MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - An Unlikely Witness (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

Episode Date: June 10, 2026

Today, we have two stories about individuals who go above and beyond to make sure investigators have what they need. And in both instances, this turns a case that should be straightforward into something completely shocking.   You can WATCH all new & exclusive MrBallen podcast episodes on my YouTube channel, just called "MrBallen" - https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallen If you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballen Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today, we have two stories about individuals who go above and beyond to try to make sure investigators have everything they need to solve a case. However, in both instances, as you'll see, the cases take a wild, unexpected turn as a result of what these individuals provide that does solve the case, but in just an extremely unexpected way. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the story. the right place because that's all we do and we upload two, three, even four times every week.

So if that's of interest to you, please replace all the water in the Fall of Button's ice tray with white vinegar. Okay, let's get into our first story, which is called The Best is the Enemy of the Good. On the morning of October 20th, 1997, a 40-year-old man named Kevin Dowling rode a small boat across a reservoir that was near his home in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania. And this reservoir was beautiful. It was quiet and peaceful out here and the weather was perfectly cool and the leaves on all the trees around the water were very colorful and starting to fall. And as Kevin looked around at all this incredible scenery, he knew he had chosen the exact right spot for what he needed to do. So Kevin had rented this boat to go fishing. But in reality, he was out here primarily just to have a place where he

could relax and just think. So lately Kevin's life had been incredibly stressful. And so moments of calm and peace were just very few and far between. The stress really began when recently Kevin had lost his full-time job. He had been an operations manager at a convenience store, and he had been fired after making just one mistake. And now he had to work the night shift at a staple store just to support his family, and they were barely getting by. And Kevin, believe it or not, was generally speaking, a very overachieving person.

And so to have his life playing out the way it was was, you know, just very disappointing. And it was also just turning him into a very stressed out angry person. And he knew that was happening. He'd been lashing out at his wife, yelling at his kids. And he had even gotten into this horrible altercation with an art gallery owner in town. And so finally, after a couple of months of just being this sort of awful person with these angry outbursts and sleepless nights as a result of all this stress, he knew he had to do something to turn things around. And so he thought this fishing trip was just what he needed. Kevin looked towards the front of the boat where there was a camera set up on a tripod.

Anytime Kevin went out on these fishing expeditions, he would film himself, both to capture the moments he would catch the fish, and also because he just liked after he'd returned from these trips to just watch the footage all over again. It sort of brought him back to a time and place, you know, out on the water that was just great. You know, he liked fishing. It was peaceful. It was calm. And so he was doing that for this trip as well, even though, you know, right now as he sat there, as serene as things were, you know, he was filled with a whole lot of angst and a lot of stress and anxiety.

But he figured, you know what, I'm out here. I need to put on a good performance for the camera. Be that the happiest version of myself I can be so that when I return to dry land and I show this footage to my family and I refer to it myself, I don't want to see that I was so, you know, upset while I was out here. This is supposed to be my catharsis. This is supposed to be a chance for me to decompress. So basically he looked at the camera and sort of told himself like, okay, smile and like, enjoy this trip. This is good for your mental health. And so Kevin rode a bit further into the reservoir and he came to a spot that he thought was good. He pulled in the oars and then he reached over and turned on the camera and sort of waved and said,

okay, you know, I'm out here, about to start. And then he took a deep breath and he cast his line into the water. early the next morning, Kevin was at his kitchen table feeling extremely tired. So the day before, after he had gone fishing on the reservoir, he had a night shift at Staples. And so he did the whole shift. He comes home, he barely sleeps, and now he's back up again. And so he's just totally exhausted eating breakfast with his wife. And so while the two of them are just sitting there in silence eating their food, there's this sudden sharp knocking on the front door.

And the two of them look at each other like, who would this be? they both didn't know. And so Kevin got up, he walked to the front door, he opened it up, and he was very surprised to see two police officers standing there. And so Kevin asked them, like, how can I help you? And they told him they were here because of a fight that Kevin had gotten into with that art gallery owner a few months ago. They said that the entire situation had now escalated and the police needed to get a statement. Now, Kevin did not try to deny that he had gotten into a fight with this person. So instead, he just stepped outside. to speak to them alone. And pretty much the instant he was out there speaking to the cops,

it was like his stomach was just in knots. I mean, it just seemed crazy that the day before he was out on the beautiful reservoir going fishing, having this sort of nice time. I mean, his life was so stressful these days. But it's like just yesterday, he had finally found some peace. He was so eager to watch back his video of him fishing. Like that was just a nice moment in time, a rare nice moment. And now he's got more problems, more stress, piled on, like he couldn't believe it. But Kevin knew like he needed to comply here. Like whatever they needed, he was going to try to give it to them. And so he just asked one of the officers to please explain a little bit more about what was really going on here. This seems pretty serious.

And one of the officers, he just said, look, I can't give you too many details here. But they told him there had been another altercation at the art gallery yesterday morning. And Kevin was being considered a suspect at this point because he had previously gotten into a fight with this owner. Now, for Kevin, obviously, this was not good. This was very bad. This was shocking. This is like not good news. But on the other hand, when they said this happened yesterday morning, I mean, Kevin's mind

immediately went to his fishing trip. He had been fishing yesterday morning. You know, he was at this reservoir that's at least 45 minutes away from the art gallery. He had receipts from taking that boat out. He had receipts from his fish bait. He even took a video that was likely timestamped while he was out in the water. And so Kevin tells the officers that, like, I have no idea what happened at the art gallery, but I wasn't involved.

Like, whatever happened yesterday, that was not me. A few seconds later, Kevin had led the officers into his house. He had gone upstairs, grabbed his fishing bag out of his closet. He had rifled through it and grabbed all the receipts and then come back downstairs. And when he did, he saw the officers were speaking to his wife and asking her about his alibi. And she had said, yes, Kevin had been fishing. And she'd even watched a home video of his trip that he had made, because he always made videos of when he went fishing.

And so at this point, the officers seemed satisfied, and they took the receipts as well as the videotape that Kevin's wife had mentioned, and they said they'd just be in touch if they had any more questions. Over the next few days, Kevin totally forgot about the police stuff. I mean, whatever happened at the art gallery, that had nothing to do with him. That was totally separate. He had given the evidence over. He hadn't heard from the police.

So in his mind, like, that's over and done with. However, on the evening of October 29th, so a little more than a week after the police had first shown up at his home, Kevin had just finished making dinner and was about to sit down and eat it with his family when the doorbell rang, followed by a series of very loud knocks. And so Kevin, he got up, sort of looked at his wife, they both exchanged a look like, who is this? And then he walked over to the front and through the window he could see who it was. It was the police again. But this time, when he opened the door, they didn't ask politely for him to just make a statement.

Instead, one of them immediately stepped forward and slapped a pair of handcuffs on his wrists and said he was under arrest. So the real reason why Kevin's life had been so stressful that really he couldn't get a night's sleep, that he's just constantly anxious, really didn't have to do with the fact that he had lost his job. That was part of it. But really, it was the thing that caused his firing that was keeping him up at night. And that was actually his altercation with the art gallery owner a few months earlier.

That altercation was actually really, really serious. It was not just he and this woman getting into a fight. No. Kevin robbed this woman and also assaulted her. And then he was subsequently arrested, lost his job because he was arrested. And then while he was out on bail, he's staring down this trial date that's looming for these charges he's been arrested for. And he knows there's footage of him, there's witness testimony, like he's going to lose. He's got no job.

Like he's going to look like a total pariah in the community. He's embarrassed. He's made this horrible decision. And like his life is already basically wrecked. And it's only going to get worse if this goes to trial. And so what does he do? Kevin the perfectionist who always sort of follows through on all the things in his life, you know, to that point. He decides he needs to go back there to the art gallery and finish the job.

He needs to get rid of this woman. So there won't be a trial. so he won't be found guilty so his life won't be ruined. And so about a week ago, he did go back to the art gallery. He killed this woman. And then that same day, he goes out on the reservoir and pretends to be out there on this fishing trip. He films himself fishing because that's what he did always do. But really, it was just in order to create an alibi that would show he was out on the water,

even though it was actually in the afternoon. He was not there in the morning. He filmed that video in the afternoon. he claimed it was in the morning. And basically, Kevin almost got away with it between the receipts for the boat and the bait and this video and his wife saying, oh yeah, he was fishing the day before

and Kevin was very innocent when he spoke to police. But what got him caught actually was the video. In the video, the position of the sun, which the officers picked up on, didn't make sense for it being the morning. It was too high in the sky. Like if it had been the morning, it just would have looked visibly different.

And so they determined that Kevin's, video was not shot in the morning. He could have filmed that at any point later in the day, which created a window that morning that he could have gone back to the art gallery and he could have killed that woman, which he did. Also, just to add credibility to this theory that Kevin had forged this video, or at least forged the time he had shot it, an expert was able to determine that the timestamps on the video had been tampered with, further clarifying that this was a fake. Kevin was found guilty not only of the robbery and assault charges that he was initially charged with, but also he was found guilty of first-degree murder.

He was sentenced to death, and as of April 26, he is still on death row awaiting execution. Our second and final story today is called the Green Parrot. Just before 6 p.m. on Sunday, July 12th, 1942, a man named Robert stumbled into a bar called the Green Parrot in Harlem, New York. and Robert was already very, very drunk. He'd been drinking all afternoon because he'd won a bunch of money in a dice game earlier that day, and he had just been celebrating. And now he was wandering into this bar, The Green Parrot, to keep the party going and keep on drinking.

So at this point in 1942, the neighborhood where he was, Harlem, which is a neighborhood within New York City, it really struggled with a very high level of violent crime. And this bar, the Green Parrot, was very popular, amongst locals. And so this bar attracted a big crowd, which often became a very rough crowd. And so because of how violent this area was and because of all this cash that Robert had won earlier in the day, which he had on his person, Robert had decided to bring his gun with him out to the bar, like he was armed as he walked into the green parrot. And he was glad he was, because again, this is like a dangerous spot. But as Robert actually went inside of the green parrot,

he found that it actually wasn't that crowded that night. Now, it was only about 6 p.m. and it would get much busier or it usually got much busier later in the night. But at this point, even though he's very drunk, you know, he looked around and he saw there was like maybe 20 people in there. And for Robert, this actually was kind of a good thing because it meant it would be easier for him to get up to the bar and, you know, get served, get more drinks. And so Robert staggered his way over to the bar where the owner, Max Geller, was pouring

drinks and helping customers. And so Robert, he gets up there and he looks around and right away, he actually recognized a number of people that were there at the bar. They were regulars. And then he saw, actually, there was one particular regular, this shorter guy who he knew was really mean and nasty and just super aggressive and he clocked him as a guy that he wanted to keep his distance from. And so Robert turned his attention to Max, the owner, and he sort of sloppily waved at him trying to get his attention. And Max, he was still busy preparing drinks for others. He sort of looked up and stared at Robert and kind of, you know, did sort of like a check of him to see how drunk he really was. And then Max served the other people. And then he walked over to Robert with sort of a skeptical look on his face.

And he's like, what can I do for you, Robert? And Robert, he's like closing one eye. He's so drunk. He's like, yeah, I want to drink. And Max looked at him and he's like, no, you're too drunk. I can't serve you. Now, at first, Robert was just defensive and was basically like, come on, like, I'm in here all the time. And I've certainly been pretty drunk before and you've served me. I don't understand why this is different. But Max stuck to his word and he's like, no, I'm not going to serve you.

You're too, you're too intoxicated. And so slowly, Robert became angrier and angrier. And he began saying, like, you're serving everybody else. There's guys here that are more drunk than me. Like, I don't get it. Like, you have to give me a drink. And at this point, Matt, Max, you know, sensing just how upset Robert was, he said, look, now you're going to just have to leave.

Like, I'm not going to serve you and you have to leave. And Robert, he went from now just being mad to being humiliated. He's being like humiliated in front of the whole bar. And it was almost like he couldn't help what he did next. It was like rage coursed through his body. And almost without thinking, Robert drew his gun aimed and fired and he shot Max in the face. Now, instantly, as soon as this shot rang out, the bar is just thrust into absolute chaos. People are screaming.

Like, 90% of the people in there had no idea this was even happening, let alone that people are shooting each other. It was just chaos. People are screaming. They're running around. And Robert, it was like he couldn't even believe what he had just done. And he just immediately pocketed and hit his weapon and sort of just backed away from the scene. Because, again, people aren't even sure who got shot. People are looking around.

he sort of began to blend into the crowd, and then as soon as he could, he just turned and ran out of the bar. About a half an hour later, around 6.30 p.m., an investigator with the New York City District Attorney's Office, named Louis Pinochou, hurried down the sidewalk toward the Green Parrot, which at this point was swarming with police officers. Panyuco, who had just been called to the scene, really only knew that there had been a shooting at this bar, and that the victim had apparently been shot in the face, but was alive, and he was on his way to the hospital. Outside the bar, Pinochco could see a bunch of these police officers already interviewing a whole crowd of people

who Pinnuco assumed were witnesses of the shooting. And there were a lot of them, so Pinochco hoped that at least one of them would have something useful to say. And so Panyuco just let these officers handle this initial questioning of this group. You know, if he needed to, he would speak to people later, but for now he just headed inside the bar to see what was going on. And as soon as he stepped inside, another officer came up to Pinoko to just give him a quick briefing.

He said the bar zoner, Max Geller, was the one who had been shot, and he had been shot in the mouth, and that he was alive, but when he was taken off to the hospital, he was unconscious, so nobody could ask him what happened. Then this officer told Panyuko that there had been a bunch of customers in the bar during the shooting, and that that was the crowd outside. Those were the people that the officers were getting statements from. However, this officer told Panyuco that so far,

almost none of the people they were speaking with were cooperating. Pretty much everybody was just saying, oh, I don't know what happened, or I didn't see who shot who. It was like they didn't want to tell the police what they actually knew. The only witness so far who had said anything of substance was this very short, very loud, regular, who even now, a half an hour after the shooting was acting extremely agitated and just sort of like loud and very aggressive. It was the same one, the same regular, that Robert, when he had first, walked in had noticed and thought, boy, I don't want to be around that person. This regular was just screaming that this whole thing was a robbery. That was like all he kept saying. It was a robbery. It was a

robbery. But, I mean, in the eyes of the officers who were around this regular, this short, angry guy, it just sort of seemed like he was traumatized by what he saw. And so he was just repeating the word robber over and over and over again, in part likely because he was drunk, in part maybe because he was traumatized. And it was like a, a weird. response he was having. So it was just sort of heavily discounted what he was saying. They're like, okay, maybe it was a robbery, but maybe you're just kind of out of it. But the officer told Pinucco that, you know, they searched the bar, at least they did a cursory search of the bar, and it didn't seem like anything had been taken. So it really didn't seem like this was a robbery.

So again, it just seemed like this guy who was yelling about the robbery, basically didn't know what he was talking about. And so at this point, Pinucco, you know, on the one hand, he was frustrated by what he was hearing, but also he really wasn't that surprised. I mean, he's thinking that, you know, in this area, in Harlem at this time, there was a huge distrust of police. I mean, most residents refused to cooperate with authorities. And so it was very likely that some of these people who were out here, you know, not just the guy yelling about a robbery, but the other witnesses, it was very likely that at least one of them knew something. I mean, there wasn't that many of them in the bar at the time of this shooting. But it was just unclear if he would ever get any of that

information. But Pinucco knew he would obviously still have to try to get some information from these people. So after getting this brief from this officer and after sort of walking around the inside of the bar for a second, Pinucco headed back outside to try to talk to some of the witnesses himself. But pretty much immediately, when he began speaking to these people, he saw that there definitely was like a front being put up. You know, he just had this sinking feeling that this investigation was pretty much dead before it was even going to get started. Fast forward about a month, and Pinucco is still hard at work working on this case, except the case took a turn because the victim, Max, he fell into a coma right after the

shooting, and for weeks he had been in a coma, and authorities, you know, Pinucco included, were hopeful he would wake up and he'd be able to give them additional information about what happened, you know, give them anything because no one by this point had given them any new information, they had basically no evidence, they had nothing, but unfortunately, Max, without regaining consciousness, just died. And so now this was not just a shooting investigation that Pinucco was in charge of. He was in charge of a homicide investigation, a homicide investigation with basically no leads.

Because again, it's like none of the witnesses had given them anything. All they knew is Max got shot and now he's dead. And then the only other sort of substantive thing that had come out of any of their interviews was from that short, angry guy, the regular from the bar who had just demanded that this was a robbery. And, you know, at first pass, they had looked around the bar. It didn't seem like anything had been taken. And they had sort of ruled out a robbery. But now, a month later, they had really looked into that angle.

And they had confirmed that nothing had been taken from the bar. So this was definitely not a robbery. And so basically, Panyuco had nothing. And so at this point, Pinoko decided that his best bet here was actually just a base. basically start over, just to zoom back out and go back to square one and just see if there was something that they missed. And in fact, Panyuko had brought in a new detective, a guy named John Morrissey, to help him with this new approach. Morrissey was supposed to be this incredibly smart guy who was known for thinking outside the box, something that Pinoko felt like they could

really use right now. And so on this particular day, Panyuko had sent Morrissey to the green parrot to just speak to anybody that was there. Just see if he can learn anything about the shoe. from people that are at the bar where this happened, like right now. Just go there and talk to people. So off Morrissey goes. And Pinucco, he stayed at the station, and that day he was going to re-interview all of the patrons who had been at the Green Parrot on the night of the shooting, just to see if, you know, maybe he could get some additional information out of them.

And so far, that was not the case. Basically, all the interviews were dead ends like they had been the first time. And so, you know, he had somebody in the room with him right now. and the interview had gone nowhere, and he's like, you know what, you can go. Like, all right, on to the next one. And so that person leaves the interview room. And Pinucco, he gets up and he walks out into the hallway where all these patrons are sitting on chairs waiting to be interviewed.

And as he's, you know, getting ready to just grab the next person to speak to, he sees there are two women who were patrons in the bar who were sitting sort of halfway down the hallway and they were talking to each other. And they were really not being careful about how loud they were speaking. Like, their conversation that they must have thought was private was loud enough that basically everybody in the hallway could hear it. But the reason it really stood out to Panyuco is they weren't speaking English. They were speaking French.

Except unbeknownst to these women who likely believed nobody in this hallway spoke French, Pinucco did speak French. And he could hear these women were talking about the case. They were saying that, hey, when you go in there to speak to this detective, tell him you don't know anything. Like, don't give him any information. Because if we do and we get wrapped up in this case, like we're going to get dragged out into the public for being involved in the shooting. And what's going to happen is people are going to know that we were at that bar drinking on that night.

And we told our husbands we weren't. They're going to be so mad at us. Like we got to be quiet. Don't tell the detective anything. Just say you know nothing. And so immediately, Panyuko, he walks over to these two women and he points at one of them and says, hey, you're next. Come into the interview room. And he said this in English.

and so the women were kind of surprised that they were being tapped to go next, or this woman was surprised. And so she gets up and sort of waves to her friend, and she follows Panyuco into the interview room. And so as soon as they sat down, Panyuco in English says to this woman, So are you really worried that your husband is going to find out you were at the Green Parrot if you cooperate with me? And the woman was clearly very surprised by this question, but she just sort of feigned like maybe she didn't fully understand because, you know, she'd been speaking French out there. She doesn't know if Pinucco knows that she does or doesn't speak English. And so she just sat there in silence and just looked back at him like she didn't really understand.

Pinico just stared back at her and then in perfect French, ask the same question. Like, are you worried, again, in French, that your husband is going to find out you were at the green parrot if you cooperate. And at this point, the woman knew, like, the jig was up. Clearly, this detective overheard the conversation they had in the hall. That's why he's pulled me in here. I'm caught red-handed, and the woman just began to break down and cry. And then after a few moments, without Panyuko even needing to push her to do this, she just started telling the whole story.

She explained that her and her friend out in the hallway had been at the Green Parrot on the night of the shooting, and they actually did see who shot Max. She said it was this guy who was wearing a black and white checkered suit. He had gone up to the bar, and then some sort of altercation happened, and he pulled out a gun, and he shot Max, and then he quickly ran out of the bar. Now, she told Panyuko that she didn't know this guy's name, but she definitely recognized him.

She said that, you know, she had been to the green parrot before the night of the shooting, and she had seen this guy, and she thinks that he's just like a regular at this bar. Like, she would definitely recognize him again if she saw him. And so Panyuko at this point, I mean, he could barely contain his excitement. I mean, this was really like the first meaningful lead in the whole case.

You have a suspect who apparently is a regular, at the bar where the shooting took place, and he dresses in a really distinct way. He wears flashy clothing. Like, this is a great lead. And so Pinocho, like, he's thrilled. He thanks this woman. He goes out and he grabs the other woman,

and he brings her in for questioning, and she would echo the same story as the first woman, that, yes, they had been there, they had seen this guy, he was a regular, they thought, and he wore these flashy clothes. And so after this, Pinoleco is like, I got to tell Detective Morrissey. I got to fill him in.

on what I've just learned. This totally changes the case. And so he ran over to Morrissey's office to see if he was back yet from the Green Parrot, but when he went in there, he saw that he wasn't. And so Pinochco, he's like, all right, I'll go back to my office and I'll start making a plan for what we're going to do next until Morrissey gets back and then I'll brief him up then. And so Pinnuco, he goes to his office. He starts excitedly making, you know, plans of what they're going to do. And then a moment later, his door bursts open and Morrissey comes flying into the room. and he looks totally out of breath, like he's rushed to be here to tell Panyuco something, but Panyuco, he turns, and even though he sees, like, clearly Morrissey's got something to tell me,

he doesn't let Morrissey talk because Panyuco, he's got this big news about the French women, and he just starts telling Morrissey all about this crazy revelation and how he caught them speaking French, and they were there, and we have this suspect now. He tells him everything he knows. And so Morrissey, even though he had something big to say himself, he's sitting. there listening to Pinucco go on and on. And at the end of it, he's like, man, that is amazing. That's awesome. Great lead. But I'll do you one better. I know the killer's name. It would turn out when police first arrived at the Green Parrot after the shooting, like on day

one of this investigation, what they found was basically nothing. You know, they have a victim and they have a bunch of witnesses, but none of the witnesses would cooperate. Like there was no leads, no information, no real evidence. All they had was basically this one short, loud, angry guy who kept talking about a robbery. But they had sort of looked around the bar and it didn't appear like this was a robbery. And so he had been discounted. And everyone's like, well, he's traumatized. He's sort of like this angry guy who's sort of a mess. We're not going to take him seriously. What he's saying doesn't really add up. So he was kind of discounted. But it would turn out, they actually just misunderstood this guy.

He wasn't saying robbery, but they didn't know that at the time. They thought he was. They ruled him out. Fast forward a month and Mr. Think Outside the Box Detective, Morrissey, he goes back to the green parrot to see what he can learn. And so Morrissey, he's hearing this and he was told this is what this short guy was saying the first time too. Like this is not that surprising.

But Morrissey, you know, he thought outside the box and he figured out what this witness actually meant. The key to doing this was really understanding exactly who this witness was and what the witness was actually capable of knowing. Because this witness, this short angry guy, was actually a literal green parrot that the bar was named after. The parrot was the owner, Max's pet, and he was always there in the bar. He was a regular sitting on his perch. And the bird was a huge tourist draw because he was kind of really aggressive and could be sort of mean, and people thought it was pretty funny. And critically, this parrot had been trained to recognize the bar's regulars and refer to them by name. So when Morrissey went back to the bar and listened to the parrot again,

he eventually realized the bird was not saying robber, robber, robbery, robbery and trying to describe like what had happened. No, instead, the bird was saying raw bird. Robert, the name of the person responsible, the regular, who he had seen commit this crime. And wouldn't you know it between this new information and what Panyucco had learned from the two French women at the police station, you know, they put their information together, and they discovered that there really had been a regular at the Green Parrot Bar, a guy named Robert Butler, who was a 28-year-old cab driver, who had fled to Baltimore right after the shooting. The detectives were able to track Robert down and confront him about the murder, and when they explained how they'd figured it all out,

Robert just had one thing to say. I never did like that bird. Robert Butler was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years in prison. The green parrot bar eventually closed, and as for the actual green parrot, nobody knows what happened to him. A quick note about our stories, they are all based on true events. But we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people,

involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. The Mr. Ballin podcast, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, is hosted and executive produced by me, Mr. Ballin. Our head of writing is Evan Allen, produced by Jeremy Bone and Cole Lacassio. This episode was written by Kate Murdoch and Kate Gallagher. Story editing by Evan Allen and by Luke Baratz. Research and fact-checking by Shelley Shoe, Samantha Van Hoose, Evan Beamer, Abigail Schumway, Camille Callahan, Alex Paul, Ben Fasian.

Research and fact-checking supervision by Stephen Ear. Audio editing and post-produced by Whitlocasio and Jordan Stidham. Production support by Antonio Manada and Delana Corley. Artwork by Jessica Clogston Kiner, theme song Something Wicked by Ross Bugden.