Small Town Murder - #343 - Good Johnny Vs Bad John - St. Robert, Missouri

Episode Date: December 15, 2022

This week, in St. Robert, Missouri, when a young woman shows up on a stranger's doorstep, after having stumbled over six miles of rugged terrain, through a driving snow, with two large caliber gun shot wounds, it opens up a wilder story than anyone could have anticipated. Three dead people, buried in the snow, and possibly two more, from months earlier. The tale the wounded young lady has to tell is a harrowing tale of unthinkable cruelty, and survival. In the end, it comes dow to one man. One man, who says he has strange headaches, and actually has two personalities. But did "Bad John" force "Good Johnny" to commit these horrible acts??Along the way, we find out that some person's small town is a different person's big city, that it's hard to really trust anyone, and that you better be a pretty good actor, if you're going to pretend to have multiple personalities!!Hosted by James Pietragallo and Jimmie WhismanNew episodes every Thursday!Donate at: patreon.com/crimeinsports or go to paypal.com and use our email: [e-mail] to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder & Crime In Sports!Follow us on...twitter.com/@murdersmallfacebook.com/smalltownpodinstagram.com/smalltownmurderAlso, check out James & Jimmie's other show, Crime In Sports! On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Wondery, Wondery+, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Small Town Murder early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. What if you married the love of your life and then stood by them as they developed 21 new identities? What would you do? This Is Actually Happening is a weekly podcast that features extraordinary true stories of life-changing events told by the people who lived them. Listen to the newest season of This Is Actually Happening on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. This week in St. Robert, Missouri, a wounded bloody woman drags herself through six miles of rugged terrain and snow to tell a horrifying tale of abduction, torture, and multiple cold-blooded

killings. Welcome to Small Town Murder. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder. Yay! Yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is Jamesames petrogallo i'm here with my co-host i'm jimmy lissman thank you folks so much for joining us today on another crazy wild and this is no different insane episode of small town murder they get crazier and crazier i don't know how but they always do thank you very much first and foremost you want to head over to shut up and give me murder.com tickets for the 2023 live tour are on sale right now oh baby we can't wait the first half of it are on sale right now anyway through uh may so on sale right now february 10th in cleveland february 11th in st louis march 24th in seattle march 25th in Cleveland, February 11th in St. Louis, March 24th in Seattle, March 25th in Portland, May 5th in Detroit, May 6th in Pittsburgh.

And then the rest of them will go on sale early 2023. We apologize. We didn't know they were going to do it like that. They told us at the last minute and we have no control over it, literally. So we are not Taylor Swift and we have very little control over things like that. So we do apologize. But shut up and give me murder dot com right now. We cannot wait.

The first two shows, Cleveland and St. Louis, are going really, really fast. Really, really fast. And of course, Portland to Portland and Seattle always are. Honestly, they're all going very fast. So we're thank you for doing that. Thank you. Thank you.

If you want tickets, I would get in there pretty quick and get them. Patreon dot com slash crime and sports is where you get all of your bonus episodes. Oh, my goodness. Links in the show description, by the way, if you want to just click on it. But that's where you get everything. The whole you're going to get a whole back catalog over 150 episodes of bonus stuff to binge. Every other week, you're going to get two new episodes. One crime and sports. One small town murder. You get access

to it all for how much, Jimmy? Five dollars a month? The low, low price of five dollars a month. A cup of coffee. What are you, out of your fucking mind, Jimmy? Get in here. We are. We're crazy. That's what it is. We're crazy. We're selling Patreon. It's flying off the shelves. We're crazy. We will not

be undersold. That's right. We've turned Patreon. It's flying off the shelves. We're crazy. We will not be undersold. That's right. We've turned into crazy muffler shop people. So our electronics store. It's always the furniture guy now. Yeah, it's a furniture. Yeah. It was an electronic guy in the 80s.

Some shit like that. Yeah, we had Crazy Eddie in New York in the 80s. He was an electronics guy. And he goes, I'm Crazy Eddie. He'd freak out and yell at you. He'd be like guy, and he goes, I'm crazy, Eddie. I don't know. I don't know. He'd freak out and yell at you. He'd be like, holy shit, okay, I'll buy a TV. That guy doing that, though, was a marketing genius, because that advertisement made it to the West Coast.

It was huge. They didn't even have stores out there, but you knew about it. So you can do that right now. Patreon.com slash crime and sports. Get all the bonus stuff. Find out what everybody's talking about there and all the groups and everything. So that said, I think it's time for the disclaimer yeah this is a comedy show we're definitely comedians so there's going to be jokes here uh but the other thing is the story's

a thousand percent real we do heavy heavy research this is you know it's it's hardcore research we want it to be the most anal retentive comedy show you've ever heard in your life and that's what we do the facts are anal retentive the comedy is loose and we have fun with that but what we don't do we go out of our way not to do is we do not make fun of the victims or the victims families why james because we're assholes but we're not scumbags that's how that works so that sounds good to you, we're going to have a blast because this is a wild story. If you think true crime and comedy

should never, ever, ever, ever, ever go together, maybe we're not for you, but maybe we are. I think maybe you should give it a shot. Either way, at this time, I think it's time to sit back, clear the lungs, don't care where you are,

in the middle of the grocery store, shout it out from the front of the frozen pizzas, shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, Jimmy. What do you say? Frozen pizzas. That's right. Stare the Red Baron right in the eye

and tell him shut up and give me murder, goddammit. Tell the dino nuggets what you want. So let's do this. Let's go on a trip. We shall. We're going all the way to Missouri this week. Oh. Always wild stuff in Missouri, by the way.

That's one of our superstar states, I like to call it. That always gives some of the craziest stories. The last one was the- Shut up and show me murder state. Shut up and show me murder. We're going to St. Robert, Missouri. This is South Central Missouri. You said it like, oh, I've been there many times.

Spent the summer there. As I said that it's about two hours to St. Louis, about an hour and 50 to Columbia and about an hour and 50 to Fenton, Missouri, which is our last episode. Charles Manson and the Thundercats, which was a very fun episode. So one of the express episodes. This is in Pulaski County. The motto here is, quote, home to our military heroes. Okay. Because this town is just based around this big, giant fort, as we'll talk about.

Big military installation. St. What is it saint robert saint robert saint robert here um now this is uh the history a little bit of the town here it's known as a gateway community to the army installation at fort leonard wood that's that's the whole thing here prior to the establishment of fort leonard They used the name Fort Leonard Wood to rename Camp Mead, which is in central Maryland. And then they decided, no, let's name it Camp Mead again. Never mind, I guess, screw Leonard Wood.

He's out. And then they felt bad. They felt bad for Leonard Wood. He didn't get caught like diddling a secretary in a closet or anything. So they felt terrible about it and they they just get caught searching his own name on twitter and trying to fuck people that's how it was instead so they had to they had to just name this after him here okay so after a brief time we they wow they changed that's hilarious it was named they took the name off fort meade and then they changed it back because legislators from Pennsylvania where Meade is from got pissed off and made a big stink out of it.

So they were like, Jesus, sorry. We'll change it back. Good God. So Meade was a person from Pennsylvania? He was a soldier or something? George G. Meade. He was a hero of the Battle of Gettysburg as a matter of fact. And then he got a lake named after him.

And a bunch of stuff, yeah. And some papers. And some stuff, yeah. Some all sorts. Some papers. Some papers and all sorts of good stuff. Yeah. In 1939, Congress approved the purchase of a 40,000-acre tract of land for a military installation.

But they ended up moving that. This was like a move-around thing. This they ended up moving that. This is like a move around thing. This fort should have never happened. The name belonged to somebody else. The original plan belonged to another place. And somehow the plan and the name ended up here. So this is what we have. Yeah.

So there was a critical shortage of groundwater here as well. That's a problem. It's a Camp Lejeune situation i feel like if we're camp lejeune is the new mesothelioma it really is it's just it's it's the new vaginal mesh yeah i don't know what's going on but i'm hearing an awful lot about this and i feel like i should get involved i don't know what's happening though i saw a documentary recently about a murder that happened there too really was it water related can you now get in on the clash class action lawsuit is this possible i might be able to because i watched the documentary so it's possible you could be eligible now according to these

commercials i think it's anybody so reviews of this town my favorite damn part here the reviews of this town to start off with, here's five stars. We'll go right down from five to one. Five stars. St. Robert is a small town right outside of Fort Leonard Wood U.S. Army Base. Well, we knew that already, but thank you for the geography. There is not much to do for entertainment, but it's a great place to raise your family, get your education, bond with your wife and kids, and worship God. I feel like you can bond with your wife and kids and worship God literally anywhere.

Anywhere. I feel like that's an anywhere thing. That tells me there's nothing to do here. I've been in this damn town for 10 years. I ain't bonded with my wife and kids one bit, and I'm worshiping the devil. I think we should move to a nice place where this is all going to change. You're all drifting apart. I just feel it.

There's a lot of outdoor recreations like hunting and camping. If I were to change one thing, it would be to get more shopping areas so our family would not have to travel an hour away to find decent shopping diversity. Okay. Well, it's a bonding experience to drive an hour away to go shopping you're all bonding that's part of the experience why it's so bonding it's part of the experience four stars great people in this area exclamation point yeah this is where i go to do my shopping and go to eat and just wander around and have a good time with friends okay so people from here go somewhere else to shop and then people from an even smaller place come here to shop.

Think about the bleep shit that person's from. Oh, that's what I mean. The backwater shithole that place must be. There's like a weird leapfrog thing going on to get to the shopping. This is so weird. Wow. It's not diverse enough. Well, somebody, you ever heard the phrase, one man's trash?

This man loves your trash. It's his treasure. I wish there was somewhere to go out and eat and shop, and this person's like, I go there for the eating and shopping. Beats my time. Perhaps that person needs to tell the first guy where it's at. That's what I mean. Maybe they just don't know. That's at. That's what I mean. Maybe they just don't know. That's possible.

So this is where I go to do my shopping and go out to eat and just wander around and have a good time with friends. On the outskirts of St. Roberts, there's a watchtower that a lot of people climb to see the beautiful view from up top. What is this, dazed and confused? That's something to – Watchtower or water tower? Is there a watchtower? They say watchtower. I mean it could – Someone who can – Yeah, an abandoned watchtower. Are you supposed to there they say watchtower i mean it might be in a yeah an

abandoned watchtower yeah probably not it's probably federal property i assume but kids are climbing it oh i'll be climbing you're gonna finger each other up there and smoke joints and stuff yeah so probably not allowed no i doubt that yeah in the town there is an amazing local ice cream shop called i love ice cream and i absolutely recommend the superman ice cream it is my absolute favorite four exclamation points a lot of enthusiasm for the superman ice cream highly recommended to anyone out there on the stick or is it like i don't know but i'm i'm pretty intrigued based on this review four exclamation points jimmy tells me this is a special treat it's not just something you get

every day it's special if i get there james all this way and it's the same as the one on the sticky mickey mouse one with the two bubble gum ice you could have got it from the ice cream truck in your neighborhood jimmy's gonna be upset i'm gonna be pissed if i got a plane ticket for this shit yeah you're gonna have to get a rental car and a plane ticket and a guy will take you on a tractor and then ride in the back of the pickup truck like Steve Martin and John Candy and planes, trains and automobiles. Where's the Superman ice cream? There's a lot going on here. There are also a few clubs in the area. There's clubs here in the area, which are a very fun way to spend a night out with the girls.

When y'all are done at the club my friends and i like to go to the mcdonald's down the road they have great service and wonderful people this is a very easily this is an easily pleased date right here you can take her to mcdonald's and to sit on a watchtower illegally probably and she is fucking over the moon where do you where are you from feel like you're a goddamn rebel he just passed the no trespassing oh man what a man what the what the hell kind of tiny place is she from honestly i want to know what town she's from i guarantee the club is uh rotary or kiwanis now you go down to the kiwanis. It gets wild, boy. We break out the apple cider and things get crazy.

So here's four stars now. I've lived in the area for about five years. I'm a military resident, and this is a small city. I like the fact that it is small sometimes. It gives you the old town feel, and the people are nice. There are plenty of outdoor activities to do, such as fishing, hunting, hiking, biking. I'm an avid motorcycle rider and part of one of the local clubs.

They are consistently holding events that give me something to do. The city itself does a lot of events, fairs, festivals, holiday celebrations, remembrances. I would like to see more big business move into the area as the stores are very limited. Well, tell that to party girl on the watchtower over there.

The same thing can be said about diversity in food. I'd like to see more variety, such as Italian food restaurants in the area. There you go. Listen, I'm going to tell you something. Any Italian food that's going to go to southern Missouri, you're just better off not even bothering. I'm just just go ahead. Drive to the next town and there's an olive garden there you're going to be happy with that probably i can't this is no uh three stars former route 66 town that is kept alive mainly due to an army post nearby highlight is the walmart super center and intensely mediocre

buffalo wild wings which is a great way to describe Buffalo Wild Wings. But do they mean that particular location or just in general? I'm wondering. It's more tame than the one by my house. The one by my house is crazy. It gets fun with this one. Mediocre. I don't think I've ever been to a Buffalo Wild Wings and thought, these people need to calm down.

Wow. It's really, everybody chill out. They're throwing their wings around. Never. Here's two stars. St. Robert is one of the worst cities I have lived in throughout the United States and Europe. This is someone who's been in the Army apparently. Well traveled.

They've probably lived in 30 places and they're like bottom tier. lived in 30 places and they're like bottom and bottom tier there's nothing exciting about the many about the many of tattoo parlors or pawn shops lining missouri avenue all the way to the main entrance of fort leonard wood the local uh local bars and restaurants are full of recent army basic trainee graduates that are celebrating their graduation with friends and family with families if you are interested in hunting there's good hunting in the area but that's about it okay all right and then finally one star yeah people had a lot to say about this area so one star so that's a good way to start it that's so that was good so means so okay and then you say so all right i gotta load tells you a lot when depending on where in the conversation it's at if it's at the beginning buckle up yeah there's a story coming

so at the end they just said something that is not a good point yeah so you know so i live on post at fort Leonard Wood, and it sucks. But let me say that St. Roberts is okay to live. I say okay because it's just okay. All right, well, then you accurately rated it probably then. Is that it? No, no, no. Living is good because you get to rent some houses that are located in some very good open areas and private areas.

It's not crowded or even loud the only thing i don't like about st roberts is there's nothing to do but the same repetitive crap in the area i mean you either have to go to springfield or st louis i mean really uh double exclamation point double question mark so so i so i give st ro three stars, but you gave the whole review one star. So let's hear him clarify. I live on base in Fort Leonard Woods situated outside of St. Robert's. This place sucks. Housing sucks. The army wives suck and are intrusive and allow their children to damage other people's property and allow them to be all over the place.

Trash is all over the place. Balfour Beatty here sucks. I don't know what that is. The females that work at the office are lazy and have nasty attitudes. I can go on and look forward to leaving this place. Oh, and the hospital is the worst, too. Sheesh. Tell me about the female nurses that you hate there, because what is the deal?

Why do you hate women so much? But how's the Italian food? That's what I want to know. Have you tried the Watchtower? That McDonald's I hear is fantastic. All the women everywhere are awful here. That's what that person just said. And everything else, but especially led by the women.

People in this town, 6,358 altogether. The male female is a few more male than female, which is. Welcome to the base. Yeah. Median age here is 32.8, but it's all, everybody is either like 25 to 44 or zero to nine. Like that's all the, where all the population is service members and their babies yep 0.0 percent 85 and over nobody's that right nobody lives long here i don't know if that's whatever the the fort is giving off in terms of gaseous emissions

it's a camp lejeune situation even the 75 to 84 is way, it's like half of the normal. There's a problem here. There's an issue. 57% are married here. It's military people, a lot of them. That makes sense. A lot of people, also a lot of single with children

you got here. Race of this town, it's pretty mixed up because it's the army. There's a lot here. 54.5 percent white 15.7 percent black 5.6 percent asian 17.5 percent hispanic so very mixed uh very mixed on you army getting everybody yeah it's an open right you can just sign up so you tend to just get everybody because everybody's they go. Everybody's welcome. People go. All right.

Let's go sign up. I don't think they're recruiting bodies. Yeah. I don't think they're looking for diversity necessarily. These are people who wanted to do this. So religion, it's actually lower than normal. Thirty eight percent religious, which is way lower than the rest of Missouri. But still leading the way is going to be 24 percent of the people here are Baptist.

As we know, Baptists are the Catholic Catholics of the South, as we know, obviously. And the politics here in the county, Pulaski County, 25.9 percent of the people voted Democratic, 71.5% Republican, 2.6% Independent in the last election. The economy here, the unemployment rate is pretty low. That's because most of the people are employed by the Army. So that's why they're there. They're there because they have a job. The median household income here, though, is $47,944 a month, which is a little bit lower than the national average. But the cost of living is pretty low, too.

$100,000 is average. Here it's $78,000. The housing is only the median home cost here, $159,200 a month, which is much lower than the national average. And if we've convinced you, damn it, this is the only place for you. We have for you, you know, you want to sign up for the Army. This is what you're in for here. We have for you the St. Robert, Missouri Real Estate Report.

The average two-bedroom rental here goes for $821 a month. So pretty low. That's good if you're in the Army there. There's a few houses here that are just weird. Here's a three-bedroom, one-bath, 510-square-foot house. So you crammed three bedrooms into that. That's impossible. Yeah.

It's completely gutted on the inside. There's no walls. There's just new doors leaned up against the wall that aren't installed. They started renovating it, did all the demo, brought in some drywall and doors, and then went, ah, fuck it. Just sell it. This is ridiculous. $42,000, though, for this.

For 500 square feet? 510 square feet. You're buying an apartment. It's a tiny house. Here's a three-bedroom, one-bath, 1 bath 1655 square foot house it is a it's pretty shitty i'm not gonna lie to you it's bad um it's bad it's there's the the basement looks like people are are the gambino family like takes care of rivals down there and chainsaw pieces yeah yeah it's it's pretty gross this whole place

is gross 69 500 bucks for this thing i don't even know how to describe it it's just you're gonna have to it needs like an exorcism and a renovation and all sorts of stuff to make this house good do you think they're including the basement in the 1600 square feet they've got to be right yeah yeah yeah at all it's if it's livable not if it's not livable, if it's finished. So here's another one here. Four-bedroom, four-bath. T-bowl for all the b-holes here. That's good.

And it's 3,226 square feet, so good size, good chunky house there. It looks like an Arizona house. Particle board, roof with the window above the door, you know, one of those. It's pretty standard. Full-color mud is your price, that kind of thing? Yeah, standard track housing type situation here, $329,500. Jesus. Clean, nice, nothing special or anything like that. So things to do here.

This is special. This is something special. The Pulaski County Regional Fair. Hey. Holy shit, let's do here. This is special. This is something special. The Pulaski County Regional Fair. Hey. Holy shit. Let's do it. The carnival rides brought to you by PBJ. Happy tour date shows.

Happy day shows with two E's. Happy. No charge for attendees to get into the carnival and vendor areas. You only get charged if you're going to do some shit. You want to ride the rides or eat some food. Yeah. The other free events are the Queen Pageant. Got to have one of those.

Bands, the 4-H and FFA events, the horticulture and livestock shows, the dog show, and, of course, the cornhole contest. Who cornholes the best? So you can enter your dog in the dog show. $10 registration. You can win up to $200 for best in show. So music is here. Holy shit.

The Heat Cats are playing. Shit. They're playing. So it's a nine-piece brass band. Is that horns? Yeah. Yeah, it's horns and trumpets and shit. It's a jazz band. Is that horns? Yeah. Yeah, it's horns and trumpets and shit. It's a jazz band.

Or is it like a military band maybe? They're playing New Orleans jazz, it says. Oh, got it. Yeah, they're not playing like fucking marching music. Hey, this is fun. This is great. I'm going to get some more fried dough. Kids, you want anything?

You want a corn dog? This is just fucking awesome. You want to dance, baby? This is fun. This is a dance under the stars. This is what we should be doing. Isn't that what they play when they put the soldier down? That's what I mean.

Cornhole ATV Rodeo. ATV Rodeo, which that... I'm... Yeah, I want to know more about that. I want. Cornhole ATV rodeo. ATV rodeo, which that... I'm... Yeah, I want to know more about that. I want details about the ATV. Are you roping another guy on an ATV? That's what I'm saying. Are you roping cattle on this thing?

I hope you're roping another guy, because that would be hilarious to just yank him right off his four-wheeler as it keeps driving. Put a kid on a 90 and chase him. That'd be amazing. Then there's bull riding, if you're not interested in that there's also the hogs and frogs festival what is that i have no idea there's a hog and frog cooking contest i don't know what that is um power wheels drag racing i can't figure out what this event is that's when they put big motors on those little cars it's yeah there's something to do with motorcycles involved in it and there's a cornhole tournament as well of course so may as

well throw the bags toss them bags crime rate in this town don't call it cornholing that's another thing by the way it's just too much i know what it is i know it's the bag but come on but that's got to be why they do it that's why they got to call it that, right? Why else would they call it that? It's got to be the first person that threw them was like, kind of looks like an asshole, like a cornhole. Know what I mean? Yeah.

I mean, I guess there's cornholes that you put corn into and that's what it would be. But at the same time, we decided that cornholing is a different procedure. Society language has moved past that and taken it over. Yeah. And when your sport was invented post-urban dictionary, maybe check it out first. Yeah. Run that word across the internet and see if it works. Fuck.

So crime rate. Haven't you seen Office Space? He told them, watch a cornhole, bud. Watch a cornhole, bud. That's what I mean. It's in the lexicon. That was 25 years yeah 98 99 if someone said i got cornholed last night you go oh no i'm sorry jesus what happened it's not good yeah fuck uh property crime is almost three times the national average so hi i i that includes like drunken stupidity so a lot of soldiers young guys forget it you're

gonna get some drunken disorderly conducts and shit like that violent crime here though uh murder rape robbery and assault the mount rushmore of crime is also slightly high but not too high but that could be fighting in the streets that's what i was gonna say and also the egos also the drunk egos of service members also domestic violence when you get a lot of, you know, testosterone guys who come home. Well, yeah. Testosterone guys who come home from the bar shit-faced is what I'm getting at. So that said, let's talk about a murder. What do you say, Jay?

All right. Let's do that. There's several murders because this is fucking raunchy. Okay. Let's get into this. It is the morning of January the 13th, 1977. Oh, long time. Yeah, long time ago.

So back in the time machine, baby. Back to the peak murder time, really, the late 70s. 46 years ago, yeah. Yeah, this is serial killer mecca here. This is where it all is. Serial killer Xanadu is the 70s. That's what I like to call it from now on. So this morning it's been snowing all night.

There's been about eight inches of snow has fallen. You forget it snows right there. Yeah. People always think they go down south because it's warm. It's not warm. It's warm in the summer. It's 105 and humid in the summer. But in the winter it's fucking freezing.

So there's no good weather there. That's the thing. They get ice storms for christ's sake yeah you ever been to atlanta go in july then go in january you'll go how is it the hottest and coldest place on earth at the same time how does that work how does this place exist how is it with a wind chill of negative four all the time in the winter so uh january 13th though 77 early morning a call a telephone call is made uh from a residence to the troop troop one at one of the base camps around there which is a police station in rala nearby town um so they sent this they sent a guy down there sent the trooper on down there

um it's uh he'll be later on he'll be sheriff king this guy jb king they said they sent him down there and he said that um they sent him down there quote to find out what was going on with some runaways oh meaning i guess there's some teenagers that ran away and something's going on with some runaways. Okay. So we don't know if they've been caught or if we need to report on them. Yeah. Let's go up there and find out what's going on with them. Go up there, find out what's going on from these people.

This phone caller wasn't real clear, and shit's weird, so just head on out there. Heard runaway. Head on up. Yep. And he says, you know, he was sent down there to find out what was going on with the runaways. Quote, and I walked into a nightmare. It was not runaways. Oh, JB.

Oh, JB. He ends up finding, pulling up in a car, as we'll find out, is a young lady gets out of the car. She's 18 years old. Her name's Juanita Ann Deckard, D-E-C-K-A-R-D. Anita Ann Deckard, D-E-C-K-A-R-D. And the cop says, quote, she had walked about six miles over some of the roughest terrain you can imagine with wounds from a.45 caliber weapon. Oh, boy. Six miles in the middle of the night in the freezing cold while it snows eight inches.

Not grazed? Actually shot? No, she's got holes in her 45 holes um he goes on to say she had two gunshot wounds at the time but from what she told me i knew we needed some answers quick her gunshot wounds were not critical wounds and so i questioned her i think i think any 45 caliber wounds are wounds. I get that it's not, you know. Life-threatening is another term, but let's go with critical because this woman's shot with a high-caliber handgun. I mean, I guess if you've been able to somehow crawl over six miles of snowy, rugged terrain, I guess you're not dying, clearly. You've got some constitution left in you a little bit.

She certainly needs a doctor. Yeah, that's honestly one of the craziest tales of human survival I've ever heard. Somebody with two.45 wounds walking six miles in the middle of the night. After you hear what she's been through, you're going to go, holy shit. How do you not just lay down in the snow and say, fuck it, take me. You have to assume whoever shot her two times thought she was dead because that's a giant gun. That's a giant gun. Absolutely.

And runaways, too, we heard. Plural. So there's way more people in this story. Oh, boy. It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast, Morbid. We're your hosts. I'm Alina Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly.

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

Like a liar. And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal, or you love to hop in the Wayback Machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes, you should tune in to our podcast, Morbid. Follow Morbid on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad-free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. 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. So King says that, you know, he gets some information from her as he gets it. He's going back to his car, and he's radioing it in to the fort. Like, he takes, like, a couple of sentences from her,

says, hold on a minute, runs over here, radios that information in, because we have a real fluid situation here. According to King, he said there's six to eight inches of snow on the ground and he meets up with the driver of this car who hysterically approached him yelling. The man told King a woman in his car had been shot because it's a guy drove her and said, oh my God. So he says, I went up to this vehicle, looked inside.

This is where Juanita Deckard is. And there was a slender young female sitting in the vehicle, very well dressed, hair freshly brushed out, no mud, no blood, no nothing on her clothing, but clean and immaculate. Definitely not the picture of a usual gunshot victim. Really? And that's Deckard here. He went on to say the bullets were one in her arm and one in her chest. Oh, my. And that's not critical?

She got hit in the chest with a.45, Jimmy. And they're like, you'll be all right. Let's talk for a while on the side of the road. Yeah, hold on. Wait a minute. Can we get her like some hot chocolate at least, something maybe to warm her up? Real thoughtful guy, this GB. Wow.

Well, when you hear what happened, it's this information needed to come out here. He said there was a major caliber wound entry, a bullet wound entry into her body. Now, the wound was clearly many hours old. It was crusted over already. It was not bleeding. And despite the fact that it was a major caliber round, it did not appear to be a serious wound. How lucky is this fucking girl? Holy fuck. That's insane. So she, they, he says,

how did you end up here? You know what I mean? And she explains that the previous night about 1215, she and three of her friends were on a double date. Okay. They were out on a double date. They're from the nearby town of Plato. At least the three friends are.

And she's from nearby. Everybody's from within the area here. She said they were stopped by a police, a military police vehicle because they were driving through the fort area. So that's where military police have jurisdiction. She said a uniformed military police officer came up to the car and told them

that the car matched the description of a vehicle that just committed an armed robbery at a gas station off the post. So he has jurisdiction to pull them over for this while they're on this property, obviously. And the other cops, the outside cops, don't have jurisdiction here. So he's responsible for this. Now, the teens that are in the car, here's the double date situation when this man approaches them all go to or went to Plato High School. I believe I found Juanita, obviously, by the way, Juanita is an honor student. I found her newspaper. I found postings of her like every year on the honor roll. She is 18 years old.

Linda Needham, N-E-E-D-H-A-M, Needham. She is 16 years old. She's a junior in high school. She's a cheerleader. These are popular, good-looking, smart, ambitious kids, all these kids. Their dates are Anthony Lee Bates, who's 18 years old. They're like good-looking, smart, ambitious kids, all these kids. Their dates are Anthony Lee Bates, who's 18 years old, and Wesley Hawkins, who's 19 years old. He's another honor student.

He went to school with Juanita, and I saw their names right next to each other in the honor roll every year. So a bunch of nice kids going out in the 70s for a for on a double date so that's what they're doing it's about 12 15 or 12 30 when they're driving they're driving in tony bates's 1972 dodge charger hell yeah yeah it's a pretty pretty sweet ride boss ride dude yeah it's not bad i want to know what motors i know so do i what do you got in there kiddo 440 what are you come on you're running the i got in there, kiddo? 3, 440? What are you on? Come on. You're running the 440. I don't know.

72, are they still running the 440s? I believe so. Yeah. Were they? Yeah. 72? Yeah, they probably were. Yeah, yeah.

You're probably right. Yeah, I think you're right. Yeah. It may have gone longer. Shit. No, because then you couldn't anymore after the, was it 75? Yeah, you couldn't make those anymore. Really?

You could make them, but they couldn't put out the same power anymore. There was the whole engine thing. That's why the late 70s, the cars suck. That's when the 440s went into fucking boats and shit? Yeah, that's when they were like, what do we do with them? I don't know. Put it in like a plane or something. It's ridiculous in a car anyway.

It was pretty stupid. Now, thinking back on it now, that was pretty overkill. Put it in a fucking airline or shit. It's got enough horsepower. I think just put it in a plane maybe. You could dust some crops with it. I don't know. Something that doesn't go on a road.

You know what I mean? You know. So they left Plato in the 1972 Dodge Charger. Date must have been going well. It's 1215. They're still hanging out. So that's a good sign. That's a good sign.

Are we going to go home now? This car is rad. No one's asked to be taken home yet or anything like that. They're heading to St. Robert, Missouri to purchase gas for the car. And they're driving on South Gate Road, which is within the boundary lines of the Fort Leonard Wood base. So a military policeman, like we said, stops them, talks with them for a minute, requests their license, registration, all that kind of shit, ID from everybody. He then says, like we said, the car matches a description of a car seen at an armed robbery.

He's saying that this robbery occurred at the south gate texaco station which is off post so he tells them to get out of the car and he takes the boys and handcuffs them and says i'm holding you detaining you for this armed robbery because your car fits the description of that which is normal that happens it happens a lot yeah it happens to people a lot usually doesn't happen to fucking uh children on a double date four kids on a double date going through no but i mean if it if they match if the car if they said there's a 72 dodge charger seen at this robbery down the street and they see a 72 dodge charger and they say two young guys were involved in it two young white guys and you see there's two

young white guys i assume you take them out hold on to them just to make sure it's not them. But I suppose anyway, that happened to my dad one time. Really? Him and my mom were dating when they were like 19, 18 maybe. I think they were 18 years old. My dad's driving down the street and he's always had cars that he was working on. He had this car that the steering wheel would pop off. Oh, I know. That is so horrifying.

He put it back on and he beeped it a couple times by accident and doing all that kind of thing so a cop gets behind him pulls him over gets next to him and the cop is like he said he's like mad at him he's like license and registration and he you know he's like really looking hard at him and my dad's trying to be nice and he's like so you know the guy's like you know stone face him and he's like what so, you know, the guy's like stone face him. And he's like, what the fuck, man? Holy shit. Like, this is crazy. And he starts asking him, where were you two hours ago and what were you doing and all this type of shit? And he was like, we went to the fair.

And then, like, we're just driving home now. It's not the way to kiss and tell, officer. Yeah. They're like looking at him, like looking over his shirt real closely and all that kind of shit. Apparently, somebody in a very similar car of my cousin Vinny's situation, a very similar car, a guy that fit his description with longer hair and a girl in the passenger seat, a young lady in the passenger seat, had robbed and stabbed a gas station attendant to death with a screwdriver like two hours earlier.

So they thought that was my father. So they were making sure he wasn't covered in blood. And he wasn't. So they were like, all right, well, it's been hard to get away from the blood, I guess. Yeah, that's wild. Yeah, he said he was terrified. He's like, oh, my God. But he said they had him there for a while. Your mom is impressed.

Maybe he's a dangerous guy. Who knows? He did say he was going to take a leak. Maybe. I don't know what he did in there. Holy shit. So what ends up happening is he orders them to get out of the car orders them to take their personal belongings with them out of

the car as well and he places all four of these kids into his vehicle which is a scout one of those oh yeah international scout yeah it's a 70s suv is what it is so he's driving one of those um he gets as he gets into the vehicle though he draws his 45 pistol what the fuck and shoots wesley hawkins and tony bates one time each as they sit down in the back seat oh my god a little unexpected so who is the psychopath that pulled them over and is apparently shooting taking justice into his own hands yeah convicted and sentenced right now i guess so and they didn't this wasn't even a murder at the at the gas station just a robbery he's saying wow we're taking some serious hardline justice here we're getting biblical with this shit this is crazy uh this guy is johnny lee thornton is his name thornton thorn ton ton

of thorns and he does have a ton of thorns i'll tell you what uh he's 23 years old he was a volunteer you know volunteer to join the army and became a part of the military police which was his goal joining the army was to be an MP, which he wants to police the people that police the world, which is weird. That's not a that's ego. Jesus. It's a most most. Yeah, it's not a if you talk to soldiers, they wouldn't be like nobody really joins

and says, I want to be an MP. That's not really. That's usually like last ditch effort, right? I don't know. I don't know. I'm not going to get involved in that. I have no I have no idea. I don't know. Maybe fuck wants that. i have a feeling someone will write us and tell us

i have a feeling by the end of this they will um somebody by the way got mad at our west virginia express episode last week i was very upset by it and um we're we're kidding um this is a comedy show we're roasting every town listen to fishkillkill, New York. I went to high school there, lived there. Absolutely decimated the place in that episode. It's just for fun. Calm down. It's nothing personal. We're not saying you're making it a shithole.

It's just for fun. Yeah, I didn't walk into your living room and sit on your couch. Calm down. Just having a good time. So he trained at Fort Leonard Woodard wood and at fort mcclellan also he would be come classified as a correctional specialist to the 463rd mp company in fort leonard wood within the company they assigned him to be on the game warden detail second one so his job is to drive around and look for people poaching.

Look for hunters that shouldn't be on federal property hunting because it's an army base. So that's all. That's his job. As we've learned in these towns, that is fucking higher than the sheriff. They'll investigate everything. His job is to get stray dogs and stray animals and all that kind of shit too. get stray dogs and stray animals and all that kind of shit too. During this time, he is separated from,

uh, when he first joined up, this separated him from his then pregnant wife at the time who ends, they have two sons together, him and his wife who by now, by the time he's pulling them over and shooting them, they're divorced. So,

uh, that's how that, that went. Uh, we'll talk all about their relationship in detail in a moment cause it's fucking wild. So from the time, um, in detail in a moment because it's fucking wild. So from the time he was separated from them, they had two sons. He's also right now, while he's pulling these kids over in a relationship with a girlfriend who's also currently pregnant.

Oh, he's mad fertile. He's very, very virile. We'll say that about him. And leaves it in there. Just leaves it in for a while to extra time. Just make sure everything stays and stays inside that's it so this whole area his responsibility is to patrol about 80,000 acres of land with all this wildlife and so they have an eight-man game warden detail

here the officers according to what's told have very little supervision they're off on their own for hours and it's not unusual for them to be. They're off on their own for hours, and it's not unusual for them to be out of radio contact for five or six hours at a time. Oh, boy. You really got to trust those people. Yeah, a lot of naps going on out there in the middle of the night. I would. Yeah.

Oh, fuck yeah. They can't even reach. Drive in the middle of nowhere. No. Drive in the middle of nowhere and nap. It's like 74. They don't have trackers on these cars. I can be anywhere I want. I was chasing a caribou. It was a really tough one. It was and nap. It's 1974. They don't have trackers on these cars. I can be anywhere I want. I was chasing a caribou.

It was a really tough one. It was a while. It took me. Sorry. There's no caribou. Maybe it was a deer. I don't know what it was. Saw a man slaughter Bambi's mom.

I was not happy about it. I gave him a talking to. So the way he grew up, his mother said that when he was young, The way he grew up, his mother said that when he was young, she and him, young Johnny Lee Thornton, were constantly on the run from John's father, John Warden Sr. Johnny Lee Thornton's actually a junior named Johnny Lee Warden. And he's a game warden? No, no, no. But now he's a game warden.

His dad's name was Warden. Later on, once they escape the father, we'll talk about how abusive he is, he then takes the stepfather's name of Thornton. He is a junior, though. His name should be Johnny Lee Warden, the game warden. Johnny Lee Warden, Jr., game warden. That's what his card should say, which would be amazing. Great card. Game warden, warden.

Game warden, warden. Warden, warden? Yes, sir. what can i help you with i caught you call warden doesn't sound that bad either no ward warden thornton warden warden so um the mother was a bartender um she would leave him alone for long periods of time and had a lot of outside relationships just his parents were a fucking mess when he was younger. Absolute mess. Absolute mess. Only child, huh?

There might be others around, but during this period he's the only one who's like with him at all. She's divorced. She said she's divorced because the father, John Warden Sr., tried several times to kill young Johnny. Several times?

She said at one point, quote, poor baby, he, meaning the father, threw a glass at him and said, I'll kill that little son of a bitch. It was a glass of water. Little Johnny was hospitalized to remove fragments of broken glass from his eye after the incident. He hit him? Hit him in the head with a fucking full glass of water. Glassed a child. Yeah, threw it at him. Didn't even smash it at him.

Just chucked it from across the room. Another time, she said, the father tried to shoot young Johnny. And another time, the father choked little Johnny until he turned blue and passed out. So there's that. That's a lot of times. That's a lot of trying to kill him. She said she often worked two jobs and left Johnny and his brother, Jesse. She's got a brother.

They're eight and seven. Okay, so the brother's a year younger than John. Forgot about Jesse here. She said she'd leave him at home. She said she'd leave him at home, and she said once she came home to find out that an 18-year-old babysitter had sexually abused both of them when they were eight and seven. So I don't know the gender of the babysitter, but either way, sexual abuse. Now, the closest relationship he ever had was with his wife, who he's now divorced with, Pattyty jean thornton who's she this one here he everybody said it was like a weird kind of relationship they had it was more like like uh she was his mother and he was like a toddler that was the relationship so this is what patty says about

him this is her description of the whole relationship here this is from a deposition and it's fucking funny. I met Johnny when he was living with his mother and father and his brother, Jesse Lee Thornton. I am 22 years old. I was 16 when I met him. I met his mother first, who's married to Bruce Thornton. She said, yeah, she's 16. Johnny was 17.

She said, we were both in high school. He'd come to visit his mother mother but he hadn't been living with them at the time he went to school in concord california for his senior year he dropped out of school because of problems about having enough credits to graduate i also dropped out of school but we were still in the concord california area living together johnny robbed a wig salon and a dairy farm when he was 18. He robbed a wig salon. What do you take? Money, I guess? Wigs?

What the fuck are you doing? A wig salon? Those are expensive. They're expensive. Is it a lot of cash on hand? Feels like you're writing a check for a wig. You don't come in with a big pile of wig cash. Here's my wig money. This is a wig salon? Is come in with a big pile of wig cash i got here's my wig money this is a a wig salon is there a is there a secondary wig market is there some kind of like hot black wig market

yeah you gotta assume he took the the cash of of one person paid for cash you know what i mean how do you maybe if you go into a pawn shop with just an armful of wigs, they go, finally, for fuck's sake, all these guns and tools. Finally, somebody with fucking wigs. I got all these mannequins back there. I can display them. Every day people come in. You got any wigs? I'm like, no.

They want wigs. Let the people speak. They've spoken, man. Got to give it to them. So, yeah, she said robbed a wig salon and a dairy farm when he was 18 odd things to rob two places that generally don't have i can't imagine have much cash no when you get a job at a dairy farm you don't imagine robbery to be one of the dangers of the job you're gonna get trampled by a cow would be more along the lines of something that's possible

than robbed at gunpoint hands stuck in a milker or some shit like that dick stuck in a milker whatever it is the 18 year old boy anything's possible body part in the milker some body part caught in a milker so she goes on to say we moved to santa rosa california on may 29th 1972 we no jobs, but we were looking for work. At that time, we stayed with his mother and then lived with his uncle, Kenny. The year before, I had an abortion, and I was pregnant again in February of 1972. Johnny got a job a week after we got there

at Lucky's Grocery Store. Well, aren't they lucky? He worked for them for over a year until we moved to Arkansas. He didn't have any difficulties with his job, no sickness or illness. I worked, too. We lived with Kenny and Rose for two months. In December 1973, we all moved to Arkansas.

What a great idea. The problems with mother were minor. She wanted Johnny to leave me. Johnny got a job at a grocery store and worked for one month, and then he went to work for the IGA. He gave no reason for leaving. He worked for IGA, which I think is another grocery store, until 1974. We lived with Kenny and Rose until we got a place of our own. We loaned money to his parents, $20 now and then.

Johnny had started working for Safeway. He is a grocery whore. He'll go anywhere. They pay money, man. He knows the game, man. It was a better paying job. Johnny had no problems with his work and had an increase in salary. Johnny joined the army around

May of 1975. His boss offered him a new position and if he would stay with the store and if he would stay with the store, if he would stay with the store, but Johnny had already enlisted. After Michael was born, which is their son, Johnny thought Michael wasn't his,

but later apologized for this. Oh, God, this guy. Later, I'm sorry, I said. I'm sorry I said you was fucking my friend i apologize that wasn't nice of me to do really sorry i didn't realize i said that oh man jesus christ i looked at him i was like he don't look nothing like me and i thought man that sounded loud in my head because i said it out loud i thought maybe my voice echoed in there but you know i'm really sorry i apologize i didn't mean to say it at your sister's house. I didn't mean to say it at your sister's wedding.

It wasn't even an objection, so it was the wrong time to voice it as well. I shouldn't have stood up in front of everyone you've ever known and told them that right then. Your sister didn't appreciate it none either. And then you said it again at your father's wake. I really picked bad times to keep i did i did they said eulogy i was like i got some complaints i don't know what eulogy means see that's the problem my main issue is i don't i'm not good with vocabulary you and i guess the rest of it is from apology so you need to apologize to me because that is not my kid i thought it was

like a confession you know a eulogy like Like that means to like, you know, confess your sins before the dead. You know what I mean? They could take them up to God and try to get them solved for you. You know, it was a good time for you to take that information with your father up to the big man. Yeah, you know, put it in his pocket. I also put it written for him in his suit pocket, but you never know. So later. Later. also put it written for him in his suit pocket but you never know um so later later but later apologized for this i love the way she she fucking phrased it too uh he was making six hundred dollars

a month and i was making 250 a month which in the early 70s 850850 a month. $850, it'll do it. You can scrape by with that, especially in an area like Arkansas. It's a little less expensive. I had to stop work before the baby was born. Me and Johnny had a fight about this, and he was going to send me back to my father in California. But he didn't get violent. And then there was a turning point in our relationship.

He wasn't able to communicate with me nor me with him about our problems. I went back to California because of non-support in a mental sort of way. Michael was born in September 1975. Johnny had been refusing to marry me for quite some time, but I later agreed to marry him. Huh?

What? We'll talk about the tables turning. After I had left him and went back to California. Now that I'm gone, I see we should be married. Johnny was still working at the Safeway Company and having no illness while living in Russellville, Arkansas. My younger sister was living with us. He was proud to have the baby and stood up to his mother. In April 1975, he told his mother to stay out of our lives, and she did with no animosity. The mother was telling them that they should break up.

She didn't like them as a couple, even though they had a child together and got married. They're married with a baby. They're figuring it out, and they've got a baby. What do you want them to do? Leave them alone. You two should be apart. Leave her. She's dragging you down. Go to college. and they've got a baby. What do you want them to do? Leave them alone. Yeah. You two should be apart. Make it more difficult. Leave her.

She's dragging you down. Go to college. Send her away with the baby. Fucking send her back to her daddy. She stayed away for a while. Later, she came back to visit us for about six days before I left for California. Johnny was going on duty May 13, 1975. He was working at the store, and we agreed, but his mother didn't like it.

But she didn't say much. It was me and Johnny's idea for me to go to California until he got a permanent location. He knew he was going to be an MP when he went into basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, then to Fort McClellan, Alabama, for more training. The next time I saw him was the Little Rock Airport in Arkansas. Oh, boy, where magic happens. We've all had this situation. Oh, we've all had the big reunion at the Little Rock Airport.

Everybody's had it. We've all had it. You know what it's like. It's passionate. Sometimes when you and I, yeah, whenever we have road trips down south, I'll see you at Little Rock. We meet there. We meet there. We meet there. There are direct flights to where we're going, but we say, let's meet in Arkansas just to have a good hug, and then we'll get on a flight to where we're going together.

Then we'll get on a little plane from there going together. And then when we leave and go back, we do the same thing going home. And then when we leave the airport, we both say to each other, we'll always have Little Rock. We'll always have Little Rock. We'll always have Little Rock. Then we drive away in a motorcycle and a sidecar like fucking goofballs because that's what that would make as much sense. So Caesar there, he'd been assigned to Fort Leonard Wood starting in September 1975. In October 1975, we moved into a house.

I was pregnant again in 1976, and again, Johnny wanted me to have an abortion. He said we had a baby and didn't need another. Already got one. House, baby, car. Check, check, check. Fuck you want now. Jesus Christ.

Your baby's not like a barbecue grill. Nope. Have one already. I don't know. Are you getting rid of the first one? Well, I don't know then. I don't want two. It's not like when you want a soda and your parents are like, you haven't finished that

one yet. No, no. He's not even dead yet. Look at him. He's fine. We already have one. he said we did already had a baby it didn't need another which the tvs while wise for 21 year old people probably to not have two kids still that's a really funny way of putting it. Not we're too young for it. We already got one. The hell are you talking about?

Treats it like a lawnmower. Johnny, Johnny, Johnny. We already got a good set of clippers. I don't know what you want. That's incredible. Fuck, man. Travis was born May 20th, 1976. In June 1976, Johnny said the baby wasn't't his he's got a pattern of what he

does here get me pregnant okay he gets her pregnant that ain't mine what the fuck are you talking about um john i he's fascinating he's oh he gets way more fascinating this is the tip of the iceberg i filed for divorce and a month, he moved out of the house. Johnny hit me once in Santa Rosa while we were having an argument with my sister. Okay, that's weird. He struck me with the back of his hand. Jesus. Again at Fort Leonard Wood, we were arguing, and I was pregnant, and he struck me.

Jesus, that's not cool, man. Johnny had said nothing about a headache those times. That'll come in handy later on. Put that away in your, everybody put that in your little clue box, the word headache there. Later, we reconciled

but didn't live together. He wanted everybody to believe we were going to get a divorce. It was his idea and the petition remained on file in 1976. There was lots of talk about us having affairs with others. Okay. Johnny stayed at the trailer What?

What? When he threw the baby down, then threw the baby food jar at me. He asked, yeah, throws the baby down, picks up the jar and hucks it at her. Was he holding the baby feeding it or he ripped him out of a fucking high chair and threw him? I don't know. He threw the baby either. It doesn't really matter at that point. Either way, he threw the baby

on the ground and chucked a jar of baby food at her, which those are thick, that's thick glass. That hurts. And the baby got thrown on the floor. He asked me not to leave. I said I wouldn't stay. Johnny had frightened me. So and the baby got thrown on the floor. He asked me not to leave. I said I wouldn't stay. Johnny had frightened me. So she's later asked, when did he ever complain of headaches?

She said he complained of headaches the first time when he tried to smother me with a pillow in Santa Rosa. He didn't bring that up along with hitting. That's technically, I would say, worse. I'd rather someone slap me than try to smother me with a pillow what about you it seems attempted murder babe that's yeah that could be a result in death and uh and didn't remember what he'd done and he cried when i told him he was sorry the second time was when the stereo was knocked over and he broke the clock johnny left the house for about 20 minutes and when he returned he said he just got a headache and he was sorry sorry i broke all our shit but i had a headache when i have a headache i like to

put my head under a pillow and get rid of the lights you know i like to kick the stereo over and break my clock it's better like the baby and spike the baby yeah pretend i just got caught a touchdown with him um he he remembered what he'd done but he didn't know why he'd done it. Johnny said he couldn't control himself. The third time was when I was going to the store. He worked at a Safeway store. He'd not complained of a headache, but he asked me to go to the store at 1030 at night. I didn't want to.

I didn't get upset, and I ended up going to the store at 1030 at night, even when I didn't get upset and I ended up going to the store at 10 30 at night even when I didn't want to He came out to the car and said I didn't have and said I didn't have to go I went anyway, and when I got back the tv was turned over and some other things were damaged I was only gone about 30 minutes when I returned to the house. Johnny was gone Johnny came back about 15 minutes later when he came back He wanted to know what I thought about what he'd done and the damage to the house. What do you think about that? Tore up the whole living room, broke the TV like that. Probably not. I would say, Johnny, she's not going to be like, it was beautiful. Is that art? Is that a new, is that like a think about what I thought about what

he'd done? I told him I wasn't proud of what he'd done and he had no reason to do what he'd done at that point johnny did more damage to the living room he pulled the stereo over and kicked the coffee table across the room while i just stood there looking at him johnny made no threatening remarks to me but he took it out on the living room he just i'd rather you beat the coffee table up than your wife but still if the guy is destroying the living room out of rage, that's not going to be bottled up like that for much longer. That's a bad sign. Red flag, I would say. He's willing to kick the Ashley furniture around.

You're next. That's what I'm saying. In May of 1980, near Anaheim, California, Dorothy Jane Scott noticed her friend had an inflamed red wound on his arm and seemed unwell. She insisted on driving him to the local hospital to get treatment. While he waited for his prescription, Dorothy went to grab her car to pick him up at the exit, but would never be seen alive again. Leaving us to wonder, decades later, what really happened to Dorothy Jane Scott? From Wondery, Generation Y is a podcast that covers notable true crime cases like this one and many more. Every week, hosts Aaron and Justin sit down to

discuss a new case, covering every angle and theory, walking through the forensic evidence, and interviewing those close to the case to try to discover what happened. And with over 450 episodes, there's a case for every true crime listener. Follow the Generation Y podcast on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Generation Y ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. 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. That is wild.

The next day he mentioned a headache. I don't know if he had apologized or not. He thought he should go see a doctor. He said he didn't know why he did these things. Johnny went to a hospital for poison ivy. It was when he was in basic training and once for an ingrown toenail. Neither of those things are hospital-worthy, probably, for the most part. Lotion and some fucking nail clippers, man.

Come on, work it out. The last time he got violent was about the baby. He threw the jar at me, and he made no comment and no complaint of a headache. They asked him, does Johnny drink? She said, Johnny occasionally drank something in his Coke, but he didn't drink beer and he didn't drink to excess. He exercised with barbells, but he never complained about headaches or bright lights hurting his eyes. Johnny never discussed his work.

Yeah, Johnny discussed his work. I'm sorry, not never. He did discuss his work. He was happy with his work, and he never complained about the Army. Johnny told me why he worked so much overtime. complained about the army johnny told me why he works so much overtime um so they said did you ever did you ever have occasion to become upset about playboy magazines oh he's a tugger what way do you hear to the extent he tugs it's i've never heard of tugging to this extent before we've heard a lot of serial killer talk we've heard a lot of jerking, tales of jerking past, and this is remarkable.

Like Ted Bundy would go, Jesus, bro, calm it down. What kind of sex drive do you have, you fucking lunatic? He loves talking, huh? She says, yes, they had occasion to become upset about Playboy magazines. She said, we lived at Waynesville. I did, but Johnny did not. Something about working here. Johnny was angry and just took it out of the furniture.

Okay, there's that. Tried to smother me with a pillow. She said, the first time when he tried to smother me with a pillow, I felt there'd been a change in his feelings toward me. Well, yeah. I thought he liked me. Then he wanted to kill me. So I feel like there was a change there. Generally, that leans into hate there and resentment.

That's something like that. You know what I mean? Yeah, a little bit. She said, I talked to him, and after I left, I got letters from him. Johnny said he was planning on coming to get me and the children. Now, also, after they broke up, Patty ended up moving in and hooking up with a female soldier at Fort Leonard Wood. Is that right? Yeah, and this apparently did not sit well with Mr. Thornton here.

That hurts a little bit. Yeah, they said she had a love affair with a female soldier who was stationed there. Now, he also had, after that, an affair with a female soldier who was stationed there um now he also had after that an affair with a female soldier as well the soldier was a divorced mother of a six-year-old boy and she reminded him of his mother so yeah that's some guys are weird like that and he said he thought the boy reminded him of himself so he wanted to somehow control what's the psychology there. Okay. There's my mom and there's me. Let me, let me put this the right way.

You know what I mean? Over, over this situation. Yeah. And correct all the wrongs. It's fucking weird. Um, apparently he said that this caused outbursts in him and,

uh, brought up some weird, weird old feelings. Thornton had told, uh, had told her that something snapped when thornton watched the female soldier discipline her son she he like lost it and fucking was like you know attacked her for disciplining her son like don't you be mean to him because that's me

you leave you leave me alone when he's yelling at her like that yeah it's fucking weird now that's who we're dealing with here johnny thornton's a weird guy old johnny lee's a strange guy yeah so that night when he stops these kids he has them pulled over if we remember he puts them in a scout he shoots both boys and he's got the girl sitting there in a car all right likely yeah at this point if they weren't terrified already now that their boy their dates have been shot, probably. So there's no keeping a lid on Johnny Thornton over here. He's got problems. He also, the kids he stopped, those teenagers aren't the only people he stopped that night.

You find out that he stopped a couple other people that evening as well. A couple other people that evening as well, he stopped a guy named Robert L. Hall Jr. and his partner from work, Stanley Handley. And Hall said, we worked the midnight to 8.30 a.m. shift at the commissary post. We were heading to work approximately 20 minutes after midnight, so you're late for work. But that's fine. On January 13th, so this is right before he pulled the kids over. Right before. And an MP driving a Scout stopped us on Southgate Road, which is the same place the kids were stopped, in the vicinity of Range 26. We were traveling north when we met the MP vehicle, which turned around to stop us.

The MP asked for identification from both of us and shined his flashlight inside Handley's vehicle. Handley always carries a shotgun in the truck. I held it in my lap, but the MP made no comment about the shotgun, which is strange. If you get pulled over and you have a shotgun on your lap, the cop will comment on it. I assure you they will say something. Depending on where it's at, I guess, yeah. On your lap? No, I mean depending on where it's at i guess yeah on your lap that's no i mean depending on where you get

stopped yeah i feel like when we got pulled over in dallas if either of us have been holding the shotgun he's just been like good day fellas he wouldn't even have cared that guy though he didn't even notice he was just like i'm here to give you all ticket how are you just he never even made eye contact with either of us damn nice shotgun son he's just like what's your vehicle vin number all right here's your ticket see ya so um even follow his nose no nothing so the mp told us he was looking for a particular person and let us go so that's what happened right before that there now back to um uh then at the end of the night when he Johnny Lee Thornton, when the shift was over, he turned in his 45 caliber pistol. That's what he carries with him, which is assigned to him before the shift. He turns it in after the shift.

He said, though, he'd expended six rounds of ammo that night, killing some stray dogs in a hunting area. OK, so that's part of his job is just to shoot stray dogs and uh no he said he buried the dogs oh okay shot and buried the dogs that night so um he turned also turned in his vehicle it's the number is x 37 by the way that's the vehicle number in terms of the fleet uh of the scout. He requested when he turned it in, he goes, here's my Ganya. I had to pop off six shots at some dogs.

I buried them. By the way, you should watch, wash the inside of the car out because there's blood in there. So you should wash that out also. And right after that, he calls in a radio check on a 1972 Dodge Charger that saying that he found it abandoned on Southgate Road. Okay.

Yeah. So he said it's locked and abandoned. I don't see any personal belongings in it. There's nothing in there. 72 Charger. Once he got back. Bunch of blood in the back of the car. I got to go home.

I'm going to go home now. Yeah. And they were like, all right, bye. Isn't that funny? That's it. He then called flight controllers. Once he arrives at MP headquarters, he called flight controllers at Forney Field to inquire if there would be any low-flying helicopters in the area that day. Helicopters, you know, who might be able to see things in the snow.

Yeah, doing some weird things. He used his vehicle radio to tell the base operator about the abandoned car with the flat tire. By the way, the 72 Charger now has a flat tire. Documenting his shift activities, he filled out a written statement acknowledging he'd fired six rounds of ammunition, quote, disposing of stray dogs in a hunting area on Fort Leonard Wood. So there's why your ammo is gone.

He asked the officer who relieved him who was going to take possession of vehicle X 37 to wash it thoroughly before departing for patrol. So they said due to the fact that there was eight inches of snow and ice on the ground the vehicle would be dirty in a matter of seconds after leaving. So it was a stupid thing. They were like why would he say wash out the car and wash off the car? It's going to be filthy. Every time we get in, it's going to be muddy.

It's a fucking mess out here. So the wash job never actually happens. The guy's like, there's no need to wash it. It's muddy and snowy. I'm not washing this thing. So that would have removed everything from the inside of the car. Later that afternoon, he returned to headquarters and checks out another 45 caliber

pistol and then disappears by the way oh yeah so this is fucking wild um yeah so he has both boys handcuffed puts them in the vehicle puts the girls in before he drives off pulls out a.45, shoots both boys that are in the back seat. He then takes them all to the warden's cabin, which is a horrifying nightmare shack in the middle of fucking nowhere. In the middle of fucking nowhere in the middle of the woods. It is where you'd film a horror movie is what it is. It's absolutely fucking horrifying. It's about a mile and a half away there. So or no later on. OK, so Jesus Christ. Now, the cops at the scene where the where King is interviewing the shot girl on the side of the road who seems to be fine. fine. This girl, Juanita, she describes the man who did all this, and we'll talk about what else he did because there's more. It's an international scout. She recalled the number on it was maybe

327, which is, it's X27, which isn't bad. So he then, he informs everybody because it's, they called the cops. He's a cop, so it's federal jurisdiction where this happens. So he calls the federal people. They come in. He says, I went back to the young lady, and we started going through the story again, this time for the smaller details, and she gave me a ton of details. I hate to use this way of describing it, but it was kind of like talking to a computer. He described her answers as clearly alert, extremely emotional, and washed out. Every question I asked her, she gave me a detailed answer to which I would then break

off every so often, run back to my car, and pass the word on to Troop 1. That's what he's got to do here. So he said at one point she describes the vehicle as X or 327. So the sheriff knew that was an MP vehicle. They were talking about a scout. And he says, quote, as she continued to talk and he's giving me these answers, it finally dawned on me that this was not an impersonation. This was a real life MP we were dealing with here. And of course, I just called the MPs for backup.

So now he's like, oh, fuck, am I in trouble? Yeah. These guys, what the fuck's going on? Is X-27 going to show up? Well, he says, while I'm briefing them on what facts I had, the captain who's in charge stopped me and took me over to an international scout that had just arrived. He said this was a sergeant from the game warden detail and that it was going to take the CID team down to the scene. And he wanted him to hear the briefing. So I start going through it again.ID team down to the scene and he wanted him to hear the briefing so I start going through it again and I get to the part about the scout and at that time

I realized the sergeant was leaning on a scout I looked down at the number on the scout and it's three two seven oh boy I instinctively knew that that was a suspect vehicle and it turned out that yes it was and I looked and there was blood in the back seat and a bullet hole coming out of the tailgate. Oh, my God. Yeah. He goes, he said, I could tell people around me were looking at me and asking questions and I couldn't respond. It's a weird feeling. I've never had one like that before and never had one since.

So he said that the MP captain caught caught on to me and immediately asked the uh the sergeant who had this vehicle last and the sergeant said you know fucking this guy and this guy and the the king says quote and then he said the magic word the magic words thornton said he shot some dogs last night and he was like wait a second here this guy said he fired off 45 shots okay let's all talk about this so wow um this is fucking crazy so he uh they talked to people that know him uh one guy says he saw thornton oh this is the sergeant he last saw thornton at 6 a.m on january 13th 1977 thornton was completing his tour of duty. He related the game warden vehicle utilized belongs to the 208th military.

This is all standard shit here. He says that they talked with Thornton and he observed nothing unusual. This guy that talked to Thornton, one of the soldiers, one of the other MPs, he further described Thornton as a thorough investigator. He related Thornton had told him he was unable to clean the Jeep after his tour of duty at 6 a.m. as he was unable to wash it due to the cold weather conditions. At 6.20 p.m., another MP was advised that there was a telephone call for him on some extension. Thornton was on the line. He picked up the telephone and joined the conversation between another guy and Thornton. Thornton requested this first guy and the second guy who picked up the phone come and get him as he was at an off post address.

Thornton said, don't bring anything. There's no need. There's nothing to worry about. OK, now they had the cops said they had a big meeting the fbi is involved now all these people and they made assignments to get this moving forward they said that um they needed the fbi to be able to take him because it's a federal thing and they need all this type of shit so they said that they needed uh you know they know all these details and they need all the details they can get to be able to indict this guy federally and all this type of

shit so they said at the time there was a two-man fbi resident office on fort leonard wood and he said the only military base i'm aware of that had one they had their own fbi detail that's good so the king says overnight they brought in 13 more fbi agents because this was going to be an FBI case. There was also 14 CID agents and they established 14 teams with one FBI agent and one CID agent. And those 14 teams had seven crime scenes to cover and about 20 people they wanted to interview because they were going to have good information. They wanted to interview because they were going to have good information, like, for example, the guy who checked the weapon out of the armory to Thornton that night and the guy who got it back the next morning because the gun was linked forensically to the deaths via the bullets it fired. So that was a very critical piece of information. He said they probably had enough to convict Thornton within 72 hours.

But he said the agents were smart enough to realize that, no, he's going to pull an insanity defense, and we're going to have to be able to prove his state of mind at the time. So they kept digging and kept increasingly adding to the pile of information and evidence they could present. So they have all this, and they decide they're going to go get him. They got to go pick him up. So they called him. They had somebody call him, and what he said was, yes, come get me, but only if it's this particular FBI agent and I don't want – everybody's got to be unarmed. He said, I know you want me for several murders because we're going to talk about what ends up happening and it's gross.

We're arm-winding his friends. But come get me and don't – but don't bring your guns. We'll make this nice and friendly. Like, and that one guy was going to do it. And, uh, the Colonel said that someone told him, Colonel, you should absolutely not do this. This isn't a good idea. And he has a gun. He said, you know, I think we need to do this. I think, I think, uh, I need to do this as part of maybe getting him to surrender. So this guy got in a car with a couple other guys and just wore a bulletproof vest and went there. So the plan is that these two guys are going to meet Thornton and they're going to talk to him. But they're also going to have backup nearby to come whatever. Oh, not even nearby.

Special Agent William Castleberry is to hide in the backseat of the vehicle with a 12-gauge shotgun just in case. And then there's several carloads of everybody else about a mile away from the meeting site. And they both, Elder and Johnson, hid snub-nosed.38 revolvers in their pockets so they looked like they were unarmed. So they arrived. Initially, there's a herd of cattle in the road where Thornton's car was supposed to be parked. So that's a bad sign. They maneuvered around the cows. They drive a little further.

They find Thornton's car parked near a wooded area. They position their vehicle headlights illuminating the woods so they could see Thornton. Thornton said he would come out of the woods and into the lights. That's what he says. So both officers get out of the vehicle. They call for Thornton to come out and talk to them. After about 10 minutes of yelling back and forth, they heard a voice behind them say, I'm here. They turned around and saw Thornton had got behind them somehow.

Oh, my God. Which, I mean, he could have just shot them in the back and walked away. I mean, that would have been that. Well, then the other guy would have popped out with a shotgun. shot them in the back and walked away i mean that would have been that well then the other guy would have popped out with a shotgun but still um instead of he wasn't in the headlights now he's in the back and the officers are like silhouetted onto him by the headlights because they're out in front of the thing so um it's fucking silly so they they keep talking to him the thornton said he didn't want to drop his gun he's got a gun he doesn't want to drop his gun. He's got a gun. He doesn't want to leave it. They were like, well, you kind of have to.

He's holding. Yeah, he's holding a military issued 45 pistol in his right hand. So very dangerous. It's pointed down next to his leg, but they're still concerned. He said he'd been hiding down the road and followed behind them on foot to their present location. He said he wanted to ensure that there was no trap set for him. So this guy's not an idiot here. He said he's out of breath and he needs a second to recover.

Then he says, I know I did something bad, but I can't remember what it was. Oh, boy. They're like, huh? He admitted to stopping a vehicle with two boys and two girls. He said the teens didn't say anything to make him mad. He said sometimes he got bad headaches, and when he got headaches, he couldn't remember things. He said they'd been going on for a while, and his head was beginning to hurt again, and he needed to sit down and rest. So he sat down on top of a snow mound near the side of the road.

The guys got a little bit closer, but he just kept repeating, quote, done something real bad, done something real bad, over and over again. Done something real bad, which is terrifying. I've done something real bad. I've done something real bad. Jesus, how bad was it, man? It's bad. Realizing that they'd been out of radio touch with the command post,

they said they needed to call on the radio and let dispatch know everything was okay. So they do all of that. While the one guy leaves, the other one says, Thornton says to the other one, what have I done? Don't you know I can't remember what happened to the people? They told him that, hey, there's a lot of dead people here, and there's still one alive. And he said, quote, I'm sorry I did this to your police force.

No. They said, yeah. Four children, man. They said, don't worry about that. Let's talk about this other shit. Yeah. And, well, he said, well, he's just been wandering around the brush this afternoon. On three or four occasions, he sat down to try to shoot himself, but he couldn't do it.

Yeah. Yeah. Chicken shit. Yeah, he sat down to try to shoot himself, but he couldn't do it. Yeah. Chicken shit. Yeah, he's a chicken shit. Exactly. So he said when he heard the call looking for some missing kids, he realized he'd done something bad, which is weird. Then Thornton told them that he'd had trouble with his wife and that she'd left him. He said now they've worked out their problems and they were getting back together, which wasn't true. He said he was very concerned about his wife and boys because he loved them very much.

So they said, why don't you put your gun down? And he said, nah, I don't think so. Not yet. Still got some talking to do. He said he had three conditions which he would have to be met before he laid down his weapon. The first, got to talk to my wife. Get Patty on the horn get patty on the horn get patty on the horn number one negotiators to tell you no that's number one the worst thing to

do because she's gonna go go fuck yourself asshole blah blah blah and then he's gonna shoot everyone and himself never put the person they want on the phone on the phone that's bad uh then second he didn't want to be handcuffed. Two for two, no good. Two for two, not going to work. The third was he didn't want to be seen by any of his fellow MPs when he got to the MP station. And he apologized again for what he had done to the MPs. So he just tried to smuggle you in and call it a day?

He's very concerned about what everything looks like. I don't want to be handcuffed. I don't want to be seen as a criminal. Right. Even though I'm a murderer, I don't want to be seen as that. See, what happens is people start judging, and I don't like that. Yeah, that's – so they told him, well, we'll have to submit those demands to the FBI. They're going to have to approve that.

I don't have the – I don't have any of that shit. Let's see what the Uber guy thinks about it. You know how it is. So they're going back and forth on it, you know, quote, unquote, negotiating with the FBI. Thornton keeps making statements like, don't you know I can't remember? Don't you know I can't remember? Finally, the officers out of nowhere heard Thornton's, heard the magazine eject. Okay.

It was a very specific sound. Yeah. And they were like, that's a good sign. Yeah. And Thornton held the gun out toward Elder and Elder asked him to put the weapon down

rather than hand it to him. He said, put it down. I'll go. He tried to hand it over to him. There could be one in there still. Well, Thornton said, oh, wait, wait, there's a round in the chamber.

And there was. God damn it. And there was. So Elder told Thornton to lay down the weapon and he or Jensen would remove the live round from the chamber, and he then refused to lay the gun down again. They heard the slide racking backwards, and he said then it was empty. He popped it out with that, and then he laid it on the ground in the middle of the dirt road. So they picked it up, and they picked up the loose round. They patted

him down took him by the arm he's got a knife on him too at some point here um they get him to the vehicle they introduce him to the guy in the back seat with the shotgun here's the guy that was gonna kill you he would he would have blown your head clean off dude you would have never even seen it coming this was like a 35 minute arm standoff here so that's that's bad uh but they finally get him in they take a knife off of him like i said the knife was later forensically linked by the fbi crime lab to the flat tire on the 1972 dodge charger so that was done with him that evidence confirmed juanita deckard statements about what happened and showed proof and we're going to get to her whole statement

and it's harrowing. Thornton told the officers he'd been having bad headaches since high school. He said he didn't know why he had the headaches, nor how long they typically lasted or what caused them. He said that he can't remember what he does when he has headaches, and he has a lot of questions about it. He said he was on duty from 10 p.m. till 6 a.m. He confirmed that he operated that particular scout, and he remembered being on patrol on Southgate Road, and then he stopped one or two vehicles for excessive speed but didn't issue any traffic tickets. He simply warned the people to slow down. He recalled stopping his vehicle several times to watch the road at range 34 or possibly 25, 51, and 52.

After a lengthy pause, he asked for something to drink. They gave him a sandwich and a soda. He comes back to the interview. He recalls stopping a car with some kids in it. He said the kids were real nice, but one of the boys said something to him. He said he couldn't remember what it was exactly but it didn't make him angry and he takes another long pause and he acknowledges seeing the car and putting on his red lights he couldn't remember what happened next he said he wanted to talk to someone and wanted to someone

to understand he said he thought uh earlier he'd want to talk to his wife but now he didn't want to talk to her anymore which is i don't know what it was why i wanted to talk to his wife, but now he didn't want to talk to her anymore, which is I don't know what it was, why I wanted to talk to her. But now I change my mind. She's just going to yell at me probably before all this. Yeah. He says he recalled approaching the kid's vehicle, but he couldn't say what kind of car it was or how many kids were in it. He said as he approached the vehicle, his thoughts were on his mother and his head ached. Huh.

And they said, what were you thinking about your mother? And he said, quote, I love my mother, but I also hate her. They were like, all righty, Johnny. That's what you think about when you approach a car that you've just stopped. Wow. Then he said, quote, I drove down some roads, but I don't recall much that night. I remember driving down by Penn's Road. And then he looked up and he said, what did I do?

I remember doing this. What did I do? They said he held his hands up. So they gave him a brief description of the crimes. And he said, I know I must have done it, but I don't see how I could have done it. I should have done it. I shouldn't. And I should have done it out there.

Wow. I don't get that. They said, what should you have done, Johnny? He said, I should have done it to spare my wife the grief. I should do it. I already heard her enough. I will just hurt her more. They said, Johnny, are you talking about killing yourself that you should have killed yourself?

And he said, yeah, I know I must've done it. I don't think it was because I needed a woman. We'll talk about this. Then he said, I have a headache again. And then he said, I don't remember anything else. I can't tell you anything else. So they pull out, search his pockets, and find papers. And his pockets are full of papers.

All right. Notes that he had written. And they say, quote, these are a bunch of them. These are all separate notes. My love, I once said if i ever hurt you again i wouldn't be able to live now i know it's true i didn't mean to hurt you were the boys i love all of you more than life even more than that but i can't put it into words next note there were so many nights i cried after you left i was so lonely hurt so lost i know you did the right

thing by leaving me i really know it was right. Next note. Everything seemed to be going so good after you said you would come back. The feeling you gave me knowing you still love me. I wish I could say it. Next note. I hope you can forgive me for hurting you and the boys if you don't let them find out. If you can, don't let them find out there they'll be they're hurt enough growing up without

a father next note i hate leaving you with two boys and possibly a girl on the way but i'll only cause you more hurt if i stay alive next note it wasn't you that caused my mind to finally snap you're the only thing that ever held me together. Even when we were apart, your memories were enough to keep me together. He's just driving and thinking and thinking and drinking and driving. Yeah, I think so. Like he's right. Jotting down songs. If only these things rhymed, he'd be a prolific songwriter.

Prolific. What I did, I think I was being with Betty the way she treats her son. That's the woman he moved in with. Always different men, always hurting him. I think it made me remember my mother and the way that she used to do that to me i'm sorry for mentioning her and my mother in this letter to you i just want you to understand next note i love you more yeah it does i just want you to understand that's the song over and over that's that's his chorus it's a country song yeah I love you more than ever.

More every day till the end of time. Please don't blame yourself. Give the boys my love. Love always and forever, John. P.S. Don't forget the income tax and savings bond. You'll need the money. It's all I have left to give you except my love.

Please forgive me. That's all I ask of you. Please. Then it says, please. The next note. Please forgive me. That's all I ask of you please then it says please for the next note please forgive me that's all i ask of you i'm not done yet then he says patty i need to talk to you some more i am not scared of dying only losing you maybe but maybe now i'll always have you i never meant to hurt you or anything else next note remember i told you sometime I got some headaches?

I tried to hide them from you because they scared me. These headaches made me forget and they changed me or something I still don't understand. I wish I could see you and love you one more time. God, I need to be held by you right now. I'd turn myself in if I could only hold you one more time, but I know it would only hurt you more. Next note. Please don't blame yourself. It's not your fault. It would have happened a long

time ago, I guess. But if you held me together, you were my breath in life. A lot of these words are misspelled because of him jotting shit down as he runs around the woods. You were my life. I wish things could have been more different for us more different more different next note if you do remarry make sure he loves the boys

and our little girl to be and don't get them hurt okay next note i'm giving you full power of attorney so you can take care of everything. And sorry for putting you through this. Through is the less popular T-H-R-E-W spelling. Like when he threw the baby? Like when he threw the baby and the baby food. I do love you very much. Well, I just heard them drive up by Paul's car. I better do what I have to do. This is when the guys arrived.

Yeah. Next note. Please forgive me.'s hangs out for a while please forgive me i hope god will please believe me i do love you i always will take good care of the children love forever john p.s i may sound funny but i saved this little toy for michael i don't know what the fuck that is i don't know the knife in his pocket. Next note, I just stopped walking again. I need to talk to you again. I don't feel afraid of dying.

I'll be at peace no more hurting you or the boys. He's following cops on foot while he's writing these notes. Hold on a minute. My dearest Patty. It's like, next note, I wish I could have controlled what happened to me. I was so happy knowing you were coming back to me. My mind went blank. I've been trying to remember what I did.

I'm not even sure I can remember why I'm here right now. If only I could hold you now. Continue on the next page. And then there's nothing on the next page. Next note, I decided to do it. Here so you won't have to carry my body too far. I left Paul's at five minutes till four. He's saying now he's going to kill himself, so it's easy.

Well, he's following cops. He's writing this. Yeah. Then he says, next one, the time is now 5.30 p.m. This is for your reports, is the next note. Next note is the car is by H Highway. Next note is I wish you and the boys all the best. Please don't let them find out if you can.

Next note, if it wouldn't hurt you too much, I'd like for us to be buried next to each other if possible. Next note, I wish I hadn't hurt you again. I want you back so bad. Next note, I keep trying to tell myself that it's a dream. I can't understand how I did what I did. And then finally, the last note, you're going to call in about an hour and 15 minutes. I wish I could tell you I love you.

God only knows how much I love you. You're probably you're going to get a call is what he was trying to say. Patty, please forgive me. I didn't mean to hurt you. I really love you. Love always, John. Well, now I got to talk to these cops. Yeah.

So he sits down and I mean, like we said, they gave him all the Miranda warnings. He waved that. He wrote all these notes and then jammed each piece of paper into his pocket. Yeah, he had them in his shirt pocket, in his pants pocket. There was just papers everywhere. So they said whenever they'd push him with strong questions, he'd just say, I don't remember. I can't remember. I have a headache and all that kind of thing.

That was his whole deal. So what actually happened? Let's get into this because it is fucking horrifying. So the main paved road near the airport on Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. This is Juanita Deckard's recollection. This is Juanita Deckard's recollection. I was riding in an automobile with three friends. A military policeman driving a military vehicle pulled us over with his red light.

The MP told us that the Southgate Texaco station had just been robbed and that we were suspects. By the way, no one robbed the Texaco station that night. Not even robbed. Not even robbed. The MP said he was going to have to take us in. He handcuffed Wesley and Tony and slit a tire on our vehicle, causing it to go flat. The MP ordered the boys out of the car and over to the scout, telling them that the charger matched one used in a local gas station robbery. She then said he kind of acted like he was going to get in, and then I saw the gun go off. He made Linda sit between the two two boys this is how it was

yeah in the back seat she was sitting in the middle linda the 16 year old with the boys in both the back seats and then juanita's in the front seat wow so he shoots them around her he shoots one of them then moves the gun past her to shoot another one. How do you feel if you're her? Horrified, yeah. And a.45 is fucking loud. That's loud. That's a big, loud gun. So, I mean, boom, boom, the flash.

It's midnight. It's dark. In a car. In a car. The flash and the sound, Linda had to just freak the fuck out, obviously. So, she says, he kind of acted like he was going to get in, and then I saw the gun go off. Thornton said nothing before firing the gun. Wesley got hit and doubled over. And Tony said, oh, that hurts.

Thornton told me not to look back and told Linda to do and say nothing. He kept not letting them help the boys. They kept wanting to help. He kept not letting them help the boys. They kept wanting to help. So she said Thornton, who had driven the Scout a short distance down the road, turned around and drove back to Bates' car. That's when he got out and slashed the tire and left the vehicle running. She said that she, I mean the Scout, he left running.

She said she didn't know how to drive a stick shift. That's why she didn't try to run away. Oh, shit. said she didn't know how to drive a stick stick shift that's why she didn't try to run away oh shit if she knew how to drive a stick shift she would have obviously jumped in and fucking took off in that thing and was psychopath these guys are shot whatever she said Thornton drove for about 10 minutes until we came to a cabin somewhere in the woods

Thornton left the boys in the back seat he orders ordered us girls into the cabin where he began to build a fire in a stove in the center seat. He ordered us girls into the cabin where he began to build a fire in a stove in the center of the room. Jesus Christ. He made them stand against the wall away from

him while he built a fire. Like they were in trouble in the third grade. This is her words here. She said he ordered both of us to take off our clothing and to perform sex acts on both of us. I'm sorry. He ordered both of us to take off our clothing and to perform sex acts on each other and then on him. Yeah, he's making a fucking, you know, oh Jesus Christ. He then forced sodomy and sexual intercourse with both of us.

I can't recall how much conversation except a comment made by Thornton. He said he was really not an MP but was a soldier and was deserting and leaving for Canada the next day. So she also described how he had a.45 caliber pistol in his hand the entire time. Oh, my God. Just to make it extra terrifying. Well, I could shoot you at any second. Now, she said, quote, after the sexual assaults finally ceased, Thornton told us to get dressed and then ordered us back to his vehicle. This is over the course of three and a half hours, Jimmy.

Jesus. This isn't 15 minutes. I'll make a fire. Let's get this. Three and a half to four hours. That's insane. He did all a fire. Let's get this. Three and a half to four hours. That's insane. He did all of this. That is.

So long. This isn't just a fucking. Oh, my God. This is. He took his time. He tortured these fucking girls for four hours with a gun in his hand. By the way, kept going out and getting wood and coming back. When he'd go out, he would act like he was talking to the boys like they were fine.

He was acting like they were okay, so the girls felt more comfortable, like he wasn't going to kill them. You know what I mean? Like, oh, yeah, no, I'm taking – like, he was acting like he was tending to them when he went out to get wood. Like, oh, yeah, I'm also tending to the boys. So she goes on to say, quote, after the sexual assaults finally ceased, Thornton told us to get dressed and then ordered us back into his vehicle. Thornton said it's 4.20 a.m. and I'm behind schedule. Thornton drove all four of us to a snowy clearing some distance away. He ordered Linda and me at gunpoint to get out of the Scout and face the other way.

I heard a shot. I felt dizzy and faint. I was wounded in the side of the arm and in the chest. Linda fell to the ground. He was wounded in the side of the arm and in the chest. Linda fell to the ground. He was behind Linda picking up her shoulders. He started to drag her back into the woods. I heard her scream and I think I heard a shot.

He came over and started dragging me. He started kicking snow over me. He kicked me with his boot, then kicked some more snow over me. He kicked her to make sure she was dead to see if she would pop up. And she didn't. She was playing dead. Yeah. And he just started burying her in the snow.

Just snow. Just burying them in the snow. Yeah, you could bury them later. For now, we'll cover them in snow, take care of this later on. That's wild. So that's what he did. He drug them all over, did that. Thornton went back to the scout and ordered Tony out and told him to walk. They're still alive, these guys.

Unbelievable. A moment later, there was another shot. He remained in the area for about 30 more minutes before he finally drove away. I waited until I couldn't hear the vehicle anymore. Then I called for the others by name. None of them answered. It was dark and snowing. Then I felt someone lying beside me. It was Wesley. I uncovered his face and tried to get him to talk to me. Then I called for Linda and she didn't answer. So I got up and looked for her. She was a few steps away and she wouldn't answer. I called

for Tony. I couldn't find him. I tried to do mouth to mouth resuscitation and it wouldn't answer i called for tony i couldn't find him i tried to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and it didn't work what happened was she she knows what she knows but what the whole thing was was oh my god this is fucking horrible he he linda played after the first shots when they were standing with their backs to him, Linda played dead also. But while she, remember, he dragged them and then she heard another shot? That's because Linda was playing dead and she must have opened her eyes or looked at him or peeked or something. He realized she was playing dead and then he shot her close range right above her and killed her. Oh, my God. And Juanita knew to not fucking move a muscle here.

That is crazy um I guess it was really cold that night and snowing and he told us after it got warm we were going to take our clothes off that's what he said into the cabin these are the little little quotes he had once he remarked I guess you wonder why I'm doing this and they they said they she and and Linda tried to talk to him at one point just to try to personalize they say if someone's kidnapped yeah make them look at you like a person and that's the best way to do it so they asked him whether he was married or had a girlfriend and asked about his parents um that's what he told him that he wasn't a really an mp and he was about to go awol and all that shit um she said

though he always had the the 45 in his hand one hand and a flashlight in the other and um that's after the cabin warmed up he told them to take off all their clothes and their rings and any any form of jewelry identification so that's a bad sign that's not good um jesus christ so uh um the the she's obviously going to be a bad witness for him because her being alive still she recollects everything there's no damage to her memories uh no if anything it's burned the memories in deeper fucking it's making it worse yeah you're never going to forget his goddamn face so holy shit anyway that's her her description of the whole thing um it's so weird the way she describes some of the stuff too little things like uh when the mp closed the passenger door he walked around and opened the driver's door. I saw he had a gun in his hand, and that's when he shot them in the beginning.

And he kept saying, don't look back, as the boys were moaning with gunshot wounds. The autopsy revealed that Thornton shot Bates one time in the lower chest. After impact, he doubled over in his seat and the 45 bullet passed through his body, having nicked his kidney and exited through his back and grazed one of his handcuffed hands as well. The coroner determined the initial shot was a non-fatal wound. The bullet passed through Wesley Hawkins heart, killing him instantly. Wesley Hawkins was killed instantly. The FBI lab technicians found both the initial impact bullets lodged in the back seat of the scout. Those were forensically matched to the.45 pistol issued to Thornton that night, which is a big deal there.

So, holy shit. Yeah. I don't even know. He kept saying also that they shouldn't run away because if they try any funny business, he'll catch them because he knows the place like the back of his hand. And there's never getting away. So he told them repeatedly, too, if you do everything I tell you, you won't get hurt. He kept saying that. He kept saying it. Yeah.

And then he kept saying, I suppose you're wondering why I'm doing this. He said that they said, why did you shoot the boys? And he said, so they wouldn't be rowdy. Yeah, because I got to neutralize them. Yeah, I don't have these women. I don't have any sexual fucking interest in him. So Juanita said that she had in her mind for some reason at this point that meant to her her the way he said that so they won't be rowdy. She thought maybe he didn't shoot them.

Maybe he just gave them some kind of tranquilizer or sedative. Maybe he shot them with like a tranq dart or something. That's what she was thinking. Oh, maybe so they wouldn't be rowdy. Okay. So that was her thought on that. That helped her relax that maybe he's not going to kill us. But that helped her relax that maybe he's not going to kill us.

Later on, though, when they're in there, they kept asking about, you know, everything. He said, well, I'm going to end up handcuffing you guys together in the cabin and you'll get found in a couple of days. Someone will come out here and, you know, to do something and they'll find you out here. So he said they asked him, what are you going to do with the boys? And he said, don't ask about the boys again. Yeah. Don't let me think about that. So yeah, they said, that's when he said, look, I'm behind schedule and all that kind of shit.

So it was like, whoa, this is getting fucking, this is getting crazy. Now here is the sheriff's book here. And we'll give you the, the name of it and everything. It's a very dry book. It's, it's almost like police reports and court documents and things like that yeah the jb king book it's not a narrative like there's no you know over the steamy night of the bubble none of that shit it is fucking it is according to sections so and so yeah it's police reports it's great for me because i can mix this information in with the other stuff but if you're just just reading it, it might not be the best toilet material to read. Dry read.

It's a real dry read. Speaking of dry reads, let's hear about something else dry that went on here. Oh, God. Welcome to the small town of Chinook, where faith runs deep and secrets run deeper. In this new thriller, available exclusively on Wondery+, religion and crime collide when a gruesome murder rocks the isolated Montana community. Everyone is quick to point their fingers at a drug-addicted teenager, but local deputy Ruth Vogel isn't convinced. She suspects connections to a powerful religious group. Enter federal agent V.B. Loro, who has been investigating a local church for possible criminal activity.

The pair form an unlikely partnership to catch the killer, unearthing secrets that leave Ruth torn between her duty to the law, her religious convictions, and her very own family. But something more sinister than murder is afoot, and someone is watching Ruth.

With an all-star cast led by Emmy nominee Sanaa Lathan and Star Wars Kelly Marie Tran, Chinook is available exclusively and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. J.B. King said that, quote, I remember that we sealed the scout. Not only did the evidence confirm that X-37 was the vehicle Thornton used in the commission of the crime, it also proved bullet trajectories in support of Deckard's eyewitness testimony. Now, we did take apart his personal vehicle as far as the inside, the front seat compartment, the rug in the seat. And one of the interesting things the lab found was one of the victim's pubic hairs was in the front seat of his personal car. What? Personal car, not the fucking scout a car that this person's never been in one of her pubic hairs is so he transferred

it there yes wow um they said and she had never been in the vehicle and we could prove that one of the girls uh one of the girls from the four, he says, well, what we discovered was, when they examined him later on, he masturbated almost continuously to the point where he rubbed his penis raw. After everything, he got back in his car and jerked it until it was skinless. Until it was a mess. Until he fucking skinned it. Wow. Yeah. He jerked the skin off of his cock.

What the shit, man? We've heard of a lot of horny weirdos. Everybody from BTK to Ted Bundy, none of them jerked their cock until the skin was gone. After raping for three hours. That's what I'm saying. You raped for hours two different people and then you're like, I need to jerk it to a pubic hair until I'm raw. Unbelievable.

That is disturbing. This guy has fucking problems and he's dangerous. It's a dangerous person. This is only the beginning, you know what I mean? Yeah. The autopsy, they said that Linda Need needham was 5 2 90 pounds oh my god blonde hair green eyes um they said that she was covered in snow now they deckard

had removed a bunch of the snow when he she tried to revive her i guess juanita went around and tried to give everybody mouth to mouth just to see if anybody if it would work. So even though Juanita had done that, and this is from the report of CID agent George Matthews, he said, even though Deckard had removed most of what of this snow when she tried to revive her talking about Linda, some snow remained frozen in her hair and around her eyes. When she was brought to the morgue, the bright lights caused the ice to melt from around her eyes and run like teardrops down her cheeks oh that's fucked up the agents who saw this even though accustomed to violent death and autopsies said it would be a long time before they could forget the dead girl's tears jesus christ holy hell could it get worse holy fuck man oh that is terrible i'd quit i think i think i'm done really i think i'm never coming back into this job the dead cry now fuck this i'm out i'm out she's a child and she's 16 years old melting like fucking tears and 16 5 2 90 pounds so that reads as younger than 16 if you're an adult

you're like oh you're so tiny that's like 12 oh no so this is fucking wild so then they go to the witnesses here is douglas hawkins uh this guy said that uh this is wesley hawkins brother by the way one of the guys on the date i I guess this is Juanita's date. He says, quote, I got a call from Juanita Decker at about 12.30 p.m. the next day asking me to come and get her. Juanita told me I wouldn't believe what she was going to say. They had been shot and needed help. I asked for her location and she said she didn't know.

She handed the phone to a person who identified herself as Mrs. Eccleberry. Mrs. Eccleberry told me where to find Juanita. While I was en route to pick up Juanita, I stopped for Herschel Needham, Linda's father. The two of us proceeded to the Eccleberry residence on Highway 17. When we got to the Eccleberry residence, I asked Juanita what happened. She told me she'd been with Linda, Tony, and Wesley in Bates'. She says 1971, which would make it even cooler. Even cooler, yeah. 1971 two-toned blue special edition Dodge Charger. You know what it is?

It's the blue one with the black vinyl roof. That thing's fucking badass. That thing is awesome. I hope it has the white vinyl. Awesome. Oh, my God. Jesus Christ. White vinyl interior or that fucking electric blue. That's a badass car. I hope that thing is white vinyl. Awesome. Oh, my God. Jesus Christ.

Fucking electric blue. That's a badass car. He was living such a cool life. I feel so bad for this guy. It was. Jesus Christ. So Juanita told them that she goes through the whole story with him. So, yeah, this and then Janice Eccleberry, the person, the lady whose house she showed up at,

she said the TV just started the opening credits at 1230 p.m., and she was watching As the World Turns, by the way, and the credits had just come on. And then her world was shattered. And then her world turned, and she realized you only have one life to live, and sometimes when you're young, you're restless. Can I please go? Can you please take me to the general hospital? I'm young and restless and shot.

This is not good. How crazy is that that all the daytime soaps fit into her day? You could make a narrative out of them. It really is ugly. the end she goes man i'll just tell you this really taught me you really do only have one life to live and then she walks away and you're like wow that's that's uh every reporter will look at each other and she fucking just say that so she goes on to say i answered it and found a young lady shaking with cold standing on my doorstep.

I thought she was 14 or 15 years old. She was half frozen and could barely talk. I brought her into the living room where the wood stove was and she began to thaw out. As the young lady warmed up, she told me about her dead friends in the woods and that she'd been raped. She also said she'd been shot. I didn't know what to think about all this, but I realized that she was severely cold. I say, baby, she is shot in the chest. Let's call the cops. If it's not, if it turns out to be nothing later, I'd rather err on the side of safety here.

I'm calling everybody because this sounds like a lot. Ambulances, fire trucks, police cars, send what you got. This story makes a.45 sound like a bitch gun yeah it's people are just walking around fine afterwards holy shit so um she was severely cold i got some of my clothing for her to wear as i was helping her undress i saw that snow was packed underneath the pant legs of her jeans she walked for fucking six miles like that with snow packed in her pants. All the way up to her knees as she walked. It comes up your pant legs.

As I helped her remove a sock from her foot, a ring fell out of the sock and rolled across the floor. She looked at the ring and said, quote, that's my boyfriend's ring. He's dead in the woods. At that point, I didn't know what to think or what happened. This was a scary situation since I was home alone with my two young children, four and seven years old, by the way. While helping her change clothing, I saw two bullet wounds on Juanita's body.

Was she not called the cops yet? No, she's helping her change and warming her up. She's just a crazy kid who's mixed up. She's like, people are dead in the woods. And she's like, okay, Darlene, let's get her change and warming her up. She's like, she's just a crazy kid who's mixed up. She's like, people are dead in the woods. And she's like, okay, Darlene, let's get you a flannel. It's like, what are you talking about? Call the fucking everybody. Remember I said everybody?

Fire, cops, fucking ambulance. Bring the plow trucks. I don't care. Whoever you got. Garbage men. Yeah, whatever. I don't care. Bring it.

Jesus. The guys that clean the mall at night, them too i don't give a shit whoever you got a carhartt who cares who cares yeah so she said um that made the situation even scarier seeing two bullet wounds i didn't even think about calling the highway patrol for assistance i just continued helping her change clothing is this lady fucking brain damaged or something what's happening oh i fear she has children there too their safety is it's certainly questionable no it's like what happens if there's something that happens to one of the kids well let's just clean you up like no you need a call somebody you need i have third degree burns all over my body i fell into the fire mom that's okay we'll cover you up you're just cold sugar as she got warmer her story began making more sense she told of being

stopped on post and being transported to a cabin on the river after her boyfriend was shot she told me the man made her and her friend perform sexual acts on each other and then on him she went into everything and then the man shot her and buried her in a snowbank once Juanita got warmer and more coherent she asked if she could call some friends for help sometime later these friends arrived that's what she called that guy the brother and he no one's called the cops get no one's thought to do that people are dead and shot and dying. I'm going to call my friends. No problem. Tell them to stop by. I'll make some cookies.

What are we doing? And it's not her fault. She's wounded with 45s through the snow. She shouldn't have coherent thoughts at the moment. It's this lady's job to be like, fuck the chicken noodle. She's watching soap operas. Fuck the flannel. What are we doing? I'm calling cops and firemen

this might be the dumbest person ever in one of our stories i mean she's the most she's helping but she's nice but fucking jesus call the cops i never even thought of it she certainly is just a real magoo oh my god yeah that's fuck man um so sometime later these friends arrived at my place on highway 17 when she looked out the door and saw them she said don't let them in after knocking around the door without an answer the men turned to walk away i asked her who the men were she said they were the father of her girlfriend and the brother of her boyfriend so i ran to the front door and called the men back. She said they were the father of her girlfriend and the brother of her boyfriend. So I ran to the front door and called the men back to the trailer.

I don't know if Juanita is kind of a little blood loss and cold and everything else. She's probably out of it. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I mean. The men came into my home where they talked with Juanita for some time. The older man asked me if he could use my telephone to call the highway fucking patrol finally and she went oh wow yeah you should probably do that this is the first person to think let's call the highway patrol what they're for whoa i told him to make the call yeah i'd not

checked on my children for a long time while i was helping with juanita of course because you're terrible at this they're doing somersaults off the roof right now they have a mattress set up in the backyard and they're doing somersaults off they're playing swords with the kitchen knives so oh my god what the fuck is happening right now there's no no chance her children are alive right they're buried in snowbags you know today there's no chance her children are alive no no they definitely definitely one's murdered the other and then killed himself somehow and she didn't even tell the police about it and it's no she just buried them went on with her life so she wrapped him in a car heart there you go well i put him by the fire for

a while that didn't help and i was at ideas so i just buried him poor juanita found the most fucking ridiculous person in missouri of every door to knock on i get this is the first house she saw, but God damn it. She has a 45 wound to her fucking chest and she stumbles upon this asshole? And she finally stumbles upon a person who's dumber without any blood loss than she could be with all the blood loss. She's lost blood and she has hyperthermia. She's like, are you stupid? Dumbass lady. Come on in, have a cup of noodles. Fuck your cup of noodles. Jesus Christ. Dead boyfriend. Did you get that part? 45. Look it. God damn it. Oh, darling. Let me get you some chips ahoy. What the fuck is happening? I'm bleeding.

Let me get you some chips ahoy. What the fuck is happening? I'm bleeding. I'm bleeding out. I don't want any chips cock sucking ahoy. I've had the worst night of both of our lives. What are you talking about? This is fucking crazy. Let me get you some dry clothes.

How about a fucking fire truck? How about something, someone who knows what they're doing? This is amazing. So I went back to the far end of my house to check on my children. Thank fuck. When I came back to the front room, the three of them left. They went south on Highway 17 to wait for the Missouri State Highway Patrol to respond. Later that evening, two federal agents came to my door and collected the clothing Juanita left behind and removed it from my residence.

agents came to my door and collected the clothing Juanita left behind and removed it from my residence. Approximately one week later, Juanita Deckard's parents came to my home and gave back the clothing I'd lent her that day. That is- That was- Wow. Those are- Exceedingly kind.

Wow. What nice people. These are good people. They came back to- because Juanita told them what happened, and they were like, there's no way that person's that dumb. And she's like, I swear. They're like, give me the clothes. We're going to go see. They go see, and they were like, there's no way that person's that dumb. And she's like, I swear. They're like, give me the clothes. We're going to go see.

They go see, and they're like, hi. I mean, thanks, sorta. Mostly. Thanks, mostly. Your kids ain't alive still, are they? Here's your clothes. My father said, you're the dumbest person on earth. We're just bringing these by to witness it.

We want to see it now. We're just bringing these by to witness it. We want to see it now. So the evidence they have is this is the examination of the game warden cabin where all the horrors went down. Well, some of the horrors. The FBI agents, Robert, Roger D. Browning, David Palladino and Donald McDonald. Really? Donald McDonald.

So you named you named your kid Donald McDonald. One letter off from Ronald. That's incredible. He has Donald in both of his names. His name is two letters off from being Donald Donald. Never mind Ronald McDonald. Fucking Donald Donald. McDonald McDonald.

Yeah. Well, he was born before McDonald, so I could give him a pass on that. They didn't know about Ronald McDonald. But you don't name your kid Donald McDonald ever. He should have bought a farm. Fuck yes, he should have. Old McDonald. Old Donald McDonald. Jesus. So the agents discovered and seized

a large number of items as evidence, including numerous hairs, a quote, stain-like material on a bunk bed. I think we all know what that is. In the northwest corner of the cabin. And one bobby pin material on a bunk bed. Yeah. I think we all know what that is. In the northwest corner of the cabin. And one bobby pin under the same bunk bed. The one agent lifted a number of latent fingerprint impressions from the bunk bed.

Additional latent fingerprints were made on and near the cabin's metal stove. At the conclusion of the search, the stove and bunk bed were seized and sent to the lab, of course. At the conclusion of the search, the stove and bunk bed were seized and sent to the lab, of course. The FBI lab later discerned the fingerprints and palm prints found on the bunk bed and the stove were a match to Johnny Lee Thornton and Juanita Deckard. These latent prints proved that Juanita had been in the cabin with Thornton and, you know, this all happened, basically. It proves her whole thing. Um, she also, uh, Thornton also requested, they also found out that before he went out on duty that night, he had requested two pairs of handcuffs, which is unusual for you. You take one pair, uh, these guys, they're, he's a game warden. I mean, what are you going to find?

So when a fellow MP MP asked him, why do you want two pairs of handcuffs? He said he was going to play super cop that night. Oh boy. That's the grossest sentence I've ever heard. Jesus Christ. So the scout, um, they had the transaction showing that he signed for the weapon upon it being

issued to him. He signed for the bullets that were then used to murder. He signed for the scouts, uh, for the scout, the six, uh, six expended bullets and five fired shell casings were also found at the abduction and body dump sites that were all matched to the specific firearm issued to him that morning or that night.

So there we go. They said they they found them operating seven military mine detectors. That's how they found them. They didn't go out there looking like you're an old man on the beach. Yeah. They went out there with military mine detectors to find these 45 caliber to find the casings. Right. Which you'd find a lot of casings if every police department had a military mine detector. Probably.

Probably be better. And one expended bullet. The expended bullet was found approximately 50 feet from where the vehicle had been parked on the opposite end of the roadway in a snow-covered embankment. That's one that went through a body. At the time, the agents thought they found the bullet that traveled through one of the victims and exited the rear of the Scout,

accounting for the bullet hole in the tailgate. The agents only saw two entry holes in the rear seat back. However, they discovered later they were wrong. As part of the investigation, agents sent the scouts' rear seat and tailgate to the FBI lab. The technicians found two expended bullets embedded in the seat. The bullets had gone through the boys and lodged in the seat cushion. They concluded Thornton fired a third shot, point blank, somehow missing them completely.

Wow. Three people lined up in the back seat that close. He fires three shots and misses with one of them. That's wild. That is so fucking lucky. Holy shit. I mean, it turns out all three of them ended up dead anyway, but still. That's crazy.

That bullet passed through the tailgate and came to rest in the embankment on the opposite side of the road. So everything is matched forensically. Now, at approximately 8.05 p.m., they used a wire coat hanger to get into his car as well. And on the dashboard, they found a note. Quote, I got this paper at the riding stables. I found out you knew when a dog handler told me at the arms room, they found one of the girls. Then at Webster's house, I called and I heard Lieutenant Doran talking on the phone to the arms room about me and someone else checking

out our weapons. I don't remember doing what I did. Sometimes I get these headaches. I want to die from the pain. I don't want to hurt people, but when these headaches come, something snaps. I want to talk to someone about it because I know I'm sick. I was afraid. I don't know what of just afraid. I guess I was just tired of the hurting since I was little. I don't want to mess up Paul's car. You should be able to follow my footsteps in the snow.

I want to write a letter to my wife, Patty, and pray to God for forgiveness. He wrote a lot of letters to Patty, as we know. really didn't want to hurt anyone i only remember blah blah blah i'm sorry maybe god and my wife can understand because i don't and then he also gives power of attorney over to he over on this letter too to say by the way i want my wife to have my power of attorney so what the fuck is wrong with this guy You think it's him getting glassed by his dad? What's the problem? Well, he explains it in a simple way. He and a psychiatrist explain it in a simple way.

That is Dr. Clary here. And they contend that John here has multiple personality disorder, which in the 70s was the hot thing that's what ken bianchi said he had from the hillside stranglers and that was the thing and obviously it exists but in the 70s it had just come to the forefront after sybil and all that and that was a way that you know psychiatrists wanted to discover it because it was the hot thing so they wanted to have a patient they could write a book about so a lot of times they were easily convinced of it like kenny bianchi's psychiatrist so um either way that's what they do if they said that the personality who killed and raped the teenagers that was john

that was john but the personality who tried to keep john from doing it that's johnny that's the good guy so it's john versus johnny situation here that's that's a problem he's got. That's the good guy. So it's John versus Johnny situation here. That's a problem he's got. Johnny's the nice guy. And then when he gets dead ass serious, it's John. It's John. And that's when he'll hurt you. So the doctor put it like this.

Thornton has a suppressed personality named John who is absolutely ruthless. I guess so. Sadistic with no conscience or scruples. Self-centered. Exhibitionist. Grandiose. The kinds of things we associate with small children. Then there's a dominant personality named Johnny, who is the Thornton everybody knew.

A polite, efficient, rather withdrawn military policeman. My use of hypnosis allowed me to bring out the suppressed personality of John to the forefront for examination. John bragged on the videotape how he conned Johnny into killing the three teenagers at Fort Leonard Wood. Now, please listen to, God damn, if you don't have Patreon, get Patreon because it's worth it. We do an episode on the Hillside Stranglers, and we go into specifically Ken Bianchi's. That's what they did with him. They hypnotized him, and that's when his other personalities came out. And it was complete bullshit with Bianchi.

I mean, it was total horseshit. And then there was another psychiatrist who developed a way to tell if people are acting like they're hypnotized or not. And we go through all that on the bonus episode. It's very interesting shit. So if that's interesting to you, patrion.com slash crime and sports. So, uh,

there you go. They said that John is the result of an unstable, violent early life who visualized the boys he shot as men who were trying to take his mother and wife from him. Oh yeah. The girls he abused were his wife and his mother, according to. So he wants to rape his mother, is what he's getting at now. Okay.

According to, this is Dr. William F. Clary, just so you know if he's still out there. It's 50 years ago, but still. I wonder what that stands for. Fuckhead. Yes. Fart. Fart brain. I was leaning on fuckhead you nailed it while john was committing murder and rape johnny was standing by attempting to stop him

and keeping him from pulling the trigger of the 45 pistol where was johnny while john was tugging his dick well quote this time john was dominant johnny was like ow it hurts stop tugging it stop in the past johnny was dominant and able to keep john under control holy fucking shit um they have tapes okay they show like they show like nine hours of tapes to the jury out of like 15 because a lot of it's repetitive. So the tapes show Thornton lying on a couch talking to Dr. Clary. They're dramatic. I mean, he's making these big changes of personality.

The change has to be wild. It's fucking – it's ridiculous. When you hear on – I've seen it happen on these tapes. but when you hear about it described well, it's really good. So the interview under hypnosis, John refers to Linda and Juanita as Mom and Patty. He just refers to them only as Mom and Patty. And to Hawkins and Bates as, quote, those guys we have to fight so Mom and Patty will be ours. Oh, boy. Ours meaning us two john and johnny uh johnny then rebuffs john jumps in and says quote they're just boys and girls

he's reliving this he's on the couch in a state of hypnosis reliving the night being both characters so fun yeah if you've seen if you've ever seen if you look up a video of Seth MacFarlane switching back and forth on Family Guy characters, it's amazing the talent that he has to do that. This guy's not Seth MacFarlane. So you can tell when he switches from Peter to Quagmire, it's pretty fucking obvious. It's not the same thing. Like you can't carry on a conversation here. So they're arguing. He's now arguing with himself. They're just boys and girls. And then another point, Johnny tells John, I'm tired of fighting you.

They don't hurt me. You do. I'm talking about the boys. John replies, get them away from the car, meaning the boys. And mom and Patty are yours and you won't have to fight. That's what he says. And then finally, in recounting all this, the John personality tells the psychiatrist,

quote, I didn't think I could do that to him, meaning Johnny. I think he kind of gave up and that took some of the fun out of it. So yeah, he wanted Johnny to beg him while he did this, but he kind of just gave up. Good Johnny. Well, he did this, but he kind of just gave up. Good Johnny. So he told Clary that John held the pistol and Johnny tried to keep him from firing. So he then said, this is John acting like he outwitted Johnny.

Quote, I had already put the girls in the Jeep, but he didn't know that. He's not even attached to you now. He's like in another room i've heard of multiple personalities of shit like that but they're usually still in the same body they weren't they know what's they're both aware of what's happening outwardly how do you do both things and be in different places that is fucking interesting um so toward the end of the tape john emerges as the dominant figure and boasts about his ability to control Johnny and force him to shoot the boys while they said, while they were handcuffed in the rear seat of the Jeep. He says, John says, quote, I didn't need to draw a weapon. I made him do it.

Okay. Oh, that John Johnny reply. Oh no, this is what he says. John keeps talking. He says he didn't even realize he was holding the pistol. He didn't even hear the shots fired. Fucking douche. Yeah.

He says, quote, he fired three shots, first at the boy on the left and then at the boy on the right. Second, I had already put the girls in the Jeep, but Johnny didn't know that. He sat down in the Jeep and for a fraction of a second, he almost shot me and him. I was part of him, and if he kills himself, he might kill me. Dude. Me, myself, and Irene shit. And he's setting up his own for like, oh, I guess if I shot him, I'd shoot me. He's trying to like, he's not a dumb guy.

He almost shot us. shoot me like he's trying to like yeah he's not a dumb guy but he almost shot us unless you know a whole lot about fucking psychiatry psychiatry and all that sort of thing you're not going to do this right you're just not going to pull this off blow it yeah you're going to fucking blow you're not an improv actor like it's not going to work so uh referring to the handcuffs uh there he said that uh after their car was stopped john said i told him meaning johnny to go ahead and handcuff them in the back of his mind he was saying it was stupid but he was not going to pull uh not going to pull that on me i made him angry and i made him take out his handcuffs at first he hesitated then he went ahead and handcuffed them i had to take over yeah johnny couldn't

understand with that stupid mind of his he didn't realize what he was seeing and i had to take over. Johnny couldn't understand with that stupid mind of his. He didn't realize what he was seeing and I had to tell him. I had to make him. I had to get in the Jeep with him as opposed to standing there waving as he drove away with my body. Thinking about the resistance he was receiving from Johnny, John said, that rascal just won't quit. I'm going to have to have a good talk with him. He was trying to fight me. Talking about himself. Then he referred referring to the boys, Hawkins and Bates. He says, these are men trying to take your mother away from you. Johnny didn't really believe me at first, but he believed me right off the bat when he saw Patty, one of the girls he thought was Patty. He was full of joy when he saw her

so I gave him an extra big shot of pain and that did it. He got super weak. He kept trying to find his ways back out on me. I stopped him. He figured out what I was going to do but he wasn't going to stop me. He did this for hours, Jimmy. On a fucking

couch. On a fucking couch. What do you think he was when he brought the two handcuffs, do you think he was looking for a couple and he was going to handcuff them both? Or when he stumbled on all four of those, he was like, oh, here's two girls. I can kill those two boys and still handcuff both the girls. I think two is the most amount you could take without them really talking about it. So he took two and figured hopefully this will do and I'll take what I can get i'm looking for a girl if it's a couple yeah handcuff them both because he he pulled people over all night looking for the right situation that's what

he let them go when there was two guys he was like not interested get what i mean he was just waiting he was just sitting there waiting for him passing by like like he's in a deer stand, like in a tree stand waiting for a deer. Disgusting. It's fucking creepy. So they, oh my God, he keeps saying Thornton's chief concern is he said he is concerned about the effect that this trial will have on his family. Okay.

He insisted that no evidence about his chaotic childhood or his married life be presented in court for mitigating circumstances. But his mother came in and talked him out of it. She said that, I think you know that if you're worried about me and that's influencing your decision, it's not going to hurt me, and if it helps you, let it all come out. So the mother said, say the worst things you can about me. I don't give a shit.

Try to help yourself, which is nice of her, and that's what the mother would do. So he thought it, say the worst things you can about me. I don't give a shit. Try to help yourself, which is nice of her. And that's what a mother would do. So he thought it was going to be embarrassing to her. Yeah, yeah. That's what a mother does. He wants to see Patty still. He's still asking to see Patty all the time. The deputy U.S. marshal who brings him

to jail and back every day says he never makes conversation, Thornton, ever. He says, when I pick him up, he says, good morning. When I take him back, day says he never makes conversation thornton ever he says when i pick him up he says good morning when i take him back he says good night he said i wish he would say something i worry about guys who never talk it makes you wonder what they're thinking yeah yeah so his defense he's got a public defender uh they moved this trial to iowa by the way because they couldn't find an impartial jury in this area. So they had to move it.

It's a federal case. It doesn't matter where it is. So anyway, he has a four-man public defender team, and their whole thing is insanity. This is the opening statement. How do you – what else are you going to do? He admits they admit to everything but the kidnapping. They say he's not guilty of kidnapping, but he is guilty of murder, but not because he's crazy.

This is the opening statement of the defense here. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the evidence in this case will be without question a person in the body of Johnny Lee Thornton committed some of the most vile, heinous, corruptible criminal acts ever described in a courtroom. Wow, I'm hooked. You will hear no evidence but the facts of the case, and certainly somebody's to blame.

The evidence will be Johnny Lee Thornton is to blame. This is his lawyer. But he's a wretched product from a horrible beginning in his life, a mind that never fully developed developed and all kinds of trauma. You'll hear the testimony on both sides that this man suffers from a mental disability called borderline personality disorder. This disease is every bit as killing as cancer itself. Let's not say that.

I mean, it's bad, but it's not cancer. Calm the fuck down. You will hear about this borderline personality disorder and that Thornton hasn't learned how to and has never been able to become a one personality person. Borderline is not multiple, by the way. I don't know what this guy is. All people have this and they develop it naturally.

All people have this. OK, but the two parts are never entered into a single person such as Thornton. The defendant has multiple personalities. One, his work and dedication, excellent in these. And the other is an angry, violent personality who isn't rational and is insane. You know, like criminally insane, like not to be put in prison. And it inhabits his body. We are not contesting he did all these things.

You'll hear testimony from his wife and others where he committed some acts of violence and he didn't remember it afterwards. The evidence will be a conflict between the government doctors as to whether his condition does exist. Thornton was unable to understand his condition and what he was doing. It was either wrongful or he didn't have the ability to stop his actions. At the end of his testimony, there will be a substantial doubt about this man's sanity. And you know, you will know the government won't have carried its burden of proving his sanity beyond a reasonable doubt. Crazy motherfucker. So the prosecution just goes on to say, we're going to show you that he took these girls out, made them stand there, built a fire. Had them fucking systematically take their clothes off for four hours. Had played out every disgusting fucking teenage boy porn fantasy he could think of on these fucking two young ladies as they feared for their lives.

And he held a gun in their hands as their boyfriends died out in the cold. A real life horror story. And they're like, he's got two people in him. There's good Johnny, but then there's bad John. He's terrible. So the psychiatrist described the incident as a purely chance happening. That's the quote. He said if the car hadn't passed Thornton at the time it did, Thornton would have returned

to the barracks and the victim would have been alive. It was just all these factors coming together. They said, well, why did the immoral side of his personality emerge at that specific time? The psychiatrist, Clary, believed that fatigue coupled with other problems relating to his childhood was a major factor. He said Thornton hadn't slept the night before and simply could not resist the forced part of his personality.

They said- I understand. He was personality. They said he was sleepy. He was a little sleepy. You know, I don't sleep a lot. You know me. I get I break into another personality. I murder teenagers. It happens often. It's tough.

It's getting harder to cover the tracks. You know what I mean? He then said that the prosecutor asked him, quote, could he have been saying these things in the interview because he knew that's what you wanted to hear? Yeah. You know, is he lying? Stupid. And the doctor said, quote, I gave serious thought to the possibility that this was an acting job. I don't think that's a possibility.

He said John didn't have as much regard for morality. He didn't think in terms of good as bad and good and bad as Johnny does. So they're like, OK, sure. All right. Sure. All right. No problem. So they have state shrinks to come in rebuttal here, state psychiatrists.

And they say that, quote, here's one, Dr. Otzenmeier. I think he was well aware of what he did and that it was wrong, and he tried to conceal it. I believe he knew what he did was wrong. So in my opinion, he had the capacity to conform with the law but didn't do it. Yeah, he said he found no signs of psychosis. That is a mental disorder sufficient to render him unable to deal with the task of ordinary everyday living. I found nothing to indicate that he was a hostility-minded individual. I could not diagnose any personality disorder. Another doctor said, in my opinion, he had the capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness

of his act and could have conformed to the law. They said, I found no evidence of psychosis or neurosis no evidence that he was in any way mentally ill yeah so and he got a job as an mp they they they've got to do cognitive tests right i would hope so before they give him a gun and say don't call for six hours go drive around that don't call for six hours also keep an eye on anybody that's on this land and also our military people no shit yeah yeah you have trained with you're you're you're to police people that are Also, keep an eye on anybody that's on this land and also our military people. No shit. Yeah. People that are trained with – you're to police people that are trained killers.

No shit. So they bring in another, Dr. Herbert Spiegel from Columbia, and he says that he calls the whole thing a charade. He said he watched the video, and he said he was surprised and disappointed by Clary's methods. And he said he was surprised and disappointed by Clary's methods. He called the hypnosis amateurish and just said the whole thing was a fucking joke. Basically, he said Spiegel says he has 37 years of experience using hypnosis and he's examined 10 proven cases of dual personality. So he does think it exists and he has seen it before. And he just said this ain't fucking it is what it is. He said his hypnosis was a joke and his performance was a joke.

So I can't remember if this is the same guy that they use for Hillside Stranglers, but it's a guy that – this guy testifies all the time in this sort of thing. So the verdict comes in here. They send it to the jury. It's only is he too crazy or not. That's the only question. They deliberate for, they expect this to be a long, drawn-out thing. They're going to look over all the records. Two hours of deliberation.

Two hours. Eight-woman, four-man jury returns the verdict shortly after 6 p.m., surprising everybody who had just sat down for dinner. Twelve parents came back with a fast verdict. Weird. Strange, isn't it? They came back with a guilty verdict. Yeah.

Guilty of everything. The jury, jurors later on, said they accepted the government's case that Thornton had too much trouble to prepare for or spent had to did too much to prepare for and conceal his actions to be seriously mentally ill right that's it right there the day cited the witnesses who testified he checked out an extra pair of handcuffs which shows premeditation and other witnesses said that he carefully constructed an alibi for the ammunition he set up everything he checked for helicopters he was cold and calculating is the best way to put it. So during the sentencing on count one, the murder of Wesley Hawkins, he's sentenced to you, sir. May fuck off life in prison for that.

Count two, assault on Tony Bates. That is sentenced to 20 years in prison. Count three, rape of Linda Needham. He's sentenced to life in prison. Count three, rape of Linda Needham. He's sentenced to life in prison. Count four, kidnapping of the four victims for the purpose of rape. He's sentenced to life in prison. All sentences to be

served consecutively. Oh, shit, damn! Three lives and it's not good. It's a lot of years. Three life terms plus some extra, all consecutive. Yeah. And the judge was quoted as saying, under federal law, Thornton will become eligible for parole in 10 years or less.

But they said, to be clear, this case will be reviewed for parole, not that he gets parole hearings in 10 years. They review it to see if he can be up for parole. We'll talk about it. We'll high five and I'll say no. up for parole. We'll talk about it. We'll high five and I'll say no. During the whole thing, the judge said quote, he gave him all these sentences, made it extra to show how much he felt

that Thornton should quote, never come out of the pen. So, there you go. And he would be paroled, he'd be up for parole on one charge after 10 years, right? Not all of it. Because it's consecutive. I'm not sure how that works, but he said either way. Even if he got paroled on that, he might be starting the next life term.

Well, we'll find out where he is now. Don't worry. Now, this is terrible. Did he just come up with this one night? Well, there's two other missing teenagers from this area. area to sheriff king said two other teens on were taken uh in october of 76 which is very quick three months before that they disappeared the next day their car was found locked and abandoned oh boy um yes uh no signs of foul play exactly the same way king said quote johnny lee thornton's fingerprints were all over that case. We can't

prove he did it, but I don't think there's any doubt in any of the officers' minds that worked it that he's responsible for their disappearance and he won't talk. After his trial was over, he's been in the pen sometime. The FBI sent a behavioral profiling team. They sent Mindhunter in to sit with him. He was one of the guys guys they wanted to figure out what the fuck his deal was that's how interesting he is and uh they sent the team to visit with him he basically told them to go pound sand he wouldn't talk to them manson talked to them every bad guy talked to them and he's like fuck yourself he said i don't believe we will ever be able to solve the case i'd love to but i don't be able i don't think we will ever be able to solve the case. I'd love to, but I don't think we will. So this was a kid named Al Marshall. His car was located there October 10th, 1976. It came up to the MP sergeant investigating the parked vehicle. Thornton's statement was,

I guess they said, oh, oh, did you find anything? That's what it was. The sergeant told Thornton, I found this vehicle. And Thornton didn't go, okay, do you need help with anything? Can I help you? Thornton said, what do you know? What have you found out? Did you find anything? Do you know where the kids are?

Oh, my God, what kids? How does he know there's kids in there? Yeah. In short, he was fishing for information. Those suspect him of murdering Marshall and Gossage are their names. Also point out that Thornton appeared within three minutes of the radio announcement that he'd found the vehicle. He popped right up. That means Thornton was in the immediate area of the car that had once contained the missing kids. He hung out and watched it and waited for somebody to find it and then popped up. They said. And finally, Johnny Lee Thornton's previously undisclosed report

of having fired shots to dispose of dogs. Thornton submitted his report on the morning of October 10th, and he reported that he shot dogs that night, too. And it reported, it was related exactly to the timeline of the disappearance of Al Marshall and T.C. Gossage. So he killed two other fucking people both nights he shot dogs he shot dogs car locked and abandoned and it worked the first time so he thought it would work the second time but he left a girl alive and that's why it didn't work

otherwise it might have worked tc was probably a girl yes i don't think so actually i think they were both guys no no tc was a girl. TC was a girl, I think, yeah. So you know what happened. Add another body to the mix here. Oh, God. At a later date, in the vicinity of the murder scene, another body is found at Fort Leonard Wood. They don't know who it is. They're trying to figure it out.

They think it might be a 17-year-old that's missing. It might be this one. It might be that one. They can't tell if it's the body of a teenager or an adult, all this shit. They said parts of the skeleton were scattered over a wide area. There was no grave site as such. What? So this was a body that was taken apart and scattered.

They said the body, it turns out to be Frederick Williams, who was actually a soldier there. body it turns out to be Frederick Williams who was actually a soldier there and he ends up four people end up being convicted of murdering this guy so this was a different murder and it was a different thing it wasn't just a body left and buried in the ground it was a

scattered around thing so it makes sense but that it was in the same area though that's why 1981 the parents sue the government saying the federal government is liable for this guy killing on the clock, basically. Great. Not a bad argument. Not a bad argument.

They're seeking, Hawkins family seeking $750,040 in damages. Needhams are seeking $600,000. And the Bates are seeking $501,815 in damages here. They do not get what they rule. They rule that the government's not responsible for it. Leroy Bates, who's Tony Bates's dad, said, you will know this. It's a little aside to it. I don't think that really I ought to feel the way I do, but I do. Anyway, the thing which bothered me more about it than I guess about anything else about it maybe, it's a selfish thing, but I think the army was responsible to reimburse or pay us for something like that.

When you look at all that happens around us now, things like that, how much they get and so on. Well, you know, here he is using a military vehicle, carrying a military gun and shoots them with a military gun while he's on duty. And then the judge says, that's too egregious a crime. I can't hold their army responsible. At one time they offered me $1,500. $1,500 they offered. If you're offering anything, then you're certainly culpable.

Yeah. They said it was because of a traffic-related incident. They could give me $1,500. I said, forget it. None of us ever got anything. They didn't give these people a fucking dime, not even paying for the funeral, nothing. 1983, there's an appeal of the lawsuit, but again, they said, we believe and find that Thornton's acts in stopping the car, handcuffing and killing the young men, and assaulting and raping the young women and shooting them could not under any circumstances be construed as to have been in furtherance of his employer's business. He is currently alive still, apparently, John.

Really? Alive, at least he was as of two years ago, and was living in a federal facility in Tucson. What? Perfect. Perfect. That shithole, he can die there. And he's got to be fucking, what, he was 23 fucking 50 years ago.

I mean, he's going to be 70 now. Yeah. The book, by the way, is called Frozen Tears, The Fort Leonard Wood MP Murders by Sheriff J.B. King. And like I said, it's it's pretty dry. But if you're looking for information, it is just chock fucking full of it. So it's good for that. If you're an info nerd, that's a book for you. That said, hope you like that show.

If you didn't close to me. No, I don't like him being on Earth. This guy's a terrible man. He killed those other people and he would have killed more and more and more. And I'm worried about who he killed in those three fucking months in between. Yeah. I mean, he's that could have been his cool down, though, too. He may not have just done those first two.

No. First time. No. So volatile. That could be just on the base when he did him. Who knows what he's been doing outside of in his normal life i'd check the safeway dumpster because it's fucking scary out there beating his mom or beating his wife and dropping babies yeah oh throwing babies to the

floor gronk score hucking fucking pure uh hucking fucking mashed up bananas at people it's wild so you enjoyed that show, or at least how we told it, because the story is not enjoyable at all, get on whatever app you're listening on. It doesn't matter which one. They all have charts, and it all helps when you give a review. It helps drive us up the charts. Give us five stars. Say something nice.

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We put on a motherfucker of a show. We do. It's a comedy show. It's not a lecture. It's not a dry thing. It is a comedy show that happens to have a murder with crazy pictures involved. It's fun shit. So also, Patreon.com slash Crime in sports is where you get all of your bonus stuff

my goodness anybody five dollars or above just five dollars or above it's a cup of coffee good god and we're keeping it always going to be five dollars anybody that get above that you get everything not only new episodes you get the whole back catalog there's like 150 episodes to binge a bonus stuff you get every other week two new episodes one crime and sports one small town murder this week is no different you are going to get for crime and sports stories of the aba it's the american basketball association 60s and 70s defunct league so crazy shit, fighting, teams going out of business in hilarious ways. It's so much fun. Disorganization, I love it.

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Right now. Fucking now. Jimmy, tell us the names of the people who would never, ever, ever shoot us and leave us for dead in the snow. Hit me with them now. This week's executive producer, Cameron Kuchwara, Cora Good, Kelsey Millard. Happy birthday, Kelsey. Mark Bash, Hayden Willis. Happy birthday.

Sloan Harrisonrison thank you sloan jason torado jordan bennett sent my kids gifts thank you so much jordan she's the best thank you jordan trinidad bernardino happy birthday he's the one that uh i'm not gonna talk about that he he gave you a large uh a large baggie of oh no i know that person and that's wonderful thank you so much i like gorillas, and that's wonderful. Thank you so much. I like gorillas in glue. That's perfect. Other producers this week are Pavilis Besavias, I think, in Lithuania, so it's probably not that.

Oh, shit. Cool. Awesome. The guy chasing Stymie through the pipes, Rabbi Shmulalovich, and the Baron Miguel Cicluna fan club. Is that a wrestler? Probably a wrestler. Baron Miguel Cicluna. There you go. It wrestler? Probably a wrestler. Baron Miguel Cicluna. There you go.

It's an old wrestler. There you go. He's a bad guy from the 70s. Gary Friedman digs deep with very old references and must be an older man. It has to be. Or like me, just knows old shit that's before his time. I want to meet him so bad. Wherever you're at, come see us.

Yeah, Gary, come see us. And have drinks with me. I hope you're old. That'd be great if you're old. I hope you're like 85. Oh, that'd be amazing. Tell you what happened in my day. And you found podcasts.

When we fought the Kaiser, I'd be like, tell me more. Also, Heather Norton, Hannah Quinn and her pup Kenyoke, Alan Hunkin. Thank you, Alan. The guys in The 63 Tempest. Sarah Surridge. Janice Hill. Brandi Huntley. Andrea Fellows. Jessica Merles, I think.

Casey McMahon. Christine Neuchans. Tyler Emmerich. Stephanie Gittemeier. Fran Aiello. Heather Knight. Libby Mason. Josh Farley.

Jason Vavala. No, that's Shannon Vavala. Jason? What is happening? Where the hell did you pull Jason out of your ass? Shelby Jennings, Lucas Parrish, Matt Leachman, Jason. Nope, that's Satan. Why do I want to say it?

Why do you want everyone to be called Jason? There isn't even, I thought the next name was Jason. I haven't heard of Jason yet, except for the other Jason you're forcing across. Satanic Soccer Mom is her name. It's not even Jason. Sloan Harrison, Pilar, Catherine. Everyone change your name to Jason on Patreon for the next one when you sign up again. Do that.

Andre McLocker, Milkeker, Milkeker. Andre Milaker. Hey. Morgan Capps, Denise Parnell, Connor Adams, Owen with no last name, Mary L. Cheyenne Pro, Tyler Radichichi. Yeah. Constance. Radichichi. Radichichi. parnell uh connor adams owen with no last name mary l cheyenne pro tyler radicici yeah uh constance radici radici constance right bethany cox anthony bataglia uh raul matt montcalm uh jessica uh jennifer spadamore spedora i think i think i'm dyslexic. Kelly Weiler, Justin Frank, Noah Bay, Becky Jenkins, Hillary Bryant, Mariela Fermaccione, Brian Spoonmore, Morgan Russo, Jason, nope, that's Joe, Jay Siak, Sidney Dryden, Joshua Perez, Melissa Baldwin, Mally,, Danielle. Nope, that's Daniel. Paul, Jake Sasser, Kelly Hands, Alex Jansevski, Jeannie Streeter,

Stephanie Cordonier, Jenna Joy, Jennifer Gibson, Sharday Anderson, I am Lisa, 22, Brianne Brockman. Daniel Cavanaugh. Jason Wilkie. Deborah Cassiani. Candy with no last name. Danielle Graza. Daniel Graza. Graza Peline. That sounds like a drug. It does.

My blood pressure's back to normal now, so that's good. I should be okay. Grazio Peline, maybe. John Butler. Jessica J. Regina Abercorn. Diana, oh boy, Baymaruka. now so that's good i should be a grazie o plini maybe uh john butler jessica j ray regina ab abercorn uh diana oh boy beamer ruka that's a good sign oh boy that's a real good sign uh doesn't does an f jeff hunter bill futa futornik uh emily adderhold amy mccabbie uh jimmy can't read tell me something else i don't know. He's doing fine. Fuck you.

Elizabeth Nisbet. Doing great. Jennifer Marcianic. Marciniak. Clint Naramore. J.W. Ava Ianni, I think. Nancy Gregg.

Joseph Doherty. Melissa Edwards. Cody Murray. Di Scott. Preston Wong. Tori Nisi. Tobias. Oh, boy. Onyango. di scott uh preston wong tori nisi uh tobias on oh boy on yon go harley harley to our briant briant that's britney probably whorehouse white house sorry about britney what the fuck

i'm gonna slow down britney bryce morris patricia fares joe manion nicole holderman jonathan parker amber miller daphne mann lisa taylor olsen matt gilson uh susan shepherd andrew scott tyler tyree johnson uh ben piper avery birch rain raina raina kennedy rion ryan, Vodalay, Chadrick Seifert, Maria Chachiri, Crystal Hole, fucking Crystal N Hole, A.K. Amasi, Akamasi, Tinny, Tinny, Tiny, R, what? With fear we all fall. No, with fear we fall. Luke Vines, Alan... Veronica.

Veronica? Skaia? What? Don Black, Stephanie Vaughn, Circle Jerk. Gotcha. Oh, you're a mess. Katie Pierce, Jamie Evesery, Crystal Hatchie, Leanne Malik, Brian West, DJ... Nope, DH. DJ, nope, DH DJson

Is that his name? You can't even spell it, it's just DH Tori Powell, Samantha Rendezvous, oh, Resonaze Resonaze Jason Tirado Ranja Nilsson Kelly Walker, Samuel Richardson Jen Clemens, Roos Remakers

Roos Remakers What Roos Remakers. What are you trying to make me say? I don't know. Lynn Turner, Butter Knives, Bitch Mittens, Julie Bailey, Lynn Kirkland, Dave Coe, Austin Blanchfield, Amanda Hickman, Robin Johnson, Eric Donaldson, Michelle Kasper. See, now I'm trying my best not to fall into the traps of the things that they write. And it's mixed with the fucking different names or different fucking names are hard. Echo Carrie. What?

Emma. Emma Townsend. Ellen Kay. Wendy Siamese. Cat. Katie Southwell. Hey, hey, Lena. Helena.

Thousand. Tasha. Tasha Hernandez. Brittany Archangel. Archangel. Doesn't matter. Caitlin Cowell, Francis Sharp. You know who you are, motherfucker. Kat, Kat Martin, Rat Bone, Matt Yenter, Kat and Michael Wimp.

That can't be right. Isaac Burton, Brunton, Dave, Dave Moore, the whore. Dalton with no last name. Carolyn Jeanette, Pam Kelly, Elena Nagy, Heather Bennett, Aaron Dillon, Heather Amato, Shane with no last name. Michael Hudson, Jordan Jordy, Jordy Pappen, Papen. Cindy with no last name. Taylor Walker, Steve with no last name. Amanda Whedon, Gribble, Jacob Myers, Taylor Moon, Ariel with no last name,

Allie Bebinger, Stephanie Sanders, Samuel with no last name, Benjamin Rickett, Vanessa Gill, Ashley Richards, Dawn with no last name, Ashley Hopkins, Jenna Olszewski, Carl Peek, Mirsa Bustamante, Maria Burkhart, I think, Burkhart, yeah, Bill Langmesser, Langmesser, Langmesser Lingmesser. Langmesser. Candice Taylor. Yeah, Langmesser. Alexander Coyle.

Angelina. No, that's Angela. Visser. D. Ann Kitt. Cousin Jenny. Cartel Ace. Hillary Woodyard. Jay Baskey.

Greg Botkin. Bradley Kidwell. Eric Funk. Tanya. Tanya? Tanya. Lopez. Ashley Stewart. Tanya! Tanya, Lopez, Ashley Stewart, Tanya.

That's what it is. Sorry. Tracy Felix, Philip Venter. All you Tanias out there. Michaela with no last name. Andy Dinkle, Amanda Wilson, Teresa Castro. Peggy with no last name. Michael Herman, Annabelle Clodius, Russell, Russell Greco.

Greco? Greco, Patrick Cassidy, Laura McHenry, Michael Starling Jr., Aaron Ahern Williams, Caleb Wells, Brooke Shaw, Kathleen with no last name, Petra Hovdebo, Allison Christy Johnson, Julie Lawson, Jennifer Passante, J.D. Lassiter, more Dohan, Dayan, Dayan, more Dayan, Weston Morrison, Sarah Garrity, Chris Simmons, Kim with no last name, Alex Funk, Madeline Hurley,

Kayla Higgins, Canella Oldroyd, Crystal Nelson, Michael McKinney, no, McKee, Goober with no last name. Simon Frost, Garrett Wynn, Krista Jaunch, Trey Reese, and also, oh, I said Trinidad. Happy birthday. And all of our patrons, you guys are amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you, everybody, so much from the bottom of our hearts.

Honestly, we appreciate you each and every fucking week. Thank you so much for doing what you do for us. It really means the world. And we hope you're enjoying the Patreon episodes because we love making them. So that said, you want to follow us on social media? Very easy to do. ShutUpAndGiveMeMurder.com The links are there. Links to us. Links

to this. Links to that. Links to everything. God damn it. Until next week, everybody. It's been our pleasure. Bye. Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Small Town Murder early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.