My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - 191 - Live at the Arvest Bank Theatre in Kansas City

Episode Date: October 10, 2019

Karen and Georgia cover the Meeks Family Murder and the Hotel President haunting.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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. Attention all crafty murderinos. We want to show off your My Favorite Murder-Inspired Art and or Handmade Goods when we're all together

in Santa Barbara next month for the Santa Barbara Weekend. Applications for our art exhibition are now open to all my favorite weekend attendees while our MFM Maker pop-up store vendor programs are now open to everyone. Links below. Submissions are due in no later than October 14th. We'll see you there. What's up, Kansas City? I painted my nails 42 seconds ago.

You like to live on the edge. I really do. And then I grab her hand hard and then I am. Right before we went out, I was like this, and I'm like, oh, yeah, painting my nails at the last minute is my new cocaine. Oh, it's so amazing. What's your old cocaine then? Old cocaine was a crank.

It's bad for you. Look at this gorgeous fucking mirror. See, this is where it would make sense that two old lady audience members would get tickets because they accidentally thought this was the sequel to the Phantom of the Opera. As they did in Austin. In Austin, Texas, but it would make sense here for sure. I feel like I would have stayed and not, do you think they demanded a refund? Yes, I absolutely do.

There's no way. We do hardly any standing around singing at each other. The touch of it. Sometimes. That kind of show if need be. Speaking of singing, I was in my hotel room. That's so embarrassing. I was in my hotel room in the bathroom getting ready and then I heard a song blaring through

the wall. Through the wall. From the other room. That's nice of a holiday and worst day. That's right. Nothing but the media mist. Really is true. That's right.

I hear tears for fears glaring through and I realize it's Karen blaring tears for fears across the way. I'm going to get her. I'm going to get her and I send her a gift of tears for fears. And I was like, she's going to be so creeped out and spooked out and she was like, can you hear it through the wall? That's why texting ruins everything. The real experience I had was I was like, there's the room where the lab will find it.

Whatever. In my underwear. And then I pick up my phone and there's the guy from tears for fears going, there's the room where the lab will find it. I was like, what the fuck? Oh, you were? Yes. You did what the fuck?

Oh. I entirely what the fuck. Oh, good. And left. Then I went and got dressed real quick. Just in case there's a camera hidden somewhere. Hey, we're all watching you on your Internet right now. No.

No. Oh. Not without miss banks. Please. I feel like of all the hotel rooms we've stayed in, there has to have been one with a hidden camera. Right? That's the world we live in.

I think we all get real good with it. Just get, start writing your responses now. Yeah. Like, yeah, I'm the one that planted it there. We can work through some responses when you get shamed online for being nude in privacy. I feel like, though, if it's only on the dark web, who gives a shit? True. I don't leave their houses.

Yeah. But I... Right? Only to buy other people. Have you watched the Madeline McCann documentary? Oh, my God. Don't tell me. I'm not all the way through yet.

Don't ruin it. No spoilers. But apparently the dark web is not the best place to go. There's... People aren't that nice there. Oh, speaking of in your underwear, in your hotel room. Uh-oh. This is my favorite murder.

Oh, my God. That's right. This is Karen Kilkarra. And this is Georgia Hardstark. And you are all our best friends. Hi, best friends. Hi, best friends. That's our new game, is who can say at the most perfect time...

Yes. That this is my favorite. Like, the perfect, that's it. That was a good one. I love it. That was great. I know what I was doing in my... I sure do.

I... Well, I did... I found a people and I know what you were doing in here. Oh, good. It was... The people was that my doors just opened and I'm sitting around in my underwear because I couldn't give a fuck last. I was taking a nap this afternoon and Vince came back to the room and he starts wrestling

and I have my eye mask on so I'm like, what's that wrestling? And then I'm like, what's that smell? And then he's like, do you want to wake up for some barbecue? Holy... And then I was like, yes I do. So I sat in my underwear only in bed eating a rib. Fucking great. I have to get married again.

I have to. Yeah. It was pretty great. I mean, I guess there's delivery but it's not the same. It's not the same. There's something to be said for marriage and it's ribs in bed. Hell yeah. Yeah.

And then I dropped the rib on the white sheet but that's okay. It's not your problem. Is that my problem? I've fucking done worse things on... Look, you're made a tip every time. So the tips are huge just like the stains. George is doing that in her bed and her underwear and then in the distance. I still ate the rib after I dropped it.

Did you? On a bleachy, bleach hotel sheet? Yeah, I was like, is this gross? And Vince was like, they probably have so much disinfectant that they clean it with. And I'm like, I know. Am I eating the disinfectant right now? I feel like in this life right now, our choices are eat disinfectant or eat intensely hideous germs. It's one in two ways.

Be okay with both. Yeah. My system right now is just getting a power cleanse from those. Hi. What are you wearing? You know, you talk about your springtime dress first. Okay. Because it's so cute.

Yes. Thank you. George is wearing a circle dress. I was dizzy. The reason I'm wearing basic fit shoes is because let me tell you what happens. Let me tell you what happens when you don't really know what the map of the US looks like. This is kind of a warning tale. That's right.

Stay in school. Be cool. Stay in school. Stay in school. Okay. Vince, my husband is our tour manager. So he always calls, he has a phone call with the venue. Thank you.

In advance just to be like, they want this. Everything has to be white. Don't look at them in the eye. Our demands. It's called a rider and we have one. Our basic demands. Yeah. I wish it was that good.

That would be amazing. It's like Folder's coffee and that's it. Cubed cheese. Yeah. Please. So I'm packing yesterday for this weekend and I hear him on the phone with the Grand Old Opry venue and I'm like, great, we're going to Nashville this weekend. We're not going to fucking Nashville this weekend.

So those cowboy boots I packed don't make any sense here. Yeah. So I'm wearing these and said, but you know what? Maybe cowboy boots tomorrow, right? Yes. 100%. And pocket. Yeah.

Yes. Yes. Georgia's wearing a pocketed dress. Oh, I see you do that every show and I'm so jealous. And this is the first time. Yeah. You got to do it. Show them your pocket thing that you do.

It's so funny. Oh, I like to go like this. Well, this is, I wear the same dress every time I like to treat this job. Like it's a, like I work at Domino's. This is my uniform. I wash it every third show. Literally the last, we were just in Pittsburgh Cincinnati, Indianapolis. Wonderful time.

Thank you. And as we were sitting on that last night, we're sitting at the table and I looked down and I'm just like, there is so much shit on this dress. I have to wash it. So I did. What story am I telling? Oh, this is what I like to do. She just has a good luck player.

Thank you. Oh, I thought you were doing a magic trick the whole time. No, I'm doing a Vegas dealer. Oh, I thought she was like nothing in my hands, nothing at my sleeves. I could change it to that. Sure. That'd be amazing if I did it one time and then pulled a dove out of my pocket and then bid its head off.

Hear me out. Hear me out. They love it. They love it. These are rock venues. That's right. The venue. That's the word for the evening.

Venue. Venue. Steven's not here. Steven. I know. Yeah. He's going to listen to you. You should definitely do that.

Play that up. It makes him feel better. Play it up. We need him to stay. That's enough. Well, don't overdo it. Yeah. We're such assholes.

And scene. Yeah. He has to stay home because now he is the head engineer of the Exactly Right Podcast Network. Yeah. He must dashed his way right to the top. He's going to take over the podcast industry one must dash pull at a time. Can we sit down?

I think so. Thanks. Oh, we're going to be like, we're going to have to get way up for these pictures. Okay, everyone. This is a true crime comedy podcast. Yes. Someone had an idea that you're not going to like, that we're not going to do. Or the people who have never, the drag along stand up while you get this speech.

If someone brought you here against your will and you've never heard this podcast, would you stand up, please? You don't have to. They're proud. They're doing it. Hi. Attack them. What?

Oh my God. I have never respected a person more than whoever you are that someone just went, boom. Right fucking up. There was a few of you who are a little too proud to not like being a thing that you're surrounded by. But it's fine. What if we did like a Rocky Horror Picture Show thing or we brought them a spank them? It's just a step to the left.

Well, we like to do a quick announcement for the people that have never heard this podcast before and hear the content like the women who thought it was a sequel to the Fan of the Opera. And also there was the other women who I think it was somewhere in Texas who thought it was a murder mystery. Dinner theater. Dinner theater thing. It's not.

War. Unless you brought some fucking goldfish. Yeah. I just know. Yeah. Sorry. Dinner mystery theater. Right.

I feel like the Fan of the Opera ladies stayed. It was one of them that stayed. For what? I feel like we'll talk about it later. You think murder mystery is more likely to have stayed? They seem more playful than someone who's into Fan of the Opera. Am I wrong? It was actually Andrew Lloyd Webber.

He showed up to sue us. No, so sometimes when people hear about this podcast, but they never listened to it before, they hear the combination of true crime, which is the worst thing that can happen to anybody and comedy. And they think that's really shitty and disrespectful and offensive. And I don't think you should do that. And fuck you guys. And we read the comment boards.

And we just like to say at the beginning of this show that yes, that is true, that that's the combination, but that's because George and I, our passion has been true crime since we were little kids. We've always loved it like most of you guys. And we've paid a lot of attention to it all our lives. And one of the ways that we process horrible things in this life is through comedy and humor and making light of things. And it's not because we think people losing their lives or losing their loved ones is funny

in the least. It's because things can be insanely shitty and you have to laugh or you will go fucking insane. So that's our theory. We don't have to explain it, but we choose to. And if anybody after hearing that continues to be offended by this concept, we cordially invite you to get the fuck out. If you're too scared to get up and walk out, you can do what someone did.

And was it Indianapolis? Just had a fucking seizure. That's true. Poor baby. We did a quick, I would say it was a four minute hold. In the middle of, I think it was my story because I was about to tell a hilarious anecdote about my friend who had just gotten married and he broke both his arms and then his new leader who had wife had to wipe his ass for him.

I was thrilled to be able to tell this story. I was so excited. And in the very middle of it, someone starts yelling things. Some woman yelled help. And Karen goes, are you yelling help? And it was like, yeah. And then boom, lights went up. Turned out the guy walked out.

He got what he wanted. Yeah. No, I'm sorry. It's fine. Look, you can just leave. Don't have to be a dramatic. I have seizure disorder, so I reserve the right to say anything I want about that guy. If you walk out after it happens, you don't bite your tongue off or anything like that,

then you get to make funny. Are you first? Am I going to have a seizure, you say? No. Please don't. Here's my thing. If you have friends that have seizures or anyone that does, can I just say as someone who has them? And honestly, I felt terrible for whoever that happened to because it's the most embarrassing

thing in the world. Like a couple of times I've gone into, I've had an aura and I was about to have a seizure. I grabbed my friend's arm and I go, don't let anyone look at me. Oh, no. Yeah, because my worst fear is just like everyone slowly backs away and then you're just like on the ground. No. It's like you're in your own weird exorcism horror movie or something.

And everyone's just like, huh? Do we stick a, put a stick in her mouth or? I heard you put a wallet in her mouth. Grab some gross wallet from some guy's pocket and put it in her mouth. Yeah, you know that big fat wallet that's actually made a mark in your back pocket jeans? Stick it in her mouth. You don't stick anything in anyone's mouth who's having a seizure. Get away from their mouth, stay out of my mouth.

Please. T-S-T-S-A? No. P-S-A. This is a, it's a P-S-A from the T-S-A. That's right. The Seizure Association. And also Get Pre-Check.

It's the best. Oh my God. Do you have Pre-Check? Get Pre-Check. We lie through that line. That's right. We talk seizures. We talk T-S-A.

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Hey, I'm Mike Corey, the host of Wondery's podcast against the odds. In our next season, three masked men hijack a school bus full of children in the sleepy farm town of Chowchilla, California. They bury the children and their bus driver deep underground, planning to hold them for ransom. Local police and the FBI marshal a search effort, but the trail quickly runs dry. As the air supply for the trapped children dwindles, a pair of unlikely heroes emerges. Follow against the odds wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad free on the Amazon music or Wondery app. Okay, I'm first tonight.

Thank you. All right, I fucked this up so good last time. Arrow and that way. Yes. Great. Boom. Okay. I went to it yet.

Okay. I like this up. I kind of didn't look at any of the buttons. I just saw a red one and started pressing it. I'm like, why doesn't this work? I'm pressing the red stop button over and over. And I can see poor Mike, the visuals guy just being like, I've worked in this business for 50 fucking years and this girl's making me look stupid. I'm like, I guess the visuals don't work here in Cincinnati or wherever the fuck we were.

Mike. The visuals union president is on the phone. Get her out of there. Okay. For real though. For real, I'm about to do the Meeks family murders. Right. That's the noise you make when you don't know what it is.

That's fine. It's fine. I know the name and it sounds scary. This is a historical one. We like to do the oldies a lot and this one is, it's pretty legendary. It happened in Browning, Missouri. Nobody. Two hours and five minutes northeast of here.

No. Okay. Thanks. I'm from LA. We don't know anything. It's like San Francisco then LA. What else is there? Or am I pronouncing it?

Is it supposed to be brooning or some bullshit like that? So sick of it. Most of the information, I would say 90% of the information that I have in this story is because I found a website called murderbygaslight.com. And it is so good. That's like you. Yes. It's written by an author who's actually written a bunch of true crime books. His name is Robert Wilhelm.

And this website has like, it's everything from the 19th century, all these murders in America from the 19th century. It's really awesome. I also found a Facebook page called Missouri History and Hauntings. Right there on Facebook. So like, go like it. Okay. So let's see. Oh, in 1894, the population of Browning, Missouri, was 524 people.

Cozy. Uh-huh. Private. Brooning. Okay. So it's just after dawn on the morning of May 11th, 1894. That's your birthday. That's right.

That's right. Yes. I'm a good friend. You just passed the friendship test. What's mine? It's June. And it's June. I love it so much.

No, no. Don't sing your way out of this. It's my birthday Georgia in June. Right around the 13th. No. No. 19. 18.

60. Someone in the front knew Georgia's birthday. Security. That's my best friend. Security. You're my best friend now. I bet you 20 bucks. Vince doesn't know either.

Are you okay? 20 bucks. I'm not okay. You just replaced me with someone in the front row. I'm sorry. Recently Vince was like, do you want to go to see this band play on June 8th? And I'm like, no. Because, June 8th, because it's my birthday.

And he's like, oh yeah. I don't care. So it's not the 16th. Eighteenth. Eight? Eight. June 8th. You'll forget it.

I don't care. I'll tell you. Stephen, don't let me forget it, and if I do forget it, you're fired. I'm not one of those friends who's like, well, today's my birthday. I would never do that to you. Okay, good. You would just lock it away on your anger list. I don't have a birthday.

But if I did, I'd kill you on that. Because you made me so mad. Where were we? I like to do the thing that the older ladies do, which is not talk about my birthday, not have a birthday. And then when people go, was it your birthday? I go, no. You're thinking of your cousin or someone else with black hair.

Get away from me. And any time I hear a person speak the words my birthday week, I never talk to them again. For real. Truly. That whole thing, I don't know. I don't know if it's generational. I don't know if it's because we're living in such a difficult time that people are just like, it's my birthday for a week.

You cannot leave my side. I need this. I have to drink it. You have to drink with me. Okay. Back to Browning, Missouri. Okay. George's birthday is June 8th, and I'm going to buy her Browning, Missouri.

Okay. I'm going to set the scene for you. It's just after dawn on the morning of May 11th, that's my birthday. And a woman named Sally Carter is, I wrote Putzing Around the Kitchen. When did you become Yiddish? I know she's fitzing, and she's putzing, and she's all Michigan-er around the kitchen. Also that I don't know that at all. It's like these historical murders I love because no one really knows, everything is

conjecture except for the actual facts. So she could have not had a kitchen in her house. There's so many things possible. She could have not known how to futz to begin with. She could have been sitting in her bed eating ribs. We don't know. Everyone lives a different life, but in my mind, she was putzing around the kitchen, which in 1894 means that she was starting a fire and making biscuits and then milking

a cow and then churning butter and then slaughtering a pig and curing bacon and, you know, shopping a quart of wood for breakfast. And then she settles down to do some needle point by candlelight and go blind, 1894. So Sally's doing her turn of the century CrossFit morning routine, just rolling a big tire through the front yard. Let's just picture she's standing at the kitchen sink if they had sinks back then. She hears a little girl crying in the distance early morning crying dawn. So then there's a knock on the door, the best beginning of a movie ever.

She opens it to find a bloody crying seven year old girl standing on the doorstep. She's dirty. Her clothes are torn and she's covered in straw. Oh no. She has a huge gash across her forehead above her left eye and her name is Nelly Meeks. I have a huge gash on my forehead above my right eye, but it's not from an injury. It's because I've spent my whole life going, what the fuck are you talking about? And if you do that long enough, 20 year olds, you get a big hatchet mark right there and

they can't fill it. There's no in the world that can fill it up. That kind of anger promo code murder Stephen cut the word. Until they give us money, right? Okay. Okay. Here is Nelly Meeks. Okay.

Let's take a look. Oh honey. She had a pocket. That's right. Doesn't she already look haunted? Yeah. Like I saw that picture and I'm like, okay, now picture her bloody. Oh no.

Oh wait, I think there's also a close up of her face. Yeah. Let's get real close. No. No. No. What'd you show? Okay.

All right. No. Mommy. Oh, no. Yeah. Oh, sorry. That's what you fucking signed up for tonight. It's going to get way worse.

No. No. No. No. Mommy. Oh no. Yeah. Oh, sorry.

That's what you fucking signed up for tonight. It's going to get way worse than haunted crying. Okay. Okay. Okay. So the little girl tells Sally Carter that she woke up in a ditch covered with hay and her family was in the ditch with her dead. So she waited until dawn and then crawled out and she saw two houses in the distance

and she started walking toward one house and then she heard her dead mother's voice tell her to go to the other house and that was Sally Carter's house. So Sally Carter was like, okay, Nellie, I'm just going to get you a glass of water now. That scream toward the butter churn, oh, and here are Nellie makes his parents. This is Gus and Dolora. No. That's not them. This is not drag alongs.

This is not comedy. I'm not doing picture comedy with you right now. Damn it. You want me to try? No, no. No. We just went out of order. We'll just go like this.

We'll leave it up. We'll leave it up. Then you tell me when you think this picture is relevant. So Sally yells for her 10-year-old nephew, Jimmy, and she says, go look for the haystack that she's talking about. No. Don't send a child to look for the dead bodies. No.

Okay. But it was a different time. Okay. How did that happen? Uh-oh. Is someone else doing it? Oh, my God. That scared the shit out of me.

Yeah. Wait. Take a look because it's kind of scary. That's Gus Meeks and that's Dolora Meeks, who is also the Queen of Spain, apparently. All right. There might be a lag. Let's see. There it is.

There we go. We're home. We're home. We're home. Everybody. And we're back. Okay. So Jimmy, now it seems inappropriate that a 10-year-old would go looking for a murder

scene, but you have to remember it's 1894. And Jimmy was the sheriff of the town. It's a different time. He had a family of his own. He was retiring soon the next day. He's too old for this shit. And he had a daughter just about the same age. Every forensic files of all time.

Um, no, so, so Jimmy basically runs out into the backfield and starts running around and he eventually finds the haystack and he finds the family, the bodies of the family. Under the haystack. Um, so on his way back, so, sorry, the, um, the Meeks family who were laying there under the haystack were the father Gus, as you saw, and the mother DeLora. And she was pregnant, the mother, and then Nellie's two sisters, Hattie, who was four years old and Mamie, who was a year and a half horrifying on the way back home. Jimmy sees their neighbor George Taylor and he's harrowing his field.

Oh. We know, we know. So Jimmy yells over to him, Hey, there's dead people in that heads haystack. So don't harrow over there, which is literally the quote that I read on the way. That's not me. I mean, it's probably true. I think so. But then at that point I was like, I got to find out what harrowing is.

And that it's, it's just that thing that the horses drag along behind them to plow the field and dig it up, get the rocks out of there and stuff. So you can sow your seeds, have your goddamn, have all your goddamn corn so that Sally Carter can go pick it at dawn every morning. This painting is by a Lithuanian painter named Zygmus Petrovishius. For real. Cool. And I was, I noticed, I like the way that white horse looks.

That's how I feel in every picture that gets taken of me. It's like, kind of ashamed and I don't know what to do with my front legs. And I'm just like, I have such a big face. Okay, take it. Take it. Take it and post it, you fucking assholes. Okay. I love a horse painting.

Okay. So when law enforcement arrives, Jimmy's boys, Nellie tells them her whole story. So this is a seven year old Nellie. We were going up the hill by Jenkins Cemetery. The man without whiskers said his feet were cold and got out and walked along the side of the wagon and shot Papa and Papa jumped out and started to run. And then Mama screamed and started to jump when they shot Mama and sister. Then they hit me in the head and I went to sleep.

When the man put me in the straw, the one with the whiskers kicked me on the back and said, they are all dead now, the villain sons of bitches. They covered me up and I could not breathe good. I heard them say it would not burn as it would not catch. And then the police were like, good job, Nellie. We're going to get you a glass of water. Yeah, silent screaming. Silent scream.

Okay. So what Nellie was talking about was that the men tried to burn the haystack, that they tried to burn the bodies and all the belongings that they had in their wagon, but nothing would light. So then they just covered, covered the bodies up with the hay. So it didn't take long for the police to figure out who the men with and without the whiskers were because Gus Meeks, the father and his family were living on the Taylor's property, George Taylor and William Taylor, his brother.

Is that the next door neighbors that mom was like, don't go to that one. Yes. And she didn't. That's right. That's the man who was harrowing all up in that field. That's right. That was George Taylor. That's a harrowing tail.

Yes, it is. You had to do it. Sorry. What choice did you have? You had to do it. Okay. That's right. Okay.

So the Meeks were tenant farmers and they lived on the Taylor's property. They were really poor. So when the Taylor brothers invite Gus to come and get involved in a cattle wrestling scheme of theirs, Gus joins in for the money. Of course, even though the Taylor brothers were the masterminds, Gus was the only one who gets caught and he gets indicted for it. Shit. Yeah.

So he pleads guilty. He winds up at the penitentiary for a month. But when he's there, the police offer him a deal. Basically, he can go free if he agrees to testify against the Taylor brothers. And Gus is like, that sounds amazing. I love it and I'm in. And he's released before he gives his official testimony, which isn't the best idea. But that's how Jimmy was as a sheriff, you know, make great decisions.

So the Taylor brothers hear that Gus got out and they put two and two together and they know the cops want them for cattle wrestling. So Gus is free. They know he's going to testify against them. So they come to Gus with an offer. They say, you can have this wagon and these horses and a thousand dollars if you skip town and don't testify against us. How much is a thousand dollars today, twenty seven thousand dollars is 1894 a thousand

dollars was twenty seven thousand dollars. That's a lot of money to leave. Yeah. Browning. Yeah. To get the hell out of Browning. Yeah. So Gus is like, I love it.

This is amazing. Another great offer. Thank you so much. I got these amazing offers coming in from every direction. So the Taylor brothers say, here's the plan on the night of May 10th, you're going to come, you're going to spend the night at our house and then we're going to get all your stuff together with your new wagon and stuff and slumber party, right at slumber party, the Taylor brothers.

It's so crazy. They're going to have Capri sons and they're going to play video games and stay up. It doesn't matter what their mom says. And so then the first thing in the morning, he'll leave town, he's going to go to Oklahoma. He's going to resettle in Oklahoma. Right. Yes. Yeah.

Call the girl. Like girl. If I can cheer you later. Oklahoma beach party. Yeah. And Gus is like, oh my God. Yeah. Okay.

So he goes home, tells DeLora the plan and of course DeLora is like, what the fuck are you talking about? Common sense. Right. She does not want her husband to go stay with the tailors by himself. So just before midnight on May 10th, the tailors arrive at the Meeks home and they find that DeLora has packed up all their shit and gotten the kids dressed and she's just like, yep, we're coming too.

Back in carpool. Let's do this. Yes. Shit. Yeah. And so the Taylor brothers are like, okay. All right. That's fine.

And because they tried to argue her, she would not back down. So they're all going together. And so on the way to the Taylor's house, when they reach the top of Jenkins Hill, George Taylor stops the wagon, he hops out and shoots Gus Meeks, killing him in front of the family. And then it went just like Nellie said, DeLora jumps out of the wagon, George shoots and kills her. They shoot the four year old, Hattie. And then both brothers use rocks to beat Nellie and her one and a half year old sister to

death or so they think. And they put the bodies back into the wagon. They drive two miles to a field that's just past their house. They dig a shallow grave. They put the Meeks bodies and all their possessions in, cover it with hay, try to set on fire. All the while Nellie is playing dead. So that morning when Jimmy finds the grave and he calls over to George, oh, I said, you put this all together.

So you jumped me. And now I'm fucking nowhere. I'm sorry. No, no, no, no. So here's an upsetting picture if you don't like upsetting pictures. Don't look at this. Don't listen to this. Yeah.

And I'd step out of true crime in general, but this is they said immediately up and I'm a monster. Okay. I'm here for this. This is the Meeks family. God damn it. One more. Okay.

Oh, no. Yeah. That's how they were found. Okay. Okay. You can look now. Okay. Um, May 11th, June 8th, you're my best friend again.

Sorry. We're back. You're out. No. It's too late. Okay. So who are these monsters? The Taylor brothers.

You asked me. Tell me. Okay. I asked you. So Taylor, um, well, they own the people's bank in Browning. That's right. They're fucking bankers, of course. Oh, and William served in the Missouri state legislature.

So they're super rich and they're clearly psychopaths. All right. Like many politicians and bankers, they're under indictment for forgery, arson, larceny and cattle wrestling in both Lynn and Sullivan counties. And that's why Missouri governor William Stone wanted Gus Meeks to testify as a witness against them. So he could finally put them behind bars for everything on the, the cattle wrestling charge. So when Jimmy yelled over to George about the harrowing, um, that's when George was

like, thanks so much, silent scream, runs in, gets his brother, and they immediately leave town. Wait. So did he, did he say, and now he's alive or did they just found the bodies? I didn't expect to find him. He just said the bodies. Okay. So he assumed they were all dead.

Yeah. They didn't know. So, um, as far as I know, I love to answer those questions. Like the absolute expert, I've read two websites about this story. I believe you. Yeah. Um, okay. So they, they leave town, um, they flee to Arkansas.

Um, it's a great place to go if you're on the run, if you're on the lamb, lay low in Arkansas. That's the new, that's the new commercial. That's her, uh, license plate. Lay low in Arkansas, dye your hair and change your name. Just use cash in Arkansas. They are captured a few months later in Arkansas and taken home by train. But, um, because the people in and around, um, Browning, and basically it seems like

the state of Missouri, um, heard about this, uh, terrible entire family being murdered. Um, because on the train route back, they couldn't make the normal stops because there were angry mobs at every train station in Moberly and Macon in Brookfield, angry mobs of people who are going to kill those motherfuckers if they got off the train. So they're just like, you know, reroute people's talk so much shit on angry mobs. But sometimes, sometimes they're right, right. Sometimes they're very clear thinking people. They're very justice oriented people.

Let's hear it for angry mobs. Let's hear it for pitchfork wielding angry mobs. She's like no fucking way I've had it. This is where I, that's the, that's the one thing I will not stand for. But she has a pitchfork. That's the irony is that she's, she's a one lady mob. Um, okay. So they get back, the trial is held on April, in April of 1895, um, the Taylor brothers

plead innocent, of course, because they're fucking liars, and, uh, when William Taylor takes the stand, he says that he and George had dinner, um, together at Williams house around four o'clock on May 10th. Oh my God. It's the 1800s. Probably that's the one truth in the story. We, we eat dinner at lunch, um, it's what we do because we go to bed at seven. So anyhow, uh, after we're George went home, but William went back to the bank to do more

work, like licking money and caring about money more than people. Um, he says he worked till 10, went home, went to sleep until five a.m., um, then he's woken up by Sally's calisthenics and then around eight a.m. And the next morning, Joe shows up, George shows up, and there's no Joe in the story. I'm not sure what's happening. George shows up at the bank, tells women, are you all right, seizure, help, help, did you yell help, help, who's got a wallet, pre seizure, wallet and mouth, I'll do it myself. Here I go.

Don't look at me. Give me a seizure on stage in front of thousands of people. Yeah. Could you drag my body off as a favor for my birthday present? Okay. Um, he goes to the bank to tell William that Gus Meeks has been killed and that the body was found on their property. So they're being set up and they have to get out of town.

That's their argument. Um, but when the prosecution, um, makes their case, they bring Gus Meeks mother to the stand who used to live with them and was at the house when the Taylor brothers used to come over all the time and do their cattle schemes and plans and shit. And she stated that Gus actually received a letter on May 10th that was written on stationery from the people's exchange bank that said, be ready at 10. Everything is right. Um, so the prosecution argues that this supports the idea that the Taylors were planning to

kill Gus all along. Um, and then afterwards had to kill the family as well. But it turns out, so it's all kind of laid out pretty clearly. The jury is split and the rumor around town is that the jury was completely bribed by the Taylor brothers. So a grand jury convenes and they're retried. So in August of 1895, the Taylor brothers were found guilty of the murders of the Meeks family and they're sentenced to hang.

Oh. Like, how have you not learned that you don't clap at this part because it's never the end? We never learn. We never know. You know, it's true. I mean, you can do it for the excitement, but they're found guilty. They're sentenced to hang. They appeal their conviction, but the Missouri Supreme Court upholds it.

But they, when they're awaiting execution, um, in the jail at Carrollton for, they have, they're there for a year and while they're there, they hatch a plan. So on April 11th, 1896, they saw through an iron bar on the windowsill of their cell. With what? A saw? With a jail saw that they bought at the canteen. Oh my God. No saws in jail.

No, you can have one saw if you promise to only use it in your cell and not on. So they saw the, the, the, um, bar off and then they replace it with soap. So no one notices. Shit. That's crafty. Yeah. They fake out an iron, um, um, bar and they climb out, um, the, that, yeah. Is that the angry mob lady?

She's coming back in laughing at nothing and they climb out of the window. Yeah. They tie a 50 foot hose to a pipe. How are they getting this stuff? They got, well, cause they're rich, they're fucking rich. They can have whatever they want. So they get their saw, they get their 50 foot hose, they tie it to a pipe, they throw it over the wall, they climb down and they get, they escape from jail.

So on April, he told you on April 30th, 1896, William Taylor is caught and he's hanged in Carrollton. Oh good. Yes, the governor is so stoked that he finally gets to kill one of the Taylor brothers that he sells tickets to the hanging sells tickets. Now that's in poor taste that I, I think it's wrong, um, the, and hundreds of people come. Here's a picture of the hanging. No.

I mean, they're hanging out. They're hanging out. Nice cover. Um, by the by, this is what every dude in Los Angeles looks like right now. It'll change in like eight months, but it is beard tastic over there, beards and vests and actually, actually, actually. Okay. Hold on.

Yeah. There's the hanging. Oh, okay. It's just allotted. Okay. Hard to get that ticket. Look at the lady in the front with her hat. Yep.

I put on my best hat and see a man, see a man's neck snapped by rope and then we'll go out for a light lunch. Um, George Taylor gets away and has never seen again. Oh, yeah. But there's signings of him everywhere. Arkansas. Yeah. Yeah.

They check Arkansas. He, there was a story of him living in Texas as a hermit. There was one where he was arrest had been arrested in California. And in one story, a priest claims to have heard the deathbed confession of a man who lived on an island in the Mississippi River who claimed to be George Taylor, but nothing was proved. So this was my favorite part in looking up this story on murder by gaslight, the website underneath the story of the Meeks murders.

There was a comment section and I'm going to read the comment section. Because those are the best, it's, it's golden delicious. So. All right. Good idea. Right. Um, John Meeks is the first commenter. Uh-oh.

This is my family history. John Meeks, son, Earl Meeks, son of George Meeks. That's the whole comment. Next comes Marilyn. Hello, Mr. Meeks. Now she's talking to him. So you know that this is like some mom. Yeah.

She's like, I love computers. So she thinks the comment section belongs to John Meeks right now. She's like, I'm going to write him a letter. Hello, Mr. Meeks. I have just read this history of the Meeks family. My grandfather, William B. Spray was a second cousin to Albert Ross Spray, the husband of Nellie Meeks Spray. So Nellie Meeks, after all this happened, went to live with her grandmother and then

later on. Two years later. And then she was married at age 13. Um, no, she was married to Albert Spray and then she had a daughter in 1906 and she named her daughter, Hattie, after her sister. Okay. Um, having never heard this story. So she basically says she's related to that family, that side of the family.

Having never heard the story, I was quote, blown away by it, quote, just so you know, she was not literally blown away. That is a figure of speech. No, honey, I'm still lying. I didn't get blown away. Now here's Lynette. Hence the quotes. What?

Hence the quotes. That's why I put it in quotes. Anyway, sincerely, Marilyn. Wow. Now this is Lynette. I am Lynette Meeks. I am related to Richard N. Meeks and he died 7, 7, 2007. He was 77.

It's comment section. You don't know if it's true. Come on, grain of salt. And I think I am related to you guys, just to you. And I am 13 years old, baby murderer, you know? Yeah. I hope I am. I want to, if I am not, not to be famous, spelled F-A-M-O-U-S-E, fame house, not to be

fame house, or to be like that, just to know and love family I haven't met. That's Lynette. Don't meet people on the internet. No, Lynette, get off this internet. Especially if they tell you they're family. Lynette, you can be as fame house as you want to be. You don't need the internet. Well, it helps.

It's actually very helpful. This is JT, I'm assuming it's pronounced dial, D-I-E-H-L, 74. Not his birth year. Yeah. His birth date. Exactly. Don't give away all of your security information in your own screen name. That's a really good screen.

Yeah. We all learned that in 1999. So JT says, my grandmother Bonnie Meeks dial has talked about this event occasionally. Not every fucking day like I would. Jesus. Gus Meeks, father Nathan, is my 3X great-grandfather. Nathan Meeks, George Meeks, Ruben Meeks, Bonnie Meeks, who married Delbert Dial, Ricky Dial, Jason Dial, me.

Oh, Jesus. The whole damn family is on this fucking comment section. And he wrote such a tragedy to read about. And then Steve wrote, nice overview, Delora was my great-grandfather Ray Hesley's first cousin. Jesus. And then here comes Mike Meeks. I may be kin to y'all.

My grandfather told me a story about how this family was murdered in my sorry M-I-S-O-R-I. Love you, Mike. Love you, Mike. Oh, my God. You can tell Mike was typing with one hand and drinking a beer in the other. I'm related to you, Sand. And then here comes John Meeks back from the top. Whoa.

George Meeks, a.k.a. George Ulysses Meeks is my grandfather, buried in Byron, Oklahoma. We will soon be finding out my nephew is currently running a major family tree and DNA test. That's what I was going to say. Just go fucking give your DNA to GED match. Right. And then you're all murderers. Yes, exactly.

But I love how the nephew is selling it to the family like, I'm going to run a DNA test and see where it's like, you mean you're signing up for Anchocestry.com? Yeah. Pretty easy. Easy nephew. Anyway, my nephew is currently running a major family tree and a DNA test with the Meeks family genealogy because apparently the S was added later. They were originally Meek.

My father, Earl Dean Meeks, son of George Ulysses Meeks is the grand nephew of Gus Meeks. My company has recently made me relocate and I am less than two hours away from the murder site and approximately two hours from the grave site. If you still live in Missouri, please contact me. My father is currently at home in hospice care and will be gone soon. Whoa. So. GMI.

Well, yeah. But he's talking to his family. He can say whatever he wants. This is their fucking family newsletter now. He's like, okay, we just met, but you better come visit my dad before he dies. And bring something nice. But here's what I love and I've got the chills thinking about all of those people are talking on that comment board today because a seven year old girl crawled out of that fucking

grave and her mother, her dead mother's voice led her to Sally Carter's house. Yeah. Yes. Right. That's the Meeks family gravestone. So Joe and Mike and Steve and Lynette should all go visit that. But then also here's a book that Robert Wilhelm wrote this family murder is covered in this and then a bunch of other.

Well, it's cool. He's an amazing writer. You guys should look at that. And that is the insane horrifying story of the Meeks family martyrs, the lightest touch. I know. Don't touch it. Okay. Okay.

So light. So that was crazy. Right. Twist and turns. I mean, it had everything comments, a whole comment section. If you're, if you're worried about your, your story running short, which of course I never am read a comment section. That's good.

You always come with these twist and turns that make your story that fill it that I'm going to start stealing. Do it. Thank you. I highly encourage it. I'm going to. All right. Good job.

Thank you. Here we go. Okay. Okay. I was, I had my story already and then I just started Googling, um, creepy Kansas city weird murder. And then I found one and I was like, Oh, fuck, how do I not know about this? And then I have to do this tomorrow instead.

Okay. So I was spent all day working on this. Nice. Um, guys, this is a fucking crazy ass murder in room 1046 story. No. Well, someone said, yeah, real loud. Murder in room 1046. And I got a lot of info from this, from the website.

All that is interesting. This chick, Katie Serena wrote this perfect article. So thanks for that. And then I got a bunch of details and it's takes place in 1935. So of course in every article, there's some differing info, but I picked what I wanted and now it's back. Now it's your story. Okay.

Here we are. On January 2nd, 1935 at one 20 in the PM, a well-dressed man checked into the hotel president in downtown Kansas city. That was an accident, but I saved it downtown Kansas city hotel president, uh, under the name Roland T. Owen, and he said he was from Los Angeles, a weirdo. Okay. Creep. Yeah.

Uh, he asked her a room facing the courtyard and not the street specifically. And he wanted a high level floor. Fine. Okay. Um, but while being shown to his room, the bell boy, uh, what being shown to his room, room 1046, the bell boy, uh, the man complained to the bell boy that he'd wanted to stay at a different hotel nearby the mullabock mule abock, but that it was too expensive, whatever. Yeah.

That place is nuts. All those mules. Um, the bell boy noted when he took the man to his room, but he didn't have any luggage. So you're like, why are you creeping along to your room with him? Whatever. It's the thirties. And all he had with him was a comb, a toothbrush, and toothpaste that he took from his pocket. Whatever.

The bell boy, uh, laders and Roland T. Owen was described as being about 20 to 25 years old, five foot 10, weighing 180 pounds, blue eyes, brown hair, and a large white scar on the left side of his head, and they, they show us like a drawing of it and it looks like just a big patch of hair got like yanked and now it's just like a big white scalp. And he just had that all the time. Yeah. That was his thing. And he like covered it with his hair, but everyone could see it anyways.

Oh, how about it? Go in there with a pen. I don't think in Sharpies were invented. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Sharpies were 1936. All right.

Well, they did, it did, they, he did seem like a weirdo to the hotel president staff, but they didn't think much of it until six days later when the man known as Roland T. Owen was found dead in his bloody hotel room. Whoa. What? Okay. Here's what happens. And let me show you a photo of the hotel president.

Okay. Black and white. Legendary. Everyone's staying there tonight, right? Everyone loves it. Gorgeous. It's the best. Everyone had their prom there.

Right. Um, I don't know what the next one is. Okay. So I'll wait. Okay. So the day after he checks into the hotel room, uh, on January 3rd, the hotel made named Mary Soptik stops by to clean the room. She gets to the room and then, so this is like vintage days.

So there was like a key to lock the door and unlock it and you had it. You could tell it was locked from the outside or the inside somehow. When she got to Owen's room, she found the door was locked from the inside. So she knocked and he, this Roland T. Owen answers the door was like, come in. She's cleaning up. I know how it's locked from the inside. How? This is one of these up here.

Yeah. Yeah. That's right, Karen's a lock picker to build a little bit of a little bit. I don't know. I just, it's a passion of mine. Um, she, she comes in, she's cleaning and she's like creeped out because the room is in total darkness. He has like all the blinds drawn and just one weird like lamp on, which I'm like, don't

shame me, please. That's how I live my fucking life in a hotel room. It's all about the darkness in the hotel room. That's right. And, um, only lights coming from a small dim table lamp. And she says that Owen seemed nervous and anxious and she just cleans up. And as she's leaving, he's like, yo, I have a friend coming to visit. Uh, so don't lock the door as you leave.

She's like, great. Got it. Don't lock me in. Yeah. Mom. Right. Okay. Um, so four hours later, she comes back with towels and I'm like, four hours, don't give

her a tip. No, I'm kidding. So she knocks on the door to give him towels and, uh, she finds the door is still unlocked as she had left in the afternoon. So she goes in and finds him laying fully clothed on top of his still made bed, seemingly asleep. I bet he was faking a note. There was a note on his bedside table that read, Don, I will be back in 15 minutes.

Wait. And it's done like don not like lady. Mm hmm. Wait. Okay. Um, great. The next morning, January 4th, around 1030, she comes, she comes back and, uh, to make the beds and, and I'm like 1030 sleeping.

She finds the door to be locked from the inside and as if he had left the room. So she uses her key to go in, um, that gets rid of my theory. Yeah. Shit. You just use a credit card. Um, but he was in the room and he's sitting in the dark in the corner and that means that someone had to have locked him in his room. Oh, I guess that's how locks work in the 1935.

This is a whole mystery by itself. She's like cleaning up like, we get the fuck out of here. And as she's cleaning the phone rings and he, oh, and picks it up and says, no, Don, I don't want to eat. I'm not hungry. I just had breakfast and that's it. Is it code? Who fucking knows?

She starts interrogating Soptik about her job and the hotel and it was the first time he had really spoken to her and he asked her how many rooms she was in charge of, what kind of people were there and again complained about the price of the neighboring hotel clues. That's what they're called later that day. She comes again with hotel towels. She just wanted to go back. Yeah. She's this point.

She's nosey. Yeah. That's right. Um, why is that guy in the dark? I need to see. What's he doing? Um, she goes back with towels. She knocks and she hears two voices in the room at the door and she's like, what's up,

fresh towels. And in response, she hears a loud, deep voice that she says wasn't Roland Yeohan's voice telling her to leave that they had enough towels. She was like, I fucking know they didn't have any towels because I just took them because they didn't have. Excuse me. I know exactly how many towels are in that room. So enough.

This is before they had the like, save water and don't wash your towels every day. This was actually back when they, all those signs said, please waste as much water as you can. We're going through a too much water issue. Help President Roosevelt or whoever. So the, the, the deep voice was like, um, get out of here telling her to leave. They were like, we have enough towels and she was like, no, you don't, but whatever. Um, and, um, so that same day, a new guest arrived at the hotel and got put in the room

next to Owens and several times that night, several times at night, uh, she hears, uh, she's woken up by the sounds of an argument next door and one voice was male. She said and the other was female. She heard sounds of a scuffle and a gasping noise. She assumed it to be someone snoring. No, she didn't. She was just not being nosy, right? Also talk about thin hotel walls.

You hear someone gasp in the next room. Yeah. Jesus Christ. Like, who talks in their sleep in a male voice and a female voice? Something. Very weird. Well, around 1030, I heard him furrow his brow and that's when I knew there was a real problem in there.

Everybody wants to move, move, move, that's, yeah. Okay. And then that same night, the night elevator, which has to be the fucking most boring job in the whole world, also reported some shit going on after hours. He said there was a party taking place, uh, in one of the rooms on the 10th floor and there was a familiar woman trying to find room 1026. And by familiar, they mean, um, she was a sex worker is what they were trying to say. Familiar to a hotel.

Yes. Okay. Familiar woman. She came a lot and met up with the men that were there. She probably had a bright red lipstick and a fur. Yeah. Yeah. She's probably cool.

And he was like, oh, I love when you stop by. It's boring. Yeah. He says he saw her several times that night and the last time when she, she couldn't find the dude she was looking for, she said, but when she left, she was in the company of a man, um, at 4am and, uh, the man then, yeah, the man in her left goodbye. Let's see what's next. I don't even know.

Here's. Okay. Oh, there's a scar. There's that patch. There's that patch. That's what he looked like. Hi. It seems like cause everyone would stare at that, you should get someone to pay you to

like have a cigarette ad or something right there. Oh, be an influencer. Is this early influencer? This is him from the front. Uh-huh. Yeah. Me too, buddy. All right.

Okay. The next morning, the bell hop receives a call from the hotel's telephone operator. He says that their phone in room 1046 had been off the hook for 10 minutes without anyone using it. Go fuck it and tell that guy to put it back on the hook. And the bell hop goes upstairs. He says that the door is locked. There's a do not disturb sign on the door, but he knocks on the door, man.

And Owen says come in, but when the bell hop told him that the door was locked, he got no response. Um, so he knocked again and he didn't answer and the bell hop was like, he's probably drunk and knocked it off the hook. Goodbye. Later's out of there. And then an hour and a half later, the telephone operator is like, what the fuck? It's still off the hook.

Go up there again. And so, uh, the bell hop lets himself into the room this time with a master key. He sees a man lying naked on the bed, seemingly drunk. He says he saw like dark stain on the bed and he figured he was drunk. I don't fucking know, man. He's minding his business. Um, so, but he's putting together that he's drunk from the stain on the bed. Maybe he thought he peed or barred or shit.

Oh, I forgot what it's like to drink too much. Thank God I didn't put that together. Uh, I've never shot the bed. I now I feel like it's important that I say that. Make it clear. Sorry that I even introduced this topic. I guess it's kind of my favorite now that I think about it. You got to be factual.

I brought it up a couple of times, um, but the guy was like, okay, whatever. He put the phone back on the hook and locked the door behind him. And to his surprise an hour later, the telephone operator called again and was like, come on. So it was the maid that made one down and worked as the operator. She's like, I got to get into that room somehow. Go see what happened. Maybe it was the maid. Um, so this time the bell hop goes up.

He goes in and this is what he later tells police. When I entered the room, this man was within two feet of the door and on his knees and elbows holding his head in his hands. I noticed blood on his head. I saw blood on the walls, on the bed and in the bathroom and the blood, the bed sheets and towels were stained with blood. The walls are fucking covered in blood like spattered blood as well. Whoa.

Right. I think this is what, okay, I found this room and I don't know if it's the room, but that's what comes up when you Google this shit. So this is the room, everyone. Today, this would cost you $1,035 to stay in a room that big. It's vintage. It's humongous. And there's another bedroom over there.

I know. I don't think it's real. There's a bedroom off the bedroom. Oh, maybe that's the, when you open the door and you can party with your friends in the next room. Maybe. You know. But also what's this like sleep viewing chair?

Get the, get out of here. It's just automatically creepy. Could you watch me just for like the first two hours, I have this thing. Okay. So maybe that's the room. Let's pretend it is. Okay. All right.

So, okay. So the bell hop, of course they call the police and when a detective arrives, Owen's still conscious and the detective asked, who did this to you? And he replies, nobody. Ew. And he said, how did you get hurt? And his response is, I fell against the bathtub. Honey, no.

And when they're like, what's your name? He said something unintelligible. They couldn't understand it. So at the hospital, the doctors discovered that his arms, legs and neck had been restrained at some point by some kind of cord and he had been stabbed in his chest multiple times, which had punctured his lung and they'd also fractured his skull from, or had his skull fractured from repeated blows to the right side of his head. So he'd been fucking attacked.

And he's still covering for somebody. Yeah. Jesus Christ. So according to a doctor, his injuries occurred six to seven hours prior to him being discovered when the fucking lady heard gasping and shit next door. She was like, can you keep it down? Never there, Snory? So the man who checked in the room 1046 as Roland T. Owen died in the hospital the night

of January 5th, 1935, shortly after arriving. And when investigators searched the room that we just saw, they didn't find any clothes in the room and all the hotel amenities such as soap and toothpaste, all the shit they give you that you're like, this is, why does it have to smell like lemon verbena? This is gross. You know? That's the rule. That's actually government mandated odor that all hotels have to use.

Has anyone ever been like, I want my hair to smell like pledge. No one's ever wanted their hair to smell like lemons. You know what? I miss my mom. I'm going to get pledge scented shampoo. I just don't get it. It just reminds me, the smell of pledge, you're so right because that's why I can't drink lemon lacroix because it reminds me of my mom polishing the dining room table on the

weekend going, I just wish you girls would help out. Did you guys never use the dining room table too? No. Ever. We didn't walk into that room. It was like a hutch with dishes we never touched. It was weird. Yeah.

Great. Everything is gone including his clothes. I don't remember he was naked when they found him on the bed and so, okay, here's what was discovered and then there was no murder weapon as well. So things that were left with, label from a tie, you know, the inside how they do that. And so there were four fingerprints found on the telephone and they said they were small and looked like lady fingers. What?

Or they could have been chicken fingers. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you. DJ Friday's comedy. That was good. There was also an unsmoked cigarette, a hairpin and a safety pin and an unopened bottle of diluted sulfuric acid. And of course in every single article there's like one of these things missing and one thing

added and it just, you know, I was like, I think I got the, yeah, okay. So those are the, there's the hairpin and there's the cigarette with no filter and all that shit. And then those are the detectives. It's not Herbert Hoover. Oh, no. Okay. He looks like he's playing the piano.

Yeah. It's like a little rendition. Before we crack this case, hello, my baby, hello. You got to keep it light. It's tough. Law enforcement is especially murder cases. It's a hard job. Difficult.

Thank you for your service. Okay. What, why do you have a bottle of sulfuric acid normally and then why is it at this crime scene? I don't know. This is for our talk show. And I don't know. I think when you need to polish your dining room table back then, why can't these maids

help out? Okay. Okay. So when they looked into Owen, this dude Rowan T. Owen detectives found out there was no record of a fucking person named that ever in the history of ever, probably. I knew it. I knew it. It's a fake sounding name.

It's fake. It doesn't exist. The T is the fakest part. Don't gild the lily. If you're going to do a fake name, just think of someone you went to high school with and combine the first name of one person and the last name of the other and get out. What's your fake name then? Could be, oh, any number of people.

It could be Joy Cameron. It could be Trisha Welch. There. Those are great. Those are great. Ellen Muzani. Okay. So you wouldn't do Rowan T. Owen here?

Rowan T. Oh, what are you, a creative writing major? Get out of here. Get out. So he doesn't exist. Great. They Google him. He doesn't exist.

It's 1935. It turns out no one named Rowland exists. Never. So they were like... You know who it does? I'm sorry to interrupt you. Go. The lead singer, Tears for Fears, is named Rowland Orzabal.

No. Yes. There's a room where the light won't find you, creepy as fuck. We always bring it around to roll it to nothing. So they're like, we can't figure out what this is, so we can't find out who fucking killed him. This is crazy. And so they did...

The thing that... The most sane thing was that to identify him was that they put his corpse on public display. What? You know. What? Like you do in 1935. The fuck?

Hey, everyone. Do you know this guy? Come see... I fucking saw it again. Right outside the police station. I don't know. I think it was at the morgue or like in this... Fuck.

I know. Come on by. Come on. Check it out. Is he your friend? Your neighbor? Okay. Are you traumatized?

A bunch of people, of course, came forward. They're like, it's this guy. It's that guy. It's none of those guys. But one of the people came forward was a man named Robert Lane who said that a strange thing happened to him the night that Owen had registered at the president hotel. So about a mile and a half from the hotel, driving along 13th Street at around 11 p.m. that night, a man dressed in only like his trousers and his undershirt, which is like

a no-no back then. Oh, could you imagine? It's like running around your underwear, basically. And it was the middle of winter, so he's running around and he flags down this dude's Robert Lane's car, thinking it was a taxi, but the dude pulled over anyways, because it's 1935. He's like, what the fuck's this all about? I got to roll down this window. And the dude in his undies was like, I thought you were a taxi.

And the guy was like, well, just get in and I'll drive you to where a taxi is, because you're going to freeze. In your underwear. In your underwear. So when he gets in the car, the man notices a wound on the man's arm, like a fresh one. And the driver was like, what the fuck is with that? And then the guy in the car just swore revenge against someone. And in the newspaper, it said that he used profanity about it.

Basically, he said, I'm going to fucking kill someone. Right? Sure. Or it could be, I'm going to cunt and kill someone, but that's less likely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't quote that. Don't. In the book, he write about it.

So start saying that. Yeah. So then the guy was like, it was totally this fake Roland Yellen fellow. Okay. And same guy. Same guy. He's like, it's who it was. Okay.

So also people place him in bars around the area and all this shit. So but no one can definitely tell who he was or, you know, why he was there. And the neighboring hotel that he had talked all that shit about the mule and Bach mule Bach, great, also came forward and claimed that that dude had stayed over there the night before for some reason and then he couldn't stop talking shit on them and went over to President Hotel. Oh, okay. But there he had checked in under the name Eugene K. Scott.

I'm telling you. There's that letter. I'm telling you. Caldwell shit on anyone who uses a middle initial. Yes. Don't. It's like too much information. It's like when someone who's lying gives you too much information.

That's right. Oh, yes, I absolutely have a middle name and it starts with the letter T. I'm a human. I'm real. Okay. And of course Eugene K. Scott doesn't exist. And so also we stayed at the St. Regis Hotel in town and this time under the name Duncan Ogletree.

Then he's just goose in the ending there. But wait. Oh, yeah. Okay. So for 11 weeks his body lay in the funeral home in Kansas City while police were trying to figure out what the fuck was going on and they're like, just come look, please. Come just anyone, anyone tell us. So finally they were like, all right, we need to give him a burial and they were going to

give him in a burial in a popper's grave. Thank you. So they try to do that. They arrange a small funeral in a popper's grave. But just before the funeral, a call comes in to them saying, don't bury him there, bury him this other, like nice cemetery and like, I'll pay for it. And but he wouldn't say who he was, the guy saying he'd pay for it. But he sent cash to the burial place.

Funeral home. Thank you. So in some articles it says it was bundled in a newspaper and cash in it, which sounds cooler than what probably was, which was just a nice check, right. And later, a flower wreath was sent during the funeral and the card simply said, love forever Louise. Okay. But I have to tell you that it's not that creepy.

Okay. Cut to a year later, a woman named Ruby Ogletree, no, that's a real name. Okay, from Birmingham, Alabama, had read an article in American Weekly, which I guess was probably like Readers' Diaries. It was such a good magazine. She read an article about this creepy, weird mystery case and saw the sketch of him and she's like, holy shit, that's my son. So her son, 19-year-old Artemis Ogletree, how fake does that fucking sound?

Yeah, that's the fakeest name of all. It's so fake that it has to be real. Artemis, okay. He must have been Greek. She says that he had like left home to go travel the country and shit and he had gone missing after staying at another Kansas City area hotel and she hadn't heard from him for like a couple years, two years I think. She said that in August of 1935, after he had gone missing, she got a telephone call

from a man in Memphis, Tennessee, who told her that her son was in Cairo, Egypt and he can't write to you because he lost a thumb in a fight in which he saved my life. The dude called her said, and she was like, what's her name and I'm sure you had a middle name with a T or whatever. Yes, exactly. Like, why are you lying about everything? Liar T. Li-micton. Mrs. Ogletree said that he said the man had talked wildly but he did have knowledge of

her son that like he would have only known if he knew him. So after investigators, oh, let me show you her son. He's kind of hot. Oh. Yeah. Wait a second. All right. Whoa.

I will show down my own chair and the table. That would have been amazing. All for the love of this guy. He looks like the guy from Titanic that's bald. Oh. Can't hear a thing. Billy Zane. Billy Zane.

Billy Zane. Everybody. Nobody's going for it. Zane. Thanks anyway. No, it's good. Love it. Shave that head.

He kind of looks like he could be on the Sopranos as like a two-line guy at the strip club. Yes. So after she got that call, the investigator got the investigators in and was like, go ask. They went to steamships and stuff and were like, did you have this guy on? And they couldn't track him down. She's probably rich if they went to those lengths to find him. I don't know.

Okay, some of the cases reported to the FBI. Herbert Hoover. He comes back. For real? Yeah. Oh my God, that was accurate. Twist and turns. Four months after this unknown Roland T. Owen man died in the president hotel, Ruby Ogilvy

received two typewritten letters supposedly from her son after the student had died saying he was sailing for Europe, but she was super suspicious because they were all typewritten and she's like, my son doesn't fucking know how to type. And I'm like, maybe you learned in the two years he was gone from your house, but no. If you don't know by then, I just got to get out of my parents' house so I can learn to type and be myself. Right. So she was like, and also the person you'd use slang that her son didn't use, like Fella,

I don't know. They didn't curse them. So it had to be. He's writing to his mother. Hey, Fella. What's up? Anyway, I'm leaving the country. Goodbye.

Later days, buddy. My son would never talk that way. So she was shown a photo of the nameless man and she said that it was definitely her son. But there wasn't any more evidence and there wasn't any concrete evidence that was, it was him, but police eventually believed her and the experts are like, it's because they just wanted to close the case. Which is like, but maybe it was him. But to this day, the case does remain unsolved.

There's been tons of speculation and theories ever since it happened because of course. And then the internet happened. So of course. People think that the mysterious Dawn person or the woman may have been the fake Ronald T. Owens, Roland T. Owens lover, maybe, and other, and like maybe the other found out and they had a confrontation in the room and it led to this. Some people are like, maybe it was a professional hit, which seems a little too bloody for that, right?

I think they like to keep it clean. And then, yeah, because I know that you have to do threes and I couldn't think of anything else I wrote. Was it a ghost? That's all I could think of. But you have a good idea. Maybe it was the maid. What if it was that nosy fucking maid?

It was just like, it's her, it's like she's up there with her towels, but her eyes are dead and she's like, can't I bring you towels again? And a knife? Not. Not. Death maid. That's our movie. And then I wrote, We May Never Know.

And that is the story of the Mystery of Room 1046. Yes. Thank you. And there were so many good comments. I wish I had, I wish I had pulled a Karen and read some of those. It'll be our new thing, reading the comments section. That's a great idea. It's usually the best.

God, what was that? I don't know. Do you think because in 1935, S&M was looked on as a negative? Someone was in the comments who were like, maybe he was someone submissive and it got out of hand. And like he, he was like staying there until he told him to come, you know, someone was making him stay there and locking him in and stuff. That is really hot.

I can see why you do that. Yeah. So I'm going to lock you in a hotel room and leave for like two days and you're going to pay me for it. Man, that was a fucking storyline in Mad Men once. I swear. Oh yeah. That's right.

It's on Draper, it's kind of hot, but otherwise, is there room service? Okay. That's all we care about. Do we have time for it? It's hometown time. Before you, before you volunteer, you can stop. You can stop. There he is.

In favor of everybody. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. That Artemis guy didn't look that hot to me. No. One at all. No. Either way. Okay.

Then she'll be walking you up. So now you have to listen. There's an Elvis poster. Yeah. You have to listen because here's the thing about the hometown. Now I'm going to talk really quietly so that you listen. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. There you go.

No, no, I saw there's an actual cat in the front. There's an emotional support cat in the theater and the world has been lit on fire. I can't. When I see a cat, I'm just like, okay, sorry. I just need you to understand that lately the hometowns have been unbelievable. So do not put your hand up unless you can bring the fire the way Jeannie did in fucking Indianapolis. Just don't, just don't do it.

Don't do it to yourself. Don't put yourself in that position. You got to have a goodie. You got to be able to tell it well. You have to be able to tell it quickly because I don't think we have that much time left. We have the new rule of if you're pointing at someone who's sitting near you and you don't fucking know their story, I'll blame you if it's bad, so put your feet. You'll be beaten.

All right. Okay. So with that. Okay. I'm so scared. I hate this so much. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Over here. Hi. Meg?

It's Meg, everyone. What's your name? Meg. Meg, nice to meet you. Hi. Nice to be here. Where are you from? I'm from Kansas.

I'm from Topeka. Topeka. Yeah. Okay. I promise it's good. It's good. Okay. Great.

Okay. Let's hear it. Okay. Okay, so I am from a little town south of South of Topeka. It's called Linden and You really know where it's holy shit like okay, so um It's very small. It's about 1500 people My high school regent class was like 32 people. Wow, so it's very small, but we do have a KC's Right

So we have a KC's and um, Melva in the town next to it does not have a KC's So Lisa Montgomery had to work at our Melva or our KC's So Lisa Montgomery had a pretty bad childhood totally, um abused What's the KC's from California people? Oh, well, it's kind of a Bucky's. Oh, it's like a Bucky's. It's kind of a gas station but it's breakfast pizza Oh

Gas station breakfast pizza. Yes. Okay. All right. Gravy is the sauce Gravy at the gas station gravy on the pizza. Wow. I like this. All right. Okay, so So a girl named Lisa. Okay, Lisa Montgomery. She had pretty bad childhood She was abused by her stepfather her entire childhood raped by him She tried to confide in her mom about it, but she just thought that she was trying to steal her husband Oh, yeah, classic mom. No So not like the best support system Um, she had she was abused in the head so much that later they found out that she did have brain damage from having

So much child abuse, but um, screw up And she had a couple kids in the early 90s, but her thing was to pose pregnant And um, so skip two 2004 Um, and she is posing pregnant. So her boobs get big her belly gets big her husband thinks she's pregnant and She is online chatting with bobby joseph and and she's from skidmore, missouri. She was 23 And she was eight months pregnant and they were on a chat room To buy a rat terrier. It's called ratter chatter

I mean, that's the best chat. Yeah. Um, so They meet up to buy the rat terrier Lisa strangles bobby um Yeah gets the baby out Cuts the baby out cuts the baby out kitchen knife um, lisa or i'm sorry bobby joe fights back um, but

She doesn't make it. Um, she dies lisa takes the baby takes it back to malvern. Um Next day or she tells her comes home tells her husband. I was christmas shopping in uh, tipeeka And I had the baby Congrats. Um, and I just went to the berth and women's center and then I went, you know, we're cool. We're good Here's the baby. Oh, I came home. So the husband's like, yep sounds sounds right. Um, so She um So she goes the next day they wake up and they parade the baby around they take it to the bank

I mean all the you know first day stops. Um the bank The uh the courthouse Um small businesses. I know well, it's it's very small town. Yeah. Yeah. There's yeah So, um, they uh, but by the time that they get back home police are there They've connected the dots with all of the um, you know chat room stuff. Yeah, um, and so they arrest her And um, she tried to plead uh guilty by the reason of insanity But doesn't work out. She is uh found guilty of murder and is on death row in fort worth texas. Wow So but

While she was on trial Um, they thought it was best that her older children did not go to that school which So they decided to move them to linden five miles away because We but we heard about it. Oh So, um, I was a junior in high school and I was in um history class with one of her sons They mostly kept to themselves, but um, yeah, so she already had children. She had children. Yeah in the early 90s She had children and then she was still posing pregnant. Let's hear from egg everybody

Thank you so much Wow Holy shit, man the shit that happens in your hometowns guys Guys this show has been fucking incredible. What an amazing audience you are. Thank you I I'd like to take a moment To congratulate because we hear about this all the time I would like to congratulate everyone who came here alone tonight. Yeah, because there's a bunch of you

And we get to meet you sometimes and people come up and go I came here by myself And we're like and we're like what I never do that. I I know right I think it's so great I was reading this like someone wrote this thing about murdering out groups. She mentions people who go to the shows alone And who like make these incredible friends from the community and I and I it makes me just think like I wish I had had that 10 years ago when I was alone having panic attacks Yeah, and it makes me so happy that we have it and you guys all have it and we it's it's beautiful And I'm sorry for yourself. Yeah, it's amazing

It's really amazing And we're very proud and we're very lucky as we bragged all to you at the beginning of the show We have gotten um to do some incredible things. We're getting these amazing opportunities and it's because we have the force of this uh community behind us and with us All our friends who listen to our podcast and support us and we will never be able to thank you enough for that It's it's a an amazing thing and so that's why we like to come and do live shows so we can at least tell you in person Yeah, thank you so much

Thank you so much for having us scanty city and please um Stay saved and do god's missions Is really the only message I want to send true. It's important, but more than that stay sexy and Don't give up. Thank you guys. Bye. Thank you