. Like, stop it. I don't want to hear any of that nonsense. Like, we're going to the ROTC ball together. You know, whatever. This like enrages Paul that she's just brushing him off and not listening.

Well, teenagers can be so childish. Okay. He's 20 and she's 16. that's what i'm saying when you're 20 yeah it can be irritating to try to date a teenager which is why you don't do it so he's super irritated now and so now he like makes an advance on stacy of some form. I believe he like puts his hand down her shirt. Oh. Stacy knows that Paul usually carries a weapon on him, a knife of some kind, whatever. And so she kind of like takes the situation more seriously at this point, pushes off his advances, tells him to leave. And he somehow gets her to go upstairs to her bedroom. They get up to her bedroom. And he makes a move towards her, pushes her on the bed, something like that.

Yeah. To where she's like, oh, my gosh, he's going to rape me. Yes. She fights him off. Yeah. She gets up and he pushes her to the ground at this point. And he's got her pants down now. And the phone rings.

And it, like, interrupts the situation. It allows Stacey to get some space between, like, he stops in the moment when the phone rings. Are you serious? Enough to take him off, like, catch him off guard. And so she manages to, like, get her pants up and kind of scurry away from him. And she gets up and she's like, I have to get the phone. Mm-hmm.

And at this point, their altercation turns violent, more violent than it had been to this point. And he pulls out this knife that he has on him. And he stabs her in the chest. She like stumbles down the hall. She ends up in her sister's bedroom where he either stabs her again or the knife was maybe still in her. A medical examiner would later determine that there was one entry wound from the knife, but two exit wounds. Meaning at some point it was either twisted and pushed back in or it had been like pulled out part of the way and then gone back in. Yeah.

And this was like directly to her heart. This stab wound was. So she collapses on her sister's bedroom floor and Paul leaves her to die. As she's like bleeding out, he steps on her throat to make sure that she dies more quickly or more violently, whatever you want to believe. Yeah. Maybe a little bit of both. He's a terrible person. Yeah. I picked little bit of both. He's a terrible person.

Yeah, I picked up on that. Yes. I'm very smart. But Paul doesn't leave the house. He goes downstairs, smokes himself a cigarette, helps himself to some iced tea in the family's refrigerator. What? Hangs out for a while. Because he knows that Stacy's younger sister, Christy, will be home from school around 3 o'clock.

So he's going to attack her, too. Yep. And so right around 3 o'clock, Stacy's 14-year-old sister, Christy, shows up at the house. And she finds Paul. Like, Paul opens the door for her. And she, again, is familiar enough with him that she's like oh stacy must have invited him over like yeah like she's not thrilled that this she's not thrilled it's a weirdo she knows exactly and again she knows that this guy is some kind of dangerous she knows that he often has a

weapon on him right and so immediately she's like uh where's stacy he's like, where's Stacy? He's like, oh, she's upstairs. Christy's like, okay. And so she leaves Paul, goes upstairs, and goes to Stacy's bedroom. Right. As she would. Doesn't see her. And so she's like calling, and she's like, where is she? And she's calling out Stacy's name.

She goes to her bedroom, and she sees Stacy dead on her bedroom floor. Oh, my God. She screams. She drops everything in her hands. She goes to turn around and Paul is right behind her and he's got a knife out. Of course. And he directs her to the basement. And so she does what he says. Like, obviously he's already murdered her sister. He's like, what's going to keep him from killing her, too? The only hope she feels like she has is just to do everything he says. And so she goes to the basement with him. He tells her to take off her clothes.

She gets undressed and he rapes her. And he does this at knife point. He's threatening to kill her the entire time. After he rapes Christy, there's a knock at the front door. And Christy had invited a friend of hers over, this male friend of hers over to hang out after school. And so Paul very quickly like pulls his clothes on. He pulls the shoelaces out of Christy's shoes and out of his shoes and ties her basically ties her ankles okay ties her hands and then he goes upstairs to figure out who's at the door he stands at the door he sees that there's somebody

out there and he just he has the knife out he's ready if this person tries to make to try to come into the house you almost i almost did what did though? Like, try to get into the house. What do you mean? Make entry, Kristen. Make entry into the home? Into the home. That's right. And so he's just standing there behind this door with a knife while Christy's in the basement.

While he's upstairs, Christy tries to untie herself. She, like, loosens the ties a little bit, enough that she's able to kind of, like, scoot across the floor. Yeah. She goes to try and hide, under the basement stairs only she hears him coming back and so she decides that it will be safer for her because she hasn't made it all the way yeah to just return to where she was right look like she's being compliant exactly exactly so she returns to the position she was in by the time he gets back down there, she's where he left her. And the person left from the front door was Christy's friend.

He left without, you know, doing anything other than knocking on the door. Sure. Paul Powell would later say he was ready to kill whoever was on the other side of the door. Sure, of course he was. If that person had tried to come in,

he would have not thought twice about killing them. But you wouldn't try to come in. I mean, you've made an arrangement to go to somebody's house. They don't answer the door. What are you going to do? Exactly. So Paul goes back downstairs.

Christy is laying there naked where he left her. And he grabs the shoelaces that he had tied her with. And he strangles her until she loses consciousness. At this point point he decides he needs to make a decision she can absolutely id him so does he leave her here or does he kill her because she knows what he did to her sister yeah and so when she's laying there unconscious he stabs her in the torso like like in the stomach, multiple times. He slashes her throat multiple times and slits her wrists.

Oh, God. Then he goes back upstairs, has another glass of iced tea. What the fuck? Which he takes with him from the home. And then he leaves. Like he took the jug of tea? He took the glass with him. Okay.

He took a glass out of their kitchen, filled it with tea and took it with him. Oh, good. Okay. Yeah. A short time after he had left, somewhere around four o'clock, Christy and Stacy's mother's boyfriend or fiance, I think they were engaged, but they weren't married yet. A lot of the articles call him a stepfather, which is what I'll call him.

His name's Robert. So their stepfather comes home. He calls out for the girls. He notes that they'll be there. Right. And gets no answer. And so at some point during this, Christy has regained consciousness. Oh, my God.

And she's laying in the basement. Oh. Like horribly injured. Of course. And she tries to call out for him when she hears him. Yeah. Her voice will make no noise because of her throat being slit. Yeah.

So. Oh, my God. The stepfather goes upstairs, finds Stacy on the floor, sees that she's dead. He starts like going through the house looking for a phone. You can't find a phone anywhere because of course like when you're in a panic like that yeah and so and this is before cell phones exactly so then he's in a panic he needs to call 9-1-1 and he goes to the basement and he hears like a thumping like as he goes to the basement and so he's like there's a phone in

the basement there's a phone in the base goes to the basement to call 9-1-1. And then that's where he finds Christy lying on the floor. There's blood everywhere. He calls 9-1-1 and they get her emergency services and she survives. That's incredible. One of the wounds in her stomach came within a centimeter of hitting her aorta. The slashes in her throat came within less than a centimeter of severing her carotid artery. Oh, God, I'm about to pass out. Yeah, this is crazy. Her throat wounds took over 60 sutures to...

How did she not bleed out? No kidding. So she survives. And before she goes into surgery or anything, before they save her life when she's bleeding and on an ambulance gurney she is like paul powell did this to me yeah she manages to get out like enough yeah she has hardly any voice through all of these injuries yes and she gets out enough that she's able to tell the authorities that. Yeah.

And so they track him down. He's like in Washington, D.C. somewhere at some guy's house buying drugs. Oh, good. When they find him. Sure, sure. And they take him into custody. And it's like the following morning by the time that they arrest him. And he pretty much owns up to the whole thing.

He's like, yeah, I did it. Okay. Yeah, Stacy died because she was stupid. Oh. She was fighting me and she got stuck with my knife. Oh. That's what he says. Okay.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's how that happened. And then because of that, he tried to kill Christy because she could ID him. Mm-hmm. So Paul Powell was charged with capital murder. So Paul Powell was charged with capital murder. Capital murder in the state of Virginia means that a murder occurred quickly that they would be seeking the death penalty in this case. First degree murder does not carry the ability to impose the death penalty. Capital murder does.

These are the specific laws in Virginia. As I mentioned in the very beginning, Paul's a fucking idiot and he's a terrible person. And while he's awaiting trial. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's hear more before we decide that while he's awaiting trial he is bragging to everybody that he raped a virgin ew he's sending yeah taunting letters to Lorraine who is you are kidding the mother of Stacy and Christy why am I surprised by that I mean if you're gonna be the mother of Stacey and Christy. Why am I surprised by that? I mean, if you're going to be the type of person to rape and murder people, then I guess, yeah, why not send letters?

Yeah. So he sends this letter that includes like a picture of a partially nude woman that bears a striking resemblance to her daughter, Stacey. And he like writes this whole thing about how, hey, this girl in this magazine sure looks kind of familiar to me. Do you have any idea who she could look like? What a fuckwad. Oh, terrible. Maybe you could show it to Christy and see if Christy might recognize her. Oh, God.

Oh. Yeah. Finally, in 2000, Paul Powell went on trial for the murder of Stacey and the attempted murder and rape of Christy. And Christy, who was 14 when this happened, 15 when it went to trial maybe, took the stand and testified about everything that she had been through. Her scars were like just clearly, like very clearly visible. She's horribly scarred on her throat from this. And she's talked about everything that he had done to her, all that she had been through that day. And the prosecution had amazing evidence against Powell.

Well, yeah. They had a bloody knife that was found on him. Like the knife that he had used was found on his person when they arrested him. They did a rape kit on Christy and his DNA matched the DNA thatna that was found inside of her yeah and he bragged about it to everyone yeah he'd sent letters yes he took a souvenir cup from home yes come on so on may 5th of 2000 a jury found paul powell guilty of capital murder and then came the penalty phase and during the defense you know i don't really know i don't really know i didn't come across like what the defense's big argument was i think there was something about him being unmedicated and having an anger disorder

or something like that that's really all you can argue right yeah how what can you argue evil twin thank you and so the penalty phase came so during a death penalty penalty phase i know i said penalty twice but penalty sentencing no it's like the so it's actually where they're arguing for why this person should oh right okay yeah yeah so the prosecution puts up all the aggravating factors and then the defense gets to put up the mitigating factors right why shouldn't those things count against him okay he refused to allow them to put up any mitigating factors wow yeah he didn't want them making any case for him like he sat through this whole trial and like smirked the whole time. He made like nasty comments the whole time. Like he was terrible throughout the entire thing.

Obviously, the aggravating factors were that he had attempted to rape Stacy first and then murdered her, which means that qualifies as a capital murder, which the prosecution felt the death penalty was the proper sentence. capital murder, which the prosecution felt the death penalty was the proper sentence. So three months after the trial is when the penalty phase concluded and the jury came back recommending a sentence of death. They recommended the death sentence. So they've recommended that. And so then it moves to the actual sentencing phase where the judge imposes the sentence. So that happened in September of 2000. And something fucking crazy happened at the sentencing phase. Your dad got a new car? My dad.

September 2000, big time for my dad. The jury foreman in the trial spoke on behalf of the defense at the sentencing hearing. She said that she'd fallen in love with Paul Powell. No. Yep. They'd been exchanging letters since the conclusion of the trial. Well, that's what? The trial concluded.

Oh, gross. The jury phase is done. The trial has concluded. So there's no jury misconduct. Oh, my God. And the jury has already recommended the death penalty. Trial has concluded. So there's no jury misconduct. Oh, my God. And the jury has already recommended the death penalty. But she spoke on behalf of the defense and said she was in love with Paul Powell. And she'd made a mistake imposing the death penalty by recommending the death penalty.

That she didn't know that life in prison was a choice. She didn't understand the jury instructions all the way. And please, judge, please reconsider what we recommended. Well, I do agree that she's dumber than a doorknob. I mean, didn't know. Yeah. I. Huh.

Yeah. Isn't that nuts? Huh. OK, so the judge was not persuaded by this at all really no because i am so persuaded i'm like oh my god this 20 year old neo-nazi murderer sounds pretty great christy got up and smoke it did like a victim impact statement she said that her whole life had been anti-death penalty she didn't understand how people could do that until she went through what she had gone through. And to her, it was the only punishment that fit the crime.

Okay. Yeah. And I think being the victim in this case, I think she 100% gets to have that opinion. Anybody gets to have any opinion. That dumb foreman gets to have her dumb opinion. Yeah. gets to have anything. That dumb foreman gets to have her. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So in September of 2000, a judge sentenced Paul Powell to die by lethal injection, or he could choose the electric chair if he wanted. Yikes. Boy. So that ends the trial. And then in all, you know, in all death penalty

cases, really, in any case, the next phase is the appeals. And so automatically an appeal is filed in this case for Paul Powell. And that appeal went all the way to the Virginia Supreme Court. And the appeal said that the prosecution had failed to prove an aggravating factor in this case. So it didn't count as capital murder. They could not prove that Paul had attempted to rape Stacey. And the fact that he raped Christy is not enough because that's a separate crime. Is it really? I mean, is it really? It is really. And his death sentence was overturned he still had a life sentence right but his conviction for capital murder was overturned and his death sentence was overturned

and paul was on fucking cloud nine he's like i beat the fucking death penalty try and come at me i can beat anyone what about those letters that he sent to their mom though saying doesn't this look like your daughter show it to christy see if it reminds yeah i mean it shows he's a shithead doesn't it show though that he is talking about carrying out a sexual crime against yeah and he talked about carrying out a sexual crime to inmates he talked about that he admitted the whole time but the prosecution could not prove it beyond something he bragged about there was no physical evidence because he was not able to rape Stacy because they got interrupted. They could not prove that he had actually made an attempt to rape her.

So he's up there tap dancing on a cloud. He's so fucking happy because he's beat the death penalty. So we know he's a huge shithead and i've told you he's a giant idiot and so he sits down one day and writes a little letter to the prosecutor in the case oh my god is it nanana boo boo in october of 2001 the prosecutor received this letter and i'm gonna read you snippets parts of it are really bad so i won't okay but it's anyway let's go okay mr ebert since i have already been indicted on first degree murder in the virginia supreme court said i can't be charged with capital murder again i figured i'd tell you the rest of what happened on january 29th, 1999, to show you how stupid all y'all motherfuckers are.

Okay. Okay. Y'all should have known there was more to the story than what I told by what I said. You had it in writing that I planned to kill the whole family. Since I planned to kill the whole family, why would I have fought with Stacy before killing her? She had no idea I was planning to kill everybody and talked and carried on like usual. So I could have stabbed her up at any time because she was unsuspecting.

I had other plans for her before she died. He goes on to talk about what his plans are. And he says, we talked. And when she said everything about not breaking up with her boyfriend, I reached over and I touched her tit and asked her if she wanted to fuck. She said no because she had a boyfriend. And I started arguing with her because she'd never turned anybody down because of having a boyfriend.

Okay. We started walking upstairs. We were arguing the whole time. And that's when he talks about how he pushed her down. He tried to rape her. And then she said no. They got up. The fight got more physical. And that's when he stabbed her. He goes into a ton of detail about this in this letter about how she

like staggered out of the room and to her sister's room, whatever. So he confesses to everything in this letter. And then he goes on to say to the prosecutor, I'd like to thank you for saving my life. I know you're probably wondering how you saved my life. So I'll tell you, you saved my life by fucking up. There were two main fuck ups you made that saved me. The first was the way you worded my capital murder indictment. The second was the comment you made in your closing argument when you said, we won't know because he won't tell us. So one more time. Thank you. Now you know everything that happened on January 29th, 1999. I guess I forgot to mention these things when I was being questioned. Psych. I knew what y'all would be able to prove in court. So I told you what you already knew. Stacey was dead and no one

else was in the house. So I knew you'd never already knew. Stacey was dead and no one else was in the house. So I knew you'd never know everything she went through unless she came back to life. Since the Supreme Court said I can't be charged with capital murder again, I can tell you what I told you because I no longer have to worry about the death penalty. And y'all are supposed to be so goddamn smart. I can't believe y'all thought I told you everything. No one thought that you dipshit yeah so then he says nothing you can do about it now so fuck you you fat cock sucking cum guzzling gutter slut ew yeah i guess i'll see your bitch ass on December 18th at my retrial because I'm not pleading to shit.

Tell the family to be ready to testify and relive it all again, because if I have to suffer for the next 50 or 60 years or however long, they can suffer the torment of reliving what happened for a couple of days. Hold on. Did he retrial? Yeah. So because his conviction was overturned, they'd announced that they would charge him. They would try him again. But here's the problem. Oh, my God.

Here's the problem, Kristen. Because this guy's a fucking idiot. He doesn't know how double jeopardy laws work. Yep. Because his conviction was overturned. Yeah. And he wasn't acquitted. It's wiped clean now.

It's wiped. And it can 100% try him again. They can absolutely charge him. He just handed them the case. He absolutely did. Oh. Oh, God bless. This entire letter could be and was used at his retrial.

Oh, did that cum guzzling slut use it against him? My God. Sure did. Sure did. What a fucking idiot. Yeah, that's amazing. Nothing I love more than an arrogant idiot. Yeah.

So good. So good. So good. Yes. So, yes, he completely thought that double jeopardy laws protected him from being charged again with capital murder. Not the case when your charges have been overturned. Yeah. They can charge you with the exact same thing again. Yep.

What a fucking idiot. So he was tried again. They used this letter in its entirety against him. Paul's demeanor was completely different at this trial. Was he a little bummed? He sat there completely, like, just down. He had his head down the entire time. So sad.

Yeah. And once again, he was found guilty and sentenced to death. As I mentioned, Paul was then given the choice of if he wanted to die by lethal injection or electric chair. And when the time came, he chose electric chair. And in May, I'm sorry, in March of 2010, he was put to death at the Greensville Correctional Facility. All right. So prior to his execution, he spoke to Stacy's mother, Lorraine, and Christy on the phone and apologized for what he had done and what he'd put them through. And then they attended his execution. Lorraine said later, justice was served and this chapter has closed.

Wow. And that's the story of the biggest fucking idiot I've ever heard of. That guy is dumb. Yeah. Was dumb. Was dumb. Was dumb. I'm sorry, the moment when I realized

you got a retry. Oh. Oh, Paul. Yeah. Oh. I feel terrible for, obviously, for Christy. Christy has terrible PTSD

from what she went through, obviously. But she said she did get a lot of closure from getting to attend his execution. It gave her the closure and like just like a lot of clarity to know like he's gone for real. He can never do this to me again. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, thank you. yeah thank you there's got to be something so satisfying about having everything just written out in some stupid arrogant yeah and have that be the nail in his coffin exactly that's good yeah that's gotta feel pretty good yes yeah so thank you to rachel on patreon for that case i had never heard of it yeah all right i'd never heard of that either. That was nuts. Nuts. Whew. I think we better do some questions because this was a pretty heavy episode. Let's lighten it up.

Okay, you tell them all about these questions and I'll find some. So if you're wondering where we get our questions from, they come from our Discord. To get in our Discord, all you have to do is sign up for our Patreon at the $5 level or higher. You get into the Discord. It's a good time. It's like a 90s chat room. And when we record our episodes, we send out a little message and ask for questions. Ooh, a bake girl. Excellent. Since your Discord mishap, I've been meaning to ask, what is Brandy's most embarrassing moment? Oh, gosh. So I have like a childhood one,

but it's not. I mean, I know it. Yeah. I mean, that's all it comes to mind. I'm sure I've had one worse as an adult, but I've blocked it out, obviously. No. So my childhood one is when I was in kindergarten. It was like cowboy day at school and I wore a jean skirt and my white cowboy boots and tights. And like halfway through the day, my tights had started to like slip down. And so I pulled up my skirt in the middle of class and pulled my tights up and everybody saw my underwear. Okay. That's not the one I was thinking of. What were you thinking of? I thought when you were a kid, you snorted. No. Yeah, you snorted. What's a snort? It's a sneeze and a fart at the

same time. Oh, I don't have any recollection of that. Oh, well. This one sticks in my mind so much because the teacher was recording that class because it was like Kansas Day. Uh-huh. Yeah. And so there's like, that's why we had the cowboy thing. And so the next, like a week later, we watched like the video of us doing our Kansas Day stuff.

And there was my underwear again on the video. That's pretty cute. Her little brandy. Showing her undies to the whole world. I am sure that I've had a moment more embarrassing than that as an adult, but nothing comes to mind. What about that time last week when you snorted? I definitely did not do that. Did I ever tell you one time I was pretty sure I witnessed someone snort?

No. Oh, it was cool. My dog snorted today. Really? Oh, Lily Ellen 92 wants to know how are y'all holding up with all the craziness in the world right now? How are you doing, Brandy? I'm doing okay. It's definitely making me anxious. Like, I mean, to be pregnant during this time, too. And like, they made this big announcement that now if you're pregnant, that puts you in a high risk group, makes me anxious but you know just taking the precautions

and doing what they tell us to do yeah i'm dealing with a lot of feelings yeah a lot of feelings so many feelings i think it's just like i mean i've never obviously this goes for everybody but like i've never experienced anything like this. This feels like a sci fi movie. No. And to be out and about and like not see that many cars on the road. It's just kind of weird. And like also this week has been really gray and drizzly. So it just feels really upsetting, too.

Yeah. And then I deal with like, oh, anger. Like. Yeah. I don't know. Every now and then you see footage of like bars where there's like tons of people who are still getting together. And it just makes me so angry. Yeah. I had a moment a couple of days ago where I just like, it was a very selfish

moment. And then I was like talking with my mom and my sister and I was like, I waited so long to get pregnant. And I feel like, you know, some of my joy about it is being stolen by all of this. Like now I'm worried about things that you typically wouldn't have to worry about and stuff like that. And then like, there's a chance that like, we won't be able to have my baby shower and stuff like that. And so it's just like a chance that like, we won't be able to have my baby shower and stuff like that. And so it's just like a very selfish moment. And then I was like, hold on,

like we still have it so good. Like I need to focus on, you know, all of the great things still and all of that. But I did have like a moment where I was. I think we're all allowed that. Yeah. I think we're all allowed to, you know, be upset about, you know,

canceled events that we were looking forward to. And like, and I think you can be upset about that. And it doesn't, you know, we, you still feel even, even more sorry for people who like waiters and waitresses who like have no income right now. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. It just sucks. It does. It sucks. But I've been watching a lot of Veep lately because I think that show is so hilarious. I've been trying to just, and I'm reading a David Sedaris book right now that is just a really good escape. I,

you know, there's only so much news. Absolutely. And I, I can do the thing where I read too much of the news. Oh, same. And so got to kind of decompress from all of that.

My escape is Schitt's Creek. I'm rewatching it for the, who knows how many times. Ooh, Corey S. wants to know, favorite quarantine snacks? Question mark. Ooh. Ooh. Chips and salsa is like my go-to snack.

Mm-hmm. Or David just went to the store and he was like, what do we need? And I was like, need Cheez-Its. We absolutely need Cheez-Its. Yeah, so for us right now, so Norman started counting calories. And so I'm kind of doing the same thing in solidarity. Yeah. And man, I knew I was a stress eater, but you don't know how much of a stress eater you are until you are counting calories in the global pandemic.

I mean, it has been rough. Yes. But I did find some snacks that I've been, you know, responsibly snacking on. Very good. I love veggie straws. Oh, yeah. They're pretty good. Oh, see, I really do enjoy them. Yeah. I want to bake. I haven't baked anything yet, but I'm getting a

really strong, like, urge to bake, so. Baking always really relaxes me, because no matter what's going on in the world, you know, like, I add one cup of this, one teaspoon of this, blah, blah, blah, mix it all together, and poof, we've got something perfect. Yeah. Unless you forget one ingredient, which I've been known to do. Carrie Ann O asks, how do you survive quarantine with your spouse slash significant other without winding up as one of your cases? Well, you guys are so used to it. You guys are always. Yeah.

I mean, like I said, we really live like we're quarantined. But I thought I saw something that like in China, after people came out of quarantine, there were like 88 divorces or something. I mean, obviously, who knows what sample size that is. But I kind of like that. Yeah. So far, David and I are both still working. So we're only quarantined in the evenings because there's nothing to do.

So, so far, so good. Just give it time. Yes. If you ever stop responding to texts i'll know something did you see the thing that was like um if i die during this quarantine with my wife just know that it wasn't the virus that killed me no oh becky wants to know favorite thing to do to relax i play games like i play games on my phone. David just showed me one that was

so fun. I did it last night. It's like a coloring one where you just like, it's called Microsoft paint. No, it is not. It's like a, it's kind of like a paint by number thing on your phone, but it's so relaxing. You just mindless, like kind of like touching spots and then they turn a color bubble bath. Yeah. You are a bubble bath person oh yeah i'm not a bath person many people aren't many people don't have the nuts i do just do in their own juices like i do it's not for me yeah bath kindle it's a dangerous game but i play it many nights a week there was like a 30 second period where i was like reading about different birthing methods and i was like oh bath like that's kind of cool because like it's supposed to be like you know less

traumatizing for the baby because they enter into water and whatever and then i saw a photo of what that water looks like and i'm like what do you think it looks like that there's stuff there's chunks floating in it kristen there is oh it looks like there's been a shark attack. I was like, abso-fucking-lutely not. I mean, I gotta say, never given birth, never been pregnant, but man, if it were to happen, I would be at the hospital so fast. Oh, yeah. Epidural.

Give me 12 epidurals. Same. Numb me up head to toe. There was just like a 30 second period where I was like, what kind of alternative birth methods there are? Oh, so I sit in a kiddie pool in the living room and yeah no that sounds terrible terrible no judgment to anybody who doesn't know more PRT if that's your thing it's not mine more wet wipes to you Alexandra asks this is a question for you oh what do you think about natural hair care methods, drying your hair with

henna, homemade hair masks, using different herbs and oils in the hair care routine? Love the idea of like herbs and oils and all that. I think that's great. Henna is, while it isn't a natural dye, it is impossible to get out of your hair. So once you start that, like you can't undo it. And so you got to really be committed to henna dyeing if that's your thing. like you can't undo it. And so you got to really be committed to henna dyeing if that's your thing. I've never worked with henna dye myself. I hear it smells terrible. But that is the thing is like if you do the henna dye and then you want to go back to even like highlighting or anything, it's like impossible to get out of the hair. So. So you just have to grow it out? Yeah. Oh, that's my one caveat there is like great. Yes. Love the all natural stuff. You really got to

be committed if you're going to do the henna dye die how do you feel about like just a tub of mayo oh my hair oh did you okay do you watch 90 day fiance or is that too cringy for you i i have seen it it's not my favorite but oh my god i oh there's a scene where this guy's like you know know, doing some beauty, beauty stuff. He's drinking a glass of wine and has a tub of mayo. He's in the bathroom slicking up his hair. Oh, my God. And I'm watching this thinking, my God, dude, I know it's a little more expensive to just go to the store and get a hair mask. Yeah.

But like. I was going to say, what's that going to accomplish? That's supposed to do like a shine thing? Well, I mean, I'm sure it's very moisturizing. I i'm sure it's i'm sure it does some good things but like at what cost i ask you at what you know how i feel about mayonnaise so i just didn't know if you'd be more okay with it nope i don't want it anywhere um jenny asks what do you admire in each other that bonds your friendship jack shit hmm um i've just always thought you're just a great person and you're really fun to be around

thank you you're the kind of friend who you can just chill with and it doesn't have to be some big thing like you know we don't have to go to a concert together, which thank God we don't because we can't right now. Yeah, I'd say you're super thoughtful and like you do stuff with intention. And I think that's really amazing. Like you put thought into everything you do and like there's a motive behind it, like to better a situation or whatever. Yeah. Oh, I wish I could hug you. I know we can't we have coronavirus

that was a virtual hug for those of you couldn't see it oh my god norman asks oh gosh if i die from my injury i leave% of the podcast to both of you. Oh, that's nice. No. What will you guys do with this new power? Okay. Okay. Brandy, I can't even talk. You talk. Okay. Poor Norman is having an ailment right now. He's in a lot of pain. And so we're hoping he gets through it. He's having like maybe some muscle cramping in his leg or some nerve pain in his leg. He's going to be fine. He's going to the doctor tomorrow morning. Yes.

But he's, you know, 50% chance he dies. Yeah. According to him. Yeah. What we'll do differently with the podcast is nothing. We already own the whole thing. Despite what Nora will say. Although we do really rely on him so much.

You know. He sets us up to record every week. He records our bonus videos for us. Yes. Yes. We would be so lost without him. And I do like him very much as a husband. Yes.

At this point, I consider him a very nice acquaintance. Yes. Okay. At this point, I consider him a very nice acquaintance. Yes. Okay. Laurier 221 asks, when you start a new series, TV or podcast, do you start from episode one or most recent aired? Oh, it's different for me.

Absolutely. Yeah. You're a psychopath if it's not different. Right? I mean, you start TV shows from the beginning. Yeah. And podcasts, you start the most recent ones. Yep.'s a serialized series yeah people who start us from the beginning come on man what are you doing what are you doing i mean we didn't even listen to those first

um should we do more yeah like one more i think you're you know people are quarantined they're staying home yeah so we can tell them all kinds of boring shit about us right and what can they do about it they can't get away okay here we go the not okay corral asks what are you most upset over being closed during the quarantine? Restaurants. Yeah. I mean, it's good they're closed. It is. It's great.

Don't get us wrong. It's good. I mean, it's definitely because that will keep, you know, a large group of people away from each other. I do feel terrible for the wait staff, though. That's how they make their money. Yeah. And, yeah, now I don't get to go out to eat.

You know what's a really nerdy one that I'm so sad about. No, because I do digital downloads. Oh, good. The last time I went to, I'm sure I told you about this. The last time I went to the library, there was this man, and obviously he was not well. Yeah. But he started screaming. And we're talking daytime in the library, kids all around. Yeah.

He started screaming about the time he was raped in the ass in Texas. No. That's what he said. I have no recollection of you telling me that. Oh, my God. And he was like, so he starts off screaming about the government. And I was like, preach, you know. But then he goes off about like, and I was raped in the ass in Texas.

And this poor, poor librarian. I mean, just a really meek little guy comes up and he's like trying to get this guy to just. At first it was just lower his voice. Then it was like, you know, then when the ass raping came up, then it's like time to go. Oh, it was a mess. And it honestly made me feel like, you know what? They've got the digital downloads. They've got a really good app. I think I'm just going to do that. God bless librarians. Oh, let's see. No. Oh, OK. The thing that I'm really sad about. You know how last year I took my niece, Allie, to Disney on Ice. And it was like I was like, I'll just do this nice thing.

But then it was like amazing. OK. This year I had my eye on front row tickets to Disney on Ice. And I was like, but the thing was, I had kind of waited to the last minute. And I mean, I'm glad I did. Yeah. And then like this stuff about the coronavirus started coming out. And I remember I texted my sister and I was like, hey, do you even want me to take her to this thing? This is getting kind of scary.

And Kyla didn't respond. And finally, I was just like, you know what? Executive auntie decision. We're not going. And then like the next day, everything was canceled. Yeah. So I don't know. I i'm glad i'm glad everything is canceled but i was sad because i'm apparently a big nerd and i love disney on ice i lied i have two things that i'm more upset about than restaurants sports yeah march madness was completely canceled and the likelihood is that the Olympics will be canceled.

I'm sorry, Brandy. Brandy, let me make it up to you. You going to ribbon dance for me or something? I'm going to take an extra chair down to my basement. You can sit, watch me on the treadmill. And when you want me to crank it up, I'll crank it up into overdrive. I'll make up a story. I'll be like, my country hasn't won this race in 40 years. I've been training for this my whole life.

I guarantee you, you will cry. I was devastated when KU basketball was canceled. And then just like a couple of days ago, I was like, it's happening. My Olympics are being, they're going to be canceled for sure. Are you going through the stages of grief? I am.

Yeah. There are some good things. And like, I do think it's nice to see so many people working to flatten the curve. Yeah, absolutely. It's like a lot of people, I think, get that, you know, I think in the beginning people were like, well, it seems like it's only old people who are dying and I'm 35. Right. Which is like, oh, that's sweet.

Yeah. Thanks a lot, you bucket of sunshine. But it doesn't seem like I'm hearing that from people anymore. Yeah. Thank goodness. Yeah. Can we end on maybe a more upbeat note than that, Kristen? I'm sorry.

Yes. Old people aren't dying. Young people care that old people are dying now. Hey, that's an improvement over earlier in the week okay uh let's see oh blood everywhere asks what do you recommend binging during quarantine 2020 oh hell yeah wonderful okay what do you got i mean i just love this question um okay so like i said i've been watching a ton of Veep lately, which is on Amazon Prime. And obviously it's on HBO. I've, well, I guess I've already said a bunch of stuff.

What's your, what's your feel good stuff? Okay. My, my go-to is Schitt's Creek. We also just binged The Good Place, which I had only ever seen the first season of. I'd never seen the rest of it. Yeah. So good. And then it just ended never seen the rest of it. Yeah. So good. And then it just ended.

Like, the final episode was just recently. And so, watched that whole thing. Lock and Key on Netflix was super good. I really want to watch The Outsider, but I hear it's super dark. It is very good, though. We're not finished with it, but I'm enjoying it. It is dark. I think we might start that tonight. Because bowling has been canceled i'm sorry brandy um no it's it's tough

because i like a lot of dark stuff yeah so like um one thing i don't know that a lot of people would consider this dark but it made me cry multiple times the hillary clinton documentary that's on right now is very very well done but it did make me cry a lot um so you know it depends on what kind of quarantine mood you're in oh grace and frankie on netflix also if you haven't watched that oh really i think that's kind of up and down it's super light-hearted it is it is yeah all right all right yeah grace and frankie i think it's very up and down. I'm sorry. You don't have to look at me like that.

I enjoyed it very much. You're not invested in the show, are you? I mean. No. I have no personal connection to it. I remember really liking the first season. And now when new seasons come out, I'm kind of like, if I get to it, I get to it. All right.

All right. That's your prerogative. Also, you know what I've loved? Conan O'Brien's podcast, not that he needs any more plugs, but his interview with Jim Gaffigan, they have a section in there where they are talking about how they both have experienced men wanting to be them and women wanting them and it's just

like the funniest self-deprecating humor ever i love it so i mean big fan of conan yeah how come you're a fan of conan i love conan i have loved conan i love conan too but he doesn't fit your what doesn't fit what do you what are you talking i he's, I guess because he's self-deprecating, that allows him to be in your fan bubble. Oh, my God. Brandy, what are you trying to say? Are you trying to say that he is an arrogant white man? Because he is not. He can be.

Brandy. Brandy. Present your evidence to the court. I would agree. He's nowhere near as arrogant as the typical, my typical example of who I love. But I love Conan, too. But he is self-deprecating. You're right.

So that would that would allow him to. He is extremely self-deprecating. Yes. And by the way. Wow. He is a thousand times smarter than all those other guys who are arrogant okay he went to a little school don't know if you've heard of it just outside boston um yeah he's so much smarter than everyone in the room but he's not a jackass all right i like him too well i'm surprised you

like him is all i'm saying i don't see how you could be surprised because he is nothing like Dr. Phil or Dr. Drew or any of those D-bags you love. Tell them D-bags. Love him. Okay, I guess we're wrapping it up there. With me angrily defending a guy who needs no defense. No defense, yeah. Poor Conan O'Brien with his number one podcast. Exactly.

He's doing just fine. Yeah. I'm sure he'll send me some chocolates for this, for this moment right here. Okay, Brandi, should we move on to Supreme Court inductions? Yeah, why don't you tell people how they get inducted? Well, here's the deal, folks. If you join our Patreon at the $7 level, you get bonus episodes, you get into the Discord,

you get stickers. Well, one sticker. One sticker per person. Per customer. Don't you dare ask for two. And you get inducted on this very podcast. This week, we are sticking with your name and your favorite movie. Wonderful.

Cindy King. Shrek 2. Becky. Tombstone. Alex Feltis. Jurassic Park. Gala M. Deadpool.

Let me take a drink and try and say the rest of these names. Gala M. I'm so sorry, Alex and Gala. Your names of these names. Gayla M. I'm so sorry, Alex and Gayla. Your names came out terribly. Jessica Georgi. She smelt a pack a day. Lincoln Lawyer. Cameron Jones.

Not a movie person. Hey, Kristen. Yeah. Beth Henkowski. Stepbrothers. Benedict. What? Cinema Paradiso Really? Is that a thing?

Yeah Okay Taylor A Walk to Remember Taylor Taylor That is the saddest movie on the planet Will you walk me home?

That is the saddest movie on the planet, Taylor I am worried about you More sad than The Notebook? Yes, I think so. Another Nicholas Sparks, though. I know. Don't read Nicholas Sparks during this. I mean, God. Whatever you do. Taylor, I'm concerned about you. It is a good movie, but

it's the saddest movie on the planet. Shanna Hart. Oh, sorry. Shanna Hart. Sorry. Sorry. BBC 2000 Persuasions. You left out a seven there. Did I say?

Okay, BBC 2007 Persuasions. Man, we are on top of our game today. Poor Shanna Hart. Danica. The Day After Tomorrow. Heather Rondo. Wreck-It Ralph. Alexandra Wye. Pride and Prejudice. danica the day after tomorrow heather rondo wreck it ralph alexandra y pride and prejudice judy booty full metal jacket welcome to the supreme court my god was that our roughest that was rough i, you know what?

Does the coronavirus affect your brain? It does, I think. I think we've been infiltrated. Thank you guys for all of your support. We appreciate it so much. If you're looking for other ways to support us, please find us on social media. We're on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Patreon.

Remember to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen. And then head to Apple Podcasts. Leave us a rating. Leave us a review. And then be sure to join us next week. When we'll be experts on two whole new topics. Podcast adjourned. And now for a note about our process.

I read a bunch of stuff, then regurgitate it all back up in my very limited vocabulary. And I copy and paste from the best sources on the web and sometimes Wikipedia. So we owe a huge thank you to the real experts. For this episode, I got my info from an article in the Vintage News by E.L. Hamilton, Wikipedia, and newspapers.com. And I got my info from a website called imsurroundedbyidiots.com, The Washington Times, LifeDaily.com, and The Court Record. For a full list of our sources, visit lgtcpodcast.com. Any errors are, of course, ours, but please don't take our word for it. Go read their stuff.