Small Town Murder - #289 - STM Express - Charles Manson & The ThunderCats - Fenton, Missouri

Episode Date: June 10, 2022

This week, in Fenton, Missouri, there's trouble at the trailer park, as group of teenagers, who enjoy wandering around, drinking in the street, and robbing fellow residents, all with the encouragement of the "neighborhood Charles Manson", an older guy, who allows the kids to use his home as a party house. This all leads to a simply heartless, and truly disturbing murder, in one of the strangest ways, that we've ever heard of. In the end, who will be held responsible, and exactly how responsible will they be held? An absolutely strange story! Along the way, we find out that Wal-Mart Supercenters are preferable to history, that the age of seven may just be a little too young to start drinking straight whiskey, and you don't HAVE to kill in the worst way humanly possible!!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.

You're listening early and ad-free on Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Express! Yay! Express! Yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petrogallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. There we go. And all aboard the murder train that is pulling away from the station.

Motherfucking chew. Let's do this. We have a crazy episode, so we'll get through all the top of the show and the town stuff very, very quickly, because it's just so ridiculous and crazy. So very quickly, anything extra you want, shut up and give me murder.com we'll get you tickets we'll get you tickets to live shows gonna get you merchandise everything's we got coloring books up all sorts of cool stuff patreon.com slash crime and sports is where you get the bonus material and oh we have so much good stuff on there anybody five dollars above, you can get access to everything we put out bonus-wise. Crime and Sports, Small Town Murder, you name it, you're going to get it.

And this week, yeah, we have over 150 episodes in the back catalog. And this week you're going to get, for Crime and Sports, a story about Doc Ellis, who was a Major League Baseball pitcher, who threw a no-hitter while tripping on acid really hard. So that's a great story there. And also, you know, some other stuff. He was a funny outspoken dude and a funny guy. And then for Small Town Murder, we are going to talk about, we'll kind of branch off the documentary conversations with a killer,

the John Wayne Gacy tapes. Everyone's been wanting us to talk about that. We're going to mix that in with some stuff from, I read a couple books about him, especially his lawyer's book book that has a lot of insights into him and uh that guy just it was it was like his first client and he's like i got a client and he's like how many bodies are he's like let me tell you a story holy shit so that's a crazy story patreon patreon.com slash crime and sports is where you get all of that good stuff and more sympathetic character there's never been never ever been there absolutely not that lawyer yeah it's he

starts out in the beginning of the book too like just like this is why i would defend somebody like like he needs to defend himself for working it's funny so we'll get into all of that though on the patreon episode like we said there and uh you should also listen to Crime and Sports every Tuesday. Listen to regular Small Town Murder episodes every Thursday. That said, let's do this. Let's sit back, Jimmy. Clear the lungs, shall we? And shout, everybody, wherever you are, by the way, your treadmill and your car, maybe your office, anywhere but the airport, really.

Shout, shut up there we go let's do this jimmy all right let's go on a trip shall we fantastic all right we are going don't don't get so excited quite yet listen man i'll work anywhere but here this has been the worst fucking day of my life. I'm exhausted. I'm tired. I just want to have fun. Well, we're going to have fun. We're going all the way to Fenton, Missouri. Jimmy, that sounds fun.

Fenton. Fenton, Missouri. F-E-N-T-O-N, Missouri. Swing and a miss. It's a suburb of St. Louis nowadays. It used to be very rural, though, up until like 20 years ago, basically. The population just spiked around 2,000. People fleeing St. Louis. nowadays it used to be very rural though up till like you know 20 years ago basically the population just like spiked in the around 2000 people fleeing st louis they live out here it's about it's like a

half hour outside st louis so what do you expect it's commutable um by the way the people of fenton are either fentonians yeah or fentonling fent? Yeah. That's the worst name for a group of humans I've ever heard, the Fentonlings. Better off with Fentonils. Fentonils sounds much better. Yeah. I'm happier with that than Fentonling. Population right now is about 4,000, 4,027. It's pretty affluent right now.

Really? It's almost $90,000 is the median income here, household income. So a lot of people make over $100,000. And the housing costs here are still a little under the national average. So it's kind of a bargain. Very quickly, to give you an idea of what this town is, basically, if you're from another country or something, you want to know what the Midwest of the country is like in a lot of our country this will explain a lot um the earliest proof of ancient you know people being here uh ancient dwellers was excavated from the fenton mounds which are two conical earthen burial mounds located near the southwestern border of fentonostic pottery shards from the mounds indicate they date back all

the way to 1050 to 1400 AD. Wow. A thousand year old. Very historic site there. Unbelievable. So in 2001 the mounds were leveled and they built a Walmart super center on them. Oh say can

you see by the dawn's early light that's everyone america in a nutshell right there fuck this old shit oh there's some history all these people this is from a thousand years ago well this will be the the automotive and tire section over yeah where we found the bones of them but we're gonna put that right there outdoor shit next to that right in the back yeah back corner what the we will drain the 10w30 over their desecrated remains if you've ever seen missouri look at a map of missouri there's really like there's kansas city and st lou Louis and they are both on the outside borders trying to flee the state of Missouri as fast as possible.

In the middle. Perhaps it's because of this. Well we drove from Kansas City to St. Louis. We saw what's there. There's plenty of room for Walmart super centers that aren't on like you know historical burial grounds all the way through that state. They don't give a shit though.

I thought that was amazing. Walmart a shit though i thought that was just not the perfect the perfect touch to this really pissing on the ashes man wow holy shit i read i'm like that can't be real i'm like that's real wow wowounds. Pave them over. This is a perfect place for a big old parking lot. Pave these mounds. Put up a Walmart parking lot. Oh, man. So, quickly, a couple reviews. Holy fuck.

They're very opposite, though. Reviews. Here's five stars. I've lived in Fenton for 55 years and would never consider living anywhere else. Fenton offers excellent Rockwood and Lindbergh schools and has plenty of nice stores and businesses for your shopping needs. Fenton has several parks and an excellent recreation center to exercise, play sports, or just relax

on a Sunday afternoon. Fenton is a wonderful and very safe community to raise a family. Perfect. Here's two stars. It's nice to be close to the good schools and shopping, but for what it costs to live here, the property tax and sewage treatment center really needs an upgrade the sewage treatment needs an upgrade that sounds like a problem fenton used to be much more notice

that yeah fenton used to be much more rural with horse farms and peace and quiet but due to overpopulation and gentrification sadly that's a thing of the past poor starving sickly deer roam here with nowhere left to go the drivers are aggressive crime is on an uprise and recent floods have caused a lot of erosion damage gee it's just falling apart um so this is basically what's going on here is it used to be a very rural place with a lot of just it was a very rural there's some trailer parks and shit like that and then there's like horse farms and stuff and then it's now turned into a suburb that's the thing so and that's where we're gonna pick it up is in 1993 is when it was still pretty rural out here you know what i mean right around the flood right wasn't

there a giant flood around that yeah right around right around there, yeah, on the Mississippi River. Yeah, absolutely. So quickly, I looked for things to do, and I found Fenton Days. And the description, they have this big description. They have all these bands and all this stuff. What is this? Lucy's Palace and Borderline are going to be there. And they have the Jolly Jumps inflatable thing. Aunt Amy, the balloon twister will be there all right very exciting then it just says on the page though at the top postponed indefinitely like what happened it says

due to the current situation and financial concerns where are they in ukraine is where does this take place and financial concerns of our sponsors. Fenton Days has been postponed indefinitely. What the? What's going on down there, man? We don't know about. And all the bad publicity from fentanyl. Wow. Yeah, it's just, until that passes, we can't do anything.

Due to the current situation and climate surrounding fentanyl. Oh, my God. So, that said, let's talk about a murder shall we um this is some crazy shit let me introduce you to 17 year old christopher simmons first of all in 1993 1993 we're gonna this is we're gonna pick it up in about around june-ish and we're gonna go from there 1993 so this is right in our wheelhouse when we were kids. And, you know, yeah, this is right there. Yeah, the sun's just lost. We're very sad.

It's not good. Yeah, it was a disappointing time. Very disappointing. So I think we said that once before, too. We were talking about 93. And I'm like, we're very sad right now. So Christopher Simmons is a trailer kid. Hangs out with other trailer kids for the most part.

He's kind of half trailer kid half not trailer kid that's the thing he's uh it's very strange but he mainly grows up in a trailer situation with a lot of other trailer kids and he gets into trouble a lot with these other kids and we knew kids like this i mean this is a lot of them if you go back to episode i believe it's like 215 fishkill new york and we describe that's where i went to high school and we described the people who the murderers i knew a couple of them from high school so like we were just that's what the who these people are like the gilio's and the serranos from that episode that's what we're talking about just kind of the if something's wrong or missing or

somebody's windshield is broken they're the first they know who to look for first you know yeah and where's your alibi chief when when there was any rumor uh at school of something that happened and nobody know who did it knew who did it no jesus uh we though there was the core group of kids that we all assume that we it was probably those fucking ragtag group of misfits they're just weirdos and they will and they all lived in trailer parks in the fucking city giant city and yeah in phoenix and trailer parks tucked into the city which is phoenix trailer situations are very weird it's a very weird place they are precarious and so he's got three brothers uh kenny billy and casey who are younger than him um he's he's

his life has always been pretty there's a lot of turmoil like you can you can track why he is where he is at 17 very very easily and quickly and we can do that his father dennis um got separated from his mother cheryl not his own not not Dennis's mother, Christopher's mother, obviously. Yeah. Anyway, they they do that. Dennis. This is before he was even born. They split up.

And this is what Dennis said about it. Quote, The trouble in our relationship came when I went on strike and I went to Montana so I could work and earn money to continue to support my family. I sent money back to Cheryl. i was gone three or four months when i came back cheryl was gone oh yeah the money i had sent her was gone the bills were unpaid i did not know where she was i hired a private detective around the time christopher was born which was shortly after i returned at that point i learned cheryl was living with bobes, the man to whom she is now married. Oh, boy. So he went to Montana to go work in the fields,

the oil fields or something, and he came back and she just took off with the new baby, and that's it. The place was gone. Yeah. So Cheryl ends up marrying this guy named Bob Hayes, who will be not a terrific stepfather at all to young Christopher here.

Dennis also said, this is Christopher's father, that Cheryl Hayes cleaned out all the bank accounts and filed for divorce. And I guess he said that she became pregnant with Christopher while taking a fertility drug. But he said that he didn't know that she was pregnant when he left. Okay. For Montana. And then he came back and I guess she was about to have a baby or just had a baby and then she was gone. So he said that quote,

I paid alimony for six months. She remarried the day after she received the last alimony check. I guess that was the thing. Now, Cheryl claimed that Dennis frequently was behind on child support payments by as much as a year and then used his income tax check refund to make back payments always every year. That was his thing. So he'd be like a year behind, basically, is her claim. And yeah, and also Dennis's mother. this is funny they get involved here i love when the parents get like they know what happened in a relationship yeah dennis's mother says that uh cheryl believed that dennis was cheating on her and cheryl quote told

the pastor that dennis was cheating on her and that's why she left pastor oh she told the pad means it's true damn it so um anyway anyway, that's how that ended up happening. And visitation, there was an issue always between the parents and visitation. They were constantly fighting. They each claimed that the other handled the visits wrong, and they would complain to young Christopher about it, which, that's the worst. That's ugly yeah yeah um the chris's aunt this is but this is fucking cheryl's sister so who knows so they would say that this

this aunt cheryl's sister says that he would not even pick the kid up he would send his parents to kick to pick christopher up and then christopher said that they would blame her for it or not christopher dennis would blame her for it because it was just people fighting. And it was and then they would tell the kid, like, you know, if Dennis didn't come pick him up because whatever there was some sort of confusion, they would tell the kid that, you know, he must not want to see you. That's why he's not picking up shit like that. And then the father would say just as bad as shit. He would complain about child support to the kids. So it's not great. It's not great. Chris, when he did visit his father, there was a lot of tension there, obviously. He said that he would criticize his mom a lot. And that was kind of a little bit, you know, that took a lot out of him.

bit you know that took took a lot out of him and then also the difference between chris's parents basically his dad had like a nice house and a nice nice cars and nice things and his mom didn't bob hayes is an alcoholic and not a not it doesn't seem like a real terrific guy so um yeah that's how it kind of works dennis says the the father says, I've always expressed interest in Christopher's coming to live with me because of the conditions in the house. It's that bad. The conditions in the house says a lot here. That's a lot. I guess they were just, it was a trashy environment, this house, based on everything, based on everything that I've seen here. They even say, like, some of the reason is financial,

but most of it is just they're... The treatment. It's just trash. They're just trash. Even if they have the money, it doesn't matter. It's not a matter of money. You can take people out of the trash, you know what I'm saying?

But sometimes you can't take the trash out of the people. Sometimes trash runs through the blood. It does. It's just too deep. That's what I'm saying. You can't stop that shit. Money can't buy. You can't buy non-trashiness just for money.

So as a teenager, Chris would, I guess, give them money sometimes if he worked to provide some financial assistance to his parents. But at the same time, he's also got other shit to spend money on, as we'll talk about here. he's also got other shit to spend money on as we'll talk about here um dennis talks about he's the father says he recalls buying clothing for chris to wear when he would visit he said quote when we went to get him he did not have any clean clothing his things would just be thrown into a bag dirty or wrinkled or not presentable in some other way we did not want to take him places in rags oh god yeah i just sent him off with his father with the button, you know, shit crammed into a bag here. It feels like you're picking up an orphan. It's actually your kid.

That's why. Yeah. Like you're like, oh, I'm going to help this nice homeless child, this family. I'll take them until they get on their feet or something. It's like, oh, that's your kid. And you pay child support. That's weird. But like we said, this is this is two parents who don't like each other.

Right. Trading shots back and forth too but everybody seems it's certainly uh the money that he's paying child support uh for and whether or not he's paying it all in lump sums each year whatever whatever he's paying is not going to this child yeah and everybody seems to have the same. There's no debate that there was a trashy environment going on at mom's house, and it wasn't clean, and there was a lack of supervision and shit like that. So they said that they would keep clothes at the house because they would send him back with nice clothes, and then he'd come back with shit again. So they would keep nice clothes at their house and then you know send him back in his like shit clothes yeah so put back on your jesus smock yeah exactly here take this yeah put put wrap yourself in linens there you go your rope belt enjoy so uh his stepmother chris's stepmother, Beth here, Dennis's second wife, said, quote,

When we picked Christopher up for the weekends, he often looked like a ragamuffin. He was not clean. Slowly, we came to understand that we would not be able to do anything after we picked Christopher up, but come home and give him a bath. So you had to go home and, like, clean him off before. You couldn't, like, pick him up then right take him to a fucking to a party or anything so we can't go to a pizza place and ride play video games and such because this guy needs a bath first absolutely that's the thing so they they would continue to fight basically dennis and cheryl would fight over child support he would claim that they you know that the mother

would deny him visits uh one time he said that from March until September he didn't get any visits, but they went back and forth. She said, well, he's not paying child support. It's a lot here. A psychologist later on will say about the whole situation after interviewing everybody, quote, Cheryl Hayes, that's his mom, quote, was a passive and dependent woman.

Her first husband, Dennis Simmons, was involved in numerous extramarital affairs throughout their five years of marriage. He was also a compulsive gambler incurring significant debt. So, I mean, there's always two sides. This is the non this is the nonpartisan side here. Ms. Hayes attempted to deny these problems and became pregnant in a desperate attempt to hold on to her husband. to deny these problems and became pregnant in a desperate attempt to hold on to her husband sure so yeah he was drifting away because he's a dirtbag at the time and then she wanted to hold on to him and in the 60s or whatever or no this is the 70s in the 70s even though you still did that so um anyway the relationship kind of deteriorated and uh cheryl hooked up with bob

hayes prior to the divorce and the psychologist said she was frightened of being alone and wanted to be taken care of. Now, Bob, hardcore alcoholic. So she knew that going in, by the way, still was like, well, it's you know, he's here. So that's that's that. Yeah, I guess she also began drinking with him as well, because why not? I guess she also began drinking with him as well, because why not? If you're with somebody who's drunk, you can either live your life in constant fucking annoyance, or you can join the party. Not quote party.

I'm not saying it's a party to be a fall-down alcoholic. And Bob would knock Chris around a lot. That's the main problem here. Yeah, Bob would. He'd knock him around. There's a neighbor. He'd drag him around by the ear and shit like that. Yeah, like outside in front of people,

he'd do shit like that. Generally being like the stereotypical drunken asshole stepfather is what he is. That's all there is. You're not my dad. You can't touch me like that. You can't be beating my ass if you're not my father. That's crazy shit.

You know, not real fun to him doing it either, but who the fuck are you? You know, this is crazy. So a woman named Teresa Vining grew up a few houses down from Christopher Simmons. She said that Bob Hayes, the stepfather, she witnessed his abuse on several occasions. She said that when Christopher was as young as four to six years old, he would be, you know, knocking him around. She said one day he was outside at a neighbor's house playing and she heard yelling coming from Bob Hayes. And she said, and I heard what sounded like a smack, a real loud smack. And then I heard Christopher screaming right after that directly.

I heard Christopher running out of the house and the screen door slamming we all looked over and i saw him running down the street and bob hayes was screaming for him to come back she said it was a painful scream she said and he looked scared as a child so yeah got hit by an adult so this was other neighbors said that too another neighbor said i've often heard Bob screaming at Chris. The volume of his voice is so loud that I hear him yelling from my residence, which is approximately three houses away. Holy hell. That's a lot of yelling. That's that's yelling.

That's a lot. Another neighbor. This is Teresa's sister said that she remembers Chris looking frightened when Bob would lose his temper and was very afraid of his stepfather. One time the brother said, quote, I seen Bob get out of his chair one time and try to kick Chris. So this is he does this in front of neighbors. So what he's behind closed doors. That sounds horrifying. Now, Chris also gets into alcohol very early as well. He starts drinking real early. His grandmother said, this is his dad's mother, said, quote, Christopher used to tell us that Bob gave him beer all the time, even when he was very small.

Once he also told me he used to drink from Bob's beer can. So he'd just get tanked like as a small child. Chris's aunt also, this is Cheryl's sister actually too. So she says that she confirms this exposure to alcohol. She says, on their wedding night, Cheryl and Bob,

they gave Chris alcohol trying to get him drunk. Trying? He was sleepy and could not walk. He was only about two years old. they got a two-year-old shit face so he'd go to sleep so they could fuck that's crazy that is that's insane i've never even thought of that as an option have you never mind the story a story and like a you know have a have like a some bourbon and a story. It's bourbon story time, kids.

Come on over here. Sit on daddy's lap. What the fuck kind of? It's bourbon and Thomas the Train time. Hey, kid, you ever had a Manhattan? Like just trying to. This is ridiculous. Grab the highball glasses, jesus christ and thankfully i i guess uh

i don't know how much how much sex aren't aren't you having enough sex as an adult that you can wait until the kid falls asleep it's our wedding night yeah on my wedding night i'm fucking my wife even if i have to get a six-year-old so drunk. A two-year-old. A two-year-old so drunk that he blacks out. I'm going to do it. Understand? It's not like he's driving. Who gives a shit? You know what I mean?

Kid, we got to consummate this motherfucker. I'm telling you. I think that's what it was. Shit, it's fine here. I'm fucking my wife on my wedding night. Unbelievable. No little goddamn urchin bastard going to stop me. So this woman, Cheryl's sister, also said, quote, Bob actually bragged about Christopher's drinking.

He had a whole quart of whiskey. Maybe that impressed Bob. A quart of whiskey? You can't give a child a quart of whiskey. The two-year-old drank a quart? I don't know if that's about that time or another time. Oh, and later he bragged about. So this is another time when Chris was a child, not a teenager.

A child drank a quart of whiskey. Jesus, fuck, man. So that's not good. I don't think that's good for brain development, probably. And also, with an adult that drinks like Bob seems to drink, he's probably not drinking quality whiskey. That probably was poison for that child. Oh, it was gut rot. It was gut rot shit.

Yeah, it was bad. Any whiskey is generally poison for a child, but if it's worse, if it's bottom shelf shit, it's way worse for him. He's not drinking Macallan 18 or anything. It's a, you know. Come over and have some single malt, son. This is garbage. It might be called mix. Yeah, this bottle's made of plastic, son. This is garbage. It might be called mix.

Yeah, this bottle's made of plastic. Right. This is bad. This doesn't break. No, this is bad. You can't even cut someone with a broken one of these. This isn't good. So when he becomes about 13, 14, that's when he's really roaming the neighborhood, hanging out with his idiot jerk-off friends, and they're drinking out there.

Now he just takes it on the road. hanging out with his idiot jerk-off friends, and they're drinking out there. Now he just takes it on the road. He's got a friend named Charlie Benjamin who he hangs out with all the time who's about a year and a half younger than him. In 93, when Christopher's 17, Charlie is like 15 and a half, almost 16.

So a year and a half different. So one of the neighbors says that he would him and his friends would be out drinking when he's 13 14 years old two to three nights a week they'd be roaming the neighborhood drinking two or three nights a week um one woman testified later on that a group of teenagers that hung out together they were drinking they were often noisy and their parents never checked on them they just were wandering the streets doing whatever they want. They were like the Stranger Things kids. Just out there.

Where are the kids? I don't know. All right, whatever. Probably upside down by now. Who knows? They've been gone for like four days. I don't know where the fuck they are. Shit.

When do you look for them? I don't know. When Christmas lights are spelling out words on the wall. If anyone finds their bike like ominously off to the side of the road I don't know. When Christmas lights are spelling out words on the wall. If anyone finds their bike like ominously off to the side of the road with like a blood trail, we'll take a look around. We'll go look. We'll look around. Spinning slowly, you know, just real slow.

Like that. Only like that, though. If it's still, we don't need to look for it. If it's still, he put it there. Oh, man. They would walk around passing around bottles of liquor and all sorts of shit like that so that's christopher's early you know middle school years here holy fuck man that neighbor's uh sister so one of the other neighbors said that christopher would be drinking quote jack daniels and southern comfort when she hung out with him on the weekends 13 mixed god no jesus

jd and soco is not what 13 year olds should be drinking that's like a drink yeah back then you'd think he'd be trying to acquire some zima you know what i'm saying like maybe get a hold of that some bartles and james of some sort some yeah even like the mad dog you get like the strawberry one and it's not the grape or something. She said that she observed him doing this a number of times. And I guess eventually Bob Hayes, the stepfather, figured out that Chris was drinking all the time after many, many outings. And, quote, made Chris dump all the liquor from the bar at their house.

So he couldn't steal it. But then Bob restocked it because he's an alcoholic and he wants to drink it, or he's i don't know if he's an alcoholic but a drinker um and also the neighbor said that he would basically smoke weed every day on the way to school and then he'd be like drinking every night so he's just i mean to say that smoke weed every day i think i'll tell you i think every day yeah you have to do it like that i mean i smoke weed in the mornings before school too but when do you do that in high school no no when every day so i mean yeah i did it as well but i didn't go then drink uh southern comfort afterwards that's the difference i think here so there's a difference true too between like drinking at that age drinking to like enjoy yourself and or be a rebel even and like drinking to punish yourself you can't drink two types of liquor and claim

that it's like for fun no no no those ones you're you like to get drunk multiple times a week you're you're getting to be an alcoholic is what that is um yeah she said he'd get so drunk that uh sometimes that he'd be stumbling his speech would be slurred and you know he would be a fucking disaster hammered yeah not just like a little drunk she said they would skip school you know one or two days a week to drink as well one kid said that quote we skipped school we skipped for a week to drink as well. One kid said that, quote, we skipped school. We skipped for a week straight and just partied at my house. They started to get away with that. They started using Coke, acid and mushrooms as well.

So we know these kids, man. I'm just just like, I know this kid. I see I see what he's wearing. I know what kind of shoes he has on. Like, I fucking see this kid from that time. Oh, they're filthy, yeah. One kid said, quote, we tripped acid a couple times, and we climbed the towers when we were tripping acid, too. Or, quote, when we was tripping acid, too.

When we was tripping acid, too. Christopher was drunk a lot, basically. By 15, he would drink a lot. I mean, a 12-pack was like a normal sit down and we're going to drink some beer tonight type of thing here. 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. 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 years old and lives in a trailer. So, yeah, it's pretty crazy

and they would also they'd get fucked up and they would quote find a high tower and just climb it and sit up there and get real hammered and drunken stoned he said we'd get drunk and we'd just do crazy stuff this is one of his friends here one of his friends said that they consumed approximately 12 beers and then uh you know smoke a bunch of weed they'd climb this tower and sit up there you know like dazed and confused right yeah that's that's what's going on so i don't know um another psychologist the same guy that was talking before he said that quote by the age of 17 uh mr simmons that's that's christopher was using marijuana on a daily basis four to five joints per day and consuming alcohol four to five days a week a minimum of 12

beers per occasion holy shit that's a hardcore that's like a construction worker with a bad back and uh you know what i mean like that's I drink heavy and I don't drink that much. Oh, God, Jesus. That's a problem. You'd feel terrible every day. Your shit would never be. Never. Your shit would never be together.

It would just, your stomach would always be in a state of rebellion. Yeah. It'd be horrible. So they said in school, too, he wasn't doing well. A lot of comments about him. He wouldn't sit still. He's moving around the classroom. He's disruptive in class all the time.

He's a hand dog. He's also drunk, yeah, as I say, when you're shit-faced at school. And, yeah, Charlie Benjamin's his friend. They hang out at this guy Brian Moomy's house. Now, Brian Moomy, like I said, is about 30 years old, lives in a real shitty trailer. He spent time in prison for assault with a weapon burglary stealing um yeah he's you know he's your typical he's just a scumbag who lives in the trailer park and that's also impressive to a shit bag and and shit bird that's this fucked up like that i aspire to be

you you've you've been to prison oh you badass and he allows them to come and drink in the house they're allowed to drink and smoke weed in the trailer we We all know that place. You know what I mean? The guy wants to be friends with the kids. He'll go buy them beer and shit like that. My sister married that guy. Brian Mooney, that's the guy, huh? That's him. And they said Christopher looked up to him like crazy.

He was very susceptible to his influence. And they described him as, quote, Brian Mooney, who lived in a nearby trailer park and was extremely that was an extremely negative influence on the local teenagers that describes it you know who we're talking about don't you everybody everybody sees that guy he called them they had he called it like this is like our little group here he called them the the thundercats no they've got their own group nickname they them the Thundercats. No, they've got their own group nickname? They're the Thundercats, man.

And yeah, Brian was cool to have this little teenage posse in the house here. A little lion-o. Yeah, because there's a couple other kids that come in and out of here too, with Charlie and Christopher, the main deal here. Thundercats, Jimmy. Wild. Thundercats, oh indeed. So yeah, he would allow them to hang out at the trailer

he would also everybody the quote word around the trailer park was that moomy would have the kids go out and steal and commit illegal acts for him um also another youth from the neighborhood described the trailer as the local party house for teenagers. Oh boy. This creepy fuck tries to bang teenage girls. You can just tell. Absolutely. In my opinion, I, you know,

obviously the character that I can see in my head certainly would do that. Yeah. They would go. He said another, the guy also said that they would, uh, you know, it's like I said,

steal shit. This one kid said, quote, Brian Mooney would buy beer for Chris and Charlie as well as the other kids. And in return, all of the young people would go out and steal for Mooney and act under his direction to do various illegal acts. stepfather was aware and had personally observed mr moomy purchasing alcohol for teenagers he states he did not intervene when chris was going to his house because he had never observed him giving alcohol to christopher um yeah and moomy would also give them weed and acid and sell them shit he's the rat king though is the look exactly he's the local dirtbag fucking scum lord scum lord but like he knows just enough because he's lived 12 more years

to say shit that makes them think that he knows things about the world that they should like listen to meanwhile his knowledge of the world has landed him in a dilapidated trailer with nobody else that wants to hang out with him but teenagers post a prison stay but after his prison stint nobody wanted to be there um another neighbor said quote uh that charlie benjamin told her quote moomy held things over the kids heads and threatened to tell their parents what they were doing if the young people did not do his bidding and then um yeah she would then he would also give them drugs and buy them booze what a piece of shit just manipulating children yep that's what he does uh one guy said

here that uh he personally heard uh brian discussing robberies and burglaries with some of the kids that frequented the trailer uh a local convenience store owner kathy granith said that she also um heard that all the kids talking about hanging out at moomy's trailer and all this type of shit there so and I guess Moomy would buy a bunch of beer that she figured was obviously for the kids so that's how it would work Charlie Benjamin's father says that uh he doesn't think that Moomy ever specifically told the kids to steal shit but he feels like if they did steal shit Moomy could fence the shit for him he was the fence for stuff so if you went and stole a car stereo you could bring it to him and he'll get

you 20 bucks for it yeah he won't stop you no he's the local scumbag um so but other neighbors say that other people have told them that he was encouraging kids to do this on his behalf so they'd all make a little bit of money after that. The convenience store owner, the Kathy Grant, Grant Granath. How the fuck do you say that? Granath. Yeah. She said that her store was robbed shortly, like in September of 1993. And she believes that Brian Mooney set up the burglary of the store because a local teenager told her that Charlie Benjamin and Brian Mooney are the ones that burglarized the store.

So this is kind of the the to set the tone um another kid from the neighborhood said that brian moomy gave kids tattoos with a homemade tattoo gun oh brian put it the fuck away stop it in a trailer giving kids tattoos this is not okay children you oh nightmare my god i guess charlie had gotten a tattoo when he was drunk over there one time and uh he told this friend that brian had given him alcohol so he wouldn't feel the pain but he'll bleed a shitload more because he doesn't know what he's doing oh my god this God. This is fucking crazy. Charlie Benjamin's father said that Moomy definitely had an influence over these young, impressionable individuals. And he acknowledged they liked him because he bought them beer and let them drink in his trailer in the mobile home park.

I like how he said it. I just like how he said it. So, anyway, some robbery stuff. One of the neighbors said that Moomy was talking about where to rob. He wanted to rob some stuff. One time he said that Moomy, this neighbor alleges that Moomy, quote, requested that they go from trailer to trailer to rob places because he was behind on his trailer pad rent. Wow. So he's behind on his lot fee. Yeah, on his trailer pad rent. Wow. So he's behind on his lot fee.

Yeah, on his lot fee. And I guess reported that after Brian had moved into the trailer park, quote, things got serious. A lot of kids in the neighborhood began drinking, doing drugs, and robbing trailers. Go rob Better Neighborhood, stupid. Yeah, he's going to rob the trailer park itself?

Also, to not get caught, wouldn't you, like, you're in the neighborhood. If the cops are looking for people, they're going to talk to you first, the kid who lives three houses down. It's just fucking stupid. So other neighbors said that Moomy would try to impress kids with his shtick of being an ex-con tough guy. He's Satanic Bill, basically, if you've heard before in the past but worse he's actually worse than satanic yeah because he's like he's tattooing people james he's making permanent marks on these kids yeah that's another thing tattoos fuck man that's unbelievable so

this bob hayes said that uh he heard that quote one of moomy's former girlfriends told someone that moomy directed the kids to and when they're robbing a place, to kill whoever recognized them if they were ever ID'd or caught in the act of stealing from a home or business. What? So cover your path, man. Cover your tracks here. Another person called Moomy the neighborhood drug supplier and that he allowed young people to drink and smoke pot at his trailer where there were anywhere from six to 15 kids there at a time holy fucking shit um so anyway uh

apparently at one point christopher simmons had um i'm sorry theresa yates who was a classmate of christopher simmons a person, a teenager, was hiding from juvenile authorities in June of 1994 and stayed at Brian Mooney's trailer. So he's hiding fugitive youths now. This is perfect. Harboring. Harboring. So anyway, 1993, we're talking about Christopher Simmons setting the table. We know who he is now.

Yeah. And he's hanging out with this other asshole. Very impressionable. Moron. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah.

And a kid that really needs. I don't even know what's going to fix him at this point. He's pretty fucked. He's pretty damaged. Yeah. You know, these kids, it's not good. They end up killing a family and burning a house down, if you listen to that Fishkill episode. That's what happens a lot of times.

So this Charlie Benjamin and John Tesmer, who's 16, they talk about this one night in September about committing a burglary. They want to commit a burglary, maybe even kill somebody. Who knows? Who knows? We'll see how it goes. We're up for anything. Simmons was telling them, look, no matter what we do, we're juveniles, so we'll be able it goes we're up for anything um simmons was telling them look no matter what we do we are we're juveniles so we'll be able to get away with

it so it's all good well that's not how that works 17 15 16 we're gonna work this out so september 8th 1993 he's got a target okay brian has a target he believed that a quote, and this is right from court documents to me, a quote voodoo man. Hell yeah. A voodoo man. In Missouri. A voodoo man. Yeah, there's a voodoo man and we're going to go rob him. First of all, if you're going to rob people and you think there's a voodoo man involved, he's not the guy to rob probably, right?

I'm staying the fuck out of that man's house. They're going to rob the voodoo man who lived in a nearby trailer park that he decides that's the guy to rob because rumor had it that he used to own hotels and motels and has lots and lots of money even though he lives in a run down shitty trailer park. This is how dumb kids are.

He's got millions of dollars but he just lives like a you know like a hermit weirdo. Meanwhile he's probably just an old man on social security or something you don't know that his hotels didn't fucking go bankrupt i've heard of that happening a lot maybe they all had bed bugs and he fucking went under we don't know so they talk all about that so september 9th 1993 that's september 8th september 9th about 2 a.m uh the boys meet up okay so this is the morning of the 9th christopher simmons uh benjamin and tesmer they all meet up around 2 a.m um so they're going to carry out the plan they're going to do this they meet where of course brian moomy's

trailer yeah shocking he his house is the cemetery of this episode if they didn't have his house they'd have to do all this shit at a cemetery that's the problem so they meet over there and they decide they're gonna go do this now tesmer decides i'm out it's the middle of the night i don't want to go fucking rob anybody i'm out of here so he takes off so apparently allegedly it is just um simmons and benjamin at this point so at that point in the plan and one of your one of your one of your oceans 11 one of your oceans three dips don't you just say well we can't do this now because he's already not a part of this and he knows too much it's not like that's the thing he knows too much i was going to say it's not like they need him to carry out a plan it's not like one of them you know gets the alarm and the other guy's like a you know a second story man

and the other one's a driver like they have all there's no roles this is just three jerk-offs he's not the one putting a prosthetic on and seducing the woman that's watching the same not at all yeah i feel like this is like this kid wants to feel like he's a tough kid who's gonna go meet his friends at two in the morning and then rob somebody when he comes down and he's like i'm gonna go home like as soon as you say 2 a.m break into a man's uh voodoo man's house voodoo man where's he probably asleep we're gonna surprise a voodoo man i'm going home yeah and then what happens yeah so they left they go to an you know adjacent trailer park to go carry this out and um they they find a back window cracked open in this trailer okay they open the window they

reach through and unlock the back door that's how they get in they enter through the house they walk through the house christopher simmons turns on a hallway light for some reason. Again, sophisticated. Turn on the hall light. That won't draw any attention to whoever might. That won't get the voodoo man up and at him. Jesus, I am terrified of the voodoo man. I don't want any part of him. If I'm a teenager in the 90s, I want no part of the voodoo man.

That sounds scary as shit. That sounds like a horror movie character. Like, oh, do you see that shit? Yo, that voodoo man that sounds scary as shit that sounds like a horror movie character like oh do you see that shit yo that voodoo man that's crazy they're gonna make a part two the voodoo man part two do they think the light scares off the voodoo man is that what they think i think maybe well that's what teenagers think though if anything's scary you turn a light on when you're a kid that's how immature i think that's going on i'm scared turn the light on so instead they awaken the resident who is not a voodoo man who is not a man at all oh no this is a woman named shirley ann crook and she's 46 years old she's a truck driver she's a truck driving mama and she um her husband is named steve cook he's uh steve crook senior

he's also a truck driver so fuck with these people a couple of truck driving people she awakens from the hall light being turned on and uh because the house is illuminated what the fuck is happening yeah so it's at the end of the hall so she turned on her bedroom light lit up like a christmas tree her bedroom whole bedroom lit up up. So her husband is an over the road trucker and he's away tonight. So she's there alone. She sits up in bed and asks who's there. And Simmons rushes in the bedroom. And that's when they have a moment of recognition. You have to understand this is a random thing where they think maybe the voodoo man is here. Right. They have a moment of recognition here. This is the fucking one of the weirdest coincidences in crime history here. They had been in a car accident with each other. Oh, dear God. So immediately he goes, oh, shit, that's the lady.

I got an accident with my head and her head and his head. And then she has a moment of recognition and goes i know you right so she not only knows him she has his insurance information like this isn't like i i think i saw this kid one time it might have been him that robbed my house this is knows your address dog here's a copy of his driver's license like i have it all right here yeah we'll go knock on his door so he then orders her out of the bed and onto the floor and benjamin charlie benjamin helps him out benjamin basically at this point they he christopher tells her to stay down and charlie benjamin guards her while christopher goes and rummages in the house here finding a roll of

duct tape and dog leashes okay so he's got a couple of dog leashes because there's a poodle involved here. Every story we have where there's a poodle, it never helps. Never. So, it never helps. It's a useless fucking animal. It's not going to help you.

If you're going to get a dog, get one that'll help the situation. Get something that barks. At least some sort of threatening bark. That thing might bite me. Not meh. So, anyway, finds a roll of duct tape, returns to the bedroom, has a leash, has duct tape, and then takes her clothes off of her and has those to help bind as well. She's naked at that point.

There's no sexual assault that takes place here. I'll tell you that right off the bat. She struggles to free herself so he uses her own clothing and dog leashes and all of this shit to tie her hand they hog tie her what were they gonna do with the fucking voodoo man that's what i mean suppose this was a man not only a grown man but a grown man with probably magical powers what were you gonna do then at what point were you gonna go who doesn't have any pets? Then what?

Planned on him having a dog with several leashes? Several leashes and duct tape. They then, and this is horrible, man. They then, they put duct tape, they cover her face in duct tape. Over her eyes, over her face. She, you know, having trouble breathing even they leave a little bit of space but not much here over this too they're they're beating her also there's bruises as we'll find out they're punching her to try to keep her still and all this type of shit

so they tape her eyes and mouth shut like i said they then take her and walk her from her home. Oh, my God. Okay, they stand her up. She's not hogtied at this point. They stand her up and take her outside and put her in the back of her own minivan, a 1988 Ford Arrow Star. Okay? Simmons drives from her home to Castlewood State Park in St. Louis County. All right? Now, I think they're in st louis county too but

still at the park he drives the van onto the railroad trestle that spans the merrimack river it's a fucking it's a railroad bridge so they drive the car up there park the van up there he and benjamin start to take her out of the back of the truck and realize that she's freed her hands and remove some of the duct tape from her face and she's ready to fucking take off so using her purse strap and the belt from her bathrobe and a towel from the back of the minivan and some

electrical wire found on the trestle just off to the side just some wires sitting there they bind her hands and feet up and hog tie her hands and feet up and hog tie her. And and then they cover her head with a towel. All right.

That's what they do and tie it on there. They walk her to the railroad trestle. It's at this point that they hog tie her. I'm sorry. I knew there was a hog tie at some point. At this point, they hog tie her with the electrical cable and cover her face completely with duct tape over the towel. Okay. Then Christopher Simmons throws her off the trestle into the river.

Stop that. 100% alive, kicking fine, not uncut, just scared shitless. Hogtied in the water. Threw her into the fucking river, her pop hit the water and that's that she went down and drowned oh my god how fucking horrible is that what kind of monster and for what um oh oh but you want to know what they got out of this whole thing i would love to know because hold on uh yeah they then drove her they threw her purse in the woods and drove the van back to the trailer park across the street from her trailer park. Right.

Thought they got away with it. Got a total of $6. Get the fuck out of here. $6 they did this for. That is so much work for $6. $6 for this. It's one of the most horrible harrowing horrifying ways to die i've ever heard of for six dollars that's fucking disgusting um later that day he

went to moomy's trailer and bragged to moomy that he quote killed a woman because the bitch seen my face that's what he said yeah it's just fucking trash kid here. These at the meantime, her husband returns from an overnight trip and discovers that his wife. There's messages his wife hadn't gotten to work. She's supposed to go trucking that day. And so that evening he files a missing persons report. They're employed by the same trucking company. So we knew her schedule. And yeah, he went to the house.

He found some damage inside he said the poodle was whimpering and found the poodle wrapped in duct tape on the master bedroom floor they taped the dog they taped the dog's legs so it couldn't run so it was just tape they they hogged they taped the dog up tied it tied it up so it didn't run around and it just was whimpering on the floor it was clearly clearly not fighting you. You didn't even have to do that. No. No. If you can duct tape it, it's not a vicious dog. Try duct taping one of my dogs and see what happens.

It's not going to happen. It's not going to fucking happen. Good luck. They will murder you quickly. So the next day, four fishermen find her body floating in the river three-quarters of a mile down from where they dumped her off. Holy shit. They use her fingerprints to figure out who she is.

She, it's fucking horrible, man. Yeah. Her face, the only area on her face that was visible was her nose because there was duct tape everywhere else. The, the medical examiner found 29 bruises on her body and four fractured ribs. They beat her unmercifully. Unmercifully. And the cause of death was drowning. The medical examiner found 29 bruises on her body and four fractured ribs. They beat her unmercifully. Unmercifully, and the cause of death was drowning. So, holy shit.

He went to school the next day. Christopher told somebody. Oh, yeah. The next day, they both went to school. They got up and went to school the next day somehow. They got home probably 4 o'clock in the morning. Still went to school. I mean, I guess the opposite is like they didn't go to school the next day. Obviously, they didn't go to school the next day. Oh, no. They went to school i mean i guess that the the opposite is like they didn't go to school next day obviously they didn't go to school next day but oh no they went to school the next and bragged about it wow he told a kid quote guess what we did last night we beat up an

old lady and we took her up to the trestle and we pushed her off and guess what she did she went bubble bubble bubble dirtbag that's what he told somebody. Anyway, somebody obviously rats on him because kids aren't going to fucking do this. That's going to get around school quickly. So by the end of the day, they pull a team of detectives, pull them out of fucking school. Real ones, not like those fake ones from a few episodes ago. Actual squad cars with fucking, you know, not some fake guy going, we have to talk to this young man. You know, not some fake guy going, we have to talk to this young man. Within two hours, he is waving his Miranda rights and not only giving a full confession, but performing a videotaped reenactment of the entire thing as well.

Both the kids do. They both completely break and spill it. They tell him, hey, this is a death penalty case. You know, what's going to happen? And this is the the policeman said, this is Chris. Quote, I had her tied up. She walked out on the bridge and I tied her hands and feet together and pushed her off. They said, who pushed her? And he said, I did.

They said, who? And he said, I did. The guy said, you pushed her. And he said, I did. They said, OK, Chris. Holy shit. All right, Chris. I just want to make sure that you're telling us so a

fucking cold-blooded murderer that's and then he reenacted it for him um they said he didn't appear to have any remorse uh he started crying after he confessed and um so he goes to jail um once he's in jail he basically has a hard time in jail. I can't adjust to incarceration. They're saying he's immature and impulsive behavior. He at one point attempts suicide. He uses broken pieces of his inhaler to try to cut himself. Yeah. He breaks the plastic and does that.

Now, there's a huge rumor that Mooney was involved, that it was not just the two kids, that it was the three of them. And that's the big rumor. But neither kid says that. Both kids just say it was those two. And I believe that, honestly. I think Moomy is the type where he's going to send them to do it. He's not going to fucking do it himself.

You know what I mean? Yeah. He's the Charles Manson. He's not going to fucking... He's going, you go to that house and show those pigs a lesson. He's not going to do it.

I'll be here waiting for you when you get back and tell me what happened. That's my opinion. And if a kid tells you, I pushed a woman off a bridge and tells you that it's just him and his friend, if he's willing to tell you he pushed a woman off the bridge, but he's getting, why would he hide Toomey being there? Or Mooney? Mooney. Mooney. M-O-O-M-E-Y. That's a bad name.

That's a terrible Mooney. You change Mooney. That's the name of a guy in a trailer park. Fuck yeah. They said that people were scared of him, that Mooney was stalking people, and that's why the kids didn't spill it because they were afraid he would kill the family and all this type of shit. Mooney says this is crazy i don't understand he said they just like to come over the trailer quote because they could get away from their parents and hang loose this is fucking spicoli has grown

up and moved to missouri this is terrible he's a hawaiian tourist shirt hang loose hang loose brah it's cool man um he admitted to being a being a heavy drinker and who had a little party for kids between the ages of 14 and 19 every night at his house. He said he'd provide beer. Sometimes they'd mow his lawn or clean his house for him. You're 30. You're 30, bro. What are you talking about? Yeah, this is absolutely fucking asinine.

Unbelievable. absolutely fucking asinine unbelievable uh he admitted that the youths called they were called the thundercats all the kids and they called him quote thunder dad charles manson thunder dad unite thunder dad thunder dad un-fucking-believable thundercats and thunder dad oh my fucking god they're devoid of any fucking creativity no they rip off a show and then don't even have uh the leader's name they just throw in dad thunder dad unbelievable He's a turd. Fucking unreal. So for Chris, they're going for the death penalty. Charlie, they're going for life without.

So Charlie's whole thing goes first. They find him guilty because they admitted it and acted it out on video. You, young man, may fuck off. Life without parole for a kid who was 15 when it happened. Wow, what a waste. Now, Chris's trial. This is what the state asked during the Wadir of the jurors here. Quote, is there anybody here that for the sole fact of the defendant's age could not sit in judgment on this case?

You're not saying just because of his age you would never consider the death penalty. You would be able to at least consider it and your position and is your position that because of the defendant's age you could not consider both punishments i'm not saying that you shouldn't be able to consider a person's age what i'm saying is would it totally exclude for you any possibility of considering the sentence of death so they want to get anyone who would be against executing a teenager out of the way right so verdict i mean it's obvious the trial he's guilty sentencing comes in here um and for sentencing they try to say that he grew up in this horrible environment he's a fucking teenager give him life without parole um all this type of shit They're talking about his mom having alcoholism and being hospitalized for it and all this type of shit. They have a psychiatrist saying that he has schizotypal personality disorder and all this other shit. A disorder distinguished by pervasive pattern of social and interpersonal deficits marked by acute discomfort and reduced capacity for close relationships and cognitive and perceptual distortions.

OK, so, yeah, there's that. And he says that, you know, they're going through all the thing they're trying to have. They're trying to get him not killed and he's trying to get him. The state's trying to kill him. That's how it works here. The state in closing said, quote, let's look at the mitigating circumstances. OK, let's look at that. He listed the mitigating circumstances.

Now, he said, quote, I don't have them here in front of me. Age. Think about age. 17 years old. Isn't that scary? Doesn't that scare you? Mitigating quite quite the contrary. I submit quite the contrary.

He tried to say his age is an aggravating factor like if he did it by now like imagine what he's going to do when he's 35 think about exponential growth he'll kill eight nine people a week by then you know what i'm saying that's so dangerous yeah that's that's a little bit crazy um he said look at what his friends and family told you isn't that scary look at how he repaid their love look at what his friends and family told you. Isn't that scary? Look at how he repaid their love. Look at what he's done to them. And they're asking you to spare his life so he can remain in prison as a constant reminder to them of the acts he did on that night. Show some mercy to his family. Give him death.

He tried to say that's what would be better for his family, even though they begged for the opposite. Let his family out of their misery. Those people don't know what they want. They actually him dead they think they want him alive that's why they came and swore on a bible and said they they wanted him alive but that's not what happened that is like so give him death did did tom brady give him a pep talk like what it gets worse oh it gets worse. He is hyped up. Oh, it gets worse. And we're not, what they did was fucking horrible. But this is, to be this enthusiastic about killing a child is a little weird. He says, show some mercy to his family. Give him death.

Look at his family. Look at his little brother. Kenny said it all. His brother's sitting right there. Look at his little brother. Kenny said it all. Someday I want to grow up to be just like him. be just like him spare those kids of that let's kill that kid too oh my god just in case let's nip it right in the bud here then the judge says that he um he says that

this uh that he received letters quote reflecting the ongoing debate in our society about the death penalty. He also listed the factors that the law says are the basis for the death penalty, which are murder or something of value to prevent arrest in callous disregard for human life. Those are the aggravating factors. He said that Simmons had broken into the home of a woman who was, quote, a wife, a mother and a grandmother. He bound her with duct tape, hogtied her, and thrown her to her death in the river. This cannot be tolerated. You, sir, may fuck off. Death penalty by lethal injection.

Holy. So, that's what happens there. You got it with that fucking... That worked. Then he ends up getting super religious in jail yeah like extra christy he's like leading prayer things and he's a whole he's all into it the jesus man yeah yeah he's the jesus man now and uh so he appeals based on the fact that you know he wasn't even 18 yet when this happened at the time in 1989 the supreme court had ruled that it was basically to the

states like some states can execute children while others don't have to you know it was like one of those deals um they said that uh that it was basically like we can't just say at an age someone matures automatically so we have to do it on each individual basis and maybe we can kill a nine-year-old who knows i mean that was essentially if they're mature enough that's what the ruling someone matures automatically. So we have to do it on each individual basis and maybe we can kill a nine year old. Who knows? I mean, that was essentially if they're mature enough, that's what the ruling said basically.

So, um, they said because Christopher's jury was not made to consider age as a mitigating factor, but instead was specifically told by the state that age was an aggravating factor. The, you know, that would be interesting.

Religious groups start asking for fucking him to be like some archdiocese of the Catholic Church in the name of John Paul II. I mean, it's all this whole. They're going to spare this kid, huh? They always do it with juveniles who are in like that. Anyway, 2003, the Missouri Supreme Court throws out his sentence based on this, resentences him to life without parole. And then 2005, the Supreme Court, because the state tries to get it reinstated, it goes to the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court prohibits the death penalty for the juvenile killer in this particular case. And he is given life without parole.

and he is given life without parole and now the court has barred the death penalty for all killers throughout the country who are under 18 when they committed their crimes. This is the case that this came from. So there you go everybody. That is Fenton, Missouri and one scummy scummy

murder. Thundercats ho. Holy shit. Anyway there you go. That's the story. Shut up and give me murder.com is where you get all the stuff. Patreon.com slash crime and sports is where you get your bonus stuff. Listen to Crime and Sports every Tuesday.

Small Town Murder every Thursday. That's right. Thank you so much for joining us, everybody. Have a good one. Hold the station! See you later, everybody. I gotta take a bath. Bye! See you later, everybody. I got to take a bath. Bye.

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