The Misery Machine - BURNED ALIVE FOR WANTING LOVE? The Horrific Case of Suzanne Capper [GRAPHIC] | Manchester True Crime Stories

Episode Date: November 30, 2020

This week, Drew and Yergy discuss the horrific torture and murder of Suzanne Capper, which was committed in Greater Manchester, England in December of 1992. Sixteen-year-old Suzanne Jane Capper died in Withington Hospital on December 18th 1992, from multiple organ failure while in a coma arising from 80% burns after she was deliberately set on fire days prior. Before her death, Capper related that she had previously been kidnapped and kept prisoner for seven days at a house in Moston, Manchester, where she was beaten and tortured. Suzanne was taken from the house by car, driven into the countryside and then forced out of the car virtually naked into the woods at Werneth Low where petrol was poured over her and she was set alight. The torture and murder arose from the "avenging of trivial grievances: a sexual insult, infection with pubic lice and the loss of a pink duffel coat." Detectives conducting the inquiry said that "for sheer mindless brutality" the crime ranked alongside the torture inflicted on children by the Moors murderers. The case went to trial in November 1993, but received "comparatively little publicity" as it coincided with the trial of Robert Thompson and Jon Venables for the murder of James Bulger.  On December 17th 1993, Jean Powell, aged 26, her ex-husband Glyn Powell, aged 29, and Bernadette McNeilly, aged 24, were sentenced to life imprisonment for their parts in the murder. Jeffrey Leigh, aged 27, was jailed for twelve years for false imprisonment. Jean Powell's brother Clifford Pook, aged 18, was sentenced to fifteen years in a Young Offenders' Institution for false imprisonment and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm. Anthony Michael Dudson, who was 16 years old at the time of the murder, was also found guilty of murder and sentenced to be detained at Her Majesty's pleasure under section 53(1) of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. During Suzanne's imprisonment and torture, there were several times in which bystanders could have taken action to save Suzanne's life, but all failed to do so. Suzanne's family claimed ignorance of the direness of her situation, but all had turned Suzanne away when she had come to them for help prior to her death. Unfortunately, bystander apathy mixed with a toxic cocktail of a drug filled mob mentality were Suzanne's undoing, and another young British girl was senselessly lost. A very special thank you to Levi for supporting our show as our highest tier patron! This episode is brought to you by Scary Time, help support us by clicking the link to check out Scary Time here: http://www.dummies.fan/mmachine Join Our Facebook Group to Request a Topic: https://t.co/DeSZIIMgXs?amp=1 Support Our Patreon For More Unreleased Content: https://www.patreon.com/themiserymachine PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/themiserymachine Instagram: miserymachinepodcast Twitter: misery_podcast Discord: https://discord.gg/kCCzjZM #podcast #themiserymachine #truecrime  Source Materials: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Suzanne_Capper https://medium.com/crimebeat/going-down-in-flames-d849b8ae8e50 https://morbidology.com/one-week-of-sadism-the-murder-of-suzanne-capper/  

For the Missouri Machine. I'm Yergy. And I'm Drewby. And this week we're doing a case from Manchester, England, that unfortunately, as kind of fallen by the wayside and it's not very well known, and that's a Suzanne Kapper case. I will go ahead and say there is going to be a content warning for this episode for torture. We have another case where someone is set on fire. So if you're one of our more sensitive listeners, you might want to sit this one out. Yes. And if you're listening on YouTube, please hit like and subscribe. We just crossed 1,900 subscribers. So thank you to everyone that's helped us so far. But without further ado, the Suzanne Capper case. Bask in the awesomeness of Levi, our highest tier supporter. If you or your business would like to be featured in this space, visit patreon.com slash the misery machine. Born in 1976 in Manchester, England, Suzanne Jane Capper was described as a gentle and easily influenced girl, and that all she wanted all her life was just to be loved.

She never met a real father, and so she had lived with her biological mother, Elizabeth. Dunbar and her stepfather John. However, when Elizabeth and John divorced in 1990, Suzanne no longer had a permanent home, and she bounced around living with her mother, her stepfather, friends of family, and for a time, she stayed in the care of the local authorities. Around this time, Kapper began to regularly skip school at Mossden Brook High School. Kapper had been babysitting for one, Jean Powell, since she was 10 years old, and was 16 at the time of our story. She increasingly spent more and more time at Powell's house as she got older. Powell, age 24, lived at 97 Langworthy Road, Moston, a small Victorian terrorist house where

she also dealt drugs and was involved with the handling of stolen motor vehicles. Michelle Capper, Suzanne's sister, had briefly lived with Powell as well, but moved out in August of 1992, because she did not like the, quote, evil new friends Powell was associating with, particularly Bernadette McNeely, as they called Bernie, who lived only a few doors down from them. So I don't understand how Gene Powell was okay. And McNeely was not. These are both adults that are hanging out with children.

They're both living in a house that has drug dealing and cars are changing hands. And in fact, let's talk about this house. Let's be clear what kind of house this was. So this was basically a squat. They were living in squalor. They were all just openly having sex with each other. McNeely and Powell were having sex with much younger people as well, even though we know the age of consent in the UK is 16.

It's still really creepy when you're into your 20s. And we should be clear that it was not confirmed that Kapper was having sex with any of them. She was just there because they allowed her to be there. Right. I'm talking about Powell and McNeely. Yeah, and all the other boys that were there. And people would openly bring stolen cars here. It wasn't like a chop shot,

but I guess this is where stolen cars changed. hands. Yeah, they'd be weighing amphetamines in bulk on big industrial kitchen weighing scales like right in the kitchen. You know, you had six children between the two of them. Like, I mean small children just hanging out in this mess.

And you're weighing amphetamines. You know, if cops walked into a kitchen here and saw all that on a weighing scale, you probably do close to life. So the interesting thing about this to me is how social services never got involved with it, because you're taking these

two women who clearly don't have jobs, so to speak. I know that Powell had like a cleaning job, but you have these two women living with three children each. There isn't another person involved with them. Like there's not a father at home. So clearly they're more than likely with three children on some form of social services. How a wellness check wasn't done at some point to notice what was going on. So I had read, it was only one source. So that's why I kept it out of the notes, but one source claimed that there were wellness checks as well as social workers that were coming over there, but they apparently botched things. I just read that. I couldn't find anything in depth about it. And we'll get to this later, but this case was actually a reason

why the conservative right in England ended up attacking social services and people on social services after this because of this case. Yeah, this case in particular, one really messed up. things with, I don't want to call it freedom of speech, but censorship. Later on, there were some movies coming out around this time in. The release dates were actually pushed back due to the far right claiming that things like this were influencing people to kill or to create crimes. They also stated that these were poor people problems. Yeah, that if you're poor, you end up like this or that you engage in activities like this.

Right. It's just like moral degeneracy. So Kapper's stepfather, John claimed, quote, I tried to stop Suzanne going there, but she had a very strong will, end quote. However, John insists that he didn't know the extent of what was going on at the house, just that he had a strange feeling about it and often referred to it as a house of evil. Well, if you felt this way, John, why didn't you let Suzanne come and live with you? I want to be clear that Suzanne wasn't just choosing not to live with her parents.

they both turned her away. And granted, I don't know the full story on that. And there's a lot of details missing on this case. But it appears to me truly, if she ended up as ward of the authorities, it's safe to assume that neither of her parents wanted her living with them. 23-year-old McNeely, who had three children, subsequently moved in with Powell and her three children, where the two shared a bedroom in the downstairs dining room

because the bedrooms were, and I quote, full of children. Kapper continued to stay there regularly, even though Powell and McNeely frequently bullied her. Her sister said, it was not that she was scared of them. It's just that she would do anything for them. She pampered their every whim. This is definitely a girl that had nowhere else to go. This was her absolute last resort. Right.

So Powell was separated from her husband, Glynn, who was age 28 at the time. Although the two remained friendly and he would visit regularly from his nearby home, McNeely's boyfriend was 16-year-old Anthony Dudson, keep in mind Powell's 24, who was also having sexual intercourse with Powell. Powell was also sexually involved with a 26-year-old Jeffrey Lee, who was a known car thief and a regular visitor to the house to purchase amphetamines. Another frequent visitor to the house was Gene Powell's younger brother, Clifford Pooke. And his official mugshot says Clifford Ernest Hayes, but the vast majority of sources list him as Clifford Pooke. So I couldn't find the reason for any of this, but just know if you see two names, that's what's going on. We're going to refer to him as Clifford Pook for the remainder of the podcast.

The bullying of Capper unfortunately worsened as everyone who frequented the house took advantage of her. One night, Suzanne walked to her mother's house in the cold after being beaten by Jean and begged her mother to let her stay overnight. Her mother told her that her boyfriend wouldn't allow it and didn't so much as allow Suzanne to enter the house. With nowhere to go, Suzanne walked back to Jean's house. Oh, just tragic. This is so tragic. So for anyone thinking that this was just a girl who was just misbehaving and wanted to live on the wild side, no. This is clearly not the case.

I mean, maybe at some point it started out as that way. Maybe. But I think because when she started skipping school, it was when she could no longer live with her parents. So in my opinion, that started her off on this unfortunate path. Right. Because regardless of what the age of consent or what the rules of adulthood are at 16 in. the UK. These are still kids, really. And if this is a girl who was described as just wanted to be loved, I'm pretty sure if she got that from her parents, she wouldn't have gone off. This is my opinion,

but I think it's probably correct. Even though Suzanne's relationships with everyone in the house were abusive, it was the only form of human companionship she had. With lack of support and unwanted by her family, Suzanne continued to stay at 97 Langworthy Road. Unfortunately, this would become her undoing. Jean Powell claimed that Capper had tried to persuade her to sleep with a man for money. McNeely and Dudsen had contracted pubic lice, which they believed were from a bed that Capper had also used, and McNeely believed that she had taken a pink duffel coat that belonged to her. In November 1992, when Dundsen had contracted pubic lice, which you may also know as crabs,

he had his pubic hair shaved. McNally told him that she had thought she had caught them from Capper. Dudson believed otherwise and said later, quote, I told Gene I thought I got them from Bernie, end quote. At this time, Anthony Dudson was sleeping with both Jean and Bernadette. Some sources allege a relationship with Suzanne, but others speak of no sexual relations between her and everyone in the house. Either way, the accusation that Suzanne Capper was responsible for giving them pubic lice was a stretch in the very least. So it was really kind of ridiculous because not only was everyone, we'll leave Suzanne as the question mark. Everyone at that house were having sex with one another.

Yes. Including Bernie and Powell. You know, you just wonder, was this in front of the kids? I think it was probably in front of the kids because they're sharing a bed in the dining room. So like unless the kids are off to bed, but do you know, this is just what's crazy about reading up in this case. The six children living here are almost never mentioned. You start to forget that they even exist in this case. You have to stop and really read the horrors and been like, wait a minute.

This all happened with six kids in this house. I find it a disservice that most sources emit the children from these horrors because I'm sure they bore witness to many things as well as the unfortunate things that happened to Kapper that we're going to get into. On December 7, 1992, Suzanne was lured to Jane Powell's home where Glenn Powell and Anthony Dudson were already waiting. She was grabbed as soon as she arrived and held down while Glenn Powell shaved her head and her eyebrows and then made it. her clean up the hair and place it in a bin. Then he placed a plastic bag over her head and walked around her while hitting her on the head. She was then kicked by Jean Powell and McNeely as she lay curled up on the floor and both women took turns beating her with belts and large wooden spoons. Allegedly some of these

being three feet in length, I guess they were ornamental spoons. She was then taken to the bathroom and forced to shave off her own pubic hair as a ritual humiliation in revenge for having caused, as they claimed, Dudsin and McNeeley themselves to be shaved. Afterwards, Gene Powell locked her in a cupboard overnight, and I want to be clear because I don't think this description

does the beating justice. This was so savage. One of Suzanne's arms hung by her side for the remainder of her life completely useless. Yeah, it was dead. It was either broken or completely out of the socket. Yeah, or just shattered or something. I don't know.

I'm assuming these ornamental spoons are like the big wooden ones in the 70s and 80s people put on their wall. That was my assumption as well. And another thing I want to kind of bring up about this crab situation, these are lice, which are very much like any other lice or scabies or fleas or any other invasive vermin that you could get on yourself, are very contagious.

Yeah. So if this was in the house anyway, it was all over the house. Yeah, chances are everyone had it. Everyone had it. Including the kids and, like, her hair and stuff. You can get lice on your head and it can go to your, pubic region. Is that correct? I've never had

lice, so I don't know. I don't know 100% how it works. I do know that modern day, because a lot of people remove their hair, they're not really a thing anymore. But I don't know if they're the same strain of bug that's going to be on your pubic area. For some reason I thought it was... It's also in your head. So in

high school, I was told it was a different strain, but I don't know if that's correct because you know how kids are and even people teaching sex ed aren't exactly accurate. I went to school at a time where my eighth grade sex education teacher told me that only gay men could contract HIV. I don't even want to get into the weird stuff our health teacher told us because it was

ridiculous. And he used hand motions for everything. It's like you're inappropriate. However, I do know head lice can get into your eyebrows and eyelashes. So I have an idea here. We have a patron who can answer this for us because they have their PhD in etymology. I think our overall point here not to dive too deep in what are crabs, what are lice, what is sex ed, is that this accusation that Suzanne was just this harbinger of pestilence

made no sense. I just think they were just making up reasons to justify what they were doing to her. I think that's 100% the case. This was just somebody. And then it just caused a mob mentality. I really am curious just how much this whole ordeal was premeditated or if it just started and it just didn't stop. They got high on the fact that they were torturing this girl.

while they were high on meth. That's another thing that sources really tend to admit. All of them were probably doing meth, all of them. I'm sure while on meth, this really fueled things as well. Not that I'm blaming the meth, these people are clearly evil. I really feel it was a combination of meth-fueled psychosis with just being really shitty people and then like a mob mentality taking over. And then the person being a girl that unfortunately, they knew nobody was looking for. Nobody was looking after. Nobody really cared about. And they didn't

really regard her either. No, her parents weren't in the picture. Her own sister wasn't really checking up on her, it seems. So it just led to this. Sick of the boring ghost stories from big name creators while you're in luck. It's scary time. Lock your doors. Check under the bed. Turn on a night because it's time for the scariest stories, history, and conversations ever heard. Each week, an independent creator tells you about the paranormal, ghosts, monsters, hauntings, and more. Best of all, if you like the creator, you can follow them for more great content. What do you listen to between episodes of The Misery Machine? How about a scary episode from another indie creator?

With Scary Time, it's spooky season all year round. Check out Scary Time via the link in our show notes. If you dare. All of this stuff happens with children seeing it. Yes. All of what we've just now mentioned. Yes. When she was locked in the cupboard, she was wailing from what I understand.

So I'm sure the kids were exposed to this. And in fact, that was the reason why they transferred her to Bernadette McNeely's abandoned house. So she still had ownership of her old house, but she had moved in with Powell for whatever reason. So she had this house. And they moved Suzanne there because. Powell McNeely's altogether six children were disturbed by cappers crying. I mean, who would have imagined, right? So she was brought to McNeely's house and she was tied spread eagle to an upturned bed with electrical flex in a downstairs back room.

She had socks stuffed in her mouth to muffle her screams while they weren't there. So they just left her there. Yeah, this was a really gross of bed. So there's a lot of different pictures of it online. It looks just like an overturned box box. or something with a whole bunch of springs like exposed. Probably poking her. Probably poking her and wood touching her.

It's just very gross. Like, I'm going to be doing the Canva and imagery for the YouTube a little bit different this time, but I'm going to make sure to include that image. It's really disgusting. And some sources allege that she was tied to that bed naked. I believe so. Think of being left there all day, unable to move, and just in such an uncomfortable position. That's enough to make certain people just go insane.

And rightfully so, like, I just can't imagine being exposed to that. So over the next five days, Kapper was subjected to a series of violent acts, increasing in severity and brutality as time pass. This is why this is sometimes referred to as the week of sadism. She was regularly beaten and injected with amphetamines, burned with cigarettes, and had rave music. In particular, Hi, I'm Chucky, want to play by 150 volts. is the producer's name. It features samples from the movie Child's Play, and this was played at maximum volume through headphones they would place on Suzanne's head.

McNeely would commence each torture session by saying the phrase, Chuckie's coming to play, and soon the words themselves were enough to make Capper scream in terror. Capper had been lying in her own excrement for several days and was subsequently forced into a bathtub containing concentrated disinfectant and scrubbed with a stiff brush until they remove some of her skin. They remove some of her skin.

Pook then used pliers to extract two of her teeth. According to Dudsin, Pook took her gag off. He then told her to open her mouth. He said, right, I'm going to rip your teeth out. He started hitting her in the teeth with the pliers. He got the pliers on and started pulling it out. But it just snapped and chipped.

Then he hit them a few more times. He pulled Suzanne's head forward until there was a snap and he had the tooth in the pliers. He did the same again and was laughing. Police later found the teeth at Pook's house that he had kept like some kind of macabre trophy. So despite all this, Suzanne Capper did actually have a chance to be saved. So David Hill, who was 18 years old, was asked to sit in at the house for reasons I could not determine in my research. And while there, he had heard Dudsman shout, shut up you slag in the back room.

When he asked what was going on, Jeffrey Lee had showed him Capper. He said, quote, she had some sort of cloth over her face from just above the eyebrows and covering her nose, and she had a bit of dry blood on her lip. She had no hair whatsoever, end quote. Hill also said that he had heard them talking about pulling her teeth out with a pair of pliers. He was even left alone with Kapper, who pleaded with him to untie her. Hill said, quote, she asked me if I could help, but I told her I couldn't. I asked her who she was.

She said her name was Suzanne, and she asked me if I could untie her. her and I said I couldn't do anything. He later claimed that he was too afraid of Jeffrey Lee to intervene or raise the alarm saying, quote, I thought they would batter me. If I'd said anything, they'd all have got me, wouldn't they? I didn't know what to do. I was too shocked to do anything, end quote. While Capra was being held in the house, Leon Dudson met up with her sister's fiance, Paul Barlow, to help him repair his car. Barlow said, they could have told me there and then. the door would have been kicked down and I would have gotten Suzanne out. I do not think that they were capable of such savagery.

Now all I want is 10 minutes with them in a back room. So they are torturing basically his soon-to-be sister-in-law and just going to like hang out with him, fix cars and stuff like that. Just the gall, the friggin nerve. After Michelle Kafer told them her stepfather was going to report Suzanne to the police as a missing person, the six finally agreed that Suzanne had to be removed. So in the early hours of December 14, 1992, Capper was forced into the trunk of a stolen white fiat panda

and driven 15 miles to a narrow lane at Wernerth Low near Romilly on the outskirts of Stockport. In the car were McNally, Glenn, Gene Powell, and Dudsin, with Lee and Puck having stayed behind. McNally giggled as they made their journey. Capper was pushed down an embankment into a patch of brambles and then McNally poured petrol all over her. Powell stated, Suzanne was still wobbly and fell over.

Bernie said, get up. Bernie pushed her down the hill and poured petrol on her. After three failed attempts of getting the gas to ignite, Dudson said, quote, in the end, he, he mean Glenn Powell, just went up to her with a lighter and lit her. He lit her on the back. She went straight up in flames and was screaming. The flames lit up the whole forest, end quote.

Allegedly McNeely began to sing Burn Baby Burn from the Tramp song Disco Inferno, believing Kapper to be dead before return to Jean Powell's house, stopping to buy canned drinks on the way. Both Lee and Pook were at the house when they arrived, and Dudson stated that Cliff asked Glynn, have you done it? And Glid said yes, as he was laughing. And he gave Cliff his lighter back. However, she was not dead as the murderers had believed her to be. And she had somehow survived. And after they had left, she had managed to scramble back up the embankment and stagger along the roadway for approximately a quarter of a mile to Compstall Road. before being found at 6.10 a.m. by Barry Sutcliffe and his two colleagues on their way to work. Suzanne told them, quote, over in the field, they burnt me, they put petrol on me.

End quote. They immediately took her to a nearby house and awoke the residence, Michael and Margaret Coop, to call for an ambulance. Michael Coop said that both of her hands appeared like ash. Her legs were just like raw meat and her feet appeared to be badly charred. I was struck by how polite the victim was. She was constantly thanking my wife for assistance. And Margaret said, I instinctively went to put my arms around her, but she pulled away because she could not

bear to be touched. Her head was shaved and there was recent, not new, cuts to her head. Her face was almost featureless. Her hands were red, raw, and black at the fingertips. Her legs were red from top to bottom and she couldn't bear anything near her legs.

You okay? and just take your time Cabber drank six glasses of water but was unable to hold the glass herself because of her injuries to her hands Margaret Coup said quote she looked like the victim of an attack

from the Vietnam War but I felt she would survive I had this theory that now she had got to somewhere where she could be helped and that she would live end quote Capper was rushed to the hospital and was able to give the names of her six assailants and Powell's address before falling into a coma,

almost as if she was controlled by some sort of higher power. In the end, Suzanne had suffered burns to 80% of her body with her skin hanging off of her. One of her lungs had partially collapsed. The extent of her burns was so severe that her mother and stepfather were unable to recognize her. And she had to be identified by a partial fingerprint from her thumb, the only part of her hand that was not severely burns. Failing to regain consciousness, Suzanne Jane Capper died on December 18, 1992. The inquiry was led by Detective Inspector Peter Wall of the Greater Manchester Police. At 7.30 on December 14, he instructed officers to attend 97 Langworthy Road and arrest everyone

that they found there. Gene Powell and McNeely laughed and joked with each other as they were arrested. Initially, all six denied involvement. Under questioning, Dudson, who had been encouraged by his father to tell the truth, began to confess. Detective Inspector Wall said of Dudson's statement, quote, as the story began to unfold, we just couldn't believe it. I kept asking myself how one human being could do this to another, end quote. And as such, even some of the most hardened police officers were moved to tears by Suzanne's suffering. And together with the civilian staff at the station, the police collected cash to send flowers to her at the hospital. On December 17th, the six accused appeared before magistrates in Manchester and were remanded into custody, charged with

kidnapping and attempted murder. Detectives conducting the inquiry said that for the sheer mindless brutality, the crime ranked alongside the torture inflicted on the children of the Moore's murderers. The case went to trial in November of 1993, but received comparatively little publicity as it coincide with the trial of Robert Thompson and John Venables for the murder of Jamie Bulger. Yeah, so this is another reason why this case is unfortunately, even in England, it's not as well known as you might think, from my own.

understanding because of the trials at this time, the James Bulger murder, and because of this, it just kind of fell by the wayside within history, unfortunately, despite how horrific this whole thing was. So all six of the perpetrators turned on each other and distanced themselves from each other, actually setting Suzanne on fire. I all blame that the other one did it. Gene Powell claimed that she was numb and scared and that she had locked Suzanne in a cupboard for her own safety. She further claimed that she can't stand violence and that she loved Suzanne like a sister. McNeely admitted to having injected Suzanne with amphetamines only to protect her from being injected with heroin, which from what I understand she was never injected with heroin.

It wasn't even a threat. As the sentences were announced, two jurors wept and there were cries of yes from the public gallery, which were filled with relatives of the victim. Where were they? All this time. Again, I don't want to shame family, but you had this many relatives. relatives celebrating. Where were they for Suzanne? Like what's going on with a sister Michelle? First off, Michelle lived over that house for a period of time and knew it was going on. Right. And so it's now,

has a fiance, probably has their own home. Why didn't they ever come to rescue her? Like, I understand you don't want a victim. Shame. I'll do it. I'll do it. Why? It just seems like in this case, more than most the cases we covered, the family had some responsibility. I mean, responsibility might be a strong word, but they had the. ability to save her from this. They knew where she was. This wasn't a secret. They knew what it was like over there. Her sister had direct experience and her fiancee knew them personally.

And he claimed he had no idea. Now, did he? Did he not? I mean, I don't know. But apparently people knew and just didn't want to say anything. And again, this harkens back to Junco Furuda. This harkens back to Sylvia Likens. People just don't seem to like to say things in situations. like this. And, you know, when we first covered Junco, I didn't believe that this was all that common. I guess in the

grand scheme of things, it's not. But now as we dig deeper and were recommended stories like this, it's just so surprising just how it all fits the same type of rubric. Mob mentality, a bunch of people joining in, and a bunch of witnesses just not saying anything at all. And I think why I'm really outraged by this one is that, her own family had direct experience and knowledge, and yet now they're pushing and celebrating when they're convicted. Like, the time for you to get involved has far since passed, in my opinion. In a statement made to the press after the sentence saying, Detective Inspector Wall said, quote, psychological reports say that these are absolutely sane, sane individuals. It's frightening that they are such ordinary people. There is nothing special.

about any of them, end quote. So these are the sentences they got. So Bernadette McNally was guilty of murder. She got life imprisonment with a minimum tariff of 25 years. So that's how they stated over in the UK. So it'd be just like you have to serve a minimum of 25 years before you're considered for parole. So just kind of keep that in mind. She was also guilty of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm, GBAH, which is 20 years.

20 years additional and pleaded guilty to false imprisonment. which is another 20 years additional. Is there life sentences in England? Yeah. There's life sentence without possibility of parole. Okay. There are. So Gene Powell got the exact same term.

Yeah, everything that Bernadette got, Gene Powell got as well as. Clinton Powell. Okay, so when we start getting into these final three, it changes a little bit. So as we know, Jeffrey Lee and Clifford Pooke were not there for the lighting her on fire. So Jeffrey Lee pleaded guilty to false imprisonment, which is 12 years. he was acquitted of murder and he was acquitted of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm. I guess I have to know how GBAH falls into the law in England, but I would assume that with the torture, he should have been convicted. Now, Dudsin was there for lighting her on fire.

He was guilty of murder. He got detained indefinitely with a minimum tariff of 18 years, and he was guilty of conspiracy to cause grievous harm and he pled guilty to false imprisonment. This was 18, 15, and 15 years, so slightly less than the first three. Clifford Pooke pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm, which is interesting, considering Jeffrey Lee was acquitted. I assume with Pook, it's the fact that he pulled the teeth out with the pliers. So he got 15 years for that. He pleaded guilty to false imprisonment another 15 years, but he was acquitted of murder having not been present for lighting her on fire. Lee appealed against his sentence, which was reduced from 12 years to,

nine years on November 4th of 1994. In 2002, Dudsen's minimum tariff was cut from 18 years to 16 years. Dudson appealed again arguing that the reduction was insufficient and that the Chief's Justice had failed to reflect the continuing obligation to have regard for Dudsin's welfare. Lord Justice Kennedy and Mr. Justice McKay dismissed the second appeal on November 24, 2003. He was moved to an open prison in 2009. Jean Powell and McNeely were granted leave to have their lengths of their minimum sentences reviewed at the Court of Appeal in June of 2012.

McNeely's sentence was reduced by one year. In 2012, Gene Powell, now known as Gene Gillespie, had had her sentence reduced by two years after she allegedly showed remorse and helped prevent a jail escape. While she was incarcerated at HM Prison Durham, a routine security check in 1996 uncovered letters, which revealed McNeely had been having an affair with the prison governor Mike Martin. The married officer resigned his position immediately before disciplinary action could be taken. McNeely, who was sharing a wing with Rosemary West and Myra Hinley, allegedly being romantically evolved with the latter, was immediately transferred to H.M. Prison Newhall. Lee was freed early from his sentence in 1998, as was Puck in May of 2001.

Both were released on license, which I believe is probably like probation. McNeely was released from prison in December of 2014. Yes, these people are out. Not all of them, though. Glin Powell is still in there. And I think Gene is too. Yeah. But most of them are out. I don't know why McNeely's out. I think McNeely should be doing life. Suzanne's mother claims in an interview in 2013, I think that was the last interview she ever gave. She claims to still fight relentlessly to keep the killers in prison. I don't get this. This is just stupid. She talks like, she has this intense burden. And maybe, maybe she does have the intense burden, but what she's not saying is that her burden is not saving her daughter from this, from turning her daughter away, from not being a mother to her daughter.

She just talks about how she has to fight relentlessly now. Maybe she's now like this because she realized the failing of her ways and is trying to make it up in some way. But just reading her interview, it just makes me upset. Yeah. I do know that it stated somewhere. I believe this was after the fact that that time that Suzanne had went to her house after being beaten up by Gene and Bernie, that she couldn't stay now, but she was going to get a room together for her. And, you know, right before Christmas she was supposed to move in.

But I don't buy that. I don't buy it at all. I don't. I don't. Maybe she wouldn't have been given Suzanne's age. She wouldn't have been convicted of negligence. But just trying to distance herself from that, I feel that's my opinion about her. I don't think very highly of the family.

No, I don't either. One last gross thing I want to point out. The Daily Mail, if you're familiar with the Daily Mail, the day the verdicts were read, used the crimes as an excuse to attack the welfare system, and wrote, It is interesting to note that most of Suzanne's tormentors were on Social Security. But then those in society who are generally out of work, but who have savings, do not receive income support. Thus are the prudent, penalized, while the negligent are nurtured. All this reflects a society showing,

reckless disregard for the survival of its own decency. An underclass is being created today, which is a grave threat to Britain's future. If it is not countered, then we will continue a decline towards lawlessness and degeneracy. This is just absolutely just, it's beyond irresponsible. This is just wicked, wicked to use this poor girl's torture and death. as a way to connect these types of crimes with people on social security, that social security and receiving welfare lead to these types of crimes. I'm sure then that they would think all the people unemployed on COVID right now,

on the COVID unemployment, if your state still has it, will then lead to torture and murder a 16-year-old girl. I mean, this is the, this is the narrative being spoken here by the Daily Mail. only problem with this, as I spoke about in the beginning, is if everyone here is on S's sign, there's children involved and they're receiving some sort of benefit, then why wasn't at some points, you know, some of these children must be school-aged. If everyone in the house has crabs, clearly some of the kids have lice, why wasn't, you know, house checks done? Yeah, and I don't know about you. I mean, maybe this wasn't the case in England, but having been a child in

elementary school around that period of time, we were frequently checked for lice. Oh, constantly. So around this time, I would have been in my early, you know, years second, third grade type of thing. And they constantly, and the minute one kid at the school had lice, the nurse came in with a comb and a magnifying glass and was going through her hair. Did the nurse ever use the same comb on multiple people? Yep. Yeah. That was happening for a while. And somebody's mother hit the roof and complained. And so then they brought in this cardboard box of combs and a trash can. And they would go through one kid's head with this black comb, throw it in the trash can, get a new one out, and then go on to the next kid. I don't know. It just, it wasn't obviously perfect, but there were at least lice checks. You know, I just feel like the evidence was there. I just don't know what social services are like in England as far as it comes to welfare of young children, but clearly it was lacking. If anything, the Daily Mail, but it's, you know, it's the Daily Mail, so I would never expect them to say this. But if anything, It should have pointed out to the lack of resources in public service, the lack of resources for children, not just the presence of social security.

I know. I know social security and different benefits are taking advantage of over in the UK, just like they are anywhere. But I don't think that. But that's just a certainty. Like it's just a certainty. It's just bound to happen, but it just happens at such a small rate. Right. And I just have so many issues with this statement.

So like people who are generally out of work right now in this day and age, and probably back then too, probably don't have much savings anyway. No, not with how things are. And especially now, I don't know how it looked like in the UK. So again, this is not something that I'm knowledgeable about. Right. And I was too young to know about what was going on with people's savings back then. Yeah, all I can tell you is that in the early 90s,

It seemed like a lot more people could support three kids on a single person's income. But this was in the U.S. Economies can be different country to country. So I would assume now we're hurting a lot more in more first world countries than ever before. That would be my guess on this. I agree. But I am not looking to talk to in depth of this because it's something that I don't have a lot of expertise on. So I guess that's just really it.

This case, again, is so incredibly tragic. And I didn't mean for us to do two fire cases in a row. So sorry about that. Three, excuse me, three, because we did Shonda Scher last week. Yeah, we did do three. Wow. Well, that wasn't, no, that wasn't intentional. But I mentioned Jinka Faruda, Sylvia, Lykins. Shonda Scherer, there's one too where you see the parallels. There's been any case like this happening in the past 20 years. Do we have any record of that? Oh, there's tons of different cases like that happening in the last. last 20 years. Really? I can't name any off the top of my heads because I don't remember names,

but there's ones that have come across that I need to research that we need to have on deck. Well, then I guess there goes my point about hopefully things getting better in the world in that regard, but I am sadly wrong about that. So yeah, if you've gotten this far, we appreciate you. If you're listening on YouTube, please hit like and subscribe. I think by the time this comes out, we'll have entered 1900 subscribers. Thank you so much for that. I really appreciate that. Right. And we have to apologize yet again. We said that there was going to be something special and local this week. Well, a lot of people that we had reached out to for more information got back to us. We are waiting on one more person. I don't know that they are going to get back to us. It was a stretch. It's a stretch. This person was kind of famous. I assume they don't want to respond to us due to potential legal implications. Though I don't believe it would have caused such a thing, I think they fear that. But I don't think they want their name attached to it.

So next week, especially given who they are. So next week, we will be doing Luger Belanger, which is a longstanding missing person's case in Maine. The anniversary of his disappearance was just this past week on the 25th. That is 100% going to be next week's episode. Absolutely. So let's say thank you to our patrons. So thank you to Eddie, to Rowan, to Markey, Holly, Ashley, Voo, Anna, Serena, Chloe, Mark.

Tara, Sophie. We now have two Karen's. Yes. And I would say Karen B, but they're both Karen B. So we have Karen and then we have Karen with an EA. Yes. And finally, thank you to Levi. Yes. Welcome, Karen. Welcome Levi. And thank you especially to Levi. So Levi chose a tier that was meant for corporate sponsorship. Yes. So whenever we do ads, we did a tier that was supposed to be limited of time that I was going to have if anyone wanted to, sponsor us like a business, lock us in at a lower rate before, you know, our views went up. And Levi, just as an individual, decide to do our $40 patron tier. So we have given him his own special title in Discord. He's now added to everything. And Levi, if you have any venture or anything that you would like to be promoted on here, we will gladly do that. But in the meantime, here's this nice, lovely picture of Levi.

Isn't he handsome? He's very handsome. Yes, he is. And he's very wonderful. Thank you so much for sponsoring us. And an amazing cook. Yeah. And oh my goodness, we should get some pictures of his cooking and put on here. So that way we can just kind of, you know, get our little tendrils in there to get him to start his new career as a professional chef because he would be a good one. That is for sure. It's ridiculous. So he's made stuff for potlucks at work because we know each other from work. And he had a wine party over at his sister's house. So if people don't know, I use. to be involved with an MLM that sold wine. And what you would do is you'd go to people's house. You would bring five bottles of wine. It was usually two reds, two whites and a dessert. And the host would cook different snacks or meals to go with each. And the presenter would then like kind of take you through the steps of tasting. So at this point, I had stopped, you know, being a representative because it just, I'm not a good salesperson and I'm not a good teacher. And you have to be both to be successful at the business. But my friend who had gotten me into it

is both a teacher in real life and is just really good at selling wine. So I went to help her out and, you know, as well, enjoy Levi's wine party. He made the most ridiculous foods. So he took some of the wines that he had gotten from a previous wine party we had went to and had cooked chicken

and steak with the wines that you'd be sampling. He not only made food that was properly paired with the wine, he actually used the wine in the cooking. And it was probably some of the best steak. chicken I've ever had in my life. My goodness. Is he self-taught? Yeah.

See, just bask at the wonderfulness of Levi. Okay? We did not expect this to be filled by a single person. It was meant to be filled by a business. I may lock this tier soon just to Levi. We'll see, especially if our demand for, we don't get ads all the time, but if our demand for ads goes up, I may lock the tier. So if this is something that if you want to be hailed in this way, revered in this way,

on our episodes and you have a business, some sort of side hustle, or if you're just an egomaniac and you just want your lovely picture up there, the tier is still open for now, for now. Again, I may close this, but if you want to jump on that before I change my mind, here's your one warning because it's the only time I'm saying this. The tier itself, like we said, technically is for a business, we'll get you an ad and a thank you right after our intro. So, Levi, you'll be included in our intro as well. Yes, it would be the intro and the outro.

So because you also enjoy the benefits of all other tiers, you get a thank you in the outro with your picture. Yes. You also get a thank you in the show notes with this tier as a business or someone who really just wants to, you know, be out there, are thanked twice in the episode. You have your own slide within the YouTube video and you're thanked in the show notes that show up on all streaming platforms. And let's say that we blow up and we. start getting hundreds for an ad. If you take this tier, you will be locked in there for as long as you continue to be a patron. If you start at $40, I don't care if we get ridiculously huge million downloads per episode, getting thousands for an ad or something, you will always have that

$40 option if you continue to stay a patron for choosing to support us from this early on. So again, I don't really want to like promote this tier too much, but I just want to put that out there. This is the only time I'm going to say this if you're interested in that. For a business, it's a really, really good tier to have. I think so too. Okay, so with that out of the way, thank you to all of our patrons. If you want to be a patron, patreon.com slash the misery machine. Stickers, $1.

All patrons get them for free. We just sent them out to our two new patrons two days ago, just right before Thanksgiving. They should be getting them either today or tomorrow. But if you want to just order one yourself, $1 to our PayPal, PayPal. PayPal.com slash the misery machine, and you can get your own sticker. They're pretty wonderful. Okay, so until next week, we love you. We love you.

Bye. Bye.