My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 99

Episode Date: December 3, 2018

This week’s hometowns include ice cream trucks and some creepy uncle stories.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. Hello! Hello, welcome. This is my favorite murder. The mini-soad. I'm coming at you.

Live from our brand new recording studio. The exactly right recording studio is the first time we've ever recorded in them. We're up on, it's a mountain, up on the eastern side of Los Angeles. There's one of those big fluffy dogs with a whiskey barrel around his neck. He rescued us out of our cars because we drove up here, we got stuck in the snow, there was a blizzard, there was, it seemed, all seemed lost and then the Saint Bernard came out of nowhere. We were like, adopt, don't chop.

Hashtag, did we save him or did he save us? He saved us, literally. Hashtag, dog is my co-pilot. So thank you for joining us. It's Stephen, do we sound good? I think you guys sound beautiful. Thank you. It's great.

We're like cozy. This might not be what the final studio looks like, but I think it's a- God, I hope not. We've really slapped some shit together right now. We're sitting at a table made of matchsticks. It's all very tenuous, but because it's day one. We're going to see how this goes if we need to go back to the pod loft for the vibe and shit.

We can always do that. Yeah. What's our vibe like in here? I think our vibe is so different in here. It's so different. I really want to turn the lights out, but we have to read these emails, so I'm not going to- That's right.

Well, this is day one here. Right. We'll build up, we'll get recessed lighting and a lighting director. We'll get the dog to wear a little head, what are those little head things when you're going hiking? Like a GoPro, oh, like a miner's light? Yes. Okay.

So a Samprenard and a miner's light will walk through the studio. Yeah. God, this is going to be great. This is a mini, so we'll read you the shit that you send us. That's right. These are all rando emails about interesting things of your lives. Karen goes first. Are you ready?

Yes. Why can't- why I can't trust ice cream trucks. My hometown story. All right. Hello to Karen, George, and Stephen. Our family grew up in a large and friendly neighborhood in Columbia, Tennessee, outside of Nashville. In the summers, our nights mainly consisted of playing outside until dark and for my fat

Big Mac loving fifth grade self, waiting for the ice cream truck to stop by. I'm still paying for the Big Macs, hence the nightly walks. That's right. One afternoon, way too late in the summer season, my sisters and I were in the Highless Doing, working on homework, and we heard the ice cream truck coming around the neighborhood and ran to ask for permission to meet it. The only running I ever did. My dad made me stay and to study about my two younger sisters went out to buy us all ice

cream. Not there. Now, listen to this. My dad and I noticed that it was taking longer than usual, and when the girls came back in with our ice cream, they were carrying a piece of paper too. My dad asked what it was and took it from them, noticing that a phone number was written on it. The girls cluelessly explained that the old man, whom we had bought ice cream from many

times before, began asking them questions and gave them the paper. He told them that if we ever wanted ice cream at any time of the day, even in the winter, we could call him and he would come to our house. And he added that he was also available for our slumber parties and he would be able to show up at any time, even at three in the morning. No, don't do that. It's happened. My dad immediately called the police and we all ate our ice cream while we waited for

them to show up. All they could do was tell us to let them know if he ever came back. We never saw him again. And needless to say, it was a long time before we could ever trust another ice cream man again. To this day, I still get butterflies in my stomach when I hear the ice cream drop. Thinking about all the crazy things that could have happened had that man ever come back. Stay sexy and always take ice cream from strangers, but never invite them to your slumber

parties. Sutherland. But what if he really was just this nice old man who was so lonely and wanted to go to little girl slumber parties? Yeah. Three in the morning. There's the overstep. Like a normal person.

You've highlighted the issue because it's nice to be nice. Sell ice cream. Do what you want. Keep your fucking digits to yourself in all ways. Absolutely. Okay. We have a huge ice cream man contingent listening to these episodes. I know.

So we really need them to hear us. That's right. Don't give your phone numbers out. Okay. This is called, my cousin's dad was on America's Most Wanted. Yes. I've just recently been put onto your podcast by my co-worker. And since then, you've been the soundtrack to my work week.

This hometown, what's up, Central Jersey? They say is everything but murder. It's pretty crazy. Growing up, I remember lots of whispering about my aunt's new boyfriend, who my parents slash relatives believed to be a drug dealer. I thought they were just being antiquated in a discriminatory because of his tattoos. But apparently I was also just a dumb 10-year-old who knew nothing about anything. Turns out my aunt's boyfriend and eventually father of my little cousin was a drug dealer,

one with an all-caps tight grip on the cocaine production slash distribution within Newark and Elizabeth. He didn't just fucking distribute that blow around Elizabeth in Newark. He didn't need a quick buck and you know, he couldn't get a job and all this. He made it. Was a kingpin. He had a science lab coat and he was beaker pouring beakers back and forth, making coke. Production distribution.

Hey. Holy shit. It's serving time for kidnapping a rival gang member, throwing him in his own truck and then firing at said truck and that says, homeboy survived. Police began a five-month investigation which led to 23 arrests and the seizure of seven pounds of cocaine. Is that a lot of cocaine? It's plenty.

800 folds of heroin. Okay. I didn't know heroin came in folds. It's little pieces of people magazine all folded up. It's that they were like, do you know what a group of Ravens is called? A heroin fold. It's a fold of heroin right outside my window. That's right.

Two handguns and an AK-47 rifle from one of his trap houses, more lingo. I love trap music. In Newark, he managed to escape arrests not once, not twice, but three times twice by outrunning police through six lanes of traffic. Shit. Oh, did I mention he was a high school track star? Yes. And then he completely disappeared in the summer of 2009.

My aunt and cousins ran off into the sunset. They went by down the freeway instead of going across traffic. He just went with it. Just went along with it. You have to go with him. And he's still running today. Forrest. My aunt and cousin, who was about six years old at the time, knew nothing of his whereabouts

and didn't hear from him until he turned himself into the Union County Sheriff's Office in 2012, citing that he wanted a chance to be in a son's life again. Oh. The truck dealer gone good. There was redemption here. In July of 2017, he was sentenced to 37 years of which he must serve 30 before being eligible for parole. Jesus Christ.

Damn. He must have been high up. It's crazy to think that this was the same man who'd often spare us, my many cousins and I, a few bucks for the ice cream truck. Whoa. There's a theme here. Automatic theme. Or to run down to the corner bodega.

Though I guess when you're making nearly $700,000 a week, you can spare some change. You better buy some ice cream. Stay sexy and maybe do some research on your new boyfriend. Love, Lily. Nice. Amazing. You know, isn't that the, the human story that we're all drug dealers and we're all guys that float you for some ice cream?

That's right. It's really nice. It doesn't, just because you're a drug dealer doesn't make you a bad guy. No, sometimes drug dealers just want you to get nice and high and make money off you. We're kidding everyone. We're kidding. We're not any true. Don't do drugs.

Don't do them very often. Try not to do them that much. Don't have a dealer. Be more casual. Don't be. Yeah. Yeah. Just borrow it at parties and friends.

Just borrow it at parties and friends. That's right. Keep using the word borrow, they'll love it. Here's the subject line is first responder story. Feel good. Oh good. Hey y'all. You keep saying, by the way, the lighthearted now when everyone's like, so, so, so, lighthearted.

It's question mark at the end of lighthearted. I, every single one I got that said lighthearted was lighthearted. Lighthearted? That's kind of nuts. You tell me. Yeah. There's still blood. Okay.

Hey y'all, I never thought I'd have anything to share with you guys until recently when Karen was telling the story in episode 146 about the jaws of life and what first responders did before they had access to that tool. And this is my personal sidebar. I kind of pretty much got that wrong and heard from lots and lots of very kind and experienced firemen who were like, here's actually how it works. Firemen and women. Fire people.

Fire people. Fire starters sent in emails. It's basically, I got one tiny aspect of it right, but the actual shape and movement and everything else was wrong. Right. But we knew that was going to happen. Didn't we? That's okay.

Here. This is a safe space at exactly right offices. Oh, we're going to burn some sage after this. That's right. And the fucking house down to what we accidentally just burned this whole place in. Like sorry, neighbors. Okay. My dad's best friend who had always been like my uncle was a volunteer firefighter in a small

town in Minnesota. He's naturally big, but has never been a huge weightlifter or anything. This is an important detail. I promise. Okay. When I was a kid, my dad's friend had to go to the scene of a terrible car accident. A mom and her toddler were stuck inside a car, which was on fire while everyone else was trying to figure out how to get them out.

He walked up to the car, adrenaline pumping and ripped the door off the car. Who knows what would have happened if he hadn't done that. It happened probably 25 years ago and I still get chills when I hear about it. It's one of the many reasons I love my like an uncle friend. Thanks for reading. Love you guys. SSDGM Julie. Holy shit.

Now there is a, this reminded me there's a family story and it always changed of who is the person that did it, which is how you know it's an urban myth, right? But I still love it anyway that a, the story was, it was my grandmother and then somebody corrected me and was like, no, it was her mother, one of those got into a car accident. They drove up, kids trapped in the car, oh no, no, the father trapped under the car and she walked up and picked the car up and the guy got out from under the car. And they modeled the, uh, Jaws of Life after this guy and your great grandma. Yes.

That's, and Superman after my great grandma, my God. Wow. I know. It's not good. Uh, oh, but I heard, I learned at Thanksgiving. I've told the story several times that my grandfather was killed in a bar fight, got stabbed in a bar fight. I've told you that right.

Yeah. And I was like, my sister's like, that's not true at all. You're combining two stories. And even though he died under suspicious circumstances, it was not, um, a knife fight in the alley behind a bar. But did he get in a knife fight in the alley behind a bar once? We, it was, it was, he got rolled basically, but it was much less the jets and the sharks and much more kind of tragic.

And it's a different family story of somebody else who died in a knife fight outside a bar. Well, you're going to need to like have this as your story one week. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's amazing. Oh, I'm sorry. No, no. I'm sorry for lying constantly.

I'm just going to tell you the beginning of this, uh, subject line. Okay. Uh, uncle was a Mooney. Okay. Is this an uncle theme? It might be. Did you do that on purpose? No, I think there's just been sending a lot.

I think cause around Thanksgiving, probably a lot of family stuff coming in. Uncle's ice cream. Right. Crime. Hey MFM fam. So my uncle was in the Mooney cult for years. Let's call him Tom. My mom told me this story back when I was probably 20 or so when Tom was in college in

North Carolina in the seventies, he went to a dinner slash lock in. Well, it turned out to be a brainwashing washing session for the Mooney cult. Which one was the Mooney cult? They're the robes and shit. No, they're all robes. There's a lot of robes, but the Mooney's were the ones that sold. They, uh, they get married on mass. So it's Reverend Moon and then there's like 50,000 people get married and they'd never

met the other person. Okay. This is in this. The brainwashing session. He quickly fell out of his day-to-day activities and spent all his time selling these magazines for Reverend Moon. My grandparents started to get worried because they hadn't heard from him in weeks. My mom has a family.

My mom has family in Tennessee and one day their cousin, Mark, was at the gas station in his town in Tennessee when he sees his cousin Tom. He kept shouting, Hey Tom, what are you doing in Tennessee? Tom completely ignored him. Mark said Tom seemed really out of it, really spacey. Mark ran home to tell his parents and they called my grandparents and right away told them to go back and get him. They all run back to the gas station and basically kidnap him away from the Mooneys and drive

him back to North Carolina. Once there, my grandparents had a long talk, not really sure how long he was home or what he said because he went back to school and, and back to the Mooneys. But this time he contacted his parents regularly. That's all you got to do if you're going to join a cult. I guess that's true. But then also don't believe that they're against you. Right.

And don't join a cult. Step one, don't believe they're against you. Step two, step three, stop it. Stop it. So years down the road, my uncle Tom was married to his wife, Barb, with 300 other people by Reverend Moone. So Tom and Barb started having kids and a couple in the cult couldn't have kids. So Reverend Moone told Tom that he and Barb are to have a child and it will be given to

the other couple. Oh no. All the caps. So they fucking did. Oh no. Which is kind of lovely. But not for the cult. Not with a cult.

Well not. Also it's your own kid. I don't know. Yeah. You're too, it's lovely if it's far away and you didn't want the child. You shouldn't be able to give your kid away like that. No. Oh, I don't think you are.

I think they're operating outside the law and that church. No, but I mean like personally, like great, we'll have another one. You shouldn't agree to it and be fine with you. No. There's some walls that have been broken down that can't be built back up. Absolutely. I'm not saying adoption is bad. It's a beautiful thing.

Yeah. That's not what this is. It's the inter cult adoption that we are talking about. Right. We love paperwork. A few of his kids are still involved with the Mooneys. Holy shit. My wild thing is no one in our family knew about this until Tom slipped up and said something

about Brett. Oh, who the fuck is Brett? Everyone asked. My uncle has long since left the cult and his wife, but Brett does know who his biological parents and four brothers are. Wow. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I can't wait to see you in Milwaukee, SSTGM, Amelia.

Wow. Crazy. Yeah, that cult is, it just doesn't go away. They're Mooney. They're all over the GD map. There is a really good Mayfair TV movie that I've already talked about on this show. If you're interested in the Mooneys and the ways of how you get into something like that, and I will tell you what it is after a great, remember, wait one second, there it is, Ticket

to Heaven. Ticket to Heaven? It's a movie called Ticket to Heaven and I swear to God, I don't know what it's on. It's very old. I think it's from the nineties or no, 81. It's so old. You have to watch it. Okay.

One of the, one of my better recommendations so far, just really pulled it off. It was slick. It was smooth. The subject line is the ghost of Karen Carpenter. Oh my God. Are you ready? I am ready. Hello, Karen.

Are you named after? God, I keep interrupting. I'm so sorry. No, no, no. Are you kidding? That's all I've done. That's all time. Hello, Karen, Georgia, Steven and Petz.

I've been meaning to write in this story for a while now, but it wasn't until today when Karen mentioned the ghost of Karen Carpenter on the Minnesota that I knew I had to share with you all. My dad has worked as a mortician his entire working career, starting in Idaho and later in LA after he and my mom moved to Southern California in the 80s. He has had so many wonderful stories, including burying Rita Hayworth. Wow. I wouldn't call that wonderful, is that what you're laughing about?

Just the celebration of the death of Rita Hayworth. I had a wonderful day at work today, darling. Let me tell you. I was finally able to bury that woman. Sorry. I always hated her work. She's my greatest rival in the mortician industry. Okay.

Sorry, we know what you mean. Wonderful stories, including burying Rita Hayworth and parentheses of which there are newspaper photos of him carrying her casket down the stairs of the church, proceeding her funeral while living in a haunted apartment of a mortuary where doors would open and close. Yes. Fuck. And picking up a man who died at a sugar factory. Parentheses I'll spare you the details in that one.

Oh, I bet you we fell into this. Peace mothered on sugar. That's how I'm going to die in my living room. I don't want to ever be in a vat of things and get stuck in it. Trying to swallow, trying to be... Whenever I read those stories, I get fucking, I get so bummed. It's the worst. It's the worst.

Let me talk about it. And it also, it leaves this little bit of a funny joke mark at the end of your death, which sucks. There's no dignity in it. Right. It's just a huge bummer. And then a little bit of like, today in weird news, we're like, I fucking died, you assholes. Like your story about the molasses fucking flood.

It's like, wow, that's hilarious. And you're like, but people die. Yes. That's not as hilarious. It's not hilarious at all. It's like somebody was standing there going about their business and then a 40 foot wave of molasses killed them. Yeah.

The end. And then every, yeah. Et cetera, et cetera. That's what this whole podcast is. Can you fucking believe it? Can you fucking believe this? Okay. But it's his one story about Karen Carpenter that has always fascinated me.

When Karen first passed away, she was buried at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Cyprus, California. But in 2003, her family decided to disinter her body and bury her at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in West Lake Village. Oh, that's a much better place. It's so much better. Yeah. For everybody. A longtime industry friend of my dad's was responsible for picking Mrs. Carpenter up.

I think it's Ms. Carpenter up and transporting her to her second and final resting place. Well, on route from cemetery A to cemetery B, his hearse broke down on the side of the road. And what might you ask came on the radio just that every moment, the sweet, serenading voice of Karen Carpenter singing, we've only just begun. Oh my God. That is, this is such a dad story. I love it.

That's the funniest possible song that could play. I know my dad's friend was spooked by the incident, but I like to think it was Karen's way of having a little fun from the great beyond. She's like, let me have a minute not in a grave and just like chill out here. Yes. Can you just pull over by the side of the road and I'm going to prank you because I just want one last prank. Yes.

Thank you for all that you do, especially being so vocal about mental health and making the rest of us murdering us feel like we're not alone. Stay sexy and watch out for ghosts of 1970 pop stars playing practical jokes. Devon. Amazing. 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

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slash murder20 and use code murder20. Goodbye. Hey, I'm Aresha. And I'm Brooke. And we're the hosts of Wondery's podcast, Even the Rich, where we bring you absolutely true and absolutely shocking stories about the most famous families and biggest celebrities the world has ever seen. Our newest series is all about the incomparable diva, Whitney Houston.

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Okay. This is just a nice email. Okay. It's not a hometown. Okay. So, update, Portland girl whose house burned down. Oh. Remember the girl we met?

We met a girl at one of the Portland shows who's really lovely and her fucking house had just burned down. It had just burned down. Was it the same day or like that week? It was like that week. Yeah. It was a lot. I think she says something about it in here.

So, let's see. Hello to some of my favorite beings on earth. That means you too, Stephen. Oh. Oh. I just wanted to update you guys and give a few more details on my situation. I met you both at the Portland Live show and briefly mentioned my house burning down and how amazing the Portland Murderinos have been.

So, she, the Portland Murderinos like helped her with everything. Oh. Not only did they immediately jump into action and get me food, clothing, cat supplies and toiletries, they were also there for me emotionally. I have horrible chronic anxiety and I know I would not have made it through the past month calmly if it weren't for my amazing Murderino friends. I'm settling to a new apartment finally and my kitty crook shanks is still a hilarious asshole, which is a good thing, of course.

On top of all of this amazingness, they have come through yet again for my coworker and fellow Murderino who has been harassed lately by her ex-boyfriend. The Portland Murderinos have given her lawyer Reno help, sent her a doorbell camera and sat with her for five hours at the courthouse while she obtained a restraining order against him. Amazing. I just had to let you know how much we both appreciate this community. You have created and how incredible the women of this group are.

I'm extremely grateful to them and to you guys. Thank you for being wonderful and helping us to SSDGM. PSM originally from Tennessee and I've only lived in Portland for five months and the community here is literally the only reason I have friends in the city. That's amazing. Love, Jess. That's so good. Wow.

What a beautiful ending to that. I remember her. I know and I love that. She was saying how she was just new to the city and those are the people who came to fucking help her. Yeah. That's incredible. That's beautiful.

I would want to say, because she said she wouldn't have been able to get through it calmly without those people, but you also have to remember you're not supposed to get through really tragic events in your life calmly. This is when you get to freak out and you get to be dependent and don't hold yourself to those ridiculous standards. Something terrible happened to you. You're lucky enough to have people that are there to help you, but you're not supposed to be fucking calm.

If you need to scream at the sky, your house burned down. You get to. That's really lovely. That's true. I appreciate that. I'm always trying to keep my shit together and not seem like a monster or depressed person in front of Vince, but it's like, well, sometimes I'm a fucking depressed person. Right.

And it's like in trying to control it in some ways, you can't control it in other ways. It's a nice, like noble idea, but then it just creates too much pressure. Right. You know what I mean? There's no need. A hopper of dealing with your fucking house burning down. And you don't expect him to do that for you. No.

He doesn't have to be like Mr. Perfect all the time. Well. I just want to say to be nice. I just want to say one quick message to Vince. It would be nice. You could just try. Try your game a little bit for me, for this marriage I'm not in. All right.

Send us your emails at my favorite murder at Gmail. And thank you for sending these wonderful stories in and stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Goodbye. Bye. Bye. Bye.