My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 6

Episode Date: September 14, 2016

Yikes! It’s a My Favorite Murder minisode! Karen and Georgia read your hometown murder stories including the the Texarkana Moonlight Murders and the Sasebo Slashing.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. Did that surprise you? I mean, you just never know. You never know where it's gonna start, where it's gonna go. We don't have a timer. We don't have a countdown clock. No, we just look at each other and both of us are quiet until one of us. It's kind of a power move because Stephen goes, okay, I'm ready. And then we both sit here like, yeah, yeah, right. Well, guess what? It's when we're ready. It's not like he doesn't know that already. It's just fun to do. It's fun to act

out. We're mean. No, we're not. Come on. We're not meanest. That's just for on camera. Hi, everybody. This is my favorite murder. It's a Minnesota. In this one, I'm gonna start pronouncing it Minnesota. Minnesota, like Minnesota. It's partially Minnesota. And we're going to read your hometown murders that you've sent to us. Thousands upon thousands of hometown murders sit in our inbox waiting to be read. Some of them are probably fucking gems that we'll never get to because like when I look for them for this for many for Minnesota, I look in the first two pages of inbox. So like, do you know what I mean? Yes, but I try to go to the end, then I get lost in the middle because there is no end. Then I find one, then I can't find the other one that I flagged

because Karen, this sounds like life. This sounds like how my brain works. It's why I can't get anything done. Yeah. Anyhow, guys, it's gonna be so fun. Definitely send us your hometown murder because clearly it's there's such a good system. We care so much. We love your stories. People have really been trying to like there's been a couple titles that have really hooked me in this time. I mean, I think all the ones we've read are like gems. Yes. So we won't don't worry. We get a lot of them. We won't reach you to the fucking Bunklands. We'll do our best. Also, if you send us if you send us a thing that says it's a private message that you have to click a link to get to, we're not going to click any link delete that immediately. We're not going to send you money

in South Africa. I don't care if you're a prince and it's just going to be for the weekend. But a prince. I know. It always sounds very believable. Yeah. But I've lost over $15,000 done it seven times. I know what it sounds. It's worth it to be able to say it on a Minnesota. That's right. That I've lost $15,000. That's it. It was all worth it to all kinds of South African princes. Royalty. Speaking of royalty. Oh, no, there's not. Do you want to go? The perfect segue. Yeah. Is that called a non sequit? What's that called? A non sequitur. Non sequitur. Sometimes I can't pronounce words. It's your charm. You know that I thought that posthumously and I said it on my other podcast lumber party. I thought it was posthumously posthumous. I said it wrong in front

of Ali and Steve Agee and they both like paused him. Can we go back to that word that you just said posthumously posthumously? That's when you die with that look on your face. You guys, I'm dead. I mean, yeah. All right. All right. You know what? Here's the thing. The beautiful part is because it's free, you don't have to pronounce things correctly. I own nothing to no one. That's right. It's just this strange free exchange of time and ideas and we do our best, but our best isn't good enough. Do you know? And the other thing is that flaws are what make us beautiful, butterfly, gorgeous, beautiful snowflake butterflies. We're the rare snowflake butterfly that lives only in Antarctica.

And sometimes get shit wrong. Yeah. Lots of, lots of times get shit wrong. They're the dumbest butterflies on the planet. And yet they are so cocky about it. They're cocky. They're hard to be around at parties. Big opinions, loud voices. Yeah. Great hair. Great hair. I mean, let's be honest and really kind of quippy, funny though, fun, but then tiring. Like I don't know why I like her, but that butterfly. God damn that snowflake butterfly is fascinating to me. You know, she's fun to be around. She's fun and also so flawed. And it makes me feel better about myself. Right. She makes me feel like I'm not that bad. That's right. None of us are that bad. Even the snowflake butterfly. Well, so should we end it here? Yeah, let's end this whole concept.

Snowflake butterflies are my favorite murder. The whole brand. We're shutting it down tonight. Oh my gosh, are you okay? Yeah, I have a, I have, I wonder what it is that you have. Cancer. Sorry. Never funny. It comes, that's what comes up. This is what I'm fighting constantly. I was saying the wrong thing. Ideas like that come up. Then you're like, no, no, no, don't say it. Everybody hates things like that. But as far as we know, you and I and Stephen are the only people hearing this. Exactly. So we think it's funny in this living room. We're in my living room talking shit. Suddenly I get a letter from the American Cancer Society. How dare you in your podcast. Okay. We'll give them our meat or half of our meager earnings from whatever the fuck.

I like the word meager. Meager earnings. All right. Let's do this. Let's do it. Let's get serious about it. Never. Do you want to go first? I'll go first. Okay. Because the title that drew my eye to this Minnesota email hometown murder is the town that dreaded Sun Town. My hometown murder. This is from Michael. Okay. He says, first of all, first off, thank y'all. Where are we? Texas? I think we might be. First off, thank y'all. I feel so much. I won't do that. I feel so much more ease with my serial killer and cult obsession. Me too. Honestly. Me too, Michael. Truth be told, I just found your podcast the other day and have only listened

to the first 10 episodes. Get out of here. Fuck you. So I'm hoping you haven't discussed my hometown murder yet, but I couldn't wait and had to email y'all because that's how they are down there. Love it. Okay. My hometown murder is Texarkana, Texas, which is home to the unsolved case of the phantom killer or the Texarkana moonlight murders. Do you know this one? No, I don't either. That's what I love about it, which happened way back in 1946. These murders are the ones that started the whole couples out at lovers lying murder stories and all the urban legends that come with that. You're killing me, Michael. Is it Michael? Michael. Michael Texarkana. This is what we were talking about that time when we were, you said, let's find out the sources of urban legends.

Let's try to do a show like that. And I was like, sure, sure. Talk to you later. We never did it, never talked about it again. And here's Michael doing it for us. Yeah, Michael. All right. So it's a little long. So I'll try to go fast. He attacked. He attacked eight people that they know of and killed five. He would come up on young lovers, parked in their car at night, and the local lovers at the local love lovers lane area and would shine a flashlight in their eyes, make them get out of the car and the ever so classic tie up the guy, rape the girl and murder them both. But the first attack, the couple survived. The woman was reportedly raped with a bare lip again. He put he put that in parentheses because it was like, and the girl said that he

wore a pillowcase with the eye holes. Oh, I'm sorry. That's awful. And also, you know, who did that? Oh, zodiac zodiac did that. Remember that part in that fucking movie where he comes up over that hill? Oh my God, that that to me was the I think about that murder. That scene. Yes, you guys, if you if you haven't watched zodiac, what are you doing? Turn this off right now and run away. No, it's such a it's such a good movie. It's so well done, Mark Ruffalo. God bless him and all of his. But that's really it. I always I hear the tiniest thing that relates to another thing. I'm like, there at it. That's where the zodiac started. Can we talk about like, can we get can we get it? What's the word I'm looking for? Like, honestly, that seems like not very smart. A pillowcase,

like it seems like it would wrestle and move. You get like, missed the eye holes a lot because it's like, it's hot and you're breathing and like, what do you take one of your mom's pillowcases from the linen cabinet? She's going to notice. Okay, after two couples were murdered, the town went full blown nuts, which I love. And you expect from a small taxes town. Yeah. Because that is insane. The southern small town that everyone was super friendly and always left their doors unlocked, started locking their doors. There was a curfew and the town was hysterical. Also, because Texarkana is a split city, half Texas and half what Arkansas. And I wasn't even pretending. Can I just say Karen was like pointing at me multiple times to like get that I was like,

I'm not even gonna I purposely was like, nope, I during during class that class, I was reading Kurt Vonnegut or sleeping like did not I thought it was a gimme. I thought you're gonna jump in there with that sweet of you that you think I'm okay. So it's, it's a split city. The murders were happening all around it. And it became one of those jurisdiction cluster, which is also what happened in Zodiac. Sorry. Now there's two. County, county fights. And it didn't help that small town cops were completely incompetent when it came to crime scenes. And they ruined all the evidence. Well, they weren't incompetent. They didn't know they didn't have experience prior experience. And also it's 46. Like what did they know? They didn't even have the yellow tape. I mean,

World War Two had just ended. So all their young men were killed and dead. The only cops were like the old timers who like hadn't got draft, hadn't gotten drafted for World War Two. Right. Or so young that they like missed it. Yes. They're recovering from all of this fucking crazy shit. Worship. Worship, man. Yeah. We're really trying to change that messaging. So anyway, now the Texas Rangers were eventually brought in to investigate. And they made the statement that they wouldn't leave the town until he was caught. Well, that's kind of awesome. And there's where your movie starts because it's a hot, young Texas Ranger, 1946 moves to Texarkana. The girl that works at the soda shop, she thought it was over for her because her, her guy died in the war.

Died in the war. Died in the war. Did she get left behind with a young, sweet, bait, like little girl? Maybe a little girl who's like so sweet and smart. And kind of just great and supportive. Yeah. At the soda shop. Totally. And then here comes Texas Ranger. She's like, avert your eyes. Don't even go there. What about, what about the older, the old grandpa, you guy who owns the soda shop, who's like a dad to her? Yes. He dies. He dies. Heart attack. What if he dies making out with his old girlfriend on Lovers Lane by this? We just tweak it a tiny bit for cinematic. Did you notice I'm trying not to gasp directly into the microphone anymore? Because I was listening to an episode and I was like, Jesus fucking Christ. People like it though.

No, they don't. It's almost a tactile response. It freaks them out. Okay. It's like you're sucking the air out of their ear. So anyhow, guys, back to the story. Okay. This is the only one we're doing this episode. I can't find my spot. All right. I think by like my oven, I left it open and on. Did you? No. Because you're hot again? No, because we're going out of... Oh yeah, because we're high. Right. As kites, guys, young kids were going to Lovers Lane and sitting out there acting like they were getting it on, but really had guns and we're trying to bait the phantom killer. Are you kidding me? Awesome, but stupid. Yeah, that's insane. God bless us Texans. We really do mean well, but we have issues. Everyone was freaking out, but at that time, the general

consensus was don't go to Lovers Lane. Yeah. And you're good. Nope. He then attacked a couple in their home shooting a husband and wife through the window and then coming into the house to get the injured wife and her barely and her barely escaping and running for help to the neighbors, which of course was like super far away as someone who lived five miles out of town. It's not like step, step, step, knock. No, dude. And also you're running in the dark. You're running in the dark through like a field to get to the neighbors. Probably barefoot, definitely bleeding. Jesus. I'm writing this tonight when I go home. This is the best movie I've ever written and first. And after that, the majority of the town boarded up their windows. Whoa. So here's the kicker.

So imagine you're a tourist and you're just like, Hey, let's, let's, I want to go to Arkansas. Drive through. Yeah. Let's drive on through by way of, by way of Texarkana. Yeah. Or should I name the freeway? No, no, you're right. That's what I meant. Okay. Everyone in the good Southern Christian town is accusing everyone of being the murderer. Amazing plot point. To the point where the police have to be like, everyone chill, show some respect of your fellow man. The town constantly lives with everyone's buttholes first. Come on, Michael. You're go, you know what? By this point in the email, he's feeling his keyboard. He's like, you know what? I'm going to start, I'm start goosing it. I think you're going to have to have him as a co-writer. He's good. The Texas Rangers

said that they wouldn't leave until that we had that already. So then in the seventies, what cut to? They basically what he is saying is they slowly slid on out of town because they never caught him into the seventies. In the seventies, they made a movie about it. Oh, which goes my dream, which became a cult classic of sorts, the town that dreaded sundown. Oh, that wasn't his. I see. All of this is making sense. It's about the Phantom Killer in Texas or Canada. They filmed it in Texas or Canada every so it was a big deal, but the movie was made into a was made a faux documentary style and it was ridiculously inaccurate. There is a scene where the Phantom Killer attaches a knife to the end of a trombone and plays it as he stabs the girl in the ear,

which never happened. Karen, we are watching this live and commenting on it. Dude, this is one of the greatest emails I've ever received. Yeah. Also, I added the ear part. It just says stabs the girl. Oh, I don't know where I got that summer. Okay. No one knew the exact facts because everyone took that film to be the truth. So I grew up in all this ridiculous lore and urban legend that existed around the Phantom Killer, blah, blah, blah. So when someone like me, which is y'all because we are kindred spirits, what if he was like, and it was me? I am 85 and the best email type of all time. He spent his he's basically saying he spent his entire life being obsessed with the Phantom Killer, trying to convince friends to go to the spot where they were murdered,

making t-shirts with the pillowcase put it face. Oh, my God, killer on it that say sleep tight. Text. Oh, one of us. One of us, Stephen. Oh, my God. I mean, Michael, I'm sorry, nothing. The town doesn't talk about it much. The newspaper put stuff out on anniversaries. It's kind of a weird stand on the town. But the greatest thing that's ever ever is that every year around Halloween, they play the movie, the town that dreaded sundown outside on a big screen in Spring Lake Park, where the murders. Okay, invite us to that. We will be the we will be the MCs. We will do our dance routine. We'll bring a casserole, a hot dish. Yeah. What else do I can text? We'll bring guns. We'll bring our guns and a hot dish and a hot dish and a trombone.

And we'll yes. Only seven more paragraphs. Okay, not really. Just kidding. I think that was it. Uh, I just, he goes, this is becoming a freaking novel, but I have more about it. Stick with me because it's going to blow your mind. Oh, here we go. There is such a theory on the internet and such that texts are kind of phantom killer and the one and only zodiac killer are the same. Yeah, I was going to say, what are the fucking I won't go into a ton of details, but age wise and time wise, it's totally possible similarities between the two are ridiculous from both of them wearing hoods to attacking couples using flashlights to blind them using a gun and a knife the way they're killed. Ton more. I have goosebumps thinking about it. If you ever have time,

look it up. Let your mind be blown. Apologies for typos. I'm going, uh, not going back in proof. Y'all are doing your thing. Y'all are amazing, Michael. That was great. That was amazing. Someone, someone in that small town had a nephew or a cousin visit them from the Bay area around that time and fucking and it's that's the piece of the puzzle that they're missing. Oh, like there's a family connection or there's some kind of like he was in the army and he got transferred to whatever there's a reason he's in that weird small town. Yeah. And someone knows someone isn't putting that connection together or they're already dead. What would be interesting and I'm sure they've done this already, especially, but if they took the guy, the name of that guy that's

in Zodiac that they go and check and he's got Zodiac on his watch and everything, whatever, I can't remember that guy's name, but if they would just check and see if he was in Texas. Yeah. Yeah. The main suspect that ended up having heart attack. Yeah. Who is also a pedophile and crazy and lived in lived in the town next to mine, Santa Rosa. Right. No drives me crazy about all of these cases where it's like so obviously this person or like, you know, so you would think is that then they then they do a search of that person's house and they find absolutely nothing. Right. I get so frustrated by that because I'm like, look, look here, look there. You're not looking hard enough. Like in the fall that British TV show where he hides

shit in his daughter's in his daughter's ceiling. It's like, well, you would never look in those places. Oh, spoiler. Do they? What? They look in those places? No. Wait. Oh, I'm spoiling the fall. That's like in the first episode. Okay. Okay. Okay. I am not spoiling it. Okay. Okay. Good. That's like you said, do they? That was like we're in a fight at 711. Oh, I thought you meant, oh, they do look there. Like you would know. No. We're in a fight at 711. You're like, do they, Karen? Listen, I will trade. I will bet you my hot pocket that they do. That they do. Um, no, you're exactly right. That it's that obviously if they're smart enough to be a serial killer, they're not going to have something in a drawer in the closet. Do they check the toilet tank?

Is my only question. Yeah. Do they drive out to that barn that has nothing to do with that person, but still that's the thing they've been going to? No. Stephen, how long has this been? It's already 50 minutes. I feel like this is a way to do it. 22 minutes. Because it was so good. Want me to do a quickie or something? Yeah, I do it. Yeah. All right. All right. That's good. I'm going to find the quickest one. All right. This is from Sarah and the title is Yikes. It's murder. That's so true, Sarah. Hey guys, I'm going to tell you about two murders, but I'm only going to read one of them next to Georgia. Technically, my mom's hometown, but same deal, right? Sure. I spent almost all of my summers in Sasebo Nagasaki.

What? Is that right? Nebraska? Yeah. Wait. Oh my God. I'm embarrassed now. Oh, yeah. Okay. It's just a plain old city in Southern Japan. I did get Nagasaki right. Thank you very much. Yes. In 2000, talking about World War II again. Yeah. In 2004-ish, a murder known as the Sasebo slashing happened. An elementary school girl, like 12, 11 or 12 years old, killed one of her classmates in school with a utility knife. But apparently she was bullied by the girl on the internet. She was into some pretty creepy stuff like a game called The Red Room and the book Battle Royale, which in the book Battle Royale, which is straight up kids killing kids. Oh no. It's great, she says. It's great. My favorite book of all time. Uh-oh. Okay. Sarah. The town went

into utter chaos. It was awful and then everyone calmed down. In 2014, exactly 10 years and 25 days after the Sasebo slashing, a high school girl killed her classmate in her own home. Apparently there was some dismemberment shit going on. I was 15 when this murder happened. The exact same age is both the murderer and her victim. I also happened to be visiting for summer vacation when this happened. My grandma and I got interviewed about the murder while we were out shopping. It was weird. It's really surprising how quickly these things die down. It's been a it's been a year and a half since the last murder happened and no one talks about it anymore. Nothing ever happens here. There. You'd think people would be talking about this shit

for a pretty long time. Anyways, I'll email you an update if a similar murder happens in 2024. Stay tuned. We will. Sarah, great job. That was awesome. It was international. Mm hmm. Kids killing kids is always a fascination. Yeah. Japan has some like fucking interesting. Like I feel like it's a specific type of murder and a type of murderer. And yeah, well, because culturally, they're so like locked down and everyone's on, you know, it's that's how it's presented to America. It's like, you know, everyone does their homework. Everyone they're always in uniforms. They're, you know, expectations beyond what we have here in America. Yes. There's a lot of cultural pressures to succeed and to be of a certain it's always

education based. And yeah. Yeah. So then you mess that up. You fuck around in the middle of that. And like you're bringing in the shame element. Freaks everyone out. Somebody's a sociopath. Yeah. Goodbye. Bye. Bye. Speaking of. Speaking of goodbyes. Yeah. Let's say one now. Go to Instagram. My favorite murder and go to Twitter. My favorite murder. If you rate review and subscribe, you're less likely to be murdered. That don't take that as fact. That's from the FBI, but you can't rely on their numbers. Elvis is hiding. Elvis doesn't get it. Elvis. Oh, you can whistle. There's Mimi. What about her? Mimi won't meow. Mimi. Mimi want cookie? Mimi want a cookie? Oh no, she's very quiet. All right. Oh, here he comes. All right. Then if you're here, then I'm gonna say

stay sexy. Don't get murdered. Elvis, you want a cookie? Yeah. You want a cookie? You're gonna need to change it up a little bit, dude. Those look a little pouty. Yeah. Okay. Bye. Bye. Hey, I'm Mike Corey, the host of Wondery's podcast against the odds. In our next season, three masked men hijacked 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.