Small Town Murder - #304 - For Love Of My Cousin - Beckley, West Virginia

Episode Date: August 4, 2022

This week, in Beckley, West Virginia, we look at 2 stories, because they were too crazy to pick just one! First, a man with a "history of meanness" takes vengeance & violence to a whole new level, with acts that so brazen, it's like he wants to spend the rest of his life in prison. For the second story, we talk about a murder so horrendous, that's it's hard to believe that it's real. Twelve people are killed, in the most terrible way imaginable, so one teenaged young lady can continue her love affair with her adult cousin. The thing is, she might just get away with it. Find out what happens! It's absolutely mind boggling!!Along the way, we find out that West Virginia is for murder lovers, that you can even be murdered for doing exactly what the murderer tells you, and that cousin love must be HOT, because some people will fight for it, over everything!!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. This week in Beckley, West Virginia, an angry person takes vengeance and violence to another level and a family perishes in a terrible fire all for the love of a cousin. Welcome

to Small Town Murder. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder. Yay! Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petrigallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman.

Thank you folks so much for joining us on another wild edition of Small Town Murder. And oh man, is it crazy this week. I'm telling you, it's West Virginia, first of all. This week, there are two stories involved in here. It's West Virginia. They were so crazy, we couldn't, you can't just pick one. It's like, Chipsy, you can't just eat crazy. You can't just pick one. It's like chips. You can't just eat one.

We can't just pick one. There's two. It's crazy. The second one, oh, my God, buckle up because it is just as crazy a story as we've ever had ever. But we'll get into all of that. Thank you for everything, first of all, for your reviews and telling people about the show. We really do appreciate it. It helps out a lot. Whatever app you're listening on, throw five stars on there.

And that does a lot for the show. You can also head over to ShutUpAndGiveMeMurder.com. And you can do wonderful things there. Like get all the merchandise, new stuff up all the time. New mottos and slogans and logos and everything on there. And in addition to that, get your tickets to live shows. So many live shows. August the 12th, San Francisco

Comedy Theater. We will be there. There are two shows that night. They will be different stories. So if you want to go to both shows, feel free. You're going to see two different shows. So do that. The next night we're in Sacramento at the Ace of Spades. The Small Town murder is sold

out but always check back because people can return tickets because it's a rescheduled show you never know if any will pop up and then crime and sports still a few tickets left you can get those also get your tickets to the papst in milwaukee on september the 10th gonna be our biggest show ever be a part of it we want to tell everybody what's your biggest show you've ever done milwaukee that's what beat everybody else and if you went to the chicago show it's a different show than that completely so feel free to come up and see it and you'll see a completely different show great also tampa orlando improv those are for sale yeah check those out in september there you go do all of that patreon.com slash crime and sports is where you get all the bonus stuff.

And we are cooking this week as we always are. You're going to get at least four shows a month. You're going to get all sorts of content. We have a huge back catalog on there. Patreon bonus episodes. Over 100 of them. Good stuff. Anybody $5 or above, you're going to get access to everything we put out.

Everything. Bonus wise. This week we are going to talk about, for crime and sports bonus, we're going to talk about Michael Jordan scandals. Everyone knows who Michael Jordan is, the most bulletproof public figure in the history of the world. The man wore a Hitler mustache on an underwear commercial

and nobody said a thing. It was fine. We're going to talk about his gambling, those things, his dead father, and the conspiracy theory behind that. Also, his paternity suits that happened every year and one of the biggest divorce settlements you'll ever hear of too it's amazing in history and then for small town murder we are going to talk about it's been about it's been over

a year since we've done this we got to do it again small town reviews oh boy it's kind of the best part of the show and we're going to do that for a whole episode on there and we're going to we'll hit up a couple small towntown businesses in there, too. It'll be fun. So lots of fun with that. Patreon.com slash Crime and Sports is where you get it all. And you'll get a shout-out at the end of the show. Jimmy will mispronounce your name while wanting to, trying to, desperately get it correct.

Striving so hard. But he won't. So that's great. Disclaimer, this is a comedy show we're comedians so there's going to be jokes but there's also going to be terrible murder that's the thing there's a way to do this that doesn't step on the toes of the terrible murder see that's the thing lots of stuff to make fun of you can make fun of murderers number one they're very easy a police force that lets a murderer go free for 10 years or something. That's easy to make fun of.

They're almost as bad. They're almost as bad. But what we don't do, we go out of our way not to do, is we never make fun of the victims or the victims' families. Why, James? Because we're assholes. What? But we're not scumbags.

And so that's how that works. If you think that sounds good to you, we are going to have a crazy show all about West Virginia. If you think true crime and comedy should never, ever, ever go together. I don't know. You might not like the show,

but you might either way. No bitching afterwards. So that said, I think it's time to sit back, clear the lungs wherever you are in your car, maybe with the windows rolled up. So it doesn't look like you're road raging or scare the shit out of your cat in their kitchen.

Whatever you do, shout, shut up. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, Jimmy. Let's take a ride. Let's go on a trip. Yes. To a familiar place, baby.

This is kind of like our, feels like our, This is a real wheelhouse right here. It's our base of operations almost here. We're going to West Virginia, everybody. Here we go. We have a corporate brick and mortar headquarters. This might be it.

This is it. And just if you didn't, if you fast forward it through the beginning of the show, two stories here. So trust me, you want to hear the second story, too. Stick around. I'm telling you. Holy shit. All right. Beckley, West Virginia, we're going to go to.

Beckley. Beckley, West Virginia, we're going to go to. Beckley. Beckley. It's in southern West Virginia, kind of like the right side of the chicken's ass. We said it looks like a crooked chicken, West Virginia. This is the right side of the chicken's ass down there. It's about two hours to Huntington, West Virginia, about three hours to Morgantown, and then about two hours and five minutes to just my favorite name of a town and one we did in episode 250 dingus west virginia for the shocking backwoods brutality there so uh this is in raleigh county raleigh like raleigh north carolina same spelling same same spelling area code 304 it's got several mottos here. Don't even have to make jokes because there's so many.

Motto, the gateway to southern West Virginia. Yikes. Great. Thanks. Can't wait to get on that gateway. The city of champions. Okay. Sure.

Yeah. Why not? What have they won? Nothing that I know of. They won the award for a small town murder episode. That's what they've won. The small town murder award for having hillbillies who kill each other. And the smokeless coal capital.

Oh. I don't know how you make coal smokeless. I'm not aware of the. It's stuff you just tuck in your lip. It's just coal you stick in there. It's just tobacco infused coal. What we do here around these parts, we roll the coal and tobacco and then you just stuff it in your bottom lip keep you going all day long put it in little pouches oh it's good

so history of this town named in honor of john james beckley he was the first clerk of the house of representatives and the first librarian of congress yeah um his son founded it actually and named it after him even though it's still named after well he died young james because a lot of people don't know this but he had a big problem with uh smoking coal that was the thing well it was smokeless no one could tell he switched to the smokeless because he thought it was better for him and it turns out it wasn't that's the thing big coal smoker this guy i picture it in a crack pipe too like yeah it's like really firing up the end of it in a light bulb in a ge just really fucking tell he blows it out nothing comes out because it's smokeless

like man you can feel it though you can't see it but boy can you feel it so uh alfred beckley his son was a the u.s army lieutenant and brigadier general of the virginia militia oh and this place was founded in 1838 but it for a long time just existed on paper it was just a place that he named i guess a quote for his dad and nobody lived there so it's you know a name just a named piece of woods basically here um they said that alfred beckley said he was this is from a newspaper back then quote frequently jeered and laughed at for his paper town loser your town doesn't even have people in it you pussy just yelling at him what town sorry so um yeah for i guess sometimes it was called beckleyville as well for a while there um it was

named the county seat in 1850 though it was originally located in fayette county virginia and then oh it turned into yeah but not didn't, it didn't move. The borders moved. Okay. So, uh, during the 1960 presidential primaries, John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey, who turned out to be, uh, lost in 68 and was Lyndon Johnson's vice president after Humphrey died, they were both running for president. They just bumped into each other on a street corner in Beckley where they were both there to campaign. They were like, Hey, what's up dude? And they just hung out and talked and shit I was like what a weird historical figure

hey historical how's it going hey president who got killed and will be on a coin and everyone loves how you doing guy who's gonna lose in 68 and be a national joke for a long time is the guy who couldn't fucking keep Nixon out of the White House again nice job hey guy will forget until somebody mentions your name hey guy they'll name one of the worst house again nice job hey guy will forget until somebody mentions your name hey guy they'll name one of the worst stadiums and ever in history after how's it going with a stupid white dome that no one can see a fucking baseball in say your name is hubert stupid hubert so reviews of this town oh boy here we go these are great four stars oh yeah mountain mama take me home is that what they said?

That's the first line. Exclamation point. It feels like a song. It is, right? It's John Denver. Mountain Mama, take me. It's fucking country roads. He only said that because he needed that many syllables, I figured, though.

He doesn't actually. Before that, it was North Dakota, Minnesota. And they were like, you're just naming states, bro. And he's like, all right, fine. How about Mountain Mama? All right, well, whatever. It's different at least. And we roll.

Take three. He goes, I have lived in the growing town of Beckley, West Virginia for 15 years. My teenage, young adult, and now adult life have been spent here. From our local-owned businesses, big big franchise named stores, parks, and healthcare facilities, we have expanded. If I had to sum up the town of Beckley in one word, I would say friendly. Yeah. Oh boy.

The public schooling was one of the best experiences of my life. What kind of person? I was going to say, that's a bad sign right there. That's the best experience. I have made great friends and obtained a quality education in Beckley. Have you been outside of Beckley? I don't know if you...

There is not much I would do to change this place. I feel completely safe when I walk down my street. And in today's world, that is saying something. If I had to complain about anything, I believe it would be the condition of our roads. Many people have damage to their car from a simple pothole. There are so many everywhere. The complaint is something that is being fixed. We are working together to build a beautiful, secure, prosperous place to live.

Come visit. Why? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We appreciate your enthusiasm. I don't want to visit if your roads are going to beat the shit out of my car. Come visit, but borrow a car. Three stars. The police officers and ambulance need to be quicker and more reliable to tell us residents what, by the way, spelled wrong, what's happening in our streets.

There have been many shootings later that I believe could have maybe been prevented. There are a lot of drugs in this area, but the police officers don't seem to care if you inform them about it. Drugs and people are getting shot? I'm out. This person said that's the safest thing ever. They walk down the street with $100 bills hanging out of their pocket whistling Dixie and nobody bothers them. Well, it's probably a drug dealer that shoots people. Maybe. Maybe that's what it is. That's what that first review came from.

Two stars. I'm reading the reviews again, and I read before moving here three years ago and can't believe people say so many positive things about this town. There we go. Visit here before moving here, which I always say to people about Phoenix. Visit first in July and then come back if you want or don't. One star. This place brings nothing but misery to everyone that lives here there is nothing to do but bars nothing to do oh bars are disgusting and old they suck nothing fun for kids to do mall is small and almost every store has closed down

but it's the people that really ruin and make this place so bad. It's the people that are really the shit part. Almost everyone here is on drugs, and nobody hardly has a legal driver's license or drives at all. Thieves are everywhere. People are rude, uncaring, dope fiends. Every job pays less than other

states. Restaurants or fast food places employ nothing but drug addicts. I would never eat out here because filthy drug addicts is what's making your food i've been a cook at several restaurants here so you're a filthy drug addicts what you just said um so i can definitely say this is true that was all one sentence i did with no punctuation that's why i read it like that i read it how you said it stds and welfare run high here hell yeah if you are not on drugs everyone will snub you and want nothing to do with you ew look at him no track marks or anything ugh and they turn away looking down their nose well he's still got an itchy dick oh man customers you scratch it customer service is

terrible you're lucky if a person even greets you when you walk into a store here wish i wasn't from here i'm ashamed to be from here and can't wait to leave that's that's a review right there why do you need to be greeted when you enter a place i don't i don't i don't care welcome in shut the fuck up you can go ahead and leave me alone i don't know when that became such a big thing but everywhere you go that's what they say yeah because it's hospitality you're supposed to feel like you're welcomed in a place. And hey, come on in. Come on in and look around, chief.

I don't give a shit. I'd rather you don't talk to me. I feel more welcome that way, as you know. But you walk in fucking tillies. Most people want their balls tickled when they walk in somewhere. Oh, I could potentially spend money here so everyone jerk me off as soon as I walk in the door. No. Stay out of my life. spend money here so everyone jerk me off as soon as i walk in the door no so one star one star there's always a dark cloud over this place i think they mean you know like proverbially not

like uh literally the weather's terrible never stops raining there's not one decent woman in this whole town that's not wait a second he's not saying there's not one decent woman. He's saying there's a caveat here. All right. There's not one decent woman in this whole town that's not hopped up on meth and crack coverage from head to toe and tattoos. The only decent women in the whole town are hopped up on meth and crack. That's hilarious. Those are the decent ones.

Head to toe tattoos hopped up on meth and crack. I like them the cops will rip your vehicle to pieces looking for a little bit of marijuana or wait across the street from your favorite bar to pull you over and burn your life and turn your life upside down happiness is not allowed here stay far far away from this dreadful place oh my god they need to put that on a fucking sign as you come into town this whole statement everyone stop and read this before you come in that person's got some duis by the way let's just say that uh people in this town that those are amazing see this is why the patreon episode is going to be so great we read shit like that for an hour and have time to talk about it because i love to dissect that in great detail uh population of this town here

uh 15 805 somehow people that's a lot that's a lot so it's almost 54 female so way more females than males uh median age is 40 which is only a little over the national average. Useless women, though. They're all hopped up on meth. And not one decent woman in this entire town who's not hopped up on. That's amazing. All the decent women all methed out. 43% married.

I assume probably half of those want a divorce. They just don't have the agency to do it in this place, I suppose, with cloud 25 are single with children it's usually 10 in the rest of the country 25 25 race in this town it is 70.4 white 22.1 black 2.9 asian and 1.3 hispanic so that's the breakdown 31 religious in this town is that right no no god in them minds jimmy that's the breakdown. 31% religious in this town. Is that right? No God in them mines, Jimmy. That's the thing. When you're down in them coal mines, you dance with the devil.

You don't believe in the Lord. It's scary down there, yeah. Yeah. So it's spread around pretty decently. But the most, of course, are 8% Baptists, which Bapt are the catholics of the appalachians i guess a little more south of a little more south uh 0.1 jewish not going to be a lot of jewish people in a west virginia town like this in the county raleigh county which is a rural county not a ton of people here uh 24 voted democrat last last election, 74.5% Republican, 1.4% independent.

The unemployment rate is just about like the national average here, not too far off. The income, though, is a little bit low. The household income here, median household income, $33,616. Holy shit. Which is about $20,000 less than the national average. Not cost of living is low though a hundred is average here it's 70 so that's not bad housing is the lowest median home cost seventy four thousand six hundred dollars very affordable yeah fucking cheap so if we have convinced you all the good women hopped up on meth and crack and everything to move here.

We have for you the Beckley, West Virginia Real Estate Report. The average two-bedroom rental here goes for $693. Okay. I mean, that's about right. Here is a two bedroom one bath i suppose we don't really know what's inside 528 square feet it's a little house uh use only one picture from the outside because clearly you can't get in because there are trees growing out of the house stop it yeah yeah no it's it look you can barely see it's one of these houses where

you'd go is there a house behind that shit? Like, behind those, and there's like a house that's been overgrown and taken back by nature. A house returning to the earth? It says the last line of the review is, quote, the home, or not the review, the listing, the home appears to have utilities for gas and water. We think. We think. We don't know. We can't get close enough to it to tell, but I suppose it does. Either way, $10,000 for this and water. We think. We think. We don't know. We can't get close enough to it to tell, but I suppose it does.

Either way, $10,000 for this little gem. Does your house say I am Groot? I think it's the guy with the DUIs. He's very upset. Here is a three-bedroom, two-bath, 2,160 square feet. Big, giant front yard, big backyard. Not bad.

It's a little weird inside. It's kind of like very 1991 in there. It's kind of strange, but it's a good size place. A lot of the pictures have a French bulldog in it who looks like he's... What? Just doesn't look like he wants to be there, really. He just kind of looks like he's just like... He just followed somebody around and planted its ass when they took a picture.

He turns and he's like, they overbred me. And he's just like, I have health problems. So it's a very, very strange place. $299,900 for that. Oh, my God. Which seems more expensive than it should be there. Then there's a four-bedroom, five-bath, 4,300 square feet. There you go.

Big old house. It looks like it has no personality. Very kind of brick and white and wood and modern. Blah, huh? Somebody cookie cutter this bad boy up and was like, bow, HGTV. Love this fucking place. One of those. $1,350,000 for fifty thousand dollars is there land not much

it's not a ton what i don't know it seems like there's a lot of shit houses and if you want a nice house it's gonna fucking cost you you're gonna pay for it because they don't exist that much things to do oh boy the appalachian festival hell yeah oh yeah there we go the appalachian festival week-long festival features events throughout the week celebrating appalachian Festival. Hell yeah. Oh yeah. There we go. The Appalachian Festival week-long festival features events throughout the week celebrating Appalachian heritage and culminating with the Appalachian Makers Market.

Which I guess they make shit and then sell it to you. Yeah. There's that. Not a whole lot of activities that they really put. It just says activities focused on life

in Appalachia. So judging by the wild and wonderful whites of west virginia that entails like singing at a coal parade snorting pills off the back of a of a bar's toilet and shirtlessly playing slot machines right i feel like the appalachian life does not sound like uh it doesn't sound glamorous at all it's very less virginia back to the early days i saw this old film on youtube there's this channel that does like appalachian shit like the guy just drives like up in these hollers and like yeah shows you shit so like for this show obviously i watch it and there's this one episode where they have they just show this old film from

like indiana university made it in like 1938 about yeah west virginia hill people it was like they followed them around and there's at the end of the night they show their whole day at the end of the night the dad's playing banjo there and there's like nine fucking filthy shoeless kids sitting around and at one point the one kid who's maybe seven maybe i'm saying he's a big you know i don't even think he's seven fucking rolls and smokes a cigarette just rolls and with his dad sitting right there he's bopping along to the music just smoking and his dad's like yeah grooving along with the banjo i'm like what's happening that kid's six well james that was he goes how to roll them too that was the coal that was the that's why i went

to smokeless holy shit then there's the star jewel fall festival west virginia pageant oh buddy um open to all residents of the united states all ages welcome 195 registration fee. Holy shit. What? Yeah, that's a lot. You have to do three different events. The formal wear, the autumn wear, and the community service portion of it here. They look for these things here. Talent, your photogenicness, one for

print modeling stuff, party wear, casual wear. This is crazy. Then there's side awards. A series of best awards, little side things. Best eyes, best hair, best smile, best formal wear, and best personality. You can win all of those. She's got a collection, but she's got nice eyes. Oh, boy.

That's great. So there. Have a lot of fun with that. Enter all of your whole family in that, and you can win $200 to join that and be ogled by hillbillies. Perfect. Crime rate in this town, wow. Property crime, keep in mind, I feel safe to walk down the street, and that's saying something. Property crime, almost three times the national average.

Triple. Triple. Violent crime, murder, rape, robbery, and, of course, assault. The Mount Rushmore of crime. The biggies. Also, almost three times the national average. That person was like a councilman or something or like the head of the tourism board. Their whole thing was just complete.

And no other reviews said that. Anything like that. All the other reviews are like, I mean, even the ones that liked it's like, I mean, you got to avoid the crackheads and such. But, you know, it ain't bad. It's pretty in the summer. Like that kind of shit. But this person was like, oh, my God, it's the greatest. It's three times more dangerous here than anywhere, than average place in the country.

Your body and your shit all in danger. And a house is a million dollars. Yeah, for a decent house. Well, that's more than a decent house. But even the other one was 300 grand for a nice you know crazy wow so that said let's talk about a murder and like i said earlier we have two murders so do not say oh that's one murder trust just stick around i am are they both holy shit no one is in parkersburg okay but the one in beckley is crazy too they're both crazy these murders but the second one is the most west virginia thing

i've ever heard in my life so all right here we go first of all let's start out this murder case by talking about ronald dale bennett double n double t bennett yeah uh he is 43 years old in 1988 when this whole craziness occurs. He's born in 1945. So you can track his age throughout the years here. He is. And this isn't surprising because this is kind of a lot of our murderers on this show. He is regarded as the black sheep of the family. Of course.

Of course. Yeah. Everybody's kind of everyone in his family is afraid of him more than I am. It's not like they're just annoyed by him or that sort of thing. He's got like a hair-trigger temper and very mean, kind of a cruel guy he's known as. IQ in the mid-70s, not very high. Yeah, yeah. He's a very angry, impulsive man, put it that way.

Would you say he's frustrated that he's a dumb person? He's a very angry, impulsive man. Put it that way. Would you say he's a frustrated that he's dumb person? I don't think he thinks he's dumb, though. No. I think that he's frustrated that everyone can't get on his level. That's his problem. He's one of those guys. He's like Doyle in Sling Blade. He's like Dwight Yoakam in Sling Blade, where he's just like, everybody, you fucking dumb motherfucker.

And he's just a stupid asshole, but he's yelling at everybody for being not quite as bright as him, you know? Did he win an Academy Award for that? He fucking won. No, but God damn it, was he good. You wanted to bash his skull in in that movie. When Billy Bob finally goes after him you're like yes slaughter him in his own chair with a lawnmower blade yeah that's exactly what he deserved yes oh you're thrilled with it you're like fuck yeah hand it to the kid let him get a

couple shots in that's what you're thinking in that movie so anyway black sheep of the family they said he always this is from a report later on he's always exhibited a quick temper signs of meanness signs of meanness that's from a doctor hatred and anger to the point that it was known by basically everybody to be fearful of him we're talking wife kids sisters brothers cousins grandma's scared of him everybody's terrified of him if he comes over everybody's on pins and needles till he leaves and then they all go okay thank god he left he left um you know and i could see his first 25 years or so he was just a dick and everybody was you know you could you could sense his attitude and be afraid of him but there was no kind of anything to back it up it was just like oh man

he seems like he'd really go off on you but then after he's about 25 you realize that yeah you should steer clear of him after what happens to his first wife um this is crazy uh well he shot his first wife oh boy um didn't kill her though no didn't kill her um yeah apparently she wanted a divorce and she wanted to take the children who are uh ronald dean barker and brenda barker not bennett barker somehow they got named i don't know how the fuck that happened whatever apparently or who knows you know what who knows it could be maybe they flipped the coin we have no idea it's west virginia so who cares at this point it starts with a b maybe they just misspelled bennett i don't know so she wanted a divorce she wanted to take the two children and he said he wasn't going to let her have them

really and they had a standoff. Well, the way he describes it later on, he only does a couple years in prison for this, by the way. What? This is the crazy part. His friend, by the way, this woman named Glenda, who he's friends with for years and years, he meets her after all this and tells her what happened to his first wife.

And this is true. He, quote, he told me that he shot his wife he told me that he raped his wife he told me that he drove and drove and drove with her in a car with him and that he decided he'd have himself a beer and when he finished his beer he was going to finish her off because he had already raped and shot her but then he was like oh she's still alive he said the police came before he could already raped and shot her. But then he was like, oh, she's still alive. He said the police came before he could do that and put a gun to his head and placed him under arrest. So the cops apparently rolled up on him about to finish off his wife,

who was bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound in the car. And post rape to post. Yeah. Who's been raped and shot. And then they roll up with guns on him and pull him out of the car and save post-rape too post yeah who's been raped and shot and then he they roll up with guns on him and pull him out of the car and i save her life she ended up living and give him two years for it and he only gets a couple of years wow the thing after that though she just disappears she the kids end up going with him yeah he gets he gets custody of the children

after raping and shooting their mother okay i mean how's she gonna protect them if she can't protect herself oh god you know that's gotta be how they see it right in west virginia 1968 that's i mean probably well i mean she can't even keep herself safe no that's obviously the most ridiculous legal ruling of all time you take the kids that seems right how could they do that well if she takes him he's just gonna come over and shoot her again so we'll just give him to her him i don't understand it but she just takes off she's so terrified of him that she takes off leaves her children behind never to be heard from again the kids never hear from their mother again are

we sure that she disappeared and took off are we, yeah, no, she was alive. Okay. Yeah, she was alive. He didn't get charged with murder. He got charged with assault. But she abandoned the children, so he won. Yeah, that's exactly what he wanted, was to win.

Wow. And he ended up winning. 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 way back 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. 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 and the Wondery app or on Apple 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****er lied. Like a liar. 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. Which is a pretty gross W there. Pretty gross checking the dub column on that one, I would say. That's a bloody W.

Jesus Christ. Also, all of his friends said he frequently reads True Detective magazine, which every weirdo fucking murderer we talk about from back then loves those detective magazines from john wayne gacy to fucking uh btk oh my god they were his favorite thing in the world to um uh leonard lake and charles ang loved them yeah they were like this ted bundy loved them they were these like a map. The author of that magazine has to feel like a piece of shit. Yeah. People would read those and go, I never even thought to do that. And then they do it.

But the thing is, normal people can take that and go, oh, that's a terrible story. Yeah. It's a sick mind that goes, oh, that's a good idea. Like, that's not what's supposed to come out of those stories. A good idea. It's crazy. That's not what's supposed to come out of those stories. A good idea.

It's crazy. That guy's inbox and mailbox must have been full of correspondence with nut jobs. From one end of the spectrum to the other. From, man, I am jerking it like a bastard to those things. Keep pumping them out. To, oh, my God, I cried myself to sleep after I heard that one. Just a full range of emotions coming from people. yeah he would do all of that and i guess at some point he gives one of his friends like a giant stack of them like a huge crazy weird i've had all i can take these too many stack like

they're filling my closet you have to take some type of thing like i had a friend give me porn one time like that where he used to buy the lots of like hundreds of dvds at a time and he opened his closet and he had no clothes in his closet it was just all porn and he said you got to take some of these and i'm like how many am i supposed to take this is crazy so you could fit shirts in here yeah like it's enough to clear out a section for shoes what are we talking about here anyway, he's living with in 1988. He's not living with, but he has two kids from a previous marriage. They're adults now.

Ronald Dean Barker, who's 25 and Brenda Barker, who's 23 at that point. Yeah. And he is remarried. Somebody married him in 1970. Jimmy, was it Glenda? This all? No, no, no. Glenda didn't meet him till 1970, Jimmy. Was it Glenda? No, no, no. Glenda didn't meet him until 1973 or something.

But in 1970, after getting out of prison for shooting and raping his wife, he meets another lady who can't resist his wiles and charms here. Is he a suitor? He is. Virginia Louise Bennett. She goes by Penny. That's what everybody calls her. Yeah, I can see how you can get there. Ginny jenny penny i don't know penny whatever who knows you know what though back maybe her mom and

her sister were both named virginia too we have no fucking idea it's west virginia how many women are their name virginia around probably a lot yeah so you get a nickname. Virginia Louise Penny. I'm sorry. Benny Penny Bennett. Penny. She's 42 in 1988. So he's 43. She's 42. So age appropriate anyway, which, you know, we've had not age appropriate on this show. recently so uh she is from originally pike county kentucky she's one of six kids her um her father's name is ermal which i was like is that a name that's the first time i've heard that e-r-m-a-l no yeah ermal i don't know ermal it's like that's her dad's name fucking like a garbled pronunciation of elmer and then they just wrote it like that it's like a sc her dad's name. Fucking like a garbled pronunciation of Elmer. And then they just wrote it like that. It's like a Scrabble hand. They just like shook it up. And however it came out of the letters of that, they put it together.

Hermel. We just named kids with a Scrabble board down here. And her mom's name is Irene. And yeah, they get married. She the kids are young, but they know that they had a mother. They know they had another mother, but they don't ever see their mother,

so from the time Penny marries their dad, Ronald, she's mom, period. There's no anything else. There's no, well, you're not really my kids. She raises them from a young age as hers, and that's that. So, yeah, she was, the daughter brenda was five when all of this happened when her parents were divorced you know because of a shooting and all um yeah

she said she called penny mom her whole life and she was penny cared for her raised her and she was a great mom um she by the way penny no one has a bad word to say about Penny. She is nobody. In a legal document, it says it is undisputed that Virginia Penny Bennett is a good and decent person. Undisputed, legally. She's an undisputed good and decent person? What was it, three weeks ago we had someone adjudicated a whore? We had a judge officially declare a woman a whore? Here she's officially declared a good

and decent person in state legal documents so that's cool right she's the undisputed champ of it of state yeah of good and decency goodness and decency good for her so um now the father here ronald even though he's just not around a lot even though he they there's together they never get a divorce he works in cleveland ohio which is like five hours away really yeah he's a steel worker who works in cleveland so they say he stops by like a couple times a month you know for maybe like two weekends a month he'll come home and be there for a day or two and be gone again so it's just virginia and the kids mainly you know their whole life and they ronald and virginia or ronald and penny have a kid of their own as well to add to the mix who is darlene is her name and uh she is 16 in 1988 so there we go

now two kids from the previous one from theirs. Everybody lives in the house. Everything is except for him being, you know, having bouts of meanness and working in Cleveland constantly. Everything's fine. And when he's gone, everything's fine. Nobody, nobody cares. He makes decent money as a steel worker. Does well. Takes care of business.

Everything's fine. So anyway, 1988 comes around and she, by the way, Penny puts up with a lot of shit. She puts up with a lot of shit over the years. He is just a his temper is awful. He's also extremely domineering. Like, well, yeah, that's what they're controlling people. You have to do everything he says type of thing. Like everything has to be just how he says, just how he likes it, or he'll freak the fuck out. And he's violent, and he's scary, and he's hair trigger.

So when he comes home for that weekend, everybody's on their toes waiting for an explosion all the time. Waiting for the shoe to drop. Exactly. So that's how he is. But from like 86 through 88, it gets worse. It starts to kind of just magnify his every little thing sets him off and everybody's terrified of him. The kids are he's beating the shit out of the kids all the time. And what's happening? Everybody's terrified of this guy. He just doesn't. I don't know. He just comes home, terrorizes the shit out of everybody, and then leaves and goes back to Cleveland on a regular basis. So it's really weird. All of the kids say, and everybody who's ever been around them, says Penny wouldn't even argue with him. The kids said they've never heard her raise her voice to him ever.

Ever. Really? In their whole marriage. Decades here. Two decades almost of marriage. And that's fine. Not arguing. marriage you know decades here two decades almost of marriage and that's fine uh not arguing but if there's something oh where somebody's beating the shit out of the family maybe raise your voice a little well she he he's she's part of the abuse i mean a part of she's getting up being abused yes

i mean she's in that in that camp so she's terrified of him and she just basically goes with it and i'm sure if he told his friend friend Glenda there, I'm pretty positive he told this wife that, hey, if you divorce me and try to take the kids, I'll rape you and shoot you, by the way. I don't care. So I can't imagine he wouldn't have said that. She, by the way, Penny is like a homemaker, you know, stay at home mom until her youngest is in the seventh grade. And then she went to work out of economic necessity, even though he made really good money. He just wouldn't like support his family. Basically, what he's living his other life in Cleveland and doing his thing or whatever he's doing and not sending enough money home to pay the bills and care for his children. So Penny's got to work.

So Penny's got to go to work, too, even though she shouldn't have to because he makes good money and she's trying to take care of three kids. But that's fine. So now she would go to church, the Beckley Church of God, all the time. And she worked at the Beckley Appalachian Regional Hospital in the dietary department. Oh. So that's what she did for a living here. Is that the cafeteria? Or is she like designing menus?

Yeah, dietary department. I don't know what the hell that does, honestly. It doesn't sound like the cafeteria. Maybe they help put together the meals for the patients. I don't know. Maybe it's in like the anorexia wing, eating disorder. I have no idea. No clue.

Either way, Ronald's in Cleveland most of the time so right this is like they live like this normal life and then all of a sudden oh shit dad's home type of thing oh no he's home for you never know when he's gonna pop in that's the other thing might be on a thursday just he pops in after work holy shit what the fuck 10 o'clock at night here's dad it's just you never know so um glenda willis is the one who she's she lives in cleveland that's how he knows her from working in cleveland she's the one he gave a giant stack of true detective magazine to oh back then she like here take these she's like here's some white reading i don't want these weird things with scantily clad women being bound and this is

creepy man tied up and shit yeah i've heard of ted bundy by now this is gross i don't like it i now know what you like that's yeah this is what you're into jesus bro come on man so march 4th 1988 okay this is when shit really escalates as far as all of the beef around the house here. So Ronald comes home that weekend. Yeah. What does he discover at his kitchen table? What would be the most enraging thing he could find? Just enraging.

Just like Penny. At the table? At the kitchen table. Right on the kitchen table, no less. What, like Penny getting teamed by like eight call workers while the kids eat popcorn and watch would that be like the worst thing possible four months of the mortgage no well no um he finds something to him way more horrifying than any of these things he finds his 16 16-year-old daughter, Darlene, at the kitchen table.

You know what she's doing, Jimmy? Is she having breakfast? You know what she's doing? She's filling out a tax return. What does that mean? You fucking bitch. How dare you? How dare you?

So she's paying taxes and he's furious? She's been working at a fast food restaurant at nights and on the weekends to help her mom pay the bills while she's in school and to save up some money. She wants to get like a car and shit like that, you know, like kid stuff. So she's been doing that. She's filling out a tax return because, you know, that's what you do when you work because you kind of have to. He sees this and flies off the handle loses his mind how dare you fill out a tax return okay not because not because he's like we don't pay taxes in this house we hide none of that shit he's angry because now he can't

claim her as a dependent on his return. Okay. Because she's been working. He doesn't get $1,500. Yeah. So he doesn't go, God damn it, son of a bitch. Well, Jesus, now I lost $1,500. No, no, no. He gets his belt off of him. Oh, my.

This is a 16-year-old girl, by the way. I mean, this is practically an adult, for Christ's sake. And begins to beat her unmercifully with the belt. Wow. Whipping her. She's running from him from room to room. He's chasing her, beating her with a belt. Okay.

She says, I'll let her say it in her own words here, quote, he got up from his chair, took off his belt, and beat me from the living room to the dining room to the bathroom. Jesus. Oh, my God. me from the living room to the dining room to the bathroom jesus oh my god so penny attempted to intervene you know because this is horrifying and in a low voice yeah she's this is horrifying so she tries to calmly i suppose tell him excuse me excuse me ronald um and um at this point he became twice as enraged because now they're all against me right now they're all against me in my own house in my own house you're disobedient you're filing fucking tax returns like some kind of upstanding citizen i can't have any of this

right he's losing his mind beating his daughter um so penny tries to get into the bathroom to stop this beating and he wouldn't let her in wouldn't let her like into the bathroom there so um she was trying to help after the beating happened she was trying to help uh darlene and darlene said quote he said not to touch me he said i didn't deserve any help oh my god so yeah leave her there to you know tend to her own belt wounds right holy fucking shit this is a nice guy huh i'd like to know what made him so mad she didn't like i mean i don't know what could cause you to react like that but it's not you filed a tax return because you worked at fucking hardy's for two months like that's crazy man it's it's life has he's angry he's a mad man fucking angry man dude a bad bad man here so he um he ends up after that he's so mad that she's his wife's trying to

help his daughter here that he tells his wife and daughter that i'm going back to Ohio to work now. If you're both not out of the house by the time I get back from Ohio, whenever that might be, I'll fucking kill you both. Okay. That's his threat. So an ultimatum, right? Yeah. Get the fuck out of the house, even though you pay the bills and work. And this is just a mind fuck. The whole thing for these poor people these is you know Darlene and Penny so Darlene and Penny took this shit seriously yeah they've

looked in his eyes they know he's he's capable of anything he just beat his daughter for nothing from room to room so he's capable of anything so with the help of some family members who ends up being uh ronald's sister ronald's other daughter and other other family members of his they end up how they know how crazy he is and how much of an asshole he is so they help them get out of the house and find them another place to live nice quickly okay and also penny ends up getting a restraining order against him as well okay so she's doing everything right she's doing everything she can do here so they initially stayed with ronald's sister and ronald's brother-in-law who kept them secretly in hiding no one knew where they were they like jews in the world war yeah they they and franked them in the in the back of some west virginia house so

fascinating yeah held you know uh hid them. So after a short period, though, this is well, so they could find their own place. After a short period of time, Penny and Darlene moved into a house. The address is 203 Sunrise Avenue in Beckley. And this is owned by Ronald's mother and stepfather. So, okay. Now, all of the relatives of his are all concerned for the women's safety yeah both of them they're all they know what he's capable of yes so much so that ronald's own sister and brother-in-law gave penny a 22 revolver for protection and a weapon keep

this in case he comes for you which i don't remember ann frank being armed after that keep this in case those nazi fucks come for you and then you just open fire and mow them down that would have been a great ending to that story and then she shot seven nazis on the way out fled to the docks hop hopped on a boat. Now she lives in Baltimore where she's owned a cafe for the last 48 years. That would be a great end to that story, wouldn't it? Unfortunately, it didn't end like that for poor Anne Frank. So anyway, they give her 22 and they also said switch cars with us. The sister said you drive my car so he doesn't even see your car

and doesn't know where you are this will throw him off the scent a little bit this is nuts yeah they have to like who is this is what you do if the fucking mafia was after you wanted to blow your car up or something like feds yeah the feds are you know say any one of these a large organization that can yeah reach out and kill, but not some dipshit steelworker. So not that he's a dipshit because he's a steelworker. He's a dipshit and a steelworker completely separate of each other. So, yeah, they get and they would hide her car in the garage, basically. So it looked like who knows where she is.

She could have disappeared. have disappeared now brenda who is his daughter from the first marriage who's 23 at this point she called her father later on quote said he was quote full of hate and he didn't know how to handle those feelings okay like dumb people often get that there's a sir i don't know why i'm so angry well because you can't explore your own you know the intellect to delve into that is the problem there a lot of times. A lot of times it might be chemical. Yeah, they pay people a lot of money to help you sort through that. That's the thing.

And when you don't and you just instead hang out in West Virginia, drink and beat the shit out of your daughter with a belt, it doesn't get better. No. Take it out on your family. Exactly. No. Take it out on your family. Exactly. So she even said to other people that she was willing to have her help get her father committed if that would do the trick.

Put him in an asylum. If that would protect Penny, then she would do it. And she believes always she tells people that he needs help, but she doesn't think he's insane. She's like, he's not insane, but he's fucked up. Basically, he needs some help. She said, quote, my dad knows every move he makes so that's her thing here very aware so anyway he gets back from cleveland okay and he realizes they have left the house as instructed as he asked yeah but unfortunately for him he's very upset that they're not like homeless and sleeping under a park bench here.

Oh, he wanted to teach them a lesson. Yeah, he's very, very angry that his family has helped harbor them. Because somebody in the family said, look, you don't need to find her. We helped her, and she's out of the, you know, don't talk to her. Leave her alone. He was like, oh, they're all against me now. He's been waiting for a conspiracy. It's not just under my own roof. Yeah, he's been waiting for a conspiracy. You know what I mean? Like, he's's been waiting for a conspiracy roof yeah he's been waiting for a

conspiracy you know what i mean like he's just been waiting for it he's like and then the greys came down did i ever tell you the egyptians are really aliens i got a long story to tell you like he's he's got into full yeah full-blown conspiracy theory and at a family gathering he quote threatened to kill all of them damn every i will kill you all because you helped her my hold on i gotta get a pen you know what hold on you fucking sit right there i'm gonna uh jenny uh was uh carl car i see you carl don't try to fucking run for me motherfucker i'm putting you on the list buddy uh tom tommy where you at you're fucking dead that's right buddy uh carolyn carol i'm gonna fucking kill you after right now i'm gonna schedule you slide you

in between tommy and and jenny i'm gonna slide you in there i feel like that'd be the best place to kill you all right that's good uh we'll get with times and we'll work on the schedule and everything but i really hope this is like a Skidmore episode. How is he not the town asshole that everybody hates? They do. He's just gone so often nobody in town notices him. Only his family notices when he pops in in terror. I think if he stayed there for a long time it would be like Skidmore.

They'd all rise up against him. That's the last Patreon episode, by the way, was in Skidmore where the whole town killed a guy and then just said, I didn't see nothing. What are you talking about? It was awesome. So anyway, I will kill all of you. Whole family. One shot. Dead.

Wipe you out. So this is in mid-March of 2000 and I'm sorry, 1988, not 2008. This is when he finally finds out where they're hiding. Oh, boy. He puts two and two together of, of well it's my family hiding them where could they be hiding them while they own a house maybe it's there right it's one of those by the way he is staying the next street over this whole when in town not a big move so yeah because they're gone he ends up like staying with his uncle or some shit like a street up, even though he has a house. I don't understand what's going on.

So he's nuts. What do you want from me? Yeah. So he would then show up frequently and obviously completely uninvited. As a matter of fact, in violation of a restraining order. Right. Just show up attempting to get Penny and Darlene to come back to him. Oh my God.

What do you think that was like, Jimmy? Was that? Oh boy. That's ugly. We've talked about this. I can't remember what episode it was, but we've talked about this recently

where a guy is just a horrible guy that he's like, come back to me, please. He's just loudly yelling. Shows up on bended knee just fucking, you know, singing like some fucking 80s song showing up i learned all the words to that stevie b song that y'all like to fuck too and i think i'm gonna sing it to you

this this was loud and boisterous and things were thrown i yeah this is he's out on the front lawn he's like hey penny you fucking bitch come back to me and bring that ne'er-do-well fucking no good ungrateful fucking twat kid with you too bring him come back to me you fucking bitch come on like that's i'm trying to romance you that's not okay i don't think it's not going to be successful probably so anyway he would show up they wouldn't come back to him. Okay. So he started telling everybody in his family, also his friend Glenda, who's given the magazines to and all that and told about his. This poor woman has to hear all sorts of terrible things from this guy. Why are you still friends with this guy? Right after, well, a shot and raped my first wife.

I don't think we're friends anymore at that point. She has got to be just like her namesake, the good witch of the east. The kindest person on earth. North. North, north. I thought it was the east. No, wicked witch of the west. The west, good witch of the east.

I don't know why I thought she was the good witch of the north, though. I don't know. Maybe that's her sister. I'm sure they're all related somewhere, Jimmy. These magical powers don't grow on trees. So this poor woman, though, has to hear. If someone tells you I shot and I raped and shot my first wife, I'm busy for lunch from now on. Right.

Like we're not. Don't holler. I'm changing my number. We're not pals anymore, really. I don't think we're we don't we're not into the same shit is what I'm getting at. pals anymore really i don't think we're we don't we're not into the same shit is what i'm getting at we're probably just because we both like you know west virginia football doesn't mean that we're we're buddies our free time is spent entirely different outside of football season outside of football season obviously well and of course when nascar's on but other than that

different so he told glenda in addition to all of his family, that he feels like he should probably kill his wife. He said, I'm going to kill her even if I have to go to the penitentiary for it. It's worth it. Oh, boy. It's worth it because how dare she do exactly what I told her to do? How dare she be run from her own home of 20 years just like I told her to do? How dare she do that? She should have stuck around where I threatened to kill her if she stayed there.

Duh. Jesus, it's like these people don't want to survive. That's how this guy thinks. Be so obedient when I threw her out for being disobedient. Yeah. That's how this fucking psycho thinks, though, really. It's nuts, man. I just want to be able to pull you back and forth at will and see how it goes.

Right. That's all. So May 9th, 1988, okay? Darlene has a boyfriend named Chris Ward, okay? And so he's there as well. We got Chris, we got Darlene. We got Penny at the house hanging out at the Sunrise Avenue house. Yeah.

The Sunrise Avenue house. And here comes Ronald showing up pounding on the door. Oh, boy. This isn't a friendly knock. This is let me in, motherfuckers. It's a big bad wolf style. Yeah. I'm a huff and puff out here.

So Darlene says, quote, I panicked. I didn't know what to do. I was afraid not to let him in because he might break down the door and get even madder and hurt me. Terrifying. Yeah, this guy is terrifying. So this is not abnormal. He shows up all the time, too. So she said, though, before March, she had, Darlene said before March, he had never threatened to kill her before. That was the first time that ever came up.

She, I guess, at one point, I guess she saw him beat her sister, who's an adult at this point. She's beating, she's married. He's beating an adult married woman. Like, that's fucking insane. Where's her husband? That's what I mean. Where's anybody? Get the beating an adult married woman. Like, that's fucking insane. Where's her husband? That's what I mean. Where's anybody? Get the shit out of this guy.

Somebody. Jesus Christ. So anyway, she said that at that point, because she saw that, that he threatened to kill her if she said anything. Okay. So now this particular day, Brenda and her husband had been at the house, and when they left, that's when he showed up, like right as they were leaving. So they got out of there because they didn't want to be a part of whatever was going to happen here, but they were also worried. So they stopped somewhere else, and Brenda called the house back to talk to her mom here, talk to Penny. And she said, I just had a real bad feeling.

I didn't know what it was. So she called Penny, talked to Penny for a couple minutes, and that was that. So whatever. Everybody's sitting at the table at one point here. Darlene and Chris kind of go off to the side, and Penny and Ronald are sitting at the table together at the kitchen table. And we know, God forbid, she better not be doing taxes on there. That will be the end of it. So single 1099 or I see a W fucking two in here.

I will kill everybody up in this son of a bitch. body up in this son of a bitch so at this point um at some point he stands up and there's no he doesn't give a lot of indication of what he's doing he's not angry he's not yelling and screaming which is for him yeah weird if he's angry so he's the type of guy that you know you know the volcanoes erupting because you see lava you know what what I'm saying? It's not smokeless coal. There's a lot of smoke before there's that fire. So for him, unless he's yelling and screaming, nobody really gets too worried. You know what I mean? They all kind of think, oh, at least he's calm for a minute now.

Right. Well, this was a different kind of calm, apparently, because he pulls out a.25 caliber pistol. Yeah. And shoots Penny in the face with it. Oh, boy. Once in the face, once in the neck, once in the face with it oh boy once in the face once in the neck once in the chest oh my god the one from the neck travels down goes into her chest again tears a bunch of shit up and kills her okay damn it he then turns darlene and chris are there and he just walks out doesn't shoot them Doesn't say anything to them.

Doesn't do shit. Shoots her a bunch of times. She falls. All right. Well, that was that. Walks out. Gets in his truck. Drives to his uncle's house on the next street and tells his uncle, I shot my wife.

You should probably call the police. Meanwhile. The nice person of the world. The legally adjudicated nice person wow she's known as a yeah legally nice person has been never murdered no reason never even raised her voice there wasn't an argument she's just literally sitting at a table at a house that she had to go to because her husband threatened to kill her if she stayed in her other house no no getting away from this i mean she had every every precaution you can have yeah jesus she got help from other people she moved she's armed

there's people around her she called the cops she got you know what i mean and he just he's like a fucking rhino he just keeps coming and coming and coming you can't stop him what the hell is this guy's problem he's a fucking maniac so his uncle calls the police and because you fucking you asshole what'd you do that for jesus christ they all love penny they all think she's great obviously so the police show up and they find her dead in the kitchen she's just laying there dead um that's it this is by the way 10 a.m this is in the morning this is 10 a.m she didn't have a whole day to get fired up about it and get all liquored up at the bar and then come over here. It's 10 a.m.

We should be having Bloody Marys right now. Yeah. People are in robes and shit. Like, this is ridiculous. Welcome to the small town of Chinook, where faith runs deep and secrets run deeper. In this new thriller, available exclusively on Wondery+, religion and crime collide when a gruesome murder rocks the isolated Montana community. Everyone is quick to point their fingers at a drug-addicted teenager,

but local deputy Ruth Vogel isn't convinced. She suspects connections to a powerful religious group. Enter federal agent V.B. Loro, who has been investigating a local church for possible criminal activity. The pair form an unlikely partnership to catch the killer, unearthing secrets that leave Ruth torn between her duty to the law, her religious convictions, and her very own family. But something more sinister than murder is afoot, and someone is watching Ruth. With an all-star cast led by Emmy nominee Sanaa Lathan

and Star Wars Kelly Marie Tran, Chinook is available exclusively and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. 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 one and watching along with part two as it airs on Max,

starting April 21st. Bye-bye. The Official Jinx Podcast. Listen on Max or wherever you get your podcasts. So, he ends up, you know, he's arrested. The cops show up at his house there, his uncle's house on the next street.

Take him into custody. No questions asked. No problem. Here we go. He just fucking walks off with them and that's that. And they arrest him. So, they search through the house and what they do find here is in uh in penny's purse they find a document this poor fucking woman it's it's what's known as a holographic will you know what that is no i had to look it up it's a handwritten and uh it's a handwritten signed document that is an alternative

to like a legally produced lawyer will some states don't recognize them some states do some states recognize the intent of what it is basically if you wrote a thing and signed it that was your intention that's your will some states it has to go through the lawyer who does this and that and it's a whole other process so it's a whole other process. So it's a holographic. I don't know. Because it's your own writing. I don't know. When I read it, I was like, holographic?

Whoa, what is it? Like, you can't see it? It's like a will you hide from people unless you, like, turn it a certain way into the light, and then it all shows up? Like, this is crazy, man. Wow. You've got to lay it flat and look at it and let her stand up? Yeah, I was like, whoa, this is going to be like, I've got to get one of those. That sounds awesome.

Carry it around in my pocket. Check this out. Pow! Holographic will. So, yeah, so that's what she had in her purse, okay? She's had this. It is dated. This is May 9th, 1988.

It is dated March the 17th, 1988, which is right after he came, terrorized everybody, beat the daughter, and kicked them out okay and it says in her handwriting quote last will and testimony of virginia bennett oh jenny quote if i'm killed my husband did it well there's that if i die i don't under any condition want an open casket no wake no funeral just a private burial with my family only to my family and kids i love you i've done no wrong take care of each other and stick together this is a woman who knows she's going to be murdered this is fucking terrifying where could she go the moon like this is fucking crazy. Fuck. Together with love and God, you can overcome anything. Don't grieve for me.

What is the... That's why she's considered legally nice. Yeah. Just don't even. I don't want you to be sad. I'll be sad. Don't bother. Yeah.

Wow. All I ever asked God for was to live to see you kids grown. God granted me my prayer. I can't bargain for more. She's not even upset. She's going to be murdered. That's how nice she is. Your daughter's 16.

She's not even grown. Well, in West Virginia, that's over the hill, I think. That's elderly. Yeah, they're like, well, how many kids you got? And you're like, I'm 16. They're like, how many kids you got? All right. Fuck.

No, this is horrifying. This is one of the saddest things I've ever read in my life she knows this is gonna happen to her telling everybody what's gonna happen and then saying don't worry about me i'm good i lived long enough basically she's 42 been a fruitful life long enough i'm good i just got to see my kids grow up. That's all I really need out of life. What a fucking horrible goddamn thing to find. Jesus Christ. So the funeral was private services. So no visitation. They did what she asked, which is I'm happy that they respected her wishes.

I really hate when people have wishes that they want and people don't do it. When they jump on it, yeah. That happens a lot people want a specific kind of funeral of like a quiet thing or whatever and they're like no they just said that they would have wanted this instead i'm gonna do it like this being humble stop doing that yeah do respect someone's wishes god damn it if they want you to just go to mcdonald's and get a happy meal and then go home do that just do what they say they're dead that's the last request you're going to fulfill for them so that's that christ so they arrest ronald like i said he wants to be get bonded out he wants he wants to go home he's like you should

probably give me bond and they were like are you out of your fucking mind they're like no casually saturday night specialed your wife in the in the kitchen no problem not even your house in front of witnesses by the way after threatening her oh by the way from beating your daughter and threatening to kill her and your whole family we don't know if you're done yet at this point you might have some more killing in you so they go you're gonna you stick around here buddy you're gonna hang till the trial so he sits around five months later he's evaluated by psychiatrists. And he tells this doctor here. What is this doctor's name? Dr. Ahmed M. Fahim.

He tells this guy that he frequently has trouble with his nerves. He went through crying spells and frequently suffers from insomnia. Well, he's running the fucking club, asshole. My nerves suck. I can never sleep. And yeah, sometimes you just got to get a good sob out. I don't know what to tell you. For Jimmy, that's how that bathtub wine comes in handy.

Sometimes that's how the bath gets warm. That's what I mean, man. That's adulthood, chief. You're over 40 buddy that's life man 43 yeah that sounds like 43 trouble with your nerves yeah crying spells insomnia yep call me back when both your knees hurt motherfucker there take that asshole light a candle shut the door that's it yeah you whiny bitch what are you doing he said that he would frequently pace for hours okay yeah me too join the club and was snappy and grouchy and irritable check check check um and considered

suicide okay i don't want to do that but all the rest of those fine those are all the reasons sometimes my kids don't like the weekends over here. Exactly. That's it. Dad couldn't sleep because he's having a crying spell. He's all snappy and grouchy and irritable today. I think he's having trouble with his nerves. Friday was grouchy. Saturday we didn't see him for three hours.

Sunday he smiled again. Weird, huh? It's because I had a bath on Saturday, you dumb fuck. That's right. Needed that wine. Those crying bouts would get me centered again, sir. So he said the problems increased about six months before the shooting. It all just started getting to a head in his mind here.

He couldn't do it. They did a standardized IQ test for for him and they found him quoting from court documents intelligence quotient near the range of mildly retarded but fahim and said depressed patients frequently score lower than they normally would on such examinations sure yeah yes maybe a little bit lower but not smart guy oh no your iq is forrest gump that's that doesn't it's not that bad you drop 10 points maybe but not the fucking you know you could be shit hammer drunk and you would get a better score than that if you were at a average iq you know sometimes my emotional distress might uh slow me

down a little bit but on average i'm the average dummy that's what happens so um they said though despite his um lower his relatively low iq they are definitely capable of understanding what's wrong behavior in clear-cut situations i think he knew it was wrong based on everyone in his life telling him that i think everyone knew that it was bad behavior because he did it as a punishment, which is I mean, bad behavior ends up being punishment. Yeah. But at the same time, too, he also thought nothing of just telling random women that he knew horrible things like he has no impulse control, which doesn't mean he's like, you know, incapable of controlling himself. But he just he's got to concentrate extra hard. I don't feel like he does so they said that quote in gray areas such as parking tickets speeding tickets and maybe some

mild shoplifting they might have trouble yeah but not murder you understand that there shouldn't be a bullet hole in your wife's forehead probably and three indicates you you had a purpose for your fucking one shot you know what i mean i understand that you can you can attempt and purposely wound somebody with one shot but not in the fucking head and not again and again right and about the chest and neck that's three shots that are certainly uh mean more than just fuck you those are lethal and yeah that's brutal so um they said though that he uh he might have had some impaired social judgment but he would he this one psychiatrist said he would not have been unable to conform his actions to legal requirements to recognize the wrongful wrongfulness of his

behavior so that is by the that's the state's doctor here is this guy now the fahim guy is the other one that he said i have all these problems too that's doctor here is this guy. Now, the Fahim guy is the other one that he said, I have all these problems, too. That's his psychiatrist. This person examined him, Fahim, here five months after the shooting. And he says that the history he took from Ronald himself was extremely important in making his diagnosis and forming the opinion that at the time of the shooting, Ronald was suffering from mental illness, which rendered him incapable of understanding and appreciating the wrongfulness of his act or even conforming to the actions, conforming his actions to the law, said that much of that self-reported history dealt with his behavior prior to the shooting. They said that prior to the shooting, in the weeks before,

he kept having spells of crying and breaking down. This is all what, by the way, Ronald just told him five months later. So, you know, you have five months to sit around and think about this shit is a long time. He said that he'd been had difficulty sleeping and eating. He had suicidal thoughts and he even heard voices. Oh, boy. That's the one right there. If you're going to if you're going to plead insanity, you got to hear voices, man.

That's the well, that's the only way like you're schizophrenic. You're delusional. That's the only way you can be delusional and not know what's going on. The voice has told me to do it. Yeah. No, it's a thing. And blah, blah, blah. That's outside of that. You're not getting off anymore. You know, but you can be a sane person and and hear them if you don't sleep and he's had trouble sleeping so yeah you know i mean that can that's a possibility i've heard them and they're fuck it's psychotic and we're on the road half the time it melts your brain when you hear yeah most of the time you see me live i'm hearing voices so be careful out there everybody it is horrifying to hear but sometimes it happens and i'm not i'm not crazy i'm certainly a sane

person i know right from wrong but i i too many people think that that shit is just only the crazy hear them no man it's when your brain's too tired everybody isolate that for further use just in case something happens here. We want to have that. It's easier because the courts are going to take forever to go through all the episodes. So just go find that. Get it out. Make it easier for everybody.

No, I'm certainly not crazy. I hear voices, but I can understand right from wrong. All right, then. I mean, no, you're up for three days. You hear voices. I'm off my rocker. I mean, I'm crazy. I you're up for three days. You hear voices. I'm certainly crazy. I'm off my rocker. I mean, I'm crazy. I tell you crazy.

Let me out. So he told, Ronald told Fahim here that he, that Penny told her to, that they were going to get back together, but he had to see a doctor before she would go back to him. Yeah. He wanted her, she wanted him to get evaluated for, you know, crazy time shit. Yeah. Yeah, so.

Shit you're doing your family isn't okay. He would show up, you come back to me. She would say, go see a doctor. He would say, get pissed off

and be more forceful with you come back to me. So it kept going around in a circle like that and the more she would say it, the angrier he would get. Sure. And that's what happened.

So he said that before he knew what happened, he just shot his wife. He didn't even know he was going to do it. I mean, he took a gun over there and everything. Didn't know. He says that he remembers seeing blood and he thinks he thinks he blacked out. I mean, you know how it is when you shoot your wife. Yeah. You black out.

He said he knows he shot her because he remembers seeing blood and he thinks he may have held her for a while as well he didn't by the way he shot her and walked out of the fucking house so um he also reported to the psychiatrist that even within two months of her death in the last two months after the death that um or uh before the death i'm sorry that you know he kept being told she kept telling him that he needed medical help and all this type of shit but you know she said that he said that he thought that she thought he was crazy so that was making him angry because he's trying to say she made me angry so and he's couching it like like he put down a 14 year old golden retriever with cancer yeah pretty much yeah the fuck then he said did you read her her

statement she said she's good she said don't grieve for me she's fine so what are we even talking about she was happy to die that's that's yeah i'm practically cavorkian over here it was just voluntary no couldn't even stand up anymore this poor woman just needed a life man that is needed to get away from him so she could have a life so um anyway fahim though he thinks that the uh that you know that he's not capable or not capable of understanding and not accountable for his actions so uh the circuit judge in this case orders that he be taken to a hospital to be evaluated also and uh they also delay the trial so he can get a ct scan and all these neurological examinations to see if he's got like brain tumors or something so if he's hearing voices who knows so uh the judge also

orders all this type of shit and um it's weird too because they like close it down to the press as well the press are allowed to be there but they're not allowed to report what happens and it's really weird like what's in the beginning he doesn't let the details out it's a very strange case here so darlene somehow through all of this while her father's awaiting trial she enrolls at marshall university starts going to college so really good for you darlene i don't know how the fuck you can put that all together after that because i couldn't figure out a college application when no one was murdered before me. Honestly, yeah. Good for you. I mean, wow. The trial comes up.

Six-man, six-woman jury. He's going for an insanity defense here. His attorney, Warren A. Thornhill III, said it's an undisputed fact that he killed his wife. We know that. Okay. He did say, though, that two psychiatrists are going to say that he suffers from severe depression and is not legally accountable for his actions that day. So we're good. And he walks away.

First up, they're talking about his family members. Apparently, he brings up several of Bennett's family on the stand to talk about the family's medical history. And his medical history. Specifically, mental problems. His mom, Thelma Faye Pyatt, P-Y-A-T-T, brought up, they bring up to her a lengthy list of people on both sides of the family who had committed suicide. Oh, boy. So she said that some of the dozen or so mentioned weren't blood related and a few of them were distant relatives.

So there is some suicides, but we're not like the Von Erich family or anything over here. So an uncle of his Garland Plumlee, he said that, um, he talked about all those people and, he said he talked, they,

they bring up, you know, his, all the ancestors here. And he said that, uh, he's talked about his grandpa, grandpa Plumlee, who, quote, came over on a boat.

And he said, now he was a good man. Now his wife was a killer. And I'm told she was hell on wheels. And they're like, can we? This is not. Literally, they had to stop and go, this isn't old timey folksy fucking, you know, small town tales here. Get to the point of what we're talking about.

He was up there just spinning yarns about generation. Yeah. You don't need to have character evolution. Let's just, let's just talk. Grandma Plumlee was hell on wheels. Who gives a shit? Don't give a fuck.

Don't care. And everyone in the court laughed because they were just like, this is hilarious. This guy is funny as shit. So Glenda Willis gets up there and by the way in court it is not introduced at all and not supposed to be introduced that he shot and raped his ex-wife okay why can't we talk about that i don't know that's it's it's out it's out of uh the judge rules ahead of time pre-trial things are what's in and what's out so this judge ruled that's out. Okay. It's too inflammatory.

So Glenda Willis, as she's known him for 17 years, the question to her is the difference was that never before in 17 years had you heard him say he was going to kill anybody. Isn't that right? Is that true? And she said, do I have to tell the truth? Oh. The judge says, you've been asked to do so and sworn to do so. So, yes, ma'am. Tell the truth to sit in a witness stand after you just swore.

Then we asked the judge, do I have to tell the truth? Might be the dumbest thing, even in this whole story, which is saying something. So the defense attorney says, is the truth different from what you told us a while ago? And she said, Ronnie Bennett told me that an accident happened or an incident happened. She corrects herself in 1967. And he says, now that isn't responsive to the question. She says, you asked me a question. Do you want me to answer it or do you not?

You asked me, had he ever mentioned killing someone in my home? And the lawyer says, I certain. And she cuts him off. Do you want me to answer it or do you not you asked me had he ever mentioned killing someone in my home and the the lawyer says i i certain and she cuts him off do you want me to answer it or not you want to hear about this this is a great day in court man i want to be here for this this is fun tales of hillbilly fucking families and this lady arguing and he says i i want and she just cuts him off and says he talked about his first wife and he talked about how he shot his first wife she wanted a divorce she wanted his children she wasn't going to he wasn't

going to let her have him he told me that he shot his wife he told me that he raped his wife he told me he drove and drove and drove with her in the car with him and that he decided he'd have himself a beer when he finished the beer he was going to finish her off he said he said and then the police came and put a gun to his head before he could finish it.

So eventually, so the defense asked for a mistrial. And the judge says, you fucking asked her it. This isn't the prosecution. You got it out of her. You can't get information out of somebody that isn't allowed and then get a mistrial for your own client that's not how this works everybody would just do that we weren't gonna allow it but you made it you forced it on us the prosecutor said quote i've never seen such a long line of inviting questions like you just asked for it man the defense attorney said that he had no way of knowing what was coming because when willis was asked the first time she said she never heard him

make such statements so um he then said i wasn't going to tell the witness not to tell the truth so they went back and back and back and they said okay we're going to not have a mistrial but just jury disregard that statement how do you disregard that he raped and shot his first wife how do you disregard that murder i'll go ahead and delete that from the memory wow uh the so the uh the judge said that's like asking you to ignore the snorting red-eyed elephant that's been trumpeting around before you but still all right try it okay so no mistrial and are any of that shit they get the uh the uh the oh my god this is Glenda Willis's testimony after that. When there was an incident once where a paper girl was killed in our hometown. Paper girl?

What is that? Oh, a girl that delivers the paper. Oh, paper girl. Yeah, like someone who throws papers. I'm like a paper girl. I pictured those fashion cutout things. I'm like, paper girls? What the hell is that about?

And one of the men was on trial, and one was was taken over to Mexico and they couldn't bring him back. And Ronald was talking about how people could just say they were crazy and walk out of a courtroom and do it again. So basically what he's talking about. She also said that to her, he's never displayed any signs of mental illness. He seems like he's fine. He knows what he's doing. Dr. Fahim says absolutely crazy as crazy as crazy can be. He doesn't know what he's doing.

I'm sure he didn't tie his own shoes today. Just batshit cuckoo bananas. So he found that depression was associated with psychotic features that concluded with him not being criminally responsible. Under cross-examination, prosecution's trying to, you know, crack through this. The prosecutor takes an article from the September 1985 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, which discussed the American Medical Association's

position that the insanity defense was not a valid medical and psychiatric defense but it is all a legal defense so you can't that's not really so anyway they there's more objections more calls for mistrials and all this type of shit um they said that he argues that a psychiatrist who testifies there's a there's a general general agreement in the scientific community as to the validity of an insanity defense based on psychiatric postdiction. Basically, it came out of the book, so it's fine. And then the judge said, yeah, whatever, it's fine. So the state psychiatrist said, he's just an asshole.

That's all there is. He said that he's a dick. He's a bit of a twat. I don't really care for him. He's certainly not crazy. He's like crazy in the terms of that guy's a crazy son of a bitch, but not legally crazy. You know what I mean? So that ended up going on.

The closing arguments. Prosecutor says that she says Dr. A.D. Fahim, a Beckley psychiatrist, testified Wednesday that Bennett's depression kept the defendant from realizing the wrongfulness of his action. But Dr. Richard Snyder, a Marshall University professor who examined Bennett at the hospital, said the defendant had the capacity. So Dr. Fahim testified that if the kitchen had been full of police officers, Bennett still would have shot his wife. And they said, first of all, our police are quicker draws than that. Second of all, he waited until two witnesses left to do it. Well, he still shot him with two more there, though. So whatever.

According to the police testimony, Bennett was not disoriented or confused when they arrested him following the statement of following the shooting. Listen to the statement. He he said, I shot her. Call the police. He didn't say call the sports editor at the Beckley Registered Herald. He knew what he was doing is what she's saying. She said, I told you in the beginning, we never, never contend the man who has committed a first degree murder is normal or a well-adjusted person. If he were, he would not have murdered.

But listen to the definition. Very important. It is not. If he were, he would not have murdered. But listen to the definition. Very important. It is not, was he mentally healthy or mentally ill? It is this. In order for you to excuse this, you must find that first degree, you must find that first degree that this killing of Virginia was caused by,

caused by a mental illness, such a degree of mental illness that this man does not have the capacity, not have the ability to know that it's wrong to kill. So that's the thing. They said the only insanity in this trial is Dr. Fahim's testimony. That's crazy. Well, you don't put that on your business card, I don't think.

Jesus. She said it's been said many times by the defense lawyer that many people don't like the insanity defense. She said it's been said many times by the defense lawyer that many people don't like the insanity defense. And perhaps one of the reasons people don't like the insanity defense is because, as Mr. Bennett told his friend Glenda, everyone knows you can buy a psychiatrist to say you're crazy. And then the other side buys a psychiatrist. Dr. Fahim may be fine in treating people or prescribing medicine, but I submit to you that upon all of his testimony, he's unbelievable. prescribing medicine but i submit to you that upon all of his testimony he's unbelievable he is an example of why the american medical association urges that the insanity defense be abolished there's a there's objections now at the time it was an article from three years earlier but it's not like that was a campaign they had there was an article in a journal like

three years earlier that goes bad maybe that's's bullshit. And then they forgot about it. So she says, and of course, the same AMA and the American Psychiatric Association, by the way, Dr. Fahim, he first had to admit, yes, was an authoritative statement made by the AMA. So there's all of that. Anyway, they said the prosecutor said, do not turn this into a war between Dr. Snyder and Dr. Fahim. If you want, you can ignore all of them. You could agree with the AMA and say none of them should be up here because we have the people who saw the defendant on May 9th, 1988. They can tell you if he was fucking crazy or not. The defense attorney's got a lot of balls. He says he doesn't disagree that virginia bennett had cried out for help he also said family members had responded by giving her guns money and helping her move he said that the fact that many family members testified that ronald's behavior had not changed

in the months before the murder indicated that they were still unwilling to admit anything was wrong with ronald he then says i think there might be enough blame to go around for the whole family no actually you know the whole family tried to hide her from him one guy no they gave her a gun no wonder she got shot is that what he's saying they tried to hide her they they should have just told her to do what he wanted then she'd be alive right now like that's what he's saying basically that is fucking wild he also says if dr snyder would lie about something like dictating the report can you trust him in anything else in this case it was a very small thing about did he physically dictate the report that he took to somebody else and he

thought he did and he didn't so they were like ha ha liar he didn't remember who did paperwork six months ago so he's a liar um also they said that uh bennett was prescribed antidepressants and tranquilizers prior to his evaluation by the hospital team so they didn't see him in his normal state of depression so if they wouldn't have medicated him then they'd say he's crazy but they medicated him so obviously there he said we's crazy. But they medicated him, so obviously there. He said, we could talk for days about how horrible it was, and that's not disputed. He said that you might not like the insanity defense, but it's the law. So go ahead and do it.

The jury instructions, though. The jury has instructed that the testimony of Glenda Willis referring to the shooting of a previous wife of Ronald Bennett should not be considered. He even said that at the end, the judge verdict comes in one hour of deliberation. That's quick. That is filling the paper out. Literally, you sat down, you took a vote and you went, all right, fill it out. Done. One hour. They return a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree without a recommendation

of mercy. Oh, so that means with recommendation of mercy means that they would like him to get life with parole without means they'd like him to get life without parole and the judge now decides what they're going to give based on that you know recommendation they also concluded the crime was committed with a firearm which it was which is extra yeah sentencing comes around um yeah he's the judge says you sir may fuck off life without parole yeah yeah we don't need any more of you thank you sir forever don't need you if there's a hole we could put you in and just like cover it up with some plywood bad idea have a fat guy sit on a big chair on top of it so you can't get out. We would do that. That's literally where we're at right now with you.

A small hole. We just drop blueberries in there for you. A little tiny hole. We push them through. There's some Cheerios we shove down there. Some raisins. You're getting very small foods for us. That's it.

Well, a fat guy sits up there and farts down the hole. You never know if it's going to be raisins or a fat guy fart. You never know what's coming in that hole he farts in there then he covers the hole up so you have to smell it not bad not bad now that's that's punishment so um the they asked the prosecutor were you surprised the press asked later on that it only took you know an hour to reach the verdict prosecutor said it seemed that if they were intelligent people and they all appeared to be they would realize that this was the only possible verdict because the insanity defense was a piece of crap the prosecutor said it was a piece of crap to the that's her

official statement on the kristen keller the prosecutor that's her official statement piece of crap moving on um now he appeals this based on the fact that they were they were saying basically they were trying to impeach an expert witness without impeaching them they're saying at the end that even though they're an expert witness and they're registered you know taken as an expert witness that they were trying to say that they're not an expert and they're a quack and all that kind of shit. The appeals court says the cross-examination did not encroach upon a legal question for the question placed before the expert involved whether the defense was medically and psychiatrically valid, not legally valid. So they say, you're good there. They also say the closing argument shouldn't have been able to put on because the prosecutor said that you can ignore all the doctors and agree with the ama and say none of them would be up here the appeals court said that would not appear

that would appear not only overzealous but possibly violate a rule however a close review of the whole record of this case does not reveal that the prosecutor's closing argument was improper fuck you affirmed yeah so they send his ass back to prison where he lingers and sometime in the mid 90s he becomes ill of some kind of he has cancer or something it lingers for years and years and years breaking his body down yeah like like you soaked meat in vinegar just breaking it the fuck down breaking down the tendons yeah proving that smoke was not safe not safe and on september 27 2004 he dies in prison after a long illness not bad not a bad ending for that guy that's exactly what you want for him yeah that's way better than the death penalty sure like people

even if you want like we said we're not huge death penalty guys but even if you are enthusiastic and you're like kill that motherfucker if you had a choice of take him in make him wait 15 years take him and give him lethal injection or have him be deathly ill for eight years and wither to nothing and die which would you pick pretty good right yeah that's good that's good shit so he's dead now next story okay this is fucking crazy jimmy um buckle up everybody i don't even know what to say here this is next level bonkers okay buckley up parkersburg west virginia we have to go to for this all right um going back to the 60s here, June 8th, 1969. All right. Now, there's a fire that day.

About 1 a.m. a fire materializes on June 8th, 1969. It is customers at Jimbo's, which is a nearby drive-in, take-out restaurant that's open late. in takeout restaurant that's open late. So customers at Jimbo's see flames materializing from a house, a seven room house, and they report the flames and people try to go help and everything like that. The assistant fire marshal was going to be there, investigate. Everybody's going to be there. OK, the house that's burning. Lots of people live there. Let's talk about who lives there. Well, yeah, there's burning lots of people live there let's talk about who lives there well yeah

um there's a lot of people there's charles and ruby bailey um who are married he's 41 she's 36 and oh they've been married a long time they have 13 children together oh my god oh they're first cousins by the way oh oh oh they're first. So if you wonder where that stereotype comes from, back there in West Virginia. I'm not going to change your last name. It's easy. Yep. So their first cousins.

They're in a house. Like I said, there's 13 children. It's a wood and tar paper house, too. So it's the type that, boom, a tinderbox. It's going up fast. So in this, the people in the house, Charles and Ruby Bailey, their children uh nancy 17 these are the people in the house patricia 11 claudia 8 mary 7 tim 6 debbie 5 steve 3

dale 2 ted 1 ricky 6 months old oh my oh by the way there's a 15-year-old and a 13-year-old as well. What do you think? They went from a 17-year-old to an 11-year-old without having any fucking kids? No, no, no. There's a 15-year-old and a 13-year-old as well. They're sleeping in one of the outbuildings while this is all going on. There's another building. Another building.

They're sleeping in there. Probably because, you know, there's that many people in the fucking house. Fucking 15 people. Yeah. So that's suzy she's 15 um young suzy and uh what's her middle name i have it here suzy jane there um and then her brother roger who's 13 as well he's outside so remember what are all the names jimmy oh boy yeah suzy roger suzy roger dale charles ruby nancy patricia claudia mary tim debbie steve dale ted ricky okay that's the people in the house it's basically every nascar driver's

first name for the boys well yeah you can just any starting row of a nascar race that's that. And then Grandpa Obi is here as well. Oh, Grandpa Obi too? Grandpa Obi, 63 years old. Jesus. O-B-I-E. That's his name. Obi Bailey. Obi Bailey.

He's the grandfather and all of that. So that's the setting that we're at when this fire breaks out. Yeah. 1 a.m. So rescuers, when they get there, it's such a fucking blaze because it's just wooden tar paper that it's burning so hot they can't they're having a hard time getting close to it because of the heat they even as they're being driven back there's a female inside pleading for help at a window and they can't get to her it's too hot they have to watch this poor

woman burn in a window just watch her burn horrible it's fucking horrifying um they said that uh this is the fire lieutenant william george said most of the bodies were found near windows and doors but they couldn't make it out of the house wow this is fucking horrifying what'll end up happening is everyone will die in the fire all of them charles and ruby and 10 of their children will die in the fire unreal um suzy 15 and roger 13 that were in an outbuilding they escape and grandpa obi climbed out a window and escaped grandpa obi got out so's it. Those are the only three living out of this entire thing. There's three people left. Yeah, we started out with 13 to 15.

We started out with 16 people. Now we got three. Wow. So this is fucking horrible. Jim Malone, who was an assisting fireman in pulling the hose, the fire was so hot it was burning the power lines and making them pop and snap. One came down and fell and hit him on the fucking head and zapped him.

One of the firemen. And, uh, he was taken to the hospital and he ended up surviving. Thankfully. But I mean, he got fucking zapped by a power line. They must not have been that high tension or something.

I don't know. It must've been some low levels. They come down easy. Yeah. They must've been some, I'm talking to not kill him. It must've been some low voltage or some shit some secondary yeah some secondaries that's a distribution shit no no no no i feel like he would have been a cinder at that point so um according to the chief fire inspector dale pringle i don't know why that sounds so right, but Dale Pringle sounds like he's got a big mustache, too, doesn't he?

Big round head. Yeah, big round head and a mustache. Chewy, chewy cheeks. Some chips that you can't quite reach. Super white. He said that by the time the firemen were in sight of the fire, the house was totally engulfed in flames. The firemen were in sight of the fire. The house was totally engulfed in flames. He said that 30 bystanders had tried to rescue the occupants. I would say they were dead by the time we arrived.

We still don't understand what happened. Most of the bodies were near windows and doors, but couldn't make it out of the house. In my 19 years of firefighting, this was the worst. Also, Sergeant Selden Wiggle said in his 27 years, this was by far the worst in terms of lives lost. Yeah.

When your title is firefighter, that fire is the one that won. That one kicked the shit out of you. That one beat everybody. That's undefeated, that one, man. Wood and tar paper. He said that the walls were left standing, but the interior was just completely destroyed. And we'll have pictures. It'll be on the social media of the actual house.

The whole inside of the actual house. The whole inside of the house is gone. The outside, you'll see it's just a charred mess. They said that half of the roof was burned away as well. He said they believe the fire started in the dining room. And at first they had no information as to what caused this other than it started in the dining room. Must have caught quickly. And they had only recently moved to the house as well. That's other thing they weren't even they hadn't even been here that long yeah hadn't even fucking been here that long so

they've been there a couple months so uh yeah this is horrible the children who died 17 11 9 7 5 6 4 3 21 months 21 months and six months those are the children who died that's fucking brutal man that is fucking horrible um they said uh eventually they figure out that there was an accelerant in there of some kind yeah they said there was an accelerant uh the one of the firefighters who's also a vietnam veteran who did multiple tours of duty that guy had to see this too as if you're not fucked up enough this is a guy who's seen quite a bit fighting fires and being in vietnam and he said quote that was a bad fire he said when he responded to it it was just horrible he said quote when i rolled in it was totally engulfed he said he got out of his car

ran toward the house and he realized there was people trapped inside and he had no idea how many he said quote there was a female in the back of the house screaming i remember picking up this huge rock which i probably couldn't pick up during normal circumstances i threw it through the back of the house he just threw it through yeah he picked yeah he grabbed a fucking boulder and just chucked it through the wall unbelievable just get these people out of there which i mean fuck what else do you do what are you doing that such do even like i don't that's terrifying because if you get a hole in that wall you've now vented the fire too so yeah fire's gonna come out of that hole that's so scary but if you see people trying to get out you just fucking get out jump through the hole i guess so he said that um yeah through the back of the house he said the

rock crashed through the wall but the heat and flames were just too big it just covered the hole right away he said he could see a female inside but there was nothing he could do to save her he said the rickety structure didn't appear safe he said oh this is so sad quote she was totally engulfed in flames oh god i couldn't get to her and the back of the house started falling in if you went in that house she would have been dead so he watched the house fall like the roof fall on her too well she's engulfed in flames um they assume that was mrs bailey uh she was an adult woman they thought so that is fucking horrible. Oh, this is so bad, too.

Years later, one of the cops was talking about it, and he said, quote, everybody was fried. The baby was fried. Jesus. What a horrible thing to fucking say. Now, the rescuers find Charles Bailey's father, Obie, Grandpop Obie, as they call him, sitting outside. He said he had scrambled out a bathroom window, but nobody else could get out anywhere, which the cops are a little suspicious of here. They kind of start. They're like, Obie.

Yeah. Are you? Yeah. He told the people that the fire woke him up and he escaped by crawling out the bathroom window. The fire woke him up and he escaped by crawling out the bathroom window. They said the people, the investigators said he was sitting in a chair near the flames when they showed up, making no effort to help the other people get out. Doing nothing. He was just sitting there.

Yeah, just sitting there. He also reportedly gave investigators false information regarding his finances and other things that they were asking about and insurances and things like that. So they all, not only the law, all of the relatives, everybody in town, they're all blaming Grandpa Obie. Yeah. What the fuck, Obie? Fucking Grandpa Obie sucks is what they were all doing. Yeah. They said Roger Bailey said, quote, later on. Well, at the time, he said Roger is the 11 year old, I believe.

He said, quote, or 13 year old. I'm sorry. Quote, I'll bet. I'll bet $10,000. Grandpa didn't set that fire. He didn't do it. Grandpa wouldn't have done that. Not at all. So. 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. Now, the children who escaped, Roger, like we just said and suzy who's 15 they were sleeping in a small outbuilding and uh they were missing when the firemen showed up they weren't there oh they ended up being at a relative's house later on that day they found them at a relative's house yeah i guess they ran away whatever um so they have three surviving children anyway, an adult daughter named Judith and Susie, 15, and Roger, 13. So there you go. Now, during this whole investigation, they see it's obviously arson.

This wasn't an accident. They find an accelerant that they believe to be gasoline as well. So this is – Rausch is the investigator. He – they and the Pringle guy is there as well. Roush and Pringle. That's the two. That's the two guys you want on the case. Oh, Roush and Pringle.

I want that to be his nickname because he's got such bad rheumatoid arthritis. His hands are curled up like like they could get in the can. Yeah. Only I can. I needed a design that was most convenient for me. They call him Pringle because he's the only guy that can get those last three. Plunge it in without tipping the can, you know. So they said they smelled gas around the house.

They smelled gasoline. So they're like, that's not normal, obviously. And they diagnosed it as arson. They found burn patterns that suggested that it may have started in the dining room, but someone splashed gas all throughout the house. Oh, shit. To make sure it caught quickly. Yeah. No, that looks weird.

Once again, Grandpa Obi there. Then one night, Roger Bailey is now he's the one who said, I'll bet you $10,000. Grandpa Obi didn't do it. Right. is now he's the one who said i'll bet you ten thousand dollars grandpa obi didn't do it he and his relative he's over at a relative's house uh aunt helen over here sitting with aunt helen at the kitchen table and i guess they talked for like 12 hours about the fire at the table eventually roger says to her quote if you won't tell anyone i'll tell you something about that fire oh tell me more roger love to hear that yeah he explained well i did it and suzy did it what he said it's not wasn't my idea suzy it was her idea the 15 year old um we were going to help you know burn everybody everybody. And they said, well, why would she want to do that?

The reason why she wanted to burn her entire family to death is because her father told her that she wasn't allowed to see her boyfriend, John Baumgardner, who's 19 years old, by the way, not because he's 19 and she's 15 but because why he's her first cousin jimmy that's why oh my god but we're in love dad he's your first cousin and he's four fucking years older than her he's her response is you're older than mom and she's your first cousin yeah so they go back and forth about that and it turns into a giant fucking thing and that's what ends up happening she decides science works dear we're

too close and you're gonna go and make your thing too close and yeah have children that we're gonna have to always take care of forever and ever and ever oh suzy by the way uh iq yeah 71 yeah because on suzy because her parents fucking first cousins it's too close yeah that's um i mean no offense to them i mean whatever i don't know back then i don't know if that was normal all the hills of west virginia but it's not normal their dad is what i'm getting at we did say we weren't going to make fun of the victims of the victims family so you know what i'm going to put that aside for one second stop fucking your cousins how about that don't fuck your first cousin don't fuck your second cousin i'm going to go ahead and say just to be safe don't fuck your third cousin how's that out of your bloodline it's weird and gross yeah that's

all if you introduce your fucking significant other, your boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever the fuck, to your family and they go, oh, yeah, we know Johnny. That's enough. No. We know his dad because it's my cousin. No. You can't do it. You can't do it. But she wants to fuck her cousin so bad that she'll murder her entire family.

Not just her parents. Everybody. Infant baby fucking siblings as well i don't know why she picked roger to help her i guess because they slept in the other building so anyway the biggest mouth that's for sure so they bring her into the station they bring them both in this aunt tells on them they bring them into the station um this is after so there's the fire they go to a relative's house he roger talks for 12 hours at the kitchen table with his uh with his aunt now mind you the fire happened at 1 a.m so he's been up 12 hours then after that that afternoon which

is 15 hours past the fire 16 hours past the fire they They pick Roger and Susie up and take them to the police station and interrogate them all the way through the night. Until about 6 a.m. when they finally crack. This is when you start hearing voices. So, yeah, 6 a.m. from, we're talking 20, 30 hours. 29 hours, yeah. 29 hours they've been up, at least, from the fire. And before that, they were up too, because they were up from the whole day, then set shit on fire. So they were up

three days, probably, these kids at that point. So they end up, Susie writes a confession. She says in her confession, quote, I told Roger that I was going to set the house on fire after they all went to bed. She said that

she and her brother siphoned gas from their father's truck into a dish pan oh wow dude this is there wasn't even just an easily accessible five gallon jerry can yeah yeah in the garage or something in the in the fucking punch bowl they they yeah they had to get a bowl and then go out and siphon gas. Wow. By the way, I love how a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old automatically know how to siphon gas pre-Google, by the way. They're just like, well, I mean, we saw. Dad has us do it all the time or whatever. I don't know. So she ends up, they did that.

It's in a dish pan. And she said they went around the house and quietly just sloshed it around places while everybody was asleep. Like a bunch ladle? Yeah, just ladling it out. I guess they were just doing it out of the bowl. They said, splash a little here, splash a little there. She said, I put gasoline into every room but the bathroom, and then she lit it by throwing a flaming paper bag through the window. Wow.

And boom, the whole place went up like a fucking match. So she and Roger then fled. Where'd they flee to? The safety of her cousin's arms. Gross. Now we're going to run away together because I burned my family to death. Oh, here's my little brother. He's going to watch.

Injections are gone. the yeah everything's fine now um so she said that her motive was you know she was mad yeah she said quote if i did not stop seeing my boyfriend her father warned he would have a warrant sworn out for his arrest you know because he's 19 and you're a sophomore things like that yeah you know that's how that works. So it's not legal. It's also not scientifically or genetically okay. There's so many reasons why this relationship shouldn't take place. It's not even fucking funny. The biggest one, chief among them, you're fucking related.

No. Yeah. That's all of that. So both of these kids, 13 and 15, are both charged as adults. Wow. With 12 counts of murder. Yeah. So 13-year-old for an adult is a stretch.

It's just a stretch. It's just a real big stretch. And he was led along because he's a stretcher. It wasn't his idea. No. He's not fucking his cousin. No. He's not a murderer. No. He's just doing what his sister told him his idea. He's not fucking his cousin. No, he's not a murderer.

No, he's just doing what his sister told him to do. He's a dipshit. Don't get me wrong, but he's definitely a dipshit. But this whoever has this idea is fucking evil. This is some evil shit. Yeah, I will kill everybody. I don't even know what to say about that. So they said that she made certain statements, oral and written, engaged in certain acts of an incriminating nature at the scene.

This is from the actual report here. Yeah. At the scene of the fire in connection with its cause and origin. And as a result of the information given by the defendant, the investigation, she was arrested on June 10th. So that's that next morning, like we said. And the counsel was appointed, blah, blah, blah. So problem is their question long into the night, like we said and the council was appointed blah blah blah so problem is their question long into the night like we said 6 a.m june 11th is when they signed their confessions

which is so long uh neither of them had had any sleep since the fire neither kid okay so um anyway that she's indicted in july of 69 they both. And she pleads not guilty to the charge. Okay? Yeah. Not guilty to 12 counts of murder. So they set a hearing date and all that. First of all, they examine her. They find out she has an IQ of 71, like we said.

And her mental age, which, you know, when they test her, is about 10 years and 4 months. What's with the months? I guess it's scientific. They can't just go, I don't know, around 10. They can knock it down to exact amount of months? 10 years, four months, yeah. And that her reading ability is on about a fifth grade level. So she should be in about the 10th grade here.

So that's not good. That's not bad. That's not good at all. So she reads like a 10-year-old who's in the 5th grade and has an IQ literally of Forrest Gump. So this is bad stuff. Not good. So they do the pretrial hearings and all this shit. Now, her court-appointed attorney, Bob Black is his name, he pre-trial challenger for confession arguing that

they illegally coaxed the admissions out of a hungry sleep deprived teen who was said to have the mental capacity of a 10 year old okay so the circuit uh now this is this is standard everybody every murder case they're they're challenging it for something so this is just normal everybody expects yes that they're going to challenge. The judge is going to say, go fuck yourself. And, you know, she burned multiple babies. We don't care. The judge here in this case decides that, quote, it was the opinion of the court that she did not knowingly and intelligently waive her constitutional rights to remain silent and to have the advice of counsel.

So they rule. Yeah. They rule that they throw everything the fuck out. Wow. Her whole confession, all the evidence against her, everything Roger said, everything is gone. gone so now they have if you're a jury you have a 15 year old and a 13 year old are going to come in court and cry that their whole families are dead right and now they're being blamed for it when they didn't do anything and grandpa obi sat right by the fire watching it burn and he lied about his financial records and all this shit and there's no fingerprints there's no physical proof it's just who admitted

to it so how are you going to convict these fucking kids now right so um yeah they decided that uh that uh the uh they said that the court concluded the record did not reveal that the defendant had any prior or prior police or trial experience or that she knew of her constitutional rights to remain silent and to have the assistance of counsel. They didn't read her, her fucking rights and that she was not informed that that would be afforded to her.

I don't know if it's because fire investigators did it. They're not, I don't know what the fuck it was, but nobody read these kids, their rights. They kept them there for a day and a half without reading them the rights. And then what year is this? 1988,

Jimmy or 1969. I'm sorry. That 1988 was the other one. 1969. for a day and a half without reading them the rights and then what year is this 1988 jimmy or 1969 i'm sorry that 1988 was the other one 1969 miranda was semi-new was it 64 miranda was i don't know but that guy is dead by you know yeah he's all he's long dead yeah you can you can go make fun of his headstone i guess but he's fucking dead i'm sure so maybe not though maybe he was like 30 and he's in his 70s now who knows we'll see no he's dead he's probably dead he was stabbed to death uh you know what yeah how would he not be probably he was he was a bad person you're like you dumb shit fuck so yeah they said that she wasn't uh they said that the court concluded that the record you know didn't reveal

any of that she wouldn't have known any of that. So as in consequence, it's the opinion of the court that she did not knowingly and intelligently waver constitutional rights and to have advice of a council and that her waiver of her rights was invalid. So, yeah, the court overrules the the motion to stay the case and fucking dismisses stop it dismisses 12 counts of murder shocking they have no the state has to just they have no proof otherwise without the statements and there's no way to go back and get them uh so they said that uh the at this point they're still being held the attorney then well, how do we get them released? So they have to be able to – they need like an adult to come get her. Her whole family has been burned to death obviously.

She burned her mother alive. And also, Roger has got a $10,000 surety bond and there's that. Well, that's easy to cover. He just won $10,000. There's that. Well, that's easy to cover. He just won 10 grand. We get some. No shit.

Some woman in North Carolina paid his 10 grand. Wow. So an unknown woman in North Carolina paid his 10 paid his 10 grand. They described Susie wearing a pink sweater and knee length black skirt, often conferred with her lawyers during the court session and was ecstatic when judge black granted the motion to dismiss the case roger attired in a blue sweater and black slacks maintained a motionless calm uh throughout and did not appear to be moved by the judge's decision the press talked to suzy yeah how do you feel? She said, I feel great. Whole family's burned alive. Feeling good, everybody. Quote, I feel great.

That is her quote of the newspaper in print. She's being rushed out of there ahead of people. And they asked Roger and he said, I feel good. And he says, he's glad to see it's over with. And then he says, he's been treated okay. They ask him questions. He says good, glad, and OK. Those are his answers. Your fam's gone, Rog.

What are you talking about? Burned a lot. Your mother, you had to hear in court how your mother, a man watched your mother burn to death. And you were just like, I don't care. I feel great. You heard a fireman. And you did that. Yeah, say crispy child. Mm-hmm feel great. You heard a fireman. And you did that. Yeah. Say, crispy child.

Mm-hmm. Fried baby. Fried like a calamari. And it's fucking. Fried baby. Yeah. Mozzarella stick baby. And you're going to fucking.

Two words together that are legit that a grown man said. Fried baby. Unless the word octopus is after it, I don't want to hear it. You know what I mean? I don't want to know anything about that. word octopus is after it i don't want to hear you know what i mean i don't want to know anything about that it's the only time i want to hear fried baby is that man i'm stunned yeah you think holy shit this is fucking crazy now they're lawyers who are named black and mum chimer mum chimer mum chimer mum chimer mum chimer they're young guys here, both these guys.

They said they were relieved to have the 10-month legal battle over with because, you know what, each of them has been paid for all 10 months so far? 10 months? How much? $50 each. Wow. They've been paid $50 each. They're like, we put a lot of work into this. We got a dozen murder charges dismissed. You know how fucking hard that

is to do that's the four dollars a charge this little this little bitch burned babies man and their little twat brother burned babies alive four dollars a charge that is pretty good it's bargain that's not bad two dollar tip on top of it so they said that they said the normal fee for such a case which intruded includes a trip to the state supreme court to support the judge's decision and arraignments would be about seven to ten thousand dollars yeah that would just be for susie's um the state files an affidavitit of the prosecuting attorney in which he states that the case against the case against the case of the state against the defendant has been based almost entirely upon defendant statements to Rausch and the city detective and the evidence which she has furnished. And without such statements and evidence, it would be impossible to obtain a conviction in any of the 12 cases in which she's been indicted for murder.

So later on in 2009, by the way, they do a – there's more to this story, by the way, because she has a second whole thing here going on, Susie. 2009, they did a retrospective, a Parkersburg newspaper about how the fuck did this happen? Basically, like 40 years ago, this got fucked. Yeah. How did this get fucked so hard? They said it was blamed on, quote, some quick decisions, especially by Fire Marshal Rausch, who was out of his element and taking a confession. Yeah, they shouldn't be interrogating people. The fire marshal shouldn't be fucking interrogating someone. They have homicide detectives who are trained for that. Well, I don't know if this police department does, but regular ones that aren't in the hills of West Virginia do. Where's the game warden?

Yeah, where's the game warden? Bring the mayor in. Somebody's got to know how to do this shit. This guy doesn't know what the fuck he's doing, apparently. So they said, quote, once they poisoned the testimony of the kids anything they acquired which included the evidence and all kinds of goodies was inadmissible yeah it was all the evidence they told them where they stashed the dish afterwards they told them everything they told them is all out so yeah any evidence physical evidence that they found based on what she told

them is also out it's fruit of the poisonous tree they call it so it's all all dead so um he said that's what happened the ex-prosecutor said they got off and we felt horrible about it i would say um so this is fucking insane uh this is like the i can't even never charge for it it's fucking crazy. Well, it gets worse here. She starts a new life, Jimmy. Yeah. New life. Susie and Roger, wow. Holy shit.

They had basically they said that she didn't knowingly and intelligently waive her rights, so she can do whatever she wants. So she ends up in a new home. She leaves Parkersburg in the custody after the court of Wood County jailer Harry E. Owens, who is her legal guardian, and his wife. So, okay, this is where we're at. Did that hurt your head? How West Virginia is this? Okay.

So, okay, this is where we're at. Did that hurt your head? Is it how West Virginia is this? Okay. The jailer has also agreed to be her legal guardian and take her in with his wife for now. Just for now because she needs to have – they can't just be like – because her guardian that she's going to have is in another state. It's in Ohio. So basically they're like, well, we can't just have her have no guardian.

So the jailer says, me and my wife will sign for her. So they do it. And she's going to another state. She also is allowed to change her name. So no one will call her a family killing twat. So, yeah, she changes her name. A legal notice was in the Parkersburg News. So, yeah, she changes her name. A legal notice was in the Parkersburg News, and they said that she changed filed a petition to change her name to Laura Jean Boone. L-O-R-A-G-E-A-N-E Boone. Laura Jean Boone. So this is fucking wild. So now she's going to Ohioio as laura laura jean boone all right okay it gets fucking strange now as if it wasn't already but it does it gets very fucking odd so she's in ohio

she's doing her thing here um apparently uh roger is sent somewhere else i believe roger's in north carolina and she's in ohio which we these two probably should be broken up, I think. We don't need these two together. Anytime they get together, a house burned down. So she leaves everything behind here. And the weird part is, I guess he ended up being, the jailer and his wife ended up taking care of her for like a couple of months. She was like their guardian. So Roger gets sent to North Carolina,

Susie in Ohio. The brother ends up settling in and just kind of trying to have a life here. Susie changes her name. She has to be, she's constantly getting like caught with boys in the back of cars and then like she's out being super wild.

She's a chronic truant. She's not in school after like the first month because she just tears ass out of there. Yeah. She's doing all this shit, including she even runs away and takes a trip to meet with who? Her cousin who she fucked. She killed her family to fuck this guy. And now she goes and sees him again. They should have thrown her in prison for that.

Sorry. You never get to fuck your cousin. That's the, that's what the ruling is here ever again. So in 1972, after she is in and out and all this shit, she sent to Ohio. She's being like taken in as a chronic true and dropping out of school,

running away. She is taken to to an ohio psychiatric hospital where she then escapes from the psychiatric hospital as well yeah and um yeah um so it's fucking crazy um anyway uh she apparently at some point um she ends up uh ends up uh leaving a note for her brother at some point. This is the last anybody ever hears of her saying that she got married and is moving to the Northeast. That was the last anybody's ever heard of her. But before that, you know, you're in the Northeast. No, you're in the Appalachians. That's not the Northeast.

Trust me. Tell a person in West Virginia they're from the Northeast and No, you're in the Appalachians. That's not the Northeast. Trust me. Tell a person in West Virginia they're from the Northeast and see what they say to you. I ain't from the fuck. I'm from the goddamn Appalachians. Say what you want, but geographically speaking, that's Northeast. No, it's not. We're not claiming them either. It's the hill folk.

It's the hill folk. So where's she going? Like Maine? Vermont? Those Appalachians cut the northeast right off pennsylvania is not the northeast outside of philadelphia and pittsburgh the rest of that where the fuck is the northeast to somebody like this is it maine vermont new hampshire boston that's it only maine saskatchewan i don't know who knows i'm just kidding so either way

the woman who took her in by the way they said that all of the records of Susan Jane Bailey were Susie Jane Bailey were destroyed. Everything was destroyed. So if you don't know of this story, you could never find out about this story. Like if you meet her or anything, because they destroyed all the state records and everything here in 1972, there is a newspaper article and it's labeled, Is Susie Bailey Alive? No one is certain. Oh. Okay. So, yeah, they're talking about, this is a great article.

A Parkersburg teenager once charged with the murders of her parents and 10 brothers and sisters has vanished from the public eye. And no one, not even former guardians, police, or her surviving sister and brother has any idea where the former Susie Bailey is. Oh, my God. Susie, now 17, and her 15-year-old brother were charged with, okay, that's just a recap. Ten months later, they were released from custody, and all charges were dropped after the courts held that confessions taken from the two youths were not admissible evidence. That destroyed the prosecution's case. admissible evidence that destroyed the prosecution's case. Since then, the Associated Press has learned Susie has lived with a guardian, has been taken to a mental hospital and been returned to jail for several months after running away

from said mental hospital and has told her older sister she was married and moving to the Northeast. That was last October. And since then, neither her older sister, her legal guardians, nor her brother, Roger had heard from her. Roger is now living with an unidentified benefactor in North Carolina,

a woman who hired his attorney after reading of the case. Some lady in North Carolina read what happened, felt bad for Roger. Cause she felt like Roger was manipulated by the sister. So anonymously paid for his shit, paid for his lawyer, paid for his bond, and adopted him. How lucky is Roger? I don't know if it's lucky. That also sounds fucking creepy.

You know what I mean? Here's a kid that's manipulated easily. I could sure take him. Yeah. That sounds like some rich lady reading an article in a newspaper and going, we really need to do something about these poor children. This is terrible. Rich lady with a barren uterus.

Yeah, there's some guy in like his golf outfit going, I don't care, honey. Whatever you need, lady. Whatever, I don't care. I'm going to bang my secretary now. She's like, I'm going to adopt him. So they said, where is this here? Okay, Roger's now living with these people. He is reportedly doing fine by his older sister who is the only member of the Bailey

family not living at home at the time of the fire. The course taken by Susie since she was released from custody was traced this week by the Associated Press following reports from another area of the county that an unidentified dead girl could be her. Oh. Now, that was

a thing. There has been no evidence to substantiate that it was her, though. They said, so on this day, she was released because this is an anniversary of her release. They said that all records of Susan, Susie Jane Bailey were destroyed. She ceased to exist by that name. An Ohio woman who had come to visit Susie in West Virginia jail, another person who just saw it on the news, became the legal guardian of Laura Jean Boone because, as she put it, quote, I'm one of those people who takes in every stray dog.

My heart aches for them. Wow. For seven months, stray dogs normally don't set fires that burn babies to fried fucking appetizers. Also, if you've got a girl that will murder her whole family in a fire. Why would you put that girl that's probably not all together in a house that just has everything, in a cluttered adoption house? Burn them alive in their sleep, for Christ's sake.

What if you don't want her to do something? Right. What her father told her not to do something right what what her father told her not to do was a very reasonable request hey pretty easy ask 15 year old daughter can you not fuck your adult first cousin please thank you that is you as as suzy you had to realize when you started fucking your adult first cousin yeah that that's probably not going to fly within the family. And if you get caught, you're probably going to get told not to do that anymore. So to act like it's a shock and that you're so egregious that you need to fucking kill everybody. Also, kill the parents if you've got a problem with your parents.

Don't kill all the children. That's crazy. So anyway, here it goes here she did not attend school there for seven months laura boone lived with the ohio family she did not attend school mainly because there were no records of laura boone living before her 16th birthday so she couldn't go to school because there's no school records for her transcripts nope she's like a witness protection person at this point. She's got nothing.

She didn't take a course. She did take a correspondence course, but never finished it. Of course. Well, when cousin cock is on your mind, how do you finish things? How are you not distracted by your cousin's dick in your face? Wow. After seven months with the family, during which problems developed over young men who allegedly visited Laura while her guardians were at work, she'd have guys coming over while she's at work. Laura ran away, reportedly with a young man who was her first cousin when she was Susie Bailey.

It was. It was the guy who was Baumgartner. In the confession that was not allowed as evidence, Susie told Parkersburg police she had set the gasoline blaze after she became angry when her father made her quit dating her first cousin. Her parents were first cousins. That's in the article. Like that. Just like that. Her dad's a hypocrite.

Super reasonable, but at the same time, I mean, fuck. What do you expect? You know what I mean? This is how she got the idea to do it. From you, dad. I learned it by watching you.

Like, she's that commercial, essentially. After school special. With a little box of her cousin's dick is what it is instead of weed. A little wooden box of weed the kid had. Following the runaway, Laura was arrested as a delinquent and subsequently spent three months in custody before being released again into the custody of her legal guardians. spent three months in custody before being released again into the custody of her legal guardians after the return to her foster home laura encountered more problems and was taken in june of 1971 to a mental institution in athens idaho by her guardians or iaho ohio sorry ohio by her guardians for the evaluation holy shit about six weeks later she ran away from the athens state hospital

and was not returned to either the hospital or the home of her legal guardians she just fucking disappeared and that's the end of it that was like she's legally supposed to be in this hospital she disappeared and they were like i don't know we can't find her someone should look because she's a person capable of for a tiny slight killing a fucking dozen people. That's crazy. That's a dangerous person. Very dangerous. She wasn't returned in October.

Laura told her sister and brother through letters that she'd been married and was moving to the northeast. Roger, the older sister, said, quote, she and her husband even slopped down in North Carolina to see Roger. Slopped down? That's a weird way to say it. Slopped? I've never heard that. We're going to slop over to San Francisco on August the 12th for our live shows. Does she think that's what schlep means?

I think so. I think she's like, I heard Jewish people in New York say schlep, but I think it's slopped is what they meant to say. I heard Jewish people slop all over the place. So slopping, schlepping. I don't know. Wow. So since that time, the only word heard about Laura Boone was an inquiry from another area of the country where a woman thought a picture of an unidentified dead girl was familiar. But further investigation revealed no reason to believe the dead girl was familiar, but further investigation revealed

no reason to believe the dead girl and Laura Boone are the same. Didn't say there's no reason not to believe, just who knows. Her sister said, quote, I'm worried about Susie because we just haven't heard from her. And she's got no records

and all this type of shit. So, yeah. Anyway, back in where her parents and her 10 siblings were killed here they had um they uh they have a communal grave site in the bethel cemetery in elizabeth and a marble marker notes that they died in a tragic fire it says no doubt they were murdered by their fucking kid and sibling that's fucking horrific but yeah no one knows where she is i looked bro i looked up i'll find people you know what i'm saying like i looked all fucking over the place on all these websites trying to find something i

found a laura jean boons on facebook but they didn't match like the age or where they fucking were then i found like a another laura jean boon but like her family didn't match up the family story and the obituary and like where she had gone and like this person was in the military and shit i'm like she's definitely wasn't in the military she can't handle the discipline of not fucking her cousin imagine having to you know keep the place yeah unless they had her firebomb poppy fields in Afghanistan. Yeah, I was going to say. Actually, yeah, she might have went to Nam to drop some napalm on some children. Nobody's willing to do it.

She's like, let me ask you a question. You think my cousin's pretty hot, huh? I mean, I guess he's all right. I'll do it. I'll burn those children. That's right. She's cold, man. She's like a fucking assassin.

Honestly, yeah. That's cold. But no, I really, I looked it up in, I looked it up fucking everywhere in trying to find anything on her. I found other ones. I found some people in Colorado that had the same name, but the age was wrong. Different spellings of Laura. It's L-O-R-A, not L-A-U-R-A. So it's a real pain in the ass.

If anybody can find her, I mean, I don't know. What would she be now? In her 60s. She was 15 and 69, so that's 54. So, yeah, she'd be almost 70 at this point, and she's 68 years old-ish. Holy fuck, man. 69 so that's 54 so yeah she'd be almost 70 at this point and they're 68 years oldish so holy fuck man and i'm sure you know i gotta say i can't imagine that she went somewhere and quietly settled down and had nothing else happen for the rest of her life yeah that's an angry girl who's got some major major issues and if she'll snap and kill 10 burn them alive and she'll fuck her own cousin and

she's getting thrown out of places because she's fucking everybody and she'll fuck her own cousin that's important and she'll that's the other thing yeah it's not like afterwards they were like once she came to our house she really tried hard in school and she went to church you know whatever they try to make her do to make her quote- normal. And then she went to like activities and she did a thing and she was in like the high school play. No, she showed up and was just as bad or worse than she was before. Now she's in mental hospitals, breaking out, fucking getting arrested, putting in jail, get out, fuck their cousin back to jail. Inviting guys over at their at her at her as a ward at their at the house to bang random house that she exhibits all the signs of mental issues uh yeah today obviously yeah she's a psychopath yeah it's psychopath

she's just any impulses she's uh you know gonna gonna let it gonna you know give into it basically so she yeah she's out there i think i said because she didn't just come home and go, oof, I had that in me, got that out of my system and whatever. She was just a tear away from there until she ran away saying she married somebody. Who the fuck knows if she changed her name to something else? You know what I mean? She could have easily changed her name again. Yeah. Who knows if she didn't freak out one night with her boyfriend and he fucking murder her and then send that letter to the family.

Who knows? We don't know that either. She could be literally in a field somewhere, buried. She could be anywhere on the face of the earth. If you're out there, Laura, Gene, Bailey, or whatever. Yeah, if you're out

there, you're a real asshole, Boone. That's what it was. You're a dick. If you'd like to tell your side of the story, we'll listen listen we'd love to hear what happened in the rest of your life and we'll tell our listeners about i know you won't because why would you we're just going to make fun of you for being a terrible and you're probably dead we're just going to make fun of you for being a terrible person and uh it's the only recourse we have but um there you go there is west virginia beckley and parkersburg and for i have to say this very quickly there's a book that's hilarious which and i've played parts for you h john

benjamin's book the failure is an option it's called he's the voice of bob from bob's burgers and archer and you know all that shit right he wrote a book and it's a book it's a memoir of all of his failures in life and it's a book. It's a memoir of all of his failures in life. And it's fucking amazingly hilarious. It's just all this dumb, terrible shit he does. How bad it backfires. Yeah, he's an idiot. And he's like going to tell you why. It's so funny. Well, he tells a story about he's a teenager. He's working for a summer for somebody. And some guy gets dropped off from the Walpole prison who's out on work release with him during the day. So he's like 60 and he has to hang out with some prisoner all day. And he goes, one day we went to lunch and he went to his cousin's house.

It was some chick. Right. And he goes, we went in there and the place was kind of dirty. And I was like, I don't know if I want to eat lunch here. And he said his cousin went in the room and the guy goes to him, you want to fuck my cousin? And he's like not really what he's like he said he's had sex one time he was 16 and it was for you know he said i don't know what kind of a porn market there is for three seconds of sex on a fucking on a tape you know what i mean he's like this is going to be terrible plus the whole thing's kind of gross and he's like i don't know and so he said in the midst of everything he goes basically the guy the prisoner was going to play

a bell boy he had like a bow tie he's gonna come in with a bottle of champagne and they were gonna pretend like they were in a hotel room so he said in a panic i told him uh i'll wear the bow tie i'll be the bell boy so he says obviously i've put up a strange proposition of him now fucking his cousin. And then he cuts the story to, so if you're a real porn aficionado, it's on beta. You can see the teenage H. John Benjamin saying, you're champagne, sir, in a porno where a prisoner on work release fucks his cousin. And at the end of the story he's like you know this happened and this happened he goes i really like the guy and he goes even though he fucked his cousin he really was a nice guy blah blah blah blah blah and that's all i can think about when

i read the story over and over is even though he fucked his cousin it's disgusting so that said anyway that's west virginia and you know what that is west virginia it is yeah it's all what the fuck man what's happening in there what's going on what makes it special inside those borders because i'd like to know we have a lot of cases and a lot of them have a good amount of stank on them you know what i mean but holy shit we've never had a place that has this consistent level of craziness. Florida has 20 million people. You expect a lot of crazy to happen.

We get that in New York, California, Texas. Lots of people. There's going to be lots of crazy. There's not a lot of people in West Virginia, but all the people there are like each other's cousins who fuck from other cousins. What is happening? Not listeners from West Virginia. I'm sure you're smarter if you're listening to this but well what's going on somebody that does it they do yeah yeah and our listeners from west virginia all the time they'll

send us messages and messages and they're like that's west virginia holy shit this place is crazy and then they'll tell us a worse story they'll be like my cousin did this this and this and we're like holy shit so at least they do have a good sense of humor about it there the people who get it you know what i mean so either way that's west virginia if you like that story uh you should definitely tell the world about it oh yeah get on whatever app you're listening on give us five stars say something nice it's not for our ego it just helps us help drive us up the charts and uh more crazy stories like the one i told you in h john benjamin's book as well and uh you uh do that also follow us on social media or at murder small on twitter at small town pod on facebook and at small town murder on instagram

so you can do all that find us all there and then you can in addition to that head over to shut up and give me murder.com what's there oh my god so much stuff merchandise is up we have so much merchandise new merchandise all the time get yourself a coloring book damn it you want a coloring book you want a skateboard you want a shower curtain you want a mug you want we got it all in there the only thing we don't have is fucking hats for some reason. It's not our fault. We would love you to have hats. We would love you to have hats.

For some reason, Threadless, who otherwise, besides the hats, has done wonderful for us. They really are terrific. They're a great company. If they send you the wrong shit or the wrong size or anything like that, you just tell them. They don't even make you send shit back. They just send you the right thing yeah customer service out the ass that's why we've stuck with them for years because they they're really good at customer service there's somebody with somebody else's family on a blanket for christ's sake absolutely yeah we've gotten a couple weird things and but they'll replace it they'll fix it the problem is is no matter how for five years

we've asked for hats yeah and they will not produce a hat for some reason. We can't get hats as merch. We've had our own hats made that we sell in those boxes that Sarah posts about. Follow us on social media because she puts up these boxes with like a bunch of cool merch shit in it that you can't get anywhere else. So get get on that. But anyway, yeah, this fucking the boxes. What the hell is I getting? The hats. No hats. They have no hats. We have hats in the boxes what the hell was i getting the hats

no hats they have no hats we have hats in the boxes they don't have hats but we have everything else under the sun they just put up yoga mats now so they have this whole like yoga shit so there's you can have you sir may fuck off on your yoga mat while you're trying to be calm yeah no hat though no yoga hats which we don't like because, as George Carlin says, I don't want to be a part of any group where I'm either not allowed to wear a hat or I have to wear a hat. Neither one. I love that.

I just want the option. I always want the option to have a hat. Yeah, don't tell me what to have on my head. I love that, fucking his whole thing about church. Why? I don't have to have a hat? The fucking Pope's got a hat all the time. He can have a hat.

God can get through his hat to his head, but my hat, prayers can't get up to God through my hat. Fuck you. So anyway, they don't have that, but they have everything else. Check that out. Tons of new merch on there. Tons of stuff. And also on shutupandgivememurder.com, most importantly, tickets to live shows. Oh, my God.

It's so much fun. We are coming to, we are going to august 12th in san francisco for two shows at cobs comedy theater there or club or whatever the fuck it is um we've been there multiple times but i can't remember what they is a theater or a club or whatever either way it's a really nice place it's a lot of fun and we have two shows they'll be completely different shows different cases so you can see both if you want next night we're in sacramento the uh small town murder show there's two shows that night one small're in sacramento the uh small town murder show there's two shows that night one small town murder one crime and sports small town murder has been sold out for

about two and a half years but yeah it's rescheduled a bunch so people are allowed to return their tickets what's been happening is you'll get people who go oh shit i forgot to do that then they turn their tickets in at the last minute no one else can buy them and then we have empty seats where people and there's people going i couldn't get tickets and it's like well that fucking person would have returned them the day before maybe you could have so yeah check keep checking back even day of show check in there might be tickets there you never know either way get tickets for the crime and sports show which is the late show it's going to be daryl strawberry we so we know that it's a wild story it's a of fun. Lots of crack and prostitutes and all sorts of stuff.

It's fun stuff. Check that out. Then September the 10th, we will be at the Pabst in Milwaukee. That's a big old theater. We want to sell this out. It'll be our biggest show ever. Bigger than Boston, New York, Philly, Chicago, Minneapolis. No.

We're going to say, where's your biggest show? Boston? No, not Boston. Or Chicago? No, no. Milwaukee is the biggest goddamn show. So Milwaukee flex your shit and show everybody else what's up. And it's closing in on it. You guys are doing it. You're doing it. So get your tickets because I think it's going to happen. People have been buying them like crazy lately. They want to Milwaukee wants to be number one. So damn it, do it. And if you were at the Chicago

show, it's a completely different show this time. So it's like an hour drive. Get your asses up there and see us. Come hang out with us. Do all of that. Have lots of fun. We can't wait to see you. Patreon.com slash Crime and Sports

is where you get all of the bonus stuff. Holy shit is the bonus stuff fun. And this week is no different. For $5 or above, you could get everything that we put out right crime and sports small town murder back catalog of like 150 episodes all of it there and we put out every other week we put out two new episodes so you're gonna get at least four a month sometimes six so this week what you're gonna get is for crime and sports you're gonna

get the scandals of mich Jordan. Right. Which is interesting because he's the most bulletproof media figure in the history of sports and entertainment. Seems to be, yeah. Anything that has, gambling,

a sports player with a gambling problem at the time, nobody cares, swept under the rug. All this shit that happens. Paternity suits coming up. Remember what happened

to Tiger Woods when he fucked like two Perkins waitresses? Right. He became the joke of the world michael jordan was fucking whatever allegedly every fucking denny's waitress this side of the mississippi and nobody fucking gave two shits about it it's amazing he wore a hitler mustache on television and people went boy that mike can really sell some underwear. It's crazy. And you'll hear about the largest divorce settlement, one of the largest I've ever heard of.

It's fucking insane. Sure, it's the largest in history. It's the largest. Maybe for an athlete. Sports, yeah, sports history. Sports, yeah. Tiger Woods is pretty big, too, though. But Michael's is even bigger.

So it's big. So check that out and then for small town murder we're going to do something so fun like in the beginning of the show we're going to do small town reviews which are honestly our favorite thing to do we love doing the reviews and making fun of people's petty grievances it's the best thing in the world for us so we're going to do that talk about small town reviews from around the country and we'll find some weird crappy businesses to review in these towns as well. It'll be a good time all around.

And thank you for doing all that, everybody that has. Patreon.com slash Crime and Sports. That said, also PayPal. Use our email address, CrimeandSports at gmail.com. That said, damn it, Jimmy, hit me with the list of people who we can't fucking live without. I need to hear them. Shout it from the rooftops. This week's executive producers are Jordan Bennett, Liz Vasquez, Michelle Hansen, Britton Edwards, Stuart Allen, Catherine Shelley, Siobhan Mann, and Brandon Earl.

Thank you, guys, from the bottom of these cold black hearts. You're amazing. Other producers this week are Rob Wilson. Happy birthday, Dana Stewart in New Orleans. Peyton Edwards. No, that's Meadows. I've said her name Dana Stewart in New Orleans. Peyton Edwards. No, that's Meadows. I've said her name a million times. Sorry, Peyton.

You fucked it all up, Jimmy. Even if you donate all the time, Jimmy will still mess your name up. Even if he's met you in person. The family Earp had a baby. Welcome to the shit show, Amber Melody. Nicole Ann Beaver. Emile Goldager. Nicole Meyer.

Sholo. Wait, is this Sky Lolo? and sky lolo and the haiti kid yeah those are tag team tag team little people wrestlers from the 70s oh yeah sky lolo is his name happy happy hour in nagadoches uh texas corporal carl kirchner is coming to milwaukee can't believe there you. Looking forward to it. Wear the Green Beret outfit. Reverend Alexander Jacobson, Rabbi Shmuelovich and Shitta Perlman, Janice Hill. All the people are coming out today. Frank, the South African bird washer.

Michaela Bruce, Margaret MacArthur, Kevin Coffey. Oh, he drove through El Paso and thought of us, the poor bastard. Ah, poor guy. Your mom's chest hair and Steve Schnell. We miss Steve in Pittsburgh. Or Philip. God damn it. I'm pretty upset about it.

Shit, we love him, too. Yeah, that sucks, man. Carolyn Averstead. Barbara Lange. Jennifer Stump. Kay with no last name. Tim Schroeder. Daniel Alexander.

Connie Kupp. Josh M. Sarah Bader. Nick with no last name. Martin A. Miller. Dinara with no last name. Dinara? Dinara. I don't know. Shelbyader, Nick with no last name, Martin A. Miller, Danara with no last name, Danara, I don't know, Shelby Drake, Jennifer with no last name, Kyle LaChapelle, Renee Pollard, Taylor Johnson, Susan Chan, M&M,

Jen Gerber, Chloe Selene Webster, Sam Denton, Alex with no last name, Barbara DeLeon, Joanne Brown, Anthony Blesington, John Wurtz, Cameron Borg, Braxton Jones, Emily Zutterman, Chelsea Anderson, Christian with no last name, Ali Leip, I think, Leip, I don't know, Mark Otto, Danielle Adams, Margaret Schenk, almost called her a skank, I'm sorry, Margaret, Amanda Romero, Caitlin Price, 1978, Kathy Ann, Christine. No, that's Christy Mize. George with no last name. Shane Light. Monica with no last name.

MCF. Karen Grover. Doyle. Yeah, Grover. Doyle Hudson. Linda Wassaloo. Well, I don't know. All right. Robert Pinnell.

Tasha Wood. Whitney Ellis. Brandy Archer. Cork with no last name. Hannah Kruger. Sean Rodkey. Carolyn Crampton. Ryan Hesse,

what is this, Mike Rodgerman, Nicholas Benning, Courtney... That's gonna be what it is. It's in front of you, goddammit. I think you get it. Courtney Lipparelli, Christopher Daly, Bud Buds, Ed Gaines' mom, Nicholas Willman, Jacob Reicher, Sheila Wigging,

Will Wigton, Laura Johnson, Dory with no last name, Stephen Olsen Will Wigton. Oh, boy. Laura Johnson. Dory with no last name. Stephen Olson. Bill with no last name. Catherine Metzger. Catherine Rachel. Christina Black.

Nope, that's Katrina. Katrina Black. Kelly Carbell. Austin Bacasa. Greg Pudwell. That's a tough name, Greg. Sarah Patrick. Christy G.

Proto Mancini. Oh, boy. Christopher Hemaballs. I don't know what that is. Go ahead, Jimmy. You got this one. Holly with no last name. Mary with no last name. Frazier Davies, Amanda McKenzie, Gregory Stosich, Carrie Knight, Markle. No, that's Markle.

All right. Ryder. It's probably Mark Ryder, and I put the Ls right next to the K. That's what it is. It's Mark Ryder. God damn it. Tyler Vale. I'm it. Tyler Vail. Bad typing.

Vailie. Curtis Lind. Breanne Young. Melissa with no last name. Corey James. Dane Brummett. Zoe Lewis. Callie Inman.

Kyle Azcuda. Azcueta. Oh, boy. Mason K. A couple more shots, he would have had that, I think. You were close. A couple more. Martin Summers.

Leonie Turner. J.S., Richie Riggins, Ethan Johnson, Jade Aaron, Amber Anderson, Joe Licciardi, Licciardello, Liccia, whatever it is, Josh Nutt, P.J. Hartwig, Fishlips with no last name, John Shepard, Hope, Luther Jackson, Brendan Moran, Evan Dixon, Lexi Vergara, David Barberis, Kendall Stanley, Nadia Garcia, William Allen, Megan Koenigs, Darren Henricks, Jess Stevenson, Chris, nope, that's Kirk Stevens, Mike Ninmo, Rosanna Bongeremanino, Danny DeBear, Sean McQuire, Eric Stobb. It was not Rebecca Bailey. Jeff and Nancy Guest.

No name at all. I don't know who that is. They had an email address that I'm not going to read. Gwendolyn Lloyd. Kevin McKell. Michael, I think. Tracy Laird. Tyler Anson.

Oh, Don Belknap. Kara Glidewell. That's a tough one also, Kara. Maggie Dutt. Valerie Valetta. Valenta. Terry Wade. Eden Centeno. Cindy Harris a tough one also, Kara. Maggie Dutt. Valerie Valetta. Valenta. Terry Wade. Eden Centeno.

Cindy Harris. Hunter Curley, I think. John Castleman. Abby Banks. Alex Stowarnik. Josh with no last name. Luke Thompson. Lindsay with no last name.

Anjali Warner. Adam Chulsky. Jen Rodriguez. Lindsay Dowell. Jory Steinkraus, I believe. Eric Fortney, Chris McGinnis, Robert B., Matt Williams, probably not, Ryan Mowry, Laura Bailey, Jackie Gorski, Jessica Bellassai, that's what that is, Tammy Hedrick, Jay Moore, probably not that one, Allie Montgomery. They're coming out of the woodworks.

The guy's dating the bus. What's her name? Jeannie Bus. Allie Montgomery. They're coming out of the woodworks. The guy's dating the bus. What's her name? The lady that owns the lake? Jeannie Bus. He's dating her. That's insane. Jesus Christ. Maybe he is.

That's why he's contributing to us. He has the money to do it. Allie Montgomery. Make your money. Jimmy's future ex-wife. Annie, you don't want that. Connie Hamilton. Queen Abdul-Jabbar made me this money.

Long time ago. Sorry. Doodle Sin.an o'neill laurie ferguson zachary traxler ryan wetzel kralis kralis uh borden tana tana is zelly jesus steven merrick spencer merit um mitchell gildea yeah he's on twitter and shit too he's a terrific guy austin pritchard also matt pritchard, Ciaran, Ciaran, Ciaran Byrne, Lucius Part One, Princess Mel Delia, Deja, that's Deja, Brianna Anderson, Andrew Chavez, Cereza Ford, Amanda Howell, Hannah Weiss, Angie with no last name, Brandon Morris, Jason Brinkman, Hollywood Johnson, Jeremiah Williams, Chris James, Terry Woods, Chris Keller,

Colin Ward, Crystal Bussey, Michelle Young, Sarah McMurdo, Jeremy with no last name, Terrell Burris, Sarah Potts, Justin Dibble, Rob's kid probably, Angelo Gilly, Calvin Cotton, Walter Bentley, Nicole with no last name, Ryan Zazeski, Paige Cameron, Gene Schleyer, Stormy Moore, Andrew Taylor, Judith Godwin, Sarah Steiger, John Tummer, Dumber, shit. So am I. Todd Shepard, Ryan Mountain, Hunter Devine, Jacob Nason, Nassan, Connie Harlan, Shelby Burt, Kendall Johnson, Diana Allen, and all of our patrons.

You guys are unbelievable. Thank you everybody so much for all that you do for us that's you guys are awesome thank you honestly seriously from the bottom of our hearts for doing all that you do and uh hope you're enjoying the bonus episodes if you want to follow us on social media jimmy and myself personally very easy to find us go to the shut up and give me murder.com on your way to getting tickets to san francisco Pabst or even the Florida shows in September way to get your tickets for any of those

stop off at the menu there find our social media links and get right to it or just look up small town murder podcast host there's only two of us that said everybody thank you for joining us thank you for hanging and until next week it's been our pleasure. 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.