Small Town Murder - #276 - STM Express - Throw Momma In The Hole - Wolf Creek, Oregon

Episode Date: April 22, 2022

This week, in Wolf Creek, Oregon, a strange family situation causes some bad feelings, but seemingly nothing that would cause the horrifying, violent, and absolutely unthinkable crime that takes place. And the manner of the actual killing is unnecessarily heartless. It's almost unbelievable to investigators that these people could do this type of terrible murder, to the person it was committed upon, someone they were so incredibly close to. All the legal cases seem solid, but are we just a blink away from one of these people getting out of prison?? Along the way, we find out that Oregon takes its ghost hunting VERY seriously, that you can't always judge a book by its cover, or even the first few chapters, and that you never know when those closest to you want to make you the most dead!!Hosted by James Pietragallo and Jimmie WhismanNew episodes every Thursday!Donate at: patreon.com/crimeinsports or go to paypal.com and use our email: [e-mail] to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder & Crime In Sports!Follow us on...twitter.com/@murdersmallfacebook.com/smalltownpodinstagram.com/smalltownmurderAlso, check out James & Jimmie's other show, Crime In Sports! On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Wondery, Wondery+, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!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 Small Town Murder early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. What if you married the love of your life and then stood by them as they developed 21 new identities? What would you do? This Is Actually Happening is a weekly podcast that features extraordinary true stories of life-changing events told by the people who lived them. Listen to the newest season of This Is Actually Happening on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to small town murder express yay i feel like i should say choo-choo or some shit choo-choo or on the express everybody thank you which is just

shorter stories of small town murder not the stories that are longer shortened these are their own stories that are too crazy to not talk about but aren't long enough with enough backstory to fill so two nuts to ignore two nuts to ignore too much groundhog for breakfast it's all crazy let's do this before we get into it very quickly uh patreon this week as you might want to be interested in patreon.com slash crime and sports we have uh you get for five dollars or above you get access to crime and sports and small town, you get for $5 or above, you get access to crime and sports and Small Town Murder's bonus, everything. The whole back catalog, you name it. This week, we talk about the many ladies of Tiger Woods.

We called it the secret life of Tiger Woods and what he was doing to completely blow his perfect image. And then for Small Town Murder, we're doing the prisoner dating game again, which is an all-time favorite where I pick profiles from prisoner dating sites where they put their profiles up. And I pick four beautiful bachelorettes and four ruggedly handsome young gentlemen bachelors. And I line them up.

Jimmy picks one of each based on nothing but their profile. And then he gets to find out what they did and the horrible person that he's chosen. And it is so much fun. Check it out. Patreon.com slash crime and sports right now. They are so disrespectful. They really are and also head over to shutupandgivememurder.com to get your

tickets to the virtual live show on May the 5th. It's available for 72 hours. After that as well it's just like a regular live show in the theater we set up the screen and the table and we do the whole deal, except you're in your living room and that's how we do it. So it's a lot of fun. We cannot wait to do that. And yeah, that said, I think it's time to get into this.

All right. Hold on. Before we do that, I think we should christen the whole event by clearing the lungs, Jimmy. Let's do this. Clear the lungs and shout, Shut up and give me murder. Let's get it on. Let's do this.

Let's go on a little trip here very quickly on the town. It is Wolf Creek, Oregon. And as you'll see, this plays about a part of the role in the story, this town here. It's southwest of Eugene. A lot of the story takes place in Eugene, which is a little bigger of a city. Not too much bigger, but a little bit bigger here. Wolf Creek is an unincorporated community out here.

And it is, I mean, there's a number of creeks, and there was a shitload of wolves in this area. So it was Wolf Creek. So that tells you a lot. It tells you a lot. It. Tells you a lot. It is so rural and it's still rural right now. Like when you look it up on the map, these, you get off and there's this windy, like I'm talking really windy mountain roads,

you know, or not mountain, but switchbacks and not great roads. And then it switches off and goes into this fork and then it just kind of die out in the wilderness. There's no, like, turnaround. It's crazy. Like, this is so out there, this place. The population here is about 1,695 in the whole area here.

It's very rural. The only thing they're known for is the Wolf Creek Inn, which has been around forever. It's on the National national historic register list or whatever it was uh originally a refuge for early oregon stagecoach pioneers uh heading north on the applegate trail and it was you know you sit you hang out it was a good yeah you know it's a good um it's a good like little spot you get some drinks. Yeah, that's what it was. It was like a rest stop, but nice. This was the nice version of those giant rest stops that you got the church's chicken and got sick in in Pennsylvania.

Pop-Frost. Disgusting. It has like 12 restaurants in it and a couple of bathrooms, like those rest stops. It's like the food court in an outlet mall. Very gross. It's very gross. The outlet mall food court. They get outlet food Very gross. It's very gross. The outlet mall food court. They get outlet food, too.

That's the thing. These are irregular hamburgers from McDonald's, so enjoy these cheeseburgers. Oddly shaped nuggets that didn't quite cut it from last season. The chicken's like thigh meat, not breast. This is last season's chicken, is what we're putting in this. It's a little different at the outlet mall. Shredded drumsticks. The owner regularly prepares.

That's funny. They have like a big ice cream stand. You go to that, they just unwrap a drumstick and hand it to you. Here you go. You're like, oh, this isn't what I wanted. This isn't it. This is not what I asked for. So the owner would prepare chicken dinners in the upstairs ballroom.

And people would do all of that. It was a big deal, and there's a ton of hauntings around this area as well. The Wolf Creek area is known for hauntings. This is an area where you take someone to murder them. That's where you take them. You take them off the logging roads out in Wolf Creek. So this has happened quite a few times. Many bodies have been found out here.

Really? It's so desolate. There's no, people don't, it's so desolate and out there. It's not like, oh, this is like, it wouldn't be like in Phoenix if you put someone on like, you know, South Mountain or something. People are traipsing all over that all the time. It's like the Nevada desert. Yeah, this is needle in a haystack is what this is yeah

it's exactly what it is like the nevada desert middle of nowhere um people say all the time that uh the wolf creek inn is haunted and uh not only that this whole area they actually have a ghost tour that goes through there the historic wolf creek inn hosts an all-inclusive ghost hunters experience where you can learn about the history of the site by hanging out with a paranormal expert, read someone with a YouTube account and one of those little machines that when the lights go red,

that means there's a ghost right here. Really? Ghostbuster. Is that what that is? Plasm finder. They try to make it look like the Ghostbuster one too and you're like, bro, I don't know what that's picking up. Who knows what that is? Maybe that's a Wi-Fi detector.

We have no idea what you have there. That's ridiculous. I don't even know if that just finds hot wires in the wall. Who knows what that finds? That's what I mean. That might be like when you would go with the electric company with your detector. That might be what it is. We have no clue what this is jesus god that's amazing and uh so yeah they do that the

show ghost adventures uh blamed a local witch community for the hauntings being reported in the oregon town say again joe ghost i've got ghost adventures oh that show joe ghost is on the show i thought you said joe ghost adventures i'm like who Joe Ghost is on the show too. I thought you said Joe Ghost Adventures. I'm like, who the hell is he? The name's Ghost. Joe Ghost. I'm here to catch some ghosts. That's amazing.

So, yeah, they say that that's what it is. The old town, which is currently in a state park, is being restored. It's well known for its hauntings. restored it's well known for its hauntings and um the show the ghost adventure show labels these hauntings as demonic and unleashed by local witches oh so they're bad ghosts oh they're bad ghosts with bad witches and it's a whole terrible intentions terrible intentions so that's let's talk about terrible intentions with this murder we need to talk about boy i hate ghost people oh man the people that are obsessed with it are a little the people that are taking advantage of those people that's what i mean those people are exactly awful because they let those people exist i mean the person with the

little ghost detector thing you're like bro no the guy with with joe ghost llc that guy sucks and i'm i'm a ghost person i believe there are ghosts for sure yeah i've grown i grew up in a fucking you know how old this area is and i grew up in it's i grew up there's ghosts trust me and then you bought the the scariest looking house i've ever seen it's just very old but i'm not a i'm not like uh oh god the ghosts are here to get me but i've seen some shit and i'm like well we're apparently coexisting fine i don't know i'm not gonna i'm not gonna you know i'm not gonna try to bring someone in to coax them out or do it you do your thing i'll do my thing at this point i was sitting in your living room seeing that weird

shit in your bathroom i kind of get it but i yeah but also there's weed smoke in the air so who fucking knows who knows that's the other thing who knows jimmy so i i i get that but the people that are on there doing like bilking these people for five hundred dollars will come over and tell you whether there's ghosts and just like come on man you're the ghost yeah you're the ghoul you're're the monster. That's demonic shit right there. Yeah. So to talk about this murder, we must go back to the year 2001. Okay?

2001, September. Oh. The 21st, 2001. Post 9-11, man. I mean, this is, you're just starting to get other things coming back on TV at this point besides smoldering wreckage and sad calls to please find your loved ones. That's what's still going on on September 20th. Yeah. The programming at this time was horrible.

It was rough, man. It was just a big depression fest for the entire country, which, I mean, was valid. We had to give. Yeah. That deserved its due. Rightfully Yeah. That deserved its due. It deserved its due. But, I mean, it was a sad time. So let's talk about a couple of people, a couple of married people.

Nice couple here. Gary Joseph Hardegger. Hardegger is their name, by the way. And it's just like it sounds. Hardegger. Wow. Double G. Fucking. Fascinating. The Hardeggers here here the hard-boiled eggers here uh gary joseph and barbara ann which poor woman good god

you know what i mean and this year was she born she was born in 57 so her parents this is before the song this is but she's yeah you're right it is yeah so i see the 50s music yeah yeah but this yeah beach boys are more 60s probably 61 62 i think barbara ann was in that period because then pet sounds didn't come out to like 67 so they're had a that's the worst when you get a name that you like and then something like that ruins it yeah anybody that was named like Eileen in 1979, they're like, come on! Jesus Christ!

Well, that's what the song tells us to do. You know, anybody with that. Those are the really bad ones, though, because this one would be really annoying because it's ba-ba-ba-ba-ba. To have people constantly saying that to you is worse than having people say, come on, Eileen, I would imagine.

It's got to be worse. You're probably right, yeah. Barbara, Barbara, Barbara. What's your middle name? I don't have one. I don't have a middle name. My name's Barbara Hardegger, and that's it. So they are, yeah, they're 47 is Gary, and Barbara's 44 in 2001.

So they're late 50s people uh here that's when they were born she barbara's a bigger woman too barbara is not a a delicate like withering flower barbara's a six foot tall holy shit yeah she's six feet tall strong lady big personality um just a you know a real kind of uh she's got a fun energy to her and a good force to her that everybody seems to take to. She is thinking about, she's having problems. They've been married 19 years at this point. They have a couple of sons. They have Brian, who's 17.

They have John, who's 15. And things aren't going well, as sometimes marriages, you know, they go off. Especially the kids are teenagers and a lot of times you kind of have that uh lull period where you're taking care of kids for so long that you don't have a relationship then they're teenagers and they're like who the fuck are you what happened you don't notice how much you've changed in that time until you start to spend some more time with each other and you're like oh my god when did you do this one day you stop and go i haven't talked to you in 15 years what's going on who the hell are you become this

thing that i don't like how do i live in a house with you what's happening right now i feel like i don't know what's going on so around in september here she or in the summer uh july or august she decided she wanted to get a divorce okay so she So she said she's filing for divorce. That was in like July of 2001. And she wants to start a new job. She wants to get a new career. Oh, start all anew. Yeah, we'll talk about it. She's doing the whole deal here.

She's reinventing herself. She was a housekeeper at the Sacred Heart Medical Center for years. That was what she did. Heart Medical Center for years. That was what she did. And her friend describes her as competent, consistent, and so dependable that she was assigned to work in the operating rooms where everything has to be perfect. Yeah, where everything is awful and you've got to make it look like it's never been touched. Exactly.

That's amazing. They send the top 1% of their staff to do that. So that's how she was good at her job. 1% of their staff to do that. So that's how she was good at her job. And no matter what her job was, whether it was cleaning something or doing something, she always threw herself in 110%. She was known as a prankster on the job, which, I don't know, can you prank her in a hospital? How do you do that in that job? In a hospital?

Yeah. Is there hypodermics involved? Joke's on you. Yeah. Ha-ha, you sat on an AIDS needle. Look at that. Ha ha ha, I put it through the cushion sticking up and you sat right on it. You have AIDS now.

Isn't that funny? Ha ha, you have to do operating in a room where there was a bloodbath. Oh, that's amazing. Enjoy. Have some hep C. Look at that. You're going to like it, I think. That's a tough gig to be joking.

I guess it was a little like somebody would turn their back to scrub something and she would move their cart. You know what I mean? And she'd turn around, not know where it was. That's that's a good joke. That's a good joke. Put like this. I kind of like she'd put sticky shit on mop handles. So people would be stuck to their let go.

I'd be able to let go of the mop. Not like crazy glue. Nothing that would be a medical problem, but maybe some pine tar or some stickum or something like a 70s wide receiver. If your hand's stuck, why don't you just keep using that mop? Well, I'd keep on mopping. That means you haven't mopped long enough. It means you're not done.

It'll jump right out of your hand when you're finished. Don't worry. It knows. The mop knows. That is a Fantasia mop. Keep hanging on to it. I you it's magical it's a magical mop so she's a very good cook as well everybody loves she brings brownies to everybody and they say she's got the best brownies in the world and they're always welcome and barbara i i love brownies so yeah anybody's bringing brownies around that's my friend right there.

Keep the walnuts out of them for James. I love them in there, though, so much. Yeah, keep them out, though, so I don't go into anaphylactic shock, please. That's the problem. I'll eat them, too. That's it. I'll eat them and then have chest pains and be like, it's okay. It's fine.

Feels like I just ate a mouthful of razor blades in those brownies, but it was delicious. But God damn it, it's so good. My mouth is bleeding. It's so good. It tastes so good. Is it bleeding? Do I have blood coming out of my mouth? She made cinnamon rolls from scratch as well. Yes.

I like that. Yeah. Someone's throwing down making, I can't eat that either, but someone throwing down eating scratch cinnamon rolls. That's some, that's going to be a beloved person. No, I can't eat cinnamon. It fucks me all up. Which I always thought I didn't like cinnamon.

And then I realized, oh, I don't like it because it ruins, that's why I didn't like it. That's why I said I didn't like it when I was a kid. It's not the taste. It's the fact that my mouth gets all swollen and that's not good. And you can fuck right off about your no cinnamon rolls and no nuts because I can't have breakfast, James. You can't have eggs.

Who wants breakfast anyway? Breakfast is gross. Breakfast, eggs is in everything. Do it. Be Italian, Jimmy. Just have an English muffin, like a little bread. You got some soppressata back there? Some toast and some fruit for breakfast.

You eat your big meal later. What are you eating all that shit in the morning for? Oh, I love breakfast. It's my favorite. All my relatives live to be like 93. That's how they eat breakfast. Everybody I know that drops dead is, oh, they eat bacon every morning. Yes, that's a problem

cantaloupe and white toast james that's i'd rather die at 54 well that's what you do well then later on you can eat salted cured meats and do whatever the hell you want i mean we we go off the rest of the day that's why we're like we gotta take it easy right now i'm planning on hitting the sodium bar hard later we're gonna have prosciutto sappuccino we're gonna fucking put a bunch of cheese in there you know we eat that's how we get down that galleries are the worst that is that does suck well especially because it liquefies your body yeah um so barbara is big into gardening as well and crafting gardening crafting baking yeah she's getting it down she's getting down all that shit yeah oh and also uh she liked to do pottery as well uh photography and she liked needlework and floral arranging she's all around amazing yeah she's good she's she's fucking martha stewart man she's like a

disney character like it sounds like when she goes outside, birds land on her fingers and shit, and then she traipses around the yard singing while... They dress her in the morning. Yeah, they come with her clothes, and she's like, very nice, let's go crafting now. Let's make some cinnamon rolls. She is terrific. Let's have everyone wake up to the smell of a baking cinnamon roll. What do you say, everyone?

Oh, it's so good. And then the birds go down and start getting it ready take some dough out they follow her recipe they follow they know what to do yeah let me have a break um one of her friends said she was really playful always joking she loves to cook um you know she said it didn't seem like her and her husband did a lot as a couple every all of her friends said when they hung out with Barbara or her work friends, when there was like a work party where people's spouses came. Yeah. Gary's not ever involved in that. Barbara show up or he was like on the other side of the room.

No, no, no. Not there. He wouldn't be there. He's just Barbara's her own island there. And Gary kind of does his own thing. her own island there and gary kind of does his own thing um they said friends said though they never sensed that gary and barbara had any problems until one day in july barbara stopped by her friend's office to say she's getting a divorce hi just want to stop by and say i'm getting a divorce today so thanks barb i'll uh are we married did i need to okay so well yeah

what are you telling me for? But yeah, she did that. She said this was kind of her. She's making a clean sweep. She is getting a divorce. She wants a new job. She's going back to school. She enrolled at Lane Community College.

She wanted to get a job as a medical office specialist. She's just going to step up more money at her current job. She'd lost 35 pounds. She took up hiking and biking. Did a complete flip-flop on life. She's like, I'm in a rut. I'm getting out of it. And she completely, which is hard to do at 44 to upend your life.

Yeah. Some people call that a midlife crisis. Other people are just, you it's a it's a she's a convertible short of a midlife crisis at this like if she was a guy and she did all this and she got a convertible people be like dude this is sad oh it's it's panic in there isn't sir isn't that weird that is a funny thing because we do it too this isn't like oh the world is against men thing we're not saying that this is like a funny thing because we do it too. This isn't like, oh, the world is against men thing. We're not saying that. This is like a funny thing because we'll make fun of guys for it too. That's the other, like if a guy decides in like his mid forties, he's going to change his life for the better.

We're like, you fucking loser. You fucking loser. It doesn't matter. They want to get plugs. They want to fucking, uh, you know, they want to get a, they want to lose weight. They want to work out. We're like, you're fucking pathetic. What are you trying to fuck 20-year-olds?

Own your disappointment and die alone. Yeah, what the fuck? Be bald and live with it, you fucking loser. You limp dick fucking loser. And we'll be the first to say that. Whereas when a woman does it, and I'm good for you. Look at her fucking switching it up, getting it done. Oh, she's going to get, you know, women have it and i'm the i'm good for you look at her fucking switching it up getting it done oh she's gonna get you know women have surgeries and they have things to make

we're good for you that's terrific a guy i'm gonna get a couple of plugs man you fucking loser die bald loser we're just so mean to each other like that nature did that to you just stick with it i'm telling you man it's fucking uh but ladies too it's like they they've they've want you know i mean they they wanted to feel better about themselves and then they get to a certain point and they're like you know what i fucking had it and they start working on it guys don't do it that way they do it as like i'm tired and not fucking the hottest thing i can get guys every one of them, say it's for you. Go ahead. But it's not.

It's so that you can get laid. Every one of them. It's still plausible deniability to where you have to give them benefit of the doubt. Women, it's for the same thing. What do you think? They want to sit home alone with the fucking cat looking and feeling better? No. They want to fuck somebody better, too.

That's the thing. We all do. That's a good point. They're not like, oh, I just want to do this so I can sit at home feeling good about it and smug. No. They're looking for something better, too. We all are. The attention is nice.

Yeah. That's what I mean. Everybody's doing it for that. That's all people do shit for. If it wasn't, there'd be no people on the planet. I'm going to watch this. This will all deteriorate. I don't give a shit anymore.

Right? That's how, yeah. And that's the other way to go about it. So she's, yeah, she's planning other way to go about it so she's uh yeah she's planning to get just to do her whole deal here everybody said she seems all energized about this as well she's really doing she's changing it all up and she's into it she collected traveled brochures and imagine going places with she wants to open a small craft shop shop god damn it she is so so close to etsy like if she or you know what i mean there's so many places where you could yeah where you could

do this in 2001 there really wasn't at this point now so um she wants to get a little craft shop and open that up and she wants to make some money on the side and she wants to travel. That's her. Okay. That's her dream is to do that. Sell that shit for travel money. That's beautiful. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. Her boss said that she's like a surprise package. She understands relationships were everything and she always built good relationships. So a friend of hers who wasn't even like a very close friend, just a kind of a,

I know this person was diagnosed with cancer and it was going through treatment. So she volunteered to clean her home all the time for, I'll just stop by and clean it for you on the way home from work after I just cleaned people's viscera off a fucking operating room wall. So that's a nice person. operating room right wall so that's a nice person um another person that she knew said that this person was terrible with plants and all her plants died so barbara would stop by and take care of her plants for so they wouldn't die gardener green just donating her green thumb too she's just goddamn nice uh she got her some new pots with better drainage and showed her how to work on shit too and eventually let her you know take over beautiful drainage and showed her how to work on shit, too, and eventually let her take over. Beautiful.

She taught her to fish. She didn't just give her a fish. Yeah. That's what she did. She taught her. Didn't give her a jalapeno plant. Taught her how to do it. Taught her how to plant, grow the jalapeno.

Yeah. So her father said, quote, she was becoming her beautiful self again. Gary was losing control of Barbara. So that's how her father puts it here. But people will say later on, too, this is interesting. There's no no one says there's any abuse in this relationship, though. Like Barbara doesn't claim it. Nobody thinks it.

It's not that never comes up at all. It's just it's been 19 years never comes up at all it's just it's been 19 years they're not they don't get along that great anymore yeah she wants to have a different life he doesn't that's the long and short if that happens it's the most common thing in the world so they said that she never came to work with any bruises never showed any fear of her husband or anything like that it was more of an eye roll, you know, it wasn't like any kind of fear. They said they didn't know him, which was weird because she worked there for years

and everybody knew everybody's spouses, but nobody really knew Gary that much. One person said about five years ago, about 96, they think he may have attended a holiday potluck party at the office, but they weren't positive. Like he's, even if he was there, he's going to blend into the woodwork he's not going to oh you know go around introduce i am barbara's husband gary he's not going to do any of that shit he's going to get one of those little tiny plates he's going to sit over there with his

mediocre food what do you think a holiday potluck at the old hospital's like it's it's a potluck so maybe people know how to cook good food it's not like i do know one thing there's no alcohol no if the hospital's supplying it or there's a lot of alcohol one of the two it's a hospital so it could go either way it's either lots or none you figure if the hospital's supplying it the food's gonna suck but maybe it's good with the people with the hot potluck here uh barbara worked weekday nights, and Gary worked on the weekends, like long weekend days. So they never had a day together. She would work on the day. Conflicting schedules as fuck, yeah.

That's tough as well. He was a sharpener at the Seneca Sawmill in northwest Eugene, Oregon. That is a tough gig. Jesus, he's a sawmill sharpenerer he's a saw sharpener at the sawmill sharpening those blades those are big blades too fuck yeah they are wow that is um wow okay so that's how they do it they just keep sharpening them how the fuck do you sharpen those serrated blades like that that's got to be so hard well it's it's i imagine he's probably operating a machine say there's got to be a machine that does it i would imagine you can't

go by hand fucking sharp he's more of a machine operator There's got to be a machine that does it. I can't go by hand fucking sharpening. He's more of a machine operator than a saw sharpener. Yeah. I pictured him like. Yeah. With a hammer. Well, I pictured him like a window washer has like a, you know, the thing, like a harness latching him to the blade while he like bounces around it, sharpening each fucking little tooth.

Out there with a file. Yeah. With a file doing each tooth. Lower me down a little more, Tommy. Let's go. I'm going down to this quadrant. You know, like, lower him down. I thought I pictured it.

Three teeth lower. Here we go. I don't think that's how it is, probably. You're right. It's probably more pulling a lever, and then a machine comes in and sharpens it up. And he just keeps an eye on it, makes sure it's right.

He may be responsible for taking them on and off of the saws, though, themselves, the blades, so that might be a job. And that's probably, I'll bet it's more. He may be responsible for taking them on and off of the saws, though, themselves, the blades. So that might be a job. And that's probably, I'll bet it's more dangerous doing it that way than actually sharpening the blade because the blade is probably off when you do it. You know what I mean? Yeah. And otherwise, you're just operating a big, heavy machine that you got to reach inside to get the blade out or put one in.

It's probably more dangerous that way. It probably is. You can't put an arm to a machine quicker than sharpening a blade. Yeah. Yes. I would think so. One shot. You can crush it.

Right. There's a lot of different ways because it's probably some kind of press thing that comes in. I'd rather lose an arm to a blade than have it crushed by a machine. Somebody's lost a foot there at least, I'm sure, with that thing. So, yeah, he did all of that. Even his coworkers, he's not a real social guy, Gary. He's just kind of there. That's what everybody says about him.

He's just kind of wallpaper. That's the best way to describe him here. A neighbor of theirs named Cindy Schlecht, she said Gary always seemed to have a beer in his hand whenever she saw him outside in their yard. They have a two acre yard and there's a pasture and a garden. It's a four bedroom split level house. She said though he never appeared drunk.

He's the guy who just drinks beer all the time. He has a beer in his hand every hour or so. He's got another beer. He doesn't get drunk off of it. He's just always drinking beer. We all know that guy. A lot of Every hour or so, he's got another beer. He doesn't get drunk off of it. He's just always drinking beer. Yeah. We all know that guy. I do it very well. A lot of that guy is our fathers.

Yeah. If it's in a koozie, they might be talking about my father. That's possible. I've never seen somebody have a koozie in their pocket. My dad will bring a beer koozie in public and whip it out and pop it on a beer. In public. There's going to be a beer nearby very soon. Oh, he's going to have a beer.

There's going to be a beer. That's my father. I've seen him drunk maybe two, three times in my entire life, but he always has a beer. It's the weirdest thing. He showed up in a green room in Florida. Pops a fucking koozie on his fucking... West Palm Beach in the green room. Jimmy was like, it didn't even catch my attention because it's just, oh yeah, dad's popping a koozie on that beer.

That's what he does. Hey, you want a beer? And he goes, yeah, sure. He reached in his pocket. I'm like, what is he doing? Pops out a koozie, fucking flexes it and throws the beer in one motion oh yeah no no he's he's practiced he's practiced jimmy you can boom like a soldier reloading is his cartridge like throwing a new magazine and his ar just blindfolded blindfolded

marine field stripping his weapon that's what he is he can do that no problem no problem pop pot pot pot he could do that like on an assembly line like people do crazy shit super fast he could pop beers and koozies like that no problem so quick yeah so that's we all know the guy he's got a beer he's not drunk he's just drinking a beer so that's his beverage of choice. That's all. Maybe you have an iced tea. He likes it. Yeah. That's his taste. In May of 1980, near Anaheim, California, Dorothy Jane Scott noticed her friend had an inflamed red wound on his arm and seemed unwell. She insisted on driving him to the local hospital to get treatment.

While he waited for his prescription, Dorothy went to grab her car to pick him up at the exit, but would never be seen alive again, leaving us to wonder, decades later, what really happened to Dorothy Jane Scott? From Wondery, Generation Y is a podcast that covers notable true crime cases like this one and many more. Every week, hosts Aaron and Justin sit down to discuss a new case, covering every angle and theory, walking through the forensic evidence, and interviewing those close to the case to try to discover what happened. And with over 450 episodes, there's a case for every true crime listener. Follow the Generation Y podcast on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Generation Y ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus.

It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast, Morbid. We're your hosts. I'm Alina Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly. And our show is part true crime, part spooky, and part comedy. The stories we cover are well-researched. He claimed and confessed to officially killing up to 28 people. With a touch of humor. I'd just like to go ahead and say that if there's no band called Malevolent Deity, that is pretty great. A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing. This mother f***er lied. Like a liar.

Like a liar. And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal. Or you love to hop in the Wayback Machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes. You should tune in to our podcast, Morbid. Follow Morbid on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad-free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Barbara Hardegger would share the fresh eggs she had and come over to the fence when she saw the neighbor Cindy outside.

She said she'd come over, hey neighbor, here's some eggs for you, which that's very nice of you. I appreciate it if you just leave them on my porch and don't talk to me, but we can exchange notes back and forth. I think that'd be easier. Let's not talk over a fence.

You have to lean. I have to look up. It's a real, you know how I am with neighbors. So she did say Gary was very aloof though. He just didn't really talk much and kind of just wandered around the yard with his beer. Like it's how everyone describes him. He's just kind of wandering around with a beer, just kind of aloof, not really talking to anybody. One guy here, James McDaniel, he works with Barbara for years, and he said for the past four years he only recalls seeing Gary one time at her job there. Four years. Four years.

He showed up at the hospital with a big bouquet of flowers and being super apologetic for something. But this guy didn't know the backstory. He never learned what the problem was about. But all he saw was Barbara reject the apology and refuse the flowers. Holy shit. He really fucked up. Told him to go. They won't even take the flowers and throw them somewhere.

You fucked up bad. You're in a lot of trouble. They can either accept. Public display of apologetic. Yeah. At work. Even some flowers to put on your desk. No, thanks. Fuck yourself.

Yeah. You can have flowers be accepted and apology accepted. You can have the I'll take the flowers, but I'll just throw them down. I won't act like they mean anything to me. And then you can have the no flowers at all, which is the worst of the three outcomes that you can get there. Take them home. So he said that he, this guy said he never found out what it was about, but he said, quote, she simply said she didn't want the apology. She didn't feel it was sincere enough.

Okay. All right. So son Brian at this point, and like I said, they have another son named John. Brian and John Hardegger are the kids here. They have some problems here. Brian has some problems, let's say. John seems fine. But Brian, his police record begins at 14.

Oh, boy. When he was at school, Churchill High School, he was a freshman, and he cut another boy with a pocket knife. Jesus. Yeah, that's a little much, I think. At school? Seems excessive. At school, it was a two-inch pocket knife. Not a big one, but a little much, I think. At school? Seems excessive. At school, it was a two-inch pocket knife. Not a big one, but he shanked the guy at school.

That's good enough, yeah. That's enough. The neighbors that Cindy Schleck described him as a, quote, holy terror, and everybody knew it. A holy terror. Holy terror. A couple examples, here we go of brian's fuckery here he stuffed old clothes uh he stuffed like put stuffing into old clothes not he stuffed old clothes into something else

like people would make like a scarecrow type deal right to make a human looking dummy and threw it on the road in front of cars to scare them so they would swerve off and fucking yeah that's dangerous that's you can hurt somebody yeah you can hurt somebody but he thought it was hilarious to see people try not to hit a hand being on the road yeah oh my god oh that person almost killed a person they thought isn't that hilarious i made them think that they were going to kill a human being and they instead they swerved off into a field and hit a pine tree. Perfect. Jesus Christ, man. Him and his brother John used to tell their classmates, what did you do this weekend?

Well, we went riding around the countryside with our dad when they were like seven and nine, six and eight, around that age, to look for birds and, quote, roadside debris and other things to shoot at. Roadside debris. Come on, kids. We're looking for shit to shoot at. Get the guns. There's stuff to – we're not hunting. There's not, like, you know, nuisance birds around or something that are, like, attacking her. We're going to make target practice.

We're going to drive around the countryside and just shoot our – I'm going to let my 7-year-old shoot a rifle out the window at things he sees on the side of the road like attacking target practice we're gonna drive around the countryside and just shoot our i'm gonna let my seven-year-old shoot a rifle out the window at things he sees on the side of the road that look interesting to shoot what the fuck kind of activity is that and dad was doing this this is dad come on kids oh no don't don't forget your gun child and we're not hunting no no just we're not going to secure it somewhere in the back and do a safety thing and take it out there and make sure it's loaded. I'm going to do that.

No, just throw it in the back seat next to you. And if you see something interesting out the window, why don't you just take a shot at it, kiddo? No problem. What the fuck kind of supervision is that? Take it down. Yeah. Jimmy, you like guns. You're a gun person.

Is this the way you teach children about firearms and how to use them properly? No. And it's just weird. Yeah. If I was driving down the street and I saw a fucking second grader hanging out the window with a rifle shooting and shit, I would say wherever I am, I don't ever want to come here again. I'd make sure to figure out where this town was and never go back. I want to go home. Yeah.

That's a bad sign. to come here again i'd make sure to figure out where this town was and never go home yeah that's a bad sign so they talked about their shooting trips in class and their teacher were was concerned about it because they said they weren't a quote they weren't hunting or building outdoor skills they seem to be just joyriding with guns yeah that's weird yeah that's some shit that like out of control you know teenagers who are going to be in jail soon would do this isn't something that like you know a father should a full-grown man should do with his school-aged children really probably granted they were doing it uh on on humans and livestock but we had people doing that in arizona with people right literally called serial shooters

because that's what they're doing and this is like the training grounds of it that's what that's how it started they were just driving around shooting at shit that didn't get hurt if you can hit a crow you're sure as hell gonna hit a person center mass much easier so this is better training you know that's what it seems like fuck man uh the teacher here teacher here, Phyllis Kastenholtz, said guns were a big part of their lives. Apparently, they always just walking around with guns as children. The brothers. But they were nice kids. She said she liked them both.

They were just good kids. But she was worried about their supervision. Essentially. Yeah. They said that. Yeah. Yeah. Dad's not really teaching them the best lessons.

Said they would stay after school to help her clean blackboards and do other chores. You know, the thing is, the family, the brothers are very close. John had leukemia when he was five. Oh, no. And went through treatment for two years with leukemia. Oh, God. When you throw in everything else onto the like you know just the regular you know mileage of a marriage and all that yeah that adds 20 years to it oh yeah a five

year old with blood cancer forget it a five-year-old with leukemia that you have to take to the hospital constantly worry about are they going to be okay or that while you still take care of the other kid and make sure that you know they feel whatever that's a that's an issue you know what i mean that'll that'll cause tension in a marriage later on and if you have a sibling that's very ill that that also causes problems for the other siblings psychological problems that come up later on not always obviously enough right it comes up yeah yeah there's things they can't help um she said that the teacher said she thought it was weird that when the boys once told her that they would run outside and hide in a tree when their mother got angry with them. Which is a, why are you hiding in a tree from your mom? Is it a safe place?

No. Jesus Christ. They said that Barbara Hardegger seemed a little shy to her, the teacher said, which she's the only person that's ever said that about her. And she also said she saw the other side where she was very sweet. But Gary and Barbara Hardegger were very upset with Brian's school performance. And the teacher said she was kind of in the middle of it. They were not happy with him. And, you know, she's got to of in the middle of it they were not happy with him and you know she's got to be in the middle of this whole deal she said there was a parent teacher

teacher conference about eight years before this when he was about nine years old brian where the teacher recalls barbara and gary arguing in in front of her about brian they had a huge fight which is not including the teacher she just sat there and watched them have a huge fight about their kid in the middle of the classroom during a parent teacher conference but whose fault this is i guess that's why gary didn't seem to give a shit about education and gary was like he's fine basically and barbara was more willing to you know try to figure out how to help him saying that he had attention deficit disorder. He had ADHD, actually.

He's got ADHD, hyperactivity, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and needed a little bit of special help, was what the teacher was saying. And he was saying, what are you fucking talking about? He's fine. He's a kid. He's hyper. That's what he is. Yeah. Yeah.

I send him out in the yard with the rifle, and he shoots shit, and he's fine. Like,? He's fine. He's a kid. He's hyper. He's fine. That's what he is. Yeah. Yeah. I send him out in the yard with the rifle and he shoots shit and he's fine. Like, I don't understand. Give him a rifle. He'll be okay. He took down a pedestrian crossing sign pretty fine last week. It was nice. It's hanging in my garage right now. He did it.

It was right through one of them pedestrians' head. I'll tell you what. The one little, I'm crossing. She says, I don't think she understood it or believed it she was really harsh with brian so that's the thing she and gary disagreed with what was wrong with brian she seemed to feel brian could accomplish what he needed to do in school if he just buckled down and try harder uh brian she said quote brian seemed to be typical adhd he really couldn't concentrate he didn't have any impulse control.

He was a sweet kid who couldn't control his behavior. I loved Brian. I thought he was sweet, misunderstood, and really hurting. She said that it was obvious to see that Brian got along much better with his father than his mother. And see, that seems to be the theme that runs through this, as both boys seem to get. Because they're like overboard. They're living an overboard lifestyle, pre-Goldie Hawn coming in, where it's just Kurt Russell going, Come on, boys!

And they're going, hey! They run and they're throwing fucking SpaghettiOs on the ceiling. And he's like, this is hilarious. You know, farting at each other and shit. Speed eating. Yeah, speed eating and then throwing the leftovers at each other and hosing it off when they're done and shit like that uh the teacher said brian always seemed to really look up to his father gary showed him warmth and happiness i think he felt his father would always

help him out she said that um in the time she knew the family the teacher said she worried about brian but um you know never suspected that never suspected there was any abuse going on anywhere in the family. It was just a, you know, family dynamic. That was weird. Um, but she did say, quote, no, no suspect, no suspicion of abuse. But the teacher said, quote, she was a big woman. She had a temper. It appeared as if they could both dish it out.

Who knows what was going on behind closed doors so yeah apparently when there was an argument she was the one saying hey listen fucking she was the be the more aggressive person in the argument everybody said but it always seemed to be valid reasons but and no abuse it's just whatever so uh brian was getting in trouble hanging out with bad people doing dumb shit uh when he after he stabbed that kid he denied having a knife or even never seeing a knife even though multiple students watched him take out a knife and stab this kid he told he told the school officials that he scratched him with his fingernail okay Okay. I keep them razor sharp. And two-inch nails.

Well, my dad is a saw blade honer, so I learned some lessons, and he files them down to a sharp... I could cut a two-by-four with this, you understand. I'll take your child to work day every year. I go get them lined up. Oh, they're sharp enough. Nice, nice.

So the injury wasn't very serious because it was a two-inch pocket knife but still it's a stabbing amongst children you can fuck somebody up with a two-inch blade oh yeah especially depending on where you stab them he was suspended from school and put on probation for carrying a weapon in school with the police as well the next year he was when he's 15 he is charged with burglarizing a house where he stole ski gear, electronic equipment, and CDs. If only he knew how worthless they were going to be soon. He wouldn't have had to steal them.

Those books are heavy. They are, I'm telling you. The victim here, the burglary victim says he discovered that um a like they discovered a likely suspect a high school boy who admitted that he and a half dozen other boys were breaking into homes so he was just running with a pack of kids that were just breaking into homes and they were just living crazy yeah doing wild shit the this randall rogers who's the burglary victim he said he called gary hardegger and arranged to meet with him and brian at the school football field during a practice

he said come out there and meet with me he said he wanted to learn about um basically he said he wanted to learn more about the crime and try to set the stage for talking to brian about changing the direction in life basically not a motivational speech why'd you do this is what he wants to know what what is causing you to do this he said i just leaned on brian real hard i said you can participate with me and i'll take that into account when i decide whether to file charges or you can continue and i'll do everything i can to see where you i'll do everything i can to see where you are. I'll do everything I can to see where you are, where you need to be. So he said that he just seemed like another kid going down the wrong road. Apparently, yeah, he wants this kid to do that.

This guy also says that Gary Hardegger seemed concerned about Brian and said Gary was definitely trying to be proactive and get involved in solving this case and obviously diminishing the net effect on them so barbara is a bit leery of brian because he gets a little crazy sometimes um one of her friends said she was upset because of his reactions talking about brian and things he was doing that were going to damage his future she was trying to get him to see that. All she said about that was that he needed help and she couldn't find the help he needed. So,

um, also Barbara told this guy that Brian sometimes seemed close to being violent with her. Like, you know, God, I feel like he's going to hit me. Sometimes he gets so upset and all this shit.

She, he said, she only mentioned that to me twice. I kind of feel bad because I didn't push to find out. So, yeah, he said maybe I should talk to her more. But at the time, I just didn't. So the the another co-worker said that they never really Barbara never spoke about her, her children or her marriage really at work, which is so strange. It's so weird.

at work which is so strange it's so weird they said that uh barbara once told this woman that she couldn't control brian and was thinking it might be better to turn him over to gary to raise like when after that she filed for divorce and moved out like maybe i should just let gary take brian that he seems to get along better with him brian doesn't want to hear shit from me so that's what that's the problem then you you're just exacerbating it by handing it over and keeping him on that path. You know what I mean? He's got to be some correction somewhere. I guess so, but I think she's just given up, I think. He's 17, and I think she's like, you know what?

He's who he's going to be. Yeah, that's what it is. Apparently, he seemed to look up to his father a lot, they said, and he had dropped out of school. He would stay at his grandmother's house a few miles from his parents' house. He was, you know, that sort of deal. He just wasn't doing very well. He was suspended from school at that point, so he just dropped out here. And, yeah, he lived away from his parents' home for about 18 months previous to September 2001 2001 because of uh just shit going on in the house

and uh then once the parents separated he moved back in with his dad because how it happened here so september 20th 2001 barbara is planning to spend the night at home here okay the two kids are going to be with gary and she hasn't been living there. But her attorney told her for the divorce proceedings, it will be best for you if you go spend time with your kids. You have to look, you know, you have to have to show that you're spending time with your children and you just run away. Appear interested in being a mom. Yeah, which she is. But she just doesn't. It's a weird situation.

So a co-worker. Traditionally, you've got to show interest. Exactly. Otherwise, they're going to take them away from you. Legally, yeah. Then you're not going to get any support either from it. It's going to be a different type of thing. So any divorce attorney would tell you that, no matter what the situation was.

So a coworker gets a ride home from Barbara that evening. And she said that Barbara was reluctant to go to the home. But her lawyer told her to do it and she was like you know this is going to be something no one wants to go to their ex's house and stay the night that's that's not fun here so um yeah she drops her friend off she drives drives over to the house uh she parks she gets out of the car and goes in through the garage like everybody does she opens the garage gets in there when she gets in there um she uh brian's in the garage okay so she's like hi brian and uh he says you know hi mom that's cool here he had worked that night and then uh

gotten home after that and so brian at that point uh sprays her with pepper spray in the face oh that's a shocker and then stun guns her hits her with a taser jimmy zaps her she goes unconscious on the ground pepper spray in her eyes stun gun on the ground here comes gary gary pops out jesus christ imagine you saw your son amy you you can't stand your ex-wife but if you saw your son stun gunning her you'd go jesus christ the fuck are you doing and you'd you know kick him kick him in the chest to get him away from there obviously look i've wanted to do this a lot you can't you can't okay i understand i never did it you certainly don't get to whatever i'm not allowed you aren't allowed yeah whatever shit that has annoyed you trust me 100 times worse on this end and i'm sure she'd love to do it to me

as well so this is this goes cost you a dime boy this goes many directions we all want to do this and none of us can son so let's not do this she wants me i want her her. It's all going to happen. But instead of that, Gary pops up with nylon rope, duct tape, and zip ties. Oh, no. Oh, yeah. She's stun gunned. Wow. They move her from there over to a tarp already all laid out on the ground. Oh, no.

They move her onto this tarp. laid out on the ground. Oh, no. They move her onto this tarp. They bind her hands with duct tape and a yellow nylon rope, which then they loop under her neck and her upper arms. Oh, my.

Okay? It's one of these setups. And her legs and hands were bound with plastic zip ties as well as the duct tape together. So they were bound together with the zip ties okay on a tarp on a tarp which is frightening yeah seen way too many movies she's yeah if you wake up on a tarp you're in trouble so yeah what are we protecting from what oh god what's going on

so they end up taking her and putting her in the car and driving. Yeah. They live on Bailey Hill Road in Eugene. They drive all the way to Wolf Creek, which takes about 30 miles, I think, from where they are. But it takes longer than 30 minutes to get there because we're talking about switchbacks and all these roads I told you about. So they get all the way out to the middle of nowhere on this logging road they pull her out of the car um they actually make her walk herself up to a pre-dug grave oh no yeah they had been there the day before gary dug a grave went home got brian and was like oh christ i dug this grave it's not real deep and and was like, oh, Christ, I dug this grave.

It's not real deep. And Brian's like, I'll go out there and help you out. So they went out the day before and dug a more than three foot deep grave. Barely shallow. That's not. That's a fantastic hole. That's what I mean. There's a lot of countries where that's considered, you know, standard operating procedure.

That's deep enough. That's deep enough, especially in the middle of nowhere holy shit that's no animals are going to get to that that's a wow that's wild most any murder where you say oh they found a body in the woods if it was in a three foot deep hole 90 of those stories wouldn't happen because it would just be like that person never showed back up again anywhere so they make her do that um she is at at this point they stun gun her again right they shove her into the hole she is conscious but not able to move around very much at this point she's conscious just not with it and they start to throw dirt on her oh they just start burying her, Jimmy. They start burying her. She's getting buried pretty good,

and at one point, she gains enough strength to lift her head up out of the dirt that they're shoveling onto her face, and her son pushes her face back down with his foot and holds her under the dirt with his foot while the father buries her head.

While the father, they bury her alive, Jimmy. I'm not kidding. He held his foot on her face until she was totally covered up with dirt and couldn't move anymore. And then that was how they left her there. They buried her, three feet of dirt on top of her and left her there. Buried her alive. Oh, boy.

But before they did that, Gary also cut a large piece of her hair off for some reason for safekeeping just i don't know a souvenir i don't know what the fuck he did but he cut a large piece of her hair imagine how terrified this poor it's her fucking son yeah this is terrifying man so yeah it's they had dug this grave before and um it's i can't tell what's worse is it it worse to shoot somebody and take them apart? Or is this worse? This is way worse. This is way worse. If you walk into a place like Joe Pesci in Goodfellas thinking you're getting made,

someone pops one in the back of your skull. Once you shoot me and I'm dead, I don't care what you do to me. You can take me apart. You can make a fucking board game out of me. I don't care. Make my fingers little. I don't give a shit. I'm dead.

To me, that's disrespectful disrespectful but this is fucking horrific this person died at least you're doing the job quickly and it's over yeah the last thing she knows is that her son's foot pushed her back into the dirt as she took her last breaths that's terrifying adidas on her face oh my crazy so the next night, she didn't show up for work the next day, and her coworkers said it was very unlike her. They said maybe she got in an accident. She got lost hiking because she's always hiking in these new trails now and stuff. Except the next night, Gary Hardegger calls the police. He calls the Lane County Sheriff's Department and said he, quote, has done something bad and his wife is dead.

Oh, he couldn't take it. He couldn't take it. So they said, really? And he said, meet me out here. And they pulled up and he's standing next to his 1993 Suburban standing there off the road right where he told him to go. Yeah. And he said, yes, we buried my wife alive here. You might want to come with me this way they followed him a few hundred yards up the road through a big clear

cut section and then from there led them on foot over an embankment where a bunch of ferns and vines were thin enough where a person could pick away through the trees here and there was a hole they said the so what you're saying is they would have never found her well there's a quote about that the deputies dug with their hands until they uncovered a human leg and said he's fucking serious holy shit so they call in the forensic team and uh they exhume her from her three-foot grave it's an exhumation at this point that's a burial yeah and um one of the the technicians was a former neighbor of theirs and recognized her he said holy shit that's barbara i know her so um they said the police

said that if he had not phoned the cops to confess this grave would have never ever ever ever been found so far out there to this day it's still not developed or anything the the guy said quote a person could have walked over it and never known it was there. She would have never been found. Absolutely. God, that's awful. Yeah. They said that Hart Egger was after he led him to the grave.

He was pretty vague about the details of what happened. He wouldn't really say anything. They said he never gave police details of what happened at all. He just said this is what happened. Never mentions his son or anything like that either just says killed my wife buried her alive here she is but they suspect that there must be somebody else because they're like barbara's bigger than him he's not physically carrying barbara out here and like this just takes two people probably here like um you know he might

be able to knock her out or so i'm not saying she would physically overtake him but it would be hard for him to drag her hundreds of yards against her will it would take another person to make her do something so you can't bear some bury somebody alive that's likely fighting back that far into the world yeah absolutely so 10 days three days later i'm sorry after that one of the hard agger cousins comes forward and says my cousin brian told me some bad stuff oh boy and uh tells him all exact details they stunned under they pepper sprayed her they made her go out there they did all of this shit he told his cousin that he he told his whole told his cousin that shit this is what we did to my mom and uh the police knew it was true because it had all the details released in the newspaper.

But he also told about the cutting of the hair, which they didn't release to the public on purpose. So they knew he was telling the truth there. They have a big memorial vigil for Barbara. A lot of people show up, all of her old co-workers. Yeah, it's a big uh big remembrance here so the prosecutors do not want to seek the death penalty because one of the legal requirements is that in oregon is that the defendant must pose a continuing threat of violence to others and the prosecutor himself said quote we could not find one person to say gar gary hardegger was a violent

man so we don't expect this to ever happen again out of gary probably very personal yeah it's a yeah this is probably a one-time thing so life would probably be fine for that the the defense was was vaguely that there was a psychological warfare going on in the home that's what they were calling it quote-unquote psychological warfare. That led to this. It just got out of hand. Is what he said. But Gary pleads guilty to aggravated murder. So there's that.

Now the son here. He is going to plead guilty to felony murder. As well. And kidnapping and all that shit. So. It's fucking interesting. They said that they were happy that they didn't have to go into a whole trial and get all this, because it's obvious what happened here. So, he pleads guilty.

The deal he makes does not require him to testify against his father at all, any sort of sentencing or anything like that. But, if the prosecutor can prove he lied about anything, the plea bargain calls for reinstating of all the original charges off the table and you're going, yeah, deal's gone and he could get the death penalty. So, um, that ends up going on here. Um, now these going to be sentenced here. Um, the, uh, what is the prosecutor said if we didn't think, oh, okay, here we go. Yeah, they did the thing. Prosecutor comes up here. The father, or I'm sorry, Barbara's sister got up during Brian's sentencing. This is Brian's aunt and said that Brian is a shell of a human being without character or conscience. She said that she recalled a phone conversation with her sister four days before the murder when Barbara said she knew her son hated her, but hoped one day he would overcome those feelings. That's sad. She a quote. She was the only one who held your hand when you were in trouble.

She loved you is what she said. Brian, they said he's quote swaggered into court with an exaggerated swing to his shoulders and showed no emotion during his hearing. She had to play that shit. So the judge says. You sir. May fuck off. Life in prison. With parole.

Not eligible for parole for 25 years though. That's how it works. Coming up soon. Coming up we'll talk about that. The guy here the prosecutor said. If we didn't think it was just we wouldn't have done it he'll be 42 years old when he first comes eligible for release he may do longer that's up to some parole person or post-prison supervision board reviewing what he's

done in the penitentiary or whether he's rehabilitated enough there we go so um the dad gets goes up here and barbara hardegger's mother described the crime as a heinous barbaric act and hopes that Hardegger's prison experience mirrors the ordeal of her daughter's last hour. The savage end of the murder, savage end of murder is the legacy Gary has left this family forever. So he makes a statement. He offers no explanation, no anything. He just said that he was sorry to his parents, his brother, and his friends, and he's sorry he murdered his wife, and he's just real sorry. So the judge says, you, sir, may fuck off.

Life, no parole for 30 years. For him. By the way, when they asked Brian if he wanted to say anything, he said i'm good just took it like a man i'm good no for that kind of that's not the kind of crime you take like a man sir that wouldn't show so much your mom's dead um 2009 he tried to do a brian tried to do a ineffective assistance of counsel appeal and they were like dude saying that if he interviewed this one they would have given him an alibi and all this shit but then the when they actually did interview these people they all said no we wouldn't so it's just all made up bullshit and they say keep on fucking off mister um in 2020 though this just happened august 12 2020 recently up within

the last year and a half here uh he took this to some sort of appeal, and they figured out that the state cannot impose a life sentence with a 30-year minimum term without consideration of youth at the time of sentencing. And they reversed and remanded the decision. Oh, no. His sentencing is going to be up for review, and he's already served 25 years. So when this all goes through, he's probably going to be released on time served i would imagine that is horrifying that's horrifying gary he seemed to have settled in i found under his name a leather purses business what okay uh it's a business called leather purses registry number with the oregon secretary of state corporation division is 121947394 real business

i found leather purses uh the officer named gary hardegger and the address i'm like he got out address 2605 state street salem oregon i looked it up that's a prison he's running a leather purse that is the oregon state penitentiary where making leather purses in prison yep and by the way the penitentiary is right next to the hall of strains dispensary with the weed dispensary he's making leather purses in prison jimmy oh can you imagine being in jail for weed and then you like look out the window and see that shit smell it all the time the jail always smells like weed if the wind's blowing east over here. Oh, that's horrific.

So Brian could get out and walk around with tons of life skills, as we know. He knows how to shoot things out the window and be in prison. So that's great. And stab people. And kill people. And then Gary, he's settling in making purses. There you go, everybody. Making purses. Making purses so there you go everybody that making purses that is southwestern oregon's weird ass wow and that is small town murder express everybody hope you enjoyed it

chew fucking chew next stop crazyville here we go hope you enjoyed it listen to small town murder every thursday listen to Crime and Sports every Tuesday. Right. And that said, also, Patreon, get on that. Thank you so much, everybody. Oh, my God. And until next week. I gotta go.

Thank you very much. Yeah. Bye. Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Small Town Murder early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. I understand that anybody who's paid attention to the media would have to come to the conclusion that I killed my wife. Hi, my name is Zach Stewart-Pontier.

I'm one of the filmmakers behind The Jinx, and I'm excited to bring you The Official Jinx Podcast. We'll be revisiting all six episodes of Part 1 and watching along with Part 2 as it airs on Max, starting April 21st. Bye-bye. The Official Jinx Podcast. Listen on Max or wherever you get your podcasts.