Small Town Murder - The Killer, The Kitty & The Combine - Maryville, Missouri

Episode Date: January 17, 2026

This week, in Maryville, Missouri, a very strange, and diabolical story emerges from what police initially believe to be an accident. A farmer's wife seemingly accidentally run over by her husband, while he is injured, trying to save her. But that's not at all what happened. It turned out to be a crazy plot involving a black cat, and long piece of twine, used to control a 21,000 pound piece of farm equipment! An absolutely crazy tale!!   Along the way, we find out that no one wants unrequested magic, that thinking that your wife may leave you isn't considered "delusional" by courts of law, and that after 665 previous episodes, we've finally found a never before used murder weapon!!   New episodes, every Wednesday & Friday nights!! Donate at patreon.com/crimeinsports or at paypal.com and use our email: [e-mail] 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!!

Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yeah, choochoo! Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petro Gallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wiseman. Thank you, folks, so much for joining us today on another insane, crazy edition of Small Town Murder.

This is episode 666. Hey! It's going to be a wild one, as you know. The devil incarnate. This might be the way. weirdest story we've ever told, literally. The strangest story. We have a murder weapon that has never been used in 665 episodes of this show, which is saying

something, honestly, because we are, we're all murder all the time. So, I mean, you see a lot of different things. That's 666166. We will, yeah, well, 665, 666 is the oddball. We'll get to all that. And more, first of all, though, head over to shut up and give me murder.com. Get your tickets for live shows. They're all for sale for next year.

Some of them are sold out already. So you definitely want to get your tickets starting out November. What am I talking about? February 21st in Nashville. Get your tickets there. Then we're in Durham and Atlanta, March 6th and 7th. Phoenix is sold out. Salt Lake City sold out.

Buffalo's sold out. Wow. Sold out. So get your tickets for, let's see, Denver, Royal Oak, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Dallas, San Jose, Sacramento, Terrytown, Boston. Those are still wide open. Wow. So many.

And Nashville, Durham, and Atlanta, too. Hurry up. And see you. Shut up and give me murder.com. Also, special thing here, huge announcement next week. Huge. On the regular show, the Wednesday night show. Huge announcement.

Be there for that. Also, Patreon, get yourself Patreon. Patreon.com slash crime in sports. That is where you get all the bonus material. Anybody $5 a month or above, you're going to get everything we put out. Hundreds of back bonus episodes immediately upon subscription. New ones every other week, one crime in sports, one small town murder, and you get them all. All of it?

This week, all of it, Jimmy. This week, which you're going to get for crime and sports, we're going to talk about the history of Super Bowl halftime shows. Oh, yeah. Which used to be like, you know, a 11-year-old girls gymnastic team with a high school marching band, and now it's the biggest shows in the world. And then for Small Town Murder, the Dean Coral saga,

John Wayne Gasey's idol. Yeah. I mean, he is a bad, bad man, and then he brought these teenagers in to help him, and the Wayne Henley thing is a man. We'll talk about all this. It's a lot and it's crazy. One of the craziest stories that's ever been told, honestly.

It's bonkers, all the different burials and the weird torture. It's a lot. Patreon.com slash crime in sports. And you get all the shows we put out. Crime and Sports, your stupid opinions and small town murder all add free with your Patreon. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. We keep giving everybody.

We're crazy. We're crazy over here. And you get a shout out at the end of the regular show. That said, I think it's time. everybody to sit back. What do you say here? Let's all clear the lungs and let's all shout. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody. Let's go on a trip, shall we? Yeah, we have to. We have to. We're going to Missouri this week. Here we go. Maryville, Missouri. Mary like the name. Will like a place. There it is. Maryville, Missouri, Northwestern Missouri. About

an hour and a half to Kansas City. Oh. About an hour 50 to Omaha, Nebraska, if you want to go someplace way worse. And then actually, no, Lincoln's the bad one, not Omaha. Omaha's fine. Well, I mean, it's terrible, too, but it's... It's very easy to not give a shit around there. Compared to Lincoln, it's Fantasy Island, though.

I mean, forget about it. And it's about 20 minutes to our last Missouri episode, which was in Skidmore. Remember that one? That was episode 625, murders and miracles. That is where the stolen baby was taken out of the woman. and then they ended up being just a wild story. So this is in Notaway County, which is the same county, Skidmore's in. Area Code 660, Population 11,070 in this place.

And almost, yeah, exactly. And on this thing, normally we try not to do the same county twice in a row, but this story is so, it's just so crazy. God damn it. You could not do it. I'm tickling my ass, James. I can't wait. Wait a way to get to your balls, Jimmy.

It's going to be awesome. Median household income here, $39,768, which is well below the national average. Jesus. About 30,000 less than the national average. Median home costs here also lower $201,500, which is still tough on $40,000 a year. Nickname here, I don't know why, but nickname Title Town. Yeah. I mean, Green Bay and Pittsburgh might want to talk to you, but we'll see.

I don't know if maybe they're... Or New York. or fucking anywhere. You know how. I'm sure their high school fucking volleyball team won the title in 64, and now they're still talking about it.

The name originates from the town's first postmaster Amos Graham. You go, well, how the hell does Maryville come from Amos Graham? His wife's name is Mary. It's usually the daughter they name it after.

Amos is a piece of shit. Mary was an angel. The thing is, Amos got caught dittling around Maryville, I think. He's like, I got to make this up to her, guys. Please.

Let me name the town, Maryville. Please, this is going to get me, like, out of this doghouse, quick. You don't understand. You're mad at me? Well, look at the sign they just put up. Babe, your face is on it, too. There we go. The city had a bunch of things here.

It was incorporated in 1856, then annulled in 1857. I didn't know you could have null a city. I guess they didn't consummate. Yeah. That's how it works. Reincorporated in 1859, then annulled again, during. the Civil War. What the fuck?

Then reincorporated in 1869. Then later in 1869 disincorporated again. And then finally, in July of 1869, finally incorporated for good. They could not decide. There was a very controversial case here when there was, I'm going to read right from like the Wikipedia of this just to give it a, because I don't know the details enough to know who's right and who's wrong here. A controversial case arose in two.

2012 when a boy, 17 at the time of the incident, was arrested for rape and sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl. And a 15-year-old boy was accused of doing the same thing to the 13-year-old girl's friend. And a third boy admitted to recording the first boy's alleged assault on a cell phone. Oh, what year was this? 2013. And it was a big contra, 2012, when it happened. 13 was the controversy because the county prosecutor dropped felony and misdemeanor charges against the first boy, who was related to an influential former state representative.

And it got into the real whole backwoods, good old boy network here type of thing is what everybody is saying about this. So I'm not sure. There was a 2016 Netflix documentary called Audrey and Daisy about it. Oh, Jesus. Because the young lady ended up killing herself in 2020. Oh, my God. Yeah, it's awful. It's awful.

What a terrible story. And then her mother killed herself four months later. Oh, Jesus Christ, James. It couldn't be any worse. Our story is not as sad as this, let's just say. It's sad, but nothing to do that stuff. I mean, that's a production of child porn. That's illegal on so many levels.

So many levels. So many levels. So fucked. Yeah. Reviews of this town. Here is five stars. Everyone is so welcoming and like a large family here. I would like to see more community gathering to give newcomers a chance to connect with other people in the town better.

A gathering for the newcomers. That sounds weird. Welcome wagon? The funny farm Founders Day picnic is what that's like. What happened in 2013? I don't think you're getting many visitors. I don't think so. Here's one star.

Absolutely terrible place to raise a family. The cops and government officials will ruin you and your family if you don't like, if they don't like you by planting evidence, falsifying documents, and purposely tearing families apart. Those are some hard allegations. There's nothing but drug lords, alcoholics, and thieves running the businesses and streets. Drug lords. Drug lords. Alcoholics and thieves.

All right. Pirates, whores, and thieves. Here's one star. I hate this place is the first one. That's pretty, I don't think. I think you can pretty much end it right there. That's good. One star.

I hate this place. All right. Done. Yeah. Allow me to elaborate. Allow me to expand. Allow me to expand. There are like 10 parks, three bars and a movie theater that's closing.

The only good entertainment are the weekly bar fights. This place is hell. Jesus Christ. And then finally, things to do here. Yeah. We got the Notaway County Fair. Oh. Oh, baby.

Let's see what's going to happen there. We got a first responders eating contest. Hey, let's keep them slim. How about that? How about let's not have the people that we need an emergency so fucking gut bombed that they can't get out there to give me CPR. How's that? They need to stand there and wait while the other people in the eating contest need medical assistance. That's that work.

James, they're so fast they beat the emergency. They get there before anybody's bleeding. What's slow them down to take. And it's also strange that they're hovering over someone trying to revive them while eating a pulled pork sandwich. That seems odd, I feel like. Yeah, the CPR got barbecue on that. What the hell? He's covered in blood. No, no, that's barbecue sauce.

I was eating while I was saving him. It's not blood. He's fine. No, that's the sweet baby raise, that's the honey barbecue. That's the good one. That's the good one. There's a little Mr. and Miss contest.

We got to stop this. A parade, a baby show. Hey, everyone, it's a baby show. Come out and look at the babies. See if you want one. A checkers tournament. That's exciting. That is your visual.

Oh, what, riveting. He just kinged him. Holy shit. I'm going to come in my pants. He just fucking double-jumped him. Checkers tournament. Stadium seating for that. Holy shit.

Standing room only. It sells out. The Cassidy Band will be there. I don't know. C-A-S-A-D-Y. I don't know. And the community band and Keith Leff. And let me show you Keith Leff quick.

Let's see Keith Leff. He's saying, she's a magician and his thing he's got a card coming out of his sleeve. So that means he's a magician. Great. Oh, good, a roving magician. That is terrible. That said, let's talk about a murder. What do you say?

Oh, God, I love this town already. It's wild. So laughable. Before we get into this murder, I have to explain to people just because it comes up in the story, this particular word. And people who don't live in a rural area or live overseas, I don't know if they know what this is. A combine. Now, in America, we kind of know what a combine is.

A big thing that goes in a farm and takes things. It cuts the corn. I will give you the definition of a combine, though. It combines three harvesting operations into one. Reaping, which is cutting the crop, threshing, separating the grain from the plant, and winnowing, which is cleaning the grain. So it's a thing with the- It cleanses it too. So you see those, like, big wheels that are, like, look like they're all knives.

It's got a fork in the front. They're so wild. It's such a fascinating tool. It's like a tank made of knives is what it looks like, essentially. And it's half a million dollars. Oh, they're huge. It's a crazy, crazy machine. Big piece of farm equipment.

Now, let's introduce ourselves to a man here. This is William E. Taylor. Goes by Bill. Old Bill Taylor. Sure. Good old Bill Taylor. We all know good old Bill. Born 1957, Charles is his father.

Betty is his mother. He's got brothers named Wayne and James. Wayne James and Bill. My God. This is a very big. Very American man. Those Taylor boys, you know about it. Now, he grows up on a farm here, as we'll talk about,

his dad's a farmer and has some land, and he's going to be a farmer too. He finds a nice young woman to marry and gets married on June 2nd, 1979. He gets married to Deborah Joe Wasson, W-A-S-S-O-N. Now, Deborah Joe, which is funny because our last Missouri episode, was Bobby Joe. Bobby Joe Stennett, and this is Debra Joe. So every woman,

that just tells me, every woman in Missouri goes by something Joe. Doesn't matter what it is. I got a question. Is it J.O.? J.O.? J.O., absolutely.

They're all, that's what the other one was, too. Bobby Joe. My mother is Kelly Joe. There you go. See what I mean? She's from Arkansas, right? Yeah, obviously.

Or from Missouri, I mean, clearly. She's born around this time. The late 50s, early 60s, that was a, that was the name. If you were like a, Hillbilly. If you're, yeah, farm community. Yeah, yeah.

Joe was, you're getting Joe. That's there's so many of those. Now, she is born in 1956, their same age, and her parents are Robert and Joanne. So maybe that's where the Joe came from. Okay, yeah. And she's got a brother named Steve, a sister named Sherry. She really loves animals and really loves, she's a very kind, like, kind of helping woman, as we'll talk about. She's a teacher.

She loves animals. You know the lady. Sure do. lady. She graduated in 74 from Valley High School in Des Moines, Iowa, where she's from. She's from Iowa. So she's farming through and through there. You betcha. She got a

degree in elementary education in 1978 from Northwest Missouri State University. Oh. And then received her master's degree as well. So she's ready to teach. We'll say that. Now they get married in Des Moines in June of 1979.

So a June wedding in Des Moines, it couldn't be more beautiful. You can smell of a corn doing whatever the corn does. There's some bugs in the air. I don't know what corn smells like. A little more love than bugs in the air. That's right. They're there.

Now, they're going to have two kids as well. They're going to have Lori in 1983 and then Doug in 1985. So they wait a few years to start. They're very responsible people. William is a Bill's a farmer. And he works his farm, which is just south of Maryville here. And it's a family operation. Big, a lot of land they both have.

and everything like that. His father, Charles, has property nearby less than a mile away. So essentially, they're making kind of a compound of their farms out of buying farms close to each other. And apparently they live very comfortably. They do very well for themselves. It's a big operation. Farmers do pretty well in some areas. You can make a good chunk of change.

And especially in the 70s and early 80s, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is when corporate farm shit is really coming in. And then Field of Dreams is the late 80s where they're going to take your farm unless you build a baseball field where dead guys play. You know what I mean? Unless you can have a supernatural baseball game outside every night, they're taking your farm, basically. That's how it worked. So they do very well.

They live in very nice comfort, you know, comfortable surroundings. They're, you know, this isn't a shack on a farm where they go out there with a hoe and try to make a couple of bucks. It's not equipment. Right. They do very well. They're a kid and a horse with a hoe. Exactly. With a donkey with a fucking plow attached to.

The leather strap plow. Yeah. The one that goes over the kid's shoulders. Like Mikey Corleone and Godfather too in Sicily over there. It's a donkey. Now she taught at a Catholic school, St. Gregory in Maryville. And that's where a lot of her family went to church as well. She taught junior high at the Catholic school.

And she also taught the GED program at the St.E.D. program at the. C-123 district as well. So she does a lot of teaching. She also is active in the Young Farm Wives Club, I guess, was a Girl Scout troop troop 323, co-leader of Troop 3-4-6, a member of the Service Unit 5 service team for Nadaway County, don't know what that is, and co-director of the Girl Scout Day Camp in the area as well. Nice.

So she does a lot for kids. kids. She's very into helping kids and she loves animals and small children. Nice lady. Perfect teacher lady. Yeah, that's what I went around my kids. Nurturing. Now, spring of 1994, Deborah starts having some problems. Uh-oh. She's not happy. She's starting to get depressed. She's about 38 years old and just kind of not happy with her life here. And she has anxiety and depression and she ends up taking a leave of absence from the school. and also goes to counseling for several weeks in the spring of 1990. Yeah, especially for the 90s, people wouldn't think to go to counseling.

So one of the other teachers at the school, a woman that she knows well named Charlotte, said that they were friends for a long time. She described Deborah Joe as high energy, well-organized, and very professional. She said she began the 93-94 school year with a good attitude. She was real upbeat. So she doesn't know how by the spring at all. happened. The wheels fell off. She said she was looking forward to school that year. She had lots of ideas, creative ideas. She thrived on things like that. She said that she became aware of a change in her outlook somewhere in the mid-semester, there in the first semester, but didn't know why or anything like that, just saw that she was acting. It's a little bit different. Now, the counselor she went to see was a guy named Ken Tham, and she went in March. He said that, in his quote from his report,

that she appeared, quote, sad, tearful, very anxious about school, where she was concerned because, quote, she can't meet everyone's expectations. Parents approached the school questioning her abilities as an instructor. Oh. You should have a podcast and see what that's like.

Go ahead and do that. Feedback is not easy. They'll point out every little thing about yourself that you might not have. wanted to recognize. Your audience is 34 at the moment. That's what I'm saying. Try having hundreds of thousands upon millions.

And they're kids. You can... You can tell them, shut the fuck up. Hey, shut up. What do you know? No, but this is, this shows that she actually gives a shit, though. Yeah. I mean, she's not just like, I screw you. She, everybody says she's such a great teacher, too. That's the thing.

Like, everyone on the outside's, like, she is like the best teacher we have. And she is so depressed because she can't. meet everyone's expectation. Meanwhile, she's exceeding them. Right. So this is crushing it and people are telling her. Yeah. Yeah. And she gets one parent who kid is probably an asshole and, you know, not getting good grades or something. And then they go to complain and say it's her fault and then she takes it personally. Who knows? That's the teacher's equivalent of reading the comments. You know what I mean? Exactly.

And she's just taking them and she can't take it. She hates it. Gotta put those aside. So he said he saw her for, you know, a few weeks. And he, He said also that she appeared to have some marital problems that included conflicts in the parenting of the two children and a lack of intimacy between the two. They've been married 15 years, two kids, the farm, the jobs, all that. This is a very normal complaint that, you know, people go to counseling for all the time, trying to get some spark back in their life. She wants to feel hot. Yeah, they got to get like, she needs like some nipple clamps in a porn movie or something. Maybe a light spanking.

You know what I mean? They need to get like some fire back in there. I don't know how you do. Yeah, who cares? At least one night, 69 for Christ's sake. Get Bill a Gimp mask. See how it goes. Who cares?

Let's trapping on. Slide a pinky in there. See if he doesn't squirm. Hey, you know what? He might fucking shoot it up to the ceiling. We have no idea. Worst he's going to do is smack your hand away. That's all.

That's all. He won't be offended. She, this guy, the counselor also said that Bill appeared very supportive of Debra Joe after she developed problems with anxiety and depression. He said, you know, he was there also and he was trying to help her out. So anyway,

she had been referred to this counselor by the school. The school said maybe you should see somebody if you feel like this. So while on leave, she's still working, actually, which is not as a teacher. She's working as a secretary for a Dr. Canty Haveldard.

Yeah. There you go. Some some foreign guy, some foreign doctor. Now, November 1994, we get to. And William believes by this point, he's telling people that he believes Deborah Joe wants a divorce. She's six months into a nervous breakdown.

Pretty much. It's not getting better, sure. Yeah, so we don't know if this is sure. We don't know if she did or not. But he says he feels like she does, even though it hasn't been brought up, I don't think. So, no words. It's just emotion.

But Bill is depressed, too, by November 94, which depression is catching, man. It really is. My God, is it contagious. It really is. So same way joy is contagious. Depression is contagious, too. Yeah, it is fascinating how when you are in a relationship with somebody that is depressed, you either get frustrated or depressed along with them.

Yeah, yeah. But either way, it affects you and it agitates your mood also. You can't not. It's just we're humans. Everything, our environments affect us. It's all there's to it. I mean, whether it's, you know, sarin gas floating in the air or someone's sadness. It's still, it's it's all around.

And we don't know if he was depressed first and then she got it from him or, you know, help not get it from him like it's a disease like that. I'm just saying. She slept in the same bed. If they're both a little depressed and one person slips further into it that takes the other person too. So anyway, his brother here, James, this is Bill's brother, said that he came and visited for. a while here in November and for about 10 days or late October and then he went back to Colorado. But then he returned on November 11th later on. We'll talk about why.

But he said his brother was difficult to understand because of halting speech and quote, intermittent weeping and wailing. Well, that's depression. That is depression. Yeah. He's got it. From a farm guy too. You don't normally.

They're pretty stoic generally. Not a lot of tears out of those guys. You don't want to spook the cows, you know what I'm saying? So they're generally, they're pretty stoic cats. They'll lose a finger in barbed wire and not a single tear. No, and I'll just wrap it up with some burlap and finish up the chores. So this is interesting. He said that Bill told him, I want someone to know what happened before I die.

Promise me you'll take care of Doug and Lori. Oh, my God. So he's like, I don't know, what's up with that? So it's a little bit weird. Now, November 10th, 1994, it's about 5 p.m. So almost supper time on the old farm. About to hear that dinner bell. About to ring that triangle.

So this is when a 911 call comes in or a call to the sheriff's department or something comes in, whatever their emergency service is. However it's done. It's from 12-year-old Lori. Oh. She's calling. She's apparently her brother came home from school that day And they were in the house And their father, Bill came in and said

Help call for help right now Call an ambulance for your mother Oh Now he's bleeding too He's all fucked up too So they're like what's going on here He's a call an ambulance for your mother And so I guess

They called His parents Charles and Betty Because they lived right down the street Is who Lori called And I don't know if Lori called 911 after that or of Charles and Betty called 911, but someone ended up calling 911. Now, help arrives, and

William is hurt. He's saying that both he and Deborah were run over by the combine. Oh, my God, it became sentient. By the, well, it's like the Christine combine. It's very scary. It's a Stephen King Combine. That's crazy. How do you do that?

His particular combine is a John Deere model 6620, a 21,000 pound combine. God, do. It's 21,000 pounds of engine and knives. That's what it's coming at you. It's a nightmare machine. Ten and a half tons of a vehicle. If you put a cannon on top, you could take that thing in a battle. It's fucking crazy. Some of those two have remote control, so you don't even have to be in it. Well, this one doesn't quite have a remote, but a remote was used. That's going to be confusing except for a minute here now okay okay this is crazy so where the hell is debor yeah they find

deborah outside they say her crushed body was found on that farm her right arm extended toward a dead black cat oh now the cat is not a victim of the combine the cat has no broken skin but it's just dead yeah she is dead reaching for a cat it looks like and has been run over horribly by a combine. My God. I mean, she is dead on the spot. Declared dead at the scene. I mean, there was no help in her.

There's nothing to do, yeah. And Bill was injured by the combine as well, and he's rushed to St. Joseph's Heartland East Hospital where he's going to be hospitalized with all sorts of wounds. So, this looks like a horrible, tragic accident. Any farmer's like, oh, Jesus, God, thank God, that's not me. You're on over by a combine. Horrifying. So, and there's an article in the paper, Combine Crush's Woman.

Yeah. She was killed Thursday after being crushed by a combine at her home. Deborah Joe Taylor was crushed when her husband, William, backed a combine out of the shed, according to a report from the sheriff's department. The report said William was injured when he realized it and got out and tried to attempt to save her. He was injured as well. So that's the story here. She was pronounced dead at the scene. He was taken to the hospital. and he was taken to one hospital first, then transferred to another hospital. It's a more serious one. Where he was listed in guarded condition. Whoa.

So that's not good. No. The problem is there's some suspicions. What's that? This story doesn't all fit together right. That's a crazy story. You don't drive a knife van. A knife tank.

You don't mean? A crop knife tank without looking at the mirrors. You got to look in the rear view if you're back in. Then again, it's not a real fast-moving vehicle and it's gigantic and loud. So you would know to get the fuck out of the way if that thing's coming at. You don't exactly need one of those beat, beat, beat, beep backup buttons. Get out of the way. Knife back coming.

It's not a 70 challenger. It doesn't. You don't got to feather the clutch. Not at all. Exactly. It's not a 68 Nova. It's not. Trying to make sure you don't spin the tires.

Jesus Christ. So one of the sheriffs here, this is the Nottoway County Shire. Sheriff Ben Espy. He said that, now he said the call came from Doug, the son. But it's Lori, so I don't know. That's weird. But he said some things didn't fit. There was evidence on the scene.

Things happened in a certain order. The items and evidence were there. That's some cryptic shit, he's saying, right? Sure enough. So William is in the hospital. And his brother Wayne comes to chat with him. We're having some talks here. Now Wayne's coming out.

James was just here. He was just here. Now we're getting Wayne. in here and he says, I got to talk to you, Wayne, I got to tell you something. What's that? He said, at the scene, there was Deborah Joe, and there was the black cat that she was reaching for, and he said that here's what happened. I killed that black cat.

He said, I killed it with a hammer. He smacked the cat. And then I put it under the combine, and I called for Deborah to come get the cat out from under the combine and save it. You, diabolical, son of a bitch. That is using her love of that. Come save the cat.

It's under the combine. I don't want to kill it. Oh my God. And it was already dead. He said he told, this is another thing he told Wayne. Yeah, come get the dead cat. Yeah.

He told Wayne that he used a string to pull the hydrostat lever back starting the combine in a rearward, rearward motion. Wow. He tied a fucking long piece of twine to it so he could do it from back there to crush her. What the fuck? That's what he tells his brother.

He said he threw the cat under the combine to lure his wife underneath. And he got this twine out. And then yanked a rope. He got this twine out and did this. He told his brother everything. Oh my word. His brother, who clearly isn't Italian, goes right to the sheriff's department. This information.

That's just wild. He goes, the man killed a cat, y'all. Yeah, this is crazy. I mean, I'm not a big fan of Debra Joe, but he killed a cat, y'all. Now, I feel horrible for these kids at this point. You've got a 12-year-old and a 10-year-old. Unbelievable. And your dad's operating the combine with ropes to kill mom.

And the cat. And your cat. And smacking cats in the heads with a hammer. That's crazy. I feel terrible for these kids. That's just every step was on purpose. That's so bad. Yeah.

It's awful. So the sheriff shows up to talk to Bill about this. Yeah. And they go, Bill. Yeah. Hey, Wayne just came on. We heard some things. He told us some crazy shit.

And Bill went, yep, I killed her. Oh, that was a good interrogation. Now, Bill, I heard a couple of things. Well, you're right. I did it? Okay. Hey, Bill, did you tell your brother something? He told us.

He did. Damn him. Yeah, I did it. He's right. He said he'd been depressed. Uh-huh. So, you know, you make a diabolical plan to kill your wife with a combine. What the fuck?

We've never had a combine as a murder weapon ever. No. It's crazy. I guess, I mean, I imagine, I don't know for sure. I imagine you're hit with a combine. It's quick, man. It's got to be like a wood chipper, right? That's what it is.

It's a wood chipper with four wheels. This kind of gets worse, though. Oh, no. I don't think it would be quick. But anyway. No! Yeah, he said, this is his quote, that he tells the sheriff quote, I decided maybe she was, I was just so upset.

I never anticipated it before. I had no idea. I found out from some rumors that before maybe she was running around on me, off and on for the last couple years, but I wanted to put it out of my mind and not believe it. And they said, So I backed over with a John Deere? Fucking 21,000 pound combine.

Wow. Because I thought maybe she was running around on me a couple years ago on and off, maybe. Heard tell of it. I came home and she was blowing a guy on the couch. That would be something. It's still not, don't do this, but at least you'd go, well, yeah, maybe he snapped or something. But this is. Imagine it is way worse than seeing it.

Yeah, but you still have to know it's true before he start making murder plans. What the fuck is wrong with you? If you imagine it, you think she's enjoying it more than, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. But if you actually see it and you go, oh, he's not even fucking her good. Yeah. That would be, it'd be so much easier to be like, oh, gross.

They fuck terribly. This is a mess. But in your head, you see her really loving it. And that'll drive you crazy. Fucking crazy. So he said, I took a hammer and I killed the cat. Oh, my God. Now the coroner, this is crazy too.

The coroner is going to examine the cat. The human coroner is going to have a... Okay. Yeah, that's fun as well. What's the liver way, Doc? We'll find out. But the cat's skin was unbroken, had no lacerations or wounds consistent with farm machinery. So he wasn't there.

So it didn't get run over. Killed by a hammer blow to the head. That's it. They found bruising on its neck evidence of blunt force trauma from a rounded object. Being held. Yep. Being held. So, which pisses me off, obviously.

That's fucked up. And that's a terrible way to kill a cat, too. It's awful. It didn't, that's not over in a sack, right? I have no idea. You imagine it rides. I've never taken a cat to a hammer to a cat before. I have no idea how long it would take a cat to die.

I imagine anything you hit in the head, it has death convulsion. I would think so. I don't want to see that. That's fucked up. So he said he knew his wife loved animals and he knew if she believed the cat was trapped under the combine, she would try to rescue it. So he just threw the dead cats. body under the combine.

And that's that. He said, when Deborah, he said, hey, Deborah, Joe, come help me. She did exactly what he knew. She tried to save the cat, crawled under the combine to retrieve this animal, and that was that. So he said, quote, this is the quote to the sheriff. He said that he ran over both of them and continued in a circle until it,

the combine ran over both of them, meaning him too. That's how he got injured too. He couldn't get out of the way of it. Yeah. And continued in a circle until it backed into the shed. That's, this thing has a mind of its own. It's sentient. Then William Taylor moved the combine back to a location near Deborah and put the string in a hog lot next to the lane.

So took that twine he used and went and threw it in a hog lot over next to him there. Over, over yonder, apparently. So, yeah, that's what he said. He said the, grab that hydrostat. push it forward and the combine moves forward pull it back it moves backward all he had to do was yank it back yank it cord that's this is crazy that's what he said so much yeah he said um he rolled over his wife he told investigators that he panicked when he saw his wife crawl under the combine he said he didn't attempt to pull the lever to stop the machine he instead tried to grab his wife

before being run over himself oh that's his story but we're going to find out that's not exactly the truth either really he regrets it As if this isn't bad enough. Yeah, you're in so much trouble. Just be honest. It's worse than that. Oh, what? It's fucking worse than that.

How? You'd wonder, right? So, the authorities believe that Bill had discussed also, because he brought this up somehow with the sheriffs or with his brother, that he also had talked about possibly killing the two children as well. Get the fuck out. Yes. He talked about killing.

Lori and Doug as well as his wife. After this. And the cat. Clean sweep. Yeah. No, and one big thing. Let's kill them all. He's going to run them all over with the combine? Not sure. Burn the house down. I'd have no idea. But that's what the hell man. Talking about. That

is, that's wild here. Now, the kids, where the hell are they? Obviously. Well, they are with Robert and Joanne, the mom and dad of Debbie here. They're in Iowa, holding on to the kids at the moment.

So after that, the cops go back and search the Taylor Farm. They take pictures. They take measurements, including measurements of the combine, where it was, where she was, how it would have backed. It's, you know, trajectory of turning and radius and all that shit. They found the piece of twine near where Deborah's body had been lying the previous evening, they said. The coroner wrote that authorities had recovered a,

from a hog lot, a 10-foot, seven-inch-long piece of synthetic twine, which was placed into evidence. They also found would appear to be the source of the twine, which was a spool in a garage, a few hundred feet from where the body was found. They seized the cat's corpse. Yeah? They had no idea to even look for a dead cat the day before, or to take, they wouldn't think, take a dead cat. It's a farm. Maybe a cat die. Who knows?

So now they go back and they know they need to take this cat because they had done it. and they found, like we said, consistent with a hammer blow, inconsistent with combine machinery. Then the coroner disposed of the cat's corpse. Didn't keep it in evidence or anything. Oh? Because it's a, where the hell does the coroner keep a dead cat? Yeah, where are you going to put that?

Yeah. Stick that in the freezer this whole time? That's what I mean. It's so weird. I mean, nowadays, I guess you'd keep it, freeze it. I don't know. Yeah, you got to have it in a freezer somewhere, but that's, the corner's got to now have a fucking,

freezer for animals? This is over 30 years ago in rural Missouri. So, I mean, you're going to tell some coroner here, hang on to that cat. There might be forensic things. I threw that out the minute I was done with it. Are you kidding? So that's a hammer blow and threw, yeah, Jesus. So the cat was evidence, but, you know, so what? So, I mean, like I said, I'm not saying it's good to throw the cat out.

I'm just saying what were they going to do with it at that point. Now, the human coroner examines Deborah Joe. here and okay they find in addition to her combine wounds her obvious combine wounds they find some wounds that are not consistent with the combine what is that they find lacerations to her forehead caused by blunt force what they they find bruising to her left eye caused by blunt force uh oh they find contusions on her chest and fractured ribs on her left side and a crushed pelvis she got her ass kicked. Yes, that's the thing. Now, the crushed pelvis and the fractured ribs, they think that's combine. But the facial injuries were not consistent with her being run over

by a combine whatsoever. They said her injuries, at least some of them, are 100% not combine injuries. They said that a blow to her face was inflicted by something other than the combined. And Combine, he said that's what caused her death was her blow to the face, not the combine. That hard of a blow. That it broke her. Yeah, it broke her. Yeah, it broke her skull. Brain trauma, that kind of shit.

Yes. And then the Combine wounds were just, you know, there also. Probably not superficial, but certainly injuries. Say that. Superfluous. Yeah, that's the word. So a couple days. Extra.

Not needed, but there anyway. Fine. There you go. I'm going to join up with vocabulary quarter. Vocabulary quarter with James and Jimmy. It's fun stuff. Now, November 18th, so this is less than a week after this happened. Yeah.

He's let out on bond, Bill is. What? Yes. A $100,000 bond is posted for her. Remember, they're not wealthy, but pretty well off. farmers so they can they have money for bonds and lawyers and things like that this town really gives a shit about it to people huh it's a lot yeah it's that's crazy so anyway the police guard and his hotel or is a hotel his hospital room is removed because

of the bond yeah so he's free to be in the hospital uh the bond was secured by property um now part of this is that he's not allowed to go near the kids if they come back to the county to visit relatives he has to like get away from anywhere that they might be. So June 1995 here. I believe this is the same time the OJ trial is going on, by the way. Six months later, yeah. Otherwise, I feel like Combine murderer would have been a bigger story.

That's huge, right? If it wasn't there. So there is a motion to suppress. This is pre-trial. Williams' defense attorneys file a motion to suppress some evidence. They're talking about the twine, number one, all of this shit. They're saying that the search that they did the day after the death where they found they came and got the cat and they made measurements and got the twine. That should all be thrown out.

Okay. This is based on, this is their argument. The state shall not be permitted to enter into evidence or refer to during the trial any matters seized by the state during a warrantless searches of November 11th and 12th. None of the photos or diagrams may be used. No simulation or testing conducted during these searches. may be referred to at the trial, the cat autopsy and evidence related there too will be permitted. That's it. The cat autopsy only will be permitted.

But the twine that they found, which is a big deal because that's how he was using it as a remote control. That can't be used. So they grant their motion and suppress all this shit. So they're like, damn it, that's kind of shitty. They said these searches were conducted without a warrant. Why would you not get a goddamn warrant? What is going on? I mean, I get that we're in the middle of nowhere in Missouri, but a warrant here, so we just looked.

Yeah. Well, that'd be, if it was all then, that'd be fine. But the problem is, they came back the next day. Because at first it just looked like a horrible accident. They took it to face value. Save everybody, take this one in the hospital. Then when he confessed to murder. Wayne says this, and they're like, well, now we got a search.

And then they went to him and he said, yeah, this is what I did. went, cool, let's go back there and find everything. But they didn't get a written consent to search. All they had to do is say, can you sign this? And then we have consent. But you still get, even if they sign for consent, you still get a warrant in a murder case. In a case of murder evidence, you do. They do it all the time.

So they said, just in case, let's get, just so they don't say we coerced them into signing it. Just so a judge can throw all this shit out. This is important shit. Yeah. So, yeah, law enforcement, quote, didn't think they need. one. I didn't know I had to do that. What's that now?

That's like a football coach going, oh, I didn't know we needed plays. I didn't realize that. Oh, shit. Oh, wow. We are really. Oh, boy. Guys, improv it up out there, really. I didn't know.

Yes, and like a motherfucker. I don't know. What the fuck. That is wild. So July 1995, now they get a, now they get a search warrant to return to the farm. Okay. In July. In July.

A year later. Great. A year and a half, I know it's a year. A year, yeah. A little less than a year. So they get, this is to do measurements. They can't have the twine. That's already gone.

They already blew that. But they can do measurements on the combine to see how it turns. How far? Yeah. How long this is so they can, you know, make diagrams for court and shit like that. So they go to do this. They open up the shed. The combine's not there.

Where did it go? It's fucking gone. Where's the combine? Is that how he got Bond? They ended up finding it in a shed on a property belonging to his father. He had his dad take the combine away. It was put away, yeah, which is less than a mile away. But they locate the shed where they think they weren't going to search every shed everybody had for it.

You can't hide a 21,000 pound combine. What did you do with it? Yeah. How many of your family members have big sheds? We're looking at all of them. So anyway, they went to Charles Taylor's home, gave him a copy of the warrant, said, can you please unlock that shed? Thank you.

Sure thing, they opened it up. Oh, look at John Deere. There we go. There's the John Deere. So they move it to a nearby John Deere facility to measure it and photograph it and videotape all of that shit and everything. The evidence, the measurements, photographs, and videotape, this is all going to be crucial at trial because the measurements help establish that Deborah's facial injuries could not have been caused by the Combine. Uh-huh.

That helps prove that. At this point, they assign a special prosecutor. I think so much has been fucked up so far that they're like, okay, we got to get somebody half decent in here. We're getting a special prosecutor. So they do. This is with the attorney general's office they come in of the state. And they decide that this isn't a second-degree murder. This is a first-degree murder.

Absolutely. To do this. It's diabolical. The cat in the string, that's playing. And the cat in the string isn't even true, as we'll find out. What? Oh, it's crazy. The attorney general said that they've changed it from second to first degree murder.

In review of the facts, we believe there was some deliberation on his part. No shit. We believe that the evidence will show such deliberation. Now, at the same time, in civil court, there's actions going on as well. Okay. The children, his children have, I'm sure someone helped them with this. I don't think they went to an attorney themselves. 12 and 10.

Listen, we got to file some paperwork. Yeah, we're representing ourselves. Yep. They're seeking unspecified damages in a wrongful death accusation against their father. And an insurance company has named the children and their father in another action seeking to nullify coverage in a policy the family held. Trying to fuck these kids out of money now. Wow. The company asked the court for a declaratory judgment of non-coverage on the policy.

And those civil actions were pending here when this case goes to trial. Wow. It's a seven-woman five-man jury. So ugly, James. It's ugly. So the defense mounts, here's their deal here. Here's their multi-faceted attack here. They said the judge who issued the warrant had previously disqualified himself from the case.

So there was that. They said, so the warrant that they got for July shouldn't count. Oh, well. The judge found that didn't matter. The cops went through the proper procedures and everything is fine. And he is a judge, so it's legal. Just because he's not on that case. And they also said the evidence would have been discovered anyway through other legal means.

It's inevitable discovery. Eventually, they would have legally been able to measure a combine. You know what I mean? So they also said the affidavit supporting the search warrant wasn't right. They argued that the warrant relied on information obtained during the illegal November searches. So that shouldn't count either. The court said, no. he confessed to using twine to cause the combine to roll over his wife, that confession would have

led investigators to the combine no matter what they found while doing warrantless searches. Another inevitable discovery. They also said William Taylor had no standing to challenge the search because the combine was on his father's property, not his. And the prosecution argued that Taylor couldn't claim Fourth Amendment protection for a search conducted on someone else's property. So you don't have standing to do that. Right. You, you volunteered to have that be away from your property. That's the thing. Someone took that. And the evidence should have been obtained through discovery rules, not a search warrant. And they said, eh, tomato tomato. All right. You know what I'm saying? What are we talking about here? This is 21,000. You know, what are we talking about?

The court said, get the fuck out of here, essentially. All right. He can't claim. he's he's like shocked that the prosecution wants to check out the combine because that's essentially what he's trying to do it I mean you told him that that's what killed her man they want to look at it so the combine evidence is allowed in the measurements and videotape are admitted at trial and there's that now there is evidence that is not allowed there's an agreement between the prosecution and defense to exclude certain topics from the proceedings like this is stipulated between both of them at the start of the trial both sides agreed they will not mention Deborah Taylor's relationship with her mother for some reason. We don't know why that is. I mean, we could speculate until the cows come back to this farm and that cat comes back to life. But who knows. The obvious one is that there was conversations had, right?

Yeah, I don't know if a bad relationship, a good relationship. We are not going to, who knows. And number two, just quote, an abortion. Oh. So we don't know who had the abortion. Scandalous. Yeah. Her mother and an abortion.

This is good, I've never wanted to know more information that. is suppressed and not allowed in this trial. I need all. That's the only story I want now. That's it, right? Totally. So there was topics, these are topics related to Deborah's psychological treatment. And her psychologist had apparently had information about these issues from their therapy

sessions. And they're going to allow the psychologist in his notes, but not those two things. Can't talk about those two things. No lawyers can bring it up. And if it is brought up, it has to be shut down. Got it. So during cross-examination, later on, the defense started asking about Deborah Joe's relationships with, quote, other family members.

And the prosecution said, didn't we agree to this? Right. What are we doing? What the hell, man? And the judge said the court interprets the same stipulation applies not only while with not only the case in chief, but the rebuttal or surrebuttal or whatever. So can't do it, essentially. The trial judge does not allow the evidence, obviously. from the search warrants that never happened,

the twine and all that. The prosecution's case is presented thusly. They have evidence supporting a theory that Deborah have struggled with her husband before her death. So they're saying from her facial wounds, he didn't, killing the cat, putting it under there,

lowering her would have been bad enough. The fight and then placed and then run over? He tried to lower her with the cat. He killed the cat. tried to lure her, they're saying, she didn't buy it. So he beat the shit out of her and threw her under the combine. And then rolled over.

That's way worse. When I said it's worse and you go, how the fuck is it worse? This is worse, right? The order is so fucked. It's fucked. Well, that's so bad. I'll just beat her senseless and throw her under that.

I merked a cat and that wasn't enough. Yeah. Dude, it's fucking crazy. So there's that. The prosecution says the combine's dimensions were inconsistent with causing the facial injuries sustained. It's basically mathematically impossible for the combine to have caused the facial injuries. And they said, if Deborah was conscious when she crawled under the combine, she would have tried to escape when the combine started moving. So even if she did crawl under and then escape it, that's probably when the physical confrontation happened.

So either she wouldn't go under there or she did and then said, hey, you're trying to run me over. Either way, he had to beat her and throw her under there. Beat her to death, essentially, and throw her under there. Right. So the injury that killed her was the beating. It was post-like, it's a, he didn't know that she wasn't dead, or that she was already dead, but that's a post-mortem run over with a combine? With a combine, essentially.

God damn. They said the plan went awry and they said, quote, that Debbie Joe Taylor, was not run over while going for the cat. He said there was a struggle before Debbie Taylor was killed. And obviously the medical examiner talks about the, she had a black eye, laceration, and other injuries to her face, apparently unrelated to being run over. Now the defense tries to undermine this

by presenting medical testimony that rebuts the struggle thing of the fight. Yeah. But it doesn't matter because the pathologist and the measurements both say, whatever happened to her face wasn't caused by the combine. So unless Doug and Lori jumped her in the house and then she came outside, which we highly doubt, then, you know, whatever. So the defense doesn't challenge the scenario at all because he admitted to it. And it's, I mean, he's got long report of his confession. That's not good.

They instead try to establish a case for mental disease or defect by focusing on what they call his delusions. They say he's got delusions. Oh, what are these? They said, but the injuries to her face, the state contends were a result of the struggle, and they say, well, who knows? If these delusions aren't this was going to cure her depression, then I don't give a fuck because it's murder either way. It's fucking murder. So the defense opening, they have a forensic psychiatrist that they're going to talk to a whole bunch. And they said that basically in the opening that the psychologist will back this up,

that Bill progressively lost his grip on reality over the 1994 to the point of mistakenly coming to believe that his wife was involved with other men and planned to divorce him. He said that wasn't even the case, they're saying, but he believed it because he was delusional. The defense lawyer said, in his mind, he saw things that were not true

and things that were just not there. And once he had those beliefs, he, and this is the legal language that you've got to have, he could not conform his conduct to the law. He was, in a word, insane. Yeah. That's right. You could not conform his...

Wow, that's a... That's right to the letter of the law there. I get it. Yep. Now, the prosecution's first witnesses... Yeah? Who do you think they are? They're the kids, man.

No. These poor kids, dude. That's so fucked up. It's... I always feel bad for kids in this situation, but imagine your mom is dead and you have to go into... Imagine being 12, 13, 11, 11. and 13 and having to go into a courtroom, which would be terrifying at that age, go up on the witness stand with all these grown-up staring at you and then tell horrible things. I can't imagine.

The stereotypical black robe guy sitting right there. Holy shit. Elevated above you. Yeah. All things terrifying. They're talking, can you speak into the microphone better? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm not used to this.

I'm 11. With my high voice. This isn't even me. I'm going to be a completely different person in three years. God. So they described Lori as a slender blonde in a simple striped dress, took the stand with a multicolored cast or splint on her right leg. She's hurt herself now, too. Some doing normal kid shit, hopefully not run over by a combine. She told the jury that her and her brother had come home from school.

They were in the house. Her father asked for help. She called the ambulance. She called his parents. That's that. Wow. So, yeah, that's, could you imagine? No.

I'm going to do that. So they were there at the house. They were there at the house. In their bedrooms doing homework or whatever the fuck. In the kitchen, watching TV, doing whatever. Doing after school shit. Watching Ricky Lake. I have no idea.

Yeah. Richard Bay, baby? I don't know. I don't know. So they're not supposed to watch that, I'm sure. You're not supposed to. That was the best fucking. That was crazy.

I love that one. It was insane. Everything was like the most horrible parts of society. Oh, it was everything. Yeah, it was the trashy underbelly. Yeah, with a sound effects guy in the booth making fun of them. Yeah, yeah, it was like morning radio, but with white trash. So then Doug takes the stand.

He's not even 11 yet, I don't think, here. Oh, Jesus. He takes the stand, and I can't imagine how scary. Wow, Doug hats off for the bravery on that. Lori, too. I'm just at Doug's younger. Tough kids. So he tells, he's the star witness.

He has to go in there, and he's the kid who's going to bury his. father and he has to and it's i feel so bad for him he said that his father had given him a pocket knife to remove some string from the combine but he couldn't find the string he told he involved his 10 year old son to try to cover up his fucking murder plot this piece of shit oh james i don't know that that's what he was doing what the string was it running that i get no he was supposed to go in the combine to cut the string off of the off of the fucking thing. So it wouldn't be there because he was hurt.

Yeah, because he was hurt in there. I thought you're talking about like inside the. Hey, there's a cat out here. Come look at it. No, he wasn't doing that. Underneath the combine, in the cutters, there's some twine. Get in there with my knife and cut it out. I won't start it, I promise.

It gets worse. He returned to the house because his father was in the house the whole time. Yeah. He returned to the house and he said his father sent him back out. to place a dead cat near the arms of his mother. What? He sent the 10-year-old out to put the cat closer to this poor child's dead mother. He had to go.

You saw your mom out there, put this cat by her. See, make it look like she's reaching for the cat, essentially. That's now where we put all the dead things. Dude, you know what I mean? This poor kid on every level. Why did he do that? So both kids were asked separately if their father had ever hurt them, or they had seen him hurt their mother.

He also asked if their family life had been a happy one. Both said the family had been good and that Bill had never hurt them and that they'd never seen him hurt their mother. This is an aberration. When he finished... They're doing that to frame the part where he doesn't know right from wrong.

Well, if you're putting a dead cat out there next door, why'd you do that if you don't know that this is wrong? That's what I mean. So put it closer to your mom, but this dead cat closer out there. So Doug, when he's done testifying, broke into tears. and was led out of the courtroom by a relative.

This is horrifying. Now, the defense witnesses, I don't know how good these are for him, but his brother James, who said that, you know, he was crying, talking about his wife having an affair and all that. They're trying to show that his mental state wasn't good.

He's saying he had like halting speech and was weeping and all this type of shit. Whaling, James? Whaling. Then they bring in the shrink, Dr. Logan. This is forensic psychiatrist, William Logan. And he said that William was doing, a quote, on again, off again, dance with sanity in the hours before the slaying of his wife.

He was sort of saying, sort of not. Yeah. He said he's suffering from a delusionary disorder and severe depression. He said he was depressed over the contents of his delusions. So his delusions made him depressed. Right. They said his wife, they thought his wife was cheating on him, planning to take the two children away, get a divorce. In cross-examination, though, they challenged the diagnosis of delusionary disorder.

by questioning the psychiatrist's assumptions that his client's deceased wife and indeed been happy with her husband. So the state suggestion was saying maybe it wasn't delusional. Maybe she wasn't happy and he was just pissed off about it, which is not, you're not crazy. You're just sad because your wife's leaving you

because you're an asshole. Right. And part of the 90s is to not admit that you've got fucking broken heart. Oh, no. Yeah. You got to take that. A sanity waltz or a sanity foxtrot. I don't know if it's upbeat or not. But one way or another, you're too. It's upbeat. It's a tango, actually.

It's romantic. It's sexy. But the point is, like, you can't admit that you, so you kind of go back and forth between this is my life and this is my sad reality. And then this is my life and this is my sad reality. That's right. They said also maybe he wasn't being delusional after all and was concerned about the financial impact of alimony and child support payments. Maybe it was that simple. Oh, now he's speculating shit.

God damn it. So the assistant attorney general produced a workbook of Debras that contained references to divorce or separation and child support. And they said, is this the thing you would like to have seen before you got on the stand? They asked the doctor, would you have liked to see that? And he said, I would like to have seen the whole notebook. Later, under a second direct examination, because they redirect and recross and do all this a few times. Because he's the main cog here. If the jury believes him, they said that the material in the notebook would not have affected his diagnosis.

Now, in his notes, they talk about interviews with Bill that this doctor had where he had been considering killing his wife with the combine since the day before her death, which is premeditation. Yeah. The testimony also revealed that earlier in the day of her death, he had considered deliberately wrecking the family car during a trip to St. Joseph and killing everybody. Just yanking it into a bridge. That's it. He considered it after noticing his wife had dozed off and wasn't wearing a seatbelt. he was wearing a seatbelt. So he said, I could shoot her right through the windshield right now if I wanted to. Which we've actually had a case like that.

Yeah. Exactly like that. But we've never had a combine. God damn it. Just talk, you guys. Have conversations with people and this shit goes away. Yeah, Jesus Christ. So they talk about that.

They said to the visible irritation of the doctor, the prosecutor at one point referred to the defense's theory of Bill Taylor's fluctuating sanity as the quote, light switch theory of delusion. As he was reading a definition of delusionary disorder from an industry text, the prosecutor took the view that the term variable in the text meant varying in nature for one person to another. And he shared that note with Dr. Logan. Dr. Logan shouted, no, it fluctuates. It also fluctuates within the individual.

So now they're arguing over the meaning of this word in this sentence. It depends on what the definition of is is. is what we're doing now on the stand. So they said the doctor and the prosecutor, the doctor said the prosecutor oversimplified the definition of the disorder and its nature by reading only a small portion of the defining text. They said that he would, the prosecutor said, well, I'll defer to the jury's interpretation of what it meant.

They can decide which one of us is right, because that's how it is. Them and their PhD. Them and their fucking MDs. He's a psychiatrist. So it was during a critical series of insane moments, moments on the day of the slaying, the doctor testified that he rigged the combine so he could activate it by remote string and do all that shit. He also said in another point that his mental disorder was fluctuating back and forth within seconds while he was in the process of slaying

his wife. Within seconds. He said during a rational moment, he tried to save his wife from the combine's wheels, but injured himself in the process. In response to one of the questions, Dr. Logan told the jury his client had improved in and he's good now. Oh, is that right? You could let him walk right out the door and he'll be cool. He goes, he's no longer a threat to society. I'm an amazing therapist.

I am so good at this. Several shrinks for the state completely disagree with all of this shit. They say, hell no. He may have been depressed and he may have had an adjustment disorder, but that's not, I don't know the difference between right and wrong. Killing my wife is fine by the law delusional. That's crazy. one guy here, Dr. Daniel Birmingham, he said, I believe he was genuinely distressed.

He said, I don't believe divorce or separation justifies homicide, though. Right. There you go. He said also, no one will ever know for sure whether she was about to leave her husband, but his account of her behavior was consistent with that possibility. He was not seeing things that were not there. Right. There's a valley between distressed and disturbed.

Yeah. If you're just sad because your wife's leaving you can't. You can't kill her. You're not crazy. You can't shoot her through the passenger window. If she was like, oh, our relationship's never been better and he's like, she's going to divorce me. I have to kill her. That may be you're delusional. They also bar a newspaper for

taking photographs. There was like no photographs of this fucking man or anything about this because they had ordered no photographs be taken and barred a newspaper who took a photograph so that no one else got any. I have one grainy newspaper picture of him being led into court in handcuffs. That's it.

The verdict comes in. There's a separate instruction for the jury when it receives the case will deal with the defense's effort to prove the mental illness. Basically, you can find first-degree murder. You can find second-degree murder under diminished mental capacity or you can find just

crazy. They find him guilty of first-degree murder. First. Of course. First-degree murder. He was taken into custody. The judge told him, I'm sorry, but that's the way things are. Because he said, I want to continue my bond and they're like, nope, you're going. Mrs. Deborah Joe's mom said,

Justice was served, the children will suffer all their lives, but we'll take care of them. Poor kids, man. I mean, they're in their 30s now. Pre-sentencing comes around and they're talking about trying to figure out, they basically, they said the defendant

was prejudiced by the court's admission of evidence, especially the videotape. So before sentencing, they're trying to get shit thrown out or basically trying to say we should have an acquittal, a judge acquittal, a bench acquittal because of this evidence that shouldn't have been allowed in. In sentencing, Bill speaks. Oh. He says the results of the trial were not understandable to me.

I've tried to be a decent person. To this day, I don't know why and how this happened. He said, my wife's death was a terrible tragedy that shouldn't have happened. And the judge actually said, I think everyone in the courtroom would agree with that. Bill, what are you doing? Then he condemned the media for, quote, distorted coverage of him. Uh-huh. And said he would appeal this conviction.

He said that, they said, have your attorneys represented him well? And he said, not really. He said, I wanted them to enter Christmas gifts that I bought for Deborah before her death to show how much we loved each other. Oh. The judge said, well, that wouldn't have mattered. You, sir, may fuck off life without parole. Wow. Eat dicks, Bill.

Yeah, I've gotten them forever. Also, there's a land transfer under scrutiny here. There was, I guess, an attorney saying that's recently come to our attention that Bill Taylor has seen fit to attempt to transfer all of his real estate, which he holds record title. So he's trying to transfer it. Yeah. So they don't take it. To Charles and Betty, his parents there. Yeah.

So he appeals on the things the Combine should have been suppressed, the coroner's testimony about the cat. limited cross-examination of Deborah's psychologist, not talking about her mom or the, quote, abortion. Doesn't matter. Conviction affirmed, eat dicks, keep going. Bill's still in prison, I think. Harry died. I can't find, Bill.

I look through the Missouri inmates. I couldn't find a guy with that date of birth. A lot of William Taylor's, there's like a six of them. But none of them are him. So I don't know which one is which. But there you go. Very quickly here. We've got a bust through the end.

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