Let's Go To Court! - 140: High Schoolers

Episode Date: September 16, 2020

As the Civil War came to an end, Alexander Clark saw possibilities. He’d helped dismantle slavery, and now he wanted a piece of the next big fight -- the fight for equality. So he and other black men lobbied Iowa for voting rights. When they won that fight, Clark turned his attention to education. His home sat next door to Grammar School No. 2. It was a good public school. But his children couldn’t attend it. Instead, they had to go to a poorly funded school about a mile away. So when his daughter Susan was 12 years old, Alexander and his wife Catherine sent her to Grammar School No. 2. When she was turned away, they sued. Then Brandi tells us about 17-year-old Ashley Reeves. Ashley had always been a dependable kid, so when she broke curfew one April night in 2006, her mom immediately knew that something was wrong. Initially, police suspected Ashley’s boyfriend. But when that lead didn’t go anywhere, they turned their focus on a 27-year-old physical education teacher named Samson Shelton. 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: The documentary “Lost in History: Alexander Clark” by Iowa PBS “Clark v. Board of School Directors: Reflections After 150 Years,” by Drake School of Law “Alexander Clark,” entry on Wikipedia “Muscatine, Iowa,” entry on Wikipedia “Clark v. Board of School Directors,” entry on Wikipedia In this episode, Brandi pulled from: “Deadly Lessons” episode On the Case with Paula Zahn “Midwestern Teen Left For Dead In Woods” episode Crime Watch Daily “Did Teacher Strangle Teen, Go Dancing?” by Christine Lagorio, CBS News “Mother: Ashley Reeves Neck Not Broken” by Beth Hundsdorfer, The Belleville News-Democrat “‘Miracle’ Girls Sees Attacker Sentenced” Associated Press, The Oklahoman

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A proud member of Wayne's Auto Group. 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 girl who wanted to go to high school.

And I'll be talking about a missing high school student. See how I did that? I saw you put yours in, and I was like, I can play off of this. What we've got here, folks, is a theme. High school. Yeah. This is what happened when two professional podcasters came together as one. Ew.

Tonight is the night. When two become one. Didn't know the meaning of that song for years. I didn't know that song was about sex. In fairness, it was very subtle. Brandi, how you doing? I'm doing great. How are you doing? Oh, just fine. We have gotten a flash of fall-like weather and I'm loving every minute of it.

Okay, okay. I do too. Norman yesterday was like, oh, it's cold. That sweet southern boy. He said, oh, my stars. No, I love it. It's like 54 degrees out today. I have a sweatshirt on and flippy floppies. It's my favorite time of year.

You know what I did yesterday? What? Turned on the butt warmer in my car. Oh, I did that today. It makes me so happy. Those toasted buns. It's the best. As I drive along.

Yeah. I didn drive along. Yeah. I didn't tell you this. What? Someone called me a bitch at Costco. What? What the fuck did you do at Costco? In fairness to this woman, I see why she called me a bitch. What'd you do?

Okay, okay. So I was trying to find a parking spot. So I drove down. You know how, okay, at my Costco, like, there's a spot in the parking lot where it's just one row. And then, you know, there's, like, concrete. Okay, whatever. You get the idea. So I start to pull into that lane.

And there was, like, some free-range shopping carts just all over the place. So I had to move into that lane and there was like some free range shopping carts just all over the place. So I had to move into the other lane, you know, not my lane. And then I saw this spot that was open. I was like, oh, cool. But then at the same time, I saw this lady coming at that same spot. And I thought, oh, you know what? I see some other spots. I'll let her have it.

So I gestured for her let her have it. Yeah. So I gestured for her to take that spot. Yeah. Like the wonderful person that I am. Uh-huh. Midwest politeness. And she looks at me. I can just see her mouth.

She goes, bitch. And then she drives around me. She thought I was saying, not only am I in your lane, but now you must go around me. So I understand why she called me a bitch. But in that first moment, I was like, what? What the fuck? I'm telling you to take the spot. So did you take the spot? Yeah. I was cracking up.

Dave and I went to Costco the other day. And it wasn't until I returned home that you sent me the picture. By the way, this podcast is not sponsored by Costco. We're just two Midwestern ladies who love a good bargain. It wasn't until I returned home from my Costco trip that you sent me a picture from your Costco that they had the pumpkin pies out. I didn't see a single pumpkin pie at my Costco. I'm sorry, Brandy. I didn't realize how cruel I was being, but I saw that they had the pumpkin pies and I know how you feel about pumpkin pie. I love them. Although the Costco pumpkin pie is so big, it's hard to finish.

That sounds like a good problem to have, Brandy. Hey, uh, hey, Brand hey brandy yeah what's up i'm glad i have your attention because uh i gotta tell you about something something real cool what's that what the lgtc podcast patreon of course of course brandy let me lay this on you let me tell you what's happening. At the $5 level, you get a monthly bonus episode, which is fantastic. Always, always fantastic. And then you also get into our Discord, which is like a 90s chat room.

$7 level. You get all that, plus a monthly video. I almost said video. And you get a sticker and our lovely autographs and you get inducted onto the podcast and then at the ten dollar level brandy tell them what they've won uh they get the episodes a day early and ad free plus all the other stuff that's right you know what i was what no go ahead what i was thinking about the other day that gave me the sweats uh-huh do you remember the time we recorded a bonus episode and we both had planned to do mary pay letourneau i do

and we found out like two hours before we recorded yeah so i shit my pants yeah and i didn't have time to change my pants i just had to, totally start over and do a new case. Oh, my gosh. And as a result of that pivotal moment in our podcasting history, now we tell each other ahead of time. What we're doing. Yes. We call dibs on cases. Yes.

Oh, my God. You did a great job with Mary Kay Letourneau, though. Thank you. I appreciate it. Have you heard that she died? I have heard. Okay, guys, so here's the. You're such a jerk.

Okay, here's the deal, guys. We did that case. I mean, obviously we had a lot to say about Teacher of the Year, Mary Kay Letourneau. That was sarcastic in case anyone's dumb. And then she died. And everybody from every corner of the earth has decided to tell us. I think it gets to me because I don't know how to be appropriate. Right.

Which is the story of my life. The witch is dead is not the appropriate response. No, I know enough to know that that's not the appropriate response. Anyway. I'm feeling a little bit butthurt because on our... Because you sat down real fast? No, because on our most recent

Patreon plug, I made a Richie Rich reference and no one has responded about it. There's nothing to say about it. Brandy, sometimes you make these references and you're the only ones who gets them. I bet Norm got it.

I bet he did, too. Yeah. Yeah. Because Norm and I are basically the same person. It's true. Do you ever think that's creepy? No. Might be.

Okay, yeah, you're making a face like, yeah, it's a little creepy. A little creepy. How long after meeting Norm did you realize Kristen found me with a penis? For real, how long did it take you? It took me a little while because Norm has like the layers you got to peel back. He's an onion. He is. He's an onion. You got to peel back thin layers.

That's right. And then it was like looking at myself in the mirror. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But Norm's pretty savory. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. But, um... What?

Norm's pretty savory. That's disgusting. That's disgusting. Much like myself, Norm is savory. You're sweet. Okay, this is weird. Well, I'm sorry. I was trying to find the perfect transition to go into talking about...

Oh, wait, I was supposed to be talking about HelloFresh. No, HelloFresh is our second ad, you weirdo. Right now we into talking about oh wait i'm supposed to be talking about hello fresh no hello fresh is our second ad you weirdo right now we're talking about better i was like what is she doing what's happening i was trying to be a business cat and once again we fail at business get ready to experience an all-new Don Valley North Lexus. Don Valley North Lexus has temporarily relocated around the corner to 7200 Victoria Park Avenue while they build a brand new dealership for you. The deals don't stop, though.

Get loyalty rates as low as 1.9%, delivery credits up to $1,500, and save up to $7,000 on select demonstrator models. At Don Valley North. Don Valley North Collection. A proud member of Wayne's Auto Group. Are you going to tell us a fucking story? What? Oh, are you, like, busy today?

Got stuff going on? Have I got a story for you? Woo am i gonna cry maybe i don't control your emotions first off oh so you kind of know what i'm talking about don't you yeah i think somebody mentioned it in the discord they sure did and that someone was fierce mamaama in the Discord who recommended this case. Thank you so much. I loved it. Shout outs to the documentary Lost in History, Alexander Clark. It was a documentary on Iowa's PBS. And I don't know what to call this. I'm going to call it a project because it was like 150 pages, not a book. It was PDF, but not an article. I mean, anyway, it's called Clark versus the Board of School Directors, colon, Reflections After 150 Years. The colon is not meant to be pronounced aloud, Kristen.

It's funnier if you say it. And that's by the Drake School of Law. I'm sorry for besmirching your good name. Great article, guys. Love you. Colon. And also colon Wikipedia. Also, old timey disclaimer.

Ooh. Picture it. Muscatine, Iowa. The mid-1800s. Okay. Muscatine sat right on the mighty Mississippi. Still does, actually. I was going to say, did they move it?

No. What part of Iowa are we talking? Boy, are you already a Googlin'? Muscatine. How do you spell Muscatine? M-U-S-C-A-T-I-N-E. So it's about 90 miles up from Missouri. Oh.

It's right on the river, as I said. You know, I feel like I have a small amount of ownership over Iowa. I've got family there. So like I knew that was why you invested in where it's located. Yeah. You've got family in Des Moines. No, they're not in Des Moines. I just wanted to say it that way. We know it's not pronounced that way. Folks, keep your britches on. Um, first semester of college, we had a professor who had us do a copy editing exercise. And one of the things he did was have us. Wow.

You're not even looking at me. I am. I'm listening. What are you looking at? I hit a button and then it zoomed. Sorry. Yeah. Likely story, ma'am.

She's looking at porn while I'm trying to tell a story. I'm not. No, so he spelled it D-E and then M-O-I-N. Oh. Well, it's a copy editing exercise. Oh, okay. And it was to kind of like, you know, it's a bunch of, I was the only Midwesterner in the class. And, of course, everyone just assumes it's spelled correctly.

And so his whole thing was like an exercise in like you know that's why you have blind spots it's not about necessarily you know anyway this the moral of the story god we should probably cut this is so stupid the moral of the story is i spoke up and i was like actually it's d s and yeah basically I was amazing I was amazing we're all so enriched by that story you know what it felt like it felt like I was going down a hill in a sled and I couldn't stop as soon as I like I was going through the story and I was like, oh, my God, this is so stupid. The end of the story is I was smart once. We got to cling to our things, Kristen.

That's a big moment for freshman year, Kristen. Anyway, so Muscatine, Iowa. Around this time, Muscatine was home to the largest black community in all of Iowa. Oh. Which wasn't a lot of people, but it was Iowa, okay? But there were more black people in Muscatine than you might expect because enslaved people often fled slavery by traveling up the Mississippi to Iowa. Oh, that makes sense. Because you see, Brandy, Muscatine was a mere 90-mile journey from a terrible shithole called Missouri, where slavery was totally legal and A-OK. At this point, I should probably say, I live in Missouri. I was born in Missouri. So everybody

from Missouri, just like keep your pants on. Like, it's fine. Anyway, of course, not all the black people in Muscatine had fled slavery. Some free black people from other states had also come to Muscatine to make a life there. And as a result, in the mid-1800s, Muscatine, Iowa had this, I originally called it a booming black community. I don't know if that's fair, but they had a black community there. One of the most prominent members of the community was a guy named Alexander Clark. How do you feel about the fact that I'm telling you about history right now? I already see your eyes glazing over. I'm sorry, Brandy. Can you wrap it to me? that's how i prefer to take my history i i don't blame you i think a lot of us want a 34 year old white woman to rap to us about black history

there's got to be a market for that right yeah and i'm so good at rapping yes yo yo okay so one of the most prominent members of the community was this guy, Alexander Clark. Alexander had been born free in Washington, Pennsylvania, and eventually moved to Muscatine. And by that point, Alexander, much like yourself, was a business cat. He was given HelloFresh ads long before it was even a company. So the dude bought land. He knew that the key to getting a leg up in the world was to get some land. So he bought his land and on it, he chopped his wood and he sold it to steamboats and he grew vegetables, which he sold at the market. And he was able to do all of this because his main source of income was as a barber,

which according to Wikipedia was a, quote, respected position at the time. At the time? What about fucking now? Which is weird because these days we know that all hairstylists are big creepy weirdos. But believe it or not like a you know a long time ago they were respected okay so i saw that and i was cracking up i was like what the

fuck my salon is in a dark basement okay no the documentary went into more detail once you get the detail, it makes a lot more sense. It doesn't just sound like Wikipedia is shitting on you. They were akin to doctors back in the day. Why do you say that? Because they did bloodletting and stuff. Oh, God. Oh, my God. That would be, so the first step, like if you had an ailment, would often be to go to your barber.

And then if that didn't work, then you went to a doctor. I can't imagine it not working. Drain a pint out of me. I'm sure I'll feel fine. No. So what they said in the documentary was that being a trained barber in the mid-1800s was a big deal because the safety riser hadn't been invented yet. was a big deal because the safety riser hadn't been invented yet. And so, like, if you went to your local Fantastic Sam's for a shave,

like, you were really taking your life into your hands. That's right. So a skilled barber could ensure that you weren't decapitated just because you wanted to clean up your soul patch, Brandy, and that's great news for everyone. When do you think the soul patch became a thing? I assume it's been around a really long time. You used to enjoy a soul patch. No!

Yes, you were kind of intrigued. No! You were kind of intrigued! Who had a soul patch that I thought was hot? I just remember the 90s. I liked a goatee situation, which is... I mean, some things don't change. Yeah, I checked out.

Dave has got a big old beard, so. What would you do if you came home today and he had a soul patch? Oh, God. I wouldn't love it. You would not be able to hide your disgust. I wouldn't. I can tell you that right now. I wouldn't, yeah.

Can you imagine the tan lines he would have around his face oh i mean he's already pretty white and then yeah and then there's a whole nother shade of him yeah so the bottom line is that alexander was very good at what he did he was a great conversationalist he was well trained super intelligent he quickly developed a very loyal clientele and a lot of his clients were rich, important white dudes. So he had access to all the local movers and shakers. And turns out, he himself was a mover and a shaker because at 22, he bought himself a beautiful home located at... I'm ready.

203 West 3rd Street, Muscatine, Iowa. Oh, Lord. I can't type. I'm having that dream. Well, and there's a lot of trees blocking it, so you'll have to kind of move that thing. Okay, guys. Brandi's bouncing up and down. She's moving that thing.

There's a Zillow listing, isn't there? Can I see pictures? What? There's a Zillow listing? Are there pictures? This thing better not be for sale. No, there's no pictures. Let me move the trees. All right, it looks big.

Yeah. It is a big two-story brick house. With beautiful windows. Mm-hmm. Ooh. Yeah. It is a big two-story brick house. With beautiful windows. Mm-hmm. Ooh. Yeah. All right. Okay, sad story.

This is not his original home. His original home was burned to the ground in 1878 by assholes. So this is the home that he built in its place. Well, that is fucking sad. Yeah. But, I mean, it's his new, if you can call it phoenix he rose from the ashes built this beautiful home and legend has this house next door brandy are you gonna go through all of muscatine admiring the architecture we could be here all day victorian porch on the house next door what do you fucking think

of course i did and of course i went down the road a ways and i looked around but you know you're listening to a story right now you don't have time and that goes for all you at home legend has it that he built this home with both middle fingers in the air to the assholes who burned down his first home how How long did that take him? We only have four fingers on each hand. I assume since he was super rich and connected, he wasn't the one like laying the bricks. You know, he was the one with the middle fingers in the air.

Yeah. And you guys don't question that legend that I just made up. Made up right now. So Alexander's home was not only gorgeous, it also sat in an excellent location. home was not only gorgeous, it also sat in an excellent location. So what I'm freaking telling you, Brandy, is that Alexander Clark, a black man, was living in a big ass house on the same street as all the other important people in Muscatine. Yeah, he's like up on a hill. Looks like he's overlooking the river. Yes. Yeah. Fancy is what it is. At some point he had, I, and I didn't write this down. Um, he was paying like the highest real estate taxes in the County. Oh wow. He, I mean the dude

owned land. Okay. So he had friends in high places. He had, he was friends with doctors, lawyers, business executives. What's that song? Sorry. Anyway. And the white publisher of the Muscatine Journal. Do you know what song? No. What song are you talking about? I feel like it's a country song. Friends in Low Places? No, no.

I was thinking of, it's even more obscure. It's like. I got friends in low places. Where the whiskey. Okay, we can go on all day. To the oasis. Well, I'm not familiar. Oh, wait. Wait, sister. Well, I'm not familiar.

You guys, we were just saying, we've gotten a lot of really nice reviews, and we're really happy about it. But because we're anxious and sad people, we're like, this just means we're due for a really mean one. And I feel like as we broke into song just then, I was like, here it is. It's coming. It's coming. Someone doesn't think that we should be country superstars. And they write. So, you know, Alexander had all these things and he had what at the time was a real hot

take on slavery. It sucked ass and it needed to end. Yeah. So come with you. I'm sorry. What? Let me back up. Come with me, won't you? What did I say? Did I say come you? It's never effective in the bedroom to just They say say what you want, but like... They leave out that you might have to do some work.

So come you, Brandy, with me on a magic carpet ride that is the highlight reel of the next few years of Alexander's life. Excellent. He married a woman named Catherine. A whole new world. Don't you dare close your eyes. I thought that was the dumbest part. Don't you think that was the dumbest part of that song?

He married a woman named Catherine Griffin who had been born into slavery in Virginia. And they had five kids. Two of them died in infancy. Alexander helped people out of slavery via the Underground Railroad. Shout out to the Quakers. Shout out to the abolitionists. Shout out to brave black people everywhere. He helped

found the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Muscatine. Damn. He became friendly with a guy by the name of Frederick Douglass. No shit heard of him. Who, in my opinion, is an example of somebody who's done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice. Do you know what that's from?

No. Trump said that a couple years ago. Oh, no! He clearly had no idea who he was. I mean, you can say that about anybody yeah that's yeah it's a he's a he's a man who uh yeah and uh people are talking about him we're talking about a dead guy oh shit he did some traveling in europe and was surprised to find that the white people treated him much better there than they did in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And in 1855, Alexander was part of a group of black people in Muscatine County who petitioned the state legislature to repeal a law that prohibited free black people from moving to Iowa. Which, holy shit, that was awful. What? You're not supporting him on this? So it didn't work, but Alexander was not deterred. Then, during the Civil War, he enlisted in the Union Army, duh, and he helped recruit men for the 60th Iowa Colored Troops. He was not able to serve due to an injury, but he was a very influential figure.

So one thing that was cool about what he was doing was when you recruited people, you would get $2 per recruit. And he wouldn't keep any of it. He would always give it right back to the person he recruited because he was awesome. Because he was awesome. Yeah. Then, Brandy, in 1865, the Confederates lost the Civil War. Why is this the first I'm hearing of this? I'm including it here as a fun fact for anyone who has seen some monuments and is terribly confused. That's where our bad review is going to come in.

The Civil War was over. And the Union had won and Alexander was pumped. He was like, all right. He was just like high-fiving everybody. Woo! Fun fact, he sounded like a white drunk girl. Woo! So he's like, all right, slavery is over.

Now let's get to work on equality. So he and a bunch of other black men in Muscatine County, specifically black veterans, went to the state legislature and they were like, hey, guys, we put our lives on the line for this country. We fought for this country and we demand the right to vote. Alexander said, he who has been trusted with the musket can and ought to be trusted with the ballot. Yeah. They wanted the right to vote. And they got it. In 1868, the Iowa Constitution was amended to give black men the right to vote.

This was two years before the 15th Amendment, which gave voting rights to black men all over the country. I mean, okay, in spirit, not in reality, but you guys get the picture. Okay. Iowa. Yeah. Iowa, Brandy. Yes. Two fucking years.

Yes. You understand? I'm following. You know how many months that is? This was all huge for Alexander Clark. He had faced all this adversity, and yet here he was, super successful, super powerful. And yes, America was still terrifying and unfair and racist as hell. But he was seeing incredible change right before his eyes.

Can you fucking imagine? You see slavery end? Yeah. Can you imagine the possibilities you would see? No. He couldn't help but think about his three children and how if his life could be so different from that of his parents or his grandparents, what might his children's lives look like? What opportunities could they have? If he just pushed harder now for more rights and for more equality,

how much better would his children's lives be? And how much better would all black kids' lives be? lives be? And how much better would all black kids' lives be? Alexander and his wife Catherine really valued education. So they took action. Their big beautiful home was conveniently located right next to grammar school number two. Wow. Great public school. But the Clark kids couldn't go there. They had to go to a separate and unequal school more than a mile away, which is still standing to this day. Are you ready? Yeah. Okay. So just

Google New Jerusalem Church, Muscatine, Iowa, and then do an image search. I mean, it is a shack. Yeah. It's literally a shack. I am amazed. And I mean, sorry, New Jerusalem. I mean, it is a shack. Yeah, it's literally a shack. I am amazed. And I mean, sorry, New Jerusalem. I mean, I know we're, but can you believe this building is still standing? No. Wow. Alexander was frustrated by this blatant racism. The white school was better funded. It was giving its students a good free education, as was promised by the state, and the School for Black Students had never even qualified any of its students to even pass the entry exam into high school. Alexander's daughter, Susan, was 12 years old at the time, and she was about to enter high school. So on September 10th, 1867, when it was time for school, instead of walking

to the school that was a mile away, she showed up at the school next door to her house, ready to attend classes. And of course she was turned away. Of course. On the basis of her race which i'm sure she and her parents knew would happen i mean you you hope it doesn't but i'm i'm sure they were prepared on some level this is blowing my mind that this happened in 1867 like it's crazy isn't it okay this whole time i read about this i was like how have i not heard about this how have I not heard about this? How have I not heard about this whole family? Yeah. Racism. I mean, obviously, but still, still, this is, this is incredible. Yeah. In Iowa. Yeah. Anyway. So like I said, my personal opinion, I think they were probably prepared for this to happen. But nonetheless, at this point, according to the historical record,

the entire Clark family all took a moment to look themselves in the mirror and say, let's go to court. And it's weird that we know that that happened for sure. Yeah, all looked themselves in that same mirror. The attorneys for the Clarks were J. Scott Richmond and James Karshadan, and they presented a very straightforward case. Susan was the appropriate age, and she lived within the boundaries of grammar school number two. Bing, bang, boom. Yeah. It was pretty simple. She was qualified to be admitted to the school, and yet they had denied her entry to the school.

Meanwhile, the school board was equally straightforward in their defense. They were like, you guys! No shit, we didn't let her in, we're racist as hell! I don't think that's what they said! Oh, well, listen to this and you tell me! They were like, look, we did everything we could to help this girl. We offered to create a special grammar class at the school for black kids.

And we offered to hire a competent teacher to teach her over there. Uh-huh. And, um, you guys, if we were to let a black student into our school... We'd have to let in, in like a bunch of black students what would people say jesus here is a direct quote from their petition public sentiment in said independent district is opposed to the intermingling of white and colored children in the same schools

and the best interest of both races require them to be educated in separate schools. Oh, the best interest of both races? Yeah. Really? Yeah. So, in my opinion, their defense really is, yeah, we're racist. Yeah, we're racist.

Which I find oddly refreshing. Who do you think won the case, Brandy? The school board won the case because it's 1867 and racism is running rampant. How's it feel to be wrong? Shut up. They won? Susan Clark won. How? She won.

She won, Brandy. Are you messing with me? No, I am not. I am not. Who decided? Did like a jury hear this? This was before a judge. Okay. Wow. I'm shocked by that.

Yeah. That's amazing. It's amazing. It is shocking. The district court was just like, yeah, Susan Clark should be allowed to attend grammar school number two. But of course, the school board was like, this is an outrage. And they appealed their decision all the way to the Iowa Supreme Court. And as soon as it was clear that this case was headed to the Iowa Supreme Court, the Attorney General of Iowa, a guy named Henry O'Connor, went up to Susan Clark's legal team and was like, hey, I think you guys are on the right

side of this and I've got some spare time. Could I join you as co-counsel? Wow. And they were like, yeah, Attorney General of Iowa, welcome aboard. Jump on. Jump on it. Jump on it. Jump on it. And they all sang that song. Yeah, and they did the thing where they were like, dee, dee, dee, dee, dee. And then they were like,

oh my gosh, shouldn't we be preparing for this case? But, you know, now we all do that song at weddings, and it's because of these men. That's right. This time, the school board was like, I'd like everyone to pay close attention to a little case called Roberts versus the City of Boston, which, of course, is a very shitty case from 1850. And the Muscatine school board was like, if you look at that case, you'll see that Massachusetts is just as nutty as we are.

They're just as racist as we are. So their whole thing was like, you know, in Massachusetts, they're just like us. They talk about that equality bullshit in their constitution too. But you know what the court said in that case? The court said, yeah, sure. There's equality. Equality is great. Love equality equality some of our best friends are equality but the thing is that the school district has all kinds of discretion as to where that sends students and what it does with students so you know the almighty school board we can't question the all-powerful odds so you know get off don't look behind the curtain yeah the court in boston is right let curtain. Yeah. The court in Boston is right.

Let's all be like that court in Boston is what they're saying. And also, just a fun reminder, the people in our district really prefer segregation. So give the people what they want. Okay. You know, okay, I did not write this part down. Not write this part down. Another thing I found interesting was that in some places, like, they would allow a black student to attend the school if all of the white parents of the other students gave permission. Huh.

Isn't that fucking weird? Yeah. Anyway. Huh. Plus, what we've got here is a real separate but equal situation, which everyone loves, so let's all go home. Yeah. And of course, Susan Clark's legal team was like, yeah, I mean, you got us there. It is separate, but it sure as hell isn't equal. Yeah. So four judges on the Iowa Supreme Court heard the arguments, and they came to a three-to-one decision. What do you think happened, Brandi?

Well, I was wrong last time, so I don't fucking know. Is that how you are? You get knocked down and you don't get back up again? Did you learn nothing from Chumbawamba? What do you think? I think that the Supreme Court is going to let her go to school yeah wow the school board lost again yeah in the 18 fucking 60s that's nuts cocoa nuts cocoa nuts yes some might say that which is great because you find a lot of cocoa nuts in Iowa.

So it's so appropriate for this case right here. Justice Chester Cole wrote the majority decision. And in that decision, he made the basis for his argument on the state's constitution, which read, and I quote, Constitution, which read, and I quote, the Board of Education shall provide for the education of all the youths of the state through a system of common schools. Yeah, that's everyone. That's all the youths, Brandi. Yeah. Every last one of them.

Okay, so here's the thing. In some articles, I think there's an oversimplification of this decision. It's kind of like, well, the constitution was very clear, said all the use of the state. So, you know, naturally they came to that conclusion, but obviously it was the 1860s. If these judges had wanted to, they could have easily come down on the other side based on, you know, the history of their constitution, Based on, you know, the history of their constitution. Whatever.

Based on just pure racism. Yeah. But they chose not to because they were awesome guys with huge dicks. Is that how history remembers them? They should be remembered this way. Shouldn't we just assign nice qualities to the dead people who did well you know legend has it he desegregated schools and had a huge dick in the inspiration for that uh eggplant emoji that's right judge chester cole in the majority opinion justice chester cole was like hey i'm looking our legislative history, and obviously there's a ton of stuff about discrimination on the basis of race.

But when I look at it as a whole, I see that we are moving away from exclusion and segregation and into inclusion. So it makes the most sense to rule on the side of inclusion. In 18 fucking 60 something. Yes. Holy shit. And then he was like, and you know, if we gave the school board

the right to exclude black kids from public schools, then they would have every right to exclude and segregate German kids, French kids, Irish kids, English kids,

which of course would never happen in a million years because those people are white, but I think he made a very good point. He knew what he was doing. Yeah. Eggplant emoji. But this was not a unanimous decision. Yeah, what's the dissenter say?

Justice George Wright, who had no friends and a micropene and bad hair and was very ugly, wrote the dissenting opinion. And here's what it was. And this is a quote. No, I'm not quoting because it's just, you know, it's just like dumb racist stuff like, you know, we should be separate. And also, I should be nicer because I'm sure there are a lot of nice people with micropenes.

It doesn't mean that you're a racist. It's not fair to use that as an insult, you know? And with that, Iowa became the first state in the nation to formally reject segregation in public school. Holy fucking shit! Is this not the craziest thing? I about fell out of my chair multiple times and bruised all over. You're bruised from almost falling out of my chair multiple times and bruised all over. You're bruised from almost falling off your chair? I'm so dainty I bruise

when I even think about falling. Brandi, you see how petite I am. You can barely see me. I have to squint. For the people in the back, this was 86 years before the Supreme Court would rule on Brown versus the Board of Education. 86 years! 86 years. 86 years. Holy shit.

I was hoping we'd keep it going until one of us passed out. Or almost fell out of our chairs and got bruised. You know what they say about Iowa. It's way ahead of its time. They have huge dicks. Thanks to the state Supreme Court's decision, in the fall of 1868, Susan Clark enrolled in the formerly all-white grammar school number two.

And when she graduated high school, she delivered the commencement address. Holy shit. Yeah. That's, what'd she say? I wish I knew. See, okay, we'll get into this. Okay, we'll get into it in a minute.

But like, these, we should know all of their names. This is amazing. Yes. And her commencement address should be like, on a t-shirt. And everyone should have to wear it. And it doesn't matter if it doesn't look good. I like the spirit with which you say that, Christopher. The follow through is a little odd.

This is the only solution. The t-shirt is the only solution. All the Clark children attended that school. All the Clark children attended that school. And in 1879, Susan's brother, Alexander Clark Jr., took his education a step further by becoming the first black person to graduate from the University of Iowa's School of Law. He went to all the semesters. Oh, my gosh. And in 1884, the University of Iowa's School of Law had its second black student.

He was 58 years old, and he graduated eighth in the class of 80 students. It was Alexander Clark. Oh! I have goosebumps. Yes! By that point, he'd become a powerful force in American politics. He was the spokesman of a committee that met with President Ulysses S. Grant. He became the vice president of the Iowa State Republican Convention. He became the delegate at large to the Republican National Convention. For anyone whose head is

spinning, Republican meant something very different back then. They did the old flippity flop. Don't worry. Don't worry. In fact, he was such a powerful speaker that he became known as the colored orator of the West, which seems weird today, but I'm sure the time was great. I hope. I hope. At one point, President Grant was like, wow, Alexander, you're so awesome. How would you like to be the consul to Haiti and Alexander was like depends how much does it pay and the president wrote a number on a post-it note and slid it across the table and Alexander picked up the post-it note and looked at the number and was like hell no I know what my time is worth slapped Slapped it down and got in his cover craft and took off. No, but he did. He did turn it down because it was not enough money.

Then Alexander bought a newspaper and moved to Chicago. And then President Benjamin Harrison appointed him U.S. minister to Liberia. Oh. This was the highest ranking appointment ever offered to a black person. Wow. And he took it. And in 1891, he died in Liberia. His body was brought back to the United States and he was buried in Muscatine at the Greenwood Cemetery. Most of the family, with the exception of his son, is buried there. And his name just kind of faded into history. I was like, how have we not heard of this fucking guy?

So when you said the thing about her commencement address, that's what I was like, it makes me so upset because these are huge, influential figures. The other thing, mm-mm-mm, okay, here we go. What? I'm real mad. I'm giving the point of the finger, the wag of the finger, the whole finger, both fingers. So this is obviously not something that's written about a lot.

But I've noticed that when this lawsuit is written about, it's kind of written about in some places as like, well, this little girl, she just was real smart. And she just decided one day that she just wasn't going to take it anymore. So she just went over to the white school and she just said, may I come in? And they said, no, you know, and it's, and it's like bullshit. Yeah. Bullshit. That is bullshit in the same way that Rosa Parks didn't just one day say, well, gosh, I'm just too tired to get up from my seat on this bus for a white person. No, there was a movement behind every influential person. This is why we need the t-shirts, Brandy. The t-shirts are the solution.

With the commencement speech. So, you know, like I looked at that story and I was like, yeah, that's nice. Who were these 12-year-old girls' parents? And that's how you's talking about Alexander Clark and all this stuff. Not taking anything away from Susan. It took incredible courage to go up to this white

high school and ask to be let in. And then to attend it? Yeah. Holy hell. And then to give that amazing commencement speech. Yeah. That we all heard. You know what? Let me read some of it to you right now. You don't have it. Hell. And then you give that amazing commencement speech. Yeah, that we all heard. Uh-huh. You know what?

Let me read some of it to you right now. You don't have it. I wish you had it. I know. I saw the title of it somewhere, but, you know, what does that give you? Yeah. Nothing. The title was Kristen's Amazing.

That's weird. Because she heard about that Des Moines story. She was like, my God. You went through all that? You brought us Des Moines story. She was like, my God, you went through all that? Are we there again? You brought us back to the story about the one time you were smart. She was like, wow, you really went through something in that classroom that day. Hats off to you, lady. So, yeah, Alexander Clark just kind of faded from history yeah he did so much worked so hard and

his name was kind of forgotten but his legacy did live on 86 years after he brought that lawsuit against the local school district the supreme court agreed to hear brown versus the board of education and when the lawyers in that case went to write their briefs. They cite his case? Of course they do. Yay! Yeah, because they've got to make their case. And what do they have?

Oh, wait, look, a million years ago in Iowa, they desegregated schools. Yeah. Now, who knows how well they did it? I should probably mention that. Who knows how well they did it? But. Yeah. It was officially on the books. Who knows how well they did it? But... Yeah.

It was officially on the books. Let's take the W, okay? You may be thinking to yourself, this guy and his family were so cool. How am I just now hearing about him? Sorry, I wrote this up, didn't realize we'd be talking about it already. Anyway, we're back to this. We're looping back.

Let me tell you another story. Picture it. Muscatine, Iowa. Mid-1960s. A guy named Kent Sissel had just gotten his master's degree from the University of Iowa, and he'd written his thesis about historic architecture. So he was obsessed with old-timey buildings. Kent, love ya. And one day he was giving a tour of Muscatine and telling people about this building and that building and blah blah blah. And at one point a woman on the tour was like, hey, what's that? And she pointed to a big two-story brick building that sat on 3rd Street. And she was like, what can you tell us about that place? And he was like, well, I don't know. And another lady on the tour was like, oh, that's the ambassador's house.

And people were like, excuse me? Ambassador to what? And she was like, I don't know. I knew one fact, and I just shared it. That's the extent of what I know. Which I found myself in that situation many times. So people started to really wonder about this house. Two S's, Brandy. And I'm glad I'm here to tell you.

I confess this isn't the first time I've had to tell people that. But here I am. Everyone has a calling. So people really started to wonder about that house and about this mysterious ambassador, and Kent was like, okay, I gotta know more. So he started researching, and he was blown away that this huge figure in the civil rights movement who'd done so much for American history had been erased from the history books. Yeah. Or more accurately, never included, thanks to America's close personal friend, racism. So people were getting more and more into Alexander Clark. They were really

starting to explore and appreciate his legacy. And then in the 1970s, the city was like, I think we better tear that house down. We got to make way for a hideous high rise. And I've seen a picture. It's truly hideous. But people were like, oh, no, you don't. You're not going to knock down a piece of history. And so the city was like, okay, compromise time.

What if instead of knocking it down, we lift it up and we move it 100 feet down the road? And so they did that. And yada, yada, yada. Kent bought the house. And for more than 35 years, Kent has lived in Alexander Clark's house and has studied and talked about Alexander Clark in the hopes of giving that great man the legacy he deserves. Holy shit. That's amazing.

Every story has a white savior. No, but I mean, really, hats off to Kent. This is so cool that more people are hearing about this great man. Yeah. So thanks to his work and the work of a lot of other people, it's working a little bit. Yeah. In 2019, the Board of Education for the Muscatine School District voted to name its newly combined middle school the Susan Clark Junior High School. Oh my gosh, that's so cool. Yeah. And that's the story of the first successful school desegregation case in United States history. It's fucking amazing.

May I tell you something that is, okay, not verified, not, can't say for sure it's true, but it's the coolest thing. Okay. Okay. And I didn't write any of it down, but I've got to tell you this. Okay. Alexander Clark, big on the Underground Railroad. Yeah. Problem with the Underground Railroad, they didn't like write shit down obviously it's underground it's a secret on the down don't talk about fight club yeah so at some point this guy uh jim white who was an enslaved man escaped okay here's how dumb this enslaver was i believe he was in missouri and he was like, hey, Jim, I'm going to let you go up to Iowa to do some work and then come right back.

And Jim was like, oh, sure thing. Iowa, the free state? Yeah, of course. Great. So Jim goes to Iowa. And wouldn't you know it, he decides not to go back into slavery. So he's staying there. And he sought refuge in Alexander Clark's house. So Alexander Clark is, you know, kind of keeping him safe and stuff. And of course, these douchebag bounty hunter guys come looking for him. And they're like, oh, oh, hey, friend.

We're we're abolitionists. We're we're real cool guys. We hate slavery so much. And we're here to help Jim. We're here to help him. Yeah. Yeah. They even had they even had the Quaker oatmeal thing.

Right. Just to show that they were Quakers. Shout out to Quakers. You know, my brother in law is Quaker. I know. It makes me feel better by association because my folks were enslavers. So, you know, they're like, oh, oh, you know, yeah, yeah, we just want to help Jim.

We're going to get him to Chicago. And Alexander Clark is like, okay. So the plan was that Alexander and Jim would get in a boat and they'd cross the Mississippi and these two, you know, wonderful guys would help Jim get to Chicago. Yeah. I don't know how Alexander knew that they were full of shit, but he knew it. Uh-huh. So he tells them, yeah, great, wonderful. So glad we could have you guys.

And he and Jim get in the boat, and they start acting like they're going toward him. And then they went in the opposite direction. Good. And Jim remained a free man for the rest of his life. Holy shit. Okay, now let me tell you the rest of this story. I'm getting goosebumps already. I hate the, oh, anyway. Okay. Okay. Anyway, here we go. I told you that Alexander was BFFs with the publisher of the Muscatine Journal, the local newspaper,

because, you know, he's given the shaves. He's not decapitating a single person. Great job. Around this time, the publisher of the Muscatine Journal hires a new reporter. This guy named Samuel Clemens. No, shut up! I'm serious, Brandi. I am serious. Why? You recognize that name?

Yeah, it's Mark Twain. It's Mark Twain. Mark Twain worked at the Muscatine Journal for a little while. Is this the inspiration for Jim?im yeah for huckleberry finn that's what that's what people think that's what people think people think that either mark twain found out about this story from the publisher or perhaps he went to alexander clark for a shave or for you know whatever, whatever, heard about this story of this real man, Jim Wright, living

living in Muscatine and getting his freedom by going up and down the Mississippi. Yeah. Yeah, they think he is the inspiration for Jim of Huckleberry Finn. Holy shit. Is that not the best story ever? That's amazing.

So anyway, I mean, we don't know 100% that it's true. We don't know it's not true. I know 100% that it's true. Yes. And you all know what a hero I am. Des Moines. You know Des Moines. Des Moines-ness.

I'll set you straight. I'll set you straight. That was amazing. Well, okay. The thing I love about that, how often do you get to hear about civil rights stories that is just like a truly happy story? Yeah. And obviously this guy had a ton of hardships that I didn't like go into, but like, oh my God, the courts got it right. Yeah.

In 1868, Brandy. 86 years! You guys, Brandy just poof combusted. So here's the thing. I wasn't going to tell that Mark Twain story. Why? Well, because it was like, here's the thing. I wasn't going to tell that Mark Twain story. Why? Well, because it was like, here's the thing. I felt like I was being a bit of a bad boy because this is a court podcast.

And I really gave, you know, obviously I talked about the court stuff. But I also told you a lot about his life. And I felt like I was really pushing the limits. No. You know what? It's our fucking podcast. You know what Kyla said to me? So I went for a run with Kyla this morning. And I told her, okay, I've got to tell you this story that I'm not going to tell on the podcast. limits no it's you know what it's our fucking podcast you know what kyla said to me so i went

for a run with kyla this morning and i told her okay i've got to tell you this story that i'm not going to tell on the podcast so i told her the mark twain thing and she was like christian you've got to tell that she goes do i have to tell you that people do not listen to your podcast for the court stuff yeah i was like oh well okay oh, well, okay. Damn. Yes. So anyway. Holy shit. That was amazing. That's thanks to Kyla.

Thank you, Kyla. Okay. When COVID is over. I know. Did you ever know that you're my hero? Man, we are pushing it to the limit here. We've broken out in song three times now? I think so.

And for like halfway through the episode okay um when kovid is over yeah i know we've got a long list muscatine yeah we gotta go to muscatine it's not that far away and i mean i don't want to creep kent out but i would like a tour of the home. Is he still living? Well, yeah, Brandy. I mean. But he bought the house in the 60s. In the 70s. And he was a very young man. Okay.

I mean, I, well, I guess I don't know that he's still living. Listen, either way, we can go up and admire it. Yeah, we're going to go fucking see the house. And we're going to walk all over it. Yeah. And I'm going to be like, this is the spot where Mark Twain learned about Jim White from Alexander Clark. And Kent's going to be like, man, that's not accurate. I'm going to be like, quiet down, Kent. No, he seems polite from the documentary.

He seemed very polite. So he might be like, you know, it is certainly fun to imagine that. And I'd be like, no. That's exactly what you would do. No, Kent. No. I imagine nothing. All right.

You want to talk about a missing high school student? Depends. Is your story as uplifting as mine? Not even close. I'm going to start out with a couple of shout outs. Okay. First of all, this case was recommended to me by my friend and client, Kristen, who has already recommended one amazing case to us. I was told that I was the only Kristen in your life.

This is the same Kristen who brought the dude to my salon who had been on the episode of Snapped. Kristen, you're killing it here. Yeah. Wait until you hear this my salon. Kristen. Who has been on the episode of Snapped. Kristen, you're killing it here. Yeah. Wait until you hear this fucking case. Okay. So she was in. I was doing her hair and she recommended this case to me. Did she bring in someone related to the case?

She did not. Okay. She's a real big letdown. Yeah, really. Most of this information comes from two sources. An episode of Crime Watch Daily and an episode of On the Case with Paula Zahn. You're into Crime Watch Daily lately. Well, I mean, it just, it.

Are you about to bad mouth it now? No. Okay. You know who hosts Crime Watch Daily? Who? Chris Hansen. Oh. Oh.

Take a seat right over here. I don't love Chris Hansen. Why not? Why not? You don't like justice? You don't like printed out sheets with uh aim transactions you know how uncomfortable it makes me do you really get uncomfortable oh yeah you feel bad for the guys no who show up with condoms and beer no no they just wanted to check

on the girl they didn't want to do anything brandy don't worry no that's what they always say no i hate i hate to catch a predator. I don't like it. Oh, you want to let all the catch a predators loose, huh? I want to let all the to catch a predators loose. I'm sorry. I kept in too many words. Brandy's out back freeing the predators.

Poor Chris Hansen can barely, you know, get his hands on them. Anyway, this was a delightful program. Elizabeth Smart was involved in this episode. She did some of the interviewing. Okay. So that kind of offset the Chris Hanson-ness. Okay. Sorry.

I'm sorry. What don't you like about Chris Hanson? Has he done something bad? I think he's done something bad? I think he's done something bad. I think he has, too. Let me Google him. I'm not positive. I don't want to be thrown out any accusations.

Chris Hansen. Okay. I mean, he's got a bad look. Okay, let's see. Wikipedia. I shouldn't say got a bad look. All right, all right all right i'm gonna go down to personal life here in the wikipedia page

he was evicted for failing to pay rent which seems seems off brand yeah um oh in january 2019 hansen was charged with larceny after a check bounced with a vendor who delivered promotional items no shit he turned himself into police for allegedly bouncing checks for nearly 13 000 for promotional materials charges were later dropped oh on february 28 2020 hansen was charged with harassment by a civilian. No. Wow. Chris Hanson, what's going on, bud? Well, none of that actually seems that bad.

No, but, you know. You know. I'm just not a big fan. Okay. Chris Hanson, an internet disaster. What's that? You didn't know we were going to go down this route, did you? I didn't. I've got gotta stop googling

oh he was dumped by nbc all right what'd he do i don't know do you know that article's from 2013 so we're way behind the times do you know how bad you have to be to be dumped by nbc yeah freaking matt lauer had his little you, evil villain door that locked shut. Yeah, it was just the button under his desk, right? Yeah. It was like a secret button. And they just loved him. And then he had the other secret button, and the Constitution turned around,

and then there was the Nicholas Cage came out from... I don't think that's how it happened. I think the real story is much more upsetting than that, I'm afraid. I read Ronan Farrow's book. Oh. Did you? No, but I listened to several interviews with him when he was doing it. He was on Armchair Expert, obviously.

I know he was. I know what. When you say several interviews, I know what you're talking about. I listened to that one. I listened to a couple more. Yeah, name them. That's the one that was in my. Name them, Brandi. Well, he was on a couple of morning shows

this morning show anyway let's talk about a high school student let's do it ashley reeves was an easy kid that's how her mom mich described her. She wasn't the type of teenager that she had to worry about. She was well behaved and rarely in trouble. She always made curfew. And if on the off chance she was going to be late, she always called. She was very involved in sports, did well in school, was well liked and had a steady boyfriend. Are you like, were you like doing a thing like this? I'm describing you. No, I wasn't.

I wasn't. I had a scratch on my eyelid and you know, I put a lot of effort. I mean, this, you can't mess that shit up once you get that on there. No, I mean, these eyes are not, you know, made for walking. This is not the same. What I'm saying to you is this doesn't just happen, Brandy. This eyeliner was carefully applied. And if you think I'm going in, you know, with all my gummy little fingers and just, you know, messing my eyelashes around, you're wrong.

I've seen a lot of love, but they never come true. Yeah, we're getting real bad for you any minute now. It's a coming um so she was a good kid yeah it that's the that's what i'm getting at here i hate this stuff why i feel like any time like if if there was ever a time when i was universally described as like really great really nice, really nice, really wonderful, it's like, well, I'm definitely dead, you know? So that's why her family was so alarmed when one April evening in 2006, the 17-year-old missed curfew. It was 1030, Ashley's curfew was 10, before her mom and sister even realized that Ashley had never come home. The two kind of— That's an early curfew. Is this a weekday?

It was a Thursday, yeah. Oh, okay. Okay, never mind. Yep. I didn't mention that, but yes, it was a Thursday. Well, please try harder and do better, okay? The two kind of took stock of what they knew about Ashley's plans for the day. She told her sister that she had a job interview in a nearby town.

So Ashley and her family lived in Milstadt, Illinois, and the interview was in Fairview Heights, which is about 15 miles away. I think we're talking about like kind of, it's Illinois, but we're kind of talking about like the greater St. Louis metro area. Gotcha. Fun fact, Illinois has an S on it. Very good. Pet peeve of mine. When people pronounce it, Illinois. No one does that. People do it. No one does it. People 100% do it. People who are new to this country. I mean, what are you talking about? No. Who? new to this country i mean what are you talking about no who lots of people lots of people you guys come forward judgment free zone we're like a planet fitness this is not a planet fitness sorry i was very confused by all the purple so she had a job

interview that day and after that job interview she had told her sister that she planned to meet some friends to play basketball at a local park. But neither her mom nor her sister Casey had heard from Ashley. So they both began calling and texting her and they got no response. When Michelle and Casey reached out to Ashley's friends and found out that they hadn't been answering that she hadn't been answering their calls or texts either, their concern turned to panic. Michelle knew it was time to call the police. So it's unclear to me here how much time had passed before the police were called. But at any rate, when she called, they actually took the report pretty seriously and jumped into action right away. This Lieutenant Mike Hundelt from the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department set up the call. Unfortunately, we get a few calls that are like that, and the vast majority of them are either maybe they just stayed out too long with a friend or something like that,

but there was something different with her voice, something that sounded very stressful, and I said, Captain, this one sounds a little bit different. I think we probably need to run with this one right away. Missing white girl? Yes. Okay. Missing white girl. I didn't really like this detective's take on this. Okay.

He was like, all right, I'm the hero, and I decided we should look into this immediately. Brandy, you give that man a blowjob right now. No, that is obnoxious. It was pretty obnoxious. Like, dude, it sounds like you did your job. Yes. And we appreciate that, but, you know, you're not going to get a medal. Yeah.

So they did. They kind of hit the ground running, started looking into where Ashley had been that day and where she was supposed to be and who she had talked to and whatever. And it wasn't long before they found the car that Ashley had been driving abandoned at a park. It was her boyfriend's SUV. Inside of it were Ashley's outfit for her job interview and her basketball clothes, but there were no sign of Ashley. Ashley's boyfriend, Jeremy Smith, was described as a parent's dream. Okay. He was wholesome. Mm-hmm. He was honest. Mm-hmm.

He seemed to adore Ashley. They'd been dating for nearly two years, but investigators thought they needed to bring him in and talk to him. Well, yeah. It's his car. Remember our detective friend from before? I remember the hero of the story, yes. This is what he said. When you start dealing with missing people, you generally tend to focus on the people who are closest to them. And I was like, what? Really?

I would think you would start furthest away and slowly work your way in. So they bring this Jeremy in. They sit him down. They put him in the hot seat yeah as they like to say yeah sure and detectives thought you know he actually seemed like he really cared for ashley he was very concerned about where she was they pressed him a little bit because he didn't seem emotional but he was like i mean i i i want to find her I've been crying a whole bunch but he yeah he was like he was like

I don't know anything I was out of town the night that she went missing that's why she had my car he gave her his car yeah was that like a normal thing

I don't know okay well I don't personally know Ashley and Jeremy well I'm sorry ma'am are you just reading this case

fresh or did you do a little light reading ahead of time? What did your buddy Chris Hansen tell you about this case? So detectives, they tried to kind of press Jeremy for more information. He seemed like he was telling them everything he knew and it seemed like he had no involvement in Ashley's disappearance. But they did get kind of another clue from him. Ashley had told him the same thing that she told her sister, that she was planning to go play basketball after a job interview. And as I've already mentioned twice, Jeremy wasn't the first person to mention that Ashley had plans to play basketball after the interview this is important information and i always say just repeat it just ad nauseum

let's make this episode 15 hours several friends had also mentioned it uh detectives decided they needed to figure out who she was supposed to be meeting where she was going to be meeting, where she was going to be meeting them, whatever. Who was she supposed to be playing basketball with, Kristen? Yeah, yeah, that's what you want to know, because the people she was around at the time. That's right. Yeah, that would be who you would want to talk to for the investigation. Yeah, sure. So around this same time, Ashley's mom and sister were doing some of their own investigating.

They decided that they wanted to talk to anyone and everyone who had talked to Ashley recently. In order to do that, they needed her call logs. But without Ashley, they didn't have her cell phone. So they came up with the idea to get a copy of their cell phone bill to get her call logs. And they got their hands on that that and immediately they saw something alarming. There were hundreds of calls to and from the same number. Ashley's sister Casey showed the call list to her mother and they didn't recognize the number. It wasn't her boyfriend Jeremy. Whoever that number belonged to had been talking to Ashley a lot. So Michelle decided to call them and she was very surprised to learn that the number belonged to Samson Sam

Shelton. Sam was a 26 year old gym teacher. No, no, no, absolutely not. From a nearby high school. Oh my God. Not the high school Ashley attended. He was well-liked and well-known by the teenagers around town. I'm sure he was because he was just like them and wanted to hang out with them all the time. Nothing weird about that. Nothing weird. Michelle had actually met Sam. She knew that Ashley was friendly with him. She knew they played basketball together occasionally. And she thought that Ashley looked at him as kind of like a mentor. But she had no idea how often they were speaking to each other. Yeah.

So when Michelle gets this call log, she calls Sam. And she asked him if he had talked to Ashley recently. I'm guessing she didn't think that this was the proper time to, like, confront him on why he was talking to Ashley so much. She had other things on her mind. But at any rate. I can understand how you would just be like, hey, have you talked to him recently? And just see what he says. Yeah.

If he says, yeah, weird thing. We talk all the time. Yeah. Which you know he's not going to weird thing. We talk all the time. Yeah. Which you know he's not going to say that. No, exactly. You know it's going to be like, oh, God, I don't know. I can't really remember. I think I saw her last week.

Right. Yeah. So Michelle said that Sam was very polite and friendly on the call. He said he hadn't heard from Ashley and hadn't seen her. And that was it. He didn't offer up any other information. Sure. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, or the police station,

investigators were getting a little different picture of what role Sam Shelton had in Ashley's life. Brandy, are you going to tell me something bad about this 26-year-old man? Am I? Hmm. It turned out that Sam was very popular with the high school girls in the area. And he was rumored to have had romantic involvement with several girls from several different high schools. Including Ashley Reeves. While none of Ashley's friends could confirm that her relationship with Sam was romantic,

they did say they suspected it was more than just friendship. And one was able to confirm that it was in fact Sam Shelton who Ashley was supposed to be meeting that night to play basketball. Investigators knew it was time to bring Sam in. So they go and they pull Sam from baseball practice.

He's a baseball coach at one of the high schools. They pull sam from baseball practice he's a baseball coach at one of the high schools they pull him from baseball practice bring him into the station and sit him down he's in a baseball uniform during his entire interrogation which is all recorded so we see a lot of clips of it on this episode of both crime watch and the on the case with paul's on initially sam's super friendly super cooperative he said that and he and ashley were friends but that was it their relationship was strictly platonic on his end he was afraid that ashley was maybe becoming a bit obsessed with him because she'd been calling a whole lot lately. In fact, he'd kind of been dodging her calls for a few days. Yeah, I'm sure.

Uh-huh. Immediately, the detectives were like, okay, this guy's so full of fucking shit. Yeah, you know what I do with someone who's clinging? I call them like a hundred times. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And so they start to ask Sam about the nature of their relationship. You know, he's saying it's all platonic and they kind of press him on that.

And he's like, no, no, no, come on. She's a high school student. I'm 26. We were just friends. Yeah, we know. We played basketball together. That's it. Just friends? Yeah, we're friends.

Yeah, that's fucking friends 26 year olds are often friends with high school girls kristen false so they continue to push him a little bit and they're like come on sam was there maybe ever a time that your guys' friendship maybe crossed the line of what would be appropriate? And Sam was, like, scandalized. He was like, oh, my stars. Heavens to Betsy. And he said, I mean, I would hug her goodbye sometimes, but that's not sexual, is it? Is a hug goodbye sexual?

Like, that's an actual quote from him on this. Of course it is. Of course it is a hug goodbye sexual like that's an actual quote from him of course it is of course it is and the police are like uh-huh okay so then they're like well you know he's raping someone and so they're like all right sam well you know we're just we're hearing a lot of stuff from ashley's friends um that that you're a huge creep uh maybe there was something more to your guys's relationship and that sounds like you've had relationships with other high school girls in the area if they missed the opportunity to say your reputation precedes you. Right, exactly. And Sam kind of looks down for a second, and then he's like, all right.

Okay, here we go. I'll say this. We never kissed. We never kissed. What is he, Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman? We did have sex in the back of my car. What? Give me a break.

We never kissed. What? Is that sexual? Is that? What that what right we had we had sex in my car but we never kissed oh thank god thank god you didn't kiss and you know what after that day i felt absolutely terrible about it oh wow absolutely terrible but you know okay the legal side of this is for statutory rape if you didn't kiss doesn't count you felt real bad about it later doesn't count they can't touch you legally doesn't count yeah and so investigators are like okay this guy keeps changing his fucking story first they were just friends all they did was play basketball they've never done any sex

things sexual and then he's like oh we had sex one time in my car and then in the next sentence he's like oh i really wanted to be in a relationship with her i had strong feelings for yeah that's where he continues after the okay we had the sex one time and then okay well actually you know i really felt like we were kind of moving towards having an actual relationship blah blah he just keeps changing his story you know what this makes me think of that case about the woman in italy who refused to marry the man who raped her yeah it makes me think of all these stories i mean i think this happens everywhere where some dude is a big fucking creep and he thinks the way to make it right is yeah oh i wouldn't be in a relationship with her now. No, dude.

No, it's fine that we had sex in the back of my car because, number one, we didn't kiss. Oh, yeah. Thank God for that. And number two, I was thinking about getting in a relationship with this 17-year-old girl. Oh, yeah. Oh, wonderful. Oh, okay. No problem.

I didn't understand. I thought maybe you'd kissed. God. I just can't get my head around, like, where he was like, no way. We never like nowhere we never kissed yeah what do you okay what do you make of that i don't know like suddenly that's okay yeah i think we're trying to look too much for like logic yeah this guy is just a big creepy predator yeah much like a hairstylist so they're like okay this guy is obviously lying he's continuing to lie we've got to try and catch him what's the next story that he's gonna tell us and so they're like okay time to come clean sam when was the last time you saw ashley yeah because at this point he's like i

i haven't seen her in a few days whatever sure and so he's like, all right, all right. She was in my car that afternoon. She disappeared. And they're like, okay. Yeah, her body was in my car. No, no, Kristen. She was in my car. Everything was fine. I picked her up so we could go play some basketball.

And all of a sudden, out out of nowhere she's pissed about something she's yelling at me she's screaming I don't even know what she was mad about so I pulled over to the side of the road I got out of my side of the car walked around physically picked her up out of the car sat her down on the side of the road ran back around the car and got in and drove off oh shut up and I left her there is what i did i left her right out there on radio range road that's what i did i left her right out there did he really say i left her out there is what i did yes yes i mean he might as well have said i'm fucking lying right now i'm coming up with this as the words are coming out of my mouth uh-huh yeah he

direct quote is i put her down shut the door ran to the car i took off i left her i left her there is what i did uh-huh i left her out there by radio range road i left her right out there that last part i left her there is what i Yeah. It almost sounds like a nursery rhyme. Yes. That an idiot is making up as he goes along. Yeah. And so detectives are like, really, Sam? That's the story you're going with?

You guys got in a fight. You physically. No, hey, not a fight. She just went crazy, man. She just lost her shit for no reason. Yeah. 17-year-old, man. Yeah. fight she just went she just lost her shit for no reason yeah 17 year old man you physically removed her from your car left her on the side of the road and then from that moment

you decided to never reach out to her again you didn't call her you didn't text her oh that's interesting yeah because we're talking about people who are exchanging over some period of time a hundred calls, multiple text messages. She goes missing. And he doesn't make any attempt to contact her. Yeah. That is interesting. You didn't want to, you know, make sure that she, you know, made it home safely from there? Right.

This is his response. It's a direct quote. No, because I knew for a fact that she didn't make it home safely. I did not want to drive by there because if I would have drove by there and if I would have seen her, like, I don't know if she'd like got hit by a car or something and she was laying over in a ditch. If I would have seen that, I could not stand that. I have an absolute fear. I have a very weak stomach when it comes to like gore movies. I can't even watch those. I still have in my head from that Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie that came out.

Have you seen that movie? Oh, my God. If I would like see her laying on the side of the road right there, it just, I don't know. I would have like felt absolutely like horrible yeah so um raping kids is fine but the idea of someone being injured on this side of the road can't can't handle it got a real weak stomach for that that's right i'm okay i can't even describe to you watching him do this part because this is all this is all on tape he's sitting there in his baseball i know i had to look so hilarious leaned over the table

like this going have you seen that texas chainsaw massacre movie police continued to press sam they were like okay obviously this guy's not giving us the full fucking story like but but he's dumb enough to tell too much oh he is they like know that he's told lies they know that this isn't the truth but they can't get him to stray from this version of the story they interrogate him for 12 hours wow, and some crazy weird coincidence, Sam asked to go to the bathroom. And so they let him go. And on his way back from the bathroom, he ran into the police department's lead detective, Stephen Johnson. Okay. Stephen Johnson was the leader of the Law Enforcement Explorer program, which was a program through the Boy Scouts,

where Boy Scouts could come and see what it would be like to be a police officer. Okay. So Sam had been a Boy Scout in that program and had worked closely with this guy, Stephen Johnson, during that program. And so they like run into each other. They say hi. And then. Oh, my God.

And then the other investigators see this opportunity. Sam trusts this guy. He has some kind of relationship with him where he sees him as like a mentor. Oh, my God. And so they steven to take over the interrogation they're like they've been sitting there for like 20 minutes when steve is able to break sam essentially he just looks at sam and he goes, Sam, tell me about the mistake that was made. And Sam starts crying and he goes, can I I just can I just leave and just like go tell my mom and my grandma what happened and he's like you know the investigator's like okay you know what what would happen if i left here right now and i went and talked to grandma and mom and i laid out the whole story that you've told me what do you think mom and grandma are gonna say and sam's just crying

harder and harder and he's like i just want to go home and I just want to explain to my mom and my grandma exactly what happened. And this detective goes, what? He goes, you know what, Sam? Your grandma's not here. And your mom's not here. But you know what? What?

In a way they are. Because everything they've taught you is's not here. But you know what? What? In a way they are. Because everything they've taught you is right in here. Oh. Oh my God. Brandy, are you sure you were watching Crime Watch Daily and not a Lifetime movie? I was like, what? And it fucking works. Of course course it did because sam is stupid he's a creepy stupid weirdo sam's just crying harder now he's like sobbing and he's like sam we know you aren't

telling us the truth and you need to you have to for For grandma. Are you sure he's not saying for your mom, for your grandma? Is he really saying it without the your? Yes, he's saying it without the your. That's a good tactic. Yeah. But man, that. So at this time, Sam asks if he can be alone for a couple of minutes. And detectives know this as a sign. Like, this is a sign that he's about to confess. So they let him have a couple minutes. And when they come back in, their hunch is confirmed. Sam looks at him and he goes, can I just, can I go show you what happened?

I'd have to show you. And they're like, take us directly to the crime scene absolutely right exactly that so they tell him they need him to kind of walk him through what happened and then yes he can show them whatever he wants to show them and so he says this is what he says happened that day he says that he and Ashley got into some kind of argument and that she wouldn't get out of his car. So here's, pause just for a second. Here's a fun fact that I failed to mention until now.

Okay. Sam was a coach and a high school gym teacher. He also was moonlighting as a professional wrestler known as The Teacher. Ew, no. Where he wrestled like in khakis and a sweater vest. No. Yeah. So he said when Ashley wouldn't get out of his car, he got her into a wrestling chokehold,

and he heard her neck pop, and her body went limp. Oh, God. And he said he panicked. He didn't know what to do he said i was a nervous wreck thinking what did i do what did i do i wanted to make it look like she'd been strangled out in the woods so i choked her i choked her with my hands but that didn't work she was still breathing what so at this point when she goes limp, he puts her back in the car. Uh-huh.

He drives her to the woods. Not to a fucking hospital. No. Carries her out into the middle of the woods and begins to strangle her. Oh, my God. When he can't strangle her with his hands, he starts to strangle her with a belt. He said, I took the belt and I pulled. I pulled it on her neck.

I don't know how long I held on. I had to turn my head because I didn't want to see. Oh, yeah, because he's got that weak stomach. Mm-hmm. And all of a sudden I heard like a gurgle. Then all of a sudden when I heard the gurgle, I let go. And when I let go, she had spit and foam coming out of her mouth. And then I saw that she was the sickest color I'd ever seen.

Her tongue was kind of protruding between her teeth. Then he went on and said that he used his foot for leverage so he could choke her as hard as he could. He choked her until the belt broke. Oh. So he repositioned her one more time and choked her until there was no breathing. No more froth. No more changing of facial color. And he left her in the middle of the woods.

He said, I just took off. I mean, I literally darted through there like a bat out of hell. You're going back to hell, douchebag. No shit. So now he's told them what happened and they're like, okay, take us to her. She's still out there, right? And he's like, yeah. It's like 2 o'clock in the morning by now.

And they take him to the woods. And it is, it's cold. It's rainy. It's dark. And they're like walking through these really thick woods for like 20, 30 minutes. And he can't get his bearings. He's like, I don't know. Maybe I came in from this direction.

They're searching. They think for a minute that he's like got them on this wild goose chase, that this isn't where she is at all or something. Surely it was just that they couldn't see shit, right? Yeah. And then finally a flashlight landed on something in the distance. There was a form on the floor of the woods. As the searchers moved closer, the form became clear.

It was Ashley Reeves' body. She was lying in this horribly unnatural, broken position. Her arms were splayed awkwardly at her side. Her body was covered in thousands of insect bites. It seemed very obvious that she was deceased. She'd been out there for more than 30 hours. It had rained. The temperature had dropped into the 40s.

Not to mention that Sam had just told them that he'd strangled her three separate times. Yeah. Then one of the searchers saw something. He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him in the dark of the woods with only the beams from flashlights, like lighting it up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But then he saw it again and then again. What?

Ashley's chest was rising and falling. What? She was breathing. Brandy. She was fucking alive. Brandy? Are you serious? She's alive when they find her in the woods.

Does she survive this? Yes. What? What? Yes. Oh my god, I've got goosebumps. Yes. This, my God. I've got goosebumps. Yes. This is on tape.

They recorded him going through the woods. They have this recorded when they find her. The detectives start yelling. They're like, she's breathing. She's breathing. Get any empties. Like, one of them drops to the ground and holds her hand and is like, Ashley, Ashley, can you hear me? Her head moves slightly, but she's unresponsive.

But she is breathing. Paramedics come. They take chainsaws to cut trees and brush down to get to her. It takes them an hour to get an ambulance to her. But she is alive. Oh, my God. May I tell you how wrong I was about everything? When you were going into detail about him strangling her.

Yeah. I almost told you you were doing too much. Yeah. Because I was like, this girl's dead. We don't need to hear every single detail. You need to hear it because she survived it. You do have to hear everything she went through and she stayed alive. The other thing was my gut was like, well, why go out there at two in the

morning when you're not going to see shit? Thank God they did. Thank God they did. Yeah. Holy shit. I cannot believe she survived. She fucking survived. She's horribly injured. Well, of course. She's in a coma, essentially. Yeah. She has a horrible fever because she has so many insect bites. Oh. They believe that she's paralyzed.

They believe her neck has probably been broken. Sure. But they don't know that for sure. Mm-hmm. But they take her. She's in intensive care for days before she comes out of a coma. But eventually she comes out and she fucking survives. That is amazing.

Yes. I love a good survival story. I, when I. Fuck off, creeps. Seriously, I, when I watched the video of them finding her and she's alive. You're crying right now. I fucking, I was like bawling. Yes.

I could not believe it. Oh. Sam is taken into custody. And this is what he says as he's being arrested. Oh, I can't wait to hear it. He says, am I going to be able to, like, get my contact solution and take my contacts out and get my toothbrush?

And the detective's like, I don't think so. Yeah, like, man, read the room. Yeah. And he's like, I can't take my contacts out? Oh, my eyes are going to get real irritated. And then's like, I can't take my contacts out. Oh, my eyes are going to get real irritated. And then he says.

No. Am I am I going to get like a private toilet? Because I can't pee when there's people around because of my urinary stress disorder. Oh, OK. And the detective looks at him. OK, precious baby. And the detective looks at me he goes i don't know sam you strangled a woman multiple times and left her in the woods not a woman a kid a kid a teenager a 17 year old girl oh i want him i want my own private toilet on account of my micropene

so the detective goes i'll i'll tell them that's what you want but i don't i don't know if they'll be able to make that happen and then sam goes because i'll be miserable if i can't pee oh no oh how terrible that'll be for you here's an idea. Why don't we leave you in the fucking woods? The world is your toilet, buddy. Yeah. Have at it. Yes. So,

So did he get his own toilet? I don't know. Brandy. I don't know. Brandy, don't you understand what the stakes are? He could be miserable. Yeah. So,

Ashley is off fighting for her fucking life. Mm-hmm. She comes out of her coma. She has to relearn to speak, to eat, to drink, to walk. She was able to do all of it? Yes. Wow. So it was widely reported that he had broken her neck. Her mom actually came out and made a public statement and said her neck was not broken.

Her neck was horribly injured. Sure. But it was not actually broken. Oh, my God. And we expect her to make a near full recovery. Wow. The biggest problem was that during the strangulation, the multiple strangulations, her brain was deprived of oxygen. Sure.

And so that is what resulted in her having such a long recovery to relearn a lot of things. Ashley has no memory of the attack. She has no memory of several days before the attack and all of the time that she was in a coma following the attack. Yeah. She does not have any memory of having anything more than a platonic relationship with Sam. Wow. She only remembers him being a friend.

She says she never, to her recollection, ever had sex with him. Huh. And I don't know that she would have any reason to lie about that. No, no. That what I'm thinking is like what, what my wonder is. Okay.

What is it? Is did he rape her? And that led to this. Did he, did he force himself like to have this, to essentially did he rape her did something happen that day and that's what led to that attack or was the rape part of the attack right exactly yeah that's what i'm wondering too honestly because i just don't know and ash doesn't remember

in one of the shows on the case with paulanne, she says that she has no memory of ever having any more than a platonic relationship with him. She thought he was her friend. That makes understanding why this happened to her even harder. She doesn't know what could have happened that day that would have led to this. crime watch daily episode at the very end of it elizabeth smart says she asked ashley off camera about the nature of her relationship with sam and that she said they both knew that it had crossed what was appropriate and that they needed to end it okay but okay that i'm not sure that could mean lots of different things exactly yeah that could mean a whole hell of a lot. Exactly.

It could mean we've been too flirtatious. It could mean, you know, it could mean we kissed. Yeah. It could mean anything. Yeah. But yeah, honestly, it would not shock me at all if he raped her and strangled her. Yeah. It wouldn't surprise me at all either.

I mean, he seems like such a great guy. Such a great guy. And he's got that poor urinary stress disorder. Oh, gosh. Can't even imagine having to overcome something like that. So our buddy Sam, he's arrested. He's charged with attempted murder. And they set his bond at a million dollars.

And immediately he hires a defense attorney and they file a motion to get his bond reduced. So they have this hearing to reduce his bond and they reduce it to $800,000, which seems odd to me. But in order to make bond, you have to pay 10%. $800,000, which seems odd to me. But in order to make bond, you have to pay 10%. So the minute they reduce it to $800,000, his mom shows up and has $80,000 cash to get him out of jail. Wow. So he bonds out as soon as they release it. I'm guessing that was all that they

could come up with like it was probably every penny they had and that's why they fought to get the the bond reduced i wouldn't have thought that two hundred thousand dollar reduction would mean that much which is probably why the judge went ahead and did it yeah not thinking that it would make i don't know i don't know the specifics of what the argument was for reducing it. But they reduced it and he was able to bond out. Oh, good. A known sexual predator. Mm-hmm. An attempted murderer is now out.

That's good. So he was required to stay home and he had, like, electronic monitoring on his, he had to wear, like, an ankle bracelet. Mm-hmm. But as soon as he got home, the first thing he did was text his 18-year-old girlfriend. No, Brandy. To come over. No. And she did.

Oh, my God. Like, the next day, this girl's mom went before the judge and said. Oh, my God. And said, he called my daughter, who is an 18-year-old high school student. Oh, my God. To come over. And the judge said, it's not a violation of his bond. Oh. over and the judge said it's not a violation of his bond oh i want to projectile vomit uh-huh yeah so they're moving towards trial in this in the meantime ash

is going through this horrible recovery process and the defense files a motion to get Sam's confession withheld from trial. On what grounds? They said that he gave it before he'd been Mirandized. But he gave it when he wasn't under arrest. They only have to Mirandize him when they place him under arrest. He had given his confession willingly without being placed under arrest. So it was allowed in court. Following that ruling, Sam went home and attempted suicide.

He took a bunch of pills and then he wrote all these messages on his body. I assume he wrote the messages before he take the pills if we're getting technical but he wrote all these messages that on his body that said don't resuscitate you don't have permission to touch my body like emts came they immediately went to work on him they took him to the hospital to try and pump his stomach so he became combative in the hospital he punched a nurse he kicked an, whatever, saying, you don't have permission to touch me. You don't have permission to try and save my life. Like all of this stuff.

Ultimately, I believe that it was decided that he hadn't actually taken enough of anything to. Right. To end his life or be fatal. I don't really know. This ultimately resulted in him getting a bunch of more charges for assault oh well yeah because he assaulted you yes he assaulted a bunch of people yeah yes he assaulted emts nurses all kinds of people because he said they didn't have permission to touch his body he then had to undergo a whole like psychological exam to make sure he was

to undergo a whole like psychological exam to make sure he was fit to stand trial it just lengthened the process so much ultimately when it was determined that his confession was going to be admitted in court he was mentally fit to stand trial he ended up taking a plea deal he agreed to plead guilty to attempted first degree murder in exchange for a 20 year prison sentence. Ashley's family said that they took the deal. They agreed to take the deal because they needed Ashley to have peace and they needed her not to have to testify in court. Yeah. It was such a harrowing thing for her, and she had so few memories of what had actually happened. It would just be a very difficult thing for her to have to do. Absolutely.

And so they felt like 20 years was pretty low, but they were willing to take that. I hate attempted murder. I know. We've talked about this before. I just think... He was unsuccessful at murdering her. Yeah. He took all the steps necessary to murder her I know. We talked about this before. I just think he was unsuccessful at murdering her. Yeah. He took all the steps necessary to murder her. Absolutely. Yeah. Under this plea agreement, he does have to serve 17 years before he will become eligible for parole. Okay. That does at

least. Yeah. He's not getting out on, you know, at 50% or whatever. He has to serve 17 years minimum before being considered for parole. Sam's mother. Okay. Said that her family reluctantly settled for the deal because they believed they would not have gotten a fair trial because of the continuing demonization of Sam. What? Seems like Sam demonized himself. Uh-huh.

That's amazing. Yeah. That is absolutely amazing. Yeah. I can understand, like, this is my son. I am going to stand by him as his mother. Mm-hmm. But he did it.

Yeah. He admitted he did it. He admitted to doing it. Yeah. The evidence all lines up to him doing it. Yep. And you're going to pretend that he's the victim? Yep. and you're gonna pretend that he's the victim yep on this episode of crime watch daily ashley

is taken for the first time back to the scene oh no where she was found in the woods they don't go into the woods they kind of stand outside and she's with the detectives who found her and they all have remained close over these years this happened in 2006. So several years have passed. And she, it is amazing what a recovery she made. She, you, if you didn't know something had happened to her, you wouldn't know. It is amazing. She has a full life today. She has a couple of kids and has a great job and ended up graduating high school, finishing all that. It is amazing to me. She said it's hard for her to hear when people say that she's tough. She's like, that's the biggest thing that people say that I'm tough, that I'm a fighter. And she's like, I mean, I guess I am. But what choice did I have?

Terrible attack. I cannot believe that she survived that. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah. believe that she survived that yeah that's amazing yeah oh and that is the story of ashley reeves one amazing survivor and you know what i gotta say thank god the police took it seriously and went looking for her at two o'clock in the morning yeah Yeah. Yeah. Thank God they did. Yeah. Oh, man. That's too much. I know. Okay, lady, let's take some questions from the Discord. Let's do it.

Ew, Gajeril, what kind of monster are you? Do you put ketchup on your fries or on the side for dipping? On the side for dipping, of course. You don't just squirt that shit all over the top of your fries. I don't, but I wouldn't be opposed to it. Oh, I'm so opposed to that. Oh, what, you wouldn't eat the fries? I wouldn't.

Oh, Brandy. If they're pre-ketchup'd, no. No, I need control over how much ketchup you're getting on that fry. You know I'm weird about sauces. I know, you're weird in a lot of ways. That's right. Haven Monahan wants to know, do you guys think you would be friends if you met today as adults?

Yeah. Yeah, I mean. Yeah. I think, though, it is really fucking hard to make friends as adults. Well, sure. But yes. Yeah.

Yeah. Here's what would happen. I would go into your salon for a haircut and I'd really, really like you. And I'd just go in for a lot of haircuts and be like, I wish I could be her friend outside of this, but that'd be weird because you know, what if she's just nice to me? Cause I'm paying her, you know, it'd be, it'd be one of those stripper situation. Bad, bad, real bad. bad wants to know what has been your favorite case that the other has covered and what is your favorite case that you've covered so my favorite case that you have covered is juvenile bigfoot the reluctant lottery winner like that's episode 63

the funniest exchange when he's defending his tiny Bigfoot footprint. My favorite one you've covered, this will surprise no one, The Watcher. Yes. The Watcher was so good, although also the Taco Bell case you covered. That was quite good. Quite good, Brandy. What's your favorite case that you've covered yourself? What's your favorite case that you've covered yourself? Mine is the French World Health Organization researcher Oh, that was good

That was good Was that a Patreon one or is that normal? No, it's a normal one Okay, okay Wow That's my favorite case You had an opportunity to plug the Patreon and no, you didn't Well, I didn't, I can't lie

Yeah, it's for sure a patreon episode you can only get it there um okay only because i have the memory of a goldfish and i just can't remember back too far but last week doing tony kar. Okay. That was so much fun. Your dramatic reading of the 911 call. What the fuck was that? That was the best snort I've ever heard. I'm too excited. Okay. Was so good. I was literally in awe.

My jaw just wide open listening to you do it it was amazing it was so fun i love a story where no one gets physically hurt yeah and where we can just make fun of some entitled white guy yeah and i mean if he's got a midwestern accent that sounds a little southern i'm here i'm here if he says restaurant, restaurant, that's all I need. Do your grandparents say restaurant? I think I have a grandparent that says restaurant. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, DP's parents used to say restaurant. Yes, I also have a restaurant. I have a grandparent who says warsh. Yeah. Ugh. Yep. I can't handle it.

The Midwest is a strange place. Whew. Did you know when Lincoln was president, it has shared a picture of their corgi and wants me to acknowledge him. That is really cute. Very cute. I love a corgi. And this picture, you guys,

it's kind of a close-up of the eyes. It's just looking right at us. Adorable corgi. Caitlin Johnson says, I'm taking an online baking class and we're making chocolate pie crust. What kind of filling should I make to go in it? I feel like the answer's right there.

It's very easy. Peanut butter. Peanut butter filling. Okay. Whew. Some kind of cream topping whoo whoo be still my heart oh that sounds so good i want pie really oh yeah you know what also i think a pecan pie and a chocolate crust would be really good i think just about anything i was thinking like a strawberry. All right. Strawberry mousse

type situation. That would be good. I was picturing like not just a bunch of strawberries. No, no, I'm not a monster. Yeah. Strawberry mousse in a chocolate pie crust. That would be delicious. Okay. Let's start our, our own food network right now. We'll call it the food network. Oh, Sarah Deskies. I'm guessing it's how you pronounce it. Says, Kristen, how's your fish diet going? And what's your favorite fish so far? Okay.

Living that pescatarian life. Loving it. I did have a cheeseburger. Was it a fish burger? No, it was not. So here's the deal. We went over to Kyla and Jay's for dinner. Yeah. And they had made cheeseburgers. Oh. And you know, I could have just stuck to the salad and the deviled eggs. Or I could say, well, I suppose it would be rude if I didn't eat a cheeseburger. So not eat this cheeseburger you made me.

So I must confess, I did have a cheeseburger, but I'm back on the wagon. You ate a kale salad today. Okay, there's this place that we get lunch from. We should plug it. It's a local place. Yeah, Westside Local. We love it. Kristen always gets this kale salad.

It's delicious, Brandy. I swear to you. It looks like they have gone out back and just collected a bunch of roughage. You guys, Norman and Brandy make fun of me the entire time I ate it. And it's a big salad, so I eat it for like half an hour. Here is the only redeeming quality this salad has. No. Is it has two big, thick, delicious pieces of bacon on it.

They're huge pieces of bacon. Kristen had this salad today, but because she's now pescatarian, she ordered it sans bacon, and Norma and I were like, what the fuck is that salad now? Just a pile of weeds. No, it's so good.

You guys, they've got the shaved Brussels sprouts, they've got caramelized onions, they've got parmesan cheese. Brandy looks like she's about to throw up. They've got caramelized onions. They've got Parmesan cheese. Brittany looks like she's about to throw up. They've got a nice dressing. It's so good. So good. You know what I had?

Fit your pescatarian lifestyle. I had a grilled cheese, and it was delicious. It looked amazing. It is a fancy grilled cheese. It has brie and some other cheese that I can't pronounce on it. It's a Kraft single. No, Westside Local. So good.

So good. Line asks, what's the closest you each have come to being arrested? I've never done anything remotely close that would. I mean, so in college, I used someone else's ID to get into the club. Did you get caught? Yeah, but I mean, nothing happened. They didn't arrest you? No, they were just like, you're clearly not five foot four. I was poorly thought out. I used Casey's ID to get in somewhere once. Poorly thought out, Brandy. I got in a few times. They caught me on like the fourth time.

So, you know, I guess I was okay. You used Casey's? I did. How'd that go? It went fine. Yeah. I feel like you two look enough alike in a pinch. Yeah.

It was a male strip club. What? I was 17 and I was traumatized by what I saw in there. No, Brandy, I remember this. Brandy. Brandy, tell the truth. You were not traumatized. I was traumatized.

You. There was a lot of swinging. Brandy. And. Brandy, you like really liked one of the guys. Oh, that was a waiter guy there, not a stripper. Well, who cares? Don't be judging the dancers and their gazungas.

You really, yeah, you were quite taken by him. He gave you his number. Yeah, I think he was trying to get a tip. I never called that number. Well, still, still. It probably wasn't even his number. Bust it out. Yeah, I still have it.

Don't you have it in a scrapbook? Which strip club was it? Well, so it was the strip club actually I think is now gone, but it was called Whispers. But this was a special, a special one night event because it's usually a female strip club. Sure, sure. Yeah.

But a group of girls that I worked with at the Walgreens. Man, a wild Walgreens night. Were all going and they were like, you have to go. And I was like, I'm 17. I can't get in. And they're like, oh, just use your sister's ID. And so I asked her and she was like, yeah, that's fine. My parents knew I went.

Yeah, yeah. But I was traumatized by what happened in that place. Did they get fully naked? No. Or did they put a little sock on it? Yeah, it was basically a very form-fitting. Left very little to the imagination. There was nothing left to the imagination.

Wow. Yeah. I've never been to a strip club. Male or otherwise? Yeah, no. I have also been to a female strip club when I was 18 for my 18th birthday. That's where you just had to go. I went to Omaha with my friend Nicole from Walgreens.

Yeah. And the only club that I could get into was the strip club. Oh. Yeah, so that's where we went. that I could get into was the strip club. Oh. Yeah, so that's where we went. Did you get like a lap dance or anything? No, no, just, you know, hung out. Hung out with the naked ladies.

With the naked ladies. No, being a female guest inside of a female strip club you are very popular because the ratios are popular with like everyone in there yes the men who are there to watch the show oh yeah they're like this lady's open-minded it's like no i'm no i think it's just like oh there's a lady yeah and there's no rules about that lady i. I mean, there are, you know, the rules of society. But I can be as creepy as I want to hurt. Oh, God. They're not going to throw me out of this place. This sounds like a nightmare.

Yeah, I mean, it could be if you didn't, like, find yourself, like, a nice corner location. Oh, yeah, nothing happens in the creepy corner of a strip club. My God. Great advice from Brandy, guys. What was with the Walgreens ladies? They were just horny as hell going to strip clubs all the time. I guess. Just one strip club after another.

It's all that bright lighting and that music. El Pollo Popo asked, what's your favorite 90s commercial slash jingle? Minus Folger is the best slash jingle? Mine is Folgers. The best part of waking up is Folgers Senior Cup. Oh, do you remember the commercial with the ballerina? She would like, you know. No. Brandy, come on.

She was like waking up and, you know, she's got her Folgers and it's brewing and she's like spinning in the kitchen. No, my favorite one was like where the kid's coming home like from college or whatever. And he like comes in and he gets there and his parents are still asleep. And so he makes the coffee and his parents wake up and they're so excited to see their song. Oh my God. No, my favorite jingle was the Big Red commercials. Big Red Fresh goes on and on. While you chew it.

Yes. So say goodbye a little longer make it last a little longer give your breath long lasting freshness with big red oh yes what i don't remember it never heard of it big red i gotta say though doesn't have long-lasting freshness. Well, no, and it's not fresh. It's cinnamon. Yeah. Nobody's fresh breath smells like cinnamon. New podcast idea. We fact-check 90s jingles. I love it. That is very niche, but I love it.

12 people will listen. Both of our moms have a new podcast to listen to. Right. Ooh. Ashley, the teacher, wants to know, for Brandy, have you done anything as a mom yet that you swore you would never do it seems like all my plans went out the window and i did all the shit oh yeah i mean i think we all do all the shit right okay so first of all i was someone out there is doing it perfectly and she's very offended yeah i'm sure she is mother of the year

i was very concerned about the nose happenings. Remember we talked about this. I have an aversion to snot and all that, and I was very concerned about how I would handle that. Well, Brandy, God bless. Yeah, no. Doesn't fucking bother me. No, of course not.

No, take care. I mean, if my baby's having trouble breathing, I'm getting that nose sucker out. We got it taken care of. Yeah. No problem. As far as things that you're not supposed to do that i do i don't know like my kid slept in a dock a tot for the first month of her life and you're not really supposed to do that but that is how she slept and she loved it you know the other

thing you did that red bull slushy you're not supposed to give those to infants no whatever like i mean there's lots of stuff that they tell you you're not supposed to give those to infants. No, whatever, like, I mean, there's lots of stuff that they tell you you're not supposed to do that seems like, all right, really, like, how bad could that be? I mean, I get, okay, somebody's going to at me and say, you know, SIDS is real. And I 100% know SIDS is real. And, like, back is best and nothing else in there. And that's how she sleeps now. But when she was swaddled, her bassinet was so huge for her that we put her docketot in there and she slept in it and now someone's gonna write me hate mail so you know what i don't even

have any idea what a docketot is i i have just been nodding because i felt like she's talking about this like everyone knows you also mentioned nursery water like a couple weeks ago and i had to be like yeah nursery water is the type of water that you make formula bottles from i only know that because i had to ask you you brought it up three times and then finally i was like okay what the fuck is it sounds delightful so yeah when you know they don't really give you instructions on what you're supposed to mix the formula with and so i was like doing a bunch of whiskey you know vodka i don't know well apparently there's too much fluoride in tap water you want fluoride once you have teeth but if you don't have teeth yet it'll make the teeth form wrong

i don't fucking know so she gets nursery water it's a dollar a gallon and buy it at walgreens walgreens this episode brought to you by walgreens walgreens stop there and then go to the strip club you know you'll want to but um as far as like other, I'm sure there's going to be lots of shit that I said I would never do that I will do. But I'm only like, you know, 11 weeks in to momhood so far. Are you only 11 weeks in? Yeah. Holy shit. She's 11 weeks old.

Oh my gosh. Hmm. A baby. Sweet little baby. Kyla and Jay had a moment the other day so um ally and henry were over and well the whole family was over and norman and i have m&ms out in the living room yeah and ally was having some you know ally is very old but henry is like two he's like a year and a half. And Kyla gave him one. And Jay was like, oh, my God.

If anyone had given an M&M to Allie at that age, you would have lost it. Yeah. It's that second kid thing, you know. You live and learn and then get loves, as they say. All the shit goes out the window. That's right. So that is the unique dynamic that we have in our household too this is my first baby this is not david's first baby david has a seven-year-old

son jackson and so stuff when i'm unsure david's like oh yeah we're good like it's such a relief having him who's like done it before and like you know they really say that you like your instincts are just there and it's so fucking true yeah i it's insane how you just know how to do stuff that's cool yeah that has inspired me to become an astronaut just get on in there you know it's gonna come to you right you're gonna be amazed at my instincts once i get in this racket shall Shall we move on to Supreme Court Inductions? Let's do it. I'm totally ready. I don't need you to stall at all. Oh, I don't need to stall either because I'm also ready. I'm not ready at all. Do we need to remind

people how to get in the Supreme Court? Let's do it. Yeah, you do it. Oh, wow. Kristen, tell people how to get in the Supreme Court. Don't tell me what to do. Here's what you do, folks. You sign up for our Patreon at the $7 level. You get a monthly bonus video. You get a monthly episode. You get into the Discord. You get a sticker. You get a card with our lovely autographs.

And you get your name read aloud right here along with, this week, your favorite book. That's right. This month, this season, your favorite book. I'm sorry. The last 800 episodes, your favorite book. Literacy is the key to our democracy. That's exactly right. All right, here we go.

Tim Scooble. Sex Soldier by Dan Beers Marino. Addison Mandrell. The Great Gatsby. Tess Gavin. The New York Nobody Knows by William B. Helmrich. Rachel Hanvelt. Marley and Me.

Jordan Lyons. Invisible Monsters. Megan Garrett. The Other Belen Girl. Amy McMullen. And Then There Were None. Erin Lawless. The Turtle Series by Tamara Pierce.

Morgan Jimenez. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. Kayla Ismail. Tiffany Small. Ashley Bailey. Liz Powers. Olivia Gassaway. Vicki Ginsley.

The Night Circus. Sierra Turner. Harry Potter. Renee Wan. The Magician's Trilogy. Jane Kish. Anything by Anne Rule. Eve Elizabeth.

The Sandman Series by Neil Gaiman. Welcome to the Supreme Court! Oh, we should have welcomed them to the Iowa Supreme Court. Oh. Because that's the place to be this episode. It is the place to be this episode. It's where it's at. Guys, thank you 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, all of those places. Please remember to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen. And then head on over to Apple Podcasts. Leave us a rating. Leave us a review. A nice review, please. Kristen, you're so anxious.

Please, a nice 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 the documentary Lost in History,

Alexander Clark by Iowa PBS, the project Clark v. Board of School Directors, Reflections After 150 Years by Drake School of Law, and Wikipedia. I got my info from an episode of Crime Watch Daily, an episode of On the Case with Paula Zahn, and articles for CBS News, The Oklahoman, and the Belleville News Democrat. 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.