My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 192

Episode Date: September 14, 2020

This week’s hometowns include a postal worker hero and a family curse.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. Hello. And welcome to my favorite murder. The mini-soad. That's right. The mini-soad was your line. Shit. You were looking over like off to the side. So I thought maybe you were holding your breath before you blur. That was my way of queuing you by looking away. I wasn't trying to mad dog you into saying the line. I was trying to give you space to say your line. Thank you. And I did it. You're welcome. That's Karen Kilgarov. That's Georgia Heartstart. Hi. Our entire

state is burning to the ground, but we're here for you. But we're podcasting through it. That's right. That's what we do. Just like in any good disaster movie. We're the people that are getting the exposition out as it melts down. That's right. You want to go first? Sure. This one is a postal worker hero story. Cool. Hi, all. I was listening to the latest MFM mini-soad 190 this morning. The story from the postal worker reminded me that I had an amazing story about a postal worker hero. Way back in 2005, I was going to the University of Arizona. Go fill in the blank. I was in my last year of school and, of course, keeping college student hours and burning the candle at both ends. This meant that I was taking a nice nap on my couch in the early afternoon

when I was awoken to a frantic knocking on my door. I looked at the peephole and saw it was my mail carrier. So I opened the door. He asked me, are you okay? I heard screaming. I sleepily shook my head and let him know that everything was okay here. And we both heard a scream again. The postal worker said, close and lock your door and then took off. It turned out the scream was coming from next door. The girls who were living in the house next to ours had someone new moving in. No one else was home and the girl was moving boxes from her car into the house. And of course, keeping the front door open while she was going back and forth. Well, a man had apparently been watching her and assessed that she was alone. So during one of her trips from her car to the

house, he followed her inside and tried to assault her. Thankfully, the asshole left the door open. The mail carrier ran in and scared the guy off. Oh my God. He called the police and stayed with her until her roommates were able to get there. Unfortunately, I don't know if the asshole assault her was ever caught, but our mail carrier was forever our hero. Stay sexy and thank a mail carrier by posted and send someone a letter free. Wow. Nice. So good. He could have saved her life. I just, you know, so many people are just like, that's not my problem. Not my problem. I feel like mail carriers, though, they're, everyone is their problem because they have to go to every single house. They deal with like my poor mail carrier at my old house. My dogs would

jump at the front window and bark like she was trying to do something terrible for years, single day, for years, every day. I mean, they really deal with so much bullshit. Sure. You know who else does? Oh, you know what we need is stories from parking parking ticket people. Oh, part like meter maids. I guess they probably don't call them that anymore. Parking attendant stories or is that a valet? No, I don't know how to tend it. It's not a ticket. You know, we need someone to tell us what that is and then write a story. Waiter. Hold on. We can figure this out. We'll figure it out. Okay. This one's called family curse and grandparents stuff. Hello and welcome to my email. Yeah. Love it. Yeah. I've been meaning to send this bad boy in for a

very long time. So now, so let's cut the shit and get right to it. Please. Ever since, is she a killgiraffe? It's from my sister. Ever since I was little, my grandmother has been telling me the story of our family curse and the number 21. In fact, she would often tell me the story right before bedtime when I would sleep over as a child. Thank you for the nightmares. So here's the basic premise. Every first born female in each family branch dies an untimely death and it always correlates with the number 21. What? Is this that Jim Carrey movie? He writes it all over the wall. Is this from Jim Carrey? He writes in the plot of his own movie from 2005. This isn't a hometown, but it is the plot of a movie that I was in. But it's a pretty good movie if I do say so myself.

Here is Liar Liar. It starts with my great-grandmother who had a daughter named Shirley. Shirley passed away when she was just 21 days old from the measles. Luckily, my great-grandmother went on to have two other daughters that, after that, both who are alive and well to this day. One daughter being my great-aunt Pat and the other being my very own grandmother Joan, including names in here because I know you love it. Yes. My aunt Pat went on to have her first born child, a daughter, to be named Tiffany. Tiffany sadly died exactly 21 days before her due date. My aunt Pat never had any other children after that. I know, heartbreaking. That brings us to my grandmother who went on to have three children and you guessed

it, the first one was a girl. Her name was Beverly. Beverly goes on to pass away in a freak car accident on her 21st birthday. What? Tragic, weird, spooky, all of the above. And hey, guess what? It gets worse, all caps. I am the first born girl for the following generation. Also, my name is Beverly, which is such a good name. Bring it back. I fucking love it. That is a great name, especially for a like a three-year-old girl named Beverly. Are you joking? Bev, can you get my Virginia lights? Bev, darling. Bev, can you take off those cat eye sunglasses for one second? I'm trying to talk to you. I am named after my late aunt Beverly mentioned above. Hopefully this means I will pass away

when I am still kicking ass at 121 years old or something. But let me tell you one thing. I am always hella cautious on the 21st of every month. Phew, it gives me the willies, she says. Thanks for reading my email and thanks for doing the cool shit you do. I will not miss your live show when you come back to Philly again. Also, my grandparents' names are Joan and Ed, and they are amazing and badass. If I do die on untimely death involving the number 21, I will try to haunt everyone and give you guys an update on how it all went down. TTYL, Beverly, and then it says, my friends call me beef. Oh, Beverly. That was a full journey of an email. I mean, really great entertaining, great information, a family fucking curse is a first,

I think. I think so. And incredible and horrifying. Like horrifying awful, but then like light, funny parts, so you're not like, it's just everything you want. I think it's really, you know what, Beverly, and I hope you do live to 121, but if you go early, at least you wrote that email. A perfect email. Just kidding. Your life's goal is now complete. Georgia just did the classic comedy take of nodding along with me until I got to the end and then her eyes went wide. Like, oh, I don't agree. I don't agree. What are you saying? Okay. This just starts, hey ladies, this isn't really a murder story, but I do have some stories about Action Park. Yes. Right? Yes. A first-hander Action Park. Sorry, I got this one because it was your story. No, I got an Action

Park one too, but I didn't pick it for some reason. We haven't done the full, but you might do the full. No, but has anyone, okay, just for anyone who doesn't know Action Park is this, well, read your letter, whatever. Yeah, they might. Here. Okay. I live in Northern New Jersey. I'm only 22, but my dad was a frequent guest of Action Park as a teenager. Whenever he talks about Action Park, he says, you didn't have fun if you didn't get hurt with it. That's the 80s saying you're not having fun unless you get hurt. It's like a dude with his hair parted down the middle and wearing a jean jacket and he says that and then he smiles and then his front tooth falls out. And his arms in a sling, but he's doing a thumbs up interaction. He didn't have fun

if you didn't get hurt. Big hole. Okay. I love it. Okay. So, oh, then they say, which is not really my definition of fun, but it was the 80s, I guess. There you go. That's right. He was one of those people who got to go on the cannonball loop slide before I shut it. No. He busted his nose pretty badly, but he did say it was worth it. Not sure if he got scraped up by the teeth embedded in the slide. Did you hear about that? Is that in the documentary? Teeth embedded in the slide that other kids get scraped. That is beyond. But I'm assuming he did because he mentioned it right before it got brought up in the documentary. Aside from the various other minor injuries, he came out relatively unscathed. So, he did have a friend ride the Alpine slide.

Oh, shit. Read it. I'm sorry. This is just such a weird throwback. It's like, it's so, I did have a friend ride the Alpine slide shirtless and have his entire back completely covered in road rash. Oh, my God. Like, the 80s was the last era of shirtless dudes in public, just chilling out. That was a thing to the point where they had to put up signs at McDonald's saying you're not allowed to do that in here. It was very common. Yeah. Yes. And tiny corduroy OP shorts. Bring it back. One thing I thought was wild that they didn't mention in the documentary was the fact that the park had actually bought the town of Vernon new ambulances because their first aid squad was called out to the park so often. Stay sexy and don't go to poorly designed

water parks. Tory. Oh, that was great. Sorry. Everyone asked your so good mom or dad what happened to them. Children of New Jersey. Yeah. Love is amazing. This one's called CIA grandfather. It's short and sweet, but I like it. Karen in Georgia. A few many sods ago, you read a story about someone CIA grandfather. My family similarly believes that my grandfather was in the CIA. He traveled a lot for work, often narrowly missing significant historical events, most notably leading to Iran just hours before the Iran hostage crisis. He knew. Yeah. Get out of here. Yeah. When my sister and I graduated high school, we were both targeted by the CIA for recruitment. How come that didn't happen to me? Is it because I didn't go to college? Because your

grandfather wasn't in the CIA. Right. And I barely graduated high school. Okay. Well, yeah, were you there to be recruited? You have to be present to be recruited. Probably not. And I would be like, fuck the government. Not like that's awesome. Yes. Our theory is that as grandchildren of one of their best, we seem like the perfect candidates, although other high schoolers in our neighborhood were targeted, including a childhood friend of mine who mysteriously gained the ability to speak perfect Russian in the past few years after having her college seemingly entirely paid for by a nameless perspective employer. Oh, you are just gossiping now and that's rude. Oh my God. Wait for that. Wait for this. Although my grandfather died when I was young,

one thing I learned from him was to always take a different route home every day. 15 extra minutes won't kill you, but the people tailing you might. XOXO. Gossip girl. Gossip girl, like the TV show. Psychic powers. Oh my God. Total CIA psychic powers. Yeah, I think they never recruited me and they really, they missed out. I really did. I just liked that one. It was short and sweet with like a lot of information packed in there. You know, it was good. It was great. I mean, there's always time for the CIA. Any information that we can get. That's right. Looking for a better cooking routine? With meal planning, shopping and prepping handled, HelloFresh has you covered. HelloFresh makes home cooking easy and affordable so you can

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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. Hey, I'm Arisha. And I'm Brooke. And we're the hosts of Wondery's podcast, Even The Rich, where we bring you absolutely true and absolutely shocking stories about the most famous families and biggest celebrities the world has ever seen. Our newest series is all about the incomparable diva, Whitney Houston. Whitney's voice defined a generation and even after her death, her talent remains unmatched. But her incredible success hit a deeply private pain. In our series, Whitney Houston, Destiny of

a Diva, we'll tell you how she hid her true self to make everyone around her happy and how the pressure to be all things to all people led her down a dark path. Follow Even The Rich wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. Okay, this subject line is drug dealer saved a life. Hello to my favorite ladies, pets and mustache. Just kidding, Steven, you're more than just a mustache. I was listening to Minnesota 189 when you gals asked for drug dealer stories and how they saved your life. Yes, you really did ask for that. No, that's way too well. Yeah, I'm like, it doesn't sound familiar. Okay, well, here's, here's mine. There was this quiet guy in my college dorm that I was interested in. You are

singing my song, girl. The quiet ones make me extra loud. Then they really don't like you. Before they just regular didn't like me. And then it would be like, oh, God, that loud girl's coming over here again. It's because you make her nervous because you won't speak. So she talks too much. You can't you're brooding would take a brooding break and chit chat with me. He was new to campus and I'd see him in passing and was so intrigued by this mysterious man. One crazy college night, my friend was working the night shift at the front desk of the dorm. I sat down there with her to help keep her awake and watch the drunks roll in late that night in walks the mystery man. He was completely covered in mud sticks and missing his shirt. We just sat there with her

mouth open confused and staring. He walks in gives us a couple finger guns and heads upstairs saying nothing. A few months later, I end up having this guy as my accounting tutor. And I asked him about that night. Turns out that he was at a party with some shady characters. And he did a few too many shots of Everclear. He stumbled out of the house and was offered cocaine from a dealer, which he accepted his quote unquote friend told him to go home and put him on the public bus, which goes to campus. However, it was the wrong bus. Of course it was. This bus took him over two miles away from campus on the edge of a marsh slash pond. It was October in the Midwest and about 40 degrees out. So instead of taking the long way home,

he just decided to cut through a mile of wet marsh and swampland to get home. Hence the mud sticks and missing shirt. I'm convinced that the cocaine actually saved his life. Frankly, it's a miracle he could have passed out in the marsh and died from hypothermia or drowned and no one would have known. But the cocaine kept him going and he was able to make it back. I love it. We've we've since been together six years and are getting married in 2021. I didn't read the last paragraph. Oh my God. This is my favorite. That's amazing. His party days. She married the guy covered in mud. The cocaine guy covered in mud. She married the muddy finger guns. Hey, mom and dad, how did you guys meet?

When did you first know you loved dad? It's hard to explain. Also, I need to know you. The part of the story is how you figured out how to get him to be your accounting tutor. Did you you find out he was tutoring people in accounting and then signed up for an accounting class? That's probably what she did. And they're like, Hey, I'm bad at this. Yeah. God, this class, it's like I never wanted to take it or plan to enroll in it ever at all. It's like it has nothing to do with my my major in zoology. But I guess I got to take this accounting class. You know, it zoos make money. Someone's got to bounce those books. So you better teach me how someone's got to account for all that tiger feed might as well be me.

His party days are done and he's now a full time accountant. Yes. If it wasn't for the drug dealer, I would have missed out on marrying the love of my life. Don't do drugs, stay in school, stay sexy and don't get murdered tea. Tea. That is I love how unthrow I was and I gave myself my own surprise at the end. We're coming to your wedding. We're coming to your wedding. We'll bring the cocaine. She got a quiet guy. I know. Well, the quiet guys are sometimes just shy. Vince was a quiet guy when I met him. Really? Yeah. And I was just and I knew he wasn't because when we met, we had like a great conversation all night. And then we went on dates and he wouldn't fucking speak. And I was just like, I know you're cool. Like, and so I had to say to him, I need you to

talk or I'm just going to keep, I'm going to talk too much and hate myself because you know, you like fill in the silence because yes. So it's just like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and I can't eat in silence. And so I find like kind of yelled at him and he's like, okay, I got it. And now he's like busted, busted it out. I know I can't even imagine him being that way. That's what's funny. Yeah. Yeah. He's such a Mr. Like, Hey, everybody who needs a totally he can figure he can find anything to talk about. Okay, this one, but you made him shy, Georgia. You made him shy. I mean, we were still making out every date, but you were working through it. And that's what's important. The chemistry was there, baby. Yeah. This all of us are a little bit connected. This

one is a mailman story. Yes. So Hey, guys, I'm a Canadian male lady and I'll let and let me tell you there's some fucked up shit out there. I've been greeted by basically naked men more times than I care to count. I've delivered active sex toys, live bees, a chicken, and even a whole black bear. But this story isn't about that. As with all male carriers, I have a few favorite customers on my route. A few years ago on my old route, my favorite was Jimmy McGraw, a lovely 70 something widower living off the grid on the mountain side. Jimmy was my last stop. So I'd always stay and chat with him as he didn't get much company. He would typically offer me a cup of coffee or whatever sweets he'd baked up. This particular visit started with the usual small

talk. And then the sweet man looked me dead in the eyes and asked, Can I interest you in a line? A line, I reply, would you like a little cocaine? Feel free to feel free to come up over the weekend, bring your husband. It turns out I had delivered that very cocaine the day before. You really can mail anything. I never did take him up on the offer, but I'm fairly certain I know where he got his remarkable energy. And it's just signed Kale S. Okay. The idea of going out like living a respectable life and doing what needs to get done for whatever you think that is. Becoming a widower. Then you're just like, guess what? I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna roll on out of here like drug style off the grid. I'm not bothering anyone. I'm not like making cocaine person noises

for my neighbors to get annoyed by blasting fucking free bird and shit. I'm just like living my life on the mountain side of my carrier friends. I'm kind of excited. I got a lot of baking done. I like Marlboro Reds for some reason, but hey, it's good for the in the nature. I thought about opening a restaurant, but it has to be off the grid. There's no one to talk to about it. Exactly. I don't want any customers is the thing. Oh, I love that. Wow. Yeah, that's real. You should sit. Don't do drugs until you're 75. That's right. Then do all the drugs you want. That means dad, you have a year until you get to start doing drugs. We can't talk shit to you at all. That's right. Marty gets to start doing that shit. Oh, I bet he'll enjoy it for the first time when he's

75. Yeah, because he's been sober his whole life. His whole life. My dad's such a square. Send us all your stories about anything ticket, take a taker. Are you a ticket taker or a ticket giver? A ticket giver. And what are you called? If you understand what we're saying right now and you know it's you, explain everything to us, please. Park it ticket attendant. Valet. Valet stories would be great too. Valet stories would be amazing, but I don't think you're an attendant because they have to keep moving. Yeah, you're attending to the tickets, not to the cars. Can we just have the reveal now and find out what the fuck we're trying to say? Okay, let me look it up. Let's pause it. Parking enforcement officer. Yay. Parking enforcement

officer. Enforcing parking all day long. Doing it for the people, the good of the people, even if they hate you. Hey, look, that's what enforcement is all about. It's forcing things and forcing things. All right, we're done with this, right? Fucking done. I mean, we've given all we can. We've given everything we've got. What more do you guys want? This might be the mini soda of all time. We've been huffing wildfire fumes for days. I mean, I don't, I don't even know what's going on anymore. Well, thanks for listening. If you've gotten this far. Yeah. Thanks for sticking in there. Stay sexy and don't get murdered. Goodbye. Elvis, do you want a cookie?