Small Town Murder - #313 - Last Man Hanging - Cheswold, Delaware

Episode Date: September 2, 2022

This week, in Cheswold, Delaware, a man who comes from absolutely awful conditions ends up leading a pretty predicable life of crime. Until one day, when he has a complete breakdown, going on a spree that ends up with a trail of terrorized people, and two dead people, one of which is missing half of a head. Its a horrible, bloody mess. The results are insane courtroom outbursts, misspelled letters to the victims' family, and the possibility of being the last man hanged in the United States! But will it happen? Along the way, we find out that Delaware needs more restaurants, that growing up in the modern age, without indoor plumbing seems to lead to bad life outcomes, and that the fatter you are, the less drop you need when they hang you!Hosted by James Pietragallo and Jimmie WhismanNew episodes every Thursday!Donate at: patreon.com/crimeinsports or go to paypal.com and use our email: [e-mail] to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder & Crime In Sports!Follow us on...twitter.com/@murdersmallfacebook.com/smalltownpodinstagram.com/smalltownmurderAlso, check out James & Jimmie's other show, Crime In Sports! On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Wondery, Wondery+, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You're listening early and ad-free on Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay! Choo-choo! 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, for joining us and all aboard the murder train, everybody. Hell yeah. Pulling away from the station, let's do this. We have just an insane episode. This guy is one of the craziest, weirdest, and it's like a landmark case it's weird stuff we'll get to it very quickly uh very quickly before that though thank you for everything shut up and give me murder.com is the website get your tickets right now hell yeah the pabst in milwaukee september 10th and then also september it's so close so close september 23rd in Tampa, Florida.

Tampa Improv. Two shows that night. Next night, the 24th in Orlando. Two shows at the Orlando Improv. So get your tickets right now. Patreon.com slash Crime and Sports is where you get all of your bonus stuff. We got lots of bonus stuff there. Anybody $5 or above, you're going to get everything we put out, Jimmy.

They're going to get crime and sports stuff? Yes, they are. I don't know. Tell me more. Yes, they are. Small town. You do know. Small town murder.

You're going to get that. This week, what you're going to get, we're going to finish off the sex scandals crime and sports episode there. Sex scandals part two. Boy, is it good. Where a young lady made it her college thesis to have sex with lots of athletes from Duke University and describe them in great detail. And then some other stuff, too. A soccer player who had an affair with his sister-in-law in public. It's very weird. Very weird stuff.

Then for Small Town Murder, we're going to talk about the Zodiac Killer documentary, the new one that's out on Netflix, about the guy who thinks his long-lost father is the Zodiac Killer and writes a book and has all this proof, and it all amounts to a pile of horseshit. It's ridiculous. So we'll talk about this whole thing and how it looked great for a while, and then we'll also talk about the current crop of who we think it is now because it changes over the years. So we'll do all of that. Check all of that out and more.

We have a whole back catalog and everything, and you get a shout-out at the end of the regular show patreon.com slash crime and sports all right let's get into this jimmy all right let's do this yeah i think it's time to sit back what do you say i think it's time to clear the lungs a little bit that's right and we'll shout shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, Jimmy. All right. Let's go on a trip, shall we? We shall. We shall.

We're going to Delaware this week, which is something you don't hear very often. No. How many times have you been talking to someone and they're like, we're going to Delaware this week? Yeah. I don't think it's ever happened. So, yeah, I don't know. No, Delaware is not a destination, we'll say, for things. All I know is that a lot of things are incorporated there.

That's it. I know nothing else. That's it. This is Cheswald, Cheswald, Delaware. C-H-E-S-W-O-L-D, Cheswald. And I'm pretty sure that's how it's pronounced because they tell you why it's called that, so it makes sense. Delaware is a big panhandle. This one's right in the middle of it.

It's just kind of a straight up and down state. The population here is about 1,673. So it's a small town. Small town is kind of surrounded by other small towns. Median income, 60,375. So a little above the national average, but not too high. Median home price low, though. It's only $189,500.

So for the East Coast, that's very cheap. It's very cheap, and you can get to water within a half hour, which is also pretty cool. Not too shabby. Quickly on the history here, it was named, at first it was called Morton, M-O-O-R-T-O-N. I love finding out why towns are named. Double R? Double O. M-O-O, like Morton.

They said, got it. Yeah yeah i might have said it wrong morton uh after the guy who owned a lot of the land here named james f moore or james s moore so they just said it more done yeah that's it and then the town but yeah and then it was also known as leapsick station after the right that l e i p s iE-I-P-S-I-C. That's a name that on the shout outs you would have trouble pronouncing. That's what that is. Leip? I don't know.

Leap? Leip? Leip-psych? Leip-psych? I don't know. Thank you. Leipzig Station. It's not going to happen.

Then, you know how this town finally got its name of Cheswold? You know how they came up with that? It's not some guy's last name or some shit like that. This was a contest. What? They had a contest in 1888 to rename the town, and that's what they picked. That's the winner?

Cheswold. They picked that, which is a combination of chess from a large group of chestnut trees and wold, which stands for forest of trees. So we have chestnut trees is what they're trying to tell us by this apparently that's horrible that's not a great name the town was home the reasons why all these towns at least it's not just named after something in england

which we get a lot too so uh the home here this was the home of the cheswold tigers who were a minor league baseball team from 1950 to 1960 it was actually a good team so really yeah there's so many minor league teams back then reviews of this town very quickly because they're all very short and succinct these people get right to the point in delaware that's good delaware right to the point that's their motto here we don't get any time to fuck around no time to fart around we Delaware, right to the point. That's their motto here. We don't have any time to fuck around. No time to fart around. We're too close to the water here. Four stars. Weather is pretty comfortable.

Our four seasons are great. All four? All four. Thanks a lot there. Three stars. Delaware isn't that great, to be honest. I love leveling with us on the opener there. That's great.

To be honest. Firefly and NASCAR are probably the most exciting events in this state. Firefly. Is that a music festival? Yeah, Firefly is a music festival, yeah. And then Two Stars, a boring hometown to grow up in that consists of about three neighborhoods, a few small stores, and a police force of three officers. Three guys.

Three guys. We really put them to the test in this murder, by way we'll put it that way okay one star restaurants are terrible the ones here are just in general i don't like eating out nothing new or exciting that's what that's what they're review so apparently they mean here yeah because i'm sure there's new restaurants other places. You just have to leave Cheswold, Delaware, probably. Get the fuck out, guys. And here's somewhere to eat.

Here on Things to Do, the Delaware Burger Battle. They're really happy about this, where they get, apparently, Delaware's most competitive chefs gather and they make burgers. They serve over 24,000 burgers this weekend. Wow. It's all for charity. 55 competing restaurants all trying to get their best burger out there for people. 24,000? That's a lot of burgers, man.

That's so many burgers. 7,300 guests, 24,000 burgers. They're eating three burgers a pop. What about the kids? Three and a half a piece? That's a lot of burgers. There's some kids walking around going, oh, dad,000 burgers. They're eating three burgers a pop. What about the kids? Three and a half a piece? That's a lot of burgers. There's some kids walking around going, oh, dad, my stomach hurts. Mom, help.

Not working here. So it's your ticket. With your ticket, you get adult beverages and soft drinks. That's nice. No pets, please, though. No pets. It's nice they said please. Please.

Fire, meat, and animals don't always mix. That's fair. Wow. Unless it's nice they said please please fire meat and animals don't always mix that's fair well unless it's a cow your your dog is that's true there's a lot of animal here your dog is gonna jump into the fucking grill to get a burger off of it that's probably what happened some german shepherd got half his face burned off getting a medium they were like um shit uh who's got a rotisserie this is terrible this isn't good and grind them up we'll make another no this is bad this burger fest took a dark dark turn sparky was adorable so yeah each of the restaurants are going to pick one and uh their best burger to put forward your votes will determine the people's choice winner our esteemed panel of judges it's a it's a burger i mean what is it just a bunch of

dudes that how many burgers like how many people in the united states would be qualified to judge hamburgers a lot everybody everybody's had a million of them in their life so everybody they'll pick the critics choice winner and select the best alternative burger what is it plant-based or something non-meat based or i don't know then everybody gather around for october fest toy show yes no i wanted jimmy and nutcrackers i saw jimmy's eyes fill with beer steins and pretzels and sausages and then i dashed his hopes away with toy show a stein of beer and a fucking strawberry shortcake no it has nothing to do with october fest traditionally uh with food and beer and that sort of thing it's just a toy show in october

what is that you got a lot of balls you're having people showing up expecting to get hammered and play with toys and they're like wait a second you want me to buy a gi joe from 1973 for how much this is crazy i pre-gamed by the way i'm hammered i tailgated this shit delaware toy fest yeah so uh either way five dollars or children of under the age of 12 are free. So there's that and, yeah, the toy show. Anyway, you can call for additional information. Call 856-302-3606. Just tell them to stop this. Find out.

How much beer do you have there? That said, let's talk about a horrible murder. What do you say? Okay. Let's do it. Let's go back in time jimmy to 1979 all right nice time here we go it's a yeah it's an interesting time a good murder time though we've said the late 70s is your yeah that's your your prime sweet spot for murder um we're

going to talk about a guy here a young man at the time well not too young but he's at 30 and he's 35 or 34 at this point uh billy bailey now billy bailey by the way is in it's spelled different in different places and i'm going to go with court documents because they're probably the most accurate on his legal name i would say rather than media accounts um in the court documents his name is b-i-l-l-i-e everywhere everywhere else it's with a y but yeah i'm gonna go with the ie on the court documents his name is b-i-l-l-i-e everywhere everywhere else it's with a y but yeah i'm gonna go with the ie on the court documents i'll bet it is that's probably right yeah they like to as you know from your name yeah rednecks like to put that ie on the end of it it kind of cuts it off of no other nicknames i don't understand what that is i don't know why we do

that i don't know i don't know I know you, that's your name. So I figured. And it makes me insane. Yeah. And that drives you nuts because it's just a way to have it misspelled all the time. Yeah. It's cool that Jimmy JJ Walker spelled it this way too. That's pretty fucking rad.

But that poor bastard went through the same shit I'm going through. They said, no, no, no, not why. So, and I'm not James either. Or this guy. No, I'm not. You can call me Jim if if you want i say maybe this means he's not william his name is probably billy and on the birth certificate so you're right uh billy bailey he is born 1945 he is one of night the 19th of 23 children holy

yeah what 19th of 23 children born in South Carolina. Raised there. How's that even possible? The math doesn't add up. Because it's the same father with four different women. Now it adds up. The women leave and the father just keeps the kids. That's how this works.

He brings in a new woman to pump out seven, eight kids and then kick her out and keep the kids. Or one dies anyway like here we go uh so he basically he's got a sixth grade education he's the 19th of 23 uh his father uh here all his mother who was his father's third wife yeah died six months after he was born so oh that's not good he was six six months old. Not during childbirth, obviously. No, no, no. Six months later. It really took a long time.

It lingered. Six months of labor. He took out half her organs and it just, it's a tough thing. So Billy lived with his father. And when he was a little kid, he lives with his father, his new stepmother, and seven brothers and sisters that were still around. In a two-room shack with no plumbing no plumbing imagine having eight children and two adults in a two-room house with no plumbing think about that oh that is and this is this man this is in the 50s and 60s this

isn't in 1911 this is you, everyone else had plumbing at this point. That was a, you know. What a terrible way to live, man. And the dad has done this for years and years and years. So this is just normal for him. Oh, yeah. This is what he does. And then wives come in and out.

He knocks them up a whole bunch of times and stacks his kids up in the corner of the other room and uh tells him to go shit outside it's horrible he court records from the back in the day here when all this was going on when he was a child described the living conditions by some uh agency that came uh quote utter filth and poverty Utter filth and poverty. Yeah. Holy shit. Utter pretty much means there's irredeemable, right? It's just a shit. Condemnable. Yeah. He might as well, he might as, just shithole. That's what he might have said.

This place is a fucking dump. This is what we're getting at. Utter filth and poverty. He, his father ends up dying when he's 10 years old. So now he's left with his stepmother and all these other kids stepmother just basically rid herself of these children who weren't hers and had them all put in foster care and all that kind of shit which back then wasn't you know now it's not terrific but back then it was just half of half of them were like you know little orphan annie style and

shit there's a building where a bunch of kids nobody wants lives. They all just stay in there and nuns yell at them. That's how it works. So Billy and his 12-year-old brother Sam, so they were 10 and 12, they get kind of shucked off to somewhere here, shunted off to an orphanage or something. By the time they were 10 and 12 and they got taken out of their house they were already quote heavy drinkers so that's that's nice at 10 well i mean with this life who cares you know it could only improve it anything you do can only improve

what's going on here utter filth and poverty what hope is there here at this point so um yeah he uh they came to live in wilmington delaware from south carolina from there um he has a half brother with a wife and two children and that's who took him in one of his dad's older kids who was felt bad for him basically um 20 kids ago 20 kids ago yeah but it didn't work out real well for billy here and sam they stay at a place to live which is nice hopefully plumbing which is helpful that must have been a step in the right direction except that billy quote remembers quote getting beat a lot blood running down my neck both me and sam front or back jesus yeah from their head that's what that is like smashed in the back of the head basically

uh they said beatings were administered for if the house wasn't up to snuff uh cleanliness any sort of disobedience they were always hungry so they would steal food from around the neighborhood because they basically didn't get fed so if they got caught stealing then you get an ass kicking for that they they really basic life needs and they don't have it. Yeah. He's got plumbing, I think, but no food. So he traded in plumbing for food. So, or the other way around. After two years, the,

the half brother just said, forget about this. I'm done. And he ends up putting them at the governor bacon health center in Delaware city. What the hell is that? That is exactly what it sounds like. It's government YMCA.

It sounds like a big gray building that you need a pass to leave is what it sounds like. You government ymca it sounds like a big gray building that yeah you need a pass to leave is what it sounds like you need like a sounds yeah and also the door health center it's we're just keeping you alive that's what yeah the door goes before you open it somebody has to hit a button and it goes and then you can open it before that you can't leave yeah that's what it sounds like so a psychiatrist at the time described billy as a quote rather small looking 12 year old youngster with a shock of blonde hair and a rather pleasant face extremely retarded academically too disturbed a child to consider foster home placement what so that we're just gonna house him because you know and try to talk to him with psychiatrists because he's too fucked we can't give him away he's like a dog that bites at the pound like

at the humane society they're like we we have to read we have to recondition or whatever the hell they do re-acclimate him to everything really initially acclimate because it's never been acclimated yeah we've never had a combination of plumbing and food to where this kid can have any sort of structure. You know what I mean? That's a good combination. But let's see if he shits in the house and eats what happens. Maybe that'll be a change. But yeah, this is...

We'll keep him animated and food inside him, so that's enough. This is rough, man. So yeah, he was there. This was the time, though, where they said he actually had a chance. This is the only time in his life where he actually had a chance. But essentially they treat him like someone goes, oh, that puppy's cute. And they go, no, no, no, he just bit three kids in the face, and that's why he's here. And a chance is, boy, is that a generous phrase because this is barely a chance.

Jesus. Yeah. Later on he'll say, quote, when i asked for help with my epileptic seizures the counselor said they were just temper tantrums oh my god this is night like 1958 also mind you so they were just like ah you're fine kid on the ground shaking eyes rolled back in his head tongue dripping out foaming at the mouth calm down pussy cut it out god damn it i'll give you something to i'll give you something to shake and thrash about that's right quit your attitude oh my god

he also says quote i would not i would have gotten help if i could i didn't know how they'd throw you in a cell and leave you there even at bacon they'd feed you some yellow gunky looking stuff some medicine then forget about you we don't even know what the food is just a paste that makes you go sleep sleep i think is what that is and not yellow gunky stuff that stops the growl yeah that makes you a lot easier to deal with probably here now mind you also these quotes are from his later life so they're very self-serving also sure but the psychiatrist quotes also kind of line up with all this as well where he's he's a he's got problems but the problems he has also kind of might have skew might skew his view of what's happening, too, at this point. Sure.

He's a hard-drinking 12-year-old at this point, so it's difficult to get your surroundings straight. He ends up turning into, when he grows up here, he grows only 5'5", his top height is where he gets to. Take it easy. 5'5", 220. Not bad. He's a stout guy. Whoa. He's a muscular 5'5", 220, though. He looks like he's, you know, I mean, heavy set, obviously, but he's powerful looking.

He looks real powerful. He looks like he could, you know, pick you up from the waist and carry you around. Hey, how's it going? Yeah. He looks strong. He's a little change of water pump and water pump in a second yeah he looks like a 19th century tough irish guy that's what i guess like hey what are you doing that buddy and fucking up with the chest stuck out so uh he first becomes involved with the police uh around 21 years old in 1967 he's arrested for disorderly conduct which sounds like he would

maybe was cutting up in the street 21 the kid the guy's got enough to be he's got enough to be pissed off about don't needle the guy he's he's probably got a little bit of an attitude i'm shocked that it took him 21 years no shit well apparently he was running around the main streets of dover um yeah which is the capital of delaware just with a rifle, just running down the middle of the street. So cars had to avoid him. He's got a rifle. So they were like, hey, that's very dishonorable. Let's not bring the gun.

That is dishonorably, actually. I agree with this. That's super dishonorably. They tagged that crime right. Nice job, everybody. Where do we file this? Under that. That's pretty disorderly, huh?

Thank you. That's the charge. He was later arrested on a charge of grand larceny in connection with a theft at a Dover restaurant. In 67 and 68, he's arrested for burglarizing a home in dover so now you're stepping up to a home that's for a private home 1970 he's such a hot property who can resist him he marries a 19 year old named susan hughes oh susan what have you been through wow uh this didn't work out well though no. No. They were living in a trailer, and they had a three-month-old daughter named Christine. He has a child.

This man has a child, yeah. Living in a mobile home, I think, with plumbing, so that's helpful. And the problem is a fire started one night while they were all asleep, and he rescued their three-month-old daughter christine from the fire oh my god but her hand was so burned that the all of her fingers and her left hand had to be amputated oh no yeah that's that's not good jesus poor kid a baby she's got a paddle oh three month old thing yeah three month old that's tough when all the digits are gone that thing's scary that's it's well it's tough for you how do you operate that's i mean a lot of people have different things like that but that's just hard as a three month at least as a three month old i

guess you can yeah that's normal for her as she gets older that'll whatever but still it's it's hard for her that's got to be tough either way especially from being burned it's not like she lost got cut off in a you know farming accident or something fingers burned off that's horrible so um then he said his marriage fell apart after that i can't imagine because he said that his in-laws this is what he said quote my in-laws put the bad mouth on me took away my wife and daughter put the bad mouth on me i Took away my wife and daughter. Put the bad mouth on me. I've never heard that.

It sounds filthy. It sounds like, oh, that sounds. Why don't you come over here and put that bad mouth on me? That sounds like a come on. Both my in-laws put that bad mouth on me. Put the bad mouth on me. I mean, my mother-in-law, she's all right, but my father-in-law, he's a goddamn virtuoso. Let me tell you something. He's great great back there he plays his tongue like a

symphony so real good on the dirt tube you know what I'm saying buddy so they put the bad mouth on him took away his wife and daughter yeah so that's he hasn't doesn't see his once his's nine, he doesn't see her again pretty much forever after that.

Yeah. He also has a son as well that he at some point fathered before he was, before the marriage. He was like 19. He had a son that never, he was never around for. And yeah, this is, this is crazy. The only person he was close to for. And, yeah, this is crazy. The only person he was close to was his brother Sam, who he went through all this shit with. And he said they were close, quote, like brothers ought to be. Yep, Thunder Buddies.

That's what he said. But he said Sam came to an unfortunate demise as well. This is the way he puts it. I don't know the medical. I doubt this was in the coroner's report or the medical report here. Quote, one day he drank himself a pint of whiskey straight down and his heart just blew up. I don't think that happened. You know, one pint went down, boom, heart exploded.

That's apparently his medical diagnosis. Judging from his statements so far, he hasn't been to medical school i don't think that's just my thought i'm not i'm not positive but i don't think he's got an understatement of a diagnosis of death yellow gunky food and that and straight down he's very just he has no specifics this guy at all final whiskey what kind of whiskey is that? That's some rot gut right there, I guess. That's some strong shit. His heart blew up.

Blew up. Damn. So in 1974, he's arrested again on a charge of stealing $1,500 worth of tools from a Dover industrial plant, and he's sentenced to, you sir, may fuck off five years in prison for that. Okay. He's paroled in 77, but he's then arrested again for violating parole in 79, and he is also charged with forgery,

and he's given an additional, you, sir, again, 18 months in jail. So that's how this is going for him it's not going well he's going to be bouncing in and out making kids and creating just a shit wake of horrible things in his in his past absolutely one of the officials in his work release program that he was on at one point said quote he was known to have had drinking and emotional problems but there he was out on work release living with his brother-in-law down near cheswald on a revolving 72 hour furlough work basis so okay he has to leave and then he has to come back every 72 hours right to show them like hey i didn't run away again look at me still

working still here still here so one corrections officer that knew him said that he basically should have always just been in prison it was where he was most comfortable and it's the only place where he's not an asshole he says in the prison he's a model prisoner a superb prisoner but he just cannot handle the street he has no life skills whatsoever so if everything's done for you and you're told when to shower and when to eat and when to go to sleep then you're okay but if this guy has any autonomy or agency and whatever he does right he's not going to get it right at all so it's not good he um he threatened to kill his wife um he also threatened to kill his daughter his mother-in-law and father-in-law yeah that's well his wife left him and took off because she stuck around through all this by the

way they don't wait till you hear how long they're married for it's insane if they're married till 1989 these people wait till you hear how what she goes through so what an angel yeah in 79 his wife takes off he threatened to kill everybody and um he this is one of his uh what is it one of the uh the the corrections officer said about him that he uh he's been an alcoholic for a quote very very very long time and he is a man with a very very violent quick temper so that's five berries in two sentences in two descriptions about the man two descriptions he said if he wasn't uh if he wanted something and if he wasn't going to get it right away he'd explode uh when he gets drunk he starts crying on on several occasions at delaware state hospital he was just blubbering so he said uh he knows of

at least one instance recently where billy tried to commit suicide by slashing his wrists in prison after he was removed from his work release program because he came back shit hammer drunk right so he's a mess let's just say yeah and and at this time in our society it's just be an adult and do your things and everybody's the same but the problem is guys like him come from where they come from he's not the fucking same no no he's not the same as everybody else at all there's a dark there's something dark over him he's got a shadow like like will from stranger things like he feels a tingle in the back of his neck he's got problems and he needs a mess he needs to threaten murder and drink when that happens i feel guilty right now about having any sort of depression i know right yeah think

about your childhood as bad as it was everyone out there i mean honestly how many of us can match that resume it's not great no i mean some i'm sure but that's no plumbing trailer dad with the mom dying and 19 out of 23 that whole story is harrowing so he overcomes this he's a fucking high paid uh speech guy you know yeah yeah yeah no he's gonna be a motivational speaker yeah let's uh let's find out if he overcomes this or not what do you say let's do where are you putting your bets at this point so uh he goes to uh he's on work release this seems like a great guy to put out there um so they said apparently the forgery charge didn't like go through the computer so he shouldn't have been out on work release because he got a parole violation which is fine you can still work release him on that but

the extra forgery charge just it just was they missed it floating out somewhere in computer land in the late 70s so um yeah so they at one point they uh they wanted to get him out of the work release program because it finally popped up one of the officials said we guess it must have popped up in the computer somehow it didn't pull it out of the air someone had to have put it in there it's a computer it doesn't get an air window popped up said not this guy 404 you're like what the fuck so we yanked him back to the plumber center on friday for the weekend so that was what they said so it's all a light-hearted 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. 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.

Welcome to the small town of Chinook, where faith runs deep and secrets run deeper. In this new thriller, available exclusively on Wondery Plus, 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+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. He would have been free completely in three months

if it wasn't for the forgery thing. So he ends up back in work release. So there he goes. He's in work release at this plumber place and he has a job lined up with his brother-in-law, Charles Coker, who is a livestock. He sells livestock, apparently. Okay.

Livestock broker or some shit like that. So he's supposed to live there while he's working, and then every 72 hours he has to go back. Okay? Yeah. May 21st, 1979. He doesn't come back. He's supposed to be back and doesn't.

Okay? He takes off from the plumber house, and they notice he's gone at 1 p.m., and he's supposed to be there. So he pops up at the home of his sister, Sue Ann Coker. And it's his foster sister, but he considers her his sister. And they help him. Like I said, he lives with them, and her husband gives him a job. So he said that he showed up. He was distraught clearly there was

something up here um he's got a bottle of vodka in his hand but he doesn't appear to be drunk at this point she said so yeah yeah he's got the bottle though he's prepared ready to party ready to party he showed up and said that he's not going back to the state work release program he's tired of it and he's not going back and he's pissed off. So then her husband, Charles Coker, he comes in and they live in like a trailer on the edge of town, too. He got out there somehow. And Charles says, well, why don't you come with me? I'm going to go pick up the kid at school. So you come with me and we'll have a little ride and we'll calm down.

So Charles thinks he can calm him down on the way to pick the kid up. He says, Billy asked Charles, hey, will you stop at the store so i can get another bottle of booze he's got a bottle of vodka and he's like this won't last me all night i'm gonna need more than that i'm gonna need another bottle so rather than charles going but we have to pick the kid up maybe on the way back and then try to distract him charles goes no problem and pulls on into the liquor store oh boy now boy. Now, inside the liquor store is Reba Lovegrove. She's the woman behind the counter, and she's the clerk.

He came up. He put down a bottle of liquor that cost $3.35. $3.35 must be a high-class bottle there. Oh, man. That's some single malt fucking scotch there. What are you trying to explode your heart? Well, that's the shit that'll blow your heart off. It costs $3.35 a bottle.

He put down a $5 bill, and he asked for the bottle, which is behind the counter, one of the small bottles. She made change, and as she's making change, looks down, looks back up, and he's pointing a handgun at her. Oh, boy. She said she panicked and refused to empty the cash register at that point. That's what happened. So she then said, evidently the man's sick. He's got to be. He was crying when he walked in.

Tears were running down his cheeks. That's the guy you're telling no to? That's the guy you're telling no to? Are you out of your fucking mind? Holding a gun to you with tears streaming down his cheeks. No. As he gets his pain go bye-bye juice. This is not good. That guy pulls a gun on you and you go no whatever no i'm not giving you anything you slam you slay you go paching you slam that

register door closed you look at him and you go see i'm not doing anything for you no but she has clearly never heard how people get murdered. Well, to be fair to her, half her customers come in with tears running down their cheeks, I believe. So it doesn't matter. This is like crying walking into a liquor store. It's 50-50 in this town, probably. She sees the tears as soft, whereas I see it as this man's at the end of his fucking rope. Yeah, he snapped at this point. But this happened between the car and the fucking front door.

Wow. He broke down into a deal here. A heap. She refuses to cooperate. He knocks her down. Okay, doesn't shoot her, but pushes her down. And he fucks up the cash register

trying to open the cash register. He ends up like denting the metal and making it harder to open. Didn't hear about the no sale but he didn't hear no he was just he just started bash hitting it with a gun and he thought the drawer would open maybe if i hit it in a bunch it'll open so he then turned the gun to her and pulled the trigger but it clicked just click yeah didn't shoot her no shot came out so he got whatever cash was kind of under and lying around.

He could find he just grabbed a bill here and there and took the fuck off. So he comes out of the liquor store with a bottle in one hand and a 25 caliber pistol in the other. That's what the brother-in-law sees coming. He's like, oh, Jesus Christ. Yeah. Jesus Christ. So he pops in the car. Tears still running down his face.

And he goes, the police tears still running down his face and he goes the police are gonna be coming soon so if you would just drop me off over at lambertson's corner it's about a mile and a half away and this guy was like sure no problem like whatever you got yeah he's seen this guy before he knows that when there's tears streaming down his face and he's holding a bottle in one hand and a gun in the other. You don't refuse his fucking request. You go along with what's happening. He's not a liquor store clerk. No, he has heard how murders happen. So he drops him off at this corner. Billy gets out with his gun and his bottle,

and he runs off into the woods. Okay, that's it. Runs off into the woods. So Charles, feeling bad because he's not a scumbag, goes back to the liquor store to check on the clerk and make sure she's okay because he feels terrible. Am I driving away from a body? Yeah. He goes back, checks on the clerk. He also calls the police and also she had already called the police, but he calls the police too.

And because he says, by the way, the liquor store robbery that just happened, the guy you're looking for is billy bailey that's his name you got you all know him i mean he's come on this guy they have a picture of him in their wallets at this point this is my my firstborn she's she's in college now but this is back when we took her to disney when she was a cute kid isn't she had to have that cinderella dress this is my son he plays football at michigan state now no he's really big oh this is billy bailey we arrest him every every fucking three weeks or so billy bailey yeah he's he's terrifying and i feel like he's the man who's going to eventually take me from my family that's why i judge my family as well he'll kill me that's what's going to happen so he pops up. He's in the woods. He pops out of a field out of the woods into a field and he discovers 80 year old Gilbert Lambertson. Gilbert is working out in his field at 80.

OK, we think Bailey tried to get his car keys from him. So give me your car keys, old man. I think Bailey tried to get his car keys from him. So give me your car keys, old man. And the nearest neighbor who knows he was running his tractor across the street, so he didn't hear any of this shit. He didn't hear anything. But he said, I'll tell you this. If that guy asked for Gilbert's car keys, more than likely he wouldn't give them up. Gilbert's a tough man.

I've earned everything. Fuck you. He's a tough 80-year-old farmer. He's not taking any shit from anybody. You know how hardened? His skin could probably take the bullet and bounce off at how much sun he's been in his whole life. It's leather by now.

Yeah. Leather. So he's 80. He's married to Clara Lambertson, who's 73 years old. They've been married for 56 years, Jimmy. What the fuck, man? 56 years.

They farm mostly soybeans. They have a 67-acre farm. A lot of it's leased out. So at this point, they're farming some soybeans. They've pared down their operations. They have some gardens. They enjoy giving homemade jams and jellies as gifts. Where do these people exist?

Because they sound amazing. This is like a norman rockwell picture that's where they exist in a little farmhouse in a town where you're making jellies there mom yes i am there pop like what the fuck is happening in a room of salted meats hanging from the ceiling what a fucking great person a relative says they're kind people who never ask anything uh and never ask anyone for anything they're quiet retiring and very self-sufficient that's how they're retiring retiring quit for christ no no not we're not that's a not not they're retiring like they're gonna retire they're they're just like kind of they're oh they're at the end of their life no no no they're they don't like go

out and party and fucking tear it up or anything. Just some quiet, nice people there, basically. Gilbert was raised in this farmhouse. He's 80 and grew up here. Unbelievable. Think about that. He said this farmhouse, he's always out in the garden. He's been farming all his life. His dad before him was a farm this his whole life, too.

So this is like a family heirloom, this house. So an insurance agent said they were, quote, hardworking, God fearing, fine people. This is the American Gothic picture is what this is. It's Gilbert and Clara Lambertson. Basically, Jesus, he loved the Philadelphia Phillies. Huge baseball fan. Yeah. And, quote, many times he'd let the cows wait to be milked while he listened to the game.

Y'all can wait a minute. God damn it. Jesus. Mark Schmidt's up. Shut the fuck up. Sorry. Sorry. Your nipples hurt.

Sorry. Tug McGraw's coming in to get the save. Shut the fuck up. So stop. You're moving. They have four kids, sons Saxton and Delbert, and daughters Mary and Betty. It's beautiful. This is the most idyllic thing in the world.

Their son Delbert called them two quiet, very quiet, content people who never bothered a soul. The only place they ever went was down to the Acme in Dover to get groceries. They usually just stayed on the farm. They just don't. Fuck the outside world world i'll do this myself yep and i'm they don't need anything they got a farm and their kids and then they uh they also said he wasn't even like as a disciplinarian he wasn't even like uh he wasn't violent or anything like that they said that he would he would enforce his rules by just giving the kids a look and they would know that you don't mess around with Gilbert. Or if his sons were having a fight, he would force his two sons to stare at each other until they resolved a dispute.

You stand here, you stand there. Cast your daggers. Oh, my God. Daughter Betty said they were homebodies. They hated to leave the house. They never traveled. Didn't even leave Delaware very often. What?

They said. But they were also young at heart. They were fun people and nice people. So what he does is he forces, Billy Bailey forces Gilbert Lambertson into the house from there. And from there, apparently these old people ain't giving him shit. Good. They're not giving him a fucking thing. They won't give up the car keys.

And so what he does is Gilbert has a 12-gauge shotgun that he keeps by the door. Of course he does, yeah. Keeps by the front door. Well, Billy grabs that. Oh, shit. And Billy ends up shooting both of them now. He has them sitting in chairs. One is she's sitting in her rocking chair and he is sitting in a different chair and he shoots them both with both the pistol and the shotgun.

It is. It is a absolutely brutal, brutal, brutal scene. Clara is Jesus Christ. Clara is shot in the neck and chest. He has half his head's missing. Oh, my God. He shot him in the face, close range, like the plastic from the fucking shell. Wadding?

Yeah, the wadding is still in his head. Unbelievable, man. Half his head is missing. Shot him right in the face from close range. All you've done is robbed a liquor store, and you've got to up it to this? This is the next level. You went from 10 years to fucking,'re never this is murder for you crazy yeah i mean the scene is imagine what that looks like i can't close up 12 gauge wounds it's horrible the assistant state medical

examiner said uh first told of these gunshot wounds here there was one to gilbert lambertson's right hand chest and cheek and then uh of the shotgun blast that fractured his skull and quote disrupted his brain because half of it wasn't there anymore uh numerous pellets and the plastic in which they were packed were found inside gilbert's head unbelievable she said any of the three shots could have been fatal she's 80 82. You know what I mean? Clara was first shot in the shoulder from behind and then once in the abdomen and then again in the neck. A sweet old lady who makes jams and jellies and gives them to you. Mother of four who has been on a farm her entire life.

Looks like Mrs. Claus probably. This is ridiculous um they said she was shot twice with the shotgun saying that either of those wounds could have been uh could have been fatal that her hand was ended up hitting hit as well and her chest and they said that everybody said she would place her right hand like kind of over her heart if she got startled and that's probably what she was doing yeah the daughter said he shot her in the back then shot her in the front when she turned around the bullet went right through her hand fuck they estimated that uh they said also portions of the shell casings were found inside her body as well they said that they were shot at a distance of closer than 10 feet because there

was no satellite wounds from the pellets so they were that tightly gathered that it was so close. She was shot from a slightly greater range because the presence of satellite pellet injuries were a little bit more on her. So they both died almost immediately, though, they said. There was no suffering, at least, but this is fucking horrible. They said that some of the spent shells and cartridge casings found at the scene came from the two guns that were used in this. And they also found a bloody footprint that they believe belongs to the assailant later on, obviously.

So half of his, like I said, just a brutal scene. Across the street is their Saxton, their son Saxton's wife, their daughter-in-law, Marianne. They live across the street. No, she's picking strawberries across the street, and she sees a man leaving the house. And she's like, what's up with that? So she goes over and walks into the

house. She said he was a short, white man, stocky, dressed in dark clothes and carrying a shotgun, which is an odd sign. And she heard something in there. She didn't know if it was gunshots or whatever. So she came over, and she makes these discoveries. She walks in, and they're right in the living room there.

She found her mother and father-in-law? Yeah, that's a terrible scene. She said it was fucking horrible. They're right in the living room when you walk in. She said that her husband came up and she said quote he asked me if they were dead and i said no but i knew they were dead because when i went in and called them they didn't answer me they were gone but she didn't have the heart to tell him apparently so now they're looking for billy okay he runs into the woods

um back into the woods police at this point because they call the police now too and say this happens so now not only are there every cop they can muster from the county and the town and everything else on foot and their cars they have helicopters looking for him as well now now he's henry hill he's got fucking helicopters you want to see helicopters i'll show you helicopters so thomas w robbins he's co-pilot of the state police helicopter he spotted billy from the air he found him found billy from the air when uh so when they landed the chopper robbins jumps out with his revolver drawn and chases bailey with, who's got a shotgun. So now he's chasing him. Bailey fell down in the field. And, uh, at that point, Robbins was able to put his foot on the shotgun and he told him

he had him at gunpoint. He's standing on the shotgun. He's got him at gunpoint. He tells him to stand up as Bailey stood up. He pulled out a gun from his handgun, from his waistband and turned around at point blank range and fires at the trooper and misses him somehow. They're in enough combat to where this guy's hand is on the shotgun and one guy's foot is on the shotgun. That's how close they are to each other. That officer is going to have a Vincent and Jules.

That's a conversation about that. Yeah. How the fuck? The only thing is he tried to do it as he's turning, so maybe he was, but I mean, this guy, that's wild. Far too early or too late, but either way, he missed. He misses him, so

this guy jumps on top of him, knocks the gun out of his hand. He doesn't even shoot. He could have shot him at that point. He doesn't even shoot. He knocks the gun out of his hand and actually gets him cuffed, and Bailey wasn't even hurt everybody gets taken in without any injury in this regard anyway changes his pants and billy says quote you boys got me for the store and nothing else that's his quote there what else would we want you for uh but nothing else nope nothing i don't know if people get murder in the

farmhouse look people get killed all right i don't kill all of them that's crazy y'all are crazy so he um it's it's fucking horrible man this is as he's coming out marianne the one who found the bodies is there and sees him walking out of the woods and says she said quote i asked him why he killed those two innocent people and he said he didn't okay meanwhile she watched him come out with a shotgun you leave the house right so also a passing motorcyclist identified bailey as the man he saw coming out of the house the detective described him as quote wild and disoriented at the time of his arrest and then another detective who knew him described that condition as quote normal for billy bailey wild and disoriented he's just a while wow what

do you do with this guy so this is fucking terrible man so the son is um the son is he he's it's horrible it's fucking awful their grandson said one of them watched the other one get blown away. They were kind, old, feeble people. My grandfather kind of wobbled when he walked. That's who he decides to kill. This is fucking crazy. This sparks a big investigation of why the fuck this guy was allowed in a work release program to begin with. The governor's super pissed off.

There's a lot of shit coming down so he goes to court for the charges which are by the way robbery in the first degree possession of a deadly weapon by a person prohibited two charges of possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony and two charges of first degree murder so there's the big ones that's he's pretty fucked here um he during most of the, he was shouting and yelling profanities. That's a quote from the justice of the peace who oversees his hearing here. Never good courtroom decorum. No.

He said, quote, the most remarkable was the statement, I suppose, that he said at the end of the proceeding. I believe he first made a remark about, quote, you're going to put me in jail anyway. I know there's no bail for this. I believe it was just about that time, right after the time I was reading the statute as far as the penalty for the charge was concerned. He then made the statement, quote, why don't you just go ahead and kill me

and why don't you just go ahead and hang me? Because we can't. He said, as I recall, he followed with either quote you know i did it or you know i killed them i'm not sure exactly what his exact words were at that point oh don't do that so yeah that's not good that's fucking wild so um he made that's his statements in court he said then he said quote go and hang me, you son of a bitch. I killed him. Go ahead and hang me.

I'm going to make them kill me tomorrow. That's what he said as they're dragging him out. We can. Yeah. So that's fucking insane. He's nuts. And he also wrote that on things that he gave to his lawyer. So that's that's all there.

Then he said, i want to be shot and hung right now i demand to be shot and hung shoot me as i'm hanging god damn it trial is a pretty open and cut oh it's it's open and shut open and cut i just said open and shut um you know they got a gun guy in there they bring the kids in to say you know fucking guy in there they bring the kids in to say you know fucking what the fuck here this is terrible he is um he gets kicked out of the courtroom multiple times for acting sure acting a fucking fool here it's an eight man four woman jury they deliberate for just over two and a half hours okay that is fast that's fast for all those charges and two murders. Oh, man. That's the paperwork, basically. He said he killed him, right?

He said it? He said, all right, well, I mean, shit. They come back, not shockingly, guilty on all charges here and everything. The prosecutor said during sentencing, by the way, death penalty on the table here. Holy shit. He said he deserves to own up and suffer for what he did. He deserves way death penalty on the table here holy shit he said he deserves to own up and suffer for what he did he deserves the death penalty the defense attorney said come on he's can be compassionate they said he's been rejected by society he's a product of institutions operated

by this state he's acting like it's uh suicidal tendencies institutionalized i went to your schools i went to your churches i went to your anyway you did this to me yeah he said um uh he she did her his lawyer urged the jury to exercise pity not vengeance and understanding not retribution and as the prosecutor then after he says she says this poor man she sits down the lawyer prosecutor stands up to do his final rebuttal at the end. And Billy, who, by the way, the whole time had just been staring at the ceiling, which is a real normal court thing. Counting ceiling tiles. Then he bursts out with obscenities, telling the judge he's a fucking asshole and fuck you and fuck this jury and suck my cock and all this shit.

And they have to drag him out of the courtroom. So he is kept out of the courtroom while his sentence is read, and it is, you, sir, may fuck off death penalty. Oh, boy. Quote, you'll be hanged by the neck until dead. So that's what he's got. Is that what they're going to do? Must be hanged by the neck until dead.

That is the statute at this point. So he also sentences him to a total of 97 years in addition to that in robbery and weapons charges. A psychiatrist for the state described him as, quote, having a death wish and showing no emotion when he found out about the jury. The woman said, I think he prepared himself for it i would say he's like he's acting like a nutcase i mean jesus he knew when they put him in the car oh yeah he kill me now um he ends up wanting a new trial he gets a lawyer there's this article in the newspaper about his lawyer and they just try to make his lawyer sound like he's a cowboy they're like yeah he's a pilot. He plays pool.

He's got nerves of steel. Like, it's just, stop sucking this guy's cock. Who cares? Yeah. It's not going to work. So he said that, this is his attorney's view of Billy, quote, he seemed like a very angry man. He seemed like a very explosive individual.

I asked the guard to stay in the room with me until I could see his demeanor. That's why his lawyer said that his lawyer said that. That's why. Yeah, I would say so. And now the, the, also the,

the, um, the public defender that he had at first, she ends up getting on board to his appeal saying, I didn't know what the fuck I was doing, basically. So she's going to admit of incompetence? Yeah, she's going to go like, you know, I tried, but I didn't know what I was doing really yet. They kind of put me in a whatever, in a bad position.

So now the prosecutor argues that, no, you did a great job. I loved it. It's super weird. so yeah he's fine this is all great by the way everybody always says like lawyers and they're talking about lawyer fees and everything like that when lawyers are have to private lawyers do like not pro bono but for the state work like public defender work so that happens all the time and they get like a very discounted fee like this guy makes about 200 an hour and state assigned cases he makes about 50 an hour so wow yeah that's how this works 75 less yeah that's how this works so um this goes all the

way to the supreme court in 1983 uh here and uh say, get the fuck out of here. Yeah. No, no. You can't turn this one into mental health either because he was given every fucking chance. There at the end, you know what I mean? Oh, yeah, yeah, no, he's a mess. You shouldn't have even been out.

Yeah, he was on work release. He couldn't handle that. He couldn't handle going back for a day after 72 hours. So in 1986 delaware changes its method of execution to lethal injection now uh this was legislative effort they did all of this but anyone who's already facing the death penalty can choose whether they want the new one or they can have their old you know death by hanging um the uh obsolete shit yeah even one of the prosecutors said i have always felt death by hanging the obsolete shit. Yeah. Even one of the prosecutors said, I have always felt death by hanging was barbaric, was a

barbaric, violent method of execution. We create needless victims, the parents to children by having such a brutal form of execution. So 1996, this goes to and he's set to be executed January 25th, 1996. So his wife stuck around till 1989 before she divorced him which he was in prison for murder for on death row for 10 years and she was like this could work out that's an understanding woman so he is interviewed the early january 1996 and they're talking to him about well what how are you going to be executed and And he said, quote, I was sentenced to hang. If I'm executed, I should hang according to the paperwork.

I didn't shoot. He said, I didn't choose hanging. The state chose it for me. Asking a man to choose how to die is more barbaric than hanging. That is kind of like saying dig your own grave. That is kind of like if someone, if we talk about murderers all the time, if one of them said if we said they took her, he took this person into the woods and said, how do you want me to kill you? We go, that's fucked up. That's super cruel.

You want me to shoot you or cut your throat? We'd be like, oh, my God, what a fucking asshole. So it is creepy, I will say. But at the same time, I mean, I guess choice. I don't know. So he did earn it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. i guess choice i don't know so he did earn it oh yeah yeah so they talk about that um and billy

says 45 years uh in jail is the last thing i can remember about that day i don't know how i got from chesswald uh from the plumber center in wilmington i was drinking and popping pills all day i didn't know what i was doing and i don't remember any of it. So now he says he doesn't even remember that day. He says, I'm not sure if I'd done it, but I feel bad for it. I can't say if I did it, but I can't say if I didn't either. Oh, boy. Well, they can say whether they're going to kill you or not because that's what's going to happen. His last plea for clemency, they talk about his background, turned him into a, quote,

wellspring of sadness, depression, rejection and anger that, when tapped, resulted in a complete loss of the self-control that society expects from its members. That. So they said you should help. Come on. Come on, is basically what they're saying. roll board with the whole clemency thing here they dismiss favorable reports from prison personnel and recommended against commuting the sentence saying that bailey has not made a significant effort at rehabilitation in prison he had he has repaired clothing and made furniture and stayed sober but he said quote i haven't joined any organizations i figured i'd leave those to the guys who know they'll get out someday so he's's like, I'm in here anyway. What the fuck do I care? The Lambertson family opposes his commutation.

They want the death penalty as well. He wrote a letter to the family, to the Lambertson family. What does this say? And they said the letter, we don't have the exact letter. They didn't release that. But he said, quote, they said that Bailey is such an angry person, a mean person. He shouldn't be in society. I don't think he should live.

This is one of the kids. I don't think he should live because there's always a chance someone will let him out. I wouldn't want any family to go through what we have. And Bailey writes the letter and he said, I just put down what I felt. I can't spell too good. And the other offered to write it for me, but I did it my own way imagine getting that fucking letter from an angry man from an angry man horrible shit and wrote it in his own poop you're like this is jesus hold it up to a lot there's a secret message that i wrote in urine jesus fucking christ man he said that quote kept pushing at me telling me you

know this is what he's saying about the cops telling me you know you did it it makes me hurt inside i can't remember killing them but i feel it's my fault so i'm taking the blame people like me do have feelings you know as he was crying during the interview he said sometimes i get so uptight inside i just want to bust out crying. That's anxiety and depression, man. That's what that is. He's got that. Now, January 25th, 1996, execution day. Last meal comes around.

Jimmy, last meal. Oh, what'd he do? Well done steak. So right there, that's ruined it. Good riddance, motherfucker. Bye. Well done steak, a baked potato with sour cream and butter buttered rolls peas and vanilla ice cream okay what i do want to know is what cut of meat he

chose because if he got just some skirt steak you know it's a chuck you know it's just some chuck that you're supposed to do other shit with or like a thin shit this either that yeah something like that it wasn't good i don't think they were like give that ribeye it's not marbled give him the one in the back. Yeah, the marbled one. That'll be better. And that Wagyu one. That one will be.

Really trade them. Delaware has not carried out a hanging for 50 years. So they had to get advice from the Walla Walla State Penitentiary in Washington. I mean, you any any help here so they built uh they built the gallows in 1986 here um when his first execution date was coming up before it got delayed so they had to renovate it and strengthen it before they could do that oh god the platform housing and the trap doors 15 feet from the ground there's 23 steps up to it uh They used, okay, 30 feet. This is the protocol.

30 feet of three-quarter-inch diameter manila hemp rope boiled to take out stretch and any tendency to coil. Oh, my God. The area of the rope sliding inside the knot was lubricated with melted paraffin wax to allow it to slide freely. So a black hood is specified by the protocol, as is a sandbag to test the trap door and a collapse board to which the prisoner can be strapped if necessary, if he's trying to fight. Holy shit. So he's moved from his prison cell to the gallows here. They take him in.

He talks with his sister and a chaplain and eats his food and does all that shit they uh wow they take his glasses off obviously he comes in he's got his uh he's flanked by two people two guards two guards wearing black jumpsuits and black hoods held in place by baseball caps escorted billy up the steps um the warden who's standing farther off to the right at didn't hear he said do you have any last words uh and billy said something and the he was too far away because that's where the lever is so the warden didn't hear him so the warden he said do you have any last words and billy said, and he said, pardon? I swear to God, the fucking guy was asking him, I didn't hear you.

And he said, pardon? And Billy went, huh? No, sir. Like, did you just say I'm pardoned? Or are you asking me if saying I did, you didn't hear me? And he said, no, sir. And they were like, oh, okay. That's the most confusing. That's like a fucking Monty Python joke when someone's out there.

Pardon? Oh, very good then. No, no, no. I didn't mean that. Pardon? Great. I'm going back to my cell. No, we're going to kill you.

Start taking the noose off. I didn't hear what you said. Great. Well, God damn it. So they hold him there for about five minutes. What they do is, too, there's a guy who, well, anyway, they put him up for about five minutes. What they do is, too, there's a guy who, well, anyway, they put him up to the trap door there.

There's a nylon webbing strap that's placed around his ankles and a black hood pulled down over his head and upper chest. The noose is placed over his head. Several times they felt the hood to be certain the knot was correctly positioned behind the left ear, which is where that's the best position to snap the neck apparently um they said he was pretty calm

it's the only time he hasn't freaked out and gone nuts here um they pulled the lever with both hands trap door came it's uh they based on his size i think it's a five foot drop is what they decided was the the best thing there there's a Patreon episode about how they calculate all of that, basically. And that was it. He spun around counterclockwise six times, then rotated once in the opposite direction. And they pulled a canvas tarp down to conceal the body. And that was that. You could see his feet dangling below it which is pretty fucking morbid

spins oh my god pretty morbid um it's it's it's pretty fucking weird man um the whole thing's pretty creepy the family's happy though they said um saxton lambert said his parents were very innocent people they were old and small and he was a big brute he chose to shoot them so he chose to die and they said just because he wanted their truck he killed my grandparents without a doubt he should die that's the grandfather as well too so um that's it he was the last man hanged in the united states by the way is that right still to this day last man hanging he is so there you go everybody delaware is tiny and we don't know shit about it but it's fucking weird, and weird shit happens there.

They strung somebody up. Wow. So there you go, everybody. If that sounds good, please throw a review up on whatever platform you're listening on. Five stars is helpful. Patreon.com slash crime and sports is where you get the bonus stuff. This week, Sex Scandals Part 2 and the Weird Z weird zodiac killer documentary and current crop of uh whatever the fuck suspects however you want to call it and uh shut up and give me murder.com

is where you get the tickets live shows paps theater in milwaukee september 10th tampa improv september 23rd two shows that night next night in orlando the 24th two shows at the orlando improv shut up and give me murder.com is where you get that follow the show at murder small on twitter at small town pod on facebook at small town murder on insta or at shut up and give me what is it small town murder on instagram that's what it is yeah there you go that said holy shit thanks a lot enjoy your fucking weeks and everything else and don't kill anybody don't get hanged let's all be. Thank you so much for joining us, everybody. It's been our pleasure.

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. 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 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 joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.