My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - 216 - Robe Convention

Episode Date: April 2, 2020

Karen and Georgia cover the deaths of Grace Kelly and Kendrick Johnson.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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And welcome. To my favorite murder, the coronavirus years. That's right. Over in year 16 of March going 2020, my sister sent me a text the other day that said, don't forget, it's March 97. I saw one. I saw a meme that said 30 days has September, April, June and November. All the rest have 31 except for March, which has 8,000.

Yeah. Yeah. That's the old rhyme. Yeah. It's still quarantine time. Yeah. How are you doing on yours? No one needs that update.

No. Everyone knows. I'm fine. I just think about the people in the future who are listening to this and they're in the whole new world that we're hopefully in too. Yeah. Oh my God. My mom, I have to tell you.

My mom watches Ancient Aliens. She's obsessed with it. And I was on the phone with her the other day and she goes, well, I saw Ancient Aliens this morning that there is definitive proof that there are no aliens that have come to visit. And she said it like it's a provable fucking thing. She's watching Ancient Aliens like the news now. Yeah.

And you've seen the screen grabs of like the fucking commentators on that show. They're psychotic. I mean, look, I watch that show. I've, in admitting that on this show, lots of people have written back and saying it's a super problematic show because they basically discount all ancient knowledge as like, it be impossible that the Sumerians knew this. It must have been aliens, which I completely get. It's super offensive in that way, but as a spectacle, which is what most entertainment

is turning into, especially for me these days. There are people on that show, I would say eight of the 10 men and it's almost always men that speak to you about how, you know, the great pyramids of Giza are lined up or along Orion's belt. And that proves that the Mayans actually visited them, you know, to crazy shit and the people that explain this to you always have the ugliest necklace on, like they go to the most tragic gift shop in the weirdest place they can find and buy a turquoise. The Grand Canyon.

Yeah. It's like, yes, everything seems Grand Canyon based. There's turquoise, there's eagles in forged in silver. They're always leather, always beads, cat's eye gems and things. Yeah. That's how you know you're watching ancient aliens. The necklaces are out of control and the hair, of course, but speaking of purely entertainment or spectacles, we now need to talk about Tiger King.

Oh, shit. That everyone is obsessed with right now. Oh, and hey, spoiler alert, everybody, we're about to ruin this whole series for you. It's the perfect. And again, it's the perfect show. It's a Netflix series. It came out right when the quarantine started in California anyway. And it was the kind of thing where we talked about it last week, you and I both resisted

it because so many people were talking about it on social media. Yeah. It makes me sad. I gotta be honest. It's a very sad, as I was saying to my friend, she was like, what are you, like, because I was saying they were they were, you know, saying the person they liked the most or whatever. And I'm like, yeah, I'm team. Get me away from these people.

There's not a favorite, but he was like, oh, are you saying you didn't like it? And I said, no, no, no, I've binged the whole thing. Yeah. But there's no one to cheer for now in that entire thing. It's the darkest. I mean, it's a rough story. And that fucking crazy person Joe Exotic was pulling the brand new tiger cub away from its mother's teat and threw the bars of the fucking cage that it's been living in its

whole life. I was just out. I couldn't finish it. Well, and you can you knew then that the idea of caring about those animals was not true. Oh my God. That's the whole study of that personality. It's just like it's fascinating that there's this group of people that studying each place,

each little big cat reserve is its own mini colts. Totally. That's crazy. And they're like everything at every place there's like, well, we'd found these girls that didn't have a place to stay. And now they're part of the team in a fucking cult and they're like, well, I work 18 hours a day and I'm super tired. So I don't know what I like anymore.

But I do know that I got breast implants. So many dark moments. As I said, text you the other night while I was watching it, team Carol hashtag team Carol. I don't think she killed her husband. Sorry. Oh, I don't think she killed him. I think that motherfucker split on her split and went to the bottom of the swamp went.

He's like, goodbye, I'm going for a deep dive. The ancient aliens made the swamp and I'm going to live amongst them. I feel like anything goes with any of those people because there's something going on with the power structure of a person involving animals in their day to day and using animals like tools. It's the same reason I don't like putting costumes on my dogs. They have no choice. They have no control and they don't want to do it.

Even when people people give us very nice presents are like, I may I stitched a scarf for for George. I'll put it on for like four minutes and I'll be like, you don't want this on, right? You don't like people clothes because you're a fucking dog. Yeah. I'll put it on the cats for a quick photo and then it's off and they never have to see it again. Yeah.

You know, but they do it for their Instagram account. It's their influencers. Well, and same with these people, like what I started to realize as I was watching that show is they're all filmed all the time. You watch them performing for the camera, performing for sometimes two cameras at a time. Well, that's one thing I do like about the show is that they show the outtakes of the people being like, should I get that again? That one guy?

Yeah. You guys want to get that again? Why don't you get me walking into that? Like there's just, I like whoever edited it and put those like really telling moments in of just them being real and terrible. Well, and I bet you it was that director who had to be there and get directed by a guy that basically has tigers jump on a chair, but he's like, here's what we're going to do.

You're going to meet me at the front door. Where it's like, what if that's a shitty idea? What if me ringing your doorbell and you opening a door like, hello, welcome to the tiger TV. What if being a totally completely fake person and like kind of scary with a fucking soul patch is not the best angle for TV? Maybe you're not the creator. Everyone's looking.

Yeah. Maybe your soul patch needs to take a seat. And also, that's the guy that has like six wives. Yeah. I mean, it's just, but here's the thing in times like these where things feel so extreme. This is extreme, extreme entertainment. It matches and then subdues big feelings with even bigger, crazier feelings of like, oh my God, at least I don't live there, work there.

That's a good point. My life didn't take that turn. Yeah, I didn't. Thank God. I didn't go into big cats. Like you thought I was going to. I mean, and I love cats and I'm sure Steven agrees with me. I love cats more than any, like lots of things, family, friends, money, but I don't want to

fucking tiger. Even I don't want a tiger, Steven, right? No, I respect them too much. They would eat me. Yeah. Given the opportunity. And they're right. They're right to eat you.

Yes. I mean, like how many times with a regular house cat have you had a swipe that you almost brought you to your knees? These are 800 pound tigers. It's crazy. You know what I hate about footage of, I think maybe what it is is I'm always waiting for the tiger attack. The one caretaker who lost their arm.

It's, you know, I'm just waiting for that to happen because it's inevitable. I did. I have to say I did like that part because it was so badass that he was just like, yeah, I got my hand bit off, but then I'm just back to work. It was just like, please don't focus on that. We're trying. I'm not trying to talk about that, but there's other things to focus on. I love, there was a couple of people that really were bright shining stars, but for the

most part that was a study in depression. Absolutely. So maybe I'll keep trying it, but I don't know if I need any extra studies of depression right now at this, at this time. It's like the reason we avoided it in the first place. I just found it insanely jarring just as a kickoff, but then the more people talked about it and it seemed like the more people want to talk about it, I was like, well, I should know what's going on.

Yeah, me too. There is a series I watch also on Netflix called the Valhalla Murders. I don't know if you watch that one, but it's in Iceland and it's a female detective. It's really good, but it's one of the one, it's subtitles. Okay. So you can't, I can't do other things besides watch the show, which really, which is good. It's actually very good. It's the kind of show you want to focus on, like it really pays off.

I need that. I need more true crime shows. I think there's one I want to watch about the West Memphis three and it's more focused on the victims that I really want to watch. I haven't heard of that. This one sounds good. What's it? The Valhalla Murders?

Valhalla Murders is also on Netflix. And I think, and I just watched one call. So I finished that really fast because it has, first of all, it has really good shots of Iceland. So there's this kind of escapism. They're always like weirdly running in snow. It's awesome for me anyway. But then there's another one.

So I binged that and then I started in another one. This was these two book ended Tiger King is called the Bay, which I just finished recently and that one's really good too. It reminds me of, it has just feelings of Broadchurch in that way where it's a little Bayside town that's, it's very satisfying and calming and yet still procedural. I love it. But you don't, you like more of a documentary, right? As opposed to a scripted series.

Yeah. But I can't watch any that are too dark because Vince won't handle it. He can't handle it. Quick corrections corner. And I think I heard about this last week from so, I mean, so many people who are like, this story, when I said, I thought the person, they said it was the healthcare provider. I assumed that meant the insurance company. Yes.

And 1000 nurses wrote back to say, no, that usually means the doctor or the person that's actually treating you. So chances were it was the doctor. So of course nurses on it, taking care of business, fixing corrections, saving lives on the daily, please, if you get a chance, donate to any, anything that will help nurses and doctors on the front lines right now. If you can. Everyone supporting them.

Amen. Yeah. It's amazing. It's amazing. And they truly are risking their lives and some giving their lives to fight this fucking pandemic and it's insane, especially without a central government. Really fucked up. Yeah.

Well, I guess the good news that we can start with is that our new podcast on exactly right network, the trailer is up bananas. It's hosted by our friends, Kerr Braunhauer and Scotty Landis. These are two people that when you go to an awkward party or bar and you see them and you're like, thank God they're here because they're the coolest dudes. Yeah. So if you follow comedy at all, you know, Kerr Braunhauer from, he's got tons of comedy specials on Comedy Central, one or he's been on a bunch of things on Comedy Central.

He has a comedy special called Trust Me, but he's also been a voice on Bob's Burgers on, he's acted on Black Monday on Showtime. He's in the movie, The Big Sick. So he's very stalwart of the comedy community. And then of course, Scotty Landis wrote your favorite horror movie from last year, Ma. That was his idea. And those guys have been friends for years. Scotty is a writer on workaholics and Adam Devine's house party.

So like they've known each other in the comedy community. And yeah, so they're just two dudes hanging out and reading each other weird news stories. And it is especially now in a time like now, weird news stories don't get covered because everything is so fucked. It seems like it'll be a really nice break from when you need something lighthearted and something to kind of just take your, you know, brain away from what is going on in the real world and listen to some insane stories and just weird news from around the world.

Yeah. So give, listen to that and of course do all the rate reviews, subscribe. I think it's going to be really good. And meanwhile, I don't know if you've tried out, I said no gifts by Bridger Winniger yet, but that's also another podcast that's up. And his new episode is with actor and comedian Langston Kerman, who's on insecure on HBO. And that episode is up to day, April 2nd. So at the end of this episode, we're going to play the trailer for bananas as well.

So you'll get to hear it. It's from Tuesday, April 21st, and you can follow Bananas on Instagram at the Bananas podcast. Did I say this last week that I'm going to have really great skin at the end of this, but I'm going to be depressed because I'm going to have no vitamin D. Yep. Oh, take your vitamin D. That's another one that I have right about, which I'm doing.

And vitamin C, anything for immunity. I think we may, this is the new corner, vitamins corner. Vitamin current curcumin is a great one. Take your turmeric. Yeah. Take it with inflammation. There's lots of like yogi tea that's echinacea or like for immunity. You can get any kind of like hippie teas that just say immunity on the front.

I did that. They taste great. Mushrooms. Mushrooms are good. Immunity herbs. Take mushrooms. And of course, LSD in large doses. Trip out, videotape yourself doing it, and send it to us, please.

You know what I did? I did the thing where it had been enough time had passed, so I was like, it's time I have to make another grocery store run. So I did it really early in the morning. I just got kind of what was in front of me. But I did buy two big packages of like chicken fillets, like the ones that are already, they're already processed. So they're kind of like already cut and it's basically half chicken breast.

And then I cooked, I put one package in the freezer and I cooked the entire other package all at once. So then I just have stand by chicken breasts kind of hanging out. Grab one with your hand, you grab one with your hand and eat it. Just eat it like a walrus at the zoo, like it's licorice. Feed it to myself like I'm a big cat. I just think, I figure because I buy stuff, I don't make food every night. I don't have any kind of a system to rely on.

So yeah, I got that. I'm like, just make it all at once, then it's just sitting there and you can do it your way. I guess the point is you don't have to become a chef or like, all of a sudden you don't have to be good in the kitchen. Just do the thing that like doesn't waste food and gets your stuff taken care of. Do you have any little things that make you happy around the house? The cats are great.

My plants that I haven't killed yet make me really happy. I mean, I'm not depressed at all. It's nice. You're just trying to keep your eye out for it. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, that would normally upset me and just being aware of it. Yeah. What about you?

Oh, I was just going to brag that I have a orchid that I haven't killed yet. That I think because I'm there all the time staring at it, I keep it perfectly watered because I'm monitoring it moment to moment. That's what I'm doing too. I'm like, oh, you're drooping a little. I should water you because all I'm doing is staring. Three drips of water in like this perfect way where you're just meeting it out exactly out as it's needed.

I love it. Powerful feelings. Oh, on the other hand, I did kill the plant in my bathroom terribly by like watching it dive thirst and not taking action. It was really odd. Isn't that the worst? It's really strange. I just like, I kind of sat back like, well, there's nothing I can do.

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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 podcast. You can listen ad free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. Okay. So I was, for my story this week, I was inspired by your story last week, which is the death

of Natalie Wood and my friend, Kerry O'Donnell, who is a sometime co-host of the sexy unique podcast actually suggested this story to me in a text and I'd never heard of this even though I've covered half of the story before. So this week I'm doing the death of Grace Kelly and it involves a cult. One of the weird theories that of course, because Grace Kelly died, the tabloids exploded. It was an accidental death. She was young. Her daughter was in the car.

It was all this whole thing. And there was such a huge hit tabloid for tabloid papers and the way people just could not get enough of this story. They wanted to know everything about what happened and why. So basically the tabloids after her death, even though everything was proven to be an accident and they knew why everything happened, the stories just kept coming out and they got weirder and weirder and the theories were crazier and crazier. So let's see.

I didn't know that. So let's see. There was a book called Rainier and Grace, an intimate portrait by an author named Jeffrey Robinson that was written in 1989. And that's where a lot of like kind of insider information comes from. Also the Chicago Tribune, the Irish Times, the Scotsman, biography.com, of course Wikipedia. Oh, and the other reason that we were talking about this is because if you haven't seen the movie Rear Window and you are suffering through quarantine, it is the best movie about

somebody being stuck in their house. And basically witnessing a murder. It's such a good movie. So if you haven't seen it, definitely, definitely watch it. And that way, if you are a youngster and you have never heard of Grace Kelly before, you don't know who Grace Kelly is, you don't, you've never heard of Princess Grace of Monaco, you will get the perfect introduction to her. She's a gorgeous actress who I'm going to tell you about right now.

So here is the main, here's what happened to her. On Monday, September 13th in 1882, Glamorous actress turned Princess of Monaco Grace Kelly is getting her youngest daughter, 17-year-old Stephanie, ready to go back to Paris for the first day of school, which is on Wednesday. So their chauffeur is standing by to drive their metallic green Rover 3500 from their royal farm in the hills above Monaco down to the station to catch the train to Paris. So the women are filling the backseat of this car with dresses and hat boxes and suitcases. And then they find, when they're done packing, they realize there's no room left for them

to sit in the back. And so that's when Grace tells her chauffeur, she's going to drive them both down to the train station instead. Even though that's not something she normally did, and it wasn't something she was necessarily comfortable with because they lived, it's the Côte d'Azur in, I think Southern France, but you know, it's like a crazy windy mountainous road. And then probably you have like your vision blocked because of all the bags and stuff too, right?

Like if it's a small car. A little bit. Yeah. It's like a Range Rover. Oh, okay. So it's kind of a mountain car, but yes, they filled the whole thing up. So basically the chauffeur insists, he's like, I will, your royalty, I'm going to drive you to the train station and then I'll come back and get your clothes and bring them.

And she's like, yeah, don't worry about it. Forget it. I'll do it myself. So they leave the farm around 10 a.m. They drive away. It's been a very busy summer. Grace Kelly has been working, she's has all her royal duties. She has so much to do all the time.

She was very tired, you know, the summer was finally over. Some say she was very cranky. She'd been complaining of a headache all morning long. So essentially when they turn out onto the road at 10 a.m., they follow it down into the nearest village of La Terbe, this is the guess of how you pronounce it. Then from there, they get onto a road called the D37. So two miles down the D37, there is a hairpin 150 degree turn to the right. And this is according to her daughter, Stephanie, somewhere along the way, Princess Grace gets

a shooting pain in her head and potentially blacks out for a second loses control of the car. And when she comes back, she tries to slam her foot on the brake, but instead she hits the gas. And the car sails instead of stopping, it just sails straight off the edge of the cliff. It flips end over end. It falls 120 feet through trees and branches, and it crashes through a retaining wall and into a resident's backyard down below.

Holy shit. Yeah. There's a gardener that was working in that backyard who would later tell reporters he ran over to the wreck and pulled Stephanie out of the driver's side window. Some ancient astronaut theorists suggested that that means that Stephanie was driving and that she caused the accident. She was too young to drive or she was inexperienced or whatever, but she directly refutes that claim and later the police will directly refute that claim.

She explains that in the crash, as the car was slipping over, she ended up underneath the glove box on the passenger side. And then when the car landed, the passenger side door was too damaged to open. So the reason she ended up coming out of the driver's side was because that was the only way to get out of the car. Meanwhile, her mother had been thrown into the back seat and was basically pinned there by the steering column. So somehow they both lived through this crash and basically when the authorities and the

first responders get there, they realize they're alive, they rush them to the hospital. It turns out Stephanie only has a hairline fracture on her vertebrae, which although is very serious is pretty amazing considering that unfortunately Grace Kelly is in a coma and she's on life support. And basically when the doctors determine that she's not going to recover, she's taken off life support and dies on September 14th, 1982. It's almost a miracle in a way that like they instead of flying off the cliff and like ending up in brush and like wilderness, they went into someone's yard who was there so they could

get immediate attention, otherwise they both might have died. You know? That's right. Also, dog ear what you just said for later. Ooh. Uh-huh. Aliens. So the day that ancient aliens suggest.

So Grace Kelly was 52 years old when she died. Her funerals held four days later on September 18th. It's watched by around 100 million people. Wow. Yeah. And this is 1982. Yeah. So it's kind, it's like, it's, there aren't a million channels and there isn't 24 hour

news coverage. So this was a really big deal. Doctors report that the cause of the accident was a mild cerebral hemorrhage that Grace suffered while driving along the cliffs that day. But the tabloids take the tragedy and they do their best to bend it into a scandal. So once the shocking news of Grace Kelly's death begins to die down, the tabloids begin printing fantastical follow-up stories that involve cover-ups, fixed breaks, and mafia hits and the public cannot get enough.

So even after it's proven that Stephanie was not driving, stories about her being responsible for the crash and for her mother's death continued to circulate. Yeah. It's horrible. And the stories about that it could have been a mafia hit or that an unknown assassin fixed the breaks. Even though they later, the forensic, you know, they, they checked the car out entirely and they were like, no, that, that wasn't actually at the breaks were fine.

But you know, the world was obsessed with Grace Kelly and they were as obsessed with her death as they were with her life. So let's talk about her life for a second. So Grace Kelly was born, let's go back to her early life. She was born on November 12th, 1929 in Philadelphia. Her family was very wealthy and like high status. They're Catholic and they, she had very high expectations put on her. She had a very stuffy restrictive upbringing.

And so she kind of became a bit of a rebel. So she was always in school plays and she danced and against her parents wishes. She went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York in 1947. So the only way her father would let her move to Manhattan is if she stayed at the Barbizon, which was a strict women only hotel. So you had to, there was a code of conduct that you had to agree to. There was a dress code. It was like strict lady living.

No men were allowed above the ground floor. Like they're all these rules. Yeah. Poity, fucking, toity. Right. Now Grace Kelly finds her way around these, around these rules cause she wants to date and she wants to have an active dating life. She's drawn to older rich men and she gets a reputation for being a very modern woman

who is like a trailblazer. And also she's one of the most beautiful women ever. She looks like a drawing of a pretty face. It's crazy. She's like magical looking, how beautiful she is in that like, you know, Hollywood starlet perfection kind of way. Yeah, beyond. So I'm sure at the old Barbizon, she's like, I'm going to need these dudes to be coming

up to my room. I can kind of get what I want. Yeah. Yeah. So in 1949, she gets into a play on Broadway and then from there, it just takes off. She gets a bunch of shows, roles on TV shows. She gets her first feature film in 1951. It's a movie called 14 hours.

She's 22 years old. And then in 1952, she gets a part in the movie High Noon and that's her big break. Then she, in 1954, she stars opposite Bing Crosby in The Country Girl, which is a huge deal back then. And then she ends up getting nominated for an Oscar for that part in The Country Girl and she beats out Judy Garland for Best Actress. Wow. Yeah.

So she is now a full on like successful movie star. So when she goes to the Cannes Film Festival in 1955, in April of 1955, she, the magazine Perry Match, they want to set up a meeting between her and the Prince of Monaco, Prince Rainier III. And they're supposed to, I guess, have a photo shoot. The timing's bad. It's delayed. They don't meet up at the time that it's all delayed for a month.

But then on May 6th, 1955, the two are finally introduced and they hit it off immediately. They end up dating for the next year and they get married on April 19th, 1956. And this wedding is a fairy tale, star-studded guest list of 700 people. Yeah. And now it's just like she's gone from the hugest thing you could be in America, which is like a leading lady movie star to the Princess of Monaco. A fucking real life princess. It's just absurd.

Yeah. Her and Meghan Markle are the two that did it. Yeah. I'm sure there's others. I don't know. I don't know the royals by Markle. And I should, Prince Rainier and Grace go on to have three children together. Caroline was born in 1957, Albert is born in 1958, and Stephanie's born in 1965.

Basically, Grace retires from acting altogether and it's just purely so she can take care of her royal duties and the family. But once the kids are growing up, she's starting to really feel confined by the restrictions of the royal lifestyle. And she's looking to be, to figure out other ways to become spiritually fulfilled. And this is where, allegedly, the Order of the Solar Temple comes in. Do you remember when I talked about the Order of the Solar Temple? It's from Episode 104.

It'll come to you as I tell you. Okay. I was just laughing because the name of Episode 104 is Garden Party, which made me laugh. I don't know what that means. What is it about? So this is basically, if you don't remember, Order of the Solar Temple. In 1984, in Geneva, Switzerland, a homeopathic doctor, a New Age lecturer named Luc Gérée, he partners up with a guy named Joseph de Mombro.

And they form a cult called the Order of the Solar Temple. Gérée is the front man and he's like the main guru. De Mombro manages all the behind the scenes logistics. Both of them have been involved in different versions of cults, kind of escalating intensity of cults over the years for about a decade. So the Order of the Solar Temple is kind of based on the Knights Templar, which is, you know, as we all know, what the Freemasons are based on and the Da Vinci Code and all that stuff.

This is the part where you break off now and go watch the Da Vinci Code film starring Tom Harris. And that does all the homework for you. But essentially, Knights Templar fought in the Crusades. They developed early forms of banking. They quickly became very powerful with their treasures they got in the war. The Pope and the King at the time didn't want them to have that power. So the Knights Templar, they were disbanded in 1312 by Pope Clement, but they just went

underground. They didn't break up. So there's been numerous sects, SECTS, Georgia, don't be dirty, under different names with those same tenants over the years. So the Knights Templar legacy has basically continued on. Like now it's what the Freemasons based their whole thing on is the Knights Templar. So the difference, the Order of the Solar Temple, although it's based on that, the difference is, as opposed to say like chivalry or protecting the Holy Grail, in the Order of the Solar

Temple, their primary goal is to prepare their members for the apocalyptic second coming of Christ, which they believed would happen sometime in the mid 90s with the arrival of a Sun God King. Does anyone, any of this, right in the 90s, it's a little film called Thelma and Louise and he was a Sun God King in that thing. This cult believes that they can elevate its members to become a super group of people who can withstand the coming apocalypse because they're on a higher plane, a higher spiritual plane than everybody else.

That's the whole, that's the promise of the Order of the Solar Temple. And they target rich elites to join them so that they can get their money. And then that also always brings in other rich elites. Are they poor elites, do you think? I mean, in their mind, but it doesn't count. The membership is secret and they join in private lodges across Switzerland, Canada, Australia and Martinique. So everything's going well with this apocalyptic cult until October 4th, 1994.

This is the part you might remember. Local authorities respond to a call about a chalet fire, a chalet that's on fire in Moran Heights, Quebec, Canada. And inside they find that former member of the Solar Temple, Tony DuTois and his wife, Nikki, and their three-month-old baby, as well as two other adults, Jerry and Colette Genoux, have, they're all dead. But it's not from the fire, Tony's been stabbed 50 times in the back, Nikki's been stabbed six or seven times, and their baby was stabbed with a wooden stake.

And then it turns out Jerry and Colette were sent by DiMombro to kill the family because they were telling other members of the cult that Joseph and Luke were frauds, the leaders were frauds. So basically they convinced the genoes that that baby is the anti-Christ. And they're so in this cult that they're like, okay, yeah, we have to take care of that. So the genoes go and kill the whole family and then take their own lives. And then a few days later, the two leaders tell the remaining cult members, the apocalypse is upon them, and they orchestrate mass murder suicides at the chalets across western Switzerland

because they have to find their salvation through fire. So all of these chalets are set up with incendiary devices. And then more, more mass death events occur on December 15th and 16th, December 23rd, and March, and then March 23rd, two years later of 1997. And by the end of all of it, 74 people are dead, including the founders, Luke Gere and Joseph DiMombro. So the total number of members during the cult's height was between four and 600 people. And these were like, you know, the rich elites, the medium elites, and families and children.

And they were in their prime. This cult was worth about $93 million. Oh my God. Yeah. So, okay, so that's the bit, if you want to learn more, there's plenty of podcasts and different things about the order of the solar temple. But essentially what happened after all that went down, in 1997, two producers named David Cohen and David Carr Brown were making a documentary about the order of the solar temple.

And right as they're finishing up, they get a tip from an anonymous French man that there's more to the story. So after speaking with this man over the phone and confirming a bunch of his claims, or at least the facts around his claims, they agree to meet him in person. We don't know this informant's name or who he is. I'm saying he could be a she. We do know they were the head of security for Joseph DiMombro, one of the leaders of the order of the solar temple.

So these filmmakers had been told by other former cult members that they interviewed that if they could just get an interview with this head of security, he was the one who had all the inside information. And so they finally do talk to this guy. And during this in-person conversation, the informant mentions Grace Kelly's name a couple times. And basically, according to this single anonymous source, which is right there kind of the end of this because it's not corroborated in any way.

Well, not in any meaningful way, and this is also how tabloids work is single anonymous sources that are unproven. But essentially, in the summer of 1982, a few months before her death, Grace Kelly, it's claimed by the source that Grace Kelly became a member of a very early version of the order of the solar temple. And so here's the head of security's retelling of the events. So this single anonymous source says, a driver in a jaguar goes and picks up Princess Grace from her home in Monaco, takes her on a four-hour drive out to an ancient priory, which is like

a nunnery or a monastery in Bougelet, France, just north of Lyon. Security checkpoints monitor her journey. And apparently when she arrived, bouquets of white ornate flowers are arranged to welcome her. And then she's escorted from her car to a, quote, derobing chamber. And there she receives an acupuncture treatment that relaxes her. So I'm on board. So you're on board, but this is right at the point of the story where everything devolves

into the plot of eyes wide shut. So this is how it's starting. You know, when you're hearing a story that sounds like it's being narrated by a sixth grade girl at a slumber party, that maybe it's not the truth. But this is basically they say that once that treatment's done, she's given a drink that may have a tranquilizer in it at 7 p.m. She's put it, she's dressed in white robes with the signature Templar Red Cross on them. And she's led downstairs to the priory's crypt.

She's laid on a round altar surrounded by, quote, cobalistic signs and pictures of the 12 apostles. Okay. I'm still on board. Sounds relaxing. Okay. You're in. Music is playing and the cult's higher ups are around the room and they're all deciding

whether or not they think that Grace should be accepted as the, quote, high priestess of the order. They all say yes. And so she's basically supposedly made the high priestess of the order. And then when it's all said and done, she's driven home to Monaco in the wee hours of the morning. You're completely right. It sounds like a six, six, or sorry, a 12 year old playing with Barbies.

And this is the story they make up and it's like, put her on an altar and then they just robe her and robe her. It's like lightly dirty. Yeah. It's salacious and dirty and scandalous and, you know, it's not like it doesn't happen because we all know that these secret societies really do exist. Totally. Weird things happen.

Rich people, God knows what they get up to with their super yachts. Who the fuck knows? I mean, they do have the time. Basically in this conversation, this informant says that after this initiation ceremony, the order asked her to donate 20 million Swiss francs to their cause. This is where the cult part comes in. That's where it always, that's, they always get you. They're like acupuncture.

It's free. The acupuncture is free, but the robes cost 20 million Swiss francs. Sorry. And you spilled your margarita on it. So you have to. Yeah. We know. That's, that was what her tranquilizing drink was, is just a margarita.

Really strong margarita. So apparently they asked her to give them 20 million Swiss francs. She counters with 12. You can't, you can't bargain with a cult. So again, this is, this tells me that Mackenzie, sixth grade Mackenzie is the one making up the story where it's like they asked her 20. She said 12. This is not a used car lot that you're in.

But apparently they got into, once, once they got into the argument about it, she was like, I'm not giving you any, but that's so much money. I'm not giving you any money. And she and Joseph DeMombro got into a big fight. And so this informant says, quote, grace threatened to expose DeMombro's demands for money and her attitude spooked him. She was, after all, not the only person of influence in the order. Yeah.

And DeMombro could not afford to alienate his rich patrons. So the fear was that she was going to be like, this is a scam, everybody. And they were all going to be like, Princess Gray says no more, which is also how sixth grade works. You just get one girl to be like, nah, Princess Gray said that this is stupid. We're not wearing leg warmers anymore, you guys. So then basically the intrigue is, it was only a few months after this alleged argument she had with DeMombro that Grace Kelly's car drove off a cliff.

Suspicious. Yeah. So in December of 1997, this documentary airs on Channel 4 in the UK. And it includes this part about her alleged connection to this cult. And it is immediately met with skepticism and denial, Grace Kelly's estate promptly denies her involvement, chalking the whole thing up to sick fantasies, which is exactly what it sounds like. It does.

Mackenzie. Yeah. Mackenzie. Author David Spotto, who wrote Grace Kelly's biography, High Society, he denies the possibility that she was ever a member of this cult. He says he's heard the rumors. There's simply no concrete evidence to prove it. The biggest argument against this theory being true is that the order of the solar

temple formally began in 1984. Grace Kelly died in 1982. Ah, shit. So the theory is that it was like this early version, right, when they were starting to, you know, they were going to use her as like the magnet famous person to get a bunch of other people in. It's believable that that could happen because both Luke Jure and Joseph DeMombra's extensive backgrounds, they started several cults before the order of the solar temple was the one

they landed on. DeMombra was in a couple. So it's plausible that they were just kind of shaping it toward her and, you know, they were just hoping other stars and royals and all these other people would join. But it's widely accepted and the most believable theory is that Grace Kelly had a stroke while she was driving her car, and that's how she lost control and drove off the cliff. But this circumstantial evidence that ties her to the order of the solar temple, it complicates things as does the story that the backyard that her car ended up in was at the home

of a member of the order of the solar temple. Is that true? Or is that a, I mean, not, that's what they say. So I don't know if that's verified. It seems like a very verifiable thing. Yeah, I love it. It's like the person, do they belong to that cult and is this their backyard? So that would be wild.

I think that, that, even if it were a crazy coincidence, because that's the area where that cult was getting popular, right? It's probably not that populated over there either. If you're, if she's living there, it's probably not like a big town. Tons of people. Here's the one thing I just thought of though. How were they a member of the order of the solar temple in 1982? If it didn't start till 1984, great question.

So they could have been, it could have been like another person at that ceremony the night that she was chosen to be the high priestess, but there's just someone who liked robes. A lot. It may be there she was at a robe party and that's actually what was happening. Convention. Could there be like a Tupperware party, but for robes, because I'd go and I'd join. So yeah, it sounds like a lie. It probably is.

There always has to be intrigue, insolatiousness, you know, connected to things like this. It's a cool, it's a cool, you know, way to think because it's, it's more fun than tragic, just pure tragedy, tragedy, tragedy, but. Yes. Well, it sells more papers. It's just more, it's, you're able to talk about her a little bit more and be like, what was her life like? Right.

I think we're also coming to find that, you know, whether you're like that this super rich are living these super weird lives that regular people don't really know about. And I think that's especially these days why those kinds of theories are believable because then you have a story like the Epstein story where you're just like, oh my God, he has a whole island like it's out of control. These people go unchecked and they do whatever they want. It's also this thing of like Grace Kelly was probably so many people's like, you know, fantasy of what life could be like if, you know, if they were her or whatever.

And then for her to just die from a tragic car accident is not, is not enough, you know, like doesn't make enough sense. So they, it, it feels better for her to have died some like mysterious way because it's just so awful. Because people can't deal with this, the cold hard facts of like, yep, people get ripped out of our hands all the time. Yeah. You can't escape a car accident.

No. Well, and here the, you know, so the chances are that this, this whole concept was just more fiction for people to feed off of because they weren't ready to let her go. Prince Rainier once himself said in an interview, quote, they did their best to keep the story running and it didn't show much human compassion for the pain that we were suffering. It was dreadful. And that's the story of the tragic death of Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco. Wow.

How sad. I had no idea. I wouldn't have guessed it was 82 either. I would have guessed it was like the sixties. Well the eighties are like the sixties now that we're in the twenties. That's true. Right. So long ago.

Great job. Thank you. This one is, I'm doing the death of Kendrick Johnson. So and I got info from a Grantland article by Jordan Ritter Kahn, an article from the website Talk Murder to Me by Peth Coleman and all that's interesting article by Natalie DeGroote and of course Reddit and Wikipedia and there's just tons of articles out there about this case. And I first heard about this and I saw this really disturbing photo that goes with it

when it happened in 2013 and I was completely perplexed by it and I've been keeping tabs on it ever since. And on the surface it seems like a murder mystery, especially when you factor in the like arguably shoddy crime scene handling and the fact that there's a history of racism in this town, in this area, in the country and there's just a lot of unexplainable factors but a lot of people just think it's a tragic accident. So okay. So in 2013 Kendrick Johnson was a 17-year-old high school student at Lowndes High School.

He lived at home with his family in the town of Valdosta, Georgia and it's on the Florida Georgia line and someone wrote when I looked at our Gmail someone wrote it and said, yes, the Florida Georgia line is real and it sucks just as bad as you think it does. So that's what that's like. Everyone called Kendrick the 17-year-old, they called him KJ and both his family and friends describe him as a sweet and quiet boy and he was this like handsome football player high school student and if you look at his pictures he has this like sweet baby face where you can tell he's like trying to look older but he still has a baby face.

He's the youngest of three kids to Kenneth and Jackie Johnson and he's a good athlete and he dreams of playing professional football someday, so just normal kid. On January 10th, 2013, just a couple days after the holiday break had ended, KJ's mom gets worried when her son doesn't come home from school, when she expected him and he's the kind of kid who always called if he was going to be late and so when he's not home by 9.30 she starts to worry and after she drives around town and drives to the school, doesn't find him, comes home and at 12.30 in the morning calls the police and reports him missing and of course the police are like he's just out having fun with friends and

you know he's just being a typical teenager, don't worry about it. But by the next morning KJ still isn't home and so Jackie goes to school to look for him and she's sitting in the office talking to his counselor. She finds out that he missed the last of his classes the day before, never went to classes which wasn't like him and she's talking to the counselor about making missing flyers when suddenly someone comes into the lobby of the office and says that a body has been found in the gym and the school's on lockdown and the mom wasn't supposed to hear that, it was like phone was turned too high or something so of course she freaks out.

So that morning at about 10 a.m. earlier a group of students had arrived for class in the school's gym and there are students mailing about doing whatever and someone notices a pair of white socks sticking out of one of the upright rolled up wrestling mats. You know those like blue mats, it stood upright instead of laid down horizontal, it's vertical, it's got a strap on it and the mats are like six feet tall so one of the students has to climb up under the bleachers to get a look inside because they're all confused about why there's socks sticking out and they look in and see they're attached to a person and these are high school students, they see it's attached to a person, they think the person

must be fucking around so like you know, hey what's going on and they notify the coach and he starts to overturn the mats while another student calls 9-1-1, the coach tries to pull the person out of the mat figuring it's a joke or something but then it smells the composition and realizes what's going on, leaves it as it is, everyone calls 9-1-1 and wait for the police and medical personnel to arrive and this is the photo I saw is just the feet in the mat and I still remember it from 2013 being like this is going to be something, I'm going to follow this, you know, it's so troubling, so weird. So police immediately set to work, they tracked down, they interviewed students who went to

the gym that day and the day before and from statements and security footage they're able to confirm that Kendrick had been to classes earlier and walked into the gym at 109 p.m. the day before but there's no security cameras positioned at the mats so they don't see what happened but other students show entering the gym just three minutes after him and didn't see him so it's really confusing as to what happened. Police discover from other students that some of the kids use those wrestling and cheerleading mats to store their like PE clothes because the school charged for lockers and so some kids would just like didn't want to spend the money on a locker would just throw their

shoes behind those mats, grab them at PE when they needed them and Kendrick was one of those kids they and he shared a pair of shoes with another kid that they would keep in the mat. So the wrestling mats were actually usually stored on their sides lying on the ground so usually probably was easy for Kendrick to get to them he would just reach in and grab them but over the Christmas break someone had set them up to be vertical maybe to clean the gym or something so the day that day when he went to find his shoes they weren't where he normally just grabbed them from. Kendrick's body is barely off school property later that day before the sheriff's office

makes an official announcement saying that Kendrick had climbed over several vertical mats to reach the one with his shoes and being unable to tilt the mat he had instead reached down inside and tried to get the shoes by going into a mat and gotten accidentally stuck. His feet sticking up and his head pointed down and because he was stuck in a tight space with no way to get out he suffocated and that's how he died and this theory I know is further corroborated by the fact that when the mat is unrolled KJ he had one arm stretched above his head and the other one down around his waist as though he was reaching for something. So this confirmed the initial autopsy that reveals that Kendrick died due to what's called

positional asphyxiation so what that means is that he suffocated as a result of being stuck upside down in an enclosed space for an extended period of time. Just 24 hours after being found the investigators ruled Kendrick's death an accident. So positional asphyxiation it's a controversial and difficult to diagnose cause of death and there's only been 37 known cases of it since the term came around in the early 90s. So it's yeah it's not a normal thing. It's usually used to explain a death if literally everything else has been ruled out and they're not quite sure exactly what happened according to the internet.

Positional asphyxiation is then brought into play but right from the start KJ's parents refused to accept the police's version of the events and they demand more answers. They demand to see Kendrick's body before his autopsy and they're not allowed to. They don't believe that their young athletic son could have you know died trapped inside a rolled up wrestling mat and then Matt KJ is found in is six feet tall and he's five nine and the diameter of the hole inside of this mat is 14 inches when it's rolled up but KJ's shoulder span is 19 inches. So it's almost hard to believe he could even start to go into that mat.

You know what I mean? Yes and it doesn't make sense that like it's almost the suggestion that he would just kind of dive into a thing that's way too narrow for him simply to get shoes that were on the other side that if you just knocked it over they'd be right there available to you. Right. It doesn't it doesn't feel like a thing that someone would actually attempt. Yeah. The claustrophobia you wouldn't even have to have claustrophobia to be like no I'm never

doing that like that's nothing about that seems like a good idea. I'm just thinking of this too but like he had tennis shoes on so it almost would make more sense for him to be like oh the shoes I can't grab them I'm just gonna wear what I have on. It's not like he had flip flops and needed those tennis shoes badly. You know yeah I mean like what or the circumstance wouldn't you just be like I'll take my F for the day in PE and not deal with it I mean who knows. Right.

It's very it's very odd to me this is that's the oddest part of the story is someone even doing that. So and because of his size it seems impossible that he got into the mat by himself at all and his parents maintain that his size versus the size of the mat alone is enough to debunk the police's theory or at least cause some more investigation you know. It's like a discrepancy yeah it's a discrepancy. KJ's parents are suspicious of the investigators from the beginning they believe that the Sheriff's Department is too quick to rule out foul play.

The Johnsons are also sure that their son's body hadn't been properly handled at the scene which I think it's hard to argue with them it really wasn't a great crime scene. According to Georgia law police must notify the local coroner or medical examiner or medical examiner immediately after discovering a dead body but the local coroner isn't called to the scene for six hours after KJ is found. That's official mishandling that's actual mishandling yeah it's no bullshit and law enforcement and everyone at the scene they also didn't put on the like those little shoe covering the booties that are supposed to be used so that you don't contaminate the evidence there's

photos of their shoes like actual shoes and the crime scene photos. KJ's parents also believe that their son's death isn't being taken seriously because of his race KJ is black and the Lowndes County Sheriff Chris Prines and his entire staff of investigators they're all white and the Johnsons family attorney assert that a KJ had been white the case would have been handled differently. When the family finally gets to access KJ's body they take pictures of him postmortem and they're insanely graphic photos like even me who can handle crime scene photos this is not that and they post them all over and as soon as people see how horrific these photos

are they are like drawn to act and to find out what happened. It looks like he's been beaten up and there's a huge outpouring of support from the black community for the Johnson family and they all believe an injustice has been done. Then the photo gets people taking a closer look at the conflicting evidence found at the scene so one of the most controversial pieces of evidence and there's quite a few some I'm not even talking about right now is the black and white sneaker that's found underneath KJ in the mat so if he were actually doing what they said he did which is reaching for a sneaker it would be this sneaker and the thing is it's sitting in a pool of blood

which is what happens when you are inverted like that and die is eventually fluids leak but the shoe and there's a crime scene photo of it doesn't have a drop of blood on it. So if he were in that position and the shoe is where they said it was in this fucking puddle of blood why wouldn't the shoe have any blood on it? So the puddles around the bottom of the shoe but there's nothing actually on it. Nothing. Wow. Yeah.

Maybe it was moved by a sloppy crime scene technician or maybe it was staged by somebody you know it could have even been the teacher who initially found it like tried to throw things back the way he thought it was but you know if they had said that all these things keep like leading up to a conspiracy because nobody is acknowledging how fucked up everything was you know. And so it points to the Johnson family it points towards a cover up. Another thing that's odd is the shoes he was wearing that day aren't on his feet so you look into the there's a photo I saw the first time is you look into the mat and you see

his feet in the mat and in his white socks and his shoes that he was wearing that day are kind of tucked next to his legs. So his shoes aren't on him which is weird to me when I first saw it and being totally amateur is that it looks like someone threw the shoes in afterwards after him as a way to get rid of them. But it could be that he was you know if the theory is true that he got stuck down there he could be trying to back out of the mat that was a vertical and his shoes came off in his struggle.

You want to see the photo? You want to see the photo? Oh no those look like they've been thrown in doesn't it? Yeah. It's fine though that that is the mat after it was turned on its side by the teacher originally it was standing straight up so maybe the teacher they tumbled out when the teacher turned it and he threw them back in to maintain the crime scene or whatever the fuck but it's suspicious don't you think?

Yeah because I feel like any especially in this day and age of like CSI and whatever is like you wouldn't throw them back in if they came out you'd leave them where they were. Back up. Right. Because odd. And doesn't that space that he's in look tiny? Yeah.

Impossible to like wiggle yourself into and why the fuck would you even do that? Also I mean the point of that he's already wearing tennis shoes is because I completely assumed it was I have to get these shoes I will get in trouble I'm not going to get you know it's like that whole thing where sometimes like high school kids do weird stuff because of the weird high school rules that like when you're an adult you're like oh yeah that's right. And your brain isn't fully formed and so you make bad decisions but I don't think. No this doesn't look like any of that it doesn't look like oh I got myself into a weird like

pickle and yeah and then really unfortunate things happen because that's that kind of like I don't I mean this is just from basically what you presented to me but it doesn't it's not like he was stuck somewhere and trying to get air he you were supposed to believe he went down into a thing to get shoes he didn't actually need. Right. I so yeah what why would you risk that totally being in that tiny space also it makes it just doesn't make sense that anyone would dive down into something or eat you know not even fast but like head first into a thing I don't think people would do that like you

wouldn't risk being caught upside down because that would be so taller than you yeah it's not like it's a three feet foot thing that your arm gets stuck in no it doesn't that doesn't make sense at all to me there's so many arguments for this being an accident but I just can't get past that this doesn't seem like something someone would do there's also a hoodie and a pair of orange and black random gym shoes that are found lying on the gym floor as well as visible blood drops on a wall nearby but the investigators don't take any of those that the hoodie or the shoes into evidence they just are like oh it's unrelated don't take them into evidence they test they test the blood and so the night before there

was like a cheer or you know flag practice going on and this girl said I got hit in the nose with a flag and I have blood and that's why there's blood so they take swabs of the blood they tested against Kendrick it's not his blood and then they do nothing they don't test it against anyone else they don't corroborate that it's her blood they just are like oh it's not it's not relevant so the Johnson family petitions for a second autopsy of KJ's body with the help of the Valdosta Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the NWCP and a county judge grants them permission so five months after the initial investigation a second autopsy is done and this they do this by exhuming his body which I'm sure is just so traumatic

yeah in itself the family hires a private pathologist Dr. William Anderson and when he opens up the body he finds inside of KJ's body instead of his organs which are missing he discovers that the body's been stuffed with newspapers what what yeah the Georgia Bureau of Investigation claims that when KJ's body was sent to the funeral home after the first autopsy that they had sent along KJ's organs it was all like signed for that everything is here and where they're supposed to be but the funeral home said that it received the body without the organs and they said it's common practice to replace organs with paper or sawdust while embalming and in according to the Georgia Bureau of Funeral Services

to do so is not best practices but it's also not illegal and doesn't violate any laws. But then that means that it didn't the communication was never like if there was no through line of communication so that when they went to exhume the body no one said hold on there's no point because there's no organs in there which you can only yeah you can't test any of the organs you can look at this like superficial body and see if there's anything they missed but but why would you like let a family exhume their own child if you knew somewhere along the line who knew that the organs weren't in the body why was that not conveyed so that that exhumation never took place that percent that by itself is horrifying but then what

that actually points to is not good right and it could have nothing to do with the case itself at all it's just such a it's like another level to this nightmare that's worth taking a look at and just well and it's indicative of the way these these different departments handle their shit because that's that's very important obviously and one of the departments should know whether or not the organs are in the body when they go to the next place totally so there's somebody in between those two the Sheriff's Department or whatever you said and the funeral home yeah that should get figured out right it might just be the funeral home but of course the people who think there's conspiracy going on just think

this is another layer of it understandably and the other thing that never made it to the funeral home or did and then got discarded is the clothes he was wearing that day so there's a there's a list of his clothes his shorts his t-shirt all this stuff gone so that can't be tested either for touch DNA or blood or anything gone rumors are spread that there's some kind of organ harvesting ring going on and that Johnson's did try to sue the funeral home for mishandling their son's body but the case is dropped and and the organs are lost so they can't be tested the other thing too is that during his autopsy all his fingernails were clipped and his family was like he likes to keep his fingernails

long so we know that this isn't how he wore them and I I don't think there's any fingernail clippings to be tested which is a red flag despite the missing organs the pathologist concludes that Kendrick's death is not an accident on the second autopsy he finds bruising around KJ's neck caused by blunt force trauma when confronted with the new findings the federal investigators commission a review of both both autopsies and they determined that the first autopsy carried out by the GDI is more credible so they discredit the second autopsy that was brought on by the family the Johnson's request a coroner inquest in the hopes of reopening the investigation but the request is denied but as a result of this

new evidence and weeks of protest by the Johnson family Matthew Moore who's the US attorney of Georgia announces a formal review of the case at the same time the South Georgia judge grants KJ's family access to the high school's surveillance video which they hadn't seen before so there's a lot of controversy around the video footage itself because a lot of people think it's been altered of course all the cameras at the school are motion detected so so when someone comes into frame it starts so something far away isn't really going to get picked up always it's has to be kind of close and when you watch it together it looks like you know kids are appearing out of nowhere it doesn't really make a lot of like linear

sense and also the time stamps on each because they can show KJ walking through the high school to get to the gym they show him go in the gym they show him walking towards the mat and then that's all they captured but between all those different camera like video systems that caught him some of them are time stamp wrong so there's one that's 20 minutes fast so there's no like great way to show where he actually was but there's also whole entire hours from the footage in the gym that's missing right at the time that could have shown what happened that day and of course this just feeds into more conspiracy theories well yeah I know yeah that's not a conspiracy theory that's a fact that's a theory based theory

of why the fuck wouldn't all that be there right totally also what's the what's the point I get the idea that you can't just be rolling surveillance footage constantly but you do need a system that if if something needs to be checked it makes sense like why would you have a thing that just starts and then you kind of don't know like nothing about that but no and the next one is 20 minutes off and then this one's back at the normal time and yeah what's the point don't have them if then they just they're not gonna they're gonna actually tell a linear story it's right and it's also like you know if you had cooperated or at least had some kind of empathy for the parents and walked them through what happened

you know which you can argue is because of their race then maybe they would have been accepting of the idea that maybe this was an accident but instead you know it's this complicated situation where there's a lot of blank spots and it will complicated and mishandled because then it's not they're not investigating to the full they're coming in and going here's what happened here's why and meanwhile not collecting all the evidence like not looking into the story telling the story and then saying you have to be happy with the story being like no it's not Kendrick's blood whose blood is it we didn't test it we don't answer right answer so in 2014 KJ's parents filed a wrongful death suit against

the school's officials alleging that KJ had been harassed by a white student and his actions had been neglected by the school and according to the family so this is the like big theory of what happened of what everyone thinks happened this is alleged I'm not saying any names because no one's an actual suspect but Kendrick had gotten the theories that Kendrick had gotten into a fight about 14 months earlier with another football player on his bus they used to be friends but people said that the two of them got in a fight because maybe Kendrick hooked up with his girlfriend and they say over the past months before his death there was all this tension between Kendrick this white kid and his brother and that they were

the ones who killed Kendrick in the gym that day KJ's parents posted the kid's names on Facebook and thinking the boys were connected the two brothers that they're accusing their father is an FBI agent yeah so and I think he's somehow involved in the case as well so that obviously is going to stoke some conspiracy theories and so they theorize that the FBI guy is controlling everything and covering it up because his sons did it and then that family the two sons in the FBI agent ends up being subject to when they have an early morning raid the brother's phones laptops and cameras are seized police don't find any evidence that they had anything to do with Kendrick's death they also both had pretty

strong alibis but even though they're not officially suspects the brother's names get out they start getting cyber bullied they're written about in articles as if they're real suspects and their names become associated with the case and that one of the brothers this causes one of the brothers to lose his full ride scholarship to university you know it just impacts their lives like this a judge later orders the Johnson's to pay for the family's legal fees which totals nearly three hundred thousand dollars because of everything that was brought in based on this case so basically because the Johnson's published the names yeah there they were then basically held accountable yeah hmm yeah so in January 2015 the Johnson's

file a hundred million civil lawsuit against 38 people including three of their son's classmates the school the local crime lab state and federal officials five agents of the GBI an FBI agent and more and the parents say that the son of the FBI agent killed KJ and use their connections to cover it up but they don't really have any evidence for this and so the Johnson family ends up dropping the suit meanwhile the SCLC and the NAACP had been conducting their own investigation into KJ's death both organizations had initially supported the Johnson's theory that Kendrick's death was suspicious but the more they investigated the more they realized there's no actual evidence pointing to foul play and so speaking in 2015 Reverend Floyd

Rose who's president of the SCLC said quote over a hundred people would have to be lying and telling the same story for two years risking the loss of their jobs their retirement jail time I think the murder theory is not only false but also ridiculous and based only on wild speculation and outright fabrications over the next year lawyer after lawyer drops the Johnson family as they continue to file more lawsuits against all these people and in 2016 Michael Moore the DA officially closes the case in rules that KJ's death was accidental and the Department of Justice can't find enough evidence to support federal criminal charges and you know they can't prove or beyond a reasonable doubt that this is wasn't just

a tragic accident in June of 2018 after a supposed witness testified that KJ was killed with a 45 pound weight or dumbbell and that the surveillance video was edited so it looks like an anonymous source wrote a letter and saying this I heard from someone that this all happened Kendrick's body is exhumed for a second time and a third autopsy is performed the family believes that the body shows signs of beating and they hire Dr. William Anderson again he finds blunt force trauma on KJ's thorax you know he finds more evidence that KJ was killed so seven years multiple investigations dozens of lawsuits and three autopsies later the Johnson's are still convinced that there's more to KJ's death than what is being told

to the public and they're not giving up the search for his killer and on the anniversary of death the family released white balloons in his memory and organized a march for him I looked up on our email account to see if anyone had like gone to high school at the time and I got an anonymous email that said I will never forget the moment of hearing a dead body was found at the high school this is someone who went to school adjacent I remember going home and crying because it was the first time I realized that you weren't safe at school a lot of kids transferred to private schools in the area or went to different school districts the next year when it came time to attend that high school my school expanded their

so then she ends up going to this high school and she says my school expanded their band room into the old gym kind of tore down this gym that he was found in and the first day we transferred into the new band room one of his friends said no matter how much money they spend to make the room look different I can't forget what happened in here she says the case has become almost a political debate in my hometown most conservatives believe it was an accident and everyone else with a brain knows it was murder so I don't think they're ever going to come to a consensus about what happened well the part that you said where that the whoever said it where it was like this is just wild speculation it's not it's

not wild speculation like whoever did that kind of summary thing of like this is ridiculous and there's no proof of foul play I it seems to me with just the two things you showed me there's absolutely proof of foul play and it's not wild speculation it's a incredibly suspicious death that was processed incorrectly I mean like that with with some serious problems like there's nothing worse than when someone comes in like in the end and like you know sums it all up like and it was ridiculous that they ever had doubts in the first place yeah where it's like absolutely there's this is suspicious and bizarre this is one of those cases where I feel like if I were at a bar with someone and they were like debate this

case I could take either side and debate it well you know what I mean like sure I could even if I believe one thing actually happened and I don't believe it's this other thing I could debate it on either side because it's just so complicated it's super complicated the problem the reason that you can debate both sides is because the police did not process that scene fully so there's a bunch of question marks where there should absolutely be final answers right should know whose blood is around that room they should have taken the time to actually give a shit about that crime scene they should it is it's you know from what you said what year was it 2013 yeah there's no excuse why that crime scene wouldn't be

completely locked down completely processed and and the rules and taken care of to the yeah the rules fall to the like followed to the letter yeah this is how you process a scene whether it's a crime or not it's a dead body and you need to process it in a certain way yes because how can you go from how can you if you assume it's an accident it is your job to prove that it's an accident and you can't do that by standing back and going yeah we kind of think it is so quit asking questions yeah that's suspicious and then when they announced 24 less than 24 hours later that was an accident it's like please put more time into it yeah work on these cases yeah it's just I mean like whoever whoever made

the wild speculation speech is so deeply wrong and what they should be talking about is when like when scenes aren't processed correctly and evidence isn't taken entirely you can't tell the whole story you can't and at the end of the day at the end of the day it's just I remember seeing that photo I showed you in 2013 and either way that kid suffered and yeah either way this poor kid suffered and deserves a definitive answer his family deserves a definitive answer and closure whether it's you know justice because someone murdered him or it actually being a tragic accident and it's just doesn't seem like they're ever going to get it well and I think they're right to be mad because we all know for a fact that

if it was a little blonde cheerleader found dead in one of those rolled up gym mats that they would have locked that whole school I mean they would have done everything they could and pulled everybody in and yeah I think it is we everybody has heard this story so many times where it's just like we we understand how things like this get priority things like these get prioritized and the hand the hand that kind of like even subverted racism hasn't it where it's just about priorities and it's you know and it's also a year it would this happen a year after Trayvon Martin was murdered it's just there's a lot of yeah rightful indignation yeah understandable yeah and so that is better work right so that's the story of the death

of Kendrick Johnson well you know it's weird I've never heard this story it's not it's very much a reddit deep dive late at night thing you know which I've been doing lately right and it and you kind of just checking like I remember seeing it and being like I'm going to check in on that it's one of the stories that you just never hear about again because it never comes up again but the photo is so disturbing that I was kind of checked in on on that yeah and I wish I could have done it with a definitive answer at the end of it but it's just not there yeah well and it sounds like with the way they processed it all the answers that those are the answers the answers that have been given are the ones

you're going to get because yeah man they're so disturbing about the autopsy and the not processing who has the organs I mean like that a lot these people are in grief and then they're having to do stuff like that that's right about it like anyone to take not finding out until the second autopsy is done instead of finding out before the body you know before his body is exhumed it's yeah to go through that and have it not even be worth it I mean it's just yeah thank you and apologies to Lily for doing the research I feel like I sent her down a real dark hole yeah should we do a fucking hooray oh and just a quick reminder that stay tuned at the end of this episode there is a trailer for our brand new

weird news podcast starring Kirk Bronner and Scotty Landis called bananas you're gonna love it get a sample it's coming to you soon and we're so excited okay should I go first sure this is from watermelon but it's spelled sorry I don't know why I'm so tickled by that underscore water m e l l y n underscore and watermelon says great episode want to tell y'all my fucking hooray today I live in Nashville and we had a big tornado at the beginning of March do you remember how long ago that was there was that awful tornado that ripped right through Nashville yeah it's really scary and that seems like it was four years ago and it was the beginning of this month unbelievable okay I mean last month my neighborhood was

already reeling from that and when we all we all started to realize how serious this pandemic was I was couch surfing due to damage to my apartment here's the hooray part I decided to move back into my apartment even though it still doesn't have most amenities I know that sounds silly but just being in my home has made all the difference it's not perfect but it's mine and I have had a smile on my face ever since I got back thanks for all that you do I've thought about couch surfers during this time yeah horrible that must be yeah to be kind of weirdly in between or yeah it's horrible well I'm glad you got your home back what a fucking double whammy of bullshit oh this one spoke to me personally so I wanted

to read it this is by K. Deppstein from Instagram so glad these podcasts are still rolling out my personal fucking hooray right now is the realization that struggling with anxiety for my entire life has prepared me for this exact moment I have been feeling oddly calm about everything going on and thinking I'm usually an anxious mess what gives and then it hit me that I've been working for years to manage my fear around uncertainty lack of control and unexpected change while many people are facing those fears for the first time in a significant way I'm so grateful for the skills I have learned through therapy and the chemicals I have gained through medication which are helping me ride this current shit show with

relative ease I was like why does this feel normal oh yeah I'm always scared to go in a grocery store not just now yeah kind of makes you feel a little less alone now everyone's on board yeah I mean I don't I don't like this I don't want to get sick but fuck so the subject line of this one is teddy bear hunt this is from the fan cult forum it says my fucking hooray is to all the neighbors in my Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago who have placed teddy bears and other stuffed animals in their windows so kids can look for them when the parents get them out of the house for a walk my sister told me about this they're doing it in pedal limit to it's called the bear hunt where just little kids

have something to do as they walk around their neighborhood it says the list is up to 294 homes who have done it including mine fucking hooray to all the parents at home with their kids so have some fun on your walk that is the most beautiful thing I've ever heard I have chills sorry that's from the feel one I didn't know that that's a you know your sister texted me the other night by the way oh what'd she say what did she say something about the tiger king I think that's hilarious because you know she does not listen to this podcast so she didn't do it just to be cute I didn't tell her what we talked about I love it I'm so I love getting the best okay this one is from rainbow dot meow shine wow did

maybe send this email to you definitely my hashtag fucking hooray oh that's another thing on Instagram if you just have find the hashtag fucking hooray and follow it you'll see people's comments which is really uplifting my fucking hooray is that my nurse mom overcame COVID-19 this week oh no I know no more fever breathing normally upright we haven't seen her or my dad for almost a month because that's how long she's been sick she was quarantined before COVID-19 officially canceled the world so happy my mom is getting healthy can't wait until I can actually hug her I feel like one of the worst things about getting sick with this is not being able to go to your family's bedside and hold anyone's hand and that must

be like the hardest part it's horrible our family friend Jen my friend Jen had a baby and hurt no one in her family could come in I think she I think her husband the father of her child got to be there but but the rest of the family had to wait in the parking lot is not horrifying no it's terrible and that's I mean yeah across the board it's yeah it's terrible yeah but here's a fucking hooray that might turn it around for you this is from little Lillisa looks like Lily SSA okay after four years of living apart and one year of long-distance marriage my husband and I finally purchased a home we can live in together he's currently deployed and due to COVID-19 his scheduled time to come back home has been

pushed back and he is he has to be quarantined for two weeks once he gets here however I am so excited to finally start this new chapter in our lives no matter how many hiccups we've experienced along the way I get to live with my husband in my dream house in just a few months woohoo all caps beautiful thank you for your service did they say they were in the military I don't remember yes they did her husband's in in the military but can't come home on time because of coronavirus what we're living in in walking talking history right now I mean so beyond crazy beyond okay here this one may made me almost cry this is from Franny underscore Merkel hi my fucking hooray is this my mom's a nurse near Westchester

New York and she's been working a lot tonight we decided to play cards her with her mask on and me six feet away on the other side of the table and we both reached to get a card and she took my hand and was like I love you and I proceeded to cry because I haven't been able to touch her in weeks and she's literally risking her life for others yeah I can't believe I have a supermom shout out to all the medical professionals out there who are running head first into the storm thanks for reminding us that being afraid is okay but it's not okay fuck thanks for reminding us that being afraid is okay but it's not okay to be crazy no it's better than it says thanks for reminding us that being

afraid is okay but it's not okay to be a crazy asshole that's right love you ladies stay sexy and clean Fran Fran and France mom thank you France mom for kicking us bless your heart unbelievable I hope she won at gin rummy yeah really I hope she won all the all the bottle caps and all the pieces of candy it really is true the medical professionals are running into a storm every day they really are every single day it's beyond it's a video of the medical professionals giving a round of applause to the janitorial sort of people who are serving those hospitals and medical facilities yep I mean and risking their lives to clean those facilities it's heroic you think any fucking billionaire CEO would do that shit no fucking

way no they're all out on their boats and my carnation yeah also when I watched that video the first thing I thought of was there's this video is 90% women it's female doctors fee it's nurses female doctors there was one dude in the back that I could see and the cleaning staff were women amen just just a note this is a little this is a little turn but it's just on the same theme it's from Ali Steiklin it says hey murdering I was about 12 years ago I inherited all of my grandpa's home photography equipment when he passed away there about 25 carousels a 35 millimeter slides full of memories everything from trips he and my grandma took around the world to home photos are preserved in these slides my mom was estranged from her

family from before I was born until I was in first grade when I finally got to meet my grandparents I had a whole lot of love to give and they did too grandpa showed grandpa loved showing me these pictures and telling me all sorts of stories to accompany the pictures during the quarantine I've been working on digitizing these slides and uploading them to a shared space where everyone in the family can see them I just hit the 1000 picture mark and I'm not even halfway through yes I feel so fortunate to have this opportunity to help grandpa get his pictures to the whole family I wish he was still here for the storytelling but his pictures do a pretty damn good job telling their own story so fucking hooray

for grandpa and these beautiful pictures stay safe and healthy murderinos the world needs you Ali s that's so beautiful I love the thought that she has time to do these emotional you know chores that you would we're never gonna get to in our day to day life you know right yeah and I'm sure as she does them she's discovering how amazing you know like we look at stuff like that it's like oh it's so emotional it's too hard but I bet once you actually dig into the reality of it it's like this full other experience it's a joyous amazing yeah to like to have somebody that was a big photographer in your family so there's all kinds of stuff that's captured remember when I had my Christmas tree and it was a white Christmas tree with

the red red balls and I told you it was for my aunt Kay Antoine Giovanni who always made her Christmas trees like that I found this little photo album in a box in my garage when I was going through stuff and it was my it was my grandma's old photo album and it was basically pursed a purse size photo album that held those perfect coda chrome 60s pictures that were squares yeah so it's like basically a square a tiny square photo album yeah and in that photo album there's a picture of my aunt Kay holding my sister in front of her Christmas tree and it's the exact same fucking Christmas tree and I would have never like I was like oh that just reminded me of that but then there was actually the

picture of like oh this is the reason I remembered that tree it's from this picture yeah like you've seen laying around yeah I like there's pictures all around you right now that you could go through and and have a whole journey you know if you if you dare go through the shoebox of pictures do it of life the shoebox of life do it I love it I miss your fucking arrays on Instagram on Twitter and the email on the fan code wherever you want we'll keep reading them because they're really making us happy and we hope they're making you happy too thanks for listening you guys they're great it's my fucking arrays that we still get to do this show even though it's super weird and it's far away which I don't like

and the timing is off which is irritating because our timing is the most fun part about us doing this podcast together but I still love that we get to do it and and I love that Steven set it up so that we can do it remotely because it's really nice that we get to yeah we're we're very lucky people I I count my blessings every day count those blessings girl one two three am I supposed yay well then stay sexy and don't get murdered Elvis do you want a cookie?