My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 59

Episode Date: February 26, 2018

Karen and Georgia cover your hometown stories including a lake monster, a holy water haunting, a Ted Bundy connection, and more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We at Wondery live, breathe and downright obsess over true crime and now we're launching the ultimate true crime fan experience, Exhibit C. Join now by following Wondery, Exhibit C on Facebook and listen to true crime on Wondery and Amazon Music, Exhibit C. It's truly criminal. It's time. It's time in a place. It's here and it's now. It's here and now and forever. It's the mini-soad of my favorite murder. The most dramatic mini-soad ever. Of a podcast. Of any podcast. Of any. The small version of it. That's Georgia Hardstar. That's Karen Kilgarov. And this is the version of the podcast that's shorter, earlier in the week, faster, and about almost anything. And it's about you. It is about you. It's about you, listener. Because

you send us your stories and we fucking read them to you and we love it. You wear your puppets, we fucking do what you want. Do whatever you want. Last week on the episode I requested in case you fucking skippers didn't listen to the end. Skippers. A little so-and-so. Instead of just hometowns and fucking sinkholes and things and walls, we also want, what do we call them, and then we found out. And then we found out. So put that in the subject line so Stephen will know. We want to know what you found out. Like grandpa died and we went through his clothes and then we found out. He was grandma. Type of thing. Or he was a scarecrow. Exactly. Or he was just grandpa, but really grumpy. Or he was three kids standing on each

other's shoulders with a trench cutter on them. Did you see the kids trying to get into Black Panther? I did. It looked so, there was one angle where you, the lady that's, I think she's behind them in line is laughing. But the way the kid on the bottom's legs are, it looks kind of like a really, a guy with the longest torso you've ever seen. It's so funny. I love it. Someone did that. I love it. So stupid. Love it so much. Very Bojack Horseman. You're all so cool. Okay. Do you want me to go first? Sure. I'm looking at this email, so I'm going to read it. Okay. The subject line is not the Loch Ness Monster, but dot dot dot. Thank you ladies for making my LA commute bearable. Oh God, let's talk about LA commutes for a while. For 45 minutes, which is how long it takes you

to get three blocks in LA. It's insane. I have to move away from this area. Let's do it. It's making me crazy. Let's hold hands and do it. What if we got a houseboat that we anchor in a bay near Venice? Okay. People can row out to the party boat. I said houseboat first, but I mean party boat. Okay. I mean, what, is there a difference? You know, right? It's a party house, but you can do somersaults off one and not the other. But the water's real gross. I would suggest you don't. We'll try to get out of this stream of urine and feces and overbite it all. Did you see noodles? Needles. Needles. And all those random noodles that are out in the ocean. You know, the noodle, pool noodles. People try to bring in the ocean. Those fucking things. They don't work in the ocean.

Don't disintegrate. They're just in the ocean. Whales are choking on noodles. Sorry. Back to the email. What's happening? I was just listening to... Have you been drinking the fucking water in the marina? Yeah, girl. I'm high on marina water. That's why people love yacht clubs so much. You're in smoking those pool noodles. I smoke a big long pool noodle and read an email. I was just listening to the episode 92 where you guys are talking about believing in the Loch Ness monster. Karen said she believed. Parentheses. Georgia's like important delineation. Parentheses as do I. Hi. Hey. But Georgia, you don't. I should have just kept going. Okay. Well, I wanted to see if you guys had heard about the lake monster in Vermont. No.

Gross. What are you talking about? We live in California. We don't know anything outside of California. Our knowledge obviously stops at the San Bernardino County line. That's fucking right. Okay. So growing up in Connecticut, my mom bought a house in Vermont. Oh, rich bitch. That was supposed to be our vacation house. We had it for a year or two, but I think I convinced my mom to sell it because of aliens. What the fuck? Wow. That's another story and I know Georgia will believe me on this. I want to know this story. Okay. Well, that's... You're going to have to resubmit. Get in the back of the line. Not you. Sorry. The person writing this email. Anyways, my mother's lawyer had a client,

Sandra Champlain. Oh no, sorry. Sandra Mansi. From Lake Champlain? From Lake Champlain, yes. Who took her husband and two kids on a beach trip one day, July, 1977, on Lake Champlain. The two kids were swimming in the lake when Sandra saw Champ, which is the name given to the monster in Lake Champlain, swimming in the lake. So she screamed for her kids to get out just like that scene in Jaws. And as she did, she... I added the Jaws part, that's not an email. She managed to snap a photo with her Kodak Instamatic camera. Handing Georgia the photo right now that Steven printed up. Okay. So she's saying she knows this chick. Yes. It's her mother's lawyer's client. So that's a solid three people away from Kevin Bacon. All right. Okay. Apparently the family was able to

watch the monster for five to seven minutes that it was partially out of the water. I mean, I'd have used up all my film if I was there for a steady minute. She said that it did not turn to look at the people, despite the fact that the children were making noise. Yeah. And that Anthony shouted on seeing it, upon seeing it. Okay. So my mom had a copy of the slide film and she still has a picture framed in our house today. Okay. So this is from a slide. Yes. So that's the picture that Mrs. Mansi took. Sandra Mansi, which is kind of a great name. Okay. She took that in Lake Champlain as she was watching her children almost get eaten by that processor. So it's up on the wall in this person's mom's house. I saw an episode on Discovery Channel where they said this is the

only photo they can't find a way to disprove. I can. Ready? What? Also growing up, I had a friend in an elementary school whose mother used to live in the area and remembers taking boat rides with her grandpa on the lake. And she too said that she remembers seeing Champ quite a bit. Oh. Benjamin Radford and Joan Nickel observe that the Mansi photo stands alone as the most credible and important photographic evidence of the existence of lake monsters because its authenticity, authenticity is quote, is held in such high regard by so many writers and researchers. I asked my mom to read this in case she had any details I forgot, but she just wanted me to mention that this picture was so cool. It even got on the cover of The Times in 1981.

XOXO, Leah. I love that picture. That's such a good idea to have that picture in your living room. It is. I don't see anything wrong with it. No. But I also don't believe it. Remember, I think there's something you and I were texting about one day or probably also Steven. And I just sent a picture of a big foot riding the Loch Ness monster. Remember that one? He's waving to the camera. That's my favorite. That sounds about right. I like it. All right. Okay. This is called My Badass Murderino Mom. Woke up to a man in her room. Karen, Georgia, Stephen and various animals. My mom Elaine is an OG murderer who has been into true crime forever. She raised me on a healthy diet of Dateline 2020 and Oprah. Always making sure I knew how to protect

myself that I wasn't obligated to be nice to anyone, especially strangers and to always trust my gut. Naturally, the true crime bug bit me too. And when I found her podcast, I knew the perfect person to tell all about it. Recently. Oh, she told her mom. Yeah, I get it. Recently, I was reminded or did you tell Oprah? Oh my God. She's got Oprah's email for some reason. Oprah, are you listening? Send us your hometown. We'll get to it in six to seven months. Girl. Okay. Let's get vulnerable about this shit. Can we? Recently, I was reminded of a story my mom had told me and immediately called her to give me the details. So here goes. When my mom was six years old, she was living in Houston with my grandparents and her three sisters. One night, she went to

sleep in her room with her baby sister in a crib, also in the room. She woke up in the middle of the night to a full grown man in her bedroom. She screamed and ran to my grandparents' room and woke up my grandfather who was pissed to be woken up. My mom was prone to night terrors and wasn't a good sleeper. So he took her back to bed and told her to go to sleep before leaving. He said, what the hell have you been doing in here? Because my mom's light bulb by her bed was unscrewed and her dresser had been pushed up against her window. He put everything back and my mom went to sleep even though the man was still behind the door looking at her. No. I asked her how she could have possibly done that and she told me that she just plain and simple believed her dad or her

granddad and thought she was imagining it. What? The next morning, my grandfather shot out of bed realizing my mother couldn't have possibly moved the dresser on her own. Full morning later. Antique furniture is heavy, y'all. Yeah. And ran into my mom's room. Thank God, both my mom and her little sister were fine. They found the screen to the window in the neighbor's yard. No. They filed a police report but this was the late, this was the 60s and no one was ever caught for the break-in. Or for anything. Right, or anything ever. Thank you for making me and my mom not feel alone in loving true crime, SSDGM Annie. I cannot believe that story. Good night, dad. Good night, grandpa. He's standing right there. He's standing there staring at her and she's

like, well, God. And he's like, how come you, why did you paint the ceiling again or whatever, something she couldn't possibly have done? Whose driver's license is this on the floor? Why are you making counterfeit driver's license again? I told you that interest is not relevant to you as a six-year-old. That is horrifying. I know. Why, you don't live in your cigarette pack on the ground again? I told you no smoking in the bedroom where the baby is. That is the end so lucky. I know. That what, what happened? He's a burglar that went in the wrong room. Who knows? He's like a drunk burglar that's like, fuck, I went into the nursery and then he's just like hiding like, maybe I'm not here and then they're all like- I thought it was his house,

he lives across the street and it was like the same looking house. He's like, shit, shit. You know what? While we're talking about this, just can we give a quick shout out to Robert Downey Jr. who did the greatest, I am so on drugs that my life is out of control thing of crawling in to a child's bedroom and going to sleep on a child's bed. And that's how he got caught. And that's how he got arrested. And that's how he got clean and sober, low those many years ago, like 15 years ago. Rob low those many years. Rob low. How did he get sober? Those many years. I just think that that is so wonderful. Yeah, except that it had been anyone but Robert Downey Jr. who would have been shot on fucking sight and not given the opportunity

to go to rehab. He would have gone straight. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm fucking, let me put a fucking kibosh on your happiness real quick. No, no, no. I mean, like, look, that's why actors wear so many scarves. So they get recognized no matter where they go. Like if you see an actor that's like, it just bothers us, the paparazzi bull fucking shit. Take your scarf off, stop wearing white pants. No one will fucking pay attention to you. Right. Stop dating fucking actresses that you walk down with their scarves on. Yeah. You and your scarf and your tank top and your big snow boots, like stop it and you will blend in fine. Yeah. Go live on a houseboat if that's the fucking problem. That get out to our

party boat. That's right near your house. No paparazzi on the party boat in Venice. Please know paparazzi on the party boat. And then here's us sending emails to paparazzi. Here's where they address. The party boat addresses. Okay, ready for this one? Do party boats have addresses? Go ahead. 500 Ocean Way. I'm not a priest, but I still sprinkled holy water. A ghost story. I've been, if we get right into it. Oh no, it says, hi, MFM fam. Great. I've been a fan of yours since almost the beginning and I've tried and I've listened to every episode. Thank you. Thank you. That's a lot to deal with. A lot to take. You poor thing. The only reason I didn't go see you in Vegas is because I was busy trying to get a picture with

Captain America in Arizona. What the fuck? I don't know what that means. All right. That's no excuse. That's exactly right. We don't care if all the superheroes come to life and are ready for photo ops. You show up at our party boat. I put myself through college by working as an RA and other miscellaneous ways, mostly in the all girls dorm that was built in the late 1800s. Here we go. One of the first things I was told about that dorm that was, it was haunted by Abigail, a baby girl who was buried in the foundation by a woman who had her out of wedlock and fucking strike seven buried in the foundation of the building. Oh, could she twin? Please don't. Okay. PS.

That's why a rando guy slept on my floor one of my first nights there as a freshman because he insisted I was afraid of the ghost. I did not fuck politeness because I was a dumb fuck 18 year old. I loved that dorm, but some people thought it was creepy. The dorm even had a Victorian lounge with an old ass piano, a creepy ass mirror and furniture that could have belonged to Jane Austin. So one night I was working the front desk making sure dudes weren't sneaking in classic RA shit. Some of the girls from the second floor came downstairs and told me they refused to sleep in their rooms. They told me there was a ghost that had been messing with them for weeks. One of them claimed that the ghost texted her boyfriend from her phone telling her boyfriend to stay away.

Okay. Another set. This is like you can you're 18. You want to believe it's a ghost. It's that fucking weirdo roommate you have that you have to live with for eight more months. Yeah. That smells like like flowers and pee. You're like, what is happening? Okay. Another said that she had seen it at the foot of her bed and she knew the other girls saw it too. Yeah. You're your roommate, but she's just crouching and jet a lot of powder on. I try not to believe in ghosts because I don't like them. So obviously I thought they were messing with me. Eventually I start to kind of believe that they thought they saw something cue the holy water. They even told me they went to the church across the street to get holy water, but they couldn't

get any. I rolled my eyes and told them that of course they couldn't get it at any. They couldn't get any at that time. It was the Lenten season. At this point it's almost midnight and I was about to hand over the watchdog duties. They kept telling me they couldn't sleep there. So I gave in, I told them that I had a stash of holy water in my room. Shout out to my cousins who think I'm a heathen and thought it would be a good idea to give it to me. Wait, she really did. She really did. The fuck. Love it. They asked me to go to their floor and sprinkle holy water. I was reluctant because I had to do my building rounds and I was tired as fuck. And you don't want to waste your fucking holy water on sorority. Yeah, save it for an emergency when the devil visits you.

Like Abigail, they want to fucking the devil. But they convinced me. So sometime around 1.30 a.m. I hike up my sweatpants, grab my holy water, meet the girls on their floor, other people walking by, see me sprinkling holy water and they start opening their doors and ask me to sprinkle it on their beds and closets. It worked because later they told me they hadn't had any more sightings. I hope I get to see you live at some point. You should come to Reno, but I know you won't. SSDGM Paola. Wow. How do you pronounce that name? Paola. Paola. Paola. That was amazing. Paola. Wow. Thank you. I love that she actually had holy water. That's the best. Well, she's an RA. She's got to cover all the bases. Sure. Yeah, she's got holy water. She's got garlic for vampires.

Garlic for vampires. She's got an upside down cross. She's got an upside down cross. Which can be used as a regular cross. That's you can turn it right back up and just choose your own adventure. She's got a Jewish man made of clay. What are those called? Legos? Nawa. A Jewish man made of clay? A golem. Thank you, Stephen. Oh. You know you make a golem and it goes and does your bidding? Why is it Jewish? It's from Jewish folklore tradition. You've never heard of a golem? We don't celebrate that kind of Judaism. There was an X-Files episode about it. You both are making shit up. No, no. I believe it. There's also, there's a book or a movie. Golem is from Lord of the Rings, right? Yeah. Golem is the man made of clay that goes and murders

things for you. Did you find that in your grandfather's attic when he died and you found out that you're Jewish? You found out that your grandfather had a clay man that did his fucking evil bidding? I bet you anything someone found out that they're, oh, we need to know. Looking for a better cooking routine? With meal planning, shopping, and prepping handled, HelloFresh has you covered. HelloFresh makes home cooking easy and affordable so you can stay on track and on budget in the new year. HelloFresh meals are convenient, seasonal, and delicious. Stay cozy all winter long with classic comfort foods available weekly. Why stop with just dinner? Now you can enjoy HelloFresh's expanded menu of quick lunch solutions, weekend brunch, simple side dishes,

and amazing desserts. Karen, January is going to be my month for HelloFresh. I am so sick of takeout. I miss cooking so much I haven't lifted a knife or a pan since like early fall. So I can't wait to get back in the kitchen and HelloFresh makes it so easy and also makes it so that my food tastes good, which is hard to do on my own. It gives you everything, everything you need. So get up to 20 free meals with purchase plus free shipping on your first box at hellofresh.ca slash murder20 with code murder20. That's up to 20 free meals plus free shipping on your first box when you go to hellofresh.ca slash murder20 and use code murder20. Goodbye. Hey, I'm Mike Corey, the host of Wondery's podcast against the odds. In our next season,

three masked men hijack a school bus full of children in the sleepy farm town of Chowchilla, California. They bury the children and their bus driver deep underground, planning to hold them for ransom. Local police and the FBI marshal a search effort, but the trail quickly runs dry as the air supply for the trapped children dwindles, a pair of unlikely heroes emerges. Follow against the odds wherever you get your podcasts, you can listen ad free on the Amazon music or Wondery app. Okay, last one. Here we go. This is called a serial killer I witnessed was my elementary art teacher. What? Okay. Hello, Karen, George, I see you and animal friends. That's right. I don't mind that. I love your podcast and I have to thank my twin sister,

Lisa, for getting me hooked. Lisa, we're from a small town in northwest Indiana with a population of just over 2000. It was a pretty quiet place to grow up. My grandma was one who got us interested in true crime from a young age. I can remember my grandma listening to her police scanner. Yes. And watching court TV like it was her job. Love you, grandma. Grandma also liked to take us to cemeteries for fun. Fuck, yes. I love her. We attended the local elementary school where one of my favorite classes was art with our teacher, Nita Paradis. She was an excellent teacher who made her students feel special and talented. Ms. Paradis was our art teacher from kindergarten through fifth grade. When we came back for sixth

grade in 1990, Ms. Paradis had left her position and moved away, leaving a very inadequate replacement. We had an older sister, Laura, who was freshman at the time. So of course we got all of our completely age and appropriate information from her. Yes, older sister Laura. Yeah. Oh, yeah. The next school year, we found out that Laura, from Laura, that Ms. Paradis was actually Nita Neary. What? An eyewitness in the Ted Bundy trial. Oh, fuck, that's her. She escaped. That's right. Colorado? No, it's a Chai Omega. Oh, in Florida? Yeah. Well, I bet she'll tell us. I like that you called it Chai Omega. What is it? Kai. Kai. But it's Chai T. I didn't go to college. I did not. Can I tell you the truth right now? I didn't know what a fucking RA was until you

told me, until you started reading that thing. I was like, oh, she worked as an RA in the hospital? Cool. Oh, like a highway patrolman? Got it. Got it. I didn't. Resident assistant? Listen, Santa, yeah, I know I get it now. Look and listen about Santa Monica City College. That's right. What's up? Boop, boop, boop. Okay. So this is really exciting because I'm reading A Stranger Beside Me or The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule right now. And so this is a fucking, okay. And it's been voted out because she was like, let's do it. No, let's just do it. Neeta was an art major and a member of the Chai Omega. Stupid. Sorority at Florida State University. She returned to the sorority house after a date entering the house through the back door. Neeta heard footsteps

coming down the stairs. She remained silent and hidden in the shadows and became an eyewitness to Ted Bundy leaving the house. She helped a police sketch artist come up with a rendering of Bundy and later identified him in a photo lineup and in court. Of course, we later heard rumors that she was in our small town as part of the witness protection program. Oh, we still aren't sure if that was any truth to that, but either way, our small town was probably a nice place to lie low for a while. Anyway, just wanted to share our little town's connection to a notorious serial killer. Thank you for creating a place for true crime lovers to gather without judgment. Please keep doing what you're doing. Stay sexy and don't get murdered. Carla. Carla. What a bummer to find

out after she's gone. But it totally was witness protection, don't you think? Like head out and because if she's already a teacher, then that means she got her degree. Oh, so she this was past was behind her. He was like within the year, I think of that. So this was the past was behind her. He was already in jail in jail. So maybe she was just like, get me the fuck out of my existence right now. But also like she really was the final blow to stopping this monster who killed so many women. Yeah, including two of her fucking sorority sisters at Chi Omega upstairs that night, where he walked in and walked out like within like 15 minutes. Yes, it was frenzied. Don't read the stranger beside me. I am having nightmares. I had a fucking I had a job interview

with Ted Bundy the other night. No, I had a job interview to be his assistant. No, at his fucking mansion in Beverly Hills. I put my feet in his jacuzzi because I was early. I want to sorry jacuzzi. The specialty kind. Which is so something I would truly do. And then at a job interview, Ted Bundy. It's so symbolic of how show business kills people. What, jacuzzi? Oh, Karen. Yes, I'll go deep. Or I'm just reading a strange the stranger beside me. The most disturbing book about a person who is the most disturbing person that but but Anne rule had rules. She she rules, but she also had every tool in the book to look at him and go something's not right. And she didn't sense it. I know, even when it's so scary. Elvis, he hit his head with his eyes

weren't crossed anymore. And he spoke French. Cat, but in French. Oh, I wonder cookie cookie you cookie boy. He doesn't he doesn't understand what I'm saying. No, he doesn't. We can cut any of that and all of that. Um, well, far. Yeah, that was amazing. That was great. Carla also one of the last car laws, I'm sure. There are very few car laws on the planet anymore. That's true. They're going extinct. Great name. Please send us all your fucking just send us your weird shit. You know what I mean? Like send us your weird stories that no one you don't think anyone wants to hear. Yeah, we want to hear it. We do. And the people who are listening do, but that's it. Yes. So it's and Stephen and Stephen send them to my favorite murder at Gmail. Tell, tell

Stephen. Tell Stephen what he needs to know in the subject line. Get your shit read. Don't use the word for babies. I mean, or do it for attention, but just know that that's really old and no one even enjoys the irony of that anymore. Do it aggressively if you're going to do it at all. Yeah, start a start a hashtag against us. Why are you mad at us using all we've been doing? It's just that thing of trying to do you want negative attention? Do you want positive attention? What if the positive attention doesn't work, then you might as well go negative. Sure. Stay sexy and don't get murdered. Goodbye. Elvis. You want cookie? Oh, yeah, right as rain.