My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 72

Episode Date: May 28, 2018

This week’s hometowns include Golden State Killer connections and a druid murder.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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. Hello. Hi.

Hello. No, hello. Hello and hi. And greetings. And greetings and welcome. And salutations. Uh-huh. Goodbye.

How are your days, nerd? This is my favorite murder-the-mini-soad. Yep, where you write a shit and we read it back to you. You know how it goes. It's easy, it's fun. Uh, do you want to start? Okay. Do it.

All right. So of course we've got a bunch of Paul Holes stuff from last week in Golden State Killer stuff. Great. So here's one called Paul Holes and Scary Druids. Druids? Uh-huh. Okay.

Druids. after the Paul Holes episode, by the way. Let's do a check-in. I mean, I'm a different person now. The world has been shook. Hello there, Karen, Georgia, and Stanimals. I don't know what that means. Steven and animals?

Oh, that's funny. I don't know. My stepdad has been working for the San Ramon and neighboring police forces since the mid-80s, so naturally I've been asking a million questions since the Golden State Killer arrest. I asked him if he had any experiences working the case because he was a detective at the time,

and he mentioned that he worked alongside Paul motherfucking Holes. Is that what they wrote? All caps, Paul motherfucking Holes. Although he didn't have a personal experience with the Golden State Killer, he did tell me a story about a cold case that he and Poles worked on back in the day.

And I'll start with a lady who was a druid or something like that and participated in animal sacrifices and was on enough medication that she could probably fill up a bathtub with it. Her house had a creepy Adams family vibe to it, and she had a son that lived in Southern California. One day after she hadn't been seen around for a week, a friend or family member went to check on her

and discovered her on the floor with her head bashed in. Whoa. I know. My stepdad and Paul Holes were on the scene. Allegedly someone beat her face in with a baseball bat, came back three days later and placed urine on her, either poured on or peed on. Jesus.

And then sealed up the house completely. Police dogs tracked a scent down to the Bart Station where they found a different bat that wasn't actually used. Weird. She wrote only with strange code and a collection of journals. And once some were transcribed, they learned that she thought a blue demon lived inside of her head and could only be eliminated if her head was smashed

and completely after her death. What? Her sound, we never heard of this. She wrote that in her own diary. Mm-hmm. Okay. Her son was a major suspect, but was found in a bathtub in Southern California

with his wrists and neck cut open dead. What? Maybe a suicide pact? On his desk, a note titled, People Who Should Die Had His Mom's Name At The Top. Meanwhile, somewhere in her house, my stepdad discovered an addict, probably in her attic.

Attic. With around 100 dead rats in it. What? What in the fuck? He found it because there was blood dripping from the ceiling. After being in that room, my stepdad contracted a rare disease called Q-Fever and almost died

because the doctors tested for everything else before testing for that. Wait, is the subject one of this email lies and more lies? I don't know, man. I think it checks out. This is intense. Let's get Paul's, guess what? Paul's here.

Paul. It just comes out of the closet. Just continual surprises. Oh my God, he just comes in every episode. I just end up having a nervous breakdown. To this day, it's unsure exactly how he contracted the fever, but my guess was exposure to that nasty shit. Paul.

Yeah, a pile of fucking rats. Yeah, you breathe that shit in. You know, you lick them, a couple of them. Just to see. They're real. They're made of cocaine. Paul holds tracked down what must have been the type of bat used and where it was probably purchased,

which is insane. My stepdad recalls how efficient and thorough Paul was as a criminologist and detective. He said that Paul dedicated 100% of himself to every case and wasn't in it for the glory like some detectives are. Well, they're not half as beautiful, so they have to work half as hard. They need things in other areas.

Exactly. So that's my whole story. I believe the last name of the lady is Bodfish or something like that if you want to check it out. Yeah, I do. So she's fucking throwing down. Also, I recently got an SDGM tattoo with a dagger and a rose on my arm, and so many murderinos

have approached me telling me to remain attractive, slash avoid assassination and whatnot. And it feels like we're all in a secret society. Hope you enjoyed the story and never ever associate with the druids. Nobody that sacrifices animals should be trusted, Ethan. That email had everything and it felt like we were gossiping about Paul Holes,

but in a positive way. It was like a Facebook stalk except for strictly job congratulatory. Yeah. I mean, what else is there? Yeah. If someone sends us an email and is like, well, I have a negative thing to tell you about Paul Holes,

burn it. We don't want to track that person down and be like, never again. You don't get email anymore. OK, so let's see. This is the subject line of this one is my mom was almost a Golden State. Wait, sorry, Steven.

She was almost a Golden State. What? What's it going to be? Killer? My mom was almost a Golden State killer victim. OK. Hello, Al. Lots to get to.

So going to get right into it. My mom was a Sacramento County dispatcher in the 80s. Oh, cool. And my dad had been a Sacramento County Sheriff's Deputy since the 70s. Naturally, I grew up hearing cautionary tales and straight tales of horror from my mom about the calls she received.

Love it. Quote, if you ever see a child with an adult and think or even feel uncomfortable about their situation, immediately tell someone who can help. Whoa. And quote, I will never forget the empty sound at the end of the phone line after that gunshot. End quote.

I'll include those stories below, but basically real inappropriate stuff for an eight-year-old. But I was intrigued. Jesus Christ. Lately, I've been asking her to rehash some of those stories and to tell me more. When the Golden State Killer News came out, we both flipped. But before my mom started to work as a dispatcher

during the East Area Rapist active period in Sacramento, she had lived right there in East Sac. And while we were talking about the GSK case details, she said that thinking back, she had gotten two creepy phone calls, like heavy breathing, quote, I'm going to kill you phone calls. No joke. The man on the other end of the line said, I'm going to kill you.

And we did a gross murdery chuckle. And the first phone call, she thought was a prank from her friend, Charlie. So she just laughed it off. Oh, no. Personally, I think any friend who called me jokingly to say they'd kill me is a real shithead. Yeah, it's not that cool.

The second call came a few days later and started off with the same, I'm going to kill you. And my mom said, all right, Charlie, is that you? But the man said, how did you like Sunrise Lanes? The bowling alley that my mom and her boyfriend, my dad, had just been to for their bowling league. No. And also, that's the first bowling alley I ever bowled at.

No. Yes. It was a, wait, we cut school and decided to go bowling. And I had a nervous breakdown because we got stoned first. And then when I stepped up onto the bowling lane to throw the ball, it felt like a small stage. Like the background part was all, like there was a spotlight where I was bowling and there was dark behind me.

And I got super self-conscious. And then I wouldn't bowl. And all my friends got mad at me. That's just a quick sidebar. And also, the Glensit killer used to hang out there. That's for whatever. Everything was there that day. I think it was Sunrise Lanes because it was there.

Anyway. Anyway. OK, so he asked her how she enjoyed Sunrise Lanes. She said, I enjoyed it. And then he went back to, I'm going to kill you or something. At which point, my mom was creeped out, but mostly fed up. And she said, OK, you know, I'm not going to do this. I'm dating a sheriff's deputy, so you better leave me alone.

And then hung up. Holy shit. The call stopped. And my mom lived on to give birth to me so I could tell you about it. Thanks for being you and my mom. And I will see you in Sacramento. Yes.

Oh, my god. Liz. Nice one, Liz. Can you imagine if you're, OK, let's pretend for a minute you're fucking psycho murderer and you're calling around to scare women. And they're like, fuck you and hang up. Yes.

Or they don't think it's you and you have to somehow convince them it's you. No, it's Charlie. It's not Charlie. It's David. I'm the murderer. Oh, shit. Yes.

That's so it just really snaps that whole vibe in half. Yeah. And it's like, I'm going to kill you. And it's like, shut the fuck up. David, I bet you are. David, you idiot. I'm going to kill you first because I'm behind you. OK, well, how about this one?

I live in the Vasalia Ranzacker murder house. What? Karen, Georgia, Stephen and Petz. This is the craziest fucking thing that has ever happened to me. Back in August, we moved from the Chicago suburbs to Vasalia, California, so my boyfriend could start teaching at the College of Sequoias. My parents, the parents of our good friend from here,

had just bought this awesome house as a rental property right before we were moving. So we jumped at the chance to move in. Flash forward to the Golden State Killer news breaking. Local news reporters started knocking on our door and talking to our neighbors. I was at work, but my neighbor texted me and sent me a news article and informed me that the reporter just told

them that our house, the house I was fucking living in, is the house that Claude Snelling owned and was murdered in. We had no idea about it, and our landlords had no idea about it. Apparently, they only have to tell you if something like this has happened, if it was the past three years, unless you ask. Which, of course, we're all going to be like,

did anyone get murdered here? Three years is no time at all. It's like, that needs to be 10 or 15 years minimum. Three years? Like a murder, if it's murder, especially when it's unsolved, I want to know where I'm moving into. You know what I mean? Yeah.

So this house has a meaning to a murderer that's still out there. Yes. And there's some lovely stuff. There's some lovely stuff. Yeah. You might want to hunt around for stuff he might come back for.

Telephone number's the same, so he might call. Don't ask if he's Charlie. He gets really angry. And there's a civic order that you're not allowed to put locks on any of the doors. Right. Sorry. Goodbye.

Bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye. Da-da-da-da-da. OK. Da-da-da-da-da. My favorite thing. So good. Can I just tell you, sorry, but there's just, if you don't know, somebody did a mashup of Georgia

doing da-da-da-da. Let me give it. Let me play it. No, let me just say his name, because it's so funny. OK, yeah. Full credit, because it made me laugh. I listened to this. It's Georgia getting mashed up into the beginning.

Should I play it? Could ya? His name's Good Dog. It's at scrub underscore lover. And it's just. Scrub lover, you nailed it so hard. OK, I listened to it like four times. And then the fifth time I was listening,

I was standing in my backyard listening to it. And on the second one, when you go up high, I did a spit take alone in my backyard. I spit my coffee across the backyard. It's just so surreal. It's really delightful. Also, I wonder, we should check and make sure we're not going to get sued for playing that much

of that song. I was actually waiting for you to say something like that, because I don't care, but I know you're up on that shit. Well, I'm up on it in a weird TV way, but I mean. You know what? We'll take it down. We'll get sued. Yeah.

I mean, I think if it's less than 30 seconds, it's fine. Are you sure it's 30? I heard it was 30. OK. But I'll double check. Well, Steven, this is going to come out of your bank account. That's right. OK.

Your mustache funds is going to come right out of that. Goodbye mustache grooming. So yeah, I've been freaking out for the last two weeks, and I've finally been able to tell you guys about it. Oh, and there's an extra level of weird, because Snelling was a COS professor, College of Sequoia's professor. And that's where my boyfriend also teaches. I've always kind of wanted to live in a murder house,

but I always assumed I would know about it before I moved in, not after. SSTGM, Michelle. Well, and also, that one's very sad. It was a man trying to protect his daughter. From being kidnapped. From like the creepiest of creeps. Who was not caught until fucking a couple of months ago.

Oh, man. It's so awful. It's so crazy. So I might start house hunting soon. First question when I walk through the door, that's immediately going to be like, that's not south of the house is, did someone die here? Yes.

Someone killed here. Right. OK. That's very smart. So I'm never going to buy a house. Because they're going to be like, that girl's scary. What if you were like, did someone die here four years ago? What if instead I just walk in and then open my eyes,

like why didn't go, someone died here. And then they'll go, no. I'm like, oh, OK, never mind. That's such a good way to do it. Like, pretend you're psychic. And just be like, pretend that you're trying to touch the air around you. And like, let your eyes roll back in your head.

And then you're like, someone died here. And they're like, ma'am, are you OK? And then you're like, OK. They didn't immediately admit it. So they don't go, how did you know that? Right, right, right. OK, cool. OK, it's the perfect plan.

OK. Are you ready to say this? Nothing could go wrong. This is going to turn out great. Yes. This is Golden State Killer Connection forward slash angel dust never helps. Oh, dear.

OK. Doesn't it? Dear, we'll find out. Dear Karen, Georgia, Steven, Kitties, and Puppies. So the first story is a quick one. My very bad ass aunt used to work for the FBI in the DNA lab when I was younger. Right?

So good. Aunt's. Gotta love a bad ass aunt. When I was younger, we had some really awesome quote behind the scenes tours of the FBI in DC. And there may even be a very unfortunate picture of our family holding Tommy Guns from the FBI collection in all our 80s glory.

Never a good look. Oh, I'd love to see it. Anyway, the day the Golden State Killer was arrested, I called her to talk about how exciting this was. And she reminded me that when she was at the FBI, this was her case. And she compiled and ran all the DNA evidence at the federal level.

Oh, my god. So she was on an HLN special about it a few years back. She tried to find the episode on YouTube but couldn't. And her first television appearance during her time at the FBI. So in a way, even though it took way too long, I like to think. And so does she that she helped catch that fucker. Sorry, alleged fucker.

No, he's a fucker. He is a fucker. So from my actual hometown murder, not actually a murder, I grew up in Sacramento, represent all caps. I thought you were saying that. I'm like, OK. This is how it reads. Sacramento, represent all caps, and then long dash.

Nope, that didn't feel right. I feel like I now should say, I do have a very tender place in my heart for Sacramento. That's why the feelings are so extreme. Right. I don't know. I don't for Orange County. So I don't understand yours.

OK. I guess because so many bad things happen there. I almost have to love it. OK, and we lived in a pretty quiet neighborhood. When I was in first grade, I hated sleeping in my room and I loved to sneak out in the middle of the night to sleep on the couch in the living room. My parents hated it, but I was just doing me.

One night, I'm fast asleep on the couch and I'm awakened by a huge commotion. It ended up being the police trying to get into our backyard. It turns out that this guy had tried to rob our neighbor's house. Unfortunately, the neighbors were home and caught him in the act.

Luckily, the neighbors were not murdered, but the would be robber instead decided to try to run away, stripping his clothes off as he crossed the street and jumped into our backyard. Thanks, Angel Dust. The police were called and found him hiding under our grapefruit tree. The best part of the story, though,

was that the police officers came to the door after arresting the guy waking my parents. And after the police explained what happened, they eventually left. That was when my parents turned away from the door and both screamed as they found me standing behind them, quietly taking in everything that the police said. Oh, my God.

I guess my love of true crime started that very night. Oh, that's cute. Needless to say, I was never allowed to sneak out onto the couch again. Lots of love, Joshua. That's hilarious. I was just thinking how funny it would have been if they turned around and he had also stripped down naked.

And he was like, I too love Angel Dust. That sounds like a great idea. Oh, my God. That's so funny. I love it. Looking for a better cooking routine? With meal planning, shopping, and prepping handled, Hello Fresh has you covered.

Hello Fresh makes home cooking easy and affordable so you can stay on track and on budget in the new year. Hello Fresh 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 Hello Fresh's expanded menu of quick lunch solutions, weekend brunch,

simple side dishes, and amazing desserts. Karen, January is going to be my month for Hello Fresh. I am so sick of takeout. I miss cooking so much. I haven't lifted a knife or a pan since early fall. So I can't wait to get back in the kitchen. And Hello Fresh 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. I think that's it. Here's like just a couple want a couple lighthearted ones. I have a horrible one if you want it.

Why don't you do a horrible one and then I'll do you. I'll give you a funny one. Funny one. OK, great. Let me make sure I can find the second page of this. Yes. OK, old happy couple, not so much. Yes.

OK, hello, Karen, Georgia, Stephen, and furry friends. I grew up in a suburb of Seattle in the same house until I was 18. Starting when I was around five years old, my family developed a close relationship with our next door neighbors. An old couple named Alice Astrick and Henry Astrick. I'm sure this somewhere says not their real names.

What if it just says real names? Real names with Astrick. They had been married for 65 years, lived in our neighborhood for 50 years, and had raised four children. Our family had dinners with this couple every week. They babysat me and my brother when my parents were working. And we would catsit for them when they would

went to visit their adult children. Fast forward to spring in my junior year of high school. Our weekly dinner comes along. Only Henry comes. When we ask where Alice is, he says that she was sick. The family shrugged it off. People get sick, you know? And continued on as usual.

Over the next few days, I noticed I hadn't seen Alice. As usually, I saw her working in the garden, knitting on a porch, et cetera. I, as well as my whole family, assumed that she was really sick and staying inside to recover. Three days after our solo dinner with Henry, I arrive home from school to find our entire street sectioned off with roadblocks and a group of police cars,

lights flashing and everything surrounding our neighbor's house. It turns out Henry had murdered Alice with an axe while she was sleeping four days prior and hid her body under their bed. This was a huge shock to our community and especially my family, considering that the day after he murdered Alice, he came to our house.

Dinner like nothing happened. Oh my god. The following days were filled with lots of police questioning, candlelight vigils, and the depressing return of Henry and Alice's children to the empty house. That's so horrible. Even though this was six years ago, I still get shivers when I think about that dinner that night

and how seemingly this seemingly happy marriage could end in such a brutal way. Pretty soon after this event, my family moved to a different neighborhood and I went away to college. But I'll never forget sitting in the extra murder at dinner. RIP, Alice, stay sexy. Don't get murdered, Andrea.

I wonder how old he is. Like maybe he had dementia or something like that. That's what I was thinking. Are some kind of a brain change in some way that made him do this, you know? Six years ago is not that long ago. No. I was thinking this was like in the fucking 90s.

No, it's crazy. All right. Let's do funny mom fucks with me stories. OK. Hi. Georgia, Karen, Steven, and Petz. I love the show and I'm glad I have a reason to write. My mom has a dark sense of humor,

as does my uncle, her brother. Here are some of the funniest things they lied to me about as a child. When I got sick in a prominent lymph node, when I got sick, a prominent lymph node on my neck would swell up and my uncle and mom called it a roving parasite. Not telling me that it was completely normal,

causing me to think I had a parasite living inside of me. They would frequently ask how my parasite was doing at family functions, which would freak me out. Fucking love it. When we went to the beach in MD, Marilyn. Yeah. We saw dolphins once and I got really excited. My mom and uncle told me they were mechanical dolphins

that were sent out every day to draw visitors to the beach. I only found out this story was false when I was around 20, when I repeated it to my friends at the beach and they all looked at me like I was crazy. You are crazy. You are. I love it. Anyway, mom admitted these lies and more

once I called her out, she thought it was hilarious. Stay sexy and don't believe everything mom says, Suzanne. Oh my god, that's awesome. The shit I believe, man. Well, and also, you can just picture. It's like moms that are sick of talking to children. It's like you have to talk to these children all day long. They're constantly asking you questions.

You're just trying to have a good time. Right, you're just trying to give yourself a moment of fucking joy. And probably that mom and her brother got kind of high at the beach. Oh my god, they totally did. Don't you think that was an element of it? I recently had one.

Marty might get mad about this. But as far as I knew, and this was a cautionary tale, my dad did LSD in high school because someone slipped it in like a fucking sugar cube in his coffee and my dad got dosed and he didn't know and he freaked out. And then I said that to my mom recently and she was like, he didn't get dosed. And I was like, of course he didn't.

He took it himself. He was trying to warn you off of acid. Warn me off of acid, but also tell me that he's done acid without having to admit that he'd done it. That he had chosen to do acid. Like he did have a bad trip, but he also didn't want to be like, I took it and had a bad trip. Well, and also, it's like that rang on true to me.

A high school student having a cup of coffee with a cube of sugar in it is just not. Why? I just don't buy that. No, it was like Los Angeles in the fucking 60s. They were all smokers and coffee drinkers. I guess that's right. He's in the fan cult.

I'm going to text him tonight and see if I can leave this in. So make sure you go and ask him about it on the forum. That was the best. Oh, my god. The people that run the forum were telling us that the day Marty signed up and he was just like, hello, is this working? Test, test, test.

And everyone's like, yeah, Marty. Because you, George just said to them, I think my dad signed up for the fan. And they were like, yep, he did. We watched him. Yeah, he did it. And I just want to say I would have given him a free pass. But he told me he joined it before I even, he was like,

I joined the fan cult. It's so much fun. I love him. Dad, why did you do it? I wanted to do it like everyone else did. He's supporting your art. Supporting it. He cares.

Marty. Marty, God bless you. God bless you. God bless you, Marty. Send us your, oh, send us a shit your parents lied to you about that you believed in forever. That's good stuff. Oh, and we got everyone's messages,

many, many, many urgent messages before the European trip that that one, don't go into that room. I'm not in there. Story was a creepy pasta. Of course, Steven's deeply ashamed. We're deeply ashamed. I'm Steven. It's going to happen.

I think it was just fun. It was a fun tale, but you know. And on a positive note, when we were in Europe, when I think we were in, what's it called, Amsterdam, we met the girl who took a piggyback ride out of a fucking kidnappers house. Yes, that's right. We met her so we can confirm that that was true.

Yes. And she was a sweet baby angel and it all happened. It's either true or she's such a ballsy liar that she traveled to Amsterdam to tell us a lie. Right. But we don't think she did. We don't think so. We really don't.

Send us your not lies and you're not creepy pasta. Is that my favorite murder at Gmail? Go to my favorite murder.com for shit. I don't know. And let's just celebrate the truth on here. That's all we're about here is mostly the truth. We're mostly the truth when we can get to it. Yeah, when it's when we need it for us.

Right. Yeah. Or we just make shit up. Exactly. Stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Goodbye. Goodbye.

Elvis, you want a cookie? What cookie? Ah. Yay. Jesus. Oh.