My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode #4

Episode Date: August 30, 2016

Karen and Georgia read your hometown murder stories that include a poisoned milkshake, a field full of wheat and blood, a ‘cliche reckless teenager,’ and a slumber party gone wrong. Does Elvis get a cookie this time? Tune in to find out!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 the My Favorite Murder Mini-Sode, our little drop of murder for you to get you through your week. Yeah, we start, we're gonna just have a little little guy, it's not a full episode, just telling you some of your hometown murders because we have so many in our inbox that we just like, we need a whole separate episode just to read them to you. And we know you want to hear about yourselves as much as anything else, just like us, just like any human

being, we want to be a part of it, attention horror humans. We're all horrors. Do you want to go first? Sure. Do it. Okay. This is from Becky. Yay. Hi Becky. She says, hi Karen, Georgia. I'm new to the podcast, my daughter turned me on to it. What? How old are you? I love you guys. I've always loved true crime and Helter Schelter. Schelter? That's such a joke, the way I said that. Oh, I'm so Jewish. Helter Schelter. Was the first true crime book I read. Go big or go home, right? Hell yes. Here's my hometown murder real life experience. In 1987, in High Point, North Carolina, I worked as an OBGYN, I worked at an OBGYN office running the lab. We had a patient, Sandy Colthard, who was pregnant with her second child. Her husband, Robert,

would often accompany her to the doctor's appointments. Uh-oh. Yeah. Why? Right. Doesn't he have a job? And seemed to be a caring, attentive and loving husband. Red flag. Red flag. Sandy was as sweet as could be and loved being pregnant. Sure. Another red flag. Yeah. She was a great mom to her firstborn daughter who was two or three. Shortly after the birth of her son, she became seriously ill. I remember she would come into the office sometimes with Rob and would be so sick that she wasn't able to care for her children. Her doctor would prescribe a treatment and she would improve for a short time, then get worse again. She was eventually diagnosed with Gillian Barr syndrome, but over the next six months, her condition continued to deteriorate. I remember

the day she came into the office and could hardly walk and her doctor sent her directly to the hospital. If I remember correctly, Rob accompanied her that day as well. In the hospital, she would briefly improve then curiously after her husband will come visit and bring her a milkshake. She would take a turn for the worse again. Within about a week, she was dead and autopsy was performed and showed arsenic poisoning. They were able to pinpoint the spikes so could tell when each dose had been given, the fatal one being in the hospital. Milkshake time. Rob didn't expect that to be a science thing, right? It's pretty ballsy to poison your wife in the hospital. Yeah, just carry an arsenic. Yeah. My God. Turns out her husband had been having an affair and also

had a large gambling debt and had taken out a $35,000 life insurance policy on Sandy. Guy. Came out in court that he had purchased the arsenic in 1986. I guess he had the decency not to give it to her while she was pregnant. What a guy, question mark. He played a guilty and received a life sentence and the kids were raised by Sandy's parents. It was very creepy. None of us in the office would ever have suspected that this night's polite caring husband could do this. Hope you enjoyed this one. Keep up the good work. Unfortunately, or fortunately for us listeners, there's no sort shortage of murders out there. That's right. Thanks Becky. Thank you Becky. That was a good one. Oh man. The idea, I mean, that's so common. It's just like husbands killing wives

and wives killing husbands where it's just like, yeah, you have all these other terrible things happening in your life. Like you're a gambler and you're having an affair and all this stuff. Just add murder to that pile. I wonder like, I just will never know this until God tells us, but I wonder like how many out, how many out there like were never caught? Like how many husbands or wives killed their spouses and just like, and it's really, it was really sad for them. Tragic event. Yeah. She just died. She had this Epstein bar thing. Giles Bar. Oh, it's so nuts. I feel like I, at the beginning of that, I thought I knew which one it was. And then I went, oh, that's probably half of like the cold case files of the 2020s that you see. And they're just like,

they're so cut and dry and not that interesting. Unfortunately, that like, they don't even make a cold case. Also, like, you know, when you're sick and you have the flu or something and someone brings you something and it's so nice because you're like, oh, I can't get off this couch. I feel like shit. Someone brings you like chicken soup and you're like, thank you. That's the thing that's making you sick in the first place. Do you think you would suspect it at some point? I feel like I would. I feel like maybe because I'm in a true crime, I would. It would be hard if it's the person you're married to, unless you had like a history where you were silently suspecting things. Yeah. But no, it doesn't seem like that. That's the case. Like they're never abusive. That's the

scary part about people like that. Yeah. Is there truly like these weird wolves in sheep's clothing where they're like, oh my God, he was so nice and polite. Yeah. And probably if the spouse is like, I think it tells a friend, I think this, my husband or wife is poisoning me. They're like, you're crazy. He's the nicest person anyone has ever met. Right. You're psycho. They're crazy, bitch. Good one. Carrie, I mean, Karen, you go. I'm calling you Carrie from now on. Why? I don't know. It's not even that hot this week. It's not. All right. This one's from Hal. And the subject line is possible. I survived episode two doors down. So clearly he's trying to get me to read this. Yeah, it works. Well done, Hal. Hey, ladies, I'm a 40 year old man and man is in

quotes. I don't know why. Maybe he means like a man. He's like a man child. Oh, I see. Like he should be, he's really more of a boy. Sure. That's a hilarious way to start any email. A 40 year old man and love the show. Anyways, I moved into the neighborhood that I grew up in when I was 10, 11 and 1988. There was a group of tenor so guys that all hung out together. We were all mean and hateful to each other, of course, but always were cool. One guy, Chris started acting a little on the strange side. When he got picked on, he would lash out more than normal. Like I said, we were pretty mean dudes. He lived two doors down for me. I quit messing with him when he was around 13. The year I moved off to college, he turned 16. He skipped school that

day and spent a drink and smoking dope. According to him, he came home and decided to go next door and have sex with the women. He, what's happening next door? Just a bunch of women in one room. The women. He allegedly had done so before. Somehow he wound up with his dad's 357 handgun and kicked her door in. Oh, he probably meant the woman next door. Okay. The woman. Kicked her door in when she said she wouldn't let him in. He shot her six times. She lived my favorite. How the hell that happened. I'll never know. She was a married mom with a couple of kids at the time. When he sobered up, he was in a field in the country covered in blood. Okay. Like didn't even know what he was doing. Like it wasn't even there. That's, that's the beginning of your HBO series. Wake up in a field,

right? What's going to happen? You sit up and you're like eyes high in a field of wheat and blood and blood equal parts, wheat and blood. Oh my God. Which is worse. HBO call us. If I give allergies. It's the worst. I'm gluten intolerant. So it's like really triggering for me to wake up in a field of wheat. I just start gaining weight. Okay. How the hell that happened. The surviving part. I'll never know. She was married mom with a couple of kids at the time. Oh, sorry. Blood. He went to prison as a 17 year old kid and has been out for a few years now. Don't fuck. Oh my God. The twists and turns. Not sure about her. My parents moved out and I haven't been back. Keep up the good work. Hell in Alabama. No, I have questions. I know how

that was a real. Wait, did he say that they had had sex before? Well, I think he said allegedly. So I think what I'm implying or inferring from that is that the kid said he did. Right. No, I've gone over there before. Yeah. Bullshit. Yeah. Wow. All right. That's that one. Okay. Want me to do another one? Yeah. Okay. This one's real fucked up. It's kind of long though. Is that okay? Sure. Do you want to read the one about I saw you want I saw a murder when I was 11 or do you want mostly a story about how fucking stupid I was as a teenager? I'll take the teenager stupid. Yeah. Okay. Oh, I like doing it. I like the choice. That is fun. Yeah. Okay. Jordan says I come from a small town of about 5500 people and it is home to a small state college in Nebraska. Nothing too

exciting ever really happens. Happened here while I was in high school and apparently I was really going through some shit when I was 15. Karen, get off your phone. Sorry, I was trying to find my next one. Anyway, this story starts out with school being in session for both the high school and college here in town. One fall weekend, my friend and not my best friend and I at the time decided to go for a walk around the college and this guy in a red car started to slow down and pulled up in front of us into this gas station parking lot we were walking through. He was alone and there was two of us so I really didn't think anything bad would happen. Basically, he just asked us where we were going and how old we were. That's when I told him, dude, I'm 15. You need to keep

moving. To which we replied by saying shit and peeling the fuck out. So my friend and I continue on our walk around town and this fucker ends up coming across us again. But this time with a friend, they tell us to get in the car so we can drive around and talk. So going against everything I was raised not to do, we get in the fucking car like fucking idiots. Oh no. Like I said earlier, I was going through some shit and was just acting like a cliche reckless teenager apparently. We are not, we were not in this car for more than five minutes when they tell us they need to pick something up. We go to the only liquor store in town at the time and I witnessed a drug exchange which just freaked my sheltered self out. I started getting a terrible feeling in my gut about the

situation and immediately tell them my mom is calling me and I need to get home. I have these two men drop, my friend and I off at a house that was a few blocks away. She's smart. It's like pretending that's her house. Yeah, she's not that stupid. Brilliant move. They tell me to get their number so they can take us to a party later. Did she do it? I pretend to get this one guy's number and they let us out. We start to walk up to this house that isn't mine and as soon as they drive away, we just take off running through back alleyways and backyards to my actual house. My father, who was a probation officer at the time, had a police scanner. Fuck yeah. They started going off later that night about a girl who was assaulted. This girl had been dating

one of the men and they took her to the middle of the country where they get high on whatever drugs they had picked up earlier. Then they proceeded to beat this girl to the point where she was missing chunks of hair, teeth and her face was so swollen and bruised that the only way her parents could identify her was by her ankle tattoo. Oh, no. Especially for the ankle tattoo. Her body had been beaten and there was a ton of sexual, especially for the ankle tattoo. Sorry. That took me a minute. I'm sorry. It was inappropriate. That's what this podcast is. I know it really is. If you didn't like that, you're going to hate everything. Yeah, just hang up on us right now. Click. Hang up this phone of a podcast conversation. I don't know if she meant that the only way

her parents could identify her and that she was dead or what, but she says her body had been beaten and there was a ton of sexual assault, but I'm not 100% certain on that. I can honestly say that this is the scariest thing that's happened to me. If they did it to someone they were dating, I cannot imagine what they had planned for my best friend and I. Yeah. Both the fuckers are thankfully locked up now. I can't believe that I ever put myself and my friend in that situation. I know now to never ignore your gut instincts and fuck politeness. That's right. Yay. Thanks for the podcast ladies. You two are insanely hilarious. Keep up all the amazing work. This is kind of weird, but I wish I could be best friends with you too. I swear I'm a better friend now that I was

when I was 15. Bye. Oh, bye. What was her first name again? Jordan. Jordan. Thank you, Jordan. Way to go, Jordan. We are best friends because you did it. You really handled yourself at that age too. Dude. I mean, you made a very stupid decision, but you got yourself out of it in a smart way. It's about reversals. All of life is about fixing what you fuck up, especially if you can do it. Like the idea of thinking to lie and say I live right there is so, is just inspired. Yeah. Love that. Totally. Well done. Your turn. All right. What makes a person a murderer? Are they born to kill or are they made to kill? 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. I was only reading this the beginning of it in the very beginning of yours. I just missed her name.

Was it Rural Kansas? Oh, North Carolina, where did I say? Yeah, I missed that entirely. Wait, wait, Nebraska. Oh, okay. Oh, not too bad. No. All right. Because here's the, as I was trying to scan and find my next one. Here's the subject line. Machete murder in rural North New Hampshire and the time I met a would-be killer. Yay. She drew me right in. Hi, Karen in Georgia. Here's my hometown or close to hometown murder. I live two towns over, but it's only a 10-minute drive. Okay, you're getting by on a technicality. You got it. You got it. This is Jessica, by the way. Okay. Hi, Jessica. So Mount Vernon is a tiny town in Southern New Hampshire. Nothing happens there ever. That was until October 4th, 2009, when a mother and daughter were home alone sleeping.

Oh, no. No, she's grabbing my foot, you guys. I'm gonna hold Jurgers' toes for this whole thing. Home alone sleeping when four young men, about 17 years old, broke in. There were too many young men hanging out together. Seriously. They were led by Steven Spader, who had recently created a club called the Disciples of Destruction. You fucking nerd. Fuck you. You asked how I could beat you up. You're nerds. As part of the initiation rights for this club, he convinced the other boys to break into the house and steal anything of value, though other reports say all four boys were intent on murder and were armed. Spader and one of the other boys, Christopher Gribble, I mean, come on, carried machetes while the other two, Quinn Glover and William Marks,

carried knives. The mother in the house, the mother of the house, Kimberly Cates, and daughter Jamie were in the house. Spader proceeded to attack the mother 36 times with the machete, killing her while Gribble stuck and stabbed the daughter who was only seriously injured but survived. No, honey. The boys thinking both victims are dead left, stealing valuable objects along the way. Jamie survived, remained conscious and was able to call 911. I just got full body chills. Oh my God. What the fuck? All four boys were arrested and another boy would help to hide evidence for them was also later arrested. Spader and Gribble were given life sentences, but were given the chance for resentencing. Given their young ages at the time of the initial

trial, Gribble did request a shorter sentence. Oh, really? Yeah. Thank you. However, Spader went offered the chance for resentencing, did not believe that he should be released at any time, saying he is quote, the most sick and twisted person you'll ever meet and claimed to also be a sociopath. Both were charged with first degree murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit first degree murder. The other two boys are also serving present time for burglary, conspiracy to commit burglary and armed robbery. What makes the story even more crazy is that I had a friend who went to high school with the four boys and was friends with Spader who I met once when I was hanging out with my friend, but I didn't get murdered and I learned to stay sexy because let's be

real. Nobody is sexy in high school. I'd like to differ. If you follow me on Instagram, you can see my throwback Thursdays. No. Were you hot as fuck? No, I was not. Oh, I recently discovered your podcast and I absolutely love it. Thanks. Also, you should know I have a degree in forensic anthropology. If I ever get a job in the field, it's hard. You two are more than welcome to come intern or visit. I got to get paid. I'm also fairly certain you could make short courses in forensics. You could take for short courses in forensics. No, I want to make them. I don't want to. I want to teach them with all of my strange percentages that aren't accurate. My alma mater, Mercy Hurst University offers a few. Stay excellent. You too. Kind regards, Jess.

Thank you, Jess. That was great. How on earth? It just seems so weird that four boys of the same age in the same town all want to murder. Yes. You think one and every so often in every town and different time periods. Does that make sense? Yes, but it just made me think of the last podcast on the left when I did their episodes about the horrible high school shooting. Oh, Columbine. All I could think of was Cloverfield. Damn it. Columbine's here. They talked about how Dylan Klebold was this. He wasn't a nerd at all. He wasn't the trenchcoat mafia. He was actually an incredibly charismatic, almost like cult leader where people, and you've met people like that, where like there's something about them that you want to be around them and suddenly they're

convincing you to do things that you know deep, that feels wrong. But you're like, fuck it. And fuck how I was raised. And I'm just going to do this. And when everybody goes through that when you're a scene. Yeah, but it's also like this person is so, everyone likes this person. It's so, so maybe I'm wrong about how I feel. And this person's right because I hate myself. Exactly. It's group mentality. Totally. Yes. Fuck. Yeah. It's amazing. I think it's easy to kind of get people to like lemmings along with your people plan. If you have a strong enough, like I don't even, I don't even believe in myself half the time. I mean, I don't believe half the shit I tell myself. Well, that's good though. Yeah, because probably most of his bullshit.

Most of it is negative thoughts. Yeah. Whereas sociopaths, they don't have anything like that. They're just intent and hell bent on manipulating you. So like if that's, if that was his deal, he probably made it very easy for those boys to go along with him. Yeah. Good one. Good one, Jessica. Or Jess. Jess, that was great. Thank you. That was real good. Do we, is that it? How long was that, Stephen? It's been like 20 minutes. Oh, maybe like 18 or 17 years. How long are we normally? Like 20 or 25. Okay. All right. All right. So then I'm going to read the one I said, the other one I asked if you wanted. Right. It wasn't a choice. Because really, we don't have choices in this world. It's all fate. We're here to tell you the truth.

That's what we're about. Okay. This one's a bummer. Are you ready for this? You ready? Aren't they all? Okay. This one's called, I saw a murder when I was 11. Please don't use my name. Yeah, no problem. Got it. So August 21st in 1998, one of my, it was one of my best friends, 11th birthday. I don't like the start of this. Do you want me not to do this one? I'll do it. Okay. Well, are you going to get bummed out? No, I'm fine. Okay. I already read it. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Okay. So whatever, small town. We had no idea that our night, which our lives would change forever. Let's see, they go to the party, they end up at the birthday girl's house with all our sleeping bags in the living room ready to giggle the night away.

Unfortunately, her big brother ruined it. Oh no. Us girls went to sleep around 1am, and then her father and older brother, like 23, I think, came home from closing their restaurant in a neighboring town at like 2am. At 4.06, I remember because I just got my new digital watch with a light and was obsessed with knowing the time all the time. I was woken, I had that too. I was woken up by, I don't even know what, but I noticed the girl on the opposite end of the sleeping bag moving a lot and seeming upset. Turns out we were all awake and not sure why. Then the brother is screaming. The girl on the end is crying and the parents come out yelling obviously at the brother for the ruckus. The two other girls, not the birthday girl, and I run into the birthday

girl's room and the girl on the end who is crying is telling me she wants to call her mom and go home. Tell her it's late and she'll be okay. And meanwhile, the yelling outside of the room is getting intense while birthday girl is still out there. Then it goes from yelling to screaming. And tell the two girls with me to get in the closet. I hop in after them and close the door. Girl knew what she was doing. Yeah, that's right. From a young age. We wait for what seems like forever. So much screaming. It gets intense, like shrieks. Then it goes quiet. Then the birthday girl comes back and tells us it's okay, he's gone. When we come out, it looks like a horror film, blood everywhere, bloody handprints and smears all over the walls, blood all over the carpet,

and we turn the corner and see the birthday girl's dad laying on the ground bleeding profusely. Birthday girl is on the phone with 911 and her mom had gone outside to find help at the neighbors. Then the cop showed up and got taken to the neighbors until we went to the police station for statements. Turns out big brother was all whacked out on drugs and thought girl on the end saw him stewing said drugs and that's where the whole mess started. He covered her mouth asking what she had seen. She freaks out as she shouldn't start screaming. That's when we all woke up. He didn't want to be caught on drugs by his dad, so he ended up stabbing him. He was on the run for 24 hours. Within the time he stabbed his dad and got caught, his dad died. Something that rocked

the fuck out of my tiny hometown. Oh, and I had the biggest crush on that big brother before all that happened. Made me taste- question my taste in men my whole life. The town was Segoin, Texas. Dude, that was dark. That was fucking heavy as shit. I'm sorry, I always end on the most fucked up one. I mean, but there's- it's like- that's like- Oh. Well, it was insanely cinematic. The idea that a little girl- that little girl must have been in shock when she came back to say it's okay, he's gone. Totally. Because you don't lead people back out into a bloody- you know what I mean? Yeah. And it's so crazy to think that like, yeah, like all the places my mom- I would go as a little kid for sleepovers that you send your child to be like, oh, it's her best friend, go to sleepover.

And like, you don't know what the family is like. You don't know. Well, these days they do, though, because my niece is nine, and they all know each other. They're like friends. If you're- kids are friends, you're friends with the parent, you know, every single thing about them. I honestly think that's the reason people are like that helicopter style parenting these days is because they went through weird shit. Totally. When they were 10 and they're like, my kids are not going to ever experience that weirdness. Well, even that thing of like, you tell mom, your mom, I'm just- you're sleeping at my house, and I'll tell my mom, it's like, that would never happen now, because why would you just be like, okay, you're sleeping at the person's house, bye, like,

no, you would have a conversation with the parents. That's exactly right. It's not weird. It caught immediately. Whereas like 80s style people were like, well, I'm going to be drunk in the den. So do what you will. Yeah. Fuck. Well, I'm glad, I'm glad she survived. Me too. That was intense. That's a good ending. That was like- You gotta be fucked up from that for a while. Like 11 years old and that happened. That was a good ending. That's very traumatizing. So you were telling me that at the end of the last mini-sodes, someone was like, how come Elvis didn't get a cookie? That's right. We record our mini-sodes before we record our maxi-sodes. And so to us, it was just- we were just like in the middle of this stuff we were going to do. Yeah. And all

these people on Twitter and I think their Facebook page, mostly on Twitter, were just like, why would you not give Elvis a cookie? Well, in my mind, Elvis created like 20 different Facebook profiles and was like, why no Elvis get cookie? You know. Fish lover, 64. A cookie monster. Why no cookie for Elvis? Give cookie to good cat Elvis. Elvis. Come out here. There he is. Yeah, there he is. Hey. Hey. What's doing? So, well, thanks for listening to the mini-sodes. Yeah, this was really good. Thanks for sending them. Keep sending them. Great job everybody that got one on this time around. Yeah, send them to my favorite murder at Gmail. And stay sexy. Don't get murdered. Elvis, want a cookie? Want a mini cookie? Okay.