My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 24

Episode Date: April 10, 2017

Get ready to go downtown for your My Favorite minisode hometowns! Karen and Georgia read your local tales this week based out of Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and Chicago.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. Exhibit C, it's truly criminal. Is that the start? We should make up the actual song with like lyric, I mean, you, the songwriter, should

make up an actual song based on downtown. Okay. We can't. Not right now. I mean, well, I don't think we can base it on it. I think we'll get sued. We're not selling it. We're just like, oh, shit.

Yeah, we are. Girl, we fucking make bank on this fucking show. Welcome to the my favorite murder mini sewed hometown edition, where we're the most down town. Modest girls in town. So you go the other way with it downtown. So I say hometown while you say, no, we're not harmonizing. You have to change the tune so you don't get caught and sued by Burke Bach Rocks estate.

We're changing the words. Isn't that enough? No. No. I know. Hey, this is my favorite murder hometown, where we review your stories. That's right. Back to you.

Yep. I love hearing your stories about what the crazy fucking thing that happened in your town or your college town or to your mom's cousin or to, you know, whatever you can get down on paper. We want to hear about it. We want to hear them and you send them to us at my favorite murder Gmail. Stephen looks through them. He deletes the shitty ones and he gives us the good ones.

Putting a lot of pressure on Stephen right now. People already are like, if Stephen even reads this, there's a lot of messages that start with a lot of attitude. If this even gets by Stephen where it's like, well, now it won't. Yeah. Well, now it doesn't. Yeah. No complaining.

Not in the first line. This is all supposed to be for fun and profit. It's fun times downtown sideways with it somehow. Side town. You're the fucking musician here. True. You go. So let's do a hometown.

You go first. All right. I like this title because it's from the name of my, the city that I think is the funniest, Sheboygan, the Florida of Wisconsin, 13 year old murders and a severed tongue. Hi, ladies. My name is Anna and I hail from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where we just were. I'm not writing about old Jeffrey though, Jeffrey Donner. Everyone here has a story about how their uncle got a ride from him or whatever.

Instead, I'm going to tell you about Sheboygan. It was about an hour or so north of Milwaukee and arguably the weirdest city in the state. In 2012, a 13 year old named Antonio Barbeau escaped from juvie and was living with his friend, Nathan Poppe. Good luck pronouncing that one. Nathan's unsuspecting mother drove both boys to Antonio's great grandmother, Barbara Olson's house. What she didn't know was that one boy was armed with a hatchet.

The other with a hammer. How can you know that? You can't. That you're 13 year old child. Not having children. I mean. So they entered the house through an unlocked door in the garage. Barbeau hit his great grandmother with a blunt end of the hatchet and then he began to hit

her. His friend followed suit with the hammer, poor grandma in parentheses and a sad face in parentheses. But the sad face is at the end of the parentheses. So then the close parentheses makes the sad face look like a yelling face with a mole. Okay. They looked through her house for cash and valuables. Maybe he had to do that. Maybe he's like sad face with a mole, yelling face with a mole, yelling face with a mole.

Like poor grandma. They looked through her house for cash and valuables. They then put the murder weapons in the trunk of her car and drove off with it. 13 years old. What they did next was pretty smart for 13 year olds. They stopped the car in the parking lot of a bowling alley and put her jewelry in the front window, hoping someone would steal the car and then take the fall for the murder. Holy shit.

That's fucking conniving. That's sinister as fuck. Okay. Afterwards, they went and got pizza. That's sinister as fuck right there. 13. Suddenly they're 13 again. Yeah, that's right.

I'm not fucking 49 year old. I'm like, I want to chop this milk. Just murdered someone with a hammer. Can you imagine like murdering someone and not being able to have a whiskey afterwards to calm your nerves because you're 13. Dude. Dude. If I was 13, if I couldn't have a bag of dritos every hour on the hour, it was a real

problem. Carrying out murderous. What'd you say? You'd get murderous. That was the problem. Anyways. Yeah. That was the problem.

Okay. So Barbo later confessed after police found Barbara's purse that had been tossed into the storm drain by the boys. Both boys were sentenced to life in prison. Oh, and during the trial, it came out that Antonio had been hit by a car as a child. In 2010, there was not a murder, but a woman by the name of Karen Looters bit her husband's tongue off. She apparently was having a manic episode and was off her meds.

On her meds, she had been described as a kindhearted person. Weird shit like that happens on the reg in Sheboygan and I wanted to share it with you guys. Thanks for reading. Stay sexy. Don't get murdered, Anna. That was very satisfying, Anna. Wow.

Man, those misfiring neurons just make you chomp away at fucking extremities. It's very unfair. Please try to stay on your meds as much as possible. That is a thing. If need be. Well, who are we to say? I have that thing of whenever a friend is like, I'm getting on meds and you're like, great.

Can you do me a favor in three months when you think you're better now because the meds are working that you don't fucking get off of them? Yeah. Every single person is new. Well, and also because there's side effects, right? There's things that make it a bummer. Even worse when you stop taking it. It's not like you stop taking it and it goes away.

Oh, right. I mean, like in the beginning, you're like, this isn't working. Or it works, but then it's also like it makes me tired or something. So then they're like, once they get better, they're like, well, I don't want to feel tired anymore. So I'm going to stop doing this. No, see what you have to do is just add medication on top of that till you get to a place where I am, where you basically are just medicated and you're just.

And motivated. You're one pharmaceutical away from biting your husband's tongue off. Vince, I'm sorry. Vince, I would never. But you got to ride that line. Yeah. Hey. You don't work for big pharma by the by.

We don't. We just support people getting what they need. Okay. What's yours? Let's see. Okay. Here's what we're going to do. Okay.

This one is titled 42 times OMG, a murder about sisters from sisters. Oh, Georgia, Karen, Stephen, Elvis and Mimi. My sister and I are both Abbot listeners and discuss your episodes with each other all the time. We've been wanting to share a hometown murder for a while because it's about another set of sisters in our town. We grew up in a small town north of Chicago, close to the Wisconsin border. Every summer in high school and college, we worked as lifeguards at the outdoor pool,

cliche. I know. Well, we worked there. That's not cliche. That's so wholesome and sweet. I wish my life had been like that instead of fucking raves and just basements. Okay. I don't know what that is.

Well, we don't have basements in Orange County. While we worked there, there was another set of sisters who were in elementary school that would literally get to the pool the moment it opened and stay until the moment it closed. And they were terrors. They were terribly behaved, really mean to each other and had literally worse potty mouths than most adults I know. I'm all for a good fuck you, but when a nine-year-old says the C word, that's a little much.

That's fair. That's very true. It might be a step too far. Maybe. Maybe your parents are not involved. I hadn't thought about those girls in quite some time, but a couple years ago, my sister sent me a newspaper article about the girls from the pool who were then 12 and nine. The girls were raised by their mom, but had two different dads because their mom was

a single mother. She worked long hours, often leaving the older sister home to care for the younger one, which we both know is a huge fucking mistake because older sisters are fucking Nazis. They're like the worst baby sitters. They hate you. They hate your guts. They hit you with a brush in the face. In the face?

That's right, Steven. That's very upset. He said, no, not the face. Oh, you think Laura killed Garrison? No, she used to hit me with a brush. I completely believe it. I guess the older sister was getting to be fed up with this routine. There was one night when the older sister got into a screaming match with the younger

one because she didn't pitch in and help with the household chores. Getting so mad, the older sister went to bed that night plotting to kill her younger sister. The next morning, the older sister waited until her mom went to work, grabbed two butcher's knives from the kitchen and proceeded to attack her younger sister. Oh, shit. Okay, I want to say that Lee never did that to me. Oh, yes.

And I appreciate her for that. And I'm sorry I called you horrible. Yeah. Sorry I threw a Barbie at your head once. Still a brush is a weapon, but it is not as sharp as a knife. You're right. She stabbed her 42 times. Fuck.

All caps. 42 freaking times. That's horrifying. Then she got in the shower to clean off and called the police telling them someone had broken in and murdered her sister while she was in the shower. The police eventually figured out what was going on and the sister confessed. People were particularly shaken about this event because not only was it so violent and premeditated, but both girls were so young.

Yeah, that's crazy. Do you remember as a latchkey kid, like when you'd have to call your mom at the office and she'd be like, what is it? This better be important. Like what if it was, one of your daughters killed the other one. I mean, also a kid, kids getting dropped off when the pool opens and not leaving till the pool closes is like 1000 red flags. It's so, there's so much neglect happening.

There's something bad happening. And I totally, I'm like defensive single mothers. I totally understand that there's some, you know, and especially back then, you know, there was really nothing you could do. There wasn't a place for my mom to take us. It wasn't like she couldn't work full time to pay fucking mortgage. And we were little shits, but man, yeah, that's not, that's not what you, anyways, she spent that time in juvenile detention until she was 21 and is getting released this year.

The court said that after years of intensive treatment and jail time, she was, she has paid for her crime. I'm not an expert, but stabbing someone 42 times doesn't really seem like something that therapy can bring you back from, but who knows? I hope she really has gotten the help she needs. Sorry, that was so gruesome. No, it wasn't. It was awesome.

But I was definitely the, it was definitely the craziest thing that happened in my town. I've since moved and now live in downtown Chicago. My sister and I are going to your live show at the Vic. We are so excited to see you there. Stay sexy. Don't get murdered. Murderinos, Elizabeth and Kate. Thanks you guys.

Thank you. I hope you liked the show that is happening this weekend, but happened last weekend based on this podcast episode. I'm just such a bummer story. I can't believe it. Also being half sisters. Yeah. I mean, all the resentment.

What's going on? I don't want to know babies. And she killed the little sisters, not like the little sister killing the older sister, which we could maybe get behind to like get back at you because you've treated me so badly. Now it's like, I'm sick of you having to take care of you. And also then it just is like, well, then the fighting is about the fact that one of those sisters is crazy and the little sisters having to fight a big crazy sister. That's night.

And like, somehow hold her own, which is impossible. She's nine. Yeah. Awful. She doesn't understand who doesn't know how it doesn't understand boundaries. Okay. Anyways, let's move on from that bummer. Well, fine.

Then. All right. Well, the heading of this one says, when a house blows up, is it still murder? This hometown murder, excuse me, this hometown murder involves a suburb of Richmond Hills in Indianapolis and a get rich quick insurance scheme that took the life of two neighbors also, and also involves some pretty murdery intentions later. So some of you, particularly Hoosier murderinos might, I love the movie Hoosier so much. Have you ever seen Hoosier?

Which one's that? It's the one about the like fifties basketball team that go, they end up going to the state championships. Oh my God. And Gene Hackman is their coach and Barbara Hershey is his love interest. She has some of the best outfits in cinema. So I'm just totally, it's such a good movie. We saw it in the theater when I was like 12, and it's just like how everybody comes together

and makes a team. The best. It's uplifting. Love it. Hoosiers, everybody. Hoosiers. Thank you, Gene Hackman for all you've done. Some of you, particularly Hoosier murderinos, may be familiar with this 2012 case, basically

a woman named Montserrat Shirley, Montserrat Shirley, hooked up with the wrong guy, a sociopathic con man by the name of Mark Leonard, and decided to follow his quote unquote suggestion of blowing her house up and making it look like a gas leak so that she could collect insurance money. This wasn't a secluded country home, but a home in the middle of that nice quiet subdivision. I remember watching the chaos and horror, I even heard the bang from nearly an hour away. It was that loud.

Holy shit. These next door neighbors were Jennifer and Dionne Longworth, Dionne was the brother of my sister's childhood best friend, and was even my childhood crush. They were killed in the blast and subsequent fire, and at least seven others were injured. Four million dollars of property damage was done, 33 homes had to be destroyed, but really it was Jennifer and Dionne's deaths that hit the hardest. The details of the case are too horrific to go into. Since it's recent, you should be able to find them if you are so inclined.

Jennifer died instantly, but Dionne suffered in a way that no one should have to. And police immediately marked the explosion as suspicious and started looking at the residents of the house that was at the epicenter. And thanks to some curious behavior, Mark and Shirley leaving that weekend, taking the cat to a border, and having someone babysit Shirley's daughter, Mark and Shirley with Mark's brother Bob and two others were caught and quickly tried. Witnesses placed Bob at the scene and reported on remarks that Mark had made about what he was going to do with the $300,000 of insurance money, including buying a fancy car.

Seriously, I'm not even fucking kidding, $300,000 was worth the potential of killing people. What the ever-loving fuck. When they were caught, Shirley wasn't immediately repentant, but when she found out that everyone pretty much had figured out that she'd done it, she flipped on the others. Like Shirley and Bob, as well as one of the other men were tried for murder. And while Shirley was busy trying to avoid the death penalty, because that was apparently on the table for all of them, or life in prison, Mark was trying to make his own escape, he hired a hitman in jail to go and kill a key witness.

Only everyone knows that a hitman you hire over the phone in jail is probably a cop. So yes, when a house blows up, it is still murder, Mark and Bob were convicted. And as most testified that they had to have known that loss of human life was possible and that they just didn't care. And the jury agreed, I wish I could say that this was a happy ending, but it's not too good. People lost their lives to a stupid scheme to get $300,000. People are assholes.

Holy shit. Yeah. That's rough. That's so stupid. Horrifying. I wonder how they did it. Well, they were trying to make it look like a ghastly because of what they said. God, I just hate that it's that easy.

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I'm Candace DeLong and on my new podcast, Killer Psyche Daily, I share a quick 10-minute rundown every weekday on the motivations and behaviors of the criminal masterminds, psychopaths and cold-blooded killers you hear about in the news. I have decades of experience as a psychiatric nurse, FBI agent and criminal profiler. On Killer Psyche Daily, I'll give you insight into cases like Ryan Grantham and the newly 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, let's do, let's do the Sledgehammer Killer from Oak Park, Illinois. Hey Georgia and Karen, I love your podcast so much because I'm obsessed with murder and serial killers and unsolved crime. Too much CSI as a kid.

I tried to be an amateur detective in elementary school. I researched missing persons and made a book with pictures and details of their disappearances. I'm like, can you imagine having a kid and be like, what are you doing honey? Nothing. Nothing. Listening to your podcast has seriously made me question why I never went into the criminal justice field or law. I work in higher education administration.

Anyway, here's my hometown murder story. I grew up in Oak Park, Illinois. Michelle McNamara was my dad's cousin. She was a badass lady and truly an inspiration. A town that borders the west side of Chicago, but where violent crime is super unusual. In 2005, when I was 12, a UIC professor was walking home from the L after work around five or six PM on a summer night, normal rush hour time. A car drove up and a man got out of the car and bludgeoned the UCI professor to death

with a Sledgehammer. Neighbors later reported they'd heard some sort of disturbance and then the car sped away. The professor, Pete Diagnostio, was found on a front lawn dead from a massive head wound. People around town had noticed the car and man earlier because of his suspicious behavior. One woman even tried to take down his license plate number. Needless to say, everyone was terrified because nothing like this ever happened in Oak Park. But it also seemed likely at the time that he would be caught because they had witnesses

to compile sketches of the man and they had an accurate description of the guy's car. However, the leads dried up and the murder remains unsolved to this day. Jesus. He says, but there's more. Oh. I was, oh, she says. I was doing some digging on this the other day and I was listening to your podcast and found Michelle's post on this murder on True Crime Diary from 2006.

I never knew there was another attack almost a year later, similar weapon, some kind of hammer, very similar description of the attacker. And I guess the composite sketches look similar too, though I was unable to find those online. Also in broad daylight, only this time it was a 14-year-old girl on the southwest side of the city, all caps. She survived, which is why police were able to get a description. I don't think the police ever linked the two attacks as Michelle did in her post and maybe they're not actually related, but it would be quite a coincidence in my opinion if the

two attacks turned out to be unrelated. Anyways, both attacks remain unsolved. I'm still catching up on your podcast and I'm several episodes behind, so I hope the story isn't redundant. It's not. You guys are awesome. Keep doing your doing, Emma. That's crazy.

Fuck, man. That's the amazing thing about Michelle's blog, which is still up, and when we were in Portland, there was some murder that I was looking at and I actually brought me to that page. Oh, wow. Because she really did do that work of connecting things. She was so into true crime, she would actually go, well, this was here, but she would know herself personally.

This is not like my version of it, which is like, oh, I've seen it on TV or something that's 30 years old. She knew about current cold cases and she would be putting the dots together on things like that. It was just an incredible amount of work and really well written, very readable. You have to really care at that point to be able to be that throw and get that involved is just you really care about people getting fucking found. The idea that someone jumps out of their car and bludgeon someone to death with a sledgehammer

and gets away with it is insanity. And you know, they probably looked into his life to be like, was he having an affair and the husband flipped out was, you know, was there a professor who was mad at him, a student who he did, you know, bad grade gave bad grades to or some shit. And if that's not, if they looked into that, hopefully, which I'm sure they did, then that just means it's some fucking unrelated stranger, a random stranger, yeah, psychotic lunatic or got the wrong guy meant to get the guy that that was true with and got the wrong guy. So crazy.

That's crazy. But then just it's fascinating, like it's too bad that most police departments don't have a big enough budget that they could employ people who would actually and maybe this is something that's like the near future computer programs that link these things once they go in when the when the paperwork goes in. That's a good idea. You plug in the statistics of cold hard facts and it comes back with, you know, similar MO, similar weapon, yeah, all this shit, it must be happening in some way or yeah, it

must be maybe FBI level, but oh man, yeah, that's heavy, very heavy and send us your hometowns, you guys, because clearly we fucking dig them. And thank you guys. Yes. Thank you so much for sending those in well written good stories. Yeah. Stephen, do you have something you need to say? Oh, it's getting ready for Elvis.

Oh, it looked like Stephen picked up the microphone like kind of like Marilyn McCoo on solid gold is very like very refined. Like you're about to be like one less. He's like, I'm going to add something to the end of don't get murdered. And he's going to go into his version of downtown. That's clearable. Oh my God. You don't have to pay for it.

That was it. Magic. All right. Stay sexy and don't get murdered Elvis. You want a cookie? You want cookie? Good boy. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye.