My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 101

Episode Date: December 17, 2018

This week’s hometowns include mennonite murder and a city found in a wall.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-s...ell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 This is exactly right. We at Wondery live, breathe, and downright obsess over true crime. And now we're launching the ultimate true crime fan experience, Exhibit C. Join now by following Wondery, Exhibit C, on Facebook and listen to true crime on Wondery and Amazon Music. Exhibit C, it's truly criminal. Hello. Hello.
Starting point is 00:00:44 Welcome. To my favorite murder the mini-sode. Episode 101. I'm drowning. Okay. Someone help me. Karen, grab my arm. It's a quiet drowning on this side of the table.
Starting point is 00:01:00 Oh, I sucked. George and I were having a regular conversation, just an exchange of, do you think this, and the way George said no to me made me suck water up the back of my nose like a reverse netty pot. Right up in there. No. I'm glad that I'm funny. Isn't it a great feeling?
Starting point is 00:01:21 It fucking feels great to make people laugh. To make choke, people choke. Choke. That's the best. Spitting, choking. Anytime people say, I was listening to an episode, now my computer's ruined, ugh, that's my favorite. Oh yeah, because I spit all over their computer.
Starting point is 00:01:39 Yes. Got it. The ultimate. Because I threw their computer on the ground because it was so funny. I decided to snap my MacBook in half because you're so funny. This is where we're aging your stuff. Emails of all kinds. We've gone now into, after the last one, I've read a ton of Safeway stories.
Starting point is 00:02:00 Oh, have you? Yeah, now we're just doing general grocery store anecdotes. I mean, what is this about? What are we? What is this? Well, let's get back to basics. Great. Stuff found in walls.
Starting point is 00:02:12 Yes. An entire city. Oh my God. Hi all. So it's a good mythical morning on YouTube recently, shameless plug. Clearly it's your show. And found a story, think you'll like. In 1963, a guy in Turkey found a mysterious room behind a wall in his home.
Starting point is 00:02:30 As he dug further, he found out there was access to an entire underground city from his house. What? I've seen this one on the now politically incorrect ancient aliens, which I didn't realize until we got emails from it, that they is very problematic show, aside from the fact that they do not believe Egyptians could have built anything, which is in and of itself very racist. They book people that are of very questionable, Holocaust didn't happen, people.
Starting point is 00:03:00 Exactly right. Yes. So, so can't be recommending ancient aliens anymore, except for the fact that that and I guess good mythical morning are the only places I've ever heard of this Turkish city underground. Shit. Okay. So the city is called Darren Kuyu.
Starting point is 00:03:17 It's super old, built around the seventh century BC. So old. Before the Lord. It has multiple floors, stables, chapels, and could hold 20,000 people. The people who built the city also built access points and ventilation shafts all over the city. But after the tunnels were abandoned, I guess most of the access points were closed off. Lucky for this guy, there happened to be an access point in his house.
Starting point is 00:03:41 Fucking yeah. I'd be like, you can't come mother fucker. I'd be like, it's the ultimate man cave. Bye. My whole city. Get my cable TV way down there. That's right. My recliner in here.
Starting point is 00:03:55 What's football is the best when it's in a small chapel one mile underground away from your wife. Clearly, this isn't something I've found in a wall, but it just seemed like something you guys would be excited about. You're right. Exactly right. Now it's open to visitors. Maybe if you ever go to Turkey, you could visit.
Starting point is 00:04:12 Yeah. I'm going there. Absolutely. SSDGM Natasha. Thanks, Natasha. Really, really well curated story, Natasha, because that's Darren Kuyu is right at my alley. Facts.
Starting point is 00:04:24 This is a fact podcast. It's a fact based. This is a real place you can go to. You can get a tour. Unlike the deep salt mines in Malta where they say giants are mining salts, if you go down deep enough, these are the lizard people of the core earth core people. They could be lizard people. It could be flat earthers.
Starting point is 00:04:44 Okay. They could be journeyed to the center of the earthers where they're just dedicated to the Disney movie from the 60s. Sure. I mean, that's that's a lost podcast in my left territory. Yeah, we'll let we'll pass this one over to Marcus and the boys. That's right. Okay.
Starting point is 00:04:59 This one's called the headless Mennonites. Okay. So, my dear badass MFM family, and then she says the beast and that's then says Pennsylvania Dutch for what's cracking? Wow. The beast. My husband and I, who was also a big fan, grew up in conservative Mennonite families and closely associated with the Amish culture.
Starting point is 00:05:21 Oh, that's like, I think that's a kind of an exciting fan poll. Yeah. Yeah. We got the Mennonites. We got a Mennonite on our side too. Oh, but these are. But thankfully we came to a point in our early 20s where we realized we were in a cult and went home.
Starting point is 00:05:35 Any ha, I don't know if that's on purpose, but it says any HAW any ha, we still live and work in Holmes County, Ohio, shoulder to shoulder with a lot of Amish slash Mennonites. My husband is manager of the company his father owns and was interviewing a potential employee. My husband was asking this future employee about where he was from and he said, Mount Eaton, Ohio, my brother, and then goes on to say my brother murdered our parents a few years ago, but I wasn't involved. That's right. Wash your hands and walk away girl.
Starting point is 00:06:06 Yeah. He knows you're going to Google him. He's just like, just get this out of the way. You Google me. Clear it. I just want to let you know. That's right. I wasn't home that day.
Starting point is 00:06:14 That's right. Just put the word out there and then just let it go. That's right. The husband, my husband obviously signed, finished the interview and immediately told me about this bizarre interview. We of course did some Googling and we're stunned to find out that this guy's Mennonite parents had been found dead at their farm shot in the head. He had also decapitated his father.
Starting point is 00:06:33 The cops found him in West Virginia with a gun and a chainsaw in his car. He has been on trial three times and has been found incompetent to stand trial due to his mental illnesses, even though the two psychologists have said his behaviors do not indicate he suffers from delusions he claims to have. Oh, he's lying. Yeah. It's in a mental hospital until he is, quote, competent to stand trial. This is just a small snack of the odd and strange happenings in Amish country that are
Starting point is 00:06:59 often covered up by the dark and secretive culture. Hello, beard cutters and rapists. Whoa. Wow. Anytime you're... And then it says... It's a beard cutter on par with a rapist. Apparently that's the thing.
Starting point is 00:07:12 Or maybe like they cut your beard off when you've done something wrong. Is that a sign you're in jail? Whoa. Yeah. We're going to have to look that up. Then here's an invitation. Oh, like now we want to come check it out. Anytime you're rolling through Ohio, we would be honored to introduce you to delicious cheeses,
Starting point is 00:07:27 Amish mashed potatoes, and all the weird and creepy Amish gossip. Wow. Stay sexy and keep your electricity carry. I want to hear that gossip more than anything. Oh, I bet it's the creepiest. First you have to say a prayer. Yeah. Straight out of Ezekiel.
Starting point is 00:07:43 Right. And then I mean, I shave my beard almost daily, so I feel like I'm ready to go. I will cut my beard for this one special occasion. Yeah. What was it? Sorry, did you have the, what's cracking in Amish? Vibhishd. Vibhishd.
Starting point is 00:07:57 In reverse. Yeah. Okay. The subject line of this one is, my mom was held at gunpoint. Hi, my favorite squad. Oh, that's charming. I've been binging your episodes per usual, and one of your I survived episodes reminded me of my mom and grandma being badasses.
Starting point is 00:08:15 When my mom was seven or eight, she answered the door to a man asking for her dad. She invited him in, said one minute and went to get my grandma. They lived in a small town. My mom wasn't primed to fear people coming to the door, so this wasn't out of the ordinary for her. When she returned with my grandma, the guy had pulled a huge gun and told my grandma to give her all, give him all your money, jewelry and possessions of value in the house. He made them take him around the house to get jewelry from each room.
Starting point is 00:08:41 My mom and grandma went into survival mode. My mom making eye contact with my grandma and then just wiggled a ring finger. So my grandma turned her engagement and wedding ring around to hide the stone. And then in parenthesis, it says, my favorite part of the story. That's right. Because an eight-year-old thought to do that. Yeah. Genius.
Starting point is 00:08:58 At the same time, I'm like, give him the fucking wedding ring. Yeah. Right. I mean, if he asked for it, but don't flash it around. Don't be like, hey, you want this too? Yeah. It's like a huge judge on the board rock. Grandma, turn it in.
Starting point is 00:09:10 He'll know we're rich. He then tells my grandma to drive him somewhere about 20 minutes away, giving turn-by-turn directions. Apparently, he was smoking a joint in the back and high as a kite. So when they arrived at whatever creepy-ass building, they told my grandma to give him her keys. He didn't notice her slip the car key off the ring. Oh my God.
Starting point is 00:09:30 So genius. He put the key ring on a fire hydrant across the street, said, wait five minutes, and then they could get the keys back. The second he went across the street and turned around the corner, my grandma and mom booked it out of there. Oh yeah. And this is my family story of I survived. My mom didn't tell me the story until I was in middle school as school shootings were
Starting point is 00:09:50 becoming more and more common. I'm 21 now in junior college. And her point was there are bad things that happen in the world, but that doesn't mean you need to be scared of the world and hide. Take the world by storm like the strong woman that you are prepared and safe. Stay sexy and don't forget, you're smarter than the bad guys, Cece. Oh my God. But I went another rest of the story.
Starting point is 00:10:10 Did they catch the guy? They didn't, right? They probably didn't or they would, I bet that would be in there, but I love the idea that just it's like take advantage of that scenario and just like try to get like the how did she do that? The advanced thinking of get the car key off the ring, give them all the keys he wants. Yeah, that's good. But the ring thing and the keys are good thinking like stuff that you don't, I feel like I'd
Starting point is 00:10:32 be too scared to try in that moment, you know, of course, but if you're high, if you're fucking stone to the bone in the back seat, yeah, that's right. If you were a stone, people think everything's funny. You turn on a song, a little ELO on the radio, would it distract the guy for seven minutes? Oh, they're so easy to trick and confuse. Stay present, stay focused. That's right. Maybe she got a little fucking contact.
Starting point is 00:10:54 I was like, oh, I'm not taking this ring, this fucking key off. Okay. This is called my mother's ex-boyfriend, the cocaine cowboy. Whoa. And then it says, hi. You know, when you date someone to break up and run into them years later, only to be like, yikes, I really dodged a bullet there? That happened to my mom, except she saw him in a newspaper and he was dead.
Starting point is 00:11:16 Oh, a few months ago, she told me about an ex of hers. Andrew Carter Thornton, the second, definitely bound to end up as some kind of criminal with that name. They were introduced by a mutual friend and started dating. He was dashing, charming, well-educated, successful, worked for the DEA and took her to great restaurants. That's all I fucking need. That's my only one.
Starting point is 00:11:38 Say no more. Ask no questions. Exactly. Things were going well, but then the restaurants became seedier and seedier. He started flaking a lot and his stories never really seemed to check out. When she asked what the deal was with that shit, he said he was undercover for the DEA and couldn't be seen out or blow his cover. That's a great story.
Starting point is 00:11:58 She didn't buy it and said, buy girl to his shady ass. A few years later, in 1985, she saw a headline in the newspaper and then parentheses says above the fold, quote, she likes to say, meaning it's like front page reports. That read, quote, cocaine and a dead bear. Her boy Andrew had jumped from his drug smuggling plane. His first parachute and had an open for a mysterious and perhaps neperious reason, we'll never really know. His second clearly hadn't done the job and he was found dead in a Knoxville, Tennessee
Starting point is 00:12:32 driveway. His crash landing earned him the title of cocaine cowboy. Wow. According to the articles I read and lifted from, he was found wearing a bulletproof vest and Gucci loafers, carrying a browning nine millimeter automatic pistol, a 22 caliber Derringer ammunition, night vision goggles, books with names and codes, thousands of dollars in cash and six Cougarans and then all caps, treasure, treasure, but only six. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:58 I mean, that's why you fell from the fucking ground. Those things are heavy, right? He sewed them into the lining of his jacket. Yeah. Chaser. He also had food rations and vitamins and a compass, an altimeter, identification papers and two different names, a membership card to the Miami Jockey Club and the key to the airplane.
Starting point is 00:13:20 Miami Jockey Club, like horse jockeys. I guess. What the fuck? I don't know. Where was he? Why do you need a compass at the Jockey Club? Like, are you going to the forest? Are you going to Germany?
Starting point is 00:13:31 Is that what an altimeter is? I thought, I think it's an altimeter and I also said a compass, is that why you thought that? But I think altimeters are in planes. That's my guess. I don't know. Well, I don't, never. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:13:43 Well, I never have been told anything of relevant information. And then it says, oh, also 77 pounds of cocaine or literally millions of dollars. You know the basics. A few months later, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported that a dead 175 pound bear was found among 40 open containers of cocaine, matching the packaging used by Thornton. Oh no, the bear OD. This is a poor bear at OD on the cocaine and had presumably been thrown from the plane mid-flight because it was carrying too much weight.
Starting point is 00:14:18 Wait, no, let me read that again. That poor bear had OD on the cocaine that had presumably been thrown from the plane mid-flight because it was carrying too much weight. He's going down his checklist. He's like, Cougarans, check, altimeter, check, a bear, check, get the bear on this plane. A bear on cocaine. That poor bear. Oh, that poor bear.
Starting point is 00:14:44 Turns out Andrew was a former narcotics officer and suspended lawyer who had not been undercover for the DEA as he said, though he had worked for them at one point. But instead had been on the run from them while he was dating my mom. Wow. He'd been working for a huge weapons and drug smuggling operation and according to one article, he became one of the highest ranking members. This whole story is allegedly part of a larger conspiracy regarding drug trafficking slash the CIA slash a major weapons theft, but that could be a mini soda in itself.
Starting point is 00:15:13 So I'll just leave this story at that. Stay sexy and don't leave your drugs where bears can get them, Sam. Shit, Sam. Great. That was legendary is like a touch of DB Cooper. Totally. It was a touch of that story that you did about. On the tracks.
Starting point is 00:15:27 Yes. Oh my God. Oh my God. And then of course bears. And then bears. Barodies. Sorry for the animal nature of people out there that we had to include that. All bears were harmed in the making of this.
Starting point is 00:15:41 Mini-soda. But at the same time, they harmed themselves and addiction is a disease. Say no to Coke. That poor bear thought it was like powdered sugar. He's like, mmm, delicious cereal. I think I'm like diving, doing a dive. A perfect dive. And then he's walking around smoking and talking about a bear.
Starting point is 00:15:57 We're going to a restaurant. We're going to a restaurant called Bear Essentials. It's all honey. Oh my God. We got to get some bees in on this. Sticks his head in a beehive. Looking for a better cooking routine? With meal planning, shopping and prepping handled, Hello Fresh has you covered.
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Starting point is 00:16:41 I miss cooking so much I haven't lifted a knife or a pan since like early fall. So I can't wait to get back in the kitchen and Hello Fresh makes it so easy and also makes it so that my food tastes good, which is hard to do on my own. It gives you everything, everything you need. So get up to 20 free meals with purchase plus free shipping on your first box at hellofresh.ca slash murder20 with code murder20. That's up to 20 free meals plus free shipping on your first box when you go to hellofresh.ca slash murder20 and use code murder20.
Starting point is 00:17:15 Goodbye. That makes a person a murderer. Are they born to kill or are they made to kill? I'm Candace DeLong and on my new podcast Killer Psyche Daily, I share a quick 10-minute rundown every weekday on the motivations and behaviors of the criminal masterminds, psychopaths and cold-blooded killers you hear about in the news. I have decades of experience as a psychiatric nurse, FBI agent and criminal profiler. On Killer Psyche Daily, I'll give you insight into cases like Ryan Grantham and the newly
Starting point is 00:17:51 arrested Stockton Serial Killer. I'll also bring on expert guests to dive deeper into the details, share what it's like to work with a behavioral assessment unit at Quantico, answer some killer trivia and even host virtual Q&As where I'll answer your burning questions. Hey Prime members, listen to the Amazon Music Exclusive podcast Killer Psyche Daily in the Amazon Music app. Download the app today. Okay, the subject line is, can my house get haunted by this?
Starting point is 00:18:24 Hey guys, just wanted to share this odd story that happened recently. Yay, please always show your odd stories. I was in front of my house raking leaves as one does when living in a northeastern, in northeastern Ohio with my three-year-old steadily on my heels. I was keeping a very close eye on him when I saw him squeal with delight as he picked something up off the ground. I ran over and saw that he had found an old rusty heart-shaped necklace. I told him it looked pretty old and he exclaimed that it was so cool and put it around his
Starting point is 00:18:53 neck. Oh my god, no! I felt it was totally harmless and finished my raking before we headed back inside. He continued to play with the necklace all afternoon, putting it on various stuffed animals, our dog, even let me try it on a few times. Soon it was bath time and a battle ensued of me trying to take this necklace off him. I finally caved and just let him keep it on for bath time because sometimes you can only fight with a three-year-old so many times in a day.
Starting point is 00:19:21 So true. We did our usual nighttime routine and after he fell asleep, I took the necklace off and took it downstairs. As I was walking with it, I noticed it wasn't just a heart-shaped necklace, but in fact a locket. I was in the kitchen when I got the bright idea to try to open it. It was sealed shut pretty good. What if this photo is inside of it?
Starting point is 00:19:42 The kid's photo. And that's why he loves it so much. But it's him in a coffin. Okay, that's not it. I was in the kitchen when I got the bright idea to try to open it. It was sealed shut pretty good so I resorted to a butter knife to pry it open. I eagerly wanted to see what sort of pictures it held inside. According to my utter horror, as I cracked open the locket, gray dust flew everywhere.
Starting point is 00:20:08 It was fucking ashes inside this motherfucking locket. I literally screamed. My son was playing with this, oh, and he just took out a fucking bath with it all day. I'd like to say that I tried finding the owner to the necklace but couldn't figure out how to tell them that I opened the locket and 80% of them went down my kitchen drain. So I just tied it in a bag and carefully placed it in the garbage outside. I'm just really hoping my house doesn't become haunted by this. I hope you guys get a laugh out of this.
Starting point is 00:20:39 I can't wait to see you in Pittsburgh in March at the Friday show. Stay sexy and don't let your kids play with old rusty lockets, Nicole. Oh my God. Why did they put ashes in a necklace? I get it. I get it. Like I was like a 13 year old. I would have been like, I'm gonna put my grandma's ashes and they'll always be close to my heart
Starting point is 00:20:59 and then you lose it. It's not like they let you scoop them out. It's not like the family gets their share. I think that happens sometimes. Oh no. Do you want a little piece of grandma? Also maybe, yeah, also maybe it wasn't that. Maybe it was ashes from a flower that a guy had given her and she burned it because she's
Starting point is 00:21:16 super goth. She's really goth. She was the first goth. Yes. It was 1892. And now that little three-year-old speaking in tongues. And it's funny. Mothman prophecies.
Starting point is 00:21:28 That's a great, that's a great story for us, you know what I mean? It's like, yeah, I love it. It could have been an antique. It could have been anything. Nope. It's filled with human cremains. Cremains. Cremains.
Starting point is 00:21:40 Learn that word from this podcast. Okay. This is like a lighthearted. Oh, great. This is called magic spit. Okay. All right. Hi guys.
Starting point is 00:21:54 I recently listened to a mini-set about parents making up lies that you believe forever and this made me think of something my parents did. My parents were totally normal but had a few weird traditions. When my sisters and I were growing up and got a boo boo, we would go to either of them crying and begging for them to make it better. What we were really asking for was magic spit. You see, our parents would spit on their fingers and rub it into whatever bruise or cut we had.
Starting point is 00:22:17 This miraculously cured whatever we were crying or in pain about because they convinced us that the magic spit was the cure all and all. I never disagreed until I was in fourth grade and I was alone with a friend riding bikes and she fell and skidded her knee. It was bleeding pretty badly and we didn't know what to do so I responded with, well, I can try to put some of my magic spit on it but I'm not sure it'll work. She was so freaked out and scared and I guess I sounded so confident about my spit that she agreed.
Starting point is 00:22:43 So yes, I spit on her scraped, bloody kneecap and we called it a day. After we got back to her house, her mom asked what happened and she said, don't worry, Kimmy spit on it and it's all better. So that's when I found out you should not spit in cuts, especially not your own because it's extremely unsanitary and that my parents were actually pretty gross. Thanks for being my go-to. Pick me up when I'm in need of a good laugh. Stay sexy and don't spit in people's wounds, Kimmy.
Starting point is 00:23:07 Shit. So don't spit in people's wounds. Spit? I mean, you think it'd be good, right? Well, I think the idea that it worked like such an insane placebo on those children is pretty amazing. It's like you have a crying kid and then they just believe that everything's solved. Totally.
Starting point is 00:23:24 I would keep that lie going for as long as right into college. Right until there is an infection. Yeah. That happens. Right up until the amputation. Right. I think parental spit is okay. Spit outside the family.
Starting point is 00:23:36 Don't do it. Yeah. Keep it in the family until someone gets gangrene. That's right. And stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Goodbye. Goodbye.
Starting point is 00:23:45 Elvis, you want a cookie? Arggh.

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