My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode #5

Episode Date: September 5, 2016

You keep sending them, Karen and Georgia will keep reading them! This week’s hometown murder minisode includes a hexing witch beatdown, a shouting match with a serial killer, unfortunate ba...ck rubs, a recent unsolved river murder mystery, 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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Starting point is 00:00:00 This is exactly right. 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. Well then... Let's do it!
Starting point is 00:00:44 Hi! Hi! Welcome to my favorite murder, Mini-Sode. Where we tell you your stories back to you. The best way to hear your stories through someone else's mouth. Yep, that's true. And these mouths are owned by Karen and Georgia. And we always ask you guys for your hometown murders and you send us these amazing emails
Starting point is 00:01:07 and we have like a fucking inbox full of them. People are really trying to sell the story in the subject line. I respect what they're doing. Some of it is tricky. I think last time when I said make sure there's only like eight paragraphs, that was a mistake. Eight is way too many. Eight is more than enough. Four is good.
Starting point is 00:01:33 Four is great if we can get some large print, some double spacing. Yeah, don't do tiny print. Absolutely don't. I'm 75 years old. All right. Do you want me to go first? Go for it. One, this, the subject line is Pennsylvania Hex, which murders and a couple others because
Starting point is 00:01:54 I'm obsessive and can't decide. I'm sorry. It's from Judith. Thank you, Judith. Hi. My name is Judith and I've always been obsessed with true crime. I grew up in a little town called New Park right on the MDPA line. What states are those?
Starting point is 00:02:09 MD is Maryland. PA is Pennsylvania. That's right. Oh my God, I'm learning. I'm in Southern York County. This is where the Hex witch murder and trial happens in Remeyer's Hollow. Is this fiction? All of that.
Starting point is 00:02:26 This is from the 1800s. Oh my God, what if we got a ghost email from the 1800s? My mom originally told me about this murder when I was little and I investigated it myself, aka Google search, because our landlord literally wrote the book on it, cool. She always told me that he was one of the lawyers involved at the trial, but I don't think that was possible because he was born the year it happened. The story. In 1928, this guy named John Blimeyre, so it is old.
Starting point is 00:02:54 Oh my God, I like it already. Yeah. This guy named John Blimeyre believed that he had been cursed by this recluse named Nelson Remeyer. I don't know why he thought this. Crazy. Sorry. John's last name is Blimeyre, B-L-I-M-I-R-E, and the other guy's last name is Remeyer,
Starting point is 00:03:10 R-E-H-M-E-Y-R-E. Weird. M-E-Y-E-R. Anyway, sorry, I just thought I'd cite that, it's a fun spelling area that I wanted to go into. All right. Remeyer was a pow wow doctor, which is a mix of witchcraft and faith healing brought over by the Pennsylvania Dutch.
Starting point is 00:03:28 Oh my goodness. This is very educational. This local witch named Nellie Nall, known as the River Witch of Marietta, advised and convinced Blimeyre to go to Remeyer's house to find his copy of the spell book to make him undo the hex. Blimeyre got two others together who also thought they'd been hexed to go with him to Remeyer's house. Remeyer, of course, would not cooperate and they beat him to death and mutilated his body,
Starting point is 00:03:56 thinking that this would undo the hex. Oh fuck. I don't think that's how it works. No. Yeah. From all the horror movies I've seen, when you mutilate someone, then they're gonna stick around for a while. That's true.
Starting point is 00:04:10 And you're the monster. And you become the pow wow doctor. Turns out you're a monster. You're the dick. Yeah. The trial was, of course, a big deal in the area and drew lots of media attention for obvious reasons. Our landlord is an eccentric old guy from our area and literally just decided to write
Starting point is 00:04:25 a book on it. It's a super interesting book and sold everywhere in York County. There's also a documentary that was recently released on it, and you can see it on Amazon, but I haven't watched it yet, so not sure how good it is. You can also tour the house, which I really want to do. It's the only murder that I know of in the area and one that everybody there seems to know about. I work at a local TV station in DC, and so we hear about murders and fucked up shit
Starting point is 00:04:52 all the time. I added a couple of the ones that I've been fascinated with because I think you guys will love them to really quickly have to see, oh girl, this just goes on and on. I'll just read the mansion murders. Have you heard of that? May 14th, 2015, super wealthy Greek family living in Upper Northwest DC were found murdered in their burning home. Oh fuck.
Starting point is 00:05:21 Yeah, we can't go into all of these. It just goes on and on. Thanks, Judith. Yeah. Thank you. It was good because that was not that long ago, you don't think people thought that that was still a thing and murdered people over it. Worried about being hexed and then murdered the person that they thought hexed them.
Starting point is 00:05:44 You know what the problem is? It's staying in a small town. You get so bored, I think, right? Once you go to the roller rink a couple times and smoke cigarettes behind the gas station, you're like, we've got to kill somebody. We did it all. Let's kill somebody. We've got to get super paranoid and start murdering.
Starting point is 00:06:02 Guys, move out of your small towns. Although I have to say, I really like the idea of a town knowing there's a witch that lives there. Yeah. I mean, that I like. And everyone's like, yeah, okay. Just know, don't murder that witch. I mean, and witchcraft isn't, it's probably, it's not that big of a deal.
Starting point is 00:06:21 It's like kind of cool. Well, except for if you freak out about it. That's true. All right, this one is called Murder Story Near Miss. And it's by Jason. And I really like it. And I think you're going to love it, Karen. It's short.
Starting point is 00:06:37 So my friend Tony has always been a loudmouth and is a school teacher in Wichita. He lives in the suburbs. He got home from work one night and found his two dogs had escaped the backyard through his makeshift fence repair. He goes searching around the neighborhood and finds them leashed in a neighbor's house a few doors down. He thinks the man for catching the dogs apologizes that they had gotten out says, I don't know where they're getting out.
Starting point is 00:07:00 I'm going to fix it this weekend. The neighbor is firm and stating, well, too bad. I already called animal control on their on their on their way. You can pick them up from the pound. Tony says it's not necessary. It won't happen again. And it just evolves into a shouting match and a little scuffle as Tony forcibly takes the dog away and back home.
Starting point is 00:07:20 Two weeks later, the neighbor is arrested. You want to know ready for this, Karen? Hmm. Dennis Rader. BTK. No. What? My loudmouth friend got in a screaming match with a serial killer.
Starting point is 00:07:33 Jason. Oh, my God. That was such a good surprise. I know. I honestly thought you were going to be like the neighbor killed him and buried him in the very fence line that got let the dog. That is the greatest. I know.
Starting point is 00:07:48 Because also what kind of a I got so mad immediately. Who would? An asshole. And also he killed a lot of people. But what an asshole. But also just a bad neighbor. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:00 That's such a dick move of like, no, you need to be punished even though you didn't get caught. I'm going to punish you. Yeah. Red flag personality. Yeah. Get him arrested immediately. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:08:11 What makes a person a murderer? Are they born to kill or are they made to kill? I'm Candice 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.
Starting point is 00:08:46 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. Do you want to hear? Okay, hometown story Davenport, Iowa, or nannying for a murder, or that one time I got a backer
Starting point is 00:09:24 of from a killer. I don't even know why I asked you that. All right, this one's got along. Okay, this is from Amanda. So all right, when I was 18, my best friend and I picked up her brother from a ninjutsu class. The class was held in an industrial estate that was completely empty in the evenings when the surrounding business is closed.
Starting point is 00:09:49 The brother told us that his instructor was starting a class just for girls. And if he went along next week, our first class would be free. Uh-oh. No. We got to the studio and we're the only two there. He hadn't told anyone else about the class. Let's see. We don't want to offend him.
Starting point is 00:10:06 We were stupid. After the class, he said he needed us to come up to the office to complete some paperwork. We went upstairs, so stupid. She wrote this. I'm not saying that. He took us into the office and locked the door behind him using a key he put in his pocket. The only furniture in the, what? Just the locking the door from the inside with a key.
Starting point is 00:10:27 Totally. No, no, no. Nightmare. Like you have to put that lock on that door. You immediately start screaming. If somebody in that, in a scenario like that where it's somebody you kind of don't know has locked you into a room with that person, grab the phone and start dialing 911 and just start screaming.
Starting point is 00:10:46 Oh my God. I'm scared. Loser shit. What? Who would do that? No, I know. It's insane. Why are we fighting?
Starting point is 00:10:54 Because I'm going to lock you in a fucking room. No. Okay. The only furniture, here's fun. The only furniture in the office was a bed. We sat on the bed and filled out the paperwork. I gave him my home number, my home address, my work address, have I mentioned how stupid I was?
Starting point is 00:11:11 We were freaked out, but didn't know what to do. We told him we need to get home, but he said he just wanted to chat. He offered us some, quote, wine. He was making himself in a bucket under the bed. No. It had fruit and bread floating in it and smelled like garbage. We politely declined. He offered us weed.
Starting point is 00:11:26 Then he offered us something stronger. We said no to everything. The only smart thing we did. At some point I kind of winced as I moved and he told me he was a great at massage. He got me to lie face down on the bed while he rubbed my back and then it all kept. She said, I did this without arguing. We'd been in the office for well over an hour. We were frightened and feeling trapped.
Starting point is 00:11:46 Suddenly someone was banging on the door downstairs and shouting that he knew Chris, the instructor was there because his car was outside. Chris had to unlock the door and let us out. This was 20 years ago. We had nail cell phones that hadn't told our poor moms where we were, other than we were going to the martial arts class. Over the next few weeks, he called me repeatedly at home and visited me at work until the security guards told him that they would call the police if he came back.
Starting point is 00:12:08 About eight months later, a young mother was found dead near her front door and her baby was missing. The baby was later found unharmed in a nearby church car park. The police visited me at work for a statement. Chris Lewis, the instructor, was arrested for the murder of Tanya Furloun. Oh my God. He was never, he was never found guilty because he killed himself in prison. The look the police man and woman gave me when I told them I'd let him massage me still
Starting point is 00:12:34 makes me cringe. Let this be a lesson to, let this be a lesson to all people to not be polite. If it seems weird or creepy, all caps, get the fuck out of there. Don't lie down on a killer's bed. Oh, Amanda. Good job. Oh my God. Dude, you know you and I both would have done something fucking stupid like that.
Starting point is 00:12:57 I did. I know. But what's that thing where it's like people that are, people who are offering you free shit, people who are saying it's all girls, people who like any of these things that it's, we're not trained very well yet. I think kids these days are, but like we certainly weren't. That's a red flag. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:13:18 It's not like, oh sure. It's no big deal. Yeah. Like adults who want to hang around children. No. Red flag. Red flag. 1000 percent.
Starting point is 00:13:28 1000. That's amazing. One more. You want me? We're glad you're still here. Yeah. So the subject line of this is creepy shit is creepy. Hell yeah.
Starting point is 00:13:37 It's from Lindsay. Hi ladies. I just had to write this email while at work because I discovered your podcast thanks to my twisted writer comrades who are all thoroughly obsessed. While my town Grove City isn't particularly famous for crazy murders, the local city Columbus just had something super creepy happen and I thought you would love to know. We would. On March 4, 2016, Joey Lebut went to the Union Bar in the short North District of Columbus,
Starting point is 00:14:04 a rather famous area as it's home to a thriving LGBTQ community with friends at 1230 AM March 5th. Joey left the table to get a drink. Security footage shows Joey leaving the bar alone and walking down the street. His car remained at its parked location a few blocks away and there was no activity at his apartment and none of his credit cards had been used. The last thing anyone heard from him was a text sent at 1.22 AM that read capital J-H-N-S-I-O-T-J period.
Starting point is 00:14:38 What is that spell? It spells nothing. It looks like John with no O is backwards and O-T-J, but it's all one. He remained missing until March 29th. He was found floating in the Shioto River that runs through the city. The cause of death was undetermined, but he only had alcohol in his system and no water in his lungs, meaning he was dead before he went into the water. That's true.
Starting point is 00:15:11 However, there is no evidence of physical harm. The mystery remains unsolved. What happened? Anyway, that's all. Keep kicking ass. Stay sexy. Don't get murdered. Is that the smiley face murders?
Starting point is 00:15:21 Is that the one where they keep finding men in rivers and college towns with smiley faces spray-painted on the walls nearby? I feel like the smiley face murder, the one I know about is older. This is super recent. Those might be two different things, but the fact that he doesn't have water in his lungs scares me. That's horrifying. Did he hit his head on the way down?
Starting point is 00:15:45 There's no evidence of physical harm, which is super weird. Plus, if he had hit his head, he wouldn't have died instantly. The first thing I thought of is maybe he got dosed, maybe he got roofied, and he felt weird. They always say, if you're going to have a heart attack, a very common thing. When people start to have heart attacks, they get up and go into a different room. That's a really common thing that a lot of people die of heart attacks because they separate themselves from who they're with, because they're like, oh, something's wrong, and they try to go to the bathroom or get away.
Starting point is 00:16:22 There's a chance maybe he got roofied and started feeling super weird, so he just got up and walked. He needed to go outside and get fresh air, and then by the time he realized he didn't know where he was, he tried to text, but he couldn't put anything together to text. Oh my God, that's so scary. Doesn't it seem possible that something like that? It does. That the person who dosed him in the bar followed him.
Starting point is 00:16:47 Oh, and that's how he got in the water. Yeah. That's the one puzzle piece that wouldn't make sense to me that he ended up in the water, but if someone put him in the water. Right. It's a common thing that serial killers do because it gets rid of a lot of evidence to go into a river, and it just sends them away like current-wise, gets the body away. Oh my God, that scares me.
Starting point is 00:17:13 It's a good, I mean, as much as we like a murder story, a mystery, this is still a, but the mystery aspect is also fascinating. Love a mystery. Let's do one. Let's see. This one's called Nannying for a Murderer by Taylor. Hey, ladies, maybe this is cheating because this is recent. My friend used to nanny for a family where I lived in Sugarhouse, Utah.
Starting point is 00:17:39 The father was a pediatrician and the mother a scientist researching cancer. A couple divorced in 2011, Yuda Vaughn Schwilder, Schwildler, was found dead in her bathtub. The examiner said she died from a combination of overdosing on Xanax and drowning, but did not determine if it was a homicide or suicide. It's worth noting she also had a few knife wounds. Oh. That is definitely worth noting. Yes.
Starting point is 00:18:04 For more than a year, there was basically no investigation. However, the 18-year-old's son insisted that the father had something to do with it. After a year accusing his father, they finally charged him. The two youngest siblings were removed from the father's custody and my friend kept them during this time. Whoa. I used to ask her if she thought he was guilty and she wasn't really allowed to have an opinion. By law, she had to remain a neutral party as to not influence the younger children.
Starting point is 00:18:28 My friend had these children for six months or longer as the story unfolded. A jury convicted the ex-husband, John Brickman-Wall, to 15 years. They boiled down to his non-existent alibi, unexplained scratch marks, and blood spatter evidence from said knife wounds. Who knows? Yuda could have been the woman who cured cancer. As far as I'm concerned, we can blame John Brickman-Wall for anyone who has died of cancer after 2011.
Starting point is 00:18:51 Cheers. Taylor. 15 years from murdering his wife, he's going to be out in seven. Yeah, what's the... Did they have to bring him up on lesser charges at first-degree murder? Something slaughtered. God. Wow.
Starting point is 00:19:09 That's intense. Totally. Bummer. It never ceases to bum you out when we go to read murder stories. Isn't that weird? Bummer. Bummer. You know what?
Starting point is 00:19:25 I don't like this. Do you know what? You never mind. I want to read cheerful stories. You know what? Here's the story. You know who is happy about this, though? Oh, there is someone who benefits from all of these stories.
Starting point is 00:19:36 One person who's very, very happy about these murder stories. Elvis? Oh, stay mini. Wait, go? Yeah. Stay sexy. Don't get murdered. Elvis, want a cookie?
Starting point is 00:19:47 Good boy.

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