Radio Rental - Episode 21

Episode Date: November 12, 2021

On today's tapes... >> The Walk > Dark Hallway

Thank you. stories we tackle next. Plus, you could win a nice prize just for sharing your thoughts. Head over to tenderfoot.tv slash survey and let your voice be heard, and you'll be entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card plus a Tenderfoot merch pack. It only takes a few minutes, and it makes a big difference. Thank you for being part of our community. We can't wait to hear from you. Oh, hello. Hello, dear Radio Rental fan. Welcome. I, um... I have some very sad news for you. Our beloved Malachi, house cat here at Radio Rental,

passed away a few days ago. I know. I'm very upset, too. I don't know how it happened. One morning he was just lying here, cold. I tried squirrel noises, smelling salts, open tuna cans, everything, but he wouldn't stir. So I buried him in a small makeshift cemetery

I found a mile into the woods, behind the store. It was a very tasteful ceremony, I assure you. I said a little prayer, and then I took some of his precious pumpkin spice latte and poured one out for him in tribute. Well, I'm sorry that you couldn't be there anyway. I know that today it will be hard to focus on the stories with... Sorry. Sorry. As I was saying, I know that it will be hard to focus on the stories with uh but um sorry as i was saying i know that it will be hard to focus on today's story but must be my rumba Malachi, is that you?

Oh, Malachi, Malachi, I'm so glad you're back. I mean, scientifically I don't understand how it's possible, but I'll take it. Beggars can't be choosers, right, pal? Oh, dear listener, I'm so sorry. Why don't I pop in a new tape for you while Malachi and I reunite? Oh, that's... Okay, that sounded weird, but okay. Here we go, little buddy. Okay, next tape.

Everyone ready? Here we go. I live in a town called Aledo, A-L-E-D-O. It's about 15 minutes outside of Fort Worth. They have this awesome football team that's won state championship for years and years. It's just like this wholesome, down-to-earth, your typical Texas small town. We moved out there in 2004 to raise our kids. We have four kids. The day this happened, I was walking a lot during that time.

I was doing this route in my neighborhood. It was about three to five miles, and it was near my son's elementary school. And I had taken him to school, and I was coming back on the highway and I thought, you know, I really want to seek a new route because I would drive these different routes through these neighborhoods. I turned down this one road that I had never been down before and I thought it was connected to the neighborhood right next to my son's school. And then I quickly realized that wasn't connected to that neighborhood next to my son's school. And then I quickly realized that wasn't connected to that neighborhood next to it. Went down this long lane, it kind of came to a

fork in the road, and I went to the right and it took me to a cul-de-sac and I pulled into the cul-de-sac and I see this small blue compact car, like bright blue, and there's a man sitting in it. He had his hands up next to the steering wheel holding a newspaper, and he didn't move his hands. They stayed there the whole time I was driving by. And I'm staring at him as I'm driving around the cul-de-sac. I tried not to take my eyes off of him because it was so weird. And I'm driving around, and he never looks up. He just did not move.

He just kept his arms up. And it really looked to me like he was pretending to read a newspaper. In our town, everybody waves to everybody, and everybody's friendly. That was the first red flag. He's sitting there reading a paper and I know that's not a crime to sit in your car and read a paper and didn't look at me and it was a real quiet tucked away

hidden cul-de-sac just struck me as really odd. He had on this fake looking mustache and he had on thick black glasses. His disguise was bad. It was really bad. It was obvious that it was a fake. It was obviously so creepy looking. He had this disguise on and he has a mustache and these real thick glasses. He had a beard on which was also a really horrible fake beard. It was very obvious. It was just like it did not look right at all. Why is this guy wearing a disguise and sitting in the car reading the paper in this quiet little cul-de-sac. There's no other cars. There's no traffic that goes in and out of there. His behavior was very odd. My brain was trying to figure out what's going on here. I knew he was out of place and I got the biggest chill. This neighborhood was a little bit set

back, it was a little bit isolated and out of the way, not somewhere that you would just sit in your car and read a newspaper in a disguise. It just wasn't right in my mind. And so I kind of went around and I thought that's really weird and I went on about my way and I went back home, found a route, went on my walk and it was probably about 45 minutes to an hour walk. And as I'm finishing my walk I see this giant black plume of smoke coming up over the treetops. It was enough to where you could see it. It was real big, real big and dark. Around where we live, a lot of people burn brush.

And this was not brush. It was, that's usually a white smoke. This was black and thick. And it went way over the trees and way over the houses. And I thought, well, that's weird because we don't really see that. You don't see that very often where we are. And it was in the same area that I had been in earlier that morning, like an hour and a half or so before.

I just saw that guy, and it's kind of in the vicinity where I was and I so I got back home and I I had to go into Fort Worth and run some errands and so I thought well I'm gonna drive down that way and see where that fire is. When I was driving down that highway and looked to the left at Highland Drive, I could see all of the emergency vehicles. And I just kept going. And I have a friend whose husband, he was at that time the Aledo fire chief. So I texted her and said, hey, I just saw something really strange this morning, and then there's a fire right on the same street where I saw it. And I said, can you ask Scott if I need to tell anyone?

And her husband told me to contact the Weatherford Fire Chief, and his name was Lanny Padgett. And here's his contact information. And so I set up a time, and I went to the Weatherford Fire Department office in Weatherford, which is further west of Aledo. He met me, and he took a statement, and I told him the blue car, the man in the disguise, how creepy it was,

and that I noticed there was a fire right after. And he said, you know, he goes, yeah, we're pretty sure it's arson. He said the owner of that house at the time was out of town on business. There was a robbery. I think some jewelry was taken. And for some reason, I felt like maybe they were suspecting the homeowners because it was a little suspicious how she was out of town on business. I think the fire was started by gasoline. We're still trying to figure it all out, but thank you for your information or whatever.

And then I went on my way and I never really thought about it again. And I never heard back from anybody. I didn't really know. I went to a dinner party one time, and they said, what's something weird or unusual that's happened to you? And I told this story, but it was like it was just some random guy hanging out and then there was a fire after that was probably an arson and i didn't think about it after that i just thought well that was really weird and i hope they catch the guy because i was sure he had i was sure he had been the one to start that fire it was just too weird several months later i think it was in january I picked up the paper and I read this article.

In there it said he was in the Fort Worth area, he needed money and he wanted to find a town that was off the main interstate, set back a little bit, and he wanted to rob a bank. And he wanted a town that did not have a big police force or, you know, a lot of law enforcement around, which we don't. He had chickened out of robbing the bank in Aledo. He kept going across Interstate 20, and if you take that road way back, there's another little town called Azle. He ended up robbing a bank in Azle, and he had the disguise on. And that's when I knew. It just kind of all came together, because it gave the address. He had the mustache that he had on that I saw him in.

He had on sunglasses instead of the thick, black-rimmed glasses. He has a unique look. He had been arrested in March after the fire that I had seen. When I read this, I was like, oh my gosh, that was the guy because it was that day. And it talked about how he started his rampage, killed a woman in Anchorage, Alaska, and then he set across the country.

And he got arrested in Lufkin, Texas. He had stolen a car, and he had stolen a bank card. And then he confessed to murdering 11 people. And the thing is, is that when I saw him sitting in that car at that moment, I just had this feeling come over me of like, just like the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I was just like, oh my gosh, I came this close to Israel Keys.

I still get chills when I think about that. He is a serial killer who has murdered 11 people that I know of. And he passed through my town that I live in, in the middle of it all. And this was, I believe this was just one month after his first murder. I was just so grateful that I was able to drive away from there. Was able to leave. That anybody, anywhere can be anything or anybody. Well, that was strange and kind of pathetic. A wig, a fake mustache, black glasses.

You're just begging to be noticed on a cul-de-sac. Simply dress as an Amazon driver in the future. Israel, if you're listening, I doubt you are. You're probably in prison. Here's a fun fact. Scramble and then reform the letters to Israel keys, and you get Why I Rake Less. Hmm.

Now, not to make you more unsettled, but truth be told, Malachi is acting a little bit off. Well, I'm sure he's always been a little bit off, but this is new. He keeps gnawing at my pinky, and he can't stand the word artichoke. Malachi, Malachi, calm down. Please, everything's okay. Nothing is going to hurt you now, all right? Well, this seems like a good time for some ads. Get ready for Las Vegas-style action at Ben MGM,

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pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Crime Writers On is the podcast where authors and journalists talk about the latest true crime series, documentaries, and podcasts. Talk about what's on the charts and find those up-and-coming podcasts you'll be talking about. It's like a fun and smart book club discussing what makes good storytelling and teaching how to become a critical listener. Or not. club discussing what makes good storytelling and teaching how to become a critical listener or not and stick around for the crime writers thumbs up thumbs down reviews it's the original true crime review podcast crime writers on wherever you get your podcasts like probably right here i was seven or eight years old.

My brother's about three years older than me. Our mom was taking us up to the upstairs bathroom to brush our teeth and get ready for bed. And back then, my dad, he worked construction. He would be working on big projects like building bridges and stuff, so he would be out of town for weeks at a time. So that night, it was just us three. And my room is right across from the bathroom, but I was never the one that would wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. It was always my brother or my mom that would wake up,

and they would always keep the door open, they would always flush or make a lot of noise and wake me up. After we had gotten done brushing our teeth and we were going back down the hallway to go to our beds, my brother just kind of stopped in the middle of the hallway. He turned back and he said, wait a second, let me go use the bathroom really quick. And he started walking back down the hallway. And I was just stood in my doorway. He was walking past me.

It was kind of like he wasn't really saying it to me. He was just kind of like, kind of thinking out loud. And he said, he said, past few nights I've been too scared. I keep feeling like I'm seeing some man at the end of the hallway wearing stripes. It was almost like he wasn't really, he wasn't telling me directly. It was kind of like he was just thinking out loud. Like it seemed like he was being serious. He said like, hold on, wait a second, let me, let me go use the bathroom. And then he started like walking past me towards the bathroom and he kind of like had his head down like he wasn't talking directly to anyone He was just kind of like saying that out loud

And he said yeah, like I've been too scared to go during night Because I'm afraid that I can't I keep seeing this man at the end of the hallway and wearing stripes like normally I could tell when he was trying to scare me because he's like, oh he's got this grin on his face, like he's loving it. But this was just like, it just seemed too real for him. Like he was really terrified by this. Like it really hit him.

And yeah, he just walked past me and like, I didn't want to touch it. I was just like going back into my room. Like no, I'm done with this. I'm going to sleep. And yeah, that just freaked me out when he said that. Like, I didn't like say anything to him when he said it. My mom didn't respond to him. It was just kind of like, he just kind of said it just out of nowhere. He was so sincere when he said it. Normally he was like, he would get into this big elaborate story to tell me and like it was really obvious that he was telling me a ghost story. But this was just kind

of like in passing just like he just seemed really honest about it. I was kind of like stunned by what when he said it because I was like what do you mean? But he just kind of said like yeah I feel like I've been seeing this man at the end of the hallway wearing stripes. Of course my child brain just goes wild with that idea of this man just standing at the end of the hallway. That thought just never left me. This man just standing at the end of the hallway wearing stripes. I just kind of like imagined this guy just this like big tall man just just wearing like some kind of suit like head to toe in stripes,

in the dark corner of the hallway, not doing anything, not moving, just standing there like a statue. Couldn't see his face or anything. This horrifying being. When I was that little, I don't think I really had that much of an understanding of ghosts.

It wasn't like a fear that I always had. This seemed like way more terrifying than any of the other stories that my brother told. Maybe it was because he never really told stories about our house, like it was always people in the woods or our neighbor, you know, like some place that you would go to and some terrifying thing that you might see. His story stuck with me.

I had nightmares about it. I'd be in my room just trying to fall asleep, thinking like maybe there's someone out there in the hallway. I don't want to go out in the hallway. I'll just stay here in my bedroom. When I would get to the top of the stairs, I would just bolt to my room. Like, I wouldn't dare look down the hallways at the doors. We didn't have lights on the other side of the door.

Those doors always creeped me out. You're looking at these doors, they're already in the dark end of the hallway. And you're looking out the window, and it's just darkness on the other end. You couldn't see what was on the other side. It was just like this emptiness, this void that you were looking out into. I feel like there was always someone just looking through the glass. I just didn't like looking at the windows at all. Probably 10 years later, when I was just having a conversation with my mom,

we were in the car driving somewhere and the topic of a puppy that we had when I was a kid came up, Max. We had like this little beagle puppy. We were just telling stories about all the trouble that he would get into. I remember I was out playing in the front yard as a kid, and my shoes came untied. I was sitting in the yard trying to tie my shoes,

and Max would run over and start tearing on my shoelaces. I was like on the verge of tears because I was so frustrated that I couldn't tie my shoes and my mom had to step in and break us up and she's like yeah yeah oh yeah I remember I remember that story yeah and then she just kind of like blurted out oh do you remember that time when I opened the door for the cops and Max ran straight into the kitchen and tore open that big bag of dog food that we had and that kind of like shocked me whenever she said that. Not because of Max, like I knew Max was a troublemaker and it was that detail of the cops. In all my time living in that house like we never once called the cops. We lived in a pretty quiet neighborhood

so there was just never any need for us to call the cops. So I was like, what do you mean? You said you opened the door for the cops? Why were the cops there? What was going on? And then she kind of stopped for a second. She had that look on her face, surprised look on her face, like, oh man, maybe I was keeping this a secret

from you, but I think I just let the cat out of the bag. And she kind of stopped there for a second. She said, oh, that's right, I never told you this story. You and your brother were too young when this happened. So now I'm really curious what's going on, what is she talking about? She said, yeah, a long time ago, whenever you were little, I was woken up in the middle of the night from a noise, I heard a noise. A scratching or like a scraping noise.

And it sounded like it was coming from outside. It sounded like it was coming from my window, my bedroom window. And I could also hear leaves rustling in the backyard. She said she kind of sat up for a second and just listened for a while. Didn't hear anything. By the time she laid back down, she started hearing it again. Her dad was out of town. He was working. It was another night where he was working construction. She thought, well, maybe it's like deer or something in our backyard, because we got deer in our backyard all the time.

Without thinking, she said she got up and just walked over to the window. And then when she opened up the curtains, she saw a man just standing there, other side of the window. And she said that they both just kind of like stopped there, just kind of like surprised that they weren't expecting to see each other. My mom was just kind of like shocked for a second. Standing on the other end of a window of this man just like looking just dead in the face.

She just immediately ran back to her nightstand and turned on the light and got my dad's gun. That was when she heard footsteps running in the backyard. He was running away. She immediately called the cops as soon as she heard this guy running out the backyard. And then the cops arrived and took the description of the guy.

So she said, it was this tall, white male, short, dark hair, blue jeans, and a striped shirt. They immediately asked her, you know, is there someone that can stay with you tonight? I mean, we'll stay here as long as we can, but do you have like a family member or someone you trust that could stay with you?" And they said, well, this description that you gave us fits the description of a suspect in a murder case that we're investigating. I always assumed that he was just talking about a ghost and just trying to scare me,

but this story of this man just in our house, that just terrified me. Because it got me thinking, we always hear about the murderers that get caught, but you never hear about the people that don't get caught, the people that maybe they never acted on it. Maybe they were too patient. Maybe they were just waiting for their time to strike.

Maybe they were just waiting for their time to strike. Maybe we were too careful. We'll never know how close we were to dodging a bullet. This guy was showing up at our house for multiple nights. There's no way he was up to any good. Oh, did you like that one? Hmm. Good. Good.

I'm glad that one of us is having fun. Me? Oh, I'm fine. I'm just trying to sit perfectly still. Malachi is currently staring at me from underneath the fax machine like I'm some kind of piece of meat. His eyes are especially dead-looking, like I'm some kind of piece of meat. His eyes are especially dead-looking,

like a doll's eyes. Oh, God, Malachi. Malachi, are you salivating? I sure hope that's saliva. Dear listener, I think it's best I bid you adieu before things get really weird. Well, weirder. Stay curious out there. Oh, see you next time at

Radio Rental. Oh, God, this is going to be a problem. If you should find me dead for some reason, please do not bury me at the nearby cemetery about a mile in the woods out in back of Radio Rental.

Let that be my last will and testament. And all the videotapes here are to be left to the last blockbuster in Bend, Oregon. And tell Payne Lindsay that I love him. Radio Rental is created by Payne Lindsay and brought to you by Tenderfoot TV. Executive producers Payne Lindsay and Donald Albright. Hosted by Rainn Wilson as his character, Terry Carnation. Produced by Payne Lindsay, Mike Rooney, and Meredith Stedman. With additional production by Eric Quintana.

Written by Meredith Stedman. Additional writing by Mark Laughlin. Sound design by Cooper Skinner. Original score by Makeup and Vanity Set. Cover art by Trevor Eiler and Rob Sheridan. If you have a Radio Rental story that you'd like to share, please email us at yourscarystory at gmail.com or contact us via the form on our website, radiorentalusa.com. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at Radio Rental. You can also follow the illustrious Terry Carnation on social media.

Just search at Terry Carnation. To hear more from Terry, listen to his podcast, Dark Air. Special thanks to Grace Royer and Oren Rosenbaum at UTI, the Nord Group, Station 16, Beck Media and Marketing, and the team at Cadence 13. On behalf of the Radio Rental store,

we'd love it if you'd subscribe, rate, and review. And don't forget to share our show with a friend of the genre.ental Store. We'd love it if you'd subscribe, rate, and review. And don't forget to share our show with a friend of the genre. Thanks for listening. Deep in the ocean, an orca pod is on the hunt. But these aren't your average orcas. These guys are organized. Marketing team, did you get those social media posts

scheduled for the seal migration? Aye, aye, Captain. We even have an automated notification for all pod managers when they go live. They use Monday.com to keep their teamwork sharp, their communication clear, and their goals in sight. Monday.com. For whatever you run, even orcas,

go to Monday.com to dive deeper. I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for 20 years and have taken people into haunted places to uncover macabre tales and dark secrets. On my podcast, Haunted Canada, I share bone-chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts,

Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you're listening right now. Then join me if you dare.