My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 34

Episode Date: July 24, 2017

On this week’s My Favorite Murder minisode, Karen and Georgia read your hometown stories including a juggalo ritual, a gas station survival story, a death bed confession, and more.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. Welcome to my favorite murder mini-soad. Hey, thanks for coming. Thanks for staying. Thanks for sending us your hometown murders to my favorite murder Gmail. We're going to read them to you now. All 11,000 of them. That's right. You go first, Georgia. I'll do the first 6,000. Okay. This one's called Blood Drinking Juggalo and Consensual Digit Amputation. Oh, hell yes. That sounds like a fun one. Maybe I should save that one for the end.

Just go for it. Just go. I'm trying to tease. Don't overthink it. Okay. Hey there, everyone. Okay. Stephen, Karen, Georgia, and Fur Pals. That's a great way to do it. It's not cool at all. The visual that just brought up in my mind was straight from Tumblr. It was so dirty. Fur Pals is something they sell at the Pleasure Chest. Fur Pals is none of my business, what you do in the bedroom. There's a convention though, so it's not necessarily in the bedroom. Yeah, it could be anywhere. I just wanted to pop in and leave you with a fun, albeit murderless, hometown story with an insane Clam-Posse motif. Sweet. Last August, a woman named Shelby showed up at St. Mary's Hospital in Green Bay, Wisconsin with a bloody mess

of a hand. Of course her name was Shelby. Of course. I think I've said that to you where every time I go home to Petaluma, I know that I'm at a girl's softball game because someone's like, go Shelby. Every time. I live in Northern California. I'm from Northern California. I don't know if I've ever met a Shelby. It's a country name. It's like a rural name. Is it short for something? Shelby? No, I have no idea. It's just like a local name is what it feels like to me. So the idea that there's a Shelby in Wisconsin makes perfect sense. Susan to getting her fingers cut off.

It's like a name they give you in 4-H. It's kind of what it feels like. We don't have 4-H here. Did you guys? No. Yeah, I was in 4-H. I won't talk about it anymore. How many? Okay. Four. And one missing finger. Okay, with the bloody mess of a hand and one missing finger, she was insistent that doctors did not notify police. Oh, there's something sketchy. No, no, no, no. It's fine. No, I was cutting things. Just to reattach it? Yeah, I love food. But explain that her friend, Jonathan Schrap, had consensually removed her

pinky finger with a machete, and they wrote what? As part of a memorial ritual for a fellow juggler who had passed away a year prior, a pinky for a year. Wait, you get your pinky chopped off? If someone else dies, that doesn't seem fair. What happened to poor one out? What happens for 20 years later when you have no fucking digits? And also just you'd kind of, I mean, like think of the friends you had in your 20s that you were chopping a finger off for. You'd be like, that girl that borrowed my sweater, I can't remember her first name. Right. And it's like, I bet you could do something, like maybe do something nice

in his memory, not chop a fucking finger off. Donate $50 to your local library. There you go. Keep all your fingers. You need all 10. Listen, ask us before you memorialize someone and we'll let you know if it's fucking psychotic or... We're good with memorials. That's kind of our thing. It's kind of our jam. Okay. Blah, blah, blah. Passed away. Okay. Apparently earlier that day, Shelby, Jonathan, and two other friends, one of whom went by the name Bloody Ruckus, which I think is a strong indicator of their lifestyle and decision making, had decided to perform a bloodletting for the deceased

insane clown posse fan. And Shelby offered her arm. I don't know. Jonathan made a one-inch incision and subsequently filled a shot glass with her blood, which he then drank. Oh, guys. No. No. Someone eventually decided that this was not enough. Maybe it was too twilight-y, I'm not sure. I don't know what that means. And this began the talk. The movie. The vampire movie. I know, but I don't know what happened in that movie.

Oh, right. People fell in love. I like to call it Stair Porn because the first time I thought I could not stop laughing because all they do, the first time they see each other, is just stare for probably 45 seconds. Absolutely. Eyes. Yeah, but it's really intense. It's like taking almost like a teen romance movie and then acting like it's a true crime. There's an element of menace to it that's so perfect for a 16-year-old girl. Like Robert Pattinson staring at you like he might want to fuck you or he might want to wring your neck. Just remember in real life, that guy doesn't look like that. So someone fucking staring at you for 45 seconds. Like, press mute on that movie next time and just watch him

stare at her. And how scary it is. How creepy it is. Anything he looks like Robert Pattinson, I just don't mean to shame people who don't fucking stare at you. It's not about the actor. No, staring isn't. Well, I mean, staring, it's an indicator that he's a vampire. Yeah, we all know that. Not enough. He drank the blood. And thus began the talk of appendage removal. Again, compliant and generous, Shelby volunteered herself. And with two whacks of a machete, Shrap had removed her pinky all of the way to the palm. Two whacks. Normally, you get that done in one. If it's a big bad terrible thing. Please do it in one. It's a pinky. Why would it take two? Let's try it right now. Steven. Steven, get in here. Steven comes in with

a rusty old machete. I'm bringing a shot glass. Okay, all the way to the palm. He then put the pinky in his freezer with plans to cook it and eat it later. Oh my God. Guys. What so many bad decisions? Is this truly honoring your fallen juggalo? Your juggalo comes back from the dead and he's like, Hey, real quick. Hey, being dead sucks. Can you guys fucking quit it? Stop it. This is about you, not me. You're being really selfish right now. I'm just showing off. After amateur surgery hour was over, the group attempted to cauterize their wound first with a car cigarette lighter. Why? And then with a blowtorch all caps. Why? Shelby continued to hang out with her ICP crew for the rest of the day until she began having seizures that they suspected may have been a

result of the finger chopping. You think? Maybe that or the crank that she was clearly on. So they kindly dropped her off at her boyfriend's house. The boyfriend's mom insisted that she go to the hospital. Thank God. I mean. And that's how we ended up with this gem of a story. To wrap things up, Jonathan Trapp was recently sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for charges of mayhem and reckless injury. And during his trial, the judge tried to liken juggalos to truckies. That's incorrect. We're into it. I've never seen a start. I've never seen Star Trek, but I haven't heard too much about fans removing body parts to honor fallen comrades. And here come all the emails that tell us exactly that story.

Actually, in conclusion, stay sexy. Maybe just bring flowers to the cemetery next time. Shelby. Oh, I was like, oh, no, that was her name. Maybe just bring flowers to the cemetery next time, Shelby. Lots of love, Alyssa. Oh, man. That was good. Yeah, that's so funny. It doesn't have to be a murder. It's that good. It doesn't have to be a murder. So people are like, what do we do to commemorate our friend who died? And Shelby's like, let's cut my arm off. She raises her hand twice in the day. She's like, I got an idea, and I will do the thing that I'm... She's like, I have an idea. And then she's like, wait, I have a better idea of staring at her own arm. Oh, honey. Go get help. Go get help.

Okay. Let's see. The subject line of this is attempted murder as creepy as fuck gas station. This one's for you, Karen. Uh-oh. Hello there, my sweet baby Angles and Steven, Elvis and Mimi. My name is Gabby and I'm from a smallish town called Painesville about 30 minutes east of Cleveland, Ohio. My best friend, Peter, introduced me to your podcast. Needless to say, we're both obsessed. Peter. Peter. Just like Karen, I binge watched a lot of I Survived. So once I started listening to your podcast, I knew I had to tell you about the attempted murder and kidnapping of Megan, a super sweet, kind-hearted girl that I went to high school with. On November 28th, 2010, both 20 years old, Charles J. Rhodes, we'll call him Jim. All right. Asked Megan for a ride home

from a party. They were both at. The two of them had previously dated back in college a few years prior. They arrived at Jim's house at 4 a.m. Nothing good happens after midnight, right? Where they started to discuss their relationship. Megan was ready to leave, but Jim for some odd reason had the keys and would not give them back to her. I bet he grabbed him. As she tried to leave, Jim tackled Megan to the ground and began to strike her her in the face with his fist. He broke the orbitals on her face, which I guess is a fancy term for the bones around your eyes, it is, and knocked her unconscious. Several witnesses saw him drag her to the trunk of his car, then go inside his house and come back out with two

steak knives and some personal items. Did the witnesses call the police? No. Like you just saw someone get assaulted and dragged into a trunk where you're too busy making your fucking PB and J to call the police? Oh my. I don't understand. God, what is wrong with people? Okay. So Jim then drove to a gas station, which is now right down the street from where my boyfriend and I live. It's creepy as fuck. As I stated in my subject line, I know you like a captivating subject line. And I hate going there because all the workers call me darling or sweetie and I'm like, I'm not your sweetie. And can you not K by in my Georgia voice? Jesus Christ. Just tell the story. So while at the gas station, Megan being the badass that she is was able to pull the release trap

inside the trunk and jump out. That's amazing that they started making those and it's insane that we have to use them. It's so crazy that you know, some person who had a ton of anxiety in their whole life was just like, you need to calm down, Rick. And then he was like, I just think we should have pulled things. And now he's like, thanks, Rick. Yes. Glad you're crazy. There's the movie. There's the movie you're going to write. The movie all about Rick is release lever. Rick pulls the. Yes, Rick pulls the release lever of his life. That's the lifetime. Okay. This is bad. So while at the gas station, Megan being the badass that she is was able to pull the release trap inside the trunk and jump out yet. Yet. We started talking at the yet. Okay. Yet. Jim

caught her and stabbed her several times in the head, neck and back. The blade of the knife broke off and embedded in her neck. Then she ran inside the gas station and collapsed while Jim took off in his car. She was transported to a nearby hospital was treated and released while Jim fled all the way to New York. He then called his father who convinced him to return to Ohio and turn himself in. Good dad. Yes. In court, friends and family argued that Jim had a personality disorder and that therapy was needed rather than prison time. That maybe 20 years prior. But the judge was like, no fucking way. And Jim was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Megan made the following made the statement to him at the hearing. I know a lot of people are

down playing the felonious assault. I had three wounds in my head from a knife being stuck in the back of my head. I don't know how someone can say that that's not serious. I remembered the entire night. If I didn't get myself out of the situation, I don't know where my family or I would be today. She stayed sexy and did not get murdered. Thank you ladies for your love of true crime and all resuring all of us murderers out here that were not the only ones. Gabby Gabby. Thanks. I mean, I hate to go over Stephen's head, but I have one that I want to read that I found. That's okay. If you guys don't mind, I'd love to take the floor. Okay. It's called because it's called a deathbed confession. Oh, Karen and Georgia love your show. Eventually my good chum.

And I are going to see your live show in Indianapolis. That doesn't make sense. We thought that meant you were Scottish. Are you tricking us? I've always wanted to send in a hometown murder, but I didn't think there were any murders nearby until I had a conversation with a neighbor. For some context, I live in a very small town that is compromised, comprised of less than 4,000 people. That being said, it's very rare to have any sort of crime in a town that is like Mayberry. As it turns out, a young girl named Cheryl Fossil was brutally murdered in 1977. She was only 16 at the time. Cheryl was decapitated and her head was found in a creek. Her torso was found a few miles away in another creek. Can you tell this is the middle

of nowhere? No one has ever been convicted of the murder, though a woman in Texas confessed on her deathbed that she witnessed slash took part in the murder. This woman named another individual as an accomplice only for police to find that he had recently committed suicide. People speculate that Cheryl had become part of a group of drug users transients and was killed for threatening to tell police about their nefarious activity. I believe that a local might have killed her and that her murder was covered up by the corrupt local law enforcement. I find this cold case fascinating, which I thought Georgia might also, and there are still so many questions that family members and locals have. What remains most perplexing is the fact that law enforcement has tried to

sweep the situation out of the rug and not discuss it. It makes me so sad that this poor girl was concerted a, quote, runaway and her murder was no, not further looked into. Ending an email this dark on a positive note is impossible, so stay sexy and don't get murdered. Much love to you both. Stay safe, Kat. Wow. Fucking deathbed confessions, man. How do you sweep a beheading under the rug? I don't know. I guess it's understandable that police aren't going to have yearly conferences and be like, hey guys, remember when that thing happened? But that's only, but unless they had like, exhaustedly tried to look into it, which we don't know they didn't. We don't know anything, really. But it's just that idea is so dark. It's

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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 will tell you how she hit 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. All right, the subject line of this one is that time my dad took me along to a hostage situation. There's situation isn't there. I'm going to get yeah. Took me along to a hostage. Cool. And then in parentheses, a first responder ish story.

Cool. Hey, mama murdering knows Steven and all the collective fur babies gross. It's becoming a trend. You're also rad. I love the podcast. I grew up in a fairly small town, farming community in Southern Utah that relied heavily on the volunteers of the community to be the EMTs, firefighters, reserve deputies and the sheriff's office, etc. My dad was very involved in those things and had a large thirst for adventure and almost no fear in the face of terrifying situations at six, six and probably somewhere around 300 pounds. He was almost always called to any situation or search and rescue mission because his presence was was either intimidating or extremely comforting depending on what was happening. It wasn't uncommon for him

to take either me or one of my sisters on different calls that weren't dangerous, i.e. a kid getting stuck on the roof. I walked into anything that happened in that town regularly. So you go out your bedroom window that's on the second floor because there's you threw a thing out the window. Or your big brother was like, just do it. Don't be a pussy. Your big brother took a 45 of yours that you were trying to listen to and to be a dick and threw it onto the roof. So then you had to go out to get it. Just get it. All his friends were watching. All his friends are in his room watching out the other window. Laughing their asses off. You start sliding down the side of the roof. Then everybody stops laughing and they're like,

Mom, we have to tell you something. Yeah. And then it goes right to the, all right. Okay. Children on a roof. But one night when I was seven or eight, my dad had picked me up from a sleepover at my grandparents because I was home sick or whatever reason kids have for wanting to do home in the middle of the night. And there was an emergency call as we were driving home. The county sheriff had gone to the home of a couple that had gotten to some kind of domestic dispute. Things escalated quickly. And the man took his wife and the sheriff hostage at gunpoint. Wow. There had been another search and rescue mission that night to look for a missing girl lost on the mountain. And most

of the responders were already on that call. Oh my God. Whoa. My dad rushed over to the home of the hostage situation with me still in the car, told me to lay down on the floor of the backseat. That'll fix it. Not to move or look at the windows or look out the windows. So everything's going to be fine. And you're like, aren't you glad you left that sleepover? Yeah. Just how are your nightmares now? Because they're real in a real life. And your dad is walking straight into one of them. Anyway, bye. Lock the doors. Okay. Obviously I started stealing looks as soon as he shut the door and ran over to the other deputies outside the home. I didn't see a lot. There was a lot of

yelling through a megaphone to the man in the house and things like that, but not much more that I could see. At one point I stole a glance and my dad had disappeared. I lay back down for what seemed like an hour before my dad got back in the car and took me home years and years later at my dad's funeral. And that same sheriff spoke at my dad's funeral as they had been close friends. He repeated the same story, but from his vantage point. When the sheriff had been held hostage by this man so many years ago with a gun pointed at his head, the man was standing in the front window of his home threatening to kill his wife and the sheriff and screaming at the deputies outside. My dad had gone around behind the house, found an unlocked window somewhere and

silently crawled through the window. A 300-pan amount crawling through the window. Silently, crept his way to the room where the others were. My dad was able to sneak up behind him, put the guy in a chokehold, get the gun away from him. My dad apparently whispered in his deep, deep voice, we can do this the easy way or my way. But if we do it my way, you aren't gonna like it. And the guy threw up his hands and they were able to come in and take him into custody. After my dad's funeral, I told my mom I had been there with dad during that call. She had no idea and cry slash laughed so hard she was almost hysterical. Was it extremely questionable parenting? Most definitely. But as I'm writing this, I realized that my dad was the one who planted the seeds

for my love of true crime and I love that it was something we shared. I very much appreciate and I'm so grateful. The way you ladies talk about and are so open with mental illnesses, it was his own bipolar disorder that led to the end of his life. And I've always felt a stigma around his disease and death. Like it was some anomaly and his mental illness was an isolated thing. When really it's everywhere and I appreciate your willingness to start an honest conversation. I love you ladies and Steven, keep up the good work. Stay sexy and don't take your kids to hostage situations, Julie. I'm about to cry. I know that's really fucking awesome. Oh my god. You know what? She's exactly right that it is not an anomaly. It's everywhere. But when you

suffer with mental illness and families, it feels like you're the only ones going through it. Yeah. And on top of that, it makes me happy that we got to tell that story about how awesome because you, her dad was awesome. I mean, he wasn't his mental illness. Yeah. He was, he was lots of other things and that was just one slice of his life. And he did fucking, he did heroic things that some people never do it in an entire lifetime of plain old. And she gets to look back and think of that hilarious memory instead of, I just love that he, I just love a picture of him hopping back in the car and be like, okay, do you want to get McNuggets on the way home or anything? This McDonald's up here is 24 hours. It is four in the morning. How many McNuggets do I pay you

so you don't tell your mother this ever? It's so, it's like Dirty Harry or like, it's just like an 80s movie where it's just like the one cop that doesn't give a fuck going in through the back. But he also is like a softy because he has two young daughters that he loves. He's not so soft that he won't put them in harm's way a little bit. But everybody's his daughter, like, you know what I mean? The wife was his daughter and he sees it in the eye. Yeah. It's so rad. That's awesome. That is beautiful. High fives here. This is a, let's kind of think he offered her dad to memorialize her dad deserves both arms. Thank you for sending that in. Yeah, those were great. Those I was that send more of those and we'll end on those. That's that's a

nice. That was a great. That was a nice sesh. All right, well, send us your let's see now we've got we want your hometown murders, but we also want any EMT stories you might have any first responders first responder story like that is good. Well, also, please don't forget the Swiss cheese pervert right column of just weird local things that are kind of creepy crime crimey stuff, crimey base, not just weird things in general, but also then maybe a haunting or two. Yeah, haunting would be fun. Maybe, um, maybe yeah. And like also your, your parents hometown murders and your college, you know, it's a very vague thing. We're all about no rules. Yeah. And you won't know if that's what we want until you send it and maybe and Steven picks it or not.

We're almost like the insane clown posse in that way where we the rules don't apply to us. We have a whole different set of like a lifestyle living rules and blood is involved. Well, thanks for listening, you guys. Yeah, stay sexy and don't get murdered. Bye.