MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Monsters Among Us Vol. II

Episode Date: June 20, 2024

Today’s podcast features 3 stories that will make you wonder how many monsters you may have encountered in your life. The audio from all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast.Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos:#3 -- "Granny Ripper" -- Crazy plot twist... (Original YouTube link -- https://youtu.be/5-DiRM4CFPI?feature=shared)#2 -- "Reign of Terror" -- The implications of this story are massive and will take you down a deep rabbit hole (Original YouTube link -- https://youtu.be/aJJmwCKgHAQ?feature=shared)#1 -- "Inside Scoop" -- One of the most unbelievable revenge stories ever, but you won't realize it's a revenge story until the very end (Original YouTube link -- https://youtu.be/sVwIOVFdpxM?feature=shared)For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf 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 @mrballenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey Prime members, you can binge 8 new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Today's podcast will feature three stories that will make you wonder how many monsters you've encountered in your life without even knowing it. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description.

The first story you'll hear is called Granny Ripper and it has one of the most shocking plot twists we've ever covered. The second story you'll hear is called Reign of Terror and the implications of this story are massive and will take you down a very deep rabbit hole. And the third and final story you'll hear is called Inside Scoop and it's about one of the most unbelievable revenge stories ever, but you won't even realize it's a revenge story until the very end. 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 right podcast because that's all we

do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, the next time the Amazon Music Follow button is out of town, secretly bug their house with cameras and microphones and then livestream those feeds on the billboards in Times Square, New York. Okay, let's get into our first story called Granny Ripper. Hello, I'm Emily. And I'm Anna, and we're the hosts of Terribly Famous, the show that takes you inside the lives of our biggest celebrities. And just a warning, our latest season will feature a lot of accents. Can I just check what accents? Because...

I can't tell this story without going all in. Okay, I'm scared to ask, but can you give us a clue? Why I'm Ant? Ooh, Ant-and-or-de? I'm afraid not, and it's not Alan Shearer either. I am talking about a young woman,ed from obscurity who rose to become the nearshan sweetheart. A woman who's had a lot of surnames and has ditched them all to become just Cheryl. Love it. Girls Aloud fans strap in. We're gonna follow Cheryl from her Girl Band Glory days

getting together with Ashley Cole and the many scandals and humiliations that followed. Not to mention a near-death experience. Oh, she's been through a lot. And she has needed every ounce of her Northern grit to see her through. I promise you it's going to be an emotional rollercoaster. Follow Terribly Famous wherever you listen to podcasts. Or listen early and ad-free on Wondery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app.

I'm Ellis James. And I'm Colin Murray, and we're the hosts of Everything to Play For, the podcast that tells the greatest sports stories of all time. This season, we're covering Wayne Rooney, England man. Remember the name, Wayne Rooney. Yes, we're focusing in for three episodes on Wayne Rooney's career with the three lions on his chest.

From a teenager breaking into the England set up all the way through to his international retirement, takes in so much, Ellis. What a way to burst onto the scene as well, Euro 2004, where he was one of the absolute standout stars of that tournament. However, if you look at his international career, those tournaments ravaged by injury,

disappointments, crazy things happening on and off the field. It's an awful lot to get stuck into. Cannot wait. Follow everything to play for in the Wandery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge seasons early and ad free right now on Wandery+. Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night Night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night night A friend of hers, 79-year-old Valentina Olenova, had heard about Tamara's renovations and she approached her and said, do you want to stay with me while that's getting done? Tamara was very thankful, immediately said yes, and as soon as she moved in, she immediately started picking up the slack by cleaning up the house and doing the dishes and made sure she always cooked food for her friend because she wasn't able to pay rent. After a couple of weeks, the renovations on

Tamara's home were complete, but Tamara didn't want to leave. She was really enjoying living with Valentina, and so she asked Valentina would it be okay if she stayed a little bit longer. Valentina was a little bit reluctant, but did ultimately say, okay, that's fine. A couple of months go by, and Tamara is showing no sign that she plans on leaving Valentina's home anytime soon, and Valentina is getting increasingly frustrated with that reality. Finally, in late July 2015, Valentina confronts Tamara and says, you gotta go. And Tamara just says, no, I'm not leaving. This causes a huge fight, but at the end of it, Tamara still doesn't leave. So for a couple of days, the women just do not speak to each other.

The silence is finally broken on July 23rd when the women get into a fight about some empty cups in the sink that one of them was supposed to clean, but they didn't, and they fought about whose responsibility it was to do the dishes. And then of course the whole subject comes up again of Valentina saying, you shouldn't even be here, you need to leave, and Tamara's like, no, I'm not going to leave. And so another big blowout fight happens. But at the end of this fight, Tamara finally concedes and says, okay, I get it. I need to leave. Just give me a couple of days and I'll be out of your hair. Immediately the tension is gone in the room. They're no longer fighting and Valentina is happy that she's finally going to get her apartment back. And Tamara says, look, I'll make us dinner tonight. I'll go out and get some food. Tamara leaves the apartment and goes to a pharmacy and gets a whole bunch of sleeping pills.

And then she gets the ingredients to a particular salad that she knows Valentina really likes. She goes back, she starts making dinner. And as she's making the salad, she crushes up the sleeping pills and mixes the powder with the salad dressing and gives that to Valentina. And Valentina, who's very hungry, eats the whole salad and doesn't notice anything is wrong. As soon as Tamara was sure Valentina had eaten the entire salad, Tamara just goes up to her room and goes to bed.

A couple hours later, at about two in the morning, she goes back down to the kitchen and she sees Valentina is passed out on the ground. Tamara goes up to her and sees that she's still breathing, which was a disappointment because she wanted her to die from taking all these sleeping pills, but it doesn't matter. She takes out her hacksaw that she had borrowed from the neighbor earlier in the day and proceeds to butcher Valentina. And she makes special care as she's cutting her into pieces to remove her lungs and not damage them. Because Tamra had a taste for human lungs. It was actually her favorite food.

She took Valentina's head and she put it into a big pot of water and began boiling that to eat it. The rest of her was cut up into as small of pieces as she could get them and then wrapped in a shower curtain and placed in various bags. As Valentina's head and lungs are being cooked on the stovetop, Tamara begins making dozens of trips from the apartment down the stairs out the front door all the way down to the lake that was near their property where she would dispose of the body parts before coming back and getting more. Valentina's hips and legs were apparently

too heavy to haul all the way down to the lake, so she took them to a nearby forest. Tamara's final trip sees her carrying a big silver pot, inside of which is Valentina's head, or at least whatever is left of it after Tamara was done eating most of it. Four days later on July 27th, a young couple that was living in the same apartment complex as Tamara and Valentina were out for a walk with their dog out near that lake. And as they're walking, their dog takes off running and stops in front of this huge bag that it's sniffing and pawing and trying to open. And the owners of the dog try to call it back, but they can't get it to get away from this bag. And so the owners walk over and they kind of poke the bag, they

can see it's pretty heavy and they open it up and they find a human torso and it's Valentina's. When the police show up, the first thing they do is they go to Valentina's apartment and they're surprised to find Tamara living there. They're kind of sensitive with her and they say, your friend, your relative was just found deceased and we need to look around the apartment. Tamara was completely indifferent. She did not care. They had just discovered her body and she didn't care that they were searching the apartment. It was like she knew someday this was going to happen.

During the search, the police officers quickly find blood all over the bathroom and in the kitchen. They even find the hacksaw she used that's got blood on it. And they find Tamara's diary that's sitting next to this book about black magic. And the police are horrified when they see that the diary contains meticulous notes that Tamara had kept of all of the ritualistic killings she had perpetrated over the past 20 years.

And there was 14 of them. And almost all of them were motivated by Tamura's desire to cast spells that she apparently was reading about in these black magic books she had. And virtually all of these spells required human flesh or other human components. And so she would kill these people, she would use their bodies to cast these spells, and then afterwards she would consume them. Not because that had anything to do with the spell, but because she liked the way people tasted, in particular human lungs. The police arrest Tamra, who doesn't put up a fight, and she says,

yep, you got the right person, I did all this. While Tamra was on trial, she seemed like she was in a great mood. She told the judge, I hope you give me a really severe punishment, I expect to die in prison." She was seen blowing kisses to reporters. It was like she was just totally out of touch. Or maybe she literally knew this was going to happen and just didn't care anymore. Tamra, who would be nicknamed the Granny Ripper by newspapers over the course of this trial, was given a life sentence and to this day she is still sitting in jail. Our next story is called Reign of Terror. On December 18th, 1956, a brand new game show called To Tell the Truth aired on a major American television network. The premise of the show was relatively simple.

Four celebrity judges would be presented with three people called contestants who all claimed to be the same person. And this person who they claimed to be was always remarkable in some way. They had some incredible talent or some crazy job, or they had accomplished something extraordinary. One of these three contestants was the real person they were claiming to be. The other two people were doing their best to pretend to be that person, and it was the job of these celebrity judges to try to figure out who was telling the truth. So for a set amount of time on the show,

the celebrity judges would ask the contestants questions about their background and try to figure out, you know, who was who. And then at the end of the time, the celebrities would cast a vote about who they thought was the real, remarkable person. After the votes were tallied up, the host would have the real,arkable Person. After the votes were tallied up, the host would have the real Remarkable Person stand up to reveal themselves and the entire audience would go crazy and that was the show. And the show became quite popular. So popular in fact that today, nearly 70 years later, it's still on the air. And

over this show's very long history, virtually all the episodes are pretty similar. It's a pretty redundant show. But there is one episode that will forever go down as the most unique. In October of 1972, three contestants walked out onto the stage in front of the four celebrity judges and they all introduced themselves as Ed Edwards. Then the host of the show read aloud the biography of the real Ed Edwards and he would say that Ed at one point was on the FBI's list of the top 10 most wanted criminals in America for crimes like armed robbery and impersonating a federal officer. And then after he was finally caught by law enforcement and went to prison, a prison guard helped him turn his life around and then upon release from prison 14 years

later, Ed remained this reformed criminal and became a successful author and motivational speaker who specialized in telling people how to identify conmen and criminals and how to protect themselves from these people. After the real Ed Edwards biography was read aloud, the three contestants sat down and the celebrity judges began asking them questions about their past and then after the time was up, the celebrities cast their votes and then the real Ed Edwards was revealed. And even though two of the four celebrity judges had correctly identified the right Ed Edwards, the crowd was totally astonished at who this

guy actually was, because he did not look like this ex-convict. He looked like this kind of all-American middle-aged father who was totally harmless and wouldn't hurt a fly. But either way, the show ended and then the world forgot about Ed Edwards. Until 2009. That year, Ed's estranged daughter, 40-year-old April Belasio, finally decided to investigate something that had plagued her for her whole childhood. Despite her father's claims that he was this reformed criminal and this stand-up law-abiding guy, she didn't believe it. She never believed it. She thought he had never been reformed and just was a criminal and always had been.

Behind closed doors, Ed was violent and abusive and he was a compulsive liar. She remembered in the 1970s and 80s when she was a young kid, Ed would make their family pack up and move sometimes in the middle of the night and April always assumed it was because her dad was wrapped up in something criminal. But every time she asked him, he would say, oh, well, you know, I was an informant when I was in jail and I snitched on some people and some of those people figured out where we live. And so we got to move. April knew he was lying, but there was nothing she could do. And so they just kept on moving around. But she always thought something else was going on. So in 2009, when April is now this

40 year old woman, she's laying in bed one night and finally says, you know what, I'm just going to start googling some stuff. So she hops in her laptop and she starts typing in the different names of towns that she and her family lived in as a kid. And then after she'd write the name of the town, she'd write unsolved mystery or unsolved crime and she would see if anything popped up. And so as she began looking, she found one in 1980. It was an unsolved murder in a town called Watertown, Wisconsin, that happened right around the time

that her family very briefly lived in this town. There was this young teenage couple that had left this wedding and they had driven down this dead-end road and they were just kind of enjoying each other's company when an unknown assailant who matched the description of Ed Edwards walked up to their car, broke in, shot them both to death, and then disappeared. And so on a hunch, April called the Watertown Police Department the following day and told them that, I think my father might have been responsible for this double homicide. It's just a hunch, but he matches the description. We were there in this very small window of time when it happened. And so the police said, okay, we'll go have a look. And so the Watertown police, they tracked down Ed

Edwards, who was living in Kentucky at the time, and they got him to give them a DNA sample. And when they tested the DNA sample, it matched these samples that were taken at the crime scene in 1980. And so Ed Edwards, he was arrested and brought back to Wisconsin and as soon as he was in custody, he confessed to the murder. And then he requested the death penalty. But he was told the maximum punishment for this crime was life in prison. Ed didn't like this and so he confessed to another double homicide from 1977 in Ohio where he killed another teenage couple, thinking that would give him the death penalty. But through a loophole they said, well actually, that still won't get you the death penalty,

you're still facing life in prison. And so frustrated, Ed revealed a third murder he had perpetrated. In 1996, he had killed his own foster son for the insurance money. And so for this crime, he was eligible for capital punishment, and so he was sentenced to death. But he would die of natural causes two years later in 2011 before the state could execute him. Since his death, cold case investigators and members of his own family have theorized that Ed Edwards is almost certainly responsible for more killings beyond just the five he happened to confess to. In fact, many people believe Ed Edwards could actually be the infamous Zodiac Killer, who's

one of the nation's most notorious uncaught serial killers that killed 37 people in Northern California in the 1960s and 1970s. If this is true, then Ed Edwards did not become a killer after he was on that game show in 1972. No, when he showed up for that game show and stood in front of the audience and smiled and answered questions to the celebrity panelists, at that time, as you're watching him on TV, he would have already been a seasoned serial killer with dozens and dozens of victims. But Ed stopped confessing to murders after that third confession because he was just kind of using those murders as bargaining chips to get what he wanted, the death penalty. And once he got it, he went silent.

And now that he's dead, we're never going to get another confession out of him. And there's no proof connecting him to any unsolved murder cases. And so unfortunately, it's unlikely we'll ever know the full extent of Ed's reign of terror. From Wandery, I'm Ra's Al Jafri, and this is The Spy Who. This series we open the file on Eamon Dean, the spy who betrayed Bin Laden. In 1994, 16-year-old Eamon wants to die. He heads to war-torn Bosnia to join the Mujahideen and save his fellow Muslims.

He hopes to become a martyr so that he can be reunited with his dead parents in paradise. Instead, he's about to be confronted by a cruel and bloody reality. A reality that'll lead him to turn his back on terrorism and become the West's top spy inside Al-Qaeda. Follow the Spy Who on the Wandery app or wherever you listen to podcasts. Or you can binge the full season of the Spy Who betrayed Bin Laden early and ad-free with Wandery Plus. Listening on Audible helps your imagination soar. Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can

be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, new ways of thinking. An Audible makes it easy to be inspired and entertained as part of your everyday routine without needing to set aside extra time. There's more to imagine when you listen. Listening can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits, and ultimately, your overall well-being. As an Audible member, you choose one title a month to keep from their ever-growing catalog. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial, and your first audiobook is free.

Visit audible.ca to sign up. The next and final story of today's episode is called Inside Scoop. In the early evening of May 7th, 2008, a 65-year-old woman named Zavanna Temelkowska walked around her kitchen inside of her apartment in the little southeastern European city of Kisebo. Kisebo is a quiet place at the base of this huge mountain in northern Macedonia, and while it's totally beautiful, it's utterly remote, and basically nothing really of note happens here. Zavanna cleaned houses for a living, but on this particular day, she was on a day off, and so she was just kind of hanging out at her apartment waiting for her adult son named Zoran to come home. It was a beautiful warm evening that night and so Zivana had the windows in the kitchen

open as she walked around making herself something to eat and at some point as she was doing this she heard her phone ring. And so she grabbed it and answered and she heard the sound of her friend on the other line. But her friend's voice sounded strange, it was strained and very uncomfortable and she was asking Zivana if she was paying attention to the news right now, did she have the radio on or the TV? And Zivana was like no, why?

And the friend would tell her that all over the news right now there was this huge terrible traffic accident that had happened in their town and unfortunately Zavonna's son Zoran who she was waiting for to come home was apparently involved in this accident. Zavonna let out a strangled cry when she heard this and then just dropped what she was using to make food and turned and ran out the door and when she did her neighbor who was outside saw her emerge and yelled out to her you know hey is everything okay? And Zavonna, as she literally just continued running towards the road, she basically blurted out to the neighbor that her son was hurt and she was going to the hospital. And this neighbor watched as Zavonna

just ran down the road, turned the corner, and disappeared. Zavonna did not have a car of her own and so literally she was going to run to the hospital to make sure her son was okay. A little while later that same neighbor who had just watched Zavonna disappear around the corner heard a knock on their door and so the neighbor went to the door they opened it up and they were totally shocked at who they saw standing outside. It was Zavonna's son Zoran who did not appear to be hurt in any way but before the neighbor could ask any questions about this Zoran, who did not appear to be hurt in any way. But before the neighbor could ask any questions about this, Zoran, who looked visibly confused, said to the neighbor, you know,

hey have you seen my mom? We were supposed to meet and have dinner together, and it's just totally unlike her to disappear without telling me where she was going. The neighbor just stared at Zoran for a second, having no idea what was going on here, and then the neighbor was like, well, wait a minute, you know, Zoran, were you in a car accident? And Zoran's like, no, what are you talking about? And then the neighbor kind of filled Zoran in about how they had seen his mother run outside and she had mentioned how her son had been in this car accident, and she literally ran to the hospital. Zoran was just as mystified by this as the neighbor was and so Zoran just grabbed his

phone and called the hospital to see if his mother was there. But when the hospital picked up they would tell Zoran that his mother was not there, she had not been there all day and two even though they had heard reports about this car accident in town there had not been any car accident victims brought to the hospital at all that day. And so by the end of that night when Zoran really had no idea what had happened to his mom, where she was, or you know what was going on with this car accident thing, he just did the only thing he could think to do, which was go to the police and report his mother missing. Nine days later, on May 16th, when still Zavonna was missing and the police had no idea what

happened to her, there were no new leads, nothing, on this day, a 56-year-old reporter named Flato Tineski, who actually happened to live not that far away from where Zivana lived, he got a call from one of his police sources, and the source would tell him that Zivana had actually just been found, even though this was not public information, and unfortunately, Zivana had actually just been found, even though this was not public information, and unfortunately, Zivana was dead. Her body, which had been beaten and strangled and stabbed, had been found wrapped up in plastic and dumped in this illegal dumping area not far from the town's football stadium. The source told Vlado that when her body was searched, they discovered she still had valuables

on her person, and so that kind of ruled out the possibility that this was a robbery gone wrong, which was the initial theory about what they were seeing. However, when police had done an initial probe into Zabana's life to figure out who this victim was, they discovered that she was just this poor old cleaning lady who had no enemies to speak of, and so it really just made no sense that she was the victim of such an obviously brutal and intimate murder that was not financially motivated, at least not on the surface. Vlado thanked his source for all the information and then hung up.

Vlado's source had sounded really shocked by this murder as he was telling Vlado, but now as Vlado was sitting here thinking about what he had just been told, he wasn't really shocked as much as he was telling Vlado, but now as Vlado was sitting here thinking about what he had just been told, he wasn't really shocked as much as he was suspicious. He felt like something just was off about this murder. You know, maybe Zivana appeared to be this poor old cleaning lady with no enemies, but in reality, maybe that wasn't who she was. Maybe she was leading a secret life that got her killed. Or maybe she had stumbled upon something she was not supposed to see and that got her killed.

You know, Vlado had no idea, but he just felt like, you know what, there's something off about this and it needs to be investigated. Now, Vlado had a reputation in town for being this very aggressive and kind of fearless journalist who had no problem diving head first into some of these really murky stories that could involve corruption or misuse of power, and he would get to the bottom of it and he would publish these articles where he spoke really critically about the government, about police, about anybody really who was in a position of power. But as a result of conducting himself this way, over his 30-year career, Vlado had been threatened with violence many, many times

for things he had written or things he was about to write. But even though Vlado knew this Zavana murder case had the potential to once again put him in hot water with the powers that be, he still felt like it was his responsibility to dive into this thing and get to the truth. So feeling determined, Vlado grabbed his notebook and pen and he walked out the front door of his house and he made the several minute long walk over to Zavonna's house. And when he got there, her son, Zoran, opened the door and a few minutes later, Vlado and Zoran were sitting in the kitchen talking about what had happened.

Zoran told Vlado all about how he came home and discovered his mom wasn't there, and then he went to the neighbor's house and they explained how, you know, they had seen Zivana running off to the hospital to go look for Zoran, but Zoran's like, I'm not hurt, I didn't get into a car accident, what's going on here? And as Zoran spoke, Vlado took lots of notes and asked lots of follow-up questions. And by the end of this interview, when Vlado felt like he knew everything there was to know about Zavonna, he felt like he actually had a pretty good working theory as to what actually happened to Zavonna. And the reason he felt like his theory could be accurate had to do with what Zoran told Vlado his mother did for a living, that she was a cleaning lady.

Now it took Vlado a couple of days to put together his story, he had to go out and interview dozens more people in the neighborhood, but finally on May 19th, so just three days after Zavonna was found murdered, Vlado published a story in the newspaper, and the story's explosive headline read, A Serial Killer Stalks Kesevo. In the story, Vlado says that Zavana's murder was very likely not an isolated killing. Instead, her murder was likely linked to two other murders of two other women. And these two other victims looked an awful lot like Zavana, literally. They were poor older women who were also cleaning ladies. And so that was why when Vlado was talking to Zoran,

and Zoran described how his mother was, what she did for work, what she looked like, that Vlado started to remember these other victims, and he put it all together. The other two victims were 64-year-old Mitra Simjanska, who was murdered in 2005, and the other victim was 56-year-old Lubitsa Lukoska, who was murdered in 2005, and the other victim was 56 year old Lubica Lukoska, who was murdered in 2007. Now, Vlado's story was totally explosive because what

he's saying is that there is a serial killer that is on the loose in this town. But this story was also highly explosive because Vlado spoke very critically about the police who were involved in this investigation. Specifically, he pointed out that the 05 and 07 murders of those two other women, those have been totally mishandled because arrests had been made in at least one of those cases and clearly whoever they arrested was innocent here. And so the police just totally dropped the ball ball at least in Vlado's opinion and When the police read Vlado's story, they were very upset at him because he was so critical of them

however the police also did see that Vlado had managed to uncover a lot of new details from all of his interviews with Witnesses and people in the neighborhood that did seem to paint a picture of this potentially really being a serial killer, not individual isolated killings. And so the police, based on Vlado's story, would actually begin investigating a serial killer in their midst. They linked all three murders and they began basically a new investigation. However, at the same time they began this new investigation, Vlado began to notice that he was being tailed all the time by police.

He would be out in town doing his job, you know, reporting and interviewing people, and there'd just be a police officer standing somewhere in the distance watching him. But Vlado had anticipated that no matter what, he was likely going to face some sort of blowback from the police, and so he just kind of accepted that they were going to watch him and maybe try to intimidate him, but it wasn't going to bother him because he had done his job. He had reported the story the best that he could. And if they wanted to watch him from a distance, they could do that. By early June, so about two weeks after Zavana had been found murdered, the police in this new serial killer investigation they were doing had narrowed down their suspect pool,

which was in the hundreds, down to just three people, and they felt like they were very close to making an arrest. About a month later on June 20th, so by this point, Vlado is still being trailed by police all the time, but the police have not come out publicly and said anything about the serial killer case. They're just continuing their investigation. all the time, but the police have not come out publicly and said anything about the serial killer case. They're just continuing their investigation. But on this day, June 20th, Vlado's editor at the newspaper got a call from a police officer telling the editor they were about to make an arrest in the serial killer case.

And as soon as their conversation ended, the editor called Vlado to tell him the news. But when he called Vlado, Vlado didn't pick up. Which was very unusual. Vlado always answered his calls. And the editor was also thinking to himself how strange it was that this officer had contacted him and not Vlado. Like, why aren't you going to the guy writing the stories and telling him about this new development? Why are you coming to me? The editor would continue to try calling Vlado several more times, but Vlado never answered, and so ultimately the editor just kind of assumed that Vlado must be busy interviewing someone or, maybe more likely, he had already learned about this imminent arrest and he

was on scene, ready to capture in real time this arrest that was about to take place. Meanwhile, on a quiet street in Kisebo, the police had surrounded this very modest two-story home that was very overgrown up front. It was surrounded by tall fir trees and all the windows had heavy drapes covering them up, and then once the police felt like they had totally surrounded this building, a team of officers walked up onto the porch and knocked on the door and yelled out that they were police and whoever was inside, come out with their hands up. And for a moment, it was just silent and tense. And then the police on the porch heard footsteps inside the house.

You know, they had their guns ready to go. And then the door slowly opened up. And this man who seemed very unthreatening and kind of confused stepped out onto the porch and the police immediately arrested him and took him away. A few minutes later back at the newspaper headquarters, Vlado's editor got another phone call and when he answered it was the same police officer who had called before to warn him about this upcoming arrest, except this time the officer was calling to say the arrest had been made, they had caught their serial killer, and then he told the editor the name of the person they arrested, and when the editor heard the name he dropped

the phone in shock. The serial killer was Vlado. It would turn out that Vlado appeared very professional and calm on the outside, but inside he was full of rage, specifically at his mother, who he viewed as this terrible, cruel person. And after she died in 2002, Vlado became obsessed with this idea of getting revenge on his deceased mother. And the way he decided he would do that would be by killing random women who just kind of looked and seemed an awful lot like his mother. I.E. they were poor, older, and cleaning ladies.

His three victims, Mitra in 2005, Lovica in 2007, and Zivana in 2008, had all personally known Vlado's mother. And so Vlado had actually used that connection to gain each of his victims' trust, and then once he had their trust, he would lure them away to strangle, stab, and beat them to death. In Vlado's explosive newspaper story, he lied about a whole bunch of things

just to throw the police off. Like, for example, he made up that he spoke to a witness who claimed to have seen Zavonna get into a car with two men right before she vanished. Vlado did not see that. That was just a total lie designed to confuse the police. Vlado had also been the one to plant that story on the radio about Zavonna's son, Zoran, being in this terrible accident. You know, that had caused Zavonna to run out of her house and be vulnerable to be scooped up and killed, which is exactly what Vlado wanted.

He had called the radio station and told them about this accident. And because he had previously worked for that radio station, they believed him without doing any fact checking and broadcast the story. And so really that whole radio broadcast was just a very intentional trap by Vlado to kill Zavonna. But what ultimately got Vlado caught was in the article he wrote,

he left in some really specific details that the police had not revealed to the public. And so basically by including these in the story, it meant Vlado had an inside scoop into what was really going on. Like for example, Vlado said that all three of these women who had been killed by the serial killer had been strangled to death by telephone cords that were left at the scene. But again, the police had not revealed that to the public and so when they read the story, they actually became very suspicious of Vlado and thought he could be involved in these murders. And so when Vlado felt like the police were trailing him just to intimidate him,

in reality, the police were trailing Vlado because they thought he could be the murderer and eventually when they got a DNA sample from Vlado, it was confirmed that their suspicions were right, he was the killer. After Vlado's arrest, he was immediately charged with two of the three murders and the police were getting ready to charge him with the third and they were even looking at a fourth victim potentially that maybe Vlado had killed as well but they weren't entirely sure yet. But on June 23rd, so just three days after Vlado's arrest, he died in jail in a way that really didn't make any sense. Vlado had drowned in a small bucket of water inside of his jail cell, while there were three other people inside of that jail cell with him who all said they didn't notice it

happening. Officially, Vlado's death was ruled a suicide, and after his death, all of the murder investigations were closed. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast. If you enjoyed today's stories and you're looking for more strange, dark and mysterious content, be sure to check out all of our studios' podcasts. They are this one of course, Mr. Ballin Podcast, and we also have Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, we have Bedtime Stories, and also Run Fool. To find those other podcasts, all you have to do is search for Bollin Studios wherever

you listen to your podcasts. To watch hundreds more stories just like the ones you heard today, head over to our YouTube channel which is just called Mr. Bollin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya. Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.

And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. Nancy's love story could have been ripped right out of the pages of one of her own novels. She was a romance mystery writer who happens to be married to a chef. But this story didn't end with a happily ever after. When I stepped into the kitchen, I could see that Chef Brophy was on the ground and I heard somebody say, call 911. As writers, we'd written our share of murder mysteries.

So when suspicion turned to Dan's wife, Nancy, we weren't that surprised. The first person they'd look at would be the spouse. We understand that's usually the way they do it. But we began to wonder, had Nancy gotten so wrapped up in her own novels There are murders in all of the books. that she was playing them out in real life? Follow Happily Never After, Dan and Nancy on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can binge all episodes of Happily Never After, Dan and Nancy early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus.