My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 41

Episode Date: October 16, 2017

On this week’s My Favorite Murder minisode, Karen and Georgia read your hometown stories from San Diego and Anaheim including a mother’s brush with almost attempted murder, a deadly magician, attempted kidnappings, and more. Plus an onstage proposal from the Balboa Theatre!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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It's my favorite murder mini. The special weekly part of the series podcast series, smaller episode where we read your hometown. Did any of that make sense? Yeah, I think all of it. And yeah, you guys email us your crazy weird hometowns or the thing that happened to your dad when he was in college or the thing that happened to your college roommate. College doesn't have to be involved.

I didn't, I didn't graduate from college. What do I send in? How about Karen, your uncle's college roommate? No one in my family's ever gone to college. It's a rule. It's the old Kilgariff way. All right. You want to start?

Sure. Okay. Let's see here. All right. So this one is called Richard Ramirez or almost turned my mom into a murderer. Okay. Are you in? Loving it.

Okay. Dear Karen, Georgia, stash master Stephen and fluff muffins. No and no. Okay. That's what I thought. Those last two are unacceptable. Okay. First, thank you for organizing the podcast.

It has made the gym infinitely more tolerable and has given my murdering mind an insane amount of joy to be grateful for. That's nice. You all rock. Second, I have to note that the only reason I heard this story is that I finally cornered my mother into listening to your podcast while on a road trip. We finished the first episode and I looked at my mom nervously calculating how long it was going to take for her to announce me a sick bastard.

And she pensively said, that reminds me of the time I thought Richard Ramirez was going to kill me full fucking stop. Sidebar. I probably should have heard the story when I told her I worked at a show about night about the night stalker, but whatever. So my parents lived in Anaheim in the early 80s. They were there were pastel walls. My mom had a terrifying perm.

It was a scary time. It was a very scary time. But I had one too. I was a few months old and my older brother was three. My godmother was a nurse also living and working in the area who happened to live across the street from one of her coworkers who incidentally was attacked by Ramirez. She survived and ended up identifying later, identifying later in court. Wow.

Anyway, mom's friend's coworker had been attacked in the house we were living in was a block of houses that for the most part had that and this is an all cap super safe sliding glass door in the back. I wouldn't know these side sliding glass doors were a fave of Ramirez to get into houses. Yeah, because it's just that little clicky lock. We had one of those two and we did him the favor of never locking it. Oh, that's nice. To boot.

It's I feel like those sliding glass doors are like a part of 70 serial killers. Totally. It's like part of the horror. Yeah. I don't think. Yeah. The sound of a sliding glass door being quietly opened at night. No, totally.

I think in my entire childhood, was there ever everything on the on the ground floor including the doors and the windows and everything locked ever one time when it was all closed up just a different time in a different reality, stupid time and a stupid reality. True. You know what I mean? Mm hmm. Anyway, in the middle of the night, while my dad was away on a business trip, my mom woke up to the doorbell ringing normal like any responsible woman alone with two children

in the middle of the night during an active serial killers rampage, she opened the door. It was the next door neighbor's girlfriend. She said that her boyfriend wasn't home, but she was too scared to go into her house because she swore she heard someone in there and true horror film fashion. My mom thought, cool, I'll take you into your boyfriend's house and show you there's nothing to be afraid of. No. What?

No. So the two unarmed young women go into a house all alone and choose to tour the house turning the lights on when they go into a room and then off. Save that electricity money, honey. What? What? Anyway, they get to the last room in the house, which is kind of a lofty area on the second floor.

There's a door and four walls, so it sounds like a regular room to me, but that's how my mom described it anyway. Then I hear the sliding glass. Sorry. Then they hear the sliding glass door open. I just have to point out that yes, I have a hard time speaking, but Stephen printed this in like 11 point font. Yeah.

Do you see this? It's definitely passive aggressive the way he printed up these stories. It's like he wants me to fail. Yeah. He's against us. That's clear. Right. And we're just going to keep on seeing these signs.

Yeah. Yeah. Then as luck would have it, they happen to be in a room where the neighbor kept his pistol. The girlfriend who PS is 20 years old takes out the gun. My mom, mom takes out the gun from mom, takes the gun from her and calls out. No one responds, but they hear footsteps coming up the stairs. Here's where I have to point out.

My mom is a badass. She grew up on a farm and knows how to use firearms and always has a manicure. Yeah. Yeah, girl. Perm that manicure. She checked the safety and aimed directly to the left of the door at the frame. The door opens. My mom adjusts her aim and notices that the person coming through the door is bald.

Richard Ramirez, if you remember, had straight up, but doll sassoon curls. Oh, I remember they weren't curls, really, more waves, but anyway. It was my dad. My mom almost shot my dad. He'd come back early from a business trip and when he found mom was gone from the house, he went to check the next door. The porch light was on, but the front door was locked. So he went around the back and found the back sliding glass door open.

Not just unlocked, fully opened. Oh, shit. He immediately then grew concerned and thought something bad might have happened. So instead of calling 911, he just went up the stairs without announcing himself. Wow. Super gallant. Almost got shot. So as far as my hometown murder, this specific facet is missing the murder part, but very

narrowly and I had to send it to you because it's a funny story. Please keep up the amazing show. Stay sexy. Don't get murdered. PS, if you're inspired to, sorry, if you inspired me to teach my cat Atlas the word cookie and he meows like Elvis and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy. Love JD. Fun.

Fun. Fun. Fun. That reminds me of the people that we met at the meet and greet in Anaheim and it was a mother daughter and the mother was there the day that Richard Mears was running through that neighborhood in, was it Boyle Heights? Yeah. Or no, down, down there, right?

It's Boyle Heights. No, no, no. It was Boyle Heights. She was there. She was caught in, in front of her house. Oh, right. The cops got him down on the ground because the, because the, no, I think that they, I don't know, something, it was in front of her house where he got because it was like

a block long street where they got caught. And the mom kept saying that everyone, all her neighbors were just going outside and like, and like watching him being apart and she was telling people to go back inside. Right. Right. But she was like, they were so crazy. Everyone was just out. Yeah.

Like, you know, there was a serial killer loose. That's so funny. I love that. I told them I was very starstruck to meet her. She got to be right there, the scene of the crime. Okay. Let's see. This subject line is hometown murder.

I'm writing to you about my favorite hometown murder. I'm from a man-made peninsula called Coronado Island in Southern California. It's part Naval Bay's part resort city and part very small beach town. The author of The Wizard of Oz lived there too and Coronado likely served as a major inspiration for that story. Oh. Because everyone's short. The bridge between Coronado and San Diego is the second deadliest suicide bridge in

the United States. Oh my God. Golden Gate, number one baby. Hey, girl. Um, anyway, that's not even my story. Every Tuesday at the Coronado Brewing Company was kids eat free night. So often my family went and my favorite part of Tuesday nights was Bradley, aka trick Tony, the magician and children's entertainer.

No, red flag. Who made balloon animals, taught card tricks, and was an overall cool dude. Kill him. No. I don't trust him. Sorry. Until he stabbed his wife to death. I know it.

I told everyone in that town, I said, Coronado, watch out for trick Tony. You saw this coming. I saw it coming. So far away. Um, oh, sorry, stabbed his wife to death, slashed a police dog who's okay now and died under a hail of police fire. One time he was interviewed by the local news, a local news station, a charity function, and was like, quote, I'm here to make everyone smile.

I think about this every time I do this one trick where you can make a salt shaker disappear under a napkin that I an eight year old paid him $2 to teach me. It's all sad. Anyway, thanks for doing you lovingly. Corey. That was perfect. That's hilarious. If you guys ever think you don't have enough to write in and it's not like insane enough.

No. It's one of that because it's the details. That's right. Trick Tony, it's a salt shaker disappearing. It's one you're like, um, you're, you're a degree, you're not even a degree of separation away, but it's not like anything bad happened to you. But you, I mean, as a child, probably did witness something bad. Well, yeah, but not does not have anything to do with the story.

Probably. No. Yeah. Just backtracks. I mean, oh, he witnessed magic. Just like a hacky. Hacky sack. Um, okay.

Great. Love it. Moving on to Muppet assisted attempted kidnapping Muppet like the puppet. That's what it says. A special brand puppet called the Muppet. We love to say that. Uh, yes. We're getting a deal with the gym.

Great. Thanks for letting me know. Oh yeah. Sorry. I'll talk. I'll call our lawyer on Tuesday. Oh man. Guys, you're going to like this.

Hello. Karen, Georgia, Stephen and all pets. Perfection. Right. There you go. Thanks so much for the podcast. I've been listening since episode four and so you all got me through a cross-country road trip, moving states, walking around alone at night in a new city.

Don't do that. Wow. And much more. So thanks. Uh, thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Two people that I know of had probably have tried to kidnap me. I lived in a- That she knows of. Yeah. Or he knows of. She. Anna.

As far as I know. I've been- She's only aware of two. Yeah. I mean, how many of us we might- We don't know. True. It's like-

It's like that thing of eating spiders when you're asleep. You just don't know. Yeah. Ew. What if I do now, Mike? One. You've got spiders. 17.

17. Okay. I lived in a condo complex in Anaheim until I was 16 and when I was about three, my friend Becca and I were taking turns writing in my red wagon through the communal driveway. Becca's mom, Donna, was supposed to be watching us because my dad was inside the house painting a picture of the Muppets. She said it was 1993 so some man came up and asked if we would like him to give us a ride in my wagon.

So like a polite single mom of the 90s, Donna didn't say anything and let the man take us. Whoa. But went to my house and asked my dad if one of my uncles or other male relatives was in town. When my dad said no, they went back outside together only to see the stranger pulling Becca and me around the corner in the red wagon. My dad started running after him and shouted, Hey, and when the man looked back and saw my dad, he took the fuck off running and we never saw him again.

Whoa. Everyone, the 90s need to stop it. It's so stupid. That's it. In my childhood, the 70s mind, the fact that that happened in the 90s is unacceptable. It's so late in the timeframe. Have you seen photos and commercials from the 90s? It's the same.

It's there's no time. I know. I know. But it's. There's it. It just seems more recent. I know. There's no excuse for that.

I know. It's so crazy. Well, it's just so funny too that she's like, go ahead and I'm going to walk away and ask someone else if it's okay. Exactly. I'm going to leave you guys alone. I'm going to trust a stranger man because he's telling me it's okay. And I don't trust him enough that I'm not going to, like I'm going to go ask him about

it. So I'm just staying out there with him. Instead of saying, get your own fucking two kids in a red wagon. Yeah. Calm down. Why do you want to play with children? I'm a creepy man. Out of here.

Get out of the parking lot. Immediately. What are you doing? Okay. What are you doing in a parking lot anyway? Always. No matter what. Unless you're walking briskly through it from your car.

Right. Taking a trash out maybe. Fucking lingering when you don't live there and then asking to play with children. Shoot on site. Goodbye. Shoot on site. I'm fired. Me too.

A few years later, when I was in middle school, I went to my friend Megan's house for a sleepover. She lived in the same sketchy neighborhood. We decided that we would quote sneak out even though we had nowhere to go. Remember that? Let's sneak out. And you're just like, I'm just going to wander around the fucking parking lot. Why are we so... No, I wandered around the entire neighborhood of my town.

Really? Just walking around? Such idiots. And walked at about 3 a.m. to the local high school. On the way, we came across a middle-aged man who was walking alone yelling snuggles, snuggles. Jesus Christ. We tried to walk quickly past him, but he came to us and asked if we could help him find his puppy, the classic.

At the time, I remember thinking, you idiot, there are five of us and we're 12. We're too old to be kidnapped because I figured that was his M.O. But this dude was real persistent, basically followed us for a couple hours until we got back into our neighborhood. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. How are we not all dead? I am for real.

For a long time, I thought that maybe, just maybe, he really was missing an adorable puppy and we were just heartless tweens who should have helped. But after being a woman in America for 27 years, I've come to realize he was 99% definitely a dick-ass motherfucking creep who couldn't hold a boner longer than he could hold his breath. Wow. Anna has a way with words. Yes, she does.

The 90s were a crazy time. My dad finished his portrait of the Muppets in case you were wondering. It hung in our hallway for years. He incorporated my face into the painting and it wasn't half bad. I beg you to send us that picture, please. What the fuck? A picture of that picture? I beg you to send us the fucking...

Pull it down from the wall. Please. They'll put it in a place of honor in the podcast and waft. It's portrait of the Muppets and then a little girl also painted in there. Oh my God. How creepy would that be? She's like, it was great. I'm like, that would make me have nightmares forever.

Send it ASAP stat, please. Lastly, finally, forgive any mistakes in this email. My roommates and I are watching, are catching up on Bachelor in Paradise and as a result, pretty buzzed. Love you seriously though and SSCGM, Anna. Oh my God. I am a... Fuck, yes.

That was a real slice of life. I really got to know Anna on that email. No murders in that and either of those, but delightful. Well, and also lots of tension. Lots of tension while it's storytelling, visuals of Muppets. I was thinking about that. It's the essence of all of these things, everything we talk about. It's just, I did that, nothing bad happened to me.

How did nothing bad happen to me? How did nothing bad happen to me when I did these exact same things, these stories that we read, these horrible true crime things we find out about and you're like, it just parallels your life enough to scare the living shit out of you. 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 the new year.

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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. Okay, this subject line of this is, my sister got me hooked on your show. Hi, Georgine Garry.

Did I kill her? No. Real quick, I grew up in a shitty dirty place called the Animal Valley. A lot of people hate their hometowns. Also, shitty dirty is a real good way to describe anything. I get it. I see it. I pick a picture in my mind's eye.

And now we're north of Los Angeles. Do you remember the Michelle O'Keefe murder in 2000? I think her mom was even on Oprah or something. Spoiler alert, if you don't know it, it ended up being the security guard at the parking ride where she was parked. Well, I went to high school with her. We weren't friends or anything, but had friends in common and we were in the same class. I remember her being a nice chick and had nothing to do and had nothing to add to that

except that's some scary kind of shit knowing someone who was murdered. Oh, okay. That following summer, I moved to San Diego to live in a real city and be a grown up. I guess I think I just really hated where it was from. Yeah, we get it. And I found a nice girl on the internet to be roommates with and we got our first apartment in a really sketchy area called North Park. It might be fine now, but it was scary as fuck back then.

My roommate and I had a carport in the back of the complex and this dude kept parking behind us blocking us in. I never met him and didn't know who he was. And one day I was just fed up and called a tow truck. It ended up being the guy upstairs from us, not a big complex, just six units. Freddie, my neighbor, came flying down the stairs ready to beat the person who was getting him towed. It turned out when he saw me, he changed his mind and he told me later it was because

I had great legs and he thought that I was sexy. So naturally we started hooking up. I know he's selling weed and stuff, which is okay, I guess, because I'm 20. He tells me one day that someone owes him $10,000 and once he collects, he wants to move somewhere else and maybe we'll live together. But he gets a little weird and I ended up telling him that I wanted to stop hooking up. The next night I see him walk by my door to go out for the evening and the following

day when I get home from work, my roommate and his roommate are in my living room both crying. Freddie was killed the night before, not long after I saw him. The morning after the killing, someone walked by his parked SUV and saw blood drops under the door on the street. It was believed that he had a passenger in the car, probably the person who owed him $10,000, shot him possibly with his own gun, locked the doors and left. I had cops in my apartment not long after questioning what I knew, which was nothing.

I was a mess, scared as fuck, not knowing what was going on. I don't think the crime was ever solved, but shortly after my roommate and I moved to a nicer part of town like a mile away. I don't know anyone who's been, anyone else who's been murdered, but hey, now I live in the Pacific Northwest where everyone's a serial killer, so maybe I'll get lucky. Love the show, Stay Sexy Cat. Oh my God, that's so sad. It's terrible.

How's that? Do we have another one? No. I mean, no, I think that's it. Well, there is the special end of the show from San Diego that you guys wanted to see. Oh, that's right. Oh, thanks Stephen. You guys, this is magical.

Magic? I cried. We had a home town at the end of our San Diego live show this past weekend, which is why we both sound like we're half asleep because we had a very busy and exciting fun weekend in San Diego and in Anaheim, but at the end of one of our shows, we called a guy named Victor Franco up because he said he had a hometown and he was there with his girlfriend of three years. It was their night of their anniversary and so this is how that hometown happened.

Are you all ready for this? Is it time to do a home town? Yeah. Let's do it really quick. Can we get the lights up, please? Oh, we know this one because we actually have the one we want to do because they sent it in already. Is Victor Franco, are you here?

Is that you? Yeah. Is that you? Come on up. He sent us in a home town and we like it. Yes. Bring her. Yes.

Come on. She's coming. Come on up, guys. Go that way. Go here. Here's some stairs. Can you come over here? Yeah.

Come on, guys. You can tell us together. We like when couples come together because usually one of them forgets a lot of them and you're one of them is not. Okay. I saw Alabama. Oh, wow. When I went tolee.

It was Columbus. Nice, guys? We flew here from Portland, Oregon today for my anniversary, and I had no idea. Oh, it's a surprise trip. Oh my God. It's a surprise trip. Nice move. We drove by the marquee, and I just started uncontrollably sorry.

You didn't even know you were coming here. Nice. That's all, dude. Oh my God. That's a good surprise because you took her out of state. I took her out of state. Yeah. She's really smart.

Oh, we got another one? Oh, nice. Yes. Everybody gets a microphone. Do you have a hometown? Do you want to tell us? We do. Do you want to say my name?

Yes. You want to? Is that what we're doing? Yeah. Do it. Do it. Okay. So we have this friend.

And Happy Anniversary back. Yeah. Thank you. I mean, it's fun. That's fun. We have this friend, Allie, and Allie was friends with this old woman named Mary Lee, and she just looked like a cute little apple faced old woman, and she walked with a walker. One day on Facebook, Allie was like, has anyone seen or heard from Mary Lee?

Like, it's been a long time and we're getting worried. And so I start Googling everything, you know, as we do. Of course. Of course. As we do. Found out that Mary Lee's car was found abandoned by the police. And then a few days later, they found her body in the trunk of her own car, and she was handcuffed.

Oh, my God. And there was a bag of crackers in with her. And so like, I don't. It's water. And some water. Oh, my God. It's like, I really don't know what the plan was there. Wow.

And so they, and it's still, this is still ongoing. They don't know who did it still? Not yet. No, like no one's been caught. But she was at my best friend's wedding. Oh, my God. You know, so that's how we were like, hey, like, what happened? Yeah.

You know, what happened with her? And she, they still don't know. Whoa. Wow. Crazy. That's crazy. And that's in Portland? Yeah.

Cool. That's nice, guys. I wish I had time to prepare. You could have thrown some pictures up. Yeah. Yeah. We could have acted it out. Anyway.

Okay. Well, yeah. The reason we are here, and the reason they invited us up, is because. Get the fuck out. I mean, it's first. I just want to tell you that you're my best friend, my soulmate, the love of my life. And I couldn't imagine my life without you. And that being said, Sethie Meanie.

Will you give me the honor of being my wife? She said yes. She said yes. She said yes. She said yes. Well done. Well done. Congratulations.

Thank you. I like that George is the first person she hugs. Thank you guys. Well done. Congratulations. Congratulations. This is nerve wracking. Sorry guys.

Holy crap. Thank you. That's amazing. Absolutely. Wait. Let's see that ring. It's fucking gorgeous. Holy shit.

I know. That is humongous. You can see it. Look, look, look. Look. Yeah. Thank you. Well done.

Thank you. Thanks you guys. Thanks you guys. That was awesome. What the fuck? I got a little. I got a little. I did too.

Oh my god. I love it when they say you're my best friend. I know. It's my favorite. Oh my god. She's hugging people. High fives all the way down the road. You guys, that just fucking happened.

You like. There's good parts of life. There's bad parts of life. But we can remember the good parts of life. Yeah. I just started shaking when they came up here and I was like, oh my god. I know what's happening. And I was like, don't say it to her.

Like, oh, it's your anniversary and you're getting engaged. Like, don't fucking say that to her. Oh my god. Can you believe you're getting engaged? Oh, whoops. So don't. Sorry. That's so me.

It's like, I accidentally flashed my coach and then I tell this girl she's getting engaged. Like, that's, that's me. I wouldn't say it out loud, but I would just keep. The reason I wasn't looking at her is because I was would absolutely give her a meaningful eye contact that made no sense. It would just be like. Congratulations, you guys. Thank you.

Yay. That's so fun. That's so fun. I know it wasn't her choice, but thank you for letting us be a part of that. That was so beautiful. Thanks for letting us force our way into your engagement that then when she stood up, or when I mean, when she got that ring on her finger, you're the first person she got. She turned to me, she turned, she went like this and I said, oh, instead of it.

No, I love it. Fuck. I feel like we're a huge part of this marriage. Yeah. We'll definitely, we'll do whatever thing we can to not disappoint you guys and not be able to have to make up a new engagement story because you don't want to include us in it anymore. That's a lot like.

They blew it. Stay sexy. And don't get hurt. I did. Bye, you guys. Bye, you guys.