Let's Go To Court! - 270: The Kidnapping of George Weyerhaeuser

Episode Date: September 27, 2023

When nine-year-old George Weyerhaeuser went missing, his family panicked. Kidnappings weren’t commonplace, but in 1935, wealthy families were on guard for them. The Great Depression was in full swing, and just a few years earlier, the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby captured the nation’s attention. So, when the Weyerhaeuser’s son didn’t make it home for lunch, they feared the worst. And now for a note about our process. For this episode, Brandi copy and pasted 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, Brandi pulled from: “Weyerhaeuser Kidnapping” by Daryl C. McClary, historylink.org “The Kidnapping of George Weyerhaeuser | USA” podcast episode, The Evidence Locker “Deep in the Woods” by Bryan Johnston “1935 kidnapping revealed 9-year-old timber heir’s mettle, led to ‘greatest manhunt in history of Northwest’” by Douglas Perry, Oregon Live “History: How the Seattle P-I played a pivotal role in the kidnapping case of George Weyerhaeuser” by Alec Regimbal, SeattePI “George Weyerhaeuser Sr., great-grandson of timber company founder and kidnapped as a child, dies at 95” by Paul Roberts, Seattle Times YOU’RE STILL READING? My, my, my, you skeezy scunch! You must be hungry for more! We’d offer you some sausage brunch, but that gets messy. So how about you head over to our Patreon instead? (patreon.com/lgtcpodcast). At the $5 level, you’ll get 51+ full length bonus episodes, plus access to our 90’s style chat room!  

One semester of law school. One semester of criminal justice. Two experts. I'm Kristen Caruso. I'm Brandi Pond. Let's go to court. On this episode, I'll be talking about an old-timey kidnapping. Well, I've heard this episode before. Ooh, blame it all on my roots.

I showed up in flippies to tell you about this old-timey kidnapping. Boy, this should have been workshopped. Although I like that you're in fringe today. Yeah, yeah, so much fringe. Hot pink fringe. You're the one wearing a burlap sack right now, ma'am. Everyone, I'm a little cold.

She's wrapped in a blanket and it looks like a burlap sack. I've got to say, I love these days where I don't tell a case, I just sit in my burlap sack. Yeah, and listen with your burlap sack on. That's right. Yeah, get in your sack on. That's what you've started calling it. I shan't acknowledge that. Okay, great. I'm doing

a new thing where I'm really embracing my status as the Grace Kelly of podcasting. Oh, are you? And I've decided that when you say something absolutely revolting... Like get your sack on? Yes. You're just not going to respond? I shan't go down that road. Oh, okay.

This will be a much cleaner podcast. You're just not going to respond. I shan't go down that road. Oh, okay. This will be a much cleaner podcast. Because I believe I make up a small percentage of the disgusting jokes on this podcast. Mm. Mm. Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm.

Brandi, I'm excited for an old-timey kidnapping. Yeah, me too. Me too. Okay. Somehow I never came across this one when I did my series of old timey kidnappings, which is bizarre. But first, I do think we need to talk to the people about what happened at lunch today. Oh, God. Do we have to? I was going to pretend it didn't happen.

You were? No, you go ahead. I just, I keep thinking about it. You go for it. We went to a place that we really like. We love this place. We love it. They play the greatest music.

We love the waitress we always get. She's wonderful. She, like, knows our drink orders. But it's not, like, too much knowing us. It's, like, but it's not like too much. Yeah. Knowing us, it's like the perfect amount. We got halfway through our meals today when Norm discovered a big bug in his salad. Big old bug. Dead one.

Lots of legs. It's up in the air. So many legs. So many legs. It's up in the air. So many legs. So many legs. It was disgusting. So bad. They did comp our food. Yeah.

Yeah. And our waitress knew us. She was like, do you want to keep working on this? We're like, no. She goes, I didn't think you did. We're all done eating now. Thank you. It was rough.

Yeah. It was rough. Yeah. It was a really rough time. And then poor Norm wanted to get ice cream after to wash down the bug, remove the bug memories from his brain. But Kristen and I were too disgusted. We were like, hey, you get whatever you want. We'll go wherever you want. You get whatever you want. But we are not. We're done eating. We're done eating wherever you want. You get whatever you want. But we are not.

We're done eating for a while. We're done eating for a while. Yeah. No more food is going in this body for the time being. But yeah, he didn't want to go solo on a McFlurry. He came home and ate Costco ice cream and was pretty sad about it. I can't believe that happened. That was a big bug.

That was a really big bug. Anyhow, welcome to the podcast, everyone. We don't always have bugs with lunch. And on those days, the podcast is a little lighter. Didn't mean to start it out on such a dark note. Such a rough note. But, you know, if you want to hear some episodes where there aren't bugs in our lunches, go on over to patreon.com slash lgtcpodcast.

Over there, you'll get 51. Over there, you'll find 51 bonus episodes. Over there. Oh, Brandi, do you want to apologize? Because the episodes are coming. The episodes are there. Oh, Brandy, do you want to apologize? Because the episodes are coming. The episodes are coming. Everyone. Yes, okay. Thank you. Every person who lives in

Indiana has told me that they are not called Indianians. Oh, she's so gracious. They are Hoosiers, which, okay, I will admit I thought that was something you could only say if you're actually from Indiana. Did you think it was like a slur? I think you aren't allowed to call people Hoosiers.

They're only allowed to call themselves Hoosiers. And it's shocking to me that the good people at researchmaniacs.com lied to me when they told me that people were called Indianians. Everyone, Brandi messed up big time. Huge. On our recent bonus episode. And even though I didn't make the error, I actually had an error-free episode. I just want to say that I am sorry.

As am I. Oh! Oh, now you're sorry. I am sorry. Yeah. After I. The error-free one. Okay. Anyway. Anyway, it's really embarrassing. Yeah. Because some of us take this very seriously.

Anyway, now, I don't mean to upset you all. Brandy, unfortunately, is the one telling the story today. That's the rudest thing you've ever said. She'll get through the story. It's not even about kidnapping. Turns out it's pronounced kidnapping. And it's just a story where she insults people from Indiana.

No. Anyway, yeah. Sorry, Hoosiers. Yeah. Also go on over and support And if that's an insult, I'm really sorry. Because it feels like it. Why does it feel like an insult? I don't know.

It feels like a thing you're not supposed to say. But Indianians felt right. Yeah. I think that feels real weird all the time. Oh, I totally agree. I mean, you really had to do some rolling, you know? Yeah. Yeah.

Indianians. Indianians. Yeah. All right. Why don't you start your story all right i will shout out to mr mango on my shoulder in the discord for recommending this case sources um oh you look like you're in pain everyone she read a book. I didn't. Okay. Stop.

You didn't even read the fucking book. I skimmed the book. Last week, you came to me and you're like, I'm reading a fucking book. I ordered a book. I ordered a book. The reason I ordered the book is because I determined that it was the only source that had the ransom note in its entirety. Okay. Okay. And you do know how much we love a ransom note on its entirety. Okay. Okay?

And you do know how much we love a ransom note on this podcast. I started reading the book. The book is not bad, but it does something that I don't enjoy. What's that? And the author makes a note about it at the beginning. It is a choice that the author made. Author, by the way, is Brian Johnston. No shade to Mr. Johnston here.

May I guess what it is? Uh-huh. It's imagined dialogue. Yep. Yep. Yep. I hate that. Yep. May I guess what it is? Uh-huh. It's imagined dialogue. Yep. Yep. Yep. I hate that. Yep, I don't like it. Okay. Yeah, so it does tell the story, but I can get that in other sources as well, and it peppers

in a lot of imagined dialogue, which he's up front about. Yeah. Just not my thing. It'd be really funny if it was poorly imagined. So absolutely no shade to Brian Johnson. It's clear that a lot of research went into this book. It is the only place that I could find the actual ransom note from this case.

And what's the title of this book? It's called Deep in the Woods. Wow. Yes. Okay, very good. So I used a smattering of information from this. We called Deep in the Woods. Wow. Yes. Okay, very good. So I used a smattering of information from this. We call it a splattering. Okay, gross. Most of this comes from an essay by Daryl C. McCleary for historylink.org. I felt like I was hit with the double C.

Yes, Daryl C. McCleary. McCleary. Yeah, McCleary, yes. Very good essay. Oh, suck on that, Brian Johnston. No imagined dialogue at all. All right, all right. Also, to an episode of the podcast, Evidence Locker. I have listened to this podcast for a case before because I remember shouting them out, but I cannot remember what episode it was. So anyway, I enjoyed it very much.

Sorry, evidence locker. Okay, are you ready? I might be. You ready for an old-timey kidnapping? Yes, I am. Friday, May 24th, 1935 started just like any other day for nine-year-old George Weyerhaeuser. For full disclosure, I read about this case a lot before I ever heard anything about it. And I pronounced his name Weyerhaeuser the whole time in my head

because it is spelled W-E-Y-E-R-H-A-E-U-S-E-R. Yeah. But it is pronounced Weyerhaeuser. Okay. Yeah. That's it. Weyerhaeuser. Okay. Yeah. That's it. That's all I got to tell you. No, that's good.

That's good. All right. So George went to school that day, talked baseball with his friends. George was reportedly a big fan of Babe Ruth because they had the same first name. His name was George. George Herman Ruth is Babe Ruth's real name. His name was George. George Herman Ruth. His real name. Okay, thank you.

You were so confused. I was. The look on your face. And I was trying to not have the look on my face. But it was there. It was there. You've never seen Sandlot? Yeah, The Great Bambino.

Yeah. I don't remember George factoring. They do. They call him George Herman Ruth. Okay. No, I remember The Great Bambino. Yeah. I don't remember George factoring. They do. They call him George Herman Ruth. Okay. No, I remember The Great Bambino. I remember the very problematic scene with Wendy Peppercorn. Anyhow, continue.

Okay. Around noon, school let out for lunch. This is such a bizarre concept to me. The kids go home for lunch. First of all, where are they? Oh, we're in Tacoma, Washington. Wow. Good of you to mention it. Okay. It's coming up, but I'm sorry I didn't mention it in the first two sentences.

Everyone knows every story should start with the year and then the town. Okay. I think if you work it into the first two paragraphs, it's good. Picture it. So George gets out for lunch like he always did. And again, this is such a weird concept to me that we're sending little kids home for lunch, but it's the 1930s. I remember, and I meant to look into this more.

And by look into it, I mean ask my mom about it. I remember my grandpa telling a story about going to school during the Great Depression. Because that's where we're at. We're in 1935. And each student would have to bring a potato with them to school. Oh, to make a soup together? No, they'd put all the potatoes in the furnace. And by lunchtime, they'd all be baked potatoes.

And each child would eat the potato they brought for lunch. Wow. Yeah. All right. That sounds very depressing. That's why they call it the Great Depression. Yeah. Don't you think there were fights over, like, no, I brought that big potato?

Oh, there probably were. Absolutely. Or maybe all of the potatoes, you brought them in, they just went into a basket, and then the teacher put them in the furnace, and then you got whatever potato you got. Let me tell you something. If I were that teacher, it'd be a big pot of soup. Yeah. Yeah, but then you'd have to have other things than just potatoes. No, you don't.

It's the Great Fucking Depression. You get what you get, and you don't throw up. But at least everyone gets some, right? And it goes longer. Yeah. All right. Yeah. All right. That's and you don't throw up. But at least everyone gets some. Right? And it goes longer. Alright. That's enough out of you, man. Anyway, George gets out for lunch and he did what he always did.

He started to head to meet his sister at Annie Wright Seminary, which was a short walk from his school. So each day he would typically leave his school when they were let out for lunch, walk to his sister's school, and there the family chauffeur would pick them up and take them home to their mansion in Tacoma, Washington. Wow.

Because George Weyerhaeuser happened to be the son of Tacoma timber baron John Weyerhaeuser. Inventor, of course, of the warehouse. No. No. No, he's a timber man. Okay, gotcha. Yeah. All right.

Lots of logging and deforestation. Anyway. Brandy's acting like she cares about deforestation. I do care about deforestation. Meanwhile, she uses toilet paper that is so thick it's basically a down-configure. So who's the problematic one? No, I like that. The blue toilet paper.

Yeah, you do. I do. I really like it. So George did as he always did. He walked to his sister's school, but his school had let out early for lunch for some reason, like 10 to 15 minutes earlier than they usually did. And so he went to the school, but no one was around yet at his sister's school. And so he thought rather than stand there and wait, he would just walk on home and start getting lunch ready. They have a chauffeur, but not someone who's getting lunch ready for them?

That's a good question. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Maybe that's an imagined conversation now that you say it, Kristen. Okay. Okay. So he heads home early. And so when the chauffeur shows up to the school to get George's sister, George isn't there.

Right. So they head back home, assuming that this is what he had done that he had you know just walked walked home he wasn't there so they thought maybe he had stayed at school with his friends decided not to come home for lunch that day which i don't think was like the norm but i think happened occasionally. And so the chauffeur at one point did go back, like re-drive the route looking for George, didn't see him and decided to come back home. Later that afternoon, the Weyerhaeusers did get a call

saying that George had never returned to school after lunch. And at that point, the Weyerhaeusers knew something had happened. They weren't sure what though. And at that point, the Weyerhausers knew something had happened. Yeah. They weren't sure what, though. Had he gotten lost? Had he gotten hurt? Or had he been kidnapped? So this is 1935.

This is like the height of kidnapping. We're talking like this is three years after the Lindbergh baby had been kidnapped. Kidnapping for ransom was seen as a quick way to make money during the Great Depression. Yeah. If you want to be your own boss. Yeah. Snatch a rich family's kid. Sure.

And demand ransom. Yeah. And that's exactly what had happened to George. Yeah. ransom. Yeah. And that's exactly what had happened to George. Yeah. That evening about 6 o'clock

a little after 6 maybe 625 I don't really know why I said 6 o'clock. Can I hit it? I'm going to hit it again. No you can't. No you can't. This is Hoosiers all over again. My goodness. Do you think the time doesn't matter in Tacoma, Washington?

It does matter. Washingtonians care so much. Washingtonians. That's probably right. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Tacomans.

Careful. Mm-hmm. You don't want to have another giant mess up. Giant mess up. At that evening at approximately 625 p.m., as it turns out, like a bicycle messenger, I believe, arrived at the Weyerhaeuser home with a special delivery letter. Okay. He handed it to someone at the front door and it was immediately given to John Weyerhaeuser, George's father. It was addressed to whom it may concern. Inside the envelope was a long typewritten ransom note laying out 21 points.

Oh, my God. And I will now read it to you. I'm so glad you got that book. To whom it may concern. One, $200,000 in cash. Adjusted for inflation? A little over $4 million. Oh, wow.

OK. It's a lot of money. Yes, yes. Yeah. Two, $100,000 in $20 million. Oh, wow. Okay. It's a lot of money. Yes. Yes. Two, $100,000 in $20 bills. Wait, they don't even start with like a little, you know. No, no, no. Nope.

They just go right into it. They just go right into the demands. All right. Three, $50,000 in $10 bills. Four, $50,000 in $5 bills. The disrespect to this. I know. First of all, to in $5 bills. The disrespect to this. I know. First of all, to whom it may concern, you know whose kid you took.

Right, you know who you gave this to. Exactly. Also, you can't be like, I will keep this kid safe or anything in exchange for blah, blah, blah. All right, continue. All of this money must be in Federal Reserve notes and unmarked. I'm not going to read the numbers in front of the lines anymore. Do we all understand that each line is numbered? No.

I think we do. You are not to take numbers of these bills. If they are taken and the bills are marked, it will all be off. All of it. I added that part. That's not in the note. Please don't do any imagined ransom noting. Okay.

You are not to notify the police, Department of Justice, or any private detective agency. All right. If you do, it will also be all off. Keep it out of the papers. This is all caps business. Be business like. Oh, that's weirdly condescending. All right.

All right. Put on my best skirt. Right, Brandy? No. You have five days to raise the money. Better have it. Oh, again. Fuck you.

The tone of this ransom note is nuts to me. I've already got a theory. You do? Yes. Do you want me to finish the note and then you share it? I'll share it right now. Okay. This was a generic note.

They're going to kidnap any rich kid from the rich school. Okay. This feels way too generic. It's very generic, yes. In five days, or as soon as you have the money, advertise in the Seattle PI. That is the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. That's the Seattle newspaper. Yeah, yeah.

Personal column, say, we are ready and sign it Percy Mini. Remember, the money will be gone over before the release. So don't mark it. The police can't catch us. So be very, very careful to follow the rules. These bills must also have been in circulation be careful remember and don't try to slip any gold certified notes on us what you wanted it to say in us i wasn't sure what it said actually they probably also don't

want anything inserted yeah yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You will be notified where to go when the time comes. Be sure there is no one following you as you will be watched from the time you leave.

We won't be sitting behind any mailboxes either. What? I don't know. That had to be a timely reference, right? It had to be. Sitting behind.

Okay. We won't be easily spotted. Is that what that means? Yeah. Okay, great. Just follow the rules and we will get along fine. Don't follow them and it will be sorrowful for you, not for us. Oh.

Mm-hmm. We kill kids all the time. We don't give a shit. Yeah. Okay. Mm-hmm. We kill kids all the time. We don't give a shit. Yeah. Okay. Very good. Any questions, ask them in a personal column signed same as above. Okay.

And then the rest of this is in all caps. Great. Remember to follow the rules. All of them. You're repeating yourself, you boring ass kidnapper. Okay. A slip on your part will just be too bad for someone else. Yeah, this is totally a generic letter.

We know what we are doing. Do you? Because it sounds like you just took some random... We have it all planned. It has been all planned for three years. It has been all planned for three years. In the meantime, we have looked for places where we might slip and we found none. We've totally foolproofed this. We did it all ourselves.

Three years. Okay. How long had it been since the Lindbergh kidnapping? Three years. Okay. How long had it been since the Lindbergh kidnapping? Three years. Okay. Okay. So they're trying to act like, oh, I see you. All right, you little sneaky sneaks. Okay.

We are educated. Oh. And pride says we are fairly intelligent. Pride says we're fairly intelligent? Mm-hmm. Okay. Mm-hmm. Continue.

Any typos in this, by the way? No, there's like one or two spelling errors. That's it. Okay. It's very well written. All right. So you agree? No.

So if you just stop and reason for a minute, you'll see that it is best to follow our rules. Just stop and think for a minute. You'll see that it is best to follow our rules. Just stop and think for a minute. Reason, Kristen. Don't you want to follow the rules? Okay. All right. I know this man who's written this letter. He's the worst boyfriend you'll ever have.

He's so condescending. Continue, please. More about the rules and how intelligent he is? Okay. We don't want to hurt anyone if we can get out of it. So if you just follow the rules. Oh, my God. Shut up, dude. So if you just follow the rules. Oh my God. Shut up, dude.

Don't you care about ink? As they are laying down by us, you will have the one you love back home in a week's time. Hold on. As they are laying down by us? As they are laying down by us. Lane, L-A-I-N.

Oh, okay. So as the rules are laying down. Laying down. Yeah. Gotcha. Mm-hmm. All right.A-I-N. Oh, okay. So as the rules are laying down. Laying down. Okay. Yeah. Gotcha. All right. Okay. Hold on.

I'm going to back up just a bit because I do think this is important. Yeah. If you just follow the rules as they are laying down by us, you will have the one you love back home in a week's time. Oh. If you care about them $200,000 worth. You know, I don't feel like you have to lay on the guilt too much in a kidnapping letter. But now this is making me think that they were going to take anybody, not necessarily a child, because they don't mention a child at all.

No, they don't mention a child at all. All right. So just remember, a slip on your part is a slip by us. Okay. But they're not at fault. You're at fault because you need to follow the rules. Don't do it. Right.

Signed, egoist, egoist. Really? Yes. What the hell does that mean? clue all right huh mm-hmm i am so intrigued and i'm so glad you bought that book because that needed to be read in its entirety no other source has it and they're just like it was a 21 line letter it had this demand and was signed in this way. Yeah. No, I don't. In a way, I don't blame them. Yeah.

Because it's repetitive. It doesn't say much. It's extremely repetitive. But in a way, it says so much. So much. Okay. No, I like your thinking, though. Like, this was not.

Thank you. They didn't target this specific kid. And pride tells me that I am intelligent. Mm-hmm. Pride tells me fairly intelligent. Fair. Pride tells me fairly intelligent. Fairly intelligent. Fairly intelligent. Yeah.

Let's not go nuts. Yeah, let's not get crazy here. All right. Unfortunately, by the time that this ransom note arrived, the police already knew about this. Right. Because the warehousers called the police immediately when they didn't know. Yeah, this is why you pick a specific person to kidnap. I don't mean to tell a kidnapper how to do their job.

So at this point, I believe the police had already been called. There was already some kind of search for George going on. Some of the press already had some idea because some people were watching the house and saw this special message get delivered and immediately assumed it was a ransom note. Well, sure. That's how prevalent kidnapping for ransom was at this time. Well, but also like word had already gotten out

so everybody's- Yeah, that he's missing and then there's this special delivery. Right. Yeah. So now the warehousers are kind of freaking out because this says a lot of stuff about not getting the police involved, you know, all of this. They should have hit that point harder. Yeah, you think they missed it?

See, I read that and I thought it'd be okay if I fudged the rules just a little. Oh, did you? You didn't get the impression that you really had to follow the rules here? Yeah, if only they'd been more clear. The letter was signed on the back by George. Oh, God. Yeah, in pencil on the back of the envelope. He had signed his name.

Fuck these people. Yeah. Yep. So as soon as the Weyerhausers get this letter, the fucking FBI is involved. Because now we know that this is a kidnapping for ransom. You okay? Brandy is fatigued already. Okay.

We're 12 seconds into this story. She can't tell you that after the Lindbergh baby kidnapping. The Federal Kidnapping Act, also known as Lindbergh Law, it's right here in my notes. Been seen! Made it a felony to extend extortion threats through the mail. Exactly. People know this. If you've listened to this podcast, you know the rules around kidnapping.

People memorize our episodes. They don't, but we've covered a lot of kidnappings. It's true. But John Weyerhaeuser was like, stay away. I am going to comply with this ransom note to the letter, and you will not intervene. Yeah. He's like, I'm fucking doing it. I'm doing everything to the T.

But as most wealthy families go, it's not like these. Is it to the T or to a T? To the T. Oh, OK. To a T. I don't know. All right. I apologize for interrupting with something totally stupid. It's fine. I don't know which one's right. To a T. It's too bad because we're both fairly intelligent.

Pride tells me I'm fairly intelligent. Standardized tests tell a different story so i love how long it took that to register i only scored very well on my standardized test ma'am all right i'm a classic tale of a former gifted kid. All right. Who just skyrocketed to mediocre. Mr. Weyerhaeuser is like, I am doing everything they say. His name's James. I think he went by JP.

Or his name's John, but he went by JP. God dang it. Patty, I'm going to hit that again. I heard he went by the great Bambino John, but he went by JP. God dang it. Patty, I'm going to hit that again. I already went by the great Bambino. You stop it. His name is John. Or was it the great Bambi? Great Bambi.

Yeah. Yeah. You know what I just did there? I made it so we can't cut it. So you're right. Thank you. So you better just move along. Okay.

So John Weyerhaeuser is like, I am collecting this ransom. Yeah. Putting it together. However, like all so many of these wealthy families, it's not like they just had like liquid cash around. So much of it is in real estate holdings and all of this. So it took them several days to put this much money together. Yes, yes. They also, the FBI was adamant that they did track all of the bills.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. So serial numbers of 20,000 bills were tracked as this, like, were recorded as this ransom was put together. Okay. That's a lot of bills. But, okay. A lot of fucking serial numbers. I would be more okay with that because, like, the kidnappers aren't going to know that you've done that.

Right. As long as you're not making any kind of mark or dying. No, they didn't mark the bills in any way. They just recorded the serial numbers from every single bill that was put into this ransom. They said that a 10-page list was made of these numbers. Those numbers had to be very small on those lists. Sure. Nearly impossible to navigate, I'm guessing.

Okay. That's your issue with this whole thing? We've got 20,000 bills and it only makes a 10-page list? Well, it's just numbers. Yeah, it's a lot of numbers. Okay. And also, how easily are we cross-referencing on these lists? Well, they didn't have Excel.

I know. God hadn't invented Excel yet, Brandy. So, yeah, it was going to be tough. Okay, so the warehousers are all in on this. They're spending days gathering all of this money together. And on Saturday, May 25th, so this is the day after George was taken, they put two advertisements in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The first one said, expect to be ready to come Monday.

Answer, Percy Minnie. And then the second read, due to publicity beyond our control, please indicate another method of reaching you. Hurry. Relieve anguished mother, Percy Minnie. So at this point, they're concerned because, like, this has made big news. Well, and they've made it pretty obvious in the paper. Exactly. So that's got to piss off the kidnappers. So, well, I think their fear is that the general public would figure this out. Oh, of course. Of course.

And that that would compromise the whole situation. Yeah. No, this would be horrible. Yes. Also, I read an article from the Seattle P.I., like a current article where they talk about how sensationalized this was reported at this time. They were, I mean, they were accusing anybody and everybody of being the kidnappers. Like, they were not afraid to print somebody's name, accusing them. Sure.

Yeah, it got wild. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So they were like, come on, let's move this out somewhere. Like, this has already gotten more publicity than you told us to let it get. And that's out of our control. We want to let you know we are doing everything you said.

We are following the rules. But if we need a different way to communicate, please let us know. How the hell do they let you know when your house is monitored? And this sucks. Yeah, it sucks. Yeah, it sucks. There was also like all kinds of speculation going on in the press about how the warehousers were communicating. Like one day there was a bed sheet hanging out of a window at the house to dry and that got printed in the press that it was a signal to the kidnappers. Sure. Yeah.

Yeah. They got no response from either of these messages. Oh, shit. And so they just kept doing what they were doing. On Tuesday, May 28th, so now the whole weekend has gone by. Monday's gone by. It's now Tuesday. Do you like how I told you how the days of the week go? He was kidnapped on Friday.

Just that was the point I was trying to make. Days of the week. Days of the week. Days of the week. Days of the week. Days of the week. You learned so much on this podcast. That's right. On Tuesday, May 28th. About federal kidnapping laws, about days of the week, about Brandy's nipple hair. I mean, that last part

is disgusting, but she tells us about it on a near weekly basis. All right, continue your story, please. Okay. On Tuesday, May 28th, 1935, so this is one day before the five-day deadline, Mr. Weyerhaeuser placed another classified ad in the Seattle PI. This one said, we are ready, Percy Minnie. Yeah. The family wouldn't speak to the press at all about this. Hell no. speak to the press at all about this. Hell no. They kept it completely quiet and law enforcement agreed to take a step back and let them do this ransom handoff, whatever the instructions were, and they said they would not intervene. Okay. So on Wednesday, Mr. Weyerhaeuser got a letter

from the kidnappers telling him to register that night at 7 p.m. at the Ambassador Hotel in Seattle under the name James Paul Jones and to say that he lived in Seattle when he registered. OK. I think that was a thing you had to do back then. You had to give like a. All right. Yeah. All right.

And he was to check in, go to his room and await further instruction. I'm sorry. How did you say that he got this information? It was a letter that was sent to him. Okay, gotcha, gotcha. Also with that letter came a handwritten note from George containing information that only he would know. Talked about the birth years of his siblings,

talked about what they do every summer, just different information that he could tell his parents so that they would know he was OK. And that's what he wrote in the letter as well. I want you to know that I'm OK. I'm getting plenty to eat. They're taking care of me. Yeah.

Holy shit. And so Mr. Weyerhaeuser did what he was told. He went into Seattle. He checked in to the Ambassador Hotel, and he awaited further instruction. At 9.45 p.m., a taxi driver came to the hotel and hand-delivered John Weyerhaeuser a letter. The letter instructed him to drive to South Renton Avenue and 62nd Avenue in the Rainier Valley. Okay. You picturing it?

Yes. You know exactly where that is? Uh-huh. He was to take the ransom with him, and he was supposed to look for like a stake with a white cloth on it. It would look like a flag. And the note said that there would be instructions there and that he was supposed to follow those instructions. And so John Weyerhaeuser did exactly that.

He went to that location. He found the stake. And then under that stake was a tin can. And inside the tin can were instructions to drive 700 feet ahead where there was another white flag. And he was supposed to park there, leave the engine running, and leave the parking lights on. And so he did as he was supposed to park there, leave the engine running, and leave the parking lights on. And so he did as he was instructed. He drove there, looked for another can. There was no other can.

There were no further instructions. And so he left the car running, left the parking lights on, and he sat there for three hours. Oh, gosh. And nothing happened. No one ever came. What the hell? And so after three hours, he went back to the Ambassador Hotel with the ransom money. Yeah.

Wondering what this meant. Yeah. Like, had he fucked this up? Like, was he never going to get George back now? Right. So he goes back to the hotel that night. No idea what has really happened. It's after I mean, it's one o'clock in the morning, I believe, by the time he gets back to the hotel. And he just goes back to his room the following morning,

Thursday, May 30th, about 1130 a.m. Mr. Weyerhaeuser gets an anonymous phone call at the Ambassador Hotel. And it's a man on the phone. And he asked him why he didn't follow the instructions on the second note. What the hell? Yeah. And he goes, I went to the second flag. There were no instructions there. Yeah.

And the call, like, abruptly ended. Well, what the hell? Yeah. And so he just waited. I believe maybe there was, like, a quick mention of wait further instructions and then like hung up yeah gotcha and so he just sat there and waited for more information hours went by at 9 p.m he received another phone call, this time from a man who had a very heavy European accent that was clearly fake. Okay, yeah. Yes, very clearly fake.

And this person instructed him to drive the money to 1105 East Madison Street, which was a house, like in front of a house. He said, drive in front of this house. Should I be looking this place up? I didn't look any of these addresses up. I'm very sorry. Okay, hang on, hang on. 1105 East Madison? Yeah.

Seattle, Washington. Oh. Interesting. Is there a house? Yeah, so he took it to a Pickleman's Deli. Okay. No, it looks like everything revamped a bit. Okay, so they tell him to go to this address, look for a tin can.

Inside, there will be further instructions. And so he does. He drives there. The instructions are there. And their instructions tell him to drive to a halfway house on Pacific Highway near Angel Lake and then turn on this side road. And then a series of notes there followed in these 10. It's like a fucking scavenger hunt. Yep. So he followed every single one of these instructions until the final one told him to park his car, place the bag containing the $200,000 ransom in the front seat,

leave the car running, leave the engine on, the lights on, turn the dome light on in the car, leave the door open, and walk away from the car. Head toward the highway. Oh, my God. Keep on walking. They said they would collect the ransom, and if all of it was in order, they would release George within 30 hours. What? Release him where?

Just release him. And so John Weyerhaeuser did exactly as he was instructed. What are you going to do at this point? Parked the car, turned the dome light on, left the engine running, left the door open, put the $200,000 on the front seat, and he took off walking. He had walked about 100 yards when he heard a noise. And he turned around and he watched someone scuttle out from the bushes and jump in the car and drive away. Okay. Did he see anything like?

No. Nothing. Just a person. Yeah. Yep. Well, that narrows it down. Yeah. And so he did as he was instructed.

He kept on walking, walked all the way to the highway and caught a ride back to Tacoma. I assume he hitchhiked. Holy shit. Okay. back to Tacoma. I assume he hitchhiked. Holy shit. Okay. And waited for George

to come back home. He drafts the ransom. The kidnappers get the ransom. It is all in order. It's all paid. It's exactly how they set it. And so at 3.30 a.m. on June 1st, 1935, the kidnappers released George Weyerhaeuser.

You are kidding me. Nope. They just like let him off on the road, on the side of the road in Issaca, Issacua, Washington. Issacua. Great job. Issaca. It might be Issaca. Issacua. I i don't know i'm so sorry they gave him a blanket to keep warm okay stuffed a dollar in his pocket oh that ought to do it and they told him

to wait that his dad would be along to get him it was raining george didn't have any shoes at this point. Oh, my gosh. And so he waited for a while on the side of the road. And then he was like, this is stupid. Why am I just standing here? Yeah. So he just started walking. Yeah.

In the pitch black with no shoes on in the pouring rain. And he walked and he walked and he walked for six miles until he wandered onto somebody's property and saw a little house. And he walked up to it and knocked on the door. It happened to be the house of Louis Bonifat. His wife, Wilna, answered the door. And boy, she's shocked to see a little boy at her door that early in the morning. They let him in.

He explained who he was. They knew, obviously, immediately who that was. They fed him breakfast, gave him a pair of their children's shoes. Yeah. gave him a pair of their children's shoes. Yeah. And then at 6.30 in the morning, Louis Bonifat put George Weyerhaeuser in his car and he headed to drive into Tacoma.

Oh, my gosh. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Wait, they didn't call the police? They didn't have a phone. Oh, okay. Yeah. Old timey times.

No, they did not have a phone. And this was probably a pretty rural area. Yes. Not particularly densely populated area. Sure. Yeah. So when he did get like into town a little bit, he stopped at a gas station, Louis Bonifat did, and he went in and told the attendant to call the Weyerhaeusers.

He said, I've got their son. But nobody answered at the Weyerhaeuser's. He said, I've got their son. But nobody answered at the Weyerhaeuser home for some reason. And so. That's shocking. I know. I think it's really weird. OK. So then Lewis called the Tacoma Police Department and said, I've got George Weyerhaeuser.

I'm driving him to Tacoma now. Yeah. And so, you know, great. George is safe. He's warm. He's fed. You know, I'm driving him to Tacoma now. Yeah. And so, you know, great. George is safe. He's warm. He's fed. You know, he's going back to Tacoma. Okay, what happens next is nuts to me.

Okay, so obviously the news of this was nuts. There's press camping out on the Weyerhaeuser's front yard like round the clock. Something got leaked somehow. Somebody got a little nugget that maybe George had been found. I don't know exactly how this happened. Okay. But one of the reporters

who was there at the Weyerhaeuser house was this guy named John Dreher. He was a sports writer for the Seattle Times and he received a tip that George had been found and was being driven back to Tacoma. And so he hopped in a taxi cab and started driving away from Tacoma in the hopes of intercepting George at some point. Oh, so he must have gotten a tip from the gas station.

I assume. Because you wouldn't just risk that unless you had a pretty good sense of what road they'd be on. Okay. Yep. And approximately 18 miles north of Tacoma, this John Dreher guy did exactly what he'd hoped to do. This John Dreher guy did exactly what he'd hoped to do. He flagged down Louis Boniface's car, convinced Louis Boniface that he was a police officer. Oh, go to hell. Gave him $5 as a reward for being willing to drive George into Tacoma.

Oh, my God. And then he got George into the taxi and interviewed him. Cool. Exploit this child. Got the scoop of the century. This is so fucking gross. It's so gross. I cannot believe this.

But then once he got his interview that he wanted so badly, he did have the taxi drive to the Weyerhaeuser house. He had it drive around the back and drive into a garage. Well, yeah, you don't want the other reporters to get the scoop. Exactly. And so at about 7.45 a.m., that taxi arrived at the Weyerhaeuser residence, drove into the garage, and John Dreher got out and he pounded on a basement garage door until somebody finally came it was finally opened by a family friend who happened to be there at the house yeah and George came out of the car and like just disappeared into the house he was home. Okay, tell me everything. So, obviously, this John Dreher guy goes and writes the fucking, gets on the front page. Like, it's a big fucking deal. And then the family has to make a statement, obviously, saying that George has been returned.

And George stood on the front lawn of the house and posed for pictures for the press. He didn't answer questions or anything. He just smiled and let them take his picture. I hate that this was like the expectation. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He'd been gone for six days. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Been through who knows what because he hasn't even told yet. Right. And then, yeah, he's out there. Then he's taken by a reporter who says he's a police officer. He's kidnapped a second time, if you ask me. I agree. Yeah.

I agree. So then George finally tells his family, you know, what he had been through over those days. what he had been through over those days. He said that when he'd gotten out of school early that day, that he'd walked to his sister's school, seeing that nobody was ready to, like nobody was out for lunch, the chauffeur wasn't there yet, and so he decided to go ahead and walk home. So he left Annie Wright Seminary and he cut across the Tacoma Lawn Tennis Club. He thought this would be a quicker way home, but it took him down kind of almost like a back alley.

And when he was down that back alley, as he got to the end of it, a man stopped him and asked him for directions to Stadium Way. And so George started to give him directions. And then before he could get them out, the man grabbed him and threw him in the back of a green Buick sedan that was parked nearby. There was somebody else in the driver's seat, George said. And George was pushed down onto the car floor between the front and back seats. And they put a blindfold on him and then they covered him with a blanket. He said the car then drove around for what he would guess was about an hour and he said pretty quickly

he couldn't tell where they were anymore. Of course not. Yeah. He said the two men spoke to each other but they kept their voices really low.

He was trying to make out what they were saying but he couldn't. At one point they did stop and one of the men handed him an envelope

and a pencil and told him to sign his name on it, which he did. This was that proof of life note that had been sent home. Yeah. Along with the ransom note, obviously. You know what I'm saying. I'm afraid I don't.

But this truly was random, wasn't it? I mean, if he's taking this unusual route home. Should I just let you continue? Well, I don't think it spoils anything. I think the Weyerhaeusers were the target. It didn't matter to the kidnappers which kid they took. Okay, gotcha. Yeah.

They did specifically target the Weyerhaeusers. But yeah, I think they were following all of the members of the Weyerhaeuser family at different times. And whenever they were willing to take whatever opportunity they got. And George gave them an opportunity that day. So it was really his fault. No, it is not George's fault at all. We all see what you're saying, Brandi. That's not what I am saying.

And we're horrified. After he signed his name on the envelope, they put the blanket over him again, and then they picked him up and carried him out of the car. He said they walked what felt like a short distance. He could tell they were outside, and he heard the sound of water running. He said he thought that they had walked through a stream at one point. He said he thought that they had walked through a stream at one point. And then once they were on the other side of whatever that body of water was, they had set George down and they told him he needed to walk the rest of the way. So but he was still blindfolded.

He still had a blanket on him at this point. And so he held on to one of the men's arms for direction. But he said it was clearly like a forested area. There were bushes and brush and limbs scraping his arms all over the place. Right. They walked and walked and walked. But when they finally reached whatever their destination was, this kind of isolated spot in the woods, they took the blanket off of George's head. And George looked around and there was a large log on the ground.

And next to it was what looked like a grave. Oh, my God. It was about four feet by four feet, a big square dug into the ground. And they put him in it. Why? This was to be his holding cell for the foreseeable future. Oh, my God. A hole in the ground. Mm-hmm.

So they put him in this hole. Oh, my. They chained his right leg and right wrist. his right leg and right wrist. And then they covered the hole with a tin sheet and then put branches all over it to disguise it. And then they took the two men took turns standing watch. Oh, my God. Yeah.

Oh, this poor kid. Yeah. George said that night they did pull him out of the hole and allow him to eat with them. Well, how sweet. And they fed him sandwiches, a hard-boiled egg, and cookies. What kind of cookies? I don't know. All right.

And then he was chained back up and put back in the hole. George said several hours went by where he was still in that hole. And then maybe around 10 p.m. that night, his best guess, they opened the hole up. It was clear that one of the men was very anxious and they said they had to get him out of there. They were worried that the spot was going to be discovered by the police. And so they pulled him out and carried him back to the car and threw him in the trunk this time. Oh, my God. out and carried him back to the car and threw him in the trunk this time. Oh, my God.

They, again, drove for about an hour and parked in another wooded area. And then they walked into the woods and they made George watch as they dug another hole. Oh, my God. Then they put a car seat, like a seat from a car. Like, they pulled one of the—this is so confusing to me. It seems like they pulled a seat out of the car and put it in the hole. Okay. And then put George in the seat. And then again, they covered the hole this time with tar paper.

Okay. And then he stayed in that hole for two days. Oh, God. Mm-hmm. After those two days, he was again taken out of the hole. He was thrown back into the trunk. But he said this time someone had joined the two men. There was a woman now.

He could hear her. He couldn't see her. This time they drove for hours. They were able to determine that this route that they took based on stuff that he said, I guess, they drove through Washington and Idaho. So they took him across state lines at this point. Oh, boy. Yeah. And then they stopped again in a wooded area.

And this time George was handcuffed to a tree. This is the weirdest thing to me. What is? That is such a common thing in these kidnappings. The last two kidnappings you've covered, the person was handcuffed to a tree. I think it makes sense, though, right? Like, they're going out in the woods. Yeah, I guess.

What else are you going to get cuffed to? An antelope? No. Right. That'd be so hard to manage. Yeah, he's spent all day. First you've got to corrupt the antelope. You've got to get the antelope in on it? Well, yeah, obviously you don't want the antelope to corrupt.

And the antelopes aren't motivated by money, so you've got to figure out what makes the antelope tick, you see. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I can tell you're not willing to go down this road any further with me. Anyway, he spent the whole day kidnapped to this tree. He was kidnapped, but it turns out he was also handcuffed to the tree. He was Lindbergh to the tree. He was kidnapped, but it turns out he was also handcuffed to the tree. He was Lindbergh to the tree. No. As they say.

He was blindfolded the whole time. But he said it was clear to him that the two men didn't want the woman to see him. But she knew he was there, right? Yeah.

Okay, why? No idea? I don't know. Is it possible that they were afraid that she would see how poorly he'd been treated and how dirty he was? I think that's very possible. Yeah, because I mean, all right. All right. Yeah. All right.

So when he wasn't, I almost said it again, when he wasn't handcuffed to the tree, he was stuffed in the trunk again. And like every so often they'd let him come out and stretch his legs. But anytime they did, he could hear that they would make the woman crouch down on the floorboard and put a blanket over herself. That's so weird yeah so they stayed in this area for several hours back and forth between being chained to this handcuffed to this tree and in the trunk of the car and then finally at dusk that night george was put back into the trunk of this car and this time they drove 300 miles to Spokane, Washington, where they went into a two bedroom house located at. I've seen a picture of this house, but I don't know if it comes up. All right.

1509 West 11th Avenue, Spokane, Washington. Oh, OK. Cute little bungalow. Yeah, bungalow. OK. Okay. Okay. This is what all the accounts tell me, but it seems like bullshit to me. Okay.

At this point, when they get to this house, George is shoved into what is described as a walk-in closet, which I didn't think existed in 1935. That's your big beef? That's my big beef, yeah. In 1935. That's your big beef? That's my big beef, yeah. Well, this house was built before then, and it has a walk-in closet. Now, it's not like a big walk-in closet. So this closet was big enough that it had a mattress and a table and chair inside of it.

I got news for you. That's no closet. That doesn't sound like it. That's a nonconforming bedroom. That's what I think, too. Okay, so I'll tell you exactly what's happening. This bungalow, they're referring to that top level as a closet. I think so, too.

Which is wrong. Yeah. Also, kidnapping's wrong, but we're not going to go through the whole list. Right. So, yeah, he was shoved into this walk-in closet with a mattress, a table, and two chairs, and he spent the next four days inside that room. Okay. This place was built in 1905.

Oh, all right. I'll stop looking at it now. You want to go ahead and close that window, Kristen? I'm going to close it. At one point, George said the woman left with one of the men and George was left with another man. He said he believed that this man. Wait, another man as in one of the two? One of the two men.

Yes, sorry. With the other man, sorry, is what I meant to say. Okay. And he, at this point, determined that this man was what, that they called him Harry. Okay. And that the other man was named bill that's what he that's what he worked out over this time george said he and harry kind of formed a friendship over this time he said um that harry allowed him to walk freely

throughout the house for short spurts of time he entertained entertained him. He played ukulele for him. Okay. He showed him newspaper stories about the kidnapping. And George said that he told the man in response to the newspaper clippings that his parents would be really worried. He was really concerned that his parents were really worried about him. And he said that Harry assured him that it would all be over soon. He did say that Harry wore a mask the whole time, so he never saw his face. But that sometimes he would pull it up over the nose so he could talk and eat. Right. But he never saw his face.

On Friday, May 31st, George caught a glimpse of a watch that was sitting on a table or something while he was left out, allowed to be out of the room. And he saw that it was 5.55 p.m. And at that time, at 5.55 p.m. on Friday, May 31st, the kidnappers told him that it was only a matter of time, that he'd be home soon. And then it was just a few hours later in the middle of the night, they drove him down the road and then they stopped in Issaca, Washington and just let him out. Told him his dad would be along to get him. And then, of course, I already told you, he waited for a while, then he walked and went to the Boniface house.

Okay. Okay. okay. Continue. How about we break for an ad? Oh, damn it. Yes, okay. Doodaloo! And we're back from the ad.

Doodaloo. Doodaloo! All right, what, do you want me to keep telling this story? Yeah, come on. Okay, so George is home. He's unharmed, but he has gone through a crazy ordeal. Yeah. He's been in holes. We know.

He's been chained to a tree. Let's catch these fuckers. I'm doing a quick recap. No, we're up to speed. Sometimes people forget stuff, Kristen. No, they don't. Sometimes people have to pause because they're at work. Not this podcast.

It's unpauseable. Because they're at work. Not this podcast. It's unpauseable. Okay, so while George was kidnapped, while he was missing, the warehousers had been very adamant that the police not intervene. And so, like, basically no investigation had been done to this point other than recording the serial numbers of the Bills. That's essentially all they had done. So now that he's back, fucking all the every police officer everywhere, all the FBI agents, like a dozen FBI agents are sent in.

Massive investigation begins. Immediately, the FBI released that list of serial numbers. Oh, fuck. Yeah. For publication. This was printed in the newspaper it was also sent out to stores banks what train depots yeah yeah all the places i couldn't think of um train you wanted to say depot, didn't you? No. But yeah, okay.

They did find John Weyerhaeuser's car that he had abandoned to leave the ransom in. It was a 1933 black Pontiac sedan, by the way. It was found abandoned. Was it kidnapped to a tree? It was not kidnapped to a tree, but it was abandoned in Seattle's Chinatown district. Inside it, they found the bag that was used to carry the ransom, which they called a Gladstone bag. What's that? I don't know. Why don't you know?

I can Google it. Hang on. Gladstone bag. Oh. Ooh, cute. Oh. Oh, cute. Okay. Yeah. Just a leather old timey bag.

Okay. Kind of looks like an old timey duffel bag. Okay. Sure. Great. Would you like to know about the history of the Gladstone bag? I would not. Thank you.

I'm going to continue telling this story. A Gladstone bag. It's small. All right. Inside that, to continue telling this story. A girl's stone bag is this small? All right. Inside that, there were empty tin cans and the instruction notes. So they found all that stuff inside the car. Mm-hmm. But.

Well, and he'd left all of that there, right? Well, yeah. Okay. Yeah. But the money was gone. Well, that'd be hilarious if it wasn't. God damn it. I knew we forgot something.

On Sunday night, June 2nd, 1935, the first ransom bill was found. I'm guessing it wasn't at a train depot. It was actually. Are you serious? A $20 bill surfaced in Huntington, Oregon. A man used it to purchase a Union Pacific ticket on the 1010 train to Salt Lake City. No way. Mm-hmm.

Okay. Yep. Another one of the bills, another $20 bill, was used to purchase a money order in Spokane on Tuesday, June 4th. By Friday, June 7th, more than 20 of the ransom bills had surfaced in different Salt Lake City stores. Oh, shut up. Most of them were $10 bills. Uh-huh. And they'd been spent at Cress's, I assume is a department store, and Woolworth's, which

is a department store. You know Cress's. I don't know Cress's. You know Cress's? Yeah, they sell Gladstone bags. Okay, fuck off. Okay, fuck off. So these bills are starting to surface.

And so the FBI is like, fucking get to Salt Lake City now. I think J. Edgar Hoover himself said that. Really? Yeah. Yeah, you think so? Okay. Yeah. And so they put all of these undercover officers in the cashier cages at like every downtown store in Salt Lake City. Cashier cages?

Yeah, this was a common thing apparently back in those days. Like that's where they, yeah, if you had a bill that you needed to go break, you took it to the cashier cage and they would break it for you. They also, if you had a bill that you thought was suspicious, you could take it there and they could check the serial number. See if it's on a list of stolen money. All right. Ransom money, perhaps. Now it's Saturday, June 8th. We've got agents just crawling all over Salt Lake City. They know these kidnappers have to be there because these ransom bills keep popping up.

A detective and a patrolman happened to be at Woolworth's in the cashier's cage checking serial numbers of bills that had just come through Woolworth's, like just checking them over the list. when a clerk from Woolworths came to the cage with a $5 bill. $5 bill had been given to her for a $0.20 purchase. And so she took it to the cashier cage to get it checked. And so they checked it across the list. So I believe the person who was spending it was buying a pack of cigarettes. And so the cashier brought it to the cage and they checked it. And sure enough, it was one of the ransom bills.

Yeah. And so look in these two FBI agents race out into the store. And this woman who was buying this pack of cigarettes is still standing there. Uh-huh. And they arrest her. They took her to the Salt lake city fbi field office and they found another one of the ransom bills in her purse she said that her name was mrs margaret von metz and then she told a bunch of conflicting stories about how she got that money and where she lived

and all of this stuff. And so they thought she was, you know, super sus. Yeah. Yeah. Especially when she had a clearly made up name. Yeah. But so she gave them her address, which turned out to actually be her address. Oh.

And so she gave him a fake name, but she didn't give him a fake address. And so they went to her house and they waited there, waiting for what they assumed like her husband would come home. Because they didn't really believe that she was a kidnapper. Why not? Because she's a woman. Well, I don't know that if. OK. So they did know a woman was involved, but they did not, I think, believe that a woman was like the brain behind it.

So, Kristen, it's 1935. Sure. Women hadn't learned anything yet. Well, you don't even know that it's handcuffed to a tree. Right. Or kidnapped to a tree. So I am starting to think that women don't have what it takes, really. So they go and stake out her house waiting for her husband to come home.

And a few hours later, a man does come home. He's got the name Metz tattooed on the back of his hand, which... Tattooed on the back of his hand? Yes, in 1935! I was scandalized by that, too! Oh. My. Lord.

Okay, they said back of the hand. Do you think it's here, or do you think he has it on his knuckies? No, it's not on his knuckies. It's on the back of his hand. That's just what they said. Why wouldn't, who's getting it tattooed

on the back of their hand? This is old timey times. He was a pioneer of hand tattoos. Okay. I want a hand tattoo so fucking bad. Well, get one. It's complicated because my hands are in water all the time.

I would have to take time off so that it could heal before I'm doing hair. You can't do glovies? I probably could. That might be a workaround. I really, nobody cares. I can't. It's not like you wash your hands after you go to the bathroom. I wash my hand all the time when I go to the bathroom. No, I can't shampoo with gloves on because I can't feel if the hair is getting clean.

You get real into it, do you? It's my job. Yeah, but you don't have to love that aspect as much as you do. Stop it. So if you did get knuckle tats or knucky tats as we're calling them. I don't want knucky tats. I want a hand tat. I want a flower.

This is what I want. I want to finish my forearm here, and I want it to come down with a flower on my hand. What type of flower? I don't know. Oh. Just a flower. Okay. I don't have a specific flower in mind.

Do you have a recommendation? Should I get a pussy willow? Is that what you're going to suggest? No. No. Okay. I was going to think of lovely flowers. What about

hey, this is cute. Little dandelion that's being blown in the wind. No, I don't want that. The little fuzzy guys are going down your fingers. That is a very common tattoo. People enjoy that tattoo. So you're calling me basic. Basic bitch.

I'll think of a new one. Do you want them to turn into birds as they blow away? Oh, is that what people do? It's a thing. Yeah. I do not want that. Okay. What would I wish for you?

Oh, you don't. You'd want me to have one of those fucking vagina flowers. Who's the artist who did the vagina flowers? Georgia O'Keeffe. O'Keeffe. Yeah, Georgia O'Keeffe. You wanted me to have a Georgia O'Keeffe vagina flower on my hand. Nope, I do not.

Okay. I do not. I'm back on the dandelion. This time I've got a new idea. Great. Inspired by your bird idea. Okay. Okay, so here's the idea.

You got the thingies coming off of them because of the breeze. Yeah, the breeze, yeah. But instead of the thingies, what are those thingies even called? I don't know. Fuzzy guys. Yeah. Instead of the fuzzy guys, it are those thingies even called? I don't know. Fuzzy Guys. Yeah. Instead of the Fuzzy Guys, it's kind of like a Pandora charm bracelet. So it's all the things you love in little form.

So we'd obviously have to have like some kind of Mickey Mouse thing. I don't like Mickey Mouse. You're a Disney adult, don't deny it. I'm a Harry Potter adult, very different. Okay. So we'll have a little wand. Yeah, I could have a wand. Sure.

Let's see, what else? Sure. A we'll have a little wand. Yeah, I could have a wand. Sure. Let's see. What else? Sure. A slice of pizza on one finger. But I like the, you also like chicken tenders. And to me, that would be funnier. Yeah, but I don't like chicken tenders more than I like pizza. Pizza's my favorite food.

This is my tattoo I'm designing. I like the idea of a food that you're going to look at and you go, what's that? And you have to explain. I think you would have to go. Those are turds. Those are chicken tenders. You'd have to go chicken nugget. Because then it's recognizable.

It needs to be slightly recognizable. No. So you have to do a very specific, like the McDonald's boot shaped McNugget. You know what? I'll settle for that. Even though I don't like it. So yeah. Yeah. Okay? I'll settle for that. Even though I don't like it. So yeah. Yeah. Okay. A lot of good ideas.

A lot of good ideas. So many great ideas. Coming at you fast. No, she didn't write any of them down. Good thing we're recording this, huh? I have to pee. Okay. Go pee. Go right ahead. Go right ahead. And I'm back from the P.

Toodaloo. I don't have a P sound. Toodaloo. Okay, what did you say this fella's tattoo was? Metz. M-E-T-Z. Which the woman they arrested Said something stupid like his last name. Well, so the woman that they arrested at the store with the ransom bill said her name was Mrs. Margaret Von Metz.

Okay. Okay. So now they find this guy. He comes back to the address that she had given as her home address. They're like, this has got to be her husband. He has Metz tattooed on his hand. They fucking take him into custody. Take him down to the FBI field office.

take him into custody, take him down to the FBI field office. Yeah. And there they identified him as Harmon Metz Whaley. Metz is a middle name. Okay. I assume a family name. Yeah.

Yeah, right? He's 24 years old. He is an ex-convict, kind of petty crime stuff. And the woman that they had arrested earlier in the day, they identified her as his wife, Margaret Eldora Thulin Whaley.

Thulin. Okay. That's her maiden name, Thulin. Yeah. Do you like it? No. I think it's fun to say. Thulin?

Thulin. Whoa. You didn't know because you hadn't said it i don't care where you are say it with me yeah it's fun to say it's real fun to say all right thulin she was 19. Cool. Mm-hmm. That's so young.

Yeah. But you know what's even younger? 10 and being put in a fucking hole in the ground. Yeah, he was nine, but yes. That's even younger. Even younger. That was a whole thing I was doing. I was actually going to go younger to get to the accurate age. Oh, okay, until you got to nine.

Yeah, yeah. You started at just one year older. That's right. The whole thing I was doing. I was actually going to go younger to get to the accurate age. You started at just one year older. That's right. It was all a plan. Okay. Yeah, so they're married. Their name isn't Metz, but they get down to the bottom of it.

They figure out who these people really are. Margaret was from Salt Lake City. She and Harmon had married after one week of courting. Well, yeah. What do you expect? One week. These fuckers kidnapped a child. Like, yeah. I mean, this is like the least.

The man has a hand tattoo in 1905 or whatever. All right. These people are bananas. Yeah, I mean, they are. Married after a week of... That's how long they'd known each other. Obviously.

One week. Yeah. You and David had the decency to wait two weeks. That's rude. We had been together almost four years by the time we got married. We did have a child very quickly, though.

How soon did he move in? Pretty fast. Not two weeks, but pretty fast. But like three. And how long until you kidnap that child? I have a never kid... Wow. I have a never kidnapped a child.

That sounded weird that I couldn't say it. Do you think I've secretly kidnapped a child and my brain has blocked it out? No, I don't buy that your brain has blocked it out. You think I blocked it out. And then I like. No, I don't buy that your brain has blocked it out. You think I kidnapped a child. Am I doing like the face on the milk carton thing? Is London not really my kid? Oh, man. Did I just kidnap some.

First of all, thank you for bringing up the classic novel. The face on the milk carton. Not enough people talk about that book. Yeah. But boy, was it important to us in the fifth grade. It was. When we both read it and discussed it at length. Yes.

It was definitely formative. Yeah. Might be the whole reason for this podcast. It is. That is the, that's this podcast's origin story. We read the face on the milk carton in fifth grade. Yep. Yep.

Yep. Yep. Oh, boy. So anyway, let's not suspect brandy of anything because she can totally deny being a kidnapper with no no yeah no problem no lennon looks i mean exactly like david and sometimes she kind of looks like me so seem real defensive also i do remember her being removed from my body. So there is that, too. OK. Well, the human mind is a fascinating thing, isn't it?

OK. So we've got we've got Harmon and Margaret in custody. Of course, they both denied any knowledge of the Weyerhaeuser kidnapping. But then they did a search of their home. Do they have just a ton of ransom money? Okay. Yeah. So first of all, they searched Harmon's person and he had some of the ransom bills in his

pocket. Yeah. And then they searched the home and they found $3,700 of it in the stove. They'd attempted to burn the money. It seems that Harmon had found out that Margaret had been arrested at the store. And so he was trying to destroy any trace at the home. And so he tried to burn the money on the stove. Oh, gosh.

Yeah. It didn't work out yeah so they're both in custody and harman whaley is making false statement after false statement he keeps changing his story and then finally he confessed he said that um a buddy of his from when he was he met him in in prison when he'd been serving some time on like a larceny charge, I believe, had they'd run into each other in Salt Lake City just kind of by happenstance. This guy's name was William Mahan. Wow. That's a great name for a criminal.

It's so close to mayhem. It is. Except that wasn't his name. Oh. That was just the name he went by. Oh. Hold on. You're making a fake name.

Why not go ahead and go for Mayhem? Just hold on. Okay. This guy was known as William Mayhem to Harmon Whaley. That's how he knew him initially. His real name was William Daynard. But everybody called him Swede Davis.

Swede Davis? Yeah. Swede Davis. That has so many fucking names. How do you know what to answer to? I guess two of them are the same first name, so if anybody says William, you probably answer.

And then everybody's calling him Swedes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So he said that he had been buddies. He'd met this guy in prison. They'd been buddies. He'd gotten out.

And then he just ran into old Swede one day in Salt Lake City, invited him back to the house for some dinner. And before long, a kidnapping, kidnapping, kidnapping plot was hatched or hotched. Kidnapping plot was hotched. Was he Swedish? I mean, he had to be, right? I have no idea. Why else would you call him Swede and not Sweet Davis? No, I was like, I don't know. I have no idea.

You've put no thought into it. I put no thought into this man being called Swede Davis. Did my watch just talk? No, it did not. Okay, good. You were hoping it would save you from this moment. But clearly he was Swedish, right? Yep.

All right. Yep. he was Swedish, right? Yep. All right. Yep. He went on to star in a little program called

The Muppets. Great. Where he followed his dreams of culinary arts. Yeah. And being surrounded by kids.

But with human hands. Did he have human hands? Yeah, Swedish chef has human hands. He's the only Muppet who has human hands. I'm adding that to your tattoo. He's the only Muppet who has human hands. I'm adding that to your tattoo. Just a little Swedish Chef.

Just a little Swedish Chef. And maybe they could do it so that your hand looks like his hand. Yeah, sure. I'm sorry. I said that Harmon was serving his time for larceny. It was vagrancy, and I don't know what the fucking difference is. What's vagrancy? That's being a vagrant, just hanging around, right?

Larceny is stealing. Hanging around. Okay. Yeah, that's right. It's homelessness. You can get arrested for being a... Yes. Backwards.

Okay, great. Why don't we just give them somewhere to live? Oh, that's not happening. Okay. There's Why don't we just give them somewhere to live? Oh, that's not happening. Okay. There's lots of vacant homes in the United States. Anyway, moving on. You trying to sound socially progressive when the reality is you don't care about rainforest deforestation?

I do care about deforestation and the unhoused population, ma'am. Thank you. Okay, so Harmon says that he had met Swede or William or William. Oh, sorry. I was trying to take off my shoes and not cause a ruckus, but

I caused a ruckus. Okay. I apologize. Thank you. So they'd met in 1930 while Harmon was serving a sentence for vagrancy. For being poor. Yeah. In the Idaho State Penitentiary. Okay. And that is where he met William Daynard.

He was serving a 20-year sentence. 20 years? For bank robbery. What? Okay. Uh-huh. Are you wondering how that timeline worked out? Yes, absolutely. Well, okay. Uh-huh. Are you wondering how that timeline worked out? Yes, absolutely.

Well, let me tell you. For unknown reasons, William Daynard was granted a full pardon by the Idaho governor, Charles Ben Ross, on June 1st, 1933. And he was released. I don't like that you started with for unknown reason, because I want all that is what every source says. No one knows how this guy got a pardon or what what the reason is. So we don't think he was well connected. We don't think this was a clear error.

It doesn't seem like he's well connected. He is a career criminal. But. OK. I don't know. All right. Yeah. So he gets a pardon in 1933 and he's just out there.

Oh, he knew something about somebody. He had to have, right? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. There. Now we have known reasons. Okay. All right.

Speculated reasons. No, known reasons. So Harmon is floating about his life after he does his time. He ends up in Salt Lake City where he meets Margaret Thulin. They marry after a week. Yeah. She's 19 years old. How old's he?

24. Yeah. Would you like to know about Margaret's background at all? Yeah. She was raised Mormon. Yeah. Would you like to know about Margaret's background at all? Yeah. She was raised Mormon. Okay. I think it says a lot. She'll actually use that as her defense later.

What? She will use that as her defense at trial. Like, um, I, what? I what? I was raised Mormon and in the Mormon church women are taught to obey their husbands. Oh that's not bad.

It's pretty good. Pretty good. That's not going to work. uh huh. Okay. I'm into it. I'm intrigued. So Harmon Whaley is like just spilling all the beans.

He is giving a full confession at this point. That was the beans spilling out of his mouth. Yeah, I saw. And then they spread out. Everyone, Brandy's doing big hand gestures. Yes, I am. And so he talks, he tells them, you know, about him, Margaret Thulin. They got married after a week.

They floated around a lot because Harmon had trouble keeping a job. They lived in Salt Lake City. They went to Camden, New Jersey for a time, into Tacoma for a while. Wow. I mean, they really went everywhere. They went everywhere. Yep. The article from HistoryLink.org phrases it this way, which I really love.

Okay. The Whaley's lived in Salt Lake City, Utah, Camden, New Jersey, and Tacoma for short periods of time, living on welfare while Harmon pursued his criminal career, specializing in burglary and robbery. It's so important to specialize. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. So it was April of 1935. He showed up before everyone.

Yeah, he really put in the work. He left after everyone. That's right. So it was April of 1935 when Harmon Whaley happened upon William Daynard, Swede Davis, whatever the fuck you want to call him, in Salt Lake City. And they decided like all of the opportunities for them in Salt Lake City were done. And they decided as a group to head off to Spokane, Washington. So in April of 1935, they rented a house in Spokane, the one that they took.

The Pickleman's Deli. No, that was the other one. Yeah. The bungalow with the walk-in closet. Wow. Okay. In air quotes. Wow.

You take real issue with the strangest things. the strangest things. And so they set up camp, so to speak, in Spokane, Washington, trying to come up with their next scheme, their next crime to pull off. And then one afternoon,

Margaret read to them the obituary of Tacoma Lumber Baron John Philip Weyerhaeuser Sr. So this is George's grandfather. Yeah. So he died in May of 1935. His obituary was published nationwide because he's this huge timber titan. Is that a thing people say?

It is now. But never with confidence is the rule. He's a timber titan. You said it too quickly there. You really got to make the people wait. Lumber baron is the term that I used previously. But I like timber titan. Yeah.

Nothing wrong with a little alliteration in here. Absolutely. Okay. But that obituary went into a lot of detail about the Weyerhaeuser family's financial holdings. Okay. And so when Margaret read this, the three of them got this idea to kidnap a Weyerhaeuser for ransom. Well, it sounds like she might have been the brains of this operation. If she's the one identifying the... I mean, I kind of agree a little bit.

I mean, I know she's a woman and therefore very stupid. Yeah, I mean, it does seem like... Uh-huh. This, yeah, is kind of her idea. But Harmon, her husband, says that she didn't know anything about this until it got to the ransom stage. not having the second directions where they were supposed to be, she kind of took over and made sure everything was in place so that they could get the ransom. Right. And Harmon says that that is when she entered the plan.

Before then, it was all him and sweet old Swede. Sweetest chef. Yeah. Oinga boinga. Crazy that he got a role on that show after his criminal past. They formulate this idea to kidnap a Weyerhaeuser for ransom.

And so they set up like a base of operations at an apartment in Seattle. And then each day, Harmon Whaley and William Daynard would drive into Tacoma. Margaret stayed behind at the apartment doing housewife things. Each day would follow different members of the Weyerhaeuser family until by happenstance one day as they were driving down the road, George Weyerhaeuser like literally appeared in front of them. Yeah. And they took advantage of that situation and they grabbed him off the street. Yeah, I'm with you. I think it sounds like Margaret had a heavier hand in this. But Harmon Whaley says that she had no knowledge of the kidnapping until after it had occurred, that she played no role until she helped them collect the ransom.

Honestly, I don't give a shit. Either way. Yeah. Oh, I agree. a shit yeah either way yeah oh i agree i find out you've got a nine-year-old kid in a hole somewhere yeah oh yeah so harman has given this full confession and then the fbi agents tell margaret that he has given a full confession and she gives her version, which coincides perfectly with his. Okay. And they sign confessions for the FBI. All right.

But William Daynard is nowhere to be found. He's on the run. Mm-hmm. Okay. This-hmm. Okay. This is interesting. He was spotted by a police officer near Salt Lake City.

So he was supposed to, like he wanted, he was supposed to be meeting up with the Whaley's at like Margaret's grandparents' house. And so he kept just like

hanging out in front of her grandparents' house waiting for them to show and they never showed because they'd been arrested. Right. And so he kept just like hanging out in front of her grandparents house waiting for them to show and they never showed because they'd been arrested right and so he happened to like cross paths with a police officer who had previously arrested him oh and so the police office for a different charge and the police officer recognized him. Uh-huh. But at that point had no idea that he was involved in the kidnapping at all.

Right. But because William Daynard saw him he thought the police were like on his tail. And so he fucking skipped town.

Shit. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. There was another point where he thought he was about to be made but it was kind of

the same thing. He was loitering point where he thought he was about to be made, but it was kind of the same thing. He was loitering somewhere and a police officer was just going to, you know, tell him to move it along. But he took off. He thought that he'd been made. And so he took off and he ended up like jumping over a fence and having to run through like an alleyway or whatever. And he abandoned his car in this run. Turns out they didn't know who he was. He was just like loitering.

And when he abandoned his car, they then searched it and found a suitcase containing hundreds of the ransom bills. Yeah. Wrapped in oilcloth. What the fuck is oilcloth? I can picture it right now. Okay. So they took that back they ran the serial numbers wouldn't you know it matched up with the weyerhaeuser ransom yes i don't think i needed to spell that part out but you did and we appreciate it greatly yeah he had left behind fifteen thousand

dollars of the ransom money in that suitcase inside his car okay But he was on the run. He was convinced that they knew who he was. They didn't. They did now. They do now. You are over-explaining this. No! It's very exciting!

No, I agree. But you're telling me and then telling me again. Yeah. Yeah, that's how I do it. Wait, so he... What's he thinking right now? He's thinking he's being made. He thinks they made him, which he's right now. They have made him at this point. But he wasn't right earlier. Yeah. So he goes on the run. He's going to spend the next year on the run. Oh, shit. Yeah. With what money? How much money does he have left? I mean, a lot. We know it was

on his person. We don't know that specifically. We assume it's on his person because he's making it a year. But he is also a career criminal. So maybe he's robbing other people. Yeah. Anyway, so back to the Whaley's now. They've made their full confessions. They tell the FBI that they buried the bulk of their ransom money in, I don't know, some camp canyon, immigration canyon. Immigration canyon?

Yeah. E-M-I-G-R-A-T-I-O-N. That looks like immigration, right? It's approximately six miles east of Salt Lake City. Okay. All right. And so on June 10th, 1935, the FBI went to the location where they had told them. And sure enough, they dug up a gunny sack containing $90,000.

Whoa. Yeah. Of the ransom money. Okay. At this point. Okay. So this has got kind of. Is there sex stuff? No, no sex stuff. Okay. At this point, okay, so this got kind of... Is there sex stuff?

No, no sex stuff. You... The way you looked at me was like there was some sex stuff. So they go count this money out

and at this point, Harmon Whaley finds out that fucking Danard, Swede Davis, took $5,000 more than his share

when he divvied the money. So now he's fucking pissed. What? Come on, man. Yes, he is. He's like, I hope they fucking catch him now. He's like, $5,000 extra.

Okay. On Wednesday, June 12th, 1935. okay on Wednesday June 12th 1935 many moons before I was born but on my birthday okay 15 years before Brandy was born

the Whaley's were extradited from Salt Lake City to Tacoma where they were officially indicted. Why are you saying that with a question mark? Well, because they were officially charged and arraigned and then I don't fucking know. The indictment came down like a week

later. I think that whole process is a little confusing. Alright, okay. I was confused because I thought for a second there was going to be sex stuff and then it turns out you're talking about indictments. So imagine how I feel. there's no sex stuff in this at all. Zero sex stuff did I come across. Harmon Whaley was arraigned on June 21st 1935 and he pled guilty to kidnapping and conspiracy charges. But because George Weyerhaeuser had been released unharmed.

I love how we talk about these things. Unharmed. Unharmed. Yeah, no emotional damage here. No trauma here. The court thought that he deserved some leniency. So the maximum sentence was life in prison. Okay.

The maximum wasn't death? No. So this is a federal. He's charged federal. Right. Federally. Life in prison is the federal max. Okay.

If he had been charged at the state level, he could have received the death penalty, which is why it is believed that he pled guilty to the federal charge. Oh, of course. Of course. Yes. That is so interesting. It's like the one time when going across state lines is actually a good thing. Absolutely.

Okay. Because this was charged as a federal crime, it kept him from the death penalty. Interesting. Yep. All right. So he pled guilty and because he gave a full confession, because George Weyerhaeuser was physically unharmed,

in quotes. Totally fine. Yeah, the judge was lenient with him and he sentenced him to 45 years in prison for the kidnapping charge and two years

for the conspiracy charge. Wow. To run conspiracy charge. Wow. To run concurrently. Okay. He was immediately taken into custody. And in July of 1935, he was transferred to serve his sentence at the new maximum security prison in San Francisco, Alcatraz. Oh, boy.

Yeah. State of the art. Okay. So he's off. He's pled guilty. He's serving his 45-year sentence. Now it's Margaret's turn. Margaret was arraigned with Harmon, with her husband, and she tried to plead guilty alongside him.

And the judge and her court-appointed attorney were like, mm-mm. What? Don't plead guilty. We're looking out for you, little lady? Yep. Her court-appointed attorney. Her court-appointed attorney, Stephen J. O'Brien. lady yep kurt appended attorney her kurt appended attorney steven j o'brien damn i wanted him to be named kurt so badly told her that there was nothing in the indictment that could convict her

and so she should not plead guilty she went against him and told the judge that she wanted to plead guilty. And the judge said it was not in her best interest and entered a not guilty plea on her behalf. Wow. Yep. And so she was given a new attorney for trial, John Francis Dorr, who was the former mayor of Seattle. He's like a big deal guy. He became her trial lawyer and her trial began like five seconds later on June 9th. All right.

July 9th. We can't go back in time. If we could turn back time. turn back time. In opening arguments, the assistant U.S. attorney Owen P. Hughes told the jury how George was kidnapped in Tacoma on May 24th. He was driven around the Northwest in a trunk. He spent at least three days chained in dirt in those dirt pits before being taken and chained to that tree and then taken to that house before he was finally set free on the side of a dirt road in Issaquah.

Issaquah. Issaquah. Hoosiers. The trial was really fast and only lasted five days. What? Margaret's defense, as we already talked about, was that she was raised in the Mormon church and she had been told the basic tenet of her faith is absolute obedience to your husband. Right. She said her husband told her to do this.

And so she did it because that's what her faith told her to do. She also said that William Daynard threatened to kill her and her husband and George if she didn't fully cooperate. Okay. She actually testified at this trial. She said that she had wanted to plead guilty, but that they had told her not to. That's going to look great for the jury. I don't think that looks great at all. You don't think so?

No. If you're playing on a jury's sympathies. Oh, you think they'll like that. Oh, my gosh. It backs up the I do what men tell me to do thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. I hadn't even considered that. You've always got to be thinking about that male gaze, Brandy.

Yeah. During closing arguments, her lawyer told the jury that she's just a stupid woman and that if her husband sent her a telegram at that moment telling her to go outside and jump off the courthouse, she would do it. What? I think it's a good argument. Yeah, but ignorance is no excuse. No, absolutely. But it is funny. I mean, we see this all the time in court cases where in closing statements, the attorneys are like, hey, my client's a piece of shit. Yeah.

But he didn't do this shitty thing. Yeah. So her attorney was like, she's fucking stupid. OK. That's the long and short of it. That's the bottom line. That's it. And then in contrast, the prosecution was like, I don't know of a single woman who would willingly crouch on the floorboard of a car and cover herself with a blanket.

What? Yeah. The argument is that like she didn't think that the story she was telling was true because no self-respecting woman would put herself physically in that position. OK, well, that's just silly. I agree. Have we examined that prosecutor? Right. For intelligence? Well, no, because what George said backs up.

Yeah. What this defense is. Yes. Yeah. OK. The jury deliberated for five hours and 44 minutes. The jury was made up of two men and I'm sorry, 10 men and two women. I about shat myself.

Sorry. Ten men and two women. And they found Margaret Whaley guilty of both kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. OK. How much time did she get? She was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the kidnapping and 20 years for the conspiracy to be served concurrently. OK. At one point during the trial, she had kind of like stated her allegiance to her husband through all of this. But after her sentencing, she said, if it hadn't been for him, I would not be where I am today. I'm through with men forever.

When I come out, I'm coming out alone. OK. So she's off. She's serving her sentence now so now we're still focusing on capturing william danard like fucking months have gone by in the beginning of 1936 some ransom bills start surfacing in different areas of the country and then kind of back into the Seattle area. But somebody is caught at a Seattle bank trying to change bills. Yeah. They're trying to exchange bills. They have three hundred dollars in bills that they're trying to exchange. And the teller became suspicious and went to go check the serial numbers on these bills. Did you almost say serial nipples?

I almost said serial nimburs. Oh. Boy, I've got— You've got sex on the brain. I'm very sorry. Jeez. Someone needs to get banged. That's enough!

That's enough! My parents listen to this podcast. You're going to have to take a trip to Target and get one of those sex toys. That's, mm-mm. We're cutting all this away. Okay, so she gets suspicious. She goes and checks these serial numbers. Sure enough, they are the recorded ransom numbers.

But whoever this guy is takes off, leaves the $300 behind. So they get a good enough description of him that over some time they figure out that he is a known associate of William Daynard's. His name is Edward Fliss, also known as Frank Lane or Red because he had red hair. They're always named Red. Mm-hmm. Okay. Mm-hmm. He was 30 years old.

He also had met Daynard in the Idaho State Penitentiary because he had been in there for kidnapping. Oh, boy. He'd kidnapped the lieutenant governor of Idaho. Well, shit. Yeah, in 1929. But somehow, I guess he got a light sentence. Well, evidently, yeah. Well, I mean, that was pre-Lindbergh Act, so.

I wonder if also, we're talking about an adult. We're talking about, I assume didn't physically harm. He was released, yeah. He said the whole thing was just a misunderstanding. It wasn't really a kidnapping. Yeah, whoopsies. He thought they were just, like, hanging out together. No, but you know how it is, like, when they're not physically harmed.

I mean, people did not give a shit. Yeah. Okay. Okay, so they figure out that William Daynard, Swede Davis, has his buddy Red working with him trying to change bills. Yeah. So they put that on their radar, but they still can't find him. In May of 1936, employees at two San Francisco banks reported that a man had come in and tried to exchange bills where the serial numbers had been altered. Uh-huh.

Uh-huh. bills where the serial numbers had been altered. Oh. Uh-huh. These two different employees at two different banks had managed to get the license plate number off of the car that this man, like once they were onto him, he took off, left the money behind, but they got his license plate number. Turns out it was registered to a man named Bert E. Cole, who was living at the Ventura Hotel right across the street from the federal building. Oh, shit.

And so they put surveillance on this building. And like two days later, they find William Daynard. Yeah. I don't know who Bert E. Cole is, but the car was registered to him. I don't know if that's a fake name or another pseudonym. I'm sorry. They don't have more information here. We don't know if it's a fake name or a pseudonym. So, they had, I think this is kind of funny.

A lie name. Yeah. They had, when they staked out this building where they expected to find William Daynard, they had gone to that car that had been spotted and they disabled it. And so he comes out of the building. He's got a disguise on. He's wearing horn-rimmed glasses, which he doesn't usually wear.

He goes and he gets in the car. It won't start. He gets out to look under the hood and they arrest him right then. Yeah, not bad. Right then. Yeah, not bad. He had a Colt.45 semi-automatic pistol on him. And he had $7,300 in ransom money in his pocket.

That is a one fat pocket. No shit. This is the invention of cargo. Yeah. How do you have that much in a pocket? I don't know. And then they found another $30,000 of the ransom money in his hotel room. No, in his hotel room. Yeah.

So they take him into custody. They sit him through like a four hour interrogation. At one point he admits to his participation, but then he refused to sign a full confession. He admits to his participation, but then he refused to sign a full confession. But then he also told the FBI where he had hidden away another $14,000 of the ransom money. So anyway, he was sent off to Tacoma. He was arraigned on May 9th, 1936. So we are talking almost a full year after George Weyerhaeuser was kidnapped.

Okay. I don't really understand this part. He was offered a court appointed a court court appointed. That's why you don't understand. Stop it. He was offered a court appointed attorney, but he declined and then just pled guilty to the kidnapping and conspiracy to kidnap charges. I think the same kind of thing. Like, he was trying to avoid that death penalty. Also, he's probably been through the system a lot.

He's been through shit, and he probably thinks this is useless. I'm just going to try to speed through this. So the FBI determined that he was the brains of this operation. So he was given the heftiest sentence. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison on each count and the terms were

to run concurrently. So 60 years total. He was taken into custody. First he went to McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary. Then he was transferred to Leavenworth. But at Leavenworth he was deemed to be insane. He was sent to a mental hospital in Springfield, Missouri for a time. And then ultimately he was sent to Alcatraz.

Wow. Any word on like what? No. Gotcha. On what happened in Leavenworth for him to be deemed insane, I don't know. Yeah. Okay. Also worth noting, they tracked down his buddy who was helping him change bills. His name was Edward Fliss, an old red.

And he confessed that he'd helped him launder money and he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Ouch. I agree. Okay. Yep. It was during his sentencing at that trial, well, at the hearing where he was being sentenced, that he talked about the kidnapping that he was previously convicted of. Uh-huh.

And he said, the kidnapping of a lieutenant governor was not a real kidnapping. We just forced the man to ride with us for a couple hours and then we found out who he was and we let him go.

There wasn't any ransom money involved. So stop asking about it. It was no big deal. Yeah. It's just that totally normal thing we do

when we grab someone off the street and force them to be in a car with us. Yeah. So that's everybody. Everybody's been caught. Everybody's been sentenced.

Everyone goes away to prison. After George was returned, Mr. Weyerhaeuser gave Louis Bonifat a huge reward for helping reunite his son, for saving his son. It's not clear how much he gave him, but he gave him lifetime employment at one of his mills. Wow. And a monetary reward that was big enough to purchase several acres of land and build a new house for the Bonifat family. Wow. Yeah. That's really family. Wow. Yeah. That's really sweet.

Yep. How did George end up doing? We'll get there in a minute. Okay. Yeah. Good. Okay. Okay.

Really good. All right. Margaret Whaley was released from prison in May of 1948. She served two-thirds of her sentence. in May of 1948. She served two-thirds of her sentence. After her release, she immediately divorced Harmon Whaley and resumed using her maiden name, Thulin,

which I don't blame her for one bit. Yeah. She moved to Columbus, Ohio. She got a job there for American Electric Power Company. She did eventually remarry in 1954, and she died in 1989 at the age of 74. Wow.

Harmon Whaley was paroled in June of 1963 after serving 28 years of his prison sentence. During his time in prison, he wrote several letters to George Weyerhaeuser apologizing for kidnapping him. And upon his release, George Weyerhaeuser, who was now working within the Weyerhaeuser Lumber Company, like he was, I think, by this time CEO. Sure. He gave him a job. Ew. Okay. No, Kristen, that is a nice thing. No, I think, by this time CEO. Sure. He gave him a job. Ew. Okay. No, Kristen, that is a nice thing.

No, I know. Okay. He gave him a job. Okay. You hate it. Why do you hate it? Hmm. Why do I hate it?

Why do I hate it? My fear is no one took this child's trauma seriously. That reporter swooping in. This obligation to go stand outside and smile yeah um and i feel like we hear this story a bit in these old-timey kidnappings especially when the victim is a young male yeah that if he's not physically harmed then there's this like the kidnapper's just this cutie guy, you know, oh, shouldn't have done it. Whoops. And, you know, if George truly wants to forgive, absolutely.

Yeah. I hate this idea. And granted, it's in my head right now, so it's not something you've said, but it's this idea in my head that like he would feel pressure to do this public forgiveness and take it a step further and have this guy who caused tremendous trauma in his life.

Yeah. We'll get to what George says about it in just a minute. Okay. Okay. So Harmon Whaley died in February of 1984 at the age of 73. William Daynard became eligible for parole in 1955, but the Federal Parole Board called him a three-time loser. And they did not think he merited early release.

Wait, what's a three-time loser it's like his third serious conviction kind of like an early version of the three strikes i think is what it is yeah i i was really hoping it was just like that's just what we say about people we don't like and so he was initially denied parole but he was later paroled. He lived to the ripe old age of 90. He passed away in Montana in September of 1992. Edward Fliss, the guy who was gleaning the money, he served almost his entire tenure sentence. And then he was released in 1946.

I don't have any update past that. I don't know what became of him. Okay. George Weyerhaeuser went on to attend Yale. And then he started in the family business as a foreman, worked up to general manager. And then in 1966, he became the CEO of the Weyerhaeuser Corporation. He retired from the corporation in 1999. He spoke publicly about the kidnapping a few times over the years. And his basic gist of it

was that everybody wanted to make it a bigger deal than it was to him. He said it had a way Wow. Yeah. That is very interesting. Mm-hmmlee warehouser in response to that statement said that she thinks that maybe it didn't have that you know that impact on him that people think it should should have but she said it deeply affected his outlook on life she said i think that incident forced him to reckon with who he was at a really young age and he realized how he could get through it and then that's kind of how he looked at life from then on like how do i get through whatever scenario he was placed in yeah i. I mean, I hate like his whole statement is basically like talking to people like me.

Uh-huh. You're making too much of this. Exactly. And again, I'm kind of like if there's something huge and traumatic and everyone knows about it. Yeah. You probably don't want to talk about it. And so, yeah, you probably would say, and maybe even believe. Yeah, yeah, I think he believed it, but I do think.

It didn't affect me. It's not that big a deal. I don't think about it. Yeah, I mean, he has said that in interviews, too. I'm sure. I don't really think about it. I'm sure. Yeah.

That's what a lot of people say. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's what a lot of people say. Yeah. Okay. George Weyerhaeuser died at the age of 95 in 2022.

Shut up! He just died last year. Wow. Yep. Wow. And that is the story of the kidnapping of George Weyerhaeuser. And that is the brandy version of a light one. I appreciate that. Yes.

Yes. Appreciate it very much. That was fascinating. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. What do you make of the lady's defense? What do you think?

I think it's a great defense. I think it's a very smart defense. I think she was way more involved in it than she wants people to believe, though. Sure. Yeah. I think it's a really smart defense because that is a core tenet of the LDS church. Yeah, but can that really be used as a defense? I mean, here's the thing.

You're 19. You've been brought up Mormon. You're married to some guy. I totally believe that that would be the mindset. Anyway. All right. Very good. Well done.

Well told. Thank you. You know what I think we should do right now? Take some questions from the Discord. Absolutely. To get into our Discord, all you have to do is sign up for our Patreon at the $5 level or higher. And when we record, we get in the Discord, we say, does anyone have any questions for us? And then some of you do, and we read some of them right now.

You're over-explaining it, Kristen. Let me recap it. Let me pull a brandy and recap it. Ooh. Yes, it's me. Calm down. Wants to know, how many complaints do y'all really get about the tangents? I enjoy them. By the way, Kristen, you might be the problem.

We get plenty of complaints. Lots of complaints about our tangents. But here's the thing. It's like, that's not new to the show. We've had tangents always and we're always going to have tangents. So like, if that's not for you, that's cool. Just listen to a different podcast. Or complain.

No! We're not going to change! I might. You never know. Oh. This is totally for you. Trailblazy Daisy asks, mostly for Kristen probably, but do you have a favorite tree in your neighborhood or town that makes you smile when you see it? I am offended. First of all, I'm very offended.

And how you're laughing at that. Like, that's a ridiculous question. The truth is, I do. Of course you do. Shut up. Yeah. Okay. I'm not going to tell you, Brandy, because you're rude.

But everyone, there's this really cool dream that I walk by every day when I walk the dogs. And every time I walk by, I'm like, my gosh, how long has that tree been around? Because it's huge. I'm just like, what has this tree seen? And will it be here long after I'm gone? These are the questions you ask yourself when you appreciate a big tree, Brandy. Okay. I don't have a specific tree, but anytime I see a weeping willow, I do like note it because my grandma had one in her yard when I was growing up. So it's very like nostalgic to me.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is just like in high school when you tried to pretend you were into skateboarding. No, I was very into skateboarding dudes. No interest in getting on a skateboard myself. But getting on a skateboarder. Skateboarding dude, yeah, sure.

And I had the etnies to prove it. Okay. See, this is a scenario-based to prove it. Okay. See, this is a scenario-based one for me. Okay. Bethany wants to know, yes or no, trying on clothes in the middle of the store on top of your clothes. She's a hard no on it. I think it depends on the article of clothing. If it's a jacket shirt.

Jacket, absolutely. Even a sweatshirt, sure. No. What about a zip-up sweatshirt? Zip-up, okay. I wouldn't put a hoodie on. What about a zip-up sweatshirt? I wouldn't put a hoodie on. No, a zip-up. Anything I think that, you know,

opens. What about like a flannel? You wouldn't try a flannel on over? Is it a zip-up flannel? No, it's a button-up. They don't zip. It's buttons. Why are you saying that like there's never been a flannel? The one I'm picturing as buttons. Yeah, no, you know what? When you said flannel, I thought fleece. That's the source a flannel. The one I'm picturing is as buttons. Yeah, no. You know what?

When you said flannel, I thought fleece. That's the source of our confusion. I was never confused. Congratulations. No, that's too shirty for me. Okay, you need to go in a dressing room for that. Got to. Anything below the waist, I mean, other than shoes.

But, yeah, no, don't even fuck around with that. Get into a dressing room. I'm fine with a jacket, a cardigan. I'm even okay with a button-up flannel. That's fine. Wow. She's wild, everyone. You wouldn't do that.

Yeah, I would. A flannel? You'd put on a flannel in the middle? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, because I would treat it like a jacket because that's how I would wear it. I? You'd put on a flannel in the middle? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, because I would treat it like a jacket because that's how I would wear it. I'm not wearing it as a shirt. I'm wearing it as a jacket.

Okay. Yeah. Outerwear, I'm okay with you trying on in the middle of the section. Yeah, you really don't wear button downs, do you? No. Why not? Because my body is oddly shaped oh my god here we go no and so it's not a flattering look because if it fits me through like my

shoulders and stuff it's huge on my body which is just not cute i knew i would need a very tailored like i would have to go get it tailored. Sure. And I don't even know that my freakish body could be tailored enough. That's the way to talk about yourself. That's great. Okay. I keep seeing this question floating around on the social medias. Okay.

And I've yet to come up with an answer. So let's see if we can brainstorm one together. Need More Coffee asks, realistically, how much would you spend for NSYNC reunion tickets? I would spend a significant amount of money on a NSYNC reunion ticket. See, I don't think... Say it. There's a number in your head it seems like a lot though just say it i mean i think i'd pay a thousand dollars to people paid way more than that to see taylor swift i think i would pay that to see in sync

wow you what would pay 80 that's your max okay honestly i think the reason i had that reaction yeah was i have a number in my head that i think is real high yeah um and i thought you had that same see here's my deal though i'm not paying a thousand dollars for nosebleeds well god i would hope not i will pay a thousand dollars but i need to be able to actually see yes the men of nsync yeah if you paid a thousand dollars people are paying like they were just three thousand dollars for nosebleed taylor swift tickets so okay well i don't know what's your number my was 300, and I thought that was a lot. To be totally clear, I wouldn't go in saying 300.

Yeah. I'd be going in saying 200, but then I'd get in there with all the fees and all the stuff, and I would eventually go up to 300. Fees and all this stuff, and I would eventually go up to $300. A thousand dollars. I don't even know your life. Yes, but I was much more into NSYNC than you were. Yeah.

Much more. Right. I agree. Yeah. I named my vagina Lance Bass. We all know that. And yet he never came to it. But like we could name things that I was more into.

I'm not paying a thousand dollars for anything. Yeah, because you're cheap as shit, Christian. I own a hot tub. You wouldn't pay 80 bucks to go see the most amazing Ben Folds concert I've ever seen in my life. Well, that was a moment of regret for me. I look back on that and I think, what a dumb hoe. Shall we move on to Supreme Court? Yes, let's do it. To get inducted on this podcast, all you have to do is sign up for our Patreon at the $7 level or higher.

This week, we are reading your names and your first celebrity crushes. And Brandi is staring at her computer. My page reloaded. Oh, boy. Here we go.

Melinda Shamey. Barry Manilow and Phil Donahue. And she says, yes, really. Okay. Katie Wilson. Cleo Thomas. Allie Fury.

Dylan from 90210. Lauren Moyer. Leonardo DiCaprio. Jolene Kotzman. Corey Haim. Alex Edwards Gonzalez. Moses from the Prince of Egypt animated movie. Caprio. Jolene Kotzman. Corey Haim. Alex Edwards-Gonzalez. Moses from the Prince of Egypt animated movie.

Amy Bailey. Commander Riker from Star Trek Next Generation. Susanna Alberton. Tom Selleck. Violet Outburst. Oh, Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Third Rock from the Sun. Yeah, I was into that. Joanne. JC Chazes.

How do you? Chazay. Chazay. Angelina. Oh. Shannon Doherty. Holly Marie Combs. And Alyssa Milano in Charm.

I guess I should have known I was gay because you were all over my walls growing up. Teresa Buxton. Justin Timberlake. Jax. Min Yoongi from BTS. Mel. Orlando Bloom. Mike Hines.

Charlize Theron. Welcome to the Supreme Court. Thank you. Thank you, everyone, for all of your support. We appreciate it so much. If you're looking for other ways to support us, please find us on all the socials. On Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Patreon. Please remember to subscribe to the podcast.

Subscribe to the podcast. I think I left out letters in there. Wherever you listen and head on over to Apple Podcasts and leave us a five-star rating and review. Then be sure to join us next week. When I'll be an expert on a whole new topic. Podcast adjourned. And now for a note about our process. 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. I got my info from an essay by Daryl C. McCleary for historylink.org, an episode of the Podcast Evidence Locker, the book Deep in the Woods by Brian Johnston, Oregonlive.com, and seattlepi.com. 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.