My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 45

Episode Date: November 13, 2017

Karen and Georgia read your hometown stories including a Tampa serial killer connection, a twelve-year-old first responder, a haunted castle, the Son Of Sam dog, and more.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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You know what this is. It's a smaller episode than the largest so. Yeah. And we tell you your stories instead of our stories. It's very clear. I don't know why you guys can't wrap your hands around this. Every time we have to explain this to you. So let's just do it.

Let's just read them their stories. Okay. And not fuck around anymore. You know what? I'm sick of fucking around. I'm tired of talking. Yeah. I'm tired of listening.

Yes. I want to read. What else do you? Yes. What else is there? Reading. Reading emails on a podcast. My first email subject line is, 12-year-old first responder and murder witness.

Perfect. I love it. Why don't we even bother talking? Why don't we just read these? We wasted time even saying what this was. Totally. Got it. My hometown murder story is also a first responder story with 12-year-old me and my mom as the

first responders. Perfect. We're not talking about civically appointed first responders in this scenario. I don't think. They responded to a situation first. It sounded like because they had no choice. Yeah. Let's first responders.

Hence. We need to start using that word more. Hence. Hence. Okay. This took place in Southeast Portland in the mid-90s when I was 12 years old. I woke up very early one morning before the sun was up because I heard someone yelling outside.

Not good. It was a woman's voice and she was screaming, help me. There's a fire. Help. I look out my window and notice our street is full of smoke and I see a lady pacing up the front house, pacing in front of the house that was directly across the street from me. I quickly go downstairs to find my mom awake doing her daily crossword puzzle. Hell yeah.

She was a nurse. Again, hell yes. So it wasn't strange for her to be up at odd hours. I tell her there's a woman outside yelling about a fire and the street is full of smoke. We immediately run outside together, me trailing behind my superhero nurse mom. She approaches the lady, says she's a nurse and the lady is pointing at the house saying our family is inside. My mom tells me to run back inside our house and get the phone.

I get her the phone and she calls 911 to tell them there's a house on fire with people inside. Oh my God. Oh my God. While we're waiting for the firefighters to arrive, my mom goes into nurse mode. She tells me to run into our house and grab a blanket. Before she tells me it was because she was afraid the woman was going into shock. I bring out my favorite teddy bear blanket and my mom gets the woman to sit on the curb

and is trying to keep her calm and assess what she can. Before we know what the fire trucks arrive and with a few ambulances not far behind. We watch from across the street as they pull out two people on structures. Everyone is whisked away via ambulance and the firefighters put out the flames. We find out later that the two people inside the house were the woman's mother and sister and very sadly, they both died from smoke inhalation. The woman was mentally ill and had started the fire. On a more lighthearted note, which could literally be anything right now on a more lighthearted

note. It could just rewritten the phrase on a more lighthearted note. I just got to be on the news. Oh, oh, no, sorry. On a more lighthearted note. I got to be on the news and my mom let me take credit for calling 911 for her saving a life was just another day at the office. But for 12 year old me, holy shit, I got to be famous for a day.

This experience and having nurse for a mom is what inspired me to become a nurse myself. Well done. She showed me time and again. It's not our place to judge others, but to help others. Very happy to say I'll be starting nursing school next fall SSGGM, Amy, future super nurse. Oh, PS, I never got my teddy bear blanket back and I'm kind of miffed that I gave it to a murderer.

Oh, my God. She wasn't explicitly saying that the woman was a murderer up above is still kind of a sensitive area. And you busted it out when she talked about the blanket, your fucking blanket, your favorite blanket. Yes. Understood. And also just like 12 year olds just know that going forward.

Yeah. If you see situation kicks in, hide your stuff you like. Never give your favorite things to anyone. No. It's a thing. Horde your favorites. Say here's this blanket I don't like that much. Yeah.

Or here's my sister's favorite blanket. She loves it. She can't sleep a wink without it. Yeah. Take it please. Please take all the comfort that she gets. Right. I don't want it back.

No, it's yours now. You know what? Throw in the fire when you're done with it. You touched it. You bought it. Yeah. Goodbye. Okay.

This is called our Tampa Uber driver drove the serial killer. Whoa. Yeah. Hello ladies and company. My sister and I. My favorite musical. Hey. My sister and I saw the live show in Tampa last night.

We were way up in the nosebleeds but still had an amazing time. We wanted to write to tell you about our Uber ride over to the theater. We were chatting with our driver and told him we were headed, where we're headed and explain what the podcast was all about. That's sometimes a mistake to try to tell people. Yeah. But hey, thanks for the grassroots attempt. I mean, yeah.

Yeah. Spread the word. Yes. I don't mean, yeah. When we asked him if he was a fan of street crime, especially since Tampa currently has its own serial killer, he then proceeded to tell us that he's pretty sure he picked up the serial killer a few weeks ago. The day after the last murder happened, he said he picked up a man a mile from where

all the murders have taken place and it started off as a normal ride. The guy was nice and chatty and happened to bring up the murders himself. The Uber driver then jokingly asked the dude, you're not the serial killer, are you? And he said after that, the passengers entire demeanor slash mood changed. He became quiet and stoic and the driver dropped him off at his destination. As more details came out in the news about the suspect, the Uber driver realized the passenger matched the description perfectly and own a flip phone, which is another potential clue that police have released.

The passenger said his sister had called him the Uber because he had a flip phone. You're right. Oh my God. The Uber driver also mentioned the guy worked at Popeyes. Therefore, when they saw this case and figure out that the guy worked at Popeyes, you heard it here first. Yes. Stay sexy and don't eat at Popeyes in Tampa.

The Cooney sister's PS, we asked the Uber driver if he told the police this and he said he had called the tip line and gave them his information. Call that tip line again. Call it again. How many tip line stories have we told where it's like then they took my information, right? Four years later called me back. They're getting thousands and thousands of tips and it turns out this whole time Murderino has the best tip.

I love that so much. Has the right tip. Flip-flown Popeyes. What? Right? Those are the two pieces of it. You just said it. It's the two pieces.

I didn't understand what the first word he said was. Oh, sorry. Flip-flown. Was I burping? I think so. Flip-flown Popeye. Flip-flown Popeye. What is it?

That's the, I love that. That's the checkpoint. We'll know whether or not they were right. Yes. I like it when people's mode changes and it's like a temperature change. You know what I mean? I see that very often. You only hear it in books and then you're like, that doesn't really happen, does it?

It does happen. It doesn't happen? Yes. When the people are a certain kind of, it's almost like when a, did he say that he had picked the guy up after one of the murders happened? He said, which thoughts are the area? Yeah. Then he picked up.

Okay. After the, picked up the day after the last murder happened. Oh, okay. Yeah. Wow. So maybe he was spending the night at his sister's house who called the fucking Uber for him because he has a flip phone. Yeah.

Spent the night at her house. He's like, I gotta wave it again. She means the sister fucking knows something and doesn't know if she should call the cops or not. Maybe. Yeah. Ooh. Yeah.

No way. Jeremy would never do that. What his name is Jeremy? And I'm right about that. Oh my God. Could you, okay. Flip phone. Flip phone.

Pop eyes. Pop eyes. Jeremy. Jeremy. spoke in class today. Class. Okay. Go.

Okay. This is the subject line is my bitch and sister and the ghost of Warwick Castle. Great. Sister is actually spelt sister, but I don't like to be forced into using an accent that I don't approve of first. Yes. I have no questions. Thank you.

I appreciate it. 100%. Your silence equals support and solidarity for me. That's right. Okay. October first is my sister parentheses are nickname for each other. See, she was trying to get, I'm not your sister. Yeah.

I don't, it's not my nickname. Yeah. Sorry. It's late and I haven't had protein in a while. What her sister's, her sister's name is Laura. Oh my God. Okay. I'll reread this, uh, playing the game, playing along.

Hello, MFM squad. I forgot that part too. Okay. Hello, MFM squad. October first is my sister, our nickname for each other, Laura's 30th birthday and because she recently lost her husband, Paul, and your podcast is something they used to listen to together. Oh, God, I'm sorry.

Oh, that's fucking hard. We take back all the sister stuff. I don't, um, I wanted to tell you a story that features my sister and a British ghost sidebar nation. My sister's husband also happening to be British. Oh, God, that's hard. Honey. Man.

Okay. Yeah. When I was in college and my sister was in high school, my parents took us on a summer trip that included a stop in London. During this trip, we made a super touristy stop at Warwick Castle, which like many other European castles is full of suits or armor suit is full of suits of armor, lavish furniture and spooky haunts. We were taking a tour of the inside of the castle and had paused in the great hall when

my mom noticed that my sister's neck had bright red splotches all over it. She asked my sister if she was okay and my sister said she had felt a chill and then extreme heat on her neck and throat, but she felt okay otherwise. And the blotches disappeared as we walked. So we didn't think anything more. Oh my God. Oh my God. At the end of the tour, we made our way to the gift shop and we were casually looking

around when my sister gasped. She had picked up a book about Warwick Castle and it opened right to the page that featured the great hall and the story of the ghosts that haunt that part of the castle. Turns out in the 1600s, Sir Folk Greville, I can only imagine I did not read that correctly. The owner of the castle during that period was murdered by his manservant. This is the term continually used in the article, Ralph Haywood, who then turned the knife on himself, cutting his own throat. I think gasped and burped at the same time and it was a really weird sensation.

Maybe I'm haunted. I thought you gasped and then turned away in horror. No, I turned away in belching. Okay. Supposedly his ghost still haunts that part of the castle. We were stunned. We were sure it got in blotches right across her throat in the exact room Ralph and Sir Greville's ghosts are said to reside.

Spooky. Thank you ladies so much for this podcast. It often sues me during times of high anxiety and will forever be a memory of my sister's amazing husband, Paul, SSDGM, Paul and Laura. I love you both, Rachel. Oh. So sweet. That's nice of you.

Rachel. That's very sweet. You're a good sister. You are a good sister. It's sad. Sorry, Laura. We're thinking of you. You're a good sister.

Well, this one is called fun. So this is good. This one subject is fun. Just plain fun. No. Fun. All caps. Stepdad was the vet to the son of Sam dog.

Wow. All right. Here we go. Hi, Karen. Georgia. Steven, an assorted menagerie. Yes. I'll make this short because, oh wait, I'll make this short because being featured on

in MFM would be amazing. Oh. That's a good way to do it. Those two things don't necessarily directly relate, but okay. They don't. Although short and like good or long and good. Just good is the common denominator. Yeah.

Hence. Hence. Good. Hence I'm going to read this. Hence. Okay. I like using hence at the end of the sentence. Hence.

Yeah. Like ties it all together. Yeah. During and after the son of Sam murder spree, my stepdad was a young veterinary school graduate in New York. He worked in a vet clinic trying to pay off his student loans and avoid getting elbow deep in a sick cow upstate. Oh.

Mm-hmm. The clinic he worked at was also the clinic for the dog in your recent son of Sam episode. The dog that was supposedly a demon was this sweet chunky Labrador name Harvey. And then she says, I'm not that shaming. I'm pretty food motivated too. Anyway, the way my step is that is yes, that's just a dog is food motivated. And it's me. It's just when you have your motivations in certain places.

I love the idea though of a sweet chunky Labrador name Harvey being this being Satan. Yeah. Come on. He's looking up at that window being like, dude, you've got to be kidding me. He's like bacon. You know this isn't me. He's looking after just going bacon. Do you have bacon?

Do you have bacon? Well, then don't involve me in your bullshit. Right. That's all I want to know. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, the way my stepdad tells of the story is that late at night when he had to stick around for charting and cleaning, he was once, he was once alone with this dog at an

empty clinic. Once he made sure he was alone, he asked the dog straight out whether he was the devil. The dog said, no, but the cat is a real asshole. He likes to get a big laugh out of it. As you know, Berkowitz admitted that he was making up all that for the insanity plea, but that is one of my quote hometown murders. Anyway, thank you for all your hard work and for the laughs. You always remind me to SSGM.

Love, Caitlin. Oh my God. That's so funny. That's such a stepdad joke. No, but the cat is a real asshole. It's such a dad joke. It's such a dad shit. It's so hilarious.

But also, like, just that you would have, you would have to wait till everyone left. You would have to wait till you're alone in the whole clinic so that no one thought you were the insane one. I wonder if everyone was kind of sketched out by that dog at that point. The poor dog was just like, they used to be so nice to me here. Yeah. No, I just get tied to a tree. And no bacon.

Because I'm the devil. I'm the devil. I'm the devil. I'm the devil. I'm the devil. Harvey's the devil. Oh, it's real funny. Harvey.

Oh, what happened to Harvey? Oh. He lived a good long life. He did. He didn't have much bacon. Oh, good boy. I actually bet his owners were way nicer to him after, because they were like, oh my god, get away from our son.

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I'm Candace DeLong, and on my new podcast Killer Psyche Daily, I share a quick 10-minute rundown every weekday on the motivations and behaviors of the criminal masterminds, psychopaths, and cold-blooded killers you hear about in the news. I have decades of experience as a psychiatric nurse, FBI agent, and criminal profiler. On Killer Psyche Daily, I'll give you insight into cases like Ryan Grantham and the newly arrested Stockton Serial Killer. I'll also bring on expert guests to dive deeper into the details, share what it's like to work with a behavioral assessment unit at Quantico, answer some killer trivia, and even

host virtual Q&As where I'll answer your burning questions. Hey, Prime members, listen to the Amazon Music Exclusive Podcast, Killer Psyche Daily, in the Amazon Music app. Download the app today. Is that it? Do you want to read another one, or are you good? I have one here. Okay, read it to me.

Steven, I'm going to trust you on this one. I don't like this subject line. What is it? But I was wrong about the other one. So, my dad accidentally helped kill someone, question mark? Okay. We'll see. Hi, Karen, Georgia, Steven, and all the wonderful pets you have.

Give me one. Yeah. So, my dad has always worked away at sea because he was a teenager in the north of England in the 70s, and he got into a lot of trouble, which is why he really wants to see me succeed in life. Oh, God. They're always trying to make you fucking fill their void that they... That's right.

Well, yeah. Because you can't go back. No. He has many stories from people he's worked with, things he's found, et cetera. Things he's found. Oh, shit. The shit found at sea. Did you see that viral picture of the couple that found a basketball floating in the ocean?

And when they picked it up, there were all kinds of crazy long barnacles, so it had basically... It was this... What? Fully basketball with the air still in it that had been floating at sea for so long, it had full along, like, pyramid of barnacles underneath it. What is a basketball doing at sea? It's just out there, someone threw it away, but it's such a good basketball that the air didn't go out of it.

Wow. Wait, Steven's going to find you the picture, because it actually looks like art. Okay. Like, it's very cool. I love it. Anyhow, I like things that are found at sea. Tell me more. Oh, wait, I'm looking at it.

What the fuck? That is beautiful. Isn't that the best? That's beautiful. There's a name for that kind of a barnacle. Basketball. The basketball barnacle? The basket...

Barnacle... Barnacle basketball? Yes, that's right. It's the basketball barnacle, and they hang out in the sea waiting for basketballs. They never come because who would do that? Holy shit, it's huge. Okay, this is insane. Isn't that crazy?

That's the first one I saw. That's bananas. Anyhow, look it up. You'll thank me later. Okay. Blow it. Okay. So, he told me this story recently, and I freaked out because my dad could have been

an accessory to murder. Smiley face. Okay. Smiley face made with... Hense. Yeah. Hense. The name.

My dad was working with his friend Ray, and the two men worked... And two men they worked with asked them for their tools. Frank Wilkinson and Edward Wood took my dad's tools and went away. In February, 1986, the body of Alan Raffle, 23, was found in Kielder Forest. His head had been literally smashed in with a hammer. He'd been missing for seven weeks. Five weeks later, Frank and Edward were arrested and charged with the murder. After a 10-day trial at Newcastle Crown Court in parentheses, I've been there.

Frank was found guilty, but Edward was acquitted. Frank was recently released after serving his sentence, which was 27 years. Jesus. And he insists that he didn't kill Alan. The police said that if they had left Alan's body 20 meters further in the forest, they wouldn't have found him. My dad was questioned by police, but was never charged with anything, thank God. Another thing, there was a school trip where we went to a forest, and we got to sleep in

cabins and roast marshmallows and stuff. I got my dad to sign the consent letter, but he seemed a little off about it, and even eight-year-old me could sense it. Guess where we went? Kielder Forest. Oh, my God. Thank you. If you read this, SSTGM, Holly.

What the fuck? Wow. I think, hmm, that's weird. Yeah. Hm. You want to hear one about Ted Bundy's car? Hell yes. All right.

Okay. Uh, hey Karen, Georgia Steven, and chorus of furry pals. Okay. All right. We were talking about Jean-Benet Ramsey at a party and ended up with a bunch of non-murderinos in that classic party huddle where everyone shares their hometown and favorite murders. Nice. Yeah.

Dream huddle. In Tallahassee, where Ted Bundy ended his murder career. When old Ted was ferried to and from the courthouse in those days, they would drive him there in a station wagon with a grill between the front seat and the back. For some reason, when the state sold the station wagon, our friend's dad, being an entrepreneurial sort, decided to buy the Bundy mobile. Yes. So whenever his friends and his brother went anywhere as kids, they went in that station

wagon still with the bars between the front and back seats. Okay. Sorry. Our dad bought the station wagon, but used it as the family car and left in the dog great left in serial killer. Great. Left in the serial killer. You'll get choked to death if we didn't have this here.

Great. Dad. Our friends even took turns. Our friend even took turns with his brother playing Ted Bundy. Yes. As in, oh, who's going to be Ted today? Set in a sweet southern twang. Oh my God.

A bit that our friend doesn't know is this. The reason that station wagon was sold off almost certainly because Bundy was executed in 1989. Yeah. SSDGM. And don't put your kids in the Bundy mobile at Talia in April. That's rad. I mean, it all has to go somewhere.

It has to go somewhere. And that somewhere is the fucking 80s. Yes. Because they're just like, no, no, we're going to buy that and leave it like that. And every, it doesn't matter that the worst serial killer. I just thought he was the entrepreneurial spirit was that he was going to then sell it to some kind of a place or museum or whatever. I thought so too.

But it must have been like $10. It must have been, he's just always looking for a bargain. They're just like, yee, no one wants to be in the haunted station wagon. I'll take it. It's hilarious. I would drive it. No, I wouldn't. Would I?

Would I? I don't know. Thanks. That was a nice slew of letters. Right. Big, large range in there. Good and short too. I like that.

A lot of British. A lot of Brits. But you can send yours to my favorite murder at Gmail and it doesn't have to be hometown. It could be anything in between. Yeah. We're getting real loosey goosey with these. I mean, we just want a good story. Yeah.

As anyone does. Yeah. Ghosts are fine. Ghosts are fine. You know, if you're going to make some audacious claim about a ghost or a haunted house, we'd love to know the actual city you're talking about. Yeah. I think that's always nice.

We can cross check it a little. It's not just like straight up reading, you know, American literature. We don't do that. This isn't that. This isn't that at all, but, you know. Thank you. And so, and hence, thank you for listening to my favorite murder, the mini-soad. Hence.

Hence. And stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Bye. Elvis, you want a cookie? No.