Morbid - Dudleytown: Connecticut’s Cursed Ghost Town

Episode Date: December 14, 2023

Deep in the woods near Cornwall, Connecticut, in a valley known as the Dark Entry Forest, lie the remains of the small village of Dudleytown. Settled in the mid-eighteenth century by British colonists, Dudleytown was a thriving mining community that for provided charcoal and other minerals for the growing steel industry in and around New England. But by the late nineteenth century, the mining industry had shifted west and slowly, but surely the population of Dudleytown shrank until there, by the early twentieth century, there were only a handful of people living in the village. By 1924, the village of Dudleytown was completely abandoned and fell into the ownership of a private trust, who sought to restore the forest ecosystem to its pre-colonial health.In retrospect, historians and others familiar with the region have cited a variety of social, economic, and ecological reasons for the collapse and abandonment of Dudleytown, yet there are those who believe the abandonment of the village has a darker and more supernatural explanation. There were rumors of widespread madness among the villagers, unexplained deaths and other tragedies, and a curse that dates back to the founding of village in the 1740s.Today, the area is said to be haunted and, despite being private property, it has become a popular destination for ghost hunters and legend trippers who are determined to find out whether Dudleytown is truly a cursed village or just a victim of shifting social and economic trends.Thank you to the incredible Dave White of Bring me the Axe Podcast for Research!ReferencesBarlow, Bart. 1980. "A lost town populated by legends." New York Times, October 26: C2.Campos, Chris. 1976. "The death of a town is the life of a curse." The Journal, May 29: 1.Cornwall Conservation Commission. 2012. The Land and People of Cornwall, Connecticut: A Conservation Perspective of Our Town's Natural Treasures. Historical evalutation, Cornwall, CT: Cornwall Conservation Commission.Cornwall Historical Society. 2014. The Truth about Dudleytown. September 29. Accessed October 29,2023. http://cornwallhistoricalsociety.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-truth-about-dudleytown.html.Drozdowski, Ted. 1978. "Old ghouls still haunt state's cliffs, villages." The Morning Record and Journal, October 28: 35.Hartford Courant. 2006. "True curse haunting family's forest land was progress." Hartford Courant, October 25: B2.Hutter, David. 2008. Man pays price to spot Dudleytown ghosts. August 3. Accessed October 3, 2023.https://www.registercitizen.com/news/article/Man-pays-price-to-spot-Dudleytown-ghosts-12147138.php.New England Historical Society. n.d. The Dudleytown Curse, Connecticut's Village of the Damned.Accessed October 3, 2023. https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/the-dudleytown-curse-connecticuts-village-of-the-damned/.Pallatto, John. 1980. "Only the ghost hunters walk in legend-cursed Dudleytown." Hartford Courant, November 1: 9.Pettit, John. 1996. "The spirits were willing, but the flesh was weak." Record Journal, October 31: 1.Revai, Cheri. 2006. Haunted Connecticut: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Constitution State.Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books.Rierden, Andi. 1989. "A hamlet that can't get rid of its ghosts." New York Times, October 29: C2.Ryan, Bill. 1986. "Dudleytown legend haunts Cornwall." Hartford Courant, April 13: 12.Siedzik, Jason. 2011. In Cornwall, Dudleytown movie makers arrested. December 8. Accessed October 3, 2023. https://www.ctinsider.com/news/article/In-Cornwall-Dudley-Town-Movie-Makers-Arrested-16886230.php. Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash KelleyListener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra LallyListener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is morbid. It is morbid on a Sunday. Morbid on a Sunday afternoon. Wow. Is that what he says like, does he say on a Sunday afternoon? Or sunny?

I don't really know what you're talking about, so I'm not going to be of help. It's like an 80s song. It's like, mm-hmm. Oh, no, wait. wait, it's hungry like the wolf. I'm an idiot. I'm leaving. I'm like literally having a hard time talking. I can see that. I, maybe I want you to know. No, you know what? Hold on before you say anything. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, hold on, hold on. Because I think I'm, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I think I'm thinking of another song, too, and I think I morphed them together. I'm offended. I'm not easily

offended. But I'm offended. Because... This is like one of those moments that we usually have when we're not recording and I'm like, don't ever tell anybody that I said that. Do not say that on the podcast. Elena will always be like, I can't wait to tell everyone you said that. Guys, where are my fellow Durand Duran heads? Where are my fellow Simon LeBond lovers? To be fair, are you all just as offended? Were you speechless along with me? However, on the contrary in conclusion. We're in this together.

I think that I like negated the lyrics of that song from my head because Diane Downs did kill her children to that song or attempt to. Yes, but one, the words aren't that even a little bit. I know. The Sunday and then two, like the tune didn't even make like so I don't even know how to think. Can you turn my headphones up a little more? I still think that I morphed two songs together. That's perfect.

Thank you. Yeah. I, I, that, wow, this is the beginning of the episode, guys. So it's a Sunday afternoon. Yeah. Sing, sing that to the tune of Hungry like a Wolf. Maybe that's, I think maybe that's just what I did. I don't know. I didn't get, I didn't get coffee, coffee today. I had coffee from home and it's never the same. It's true. It's true. It's not. I'm just really glad that's that's where we are. I also, just damn who I am. You are, I was going to say, we don't, we don't need to make a lot of excuses here. we can just say you know how it is you know it's really funny before this we were like do we have any business to talk about like do we need to like make any announcements and then we were like no no and then that just became a PSA yeah like this is who ashes like the whole beginning of the episode is just us talking about what the hell song you were trying to say yeah well after you know now that

we've primed you yeah now that we've gotten y'all you know I don't you might be angry you might be offended the amount of tweets that I'm going to get about this. I might need to take a social media break. You deserve it. I do, I do, I do. This is worse than Nin. It's right up there with Min. It's worse.

It's worse than Nin and System of a Down. Guys, go listen to those listener tales if you didn't hear Ash say System of a Dawn and then. Everybody heard that. I am still, I got tagged in something like last. night about that. That's honestly one of my favorites. Oh and I laugh. I'm like I laugh at it. Yeah, it's hilarious. I'm not like offended at all. Please continue to do this. Harass my sister. Harass her. I just couldn't, I couldn't let you blaspheme the way you just did. Blaspheme. In the house of Duran. You're dumb.

All right. Oh, guys, it's Sunday. It's the end of the week at the beginning of the week. However you look at it, it's totally okay. What do you look at it like? I look it as the end of the week. I do too. And I think Maybe I look at it as the end of the week because I work at the morgue on Sundays. So I think it's like it doesn't feel like the end. I don't know. For you, it would feel like the beginning because you're going to work. Well, because I've worked all week. And then I end up working on Saturdays for the podcast.

And then I work on Sundays at the hospital. So it's like, then it's like the end. And then I start my week on Monday again. And it's like the same thing over again. Sunday is like usually my day off because. rest. Yes, it's my day of leisure. In fact, I just started watching before I came here with Drew, the new Woody Allen documentary that's on HBO. Oh, yeah, I've heard a lot about that. I only got to see the first 10 minutes because then you were like, hey, want to come over early? And I was like,

I do actually. Now I can have my Sunday night. There you go. But yeah, this was a long intro about nothing. And I'm sorry. Yeah, we're bringing it back to the old days. I'm like, earlier today. Let me tell you about my salon. And it's funny because, the last time I was saying that we're like going to redo a couple of older cases because we just feel like we can do a better job with them and like fix the audio and like some of it. And we mentioned that there was a couple that I was like, whoa, that was a long tangent. But see, here's the thing. I feel like the tangents used to just have nothing to do with anything. Yeah, they didn't.

These tangents still kind of have nothing to do with anything, but they feel different. And also, you know, it's in the beginning, we don't really, we don't do long ones in the beginning anymore. So this is like a fun little throwback. Yeah. And I think it used to be more like in the middle of the episode. I'd be like, oh my God, do you know what? I just remembered. And everyone would be like, Ash, like, where did that come from?

I love it, though. It is fun to look because I've been listening to all of them like to go back and figure out which ones we want to remaster and all that. I mentioned it on an episode, a couple of episodes ago. But I've been listening to them and like just listening to like how green we were. Yeah. It's fun. I still feel green at times, but I feel like we've gotten the hang of like where you should end that random tangent.

Much better. Much better. I think it's right here. I think it's at six minutes and 26 seconds. That's where we should end it. Well, this week is going to be a bummer, as usual, because we cover some pretty shitty sad stuff. But we like to bring you up and bring you back down. Exactly.

So this is actually a case that I looked like slightly into when we were doing our Halloween shows. And during our Halloween shows, I covered the case of the curse of the Poltergeist films. And it was like a case within a case that I was like, oh, I definitely want to get into that part of it. And for a regular morbid episode. And here we are. Because Dominique Dunn was in the Poltergeist films. And some say that she fell victim to the curse. That whole case of the curse is nuts.

Horrifying. Yeah. It is truly, truly terrifying. It's scary. And it's real. It's definitely real. I think that Dominique Dunn, because of, like, the situation that she was in, I, maybe some of it was the curse. Yeah, maybe it didn't help.

But I also think that the human being that murdered her was just a curse in and of himself. I was going to say, I think there was a curse in her life. Yes. So with that, let's get into it. Dominique Dunn was the daughter of Van Dedy Fair writer, producer, and investigative journalist Dominic Dunn and Ellen Beatrice Griffin Dunn. who went by Lenny. So her mom was Lenny and her dad was Dominic. And obviously she was named after him.

What a cool couple name. I know I love them. Lenny and Dominic. I don't want to hang out with them. They ended up getting divorced but they like remained friends forever and ever. Cool. They had a really cute relationship. Dominique was born in Santa Monica.

She was the baby of the family. She had two older brothers, Alex and Griffin. P.S. I love the name Griffin. That is a really cute name. It is for like a little boy just running around like hi I'm Griffin. Yeah, shut up. But Lenny had actually given birth to two other daughters before Dominique, who sadly passed away, like, very shortly after they were born, from Higheline membrane disease, and it's a lung disease that used to be really common in C-section babies. Oh, yeah. Wow,

I didn't know anything about that. Yeah, it's very sad, but I think it basically is just like a complication. Yeah. So Dominic said that Dominique, to her parents, was like three daughters in one, because they had lost the two before her, and then they had her. So she was all of them wrapped up into one human being. She was their rainbow baby. And he said that she was triply loved. Oh, my goodness. Their relationship. Oh, my goodness. Dominique and her father, and just her whole family. The family relationship is, they're such a close-knit family and like very clearly just loved each other so much. Dominique herself was very loving, very kind. She loved animals and was especially known to collect strays. Yes. I'm going to link it. The very very very kind. She loved animals. And was especially known to

Vanity Fair article that Dominic wrote about his daughter and the whole entire ordeal, he said that she had a cat that had a lobotomy. And I think it was like a dog with like stunted legs. Those were like two of her favorites. Yeah, I was like, wow. I love that. And loving and kind seemed like the two best words to describe Dominique, but she could also be described as extremely determined.

Because once she decided that she was going to become an actress, she started getting roles, like almost immediately, and she was super good at it. She was in a lot of different shows. She was in Lou Grant, Chips, Fame, heart to heart. And obviously, like I said, the movie Poltergeist, which, like I said, a lot of people think is cursed because there's so many deaths surrounding not only the people who were like actors and actresses in the film, but also people that just worked on set. Yeah, anywhere around that set, it seemed. Yeah, it's nuts. You weren't getting away from it. No way. Now, Dominique met her boyfriend, John Thomas Sweeney, at a party in 1981.

He was working as a sous chef alongside Wolfgang Pupp. Wolfgang Pupp. Wolfgang Puck. As Wolfgang Pupp's dog that actually cooks. Yeah, it's the nuttyest thing. No, he was a sous chef to Wolfgang Puck. That's badass. And it was at this super exclusive, like hoity-toity restaurant, Ma Mason, I believe is how you say it. Love it.

They were like so exclusive. that they didn't have their number listed. Like, they had an unlisted number. That's like those places that don't have doors. You have to find a way in. It's like a wall. Just a speakeasy. Yeah.

There's a speakeasy in Hudson that me and Drew went to one time. And it was the coolest place I've ever been to. Speakeasers are. Are we? Okay. It's Sunday. Speakisies are so much fun. They are.

So much fun. Yeah. And the bartenders are usually just like, like, very like zany. Oh, yeah. They're like salt of the earth people. Yeah. But that is. nothing to do with anything. It does, here we, I can't do. It's a throwback episode, guys. It's

because it's Sunday. It's a throwback. Yeah. Now, the honeymoon period for this couple did not last long at all. John Sweeney, who was seven years older than Dominique, actually, started showing a very different side of himself very early on. He was super jealous, super controlling, and not only like mentally, but physically abusive toward Dominique. Asshole. And he had been raised in a house like this when he was younger. He came from Pennsylvania and he grew up with his alcoholic father just regularly beating his mother. It's a terrible cycle of violence. It is and it's really sad. Now, like we always say, feel bad for the kid version. I feel bad for the kid version of John Sweeney, but I do not feel bad for the adult version in any way, shape or form. And it seemed like

he was somebody that just kind of wanted to, he was desperate to fit into this Hollywood lifestyle. Yeah. And it was like a meal ticket. Like Dominique was his meal ticket. Yeah. Like he could get into the, you know, he could get the money. He could get the exposure. Yeah. And get the lifestyle.

Excuse me. She's like this up-and-coming actress. It's like he's hitching and dry too. It's perfect for him. Exactly. You know. And Dominique was on to his whole thing too. Like she wondered and even came right out in letters that were later found.

She was like, John Sweeney doesn't love me. He's obsessed with me. And like she said that to people in her life. He does not love me. He loves the idea of me. Yeah. What I can give him. Exactly.

And that's so sad and terrifying. Yeah, it is. Both. Exactly. Now, there were multiple occasions where John showed his true face, not only to Dominique, but to the people involved in her life and their life as a couple. There was an occasion where they were out with her brothers, and a fan, like, came up to Dominique.

And I think he yelled one of the lines from Poltergeist at her and was like, oh, my God. Oh, my God. And he was just really excited in, like, just. wanted to say hello. And John happened to be in the bathroom when this was happening. And when he came out of the bathroom and saw this guy talking to Dominique, he stormed over to him, lifted him up and just shook him violently. Without having any kind of read on the situation at all. Like this could be her fucking cousin for all you know. Like if, wow. Yeah. He was just completely overtaken. That's unhinged. It's nuts. There was another time where they were joining Dominique's father for lunch and they showed

up super late and Dominic was like it was very clear that Dominique had been crying. Oh, that makes me so sad. Yeah. And her father. Do you know how badly he probably wanted to just like, oh, well, and he remember he, the Vanity Fair article, I cried reading it. It's like super long, but it's one of the best things, not one of the best things I've ever on, but it's just so well written. Yeah. And he said he wanted, he like knew that it was going to be hard for her to get out of this relationship. And he was something that he thought about and was worried about. Because the only thing you want to do is protect your child. Yeah. And it's like when you can't. And he was probably racking his brain trying to think of ways he could get her out of here. Right. But at this point,

she's like 21, 22. Yeah, what can you do? Like, there's nothing you can do. No. She's an adult. It's awful. And I can't imagine that feeling as a parent. Oh, I can't imagine. Because you're in charge of your child for so long. You're like in charge of the people in your life. You take care of them and keep the bad people out of their life. But now they're an adult. And if this is who they want to be with, there's literally nothing you can do. thought you can have as a parent is that they're going to go out into the world and terrible people can come into their lives and you have no control over it. Right. Like you have to just let them out into the world and hope that they are able to not be around those kind of people. And it's like,

I don't want to think about it. No, it's horrible. So yeah, that was another occasion where her dad was just like, I don't know what to do. Yeah. There was another occasion where friends were over the couple's home and they started arguing. And these friends witnessed John pull Dominique's hair. straight out of her head, like from the root of her scalp, like literally yanked her hair out of her scalp. No. Like what? There were a lot of times that Dominique tried to get away from him. There was one time she escaped through a bathroom window after her friends, like, saw John Sweeney

literally trying to kill her with his hands around her neck. And she ran to the bathroom, escaped out the window, and jumped into her car. The fear she must have been living in before her murder. I can't imagine. Yeah. It's awful. And so he had asked her on this occasion when she ended up escaping through the bathroom. He was like, oh, come back to bed.

And she was like, okay, like, sure. And that's when she crawled out and got into her car and was like leaving to go to her mom's house. But John threw himself onto the hood of her car trying to like halt her from getting away and then knew that she was going to her mom's house. So showed up at the mom's house and was bang. on the doors and the windows trying to get her to come outside or let him inside. That's a nightmare. An actual nightmare. And then as her mother, like, what? Because all these people are in a position that, like, when you actually think about it, you're like, how do you get out of that? Right. Like, there's very few options here. And she tried to so many times. And so on this occasion,

he finally gave up and went back to the apartment. And he thought Dominique would come back. But that was the final straw for her. She had had enough. And she was surrounded by so many people who loved her. They knew what was going on. They wanted to help her. You know, there was actually one time where she had a guest appearance on a show called Hill Street Blues, where she was supposed to be acting as like an abused girl whose mother was the one who was abusing her.

But because Dominique was suffering at the hands of John Sweeney, they didn't even have to use makeup to fake her bruises. Her face and neck had already been bruised so badly that you can see the picture of her acting in this show. And all the bruises are real. There's a lot of layers to that that are, that's disturbing. Like, one, the fact that she was so bruised they didn't need makeup. And two, the fact that they were like, well, roll cameras.

Yeah, like, let's go. No one's like, hey, do you need a second? Should we postpone this? Can we help you? Can we call the fucking police? Like, can we do something to help? Like, this is bad? And I don't know.

Maybe they did. And maybe she was just like, it's okay. Why are you rolling cameras on that? Like, that's really fucked up to have, like, for posterity later. Like, that's crazy. I mean, Hollywood is fucked. Holy shit. That's something I feel very confident saying.

Yeah. But it's like, but like I said, it just proves the point that people knew what was going on, you know? Yeah. It was. And that it was like right out in front of everybody. It's just right there on the table. Like, you say the only thing you could do is call the police. But if she's, if they're not going to, you know, press charges or anything, you can't really,

that's all you can do. And I think the thing is, like, she was. an up-and-coming actress. She loved acting, so it was probably an escape for her. Yeah. And at this point, she called John and was like, no, we're not together anymore. So at this point, I think she probably was like, this is where it ends and I'm going to move on with my life. Yeah. And again, it's easy to say when you're outside of a situation, like, I would do this or I would do that, but it's like, you don't know. You have no idea. You have no idea. And we also don't know every single thing that was going on around her in her life, you know, or what she was thinking. No. But after the last

strangling incident. Like I said, she had enough. She called him. She's like, you need to get your stuff out, and I'm done living this way. And surprisingly, he did. He moved his stuff out of her house and whatever, like went away for a little bit. Now, Dominique was determined that she was not going to go back to her place until he was completely moved out and she didn't. And then once all of his things were gone and he was settled somewhere else, she moved back in and she changed all the locks. I was literally just going to say, I hope she changed all those locks. So she very, like, she's, like, she's She was a very smart girl. She knew what she was doing. She was like, let me handle this. I got it. And she was just, like I said, ready to put everything behind her. But it wasn't going to be easy with a classic abuser and a guy like John Sweeney. And it wasn't long until he started calling again, showing up randomly. Please talk to me. I can change. It'll be different. Classic. Classic abuser stuff. So on the night of October 30th, Dominique got one of those calls while she was home and rehearsing with actor David Packer for a mini-series called V. Now, Sweeney called her from work and asked her if he could come over

just to talk. It's so manipulative too. I just want to talk. It's so manipulative. It is. Because so many people know what that feels like to know that you shouldn't talk to them, but they just... Right. But like I said in the beginning, the two main words to describe her, loving and kind. She's not going to turn her back on somebody that, I mean, I don't think at this, she probably did love him in some capacity. And at some point she had strong feelings for him. I mean, they were living together. Absolutely. It's hard to, like, love or, like, caring about someone in that, like, kind of romantic way is not, we all know. It's not easily quantifiable or, like, understandable. It doesn't, like, lay down to every rule of, like, well, he's a dick so you can just stop caring about him.

No, like, that's, it never works that way. Don't work that way. They're not logic. Unfortunately, I wish they were. You're thinking with your heart, not your head. Exactly, and it sucks. It does. Also, if you guys hear like some crazy wind, it's straight up tornadoing outside. It's straight up monsooning. Not really monsoon. Well, monsoon mixed with a lizard.

Yeah. Outside and it, oh, wow. Yeah. There's a lot going on outside. It's like the freaking dust bowl. Yeah. We just happen to look out the window and we're like, well, okay. And it happened out of nowhere.

So if you hear some like crazy howling wind, you know, it'll just add to the mood, I suppose. Or if it's just like stops abruptly because I feel like the power lines are going to go out. Cool. Well, yeah, we gave you fair warning. So he's like, I just want to come talk to you. Like, please let me. So she's like, okay. So he shows up. He's knocking on her door. Like, let me in. And apparently he had down two martinis at his job before he walked over to the house. Oh boy. Yeah. So Dominique finally agrees to go out and she starts talking to him on the porch. But just a few minutes into talking, remember her friend David is there rehearsing with her. Yeah. David, here's a fight start between the two of them.

He heard the sound of smacking. He heard screams and he heard a loud thud. I would not know what to do. Well, so he did. He called the police and the police told them that it was out of their jurisdiction. So it's like, okay, like, can you contact the other police department for me while I handle this? Like, cool. They're just like, yeah, sorry. Sorry, we can't get out there. Can you connect me to the other people or just like call them for me and send someone out here? So I'm not sure exactly what happened. I don't know if like they did connect him or whatever, but I mean, eventually. police got there. But because he was so terrified, he actually called a friend and left a voicemail saying that if he died that night, it would be at the hands of John Sweeney. Holy shit. He was like, should anything happen to me, here's who did it. Because you're listening to a man, like, beat a woman on the front porch. He's unhinged. He's like, I don't know what this, if this guy has a gun. I don't know if he has any kind of weapon. And obviously he's an unhinged motherfucker because he's just beating a woman in the middle of the fucking street. Right. And he's been friends with Dominique. He knows what's gone.

on. Everybody, all of her friends knew what was going on, unfortunately. So David then went outside because he's like, I have to help my friend, you know. And he finds John Sweeney standing over Dominique, who was laying on the ground by some bushes. John looked at him and said, call the police. When the police arrived. That just gave me like chills. Yeah. So the police arrived. John Sweeney's still there. And he puts his hands in the air upon their arrival and says, and I quote, to the first responding officer, quote, man, I blew it. I killed her. I didn't think I choked her that hard, but I don't know. I just kept on choking her. I lost my temper and I blew it again. I blew it again. Who else have you done this to? It's so, I was hoping you would say that or like,

I was hoping we could get into that because Dominic in that Vanity Fair article, later on this comes out at the trial that that was like the officer who he said that to ended up testifying. If was like, this is what he said to me. And Dominic was like, so does that mean that he had killed somebody before? Or like, does he have, he has, clearly has girlfriends that he's done this in the past. Like, we'll learn later. But what does again mean? I blew it again. Again? To me means I killed someone accidentally again because of my rage. I mean, maybe that. I mean, yeah. To me, that's what it sounds like to me. Obviously, I have no physical or any kind of evidence to back that up. No. But, but something to point out. That's a weird statement to make. And Dominic.

her father felt the same thing. And it's interesting to point out that he didn't have a driver's license. And like, it was just, it seemed really strange for somebody that like, and Dominic literally said he was like, this person like relied on wheels, like needed to get around with a set of wheels, but couldn't, didn't have a driver's license. And like, there was apparently a woman like back in the day that there was like rumors that something like this had happened. Oh. Yeah. It's definitely, it's a strange thing to say. I blew it again. I blew it again. And at first I was like, does he, mean like I strangled her again? Right, because he had strangled her in the past. Like, I don't know if, but, but he's not saying like, oh, she's unconscious. He's saying I killed her and I did it again.

Like that's strange. It's pretty like, I don't know, that's a weird thing to say. It's something that you could analyze probably for hours. I can definitely hang your hat on that for something. Yeah. So Dominique was rushed to the hospital and she was not dead yet. She was put on life support for five days. they unfortunately had to shave her hair and put a bolt into her skull to relieve the massive pressure that was on her brain. And her father remembered seeing her like that with bruises on her neck. There were huge marks made by the hands of John Sweeney. That's your child. And again, in the Vanity Fair piece, he said that it was nearly impossible to look at her, but also impossible to look away.

Yeah. It's so sad. Because, I mean, she's gone through this. She's suffered. You don't want to like negate her suffering. by being like, I can't suffer by looking at you. You know, I mean, like, you almost feel responsible. And they were really worried about her mother, Lenny, going to see her because Lenny had multiple sclerosis. And that is a disease where it is greatly affected by stress. Like,

if somebody is suffering multiple sclerosis is going through a stressful time in their life, they'll get more flare-ups and they'll get more sick. Yeah, absolutely. So they were like, we don't, like, we don't want to, yeah. And also, I didn't, I said you almost feel responsible. I didn't mean that. I meant you almost feel a responsibility to look at it. Oh, yeah. I didn't mean responsible. I knew what you meant. I just wanted to clarify that. Yeah. But they were really worried about it. But Lenny was like, no, she was like, I'm going. Yeah. Like, that's my child. Yeah, I was going to say she's a mom. Yeah. So unfortunately, Dominique had to be taken off life support on November 4th. And it was, I believe, 19 days before her next birthday. She was 22 years old when she died. Her kidneys were donated to two different people in need of them at that specific.

hospital and her heart was donated and sent out to a different hospital in San Francisco. That at least is always like a silver lining when you hear like obviously there's no good thing about this, but like when something good can come out of it, like three different people were probably saved. Absolutely. Like that's something. I hope that like brings parents. I know that like it's probably I can't imagine the feeling.

But I hope it brings some kind of, you know, to know someone her heart is beating somewhere. Yeah. And I think it did make her family feel better because Lenny was the one that said this is what Dominique would have wanted. Become an organ donor, guys. Yeah. It's important. Now, John Sweeney at this point is facing more than attempted murder because now he's a murderer. He's killed her.

He could be facing charges of hopefully first degree at the very least second degree murder. So, unfortunately, he is one of those people. We all know people like this, like terrible, awful people. that just walk through their freaking lives like a cat with nine lives. Of course. That is who he is. There's so many people like that. That hoity-twitty restaurant that he worked at seemed to be totally on his side.

The owner said actually that he would get John Sweeney the best legal representation that he could. That's fine. Like, nice. That's awesome. He called him a dependable young man. It's like this isn't one of those cases where it's like, yeah, like we're not sure what happened here and blah, blah. Like there was one an eyewitness and he literally told. I killed her. I killed her. When she arrived over her dead body, like, I killed her. Right. Like,

let's stop with this. He's a dependable young man. I don't give a fuck if he saves busfuls of orphans on a regular basis. Right. He just murdered a person in cold blood in their front yard. And also, he's a dependable young man. Okay, so he shows up on time at work. Yeah, that's great. That's awesome. That's a great quality to have. Slap a gold star on him. You know what, like, kind of overshadows that is being a murderer. Murder. Usually, like, kind of overshadowed. shadows being timely. Yeah. I mean, like, my personal opinion. Tartiness and murder, not on the same level. No, held to very different standards. One's, one's inconvenient and one is murder. Yeah, like straight up murder. Let's just take that. So Sweeney ended up actually getting a court

appointed defense attorney named Michael Adelson, and then Joseph Shapiro, who worked with the restaurant LaMason regarding legal business, hopped on the team too. So he had, he had a good team, unfortunately. Madison had a reputation for being a pretty nose to the grindstone type of guy. Like, he would get shit done. And Joseph Shapiro was the same kind of guy. So as a team, they were not only intimidating, but they were ready to go to, like, great lengths to get him off of this. Which is just absolutely fucked. Great.

Yeah. Yeah. Wonderful. Now, Judge Burton Katz was going to be the judge on the trial. And at the end of this, we're going to really just have a deep, deep dislike for this man. Because that turned out to be pretty awful for the Dunn family, essentially another tragedy in their lives. Now, the trial started in August of 1983, and it quickly became clear that Judge Katz had more of a relationship with the murderer's defense team. Like, literally, he was cracking jokes with the two lawyers and, like, trying to make a murder trial some lighthearted experience for the jury.

Yeah, which it should be. Yeah, it should be like a walk in the park, for sure. It should be a fun time. Like, okay. Like maybe let's take our job a little seriously. Yeah, talking about someone's child who was like Ruthus Lehmer, like, oh, you're going to be. Ripped away from them. We should definitely make this a lighthearted experience.

The entire research process for this had me red in the face, like pissed off. It's like, dude, this is a courtroom. It wasn't. It was a media circus. And he, this is a judge. He was voted like fourth worst judge at one point. Cool. And he is somebody that just wanted to be involved.

He loved being involved in high profile. I was going to say he just liked it because it was a, Hollywood Starlet. Good coverage. His parents came to the trial one day to, like, see him in action. Oh, come on. Yeah, like, it's just messed up. He also consistently called Dominique Dominic, which is her father's name, which she was named after. You should probably know how to pronounce the name of the murder victim in the trial that we're going over here. Yeah, you are the judge. Yeah, and he never. You are wearing the robe. He never made an effort to correct himself. That's absurd. And actually, this is just like a weird thing to point out. strangely enough, he worked on the Charles Manson case as the deputy district attorney. Wow. Yeah,

like nuts. That's a weird connection. It's a very strange connection. Now, one of the biggest things that the prosecution had was that they had tracked down a woman who dated John Sweeney right before he and Dominic, excuse me, Dominique got together. They had dated a little over two years from 1977 to 1980. And she testified, her name is mentioned in like a lot of news outlets, but personally, I just like didn't want to mention her name. Yeah, I know that. So I'm just going to say she. She testified that there were 10 occasions where John Sweeney put his hands on her. And there were two separate times where she had to be hospitalized for the injuries that she suffered at his hands. One hospital stay was four days long and the next day was six days. Or excuse me, the next time was six days.

Those are both long hospital stays. She suffered many injuries, a collapsed lung. What? A perforated ear. A perforated ear drum. Sorry, I meant to correct myself. A perforated eardrum and a broken nose. Oh my God. A perforated ear drum? Like what happened there? What did he do? I have no idea. Oh, that's horrific. Now, when she tried to escape from him, he would literally throw rocks at her. Yep. Or smash furniture around and like throw like pictures and anything around the house that he could. And she said while he would do this while he was quite literally foaming at the mouth. Holy shit. We are talking about a man that is an actual animal. Like actually unhinged. Like, terrifying. Like, I literally picture the guy in split, just like going off. Like, he is fully untethered.

It's not okay. Now, the entire time she gave her testimony, John Sweeney wouldn't even look at her, like, would not look up at her. The defense tried to paint her, and this is just so messed up. They tried to invalidate not only this woman, but also Dominique, and just tried to paint them as, like, women who drank a lot in. did drugs and just invalidate their entire lives. Of course. You got to take away their credibility. So they try to say that during these fights, she was drunk or she was high, this woman who was testifying. And they were just basically saying that she got herself into this. So like, this is her fault. I don't know what to tell you. Oh yeah. But the prosecution was ready to show exactly who John Sweeney was. Like I said, he came from nothing. He desperately wanted to be rich and famous. So when these women rejected him, that's when he lost his mind. Of course.

And the prosecution knew that. Because he can't get it himself. He needs them. He actually reminds me a lot of Andrew Kuhnanan who killed Versace and the other man that he killed. It's somebody who needs to be notorious and use people along the way to climb up the ladder, so to say. When they start losing their sources of that, then they start getting more and more desperate. And then it becomes their options for how they become notorious or infamous or famous or anything become less and less. become less and less and less and less. And finally they're like, well, I'll do it this way.

Because Andrew Kuhnan had like sugar daddies and stuff like that. And he would like lie about who is, who he, where he came from and everything. And he had these socialite friends. But one by one, they started learning who he actually was and they started falling away. And that's when everything happened. When the bail falls. That's when they get desperate. Like what was happening here. He met Dominique and I'm sure it was great in the beginning. But then he couldn't handle. Yeah. Having a relationship, I guess. Because he's an animal. Yeah. So when it was time for the prosecution to talk to the woman, they said to her, quote, do you come from a well-to-do family? That was the question. At that moment, John Sweeney basically ejected himself out of his seat like a fucking rocket. What? Through the Bible that he carried into the courtroom every day across the room and stormed toward the doors that led to the holding cell. Like he was like leaving. Like he didn't want to sit there. Oh, like this is a real housewives reunion and you can just get up and leave? Yes. Honey, no. Like, no, you're on trial for murder, motherfucker. You can't just leave because it's getting uncomfortable, because shit's going to get a lot more uncomfortable from here on it. Are you kidding me?

He stormed out of the room. Two bailiffs and four armed guards had to tackle him down and bring him back to his chair, which he was then handcuffed to. Yeah, as he should be. And when he apologized, Judge Katz looked right at him and he said, we know what a strain you're under, Mr. Sweeney. Oh, my God.

We know that you're the one here, who's really under a great strain. You're under a strain. I'm sorry. Why don't we talk about what a strain that this woman sitting next to you on the stand was under or what strained Dominique was under when John Sweeney's hands literally stopped air from coming into her lungs. Wow.

And killed her. Like, are we kidding here? How is that? I'm so sorry for the strain that you're under. I'm so sorry for him. This will just take a little while longer and then you can get past it. Yeah. Let's coddle the murderer.

Yeah. So obviously any jury that saw the ex-girlfriend. testimony and saw him explode like that would have probably called it a day at that point and been like, yeah, we've seen what we need to see. Yeah. Clearly, this man with an explosive temper that was set off by something as small as a pointed question. That wasn't even about him. Literally. Like, he knew where it was going. Of course. It was like indirect, but it's like, he's just asking her a question. And that's the thing, because what really he was pissed about was that the prosecution saw him exactly for who he was.

It was proving a very valid point. But unfortunately, the jury would never hear a word of this woman's testimony or see the monster at work because Sweeney's defense attorney Adelson had asked that while this woman give her testimony, the jury be out of the room so that they could decide whether or not it was like credible enough or important enough for the jury to hear. So when this all went down, the jury was not in the room. What a fucking shark. So they had no idea this woman even existed and they never saw that. They never knew that happened.

I will give it to these defense attorneys. They are doing their job. It's like, how do you even, I don't even understand how that happens. That's absurd. And they came to the decision that her testimony was not worth showing the jury. What? Mm-hmm. So they never knew that he had been a known abuser before he even met Dominique and they never got to see it with their own eyes. Which most of the time, it's like, come on, guys. They know he's probably done this before. Yeah. Nine times out of ten, you don't just suddenly out of nowhere start brutally abusing women. the person you're with. Usually you've had a pattern of this behavior for a little while. And he did. And if you did it enough that you killed a woman, you've definitely done it before. And how is establishing a pattern not allowed in a trial? Like usually that's one of a main things that they do.

Dude was found standing over her body. There was an eyewitness there that saw the entire thing. And it's like he admitted it to, I don't understand this. Neither do I. The judge also wouldn't let Lenny testify about all the times that Dominique fled to her home trying to escape John Sweeney. Yeah, because that's not important. Nope.

And he wouldn't let Dominique's friends testify about all the times that they had literally firsthand seen him, like, over her on a bed, strangling her or ripping her hair out of her head. They said the reason they wouldn't let her mother testify or her friends who had experienced this entire ordeal, their statements were hearsay. Oh, my God. How? How are you going to say that a mother's words about her daughter are hearsay? Like, this is just, I feel like this should be just, like, witness testimony. I don't understand why.

No. I mean, again, these defense attorneys are really doing the job. It's bananas. And this is not even the worst thing that was going to happen to the family during the trial. Because, so like I said, Dominique's mother had multiple sclerosis and she was in a wheelchair. So you can only imagine what she was going through. Like I said, the stress that somebody endures when they have a disease like that makes it worse. Yeah, unimaginable.

So she's already in a bad place to say the least because her daughter has been murdered. Now she's sitting at a trial. She's not allowed to even speak her experience. No. And like what? Now that's not the end of it. Adelson didn't really care what the mother of this murder victim was going through. He was just worried about her presence in the courtroom because he thought that it would lead the jury to feel bad, like have some kind of extra sympathy toward her and that it would sway the verdict.

He did not want. Honestly, fucking demon. He did not want her allowed in the courtroom. That's some demon shit. How do you lay your head on a pillow at night? Yeah, that's the kind of, I, I understand defense attorneys have a job to do. Absolutely. I understand that some people are innocent and need a defense attorney to do their job and

like overdo it. But that kind of shit, that's fucked. You know this man is guilty. You know he's guilty. Everybody does. And it's like, you're just trying to lessen the charge at this point. That's exactly what they were doing. That was their main point.

What the fuck are you doing telling this woman in a wheelchair who can't be in the To see her daughter be like get justice like come on. Her only daughter, the baby of her family. No, I can't understand that shit. I don't know how you lay your head on the pillow after that shit. Because it's like this isn't to get him off. This is to get him a lesser charge. A lesser sentence.

Like you don't need to go that hard. No. Calm down. No. That's. I mean, why. I mean, we're allowed to like the Golden State Killer all of a sudden was in a wheelchair at his fucking.

Yeah, that lying sack of shit was pretending that he was like ailing the entire time. And we allowed that. We're allowing that. But somebody who actually is, like, in a wheelchair because of a disease that they're suffering. No, for some reason, we give these, like, assholes a pass. I don't understand. Like, it's like, nobody would, what they should have done is prop that dumb ass up. And then, like, stand on your two feet.

You were fine, like, what, a few weeks ago when we got you outside of your house? You were literally riding your fucking motorcycle. Like, fuck the motorcycle. Oh, fuck everything. Fuck every. Like, like, murderers. Fuck you murderers. Brough.

So, like I said, he didn't want her allowed in, but he had. no way of kicking her out. Like how the fuck are you going to sway that? I mean, Judge Katz, I'm surprised, didn't go for it. But he, he like thought about it. Adelson also moved to the judge that, quote, any emotional outburst by the Dunn family, including crying, eye rolling, and or making any type of exclamation would result in their being ejected from the courtroom. So yeah, her family members couldn't cry during her murder trial or they would be ejected from the courtroom. I've never heard of. something like this. This is like... In my life.

In my life. I've just never heard of this being a thing. The judge is like fully like shitting upon a murder victim's family. I've never heard of this. Or the defense attorney was. I've never heard of this being like a thing. And the judge granted the motion. Well that's what I, it's like, and the judge is going along with it. Yeah. You can't tell a murder victim's family. You can't cry. What? I'm sorry. What? Like, I understand the like no bursts of emotion. Like you can't stand up and scream or scream or or like charge people or any, I understand that. You can't tell people they can't cry.

Right. No, come on. So one day... No matter what, their child is dead. Nothing changes that fact. The jury isn't going to be like, huh, I wonder if Dominique really is dead because they're not crying. Like, it's, no. It doesn't make any sense. So one day, one of Dominique's brothers had tears in his eyes and Adelson tried to have him thrown out.

And there was another time when Griffin and Alex, Dominique's brothers, moved seats so that they, because at this point, John Sweeney was on the stand testifying, so they moved seats to be in his eyesight. Like, they were like, good, you can look right the fuck at me. For sure. And Adelson tried to have them thrown out. Are you kidding? They weren't thrown out. But then Alex told Dominic that he was like, I can't do this anymore.

I can't go and be in the same room with John Sweeney and be treated the way we're being treated. Like, I can't. I would lose it. I would lose it on this guy. So the blows to the family kept coming from all angles, the judge, the defense, the hopes that something huge would be admitted as evidence and then last minute was taken off the table, labeled hearsay or just like unnecessary. Now, another blow came on August 29th when Katz granted a motion saying that there was insufficient evidence of a charge for first degree murder and that the jury would only be able to deliberate

on charges of manslaughter or second degree murder. I had a feeling that was going to be the end result. Like what? Yep. And then there was when John Sweeney took the stand himself and tried to make excuses and paint himself like the real victim here. It was him. Oh, of course. He was the victim here. He was, yeah. So this is his version of events.

He said, just everybody hold on to your butts. Oh, God. He said that he had gone over to Dominique's place that night because they had actually been talking about getting back together, even getting married and having kids. Like, everything was great again. And she told him that she changed her mind and she didn't want him back and that she was sorry for leading him on. And so when she said that, he lost it.

any blacked out. Okay. Even if that was the truth, that's her fucking prerogative. Yeah. People can change their goddamn minds, especially when you're an asshole who has beaten the shit out of her, your entire relationship. She can suddenly go, you know what? No. Well, I actually don't want to. He thought it was her fault. Oh, yeah, it's her fault. It's her fault. Yeah. And so crazy, he blacked out. Yeah, they all do. And when he came to, he realized that Dominique was unconscious. So he tried to do CPR because he's a hero. But when he did that, it made her throw up. And then because he's such a soft emotional teddy bear, he threw up too.

And then when he saw that Dominique wasn't coming back, he ran into the house, but it's so weird because David didn't see that happen. I was going to say. And he downed two bottles of pills, which is so weird because those were not found in his system. Okay. Wow, magic. Super nuts. And also they were literally not found anywhere. Wow, very lucky. And then he took Dominique's tongue from the back of her throat so that she wouldn't choke on it if she came too. Yes, of course. Because he knew that was the right thing to do because he had always helped his epileptic father.

He's just very smart. He's just such a fucking hero. He's a quick thinker. John Sweeney. Yep. He's just everything. And goodness he was there. He actually had a cape on at this very moment.

Yeah. Thank goodness he was there to save her from the murder that he just committed. Yeah. I'm very glad he was there for that. Trying to, yeah, totally for sure. And then when all that taking care was done, he lied next to her just like Romeo and Juliet. of course he did super cute story none of that fucking happened that is a steaming pile of horse shit survey says

that's a lie motherfucker god i hate this guy like i said there was absolutely no evidence that he had taken two bottles of worth of pills and the officer like i said that arrived on scene first said that as soon as he got there he looked sweetie or he looked to the guy in the eyes and i'm gonna say it again he said quote man i blew it i killed her i didn't think i choked her that hard but i don't know, I just kept on choking her. I lost my temper, blew it again. I don't know how any of this is confusing to any. So you're telling me that you down two bottles of pills and you had the wherewithal to say that to the first responding officer. Yeah. And it's like, I thought you were lying next to her in state. Yes. But no. That's not what the police officer is saying. I don't think he was confused.

He was not. No. And he knew exactly what he had done. And to further prove that, the medal of medical examiner, said that there was evidence to show that this is horrific. Dominique had been strangled between four and six minutes. So the amount of rage and just lack of soul you have to have to hold on to someone's neck with the pressure it takes to actually choke them out for that warm. For four to six minutes. Well, they, and that's like full face fronting, looking in the eyes. Absolutely.

And you are watching someone in complete. panic. You are saying exactly what I wrote down a minute. Am I really? Like that's word for word, four to six minutes. To look in her eyes to look in someone's eyes, know that you're killing them. Obviously, she would have been struggling to like get away. This was not an oopsie. Oh yeah. I mean, you think of anybody, if you like choke on something or for a second you can't breathe, it's the panic you'll see in someone's face. Imagine that's four minutes of that panic. Well, he was blacked out, Elena. That you are supposedly loved. He was blacked out. You are blacked out. You don't black out and hold somebody's neck for that long with that. And it takes a lot of pressure.

Yeah, you have to break the hyoid bone. Yes. And that's not what happened. Like, no, you're a liar. None of that happened other than the fact that, yeah, you put your hands around the woman that you supposedly loved throat for four to six minutes. No, it's absurd. And deprived her of oxygen. It's truly absurd. So now it was time for the jury to decide. When they were finished hearing the closing statements in which Adels took the time to speak as Dominique, like literally spoke as her and called herself a liar. Like he was like, I, Dominique lied to you, John Sweeney. Like, what? Yeah. Are you kidding me? No.

No. This gets worse and worse. It somehow gets worse and worse. So they went to deliberate. When they came back, they handed two envelopes to the judge and the verdict was read by the clerk. Guilty on voluntary manslaughter. Voluntary manslaughter. Voluntary manslaughter.

Voluntary man. slaughter, not second-degree murder, and also guilty on a misdemeanor assault, because there was a previous time that was mentioned during the trial that he had choked her. Yeah. Yeah. So all in all, the man who continuously beat Dominique through their relationship grasped her neck for four to six minutes, ultimately killing her, would serve only a maximum sentence of six and a half years.

Six and a half years. Now, that's not what he would serve because he also had the potential to get out, without even going in front of a parole board after serving half of his sentence, which would include time served. I cannot with this. I truly can't. Yeah. So then in a train. And also quick little like side note. I know. I said like we were saying that like the high old bone has to break for strangulation. That only happens in like one third of strangulations. Just wanted to point that out. Oh. Interesting. It doesn't always happen. It doesn't always break. I just wanted to point that up. Okay. Now, so in a strange twist of events, Judge Katz, just condemned the jury and told them that, quote, this was a case of pure, this case, excuse me, he said, this case was a case pure and simple of murder, murder with malice. So he's like yelling at them that they like didn't come to the right conclusion. You got it wrong. You got it wrong. Now he still thanked them for their time and thanked them on behalf of the family. And when he did that, Dominic Dunn said back to

him, not for my family, Judge Katz. What a badass. So they exchanged. So they exchanged. words and then Dominic turned around and led himself and Lenny out of the courtroom before he turned around in front of everyone there and said, you have withheld important evidence from this jury about this man's history of violence against women. Good for him. And then he turned around and walked out. Wow. Judge Katz was like, I'm going to have to throw you out if you continue. And he was like, no, you won't. I'll get up and get out myself. But let me make sure that they know what just happened. Dominic. Yeah. Hell yeah. So later the jury foreman named Paul Spiegel said that if the jury had heard all the evidence like John Sweeney's ex-girlfriend's testimony, Lenny or Dominique's friend's testimony,

or seeing John Sweeney lose absolute control, they 100% would have convicted him of murder. 100%. These are the things that like the justice system is just so fucked because it's like that doesn't make sense. No. And he also said... That this is allowed to just be. Oh, get this.

He also said that there were four, one, two, three, four separate occasions. where the jury was, like, confused about certain things, and they tried to ask the judge, and he wouldn't answer their questions. And every time they came to him, he was like, all your directions are in the paper I gave you. Like, read the instructions. Wow. Yeah. This is so mishandled. Yeah. This trial was an absolute shit show. Now, Teresa El-Donna actually staged a march outside of the courthouse with the victim advocacy group that she put together called Victims for Victims. And she protested against the verdict, but like nothing came of it. What was done was done. John Sweeney was sentenced to six years and he would be out in three and a half

because he had already served some of his time between his arrest and his sentencing. Three and a half years. For looking in the eyes of the woman you supposedly love and strangling her from anywhere between four and six minutes. For like brutally abusing a woman for your entire relationship. when she finally gets away from you showing up on her door and strangling her in front of her home that she owns. And then admitting it when the police come. And saying that you did it before. And you get three and a half years.

Yeah. That's a lot of sense. Yeah. Super justice. Yeah. So when he got out of prison, he was hired actually again at like a super upscale restaurant. So Dominique's family was like, fuck that. we're not going to let that happen. So they stood outside the restaurant and they handed out flyers

that read. Fuck yeah. The food you will eat tonight was cooked by the hands that killed Dominique Dunn. Good. Like, can I get a hell yeah. Yeah. That you don't, murderers like can be canceled. Absolutely. Let's do that. 100%. So John Sweeney left that job pretty quickly. And then Dominique's family learned that he was engaged to a woman. Now, I've seen two variations on what actually happened. Some sources say that when he found this out, Dominic Dunn called the woman's father to let him know what had happened to Dominique. It was like, just so you know, like, the woman. I'm a father. You're a father.

The man that your daughter is engaged to, like killed my daughter and is known to have a history of violence against women. But I also saw that the woman's father called Dominic to find out if it was Sweeney who had killed Dominique. But either way, they talked. But they talked. Holy shit. He found out. Now, it's unclear if the engagement went through or not because John Sweeney ended up changing his name. And it's like you can find his name, but there's nothing really you can find out anymore about him.

Yeah, of course. It's like a Carla Homoca thing. You can only find out so much. Yeah. So I wanted to end this in Dominique's voice because she was the only one who wasn't there to defend herself throughout the trial. And Dominic included this letter in the Vanity Fair piece that I've talked about. Now, it's a letter that one of Dominique's friends found at her place when they were clearing out the house after her funeral. And it was a letter that was clearly meant for Sweeney.

So she wrote to him, quote, selfishness works both ways. You are just as selfish as I am. We have to be the two individuals to work together as a couple. I'm not permitted to do enough things on my own. Why must you be part of everything I do? Why do you want to come to my writing lessons and my acting lessons? Why are you jealous of every scene partner I have? Why must I recount word for word everything I spoke to Dr. Black about?

Why must I talk about every situation, oh, excuse me, why must I talk about every audition when you know that it's bad luck for me? Why do we have discussions at 3 a.m. all the time instead of during the day? Why must you know the name of every person I come into contact with? You go crazy over my rehearsals. You insist on going to work with me when I have told you it makes me nervous. Your paranoia is overboard. You do not love me. You're obsessed with me. The person you think you love is not me at all. It is someone you've made up in your head. I'm the person who makes you angry, who you fight with sometimes. I think we only fight when images of me fade away and then you're faced with the real me.

That's my arguments erupt out of nowhere. The whole thing has made me realize how scared I am of you. And I don't mean just physically. I'm afraid of the next time you're going to have another mood swing. When we're good, we are great. But when we are bad, we are horrendous. The bad outweighs the good. Wow.

So that entire letter, it tells you everything you need to know. That he was like not letting her go to work without him. Like 3 a.m. discussions when she, that's like waking her up in the middle of the night to like, like, that's a lot. It's horrible. That's a lot. Now that letter was actually read during the trial by the prosecution and I somehow didn't sway the outcome. And actually, I guess the jury was like deadlocked for a little while.

And the reason why, excuse me, the reason why they. broke was because some jurors were like getting too hot and just wanted to leave. Oh yeah, you're too hot. I understand. Yeah, we don't want you to be uncomfortable. Yeah, so sorry about that. For sure. So that is the absolutely tragic, tragic, tragic case of Dominique Dunn and the tragic case really of her trial. Yeah, that trial is one of the worst I've heard. It's absolutely one of the worst. Wow. I had no idea it was that bad. I've never, and like you said, I've never in my research found a trial as bad as that. That's so bad. Like we, And we've gone over some pretty bad ones, but this one, like not allowing the family to cry. Yeah, that's, wanting the mother out of the courtroom because she has a disease.

Because she's in a wheelchair and will make people feel bad. Like, what? People should feel bad. Yeah. She lost her daughter. Jesus. At the hands of the guy who's sitting right there walking in every day with a fucking Bible that you didn't get to see him throw across the room. Oh, my God.

That's, whoo. Woof. Wow. So, yeah. All right. Happy Sunday. Thank you for that. Welcome.

Man, RIP. Dominique Dun. I'm going to link that Vanity Fair article as well as I used two other articles for the research on this. But please, if you read any of them, read the article that her dad wrote. Yeah. It is. I read it when I did my research for the Halloween show or the cursed poltergeist. And I was crying by the end of it.

Oh, yeah. And I read it again for this. And I was, like, choked up. I'm glad he had, like, the ability to, like, write down in words. I hope it was, like, cathartic to him in some way. I feel like it probably was because he was a writer. Exactly. So I feel like that's how he probably would process that.

But like to be able to do that and like put all that into the world, it's like really impressive. Yeah. And there's some stuff that obviously I left out because I'm not going to like say everything that he said. Yeah. So definitely, definitely go read that. Yes, absolutely.

And we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that you're a judge on a trial and you just suck ass. Yeah, be a good judge. Be a good judge. Be a good person. Wear the robe right.