Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - He Killed People And Then Wrote a Novel About It - The Vlado Taneski story

Episode Date: February 2, 2025

This is the story of Vlado Taneski, the journalist who went on a murder spree in North Macedonia

An all-new season of the secret lives of Mormon wives is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus. Mom Talk has just been blowing up. Whitney and Jen are dancing with the stars. Taylor is a bachelorette. Saying that out loud is crazy. Like, that is huge. But all the cool opportunities could close apart. It's causing issues in everyone's marriage.

My whole world is falling apart right now. It's chaos. Watch the Hulu original series. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for Bumno subscribers. Terms apply. So this journalist is about to unalive some people so that he can write news articles about the murders. Let me explain.

Now the journalist, his name is Vlato, and he lives in a small town in Macedonia, and he's a bit messed up in the head. Apparently, he had always had a super contentious relationship with his late mother, and bros allegedly got some mommy issues. Because one day, I guess Vlato finds a way to take out all these frustrations on some women. that live in his neighborhood. And so he targets his first victim. This woman, Maitra. Mita's 64, and she knew Vlato's mom, and Mietra even works as a cleaner just like Vlato's mom worked as a cleaner. But one day, Mietra leaves her place to go to the grocery store, and that is when Vlato shows up. Now, it isn't clear exactly how he goes about this, because there are no witnesses,

not sure if he offered her a ride in his car or what, but suddenly, BAM, Flotto straight up kidnaps her, and he takes her somewhere, and he starts beating her, and then he assays her. And after that, he keeps her alive for several months, which means he would have had to feed her and, like, take care of her. But ultimately, he finally strangles her with a telephone cord until she's unalived. Then he stuffs her body into a nylon bag, and he ties it up with the telephone cord, and he dumps it at an abandoned construction site on the outskirts of town. And two months after she first disappeared, police finally find Mitra's body in the construction site. So they investigate, and they start accusing these two other random guys of the murder.

And eventually, they go and arrest those two guys. Meanwhile, Vlato isn't even a suspect, so he, like, totally gets away with it. Now, remember how I said Vlato is a journalist? Well, pretty quickly, he starts reporting on the case, and he publishes a news article about Mitra going missing. And he goes and he interviews some of her friends and family members about the crime. He even reports on the trial of the two random guys who were wrongly accused of unaliving Mitra, which by the way, those two guys who were falsely accused, they ultimately both get sentenced to life in prison. But don't feel bad for these two guys. Part of why they're murder suspects in the first place, is because they actually unalived someone else,

a totally different unrelated guy, which they admitted to. So they get life in prison. Anyway, three years pass, and Vlato still hasn't been caught. And he's feeling pretty confident. He's ready to do it all over again. And that is when he sets his sight on this woman. Her name is Labica. And LaBecha's 56, and like Mitra, she also works as a cleaner,

and she's also familiar with Flato's mom. So she is just his type. And all these people live in the same small neighborhood, so Vlato and all his victims, they all know each other. But one day, just like Mitra, Lubija leaves her place to go buy groceries. That is when Vlato shows up. But suddenly, boom, Vlato just kidnaps her. And then he takes her somewhere to some secret location. And he ties her up and he beats her and he essays her and he keeps her alive there for about three months.

And then he finally strangles her with a telephone. cord until she's unalived. And three months after she had been abducted, police find her body in a nylon bag she had been dumped in a ravine near the edge of town. And of course, this is a small town in Macedonia. So this murder is huge news. And guess which freelance journalist is right there to cover the story. Flotto. And he's out here, he's like interviewing her friends and her family. And three days after LaBeche's bodies found, he publishes an article about her. And in this, article he actually theorizes that this murder and the Mitra murder might be linked. Like he's telling on himself. Oh but Vlato's not done. Because a few months later he chooses his next

victim. This woman, Zavanna. And Zavanna is 65. And just like the other victims, she's a cleaner. She also knew Vlato's mom because they all live in the same neighborhood. And one day she's sitting at home and bering she gets a phone call. And it's her friend. And her friend is like, Hey, have you heard the news? There's been a horrible car crash and they're saying your son is involved. So Zavanna, she goes and she turns on the news on the radio. And yeah, there's a report that there's been a horrible car crash involving her son. So Zavana immediately drops everything and she leaves her place.

And as she's leaving, her neighbor sees her. And he's like, hey, what's going on? And she's like, I think my son was in a horrible car crash. I'm going to the hospital to see if he's there. And then she heads straight for the hospital. And that is the last time anyway. sees her. And again, it is speculated that while she's on her way to the hospital, Flotto crosses paths with her. And he likely offers her a ride. And somehow he gets her

alone and he kidnaps her. And then he takes her to some unknown location and he beats her up and he assays her and he strangles her with a telephone cord. Then he puts the body in a nylon bag and he ties it up with the same telephone cord he used to unalive her. But after she had left the house that day, that same afternoon, that neighbor that she saw, he gets a knock on the door. And it's Zivana's son. And son asked the neighbor, hey, have you seen my mom? I can't find her anywhere. And neighbor's like, dude, she went to the hospital because she heard you got in a car accident. Now, of course, son had not, in fact, been in a car accident. So he's like, what the fuck are you talking about? And he hadn't been in a horrible car accident because there had been

no horrible car accident. It was all a hoax. Now, it is speculated that Vlato, who is a journalist that he called the local radio news station and reported to them that there had been a car crash and that Zivana's son had been involved, so that that radio station would report on it and Zavana would hear it and go out looking for him. And I guess it worked because she did. Regardless, nine days later, some people find Zavana's body unalived in a pile of trash that had been dumped next to the local soccer field. And three days after that, Vlato publishes a news article about the murder in one of the biggest national newspapers in Macedonia. And in this article, he links the murders of all three women,

and he's the first person to suggest that there might be a serial killer on the loose. Like I said, bro's telling on himself. I mean, this man is diabolical, and it looks like he's getting away with it. Until. Here's the thing. When Vlato wrote his news article about Zavana's murder, he took things a little too far. For example, in this article, he goes into detail about what type of cord the killer had used,

a telephone cord, and how the killer had used the same cord to unalive the victims as he used to tie them up. And none of these details were public information at the time. He even writes about how Zavanna had possibly been abducted by two men in a car and how they made up a story about her son getting in a horrible accident to get her in that car. And so local police, they start to notice, man, this guy's got a lot of insight into these murders. They're like, we've never mentioned that the killer used a telephone cord. And so police naturally get suspicious. And finally, Flotto becomes a suspect.

So then police, they go and they test his DNA and they match it with some DNA found on the murder victims. And surprise, surprise, it's a match. So, bam, they arrest Flotto. And I couldn't find a mugshot. so here's an actual photo of him in police custody. But then, three days after his arrest, while he's in jail, he's in his cell, and he goes and he dunks his head in a bucket of water and he drowns. He unalived himself.

So shout out to the bucket, I guess.