Small Town Murder - Guilty Google Search Murder - Winchester, Indiana
Episode Date: September 25, 2026This week, in Winchester, Indiana, a man is found brutally attacked, with several bags on his head, and some strange clues scattered around the house & his prize show car stolen. Detectives don't have... must to go on, until an enormous clue drops into their lap, leading to a friend of the dead man, who has a scary history of fires & kidnapping. But he won't be easy to find, because he goes on the run, seemingly disappearing into thin air. This leads to even more crimes, and very scary man on the loose!! Along the way, we find out that Indiana apparently loves Hawaiian music, that you should never steal a very distictive car, and that arsonists, who kipnap, may just end up escalating to murder!! New episodes, every Wednesday & Friday nights!! Check us out on VIDEO Wednesday and Friday evenings on Netflix! www.netflix.com/smalltownmurder Donate at patreon.com/crimeinsports or at paypal.com and use our email: crimeinsports@gmail.com Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder, Crime In Sports & Your Stupid Opinions! Follow us on... instagram.com/smalltownmurder facebook.com/smalltownpod Also, check out James & Jimmie's other shows, Crime In Sports & Your Stupid Opinions on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!!
Transcript
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Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express.
Yay and Choochoo!
Yay indeed, Jimmy.
Yay, indeed.
My name is James Petrigal.
I'm here with my co-host.
I'm Jimmy Wiseman.
Thank you, folks, so much for joining us today.
Thank you so much.
We are super excited to be here, all aboard the murder train, pulling away from the station.
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The Midwest hasn't sickened me, and there's nothing I can do about it.
I was walking around in the rain for days and something got in there and it's bad.
It's crazy.
We're going to work it out, though.
That's all right.
I'm hopped up on Sudafed.
I'm ready to go.
And you need to head over to shut up and give me murder.com.
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they never stopped laughing.
They were just amazing.
Milwaukee, too.
Two plus.
Yeah, that was crazy.
Yeah, you guys.
They made it so long.
They made it longer because, yeah, they wouldn't stop laughing.
So, hey, that's fine with us.
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Man, did we have a blast?
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And then I'd say, that's time, everybody.
What do you say?
Here, let's all clear the lungs.
We need to do that.
I need to do them a lot here.
Arms to the sky.
This is as clear as they're getting today.
Arms to the sky.
And let's all shout.
Shut up and give me murder.
Let's do this, everybody.
Okay.
Let's go on a trip.
Yeah.
Let's do it.
Well, we're going to Indiana this week.
Here we go.
Winchester, Indiana, like the rifle there.
I guess it's within the township of White River, but it's its own town also.
I hate when they do that.
It's very confusing.
A lot of states do that.
It happens like in the East Coast states a lot, the Northeast.
So much.
This is actually, it's a hamlet in a township inside of a, it's like enough already with that shit.
This is in eastern Indiana, about an hour and a half to Indianapolis.
about an hour 15 to date in Ohio and about two hours and 10 minutes to Columbus, Indiana.
Our last Indiana episode, Episode 693, Poison Pudding Problems, which I went a little crazy with the alliteration and I don't regret it.
That's fine.
Poison pudding problems.
This is in Randolph County, Area Code 765.
Population here, 5,016.
So decent-sized town inside of another town.
median household income is almost about 20,000 below the rest of the country in terms of average.
It's 51,985, but that's not bad when you look at the median home cost.
You go, oh, okay, that fits.
Median home cost here, $118,000.
Wow.
Which is from another century, those prices.
That'd be amazing to get a middle of the road home for $1.20?
118.
It's got nicknames that are wild.
Oh.
The first one I really don't get.
The world's fastest half mile.
There's no racetrack here.
Yeah.
But it's Indiana.
I get it, Indiana's into the racing, but it's not here.
There's no racetrack that I can find anyway.
The other nicknames are even stupider.
One is Dub C.
And then in parentheses, WC, Winchester.
No.
Nope.
That's not what I think of for that.
You can't do that.
Nope.
That's the water closet we've established.
And then the
Yes, exactly.
Oh, we're in water closet, Indiana.
Then the other one is even grosser.
Sugar cream pie capital.
They have the words cream pie capital
in their fucking town motto.
A sugary one.
Sugary cream pie and your sugar.
What have you been eating, sir?
Gross.
Is that just sugar or cream pie or for you?
How about that?
A little bit of history of this town.
Man, it was laid out in 1818.
as the county seat, was the county seat of Randolph County.
Five early settlers donated land for the purpose of the town.
And they're pretty sure it was named for Winchester, Virginia,
because I think one of the people was from there.
So that's what they do.
It became actually notable in the mid-1800s because Randolph County
was a major spot for the Underground Railroad.
Wow.
Yes.
Now, Indiana is famous for being one of the clan-heavyest
cities in our states in the country. They had a huge, I mean, they controlled all their politics
and police forces. Oh, in the 20s and early 1900s. But here, it was big in the underground
railroad, big in the abolition movement before the Civil War. So that's pretty cool. Then they had
oil and natural gas and other resources they found in about the late 1800s, and Winchester
transformed from a farming community into an industrial town after that. Yeah. Factories and, you know,
Black's not so bad, is it, Indiana?
That's right.
When it comes from the ground, it's Texas tea right there.
So all of this enabled the glassmaking industry to thrive here.
So a lot of glass making here.
That was the big deal here, was the glassmaking.
And they had the fuel from the natural gas and oil to be able to burn those furnaces
because you've got to get a pretty high temperature to burn metal glass.
Tornadoes, they've had a couple of those.
And 2024, which very recently, a quarter mile.
wide EF3 tornado hit Westchester.
Oh, wait.
Sounds big.
Hit Winchester?
Or Winchester, what I call it?
Yeah.
Westchester.
Westchester.
I live near Westchester.
I apologize.
Severe damage was dealt to the Goodwill, the Goodwill store.
So we're fine still.
That dumpster outside spread people's garbage clothes they don't want everywhere.
There it is.
Severe damage to somebody else's trash.
That's it.
The lodge at Summers Point.
and a strip mall.
Just a strip mall wiped out so the subway is gone.
The Freedom Life Church and the Taco Bell were flattened.
They flattened the Taco Bell.
That's tough.
Where are we going to get diarrhea now?
This is bad.
The good news is it didn't break anything that wasn't already.
No, it didn't break one shell.
They were already cracked on the bottom.
They were already fucked.
38 were injured and three were critically injured.
And one of the three died weeks.
later. And then June
24, three months later,
the remainder of the strip mall was demolished.
And it subsequently,
they rebuilt the, I think they rebuilt
something into a Wendy's and then Taco Bell
underwent repairs and reopened.
So there you go. It's back.
Reviews of this town. Here's five
stars. I think Winchester is an
excellent place to raise a family and a
perfect place to settle down and put roots.
Yeah. It's a very
cozy small town that feels like home.
This place will always be
home. I grew up here. I have no interest in the outside world whatsoever.
I don't have any gas. Wow. Winchester will always have a special place in my heart.
Here's three stars, and this is the perfect review for three stars. It's your average town in the
middle of a cornfield. Easy to miss. Everyone knows just about everyone there. Not sure if that's
a really nice thing or terrifying. Middle of the road. This is a three star review. People take notes. This
how it works. Great place to take an F3
to the chest. Not bad. Well, at least the
Taco Bell takes one to the chest.
What's nice about this little town
I think most can agree on is
that you know it like the
back of your hand and it has a little
diner that's known for miles around.
Oh, well, then everything's fine. It's not
much, but it's home.
It's not much, but it's ours.
That's something. Three stars. Winchester
has a cute little hometown feel to
it. I grew up in Winchester. That's
probably why it feels like a hometown deal, because it's
It does.
Yeah.
Because it's your hometown.
It's your hometown.
But recently it has fallen victim to a lot of major drug use, and I would definitely
like to see that change as I have lost loved ones to this horrible disease.
Right?
And then finally, two stars.
It's not a good place to raise a family.
It traps.
I guess traps you in the town.
Yeah.
I suppose.
You're stuck in that.
Yeah.
Cyclical Winchester lifestyle.
Yeah.
Things to do.
Two things.
one makes sense and the other one makes none
so that'll be nothing
no sense first is the westchester
see i almost did it again winchester
main street festival
normal festival
it says it's an attempt to
embrace a marty groth theme
and to infuse
Hoosier life with southern flare
oh yeah i forgot their Hoosiers
yeah what does that mean
no goddamn idea
um wearing an eye and a you on your chest
that's it
You, you, even when people abuse kids, you love them.
As long as they wear a red sweater, you can say whatever you want to these fucking kids.
Whatever you want.
So they're, they have normal things, parades, shit like that, family night with fireworks, carnival blowout, normal shit.
Then is the one that doesn't make sense.
The Hawaiian Steel Guitar Festival.
Wait.
In eastern Indiana.
No idea why they chose this to, I don't know.
The manufacturing plant must be some.
somewhere nearby because they're nice guitars.
I've got one right there.
No, they're very nice, but it says it's, I don't know why they would have a Hawaiian
guitar festival in eastern Indiana.
It's a strange place.
It's a brand.
I get it, but they're doing Hawaiian music.
That's the, you know what I mean?
Oh, they're doing Hawaiian music too?
Winchester, Indiana's Hawaiian Steel Guitar Festival brings together musicians from across
generations and cultures.
I can't stop laughing.
I'm not hearing anything about Hawaii yet.
Welcoming Native Hawaiian artists alongside performers from across the continental United States.
What do you think I wrote this down?
Do you think I didn't fucking know what it was?
Performers include the Williams twins, 96-year-old twin sisters who've been singing and playing guitar together at the festival for nearly 50 years.
96?
Wow.
They can play guitar at 96?
That's amazing.
I can barely turn wrenches.
I have so much arthritis, and I've never played guitar a day in my life.
Well, maybe that's the key.
Maybe it keeps you loose glimmer.
I got to learn this shit.
You're not playing that fucking thing.
It's sitting there, but you're not doing anything with it.
I tried so hard.
I quit already.
Alan Akata, a member of the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame and one of the foremost masters of the Hawaiian steel guitar,
22-year-old Miley-Lyman, one of the brightest rising stars in Hawaiian music.
I mean, it's a Hawaiian festival, not just the guitar.
Wow.
It's a whole festival, which is crazy.
Anyway, that said, let's talk about some murder.
That is shocking.
I was like, just let me tell you.
I feel bad.
I feel bad now, but I'm like, if you let me read one sentence, all of this will be explained.
So it's just the music.
That's interesting.
I can totally see where you're coming from.
You're like, but I have one of the guitars.
It's a guitar.
I have one.
It's right there.
All right.
Murder in this town.
Let's go back 2018, not very far.
No, real reason.
We're getting eight years, not bad.
Those ladies were still in their 90s.
They're fucking, yeah, still, well, almost.
Almost, yeah, they're pushing.
So, let's talk about a guy here, David L. Brumley, L.E.Y, by the way.
He's born February 13, 1957 here, so I'm getting up there an age here.
He's 61 years old.
He's the son of Robert and Dolores Brumley.
He has a brother named Tim.
He graduated from Winchester High School.
school in 1976. He is
Mr. Winchester.
Still lives there, lives on
West South Street in Winchester.
Been there all the time.
He works for Omega
Enterprises, whatever the hell that is,
but that's what he works for.
Now, in the neighborhood, he
knows everybody. He's from this town. It's a small town.
If you grew up here in your 61,
you pretty much know everybody.
It's a long time. Yeah, you have to know everybody.
So he knows all sorts
of people, has all sorts of friends that are like,
described as childhood friends all the time, so he still knows them.
Seems like a lot of people are born here and they die here.
You know what I mean?
They are happy about it, so good for them, I guess.
Or at least content.
Yeah, there you go, at least content.
He has a friend of his across the street from him, actually.
Go right kind of near right across the street.
A buddy of his, he's known for his whole life.
So that's kind of fun.
And his buddy kind of helps him out with stuff a little bit, as we'll talk about.
He's got a car that he's real into that his,
buddy helps him out with.
This is Monty Joseph Cook.
Okay, Monty Cook.
He's born September 59, so they went to high school together.
You know, they know each other.
Grew up there.
They remained friends as adults, always.
Now, we'll talk about it, but Monty wasn't around for about 15 years.
Where'd he go?
He was local, pretty much, but not available.
Put it that way.
Oh.
He wasn't available to hang out at the time.
You could see him, but he couldn't really make plans to see you.
From time to time.
Yeah.
At very certain times on very certain days, you could see him.
A couple hours.
Very specific hours.
So, yeah, they grow up and Monty would help David Brumley with projects around the home sometimes.
You know, and not even like for money.
Like, you know, they just help each other out.
He liked doing stuff.
And he liked turning a wrench or fixing something and doing shit.
He also hung out with Brumley in the garage.
Brumley's got a little house with a detached garage where he's constantly working on and polishing and making better his prized show car, which is a 2006 Mustang.
Oh.
Now, there's some debate over whether it's 2004 or 2006, but I'm 99% sure it's 2006, and it's the same body style.
from like 0.1 to 08, so it really doesn't matter.
It's not really a classic, but it's his prize possession, and that's okay.
Well, yeah, he's got it jacked up, too.
He's got, it's a GT.
It's like maroon with dark, with the black stripes on the hood,
and it's got the big black scoop on the hood and all that shit.
Like, he's got it all.
Okay.
You know, he...
Yeah, I think they stopped making the cobra by then.
I believe so, yeah.
It also has the chrome pins in the front of the hood.
It's like making it look.
real race, like what you would do in,
what you would do in Grand Theft Auto
if you had tons and tons of money and you get a car
and go to the shop there and hook it up.
Like, that's pretty much what he did do it.
The Mustang's a fine car, whatever.
Yeah, it's right.
I used to have a word.
They're fine.
So, yeah, he, a lot of people hate them.
despise them.
Yeah, it's just the only car that Ford ever built
that's really fast, except for the Shelby shit.
Well, that was, that's a whole, and the GT, of course.
That's a whole different issue.
That's a Mustang, though.
No, the Ford GT.
The, the hell is that?
The 500 GT, the 500 GT.
Yeah. That's a totally different thing, but that's like a fucking $400,000 car, or whatever.
So if you want that.
It's on a Mustang platform in it.
I don't know about the engine, but it's a down low, lower.
It doesn't look anything like a Mustang.
Oh, are you talking about the, I know you're talking.
That's the Shelby Cobra, right?
No.
There are newer ones.
The, is it the 500 GT, is it called?
The hell's it called?
I knew a guy who had one.
They're insanely expensive.
Yeah, they're really like crazy expensive fords.
Like, it's wild.
Yeah, I thought that that's the Mustang built.
It doesn't matter.
It's really irrelevant to the story.
Much like the Hawaiian guitars, really irrelevant to the story.
So, now, Monty, by the way, as a job, he delivers campers and RVs.
That's his job.
Yeah.
A lot of RV stuff is made around here, as we'll talk about.
So the Mustang is this guy's pride.
fucking possession.
Okay.
And he takes it to car shows.
And I mean, this is David Brumley's prized possession here.
Yep, he's got license plate RSP 657.
And here we go.
Now, a little background on Monty, his buddy across the street.
They hung out a lot in their younger days.
They were real close.
But in the late 2000, in the late aughts and 2010s, they weren't hanging out because
as Monty was a little busy, and let's find out why.
In July of 2003, at, what is this, July, I believe 5th, at 2.23 a.m., state and federal agents
began an investigation of a fire that caused $7.5 million in damages to a factory.
Oh, a factory.
It's a 35,000 square foot factory burned down.
Huge.
And everything inside.
Everything in it.
gone. Wow. So they said, quote, by seven hours into the call, we had a lot of resources here
to use saying, you know, that this was the first, the fire chief said this was the first time
since he's been in fire that the federal department of alcohol, tobacco, and firearms
and explosives were to be involved in an investigation. He goes, those guys showed up. We were
like, what? What are you guys doing here? ATF. ATF is there. The president of the company that
It's all this warehouse or factory had one company.
It's called Mastercraft.
They make,
they make shit for boats and RVs.
They make furniture for boats and RVs.
That's where it comes from here.
So they said the Cliff Reynolds,
who's the president of that company,
said he's confident the business will return
someday to full production when they obviously
have a place to put it.
He said, our main focus is to take care of the customers
and our employees.
So they make upholstered furniture and mattresses
for the RV industry, and I guess boats, too, from what I understand.
Oh, the boats are insane that they build.
I bet.
So they say it was destroyed by fire.
Now, this was originally a smaller building, and I found in the newspapers where they added
on every couple years, they build another part and build another section.
They've grown and grown and grown for like 30, 40 years in this area.
Now it's ashes.
Yeah, it's a pretty nice story, you know, of a local business growing like that.
So employees had not worked in the buildings the last three days because,
is they had a three-day weekend for the 4th of July holiday.
Oh, yeah?
So they went off for a three-day weekend.
Turned out to be a lot longer weekend than that, obviously.
Now, what ended up happening there, there's 300 people working at the plant.
They don't have a job at the moment here.
They ended up suspecting old Monty Cook of doing this.
Why would they suspect him?
He's got reasons.
Cook gives statements to the Indiana police investigator and an agent of the,
ATF said he gave a
they said a statement against his own
interests but not a confession
so we're all about to push him over the edge here
yeah I was there what about it well saying he
knew who did it or he might have
been there at the time but he didn't light the fire
why would he say that I may know the guy
who did it because I may have been watching him do it
but one me yeah all right what a dumb fucking thing to say
do you imagine idiot idiot
So the investigators focus on Cook after learning that he had left threatening messages on the Mastercraft telephone answering machine over the course of several weeks.
He's been like threatening the RV upholstery factory. What the hell are you doing?
It makes more sense when you understand that his wife or estranged wife at this point, Kelly, was an employee at the plant the time that the calls were made.
That's why.
Okay.
So he doesn't like her.
We'll find out.
Definitely not.
He's a little jealous and possessive, I would say.
And he has like a daughter or two and all this stuff.
He's like, calm down, bro.
Mastercraft reported the incidents to police and had addressed the concern by adding extra security.
And the extra security didn't matter much.
One of the prosecutors here said it had escalated in volatility.
We believe one of his motives over committing the crime is that he was angry over a relationship.
He thought his wife was having it.
mastercraft.
He thought his wife was fucking one of the other employees, so he said, I will burn this
motherfucker to the ground.
To the ground.
Didn't even have rock solid evidence.
No.
Under suspicion, he burnt it down.
That's the crazy part.
He went in there looking for evidence of it.
That's what he was looking for.
Oh, my God.
That's what's crazy.
Seven and a half million dollars in damages.
Now, they arrest him.
The plants in ships, ship, shua, shi.
Ship Shawana,
ship showana,
I guess it's called.
Or ships,
Havana,
either one.
He remains in
on a $250,000 bond here.
They said that's higher
than normal
because of the extent of it.
And also the fact
that he didn't get his wife,
so they're worried
he might go after his wife now, too.
So they said that he broke into the factory.
It's about 40 miles east of South Bend
to find information on his estranged wife.
He's originally not booked on arson charges,
but booked on charges of a failure to appear in court the week before
for an invasion of privacy case involving, guess who, his wife.
And also, there was two arrest warrants already out for him when he did that
for invasion of privacy and violating a protective order against who his wife.
Yeah.
So this guy's dangerous.
Why don't you grab some turtle wax and head on over to your buddy's house and...
Yeah, this is what you do.
Have a beer, bitch about your wife and then go home and fucking jerk off and go to bed.
That's what you do.
Shine the car about it.
That's what you do, but not this guy.
It's crazy.
So he ends up admitting it.
He has to admit it eventually here.
He broke into the craft or to Mastercraft.
He rummaged through drawers and offices.
And then he admitted that he lit a match to some fabric and left the building.
So he's like, I mean, I didn't make sure it burned down.
I threw it and said, let the fit.
States land where they may.
Go with God.
Jesus take the wheel.
That's right.
The equivalent of putting a child on a raft and pushing him down the river.
Like, I don't know.
He could be fine or he could be eaten by wolves.
I'm not sure.
Either one could happen.
We'll see.
Technically, either outcomes possible.
He might be raised by the king or eaten by wolves.
We're not sure.
That's a wild thing to do.
It's fucking crazy.
He said that he thought his wife.
wife was sleeping with another employee at Mastercraft, and then he found photos of the two of them in one of the desk drawers.
That's what pissed him off.
And he found it in the desk.
So then after that, he said he was looking for pay stubs for some reason.
He wanted to know more about this guy, probably his address and things like that.
Yeah, but that's also usually where the company discloses the sexual relationships.
Absolutely.
Yeah, it's right there.
It's under the FICA, I believe, right?
The line under that, I think they used for that one.
Yeah, cocks taken, and then it shows.
Yeah, Cox taken.
Yeah.
So he said that he set the fire to get back at them.
Those two employees.
Oh, because it's their fault.
So burn the whole building down.
I will bring this motherfucker to the ground.
How dare you?
They hired and facilitated her being able to take this.
They're CFs, cock facilitators, and he's not taking it.
So after the fire, he went to a friend's house in Millersburg, so he could
watch the fire on television.
It's a huge blaze, and he was like, well, there's constant local coverage of this.
Let's watch this.
So, he's in jail in March of 2004, because that was July 2003.
And then it gets worse somehow.
If you could, I don't know how you could go to jail and make it worse, but he did.
Here's the headline from the newspaper, kidnapping added to a list of Cook's charges.
Who did he take?
Well, is that who he took?
It's who he wanted to take.
He's already charged with arson finally now.
Now he's accused of plotting to kidnap two women in an attempt to get bond money.
Two!
He's going to kidnap people to get ransom money so he can use it to spring himself on bond.
Think about that.
Have you ever heard of that one before?
That's crazy.
You have too much time.
Talk about robbing yourself to pay nobody.
Pay nobody.
Yeah.
Robin Peter.
to fucking shit on Paul's chest.
It makes no sense.
Robin Peter to do Paul's time.
It's so weird.
You're not getting out.
So he's got to appear in front of a judge
on two charges of conspiracy
to commit kidnapping.
That's not great.
He's accused of writing
to someone he met in jail.
Somebody came into the jail
while he was in there waiting.
This person was in there for like 30 days
for a minor.
They called it in the newspaper,
quote, a minor felony.
You know, a small,
just a tiny felon.
Yeah, apparently.
So this guy was getting out in 30 days.
So Monty was like, hey, do me a favor.
And he's writing to this guy asking him to kidnap the two women, get the ransom and then bail him out with it.
Because that's a foolproof plan.
That'll work.
You already can't vote.
So do this for me.
How about this part?
Yeah.
This guy, by the way, the minor felon, he gets these letters asking them to commit a major felony.
and he's like, I have a level of felon that I'm comfortable with.
And it's not this high up.
It's a much lower level felon than this.
Yeah.
He took the letters to his probation officer and told on the, on Monty.
Wow.
He's like, we're not that good of friends.
The fuck are we doing here.
So rather than.
We're not that close.
So rather than just busting him for that right there,
the sheriff, the probation officer gave it to a sheriff's detective.
Jeff Campos.
This Campos had said, no, go ahead and respond to him.
Tell him, no problem.
Let's set up a meeting.
And we're going to set up a meeting.
So they set up a meeting with undercover officers at the jail.
This guy said, come back to the jail and bring your kidnapper friend with you and
we'll just meet at visiting day.
And we'll set this up.
Okay.
This is all really brilliant.
One officer posed as a bail bondsman.
and the other officer posed as the man's cousin.
That's how they did.
I'm going to commit a felony, so I brought my cousin with me and my bail bondsman.
Yeah.
So, Monty Cook proposed kidnapping the women.
One is the wife of a mastercraft employee, and the other one is the wife of an old friend,
just kidnapping random people for ransoms ranging from 70,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars,
depending on his mood, what he was talking about at the time.
the, they said, quote, we were notified by a private individual who'd been receiving some fairly disturbing correspondence from Mr. Cook.
This person brought the letters in.
We followed up with an undercover officer coming to the jail and meeting to discuss with Mr. Cook the plans he detailed in the letters.
So the officer posed as his cousin and said that, yeah, you know, we'll talk about it.
And they said that Cook willingly talked to the undercover officer who got the evidence on a record.
So,
Unbelievable.
Idiot.
Cook wanted the would-be kidnappers to abduct these women from their homes,
pull them from their beds, and then hold them for money, which is crazy.
One of the, they lived in two different cities, too, these women.
They were not like they were in the same house.
They said, grab that one and then this one.
The two women were acquainted with Cook.
And then the prosecutor here said,
I think he believed the individuals may have sums of money,
enough to accomplish his plan.
Cook told the undercover instructions
on getting the ransom money
and told him not to hurt the victims.
This is just for money.
Get me out of here.
I'm not looking to hurt anybody.
He said, we believe he was trying to acquire
enough money to post bond
to be released and probably flee the area,
you would assume.
What an unbelievable plot.
What a dumb fucking plot.
That's a guy with way too much time
on his hand sitting in jail.
And way too few
brain cells evidently, because that's not going to work.
Way too few IQ points and too much time.
Too much time, two little smarts, and you're going to end up with some dumb shit.
So he's scheduled to stand trial on the arson and burglary charges, which could result in prison
sentences up to 20 years and eight years, respectively.
And now these new charges could carry up to 50 more years in prison if convicted.
I was just going to ask you, this is, this is charges.
What he's doing is like, yeah, you can.
This guy is dangerous.
He should not be on the street.
He should be doing 78 years.
Yeah.
This is what he comes up with as a solution to his problem that he got himself in.
To do a huge problem that cost $7.5 million.
Because he wanted to stalk his wife more.
That's crazy.
Right.
Because he knew she wasn't even there.
He wasn't even there.
It's fucking incredible.
So, yeah, he wanted evidence.
He thought this was the perfect time to break into the plant because no one's there.
Yeah.
He's going to the factory.
So the prosecutor said, he's incredible.
incredibly foolish trying to plan a conspiracy from a jail cell.
You're not a mob boss.
This is not going to work.
You don't have people that are working for you.
He said,
You don't have organized criminals.
No.
He said, obviously we knew he was dangerous because of the arson,
but now he suggested doing something even more serious.
And then he also said, I know he really thought he was going to get away with it.
He really thought this would work.
Monty's a moron, I think it's safe to say.
He's a fucking moron.
So in court, he's got, I mean, he's on recording, talking to two cops, giving them specific and really detailed kidnapping instructions.
Take two women and spring him from the joint.
So he's got to plead guilty.
I mean, otherwise, he's going to jail forever.
He's never getting out.
So he pleads guilty to a Class B felony of arson, a Class C felony of burglary.
Then in the separate case, pleaded guilty to two counts of Class B felony conspiracy to commit.
criminal confinement, which I guess is a little under kidnapping.
It's kidnapping without the stank on it there.
Yeah.
So during sentencing here, the prosecutor said, I want a 39-year sentence.
Don't care if he pled.
He said the destruction of property, destruction of lives, and the destruction of an
industry in our town.
This is like a terrorist act, basically, they're saying.
You put 350 people out of work in a small town.
Like, that's crazy.
Yeah.
He's about to make this place a tour.
tourist destination for bikers only.
Yeah, absolutely.
Now, think about this.
This is 2004.
He shows photos in court, the prosecutor,
big blown-up side-by-side photos of the burned-out factory
and buildings that have been destroyed in Baghdad during the Iraq War.
Oh, shit.
They look exactly the same to me.
Yeah.
That's crazy.
Surprised he didn't break out the World Trade Center picks.
A pile of rubble.
You see a different.
He's a terrorist.
Someone's paying for 9-11, and I propose, it's Monty Cook.
That's what I'm saying right now, if I had to say.
Yeah.
The towers at least left across.
I don't see a cross here.
God doesn't love us.
We're all fucked.
We're all fucked.
Sorry.
So the factory owner, Clifton Reynolds, this fucking part owner of Mastercraft,
he said he had extensive loss of property and equipment,
lost to his employees, lost to his suppliers, vendors, everybody.
You know, if you have an order waiting, it's not going to be ready for a while, put it that way.
He noted also that his personal loss, he said the building was his father's dream, and he took over for his father.
And he's built it up, and he said he was proud of his employee base and wanted to settle in ships, ship Shawana or ship Shawana, whatever it is.
Now, the factory had to move to South Poplar Street in LaGrange.
They had to find another place to be because they'd have to rebuild a 3,000, 5,000 square foot factory.
So the prosecution says, let's do 39 years without any suspended and order him to repay damages as restitution, $7.5 million in damages.
That's good enough.
Yeah, for a guy who delivers RVs.
That'll work.
He said to set the record straight, 39 years in jail is warranted considering all he has done.
His defense attorney said, come on.
I mean, the guy could be.
Sherry burned a building down, put a whole industry out of business.
but it was in a fit of passion.
So let it roll.
He can't fault him.
He loves real hard.
He just loves hard.
And the conspiracy charges, he said that's, they were construed.
It could be construed as entrapment if you really think about it.
So that shouldn't even be on here.
You know, he pled guilty to it, but let's be realistic.
If we really went to court, we could say that was probably, you know, entrapment.
Who knows if that would even stand?
And his mental state was compromised.
Hmm.
And he also challenged the amount of damages stressed by the prosecution saying that it was less than that.
It wasn't $7.5 million.
That's an overblown estimate.
And then also says that he should give him concurrent sentences, not consecutive sentences, before the kidnapping plots and the arson.
They should just all go together rather than laying them out like that.
Monty has to talk.
He has to say something during sentencing.
Show your passion, Monty.
He has to sit there.
He said that, quote, if I could change everything I would,
I'm extremely sorry.
I apologize to my family, especially my daughter, for putting them through this.
Unbelievable.
And they say, you, sir, may fuck off.
Four years at the Indiana Department of Corrections for the burglary.
That's just the burglary.
20 years for arson.
Those are concurrent, so 20 years.
And in the conspiracy to commit criminal confinement,
and he was ordered to serve an extra 15 years twice, so 30 years altogether for those.
So basically they gave him when it all adds up.
It was 30 years, but then they broke it.
He said, I'll do it concurrent because he was saying, like, I could lay him out, but I'm
going to do it this way.
So basically it's 35 years is what he got, 20 years and then 15 years, basically.
So that's what he's got, 35 years.
The prosecutor said, I think Judge Brown was very fair.
considering the destruction.
And that's that.
Now, the 2018 here is when he gets out of jail.
So he's in for 15 years.
He does half the time, basically.
Half of that, yeah.
Gets out.
And then that's when he's hanging out around here,
helping David Brumley fix up his Mustang and, you know,
hanging out, doing housework and delivering RV parts.
Because what else is he going to do?
He just got out of prison for being one of the worst people in the area.
Like, everyone in the area,
He's the guy.
Everybody's got to be mad at it.
Yeah.
I went to high school at this one guy who burned down that whole factory.
I went to high school at that guy.
Remember him?
Like, that's what they're all talking about.
Jerk.
Almost ruined it.
Yeah.
October 31st, 2018, David Brumley gets a bank loan.
His furnace broke.
Yeah.
And that's one of those things that...
Oh.
You need a new furnace.
You need an...
It's October in Indiana.
Yeah.
And it's November's tomorrow.
You better get...
Cash?
Taking out a loan.
Ouch.
That's brutal, man.
It's brutal.
But that's how so many people live.
How many years was that?
I remember sitting in terror of something like that breaking, like I can't fix it.
So he gets this $5,000 loan to fix his furnace from the bank.
Then the next day he doesn't show up for work.
Strange, he's a pretty dependable guy.
And the next day he doesn't show up for work on November 2nd.
This furnace has taken a long time to install.
Wild.
So that's a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
He doesn't come to work.
So that's odd.
Then Saturday, November 3rd, 2018 is when they decide, where is he?
Somebody calls to get a welfare check on him.
They don't even know if he's home.
So check it out.
So it's a Saturday at about 1 p.m.
and officers go to his residence.
I won't give his exact address, but it's West South Street for a welfare check.
When they enter the home, first of all, they see that the Mustang is not in the garage.
Oh.
So they're like, okay, maybe he took the month.
Mustang somewhere, not like him at all to do this, but three-day ride in a Mustang, that's expensive.
Three-day stang ride he's going for. Then they open the door to his house because they have to do a
welfare check too to make sure because someone asked for it. And in the entry room of Brumley's home,
they find scraps of black electrical tape and clear packaging tape. Little pieces ripped off,
the scraps of it everywhere. That's funny. They also find a cardboard box right up there by the front
the front door, containing a white disposable dust mask, multiple used zip ties, two belt loops
from a pair of blue jeans, just the loops, one of which had a zip tie fastened to it, tightly.
Yeah.
These are all very strange things that they're finding.
Yeah.
Then they go into the bedroom.
But it's all the things that somebody with a Mustang has.
You've got to have a lot of tape and zip ties.
Yeah, got to have zip ties.
Yeah, you got to have those.
Put it back together.
I don't know why you would zip ties.
tie a belt loop.
That doesn't make a lot of sense.
Unless your seat belt, bro.
It's a lot of weird shit.
So they go into his bedroom
and they find David in there.
He's seen better days.
Let's put it that way.
He's been here for three days
and it's not good.
Oh, shit.
His body is kind of wedged
between the bed and a wall
like in a bad motel room,
you know?
Yeah.
And his head is covered by,
they can't even see his face.
They don't even know if it's him at first.
His head is covered by a pillowcase
and a black plastic garbage bag.
Oh, no.
It's horrifying.
The pillow case was secured over his head
by black electrical tape,
which was wrapped around his neck.
This is a nightmare.
Fucking nightmare.
The worst.
Then the garbage bag was secured
over the pillowcase.
He made sure that David couldn't chew through it
or something.
Right.
That was secured over the pillowcase
by clear packaging tape
which was wrapped around this face.
Oh, no.
So imagine finding this.
This would be a disturbing fucking thing
to find this poor guy.
You don't expect that whoever did that gives a fuck whether this person lives or dies.
Well, no, they're trying to kill him, obviously.
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
You can't breathe through that.
No, no.
He also had electrical tape wrapped around tightly around his right wrist, and he was wearing
a pair of blue jeans with two missing belt loops.
Hey, look at that.
We solved a puzzle.
Yep.
And an autopsy reveals that he died from asphyxia due to lingoes.
due to ligature neck compression and suffocation.
So they didn't just suffocate him.
Put that on and they strangle them out.
This is the best line in the whole story that I read.
I don't even know why a reporter would put this.
His death was ruled a homicide.
No shit.
Really?
You think?
Well, I guess if you saw what happened to like the Kung Fu guy,
you'd probably think they couldn't have done that to himself.
Oh, that made him come?
Shit.
Okay, never mind.
I guess he did.
I hate when they fucking...
Just say he died of strangulation.
And we're not investigating.
Just say that.
The man's mom reads this.
Yeah.
Accidental death will work just fine.
It's all good.
I don't need to know all the details.
I really don't.
I mean, I want to, but I don't need to, is what I'm saying.
It is funny.
I agree.
Exactly.
It is good for jokes for 30 years.
But besides that...
But his poor mother...
Yeah, his mother's got to be hurt.
So his friends and friends and family...
family now. People that know him reacting,
know David Brumley here. Brumley's
childhood friend Sandra said
of his death that it's on everyone's mind.
She said, I think it's suspicious,
but the cops are keeping hush,
hush about it. We don't know
what they know. That's when it first came out.
They didn't tell everybody, hey, he was found
with all this weird shit on his hat and everything like that.
They just said he was found dead
in his house and we think it's homicide.
She said it was her brother who noticed
Brumley was missing several days of
work in a row, and he's the one who notified.
the police. She said, my brother called his brother, and he sent some of his friends down there to check on him.
They called the police. Then everything got roped off and no one was allowed in. They said, then everything stopped as far as what we know.
Now, publicly, they said that they wasn't, publicly, they're really not saying anything about his death or any of the details.
All they're saying is he was found and they have ruled it a homicide. Yeah.
That's it.
She has her own theory of what went on because why not?
They're like finding weird people named Kelly's theory.
Let's see.
Oh, Sandra's her name, Sandra Kelly.
She said, I know they're calling it a death investigation, but I believe he got murdered.
But I don't know that for sure.
You got it.
She also says, if they say death and investigation, they think that too.
They're pretty sure of it.
They're pretty sure of it.
Yeah.
If they found him at the hometown buffet or at the Golden Corral holding his chest on the ground,
they go, that's probably a heart attack.
We probably could clear this one up pretty quick.
We don't, very little investigation.
No.
So this woman said here that this death has left the whole town terrified.
But she thinks if they find the missing car, that'll lead to the answers.
God, she is real good.
She is a detective there.
Somebody swear this bitch in.
She knows everything.
Yeah.
Now, November 2018, this month right now,
he's wanted,
Monty Cook is wanted for several things, by the way.
There's two arrest warrants issued for him in November
by judges in Randolph County.
On November 5th, he was charged with theft,
a level six felony carrying a standard one-year jail term.
Four days later, he was charged with two counts of arson,
more arson.
He likes to burn shit this guy, absolutely.
Yep.
the more serious of the arson charges is a level four felony with a standard six-year sentence.
In that case, he's accused of all the way back on July 25th a few months ago, setting fire to a house he was in the middle of buying on a contract.
So I can't imagine why the guy wouldn't give him the price he wanted or something, trying to negotiate.
And he decided.
That's a hell of a way to back out of an agreement.
Either I get it for my price or I burn it to the ground.
either I get my wife or I burn it to the ground.
That's his answer for everything.
He was sentenced to 35.
Only did 15.
So he's technically on the hook for those other 20 if he bucks up, right?
Yes, that's why they want him.
They want to find him and they can't find him now.
That's the thing.
He's charged with this and warrants are out, but they don't have him in possession.
They don't know where the hell he is.
So that's pretty crazy.
That was in the 600 block of South High Street, by the way, the house he burned down.
He was charged with auto.
on November 2nd, resulting in a third or active arrest warrant for him.
He's described as 5'9, 200 pounds, brown hair, green eyes, wearing glasses, and, quote,
recently seen limping on his right side.
Oh.
Okay.
December 8th, the police finally released, for a whole month, they say nothing publicly
about David Brumley's death.
Nothing.
Then on December 8th, they finally identify the person of interest they've been talking about
for the last month.
We have a person of interest, but no suspects.
They say this person of interest is Monty Cook, and he's got a shitload of felony warrants out for both theft and arson.
So if you see him, don't approach him, but definitely give a little ringy ding to the old police force there.
Now, what evidence do they have on him?
Do they have any evidence that he did this, or they just think he's a bad guy?
Right away, you'd go, well, he didn't burn the house down.
That's a sign that it might not be him.
There's a dead person.
That's not his thing, usually.
Not so far.
then they find fingerprints on these scraps of tape that are identified as Monty Cook's.
But then again, I mean, that's bad that that's a tape around him, but he's there all the time working.
Maybe he held a roll of tape.
But then they found partial DNA profiles on the dust mask that was determined to be consistent with both David Brunley's DNA and a very strong match for Monty Cook's DNA.
Uh-oh.
That's not good.
But again, he's there all the time.
Maybe they were sanding something out and they, you know, he put a mask on a mask.
You never, exactly.
Who knows if they had, how many masks they had.
Who knows?
So as part of this, though, police obtained the internet browsing history associated with two Google email addresses that Monti Cook is known to use.
And that's where we get the fun stuff.
Here we got.
What we get.
It is awesome.
Here's some searches he made in the two weeks before David Brumley's death, okay?
Here's, I'll give you a few.
jobs outside the U.S., that's fine.
I mean, you're not allowed to leave even the state, I'm sure, but whatever.
Maybe you're just curious.
Probably have to ask to leave your house.
Probably.
How to disappear off the grid.
Okay, getting worse.
But maybe he's just interested in conservation.
Maybe that's all it is.
Maybe he just doesn't want to, you know, put any more shit in the world.
Who knows?
Living off grid doesn't necessarily mean leaving town.
No, no, that could just mean I'm going to live in that field and not be hooked up to
county, you know, water
and water. Exactly. Who knows? Maybe he's
just trying to be self-sufficient.
Then it gets a little weirder, though. How to
get fake Social Security
cards. I don't know. I don't know a law
abiding answer to that one.
I don't know that there's a
Google search that's going to give you that
answer. Probably not. I mean,
maybe the dark web or something. Yeah.
Is there any poison which cannot be
detected? Oh,
my God. Judging by how David was
killed, I'm going to say that the answer is no to
that one probably.
Nothing he could get anyway.
That's what he, that's what it came up.
Yeah, you're right.
Then his second thought is, well, I can burn it, obviously, because that's this guy,
whether you can get DNA from a burn body, quote unquote.
So he said, if I kill him, then burn the house down.
Can they get DNA?
Then how fast does it take a body to burn?
Well, that depends on fires.
We've done a lot of shows.
It takes a long time because you're not going to get it that hot.
No, you need to have.
have a goddamn incinerator.
Yeah.
Like at the funeral home.
Thousands of degrees.
Thousands of degrees.
Yeah.
Bodies do not burn up easy.
Can you dissolve a body in acid?
I happen to know that.
For a fact, the answer is yes.
Yes.
I know a guy, gangster guy.
Just takes a long time too.
Whose brother was like a kind of a specialty in that.
They had buckets and they would dissolve body parts.
He's got to get real strong acid.
Yeah.
You've got to be patient.
That's the other thing.
They've got in buckets and shit.
Then he looked up 2004 Mustang.
but it's a 2006 Mustang.
He's just confused.
Next up, trunk size in 2004 Mustang.
What?
Maybe I'll kidnap him and take him somewhere.
Maybe I'll do this.
Then cabins in the Tennessee mountains.
Okay.
What is?
That's before the murder.
Yeah.
Then after the death, now he's got more searches here.
Quote, jobs in the Bahamas.
Oh.
He's like, I want to hear steal drums while I run from this shit.
I need a vacation.
Yep.
How to disappear.
That's pretty straightforward.
Winchester, Indiana, murder investigation.
Okay.
How can I buy a legit social security number and a fake passport?
He still hasn't gotten that one.
He's still got that one he's working on.
He's got to get out of here.
This is my favorite search of all time.
I don't know what he expected to lean from this.
What result could possibly
Could you get from this?
Quote,
how to run from the law with no money.
He basically said how to buy a house with no money down.
But he said it like,
how can I get a way.
There is no way to run for the law with no money.
That's the answer to that.
Hide in a hole in the woods.
I don't know what to tell you.
I do appreciate and enjoy the spiral that he's on.
It is very funny.
It's hilarious.
Because he's getting to,
you know, it's like you can see the,
It's fun because you can literally see the gears spinning.
It's hilarious.
And that last part is like, oh, I have no money.
How do I buy this and I don't even have any money?
Never mind.
How do I run without money?
That'll start there.
You end up getting to the very first Google search you should have plugged it.
Yeah.
Well, then he's looking for inspiration, obviously, with, quote, fugitives on the run the longest.
He's like, what did they do?
Maybe I can match that up.
Then he looks up Monti Cook, Indiana, to see if there's any, like, articles about anybody looking for him.
And then he said, what's the longest people have stayed hid that were wanted for murder?
So, never mind fugitives, specific fugitives of murder, maybe.
He's got to hone it.
Then he visited websites with news articles with these headlines.
Police looking for Mustang taken from Dead Man's Home in Winchester.
police looking for a vehicle missing from deceased person's residence and man wanted in connection with death investigation in Winchester.
Wow.
So he's reading online all about the investigation as much as he can.
And by the way, two days before the murder, Cook's girlfriend, yes, this guy has a girlfriend.
Stop it.
This dude in his 50s who's just gotten out of prison for fucking arson for all this time.
No money.
You bip-de-b-b-b-p-p-p-p-p-p-pah-pah.
Keep it going.
The reasons are numerous why he should be beaten off every day.
I do not want to hear anybody say they can't find somebody.
Lower your standards and find someone because they're out there.
That's it.
They're out there.
This is unbelievable.
So she reported that he was missing and possibly on the run at that time because of an ongoing
arson-related investigation.
Yeah.
So if that's not enough, that's pretty good proof.
And the DNA is decent proof.
But if you got a really good lawyer in there, it's possible.
Then they also have bank footage from November 1st, 2018.
That's the day after Brumley got the bank loan and was last seen alive.
Security cameras at a Winchester Bank recorded Cook depositing Brumley's loan check into his own checking account.
he stole money the man didn't even have he stole he just had it like wrote it over to him and
deposit it in his fucking shit or he got a cashier check or whatever it was is there a scummy or
crime this is complete this dude is a complete piece of shit scumbag isn't he the worst person
he sucks so bad so cameras at other winchester locations also recorded cook driving brumley's
Mustang using Brumley's debit card to make purchases and withdraw cash.
Within three days, he had spent and withdrawn over $2,500 of Brumley's money as well.
This is shocking.
This is fucking amazing.
So he went in, deposited the check into Brumley's checking account, because otherwise he
couldn't get it, and then just used his card to use all the money that he wanted to.
Unbelievable.
So the police are looking for Monty.
They can't find him.
Through December, they're looking for him.
They can't find him.
The car is found, finally.
The car is found, 2006 Ford Mustang G.T.
Found in Marion, Arkansas.
Oh, it went the other way.
About 12 miles northwest of Memphis.
So that's where that was found.
Then Monty's car, a couple days later, was found.
His pickup truck was found abandoned in Winchester.
So he, now he's got, those are the two vehicles he had access to.
Right.
Where are they?
He is gone.
They're looking for him for about five months.
They can't find this fucking guy.
He has no money, no connections.
He's got to be in the mountains of Tennessee, right?
Absolutely the complete opposite.
What?
He is in the fucking desert.
That's where he is.
Where?
Where?
Where is where he is?
Of course he is.
He said, where will I fit in?
Oh, that's the scummiest fucking town in America.
How about there?
Just down the river from Wofflin.
They'll look at me and go, well, at least he's not picking meth sores.
What a good guy.
I'll get any job I want in Kingman.
Wow.
April 19th, 2019 in Kingman, he is arrested.
At that point, he's charged in Indiana with a count of murder,
two counts of a level six, level six felony theft,
and one count of a Class A misdemeanor theft.
Apparently, he's also held in Arizona awaiting the extradition on local charges in Arizona,
taking an identity of another, possession of marijuana, and credit card theft.
That's how they caught him.
That's how they got him.
Well, what he did, you know how he got to Arizona?
He hitchhiked a ride from Arkansas to Nevada with Alexander Gross, who's a guy that Cook met online.
Another guy traveling.
It was like, hey, people looking for people to ride with them places so they don't get bored.
So we just drove the Mustang down there, parked it, and jumped in his car.
Jumped in his car.
Once in Nevada, Cook robbed Gross at knife point.
and forced him to drive him to Arizona,
then forced Gross to rent him a hotel room before letting him go.
Oh, my.
That's how they caught him.
This guy went to the cops and said, yeah, no, that guy.
I know what room he's in.
You can just go get it.
I had to rent the room.
It's under my name.
Yeah.
Trust me.
Go ask for me.
So this guy is a jerk off would be the best, a dangerous jerk off, I think,
would be the best way to put it, right?
I can't believe how dangerous he is.
Think about that.
He, everything.
Nothing is above him.
Nothing is beneath him.
Beneath him.
Above or beneath him.
Either way.
He'll do anything.
Nothing's above him or below him.
It doesn't matter.
He's a fucking mess.
Those searches of just the, what about this thought?
How about that?
No, that's a bad idea.
Okay.
The spiral of desperation is very evident.
And he is willing to do absolutely anything.
thing to survive and not be caught.
Imagine if you're this guy's girlfriend, you're like,
who bullet dodged.
Holy shit.
Thank God.
I would have been dead.
Oh, yeah, no shit.
So this is this guy, all the things he done,
the increasing desperation, I'll kill the guy.
This is all for what?
Right.
He got Monty's Mustang and spent $2,500 of his money.
That's all he got out of that.
James, that money that, that, uh,
He did not even have.
It was not his money.
He borrowed that.
He had to pay that shit back with interest.
Right.
And he's just pissing it away on things.
That is the scumiest thing I've ever heard of.
That's terrible.
I mean, just to kill him over that?
To kill somebody for borrowed money.
Yeah.
It's one thing if it was like, you know,
we see all the time,
oh, they had an $800,000 insurance policy in 1995.
Well, that's a reason to kill somebody, I guess,
if you're that desperate for money.
But this is just,
I'd like to go on a little spending spree for the next couple days, so I'll kill my friend for it.
That's wild.
There's a couple of couches I've had my eye on.
That's what this is.
This is such a tiny amount of money that a man didn't even have, that he was so, this was to keep him from dying this winter.
That's what the money was.
So you got a couch with cup holders in it.
Wow.
They have the old baby Billy there.
Yeah.
Got you a couch with cup holders in it.
You do it.
I love that.
So that's what he's charged with all this shit.
I can't believe that's how he got to fucking Arizona.
That is...
Who knew that that was a website?
I mean, I guess there's a website for everything.
There's a website for everything.
No, if there's websites for that people, you know, to stare at people's feet, there's got to be ones for...
I need someone to hang out with while I drive.
Like, that seems like more reasonable than I just want to stare at some weird, whatever the fuck's like growth.
Featmate.com seems like it's been established long before feetmate.com.
Yes. Or like, you know, I like goiters.org or whatever the fuck, you know.
Some weird jerking off to people's growths or something. I have no idea.
So they go to trial. He does not plead.
He says, you don't have evidence I did this.
What?
He's saying, the stuff you found, the tape, the physical evidence you found, that could have just been for me being over there.
You don't know it's not, even though it's on tape that's wrapped around the guy's head, both kinds of tape.
But still, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on the tape.
Okay. That's fine.
Then the fucking, the internet searches.
Yeah.
I mean, maybe he's just curious.
Maybe he's a curious little guy.
That's all it is.
Maybe he's just aware of more things than the cops give him credit for being aware of.
Maybe he sees things and he goes, I wonder, and looks it up.
He's just, he's a knowledge seeker.
That's all it is.
Well, what about the surveillance of him cashing a check?
When the guy was dead.
That's the problem.
How did you get his furnace money in your hand?
And then spend it, not on his furnace.
You know what I'm saying?
So that's kind of where it all falls apart.
Even if you wanted to be the most pro defendant, you'd still be like, well, that's kind of hard to explain there.
This is money that he doesn't have.
There's no way he would give it to you.
And they also say circumstantial evidence is fine.
You know, a lot of times you hear defense attorneys say this case is totally circumstantial.
And then the prosecution will go up and go, yeah, it is.
It's a shitload of circumstantial evidence, which those circumstances don't happen like that, generally.
Yeah, those circumstances are crazy to be coincidences.
Yeah.
If they found, like, you know, some of Brumley's blood on this guy's shirt, that would be physical evidence.
That would be worth a giant pile of circumcences.
substantial evidence. They have to make a huge pile of it to equal one piece of physical evidence.
But if you have enough of it, it's fine. He'd have to be in the room while Bromley's being
strangled and him to like throw him the check and say, spend this for me. Spend the money.
To be. Yeah. And here's my debit card too.
Just take my wallet. There you go. You're going to need this. You're going to need it. Someone better
live it up because I can never, since I can't, I want you to do it for me. Live for me. Live for
me, damn it, live.
Talk holidays.
Yeah, exactly.
Get room service,
Wyatt.
Thank you for being my friend.
Yep.
So,
come on,
live it up,
man.
Live it up,
that's all he wanted.
Take that pale lady
and get room service.
That's right.
You take that fucking pompous
ass lady and get room service.
So,
verdict comes in, they find him
while he's accused of murder,
auto theft, and two counts of theft
for the different, you know,
money things. He's found guilty of auto
theft, guilty of two counts
of theft, and
guilty of murder as well.
So, that's everything.
He does not testify at all
or make any statement during
the sentencing. Is that right?
Doesn't seem wise, probably, but
he doesn't say shit.
Judge says something, though. They say, you, sir.
They fuck off
62 years for murder
Yeah
Four years
Two years for theft
And that they're consecutive
So 64 years
Is what you got there
Okay
It's awfully lenient in it
It's 64 years
And I believe he has to do all of it
Oh and he's in his 50s
And he's like
Yeah so it's not good
Or he has to do like 90% of it
Or some 95%
It's a lot
Yeah way do you hear his release date
He's going to be there for the remainder.
Let's just put it that way.
The prosecutor said, the browsing history of this cold-blooded killer painted a clear picture of someone planning to commit murder to dispose of a human body and to evade the authorities by going off the grid.
Combined with other evidence, this kind of internet activity is very legitimate piece of the puzzle.
I'm proud of our team for helping ensure justice in this case and holding a violent criminal accountable under the law.
law.
The arson and all the other shit that he had when they were looking for, they just dismissed
all of that.
They're like, he's wiped it all because it doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
He's in for 64 years.
Fuck that house.
So, 2023, he appeals on the, under the guys.
He what?
He appeals, he has got to appeal, direct appeal.
I guess, yeah.
Insufficient evidence is what he claims.
Yeah, all right.
Wow, that's, ballsy.
He said the sentence was inappropriate in light of the nature of the offenses and his
character.
Oh.
The nature of these
offenses are brutal murder
and his character's a piece
of shit who would burn
a factory down
because he's mad at his
wife.
He's a scumbat.
Terrible guy.
A sentient piece of shit
is less dangerous.
Yeah, absolutely.
You can at least
trust it probably.
Yeah, I could smell it coming.
You know it's coming.
They said,
when reviewing the
sufficiency of the evidence
to support a criminal conviction,
we neither reweigh evidence
nor judge witness
credibility.
just we only consider the evidence supporting the judgment and any reasonable inferences that
can be drawn from such evidence. We will affirm if there is a substantial evidence of probative
value. So they said the state was required to prove that he knowingly or intentionally killed Brumley.
Cook acknowledges that Brumley was murdered, but claims the state failed to prove it was him that
did it. Oh, my God. He was murdered. Sure. I'll buy that. But me. You know.
It's only one other person's fingerprints on this man.
Wasn't me.
But we have you on camera.
What's me?
He went full shaggy.
I'm the shaggy murderer.
That's who I am.
This is unbelievable.
It's crazy.
He said there's no direct evidence that he was ever at Brumley's home when the murder occurred.
He said, therefore, there's reasonable inference that he simply stole the car, debit card, and loan check after finding Brumley dead.
That's his excuse.
I went in there to see him.
He was dead, so I just stole all his shit and ran away.
Which is, that's not great either.
We're talking about character.
Right.
Do you think that's a thing that he presented to his lawyer?
And his lawyer was like, there's not a fucking chance I'm doing that.
He's like, well, it's either that or murderer.
So, you know what, we're going with, you're just an opportunistic thief.
That's what we're going with.
How about that?
So the law said here that, um,
murder conviction may be sustained on circumstantial evidence alone.
The evidence need not negate every reasonable hypothesis of innocence just has to be,
they just need to be sure it's you.
That's it.
Right.
That's all it is.
So they said the evidence supports a reasonable inference that he's the person that
killed him.
And Cook's claim to the contrary is merely an invitation to reweigh the evidence,
which is not what we do here.
So that's it.
Was the sentence appropriate?
They said, seem like it.
They said, we give substantial deference to the trial court's
sentencing decision. The trial court's judgment should prevail unless it's overcome by
compelling evidence portraying in a positive light the nature of the offense and the defendant's
character. Well, swing and a miss, swing and a miss. A piece of shit did something terrible.
Feels like it was light, to be honest. Exactly. Could have got worse. Could it got life without,
or at least life. The trial court said that he had a lack of remorse, but they said, no, the lack of
remorse was merely an outward manifestation of his innocence. How could you be remorseful for something
you didn't do.
Well, I didn't do it.
Duh.
I took a man's check because I'm a piece of shit.
Yeah.
The judge wrote, neither the nature of Cook's offenses nor his character convinces us that his 64-year sentence is inappropriate.
She said he carried out a premeditated, unprovoked, and cruel murder of his longtime acquaintance before stealing his car and money and fleeing across the country.
His beloved car.
He said, what's more, these offenses are just another chapter in Cook's alarming history of criminal conduct.
Conduct, bad guy.
Because we don't know what he did before the fire back in 2003.
Because he was a full-grown adult by then.
I bet he had a shitload of charges.
I looked them up.
I couldn't find any.
But, I mean, that's pre-2000.
A lot of shit.
Small towns, not computerized.
So they said, neither the nature of this nor his character convinces us that's an inappropriate
sentence.
We think it's just right.
You can fuck off.
And he said his internet browsing history really showed that what he was doing.
There's no way you burn down masks.
Mr. Kraft on your first criminal attempt.
Fuck no. No.
So he's incarcerated at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City.
He has a projected release date of October 266 when he will be 107 years old.
That's his first parole hearing.
I think we're good on that guy.
Yeah, I would say.
Buck 07.
If he does make it to 107, I say let him out and just watch him try.
I don't say let him out
I say push his ass out
You get it out
Nope you have to leave now
Get the fuck out
But everyone I know is dead
That's all right
Get the fuck out
But I'd have nowhere to go
Green Mile
Sorry I know what to tell you
Light a fire for warmth
What the fuck do you want from us
I mean good luck
Look in the past
We've had like women and children
killed obviously that's a terrible
Terrible individual
Yeah this guy went and killed a man
Who was old
Took a check you didn't even
money didn't even have.
Yeah, no, no.
And then went and blew half of it in a second.
And then what?
He was going to do way worse.
This man's dangerous.
It's a dangerous guy.
The house, the murder house still stands, by the way.
It's occupied.
And the estimate is $114,000 on it.
So, it's awfully cheap.
Two bedroom, one bath, 1,600 square foot.
Oh, there it is.
Detach garage.
Probably was not killing it.
The poor man was, he just had his prized Mustang.
That's it.
That's what he spent.
his money on. It's all he had. So there you go, everybody. That is Winchester, Indiana. And just a
twisted tail of a huge gaping asshole of a guy. What a monster. Just a bad fucking guy. And for some
reason, Hawaiian music in Indiana, whatever it is. We don't know. We haven't figured it out.
So there you go, everybody. Hope you enjoyed that. If you did, get on whatever app you're on and
give us five stars. Tell you that right now. Netflix, two thumbs up. If you're watching on Netflix
and you want to listen to the show.
It's on anywhere you can listen to podcasts.
And this is our 738th episode.
So good luck.
Catch up, everyone.
And we've heard from people at the live shows.
That was great.
People discovered us from Netflix.
So thank you.
There's people that have never listened to the show that came to the live show.
Just because they've seen us on Netflix.
And I was like, that's incredible.
That's my point. If that's you, baby boy, do we have something for you?
You fucking rule.
So thank you, thank you, thank you.
Get on.
Get on the apps.
Get on.
Find where the rest of these are.
That's what I'm.
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This week, crime and sports.
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Great.
Otherwise, it's just a horrible murder story with a crazy murderer who gets caught in a fucking insane way.
So that's fun.
Then for Small Town Murder, we're going to do an old-timey, the trick-or-treat murder, it's called.
And it's not the one where the guy killed his kid or the neighborhood kid.
It's not that.
This is a dumbest reason ever for me to look at my fucking swizzle sticks.
Yeah.
This is a weird diabolical crazy plot that just happened to be centered around the distraction of Halloween.
It's crazy stuff.
So we'll talk about that because Halloween's coming up.
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