Small Town Murder - #366 - Insane In The Brain - Moscow, Idaho

Episode Date: March 4, 2023

This week, in Moscow, Idaho, a man seems to become more, and more mentally ill, as he begins to lash out at his family, friends, and even neighborhood children. He's mainly angry because he claims that they're "stealing his aura", which he claims will drain his power, and eventually kill him. Somehow, this all triggers a 6,500 mile journey, while maiming, and murdering along the way. Is he "The Sun King"? Is he possessed by a "supernatural wolf" that is controlled by the color yellow? Can he survive with his aura being drained? This one is all sorts of crazy!!Along the way, we find out that a motorcycle is a terrible weapon to use to attack neighborhood teens, that stealing an aura can have dire consequences, and that your solar plexus apparently have a lot to do with auras, and powers!!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. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yeah, choo-choo!

Yay, indeed, Jimmy. Yay, indeed. My name is James Petrogallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you, folks, so much for joining us all aboard the murder train, pulling away from the station. And this is a murder-crazy train today. It is is absolutely wild can't wait to tell you about it but very quickly here that's right rock it out quickly uh you definitely want to head over to shut up and give me murder.com today get your tickets not only for the upcoming shows two shows in seattle at the end of march two shows in portland we got detroit we got Pittsburgh. But March the 3rd, the rest of the tickets go on sale for the rest of the year. That's right.

Chicago, Minneapolis, San Diego, Denver, Salt Lake, D.C., Dallas, Boston, Atlanta. Get your asses in here. Let's go, Chicago. That will be the biggest show of all time for us. So let's fill that bad boy up. You've never let us down before, Chicago. So let's do it. We cannot wait. Also on sale right now, tickets to the virtual live show. us so let's fill that bad boy up you've never let us down before chicago so let's do it we cannot

wait also on sale right now tickets to the virtual live show you can't make it to a regular live show or you just need more live virtual live shows the way to do it just like a regular live show except you're in your living room and we're like our normal setup we would have it at a theater except you're in your living room so fun stuff do that it's. It's on 420. I'm going to get Jimmy really stoned and make his head explode from laughter. So it's going to be a lot of fun. Everything awful. Let's get stoned. You want to be there for that.

Shut up and give me murder.com. Patreon.com slash crime and sports. Get all your bonus stuff there. Anybody $5 a month or above. You're going to get access to the whole back catalog of bonus stuff. Tons episodes there and new ones every other week, including this week, where for crime and sports, we're going to talk about

these early 1900s death row baseball teams. For whatever reason. Whatever reason. Let's form a squad of doomed men and we'll put an eight-year-old with them too, because there's always an eight-year-old in the picture. Give them their last smile on a child. What happened there?

And then for Small Town Murder, we're going to talk about something really fun, defunct theme parks. Yeah, theme parks that didn't work and closed down because they were a dumb idea or they were in the middle of nowhere. So much funny stuff there we'll talk about. Can't wait for that. Patreon.com slash crime and sports. Right. There we go. So now let's get into this i think

it's time to sit back jimmy yeah what do you say we clear the lungs what do you think where are you where are you right now i don't care where you are yeah you know what let's say you're driving an 18 wheeler right now oh that's right i'd like you to pull into the middle of the busiest intersection that you can honk that big truck horn while you hang out the window and shout, shut up and give me murder. And then when you get out of federal prison, you can contact us and we'll give you a free t-shirt because they're going to think that you're probably going to ram that thing into something.

But that said, let's go on a trip. What do you say? Okay. We're going all the way to Idaho this week. Yeah, we're going way up north there. Going to Moscow, Idaho. It's in northwestern Idaho on the Washington border there. It's all panhandle when you go up in that direction.

It is. It is. Oh, it is. It is. And literally and figuratively, it's about an hour and a half south of Coeur d'Alene, which was our last episode we did for Small Town Murder for Idaho. Population here, 26,128. And a lot of those are college students.

There's a college here, so that's a big deal. Median household income, low, $35,979. A lot of that is college kids that make under $15,000 a year. Of course. And then median home cost, very high, $368,300. Fuck, really? Yeah. It's hard to make a living and houses are very expensive.

So it's difficult here. There is something, though, on the website for Moscow's home website here. It says, quote, City of Moscow invites submissions for storm drain murals. So there is that. You can submit here. Say again? Submit your storm drain murals now, and you can apparently – they got to be in by January 30th, 2023. So this is over.

I'm sorry. You can't do it anymore. But they still have it on the website, which is pretty hilarious because I got that yesterday. Storm drain murals. Don't you bury that? Nope. I guess that's why you can paint it. Slap a mural on that bitch.

Let's go. We're going to put it underground anyway. Shit. Quick history here. The late 1860s, early 1870s is when this place was kind of settled by people coming from the east. Miners and farmers were the first people there. They have a lot of camas or camas bulbs. Things, shit that grows in the ground.

I don't know. Camas? Camas. C-A-M-A-S. Camas. Camas. I don't know. Apparently that's what pigs like to eat.

Okay. That's because we're not pig farmers, I think, here. Right. So they called this place. I thought they ate people. Well, if you feed them. Pigs will eat pretty much anything. So I don't see what the difference is.

I've never seen anything that pigs eat other than slop and people. That's it, man. Old sandwiches and shit. So you see bread crusts in there. I guess, yeah, it's in their slop. There's always like bread crusts I always see and carrots. So they called it Hog Heaven, this area, because it was so great. They opened up a post office in 1872.

The town was called Paradise Valley at that point. Oh. And then they changed it to Moscow fucking three years later. Those are two entirely different places. Exactly. There's many, many legends of how the town got its name. Some say it's from a Russian settler that wanted to make it like that other story is that early settlers five local men met to choose a proper name for the town but couldn't agree so then the postmaster just completed the

official papers and he chose it himself because he was from moscow pennsylvania so again a place that's named after a place that was originally named after a place. You can't do that. It happens a hundred times on this show. I know, but it's not okay. We're not surprised by it. Reviews of this town. Here we go.

Five stars. I love the small college town of Moscow in northern Idaho. The community is welcoming and friendly. Probably the most hospitable town I've ever lived in. Ever. Ever. The weather is wonderful to walk in, and walking around the scenic town is my favorite pastime. Yeah, I've always heard college towns are hospitable.

Very hospitable. That's what I think of when I think of college kids. They're awfully hospitable. Well, they will give you, you know, like drugged Mad Dog 2020 and then hop on you. They're very hospitable with their herpes. Yeah, they're hospitable. Very, very hospitable. That's Hacifalisable. That's what they are.

I'll give you that. So three stars. I love Moscow. It was where I was born and raised and has kept me doing the great things I want to do. All right, then. Okay. They have great people and a good organization that pushes you to great lengths. A good organization?

Who's pushing you? Great. Who are you talking about? A lot of undercover fun people live here as well. What the fuck does that mean? What does that mean? Is that a gay thing? Is that a drug thing?

I don't know what. Is that a swinger thing? Is that a swinger thing? Is that a swinger thing? Is that like, I don't know what that is. Undercover fun people. They wear polo shirts, but when it comes off, watch out. Let us know what the shit that means when they get off the ski slope. I don't know.

Here's three stars. I haven't had personal issues, but have heard rumors on the area. That's it. No explanation of what those rumors are. I want more. I really need to know the rest of that story. Maybe it's just like a teaser. They want you to ask questions.

Here's three, the three stars. The police are not willing to put the work in to keep things safe. They won't go outside, apparently. They just stay inside, and they're like, I don't know. Fuck it. They like to write traffic tickets, and that's it. Here is a one-star. Lock You Bike is the title of it.

Oh, somebody lost a bike. Lock You Bike. After living in urban areas all my life, this place is like no other. It's like going back in time 30 years where children can play outdoors and people watch out for each other. It's like going back in time 30 years where children can play outdoors and people watch out for each other. There are some bike thefts and car prowls, but overall it's a very safe place to live and work. This, by the way, at 147 agrees and 230 disagrees. How dare you say a bike was stolen?

So they're a little sensitive here. One star and they didn't even attack it that hard. That's what I mean. That sounds fine, right? Yeah. I've heard there are some bike thefts, so it just cancels out everything else that's good there. Things to do, the Moscow Hemp Festival. Okay. Got to have that.

Just hemp? Just hemp. It's the annual cannabis event held in Moscow, Idaho. Okay. And it began as part of the University of Idaho's Moms Weekend. That's where they started. Come on, moms. Come on down to the hemp fest. It advocates for medical marijuana.

There's a music lineup. Yikes. The Bluegrass Jam Band. Yeah, yeah. The Joy Junkies. The Jason Perry Band. These these are all locals by the way they see moscow ones from spokane like it's not not too far so you need to be hippies you need to be stoned to enjoy this music is what i'm getting at so that's fine yeah it's probably

just a lot of fish covers yeah that said let's talk about a murder what do you say okay let's go back in time here a little bit not very far we're talking yeah texting pre-instagram post-texting 2007 oh okay so good times here this is a good time you had a video camera on your phone but every asshole you met since high school couldn't bother you at the same time. So it was also, I think, a good time. Facebook was jamming, though. And that shit, man. Facebook wasn't open to the public until 2008, I don't think. Early 2008.

No. It was for colleges before that. Yeah, this was MySpace times. It was still MySpace. MySpace. And this was like, there's no app for MySpace. It was just you had to go to MySpace.com. Didn't really work great on your phone. Therefore fuck off yeah it was great you don't have my phone number each yet

yep uh here is john joseph delling let's talk about here he is 21 in 2007 and he's an interesting cat we'll discuss him his father's a vietnam war hero actually he saved three fellow soldiers in a heroic event that happened um but he also had pretty bad ptsd as well so um yeah and it turned into what they would call debilitating mental illness a doctor said so wasn't wasn't great he also had an uncle that's obsessive compulsive disorder, like very bad, and had other mental issues as well. And so he's got some issues coming from his father's side of the family on the mental front here. Kids in the neighborhood where he grew up referred to his father as Crazy Ray and made fun of the family all the time. And, of course, would target young John for being Crazy Ray's kid.

Part of it. Part of it. You're part of that goofy family from over there. So a friend of his named Daniel Vlasic here said that he grew up playing with Delling. And he said that he ended up going to college with him all the way to U of I. And he said John was really active. He loved to mountain bike. He was a great mountain biker. Vlasic went on to say he was not angry or violent or into guns. He seemed like a regular kid who liked to play video games and be outside.

Okay, that's normal. He said, though, around high school, there was what he called a definite shift there for him. He says of Delling, quote, I really started noticing personality and mental changes in John. He became unstable, wary, very paranoid. He said that Delling often spoke about, quote, stuff in his head. Whenever people refer to their brain as their head, I always know that something's really wrong in there when someone goes my head's just not right right now man you run in the other fucking direction because they're not talking about blood and brain which is the only thing in there they're talking about an alien that lives there or yeah the possum that crawled in there and had a baby and now it

lives in there and it's controlling his thoughts shit like that scratching he said the velasic went on to say he mentioned writing a paper that detailed what was going on quote in his head he referred to it as the paper he's got the paper the paper you know what one he's talking about when he says the paper. The paper. The shit that's going on right here, pal. Up here. Whoa. They think he's a paranoid schizophrenic is what the problem is. That's what it sounds like. That develops here. Started displaying symptoms at 16, which is about the right time for that as well.

They said that, a little early I guess too, they said that he became entrenched in an elaborate delusion that a group of children in the area had begun to what he called steal his energy. Yes. And that energy theft would kill him if he allowed it to keep going on. Obviously, that was what he said. I can't allow this to continue. They're killing me. That's what I said when I was married this to continue they're killing me that's what i said when i was

married yeah they're killing me you're stealing my energy do you understand that you're sucking my life force it's you're just sucking it out of me man oh well these aren't even his kids though yeah he doesn't even have kids he's 17 he's a child hanging out holy shit um he had a bit of a problem with a young man uh at a at a high school party i guess they got an argument at a party so he would continue to have ongoing problems with this kid created a beef whenever he saw him there'd be problems uh he they this kid called them occasional hallway tussles with delling and uh one including an incident where delling threw the kid down the school stairs oh that's heavy which is more than a tussle i call that i put that in the attempted murder column as opposed to the tussle column

certainly intention of causing great bodily harm if i have lists and there's like tussles over here and attempted murders over here that's one dash for attempted murder um this guy nobody ever thinks throw somebody downstairs they'll be fine yeah they'll be all right you push elderly and pregnant down there and there's always a consequence that's fucking scary yeah babies and shit like fell down the stairs i guess that's what murderers would do youth or elderly they always die from that fuck so this meyer guy he's the guy who got thrown down the stairs he said he ran into delling at least three times a week he said that delling's ford torres often appeared in his rearview mirror as he was driving jesus christ then um in 2003 it got worse apparently uh meyer and his friends saw delling and delling was in his car near the albertson's grocery store like outside the grocery store so meyer said they gave

him the finger and then just drove back to their friend's house okay fuck you bro and they drove off right they said they were sitting at their friend's house in their volkswagen cabriolet hell yeah that better be a girl driving let's just say that i thought you better have a you better be in the car with a young lady i'm just gonna say if you're a 16 year old girl it's the coolest car in the world yeah if you but in high school when we were in high school, a chick who had that car, that was badass. Holy shit. You're like, oh, man, she was a prize. She was a prize.

She could be hideous. It didn't matter. Yes. Fucking convertible and shit. Yeah. So I guess these boys were sitting in the cabriolet when Delling here, Johnny, pulls up, gets out of his car with the club. Oh, the steering wheel club? Yes. If you don't know what that is that

is in the 80s and 90s when people would put on their steering wheels it's a it's a metal bar with like a very thin rubber coating on it and it's very long so that it prevents car theft because you can start the car it will not turn because that bar prevents it hits the fucking door hits the seat hits your lap it can't turn it can't turn so you're stuck you can't steal the cars it's an anti-theft device and it's a vicious weapon i mean oh it's a metal you can't cut it bar no it's a metal bar man it's and it's got that grip on it too with the rubber it's not good that rubber won't help the person you're hitting but it'll help you grip it better so he comes over and meyer said quote he was shaking

and going frantic talking about delling he said that my friend kept yelling at me to drive and to go and delling started shattering all the windows the whole time screaming i'm gonna kill you i'm gonna kill you blasting with the club with the club if i believe him if he's breaking out your windows with the club yelling i'm gonna kill you he is trying to get to you to kill you. That's what's going on there. So Delling then reached through the broken windows to swing the club in the car to hit them with it. Oh, my. No regard for his own safety or broken glass or anything like that.

Meyer and his friend were both bruised up because he hit the shit out of him. A cabriolet is tiny. You swing a club back and forth, you're hitting everything in that car the windshield the back seat all of it one swing taking the rearview mirror all of it breaking the tape player because i assume it's a got a tape player in it so uh delling gets arrested for that he good he pleads guilty to misdemeanor battery and malicious injury to property he pays restitution he spends a like a couple days in a juvenile detention center and gets less than a year of probation and he's ordered to stay away from the people he beat with the club that's so

minor very minor um when he was 17 delling by the time he's 17 he started hitting himself hard enough to leave bruises on his head he'd like punch himself in the forehead yeah till he left bruises that's so scary fight club style yeah yeah he would pull his own hair out weird intervals he just started yanking his hair out and he believed others were, as he put it, stealing his aura, as his mother later said. Where are his parents to put him, take care of him? We'll hear from them. His mom, Carol, said that, that he started telling them that people were stealing his aura. He'd start punching himself in the forehead and go, they're stealing my aura!

And she'd be like, whoa. He's so sick. Well, this isn't good at all. He's so sick. Well, this isn't good at all. One example here, the neighbors of theirs, the Thompsons, who, by the way, was an elementary school teacher of John. So she's known him forever, the woman in the relationship there. They were eating dinner when they saw the Delling family next door burst into a fight.

The parents, I guess, had gone to look at a motorcycle that John wanted, but they didn't buy it for him. So the Thompsons remember watching Delling freak out, push his father to the ground, grab his mother's purse and throw it across the street. What that motorcycle. That's just a freak out. That's what a two year old does when they have a tantrum, except it's a 17 year old. So it's dangerous. That's a 17 year old incapable of handling their emotions and a two-year-old when they do it it's perfectly harmless because they you can just pick them up and put them in a little cage called the crib and go there you go buckle them buckle them right in there you go yeah you're

turning all sorts of red that's not good you're gonna have a headache later anyway just go about your business um so the the peggy thompson who was his old teacher said she'd known him since he was a little kid so she went over there but she said no nobody knew what to do he just he was you know beyond himself um he's also arrested and charged with battery and stalking which we'll talk about in a second here he does have a best friend, though. Oh. He's not alone. He's not alone.

He has a few friends. That's the thing. And his best friend is nothing like him at all. His best friend is like a nice, upstanding kid that everybody likes. It's a very odd couple, but they're pals. Best friendships. It happens sometimes. They should be opposite.

I guess so, right? I don't know if perfectly well adjusted and insane that's of course and swinging a club through a broken window after you threw your mother's purse across the street is a different story so um this guy's name is david robert boss and he's you know his age grew up in attended school they're from boise these kids in this area they grew up they graduated from timberline high school in 2003 um this kid boss was a lacrosse player um he ended up going to the university of idaho as well um he had a radio show on campus and he was big into soccer and

shit like that so sports he does things he's social he's got friends very likable and he's this guy's best friend um they met right after i I guess, the Dellings had come from California when they were little. And they met up and they were friends since then. This was kindergarten. And so David kind of took on the role of his protector. He'd stick up for him when people would say, oh, your dad's crazy and you're a loser. He'd stick up for him. His mother, John's mother, said John absolutely loved Dave.

He loved Dave. He's his best friend. They were very best pals since they were in kindergarten or first grade. Now, Carol has a husband that's completely disabled by mental illness from Vietnam and a son who's doing what we just described. So she said it was wild. She said also people would always prank phone call them all the time too. She said John was threatened at school and isolated himself from everyone but a couple of friends. She said, I feel like it was the impact from the other kids at school that put a dark cloud on him.

And she also begged the probation officers to get him mental health treatment and it never happened she asked the judge please make that part of his probation that he has to get mental health treatment and they never did it so will he not do it on his own and she is incapable of forcing him i guess she tried to get it court ordered so it's like well if you don't do that then you got to go to jail and either way it's not my problem at that point i feel like maybe i also i don't know she's up to her fucking neck right now in mental illness and it's tough stable in the house it's got to be hard for her you know um so uh now once they went to college i guess once richard boss went to college in 2004 i guess there was less there was less contact between them delling and boss there um. Delling visited Boss there in Boise during Christmas break in 2006, though.

They got back together. They said, though, Boss said that after Delling left on Christmas there, he was concerned for Delling's mental state. He said he was acting irrational and delusional. Now, John goes to college. His parents send him to college, which seems terrifying. Several contacts there with the police. In March 2005,

Delling reported he'd been the victim of an assault, and there was no leads in the case, and it didn't go anywhere. Later that month, he is cited for misdemeanor disturbing the peace after he threatened with violence residents of the U.I.'s Wallace complex of dorms where he was living. So he threatened a bunch of other people in the dorms. It was a verbal confrontation and the charges later dropped.

He was kicked off campus, though, because he kept persisting with fighting with these people. So it's a bit of a mess. He also is convicted of misdemeanor battery after trying to run over a 13-year-old boy with his motorcycle. Oh, fantastic. He did get the bike. Eventually, he got the motorcycle. You got to push dad to the ground and show him who's boss, I feel like. He'll get you a motorcycle at that point. So he spends more than two months in jail and has at least a year of probation

after that and court-ordered anger management as well which i think he's beyond anger right yeah and he doesn't do well with processing thoughts because the idea of hurting somebody one with your motorcycle is bananas if you run someone over that's gonna cause so much damage to you well we have we have the whole story too because that kid who he ran over, the mother of the victim there will tell us more about it. But basically, the kids were sitting around, and they were stealing his aura, and he got pissed off and yelled at a 13-year-old. And it was a group of kids. It was like her three kids. And he went over and ran the 13-year year old over to the point where he had motorcycle tire

marks up his leg and go into his back and then the then the kids all beat the shit out of him the three kids beat the shit out of him after that they knocked him off the bike and punched him and kicked his ass so it's pretty funny actually he gets his ass whooped by it so it's a bit of a mess in june 2005 he pleads guilty to stalking three Boise men as well. And he's going to have to complete 80 hours of community service. I guess he, what a mess he had. Wow. He had peeled out, I guess Delling repeatedly peeled out in his cul-de-sac in his SUV and on his motorcycle. So the neighbor here, Sweeney says it happened a third time and i jumped in my yukon and i chased him down the street yeah calm down fucking yeah calm down hopper jumping in your

watch suv to chase a guy he said he later found out the tires he later found the tires on his yukon were slashed so he assumed it was delling but he couldn't prove it and then delling had several run-ins with Sweeney and his neighbors, and Sweeney said that he and two neighbors filed a police report, and that's when Delling was arrested for a stalking charge. The other men put security systems and surveillance

shit on their house because they were scared. Sweeney said, I was pretty alarmed at the guy being around. He was just one of those very scary people. I'm certainly uh not surprised at anything that he could do so yeah wow um august of 2006 he posts something very weird on a website of the national association for christian recovery which provides resources for Christians battling addiction or trauma. Oh.

The post is titled, quote, Demon Possession. Hell yeah. All right. That's a good place to put it. Perfect. So this is what he says, and it's interesting here. Okay. Quote, the last thing I remember was that saying God gave me strength and power. So I am hoping to get some answers.

People slash demons have done things to me, have led me to where I have no human emotions or memories. Whoa, is first of all. Wow, that's a lot. That's quite the opening. What have they done? He's not burying the lead. I'll give him that. That's good.

opening um what have they done he's not burying the lead i'll give him that that's good um he said and he's also leading with i'm uh i have the personality traits of a serial killer now let me explain this to you that's what i mean and then a big bill cosby now now now one of those so he said i feel very weak i feel very weak and i can't think, feel, or remember. He doesn't use punctuation much, so it's difficult. I believe that I have died. There is a repetitive theme in my mind that I saw the future and people will wipe my mind and wake me hours later. Then all capital letters, not joking, please listen. Just a capital break just for in

case you weren't reading in case that didn't get your attention first of all believe me we're reading kid i'm out of my mind please help yeah he said uh not joking if i wear a yellow shirt that's what happens if he wears a yellow shirt he believes that people he's dead and he's going to be wiped out and all that stuff okay i have been attacked and abused discriminated against by many people for no apparent reason there was a weird event about people putting event there was a weird event about people putting jew and naz Nazi memories in my mind. What? Putting like World War II era memories from long dead people, apparently, in his mind.

Planting those seeds while he sleeps. And then this guy named Sweeney, that's the guy from the neighborhood with the Yukon, this guy named Sweeney, which is the name of a person who dropped one of the bombs on the second plane. Oh, no. I guess he may be a relative. Or Sweeney's a very common last name also. Put a whole lot of the yellow spinning energy into my solar plexus. And then I was sacrificed by possibly a vampire cult as the Sun King or something like that. Oh, God.

I'm not sure. Delusions involve also real people, and that is frightening. That's what's terrifying. It's not just in his head. He projects it onto other people. 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. And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal, or you love to hop in the Wayback Machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes, you should tune in to our podcast, Morbid. Follow Morbid

on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad-free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Welcome to the small town of Chinook, where faith runs deep and secrets run deeper. In this new thriller, available exclusively on Wondery Plus, religion and crime collide when a gruesome murder rocks the isolated Montana community. Everyone is quick to point their fingers at a drug-addicted teenager, but local deputy Ruth Vogel isn't convinced. She suspects connections to a powerful religious group. Enter federal agent V.B. Loro, who has been investigating a local church for possible criminal activity. The pair

form an unlikely partnership to catch the killer, unearthing secrets that leave Ruth torn between her duty to the law, her religious convictions, and her very own family. But something more sinister than murder is afoot, and someone is watching Ruth. With an all-star cast led by Emmy nominee

Sanaa Lathan and Star Wars Kelly Marie Tran, Chinook is available exclusively and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Alright, he's relating that to reality. I'm gonna read again what Sweeney did to him.

Put a lot of the yellow spinning energy into my solar plexus. Yellow spinning energy. Then, he's got a thing with yellow, then I was sacrificed by possibly a vampire cult. Maybe not sure. You know, those things are,

they're very fluid. Um, as the sun King, he's the sun King and they sacrificed him or something like that. I don't know. Something similar. I don't know. You can't put a tail on it.

I've gathered so far. If you can help and relate, then he says says this sounds crazy but please tell me how i can feel and remember things again i like short-term memory especially thank you i miss it so he's asking for help yeah in his own weird way i mean that he's he's laying it out there look dude this is what's going on how the fuck do i get out of this which, he's laying it out there. Look, dude, this is what's going on. How the fuck do I get out of this? And he's reaching to the most stereotypically welcoming group. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean?

Yeah. This seems like a group that should be able to. Maybe they know something about. And also, you're all addicts. You know what the fuck's happening. It's addicts and Christians. Maybe you know something about vampire cults or sun kings. Maybe you can guide me in the right direction.

Get this yellow spinning energy. Have you heard of any of this? Solar solar plexus energy you ever heard of no okay how much is a lot of yellow spinning no shit um neighbors said when they moved the dellings moved to a different house they were very happy that they moved out of the neighborhood they noticed him wow um yeah they moved from boise and then they ended up moving to sacramento california the sacramento area they noticed him in his car on zero degree morning sleeping in the in his car okay which is not normal um yeah they said that was weird so by 2007 jesus christ um they his his brother eric here said the last time he had talked to him was two or three weeks earlier than when they talked to him here. They said, I haven't talked to him in weeks.

And they said, Eric said that during the visit, John asked him, quote, do you think David is the one stealing my powers? Oh, boy. Meaning David Boss, his best friend. Yeah. So Eric said that it wasn't the first time that Delling had commented on someone stealing his power or stealing his aura. And at that point, Eric, his brother, said that he, quote, believed John had really lost it. He said John was so upset he went out of control and damaged the bathroom in his parents' residence. They had to call the cops.

Broke up the bathroom. Started busting the bathroom up, knocking the soap dish off the wall. I don't know what else. Mirrors, I guess. The bathroom's a lot of hard surfaces that are hard to break. Sure is. So tie up. There are a few things that you can just punch and break.

That's what I mean. Outside of the mirrors. I don't know what you're breaking. Rip the medicine cabinet door off. Throw it across the street with mom's purse. Water fixtures out of the mirrors. I don't know what your brain. Rip the medicine cabinet door off, throw it across the street with mom's purse. Water fixtures out of the drywall. I guess that's all you can do, really. So they called the cops.

He also had guns, too. He doesn't need guns. So the family took away his guns and sold them. And sold them. Yeah, got rid of them out of the house. He can't be around them. So March 20th, he ends up in Tucson, Arizona. This is part of a little journey that he's going to go on.

A 6,500-mile journey where he goes. He flies. He goes on trains. He rides buses. He's on bicycles at some point. He's just, it's the weirdest. Every form of transportation. Everything.

Everything you can imagine. He's just gumping across the USA here. So there's a guy named Jacob Thompson, and they knew each other in high school. Yeah. So they haven't talked in a long time. Yeah. But Delling apparently tracked him down on the internet uh-huh and found him in tucson yep and it's very weird uh i guess thompson jacob thompson was in his home and he they said there

was tapping on his window at his house oh no so he looked out and it was a guy telling him he needed to move his truck which was parked out in front of his house so he's like oh maybe there's something going on you know whatever i don't know so he went out to move his truck, which was parked out in front of his house. So he's like, oh, maybe there's something going on, you know, whatever. I don't know. So he went out to move his truck. So he said as he moved the truck, he saw a man sitting on a bicycle. And he asked, Thompson said he asked the man on the bicycle, are you the one who wanted my truck moved?

And he said the man on the bicycle approached him and fired five times into his driver's side window. Oh, my God. F him and fired five times into his driver's side window. Oh, my God. Fired a gun five times. Thompson was hit three times. One bullet hit him in the face and lodged in the back of his head. Shit. And he survived.

He survived. Yeah, he survived. He's a University of Arizona student. He survives and does well enough to be able to identify Delling in a lineup later on as well. It's his friend from then. He knew just his friend from high school.

He said, what's he up to? And then tracked him down 1,000 miles away, 1,500 miles away. And tried to kill him. Tried to kill him for no reason. For nothing. No reason. And then he moves on.

They didn't arrest him. He takes off. He goes about his journey. Okay, yeah. So sometime between March 26th and 28th, he ends up in Boise again, Delling, and he buys a.38 caliber handgun while he's there. Perfect. March 31st, 2007.

Okay. He's driving a white Chevy Aveo four door here that he got from, that's a shit car, man. Oh boy. He got it from an enterprise rent a car in Boise. Yeah. And so the March,

Saturday, March 31st, it's barely, it's just after midnight. So Friday night still at two 12 AM. Delling calls David boss at his apartment in Moscow and says, hey, what's going on? And he says, I'm in Moscow. I'm hanging out.

So Boss tells him, yeah, I guess come over. Sure. I got to show you this hilarious car. Yeah, I got to show you. It's so bad. What a piece of shit. You're going to love it. The review of the car was,

Chevy's so embarrassed they only put their logo on this three times. That is a real piece of shit. It's a bad car. It's a bad car. So he comes over to the house here. 12-12 is when the call comes in. And by 12-30, David Boss is found by his roommate, shot twice in the head in his apartment.

That was fast. They think that Boss opened the door for him. Delling walked in and immediately shot him twice and left. Oh, my God. Didn't even have a conversation with him, they don't think here. What is happening? It's crazy. His roommate found him.

They found jacketed hollow point bullets bullets spent jacketed hollow point bullets from a 38 revolver on the scene and uh one gunshot wound was found to the left temple and that's the first one the second one is at the in the rear at the base of his skull back of the head he just put the gun he shot him once and then came up and made sure put it in the back of his head the first shot was from six to eight inches away so you know an apartment close proximity and the second shot was about an inch away just oh dear lord powder burns and everything man it's fucking crazy a lot of gun that's a lot yeah that's a lot so he this trip includes 6 500 miles he was in california idaho oregon utah washington arizona nevada just all over it going on he's not finished yet though he leaves moscow now where he shot his best friend and he drives

down to boise yeah he ends up down there and on april 2nd he's in boise and there's a guy named bradley winter morse like morse code m-o-r-s-e uh he's brad morse um brad's born in 1982 he's a guy named Bradley Winter Morse, like Morse code, M-O-R-S-E. He's Brad Morse. Brad's born in 1982. He's a couple years older than Delling here. He has four sisters. He grew up in Meridian, Idaho. He has no connection to Delling.

They didn't grow up together. They don't know each other. Yeah, he's a real nice guy, though, good student. They don't know each other. Yeah. He's a real nice guy, though. Good student. He's honored on senior night by his teachers with the award for outstanding foreign language student in Japanese.

The man speaks Japanese. Yeah. He played tennis. He was awarded most improved player by his coach. He wrote an essay that was selected as one of the best in the nation and won a trip to Washington, D.C. from that. He was an elder in the church. He's a Mormon, elder in the Mormon church. He served as a missionary in West Virginia, Ohio, and Virginia and has a position of leadership in the church. They said he's a little bit shy but just the nicest kid in the world.

shy but just the nicest kid in the world uh he did uh he gave up his scholarship to work for a year and a half doing computer tech support to save up enough money to pay for his mission jesus um yes and then when he left for his mission he gave his car to a young man whose mom had terminal cancer so he could take her to her appointments i'm not even kidding um so he's a junior at boise state majoring in computer science he met morse on a gaming website oh he also likes to gamble this kid so you know it's not a bad gaming or like video gaming i don't know uh gaming i assumed it was yeah could be video games so either way he is it's some kind of website they met on. And they never met in person. They don't know each other.

They don't even know what each other looked like. Delling used the internet to find out where he was, track him down. Oh, boy. Finds out. Now, Morse works at the Parks and Rec building in Boise. He works for the city. And at 9.31 p.m. on on April 2nd he ended his custodial shift and there

and he I guess he set off an alarm leaving by accident when he was leaving the place gets outside he is shot in the head two gunshots to the head for this man

outside right when he leaves his place. He walks out of his workplace and he's shot in the head. Then Delling takes him, drags him, and throws him in a pond. What the fuck? Just off the Boise River or something. There's no reason for any of this. No, he doesn't even know this guy. But apparently, who knows what he was

thinking on this website this guy was stealing his aura through the website you know what i mean i don't know if he beat him in fucking he had a better run at vice city than him and he was pissed or san andreas or whatever what about the guy in tucson like how are these people draining him that's what in his mind whatever it is that one guy that I was in math class with in the 11th grade is stealing my aura right now. I haven't talked to him in seven years. I feel it. I can feel it. I better look him up and go kill him.

That's another level of insane. Holy shit. Yeah. So the next morning at 9.53 a.m., Idaho Parks and Rec employees discover a body in the pond, and it's identified as Bradley Morse. But 9.31 is when Morse sets off the alarm, leaving the building. By 10.50, Delling is returning his rental car to the airport. Two hours, not even. Yeah, in an hour 20, he's back at the, you know, he's murdered him, thrown him in a pond, and now is returning the rental car.

So, wow. This is wild shit man uh then delling takes morse's car okay so i don't know if he got a taxi back there to steal his car or how he did that but somehow he returned his car and steals we we know he steals morse's car because of you know where he's where he's found so they also now they know there's three murders they're starting the david boss murder they the roommate knows that he was coming over so they immediately focus in on delling sure they track him through you know electronic shit through his phone through his bank accounts and stuff they track him to airfare airfare yeah so they know what he's doing they know where he's going um then when he is the other Morse's shot, they were like, is there a connection there?

It all fits. But they're like, they don't know each other. How the fuck do they know each other? So that doesn't make any sense. They didn't know what to do. But they're definitely trying to find Delling. They found that Delling has a list. There's more people on a list.

Oh, he's that guy. He's got a list. The first three are the first three people on his list oh he's that guy he's got a list the first three are the first three people on his list and now he's got he's got four more oh no he's got a list of seven he's got seven people that are fucking up his aura that he needs to get rid of so he can not have his aura stolen obviously when you're the sun king you can't let people come at you like that you know what i'm saying you got to go after you got to knock the biggest guy down the second you get there when you're the sun king get the night man that's it so wow so they were they were terrified they're like where the fuck is he going

he could be going anywhere uh this is a lieutenant in the boise police they said after the u of i homicide and the morse homicide we had information that a Boise State student was in fear of John Delling. He said, I don't know what tied it all together, but we hoped that that information would assist them. This helped a lot. Remember Matt Meyer, the guy who got attacked with the club? Right. He heard this was going on and contacted the police. And he said that he's been afraid of Delling for years.

And after Boss's murder, he contacted the Boise police to offer tips and ask for protection. He said that, quote, if he's here in Boise and he's snapped, he's going to be in the south end and he's armed and he won't leave the south end and it will be all night. Sweeney better lock it up. Yeah, he is going to kill

motherfuckers. So they talked to this is his brother Eric, John's brother Eric again here, and they said that they asked, they said, the brother asked, is David Boss okay? And they ignored it, and then he said, I want to know if David is all right. And they said, Boss is not all right. And his brother said, that goddamn John killed David, didn't he? So they finally track John down in Sparks, Nevada. Oh.

Yes. Driving Morse's car. He's driving Morse's car. They tracked him through cell phone usage and set up a perimeter around the area where they found because they found his car empty. So they set up a perimeter around there. They found Delling lurking behind a bush. It's empty, so they set up a perimeter around there. They found Delling lurking behind a bush.

When police approached him and said, what's your name? He said, John Smith, which is a terrible fake name. And then he said, all right, fine, John Delling. They took him into custody. He was wearing an Idaho t-shirt and had Morse's Mazda keys in his front pocket. So he's all sorts of connected here. So they search the car. They find blood on a black leather jacket and the car's floorboard. They also find a.38 caliber revolver in the front passenger seat

containing three live rounds and two spent casings. Doesn't even reload? Doesn't even reload. Not after the last one. He did after Boss. They also found a box of Winchester.38 caliber jacketed hollow point ammunition with 10 rounds missing from the box.

A digital camera was found along with a March 26th Southwest Airlines ticket receipt from Sacramento to Boise and a bill of sale for the.38 caliber revolver with his signature on it. That cow,

that gun matches the bullets that shot everybody. So the last two anyway, not Thompson. So, um, they got a lot of evidence on him. He's pretty fucked. Yeah.

He's in trouble. The Meyer guy said he got some sleep that night. Finally, for the first time since high school, listen to this quote, quote, I was worried i would be 30 something years old with a family with a career and i'd be walking to my car and go to work one

day and some creepy guy would come up to my car and shoot me twice in the head i knew someday it would eventually come to an end either with me dying or him getting locked up oh boy this guy it's been this is crazy man um wow so uh, yeah, they also wanted to search the rental car, but it had been rented again by the time they got to it. So they're like, well, that's all trampled on. So now they're worried there might be other victims. The cops said, we've been overwhelmed with these possibilities. Who might have been the victims if he was planning another shooting? Why did he drive 6,500 miles in a month? What happened between March 20th and March 30th,

which, yeah, is murders. So they sent alerts to other departments along the possible routes that he could have taken to see if any unsolved shootings happened in that area. They said he had to eat, he had to sleep, he had to stop and get gas. He had to talk to people or hoping these people can help. There's certainly a long pattern of behaviors that put people in fear. Yeah, no shit. His parents within two weeks write a letter to the newspaper, the Idaho statesman. Yeah. Basically to say, you know, hey, not our fault. We didn't do this. Don't blame us. Yeah. They say, quote, to the Idaho statesman, on behalf of our family, I'd like to express to anyone and everyone touched by the recent tragedies, our deep sadness and loss and injury

of those three fine young men. We have been grieving along with all of you and are still searching for answers as to why this happened. Please be unequivocally assured that everything under the law and our power was utilized to prevent anything serious. One thing is clear, there was no preventative safety net in place to correct or rein in a potentially serious situation. In legislation, no mental health entity nor any church-based aid could get a firm handle on this. John was very sick and needed more than this system had to offer our prayers go out to everyone the dellings that complete absolution

of our responsibility is what that is he's sick it's his fault listen we tried nobody would help sorry that's what it is my our bad um. And they said that it's so weird. One of the cops said, we just don't know if he had any close friends. By all the accounts we've got, the two people he shot were the nicest to him, which was Thompson and Boss. So John then, while in jail, because he's sitting in Idaho jail here, he decides to give an interview to the Idaho Statesman newspaper. Oh, we love that paper. Very much against his attorney's advice. They're like, you don't do this.

Don't talk to them. No, no, we trust them. My parents talk to them. It's good. I trust them. It's cool. My parents sent the letter. He said, quote, I didn't have any intent to kill people.

Let me put it that way i'm pretty much possessed i have no control over my body pretty much possessed that's how it works i'm pretty much possessed i'm sort of the sun king i don't know he then told reporters that he had been sexually and mentally abused during his childhood and that another person was involved in the killings as well he didn't do it alone he did a 45 minute interview he discussed by the way um topics during this interview obviously yellow and how we don't like it uh yellow submarines no good um me being the sun king possible vampire cults possession possession, demon things in general.

Also, the Columbine school shootings. Really? And the shootings that left 32 people dead at Virginia Tech University as well. He's into that. He said, they said, are you into that sort of thing? And he said, well, you know, I don't agree with those rampages completely but i do understand and sympathize with the shooters and i do consider them martyrs so because the the idea is the right thing you don't know if he was had his soul taken from him you don't know that there's no way 32 were doing something to that man but there was probably a

couple of those he probably got at least a dozen people that were stealing his aura in there i would assume right what the fuck he says quote when you kill somebody your solar plexus take in the power of that person and gives it to your god no is he the highlander what the fuck are you talking about? This is ridiculous. That's not what happens at all. Yeah, he said he's been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and is being given medication in jail. He said he wasn't sure if the medication helped his condition. Judging from what he said, I would say no, because he's thinking all of this is still there. He does say that my mental health is very, very bad.

No shit. Agreed, yeah. You could talk to him for five for five minutes now here's the mother of the earlier victim the 13 year old on the bike okay she says quote hi all i am the mother of the boy that john terrorized in june of 2005 with his motorcycle yeah for several weeks my three sons had trouble with John following them around town and harassing them. He on his motorcycle and them on their skateboards. They were all under the age of 18 at the time. On that day, they were innocently walking back home from uptown with some of their friends. They had seen John on the main road, so decided to cut through the Ivy Wild pool and come home that way, hoping to avoid him. Needless to say, the ivy wild pool and come home that way hoping to avoid

him needless to say he caught up with them and continued harassing the boys there were seven of them in all ranging from ages 13 to 17 he was alone on his motorcycle most people in their right minds would not go up against a group of people he is obviously not in his right mind then or now he jumped the curb and he headed straight for my youngest son, then 13. Who does he think he is? Vanilla Ice? Yeah, he's doing it cool as ice. He's going to jump the fucking, cut off a horse, jump a motorcycle over a fence in front of a horse.

And then when a chick falls off and luckily doesn't break her neck, he's like, what's up, girl? What's up, baby? I know you like people that almost kill you. What's happening? I'm going to see you again. Yeah. Drop that zero and get with a hero. Oh, I got to fucking choke him in that movie.

He was knocked to the ground and practically run over with the motorcycle. He had tire tracks running up the back of his shorts. That's unbelievable. He had tire tracks running up the back of his shorts. That's unbelievable. He said, my boys are true redneck boys from the East mess. Okay. From the East.

Messed with one and you get the whole enchilada. My oldest punched John in the face and tried pulling him off the bike. The middle one hit him a couple times as well. And my youngest, not wanting to be left out, hit him over the head with a skateboard. What a scene, man. Can you imagine witnessing that scene white trash kids i would sit at my window and just watch this oh i hope this never ends baby come look some children they're beating him this is amazing i'll hit him with the skateboard it's getting good come on Remember when I lived by the methadone clinic? Yeah. And that family right out in the street by my house had a big confrontation,

and the one kid was swinging a broomstick at his whole family? He was swinging a broomstick back and forth, screaming, It's 911, Mom. Call them. Call them. It's 911, Mom. Call them. While swinging a broomstick at like eight of his relatives.

It was awesome like she forgot it was like 30 yards away and we just sat in the driveway staring we were like whoa this is awesome this is the craziest thing i've ever seen in my life this is better than tv like this is so much better than anything this is better because a dude tried to, he thought he was in charge, man, with that motorcycle. Yeah, he thought he was doing it. And they corrected him and showed him that a fucking Tony Hawk is better. Oh, my God. So she goes on to say, well, my husband and I were very naive and let the courts talk us into plea bargaining and let John off with taking anger management classes and a small amount of probation.

bargaining and let John off with taking anger management classes and a small amount of probation. As God is my witness, I told my mom and the victim services lady in court that, uh, mark my words, he went from stalking to battery in such a short time. It's only a matter of time before he ends up killing someone because the courts keep letting him off. Oh God. I dealt with some major guilt issues over that. If only we had pushed it further, maybe he would have spent time in jail and those poor boys and their families would not be suffering so much today.

He'd have been out by then. However, I'm not the only one who holds some blame here. The courts failed miserably. They should have seen the pattern was escalating and only going to get worse. They are the professionals and should have the training to recognize the signs. I just thank God that he hadn't quite gone over the

edge when he went after my sons. Otherwise things might have turned out very differently for us yeah i would say so that was uh from 2008 so she thinks a judge should have recognized a man hit children with his motorcycle and got the shit kicked out of him and that's an indicator that he's going to go kill it's going to go on a murder spree yeah or he's just kind of a random asshole you know that happens too so just praise your boys for beating the fuck out of him no shit the case gets delayed for over a year because of his he was unfit to stand trial he was found multiple times a psychiatrist appointed to the court said that delling had an hallucination in which he believed he was Jesus and had millions of children and could also see the future. How's the jury going to see you, sir?

Jesus, millions of children can see the future. Perfect. Perfect. This is great. Yellow swirly thing. It's all going on. yellow swirly thing it's all going on um so the judge said by after a while said that he was they were leaning toward letting delling go to trial after hearing that his delusions had receded and his mental health had improved some oh boy so at the time his defense lawyer said i don't think he

can understand what's going on here he said quote if you're sitting with a client who believes he's jesus how can you expect him to make rational decisions? Excellent point. That's a really good point. He also said in the first case, in the Boss case, he believed that Boss was, quote, a wolf. And he shot him. In case

two, he said that he believes that a wolf, or a supernatural figure of a wolf, had ordered him to kill Morse. That's why he did that. Okay. So problem is this seems like the most just custom made insanity case ever. Right.

It's well documented. Yeah. Well, in Idaho, you're not. Insanity is not a defense. You're not allowed to use that. They don't. They got rid of the they abolished the insanity defense in 1982 in idaho why'd they do that it doesn't remove the element of criminal responsibility

for the crime the prosecution still required to prove it and all that kind of thing but you're not allowed to say that uh mental condition as part of your defense that's not good because you have to be able to recognize wrong from to be even if you recognize wrong from right yeah even if you think you're a wolf and jesus and a vampire and have millions of children and can see the future oh my god so they have they just proceed with this shit he enters a guilty plea for the killing of bradley morse uh here in exchange for the plea they agree to drop a charge of theft and using a firearm in a crime so we'll get to the whole thing here he goes to court for the delling thing next that's a trial and uh he's found guilty

obviously i mean there's no doubt he did it it's for boss yeah for boss so he goes to trial here uh and during sentencing he says they said do you have anything to say for yourself? Yeah. This ought to be good. Turn on the spotlight. Whoa. Make sure that mic's hot. Yeah. He said, quote, first of all, a sincere apology to the families, especially Dave's family for what I did. Dave was a really good friend of mine. If it hadn't been what some people did to me, I'm not going to do anything like this ever again.

So he trailed off. He said, if it hadn't been for what some people did to me, trailed off and said, I'm not going to do anything like this ever again. It's not even in my nature. Then he said, took a pause and said, this wouldn't have happened if other people hadn't been quote using me as Jesus or something like that, trying to sacrifice me to give other people eternal life. Like, for real. Like, you know, like, I'm trying to be nice here and I feel bad for Dave's family,

but, yo, like, I'm also only human here. Or actually a vampire Jesus, whatever I am. I don't know, a wolf possibly, I'm not sure. I could be a sun god, you don't know. Sun gods. Sun king, sun king. Right. So the judge said, quote, and this is a judge.

This is, take this in totality how crazy this statement is. Quote, I don't question that's how he frames it in his own mind. But in my function here is to protect society. The district court went on to detail here how he then planned his attacks, you know, do the whole thing. The judge talked about the whole thing and said after detailing the complexity of the attacks, they said that the court did not believe that Delling had the ability to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or conform to the conduct of the requirements of the law, which is the definition of the insanity. But Idaho doesn't have that. That doesn't matter in Idaho. You know it doesn't matter. Judge Zeman went on to say there's no denying that Delling was motivated solely by paranoid schizophrenia.

But she also agreed with prosecutors that he showed cunning and forethought in his crimes and could hide his delusions when it suited him. That makes him especially dangerous to society. She said it's unfortunate that Delling's illness didn't hamper his ability to plan or carry out the murders, and she said he could have carried out more if he hadn't been stopped. She said there's evidence of enormous premeditation. There were four other people on the list that were also marked for death as a result of the defendant's delusions. His mental illness does not affect his lethality. It's unfair and unreasonable to place society at any risk. He could conceal his delusions and act on them against anybody again.

Yes. Yes. He's a fucking lunatic. He's crazy. You, sir, may fuck off. Now, the sentence could range anywhere from 10 years to life for this. A lot of leeway in this. Two life sentences, no parole.

Oh, boy. Yeah. He's fucking crazy. Yeah. He's crazy. Sincerely, yeah. There's no two ways about it. It's not a funny thing.

It's funny, but it's not like a funny thing. Like, oh, he's a little loopy or he's acting crazy or he's trying to get. He's a fucking maniac. He has no idea what he's doing. His situation isn't funny. His fucking words are funny. What he did isn't funny. No, but what he thinks is crazy.

It's fucking nuts. So the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Psychiatry and the law, American Academy of Psychiatry and the law, filed an amicus brief, which is a friend of the court brief, in support of his request to have his case heard by the Supreme Court. They said, for centuries and in virtually all American jurisdictions, the law has recognized that when serious mental illness prevents a defendant from grasping that his conduct was wrong, the defendant should not be held criminally responsible.

Under the statutory scheme in place in Idaho, Under the statutory scheme in place in Idaho, Delling could not defend against the charge of second-degree murder by showing, as the district court accepted, that he has no ability to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct. Jesus, this court should grant and hold that his case and also should rule so it abolishes this law. So November of 2012, so the Supreme Court refused to consider whether a criminal defendant has a constitutional right to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. They rejected his appeal. Idaho is one of only four states that barred defendants from claiming they were legally insane or unable to appreciate what they did was wrong. It is Idaho, Kansas, Montana, and Utah. Right there together.

Open space is the only thing they have in common, I guess. The U.S. Supreme Court has chosen not to address the constitutionality of the defense scheme even though it's been presented with the opportunity to do so, they say. They didn't say shit about it, basically. Stephen Breyer was interested in it and put a thing

out, but other than that, nobody really cared. December 2016. Holy balls. He's in jail at the Idaho State Correctional Institution near Kuna in southwest Idaho. They have him in a medium security facility. What? And he attempts to escape.

Of course he does. He jumps two fences. He climbed over two six-foot fences and then was in the midst of climbing over 12-foot razor wire fences. Oh, Jesus. When he was caught by a—the prison didn't find him. A cop passing by saw a fucking guy on the fucking 12-foot razor wire fence of a prison, which is a bad sign, and called the prison and went, hey, you missing one? Check all your cells, guys. I think I know where he is possibly.

Somebody's either getting out or climbing in. I don't know what's going on. Either way, it's something you should probably be aware of. So he gets caught, and he's moved to the Maximum Security Institution instead near Kuna. So that's where he is. He is there. He's serving his two life sentences. He's not going to get out.

There's a mailing address for him here, John Joseph Delling, number 9-3-4-5-4, Idaho Maximum Security Institution, C Block,O. Box 51 Boise, Idaho 83707 So, I don't know Don't write it Don't let him know your name or where you live If he ever gets out, he's coming to your house He's definitely coming over

to say hi, he's going to track you down Now it's much easier to track people down 2007 You didn't even have all of their social media shit to hone in on them. You had to do it in different ways. You had to really know what you were doing. And his hello is so dangerous. He said hello to three people, and it's over.

It's quick. None of them, there was no conversation. There was no, why are you stealing my aura, bro? You'd think he would say, why the fuck are you stealing my aura? Let's talk about it. None of my aura you know like let's talk about it none of that shit yeah let's see give it back i don't know put it back into my solar plexus but he doesn't seem to give a shit so there you go that everybody is moscow idaho crazy ass story if you like that get on whatever app you're on give us five stars it really does

help say something nice it helps drive us up the charts and do you does your boys well so yes thank you if you do that and uh if you don't do that i don't know you're mean so no you're not my aura you're stealing my aura man i'm the sun king i need that so do that uh follow us on social media also we are at at small town murder on instagram at murder small on twitter at small town pot on facebook you definitely want to head over to shut upAndGiveMeMurder.com today. What's there? Tickets to all sorts of shit. Not only the shows coming up here March. We have the 23rd, 4th, and 5th.

We're in Seattle for two shows, 23rd, 24th, 25th in Portland. Then we are in Pittsburgh and Detroit in May. Then the rest of the tickets are on sale March 3rd for the whole rest of the year. Chicago, everything. Minneapolis, Denver, Salt Lake, San Diego, Atlanta, DC, Boston, Dallas, Charlotte. We're going to all these places. So get your tickets right now or get your tickets March 3rd for those right now for the rest of them, the earlier shows. And also get your tickets for the April 20th 420 virtual live show.

It's going to be great. We can't wait. You should see what Sarah's doing to that studio. Boy, it is weed-themed and going to be a good time. I'm going to get Jimmy real stoned, and we're going to laugh our balls off about a crazy murder case, just like a regular live show. But you're in your living room.

You don't have to deal with traffic or people or any of that bullshit. So check that out. That's April 20 20th and you can get those tickets right now and anytime up to there and the show's available for a week after we air it too so you can see it anytime for a week after that shut up and cry in the corner yes from laughter shut up and give me murder.com is where you get all of that patreon.com slash crime and sports is where you get everything else your bonus episodes anybody five dollars a month or above is where you get all of that. Patreon.com slash Crime and Sports is where you get everything else. Your bonus episodes. Anybody $5 a month or above is going to get everything.

You name it. The whole back catalog, 150 plus bonus episodes and new episodes every other week. Two new ones. One Crime and Sports, one Small Town Murderer. You get it all. This week for Crime and Sports, we're going to talk about death row baseball teams from like 100 years ago, 120 years there was always a uh just a picture with like 10 murderers and an eight-year-old and they all wore the same uniform it's we're going to find out what the fuck happened there and then for small town murder something really cool we're going to talk about defunct failed theme parks

great they are now just rotting hulks of rides and an old Ferris wheel and shit. We're going to talk about why things didn't work out. Why did the Tilt-A-Whirl stop? Bad location, bad idea. Who the fuck knows? We'll find it all out. Patreon.com slash Crime and Sports. And you get a shout out at the end of the regular show. Yes.

You want to follow us on social media. Very easy to do that. Head over to Shut Up and Give Me Murder. While you're getting your tickets, click on those links and you can get. We're there. So there you go. Find us and you can follow us on social media. That said, thank you so much for hanging out with us.

And until next week, everybody, it's been our pleasure. Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Small Town Murder early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast, Morbid. We're your hosts. I'm Alina Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly.

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

Like a liar. And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal, or you love to hop in the Wayback Machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes, you should tune in to our podcast, Morbid. Follow Morbid on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen to episodes early and ad-free by joining Wondery Plus and the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.