Small Town Murder - #336 - The General's Secrets - Leonardtown, Maryland

Episode Date: November 19, 2022

This week, in Leonardtown, Maryland, when neighbors notice that their Army general friend hasn't taken his flag inside, for a couple of nights, they grow suspicious, and they are incredibly surprised to hear that he's been horribly murdered. They're even more surprised when. they find out secrets about the dead man's life, that they couldn't have imagined. Everything they thought was true, turns out to be nothing but quicksand, while the dead man's many mysteries are solved!Along the way, we find out that oysters may be one the world's most dangerous foods, that Army generals sometimes work as morticians, and that some books are nothing at all like their covers!!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 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 so much for joining us all aboard the murder train. Pulling away from the station. We have a crazy show this week as usual. Very quickly at the top here. You definitely want to head over to shutupandgivememurder.com. November the 28th, I've been told. Tickets go on sale for the entire 2023 tour. We're very excited.

We're going to peel these dates off as fast as possible right now. February the 20th in Cleveland. February the 10th in Cleveland. I'm sorry. It would help if I got it right. I could do it faster. February the 11th in St. Louis. March 23rd and 24th in Seattle.

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So, they're coming. Get your tickets the 28th. Start making plans. They make great holiday gifts. They do tickets to 28th. Start making plans. Yeah, they make great holiday gifts. They do tell you what right there. Also, head over to

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get access to everything. The whole back catalog of bonus stuff. It's like 150 episodes. Every other week, you're going to get two brand new episodes. One Crime in Sports, one Small Town Murder. This week, very quickly, Crime in Sports. Trust us, it's weird old medical ads from

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Let people wonder. Sit back and shout. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, Jimmy, shall we? Okay. Let's go on a trip. All right. Let's do it.

We're going down to Maryland this week. Oh. Back to Maryland. This is Leonard's town, or Leonard town. One singular Leonard. One Leonard. That's all there's allowed here. Just one guy named Leonard, and it's his town.

Leonardtown, Maryland. It's in the southern Maryland Panhandle. It comes kind of down, you know, kind of dangles down there like the turkey neck. This is the Southern Maryland Panhandle. It's about an hour. It's exactly what it is. The Maryland Flaccid

Dangler. That's what they call it, I believe, down there. It's a local localism. It's about an hour 40 to Baltimore, so nowhere near kind of that area. About an hour 15 to Washington, D.C. And about two hours all the way on the other side of the state to Westminster, Maryland, which was episode 288, which was the sex-crazed killer accountant, which was a wild episode. So if you live in this town, it's very accessible to get to our show in dc you can actually get there in about what it was an hour and 15 minutes i think and now

you can get right there and come see us there so uh population here it's 3912 so 3912 median household income is above the national average it's 61,000. Yeah. And median home price, though, a little pricey here. Really? $426,000 is the median home price. How do you do it? Wow, that's rough. That's rough. I don't understand on $61,000.

Oh, my God. That seems like a disparity there, right? I don't know how that works. House poor, yeah. Is that what it's called? I guess so, yeah. Yeah, I guess you'd be poor because of your house at that point. Right, I think that's what it's called.

Which is such a weird statement because it sounds like your house is poor at that point. Like, I'm house poor. Like, oh, yeah, that thing's falling apart. Look at it. Sounds to me like your house rich. Yeah, your roof's falling in. Shit, that's not good. You're house poor, man.

Like, all hat, no cattle. This is all house, no money. All house, no wallet is what this is so uh history quickly during the war of 1812 the british blockaded chesapeake bay which is outside of here a thousand british marines invaded the town and just wiped it clean basically messed it all up and plundered it and all that sort of thing this area was subject to repeated british plundering and destruction according oh my god this historical article i found here so uh by 1860 though the town had about 35 dwellings houses around there

and uh it was home to a newspaper had a couple of of hotels. So it's kind of, you know, coming into its own here. There's also a Mennonite farming community a few miles to the northwest of here where they produce furniture and crafts and shit like that. And Mennonites. Yeah, and Mennonites. Because Mennonites and Amish make damn fine furniture. Yeah. That's solid stuff. Solid.

So reviews of this town, they're wild and we got to get to these here. Reviews, oh God, my God, five stars. Five,

perfect. It's the best. The best. Leonardtown is a very safe community and very different from Great Mills not far down the road. Those fucking dirt bags in Great Mills.

This is a great community. That one's not. Right away. Like, I mean, we're better than them. I don't know. It was at least that. While there are not kids out at all hours of the day or night wandering around, it still feels safe when you go walking, even at night.

That makes no sense. There's not kids. So even though there's usually they're saying that you feel safer when there's kids around, which is a weird statement. If kids are bouncing around at 10 p.m., that means they feel safe? To me, that sounds like that's a bad neighborhood because that's parents who aren't watching their kids. Your parents, yeah. Right? The police are very visible in the area, and you better not speed out on the main road and will patrol neighborhoods during the day.

While no area can be completely safe, Leonardtown has to be the safest place I've ever lived. Anything else you want to talk about here besides that? In terms of not feeling that when you get out of your car in front of your house at night and you don't feel the need to run inside as quickly as you can. Okay, this person is just very paranoid. Great Mill must be just a... Real piece of shit.

...pauldron of just fucking craziness going on there. Four stars, the next one. The houses range from the traditional two-story family home to townhouses. All the houses are lived in and well cared for, the people out on the weekends taking care of their lawns. Other neighborhoods that are finished have a thriving community with lots of children who sometimes run amok but generally keep out of trouble. Going into the local woods means you might meet hunters or druggies. That's any local woods, really.

Yeah, those are the two people out there. But most stay away from the deep woods as it is unadvised to go there what's what what's in the deep woods holy shit i need to know i think this is the like blair witch area so maybe that's what we're talking about here maybe the blair witch is there i think it's from trees. Wow. Dolls made out of sticks. Holy shit. Two stars. There is nothing fun to do in Leonardtown, Maryland.

There are a few grocery stores. Well, it's not really a party. But if you want to do hard shopping, you need to go out of town. Hard shop. Do some hard shopping today, kids. Get out there. Fascinating. Wow. Hard shopping shopping that is wild um someone stole our hillary clinton road sign okay so apparently there are political signs that

the things going on here as well um this person include that in a review of the town that's pretty awesome yeah i don't know why that's that had to be one person i don't think the town got together to take your sign so and it's so funny and i'm really upset about my fucking song that's why these reviews are amazing because it's so personal to what happened to you because we'll have people being like somebody scratched my car in the supermarket parking lot. And you're like, that's not a review for the town. It's something that happened to you that was one thing that could have happened anywhere. Ah, shit.

Okay. Here's one star. No good. Nothing to do, especially for teenagers. Limited shopping. Zero malls nearby. I mean, Jesus. Limited job growth and opportunities unless you're county, like work for the county.

We pay Leonardtown taxes and have to go to Chop to Con High. School zoning makes no sense. Absolutely no good restaurants. Overpriced and terrible food. You're a kid. Eat McDonald's. Shut the fuck up. Do what your mom says.

I didn't go to a decent restaurant until I was 30 and could pay for it myself. Jesus Christ. Little diversity. It's not even affordable. This is coming from an NYC transplant. Good place to go get buried, not even to go die because the hospitals suck too. Well, it's a great place to die if the hospitals suck. That's where you want to go.

Lots of smokers. Okay. No health food stores nearby. I'm starting to hate this kid right now. Truly. I do not recommend it. It is safe. It is safe since not even the criminals want to live here.

They have more sense than that. So they tried, but okay. Very quickly, things to do. U.S. Oyster Fest is here hey sounds delicious oh i can't wait it's a two-day fun oyster festival taking place at the saint mary's county fairgrounds it sounds so good you get tickets they have the main event here is the u.s national oyster shucking championship contest. That I would never want to do. I would be so... I'd still be working on the second one.

Like this fucking thing, I'd have eight stab wounds in my hand. I'd be bleeding everywhere. They're wearing like metal mesh gloves doing that shit. They're wearing gloves like knights used to wear when they jousted. Like metal chain mesh. Nothing can get through it.

Jousting gloves. Just chopping away at these fucking shells. Man, $1,800 grand prize for winning that, which seems like it was negotiated. That's really not a round number. It's real weird. It's about what it costs for a new hand. I guess that's, yeah, that'll pay for your stitches that night at the hospital and a tetanus shot. So, wonderful.

That said, everybody, let's talk about a murder, shall we so wonderful uh let's that said everybody let's talk about a murder shall we let's do it because it is a it's a wild murder that took place here and not too long ago either to 2000 we don't have to go back too far now uh this is a crazy ass story though this is one of these stories i love this i love the stories that are like a shell game where you you think it's all this one thing and you go, oh, that was all a mirage that like disappeared before my eyes. And it's actually, you know, it's like Stranger Things or something like that. Oh, that's gone. And now I'm actually not there. That was all a dream.

And this thing that I thought was my mother is actually a monster. All right. So we have to go back to the year 2000. Let's talk about an individual here, a man. Michael K. Blankenship is his name. Yeah. Michael K. Blankenship. He's 49 years old and little on his background.

He is from Rock, West Virginia. Originally, that's where he's born and grew up. The postmaster of Rock said it was a great place to grow up, quote unquote, which I love that. Also called the town just a wide spot in the road. That's what they call it locally. That sounds gross. Yeah, it's just one of these small West Virginia towns. I should write the name of the town down and look for a murder there because I'm sure there was plenty.

So the postmaster said, like, no one comes into the post office even. It's just dead there all the time. Unless now. No, I'm sure now. Yeah, Christ, 20-something years later, it can't be any better. So anyway, Blankenship, born and raised there. Nice two-story, you know, white house and all that. It was fine, overlooking farms.

His father managed a company store for a mining camp. So if that was back then, they'd pay you in company script and you'd have to buy shit from the store. And he was a manager of that. And his mother was a school teacher at the local high school. Very, very central. Just everything local. They do everything here and we don't need to leave. Very much like that.

Absolutely. Everybody said the Blankenship. They had a couple of brothers he had too. Everybody said the Blankenship boys were remembered as always as nice, polite, and from a good family. That's the local thing. Oh, Blankenship, that's a good family there. Damn good family. Those are fine boys they raised. That's one of those, yeah.

They sound very salt of the earth here, you know what I mean? Yeah, very blue collar. Absolutely, yeah it couldn't be more blue collar so by 1989 we'll talk about so this is you know he's a little older here he's you know what is he 39 now 39 almost 40 he arrives in maryland here um and takes a job at the Hunt Funeral Home in Waldorf, Maryland. That's when he got there. He's got a big his resume is all military. He's got tons of service awards. He's got all this shit, which is pretty impressive to any employer that you're going in.

I'd like a job here. Oh, yeah, I was in the army. I'm very decorated as a career officer, all this type of shit not bad um a former co-worker that worked with him there said quote he was very helpful and nice that's why i believed everything he said like he told me he had a sister but he didn't have a sister why would he do that okay Okay. This is, oh boy, this is deep. This is deep, man. He just lied all the time? This story is like a deep root, like a tooth.

Like it's just, you're like, wow, it goes that far? So it touches bone. So in 1993, Michael moved into a townhouse in St. Mary's County that was $100,000, which in 1993 is, you know, it's a good place. It's not bad. It's a nice townhouse in St. Mary's County that was a hundred thousand dollars, which 1993 is, you know, it's a good, it's a good place. It's not bad.

It's a nice townhouse probably. And a quick drive from his new job at the Brinsfield funeral home where he's a mortician. Holy shit. Yes. Um, so, uh,

he tells now all of his friends know him as Michael Blankenship. He's a mortician. He was in the Army for a long time. He was a major for years. And then he ended up as a colonel in the Army Reserve. After that, he was in the Reserve and was a colonel there. You know, he's got his military ID and everything like that. He has a membership at the, oh, wow, Patazent.

I don't know how the fuck you say that. P-A-T-U-X-E-N-T? Nope. Pat-a-sent? Pat-a-quent? Pat-a-gent? I have no idea. River Naval Air Station Officers Club.

So he's got a membership. It's got to be a native word, right? I have no fucking idea. It's got an, I guess. We don't use x's a lot general patoos it maybe i don't know patuxent patuxent like that would be something in massachusetts would be like patuxent maybe it's patuxent patuxent river naval air station there you go punk satani and there's an x in that right guess what everybody that's what it's called now

so if you drive by it go hey it's, it's the Patuxent fucking river naval air station. Beautiful. So he would frequently go there. He'd bring visitors and friends with him to the Naval Officers Club because apparently it's very nice to go there. At Cedar Point, the big fancy dinners and the club overlooks the Chesapeake Bay. It's beautiful. It really is. Absolutely.

A friend of his named Mervyn Hampton said, quote, he was a marvelous, a marvelous host. Michael could spin a good yarn. He had lots of good stories to tell about politics and government and his relationship with the White House people. Yeah, but he's lying. Well, it's about a sister. He told his friend, this friend, that he went to school with Hillary Clinton. And he was friends with the Clintons who were in the White House at the time. And he says that he's been doing all this type of thing.

He's about to become president of the Rotary Club as well. Holy shit. Yeah, he made a rodeo to raise funds for service groups. So that was very popular. He'd go to a church at his Episcopal services. He was an usher at the church for all the services. So he's got a really active life, for Christ's sake. He's doing it, yeah.

He's working. He's going to all these clubs. He's doing a lot of charity stuff. He's at church all the time. Rubbing elbows with politicians. I'm exhausted'm exhausted like this guy's life is tiring um boy needs a nap all this while working a full-time job seems like a lot yeah so yeah he um during the late 90s though he ends up uh as we'll talk about he ends up getting a promotion in the military in the Army Reserve here. Now, he also says that he is a he calls himself just a special friend of the White House.

He just like people up in higher groups of of it's not a political thing. It's he's in the army. You know what I mean? So because of that, because he's a high ranking officer, he's made a lot of friends in high circles of politics. There are often times that a news article will be written about a politician and talk about their very good friend. And I'm just like, who the fuck is that? I have no fucking idea who that is. No idea. He gave a presentation to the Rotary Club all about Air Force One.

If you're not from the U.S., that's the plane the president flies on. It's a pretty sweet plane. It's a pretty sweet plane. And he had slides and all this type of shit, and he's given a tour of it, basically, and telling everybody about it. So everybody's like, fuck, this guy's been on Air Force One. That's pretty badass. He also said that he was a voluntary advisor to the White House speechwriting office on

military affairs. Awesome. So if any time a speech had to be made about anything military or on a military, like a holiday, Veterans Day, Memorial Day, that sort of thing, they would he would his words come out of their mouth. He would help with the speech writing to make sure it's in the tone of, you know, of the tone. It should be the correct tone that a civilian might not know to take.

You know what I mean? So they his friend said that that the speech uh that his stuff always seemed to be connected to the state of the union he was just uh quote going uptown to look at review and add to polish up or polish up whatever so he was saying i gotta go up there and go polish up the state of the union speech you know got my thumb on the pulse you know because we're talking about kosovo it's a big deal i gotta get there so he's also a certified mortician like we said works at the brimsfield funeral home mostly doing paperwork and attending to the grieving families but also would prep bodies for burial as well um he was this is the funeral home's owner quote he was, this is the funeral homes owner quote. He was very good with families.

I knew him as a licensed mortician who did his job. Well, Bert worked basically nine to five and I know he was active in the community, but what he did when he wasn't working, I don't know. Well, well, wife dying of cancer. Fuck. At like age 36 or something. Oh, no. That's what made him pack up and move to Maryland and just get out of West Virginia and, you know, clean start. And that's understandable.

That's totally understandable. Absolutely here. And that's understandable. That's totally understandable. Absolutely. Here he would all sorts of stuff. He would do with all these different officers clubs, the Patuxent and the Cedar Point clubs. He would do all of that. Always showed up there dressed in a neatly pressed dark green army uniform. Yeah, very normal. You know, everybody recognized him. One of the spokesmen for the Patuxent Naval, whatever, said, quote, he marched in our parades. He marched in all the veterans parades. Whenever he was asked about his career, he'd talk about Vietnam. I know people asked him about Vietnam, and he just always had all kinds of stories. Wow. So they'd all exchange. He wanted to talk about it.

Crazy. Yeah, they'd all exchange war stories together. Yeah. He wanted to talk about it. Crazy. They'd all exchange war stories together. At the St. Mary's Veterans Day Parade, he took the podium and gave a big speech about fallen soldiers and those who still serve and the men that he's commanded. And, you know, you talk about all this type of shit. So by late 1999, he's doing all this type of stuff, known as a lovely, one neighbor describes him as a lovely, caring person.

Wonderful. Working as a mortician still. Volunteering everywhere. He, by now, though, is a brigadier general in the U.S. Army Reserve. Shit, damn. So that is highfalutin right there. That's some hot shit. That's the guy.

Yep. And he oversees funerals at the arlington national cemetery fucking rad he's right he's he's polishing up state of the union addresses he's he's really a mover and a shaker here he's doing his thing contributing fucking grace and and grief to fallen soldiers he's a beautiful man yeah that's well his one a guy who knew him who was actually a state representative at the time, said his claims of close relationships with the Clintons never struck me as particularly credible. He said he was close to the Clintons, knew them from Arkansas, wrote speeches for them. I know a lot of those speechwriters and they know I represent St. Mary's and they had never mentioned him to me.

So you think they'd be like, oh, you're from where that guy's from. Right. You know. Yeah, we know him. And he be like, oh, you're from where that guy's from. Right. You know. Yeah, we know him. And he's like, so that that was kind of a weird thing. Very, very strange. But he would didn't seem to be a big deal. That same friend said before he left for Christmas 1999, he said we exchange Christmas gifts.

He was they were discussing Y2K coming up. Yeah. If you're too young to know, in 2000, everybody freaked out that at the stroke of midnight, planes would fall out of the sky and every computer system would shut down and there'd be no power. And there'd be no money. It would be bedlam and everybody's money would be gone that was in a bank because it's all computerized. So we were all very worried about that. We were.

And this person, it turned out to be not one computer had a problem. Not a thing. My thing I remember at the time, I was thinking, okay, so let's say the computer doesn't know to go to 2000 and it goes back to 1900. Does the computer then in its own brain think, oh, my God, it's 1900. I don't exist yet and shut down because that didn't make a lot of sense to me. I don't get why it would shut down then after that. It would just be like, OK, now it's 1900 and start counting from there and you can adjust the date. I never got why.

Why wouldn't it say yesterday was 1999 and you had this much money. Somehow today it's 1900 and now back in 1900 you didn't exist so you had no money so yeah why would it think that the computer would think i don't exist i'm a computer shit you don't even exist yet you weren't born until fucking 82 forget about it or will the computer just go now it's 1900 and somehow you still exist and all this money exists still yeah but it's just a different day because I'm a computer and numbers don't mean anything to me in dates. I don't have any significant historical reference to the numbers

because I'm a computer. I don't give a fuck about Earth and Sun. I don't know if that, but I don't know what that was. I found out, by the way, Y2K actually, some programmer came up with it as like a, hey, what if this happened in like 1986 and that's what this happened. And it caught on. It caught on, yeah. Wow. And it was just like a theoretical, hey, what if this happened in like 1986? And that's what this happened. And it caught on. It caught on, yeah. Wow.

And it was just like a theoretical, like, what if that happened? And then it became like this. Was he just a smoker? He's just stoned going, bro, what if? Check it out. Okay. Here we are. Listen to this, bro.

I'm saying, right? Suppose you're a computer, right? Bro, you think it's 1900. What are you going to do, man? Bro, you'd think it's 1900. What are you going to do, man? You're not going to exist anymore. You're going to make planes just fall from the sky and shut down the grids, bro. Cars are going to evaporate. Watch.

Like, seriously, bro. It's fucking crazy. We're going to have to invent all this all over again. Society's got to restart. It's not going to have to invent all this all over again. Society's got to restart. It's not going to be good. So none of us, we won't even know how to make penicillin anymore. It'll just be a disaster. This person went on to say he, meaning Blankenship,

told this person that President Clinton was very concerned over the Y2K situation. Yeah. So just so you should be concerned too, the president's concerned. So just, you know. So January the president's concerned so just you know so january 23rd 2000 comes around okay and um every day he every morning he raises the flag in the morning every night at sundown he lowers the flag he brings it down so he does the whole deal like he you know like he's at a military base. Absolutely. So January 23rd, 10 o'clock at night, winter night, flag still up. Oh?

So neighbors are like, well, that's weird. Where the fuck is this flag? Really pissing on America, sir. Yeah. This guy, I thought he was a patriot, for Christ's sake. He's going to raise it upside down tomorrow? What's that now? For fuck's sake.

Jesus. Goddamn Christ. This bastard. So he would do that. Even if he was going to come home late, let's say if he had plans with the Rotary Club or something, he would have his neighbors take it down. Is that right? Yeah. You take that down for me.

It had to be right. His next-door neighbor, Flo Michalski, said, quote, you know, I could never fold it as good as he could. So the flag flies that night. All through the next day, the 24th, never comes down. It's up. The sun's up. The sun's down. Flag's out the whole time. So they're like, okay.

Then January 25th is the worst snowstorm of the year. You're not going to leave your flag up to be battered in the snow like that all night. Old Glory just taking a beating. Taking clumps of ice hanging off of it. Holy shit. Not good at all. Just a complete mess. So it's at that time that the next door neighbor said,

we should probably make sure he's okay. We should call the cops or something because he kept his flag up. Hello, 911. Old Glory is really taking a pound. It's snowing

though, 911. But the flag's up. What didn't you understand about the flag's up and it's snowing? It was dark last night. Don't let it touch the ground. Telecopts come out here asap because the flag has been flying but in the terms of this is i would never want a neighbor to know my rhythms

to the point of if something didn't happen for two days they would call the cops to make sure it was okay like that's you're way too in tune with the movements and rhythms of your neighbor's actions at that point i keep my tape my neighbors on their toes to where i'll leave my trash cans out a day late and every time i do my neighbor brings them up for me no no jimmy back to the house but if my neighbor raised and lowered his flag every day and i understand that's like for military people and stuff it's a respectful thing not making fun of that we're making fun of these neighbors being so nosy with the fucking thing just so you know but if my neighbor did that every day and then didn't i wouldn't notice it for a while probably number one i'd smell him before i noticed that shit absolutely and then it would

take like seeing it a couple times over the course of a couple weeks like that's not usually up at night right and i'd be like he doesn't take his flag down anymore and then sarah would go really and i go yeah and i shrug my shoulders and never think about it again because it's none of my fucking business what he does with his flag i don't care he's not taking it down anymore what do you want for dinner yeah okay she'd look at me and be like all right like and so he stopped good for him so anyway he probably saw that it was fucking exhausting probably jesus christ he just got tired that's all it is so um either way they call the cops and the cops come out and um you know he didn't show up for work either. So I'm sorry, his neighbors didn't call the cops.

They thought about calling the cops. His work calls the cops because he doesn't show up for work on Monday morning and they haven't heard from him. And it's just he's not a guy who misses work ever. He's worked there for years. He's never been – he's never not shown up for work. He doesn't no-call, no for years. He's never been. He's never not shown up for work. He doesn't no call, no show. That's never, never happens. So the neighbors said, quote, I was shocked.

I was still so it was still so bad out snowing like crazy. And so I was shocked to see a policewoman standing at my door. And so they said it was so he was so punctual, even in a blizzard. His boss expected him to show up and called the cops thinking maybe he careened off the road and is stuck in a fucking snowbank somewhere. 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 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+, 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.

Yeah. You know, so the cops start at his house to see if his car's there, and then they're going to go from there. Yeah, start looking out for the guy with black feet. His feet are dying. Yeah. So the Sheriff's Lieutenant John Horn is his title here. Not John Horn. That's his name.

His title is Sheriff's Lieutenant. His name's Sheriff's Lieutenant, title John Horn. Title John Horn. How you doing, Sheriff's Lieutenant? Very nice to meet you, sheriff's lieutenant, titled John Horn. Titled John Horn. How you doing, sheriff's lieutenant? Very nice to meet you, sir. No, no, no, that's John Horn. Either way, he says, quote, you walk in,

the house is secure, because they go into the blankenship home to check on him. They're doing a well check. The house is secure, locked, no sign of forced entry. Inside, the house is in disarray. Then he says, quote, you have the victim laying

in the bathroom with the door closed with ligature marks on his neck. Oh, shit. So, they find a dead Michael Blankenship here. Oh, no. The house is in disarray, but on him the only thing that's out of place is ligature marks

around his neck. His clothes are neat. He's not bruised. There's no defense wounds. There's no knuckle bloody. There's no bloody nose. There's not. His hair is not even that messed up. Like it's he looks like a perfectly like he's about to go, you know, out to go out to dinner or something.

But somebody strangled him very gently. And he and he was like, cool, please strangle me. Like, it's a very weird, it's a very weird looking thing here. Not a scratch on him,

which they said, it's so weird. The, they, the cop said it's, it looks like he almost accepted his fate and was just like, like, it's such a strange,

they never saw like a strangulation that doesn't have swinging. You swing your arms around, Nick, your hand on a thing well there's nothing there's nothing like that it's like he was unconscious or something it was strangled it's weird that's what it looks like they don't understand in the bathroom in the bathroom with the door closed rest of the house in uh in complete disarray yeah so his neighbors were like holy shit what the fuck it's it's they said usually his house is immaculate, by the way,

and everything in his place. The guy that puts up and takes down the flag, he's got it in shape in there. You go in, there's 30 beer cans on his coffee table. But this is the guy that brings his flag up and down? That's weird. No, that's not how it works. This guy's super, super well-kept.

So everybody was so shocked, too, and they're like okay no sign of forced entry there's drawers in like all of his dressers and things like that that have been opened and a pair of his glasses were thrown on the table and a tie is slung over the doorknob and then they said there's a gun laying undisturbed right on top of his dresser so yeah it's a little weird his neighbor saidbed right on top of his dresser. So, yeah, it's a little weird. His neighbor said, quote, we couldn't think of anybody who had it in for him. There wasn't a person around here who didn't like him.

They're like, who the fuck did this? And later on, the police will say there's a gun sitting on top of the dresser. If this is a robbery, it's the worst robbery in the history of the world. Nobody who robs houses doesn't take a gun that's sitting out in the open. Right. What were you looking for that you just left a gun? Especially because the drawers of the dresser were open on the dresser that was on. They were in front of the gun.

They were looking at the gun. So they definitely left it on purpose. That's a strange thing. So the neighbors are shocked. They're talking to the neighbors trying to find out who the cops are trying to find out who could have done this they they tell him of this is who this guy is he's got this big military record he's a brigadier general this is kind of a you know it's kind of a big deal this is going to be a big news story here somebody killed a brigadier general all this type of shit so they notify the white house

to tell them because everybody said they're close with like the white house and shit like you should you know that's what everybody they talked to had the same thing he's a brigadier general he's like a clinton speechwriter he's close to the white house you should talk to them and probably tell them first about it so they called the white house and nobody at the white house has ever heard of him nobody not the clintons not the staffers not the speech writers no one's ever heard his name before well real sad he's dead don't know the guy yeah so they're like well all right well let's let's look into what the deal is um he's a brigadier general somebody must know him somewhere in the army so they call the army and they're like he's not a brigadier

general what the fuck are you talking about his army records are he did serve in the army, but not in Vietnam, as he's claimed this whole time. He was not a brigadier general, not even in the army reserve anymore. He was not at all. Why do that? He was a soldier served in the army from 70 to 73, not in combat. You know what his job was? He was talking about fallen comrades that he helped and threw over his shoulder. He baked bread.

Hell yeah. He was a baker, which is great. That's a great job. That's a great skill. I love it. Love that one. Everybody else in the Army, the Army, oh, this sucks, war and war. And he's like, every day smells delicious.

It just smells delicious every day. I just don't mind. Who likes a pumpernickel today? Yeah. I don't even eat that shit. So he baked bread. So he was a bread baker who wasn't a combat soldier at all. Meanwhile, he's telling everybody he's this decorated combat soldier, Vietnam veteran,

brigadier general, and all this type of shit. Why say that? Just go do it. That's a lot easier to say it than do it. To climb that ladder? I mean, who knows? Authorities were trying to figure out how he is like he's a member of these officers clubs. He would just renew his membership annually so they wouldn't like check you out.

But they don't know how he got his original membership. But they do find that among the things they found in his car was a device for creating fake IDs. He has like this printing thing. So that's he's just making up by identifications for himself as licenses and things of various technically not illegal. He's not doing it to like hurt people or anything. Right. It's not illegal, is it? I think there's a you can't do that.

Right. I don't know. I mean, morally, you look like a piece of shit. That's one thing to do at a dinner party, but when you actually get an officer's club membership and things like that, there has to be some sort of federal prime. Yeah, oh, gee, you think?

Good God. You felt bad about getting a discounted jack-in-the-box and you didn't even technically say you were in the military. True. This is different this guy shows up in uniforms with full medals and you know talking about his fallen soldier friends that he had to throw over his shoulder while their guts dripped out of them and shit in vietnam so this is a this is a mess so the army said it's very weird. An Army spokeswoman named Martha Rudd said, quote, it's not unusual for people to.

It's not unusual to pretend you're generals. It's not unusual. Sorry, very little sleep last night. It's too easy. It goes right there. It's too easy. It's too easy. It goes right there.

It's too easy. She said it's not unusual for people to falsely claim they've been in the service and not unheard of for someone to exaggerate what service they had been. But, quote, we just don't get people running around claiming to be a general. Yeah. Outside of like, you know, an 80s sitcom mental institution with somebody wearing like all, you know, everyone else is in like like pajamas and he's got like pajama pants yeah and it's pajama shirt but with like a military coat over it with medals and he's like i'm the general like okay general sit on down buddy it's a guy with a napoleon hat on that's what jonathan winters did near the end he was just running around his house in fucking weird military garb that's not just havingb. Maybe he was just having fun.

He was. He was just having fun. He wasn't pretending like he wasn't trying to pass off a legitimate military career. No. Well, he may have thought he was because he was a massive guy. Poor bastard. Yeah. Some dementia there.

Yeah. So his friend that went to the officer's club with him all the time, he said that despite the deceit, he's still a good neighbor. He said he was an important part of the community who visited the sick and cared for the poor he did lots of good things for people he said you know just maybe this just made him feel good i don't know i feel yeah you have to feel bad for a guy like that and that's what his some of his good friends were like i feel terrible for him that him that he felt like he needed to be that for us to like him. Well, there's more to this, by the way. Army and sourdough.

I still respect you, Jesus. Yeah. And I would have said, shit, you still know how to make bread? I would be much more interested in getting your bread. Yeah. Come over. I'm making spaghetti. I need that bread.

I don't want to hear war stories. That sounds gross. I want bread. Like, thank you for your service. But what's up with that bread bro so useful to me yeah i love bread so his friend also said we're still in a state of shock uh just i don't understand it his other friend said we're completely dumbfounded of course in retrospect it doesn't make sense that more questions weren't asked it's just maybe it was

he was uh maybe he was the fellow we all met but you look back and he was supposed to be in the reserves but he never seemed to go away for reserve duty we didn't know what his unit was supposedly was we really didn't know much about him it turns out at all true he just yeah it's he did like a catch me if you can it's just a real fascinating yep um they became so at this point they're like well we don't really give a shit about any of that unless it leads us to who the fuck killed him. Right. He's got this fake life. Does he have a second life that he's leading then if he's got a fake life?

Does he find out about how fake it is and get upset? That's what I mean. So they didn't know what to do. So they were able to reconstruct his computer usage because it's 2000. reconstruct his computer usage because it's 2000. So he's on the internet and they're able to reconstruct chat room things that he does and try to figure out who he knows and whatever. It's more than they did in the Heyman Lee case. I'll say that.

They, they end up finding some, you know, just as regular web surfing and some email correspondence that they find particularly interesting between him and a young soldier at Fort Lewis, Washington named Hario Torres. Now, their correspondence, they called it a roadmap to the relationship. Basically, that Blankenship attempted to mentor him as a young soldier, telling him the whole Brigadier General story

and lying to him, telling the young soldier this whole lie and uh you know telling him how he can help him navigate through the army and everything like that uh but this quickly turned into a romance between the two oh shit that's the other thing that he's not telling anybody that's what makes it sad too is he felt like he couldn't tell his anybody he just created a whole other you know thing and just created a wife that died of cancer so he's not interested in dating he would tell his friends because i you know i love my wife and i don't want anybody else and that's what he would do so which makes it even sadder so um but the problem is the the prosecutor later will say blankenship is telling this kid look you're 19

now i want to get you into ROTC and into college. I want to introduce you to all my admiral and general friends, who he doesn't have. How are you going to make good on that promise? He lied to this kid a lot. He's basically leading the boy to believe he was going to be made into something very special, an officer and a gentleman, shall we say. That's what they said later on. So it's Hiorio Fortunato Torres is his name.

He came to the U S from Mexico when he was 11 and went to North Carolina, uh, family, his mom, as dad left the family when he was five and his mother had five kids and they were homeless for a while before they came to the United States and all this type of shit in North Carolina, they opened up a small Mexican grocery store and the whole family helped out and all that

sort of thing. So, um, they, uh, they said Torres wrote his college application essay, which Blankenship helped him write. So his brother said it was difficult for him because we did not speak any English. So we had to learn the language as we learned our lessons. So they basically, they were, you know, had to, they just were put in the pool and swim learn english so but things were going well for him he went from that to being in the army he was proud of that he was trying to you know yeah move up there um he graduated with honors did torres in 1998 from

ashborough high school and then he joined Army, trying to get money for college, and that's how it goes. He wrote later on, Torres said, When I graduated from the United States Army Basic Infantry Training School, I felt like an American. Although I still carried a green card in my wallet, I also carried a United States identification card, just like every other GI. I was serving this country. I was a part of this country.

I was on my way to being a success. The sun was shining. That's beautiful. It is. But he's also didn't tell anybody that he was gay in the army. He did tell his family, though. He came out to his family, but not in the army. This is the don't ask, don't tell era where, you know, you just have to.

But yeah, I just kept it under the under the radar. So he's he's doing his thing in the army. He's never gets in trouble in the army or anything like that. Torres in his college essay here said by pure luck he ran into Michael Blankenship, this brigadier general who's going to help him he's he wrote quote on a very sunny day in july 1999 i stepped off an airplane at ronald reagan national airport in washington at the end of the ramp i met for the first time brigadier general michael k blankenship the sun was glistening on the insignia of his rank and reflecting in my eyes reflections i would appreciate for the remainder of my life that That's a Mexican national that wrote that. Yeah. That's gorgeous.

With Blankenship's help. Okay. Yeah, he helped him up with the language a little bit. But still, he helped him with his thoughts. I don't know how much help he put into it. It's pretty great. Sounds pretty great, yeah. Glistening.

It's glistening. So they visited each other. They went back and forth a few times. He's in Washington State, this other kid. So they're going back and forth, you know, a few times. He's in Washington State, this other kid. So they're going back and forth across the country, Torres and Michael. They visited each other. They wrote letters to each other, emailed each other. They were on the phone all the time.

At least once, Torres came to West Virginia to visit Blankenship's mother and brother. I mean, and Blankenship flew out there to see him. That's a relationship. Sure is. You're introducing them to the family. You're going across the country talking every day. That's the definition of a relationship. And they said the police said it was.

It appears it was a relationship that moved very quickly. And so they. Blankenship wrote to Torres. And assured him that the relationship would never end. And so at that point. That's when Torres told his family about Blankenship wrote to Torres and assured him that the relationship would never end. And so at that point, that's when Torres told his family about Blankenship. And Blankenship, the family was like, you're not going to go with this old guy. He's 30 years older than you. This is disgusting.

He's an old predator. Yeah, he's an old predator, basically. It's fine if you're gay, but that's no, not this guy. And then Torres tells his family family it's not like that. He's not using me as a matter of fact. This relationship is real. As a matter of fact, I'll show you a copy of Blankenship's will that he's just changed to put me in. OK.

So he just so he put him in the will. Blankenship tells him giving Torres his house, a $250,000 life insurance policy and everything everything that he has because he doesn't have kids or anything like that. So also Blankenship wrote to Torres and told him about all this stuff. I mean he was – so he said, look, I have security. This guy likes me and he put me in the will because he loves me and we're going to be together. So that's how that went. Problem is though that wasn't true at all. He forged a will. will because he loves me and we're going to be together so that's how that went um problem is though that wasn't true at all he he forged a will he produced a fake document to give to this

kid so he thought so this guy thought that he was getting that so that's that's kind of that's kind of crappy um so they said though it's no one ever suspected any of this so this blows everybody away so all of his friends it's hard in a murder investigation when nobody who knows the person knows anything about them in reality, right? Normally, you know, the things that they do other than he works here and hangs out here.

They don't know shit about him. So all they have to go on is we've tracked it to this guy. This is the only other person who kind of sees behind the curtain is this Torres guy. So they're like, could he have done this? That's all they could think of. Motive being for money of a will or anything like that. Who knows?

We don't know. Either way, they go to this. They're in here. When he was in the Army, by the way, when Blankenship was in the Army, he was very – he did well, actually. We have one – there is a major general who's a real major general, Piklik. Piklik? It's a weird name. Piklik.

He commanded the U.S. Army Material Command Europe, and he is a retired guy now. But he – Blankenship used to work for him, and this general said that he called him a very good aide. He said that Blankenship always kept his brass buttons sparkling and all of that kind of shit. He said he was an excellent cook who made pastries and, quote, flamboyant hors d'oeuvres. This is before anything came out out that's what i mean if someone makes flamboyant hors d'oeuvres in the in the in the 70s you that's a that's a sign everybody so yeah this is pre cooking shows you know so this guy ended up being got his second star as a general pike lick and he threw a promotion party at the officers club and said Blankenship stood at the door greeting guests in a uniform that Blankenship himself

designed. What? He made his own uniform like Custer or fucking MacArthur. Those are the people who made their own uniforms. This guy still isn't catching on. Nope. He's a clothing designer that makes flamboyant fucking pastry makes flamboyant hors d'oeuvres and pastries you should see the puffs he makes they're amazing

these amazing puffs and he he's a clothing designer shirt i mean fuck the general called it quote a very fanciful costume what are we talking about he said that blankenship i can't even get it out blankenship added blue epaulettes and other fancy trimmings to a coat in a way that was fetching but definitely not regulation he's screaming to you dude he's trying to tell you something pike lick said i was shocked when i saw it he was standing at the door greeting everybody saluting everybody with a happy manner he was standing at the door greeting everybody saluting everybody with a happy manner he was designing his own uniform like ike or macarthur it was a really nice outfit though i'm sure it looked great he was impressed by it

he was impressed by it so i don't know yeah he did go to mortuary school at the cincinnati college of mortuary science in in ohio and graduated there in 1979. So that's actually true. Doing makeup. Yeah. They were looking for younger people. And then once he kind of just grandfathered himself in other clubs from there. It's how it went. And he just started adding accolades to himself there. So that's what he was doing. His friend called him a perfectionist. And he said everything he did, he tried to do the right way.

And he actually, his one friend, Charles charles carl which in spanish is carl carl um he said that uh um he described himself as this the carl guy got multiple sclerosis and he said blankenship gave him a loan to help his family scrape by until he could get disability so he's saying what a nice guy this fucking guy is. He's really great. But then in 86, Blankenship, in October of 86, he's indicted on three felony counts of embezzlement by a grand jury for stealing more than $4,000 from elderly West Virginians who prepaid for their funerals with him. What? Oh, that's not cool. Yeah, that's not good at all. Four grand?

Jesus. That's not a lot. He pled guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to six months work release. So, yeah, his boss there said, he done me so dirty that I don't have much love for him. He done me so dirty that I don't have much love for him. He paused and then said, quote, he really throwed it to me. That, my friends, is a West Virginia funeral plot seller who didn't see robbery coming

fascinating not at all there are a lot of friends of his that suspected that he was gay not the officer club people but other people they said he did like when he worked at the at the one place in Waldorf. He said that he they said he made a rudimentary effort to hide it. He spoke of his ills who would frequently come and stay with Blankenship and accompany him on trips to the beach

and he would say that that's his sister's grown son that's his nephew who's just staying with him yeah so they said he's got a real he likes young Hispanic guys is what he likes it's what he's into so

Yarrio here Bl blankenship emailed him july 10th 99 about um oh i added two new ribbons to to uh my rack on thursday i must mean metals on july 7th i received the presidential service identification badge it's one of the most sought after badges for those of us who serve in washington wow that's a blankenship told to us a blankenship was telling him so yeah he was telling him he was telling him all of this like i'm moving up in the world and he would like he was trying to mentor him in life to blankenship though he was saying like hey be careful with this be careful with that like things from from experience, not military things, life stuff, and especially being a young gay man stuff. Like you would tell them, hey, be careful of this, look out for that. You know, so it's – that's it.

So they're still looking for Blankenship's car, by the way, also. They couldn't find that at all. One of his cars was missing. They end up figuring it all out that this kid thought – Yario thought that he was the beneficiary of this house and this big life insurance policy so he came in torres booked a round trip ticket flying under he actually had identification as an alias oh no he flew under an alias uh marco marco was the last name instead of his regular last name so he flew under this

alias flew in and came in they said that uh looked like shortly after he got there by the way everything was um that he probably strangled him when he wasn't expecting it yeah he was you know the blankenship was standing there and torres came up behind him strangled him then he got into his car got into Blankenship's car drove away because Blankenship had picked him up from the airport he doesn't have a car there he flew in then he said oh shit I should make it look like a robbery and turned around and went back and disheveled the house but didn't really take anything he just disheveled the house to make it look like a robbery. Yeah. Yeah. Wrinkled some shit and left valuables out in the open. So he then stole the blanket.

You can't take a gun on a plane. That's why he didn't take that. That's why I didn't take it. Cause right. He drove right from the house, right to Reagan national airport, abandoned the car with the engine running in the front of the airport terminal. That doesn't draw attention to it or anything.

Yeah. He did like an eighties movie. He tossed the keys to a guy and said, keep it. You can't park there keep it so the disregard in the 80s for cars just i don't care when they uh when they finally talked to torres he he cracks and he he gives up what he did and within 15 minutes of getting there he strangledled him. He grabbed a piece of rope. He wrapped the rope around each hand, made like one of those, so he got a grip. A little garotte.

And he just strangled him to death. He said he didn't fight back or anything. He didn't just took it, basically. He didn't understand. Maybe Blankenship thought he would stop if he didn't struggle. Maybe he thought like, hey, I've been so nice to this guy, maybe he won't strangle me. Right, passed out before he stopped.

And then they might have passed out. Yeah, we have no idea. So he said, yeah, he ransacked the house. He also wrote a note to make it look like somebody had discovered who he was. He wrote a note with big giant letters, a piece of paper taped to his computer monitor. In big block letters, he wrote F-A-G on it. No. Yeah.

So people would think that maybe that's what it was. So he just did that to throw the police off the scent. So, yeah, the prosecutor said, let's put it this way. There was a brand new handgun that belonged to Blankenship sitting in the open on a dresser. No self-respecting robber I've ever heard of would leave a gun like that behind. See, lots of crimes and no good ones leave the fucking gun. Come on. Now, Torres flew back to Seattle and got into his barracks in time for Monday morning.

But two days later, the Army investigators started asking him about his relationship with Blankenship. So he acknowledged that, yes, he did have a gay relationship with him, but he didn't kill him because the cops asked the military to talk to him. So military police took him aside. And that's what he said. He goes, no, I did have a gay relationship, but I didn't kill him. So that sets in motion a Chapter 15 administrative proceeding, which they're going to dismiss him from the service. So he said that when they first talked to Torres, the police talked to him, too. He just kept saying, I have no reason to lie. I didn't do anything. I have no reason to lie to you guys. I don't know what you're talking about. you guys i don't know what you're talking about but the detectives worked quote hundreds of man hours unraveling everything because it's all over the computer so you can see how it went the the one investigator said the whole thing was complicated it was a difficult investigation for us we had to work by telephone fax and email with army criminal investigators local authorities the airlines as well as other organizations so there was weeks go by before they can lock it all down. March 28th, 2000, they finally arrest Torres. And, you know, that's that. They go to court and the prosecutor said this is one of the most troubling prosecute prosecutions he's ever even heard of.

Because he said that this basically the victim in this case lied to this guy, led him on and is also 30 years older than him. And they have a lot of evidence that he was also engaging in consensual relationships with local juveniles, 16 year old kids that he was counseling and leading. So they're like when they bring out that he's, you know that he's a pedophile, that's not going to look good. Possibly grooming, right. That looks bad. This is a 19-year-old kid, and he is an adult technically, but that still looks bad. And you don't know the jury. The jury, you might have prejudices in the jury. Who knows how it's going to go.

At the end of the day, you still can't murder, and if it's not self-defense but it still looks terrible the prosecutor said that the the the uh the defense could very easily make blankenship look like a quote fraud pedophile and seducer of young men god damn it that's what the defense could do and he said at that point it's going to be difficult and it's hard for hard for the Blankenship family and everything else. They're going to drag this guy through the dirt. So in addition, they also found with – this is one of the pieces of evidence they found in Blankenship's house. A letter to the St. Mary's College president offering himself, Blankensenship as a military mentor to the youth of the college.

He also participated in discussions about the St. Mary's County public schools plan to institute a junior ROTC program in the county and took it upon himself to lobby the Maryland congressional delegation about it. Mikey, no. Yeah. He said this is the prosecutor. General Blankenship, general in quotes, was parading around as a general in order to get closer to young men of military persuasion.

Fuck. So, I mean, if they're legal age, knock yourself out. There's plenty of guys that do tons of shit to get near 20-year-old girls. I mean, that's just the way it works. But you can't do it. Junior ROTC, no, no, no, no, no. You know, that's not going to work, chief. So they the prosecutor also said there's no evidence that Torres was setting him up from the beginning. We just don't know. We do know he thought Blankenship was really a general and that he had really named him in his will. A house and 250 grand. That's motive enough for a lot of people to kill. a lot of people to kill probably yeah absolutely so uh the way this goes on um the end up the prosecutor says all of that they offer him a plea deal because they said this would be a terrible

trial to do they offer him a second degree murder deal and for the for the for torres it's a it's a good deal because he's looking at it as they could really make me look like a cold-blooded son of a bitch that was setting up this older guy who was actually trying to help him and all this type of shit. And he's so greedy. Yeah. The only difference between that and the other one is, in first degree, is premeditation, right? That's, yeah. So at least they're pulling that off the table, which is obviously what he did.

He booked a fucking plane ticket. He booked a flight under a false name. With all the other flights, he booked under his own name just fine. Right. Why would you book it in a false name unless you're going somewhere to do some bad shit that's right yario before he sentenced he says quote uh despite his lies meaning the prosecutor's lies i would do anything to bring michael back i want to tell you that i'm truly sorry for what happened i was only 18 when i met when i met him and now i wish i never had kind of a weird thing

to say the prosecutor asked that he be sentenced in the mid-range of the guidelines which would be 13 to 17 years and he also faces deportation the judge says you sir may fuck off uh sentenced to 30 years in prison suspends half of that so 15 years in prison whoa yeah years in prison, suspends half of that. So 15 years in prison. Whoa. Yeah, 15 in prison. And then as soon as he's done, he'll be deported to Mexico. That's one of the lightest sentences I've ever heard of. Yeah, 15 years and then you go to Mexico.

So that's that for him. And all the Blankenship family afterwards are like, they're so sad, the friends and family of the Blankenship family afterwards are like they all they're so sad. The friends and family of the Blankenships, they're all like they're so sad because he's dead and they liked him. But on top of that, they're all sad because they feel like they've been lied to. And this wasn't even the person they knew. They're sad that he felt like he couldn't tell them who he really was. And they're also sad that their friend lied to them. So they don't know how to feel about it.

The whole thing is a it feels gross and then what if they he lied to us because what he really is is the most shameful thing yeah on earth yeah that's what i mean and all of his friends were like i don't care if he's gay and care if he's in the military he's a nice guy but like they think yeah now was he hiding it because of the darker thing that was underneath it. So they said, why? One of his friends here said the former town commissioner said it would be hard for me to believe anything bad about Michael. And there are a thousand people in this county that would say the same thing. I saw grown men at his memorial service, grown men with tears in their eyes. That's what good.

That's what a good friend he was to everyone here. His other friend said he obviously felt a tremendous need to have stature. So he created stature for himself. Yeah. The county commissioner said it seems to many of us and to many of us in the county time to put the whole thing to rest. I think most people in the county prefer to remember the positive things that he did bring to the community. that he did bring to the community. And his other friend said, I wish Michael had known that he didn't have to exaggerate or hide to be popular or accepted. That's all I wish. So there you go. I believe Yario, even if he served the full term,

would be out by now. He's somewhere in Mexico by now. And yeah, Blankenship's dead. And how crazy of a story is that? Now's as good a time as ever to point out that it is National Mental Health Month for men. So if you're a dude and you got some problems, get some goddamn help. Get some help.

And today, actually, that this will come out a week the week early. If you're listening, it's Veterans Day that this comes out on. So there you go. It's our Veterans Day special. So terrible. But, you know, attention. I don't know. Yeah.

Whatever. So on soldiers and mental health, it's there you go. don't know. Yeah. Whatever. On soldiers and mental health. There you go. If you're struggling, get help. But, Jesus, don't be attracted to kids. Don't fuck any kids, no matter what you're feeling like. That's never the answer. It's never the answer.

Ever. Ever, ever, never. We'll say that right now. That's a terrific point. That's what I mean. Not to state the obvious, mean not to state the obvious but let's state the obvious because you never know someone out there could be going never the answer there you go if you like that story and all the stories tell the world about it get on whatever

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Give the most obvious advice. The most obvious advice. One of the two. So you can do that. Also, head over to ShutUp and give me murder dot com. November 28th. Tickets are on sale for the whole tour of 2023. All the dates are at the beginning of the show and they're all going to be on the website.

I'm sure pretty soon here. Head over to social media so you can keep up on that. You will be releasing like a code so you can pre sales if you want to get better seats. And some of the venues will sell out pretty quick, so you want to definitely get in there uh follow us on social media at small town murder on instagram at small town pod on facebook at murder small on twitter so do that patreon.com slash crime and sports gives you the whole anybody five dollars or above it's a cup of coffee a cup of coffee you're gonna get way more than a cup of coffee's worth. You're going to get like 150 back episodes

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Once again, you want to follow us on social media, head over to Shut Up and Give Me Murder, which you should be going there anyway to get tickets, and you can get links and follow everything on social media. Do it all at once. Keep doing it. Until next week, everybody, it's been our pleasure. Bye. Bye. Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Small Town Murder early and ad-free on Amazon Music.

Download the Amazon Music app today. Or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. I understand that anybody who's paid attention to the media would have to come to the conclusion that I killed my wife. Hi, my name is Zach Stewart-Pontier. I'm one of the filmmakers behind The Jinx, and I'm excited to bring you The Official Jinx Podcast. We'll be revisiting all six episodes of Part 1 and watching along with Part 2 as it airs on Max,

starting April 21st. Bye-bye. The Official Jinx Podcast. Listen on Max or wherever you get your podcasts.