Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - He’s a Dangerous Kid - The Collin Griffith story

Episode Date: February 1, 2025

Collin Griffith allegedly murdered his dad and his mom

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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 kid, his name's Colin. And Colin is a teenager, and he's also gay.

Now, there's obviously nothing wrong with that, but the problem is he feels like he has to tell his dad, who will just call dad. And they live in Oklahoma, and dad has some really backwards views on things. So Colin knows he's not going to take this news well. Regardless, Colin comes out to his dad. And dad, of course, does not take it well. He just can't handle having a gay.

son. So he decides to punish Colin and he stops letting him go to school because I guess Colin really likes school. And so he's not allowed to go to school and he becomes a prisoner in his own home. Dad doesn't let him leave the house or have friends and his parents are divorced and he's barely allowed to talk to his mom on the phone. And so this awful punishment goes on for several years and as you can imagine Colin's anger builds up and he starts to really hate his dad. But then, one day, Colin's 15 at this point, and he and dad, they get into a really bad argument. And it gets heated, like really heated, and it turns physical and violent. And then, allegedly, dad grabs a knife, and he starts chasing Colin through the house with it.

So then Colin, he runs into another room and he grabs a rifle. And when his dad lunges at him with the knife, Colin pulls the trigger. And he unalives his own dad. And then he calls 911. And when police arrive, they question him and he says he shot his dad in self-defense. But regardless, they arrest him anyway and they charge him with first-degree murder. However, when all is said and done, they can't find enough evidence to prove that it was first-degree murder and not self-defense. So ultimately, all of the charges against Colin are dropped.

and he is a free man. So then, Colin moves from Oklahoma all the way to Florida, and there he moves in with his mom, who will just call mom. And things seem to be going okay with him and mom. Like here's a photo of them together, and they look all happy and stuff. But after so many years with his dad of isolation and abuse, plus the fact that he unalived his own dad, Colin's mental health is a bit unstable.

So mom, she's worried about this, and she brings him in to get a sight. psych evaluation and they keep him in the psych hospital for like eight days and they end up diagnosing him with PTSD and a personality disorder. And just as Colin is getting released for some reason, he ends up telling the staff, if I'm released, I'll unalive myself or maybe I'll unalive my mom. And the staff is like, okay, bud, we got to keep you here for longer now. And so they keep him there for several more months. And then finally they let him out and he goes to live with his mom. And mom, you know, to her credit, she tries her best. Like she tries taking him on all these trips and she's posting

photos of them together on Facebook. Like here's a picture of them and they're taking a selfie together. And here they are on a trip. I guess she took him to Washington, D.C. So like she's really attempting to make this work. But unfortunately, it's not working. Like Colin just isn't adjusting well. He isn't doing well in school. He's failing his classes. He's playing well. He's playing way more video games than his mom is comfortable with. And one day, Colin is playing games instead of doing his homework, and mom threatens to take his console away. And this really pisses Colin off. So he goes and he just beats the shit out of her. And so then the police come and bam, they arrest Colin for domestic violence. And ultimately, he's put on probation. But while on probation, he continues

to live at his mom's house. And Colin is like 17 at this point. And mom, to her credit, to her credit, again, she keeps trying her best to make this work. She keeps posting pictures of them on Facebook together and they look happy in these photos next to each other. And when Colin graduates high school, mom buys him a $26,000 car. Like look at that car. But it seems to not matter because no matter what she does, Colin just isn't happy. You already know what's coming. One day, Colin and his mom, they get into an argument. They're arguing about chores or something, nothing too major.

But Colin has had it with his mom. So he goes, he just runs away. And he drives over to his grandma's house, and he hangs out there to cool off. But soon enough, mom shows up. And Colin, he really doesn't want to see her. So as soon as she gets there, they start arguing again.

And this argument is much worse than the first time. And so they're outside, and they're yelling at each other, and they're making a whole scene, and things keep escalating. And suddenly, bam, Colin grabs his mom by her hair, and he drags her by the hair into the house.

And they're still screaming at each other. And that is when Colin grabs a big chef's knife from the kitchen, and he holds his mom down, and he stabs her. And this unalives her. And then he calls 911, and police get there, and they question him, and he tells them that he and his mom were arguing, and that she came at him with a knife,

and that then she fell on her own knife and unalived herself by accident. And pretty quickly, police are like, yeah, that's bull's-bler. And so, bam, they arrest Colin. Here's his mugshot. And ultimately, he's charged with first-degree murder and kidnapping, I guess, because he dragged her into the house by her hair and held her there, so I guess that's kidnapping. And at this point in time, because of this second murder, they're actually looking into reopening his dad's case as well.

Like, maybe his dad wasn't chasing him around the house. with a knife, like maybe it wasn't self-defense. Regardless, this case hasn't gone to trial yet, so we'll see. Probably next year.