True Crime All The Time - Reginald Brooks

Episode Date: February 25, 2019

Reginald Brooks was paranoid, thinking co-workers and family members were poisoning him. He was exhibiting signs of mental illness. His family tried to get him to seek help but he refused. Two days after his wife served him with divorce papers he murdered the couple's three sons. Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss the most despicable act that any father can commit. The evidence against Brooks was overwhelming but he would never admit to the crime. Many believe that he actually came to believe he was innocent. He had his own wild theories about who committed the murders.You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise and donation informationSponsors:Ziprecruiter.com/tcattAudible.com/truecrimeWarbyparker.com/tcattSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 119 of the True Crime All the Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in True Crime, Mike Flannel Gibson. Gibby, what is going on? Hey man, don't be making fun of my flannel, my snap buttons. Oh, yeah, you beat me to it. I was going to say, not only is it a flannel, but it's got snap buttons. Hey, I did buy it at the buckle, so it has to be the, is it called the buckle? I called it to somebody other day.

They said, where'd you get that? I said, the buckles. And they said, no, it's called the buckle. Really? I said, I didn't know that. Oh, I just thought it was called buckles. Buckle or, yeah. I don't know.

Oh, well, it's fancy then. It's soft, it's comfy. Looks like you stepped right off the set of Irving Cowboy, but. There you go. What are you going to do? Got to do some line dancing. So how you been, man? Where's my sissy at?

Sissy. I'm good, man. I'm actually filmed better. I still have a cold, but, uh, It lingers with me for some reason. So I've been trying to eat good, but I come over here and you have this delicious pizza. Yep, we had pizza tonight. I've been eating good too, man.

I've been doing a juice thing, not fruit juice, but like it's called like the mean green. Ooh, the mean green green. Oh, I actually like it. It's kale, cucumber, green apple. Is it smooth or chunky? Well, it's smooth because I'm using the juicer. Yeah. I tried it with the Nutra Bullet.

It's just too thick. I don't like the texture. Yeah. That'd be weird. I don't know. So how many you drink a day? About four or five. Really?

Yeah. And it gets kind of expensive because it's a lot of celery and a lot of cucumbers and apples. And I'm going to the grocery like every two days. That stuff just runs right through you, man. All right. All right. But hey, it's good. You're getting all those nutrients.

Yeah. I actually feel really good. Good. Well, you look like you're at least a week old, younger. I look like I'm a week old. Younger. A week younger. It's cutting age off of you.

A week at a time. All right, Gibbs. Let's do our Patreon shout-out. We had Morgan Jones. Hey, thanks, Morgan. Ben Murphy. Hey, Ben. Amy Carroll.

Thanks, Amy. David Arch. Ooh, it's the Arch's. Amanda Massey. Hey, Massey. Carol. Just Carol? Just Carol.

Just Carol. All right. Prudence. That's a cool name. Prudence. Sharon Schneider. Schneider. Ashley.

Ailshire. Ooh, the El Shire. Nick Hinald jumped out to our highest level. How do you said? Hinal. I don't know. He now. Could be a couple of different ways.

Hey, now. Hey now. Kim Hudson. Hey, Kim. Marsha Clark. Ooh, the famous one. How about that? She's listening.

We know that. So we got to, like, bring our A game out. Rachel Evans. Hey, Rachel. Jamie Bailey. Jamie. Cherise Leboi toy jumped up to our highest level. Leboa tooy.

Brent Jones. Hey, Brent. Andrew Robertson Thanks Andrew Joanna Daniela Himdall Sahar Ooh sahaha

I'm just going to leave it right there That's a lot That is a lot That's awesome And last but not least We had Michael's girlfriend jumped out to our highest level That's me

You put that in I just did that for myself Michael's girlfriend Yeah Maybe it's a team Gibby But it's probably just Maybe I just went on On a Patreon

And did it myself Well I can guarantee It's a team Gibby because I know who it is. They reached out to me. Well, that's nice. That's sweet. Yeah.

They wanted to do it. They thought you'd get a big kick out of it. Chuckling in the side. Yep. And you're blushing. All right. Hey, thanks. And then if we go back into the Vault Gibbs,

this week we selected Nancy Brooks. Yeah, good old friend Nancy. That's great. I love that. Good old. Everybody's got to be old at some point. Good old. Yeah.

Nancy's been with us a long time. Yes, she is. We appreciate that. And then we had some good PayPal support as well. We had Eleanor White. Hey, thanks, Eleanor. Candice Zugich. Ooh, Zugich.

Meredith Samino. Samino. Yeah, I like that. I actually made a sizable donation. Appreciate that. Oh, awesome. Grace Brunei. Hey, Brunei.

And Dustin Hatfield. And Hatfields. Made a sizable PayPal donation. You're not going to argue with the Hatfields anyway. No, unless you're in McCoy. I need you. And then you're forced, forced to. You have a choice.

You're foist. You foist. You're foist. You're foist to. All right, Gibbs. What else you got? Oh, man. You know, uh, that Patreon episode we did was really good. Oh, yeah, I forgot. Patreon came out, what, yesterday when this drops. Yeah. It was on Lucius Boyd. Man, he was a vicious guy. Yeah, I thought it was an interesting case because, you know, convicted of one murder, but suspected of what, 10, 12? Yeah. I think you said maybe a baker's dozen. Yeah, yeah.

And they had some good leads on some other ones, but the victim got scared and didn't want to testify. Well, and this isn't a case where they just think because him being him, he probably killed more people. I mean, they really had some good evidence against him, maybe not enough to go at him fully, but enough to, you know, have a reasonable suspicion that he has committed some of these murders. Yeah, absolutely. And then out right now on true crime all time unsolved, part three of the West Memphis three case, the murders of Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers. Yeah. Yeah.

It's dove into a little bit more of details. Well, getting into suspects, other alternative suspects. If, you know, again, this case is, it's kind of frustrating because you read one thing. or you see something and you think, oh, well, sure, this is what happened. You read something else about the same thing and you're like, oh, well, there's no way it could have happened that way. It's a very frustrating case. And I think that's why you have a lot of division.

Again, tons of people that think these three teenagers are guilty, tons of people that think they aren't. It's not as one-sided towards their innocence as I would have thought before fully diving into the research. Yeah. No, I agree with you on that. So if you're in the camp that does not believe they're guilty, this episode we do get into alternative suspects for sure. All right, Gibbs, you ready? I am. For this episode of true crime all the time? So ready. We're talking about a man named Reginald Brooks. We're going back to the early 80s. I know this is your heyday. This is kind of your sweet spot post studio 54, but primetime gibby.

Still wearing the half shirts? Sure. Yeah. The mesh. With your nipple poking through. Both of them. Well, just one. You only have one.

Something we haven't disclosed to the listeners. Only one good one now. You only one good one. Yeah. But we're talking about March of 1982. And by that time, Reginald Brooks, was a man that was spiraling out of control. There were signs of mental illness.

This guy was just mad. Gibbs, I think he was mad at the world in general, but I think especially he was very upset with his wife. And he was looking for revenge. And he chose to carry out what, you know, has to be the most heinous murders that any father could commit.

The murder of his own. children. It's awful, man. I mean, how do you get worse than that? We cover a lot of crimes. I don't think you can. But to kill your own children. Yeah, I mean, that's a kids should feel safe when they're around their parents. Sure. You know? And there's no doubt that he committed the murders. We're going to talk about all of it in detail. I think the real question that people are going to be asking themselves at the end of this episode is why. This is not a who done it. This is a why. Why did he do it? Right. How can you make that decision? And really what motivated him? Because we'll get into it. Was it to get back at his wife? Was it because he was upset with his kids? Part of the problem is Reginald Brooks has never really given a coherent answer for why he chose to do what he did. Not even with his last breath. No, which is very interesting that we'll get to at the end. But I think that's kind of where you get to.

into this whole scenario of why? Because he's never said. Right. Now, other people have said for him. Other people have speculated. But from his own mouth, we've never heard the real reason why. And this is another case Gibbs that takes place in our home state of Ohio. Yeah, we got a lot going on in Ohio. We do. We're in the East Cleveland area this time. I don't know what it says about where we live, but well it's all that cold winters i know that's what you always say it's the dairy well we're not in wisconsin i mean yeah we got dairy but the the bacon yeah we do have a lot of bacon don't eat the bacon i don't know no i don't know either i don't know what causes it but it's there so reginald brooks was born on march 20th 1945 like some of the ones we've had lately gibbs they've just been

different types of stories there's not a lot out there on his childhood This is not a well-known killer, obviously not a serial killer, but he was described as a good student, was described as a pretty popular kid while he was in school. And I think he had a fairly normal childhood. You know, things seemed to go well for him as a youngster. And then into his early adulthood, around 1965, he married a woman named Beverly. Beverly three years younger than he was. So I'm kind of filling in the blanks here, Gibbs.

You can do it too. I'm using my limited mass skills. I'm not as good as you are. I'm putting him at around 20 years old, which would mean this Beverly is about 17. I can concur. Okay. I appreciate that.

Dr. Dr. Dr. Doctor. Doctor. They went on to have three boys. Reginald Jr. Vaughn.

and Newarkos. I've never seen that name ever. And I can concur that's three boys as well. Thank you. Yes. Sorry. That kind of cracked me up. And I do think Gibbs, for a time, they were happy, right?

The marriage was pretty good. Family members have described the early years as happy times. For Reginald, Beverly, the kids growing up, They said that he had a very good relationship with all three of his young sons. But we know that's not going to last, right? Obviously, we've already kind of spoiled it. He murders his sons. So at a certain point, things started to change.

And family members said they began seeing signs from Reginald that he was having issues mentally. In 1975, he was arrested and convicted of grand theft. Oh, man. Remember the first time you stole a car? I actually do. Yeah. I actually do. It was with my buddy. I probably told the story before. It was his mom's car. So, yeah. I don't know if it was grand theft, but it was. No charges were pressed. There was no charges pressed, but we definitely borrowed a car at 14 and, and did it multiple time. Yeah, been there done that. When we shouldn't have not, number one, been driving or driving that car. I had a buddy that stole a police car. Did you?

Yeah. Didn't go well for him. No, that doesn't seem like it would go well at all. He drank too much and he thought he was going to be cute and jumped in the police car. So he didn't get off easy like they did in the hangover? No. Did not go well. Just have to get stunned gunned.

We watched him go bye-bye. He was out the next day. But they taught him a lesson. What was that lesson? Don't ever get in a police car in the front seat and think that you're going to drive away in it. Did he get a slap on the wrist? Yeah, he got a little slap on the wrist. Well, I know you hate that, but I'm assuming he didn't go on to commit much more heinous crimes in the future.

No, he didn't. Like the people that we talked about. No, no, no, no. No, this was this a stupid high school kid, man. Like we all were. Yeah. But for this grand theft conviction, he got a sentence of two years probation. So that's a slide.

I'd call that a slap. That's definitely a slap there. I think anytime you're not doing a hard time, you know, for a felony, I think you got off pretty easy. Yeah. But it was around this same time that he quit his job because he thought Gibbs, his coworkers were trying to poison him. Maybe they were. Well, maybe they were. Remember that time I tried to poison you at work before you got displaced?

That did not go well. No. I was laid up for quite a while. I don't know what's going on, man. I'm like, I don't know either, man. Here, drink this. Just keep drinking this. It'll make you better.

Yeah. But were they trying to poison him? Or like we mentioned, was this a, you know, some type of mental illness really starting to come out in Reginald Brooks? I kind of think it was the latter. So he didn't work for a number of years leading up to the murders. His wife, Beverly, was left to provide for the family. Then his grandmother died. And it was his grandmother that really raised him.

He was extremely close to her. And again, family members started to talk about Reginald because he didn't attend her funeral. Really? And they knew something wasn't right. Yeah, I can't imagine. I mean, my granny was everything, man. I would never have missed her funeral. No way.

Yeah. He became extremely withdrawn. He became paranoid. And it wasn't just at work. I said at work, he thought his coworkers were trying to poison him. He began to think that he wasn't even safe at home. He started to think his wife was trying to poison him. Maybe other family members were getting in on the act.

Maybe his wife was. Maybe she was. But I do think he was getting very paranoid, much like yourself. That's why I bring my own sealed bottles in. You do. And if I get up and leave for a minute, I'd take it with you. Take it with me or I bring another one in. Well, I don't know. Is that paranoia or is that just keeping your head on a swivel?

I think you could look at that a couple of different ways. Well, it's always on a swivel. And it should be around me. Well, not anybody anymore. Exactly. Yeah. But it was said that he would lock himself in a room for extended periods of time. One of his cousins later came out and told a reporter that she saw him staring at the television screen late at night.

this was long after the programming had gone off remember we're talking early 80s i mean you remember this gibbs i know you do a lot of people won't at a certain point in time you know around midnight one o'clock there just wasn't anything on television no it was just no because literally there was no programming after a certain time drove me crazy it did you would turn the tv on and absolutely nothing. Nata. And you didn't have a whole lot of options until like the VCR came along. Yeah.

Things like that. Eventually you got the beginning of cable MTV. No, no, no, no, no. ESPN. I was going to say that's ESPN. But that's where then we got Celebrity Death Match comes. That's back in the day when MTV actually played music videos. Yeah.

Now they just play. They don't play any music videos as far as I know. Teen, team mom, baby. Team mom, Jersey Shore or something. Yeah. Yeah, I don't do like the Mike and Gibby show. They should. Just saying.

It's kind of like what they did with Beavis and Butthead. Are you? I'm Beavis. You beat me too. Which I don't think is any better. I was like, I was debating like who. I'm like, I don't know if I was going to say, I'm Beavis, but I don't know if Beavis is when you really want to be too.

They were both kind of just morons. Yeah. But imagine this family member, you know, watching him, he's just staring at the screen, staring at the snow. So they recognized something was wrong. His wife began noticing that things were not right. She tried to get him help. But Reginald, he wasn't having it.

I think mental illness was consuming him. And he just wasn't being treated. But it wasn't for a lack of trying. And I think that's important. In a lot of the research, they talk about the fact that his wife tried to get him to get help several times, he just wouldn't do it. Well, I mean, he's got to realize he needs help first. And it is hard to help people that do not want to be helped. Yeah. The problem with Reginald was there was a history of mental illness in his family. So I don't

think that that helped him. It's possible that he had some type of predisposition to mental illness. But I think, so as you can only imagine, right? the relationship between Reginald and Beverly became strained. Because look at it on the outside. She's busting her ass. She's the only one working, raising three boys. I don't know how much he was helping with the boys. He's definitely not helping to put food on the table.

He's paranoid. He's showing signs of mental illness. None of this makes for a happy merit. That would just be rough. You know, you're coming home, working all day. You know, he's sitting on the couch. couch, not doing anything again. You won't take your advice, won't go get to help to try to be, you know, productive for the

family. He's not doing anything. He's just being basically being lazy all the time. Yeah, I mean, my wife gets upset with me if I have a day off or I'm at home with nothing to do and I don't do the dishes or, you know, pull my weight. Understandably, she's a little miffed about it. So just imagine this situation. You know it's not going well.

So he's acting odd. He's acting strange. But then at a certain point, he starts to become verbally and physically abusive. So now we're in a whole different level here. He accused his wife of having an improper relationship with their oldest son, Reginald Jr. Really? So he got it into his mind that they're having sex. I think that's just a weird thing, the statement for him to say. without having anything to back that up with. No, but it's important, right? I think it goes to his mindset. What's going on in his mind?

I don't believe this was true. I don't think they were having any type of improper relationship, but for some reason, in his head, he was convinced of it. He just thought they must be doing this. There were arguments nonstop in the house. Brooks started being very tough on the kids. And apparently when Beverly would try to step in, that's when he got physical with her. And she later said that's when she made the decision to divorce him.

This was around 1981. She made the decision then, but she wouldn't go through with it until the next year. And really just prior to the murder. So this brings us up to 1982. Reginald Jr. is 17 years old. Vaughn is 15 and Nyarkos is a woman. So I mentioned fights going on in the home. And there was one incident that occurred about five weeks before the murders that really stands out. So Reginald got into an argument with 15-year-old Vaughn about his homework. That happens. My kids and I argue about doing their homework and they don't want to do it. They want to put it off. Wake up. Do your homework. Yep. That's what I was always told growing up. So you were supposed to do it the morning of? No.

After school. Oh, because you were asleep? Took a little nap. Oh. Yeah. So you've always been lazy. Even as a kid? Is that what you're saying?

I'm a great work. I'm just with school work. See, it's all coming together now, isn't it? As far as my English grammar skills. Right. Yeah. No, I'm just giving you a hard time. The problem with this interaction,

apparently Reginald didn't like some of the answers that he got back from his 15-year-old son. And he hit Vaughn. Beverly jumped in. She tried to break this up and Brooks got really rough with her, pushed her around, hit her. So there's a big ruckus going on. And this brought 17-year-old Reginald Jr. into the room with his younger brother.

And they tag teamed and wrestled their father down to the ground, held him down to end this fight, to stop what was going on. Well, I mean, no kid wants to see their dad beating up on their mom. No, no. And this kid's 17 years old. Yeah. He's probably big enough to stand up to his dad a little bit at this point. And if he's got his brother with him, the two of them were able to do it.

But Reginald was not happy because as they're wrestling him down to the ground, he said something very prophetic. He said to them, you're all dead. You know, that's not something you want to hear as a kid coming out of your father's mouth, but it's also, I mean, knowing what's going to happen, that's pretty alarming. I get upset with my kids. I do. I yell at them sometimes. Some things I say things that I wish I could take back.

Yeah. Things that in the heat of the moment, I wish I wouldn't have said. But never in my life have I thought of threatening to kill. kill my kids or saying you're all dead. I would never say that. No. Well, that's a whole different level. All right, Gibby, let's take a quick break to talk about our sponsors. Listen, you and I both know how hard it is to hire the right person. But there's one place you can go where hiring is simple, fast, and smart. That place is ziprecruiter.com slash teacat. ZipRecruiter sends your job to over 100 of the web's leading job boards, but they don't stop there. They have powerful matching technology

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There's really no way to know what was going on in this man's mind. But all the indications were that he was suffering from some type of mental illness. Reginald Brooks began to put things into motion about 10 days before he committed the murders. So on February 24th, he took a $140 cash advance on his credit card. The next day, he drove across town. He bought a 38 caliber revolver. He bought some ammunition to go with it. Later on, during the investigation, police learned that on the federal government,

gun registration form, Brooks lied to the question of whether he'd been arrested for a felony. Because remember he had, he was arrested for grand theft. Got his two years. He had a felony on his record, though. But when he filled out the gun registration form, he checked no, that he didn't. This was 1982, much different than it is today. Today, he would never pass the background check. It just his name alone should have flagged the system, I would think.

Well, you still, like, so you still fill out a form, right? And I know I think you've purchased a handgun before. You still fill out a form, but it's not like the honor system. You're going through a federal background check to the FBI. They know whether or not really quickly you have a felony on your record or not. Exactly. But back then, apparently you just filled out the form however you wanted. If you wanted to lie, you lied. And as long as you answered the questions, the right way, and I'm using that in air quotes, because the right way for Reginal would be whatever way he's going to get him the gun, you'd get your gun. The person that sold him the gun would later ID him as the man that bought it. So Brooks has a gun. But what's he planning to do? What thoughts are going through his mind at this point?

Again, there's really no way to know exactly. What we do know is that between the time Brooks bought the gun and the time he committed the murders, his wife, Beverly, had him served with divorce papers. Well, right there it could have been enough. You know, if he didn't want to leave the marriage, if he didn't want to lose her, you know, those divorce papers might have just pushed him over the edge. And one side is going to claim that. We'll talk about it a little bit more as we go.

and I do believe this is a tough situation for her. You know, she made the decision somewhat earlier on the year before. She wanted to get out of the marriage. But she also knows that he's not quite right. He's not stable. But what she didn't know was that he recently bought a handgun. Because up until that point, they didn't have any guns in the house. And there's no way, Gibbs, that she could have known that in just a few days,

Reginald Brooks would kill all three of her sons. So this brings us to the events of Saturday, March 6th, 1982. Beverly was told earlier in the week that she had to work on Saturday. And that was unusual for her. She worked at an insurance agency. Normally she didn't work on Saturday, but she had to go in for whatever reason. And this was something that Reginald knew. She had told him.

So then on Thursday of that week, two days before the murders, he got the divorce papers. And he was furious. You know, for those two days leading up to the murders, the strain in the house increased significantly. There was already a lot of strain. But now it is constant arguing. Why are you doing this? I can't believe you're doing this. Beverly later said that he told her, he wasn't going to sign.

him. He was going to burn the papers. So we get to Saturday and Beverly left the house that morning before 7.30 at 7.30 to head into work. When she left, Reginald was at the house. He was away. But the three boys were still sleeping their beds. And this is Gibbs not one of those cases where we're going to dive into the trial all that much. It's not really that tough of a case to figure. year out. Right. Exactly. So some of the things that will come up and trial, we'll just weave them in as we go. A neighbor testified that at around 7.30, Brooks was out walking his dog. Another neighbor who lived directly above the Brooks family testified that she heard a loud bang around 8 a.m., which at the time she thought could have been a car backfiring. She also testified.

that the stereo was turned way up and stayed that way for the rest of the day. And that's something that the prosecution contended was an act deliberate by Brooks to mask the sound of the gunshot. Well, it sounds premeditated to me. No, it is. There's no doubt about it. A female friend of Reginald Jr. called the house sometime after eight. and spoke with his dad.

She asked Reginald Senior if she could speak with Junior and he said, I'm afraid not. I am afraid not. She called the house several more times that day, but there was no answer. So Beverly Brooks had worked her day. She got home around 3.45. She walked into the house and found the three boys in their room. They were still in their PJs.

So she's just thinking they're asleep. Yeah, she would later say it looked as though they were still asleep. Now, it's 3.45. My kids will sleep in pretty late in the summer or on the weekends, but 345 is very late. But that's what it looked like to her. But she quickly realized what she was looking at. And it was an unimaginable scene. So all three of her sons, Reginald, Vaughn, and Nyarkos had been shot to death.

The two oldest boys were in their bunk beds and the youngest was in his own bed. She had to be beyond panicked. And she immediately began looking for her husband. But Reginald's nowhere to be found. And I don't think it's possible, Gibbs, for us to even fathom a mother's anguish in coming home to find this scenario. You just can't do it unless I think somehow you've lived through it. and how many of us have, hopefully not many of us have.

Right. It's horrible. It's heartbreaking, man. My heart does break a little each time. I think when we talk about parents finding their children dead. Well, this is not supposed to be that way, right? Never. No, what's the old saying?

You're never supposed to bury your child. Right. Right. Isn't that the same? Yeah. Or you're never supposed to outlive your child. I've heard that one too. But Beverly was able to compose herself enough to call the police.

They arrive on the scene. And as she's talking to them, she told them. I don't know what's going on. They asked her if they kept a gun in the house. She said no. She also told them that one of her suitcases was missing. So police get inside. They discover that each boy had sustained a single gunshot wound to the head.

And it was reported that the youngest boy, Nyarkos, was shot while his sheet was covering his head, shot through the sheet. But they can't find Reginald. So right away, they know something's not right here. They begin an all-out search for him. But before we get into that search, Gives, I do want to spend a minute or two talking about these three boys and how amazing they were. Everyone in the entire neighborhood had nothing but love and respect for all three. One neighbor who babysat the boys over the years said that the oldest boy, Reginald Jr., he would come by and sweep her sidewalk, remove snow, take out the trash, just on his own. She didn't even ask him to do it.

Man, I have to ask my kids to do that stuff. That's how good this boy was. Right. I mean, he literally is taking it upon himself to do something nice for his neighbor. Yeah. Not even his direct family. That's amazing. Not even getting money for it. No, just because he wants to do the right thing. I think it was just the type of person that he was. But it wasn't just him. She said, you know, all the boys, they would come over. They would sit on her porch. They would just sit and talk. These were nice kids who, it seems, had been. raised up correctly, at least from their mother, for sure.

Yeah, I agree with that. And it's something that you and I question a lot. You know, what would these kids have gone on to do? Maybe something historic. I don't know. Yeah, we'll never know. We'll never know. That's the sad part about it.

But I think you're right. I think they were a really good kid. So I think they would have had a really good life and done something amazing. Well, at least you would think they would be good people. for sure for sure so the police are looking for Brooks he left the house after shooting his children but before his wife got home he packed two different suitcases one was his one was his wife's the one that she told police was missing one of the suitcases contained all of the things that he thought he would need to create a new identity so he had in there his high school diploma his

birth certificate, some other things that once he got wherever he was going, he thought this would help him create a new identity. Now, I don't really know how that does help because not if you had somebody else's birth certificate, somebody else's high school diploma. That might work for you. But again, I don't know how, you know, intelligent he is at this point. But more likely, I just don't know how in his right mind he is. Obviously, he's not. he just killed his three children. In the other suitcase, he had the murder weapon and the box of ammo. So Brooks went to the bus station and he bought a ticket to Las Vegas, Nevada.

But police pretty quickly were able to trace his credit card, probably not as quickly as they could do today. Not in 1982. Right. But they were able to do it. And they figured out that he boarded a bus, the day of the month. murders just a little bit before 11 a.m. You remember back then that's when you needed to see if a card was stolen or fraudulent. You had to look up the digits in that little book, right?

Book magazine thing, which, I mean, if you were working back then, you probably didn't look up every credit card that way. This is be real. Well, you didn't with your work ethic. Well, I just put in that little carbon machine and went, there you go. I do miss the carbon paper. credit card machine. Yeah.

There was something satisfying about racking that thing back and forth. Hearing that thing do that, you thought, yeah. Much different than today, you just, you know, you put it in that little slot, you put your number in or whatever. Not as fun. Not as fun. Or you slide it. Much more safe, though, today.

Oh, yeah. The early days of credit cards were pretty easy because you're leaving behind a carbon copy of your credit card. So somebody without scruples pretty much has a print and all your information. Yeah. No wonder that guy from the movie with Leonardo. Remember when he did all those fake checks and... Oh, catch me if you can.

Yeah. I was getting worried there because Leonardo, and there's only one Leonardo in the movie business that I can think of, but he's only made about 8,000 movies. Yeah, yeah, well, he's been around. So for you to say, remember? remember that one movie with Leonardo, but I got it. Well, I was trying to remember the other guy with him. Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks. Yeah. Yeah, he's nothing. Yeah, he's not gone on to do anything. He ain't no Leo. He ain't no Leo. I was trying to remember one of the most famous actors of our generation. What is

his name? He's only won like three Oscars or something like that, right? Yeah. He's won a bunch. I don't know how many. Yeah. All right, Gibbs. Let's take our last break to talk about Warby Parker. Warby Parker is a collaboration between four close friends. It was founded with a rebellious spirit. and a lofty goal to create boutique quality eyewear at a revolutionary price point. Every pair is custom fit with anti-reflective polycarbonate prescription lenses. And their glasses started just $95. And that price includes the prescription lenses. My wife is wearing her pair of Warby Parkers and she loves them.

She actually got the ones with the transition lenses. She's never had them before. And she was blown away with how easy the free home try-on program. was. She just went on the website, ordered five pairs of glasses. You get to try them on for five days, and then you pick the one you want. But there's no obligation to buy. They ship free and include a prepaid return shipping label. So to try this out, go to Warbyparker.com slash teacat. To order your free home tryons today, that's Warbyparker.com slash teacat. So they figure out that he boarded this bus and they know where it's going. They catch up with him in Utah.

Sweet Utah. Sweet Utah. When police confronted Brooks, he told them that he only had one piece of luggage. And it was like this bag or I called it a suitcase, but it was probably more like a bag that he had with him, like personally on him. So they took him into custody. Search the bag. It's the one that has his birth certificate, his high school diploma, some clothes, other things. But while they have him in custody,

They found another baggage claim check on him. So police called the bus company. And they found out that there was a suitcase matching the description on the baggage claim check in Las Vegas. It also happened to be the same description that Beverly gave police of her missing suitcase. And obviously, not surprisingly, the piece of luggage that he didn't want them to find contained. contained the murder weapon, contained the ammunition. And even when they confronted him with the suitcase,

he told them that it wasn't his. I don't know what that is. Not mine. Not mine. Even though I have the ticket for it, police would later be able to pull fingerprints from some of the items inside the suitcase, proving his connection to the gun.

Because that's the big thing, right? The gun's in there. Got to connect. that to him, because later on, ballistics are going to prove that that 38 caliber revolver inside the suitcase was the gun that killed all three boys. Experts later testified at trial that two of the three bullets found at the crime scene came from that revolver. And the third was so badly deformed that they couldn't make a conclusive determination. But no doubt, Gibbs, they had all the evidence they needed. That's why I said, we're not really going to go into

trial. I'll give a couple of things and weave it in, but it's, it's almost like a non-trial, even though there was a trial. And it really didn't take them long, right? To catch up with him, to figure all this out. The murders happened on March 6th. He was indicted on March 10th. So within four days, they had not only caught him, but indicted him for the three murders. So it was three counts of aggravated murder, but also attached to it was the death penalty specification. They were going to go after the death penalty for sure.

Well, should have. But his trial wouldn't begin until the fall of the next year because Brooks is going to have to go through some psychiatric evaluations. And he did. They concluded that he was competent to stand trial. And he waived his right to a jury trial. So instead, he had a panel of three judges that would listen to all the evidence and decide his faith. The prosecution introduced evidence regarding the situation in the home leading up to the murders, the fact that he was served divorce papers just two days prior to the murder. They brought up the domestic violence issues that had occurred in the home prior to the

murders. All good signs of what was probably going to happen. Yeah. Yeah. I think they were really pushing this kind of revenge angle, right? He had just received these divorce papers. He wasn't happy about them. Kind of like what you were saying.

and he took it out on the kids in a way to get back at Beverly. They introduced the evidence proving that he not only bought a gun prior to the murders, but it was the same gun that was found on him by police and that ballistics proved was the murder weapon. On September 23rd, the three judge panel found Brooks guilty of all three counts of aggravated murder. Then in November, there was a hearing to determine whether or not the mitigating factors involved in the murders warranted the death penalty. And the judges, after hearing everything, found that they did and they sentenced Reginald Brooks to death. So remember, this is early 80s. You know, and I know

there's a lot of people that are borderline on the death penalty, you know, do you, or very anti. Or yeah, or definitely should not happen. Sure. But I guess if you think about what he did, if you had to ever say something weren't the death penalty, I don't know, killing your own kids. So Brooks is going to go through all his normal appeals, right?

You get a lot of different appeals when you're handed down the death penalty. He didn't win any of his appeals. He also went before the Ohio parole board and was denied clemency. I can see them denying that easily. Well, I think the big issue was his mental illness. And I kind of hinted at this earlier on, but his defense team argued that he was mentally ill and that he believed his sons were a threat to him in his mind, that he had to take them out. So this is where they're going to say he wasn't confident.

Right. So that was their argument to say he's not competent. competent to be executed. However, he was competent enough to charge money to his credit card, competent enough to go out and buy the gun and the ammo. I mean, right? I mean, he knew what he was doing when he bought it. I believe so.

Clearly, you could have an argument on either side, but I think if you just look at his tracking the days before and see the movements that he made, I think he knew what he was planning to do. Now, the prosecution conceded that he was mentally ill. But, and I think maybe this goes to your point, Gibbs, his mental illness, they argued, was not so severe as to keep him from being executed. I don't think there's a way for anybody to be 100% sane if you're going to kill your kids. I just don't know how you can be.

On purpose. On purpose. Yeah. So the parole board in making their decision, they said, he never admitted that he killed his sons, even though the evidence was overwhelming against him. This really was kind of an open and shut thing. The evidence was kind of a no doubter. And he's given a number of, I guess what you'd call Gibbs theories over the years as to what happened to his three sons. He's tried to pin the murders on his brother. He said that he must

have had a lookalike. Oh, the old doppeldinger? Yeah. Dopplganger. Doppelganger? What'd you say? Dopplanger. I don't know.

Well, you know, if you got a doppel danger, you're doing really good. You need to have a doctor look at that right away. Yeah. Yeah, he has said that he had a doppel ganger. I'm not sure why I'm putting the emphasis on it other than to point out that I didn't say it. Yeah. Yeah. There must have been a man that looked just like him that committed.

committed the murder. He's even said that the police were involved. His wife was involved. Oh, a conspiracy. Yep. They were in cahoots together. They were trying to frame him. I mean, he's, he's basically thrown everything against the wall. It's been a while since I heard cahoots. Cahutes. Yeah. You're in cahoots other than the fact that he did it and he did it alone. I'm surprised he didn't throw me in it. Maybe he did. Gibby and his K-bar was a in town. Must have been him. If you were a little bit older. Yeah, that'd be a little bit older. And have no soul. Well, yeah. Not just the age. You'd have to have zero soul to you. But I think, you know, the big thing was, you know, obviously not admitting to it, but never showing an ounce of

remorse or regret for what he did. There are people Gibbs that I think believe he doesn't believe he did it. In his mind, he has made himself believe he didn't do this. He was given the opportunity to speak before the Pearl Board, and he chose not to. Well, that's not going to help your case either. They want to see remorse. They want to see that you've changed, you know, that you are willing to write your wrong. Well, I think if you're trying to save your life, the least you could do is show up and talk to whoever it is. So basically, he's trying to pull a Morgan Freeman and that movie. Shawshank Redemption. Yeah. At the end there where he's like, only one of the highest graded

movies of all time. One of my favorites too. I know, but you can't remember it. You got Morgan Freeman though. Yeah, man, Morgan Freeman. He's good. So you get what I call partial points. Good. I get some credit. You get some credit. Yeah. Not full credit. Well, I never get full credit, even when I'm 100% on. That's not true. I gave you extra credit. I think it was last week. Did you? for knowing something that I was shocked that you came up with. And right now neither one of us know what that is. I can't remember what it is. But going back to this, you know, clemency thing, did he think, ah, why bother?

There's no way that they're going to, you know, let me out. Not a snowball chance in the hell that they're going to say, not let him out. They weren't, they were never going to let him out, but pardon his death sentence, right? Convert it to life. life. Maybe he wanted to die. I don't know. I guess I can only think what I would do. I'd be trying everything pulling rabbits out of hats, trying everything I could to get out of being put to death. It's prison. You don't have a hat. So if you're pulling a rabbit out, it's out of somewhere else. It's out of somewhere else. That's a magic trick that you do not want to be involved in. No.

Don't even hand me the rabbit when you pull it out. I call that Gibby magic. So I mentioned this. I stressed the fact that it was the early 80s because we have to talk about how long Reginald Brooks was in prison. It was almost 30 years. His execution wasn't carried out until November 2011. He was arrested in 1982, early in 1982. It's almost 30 years, Gibbs. That's amazing. It really is. So out of the almost 30, 27 of those were on death row. And I know you and I have gone over this before, right? Our system has checks and balances, the appeal process for good reason. There's been a lot of wrongful convictions.

There have been people put to death only to find out later they didn't do it, but 27 years. That seems like a very long time. That's a haul, man, especially when you know he did it. I mean, there's no, there's no disputing was it him or somebody else. when you factually there was no I mean yeah I know he's saying it was my doppelganger it was my wife it was the police it was my lookalike brother now I think people would make the argument that in some of these other cases they have said it's a slam dunk no doubt no doubt this person did it on a scale of one in 10 it's 11 it's an 11 yeah as they said in the west Memphis case to find out later these people didn't do it I'm not talking about the west Memphis case

about, you know, some of the exonerations that have happened over the years. Sure. I bet at the time these people were found guilty, there were tons of people that thought, no-brainer, no doubter, no way in the world, this person didn't commit this crime or murder or whatever it is. I mean, I guess you can always have a percentage, right? Yeah. You can always have a percentage.

I'm not sure to what or for anything, really. Really? I mean. For how many times? you know, I'm right, you're right. Well, the percentages are much larger when we get into if I'm right over you. That's true. Things like that.

At least a half percent more. You just make a statement that says, well, I guess you can have a percentage. Well, yeah. A percentage for what? Of what? Everybody listening knows what I'm talking about. They're like, he's just said it, Mike. Come on.

The sad part is I'll get so many emails that say, quit picking on Gibby. Well, that's just what you do, man. What would the show be if we didn't mess up? around with each other. I know. I mean, I noticed you brought out the wood chair again today. Bring him back the history of the wood chair. So somebody joined Patreon. They were going through some of the old posts. Yeah. They saw the, the new chairs. Yeah. They want to see the picture of the old chairs. I haven't put it on there yet. Okay. And then somebody chimed in, well, well, we got to see the wooden slatted, slotted chair. It feels good when you sit on it for two minutes. That one's going to be tough to get a

picture of since it's a figment of your imagination. No, no. Your wife did some crafts out of it, but she made something out of it. What was it? Remember she made this crates or something? Yeah. Out of your old chair. Yeah. That's cute. So 27 years on death row prior to his execution, Brooks ordered his last meal. So we have last meal talk. Oh, the last meal. And this was back before they curb the exorbitant last meals, right? This is... This is anything goes. It seemed like it.

He had quite a haul. He had some lasagna, some chili cheese fries, which I know you like. Hey, chili cheese fries, man. Garlic bread. Oh, yeah. Moose tracks ice cream. Oh, that's good stuff. Chocolate cake.

Yeah. Caramels. I love caramels. Caramel. Depending on how you say it. And what you're using it for. He had some beef jerks. Well, we know we like beef jerky.

Which is right up our alley. Yeah. He had some assorted nuts. Well, you had a lot of that in prison anyway. He had some root beer. Gotta have some root beer, man. To wash down your assorted nuts. Oh, that one cracked me up.

Now, it's not quite the way that I would go. I was going to say, we've talked about it before, but time has changed since last time you told me what you would have. Mm-hmm. You know, I don't think you would have one of your juicing things. No. That you had today. No, definitely not. So what would be your...

I don't think it has changed. Really? No. I would have a filet mignon from the pine club. Oh yeah, that's good. In downtown Dayton. Yeah. With all the trimmings.

Medium? Medium rare. Medium on the filet because it's still really pink. Even medium's really pink. Yeah. Oh, so good. It's good stuff, man. If you don't know what the pine club is, look it up.

Oh, that's one of the best steakhouses. It's generally listed as one of the top five, top ten steakhouses in the country. Sometimes top two. If you're vegetarian, skip the filet and just get the stewed tomatoes. Yeah, they do have good stewed tomatoes. I mean, I like all of those things. I like lasagna. I like, you know, it just seems like lasagna, really?

Yeah, the filet, you had me sold to the filet. I mean, I wouldn't have stopped there. I would have kept all gone. Oh, yeah, there would be more than that. I mean, I might go crab legs. I might throw a lobster tail in there. What can I, whatever I can get away with. Yeah.

Some mushroom risotto. Yeah. I really like risotto. A good risotto. You don't make it. Some sushi. I like sushi. You love sushi.

What else? A bowl of Chipotle. You gotta have that. If this is my last meal, I'm going to have to have some Chipotle. A little bit of a... Or Chapolte. A chipolte, as I say. As you call it.

And maybe a little bit of your Panda Express. Oh, I like Panda too. Yeah. What about dessert? I'm not a big dessert person. This is your last dessert. Is there any, like, bread pudding or... Oh, no.

Red velvet cake, I like. German chocolate cake, I like. I like German chocolate. I remember the girls at work used to get you some German chocolate sometimes. I don't eat a lot of cake. There's a little bun cake place down the street that makes the... They're just a little bitty bunk cakes. You go down there and shop for them?

I don't get them. You go down there and get you a little bunk cake. My girls go down there and they'll bring one home. They brought me a white raspberry chocolate. chocolate raspberry. It was awesome. Was it real raspberry or artificial raspberry? I don't know. It's important. It's baked inside. I just tell you this. Artificial raspberry flavoring comes from the anal glands of beaver. So think about that next time you're eating something as the raspberry flavor, but it's not real raspberry. Well, I feel like we should have the more you know

ding from the NBC thing. So now you know from Gibby. Somebody right now is eating some faux raspberry. So he had this big meal. That's the other thing I always think about. How much food would I really want to eat? Because there's a part of me that thinks I might be worried that I would poop myself. Well, when you die, you poop yourself anyway. Just mean the volume of food?

Yeah. So you're not going to be there to clean it up anyway. So that's the counter argument is, was it matter? Yeah. Actually, it's that guy that cleans it up. I'm very strange like that. know for a fact that would go through my head. Yeah. I'm thinking the guy that has to clean everything up when it's all done. He's going, are you kidding me? Really? You gave him lasagna? Now I have to get the bigger

bucket. Four helpings of lasagna. Yeah. So after that, he visited with his brother. He visited with his attorneys, went to bed around 11 p.m. And he got up at 5.30. But here's where I found strange. Gibbs. It was reported that he didn't make a single phone call. He didn't write one letter in the time leading up to his execution. Now, he'd been on death row for 27 years. So maybe he just didn't have outside of his brother, he didn't have anybody to call. He didn't have anybody to write a letter to. Kind of makes me think of a few good men a little bit. Well, yeah. I mean, Santiago is going away for the rest of his life. Why wouldn't he wrote somebody? And he hasn't called a soul. No. And he hasn't packed a thing. Not one. And I'm going away just for a quick getaway,

and I've got all my stuff packed. Yeah, that's exactly how it went. You can't handle the truth. So his ex-wife, Beverly, gave this statement prior to his execution. I hope he goes just like my children went. That's all I have to say to him. I don't ever want to see him again, not alive. life. It's all I have to say to him. I think that's all she had to say to him. I think that's all she wanted to say. Quick and to the point. She wants him to go away.

Yeah. She never wants to see him again. She wants him to feel what her kids felt. But I will say this. 30 years she had to wait for his execution. That does seem like a long time. Yeah, I think that's, I mean, it's kind of a torture for her, really. To carry that burden.

To carry that on her shoulders for all that time. And he's not going to make the last day any easier for her. So he faced his execution on November 15th. He didn't make any last words, but he went double bird. Really? Yeah. You know, as some people do before they're put to death. Just put those fingers up there and shoved them out in people's faces, huh?

So he had one middle finger for the prison staff, but the other one was directly for his ex-wife. So he's classy. He's classy. Yeah, he's the wrong Burgundy. And it was reported as if he was really staring her down while he was flipping her off. But maybe the most interesting part is that he kept it going while they injected him all the way to the end. He wasn't going to drop the, no, he going to drop his arm. No, so he, they gave him the lethal dose of drugs.

He was pronounced dead at 204 p.m. With his left hand extended where it was strapped down, he made it obviously. gesture with his middle finger, which lasted all the way through from the time the juice started flowing until after he was dead. It was a defiant gesture up to and past death. And the family did say that they were upset. The Brooks was on death row for as long as he was, his youngest son, his youngest victim, would be about 40 years old. They did not comment on the gesture, obscene gesture he made during the execution. Dan, as you were there watching this happened and he made that gesture as he was being executed. Can you describe what, if any,

reaction there was around you when this happened? Well, the whole process, Lee, lasts about 30 minutes, 10 minutes of them setting him up as he was on the bed before they, right as they asked his last words, he said, do you have anything to say? He said, no, made the gesture. The family, the victim's family at the time, they were crying until that gesture was made. Then they gasped and were silent for the remaining 20 minutes of his execution. He went double bird for 20 minutes. Man, that's the longest he ever held anything up, I guess. Maybe, maybe not.

So it's funny that in our culture, man, the middle finger, you know, giving someone the middle finger can really make people upset. And you wonder why? Yeah, I mean, it's just somebody holding their middle finger. We know the meaning behind it. Sure. But, I mean... It's no different. Why is it different than the ring finger?

the index finger. Yeah, I'm just saying. If I give you the pinky. Yeah, give me the pinky, you know. I just think it's strange that we've allowed the middle finger to like really throw people off. Oh, yeah. You get the middle finger while you're driving down the road. It's like automatic road rage.

Yeah, it's on, right? So there was a really strange coincidence with the execution of Reginald Brooks. It just so happened that it took place in Ohio on the same exact day that, Oba Chandler was executed in Florida. Oh, wow. So, and we know what a monster that guy was. Oh, yeah. Man.

Good riddance to him. Yeah, no kidding. Well, and to both of them, really, such a horrible crime, a man killing his own children. And I think like you said in the beginning, Gibbs, the one man that above all others is supposed to keep the children safe. Yeah, you should never have to worry that your dad. That's going to hurt you. No, he's the protector. Should be.

He's the one that's going to come in and save the day. Now, I don't think there's any doubt that Reginald Brooks had some type of mental illness. It developed some years prior to the murders. There was a psychiatrist who evaluated Brooks in the years leading up to his execution. They diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia. post-traumatic stress disorder and psychogenic amnesia. Well, I think for sure we could have diagnosed him with the first two, not an expert in the third.

No, but I think that goes probably back to my point where there were people that honestly believed that he believed he didn't commit these murders. They know he did, but they genuinely felt like he believed he didn't. But as you mentioned, I also believe this was absolutely preemptive. meditated. You know, he bought the gun days before the murders. He waited for his opportunity. He knew that Saturday his wife had to go to work. And he even turned up the volume on the music because he knew that would, I guess, lessen the noise from the gun. But he also packed his bags, right? He made sure to take the murder weapon. He took things that he thought he would need to

start a new life. So he had some type of of mental illness, but he committed these premeditated murders of his three boys. And in the beginning of the episode, we said the question would be why. And I think I've already mentioned it, but, you know, the prosecution contended that this was revenge. This was him getting back at his wife for serving him with divorce papers. Yeah. You're going to leave me. You're going to leave me. I'll show you, I'll take everything that's precious to you and you never have it again. That's exactly what they thought. And again, his defense said he's mentally ill. He thought the kids were a threat to him. That's why it happened. But like I said, the problem is he never

came out and said why he did it. So we'll never know because obviously he's dead. Right. But that's it. That's the case of Reginald Brooks. Another monster to me. POS that killed his own kids. Yeah. I mean, I don't know how else to put it. We got some voicemails Gibbs. You want to check those out? Let's hear him.

Hey, guys. This is Mel speaking from New Zealand. I know that you have a lot of Australian listeners, and you probably have a lot of Kiwi listeners as well. So I just wanted to let you know that we listen to you down here at almost the bottom of the world. Your podcast is one of the very few American people. true crime podcast that I like to listen to. Both of you are very funny.

Your podcast, I haven't listened to Unsolved because I do like having an outcome to a story, but I might have too soon because I'm running out of your back catalog to listen to. So anyway, so just saying hi and keep up with good work and keep your own time ticking. Take-cha. Hey, mate. Well, actually, they don't call girls' mates. They call them.

Oh, you're going to get in trouble. I can just, I feel it. I feel trouble coming on. I'm trying to remember a crocodile Dundee. And basing. They call them a Sheila. A Sheila? A Sheila.

And basing your knowledge of, first of all, that's Australia. And we're talking about New Zealand. Oh, I thought she said Australia and then she talked about the- No, she's in New Zealand. She's a Kiwi? Yeah. Okay. She actually said that.

Why they call them Kiwi anyway? I don't know. They grow Kiwi's there? I don't know, but I really like her accent. A lot. A lot. A lot. A lot.

A lot. But I will say basing your knowledge of Australia from the Crocodile Dundee movies alone. I know. It's dangerous. Spot on. Welcome to Sydney. But we appreciate that. We do have a lot of listeners in Australia and a lot in New Zealand.

I'm going to go on New Zealand, Australian tour. Go walkabout. Do a walkabout with my K-bar. Protect myself. Actually, I think you would need it down there, man. I think so. They got, like, poisonous. I know.

Spiders and... They have a lot of things that will kill you. Yeah. That's the only thing that scares me about Australia. I might not come back. I'd like to go and visit,

but I don't want a dingo to eat my baby. There's a lot of stories about spiders and, you know, I wouldn't get in the water. I think there's a lot of dangerous stuff in the water. You ain't going to get near the ocean anyway. No, never. I hate the ocean.

Hey, guys. It's that about. So that's our legal correspondent, S. And I was this. saying the other day, absentia. You were saying that? I was thinking that's probably what we're talking about here, but we better wait and see.

From us. From us. What cracks me up about his voicemail was he said, well, and you're probably thinking, and then he said that we're spot on because he knew that's what we would be thinking. He knew it. We're just like on the same wavelength. He's giving us kudos for what he thinks we were probably going to ask him next. And right now he's thinking, damn, they're good.

Yeah. because that's exactly what we were thinking. He's like, and you were thinking absentia. Yeah, he's like, I knew Gibby was probably thinking that. I just wasn't positive. Now I know. Hi, guys. This is Caitlin from Michigan.

I'm a huge fan of podcast. I am slowly working my way through Unsolved. I've all caught up on True Crime all the time. I just had a suggestion for an episode. I'm from Kalamazoo. And in 2016, Jason Dalton killed six people in like, a free killing and injured two and he claimed it was under the um he claimed uber made him do it and the it is currently uh the trial is currently under so that would be really interesting i actually had to be like i was in town at the time it was happening and i had to be under lockdown and stuff um but yeah he just pleaded guilty and the trial's happening so yeah that'd be interesting thanks guys huge fan all right love it sounds like it's something we should keep our eye on for sure Uber made me do it do it it. Well, that's where my Uber experience comes in. You were an Uber driver. I was. Some good stories, too.

I had some great stories, man. Yeah. I actually miss it. I had such a good time. I didn't do it for that long, but I had a lot of fun. You didn't do it for the money. No. You did it for the free entertainment that you got out of it. I didn't make enough money to buy some of the equipment that we're using right now. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. But it was more about the stories and I just had a blast. We couldn't wait for you to come in the office after a night of Uber. And we're like, what's he going to say? this time. Because I did have a thought that I was going to do a podcast about that. Right. So it was one of the reasons why I started it too. Hey, Mike and Gibby. My name is Alisa. I'm down here in good old state of Alabama. I love you guys show out this in every single morning while I get ready for. And I want to just suggest a case that I just found out about early, early this morning, the case of Dominique Ray. He was executed last night, February 6, 2019 for the night. 1995 murder of Tiffany Harville.

So just take a look, see if you guys and do that on the podcast and just stay safe. If you're on time ticking, bye. All right, we're writing that one down. Got to check it out. Now, I will say it shows you how far behind we are on voicemails. Oh, yeah. Because she gave the date is February 6th. Alabama.

Alabama. All right, gives we had mailbag. We got mailbag? We had some great mailbag. Oh, yeah, we did. Emily Maronis sent us these very cool Yety-like. like tumblers. Yeah, with real blood on the outside. And they're like painted. She painted them. I was not painted, man. Mine's real blood. You handed it to me. And when I got home, I just kind of held it in

my hand, driving. And then when I got out, it came off. Yeah. I'm like, I swabbed it and sent it off. I'm waiting to find out. But it's cool. They say true crime all time on them. Mine says Mike or says Gibby. But on the bottom. Yeah. For yours, she put a K bar. A very good K bar. Actually, real accurate. Pretty talented. And then on the bottom of mine, she put a pistol. You can tell, she put a lot of work into it. It was really cool.

And it was cool what she did on the inside of mine. Did she do something on the inside of yours? No, no. I'm not going to tell you. Oh, okay. Yeah. And then Karen Parker Holt sent us some vegemite chips. Oh, those were actually good, man.

They were good. Speaking of Australia. Yeah. So everybody knows. I never tried the vegemite. Somebody sent me some in a tube one time. And I wanted to. I felt bad.

But if you saw it coming out of the tube, the way we seen it coming out of the tube, there was nothing. And the smell. Yeah, and the smell. It was nothing appetizing about it whatsoever. But what I will say is these chips, they're a combination of the vegemite and cheese. Yeah.

They're very good. You and I ate a whole bag. I thought he's eating cheeses, man. Yeah, they're very good. So we appreciate that. But now we can say that we've tried vegemite, not in its full form, but. Yeah. But we can.

kind of dance around a little bit. Sure. Have you tried a vegime? Yes. Yes, we have. All right, Gibbs. Anything else before we go? Just watch that artificial raspberry, man.

I know. You got to. And my one question about that is, how is that ever discovered? How does someone say, hey, beaver anal glands taste like raspberry? From a beaver's a noose? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I don't know.

Stranger things, man. All right. That is it for another episode of True Crime All the time. So for Mike and Gibby, stay safe and keep your own time ticking.