My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 157

Episode Date: January 13, 2020

This week’s hometowns include serial killer connections and a thieving uncle.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. Hello. Oh no. Why did I go up so hard? I don't know. I'm excited. I'm so glad for you. I'm excited for podcasting. Welcome. To my favorite murder, mini-soad. You're not going to pronounce it Minya-soad. Minya-soad. Minyan-soad. Mint the Minyan-soad. This one's brought to you by the Minyan. We've totally sold out. Do you guys like tiny little yellow guys with one eye? So do we.

Sounds dirty. They're wearing overalls. Yeah. That's Karen Kilgaro. That's Georgia Heart Start. And this is where we read your shit back. And this is where we break the terrible news to you that our story about the seven Ashleys and the dog in the suitcase was an urban legend. What are you talking about? Last? No. Yes, my friend. The dog in the suitcase where he punches her and takes it? Yeah. This is the first I've heard of this. I've been getting a cascade of tweets. And this is really what I love about this podcast. Is that we will tell you how, like, our audience adjusts to the kind of feedback we would like to hear. So everybody came in like, we know you. Everyone's like that. But like, heard it,

heard it, heard it. So what I love about that is that no one told me on Instagram. I feel like Instagram's so nice that there's like, great job on everything. And Twitter's like, well, you fucked up. And Twitter's like, guess what? Here's the bad news. But I want, that's why I'm on Twitter and you're on Instagram because I want to know. But it, but that's what I love about Urban Myths is that for me, the reason I believed it, was it the name Ashley? It was a bunch of Ashley's. It was three Chelsea's. Chelsea, Chelsea. But I do like seven Ashley's. Seven Ashley's is good too. But that made, that's what made it real to me is that everyone's name was Chelsea, which is so random and stupid. If you wrote a story, you'd pick three different names. Right.

You wouldn't just call everyone Chelsea. Right. So maybe you're a really lazy writer. Yeah. Unless, or unless you like hit enter three times and never checked your document. Right. But anyway, so sadly, and also it's a huge relief because then you know that a dog wasn't accidentally killed and then carried around in a suitcase, which is upsetting. Glad to hear that. That part's nice. I thought that was an innovative way to carry a dog though. I mean, I think we all relate to Chelsea trying to solve a problem like a very big problem. Chelsea's our problem solvers. Yes. You know that about that. All four of them. All of them. Well, I'm sorry to hear that. Please don't. Please check your work and don't send us. Yeah. Creeping pasta.

But unless they're really good like that. Unless they're really good and we can't even figure it out. They need to be three to five Chelsea level stories. That's right. Not stars. Nope. Chelsea. Interestingly, the one I thought was the urban legend of the ring being found in the backyard also got a ton of stories or not. I shouldn't say a ton. But a couple people are like, that happened to me, my brother. No way. Yes. So the one I was like... They both are real. Just goes to show you even after three or four years, we can't figure this stuff out. Guys, it's still a mystery and it's still fresh. We're all learning together and we're growing. Growing together. Okay. Are you ready? Yes, go. The subject line of this one is hometown

story. Perfect. Can you imagine getting back to basics? I think that actually when you submit on our website, you can't pick a subject line and they're just called hometown stories. That's why we get so many called hometown stories. Really? Yes. What fascist made it that way? Denton. Our web developer. Send all your emails to and then I give his home, his home account. Hometown story. Okay. Hi, Karen, Georgia, Stephen and friends. What did he also made it, automatically made it for babies? Okay. Greetings from Oakland, California. I'm not originally from here, so I won't pretend to know the area better than a native. Hi, Karen. Hi. But I love hearing about stories from Northern California. I was at Hanukkah celebrations with my husband's

family and mentioned moving to Sacramento soon because the bay is ridiculously expensive, which it is. I then casually mentioned Sacramento was crazy with murders in the 70s and everyone got quiet except a family friend, Stephen. Yay, Stephen. Can always count on Stephen. It literally says Stephen in parentheses with an exclamation point. So, we all read our line perfectly just then. Stephen asked, have you ever heard of the serial killer Juan Corona? Then proceeded the best holiday moment that's ever happened to me. So, we've never done, I don't believe we've done Juan Corona, but Guy Brennan. That's right. Yeah. He was hometown call-in and it's such a disturbing, awful serial killer. Read it and then I have a tidbit for you. Oh, great. Okay. Stephen said that he grew up in

Yuba City and when he was in high school, he and his friends planned a post-game kegger in some nearby fruit orchards. That's what it's all about in the country. Picking a field to drink in that the farmer that owns that field will not have you arrested if he catches you. Or shoot you on sight. Or shoot you. Or set his German shepherds on you. Stephen was about to head out when he heard the party was canceled because there were police crawling all over the scene. He panicked thinking the police had found the kigs they had thoughtfully put there ahead of time. That's smart. Instead, cops had just discovered bodies in shallow graves, many, many shallow graves. Stephen said Juan Corona was his neighbor and Juan used to wave to him in the mornings on

the way to work and Stephen always thought he was a nice guy. Turns out he was a serial killer who murdered migrant workers, many of them. I added that. After all this was discovered, people wrote songs about him because nothing exciting had ever happened in Yuba City. Check out the ballot of Juan Corona by the pencil next. I was so excited. I talked to Stephen for the rest of the holiday party and ignored my husband's family. Whoops. Stay sexy and don't do keggers in the peach orchard, Michelle. One of those orchards where they might have partied and where they found some bodies belonged to my friend's family, Kate Piravich, our hairdresser in Portland. Yes. I'll have her write in, but her family owned some land out there. And they found bodies on their land.

Yeah. I mean, that guy was so, he killed so many people. It's terrible. It's really horrifying. Okay. Okay, let's move on. This one's called family heirlooms and holiday secrets. Hi, and etc. Brovissimo. I'll try to keep this short and sweet. As we know, every murderina's low key wish over the holidays is for a family member to spill the tea on a juicy secret or hometown murder story and boy did my future in law deliver. I'm recently engaged, though have been with my fiance for years. I adore his family. And when he got engaged a few months ago, he gave me his great, great grandmother's Art Deco diamond ring. It's astoundingly beautiful. And I'm honored and a bit nervous to be carrying such a precious family heirloom. On Christmas Eve, I was chatting with

my future mother-in-law and she remarked how happy she is that I have the ring and how the original owner, her great grandmother, was an incredible woman out of the blue. Her very next sentence was, and she had a horribly abusive husband and she killed him. Oh, shit. Mom and mom must have seen the oh shit look on my face. And she continued with a shrug and a half hearted. Sorry. We both burst out giggling. And she went on to tell me that when her great grandmother finally had enough of her husband's abuse, she enlisted the help of a male friend and got her husband super drunk until he passed out. Then they tied him up and laid him across the train tracks. Oh my God. When the inevitable happened, great grandma waited some time and he was declared missing. Eventually,

she was declared a widow. Who knew it was that easy? Of course, murder is horrific in any circumstance and what a way to do the deed. But I can also imagine how tough it was for a minority woman to get justice for domestic abuse in the 20s and 30s. Oh, yes. Shrug. Sorry. Sorry. Yeah. So sorry. Sorry. The kicker, though, is that after everything blew over, aforementioned male friend slash partner in crime then wanted to marry great grandma. Yeah. Her response was, no, you killed my husband. She's probably smart if we're being honest. She went on to remarry someone else and raised a total of eight kids. She was a social worker and helped children and disadvantaged minority communities for her whole life. A true legend. So obviously the conversation took a turn and I

don't really know where this diamond ring came into play. All in all, I love my in-laws and my fiance so much and I'm even more floored to be caring the legacy of such a badass. I'm not sure what the moral takeaway here is, but I guess stay sexy and don't marry the person you contracted to murder your abusive husband because he's probably bad news, too. Yeah, but I'm sorry. No, 100%. I hate to. Nope, you're right. How God's name or is anyone judging the person that got looped into 100% you're correct on this. I mean, Jesus, it's like, yeah. Thank you for all that you do in a very, oh, you weren't done. No, in a very happy new year. New year. New year to you and the whole MFM community. There's no name on it. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Really a lot to unpack

on the moral side as it always is on this show. I agree, but it was a good story. So I don't kill like totally we don't condone murder in any way. We also don't, but it also shrug. Well, because this is the thing of when women go and are abused, it's like everyone knows this. I feel like domestic abuse just changes your brain, too, in such an insane way that you're... Well, you're pushed to a limit and when you read... You're in a constant state of fear. Yes, it's you're being terrorized on a daily basis. So obviously she's driven to the edge and this person was a real piece of shit. But then to put tie them up and put them in front of the train tracks is just fucking... That's... It's really the worst way you could kill a person. Yeah. Okay. This is...

This one has a lot to offer. How many Chelsea's are there? There's only six. Okay. It just starts high. Great. I went to a small women's college in North Carolina, super old, founded in 1772 and allegedly haunted. And apparently we take our ghosts seriously. The college has a lot of quirky traditions, one of which is that all students are required to attend a monthly town hall meeting or else you get fined. Wow. Is this communist Russia? It seems like it in North Carolina. The meetings were pretty chill. Each class would air its monthly list of grievances. Wow. I'm not getting enough attention. It's monthly list of grievances and then the student government would get a chance to respond. Usually the grievances were legit or funny like why isn't

there more diversity in the student leadership or why isn't there any root beer in the refinery? Just the full range basically. They're tabling every possible issue. Okay. But one time my junior year at the end of a long list of the usual complaints, the senior class representative added angrily. Also, people are being really disrespectful and using Ouija boards to open demon portals in Clual Hall and then not closing them when they're done. So demons are getting out. Wow. The whole room erupted. Half of us were losing our shit laughing and the other half were like, guys, be serious. This is a real problem. All pissed off like then the student body president stood up motion for everyone to be quiet and said, I shit you not. Y'all just be conscientious. This is a

haunted college. Y'all. Then a junior class rep stood up and said, the junior class would like to know if, if we do see a ghost, who do we call? Then after the laughter died down from the question, the president of the nature based, nature based faiths club, the nature based faiths club offered to do salt cleansings to ward off said demons. Everyone seemed to calm down after that. Basically feel like I'll take a bath, a steps in salt bath for you. I do that. I'll do a nice sits bath and get rid of my quote unquote demons. Everyone seemed to calm down after that. So the Wiccans came in and helped out. I don't know if the portals ever got closed. A couple seniors made a point of buying black candles and doing some ritual. But who's to say there are a lot of spooky

halloween ghost stories that take place at my college, but the demon panic of 13 made me laugh the most. Anyway, stay sexy. And if you're going to go to college, go to a women's one. Thanks, Elise. Wow. That's the best. I love that. Y'all. Y'all. Y'all look. There's a lot of portals. Okay. Looking for a better cooking routine with meal 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. Why stop with just dinner? Now you can enjoy Hello Fresh's expanded menu of quick lunch solutions,

weekend brunch, simple side dishes and amazing desserts. Karen January is going to be my month for Hello Fresh. I am so sick of takeout. 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. 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. Salutations. So, is this a spider writing to us? So, Washington State, it's a hell of a place. I've always known that one of my uncles spent time in prison for armed robbery, but never knew the story behind it. I knew that he had committed robberies and he was not allowed in our house, but the rest of the details were kept secret. But he could stand in the driveway if he wanted to. On Thanksgiving, he would go out there and eat cranberry sauce. He has a major fucking napkins and silver and fucking fine china. If he could just overhear the rest of the family having Thanksgiving, that's plenty for him.

That's right. So, cut to January 1st, 2020. My husband and I were incredibly hung over, driving with my parents to pick up our car. Don't drink and drive. And the four of us started talking about the witness protection program in prisons. My dad casually mentioned that while in prison, my uncle was in protective custody. And here's where it gets interesting. Years ago, my uncle was robbing convenience stores. He even had a nickname for the sake of anonymity. I'll leave that out. His getaway strategy was to kidnap someone in the convenience store with a car, then force them to drive him away from the stain of the crime, and then leave them stranded by the side of the road. How scary. It's so scary. Well,

during the last armed robbery, he kidnapped a little old lady. She was absolutely terrified, shaking and driving far too slowly for him to make a clean getaway. So after about three blocks, my uncle kicked her out of the car and drove away. It turned out that this little old lady happened to be the mother of a local crime boss. Oh, no. And then it says, what the fuck? Isn't this a movie starring Matthew Broderick? Is there an iguana in this? Hold on. Oh, I love my blue heaven. That's my favorite. No, no, that's the gradual. That's Rick Moranis I'm thinking of. My blue heaven. One of my favorite movies. I'm thinking of The Freshman, The Senior, The College Student. The Graduate. Yeah, it's so good. It's not The Graduate. Winter's Day. Plastics. Oh,

R.I.P. Buck Henry. Did you hear Buck Henry died? No. Anyway, okay. Where were we? So sorry. Lee, relax. What the fuck? My uncle was caught shortly after and there was concern that this crime boss would seek out retribution against my uncle for kidnapping his elderly mother. Yes. Because of this, my uncle was moved from prison to prison until they could secure a place for him in solitary. Eventually, he was released and his team to turn his life around. I wasn't particularly close with him because he wasn't allowed in your fucking house. But he was always nice when I saw him. He passed away a few years ago. Even if he were still alive, I don't think I would ask him about his time in prison or living with a target on his back. Love the show. Stay

sexy and don't kidnap little ladies at gunpoint, especially if they're the mother of a local crime boss, B. How about we look at all humans like they could be mothers of crime bosses? Young or old and don't kidnap people and terrorize them. But we just don't kidnap people. Well, and how about all I wanted to say was like, is he robbing convenience stores because he was hooked on drugs? Right. And like that's how all these things go hand in hand. Right. Right. Rarely people are like, look, I'm super fun and chill, but I also do this thing. And then, you know, because I do want the, what, $80 I get from a convenience store. Terrorizing people. So horrifying. Okay. Now that, now that person, you kidnap a person, you think it's a, it's a victimless crime. They

can't go to 7-Eleven anymore. That's bullshit. Okay. Now I want to sing the theme song to the A.M. P.M. Mini Market. A.M. P.M. is making news, that one. No. I think that's my 80s one. You know what's that? What's yours? Mine's, my 80s one is, it's the, it's, I sing it to myself every time I see an A.M. P.M. Mini Market sign. It's the A.M. P.M. Mini Market. You can drive right up in your car and park it. You can shop around the clock all night. We're open morning, noon and night. You can shop around the clock all day. I mean, they just, wow. That's beautiful. And then I'd be like a picture, a close-up of like their soft serve machine. Wow. A.M. P.M. is a really good soft serve. Okay, are you ready? This is my last one. Okay. And it's a, it's what my new favorite

series that people are now sending us in is like the creep, the creep of the week, basically. Right. So it says rubber boot man, creep alert is the subject line. Oh, great. Hi. I'm just writing to tell you about a creepy phone call I used to get at work many years ago. Yeah. I live in Canada and I started working for a national airline in 2000 as a reservations call center agent. Obviously my colleagues and I have spoken to many a creep over the years, but by far the most legendary was a guy we called the rubber boot man. He's spoken a high-pitched baby-like voice. He'd say, Hey, how are you? Is it waning where you are? Are you wearing your wubba boots? Do you like to splash in puddles? I'm reading it as it's so good. Then he'd ask, Do you like the

dunk tank? Do you like the dunk tank? Yeah. What the fuck? This is the most specific fucking fetish of all time. Okay. Do you like the dunk tank? What happens when you fall in a dunk tank? Ultimately. Oh my God. Ultimately, he wanted us to say we'd get wet if we fell into the dunk tank or splashed in the puddles. Sometimes he'd ask if we liked wrestling. Not sure where the convo was supposed to end up. He called for years and then suddenly stopped. I wonder if he's still alive. I don't speak to the public much anymore. Thank the good Lord. So I'm sure. So I'm not sure if the creeps still call these days or what. People have probably moved on to even grosser things. Yeah. So true. Anyways,

if you work in a call center and there's a weirdo on the line, hang the fuck up or keep them on if it's close to the end of your shift, whatever gets you through. SSDGM, Melissa. Oh God. Are you wearing rubber boots? Oh, you're wearing what? Do you like the dunk tank? I don't know what's that and it's so creepy or the baby voice. Everything. Well, because to me immediately, I feel like he as a child had something happen to him at the county fair. Oh God. In the fall. Yeah. Because it was maybe lightly sprinkling, if not raining. Something happened to that guy. Or he went in the dunk tank. Or his father ran a dunk tank company. Okay. This one's, last one's called Cookies and Kidnapping.

Question mark? Sure. Hey, yo. I'm the third of four kids, all aged around two years apart from one another. So naturally, I'm a long sufferer of middle child syndrome. When I was around two and my little sister was a newborn, my mom put the four of us down for naps, then exhausted from chasing four little kids around, fell asleep herself. After a light 15 minute nap, I woke up to find everyone else in the house asleep. My two year old self decided it would be nice to go for a walk. Yes, it would get out there. I headed for the sliding back door I could push open and peaced out of there. Bye. I can't imagine the horror my mom fell when she woke up to a house with only three children in it. After frantically searching the house and yard, my mom called the police

and ran down the street shouting my name. Little did she know an elderly woman down the street had seen me roaming the sidewalks and decided to bring me into her house and let me watch TV and eat cookies. When my mom ran past the old woman's house screaming, she just watched through the window while feeding me more cookies. Oh no. When the police finally arrived on the block, the old woman brought me out to them and explained that I had been at her house the entire time and that she was teaching my mom a lesson to watch her kids more closely. Shit. Obviously, my mom was furious and wanted to press charges, but in the end, the police just explained to the old lady that she can't hold any more toddlers hostage. Yep. My mom was traumatized, but hey, no harm, no foul.

Stay sexy and don't take cookies from Petty Granny's SJ. Damn, that is really harsh. Damn, grandma. Grammy is fucking harsh. She's like, you know what? How about? How about I extend this for another hour and see how you like. I'm enjoying myself. Send us your fucked up stories and your what? I was just going to say, my sister, that's how that's the reason my parents moved to Petluma is we lived in San Francisco and both of my parents were San Francisco natives. Yeah. And when my sister was two years old, she did the exact same thing and my mom, it was like my mom turned around and my sister was gone and she was running all around. They lived in an apartment complex and she, Laura was next door at the old lady's house telling our story. And in my mom,

that at that moment, my mother's like, we have to get out of this thing. Terrifying. Because all she could picture were all the, you know, hit by car. Totally. We're right there. Send us your fucked up weird stories, send us things that happened to you, things that happened to Chelsea's, various Chelsea's that you know. We want it all. We want it all. Clearly and stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Goodbye. Elvis, do you want a cookie? Good boy. Come on.