My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 254

Episode Date: November 22, 2021

This week’s hometowns include a crime scene with a chalk outline and a pre-teen hero.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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And welcome. To my favorite murder. The mini-soad. That is Karen Kilgera. And that's Georgia Hartstark. Hi, hi, hi. We're getting so good at those intros. We're getting great at our names.

I hate to be intimidating to people, but it's powerful. Those first 15 seconds. Yeah. It does. It does a lot of good. So we're about to read you your emails. Your hometowns. We're going to get through 2021.

We're going to survive it and we're going to get through it. We're so close. We're on the verge. Yeah. Just keep going. Just keep going. That might help. Some stories.

Okay. Do you want to go first? You want me to go first? I think that was the perfect segue right into an inspirational hometown. Oh, shit. Do I have one? Or whatever you have. We can edit that part out.

Let's not. But this is an inspirational in any way, shape or form. Okay. This one's called your friendly neighborhood chalk outline. Hi, MFM crew. Let's get into it. I grew up in Park City, Utah, a town known for its picturesque slopes and for hosting Hollywood's debauchery every January during the Sundance Film Festival.

Well, Park City has a pretty Tony reputation these days. When I was growing up, it was a small, sleepy town filled with ski bums and nature-loving hippies. Because it was very safe and small, my parents worked two jobs each. My sister and I were allowed to roam our neighborhood unsupervised for hours a day. One summer day, my sister and I were riding our bikes from our house to a duck pond up the road. We lived in a condo community at the base of Park West Ski Resort known as the Canyons

today. And it only took us two minutes to get from our house to the pond. On this particular day, however, we couldn't get all the way to the duck pond because there were police cars everywhere. We had never seen something like this. So we ditched our bikes and walked around the condos to the parking lot where it seemed like most of the action was happening. I just love the kids.

We're like, I know how to get to that spot. Let's go. Yeah, we cut over here. We can get right front and center. That's right. Despite being unable to get very close, we saw something our eight and five-year-old eyes had never seen before. Oh, no.

Lots of police tape and a real-life chalk outline. Our minds were blown. I didn't know they really did that for some reason. I guess they did. Word spread quickly that there had been a murder related to some patrons of a bar at the Ski Resort and the murders were quickly arrested by police. The victim was a gay man named Doug Kohler who had been playing pool at the bar the night before and had befriended two straight men over the course of the night.

The night ended and the men went to, went their separate ways before the straight men returned to Mr. Kohler's home, lured him out of the house, and shot him in the parking lot. Oh, my God. I know. The motive for the killing was determined to be Mr. Kohler's sexual orientation and the homicide was labeled a hate crime. Most of these details didn't make it to my eight-year-old ears until the next year,

however, when my mom sat me down to watch the 2020 episode about the murder. Really appropriate, mom. I will never forget the sight of the chalk outline in our neighborhood's parking lot, both because it was one of the first times that my naive childhood worldview had been rocked and because my dad continued to drive us by the outline long after the police had cleared the crime scene. I think the outline stayed there for a full month. Knowing the horrible and heartbreaking reason Mr. Kohler died has always stayed in my memory

right alongside the visual and I truly believe it was in this instance that my murdering no self was born, stay sexy and maybe don't drive your kids by the chalk outline over and over again, Sidney. Wow. I know. I don't think I knew that one. That's awful. Yeah, that's really horrible.

I feel like those ones you don't hear about, I mean, it's just, it's a classic example of crime against marginalized people where it doesn't get talked about, it doesn't. But the idea, I know that on first glance, it's like, oh, that's gross or bad of the parents or whatever. I totally think when something like that happens in your neighborhood that it's almost like people processing it of like, this thing happens, this really horrible thing and I don't know, I feel like it was like the dad going and looking at it, right? Yeah.

I think you think it's that kind of like... Processing. I think so. I don't know. Yeah. Or just one way to look at it. Totally. I think because it's like, that's why people gather around a crime scene.

It's because like what just happened among us. Right. It's the same with a car accident when you're driving by. People stop and gawk because they want, they want information. Right. I'm from Billingham, Washington and boy do we have it all. Make sure I didn't lose the second page. I love it.

No, just go with it. Oh, it just started high there. I missed, I only missed high there. I really liked the other one. Like they work for the tourism board or something. Since we're close, since we are close to the Canadian border or perhaps just the creepy Pacific Northwest vibes, we get a lot of serial killers who see it as a good spot to lay low in case they need to flee the country.

That means Ted Bundy, the DC sniper and the hillside strangler have all hung out here. Hooray. My personal connection is to the Kenneth Bianchi, aka the hillside strangler case. During the late seventies, he was a manager for a security company up here and my mom's brother's boss. Who is your uncle? Just, just to break it to you lightly. Because of this, he came and had dinner at my grandparents house with their whole family

several times. All while my mom was in her late teens, since he was a trusted member of the community, he also gave several of her kids, because he was a trusted member of the community, he also gave several of her friends rides home from parties. A few months later, Bianchi was arrested for the murders of Karen Mandik and Diane Wilder, two university students in our town. Though my mom often describes Bianchi as good looking and charming, there was something about him that was off just enough so that no one was surprised when they found out he

was the hillside strangler. Holy shit. Plus, my uncle was promoted into his role at the company, way to climb the ladder. Holy shit. Whenever I encounter other Bellinghamsters, who, could that be the real name, who have been here for a generation or two, I always share the story to get some bonus points as everyone in the Pacific Northwest is a mournerino. Ah.

Many, that's a bold statement. Many times the person I'm talking to will reciprocate their connection to Bianchi and expand my database of his character. For example, one of the places he did security at was our local sportsplex, a former coworker of mine used to smoke outside the place with her fellow 12 to 14 year olds. And Bianchi, an adult, would join them and invite them to party, 12 to 14 year olds. He even told my coworker that she had a nice neck. More heartbreaking examples.

Oh my god. Yeah, it's horrifying. More heartbreaking examples occur when someone had a connection to the victims. In sharing my mom's story with another acquaintance, she shared that her now husband had been dating one of the victims when she was murdered. He truly loved her and is in several courtroom photos as he went to Bianchi's trial every single day to ensure that she received justice. She did receive justice, but her murder left a huge hole in the lives of those around her.

I hope sharing this helps bring perspective that some people's fascination is other people's heartbreak. Stay sexy and don't accept compliments about your neck. Grace. Wow. That was a great, great, well written hometown. We beautifully put together. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. Wow. This one's called a murder trial and a badass doctor. Greetings to the MFM family members of all kinds. I love the show. Never stop. Moving on to the hometown story. This story shared with me by my mom comes from my hometown of Roseburg, Oregon, a town

that's small, conservative and dull as hell. In July 1990, the body of traveling photographer Donald Fish was found by the South Umpqua River in Roseburg. It was discovered that he had met a couple, Tamara Upton and Tracy Poirier, at a local tavern the evening before. The women then robbed Fish and beat him to death with stones on the riverbank. Oh, shit. I know.

And then fled in a car they had stolen in Salem, Oregon, and were caught and arrested driving on the I-5. During this time, my mom was pregnant with my older brother and she was selected to be on the jury for this trial. My mom's not a huge murderer now, but she thought it was a super interesting opportunity to be part of a murder trial. So she was looking forward to the experience. However, because she was pregnant and had had a miscarriage the year before, which affected

her mental health in ways that persist today, her OBGYN advised her that she should not be part of the jury and wrote her a letter of medical excuse. Ultimately, both Upton and Poirier were convicted of aggravated murder in 1991 and each sentenced to life in prison. However, once there, Poirier befriended a prison guard who helped her escape from the prison in 1998 and the two fled to Rhode Island, where they were caught and extradited back to Oregon. This case has been featured on episodes of the show's Killer Couples, Wicked Attraction,

and the most recent update on the cases that Upton passed away in prison in 2019 of an undisclosed illness. My mom shared the story with me only in my teenage years. I'm approaching 30 now and handling it just fine. Thank you. I've been fascinated ever since that this murder took place only a few miles from my childhood home. SSDGM and fucking hooray for doctors who put mental health concerns first, Katie, she,

her. Whoa. I know. I swear my last one isn't as intense. Well, also just like the idea killing someone with a rock. That is so intensely violent and horrible and I mean, what in the hell? After robbing them, it's just so depraved. It's horrible.

God. All right. Well, this is slightly more uplifting. Hi. To begin, I live in a very small town in very rural Iowa. So there's nothing to do ever because of that. During the summers, we often spend a lot of time in the river. Yes, it is pretty gross and you definitely have to be up to date on your tetanus shot.

One summer, my cousin was in the river with her boyfriend and came across an object buried in the sandbar. At first, they thought it was a bone from a deer, but my cousin's boyfriend is a hunter and recognized that it was not from a deer. It was in fact a human jaw bone. Here's the story. What? There was a huge flood a few years before and the river was meters higher than it normally

is. A family was stopped on the bridge on the highway at the crest of a hill out of their vehicle looking at the floodwater. A semi-traveling at about 55 miles an hour came over the crest of the hill and because 18 willers can't just stop at the drop of a hat, the driver had very few options. The semi-driver, with his wife as a passenger, made a decision to sacrifice himself and his wife in order to not hit and inevitably kill the people standing outside of their vehicle on the bridge.

The semi-driver swerved and went plummeting into the river. Both he and his wife died. Most of the semi-driver's body was never recovered until my cousin found the jaw bone buried in the sandbar and it was identified as his using his dental records. Stay sexy and watch out for semis. They have a job to do, JC. Oh my God, that is heartbreaking. This is an intense episode of this show.

It really is. Every single one. I mean, but there, it's like, it's, you know, that's an unbelievable story that truck driver and his wife like sacrificed themselves for a family. But that's like the end of a movie. Totally. Totally. Like, ugh.

What heroes. That's crazy. Well, I do have a light hearted one now. Thank fucking God. Okay, great. 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

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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 podcasts. You can listen ad free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. Here we go. All right. This is called Chippendales for Mothers. Yep. Oh.

Two days. Yay. It just starts. Two days ago, I, 25 year old female, purchased tickets for my mom and I to go see the Chippendales for her 60th birthday in December. What's up? I purchased them while I was at work and came home and my mom watching the DateLine episode about the Chippendales murder.

She's always had the horrible gift of reading my mind and spoiling surprises. So she bought her tickets and she just happened to be fucking watching the DateLine. That's hilarious. I love it. I tried to casually get a read on it. She would be excited to go see them when she dropped the absolute bomb on me that she went to see them in the 80s with my no frills, LDS raised read Mormon grandmother. Yes.

She grew up in a small town and so what was that noise? Did I just honk? It was the greatest. Here we go. She grew up in a small town in southern Utah and married my grandpa on her 18th birthday against my great grandma's wishes and ran away to Las Vegas to start their family. Hell yes. She was always quiet and never had anything bad to say no matter how much she disliked

something. You should really try it. It's really great. It's really great to talk shit like God please help me. When my mom was in her 20s she went tickets to see the Chip and Dale's on the radio. She invited my grandma to go since my grandpa was out of town with my uncles on a hunting trip. Yes.

The perfect time for a girl's night out. Cats away baby. Cats away. I guess my grandma had the all caps time of her life. Yes she did. It wasn't every day she was able to get dolled up and party it up with a bunch of gyrating hairy oiled up men. During the winter.

They were hairy. There was like half of them were full on hairy bears. That's what was hot at the time I guess. It was. During the middle of the show the MC said, hunting season's always our busiest time of year. Then it says this trap. Saying my mom's so happy just thinking about the memory of going with my grandma was so

nice and I hope that I'm able to recreate a version of that for her and I. I'm more excited than ever to go with my mom to see gyrating, hairless oiled up men. Sign of the times. My grandma passed away at the beginning of 2021 not COVID after being sick for most of my life. When I was about five she became super sick. I'm talking nonstop hospitals couldn't speak, walk or feed herself but thanks to my very stubborn and hard headed grandpa she was able to live another 20 years.

She outlived all my other grandparents. She wasn't able to walk very well but she did everything she could to keep her life as normal and routine as possible even after my grandfather's passing in 2012. She loved to bowl and I recently inherited her bowling gear including her personalized ball and vintage bowling bag. Please send a picture of that to us. That's right. Please immediately send a picture.

I love it. My mom and I. And any trophy. Any trophy she may have ever. Send us a trophy. We want a trophy. We want bowling trophies of our own please but then also if you have pictures of your grandma.

Yes. My mom and I make it a point to go at least twice. A month now. Yes. Grandma was my mom's best friend. Their relationship set such an amazing example. My dad always tells me your mom is always going to be your best friend. Stay sexy and take your mom to see the Chippendales.

Tay. Yes. What a beautiful family story. I know. I know. I absolutely love the idea of like an otherwise because you know I don't know if you've ever met like older Mormons but they're so like Americana perfect. My friend Betsy that I used to work with she invited me over to dinner one night and her

parents came over and they were like they were just perfectly put together and they were incredibly lovely people and they like the mother made this insanely perfect food. It was like and everything was just home making to the night. Right. I've never seen anything like it. Right. That's like their focus in life is to make family happy. It's family and like you know community whatever but then the idea that she's like right but

did I get to also one night of go out and stick some dollar bills in this guy's underwear. That's right. I get to put on my clip on earrings and fucking party it up and spray on some of that white shoulders and just get out there with the gals blue eye shadow. Let's do this. Yes. I'm sorry. I really enjoyed that because you know what it had like badass grandma Chippendales like

Chippendales family bowling bowling. I love bowling. Oh it's been so long since we've been allowed to bowl to bowling. Let's go bowling. Let's go bowling ASAP. I love bowling. Let's do it. Let's you know what let's do that.

Do you have you gotten your booster yet? Not yet. I'm getting it this week. That'll be our booster celebration. Great idea. Okay. Great. Bye.

Okay. This the subject line is for a teen hero. Hi friends. A few months back or was it years? Who knows. Thanks COVID. You asked for stories about teenagers or preteens who saved the day and I have the story for you.

I teach ESL English as a second language in Quebec City and two years ago I had a grade six student named Jean Christophe. It's not his real name. I chose a super French one for you. Thank you. Don't be boring with made up names. Let's get creative. Especially the French ones.

Now I'm going to put as much accent into that name as I possibly can. He was a fairly mediocre student but one who was pretty sweet and here's his story. He was at a pool party with a few different families. Yes, even in Quebec it sometimes gets warm enough to go swimming. When everyone went inside to get some food, usually Jean Christophe would be the first one to go grab some food but for whatever reason he decided to stay and swim a little longer. It was at this point when all the adults were inside and he was alone in the pool that he

noticed a funny shape at the bottom of the pool. He quickly realized it was the three-year-old daughter of one of the families that was there. He swam down and grabbed her and then yelled for the adults once he had her out of the pool. She was unconscious. He started doing CPR on her, an 11-year-old, until an adult came out to take over and someone else called the ambulance. Thanks to him, she survived and was okay.

Oh my God, I have chills. I find his story so touching because Jean Christophe is such an indiscreet kid. He never draws attention to himself and he is most decidedly an underachiever but when it really counted, he got it done. Like a dude. Oh my God. And then it just says dude with six U's. Yes.

Oh, I love it. Thanks for all you do. You've helped me learn how to talk to my daughters about their mental health struggles and I couldn't be more grateful. And shout out to my sister, LJ, who is the fiercest badass I know. Also, she owes me big time for introducing her to the pod. Stay sexy and never underestimate a quiet 11-year-old. No name.

Chills. Chills. Like a big show, big ender. Big closer. Big closer. Good one. He saved a three-year-old baby. That little kid, let's just keep our eye on Jean Christophe or whoever actually knows

him. But I mean, like, that's not an underachiever. No. That's just someone that doesn't work in your fucking systems. Bored. He's bored with your fucking- He's bored. And he's better than all of us. Canadian bullshit education system.

Sorry. Metric system. Constant metric system. He was like this. He's a pioneer. Really? He's just been waiting for his time to shine. And it came and he nailed it.

And God bless. Okay. How about after we go bowling, we go learn CPR and get certified in it? Because I'm not. I would love it. And I'm ashamed of it, but I'm not. The only thing I can tell you offhand is that if you're trying to give somebody the actual CPR where you're pumping on their heart, it's to the beat of Saturday Night Fever.

Yes. It's faster than you'd think. It's faster than the movies ever show it. Okay. I'm going to take a class because I took a class like in the late 2000s. It was very informational and it made me feel much like calmer because there's a whole thing about if somebody has a heart attack, you actually don't need to, I mean, hold on. This is what I remember from the class.

This is not the law or not telling you or whatever. But there are those- The defibrillator? There are defibrillators along the wall and like every airport in many public spaces. So if you spot those and maybe even look around for them in downtime, you just have to grab the paddle. You have to pull that down. It's very clear instructions and you just zap somebody back. Wow.

Oh, I didn't know that. That's great. That's good to know. I feel like a thing I'm always worried about is like, maybe we're going to have to give the Heimlich maneuver to someone or if they're going to have to give it to me, obviously. I worry about that. Yeah. Well, that's a- First of all, please cheer your food slowly.

Secondly, let's take a- Please don't victimize- Take a sip of your club. Please stop swallowing lasagna, old Georgia. You know what, and there's the other thing is, if somebody starts choking and they walk out of the room, go follow them because people do that all the time and that's how a lot of people die is that they think, oh, we have to leave that person alone because they're choking. Right.

Or the person is embarrassed and doesn't want to say anything. So they just go deal with it on their own, but that's not- They just go choke in the bathroom. So follow those people, help them. If anyone goes to the bathroom, follow them at your party. Yes. Just go- And scream, are you choking at the door? I genuinely though we have to take a first aid class.

Okay. For sure. For sure. That's such a good idea. Yeah. Okay. We'll roll really. You know what else?

We have to become doctors. My coffee just picked up. Immediately. Wow. Well, thanks for listening. The story's good, bad, or ugly. We like them all. Yeah.

We love them all. Yeah. That's our guarantee. Yeah. Thanks for the ones we read this week. Yeah. Everybody did an amazing job. Amazing job.

If you want one more from each of us, join the fan cult. We do an extra quickie, many, many episode every week and along with other things. Salacious bonus content. That's right. Just the stuff that you really, really want in your ears. It's hometown after dark. Stay sexy. Don't get murdered.

Goodbye. Goodbye. Elvis, do you want a cookie? This has been an exactly right production. Our producer is Hannah Kyle Crichton, associate producer Alejandra Keck, engineer and mixer Steven Ray Morris, researchers J. Elias and Hailey Gray, send us your hometowns and your fucking praise at myfavoritmurderatgmail.com. And follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at my favorite murder and Twitter at myfavoritmurder.

And for more information about this podcast, our live shows, merch, or to join the fan cult, go to myfavoritmurder.com. Thanks for watching, and don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe to my channel. Thanks for watching, and don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe to my channel.