My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 10

Episode Date: October 31, 2016

In this civically responsible My Favorite Murder minisode, Karen and Georgia read your hometown murders including a family murder in New Mexico, a spooky sleepover tale, and more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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. It's just gonna add class. That's true. We are now a highly produced podcast and we have a soundtrack and music in the background. PBS picked us up for five episodes. We can't curse anymore but we can wear turtlenecks. I think that's what's important. And we're no longer talking about murder or now talking about civic responsibility. That's right. So please donate to PBS. Podcast machines all over the United States. I love that idea that there would be podcast

machines. Yes, but also that like you trick someone into into giving money to a cause that like you're not actually working for. Like I love PBS and if people give money to PBS, they'd be super happy about it. You should give money to PBS because that's the reason I get to watch Father Brown. It's why I get to watch Vera. All my British procedurals are on PBS. Yeah, British procedurals, proceed. Nope, I can't say that. You can. You can try it again. British procedurals. There it is. Yeah. You just needed to put your hands down on the couch like that. I did. I held myself. Balance yourselves. Yeah. PBS is a lot of great history shit and fucking Antiques Roadshow dude. Oh dude. British antiques. Now I know I have a serious anglophile

problem, but the difference between British antiques, retro and American, because when they reveal the price, they build it up and build it up. Goodness. Goodness. Where they're like, this is a fucking 85,000 pounds. And they're like, Oh my, I didn't expect it on in the American one. Yeah. They're like, it's beautiful. It's actually a remake. So it's probably worth between $800 and $1,000. And people are like, Oh, like overtly angry that they're not millionaires immediately because of their dumb vase. Because they've been going to fucking garage sales for 20 years, just buying shit and hoping it's worth money. Yeah. And meanwhile in England, they're like, Oh, this is the original Stonehenge. And they're just like, My, oh my, I have to thank my aunt.

I bought it. I found it in my aunt's attic and I had it. She'll be quite proud. Yeah. Everyone's just never sell. That's when I lose my mind. I'll never sell it. I would never. Emily, fuck it. It means too much to us for us to be rich. Go to Cos Plus World Market, buy a fucking fake one, sell that motherfucker, like retire. USA. USA. I am a financial advisor. American style. Yeah. Hi. I'm totally welcome. Do you know, what are we? What is this? This is a Minnesota. Oh, my favorite murder. So this is just when I read all the many amazing hometown murders you guys send us that we love so much. Send yours to my favorite murder at gmail.com.com. I forget.

Yeah. Well, now it's dot PBS. I'll go first. Do you want me to? Sure. Did you say you go first? I said, kind of like, do you want to go first? Like in a... Juana. Juana Man, that great film? Yeah. Okay. Here's my first one. And I will admit the part of the reason I picked this one is because the woman who sent it, her first name is Zandra. Hell, yeah. With a name like Zandra. Can I spell that? You know, it's going to be a good email. Z E A N D R A. So I'm all about it. Yeah. Your first name serves the Z. Oh. You've had a rich and storied life. I'm sure. Helm run. Helm run.

And then the subject line is asshole murders wife and barriers her in his trash pit psychic daughter finds her. Say that again. Asshole murders wife and barriers her in his trash pit psychic daughter finds her. Everything about that. Everything, Zandra. You're batting at thousand. We haven't even gotten into the body. The whole email's blank and we don't even care. Yeah. That's weird. It's a picture of a bunch of hot air balloons. Oh, well. Thanks, Zandra. Okay. It says, hi ladies. First of all, keep up the great work. We will. I love to listen to your crime podcast and my husband thinks I'm a little crazy and refuses to listen to me talk about the crimes because I always accidentally go a little too in depth. Yay. You've come to the

right place. We relate to go to our Facebook page. Everyone there will relate to you too. Yeah. Yep. So it's so great to listen to you to talk about it like it's totally okay and fine. So thanks. Hey, if Chris Morrison can do it, why can't we? Yeah. Come on. Just because he leans on things really well. Just because he has the narrowest nose of all time. And let's say the fucking loveliest head of silver hair. No, let's give him that credit. Yeah. He deserves it. Totally. Is it Chris Morris or Chris Morrison? Or it's Keith Morrison. It's Keith Morrison. I'm thinking of Jim Morrison. Is this a good point? Is this a good moment to tell everyone that if you want fucking facts, you've come to the right place? Please go elsewhere. Go to pbs.com. You want

stuff you learned in history is where you get facts. That's right. There's so many great podcasts that are reliable. Okay. It's not this one. Okay. Now to the interesting part. And she's spelt this out with so many hours. The murder. This is not a murder from my hometown, hometown, but it's a murder that happened in my family. So maybe that counts. Zandra, that counts more than a hometown murder. I think we should make it clear because we get a lot of these hometown, meaning the place you live now, the place you lived before, your family, like hometown is in quotes. It's the one where when you, that it's the one you know the most about because you were kind of around it at some point in your life. Whatever that means.

It affected you because it was so close. We're not strict about stuff like that. Not anything. Now if the murder happened in your family, we should actually set up like a red phone for that kind of stuff because that's firsthand. That's what I like. It's a great idea. All right, anyway, the murder, the murder takes place in Eunice, New Mexico, a New Mexico murder. That's new. We haven't done that yet. Mexico. The victim was my grandfather's sister. So your great aunt. Well, she had caught her husband having sex with his sister. His sister? Uh-huh. And his sister's husband and divorced him. Wait. Oh, I thought she was going to murder them all. Hold on. She had caught her husband having sex with his sister and his sister's husband

and divorced him. Okay. So some polyamory in New Mexico. Polyamory and incest. Yeah. There's so many things. Like the polyamory is the thing that stuck out to you. I know. Well, I watch a lot of Game of Thrones. So I'm very... Nothing phases you with that. I almost... No, I won't say that. She had moved away from him to live with her daughter in Levoland, Texas, but she traveled back to New Mexico to stay a night with her ex-husband and would accompany him the next day to Mexico to get dental work done. Uh-oh. Bitch is going to get killed. I'm sorry. Call her a bitch. Girl. There's this story now turned into a choose your own adventure where what's going to happen? I don't... There's only one answer.

She's going to get murdered by a Mexican dentist. Okay. Here we go. There's only one answer except with all the other ones that we could think of. According to the children, but... Oh. Okay. This is in parentheses. The dental work story is according to the children, but was possibly just a story to lure her to him. The night he told their son who was living with him that he couldn't sleep at the house that night and to find a different place to stay. The next day, he had a son come home and fill in the trash pit that he had in the backyard using the backhoe and told the son and the two daughters that their mother had found a female trucker to drive to Arizona with and that she had just called from the truck stop and was doing well. I can't breathe. One of the

daughters, however, is a little psychic. I know this sounds crazy, but our family is kind of crazy and like no one in the family seems to dispute this because she's never been wrong. She's not psychic. She just can tell that when someone's filling in a pit, the mom is missing. All this crazy shit's happening. They killed the motherfucking mom. I believe she's psychic. Okay. I believe in it. I'm a believer. So there's a lot of run-on sentences here. So wait. Okay. So one of the daughters, however, is a little psychic. We said the thing about the family and knew that their mother was in the trash pit. Well, yeah. No, yeah, you're right. You know what I mean? I was like, how does anyone not question that? I bet the psychic sister was a murderer now. It was like,

I've read about this a hundred times. When a trash pit shows up in your backyard overnight, not over the weekend overnight. It needs to be filled immediately. And your dad's a creed. Mom is gone. Yeah. Also that, I feel like that little detail of a female trucker is suspicious that he had to say that. It almost seems like she's okay. She's okay. You know, like condensing someone, she's okay. And also, you know, they say you can tell someone's lying if they give you too many details. Totally. So it's like, if someone says, oh, sorry, I'm late, there was weird traffic. Yeah. But if someone's like, oh my God, it was coming over the hill, which is what I do every time I'm lying. You can only tell I'm lying. Yeah. You never have to lie to me about being late.

I don't think, yeah. Okay. Yes. That totally makes sense. But well, just because I've been late on you so many times, you just know. On you too. Wait, now I'm going to lose my place. No, sorry. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Zandra. Back to Zandra. Okay. Yeah, you're it. Okay. So, so one of the, okay, the daughter's like, trash pit. Okay. So she had her brother go back out there with the back out hoe and dig it up. After just digging up nothing but trash for a while, he wanted to give up. But she said, no, just do one more scoop right there. And with that scoop came his mother's leg. She was found in the trash pit with a plastic bag over her head and her purse with all its contents next to her. The autopsy found that she had been made unconscious

using ether. My dad says he used carburetor cleaner on a rag and then buried her alive under eight feet of trash and dirt. She died without regaining consciousness because the weight of the trash and dirt made it so she couldn't breathe. At least she didn't wake up. I mean, Jesus Christ. Agreed. But it's like such a small, what's it called? Plus. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah, we're really, we're digging deep. Decency to kill her. Do you know what I mean? Is that fucked up for me to say? Right. Like, well, he pushed out. Yeah. Like, you should just do that. That's also a bad thing to say. But no, totally. Like, well, I think he's such a piece of shit. Yes. Yeah. Because, well, he made it so she, the possibility of her suffering was max. It's

maximum suffering. Totally. Okay. So she says, this is a horrible story, but I think the worst part is that the murderer has since told his children how much he enjoys being in prison, because he can nap whenever he wants, watch TV, has his meals prepared for him, etc. And that is just so disgusting to me that he could bury his ex-wife alive and then actually enjoy his punishment. You know what's the under though? I think he's bullshitting. I think he's full of shit. I think he's ego based. And I think he's just saying that because when he could actually be crying himself to sleep every night, I think he put her in there still alive. So he could make himself to like be like, I wasn't, I didn't really kill her. Right. I just knocked her out. Yeah. And

then unfortunately, all the garbage I put on her. Yeah. Like, he's less culpable. Thank you all again so much for the show. And I hope to hear my favorite murder someday. This one, well, you just did give Elvis a cookie for me and Mimi too. She deserves a cookie too. Mimi gets them. Stay sexy. Don't get murdered. Oh, Zee. She calls herself Zee. That's cute. Thanks, Zee. That was amazing. That was intense. That brought up a lot of emotions. Yeah. All right. What do you got? All right. This is from Isabelle. And she is a really creative title called my hometown murder. So I want everyone to know we'll still open these. You don't have to be like, sometimes it's fucking hard to have a subject and a sign off or hard things to make up

when you just don't want to. Very true. So Isabelle says, Hey, I'm Mike Corey, the host of Wunderies podcast against the odds. In our next season, three masked men hijacked 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 podcast. You can listen ad free on the Amazon music or Wunderie app.

I know the episode has already aired, but I just started listening to the podcast and I figure I'd share my own story anyway. I don't know what episode I'm from the extremely small town of Ozona, Texas. I was only three years old and knew nothing of the situation when it happened, but a girl by the name of Jennifer Gravel was murdered by an older man slash neighbor named Melvin White. Growing up, we were always reminded of this murder and I personally had a paranormal experience that we believed to be connected to this story. Whoa. I love growing up. We were always reminded that a fucking dude murdered someone. Yeah, that's good parents. I mean it. So yeah. Yes, keep your eyes open. Some creeper neighbor. Yeah, but you don't have to go into

detail. All right, whatever. He kidnapped her. I don't want to fight. Neither of us have children or want them. So fucking cares. He kidnapped her, took her out to a rest stop molested her. And then when the other car, then when another car and showed up, he took off to a different location and then killed her with a tire iron. Oh, she was no. I don't know how old she is. He then drove outside of town and dumped her body by a water tower. After being tied to the murder by witnesses, he immediately confessed. He eventually was denied life in prison and was sentenced to death. Oh, turned out that he molested his daughter, another family member and other teens throughout his life. Holy shit. Here's where it got weird

for me. When I was a kid around the age of 12, about a year after he was put to death, I went to my best friend's house for what I thought was a normal sleepover. It was my first one there at her house. Well, she told me that we would be sleeping in the living room. And when we were getting ready for bed, she asked me to go to the back bedroom, which was being used as storage room for reasons I will explain later. And grab a few blankets. I proceeded to the back of the house and open the door. A cold stale gust of wind hit my face. I turned on the light switch, but nothing turned on. I then grabbed my flip phone out of my pocket and flicked it on to use as the screen, use the screen as a light. I saw the blankets and walked towards them. And as I

leaned over a chest to get them, I heard a faint scream from a girl. I thought it was my friend. We were at the house alone and I thought she might be in danger. So I grabbed the blankets and ran to the front of the house with my pocket knife in my hand. It was a small ranch town. We all had knives with us all the time. So fucking awesome. Totally. Well, I get there and she looks at me like I'm crazy. When I told her what I heard, she said, well, yeah, that's why no one sleeps in those bedrooms. This was Melvin White's house. According to old photos, they have found in boxes in the attic. No. I would love the way I said attic. There's tons of people on Twitter who were like, that's how I pronounce it. I know. I appreciate that. Yeah. Support. Old photos. They found in

boxes in the attic. This is my like dream. That's why I have a metal detector. Yeah, for real. The room I was in was his daughter's room. Oh my God. I want to test as to who it was. Who it was I heard scream, but I will say that after experience sleepovers were held in my house. Yeah. Thank you, Isabel. Okay. Can I just say that that Isabel's friend is fucked for being like, how about you go get the blankets? Totally. Why are you screaming? This is a haunted house and I don't know why you're screaming because you experienced the ghost I'm scared of to get blankets out of my room. You need to calm down. I sent you there because I refused to go in that room and you're freaking out. We on a house where we don't sleep in the

bedrooms because it's like fucking child-lasting murder I lived here. We can't figure out where to sell a house. Yeah. Oh, that room that you won't go into? A little girl got molested on the regular in there. Go get some back in. Could you run in there quickly? There's no electricity. It's a nightmare room. It's strictly haunted. There's just blankets and ghosts in there. Could you quickly go in? Grab one of them. Whatever you can grab, a ghost, a blanket, a cup of blood, whatever you find. I also think it's a really funny detail that she was like, I grabbed the blankets and went to help my friend. I would have been like, fuck the blankets, fuck you. She didn't like this girl that much. She sounds like a bitch and it's understandable.

And if you're that girl and you have a counterpoint email, you'd like to send us myfavoritmurderatgmail.com. Because how much we want to hear about that house and see those photos? Okay. Finding any, I feel like I've spent my life going into places that are attic-like or attic-like. Or us going to thrift stores and hoping to find a picture of a person and a ghost behind them or some, I mean, like something's a hatchet and a thing. I mean, like that's a dream. Although, oh my God, I just had a recovered memory. Tell me, tell me, tell me. My parents were, it was between the, it was between, we were moving from one house to another. And we, my mom actually loved going and looking at houses every weekend. She was like the queen

of open houses. I love that too. It's her, it was her favorite. That's awesome. So I know what almost every house in Petaluma looks like on the inside because of that. And she's always like walking to go like, oh no, this picture won't work for us. And we looked at a house one time. I think it was in Sebastopol and we walked through it and it was just kind of dark and weird. And then when we left, my mom goes, the woman in the kitchen told me that actually previous owners are moving out because the mother committed suicide in the attic. And then we just drove like in silence for a while. And then she was like, should I not have told you that? And I was like, no, I, I'm fine with that. Like, I think I was like 12 or so. Did it make you want to move there even more?

I didn't want to live there, but I was so stoked that I walked through that house. Totally. It was because we did have bad, bad feelings in it. I went to, I got a lot of state sales, which I love partly because I love seeing people's houses that I would never normally see. Yes. Especially because they're old people's houses. So they're like the same as they were before. If something has been, if something has been remodeled, it's always like from the 70s or 80s. So it looks terrible. Yes. So once I went to it, it's like wallpaper. Oh my God. Yeah. And like, oh, just like swan fucking tiles. Blue swans everywhere. Yeah. I went to an estate sale once in San Francisco and like, I was walking around. I definitely had bad vibes at

this place, not bad vibes, just like spooky. And I went into the closet, which I always go to look for vintage clothing. And I happened to glance the back of the closet door. And on it, this woman had started listing when the symptoms of her illness had started until she died. Headaches start this date. Had a headache. Oh my God. Had a fucking this. My eye, like my hand was numb today, like on the back of the fucking closet. Was it the kind of closet door that just opened like your front door? Yeah. Oh, okay. Just like a regular old door. Of course, I immediately pictured it's those like pull, pulley ones where like she'd have to be inside the closet writing them. No, she could just open the closet right now. It wasn't that spooky. So she basically,

in the same way families in the kitchen will mark children's height, she basically reversed that. But like in a hidden place where no one would see it. Oh my God. I'm not trying to figure you guys out. I think that shit painting is from there. Okay. We're going to have to turn out all the lights and start Stephen. Chanting. I think Stephen might be crying. I'm scared. Elvis hold me. Elvis is talking to like Elvis is speaking in tongues. Oh my God. That is, it's sad. It's horrible. It's like somebody trying to deal with this, the heaviest thing you can possibly deal with your own mortality. But then that is that I mean that should go straight into a horror movie. Totally. But that's why I love estate sales. And this is why I know a lot of people can't go to

estate sales because like this is a dead person's thing. I feel awful, but it's like I have treasured that shit painting that I bought for $10 and I remember it from 2004. This whole time. And so this person who suffered and died but kept that painting their whole life too. I'm taking care of it. Yes. I'm not okay. Can I say this to you? I love estate sale. Like if you go, will you please invite me? Fridays, dude. Fridays are the secret estate sale there. Okay. That's awesome. We'll go. Okay. Great. You're gonna like, I just kept, my mom went once with me and I, I'm really particular around estate sales and she came back and she said, I, she did what your mom did. I talked to the guy who you're selling and this is how they died. And I'm like, listen, you're not supposed

to do that. Like you're supposed to, it's supposed to be a mystery. Oh man, that was good. I don't think we need to do any more to you. Wait, how long? How long are they usually? 25. That felt long, though. Let's do another one. What about you guys? That'd be amazing if somehow they could vote. I don't want to listen to this anymore. This is live. You know, this is live, Karen. Oh, that's all. It's just like a telethon on PBS. Oh my God, don't make me, it's your God, the computer. Whiskey is not good for the computer. I kind of want to read that. I guess the reason I'm pushing through is because this has, this has a good feeling to me, a good, bad feeling. Okay, good. It's from William and it says hometown murder. Oh my,

oh my God. I don't know. This is spooky. I didn't read the subject line. I read, I scan the first like two or three paragraphs and I was like, okay, this is going to be creepy. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. What did they say? What if it was his mom? Because I was laughing also. This is bad. What if the woman who wrote stuff on the back of his closet was his mom? Like my mom used to write. It's worse. Oh no. Hometown murder, children thrown off hotel roof. Oh, no. How did, how did that get worse? That sucks. No, I don't, I don't want to hear that. Didn't say anything about that in the first two lines. Well, here's, this is my denial mechanism. I did not see that subject line. Like I, my eyes wouldn't read it. You must have clicked on it in like, without thinking,

like you knew it was something interesting. I thought it was something good. No, I don't, don't throw children on hotels. No. Oh God, who did it? Just like, just give us a little. Okay. Okay. Oh, it's just, all right. Oh, they just tossed them. They didn't throw them. Oh, yeah, yeah, no, into a pool. It's everything's fine, everybody. Okay. Have a great week. Oh, do you want to tell anything about that? It's just a mystery now. It's a person that went crazy. So it's only bummer time USA. Is it, what kind of person am I? And the answer is, who starts a murder podcast that wants to hear that whole story? I know. Okay. No, no, no, no, no. Okay. I don't think that too. No. Right. This is too much of a jerk around for people.

I know. Let's stop talking about it. Okay. I have one by Phoebe. Okay. And it's called, this is makes my heart sing. It's called my hometown murder story. There's no fucking throwing children. Great. Just straightforward. Beautiful. Well, you don't know that though. I don't yet. Hi, big, big fan of the podcast, first time emailer. This actually happened in the town of of all time, you've got to use email Phoebe. It's so convenient. You're being crazy. This actually happened in the town where I went to college,

although that was only about 10 miles from my hometown. Don't need to explain it. It's fine. When I was a junior in 2005, I had a really good friend who lived off campus in an apartment complex. Bad idea. I lived in the dorms, I don't know. I lived in the dorm, she goes.

You go right home, right home. I was in your car. One Saturday, we had plans to go to an amusement park with her and her boyfriend. They were about an hour late to pick up my boyfriend and I when they showed up. My friend looked super harassed and upset. I don't think she meant harassed.

She told me that about 2 a.m., the fire alarm had gone off and there was a fire in the apartment next door to her. This was on the ground floor. She said that she went outside and could see smoke from under the next door apartment and coming from the sliding glass back door to the patio. The fire department came and battled the flames for about two hours.

It was very hot but seemed limited to one apartment. My friend kept saying that, thank God, the two girls who lived there weren't home. I guess the fireman had gone in and inspected the place in the early morning and didn't see anything. Anyway, we went to the amusement park and I had a great day.

We got home around seven and I went to my dorm. About half an hour later, my phone rang. I picked it up and my same friend was on the other end hysterical. Turns out that when the fireman had researched the apartment about an hour later, they had found the body of one of the roommates. She was naked and in the bathtub

with a bunch of debris piled on top of her. She was really burned but it was clear that she had been raped and strangled with an object of some sort and set on fire. Oh no, my friend had been, there was also white supremacist graffiti everywhere. What the fuck? I had, my friend had been in her apartment next door

while this guy was killing that poor girl. Their sliding doors were next to each other. We were so terrified in the interim before the guy was caught. Yes, you were. Oh my God, they eventually caught the guy because he was in possession of some stolen goods that belonged to this young woman.

He is now on death row. I didn't know the girl who was murdered but several of my friends did. It was so sad. She seemed to have so much promise in life and this was a random attack, tragic and creepy and just overall awful. The case still haunts me

and I know it haunts my friend. It haunts us too. Dude, that's awful. Everyone listening. I mean, we came to be haunted but then when it actually happens, it's always a bummer. I'm like, oh, I didn't want that. I thought I wanted...

Also, it's that thing of girls in college where it feels like a such a vulnerable time where there's all this promise and all this strength and independence and when stuff like this happens, it's just so crushing because it's like, well, that could have been me. I was a girl in an apartment going to college. Yeah, and to live next door

and be the same kind of age girl and that just didn't happen to you. What bothers me, yeah, it's so hard to think of like an 18-year-old who has, who is so... They think they're indestructible but they're like the most vulnerable. And so you just, yeah, like you're fucking your game. Well, and also the older you get,

I think it's like the older I get. I realize it's like, yeah, I was the girl that would get drunk at parties and walk home. Totally. Like across fields when I live in Sacramento. Meanwhile, around me, people were being murdered left, right in goddamn center. Totally.

And like, yeah, it's just, it makes me feel lucky. Yeah, we both have these like stories of like, and I think maybe part of the reason we love murder stories is there's so many fucking close chances. Yeah, what do you call them? Close calls, thank you. We could have had close chances. Well, we're glad that you are live listening

to this podcast. Thank you for joining in. And if you have a hometown murder that you wanna tell us about, go ahead to my favorite murder at gmail.com. Gmail.com. And if you could please rate, review and subscribe on iTunes, is that just kind of helps us?

Maybe, whatever, or you can not. You know, it's your life. But yeah, live it safely and stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Elvis, you wanna cookie? That was a no. Do you not sound like a no? No, I've had my fill.

I'm full. Elvis, is that a no? I'm a cookie? Oh, that was a yes. For sure. Bye. Bye. Bye.