Small Town Murder - #520 - Taking In The Strays - Benton, Kentucky

Episode Date: August 23, 2024

This week, in Benton, Kentucky, a rural trailer fire leads to a horrifying discovery, inside the home. A very dead woman. It seems like a tragic accident, but the victim's "roommate" seems to know a bit too much about it, and has a history of everything he's around, catching fire. When it's found that she died before the fire started, things get crazy. Was it a cold blooded plot, or self defense against a wild, knife swinging, gun shooting lunatic??Along the way, we find out that you should always strive to be "Miss Tater", that you can't help all the strays, especially ones with lengthy criminal records, and that a strong gust of wind can blow a small man off a prison roof!!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.

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Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca to sign up. I'm Dan Tuberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York. A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast. What's the answer? And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head? Hysterical, a new podcast from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios. Binge all episodes of Hysterical early and add free on Wondery Plus. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay choo choo!

Yay indeed Jimmy, yay indeed. My name is James Petragallo, I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you folks so much for joining us today on another absolutely insane edition of Small Town Murder Express. You know these are crazy because we only have an hour, so we have a lot of murder to, yeah, and we're still gonna find a crazy murder,

so we gotta cram a wild murder into a small space, and that's what we're gonna do here today. Very quickly before we get started, shutupandgivemurder.com right now for tickets, and the tickets are not only for live shows. We have September 20th, Minneapolis State Theater. Get your tickets right now to that. And be a part of the biggest shut up

and give me murder that's ever happened. We can't wait. It'll be our biggest show ever. Also the next night in Milwaukee, we're releasing our holds and comps. It's a few tickets. So if you've been trying to get tickets and can't, wait a little bit here.

They're coming and keep an eye out. We'll post on social media when it happens. So follow us there at Small Town Murder. And then also, for sale right now, Virtual Live Show tickets. Oh, boy. Oh, baby, the Halloween Virtual Live Show is back again. Costumes, a wild murder, all the pictures,

all the craziness and insanity of a Virtual Live Show. And some surprises, as always. Great. We can't wait. Shutupandgivemeurder.com is where you get all of that. Also listen to our other shows, Crime in Sports and your stupid opinions of course. Right. They are hilarious and if that's not enough for you, we have even more. Golly. Patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get all of the bonus material. Absolutely. It's the best bargain you're going to get. The entire

back cattle, hundreds of episodes of bonus stuff you've never heard before, and new ones every other week. Anybody $5 a month, you're gonna get all of that. This week, which you're gonna get, the new ones for Crime and Sports, we're gonna talk about the entire Duke Lacrosse scandal, which has nothing to do with lacrosse, and everything to do with frat parties and strippers.

So we'll talk all about that. Then, for reasons to stay out of frats and everything to do with frat parties and strippers. So we'll talk all about that. Then for some reasons to stay out of frats and don't do any of that. So small town murder, we're going to talk about this Brian Coburger guy in Idaho with that whole thing. The trial hasn't happened yet and all that, but I have a particular disdain for this guy's smugness to be that smug when there's DNA evidence. I just feel like, no innocent human would do that, I feel like.

It's one of those things. You wouldn't be like, I'll be smug about this. Your face would be, holy crap, help me, please. Please help me. Anyone help me. Oh my God, they're saying there's DNA. So we'll talk all about that. Patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get all of that.

And before any, before we go any further, I think it's time to sit back. What do you say everybody? Get started here. I think it's time to clear the lungs. Arms to the sky everybody and let's all shout. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this everybody. Okay.

Hey. Let's go on a trip, shall we? We shall. We shall, we shall. We are going all the way to Kentucky this week. Oh yeah. We're going to Benton, Kentucky, is the B-E-N-T-O-N. This is in western Kentucky.

It's kind of outside of Paducah, would be the best way to put it. Which is also a small town. So when you say a town is outside of another small town, it's, yeah. It's interesting here. This is in Western Kentucky, like we said, about two hours to Nashville. That's kinda the closest big city here.

And about four and a half hours to our last Kentucky episode, Highland Heights, Kentucky, which was Never Sing Your Confession. Remember that one? That was, don't go, I did it, I did it in the interrogation room while they're videotaping you. That was the gal, yes it was. Yes it was. Oh yeah, yeah, she was singing, I did it and dancing. She was doing like an I killed him dance. It was wild. This is in Marshall County, Kentucky, area code 270, population here of this town, 4734.

So pretty small. The entire county only has 31,000 people in it. All of Marshall County. So this is a rural area here. Median household income here is about $55,000. Median home cost here, $137,100 today. In 2024. That's where we're all going.

Well, there's not a lot to do there as we'll talk about. When I tell you the things to do in the reviews, little bit of history. Benton was founded in 1842 and it was named for Thomas Hart Benton who was a senator, not from Kentucky, from Missouri. Really? Don't know why they decided that was the best,

I don't get it. It's gotta be who they named everything Benton after, right? Because I think there's Arkansas Benton. I think everybody has one. Yeah, there's one of those. Benton was incorporated in 1845. Now in 1908, Benton became a sundown town. Oh boy.

And so did the entire Marshall County in 1908. I'm not sure how. Nice choices, guys. Yeah, I'm not sure how long that lasted, but it's yeah, it was 1908 is when that happened. In 2018 on January 23rd, a mass shooting occurred at Marshall County High School, resulting in 19 injuries and two deaths. That's not good. Then in 2021, the town was hit by the 2021 Western Kentucky tornado, which was an F4,

and fucked everything up too. So this town has had just bad karma since 1908, I feel like. That's so fucked up that 19 people died and 19 injured, two died. Two died. Oh, God, okay. We have- Even still, I should know that.

But we have like 150 school shootings a year, is why you don't know. It's crazy. Yeah, that's a lot. Reviews of this town, five stars. Benton is an amazing small town. Amazing. Everyone knows each other. We have Tater Day in the beginning of April.

Tater Day? We'll talk about that. Tater Day is the thing to do. That sounds great. Oh, it's not. We'll talk all about it. The safety of Benton is excellent they say. It's named after a guy named Tater isn't it? No no it's just a celebration of Ron White all day long. That's all it is. They put his jokes. They have children act out all of his jokes is what it is. It's like a nativity scene but about Ron White. Three stars, I've lived in Benton, Kentucky my whole life. I do like it here because it's a small town, everyone is friendly and you know your neighbors.

The only downfall is there isn't much to do here. That's why you know everyone. That's it. It's just the tater day. You just wait all year for tater day Three stars when it comes to crime in Benton you rarely hear about it There is mostly just drugs and racing but nothing too serious Drugs and racing hopefully not at the same time. Don't do drugs and then race. Although that does sound fun

Yeah, probably dangerous two stars here. People are nice as long as you're a tourist As long as you're getting the fuck out of Hide their true feelings if you wasn't born and raised in Benton you wasn't born here If you wasn't born and raised in Benton slash Marshall County for generations You're what they like to call a transplant that most residents do not welcome with open arms. Yeah, transplant. That is what you're called. That's what you are.

That's what you are. But I think they mean like if your parents came here, you're still a transplant. Like, you know, even though you were born here, you still can't be. Where was your great grandpappy is what they want to know here. You're temporary around here. Yeah, you're going to leave. We know it. And things to do, of course, Tater Day started in 1843, Tater Day, as a celebration of spring and a time when all of the townsfolk would get together and trade in sweet potato slips used to grow the plants. Sweet potatoes?

Sweet potatoes, I guess at the time. I don't like sweet potatoes as we've discussed a lot. They're gross. Neither of us care for those very much. Yeah, but I hate the fries. That's fucking awful. Oh, when they say sweet potato fries for an extra dollar, I'm like, you could say it's half price

and I wouldn't want it. I'm definitely not paying more for it. If you say sweet potato fries for an extra dollar, I'm like, you could say it's half price and I wouldn't want it. I'm definitely not paying more for it. If you get sweet potato fries, we don't charge you for nothing. Oh really? I'll take the regular ones still. Do you have any crinkle cuts? Just regular ones please? Get those orange things off my plate.

It's the oldest continuous trade day in the United States in which goods such as guns Coon hounds tobacco or livestock are swapped and sold It's a fucking swap me. It's a sweat It's their giant swap me and they call it tape and they're like trading dogs, which is a very strange thing You know that if you're down a tater day if you're not from the United States and don't know what a coon hound is It's a like a hunting dog a raccoon hunting dog and they hunt small things. They're cool dogs too. They're great dogs. I love those dogs. Tater day brings to town carnival rides, games, a market, a potato eating contest. Sweet potatoes probably. I think it's regular potatoes. I think we've moved past the sweet and they found out there's other ones. Yeah, there's also pony and mule poles, and you know what a pony pole is no you play tug-of-war with a pony That's not that's not okay It's not a pole and like, you know, no, that's just losing all day. That's just yeah, then a mule too There's also a biggest potato contest, okay, which attracts large potatoes from across the country or

county not country county it says i thought it's a country 30 000 people why oh man it's wild the biggest part of the festival is the parade which completes one circuit around the town so they just do a little loop around the town that's the biggest thing they got oh boy it includes political floats which i'm sure is just lovely that's just what you want to see so that's the first as fuck That's just what you want to see. I'm sure that's Tim Furse's fuck. Well, also just while you're in the street eating a fucking potato, you don't need to argue with your neighbor over politics. Can we have one day that's just about potatoes and not fighting in the streets about politics,

please? Something tells me there's not a lot of arguing about it here. No, that's probably true. Probably not a whole bunch of it. The Marshall County High School marching band, horses and buggies, clowns. This is the nightmare. Political floats and clowns. No part of this fucking parade.

Those are the same thing. Wow. Yes. Fuck me. Vintage cars, horses. Miss Tater Day. Got to have a miss. Who's the hottest tater broad here?

Let's judge the checks. Miss Tater Day. Gotta have a Miss, who's the hottest tater broad here? Gotta have that. Let's judge the chicks, let's go. There's also a Junior Miss Tater Day for the youngins. Gotta bring them in there. That's for little girls age five to 12, and also a little mister and tiny miss potato. Then there's- If it's not just old women judging that, it's not okay.

And I'm sure even that's just weird. I'm sure it is old all women, but still. You know, there's that one old guy going, I don't know, she ain't as pretty as the other one. And also, Baby Miss Tater Day pageant as well, for obviously. For the super creeps. For babies, yeah. There's also an annual Tater Day Derby

that's hosted at the Dirt Track. That I'm into. This is exciting stuff. That said, let's talk about some murder here. Okay, let's start out with a guy here. George Anthony Luna, L-U-N-A, Luna. He's born in 1970. First thing you gotta say about him is he's a little guy.

Oh. Not like medically little, but like. Like me little guy. No, no, no, no, no, no. You would be like, what's up, tiny dick? You'd, he's 5' 1 30 oh he's a tiny little man he's a little he's a jockey basically he's a tiny tiny man you should we should have a parking space for those guys right no they fit everywhere they should gap to park way

in the fucking back as they're comfortable every fuck people that are 5 4 1 30 all fucking luxuriating and coach sitting cross legged on their seat. Suck my dick. Fuck you. Give me a parking space. I'm sore. Yeah, I don't care. I'm sore from cramming my fucking self into everywhere.

I get a parking space. He's sore from self pleasure. Well, good. That's his own fault. Get out there. And that's not true because he's non-threatening. Yeah, that's true too. You find little guys like that, there's a bunch of ladies that like them because... Really?

Yes, it's like a fetish. Wow. I think they're non-threatening is what it is. I missed those ladies. I could take him in a physical fight. I skip the two... You're not small enough. Yeah. You're not small enough to be like, oh, he's tiny and I can put him in my pocket. I skip the novelty. You're not small enough. Yeah. You're not small enough to be like, oh, he's tiny, and I can put him in my pocket. I skip the novelty dick. Yeah.

Exactly, that's what it is. You're in the middle. So it's a tough place to be. God damn it. Now, he lived in Illinois is where he's from and where he lives all over the place here. As far as recently as 2002, when he was about 32 years old, he was living in Collinsville, Illinois, which I think we've done an episode, a bonus episode

about. Yes. And his father lived in St. Jacob, and that's where he was living before that. Now after that, after 2002 when he's living in Collinsville, I just found a plethora of mainly driving things that he did. He's a terrible driver and never has a driver's license. He's like a driver and never has a driver's license. He's like a crime in sports guy.

Yeah. He's like a crime in sports guy with his driving. I found 2003 driving on a suspended license. That's 2001, I'm sorry. August 2002, he's speeding and his registration's expired and he has no license That's not good September 2003 driving while license privileges suspended again July 29 2004 criminal trespass

And also to residents and a persistent presence So he keeps trespassing and at the same time, he did damage to property on that same offense in the $300 to $10,000 range. So somewhere in there. That's a pretty wide, that's a pretty wide, yeah. That's a window to torch in the place. Yeah, no, that's a barbecue grill or a used car. One of the two he destroyed.

Well, I mean, damage, that's like breaking a window or burning half the fucking place down. Or just breaking the garage apart with a sledgehammer, one of the two. Turning the water on and stuffing up the drain. Also, and that same, well fences there, obtaining cash and or merchandise by bogus check as well. So he was trespassing, breaking shit up, and also writing bad

checks. He's like, I know I broke that, I'll take care of it. And then he wrote a check for it and that wasn't good either. September 16, 2016 is driving 30 miles an hour above the speed limit. There, that's not great. And at the same time he had no registration, no license and was driving under the influence of alcohol as well. Oh, and a DUI. And a DUI. He didn't give a fuck. He was just going all in on this one.

Did he have, at least he was wearing a seat belt it sounds like. I mean, if he at least put it on as the cop was coming up, he wasn't that hammered. So February 11th, 2007 is also known damage of property again. And during this too, people have restraining orders out on him. He's a mess. Like he goes to court a lot. His second-

He's a frustrated man. Court is a part-time job for this guy. He's always in court and always out of court. He's on probation. He's got restraining orders against him. This is 2007. Terrible to pay for too. He's a fucking mess, this guy. An absolute mess.

And if that's, if he's caught that many times, the amount of times, he's always driving. He's always driving. And always speed. He's like a crime and sports guy who we're like, how the hell do you get pulled over that much? Just don't give a shit and drive. But this guy doesn't have like an NFL contract to pay these fines off. He's just an idiot. He's a like a he does construction work and stuff like that but he doesn't have a job a lot of the time probably because he's shit faced I would say. So this is like we said his last offense was in February of 2007 the damage to property thing. Then by spring of 2007, he's found a living arrangement because he has no jobs. I'm sure a mountain of court fines and fees and everything else and restraining orders he finds someone that lets him live in their home rent free. Wow. Rent free place

to live in Benton, Kentucky. It's awesome. It's in a nice trailer. So he's moving in rent free to a trailer with Deborah Hendrickson. So that's who he's moving in with. She is 46 years old at the time. So she's a few years older than him, 10 years. Yeah, nine years or so. Now a little bit about Deborah. She grew up with four sisters and two brothers. She has been living in this area for about the last seven years because she works at the Benton Walmart for the last seven years.

Yeah. She's the manager of the Infants and Girls Departments. Oh, not of the store. Not of the store. Of those two departments, though. Infants, girls, she's like, I'm looking at taking over at least homes and crafts pretty soon. I'll get young men's in a sec. You give me tires, it's over.

I'm telling you right now, it's fucking over with. I'm done. I am gonna, I'm taking this door over. So yeah, she lives in this trailer and it's in a rural area. It's not a trailer park like with trailers all around her. Her trailer's just kinda sitting out in the middle of nowhere and there's other trailers

out in the middle of nowhere. It's a wild out in the middle of nowhere It's a wild-style life here. And so she lets this guy move in. She's gonna let Luna move in with her George How did she meet him? Well, I this is the thing they met a few months earlier and in just a few months She invited him to move in now. It doesn't look like I don't think there's a romantic relationship here But there might be that's the thing She's motherly shit happening? Yeah, she's pretty private and he tells people that it's not a sexual relationship, but their relationship when you hear about it sounds an awful lot like a relationship. It doesn't sound like roommates.

So now she had a husband named Jerry, but he died. Oh, damn it. So she's a widower on top. Yeah she's a widow and it's tough. She also had cancer a few years back. Holy. She's had it tough man. She's been in remission for about five years though. She's been doing better.

Her health has been better and everything. She's a big supporter of the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life and all that kind of shit. Like she has a Walmart team that participates in it and she's big into that. So she met George Luna, like I said, winter of 06, 07 into there. And from what everybody says,

and this is the quote people say all the time, she likes to take in stray people. There are people like that. She takes in strays. Yep, I know so many people like this that will let anyone come and they feel like they're helping somebody and if they help one person, it's fine for 10 to fuck them over because they helped one.

Which is a beautiful, I mean if everyone was like that, holy shit, we'd have a wonderful society but that's a hard life to live right there. It's also been proven time and time again that that's Doesn't work out no for every one there's nine assholes. That's the problem George is a journeyman bricklayer by trade so he's got a trade. That's a good trade. You can make decent money doing that He's also a lazy drunk that people don't like him and people's a bricklayer. They don't like him, yeah. No, drunk for a bricklayer.

I mean, if you can't get bricklayer work, yeah. Because I know tons of guys that do construction and stuff like that, they're a mess. They're drunk all the time. So yeah, you have to be extra drunk for them to go, you're a problem. That's too much. So he had to travel as jobs required and when he was working a little bit while he's living with her, he would kinda go for the job,

stay where they were for a few days, then come back to the trailer and live with her for a while. So it was kinda sporadic and mostly he's there on the weekends when he's not working always. Now the mobile home, by the way, is 1349 Scale Road in Benton. That's the address of it. Now George isn't even allowed in the he shouldn't even be in Kentucky, number one. Never mind living. No no no he's a convicted felon in

Illinois and the terms of his probation prohibit him from leaving the state of fucking Illinois. Even to go rest his head for the night? So he's like I'm in a setup shop in Benton. That's a good place in Kentucky. So yet he came to Kentucky regularly, and they had a lot of issues, these two. It's weird, because they're not married or together. They fight, but yet he still comes back on the weekends and she lets him stay there.

Which is very weird. It's strange to fight with a roommate when you don't fucking pay rent here. That's the weird part. You don't have any arguments to make. Well, he's going to court, he gets an exemption in June 2007 that he's allowed to leave the state of Illinois for work purposes. So now he's got a little bit of leeway. It's not just like if we catch you in another state, you're automatically under arrest.

Now you're here for work or whatever. In the same month, June 2007, he was ordered because he has kids. He was ordered by the Illinois Division of Health Care and Family Services to pay child support in the amount of, are you ready for this Jimmy? The princely sum of $19 a week. $19 a week. Did you say plural children? I don't know how many kids he has, but either way, that's not enough for one kid. That's $76 a month. That's not a lot. That is great. What the hell are you going to get for a kid in 2007 for $76 a month?

You know what? Nevermind. We'll take them to McDonald's twice. And thanks a month. You know what? Never mind. We'll take him to McDonald's twice and thanks a lot. Now, Deborah and George, according to what he tells everybody, he tells everybody that Hendrickson, Deborah's always coming on to him, but they never had any romantic involvement, but she would like a romantic involvement, but he's not interested. He's just living there for the free rent and shit. So the relationship had a lot of conflict. Deborah's family and friends described various instances of physical abuse inflicted upon Hendrickson by George, even though they're not together, which is strange. But he also says that she would abuse him, and we'll get into exactly how because what he

claims isn't just like normal physical abuse it's you know you could have died very easily from that. It's a lot. Now George is also he's also involved in a lot of schemes in 2007 he's in the final stages of his involvement in an arson of his residence in Illinois he burned his his residence in Illinois. He burned his house down in Illinois. That occurred in December 2004, and they were still investigating it. This was the same fire for which the Progressive Insurance Company would obtain a civil judgment against him for later

on. So it was something he owned. So he owned a fucking house and burned it down to collect the insurance money He also set fire to his firebird He took it a little too literally his Pontiac firebird in Marshall County in order to collect money for insurance Wow the judgment obtained by progressive insurance stemmed from the fire at his residence in Illinois and progressive paid under the policy Shortly after the fire but later filed a civil action and Progressive paid under the policy shortly after the fire,

but later filed a civil action against him, saying, pay us back, because it was arson. So eventually, in July of 2007, Progressive obtained a judgment of $11,527.72, because the insured parties were not entitled to coverage because of a misrepresentation during the policy application. So they follow them on paperwork They said we can't prove arson, but we can we can say that you lied about this You didn't dot your fucking eyes and crush your t's here. So the misrepresentation was made by his then fiance and

So the date of the judgment is interesting because the date of the judgment is the day before he sets his firebird on fire. So he gets a judgment against him on July 13th, on July 14th, his car's on fire all of a sudden. That's very interesting. He tried to pursue the claim on the firebird through Deborah Hendrickson because it happened at her trailer. So he tried to do it like as a like a homeowners insurance type deal. Like oh this car burned here. So in July 17th, he called Progressive to claim that the Firebird had been stolen. Oh? He burned it, but he said it was stolen.

On the same day, he reported that the Firebird had been stolen from her garage the previous weekend. That's what he said. He goes, it's been gone a week. Okay, and then they brought it back to set it on fire in a driveway or some shit? That's well, no, he set it on fire in the driveway and then said it was stolen from the house. So that's how it would, you'd get the insurance from the, her home shit.

Now he also tried to get her to falsely state to insurance claims adjusters that she was the owner of the firebird and the car had been stolen from her, you know, because progressives kind of got beef with them because they, they just fucking sued him and got a civil judgment a couple days ago. So he's like, it's not mine, it's yours. This is 2007. He thinks insurance companies don't just check up shit. Like they just start, they just send checks out. He's so dumb.

He's an idiot. This isn't Belle Gness here. This is like, you know, this isn't 1855. It's not H.H. Holmes. He's a dumb man. So, Progressive was suspicious and did a closer investigation of the claim, obviously. They do, with thousands and thousands of dollars. Now, this upset Deborah because she's not a criminal.

Right. So, she does not use to this type of thing and she doesn't like it. She's a nice lady. So, she on July 18th contacted progressive herself. Oh, and apologized. Sobbing and crying. And she told the agent she was so upset that she couldn't go to work that day. The girls and infants are going to have to fend for themselves today, guys. Sorry. She told the agent that the firebird had not been stolen as previously claimed. In fact, George Luna had taken it from her home on Saturday, July 14th, the day after the judgment came in against

him by the way, and returned the same day without it, claiming the car caught on fire. So, Deborah then told the agent that George had coerced her into filing a claim with Progressive by stating she was purchasing the Firebird from Luna and it got stolen from her. She said she didn't want to pursue the claim, but that Luna had taken her insurance card and reported it. She just took it and called. He just grabbed the card and called. Finally, Deborah told the agent that George was present when she made the original call

to Progressive, but it left midway through the conversation. She also informed Progressive that Luna had taken her Chrysler 300M to Illinois and that she did not wish to pursue the claim on the Firebird. She's like, by the way, I might be getting another claim because he stole my car. The notes taken by the agent during the call say that Deborah had a fear for her life and recounted informing the agent that Luna had physically assaulted her as well. She's telling this to the progressive guy. They're not used to that. They're like, whoa, this is well above my pay grade.

What year Firebird did you say it was? That's where I'm at right now. You got the VIN? You got the VIN on that or no? August 8th, 2007, okay, Luna is pulled over in Illinois while driving Deborah's Chrysler 300M and charged with of course driving on a what?

Suspended license because he has never had a license. What would you do if you were framed for murder by a serial killer? Listen now to Natural Selection, Scott Scott versus Wild Bill. I am retired FBI criminal profiler Candace DeLong, and my new series begins in the heart of a tropical paradise where a darkness lurks. Meet Scott Nicada, sailing on his boat with his family until one encounter changes everything. I have the power of Satan. Everybody will bow before me.

I burst out laughing. I didn't know he was a murderer at that point. That killer is Wild Bill. What drives a man to murder? How does he continue to manipulate from behind bars? Subscribe now to Natural Selection, Scott vs. Wild Bill. Was there a crime committed? As far as I'm concerned, there wasn't. Guilty by Design dives into the wild story of Alexander and Frank, interior designers

who in the 80s landed the jackpot of all clients. We went to bed one night and the next morning we woke up as one of the most wanted people in the United States. What are they guilty of? You can listen to Guilty by Design exclusively and ad free on Wondry+. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple podcasts or Spotify. As a result, he's ordered to appear in court on September 11th, 2007. And based on the charge, the prosecutor is now seeking revocation of his felony probation

and an arrest warrant for him. So now he's got an arrest warrant for him on August 28th, 2007. That's when that happened. A habitual offender of bad driving and no license. Yes. It's fucking wild But back to August 15th Luna contacted the progressive agent here to pursue the fraudulent claim related to the firebird having no idea That two days later Debra was gonna call and say never mind. Oh, wow He called up then put Hendrickson on the phone

He was like, yeah, you got to talk to her here. And they said she was audibly upset and uncontrollably crying on the phone on the first call. He told the agent that she told the agent that she was uncertain about what to do. Now back to the 300M. He then after this, this is after he's pulled over and all that kind of thing, he takes it again and wrecks it. Because he's shit-faced driving somewhere, so he destroys her other car now. He's like a swarm of locusts that just comes into your house and destroys and eats everything. Everything, he's just a tiny little ball of mist.

Yeah, all this coming from the little tiny motherfucker. You're not big enough to do this, bro, sorry. You're not big enough to be such a problem. No. So he wrecked it, then proceeded to enlist her in pursuing a false insurance claim for the damage, specifically tried to have her say, to tell the insurance company that she was driving

the car by herself when she wrecked it. Not an uninsured, unlicensed drunk man. Me. Tell them you did it. Tell them you did it. So she went all. Her insurance rates are gonna go through the fucking roof. This is crazy, everything.

I got Firebird, 300M, this is all in the course of a month. They have to go, what has been happening with you? You had no claims, no nothing for your whole life, and now your life's fallen apart. She's not going to be able to insure an American Airlines ticket for Christ's sake. No, shit. She went along with this at first, but then felt bad about it and told her friends, I can't do this, this isn't me. She's not a criminal.

That's the thing about her. She's just not. So she then informed both progressive and the Marshall County Sheriff's Office that George had instructed her to lie. And George found out about this, by the way, that she had told them because they came and questioned him. Now here's some other unrelated and related and non-related issues they have. Janice, Hendrickson's sister, said that Deborah informed her of various problems that she was having with George Luna, that he had threatened her and was just overall abusive to her.

A friend of hers, Bridget DeHart, said that Deborah told her that George Luna wanted Hendrickson to report the Firebird to her insurance and that Luna forced her to drive him to Illinois at Knife Point. What? That's kidnapping is what that is. Interstate. Aggravated. Yeah. Wow.

And that Luna assaulted her by pushing her into a coffee table and into a potted plant another time. Yeah. He is... Wow. How is he not in prison? It's fucking... That's what he's supposed to be.

His shit is revoked. People are looking for him actively at this point. Jerry DeHart, who is Bridget's husband, I believe, testified later on that Deborah told him about Luna pushing her into a coffee table at a potted plant and also testified that he worked on Hendrickson's truck once she told Luna, once she told him Luna had driven it and found that the fuses had been removed. That's why it didn't work.

He's yanking fuses out of you. He's yanking fuses and going, I don't know, your truck doesn't work, I guess. Yeah. Judy Brown, who's Deborah's friend and co-worker at Walmart, said that Deborah told her that George was dangerous and scared her. And Deborah also told Judy that on Judy that coming up here in September

that she wanted to buy Judy's truck so that George Luna would stop trying to get her vehicles and just go back to Illinois and leave her alone. She was gonna buy a truck and just give it to him and say, just take the car and fucking go. Take the car and drive away, which is super sad. Jesus Christ. Also the progressive insurance agent, Caleb McGrath,

said that he talked to Hendrickson about the theft and all of that and that she then told him that George Luna had coached her to tell him that the car was stolen and to report the claim and that Luna got her insurance information and reported the claim without her knowing it. And also progressive insurance agent Will Perdue, I assume not the old Bull Center.

I assume not the- Is that what he's doing now? That's where he is. He's the biggest progressive insurance agent in America. Seven foot tall, fucking doofy, non-fucking basketball playing. He's gonna hire Bill Wennington. Oh no, geez, that's just gonna lead to Luke Longley.

We can't have this. So he said that. They're very boring. They'd be boring for insurance salesmen. Yeah, hey let's get four huge white stiffs and just play them at center. What do you say? Okay. They won't matter.

They won't matter, we have Jordan. So this guy said, Will Perdue said that Deborah told him George Luna told her to tell the police she was driving the Chrysler at The time of the wreck here another progressive employer Employee who worked on Deborah's Chrysler claim said that she told him that George had physically abused her and forced her to drive to Illinois at knife point so she told this story to other people He also says that Deborah showed him a bruise and said that George hit her. That's how she got it. She's showing this to Will. Wow. Yeah showing it to Gary. No, this is Gary Sijovic. Then Deputy Jason Ivy, Marshall County Sheriff's Department, asked Debra about filing charges about the firebird, which was stolen and burned.

She refused to file charges and they said why, and she said because I'm scared of him. I don't wanna file charges. Now, another officer said that he went to Debra's trailer looking for Luna on an unrelated matter, obviously, because the cops are always looking for this asshole, and he observed injuries on Debra and asked how she got them. Debra told him that she'd been assaulted by George and said that

She already reported it which she didn't she was just scared of him So this is not the fact that she is willing to tell anybody about the abuse means she's not a woman a also That's used to being abused right? This is not someone who seeks out abusive relationships Yeah, this is someone who doesn't understand why the fuck this guy's beating her up for no reason. She needs a dude about five foot eight that won't stand for any of that. Don't stand for none of this shit. Jesus, so August 29th 2007 a Marshall County Sheriff's Office officer visited the trailer to speak with her on that's to speak with George and that's that at that point and That's when she had the visible injuries August 30th

2007 deputy Brett Edwards said that he called Deborah to follow up on a previous 9-1-1 call by Deborah On the phone Deborah told this deputy that if her trailer were to burn George would be the one who did it That's what she called 9-1-1 say, just to give you guys a heads up. She also told this cop that Luna told her to vacate her trailer. She owns it. She works at fucking Walmart to pay for this. This is ridiculous.

He doesn't even rent here. And threatened to burn her trailer down if she didn't. Oh God. And then progressed that, we wanna talk about progressive, he progressed to making threats to, not only will I burn the trailer, I'll burn the trailer with you in it

if you don't get out and give me this trailer. That's what, he wants her to leave and get, and leave it to him. He told her to get the fuck out of the trailer. Vacate your premises, that's what I mean. Get out of my house. He's trying to steal her house from her. Wow. Trailer or not it's her house. Leave it. What the fuck man. This 911 call served as

the purpose for the reason why the deputy came to the house there and it states that she got on the phone very calmly and said this isn't an emergency I'm calling 911 I realize it's not an emergency, I'm calling 911, I realize it's not an emergency, but I'm calling just in case something happens to my trailer while I'm at work the next day. Just to let you know, if my trailer burns tomorrow, it's because of George. I didn't do it, he didn't. So that was August 30th.

Now, September 7th, 2007, I guess this is when George finds out that she has been turning him in all left and right to the insurance people. I guess he overheard her talking to somebody and all that and he was very pissed off about that. Now September 8th, 2007, this is the afternoon. George goes with Deborah into Paducah, which is about a half hour away from the trailer.

They visit a couple of bars, they ate and they drank beer and before returning home they stopped at a liquor store. Oh, the day. George is going to drink an impressive amount of liquor this day and I know that because in the court documents they describe it as an impressive amount of liquor. Literally the court document calls it impressive, which I said, wow, that's something. That's a lot of liquor something that's a lot of liquor It's a lot of liquor. So according to lunar to Luna here

this is what he's gonna he said that Deborah encountered a potential boyfriend and She told Luna that this guy's gonna come over later tonight. That's what George is gonna say so Deborah drove Luna home in her truck and This was in the truck that Luna, by the way, claims that he's in the process of trying to buy from her. Which isn't true. Meaning her truck.

Her truck, essentially, yes. In the process of trying to buy means I have gotten no possession of this truck. I've moved zero. Yeah, now according to George, when they got home, he was eager to go see his daughter in Illinois. He's gotta get his 19 bucks a week worth of FaceTime with this kid.

So upon returning home, he started packing up his clothes and tools to get on the road. He said that as he drove away, Deborah waved at him from the front porch, beer in hand. Just, oh, bye y'all, just having a good old night. Everybody's happy. And that's as he pulled out of the driveway. He said he got to Paducah before he realized he left his level in the garage. And he said, you gotta have a level for bricklaying. So he had to turn around his tool. He had

to turn around, drive all the way back to the trailer. He said upon arrival He didn't enter the trailer but went directly to retrieve the level from the garage Sure, which I assume is a separate building because it's a trailer And as he returned to his vehicle, this is amazing. By the way, he's shit-faced through this Hammered he says he quote thought he saw flames through a window in the trailer thought thought so what did he do drove away probably nothing just probably just you know trailer normal little trailer living room fire it's cold out he said that makes put off a pretty big flame it's a pretty good one they're not

bad he said that he supposed he was just drunk and seeing things that weren't there So this much do you drink to get there? Well his solution for this is I'll just drive away I'm so drunk of hallucinating. I'm seeing house fires. I'm Put it in drive and get the fuck out of here, boy. This is the only thing that's gonna clear this head up is some driving, I'll tell you that. You know what I could use right now? A long drive, that's what I could use.

I need the wind in my face. Interstate travel is what I'm looking for. While driving to Illinois, he called 911 several times to report a potential fire. Maybe repeat, there's a drunk man reening down the road. At 6.25 PM. By the way, he's driving her truck and using her cell phone to make these calls. While on the phone with the dispatcher, he's unable to provide the address of a place he's lived for six months by the way or even

Deborah's last name which he claims he doesn't know a Lady named Deborah lives in a trailer, but I don't know where it is, but it's on fire. You should find it You should find it by hold on This traffic coming up I gotta pay attention, okay, bye So There's traffic coming up. I gotta pay attention. Okay, bye. And he fucking hangs up. So, apparently, eventually he was belligerent with this dispatcher because they were asking things like, What's the address? And who's inside? Where are we going? Things of that nature. He got mad and hung up on the dispatcher,

who would then call him up seeking more information. He'd go, God damn it, I fucking told you fucking told you bitch and he'd hang up on her. I hung up on you. Stop calling me. So over an hour, that's 625 he's saying this, over an hour later they never got any clarification 911 didn't know where to go so they didn't do anything. They thought it was a drunk guy just doing a prank. So 734 p.m. he is pulled over by a state trooper in Illinois

Clocked going more than a hundred miles an hour cooking shit faced more than a hundred in a truck He's arrested there. This is on Interstate 57 at the 46 mile marker near Marion, Illinois He'd been wanted on warrants charging him with violating his probation and criminal damage to property, and he was also charged with speeding, driving on a suspended license, being shit-faced and intimidating an officer. We'll get to what that is. He tried to muscle him. He did.

Now at 8 p.m., a neighbor arrived home, one of Deborah's neighbors arrived home. This is an hour and a half after he called for the fire. They arrive home to find her trailer fully engulfed in flames, Deborah's trailer. You could see the flames, so they drove over there. By the time the firefighters arrived, an hour and a half, two hours after the fire started, the flames were so widespread they couldn't even enter until water was applied. They couldn't do anything. They just had to let it burn and try to put it out. And it's aluminum. That shit is red hot.

There's nothing you can do. So they said it was a fully involved fire. The neighbors observed that Deborah's truck was gone, so everybody assumed she wasn't home. So everyone was like, that's good. At least she's not home for this, Jesus Christ. So an hour after they get the fire out, they finally go in.

Everything cools down a little. So this is three hours after the fire started. Inside, they notice Deborah's in the living room and she's dead and burns to a crisp. And it looks like she is where the fire started, by the way. Oh, what? She is the source of, so either she spontaneously combusted or there's a problem here. Most people don't spontaneously combust when they die. It doesn't happen too often. So the Marshall County coroner said that he noticed

compression skull fractures different from heat fractures caused by a fire. He says the flame was too hot, this was bashing. This is blunt force trauma, they said. Almost immediately upon entering the trailer, he could see that her head was fucking crushed in, basically basically He said that the force of death is blunt force trauma to the head and the autopsy Bolsters that her body had several indicators of blunt force trauma skull fractures subdural hemorrhaging and bruises to the brain away from the location of the skull fractures as well

They said it was blunt force trauma, not fire that caused her death. Her body was just burned. The autopsy also revealed an absence of a soot deposits, any soot deposits in her airways. So she didn't breathe in. That means she was dead. So they said there's no evidence that she was breathing when the fire was in close proximity to her. Also the location of the bruises were consistent with being struck in the skull with significant force while the head was free to move, meaning she was not lying on the floor when she was struck. After being struck, physics takes over, the head continues to move as a result of the

force. Eventually, the head's motion comes to an abrupt end, however the brain continues its movement until encountering the force. Eventually the head's motion comes to an abrupt end, however the brain continues its movement until encountering the skull. It's a movement concussion in football. You see a guy get tackled and he never got hit in the head and how the fuck does he have a concussion? Cause he stopped too short and his brain hit his skull.

So they said that's why there's bruises on the brain or away from the skull fractures. And the force was to the back right side and the bruises were to the front of the brain. So that's how hard she was hit. Sitting still. Now George is at the Illinois police station there because he's been taken into custody. While handcuffed, he rose from his chair and began approaching a trooper who was seated

in front of his computer. Another cop saw this and told him to get back. The seated trooper turned around to find George standing over him. The trooper shoved him away from him. Luna lost his balance and as a result of the shove he tumbled backwards and hit his head on a bench. So now as he got up, he was highly agitated and began demanding to be bonded out. You sons of bitches hurt my head and everything else. He then threatened the trooper physically and on top of that, I'll kill your family, he said. He threatened the trooper's family if he were not bonded out.

So if you don't let me out or I could harm your family, then I'll harm your family even though I'll be in jail. He was later transported to the hospital where he received four staples in his head to close his wound. Oh, fuck, it was a big wound. It was a good one there. Also, the evidence indicates that he consumed, this is from the court documents,

an impressive amount of alcohol on the night in question. His blood alcohol content, this is, they took his blood alcohol content at like 1030. So this is four hours after he was really putting it away was a 0.209. Holy. Which is really drunk. That is. He must have been a 0.3 at that.

Yeah, he was like fucking blackout level. I think that's a fire maybe not level of drunk, you know Yeah, his breath is flammable. Is that a fire? That's a that's a level of drunk So they said that They said reading the reading was taken after Luna finished off a bottle of liquor when unable to find Hendrickson's pulse He said he continued to drink alcohol and all of that. So that's how that works Andriksen's pulse, he said he continued to drink alcohol and all of that. So that's how that works. That's a lot. So he's really shit faced.

He definitely had motive to kill her because she's been reporting him for criminal activities all over the place. And also he wanted to get her truck. She's dead, then it's his truck. Then they bring up, they find out all of his fires from the past. He's had multiple fires at residences in Illinois there. He's a fire setting son of a bitch. Yup. There's a garage fire, a car fire, all these fucking fires.

So tons of fires. Even they even asked him about an apartment fire that occurred in the early 90s where he was living. Fires follow this guy. That fire occurred at Luna's building, but he denied having anything to do with it. She struck him with her motor vehicle. She had been under the influence that she left him there. In January, 2022, local woman Karen Reed was implicated in the mysterious death of her boyfriend,

Boston police officer, John O'Keefe. It was alleged that after an innocent night out for drinks with friends, Karen and John got into a lover's quarrel en route to the next location. What happens next depends on who you ask. Was it a crime of passion? If you believe the prosecution, it's because the evidence was so compelling. This was clearly an intentional act. And his cause of death was blunt force trauma with hypothermia. Or a corrupt police cover-up. If you believe the defense theory, however, this was all a cover-up to prevent one of their own from going down.

Everyone had an opinion. And after the 10-week trial, the jury could not come to a unanimous decision. To end in a mistrial, it's just a confirmation of just how complicated this case is. I'm Dan Tuberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York. I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad. I'm like, stop f***ing around. She's like, I can't. A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.

It's like doubling and tripling and it's all these girls. With a diagnosis the state tried to keep on the down low. Everybody thought I was holding something back. Well, you were holding something back intentionally. Yeah, yeah, well, yeah. No, it's hysteria. It's all in your head. It's not physical. You're, oh my gosh, you're exaggerating. Is this the largest mass hysteria since the witches of Salem?

Or is it something else entirely? Something's wrong here. Something's not right. Leroy was the new dateline and everyone was trying to solve the murder. A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios. Hysterical. Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early

and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+. Scammers are best known for living the high life until they're forced to trade it all in for handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit once they're finally caught. I'm Saatchi Cole. And I'm Sarah Haggye. And we're the host of Scamfluencers, a weekly podcast from Wondery that takes you along the twists and turns of some of the most infamous scams of all time, the impact on victims,

and what's left once a facade falls away. We've covered stories like a Shark Tank certified entrepreneur who left the show with an investment, but soon faced mounting bills, an active lawsuit filed by Larry King, and no real product to push. He then began to prey on vulnerable women instead, selling the idea of a future together while stealing from them behind their backs. To the infamous scams of real Housewives stars like Teresa Giudice, what should have proven to be a major downfall only seemed to solidify her place in the Real Housewives Hall of Fame. Follow Scamfluencers on the Wondry app

or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Scamfluencers early and ad free right now on Wondry+. He also denied having anything to do with all the other fires at his house, with the exception of a garage fire which he admitted to Accidentally starting after he dropped a cigar and some spilled gasoline. So he set the whole joint on fire. Yeah He did acknowledge receiving insurance proceeds and so there's that now

Wow, that's a lot now an ex-neighbor I guess, here, there's a neighbor in Illinois who he offered, who was having a problem with one of their neighbors, and he said, well, I know how to burn their house down if you wanna get rid of them. Who doesn't know how to burn a house down? Yeah, it's pretty easy.

Well, he says, and I can get you insured, they won't even know it's burned down. Yeah, I'll do it, yeah. So, he's a flamer as it goes there like the trees So his story, what's your story? Here it is. He said that okay This is what happened Deborah concocted an idea to burn down her trailer So that they they not her they could put a double wide on the property instead. Oh, this thing's just not enough leg room. That's what it is. So that was, I guess, he said that another time they've had some problems.

He said, well, she's crazy, man. He said one time she shot me in the leg. Oh? Yeah. He said the allegations that he was abusing her came out around that time because she was worried about getting in trouble for shooting him in the legs So she started telling people this shit. Okay, that makes sense that happened a few months earlier now now He said what they said what happened the night that the fire started. He said well

She got mad at me when I refused to go along with her plan to burn the trailer down because you know He's a man. He's a man of principle obviously. There's some integrity around here. Yeah. She then stabbed him in the leg with a paring knife. He's been shot and stabbed, James. Well that's not all that she does this night apparently. After which he retreated to the bathroom and bandaged up the wound and changed his jeans, you know, with a hole in him and all. He said, but the stabbing was just the beginning of my harrowing ordeal this night with this woman.

He said when he exited the bathroom, she was looking through his cell phone and now was enraged. He came out to her, his cell phone in her hand, eyes wide, full of fury, right? She then came over, punched him in the face, bloodying his nose, and grabbed him by the hair, which might be possible because he is a tiny little man, as we said. She just go over, just whooping his ass, grabbed him by the hair and said,

what are you doing, bitch? Like she was really abusing him. He said that he was somehow able to wriggle free from this poor, from this cancer survivor who's 10 years older than him and works at Walmart, from the manager of the Little Miss department, and returned to the bathroom to clean up blood again. Now I have to clean my face off.

Just constantly cleaning blood. He then heard her ranting and raving that she will burn this place down. Oh! I'll burn it down. And he heard lighters going, like she was trying to burn it down. But she was just lit candles. But then she said, then it got crazy because she lit candles, she then wrapped them in an afghan and dumped vodka all around.

She said, he said, then she snapped after that. That wasn't snapping. Now she's about to snap. That was her under control. Now it's bad. He said Deborah retrieved a handgun and tried to fire it at him. She was pulling the trigger but the gun wouldn't go off. He said he went toward her and they struggled over the gun and it went off. He said there was ringing in his ears. It was so loud in a single wide tin trailer. He said that at this point he was so scary He said all he could think about was not being with his kids and having them grow up without their dad them multiple children $19 a week That is a bargain you could sponsor a starving African child for less than that or like more than that it costs more to sponsor

Like and they're just giving like a sack of rice and that's yeah or less than that, or like more than that. It costs more to sponsor, and they're just giving him like a sack of rice, and that's, wow. You could get mosquito nets for an entire village for more than it costs for him to support two children. So this poor man is just, oh, she's an animal, this one. She's threatening to burn the place down, she's stabbing him, she's trying to shoot him, and all he wants to do is get home to his poor poor kids

He said boards what a bullshit artist. He said as he can Continue to struggle with her Uh, he said that he because you know, it's a real physical fight here He grabbed a nearby whiskey bottle that she had thrown at him earlier He was like, ah gonna get you back and she rose up and after that he grabbed the bottle and she rose up and said, I'm gonna kill you. And the gun went off again but missed him. Thankfully. So he in a wild swing for just to try to save his dear life. He swung the whiskey bottle and oh my god miraculously

connected with the back of this psychopaths head and She collapsed to the floor motionless Like an o2 pitch he got her got her guy I mean who you swing from the heels sometimes and that's what happens now they went that's quite the tail He's still there. It must have been a rough night for you. Wow, that sounds awful. So much that you had to drink that much. They said, well, would you be willing to take a polygraph examination? That way we can just lock this in and we know that this horrible woman is dead and we don't

have to deal with this anymore. And he said that he didn't know if he'd submit to the test, but he said, I'll think about it. Why not? Later in the interview, he said, well, what am I being held for and They said a probation violation as well as a whole bunch of shit We arrested you for tonight as well as more to come. We got a lot of driving infraction, sir Shit now also another friend Judy Brown the co-worker there said that night the evening of the fire She received a voicemail from Hendrickson's phone but the voicemail just contained the muffled

voice of a man muttering threatening curse words oh so he must have but dialed her and was just like fucking bitch I fucking kill these motherfuckers so he's indicted on charges of first-degree murder and first-degree arson obviously here because his story is out in Downtown Judy Brown riding him out. Yeah, I'm telling you. I've never heard a worse story, by the way. No, that's crazy. That's a wild, this woman just, she went wild, man.

I know it's never happened in her whole life. She's been real stable and I set things on fire and abuse everybody, but man, am I a victim. This is what happens when you treat people like this for so long. That's what happens. We can only take so much. A friend of hers, by the way, said that she'll be remembered for her big heart and her deep

love for children. Even though she had none of her own, she's been a widow since she basically got the job at Walmart after her husband died, which is terribly sad. Her friend said if she had a fault, it was that she was really big-hearted and trusted everybody to be as good to her as she would be to them I think that's what happened with this. She was just trying to do the right thing by somebody and it didn't go so well That's an understatement They said that she was her one family member said she was prone to take in strays of all kinds and That is that's fucking crazy.

And her friend Bridget DeHart said that she wishes she would have been more aggressive in trying to stop George from harming her friend because she kept hearing about all this stuff. 2008 is his trial, okay? Next year. Now, here is, I'm gonna give you a conversation between the judge and a potential juror.

Okay. Judge, now you've read, now have you read, seen or heard anything concerning Mr. Luna, the defendant? Juror, I read something in the paper. And anything specific about that, any specific information? And the juror says, uh-huh. Or uh-uh, uh-uh, I'm sorry. The judge says, what are your thoughts, beliefs or feelings about the information you've received about mr.

Luna the jurors says well I mean if what was in the paper was correct the lady was really nice and helped him out a lot I mean you know that's a poor way to pay her back and the judge says I'm sorry and the jurors said I said that's a very poor way to pay her back and the judge said okay based on what you've read have you formed any opinions and they jurors said no I don't's a very poor way to pay her back. And the judge said, OK, based on what you've read, have you formed any opinions? And the juror said, no, I don't think so. And the judge said, have you read or seen anything concerning Deborah Hendrickson, the victim?

And he said, well, the letters that people, her friends, wrote about it, how they thought, I mean, she was mistreated, obviously. And the judge said, OK, any other specific information? And he said, no, the juror. The judge said, OK, what are your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs on the information you've received with respect to her?

And he said, I mean, it was sad that it happened. I don't have a particular way of thinking about it. The judge said, do you feel like that what you've heard or heard or read so far, that you understand the charges and all that, do you have any opinions, any preconceived notions as to the innocence or guilt? And the juror said, well, just reading the paper,

I mean, I would just assume that he was guilty. Jesus Christ. And the judge said, okay, do you feel like you could be a fair and impartial juror? And he said, it would be hard, but yeah, I think so. And the judge said, all right, and they let that guy on the jury. We're gonna test you.

That is fucking wild. And also, while they were doing the jury questioning here, Luna's sister testified that in the judge's chambers following the lunch break, she overheard two men outside the courtroom talking. One said to the other, well, they better hope I don't get picked, because I believe in the death penalty. If you take a life, you give a life.

You'll do. And the prosecutors aren't seeking the death penalty in this case, by the way. So at trial, the arson investigator, they talk to him a lot obviously, he's going to be a big part of this whole deal. They try to discredit him saying that his hydrocarbon detector wasn't blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Give me a fucking break. They said that the investigator looked at the debris in the path traveled by the fire, the lack of significant fire load in the area where Hendrickson's body was found, and the

severe and localized damage to the floor to where she was found says that it's a fire that was intentionally set, obviously. Now, the court allows the admission of the police station incident as well, of him intimidating the officer, not listening and coming back. They allow that in. The jury is six men, six women,

and they find him guilty of all charges here. He doesn't testify in the first trial here. First I said, you're right. Yeah, yeah, I got that. During sentencing, you, sir, may fuck off life in prison with parole, he gets. Oh. Okay, so it's like 20 years as his minimum. 2010 he appeals and they said they failed to excuse the juror who said that he thinks he could he could maybe be impartial. The juror that said I don't know I'd

like to give him death and they're like well that's on the table he's like I'll do it anyway. I'll do it anyway I'll kill him myself me and my brother will take him out and do like an iced tea surviving the game type thing and just set him free in a field and hunt him. I hate that man already. He's killed me. And I'm gonna show you a picture of his mulleted face too because it's hilarious he's got me. Oh man. And I'm gonna show you a picture of his mulleted face too because it's hilarious. He's got this mullet, it's really good. It's not like a I'm gonna be like trendy mullet.

It's this is my haircut from 1983 and I've just never changed it. I ain't cut it yet. Nope. So remanded and reversed, okay. 2002 or 2012 they do a retrial. Here's his picture by the way. I'll show that to you.

Look at that. Oh for heaven's sake, who the fuck is that? That's the George. That's George Luna What? That's him. That's our guy here He's like I grow my hair long because my legs are short. You know what I mean? Now And now they're saying maybe we'll go for the death penalty this time. Oh What the hell but they don't actually And now they're saying maybe we'll go for the death penalty this time. Oh! What the hell? But they don't actually.

Now there's no evidence indicating both opportunity and motive. Luna sought to admit evidence that one of Hendrickson's former boyfriends committed the crime. That her relationship with this boyfriend ended a few months before Luna moved in and according to this the former boyfriend physically abused her and even threatened her life at one point and he says that the evidence you know this this is a big deal we should do that but they don't allow that in because he has no evidence of it they said in a homicide case a defendant is not entitled to parade before the jury every

person who bore some dislike for the victim and go well they could have killed her yeah you can't do that. Talk about anyway. It's about evidence at that point. He testifies in this trial. Really? Okay, yes. He said, all right, this is an exchange. Here's George.

I went to hand her the phone and Deb was upset about the fact that her car had just been wrecked and about the fact that you know I was, my leg was infected and I was going to have to go or had gone to the doctor or going to have to go. He said, and they said, go on, you can go on. And he says, oh, I'm done. They said, they said, tell your side of the story. That's what he said. And they went, okay, go on.

And he said, oh, that's all. That's it. So the prosecution says, so she's uncontrollable. She's crying. She's sobbing. And, and he said, George said, no, she wasn't uncontrollable, but he writes in his notes that it was, he can tell that story if he wants.

I don't know what the hell he's talking about, but that's his quote. So the state says, all right, well, between Caleb McGrath and the guy who's on trial for murder, okay, that's her former boyfriend, by the way, I think the guy on trial for murder has incentive to kind of bend things his own way. Wouldn't you agree with that?

George says, um, shoot, I'll tell you, maybe Caleb McGrath has a reason. He's a progressive agent. I'm sorry, he's not her boyfriend, he's the agent. I've had problems with progressive. So you say maybe the insurance agent tried to set him up by murdering his living, okay. Sometimes they, sometimes it be like that.

Don't burn your shit down. Don't burn your shit, it happens. Fucking, like a good neighbor, we'll burn your shit to the ground. So, cotton. That's the state. All right. It is, I don't care, it's insurance.

We'll send the Geico caveman to burn your shit to the ground because we're good neighbors, you know what I'm saying? We'll mix them all together. I don't give a fuck. All states, the guy from- Good hands, people. Yeah, that's the guy from Major League. Yeah, it's-

Pedro Serrano. Pedro Serrano, this is number 13. So- Joe Boo will burn your shit down. The state says that's a mate. It's amazing and George says maybe they have a biased opinion because maybe there's some bias And the state guy those prosecutors said amazing. He's just like I'm just gonna let this idiot talk. You're wonderful Then George says as a matter of fact, which you know something good's coming after that, in his policy they said that they had a previous policy with me with progressive, which is

the one that I was sued over. So he did know about this. And the prosecutor said, right. And so George said, so, so was what he said. So ellipses. So. You know. That's how he ends. Oh, I'm good, I'm done.

So obvious. So draw your own conclusion, shit. I mean, you know. The thing is, I think I said everything needed to be said. The prosecutor said, you're a suspicious person because you keep filing fraudulent claims with progressive. It's a reasonable assumption here. Yeah. And George says, I've never keep filing fraudulent claims with progressive. It's a reasonable assumption here. Yeah.

And George says, I've never filed a fraudulent claim with progressive. No. And the prosecutor said, you filed a claim on the shed fire after lying on their policy. And George said, I never lied on anything. I never. You have the paperwork, you know. He didn't say he didn't set the fire. No, no, no.

That's the thing because it was denied't set the fire. No, no, no. That's the thing. Cause it's the, it was denied because of the paperwork and his ex fiance, his name was Marsha by the way, because the state then says Marsha lied. Everybody lied. Everybody's always lying. But you, right? Right. And he said, yeah, well, you know, I didn't speak with people. You have the paper. So I had to be here. So they said, is everybody lying? But you be here. So they said, is everybody lying but you? And he said, I don't know what everybody's doing.

Which is the best line ever. I don't know what everybody's doing, I just know me. So they go on to say that the hearts Bobby Davis, these officers, Detective Hillbrecht, everybody coming into this courtroom, and then the defense objects. And you know, that goes like that. The court overrules the objection. And then following that, they ask George, so everybody, all these witnesses,

I mean, we have had over, and I don't even know how many witnesses, over 30 witnesses came in here and testified about their experience with you, and poor Deb Hendrickson. And every one of them is out to get you. Is that right? George's reply, that's your story. I don't know man. What the fuck are you doing? You're on trial for your life. Dickhead fucking be better than this.

I don't know that's what he said. Verdict comes in convicted shockingly of first degree arson and first-degree murder here. Amazing. Amazing. Now, unlike the first trial, the state seeks to find statutory aggravators this time, and robbery is the aggravator because he took her truck and phone. They didn't put that in there last time. So that's very interesting here. They said that his employment dictated a method

of transportation was critical, so that's why he needed to steal her truck. So they found the aggravating circumstances to be relevant and sentenced him to, by the way, Luna wants them to an intoxication instruction. Tell him I was shit-faced, and I didn't mean it. Tell him I was drunk and seeing shit. The judge went, nah, you're just an asshole. Get a drunk or sober, you're a dickhead. You, sir, may fuck off life in prison without the possibility of parole.

You shouldn't have appealed, man. Shut up and alone, chief. Plus 20 years for the arson to run consecutively, by the way. So once you die, you're in for 20 years. He appeals about allowing the police station incident to come into court number one, the altercation. Can it be first degree arson also because first degree arson is to start a fire or cause an explosion with the intent to destroy or damage a building and the building must be inhabited or occupied by the person by or by

Inhabited or occupied or the person has reason to believe the building may be inhabited or occupied Yeah, so you have to be trying to cause physical injury with a fire You got to know that there's a body in there his argument was she's already dead in there that ain't first-degree arson I done killed her already. That's what they said. Unbelievable. So that is insane. So they say that the Commonwealth failed to present sufficient evidence indicating she

was alive occupying the trailer. Therefore, the sentence for first degree murder will stick stick but first degree but the arson is Tossed the first degree arson. They toss that so he's in for life without parole. That's it 2018 here's he starts writing stuff. He writes this long thing on prison witness org And it is from Johns Hopkins University American Prison Writing Archive. So this is a thing they collect with all prisoners. He said, I am Kentucky DOC inmate George Luna currently serving life without parole sentence. Here it is.

I came to prison at 38 years of age, a skilled journeyman bricklayer who had been in the masonry business since I was a kid. I worked and supported a family all my adult life until prison. It's $19 a week is not supporting your family. When I arrived in the area in 2008, I hoped to be a productive rule abiding inmate when I got to the prison.

On 3-609, I was working on the inmate construction crew. I was ordered to get up on the segregation building and tear the brick and stone cap off the outer edge of the roof after safety had told me not to be on the roof anymore that day due to 30 to 40 mile an hour winds and not to be back on the roof without safety harnesses at all. The deputy warden Paige McGuire ordered me back up on the roof without a harness and threatened to place me in segregation for refusing to complete a work assignment or refusing a direct order even after safety's instructions.

While working the wind caught me and I fell 35 feet off the building. It's a little guy. The wind can take this man. The stiff wind will throw him around. I had a baggy t-shirt on, just took me away. He should be grateful he wasn't around when that F4 came through that's what I'm saying he'd have ended up in fucking Kansas he'd have trade places with Dorothy that is shot that little man to London shit wow he landed on a pile of bricks nearly killing me I broke

my pelvis ribs both bones in my jaw and my wrists jaw and crushed my left eye socket and had a massive hematoma on my left temple. I'm not, I don't feel bad for this. I don't feel bad at all. You should have had that when you crashed a car. A fucking unreal, too drunk, he just went with it. He said that the doctors here told me I would have issues due to these injuries for the rest of my life.

One in particular told me in describing what was in store for my future, that my body was like a china plate dropped and left with a bunch of cracks in the skeletal system that would worsen over time. Incredible. I told him the pain I was experiencing here and there for no reason and he told me I had severely traumatized my neurological tree as well as having a referral pain that would most likely experience that for the rest of my life and that there are and I was good I was on a good medication to treat keep this train under control keep the pain under control neuroton is the medication for years

I kept this pain well under control and was capable of living a fairly normal life in the summer of 2015 I started to fall apart my life life began to change. The pain began to become a very real and crippling at times. I didn't understand it. Medical worked with me to get my pain under control. I went through and still at times was going through pain, crippling at times, but I managed to live as normal a life as possible. In August 2017 I was taken off Neroton and in September taken off my tramadol, supposedly because they were scheduled five narcotics now, as well as inmates abusing them.

So, since August 2017, I've struggled like I never have before, I've come to know pain in such severe and frequent abundances that my entire life has been turned upside down. When someone's a huge murderous asshole, you normally don't get to hear them describe the horrible pain they're in that we all wanted them to be in to begin with, which is he goes on to describe it's ridiculous as whole. I mean, it's a paragraph the size of him, of all of his ailments everywhere.

He said, I cannot continue to live like this. I've begged, literally begged for months to have effective relief help. I no longer live anywhere close to a normal life. I fear the pain. I never know day or night, when, where, how long the pain will last, how severe it will be. I can't hardly think anymore. Can't concentrate or focus or anything on anything or even read and comprehend. I can't function.

I'm a mess. I'm miserable. I'm to a point I hate life. I'm struggling so bad with this pain and can't get moments of relief." So I think he wants drugs is what he's asking for. He said that he's depressed and he said, only through death will I escape the pain. Please help'm looking forward to it, bud. He said, please help me receive the effective relief I need instead of leaving me to suffer. I filed grievance after grievance with absolutely no help. I now bear a miserable painful death

sentence in the Kentucky DOC. Well if only you wouldn't have fucking appealed all that you'd be getting out pretty soon. Yeah, you'd have some parole coming up. So there he is he is in he is DOC number 222876. That's nice and easy to remember here. And life without parolees and therefore he is fucked. There you go everybody, that is awesome. Bet in Kentucky and a crazy ass fucking story. Absolutely awesome. Fucking wild and a satisfying ending.

I don't feel bad about this dickhead, he's an asshole. I feel so bad for Deborah for just being a good fucking person, What a sweet woman. I know. She tried. All that comes home from work at Walmart and has to deal with his ass. There you go. This time no fuck causing problems in her house.

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