My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 135 - The Heartwarmers

Episode Date: August 12, 2019

This week’s minisode is a compilation of hometowns that feature heartwarming stories. 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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You look like a little baby today. Do I? Yeah. Thank you. You look nice. Youth? Fuck no. I looked at myself and I was like, I look old.

That's nice to hear. Thank you. You're welcome. I'm bloated. And so it's filling out all my wrinkles. I'm bloated and gross. And so, you know, how that fills out your wrinkles. It looks great.

Thank you. The bloated, gross look. Bloated. It's really good on you. Drinking last night works well on you. Yeah. We've started, right? Is this it?

Yes. Is this the way? Thank you. I feel like sneak starts are our best way. Sneak starts and compliments. The best way to start anything. Were you in on me telling Georgia she looked like a baby? It was all there for it.

Yeah. Great. Great. Just so people know what I was talking about. Thank you. Yeah. They know that we're actually like nice. I don't know.

I don't know why I'm having a fucking depressed day. So it was nice to start with telling me that. Thank you. I'm going to say something nice about me. Good luck. Good luck. You look gorgeous. I did think when I walked in that you look pretty.

Your cheeks are really rosy. Your skin is glowy. It's because I haven't left the house in days. So when I actually go out, I'm like, you guys. I'm out here. Your cells are like, what? Oh my God. Outside.

That's good. That's better. Be outside with people. Welcome to my favorite murder. Hey, it dealt taco last night. Chili cheese fries. Anyways. Oh yeah.

You already said, but this is my favorite murder. I already said that's Karen Kilgariff. That is Georgia Hardstar. Hi. Hi. So this is where we redo your hometown murders that you send us. The subject line of this email is, my best friend's dad was Mary Vincent's lawyer. Oh, holy shit.

Come on. Hello MFM boss ladies, pod producing guru and plethora of pets. Over the long weekend, my best friend came home to visit from New York. We met up in Orange County. Hey. And send it. All right. I'm sorry.

My apologies are all around and ended up having dinner with her parents at one of our favorite spots. I've always known her dad was a badass lawyer, but I've never really asked about his cases because I didn't want to sound too intrusive. While at dinner, he told us that he recently had a meeting to talk about one of his most high profile cases, a case where a young woman had her arms chopped off. I swear I must have looked like a crazy person in this tiny restaurant when I squealed. Oh my God.

Was it Mary Vincent? And indeed it was. I have chills right now. Right. Her dad went on to tell me that he represented Mary pro bono throughout her case against her attacker and even went with Mary in front of Congress advocating for the no second chances for murderers, rapists or child molesters act of 1998. Amazing.

I've never heard of that. I have fucking chills. So I'm like, I'm saying I've never heard of that. And I'm like, did I say it in my story? You might have. Amazing. Okay. Yeah.

Oh, when we returned to their home after dinner, he showed me photos of him and Mary speaking before Congress. And he told me about how Mary used to babysit my best friend and how her sons and my best friend loved to play together as kids. Oh my God. I'm going to cry. I am still blown away by the fact that I have such a close connection with someone who knows Mary.

It shows how small the world is, but it also puts things back into perspective that these horrific things happen to real people. And while it's so depressing, it's so important to highlight these awful things so that we can try to prevent them from happening again in the future. As a 25-year-old Angelino, I have to thank you both from the bottom of my heart for confirming my love for true crime isn't weird, my neuroses are valid, and the constant reminder to lock my doors. All the best, Taylor.

Taylor. Such a good email, Taylor. Oh, that was amazing. Yeah, that's very cool. If you, Taylor, took a picture of the picture of Mary, I bet Stephen could find one. I'd love to see a picture of Mary Vincent testifying before Congress. I would too. That's, I just, the fact that she did that so bad has to be unbelievable.

So incredible. And what a great fucking law that should absolutely always be passed. Yes. Fuck you. Murders, rapists, and child molesters. Me? Unless you're one of those three things. Oh, um, that's, it's a very special 100th episode.

I'm here to tell you about my past. Okay. This next one, the subject line is beach day with my dead dad. Oh, I saw that movie. It was great. Legend. Okay. Hi, Karen.

Georgia, Steven, Elvis, Mimi, Dottie. Oh, the new guy. I was like, who the fuck? Karen, your face when you said Dottie, I knew you have been paying attention when I talked about how cute she is. Dottie. Dottie. Who the hell?

Oh, Dottie. George and all the other precious animal friends everywhere. Well, fuck Frank. He gets nothing. Okay. First of all, I promise this isn't a week in a Bernie situation. She knows. Secondly, I love your podcast.

I cannot wait to see you guys in Madison in October. Hi, can't wait. I naturally started listening to you the week after you were in Milwaukee. Y'all were amazing. Make my days at work go by so much faster. Thank you. Here's my ghost story. Sorry to disappoint, but it's not a scary one and no one was murdered.

My dad died when I was 16 years old. We were incredibly close and I was a total daddy's girl. Losing him was really hard. That's such a young age to lose a parent. I'm sorry. Every year on his birthday, I would try to do something nice to remember and celebrate him by doing some of his favorite things. Drink martinis, watch old Westerns go outside, eat apple pie.

Go outside. See, I'm not like your dad. I don't go outside. No. Okay. So a few years ago, I was feeling especially bummed on his birthday. Just missing him a lot. So I decided to go out of town.

I was living in Green Bay at the time and I found myself in Manitowoc. Is that how you pronounce it? It's the one from Making a Murderer. I think you're right. Manitowoc. She in front says, yes, Making a Murderer, Manitowoc. Okay. I was driving down some side road by the lake where I found the tiniest little beach, completely

separate from everyone and everything. The beach was maybe 30 feet by 20 feet. I'm not a geometrist. It was small. There were two chairs on the beach. So I decided to pull over and sit in one of the chairs and just watch the lake. There was absolutely no one around, perfect because I really knew I needed to ugly cry and I didn't want anyone to see.

When I sat down, I immediately started crying, but then I suddenly felt fine. Felt totally fine. I felt comforted and safe, a complete 180. After an hour of watching the waves, I got up to leave the beach and on my way out, I saw, clear as day, my name written in the sand, Kate. It was at least three feet tall. I know I would have seen this on my way in, it took up most of the beach. Ooh, I just got chills.

I got chills if I am my whole body. Also, no one spells their name like me. Most people spell it with a K. She spells it with a C. I knew my dad was with me, but this was just a slap in the face I needed to know he hasn't totally left me. Oh my God. Sometimes it's terrifying to know that we're not alone, but it's also good to know that people we love also hang around.

Sorry, sorry, sorry. God damn you, Steven. She's saying that because Steven picked it. This is not a random. You ladies keep it up. I have no cool witty closing. I'm sure it'll come to me after I send this love, Kate. P.S. Karen, you were amazing on how did this get made in Georgia.

Your drunk history gives me life. Okay, bye. Sorry, that got me good. Yeah. That got me good. Seeing her name in the sand and then it spelled differently. And also she walked in that way unless somebody snuck up and as a nice treat wrote her name in the sand.

Well, then it's just creepy. Well, yeah. Then it goes the opposite direction. That's not a nice treat. Someone followed her from fucking Green Bay. And knew her name. And knew her name. And knew the spelling.

That was magical. And that there were two seats there. Yes. And that she didn't, she went to like purge it, but then it was like, oh no, that's not actually how I feel. And then chilled it out. Daddy. I mean, that was beautiful.

Yay. I like their dad. Ooh. That made me, that got me. Same here. Okay. Okay. Here we go.

Okay. The best thing I ever found under a floor. Hey, all. Thanks so much for the rad podcast. You asked for stories of things inside walls, et cetera. And while this isn't creepy or weird, I had to tell you about it. My dad's best friend, Roger, died of cancer about 10 years ago. Recently his widow was remodeling their kitchen and they had to rip up the old floor.

They found a board on the bottom side of which Roger had painted. Oh, I love you always. Oh, there's a photo. No. Let me see. I can't see that far away. Oh my God. No.

It's just the kind of man he was. The most selfless and caring person you could ever meet. Needless to say, oh, I love you. It says I love you always. There's a photo on our Instagram and Twitter. Needless to say, it was a super emotional when they found it. It still makes me tear up to see the photo. I've attached a picture for you.

Can't wait to see it in Columbus, Lindsay in Indiana. Oh my God, I'm totally crying. You're crying. Well, that's so fun. That's the best. Yeah. A delay. I have to say, I'm not going to lose my shit, but I have to say that I have a junk drawer

and I just telling you earlier how I cleaned it out this morning. But the first time I cleaned it out, not the first time, but one time I cleaned it out and I found a card from my mom because she was big into sending cards and she would do it all the time and it was like not that big of a deal. Yeah. But I found this one in this drawer and it was like she was being very self-reflective and it is the loveliest fucking card and it's just all about, I can't tell you how much you and your sister mean to me.

And it's this whole thing that- It's like new again. It's like getting a letter from your mom. When I got it, it was like 1994 or something and I was like, yeah, yeah, I'll talk to you later. But it was the best. So that, I think that put me right and that's like the same thing. But with something like that, she never knew she had it in the first place.

And she might have never known. Yeah. If they hadn't looked the floor up, they might have never known it. So he just did it just to be on a sweet heart. It's like the reverse of sweetheart come. Yeah. Oh. The subject line of this one is grandma finds treasure after grandpa death.

Oh, yay. Hey all. A few years ago, my husband's grandpa died and his grandma, being an older lady on a fixed income, was planning on selling his grandpa's guns for some extra money. She had, she has no business operating or owning a gun, so smart move. Yeah. Grandpa kept his guns in a gun safe, but she had no idea where the key was. She asked my husband and me to come help look for it.

She had looked in all the obvious places, so he started searching in the less obvious. After scouring the house, my husband started looking through grandpa's closet. In a couple of the coats and pant pockets, he found fistfuls of small bills that totaled to about $200. Wow. His grandma was stoked, but we kept searching for the key. We finally found it in one of his shoes in the back of the closet. Love it.

That's such a smart place that like, then you have to tell someone you put it there. Yes. You have to remember you put it there. Yeah. After the hard earned search, we opened the safe and started inventorying the contents. At some point, my husband noticed the shotgun was next to the shotgun case, which in parentheses looks like a shotgun shaped duffel bag, and the case was oddly lumpy. He unzipped it, and a pile of small bills came falling out.

The money totaled just over $12,000. Holy shit. Mostly in ones and fives. Oh my God, grandpa. From the small denominations, we were able to piece together their origin. Grandma is an avid slot player. They used to go to the casino regularly, withdraw some cash, split it, and go to their separate ways to play. Grandma thought grandpa was bad luck, and he wasn't allowed to play near her.

Oh, that makes me sad. Instead of gambling the money every time, he would literally, he would pocket it, likely where all the cash in his coat came from, and move it to the gun safe for a rainy day. Turns out when he claimed to always be losing, he was just being smart and saving. Grandma was relieved to have the money as she was stressing out about his funeral. I'll never forget the image of a pile of money on her kitchen counter and her cursing and thanking him in the same breath. Stay sexy and don't assume grandpa is bad luck, Nicole. Oh, I'm gonna cry.

I love it so much. That's like, it's like sweet and sad and smart. And to me, it's the most romantic thing, which is someone thinking about you. Yeah. I'm not like, I'm thinking about you and trying to get all this credit, but just doing it in the way that actually matters. Am I wrong that that sounds like something Vince would do? Oh, absolutely. Right.

Yes. If Vince is the person that just like, yes, he's the take care of it big picture guy. Yeah, he has me sit at Buffalo while I fucking blast through a bunch of money, and he goes and plays, okay, good night. Looking for a better cooking routine? Home planning, shopping and prepping handled Hello Fresh has you covered. Hello Fresh makes home cooking easy and affordable so you can stay on track and on budget in the new year. Hello Fresh meals are convenient, seasonal and delicious. Stay cozy all winter long with classic comfort foods available weekly.

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So get up to 20 free meals with purchase plus free shipping on your first box at hellofresh.ca slash murder 20 with code murder 20. That's up to 20 free meals plus free shipping on your first box when you go to hellofresh.ca slash murder 20 and use code murder 20. Goodbye. What makes a person a murderer? Are they born to kill or are they made to kill? I'm Candice 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 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. Well here's the subject line of my next email. Ash is in the trunk. Okay.

Hey everyone. My name is Mary Lou and I'm a semi-frequent emailer, very heavy listener. Thank you for declaring yourself Mary Lou so clearly and accurately. Yesterday I went to go see The Dead and Co. and then in parentheses The Grateful Dead minus Jerry Garcia plus John Mayer. Oh right. John Mayer's? Mayer?

The one that invented the lemons at the Gorge in Washington. Ooh. So before I went in, I ate three grams of mushrooms and started tripping almost instantly. They love drug stories. Yep. So don't do drugs stories. Don't do drugs. Don't do drugs.

Don't do drugs but then again if you go ahead and eat some mushrooms in the out of doors because you're going to enjoy some trip out music where every other person there is on drugs. Including the entire band. And the roadies. And the roadies. And the concession. Exactly. Every single person is just going to be the chillest of the chill.

Okay. And I'm also on mushrooms so I lost my place. And I immediately started tripping. Thank you. While I was watching the show and going through an intense roller coaster of emotions as one does who is tripping on mushrooms. I realized my mom's ashes have been in the trunk of my car for an entire year. Oh my God.

You put your mom in your trunk and you left her there? She has it. They have an explanation I should say. I don't know. It's Mary Lou. Mary Lou has an explanation. Last year on Mother's Day my mom died in her sleep of mysterious causes at the age of 50. Oh that's awful.

I'm sorry Mary Lou. I was 19 and had to plan, pay for and organize my mom's entire funeral and such. So funny. It was really shitty. It was a lot for a 19 year old to deal with but I got it done and it all worked out. Fuck yes Mary Lou. Mary Lou. Well done.

Your mom would be proud of you. That sucks so much. I know. At 19. 19 and that's the thing about when people die is the people closest to the person who are the most affected also have to start making a shit ton of decisions. This is why you want to do it before you die and make all your plans and shit right? Yeah you want to but no one does.

No one does. No one does. Okay. All right. We're with you Mary Lou. After spending most of the summer in Wisconsin where I'm from I realized I needed to change so I uprooted my life, put my dog in all my belongings in my car and moved to Portland. Nice.

It was actually a great idea. Yeah. I had planned on bringing my mom's ashes with me and as I made this long trip I would stop in beautiful places and scatter her throughout the country where she would be whisked away over pretty landscapes. Only problem I left home without the fucking ashes. By the time I realized this I was already in northern Colorado. Oh my god.

So I made my dad FedX them to the Airstream I was staying on on a farm in Fort Collins. That sounds amazing. So good right now. Yeah. Okay. When they showed up they were in an Amazon box that my dad had just reduct taped and scribbled my dress on in purple Sharpie. I threw the box in the trunk and kept on driving but for whatever reason it never felt like

the right time or place to scatter her. That makes sense. I moved to Portland and became a preschool teacher and have been living here ever since. I kept forgetting that Sue was indeed in the trunk of my car and that eventually I was going to have to do something with her until I ate a bunch of mushrooms at the gourd. Oh my god. Mary Lou. Oh my god.

This story is when you're on mushrooms don't think about your dead mom's ashes like that's the worst thing to think about. But it's also like she's saying because these crazy drugs psilocybin and mushrooms are an emotional roller coaster. You go emotionally crazy. So it's perfect just like this email is an emotional roller coaster. Okay. I realized a year is way too long to have my mom in the trunk of a car and that it's

not ha ha funny anymore it's just fucking weird. So today I went to my car and pulled out the box where I opened it in my apartment only to realize some of the ashes had spilled out from the plastic urn into the cardboard box. I go to dump it out of my window to try to dust off the box. But the wind blew it into my apartment at that blew into my apartment at that exact moment and pieces of my fucking mom's ashes blew into my house and into my face lesson learned. If you keep your mom's ashes in the trunk for a year she will retaliate when you finally

move her. My mom is the reason I'm a murderer now so sorry and she would have loved your podcast. So on both of our be halves SSD GM Mary Lou it's so good if fuck it's like you can't do death correctly it always is fucked up. It's of course you're avoiding spreading your mother's ashes. It's like to have your mom die sucks so bad she is traumatized by this terrible event and then she tries to like make it right. Of course it's just so typical it's just so good that's a great story.

Thank you for that very personal and very awful story Mary Lou good job Mary Lou I'm sorry it got me. No I love it. It got me good. Beautiful. It got me good. Okay this is here's a hero pet story perfect that we've always wanted. Hello Stephen Slades and pets like slay ladies I'm old here's my hero cat adventure I'm

highly alerted to cats but I was at the humane society with a friend away from the other cats cages was a gray cat with mange and she looked rough my abused animal flags were raised and I approached the cage her name was Smokey she was and this is like a title not good with kids not good with dogs not good with other cats and she was not good with the staff oh she put a paw out of the cage when I approached and I thought your cat chooses you was a cliche but that night I went home with the blanket from her cage to test my allergies like I just make sure her putting her face in this it's kind of I love cats but okay Smokey was a fitting name because she looked like a cranky chain smoking butch of an old woman

but a new life a new name I changed her name to slate she wasn't cranky she had resting cat bitch face sure she was a badass she had been at the shelter for eight months as I signed the paperwork to adopt her I was asked multiple times are you sure slate hissed and swiped as they tried to put a collar on her I picked her up off the ground and she stopped fighting she only swiped once and that's the day she saved my life what it was a few months after I adopted slate I thought it was just gonna be an animal adoption story I forgot I forgot about the hero part this is really nice just lovely oh wait what's the spot cast this isn't a podcast no okay it was a few months after I adopted slate I worked third

shift but this night I had I was home with a cold I was passed the fuck out in a deep deep medicated coma when the fire downstairs broke out I was so hard passed out that I didn't hear the alarms go off my friends were evacuating the older folks but they had no idea I was home because she's supposed to be at work oh right they had no way of knowing I was asleep in the apartment as it slowly filled with smoke this was the one only time slate attacked and it woke me right up I got right the fuck out of there holding the cat under my arm something that was good was the big quote weird guy that every apartment has broke his arm knocking down the door to the apartment with the fire raging inside to save

the pet that caused the fire oh this lumbering giant ran down the stairs saw the fire broke down the door went into the apartment and saved the kitten let's not call him lumbering I mean that's rude what if he's incredibly graceful you weren't fucking there in the hallway she's seen him lumber around the apartment building for years probably this is when his body took flight right he was suddenly the lead ballerina it was most graceful so don't just count the quiet so don't just count the big quiet guy that needs to do his laundry and don't oh I don't don't count out the old cat slate live for another eight years when she passed away a friend forged a special earn for her she went from the cat that no one

wanted to the beloved sidekick ssdgm page in new england page she didn't just go to the sidekick she went to a true hero you know what you need it go get a cat at the humane society everyone also that's kind of amazing that that cat hated everyone that worked there but reached out and touched her like listen look can you please get me out of here this fucking sucks these people are insane they love cats so much your best friend all the other cats here are fucking dicks if we if I get out I'll get a job and I'll pay you back I swear to God get me the fuck out of here eight months that's a long time also get this blanket out of here yeah it's disgusting put your face in it I promise you'll love me do you know

that when we adopted my old cat Rory died tragically but comedically she it was the exact same thing she was an old gray kind of tabby she was way in the back of her yeah yeah a horrible cage she was just like forget it yeah keep going and when they give you the room they put you in a room to test it out the way she behaved was if we were trying to strangle her the whole time she was like scratching at like the walls and shit and she peed all over both of us like she lost her yeah yeah and then we me and Pete were both just like we gotta get her use that can say this yes we were just like no one's gonna take this cat she's going to die in a shelter and she was also really old so we just were

like come on you and join us it literally took because I already had Angus my big huge insane cat and it took her like two weeks she would she was just hiding under the desk and then finally one day she snuck into the TV like all right I guess yeah sorry I didn't know what did she like sit on you would she like snuggly from then on yes well she would come up she would like everything was a test so you if she came around you'd have to freeze yeah and just pretend like you were watching TV and then she would put herself where she needed to be and then you could pet her instead yeah my cat whiskers who we found as a kitten on the street a gray and white lived to be 20 years old and she was like the fucking best

yeah cats are the best this has been the percast Steven's been kicked off the percast and it's now on this feed right we don't interview anyone his whole concept well thanks for sending your story send us more hero cat and dog and animal parrot parrot stories anything we just anything from your life biochemistry yeah thanks for writing let's hear from those biochemists that's right my favorite murder at gmail oh um first responders first responders apparently you haven't been represented you hate us apparently you're keeping all your good stories to yourself all right we'll stay sexy and don't get murdered goodbye Elvis do you want a cookie