My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - 130 - Mike Is Right

Episode Date: July 19, 2018

Karen and Georgia cover the Fall of the Romanovs and Fred and Rosemary West.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-s...ell-my-info.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 This is exactly right. We at Wondery live, breathe, and downright obsess over true crime. And now we're launching the ultimate true crime fan experience, Exhibit C. Join now by following Wondery, Exhibit C, on Facebook and listen to true crime on Wondery and Amazon Music. Exhibit C, it's truly criminal. And stare directly into my balls of eyes, because this is my favorite murder. Hello and welcome to the true crime comedy podcast that you turn to in your hour of need.
Starting point is 00:00:54 Or your hour commute. Or your hour of, maybe you just, you're getting a massage and you thought this will be funny. Oh, that's weird. This will be stupid. Are you cleaning your house from the party you had last night? How was the party? Are you cleaning your house from the fact that you never clean your house like me, where I looked down today as I was watching TV and there was, there was like a sand dune of dog
Starting point is 00:01:19 hair on the ground or I was like, what in that? That's disgusting. Do you want to hear something really gross? Super gross. Like a couple of weeks ago, I got a peel on my face, you know, a professional peel. And so you just, you're fucking, you like shed like a snake for the next week. And I looked down in the bathroom and it's just like my fucking dead skin disgusting all over the pieces of your face.
Starting point is 00:01:42 On the ground. That's my favorite, uh, Rola Bean album. Hey, that's Karen Kilgariff. That's Georgia Hartstark. Cause sometimes you guys can't tell her voices apart still. And I bet you can't now too, but you're correct, whatever you're guessing. And it doesn't matter. It doesn't also matter.
Starting point is 00:02:02 Remember. Oh, I remembered my, remember, I remembered my corrections corner from last week that I couldn't remember. Right. So this, the week before, the week before I said, Oh my God, you guys send your DNA to 23 and me and then send it into the place where you're like, uh, killers. You can, right? You know, you had a DNA plan for everybody and I got a bunch of messages, including from
Starting point is 00:02:28 the dollops. Um, what's his face? Dave Anthony. Dave Anthony saying, don't fucking send your DNA to public places because in, you know, those future, they're going to use that to deport people or to deny people fucking healthcare because of preexisting conditions based on your DNA. So if you're at all paranoid about that, don't do it. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:02:49 If you're like me and you're, I'm just like, well, then days are coming and nothing's going to matter. And the fucking system is going to shut down anyway. So the DNA isn't going to be stored anywhere. Let's do it. What? You know what I mean? Cause like there's got to be a system anymore.
Starting point is 00:03:00 Like the, why? Because they're turning off all the electricity. Everything's going to get shut. Power is going to go off. And then everything's going to defrost. And then all the little beakers that the DNA's in are going to fall off the shelf. Well, if there's no internet to upload the DNA results to, right? No, it'll just be a big filing cabinet on a hill.
Starting point is 00:03:17 And then you just go and spit into it. No, that's a good point. Yeah. I mean, like that don't, let's not implicitly trust some kind of technology and go, this is the answer. The thing to remember about this podcast is that you shouldn't listen to us. No, we're just trying to have a private conversation. I don't know what you fucking people are doing hanging around.
Starting point is 00:03:35 Keep budding into our private conversation. And then there's this guy with the mustache recording us. And then there's three cats here that are just like, what? Shut up. Just sitting around going, when's my line? Okay. We're trying to talk to each other. Karen and I have been having to try, trying to have a private conversation for like almost
Starting point is 00:03:50 three fucking years. For borderline three years. And we've never had one. No, it's getting worse. Yeah. Yeah. So full apologies if you've been, if, if you've been taken into the trunk regime. That's not even funny.
Starting point is 00:04:03 I'm starting to say that as like a riff. It's too real. Let's not say the word anymore. Let's not go into that area. This is, we're here to escape into murder and away from reality. Speaking of, I'm going to plug our new fucking merch line. Our new like, what's it called when it's not going to go for very long. Seasonal.
Starting point is 00:04:25 Short term. Short term seasonal merch line that we're really fucking excited about. It's finally coming out. It should be out today, which should be Thursday. We started a summer camp line, which is like, it's like a summer camp camping line with a, with three new logos and one, three new designs, one that you already love, the stand of the forest one on new merch. And there's like a fucking camping mug.
Starting point is 00:04:47 There's T shirts, like all kinds of cool different T shirts. It looks like you're in a fucking summer camp put on by my favorite murder. Yeah. It's really, really cute. It's really cute. There's some really cool things. Yeah. There's that.
Starting point is 00:04:59 And it's very contradictory. We tell you to stay out of the forest and now we're basically giving you a set up to go into the forest. Yeah. I'm really the, the, the logos or the, the designs are really fucking cute. There's like three different ones. They're all different. We're excited about it.
Starting point is 00:05:14 So go to my favorite murder.com then go to the store, you know, have fun. Shop around. Shop around. Get a look for summer. And it's, you know, it has been a while. So you can update your, you can update your MFM look. Yeah. Oh God.
Starting point is 00:05:28 Why don't you just say that? Hey, listen. I have a, a reader. I don't know what this is even called because this is like a new thing. Listener mail. I wouldn't call. Is it that? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:05:40 Listener mail. Yeah. And now you have to do that every time. Oh my God. It gives me a headache. I love it. Yeah. What you can't see is Georgia flung her head from left to right as she sung listener mail.
Starting point is 00:05:50 I'm basically doing Janice from the Muppets going, I'll trade anyone who has a jacuzzi. Which is my favorite line from anything ever. I just realized that as you did that and said it, Janice from the Muppet reminds me of Lizzie Cooperman. Cooperman, a hundred and ten percent. That's so funny. They're the same person. That's, I love it.
Starting point is 00:06:08 Okay. So, um, this is a message from Chelsea. I won't say her full name. Um, she says corrections corner Molokai. I argue this is not a corrections corner because I'm sick of being fucking corrected. Uh, hi ladies. Fair enough. I listened to episode 129 loved hearing about Karen's trip to Kauai as well as our own serial
Starting point is 00:06:29 killer story. I'm born and raised in Honolulu and I'm very familiar with the Keihe lagoon and adjacent sand island area because it's a heavily used recreation site used for watersports like jet skiing and or canoe paddling, not canoeing, specifically canoe paddling part. There's no enjoyment of movement or the scenery. The story was super creepy, but knowing the area, I'm not surprised it happened there. It's not a dreamy location, but rather an industrial zone that's right next to the airport. Planes literally fly over all day.
Starting point is 00:07:06 Scary. That's really funny. Oh, and anyway, I just wanted to help with the little fact you were sharing about Molokai. Molokai is a population of 7,345. I like that she's saying all this like because she's from Hawaii, she knows the population of Molokai. Yeah. Um, we all have the internet Chelsea.
Starting point is 00:07:23 But the remote part of the island you mentioned has a population of 11, and it's actually known. Oh, this is the corrections part. Got it. Got it. It's actually known as, uh, now I have not had a chance to look at the pronunciation. But you've done great thus far. I mean, I, I, there's a lot of heart and a lot of sincerity in it, but also this is gonna
Starting point is 00:07:43 be wrong. Kala Au Papa, the historic leper colony, the Catholic church, including Father Damien, who, he's the dude. He went there, got to take care of everyone, right? Yeah. Got leprosy and was like, fuck it. I'm going to take care of these people. That's right.
Starting point is 00:07:59 Because they were completely just shipped onto that island and like you're, there was no law. There was nothing was set up. No medical. It was just if children had leprosy, they got shipped there and they were just left to their own devices. And this amazing man. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:12 He was like, I'm going to go. I'm going to take care of these people. Father Damien. We heard all about him in Catholic school. They let the Catholics love to talk about Father Damien because he was, I think if they haven't made him a saint already, they were like putting him up for a sainthood in the eighties. Cool.
Starting point is 00:08:26 So he played a large role in the history of the city, which is probably how your family is connected to the area. Now you're incorrect. Last. So, so now you have a correctionist corner to tell you you're wrong. It's fun to correct. Let's get everyone to talk about how you're wrong. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:42 Sorry. Again, I've imbibed it a little bit of cold brew. Oh, right. The last remaining residents in Kala Au Papa. That was definitely wrong. They're all over the age of 75. And I believe there's less than 10 left. I'm hoping this will help your listeners understand a small but significant part of
Starting point is 00:08:58 Hawaii's history that you also have a connection to twice, wrong twice, strike two. Thanks again for sharing about my home and great job with your pronunciation. Oh no. Your effort did not go unnoticed. Mahalo Nui, Kei Hao. So I bet it her, her, oh, her middle name, like her Hawaiian name is Chelsea. I mean, is Kei Hao and Chelsea is her email name. Got it.
Starting point is 00:09:24 Thank you, Chelsea. That was awesome. That's so nice. And I love the idea that people would be canoe paddling in a creepy airport lagoon. I just like, imagine like gasoline on the layer on top and, you know, like when you're canoeing and you're smoking a cigarette and you throw it over the whole fucking ocean lights on fire. You like the Lagoon on fire.
Starting point is 00:09:42 That's when the really cheap dads who like have a problem with spending money, they're like, you're going to Honolulu, but we're staying at this place that has its own lagoon. And those motels. Dad, no, dad, please. I stayed in those as a kid with my dad. It was very depressing. Well, I have a, you are correct. I have a caring as a fucking psychic and so smart corrections corner.
Starting point is 00:10:01 Yeah. We should have started with that. So I wasn't going to be so defensive. No, no. No, no, but now you're going to feel better. Okay. Great. That's what we're all looking for.
Starting point is 00:10:09 Oh, I knew that was going to happen. I'm so sorry. Can we talk about my, the best day of my life? I don't think we can talk about it. Remember? We can't say what it was specifically. Okay. Karen and I did a voiceover thing for something that's going to come out in a while, which
Starting point is 00:10:21 of course we'll tell you about when it comes out, but we went and we recorded these voices and I was like doing my little voices. That's very scary. And then the person who's recording goes, Hey, Georgia, can you burp on command? And honestly when, and I was like a fucking course I can, and I did it twice and like I got home and I kind of had this emotional moment of like my whole life and like as a kid I was weird, Georgia and embarrassing and like my brother and I would learn how to burp on command.
Starting point is 00:10:47 It was just this moment of like, I was so proud of myself. Yeah. Like called my mom and told my mom and she was like, Mom, I burped on command so fuck you. No, she was proud of me. That's good. She was like, you've been practicing forever. Okay. Karen, Georgia Associates.
Starting point is 00:11:02 Beautiful. I love it. Karen, this is from a guy named Mike. Karen, I don't know if you did this on purpose, but right after you were talking about Nietzsche, Georgia said something about time not being real and you said time is a flat circle. If you rewatch that scene from True Detective, which you said it was from, right, you will hear McConaughey say, what is that Nietzsche shut the fuck up right after Reggie LaDuce says time is a flat circle.
Starting point is 00:11:26 No way. And then he writes in the asterisk spooky ghost noises. Stay sexy and don't read Nietzsche because he's incomprehensible and annoying Mike. Mike. Mike, we basically wrote True Detective from the future. Well, also, I recently rewatched season one of True Detective, but I've only gotten past, I've only gotten up to the scene that's one long tracking shot where he goes in and like remember that fucking, it's I think it's like episode three or four.
Starting point is 00:11:57 I wonder if that was in my weird, like that was filed away in my brain. I didn't know I was saying that or your psychic, which I think is something you always want to prove. You definitely want to be psychic. So you're right. Stop saying what the reason might be and start accepting a hundred percent Mike's beautiful compliment. Mike's not right.
Starting point is 00:12:15 Who is? No, Mike's always right. Here's the thing about that guy. He pays attention, pays his bills, he pays his fucking bills on time. What guy do you know that's like that? Mike won't allow red bills and he's a detail man, but he's not in your face about it. You know what I mean? He just says associates and you're like, that tells us what it is, but it's also funny.
Starting point is 00:12:36 Mike, I have to tell you Karen, George, Steven and associates is probably my favorite greeting so far. So yeah. So Mike is right. Year number one. Yeah. Mike is right. Oh, should we close this?
Starting point is 00:12:50 No. You like it? I'm good. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Well, and also you have to remember. So guys, it is in LA.
Starting point is 00:12:58 Of course it's in the 90s. It's July. I keep having to remind myself. It's so fucking hot. It's like it's summer in Southern California. Stop complaining. But I realized why I was complaining so much today. My AC went out like the fan was still running.
Starting point is 00:13:12 So I didn't notice. Oh, yeah. So then I, at one o'clock, I was just asleep. I just went to sleep because it was when I got up and checked, it was 83 degrees in my house. So this place feels like this is nice. An ice box. It's amazing.
Starting point is 00:13:26 Karen, you've been, you've been huffing that free on. You were not a free on. A little bit. It gives me beautiful dreams when I go to sleep at one. I just want gold on my face. So this is actually a really cool thing. So we talked about last week, posting pictures from tour and hotel rooms and loving hotel rooms.
Starting point is 00:13:48 Yes. Yes. We got this from a bunch of people on Twitter. Thank you. And this email that Steven just printed up for us from Nicole in the Gmail box, Hey Ladies and Steven, while listening to your latest episode, episode, sorry, I remembered hearing about an app called traffic cam, T-R-A-F-F-I-C-K cam that you can use to take pictures of a hotel room to stop human, to help stop human trafficking.
Starting point is 00:14:14 And I also realized I keep forgetting to use the app whenever I go away to stay in a hotel. So the idea is that you take photos of your hotel room, upload them to the app, and then law enforcement can compare the room images to images, advertising potential victims, and that way they can find where those rooms are and where potentially those people are being trafficked. She includes a link to a CNN article about it. Just thought you guys and others would want to know about the app. I think it's a great idea and hopefully it works to help human trafficking victims.
Starting point is 00:14:48 Love you guys in your podcast and hope to see you next time. You come to the Boston area, SS, she actually wrote SS DMG, Nepal, which I like. Thank you Nicole, that's, thank you and everybody who treated us. That's such a mind blowing, like that's the good tech that's coming. Yeah, I wonder if it's worked at all. It must, right? Yeah. Because why would they start it?
Starting point is 00:15:12 Whole app about it. I want to read about the stories that it's worked on. Yeah, that's really cool. Like Cam, if you, for some reason, take pictures of the hotel rooms you stay in, go over to traffic cam and see if you can't upload them and help people. Yeah. That's very cool. That's her new thing.
Starting point is 00:15:30 Hey, here's the thing. We talk about this all the time, but join the fan cult. Oh yeah. There's lots of cool things coming your way, fan cult members. We're trickling them out slowly and as you know, we're not the most organized people on the planet. We're a little busy and a little bit like we're going to do it next week. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:15:51 But there is shit on there that you can't get anywhere else like videos, we do unboxing videos from GIFs. We're going to do like, and we have a bunch of GIFs waiting because we're waiting to do these unboxing videos. Yeah, but neither of us ever show up to this podcast with makeup on because we just work all day on our murders and sleep in the heat. I resent the fact that I need in this late stage in my life to get put on makeup for these videos, but we really have a lot of cool stuff and cool ideas coming for you.
Starting point is 00:16:17 So just know that there's lots of plans in the work for the fan cult people. Yeah. So if you're just going to myfavorimurder.com, you'll find our new merch line, you'll find all this bullshit. You'll love it. It's the best. Go back. No.
Starting point is 00:16:31 Looking for a better cooking routine? With meal planning, shopping, and prepping handled, HelloFresh has you covered. HelloFresh makes home cooking easy and affordable so you can stay on track and on budget in the new year. HelloFresh meals are convenient, seasonal, and delicious. Stay cozy all winter long with classic comfort foods available weekly. Why stop with just dinner? Now you can enjoy HelloFresh's expanded menu of quick lunch solutions, weekend brunch,
Starting point is 00:16:55 simple side dishes, and amazing desserts. Karen January is going to be my month for HelloFresh. I am so sick of takeout. I miss cooking so much I haven't lifted a knife or a pan since like early fall. So I can't wait to get back in the kitchen and HelloFresh makes it so easy and also makes it so that my food tastes good, which is hard to do on my own. It gives you everything, everything you need. So get up to 20 free meals with purchase plus free shipping on your first box at hellofresh.ca
Starting point is 00:17:27 slash murder20 with code murder20. That's up to 20 free meals plus free shipping on your first box when you go to hellofresh.ca slash murder20 and use code murder20. Goodbye. That makes a person a murderer. Are they born to kill or are they made to kill? I'm Candace DeLong and on my new podcast Killer Psyche Daily, I share a quick 10-minute rundown every weekday on the motivations and behaviors of the criminal masterminds, psychopaths,
Starting point is 00:17:58 and cold-blooded killers you hear about in the news. I have decades of experience as a psychiatric nurse, FBI agent, and criminal profiler. From Killer Psyche Daily, I'll give you insight into cases like Ryan Grantham and the newly arrested Stockton Serial Killer. I'll also bring on expert guests to dive deeper into the details, share what it's like to work with a behavioral assessment unit at Quantico, answer some killer trivia, and even host virtual Q&As where I'll answer your burning questions. Hey Prime members, listen to the Amazon Music Exclusive Podcast Killer Psyche Daily in the
Starting point is 00:18:36 Amazon Music app. Download the app today. Is that it? Yeah. You're first this week. Okay. Well, I thought it'd be really fun to do this murder and I didn't realize that. So we're recording on Sunday because I'm leaving for Hawaii tomorrow.
Starting point is 00:18:58 But tomorrow, so this week, this comes out, but specifically Monday is the 100th. You keep saying if this comes out. Like you're not positive. I mean, Steven, will you just promise Georgia right now that you will put this up tomorrow? I swear. Okay. I mean, for Thursday. Yes.
Starting point is 00:19:15 Okay. So it'll be 100 years this week since this murder. Whoa. Exactly. And I didn't realize it at first. That wasn't the reason you picked it? No. It was because I had started it and I was halfway done with it already and didn't like the murder
Starting point is 00:19:28 I originally put picked. So I was like, how far along am I in this one? Great. This is the one that I wanted to do for a very long time because it truly is one of my favorite murders. Okay. I'm fascinated with it. And I just can't tell you how many documents I have of half written ones that I bail on
Starting point is 00:19:45 it and then I'm like, I'm going to go back to that. Well, this one was hard because there's so much work that needed to go into it. But I'm going to leave a lot of shit out and piss off a lot of history people. No one's here for history. Okay. Great. No, you can't be at this point. So if you're here for history still, you're a sadomasochist.
Starting point is 00:20:03 Yes. This is the story of the last of the Romanovs. Oh shit, girl. We're going all the way back. Wait a second. We're doing it. This is, I love this so much. And I just recently, when I drove home to Paloma for Father's Day, listened to a last podcast
Starting point is 00:20:22 on the left series on Rasputin. Oh, awesome. Yeah. Which, you know, lays into this a little bit. Touches onto this. So I love it. I love it. Perfect to do Rasputin.
Starting point is 00:20:32 Yes. I'm doing fucking Romanovs. I am not. Last podcast on the left. I do not have the studying skills of our friend. Marcus Parks. Marcus Parks. He's a serious man.
Starting point is 00:20:44 Yeah. So fuck. Like this is one of my favorite historical stories because it is so fucking insane. The whole story is bananas and yet as I'm going to be reading this and I didn't realize it too, it's like, you can, you can see a lot of modern day similarities to what happened and what could happen. And it's really scary. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:21:03 Because, well, time is a flat circle, as Mike told us, but, but also it's true, like that the reason it's a cliche is history just repeats itself. And these things, these things, it's like the power dynamic keeps, just keeps happening. Just because shit's in black and white. And listen, when I was in high school, I was like, this boring story, I wasn't interested in this at all. And then when I got older and like saw some, you know, history channel video about it and started reading a book about it, I was like, this is way more fascinating than I thought
Starting point is 00:21:33 it was. Yeah. So, okay, the house of Romanov, it's the second dynasty to rule over Russia. Starts in 1864, sorry, 1613, we're going to get through this history part. Numbers. Yeah. It's also math. It's math.
Starting point is 00:21:48 They hate it. The Romanovs had ruled Russia for five generations and were so powerful that they believed themselves to be ordained by God as absolute rulers. So think of like the fucking British royal family. That's going on, but in Russia. They all think they're ordained by God. It's little nuts. I don't think God, I don't think God's into royals.
Starting point is 00:22:06 He's more like Lord, where he's, he'll never be royals. Peasants. He wants peasants. He's like Lord, exactly. God is like Lord, sorry. Right. They're richest fuck. They build mansions in the grandest royal palace in all of Europe, but they reign for
Starting point is 00:22:21 centuries with unlimited power, et cetera, et cetera. What? Well, I just have to say, I put my finger up to stop Georgia once again and she's barely started. No, I love it. You just gave me was so good. You're like, what? No, I thought you were going to make fun of me for saying, et cetera, et cetera, about
Starting point is 00:22:37 an entire fucking dynasty of royal people. Okay. Great. Of course not. Look, I don't need to tell you guys this shit. I was just going to remind you that in high school, during the Cold War, 1987, I went to Russia. Right.
Starting point is 00:22:51 I went to old school Russia. And so, like I've been to Peter the Great's summer palace and I am telling you, these people weren't just rich. Like the summer palace, which wasn't their main palace. It was their summer palace. It was the most incredible thing I've ever seen in my life to date and the, everything about it was like breathtakingly large. They had a fountain that had, I think it's, who's the guy from the ocean?
Starting point is 00:23:20 Triton. Triton? Is that what you just said? Or is that from? Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's the thing he holds. What's his Neptune?
Starting point is 00:23:31 I'm thinking of the little mermaid. They had a fountain of the little mermaid. But it was a thing that was probably five, it was like five stories tall. Like it was like triple the size of any fountain you've ever seen. Okay. So now imagine being a fucking peasant who lives in a fucking hovel, you know, survives on bread all day, barely has any money for shoes, no money for fucking food. And of course you're going to think that these people are fucking ordained by God.
Starting point is 00:24:01 They've never seen anything like this in their lives. That's right. And that makes sense too. While the churches and shit people thought the people who ruled the churches were fucking ordained by God because look at these insane buildings they made anyways. It's crazy. Yeah. All right.
Starting point is 00:24:18 So now let's get interesting. Sar Nicholas, who looks like a fucking hot Brooklyn hipster with a light blondie beard and they get a little zoop on his, he's cute. So Nicholas is only 24 when he inherits the throne upon the unexpected death of his father, Alexander the third, dies of kidney disease unexpectedly in 1940. Oh, nope. When he's 49 in 1894, all right. So imagine that 24 years old being a fuck.
Starting point is 00:24:48 I'm in charge. I'm in charge now. And imagine also being a little kid and seeing your grandfather, who is the czar, get blown up to fucking smithereens and an assassination and then they're like, now you get to take over that job. That happened in front of the family. In front of the family, including the little kid at Nicholas, so he's like, I don't fucking want this job and he hasn't since he was a kid.
Starting point is 00:25:13 But now he's getting at 24 when he's totally not ready. So he definitely doesn't want to do it, but he has to. Okay. So just a week after the funeral of his father, Nicholas, Marys, his longtime fucking gal, pal, who was only 12 when he met her and he was 16, like, were they boning? I hope not. No. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:25:32 They like fell in love with each other. It was more formal back then. Yeah. You're right. You're right. Yes. Gloved hand touching. Because all gloves, then the gloves come off the night of the wedding night, the night
Starting point is 00:25:44 of the wedding night. Nicholas Marys, beautiful German princess Alexandra Fyodorovna, he marries her and they're like supposedly like, this is fucking, they're really, really truly devoted and in love with each other in a way that like I feel like a lot of princes and princesses and kings and queens aren't. It's like set up for marriage, you know, but they're super stoked on each other. She's also the grandchild, the favorite grandchild of Queen Victoria of the UK. They were coordinated in 1896 in one of the most lavish ceremonies of its time.
Starting point is 00:26:23 Fucking sign me up to go to that. The bonbons alone, a little tiny sandwich tables. I love it. Come on. So and then I wrote a thing where like, you know how they say that when the bigger the wedding, the more likely the marriage is going to fail, well, I bet the bigger the coordination, the more likely the fucking the ruling is going to fail. Good.
Starting point is 00:26:44 Good. Parallel. True in this case, as we shall see. That's foreshadowing. Okay. Got it. Got it. Alexandra.
Starting point is 00:26:53 So she is like, fuck this shit. She doesn't want to go. She doesn't do the traditional social duties that Russia's Serena and the Russian people expect from the Serena. They see her as distant and severe, the couple has five children and they have, they have to have a boy so that the boy can take over the throne. And so imagine how they're for oldest Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia feel they're like, nope, nope, nope, nope, no shit.
Starting point is 00:27:17 We have to keep having babies. Finally they have their son heir to the throne, Alexi fucking this kid is like everything to them. Well, Alexander wants to do is hang out in the palace and be with his family. He doesn't want to leave. Same. He doesn't want to rule a hundred percent. You're going to hang out in this fucking gorgeous palace with the love of your life
Starting point is 00:27:37 and you're like probably fun children. Yeah. Great. And then just be like, who wants a grilled cheese sandwich? Yeah. Let's get one. Let's get made for us. Even.
Starting point is 00:27:46 We don't have to make them ourselves. That's right. Or do the dishes. We just call down through a can. It's probably a can. It's a can, right? A can of sardines. A can of sardines because it was the 1800s string.
Starting point is 00:27:59 And then a bunch of sardines run downstairs and make this sandwich. Train sardines. Train your sardines, everyone. I'll really hang out in the back. Okay. He wants to he wants to ignore the widespread famine throughout his land and not deal with all this bullshit. Sure.
Starting point is 00:28:15 According to historian Simon Sabag Montefiro, Sir Nicholas II was astonishingly arrogant and had contempt for the educated political classes, so he wasn't into the politics shit either. Okay. Or the people who were in charge. He was a vicious anti-Semite, which I think everyone fucking was then. And he had an unshakable belief in his right to rule as a sacred autocrat. Sure.
Starting point is 00:28:40 And he's not trusted by his ministers. And he also leaves a lot of his dad's harsh, crazy rules in place. So nobody likes him. No one likes his wife. And then there's also Bloody Sunday, where on Sunday, the 22nd of January 1905 in St. Peter, St. Petersburg, unarmed demonstrators are fired upon by soldiers of the Imperial Guard. Now, we can easily think about this in today's in our society here.
Starting point is 00:29:08 Like this shit could happen. It's happening now. It's fucking happening now. It's happening every day. It's bananas. Yeah. Cause also the other things you're mentioning of like that thing where people being virulently hateful towards smart people, like that thing, which is definitely happening in this country.
Starting point is 00:29:25 And I think people are kind of just waking up to it. But it's that thing of like, you resent people having an education, maybe because you didn't get one for whatever reason. But that thing, like loving your own ignorance and then hating someone else for actually being smart is such a, it's like this human failing and it's, I don't know, it sucks. And there's no debating it. You can't debate with a fucking stupid person that they're being ignorant, right? You know, or not being open or at least not, you know, studying all sides of the story.
Starting point is 00:29:57 No. Yeah. Mom. Janet. God damn it. Okay. Sorry. I'm very hate, hateful right now.
Starting point is 00:30:05 Okay. They fire upon. It's like Kent State. They fire into the fucking crowd. Yeah. It's debated how many people were killed by soldiers, but the moderate estimates like around a hundred people were killed. But a thousand were wounded both from the shots and being trampled in the panic.
Starting point is 00:30:20 Oh my God. So all these people are hurt and killed, peaceful protests. And the, and they're protesting starving to death. Yeah. Exactly. So they, so. Revolution. Exactly.
Starting point is 00:30:32 The people are fucking pissed. By 1914, with the outbreak of World War I, the people are fucking over the Roman arms. Like no more dudes. Russians criticize Alexandra and her German heritage because they're super patriotic. Oh, something familiar. And Nicholas's mismanagement of Russia's social, political and economic problems because he was fucking bad at his job and didn't own it. In 1915, Nicholas also assumes personal control of Russia's military forces.
Starting point is 00:30:59 So he fucking laders out of his St. Petersburg castle to oversee the Russian armies fighting World War I, goes to the fucking front lines and pretends to be like in charge of the fucking army and shit, which is like pisses people off this. But then this leaves Serena Alexandra in charge of Russia. And this is where our fucking friend Rasputin comes in. It's a fucking total piece of shit. So her most Alexander's most trusted advisor was illiterate self-proclaimed faith healer Gregory Rasputin from fucking small, small time Siberia, you know.
Starting point is 00:31:33 The remotest of Siberia, you know, um, Russian, I mean, Rasputin is seen by some Russians as a mystic, a visionary and a prophet by others as a religious charlatan and they call him the holy devil somehow. So he, so, uh, Alexei, the heir to the throne, the little boy has hemophilia. And so Alexandra, she's, they're highly religious orthodox Russians, highly religious. And so she keeps trying to get these faith healers to come and fix him. And finally, Rasputin comes and no one really knows why, except maybe Marcus Parks does and I just need to listen to it.
Starting point is 00:32:07 Something happens and it, and she believes that Rasputin is healing her son. So she fucking brings him on into her. They're highly secretive, like, you know, click and, uh, so, so he's, there is actually a part and there isn't any specific thing like, like to know, except for that he did do something when that little boy was bleeding and healed him in a way that people can't explain. So he really did weirdly earn his spot, but then he was there for years and years and years. So he must have been like doing something else too.
Starting point is 00:32:38 Yeah. He had weird eyes. And I think people liked that. Big dick too. Right. But he also smelled. Please. He looks like he smells terrible.
Starting point is 00:32:46 It smells terrible. The, the, uh, you can get the full Rasputin download on last podcast. I think there's a smell a vision of it too. Where they let you smell him. It smells like rotten carrots and eggshells. Oh. And a deceit. Uh.
Starting point is 00:33:01 Weird breath. Okay, so Rasputin's sexual escapades and immoral behavior, he just like flaunts his dick all over town. He's like the original fuck boy, I think. Really? I don't know. I made that up. Yes.
Starting point is 00:33:14 He's like Fox everyone and calls it like, like he's giving them a divine fucking fucking of divine fucking and makes them holy and shit. Um, but the Russian people hate how much sway he has over their country. They're pissed off about it because under his influence, Alexandra becomes paranoid and reactionary, government officials are appointed and dismissed at a whim. Hmm. Sounds familiar. Based on Rasputin's prophecies and Alexandra adopts repressive and oppressive policies.
Starting point is 00:33:43 In December of 1916, Rasputin is assassinated by a group of conservative people who oppose his influence. And this left Alexandra alone to rule Russia and she tightened the grip on authority. And so she's just being a dick too. At this point, the Russians are like, fuck this shit. That's a quote from February. So from February to March, Russia is paralyzed over, but when over half a million workers strike and protest and that's crazy, crazy 500,000 people to piece out on their jobs,
Starting point is 00:34:21 public transportation stops, newspapers go out of print, the number of striking workers increased when rumors circulated of another cut in bread supplies. Oh, so everyone's fucking starving to begin with all their fucking kids are being sent off to war that they don't even want to be in 10 million soldiers, deserts and join the Bolshevik uprising. And Lenin begins to emerge as a leader of the resistance, which is a fucking fascinating story in its own. There's a really great documentary about Lenin's rise to power.
Starting point is 00:34:50 I highly recommend it. And I don't remember what it's called. Could it be called Lenin's rise to power? It is. Like, you think the documentary filmmakers should be like, you know, I have a great name for this. Yeah. But it's called, like, Red Tears on a Sunday or whatever.
Starting point is 00:35:05 And like, no, no one's going to know what that is. They're going to think it's about you too. March 1917, less than three months after Rasputin's murder, masses of pissed off peasants and factory workers take to the streets of St. Petersburg. Police and soldiers are like, great, we're with you. They fucking mutiny and join these motherfuckers because they're pissed off too. Everybody's pissed. Everyone's starving, but the Royals, right?
Starting point is 00:35:30 Exactly. So the government ministers and bureaucrats abandon their positions because they're like, oh, shit, we better get the fuck out of here. Right. So, so this is the February revolution of 1917. Following this, Nicholas is, Zara is like, oh, shit. Okay. I'm abdicating on behalf of me and my son, please leave us alone.
Starting point is 00:35:49 He thinks it's going to guarantee safety of his family to just be like, okay, I won't be the... I quit. Yeah. Zara anymore. I quit. I quit. He calls uncle.
Starting point is 00:36:00 How do you say uncle in Russian? Great. He does that. On March 1st, 1918, once the Communist Bolsheviks are in power, the family, they get, you know, they're held prisoner in a couple different places. They finally are moved to Ekatenburg and it's near the Ural Mountains and it's this home that they'll be kept in. It's...
Starting point is 00:36:24 Pretty nice home? I don't think so. Okay. It used to be like the home of a captain and then they were like, get the fuck out of here. We're holding the Roman arms in here. And they're like, oh my God, I'm claustrophobic. There's only 10 rooms in this house.
Starting point is 00:36:35 Exactly. Yeah. So, it's, and it's called the house of special purpose. Oh. Which just makes me think of the jerk, like, what's your special purpose? Right? No, that's so funny. Okay.
Starting point is 00:36:49 So, they're kept in the... I wonder if that's where he got it. Fucking Steve Martin. Steve Martin. You're smart in... That's what you like to do. I did it too. I like it. They're kept in this home in strict isolation without any of their possessions.
Starting point is 00:37:07 I think they had their dogs there though, which is cool. That's nice. They're guarded day and night. There's two, like, high walls surrounding the property for their imprisonment and for the security from the Ingridtowns people who were like, let's kill these people. The windows in all the family's rooms are sealed shut and covered with newspaper and they're forbidden from looking out the window. It sounds incredibly boring.
Starting point is 00:37:30 Yeah. They're required to ring a bell every time they want to leave the rooms to go to the bathroom and the guards eventually total around 300. Jesus Christ. So, you gotta imagine. So, the four daughters are now 13, 17, 19, and 21 and there are around 300 guards who fucking hate their family. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:37:51 And there was a rumor and you have to imagine that they were sexually assaulted at some point. Sure. For sure. But they don't talk about... Everything I looked in, I've only heard that in one, you know, story. It kind of stands to reason, but... Right.
Starting point is 00:38:04 Yeah. Oh, wait. Alexis, the boy was 13, but the daughters were 17, 19, 21, and 22. Okay. So, when the white guard, which is still loyal to the czar, they begin to move onto Kattenberg and they might take the city over. So, that's... This is what is surmised as the reason for what happens next.
Starting point is 00:38:27 In the early morning hours of July 17th, 1918, the royal family is... They're all awakened and around 2 a.m. in order to get dressed and they're taken down to a 20-foot by 16-foot semi-basement room in this house. And the pretext for this move, they tell them, like, oh, the anti-bullshit forces are approaching. We're taking you down here for your own safety because we might be fired upon. So, the family is like, oh, my God, we're close to safety, we're going to be saved. They go down there. It's...
Starting point is 00:39:02 So, it's Nicholas, who's... Czar Nicholas, who's 50, the Czarina, Alexandra is 46, and their children, 13-year-old Alexis, 17-year-old Anastasia, 19-year-old Maria, 21-year-old Tatiana, and 22-year-old Olga. Along with the family's personal physician, Eugene Botkin, and three of their servants. What? Eugene Botkin. He's... What a nerd.
Starting point is 00:39:25 Get that nerd out of the basement. And three of their servants. All of them voluntarily stayed with the family, which is pretty insane. Anna Demidova, Alexi Trump, nope, Alexi Trump, and Ivan Katrotovnov, Karat Dognov, some one of his, like, fucking descendants is so mad at me right now for giving that name wrong. It's Karat Dognov. Karat... Karatanov.
Starting point is 00:39:55 Karatanov. Okay. So, little do they know, so they're seated in this basement, they get chairs for the Zarina and Alexi, who's, of course, frail from his hemophilia, has been for his whole life. Little do they know that standing in another room is a firing squad that had been assembled and is waiting for the command. It's seven communist soldiers from Central Europe and three local Bolsheviks, all under
Starting point is 00:40:22 the command of Bolshevik officer, Yakov Yurovsky, who we fucking hate, boo, he's a piece of shit. Really? It's said that Yakov secured the order of execution from Lenin himself, but of course there's no paper trail, so we don't know that for sure. Anything could have been going on. Exactly. When the family gets into the basement, they're all seated, and Yurovsky simply says, Nikolai
Starting point is 00:40:50 Alexandrovich, interview of the fact that your relatives are continuing their attack on Soviet Russia, the rural executive committee has decided to execute you. And that's when they fucking realize they're all going to get killed. Shit. Nicholas, he's stunned. He barely has any time to react before the executioners, they draw the revolvers and the shooting begins. Nicholas is the first to die, and there's this, I am reading, I have a book that halfway
Starting point is 00:41:17 through about the murders, and it's really graphic and says everything, and I haven't stopped reading it because I got dizzy. Because it was so bad. Yeah, so you can regain that if you want to, but essentially Nicholas is the first to die, Anastasia, Tatyana and Olga and Maria survived the first round of bullets. I think they got like one in the leg and one in the arm. And it's because as they're shot at, the bullets are deflecting off of their bodies because they are wearing over 1.3 kilograms of diamonds and precious gems that they secretly, all
Starting point is 00:41:49 secretly sewed into their undergarments. Oh, right. When they left? Before they left the palace. Oh, fuck. So they're fucking deflecting the bullets, which is like almost worse. You know? Bill, you mean because they're just, they continue to live while they're being attempted, murdered?
Starting point is 00:42:05 Yeah. Like they don't get a quick death. You're right. But also if you were shooting them and then see bullets deflected, wouldn't you be like, wait, maybe they are like from God and like I was wrong this whole time? Well, apparently, so this is like an insanely botched execution and apparently they were all shit they should drunk to and not experienced, they didn't, the weapons were just like given to them randomly, it's not like they had, they were good at their jobs even, which is
Starting point is 00:42:32 disgusting. But so they, they get some protection from the bullets and then the bayonets. Oh no. The remaining executioners, they start shooting chaotically until the room is so filled with smoke and dust that no one can see anything. And they can't hear any of the commands amid, amid the noise. They realize that the gunshots are being heard by the neighbors like they're in this fucking little town square.
Starting point is 00:42:56 There's like other houses around. So the men are told to stop firing and kill the family with their gun butts and bayonets. So there's, so the family and the servants are stabbed with bayonets and shot at close range in their heads. The execution lasts about 20 minutes and at the end of it, once everyone's dead, the dynasty that had ruled Russia for over 300 years is fucking over. Wow. And so the bodies of the Romanos and their servants are loaded onto a truck and taken
Starting point is 00:43:26 to the Koptyaki Forest, you have to scream the last part of that, Koptyaki Forest. The truck gets stuck in an air, they're supposed to take him to these mines and dropped him out of the mines, but the truck gets stuck in the mud near the Gorno-Oralsk railway line. So the men are fucking exhausted and drunk and over it and they refuse to obey orders. So you're off skis just like, fuck it, let's bury them in the road near the track where it's stalled. So the bodies are laid out and stripped with their clothing and valuables at a place called Pig's Meadow.
Starting point is 00:44:01 Oh. I know. And then they're all put in, the bodies are put into a grave that was dug and then their sulfuric acids poured on top of them. And then their faces are smashed with the rifle butts and covered with quick lime to prevent identification. Jesus Christ. I know.
Starting point is 00:44:20 The burial is completed at 6 a.m. on July 19th. But it's, so, you know, half the population, people don't like the czar, but they didn't want their whole family to be killed. Right. But it was, and people still believe in the czar too. So it's, they don't, they don't want people to know what they did. And then, you know, they tell them that only the czar and his, Alexi have been killed and everyone else is in hiding, but of course, that's not true.
Starting point is 00:44:50 For more than 60 years, the fate of the Romanovs is debated and it's not totally known what happened to them. A woman claiming to be Anastasia, Anna Anderson, said that she was Anastasia and she had survived and she actually knew into my details about the Romanovs family, maybe. And people believed her story. Do you remember this? Because it was the late 90s when she was proven wrong. Yes.
Starting point is 00:45:14 I love that story. Well, there was like an actual Disney cartoon, but it's the cool, any scam like that, there's also the one where the girl came and pretended to be a princess, it's, they just found her on the side of the road. Right. And she was like, I'm a Tahitian princess or wherever, it's like some tropical island princess. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:45:34 And she scammed a bunch of people in England, I think, around the same, like, you know, back when there was no TV, there was no way to communicate quickly. Right. And she wrote a letter of like, that's not who that is, it would take four months to get there. And by then you fucking sewn all your jewels into your underwear. That's right. As long as you're charming and convincing, people would just be like, sounds good.
Starting point is 00:45:54 I think you are a royal. And want her to be that, like, they didn't want the children to be dead, so people wanted this to be Anastasia. And she fucking did look like her. And they got, so, so then what happened was there is a trial that is the longest trial in modern German history to determine if it's Anastasia or not. And they got this like crazy forensic handwriting analysis, dude, and he, I think it was a woman. And she was like, it's totally Anastasia.
Starting point is 00:46:20 Like she fooled even her. Wow. Yeah. So she knew her stuff, this woman, Anna. Or she just got lucky and people wanted to believe her. But the trial failed to determine if it was her or not. She died in 1984 and still insisting she's the princess, several other people reported to be the Romanov children throughout the years.
Starting point is 00:46:39 And then the burial ground remained undiscovered until May of 1979 when local amateur sleuth and retired geologist Alexander Avdonin and some of his fucking bros located, they like, they everyone's looking for this fucking grave. They locate the shallow grave after years of covert evidence gathering and studying the evidence. So this is 1979, they find the grave, they find three skulls from the grave and they try to get people to fucking DNA test them and shit. But everyone is, this is not a time when you can be doing shit like this.
Starting point is 00:47:14 So they were worried about the consequences. Because it's now almost the 80s in Russia, right? Right. Yeah. So, uh, and the consequences were imprisonment, possible death. So they fucking rebury the skulls in 1980 and are just like, we'll be quiet until there's a time in our lives where we can go back and dig them up. Holy shit.
Starting point is 00:47:38 It's insane. Yeah. If you just knew where the fucking Romanos were. But you could, there's nowhere to send any, there's no like, no one will test them. Yeah. So in July of 1991, so it's fucking 11 years later, six months before the final dissolution of the Soviet Union, a commission appointed by Boris Yeltsin to investigate the murders, they finally exhumed their remains from Pig Meadow.
Starting point is 00:48:00 But the problem is that there's only nine skeletons found and they're supposed to be 11 fucking bodies. So DNA confirms that the smash skulls and bullet-ridden bones were those of the Romanoms and their servants. But two of the children's bodies, including, including Alexei and either Anastasia or Maria aren't found with their family, which of course leads people to think that either the nine bodies aren't the Romanoms and their servants and or Anastasia and Alexei are still alive, which likes all this crazy speculation.
Starting point is 00:48:33 And it concludes, it makes the Russian Orthodox Church refuse to recognize the remains as those are the Romanoms. So they refuse to fucking bury them in a, you know, official Russian Orthodox sanctified grave. And ceremony and shit. And they're sainted. So like this would, it would have been a big fucking deal. So they are interred in July 98 and they're referred to by the priest conducting the service
Starting point is 00:49:02 as Christian victims of the revolution rather than the imperial family. They like refuse to acknowledge them as who they are. So finally then, and actually Necker search is involved in the search as well. And there's a chapter in the book that I love, no stone, no stone unturned about the Romanoms and the search for them. It's really cool. But on July, in July of 2007, another amateur group of local enthusiasts found a small pit near where the bodies were initially found containing the remains of Alexei and his sister,
Starting point is 00:49:40 Maria, located in a small bonfire site not far from the main grave. So it turns out that Yorovsky had separated the Sarevich Alexei and his sister Maria turns out it's Maria in attempt to confuse anyone who might discover the mass graves with only nine bodies, which fucking worked. He did it on purpose. He did it on purpose. Wow. Alexei and his sister were burned.
Starting point is 00:50:06 The remaining charred bones thoroughly smashed with spades and then tossed into a smaller pit. And despite overwhelming forensic and DNA evidence, the church has refused to recognize these remains as belonging to Alexei and Maria. And for several years, the boxes containing ashes and a few bone fragments that was all that remained of the children was just sitting in a shelf in the Russian state archives. And in 2015, those bones were finally judged authentic. So this fucking week marks the 100th anniversary of the execution of the Russian royal family
Starting point is 00:50:45 by the Bolsheviks, one of the most shocking events of the 20th century. During his reign, the Russian Empire went from being one of the foremost great powers of the world to economic and military collapse under the rule of Nicholas II. And even so, people still debate whether or not the assassination was deserved or was just straight out fucking murder. And that's the story of the Romanos. Wow. They still haven't gotten their orthodox burial.
Starting point is 00:51:17 Yeah. Wow. I love that story because then it just makes me want to read a book about Russia is so huge, insane. The history is beyond belief. Mm-hmm. You know, my family, right before World War I or when World, no, wait, sorry. My family, when World War I was started, was run out of their town in Russia.
Starting point is 00:51:41 Oh, really? Yeah. Because they were Jewish. Their town was burned to the ground. And then my grandma, who was seven at the time and her family were lived in fields trying to survive for the next seven years, shit, until they were finally able to escape and come to great Los Angeles. Your grandma was an exiled Russian Jew.
Starting point is 00:52:01 Seven years old living in fields. Her mother picked potatoes during the day for money and would steal one potato. They eat the potato. She had like six siblings. They eat the potato for dinner and the peelings the next day for breakfast. They, some people who were sympathetic would let them sleep in their barn, but they had to keep moving because Jews weren't, there was another pogrom just constantly. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:52:23 Jesus Christ. Yeah, so. It was that close to your, like, that it was your grandma. Yeah. Is that your bigger dummy's grandma? No, that's Molly. She got, had the same thing, but in Poland. Look, I'm sorry about what's been happening to you Jews for the past 2,000 years.
Starting point is 00:52:40 It's pretty fucked up. Thank you. We, on behalf of all the Jews, Karen, Kielgarev, we appreciate it. Really? Yeah. God, I love you guys. You wouldn't let us sleep in your barn? Oh, my God.
Starting point is 00:52:50 I don't know about Stephen. No, no, no, no. Where Stephen's like, what the fuck? Stephen, what is your heritage? I'm half Mexican. What's the other half? I think like English or something like that. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:53:03 Yeah. English Mexicans. I feel like the Mexican side would be like, yeah, we get it. We've been through some shit. Yeah. Those English though, man. They don't get it. They love to colonize.
Starting point is 00:53:13 They love to oppress. When did your, when did you guys come here? I think my dad's side came over like the Midwest, like when like they were all like coming out after, like not the pilgrims or anything like that. I'm gonna know from Mexico though. From Mexico. Oh, even my grandma grew up here. She's, I call her Glendale Mexican because she grew up here.
Starting point is 00:53:39 That's Armenian. Are you crazy? My mistake. Yeah. My, my, my, even my mom's side, whose Mexican has been here for a long time. Yeah. Oh, okay. Cool.
Starting point is 00:53:50 Well shit. Guys. Guys, look and listen and have a can of wine. That was good. I just want to share one of my favorite memories of being in Cold War Russia when the Iron Curtain was still up and yet we were, we were high school students that were just like, Hey, what's up? We got a bunch of money.
Starting point is 00:54:13 International incident. It's just like a waiting to happen. So it was like, uh, it was very, um, you know, communist Russia while we were there. There were like these big, we would say in these big, huge hotels that were relatively empty that looked like they were built in, in the late 1800s or something like huge tall ceilings. And it was really insanely picturesque and gorgeous. And at the same time surreal and bizarre and, but my favorite night, and I think I've talked
Starting point is 00:54:46 about like, we got lost on that, the Moscow subway, which is gorgeous. It looks like the whole thing looks like a museum. It's, it has chandeliers and this gorgeous tile and, uh, we got a lot. We are drunk and we got lost and then some Russian soldiers just found like brought us back. We don't know how or how they knew where we were staying. It was super crazy. But one time we went to a bar and it was just like, there was just a sign like a sign that
Starting point is 00:55:13 said bar in Russian, essentially, and downstairs and then you go in and everything was exactly the same color. It was like this dark brown gray and it was just all old men, nothing, everything was just dark brown and gray. Everyone's clothes, the whole bar, the paint on the wall. It was just this weird thing. So we walk up and I'm about to order us all like six vodka's, you know, cause we were allowed to drink cause we were all, you know, of age in Europe.
Starting point is 00:55:41 My friend Jennifer Gearing, who's the funniest person of all time, goes up to the bar, leans up and goes, hi, can I get six vodka Collins and like I find that counter does not speak English. They don't have fucking Collins mix. I mean, like everything about, I was like, go sit down, embarrassing me and communist Russia go sit down. It was fucking hilarious. Vodka Collins is our new murder in a drink of choice.
Starting point is 00:56:06 Right. And I get like six tobacco Collins and it's just a guy that looked like he was out of central casting. And he was just like, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, so my story this week is one that we haven't done yet. It's super famous people to ask us to do it all the time and it asks us why we haven't
Starting point is 00:56:26 done it. Great. And it's another one of those ones where it's like, I'm going to save it for a live show. No, no, I want to do it at a live show and it's so depressing and I don't want to do it. Yeah. It's so hideous.
Starting point is 00:56:36 And I am telling you if you have any, any issues or triggers around molestation, incest, sexual abuse at all, you do not want to listen to the story because it's fucking terrible. It's the story of Fred and Rosemary West. Oh yeah. It is a good one. It's so like, I have attempted to do this story, I think like four different times and every time just like, I don't, this is awful. I want to hear it and I don't have those triggers because I'm a fucking monster who likes terrible
Starting point is 00:57:07 things all the time, but I can't imagine you doing this at the London show and it just going quiet. Yes. But then you're like, why didn't you do it? I know it's such a weird balance, but it's also like, yeah, it's for live shows, we need to be able to talk to each other and like at least have a semblance of a good time and interaction. And this is just all, this is some of the darkest shit of all time.
Starting point is 00:57:30 Well, I must not know all the dark shit then. So tell me. Yeah, it's crazy. And but the good thing that I was happy about is early on, I tried to do a recommendation and tried to reference this show called, it was a, I think originally it was like a TV show in England, starring Emily Watson called Appropriate Adult. And it stars Emily Watson. It's Dominic West, who is from the wire, but he's like British, amazing British actor.
Starting point is 00:58:03 And then this incredible actress who I still can't get over her performance. She plays Rosemary West and her name is Monica Dolan. And she is so fucking good, I don't have a picture of her. She's so fucking good in this thing, inappropriate adult. So Emily Watson plays, well, essentially there's a thing in England, it's when you, they have a person that's essentially like a citizen social worker that just is there as the witness to make sure that the person when they're being interviewed by police is being treated fairly.
Starting point is 00:58:40 Victim's advocate. What's that? It's a victim. Oh, you mean, but it's a murderer advocate. Exactly. It's like basically, and it's for, it's usually either for children who've been arrested or for people who are like, somehow have maybe a learning disability or something's wrong with them.
Starting point is 00:58:56 But they, so they bring her, they bring, you know, this woman in to, to be this, I believe her name was Janet Leach, and it's a true story. So when it gets that part, you can, I would 1000% recommend appropriate adult. I'm watching it. It's available on iTunes and it's in two parts. So, but it, it basically goes into once he's arrested and it goes into the insanity of like how the whole case kind of unfolds. So anyway, that, that's part of where I got this whole story, but and then there was an
Starting point is 00:59:33 article in the independent written by Will Bennett in October of 1995 where I got a bunch of information. So we'll start with Rosemary West, unlike anyone in, in any, I just can't, like when you talk about this woman, you see a picture of her, Stephen, would you pull up a picture? Oh, I know. She's like super motherly. Right? Yes.
Starting point is 00:59:58 She looks like every mom from the 80s. Totally. Like the really big glasses and like just a short kind of reasonable hair. Yeah. Little front, little front zone. She's had it. She's in the front zone for sure. She's had some kids.
Starting point is 01:00:08 She's lived certainly like, she just doesn't care. Eight kids. She's like, she just, yeah. Holy fuck. Yeah. So she's, she just looks like the average lady walking down the street with her grocery bag. And no shame on the front zone.
Starting point is 01:00:20 Like I have the front zone. I'm the mayor of the fucking front zone. So don't worry about it. Great. Yeah. This photo of them is just classic. She took her glasses off for the photo. It just looks like they're on a Sears couch with the best wallpaper I've ever seen in
Starting point is 01:00:35 my life in the background. It looks like the fucking canvas we have in the, and they use that in appropriate adult. They have her sitting on a couch in front of that wallpaper, like, so they, they clearly tried to recreate the house as it was. And this house is so fucking creepy. She looks cute. She's got it. Her little like Dorothy Hamill haircut.
Starting point is 01:00:55 He looks like, um, if, uh, um, Jemaine, not Jemaine, um, yeah, if Jemaine from fucking fight of the concords, like really wanted to go all out and play like a ugly gross dude. Don't you think? I think Jemaine Clement is hot as fuck. Don't get me wrong. No, he is for sure. Like a leisure suit, Jemaine. It's like if Jemaine on Halloween trying to be a monster, essentially, um, because he
Starting point is 01:01:21 does look a lot like, he looks like a Muppets monster. Yes. His teeth are crazy. He has like unibrow, um, his, but small eyes and he just, like, he looks like he's up to no good. Um, and that's also why he's so fascinating in, um, uh, appropriate adult. You get that sense of what a true psychopath he is. I bet he had like a crazy laugh.
Starting point is 01:01:44 What? I bet he had like a crazy laugh, like an unexpected, something he wouldn't expect. Like the kind of laugh that would make you leave a bar. Right. No matter how many vodka Collins you had waiting for you, they would like kind of jar you. Yes. So Rosemary was born Rosemary Letts in Devon, November 29th, 1953. And of course it is, it's all of these, they're both of their backgrounds, tragedy from jump.
Starting point is 01:02:11 So Rosemary's parents, he actually calls her Rose for the most of the time. Um, both of her parents suffer from mental illness. Her mother, when she's pregnant with Rose, falls into a deep depression and they give her electroshock therapy with the baby. So there's lots of theorizing that, uh, there was prenatal injury to her, probably definitely in the brain. Um, so because when, uh, Rose is growing up, lots of aggression, lots of temper tantrums. She's a terrible student.
Starting point is 01:02:43 Um, the parents have a terrible marriage. Her father, Bill is a paranoid schizophrenic. Oh, fuck. Yep. Um, so he's super violent and he is terrifying. He is, uh, there's just this awful presence in the home, um, to the point where the mother moves herself and Rosemary out of the house. Um, but, uh, in their adolescence, Rosemary moves back into the house.
Starting point is 01:03:09 Oh honey. Um, and it's, it's around the same time. So she hits puberty and becomes obsessed with her body and her developing body. She has a brother that she walks around naked in front of all the time that she begins to engage in incestuous acts. Um, and, uh, she essentially, it's not happening out of the blue. It turns out her father has been molesting her since she was 13 years old. Of course he has.
Starting point is 01:03:37 Yeah. And so she, Rosemary not only is obsessed with sex and, and, uh, but she's also preoccupied with older men. Um, and that's how she ends up meeting Fred West because Rosemary is 15 when she meets the 27 year old Fred West. Shut up. Yeah. Ew.
Starting point is 01:04:00 Yeah. So she's, she is a sophomore in high school and he's fucking 27. Oh my God. And Fred, one of the worst people ever to exist as a child, he was beaten and molested when he was 17. He got into a car accident that left him with a limp and a metal plate in his head. Head injury. Right.
Starting point is 01:04:20 Everyone says after, after that, uh, car accident, he was never the same. Can you imagine knowing someone who got in a car accident or like living with them and being direct and really like that always scares me when people are like, he wasn't acting the same after that. Yeah. Like events got in a car accident and then started getting like these rage outbursts. Yeah. What would I do?
Starting point is 01:04:39 It happens all the time. It happens to people all the time. I couldn't. It's terrifying. Yeah. It's really awful. Also, he's, but I don't, I think that he probably wasn't the greatest before the car accident.
Starting point is 01:04:50 A hundred percent. He also sustained another head injury when a woman pushed him off a fire escape because he stuck his hand up her skirt for her. Can you imagine? I know. She's like, get the fuck out of here. Holy shit. At some point along the line, he got his own sister pregnant.
Starting point is 01:05:05 I was really trying to make Georgia do a spit take with her can of wine. Not in my own house. It's gross. Not in my backyard. Only on stage. So then he moves to Scotland. After all that, he moves to Scotland to become an ice cream truck driver, but he comes back to England after he runs over a four year old child.
Starting point is 01:05:28 What the fuck? So we're on strike 19 now with Fred West. Can't just put him to sleep. No good. So in the late 60s, he comes back to England and he gets a job as, of course, a builder because for some reason, all of these serial killers somehow go into the contracting field. That is the weirdest fucking thing. I guess it's the independent work schedule, hammers.
Starting point is 01:05:54 I don't know. Burial, easy burial tools, tools and some mental rights. So the only good thing anyone says about him is that he's known to be a hard worker, which is like that. Good for him. Right. So he's on coke probably. Exactly.
Starting point is 01:06:09 Or he just loves fucking nails. Big. Yeah. So it's around this time where he meets 15 year old. Hi. Rose. Hi. I'm 15.
Starting point is 01:06:20 I'm 27. Yeah. And but she's like, well, I've always had this paranoid schizophrenic molester father. Yeah. So this is better. That horrible father objects strongly to Rose's having this relationship with this old man essentially with the crazy, crazy teeth. But she basically believes that they believe that they are like, psychically connected
Starting point is 01:06:43 and there's this part in appropriate adult. Like psychically. Right. It's really about it. There's a part in appropriate adult where he, Fred, spoiler alert, he ends up getting arrested. He's in the police station and he goes, oh, Rose is in the police station? And they're like, no, no, she's not here.
Starting point is 01:07:02 We haven't arrested her yet. And he goes, no, she's here. And then they leave the interrogation room and she was there. And no one, no one in the room knew she was there except for Fred. So there is this, they have a very odd creepy, creepy, creepy connection and thing. So their relationship starts. He is abusive to her. Of course, he's sexually, you know, technically sexually assaulting her and raping her.
Starting point is 01:07:28 She's 15. Right. But he's also violent with her because he's a violent person. So she's becomes pregnant relatively soon after this affair starts. And she gives birth to their daughter in 1970, her daughter, their daughter's named Heather when, when she is, when Rosemary's 17. Fred West already has two children from a previous relationship. And at this, around the same sister, no, no, he's, he's had a different relationship.
Starting point is 01:08:03 He's sent to prison for petty theft and for fine evasion. Around the same time. So 17 year old, highly unstable Rose becomes mother to now three children all at once. She has to take over those other two kids. Yeah. Yeah. And they're, they call it takeover. It's a, it is a full takeover.
Starting point is 01:08:23 So Fred, it's two daughters, unfortunately, Charmaine and Anna Marie are his daughters that he had from a previous relationship with a woman named Rina Costello. And so at some point while Fred is still in jail and Rosemary is taking care of those three kids, Charmaine, one of Fred's daughters disappears. And when asked where she's gone, Rose tells people that she's gone to Scotland to live with her biological mother. So when Fred gets out of jail, he comes back and they move from the house that they did live in to the now infamous 20 house at 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester.
Starting point is 01:09:09 And the neighbors know them as slightly eccentric, but nice. They, people say that they're the kind of neighbors that would do anything for you. And that's because they have no fucking idea what's going on in what is actually an in-truth at complete Hill House. So it turns out Rosemary is a sex worker who was working out of her own home. And they have set up the house, the bedrooms have are outfitted with cameras and listening devices. She's still a teenager this way.
Starting point is 01:09:41 She is. Yeah. Basically, you know, or 19 or something. Yeah. She's in her late teens, early 20s, when all this starts. So Fred can watch these sessions, sessions, she's having gross sessions with her clients from afar and in the house. And if that's not dark enough for you, it's not dark enough for me.
Starting point is 01:10:03 Okay. Then one of her clients has her own father built that then Fred knows that that's dark enough for me that, well, it gets darker because then Rose eventually encourages Fred to begin to sexually abuse Anna Marie. And Rose would join in that. I mean, she is. What the fuck? It actually reminds me of the Ken and Barbie Killers, Carla Mulca from Canada.
Starting point is 01:10:31 Like giving you a kid. She gives him the gift of her sister kind of a thing. Exactly. It's the insane sexual assault incest. Psychopaths who have no emotional fucking understanding of human emotions. And it's the thing of when people, when women do that, that when they're mothers and they do it to their own children, it truly, it's this taboo that is truly mind blowing. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:10:58 You know, but it's not a taboo to them because they were raped by their fathers too. That's exactly. It's not fucking weird. Exactly. Right. It's that's that was childhood for both of these people. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:11:08 Oh my God. No good. Yeah. They then begin selling Anna Marie to pedophiles. No. Yeah. How old is she? At the time, I think that started when she was eight around the age of eight.
Starting point is 01:11:21 Oh my God, one will go one darker. Okay. The grandfather was a client also. So fucking Rosemary's gross, rapist, molest father. Dad. Yeah. Jesus Christ. Just the worst.
Starting point is 01:11:37 Yeah. This is so again, for all the people who inquired, this is why I would, I would get to about this part and just be like, yeah, this is the worst story ever told. So eventually Rose gets pregnant and has eight different children, five of them are Fred West. Holy shit. Three of them are fathered by clients. They're not sure exactly who they are, but but are any of them her dad?
Starting point is 01:12:02 They don't. Not nothing I read said that, but it could definitely be there were rumors that some of them were local authority figures. Yes. So I think that's why this went like, it was rumored, but it was never reported for a long time that things went on in this household for way, way, way too long because this was basically the sex worker of town. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:12:28 And so nobody was like, but it's also like, if this authority figure comes in to, you know, have sex for money with Rosemary, it's not like he knows the other shits going on in the house. So it's not like he would have looked into it. He didn't look into, you know, you know what I mean? Right. It's not like they were getting reports and then they were ignoring them, right? But they also were in no way trying to look at anything that was happening in that house
Starting point is 01:12:51 because they knew at least they were guilty of something. Right. And also there was a lot of kind of intense S and M bondage. Yeah. Yeah. Violent sex. It's yeah. And at one point when they live on Cromwell Street, Rena Costello shows up to get her
Starting point is 01:13:09 daughters back from Fred and Rena disappears. Oh, the mom of the two girls, one of whom is X-Nate and not around anymore, that mom disappears. Yes. Oh my God. So, okay. So in 1972, and this is when basically it goes from the ultimate depravity within the household and within their own family in their own home.
Starting point is 01:13:33 And then they begin to branch out in 1972. They pick up a 17 year old hitchhiker named Carolyn Owens and they ask if she'll be their nanny because they have all these kids and they need extra help. She says yes. She finds them nice charm, whatever. And she moves into the house on Cromwell Street and after two weeks, she tries to leave because of course it's fucking a living hell and insanity. But Fred and Rose go out and they find her hitchhiking and they pick her back up.
Starting point is 01:14:06 They get her back into the car. Rose begins to sexually assault her. And then Fred, as she's trying to fight Rose off, Fred pulls over, punches her in the face and she goes unconscious. When she wakes up, she's back at 25 Cromwell Street, gagged, hands bound, she's molested all night by Rose. And in the morning, she convinces them if they let her go, she's not going to say anything to anybody.
Starting point is 01:14:30 But it's fine, no big deal. So they fucking let her go. She goes straight to the cops, tells them what happened. The Wests are arrested. They're charged with assault, quote, assault, occasional, actual bodily harm and with indecent assault, but Caroline's too scared to actually testify against them in court. She can't handle going to court. And so on January 12, 1973, the Wests plead guilty, but they're fined a hundred pounds
Starting point is 01:14:58 and released. Are you fucking kidding me? They never serve any time for that assault. And then soon after that, young girls around Gloucester begin disappearing. Most of them come from broken homes or they're single women traveling by themselves. So no one really hears much about it. Not until 1992. So 72 when they first kidnapped the girls to fucking 92, which I was alive then and wasn't
Starting point is 01:15:29 that long ago. 20 years. These people are kind of just doing whatever. Are you fucking kidding me? But here's what's happened. So there's lots of rumors around town. People know. Is it a small town?
Starting point is 01:15:41 It kind of is, right? I don't know anything about Gloucester. I didn't look anything up, but I it's not big. Yeah. It's no London is what they say in my mind that I'm making up right now. So finally, someone goes to the police and says Fred West is raping his 13 year old daughter and someone needs to do something about it. So social services starts investigating the West family and this is one it all kicks off.
Starting point is 01:16:08 So authorities enter the home at 25 Cromwell Street and they find tons of insane, obscene paraphernalia everywhere. So it's not just like they have, you know, they have those rooms that are outfitted with the cameras that it where Rosemary has her clients. But they have shit everywhere. Are there photos? Oh, I don't know. I'm not the photo person.
Starting point is 01:16:30 I'm going to go look. Do it. Go down. I'll wrap it up. I mean, I've definitely there's definitely a horrible wallpaper. I'll tell you that. There's there's like each room has a different color and scheme and everything where you're like the person that built this house is crazy.
Starting point is 01:16:44 Is a monster is it doesn't care about aesthetics at all. So they basically pull the children out of the house and they are interviewed by police and social workers and they start hearing these insane stories of sexual abuse or baby and emotional abuse and just, you know, these parents are crazy. So Fred West is arrested for raping his 13 year old daughter and Rose is arrested for child cruelty. But the 13 year old daughter refuses to testify against her parents. And so in June of 1993, the case falls apart.
Starting point is 01:17:19 Shut up. Yeah. Once again. But authorities know. Yeah. They're really bad shit is taking place. And when they're interviewing all the children, they're trying to find the daughter, the first daughter.
Starting point is 01:17:31 Yes. Who they said had gone back to live with her mother. Oh, okay. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right.
Starting point is 01:17:40 And Rose said that she left home in 1987 following a family disagreement. But now she works at a holiday village in Devonshire and that they got, they get phone calls from her every once in a while and they'd actually taken a phone call from Heather in front of the children one time so that the children also said, oh, yes, Heather called home that one time mom and dad both talked to her. We didn't. They didn't let us talk to her. So then they start talking to Heather's friends and that's when they find out that 1987 was
Starting point is 01:18:10 around the time Heather started telling her friends about the insane abuse that was going on in their home. So authorities are putting together that she disappeared right around the time she started confiding to other people what was actually happening. So then all the younger West children are put into basically the British version of foster care. And it is called foster care. They call it care, care, put into care.
Starting point is 01:18:39 You have to whisper it. So when they, when the kids start talking to their, the foster carers, they start telling the story about if you misbehaved at home, they, Fred and Rosemary would tell the kids, if you don't behave, you're going to go under the patio where Heather is. Yeah. And so everyone's like, ding, ding, ding. Can you imagine if you're foster parenting or foster care, you're a foster care. And your kid's like, oh, I don't want to go under the house like the, like my sister.
Starting point is 01:19:10 My sister had disappeared. Chills. I mean, horrifying. So, so it's almost like everyone's just going like, oh, what, what, sorry, what, like say that again. It's all like unfolding, like, oh, these people who look like the most average people. Boring even super boring. And that's like, oh, there's this insane, seenie underside.
Starting point is 01:19:30 So when they go, so they basically, uh, they go in and they, they dig up the patio and they find the bones of Heather West. And so, and this is where basically appropriate adult starts at Fred's arrest, um, where they, he had taken them to the house and he was, it's, he's so crazy and he's talking like, he tells police, yeah, you, you can come because she's buried in the backyard, then he changes a story, then he changes it again. He's doing all this stuff and he's trying to manipulate Janet Leach, the appropriate adult.
Starting point is 01:20:07 So he's looking at her going, you should maybe check over there while he's denying that anyone's buried anywhere to the police. It's almost like he's two different people. Yeah. Or nine different people. Like it's truly, truly either it's super, um, psychopathic manipulation. Like he's mastermind it or he's really stupid and just kind of playing it moment to moment. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:20:29 It's very hard to tell. He's like, well, if I'm going to get fucked for this, I want all the credit. So like, here's some other shit you should go looking to. Yeah. Like you, it's interesting. It's like that thing where does he like the attention, does he like this weird relationship he's trying to build. He's clearly getting her interest because she's just supposed to be there standing there
Starting point is 01:20:46 like witnessing things and making sure the police don't abuse a person who would be, you know, in custody that everybody would want to punch in the face several times. A fucking tibley, it might help his fucking stupid looking face, knock some teeth back into place. So basically because of his hints and these things where he goes, he like, maybe we should go down and look in the cellar. And then when they get down the cellar, he's like, no, the spirits are telling me we shouldn't be down here.
Starting point is 01:21:15 So then the investigators like dig up this entire and that's when they find six bodies of women buried in a circle chronologically from when they disappeared. So Linda Goff is found in the cellar. And she went missing on April 19th, 1973, she was 19 years old. And she was a seamstress. She, you know, her, she was close to their family. Her she, when she disappears without a word, her mother starts asking around and the information she gets leads to the West House on Cromwell Street.
Starting point is 01:21:53 And when she knocks on the door, Rosemary is like, oh, you know, we haven't seen her. And then as Mrs. Goff is talking to her, she realizes that Rosemary is wearing Linda's slippers and cardigan. And then she looks and sees that Linda's clothes are hanging on the clothesline. So yeah. Yeah. So she's like, what the fuck explain my face right now. I guess horror, horror, horror, horror, horror.
Starting point is 01:22:22 Then there's Carolyn Cooper, who was 15 years old. She disappeared in November of 1973 on her way to visit her grandmother in Worcester. If it's, if it's the Boston pronounced, I bet you it's fucking not. Yeah, I bet it's worse to share a sauce. Nancy Parkington is 21. She was a student at Exeter in December of 1973. She went home for Christmas and then she went out to visit her school friend at 1015 on the 27th of December.
Starting point is 01:22:55 She was going to catch the last bus home, never seen again. Do we think that this is all hitchhiking related? You know, I'm not sure because it's, it's some of these are these people who are traveling. So then, you know, not just, I'm not victim blaming because, but I think hitchhiking was a really normal thing and to get into a car of a couple, if you fucking watch Hounds of Love, that Australian murder I did that one time. Or any of these stories. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:23:22 It's like hitchhiking was just very normal. Yeah. And yeah. They probably had a baby in the car with them, one of their babies, you know. You know, the story of the girl who was kept in, kept in a box under the bed. The girl in the box. The girl in the box. That's how they got hurt too.
Starting point is 01:23:36 Yeah. The body of 21 year old Swiss student, Therese Seigenthaler. She'd been studying sociology in London and she had decided to hitchhike across England and somewhere she disappeared somewhere on that trip. And also a 15 year old named Shirley Hubbard, who was last seen in November of 1974. She was from a broken home. There's a couple girls who were found in that basement who had been in either foster care or their parents were divorced and they had started going to the West's house or hanging
Starting point is 01:24:12 out there and then disappeared. One of those was 18 year old Juanita Mott, who that was exactly her story. So those were the bodies in the cellar and then they had also dug up the garden, which is near the patio where Heather was buried and they found Shirley Ann Robinson, an 18 year old who had moved into the West's house. She started having an affair with Fred and gotten pregnant by him in May of 1978. And that's when she disappeared. So she, her body was in the garden.
Starting point is 01:24:46 So basically the police thinking that they're just looking for the missing daughter discovered that basically these two people had been like these monstrous serial killers and sex abusers. Most of the bodies had been decapitated and dismembered. Thank you. Dismembered. Holy shit. Yeah. And just clearly they, there was evidence of torture.
Starting point is 01:25:11 This wasn't just like a simple, you know, it was the, they were the worst of the worst. And the problem is that they have no evidence that Rosemary's tied to any of these murders until they dig up the kitchen floor in the West's old house on Midland Avenue. Can you imagine if you're living there and you get a knock at the door and they're like, Hey, hi. Hi, real quick. Sorry. Where are the police?
Starting point is 01:25:38 Yeah. You know, you got a deal on this house. There's some, there's a reason that you'd feel cold spots around and bad vibes always. Because Fred's daughter, Charmaine's body was buried. So remember when Charmaine disappeared because Fred was in jail? Yeah. Well, Rosemary killed her. And then when Fred got out of jail, Rosemary was, she had hidden the body.
Starting point is 01:26:00 Fred's the one that put the body under the kitchen floor. Oh my God. Yeah. So he, they were in on it together from the beginning. And they actually had a, there's, there's a documentary about this. There's a, there's lots of documentaries you can watch on the West, the West. There's two on YouTube and one of them is about the forensic dentistry and how much it took, played into this case.
Starting point is 01:26:24 Because that's how they pinpointed the time of Charmaine's death. And that's how they got it to say Rosemary is the one who was responsible, not Fred because he was in jail. Oh, that's good. Otherwise they probably wouldn't have, they would have given her a plea to like testify against her. Against him. Like she wasn't necessarily involved or whatever.
Starting point is 01:26:41 And this was like, no, no, no, she was, she had a hand in the killing and she had a hand in this torture and all, you know, all of that. So eventually Rose is charged with 10 counts of murder and Fred is charged with 12 counts of murder. When they go to trial, so they separate the two of them. When they go to trial, Rose will not look at or interact with Fred in any way. And it basically makes him go crazy. And he freaks out and hangs himself in his cell.
Starting point is 01:27:12 What? So he commits suicide. So he basically doesn't, he never gets charged with anything because he commits suicide in his cell. God, I have never studied this murder clearly. It's so... Or these people, you know? They're so fucking crazy and the whole thing and his...
Starting point is 01:27:26 What a dick. He fucking hanged himself? Yeah. But if you watch, like especially an appropriate adult, his weird connection with her and his weird like, he defends her in the beginning. He says she has nothing to do with it in the beginning and then it's just, it's a classic case of that like, he's the herb user, but then I think over the years, she became his. Before his suicide, there's an interview with the police where he's quoted as saying, you
Starting point is 01:27:51 have the murders wrong. Nobody went through hell. It was sexual encounters gone wrong. So he tried to intimate that it was some kind of like sex play where people were... It was voluntary up until the last minute. You know, that thing where people are getting into getting decapitated during sex? Right. And also that, that accident doesn't happen 12 times, you fucking asshole.
Starting point is 01:28:12 Here's the cool part. Carolyn Roberts, who is the hitchhiker who was afraid to testify for her own trial, came back and testified in this murder trial. And she's the reason that Rosemary West got convicted and is still in jail to this day. She's still alive. She's still in jail in last July. She was diagnosed with glaucoma and she's going blind. And she said in a quote to the newspaper, if I go blind, I'm going to commit suicide.
Starting point is 01:28:41 And everyone's like, okay. Yeah. Everyone's like, that's fine. Oh my God. The really weird thing is in 1996, they went to demolish 25 Cromwell Street. That's when the old house, the new house. The new house. That's where all the horrible things happen.
Starting point is 01:28:57 It took them five days to knock the house down. Why? I don't... I'm not sure if... It was made of cement. If he did so much building and burying and cementing and doing things inside the house. I mean, the whole thing was... It was like this bizarre fortress that they had built and that these horrible things were
Starting point is 01:29:20 happening. And of course, the police were going to get rid of that as an entity. But then it just took them forever. It's like they couldn't knock it down. So that's the quickest, most lightest, like dipping into talking about the important things, but not living in the horror show. But you definitely can. I mean...
Starting point is 01:29:42 You know, I'm gonna. Yeah. But there's really good... I mean, an appropriate adult is such an incredible... It's such an incredible way to present the story because Janet Leitch as this person who is like the mandated witness is sitting there. You know, also, it was her first case as an appropriate adult. Oh, I feel like never have a first case anywhere because it's always of anything.
Starting point is 01:30:07 I know, but for something like this, you'd think it would be like, you know, just standard physical child abuse where she gets used to it, cuts her teeth. And there's just this amazing scene where when he starts confessing, he's saying it like he goes, well, yeah, I did Barry, Barry Heather's body under the patio. Like he just starts talking about it like they're talking about the news. And in the background, Emily Watson playing Janet Leitch is just sitting there with her face. It looks like her face is slowly dropping off of her skull because she's just like, what
Starting point is 01:30:38 the fuck? And she's there as his guy. Yeah. You know, she's supposed to be his right hand man of like, you're there if the police try to abuse me. You're there if the... And suddenly this is the monster that she has to work with. And then it basically, the story comes out through their relationship where he keeps
Starting point is 01:30:53 training her and going, you're the only one that, you know, you're the only friend I have in the world. She's like, I'm not your friend. Yeah. It's incredible. And she has her own whole life. She has kids that like she's not getting home till late because she has to work on this case that every word she hears is like she can't unhear it.
Starting point is 01:31:10 And then she goes home and looks at her beautiful children that are all sitting around the dinner table. It's amazing that I think that is like the best way to tell the story is through a person whose life is so horribly impacted. Then it goes into whole things of testifying and her selling her story because she didn't have a ton of money and all the judgments and it's... And all the therapy she's going to need afterwards. Insanity.
Starting point is 01:31:34 So crazy. Yeah. So watch appropriate adult parts one and two. I'm gonna. Yeah. That was amazing. So now we got that done. We never have to talk about that fucking those monsters again.
Starting point is 01:31:47 Karen, great job. Thank you. Thank you. It has bothered me that I haven't done it just because it is one of the worst of the worst. Yeah. And we talk about terrible stuff all the time. But for some reason it's just...
Starting point is 01:31:58 Yeah, it is weird that we never did that. It's just so much... It's just so specifically awful. Yeah. Really bad. Well, speaking of the opposite of awful. Right. Which we always do at the end.
Starting point is 01:32:11 We always try to do. I have one. What's your fucking hooray? I have one at hand this week. I love it. The reason last week that I was hesitating so much is because I wanted to do this one. I just hadn't finished the audio book yet. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 01:32:24 So I wanted to wait until I was done. So this fucking book, and now I'm gonna get the, I make sure I say the guy's name correctly. But I actually think I'm going to listen to it again because the story is so goddamn insane. And it was recommended to me by friend of the show, Billy Johnson. It's called Bad Blood, and it's written by a man named John Carey-Roo. And he is a Washington, sorry, a Wall Street Journal reporter. And this story got brought to him. And it is the, it's called Bad Blood, Secrets and Lies in the Silicon Valley Startup.
Starting point is 01:33:05 And I don't want to tell you too much about it, but basically when all the dot coms, you know, the startup boom happened and it's this, it begins around 2007. And it's a 22 year old Stanford dropout who begins her own tech company. And it's, she's going to start a new type of blood testing system where instead of using hypodermic needles, which she claims to be scared of, she's going to start a finger, a finger stick system where you only need a drop of blood and then they can diagnose diseases and tell you what's wrong with you and all this stuff. And she basically takes that concept, gets all this financial backing, and eventually
Starting point is 01:33:50 this company gets evaluated at being worth $400 billion. And she is on the covers of all the magazines and all this stuff. Well the truth of it, the whole fucking thing is a scam. She doesn't, she doesn't have any medical experience. She doesn't have any science experience. She doesn't know anything about this thing. She is such a big, you know, that she's starting a fucking startup for. She just wants the idea of it to happen.
Starting point is 01:34:19 So all the scientists over the years that start to come and work for her and to try to build this thing are like, yeah, this, it doesn't exist already because it can't exist. Right. You need more blood than that to test for things. And she's like, basically is like, make it happen. She gets all these people, powerful people on the board. I picture her as Janice from the Muppets.
Starting point is 01:34:40 She's like evil Janice from the Muppets. But there's parts of this book. It's this thing of how if you have a bunch of money and you're a liar, like, and you're a sociopath, you can kind of do anything you want. Because she keeps on convincing people to back her, give her money and support her while scientists and medical experts go, this isn't real and her board and all these people go, you're fired. And they just keep getting rid of the naysayers.
Starting point is 01:35:09 And until. It's a great way to live your life is just get rid of any people who like try to help you. Yeah. Look around your life. If you're the kind of person that can't be contradicted or criticized or told anything negative about yourself. And because of that, you cut people out of your life.
Starting point is 01:35:24 You're going to have humongous problems. You have to have those voices. And whether whether it's in your personal life or starting a a a business where people's lives are on the line. She had a humongous deal with Safeway. She had a huge deal with Walgreens. Oh my God. They were going to set up like these wellness centers in Walgreens where you could go in
Starting point is 01:35:48 get your finger pricked and in four hours they'd tell you if you had any disease at all. That was like the selling point. And she was like, yep, we can make it happen and all the centers are like it doesn't it's not real. What's it called bad blood? It's called bad blood. And it's one of the best books I've listened to and in a really long time. I love it.
Starting point is 01:36:07 Yeah. Okay. Cool. Wait. Did I just tell the whole fucking book? Sorry. I didn't mean to. No.
Starting point is 01:36:15 I didn't mean to go on that long. I just loved it. That's exciting. I guess mine is that I'm going on vacation tomorrow for the first time in a very long time, but also everyone go listen to the new season of in the dark now that it's over. It's really upsetting, but in a good way. And it's a great podcast too. And I'm just excited to fucking lay out and eat raw seafood towers and listen to books
Starting point is 01:36:43 and podcasts and just fucking chill and this is going to be so nice and like, I don't know man. Yeah, Vince and I are just going to chill my dad and Marty's going to be here with the cats. It's going to be great. Great. Yeah. Perfect.
Starting point is 01:36:58 That's it. Everyone needs a little vacay every now and then. Uh, yeah, they do. Yeah. Yeah, they do. Drinks of my ties swim up bar. There's a swim up bar where I'm staying. Sure.
Starting point is 01:37:06 There is. I've never done that in my life. You can swim all around that pool. I got a fucking bikini or a bathing suit that has bomb pops all over it. What are bomb pops? There's those popsicles that look the red way and blue popsicles. Oh yeah. It's cute.
Starting point is 01:37:18 I'm excited. It's going to be awesome. Yeah. All right. Well, you have to tell us all about it when you get back. I will. Everyone, thank you so much for listening. Um, email us.
Starting point is 01:37:26 No. My favorite murder. Gmail. No. Thank you. We really appreciate you guys. This is a really fun fucking time in our lives that we did not expect to happen and it's all because you guys listen to us and like us for some reason and just keep butting
Starting point is 01:37:43 in on our private conversations. The more we yell at you, the more you stay. It's, it's such a great relationship. It is. Uh, yeah. Thanks for being there and stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Bye.
Starting point is 01:37:56 Bye. Elvis, you want a cookie? Good one. A cookie? Yeah. Cookie. All right. All right.
Starting point is 01:38:05 All right. All right. All right.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.