My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 190

Episode Date: August 31, 2020

This week’s hometowns include a badass survivor story and a Richard Ramirez connection.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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. Let's see, it's truly criminal. Hello, and welcome to my favorite murder, the mini-zote. It's mini.

It's tiny. It's so tiny. It fits your pocket. Oh my God. What's happening? What's happening? What is happening? What's happening to us?

What is happening? We read you your stuff at you, you know. That's Georgia. Oh, that's Georgia's part of it? KarenKillGariff.com. Don't give out my email address. If you want to write to Georgia, it's... It's GeorgiaHardStar at KarenKillGariff.com.

And please, please go to StevenReyMorris.gov to vote early and often. Do you want to go first? Let's do it. The subject line of this is nurse slash badass story. Great. Hey, pandemic pals. A few episodes ago, you guys asked for nurse mom stories, and while I'm not a mom, I am a nurse.

Yes. I work in a very busy ER in Houston. I have so many stories, but I thought you guys would appreciate this badass survivor story. Let's get into it. Early one morning, a woman was brought into the trauma bay after being held hostage, raped and beat for almost two days. I can only imagine what this poor woman went through.

On the second day, her attacker let her have some privacy and use the bathroom. While in the bathroom, the woman mustered up the courage to attempt to escape. She took the ceramic toilet tank lid and hid it behind her back. When her attacker opened the bathroom door, she hit him over the head with it, knocking him unconscious. Yes. Yes. My God.

Starting out strong. Holy shit. Shit. Mad props to the woman for having the bravery and wits about her to use a toilet lid as a weapon. Hell yes. She ran for her dear life, flagged down help on a nearby road and was promptly brought to our ER.

A few hours later, another patient was brought into the trauma bay. This man had sustained numerous facial fractures after being hit on the head with, yep, you guessed it, a toilet lid. The attacker and the victim were in the same trauma bay and neither of them had any idea. What are the chances? Houston is the fourth biggest city in America and these two end up in the same ER in adjacent rooms. What the fuck?

It literally says that next. Good. That's correct. This same thing happened in the British series with the hot guy and Gillian Anderson. Oh. The one. The blank. The blank.

Yeah. Yeah. So many people are screaming. The hot guy and Gillian Anderson. The fall. The fall. Yes, Steven. Steven gets $5.

Remember that? That happened in the fall. I didn't see it. I didn't see it. He gets brought in. I'm pretty sure. I didn't see the victim watch him get rolled in and I was like, never, that would never happen.

Well, it did. I was wrong. Luckily, our charge nurse is amazing and put two and two together quickly. We were able to move the woman to a safe room in another part of the ER before she was further traumatized by seeing her attacker again. We obviously did not let her know that her attacker was in the same building. Can you imagine the sheer terror of escaping a brutal attack only to find out that your attacker is right down the hall?

Thankfully, the woman was able to be discharged home later that day and the man went to jail after we treated his injuries. Hope you guys like my survivor story as much as I do. Anyways, I love you guys. Your podcast has provided some much needed distraction during this pandemic where you're freaking masks, people, SSDGM Tiff. Amazing. Amazing.

When would you not listen to a nurse? Okay. This one is called The Time My Grandma Saw the Devil. Oh, yes. I'll change you the rest of it. It's from our friend of the family, Celine Beth Calderon, the Ted Bundy documentary friend who was on the stage. Oh, yeah.

I remember. She's awesome. She's great. She says, hey, y'all, since there's been a request for grandparents stories, I finally got all the information about the time my aunt and grandmother saw El Diablo walking past their home in Monterey Park, California. In 1985, a man was terrorizing neighborhoods across Southern California and seemed to frequent the East Los Angeles area.

As Georgia mentioned in her zootsuit riot story, this part of Los Angeles was heavily populated by Latinos. One afternoon, my aunt and grandmother were doing some work in the garage and noticed a man walking past their house. My grandma said she froze and could feel evil radiating off of him. My aunt then looked up and felt the same feeling. She also claims a crow then cod, but lol, I'm not sure on that one. The whole family has cinematic tendencies, so they know how to tell a story.

The crow was like, man, that guy is scary. He's creeping me out and I'm a crow. Right guys? Well, hold on. Well, they could not figure out how and why this man could give us such a bad vibe. They continued on their work. The next morning on July 7th, one street over, Joyce Nelson, who was 61, was beaten to death in her home where she lived.

This was the third murder in their neighborhood in under three months. A few months later, in my uncle's hometown of Boyle Heights, Richard Ramirez was captured by a mob of residents on August 31st, which is today. Oh, this is the anniversary of the citizens of Boyle Heights rising up together and running through the streets and tackling Richard Ramirez and catching the night stalker themselves. On their own. Incredible. Happy anniversary, Boyle Heights.

That's right. High five each other. Well, my uncle wasn't part of the capture, he still remembers seeing people fleeing to the scene. I grew up always hearing the story of when my aunt and grandmother saw El Diablo, but I always thought it was actually the devil himself. Growing up Catholic, you know, I didn't find out it was Richard Ramirez until I told my family I would be starting a project on Ted Bundy with blank stares and confusions.

My mother responded, why would you pick him and not Richard Ramirez? We were all scared for our lives during that time. Come to find out Ramirez killed in almost every single neighborhood that my family members lived in at the time from Montabello to Mission Viejo, Whittier, Rosemead, Monterey Park, and finally ending his spree in Boyle Heights. Then I was finally given the context of the Diablo story and just recently my aunt told me her version. So she always thought it was the devil, she didn't put it yet.

I was picturing a guy walking with a really nice, maybe it's a bit where it was of London of me, but in a really nice shark skin suit, but on little tiny hoof feet walking by. My grandmother Esperanza passed away in 2005, so I was never able to hear the full story from her. But don't worry, she played a big role in my interest in true crime since she purchased those super graphic Latino magazines that would show the most obscene content on the cover. Like when Selena was murdered and there was a picture of her on the autopsy table showing the gunshot wound.

And she says, oh, the joys of a Latinx childhood. Anyway, stay sexy and make sure to search your family's history with well-known serial killers before you research the wrong one. Having lots of hugs to you all during this friend of the pod, Celine Beth Calderon. Good one, right? Celine, nice. Yeah. Celine needs to make a documentary about Richard Ramirez now.

That's right. Dedicated to Esperanza. That's right. Esperanza. What a great name. So good. Oh, man. That's, I really, I mean, I just love that story of just like, they spotted him.

They knew who it was. They were just like, get that guy. You're killing your neighbors. Yes. Yeah. And terrorizing. Like old people. I mean, just a horror show.

Okay. This subject line is Espresso Martini's and a hometown hitman. Fun. What's up, guys? As a murderer now in a bartender, the recent chat about Espresso Martini's finally gave me an excuse to email. The general recipe has equal parts vodka, coffee, liqueur. You were right, Georgia.

And a shot of espresso. They combine all the fun of being drunk with the joy of having kept the caffeine jitters. They're super popular in Australia and New Zealand. So naturally the pretentious hipster bartenders think they're kind of trashy onto my hometown. I'm from Canberra city with a nationwide reputation for being boring and small. But we have some pretty cool bars. There's a popular one in the middle of the city known for its fun tropical vibes. Think Tiki drinks, palm leaves and lots of hens parties.

Recently one of my friends was working there and instead of the usual groups of young women in cocktail dresses, the bar was filled with big burly middle-aged men. But hey, no judgment. Scary looking men are allowed to enjoy some sweet, sweet Tiki drinks, am I right? That's hell yeah, you're right. That's right. Now everyone has to go watch the Kids in the Hall sketch girl drink drunk, which is one of the funniest.

Dave Foley plays a girl drink drunk where you can't stop drinking like big blue things with pineapples sticking. That's the best. Okay. Later in the night one of the men was standing in the bar when cool, calm and collectedly, another man walked up to him and stuck a knife in his throat. No scuffle, no provocation, just a straight up stabbing. The man who had been stabbed took a sip from his drink, pulled the knife out of his own

throat. This is so Australian. And walked out into the street where he died in view of nearly every single person in Canberra trying to have a fun night out during COVID. Needless to say. Oh my God. So this just happened. Needless to say, all hell broke loose in the bar.

Turns out, turns out all these big burly men in the Tiki bar were in fact two branches of a large, well-known biker gang. This is biker gang, but I feel like let Australian listeners, please let us know if you call biker gangs, biker gangs or if they're like a tricycle, what it's like they call tricycles bikies, there are these big burly dudes in a tricycle gang. They're big burly fourth graders. The man who had very calmly cut the other man's throat was the hit man of the group. It's still a mystery as to why they went out drinking together just before a murder.

So is why they chose to very publicly kill one of their members when usually they just quote unquote disappear. However, what we have found out is that Tiki bars are a great way for gangs to launder me. Oh. Tiki bar specifically? I mean, those are expensive drinks, haven't you been? Yeah, that's true.

You're like, how did you, how in God's name did you spend $680 at the Tiki bar? Oh, Tiki bar. Right. Yeah, all that pineapple. Thank you for all the quality entertainment over the years as the only female bartender at my bar. The stories you've told have made me fiercely protective of my customers, particularly young women.

If you see a Canberra bartender wearing an MFM logo pin, please know that you are in safe hands and I might even buy you a drink. Cheers, Alyssa. Oh my God. Did that catch you? Yeah. That caught you in a good place. It did.

I know. It's very sweet. I love that idea. It's so good. And you know what? There's this podcast out right now about this woman whose father was in like Hell's Angels. And so I've been listening and like about a lot of biker stuff. It's really good.

Hold on, let me find out. It's called Bikie Gang? Bikie Gang. Oh no. It's called Relative Unknown. It's good. Okay. Yeah.

Okay. That was great. You had two fucking hits so far. I mean, I wrote them. I'm just giving Alyssa and her friend's credit. That was great. You ready for a pervert story? I mean, I'm long overdue.

Okay. This one's called The Kirkwood Tickler. I'm sorry to laugh. It's not in, obviously. My reaction is this nervous, it's like, it's just so bizarre. These stories do not disappoint in the bizarreness of the fact that there are these aren't per one off people that are just weirdo, they're criminals, but with a big serving of weirdo. Normally we don't, we don't kink shame unless you're a sexual assaulter.

Yes, there, it has to be consen, consensuality is the key to kink, you can't be a tickler, a one-sided tickler. It has to be consensual Swiss cheese, otherwise. Which does not exist. I can't do it. Sorry. Okay. Sorry.

Hi y'all. Oh boy, do I have a hometown for you. I grew up in a town outside of Boston and come from a big family of mass holes. My older sister attended Boston College, the Fighting Eagles, with their Jesuit agenda. And during her junior year, she decided to live off campus with some of her friends in an old house on Kirkwood Road. From 2011 to 2013, there had been several reported break-ins in the neighborhood, including many residential homes around BC's campus.

Nothing was stolen, there were practically no traces left in any of the homes. However, in a few cases, it was reported a dark figure was seen watching over men as they slept. Oh. In 2014, these break-ins escalated with up to five occurring in a night. With many BC students taking up residence on Kirkwood and the surrounding area, doors were frequently left unlocked. One night, many of the men living on Kirkwood, including some of my sister's neighbors

and friends, reported similar break-ins but with a twist. The shadowy figure instead stood over these men and, in some cases, tickled their feet. The criminal was then coined the Kirkwood tickler and continued to strike across campus, targeting the feet of young men. After my sister graduated, there were no other reported run-ins, with the tickler, however, the hysteria of tickler culture shook my sister and the students living on Kirkwood. The tickler was never caught, some say the ghost of the tickler still haunts the area, and some students report supernatural or not, sightings of the tickler out of their bedroom

window. Supernatural. It's actually a dead dude. It couldn't be more real. It couldn't be more human. Stay sexy and lock your doors, Julia. Oh, my, for real. So that's, that is like the sister perv to remember the pedaluma tickler that my friend

Audrey Crandall wrote in that's, is same exact thing, but young girls, if you haven't seen the 2016 documentary tickled, which relates to this directly, I highly, and I mean, I recommend it. It's a mind-blowing documentary because it starts one spot and friends of the fam, Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds are featured because they did this story on the dollop, which is a great, it's a bizarre history podcast. If you've never listened to it, it's very funny. Those guys are great.

And then the stories are real. So Dave finds the most insane historical stories and then just kind of walks you through them. But they are actually in this documentary because they covered this story and this, and this reporter who is either, I think he was from New Zealand, he went and started investigating it and unraveled a thing that was so much bigger than the original point of the story. It's the, I swear to you, April Richardson and I went and watched this documentary. And when it was over, it was at the, remember the Sundance movie theater in the, on Crescent

Heights? The Sundance 5? No. Yes. Yes, yes. But then it later became, yeah. So there was, I would say altogether, there was like nine people in the theater to watch this documentary.

And when it was over, we all turned to each other, like the whole audience turned to each other and went, what the, like we all started talking to each other because it was that mind blowing and that like, so if you haven't seen Tickled, it's from 2016, highly recommend that documentary. Oh, it's so good. It's so funny we did this last night too. Constantly making a list of things people watched and said they liked because we're always looking for stuff to watch and can, media to consume.

So bored. So bored. We watched everything. Watched it all. Watched it all. Okay. Well, that's a new one. Have you seen that documentary?

Did you watch it? I saw it years ago. I completely forgot about it. 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.

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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. Hey, I'm Mike Corey, the host of Wondery's podcast against the odds. In our next season, three masked men hijack 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 Wondery app. Okay, this last one is the subject line is postal worker because I think we called out

for if you're a postal worker, tell us weird stuff. Yeah. Hey, I'm FM crew. I'm a postal worker and I thought I'd share a couple of stories from the processing side. Okay. First of all, we are the biggest shipper of drugs in the country. You're welcome. We all know those coffee beans and packages are hiding weed props to the ones that straight

up send weed without any concealed scent. You've got some balls. Oh my God. Oh my. People just putting, putting weed in a box and putting some tape on it and giving it to the mailman. Amazing. Well, I was a clerk.

One of the funniest parts of my 12 hour day, six days a week was when jail mail came through. Ladies, whoever is taking those pics of you is a good friend and we've seen parts of you not meant for public viewing. Uh huh. Remember not to overstuff the envelope. It gets caught in the machines and your bits and pieces are out there for the whole post office to see.

Oh no. So, so people sending, sending in, it's like, Hey, you know, you need, this is what you need when you're inside. Yeah. But then if, if the envelopes too thick, there's too many photos in there. There's just too many angles. Pick three are your favorite. Yeah.

Um, one of the worst things to happen was when someone sent a fecal sample in an envelope and jam, it jammed in my machine. One shit was everywhere and I vomited in the trash can. What the fuck? Oh my God. Listen, if you're mailing in your ballot, this election mail early. Don't take chances. Your new voting date is October 20th, not November 3rd.

Make sure your vote gets counted. We have an election, we have election coordinators in every district in the country. We're working diligently to make sure ballots and election mail get clear every day. Go buy some sweet stamps or merch and clean off your porch steps, sidewalk for your carrier. I never thought about that. That's right. There's mail carriers who have to run gauntlets of people's garbage and bullshit to get, to deliver mail.

I never thought about that. Stay sexy and don't forget to seal that envelope of naughty picks. Be. Be. Amazing. Exactly what we wanted. I love it. Good inside information.

So good. Good voting info as well. Yes. Thank you so much for that. That's hilarious. Yeah. Okay. My last one is Hero Cat Saves the Dog.

Sup, y'all? A long time ago, you asked for Hero Cat stories and I finally worked up the ambition to actually send this in. My in-laws moved to a rocky mountains foothill neighborhood outside of Albuquerque just over 10 years ago. The house came with a cat flap, which they assumed was for a cat the previous owners had had. Nope.

Turns out the flap was installed specifically for the common cat that nobody owned but everyone took care of. Oh. He had toys, beds, food bowls, and a different name in every house in the neighborhood. I love those cats, neighborhoods. The cats. Tabby, right? Is it Tabby Cat?

It's got to be, right? Must be. My in-laws called him Meowie because he liked to talk a lot. He said Meowie without the E. So, Meowie. He liked to talk a lot. They took him all of one day to come in and climb all over my highly allergic father-in-law who quickly became his favorite person. My in-laws took him to the vet and tried to make him an indoor cat but he was having absolutely

none of it. Instead, Meowie came and went as he pleased, spending most of each week with my in-laws, made friends with their dog Brady, and went for family walks in the foothills every single day meowing the whole time. I love cats so much. As he was meowing, what he was saying is, I love this. It's so great to get outside. You guys are fun.

There's two other families that never leave the house. You guys get the good cat food. That's what I like about. I'm hanging out here. One day on their regular walk, Meowie did something he had never, ever done before. He started growling. He crouched down with his hackles fully raised, staring intently at a bush about 10 feet away and made this terrifying, low-growling hissing noise.

Now, this is an off-leash area and Brady was wandering close to that bush. The way Meowie was acting totally freaked my mother-in-law out, and she called the dog back. The second the leash clicked on Brady's collar, Meowie made the most blood-curdling, yowling noise and charged at the bush where, A, and this is all caps, fully grown bobcat had been hiding. Whoa! Meowie, a nine-pound semi-stray house cat chased this 30-plus-pound bobcat over 100 feet,

then came prancing back like the little king that he was. Save the dog, because he would have gotten the dog, because he was like, Meowie lived for another five years or so after this, getting spoiled with cans of wet food. The older he got, the more he stayed with my in-laws until he was basically an indoor cat at their place. He passed away peacefully in my father-in-law's favorite chair, which they still call the Meowie chair. Stay sexy and invite the neighborhood cat in for some wet food.

It might just save your dog, Rosie. Yes! That is the cutest! I know! I love it! Can we please have pictures of Meowie? Can we please just see him? Aww!

What if they sent us a picture and it's a bobcat, and we're like, Oh! Guys, guys, those were, they were relatives, they were having a family quarrel, there was no, no, that's the best. Also, I love those kind of cats that follow you when you walk and don't, like, flip out and don't go other places or whatever, like, that's, that weird, um, I, because cats aren't pack animals. So when they do stuff like that, it's like, I love that. Because they like you.

It's because they like you. Yes. And they know that your dipshits, it'll walk right by a bobcat bush as if that's your right and privilege. When it's not. Oh, watch your back from bobcats. What a good patch this week. What a good back.

The word is batch. Yeah! The word is batch. Patches of batches. Real good ones. It's the word you guys said last night. You're at niece and I. What was it?

Which she was. Stranglers. Yes. She was trying to say stragglers. Yes. So she goes stranglers and I go, no, I think you mean, what did I say? Strangler. Oh, no, it is stranglers.

And then I was watching you guys talk about it and then I finally, like, waited for you to be done. I was like, it's stragglers. It's stragglers. Man, this 13-year-old and I'm telling her the correct word and I'm totally wrong. And then Karen turns to us and goes and just tells us in the most straight voice that was very embarrassing. That story about those seventh grade girls that you guys were talking about, they weren't

stragglers. They were stragglers. It was so in character for me. It was almost like, that wasn't, that wasn't a joke. We socially distanced hang. It was fun. Oh, it was nice. Yeah.

Because my family came down as global warming refugees because Northern California is on fire and where they're from, they have fires above, below and east of them. So there was a smoke dome over Petaluma and then the smoke dome fell when the fog came in. So Laura was like, you're just inhaling ash and bits of, you're, they're just coughing and it was terrible. So they came down here to Los Angeles where the air is clear, so crazy and hung out for a week.

It was super fun. I love it. And we had so much fun last night. Yeah. It was great. Thanks for writing those in. Send more guys. My favorite murder at Gmail or on our website.

Send them there. We love them. They're the best. We appreciate it. Stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Goodbye. Elvis, you want a cookie?