Morbid - Happy Land Social Club Arson

Episode Date: April 1, 2024

On the evening of March 24, 1990, nearly one hundred patrons gathered to celebrate Carnivale at the Happy Land Social Club, a small informal night club in the Bronx that catered to a mostly Honduran clientele. The evening took a deadly turn when, around 3:30 am, an explosion of fire roared up the stairway leading to the second-floor club, blocking the only exit from the building and trapping the patrons in a room rapidly filling with toxic smoke and fire. It’s unknown how many patrons managed to escape the fire, but by the time the fire department had extinguished the blaze, eighty-seven people were dead.Thank you to the amazing Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research!ReferencesBarbanel, Josh. 1990. "Bronx social club's sublease: How a firetrap skirted the line." New York Times, March 28: B1.—. 1990. "Tracing the club's owners." New York Times, March 27: B2.Barron, James. 1990. "The living search the faces of the dead." New York Times, March 26.Blumenthal, Ralph. 1990. "Fire in the Bronx; 87 die in blaze at illegal club." New York Times, March 26.Gelman, Mitch, Alexis Jetter, and Beth Holland. 1990. "87 die in arson called act of spurned lover." Newsday, March 26: 3.Gilbert, Allison. 2020. "A faded tragedy's long shadow." New York Times, March 29.Golden, Tim. 1990. "In the saddest way, New York learns about Hondurans." New York Times, April 1.Hernandez, Raymond. 1995. "Survivors call settlement 'unjust'." New York Times, July 7.Hevesi, Dennis. 1992. "Guilty plea by landlord in fire case." New York Times, May 9.Hirsch, James. 1988. "Most social clubs run the gamut of illegality." New York Times, August 22.Kerr, Peter. 1986. "Social Clubs: Modern Mob still uses a few as offices." New York Times, April 15.Lambert, Bruce. 1991. "Confession tape on Bronx blaze is heard by jury." New York Times, August 1.Lorch, Donatella. 1991. "Ex-girlfriend recalls threat before flames." New York Times, July 31.—. 1991. "Witness tells of visit by Happy Land fire suspect." New York Times, July 31.Maykuth, Andrew. 1990. "N.Y. fire suspect described as 'down to his last hope'." Philadelphia Inquirer, 03 27: 1.McFadden, Robert. 1990. "The Knights of the Padlock Sweep Forth." New York Times, March 31.New York Times. 1990. "7 victims: their stories, struggles and dreams of better lives." New York Times, March 29.Nieves, Evelyn. 1991. "Refugee found guilty of killing 87 in Bronx Happy Land fire." New York Times, August 20.People of the State of New York v. Julio Gonzalez. 1995. 163 Misc. 2d 950 (New York Supreme Court, Bronx County, February 10).Purdy, Matthew. 1995. "More than five years after the arson fire at the Happy Land Social Club..." New York Times, July 7.Roberts, Sam. 2016. "Julio Gonzalez, arsonist who killed 87 at a nightclub in the Bronx, dies at 61." New York Times, September 15.Schanberg, Sydney. 1990. "Please, some respect for 87 who died." Newsday, April 13: 62.Stanley, Alessandra. 1991. "At Happy Land mass-murder trial, days of tears, humor and boredom." New York Times, July 28.Stanley, Allessandra. 1990. "25 years to life for the arsonist at Happy Land." New York Times, September 20.Strom, Stephanie. 1990. "Hispanic residents rally against closing of social clubs." New York Times, April 6.Terry, Don. 1990. "Social club crackdown is the latest in a series." New York Times, March 26: A1.Wichers, Christine. 1990. "Male violence the real cause of Bronx fire." New York Times, April 10.THE BUTCHER GAME will be released on September 17th, 2024! To Pre-order go to (https://zandoprojects.com/books/the-butcher-game/) PLUS! If you preorder the book, get an autographed poster while supplies last by visiting (http://thebutchergame.com/) 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 sure is. Here we are. And we're feeling better. I was going to say, can you tell because I'm singing and being annoying that I feel 10 times better? I'm like just feeling better because I got it after Ash because I waited until everybody was okay and then I decided to fall into it really hard. You really did.

Like you said, it was like that mom thing. Yeah, my body kept it away until everyone was on the up and up and then it was like crash. He's like, oh no. So I had two days of being like pretty ill. But today I'm feeling better. And so is Ash. So we're on the other side. Dude, and Drew still hasn't got it.

I'm like, I feel like you're not going to get it. I feel like he's not going to either. And I'm proud of him. He's a weird anomaly. I'm really proud of him. I guess he's health. But he's health. I think he's health.

You know what, though? I keep saying it to John and he actually got mad last night because he was like, what are you trying to say? Because I was like, he was like, you're going to have a few more days of feeling crappy. Like, this is what happened to me. And I was like, no, I think I'm going to be fine tomorrow. And then I was like, I go, you hang on to things a lot longer than I do. And he was like, what is that supposed to be?

And I was like, I don't know. You just keep things longer than I. Like, I throw them off faster. I don't know. Guys, let's be real. A man cold is a real thing. That's what she's trying to say. I'm trying to be nicer.

But I don't know. Like, you just keep it longer. My meat system's just like real quick. A man cold is a totally different story. It really is. He was like, he was like, shut up. Like, I'm glad that Drew didn't get it because, like, I mean, he did a wonderful job taking care of me, but I was like, I don't really want to return the favor. Like, you know, I'm tired for being sick.

John got a pretty, he got a pretty gnarly version of it. Yeah. But, you know, that's our family update. I'm out of it. So that's good, everybody. I might sound slightly stuffed up, so I apologize for that. But, you know, we do what we can do. We just have our sexy, um, Phoebe, Phoebe voices on.

Phoebe buffet, which apparently you always have. Yeah, guys, I'm still, I want to talk about that every single time we talk. Like, here we are. We're sitting down again. I have never in my life heard this, this comparison that I listen, that I sound like Lisa Cudrow. I don't, I've never heard it in my life. I don't know. Until we had a podcast. Even when I closed my eyes, I can't hear it. But there's a lot of things I didn't find out about myself until we started a podcast. I know. Exactly. But it's just, it's wild to me. But that's not why we're here. Why we're here is a situation. talk about crime. True crime. And weird stuff. Weird stuff. And so I think I posted a photo on my Instagram the other day and everybody was like, oh my God, I don't know if I want this episode or I don't want this episode. It's not this episode. Oh, I was like, I thought that it wasn't that episode. It's not, but I just wanted to like update on that. So I bought this book called Buried Alive and I've been doing like crazy research on premature burials and like fear of being buried alive. Great. I'm so excited. So that's going to be an episode for next week because

It's just become so intense that I want to make sure I do it right. So I pushed it to next week, but it's coming. So I decided to do like a fun old-timey murder. Yeah, you know, fun. Nothing's fun here. But like, you know what I mean. Old-timey, kind of. So this one was the murderer's name is Marion Stembridge.

It is a man. And because Marion was like a very big man's name back in the day. Yeah. Just put it on. I think John Wayne's real name was like Marion. I'm pretty sure. I didn't even know that. Yeah.

But so I found a lot of information in this book called Georgia Tales, Stories of Georgia and Georgians by Ray Chandler. And it has a lot of cool, like, crazy tales from Georgia. I don't know if you could tell that. But it's a really good one. And they did a whole thing on Marion Stembridge. And I was like fascinated by it. So Marion Stembridge, this obviously takes place in Georgia. He was born August 20.

1892 in Baldwin, Georgia. He grew up in a pretty prominent family. According to an ancestry search that I actually signed up for Ancestry.com to go look into his family tree for this because it was kind of hard to find information on him. Wow. Thank you to the person who actually did a search on him and like set up his family tree because that was awesome. That's a lot. His parents were John Wesley Stembridge and his mother was Mary Leverett. He was one of at least four. children that I could find. He had a brother Roger, who was an older brother, and he had three sisters, Mildred, Martha, and Ellen. Oh, Mildred. I love that name. Mildred, Martha, and Ellen. His father passed away in 1925. I'm not sure what of, because again, there's not tons of, like, detailed information

about this. Probably prohibition. Probably died of prohibition. That's what I think. That's probably what happened. I would have. Just, you know, getting too roaring with it. So he was very close to his mother, and even as he got older, she would financially help him a lot of times. Like, he was, he was that kid. A little trust fund baby. He was that kid. Love it. And basically she would go to bat for him even when she like probably shouldn't.

Because he was always kind of a dick. Okay. Just from the get-go. You know what I'm getting? I'm getting dandy vibes. Oh my God. That's literally what I was thinking the entire time. I love one around the same wavelength like that.

I almost put a dandy reference. in here. I love that you did that. In my head, I kept picturing like Finn as Dandy this entire time. As soon as you started saying like, his mom would always help him out and like vouch for him when he shouldn't. I was like Dandy. Give him money.

I started picturing that. He's just all, he's a murderer. Like it's just all there. That's crazy. He's Dandy. And, you know, everyone in the area said that the Stembridge family were very nice people and really the only one who was difficult and quite frankly a real ass

was Marion. Okay. He was the only one that everybody was like, what the fuck is wrong with you? Can we call him Dandian? Dandian. So Dandy. So not a ton is known about his childhood, but people who knew the family said they were good people. He wasn't abused. He wasn't mistreated. None of the kids were. Okay. By all accounts. But by the age of 19, his older brother, like something must have gone down. Because his older brother and one of his sisters tried to have him committed to a mental health facility in Millageville, Georgia. Oh, dang. So obviously, I mean, like we said, he was always an asshole, and I think he was becoming a little more aggressive and scary, a little unpredictable. So they were trying to get him committed. It didn't end up happening because he wouldn't agree to

it, and he was 19 years old. And his mother also stepped in and said it was not necessary. Rout row. But as these things often go, this really created an issue between the siblings, obviously, because now he's not in the mental health facility, but he knows you tried to put him in there. Yeah. So there's a problem. So Marion wanted nothing to do with his older brother, Roger, anymore, and the sister, who I couldn't figure out which sister it was who did it. But he completely cut them out.

Okay. Didn't want anything to do with them ever again. Like, that was it. I mean, I guess I'd be pretty mad, too. He was pretty mad, for sure. But he would only talk to his mother and his two remaining sisters. those are the only people he would have contact with. He did go into the Army for a spell, but he was medically discharged at one point.

There was a point when he did check himself into a mental health facility, but I wasn't able to find any information about what that was for and what happened or how long. Oh, okay. And his family wouldn't talk about it. Well, and maybe they had it like expunged or something like that. Yeah, I think it was just one of those things that like it just wasn't talked about. He did graduate from the University of Georgia School of Law. Wow. But he never applied for the bar, so he never actually became a lawyer.

Craig? But he was, Craig Conover, is at you. Hashtag Southern Charm? Craig. Craig. Craig. Are you there? Are you fellows there? But he did. Eventually.

Yeah, he did. Right? There you go. Do you guys watch Bravo? Did he? I don't know. I think he did. I'm pretty sure he did. Craig. Hey, Bravo heads. Craig Conover, are you listening? You did, right?

But yeah. So people actually described him as intimidatingly smart. He was brilliant. Okay. Very, very smart. But brilliant in the bad way. He used it to be cunning, conniving, conniving, manipulating. His siblings and their spouses all described Marion as super entitled, hashtag dandy. Literally.

And just an asshole in general. They all just fucking hated him. And his sister-in-law, who was married to his older brother, Roger, said, quote, he thought he was the crown prince of the family. Oh, my God. That's literally so weird. So him. That's so funny.

I wonder if American Horror Story actually knew this story. Maybe. Maybe. So after he graduated from law school, apparently for no reason, he started his own business, and it was like a mail order business, and it was apparently very financially rewarding for him at first. Okay. From this, he did do a ton of other random things to make money, and this eventually led

him to acquiring a grocery store, so he became a grocer. Dang. Which is now called Rock. Iles Bakery and it's in the area still. Oh, wow. So if you're in the area and like, you know what that is, that's cool. He also had a lumber yard and he dabbled in real estate. So he was putting his hands in all different areas now.

A Marion of all trades. He's a dandy of all trades. And he was successful at all these things. But he was successful because he was an asshole and because he was intimidating people. And he was like using force to get his way. Okay. Now, clearly nothing is on the up and up here. It kind of looks like it is, but it's not. I'm just picturing him, like, walking into, like, an open house with, like, potential buyers and being like, you need to buy this fucking house. It has 10 bay windows. You fucking need it. I boiled cinnamon sticks on the fucking stove. You know what that's called? Poperry, baby. You know what I did? I set this shit up. I staged it for you, okay? I took time out of my day. I pictured your dumb-ass family living in this house that I put shit in here that I knew you would like.

I staged the place. That's what he did. He's using force. That's what he did. And everybody who was around town, you know, was just like, okay, he's just, he's a dick that just does good business. Yeah. He's just a business dick.

That's all he is. And they were all just like, whatever. But he soon opened another business. And it was in the back of one of his, like, existing stores. Well, that's all right shady. back of a store. It feels shady. Oh, that's in the back building. That's in the back building. And it was the Stembridge banking company. And it was touted as like a private bank. Yeah, I bet. So already you're like, oh no. Honey, that's not a credit union. In reality, it was just a total facade for bad shit.

He was dabbling in like loan sharking and, you know, like just any bad money thing you can think of laundering. He was going ahead and dabbling in that. All of the above. He was also fucking with like poor in like black communities because he was giving them high interest loans that he could later come after them very aggressively for and he would also take advantage of non-educated or illiterate communities by purposely putting like language in contracts that he knew they couldn't understand and then fucking ass forcing them like intimidating them into signing these contracts Jesus what the fuck it's also like you're already rich bro yeah but he's he's getting rich off the backs of lower income families and like people that are being already marginalized in the community.

No, and it's like, but your mom is going to give you money anyway. So like, why do you need to do that, you jackhole? Because he's a dick. Yeah, that's just he liked being an asshole. I'm just mad about it. Now, according to that ancestry search that I did, uh, it did say, and I could have find this in a lot like any other sources. So I was like, ooh, look at me finding it on ancestry. He did marry a woman named Lois Denive Marcheon in 1927. Lois. It also claims they had a daughter named Evelyn, but that's never mentioned again. And he marries again.

Okay. So this little marriage with the daughter is never mentioned. Interesting. Well, back then, too. But it's in his damn family tree, okay? It's in there. In a prominent family, though, like divorce. Yeah.

Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Oh, oh, oh, that's what Mama Dandy said. She said, oh, oh. She probably did, to be honest. She may have. I think she might have.

She choked on her brandy and went, oh, oh, oh, that's not working. Well, yeah, so apparently that wasn't working for them. But as his widowed mother, because remember, she's widowed now, as she's getting older, she obviously needed a little more care. So she moved in with Roger, the older brother. She moved into his house with him and his wife, and she lived there with him. He took care of her, like all. was good. And now I said

Marion was close to his mother. Right. And he still was. And he would visit her a lot. And he would go to Rogers home. But remember, he's not speaking to Roger. So when he would visit, he refused to go inside the house. And he wouldn't speak to Roger. So

he would have full-blown visits with his mother through a window. Meet me at my window. He would stay outside. And she would be sitting in the fucking window because he was that petty. He was like, Mom, you could use a hero right now and I could use someone to save. I had to. I love it. That's a lot. His elderly mother, who can't come outside to sit with you. It's like, sit at the window seat, bach.

Sit at the cold-ass window, ma. Let's open this window so you can talk to me while I stand here like an idiot. Also, can't you just walk in the house and like not like, you know, not say much? Honestly, I would think it would be pettier to walk into the house not speak to Roger Orr's wife. I would rather. just visit with your mother in his house and leave without saying anything. That's some Gemini type shit that I would absolutely do. I think that's pretty next level. And I think like dandy slash Marion really missed out on an opportunity. I think so too. But maybe Roger was the kind of guy where like you couldn't come in his house without speaking to him. Yeah. I mean personally if my sibling, who I wasn't talking to walked at my house to have a visit with my mom, they'd be like kicked so far down

the street. Yeah, I would personally ask them out. They would split in two. But like, I don't know. Yeah. You got to try it, I guess. Shoot your shot, dandy. Shoot your shot. But he would just make his mom talk to him outside the window. And again, Marion was always known around the area, even since he was younger, because he was the only asshole in that otherwise normal family. But now that he was an adult, he was really becoming kind of a, like, shady figure in the community. Many people thought of him kind of as just someone who was weird, kind of eccentric.

he was cold, he was distant, he was definitely not like inviting conversation. Like he would just kind of walk through and you just don't even maybe tip your hat to him. I don't know what you do. I don't know what they did back then. Just tip their hats. I have literally no idea. But someone who didn't like, he was definitely someone who didn't like to chat. He didn't like small talk, which like I feel him on that.

He wasn't looking to make tons of friends. He just went about his business, polite but quiet. But they also said that he only ate cheese and kids. canned goods. What? Why? What? My lactose intolerant ass just like literally had to excuse myself to go to the bathroom.

I'm like, hold on, actually. The thought of only eating cheese and canned goods with my IBS over here, I'm shook. I'm literally shook right now. Like you're just eating cheese, beans, and soup, sir. That's not on the pyramid. It is on the pyramid, but you have to complete each step of the pyramid. But you can't just have like, what do you? have like one part of the pyramid, sir.

No. Like, are canned goods even on the pyramid? No. And he was very particular about his big canned goods. About his canned goods. He would only pull a canned good from the back of the shelf. Oh. Because he had this weird thing where, which I'm going to be real.

Like, I know it's neurotic, but like, it's kind of true that they push the ones they want to sell to the front. No, it's true. Actually, one of my really good friends always picks the second thing, which like, well, when I read this, I was. like, oh no. Yeah, and ever since she told me that, I usually pick like the second or third one, because she told me that. And she was like, yeah, and now I'm like, yeah. Now I'm like, yeah. Canned goods from the back, please. Now we're all like, yeah. So, you know, here we are. We're like, yeah.

Like the milk, ever since I was younger. Like, if Ma sent me to get milk, I'd always take the back one. Always, always. Because they put it there first. Just look at the dates, guys. The date, the closest date is always sitting there staring you right in the face of the front row. If you pull from the back, you're like, oh okay I'll have this milk for a full ass month yeah thank you literally zero your hand to the back you better drink that in 48 hours or you're gonna be chewing it do you ever buy milk and it's literally like like I always pull from the back but in the past there's been circumstances where like maybe Drew goes there's been moments you slip up and it's like the due date is literally like two days from now I'm like what do you think

I'm gonna do with this milk in 48 hours do you think I'm just gonna like bathe in it like this gallon of whole ass milk which like it's never in my house but what you're just gonna chug that what Yeah, it doesn't make sense. A lot of questions for the lactose industry. Marion felt the same way. I think it was only weird, though, because he only ate hand goods and cheese. So, like, that made any other kind of neurotic behavior with that hand good or cheese.

A little weirder. A little weirder and more eccentric. Maybe he was, like, scared of. Maybe he had, like, I don't know. He was scared of a lot of things. He was very paranoid. He was a paranoid guy. Like, here I am armchair diagnosing.

But I wonder if he had. like some kind of OCD or something. I mean, he definitely, I think he was just a paranoid man because I think he did a lot of bad things. He knew he fucked over a lot of people. He fucked over a lot of families. He was always, like, we'll get into it, that he was always worried about being poisoned. Like a king, he was always worried about being poisoned.

So maybe that's why he only ate canned goods because you need to can open them. Exactly. That's what I was thinking is like, it's a little more tamper-proof canned good. And then I guess cheese is, I guess it's like cheese is mold. so it's like you might as well just go with it. Yeah. Who's going to poison cheese? Wow, I can't imagine his shitting life.

Dead ass. Gross but dead ass. Dead ass. His ass may as well as been dead. I need to know about your GI tract, man. I do. I'm so interested. But, you know, again, everybody knew him as cold, distant, just quiet.

Nothing really like crazy. But if you were doing business with him, it was a different Marion. People who dealt with him in business said he was ruthless. Like ruthless. He would get super aggressive and intimidating wherever money was on the table. If we were dealing with money, he's going to fuck you up. He's like a mob boss. He's going to fuck you up.

He's going to fuck you up. Man. In fact, he was known to always carry at least three guns with him at all times. He would have a German army issued 9mm. And it's like a Walther P38 semi-automatic. It's like that. I read it in that book. Gun people, you can tell me if that's crazy.

Because actually, somewhere I read that it was weird because he kept it in his coat pocket. And somewhere I read, like, that's a weird gun to have in your coat pocket. I think it's, I'm imagining it's not one of those, like, little ones. Maybe it could go off easily or something. And it's, I imagine it's probably cumbersome. It's probably not one of those little, like, pocket ones. Yeah, but we don't know what kind of jackets he was, he was rep in. I don't know.

But then he would also carry a leather briefcase with two guns in it. Okay. At all times, everywhere he went. See, that seems like, arm with the teeth. That seems like it would be more difficult because you have to open your briefcase to get access. You do, but maybe it's because he has that one. So he's ready to go like, pow-pow. And then while you're like, whoa, he's like opening his briefcase.

Yeah. Pow-pow. Whoa. See, I picture him with like one in his pocket. Like he's an asshole so he needs a shoulder hoster. It would honestly, it would be like, because this is what like the 50s or whatever, like the, you know, he's like out of the 20s and shit. Yeah. And like I feel like he should have those suspenders.

and like the shoulder holster. Yeah, me too. Make it look cool at least. But no. Guns but make it fashion. In the briefcase. Yeah. Like a turd.

Right. That doesn't seem real. But yeah, that's what he did. I don't know. But so he was paranoid. I mean, that shows you how paranoid he was. He always felt like he had to be armed to the teeth. I guess.

And at some point, he must have left his first wife, but I can't find when that happened. Okay. Either way in 1947, he got remarried. Okay. This time he married. Sarah Jordan Terry. She was an English teacher at the Women's College of Georgia. And according to multiple sources, she was described as, quote, big and mean as sin. I mean, she does have three names. Which, like, wow. If somebody described me as big and mean as sin, I'd be like, you damn

skippy. You damn straight I am. Damn skippy. So, I mean, wow, okay, like, good for him. Yeah, that's a yikes. So in 1948 was when his first real legal trouble hit. Like, he got in A couple of little little like Scripps and scraps there. Squabbles. But this is when shit got like, whoa, like he means business. Well, baby. So a man named Johnny or Richard. I've seen it twice.

Like several sources, some people call him Johnny, some people call him Richard. This is also a time where I see that people will have a name like Stephen, as we'll see later. And people called him Pete. Yeah. So like none of it makes sense. So maybe his name was Richard. And they were like, hey, Johnny, come here.

Well, maybe it was like a middle name type. situation. And sometimes it just, it just wasn't. And they just called him a different name. Yeah. Sometimes his name was Stephen and they were like Pete. The 40s. So, you know, it happens. Either way, his last name was Cooper. Okay. I'm going to call him Johnny because that's just fun. Johnny Coopin. And I married to Johnny, so I'm just going to go with it. He had been in debt with Marion for a while. He was one of those lower income customers who Marion really took advantage of with his high interest rates. He had loaned him $800 plus a ton of money for insurance. like through him to get a 1941 Chevy car.

Like he, that's what he was doing. Like he would loan for car loans and house loans, sure. He added a ton of extra fees onto this, and he was ruthless with collecting that money. And Cooper had had his brother and his mother, Emma Jonakin, be his co-signers for this loan. So they were also on the hook for the money as well.

Okay. Now, a few months after getting the car, he was in an accident. And he went to Marion for help using that, insurance that he had purchased to fix it. Right. But when he got there, he discovered that Marion had charged him for the insurance, but he had never actually got the insurance for him.

Oh, my God. So when he needed it fixed, it was just be more money. He was like, now you just have to pay for the whole thing. Now, there are two, like, small little deviations of the story here, but it all goes to the same place. It's just, I'll tell you. So one was that he, one of the stories says that Cooper dropped the Chevy off in front of Marion's store with a note that said, you can have this pile of steel for my note. The note meaning like the loan.

Sure. And this pair pissed Marion off, obviously. The other story says that he just stopped making payments on the car after this insurance bullshit and this pissed Marion. I like the first one because it's more petty. I feel like the first one happened because I feel like that's like weird to make that up. And it's a lot of drama. Either way, Marion was pissed, and it was over money in that loan. So he ended up going to Cooper's home to deal with this.

And he brought along his business associate named Sam Terry with him. You mean business associate? Air bunnies, air bunnies. His plan was actually to beat the shit out of Cooper. He brought brass knuckles. He was like ready to like mob boss this shit. Damn. But when he got there, he wasn't there.

Okay. His aunt and his mother was there. He decided since his mother was actually a co-signer on the loan, that she was the second best one to go after. And he did. He told her he would get his money one way or another, and he would do it by any means possible. So he was like, you better get me that money. Oh, man. Never a co-sign a loan. No, just don't. And of course, there was some kind of disagreement that ensued, and Marion pulled out a gun because remember, he is always carrying at least three on his person at a person at a any given time. And he started shooting wildly at his, at Cooper's mother, Emma. Oh my God. He shot her four times and his aunt once. Are you kidding me? Yep. Nope. Of course, police were called. And when people heard this commotion, they immediately started like running towards this place because it's the 50s and they're like, let's go help someone. Yeah. So Officer Eugene Ellis arrives on the scene. He's going to be a big player in this whole story. Officer Eugene Ellis. He literally, he literally, stated that when he arrived, he watched Marion hand the gun to his associate Sam Terry, and Terry just took it.

What the fuck? And he said he later asked him why the fuck he just took the gun without hesitation. And he said, with Marion, what would you have done? Yeah, bitch. I'm taking whatever it gives me. Damn. Like, are you kidding me? So Cooper's mother, Emma, died from her wounds and his aunt survived.

So he's a murderer now. He's officially a murderer. and he attempted to murder both of them. Both Marion and Sam Terry were indicted on those murder charges. So Officer Ellis had to go to Marion's office and serve him the warrant for his arrest. In the book, Georgia Tales Stories of Georgia and Georgians by Ray Chandler, Ellis said that he got there and he just stood in front of Marion, who was sitting at his desk, and Marion just stared at him.

And he said, quote, he had crazy eyes that could stare right through you, but I could always stare him down. I told him, Mr. Stembridge, I've got a warrant for your arrest. And he said, can I see the warrant? And when I showed it to him, he pulled a gun out of his desk. What the fuck? Yes. I'd be like either way you're under arrest and you're going to be even more under arrest if you shoot me. I'd be like, you're going to be in so much more trouble now. Let's put that away. What are you doing? Well, Eugene Ellis, who is like this like crazy badass at this moment, had to wrestle Stembridge down on the ground and get the gun away. from him to arrest him, but he did. He said, quote, he was raising hell the whole time saying how his rights were being violated. And he said the state solicitor whose name was Shep Baldwin,

he'll be mentioned later too. Shep, I love it. Shep Baldwin. Of course. Southern charm all over the place. Why is this so much Southern charm? Because Georgia. Because Georgia. But he said, Shep Baldwin later told me the biggest mistake I ever made was not killing him right then and there when he pulled that gun. Yeah, because I, I bet he's going to kill some more people, I feel. I bet he's going to do some things. I feel. So he was released on Bond. For why, though? Because I forgot to mention that Cooper, his mother and aunt, were black. So I just want to put that out there. Take that from that what you will. But he was released on Bond. And his trial was in July. And we'll see that that might play more into this a little bit.

That's really fucked up. I'm not saying either way. I'm just saying, look at the facts here. Yeah, that's so fucked up. So the judge for the trial was Judge George. Carpenter. And the defense attorney was another guy named Marion, Marion Ennis, who was actually Marion's, now this is going to be crazy. Hold on. So Marion Ennis is now the lawyer. Yes. And he was actually Stembridge's brother Rogers' wife's cousin. Okay. That's a lot. That's a fucking law, but I followed. Yeah, I wanted to say it's slow so you could just try to follow that. So Marion is Marion's brother's wife's cousin. I got it. He was put on the case because his brother Roger was not a shitty person and he actually tried to help his brother even though he needed out. Or was he a shitty

person because his brother murdered someone. He was a shitty person but you know what I mean? He wasn't a shitty brother. He was trying to help him out even though he was yeah exactly he wasn't a shitty brother that's what it is. So he ended up being convicted because good hello because murder like hello. Because like how do you, like he was literally standing over a dead body and a wounded person. Holding a smoking gun that he then handed. He was holding a gun that he then handed to his associate. Right. He was sentenced to three years in prison for a whole last murder and a man last attempted murder. Good. Attempted manslaughter. That's what they were calling it. Wow. That's why I'm saying like things. Things were weird back then.

So. Things were racist back then. Things were real racist over here. But it's important to note that, um, Marion Stembridge took this loss as his lawyer's fault, as Marion Ennis's fault. Yikes. And not the fact that he was found with a gun in his hand at the scene of the murder standing over the dead body. He didn't think that was the fault. Why would that be his fault, Alina? It was Marion Ennis's fault for not taking that and turning it into an innocent.

When life gives you lemons. You know? So he blamed Marion Ennis for this whole thing. That's going to go well. Weirdly, Sam Terry, his accomplice, just vanished before his trial date. And was never seen again. Makes sense. Weird.

I don't know. Crazy. So out of the blue. Whoa. So while out on Bond, during the appeals phase of his trials, he moved into the top floor of the Baldwin Motel, or hotel, excuse me. I was like, he was not up in a motel guy. He was a hotel guy.

Motels don't have top floors. They don't. And just, he just completely left and abandoned his wife, Sarah. Good. Just was like, bye. They've been married for like two years at this point. She's like, you know what? Better off.

So according to the Georgia Tales book, while there, quote, he had dozens, he had dozens of locks and bolts put on the door of his room and would not allow the maids to clean the room unless he was there. He kept a large refrigerator in the room padlocked. Rumors spread, likely originating from the maids, that he had put sheets of glass on the floor to guard against someone trying to electrocute him, and that he had put the sheets, he had put sheets of lead between the mattresses of his bed because he feared someone would try to kill him with X-rays. What? He was really just trying to hedge his bets. He was just... What? He was afraid someone was going to kill him via X-ray? Yeah.

Okay. Obviously. All righty. Yeah. Obviously. Or someone was going to electrocute him. Those are two very common methods for murdering people. Electrocution.

Through the floor. Electrocuting you through the floor. Like, can they not electrocute you anyway? else. What the fuck? The amount of cases we've covered where people have been electrocuted or exposed to radiation through x-rays. Fuck.

It's crazy. What happened to this man? What happened? He's having a real moment. His appeals were rejected, which is shocking. But he was actually freed on a weird twist of events. He fired Marion NSS's lawyer and his new lawyers argued that he was convicted on a testimony that was actually perjury.

So they just let him go. All right. So we murdered someone. They just let him go. Later, they looked into this and they realized he likely just bought his way out of that conviction. Yeah, I'm sure. But they were going to use some kind of like weird little loophole. Now around this time, and I'm sure they regret it later, so around this time, he was also sued by a former customer of his bank because he loaned this guy 50 bucks. And he ended up having this guy pay like $550 on a $50 loan. So one of Marion Ennis' associates named Eva Sloan actually had this man sue Stembridge in small claims court, and the man won in Stembridge had to pay the full amount back. So he blamed this loss on Marion Ennis as well because it was his junior associate that sued him, basically. Her name was Eva Sloan. She'll come back later, too. Do you know Sloan is one of my favorite names? I'm just saying Sloan is one of my favorite names.

Oh, I thought you said Dina Sloan. It's one of your family. I was like, that's a very specific name. I said, did you know? No, I didn't know that. But now you know. Well, so Marion Ennis is now a target for his hatred. Of course. And now Eva Sloan is now not his favorite person either. Okay. So we're not racking up some good points here. No. I need to also know what's in that padlocked refrigerator. I know. I got to know. Well, Sarah divorced him finally or started the whole process. Sarah. And she claimed that he was like cruel, abusive, just a terrible person. She said he slept with a gun under his pillow and that he basically did that whole

king thing where he would have, when she would make dinner, he would either switch the plates or make her eat some of his food to make sure that she didn't poison him. Like, imagine John doing that too. You're like, here's din. And he's like, I want your plate. I'd be like, dude, make your own food then. The fuck. I'm going to make my own food.

You make your own food. none of us will be poisoned. So a couple of years later at the end of 1952, he was in trouble with the IRS. Yeah, the IRS will get you. And you didn't think this guy was going to get away from the IRS. No. There's no way he was paying taxes. No. Like, that's not a thing that was happening. No. So he was not paying taxes at all for like decades. How do people think that they're going to get away with that? I know. And he was also bullshitting on his taxes that he did pay. So apparently when the agents showed up to be like, hey, we're going to charge you with tax evasion, he said, you know what, I'll pay you $10,000 to make this go away. That's it?

And back then. And they said, okay, maybe. Yeah. And they were like, we're going to mold this over. We're going to see what's happening. So they left. And they come back on January 6, 1953, so like a few weeks later. And they said, sure, we'll take that $10,000.

And we'll forget that you just failed to pay taxes for years. and he was like, cool. And they were like, oh, actually, make that $10,000 each. So they were like, I want $10,000. Per person at the IRS? No, like the two people. Oh, gotcha, got you. So they were like, I want $10,000 and he wants $10,000.

I was like, that's a lot of thousands. And he was pissed, but he was like, fine. What else are you going to do? He goes, he gets $20,000 that he just had. I was going to say, exactly. He's so mad. He just comes in, he hands it over, and then they announced that they were wearing wires, and he was under arrest for tax.

evasion and attempted bribery. I love it. Apparently everybody cannot be gone. I love it. He went to trial in April, and April 27th, he was convicted of all charges. The judge told him to get all his shit together and that he was going to come back on May 4th for sentencing. So they were like, you're going to go away for a while. Doubt he's coming back on May 4th for sentencing. Because this was on April 27th, so it's only a couple days away. Only a few days away that he has to come back. Judge George Carpenter, who, like, presided over both of his trials, got a ton of death threats over the next couple of days over the phone. And he said he knew they were Marion, who was 61 years old by now, by the way. Now, after this, he just went radio silent for a few days.

Like, no one heard from him. Because he's leaving. And then May 1st came. And on this day, he randomly mailed two big suitcases to one of his sisters. who lived in Washington, D.C., both of them had, like, locks on them. I cannot find what was in these suitcases. Do you think it was just money? I don't know.

I imagine, maybe? Because they were his sisters that he, like, that he cared about. Yeah. But I'm also like, what? Maybe there's, like, evidence and shit in there. Maybe there's, like, more shit he did in there. Maybe he, like, liquidated all his assets somehow, like Erica Jane style. Maybe.

But, like, I want to know. Maybe he just wanted to make sure they were taken care of before he disappeared. I'm just, I'm shook. Well, also apparently on that day, May 1st, which this was a Friday, he went to Marion Ennis's office a few times, his lawyer, who he blames for everything. He wasn't there all day. Good. But he kept coming back and looking for him. And people in the office were like, what's happening?

What they were just kind of like, oh, like, why does he need to talk to him? Like, no one was thinking anything of it. So May 2nd, that's following, like the next day. That was a Saturday. and it was a big day for several reasons. One, this was the day Marion Stembridge finally snapped, and we're going to get to that in a minute. Two, it was the town's kickoff cess quintennial celebrations. What?

Yes. I'm going to set the scene real quick. It was the 150th birthday of the town of Millageville's founded in 1803. Cute. On that Saturday, May 2nd, there was a parade planned and a huge ball and pageant to crowsy. the queen of the Cess Quincennial. Oh, bitch, yes. Send me there. No, thank you. Don't give me any of that.

But according to the Atlantic Constitution newspaper on May 4, 1953, quote, more than 2,000 people there, hearts warm with pride and hands warmed with applause, gathered at Davenport Stadium on the Georgia military campus for the presentation of what a narrator called, a home folk story enacted by home folks. 500 Baldwin County citizens of all ages and collection of rolling stock, which included everyone from an early settlers jackass to carriages, tandem bicycles, and something else paraded across the field to present the story which began with the Native Americans and ended in the president.

In the president, the present. So basically it's like, woo, we're going to watch this whole reenactment of the town being born. Everyone's psyched about it. We got donkeys over here. We got fucking tandem bicycles. We got horse-trug carriages. Everyone's having a ball.

Wow. Okay. The streets were all decorated with red, white, and blue shit. And there was all kinds of shit about the town's history. It's I know what you did last summer. It literally is what I was thinking of. Oh, my God. I love that we're on the same last.

I was literally thinking about the Croker Queen. Yes. That's what I was thinking of. Yes. I was like, oh my God, we are one. I know. I love it. Oh, a lot of people dressed up like the 1800s, like gear and shit.

Get it. They carried around fake money. muskets that just shot fireworks out, which sounds not safer than real muskets to make it. Sounds real danger. Like maybe just carry around real muskets at that point because you could literally kill someone with fireworks. Either way. But okay.

And again, reenactments, parades, presentations, pageants, parties, picnics, food, dancing. Davenport. Just lots of fun shit. The governor was going to come, obviously. Big deal this birthday. Big deal. It sounds like the 4th of July for this small town. And it was going to go on all week.

Oh, damn. It planned all week, but this was like the kickoff celebration. Remember when things used to be fun? I mean, I don't, but... Yeah, I mean, this was... I imagine it was like... This pageant sounds horrifying, but, like, that's just me. Why?

Because I am who I am. So, while this is all happening and about to kick off in the afternoon with the parade, in the morning, Marian Stembridge, is plotting some shit. Yeah. After a bit, he drove his car to the home of Shep Baldwin, the state solicitor. He was the one who had... chosen initially to prosecute him on that murder. Now, Shep was in his home that morning, and he watched Marion drive up in his car through the

window, and he said he just sat there for a while, and then he just left without doing anything. And so later, he realized that Marion likely saw that there was no car in the driveway and assumed he wasn't home, and that's why he left. Okay. In reality, chef's wife's wife had had that car and was using it that morning, and that's why it wasn't in the driveway. Thank goodness. And he was like, and it definitely saved his life.

Yeah, of course he did. Because later we find out that he was on his list to kill that morning. Oh, my God, he has a list. Yeah. So he went back into town, and he creeped outside of Judge George Carpenter's office for a while. And witnesses said he was just staring in the windows and shit, but the judge wasn't there that morning. I love that. Like, nobody's there that morning. Nobody's there. It's not working out for him. He then walked into the office of J.C. Cooper, who was the clerk for the superior court, and he just

stood in front of him while he sat at his desk. And the clerk was just like, hello, Mr. Stembridge, like, just said it. And he just stared at him and then left. And he was like, what the fuck does it? And he said he like propped the door open before he left. So he was like, What the fuck? And later, what they think he was like, he was definitely on his list, the clerk, but he was lower on his list. And I think what we're going to find out later is he needed to do this quick what he was planning. And so he was going after the bigger targets first. And then he was, but he was checking to make sure where these other people were.

And he was making sure he had an easy access to get them quick. He could just walk by and chew through the door. So he was propping open that door to be like, I'll be right back. Yikes. Yes. So then around 10 a.m., he went straight to Marion Ennis' office. And as you can imagine, Marion Ennis is probably number one on that list. His office was above the campus theater, which showed movies and shows and all that. So it's like this old-timey, cool-looking theater. Like the Stars Hollow. Yes, that's exactly. Yeah. Red and white. It's like the red and white.

It's not the diner. I think it's the red and white movie theater. Yeah, I think you're right. Yeah, whatever. Go more girls. You'll be it. love it. We love it. We all love it. Here we go. So the campus theater was like that, and they'd had lines around the block that day, because everybody was out that day. Stembridge walked right by this whole crowd of people. Marion Ennis's associate, the attorney I talked about before, Eva Sloan, was also in the office. And again, she had worked on that case to sue Sembridge for that man who was made to pay like 550 bucks for 50 bucks. Right. She was there, and she was definitely on the list. But she had just left Marion Ennis' office and was in another office talking to another attorney.

Oh, my goodness. I love how the stars are aligning for everybody. It's crazy. And that other lawyer said Sloan's back was to the door, and he was watching, like, he just happened to see over her shoulder that Stembridge walked right by the door. And he was like, what the fuck is going on? And he walked right down the hall towards Marion Ennis's office. Then suddenly the people at Sloan and that other attorney heard,

loud pops. Uh-huh. Now Stembridge suddenly ran across the hall and out the front door, past the other attorneys. Sloan ran into Ennis's office and found him lying face down in a pool of his own blood. Stembridge had shot him once in the shoulder, once in the stomach, which would have killed him, the corner later said. But then when he collapsed on the floor, he stood over him and shot him in the back. Oh, my goodness. Now Sloan later recalled that blood literally gushed from his mouth as he tried to talk to her.

and that he grasped onto her arm for support as he breathed his last breath. Oh, yeah. She said he literally, like, died in her arms. Oh, my goodness. I can't imagine how heavy that must be. Oh, my God. And, like, they worked together. Like, that's, like, crazy.

So someone from the law office actually yelled out the window to the crowds below that somebody had shot an attorney and chaos just went nuts. Oh, God. So this is happening. And Stembridge walked quickly out of that law office and into another office building called the Sanford building on the other side of the theater. People in line said he walked by them and tipped his hat to them as he did. This is a movie.

Right? And he walked up the stairs, past the offices, and down the hall to the office of Stephen, or what people knew him as Pete, Bivens. Bivens was on the list because he had represented someone who sued Stembridge in a false mortgage, like foreclosure kind of thing. and he had also represented Sarah Stembridge in her divorce against Marion. So several people actually told him during that whole thing, go easy on Marion because they were like, he's scary.

He's terrifying. And he said that he wasn't worried at all because people were like he literally murdered someone like we all know he did and he tried to murder another person like, chill. And he was like, no, I'm not worried about it. He was 27 years old, Bivens. Invincible. He's invincible. And he was like, you know what?

He's like, he's 61 years old. What is he going to do to me? Yeah. And then he was like, I also carry a cult 45 on me at all times. And two zigzags. So whatever, exactly. So he was like, I'll protect myself. Well, that morning after shooting Marian Ennis to death over his beefs with him, he walks right into the office of Bivens and just stands there.

And he's just breathing heavily and looking wild in the eyes. It was even weirder because he barged into a closed office while Bivens was like dictating something to his secretary. Uh-huh. So his secretary is just standing next to him, like taking notes. And Stembridge, I think the secretary's name was Gene Stockham, I believe it was. Stembridge just barges in, just stands there like a fucking wild animal. And then his secretary looked him right in the eyes and she said later that Bivens just

said, good morning, Mr. Stembridge, what can I do for you? Uh-huh. Like, what the fuck? there was a pause and Stembridge just raised his gun and shot. And he shot until his gun clicked and no ammunition was left. He ended up shooting Bivens four times in the chest as he was sitting at his desk with his secretary standing right next to him. And the secretary was just standing there? Yep.

And I guess Bivens did raise his own gun, try to raise it, but he didn't have the strength to like pull the trigger. So he just dropped it. But what is crazy is Bivens didn't die right away, even. with four shots directly to the chest, he got all his strength, stood up while being shot, like in the middle of being shot, and started charging at Stembridge. Whoa. As this is happening, his secretary, Jean Stockham, is screaming, trying to hide, but screaming for help at the same time, Stembridge is trying to put another magazine into his gun.

Girl, grab Bevins' gun. To shoot Bivens more. Because Bivens is apparently the Hulk, so he's like, I have to keep shooting this guy. Before he can do that, Bivens tackles his ass down and manages to grab Stembridge's gun from him. He then Bivens takes off down the hall with the gun but collapses halfway down the hall onto the gun. Oh my. So he's literally got halfway down the hallway with this guy's gun, fell onto it, and he died. Oh, no.

Yeah. I really thought he was going to live. I know. It's so sad. And I was trying to figure out which. one, either Marion or Bivens here, one of them, like Marion Ennis, one of them left behind a wife and two young children. Oh. Yeah. So both of them were very young. So it's like really sad. Now a chiropractor in the office, I think his name was Dr. Brown actually. He was in the same office

building, but he had like a different office in there. He had to hide one of his patients under his desk and he was the one who called police. And he watched Stembridge like run out of the building. So the police were already coming. Imagine you're just getting fucking adjusted and this shit happens. How terrifying would this be? And you have to like hide under this guy's desk. You don't know what's going on. It's the 50s. You're like, what the fuck's happened? You're like halfway through an adjustment and you're like, I'm really uncomfortable and now I'm crouching under a desk. I feel very fucked up right now. This is not helpful at all. I'm making three appointments next week. Thanks. This is not cool. Thank you so much for this. Can I have this comp? So yes. The police are already coming. And sirens are going everywhere. Like, people are all over the place outside. People are screaming.

Like, people are telling them to stop clogging the streets because everyone's crowding around this area now. It's absolute mayhem. Because people are already out for these celebrations. So they're in celebratory mode. And now all of a sudden, sirens are coming flying down here. Like, what the fuck? Someone yells out a window.

Somebody's been shot. Like, what the fuck? So it turns out Stembridge ran into another part of the Sanford building where one George Edwin sibling. had an office. Okay. When Officer Eugene Ellis, like once again, and Sheriff Dennis Cox came on the scene, they walked up the stairs to where the second murder had occurred, and they heard a shot. So when they get up there, they find Marion Stembridge on his stomach on the floor outside of the judge's office. There was blood pooling around his head. He apparently had heard the

cops approaching and put a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. Oh, wow. Now, in that Georgia Tales book by Ray Chandler. It says that the state solicitor, Shep Baldwin, who Marion Stembridge had visited that morning and definitely planned to kill, he just showed up next to them at the crime scene. In the book, Eugene Ellis says, quote, to this day, I don't know how he got there. I don't remember hearing him walk up on me. But when I looked around, he just said, it's over now, ain't it, boy? What the fuck? So I'm like, what the fuck? That she was shady. Yeah. Like, what's going on there?

I'm sorry, excuse me, what? It's, I was like, whoa. It's over now. Ain't a boy. Ain't a boy. I just, yeah. Like, that makes sense. Like, that's how the movie ends.

Whoa. It's over now. Ain't a boy. And then it fade to black. Like, boom. Whoa. Kind of love it, but it didn't end there. I bet.

So when they, oh, they could do that trick thing where the credits roll and then, oh, no. Oh, no, no. We're back. We're back. So when they searched Marion Stembridge's hotel room at the Baldwin Hotel, they found just how scary and bizarre he really is. I think they already knew. There was guns, bullets, other weapons, literally in every corner of the room all over the floors.

When they later went to his office, they found a suicide note. It was dated for May 1st, 1953, and it said, it was handwritten, and it said, to whom it may concern, I just do not care to be sentenced for another crime I did not commit. In this connection, I will not be able to do, or yeah, in this connection, I will not be able to do my full duty. I can only do the best that I can. Marion W. Stembridge. I was convicted by tampering with the jury. Wrong.

So they took this duty he speaks of to kill as many people he saw his enemies before the police were called. Yeah, that's what I think. And he would then shoot himself in the mouth, obviously. That's why he says he won't be able to fulfill his full duty, but he'll do his best. Because he knows he won't be able to hit the mall, but he's going to hit as many as he can. So when they check the weapons, on his person at the time of his death, he had eight extra magazines with him prepared to kill a ton of other people.

Damn. They also deduced that he was planning it on that Friday because he dated the note for Friday and he also tried to show up to Ennis's office but he wasn't there. Right. So on this list, they knew other than the two he actually killed, Marian Ennis and Stephen Biven, or Pete Biven. He was going to kill Shep Baldwin, Eva Sloan, who only didn't die because she happened. to leave Marion Ennis's office just before he came in.

And he didn't have time to look for her because he had to get out of there. Judge Carpenter, J.C. Cooper, the clerk, his ex-wife, Sarah. He was going to kill Sarah? Yep. And probably, and they think that Eugene Ennis was also on that list. Now, a kid who was in town that day in the book, he was like 10 years old. And I just wanted to put this thing because it's like such a, he was like out of like a corner store. Yeah, it's a movie.

live in his life as a 10-year-old. And he said he was there through the whole thing. And he said, quote, I remember seeing them bring Ennis's and Biven's bodies out. They were covered in sheets, but the sheets looked like somebody had dumped a bucket of blood over them. Those were the first murdered people I ever saw. Wow. And I was like, damn, you were 10. That's like some standby me shit. Now the celebrations went on, by the way. That's wrong. They canceled the parade for that afternoon. But the ball and pageant went on as planned. And the celebrations panned out for the rest of a week went out too. Like, would it feel the same to be crowned Miss Georgia in that moment? No, probably not.

No. But Bivens and Ennis, apparently, had both, like, were big in planning the celebrations. Sure. And so I think it was their families who were, like, they would have wanted this to go on and people to be happy and, like, have a fun time with this whole. And I think they did, like, honor them at, you know, they mentioned them at times. But they did make it a big deal to, like, go on with these celebrations, like, nothing happened. Yeah, that's, that's, they were like, the birthday is important. We need to, and wait until I read you part of the newspaper article that sent me to the moon.

Oh God. To the moon, Alice. So, it's really crazy. So a story in the Atlantic Constitution on May 5th, 1953 is the most wild thing I've ever heard. Maybe it's just me. But it was about this cess quintennial. And then suddenly it makes this insane comparison. Now, it says this, no mother saddened by tragic death in the first.

family in the midst of preparations for a beloved child's birthday party ever rallied more bravely than did the old town of Millageville as it hit its grief over the Saturday slaying of two of the leading citizens and put its best foot forward to receive the first of 10,000 visitors to attend the week-long cess quintennial celebration. Priorities. No mother saddened by the death of somebody beloved while planning their beloved child's birthday party has ever rallied. Who writes this shit? Like Millageville. Who writes this shit?

For this fucking party we made up. Like, are you kidding? It's a lot. What the fuck? That's a response to a trauma. The newspaper is like really concerned with proving that the residents of Millageville are like stoic as fuck and able just to forget an actual murder rampage. That is so like so of the time though.

It truly is. Because then the next thing it says in there is the deaths of attorneys Marian Ennis and Stephen Bivens before the blazing gun of Banker Grocher Marion Stembridge Saturday was still uppermost in many minds. But as soon as the second funeral that was Bivens was over at 4 p.m., the town turned resolutely to staging the finest 150th birthday party for the finest town in the U.S. of A. Dude, they straight up pre-gamed this party with a funeral. And then there was an asterisk, and it says, Rites for Stembridge, who killed himself after the double murder will be held privately Tuesday. So like, go to those if you're in the need for an after party question mark.

I love that. It's like, everyone was so grief-stirken over these brutal murders. But then they were like, fuck it. It's our town's 150th birthday. And we're the best town in the damn US of A. You know what? I feel like Stars Hollow Wood. that shit. Whoa. Yeah. I think so too. Lots of connections here. That was a lot. So that newspaper

kind of blew my goddamn mind. And then I have it still up here because what was the, I have to find the other part that it's like they just go. So they're going right, right from like, you know, the double murder killed himself. And if you want to go to that, that's fun. That's happening privately on Tuesday. And the next thing is blue-eyed, fair-haired, Betty McMillan, 21 winner of the countywide competition for the title of Queen of the Cess Quincidental was introduced to her subjects in a gigantic parade through downtown streets at 4.30 p.m. So that same fucking day.

They crowned their queen. They paraded this bitch down the streets at 4.30. The same streets that Stembridge had just murdered people on. There's still blood on those streets. Like, what the fuck is happening? Wow. Priorities, man. Priorities.

Blue my damn mind. So stoic. That's a lot. That's a lot to impact. So somehow this gets slightly weirder. How? Investigators went to Stembridge's store to clean up the mess and start, like, you know, going through the will and all that, maybe find some more evidence of him being a shitty person. And they found five locked safes.

Uh-huh. So immediately they're like, what? Let's get those locks. What could be in there? So they open them. They have somebody come in and open them. What do you think with them? canned goods.

Canned goods. Kind of close. cheese. Should have been. Jars of his own urine. What? Yep. They were all labeled with his name and the dates that they were collected. And they had notes

saying that when he died, they were to be tested so he proved that he was poisoned. They also found rusty nails in some of the safes and guns. What? Yeah. I mean, things you keep in saves. Imagine, like, you're there all definitely talking about it before they, like, open these up and they're like, are their body parts?

Are they like, yeah. Is there going to be some crazy, like, paperwork that leads us to this like nuts so investigation? Just jars a piss. Ew. And then imagine me. The person to clean that up. And then it's in his will that they need to be tested. Yeah.

And then it's just like there that they need to pass. I'd be like, no. So then they have to. We're not like legalities. Well, also in his will, he left Sarah one dollar. What a fucking ass hat. And that was literally like required by. law because they weren't legally divorced yet.

Of course. Wow, what a fucking asshole. I would take all of that piss. I'd be like, technically that's mine too. And I would pour it over his grave. For better or for worse, motherfucker. Oh, Marion. But he left the rest to his two sisters that he talked about.

What about his child? Yeah, I don't know what happened to Evelyn. I don't know where she ever went. Girl! But in 19, what's crazy is Eugene Ellis, the main guy here, he later became chief police there and he bought Marion Stembridge's desk when it went to auction. That's a choice.

Isn't that a real choice? Choices. He used it for a long time. He also kept the handwritten suicide note. That's, you know. It's a moment. I mean, he was a big part of this case. Yeah.

And the desk, I guess, was the one that when he came to arrest him, like, he like tackled him over. So I guess it's like. Okay. So, yeah, okay. That I get. The desk I get. Like the hit, the suicide note, I don't know.

I don't know. Yeah. I mean, he was a big part of the case. I think, sure. There's like one of the police chiefs and like the lady in the Dune's case like had her skull and the thing as a reminder. Yeah, but that was like a reminder to like find her. But people keep like odd things, I suppose. They do. But I thought that was interesting. And I kind of get the desk because I'm like, I get the desk. I feel like it has like bad vibes on it. But like, I guess get it. I would just keep the urine. I would keep one jarred that urine. I would keep the urine. I would. I would. I would. She's like. I would. I would. I would put it in like a case and I'd be like, you know whose urine that is? She said you keep the urine. Not all of it. I wonder if the urine is around or if they just got rid of it right away. They must have had to test it. Maybe. There's no way the urine's still around.

They didn't test that shit. There's no way they were listening to that. So weird. There was a book written called Paris Trout and it was written by Peter Dexter and it was loosely based on this rampage in case you want to read it. But I guess the town of Millageville was very upstate. about this because, again, it was loosely based. He never claimed it was the actual story, but they don't like this being brought up because it's like a kind of a, it's kind of a black

splotch on the community. They don't like it being brought up because they're fucking having some regrets on celebrating post-murder. And there was a movie made in 1991 called Perestrout. Oh, I want to watch it. Yeah, and I guess I haven't seen it. I've never heard of it. Let's watch it. We should watch it. In the home he once shared with Sarah, it was like a boarding house. It burned down in 2019. Oh, no. But before that, it was said to be haunted by Marion who would stomp through the hallways. I believe that.

And now people say that the campus theater is haunted by him. Oh, I bet. Because he died, like, right upstairs in, like, an office thing. I mean, that's a fun movie. And the rampage happened, like, right up there. Yeah, I want to go there. Also, I just had an idea we should watch that movie and then do a Patreon episode on it. Oh, we should.

Hi, patrons. We'll watch. What is it? Peristrope. We're going to do it. Yay. So that's the, the. the tale of Marion Stembridge.

That was wild. Where did you end up finding that? Somebody recommended it. I could, I like randomly had it in a list. I don't think I came up with it myself. Maybe I did, but I think it was a list of ones that I had like taken from people with suggestion. Yeah.

So whoever suggested that you fucking rock because that was really interesting to look up. That was very interesting to listen to. So thank you. No, I love an old time you murder and you gave me a good one. I know. Sorry, I just punched my microphone. That's okay. We do it all the time.

But thank you so much for, if that was a suggestion, which I believe it was, thank you so much. And you guys rock at suggestions. Yeah. Feel free to always like tweet out us suggestions, fucking message them to the email. Because I didn't know about this one, so I never would have found it. Yeah, exactly. I love it. You guys rule.

Oh, we also have a forum for fucking suggesting cases. We do. Talk until I can find it. We have a form. Forms are fun to have for these things because they keep them all in one area. And that way, you can suggest cases and we will actually. see them and they won't get lost in the abyss. Because I don't know if I've said this, but like, I don't look at the email anymore.

So I won't see them. Ash will have to like pass them along to me. But I did ask on Twitter the other day and I got so many good ones. So you guys rule. And I love you so much. And this is a lot of fun to do. Okay. Here's the form.

Thank you. I'm going to end up posting this on Instagram or somewhere, but if you're an old and you don't do that, then it is httttps dot fucking not dot. Hold on. No. It's H-T-T-P-S colon, backwards slash times two, forms.

I'm going to have to post this because I'm not reading all of those letters. We'll just post in the show notes too if you want. We'll put it in the show notes. It's going to be all over the place. You get those by going to listen wherever you listen. If you click on the episode, there should be an episode description.

That's what that is. That's the show notes. Just because we've had a couple of people that were like, what the fuck is a show note? It's confusing. And I feel that because before I did a podcast, I'd be like, what the fuck is a show note? So we get it.

So that's where that is. Thank you. I'll also link this book, because this book is really interesting and has a really a lot of Georgia stories in it. And Ray Chandler's did a good job telling this story. I can, I wonder if I should put, I can try to post the link to the ancestry tree, but you might have to sign up for an account. A lot of people have accounts, though. But yeah.

And we love you. And we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. But it's over there you go on a killing rampage and then you're like, oh, you know what, I'm done with my killing rampage? I'm, the town should just celebrate HBD Town, yay. And not so weird that urine and you're safe. Jars of urine. Everywhere.