RedHanded - Episode 68 - Halloween Special Part 2: There's Someone in the Attic with Incest

Episode Date: October 31, 2018

Halloween continues at RedHanded this week as Hannah and Suruthi bring you two more disturbing cases to keep you up all night. So, if you're not up for hearing about a murderous man secretly living in a family's attic, or about a stomach churning incestuous relationship between a mother and her adult son; I'd give this one a miss...   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Red Handed early and ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made. A seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Hannah. I'm Saruti. And welcome to Red Handed Halloween Part 2. If you thought last week was bad, I have been sitting on this one for some time. Oh my god, I'm so excited.

And Saruti's making me go first again. I just, I just, I feel like last year I was very, I was very first. I feel like you should be first this year. Both times. You're just a very first kind of person. Well, thank you very much. Natural overachievers. Don't worry about it.

Okay. Oh, great. Hold on to your Halloween hats. Do people wear Halloween hats? Um, yeah. Halloween is the season for hats. Surely. Okay.

A witch's hat. I've gone a little bit more olden timey than we usually do because that's something we tend to avoid because I find olden timey cases quite boring. But not this one. Not this time. Is it the chicken coop murders? No. I would have been so annoyed if you get this. I would have been so annoyed. I know this I would have been so annoyed I know I was just wanting that to be like some really like serendipitous horrible moment where I was like is it this and it would be like you fucking bitch

no no chickens you should have played along with it I know I missed opportunity I need to go to more improv classes more I've never been to an improv class in my fucking life going to one is more than going to none that's true I think never been to an improv class in my fucking life. Going to one is more than going to none. That's true. I think we should go to improv classes, you know.

I've got a great game we're going to play in the car in Romania. Oh. Me and my housemate play it all the time. It's called Quiz. Quiz? Yeah, just Quiz. And it's essentially a quiz game show, but the questions are nonsense, like rapid fire nonsense. So the best one that Matt has ever done is that you have to start, you have to do like,

you have to be like, oh, my name is Matt Wilson and welcome to quiz. And then the best one that we've ever done was how many windows are on the Chrysler building? Trick question, it's underground. We're going to do that. I think it's going to be a very good game. Is it like number wang? It's exactly like number wang. It's just nonsense.

Three, and that's number wang. That's number wang. It's going to be Wang. Yeah, it's just nonsense. Three, and that's Number Wang. And that's Number Wang. It's going to be great. Quiz is going to be a great game. I'm excited. We'll record Quiz in the car and you can make your minds up for yourself. And if you want to see me losing the will to live probably after two rounds of that game, you can follow us on social media and see it. Oh, wait.

We'll already have been. Will we already have been? No, we'll be in Romania when this comes out. It's coming on the actual day of Halloween. Coming to you from the past. Yeah. We're talking about quiz, but we might be playing quiz right now. That's so meta.

Right. 72-year-old Philip Peters lived with his wife on a quiet street in Denver, Colorado. They had lived there for many years. Their house was three... No, wait, hold on. American road names are so confusing to me because they go into the thousands. Hold on. And I'm bad at numbers. Yeah, I know.

3,335 West Moncrief Place. But that's not how they'd say it, right? They'd say 3-3-3-5, I think. Yeah. Or they'd say 3,300 or... I don't know how. Yeah. Or they'd say 3-3-3-100. I don't know how Americans work. They're very confusing to me.

I also find it confusing that they do everything in like 12-hour clock. Why? Oh, yeah, military time. No, they do the opposite. We do military time. They do the opposite, yeah. But we do military time, but we don't say it as military time. Like, no one will be like 1,600 hours.

No. It'd just be like 4 o'clock. Anyway. Mr. and Mrs. Peters were quietly enjoying their retirement together until one day in September 1941, Mrs. Peters fell and broke her hip. I couldn't find her first name anywhere, just pointing that out. So she fell and broke her hip and she had to go to hospital for several weeks to recover. The Peters' next-door neighbours kindly offered to cook Philip Peters his dinner while his wife was in hospital because this is the 40s

and obviously he's completely incapable of feeding his goddamn self. But he's old, so maybe it was a bit more to do with him being not by himself, so I should probably sit down. I think you're still angry about that, though. I am, man.

I know it was the 40s, but this is ridiculous. I can't even find his wife's name. They're just like oh Mrs Peters got broken maybe that was her name Mrs

Mrs like a cat possibly who calls their cat Mrs that's horrible I don't know I fucking hate

that word Mrs like when guys are like the Mrs fuck off I really like it when cats have human names and they're like

oh that's just Nigel the cat don't worry about it so bait now Kevin the cat I just like animals with cats have human names and they're like, oh, that's just Nigel the cat, don't worry about it. So bait now. Kevin the cat. I just like animals with Colin the cat. Names of colours. My dog's just called Blue. I'm not a big fan of people who call their dogs after food.

Like people are like, oh, this is Toffee. Aww. No, I'm like, I don't... But I prefer that. I don't think you should name your pet people names. I quite like people names. I your pet people names. I quite like people names. I think they should have... I quite like ironic names. Like a cat called Fido.

Or like a poodle called Spike. I enjoy that. Or like a dog named... What do you call a cat? I don't even know a single cat. Tiger. I knew a couple of cats named Tiger. A dog called Mrs.

Moonbeam. That's a shit name. I know a cat called Mouse named Tiger. A dog called Mrs. Moonbeam. What's a shit name? I know a cat called Mouse. Oh, a cat called Mouse. Yeah, that's a great one. A cat called Mouse. A dog called Cat. Could go on forever. An elephant called Giraffe.

This can be the game we can play in the car. I had a goldfish called Jaws when I was little. That's very funny though. We won them at the fair because that's how people get goldfish. That's how goldfish come into being. I bought mine from Petsmart. Oh, all right. Fancy. And we had mine, which was called Goldie, my sister's that was called Tiggy, and we got a spare one and we called that the reserve fish. That's so mean. I overfed mine. He died. I fed him to death. I think I forgot to feed mine and it died. Actually, I'm pretty sure my sister killed them. Probably. Yeah.

Who knows? They didn't last long. I just got so upset about 1940s misogyny, I ended up talking about goldfish. How did this happen? So, on the 17th of October, Philip Peters didn't show up to his neighbour's house for dinner. The neighbour's family were concerned,

so they went to look for him. Once outside his house, they found all of the windows and doors to be locked. And 76-year-old Philip Peters was nowhere to be seen. And she didn't answer the door when they knocked. The neighbours eventually found a loose window that they prized open, and they sent their small daughter inside the house. That's a very 40s thing. Is that the right thing to do absolutely not but that's what they did this oh you can fit in you go i think people just cared less about their

kids in the 40s well i don't know my mom once sent me into the foundations of our house like crawling through the foundations i can't even remember what we were looking for something but she was like oh you have to go so i literally crawling looking for that was that important i can't maybe damp or something i don't know but i had to like climb into the foundations of the house with a torch in my mouth like a navy seal belly crawling how old were you how old was i mom how old was i she listens like a small child 14 something like that you're not a fucking like chartered surveyor like how are you as a 13 year old child going to identify damp no idea mom it looks like we've got a real serious case of damp down here. We've got some dry rot.

Been seeing this everywhere. Yeah, so I had to crawl on my stomach. The further you got under the house, the smaller the tunnel got. Yeah, that was a fun day for me. That's fucking horrifying. Good. You've just outed your mother, though. My mum's going to be so annoyed that I've told that story.

Anyway, so they send the kid in. And the kid finds Philip Peters's lifeless body in his bedroom. His head had been caved in. He had been mercilessly bludgeoned to death. This is a 76 year old man on his own. He was sprawled on the floor and blood was everywhere. It even sprayed on the ceiling. But it looked like he had put up a bit of a fight. Police would later determine that Peters had been struck 37 times. The police also worked out that Philip Peters had been attacked with an iron shaker from the fireplace. That's the bit at the bottom of the fireplace that's like wrought iron and you pull it out to get rid of the ash. It looks like a grill.

So whoever is wielding this has got some serious... Because they're heavy. It's wrought iron and it's massive. And that's what whoever it was, was using to bash in this old man's skull. But who could it possibly have been? Not only were all of the doors locked in the house, they had been locked from the inside.

And Philip was the only soul in the house. Is there someone hiding in the house? Do you want me to tell the story? Sorry. The police had absolutely no idea. There was no way that Philip's killer could have got in the house in the middle of the day without being seen. Even if the murderer had made it into the house totally unseen by all of the nosy neighbours,

how did they get out again, locking the doors from the inside? Despite the mysterious death of her husband, Mrs Peters returned to her home after her hip was healed a few weeks later. She wasn't very mobile and needed a lot of help to do normal old lady things, so she quickly hired a housekeeper. And this housekeeper often reported hearing strange noises in the house. No, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Like footsteps when there was no one else home.

Things would move around of their own accord. She would leave something in one place and find it in another only hours later. Pumped fucking out of there. Well, she didn't last long. Food would go missing often enough that the housekeeper became convinced that the house had to be haunted. She only lasted a matter of months before she resigned,

unable to stay in a house where nothing stayed in the place you put it, and you never quite felt alone. Housekeeper number one was not the only person who felt like this. So did her replacement, and the replacement after that. The Peters house became a revolving door of staff. No one who worked there could stand it for more than a few months. Every one of them quit, because the house was haunted. And it wasn't just the hired help that was complaining. Neighbours too started to report strange noises coming from the house, seemingly when no one was home. It got so bad that eventually Mrs Peters was forced to move in with her son, as independent living was totally impossible.

So now, 3-3-3-5 Moncrief Place stood empty. But still, the reports of strange noises continued, and one neighbour swore that they had seen a shadowy figure standing in the window of the empty house. These reports became so frequent that on the 30th of July 1942, 10 months after Philip Peters had been beaten to death, the Denver Police Department sent a patrol car to surveil the house. While they were waiting outside, one of the officers in the car saw a pale hand twitch one of the curtains and that was all they needed to enter the house so the police officers charge in and when they're in the hall they hear a click from upstairs that sounded like the turn of a lock oh Oh, no. When they got upstairs, only one door was closed. And it was not a door to a room.

No. But a door to a cupboard. Fuck. This cupboard had a tiny trap door in its ceiling. And when the officers opened the door, they saw two feet disappearing into the tiny trapdoor into the ceiling. The police officers grabbed the ankles connected to these feet and dragged the thing on the other end of the feet out of the tiny trapdoor in the cupboard. And it was no ghost at all. It was a

very real 59-year-old man called Theodore Conies. He had been living there for almost a year. So, what the fuck had happened? Let's back up. It's a long and weird story, so stay with me. Theodore Conies was so he's 59 when they catch him and he had a weird childhood.

His dad died very suddenly when he was born. It was all very sudden and tragic. So this made his mum super paranoid about her son dropping down dead at any minute. So she wouldn't let him play any sport or play with other children. But he was allowed to take mandolin lessons. Weird choice. But he got so good at the mandolin that by the time he first crossed paths with the Peters couple he was playing the mandolin in a club they were having dinner at in Denver. Mr and Mrs Peters were struck by Coney's talent

and they got chatting and they invited him to dinner at their house. This is 30 years previously. They ran into each other a few more times but eventually Theodore Coney left Denver and floated around being a musician slash homeless person for 30 years. And in 1941, he found himself back in Denver. So he thought he would pay Philip Peters a visit. He's looking for a handout, basically. And when he arrived at the house, the Peters couple weren't home, but their doors were open, so he let himself in. And when he looked upstairs, he found the cupboard with a trap door in the ceiling,

leading to a crawl space in the attic that was no bigger than a coffin. The space was 27 inches high and 57 inches wide. And crucially, the trapdoor in the attic locked from the inside, making it the perfect hiding place. Whenever Philip Peters went out, Theodore would sneak down from the attic and help himself to whatever food he could find. Until the 21st of October, when he came down from the attic hungry to raid the icebox. But Philip Peters wasn't actually out of the house, he had just been sleeping. And when he heard Coney moving about downstairs, Philip went to see what the noise was. And he sees a strange man in his house. And it's been decades since he's seen Coney, so he can be forgiven for not recognising him. So according to Coney, Peters just went for him.

So stoving his head in with the grill from the fireplace is self-defence, is what he says, which is you're living in someone else's house. After he'd killed Philip Peters, Theodore just returned to his coffin room in the attic. He'd been living there for five weeks before he murdered Philip Peters. And the reason the police missed the trap door in the initial sweep of the house back in October

when Philip was found was because it locked from the inside and it was no bigger than a cigar box. And I feel like that's like one and a half DVD cases, like it's a really small space. Lead detective on the case, James Childers, told the press that in order for a person to fit in there, they would have to be a spider. James Childers described Theodore as the strangest looking man he had ever seen. He was tall, just under six foot, but thin like a wilted weed. His dirty hair hung low over his ears and his skin was the ugly, unwashed grey of an overcast sky. Is that not the most dramatic description of a criminal you've ever heard in your life? That's a quote from a newspaper.

That's a police officer getting ready to write his own true crime book about this. Unwashed grey of an overcast sky. Give me a break. Sounds like a Coldplay album. Also, another thing Theodore had done with his coffin house was he'd managed to cut into the house his wiring system and installed an outlet in the attic. So he had his own radio. So he listened to the news of Philip Peter's murder on a radio in the attic of the house where he had murdered him. Apparently, the stench of the coffin cupboard made one of the police officers vomit. In there, they found an ironing board stuffed with magazines that he'd been using as a bed and a single light bulb. Theodore Conies earned himself the tabloid nickname, the Denver Spider-Man. And apparently he's referenced in a Simpsons episode.

I'll find it, I'll link it. On Halloween 1942, a jury took just 90 minutes to convict Coney's of murder. He was given life in prison. He was spared the gas chamber, which was apparently the death penalty of choice in Colorado at the time. When he was sentenced, Coney said, Now I feel safe. I'll have a better home than I've had in years. Wow. Hmm. I mean, that is...

And that's the Denver Spider-Man. The ultimate fear. Anytime you hear a noise in your house, there's someone in the house. There was someone in their house. Someone hiding in the walls. Fucking hell. And that's exactly what he was doing, and he was doing it for nearly a year. Also, it's like the wrong couple, because how much do 87 every 87 year old people go out of the house good question actually i think he's only in there after um mrs peters is in hospital so it's only ever

philip oh okay but you're right but also if he's incapable of feeding himself he's not going to have that much food in the house if he's just going to the neighbors to be fed god that is fucking horrifying i don't really know how to follow up on that. I actually feel really terrified now I'm sat under the duvet fort after that case. I'm a bit scared of getting out now. Like? There's going to be someone standing

behind me. What if there's someone in your house? Stop it! I'm literally on my own in my house right now. You might not be. That might be the problem. In my old Victorianorian house someone just tears the duvet off my head wouldn't it be terrifying if we listen back to this when you're editing it and there's just like a noise you can hear in the background of your house don't that happens quite a lot actually get out oh what's just oh stop it so many cliches, but still scary. Wow. Well, I'm going to try my best to follow up from that then. NASA embarks on an ambitious program to reinvent space exploration with the launch of its first reusable vehicle, the Space Shuttle.

And in 1985, they announced they're sending teacher Krista McAuliffe into space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, along with six other astronauts. But less than two minutes after liftoff, the Challenger explodes. And in the tragedy's aftermath, investigators uncover a series of preventable failures by NASA and its contractors that led to the disaster. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondery Plus. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial today. He was hip-hop's biggest mogul, the man who redefined fame, fortune, and the music industry.

The first male rapper to be honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Sean Diddy Combs. Diddy built an empire and lived a life most people only dream about. Everybody know ain't no party like a Diddy party, so. Yeah, that's your son. But just as quickly as his empire rose, it came crashing down. Today I'm announcing the unsealing of a three-count indictment, charging Sean Combs with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution. I was f***ed up. I hit rock bottom, but I made no excuses. I'm disgusted. I'm so sorry. Until you're wearing an orange jumpsuit, it's not real. Now it's real.

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Okay, bear with me because my case today is not traditional horror, I'm going to say. But it is scary and I think it's incredibly disturbing. And when I read about it, it really stayed with me, which is how I knew that I had to do it. So let's go. This was a crime that made headlines on both sides of the Atlantic. Barbara Daly Bakeland was a member of one of the US's richest and most powerful dynasties. And she had been murdered in one of London's most expensive neighbourhoods on Cadogan Square in Chelsea. So immediately, she's like this wealthy US woman murdered in Chelsea in London. And for the papers, the case got even more sensational because the killer was her very own son. Oh, it gets better. Well, not better,

it gets worse. Much worse. Depends on how you look at it. And on November 17th, 1972, Tony Bakeland, her son, the heir to the Bakeland Plastic Dynasty, snapped. He had grabbed a knife and stabbed his mum, Barbara Daly Bakeland, through the heart in this London penthouse they lived in. And when the authorities arrived, Tony was calmly ordering Chinese food. Now, this wasn't the first time that Tony had tried to kill his mum, because three weeks before the attack, in which Barbara had lost her life, Tony had lunged at her with a knife, and she had managed to get away that time relatively unharmed. And it was her son, and she just didn't press charges. But she did make him go to see a psychiatrist.

And the psychiatrist was apparently so shocked by the session that he had with 25-year-old Tony that he told Barbara, he will try to kill you again. And I think that you are in grave danger. But Barbara's response to him was, I don't. But she was very, very wrong. So what happened? What had led Tony to want to murder his mum? Well, the story that came out after the headlines of Plastics Air Kills Mum was so horrifying and unbelievably fucked up. No one could have predicted the darkness that surrounded the Bakeland family. Because it's fucked.

It's really fucked. Because this is the story of a woman who thought that she could cure her son's homosexuality with incest. Spoiler, that doesn't work. No, it doesn't. Barbara Daly thought, no, an incestuous relationship with her son

was preferable to him sleeping with men. And it was a cure. With her? Well. Oh my God, I can't handle this. Rich people are insane. Let's start at the beginning. So, it's the 1940s and Barbara Daly Bakeland had it all. She was a prominent socialite and beautiful young model who worked for magazines like Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.

She was like on the front cover. She was pretty fucking well known. She was named one of New York's 10 most beautiful girls. She had married Brooks Baekeland, the grandson of chemist Leo Baekeland, the literal inventor of Bakelite plastics. I thought that was them. Yeah. So they're fucking rich.

Like think, this is the family that literally invented plastic. It's absolutely huge. And Barbara had married into that family. She was a 40s it girl. But instead of just getting smashed and being stalked by paparazzi, catching her falling out of her, I was going to say wagon. It's not wagon, it's cars. It's only the 40s.

With her vajazzle out. There was way more fucked upness laying beneath the world of fame, power and money in this story because Barbara's early life wasn't quite so peachy. Her mother had serious mental health issues and a few years before Barbara was born, her mother had actually had a complete full-on nervous breakdown. And unfortunately, Barbara took after her mother in that respect. And throughout her life, she was prone to erratic behavior. And as if this wasn't enough, when Barbara was 10 in 1932, her father had killed himself. And he actually made it look like an accident so the family would be able to claim the insurance money. So I don't

know how he did that because the way he killed himself was like to put the hose into the car and like turn the exhaust on. How could you make that look like an accident? I don't know. I don't know. That's a very definite suicide. Yeah, I don't know how he did it. But he did. So despite all of the challenges that the family had faced when Barbara was growing up, they weren't left destitute after her father died, and the money that the insurance policy paid out allowed Barbara to build this very glamorous life for herself. Because with that money, Barbara and her mother moved to New York. And quickly, in New York, Barbara gained that infamous reputation for her beauty, but also for her behavior. And her social status, along with her looks, resulted in frequent invitation to high society parties, allowing her to date various wealthy admirers. But throughout this time, Barbara still struggled with her mental health.

It was never something that she ever got a handle on throughout her entire life. But at this time, Barbara was, to the outside world, having a fucking great life. She was killing it as a model, having a fucking great life. She was killing her as a model, but what she really wanted to do was be an actor. And eventually, thanks to her impeccable networking and schmoozing skills, she got an invitation to do a screen test with the Hollywood star Dana Andrews. Sadly, though, this didn't lead to film stardom like she had hoped, but it did lead to a husband. Because on the screen test, she struck up a friendship

with another aspiring actress, Cornelia Dickey-Bakeland. Cornelia? That is a name. Cornelia Dickey. What is your middle name or your nickname? Cornelia Dickey-Bakeland.

I don't know. But these people are also fucking raw. It's unbelievable. Oh God, yeah. You can tell. Because Cornelia introduced Barbara to her younger brother, Brooks. Also, Brooks is like the most raw name I can think of for a boy. I don't think I've ever heard of someone being called Brooks in my life. Well, there you go. We don't know rich enough people, clearly.

No, clearly not. And Brooks, get this, he was a trainee pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Like, they're so raw. They're so raw. And this is what Barbara wanted, though. She wanted to be a part of that life. She was very focused on being upwardly mobile, socially speaking. That was her aim.

She was very concerned with status and class and how she could move up that ladder, quote unquote. So Brooks and Barbara started dating. And I don't think that Brooks was fully into it. He thought that Barbara was super hot and all of that. But I don't think that he immediately saw her as marriage material. And Barbara sensing this, I think, threw a fake pregnancy at him. And this is the 1940s, so the couple got married and moved in together. And later, Brooks admitted that, yeah, he did fancy Barbara, but that he quickly realised after they got married that it had all been a lie, because she wasn't pregnant. But they stayed together anyway.

I don't know, 1940s divorce, too much? Yeah, not a good look, especially if you're trying to be upwardly mobile, trying to remarry if you're a young divorced, well, divorced woman full stop was not the best thing to be. Exactly. So I think maybe Brooks was like, okay, well, let's see where this goes. So they move in together into a luxury flat on the Upper East Side in New York. And after this marriage, Barbara got everything she wanted.

She became incredibly rich. Neither Brooks nor Barbara needed to work. Though, and this is just perfect, they're so like faux bohemian. They're so bougie. They're so bougie. Barbara told people that she was a painter and Brooks told people that he was a writer. But like, yeah, they weren't but what they were is very very active in New York's high society social scene and they lived the life I mean they threw these extravagant parties they used their money and their sort of social standing to groom like this entourage of people that were around them and seriously they hung out with people like Salvador Dali, Dylan Thomas and Tennessee Williams. Like they were, I want to say like movers and shakers in society. Well, that's exactly what they sound like. It's like a scene.

It is. They're so sceney. They're so sceney. And during this time, whilst gaining a reputation for extravagance, Barbara also gained a reputation for being incredibly unstable and a massive drunk. Oh, and there was so much cheating. Both Barbara and Brooks just shagged around constantly. Neither of them were happy in that marriage, but it kind of worked because Barbara was, Brooks was rich, right? And Barbara was charming and she knew how to, she was a very good conversationalist. Like people liked her and I think that that worked for Brooks.

So they both got something out of the other and I think they just stayed together for that reason. But eventually in 1946, I think for the first time the couple actually came together because that year they had a real baby. Anthony Tony Bakeland.

Are they sure that it belongs to Brooks? We don't know. I can't say if this kid definitely was Brooks's. But what we can say was Tony Bakeland was definitely Barbara's. Yeah, that's generally how pregnancy works. And that's what matters in this story. Doesn't matter if it's Brooks's or if Tony's Brooks is or not. So after Tony's birth, you know, they don't slow down.

The extravagant life absolutely continued. And they lived like this very, like I said, very bougie nomadic lifestyle. They would like split their year between New York and London and Paris and Italy, like spend their summers in Spain and spend their winters in London or whatever. Like they were so oh what is the word rich they were so rich yeah like obscenely so yeah rich rich rich rich I don't know like I think they literally are their life is how I imagine rich Americans in the 40s being like that's my it's exactly that's exactly what they were doing loads of parties living all

over the world having a great fucking time pretending to be writers and painters and whatnot the bakelands though despite their troubled marriage and all of their you know shagging about they did really dote on tony at least at the start because as he got older he just became like an extension of their status. In public, they would drag him around. They would tout him as a child prodigy and a genius. But in private, they pretty much neglected him. And poor Tony Bakeland. Oh, there's just so many fucked up stories with Tony. He had a really bad stammer, which is tough in itself. But Brooks didn't fucking help the situation because he thought that he could cure Tony by making the poor boy endlessly read the marquis de sade out loud oh oh yeah my god as a

child as a child make him read that out loud what the fuck have you read it no but i know what it is i know what it is yeah it's not it's not for not for children. I've read bits of it. I couldn't stomach the whole thing. And I've seen clips of the film. What is it? A Hundred Days of Sodom. Oh, God. It's a lot.

It's a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And little Tony, unsurprisingly, started to show signs of a troubled mind. And people described him as having been the type of child that enjoyed pulling the wings off butterflies. And as being completely obsessed with the collar of his deceased dog. Like he would carry that collar around with him everywhere. And everywhere they moved, Spain, Italy, Paris, France, London, throughout the year, take the dog collar with him. He was obsessed with them. There was a girl in my year at school who had horses and when her horse died she had him cremated and kept the urn in her bedroom

so whenever you went over to your house you're like there's a dead horse in here there's a dead horse looking at me i can't sleep with his big wet eyes big wet eyes they do have big wet rolly eyes i'm scared of horses are eyes. I'm scared of horses. Are you? I am. They're too rolly eyed. And they could stamp on you to death. Oh, yeah. So while all of this dysfunction was bubbling in the home, and Tony is clearly showing the signs of being not a particularly well child, the Baitlins tried holding it all together for the outside world. Because as we talked about, status was undoubtedly incredibly important to them.

So then, when they found out that Tony was gay, or at least bisexual, we can say, they totally freaked out. Because at age 20, Tony had started hanging around with this girl named Sylvie, and Barbara thought that the two were actually a couple. But they weren't. Because sadly for Barbara, Tony wasn't interested in Sylvie, but Brooks was. Oh, come on. And yes, the two of them ran off together. And this just shows how fucked up the whole thing is, because Tony didn't have many friends because of his family's weird nomadic lifestyle.

Yeah, and because he's been reading the Marquis de sade too much like that's not dinner conversation with anyone no no especially not as a kid no jesus christ no wonder he's having like he's fucked yeah shit man and also he think about it he spent his entire childhood just with his mum and with other adults like he never really was around children by the sounds of it no so finally he makes this friend at the age of 20 and he brings her home and fucking brooks runs off with her that's that's irreparable damage there's so much damage done to tony and whilst tony i think like felt guilty as well for bringing the girl home that finally ended the Bakeland marriage, Tony was at the same time, at the age of 20, having fun with a young Australian man named Jake Cooper, who he had met. And Jake and Tony were just interested in having a fucking great time.

All they did was have sex and take hallucinogenic drugs. That sounds like an okay time. I mean, again, it's like so typical. I guess like now it's like the 60s. They like go off to Morocco. They're so rich. They go off to Morocco just to buy drugs. I mean, I don't think Jake's rich. Tony's rich and he takes Jake there. And Tony, for the first time, I think is having a good time. But they find out about Jake and no, no, no, because this doesn't fit into their version of the perfect son. He's taking the wrong kind of drugs. If it was cocaine, they'd probably be

fine with it. And sleeping with the wrong kind of person. Yeah. Because if it was a woman, they'd be fine with it. And, you know, all of this definitely just didn't fit into that perfect world that they had created for themselves. And also, you know, as far as Barbara was concerned, they had a dynasty to maintain. They needed Tony to get married and have children. Couldn't have him running around with this Jake Cooper character. So, and Brooks, you know, he'd pretty much fucking checked out at this point. He'd run off with Sylvie and now completely unable to cope with the idea of having a gay son, Brooks divorced Barbara in the mid 60s. And after the divorce, Barbara was just done with New York.

So she took Tony and they moved to London. And this is where the relationship between mother and son became darker still. And it was always, you know, since he was a child, a weird codependent and volatile relationship. But after their move to London, Barbara became totally obsessed with her son's sexuality. And she decided that she needed to get rid of his homosexuality. So Barbara started to hire sex workers to cure her son. But shockingly, it didn't work. Just, you know, hiring some female sex workers to come round and essentially sexually assault your 22-year-old son is probably not gonna not gonna help I'm gonna say so realizing that this wasn't working

Barbara decided that she needed to take on the task for herself and she told her sister-in-law quote you know I could get Tony over his homosexuality if I just took him to bed. Yeah. So she's saying, I am such a good shag, I'm going to make my son straight. Yes, exactly. So yes, Barbara manipulated her 22-year-old son, Tony, into bed. And I think that this is really, I'm going to say interesting, because the sexual abuse doesn't start when Tony's a child. It starts when he's like 22.

That's so out of the ordinary in cases like this, isn't it? And this incestuous, warped relationship. I mean, I don't know if relationship's the right word because she is the mother, obviously, and he is, whilst he's 22, he's her child. She is raping him. It's a sexual abuse, but this lasts for years. This isn't a one-off. She's doing this over the course of years and things continue to get more and more bizarre, more violent, increasingly sexual and completely insane. And during this time, Tony's mental health just deteriorates completely. And he was diagnosed eventually with full-blown schizophrenia. And fucking hell, he is so mentally unwell.

And she continues this weird, what, rape? Sexual abuse? I don't even know what to call it. I really don't. Tony becomes paranoid. He becomes angry. And he starts to refuse psychiatric treatment. He also began to threaten Barbara with violence. He'd do things while the two of them were out, like push her into traffic. It's such a sad, fucked up story of this guy in his early 20s getting on to mid-20s like being in this weird sexually abusive relationship with his mother he's completely

losing his mind and desperately trying at the same time to get himself out of this weird toxic situation by like trying to just push her into cars and kill her yeah he's trying to get away he's trying to get away i think he can't see he can't see how his life can be normal if she's alive i think that's how that's how it seems to me and i don't think that he knows how to get out and the two fested and spiraled together in this toxic house because barbara's not well tony's not well there's so much like just there's so many problems in this household. They're both still, like, sleeping together. Oh, fucking hell. And Tony's rage just continues to build and build.

Until finally, that day in 1972, when Tony was 25 and Barbara was 50, Tony reached his breaking point. He grabbed a knife and stabbed his mother to death. And like I said at the start, after he killed her, he called the police. And then he called the local Chinese for a takeaway. And apparently he sat there looking totally disconnected when the police arrived. And in the aftermath, Tony underwent intensive treatment at Broadmoor, which, like we've talked about before, is Britain's most high-security psychiatric hospital. Yeah, he was in Broadmoor, which, like we've talked about before, is Britain's most

high-security psychiatric hospital. Yeah, he was in Broadmoor. I don't know how this story isn't better known. I didn't know about this until, like, a few weeks ago. I've never even heard an inkling of this. It's completely crazy. And so Tony goes to Broadmooror where he should have stayed because he wasn't well. But on the 21st of July 1980, so just eight years later, thanks to the help of influential friends that came with his family status, he was released. He definitely wasn't ready to be released because of what happened next because once he was released he left London, he left the UK and he went back to New York and moved in with his maternal grandmother. But less than a week after living there, he attempted to rape and murder his grandma.

And this poor woman, she's in like her fucking 80s, didn't stand a chance. He attacked her and stabbed her eight times and broke several of her bones. But somehow she survives and he's arrested again and broke several of her bones. But somehow she survives. And he's arrested again and sent to Rikers. And on the day of his court appearance, on the 20th of March 1981, Tony Bakeland, son of the glamorous socialite Barbara Daly Bakeland and heir to the Bakeland fortune, was found in his prison cell with a plastic bag over his head. So he'd killed himself. Oh my God.

I mean, I'm not surprised. It's such a fucked up story. That is so fucked. This is what I mean. It's not like traditional horror. It's not like gore and stuff, but it's fucking... I was really... No, that's one of those ones that stays in your brain like a worm forever.

And I really feel like anyone listening who hasn't heard of this case before, I really, I will be surprised if you don't immediately start Googling this case. There's so many articles out there about this. So many, many articles. And there's actually also a film of this story. Is there? I watched it today. So I got back today from Chicago.

I'm so jet lagged and i sat down and i was like i'd already done the research i'd done my notes for it but i was like i'll watch this film and it's got really famous actors in it which is again i'm so surprised it's not better known barbara is played by julianne moore what the fuck and tony is played by eddie redmayne i know what so it must have been reasonably recent then. Yeah. Because Eddie Redmayne's... Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne, they don't look like particularly young in it. It looks like it was a few years ago. I don't remember when it came out, but yeah, I watched it today and, let's just say, I was trying to eat while I was watching it.

Oh, such a mistake. There was one scene that I was just like, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. If you want to know more about this case, literally just Google Barbara Daly-Bakeland and you will find 101 million articles about it. People are obsessed with this case, but I can't believe that I didn't know about this until quite recently. No, I'd never heard of it. Yeah, it's troubling, to say the least. Yeah, I'm troubled. I'm troubled.

Made out. Yeah. So there you go, some the least. Yeah, I'm troubled. I'm troubled. Made out. Yeah. So there you go, some end to our Halloween extravaganza. Yeah. And if you're listening, aren't you lucky that we released it a day early, you lucky people? Oh, yeah, because we're releasing it on Halloween, aren't we? I forgot. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

A whole 24 hours early, you lucky beans. We'll probably be on the way back from Romania when you're listening to this. Oh, yeah. So we will. Yeah. How exciting. Yeah. Next week, we'll do a Romania special.

Yeah. And next week, we'll be going back to our usual format. So no more one story each. We'll just be doing the... No more. No more surprises. No more story time. Yeah.

Until next year. Yeah. Back to the usual format with a full-on story told between the... No more. No more surprises. No more story time. Yeah. Until next year. Yeah. Back to the usual format with a full-on story told between the two of us. And yeah, it's going to be a Romania special, which is exciting. Usual drill, come follow us on social media at Red Handed The Pod. And you can give on the Patreon at www.patreon.com slash redhanded. And if you become a patron of $2 or more, you get episodes a day early. If you do $5, you get some stickers. You do.

Also, we're going to start doing loads more content for you guys. So, yeah, it's worth it, hopefully. Yeah. Cool. Yeah, I hope so. I hope so. So thanks very much, guys. And we will see you next week.

See you next week. Bye. Bye. you don't believe in ghosts i get it lots of people don't i didn't either until i came face to face with them ever since that moment hauntings, and the unexplained have consumed my entire life. I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for the past 20 years. I've taken people along with me into the shadows, uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness. And inside some of the most haunted houses, hospitals, prisons, and more.

Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted Canada, as we journey through terrifying and bone-chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Spotlight turns off. Fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. When TV producer Roy Radin was found dead in a canyon near L.A. in 1983, there were many questions surrounding his death.

The last person seen with him was Lainey Jacobs, a seductive cocaine dealer who desperately wanted to be part of the Hollywood elite. Together, they were trying to break into the movie industry. But things took a dark turn when a million dollars worth of cocaine and cash went missing. From Wondery comes a new season of the hit show Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of The Cotton Club Murder early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of The

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