Small Town Murder - Homicidal Bloodthirsty Energizer Bunny - Cape Girardeau, Missouri

Episode Date: July 2, 2026

This week, in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, a wild & scary scene unfolds when a jealous boyfriend shows up at his ex's new boyfriend's trailer, with a gun in each hand. This leads to cold blooded murder, and a race for detectives to find this killer, and his now kidnapped ex, hopefully still alive. But this killer doesn't want to be caught, and he even plays a particular song, over & over, to show his unwillingness to go down without a fight!! Will he be caught before he has a chance to murder even more?   Along the way, we find out that if your town's nickname is about something that your town no longer does... maybe change the nickname, that shooting at a child, for no apparent reason seems to be a bit of an overreation, and that when choosing a song to play, on repeat, while you run from the police, you should choose very carefully!!   New episodes, every Wednesday & Friday nights!! Check us out on VIDEO Wednesday and Friday evenings on Netflix! www.netflix.com/smalltownmurder 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!!

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This week, in Cape Giridot, Missouri, a wild and scary scene unfolds when a jealous boyfriend shows up at his ex's new boyfriend's trailer with a gun in each hand. This leads to cold-blooded murder and a race to find the kidnapped ex, hopefully still alive. And that's somehow just the tip of this horrific iceberg. Welcome to Small Town Murder. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder. Yes! Yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed.

My name is James Petrogalo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wiseman. Thank you, folks, for joining us today on another, this is a wild episode of Smalltown Murder. Let me tell you. Not like they all aren't, but this is, seems extra crazy to me just with all the stuff going on here. Before we get to that, definitely head over to shut up and give me murder.com. What you need there, first of all, all your merchandise and everything like that.

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Just finished up the Yahweh Ben-Yawai cult series on crime and sports with all their murders and everything like that. So I feel like you'd enjoy that. And then also your stupid opinions, if you like to laugh, that's a show you want. So get in there. Then get yourself Patreon. That's important. P-A-T-R-E-O-N. Patreon.com slash crime in sports, just like the name of

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and sports. It's part two of hostages because we found those fascinating. hostage situation. So we'll get into more of that. And then for small town murder, it's prisoner dating game time, everybody. There we go. It is back again by popular demand and line up four bachelors and four bachelorets in front of Jimmy. And the only thing they have in common is they are all convicted violent felons. And Jimmy gets to pick one of each based solely on what they say about themselves and their profile. And then the fun begins when we start to find out what they did to end up there. And how bad of a decision Jimmy's made. So that's a lot of fun.

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It's a comedy show, everybody. This is a comedy show. We're comedians, and we're going to make – nice to meet you. And we're going to make jokes. And people are going to die because the show's called Small Town Murder. And you go, well, how do you do that? And we say, tastefully is how you do it. That's right.

Real tastefully, like, it's real simple. You basically, what we never do is we don't make fun of the victims or the victims' families. Why, James? Because we're assholes. But... But we're not scumbags. There you have it. Real simple.

That's the way you do it. There's plenty of other stuff to make fun of, a small town, because who cares? We're all from somewhere that deserves to be made fun of. Don't get all crazy and uppity about your own place. You'll make fun of somebody else. We'll make fun of a small town police force that lets a murderer go free because they're not doing their jobs. We'll make fun of murderers because fuck them. That's all there is to it.

So that said, if you think true crime and comedy should never go together, Maybe we're not for you, but we might be. Either way, no complaining later. But you should check it out. So we think you would like it and will like it. So that said, I think it's time, everybody. Here we go. To sit back.

What do you say here? Clear the lungs here. 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, shall we?

Yeah. Let's do it. All right. We're moving along. Going to Cape Girardo. How did I say that last? Gerardo? Gerardo.

Gerardo, yes. Cape Gerardo. He's Rico Suave is where we are. Yeah. Rico Suave, Missouri. Gerardue, I believe, is how you say. Geradu. Geradu, yeah.

Cape Jeradu, Missouri, which is G-I-R-A-R-D-E-A-U. So why you know, why are you confused about the pronunciation? Because it's French, that's why. It's in South Eastern Missouri. Missouri, way down there. It's about an hour and 50 minutes up to St. Louis, if you go all the way kind of up the border there. And then it's two and a half hours to Memphis in the other direction. And it's six hours and 50 minutes to Maryville, Missouri.

Our last Missouri episodes, a long time. It takes forever. That was episode 666, the Killer, the Kitty, and the Combine. That was a wild episode. This is in Cape, damn it. Gerardo County. Gerard DeFardue. Cherokee Jepard Depardue County.

Also in Scott County as well. This town, Area Code 573, and it's got several nicknames, most of which have been taken by many other cities. Oh. Let's see. First of all, Cape. Which, Cape. Cape. Cape.

You go to the Cape. That's Cape Cod. That's, you know, lots of capes. River City, which is, there's a million. cities that call themselves a river city. Everything that's on a river. There's a lot of rivers. And then one that's taken by many other cities, including a big one, the city of roses. Oh, which, Portland, right? Yeah, that's the, you've, any, you want to call yourself the Queen City, too? Take Charlotte's shit and somebody else might as well.

About the one that doesn't sleep. Yeah, why not? The city is named, a little bit of history here, named after Jean-Baptiste D. Gerardo, spelled completely different, by the way. A different, Is that different John Baptiste too, right? Yeah, I'm sure. He established a temporary trading post around 1733. So, yeah, this is later. He was a French soldier stationed at Cascascia. Wow, Cascadia between 1704 and 1720 in the Louisiana colony of French, whatever the hell.

So the Cape in the name is referring to a rock promontory that overlooks the Mississippi. Mississippi River. Oh. So there's this beautiful spot, this scenic spot that was later completely destroyed by railroad construction. So that's nice. Turned right back into mud like the rest of that. That's it.

There you go, everybody in Missouri. The great mud river flows here. On May 21st, 1949, a large tornado ripped through the city. Sure. Killing 22 people. That's a lot. 22 people hospitalizing 72 and injuring hundreds. Wow.

It became known as the city of roses because they had a nine-mile stretch of highway that, quote, was once lined with dozens of rose bushes. Not anymore. We can drop that name now, I think, since they don't exist anymore. Because there was a place that had some rose bushes. Not even, they didn't sell them. No, they just, as you drove, that was there. And there used to be a lot of prominent rose gardens around the community. that was like the thing to do was to have rose gardens, but hardly any of them exist anymore, too.

So it's pretty sad. It's an interesting bush that everybody's proud of when most of them look like dog shit. Yeah, for a little while. It's a hard plant to keep going. It is. My grandfather had rose bushes. Yeah. That would come back every year no matter what all the time in the winter.

Tried so hard. She put eggshells and coffee grounds, all kinds of shit in there. She just had more or less a garbage disposal full of shit in her yard. They looked nice from time to time, but for the most part, it's like a tangled fucking mess. Interesting. Maybe it's too much care, because my grandfather, I think, used scotch and palm all ashes, I believe, was how he, that was his fertilizer. He spilled a little scotch in there while he was drinking and asht his spiltreless cigarette on it, I think. And they grew beautiful.

Reviews to this town. Yeah. Here's five stars. I like the all-around atmosphere of the city. Growing up here, I have fondly come to like the place. from the people I've met to the restaurants I've been. Oh. Yeah.

In other words, I just don't want to go anywhere. I'm happy. I eat and then I stay home and everything's great. And it's great. Here's three stars. Cape has both its good and it's bad. It depends on the area, really. Let me write that down.

Hold on. Yeah. So you're saying in different parts of different cities, things are different. Yeah. Wow, that's weird. There could be a nice part, James. But then there could be a bad part. I'll let me write that.

I'm going to write bad parts. Yeah. I'm just going to put B.P. For bad parts. Yeah. And the GP. For good parts. Yeah.

I'm going to put that down. That way we, yeah, there. That's now I'll know that for later in case I'm confused. That's helpful. Areas around legends Cape Girard do bring lots of crime and trouble. But other areas can be nicer. Yes, you've mentioned that. You've mentioned some areas are bad.

Some areas are nice. The bars aren't that. exciting and there's only one club to dance at, but it could be worse. You can shake your ass, but it's about it. I love when someone complains and they go, but it could be worse. It could be worse, specifically in those other areas. Yeah. It's just, oh, very bad in those areas.

To me, it could be worse is the non-Italian way of saying, you know me, I can't complain. That's the non-Italian way to do it. Here's one star. Don't come here. Okay. It's not like it was. Narcissists, drugies, drug dealers, killers, thieves, not thieves, by the way. Thiefs.

Thiefs, apostrophe, S also. So I don't know. You can make of that what you will. Killers, thieves, and don't come here. And don't come here. No peace. All of those really awful things and narcissists? And narcissists.

That's the really bad part. Killers and thieves and drugies, okay, but oh my, but narcissists, now we're pushing it. No peace, no love, no empathy, empty eyes, no souls, no respect, no care, ruthless. You won't be able to leave if you come here. Why? Why can't you leave? There's thieves. They'll steal your car.

You can't get out. And you will have babysitters. I don't know what that means. They're going to watch you to make sure you don't go? I suppose so. It's like Widows Bay. You can't leave if you're born here. One star, not as good as it once was.

Crime, drugs, killings, shootings, harassment, fighting, no good jobs. How about the narcissists? Are they there? He hasn't experienced him yet. City won't fund enough law enforcement to combat overgrowing criminal activity. We'll be the judge of that. We have crime rates. It has a college and they try to sweep all the negative news under the rug.

City needs to put casino funds into things that will help the city, not in things that that are a waste of money, meaning the money they get from the casinos. Right. Okay. People in this town, 39,415. It's grown quite a bit, this place. More women than men, which is kind of typical in college town. Southeastern Missouri, I believe, is here, the college.

So there's 52.2% women. Median age is much lower, too, because of the college, 33.9 is the median age, which is lower than the national average by about four or five years. the less married people. It's still almost 40% married here, though. Wow. Which is still pretty high, considering that many kids. 18% are single with children, which in college town that's like that.

Race in this town, 79.4% white, 14.3% black, 2.3% Asian, 1.9% Hispanic. And religion, this is, I don't know if that's a Christian school or what, but it must be because the religion here is as high as like Utah. It's wild. 78.3% of the people here are religious. That's a lot. And the top one, it's 15.5% Pentecostal. I don't even know what that one does. That's the snake handlers.

Well, that's the hardcore version of that. The nutty one. But everybody with a snake is a Pentecostal for the most part. Tongue speaking and shit? Oh, yeah, yeah. That's a hud-la-la-la. You get all that shit there. Running into walls.

Whatever the hell's going on there. Yep. Close Baptist is a close second. here. Unemployment is low here. Median household income is also low, and that's typical of a college town as well. Sixty-nine thousand is the average for the country. Here, it's $48,055 median household. Cost of living, which can say a lot here. 100 is average, regular. Here it is 84. And the house- a little bit high, yeah, for what it is, where it is. The housing is the lowest thing there is here. median home cost here

$180,400. Very affordable. But it's on the middle of nowhere. Yeah, this is, there's not, unless you, like, are a professor at the college. I don't know what you're doing here, working here. So if we've convinced you, there we go.

Narcissists and druggies and killers and thieves and everything else doesn't drive you away, we have for you the Cape, oh, Cape Gerardue, I think I said it right. Missouri Real Estate Report. Your average two-bedroom rental here goes for $880 a month, which is well below the national average,

about a third below it. Here is the first house. It is a smoking deal. Needs a lot of work on the inside. It's a three-bedroom, one bath, 1,500 square foot house. It's got like a grass hill going up with the concrete steps. It looks like it's in Pittsburgh or something, this house. It's brick house.

It needs a lot of work inside. There are rooms that are just stripped. to nothing, but it's $45,000. So, I mean, put some work into it and you got yourself, I don't know if it's in a shit neighborhood, one of the bad areas, or so I'm sorry, BP, bad parts, I believe is what we called them. Next up is a three-bedroom two-bath, 3,543 square foot house. Good size house.

It's good size. From the outside, it's not a lot to look at. It's yellow vinyl siding, two-story with like a porch that looks like it's going to fall down on the upper, upper deck there. It's not a big lot or anything like that, but that's a lot of house. If you have a few kids, it's a place you can store them. $164,900 bucks. And that is after a $10,000 price cut as well on that one.

And then finally, you're, I don't know, you're the dean of some horse shit. I don't know what, I don't know what jobs there are at colleges. I didn't go to college. You're the coach at CMew. You are doing it. Here's a four-bedroom, four-bath. T-Bull for each and every beehole over here. 5,724 square foot house.

Wow. It's a big, nice brick, really nice house. It's on three acres as well, a lot of trees, some privacy to your neighbors. Real nice. 895,000 bucks for that. Holy. Yeah, in Phoenix, that would be $17 million. How many acres?

Three. Yeah, that's pretty good. That's not bad. That'd be $17 million. in Phoenix or Westchester. One of the two. Pick them. Either part of the country that we live in here. Things to do in this town. Oh, baby.

It's the barrel and bruise, barrel in brews, you know, in Bourbon and Live Music Festival. Oh. Let's get drunk and watch local bands. Yeah. Yay. Okay. Now it says, join us in the

heartland. Experience two unforgettable days of luxury spirit tastings. When I think the heartland. That's what I think about. Luxury spirit tastings. That's America. That's your luxury. That's real America right there. That's, you know, that's the real blue-collar America. Luxury spirit tastens. That's what it's about.

Live music and delicious local food. Okay. They said they're excited to host a premier event celebrating fine spirits, supporting local vendors and enjoying live music outdoors. Now the music We got DJ Noon Nunny Noonye N-U-N-N-E Could be anything

Call it, this is the description Call it funky, jazzy or whatever you want But DJ Nunei's Seamless blend of horns, electric sounds and vocals Forms an explosive combination Oh boy Then there's Ed Callison and company

I'd like to I'd like you to concentrate on picking up trends here, by the way, over the next couple. Music isn't just something Ed does. It's who he is. Oh, he is. Yeah, with a voice that could slide from rock to R&B to country in a single set. He brings heart and energy to every performance. Like rock.

Yeah, Ed draws inspiration from a wide variety of legends, including Rod Stewart, the Beatles, Don Henley, Paul Rogers, and then Bad Company. That's their singer. Travis Tritt, Alan Jackson, John Mellencamp, Hall & Oates, Steve Perry, Leonard Skinner, Arrowsmith, Forer, and many more. He just listed every band. He went through, like, his collection of, he was like, well, I got these guys going through his phone. Well, I got a bunch of their songs. I should put him in there, probably. This is all the shit he listened to in high school.

That's it. So he took inspiration. Next is My Posse in effect. Hell yeah. Oh, no, no, no, no. There's a bunch of middle-aged white people. jogging suits. It's bad.

Oh, that's not. You can't do Sir Mix a lot and Rex and Effects. Oh, you can if you're these idiots. Taking you through the decades of their unforgettable hits, this seven-piece live band replicates the authentic Beastie Boys experience with three MCs, a world-class DJ, and visuals from their iconic video collection. What?

The crowds get to relive carefree times and always sing along word for word in a party atmosphere. You're doing karaoke. Yeah, I don't get it. Meets me. Next up, Andrew Lee, an American country singer, music artist from Kentucky, musical influences like John Prine, Hank Williams Jr., Alan Jackson, George Strait, Tyler Childers, and Morgan Wallen. Okay, you had me for a minute. No, and then you lost me. Ethan Carl is also there. He's a singer-songwriter, born and raised outside of St. Louis with influences such as Parker, McCullough,

column, John Mayer, and Travis Tritt. How do you have those? For this incredible event, $45 a day. Stop it. $80 for two days, or you can get the two-day VIP package, which is $195. Wow. She gets eight drink tickets per day. You're going to get tanked.

Jesus. $195 to listen to that shit. But you get a branded glass to take home. God. That seems worth it. Anyway, crime rate, what we are interested in here and what people are so freaking out about in this town. Property crime, there's a reason. It's almost double the national average.

So I don't know. They got crackheads and, you know, people. But that's also college towns, it's always higher. Yeah, the property crime is definitely higher. Yeah, people doing dumb shit. You bring a fucking event like bourbon and bones? What was it? And you give people eight drink tickets per day.

You're going to get some property. crime. There's a problem. Violent crime, murder rape robbery, and of course assault. The Mount Rushmore of crime is only slightly above average. It's pretty close.

So not bad. That's probably, it was probably at average and then you add in all of the like frat party, uh, non-consensual fucking weird shit that goes on there and it goes way up. Strait dick comes out and it's all over. That's right. Uh, that said, let's talk about some murder here. Okay. Now that we're done talking about, uh, the, the impact of.

date rape on the crime rate. We'll move on to this here. Okay, let's talk about a murder. Let's talk about a woman first. Man, what a journey she has here. Stephanie Lynn, now I believe she's born Pruitt, but then later on she goes by Stephanie Ray and then she's back to Pruitt. So for the majority of this story is when she's going by Stephanie Ray.

So we'll call her Stephanie Ray for now. She's born June 29th, 1974. And by the mid-90s, she is a single mother of three. Dang. By 21, 22 years old. She's got three kids. She's single. Same thing my mom did.

It's tough. That's a tough thing to do. And everybody, she's very nice. She's very into gardening, by the way. Really? Really into gardening. I mean, for it is out there, James? Roses.

Yeah, maybe. She puts angels all over her house, too. Real into angels and gardening. She sounds like she's a 73-year-old lady is what she sounds like. She's looking for solace. In her early 20s here. But she's very nice and kind, everybody says about her. By the mid-90s, she's in another relationship, not with the father of her children, but with somebody else.

A guy named Russell Bucklew, B-C-K-L-E. W. Now, Russell goes by Rusty, of course. Fuck yeah. He's Russell Earl Bucklew, born May 16th, 1968, so that's six years older than her. Oh, Rusty Bucklew. Okay. Now, Rusty is born with a strange illness that does not affect a lot of people.

It's called Canaver or Cavernius, Kermanis, Hemingia. Hemingiama, cavernous, cavernous, wow, hemingiama. It sounds like, it's gross. It sounds like something that attacks the oompa lumpus. I believe it does, actually, if you mess with the. Vicious canid. If you mess with the chocolate river, it'll happen. So now, this is clusters of malformed, weak-walled blood vessels that grow into,

and this might be the grossest four words we've ever put together. And this is a murder show that grow into spongy, blood-filled tumors. Yikes. Jesus Christ. God damn it. I was hungry. Oh, that's the thing.

In him, in different places for different people. For him, it's mainly his face, head, neck, and the inside of his throat, the uvula, which is a little dangly thing there in the back yard. Everywhere visible and the dangly thing. And the dangly thing. Oh, Jesus Christ. It's pretty rare.

It occurs in about two-tenths of one percent of the general population. And then the ones that manifest everywhere your driver's license shows is even slimmer. The oral cavity version, meaning the lips, tongue, palate, and uvula is even more rare with 2,000th of 1% of people are affected. by this. This poor guy. So fucking exceedingly rare. Like this is, you really got a shit genetic hand if you got this. This is bad. It's all fucked out.

Spungy blood-filled tumors. Think about spongy blood-filled tumors. Unbelievable. Now, we have contradictory kind of accounts of his young life. Now, we know that he came from a stable home,

meaning they weren't moving all the time, weren't getting foreclosed on or evicted. Decent parents, meaning they worked. And the kids were like, had clean clothes on and shit like that. So they have that. But there's also a lot of talk about his dad,

Robert Bucklew, being kind of having a big temper and alcoholism and abuse and trauma allegations and all that kind of thing. Did his spongy blood-filled tumors manifest at a young age? Or was this something He's born with this. Oh, my God.

This is something you're born with and it develops all the time. There's also a claim later that his house was filled with lead paint as a kid because he was born in 68 and that he had a lot of lead. I don't know if he was eating it or what, but he had a lot of lead paint exposure that left him developmentally delayed. Sure. That's a lot of lead paint. Hey, everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you a fun way to show. with What Not.

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Enter code SDM for 70% off your first box. Ali, feed the obsession. Now back to the show. He also, by the time he's an adult and hooking up with Stephanie, he has a son already that I don't think he sees ever at all, with a woman named Cindy Boyer. Now, he's not a good guy. You would think with your whole head full of tumors, spongy blood-filled tumors, that you'd be like, I'm going to be nice to people because I'm gross. I think, yeah, humility might be purchased with that, right? No, no, no, no, no.

He's one of these narcissists? He's one of the narcissist killers and thieves. By 1996, he's got 21 prior convictions and charges. Not good. Yeah, it goes either way. You either deal with it and you feel humble or you fucking lash out. Big time. And this tells me that maybe his childhood wasn't such a great time because,

someone with a medical problem like that, and if they had good loving parents, I can't imagine they'd be doing things like burglary, theft, grand theft, felony stealing. Oh, also attacks on previous girlfriends, physical beatings that he put on two different girlfriends in 1992 and 1994. Two years apart, didn't even learn.

Someone is willing to suck his spongy tumor-filled cock, and this guy is fucking beating them up? Is he out of his mind? He should be so thankful. thankful and just so happy about that. Can you imagine? So he's got a lot of problems. And on top of that, if there's anything that could make him more irresistible, it's that he's also completely hooked on opiates for years as well because these spongy blood-filled tumors are painful. Oh, they're not comfortable? They're a little uncomfortable, oddly enough, which I could see if all of his things were,

you know, like grumpy things. Like, you know, he punched a guy at the 7-Eleven or something. Like that I would understand. But all these other things, it's, doesn't make sense. I guess he would be grumpy with this type of shit. So he is dependent on these opioids for a long time before March of 96 and this whole time when all this is going to go down. Oh, yeah. He had a long time he was in it.

Now, and this is before like OxyContin even came out. Yeah. It came out in the 90s. Way before the Florida Hillbillies. ruined the whole thing. Absolutely. This is probably given him morphine for Christ's sake back then or something like that. Something ugly. So Stephanie and Rusty, let's talk about old Stefan old Rusty here. Now, they lived together for a while in a mobile home in the county. It was not a healthy relationship. Shocking. He's beat to a, now he's really figured it out. You know, that's what it is. No, he's beat up

his all ex-girlfriends, and it's not good. He's real possessive. Oh? Real jealous. Are you going out with a guy who's not filled with spongy blood-soaked tumors? Is that what's going on? Are you seeing some? Who are you talking to?

Yeah. Is his face not filled with disgusting blood-filled tumors? Is that why? If you found another guy exactly like me, I swear to Christ. Oh, God. What are the odds? They're so small. This is bad.

So Stephanie tried to leave him, and there's an early breakup attempt where she tried to end things, and it did not go well. He didn't allow it? You could say that. That's one way of putting it. He tied her to a bed with dog chains. Oh, boy. And put a knife to her throat and told her he was going to kill her. Uh-huh.

That's an option or flowers. One of the two. Those citywhip. Wow, that's insane. She talked him out of killing her and talked him into letting her go. And the moment she got let go, she went right to the police. And a warrant was issued for his arrest. Okay.

Now, during one of these tumultuous times, because remember, she has three kids with her, too. Right. So in tow. So during one of these tumultuous times, she needed a place to stay during one of these breakups and a co-worker offered her you know you guys can stay at my house sure at his house I should say oh boy which is it's gonna go real well that's gonna go over real well with spongy tumor face so this is Michael Houston Sanders is his name it's a pretty cool name Michael Houston Sanders it sounds pretty badass it can cook some meat cook some meat or yeah something I don't know

born December 1st, 1968. He's from Granite City, Illinois. And he's the son of Jerry and Dorothy Joe Sanders. And he is also a single parent as well. Oh. He has two small boys, John Michael and Zachary, who at this time are like four and six. And he's been raising them completely by himself in a trailer.

You know, just working and doing that. his wife left and just left him completely, left the fault with the kids. That's rare, right? High and dry. It's not normal. Yeah, there's something wrong there when the woman leaves kids behind and doesn't give a second thought. You can say that's as sexist as you want. That's just nature.

They literally have chemicals inside of them telling them not to do that. We don't. It's a miracle that any. All the time. It's a miracle that any guy stays around because biologically, that's not how we're setting. up. Biologically, we're set to go, great. We put one in you. Who's next? That's biology. You got this one taken care of? Hang on to that one for 18. For us to stick around, it actually takes some thought control. For women, I think it's, you know, obviously they have the stress and

everything like that, too. But there's like biology telling them, don't let anything happen to this baby. There's nothing attached to me with that thing. Nothing at all. No, you look at you go, whoa, what is that? Jesus. I did that. Oh, shit. Okay. I mean, if you say so, sure. Yeah. You had to cut that thing off of you, for Christ's sake. Yeah, even when it came out, it was still attached. So, now, he waited two years after she left to file for divorce because he wanted her to come back, essentially. But he's very much a good father.

He said, you know, he sewed homemade Halloween costumes for the kids. That's all I could afford and enrolled them in a daycare where the workers, would marvel at the single father dropping them off and picking them up after work. Look at him. Marvelling. That's the other thing. The standard for us is so low. He dropped a child off, then went to a place, worked, and then came back and picked them up.

But you said he was going to. Amazing. Before he did it, he filled out some paperwork and paid a bill. He paid a bill. They show up with like lunchboxes every day and their shirts are on the right way, shoes on the right feet. it's incredible. One of the workers said they came before everything. No matter where he was, he had them with him.

So they're a little, you know, little tightness. We have to be at that point, you know. Now, are they together, Stephanie and Michael? That's the question. Yes. That's the thing. Yeah, they are. They're co-workers.

They work together. But people, basically, some people from work Oh, no, they're just work friends. But then other people who know them better at work are like, no, they're hooking up also. They're work friends who became more, you know. So somehow she ends up on Valentine's Day, 1996. She is back at the trailer that she has with Rusty. Uh-oh.

So she was just there for a couple days and then she's going back and forth and, you know, how these relationships work. And when I tell you the rest of Stephanie's. story and everything. It's you, she is, she, I don't know what kind of background she came from as far as who her father is. Her mother seems pretty solid. I don't know who her father is, but he must have been a giant gaping asshole because

no one who had even a fucking remotely decent father, even when you saw once a year, who sent you a birthday card would put up with the shit that she puts up with for the most part. But that, it's a lot. So on Valentine's Day 96, she ends it with Rusty. Done. On Valentine's Day. On Valentine's Day.

Romantic. Yeah. So he moved out of the trailer that they shared and went to live with his parents. Oh. Left her with all the kids? He's going to be thrilled, as you can imagine. Yeah. Well, she, they're not his kids.

So he. Oh, he has kids from another relationship. He has a kid from another relationship. But who knows where that kid is. I assume with its mom, but not with him. Probably for the best, honestly. So kids, you know, they're weird. They don't want to look at some sponge-filled tumors.

No. Blood-filled spongy tumors. Dad's growing flowers on his neck. What's going on? No, thank you. It's sticking out of him. So he moves back in with his parents, and there's that. Okay.

So a few weeks go by, nothing happens. Nothing. About three weeks go by where he left, nobody, he's not banging on the door. He's not tying her to beds with dog chains. Nothing's happening. Then on March 6, 1996, here he comes. Okay.

Here comes Rusty. He goes back to the trailer and he finds Michael Sanders there. Yeah. This is the trailer that he shared with her. Oh, boy. So he considers this, his house, even though it's not. But for him, everything's his, you know. I used to live here.

Yeah. So he sees what's going on and he's like, oh, she's fucking this guy. Yeah. And I'm pissed off about it. Okay. So then this is what happens. He gets there, sizes all this up, and then quickly, I'll read from later court documents, quote, Bucklew returned to the trailer he had shared with Ray, meaning Stephanie,

found Michael Sanders there and concluded that Sanders and Ray were romantically involved, put a knife to Sanders throat and threatened to kill Sanders if he ever came back to the trailer. Oh, kicked him out of her trail. Somebody else's house. Yeah.

I don't know if she hired him as a temporary bouncer or what, but yeah, he kicks him out at knife point, mind of it. So, you know, that's how that went. Later on in the same evening, and then Rusty left after that. With the knife, got him out of there. He's like, you keep him the fuck away from here, and then he left.

But later on that evening, he comes back again, Rusty does, and find Stephanie alone now. So Michael Sanders didn't come back. I mean, that's what he wanted. And I'll read again, quote, Bucklew returned to the trailer, found Ray alone, threatened her with a knife, cut her jaw, and punched her in the face before leaving. He sliced her. He sliced her with the knife, like put it to her throat and sliced her a little bit,

and also punched her in the face. she called the cops. Good, yeah. So by the way, she's going to have a scar on her jaw after that. Forever. There's a picture of the cut and the scar afterwards, and I'll post it on social media as well. Okay, so she calls the cops.

Now, Rusty, the next day, March 7, 1996, Rusty calls Stephanie at work, which is a place called Ceramo. I don't know what they do. I tried to figure it out, and I can't. So, and he made the threat here. He makes a threat and says, well, this is a quote at the time from Stephanie. Quote, he said that he knew I'd been cheating on him and that he would if he ever seen Michael around me again.

He said he'd kill him and me and all the kids. And all the kids. He said he'd kill us all is what he said. Yeah, I'll kill you two and all the kids. You're three and his two. We'll make this a seven pack here. Lucky seven. after that call, Stephanie stopped going back to the trailer. She basically, she never went back again because she was terrified.

So she moved in with Michael Sanders full time because she couldn't be. I mean, that's one way to force them somewhere else. Yeah, yeah. You're pushing her right at this guy. Like I said, well, I mean, if he hadn't at one point tied her up with dog chains and wasn't an abusive monster to begin with, maybe he could have won her back with some niceties, but no. It is fascinating how a tumultuous, toxic relationship like that with a jealous person, that behavior literally forces them to do exactly what it is that you're terrified.

They're going to tell. It's the same thing if you tell, you know, if you have a teenage daughter and you tell her, you can't ever see that boy again. She's going to run to that guy. You're just forcing it unless you can. You may as well be holding his hips. Yeah. While he thrust.

He doesn't have to thrust. Let me roll that down for you. Let me roll that down your shaft for you there, big guy. Let me open his sunroof and help you out. Jesus Christ, man. You're doing that, though. You're pushing people into shit. Unless it's like a kid that you can physically say you can't leave this area.

If it's an adult, you cannot force an adult into shit. You can't. It's impossible. And you shouldn't try. And it's about, what, eight, ten? 10 is about the threshold there? Because after that, depending on the child and how willing they are to fucking rebel, you could really start a problem.

Unless you have an insane kid, it's up to pretty much through the time they get a car is pretty much you can tell them where to go and what to be. Unless you're one of these kids, it's like, fuck you and runs out the door and runs away. But then you probably abuse them. That's why they do that. There's 13-year-olds that go get pregnant, though. Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

They don't have good home lives for the most. part. That's not something, you know, for the most part. I'm sure there's a 3% but for the most part, that's an escape from something. So, um, calm the fuck down. Be nice. I would say. So she's living at her parents' house, her mom's house, mom and her mom's boyfriend. And Russell is living at his parents' house. So they've gone, both gone way backwards and, and shit from the, from his bullshit. Now the charges from the attack here, He is that he came to the house and did all this. He's going to be charged with burglary, assault, stealing, false imprisonment, and unlawful, unlawful use of a weapon. So that's a lot. Those are a lot of charges. He's looking at some, especially with his priors.

10 to 15, right? He's looking at some time here. Then March 21st, 1996 comes along. Yeah. Okay. Now, Russell here, Rusty. Yeah. Sineua Rustolium here.

He steals a car, his nephew's car. Yeah. So, you know, sort of stealing. Borrowes his nephew's car without permission, we'll say. Makes his nephew let him take it. Yeah. Then his brother, by the way, and I feel bad for this guy's brother after all this, is a Jefferson City police officer.

Shit. He's like, yeah, my jerk off brother. Yeah, that's great. And which is a lot of times, this is what happens if you have an abusive, background, you have one kid who's a complete criminal fuck up and the other kid's a cop. Like, that's kind of how it goes. Sometimes that cop ain't so

Exactly. So he also, in addition to stealing his nephew's car, he steals two of his brother's pistols and his two sets of his brother's handcuffs. Now, I don't know where he keeps all this shit, but he stole it all. And he also takes a roll

of duct tape and two knives. You've already got handcuffs. He's got two pistols, two sets of handcuffs, a roll of duct tape, two knives,

and a stolen car from his nephew. Wow. That's his inventory right now. Now, before leaving the house, his parents' house, or his family's house, whatever, with all this shit, he sits down and writes a note

to his own family. And he asks them, among other things in the note, asked them, please not, don't report the car stolen to police. I took it. I'll bring, you know, it's fine. It's not stolen. I'm borrowing it.

I'll bring it back. I'll bring it back. Yeah, chill out. So in the afternoon, he drives from the Troy area down to Cape Jerodoo County. Yeah. And he finds Stephanie. Because you know that's where he's going and what he's up here. Where's she?

Well, he finds Stephanie, but he does not approach her. He stalks her for the day. Nice. Yeah. He began, this is from court docs here, Bucklew began surreptitiously following Ray as she left work and ran errands, following her watching her, ultimately discovering where she lived by then following her back to Michael Sanders trailer. Yeah.

So that's what she did. She knew where she worked. So he went there and then she didn't recognize that car because it's his nephews. Yeah. And he followed her and stalked. doctor all day. So he follows her back to the trailer. She's inside. And obviously, so is Michael. Michael's and Stephanie are inside. Plus four kids are in the trailer. Michael's two sons and two of Stephanie's children are in there. Don't know where the third one is, but two of Stephanie's

kids are there. I think the third one was possibly at a friend's nearby neighbor's house or something playing. So at the trailer, Rusty arrives, but he doesn't follow her up to the door or follow right in. No, he lays back and waits for a while, a period of time. Sits, stoo's, watches, just sits. Builds, exactly, builds. Now, this could also be taken. You could also cool down in a time like this.

Or you can build up, and he's building up. And then he gets up and finally gets up the balls to go up and knock on the door. Oh, Jesus. Why? Nothing good's coming from that. Nothing's good. So nothing good could come of this. So one of Michael Sanders, little boys, the older one, opens the door.

Oh, shit. And he, now Michael Sanders saw Rusty coming through a window. And it was too late to tell his son not to open the door. They already open the door. So he knows what's going on. He sees this guy's coming over. Last time he saw this guy, the only thing. the time he's met him, he put a knife to his throat.

So threatened to kill him. So what he does is he grabs the kids, yells for his son, moves the kids into another room, all four small kids toward a back bedroom. And he also throws them in a back bedroom, grabs another, goes in another back bedroom and grabs a shotgun. Nice. So now Michael's got a shotgun. Now, Rusty, when he came through the door, he already had a pistol in each hand. That's how he crossed the threshold. fucking guns blazing

duck holiday style, okay? He came in as a cowboy right out of the gate. Right out of the gate. I see him, I know a little kid opened it, not as cool, but kicking open the door and just...

Wow. Yeah. So, it's wild. He's got a pistol in each hand. Michael Sanders steps into the hallway holding a shotgun. Here we go. So now we have,

at this hallway, we have the kids been a back bedroom, at the, and this is a trailer hallway, so small. Very narrow hallway. Yeah, this isn't a big, giant hallway. Very narrow hallway with walls that, you know, echo and shit. And if you do a chicken dance, you're whacking funny ones.

Absolutely. So one at the end of the hallway with a shotgun, and then at the front of the hallway, you got two guns pointing here. This is a standoff. Now, apparently, Rusty yelled, get down. Uh-huh. And then without any other warning, just started firing his guns.

So Michael Sanders is hit with two bullets, one of which enters his chest and rips through his lung. Shit. And he drops the shotgun. Drops the shotgun on the ground, it goes off and blasts a big hole in the trailer wall. Uh-huh. Okay. Now, Sanders has hit twice, once in the lung. and I believe once in the leg.

Shit. Not good. So he's down. Now, one of the kids, John Michael Sanders, the six-year-old, who was a first-grade student at the time, he described it as,

you know, he was playing Nintendo and someone knocked on the front door. Oh, Jesus. I hope it was Sega for at least his sake by then. I hope he wasn't playing original NES in 96. That's rough.

It's almost worse than this situation. It's bad. He's the one who unlocked the door and saw Rusty come in with a gun in each hand. And he said that, you know, he just saw the guy come in and he shot his father, basically. That's it. So Michael Sanders is on the floor, slumped down, holding his chest and bleeding to death. And then Rusty aims the gun at his head to finish him off. He's got a final shot here.

But he sees the six-year-old. So you would think opposite. I was going to say. No. You would think, I mean, I've seen movies where killers can't kill people because what the hell is the, the, oh, what is the movie where the guy says, oh, it's fucking Al Sweringen in Deadwood. Yeah.

The biggest, he's going to stab Seth and he looks up and sees his kid and he goes, the fucking kid unmanned me. He unnerved me. I couldn't do it. He goes, he just took it all. Unmaned me, he said. This instead, he sees the kid, pulls the gun away from Michael Sanders, and swings it at the six-year-old and starts firing at him. Oh, boy.

The six-year-old, he's going to kill. Is the kid running? What's happening? No, he's in shock, standing there. And it's a trailer, so, I mean, it's all pretty small. He fires a shot at his head and misses. Wow. Luckily, he's not a great shot.

Terrible shot. Or he's on a lot of pants. Hills, one of the two. Yeah. Now, the kids run in and hide in a toy box in the closet. All four kids are in this by then. It's at this point where he turned back to Sanders when the kid ran away. He didn't chase him.

He turns back to Michael Sanders and now Stephanie gets in the middle of it. She's here too. She's been here the whole time. She's in the middle of it. She steps between Rusty and Michael as Michael is dying on the floor. Rusty orders her, get down on your knees. says. Uh-huh.

She says no. Okay? Well. Don't want to. So he, Pistol lips are in the face. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Uh, real hard. Uh, breaks her jaw or her cheekbone. There's a little, little discrepancy on which one. But either way, fucks you up. Broke her face. Yeah.

Broke her face. And basically, she drops to the kitchen floor half conscious after this. He then whips out a pair of handcuffs. handcuffs her behind her back and drags her out of the trailer as the children scream. Sweet Jesus.

Drags her out in handcuffs, throws her in his nephew's car and drives away. Wow. Imagine you're one of these kids. Could you imagine a more tremendous... They were playing video games four minutes ago.

Everything was fine. Being so innocent and children-like. Snack pack. fucking kicking it, doing whatever, and then knock on the door, put your teddy grams down, you go fucking, you know, hey, lots of people,

maybe it's one of their friends coming by. Yeah. And here comes a guy with two pistols. There's gun play. This is going on. Your mom smashed in the face. This guy shot in the head, and she's out in the car,

and now you're alone with a dead guy or a dying man. What a horrible. 96. It might be a new flavor of bonkers out, too. Dude, you're going to get all sorts of shit here. Yeah. You got the new flavor.

of bonkers, which is much better. They've already added the purple horseshoe to the Lucky Charms. Things are going well. It's a good time. It's a good time to be alive. Unfortunately, for Michael Sanders, he's not going to find out exactly what a good time it is to be alive because he's bleeding to death on the floor of his trailer. Now, witnesses outside called the police because they said they heard shots from the trailer

because, oh, man, is that loud. And then the wall opened up. Yeah. Inside a normal house, gunfire is muffled. Inside of a trailer, it's like a speaker. It's like a megaphone for gunfire. Inside the house, it might be loud inside a house. But from the outside.

Inside a trailer, it is a speaker box. It is. It makes it even louder on the outside. It's crazy loud. Yeah. It's a megaphone. Yeah. Sounds like a 96 accord just drove by.

Yeah. A trunk full of speakers. trunk full of 15s. So they told, they said we heard shots and then we saw a man forcing a handcuffed woman into his car. So we figured that we figured we should call. Probably where they came from. I would imagine. I figured we should probably call.

So the chances of it being two different places right now are crazy. Probably off. Yeah. So he drives, starts driving. This is going to be a hundred mile drive they're going to take. Where are they going? Around. just not not straight hundred hundred

he doesn't have a plan oh boy oh no during the drive rusty demands sex he says you're going to have sex with me she said apparently she didn't comply with everything he wanted from her so with her hand still cuffed he drives to a wooded area in the middle of fucking nowhere pulls the car off puts her in the backseat

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With a bleeding woman with a broken face who's just been raped with her hands cuff behind her back while she's worried about her fucking kids back at the trailer and her dying boyfriend. This is horrific, okay? So, obviously. So they do this. Now it gets, this is the craziest part of all. I've set the scene. Now it's crazy? He's crazier now.

Now he starts saying that he is not going to. go down for this. Just surrendering. He's, quote, not going back to jail. Oh. Quote, unquote. And he says, he starts telling her that he found it funny that he killed Michael Sanders and that he knew he's dead and he's going to die even though he was still alive when he left

because he used hollow point bullets and it's so far out in the country that they'd rip through him and it would kill him before anybody will have a chance to help him. So he's not worried about that. Then he says he's not going. back to prison and he's taking, he will take as many police officers with them as he can. Okay. Imagine your Stephanie, how terrifying this has to be already for this whole thing. Then he makes it worse.

Then he reaches down and over and over and over again plays the same song. What is it? Bon Jovi's Blaze of Glory. Oh, what? Goenda! over and over and over again. In a blaze of glory, over and over again.

Not even dead or alive. In a blaze of glory. No, he wants this because this is, he's going out in a blaze of glory, is how he puts it. He's going to have a gunfight with the cops at the end. Over and over, it would end,

fucking repeat. Back to one. Imagine you're a live place of glory. Those are different songs, right? Very different songs. Yeah. It's more acoustic. Different genres of Bon Jovi.

Yeah, yeah. The One of Dead or Alive is more acoustic. Yeah, that's from young guns. Young guns. Blazers' glory is on that fucking horrible bonovo. Yeah, that's like. That arose and shit. Like hair metal Bon Jovi as opposed to like kind of pop rock Bon Jovi as before.

That's when you get into his wannabe like, I'm getting real 80s, man. It's so hard to it. It's a glory. Because there's a couple of good songs that he does sing. Oh, God. I don't know. I don't even know anymore. It's fine.

I mean, you can listen to it. We go, yeah, this was a time that I can harken back to another time. Bon Jovi sucks, right? Pretty much, when we were kids, Bon Jovi was a wuss band. Let's be realistic. It was a wuss band. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Remember, like, Beavis and Butthead, They gave the kid a winger shirt. They could have just as easily given him a Bon Jovi shirt. Nobody was cool at like Bon Jovi. You know what I mean? That was like a chick music. They really had just the song from Young Guns. And it was only cool because in the movie, outside of the movie, it sucks.

It's stupid. He had that crappy bad medicine song that was terrible. He had so many bad songs. There's so many more, too. Like, there's so many you'll hear and go, that that is Bon Jovi too. That's right. They had a lot of hits. Now, I can't hate him just because he's a guinea from New Jersey.

So there's something about that that I got to. I like hearing stories about his family. Like, he travels. He doesn't have like an entourage. He has like his brothers and dad and his uncles. And they like rough people up for him and shit. Like I'm like, that's awesome kind of. He brings like his little Goun Italian family with him.

I like that. That's fun. It's fascinating that we, collectively, as a country and a world, passed that as good. That was good. Great. His guitarist fucked the hottest woman on the planet. Married her. For a while.

Yeah. For a while. Until she found other scumbags to be with. So she was like, oh, this is trash. I'm going to go fuck somebody's trash here. Bon Jovi's dad and brothers beat up Sebastian Buck, which is hilarious. He's huge. He's like 6'5, but he weighs like 86 pounds.

Oh, does he? He weighs back then especially. This was in, you know, this was when Skid Row was opening for Bon Jovi because they're both from New Jersey. Bon Jovi found Skid Row. Yeah, right, right, right, right. So he was... They were East Coast, and that's...

Everything was happening out in L.A. And they weren't... Exactly. They couldn't afford to go out there. No. So he, I guess he said something opening on stage that he didn't intend to be insulting, but that the Bon Jovi clan took us insulting. And he said, he got backstage and all of a sudden, here's every male relative Bon Jovi has,

fucking picking him up and throwing him in a room and beating the shit out of him, tell him to fucking watch his mouth. I was like, that's hilarious. Probably felt zero fear around him because he... Sebastian's dick is probably bigger than Bon Jovi is. Taller, yeah. No, he said he was like, what the fuck? He was terrified.

He said, I thought they were going to kill me and throw me in a fucking garbage compactor. He goes, this is crazy. I'm just in a room with a bunch of angry Italian guys. He goes, I don't know what the hell to do. Because they look serious. Did his family muscle his career into being legitimate? It's bad. It's bad, but it came up.

Think about the 80s. though. There was way worse shit than that. Way worse shit than that. I mean, that was great compared to other. But anyway, they're flying down the road where this poor woman is bleeding and he's saying, I'm taking as many cops as I can with me. In a blaze of glory. Just fucking stringing along over and over again.

Too much. Jesus. Not even, it's my life. I'll do, you know, all that shit. He could have done that one. I don't know. Who knows? I'm trying to think of Bon Jovi's song.

He said, wow. Now, there's cops everywhere looking for this car. Yeah. Everywhere. There's a description had gone out over the radio from the neighbors, and so they're looking, and it's a hundred-mile deal here. And finally, at 1030 or 11 p.m., somewhere in there. Yeah. The Highway Patrol spots the car on Interstate 55 south of St. Louis.

and several patrol cars pursue the vehicle north on Ice 270. The chase ends near the U.S. Highway 40, you know, going across, when Rusty's vehicle hits a patrol. He rear ends a patrol car. Nice. They're trying to like box a minute and bashes into a patrol car. So down, I guess, near the Festus and Crystal City stretch here, as Russi. Approached the St. Louis Metro, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, that's when they were all following them. By the way, when the car was stopped, when it's hemmed in by patrol cars after rear end somebody, they said they saw a rusty pointing a gun at Stephanie's head and gesturing for the police to go away.

Oh, boy. So now he's got a hostage in a car, which is fucking insane. Then somehow through all of this, we're not sure exactly how it began, but gunfire starts to erupt. Oh, boy. Now it's a shootout. Yeah. And they're shooting at him and he's trying to duck down and shooting shots out the window at them. And they're firing at the car, which is crazy because there's a fucking hostage in there.

Yeah. But he's firing at them. We think that he fired at them first is why they would fire into a fucking occupied car with a hostage. That's crazy. You don't do that. Aren't they train not? to do that? I would fucking hope so, but if someone's firing at them, I guess then they're like,

well, I'm justified no matter what, even if I kill this lady, I suppose, which also you're getting shot at. So I don't know what the procedure is for that. Firing while taking cover is another thing too. I don't know. Something. Take cover, yeah, I guess. Is she hit?

Well, they hit him twice. Wow. They hit Rusty once in the chest and once in the. the head. Oh. But don't kill him. He's alert? When he is shot at some point, he accidentally shoots his gun and shoots Stephanie in the leg.

Okay. He got shot in the gun, and it was like bang, bang, one of those, and he shoots Stephanie in the leg by accident. That one wasn't even on purpose. But this is all happening from less than 10 feet away, by the way. There's like, they got him hemmed in. There's a police car next to him. and then they're outside the police car firing over here.

He's firing back at that. Oh, Jesus. It's insane. Chaos. Fucking chaos. So Stephanie survives being shot in the leg, pistol whipped, raped, dragged around. Oh, fuck.

It's insane. He, Rusty, took a bullet to the head but survived, which is crazy. And he began, I guess that's when he slumped over passing out. That's when he fired the bullet is what Stephanie said. He was like falling down, basically. He got hit in. the head and it was kind of in and out of it there.

Voluntary body movement. Yeah. Yeah. Her leg injury resulted in a pretty brief hospital stay, not too, too bad for her. And he'll, he'll only be in the hospital for five days. He got shot in the head. Shot on the head. Shot on the chest. And the head. Wild. So the next day, police visit Rusty in the hospital. I'd like to talk to him. A police officer, this is a Missouri Highway Highway Patrol. officer named Al Rail. He comes to the bedside and reads him as Miranda rights and asks him whether he'd like to make a statement and Rusty said no.

And then the cop stop, got up and left. That's it. He did his job. That's all he could do. But then on March 26, 1996, he's released from the hospital and transported to the sheriff's office. Uh-oh. Where the same police officer, Real, approaches him again and re-reads the Moran

of warnings and, you know, asked if he'd like to give a statement. And Rusty said, what charge do you guys have on me? Sir. You want the fucking full list? There's a lot. Do you want me to just go over the big ones? Yeah. You want me to really run down the list.

Reckless driving, you dumb. I mean, you blew like three red lights at least back there. You rear-ended a cob car. That's a few, yeah, you know, gunfire, child negligent safety issue. shoes, murder, you know, little things. Yeah, you stole a car. Isn't your car? Yeah.

All right. So they said, you know, I'm sure they've got you charged with capital murder, first degree murder, the cop said. I mean, I don't see any other way around it. So they asked, they hand him his medication and some water to take, because he's all fucking shot up. He's in a wheelchair in the interrogation office, too. And he continues to ask about the case against him.

He says, what does that bring? The death penalty? Oh. And the investigator said it could. Yeah. It could. Penalties at this point. Yeah.

Well, he knows he's fucked. I mean, they saw him doing everything. How long am I fucked for? So, but Rusty then said, yeah, but it would take a long time. Like, they're not going to execute me tomorrow. Like, so it'd take a while. So I got some time. Then he signs the written waiver of his rights.

And they said, I read you your rights downstairs and you signed the release. Is that correct? And he said, yes, sir. That's all on camera. And he sits there in front of the video camera for about two hours and spills it. It says everything that happened. Really? Everything that happened.

Video tape statement sitting there. In the two-hour tape, he refers to painful and inoperable tumors in his head that caused him to take a bunch of pain medications. He says he's frequently in pain. He's speaking clearly and without confusion for two hours, providing a lot of detail, including the fights with Stephanie, the beatings he had inflicted on her in the past, the threats he made against her on the 21st that day,

on the 6th of March when he came over there and attacked her twice. He basically starts, they say what happened, and he doesn't start with today. He starts with weeks ago. It starts with like Valentine's Day. basically we got kicked out she broke up with me wait she broke up yeah yeah um he talks about his medical condition he talks about the falling out with her he talks about his first meeting with michael sanders when he returned to the trailer and he said quote i guess this was this mike guy

i don't know his name so i grabbed a knife and i put it to his throat and i said you better get the hell out of my house or i'm going to kill you if you ever come back i'm going to kill you it's not your house not your house now um he also admitted getting violent with Stephanie, punching her in the face during one fight, tying her up during another. Sure. This isn't even the dog chain incident. This is another instance where he tied her up.

They said, what did you tie her up with? And he said, oh, they were like little plastic ties. So I don't know if they mean like zip ties, like for riot police or what. But, and the cop said, oh, okay. They said, and it's crazy, you can see this, a lot of this interrogation. There's a video of it. And he's real matter of fact. Just very little demeanor change.

No like, oh, this part's hard or none of that shit. Just here's what happened. Had some sex today. Simple as can be. Yeah. At one point, when they offered him to rest, he said this. They said, well, I think we'll just let you rest now, Rusty, unless you want to talk some more. I mean, I'd be glad to sit here and listen to you.

And Rusty said, quote, I'd like to talk some more. I'm not sleepy. They gave him the out of we'll not talk about. He said it feels good to get this shit off my chest if you don't mind. The shit. Feels good to get all this shit off my chest, this bad shit I've done for a long time. So that's when he just keeps going on about the relationship and all the terrible things he's done and just... The shit.

The shit. Get this shit off my chest. Well, shit away. It's called murder and rape, man. I like to call it shit. It makes it a little easier for me. me to process. You know what I mean? That's funny. He says that

he killed Michael. He says that he shot him again and again and again. She only shot him twice. Twice, yeah. But he said again and again and again. You may have fired a lot. In his mind, too, people when they fire guns like that in that situation, they don't remember

how many shots they fired. They take cops that have lots of experience and they go, I fired two shots and they took at their gun and they fired six. They didn't even notice they fired them. And in his head, especially because if you've never shot someone or shot at someone, you likely just assume that everything that comes out of that gun hit that guy.

Yeah. Well, I think he only took two shots at him in the hallway. Yeah. I think that was all he took, if I'm not mistaken, was the two shots, and then he fell on the shotgun went off. And that was like, ooh, that kind of ended the whole thing. And then fired one at the kid. So he's only out three rounds? I think that's when he came up and put the gun up to his head after that.

that's when he saw the kid fired at the kid and then it all escalated from there. Okay. So there's a stretch of tape where he talks about maybe I should have an attorney. He said, well, do you think I should have an attorney present? Hello, police officers. It's like asking the fox, do you think I should keep the henhouse door open or no? Should I close it? Yeah.

Should we keep these eggs in the yard? What do you think? So the cop says, I can't tell you that, Rusty. Yeah. That ain't my thing. He said, how fast could you get an attorney here? I mean, a public defender is all I can handle. I can't afford nothing here.

The cop said, if that's what you want to do, you just have to tell me that. And he's trailing off. And Rusty said, I don't know, man. I don't know. He says, I don't know. And then pauses for a second and then goes right back into the telling of the story. Just dismiss that completely. So he said, I went there.

I confronted him. He said Stephanie took the kids into a back bedroom. He said that Sanders had a shotgun when I opened fire. So, you know, he was pointing to me. Listen, man. Basically self-defense. He said, quote, and he moved and I shot. And then his gun, he turned and his gun went off into the wall.

And I shot him again and again and again, I guess. Which, no, you didn't. And he fell back in the room and I'm like, holy shit. understatement of the year. I'm like, holy shit. You just murdered a man. So what were your thoughts here? Well, holy shit was my main...

Well, I'm like, holy shit. I'm like, I hate that. I'm like in a serious shit. Yeah. That's if you're talking... Yeah, you're something silly. I was like down. at the, you know, at the store, and then this guy,

and then this other guy came over, and he slipped, and I was like, holy shit, that guy just slipped on the floor. Like, that's, that's a holy shit. A guy didn't, the guy didn't run a red light and T-bone a station wagon. You shot a man in the chest. That's not, I'm like, holy shit. I'm like, holy shit. So he said then, he tried, then he said,

Stephanie wanted to leave with him. Oh. He's, you know what? I'm going to leave my kids here with a bleeding out, corpse. And I just, let's just go out for a talk. Let's me and you go out for a nice dinner. I'm actively bleeding. I got a broken face and all, but I just, I'm feeling a kinship to you right now. It's very close. I can't leave the house without the good handcuffs. That's right. And he admitted to handcuffing

her even. Right. And worse, he said, quote, and she wouldn't get down. Remember he said get down her knees? And I had adrenaline pumping and I smacked her in the head with the pistol. Not real hard, but I smacked her. I love tap. I love pistol whipping. It doesn't take much. Jesus. Those are real hard.

Yeah, they're made a medal most of the time. She went down on the ground and I cuffed her. I got her up and ran to the car, got into the car and took off. Okay. So he said, and at that point, before he took off, he said, and the guy, meaning Sanders, the guy said something. And I said, fuck you, motherfucker. I said, fuck you, motherfucker, I'll kill you.

And he goes, I think you already did. And I said, well, I hope not. Gotta go. Got to go now. Bye. So, medically, they don't think that's possible or true that the guy was still talking. The bull went through his lung. Right.

It's filling up with blood. He's literally drowning. Gargling. Yeah, there's no way he's talking. So they said he was still talking to you then, and he said, yes. So then he continued to tell this version. Somehow, this is crazy. He has a bleeding, terrified, handcuffed woman in his car.

And he spun this shit like they had a picnic basket and we're going for a romantic country drive. That's how he spun it. Literally, he was like, oh, we had this long drive and we had an intimate moment together. Like, that's how he was describing this shit. Like, it was romantic and, like, oh, finally. finally reunited, you know, and it feels so good. It's beautiful, isn't it? Brought a nice Yarlesburg and an apple.

Oh, boy, I'll tell you what. She had the, she picked out the perfect Pinoir for the situation. I was amazed, honestly. Try it overmots. Yeah. Not too sweet, but also. A couple of almonds. Very nice, yeah.

Yeah. Very, very nice. Oaky. Oaky. So then he gets into his shootout within St. Louis County. Yeah. And where he downplays. that too, which is pretty funny.

He said, and that's when the shooting started. And I just laid down in the seat and shot out, out, and then they shot me, I think right here. And then I started shooting out the window. You know how you do. You just started firing. That's how you, I can't count them a number of times I've done that with the guy. I'm just like, I don't want to talk to these guys and just you lay down in the seat. You start emptying your clip.

That's how you do it. License and registration, my answer. I don't think so. Yeah. Not today. Not today, pal. I'm not, I'm going to let you arrest me. Yeah.

Speaking of Doc Holliday and everybody else. So now, Rusty showed some emotion when he talked about the fact that he's still alive, then he got emotional. He cried. Not really. He said, why didn't they just kill me, man? I told them I didn't want to be put on life support and they did it anyway. He thought he was getting, he thought he was going out. How, Jimmy?

Blaze of glory, baby. A blaze of glory, baby. He was like, well, this is. not how that song ends. Richie and John was so disappointed in me. They're going to be so mad at me. Wasn't supposed to end with me in a wheelchair,

pathetically sipping from a plastic cup of water you guys have provided for me. That's not how the song ends, I don't think. There was a soundtrack to the little Sheen being a terrible actor. There's a soundtrack to everybody making Lou Diamond Phillips

the face of all Native Americans for the rest of time. And that hot redhead side saddle riding out of there. That was amazing. Oh, yeah. There you go. So he also kept asking about the punishment. He kept saying, you think I'll get the max?

Yeah. And the cop goes, I don't know. You shot at police officers, you dummy? Probably. I mean, you killed a guy, raped a woman and then shot at cops. Like, in front of kid. You did all the, like, there's an aggravator that's real nasty to everything you did. Like, it's a lot.

And asked for a tax-funded lawyer. My man, you're in so much trouble. Crazy. Then toward the end of it, he said, I thought Steph was it, man, meaning the one. The one for him. Yeah. I thought Steph was it, man. And she broke my heart.

And I killed her boyfriend. Wow. This is just real heavy, man. That's what he said. This is just real heavy, man. I'm just, whoof. I mean, you know how it is, brother. It's only heavy because of you.

Like you, nothing is heavy except for what you've done. People break up every day. And then he also emphasized that he didn't understand why she didn't want to be with him. It's like, I don't know why she did this and made me do all this, he said. He said, I was good to her. You know, besides the dog chains and little plastic zip ties and things, beavings. He said, quote, I keep the house clean. I love to cook.

And then there's a long pause. And he goes, I didn't beat on the kids. Oh, well, gee, I don't know why she didn't marry you. That seems like your marriage material. I mean, sure, there's a... He didn't even beat on the kids. I didn't beat on the kids. Hell of a soft pitch for a dating website.

Yeah. I keep the house clean. I love to cook, and I didn't beat on the kids. Please message me. I'd love to chat. Oh, that's your boy. Wow. That's remarkable.

That is a remarkable. statement that that's what he said. And that's what he think. I mean, think about where he came from that he thinks that's like all of that, James, and and squishy, blood-filled tumors.

And a headful of spongy blood-filled tumors. I got to make up for it by not even beating on the kids, who, by the way, weren't even his. Right. I didn't beat another person's children. I didn't beat on her kids. Don't say that. That's his brag.

And to top it all off, A healthy dose of opioid addiction. Oh, that's like I'm saying. The guy is really... I can't believe nobody will want to date me. He's practically Valentino off the boat, this fucking guy. Like, he's eligible bachelor happening right now. How could she leave me?

How could she leave this fucking Sir Walter Raleigh over here? This guy is a fucking... He's a classy, kind-hearted individual. I grow roses on my neck, for Christ. That's why I moved to Rose City because I fit right in. So, wow, about a week after the murder, he makes his first court appearance being pushed in a wheelchair. He didn't enter pleas, but the circuit court judge declared him indigent and was appointed a public defender. That's what this was for, to see if he was poor.

And they're like, you look pretty poor to me. Piss. In the story, well, in the story, I've heard. heard there's three trailers involved. So I'm going to go with Public Defender as you're going to be needing, right? Everyone you know has a trailer, not just you. It's every fucking person in your life

is a trailer-d-wife. There's never been a location referenced where it's at somebody's home. Never, there's not been one foundation in this entire story. Not one concrete slab. I've had nothing. A basement. God, no.

So another court appearance was scheduled for April 8th. and on April 8th, he appeared with his new attorney and pleaded not guilty. Unbelievable. Now, all this was going on, poor Stephanie was also in the hospital here. Now, Barbara is Stephanie's mother, and her ex-husband is Stephanie's father, George Pruitt. They had driven to St. Louis the day after the murder to pick her up from the hospital. She was at the hospital being treated for her injuries,

rape, pistol whipping and shot in the leg. The mom, Barbara, entered the hospital room and looked at Stephanie's injury. She saw the large gunshot wound in her daughter's leg. Stephanie pulled back the dressing and showed her. Barbara saw the bruises on her daughter's arms and her eye and her cheek and obviously, you know, she's been raped too, which isn't great.

She also heard that Rusty had been shot. and he was in the same hospital. She was like, I'd love to pay him a fucking visit here. Now, when Stephanie's released in a couple days from the hospital, Barbara takes her to her home on East Cape Rock Drive in Cape Jerodoo, where she and her boyfriend live, Barbara and her boyfriend, and basically saying Stephanie's going to stay here and heal for a while. Yeah.

It takes a while. Gunshots are so gross. Oh, yeah. dude, that's brutal. So she's got to have recovery time and just basically a place to feel safe and to feel, you know, recover and have her kids be around and all that kind of thing. It's really ugly. Now, while this is all happening, they bring her home and the phone rings. Uh-oh.

Okay. Barb picks it up and it's fucking rusty on the phone. Why? What is it doing? And they said, will you accept it? It's a fucking collect call from jail. Get out of here. He said, will you accept the child?

charges. And this bitch is, you know, she's like, Barbara is like, what the fuck? This bitch is calling me right now. Does she say yes? This bitch is calling me on the phone after this motherfucker trying to kill people. He's like, hell no. She's in disbelief. She was about to say no. And then she said, for some reason she said yes. Let's hear what this asshole has to say. These are recorded. We'll take it. Why not? So he said, is Stephanie there? Is she all right? And she's like, what? She called, he called me collect. This is from the hospital, not the jail.

But he can't make phone calls because it's a prisoner room, you know, deal. So she said his voice seemed really cold. She said there was no feeling in it. She said that she just said, why did you do it? Why did you do it? And his answer was, quote, she shouldn't have cheated on me. Oh, boy. Yeah, that's the answer.

That's the answer. Yeah. Hurt my feelings. That's why. So Barbara says, you don't kill people for any reason. And then he says an amazing thing. He says, quote, I do, I did, and I will. Wow.

It's my life. It's my life now or never. And then he busted in a seven-minute bon jovi medley. He could do it all day. All day. All day long. All day. There's so many.

He knows them all. Yeah. Oh, my God. So can you imagine that? You can't kill people for any reason. I do. I did and I will. Wow.

Okay. So then she says that she said she never thought she would ever say this to anybody, but he made her so enraged. Yeah. Which I don't fucking blame her at this point. She said, I want to watch you fry. And he said, I want to watch you fry too. Oh. Which is just a shit comeback.

And not really all that plan. I know you are, but what am I? Yeah, I will. I do. I did and I will. If it was in any other situation, it's kind of cool if you were like, right. If you were in the right, that would be cool. In his situation, not cool at all.

It's pretty ugly. But I want to watch you fry back is just lame. And then Barbara hung up on him, slammed down the phone. Okay. So, then June 17, 1996. So he was shot up on the 21st of March. Now he's sitting in jail on June 17, 1996. He's been in jail since he's been transported there after the police interrogation.

Now, what he's been up to in jail, the data log sheets from March 21st to June 17th says that he spent most of his time here in prison. And they have like the prisoner checks. Nine o'clock, subject appears asleep. 11 o'clock. Subject is reading a book. He appears calm and secure. 1500 hours. Subject is given his meds.

So there's a few entries that show that he's been refusing meals. Oh. But he has tumors in his mouth, so they don't really think. He just says my mouth hurts and I can't eat right now. Tomers in his mouth, spongy blood-soaked tumors in his mouth. What is that? How do you? So he refuses a lot of meals.

Yeah. Now the county sheriff, John George. Jordan is just about to, he just filed for re-election. He's been, he finished out the term of the last sheriff of two years. He's got to run for election this time. And, you know, this Jordan, obviously, he knows about who's in the jail, especially the biggest murderer in there and all that kind of thing and everything like that. He said, you know, this is Jordan, you know, you deal with whatever this job gives you.

Some days are diamonds and some days are stone. That's what he said. Okay. Now, this is a stone day for the wanting to be reelected sheriff here. Lieutenant Michael Morgan, the jail administrator, did a prisoner count at the end of the shift. He did one earlier at the beginning of the shift, as they always do, beginning and end of shift. And the earlier count, every prisoner is accounted for. The second count, we're missing somebody.

Oh, no. We're missing somebody. They immediately called the sheriff and said, sheriff, we're short a man. And then they did a second check on everybody and they said, it's Rusty Bucklew. He escaped. Oh, my God. He fucking escaped. We're short a man.

That better be staff and he called in sick. Yeah. Oh, we're short a man. Oh, that's all right. Call in one of the temps. No. Yeah. No, no, no.

We're short, the worst one. We're short the worst guy we have in here. Oh, my. So the log shows 0900.900 subject is in court until 0844. 1100. Bucklew is talking to Lawson in his cell. 1,200 eating lunch at a table at noon at 3 p.m. The log notes that he talked to Kenneth Stone, Bucklew did.

Stone was an inmate who had made headlines the month before for holding a pillow over a man's head and shooting him. while he slept. So these are like the two worst murderers they have in the jail and they've hooked up and decided to talk. The log doesn't note what they talk about,

unfortunately. I'd love to know the fucking... It's just about, you know, what TV shows do you like? Bon Jovi's greatest hits. Yeah, the whole Jovi catalog. And how they feel like he's just an extension of fog hat, man.

Some horse shit. So in a few hours leading up to the escape here, The log seems to, you know, be interesting. 1600 hours, so 4 o'clock in bed appears come. 1,700, 5 o'clock p.m. Given meds, 1800, 6 o'clock p.m. Subject is a cafeteria table eating.

The next log entry is scribbled and harder to read, and it says subject missing not found for medication. Oh, that scribbles because they're fucking panicking. An hour later, the writing's even worse, and it says subject's still missing. He's running, searching for him as he's writing that. An hour later, subject's still missing. Oh, my God.

How the fuck did he get out of here? Let's find out. Yeah. Well, he had a buddy in there who's a prison trustee named William Douglas Roth. And this guy helped him. He's not going to be a trustee very fucking long after this. Sure. Rusty slid into a trash bag and had it tied over his head.

Oh. Rusty, it's not so much the tumors are the reasons he hasn't been eating. He's been losing weight on purpose. Trying to slim down. He was down to 5'790 pounds by the time he escaped. That's so sick. That is skinny. He weighed 110 pounds when he showed up at jail.

That's his like walking around weight. That's his heavy. A buck 10, yeah, but 90 is what he did to be lighter. 5710, you're fitting in teenage boys' clothes. You're fitting in teenage girls' clothes. For sure. That's crazy. Yeah, you're shopping in the Little Mrs. section.

Like, that's wild. Oh, my God. So he slid into a trash bag, had it tied over his head. Then, Roth, William Douglas Roth, carried the bag outside and tossed it into a 50-gallon trash bag because it's his job to throw the garbage out. Yeah. So he's light enough for this guy to toss into the trash can. Now, a jail worker later said that he noticed the trustee was struggling with the bag a little bit, like it was heavy.

But he didn't think anything of it because sometimes there's heavy shit in there. And he's not like he's going to help him. He's like, well, that's your job, stupid. It's trash. That's trash. Yeah. So the officer said he watched the trustee, tossed the bag in there. And that was that.

He just said, that's fine. So Rusty waited in the dumpster for a time. We don't know how long he's in the dumpster for. But at some point, when he figured it was safe, he opened the lid, crawled out and fled. And that was that. That's how easy he got out. That's how the trash can is literally outside the secure area. Yep.

They took him outside, threw him in the dumpster. And they were like, all right, there we go. Trashing the dumpster, no problem there. And then he just took off. What year? He ran away through the park. Ninety-six. This sounds like 1956 or 46, but this is 96.

The trash can is outside the secure area. Literally somebody could throw a man away and everybody turns their back on it. You would just think nobody's small enough to be thrown away. That's literally all it is. In 1996. Wow. None of these guys are small enough. So he was free.

He had planned it for weeks. He had dropped 15 to 20 pounds. A lot of log entries saying he refused to eat. They figured it was, you know, it was because of his mouth, but it's because he didn't want to burst the trash bag. He found out how much weight the trash bags hold. And he said about 100 pounds. So he said, okay, I got to get to 90. So that's what he did.

Which is fucking insane. So now they're searching for him, as you can imagine, frantically. Yeah. He broke out on Monday night. On Tuesday morning, they launched a massive manhunt. No hurry or anything. We'll take in the morning, in the morning. He'll still be three in the morning.

A lot of us have plans tonight and things like that. We'll get him in the morning. So they launch a massive manhunt. They have the Missouri State Highway Patrol, different personnel from like eight different counties. Yeah. They have an emergency operations center. The area hospital lent its helicopter to the police to search from the sky. They have four bloodhounds tracking his scent along Hubble.

Creek after a 19-year-old veterinary assistant found his jail jumpsuit alongside the creek. So they set the bloodhounds off there. The officers combed the area but couldn't find shit.

So the helicopter pilot just saw nothing and the dogs lost the trail about three miles up the creek. So that's that. Jordan here, the guy in charge of this, said we were doing everything we knew to do, but we were coming up with nothing.

So, okay, he escapes on Monday. On Tuesday, they have a massive, I mean, all hands on deck. And then by Wednesday, there's no extensive manhunt anymore. Search called off. He got away. They said officers were

still looking and calls were coming in, but they didn't have the helicopters and the bloodhounds and all that out anymore. He could be in fucking California by now. Jordan said it's not over till it's over. That's what he's given. A fucking yogi-Bara

fucking cliche. You got any... Wow. It's not over till it's over. A murder charge is good forever. We will look for him until he's found. Which sounds like, if he turns up, he turns up anyway. Back to paperwork. That's what that sounds like to me.

We've still got a charge on him. So if they find him and he gives his name... Murder stay murder, but, you know, we got other shit to do. Which you find that motherfucker. What are you doing? He's 90 pounds of danger. I would say June 19, 1996, he's still missing.

Get out of here. Still missing. This is a great headline, by the way, from the Daily American Republic, which has a lot of newspaper articles we got stuff from here. From June 19th, 96, pig letters, garbage can escapee is still at large. I don't know why garbage can escapee is a great title for a man to have. Yeah, it makes it sound like he was trapped in the garbage candidate. Yeah. Like he escaped from the garbage is what it sounds like.

Yeah. That's exactly what I thought too. Okay, good. It's not just me. This day, Jordan, the guy who's supposed to be in charge of finding him, said he would not give up the search, even though some suspect that he's made his getaway pretty far away. He goes, I'm still looking. He says officers are still in the area. Calls are coming in and we're responding to those. We'll keep looking. All right. He also said that he considers Rusty to be very dangerous. And they said if he, you know, he might resist arrest and endanger lives.

And he wouldn't hesitate. He said, I wouldn't hesitate to give my guys the order to shoot to kill on this guy. Because he's dangerous and he'll take you down with him is what he's trying to do. He said it's a. That river runs to the Gulf of Mexico, right? He could, I mean, you could. I mean. It goes that way, right?

If you're Huck Finn, you can get out there on the river and just float on down. But I think you'd be. String in a stick, you can eat all the way. I think you'd be. I picture of barefoot and overalls. Doesn't even have a reel. It's just bent it up. No, you're pulling it back.

Get a bunch of the string and pull. Hanging out with a black guy with a troublesome name, just chilling. Fucking. So he said, this is a very big. bad scenario for a man like this to be out. I sure as hell hope to God he doesn't kill another person before we capture him. Sure is hell. Hope to God. Sure is hell. Hope not. Speaking of where the fuck is he and is he dangerous, let's go over to Barbara Pruitt in her boyfriend's house for a second here. Oh no. Barbara Pruitt and her boyfriend Ed Frenzel here, they needed to go home to get something.

They weren't staying at their home while he was escaped for fear that he would come there and try to kill their daughter. So they had been staying at a motel. He just told her that she, he wants to watch her fry. And I do. I did. And I will. I will. Yeah. Well, they were staying at a motel, but they needed to go home and get some shit. So what they did is they called to have an officer to do a quick sweep of the house first. So a cop goes in, looks around, doesn't see anything, comes out, says all clear, and, you know, drives away and lets them go get their shit, basically. So they go in to get their shit. You know, there's been a quick search of the house. And, you know, there's been a quick search of the house by an armed police officer,

making sure a rusty didn't sneak in. So, okay, for two days, Barb and Ed have been staying at a hotel, and Stephanie's been taken into protective custody, actually, by the police. They, like, took her in, and I don't know where the fuck, they're, like, you know, standing outside her motel room door. But they're separate. So these two, Mom and Ed, Barb and Ed, you know,

they come back to the house. On Monday, Barbara had been at her job at Procter and Gamble when a security worker pulled her aside and said, you're supposed to go home. Ed's coming to get you. The police department just called Russell Bucklew has escaped. And she was like, what the fuck? Seriously? Yeah, the guy you just mouthed off to is out. Fuck.

I just had a bad conversation with him. Ed had picked her up and they driven directly to the police station to see what was going on. And they were told that Rusty had escaped. and Stephanie and the girls were safe and protective custody. The cops said, though, it probably wouldn't be a good idea for you guys to go home unless you get an officer to search your house first. If you want to go in the house, get a cop to search it first. Don't just walk in willy-nilly. So they were in a motel room and hadn't got home, but they said they wanted to pick up a few things.

They were only going to be there for a minute. So officer comes out, all clear, enjoy. So for about an hour, they're in the house. They put food out for the dogs or like outdoor dogs there. They put food out for them. They water a few of the trees in the backyard. If you left your house for three days, all the shit you'd have to do. I got to water that, took that, put that away, things that happened.

Then they take a break from their, you know, they've been doing housework, basically. They take a break and sit in the living room. Barb has to be to work in a few hours. So she says, I'm going to take a nap. Take a quick nap here. I mean, everything's fine. So let's just take a nap. So, but she walks back to the back door just to lock it.

You never know. She should be safe. She wants to be safe. She locks it there. Now, as she locks it, there's a large walk-in pantry with the door closed to her right. You know, pantry, cereal and canned goods and shit. She turns her head back to the living room. And out of nowhere, the pantry door swings open and hits her in the side.

Ouch. She says what the fuck, and at the same time she feels something hard and metallic strike her in the head. Oh, God. She gets a hit from someone in the closet. It's fucking rusty. He was hiding in the pantry. With a gun, and the cop didn't look in the pantry? Or a can of French cut green beans.

We're not sure at the moment. Yeah, he was crawled into the dog food. Yeah, he just hears some alpo. Yeah. So she slams her body against the utility closet door trying to force it closed to trap him inside. He's pushing on the other side. Luckily, he doesn't wave that much. Right.

So it's actually a struggle. Sure. She screams, Ed, Ed, Ed, Ed, she can't stop him. The door swings open. And Ed, who was in the living room, comes in here. And Ed sees Rusty's arm holding something going up and down. And he's hitting Ed. Buckley's

Bucklew's hitting Ed Now he's hitting him with something And in the other hand He's holding a knife Rusty is So Barb sees blood On Ed's head By his ear

Ed and Rusty are pushing each other around They're trying to scuff They're grabbing each other's wrists And trying to struggle Ed backs up And Rusty screams Get down, get down, you're going to die

Get down, you're going to die Okay The back door's right there But it's locked So Ed manages to get his way in the struggle to the back door and unlocks the door and says, get out of there, Barb, go and like tell Barb, get the fuck out of here when we struggle. So Barb tries, but she can't because she is on the wrong side of that open door that they're struggling against. She's like pinned against the wall by the door.

So Rusty angles his way in front of her. He's got a knife and a hammer. That's what he's got. He's got a hammer. A hammer and a knife. Barb is too afraid to move. Rusty and Ed are yelling at each other and all this type of shit. Something distracts Rusty and he looks away for a second.

Just for a second. Don't know if it's a noise outside. Might have thought the cops were there. But it's just enough time for Barb to squeeze her way out and around the door and get outside. Okay. She then slams the door, trapping the two men inside the house. Oh, Jesus. She takes a look back through the window and sees that Rusty is laying the knife and the hammer down, and then he disappears from view.

So she runs to a neighbor's house. Ed was already there. Ed snuck out when he went out the door and said, come on, Barb, let's go and ran out the fucking door. But she didn't make it. She was trapped behind the door. All right. So that's all this happened. That's how this happened.

Then he's got a knife and a hammer. He looks away for a second. She's able to sneak out the door. Got it. She sees him laying down. the knife and hammer and she runs to the neighbor's house. Ed is already there banging on the door, but it's a weekday afternoon and no one's fucking home.

People are working. So Barb doesn't know what to do. So she basically staggers to the front yard and screams at the top of her lungs until somebody fucking notices her. It's a residential neighborhood. If you go to the front yard and scream as loud as you can, people will eventually look. That's what she did. That's exactly what she did.

People looked. Somebody called the cops. So he ran, huh? We'll talk about where Ed took off. Yeah. Rusty was in the house at the time. You'll leave her in there for Christ's sake. Get out, lady. I'm going. Let's go, run, bitch. And then you just run out the door and you're like, oh, she's not behind me. Where's my lady? Some residents along East Cape Rock Drive had called in and reported some screaming at the home of Barb Pruitt.

Now, the police later learned that Rusty had attacked Barb and attacked Ed, and before that had apparently stolen a blue Chevy pickup from a home on County Road 616 while the owners were out of town. So he has wheels now. He thought Stephanie was going to be at that house. He went right to go kill her. That's what he was trying to do. That's what he was trying to do. So apparently he had made his way to the back door, which was, that's how he got in.

But that's how he got out too. He went out the back door just like they did. Yeah. And made his way to, he had hit his pickup truck and the next block got in it and took off. Okay. This is, this guy's fucking crazy, right? We're in trouble. Yeah.

And a blaze of glory. He's a problem. It's living on a prayer, James. Living on a prayer. He is. So he got in the pickup and drove his car, his pickup here to Highway 177. Interesting. So he wants to be shot, basically.

He's looking for the cops to do it? He's looking for suicide by cop. And one of these cops here, Lieutenant Michael Morgan said, in my opinion, he has nothing to lose. Mr. Bucklew doesn't want to come back to jail. I've talked with Russell. He claims he wants to die. I really believe he's going to force us to shoot him. So, this, it's sort of.

we're going to talk about Deputy Ritchie Walker. June 19th, 96, Deputy Ritchie Walker's on patrol, driving around State Highway 177, south of Egypt Mills, which is a small community in the same county. He's, everyone's looking for Rusty, basically. That's what everyone's doing. As his vehicle approaches County Road 263, he sees a blue Chevy pickup truck with a camper,

which is exactly what he's looking for, heading his way. they pass each other and basically they both like he said the guy in the truck was like oh shit and he was like oh shit at the same time they both were like

what the fuck is they passed looked at each other and we're like he's looking for me and he's like I'm looking for him it was it was when Lieutenant Daniels passed by fucking Avon Barksdale in the first season of the wire

and they both looked at each other and he gave one of these that's what basically happened yeah finger wag yeah he said immediately he knew it's him. He's driving the pickup. So he, this guy waste no time, basically. Rusty tries to

jam on the gas and get away. The cop does the same thing. He hits his lights, does a U-turn and sees the pickup cresting a slight hill for a moment disappearing. But then he gets to the top of the hill and he sees it again. He notices the pickup truck's lights are, brake lights are on and the truck is stopped. Now when he gets to the top of the hill, he can see it. The pickup truck had swerved onto a county road and pulled down a few feet onto the road's right-hand side, and it's just sitting there idling on the side of the road. Like just waiting for a confrontation. Oh, boy.

So this guy speeds up his cruiser to the truck and stops just short of it, leaving a slight gap between the two vehicles, because he says if it comes to it, he wants to be able to use his car for cover. Okay. As the cop here, Walker, pushes his door open, he sees Rusty, fly out of the pickup door. Here he comes. He said he lunged.

That's the word he uses here. Rusty's momentum, you know, propels him toward the cop. And the wind. And the wind. Anything could really get him. The tail wind and some momentum. That's it. So he doesn't know what's going, what this guy is planning on.

So he grabs his shotgun out of the car. racks it. Yeah. And, uh, he says, you know, get your hands up now.

I will fucking shoot you. Like it, he said, if he didn't put his hands up right away, he was done. He was shooting him. And all he did, threw his hands up and turn himself in.

Put his hands up, did what he was told. Through all of this. Yeah. That's, he just, that's, that's the crescendo.

He decided, I guess I don't want to go out in a blaze of glory. Yeah. A blaze of glory sounds painful. I guess not so much. Yeah. I think it's cooler if you're Bon Jovi than if you're me, I think he said, you know.

So this is the best reaction to this whole thing. Stephanie Ray's father, George Pruitt, called Rusty Bucklew, quote, cunning. He said, you wouldn't know what to look at him, but he's cunning, which he looks like a moron, but he's smarter than he looks. Cunning is what you call like an animal that's smart, too, by the way, like crafty or, you know. Cunning, I would say like a moron. murder that wears disguises and shit. That's cunning. That's convincing, you know what I mean?

Yeah. Like that baseline rapist in Arizona was cunning. Kind of, horrible. A cat burglar who like, you know, steals a bunch of art from all sorts of faith, never gets caught. That's cunning. That's cunning guy. That's a cunning guy.

He gets right from the ceiling. He drops down on a grappling thing. And yeah, he's done. So the charges against him are obviously. first-degree murder, kidnapping, rape, burglary, you name it. I mean, there's so many charges. It's not even funny. It's insane.

Now, the trial is going to come up. Pre-trial publicity causes the case to be transferred to Columbia on a change of venue here, obviously. This is, I just told you all that happened. It's a lot of facts. In a small area, you've heard this crazy fucking story. Like, wow. So it attracted a lot of attention, but it's got a small kind of a small persistent following this case that people will drive anywhere to go to the drug. Yeah, including Michael Sanders' parents, his two aunts and his sister.

They all come. And also Rusty Bucklew's parents is also there. Yeah. Yeah. So now the jury in a death, they're going for the death penalty here. And the jury has to be chosen. It's a death qualified jury. That's a big thing.

That's one of the reasons why I don't think the, whether you want to kill somebody or not, fine, whatever. But I don't think it's very, it's not a fair process because you have to have 12 people who are willing to give the death penalty, which is not a jury of your peers because half the country, half the country doesn't believe in the death penalty. So you can't say a jury of your peers is every single person is enthusiastically willing to give the death penalty. That would be somebody. You'd have a bunch of people on there that go, I don't believe in it at all. And, you know, so that would be. Yeah, if you believe in it at all, then you're definitely enthusiastically willing. That's what I'm thinking.

Yeah, I don't mean they're not like, yeah, let's fry them. But they're like, I'd give the death penalty in a situation or whatever, whereas some people wouldn't. Yeah, I guess so. So the death qualified jury is. one of the reasons why I believe. If you had everybody on there from all walks of life, you had people that don't believe in the death penalty for any circumstance, and the case was so fucking heinous,

you got all of those people to vote for death. Then I would say, that's truly you have gotten sent to the death row by a jury of your peers. We have all decided, fuck you. But if it's only a certain number of people who are predetermined to want to send people to death row anyway, I feel like that can't be fair. You got a guy that doesn't under any circumstances believe in the death penalty to believe in the death penalty.

You've Jubilee debated this motherfucker into wanting to murder you. I am not a death penalty guy, but there's some people where you go, let's kill that guy. It's rare, but the fucking real extreme ones are like, why? Yeah, we don't need this guy. This guy's willing to slip out of the bars. This is a, to go murder somebody. Yeah. Did he think that he was going to go kill the witness and that's, that was going to stop?

I mean, I don't think he cared about that. I think he wanted to kill Stephanie, period. That's all it is. And he had a score to settle with Barb, too. Yeah. They had a little exchange on the phone. Yeah, she said she wants to see him fry. Well, yeah.

Anyway, so the defense here, they can't contest that he has done these murders and kidnappings and he's admitted to it. It's obvious. Everybody saw him. There's multiple witnesses. He broke out to justify it. Yeah. He never disputed.

He broke into the trailer, shot him, handcuffed, kidnapped, raped, did any of that shit. Never really about guilt. This is about, is he going to get the death penalty or not? He's going to be guilty. We know that. So the defense is that basically his rap sheet from the past and all this rage traces back to a man medicating a painful, disfiguring disease since boyhood with opiates that by his, lawyer's account, scramble his impulse control, and make his temper run wild.

He's drugged so hard, he doesn't know what he's doing. Drugs so hard. Yeah. Absolutely. That's it. He's just a guy who steals. He's got an addiction problem and, you know, all of that. So that's their defense is this is just a guy who is a fucking physical mess and doesn't

know the wrongfulness of his actions and just put him in jail, basically. Now, one piece of evidence they bring in that is particularly the defense really fights to try to keep out and unsuccessfully is one of the kids' blood-stained drawings. Some blood from the dad spattered on this drawing that was on the wall, so they have a children's crayon drawing with his dead father's blood sprayed all over it, which is Exhibit 57, I think it is, and it's a big deal. The judge said, quote, gruesome crimes produce gruesome evidence. It's in. The dragon stays. Sorry. Yeah.

Stephanie is the star witness. Yeah. Yeah. She saw everything testifies to everything. The two pistols walking down the hall, shooting, the absence of any fight or argument before the guy opened fire, being pistol whipped, having her jaw broken, being handcuffed. The children crying as she's being dragged out. to forcibly take a drive and then be raped and then be in a police chase

where people are fucking shooting at her. Pretty bad. This is a bad harrowing day of testimony. Now, the prosecutor asked Stephanie about a phone call she received from Rusty while she was at work. The defense counsel objected and then they approached the bench

and we have this from there. This is the sidebar. The defense said, I just wanted specifically object to the contents of this phone call as evidence of other crimes and irrelevant to the charges that were trying. And the prosecution said,

I expect the answer to be that he told her he was going to kill her and her children and cut her children up in front of her. And the objection was overruled. So the question to Stephanie is, Stephanie, would you go ahead and describe for the jury what Russell Bucklew told you in that phone call on March 7, 1996?

Quote, he said that he knew I'd been cheating on him and that he would, if he ever seen Michael around me again, he said he'd kill him and me and the kids. So he said he'd kill us all. That's what he said. So at the bench, again, another thing, the defense says, I'm sorry, but I believed that statement that she just made included a threat toward Mike, and I believe that's contrary to what the expected testimony was.

I don't think she said the phone call previously claimed that this phone call included a threat. toward Mike. And the prosecution said, well, that's something you could try to impeach her about, but I don't know, basically. Do that. Yeah. So they said also, they go on basically, it's overruled anyway. The defense asks for a mistrial.

And the court says, no. The defense objects to something. It's overruled. Then they ask for a mistrial. It's like, you didn't even get your objection sustained. You're definitely not getting a mistrial, but you got to have it on the record. So, yeah. She testified that also about Michael, she said that the mother of Michael's two children had abandoned Michael and the children for at least four years and that Michael had taken care of them by themselves and all of that kind of shit.

So the court also later wrote that from Stephanie's testimony alone, a reasonable jury could find every element of first-degree murder, including deliberation. Everything. Yeah. I mean, she does everything. Yeah. Yeah. She's fucked in with guns. That's not good.

then they do a videotape confession and play the entire two-hour tape of him confessing. Yeah. And being pretty flip about the whole thing and everything like that. Basically, it all corroborated exactly what happened. It's exactly how it went down. The defense objected to the drawing again as gruesome. And the kid drawing and the judge said the issue is not whether the evidence is gruesome, but whether it is both legally and logically relevant.

Sure. Now, during closings, okay. Now, during closings, the prosecution says Russell Earl Bucklew armed himself to the teeth with two guns, duct tape, handcuffs, and two knives, and he went hunting for human beings. He said he was hunting Stephanie Ray, his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. They were his prey. The defense said that he, they're blowing this out of proportion, basically. The fence is like, look, look, look, look. They're acting like he sat around, he thought about it.

It was, he drew it up and, you know, all that. He said he did not act with cool reflection. He said, this was just rage. Yeah. That's all it was. He said, no matter how angry you may be at Russell, this is clearly not a case of first-degree murder. Clearly. He took all that stuff.

That's all murder stuff that he took. And he used it. You rarely need that to have a conversation. And if you take all that stuff and use it, if he didn't use it, I would say, yeah, it has nothing to do with premeditation. But he used the pistols. He used the handcuffs. He used all this shit that he planned on using. It makes perfect sense.

So anyway, the jury needs less than two hours to find him guilty of first-degree murder or murder, murder, first-degree murder. They said the penalty phase will start the next day. And that is to choose between execution and life in prison without. parole. So those are his options. Yeah. During sentencing here. Okay. Now, the aggravator here, they say the aggravator is neither time-specific nor cause-specific. It asks only whether the defendant was in the middle of a contemporaneous multi-crime event. That's one of the aggravators. This was a multi-crime event. He's in the middle of a spree. The state also argued future dangerousness and victim impact.

He said it's not even hypothetical. He has 21 prior convictions and charges, including a fucking jail break where he, rather than get away from the police, he immediately went to the victim's house to seek retribution. Like, this guy's dangerous. It wasn't like the door was open and he was like, I'm going to get out of here. He stopped eating to get out of here. That's what I'm saying. Like Ted Bundy. Yeah.

Same thing. That's what Ted Bundy did to get out of the ceiling. To go through the roof, yeah. Yeah. The state leaned leaned on the idea that basically Rusty had an antisocial personality disorder. There's a psychologist saying that he has antisocial personality disorder and that that means he would be a poor candidate for life without parole because he would cause trouble throughout the prison because of that. So you got to kill him basically. I mean, that's what they said.

Now, in mitigation, his mom testifies. What's she have to say? Francis here. She told the jury that she loved her son and couldn't judge him for his actions. She said, I can't judge. God has to judge, but he has all my love. He'll always have all my love. Okay. The judge said, luckily, one of us actually has to judge. That's the point. That's me. Good thing, two box is not here. I'll take care of it. I got this. It's all good. Yeah. So his son's mother also testifies in the penalty phase, saying basically, don't kill my son's father, even though he's a terrible father and he's never around. Don't kill him.

During the closings in the sentencing phase, the prosecution here reiterated the nature of the crimes, emphasized the status as a repeat defender, cited his attacks on previous girlfriends in 92 and 94. and then says the best line ever. Quote, he's a homicidal and bloodthirsty energizer bunny. He just keeps on coming. Yeah, that wasn't. Very common reference then. It's not a bad one for 96.

That's pretty good. Yeah. He's a homicidal, bloodthirsty energizer bunny. That is good shit. Wasn't that thing in something where it was like all blood soaked and like it beat somebody to death or something?

Yeah. Was it in a parody thing? Would be stay tuned? Might have been stay tuned, the John Ritter movie. Might have been stay tuned. That seems about right. Yeah, that seems right because it's all hell thing. So the Energizer Bunny would be, yeah, that makes sense.

So he tells the jury, by imposing the death penalty, they'd be sending a message to other potential stalkers and aggressors. That's a load of shit. But that's fine. He says, quote, someday, ladies and gentlemen, John Michael Sanders and Zachary Sanders will be adults. now they're seven and five, but someday they'll be adults. And I submit to you that they will want to look back. Was justice reached? This man took their father.

And I'm asking you to make the punishment fit the crime and give him the death penalty. Then he says he took two knives, at least 34 bullets, two guns, handcuffs, duct tape. He stalked this woman. He killed Michael Sanders. He raped her, terrorized her. Ladies and gentlemen, if this crime does not deserve the death penalty, then what would? Who deserves the death penalty, if not this sociopathic killer? Which is a weird argument because that assumes that anybody deserves a death penalty.

That takes that as a concrete, like in a philosophical argument, you took that as a concrete, yes. Not just statutory. Like, that's a definite in stone thing that some people need the death penalty. That guy obviously needs it. Maybe that guy that trims hedges too. That's what I mean. That's a very funny. Who fucked up the roses?

Where's he? Let's find his ass. Why don't they still grow around here? Jesus Christ. So now the defense argued that there's nothing to be gained by imposing the death sentence. He said the saddest thing about this whole case is you can't bring Mike Sanders back. You can take a life, but you can't bring one back. So the jurors deliberated for a little more than three hours on this one, which is longer than it took for the penalty or for the guilt phase.

And they said that they also, by the way, the prosecution said that a man who escapes jail while awaiting trial would not suffer confinement well, probably. Oh, yeah. He's going to keep trying. So it comes in, you, sir, may fuck off death penalty for Rusty. They agree. Yeah. They all agree on that one. Some of the jury actually left the courtroom crying because it's not normal for regular, decent people to say, let's kill a guy.

That's not a normal. Is that a normal thing to impose upon citizens to tell them that they're now responsible for that? I'm a law-abiding citizen, and I would appreciate the ability to murder today. Yes. That causes some people to have emotional reactions that they didn't count on. Let's all perform the purge one person, though. One guy, though. That's it.

It's a one-man purge. So the prosecutor's reaction, he said, I called him a homicidal energizer bunny. You could shoot him. You could put him in jail, and nothing's going to stop him from coming and trying to kill the people he was mad at. That really is a good point. The guy got shot in the head. Two months later, he's escaping in a garbage bag coming to these people. This guy just keeps coming and coming and coming.

He's exhausting. And he'll do it at a rate of like, he doesn't need the easy route. He'll do it with a fucking hammer and a knife. He'll hide in your pantry with a fucking hammer. And wait. Just eating your checks mix in there. He was probably pretty hungry. So that was a pretty good hiding.

Oh, yeah. Hide me in my pantry. I don't have a pantry, but hide me near my pantry door thing and I'll, I'm going to eat everything. Starve me enough to lose 20 pounds and then put me in the one room in my house. that has all the... Full of food. All those dry goods are gone.

My mouth is going to be destroyed. I'll eat all that cereal. Dry right from the box. I don't give a fuck. Tear my gums up. I don't care. I'm going to surgically take these tumors out with all this basic four in here. With two boxes of Captain Crunch will do it.

Two boxes of Captain Crunch will take everything out of your mouth. Those fucking apple jacks have little pieces of razors attached to it. That'll cut all that shit right off. Right out, right out. So here are the reactions. Stephanie, who's obviously been through it here, said that she would not have been satisfied with any other sentence but death. She said he can no longer hurt anybody else. After the verdict, Dorothy Sanders, who's Michael's mom, said she was pleased with the decision and said, I feel that justice was served.

My heart goes out to his family, but I have no feeling whatsoever for him. Nothing. Nothing. Now there's appeals. He's going to get some new lawyers for these appeals here. Yeah. Now, these lawyers are the ones that reinvestigate his background, find tons of unpresented mitigation.

They're going to fight the method of execution thing and everything like that. Basically, their story is this is a man who had a ruined childhood and a terrible disease, who was condemned by a jury that never got the full picture. That's what it is. So that's all it is. Their attorneys are Cheryl Pallate and Jeremy Weiss. And they said that also in their statement they said Rusty's very remorseful for his crimes. Don't you worry about that.

He's real sorry. So they're arguing that, well, let's start with their arguments. Let's find out. First of all, mitigation. At trial, Rusty's family presented something basically an eye. idyllic childhood narrative. His later attorneys said that this was the opposite of the truth, and the real childhood was chaos with a father with a volcanic temper, abuse and trauma, and lead paint exposure

caused developmental delays. Yeah. Okay. Lead paint oxy defense. That's right. Now, none of that reached a jury in the court. None of those mitigating factors were told to the jury during the death penalty. case. So that's a lot. The U.S. Supreme Court in a line of cases starting in about 2000

held that a capital defense lawyer must thoroughly investigate a client's history precisely so a jury can weigh in on things like trauma, addiction, and impairment. And the original lawyers that Bucklew had, their new lawyers said they just didn't do that work, period. They just didn't investigate anything to know. Also, the addiction. the discovery at the time of the murder that Bucklew had reportedly been addicted for years to the opiates prescribed for his tumors and that those medications drove him into rages. And that's the exact kind of mitigation that the jury would have been likely, you know, would have been good to tell the jury, basically. See, the problem is no matter what you told them, a woman got up there with a scar on her face.

and told the worst fucking story that anyone's ever heard. Doesn't matter. You heard it coming out of it. Not killing her probably is what sealed the death penalty for him. Because the jury got to hear her. The jury got to hear in her own words

through her tears what the fuck happened. Yeah, I think he really knew what he was doing in that regard is that I think he was going to get her because he thought that that would... He'd get everybody. That that would fix a lot of his problems if she can't talk. And he didn't know where she'd.

was, that she was in protective custody, any of that kind of shit. Then also, the state is going to lean on the idea that he had antisocial personality disorder, which is actually they used to say that he's a bad candidate for prison. But the psychologist who originally made that diagnosis, according to the clemency materials later, admitted he'd been wrong. That's what he said. The scientific keystone of the state's case of this man is a redeemable argument wasn't really there anymore because of the

that that diagnosis is off the table. Then there's this other scumbag. Later, these lawyers found out that one of Rusty's own clemency attorneys had taken thousands of dollars

in loans from Rusty's elderly parents and not repaid them. What? Not fees, loans. Okay. These people loaned this man money to, and then he didn't pay them back.

All right. I don't know what that has to do with him and the death penalty or whatever, but that's a pretty shitty thing for an attorney to do. Absolutely fucked up. I'll save your son, but I got to be able to pay my rent. You know, that's wild.

He took out, but is that the, that's the lawyer from the, that guy's taking money from the defendant? The defendant's parents, one of his clemency lawyers, one of his post-conviction lawyers was taking money from the parents. Not, like I said, not above the fees. They said, for the man whose job it was to plead for Bucklew's life on that account was borrowing money from the family he's supposed to be serving.

So, yeah, can't do that. They said, these are claims made by a defense team with an obvious interest in the outcome, litigated late, and the courts ultimately did not find them sufficient to overturn anything. That's a decision later. So that those didn't matter. The Missouri Supreme Court's post-conviction opinion went through the uncalled witnesses, as we'll talk about, a corrections expert named James Aiken, who would have testified that Buckley wasn't an escape risk, which I don't know how you testify to that when he had already escaped. A psychologist also that said that basically the lawyers are saying that it was indefensible to not call them. And the first court say it was actually fine that they didn't call them.

They said basically, fair enough, you're good. Fuck off. May 98 is the direct appeal. The Missouri Supreme Court and the unanimous decision here affirm the conviction and death sentence in full. It conducted the statutorily required proportionality review, comparing Bucklew's case to other Missouri death cases where a victim was killed in his home in front of his children with multiple shots.

and found the sentence neither excessive nor the product of passion or prejudice. It's the summary of the man, they said this, quote, Bucklew was a violent prior and persistent offender with an abusive past. The nature of this crime, the history of the defendant, and the strength of the evidence support the sentence of death. That's the 1998 decision. The post-conviction appeal was, and again, now they're going to talk about ineffective assistance of counsel and things like that. It all gets affirmed across the board.

Okay, they set an execution day of December 4th, 1998. Wow, that's quick. November 20th, though, 1998, his execution was stayed while he sought relief in various state and federal courts. So, 2000, 2001, we got some more court stuff. And on February 8, 2000, Bucklew's notice of appeal from the judgment overruling his post-conviction relief motion was filed, and on January 31st, 2001, the affirmed, they affirmed the overruling of his post-conviction motion. In March of 2001, the court overruled his motion for a rehearing of that decision,

according to court documents. Okay. So, there's a lot going on. Now, here's what they're looking at and all the other ones. First of all, the confession, the two-hour videotape confession. Were he didn't ask for a lawyer? Where he didn't ask for a lawyer? His lawyers attack it on two fronts.

First, that the police had not honored his right to remain silent. Because if you remember, they went to his hospital bed on March 22nd, read him his rights and asked if he wanted to talk. And he said, no. So they said from that point, they should not have tried to talk to him again without an attorney. But he didn't, he just said he didn't want to talk. He didn't say without a lawyer. That's the thing. He didn't say, I want a lawyer now.

He just said, I don't want to talk to you. I say that to people all the time. Yeah, constantly. All day. Yeah. And then the cop came back on March 26th and asked again. They said, second, that the confession wasn't knowing and intelligent because of his injuries, his pain, and all the medication he was on.

Well, shut my head. That's a better argument to me, that one. On the first front, the court applied a test from the 1975 U.S. Supreme Court case, Michigan versus Mosley, where they do an analysis of whether the suspect's invocation of silence was honored. Did the police stop immediately? Yes. He walked out the moment that Bucklew said no out of the hospital room. Did they wait a significant amount of time and reworn before trying again?

Yes, five days and they gave him fresh Miranda warnings. And also the other thing is were they trying to wear down his resistance, which is another one of these things, hurdles you have to go over. And they said, no, they weren't. They weren't like they were coming at him 50 times until he finally said, okay, fine, I'll talk to you. So they said, they only tried once, and it was about the same crime. So that's all fits into the court's deal. They said, the court waited all and held that asking a suspect whether he's changed his mind days later after fresh warnings isn't the type of badgering that the Constitution forbids. That's not what we were talking about. On the second front, his medical state,

made the waiver invalid, the defense said. The court reviewed the tape and found a man who was articulate and alert and throughout nearly two hours speaking clearly, giving details, offering his own reasons for talking. Didn't seem like a dude who was fucked up to me is what they said. Look pretty fine. Look like he was plenty lucid and knew what he was doing. Also, they said, a deficient medical condition or mental condition, the court noted doesn't by itself make a statement unintentional. intelligent. There's no constitutional right to confess only when you're perfectly rational, which is interesting because a lot of cops, if they see a guy's fucked up, they won't interrogate him then because they're like,

this ain't going to fucking fly in court. He's going to fuck up. And even if it does, he's going to on appeal, fight it. So whatever. And that goes back to the 80s reading in the homicide book. They wanted to talk to some guy about a murder and he came in all coaked up and they were like, come back tomorrow. Holler tomorrow. Before you start partying because they were like, we can't fucking talk to this guy. Under the Supreme Court's rule from Edwards v. Arizona, you have to make an actual unambiguous, unequivocal request for counsel to shut down questioning. I don't know, man, is not that. No.

I mean, that's what he said. Also, the threat that wasn't disclosed here, they said there's a, here's the strange thing here. At the trial, Stephanie testified in the March 7 phone call that Bucklew threatened to kill her, her children, and Michael Sanders. The defense objected. The state, they said, had violated its discovery obligation by not disclosing that the threat included Sanders. Oh. Remember that argument at the sidebar? The prosecutor's response at the bench was, he said that essentially it's the first I've heard of it too, and you can impeach her on it if you want.

Try that. The court's ruling was logical here. They said the discovery rule requires the state to disclose what it has, not what it doesn't know. No. This is what we have. They can't disclose to you. We don't know this, this, or this. That's not part of it. The prosecutor couldn't disclose a detail he hadn't been told. And anyway, the court found that Bucklew suffered no prejudice. He was on the call. He knew it was said. And getting phone records wouldn't reveal the content of the conversation. But this defense is really trying to figure it out. They're doing a good job. Exhibit 57. Oh, yeah, the dragon picture with all the blood on it. All the blood on it here. The defense fought to keep it out saying it's gruesome, and they said that not really. There was already an admitted close-up photograph of the same drawing and the surrounding bloodstained carpet.

So, yeah. Now, the verdict form, the jury's paperwork is even involved in this. The penalty phase jury was supposed to find that the murder was committed while the defendant was engaged in kidnapping and burglary. What they actually wrote was that he committed the crime of kidnapping during the murder and committed the crime of burglary during the murder. They didn't say engaged in. Oh. Very tiki-ticky shit. The defense argued the wording was backwards, so the jury never actually found the statutory aggravated.

vater and without it there's no death penalty. Okay. Okay. Yeah. While the defendant was engaged in is not interesting. Okay. Now, the court compared it to an older case where the jury's verdict form had been genuinely, they said, nonsensical. They said by contrast here, the court found the jury had clearly addressed the right question whether Buckley was in, a buckler was in the middle of a contemporaneous multi-crime event when killed.

and the aggravator doesn't care which crime came first or which he intended most. Sure. So they tried to get it on grammar, which is pretty impressive as far as the lawyer's got. Both crimes are committed at the same time. We're going to parse which one came first? I mean, I'm just impressed with the intellectualness

to find that and call that out. That's pretty impressive. You know what I mean? To me, that's smart. I'm shocked that that matters. It doesn't. The court said it doesn't, but there was a good, it was a valiant effort.

You know what I mean? So then there's the witnesses nobody called. This is interesting. The argument that Bucklew's trial lawyers fucked up in the penalty phase by failing to call witnesses that might have saved his life. Here's James Aiken is the corrections expert that would have testified Buckley posed no significant risk of escape or harm. The problem they said was when he got, if he was to be cross-examined, his own report. listed numerous disciplinary infractions and negative comments about Bucklew, and he couldn't testify with certainty that Bucklew wouldn't escape because he already did.

Sure. Okay. Dr. Michael Gelbort, a clinical psychologist who would have testified based on the day of neuropsychological testing that Bucklew couldn't form the intent to deliberate, but his findings were summarized almost verbatim by another expert who did testify. And they said that doctor would have also confirmed that Bucklew. had traits of antisocial personality disorder, the exact thing the defense did not want emphasized.

So that strategy, they deemed that, not a fuck up on the defense attorney's part. And also the family and friends. They said, Deanna Bucklew, Ron Bucklew, Mike Walton, Jean-Rode, Kimberly Nichols, relatives and friends who would have testified that Bucklew treated Stephanie and her kids well, that he was nonviolent, a good friend, and kind. Okay. The court said, quote, this is amazing. Every one of them would have disintegrated on cross-examination about Bucklew's actual record of violence,

and Rhodes claimed that Bucklew was honest would have collided with his convictions for burglary, stealing, and theft. Calling them might have hurt more than helped. The defense even put on the killer's mother, the killer's son's mother, Cindy Boyer, to testify he was a good father, failing to pile on cumulative or self-defeating witnesses, the court held is not effective, is not ineffective assistance. So that was fine. So this is what they're trying to put through the court for now. And then they'll have another one to pop up with later. That's kind of a better argument. By 2006 here, he's out of ordinary appeals. So they're going to set an execution date and then he's got to try to do federal shit and all that. Okay. Then Jesus Christ, June 8th,

2009. Stephanie. We remember Stephanie. Poor Stephanie, Ray Pruitt. She got remarried in December of 2005. Good for her. She married a guy named John Shuffett.

Sounds like Shuffet. S-A-S-H-U-F-F-I-T. He'd been married previously. They lived in St. Mary from from, let's see, for about a year in 2007. Some of her children. were active in the St. Mary's Youth Baseball League that year.

And according to friends, Stephanie expressed interest in becoming involved in city politics while living there. Oh, look at her. She's really maturing here. She's 35 now, you know. So now the problem is her and John's marriage doesn't go too great. Sheffat and a great guy, huh? No. Records indicate that he filed for a legal separation or annulment of the marriage in January of 2008.

The case was dismissed, though, because they're not going to give them an annulment. So neighbors and friends that know Stephanie said that Stephanie was planning to divorce if they couldn't get that. They were trying to get an annulment, but if not, they do the divorce. She was managing a restaurant at this time and very much into gardening still, really working on her garden outside of her trailer. They all still live in trailers, though. Now, about 7.15 p.m. this evening in June of 2009, this is according to the show, Sheriff, Stephanie is outside of her home trying to fix a lawnmower, and one of the neighbors was trying to help her fix a lawnmower. Something was wrong with it. She had it tipped over doing everything. According to them, out of nowhere, her 53-year-old husband John pulled up to the home. The neighbor was helping the repair, like we said. He drives up to the mobile home, gets out of the vehicle carrying a rifle, the husband. The neighbor left the yard and ran behind the trailer. and then reported hearing a brief verbal exchange and then a gunshot and then a car driving off.

He returned and found Stephanie on the ground, shot in the chest with a 30-30 rifle. Good Lord. Dude. Her picker is off. This poor woman. Yeah. That's why I said her father, whatever it seems like he's okay, had to have been not great when she was growing up. Two men that are willing to kill you.

over this. Jesus. So the county sheriff's department deputies were called to the mobile home at 715. The call was placed by one of Stephanie's children who said her mother had been shot by, his mother had been shot by his father, is the way he put it. When deputies arrived, they found Stephanie lying on the ground outside the home. She suffered a gunshot wound and she dies at the scene. That's it. Killed her.

Now, neighbors tell police which direction John drove off in, and he's later finally located by a deputy about 10 miles away near Silver Lake, where they find out when they approached that he had already shot and killed himself. Of course he did. What a chicken. Blue his fucking brains out in the truck. Wow. Yep. The children at home at the time of the shooting were 11 through 16 years old. and they weren't threatened or harmed

because they were inside the whole time. None of the children were injured. Two of Stephanie's children and one of the children's friends were present at the home during the mobile during this whole thing. And they said they believed the children did not see the shooting.

The woman's third child was at a neighbor's house. So she leaves behind two daughters and a son, which is horrifying. those poor kids have been through so fucking much. Imagine. She's just trying to make a life for herself, and that sucks, man. These guys are such dicks to her. It's fucking ridiculous.

One local resident who knew Stephanie said, quote, this is very sad. She had already lived through a terrible situation, and now this happens. I feel for her, and especially for the children. Which is exactly the right thing to say. Then the prosecutor from the Bucklew case chimes in. And this is a, it's just, it's so silly.

I don't think this is her main concern. Quote, it always made me sad because she wanted to be there at the execution, because she wanted to be the last thing he saw before he died. She was proud of the fact that she testified against him. That's not her main concern, probably. That's what makes you sad. Not that she's got three fucking children without a mother who's, have had two horrible traumatic things happen in front of them.

That's not the sad part. Not that you don't get to prosecute a man for doing something terrible to... Not even that. Three children's mom. The sad part is nobody gets to watch a guy die by spite. She doesn't get to... That's the real tragedy here, is spite won't get to be thrown on to a condemned man. That's the tragedy.

Think the tragedy is she's dead and her kids don't have a mom. That's the real tragedy. I think there's a lot of tragedies here, and what he just said isn't one of them. Not one of them at fucking all. I don't see that as true. Who knows if by then she would even want to be a part of that at all. Maybe she'd want to put it behind her. You don't fucking know.

Here's a tragedy, sir. That piece of shit with all the flowers in his mouth got to outlive her. That's a tragedy. That's a tragedy right there. He gets to dance in his jail cell that she's dead. And John, his relatives and friends described him as nonviolent and active in church. I disagree. Well, it seems like he's pretty violent.

Just based on the facts. Seems like a very violent man. Seems like a bad guy. 2011, Michael Sanders' son, Zach, said he's moving on with his life. He took the Armed Services Vocational Abtitude battery there, the ASFAB test that all of us kids who didn't have good grades were given. Not to do on it. None of the kids, you know what's funny about that? I got it back.

Yeah. At the end of the day, put it in my fucking backpack. said I'll look at that shit later. Went out, was doing shit with my friends fucking around, walking around, left it behind a Sears service center where we were smoking weed on their loading dock and never found my backpack again.

So I have no idea how I did on. Whole backpack. Whole backpack I left. It was gone. I have no idea how I did on the ASFAB. None. I went to the recruiting station and evidently did pretty well.

Enough to make a recruiter come to my house day after day until I... broke my lease and never saw again. They came to my house day after day, too, just because you existed and you were doing shitty in school. Yeah. But the test has nothing to do with that shit. I don't know what it said.

We took it in school, I remember, and it was... Did you? I went to the recruiting station. It was like a... You could get out of a class for it. So I was like, really? Fucking dick around with the fucking test. Why not?

Wow, they're recruiting hard up there. Oh, they're recruiting everywhere. Yeah, this was in the 90s. Nobody wanted to join the fucking military in the mid-90s. The fuck wants to join that. shit. Yeah. I had to go down to the place. Oh, I wouldn't have done that. I would, I was no interest in that shit. This was just... Two thousand and I did it? Fuck, man. But yeah, this, that test, um, he said he's enlisted in the army. He said he's just waiting for the call to go to basic training. He plans to make a life in the military. Um, he says that he doesn't mind if he has to go fight overseas. He says he just doesn't want to be defined by what happened 15 years ago to his dad. What year did he take that he's doing this? in 2010?

2010. Wow. Yeah. He said, it's life. You can't change nothing. What's done is done. He said, if he could tell his dad something, he'd just say, I hope you're proud of me. So that's nice.

2013-14, the Supreme Court of the United States denies his petition, Rusty's petition, for a writ with respect to his federal claims. So 2014, his execution is nearing. Oh, boy. The governor, Jay Nixon, told the AP that while he was considering Bucklew's clemency request, he hadn't seen a reason to intervene. He said, this guy committed very, very heinous crimes, and while it's difficult and challenging this part of the job, we'll continue to move forward unless a court says otherwise. I ain't going to be the guy to pull the plug on this one, he said, basically. In addition to the stay request, a federal court is considering a request to allow Bucklew's lawyers to record the execution on video. Say again?

They want to record it on video. They want to go, hey, you do it behind closed doors. Let's show people how gross it is, basically. Oh, boy. Now, they said the Department of Corrections works very hard to make sure this challenging responsibility is handled as humanely as possible. That's what the governor said. The AP and four other news organizations filed a lawsuit against the Missouri Department

of Corrections claiming the state's refusal. to provide information on the execution drug violates the public's constitutional right to have access to information about punishment. Which, yeah, we bought those drugs, no matter what they are. Tell me what you are. If your tax dollar paid for it, that shit needs to be public. Absolutely public. If you're putting Drino in them, we have to know. That's it.

So, yeah, there's the Missouri Supreme Court they go before, which consists of, of a man with a corn cob pipe, Nelly. Yeah. A man with a corn cob pipe, Nelly. Yeah. And one of those wavy armed car dealership things, but of Patrick Mahomes. Those are the three members of the Missouri Supreme Court. And they all have lots of sweet baby rays on their fingers.

Tons of it, tons of it. So they set a new execution date of May 21, 2014. On that day, the Supreme Court issues a stay of execution. which later expires. Now, the big thing the lawyers are fighting over is his medical condition. His treating physician at the Department of Corrections considered the bleeding risk serious enough that Bucklew was, as well, he's on death row.

He's issued his own biohazard bags and gauze to keep in his cell so he can, quote, mop up his own hemorrhages. He's just bleeding? His face is just exploding and bodies, He's got problems. And they're tired of cleaning up after him. They can't keep going in there. He just gets his own medical shit.

Oh, my God. He has to sleep on his right side, propped up at a 45-degree angle on pillows, because lying flat lets gravity drag his swollen uvula across his windpipe like a curtain. He's going to suffocate. Yeah, he's going to suffocate. And he starts most mornings by cleaning all the blood off his face that's collected over the night. That is terrible.

This is almost better just to keep him alive if you hate him, isn't it? If you want the, like if you want him to suffer, this is way worse. Make him do this till he's 90. That would be awesome. Fuck him. Good morning, blood face. Here's your towel. What's up, hemorrhage fucking chin?

Nice to see you. Oh, God. So the Missouri's standard method of killing people, this is one of the appeals here, is to lay them flat on a gurney and run a needle into a vein. Russell Bucklew could not safely lie flat, could not reliably offer up a vein and carried a tumor in his throat that the act of dying might rupture. The execution chamber and the disease were on collision course with this, basically. So, heading to the Supreme Court. But he gets sick while that's going on. He contracts bacterial meningitis.

Fuck! Which is a nasty, fast-moving infection. And he's hospitalized for close to two weeks. weeks. The infection collapsed his airway. Yeah, that'll fuck you up. He had to be intubated. He was put on a ventilator to breathe for him. And before he was discharged, surgeons performed a tracheotomy. Nice. Cutting open his windpipe and putting a breathing tube right in his neck. Well, good news. Now your uglah doesn't... There you go. The tube was still in place at the time of the Supreme Court argument, which was handled here. Now, they said, if he breathed through a tube in his

throat, did the choking risk still exist? It's a crazy question. That's the legal question. Yeah. His lawyer said the tube could come out at any time and the disease underneath that only worsened. The body kept finding new ways to almost kill him. So just let him die.

There's also Dr. Joel Zivit and Dr. Antiggini. Antignini. These are anesthesiologists. Zivit is for Bucklew. other guy is for the state of Missouri. They had competing affidavits here about suffocation windows, whether a vein could be accessed without a cut down technique. They do this thing where they have a backup technique with the lethal injection.

If they can't find a vein, then they will cut into your leg and find a vein in your leg that they cut open and stick it down there. That's the cut down technique. And that's a backup plan, basically. if they can't find your arm, your arm fucking veins. So they said his medical expert, the anesthesiologist, Dr. Joel Zivitt, described the airway. If you touch it, it bleeds. Gross.

That's what he said. So by 2017, he believed the tumors posed an imminent risk of catastrophic, life-threatening hemorrhage. During the years, his execution was being scheduled and rescheduled. He survived the bacterial men in general. and all that kind of shit. Basically, it's lay the sky down, jab repeatedly at his shitty, hard-to-find veins, and basically the rising blood pressure

will likely rupture the tumor in his throat. They said, even if everything went according to plan, the Pino-Barbitol would shut down his ability to manage his own airway while he was still conscious and he would feel himself choking and suffocating, possibly drowning in his own blood, for a window, his expert estimated at 52 to 240 seconds, anywhere in there. And that's the legal argument is, and even the Supreme Court says that if he's drowning,

that wouldn't be an approved method of execution, drowning or that sort of thing. So the state's expert said 20 to 30 seconds. That's not that bad, 20 to 30. So the fight wasn't even about whether he would be hurt. It was about how long would he be awake while he suffocated? That's what they're arguing over. Okay. Then there is a one-page summary, and that's by the sworn testimony of the Department of Corrections official, not Bucklew's treating physician or anyone that's ever actually examined him, just the official from the Department of Corrections.

Then they even say in it that it is not a complete medical record. It's a summary. And the form said it noted that Bucklew. had had the disease on his face and lip. They got that right, but they did not mention the tumor in his throat. And that's the whole point of the case. So nothing in the record suggested that anyone would check it out. The medical team would not be giving him MRIs or anything like that. You know, anything. So Bucklew's lawyer said when the team starts the process, they're not going to be aware of his breathing issues because it's not in the form. Because that's exactly what

happened the time before. A one-page summary that listed a facial condition, failing to mention the throat and indicating no breathing difficulty. Okay. Now, on April Fool's Day, 2019, the court ruled against him five to four. And we know exactly which five and which four are, by the way. the dissents here, Justice Breyer, who is still around, wrote the principal dissent, joined by Ginsburg Sotomayor and Kagan, and argued that Bucklew had produced enough evidence of tumors in the airway and expert testimony that his execution by lethal injection could be excruciating and that he could choke and suffocate on his own blood while conscious, and that at the very least, the case deserved a full outing of the facts rather than a summary dismissal.

They're not even saying we shouldn't execute him. They're just saying we should go over it before we execute him to make sure that doesn't happen rather than just say, we don't think it'll happen. Fuck it. You know, hit the gavel. So Buckley had twice been within hours of execution. This is in 2019, only to have the U.S. Supreme Court grant last minute reprieves over the concerns he might suffer. Now, they have a clemency request to Governor Mike Parsons, that. the tumor could choke him to death.

And Russell Bucklew wrote in this, quote, The law doesn't take into consideration that with age comes wisdom. I'm absolutely a different person. I feel terrible about what happened to Stephanie Ray and Michael Sanders. I don't think that's really the issue here. That's not really the issue anybody gives a shit about. Tumers are not. I'm rehabilitated.

Good work, guys. You did it. That's good. You should patch me up and let me out. Put a couple of band-aids on me. Now, according to the concern with Missouri's execution drug, the state uses a single dose of peanut barbitol but refuses to say where it gets it. They're getting like on the street. Like there's no legitimate company will sell it to them anymore. So they literally could be in a parking lot going, hey, you got any peanut barbit penibitol? Yeah, yeah. I got a little bit. Wow. The source is believed to be a compound pharmacy since large pharmaceutical companies prohibit the use of their drugs for executions.

Compound pharmacies are doing this. Oh, man. So the Supreme Court stepped in to halt Buckley's execution in 2014 and 18, but then in April of 2019, they gave the go-ahead for the execution. Now, there's been other things. In 2017, the execution of a twice convicted killer named Alva Campbell, who suffered from smoking-related breathing problems, had to be halted in Ohio when a usable vein could be found to administer execution drugs.

Wow. He ended up dying the next year anyway at 69. In 2018, Alabama halted the lethal injection of Doyle Lee Hamm when the execution team had trouble getting the intravenous line connected. Ham had damaged veins because of lymphoma, hepatitis, and drug use. Good Lord. So just let that guy die in a room. Who cares? He's got three things working against him already.

Who cares? Let him fucking suffer. Dr. hired by Ham's lawyer wrote in a report that Ham had at least 11 puncture sites and bled heavily from his groin during the attempts to connect the line. Holy! All those diseases bleeding from the groin, I think we exacted our pound of flesh here. Let's let him die in a room. Who cares? Three years later, then in 2017, the court set a third date for Bucklew's execution.

Then they issued a stay again in 2018. Finally, 2019 is when they issued. the opinion and the stay of execution expired. Documents said around one month later, May 3rd, the state filed a motion to set an execution date, to which he filed another thing back and forth. And the Supreme Court of Missouri, again, corn cob pipe, Nelly, and giant wavy arm, Patrick Mahomes guy, all issued a warrant for the execution of Bucklew on June 25, 2019. There's a huge protest, by the way.

And a big petition on this one. The advocates delivered more than 57,000 petition signatures asking the governor to stop the execution. That's a lot of people, 57,000. I get you can do online petitions back then. It's a lot less impressive than if you went door to door, but still. It's based on the fact that this man is super sick, and this is crazy, right? Super sick. There's a big at the St. Louis Post Dispatch, there's a big editorial, death is not justice, Missouri should should, should,

Bear Russell Bucklow. If you stab him, he might bleed to death. If you stab him, they said if you touch him, he bleeds. They said that this basically, they go on to say he was convicted. We do not ask that he be exempt from accountability of his crimes. We only ask that Missouri avoid its own horrific display of how the state can use its power to take life so inhumanely. Governor Mike Parson can choose to commute Bucklew's sentence to life without parole or move forward and carry out. would be a gruesome and torturous execution.

On Thursday, leaders and volunteers from the ACLU, Missourians for alternatives to the death penalty, will be on the ground delivering almost 60,000 signatures. That's what they say. So they say that the death penalty is rife with errors and inconsistencies, fails to deter crime. That's mathematical fact. And as a steep cost, not only financial, but in human terms.

Fuck human terms. It's expensive. It's the most, all this shit we just described. Do you know how much that cost the fucking state? It's outrageous. When you could just literally let this guy bleed out in his cell and he would die. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure you guys would like that going to your schools or your roads, maybe, anything else.

But that cares. He doesn't get him blossom tumors for the rest of his life in a room. Yeah, he's a piece of shit. You're not even sopping him up. You're just throwing gauze at him. And saying, put it in a bag and we'll collect it at the end of the day. Pass the red bag under the door. Yeah.

So October 1st, 2019, Execution Day is here. Really? And he is not too sick for one thing, Jimmy. You know what that is? Last meal. Last meal, everybody. Is it yogurt? It is not.

What is it? Any guesses besides yogurt? Fried chicken. They always love fried chicken. It's not, actually. No? Did he get a steak? He got a Euro sandwich. Okay.

Really in the mood for some Tiziki. That's what he was interesting. Cucumbers, tomatoes. That's one of those. Also a smoked brisket sandwich, which is a good choice. Yeah, in Missouri it sure is. Briscuit's great.

Two orders of French fries. This guy is not, did he have a date? No, this is all for him. Wow. A Coke and to round it out a banana split. Banana split. Not a bad last meal. Pretty good.

Doubled up on the sandwiches, though. Brisket fries. Coke, a banana split a year? Oh, that's pretty good shit, man. How'd you get all that down past that tumor, sir? Is the past your fucking uvula there? Yeah. So, by the way, in the last meal study that we saw here,

one of the authors said that basically it analyzes 247 last meals, all of them ordered by condemned prisoners in the United States from 2002 to 2006. And we've done the steak stats before, because a lot of guys get steak. The average meal came in at 2756 calories. But four requests from Texas and Oklahoma before they stopped doing last meals were estimated to have gone beyond 7,000. 70% of the prisoners order asked for fried food and many requested specific brands.

16% ordered Coca-Cola and three inmates want to diet Coke because they're morons. Diet. Diet. There are people that just love the flavor of it. They like the taste. Yeah, they've gotten used to it. They're three people. Yeah.

So the one thing they said is the execution team here was extremely careful, way more careful than they would have been in any other time to basically make everybody wrong as far as let's not fucking hurt him, basically. They sedated him with Valium beforehand. also so he wouldn't freak out. They elevated the head of the gurney, the accommodation that the defense had begged for. So if the tumor ruptured, it wouldn't go down there. And his lawyer acknowledged afterward that the steps taken to make the execution less horrific

appeared to have worked. So he didn't do anything. He lay under a white sheet, looked around the room, twitched his feet, took a deep breath, and then that was that. So died at 623. What if... PM.

This might be spitballing and a little... Hey, what are we doing here, Jimmy? Sure. Optimistic. What if we just did that every time? Well, every time that there was... Prop them up? Yeah.

It wouldn't matter to someone who isn't... Bad enough guy that deserves to be killed. Perhaps we put him in a sleep number. A little temperate, a little adjustable, craftmatic. Get their feet up. Make them comfortable. For most people, it wouldn't matter, though. Yeah.

Put up a little Netflix in the corner. Let them watch a nice TV show. Or they don't even give them last meals anymore. No. That's what I mean we've got to the point where like we won't even do that for people. Like we're like, no, we're going to execute them like shit the whole way. You don't have any, even back in the day, like they would, hundreds of years ago when they're going to shoot somebody. They have a last meal and a cigarette, treat them like a human being for five fucking seconds, mainly for you.

So you're not a piece of shit for doing what you're doing. Not to do with them. And the poor fuck that whoever pass and loss for this stuff, the poor fuck that has to pull the switch or put the needle, they don't have any say in which way we do this. It's some fucking dickbag in a suit that's at home tonight with his wife cooking him dinner. Yeah. Has nothing to do. That's not even going to be here for this. No.

It's a complete bullshit. And the fact that the last meal thing is ridiculous. You can least give a guy a fucking last meal. And if you can't give a guy a last fucking meal, then you shouldn't be shooting them or you shouldn't be injecting and shooting them up. Then shoot him in the face. Yeah. Or don't even do that. Or just let them rot in a fucking room.

It sucks in there and it's cheaper. Sorry. The only time I've heard of them taking it away is just because some dick ordered a bunch of food and then gave him the finger and walked away. Rather than saying you're not getting all of that. You ordered 10 things. We'll give you the first five you asked for. Fuck yourself. And everybody else gets it fine.

Why can't we... Because it's an excuse. Because it's an excuse. Because it's an excuse. You can still order food. order food at Stand Up Live in the green room. Yeah. Yeah.

No, but this is, that's a very inside story. This is a, it's a great story. This is a fucking excuse. Yeah. Because because when you treat people bad enough and bad enough and have the death penalty and do all this, what more can you run on? What more can your ads be of how you fuck with people? Now you can even say, I don't even let them have a last meal no more. That's right.

They can have what everyone else is having. I'm tough on crime. Jerkoffs. Okay. Now the reactions, the sheriff Jordan who shrugged his shoulders when he was missing for days out of the jail. Yeah. That guy who was like, I don't know, we'll find him when we find him. We'll get up bright and early, make up some coffee and we'll get on the good foot and go find. For one day, though, after that, I mean, we all got shit. We got there. We'll all have cruel. Don't worry.

He said, in my opinion, he should have died a long time ago. In my opinion, the world would have been a safer place when he is no, the world will be a safer place when he's no longer with us. And Captain David James with the Sheriff's Department said, quote, he had no regard for anyone's safety as well as his own will all be safer when he's gone. Probably true. So there you go, everybody. That is Cape Giridoo or whatever the fuck it is, Missouri. And a goddamn crazy fucking case. This guy was nuts all over.

Crazy. So this lady's luck. The poor thing. Stephanie had it bad. Stephanie bad luck. Well, she's wrong guy every time. Every time. She would have, I mean, if she just said after this whole thing, she said, I'm going to try ladies.

I'm going to swear off dating. I'm going to swear. I'm going to do it on my own. Yeah. Swear off guys. Yeah. Dude, if I was a woman, I could make myself like women if these are all these are my options, all these guys. I don't care.

Tits are great. Whatever. It's so fun. Figure it out. I'll figure it out. Maybe it's not my first choice, but it's better than guys. Getting murdered. Fucking beaten and raped and fucking...

Certainly not my worst choice. Stocked. No. So, anyway, if you like that show, get on whatever app you're on and give us five stars. If you're on Netflix, thumbs up, help a fucking lot. So do that. All that shit helps a lot. So anytime you tell somebody...

Thank you. We're very highly rated on Netflix. Oh. Well, thank you people for doing that. I don't know. I've never watched us on Netflix before. Somebody texts me the other day and said hundreds of thousands of likes and four and a half star, It's fantastic.

It's going very well. I've never, literally never watched us on Netflix one. You think I want to look at my fucking face? I can't, I'm not going to watch myself. They want to look at it when I'm shaving the stupid head? That's like being a band and wearing your own shirt on stage.

Like, that's just weird. It's beating off in the mirror. Why would you do that? Watching myself. Yeah, that's strange shit. So definitely do all that. Head over to shut up and give me murder.com.

Get your tickets for live shows. They are all coming out. And September 18th, we're going to be at the Pabst in Milwaukee. That's a beautiful venue, and there's only a few seats left. So if you want to go to that one, get in there right now. The next day, we will be in Minneapolis on September 19th at the state theater. Also a beautiful place, and it's great.

And get your tickets now because Milwaukee's beating you. Get in there, Minneapolis. What are you doing, guys? Come on. Show us that damn Minnesota nice. We're ready for your hot dish, all. October 3rd in Dallas, October 16th in San Jose, October 17th in Sacramento, and then November 13th in Terrytown, New York at that beautiful Terrytown Music Hall.

So fun. And then love that place. And then the next night, love that place, too, the Chevalier in Boston there, outside of Boston and Medford. You don't even have to drive into the city. It's fucking great on the 14th. Get your tickets now. That is shut up and give me murder.com is where those all are. Follow us on social media.

Very easy to do that. We're at Smalltown Murder on Instagram, at Smalltown Pod on Facebook. And you can do all that. Then you got to get yourself Patreon. I'm sorry. We'll also listen to our other two shows, crime in sports and your stupid opinions. I'm going to make this appeal to the camera here. Crime in sports, you will like it.

You don't have to like sports. Trust us. Jimmy, look at the camera. Tell them. Do you think I haven't been staring this whole time? Your camera's over and my next to me over here. So yeah, you stare over here and I'll stare at the one next to your head. Yes.

Please, too. It's great. We appreciate you all for being a part of it. It's the most fun you're going to have. It is the most fucking fun. Check it out. And we just finished a series on the Yahweh Benyahu cult because one of their main hitmen happened to play football for like two weeks. I mean, that's literally what it is.

You're going to find crazy stories of insanity. And also, your stupid opinions is just the funniest fucking show on the internet. It's hilarious. Get in there. It's so much fun. So do that. Check those out. Get yourself Patreon.

Patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get all the bonus material. anybody $5 a month or above, you get everything we put out, every little thing we put out, including as soon as you subscribe, you're going to get hundreds of back bonus episodes, hundreds, almost 400, immediately upon subscription to binge. Then you get new ones every other week, one crime in sports, one small town murder. How much do they get? Hundreds. All of it. Every damn drop, not the question. We tried to be smooth on that one, but it didn't work out.

Okay. This week, which you're going to get for crime in sports, hostage situations. Part two, because the first one was so nice we had to do it twice there. We got done with Patty Hurst and everything. We were having too much fun. Then for small town murder, prisoner dating game is back, everybody. Four bachelors, four bachelorets. Line them up in front of Jimmy, and the only thing they have in common is they're all incarcerated, violent felons.

And Jimmy's going to pick one of each based solely on their own profiles and what they say about themselves. and then we get to find out how bad of a choice he made by finding out exactly what these people did to get in there and there's nobody good. It's basically avoid the pedophile is what he's doing there. Try to move it like a shell game. So do that. That is Patreon.

Sometimes there's two. Patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get all of that. And you get everything we put out, all three shows, all ad free with your Patreon. Add free. Then on top of that, you get a shout out, which is right now, Jimmy. Hit me.

with the best fucking people that are going right now. The people who support us each and every week, Jimmy, hit me with the names right fucking now. This week's executive producer Jason Fuller.

Hey, pal. How are you? I miss you too much. Todd Scott, Penny Boyce, happy hours in Fairfield, Utah. I didn't even know they had one. Sharon Jones, Christy Pack.

Christy Pack. I want to say that correctly. Spooky Roads and Croaking Toads. Whatever the fuck that means. And then Vladana Cochick, I imagine, is how you pronounce that name. And I think Vladana includes or insinuates female. I don't know.

I don't want to go too far. But thank you all so much. Thank you. That's a great name. That's a very Eastern European, right? Is that what that is? Vladana Cochick. I have no.

Cochick is an Eastern European name. Yeah. It's very tough. She sounds bad. Sounds good. Yeah, yeah. She knows how to load it on. Good name.

Other producers this week, Liz Vasquez, Peyton, Deanna Snyder. Pickle something, either one. You can handle her booze. Scott Richard in Maricopa. Perhaps Richard, but I like to call it Richard. Makes them sound fancierge. Ryan Bender, I don't want to call him a Bender, but he put that in there.

Oh, I Bender. Frank, the Scott African, South African Bird Wisher. Remember that one? Yeah, I do. I remember that very much. Janice Hill and Robert M. Mike M. also. Brooke Jacobson, Audrey.

McRaney, Heather Annes. All right. Sure. Aaron would know last name. I'm sure she didn't get made fun of it. Taylor Diamond. Tim Bush also never got made fun of. Taylor Simpson, Indiana, Jim Jones.

Devin, with no last name. Devon, perhaps. Christed, Sherman? Christed, really? With a D. It's not a typo. Maybe it's a typo on their part, but not mine. Cheston with no last name.

Sarah White. Am would no last name. Aria Peterson. Jesse would no last name. Junior Ayuso. Chicken pecker party. Gross. What does that mean?

Wow. The weirdest thing ever. Teresa Gonzalez. I guess they, I mean, we eat their breasts. We don't eat their pecker. They do peck, too. Do they have a... Was there a chicken dick?

There's got to be a chicken dick. Kathy Evans. Jeff H. Kai would no last name. Megan Afonzev. Aphensev. Aaron Bayard, Brian H. A. Schwaller, Pimpechu, like Pikachu, James, but he's a Perman. Veronica would no last name. Or she's a Pimp and Poceman. I suppose they can be both. That's not male.

Sure. Yeah. Fuck it. Cynthia Doherty, Jenny McNeil, Amanda Negro. Oh, boy. Negrethe. Amanda, that's who it is. Joyful Johns. Noah would know last name. J.C. or J. C. C. C. C. Dale would know last name.

Andy Surley, Cyril, Cyril, Xavier would no last name. Jennifer Bainey. C.J. would know last name. Jennifer Briscoe, Ray Beach, Hiker Faith, the Cocaine King of Albuquerque, James. His name's Vinnie Vishnicki. It's also a junior.

The third. Bill Stanfield. Savannah, Stephanie, Candice Lewis, Mags would know last name. Bobby O'Brien. Crunch would know last name. Emily Corkill. Sandy would know last name.

Therice Colby. Milanor Milaner, Jean or Gianne, Gribben, it's probably Gene. I don't know, it looks like Gianna. Alejandro, Alejandro Cesaris, Daniel Pope, Nicole Heneman, Hennaman, Allison Dorsey, Jason Baldinger. No, Baddinger.

Bodinger, Badinger, Badinger, maybe. It's not Baldinger. There's no else. Raver. Interesting, no L. Raver. Sweet cheeks. John, Joshua Anderson, Michelle McComb, Andrew Hurt, Darth Bubbles, Becky would know the last name, Lindsay, Erlickman, Erlikman, Ehrlichman, Jen Barrows, Kylie Brown, Crystal Ravenscraft, April would know the last name, Dublin, no, yeah, Dublin D, D, Joanne Cavalcundall, Grondall, Grondell.

Gruntle. Hannah Key, Jessica Roberts, Michael would know. last name. Katie Chris, Jessica Jonick, Gina would know the last name. Barry McCockiner, that's definitely a real person. Leslie would know last name. Jake loves Maddie. Also, probably not a real person.

Dylan Reeves. Nope, that's Dylan would no last name, and also Nolan Reeves. Bear would know last name. Jonathan Yoder, Cleve Pritchert, Jonah, Jana, Lee, Jeff would know last name. Alan, Alan. Alan.

Alan. That is not Elaine. That is Alan Logan. Kayla Collier. Yep. Emily Robinson. Glenna Suter. Luther Wade. Lizzie would know last name. Nicholas Gomez. Bubba, Bubba Abernathy.

Tiffany Brinkmuller. Era. Ara. would no last name. Kenneth Lutz. Jason LaForge. Bobby G. Ashley Grill. John Proctor. Rachel would no last name.

Ocean Sullivan Lowy. Or Lowy, perhaps. Charlotte, would no last name. Natasha Hedderge. Anderson, the letter M, Frankie Rasmussen, Courtney Watson. Oh, the letters get your shit together. M, not O. Oh, we'll be next week, or two week.

Courtney Watson, Phil Piquette, KDC, McGumi, Magumi Hack. Fascinating. Peter S. Christine would no last name. Paul would know last name. Heather Radford. Kathy would know last name. Loud Swimming, 420 Babe. Amanda Gonzalez, Kelly Day.

Amy Ward, Tyler Bennett, Melissa Baird, Teresa Martin, Trish Grant, Fig Jam, Krista Skaggs, Trish Hamill, David Hampton, Jenna H, Blaine B, Neona with no last name, Lisa Kelly, Kim Malone, Joshua Plummer, and every person the patrons, a show you're the best. Thank you so much, everybody. Wow. Beautiful, fantastic bastards. We cannot thank you enough for all that you do for us. We hope that you had a blast in this episode. This was one of those crazy narrative episodes. like, holy shit, what's going to happen next? So crazy stuff. Glad you enjoyed it.

The Homicidal Energizer Bunny is here. And so thank you so much. And if you want to follow us on social media, head over to shut up and give me murder.com. That'll take you anywhere you need to go. There's menus that take you all those places and live. Oh, no. That's live. That's crime sports.

We're not going to do it like that. We're going to do until next week, everybody. It's been our pleasure. Bye. Hey, everybody. Listen to small town murder out there. Hi. Good to see you out there. I'm here with Jimmy, too.

And this is an ad, but not an ad for a product. This is an ad for tour dates. Yes, come see a live show. The 2026 tour, all the tickets are for sale right now, starting out with February 21st in Nashville, March 6th in Durham, March 7th in Atlanta. Phoenix is sold out. We do have tickets, though, to your stupid opinions on the 21st of March. Salt Lake City sold out. Denver has tickets.

Be there on May 2nd. May 29th, Buffalo sold out. Royal Oak, Michigan. May 30th. We have September 18th, Milwaukee, September 19th, Minneapolis. October the 3rd in Dallas, October 16th in San Jose, October 17th in Sacramento, November 13th in Terrytown, November 14th in Boston. Come see us. The live shows are spectacular. Come join all of the other STM people. You're going to meet so many people. You're going to have fun. Make some new friends. Like crazy and make some new friends. Come out and see us. Shut up and give me

murder.com is where you go for those tickets. Get them right now while they're hot. See you on the road.