Small Town Murder - #362 - Michael Myers Is My Idol - Greenfield, Massachusetts

Episode Date: February 18, 2023

This week, in Greenfield, Massachusetts, the town goes absolutely crazy when a teen is brutally killed, in her home. The mystery is solved pretty quickly, when police focus in on another teenager, with a bit of an obsession with horror movies, and an avowed desire to model himself after Michael Myers, from the Halloween films, and Jason, the hockey mask wearing killer, from the Friday The 13th movies. But when police can't find him, people keep their kids inside, and movies are even cancelled, as the town literally hunts him! This story is complete with a wild ending!!Along the way, we find out that just because you like horror movies, it doesn't mean you're a murderer, that if Jason Vorhees is your idol, you might be a murderer, and if you actual imitate the killing in these movies, then you're definitely a murderer!!Hosted by James Pietragallo and Jimmie WhismanNew episodes every Thursday!Donate at: patreon.com/crimeinsports or go to paypal.com and use our email: [e-mail] to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder & Crime In Sports!Follow us on...twitter.com/@murdersmallfacebook.com/smalltownpodinstagram.com/smalltownmurderAlso, check out James & Jimmie's other show, Crime In Sports! On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Wondery, Wondery+, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You're listening early and ad-free on Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay, choo-choo! Ha-ha. Yay, indeed, Jimmy. Yay, indeed. My name is James Petrigallo. I'm here with my co-host.

I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you, folks, for joining us all aboard the murder train. Get your tickets ready. Pulling away from the station. Chugga-chugga, indeed. Let's do this. This week, we have a... Wow, is this insane. We'll get to it quickly.

But before we do that just want to let you know 420 virtual live show April the 20th virtual live show wherever you are in the world you were just announced to tickets on sale February the 13th anywhere in the world if we're in a city that we're not coming to or you're there you can see the virtual live show just like a regular live show except you're in your living room instead of in the actual theater so do that come out and see that at your house and get your tickets at shut up and give me murder.com which is absolutely and also at shut up and give me murder.com you can get tickets to live live shows live in-person shows uh new shows added for

seattle and portland also pittsburgh and Portland, also Pittsburgh and Detroit available for purchase at this point. So get in there, get your tickets. We can't wait to see you out there at a show. Thank you so much. Patreon.com slash Crime and Sports is where you get all of the bonus materials. And we have so much bonus material. So much.

Anybody $5 a month or above, that's going to get you immediately the whole back catalog of like 150 bonus episodes. And growing. And growing because we put two new ones out every other week. Yes. This week is no different. No difference. No different.

For crime and sports, which you'll get this episode as well, we're going to talk about the And One Company. Had to go from the coolest thing in the world to being sold at Kohl's in a matter of a few short years. We'll talk about that. It's pretty wild, that downfall. They had all the basketball mixtapes and shit. They were fun.

How do you turn an empire into an embarrassment? That's it. All at once. From cool to Kohl's, from empire to embarrassment. And one. Then for small town murder, we are going to talk about something very gross. Sex in the people's temple.

Right. And the people's temple is Jim Jones, Jonestown, and pre-Jonestown and all that. What happens when one man controls a thousand people's sex lives? Really weird shit. We'll put it that way. We'll talk all about it. Patreon.com slash crime and sports. And you'll get a shout out at the end of the regular show as well.

That said, we have a lot of show. We need to get right into this. We need to sit back, clear the lungs. Where are you right now? What? You had a PTA meeting? No. You had a PTA meeting?

I don't care. Wipe those donuts off the table. Knock everyone's laptop over and say never mind the school lunch program and pretzels on the ground never mind the school lunches we're gonna talk about something else hands to the air and shout shut up and give me murder let's do this j Jimmy. Let's go on a trip, shall we? Oh, yeah. Let's do it. We are going back to, all the way back to Massachusetts. Hey!

Been a while since we've been to Massachusetts. We are going to head on over there. Greenfield, Massachusetts, that is. Northwestern Massachusetts. Oh. Up in the Berkshires area, like, near, like, Pittsfield and all that in the Northwest. I know this because there's a lot of weed dispensaries in Western Massachusetts up in the Berkshires area near like Pittsfield and all that in the northwest. I know this because there's a lot of weed dispensaries in Western Massachusetts.

So I'm well-versed and traveled in the highways and byways of Western Massachusetts. A lot of travel through. A lot of travel. It's about 40 minutes to Springfield, about two hours to Boston in that region. Yeah, so it's in there. About an hour 45 to Framingham, which was our last official episode there, dissecting the alien vampire.

So that was a good one. This is some crazy shit here. Now, it's in Franklin County. History of this area. It was... I'm sure, honestly. In this place, it's so old because this area was colonized as part of Deerfield by the English in 1686. Jesus. Holy shit.

In 1753, Greenfield was named for the Green River, was incorporated and separated from Deerfield. and separated from Deerfield. And so they opened up a canal in 1795 that enabled boats to bypass these falls and reach things through the river. And there's a lot of rivers and falls and draw bridges and all sorts of shit here. Canals on the East Coast are entirely different than they are on the West Coast.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. A canal there is like, it's built, it's giant, it's four boats. It's made to hold water, not just in an emergency. It's hilarious. It's a concrete bottom 12-foot deep channel for just getting water to people. Either that or doing good bike jumps. That's the only thing they're good for.

When you're a kid, you can bike jump the shit out of those things. There's ducks and shitty fish in there. You got to watch out. So, yeah, John Russell established the Green River Works in 1834, and this was the country's first cutlery factory. Oh. So making utensils here. They got skilled German workers to do that at the time, brought them in to get into that shit. It was one of the most important centers. This is in the 1800s, 1900s.

One of the most important American centers of the tap and dye industry. Yeah. And home of Greenfield tap and dye. Okay. So if you're looking to tap or dye anything, this is your spot right here. Get it there yeah it's what do we is that metal shit tap and die it's uh tap is when you get put the threads on the outside and dies when you put the threads on the inside of something so that you can

throw a nut on something or uh throw a bolt in something that makes more sense and nuts together hey your bolts and nuts over here uh famous people from this this town. Penn Jillette is from here, from Penn and Teller. He's from here. I love that guy. Also, somebody from Supernatural, Misha Collins, who I... Don't know her.

Exactly. I pictured Misha Collins and I pictured Misha Barton and not Misha Collins and I looked up Misha Collins as a guy. So, I was way off. Oh! Way the fuck off. Did I say I don't know her? Yep, and I said, Misha Collins as a guy. So I was way off. Way the fuck off.

Did I say I don't know her? Yep, and I said, yes, same thing. I don't know her either. Reviews of this town quickly. Greenfield, here's five stars. Greenfield's gotten a bad rap due to the recent drug epidemic, and their school system is not the best. Well, those seem like things to legitimate bad rap reasons.

Welcome to New England. But besides those two factors, which are big ones, Greenfield is very welcoming, embracing, and friendly community. From local farmers markets in the middle of town to wow frozen yogurt, Greenfield's a great place to grow up, as long as you don't go to school or, you know, go around crackheads. Is wow, is that a brand? I guess wow. Are they just blown away that there's frozen yogurt? And wow, frozen yogurt on the outside of town.

Holy shit. Holy shit. Here's two stars. Yeah. Yikes. That's the first sentence, which. I'm in. Did Chris Farley write this?

This is why. Other than living 45 minutes from Mount Snow, there is nothing good to say about this little village. I cannot wait to move out. There are homeless and drug-addicted people everywhere. Definitely not a nice place. Jesus Christ. Here's one star.

Okay. I just came to visit to look at the town and it was horrible jesus explain came to look oh a lot of drug addicts slash homeless slash low income people boy are you judgy you're you put drug addict homeless, and just people who work for a living in the same category together. Just fucking some poor schlub busting 60 hours out. There's some guy with a... Piece of shit with a day job. Same level as the guy that's scratching his arm. Some guy with a needle hanging out of his arm fucking scratching open sores. And you're like, you and this guy that works at Walmart can both fuck yourselves. Like, Jesus Christ, he's trying to make a living.

Druggies and deli employees. Wow. Fucking gross. Ugh. I didn't feel safe and I live in Boston. A lot of the homes are run down. Look like Detroit. Let's calm down.

It's really a shame. What the fuck? Jesus. The worst for me was the horrible transportation. Yeah, they have city buses, but the schedule isn't great and there's no ride sharing. The one I requested from another town canceled on me after waiting 23 minutes. That's the people's fault who live in the town, I'm sure.

There's only one bus and one Amtrak a day to Springfield. If you miss it, if you miss them, you're stranded. Okay. You miss it and you stay. You're screwed. Here's one. One star. It's not a fun place to visit. Okay. Some of it and you stay. You're screwed. Here's one. One star. It's not a fun place to visit.

Okay. Some of these, Jesus Christ. Here's a one star. I'll read you the first and last sentence of the review. That's all you need to know. Worst place I've ever lived. First sentence. Last sentence.

Hideously dead end depressing place. And everything in between describes it. Deadbeat landlords run down shit um then there's one a five star quote first is to correct all the ill-informed and unfair characterizations of this town by some others who've posted here they are arguing with each other because when somebody answers them it's fucking wild man it's wild defending her honor holy shit uh people in this town by the way quickly uh 17,241 so um yeah kind of kind of a smaller small-ish town and uh the uh you the median household income here 48,493 which is lower than the national average. Yeah. For Massachusetts, that's a... That's broke.

Yeah. And the home price, $209,800 is as cheap as I've ever heard in Massachusetts. I've never, yeah. That's the average home price here, so that's pretty wild. Things to do very quickly, the Franklin County Fair. And there's everything. There's flying high dogs. Okay. That sounds like fun. There's flying high dogs. That sounds like fun.

There's a cowboy circus. Hell yeah. Stoney Roberts demolition derby. I want to let a man named Stoney be in charge of breaking shit. That sounds great. Is that a country guy that plays while everybody crashes their car? It sounds like a crazy guy who just stands with the microphone and goes, all right, and he announces the beginning of it, and then he just giggles as people are mashed and mauled. Look at him go.

He sprung a lake. He'd take that, city boy. Oh, man. There's a touch a truck event. You'll weld it up better next year, won't you? That's right. God damn it. Finally, a fried dough eating contest, which is obviously very good for you.

Everyone should partake in that. Sounds delicious. Don't get me wrong. And then also the Green River Festival with a bunch of bands that I've never heard of here, including Alison Russell. That's the headliner don't know who the fuck that is i'm not sure i'm sure she's wonderful um she's married to uh misha whatever the fuck yeah misha collins that's him so that said where we set this up let's talk about a murder um that happened here now this is kind of like we said, Massachusetts. When you think of Massachusetts, you think of it's a it's a there are poor parts, but it's a wealthier.

It's a wealthier state. The average income is higher there. There's a so the high Massachusetts has the highest amount of college graduates per capita in the country. So it's, you know, it's an educated for Christ's sake. It's it's educated. Harvard, MIT, they're all in Boston, so they can spread out. So you don't think of little towns in here being little towns, but it's just like anywhere else.

There's little fucking towns that are dumps, and some of them are dumps. I've been to a few that are shitty on the way to weed. There's some dump ones. So this is like a lower-income little town on the west side, but not terrible. It's decent, I guess. So this this murder we have to go back to 1988 what do you remember about 1988 jimmy oh not a lot i was seven uh so you know holy shit oh that's probably trauma Probably trauma. There is a giant window of time that fucking nope. Cloudy. A little cloudy.

What was the number one album of that year? I'm trying to have something fun here. You're taking me down a dark path. Was it Golden Earring? It was George Michael, Faith. Oh, fuck yeah. With him in his ass jeans posed on the front of him there. Did we know then?

Did we know? We knew then, right? Did you see Wham? But I mean, was he out? Jitterbug. We knew. We all knew. Was he out when Faith came out?

I don't think he was. He's been out since he was four, it looks like. If he wasn't out, he's out. He's screaming. Yeah, he was yelling from looks like. If he wasn't out, he's out. He's screaming. Yeah, he was yelling from in there. You heard a loud noise from inside. He was banging on the other side of that door. If you open the door, you're like, George is in there.

He keeps saying he's gay. I don't know what's going on. Number one TV show that year. Oh, 87. Jesus, cheers. 88, 88, 88. Oh, 88, yeah, cheers. Cosby Show.

Oh. Still hanging on. Boy, 88, 88. Oh, 88. Yeah, cheers. Cosby Show. Oh. Still hanging on. Boy, did we fuck that up. Number one movie that year. Oh, Top Gun. Rain Man. It was Tom Cruise. Yes.

Rain Man. The story of Tom Cruise on a cross-country trip trying to convince a man to consider Scientology. Have you ever seen that one? And the man pretends to be severely autistic to get Tom to stop.

That's what he does. He'll just start banging his head going, Judge Wapner, and smacking himself in the head because he's like, I don't want to hear about Xenu. No, no. Just saying a dollar. Probably a dollar. That's it. So amongst this. Sorry, everybody.

He convinces him instead just to gamble and make him rich. Come on, make me rich. Let's talk about this murder here. October 24th, 1988. Just to give you a setting amongst what's going on in the country. Just to give you, this is America at this point. People can't get enough of Bill Cosby, George Michael, and Rain Man. So let's talk about Mark Branch.

Mark Branch, he's an 18-year-old kid here in October of 88. And the neighbors don't know the family very well because they just moved in in June of 87. So he's been there a year and a half, but still neighborhoods take a while to kind of ease in. And when you see someone for 10 years you might be more willing to talk to them like i guess i'll you're not going away so i guess i'll talk to you i've been in my house for two years a neighbor just recently stopped by to say oh god that's a nightmare nope stop by are we talking if we're both outside and happen to make eye contact i'll give you a wave oh that's the most you're getting out of me.

Oh, okay. They drove by and they stopped and they're like, see, you moved in. I haven't met you yet. It's like, my friend. No. I'm ready to sell that place already. Fuck out of here with that. No.

So several neighbors said they're a nice family from what they knew of them. You know, Branch, Mark here, He works at the Stop and Shop supermarket. It's this big East Coast chain here. And everybody said he's just a quiet, likable young guy, just a good kid, 18 years old, just can't wait to pop on a George Michael tape and rock out. You know what I mean? Just can't wait, which actually isn't true. We'll talk about him.

His father, Richard, works at Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power nuclear power plant oh i thought he was gonna say candle vermont yankee candle factory or something that's way different though uh this is in vernon vermont neither did i vernon vermont um his mom's name is betty so betty and richard and mark and their nice little family uh Branch didn't attend Greenfield High School, even though he lived in the district. The last time he was enrolled in Greenfield Town Schools was 1982 when he was a seventh grader, which is interesting. He attended different schools here. He attended the New Salem Academy in 1983 and 84. It's an alternative private school and he attended the

school as a 7th and 8th grader and he left the academy at some point there. A teacher said he left after one year saying quote, the school wasn't appropriate for him academically or in any other way.

Wow. Okay.'t fit in. Wow. Okay. That's weird. So they sent him to a school for troubled kids. Oh. And he attempted suicide around then. In eighth grade?

In ninth grade-ish. Oh, my. Early high school. eight ish yeah my early high school uh he ends up in belmont state hospital for a year between his 16th and 18th birthdays for a calendar year in there so yeah he's having a tough time everybody says he's a nice kid but he's having a tough time um he also attended a special school in north hampton uh which is for young people with mental and emotional and or emotional difficulties. So what the fuck is happening? He's got a lot of issues, man. For the second half of 11th grade and for 12th grade, he went to the New Direction School

at the state run Northampton Center for Children and Families. First, he lived in the school. You can live in there. It's like a boarding school. Then he commuted to the school after that. you can live in there it's like a boarding school then he commuted to the school after that so um it's yeah he gets a job at stop and shop as a grocery store clerk and um his main thing that he likes to do and this is so 1988 it's not even funny super into renting horror movies okay remember in 19 in the fucking late 80s early 90s every video store had that horror section that

was just it was fucking swelling laden with just dumb movie after dumb yeah anything with an excuse to show a tit and and it's to have some blood and they were all most of them were bad these low yeah the self right to video but there was a million of of them, and they were fun for a lot of people. Yeah, the campy shit like House, it's so dumb, and the animation is bad, the special effects are bad, the story isn't even scary. It's just the shock value, really. It's tits and off-camera slayings

where blood squirts in front of where the camera is. The ones I hated the most were like the murder during a sex scene because that is, you're so vulnerable. Oh, you mean all of them? You're even naked. Yeah. It's every horror movie in the age. And the woman's always filleted, which makes it way worse. Because you get to have tits and violence in the same fucking shot at that point.

They like that. So he really, really likes slasher movies super into that um his favorite is jason from friday the 13th okay that's his favorite um i don't know um the only thing i remember about friday the 13th is my cousin and i would rent them one summer when we were 11. Maybe we would rent like a different one every couple of days till we got through the series over the summer. So many.

And I remember Corey Feldman was in one. Yeah. Three, four, four. It was four. He kills Jason at the end, like hacks him up with a big ax and all this shit.

And then five in part five i think it's not even jason it's some impression impersonator of jason because cory feldman killed jason and that's supposed to be the end of it but then they were like we can make a couple more bucks off of this fuck he's alive how are we gonna let mouth be the fucking savior of this franchise and the scariest part within five years of that jason was not even close to the scariest person that cory felton was hanging around because he was dressing like michael jackson doing moonwalks and shit so and he's still doing it he's still doing it um that is scary he blocked me on twitter last month that's so fucking funny because i dared replied to something that he said

you get bored you're too well known to be a troll at this point. Like, you used to be a troll, and it was fun when you had, like, 54 followers. Yeah. You're too well-known to be a troll. Yeah, I got too many followers, I think. Well, you're going to get other people's fan bases take it out on us, give us, like, bad reviews and shit. Because you made a comment to Corey Feldman on Twitter. What a stupid show.

These guys can't even dance. Yeah. They suck on Twitter. No moonwalking out of either of them. I've seen neither of these men moonwalk. He's obsessed with these slasher movies, though. Yeah. He likes the slasher movies and has told people that he kind of wants to kill someone.

Oh. See what it's all about. See what all the big hubbub's about here. I don't think that's the... I've never felt that from watching one of those. I can't believe that anybody would get there. And there's a possibility he told some people that on Halloween in 87, he just may have tried to kill some unknown girl, but it didn't work out.

Like he had set it up to do it, but it didn't work out. So, you know, what's he going to do here? You know, that was 87. That was Halloween 87. This is very Michael Myers, this whole thing. He's put in an institution. He gets out. It's on Halloween week.

He gets active. This is Halloween. It's on Halloween week. He gets active. This is Halloween. It's so weird. So on October 24th, 1988, a friend of his, Scott Landry, gave Branch a ride to an 8.30 a.m. appointment at the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, which is a state vocational aid program for the mentally and physically disabled. Okay. Now he's supposed to pick him up again. He picks him up at 915. So he's only there for 45 minutes.

Quickie. Quick in and out. Landry had seen Mark's car at his home on Meadow Lane and Mark had said he didn't want to drive his own car because he had no gas and there was an air conditioner in the back of the car that needed to be repaired. And so it's a mess. There's a big AC unit in there, like a window unit. Yeah, and between that and no gas, and come on, you drive me.

So they drove back to Branch's home, got the air conditioner. This is after the appointment. Got the air conditioner from the back of the car and put it in Scott Landry's father's truck, which is what Landry's father's truck, which is what Landry was driving. Easier to carry it around. Both then got in the truck and went to Landry's house, which is down the road a bit, and they arrived there at about 9.45 a.m.

They went into Landry's house, put a tape in the VCR, and began to record MTV. Jesus. put a tape in the VCR and began to record MTV. Jesus. You can't get more 1988 than popping a tape in the VCR to record MTV. Yeah. That's when they actually, it was just videos, just hours of videos. And interrupted every now and again for Kurt Loder to tell you what's happening in the world.

Yeah, Kurt Loder to tell you what's happening in the world of music. He'd come on and tell you what Bono was doing. And that was that. So they do that at about 10 0 7 a.m. Sharon Gregory calls Landry. Okay. This is a girl here. She was crying and she asked if Scott Landry had a car and he said he didn't. He asked if everything was okay.

And she said she wasn't sure. So who the hell is Sharon Gregory? OK, I don't know. She's a 19 year old freshman at Greenfield Community College. She graduated Greenfield High School in 1988 and was attending the community college there. She had at her graduation in June, received a certificate of participation in the school's peer education counseling program. And she was also a member of the Exponent School newspaper staff

for her junior and senior years. Okay. She was a college preparatory major in high school. And during her sophomore year, she was a member of the flag corps, and a junior year, a member of the Distributive Education Clubs of America. She's been involved. My goodness. Yeah, she's the type of kid who doesn't leave school after school. She just stays because she's got so many activities.

And she has a twin sister named Cheryl as well. Oh, Cheryl and Sharon? Cheryl and Sharon are the Gregory twins here. So now she worked as an aide at Charlene Manor Nursing Home here up until about September of 1988 and most recently worked part time for the food service division at Franklin Medical Center. So cafeteria food at the hospital. Cheryl. Yeah. That's this is Sharon that does this.

Both sisters also work at the Friendly's restaurant on the Mohawk Trail in the summer of 87. But just for the summer because it's a big ice cream joint. So you want to do that. Evidently, everybody in New England does that too. Fucking Friendly's is amazing. It's so good. Their food's good. It's the thing that everybody did.

They all, everybody, yeah. I know tons of people who worked at Friendly's. It's just one of those things. People used to steal from that place like crazy. My God. You know, kids that would come with the big giant 10 gallon things ice cream like i didn't even fucking carry them they'd be just rolling whatever take the product i had a friend that worked there and he told us come out and in five minutes pull out behind the back door exactly

five minutes right so we timed it so we pulled out this is no cell phones at this time so we timed it pulled out got parked the car out and back in the parking lot and we weren't there two seconds when a giant i guess they're 10 gallon thing of ice cream comes rolling out the back door into my fucking driver's side of my door of my car bang i'm like holy shit put it in it's rocky road friend fucking grabbed it pulled it out put it in the back seat we're sitting there holding it i'm like what did you know that we were getting this much where am i gonna put this much ice cream now yeah i don't have that thing no one has a freezer yeah i think we brought it back to someone's house and just like ate as much of it as we could and then we were putting in like bowls

and sticking it in people's freezers it was a fucking disaster yeah that's a bad caper it was terrible like this isn't good at least steal something useful if you're gonna steal you idiot so uh the morning of october 24th 1988 uh sharon gregory told tells scott landry that she tried to call her boyfriend chris theron at the high school but he was not allowed to take her call you know had to call the office and say, can you put a student on the phone? Scott told her, now Scott Landry tells her how to start the car, because there's something wrong with it.

She can't start her car for some reason. So he says, this is how you do it. Call back if it doesn't start. And Scott said she never called back. So he assumed Sharon started the car and did her thing. So Mark Branch asked Landry who called, and Landry told him it had been Sharon Gregory who had been unable to start her car. So Branch asked Landry why her parents had not brought her to college instead, and Landry told Branch that Gregory's parents were working and they weren't home, so they couldn't give her a ride. home so they couldn't give her a ride it's about 15 minutes later uh branch goes into landry's father's bedroom to make a telephone call and he comes out a few minutes later so uh scott landry

asked him what was up and mark branch said that oh i just had to make a call so all right fine so the thing about this is branch has been angry with sharon and cheryl so he heard sharon he's like why isn't her fucking parents give her a ride what does she need a ride for because they had quote mocked him okay and cheryl had access apparently through a psychology class had access to a psychological profile that that I guess Sharon. OK. Sharon had done a psychological profile for her class on Mark and let Cheryl see it. And they were, quote, mocking him about it because it's not a great profile. Yeah.

So he has been upset about that, that they were making fun of him about something that was supposed to be private, he said. So in May of 1980, near Anaheim, California, Dorothy Jane Scott noticed her friend had an inflamed red wound on his arm and seemed unwell. She insisted on driving him to the local hospital to get treatment. While he waited for his prescription, Dorothy went to grab her car to pick him up at the exit, but would never be seen alive again, leaving us to wonder, decades later, what really happened to Dorothy Jane Scott? From Wondery, Generation Y is a podcast that covers notable true crime cases like this one and many more. Every week, hosts Aaron

and Justin sit down to discuss a new case, covering every angle in 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 will 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 two as it airs on Max starting April 21st.

Bye bye. The official Jinx podcast. Listen on Max or wherever you get your podcasts. He was upset. So after about 20 minutes after this phone call, Branch asked Scott Landry to take him home because he wanted to get his car to pick up his paycheck at Stop and Shop, blah, blah, blah. Landry takes him home. So he had, by the way, not picked up his paycheck that day, we find out. He doesn't go pick up his paycheck, which is interesting.

Landry says he went back home to take a nap after that, slept till about noon. Jesus, what a great life he's got. Just hanging out and sleeping. Woke up quick at about noon. Naps, man. It's beautiful. He's going to be at the Stop and Shop soon. Friend of his, Peter Janist, stops by for a visit.

Stays for about five minutes and leaves. And then Landry's girlfriend, Poliatis arrives at about 12 30 p.m. yeah there you go just woke up from my nap my girl's coming over what the cold out your eyes what a fucking great time he received a telephone call from his mother who told him that a girl had committed suicide Landry said he went out to look for Cheryl's boyfriend, Peter Janis, but couldn't find him. Scott went through to the high school and met Chris Theron, who's Sharon's boyfriend. He told Theron that one of the twins had committed suicide. Oh, no.

Because that's what he heard. One of the twins did. But he didn't know which one. Oh, Theron. You had a chance at your girlfriend. It might be a girlfriend. Maybe not. It's your girlfriend.

It might be a girlfriend. Maybe not. So Theron and his mother went to their house where – went to the girl's house where a trooper was there, a state trooper was there to meet them. Oh, God. So Landry tells the trooper that – because the trooper is asking questions and asking questions about him, asking questions about Mark and that sort of thing. So Landry told the trooper that Mark's blue jacket was in the back of Landry's father's truck when he dropped Mark off at his house. He told Mark to take it, but Mark said he'd be able to pick it up later after he picked up his check at Stop and Shop,

and he said that Mark Branch didn't come back while Scott was at home. Landry further tells this trooper that Mark Branch would at times wonder aloud how it would feel to kill someone. He also tells the cop that Mark religiously watches and rents tapes, horror flicks, and also, quote, smut. Loves his smut. And he loved Friday the 13th, and he loved Halloween, which is ironic. Jason and Tuggan.

Jason, Michael, and Tuggan. So he said Landry tells this officer that Branch, quote, patterns his own life on characters from these films, including Jason from Friday the 13th and Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street. He even said that Mark Branch owns seven hockey masks. Jesus, that's a lot. How do you pattern your life after Jason? You don't know what. No. So what do you live in the woods and sit there with a machete and then chop up a teenager

every couple of summers? Is that your fucking how do you live his life? What does he do? You sleep in a lake? Yeah, you sleep in a lake and come up with like seaweed and shit on your head and that's how how do you pattern your life after freddy krueger yeah in a burned out building and well this guy said he's got jason mass and mark doesn't play any hockey so these are all that's for yeah he also said that mark owns the same kind of combat boots and shirts that are worn by the main characters in some of these movies and that he collects quote all sorts of knives yeah so um gregory uh sharon gregory is

the one who's killed uh she is found dead in the upstairs bathroom of her family home uh found by her identical twin oh shit who initially told neighbors that her sister had killed herself and that's why that rumor spread. She was discovered, Sharon's body was, at about 12.30 p.m. They declared a homicide, not a suicide, when they get there. And they said that the officer,

when asked, said that the case was, quote, not a normal one, but then declined to elaborate. That's got to be awful as a twin to find your twin dead because then it's like seeing yourself dead. That's fucking horrific. Horrible. The one officer detective police chief, David McCarthy, said once the smoke has settled and you hear why this has transpired, you'll understand why it's different. transpired, you'll understand why it's different.

Sharon had been stabbed over two dozen times in the back and head, and her throat had been slashed. Solid suicide. Then sliced up her abdomen, chest, and head as well. Oh my god. So, it's fucking horrible. The cops

found a large amount of blood in the bathroom and outer hall, as well as traces of blood in the stairway. A shoe print was identified in the blood in the bathroom and outer hall, as well as traces of blood in the stairway. A shoe print was identified in the blood on the bathroom floor as well. No weapon found in the home. And this is pre-DNA, so don't worry about that. They said the murder weapon was likely a single-edged knife with a blade width of approximately one to one and a half inches

and a blade length of between four and five inches so like a big steak knife um the the gregory family spent the night away from the home makes sense um there they take off and they're trying to figure out what happened a neighbor says that police cars and all sorts of the whole street was full i mean it was packed with police guards normally a very quiet neighborhood. It's crazy. The next-door neighbor said, I feel bad that something like this happened in this neighborhood. Yes.

She said, it's a quiet neighborhood for the most part. Everybody got along with everybody. What the hell here? Next door to the Gregory home, the murder scene, What the hell here? Next door to the Gregory home, the murder scene, Tammy Sashie lived next door. She came home on her lunch break, and she remembers it being about 1210. She saw the ambulance and several police cars parked in front of the house next door, and she became concerned.

She worked with the twins' mother. So she knew that the girls are home alone during the day. And so she rushed across to see what was going on and found one of the twins crying hysterically on the steps. And she told, the twin told this woman, I think my sister killed herself. And that's how the whole thing started with that. They're described as nice girls. One of the neighbors said, my impression of them is that they were pretty straight American kids. They were a quiet family.

They were nice girls, typical, well-educated. They always seemed happy to me, the other neighbor says. No question that's one of the more stable families I've been near, said the neighbor across the street. So not bad. They're nice people, and this is a shame. So, one kid here who

went to school, Jeffrey Villani, he went to school with these girls. He described Sharon as being kind of mellow, whereas Cheryl was more outgoing. He said everybody was well-liked and well-known by everybody. Everybody was nice. They'd say hi to everybody that passed them. They weren't snobs or anything like that.

One person said they were so indistinguishable, so identical I still couldn't tell them apart after 19 years. Someone who's known them their whole life. Still that's terrifying. If there's anything that stands out about Sharon, it was that she was a good student, they said, and a very good school citizen. That's terrifying. If there's anything that strikes that stands out about Sharon, it was that she was a good student.

They said in a very good school citizen. That's what her principal said. So police talked to Cheryl after the murder because she's going to be the closest one with her sister. God damn it. So Cheryl tells police that Sharon had recently been concerned about an individual named Mark who hung around with Scott Landry of Maple Street. They said that Cheryl was frightened by the manner in which Mark used to stare at her. That's creepy. She said she didn't know Mark's last name, but that she had been to his residence before.

They said, yeah. So Cheryl drove by. They pointed out Mark's house. And she said, that's the house we were in. So they do a little bit of investigation on him. Find out about him. A video store owner described him as an enthusiast of bloody horror films, particularly Friday the 13th. Oh, God.

So they say that Bob Quensal of Video One Expo in Greenfield said that he rents and purchases hundreds of horror movies from his store. He rented Strictly Gore, period. The gorier, the better. Jesus. That's what he's into. So later they go to the Branch home and knock on the door, the police do, and the door is answered by Mrs. Betty Branch.

And they knew that that was the mother and they said, you know, hey, how you doing? And she said that Mark's not here. She knew right away you're here for Mark because one of the cops is the same cop that had busted him for something else a couple of years ago. So looking for Mark, she's not here. She said he was with Scott Landry this morning. Otherwise, I don't know anything about it. So she said, I know he had to go to the massachusetts rehabilitation commission blah blah blah she described her son's car she said he's driving a gray chevrolet chevette in good shape oh there's not a single what do you consider a good shape for a gray two-door 83 chevy chevette what's good shape for

that what a piece of shit that's a hunk of shit no wonder why i couldn't drive with the air conditioner and it probably wouldn't go i can't get it above 40 with that ac unit in the back seat how dare you say two door they're all two doors there were four door chevettes yes i think they made a little chevette wagon if i wasn't mistaken hysterical ford or if they made a that's a piece of shit my uncle had one you had to manually shift the automatic oh god that's a piece of crap bad car what a pile of shit so about 5 30 p.m this day this is still the day of the murder uh troopers meet with scott landry and his father landry says he's a close friend to branch he said exactly what

happened i saw him at about 8 15 last saw him at 11 30 yeah i gave him a ride to the uh vocational thing he went there dropped him off we hung out blah blah blah he said he didn't want to have his car he didn't want to drive his car because of the gas and the air conditioner issue and it's a chevette and he's just embarrassed by it yeah so he goes through the whole story we recorded mtv he said that yes uh sharon and sharon and cheryl sharon and cheryl gregory often mocked branch and made fun of him in his presence landry goes on to say, she said they, uh, within the last week, Landry says Mark branch had said to Scott that these two girls had angered

him. So Landry told the cop that Sharon Gregory had taken photographs of Mark and that Mark had told, uh, had told him that he wanted those photographs back from him. So, um, they returned to the Gregory home where the murder scene after

11 p.m. that day, the detective and finds two photographs of Mark Branch under a box on a top shelf of a desk in Sharon Gregory's room. So the detective interviews Amy Poliatis that day

and that's Scott Landry's girlfriend and she said that Mark was an admirer of Friday the 13th Amy Poliatis that day. And that's Scott Landry's girlfriend. And she said that Mark was an admirer of Friday the 13th and loved Jason as well. Would watch violent movies such as Friday the 13th. Mark talked about living out a fantasy of being Jason, the character from Friday the 13th. Also talked about he has a ton of dolls of Jason, hockey masks, videotapes, posters of Jason. All about Friday the 13th. All about it. One neighbor who is directly west of the Gregory home said that he, at about noon on the 24th,

he had just begun to watch television when he heard the sound of a car door closing. The sound came from the driveway to the east of his house. He looked out his window and observed. Why are you looking out the window? Is that my driveway? No. Who cares then? Fuck.

He looked out his window and observed a dark gray Chevette, possibly two-door, parked facing into the driveway. Dark gray Chevette. Yeah. dark gray chevette yeah uh he saw a white man approximately six feet tall 180 to 195 pounds wearing pants and a jacket of stonewashed denim because it is 1988 yeah down to zero with dark hair in a quote long military cut oh what the fuck is a long military cut those are two different things that's exactly right is that like a hit Hitler haircut? Is that a flat top on top? Or is that a Billy Ray Cyrus? Like, what are we talking about here?

The mouth of the South haircut. That's what I think we're talking about. Flowing mullet. So he said about three to five minutes later, he heard the sound of a car door closing from the direction of the home again. He again looked out the window. Information I already have. Let me see it. And saw the same man seated in the Chevette,

then heard the engine start, and saw the Chevette back out of the driveway and head south. Then the man jumped in his car and followed him because he was just that curious. No, he didn't. But you might as well at this point. Christ. That was Vidal Sassoon.

So about 30, 40 minutes later, he heard another car and he, of course, looked out again. And this time it was Cheryl's. And then moments later, he saw police cars arrive. So they said that the detective speaks with Cheryl Gregory the next day and says that in August, Cheryl Gregory was present in Scott Landry's living room with Scott and Mark Branch. Cheryl Gregory was present in Scott Landry's living room with Scott and Mark Branch. Mark had some papers with him and told them it was a psychological profile done on him. That's right. So he gave it to them because they were in a class.

Cheryl asked to see it and look it over. She asked to take it home to read it. Mark said that was okay, but he didn't want anyone else to see it, and she was to burn it when she was finished reading it, which is fair. It's as private as it gets. Cheryl took it home home she cut mark's name out of it but kept it and showed other people it and they said that um landry said that sharon and they often mocked him to his face as what they were saying so um yeah they um when they're talking to him they're trying to get something of is this enough though for her to go over and kill somebody? But when they find out she was over there or Scott was in their driveway for three to five minutes, you know, it becomes a little ridiculous at this point.

It doesn't look good. deceased, this is the police affidavit, at the scene and the amount of blood between the first floor and the bathroom where she was found, I have cause to believe, based on my years' experience in investigating crimes of violence, that the clothing of the deceased attacker is likely to have the deceased's blood on it. Furthermore, a shoe print was identified in the bathroom floor, like I said. So that's the official deal. floor like i said so that's the official deal um they said um uh so march or october 25th 88 they look at his chevette okay um the this day it was they said it was discovered tuesday morning the day after the murder parked about 20 feet down a small road uh off avery road which is about 100

yards away from a farm. It's abandoned. The car is, like, abandoned on a farm road, his Chevette. So the DA's Crime Prevention and Control Team and the Greenfield Police Department arrive at about 1030, assisted by several other small towns' police forces, and they block roads and everything else because they're— We're looking for Mark. We're looking for Mark in there. The car's pulled off the road there. So, yeah, they did a collection of all the shit in the car.

Cigarette ashes dusted from the front passenger seat. So it appeared that the driver had snuffed out a cigarette in the change holder behind the stick shift. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. had snuffed out a cigarette in the changeholder behind the stick shift yeah so yeah yeah the little change holders especially in a chevette that has an ash chevette has an ashtray though that's what i don't get an 83 chevette has one so a dozen officers armed with shotguns and handguns state police all these people form two search parties and enter the woods off orcut hill road sweeping through here. It's hilly.

It's swampy. It's shitty. They go through it. A canine officer comes here. They have a dog. The German Shepherd police dog, Sabre, followed a scent trail about a half mile into the woods along a logging road and then lost the trail. He's in the water.

He's hiding. He's somewhere. So about 2 p.m., a state police helicopter from Framingham assists in the water he's hiding he's somewhere so about 2 p.m a state police helicopter from framingham assists in the search making several sweeps of the area and um they found nothing they call the search off about 3 p.m they figure he's probably holing up somewhere right now and since we lost the scent there's no point in jerking off basically and running in circles so police are also stationed at the crime scene they're stationed at branches family home um and they're watching at least one other place

as well that he might frequent so uh they really want to talk to him obviously uh he's described as 5 11 about 170 pounds that guy didn't do too bad with his description not bad with short tightly curled brown hair how the fuck is that a long military cut so tightly curled just short hair that's all that's just a low boy afro right just a yeah white guy afro that's all just some curly hair 1983 hair just say that he has very 1983 hair uh no mustache or beard medium complexion medium build, maybe wearing a plaid shirt with a turtleneck sweater under it, dress pants, and military-style boots. Okay. That's a scary-looking man. Yeah, I would say.

So the vehicle is removed, and there's a search warrant and all that. A chemist identifies blood on the accelerator and brake pedals, steering wheel, automatic shift lever, emergency brake lever, driver's side outer door handle, an inside handle, the carpeting near the driver's seat, and the plastic console housing the gear shift. So you're saying everywhere. Everywhere in the car. The whole fucking car is covered in blood. They also impounded the center console gear shift knob and fibers and hairs from the passenger seat of the Chevette. There, a search warrant for his home was issued. Knives of single edge, sharp instruments, blood, hair, fibers, fingerprints, palm prints, foot and shoe prints, physiological fluids and secretions, clothing photographs, documents relating to ownership or possession of the Chevette, and psychological reports relating to Mark Branch. Searching his home, 112 Meadow Lane, this is. They searched the whole place, and they found, they turned over bookcases and drawers and closets.

They said stuffed with slasher tapes, paraphernalia, several knives, a machete. They took nearly 90 videotapes, including dozens of slasher movies and some porn, too, of course. Harder to come across porn back then, too, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. That was a tough one, man, of course. Hell, yeah. Harder to come across porn back then, too, by the way. Yeah, to own it, yeah. Yeah, that was a tough one, man. Not easy. So the police chief says, I hope deep down when the general public realizes how much paraphernalia of this kind there is, it will have to be downplayed a little. But realistically, we can't do anything about it until the public stops watching this trash.

I mean, the bummer about video stores going out of business is just this like there's nobody that will know now when you watch all of this stuff you know what i mean yeah that's true keep an eye on somebody that's watching fucking clearly way too much fuck yeah they said his room by the way quote this is the captain of police it looked like a room from the pages of good housekeeping who's probably one of the neatest rooms you'll ever find so they had to uncover shit in closets and in drawers um 35 videotapes were found in tape cabinets in the room including obviously chainsaw massacre night of the living dead blood sucking freaks nightmare on elm street

part three psycho two and three demons one and two the The New York Ripper, The Howling, I Spit on Your Grave, The Boogeyman, and Evil Dead, of course, Faces of Death 1 and 2, The Gates of Hell, The Grim Reaper, Christine, which is just Stephen King, and Zombie. So these are – and Friday the 13th and all those and Halloweens. So these are all kind of your basic standard. A million kids have all these videotapes in their house. This is the slasher aisle of Blockbuster or whatever fucking video store. Stay out of the shower. Splatter is one.

A Stranger is Watching. Cujo. Shit like that. I mean, it's all whatever. Cujo, that's Stephen King too, right? Yes, exactly. Also, they found 34 copies of Fangoria magazine and 33 related items there to that. Also, porn such as Crocodile Blondie, which is great because it's very timely. Face 2, which I guess that's of the barely legal

variety, which he's 18, so you don't want to watch somebody who looks like your mom having sex at that point. Virgin Heat, New Wave Hookers. I guess they're dressed in pink and gray. Big hair. Big hair. And Fast Girls

also. So they found survival knife with sharpening stone in the closet of machete brown handled commando knife in the desk and um also mark's father gave police a small double-edged boot knife during the search as well that he said was in there um also same kind of combat boots and shirts quote worn by the main characters in horror movies i don't know what the fuck that's all about they also had a Michael Myers mask. So he didn't have seven of the Jasons.

He had six Jasons, one Michael Myers. Oh. A Jason doll wrapped and hidden away in a closet. That's suspicious. All sorts of shit. T-shirts and all sorts of shit like that. Posters. They get everything. Yeah. True crime books, of shit like that. Posters. They get everything.

Yeah. This is true crime books, of course. Yeah. God forbid. So one investigator said the suspect thinks he's Jason. That's what it is. Thinks he's Jason. They said they have cause to believe that Mark Branch brutally killed Sharon Gregory with a knife or other sharp object.

And the killing is modeled on the killing in movies such as Friday the 13th, which this isn't the peak of this whole panic thing of what you're watching or anything. He slashed a girl in her bathroom, for Christ's sake. It's just, yeah, it's just a shitty way of hurting somebody. He might have done it differently if he wasn't in the horror movies, but he probably would still be killing people, I would say. So they said that Branch had a subscription to Fangoria through a store that he used to go to the store and pick it up every month there. When it came in, he began receiving it in February of 86, and that's how he's got so many here. Branch was one of four or five people who got the subscription through his store. The only purveyor of this magazine in the county.

Six people. Yeah. He describes Mark as a prep school student, a normal jovial fellow. Except he's not. Except he's kind of not. He's fucking nuts. That is fucking wild. So some friends of mark here they're talking about him because everybody's being asked about and uh one uh who went with him to the prep school said he was writing obscene letters to the female students

he pulled out a knife on a female student that's why he got kicked out what the fuck branch had denied the knife incident at the time but this girl says the girl he pulled it on was my cousin and she was really scared so they think it's true um yeah they all sorts of shit they said he pulled a jack knife when she told him she didn't like him he threatened her but didn't hurt her jesus christ she said all he had talked about was horror movies up until that point. He wrote a bunch of letters. A lot of them were threatening and sexual in nature as well to this girl. She said, I wondered if he started up again because these notes, because other girls had received similar notes.

Because one of the girls he wrote letters to back in 82, well, he was asking around a couple weeks ago for her current address. told me mark a friend asked for it and said he told me mark wanted it i didn't know why he told me mark had indeed announced plans to go out for halloween this year as jason the killer guy from the movie so uh newer friends said mark was just one of the kids just one of the guys another friend of his that's a newer guy said he's very quiet, usually passive, even gentle and polite, has a dry sense of humor. He's described as happy-go-lucky, carefree. Another friend who's known him for three years described him as a funny kid and just a riot, never saw him get mad ever.

He's hilarious. They said he wasn't ambitious. He told one of his friends quote he always said he was never going to amount to nothing he was pretty proud of it he had no glorified future plans like the rest of us he also said that he he liked mark didn't want to fit in he didn't need to fit in he said that was the thing that he liked he was wasn't into fitting in um yeah that's it uh they said that nobody ever took that he liked. He wasn't into fitting in. Yeah, that's it. They said that nobody ever took Mark seriously is what his friend said.

His friend said his idol actually wasn't Jason. It was Morton Downey Jr., the talk show host from the 80s, the guy who would smoke constantly and scream and yell at everybody. That was his – wow. That's his idol, yeah. That is fucking crazy. So they said he didn't like to be mocked. That's one thing.

Didn't like to be mocked. So people kind of left him alone, let him do his thing, tried not to mock him or anything. Yeah, that's all. There was a group, by the way, a group of his friends. There's a group thing called Black Tuesday in this school. Here, it was a demonstration of sorts that took place at Greenfield High School. Demonstration was the support of right of school students to be gay or different following incidents of harassment. So they did like an old school protest thing.

Twenty five students, including Cheryl and Sharon and Scott Landry, all decided to show up dressed in black. But there was no symbolism. The cops tried to make it out like these kids were like, you know, like same thing they did in Columbine. There's a trench coat mafia. This was they all dressed in black. But it was they all dressed in black for a protest to do one day. So that wasn't exactly what they what they wanted.

So they're talking about Mark. They're still trying to find him, though. He's gone. They keep searching every day. He's gone. They asked his friend, do you know where he is? And he said, no, but if I did, I'd urge him to turn himself in. I would not be his friend if I harbored him right now.

That would not be good for him. He needs to turn himself in. So they said the day before all this happened at 11 p.m october 23rd he was at a party with some friends and they said that they said that he was the mark we all knew we all knew him and you know it's so weird yeah um they said the branches they ask about the branches maybe it's something with the family all they can get is one neighbor. They certainly were respectful people, lovely people.

They've never bothered me. There's never been any noise or confusion. Just fucking one time the father took a delivery for me and held it for me until I was there. It was fucking ridiculous. So everybody is freaked out in this town, town obviously because now there's a guy who they've they've said he's jason vorhees and he's on the loose so and he pops up and kills people and disappears that's fucking horrifying yep so they figure this is the psychological profile is the thing here so the manhunt dogs helicopters searching for a third day in the woods here. I mean, it is a mess here.

They issue a warrant for his arrest, obviously, after his car was found. And they urge residents to ignore unfounded rumors of a second slaying because there was rumors going around that he's killed somebody else. So now it was like, oh, my God. But he asked them to be careful because he may be armed and dangerous. The police chief said it's thrown a lot of panic into a lot of people. Yeah, I would say. So there's a manhunt in the woods.

It keeps going. They go into a real thickly wooded area and they said it's clean, nothing there. No confirming sites. They said very little information. Right now they're just following up on leads. They said very little information. Right now they're just following up on leads. They actually said they were considering calling off the town's Halloween parade if he's not found because they didn't want him coming and terrorizing the Halloween parade.

Yeah. It's literally a horror movie. Should we cancel the town parade? Jesus. It is Halloween, y'all. Oh, my God. It's a stupid horror movie from the fucking 80s. They're making their own.

They said that there's constant inquiries and rumors and tips coming in. The police are trying to figure out what's bullshit and what's not. And the one thing the police chief said, there are thousands of camps and shacks out in the woods. He could be moving from camp to camp or he could be a thousand miles away by now. We have no idea. Oh, my God. So they kept searching for him kept searching for him um you know arrest warrant in hand and um they said also the the press got really crazy about oh it was a ritualized killing it was a satanic thing so they had to say no no no pentagrams or other symbols on the scene or on the body none of that shit.

Just a very personal murder. And we'd like to catch him. We'd like to catch him and we can't find him. But the more he's the longer this goes on, the more this swells into this like crazy legend of all this shit here. So it's it's fucking insane. So they asked whether the public should be fearful. And one of the cops said this young person branch is more asked whether the public should be fearful and uh one of the cops said this young person branch is more scared than the public he said i believe branch is running and

unless you're in his way you're probably not in any danger he's not a rattlesnake he's not more afraid of you than you are of him he's more afraid of you than you are of him um so they search they have like a one and a half square mile area where they're searching. They keep searching and they can't find it. It's it's a lot. So rumors start. Oh boy. The one of the reporters from the local newspaper said in 21 years in the

newspaper business, I've seldom seen a wilder bunch of rumors and stories about a case like this. So they've been overwhelmed with people telling far-fetched stories um they've been told repeatedly there's a second murder um the whole thing it's just been another common rumor is that there's a devil worshiping cult connection and you know all this shit and people have seen devil worship and I've seen it out there and it's the kids and it's a whole thing and Christ. But the cops said there's no reason to panic and we'd like people to think twice before passing on some of these silly stories as fact. The cops said we think that vacant sheds, barns and other buildings should be checked by their owners, but only if it can be done safely.

We don't think there's an immediate danger to everyone, but obviously call if you run into this asshole. So one cop said, there's no doubt there's a lot of paranoia. Up until today, we had young people acquainted with him coming to the station after asking if he had been caught yet because, you know, it's still going on. So it's like they're coming in numerous phone calls. Where is he? More freaking out.

An elderly woman on the news said i live alone here and i'm worried what do i do what do i do bar my doors at night maybe don't tell people jesus christ he had a particular beef with a particular person um yeah so they said people are freaking out they're called it's a nightmare then halloween week is there so it's even worse because we're in the middle of this uh they said that the streets were empty of children basically yeah parents were planning indoor activities this turned into an 80s slasher flick parents refuse to take their kids yeah you can't go what about if you take me no walk are you out of your fucking mind no this is the 80s i don't go places with you

uh they had a party at the local air national arm guard armory to uh with machine guns yeah hand out candy around those guys a local movie theater delayed plans to show the new movie halloween 4 wow forbid. So they have a funeral for Sharon. More than 200 people attend the funeral, which is a big one. So Halloween night, now they're spreading shit everywhere. Kids

all throughout New England. There's a big rumor that this Jason's out there and if you go out in the street, this kid's going to kill you and it's like it's turned into he's the boogeyman of this whole place. And they keep saying he should be considered armed and dangerous. He may kill again. And that's in the newspaper every day.

I read the paper every day. Ha, ha, ha, ha. This is amazing. The FBI said they would step in under a federal statute that deals with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. It could have applied to this case. We could get the FBI involved in this. So November 1st, Connecticut police cite a positive ID by a store clerk and a strong scent trail picked up by a dog in Enfield, Connecticut. They retrieve an abandoned stolen car from New Hampshire

that may be linked to the murder investigation. November 2nd, about four miles from where Branch's abandoned car is found, a house is broken into. Articles are stolen that could aid a person surviving in the woods. November 3rd, they search extensively near that robbed house. They find nothing. November 3rd, they search extensively near that robbed house. They find nothing.

November 4th, police dogs pick up a strong scent near there on Crittenton Hill Road after a resident of the street says he saw a branch in the back of his home. So they think he's there. November 6th, police say the alleged sighting of branch was false now. November 7th, police are downplaying that he's still around. He can't be here. He's got to be gone. And now they're coming out on the news. This is because of violent behavior in TV and it's a blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

So he's still missing. This guy got away. He's on America's Most Wanted. He's in Canada, babe. They're talking about them filming a segment on America's Most Wanted. Did he ever get to it? They didn't get there quite yet. He said that hopes this national exposure will help somebody turn him in. They get a call from shortly after that.

They get a call from a current affair as well. Jesus. They want to do it. So everybody wants this. And the cops want this exposure because why the fuck not? I mean, it can help. So sightings, there's been a dozen sightings in other states, including Colorado. They've been watching all the homes and everything like that.

I heard they saw him wheeling a roll of ice cream out of a Friendly's. He really was. Yeah, it hit his car and he drove off with it. cream out of a friendlies he really was yeah that's how he hit his car and he drove off with it um so they said they hope there's no violence if branches captured his friend says i hope some beverly hillbilly doesn't blow him away they said they wish that he would turn himself in his friends are saying um they said branch knows nothing at all about the woods too so that doesn't help either uh one hunter was out in the woods and they said what are you hunting and he said i'm hunting branches jesus christ so there's people actively out there uh doing this shit elmer fudd out there oh absolutely they're fucking they're coming for it so november

23rd 1988 a month later a month later they're uh there's a vigil for sharon and more vigils planned um and they said there's been so much focus on mark we want to focus on sharon as the victim november 29th 1988 they finally find mark oh boy finally find mark kevin purinton is a 26 year old resident that he uh takes a couple days off to go hunting and chases after a deer and goes on to a rugged section of private property. And there, as he's going, around 8 a.m., he flushed out two deer from a brush and was following them. When he heard a sound, he looked up and saw what looked like someone sitting on a hillside. So he waved at the figure, then stepped closer and saw it was a person hanging from a tree.

Oh, dear fuck. He thought it was a noose, like a dummy in a noose, some kind of joke. He moved closer and he poked his 12 gauge into him. And he said he looked into the eyes, but there weren't any. I didn't see any eyes, and I took off running. I knew who it was. It was terrible. I'll never forget it.

Wow. Yep. He said, if it wriggled in the wind, I would have blow a hole through him, he said. I would have thought it was an animal and shot it. So he was five and a half feet off the ground, and yeah, it was on a place where there was no hunting allowed. He had made a noose from a boot lace and tied it to his belt, looping the leather strap around the tree, hiked up the collar of his blue cotton shirt so that the lace would not cut into his neck, Chris Benoit style, leaned forward and choked himself to death. And probably been there this entire time. Unbelievable.

This entire time they remove his body. Obviously, they said that he came across the body about 100 yards short of where the last official police search had stopped. Wow. They could almost see him from where they were, but they stopped and were like, that's far enough because it was on private property. And they were like, he didn't go all the way over there. It's rough. Unbelievable. So, yeah, all the people say they're glad it's over cause of death uh is ruled suicide by

self-inflicted hanging like we said and um yeah that's it he's dead the students say they feel free now it is like the end of a fucking horror movie they all like oh we can go back outside we can do things again it's insane and that is greenfield massachusetts what a place fucking michael myers man dude this was a he said this the most this is the most panic we've ever had in one of our towns i think it's crazy and for no good reason because he was dead he was dead long dead for a month so if you like that story tell the world get on whatever app you're listening on. Give us five stars. It really does help.

Also, head over to ShutUpAndGiveMeMurder.com. Virtual live show on 420 is where you get the tickets for that. Also, new shows added in Seattle and Portland. Detroit and Pittsburgh still up there as well. Want to follow us on social media? Super easy to do that. At Murder Small on Twitter. At Small Town Murder on Instagram.

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Gross shit. Patreon.com slash Crime and Sports is where you get all that and a shout out at the end of the show. Want to follow us on social media? Shut up and give me murder.com. Links are right there. Thank you so much, everybody. It's been a lot of fun.

Until next week, everybody. It's been our pleasure. Bye. Thank you so much, everybody. It's been a lot of fun 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. Welcome to the small town of Chinook,

where faith runs deep and secrets run deeper. In this new thriller, available exclusively on Wondery+, religion and crime collide when a gruesome murder rocks the isolated Montana community. Everyone is quick to point their fingers at a drug-addicted teenager, but local deputy Ruth Vogel isn't convinced. She suspects connections to a powerful religious group. Enter federal agent V.B. Loro,

who has been investigating a local church for possible criminal activity. The pair form an unlikely partnership to catch the killer, unearthing secrets that leave Ruth torn between her duty to the law, her religious convictions, and her very own family.

But something more sinister than murder is afoot, and someone is watching Ruth. With an all-star cast led by Emmy nominee Sanaa Lathan and Star Wars' Kelly Marie Tran, Chinook is available exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.