Let's Go To Court! - 185: The Clinton 12 & the Murder of Adrianne Reynolds
Episode Date: September 1, 2021Adrianne Reynolds had a tumultuous childhood. But when she turned 16, she moved to East Moline, Illinois to live with her adoptive father and stepmother, and it seemed that Adrianne was on steady grou...nd. She began working toward her GED at Black Hawk College Outreach Center, got a job at a fast food chain, and did chores around the house. She even made a few friends. At least, she thought they were her friends. Then Kristin tells us about the first court-ordered integration of a public school in the South. Black students had limited options in Clifton, Tennessee. The local school for black students lacked the resources of the white students’ public school. Plus, it only taught children through the eighth grade. If a black student in Clifton wanted to attend middle or high school, they had to be bussed to a school in Knoxville. On top of that, their parents had to pay tuition. To add insult to injury, most of the black folks in Clifton lived just a few yards away from Clifton High School. So, in 1950, a brave group of black students and their families fought the local school board for their right to equal education. And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases. In this episode, Kristin pulled from: The documentary, “The Clinton 12” “The Clinton Desegregation Crisis,” Blackpast.org “Clinton Desegregation Crisis,” by Carroll Van West for Tennessee Encyclopedia “The Clinton High School Desegregation Case,” by Linda T. Wynn for the Nashville Conference on African American History and Culture “Forgotten Heroes: Lessons from School Integration in a Small Southern Community,” by Whitney Elizabeth Cate for East Tennessee State University In this episode, Brandi pulled from: “Sarah Kolb” episode Snapped “Circle of Friends” episode Dateline “Sarah Kolb Part 1” True Crime Family: Killer Profile, podcast episode “Sarah Kolb Part 2” True Crime Family: Killer Profile, podcast episode “Sarah Anne Kolb” murderpedia.org YOU’RE STILL READING? My, my, my, you skeezy scunch! You must be hungry for more! We’d offer you some sausage brunch, but that gets messy. So how about you head over to our Patreon instead? (patreon.com/lgtcpodcast). At the $5 level, you’ll get 25+ full length bonus episodes, plus access to our 90’s style chat room!
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A proud member of Wayne's Auto Group.
One semester of law school.
One semester of criminal justice.
Two experts.
I'm Kristen Caruso.
I'm Brandi Egan.
Let's go to court.
On this episode, I'll talk about the Clinton 12.
And I'll be talking about the murder of Adrian Reynolds.
Are there other ways that you'd like to police my body, ma'am?
We just had to re-record our opening because Kristen's over here.
You guys can't see what I'm doing, but she was flailing her arms about.
Here's the thing.
Past two nights in a row, I have not slept well at all.
And now you're here. I'm feeling a little goofy. We had pie for lunch.
We did have pie. Now I've got coffee.
Life is good.
I don't mean to
brag to you people, but I had coffee
and pie today.
I've had
no coffee, but you know what I do have?
What? Oh, your
gross G Fuel stuff? Delicious, delicious G Fuel. had no coffee but you know what i do have what oh your gross g fuel delicious delicious g fuel
they have not reached out still trying to get a sponsorship and i would like to be sponsored by
pie just any just any pie what about like those edmunds frozen pies oh my god fuck no
those are terrible.
Did you know how I feel about those pies? I had no idea how you felt about those pies.
I feel very strong.
Those are terrible.
Okay.
There is.
Sorry, excuse for pie.
They were about to send us a bunch of pie and a bunch of money, and now they're like,
well, we don't like you either.
Please send only the money.
Welcome to the podcast, everyone.
Welcome to the podcast where we talk about pie.
Do you think we could do a pie podcast?
And we call it a pie-cast?
Each week, we sample a new pie, and then we just talk about it.
That sounds like a terrible podcast.
No, it sounds great.
It'd be like that SNL sketch. What would our reviews be like for that?
It'd be like, I came here for a straightforward story about whether a peanut butter pie would be good.
And now I'm listening to some story about butt plugs.
That's exactly what would happen.
That's exactly what would happen.
We'd go on a tangent.
That's exactly what would happen.
People would be pissed.
They'd barely tolerate us now.
Anyway.
Oh, boy.
I think we should just stick to eating pie and talking about pie with each other.
Maybe not.
Okay.
Yeah.
And we'll leave the butt plug talk to this podcast.
Darn right.
We do talk about it.
I have a kind of a line.
We were just talking about butt plugs before we started recording.
We were.
But not like, not sexual butt plugs.
Don't worry.
All the prudes were very ready to be offended.
They were clutching their burls.
Don't worry.
No pleasure involved. No, no. We're talking about to be offended. Yeah, they were clutching their burls. Don't worry. No pleasure involved.
No, no.
We're talking about when we die.
Yeah, they have to put a cork in your anus, basically.
And I said that.
You need two corks in your anus.
I said that's nice that they do that.
It's nice.
Well, I think that's a weird way to describe it.
Yeah, it's really nice.
I mean, you enjoy spending all of eternity with a cork in my butt.
I'm just saying, for the people who show up to your funeral, that's a courtesy.
Also, I think, you know, anyone who does a job that I wouldn't want to do, like stick a plug up a dead person's butt, very kind of them.
I think I could do it.
What?
Why?
Oh, my God.
That was terrifying the way you looked at me when you said that.
You want to do it.
I think I could be a mortician, yeah.
Okay, yeah, of course you could be a
mortician, but you shouldn't be like looking
forward to the part where you stick a plug
on someone's... No, no, that's not the most desirable part
to me. Oh, you say that now
but I saw the look on your face.
You lit up like a Christmas tree.
I would be a great mortuary scientist.
I don't know what they call themselves these days.
Yeah.
I think they call themselves butt pluggers.
I don't think they do.
Anyway.
Okay.
You want to talk about a murder? No, I don't. I am a business cat, Brandy. Okay. You want to talk about a murder no i don't i am a business cat brandy okay you want to talk
about our patreon yes oh my god we got a hot new bonus episode out we sure do and it is good
what did we talk about i don't remember
i talked about a cold case. Oh, wait.
Yes.
And I was so fucking disturbed.
I sat there with my hands around my neck, which is something I do when I'm very uncomfortable,
which probably makes me more uncomfortable, right?
I mean, probably.
Yeah, maybe it's like soothing.
Also, my case was quite good. Had you guessing right and left, and you were wrong every time, which satisfied me greatly.
Also,
you know what we're doing in just a few
short hours, ma'am?
A Zoom hangout!
Zoom hangout with the patrons
and you'll be teaching us how to
curl our hair with a straightening iron
which sounds impossible.
It's possible and I will show you
how. If you want in on all this
sweet, sweet action, just sign up at the $5 level for the bonus episodes.
We've got 26 of those bad boys.
Whoa.
And then, you know, you can sign up for higher levels to get more stuff.
The Zoom Hangout, that's a mere $7 a month.
The $10 level, you can get our episodes a day early and ad-free.
Also 10% off merch.
You get a sticker.
You just get the works.
The rewards are endless.
The works.
That's right.
That's right.
All right.
Now I'm done being a business cat.
I suppose I'll let you
tell me about other things now.
A murder.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Of course.
Of course a murder.
You know, okay.
So you know how we always
call dibs on our cases.
My case this week is such a Kristen case.
Yeah.
And I was like, I really don't call dibs on this.
Yeah.
Like if she comes in and tells the story, I will shit my pants.
I just happily shit my pants.
A couple of shout outs right off the top. First of all, to Gail Weathers in the Discord, which is a lovely name.
It is Courtney Cox's character's name in the movie Scream, which is a horror movie.
Do you think she actually did that on purpose or is her real name Gail Weathers?
No, she's for sure paying homage to Courtney Cox in Scream.
You think?
I mean, that's a pretty niche.
Yes.
This woman's name is not Gail Weathers.
Gail Weathers, if that's your real name, I will eat Kristen's hat.
What do you think I was going to say?
Shit.
I was like, oh, my God.
I'm also picturing all the Gail Weathers
like listening to this getting very offended
like it's a real name
real people have
you don't think Gail Weathers is a real name
maybe for a meteorologist
she didn't even want to become a meteorologist
but she had no choice
she had to
anyway also shout out to the podcast She had no choice. She had to.
Also, shout out to the podcast, which, okay.
Brandy, what the hell?
I thought you said this was the only podcast for you.
Okay, so full disclosure.
I did not listen to this podcast.
I found a transcript of it on their website, and I had a really hard time figuring out the name of this podcast.
So I had to go on a search for it.
I believe it is called True Crime Family Killer Profiles.
Okay.
Okay.
I believe there's only three episodes of this podcast.
Okay.
Two of which are about this case.
But they're like part of a network,
it looks like.
Okay, okay.
And somebody,
one of the hosts of this podcast has a connection to this case.
She grew up where this case happened.
Okay.
She or he.
I don't know why I said she.
Somebody, they.
Because you didn't even listen
to their voices.
I just read them.
You weirdo.
Also,
shout out to an episode of Dateline,
which I also read.
Did not watch.
What?
I like
reading. I know you do.
I know you do.
You know what I've liked doing
recently? What?
You know how it's a pain in the ass to chew food? I just
throw everything in a blender.
Blender?
Mm-hmm.
That's not the same.
Not the same.
Also, to an episode of an oxygen show, which I will not name.
Snapped.
Yes.
Which I did actually watch.
Oh, wow.
Very good of you.
Which I did actually watch.
Oh, wow.
Very good of you.
So read the podcast, read the Dateline episode, watched the episode, snapped.
Snorted a steak and baked potato.
Oh, here we go.
It was early evening on January 21st, 2005, when Joanne Reynolds arrived at her East Moline, Illinois home.
As she walked through her house, she noticed that something was off.
It wasn't anything major, but she noted that her stepdaughter, Adrienne, hadn't done her chores.
Adrienne could be a bit unpredictable, but it wasn't like her just to skip her chores.
Then Joanne walked past Adrienne's room and saw that her work uniform was laid out on her bed.
Adrienne worked at Checkers, the fast food restaurant. Yes.
You know, with the double drive-thru.
I'm picturing it now.
Apparently they have really good fries.
Yeah, so I've never actually eaten at one, so I don't know why I'm so excited.
But Norm used to eat at one in Elizabeth City all the time.
Yeah, I don't think we had them here.
I think they're more of a southern thing.
Yeah.
Well, and also an Illinois thing.
By the way, you mispronounced the name of this city.
I did not.
The east is silent.
It's just Moline.
Anyway, so her uniform was laid out on the bed.
But at this point, Adrienne's shift should have already started.
And Joanne knew that there was no way that she would have missed her shift.
She was an excellent employee and she wasn't one to call in or be late.
So Joanne just got like this sick feeling in her stomach.
She knew she needed to call her husband,
Adrian's adoptive father, Tony Reynolds,
so that they could figure out what was going on.
So Adrian had moved to East Moline from Texas
to live with Tony and Joanne just a few months earlier.
She had been struggling just kind of with life in general,
and she had just never had an easy time in life. Her biological mother had given birth to her when
she was a teenager, and she hadn't been able to care for Adrienne. And so Adrienne had been
adopted by her maternal grandmother, Barbara, and her husband, Tony Reynolds.
When Adrienne was three, though, her adoptive parents divorced,
and she spent some time kind of floating between different family members' homes.
But she always stayed close with Tony.
That is until he went to prison for selling meth, which is short for methamphetamines, Kristen.
A lot of people don't know that. Thank you.
During that time, Adrienne spent some time living with her biological mother
and a couple of different stepfathers. It was a super rough time for her. And by the time that
she was 12, Adrienne was dealing with things well beyond her years.
There were allegations of abuse going on in her home.
She'd been arrested for assault a couple of times.
She was using drugs and alcohol.
She'd spent some time in rehab, and she'd made multiple attempts to die by suicide.
By the age of 12.
Wow.
Yeah.
Poor girl.
Yeah.
By the age of 12.
Wow.
Yeah.
Poor girl.
When Adrienne was a teenager, the state of Texas was going to intervene and remove Adrienne from her living situation, which I believe at that time she was living with her biological mother.
But her biological mother intervened.
Intervened?
Oh, that sounds bad.
That's bad.
Is that more? It's an escalated version of sounds bad. That's bad. Is that more?
It's an escalated version of intervening.
Her biological mother intervened, as it turns out.
Have you ever seen this show, Intervention?
It's like so much more hardcore than intervention.
Jesus.
Instead of saying why they love the person, they just smack him.
It's that tough love.
Yeah.
Anyway.
I'm sorry.
I'm in a goofy mood.
Adrienne's biological mother called Tony Reynolds and she begged him to take Adrienne.
She said he needed to save her from having to go through foster care.
And by this time, Tony had completed his prison sentence and he'd moved back to Illinois, which is where he'd grown up.
And in Illinois, he had worked really hard to get his life back on track.
He married his high school sweetheart, Joanne, and he got a good drop.
And he got a good job as a truck driver.
When Tony received... How long did he hold that drop?
Asshole.
Now we have to leave that in.
You know what?
I was like, uh-oh, she corrected it.
Now Patty's going to cut it.
My mouth just feels like my spit's like molasses right now.
Why don't you chug down some of that G fuel?
Lube in that mouth right up.
Okay, that's right.
This is a family podcast.
My mouth is moister than those semen undies from your case on the bonus episode.
Oh, there you go.
That's right.
You asked for it. Everybody, there's go. That's right. You asked for it.
Everybody, there's just a taste of what you're missing on our Patreon.
Anyway, where the fuck was I?
He'd just gotten a job.
That's right.
So he got a good job as a truck driver.
As a truck driver.
When Tony received the call from Adrienne's biological mother asking him to take her in, he was all for it.
He'd always tried to remain a part of her life.
But Joanne had some concerns.
She knew Adrian had been through a lot and as a result was what some might call a troubled girl.
And Joanne had two sons of her own living in the house.
Joanne had two sons of her own living in the house, but she and Tony talked and they decided that Adrian could come live with them, but that there would be some very clearly set expectations.
Adrian would have to get a job.
She'd have to go to school.
She'd have to help around the house.
When Adrian arrived in East Moline, she was 16 and had essentially no high school credits.
Oh, wow.
But instead of starting over, the Reynolds decided it would be best to enroll Adrian at like the alternative school.
It was called the Black Hawk College Outreach Center.
And it was offered all kinds of different like school paths.
And Adrian specifically went there with the goal of getting her GED so that she could join the Marines.
And she started there in November of 2004.
And all seemed to be going fairly well.
By January of 2005, she'd made some friends, had been going to class, had a job she enjoyed.
All the stuff, was checking all the boxes.
So now we're back to January 21st, 2005, and Joanne is concerned.
So Joanne brought her concerns to Tony, and he wasn't anywhere as alarmed as Joanne was,
but he did think it warranted some phone calls to try and track Adrienne down.
So they started calling people, and they didn't have any luck.
No one had seen her.
No one had heard from her.
And so finally they decided to go up to Checkers where Adrienne worked.
It was when they got there and talked to Adrienne's manager that Tony began to worry.
Not only had Adrienne not showed up for her shift, she hadn't even been by to pick up her paycheck that day.
With that information, Tony was convinced that Joanne was right.
Something was wrong.
That was just so out of character for her.
So on a day that she'd get paid, I guess she'd like typically right after she got out of school,
go get her check, take it to the bank.
Yeah.
And then, yeah, super normal.
And so like for her not to have done that, he's like, OK, something's definitely off.
Yeah, that would be very strange.
normal. And so like for her not to have done that, he's like, OK, something's definitely off.
Be very strange. Yeah. So again, they took to the phones and started making phone calls to anybody who might know Adrian. They called family members. They called some friends.
But Adrian hadn't been in the area that long. She didn't know that many people.
By eight o'clock that evening, they with no sign of Adrian, they decided it was time to call the police.
Shortly after calling the East Moline Police Department, they sent out a patrolman to the Reynolds house and he sat down and took a report and they told him all about Adrian's past and her
new life there in East Moline. And he asked them if there was any way that she was possibly a runaway. And Tony said,
no, not at all. She didn't pick up her paycheck. Yeah. If she was if she had run away,
she would have stopped and gotten her paycheck. I think that's an excellent point. And so the
police thought this was an excellent point, too. They were like, OK. And then they documented,
you know, the more concerning things about her past, that there were suicide attempts in her past, that she had had some mental health issues, some issues with drug and alcohol.
And they were like, OK, this is a good kid who has had a really tough situation.
And it seems like there's maybe something to this missing girl.
And they told the Reynolds that they would start investigating
immediately. And they asked Tony and Joanne who they had already talked to. And so they gave them
kind of like the phone tree of who they'd talked to that day. And the officers decided to follow
up, make some phone calls to those same people, see if they could get anywhere further than
Tony and Joanne had. And so they started
calling and talking to people. And as they did, the same couple of names kept coming up in all
of these conversations they were having with people. The names were Sarah Kolb and Corey Gregory.
Sarah and Corey were fellow students at the Black Hawk College Outreach Program.
Are you super worried you're going to mispronounce that again?
Okay, I feel like I'm going to say Black Hawk.
I wondered why you were saying it like that.
Like every word was just a precious little gem.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Black Hawk College Outreach Program sounds different.
It does. It's a whole entirely different. Yeah. Connotation.
Having trouble with your daughter showing up for school? Send her to Black Cock.
You know, I'd only read that name before in my head, never said it out loud.
Didn't even think it would be an issue. You you know if you'd actually listen to the podcast you would have heard them stumble as well
so sarah and cory were students that adrian had met at her ged program and they had befriended
her and sarah was reportedly like the popular girl at this alternative school.
And Corey was her best friend and trusty sidekick, though it was very clear to everyone that knew them that he wanted to be much more than that to her.
So officers reached out to Sarah Kolb first.
And Sarah was like, so they just did a phone interview with her and they recorded this.
So I heard clips of this.
And at first Sarah was like, they call her and they're like, we're checking to see if you have contact with your friend Atrian today.
And she said, first of all, we're not friends.
Oh.
Yeah.
And they're like, OK, good to know.
And then she went on to say, but yes, she had seen her that day.
They'd had lunch together at Taco Bell.
She said that they'd gone to lunch and then after lunch, she'd given Adrian a ride and dropped her off at the McDonald's across the street from her house.
And the police kind of were like, OK, why would you have dropped her off at the McDonald's?
And she's like, well, she didn't want her dad to see her in the car with a boy.
There was a boy in the car.
And the police are like, OK, who was the boy that was in the car?
And she's like, it was Corey Gregory.
And they're like, OK, no problem no problem thanks do you have any other information she's like no that's it
and they're like okay and sarah's like well i mean honestly she probably just ran away
seems like the type okay and they're like okay great. Do you have any other people, you know, that we might want to touch base with or talk to?
And she gave him a couple of names.
And then at the end of the call, right before she ended it, she said, you know, if you find her, if you hear anything, I'd really appreciate it if you'd give me a call.
And the officer was like, pretty weird since you just told me you weren't friends
yeah you'd be so concerned about her uh-huh so he got off the call and made a note of how like
okay that's pretty weird pretty weird and so then he called cory gregory
and cory gregory told the exact same story no No, not friends with her. Did happen to have lunch with her today.
I was with Sarah Kolb.
We went to lunch at Taco Bell.
And Sarah and Adrian got in a fight, but it was no big deal.
You don't go to lunch with people you're not friends with.
Exactly.
Exactly.
And so at this point, the officer stops Corey and he's like, oh, there was a fight?
He's like, oh, no, not really a fight.
Just like a little argument.
There was just like a little tiff.
I don't even know what it's about.
It ended in a murder, but it was no big deal.
I totally wasn't paying attention.
It was no big thing.
We dropped her off at McDonald's.
And the officer's like, okay, thanks.
If you think of anything else, please give us a call.
So at this point, the police were sure that both Sarah and Corey knew more than they were letting on,
and when they relayed this version of the events to Tony,
Tony was like, okay, no, that doesn't make sense.
Because Tony wouldn't have freaked out if a boy was in the car.
Here's what he said. So when they're telling him about how they dropped,
how Sarah and Corey said they dropped Adrian off at McDonald's, he was like, no,
why would he have why would they have done that? And he's like, the detective says, you know,
oh, something about them, her not wanting you to see her get out of a car with a boy in it.
And he's like, Adrian never would have asked them to do that because she wouldn't have
needed to.
She knows no one would have been home at that time of day.
Joanne and I both work during the day.
We are never home at that time.
There would have been no reason for her to ask that. And so now Tony's like, these kids are lying. Yeah. Then they're lying
to cover something up. What are they covering up? And so the officer's like, wow, that's really
helpful information. Like, thank you. And so he decides to go back and call Sarah again, kind of with this new information,
see if he can, like, prod her for any additional details.
And so he calls and asks some more questions and says, you know, hey, talk to Corey Gregory.
He mentioned something about a fight at Taco Bell.
And Sarah was like, well, okay, it wasn't really a fight.
But, yeah, there was, like, a little thing.
Yeah, I just, like, it's stupid.
And, like, I pulled her hair and told her not to mess with my boyfriend.
My boyfriend was also there.
And, like, I think that she's kind of interested in my boyfriend. My boyfriend was also there. And like, oh, I think that she's kind of
interested in my boyfriend. And so like, I just like grabbed her by the hair and basically told
her, you know, stay away from Corey, stay away from my boyfriend. And kind of just like, was like,
this is my territory back off kind of thing. Wait, so is Corey her boyfriend?
Corey is not her boyfriend. Corey's her best friend who wants to be her boyfriend.
But she also has a boyfriend who happened to be present that day at Taco Bell.
Okay.
Mm-hmm.
And then she's like, after that, though, it was no big deal.
Like, we dropped her off at the McDonald's and that was the end of it.
Mm-hmm.
And she's like, she did punch me, though.
Okay. And the officer's like, she did punch me, though. Okay.
And the officer's like, okay.
All right.
And she's like, yeah, and I punched her, too.
And he's like, okay.
All right.
And she's like, but she punched me harder.
I mean, she got me really good.
And he's like, great.
Okay.
How about you come down to the station and let's do a formal interview?
And let's get a look at how you look.
And let's take pictures of all the cuts and scrapes.
Yeah.
So by this time, a couple of days had passed and no one had, there was no sign of Adrian.
And so by the time Sarah comes down to the station, it's like, I think it's Monday.
So the weekend had passed. I think this happened it's like, I think it's Monday. So the weekend had passed.
I think this happened on a Friday.
So now it's Monday.
Sarah comes down to the station to do her interview.
And she shows up with a lawyer and her mom.
And she repeated the same story that they had gone to Taco Bell for lunch that day, that they had been friends at one point, she and Adrian. But then Adrian had,
you know, been sleeping around with a bunch of guys from the school and she just didn't want to
be friends with a slut. And so also then Adrian seemed like she was really interested in Corey,
her best friend. And while things with her and Corey weren't like that, she didn't want Adrian
to date Corey. And so she just, you know,
had told her what was what
and to just back off.
And maybe it had gotten just
like a little bit aggressive, but that was it.
She dropped her off at McDonald's.
This is scary shit.
Uh-huh.
Mm-hmm.
And so they were like, okay, we are obviously not getting the full story here.
But they didn't have anything at that point to, like, keep her on.
And so they had to let her go.
And the next day they asked Corey to come in and give an official statement.
And, again, so he came down, made the official statement, and he came with a lawyer as well.
And Corey's mom sat out in like the waiting area of the police department while her son gave the statement with the officer present.
And he told the same story.
The whole, there had been an argument.
He'd been present there for it, but he just stared out the window the whole time, smoked a cigarette.
He didn't see anything.
He doesn't really know what it's about.
You know, and then they dropped her off at McDonald's. When they came out of the interview, Corey's attorney walked up
to his mom and was like, this is no big deal. This is going to go away. She's going to blow over.
day. That night, Corey went up to his father and just broke down, sobbing, crying, could not speak.
And his dad's like, what's going on? And he's just trying to get words out. Corey's parents were divorced and Corey's dad actually called his mom, had her come over to the house.
Wow.
It was like, something's going on.
I think you need to be here for this.
And so she came over and Corey just was bawling, could not speak.
He said he hadn't slept in a couple of days and he just needed to get everything off his chest.
And they're like, OK, what happened?
And he couldn't he couldn't tell them.
And so his dad's like, did something happen in that car at Taco Bell?
And he said, yes.
And his dad said, did Adrian get hurt?
And Corey said, really, really hurt.
Yeah.
And then he's like, OK. His dad was like, OK. And his mom's like, there's only one thing to do here. And so they called the police and they said that they were going to come in and Corey was going to give them a full statement. department and he told them what had happened on Friday, January 21st.
So what we know of Corey's statement is that it likely minimizes his involvement.
Of course.
But this is kind of the gist of what happened and what he told the police.
So he said that the three of them, Sarah and Adrian and Corey,
had all been very good friends for several months.
They were all big fans of the underground hip-hop group ICP.
They were self-described juggalos.
Oh, my gosh.
described juggalos oh my god and as such they regularly attended house parties with fellow juggalos this has been important to the story in any way i just like it's important to you
yep that's a former juggalo yourself yes Yes, that's correct. So it was apparently well known that Sarah was bisexual and she actually was very attracted to Adrian when she first met her.
And she made this known to Adrian.
And Adrian wrote her some notes, like some flirty notes and stuff.
And then at one of these house parties, Adrian ended up like hooking up with two different guys and Sarah was pissed.
They were in no kind of relationship or anything.
But Sarah, yeah, kind of whatever, wouldn't speak to Adrian for a while.
All of this stuff.
Like, totally ended their friendship.
She was mad about it.
And then to try and, like, she started calling.
So Adrian was very upset that she'd lost one of her only friends in this new town.
So she started writing her notes in school and calling her on the phone. And then she started calling Corey. Like, maybe
if I get in good with Corey, I can get back in with Sarah. Well, Sarah found out about this and
was pissed that Adrian and Corey were having conversations behind her back. She got extremely territorial. Like I said, she and Corey
were not in a relationship. Sarah had a boyfriend, but Corey was, by all accounts, obsessed with
Sarah and would do whatever she asked. And so somebody else, you know, getting in between that
might change that dynamic. And so, yeah, she was very upset when she learned about this.
And so she totally cut off Adrian.
She started writing stuff in her journal about how she was going to fucking kill Adrian.
Yeah.
And then on Friday, January 21st, she walked up to Adrian at school and asked her to come
with them to lunch at Taco Bell.
And Adrian was like, yes, absolutely.
Oh, gosh.
And so at noon, Adrian and Sarah and Corey and Sarah's boyfriend, Sean, all got in Sarah's little Geo Prism and drove to Taco Bell, which was like right down the street from school.
Almost as soon as they got in the car and like pulled away from the school, Sarah like
goes off on Adrian.
She starts screaming at her.
She confronts her.
She says, you know, back off my people.
This is my territory.
You know, stop talking to Corey.
Stop. He said that also you said you think my boyfriend's hot like don't even look at him like all this stuff oh my
lord by the time that they pulled into the taco bell parking lot it had escalated so much that
sarah's boyfriend sean got out of the car and walked back to school holy shit yeah he was like
i'm not fucking dealing with this.
So now,
Sarah and Adrian are sitting in the front seat of the car
parked at Taco Bell
and Corey's in the back seat.
According to Corey,
he didn't even know
what was going on
because he was just looking
out the window
smoking a cigarette.
And then all of a sudden,
Sarah has some kind of wooden stick
that she keeps in the car for protection,
and she's hitting Adrian with it, and there's blood.
And then the next thing he knows, like, she takes his belt off,
and she's strangling Adrian with his belt.
She takes it?
Yeah.
Okay, okay.
And he was totally not involved.
Well, because at some point
the girls fought so much
that they were now in the backseat
when they'd started in the front seat
and he doesn't even really know
what happened.
And so he moved up to the front seat,
he thinks.
And then all of a sudden,
before he even knew it,
Adrian was dead
in the backseat of the car.
This is the worst thing about wearing a belt is
when people just take it off and strangle somebody else with it.
You don't even notice it because you're busy looking out the window.
Yeah.
So what the most believed version of this is that
they took her to the Taco Bell restaurant.
They sat in the busy parking lot.
It was cold outside.
And so the windows fogged up.
So nobody could really see what was going on inside the car.
But it's believed that Corey held Adrian down and gave Sarah his belt.
And Sarah strangled her to death.
Oh, my God.
Yeah, that's much more believable.
In the Taco Bell parking lot at lunchtime, a guy walked by the car at one point and saw that it was like shaking.
And he thought he was having sex in it.
Yeah.
He thought about calling the police because he was like, what are you doing?
This is a Taco Bell at lunch.
It's a holy place.
Yes.
But he was like, you know what?
I'm not getting involved in that.
Yeah, I wouldn't.
Yeah, I wouldn't either.
Mm-mm.
Yeah.
So for a few minutes, according to Corey, they just sat there in the car and were like, holy shit, what just happened? And then they realized that they needed to do something with her body.
And so Sarah suggested that they take Adrienne to her family farm, which is like the next town over.
So East Moline is actually part of the Quad Cities in Iowa, which sits on like the Iowa-Illinois border.
And so there's like several. There's actually five cities that make up the Quad Cities,
which is very confusing.
Well, that doesn't make sense at all.
Apparently there was a petition a while back to change it to the Quint Cities.
Quint Cities.
Oh.
And nobody liked that.
And so it's still the Quad Cities, even though there's five cities that make it up.
All right.
Fair enough.
Okay.
They tried.
They tried.
Yes, they did.
Anyway, so there's like
several towns around. And so one of the towns nearby, Sarah's family, I believe it was her
grandmother, had a farm. So she's like, let's go to the farm. We'll bury her on the farm.
And so they somehow, I think they drive away from Taco Bell, pull off to the side of the road at
some point where they think they are out of view enough, and they move Adrian's body to the trunk of the car.
Yeah.
Wow.
And then they drive to the farm, and once they get there,
they're like, oh, fuck, it's January.
Yeah, they're not going to be able to dig.
The ground is frozen.
They can't dig.
And so then they change the plan.
They're going to cremate her instead because it's the right thing to do.
Oh, my God.
Yeah.
Mm hmm.
Yeah.
That's exactly what Corey told the police.
It was the right thing to do.
Yeah.
It seems like he really knows what the right thing is.
Exactly.
And so they like lay her on a tarp and gasoline and set it on fire and they let it burn for
like six hours.
And oh, my gosh, like it didn't work.
They thought she'd just turn to ash and disappear
and that's not what happened.
Yeah.
And so it's getting dark and they're like,
okay, we're going to have to like pause this for tonight
and come back to this tomorrow.
Pause it?
Yes.
Yeah.
And so they take her charred remains and they disguise them under some brush on the farm
and they leave for the night.
And they talk on the phone that night or somehow and come up with a plan B.
And plan B is that they have to dismember her
and ditch different parts of her body in different locations
so that she can't be identified.
Dear God.
Yeah.
And Corey, stand-up guy that he is, is like, I can't do that.
It's not right.
What?
Yeah.
Yeah. It's not right. This? Yeah. Yeah.
It's not right.
This is what he tells the detective.
And the detective's like, okay, what?
Like, this whole thing, this is, that's where you draw the line?
Yeah, really.
That's not right?
And he's like, well, obviously the whole thing's not right, but, like, that part really, really isn't right.
Okay.
Yeah.
And so they call another friend, this other guy they know who they think is, like, creepy and apparently had been known to, like, abuse animals and stuff.
And they're like, hey, want to see something cool?
And they get him to come out to Sarah's grandmother's property.
And they ask him to bring a hacksaw and he comes
and he's like they're like hey so here's what happened oh my god yeah we killed this girl and
now we need to get rid of her but we thought thought maybe you would want, we know you're kind of into gory stuff.
Would you be interested in possibly dismembering this body for us?
And this guy's like 15.
His name's Nathan, okay, again, I've only read his name.
It's either Godette or Godet.
Okay.
Anyway, he's like, yeah, cool. What? And so he does it. He's like, okay anyway he's like yeah cool what so he does it he's like okay here's the
deal this is what we got to do we got to take off her hands and her head and we got to dump those
separate from the rest of her body so that she can't be identified and then we'll cut her torso
in half and we'll remove her legs oh yeah he's got a whole game plan. So he goes to work. He does it. And they ditch part of her body in a ravine.
And then they are like, okay.
They take her head and her hands, which they deem to be the only identifying features of her.
They put those in trash bags and they put those in the back of Sarah's car.
But by this time, gosh, they've been like working on disposing of this body for so long.
They're just like super tired and really need to smoke some weed and like eat some food.
And so with her head and hands in the trunk of the car, they smoke weed and go to McDonald's.
Do you think the weed is what made them do all this?
Obviously.
No. Do you think the weed is what made them do all this? Obviously. No!
Oh, my God.
So then...
Why do you do this to us?
Okay, just don't blame me.
Blame Gail Weathers.
Damn it, Gail.
So now they've got the rest of her remains to deal with,
and so they go to Black hawk park not to be
confused with black cock park and they're gonna go back into like a very heavily wooded area of
the park and they're gonna bury those remains only they super luck out because when they go
back there they find a manhole cover. And so they just lift that
up and dump the bags down the manhole. And then they're like, that's it. We're all set. All cleaned
up. Done. And they all go their separate ways and think they're good.
But then Corey
had to have a conscience
and come clean
to his parents
and the police.
Well, he didn't super come clean.
No, obviously, yes.
And so
Corey tells the police
all of this
and of course, like I said,
he downplayed his involvement
and he was just staring
out the window
smoking a cigarette when Adrian was killed.
And then obviously don't be unfair to him.
You wouldn't believe the number of homicides I've been a part of where I'm just looking out the window when it happened.
That's why I've stopped wearing belts.
Yeah.
Stupid.
Well, this kid's stupid.
I agree.
And this is horrifying that they're like, hmm, we need someone to help us dismember a body.
Yeah.
Oh, I know.
Let's call that weird kid.
And then the weird kid's like, yes, you read me correctly.
That's correct.
Fuck.
Yeah.
So then the police are like, okay, take us to her remains.
And Corey did.
He took them to the farm where there was like a ravine off to the side.
And there were parts of her body.
And then he took them to the park.
And they went down in that manhole.
And there were the trash bags.
And so then the police had to go and tell Adrian's parents that they'd found her in the state that she'd been found in.
And they were just horrified by it.
Yeah, that is horrible.
So tell me the part where Sarah goes to prison forever.
So they then go and arrest Sarah.
And they're like, OK, we know all of this stuff.
Surely she's going to sit down and come clean and tell us her version.
But she doesn't.
They arrest her.
She doesn't say anything.
She's stone cold.
She is.
She sure is.
On February 1st, 2005, Sarah Kolb and Corey Gregory were both charged with first degree
murder and concealment of a homicide.
And they both pled not guilty.
Okay.
Yep.
Sarah's trial began on October 31st, 2005.
Spooky.
Halloween.
The trial would take a couple of weeks.
The prosecution called.
Wow.
I said prosecution really weird.
Sounded like almost prostitution, but not quite.
The prosecution called almost 50 witnesses.
I was going to say two weeks for a trial like this.
That's pretty long.
So they called almost 50 witnesses, all kinds of people who had gone to school, a bunch of people who had been at house parties, who had seen Sarah be
aggressive or threaten Adrian, all kinds of stuff. Oh, hell yeah. They called that guy who had walked
through the Taco Bell parking lot and had seen the car and decided not to intervene because he
thought there were just people having sex in there. I mean, I would have done the exact same thing.
There were just people having sex in there.
I mean, I would have done the exact same thing.
Yeah.
No way I would have gotten involved in that situation.
Hell no.
No.
No.
They also used Sarah's journal against her at trial. She had several entries, including one the day before Adrian was murdered, where Sarah said that she would fucking kill Adrian.
Hmm.
Yeah, I don't think that's necessarily, like, I think, yeah.
I think girls, you know, write all kinds of stuff in their journals.
I don't think so, Brandi.
Yeah.
You wrote that your mom was a bitch.
I stand by it.
Yeah, I mean, I just think that, I don't think that's great evidence, because it's like,
you don't know the context of that.
You don't know how, like, how dramatic she was being.
Like, does she literally mean she's going to go kill her?
I mean, obviously, obviously she did.
But I mean, I think you take any high school girl's journal.
It's going to say I'm going to fucking kill.
So, yeah, I agree.
They call all high school girls are murderers.
Exactly.
They also called Nathan Maudet.
That's for sure how it's said.
He had gotten a deal at this point.
So he's the one who actually did the dismembering.
Oh, the future serial killer got a deal?
Okay.
He sure did.
Oh, no.
What did he get?
So he pled guilty to dismembering a corpse or abuse of a corpse or something like that in exchange for being sentenced as a juvenile.
Okay.
Which means he was sentenced to five years in prison.
Yeah.
And he also had to testify for the prosecution.
Yeah, he served like four years of his sentence before he was released.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, my God.
This seems like a weird thing to say now, but I'm going to say it.
He died in a car accident in 2012.
So there's that.
I mean, I don't think we need to elaborate on that.
Yeah.
Honestly, I'm glad you said that because I was like, who's he going to murder now?
Right.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, so he died in a car accident in 2012.
So there's that.
Yeah.
Don't feel great about that deal.
But anyway, so he testified for the prosecution and he gave what is believed to be the most, the story closest to the truth because it's the story that he was given by Corey and Sarah and that, yeah, Corey held Adrian's. He didn't really have a dog in that
fight in the sense of like. Correct.
Yeah. Correct. So yeah he's
the one who tells the version where Corey
holds Adrian's arms down
so that she can't fight Sarah while
Sarah strangles her.
Yeah.
And then he just very casually described
how he dismembered Adrian and how he came up with how they should dump her. And when asked what his reason was for helping with that, he said, oh, I was just trying to help out some friends. I didn't want to see my friends go to prison.
Okay.
Just a real good friend. Super good friend.
Just like the best friend.
Mm-hmm.
Anyway, so he was kind of the star witness for the prosecution.
One person who did not testify for the prosecution was Corey Gregory,
which they kind of expected to happen, but... Well, yeah, he's trying to plead not guilty, so...
Mm-hmm. which they kind of expected to happen but trying to plead not guilty so so then it was the defense's turn and they put only one witness on the stand
sarah kolb oh bad move bad move all right let's hear it so she took the stand in her own defense
and was extremely cold and showed no emotion.
And she got up there and said that she was an innocent bystander
and Corey did the whole thing.
Okay.
And that, you know, yeah, she did start the initial argument,
but that was it.
She pulled Adrian's hair.
That's all.
And then before she knew it, Corey was back there in the backseat, and he reached up,
and he pulled his belt around Adrian's throat and strangled her, and she didn't even know
what was going on.
And then she had no choice.
She had to help him cover it up, because if she didn't, he was going to kill her and her
family and her cat.
And that's it.
What could she do?
And obviously she couldn't have killed Adrian.
Why?
Because her hands are too weak.
Oh, my God.
Stop.
What?
That's legitimately what she said.
She has hand issues and lacks the strength to strangle anyone.
Well, she used a belt.
No, weak hands.
Kristen Kaur used the belt.
What's wrong with her fucking hands?
Weak hands.
She has hand issues.
I mean, I've heard about a guy with a slow hand but and um the prosecution on cross-examination like just asked her a few basic questions and she got
really angry and one particular question the prosecution asked was like, why would you just go along with Corey while he's forcing you to do all of this?
Like, you know, if he's your best friend or whatever, why would you be scared of him?
She goes, oh, I'm sorry.
Has anyone ever threatened your life before?
Seems like they maybe just did.
I don't know.
Seems like they maybe just did.
I don't know.
Whoa.
And so the judge like admonished her and was like, stop answering questions with questions.
Yeah.
Yeah.
She got like yelled at by the judge for, yeah.
Oh, God. And following her testimony, the defense rested and the case went to the jury.
And the case went to the jury.
The jury deliberated for 15 hours.
During that time, they asked the judge a couple of questions.
They asked the judge the legal definition of intent.
And they asked the judge what presumption of innocence means.
And he gave them those definitions. And then after 15 hours of deliberation,
the jury told the judge they were deadlocked.
What?
And he declared a mistrial.
Shut up.
Mm-hmm.
The jury was split 11 to 1 in favor of conviction.
What?
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay, who's the weirdo?
I know.
So at the time that the mistrial was declared, the state was like, okay, we're going to just do this whole thing again, but we'd like a change of venue.
Yeah.
And so they were granted a change of venue.
Yeah. And so they were granted a change of venue. And on the 9th of February 2006, Sarah Kolb went back on trial, this time in the cider capital of Illinois, Dixon.
Oh, yes.
And they dilapidated courthouse because that treasurer had stolen all their money. All the money. So the prosecution puts up exactly the same case.
They changed nothing.
But this time, the defense made another bold move.
Sarah Kolb did not take the stand at her second trial. Apparently, they thought her cold nature may have had an impact on the jury.
So what they chose to do instead was put up no defense.
None at all.
Wow.
Yeah.
They rested immediately banking on the hope that the jury would find that the prosecution had not met their burden.
Okay.
Pretty bold move.
Yeah.
Yeah.
On February 22nd, the jury found Sarah Kolb guilty on all counts.
She was given 48 years for the murder conviction and then five years for the concealing a homicide.
And those were ordered to run consecutively.
So she got a total of 53 years.
Following that, Corey Gregory decided not to take his chance with a jury and he changed his plea to guilty.
And he was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Since then, both
Corey and Sarah have appealed their sentences. Corey actually tried to get his
guilty plea removed. He tried to get it rescinded and then get to go to trial instead. And the
judge was like, what is this, buyer's remorse? No, that's not how this works. And so then in 2012,
we've talked about this before. There was that Supreme Court ruling where imposing a mandatory
sentence of life without the possibility of parole on a juvenile offender is considered
unconstitutional. And so basically that that applies to anything, anyone who's given a sentence over 40 years.
So both Sarah and Corey fall under this ruling.
And so they both have appealed their sentences based on that.
But to this point, their appeals have been denied.
A judge at one point ruled that Sarah should be resentenced and then an appeals court overturned that.
And so that as far as I could find to date, they both remain in prison.
Wow.
Ew, that was so chilling.
I know.
That's the story of the murder of Adrian Reynolds.
And it was terrible.
Why do you do this? You tell so many
creepy teenager stories. I know!
The creepy teenager ones really get me.
And they do every time.
Ugh.
It's probably all that
music they were listening to.
No.
That's where you're wrong. It's the marijuana.
It's the marijuana that did it.
You're right.
Thanks a lot, Gail Weathers.
Don't you dare blame Gail with her very real name.
I know.
Those teen murderer ones just really creep me out.
But creep you out is not quite the phrase
because they draw you in every time.
They intrigue you greatly.
They do.
Did you ever want to kill me when we were kids?
No, I think that's what is so intriguing about it to me.
It's like in high school,
I was like fucking listening to NSYNC
and spending, you know,
every weekend with your dumb ass.
We were listening to the Juggalos.
Oh, wait, no, you don't listen to Juggalos. Anyway. I don listening to the juggalos. Oh, wait, no,
you don't listen to juggalos.
Anyway.
Oh, you don't listen to juggalos.
No, it's just such,
like, such the opposite
end of the spectrum
for what our
high school experience was.
I couldn't have even
told you where to find drugs
when I was 12 years old.
No.
I can't even really tell you now.
Where do you find drugs now. I mean, I've got ibuprofen in space.
That's right.
Okay.
Yes, do they sell it at Costco?
Because then I can get it.
I got drug up on all the drugs at Costco.
I got that membership card.
Okay.
Yeah, it's just, yeah, I think that's it.
It's just so different from, yeah, my high school experience.
Like when you wore your dare bracelet everywhere.
And then police officer called me a loser.
Wait, no, he didn't.
He didn't really call me a loser, but I saw it in his eyes.
He was disappointed.
He'd never been more disappointed.
He thought he was catching me coming back from da club.
Yep.
And instead it was my dreams.
It was da Walgreens.
Yes.
He'd never been so disappointed.
All right.
You ready?
Yes.
Okay.
Shout out to the documentary Clinton 12, as well as reporting from blackpast.org, the Tennessee Encyclopedia, and a bunch of other sources as well.
Oh, yes.
Also, okay, this is my little disclaimer. Wikipedia and a bunch of other sources as well. Oh, yes.
Also, okay, this is my little disclaimer.
There is court stuff sprinkled throughout this thing.
I decided not to go super in-depth into every court case because we don't have all goddamn day.
Okay.
All right?
All right.
Okay.
You like a more tilt on your... I like mine more straight up.
Okay, people don't know what we're talking about right now.
Kristen just pushed her laptop so open that it's practically flat now.
I like to kind of sit up high.
Like you're standing over a podium?
Yeah, exactly.
Is that the deal right now?
Okay.
Yeah, I do like a more, I have
mine more like a 90 degree
sitch. This is fascinating.
Nobody gives a shit.
Anyway, is it okay if I
tell you my story now? Please
tell me about the Clinton 12.
Clinton 12. Brandy.
Brandy.
Brandy.
You know, the thing about you is, you're so basic.
It's true.
You go to Starbucks in the fall and you get a pumpkin spice latte.
PSL.
Not me.
I always order the cool lime refresher.
No, you, you, what?
You go to a Blink-182 concert and you're like, play What's My Age Again? Not me. No, you... What? You go to a Blink-182 concert and you're
like, play What's My Age Again.
Not me. No. I always
request their 2017 hit
Can't Get You More Pregnant.
That's not a song
from Blink-182.
And I bet
when people sit around
talking about famous school
desegregations from the Civil rights era, as they often do, you're like, oh, Little Rock Nine.
Yeah.
Not me.
I'm like, oh, Clinton 12.
Oh, what's that?
You've never heard of the Clinton 12?
Well, as of two days ago, neither had I.
But now I'm obsessed with this story.
This is their story dun dun okay for real have you ever heard of no exactly neither had i this is nuts
hold on to your hat hold on to my pants and your nuts yeah get the whole gang together there
with your new manhood mashers.
Wait, is that from the bonus episode? It's from the bonus episode.
People don't know what that is.
Well, if you want to know, sign up for our Patreon at the $5 level or higher.
Picture it.
Clinton, Tennessee.
Clinton is a small town located about a half hour's drive from Knoxville.
And in the 1950s, it had a population of about 4,000 people.
So it was a pretty big city, Brandy.
Yeah.
It was a pleasant little town.
A sign at the edge of town read, Welcome to Clinton.
Don't hurry through town.
Give us a chance to be friendly.
That's a weird sign.
Okay.
Okay, here's the thing.
I couldn't tell if that was actually creepy or if I was just creeped out because, you know, something bad is about to happen.
But that's for real kind of creepy.
All right.
Hopefully they've taken that down.
Hey, hey, don't blow through here, lady.
Let me, give me a chance to be friendly with you.
Yeah. don't blow through here lady let me give me a chance to be friendly with him yeah of the 4,000 people who made up the population of Clinton about 10 percent were black the town was very segregated
okay and this is this is kind of a trip but according to the black and white people who
were interviewed in this documentary they said said that before 1956, race relations in Clinton were pretty good.
Now, are you ready to hear what passed for pretty good?
The white people said that?
And the black people.
Okay.
See, I expect the white people to say that.
Yeah, I'm like, of course the white people think that.
Are you ready to hear what passes for pretty good in the
1950s? No.
Black people couldn't eat
near white people in restaurants or
sit in the good seats at the movie theater
or buy a candy bar
from the drugstore and eat it in the drugstore.
What's
the logic in that? I don't know.
Okay. Because then a
black person might be eating with a white person
well you can't have that and again absolutely not wow this is what good race relations yeah
this is great shut up we love it but you know the people of clinton say it wasn't super terrible
it was just like the gentle racism that wears you down slowly over time, like death by a thousand paper cuts.
Yeah.
It kills your soul.
So things in Clinton were okay.
But in the 1950s, thanks largely to work from the NAACP, there was this big push for equal education.
We've talked about this on the podcast before.
And I won't again, so that's the end of the story.
The law of the land at the time was separate but equal.
So if by chance you've created a drinking game
out of these school segregation cases,
please take a sip because I just mentioned Plessy v. Ferguson.
Mm-hmm.
So the black students in Clinton attended the Green McAdoo School in town.
And hold on to your hat.
This will shock you.
That school was, in fact, separate but not equal to the white kids.
No, this is very shocking to everyone.
The Green McAdoo School didn't have a cafeteria.
It didn't have a gym.
It didn't even have indoor restrooms.
Okay.
In the 1950s.
Yeah.
Meanwhile, the white kids not only had indoor restrooms, they had bidets in every stool.
They did not.
Okay, that was an exaggeration.
But you get the idea.
I do get the idea, yes.
The Green McAdoo School also didn't have middle or high school classes.
The Green McAdoo School also didn't have middle or high school classes.
Once you graduated eighth grade, if you wanted to go to middle and high school, you had to be bused to Knoxville.
And frankly, that was a pain in the ass. Yeah.
It was an 18-mile drive, and it wasn't a straight shot.
They had to transfer buses a bunch.
And, of course, the kids had to go through intense security measures before they got onto the bus because that's just what happens when we got on a bus. You know, we all know this,
right, Brandy? Get the fuck out of here. So the kids got bussed all the way to Knoxville.
And once they got there, the school wasn't even free. Black families had to pay tuition
to send their kids to schools in Knoxville. What? I know, this is crazy!
So, Alva McSwain is a black woman who grew up in Clinton.
And she came from a big family, and her youngest siblings were triplets.
And her mom realized, oh my god, I'm going to have to pay for five kids to go to Knoxville all at one time.
We can't afford that.
And on top of that, Clinton High School, which was a good public school,
was literally 1,500 feet from where most of the black people lived in Clinton.
So this case started like all school integration cases do.
In August of 1950, four black students attempted to enroll at Clinton High School.
And they were rejected.
students attempted to enroll at Clinton High School. And they were rejected. Because everyone knows that if white people are educated in the same room as black people, everyone gets a
prolapsed butthole. And that's true regardless of your race. It just happens. It just happens
immediately. So since the white folks in town were being douchebags, the black folks had no choice
but to look themselves in the mirror and say,
Let's go to court!
Could they not have looked at each other? Did they have to look in the mirror?
You have to look in the mirror, you dumbass!
They had to go to a mirror store because you need a really big mirror for everyone to get together because it's like a class action lawsuit, you know?
You know how it is.
I guess maybe a public restroom.
They could have gone to a public restroom.
But they went to a mirror store and said, and I'm not making any of this up.
Right.
Got it.
So a group of parents teamed up.
There's a mirror store in every corner.
I'm sorry, where do you buy your mirrors?
So a group of parents teamed up with the NAACP and sued the Board of Education of Anderson County, Tennessee.
The argument of the lawsuit was simple.
It started with a burp.
They all burped at the same time.
That wasn't just me being gross.
We have a high school right here.
Black students in this community should be able to attend that school.
We live here.
We pay taxes here.
We're citizens of this county.
And what we are currently being offered is not equal to what is being offered to white students.
All right.
Fair enough?
What?
Yeah.
Yes.
You look like you're full of dread.
It's funny, the face I make when you're telling me a story about teenagers murdering each other
is the same face you make when I tell these racist cases.
Yeah, I hate that.
Are you ready?
Racism makes me very uncomfortable.
Are you ready for the argument against black kids attending Clinton High School?
Oh, it's great.
The attorneys for the school board argued that the black high school in Knoxville was actually better than Clinton High School.
Okay, did they?
It had better facilities, a broader curriculum.
So the black kids were actually getting a really great deal when you thought about it really hard.
So maybe everyone should just shut up and go home.
Am I right?
No.
Judge Robert Taylor presided over the case.
And he was a guy with a little bald head and little wireframe glasses and a weak jawline and a nasally voice.
And rumor has it that he was ugly and boring.
Anyway.
And he was like, why, yes, the facilities in Knoxville are simply better.
So just keep doing what you're doing and quit your bitching.
Absolutely.
Wonderful.
Yep.
In the spring of 1952, he sided with the school board.
Cool. But the black folks of Clinton who'd signed on for this lawsuit were in it for the long haul.
They wanted what was right. So a month later, they appealed Judge Taylor's decision to the
Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. And the Court of Appeals was like, oh, oh boy. Wow. Yeah.
Hey, we'd love to rule on this. Really, we would. But it looks like the Supreme Court is going to rule on this little case called Brown versus the Board of Education.
So we're just going to chill until the Supreme Court makes their decision on that one.
Oh, what's that? This is a process that will literally take years.
And in the meantime, there are real life children who need an education.
Oh, who cares? Who cares? Am I right?
Wonderful. Randy, you're going to cares? Am I right? Wonderful.
Brandy, you're going to have to pick up that attitude, okay?
No.
I just thought that kids go to school.
This case gets so much worse.
Oh, God.
You think this sucks?
Wait for it.
Wait.
Oh, good.
You think this sucks?
Wait for it.
Wait!
So two years later in 1954, the Supreme Court ruled on Brown versus the Board of Education.
And in that decision, they said that separate but equal was a heaping helping a shit.
That's a quote from the court record, obviously. Later, on May 31, 1955, the appellate court, moving at roughly the same pace as Brandy eating a serving of popcorn salad, was like,
Hey, Clinton High School, you need to integrate, like, you know, like soon.
Okay?
Okay.
One source said that during this time, some local white officials tried to delay integration by making updates to the local black school.
Okay.
Okay.
Yeah, they threw on some paint.
They're like, are we equal now?
Look how much better it is now.
Don't you want to go here?
Look, we cut holes in the floor for the bathroom. Oh, God.
Look, we cut holes in the floor for the bathroom.
Oh, God.
But finally, in January of 1956, Judge Robert Taylor officially was like,
Hey, hey, I know we're all very afraid of prolapsed buttholes, but the Supreme Court has ruled on this, and Clinton High School, you gotta integrate.
There is footage of Judge Taylor making this announcement, and he looks just about as devastated
as you looked when you realized that
Lance Bass was gay. I mean, the poor
guy was just heartbroken.
Yeah, because until he came out as
gay, I had a chance with him.
That's right. You were like, it'll happen.
One day we will meet. Our eyes
will lock.
Ka-ching.
What if Lance Bass is a fan of this podcast?
That would be amazing.
It would be amazing.
Lance, please, reach out.
Do you think he will have a sense of humor?
Yes.
About the joke I made?
Yes.
I think he would love it.
See, this is how I know.
You're still obsessed with him.
I love him.
You're like, yeah, my good friend Lance Bassett, he would definitely have a sense of humor.
I know him very well.
He has a very good sense of humor.
I follow him on TikTok.
You do?
Yes!
He does great TikToks.
Very funny.
He's got some beautiful, he's doing like a silvery thing with his hair these days.
Oh, okay.
Very handsome, as always.
You know, if you really wanted to catch his attention, you should cover that documentary he did on Lou Pearlman.
I really should.
Yeah, that's a dark documentary.
It is.
Aaron Carter in that thing, that's, oh gosh.
Just want to give that dude a hug. Yeah. Okay, I'm that thing, that's, oh gosh. Just want to
give that dude a hug. Yeah. Okay, I'm
sorry, I'm bumming you out. Yeah, great.
I was really excited about Lance, and now
you had to talk about Luke Ehrlman.
I'm sorry.
Touching, never mind.
Is this
tearing up your heart? It is, it's tearing
up my heart. When I'm with
you, and when we are apart
I feel it too.
It sounds like you're trying
to auto-tune yourself.
Feel the pain
with or without you.
Lance Bass.
Dun-dun-dun-dun.
So I don't think I need to tell you that the summer of 1956 was a very somber one for the white folks in Clinton.
That summer, school administrators and teachers and white parents held several meetings to prepare for the chaos that would ensue when 12 black kids came to Clinton High School.
Yeah, how terrible that's going to be.
It'd be 12 black kids coming into a school of 800 white kids,
and, gee, life sure would be terrible for the white kids.
Yeah, that sure is terrible for the white kids.
No, how fucking scary that is for the black kids.
Exactly.
Exactly.
It's terrifying.
Speaking of the black kids,
they were dealing with really complicated emotions.
Yeah, it was a pain to be bused to Knoxville for school,
and it wasn't fair,
but they had friends they were leaving behind.
They had a community.
The oldest student, Bobby Kane, was headed into his senior year of high school.
He said he didn't really foresee anything bad happening to him at Clinton,
but he was sad to leave his friends,
and he knew that being a black kid at Clinton meant that he wouldn't be able to go to prom.
Really?
Well, yeah.
Oh, that's really sad.
Yeah.
He knew he wouldn't be treated like just another student.
Yeah, exactly.
Ugh.
So a few of the, I thought this was so interesting,
a few of the students who were interviewed for this documentary
just flat out did not want to go to Clinton High School.
Yeah, I don't blame them.
It was scary and unfamiliar.
And it seemed like at the very least they would not be welcome.
Well, that's what I was going to say.
Like the idea of going somewhere where you know you are not wanted.
First of all, switching high schools at any time would be terrible.
Yes.
But, yeah, you don't want to go where you're not wanted.
Yeah.
And horribly outnumbered.
Yeah.
But as teenagers, they didn't have a lot of say in the matter.
This was an opportunity and a burden
that they were taking on for future generations of black students.
But they were just kids.
Yeah.
Okay.
Here's what makes me sad.
I wish that we could also hear the thoughts of their parents.
Yeah.
Because this had to be agony for the parents.
Yeah.
Yeah, I absolutely think so.
You know, saying to their kids, no, you need to go do this.
Yeah.
And probably, like, talking to the other black parents in town and be like,
okay, if my kid goes, your kid needs to go.
Like, you know, so there's more safety in numbers.
Right.
Ugh.
So they didn't know what lie ahead of them.
And meanwhile, DJ Britton, who was the principal of Clinton High School,
did some media interviews at the time. And he acknowledged that, you know, a lot of people
were pissed about this law, but he said, hey, we teach good citizenship at our school. And good
citizenship means following the law. This is the law, so we're going to follow it.
law so we're going to follow it so it seems that that pretty much summed up the sentiment of a lot of the white people in town not rolling out the welcome wagon wait do you roll out a way yeah
anyway yeah not the welcome wagon yeah that was not rolled but it was kind of the red carpet
that's what you know what that's what. Yeah. What about maybe they rolled out the red wagon?
Which was filled with carpets.
So, you know, they weren't being, like, super nice at all.
This is too bad.
But they weren't, like, they were, like, they weren't like being awful.
Okay.
Yet.
Oh, good.
So the summer passed and on Monday, August 20th, 1956, it was time for the students to register for classes.
Would you stop giving me that evil look?
Like if you give me an evil enough look, I'll just shut up forever.
me an evil enough look, I'll just shut up forever.
And then the good news fairy
came down from the sky
and said, racism
doesn't exist anymore
and everybody live happily ever
after. See, I don't get you at all.
You're like, and then they charred her body
and chopped off her hands.
So far, no one's been set on fire in this story
so on that day the clinton 12 showed up and the white people stared at them
and watched as they walked up to the school and registered for classes and left.
And that is the end of that story.
All things considered, things went great that day.
Nothing happened.
That's not to say that there weren't horribly racist people in town, but it really seemed like, you know, it's going to be fine.
Yeah.
The super racists would pout a little and maybe draw themselves a bubble bath and eat a pint of ice cream
and cry about the way the world was changing, but it really seemed like that'd be about it.
I don't think that is about it.
He wouldn't be telling us this story.
Wouldn't that be hilarious?
Yeah.
Telling us this story.
Wouldn't that be hilarious?
Yeah.
If this story ended with like uptight white people just being like, well, okay.
I guess it's happening.
The end.
That'd be great.
But handling it like a breakup, though.
That's what I really like.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The bubble bath.
The ice cream.
Yeah. Probably watching a lot of TV. Oh really like. Yeah. Yeah. The bubble bath. The ice cream. Yeah.
Probably watching a lot of TV.
Oh, yeah.
Okay.
But we've covered all the hits of a breakup.
Yeah.
Crying a lot.
Mm-hmm.
Are we getting sad now?
Picturing past breakups.
Singing Everybody Hurts. Past breakups. Singing everybody hurts.
So classes were scheduled to start on Monday, August 27th.
And again, everything seemed like it was going to be fine.
But the Saturday before school started, a guy named John Casper came to town.
And although he was pale and had a boyish face.
And his last name was Casper?
Yeah, right?
Isn't that quite the last name for a leader in the KKK?
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Do you think that was his real last name, or do you think he was like, this will be fun?
It can't get whiter than this!
Only thing whiter than this would be, what's his first name? Cottage Cheese this would be what's his first name?
Cottage cheese.
No, what's his first name?
John.
Change his name
to John White.
That would have been
a better joke
if I remembered
that his name was John.
I think Casper's
scarier than White
because it's a ghost.
Exactly.
Oh, you snorted.
Oh, no, I snorted.
Oh, no.
This is terrible.
This is a real snort fest in here today.
So, John Casper
showed up in Franklin.
In Franklin.
In Clinton.
Showed up in this guy named
Franklin.
He was only racist, not
homophobic.
Sorry, so he showed up in Clinton
and announced that he had come from Washington.
I don't know why you're having
trouble keeping up.
He was inside a dude
named Franklin. In Clinton.
In Clinton.
He didn't see me.
And he was an unfriendly ghost.
What's hard about all this?
It's just a classic tale.
So, you know, like, he and Franklin finished up. And then he was like, okay, here I am. Here I am.
In Clinton, ready to be racist.
Yeah.
No, he started.
He brought the racism.
So he had come from Washington, D.C.
And his mission was to keep the black kids from going to Clinton High School.
And this dude, I'm sorry, he looks like he weighs like 150 pounds soaking wet.
So, you know, he's a badass motherfucker.
So John was a member of the KKK
and a graduate of Columbia University.
And he owned a bookstore in Washington, D.C.
And he'd started his own printing press,
which he used to print right-wing propaganda.
And you guys saw that coming.
No, he just, like, romance novels?
Totally normal romance novels.
He had shown up in Clinton to save the white people.
Oh, okay.
And to fuck Franklin.
You see, Brandi... The funny thing is,
Franklin wasn't even looking for love that day.
It just happened.
But that's what happens.
It's like you work on yourself
and then all of a sudden
you're ready
when some dude shows up
from Washington, D.C.
Here's the thing
that John Casper knew
that a lot of other people
didn't know.
Racial integration
was really a Jewish plot.
What?
Yeah.
What?
Yeah.
Great.
Yep.
You know what this story didn't have enough of already?
Antisemitism.
Hadn't touched on it yet, but don't worry, we're going to get to everything.
So when he arrived in Clinton, he went door to door, I mean, obviously skipping the black part of town,
and he carried with him a photo of a black soldier kissing a white woman.
Oh!
Okay, that's the appropriate response.
So this was meant to terrify the white people.
This is what can happen when schools integrate.
White ladies notice for the very first time that black dudes are hot.
And then the smooching begins.
Wow.
Pretty scary stuff, huh?
Then he invited everyone to join the White Citizens Council of Anderson County, Tennessee,
which he had just created five seconds earlier.
Okay.
Fun fact, he was still inside Franklin when he created it.
Will I let this go?
No.
Who knows?
So he comes, he makes this pitch.
I didn't mean to do it that time.
So he made this pitch to all the white people.
And like five people were like, sure, I'll join your club.
Wow.
And that Monday morning, the first day of school, you know, like five, some sorts of say 10 white folks showed up to protest the integration of Clinton High School.
They held really powerful signs that said stuff like integration.
No.
That's for real.
I was like, they have a lot of footage from this time
because this is not that long ago.
And I was like, oh boy, protest signs, here we go.
And this dude's sign said integration question mark no
you know it's snappy it gets right to the point
integration i'll pass thank you the protest lasted about 15 minutes because the thing about being
part of a five-person protest is that it's kind of embarrassing.
But a ton of national news outlets were there to cover the school's integration.
This was historic.
It was the first court-mandated desegregation of a public school in the South.
Wow.
That evening, the news programs and the papers carried coverage of the protest.
And that was like a dog whistle
to douchebags everywhere
because racist douchebags
came a-coming to Clinton
to join this huge protest.
They came a-coming?
They came a-coming.
You know what?
I saw that in the script.
I was like,
that really doesn't make sense.
Did I reword it?
No.
No.
This train's headed your way, Brandon.
Can't hit the brakes now.
So Tuesday morning, there were 50 protesters outside the school.
And reporters from national and international media outlets covered that protest.
And by Thursday, there were like 500 protesters.
And they were fucking vile.
For safety, the Clinton 12 would walk to school together.
And they were terrified. And the protesters, of course, yelled horrible things at them and spat on them. But the kids were honestly afraid that they would be murdered trying to go to school.
Yeah.
They tried not to show their fear because they thought, you know, that would maybe make it worse.
But they were terrified.
Once the Clinton 12 made it into the building, they were away from the protesters. You know, but then they were surrounded by all these teachers and administrators and students who weren't that much better.
The Clinton 12 would be in class trying to concentrate, and students would pelt them with spitballs and call them racist names.
And the teachers didn't exactly shut that down.
Great.
So part of this horrible treatment could honestly be because the protesters were also terrible to
the white kids anyone who attended or worked for an integrated school was the enemy oh i know plot
twist right i wasn't expecting that but but yeah they, basically, rather than attend an integrated school, you should just stop going to school.
Yeah.
Okay.
Like I did.
Yeah.
So, although the black kids obviously had it a thousand times worse, the white kids were getting spat on too and being called, you know, N-word lovers and, you know, it was just a great time for everybody.
called, you know, N-word lovers and, you know, it was just a great time for everybody. The KKK held rallies every night and John Casper riled up the crowd with his racist speeches
and encouraged them to be violent and, you know. Yeah. And he was an effective speaker.
People threatened the school principal. They said they'd bomb his house. He had to change
his phone number four times, and eventually he and his wife stopped sleeping at their house.
Wow. For fear that they would be murdered by the Klan. Holy shit. Yeah. The KKK began burning
crosses in the lawns of Clinton High school teachers. At one point, the police
had to drive the kids to and from school. Robert Thacker, who was one of the Clinton 12, said he
was on edge all the time because you never knew what these white people were going to do.
They were filled with hate and they had time to kill. One evening,
the KKK began slowly driving through the black neighborhood.
But here's the cool thing.
The black people of Clinton
did not back down.
That night,
Joanne Crozier Allen Boyce's father
was taken to jail
because he'd stood out in his front yard
with a gun as the Klan drove through.
Wow.
Bad ass.
Yeah.
It got to the point that if the black folks in town didn't have a gun, they got one.
Because it was too fucking scary to live without one.
It wasn't a matter of if someone was going to die.
It was when.
They knew that they were grossly outnumbered and that if
things did escalate, they'd lose, but they weren't going to go quietly. Then one day,
there was a loud bang in the neighborhood. The KKK had set off dynamite. Oh my gosh.
Luckily, no one was hurt, but a lot of black families had the windows blown out of their homes and, you know, got the message loud and clear.
Yeah.
So for safety's sake, some of the black women and children began sleeping in the Mount Zion Baptist Church basement.
And the men would stay in the neighborhood with their guns, and they'd stay up all night to protect their property.
Meanwhile, these protests kept growing and a man named Asa Carter decided that he needed to join in the fun. So he was a famous
segregationist speech writer. Great. Fun fact, he actually co-wrote George Wallace's famous pro-segregation speech in which he said,
segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.
You know, that's like quoted in everything.
Yes.
It's not really even that great a line.
It's not.
No, I can see that.
Cool whip now, cool whip tomorrow, cool whip forever.
There. Very powerful words. Yes, I'm going to go by cool whip now, cool whip tomorrow, cool whip forever.
There.
Very powerful words.
Yes, I'm going to go by cool whip now.
Forever.
So, yeah, he sucked.
He was a hateful little shit. So, naturally, he cut little eye holes in his pillowcase and wrapped himself up in a little robe and called himself the Wizard Belgrande,
up in a little robe and called himself the wizard Belgrande, which paired quite nicely with that other dude, John Casper, who called himself the cheesy Grand Dragon Crunch.
Some sources like to make it seem as though the people of Clinton were just like totally
chill and down to integrate, but a bunch of outsiders came in and stirred up all this
trouble.
Okay, which I can see why they want to spin that story.
The reality is that there was a mix of outsiders and locals
who made it their mission to terrorize the black people of Clinton.
So the White Citizens Council held their nightly rallies
and Asa and John gave their speeches
and inevitably they talked shit on the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court did not set the law of the land, Brandy.
What?
Except that they do.
No, no.
You got your facts wrong.
You don't read enough of John's right-wing propaganda from his little basement printing press.
So these protests had been going on for a few days, growing in number, and the situation was just getting more and more volatile.
Then, are you okay?
It's, oh, gosh.
I don't know if I should say this, so we can cut it.
I'm just seeing so many parallels to like anti-masking, anti-vaccine stuff that's happening right now.
Yes.
They don't have the right to tell us that a school has to integrate.
They don't have the right to tell us that my kid has to wear a mask in school.
The funny thing is that the anti-maskers think of themselves like the Clinton 12.
When in reality, that's not who they are in this story.
That's correct.
Yeah, we might have to cut that.
That's correct.
Yeah, we might have to cut that.
So then came Memorial Day weekend, and a metric shit ton of people showed up in Clinton.
The police force of Clinton tried to maintain order, but this was a town of like 4,000 people, and there were like six dudes on the police force. So out of desperation, the mayor called for any able-bodied man to pitch in and help restore peace and order to Clinton.
Wow.
And like 40 dudes showed up and these guys made up this thing called the Home Guard.
And I mean, this was a ragtag bunch.
It was just a bunch of guys from Clinton with guns they brought from home.
So that sounds terrifying.
Sure does.
So, you know, they've got the Home Guard.
And in the meantime, the city got a court order forbidding anyone from interfering with the integration of Clinton High School.
And that was a great thing because that meant that they had every right to arrest John Casper, the cheesy
Belgrande of the KKK. So they arrested him. But fucking John Casper was like pleased as punch to
be arrested for protesting integration. And there's a stupid photo of him holding up his little
handcuffed hands and smirking for the camera like a douche. Yeah. But he wasn't smiling when Judge Taylor sentenced him to one year in jail for violating the
court order.
But because we can't have nice things, you should know that John Casper appealed the
judge's decision and his stupid supporters all pitched in so that he could make bail.
And that meant that he got to walk free with his appeal pending.
in so that he could make bail, and that meant that he got to walk free with his appeal pending.
Fast forward to Saturday night, September 1st, 1956.
That's David's birthday.
Oh, attention everyone, that's David's birthday.
Born in 1956.
And the date this episode will come out.
Well, hot damn!
Okay, okay, I like that one. I do like that one. What? The date this episode will come out. Well, hot damn! Okay!
Okay! I like that one!
I do like that one.
I'm sorry, 1956, that's the year you were born.
David, born in 1993.
Excuse me for that error.
Fuck off.
So the situation in Clinton is officially a double-decker shit show.
3,000 people were protesting integration in the courthouse square.
The poor home guard, I mean, they tear gassed the protesters.
They tried to keep people moving, but it was no use.
Things were out of control.
Protesters smashed windows.
They overturned cars.
They threatened to blow up the mayor's house.
But that's not
smart because that guy can just call the FBI.
That's right.
And the newspaper office and the courthouse.
One of the members of the Home Guard was like, hey, I served in World War II.
I saw a ton of scary shit.
Nothing was scarier than that night in Clinton.
At this point, the protests were all over the news. It was all anyone could talk about.
And there was for sure going to be terrible bloodshed in Clinton. So the leadership in
Clinton reached out to the governor and they were like, help us, please. We need reinforcements.
And the governor agreed. The day before, he'd been at some little luncheon that he'd given a speech, and he'd given a speech about how Tennessee should obey the law of the land.
The Supreme Court had declared it, and so Tennessee needed to follow it.
I know that doesn't sound groundbreaking, but, like, it kind of was.
Yeah.
To say, yeah, we're not going to, we're not going to fight this.
Well, they were going to.
You know what I mean.
Yes.
Anyway, moving on.
Yes.
So he sent in.
It's a big damn deal.
That's right.
Everybody just, do you get it?
He was talking to like some, you know, dumb.
Sorry, now I realize I'm about to offend people for no reason. I don't need to say this.
But Brandy, it was like a luncheon for dumb, stuffy Republicans. And so it wasn't exactly
the crowd that wanted to hear this. But like he came in with a speech and he's like, here's a
speech I was going to read. Then he set it down. Then he just spoke from the heart. And, you know,
by the end of that, all those, you know those people were like, you know what? Yeah.
Okay.
Send in the guard.
Aren't you glad I told you that?
Yes.
So he sent in the National Guard and he called in the Tennessee State Patrol.
And for the people of Clinton, it was an incredible sight.
All of a sudden, all these police vehicles and tanks came rolling into town.
It would be an incredible sight.
Yes.
Well, probably PTSD out the yin-yang for those guys who had just served in the war.
Well, yeah, I'm sure.
600 members of the Tennessee National Guard put the city of Clinton under martial law for the next two weeks.
Wow.
And when those buff boys showed up with their guns and their numbers, John Casper peed his robe. Yeah, took his tail between his legs and just, he was like, Franklin, come on!
We gotta go!
We gotta go!
But the thing is, like, Franklin had lived in Clinton all his life.
And his dad had operated the drugstore for many years.
And so then it's like, he's torn.
Do I go with my love or do I stay here?
Actually, they've made a million Hallmark movies about this.
Should I stay or should I go? Well, then...
about this.
Should I stay or should I go?
So, you know,
John Casper,
he just skedaddles.
So few Hallmark movies
involved.
They look like they would
because it's all
about white people.
But the KKK,
it's almost never mentioned.
Yeah.
Never mentioned.
You play a drinking game where you're watching Hallmark movies and you're waiting for the KKK reference, you're going to be stone cold sober.
I've done it many a time myself.
Very lame night.
So this situation in Clinton was still scary as hell.
Two members of the Clinton 12 had their homes hit with gunshots.
The cross burnings continued.
The harassment continued.
What the fuck is up with cross burnings?
Anyway.
Yeah, I don't get that at all.
I mean, it would be really scary.
Well, of course it would.
But, like, you don't have anything better to do?
You bored racist douchebags?
Yeah.
There.
We just talked
two guys
out of doing a cross burning.
That's right.
They were gonna do it.
Oh my God,
I didn't know it was bad.
Yeah.
Two guys who are super
into cross burnings
listen to this podcast.
Yeah. to Crossburnings, listen to this podcast.
They're here because they're gathering intel on the feminist agenda, Brandy.
Right. But they
got indoctrinated
accidentally.
That's like that guy
who was
investigating the fundamentalist Mormons and then, oops, accidentally all of a sudden had a second wife.
No, are you serious?
He like went, yeah, I don't remember the story clearly enough, but yeah, I was like this guy who was like undercover in the FLDS.
It was like undercover in the FLDS.
Uh-huh.
And then like, and it was him and his wife were undercover.
And then like, it got so in there. They got in too deep.
Accidentally, all of a sudden, whoops, now I have a second wife.
Okay.
This is kind of like that story I was telling you last week.
It is.
The guy who did the documentary about heroin use.
And he was like, man, people keep getting addicted to this.
I don't get it.
So he tried it and then he became addicted to heroin.
Yes!
So anyway, that's why the cross burning guys are listening to this podcast.
Started out, they didn't like it.
Yeah.
The laughter was too much for them.
That's right.
But it grew on them.
It grew on them.
Thought I had too many dad jokes.
You were too joyous.
I've said that for a long time.
Anyway, we'll see you at the live show, boys.
Okay, so but two months later,
you know,
piss stained and still ugly and boring,
Jack Casper,
I'm sorry,
John Casper came back to Clinton.
The accuracy is
incredible. He was like, Franklin, I can't
stay away from you. I don't know
how to quit you.
Is that the line? I can't quit
you. Yeah, I think so.
Okay. Yeah, I can't quit you.
Yeah.
Feel the same way about you. That's right.
Just try to quit me, Brandi.
I fucking dare you.
So, you know, he's back in Clinton, and he was due in court for sedition and inciting to riot.
Are you ready for some sweet, sweet justice?
What was the first charge?
Sedition.
What's that mean?
I was hoping you would not ask.
Okay.
Hang on, I have a Google machine.
Conduct or speech inciting people to rebel
against the authority of a state or monarch.
Oh, fun fact.
When you Google sedition,
the first thing that pops up is pictures from the Capitol riot.
I was going to say, that sounds very familiar.
Like something that happened in January.
Oh, not here, not in America.
Weird, have there been charges filed?
Yeah.
Hey, speaking of that, are you ready for some justice?
No, there's not going to be any justice.
Exactly. And there never is.
So his trial began on November 5th and it lasted about a week.
And John Casper lectured the jury about his personal theories on race relations.
I'm sure it was very enlightening for everyone.
about his personal theories on race relations.
I'm sure it was very enlightening for everyone.
And John Casper sure had a lot of friends because some key prosecution evidence went missing during the trial
and yada, yada, yada.
The jury deliberated for one whole hour.
I just exhausted that hour.
Used up every minute of it.
And they found him not guilty.
Of course they did.
And the courtroom was packed with his supporters and they all cheered.
Wonderful.
Yeah.
Oh, and also turns out the jury was packed with his supporters because four of those jurors were staunch pro-segregationalists.
People say that like it's like, oh, well, they obviously were all douchebag segregationists
if they let this guy go anyway.
Cool.
So anyway.
Great.
John was acquitted and you'll never believe this, but that night he incited another mob.
Yeah.
I almost said mom.
He incited a mom.
You get those moms worked up. That's right. Oh, ever since you had London,
I've been trying to incite you every day. You see, he learned a thing or two since he was last in
town. Getting the older white people riled up had been a real hoot, but it hadn't
really terrorized the black kids who were now attending Clinton High School. In order to really
stop integration and really make life miserable for the Clinton 12, he needed to get his rhetoric
inside the school. So he organized a junior white citizens council because he realized.
Mini KKK.
Yeah.
Fun size.
Cool.
He realized that in order to prove that integration was bad, it needed to actually be bad in the school.
Because evidently, you know, people were freaking out. But inside the school, I mean, it sounds pretty awful to me, but, you know.
Yeah.
All hell had not quite broken loose.
Yeah.
Yeah, because.
What?
Because hatred is handed down.
It doesn't, like.
I can't even do it.
What?
Well, it's not.
It doesn't come naturally.
It's not like these kids would see, oh, black kids in their school and automatically hate them.
It's something that is taught to them by their parents.
And it is horrible.
And I obviously don't need to tell anyone that.
No.
Those two guys are like, wait, what?
No. So I guarantee you, yeah, in that school, things were probably fine for the most part.
You know what this reminds me of?
Have you ever heard the story about, like, the housing situation in Kansas City?
About how, oh gosh, I wish I would have, like, memorized this.
Because it made me think of this when I was watching this documentary.
So racist douchebags controlled all the real estate in Kansas City, blah, blah, blah.
And then integration started to happen.
And all these real estate folks were poised to make a ton of money off of white flight.
But apparently when the first few families moved into some white neighborhoods,
you know, there was all this talk about like, oh, it's going to be so terrible.
Oh, my God.
And really, it was fine.
Now, I'm sure it wasn't fine for the black people.
Oh, I'm sure.
But yeah.
Yeah.
Like nothing happened.
And so these rich douchebags were like, oh, shit. Sure. But yeah. Yeah. Like nothing happened.
And so these rich douchebags were like, oh shit.
If this happens, if nothing happens, then there won't be white flight.
We're not going to make all this money.
So then they started going to the prisons. And as soon as someone was let out, they would like take some like really scary person and be like, here, live in this
nice neighborhood.
And then it freaked out people.
And, you know, anyway.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So that was kind of his idea.
Yeah.
Was we've got to make sure it's really bad in this school.
Yeah.
So, you know, he started his little junior club and only 10 or 20 students joined.
But, you know, nothing like his little junior club and only 10 or 20 students joined.
But, you know, nothing like a bad apple spoils the bunch.
No.
What's that saying that's supposed to be positive?
Never doubt that a small group of people can change the world.
Oh, God.
Well, I hate that.
Well, yeah, but it's true either way. So their mission was just to be awful.
Yeah, make these kids' lives miserable.
Yeah, and they did.
Yeah.
So for the Clinton 12, this was when things got really bad.
When the girls walked down the hall, people would yank their hair.
And it was painful and scary. You never knew when it was going to happen.
And when you turned around, everyone acted like they hadn't seen anything. White kids filled the Clinton 12's lockers with hateful notes. One of the ladies
actually kept some of the notes and showed them. I mean, yeah, just awful. William Latham, who was
another member of the Clinton 12, regularly had all his stuff ruined because the white kids would fill his locker with syrup
and eggs and basically anything that would ruin his stuff and no waffle maker to be okay okay okay
you bitch and that was what he was upset about, really. That's right. Yeah.
Yeah, so, I mean, it made his books unusable.
Of course, yes.
Blah, blah, blah.
And he was like, what Holiday Inn breakfast station did you pluck this stuff from?
Am I right?
That's right.
When the Clinton 12 would walk down the hall, people would step on the back of their heels.
It got to the point that by the end of the day
their heels would be bleeding.
But yeah,
this is a horrible situation
for the white kids.
Yeah.
So, you know,
this just was not working.
Principal DJ Britton,
who had taken
the very moderate stance of
DJ Britton.
Another one.
I'm sorry. I hate this story.
I have to break it up
with stupid
shout outs to DJ Kevin.
And mentions of waffles.
Very good.
That's why we're all here.
So he's like, I can't have a situation
where black kids
are literally unsafe
in this high school.
Yeah.
So he sat down
with the football team
and he was like,
look guys,
I need your help.
You're the biggest,
baddest boys
in the whole darn school.
And what you do...
He shouldn't have
winked at the end.
He was kind of creepy.
No, that's not fair.
I don't...
He said, what you boys do He was kind of creepy. No, that's not fair. I don't.
He said, what you boys do in those tight little pants is just remarkable.
You take that ball all the way down the field.
That's right.
He'd seen football games before, just like me.
Just like you.
So he was like, I need you to help keep the peace in this school.
If you see a white student going after one of the black students, I need you to intervene.
And so these members of the football team agreed.
Wow.
Yeah.
And this seemed to work. The football players kind of had the social standing and the beefy bodies to stop these racist douchebags.
Stop these racist douchebags.
Oh, you think their beefy bodies were inconsequential?
Let me tell you, some skinny little tweeb says, hey, stop it.
You know, that's not going to have the same effect as like some big beefy person.
You're right.
That's correct.
I await your apology.
But really, this whole situation was out of control.
At this point, the racist white people were so fired up that a bunch of them were now running as pro-segregationists for public office.
Good Lord.
So the black families who had bravely fought for integration were now wondering if it was even worth it.
Right.
There was a chance that one of their kids would be killed over this. So I didn't see this in other places, but I saw it in the
Tennessee Encyclopedia. It said that at this point, the parents of the Clinton 12 decided that they
would stop sending their kids to Clinton High School. But then came December 4th, 1956. It was
election day in Clinton.
And with, you know, all the pro-segregation candidates on the ballot, things were super tense.
And that morning, Reverend Paul Turner, who was the white pastor for the Clinton Baptist Church,
offered to escort the Clinton 12 to school that morning.
He and two other men, a mill worker named Sidney Davis and a local attorney
named Leo Burnett, all walked the kids to school. Okay, so pause. Some sources say these other two
guys were black. I've seen pictures. They appear white to me, and other sources say they're white.
And one source said that Leo Burnett had actually been an attorney who fought for segregation.
But now, in light of all this bullshit, was like, you know what?
I'm going to walk these kids to school.
Wow.
Anyway, but I mean, again, conflicting sources.
So after the kids were safely in the school, Reverend Paul began walking back to his church.
But members of the White Citizens Council had seen the reverend walking the Clinton 12 to school and they'd hated it.
So seven men and two women surrounded him and attacked him and they beat the shit out of him.
Oh, my gosh.
A white woman named Vivian Shukman was right there and she was horrified by what she saw.
This was in public in broad daylight.
And so she yelled for some men to intervene, and none of them would.
So she was just like, well, fuck it.
And so she jumped in and started yanking on the arms of the attackers.
I've got goosebumps.
Meanwhile, blood was streaming down the reverend's face.
It looked like it was coming out of his eyes. I mean, he had just been brutally attacked.
At one point, they threw him against a car, and the reverend's blood just got all over this car.
Paul Turner eventually got free, but journalists took photos of that bloodied car, and the photos shocked people when they became huge news. But the mob wasn't finished. A few minutes
later, two pro-segregationists broke into the school looking for members of the Clinton 12 to
attack. But the home ec teacher spotted them and tried to hold them off. And fun twist, the home ec teacher was the principal's wife.
And her name was Clarice Britton.
And I had to look so hard to find her fucking first name.
Because she was just referred to as the principal's wife.
As the principal's wife.
Anyway.
Turns out when she was born, she was given a name.
Weird.
Weird.
And it wasn't the principal's wife.
So, of course, these two guys who broke in, they saw the principal as the enemy and they realized who she was.
And so they went to try to attack her.
And luckily, a student came by.
Another source says the principal himself
came by, saw this happening, like shooed them off. And once this had happened to the principal's wife,
whose name was Clarice, the principal was like, that's it. We're closing school for however long
it takes to get the situation under control.
This was so unsettling for the people of Clinton that these attacks.
Oh, OK.
I'm sorry.
I worded this very strangely.
I remember when I wrote this, I thought that's a weird way to word it, but I can't think of another way.
Anyway, now here I am.
Tripping you up.
Tripping.
Anyway, what I'm trying to tell you is that, you know, these douchebags, they thought they'd have one effect, had the opposite effect instead.
How'd you write it?
Here's what I wrote. This was so unsettling for the people of Clinton that these attacks ironically resulted in the opposite effect of their intention, which is fine.
But there's something about it that just like doesn't really flow for me.
You know how I like to flow.
So that day, the people of Clinton showed up for the election and they made their opinions known.
Here was the opinion.
Pro-segregation candidates can go suck a dick.
Yeah.
Or whatever you don't want to suck.
That's right.
Because I don't want people enjoying it.
That's right.
You know.
Yeah.
Go suck a...
Lemon?
Hot pickle.
Yeah.
Everyone, at lunch day, Brandy revealed that she hates hot pickles.
That's exactly right.
Who knew that one could have such a strong opinion?
That's right. Pickles aren't supposed to be hot. Well, yeah. Who knew that one could have such a strong opinion? That's right.
Pickles aren't supposed to be hot.
Well, yeah, if they're fried pickles, you want them hot?
No, I don't want them hot.
Here's the truth.
You want a cold fried pickle?
No, you don't want any fried pickle.
No, that's the truth.
I don't want any pickles.
But I tried the fried pickle.
She was very adventurous last week.
Yeah.
I tried to step outside my comfort zone, try a fried pickle, and I was
disturbed
by the temperature of the pickle.
It's my own fault. I didn't put any thought into it.
I should have known it'd be a hot pickle,
but the taste of that hot pickle haunted
my mouth for days.
Everyone,
bad news. She's never been the same
she tried one tiny bite of something she did not enjoy that's right and it just really good
see if i do that again
so that sunday reverend turner delivered a beaten, severely injured, to a crowd of 700 people.
And he told them, there is no color line around the cross.
You know, I don't...
No, I shouldn't.
I don't think it's that powerful. I don't... No, I shouldn't. I don't think it's that powerful.
I don't either.
Right?
I mean, I know I'm being a dick right now.
But they showed a lot of footage of the sermon in this documentary.
Other places quoted it.
Yeah.
You know, I'm being such a dick.
This dude was hospitalized for days and he like...
I got the shit out of him And we're being bitches about it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
It's very moving.
You're absolutely right.
Well, no, we should just have not said anything.
Yeah.
Just cut all that.
What's that line from Bambi?
If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.
That's right.
I mean, if that were the case, we wouldn't have a podcast.
We couldn't even have that pie cast.
Oh, you're right.
Because we would talk shit on the pie.
What if it was mealy? Yeah,
we would be honest.
And that could tank us.
But you know what?
I'll be damned if I'm going to lie about pie.
That's right. I'll lie about all kinds of other stuff. Get no sponsorships from Edmonds.
God, fuck Edmonds.
What about a Sarah Lee pie?
Oh, that's great.
Okay.
Sarah Lee, I think surprisingly good.
Yeah.
Could we do cakes, too?
Absolutely.
You know what I like?
What do you like?
Those Pepperidge Farm cakes that you get in the freezer.
Do you have strong childhood memories?
I do.
Yeah.
When we would go camping, we would always have a Pepperidge Farm cake.
When we had our family vacation this past summer, we got the Pepperidge Farm cake.
And Norman and Jay were both kind of like, I don't understand why this has to happen.
And we were like, it has to happen.
Now I'm going to have to get one of those because we've talked about it.
You know what I cannot stop thinking about?
What?
I made this cake for Kyla's big promotion party.
Yeah.
I made, I don't mean to brag to you people,
but I made a buttercream frosting that was to die for.
My whole family's dead, tragically, because they died for it.
Brandy will inevitably cover this whole case.
So you poisoned your family with frosting?
I realized that they might want some of that frosting, and I wanted all of it to myself.
So I poisoned their portions, ate a bunch of icing myself.
Yeah.
And if that makes me a monster, then lock me up.
Okay.
We sure
will. I will plead not guilty.
Anyway, that was a really
weird tangent. That's because we don't want
to talk about this anymore.
It's just, you know what the problem with this
story is? It's
prolonged sadness. Yeah,
it is. Is there a happy happy ending what do you fucking think
well no because racism is still very alive here in the united states so i'm guessing not
no this is the end racism ends at the end of this case you know how you're like whatever
happened to racism i read about it in the history Well, this is the end of it right here.
Great.
Anyway.
So he gave a very moving speech.
Oh, yeah.
So he gave that sermon.
I'm so sorry to that guy.
His wife said that he, all the way through the rest of his life, he would wake up with these night terrors.
I'm sure.
PTSD.
Mm-hmm.
Which, you bet your ass the Clinton 12 has PTSD.
I was thinking about this.
You know, this is like before the time when everybody was going to therapy and all this
stuff.
And holy shit, you talk about needing serious help.
Yes.
This is all a plug for better help.
Just kidding.
Use our plug.
No.
Oh, my gosh.
Can you imagine?
So, you know, there's all this unrest.
The Reverend has gotten beaten up.
Yeah.
You know, Clarice almost got beaten up.
Her name's Clarice.
Again, her name is Clarice.
Yes.
Okay.
Meanwhile, the school board and the leadership in Clinton was pissed at the judicial system
because they were like, look, we complied with your orders.
We integrated our school.
And now our city is a heaping hellscape and you aren't helping us.
A heaping hellscape?
That's not really a thing, is it?
It's a heaping hellscape. That's not really a thing, is it? It's an Eping Hellscape.
I don't think I have to tell you that that was not in my notes.
The thing is, like, you run out of ways to say it, and it was bad.
It was real, real bad.
It's an Eing hellscape.
You know, the romance between Franklin and John did lighten things up, but not for everybody.
Not everybody was happy for the guys, you know? That's right.
So, anyway, it was a heaping hellscape.
So they're like, you're not helping us
We have people here terrorizing our citizens
Also some of our citizens are terrorizing
Other citizens but you know we don't mention that
Beating people up
And we have this court order barring people
From interfering with integration
But the court order doesn't do shit
If it isn't enforced
And then they kind of
Shook their fingers around They wag their finger You don't shake your finger That's kind if it isn't enforced. Yeah. And then they kind of shook their fingers around.
They wag their finger.
You don't shake your finger.
That's kind of weird, isn't it?
Yeah.
You don't shake a finger.
You wag it.
You don't shake your tail either.
You wag it.
But you do shake your tail feather.
I knew you were going to say that.
You set me up.
I think we might spend too much time together.
That very well might be the case.
I think I'd be super original and you're like, nope.
And that was coming out your mouth.
So the school board met up with Judge Robert Taylor andlor and u.s attorney john c crawford and
they said please help us and they were like okay we will do the best thing ever we will set up
a task force okay what does it work do you not respect respect have some respect for a task force you want to get
shit done create a task
force
you know
some days I don't
make my bed I had to really
change that habit so I started a task force
a bed making task force
how about you you had to
change things up in your life
start up a little task force or something?
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
The next day, they sent in eight U.S. Marshals to work with local law enforcement to investigate everything that happened at Clinton High School.
Okay, but in the meantime, they need to, like, fucking line the streets with the National Guard and, like, block the entrance to the school and, like...
What else?
I don't know.
A tank on every corner.
You know.
You know.
There's real casual tanks everywhere.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. there's real casual tanks everywhere yeah yeah
you know what they could have done
could have turned the fire hoses
on these protesters
yeah sure could have
they didn't take that approach
with the white protesters
weird
were they just like hey excuse me I hate to bother you They didn't take that approach with the white protesters. Weird.
Were they just like, hey, hey, excuse me, I hate to bother you.
Excuse me, Greg?
Do you have a second?
I was wondering if you could just not be a total racist douchebag. I'm as upset about this as you are.
I feel the exact same way.
But here's the thing.
You know, there's a court order and, you know,
and I'm just the middle man here.
So don't shoot the messenger.
Yep, yep, yep.
Uh-huh, uh-huh.
We could be police
officers.
Oh, no.
Anyway, that's our impression of...
Never mind.
So, anyone who was found to have interfered with a court order would be in big trouble.
Yeah.
Sure enough, they arrested 16 people.
So suck on that.
And did nothing with them.
Oh, wait a second.
Ready to eat those words right up?
Yeah.
Prove me wrong.
Okay.
John Casper and his merry band of douchebags, you know, they were the 16 and they were put on trial and an all white jury deliberated for two hours and 20 minutes and found douchebags got probation and they all appealed and every last one of them can open mouth kiss my asshole.
Yeah.
That's a standing invitation.
John Casper is in a committed relationship with Franklin.
I bet not.
I bet he cheats on everyone.
Don't you think?
Yeah, I'm sure.
I feel like, okay, every now and then we make jokes on this podcast and then people think it's real.
There is no Franklin.
There's no Franklin.
Yeah, I think we do have to spell that out at this point.
They're going to be like, where did I miss?
Did he stay with a man named Franklin?
My God.
Well, this is interesting.
Anyway, yeah, pretty sure he was straight.
I guess I don't know.
Yeah.
Anyway, who cares?
Yes.
So in the meantime, Clinton High School had reopened and the Clinton 12 continued to attend school.
And in May of 1957, a member of the Clinton 12, Bobby Kane, became the first black graduate of a court-ordered integrated school in the South.
And it was historic and a huge moment.
And after commencement, a group of boys cornered him and they cut the lights and they beat him up.
Excellent.
Eventually, the lights came back on and some teachers intervened and his dad showed up and took him back home.
That's fucking terrible.
Yeah, I don't like it when sources leave this story out.
Because, you know, a lot of them are like, and then he graduated.
And it's a shit beat out of him.
Yes.
That's really important.
The following year, Gail Ann Epps became the first black woman to graduate Clinton High School.
I guess a girl, right?
Because she's a high school student.
Not anymore.
She's officially an adult.
Anyway. Yeah. I always worry about calling people girls. Right. Because she's a high school student. Not anymore. She's officially an adult. Anyway.
Yeah.
I always worry about calling people girls.
Right.
Or women.
And that's why I just call people bitches.
Sometimes girls sound condescending.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's why I call everyone a cunt.
That's just easier that way. And then no one can be offended.
That's right.
And this story isn't over.
You thought it was over, didn't you?
I thought it was over.
You were starting to like, yeah.
I was.
You were like, oh, life is good.
I survived this terrible story.
Well, no, you didn't.
No.
Because at 422 a.m. on October 5th, 1958, three loud blasts broke through the early morning silence of Clinton, Tennessee.
Three loud blasts broke through the early morning silence of Clinton, Tennessee.
Clinton High School, which had been right in the middle of town, had been blown to bits.
Oh my gosh! Mm-hmm.
156 sticks of dynamite tucked into three critical areas of the school had been set off.
The school was completely destroyed.
off. The school was completely destroyed. So kind of ironically, I know it's kind of douchey of me to be like, hmm, but for the next few years, all 800 Clinton High School
students had to be bussed out to a formerly abandoned elementary school in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Wow.
While the town worked to build a new Clinton High School.
No one was held responsible for the bombing of the original Clinton High School.
But people, I mean, it doesn't really take a genius to think that John Casper was probably involved somehow.
Where are they now?
These days, the Clinton 12 are celebrated for their incredible courage.
Yeah, I think that's really important because that was such a difficult situation that they were put into it and given probably no choice in.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. One of the things that I thought was so interesting
about this documentary was a lot
of the kids talked about
like, well, and I
say kids, I mean, everyone's
old now, but they were like,
yeah, my
aunt, my mom, my dad, whoever
never talked about this.
Yeah.
Which, that makes it
so sad to me. Yeah. Which that makes it so sad to me.
Yeah.
But it was just a painful thing that they lived through.
Yeah.
In the hopes that life would be better for other people down the road.
Future generations, yeah.
So the Green McAdoo School, which had served as the city's black elementary school, was turned into a museum and cultural center in 2006.
And at the front of the museum is this beautiful bronze statue of each of the Clinton 12 holding their books, walking together to school.
It's a really cool statue.
And I want to just end with reading all of their names and pronouncing each of them perfectly.
I'll also be naming their favorite cookies.
Great.
Maurice Soles, Anna Caswell, Alfred Williams, Regina Turner-Smith, William Latham, Gail
Ann Epps-Upton, Ronald Gordon Poochie-Hayden, Joanne Croanne Crozier Allen Boyce, Robert Thacker, Bobby Kane, Minnie Ann Dickey-Jones, and Alva McSwain.
And that is the story of the Clinton 12.
Yeah, I'd never heard of that.
And I'll thank you to never talk about it again.
Just kidding.
I think it's a really important story.
I think it's great that important story I think it's great
that you've never wanted to hear
I thought it was so interesting
it really makes me wonder
what would have happened
if there hadn't been any fanfare
about this
if there had been no media coverage
if that fucking douchebag hadn't shown up, I'm sure it would have still, there would have been something.
Absolutely.
But it couldn't have been anything like this.
Here's an interesting thing about this John Casper fella.
Eventually, like, people started to really not like him.
And I mean by like like
everybody uh-huh and so then he just started working like clerical jobs and whatever he got
out of politics and all that stuff and then he died so with no friends and again I can't stress
this enough he was ugly and boring very good did I tell you Norman and I decided, like, many years ago that that was probably, like, the worst insult?
To be ugly and boring.
Yeah, it probably is.
Yeah.
Because he doesn't care if we call him a racist.
No, he loves that.
Yeah.
You're ugly and boring, dude.
Yeah.
Suck on that.
You're ordinary.
What? Ordinary. Ordinary. that you're ordinary what ordinary nothing special about him don't you think everybody wants to be a little bit special i think that's a pretty big insult i don't know because i've
always been very special so i can't really put myself in the shoes of others in that sense you know
i mean you know firsthand how special i am that's i do i do holy shit you know what we need to do
now another ad reset and rejuvenate you know what i think we ought to do right now oh Hop on over to the Discord. Take some questions.
I think so.
LGTC Kristen.
This one's for you.
Alright. Lay it on me. Slow Clap for Dick
wants to know, did you watch season 2
of I Think You Should Leave?
Oh, yes.
Did you love it it's hilarious I
know it's not your kind of humor there's some cringy stuff but oh my gosh I think
I think you should leave on Netflix is hilarious sketch comedy so damn good
and you will now be forced to watch it Aussie Brandy asks
does it still blow your mind
that you have fans all over the globe
yeah
absolutely
it is insane
it blows my mind that we have any fans at all
at all
both of us have gone
all our lives without any fans really so yes this is quite shocking to the system
oh dog lady lawyer says more episodes with kyla and casey
yeah i think we can arrange that absolutely not
they know what they did We could arrange that. Absolutely not.
They know what they did.
Jury masked.
No one wants this.
When are we going to get a full musical episode of LGTC?
We're about halfway there.
Yeah, you'll just have to piece together all the singing. Sir, I want to buy these shoes.
No, Brandy, oh my God.
Oh my God.
For my Baba, please.
Christmas Eve and these shoes are just our size.
I hope nothing horrible happens to you.
Norm's Beanbag says, to celebrate your 200th episode, how about a reunion episode with Norm and DP?
Oh, my.
Can we handle it?
I don't think you can handle this.
Snowfeather asks, where does the obsession with craft singles come from?
Do we have an obsession with craft singles?
I don't think so.
I think we just have a normal amount of love for them as two Midwest ladies.
Yeah.
We were born this way, baby.
That's right.
You know what?
That's really funny.
I would have never
described myself
as obsessed,
but yeah,
probably to someone else
outside of this region.
Yeah.
Probably seems that way.
I only eat like five a day.
What?
Okay. If you've never had a grilled cheese with a Kraft single, though, you're not living life.
You're not living.
Oh, Fierce Mama Llama asks, when will you all finally do your anti-MLM episode or series?
Herbal life for you, Kristen, and Monat for, is it Monat for, oh, yeah, that's it.
Oh, my gosh.
That would be so good.
So I have looked into that stuff.
It's kind of like the case I did today where it's just a ton of cases.
Yeah.
And it's a mess.
It is.
And then we would have the Huns coming for us.
I was going to say, we would just be asking to get.
Yes.
Our asses blasted.
Am I right?
That's what you were going to say.
I don't think that's quite how I was going to phrase it.
Those Beachbody gals would blast our asses.
Ooh, the Ginger Snap wants to know, what is your biggest flex to date?
Brandy, what's yours?
My biggest flex?
I mean, we heard all about your big, strong shoulders.
Stop it!
Congratulations on those big, strong shoulders.
That's right.
I mean, have you even seen a trapezius muscle this well-defined before?
Is it the thing about sticking your whole fist in your mouth?
Yeah, that's pretty good, right?
I mean, you sure are proud of it.
Don't do it.
Ew.
Oh, my God.
Ew.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
That is so gross.
That's pretty good, right?
Yeah.
It's a big mouth.
Sure is.
You have made so many men so happy all at the same time.
Stop that.
How dare you.
What's your biggest flex?
I don't know.
Well, there was that one time that I was in that class,
and I said, I let all those Northeasterners know how to spell Des Moines.
The S is silent.
Yeah, they had no idea, but I knew.
So they could all kiss my ass.
It was a pretty big day for me.
Alicia NC wants to know, how's COVID stuff going in your respective states oh just great well
kristin in your great state of missouri the attorney general just uh sued the school what
is it like 50 school districts for having mask mandates yeah we're we it. We got it totally under control.
Oh, my God.
Yeah, I mean, people are idiots.
What can we say?
Yep.
You know what?
It's not much better over in Kansas.
I don't think anyone assumed it was.
We do have a fairly progressive governor, but a very conservative legislature.
So that causes all kinds of problems.
Keeps things spicy, doesn't it? Yeah.
The Ginger Snap wants to know, are you for or against pumpkin spice?
I am a very basic white bitch.
I love pumpkin spice.
Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to turn down pumpkin spice.
I like it.
I like the smell of it.
And like candle and stuff.
I don't want like pumpkin spice scented body shit.
I don't want lotion that smells like pumpkin spice.
I don't think you should buy body shit.
I don't know why.
I create my own.
Gross. It's organic.
That's gross.
Yeah, I like a pumpkin spice candle.
I like pumpkin spice flavored things.
Like lotions?
No.
Like a latte or a muffin.
Careful, everyone.
She's getting really excited.
A pumpkin spice muffin. She's getting really excited. A pumpkin spice muffin.
She's getting so excited. You know what I made this week? What?
I had some bananas that were going bad. This has nothing to do with pumpkin spice.
I could tell. We were on the baked goods train and now we're just
taking off. I made these banana muffins that then had this
gooey sticky bun pecan topping on top of them.
Okay.
So fucking good.
Did you outdo yourself that day?
I did.
You know what?
Okay.
Obviously, David is my biggest hype man.
Like he thinks like everything I do is amazing, which is just love him.
like everything I do is amazing which is just love him
I took them out of the oven and he was like
oh my god those look like those could be in a
store
what have I told you
that David is a professional
actor that you pay him
you pay him?
You pay him to say sweet things to me?
In reality, he thought those muffins looked like shit.
No, you really know your baked goods, ma'am.
This is not a question, but I would like to point out that in the Discord, Captain Fart Sales again has shared a picture of Mr. DNA from Jurassic Park.
You know what he's saying there right now?
Dino DNA!
You know, finally you had a real reason to say that in an episode.
That's right.
How does it feel? It feels pretty good.
I also feel like I should tell you now, because I think it makes me kind of cool by association.
David's sister has a tattoo of Mr. DNA, and it says 100% that bitch.
I love it.
And you're somehow taking credit for this?
No, I'm not taking credit for it.
I just think that because I'm related to her, I'm also very cool.
You're related to David's sister?
Well, like, you know.
Bad news.
Stop it!
Stop it!
That's why London has a hand growing out of its mouth.
Stop it!
How dare you!
My baby is so fucking beautiful and perfect.
And I'm not at all related to David.
Just his sister.
Stop it.
12-year-old husband would like to know,
what fall things are you most looking forward to this year?
Uh-uh. We're not fucking falling for this. Because the last time we had a conversation, It's been to know what fall things are you most looking forward to this year?
Uh-uh.
We're not fucking falling for this.
Because the last time we had a conversation about things we were looking forward to was at the beginning of 2020.
We are never doing that again.
We look forward to nothing.
And we went on and on about what a great year was going to be.. People message us about it all the time and how sad it is for us.
That happened.
People do get really sad.
All the time.
They're like, oh, it's really sweet.
You were talking about how you were really looking forward to 2020.
Yeah, 2020 is going to be a great year.
It just sounds so sad to hear you guys say that.
You know, the other episode they talked about.
Is the episode where we talked about the SARS pandemic.
And we're like, wow, everybody's wearing masks.
It was so crazy.
That sounds terrifying.
So you're telling me you can catch it and not know you have it?
Yeah, I would go nuts.
Oh, no.
The Ginger Snap wants to know, I think this is a question for you.
What's your favorite souvenir you've either purchased for yourself or had someone else give to you?
Fuck, I love souvenirs.
Oh, I know what mine is.
What?
It's what you got me.
So, okay, I did a case a while back on the Dion quintuplets,
and I talked in the episode about how, like,
and that's a set of quintuplets who basically became, like,
a zoo attraction in Canada.
And I talked in that episode about how there was like
these fans
and like all this memorabilia
around them.
And I was like,
there's a fan on eBay,
but I would never buy anything like it.
And you bought it for me.
Yes.
And it's in my office
on display constantly.
I love that thing.
I think it's so cool.
What about you?
I'm so glad.
Gosh, I don't know.
I have like a little magnet collection.
And so people get us magnets sometimes.
So I guess that, you know, I love souvenir stores.
You do.
I don't know that I can pick a single souvenir.
You got that shirt from the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum.
I love that shirt.
I love souvenir shops.
Every time we go just to the Kansas City Zoo, we go through the gift shop and I get a souvenir.
What?
Yeah.
From the Kansas City Zoo?
Fuck yes.
It's like 20 minutes from your house.
It's a great gift shop.
I agree.
I have a, I have, oh, that might be my favorite.
What?
It's a polar bear Christmas ornament.
And I got it like here's a city zoo.
Okay.
I thought of another souvenir that I love.
Okay.
So you and I both love Christmas ornaments. We sure fucking do. Super love them. Yes. Okay. I've thought of another souvenir that I love. Okay, so you and I both love Christmas ornaments.
We sure fucking do.
Super love them.
Yes.
Okay.
For years, my family would go to Tantera for Thanksgiving, and it was like this, well,
it is this tacky hotel in the Lake of the Ozarks.
It is now a Margaritaville.
Which is now a Margaritaville.
Yes.
But before they switched over, my sister bought me an ornament of a bear juggling presents with a goofy look on his face.
Because obviously, why wouldn't it be? And he's got a banner over his head that reads Tanterra.
I treasure that thing.
Norman hates it.
Pantera.
Mm-hmm.
I treasure that thing.
Norman hates it.
So, similarly, you know, I love all things creepy.
Mm-hmm. I have a Christmas ornament porcelain replica of the Stanley Hotel.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Estes Park.
From the gift shop at the Stanley in Estes Park.
It's pretty good. It's pretty good Stanley in Estes Park it's pretty good it's pretty
treasured possession
it's pretty good
your place ever
goes up in flames
you're gonna be
saving that
should we wrap it up there
and do some Supreme Court
inductions
yeah let's do some
inductions
alright I suppose we will.
Try and keep it together this week.
Oh, my gosh.
If anyone didn't listen to Brandi lose her ever-loving mind in last week's inductions,
go back and listen.
I died.
I died during them and then came back to life.
For this very episode right here.
That's right.
All right.
This week, we will be reading your names and favorite cookies.
Amanda Denton.
Oreos.
Courtney Felt.
Chocolate Chunk.
Kimberly.
Chilled Sugar Cookie from Crumble.
I have had that and it's quite good.
Wait, does she just put it in the fridge
and that's what makes it no it calms chilled some of their cookies okay it's a whole there's a whole
science behind it and let me tell you last week i learned that the founder of crumble cookies is 29
years old and it was oh fuck you you're upsetting to me
i wish i wish i wasn't as petty.
I know, exactly.
Some of their cookies come chilled.
Some of them come warm.
It depends on the flavor and what consistency they want you to enjoy that cookie at.
I'm so happy for people who are younger than me and way more successful.
That's right.
Good for you. Good for you.
Good for you.
Jackie Gallagher-Lassard.
Brown butter chocolate chip cookie.
Morgan Anderson.
Soft loft house cookies.
Katie Wilder.
Lemon cookies.
Kathy Feuerborn.
Crispy chocolate chip with extra chocolate chips.
Suzanne Salzman. Oreos dipped in milk rosie mccaffrey oh my sicilian lemon and white chocolate cookies from marks and spencers
they make me feel bougie i felt bougie just saying it does lemon go with white chocolate
i guess you wouldn't know because you've never been to Marks and Spencer's and had the cookie. I've never heard of Marks and Spencer's.
You walk by the display, you're like, does this even go?
You're like just angling for a free sample.
I'm skeptical.
I'm super skeptical of that cookie flavor pairing.
I've had a lot of cookies in my day.
I've never even heard of anything like this.
I suppose you could win me over with sample.
Faith Winters Oatmeal Lace Cookies
Emily DeFreeze
A Polish Butter Cookie
She says it's usually filled with sweet cheese or jam
Sweet cheese?
I bet she means like cream cheese
Sweet cheese?
I know, to us it sounds very weird
But I bet it's like a cream. Sweet cheese. I know. To us, it sounds very weird.
But I bet it's like a cream cheese type thing.
Don't you think?
Oh, no.
You know what this mandelflor needs?
Some sweet cheese.
Sweet cheese.
Here's what I bet.
I bet it's just slice of Kraft Singles dipped in sugar.
Sweet cheese. Sweet cheese.
Emily, let us know.
Taylor Shaw.
Deep fried Oreos from the fair.
Raytown Twins.
What?
Cookie dough ice cream.
Well, that's not.
All right, we'll let it slide, Raytown Twins.
Mark W.
Hot and slightly undercooked chocolate chip?
Mark W.
Here.
My dad.
This is fun.
10 pounds fun fact.
Okay.
This is my dad's long-term friend.
Really?
Mark W's known me my whole life.
Well, say his whole.
Mark.
Wait, no, no, no.
Maybe he doesn't want his whole name read.
Patty, bleep that.
Sorry.
Yeah, come on.
Sorry.
Maybe he wants to remain anonymous. Well, bleep that. Sorry. Yeah, come on. Sorry. Maybe he wants to remain anonymous.
Well, not super anonymous.
No, just Mark W.
Natalie Perkins.
My long-term friend's mom's coffee toffee bars.
Coffee toffee bars?
There was a, I mean, I had to crawl through some people to get to that one.
Claudia.
Claudia?
Claudia a bear.
Anything squishy and melty.
I think you should say any cookie that's squishy and melty.
That could get weird fast.
Brandy Royal.
Thin Mints.
Maddie Gimbert.
Double Coat Tim Tams.
Claire Fordyce.
You know, with the double coat, it's actually less effective.
Like a condom?
Yeah.
Is that what you were going for there?
Oh, no.
Oh, I snorted at my own joke.
You snorted twice at your own joke!
I am so funny.
Okay, go ahead and again for Claire. Claire Fordyce.
Basic chocolate chip cookies.
Carrie Amble.
My mom's devil cookies.
Devil.
They're from the devil! Not devil's food cookies. No, devil cookies devil they're from the devil
not devil's food cookies
no
devil's
they're the devil's cookies
welcome
to the
Supreme Court
woo
thank you for all of your support
if you're looking for other ways to support us
please
please
please
get your fleas
please
find us on social media.
We're on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Patreon.
Please remember to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen.
And then head on over to Apple Podcasts.
Leave us a rating and a five-star.
No, leave us a five-star rating and review.
And then be sure to join us next week.
When we'll be experts on two whole new topics.
Podcast adjourned!
Please join us next time.
I am still laughing at my own joke.
Stop it!
The double-cut tip-tips aren't nearly as effective.
Oh, no, folks.
And now for a note about our process.
I read a bunch of stuff, then regurgitate it all back up in my very limited vocabulary.
And I copy and paste from the best sources on the web, and sometimes Wikipedia.
So we owe a huge thank you to the real experts.
I got my info.
Sorry.
I got my info from the documentary, The Clinton 12,
as well as reporting from the Tennessee Encyclopedia,
blackpass.org, and newspapers.com.
I got my info from an episode of Dateline,
an episode of Snapped, the podcast,
True Crime Family, Killer Profiles, and Murderpedia.org.
For a full list of our sources, visit LGTCpodcast.com.
It's just really hard being this hilarious.
Any errors are, of course, ours, but please don't take our word for it.
Go read their stuff.