Small Town Murder - #432 - Broken Trust, Broken Skull - Elko, Nevada

Episode Date: October 20, 2023

This week, in Elko, Nevada, a ranch hand, who everyone calls "Turkey", with a shady history goes missing, and everyone thinks he just took off. Until he's found face down in a river. The evidence says he's been there for a while, and all leads back to a local couple, who may have been collecting people's insurance policies for future murders! But is there enough evidence to actually get a conviction??Along the way, we find out that there are rules to where a brothel can operate, that transient robbers wouldn't neatly put your wallet back in your pocket, and that there are some things that you shouldn't tell your sister in law!!Hosted by James Pietragallo and Jimmie WhismanNew episodes every Thursday!Donate at: patreon.com/crimeinsports or go to paypal.com and use our email: [e-mail] to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder & Crime In Sports!Follow us on...twitter.com/@murdersmallfacebook.com/smalltownpodinstagram.com/smalltownmurderAlso, check out James & Jimmie's other show, Crime In Sports! On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Wondery, Wondery+, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You're listening early and ad-free on Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay! And choo-choo! Oh, yay indeed, yay indeed my name is james petra gallo 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 with some crazy stuff today as usual very quickly before we start you certainly want to listen to our new podcast your stupid opinions we talked about it for months and it you certainly want to listen to our new podcast, Your Stupid Opinions. We talked about it for months, and it is here.

Wherever you listen to podcasts, there's five episodes out. Get in there. Check it out. So much fun. And so it's just great. It's hilarious. People's dumb reviews from the Internet. So check that out.

We can't wait. Also, listen to Crime and Sports while you're doing that because nutty stuff's been happening over there you probably want to hear about it you also want to head over to shut up and give me murder.com get your tickets for the virtual live show oh yes shut up and give me murder.com slash virtual live october the 26th the halloween spectacular we're gonna be wearing costumes got a creepy story oh man it's gonna be, man, it's going to be so much fun. It's going to be so much fun. It'll be available for a week after the 26th as well, so you can watch it as many times as you want.

Save it for Halloween. Do whatever you want to do. We can't wait. Shut up and give me murder.com slash virtual live. Also, patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get all the bonus material. So much bonus material. Anybody $5 a month or above, you get so much stuff. You get over 200 episodes from the back catalog of all bonus episodes.

You get those immediately and then two new ones every other week. This week, what you're going to get for Crime in Sports, we're going to talk about BS High. Yes. Which is actually Bishop Sycamore High, but the BS is very fitting. It's a fake high school where they put it together just for football, and it's a disaster and a mess. And I believe the man running it's a dangerous person. And then for small-town murder, we're going to talk about Amy Fisher and Joey Buttafuoco. We'll get into all that.

And if you know nothing about that, you definitely just want to hear a story about a man named Joey Buttafuoco. We'll get into all that. If you know nothing about that, you definitely just want to hear a story about a man named Joey Buttafuoco. And that's a real person. It's hilarious. And he's just as funny as he sounds. So check all of that out. And more. That is Patreon.com slash Crime and Sports. That said, let's get into this, Jimmy.

Let's get into this, everybody. I think it's time to sit back. Let's all take a deep breath. clear the lungs, and let's all shout, shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, Jimmy. What do you say, everybody? Let's go on a trip. We're going out to Nevada again. Oh, wow.

It's been a while. Nevada's a weird one because there's a lot of desert and then there's two cities and not a lot in between them. So most of the... Just Reno and Vegas? It's kind of that, yeah. Most of the murders take place in Vegas.

People will come from other towns to Vegas to kill someone. So it's very difficult. But we do find them sometimes and when we do, they are weird. The last one we did was the strawberry shortcake girl.

Remember that? So, yeah, a little redhead. Yeah, that was a crazy one. So this is Elko, Nevada we're doing here. Elko, Nevada. We've done Elko. The county is Elko as well. So we've done ones in this county.

I thought it sounded familiar. Yeah, this is population here is about 20,391. So not that big of a place. Median household income is high, actually. $80,148 a year. What are they close to? Not much. How the fuck are they doing that?

It is in northeastern Nevada, just kind of out by itself. It's about an hour and a half from the last Nevada episode, which was Wendover. it's about an hour and a half from the last nevada episode which was wendover it's about an hour and a half from there it's it's a just middle of nowhere kind of a place k somehow it's a i don't understand it and the motto of this what are you going with jimmy is it going to be good place to work live and play or the heart of something which one which one you going with it's certainly the heart. The heart of Northeast Nevada is the heart of it. Isn't Reno up there, too? That's Northwest Nevada.

Is it Northwest? Yeah, Reno's over, yeah, because that's over by California. That's near Tahoe, right? Yeah, yeah, that's over that direction. This is over in the east. There's really nothing out here. A little bit of the history. Elko is named for a guy named Charles Crocker, who was a superintendent of the railroad. So, again. Charles Crocker. Crocker. Elko is named for a guy named Charles Crocker, who was a superintendent of the railroad.

So, again. Charles Crocker. Crocker. Elko? Elko. Well, he was named Elko at first because he said that he really loved animal names for towns. They said, we'd like to name a town after you. He said, no, no, no, no, no.

Don't name it Crockett. Don't name it like, you know, Chuck Crockett Town or anything like that. I like animal names for towns. I like that. So call it. The fuck's an elk? And I love elk. And just you add an O to it and now there's something.

That's the legend. That's what everyone says. I have no fucking idea. Big fan of those big bugling beasts. Oh, boy. You know what? I want to name it after elk. In 1925, the Kelly Act, which is the Air Mail Act of 1925, authorized the USPS, the postal service, to contract with private airlines for feeder routes that fed the main transcontinental route. So to help out.

They would just drop pallets of mail here? Yeah. There's still mail on commercial flights. That's a ton of stuff. Yeah, it gets shipped on commercial because there's a ton of planes going? Yeah. There's still mail on commercial flights. That's a – Oh, okay. Tons of stuff gets shipped on commercial because there's a ton of planes going out everywhere. They have extra room. They're willing to sell it.

People are willing to buy it. So the first commercial air mail flight in the U.S. was on the 487-mile air mail Route No. 5 from Pasco, Washington to the elko regional airport in 1926 so i always thought that the the airmail was like it was dropped but they land like yeah they just throw it from real far away they get a guy who's got a good arm and they really just get a good toss here it comes airmail coming in hot all right reviews of town. Here's some fun stuff here. Five stars. First one. Got to give a good review. Elko is an amazing place. The culture, the cowboys and the friendly community all make it a great place to live. The selections of restaurants are not too bad, but there are many great places such as the star Toki Onna, which are excellent places to eat. Although the housing in Elko is expensive, not far outside of Elko, there are much cheaper options if you want to live in the middle of the dirt. Even more fucking rural area. Yeah.

It sounds like it's just cowboy country. It's kind of what it is up there. It's strange. Here's three stars. Here we go, everybody. And this is some meta shit here. Heard about reviewing small towns from my favorite podcast. I wonder who that is.

Figured I'd give them something to read in case they decide to do a podcast on one of the many murders that happen in our quaint town. Well, you're in luck, everybody. It's your lucky day. I grew up in Elko and I'm trying to figure out a way to get out. It's not the same. I grew up in Elko, and I'm trying to figure out a way to get out. It's not the same town I grew up in. The many transplants that the mines brought in, there you go, the mines, wish they were somewhere else, and it reflects in the customer service and overall appearance of the town.

If you like the backward thinking of North Idaho, this is your place. What a pitch the police are a joke personally know of one that took the written test five times and was finally hired that's not great five times it's not the fucking bar exam jesus christ that is five to no i'm sorry that seems a little five seems like a lot if you get five bar five bars, I don't know. You should only get three times. The bar is super far. The bar is hard.

Yeah, it's essays and shit. Yeah, people are just running. You have to cite legal precedents and shit. I don't know. This is the written test for police officers. So how to write a report. I don't know. What caliber weapon do you use?

Yeah, they keep picking bazooka. Suppose a large man is attacking you. What caliber weapon would you use? Yeah. They keep picking bazooka. Suppose a large man is attacking you. What caliber weapon would be best for him? Service revolver or get the shotgun out of the front seat. What do you think? Cost of living is high. People are rude and it's just not worth the bother. The vortex of the mining wages is what sucks all us local born people back in.

But we're severely outnumbered by the amount of people from Idaho. Oh, Mormons are gambling. Mormons and gambling go hand in hand here. Oh, yay for us. Sweet baby Jesus. Let me leave. Five exclamation points. Well, there you go.

You have to stay in Elko, but you got one wish. The podcast, we read your review. So there you go oh man unbelievable um okay here is one star last one not about the town but about a certain landlord so let's let's give the town one star the landlord yells at its tenant its tenant the landlord's and it only one tenant verbally states the tenant as liar bitch etc the only way to have this tenant stop yelling is to agree this landlord makes deals verbally and will negate its agreement by threats and demands money compensation i'm pretty sure

local law enforcement will stop this corrupt and deceiving landlord. This landlord believes it's legit to treat a certain gender in this manner. I guess women? Yeah, this guy, she's having a fight with this guy. The next one, I won't read the whole thing, but I'll read the last line of it because it's amazing. It says, quote, if you have a family, stay away from this cesspool. Okay, so things to do very quickly. We've talked about this.

Cowboy days. No, we've talked about this Basque, Spanish Basque. There's a lot of Basque people that were here because they were mining in this area. So the Basque tradition has kept on. We've talked about this. B-A-S-Q-U-E? Yeah, exactly. Utah too.

And they have these Basque festivals here. The National Basque Festival is a thing they have here. It's a native thing? No, it's native. They're Spanish. Basque. Oh, Spanish. Yeah, they're from Spain. Yeah. In my head, I logged. All right. You said one word and I listened and heard it. I filed it under something else. Filed under that. That's awesome. Okay. So Spanish traditions and such? listened and heard i filed it under something else filed under that that's awesome okay so

spanish traditions and such yeah they have a but then they mix it with here because they have a tournament it's always a big event we host the annual tournament every year in the month of march which follows our annual sheep herders ball oh do they go with each other or with sheep that feels gross i just pictured a guy dancing with a sheep to endless love the sheep standing on its back legs and like i you deserve to be good not out that's a that's a you you you quash uh rival sheep herder beef yeah what month is it at the end of the year it's in march you dance it out okay after the holidays. Spring, reborn, rebirth. And also, Elko is home to legal prostitution as well and contains active brothels. Great.

They've got mining and brothels, which go hand in hand. Again, yeah, like Mormons and campers. Any county with a population of less than 400,000 is allowed to license brothels if they want to. That's the law in Nevada. In Nevada? That's the law. Wow. Because we always wonder, why are there no brothels here, but to license brothels if they want to. That's the law in Nevada. In Nevada? That's the law. Wow. Because we always wonder, why are there no brothels here, but there's brothels there?

And you hear about all these brothels are in the middle of the desert, like the HBO show and stuff. Yeah. Anything under 400,000. Anything under 400,000. That said, let's talk about a murder that did not take place in a brothel. But involves miners and ranchers. But definitely in a town of under 400 000 absolutely let's talk about a man first off yaramir palensky yaramir yaramir is his name where's he from he's from czechoslovakia or the

czech republic yeah now he's not from chicago well he could be that's there's a lot of guys with that name in chicago but they're also c or Polish or something like that. They were just born in Chicago. That's a fascinating first name. I like it. My dad came over, you know. Jaromuski. Jaromuski. Jaromir, he goes by Jerry, though, just, you know, Americanizes it a little bit here.

Polenski, P-A-L-E-N-S-K-Y. So it doesn't matter because after a while, he doesn't go by Jerry anymore. Everybody's got a nickname for him that they call him. What is it? That nickname? Jesus, this episode. That nickname? Turkey. Turkey! Yep, there you go. Everyone bring him into the flock, everyone. There he is.

So if you're... He's ours! If you're new to the show, our listeners tend to call themselves turkeys because, number one, there's just an inordinate amount of bird activity in our episodes. Around murder, there's a lot of weird birds. Lots. And then there was a murderer lady who repeatedly called everyone turkeys, and our listeners took it and ran with it, and now they're the turkeys. So here you go.

World-class turkeys. Welcome, turkeys. A gobble gobble to you all. So, yeah, born in the czech republic september 24th 1942 he's born here um he immigrated to america in 1969 so he's been there 25 yeah well at that point he was 27 so okay imagine coming from the czech republic in the 40s that's world war ii era and then after that you got i mean eastern europe was Czech Republic in the 40s. That's World War II era. And then after that, I mean, Eastern Europe was not fun at that point. Not a great place to be.

And then he shows up in America in 1969, which is like- Summer of love. Oh, man. Oh, boy. That was 68, but that was- The smell is still lingering. Woodstock happened in 69. Yeah, right, right.

You know what I'm saying? this is a complete completely different world i mean holy shit he landed at jfk he smelled woodstock oh yeah he's like oh this is great what is that this is amazing i smell what is that i smell weed and yeah girls that's what it is weed and girls that weed and pussy i think i smell weed and pussy. So somehow he got that accent, even coming from Czechoslovakia. He landed and he was like, weed and pussy. Woo, yeehaw. My God, a place.

Wow. That's weird. Somebody he came over with was speaking to him in Czech and he went, huh? Talk English. English. Can't understand you. So he lived in Carbonville, Utah, which is, you know, if you want to go back in time a little bit, go to Utah. Oh, boy. It's something, man.

It truly is something. So 69 Carbonville is like, what, 1934 in the rest of the country? At best, yeah. Probably at that point. yeah so uh he lives there for a long time and then from the early 80s to the mid 90s he lived in these different places kind of bordering nevada and utah kind of jump back and forth between utah and nevada um he's very friendly okay he. He makes friends easily. He has tons of friends and acquaintances. Turkey is a loving nickname for some reason. Okay.

It's not like he's a jive turkey. Right. I don't know what it is. He's got great hair. Yeah, look at him, man. Maybe he's cocky. I don't know. Struts, yeah. Yeah, struts.

So he never gets married or has any kids, Jerry. Oh, wow. Turkey man, not Yeah, struts. So he never gets married or has any kids, Jerry. Oh, wow. Turkey man, not married, no kids. Turkey is a, he's a Rolling Stone. You know what I'm saying? He's a free bird. Turkey is a free bird and a Rolling Stone and any other classic rock references you want to make. He's buying a stairway to heaven.

He's doing a lot of things. That's a free turkey right there. That's a free turkey, boy. That's right. So 1982, he was being a little too free with his turkey-ness here when he is both arrested and convicted of lewdness with a minor. Oh, don't show her your goblin. In Price, Utah. In Utah, the lewdness with a minor, who knows?

I mean, he might have. She's got to be real young. He might have showed her like a sitcom on NBC or something. Like, it's Utah. Show them cheers. That's what I mean. I don't know what kind of, you know, sort of a Barney Miller rerun and they lost their fucking mind. It's Utah, but still, lewdness, to me, immediately, you might as well say penis with a minor.

Yeah, right. Flesh is out. Flesh that's normally covered in every other scenario is exposed. Yeah, the word lewd, I immediately picture a dick. Yep, a dick. Just a flaccid dick swinging around, getting waggled. Yeah, absolutely. A waggled cock.

Lewd rarely means anything else, right? I mean, it could. You could make a lewd i mean it could you could make a lewd joke you can make a lewd comment that's a dick joke make a yeah but they're all sexual that's what it means it's not you can't be just lewd talking about a football game it has to be sexual you know what i mean i think for lewdness commentators certainly run that way often look at the ass on that running back boy i'd like to get up in between them cheeks yeah yeah pounded in the middle today you know yeah trying to get around the tight end to pound it down pound it around the side up the middle running it up their throat yeah there he goes into the browns end zone it's not good it's a lot it's a lot they do it every sunday so that's what he is in trouble for it's a okay i guess a, doesn't go to prison or anything like that, but it's on his record.

He doesn't go to prison for it. I don't think he goes to prison for it. He's convicted for it, but he has no other record, and I think they kind of let him go, which is commonplace back then. If you watch the Boy Scout documentary, which i advise you all not to watch unless you unless you're feeling too good about the world if you're feeling too good and you're like i'm a little too high up right now i want to get knocked down a couple of pegs by all means watch the do you have any sexual assault in your history probably don't watch it i won't yeah that's what i mean i i actually texted you with i texted jimmy and said as your friend as a friend to another

don't watch this. I said, I'd like you to not watch this documentary. You're not going to like it, and it's going to be bad for you. No problem. I'm out. It's rough. And the guys would just get busted, and they'd go, I swear I won't do it again, and I'll move. And they'd go, all right, you get out of here, mister.

And they'd just move. That's how it works. Jesus Christ. I don't know. So he meets a couple of people. Let's talk about them john vernon fields uh named vern everyone calls him vern it's a good name vern here now vern's an interesting character vern he was married to a woman named levon and she said that he was violent

toward the end of their marriage which ends in in 1996. And she described Vern as slow and passive when it came to financial matters. I don't know. I've never heard those words put with financial things. He's real slow with financial matters. Maybe slow in terms of dumb. Doesn't get it and lets everyone else do what they want, maybe. And just pays whatever they say the price is she could have just said i was in charge of the finances because he was too dumb to know what was happening because

i think that's what she's saying essentially sounds like it yeah that's that's what i got so also in addition to that that wasn't the reason for their divorce not the violence um not the passiveness when it came to financial matters the main problem was was that vern cheated on her oh vern yeah well it's not even so much that he cheated on her it's who he cheated with that's the real issue uh-oh he cheated with their daughter-in-law their son's wife what the fuck he fucked his son's wife apparently that. That one's not on Pornhub. That is, that's, yeah, I don't even know if that's a category there. Banging your son's wife is pretty fucked up.

Yeah, that's wrong, let's just say. You know what? Not small-town murder-approved behavior. So, not good. That's why she's upset with him, understandably. I think I'd be upset, too. A little pissy, yeah. So, he meets a woman again right away after this marriage dissolves linda marie fields why is it guys like that always

have no problem getting chicks all over no problem no troubles at all i'll bang good for you sir we'll have a kid raise him and then bang his wife what do you say all right i mean that's gotta that's gotta come up in the course of meeting uh i'm divorced oh yeah how did it end you know what i mean i mean that we talk about that right i i wouldn't bring it up if i was him i'd probably be the one that does no he doesn't instigate that conversation i think i'm gonna go ahead and yeah keep that to myself close to the chest at least until they really like me maybe so he meets linda marie uh linda marie and she'll become linda marie fields because they're going to get married very quickly here wow okay she's a little bit younger born in 1960 now these two she he's a minor verne verne's

working in the mines that's how he met turkey okay okay he meets turkey in the mines. That's how he met Turkey. Okay. Okay. He meets Turkey in the mines. They hang out all the time, especially Jerry, at the Silver Dollar Bar. Fuck yeah. In Elko, which sounds like you can see it. You can see it. Yeah. I mean, it sucks. There's dust around it, and it's just a thing put in a field, basically.

The Silver Dollar Bar. It's musty inside. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You open it up, and you see just dust in the air from the light. That's one of those articles. Jesus, there's a lot of particles in here. Anybody cleaned in here? No, cleaned.

We just turn the lights out again. It's fine. This is where I'll drink. That's that's perfect. So the silver dollar bar, popular apparently. It was it was owned by Linda Marie Fields. Linda bought it with a guy named Roy Mobert, who we'll talk about. And then she ends up kind of pushing Roy Mobert out of the picture, marrying Vern, and then she and Vern own and run this place.

Okay. In addition to a ranch that they have where they hire a bunch of people, including Turkey. Got it. So that's the little universe we have here so jerry met vern in new mexico before vern moved to nevada and married linda and then jerry heard there's good mining up there or whatever he can go live on the ranch or whatever the fuck it is and he goes there hangs out she apparently linda formerly ran a home for kids who were sexual abuse survivors in california that's what she used to do and now she's running a bar in elko nevada so

while a child predator drinks there apparently so and it's good friends with her she's gonna they're gonna he's gonna end up living on their property. Good Lord. As a matter of fact. So the Adobe Hills Ranch is what Vern and Linda have here. And they're known as kind of a charitable couple. They help. Sure. They'll pick up some wayward miner from the bar who's kind of down on his luck and doesn't have any work right now. They'll put him on for a while at the ranch. Sure.

Stuff like that. Yeah. put him on for a while at the ranch. They let Turkey stay in their basement for two winters because he was sleeping. He sleeps in a camper trailer on their property, but in the

winter it's too cold. He sleeps in the basement then for two winters here. Linda said that she even allowed Jerry to stay on their property throughout the other times and everything like that. She said at one point we gave him a room and provided meals to him, although he never paid us anything. And she says that she and Vern lent him money and also bailed him out of prison.

OK. So bailed him out of prison. Okay. Well, yeah, because we'll find out in April 2002, Turkey ends up going to prison for a felony DUI conviction. Oh, yeah. I guess you could bail that guy out. Yeah, probably not the first if he's going to prison, I would assume. Right. That's a great point, too. It's not the first. You don't go to –

Probably has several. Yeah, he's in there for a while, like almost a year. Oh, he's got four or five, right? That's what I mean. You struck out already, and now you're looking for ball four. You're going to walk here. So according to Linda, Linda and Vern would help Turkey with his business affairs while they were helping him, too, because they said he had kind of shitty English and didn't write it very well. So they would help him with stuff.

So they end up giving him power of earth. She ends. He ends up giving them. Turkey gives the couple power of attorney and also signed quit claim deeds on two of his Utah properties over to her in early 2002 before he went to prison. Oh, so he was saying, well, while I'm in prison, you take care of your name. They can't take them from. Yeah.

You take care of my stuff. Basically. 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 f***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.

It's all a light-hearted nightmare on our podcast, Morbid. ad-free by joining Wondery Plus and the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. 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 f***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. So, yeah, she said she took care of his affairs while he served a DUI sentence. So, yeah, she said she took care of his affairs while he served a DUI sentence. Apparently, Linda sold his properties in sunny side Utah and in Emory County, Utah, to cover his gambling debts and loans. He had a bunch of gambling debts to casinos and also loans that he had taken out. So she settled his financial affairs by selling off his superfluous properties. Okay. He lives in a camper trailer on theirs. So they said that she also used the funds and Jerry savings account to settle the money he owed for that.

He owed people and pay the utility bills for his trailer space. Okay. base okay um linda also had his trailer moved to their ranch for storage and gave him the six thousand nine hundred seventy dollars he had left in his savings account when he's released from prison in october 2003 so he did a year and a half that guy had some d fucking uis man yeah those are incredibly under the influence yeah i mean ne Nevada, I don't know how that is. But in Arizona, we know that amount of time is like, what, six, seven from a person we know? That's generally with a really good lawyer. That's number five or six.

Could be better. Could be more. We don't know. Nevada might be a little more loosey-goosey. We have no idea. So apparently when he gets out then then he returns to their ranch and continues working as their ranch hand okay all right now the trailer he lives in by the way don't picture like a single wide like no i picture a pull from the fucking hitch trailer yeah they

said the ceiling's about six feet high in there it's a it's an actual travel trailer yes exactly he lives in it and a person could touch the cupboards if they stood in the middle of the room and extended your arms you could touch both sides it's that's how small it is you hook that up to it to your bumper and you can take that fucker across country that's for a night on the side of the road it's fine but to live in it's a little pop into a campground for a weekend get that motherfucker back home a little tight for that's too small for a life like i couldn't i can't stand or move in that thing like i would no god no i'd have to wear that thing like a hat it's too small yeah this guy lives in there

fucking poor guy so thriving jesus um 2003 now after he gets out linda claims that two guys visited jerry in a pickup truck regarding a mining business proposition in Quartzsite, Arizona. Oh. Which you should immediately say no to because don't go there. It's an awful place. Don't go there. Quartzsite is one of the one of I want to say the seventh largest city in Arizona during spring. That's really specific.

Or is it winter? I don't remember. But it's when it's when all these people come there it's old people go there with their motorhomes their mobile homes and they and they stay there from why from whatever because it's thawed it's not frozen like everywhere else that they're from and they go out there and then they i don't know just go be naked old people or whatever the fuck old people oh is it a new is it a nude i would imagine it is it's all nude like i don't know old swingers i picture now i picture swingers for sure but i do know that it's just because they they all travel there and then they vacate you know what i mean so whatever happens in quartzite stays in quartzite kind of thing i think that's what it is man i've never even heard of it so they've done a good job keeping it in there i've heard of the city i've that's what it is. Man, I've never even heard of it, so they've done a good job keeping it in there.

I've heard of the city. I've driven past the thing, but I've never heard that there was people there and doing things. It gets big as shit, too, at a certain time of year. Very weird. So this happened in early November, the pickup truck incident, she says.

And the Fields said, Vern and Linda said, they sent Jerry back to his trailer on December 18, 2003. He was working, and they said that you could smell booze coming off him, and he was too intoxicated to work on the ranch. He was going to kill himself or somebody else. So they sent him back to his trailer. There you go. You know what? You're doing a bad job.

Go drink more. Go lay down. Get in there. Go lay down. Get in there. Go lay down. So a friend from the bar named Mark Lemler, he became friends with Turkey while the two of them were incarcerated, both for felony DUIs. Jesus. A bond will form at that point. Yeah.

Oh, you're an idiot too? Great. Yeah, we've had so many DUIs who are in prison. High five. So this guy said that Turkey received a lot of help from Linda while in prison. And they said that this guy from jail said that Linda helped with his financial issues and was helping all that kind of stuff out. He said once they were both out of prison, they were hanging out at the Silver Dollar Bar. And he watched Turkey take a napkin and write out a

will on the napkin which is absolutely the most legal form of will you can make is add a bar on a napkin in handwritten the first sentence is usually my name in perfect state of mind

whatever the fuck if you've been you fuck. Of sound mind. Right. If you've been, you're not of sound mind. No, nothing written on a bar napkin is official. Let's just say that. If it's got a booze logo or a bar brand on that napkin, not a document. If you have a Gentleman Jack fucking ad on your napkin, that's not official official documents i'm sorry honey jack daniels with the bees yeah the beach rails flying around the edges hold on we got a shit face notary hey you're a

notary right you got your stamp in the car come on over here none of this is legal so we got a sour apple crown royal napkin for you this is terrible you want this so what's a pomegranate absolute you want that so in this will he signs everything over to linda and vern in case those are his beneficiaries in case of the worst happening so he's got a parole officer not only that's not even a full sentence he served he's on parole parole, too. That's wild. Jeez. So his parole officer said he saw Turkey on November 5th, 2003, right after he was assigned to Turkey. Then he said Turkey met with him again in the beginning of December 2003, which is they have like a first week of the month kind of meeting set up. Then in January 2004, Turkey didn't show for the meeting and he couldn't get a hold of Turkey.

So no idea where he is. Can't find Turkey. So he's kind of he's going to have a warrant out for his arrest here at this point. He's not showing up for his parole officer, so he's going to violate his shit. January 14, 2004, there's bird watchers. Why is it always birds

on this fucking show? It's always a bird. There's always birds on this fucking show it's always a bird there's always birds everywhere it's so weird a bird watcher called the elko county sheriff's department to report seeing not a lovely no chickadees no i was gonna say a lovely fucking i don't even know birds so i can't even know a puff-chested swallow. I have no idea. A lovely one of those. Also, a body submerged in the Jordan River I saw while I was looking for birds. A body submerged in the water? Submerged.

Not completely, but I can see it's in the water. Okay. There's a Jordan River about 15 miles outside of Salt Lake City, this is. Utah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a ride. That's a ride.. This is Utah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a ride. That's a ride.

200 something miles. Yeah. So the police find the corpse in a rarely accessible area of the river. It's not a place where people can usually go. So they're like, this is weird. It's filled with snow over there. You have to really put some effort in to get to this. According to the reports, when Jerry was found here,

as we'll find out, this is going to be turkey here. Yeah? Yeah. He was submerged in the water with his body. They said he was dead for more than a week when they found him in the water. When they pulled the body, he is wearing, this is the outfit. Everybody out there, this is your outfit. This is the official turkey wear, okay?

Two pairs of underwear, two pairs of socks, overalls, that's it. Huh, no shirt? Two pairs of underwear, two pairs of socks, overalls, no shirt, no shoes. Bare feet, yeah, that's how you roll, everybody. Not bare feet, two pairs of socks, but no shoes on. yeah that's how you that's how you roll everybody not bare feet two pairs of socks but no no no shoes no shoes yeah interesting so not really probably how you would be hanging out near a river usually no and it's baffling if he why he has two pairs of each on two pairs of underwear two pairs but no shirt you're not trying to keep warm that's what i was gonna say two pairs of socks you'll do that if it's super cold but not if You're not trying to keep warm. That's what I was going to say. Two pairs of socks. You'll do that if it's super cold, but not if you have no shirt on.

Not if you're not putting boots on. Well, maybe he does that. He's like, if I can keep my balls and feet warm, then heat escaping from my bare shoulders isn't really a big deal. I have no idea. So they find some stuff on him that tells them that it's turkey. They don't have to do dental records or anything. They find a stuff on him that tells them that it's that it's Turkey. They don't have to like do dental records or anything. They find a wallet on him. And in his wallet is his Nevada driver's license.

And if that's not good enough, his Elko County Sheriff's ex-felon card are in there. Those are nice to have. Nice to carry around. That's nice to carry. Here you go. Carry that. Oh, great. There's my ex-felon card.

Terrific. Isn't that current felon, though? or is it his registration he served his time yeah no not nelco he didn't get busted for that that was in utah so this is right dui stuff i don't know he's wearing a watch also all right and it's stopped robbery no it stopped at 4 3030 with the date stuck. You know how the dates on a watch like that will turn? It was stuck between 19 and 20. So is that 4 a.m. or is that 4 p.m.? That's got to be 4 p.m., right?

Well, I don't know because it was changing. The date was changing. So maybe it's 4.30 a.m. because it's rolling to the next day. Weird. And it says 19 and 20. This is January 14th. because. Oh, right. Is it rolling? It's rolling to the next day. Weird. And this is, it says 19 and 20. This is January 14th. So this is a month ago.

Yeah. That's what I mean. And they're thinking about to the last time anybody saw him. Linda claims to have sent him away intoxicated from his ranch duties on December 18th. Oh, so that's all we have here. Yeah.

Toxicology report on him shows he has a blood alcohol level of.07. Okay. So. Legal. Yeah, he's like, woo! First time he wins. He wins. But this is a loss here.

He has traces of amphetamine, which comes methamphetamine uh in his urine as well so he's got some booze and a little bit of meth in his system here uh the uh the manager of mount olympus clock shop in salt lake city gets to look at his watch because he's a watch expert apparently fixes him and shit he said that the watch didn't appear to work because of the rust inside and he said but he doesn't know where when that happened that could be from the water that could be from somewhere else i have no idea if it ever worked i'm a watch expert not a fucking uh rust expert yeah metal work i'm not a seer i just know if a watch is broken like that's what i could tell you what

parts it needs but i can't tell you how long this this takes to rust with water in it. I can't hold it in my hand, close my eyes and tell you the history of the item like that. I don't have that skill. Sorry. So the autopsy reveals multiple skull fractures. Oh, shit. All bashed in. He'd been bludgeoned in the back and front of the head.

Not up and down. Not somebody coming from above sideways like hitting him like a bait like someone swung a like you would like you would swing a baseball bat no not up and down like a pinata you kind of swing over because it's help high if you did it that way you would just knock it side to side yeah i guess yeah this is like you would hit a baseball that's that's what they were maybe that's why i never broke a pinata yeah jimmy's been wanting a fun size snickers for about 30 years now and he can't have one still waiting still waiting for one so they said while it could not be determined how long the body had been submerged in the water the coroner theorized it could have been up to 24 days given the water

temperature because it's fucking and it had to be yeah that's what they think so the also the medical examiner said that his body had lividity on his back when he was found in the river permanent lividity meaning the blood pooled at the lowest point in the body if you don't know what lividity is if you lay there for a long time all your blood will pool down gravity will take it it was in his back it was in his back yeah And they said that sets in 10 to 12 hours after death. So, yeah, so he's found on his front, lividity on his back. So he was, this is a dump.

They didn't, he wasn't, didn't fall in the creek and die or anything, hit his head on rocks. So the police, they have really, first people they have to talk to are Linda and Vern because, I mean, they're the closest to him. It's an employer, he lives on their land, everything else. So this Detective Adamson, he contacts Linda and Vern after finding their phone number in Turkey's pocket.

Oh. It's the other thing he has in his wallet is their phone number. Sure. It's like, oh, okay, I'll call these people. So he goes to Elko to talk with them. He arrives at their home here, and he said Linda answers the door with folders in her hands. Oh. And these folders were all documents like Turkey's financial documents.

So she knew they were coming? No, that's the thing. He said, quote, we arrived unannounced. I was surprised she had the folders in her hand. We're looking for those. Yeah. Hey, that's the thing. He said, quote, we arrived unannounced. I was surprised she had the folders in her hand. We're looking for those. Yeah, hey, we could use those. And they said, you were surprised? And he said, I was surprised she had documents in her hands when we made no mention of coming to Elko.

Wow. So, yeah, he told he said that Linda dominated the conversation and Vern only answered questions if they were specifically directed to him. Vern, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Otherwise, Linda, she took the lead on all that shit. They said that they were shown Turkey's trailer and they said that, you know, he said nothing was out of place in the trailer, really. There's no blood all over the place or anything like that. They don't spray it down with Luminol. They don't do any tests or any possible crime scene things.

But there's no reason to at this point. I mean, he's found in Salt Lake City. These people are over here. They seem busy, you know. So they asked the Fieldses what type of shoes Turkey could have been wearing since his body didn't have any shoes on. Linda said that Turkey wore brown lace-up boots almost all the time. She would later fax a note to him and said that the boots were still at the residence, but a pair of two-tone snow boots weren't at the residence. Okay.

So might have been wearing those. So they said the last time they saw him, it was when he was too drunk to work on the 18th of December. They provide officers with his documents, including his trailer registration, an agreement and an agreement in which Linda agreed to pay off his debts with his money. That shit. So the police kind of suspect the couple because they also find out through his, they talk to his credit union, and they find out that he's got a $300,000 life insurance policy on him. Holy shit. Which is a lot for some single guy

with no kids who lives in a trailer and does ranch work. With nothing to pay for. That's what I mean. It's not like, oh, this will pay for my funeral expenses. That's a lot of money. What kind of funerals is he looking for?

Oh, maybe he wants it to be lavish, like Johntie's just like our biggies just like shot into space take me through the streets of brooklyn paint a mural of me i don't know for 300 in the back of a monster truck like dmx yes but have it actually crush something while i'm in there that's what i'd like so uh yeah the accidental death policy that covered homicides was up to three hundred thousand dollars and linda was the beneficiary oh so the police were like okay but there's no evidence to link them to it or anything like that there's no evidence of her being in utah yet no so they the turns they can't really figure out who did it and they have no other leads.

They don't know what to do now, but they think it's possibly Turkey. So they have – the problem is, as we'll talk about later on, Linda's going to come down with MS here. Oh, no. And so there's an odd thing with that we'll get to in a minute. So the case goes cold, though. And, I mean, they put ads in the newspaper saying, please help us on this year-old murder. We don't know. The Adamson, the detective, said this case after a year is starting to go cold. We're hoping someone knows something to help us.

So they said, you know, he was struck by a blunt object several times. Fucking help out here. struck by a blunt object several times fucking help out here so a witness is a witness here they get a witness that says that linda told him that turkey was fired because she smelled alcohol on his breath and that this witness thought that turkey had left their property on december 20th 2003 another employee ralph mackley says that that Linda told him that she didn't like Turkey and that she wanted him at the ranch or she didn't want him at the ranch. But, quote, he was stuck there. OK. This Mackley also said that when Turkey was moving too slow while working on the ranch, Fields suggested running him over or dumping him in a river. or dumping him in a river.

Holy. They said, do you remember telling Adamson, the detective, that you were so mad with Jerry a couple times you could have killed him yourself? And the guy said, this is the guy who said that, the witness, and he said he wasn't serious. He was just frustrated with Turkey because he moved slow. So, yeah, the life insurance thing is a big deal, and there's a fight with that, too, because he has siblings in the Czech Republic who come forward to claim his life insurance, and she's saying she's the beneficiary.

So all this shit is going on. She's going to fight with the family over it? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So then there's a witness here, Patricia Lynn Grenz. She said she bought the travel trailer that Turkey had used as a residence. She said she purchased it in January 2004 after

Linda told her that Turkey was dead and the man who owned the trailer would sell it to her. After she bought it, she remodeled the inside and they said, can you describe the condition? And she said it smelled like urine. It was dirty and dirty clothes were left in the bathroom. They said no blood stains, no, no blood stains, clothes were left in the bathroom. He said no bloodstains.

No, no bloodstains. No damage done to the cabinets or anything like that that would indicate a struggle in a small area. So the case is reopened in September of 2006. Okay. And her sister-in-law, Neuqua Walker, contacted the cops claiming that Linda had admitted to Neuqua about killing Turkey. She told somebody. She told her sister-in-law, apparently. Yeah. According to Neuqua, Linda told her she had allegedly caught Jerry molesting their two-year-old grandson in the shed.

And so she bashed him in the head with a pipe and then they drove him and dumped him in a river that's a story that's quite the tale there um yeah now they try to set her up with a wire tap but they couldn't it didn't ever work out but they said they found credibility because they discovered that um there there was a red Toyota pickup truck that they thought Linda was trying to hide, and they think that was the transport of the body. So they believe the walkers here. So they sit Linda down.

They go, listen, Linda, you're going to have to prove yourself innocent here. Sorry. Otherwise, you're going to be arrested. So want to sit down for a lie detector what's she say no problem yeah she does she passes two of them two of them deuce two about no involvement in the murder okay why'd she say that november 27 2006 she is arrested for what they for murder charged with murder use of a deadly weapon an accessory to open murder with the use of a deadly weapon they would they have the the lie detector upside

down i think they were like oh man she blew it real hard we thought she was honest as shit she doesn't even know her address it turns out she was even wrong on that holy shit we read it upside down what so the prosecution claims that Linda took out the life insurance policy while Jerry was incarcerated without his knowledge. Forged his signature, did all that. They contended that the insurance sum was the motive behind the murder. And Linda says, no way. That's crazy. They believe the murder occurred at the ranch outside Elko.

And then they were transported. So there was some jurisdictional fighting as well, too. Sure. Salt Lake City is 250 miles away. You know, what are we talking about here? So, yeah, this is what they're doing. They said we're serving search warrants. We're searching properties.

And they said the detective's been working for three years on this case, trying to figure it out. Okay. They said the detective's been working for three years on this case, trying to figure it out. Okay. So she gets a medical examiner here to say that she couldn't have possibly done the murder. That's her thing here. She gets somebody that says that she wasn't physically able to deliver the blows that killed him. That's her main defense. She's not strong enough?

killed him. That's her main defense. She's not strong enough? Well, yes. Dr. Jeff Reynolds says that his assessment applies to her condition in 2006, so he doesn't know what she was like three years ago, but as of right now, she has MS. She has multiple sclerosis, and

according to this doctor, Linda may have been able to swing a blunt object in excess of 40 miles an hour, the force needed to fracture the back of the skull. But she would not have had the grip strength nor the coordination to do that. She could swing it if she got it, but she couldn't do it accurately. She'd throw that bat down the road. Exactly.

Yeah. She'd lose it like Dave Winfield back in the day in the stands. So they said that she said they he said it's a progressive disease but they don't he can't tell you how far it was progressed in 2003 because you nms is weird like that some days are good some days are bad yeah some you may have a crippling day one day then the next then on wednesday you can run and then on thursday you're in a chair that's the thing we were talking to my stepdad about that. I was like, Jesus Christ, it's a lot.

Yeah, every day is different. So they say that the blows were struck with a roughly horizontal and upwards or the shape of the skull forced the blow up. So they think it was home run blows. Home run blows. Yeah, a little upward swing on it. And she's shorter than Turkey. So they think that was how that would be and the other part is she said she did it with a pipe like she gave the murder weapon

matches the wounds that's fucking the other thing so they talk about the um they the defense says though there should be blood on the clothing if the hit was vertical but it's not they're trying to trying to talk about blood on clothing and things like that which okay it's more about the tape at this point that tape of her talking 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 on driving him to the local hospital to get treatment. While he waited for his prescription, Dorothy went to grab her car to pick him up at the exit, but would never be seen alive again, leaving us to wonder, decades later,

what really happened to Dorothy Jane Scott? From Wondery, Generation Y is a podcast that covers notable true crime cases like this one and many more. Every week, hosts Aaron and Justin sit down to discuss a new case, covering every angle and theory, walking through the forensic evidence and interviewing those close to the case to try to discover what happened. And with over 450 episodes, there's a case for every true crime listener. Follow the Generation Y podcast on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Generation Y ad-free right now by the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Generation Y ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. Welcome to the small town of Chinook, where faith runs deep and secrets run deeper. In this new thriller, available exclusively on

Wondery Plus, religion and crime collide when a gruesome murder rocks the isolated Montana community. Everyone is quick to point their fingers at a drug-addicted teenager, but local deputy Ruth Vogel isn't convinced. She suspects connections to a powerful religious group. Enter federal agent V.B. Loro, who has been investigating a local church for possible criminal activity. The pair form an unlikely partnership to catch the killer,

unearthing secrets that leave Ruth torn between her duty to the law, her religious convictions, and her very own family. But something more sinister than murder is afoot, and someone is watching Ruth. With an all-star cast led by Emmy nominee Sanaa Lathan and Star Wars' Kelly Marie Tran,

Chinook is available exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. I understand that anybody who's paid attention to the media would have to come to the conclusion that I killed my wife. Hi, my name is Zach Stewart-Pontier. I'm one of the filmmakers behind The Jinx, and I'm excited to bring you the official Jinx podcast. We'll be revisiting all six episodes of part one

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Now, she passes the detectors. She's still arrested um that's the insurance obviously is the big deal that they're saying um so linda's attorney though and and her husband verne because it's just her charged they said they couldn't believe that that they're gonna they're gonna prosecute her the one uh verne said they couldn't prosecute it she passed a lie detector test. Well, that's not true. Well, they're inadmissible if you fail.

They're also inadmissible if you pass. That's a problem. So one of the attorneys said that the court fight, they said, we've got some things we're unhappy with and some things we feel are misrepresented by the prosecutor. So they're ready to fucking go here. Said we are going to. They said that Neuqua has a large reason to lie. They said, she waits three or four months

to go to the police, and so, you know, that's crazy. Why would she do that? She's married to the brother, and they said that they went to the Nevada, the court said they went to Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital to hear her testimony because she gave birth.

So she had to they had to go to her hospital room. Neek was said that Linda told her that she caught Turkey molesting her grandson and quote. She said she hit him with a pipe and dumped his body in Salt Lake City by the river. She said that she took him to Salt Lake City where stuff like this happens all the time. Okay. Really? It doesn't. Okay. Wow. Um, so then four months later, that's what happened. So pretrial rulings, they rule that the tapes are illegal. The tapes of the conversations are illegal. Okay. And, um, that's what they're, that's what they're, they don't rule that. That's what the defense is saying. Sure. So, um, but they're going to end up being heard anyway. The jury hears, we'll hear a telephone conversation between Linda and Vern and from jail when she's in jail. And

Linda tells her husband to tell the truth and she'll stand by him and that she could plead self and that he could plead self-defense if they come after her him too so it's a lot here for the trial they're they don't have a lot of evidence is the problem though they have that's tough yeah they have a motive which isn't evidence right and they also have and you got a shitty confession a shitty confession to a third party who you know who evidently was just getting rid of a baby and then all of the all of her burdens and sister-in-laws always get along you know they're always the most reliable yeah yeah so uh the detective adamson said that um when he testifies there's a big thing about the height and weight they question the detective on the height and weight stated on his identification cards.

The defense attorney says the driver's license of Turkey says he's 5'10", 165. Put his ex-felon card says he's 5'11", 160. Do we even know who's dead here? Literally, they were like, do we even know if this is Jerry Polenski? An inch and five pounds. An inch and five pounds. What does it say on your license for height jimmy five nine are you five nine fuck no there you go so things happen on licenses

shit happens is what we're getting at here from personal experience here um i could i could say i go 230 and put it on a fucking license. And I mean, we're going to say, sure. So, um, they said that the weight of the autopsy, he was 211 pounds. How'd he gain all that weight? I don't know, man. Depression's a bitch. What's up with that?

My license says I'm one 65. I am not anywhere near one 65. I wish I was 165. Well, Liz, they said the weight discrepancy, the medical examiner says, is because when they weighed him, they weighed him when they pulled him out of the river when his clothes were soaked with water. So that's where the extra weight is. It's water from his fucking two pairs of underwear and overalls. Soggy overalls. 30 pounds probably.

Easy. Easy. underwear and overalls soggy overalls yeah 30 pounds probably easy easy especially soaked overalls not just a little not even wrung out you know what i mean they said he was probably struck in the head after three or four times and you know all of that kind of shit so the detective here um they understand they get him in the defense says the fact is detective adamson you don't have any physical evidence that links ms fields to be involved in this case you have a lot of circumstantial and hearsay information that's what you have mr linda's brother testifies and he said he overheard a late night conversation in 2006 about his sister's involvement. This isn't the tape. This is a different thing. He said that he and his wife moved from California to live with Linda and

Vern in their house here and while he was looking for a job, he helped fix up the house and all that kind of shit. So one night he woke up from his second story room to use the bathroom. As he passed the stairs, he heard Linda and Vern downstairs talking. He said, quote, I heard Vern concerned about getting story room to use the bathroom as he passed the stairs he heard linda and verne downstairs

talking he said quote i heard verne concerned about getting caught he said i hope they don't discover or find find out that we dumped the body um why are you guys chatting about it so much yeah he says she they said well what did linda say and he said she said something to the effect of don't be talking like that a bunch of of curse words, and then said, don't ever say that again. You dumb fucking stupid goddamn cocksucking motherfucker, don't ever say that again. I could see that. He said nobody knew he was listening. So overheard conversations, this is not a lot.

He's unconscious. He's just wandering around going, God, I hope we don't get caught. Shut up, man. Shut the fuck up. not a lot conscious he's just wandering around going god i hope we don't get caught yeah shut up man shut the fuck up vern said that um well isn't it true or their attorneys i'm sorry not vern linda's attorney said isn't it true uh brother of linda that you'd been evicted from the property and he said well we had a falling out and they had cut off the electricity to my place but um you know i i still i they said i have contacted the police after they cut off the electricity to my place. But, you know, I still, they said I contacted the police after they cut off my electricity, but before they evicted me.

So, you know, you can't say I was mad for that. Then they bring in a friend named Michael Wilson, and he says he helped out at the ranch also, and he knew Turkey. And they, you know, he said that they hit him about the height and weight they say how tall is he yeah he goes i don't know about six feet 170 and the defense attorney said if someone described him as 211 pounds would you agree or disagree he goes i guess i disagree they said if someone described him as 5'8 or 5'9 would you disagree and he said i if someone described him as five, eight or five, nine, would you disagree? And he said, yes, I disagree.

It was like, there you go. See, not the right guy, not even the right guy. Nevermind the right murderer. Jesus. So,

um, then they got Ralph Mackley who said, was saying, well, we're going to run them over and push them into a lake or whatever the hell it was. Jesus Christ. So then they bring in nikwa and they say

say when he she confessed to you did you believe her and nikwa said it's not for me to judge um they said did she she never said she killed turkey right and she said she said she hit him over the head and took his body and dropped him off that's pretty much saying she hit him over the head and took his body and dropped him off. That's pretty much saying she killed him. I would say that's a fair. Yeah. It's a fair inference there. She said that they talked over and over again about it. Her and her husband talked over and over. She said she talked to him 50 to 100 times about the conversation before they went to the police.

They were very disheartened about it. So, OK. Very disheartened about it. So, okay. The defense is saying they're liars, obviously. Clearly just lying people here. Then they bring up another murder plot. They said this isn't the first time that Linda used a power of attorney to gain financial control over someone else and then plot to kill them.

A recorded conversation was played for the court in which Linda and Vern allegedly agreed to have someone kill a man named roy mobert now that's the guy she bought the silver dollar bar with remember him oh my god fields also had power of attorney with him they said that fields's pattern is to befriend an older person get involved with him financially then plan to kill him what the shit wow uh the evidence of the previous plan comes from a tape submitted by law enforcement. On the tape, William Wells, who was working for the Elko police here in this capacity, offers to kill Roy Mobert for Fields.

Fields and Mobert own the place together. That was at the time this tape was made. Mobert was still involved with the bar. And they said, what we intend to prove is that the defendant, with the use of power of attorney, got herself into virtually the same situation with this man. So she sold Mobert's property and got him involved in the bar with her. And now her defense is that Mobert tried to force her out of the bar ownership.

And the prosecution said, yeah yeah that's why she wanted to kill him right so yeah this uh on the tape vern asked the wells guy if a handshake will do the proposed hitman on on uh for you know to make a deal or do we need to you know work up like a four-page contract with terms of agreement here. And Wells asked if quote, his stuff will be paid. And Vern said, yeah. And then Vern also said the agreement had to be between the three of them.

And, uh, you know, whatever. So they said, the prosecutor said, it doesn't seem like a weak case to the state of Nevada. We're not trying to bolster a weak case.

We're trying to show she's done this before. Right. So more on the old plot here. They said, the prosecution said it's not logical to believe that Turkey was fired, traveled to Salt Lake City despite not having a car, then was killed there by

transients who waited several hours to dump his body in the river. Yeah, right. Because the defense was that maybe he hopped a train, went to Salt Lake City, and then got rolled by hobos. That was literally what they said. That was the defense. That's a jump to conclusion. But yeah, I mean, they don't have to say anything.

Why would they say that one? You know what I mean? Yeah, that could happen. The burden of proof is on the state, not on them. They're ruining their own shit by saying things like that. Well, they said he was probably drinking and doing meth with them, and then they beat him up. They would have had to have waited hours to roll him, to put him in the river, because the lividity said he was on his back somewhere, not in the water. So they do let this evidence in of a prior bad act because it's it's a plan

of the exact same way next up to testify linda's boyfriend yes she has a boyfriend yep uh michael wilson said he met linda and verne in august 2001 and but they hadn't they didn't start fucking until october or november 2006 so right around the time she was arrested wilson said he was living in the residence with them and linda and he slept downstairs while verne slept upstairs what kind of arrangements is going on in this show the birds and weird sleeping arrangements are what we specialize here she runs the house doesn't she yes that's kind of how what everybody said verne was really by her um they have taped jailhouse phone conversations between wilson and linda fields and in these conversations uh wilson and linda fields say they suspected verne killed turkey in salt lake city like they know they're being, so it's that sort of thing here.

So that's who they bring in there, and he's saying, yeah, I think she's innocent. I think Vern did it. So the defense, they bring in the multiple sclerosis doctor who says that she couldn't have done it with her, all of her health problems and everything like that. Linda testifies. And they say, did you encourage anyone to kill Jerry Polanski? And she said, I did not.

Which we know, not great. So right away, I'm red flagging on that. So they said that she said, I just helped him with his debt and other financial matters. I gave him a job and a place to stay. This is terrible. It's just awful. And so she reiterates her story about last time I saw you, I saw him, it was then and all that sort of thing. At one point, the power of attorney paper, it says at the bottom, have you been drinking?

Because she said she wanted to make sure that he wasn't drinking when they wrote the agreement. Sound mind. Sound mind, exactly. And they said, well, I mean, they asked about her financial history, and she said her and her husband were always financially sound. So the prosecutor said, well, you filed bankruptcy three times. Oh. Is that financially sound? And she said those were just to allow them time they need to pay debts.

You know what that's called? Money problems. That's what that's called. That's called you haven't paid your debts. If you don't have money to pay your debts and need extra time to pay your debts, that means you're short of money. That means money problems which is exactly what we fucking just asked you and you said no.

God, it would drive me nuts to have to question people like that. In closing, prosecutor asked the jury if a person kills someone they have a $300,000 life insurance policy on, how do they ensure the body will be found and that they're contacted? He said, well, I would dump them in a river and then leave my phone number in his pocket probably because that's the only person to identify they had was that phone number. So they went on to say Mrs. Fields and her cookies probably is a very sophisticated person. The chips and the brown sugar mixed together, it's really a delicate balance. They said that she did make mistakes, though. He said the wallet on the inside of the coat was the first mistake because a transient who killed him for his shoes and money wouldn't have taken the money and then put the wallet neatly back in his pocket. They'd have taken his ID to sell that to somebody, too.

Yeah. Sell it to someone who looks like him. The second mistake was, they said, the watch with a date feature. They said it allowed law enforcement to narrow the time the body went into the water to december 19th 2023 or 2003 so they said that um it was very evident that the murder was premeditated since he was struck four times in the back of the head first and um that's that the defense said you have a motive an overwhelming motive on a stranger not on these people. Yeah. On somebody. Yeah. Not on my lady here.

They said if she did it, she's either, if she did all of this, she's guilty of first degree murder. But she didn't do it. So she's innocent of everything. That's the thing. They said the prosecution's case is just a theory. He then said false statements are made against people. Then recalled a Bible story about joseph and his brothers oh no stop no if you what if a person is accused of something and they start comparing themselves to the bible they're eight thousand percent guilty eight thousand percent guilty

and full of shit and a bit of an asshole too to be like you know i'm just like job no you're not shut the fuck up stop bringing bible stories into the fucking courtroom he said um johnson here the defense attorney said joseph's brother said he was dead even though he was still alive and well in egypt they had more evidence than the state they had a coat with blood on it they they had evidence these people don't verdict comes in and um i unlike the bible person which i think got off on that uh she is convicted guilty wow of murder yes um that's right they told the jurors during sentencing to to exact equal and exact justice on this thing here. The defense attorney asked for mercy. He said, you've judged her as being responsible.

I'm not going to argue against that evidence because you've made your decision. But I don't agree with the notion that people don't change. So give her a chance. Then I'll leave you with a thought, and I know you'll excuse me for sharing this one thought. We are imperfect. The Sermon on the Mount. I'll leave you with a thought, and I know you'll excuse me for sharing this one thought. We are imperfect. The Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said, blessed are the merciful, for they will attain mercy. For your lives, I wish you that.

May you show mercy. Oh, my. And they said, you, ma'am, may fuck off. Life without parole. Holy shit. Eat all the dicks. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a lot.

They also are going to charge her with witness tampering because they can. She conspired with her husband on the phone from jail to get people to not testify and to procure derogatory evidence against Mike Walker, her brother, and give it to Mike's employer. If threatened to give it, if he testified. So they said the plan was to get him fired, which would force him and his wife to leave elko county and prevent nikwa from testifying so that is wow um yeah also vern planned to have an associate billy wells he's the guy who offered a murder for him to tell mike walker he could get him the very best quality controlled substances at the lowest price. Is that an electronics store that also sells fucking heroin?

What is that about? Quality controlled. They also find that Vern, they think Vern forged the will. Really? Yes, they said it's written. The napkin? No, the real will. Okay. They said the guy that they said prepared it never writes in cursive.

He has an assistant that's been with him for 20 years. I've never seen him write in cursive. There's a fucking calligraphy in this place. The Will's written in cursive, and then Vern's ex-wife, the one who is still mad at him for fucking their daughter-in-law, told police the handwriting on the Will is definitely Vern's. I know that handwriting. Here's a card he wrote me with matching handwriting here's all this type of shit enjoy it so now he's arrested too verne is yeah he's certainly an accomplice he's tried for jerry's

murder as a matter of fact turkey's murder here um very weird stuff comes out here and i'll go through this very quickly a woman california woman came to the court and said that verne and linda could not have killed jerry because the real killer was mike walker her brother okay her boyfriend right no walker's the brother williams is the boyfriend oh so whatever it is wilson williams something like a walker's the brother because neek was the wife there okay this person said that Linda Fields was convicted or she said okay what is okay she said a hysterical woman named Leah Rand told her

in July that she saw Walker hit Polanski at a river near Elko under questioning from defense attorney this woman said that the witness told her that Walker threatened to kill her and her four children with a screwdriver if she said anything and that she was too frightened to testify the woman said the woman said that um she told her Walker and his wife Nequa two men known as and two men known as Carl and John were

spun out on crank quote they were tweaking out when Mike decided to go up to Nevada to meet with Jerry the Polack he's got he's got like a gangster nickname Jerry he meet with Jerry the Polack. He's got a gangster nickname? He's got Jerry the Polack. He could be Turkey the Polack, which is a good name. Yeah, he could be, yeah. And he said that he owed Walker $750 and other money for dopey fronted. It's a long story. She also went on to describe herself, this woman, and this isn't true,

as the first female reserve deputy ever hired in South San Francisco, who also served process papers for attorneys and ran her own legal law firm despite not being a licensed attorney. And she's also a Catholic lay minister who now goes by the name Sister Mary Claire. So I got a lot of stuff to tell you. And they go, are you out of your fucking mind? You mean this is terrible? Anyway, his defense attorney says this is a very thin case. It's thinner now than it was when it began. Verdict comes in.

Guilty of first degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and use of a deadly weapon. They beg for leniency. And they say, you say you sir may fuck off two life terms in prison how's that you got both yeah both no parole and plus 10 years and more and more linda appeals her convictions overturned and she gets a new trial in 2013. She is here convicted of voluntary manslaughter, sentenced to 10 years, given credit for time served, and left. Oh my God. And ushered out of the courtroom with a fucking nice wave goodbye. Holy shit.

That's more disturbing than if he got out. She is a menace. Vern's still in prison. Wow. That's how in prison. Wow. That's how it goes. So there you go. The demise of Turkey, everyone. Be careful out there.

Dude, this is, who knows? This is crazy shit. I'm disturbed by this because I don't know. I'm still not positive what happened. Holy shit. So that said, if you enjoyed that, tell the world. Get on whatever app you're on give us five stars virtual live show october 25th shut up or october 26th it's a thursday available

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