Morbid - Episode 579: The Society Gang Killing

Episode Date: July 4, 2024

On Thanksgiving Day 1934, police in Tulsa, Oklahoma found the dead body of John Gorrell Jr., a Kansas City dental student, slumped behind the wheel of his car, which had come to a stop at a downtown intersection. Gorrell had been shot in the head twice with his own gun and his wallet and other valuables were missing, leading police to conclude he had been killed in a botched robbery. Just one day later, the residents of Tulsa were shocked to learn that Gorrell hadn’t been killed by a robbery, but by his friend Phil Kennamer, and his motive wasn’t robbery.At the peak of the Great Depression, newspaper reports of violent crime were nothing new. In this case, however, the victim was the son of a prominent local physician and his killer the son of a well-known US District Court judge. The privileged backgrounds of the victim and killer were enough to captivate the residents of Tulsa, but as the strange details of the story slowly emerged in the days that followed, the case quickly grew from local sensation to national fascination. In the weeks and months that followed, countless front pages (and then some) were dedicated to the lurid details of what the press soon dubbed the “Society Gang Killing;” a story of disaffected youth who, bored with their wealth and privilege, turned to crime and violence for the sake of entertainment and excitement.Thank you to the incredible Dave White of Bring Me The Axe Podcast for Research!ReferencesBiscup, Walter. 1935. "Verdict of jury leaves punishment of Gorrell's slayer to Judge Hurst." Tulsa World, February 22: 1.Frates, Kent. 2014. "The Society Gang Killingg." This Land, July 15.Freese, Jim. 2016. Murder in the Name Of Love: The Phil Kennamer Trial. Tulsa, OK: Freese Publishing .Miami Daily News-Record. 1934. "Sheriff refuses to act on Phil Kennamer's version of case, involving associates." Miami Daily News-Record, December 13: 1.—. 1934. "Doubt cast on gang theory in Tulsa slaying." Miami Daiy News-Record, December 3: 1.Morrow, Jason. 2015. Deadly Hero: The High Society Murder that Created Hysteria in the Heartland. Tulsa, OK: Independent.Muskogee Daily Phoenix and Times-Democrat. 1935. "Counsel declares he could not tell right from wrong." Muskogee Daily Phoenix and Times-Democrat, February 15: 1.New York Times. 1934. "Death car driver a suicide in Tulsa." New York Times, December 10: 38.—. 1935. "Girl takes stand to Aid Kennamer." New York Times, February 16: 30.—. 1935. "Kennamer reveals 'extortion letter'." New York Times, January 27: 15.—. 1935. "Kennamer tells of fatal shooting." New York Times, February 19: 10.Phillips, Harmon. 1935. "Kennamer Case goes on aftwer threat of mistrial." Tulsa Tribune, February 13: 1.—. 1935. "Phil Kennamer back to jail with 25 years in prison as penalty for Gorrell killing." Tulsa Tribune, February 24: 1.—. 1935. "State blocks quick opinion by doctor that Kennamer shot youth while insane." Tulsa Tribune, February 16: 1.Tulsa Tribune. 1934. "Anderson tells plan of Kennamer Trial." Tulsa Tribune, December 15: 1.—. 1935. "New clues seen in notes from Phil Kennamer." Tulsa Tribune, January 3: 3.—. 1934. "Phil Kennamer inisists slaying his own actions." Tulsa Tribune, December 2: 5.—. 1934. "Police call Born suicide." Tulsa Tribune, December 10: 1.—. 1935. "Opposing Kennamer case legal batteries promise fiery clash of courtroom tactics." Tulsa Trribune, January 23: 7.Tulsa World. 1935. "Judge Kennamer weeps as he describes Phil's abnormalities." Tulsa World, February 16: 1.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Morbid early and ad free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Listening on Audible helps your imagination soar. Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities and new ways of thinking. Audible has the best selection of audiobooks without exception, along with popular podcasts and exclusive Audible originals all in one easy app. Enjoy Audible anytime while doing other things, household chores, exercising,

on the road, commuting, you name it. Audible makes it easy to be inspired and entertained as part of your everyday routine without needing to set aside extra time. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. Hey weirdos, I'm Ash and I'm Elena and this is Morbid! It's morbid. Morbid in the morning, kinda. Heyo. It's like the late morning. Yeah.

Almost afternoon. Yeah. How are you? What's up? I'm good. It's Ghost Movie Week. Ooh. So I'm excited.

Thoughts pretty exoian. Are you guys going to see it? Who's going to see the Ghost Movie? Raise your hand. What is it called? Right here, right now. Oh, yes, I knew that. Hail Mary.

Hail Mary. Hail Mary. Hail Mary. Hail Mary. Hail Mary. Hail Mary. Hail Mary. Hail Mary. I'm excited. That's pretty exciting. Are you guys going to see it? Who's going to see the ghost movie? What is it called? Right here, right now. Oh yes, I knew that. Hell yeah.

Because we've been singing in the pod lab. Right here, right now. I know not even the ghost version. No, which is funny. Which is funny, but yeah, I'm very excited. I want to know what happens to Papa. I'm excited for you. This is like, I haven't seen you this into a band since Linkin Park. Yeah

Like your your love for Linkin Park is yeah, it's translated into yes. Yeah, I love Linkin Park Yeah, Esther was my guy. Yeah, cuz I remember when you got the you got like some Like movie set for Christmas. Yes, like the behind the scenes of like their tour Yeah, and this kind of like this new right here right now coming out reminds me of that. Yes, like the behind the scenes of like their tour. Yeah, and this kind of reminds me, like this new right here, right now coming up reminds me of that. Yeah, you're right. It is a little bit. It's like the updated version.

Yeah. I'm excited. I'm excited. And John's excited because remember, in case you weren't here for the beginning of the lore, John's the one that introduced me to Ghost. He found them out of nowhere a couple of years ago. On like a Jimmy Fallon show? No. Jimmy Fallon show? No.

Jimmy Kimmel? It's a, like actually it's like a sports podcast he listens to. One of the guys, it's a huge sports fan, or ghost fan, he's a sports fan too. But he's a ghost fan and he talks about them. He like talked about them a lot. And John was like, oh, I'm just gonna check these guys out.

So then he just started listening and he was like, holy shit. Wait, was the first performance that you saw from like a Jimmy show? Yeah, he showed the first like live performance he showed me was the, um, oh my God, what's his name? Jimmy Kimmel? Jimmy Kimmel. That's what we're talking about.

Yeah. Okay. I was like, am I insane? That's not where he found them though. Got it. Got it. He just showed me that performance because he was like, hey, look at this. And they were in like full, like call me little sunshine garb. So I was like, this is as soon as the camera panned over

to them and I was like, I'm sorry, what? I was like, this is the greatest thing I've ever seen. Tell me everything. And he was like, I knew you would love this. Within a week she was hooked. I mean, within that moment she was hooked, but within that week, I think you had listened to like every album. Every single album. And

John and I sat there for like hours and listened to albums over and over again. All the albums. In fact I think when Tobias was on I mentioned that and he kind of like roasted me for a second and was like considering the albums only like this many minutes, it's shocking. And I was like I listen to all of them okay? Okay.'s shocking. And I was like, I listen to all of them. Okay. Okay. I'm just trying to tell you. I'm a fan. I'm a fan.

Hello. I'm a fan. Hello. I'm a foast. I like that. You're a phobias. That's good. Oh no.

It gets more fun as it goes. But yeah, I'm very excited about it. I hope everybody else is really excited about it. Yay. And we can talk about it afterwards. So there's gonna be a lot to talk about it sounds like everyone like all the theories that people have come up with and now I know it's been so fun to see like, like I've got into like the ghost subreddit and they have such cool theories. So like people are really like, it's very interesting to read in there what people think is going to happen. You can find cool shit on there sometimes.

Oh yeah, for sure. That's the thing. I was like, Oh, I love this. This is the complete opposite. Like this is the antithesis of ghost. I would say I've been really into survivor lately. So there's a lot of survivors subreddits. And I've gotten into and just like, where people can be really fascinating and they

have good theories. And you're like, huh, all right. Exactly. They talk about the gameplay strategies and that kind of thing. Yeah. I love that. I could never ever go on Survivor. No.

I would die within a minute. No. No. No part of me has enough hubris to say that I would survive even, I wouldn't survive the boat ride out to the island. I could do the boat ride and or the helicopter ride. But as soon as I had to start exerting myself, no, and then like the they all obviously like the first night you just like figure out what you can do for like tent kind of thing.

Like you don't get a tent. No. So they make a shelter, but they all wake up covered in like the gnarliest bug bites you have ever seen in your life. It's wild. Nothing about it is something, not one part of me believes I could do it. Couldn't even make the trip out.

I couldn't, no, like they'll eat like one portion of rice per day. I'm too hungry. I'm a baby, I need four hour foodings, babe. I'm too hungry. I need snacks. I need my little drinky drink. I need my snackies.

I need my treat. I need my Ollie pop. Yeah. I get real... I turn into a big cunt when I'm hungry. Who doesn't? You know? Who doesn't?

I get hangry. And I'm not great at group projects. No, I'm terrible. and that's the other thing I end up I'm like a control freak. So I end up taking every I'm like, I'll just do it because I can do it better. And then I would end up dying. I just it's not even me being like, I need to do it. I just like working independently. Hey, you know, some people are like that.

Yeah. And that's okay. Yeah. Yeah. So that's okay. Yeah. Yeah. So that's how we feel about Ghost and why we wouldn't be good contestants on Survivor. You know, just a little quick little intro of what's going on. Just random. We don't do these longer ones all the time anymore. No, but people like them.

They do. I think we got shamed out of them for a little while. Yeah. But now we realized that like, you know, it's okay every once in a while. Yeah, just go for it. But anyway, if you have something to say, you know what? That's the thing. We don't have anything. We had some stuff to say. I had to tell you about Survivor.

And Ghost is happening in a couple of days. So, you know, it's timely. Big exciting, funny things, okay? But yeah, I have an interesting case today. I hadn't heard of this one, and then I was doing some research for some old-timey-er cases, because we're just having a lot of fun with those lately.

Oh, yeah. They're a lot more, they feel better to research. They feel better to research. They also like the, some of the details that you'll end up finding, and then you kind of go down a rabbit hole, something random. That's the thing.

This one in and of itself is just a wily story from start to finish. So it captivated me and I hope it captivates you. So it's the society gang killing is how it's known. Yeah, I don't, you know, it sounds familiar, but I think it's just like that is a cool, like this is not a cool thing, like the case. No, but the title. But the name sounds like a movie, you know?

Like it's very cinematic, that title. Yeah. So I think I maybe have like thought I heard it before, but I actually haven't. They probably, honestly, this could be a movie. Like it's not, but it could be. Yeah. So it starts with Phil Kenimer and he was born in, I think it's Medill, Oklahoma. You can yell at me if it's not. Medill.

He was born on July 26, 1915. He was the youngest child of Franklin and Lily Kenimer. It was clear from a very early age that Phil was really, really incredibly smart. He loved to read, and most of the time, he would choose books that were very advanced for a child his age. So that was good.

But he also had a tendency to behave in really, basically he would behave in ways that people would later describe as peculiar. Okay. Seems like a nice way to describe some things. It is. When he was five years old, and this is like a trigger warning, this is pretty intense, he wrapped a curtain cord around his neck and jumped out of a second story window of the family home, like seemingly in an attempt to end his life at five years old. Oh my. Fortunately, the curtain ended up tearing from the window during the fall. So, and he actually also landed in a very large pile of sand. So he wasn't hurt, but it was obviously like

insanely frightening for his parents, Franklin and Lily. And it's just like, unfortunately, this is what like 1920. So you're not necessarily bringing him to a psychologist or, you know, kind of looking further into why this happened. And he was five? Five years old. I feel like at five, it's like, do you even have a conception of that? Yeah, I don't know. Like, wow, that's very upsetting. But it was, yeah. In the years that followed that incident, Phil kept displaying strange behavior that

confused a lot of the adults around him. Like I said, he was said to be a very bright child, like he was really advanced at reading. But his teacher said that he struggled to focus in school. He was usually very defiant. And one of the things that they most commonly said about him was that he rarely finished anything he started. He would start up any kind of project, but he would never follow it through.

I feel like so many people are like that. There's a lot of people like that. And there's time, like, I think every... And this might not be him, but it's like, I feel like everybody goes through little periods that they are like that a little bit. If things are overwhelming and like stuff's going on, I'm not saying that's what happens with him. And you're kind of trying to figure out like what it is you like to do or want to do.

So you just start a bunch of, you're like, I'm going to organize my entire, you know, upstairs. Yeah. And then you get like a quarter of the way in and you're like, that was a good try. That's a D right there. I'm not finishing that. Yeah. But as an Oklahoma State Supreme Court justice, Phil's father, Franklin, had a perceived reputation to maintain. So he was constantly frustrated by his youngest son's

behavior. Like he was like, you really need to get yourself in check because we're kind of a prominent family. We're kind of a big deal. I don't know if anybody told you, but now when the family ended up moving to Tulsa in 1930, Franklin was really hoping that the change of environment and the structure of an urban life would help Phil gain some self-discipline. But the move did literally nothing to improve his behavior. No, it usually doesn't, I feel.

So now at a complete loss, Phil's parents decided to send him to the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell. It's a college prep school and it was known for its very intense discipline. And aliens. Yes, yes, exactly. Roswell. No, this was just a few months into their move. So obviously things were pretty bad at that point.

Yeah. Like they were like, Oh, you know, maybe the change of scenery will help. I think things like really popped off and they were like, we can't do this anymore. We need help. We need someone to intervene. Unfortunately, though, it seemed that even the military academy couldn't tame Phil's defiant spirit. Just three months after his arrival at the school, Franklin, the father, got a call in the morning informing him that his son had run away during the Christmas break. Oh, shit.

Yeah. Obviously, it's not unheard of for kids to run away from boarding schools, especially ones that have a reputation for being strict disciplinary schools. But Franklin treated the incident with kind of a surprising amount of alarm and seriousness for that time. Immediately after he got the call, Franklin sent his court clerk to New Mexico to locate Phil, and he alerted the federal postal authorities to be on the lookout for Phil.

Oh, wow. And it ended up being one of those postal authorities that contacted, or that located Phil after 10 days. And he was able to find him because Phil sent a letter from Galveston more than 700 miles away from Roswell, asking a friend to send him clothes and money. So he, he like really got as far away as, like that's kind of impressive. That is. Shows he has at least a little bit of something. You're like, you definitely

like got it together to do that. Exactly. But despite his constant desire to get away from the school, Phil was eventually convinced to return. And the following year when he was 17, he found another reason to stick around, 15-year-old Virginia Wilcox. As the daughter of millionaire oil magnate Homer Wilcox, Virginia had lived her entire life in high society. Phil himself was captivated by her beauty, but his own strict upbringing and his father's expectations made him feel a closer bond to Virginia, who kind of grew up with the same thing, and he decided he was in love. In love.

In love. So they went out a few times to dinner in the movies, but Virginia decided pretty quickly that Phil wasn't really her type. And she was like, hey, like I've had fun, but I think we'd make better friends. Yeah. Cool, we love a straightforward queen. Yeah, she let him know. Yeah, I'd let him down easy. But completely heartbroken,

Phil struggled to accept Virginia's decision and continued to pursue her, sending her gifts and flowers all the time. And even asking her for a date two years in advance. Whoa. And she was like, I don't really know what part you didn't understand if I'd rather be friends. But that's a lot. Yeah. Now most teenagers

obviously would be like understandably devastated by their first heartbreak. But Phil's reaction to the rejection went beyond the bounds of reason. His lawyer later told a jury, never a boy had a date with Virginia Wilcox without Phil threatening to kill him if he didn't treat the young lady with every respect. Wow. Yeah. Which like- I mean, at least he was doing that. Yeah.

If you're being hyperbolic, that's great. Yeah. Like, I'll kill you if you don't respect her. And it's like, okay, that's- I don't know that he was being hyperbolic. I was going to say. Even when he had been sent to a different school in Durant, Oklahoma, he kept sending letters, kept sending gifts nearly every day at this point.

Yeah, that's too much, Phil. That's a lot. He was spending his entire allowance on these items that he sent to Virginia and actually even borrowing more money from his friends when he would go above his allowance. Wow. Just all to send her gifts and that kind of thing. So eventually he concocted a plan to take a train to visit Virginia, thinking he'd be able to convince her just to go out on one last date.

And after that, his plan was to end his life and make it look like it was a hunting accident. Oh, geez. I know, he's down bad. It is sad. The trip and the date never happened, but the plan alone clearly spoke to his obsession with Virginia.

Yeah. So in early 1932, Phil ended up joining his mom on a trip to San Angelo? Angelo? Angelo. San Angelo, Texas. I can't speak. Thank you.

And they stayed there for a few months while Lily received some medical treatment. She was having some health problems. OK. While there, Phil's mom enrolled him in 11th grade at the public school. That's the thing. It sounds like he's lived like 1,000 lives. At this point, he is literally in 11th grade.

He's a junior in high school. Yeah, it seems like he's like a grown adult at this point. Doesn't it? Not quite yet. But if she had hoped that the new environment was going to improve Phil's erratic and impulsive behavior, she was proven wrong almost immediately. He started acting out. He was running away from home on the regular. Sometimes he would get as far as Louisiana. One time he even got to Florida. Another time he got as far as New York City before being tracked down

and returned to his parents. Laurenie Duffield Damn. Laurenie Duffield Yeah, he was just running away all the time. Finally, in 1934, just a little way into his senior year of high school, Phil decided to drop out, much to the displeasure of his parents. To some, his personality was just flat out defiant and just like, it seemed like he was just being this way to be this way. But others who ended up studying his behavior later would describe him as an impulsive, uh, fantasist. Like he was constantly in this fantasy world. He had these grandiose dreams and ambitions that he spent almost all of his time thinking about.

But then when those dreams didn't become reality fast enough, or they actually required a serious investment of time that he wasn't willing to give. That's when he would give it up. He'd abandon them, he'd move on to something new. I'm Afua Hirsch. I'm Peter Frankipan. And in our series Legacy, we look at the lives of some of the most famous people to have ever lived and ask if they have the reputation they deserve. In this series, we look at J Edgar Hoover.

He was the director of the FBI for half a century. An immensely powerful political figure, he was said to know everything about everyone. He held the ear of eight presidents and terrified them all. When asked why he didn't fire Hoover, JFK replied, you don't fire God. From chasing gangsters to pursuing communists

to relentlessly persecuting Dr. Martin Luther King and civil rights activists, Hoover's dirty tricks tactics have been endlessly echoed in the years since his death. And his political playbook still shapes American politics today. Follow Legacy Now wherever you listen to podcasts. Divorced Beheaded died, divorced beheaded survived. We know the six wives of Henry VIII as pawns in his hunt for a son, but their lives were so much more than just being the king's wives.

I'm Arisha Skidmore Williams. And I'm Brooke Zifrin. And we're the hosts of Wondery's podcast, Even the Royals. In each episode, we'll pull back the curtain on royal families, past and present, from all over the world to show you the darker side of what it means to be royalty. We rarely see Henry VIII's wives in their own light as women who use the tools available to them to hold on to power. Some women won the game, others lost, but they were all unexpected agents in their own stories. Being a part of a royal family might seem enticing, but more often than not, it comes at the expense of everything else, like your freedom, your privacy, and sometimes even

your head. Follow even the royals on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Go deeper and get more of the story with Wondery's top history podcasts, including American Scandal, Legacy, and Black history for real. Now, kind of as an example, after dropping out of school, he wanted to become a writer, and his parents were actually supportive of that and they encouraged him to pursue it. But they were like, you also need to make some of your own money in the meantime, because you just dropped out of school. We're not going to just support you blindly. Like, you got to help us out here."

So their insistence triggered a series of short-term jobs that Phil inevitably got bored with. He quit just a few months later, including an advertising business he started with his friend that he hoped would lead him back to Virginia. When that didn't pan out, after a couple months, he was like, never mind. But wanting to be supportive of his son's ambitions,

Franklin Kennemer went so far as to arrange for Phil to take a position at the Daily Oklahoman, a local newspaper, and even paid the salary out of his own pocket. Just was like, give him a job. I'll literally pay a salary, but like, I just like don't tell Phil I'm paying his salary. I just want him to realize he needs a job. But that also fell apart after just a few weeks when Phil lost interest place in the world.

When that job at the Daily Oklahoma fell apart, Franklin again used his connections to arrange another job for Phil as a messenger boy at a law firm in New York, hoping maybe that change of scenery would do him good. But unfortunately, after just a few weeks in New York, his parents found out that Phil started getting involved in criminal activities, trying to quote, organize two rival gangs in Harlem to come together under his leadership. What the fuck? He was like, what if we just unite and have one gang and I'm in charge?

I'm the leader of everything. Like, what the fuck, Phil? Dude, your dad has paid your entire weight your whole life. What could you be in charge of? Yeah, let's be real. So fearing for their son's safety, Franklin and Lily insisted that Phil leave New York, which he did agree to do when his father

again used his connections to secure yet another job for Phil. All right, you gotta cut the cord here. Cut the umbilical cord, I know. This time, this was at a law firm in California. Not surprisingly, that job lasted only a couple weeks until Phil got boarded left, and after that, he went back to Tulsa. Oh man.

Yeah. So for most of his life, the chaos that really just kind of swirled around Phil earned him a lot of the attention from adults around him, especially his dad, who kind of managed to keep him from suffering any consequences. Yeah, which like you get it, you're that's your kid. Yeah.

You'll do anything for your child. Right. But like I mentioned, Lily, the mom there wasn't in great health. And eventually her illness was taking up a lot of Franklin's free time. And he didn't have the time or the energy to figure out Phil's life for him. So he was like, I gotta focus on your mom. Now without a job or any real ambition, Phil became really depressed.

He started drinking heavily, and he was spending a ton of his time with a small group of equally privileged, yet hella delinquent friends. Hella delinquent. Hella delinquent. That'd be a good band name. So for months, he bounced from one job to the other, spending his evenings at the Hi Hat Club, Hella delinquent. Hella delinquent. That'd be a good band name. Yeah.

So for months, he bounced from one job to the other, spending his evenings at the High Hat Club, which was an exclusive social club for Tulsa's wealthy and elite young people. Wow. The High Hat Club. His life was full of activity. Most of it was built pretty much around heavy drinking, but he remained unfulfilled. He occasionally chatted with girls at club functions, but he remained unfulfilled. He occasionally chatted with girls at club functions, but he was still really obsessed with Virginia, was writing to her

consistently at this point, like years later. Give it up. Inviting her to club dances. No, thank you. Sending her stuff all the time. And she was always declining his invitations and like being like, you don't need to keep sending me these gifts. Yeah, like I told you a million plus times. Nothing is going to happen here. So crushed by the constant rejection, he still expressed his thoughts of ending his life or plans for running away to join the French Foreign Legion. But he never acted on any of those plans. In the spring of 1934, he took a job at the Freights Insurance Company,

where his friend and co-worker, Preston Cochran, introduced him to 23-year-old John Gourald Jr. John was a dental student from Kansas City. He actually grew up as the son of a prominent local physician, so he knew what it was like to have or to come from a wealthy family with these high expectations, and they kind of bonded over that. Just kind of like how he and Virginia had originally bonded. But unlike Phil, John actually always

followed through with the things he set out to do. That little difference. Yeah, just a little bit. He graduated from elite prep schools. He completed programs at local universities. He did a lot of good things. But he also had a little bit of a wild streak, or a lot of bit of a wild streak.

A lot of bit? Yeah. Like Phil, John occasionally, quote, flirted with criminality, partially as a means of earning money when he was in school, but also just for the sake of keeping things exciting. Yeah. On September 12th, Phil got a call from John, asking if he wanted to meet him and another friend, Ted Bath,

for lunch at the Brown Derby Cafe in downtown Tulsa. And Phil was like, yeah, totally. So they all get together. And John explains that he figured the three of them would work well together and suggested that they brainstorm some kind of idea to make a little side cash. It didn't take long for Phil to realize that whatever business John had in mind, it a not of the legal persuasion. Mm, shocked. Yeah. So Phil suggested a low stakes robbery of a local beer bar, which he assumed would have a large amount of money on hand after a Saturday night. But Ted shot the idea down, insisting that some kind of place like that would definitely have guards.

Yeah. That would be difficult. Absolutely. So they kept brainstorming a little bit more, and eventually Phil and John came up with a new deranged idea. Oh, fun. They decided they would throw this big party and invite a bunch of young women from prominent local families and just supply them with free alcohol.

And once one of the women was sufficiently drunk, they would lure her away to a private room and take nude or lurid pictures of her. Oh my. to a private room and take nude or laured pictures of her, and then use those pictures to blackmail her family into paying a large sum of money so as to avoid any scandal should those photos get leaked to the press. What the fuck? You just, you sit there and you're like, how did three people come together and say, yeah, I'm interested in that.

This is fine. Yeah. I should say two, because one of them was like, I don't really know about that. But like, you all sat there and had that conversation. One of you should have been like, this is fucked up, guys. So no one in that room was like, this is real fucked up. Like in that moment, exactly.

So they threw out names of girls they knew, wealthy girls they knew, but none seemed right until Phil suggested one Virginia Wilcox. In his mind, Phil would later say that his plan was to intervene during the scheme and save Virginia from the extortionist, making him look like the hero in her eyes and not, he thought that would be the way to win her over. Or that she'd at least- Well, he's even more fucked up than I thought.

Oh, he's super fucked up. He thought that would either win her over or that she would owe him something and the owe would be like to be with him. It's like... Phil, get it together. No. Like, get it together.

This is outrageous. And that's all assuming that he... She never learns that he orchestrated the plan to begin with. Exactly. Which of course she's going to find it out. Yeah. Of course, Phil didn't mention his ulterior motive to the others, but it was just as well. Because Ted decided, thank goodness there was like one moderately normal person sitting at the table, this wasn't the kind of thing he wanted to get involved in. Good for Ted. Bye.

He might not have been interested in the extortion scheme, Ted, but John Grohl remained convinced that it would work. A few days later, he proposed a new plan to two other friends, one of whom worked for the Tulsa World newspaper. Rather than just trying to exploit the girl's parents, he added on another step. He said, why don't we kidnap a girl and hold her for ransom? Yeah. With their connections at the newspaper, the kidnapping could get a lot of press coverage and increase the pressure to pay the ransom. But the other two people that he proposed it to wanted nothing to do with that plan.

Yeah, because that's fucked up. And they were actually so put off by it that they went and told Phil, which immediately concerned him, which like, if you're that concerned, I don't understand why you didn't just go to the fucking police. Yeah, I'd be like the fact that you even came up with that. You should be arrested. Exactly. But from Phil's perspective, exploiting Virginia's father for money seemed like a relatively

harmless scheme. Absolutely. Exploiting somebody's parent for money by endangering their child is a total, very harmless. Yeah. Yeah. Very casual. Yeah. He's like taking pictures and, you know, putting somebody in a position is one thing, but kidnapping them that's too far. Yeah. Yeah, very casual. Yeah, he's like taking pictures and, you know, putting somebody in a horrible position is one thing,

but kidnapping them, that's too far. Yeah, that's a little too far. Yeah. He figured that one thing like that's fine. The gang would get some money, he would come out looking like a hero, and most importantly, nobody would get hurt. But he felt that John's new plan seemed far more serious and consequential. Yeah. And like the kind of plan where somebody could get hurt. So now he was concerned for Virginia's safety. And in mid-October, he told her brother, Homer Jr. about John's new plan.

But Homer didn't believe him because I mean, I would look back and say, Homer, like, even if you don't believe this, maybe mention it to somebody. Well, that's the thing I get why you don't believe it because Phil has shown that he's a little unhinged here when it comes to your sister. So it's like-

And he barely knows Phil. I get that. But it's like, but you should at least tell someone and be like, I don't know if this is bullshit, but somebody told me this. And it's like, I can see like you barely knowing somebody as an argument for why like you wouldn't trust them and be like, oh, maybe that's like Foo Foo.

But also, you barely know them, so you don't know what they're capable of. So you could see it going both ways. But because he barely knew Phil and had no reason to trust him, he was like, I feel like this is just another one of Phil's attempts to get Virginia's attention, so he ignored the rumor, not wanting to worry anybody. No worry people.

Yeah, that's what I say. Now the next month after John went back to school in Missouri, Phil got a letter from him saying that John had made some connections in the city. And he figured they could get some easy money. So he wanted Phil to meet him in Kansas City. Convinced John was talking about the kidnapping plan, Phil decided that he needed to go out to Missouri to find out what John was up to. So he told his parents that he and a friend were gonna go on a camping trip for a few days,

and then he packed a small bag and booked a flight to Kansas City. So he arrived there on November 21st, 1934, and he checked into the Phillips Hotel under the name Mr. Copeland from Chicago. Mr. Copeland is here. Mr. Copeland from Chicago. Just feels Copeland is here. I'm Mr. Copeland from Chicago. It just feels so like.

It does. So fancy. So detective movie. And then he set out to find John, who was drinking at a local cafe with a group of young men. Surprise, surprise. Shocked. John introduced Phil to the gang as Bob Wilson.

Just like. Excuse me, he's Mr. Copeland from Chicago, okay. Actually, get your facts straight. And then they ended up, the two of them, stepping away to a corner of the room to discuss their plan. According to John's friends, who would later actually testify at Phil's trial, the meeting was very tense. Phil had wanted Virginia to see him as a hero.

And in order to do that, he needed to be in control of this entire scheme. But John's plan was a threat not only to Virginia's safety, but to his entire goal. According to his friends, the interaction between John and Phil actually left John a little bit shaken. On his way to the bathroom, John stopped at the table of his friend Dick Oliver and he said, take a good look at this fella. If I'm killed, Bob Wilson's the one who did it. Damn. It's like, if you're killed, Phil is the one that did it. Don't you want the person to know that this guy's real name? What his actual name is, not Bob Wilson, who doesn't exist?

Like, I'm just not getting this, folks. No. But a short time later, Phil and John excused themselves from the group again and went into a private room to keep discussing their plans. And Phil decided, as long as he could stay in control and keep ahead of John, he could still keep everything on track to achieve his objective,

Virginia's heart. But John threw another wrench in his plans when he introduced another conspirator, Everett Gartner. Like Phil and John, Gartner came from an extremely wealthy family, and he was kind of considered like a playboy. He spent most of his time flying one of his two airplanes and just pursuing women. I mean, yeah. Everett Gartner seems like he would do that.

Yeah. It's giving us the egg. But I feel like, yeah, it absolutely is. Exactly. But John roped Gartner into the plan because of his access to airplanes, which he hoped to use to transport Virginia. So now they're kidnapping this woman and putting her in a fucking airplane.

And then it actually gets crazier. This is a nightmare. It's insane. So the three spent some time discussing their plan, and Phil repeatedly tried to convince John that they didn't actually need to kidnap Virginia. He said, we could just send an extortion note. But John pointed out that it was pretty unlikely

her father was going to pay anything if Virginia wasn't actually missing or in danger. Wow. Which like solid point, but still deranged. Really deranged. So Phil kept trying to persuade them that it was a bad idea, that it was going off the rails. But for whatever reason, he eventually relented.

And together, they wrote an extortion note, where they demanded $20,000 in $5 and $10 bills. Today that would be about $460,000. The note read, Failure to comply with our demands will result in certain and painful death for one or more of your children. After signing the note yours in expectation John Doe, Goral added a postscript that read, strict silence even in your family must be observed. I hate these two.

They're horrible. What nasty little shit. Not three because Everett's in on it. Oh, I forgot about Everett that fucking idiot flying the plane. Yep. So after a few days in Missouri, Phil eventually caught a ride back to Tulsa with one of John Goral's friends Floyd Huff. There's so many names in this.

The names? And they're so like old timey too. Theyoral's friends, Floyd Huff. There's so many names in this. The names. And they're so like old timey too. They're so old, like Floyd Huff. That's not real. Are you joking? But along the way, it became clear to Huff that Phil, who had been drinking heavily, was not happy with their extortion plan. As Huff drove, Phil drunkenly rambled about Virginia, telling him this bizarre story about how he'd come to Kansas City actually with a plan to kill John, which could very well have been true

actually because at one point, Phil pulled out a large hunting knife that he packed in his bag for protection just to prove to Floyd Huff how serious he was. And Huff said, if you're so adamant about protecting Virginia and stopping John, why not turn everything over to the police and be done with it? Finally, somebody with half a fucking brain here. Yeah, and he's literally sitting there being like, this is stupid.

Well, it doesn't even sound real to him. He's like, this is stupid. I doubt this is real. And if it is, tell the fucking police. Yeah, and don't sit here with your sob story about how you don't want to do this when you're not doing anything to change it. To stop it in any way.

Phil agreed, sure, that could have worked. But in all reality, he had another far more elaborate plan in mind. In truth, he probably still believed that he could have used the opportunity to save Virginia and win her back, which is why he didn't do exactly what Floyd Huff recommended. The other problem was that had he reported the crime to the police, he probably would have been implicated as a co-conspirator and he didn't want to face those consequences. Yeah, let's just go through with it.

Yeah. And see what happens there. We'll figure it out after. So instead, he explained that he had a plan to stop John by this is real, taking him up into an airplane where he would knock John unconscious and then parachute to safety while the plane with John behind the controls plummeted to the ground below. You could just call someone. Probably.

You don't have to do all this. Like what? The good news is, unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, this plan was foiled when they all got too drunk to rent an airplane. Wow. And then Phil had to come up with a new plan. They're really killing it.

Yeah, he said, that was my original plan, Floyd. This is my new airplane. Wow. And then Phil had to come up with a new plan. They're really killing it. Yeah. He said, that was my original plan, Floyd. This is my new one. Wow. Now I'm going to lure John to Tulsa, where he would drive him out to a remote area and pretend that the car had a flat tire. And then he said he was going to kill John and leave his body there. OK. Floyd Huff assumed that this too was drunk and rambling

and didn't really think anything more about it. So he didn't call the police. Everybody's really just like taking people. Yeah, that's why I said half a brain. Yeah. Yeah. As far as anybody could tell, the plan that John, Phil and Everett had laid out was for Phil to return home to Tulsa to mail that note to Homer Wilcox Sr. Then he and John would kidnap Virginia and

wait for the money to arrive. But by the time Phil got to Tulsa, he couldn't bring himself to put the note in the mail. So instead, he showed the extortion letter to his friend, Jack Snedden, Preston Cochran, and Sydney Bourne, hoping that the exposure would be enough to get John to call off the plan. And if that didn't work, he said then he would bring the note to the police and put an end to the scheme for good. It's like, I don't think you ever were planning on going to the police. You definitely were never planning on going to the police. You would have done it about 15 plans ago.

Exactly. So on the evening of November 28th, Phil placed several frantic calls to the home of John's parents, where John had arrived earlier that day. He was home for Thanksgiving break. Because remember, these are all like teenagers or people in their early 20s, like fresh into college or like barely out of high school. So he kept calling John's house over and over again and said he needed to know whether John still intended on going through with everything. But each time he called, John was out, so he just kept leaving these frantic messages

for John to call him back. That's probably fine. And John's mom was like, what the fuck? Yeah, that won't alarm anyone. No, not at all. Now the following day, after eating Thanksgiving dinner with his family, Phil finally got a phone call from John, who presumably indicated, yeah, the plan was still on. After hanging up, Phil went to his father and asked if he knew of a kidnap and extortion plot, if it

would be a good thing for him to capture the criminals. And Franklin Kenimer later told the jury, I told him it was a good thing to catch such people. Like, duh. Nicole Soule-Yeah, you weren't like a little concerned with how stupid of a question that was. Like, I'd be like, what was the reason for that question? You know the answer. I think he was probably used to Phil just saying like crazy fuck shit. So he was like, yeah, that would be a good idea. Yeah, you Dodo.

Like what? He's like, can you not ruin things? So after dinner, the two went down to the drug store where Franklin bought some cigars and they returned home. The next time Judge Keninnomar saw his son was around 1 a.m. And by then, John Goral was dead. John Goral? John Goral, there was only one person who knew what really happened and obviously that's the person who committed the crime.

And his version of events should be viewed with at least some skepticism. According to Phil, after returning home from the drugstore with his dad, he went back to the store by himself, where he ran into Eunice Ward and Hazel Williams. The two women had made plans for a double date with John and his friend, Charles Bard. So they told the clerk to relay a message to John that he could pick them up for their date at the hospital where they worked. Phil was at the drug drugstore when John arrived and the two made plans to get together later that night to discuss the extortion scheme. The amount of times that they've had to discuss this plan and scheme insane that's all they talk about it's wild they're just going through the same plan

and it's crazy that like nobody heard them talking about this and I don't know went to the police about it. Because they talked about it everywhere. Every single day. Every day, all day. Every hour. Anytime like one of them was like, hey, have you heard that that new picture show that's coming out down there? They were like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But the extortion scheme. Like you, there was no changing the subject. No, there just wasn't. There just wasn't. All day. So later that evening around 8.30 p.m., Phil met up with some friends at a local cafe and told them that he had made plans with John later that night, saying he planned to put an end to the kidnapping plot.

So literally anybody that knows Phil knows about this plot. Yeah. But I don't even... They probably just think he's talking nonsense, because he did talk a lot of nonsense. Phil, though, even took out the large hunting knife out of his coat pocket again and showed it to them as proof that he was well protected should things come to violence. He said explicitly that he didn't have any plans to kill John, that this was simply a matter of protection. But it's worth noting during his testimony at trial, Jack Snedden, I think it is one of the friends that Phil met at the cafe, actually contradicted Phil's account.

He told a jury it was later in the evening and Phil actually did say that he planned to kill John and showed them both the extortion note as evidence that Virginia was in danger. So oops, like completely different stories there. Phil left his friends at the cafe that night telling them, well, it's either Goral's life or my life tonight. You'll read about it in the morning paper. Wow. Yeah.

And then he's like, I had no intention on. No intention of killing this guy. And then he walks out and he's like, one of us will die tonight. Bye. See ya. Deuces. Now, needing to kill some time before his plans with meeting up with John Goral, Phil left the cafe and went to the Quaker drugstore, where he ran into Sydney Bourne, an acquaintance he knew from school, and more recently from the Hi Hat Club.

They had always gotten along pretty well, so Sydney didn't ask any questions when Phil asked him for a ride to the location where he was supposed to meet John. A little after 11pm, Sydney's car pulled up to 19th and Utica Street, where Phil got out and walked to John's car. According to Phil, he and John started driving. John became irate when he learned that Phil hadn't yet mailed that letter to Virginia's father Homer. And he said he then told John, there isn't going to be any extortion, explaining that

the scheme was coming to an end right then and there, or he was going to be turning over that letter to the police. And if that didn't work, Phil said, he had every intention of killing John right then and there. He said, at the mention of police, John pulled a 22 caliber revolver from the driver's side door and pointed it at him, Phil. He later told a packed courtroom, he had the pistol right in my face. He pulled the trigger.

The gun failed to fire. Damn. Testifying in his own defense, he told the jury, I struggled with him and I thought we both had the pistol. The muzzle had changed directions. There was an explosion. So whether he had intended to kill him or not, the bullet hit John in the head.

And then Phil fired again, shooting John in the head for the second time, and the second shot killed him. Now with its driver no longer in control, the car swerved off the road and jumped the curb, coming to a stop on the median between Victor and Forest Boulevard. Stunned by what had happened, Phil wiped his prints off the gun, put it back in the holster, and then dropped that on the passenger seat before fleeing the scene. Whoa. Then he walked the two miles back down to the downtown area. And rather than going straight home, he stopped into the Sunset Cafe, which is a small bar

on East 18th Street. And inside he found his friend, Tommy Thomas. Tommy Thomas. Tommy Thomas. And sat down next to him at the bar, where he wasted no time telling Thomas what he'd done. This just happened! Thomas laughed, not believing that his friend had actually killed anybody,

and just found somebody to give Phil a ride home. There's two ways to look at this. Phil is like, hey, I'm going to kill this guy. And everybody's like, shut up, Phil. And then it's like, hey, I killed that guy. And everybody's like, shut up, Phil. Nobody thinks you did that. Which you could look at as like, as two ways.

Like one, you're a liar and no one believes you. Or two, that like no one believes you would kill someone, which is like, you want that. Yeah, that's, that's kind of the thing. So it's like, but I think this one is more like you lie all the time. I think it's very much that he's just constantly talking nonstop bullshit. And then you kind of are one of those people who spins yarns and we don't actually believe

you've done any of this stuff. And that's why I don't think anybody took the extortion plan seriously when he was telling them about it, which like, still. You should. Take it with at least a couple more grains of Salt, you know, you'd rather overreact. So maybe somebody would have ended up in jail instead of dead on a street corner. Yeah So 17 year old Wesley Cunningham was on his way home from the movies that evening when he happened upon John girl's car stalled

On the median just a few minutes away from his house Thinking that it might have been some local drunk passed out behind the wheel, Wesley pulled over to the side of the road to investigate. It was after midnight and actually snow had started to come down heavily, so the headlights of his car barely provided enough light to see what was happening in the car. But when he finally reached the driver's side door of John Goral's Ford, Cunningham realized it was not somebody drunk and passed out at all, but a dead man. He later told police, I saw a man very pale with blood running down his face. And after realizing what he had

stumbled upon, he raced the short distance home to tell his stepdad about what he discovered. And it was then that they called the police to report the death. After making an initial evaluation of the scene, patrol officers first believed that the young man in the driver's seat had actually shot himself in the head while the car was still in motion, which would explain the hole in his head and the fact that the car had jumped the curb. But that theory quickly fell apart when they discovered that the gun was not laying on the floor or in the driver's hand, but was in fact back in the holster

and lying on the passenger seat. Yeah, that was dumb. Yeah, given that it would have been impossible for the driver to shoot himself in the head twice also. I was going to say that was the first thing I thought. I was like, he did it twice. Yeah, he has two holes in his head. But there would be no way that he could shoot himself

in the head twice and then put the gun back in the holster. So the case quickly shifted from an assumed suicide to a presumed murder. It didn't take long to identify the driver as John Goral and a notification was made to his parents. And remember, I think this is like the day after it's either the day after or the very day of Thanksgiving. So they refuted the idea that their son would have committed suicide. His father said, John was in the best of spirits today. And while they were certain that John

hadn't died by suicide, everybody seemed to be at a loss for who would want to murder him or why. He'd only been home for the holiday break a little over a day. And as far as anybody knew, he hadn't gotten into any altercations with anybody, so at that point, his death really presented quite a mystery. Now according to the coroner's office, he had been shot in the head twice with his own gun and the second bullet was the fatal wound, but he didn't really have any other insight outside of that. So in the meantime, detectives started reconstructing John's evening, starting from the moment he left the house to pick up his date.

Detectives quickly deduced that John had been killed a little before midnight, about 45 minutes before his body was discovered, which meant that whoever killed John had done so in a pretty short amount of time between when he dropped his date Eunice off at the hospital and when his body was discovered. Remember, he also went on a date that night. Moreover, when they searched his pockets, they discovered all he had on him was $1.50, which included the 50 cents that his friend Charlie loaned him earlier that evening.

So they all knew that robbery wasn't likely to be the motive. Now, as detectives worked their way through John's friends and acquaintances, trying to find any clue as to identify this killer, they eventually reached his friend and roommate back in Kansas City, Dick Oliver. I don't know if you remember that name from earlier. Possibly. There's been a lot of names. When Oliver was told that John may have committed suicide, because it was before they kind of

really knew the gist of everything, the young man immediately refuted the assertion and explained just one week earlier, John had introduced him to an associate he called Bob Wilson and told this guy if he was ever found murdered, Wilson was surely the killer. Bob was the guy sitting at that table. Why did he say Bob? I know. The problem, of course, like we were just saying, is that Bob Wilson was not the killer's real name. So while investigators now had a potential suspect, they were no closer to finding actually Phil Kenimer.

Dick Oliver also wasn't the only person who suspected that they knew who killed John Goral. On the afternoon of December 1st, when Floyd Huff learned of his friend's murder, he also remembered a conversation with Goral's friend, Bob Wilson, because that's how he knew him too, during that long car ride back to Tulsa just one week earlier. In a statement given to Kansas City Police the day after John's murder, Huff told police about how Phil, who he knew as Bob Wilson,

had told him of his plan to murder John, and now he was actually scared that the killer was going to come back and kill him too. Floyd Huff said, he gave me his name, address, and telephone number. I'm not gonna leave here until that man is arrested. He's like, fuck that. Now, when pressed for more information,

he produced a piece of paper from his jacket pocket that read, Phil Kenimer, Phil Tower Building, 40219. Shut the fuck up. So it's like, yeah, he told you his name was Bob Wilson, but then he gave you his fucking address and listed his name as Phil Kenimer. And you didn't look at it? I don't know, man. Wow.

Floyd went on to tell Kansas City police everything he knew about the alleged kidnapping and extortion plot and Phil's rambling plan to stop John in St. Virginia. And although Huff's story was outrageous and really would have been difficult to believe, it was also extremely detailed in a way that made it more credible than kind of the usual fabrication people were used to hearing. So investigators now knew their killer, Bob Wilson, was in fact, Phil Kenimer, the teenage son of, don't forget, a federal court judge. Man, poor Franklin. Yeah, I know. Now, while detectives in Tulsa and Kansas City were putting together the pieces of this mysterious death on November 30th, Phil Kenimer was in Rogers County on a hunting trip

with his father, just acting like nothing had happened. He just killed a boy. He literally just killed a guy. When they concluded their hunting, Phil asked his father to drive him to the train station so he could return to Tulsa to quote, transact some business at a bank. That should have been Franklin's first red flag of like, what business do you have? Yeah, he was probably just happy that his son wanted to fucking conduct some kind of business. So he was like, yeah, sure. And the next time he saw him a little afternoon

the following day, Phil was in the company of A. Flint Moss, a Tulsa criminal defense attorney. And together- Why do they all just have like one initial? All defense attorneys all have that. I know. You're so right. A. Flint Moss. And so he shows up home with this attorney and Phil and this attorney sit there and tell Franklin exactly what happened a few days earlier. Oh my God. Franklin is blindsided.

Yeah. Franklin Cantermore later told a jury, I told Phil to go as quickly as possible and surrender to the sheriff. I had no doubt at all that Phil was irrational and irresponsible that night. Oh. So he's like, maybe we can get some kind of, you know, he's like, go turn yourself in right now. Yeah. So when a Moss and Kenner, Phil Kenner arrived at the sheriff's office on the afternoon of December 1st, the lawyer presented his client for surrender and the deputy at the front desk didn't take either man seriously and thought it was a joke until Moss made his official statement.

He said, Phil came to my office early today and told me he may have been compelled to kill Goral and in order to preserve his own life. So the surrender and confession was immediately picked up by the press, who clamored for more information. But when asked directly why Phil had killed Goral, immediately picked up by the police, excuse me, by the press, who clamored for more information. But when asked directly why Phil had killed Goral, Moss said, I've said as much as I can regarding that.

Nicole Soule-Northam Why does everyone assume that Phil is just a silly, goofy guy? He's just the silliest of gooses. Nicole Soule-Northam I don't know. Nicole Soule-Northam Always talking about murder and kidnapping, but never actually doing the murder and kidnapping. Nicole Soule-Northam Not only like, not just his friends, but even the sheriff's deputy. Whose job it is to take confessions, like take a statement about a crime

that has been committed. And this man is standing in the fucking presence of a criminal defense attorney. And the sheriff is still like, you're the silliest of gooses. He's like, you guys came in here just for some laws. Yeah, he's like, wow. Make my day.

It's not open mic night tonight. Like, what the fuck? It's not open mic night tonight. Nobody's believe it. He's literally running around town being like, I killed John Goral. And everyone's like, you're hilarious. Go away. So funny, Phil.

Let's get you a ride home. And also it's like, guys, John Goral is dead. Maybe someone should take it seriously a little bit. Maybe, you would think. I think the sheriff's deputy was like, you got to be fucking kidding me because you're a federal court's kid, like, judge's kid. Like, he's telling you what he did, bro.

Yeah. So Flint Moss may have been determined to remain tight lipped around his clients' actions, but Judge Kenimer didn't make the same effort. In a statement to the press immediately following his son's surrender, Judge Kenimer said, I never dreamed such a thing could happen. I always instructed my boy never to touch the hair of a human unless it were a life and death struggle.

Oh, that hurts my heart. I know. When he says my boy. Yeah. John Goral Sr. and his wife also prepared a statement for the press where they acknowledged that their son had indeed been friendly with Phil Kenimer, but as far as they knew, the two hadn't spoken in some time. Mrs. Grohl said, The first time I ever heard of Phil Kenimer was last summer when for about a week he would come by the house for John, accompanied by

another boy. The friendship was short-lived. It just spurred it up and then suddenly died down. I never heard much of Phil again until Thanksgiving Day." To the readers of the Tulsa newspapers, the Goral murder had all the makings of a perfect and perfectly irresistible scandal. Extortion, kidnapping a beautiful young woman, friends turned enemies, and most importantly, a mysterious motive. In the absence of an obvious motive, the public and the press wasted no time speculating about what could have led the son of one of Tulsa's most influential judges to commit murder. They wondered if it was a thrill kill, like the Leopold and Loeb murder a decade earlier, or if it was the act of, quote, a band of

well-to-do hoodlums who planned robbery and extortion. Heather Kinn A gang of well-to-do hoodlums. Lauren Henry Which they kind of were, I guess. Heather Kinn Yeah, it just, wow. Lauren Henry Yeah, the language back then was wild. Heather Kinn But the prosecution was less interested in speculating on the motive than they were determining whether Phil was mentally sound at the time he committed the crime. Just days after his arrest, county attorney Holly Anderson reached out to Dr. Felix Adams, superintendent of the Eastern Oklahoma Hospital for the Insane,

is what it was called back then. Is what it was called. I was like, I'm not saying that. To be clear, I didn't just add that little moniker onto it at the end. No, no, no. And he asked if the doctor would come to Tulsa as soon as possible to interview Phil and advise on his competency. From an outside perspective, a mental health evaluation seemed like the wisest course of action. In his statements to police, particularly those who had made their way to the press,

Phil's only explanation for the murder was that he had to do it in order to save his own life. So it kind of sounded like, why did you have to do it? Especially when John was driving. Yeah, exactly. That takes away from that a little bit. It does a little bit. Because you're in, like, he's got to drive.

Yeah. So it's like the life or death situation gets a little, of course you can be in a life or death situation in that scenario, but it's a little harder to grasp. Yeah, it definitely is. And the case also hinged heavily on testimony from people like Floyd Huff, whose story about Phil's plans for grandiose intervention in the kidnapping plot hardly sounded like the actions of a sane man. So I think he's sane. People just

out of touch. I think now like 2024, like we've seen so many cases like this, but think about it, it's like 1930. people are like, what the fuck? I think they're probably looking at it more like, that guy's crazy. You know what I mean? Like he's talking crazy, you know, like not like clinically, clinical sanity. Exactly. I think it's like, yeah, you can't be in his right mind. He's saying that kind of stuff.

And it's like, no, he's not in his right mind, but like that's his mind. But that is his mind. And it's a sane mind in my's not in his right mind, but like, that's his mind. But that is his mind. And it's a sane mind, in my opinion. I think the same thing. But the story became even more scandalous and mysterious a week or so later on December 10th when Sidney Bourne, the young man who drove Phil to meet John Goral on the night of the murder,

died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. What? According to the press, Bourne was, quote, found in his motor car, shot through the head with an automatic pistol near the spot where Goral was killed. Despite the county attorney's emphatic statement that the death was an out and out suicide and quote, couldn't be anything else. Bourne's death gave credence to unsubstantiated rumors that John Goral's death was part of a scheme perpetrated by a gang of wealthy young criminals.

Only 20 or so minutes before Sydney Bourne was discovered in his car, he had been desperately trying to reach Phil Kanemar by phone, but the guards at the jail refused to let Phil take the call, which some people felt was evidence of a larger conspiracy. So not wanting to waste the opportunity, Phil's defense attorney, a Flint Moss. A Flint Moss. A Flint Moss. Like I'm saying like a singular Flint Moss.

Yeah, like a Flint Moss. He made a statement to the press indicating that Sydney Bourne might have had some information that could have exonerated Phil Kennemore. Oh shit. Even Phil weighed in on the news telling reporters, I don't believe and will never believe that Sydney Bourne committed suicide. Whoa, I couldn't find anything interesting. He didn't. But interesting. Who's to say who's to say it does seem pretty likely that his death really was a suicide. But the reason for him wanting to end his life remains a mystery. Yeah, it seemed that

since Phil's arrest, Sydney had actually been incredibly anxious and fearful. Author Jason Morrow wrote, whatever the reason, Sydney Bourne's fear was certainly real to him, even if it was found later to be blown out of proportion. I think the theory is that he was motivated by a fear that he was going to be roped into the case and kind of face some serious consequences. Because he drove him there. Because he drove him there, exactly. But ultimately, Sidney's death presented a problem for the prosecution because he was really the only buddy that could place Phil at the scene being

the one who drove him there. Yeah. So with one witness dead and endless rumors swirling around the case, Holly Anderson knew he needed to get a hold of this case and get filled to trial as soon as possible, or there was going to be a greater risk of a tainted jury pool or possibly even an acquittal. So given those circumstances, Anderson became very vocal about his desire to go to trial as quickly as possible, and he actually even expressed his desire to skip the grand jury altogether. He told reporters, I'm opposed to any grand jury at this time.

It would do no good in this particular case. A grand jury could not obtain information from outside the county for one thing. We have done that already and have the case under lock and key." So indicating his intent to go to trial in mid-January, he said, Sgt. Maddox and I are satisfied that we know the facts behind the killing of John Goral. And while there was some question as to the legality of skipping the grand jury phase, he felt confident that they could move forward with the information that they possessed. Wow. Now, one of the key aspects of the case that captivated the public was the perception that young people, particularly actually those from wealthy elite families, were out of control.

Out of control. Oh, like people were like, what the fuck is going on? They're wily. They're like those kids from The Purge. Yeah, exactly. That's all I think of is every time like when they're standing outside the door. Like people are like what the fuck is going on? They're Wiley. They're like those kids from the Purge. Yeah That's all I think of is every time like when they're standing outside the door Yeah, and he's got the mask on and they're all just like skipping around out there Yeah, and he's like we're like you like they're that's what I think of Oh, that would be so so chilling. That first one is so good guys. We saw that for my birthday Remember like years ago. Yeah. That's wild. I think

it's a great concept. It is. I haven't seen that since then. Yeah. I haven't seen the other ones either. I haven't either. We should do those for Scream. We should. All right. Noted. But yeah, wealthy elite children are out of control. Now the case against Phil was at least appeared to give that panic some credibility. And in the weeks leading up to the trial, the youngest member of the Wilcox family, Homer Jr., was arrested after it was learned that he and a friend had been shooting out streetlights on the night of Goral's murder, for which he would ultimately be tried and fined. That's what it is. They're all, they're rich and bored. Exactly.

They don't have anything else to do. 100%. Yeah. But everybody was like, oh my God, it's out of control. They're out of control. And it's like, maybe they were. Maybe. But at the same time, Phil started telling the press an elaborate story about a gang of youths involved in criminal activity in Tulsa, all of whom were involved in the plot to kidnap Virginia Wilcox. Stating his belief that Sydney Bourne was killed to, quote, seal his lips and prevent his giving defense testimony.

Phil urged the sheriff's office to arrest and prosecute the supposed members of the gang, who he privately named. Sheriff Price told reporters, we haven't got enough on any of those fellows to arrest him. You can't take that fellow's story at its face value. Yeah, if we know one thing about Phil, it's that not a soul on this fucking earth

believes the shit that comes out of his mouth. No. Not a soul. The thing was, it was kind of like a half truth because there were a lot of people involved in this extortion ring. This motherfucker must have lied to say it's the boy who cried wolf because it's like, you're not totally lying here, but not a soul believes you. That's the thing.

They never will. We won't. But there was also no evidence to support his claims of a Grinns conspiracy either to kidnap Virginia or frame him for murder. It's clear now though that what Phil and his attorney were most likely trying to do was leverage the sensationalism and the rumors around the case in order to lay their groundwork for the defense. Yeah, definitely. The well-to-do gang story had the potential to create to lay their groundwork for the defense. Yeah, definitely.

The well-to-do gang story had the potential to create enough doubt to win an acquittal, and if that didn't work, A. Flint Moss could still use the story to support an insanity defense. Yeah, it's a smart strategy. Yeah, you gotta give credit where credit's due, I guess. In early January, Phil presented five handwritten notes in coded language, which he implied were further evidence of a conspiracy. The notes really just seemed like nonsense, but they supported the defense's increasingly obvious plan

to submit an insanity defense. A. Flint Moss told the press, I have not seen the notes, but Phil told me about them Sunday, in a way that indicated he was boasting of his shrewdness. As far as I've been able to learn, these notes contain nothing incriminating." And then he went on to speculate, the notes strengthened rather than weakened the defense's theory that Phil Kenimer was unbalanced. Okay.

Just really going for it. The defense team did the best that they could to stall the fast approaching trial, but aside from winning a change of venue, they were unsuccessful at delaying the inevitable. The press meanwhile continued their intense focus on the case, touting it as the sensation of the decade and without a doubt the most sensational trial in Tulsa for a decade or more. Wow. Like, that's crazy.

Now, rather than focusing on the facts of the case and without any new information, the press coverage shifted towards the members of the prosecution and defense teams and their histories of having faced one another in court before. Like that was kind of the new story, which is really less interesting to me. But Phil's defense team was being led by his primary attorney, you know, A. Flint Moss. You know A. Flint Moss. You know that guy. You know him. But also included other well-known and widely respected lawyers who had taken on the case as a favor to his dad, Judge Kennemer. Among them, none stood out more than C.B. Stewart.

We have more initials. Look at C. A formal federal judge from the quote unquote territorial days who had more than 50 years experience practicing law. Given the highly notable players involved, reporters and spectators eagerly anticipated a very exciting trial. Phil's trial began on February 11, 1935 at the district of Pawnee, Oklahoma. Shut the fuck up.

We're in Pawnee, baby. Except it's a different Pawnee. I know. But it's still Pawnee. It's still Pawnee. I was so But it's still Pawnee. Oklahoma. I was so excited to say that. That's exciting. So great. But as far as spectators' expectations were concerned, it did not disappoint. It was very rich with flowery, dramatic rhetoric, notable witnesses. The trial was a theatrical display that dominated headlines across the state

and actually even around the country at this point in time. When opening statements finally began on February 13th, things had settled a little bit in the courtroom and it appeared like a lot of drama had ended. In his opening statement, prosecutor Tom Wallace laid out the state's fairly straightforward case to the jury. He said Phil Kenemar had initially agreed to engage in an extortion plot and kidnapping of his former girlfriend, which I'm like, can you even really call her that? You really can't. They went on a few dates. But he said after a change of heart and a

failed attempt to bring the plot to an end, he murdered his former friend John and more or less admitted that to the police upon his surrender. And investigators had collected sufficient evidence and testimony that supported this version of events. While everything seemed to be on track, within about an hour the courtroom was thrown into disarray when one of the state's first witnesses, apartment owner Edna Harmon, told the judge she, quote, didn't want to testify because threats had been made against her. This is wily. It's wily as fuck.

After hearing Harmon's statement, A. Flint Moss jumped out of his chair and shouted, that's not the reason she's afraid. That's such an A. Flint Moss thing to do. He said that she's not scared because of that. No way. I know this guy. As the owner of a building where Phil Kenamar had supposedly rented a room, Harmon told the police initially that she overheard Phil talking about the murder with another young man, and that's why she was called as a witness.

Her statement about being threatened though came as a shock to the defense and the prosecution, with Moss demanding that a mistrial be declared and accusing the prosecution of hiring her to lie on the stand. He said, I can prove by a Tulsa attorney that she tried to sell us testimony in another case. I can show you the letter she asked us for as much as $2,500. Shut the fuck up, Edna. So after sending the jury out of the courtroom, the judge ultimately regained order and her

statements were stricken from the record, but no mistrial was declared. They said, Edna, get out of here. They said, Edna, get out of here. You're not allowed in court anymore, girl. What the hell, Edna? You got to go, babe. You got to have her court anymore, girl. What the hell, Edna? You got to go, babe. You got to have her name on a list or something.

Seriously, not allowed to testify. So though it didn't derail the trial, as many would have expected it would, Edna's dramatic claim of threats being made against her and her family and the uproar it caused in the courtroom set the tone for the trial. Where everybody seemed to be determined to give the biggest performance under of their lives while they were testifying.

It's like they're still in the twenties in the thirties. Yeah, it's like still very twenties. It's very like that. That's very twenties. I don't know. Just like that. You do one. What is it?

What kind of thing am I doing? Just a sound effect of the twenties. You do one. Just like that. You do one. What is it? What kind of thing am I doing? Just a sound effect of the 20s. What people did. So of the 20s, I feel like it would be jazz. Jazzy. Like, there you go. Okay.

Yeah, I like it. Now, under no obligation to establish a motive, Holly Anderson and the prosecution rested their case without really ever explaining why they believed Phil had killed John. They were just like, he just did. I don't know. He did it. We know that. He admitted it. Yeah, he said he did. Now, while the prosecution didn't have any theories as to motive, the defense absolutely did. In one witness after another, Flint Moss probed into Phil's history, providing many

examples of strange behavior going back as far as childhood, all in an attempt to sell their belief that, although he had murdered John Goral, he had only done so because of profound mental illness. It feels intense. It is. From his position behind the defendant's table, Phil leered at his former friends as they testified, many on behalf of his insanity defense, and occasionally shouted at them before being brought back

into line by the judge or his attorneys. Which sounds like he's leaning into that as well. When I said everyone was giving a performance of their lifetime, I meant absolutely everybody. But testifying for the defense, Franklin Kenimer told the jury about his son's difficult social history, the many times he'd run away, and all the other trouble that Phil had caused his parents starting when he was very, very young.

Yeah, it sounds like he's just, he's a troublemaker. Yeah, I don't think he's criminally insane. Troubled kid, I think he's just troubled. Exactly. Insane. But I think he knew the difference between right and wrong. But as an example of Phil's bizarre and erratic thinking, Judge Kennemer told the court, on some occasions when he was moody and depressed, he thought the French Foreign Legion would be a good place to be banished from decent

society. Virginia Wilcox herself also testified on Phil's behalf, emphasizing what she and many others felt was Phil's obsession with her and his unwillingness to let go of their relationship. Also, have you seen the picture of her? Have I seen her? She is, I mean, she's a vision. Oh damn, she's gorgeous. She's beautiful.

Yeah, she's really pretty. I get why he was obsessed. She's beautiful. She really is. I feel like Phil would have been like a pretty normal looking dude if he wasn't so wily. Yeah, I mean, he's definitely not for me.

He's not for Virginia. Yeah, he wasn't for Virginia. No. Virginia's a beauty. She wasn't so wily. Yeah. I mean, he's definitely not for me. He's not for Virginia. Yeah. He wasn't for Virginia. Virginia is a beauty. She wasn't into it. No, and she was very clear with him. That's the other thing. She didn't, she's telling him along the way. She was kind, but she was direct and said, it's not happening. I'd like to be friends. And he would not let it go. That's fucked up. That is fucked up. But while the behaviors described by many witnesses who had known Phil well, almost certainly sounded bizarre and supported the defense's assertion of mental illness, what they lacked was any testimony or documentation from any psychological evaluations that confirmed Phil's supposed insanity. Like everybody up there that knew him could be like, yeah, he's fucking

crazy, but they don't have a degree in this shit. Exactly. You can say anyone's crazy. Exactly. He's fucking crazy. But they don't have a degree in this shit. Exactly. You can say anyone's crazy. Exactly. Phil had been evaluated. He actually had been evaluated by several psychologists in the months leading up to the trial.

And only one famed psychologist, Dr. Carl Menninger, was willing to testify that Phil was, quote, mentally ill, irrational, and believed his own omnipotence on the night he killed Goral. However, before Dr. Menninger could answer when directly asked whether he believed Phil was insane, the prosecution successfully objected, arguing that the doctor, having not heard the full extent of the evidence, couldn't possibly know that fact. In fact, when he was cross-examined by the defense, the doctor admitted, were it not for the fact that Phil had killed someone, he probably wouldn't say he was mentally ill.

See? That's the thing. That's the one thing you can say that you can't pinpoint into a rational mind. Exactly. So after nearly two weeks of sensational testimony and dramatic court romantics, the jury retired for deliberation a little after noon on February 22nd with the judge's instruction that they could either find Phil Kenamur guilty of manslaughter or Guilty of first-degree murder the latter of the two likely resulting in his execution After nine hours of deliberation The jury returned to the courtroom that evening to announce their verdict that Phil Kenamur was guilty on the first-degree

Manslaughter I had a feeling that was going to happen. Yep, of John Goral Jr. When the verdict was read, the court erupted in excitement with several spectators applauding the decision. Although they had encouraged the jury to find Kenamor guilty of first degree murder, when asked of his opinion on the result, Holly Anderson, the prosecutor, told reporters the state of Oklahoma is entirely satisfied. Yeah, like he's still being punished for what he did.

Court resumed the next day for sentencing, and Judge Hurst sentenced Phil to 25 years in prison. Damn. In his closing statement, he addressed the sensationalism and controversy surrounding the case, particularly the frequent insinuation and assertions from the defense that the case was being pursued as a vendetta

against Phil's father. What? It's like, no. No. The case is being pursued as a vendetta against Phil's father. What? It's like, no. No. The case was being pursued because a man died. And because he admitted to doing it. Exactly. But the judge said,

it was suggested that the state wants to punish you to injure your father. It was also suggested that you might not be given the same trial as anyone else. In my idea, the son of a federal judge and the son of a peasant should be treated alike. Yeah? When asked for a statement, Phil shook hands with several reporters and said,

"'So far as the closing statement of Judge Hurst is concerned, it was fair. I deeply regret the occurrence of this tragedy, not in its ultimate effect on me, but its effect on the innocent parties involved, my family and that of Goral.' As for his opinion of the prosecution, he said, gentlemen for the state are no gentlemen. I mean, I don't agree with you. You also just talk shit about your own dad. Yeah, like so... What?

Okay. You're like, hmm. Now, immediately after the trial, Phil's defense team filed several appeals for motions for a new trial, but they were all rejected and the original verdict was upheld by higher courts. Yeah, it feels fair. It feels fair to me too. I agree.

In his early years at McAllister Prison, now known as Oklahoma State Penitentiary, Phil tried multiple times to get parole, but he was unsuccessful. Finally, in 1938, he successfully lobbied Governor E.W. Marland for a temporary parole of six months, during which he was confined to his parents' home in Arizona to spend time with his mother, who was dying at that point. After Lily Canamar had passed away, Phil again tried to get his temporary parole extended. But by then the state had a new and much less sympathetic governor who denied the request.

It must be so much worse to come out and then go back and then have to be go back, have to be go back in. I just said, well, have to be go back in is the worst. We didn't have coffee. I need another coffee. But yeah, I agree with you. Yeah, to have to go back in after being out. Yeah, that'd be rough. That would be so hard, I feel. Now, Phil appealed to the governor's office again in 1943. And this time he was successful at winning parole on the condition that he would join the military and be sent to the front lines to fight in World War II. He accepted that condition and ultimately became a paratrooper with the C battalion of the 460 field artillery, 517th

battalion regimental combat team. After the invasion of Normandy in the summer of 1944, his battalion parachuted into France on August 15th, 1944, during which Phil and another soldier were shot down by Nazi machine gun fire. Whoa. Just before, so he died, like fighting in World War II. Holy shit, I didn't see that coming. Yeah, crazy turn, it just gave me chills.

But just before being sent to Europe, he gave a statement to a reporter from the Tulsa World where he said, "'Something just seems to tell me that I won't come back. I hope that if I die that those who have condemned me will hold me differently in their memories.'" Whoa. Yeah.

And that is the end. Wow. That gives you the chills. It does. Like that's a wild end. It was a wild case through and through because when I started reading it, I was like, oh my God, they're going to go after Virginia. And like, I ultimately thought that something was going to happen to her. That's what I thought this was going.

You're glad nothing happened to her. Yeah. And like, you don't see that coming. You didn't want anything bad to happen to anybody. Yeah. Yeah. It was a wild one. Wow.

Yeah. Old timey. These kids, these purge kids. These wealthy rich elite kids are the judges and that kind of thing. With the masks and the white dresses, you know. Skipping outside your house on purge night. It's these kids. It's these kids, I tell you. Wow. Yeah. Crazy one. So yeah, we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that you do anything like this because, oh my God, don't hire extortion people and don't hear about extortions and not stop them and get into cars and hurt people. And yeah, don't do any of that.

And don't be the kind of person where when you actually do something bad and you're like, hey, everybody, I did something bad, you've lied so much that no one believes you. Yeah, just stop lying. Just don't do bad things and don't lie. So people believe you. Please. I'm sorry. If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey.