Morbid - Episode 471: Joe Metheny

Episode Date: June 26, 2023

On December 15, 1996, Baltimore police discovered the body of twenty-three-year-old Kimberly Spicer buried under a trailer on the property of a pallet factory in the city’s southwest side. Later that day, police arrested Joseph Methainy, a man who lived and worked at the factory where Spicer’s body was discovered. It didn’t take long for police to solidly connect Methainy to the murders of two additional Baltimore women as well. In his wild confessions he claimed massive victim numbers and even cannibalism. Thanks to Dave White for research assistance!ReferencesAssociated Press. 1997. "Man's trial in slaying of 2 women is postponed; change of venue sought." Baltimore Sun, July 8: 4B.—. 1996. "Accused killer called fun-loving." Daily Times, December 20: 2.—. 1997. "Mount Airy scientits finds where the bones are buried." Star-Democrat, February 5: 13.—. 1998. "Officials: Methainy attempted suicide ." Star-Democrat, March 24: 6.—. 1996. "'Practical joker' held in 3 slayings." The Capital, December 20: 14.—. 1997. "Suspected serial killer indicted." The Daily Times, January 29: 2.Hermann, Peter. 1996. "Suspect charged in 2 more slayings." Baltimore Sun, December 19: 25.—. 1996. "Suspect gives police details of 4 slayings." Baltimore Sun, December 21: 1A.—. 1996. "Suspect in slaying says he killed 2 others Police searches yield." Baltimore Sun, December 18.Higham, Scott. 1998. "Methainy found guilty of killing woman." Baltimore Sun, May 15: 8B.Hopper, Dale. 1997. "Murder suspect convicted of kidnapping, assault." Star-Democrat, November 18: 3.Investigation Discovery. 2016. Serial killer Joe 'The Cannibal' Methainy, served human burgers at his BBQ stand, dead in cell. December 19. Accessed February 27, 2023. https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/crimefeed/serial-killer/joe-the-cannibal-Methainy-the-serial-killer-with-a-penchant-for-human-flesh-burgers.Irwin, Richard. 1996. "2 men charged in woman's stabbing death." Baltimore Sun, December 16: 2B.Jacobson, Joan. 2000. "Court voids death verdict." Baltimore Sun, July 25: 11.—. 1998. "Killer given death penalty." Baltimore Sun, November 14: 1.—. 1998. "Methainy sentencing testimony begins." Baltimore Sun, November 10: 27.James, Michael. 1997. "As police sift claims, families seek solace." Baltimore Sun, January 13: 1.Methainy v. State of Maryland. 2000. 149 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, July 24).Pekkanen, Sarah. 1998. "Suspect's confession to killing played in court." Baltimore Sun, May 1: 1B.Penn, Ivan. 1997. "Slaying suspect on trial in attempted murder." Baltimore Sun, November 6: 11B.—. 1997. "Woman describes night of attack." Baltimore Sun, November 7: 7B.Prudente, Tim. 2017. "Convicted murderer dead in his cell." Baltimore Sun, August 8: A2.Shatzkin, Kate. 1997. "Death penalty to be sought in slayings of 2." Baltimore Sun, March 21.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Yup. Oh, yeah, this is it. How are you? How are you? What do you want to do to that? I want to record morbid today. OK, that's all I've done yesterday. That's what we'll do to that? I want to record Bob and Tana. Okay, that's all I tell you, Tana. That's what we'll do to that.

Yeah. We are on TikTok too much. That's accurate. I think everybody relates to that statement. Yeah, we're sentiment if you will. I think so. I think TikTok is everybody's place. Do you think that is like low key

taking over our brains or something? Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. My brain is fucking crazy anyway. Somebody take that shit over. Somebody take the wheel of my brain. To like, TikTok, take the wheel. That's the third wheel.

TikTok, take the wheel. I said, wow. That one didn't work. That one went into it somewhere. I went into it far too confidently. That's okay. We love blind confidence. Thanks, Gurley.

We love it. Thanks for doing confidence. Thinks, Gurley. We love it. Thanks for doing it. You know, such a supportive partner. I try. You did a good job. I give it a shot. You lose.

Oh, you know, good job. You know, it's the beginning of the week where we're wild, we're crazy, we're kooky. I'm coming off of VK, bye bye. A VK. But not really. I'm coming off of like a long weekend. I am coming off of aK, baby. A VK. Well, not really. I'm coming off of like a long weekend. I am coming off of a weekend of many kids birthday parties.

So. Yeah, that sounds fucking terrible. That's where I am right now. I was at Universal this past weekend. I was living my life. I did, it looked like fun. It was great. It was great.

How were your kids birthday parties? You know, there were kids birthday parties. That answer is not. There was that. But the kids had birthday parties. You know, there were kids birthday parties. That answer's not. There was that. But the kids had fun and that's all that matters. Hell yeah, so there's that. But I have a case today that's just really gross. Oh, this person is a very gross person.

They usually are. They usually are. This one just like, it's like, it's like, it just, there's a lot here. And there's, and he's a liar. He's one of those that lies a lot about what he did. That's a false liar. Yeah, this guy is definitely a liar. And he also, he lies so much that it was like an interesting to scrape together the facts of his life because he is such a fucking liar. So that's, that gets tough sometimes.

Yeah. So Dave and I did our best to make sure that. No, it's due. We did our best here, but I think this story is really sad. It's another case of people targeting sex workers and people that they can say they think will not be missed. That's nice. You know, one of those terrible things. So we are going to talk about the case of Joe Muthaney.

I don't know if I know this one. I've heard it pronounced Muthenei too, but I think it's Muthenei. That's what I've heard more. So I'm going to go with that one, but he's terrible. So we're going to start you off on December 15th, 1996. The year that Ash was born. Yeah.

And also the year scream came out. I wasn't here yet though. You weren't here yet. Well, no, you were. It was December of 1996. Yep, you're right. I was here. Wow.

Wow, guys. I didn't want to correct you on that, but like the world will, but like I felt compelled to. You know what I was like? You were in fact here. In my head I was like, Oh, December, so of that year,

like I wasn't here yet, but that's the very tail end. So I was like, you're smack dab in the middle. But I was only like six months. I was there no- You didn't know what was going on for sure. Yeah, it's not about me at all so by.

But there we go, just 1996. On that day, December 15th, Baltimore Police discovered Baltimore, Maryland. They discovered the body of 23-year-old Kimberly Spicer. She had been buried under a trailer on the property of a palette factory in the city's southwest side. Later that same day, police did arrest a suspect, Joseph Roy Muthaney.

He was a man who actually lived and worked at the factory at the time. He was living on the grounds where Spicer's body was discovered. And it didn't take long when they arrested him to suddenly start connecting the dots to other murders of women in the Baltimore area as well. I was worried you were gonna say that. What's wild is this is only a fraction of the things that he confessed to. Oh, right here.

He confessed to a myriad of awful, awful things. And do you think all of his confessions are for real? No, okay. I don't. Which is like a whole other set of gross that like he just came up with these things and was like I did them claimed them. Even like they're fucked. Yeah. So let's talk about who Joe Muthaney was. So you can get an idea of what we're working with here.

Okay. Joseph Roy Muthaney was born March 2nd, 1955 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was one of six children. He was born to parents Audra Earl and Jean Muthaney. I love the name Audra. It is a cool name. It's just like a cute name. Yeah, Audra. Audra. I think one of the girls in Girls Next Door was named

as a little Audra. Yeah, there was an Audra around there, for sure. Now, after he was arrested, Joe did claim. Joe Muthaney claimed that he had been raised in a very abusive home. He had a terrible childhood. He was very neglected, very abused by his parents. And he said that he was like shuffled around

to different homes, almost like a foster-like situation by his parents. Now, according to his mother, she said that Joe was a very normal boy growing up. He was smart, he was nice. He had a good childhood. Hmm, there wasn't anything of note. If he was neglected, she said, and this was, this was her own words. She said, if he was neglected, it was his own fault. Huh. Which I was like, that's, that's questionable, that, that statement that was way to word that weird way to, like if he was

neglected as a child. It was his own fault. I feel like that's like that's way to word that weird way to like if he was neglected as a child. If that was his own fault, I feel like that's like that's exact opposite of that. But she claims none of her children were ever abused. They were never placed in homes. I could not find any records and neither could Dave to indicate that he was placed in any kind of homes growing up. I also we couldn't find any reports that said that there was like any phone calls, to any social services or anything like that. This was the 50s, of course, and like the early 60s, so keep that in mind. But from the sounds of it, he is kind of exaggerating how bad his childhood was.

That's what, that's what, it seems to be the collective thought. One, if he has like a pattern of exaggeration that it relies about everything exactly. So that he very much exaggerates a lot about his life. So, I mean, he even claims at one point that he has a son. He doesn't. What? Yeah.

So, we're taking the lie about. Yeah. When he was young for a time, the family lived in West Virginia. And this is where Joe's father worked as a laborer. And he, at first, he was the only income for the family, which, especially of the time period, that is very common. But unfortunately, when Joe was only six years old, his father died in a car accident. Oh, man.

Yeah. And it was in Terra Alta, I believe, West Virginia. Now obviously, the entire family, this is six children. That's what he wanted. A lot of kids to provide for. Yeah, and like obviously the emotional toll was outrageous. They're all reeling after the loss of their father who by all accounts, he claimed mostly his mom

with the abuse stuff. I feel like he didn't really claim it. Like he claimed it against all of them, but like it seemed like that. He was just like a working hard kind of guy, like took care of his family. The father, yeah. Yeah, so like they all were really devastated by it. So while also dealing with this emotional toll and with grieving their father, Audra

Muthaney, the mom, had to now start working full time just to support all six of these kids out of nowhere, you know, like a very sudden switch and everything. So see, that's kind of to me, him being shuffled around to different homes. Yeah. Different people probably watched him while his parents are invited for the family. That's what it probably is. It was probably that kind of thing because she worked as a waitress. She was a delivery driver for like a food service. She was a bartender.

She would take any job. That pulled him out. It seemed like she was really like working her ass off to keep this family and float. Yeah. And although they, you know, they all agree, they weren't able to afford anything, you know, that we may take for granted. Most of us, like, varies, like even the smallest of luxuries. Yeah.

She kept her family afloat during this time. They were able to pay their bills. Good. And she was able to feed her children. And that's like the most important thing. They weren't neglected in that way. And she was quoted as saying, it was very hard on me. I had to work to support the family.

And I did everything I could to keep my kids together. Yeah. And so not only did she lose her husband, which like, I can't imagine right there, then you have to leave all your kids who you're used to being home with and work your ass off. And now they are gonna be shuffled around

to different people babysitting them or that will take care of the little ones. Like at least, you know, it sounds like she at least tried to support this family, especially, could do. That's a lot on your plate. Now again, by most accounts, like neighbors, friends, all that, he had a very normal childhood.

They all say that they're like, this wasn't like a crazy family that everybody was like, what's going on there? Yeah. He was a good student in reality. Like he didn't struggle in school. He stayed out of trouble. Yeah.

Was in his troublemaker didn't get in trouble with the police, didn't get in trouble with teachers. That's interesting. Yeah, none of that. He was a relatively average kid. Just nothing of note, nothing, nothing of note poorly and nothing of note like spectacularly. Yeah. In Joe's version of the story, though, he says that he made it only to eighth grade and then he dropped out and he received his high school equivalency. And that's not true. It's not true.

He has a diploma. Yeah, he made it through school. Like what? And when he turned 18 in 1973, he joined the army. And his mom is like, oh, yeah, he did. He joined the army. And he was stationed in Germany. But Joe says that he was sent straight to Vietnam in the final years of the war. And then he spent nearly two years studying physics and serving in the artillery unit, and then it was during this time that he claims he, this is when he begins struggling with a heroin addiction. Okay. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Sometimes at the end of the week, you're like, I think I spent about 65 hours working this week

and maybe like two on myself, if that. And you're like, ooh, that was a lot. It leaves you feeling drained, tired, aggravated, irritated at other people, just low and bad. Listen, it's easy to get caught up in what everybody else needs from you and never take a moment to think about what you need from yourself. But when we spend all of our time giving, giving, giving, it can leave us feeling stretched

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to balance your life. You have to pour into your cup before you pour into somebody else's sometimes. Because then you're going to feel happier later, like you've done something for yourself. And once you've done something for yourself, then do something for somebody else. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give Better Help a try. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapist any time for no additional charge. Find more balance with BetterHelp.

Visit betterhelp.com slash morbid today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelpHELp.com slash morbid. Hey there fellow podcast listener, it's Elena. And uh, we're taking you back to the days before streaming services. Whoa. You know, when you would come home from high school and it was only a few hours until that TV show, everyone was watching was about to come on. Well, in 1999, that show was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In our podcast with Wondery, the re-watcher Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we take it back to 1999.

So get out your knee high boots and paste that poster of Angel on the wall. It's time to enter the Buffyverse. Some of you avid morbid listeners already know what we've gotten store. Hey, Lennon. Join us as we sway our way through Buffy's drama, action, and romance. Episode by episodes.

Slacy. Follow the rewatcher, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and add free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. Dar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar-nar But again, I don't know why he says this. Like, it's just like, you served. That's impressive. That's why you're trying to make it something. It's not, you know? But either way, this was a lie. And Joe's time in the military, though, like no matter what,

it was, definitely took a toll on him and on his relationship with his family. Yeah. And I think that was really common. Yeah. And this was actually was really common. Yeah. And this was actually when he was done with the service, it was actually the beginning of a 10-year period where he didn't speak to his mother.

Oh, wow. Yeah. Like his mother and him did not speak. So that is interesting. So that's the thing. There's things there that we don't know. We don't know what happened there. By all accounts, it wasn't a wildly outwardly

abusive home, but no one ever knows what's going on. No, behind closed doors. You look at any of these things and it's like you can find out horrible stories and be like, what, just pass by that house. It looks like a normal house. Oh yeah, like I don't hear anything. I don't see anything totally.

So who knows? I, he lies a lot. So I'm sure it's a malgamation of lies and truths. Yeah, he sounds like pathological. But during his trial later when he was arrested for his crimes, he actually told his attorney and the investigators that both of his parents were dead.

But then a reporter tracked down his mom and she was alive. What? So yeah. And he said after, after he was arrested in 1996, his mom actually said he just kept drifting further and further away from me, which could be a number of reasons. Now, it's unclear exactly when he returned to Baltimore, Maryland from West Virginia,

but he was arrested by Baltimore police in April 1988 for drug possession. So he did struggle with addiction. Okay. He was found guilty for that. He was fined $100. The arrest for possession kind of shows the beginning of this very consistent struggle with addiction and legal troubles that we see in his life from here on out. He seems to be in a constant state of struggling with this. In 1988, he began working for Joe Stein and Sons, which was a company that makes and sells wood and pallets. His employment history was never really consistent.

He was a truck driver at one point, like there was a lot of different things. He would kind of disappear for long periods of times from this job, but Stein and Sons, the owners of this palette company, they liked him. They had a soft spot for him. And they always were willing to hire him back every time he left. There's always that one. Have you ever worked somewhere where that's been the case?

And you're like, how does this person get away with what they get away with? And I come and like, it reamed the fuck out. But there's always that person that they just have a soft spot for. Yeah. That this was Joe. And this is what's wild about him

because when you read about him and what he's done and things he said and his confessions, he's a fucking monster. A monster. Is that highest order? Was he able to just like turn something on? Do you think like a charm? That's the thing.

I have no idea what his deal is and I can't even begin to speculate on it because I've no fucking clue. Because people liked him. Yeah. He was a likable guy in his social relationships for the most part, and in his like workplaces people liked him, like these people hired him back all the time. Right.

They weren't thinking he was some awful guy and being like, oh, we're just, because if he was acting out there, then they would just be like, cool. It's easy to be rid of him. If he just leaves, we can be like, we can't hire you back. You just left. Right.

But it's very strange. But he would show back up to Stein and Suns looking for work and they would just hire him back. And actually later, after he was arrested later, one of the co-workers there said, he was a joy just kidding and carrying on. He made the day pass by. Wow.

So he's one of those guys that you're literally like, you made my day pass by. Like you look forward to working with him. Which is like, on the other side of the planet to what he says and does. That's so weird. On his other side of him. But that's the thing, it's like,

I always think of that, that Ted Bundy thing where he's like acting totally like regular and core. And then it's just like, and then you switch the switch. You see the eyes go like animalistic. These people that do these kind of thing, they can switch it. That's and that's how they find their victims, you know, because they charm their victims until like a unsafe situation or a situation where they can get them. It's true, but also because he was constantly struggling with addiction and his work history was in flux all the time. So was his housing status. He never knew where he was going to stay. He never could keep something from a long period of time. He would sleep on friends' couches a lot,

stay at a lot of shelters, a lot of like encampments, like anywhere he could. And he did have a lot of people who would take him in because of his personality. And he was usually, and this was around the Baltimore area. And at the time of his arrest, he was actually living in that small trailer on the Stein and Sun's property,

the one where Kimberly Spicer was found. Oh, wow. So he was living on the property of Sun's property, the one where Kimberly Spicer was found. Oh, wow. So he was living on the property of where he was working because they were allowing him to. And that's what he did. Yeah. And apparently it was so like,

it was the situation he was in where he quote, ran an extension cord from the Stein's main building to power hysteria, television, and air conditioner. So that's what like, dire stra Straits, his situation was in. Wow. Wow. Now, well, the owners of Stein and Sons may have felt comfortable enough to let him literally

live on the property. They did start to grow a little more apprehensive of this decision as we went into the mid 1990s. So they were letting him live there for a while, like on and off, like whenever he needed to. Once we had those mid 1990s, they were starting to be like, oh, I don't know. This is when they started noticing a lot of changes

in his personality, because this was immediately following his release after a year in jail, because he was constantly in legal trouble for, you know, drug possession, stealing, all that stuff. And he had come back to work, because they had allowed him to come back to work after a year in jail. And co-workers seem to think that he made a very hard switch

in that year in jail. He was drinking a lot. He was using drugs more often. He was engaging the work of sex workers a lot more often, he was engaging the work of sex workers a lot more often, like just seeming to be on this like really different path than he was before. Like a spiral, like a rollercoaster. I think it seemed like he was always trying to get to a better place, but now it seemed like he was just fully diving, fully into this.

And there were other like bizarre bizarre changes that he would do. He made a 15-foot high barricade around his trailer, made of old palettes. That's weird. Yeah. And also, that's not your property. You can do that. What are you doing? And it wasn't just co-workers that were initially kind of enamored by his personality and how kind he was, which is very strange. He made a lot of friends outside of work, like very easily. Socially, he was very much able to make people like him. According to Connie Snow, who worked at the South Side Bar in Baltimore, where Muthaney often picked up women and actually picked up at least one victim of his.

She said he was so manorally saying thank you and please all the time. And he was a regular there and he would often just be going there to have a drink, play some pool, hang out with people. And Connie Snow's sister actually ended up being murdered by Muthani in 1996. Whoa. Just to show you how much he can manipulate. Wow. And how easily she thought he was kind, polite,

never had any reason to worry about him and her sister ended up being murdered by him. Oh my God. Yeah. That's horrific. It's awful. So like much of Joe Muthaney's personal history and his confession that would later come, like I said earlier, it's really hard to tell the facts from his lies.

His sounds like it. By his own confession, his criminal history began in 1976 where he said he unintentionally killed a man during a bar fight in Baltimore. Okay. This killing was followed by the murder of he said two sex workers in 1988 and 1989.

Mm-hmm. Now, you can find some stories that connect a little bit with these dates and the places. The names you can't really connect. Like, he didn't know the names, so it didn't... It's hard to connect them to him. Yeah. I don't know if they were trying to connect them

with actual cases, but that's what he claimed later. Okay. And I know they did go back once his confession came and tried to like identify these cases that he was claiming, trying to land them up with real cases. Right. But the first documented murder committed by Joe Muthaney happened February 22, 1994. Okay.

This is when he killed 28-year-old Tony Lynn in Grasia. So he prayed on Tony Lynn because she had been struggling with drug addiction herself, and she hadn't been seen by her family since November of the previous year. Oh, man. But according to her father, John, she had been trying to get clean in the months leading up to her death.

Like she was really trying hard, like she was doing her best. And days after her death, police would, days after he came across her, excuse me, police would find Tony Lynn's body dumped by the side of Interstate 95 in Baltimore. When they examined her, unfortunately, she had been sexually assaulted, stabbed, and strangled. Oh, my God. And then he had just dumped her along the interstate. That's so fucked up. And this is how he saw his victims.

It was just like, just trash. Just be where I can. Yeah. It's so sad. Now, he waited about four months until he killed again. This time it was early July of 1994. And he killed 39-year-old Catherine magazineer. Like Tony Lynn, Kathy had struggled with drug addiction throughout a lot of her adult life.

She had had a couple of arrests on her record and it was mostly for sex work. This was in South Baltimore, mainly. And according to Joe Muthaney on the evening of July 2nd or 3rd, he met Catherine or Kathy as people knew her. On Baltimore's South side and convinced her to come back to his trailer on the Stein Lot, they made a transaction. Once there, he said that they engaged in sex while she was partially clothed. But during his confession, he said that he wouldn't say whether the sex was consensual or not. So that tells me it was not.

And he also wouldn't say if it was transactional, nothing about that. So to me, that says it wasn't. Yeah. And if you see his behavior later, yeah, with other victims, he's wildly aggressive, wildly aggressive. He does not like being told, though.

And I could absolutely see this not being even a transactional thing, yeah, which is awful. But he said about an hour after they got into the trailer together, he said that he had attacked Catherine, choking her with his hands until she passed out. Oh my God. Once she had lost consciousness, he wrapped an extension cord around her neck

and strangled her to death. Oh my God. He then dragged her body to a wooded area, only about 40 feet away from the trailer and buried her in a shallow grave. That's so sad. And remember, this is a trailer on his work property. Yeah, that's like not even his.

And then he just buried a victim's body 40 feet from this trailer. And then eventually he's going to work. And he's going to work. Yeah. Now, when he came back into the trailer, he went through her purse. He took whatever money he could find out of her purse. And then he gathered up her clothes and the purse and he took them money he could find out of her purse. And then he gathered up her

clothes and the purse and he took them to different areas of the woods and buried them in a small hole, like several small holes. And then he covered those with dirt and just left. Now, this is like really gross and rough what he does next because he returned to her body several months later and exhumed her. And he told investigators, quote, I dug it up and took the head out. I just took the head and threw it in a box in the trash. What? Do you notice that he's referring to it as it? Yeah, that's not her like disgusting.

Yeah. And that's true. Like took, yeah, took her head off and put it in a box and threw it in the trash. What is like disgusting? Yeah, and that's true like took yeah took her head off and through put in a box and threw it in the trash months later. Yeah How fucked up is that and like why? What do you want us to do that? Also, I just looked up a picture of him. He is this scary is looking mother. Yeah, he's foul and there's one like Very big guy too. He's over six feet tall.

And I think he was like 450 pounds at one point. Like he's a very like, he's an intimidating guy, very intimidating. And one of his pictures in prison is like, is that the one with his tongue? Oh, yes, it's so scary. It's really foul. Like I can't imagine coming across this man when he was like violent. Yeah, it's, He's really in horrifying. If you look at him up. It's Like he's just really a gross person, especially when you know what he's done. Yeah

But yeah, that's and and you were asking like was that true when investigators Exhumed her remains two years later the skull had been taken away from the body and he had left only the mandible. So he'd removed the head from the mandible up and the mandible's like the bottom of your jaw. So he took like the top of her teeth. So I mean, it's, I guess when it's skeletal, that these things are. Does it like hook?

It's like easy to take that part off, you know, but it's like, oh, it's very bizarre. I just hate it. So now at this point, he was kind of developing a victim type, yeah, obviously, but his next act deviated from this, because in the summer of 1995, he was living in kind of like a large informal on-house community, and it was under the Hanover Street Bridge. This is along the banks of the Patapsco River in Maryland. In court documents, they call it, quote,

a lawless community where knives, axes, and other weapons were kept. That's terrifying. Yeah. Among the men living in that camp, or two 33 year old men named Randall Brewer that's terrifying. Yeah. Among the men living in that camp, or two 33-year-old men named Randall Brewer and Randy Piker. And apparently there was some kind of dispute

between Joe Muthaney and these two men. And on the evening of August 2nd, he bludgeoned them both to death with a woodcutter's axe. Oh my God. Yeah. And then he piled the two bodies on an old mattress in one of the darker parts of camp and just covered them with an old blanket,

some trash, whatever you could find. He is terrifying. His, it seems like his temper is outrageous. And just like, his temper seems to grow and grow the more he does. And then it just explodes. Wow. Now, obviously he did not hide these victims' bodies very well because they were discovered a few days later.

And he was arrested. And he was tried in a court for the murders. But in July 1996, a jury acquitted him of the charges. Wow. Because, quote, the evidence was not only insufficient. It indicated he was not the actual suspect. And after looking at the evidence, I guess the jury felt the crimes were actually committed by another man

who lived in that camp, man named Cowboy. OK. And detectives actually found the weapon used in the murder in position and it was in possession of another man who lived there named Larry Amos. And they said he had actually stolen that axe from someone and used it to kill another man. Larry Dowell.

Yeah. Larry killed somebody with it. And then had that axe in his possession. So when they said lawless, they meant, they really meant it. They really meant it. Damn. So that axe being in possession of cowboy there

doesn't really mean anything. Yeah. Because it looks like this axe is just traveling to other people to do awful shit with. So I don't know. But they weren't able to connect him definitively to it, which kind of doesn't shock me considering like, no one saw it. And it could be, I mean, it could be that.

And that acts as traveling around to everybody. And that clearly, like, people are willing to kill in that community. Yeah, so it's like, wow. Like, that knows if he did it or not. But it looks like I think he did because of what he's done and he claimed to have later. Right. And I thought that he's not, he's a liar, so who knows? But like, considering what else he is proven to have done,

I'm not shocked by it. Wow. But he claims it's just a weird case. He's a weird guy. A gross monstrous guy, and it's just a weird case. This was a bit hard to put together. I could see that. We were trying to figure out, like,

I wanna tell you what was reported. Right. But I wanna make sure you know that like, some of this is not real. So like, some of this, and you're gonna hear a very spectacular claim that has no actual evidence to back it up. But it's the thing that is really,

like, what everybody looks at for this case. When you hear it, you might be like, oh, okay. Like I might know what this is. I think I know where we're headed because I saw some pictures that were really untasteful I would say. Yeah. But when he was arrested for good in late 1996, he claimed that he had murdered those men.

And he said that he did it because you wanted to steal $300. That one of them was roomed 2 of hat at the time. Now, when he was arrested, he also confessed to drowning another man from that same area near the river. But investigators were never able to find a body or connect him to it. But he waited only four more months after his acquittal before he killed again.

Now, on the evening of November 11, 1996, 23-year-old Kimberly Spicer got into an argument with her mother, and I guess Kimberly had struggled with drug addiction as well. And I think her brother, and this is really sad, her brother had actually passed away of a heroin overdose only the previous week. Oh, my God. And I think that her mother and her were in an argument or a dispute of some kind while talking about that, probably, like, probably talking about her addiction and her struggles. And maybe that was like a source of contention. So they fought and then, but she, her

mother said, we would argue a lot. Like it was, it was a little contentious at that time because of what was happening. And she said, but, and she would leave the house, like storm out of the house, but she would always come back. Yeah. And so it wasn't this like wild thing that she stormed out of the house and she did.

She said she would always leave, but she would always come back. And her mom, Kathy Price said that. And that night, she left the house and went to the south side bar. Mm-hmm. That's where she ran into Joe Muthaney. Now, according to Joe Muthaney's confession,

I wanna make sure that you know this. He convinced Kim to go back to his trailer on the Stein's Lot for a transactional sex. And when they got there, he stabbed her 26 times in the face and neck with a black handled knife. Oh my God. And then he said he wrapped her body in a red tarp and hit it so he could figure out what to do.

And did he say what, like, why all of a sudden, he just decided to stab her that many times? I have, he doesn't really provide a lot of information about why he does these things. At one point, he says he he really he just likes killing people. It sounds like it yeah. Does he say whether or not he's like under the influence that any during any of these things every once in a while he will I don't think he really uses that. As a say it was just some reason to be quite I think it's just like incidental if he was.

Yeah, I think it's just like incidental, if you will. Now, two weeks later, Muthaney lured 37-year-old Rita Kemper back to his trailer on the night of December 8th. When they got there, he tried to have sex with her, and she refused him. She said, absolutely not. And she had come there just to hang out. She was like, you know, and they apparently had met before Rita Kemper and him.

Like they had moved in the same kind of social circles a little bit. So they knew of each other. Like he knew her. And that's probably not a person. She felt comfortable going back to his home. Yeah, exactly. So she just thought, okay, I kind of know this guy.

So like, that's fine. No, but that night she said, and she said like he was like a normal guy. Like I've never seen him lose his temper I saw him the way that everybody else saw him, which is like this funny guy and like he's just a jovial guy It's so scary that somebody can present that way and then be this and she actually said his nickname and the group of friends Was tiny because he's such like a big guy. Wow, and so she referred to him as tiny when she talked to him I've talked about him and when she testified to a jury later,

which by the way, she gets out of this, Kemper told the jury that that night she just saw a totally different guy. She said, you could see evil in him. Whatever tiny wanted to do that night, he was going to do. Oh my God. What makes a person a murderer? Are they born to kill or are they made to kill?

I'm Candace DeLong and on my podcast Killer Psychie Daily, which you can find exclusively on Amazon Music, I share a quick 10-minute rundown every weekday on the motivations and behaviors of the criminal masterminds you read about in the news. I have decades of experience as a psychiatric nurse, FBI agent, and a criminal profiler. On Killer Psychie Daily, I'll give you my expert perspective on cases like the mysterious New York City drugings, breaking down Laurie Valow, a.k.a. Mommy Doom stays motives and what drove Caitlin Armstrong to murder? I'll also bring on expert guests who add even more insight into these criminal minds. I promise you won't regret adding these 10 minutes to your morning routine. Hey Prime members, listen to the Amazon Music exclusive podcast Killer Psychie Daily in

the Amazon Music app. Podcast, Killer Siky Daily, in the Amazon Music app. Download the app today. Now, according to Rita Kemper, she genuinely thought she said, I believe she was trying to kill me. I believe that. Probably was. And she said that he was screaming at her. Scream all you want.

I'm going to kill you and bury you in the woods with the other girls. That's what he was saying. Can you imagine being in that position? No. And she said. And surviving. Exactly. And she testified saying that after they got to the trailer,

he slapped her in the face twice, demanded that she take her pants off. Was basically going to rape her. And somehow he was distracted for just even a second by something, and she managed to open the door and run out the door. Thank goodness. But he chased her. Oh my God.

And a nice huge guy running after you. It reminds me of Texas chain. So I'm asking you guys, how leather face runs full speed, and it scares the shit out of me. Because he's like this big guy. It's the same kind of thing. He chased her, caught her, and started choking her,

and dragged her back inside the trailer. Holy shit. Then he ripped her pants off, and was about to sexually assault her. But she was able to get out of his grasp and escape down an open window. Whoa. And just ran for down an open window. Whoa. And just ran for help.

Holy shit. Yeah, she is incredible. She's a camper. Now, it's pretty unclear whether she immediately went to police to report this assault or whether like, it was investigated sometime later. Like, it's a little unclear about that. Okay. But Mathanie's clearly escalating violence against sex workers and people he considered vulnerable

in the Baltimore area was clearly, like at the height at this point. Like at a teetering point. And this is when it was gonna come to an end because in an anonymous employee at Stein and Sons called police and said that Jo Muthani quote, approached him and told him that he killed a girl and needed help burying the body. Dude, so they acted on this tip and investigators searched the area around Jo Muthani's trailer

on December 15th and that is when they discovered the body of Kimberly Spicer buried under the trailer. And that is when they discovered the body of Kimberly Spicer, buried under the trailer. Because remember, Kimberly Spicer was the one where he had hid her, quote unquote, until he could figure out what to do. Right. And it's just, it's like unthinkable, truly unthinkable. And it was Catherine who was buried 40 feet away

from the trailer. Right. And now he's gone and asked another co-worker to help him bury Kimberly Spicer's body somewhere. But no, she was found. So they were able to go into the trailer as well at this point, because they had due cause. They said, search warrant search? Yeah. And so they were able to get some evidence of a potential crime scene inside as well. So the detective in charge of the case, Homer Pennington, said, quote, furniture had been removed from the suspects trailer. And attempts had been made to clean up blood stains.

I bet. And they believe that this was definitely the murder site. So after they had discovered Kimberly Spicer's body, that was obviously grounds for an arrest warrant. And they arrested him outs and they arrested Joe Muthaney and also Joseph Stein, the owner of the Stein and Suns Company, on suspicion of murder because they were seen leaving a company Christmas party together that evening. Oh. So, and it's on his property too. Exactly. So, Joe Muthaney was charged

with first degree murder and was held without bail and Stein was charged with being a accessory after the fact of homicide. Mm-hmm. And he was suspected of helping dispose of evidence, even. The charges against Stein would eventually be dropped pretty shortly after. Investigators learned that he was completely unaware of the murders, any illegal activities

that had taken place on that property. He didn't know about any of those. And he wasn't part of evidence. He did not destroy anything. According to the investigation, they found nothing. No evidence that he had any idea. Well, that's good. That he was literally just trying to help this guy out

by letting him live there. And he had no idea. Yeah. Days later, though, after a search of the property, they found a 25 caliber handgun. And Stein was arrested and charged with being a felon in possession of a handgun. So apparently he's a felon dating back to 1985 because he was charged and convicted of arson in 1985. So although there's no evidence of him being like a continuous felon of like just constantly committing

crime since then. He did do some arson once. He had a 25 caliber handgun on his property and you're not supposed to be in possession of a handgun as a felon, so that's a problem. So that was interesting. But once Joe Muthaney was charged with murder, he was just ready to confess. And he seemed very eager to tell all his stories. All the violent crimes he'd supposedly committed over, you know, two decades at this point.

He provided detectives with details on the murder of Kimberly Spicer. And he also confessed to the murders of Catherine Magasiner and Tony Lynn and Grasia, and would later lead investigators to Catherine's body less than 50 feet from where they had discovered Kimberly Spicer. So sad. Which must have been also a little wild for investigators knowing that they were within 40 feet of another murder victim's body when they found Kimberly Spicer. And had no idea.

No idea. Now, and he led them there. Like, he'd really led them. There's pictures. Yeah. By the time the interview had concluded, Joe Muthaney had confessed to a total of between seven and 10 murders he fluctuated, including Kim Spicer,

Catherine Magasiner, Tony Lynn and Grasya, Randall Brewer, Randy Piker, and a third man he claimed to have drowned at that encampment that he was staying at. And also the man outside the bar in 1976, and three sex workers he claimed to have picked up on Washington Boulevard in 1988 and 1989. He would pull some of those off sometimes, put them back on, admit to this many,

admit to that many through through these ones on. So it really fluctuated the amount of people, but they were really only able to find him at that time that he had definitely committed murder against Kim Sput, Kimberly Spicer, Catherine Magziner, and Tony Lin and Grasia. Okay. In addition to those three murder charges, he was also charged with the kidnapping and assault

of Rita Kemper a few weeks earlier. And during his interview, detectives asked him whether he had intended to kill Kemper. And he said, yeah, I don't know, I don't know really what I was going to do because she got away. Like, just so haunted. Alice.

Just like, yeah, I was gonna kill that human being, but I didn't know what I was gonna do. She got away, so I guess I could. I guess I couldn't. Like, Jesus. Again, the announcement came as a shock to everyone who knew him. Like, no one was ready to hear that he was this awful monster. It's so scary to think that people could turn it on and off so easily.

Yeah. A dothr bar tender named Lisa Reynolds Reynolds who works at a bar or worked at a bar called the Bordeaux wine bar in restaurant. It was a restaurant in bar that Methaney went too often to also drink, play pool, all that stuff. Yeah. She told reporters, everybody liked him. He was very friendly. And even the lawyer who defended him on the axe murder charge, like the one of the two guys in the encampment, was like shocked by his confessions. It was like, I don't know if I believe them. Like they're, they don't line up. He said, I found him to be very honest and direct. He has a sophisticated sense of humor. And he always was very, very respectful of me. He was

never rude or violent. That's so insane. Yeah. Now, Joseph Stein's daughter, Lisa, however, had other feelings about him and said, I suspected he was guilty, but I wanted to believe he didn't do it. It's interesting that it seems like some guys are like, he was such a good guy.

Yeah, like there are women that said it. There's the yeah, because there's Lisa and Connie, the two bartenders who were like, she was right. Right, but it is interesting that the daughter was like, yeah, I saw another side of the guy. Yeah, well, she's just like, I suspect he probably did it, but she's also like, I hope he didn't. Yeah.

Cause like, that sucks. Right. Now, after his arrest in the confessions, he agreed to lead police to, um, to Catherine Magziner's grave, like I said before. Yeah. And although he was cooperating with the locations, like he was like, yes, I will lead you to these bodies,

he was no help with identifying these women. In his first confession, he admitted to strangling a sex worker to death and burying her body near the trailer. That's what he said. But when they asked her name, he said, haven't got a clue. And that was Katherine. That's so sad. Yeah. Now, do you think name, he said, haven't got a clue. And that was Catherine. That's so sad.

Yeah. No. Do you think maybe because of like his constant drug use, maybe he didn't? No, I think he just didn't care. You think that that's what it was. I don't think this can be like, I don't even think it's like cloudy,

like whatever, I think he literally just didn't care. They didn't even learn. Yeah, because the way he's like, I haven't got a clue, why would I give a shit about that? Like it was said like that. Like very like, why would I have her name? Like just brushed it off. Like, he's just gross.

Yeah. Now, because this is such a strange case and was such a strange case at the time, they needed some help with the recovery and identification process because he's not giving them anything. And unfortunately, he has picked a couple of victims that didn't have direct ties with

their families at the moment, so it was hard to identify. So Baltimore investigators called in the assistance of William Rodriguez, who was one of a very small number of board certified friends at anthropologists in the county or in the country. You make a cool job. It really is. And Rodriguez is such an important job, too. Yeah. Rodriguez had also worked as a medical examiner for the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and had worked on some really high profile cases where he assisted in identifying victims of mass casualty cases. One of these was the 1994 crash of US Air Flight 427 that went down near Pittsburgh. Those kind of things were mass casualty events

happened like that and people have to be identified. I can't imagine the daunting task. The pressure of that. Yeah. He also worked on the case of a crash of two Black Hawk helicopters during the Iraq war in 1994. Wow. So he was an expert.

And he was also an expert on decomposition and the effects of the natural environment on decomposing human remains like the body farm. This was a perfect case for him to be put on because Catherine's remains had been buried and re-buried in the woods for two years. Because he had exhumed her. Yeah. So this put the investigators at a disadvantage when it came to determining what damage was done by Muthani and what damage was done by the environment and natural causes. Days after the remains were exhumed, Rodriguez was able to identify Catherine through dental records, matched to whatever remaining teeth were in the lower mandible that he left.

He's a rock star. And then goodness that that lower mandible had teeth left on it and that it was left there because it helped identify her. Now, Joe Muthaney's confessions provided investigators with very detailed accounts of the violent sexual assault and murders that he committed on these women. But as they investigated some more of the claims, they started to wonder how much of this is truth and how much of this is exaggerated. They were able to say he is violent. He's a violent monster. He's a violent sexual offender. He's a violent murder. But then there were other things like this is where it's going to get kind of wild. At one point, he told investigators that he'd partially cannibalized some of the victims and had even served some of these victims

remains to patrons of a food stand that he had. He said, quote, I cut the meat up and put it in some Tupperware bowls, then put it in the freezer. I opened up a little open pit beef stand. I had real roast beef and pork sandwiches. They were very good. The human body taste was very similar to pork if you mix it together. No one can tell the difference. Jesus Christ. Of course, everyone seized on to this part in the press because who wouldn't? Why wouldn't that shock literally everyone? But it should be noted here that there is no evidence of him having a sandwich stand of any kind. Yeah. Maybe he did. Yeah, because he wouldn't go to the front of the book,

seeing everything. But I could find nothing that says nobody who said they went to that stand, nobody who saw that stand, no business having to do with that stand, nothing. Who knows? Right. He absolutely could have. Is that any sounds capable of it? But I think this is one of those things that he said to shock people. Because all of the victims that were found were intact aside from the mandible being left, right?

That's what it seems like. So I don't, he could be trying to say these are the other victims that you can't find the bodies of. And then you would also think that if he was living at least in that trailer at the time they would find evidence of that. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. You know, I think it's him lying.

Right, because the other thing is he didn't, other than that trailer, it doesn't sound like he had a set up home. So where was he really doing? Exactly. Where would he have been able to do that? Exactly. So I think it's just something to lie about.

Fucked up why. And I think he said he would have kept going until Rita Kemper got away. Like he would have kept going after her. And he said, and this is like really gross. He said, everything was going pretty good until I ran out of my special meat. So I lured another bitch up to my trailer. I got her in there and started to rip her clothes off and knocking the hell out of her. She was screaming, but there was no one around to hear her except me. And I just kept on laughing at her. And he's talking about Rita Kemper. And she said, he was screaming in her face, scream all you want.

Oh my God. So that is true. That's like a nightmare. Now this is how he described her getting away, by the way. He said, I turned around for a split second, and that was my mistake. She ran out the door before I could get to her. There was an eight-foot chain link fence

with barbed wire on top of it around the front of the company. There was a stack of wooden pallets next to the fence about 10 feet high. That bitch scaled those pallets like a monkey and jumped the fence and ran down to the main road where some guy in a pickup truck picked her fence and ran down to the main road where some guy in a pickup truck picked her up and took her to a nearby gas station where they called the cops.

Holy shit. She killed a tail-foot palette. Yeah. Good for her. And he said, well, I knew the cops were on the way, but I didn't run. I gathered her up her clothing, grabbed the keys to the gate, and went out and opened it. Soon as I step out the gate, a cop car pulled up and the cop jumped out and pulled his gun on me and told me to get on the ground.

And that's where it all came to an end. But that's not how that happened. Right. I was like, wait, I think I missed that part. Exactly. That's not how it happened, but that was part of his confession. It was like, hey, the cops, they can talk to each other and check each other's phone. They know how it happened.

And he supposedly ended his confession with this very cross ending. He said, well, that's my story, horrible, but true. So the next time you're riding down the road and you happen to see an open pit beef stand that you've never seen before, make sure you think about this story before you take a bite of that sandwich. Sometimes you never know who you may be eating.

Ha-ha. Jesus. Yep. Now, within days of his arrest, his defense attorney, Margaret Meade told reporters, I don't know if what the state is calling a confession is really a confession, which makes sense for a defense attorney to say, but also like, yeah, probably not. Yeah.

And she said that Muthaney was depressed, confused, and under a lot of medication, when he made that confession. And as far as she knew, any crimes committed were done, quote, under the influence of heroin, cocaine, or alcohol. It doesn't mean he didn't murder people. Like, you still can't murder people. Like, that doesn't fix that. It's always against the law. Yeah. What's wild to me about this is she said that, then in relations, so she said that in relation to the confessions about the murders of Catherine, Tony and Kimberly, she said, I have no reason not to believe him. That's what she told the later reporters. So she said, the confession is bullshit, but I have no reason to not believe it.

I don't know if the state, what the state is calling a confession is really a confession. And then she said, he's depressed, confused under a lot of medication. We can't really believe him. don't listen to what he says. But I don't have any reason. But then she says I have no reason not to believe him. And then she said, I've always found him to be forthright and honest. So you just fucked yourself, ma'am.

Like what? Like you literally, what? I feel like the defences that we're talking about lately, like some of them, I'm just like, you wrote that down, like what? Yeah, like what? And then I'm like, what's that meant to just confuse people? Maybe it wasn't actually.

It was just like a tactic to confuse people. But I'm like, I don't know if you should confuse people. Like, that's just gonna have a mistrial. That's not gonna win your case. But she also insisted that Mithany insist and he adamantly denies that Joseph Stein had any knowledge or participated in any of these crimes. Okay.

So he's saying like he had nothing to do with it. I mean, that's also his bro, so. Joseph Stein had any knowledge or participated in any of these crimes. Okay. So he's saying like he had nothing to do with it. I mean, that's also his bro, so. And while he constantly allowed him to work. Very, very loudly. Exactly. Very loudly. So of course, he's gonna, I don't know if it doesn't sound like there's any evidence

to connect Joseph Stein, any of these crimes. So I'll say that. So I'll say that. It sounds like he was legally cleared. Yeah. Now, after working to verify all the claims that he started making in his confession, investigators were pretty confident,

at least about his confession to the murders of Catherine, Kimberly, and Tony Lynn. So in January 30th, Joe Muthaney was indicted for the three killings and a trial date was set for March of, in March of 1997. But by the time the arrangement came in March, the detectives have been unable to find any evidence

conclusively linking him to the murder of Tony Lynn and Grasia. Really? So they had forced the district attorney Patricia Jessamy to drop the charges and the third murder because they didn't have sufficient evidence, even though he confessed to it. And he, that was, he did not lead them to that body? No, he did not.

Oh, okay, okay. Yeah. Now, despite confessing to the killings, he did plead not guilty to the murders of Catherine and Kimberly, and a trial date for that was set for July 8, 1997. Okay. So now we're only going to be able to get them on the two. That's sad. So in a press conference following that arrangement, Jessamy, the district attorney, indicated that she intended to seek the death penalty.

This would be the first time it was invoked in Maryland since 1993. Wow. According to Margaret Mead, the defense attorney, she said the district attorney's office had originally offered a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole in exchange for a plea of guilty. But Margaret Mead said that was not a reasonable plea. Guilty? Yeah.

She was not going to allow him to plead guilty. Okay. Like, okay. She's like, yeah, let's just go up against the death penalty. Let's try that. Okay. So July 8th was not his trial because his attorney petitioned for a change of venue. They said, quote, I think with the facts of this case,

it would be better off if this were in another jurisdiction. But don't worry, because while he was awaiting that trial, he went on trial for the kidnapping and assault of Rita Kemper in November of 1997. The prosecution for this case went about it by showing the jury that Muthaney was a violent,

unpredictable predator who lost it when Rita Kemper refused his very aggressive advances. And they claimed he was had every intent on killing her and they were 100% right, in my opinion. Absa, fucking lootly. But his defense just said, and I quote, prosecutors were taking a simple dispute between Muthaney and Kemper and having it blown up

to include attempted murder, kidnapping, and attempted rape. I'm sorry, but are you kidding me? Simple, mother-fucking dispute ends in me scaling a 10-foot palette and then hopping over a barbed wire fence. Also? Nothing simple about that.

He later confesses to it. He didn't confess to it at this point. But yeah, he confessed to it later. Like, like, he definitely did this. He definitely did. It's exactly how Rita Kempers said it happened. It's how she said it happened and up until the point where he says the cop showed up.

Yeah, it's exactly how he's gonna match up. On November 17th after a very short deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty in the attempted murder of Kemper, but found him guilty of the assault kidnapping in sexual assault charges. And he did get 50 years in prison for this. This is before he even goes on trial for murder. So he's already in there 50 years. He's already in there 50 years. Holy shit. I'm very interested as to why they didn't find him guilty on the attempted murder. I think maybe they just couldn't get... I attempted murder, I feel like it's hard to prove.

It's a hard one to prove. Yeah. This may have led to how they found Methanei on Sunday, March 22nd in his jail cell, this sentence. Prison guards found him unconscious and bleeding heavily from a wound to his neck. He was transported to the University of Maryland Medical Center for Treatment and he lived.

I saw that. But after multiple delays, he finally did go on trial for the Kimberly Spicer murder on April 23rd, 1997 in a bench trial in the Baltimore Circuit Court. Also, like, wait, I make yourself look guilty. Yeah, like, we already know you are. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

The prosecution's case was pretty much the same kind of thing. Bethany was a violent predator who, when refused by any women, just took what he wanted aggressively, however he could. We see that. Bethany was a violent predator who, when refused by any women, just took what he wanted aggressively. However, he could. We see that. And they used the confession as some of the most damning evidence against him, and it was played in full for the court. That must have been horrible to hear.

On the tape, he can be heard saying, I killed her. I'm a very sick person. I need help. Okay. Yeah. And after that, prosecutors called Detective Homer Pennington to the stand, and he testified that Muthaney was alert and cooperative at the time of the interview

and gave interviewers every reason to believe he was being truthful about the murders of Catherine and Kimberly. Yeah. Now, after the kidnapping and attempted rape and murder trial of Rita Kemper, his defense team probably knew this wasn't going to go their way. Probs.

So they went about it by just kind of mitigating any further and previous damages that they could. Mead told the court that there were quote, mitigating factors in methane-y's history, like his drug addiction and being raised in a supposedly abusive household. And this led him down a path, you know, of addiction and violence and the hard relationships with women, basically going

on that whole train. It's like she got plenty of people, grow up in horrible, horrible households. Yeah, plenty of people struggle with addiction and don't murder people. Don't murder people. Exactly. After three weeks of the trial, Judge Clifton Gordy found Muthaney guilty of the first degree murder of Kimberly Spicer because Because she forewent a jury trial. He was sentenced to life in prison

without the possibility of parole. Baye. And although the district attorney's office did want that death penalty, Judge Gordy said that they, quote, had failed to establish that Muthaney robbed Spicer or sexually assaulted her while she was alive. Either of these things would have made him eligible

for the death penalty, what a wild world we live in. Yeah, it's wild to me that like murder doesn't constitute the death penalty alone. You have to be sexually assaulted while you were still alive. That's why the death penalty is a wild thing. It is weird. It's a wild thing. I didn't realize that was part of it.

It's a weird thing, Maryland, I guess. Weird scenario. Now that the Kimberly Spicer trial was done and he had been found guilty and got life, the trial for Catherine Magziner was upon them and the death penalty was again going to be sought for this one. So on September 25th,

Joe Muthaney actually chose to rescind his not guilty plea and entered a guilty plea to the murder of Catherine. This time he opted for a jury for the sentencing phase, which is interesting. Throwing everybody around. Yeah. During the sentencing hearing, the prosecution said that Joe Muthaney had committed a capital offense, which constituted capital punishment. They said he murdered Catherine,

stole her clothing and purse, and had later buried it on the Stein Lot. And they provided evidence. They played his initial confession where he not only admitted to murdering Catherine, but also said he took her belongings. And later, desecrated her body, all which was done for, quote, a sense of power and because he got a rush out of it.

And he did say this himself during his confession. He said, his murder rampages started as revenge, he said, but ended up as quote, a passion for the taste and overwhelming sense of power that one gets from taking another's life. Wow. After, yeah. After four days of testimony, the jury deliberated for just two hours and then sentenced Joe Muthaney to death, along with a concurrent sentence of 10 years for the robbery, which if they were going by the requirements laid out to them by Judge Gordy, they were, I guess, right with this sentencing. Standing before the judge

at sentencing, he told the jury, quote, the words, I'm sorry, will never come out for they would be a lie. I'm more than willing to give up my life for what I've done to have God judge me and send me to hell for what I've done." So he literally said, you will never hear me say, I'm sorry, because that would just be a lie. I'm not sorry. Wow.

In a press conference after the hearing, his defense team told reporters that his statement to the jury, quote, the lies, his feelings of guilt and self-hatred, but he got what he wanted. Good try. Good try, would that one lie? So in 2000, Joe Muthaney's death sentence came under mandatory review by the Court of Appeals. That constitution came. And although the justices agreed with the conviction, they said the prosecution had failed to present sufficient evidence to support the claim of robbery as an aggravating circumstance deserving a death sentence.

That's also happening a lot lately in our cases. Yeah, it is. It's a factor, but it's not an aggravating factor. Yeah, it's true. That is. That's funny. Now, the issue wasn't whether he had killed and robbed Catherine. Like the justices were like, yes, we agree with all of that. It was if he robbed her. But whether he had murdered the woman in the commission of a robbery, which would make that eligible for death penalty. And they reviewed the case and the court determined that he had taken magazineers belongings after killing her, but it was done primarily to get rid of evidence

and to take what little cash she had as an afterthought. It wasn't the primary thing, or like we were just saying, an aggravating circumstance. Now, in the final report, Justice James Smith said, Muthaney was charged with robbery only because the body and the clothing were found in different locations. Another person who had killed their victim, but buried the victim in her clothes, would not qualify for the death penalty. So as a result, all his convictions were upheld, but the death sentence was vacated, and this case was sent back to the lower court for resentencing, which he did end up getting

sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. So he was quickly transported to Western Correctional Institution in Cumberland. So he later, during more confessions, would claim he had a six-year-old son with a girlfriend. And one day while he was at work, as a truck driver, she took him and he never found them. And he later said this girlfriend ran off with another man, took their six-year-old son with them. Eventually, the six-year-old son ended up in social service, custody because of neglect and abuse, and he went off to find them and kill them, like the man and his girlfriend. And anyone who got in his way. So this was his way of being like, this is why I did this revenge. Yeah, and in his confession, he said he killed three men and four women on his way to this revenge.

He said, two men, I chopped up with an axe under a bridge in South Baltimore. This is because he said they were two men who did drugs with his old lady, and they wouldn't give him any information about her so he killed them. Okay. He said, quote, I was found not guilty for them because I couldn't prove I did it. He then said, under that same bridge, I killed two women and one man who's fishing and just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I weighed down their bodies and put them in the river. I showed the police where I put them about three years later, but they couldn't find them so they couldn't charge me for them. He claimed he was a very busy night for him that night. Five murders in seven hours. Exactly. Ashton stood up, face like,

I was like, I don't think so. I found no record of this man ever having a child, by the way. Yeah. No record. He's I find it. It sounds like he's just trying to be like, I am such a doding father. And that's why it did not happen. He did not have a child. Yeah. Yeah. Joe Muthaney does not have a child. Not one he knew about. That's for sure. Now, on the afternoon of Sunday, August 5th, 2017, guards at the Western Correctional Institution in Cumberland discovered Joe Muthaney, unresponsive in his cell around 3 p.m.

He was pronounced dead a short time later, and an investigation was launched to determine the cause in circumstances of his death. But to this day, there appears to be no cause of death that has been released to the public. Huh, no one knows what happened there. No one knows. No one knows.

No one knows. No one knows. No one knows. No one knows. No one knows. No one knows. No one knows. No one knows.

No one knows. No one knows. No one knows. No one knows. No one knows. No one knows. No one knows. No one knows. No one knows. No one knows. Yeah, Jo Mataney. That was, that was a particularly brutal one. Yeah, it's just upsetting. And it's so sad that one of the victim's mothers was like she always came back.

That's the thing like she did leave when we would have an argument, but always. That's so sad. Yeah, because she probably was just waiting for her daughter to come back and then she finds out what exactly would happen to her. It's like, oh my god. Yeah. So, wow. That was a really rough, it's just a case that makes you feel really gross afterwards. Yeah, it's just bizarre. In the fact, whenever these people go after

people who they deem to be unworthy of being missed, You know, that's why it really is like, ugh. It's such an unsettling case too, because as much as he is a liar, I do wonder. Well, you just don't know. That's the thing. That's the problem is you don't know the bounds of his lies. And especially like Albert Fish. Yeah, well, especially where he lived

in that community for so long and like, yeah, you know, like, there's truths in there. Yeah. Like, it's not all lies, but he definitely is exaggerating a lot of it. I don't believe there's any human meat burgers anywhere. No, I don't think so either. You know, I don't think that's a thing. That's so gross and just fun to be like extra gross.

Well, and I think that and him to further terrify people. It feels like every time you go to a fucking meat counter, like think of me, it's like just a little way of being like, I'm the boogie man, you know gonna be terrified people. It feels like every time you go to a fucking meat counter, like think of me, it's just a little whey. It's just a little whey. I'm the boogie man, you know, like, no. I don't even believe in how gross he's there. I hope you're somewhere terrible. Yeah, perverse for sure.

That's for sure. Somewhere gross. Yeah. Or somewhere really clean, because I think that would stress you out more. Yeah, you know. Just in like a weird like white cubicle. Yeah, just that thing.

That's it. With nothing in it and just drive you crazy. Whoa. Ah. Yeah, a terrible story. That was interesting. I commend you for being able to put that together. Thank you.

You're welcome. The help of Dave. Oh, and Dave, I commend Dave always. That's my best friend. That's my best friend. That's my best friend. He's a real bad bitch. He is.

It's true. Dave's like a bad bitch. He is the It's true. He's like a bad bitch. He is the baddest bitch. You hear that, Dave? Well, guys, you guys are also the baddest bitches, and we love you. We hope you keep listening. I hope you keep it weird.

If I have to tell you not to keep it this weird, you should get your priorities and check, baby. Don't be a duck. Hey, Prime members! You can listen to Morvid, Early, and Add Free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey.