My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - 277 - Live at the Fox Theatre in Detroit, MI (2019)

Episode Date: June 3, 2021

On this week’s former Fan Cult exclusive, Karen and Georgia cover the Rattle Run Church murder and the murder of Tina Biggar. 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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Starting point is 00:00:00 This is exactly right. We at Wondery live, breathe, and downright obsess over true crime. And now we're launching the ultimate true crime fan experience, Exhibit C. Join now by following Wondery, Exhibit C, on Facebook and listen to true crime on Wondery and Amazon Music. Let's see, it's truly criminal. Hello and welcome to my favorite murder. We have an announcement to make.
Starting point is 00:00:47 We are so excited to tell you we're going to take a break for the summer. We're going to go on a small vacation after five years, yes, an actual, an actual vacation. We appreciate your support in advance. It is much needed. We're just, we've been podcasting through a pandemic and we're done doing that for a little while. So we're going to take a summer vacation. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:01:13 You guys have been actually telling us to do this through thick and thin. You guys have been like, take a break. So we hope you have a great summer. We're going to take a little time to ourselves and we will see you back here pretty soon. And until that time, stay sexy and don't get murdered. Goodbye. What's up, Detroit? Yay!
Starting point is 00:01:32 Holy shit. Fucking. Did everybody come? It's crazy. Mitten murdering out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:01:40 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:01:48 Yeah. Mitten murdering out. Wow. Yay! My god. This is the first place anyone ever gave us red flag. Yes. The original red flag.
Starting point is 00:02:08 So smart because now we demand them and if we don't get them we're real mean about it. met at the meet and greet and she came through with one that was like really nice felt or something and hand stitched and I fucking grabbed it out of her hand and she was like I'm not giving that to you. I just brought it. I made her give it to me. I forced her into it. Oh, this is the most beautiful theater we've ever done. Historic. Some might say historic. Yeah. You know you're up for a treat when you walk backstage and there's just a giant photo of Liza Minnelli. Oh shit. Yeah. It's on. It's
Starting point is 00:02:57 scrappening. That's why we have to get that song and dance done. Damn it. We keep talking about it. But really, right now there should be a spotlight. Okay, like this. Tear our dresses off. Just wearing weird kick pants. What if we tear our dresses off and you're wearing this dress under that. And I'm wearing this dress under that. Yes. And it just keeps going on and on for three hours. We should not be working out these ideas in front of the audience. Shit. They will not be surprised. Take a note of those. Yeah, please cut that out. Steven. This is Steven's flag. Because it's green like a dinosaur. Oh my God. There's fucking ushers and it's actual suits. Or did they just come dressed like that? He might
Starting point is 00:03:52 be an audience member. I don't know. Then he pulls his suit off and he has half my dress and half your dress on. Sorry, I forgot. Spreading the news. High five. Yes. That's what I got into this business for. Yes. Interactive theater. Okay, we'll put this in Steven's file. That we forget backstage. No. He's not here tonight, though. Sorry. We know. He's been texting us today, though, from Niagara Falls. He found. Yeah, there's a Margaritaville in Niagara Falls that Steven found. I'm not kidding. It was like 1130 this morning when he was like, guys, there's a Margaritaville. Then I think he got drunk and started texting us because it was like, did they have poutine here? You're in Canada, Steven. Of course they
Starting point is 00:04:55 have poutine. It's not in Canada. What? Yes it is. Niagara Falls. One side of it is. It's both. Oh, fucking thank God. I was like, they're about to kill me. They're about to kill me live on stage. Did you hear me? I'm going to have to jump on that guy's back and get out of here. Emergency exit style. I said, Steven was like, they should, no, Steven said I'm going to get really drunk and then go over the falls in a barrel. And I said, if that Margaritaville doesn't serve their drinks and barrels, they're doing something wrong. Wouldn't you drink so many more? Yes. Like Moscow mules? It isn't anything cute. A little barrel with like a lady in it? Come on. I love that. And if you swallow the lady, it's good
Starting point is 00:05:45 luck. Yeah. And you start to hallucinate and shit. Because the lady's made of acid? That's right. And then he sent us a photo of him in front of Niagara Falls and I said, oh, I hope you put a tarp on your mustache, which I thought was hilarious, but neither of them reacted to it. No. Don't you hate that? At that point, I was like, I don't feel like talking to Steven anymore. And I don't have to. I pay him. I'm just kidding. I actually really have to every day. Oh, this is my favorite murder of the podcast. Hi. Thank you. This is Karen Kalgarov. Thank you. This is Georgia Hartster. May I recognize her? That's Eminem, everybody. Eminem is here. Marshall Mathers just arrived front row. He pulls off his dress and what's
Starting point is 00:06:45 underneath it? Kim Basinger. Yeah. Oh, right. I get it. Because, okay, his drug, his drug addled mother from the Filmate Mile. I got it. Keep up. It was a deep cut. But I'm there with you. 100%. Oh, this, you might know this already, but this, we have an official announcement for the, for the podcast. Going forward, SSDGM now stands for, did you hear? It's a major change. It's a major change. You got to get with it. Get hip to God. High five the Lord. This is one of the best stories we've ever heard. A woman is walking, I can't remember. I want to say the airport, but that's where we were. And so that's my brain works. They were all right next to me when it happened. She sees a woman with an SSDGM shirt. So she
Starting point is 00:07:46 runs up and goes, are you a murderer now? As you're supposed to do. You just scream it. As you all well know. And the woman is like, I don't know. She said, the, the post said she looked at me like I had 45 heads. And then the woman tells her, I don't know what you're talking about. My daughter said that this stood for stay saved. Do God's missions. Best daughter ever. Who is that girl? Who is she? She's our new best friend. We must find her. She's replacing Steven. She's a super genius. Oh my God. Lying to your mother is my favorite party trick. It's so good. There's something in that too where it's like, mom, I need to borrow the car. Yeah. You said you wanted to borrow one of my shirts. I can't,
Starting point is 00:08:42 that part doesn't work yet, but I'm going to make it work. Yeah. And then, but the justification is she had to use Christ to trick her mother into wearing one of our shirts. It's a good little like, do you ever do things like when you're a kid that they'll never know about? And it's just like a fuck you to your parents. Like I was sitting the table once and I like, I think I licked my mom's fork and then put it on her face. Well, now you, yeah, a burst of power. Just a little, you take that power if you can. That's right. I drove the car when I was 12. That's what I did. I just, my parents went away for the weekend and my sister started crying. She's like, you can't do it. And I'm like, I'm going to do it. And
Starting point is 00:09:28 I drove the Volvo like half a block and only then realized, Oh, I have to figure out how to turn it around and get it back to the house. I have that dream all the time where I can't steer a car. It's just exactly like that. It's, yeah, I lived it. It's so intense in real life. Tell us about your outfit. Oh, if you feel like it. Oh, this, this old thing sponsored by Land's End. I bought this dress. Well, first I'll tell you this. I thought I'd be responsible and finally go replace the Spanx tights I've been wearing for what seems like 10 years. My tour tights I like to call them. Just wash them and throw them in the drawer. Keep on pulling them out. Well, let's be, that's a key element. But I finally was
Starting point is 00:10:23 like, I need to get new ones and I'll, and I'll get a new body shape or wall in there. I'll just go and like clean out the Spanx aisle. That's what I get to that's, that's my power. And what I ended up doing is not kind of not paying attention. I think I was texting you at the time and doing other stuff, not really focusing. And what I ended up doing was getting these, what are they called? They look like the shorts that those weird bicyclists wear on the weekend. That's what I have under this dress. They go like from here to here. But then they're also kind of rolling down, but they've pushed a lot of my back fat up. So I have, I have back cleavage right now. Yeah. It feels, what, woo, great. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:11:15 The one thing that's saving me is, of course, this dress has pockets. Sorry. I tried to give you a plaque to put on your, I'm so sorry. Okay, keep going. Thanks. I just let my back cleavage. Thank you. The thing to do when you're really self-conscious about something backstage is, and then you get freaked out about it is to directly point it out in front of an entire fucking. I wanted to say it before we said what's up, Detroit, but Georgia was like, can you just hold on that for four minutes? Let me, okay, we're going to start with back cleavage. Can we go into that my boobs aren't big enough for this vintage dress? And some like really great, like some vintage woman, old woman, I don't know, woman from the past.
Starting point is 00:12:09 She's dead. She's dead for sure. Okay. But here, here it is. A little bit like a clown, like a circus tent. I love it. I know I love it too. I don't know why. I think it reminds me of Mary Tyler Moore. It's really good. Yes. Oh, I think you need to feature, though, the most important thing you've brought here to Detroit. Oh, my peeling sunburn? Yes. Thank you. It's in the peeling phase. The hotel, the lotion that they have at the hotel, my legs laughed at it and kicked it out of the room. Oh, this isn't going to do anything. Your sunburn bullied the lotion. Wow. Yeah, it's pretty. Tell them what else, what else about our hotel? Oh, this is real. I actually, and this is how I found that because I was like,
Starting point is 00:13:02 what if I went to the gym? Oh, what if I did that? And I was like, you can't. I could. No one knows me here. I can put my hair in a topknot and go to the fucking gym like one of those people. So I was like, entertaining that idea. So I took out the little book and I'm going through the amenities and I'm not finding a gym. And at one point I think they don't have one. I'm like, that's so fucking badass Detroit just to not offer a gym in any ways. Very. Take a walk around the block. Yeah. Live your fucking life. As I'm going through page by page, I find that this particular hotel offers a podcast studio. We've hit peak hipster. What the fuck? Then I'm like, I'm going to call down the front desk and
Starting point is 00:13:57 be like, do you have to get a room to use the podcast studio? Or could I roll in from the other side of town and just start my bug and dinosaur podcast if I wanted to? What are the rules and regulations? How big is it? Is it just a zoom with a mic in the corner of like where the printer is? Like what? Some guys on his computer on the hotel computer while you're trying to podcast. Yeah, sir. He's like, this is the business center. Sorry. It's a podcast studio. Anyway, Temptation Island this season is insane. Uh, should we sit down? Do you want to? Sure. Might as well. This is a nice chair. All right. Oh, it's cushy. Yeah. I might take this back to the podcast studio tonight. What do you think they
Starting point is 00:14:51 have there to sit on? Oh, beanbags. You know, it's loud, crunchy beanbags. Beanbags. Great for podcasting. This spank is really doing something here. Feel it. Oh, do you want to talk? Do we still do that? Yeah. Um, what's up, balcony? We respect you. I said that. Thank you. Thanks for being here and thanks for climbing all those stairs. Good people. Here's some of you in here tonight who have brought others. We'll just call them others against their will. I think one of those people is probably Vince's sister's husband. Yeah. I can imagine your brother-in-law. Yes. I'll do the family math on that one. Yeah, there are people in this room as many of us know who have no idea what's going on right now.
Starting point is 00:15:57 They're just like, well, there's two girls with flags who are proud of pockets. We don't know. We're not sure. They're texting other people. What the fuck? How much money did they pay for this? And, you know, when you read it in the newspaper, we've had some misunderstandings in the past, by the way. Some of our favorites are people thinking it's a murder mystery play. It's not. No, it isn't. Um, the two old ladies, uh, or, I don't know, middle-aged, I'm not sure what their age was. Some women in Texas who thought that it was the sequel to the Phantom of the Opera? It kind of is. No, it is. Yeah. You're gonna find out what happens tonight. They have a baby and they moved to the suburbs.
Starting point is 00:16:51 He never takes that mask off. What if he takes the mask off and underneath? No, I won't do that anymore. He takes the mask off and both of our dresses are underneath it. Um, so anyway, it's a true crime comedy podcast. And for people who don't listen to the podcast and don't know us or know our personalities, some people get very offended by that concept because murder, there's one of them. Um, murder is the worst thing that can happen to a human being or human beings family and comedy doesn't seem to have any place in that. But if you listen to the podcast, you know that those things actually run parallel to each other because, uh, that's the way George and I interact with each other. But we also love to talk
Starting point is 00:17:32 about this horror show of our world, um, in the, in the area of true crime. So essentially all I'm trying to say is if you find that concept offensive, you can get the fuck out right now. Give us a chance, brother-in-law. Give us a chance. Walk out in 20 minutes. Yes. We're 10. You're going to get a beer going out with Vince backstage. I respect that. If you Irish goodbye asked during the show, I would love it. That's my whole jam. Yeah. Leaving places inappropriately. Whoa. Okay. Um, do you go first or do I go first? I believe it's me. I think so too. But we just have to get these flags just right. Yeah. There we go. Look at this. I know. It's fancy. It's like a race car, uh, control. That,
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Starting point is 00:19:10 So I can't wait to get back in the kitchen and Hello. Fresh makes it so easy and also makes it so that my food tastes good, which is hard to do on my own. It gives you everything, everything you need. So get up to 20 free meals with purchase plus free shipping on your first box at hellofresh.ca slash murder 20 with code murder 20. That's up to 20 free meals plus free shipping on your first box when you go to hellofresh.ca slash murder 20 and use code murder 20. Goodbye. Hey, I'm Arisha and I'm Brooke and we're the hosts of Wondery's podcast, Even the Rich, where we bring you absolutely true and absolutely shocking stories about the most famous families and biggest celebrities the world has ever
Starting point is 00:19:52 seen. Our newest series is all about the incomparable diva, Whitney Houston, Whitney's voice defined a generation and even after her death, her talent remains unmatched, but her incredible success hit a deeply private pain. In our series, Whitney Houston, Destiny of a diva will tell you how she hid her true self to make everyone around her happy and how the pressure to be all things to all people led her down a dark path. Follow Even the Rich wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. The story I'm going to tell everybody tonight happened a long, long, long, long time ago. It's the murder in the rattle run Methodist Church. What did you guys do? Never heard
Starting point is 00:20:41 of it. Not one fucking person has heard of it. And there's a bunch of pissed off Methodists in here right now. They're just like, uh-uh, uh-uh. I mean, when are they not though? Let's be honest. I don't know a single Methodist at all. Oh, you've got to meet Methodists. They're hilarious. Is it down here? All right. So this is where we're talking about. Is this the... Where is it, Adna? I don't know. I don't do the mitten thing. It's none of my business. I'm from California. It looks like this. We did... Pontiacs over here somewhere. All right. Anyhow, the city rattle run... Rattle run? Yeah. Okay. Yeah? Yeah. It doesn't exist anymore. Okay, great. It was really just a very tiny town. Okay. Um,
Starting point is 00:21:34 but there is an unincorporated community in the western part of St. Clair township called Rattle Run. All 6,423 citizens of St. Clair are here tonight. Let's hear it for the township of St. Clair. I actually looked on St. Clair's website. Oh, they have a website? They sure do. It's great. All the pictures are from a Christmas party they had at some point. Oh, my God. And then there was a picture of their Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus, and that... It looked so much like the real Santa Claus that I started going, that would be amazing if the real Santa Claus just lived in Michigan. Just no one would ever catch him. He looks like everybody else. It's the last place you... He looks like everybody else in that room
Starting point is 00:22:25 where they took the picture. Yeah. It's amazing. I was just like, this is... Like, I can't figure out if this is a mystery comedy movie I'm gonna write or a historical biopic. Either way, get ready. Get ready. What am I talking about? I hate going first. Okay. You really gotta kick it open. Rattle Run is listed in Alan Naldret's book, Lost Towns of Eastern Michigan. There's a whole fucking book? Jesus, guys. Yeah. You lose your towns all the time. So many towns lost in this state. It's tragic. When it's like... When it's here, it's like... But I don't know if it's up here or it's here. It just kind of... It floats. It floats away. It's pity. To the UP. Did anyone carpool here from the UP tonight? Thank you. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:23:21 Did anyone bring us any venison from the UP? I like to do local jokes. Local jokes get you local work. That's the old saying in stand-up comedy. Thank you. Heading up to the UP after this to do a week at some casino. Okay. I'm really starting now. I swear to God. I wish you wouldn't. Keep going. Rattle Run was given their first post office or their only post office in 1876. It closed in 1907. Okay. Wait. It opened in 1976? No, it sure didn't. It closed in 19... Girl, 1876. Got it. Did I say 19? Probably not. Okay. I heard it, though. You heard it. That's right. So they couldn't handle a post office. Something to take into consideration as I tell you this story. Two years later, after the post office was officially
Starting point is 00:24:22 taken away from them by the government, what did stay open was the Rattle Run Methodist Church. Looks like a church. Looks like Amityville Horror. The church. The church. This church was presided over by the right reverend John H. Carmichael. Let's see if I did this in the right order. There he is. Oh, is he on a dollar bill? Oh, God. It looks like a... Oh, it's a playing card. You know how the Methodists like to have playing cards of all their reverend. Of all your favorite reverends around? Seeking gamble with them. Eastern Michigan. They're great for gambling. It's called Lost Cities of Eastern Michigan Card Game. That was a bad improvisation. All right. The Reverend Carmichael moved from Nebraska to St. Clair
Starting point is 00:25:25 County in 1899. And after he moves there, he does so well in the community that 10 years later, by 1906, he's the pastor at three nearby Methodist churches. He allowed to do that in glorious bastard style. Three Methodist churches. I guess so. It was like his car dealership, but God. The churches were in Rattle Run, Adair, and China. Did someone just stab that girl in the leg? She's the China's proudest citizen. Biggest communist. Okay. The Reverend John Carmichael lives in Adair with his wife and their three children. Yeah. Hey, dear. Who cares? There she is. There she is. This is John H. Carmichael. Doesn't have a first name. That's how they did it back then. It's actually John is her first name. For real.
Starting point is 00:26:37 John John. They called her Johnny and then him Reverend. The Rev. Reverend run. Okay. So let's get down to them. On the morning of January 5th, 1909, the 56 year old Reverend Carmichael tells his wife, John, that he has to go down to the church in Rattle Run to arrange some revival services. So he's got buckets of water. I don't know. He's water boarding people at the church. Why? That seems against God. She watches her husband right away from their home in his horse and buggy, and she has no idea that she will never see him again. And perhaps even more frightening. She has no idea that she does not have a first name. Okay. Cut to a couple hours later. A guy named Myron Brown is waiting in the cold
Starting point is 00:27:46 outside. So that church that you saw is actually sitting at a crossroads in the creepiest way possible. It's in the corner of this plot of land. And then Rattle Run Road is here. And then some other road I can't remember the name of is over here. Sure. And there's a guy standing there waiting to meet the devil I would imagine, which is what you do at a crossroads. He's waiting and waiting and waiting, but it's freezing cold again. It's January. So he decides he's going to go into the church and warm up while he waits. And as he approaches the church, he sees that both church doors are just kind of flapping open. And he's like, that's weird. That's creepy. And feels creepy. Yeah. Remember the church picture. Oh, I should
Starting point is 00:28:34 say this. Billy Jensen, our friend Billy Jensen is the person who suggested this murder. Cool. Yeah. But I got most of the really good information on a website called Kevin McQueen Stories, K-E-V-E-N McQueen Stories. This person wrote out this story and I was like, it's going to be so hard not to steal every line for it's so well written. And the whole website Kevin McQueen Stories is like weird, old, historical creepy shit. So definitely go there and check it out. Okay. So this man, Myron Brown, is waiting at the crossroads to try to play the guitar better, vis-a-vis the devil. And so he goes inside. I said that part of it. Oh, other versions of this story say that it's the church caretaker who walked up
Starting point is 00:29:26 on the church and found it. I like that one better. What if we say Myron Brown was the caretaker? Okay. We just combine every story, like some websites do. Okay. Either way, we'll never know. Like Mrs. Carmichael's first name. We'll never know what really happened. Okay. So he goes inside and he sees that most of the church is covered in blood. Oh, no. Yes. Wait, is it always like that? No, no, no, no. No, thank you. I've never been in a Methodist church before. Oh, yeah. I should have explained this to you. These aren't blood sacrifice people at all. Okay. Fuck, that's creepy as shit. Yeah. So it's splattered everywhere. There's a bloody trail of footsteps up the aisle. Don't follow them. Don't go up there.
Starting point is 00:30:18 Toward the pulpit, the church organ had been splintered from what looked like repeated blows from an axe. Oh my God. There were also pools of blood in the back behind all the pews. And there were wood burning stoves in the back of the church. And then there was one to the house left of the pulpit in the front of the church. And if you're a theater person, you know what I'm talking about. And there's a terrible smell. Yeah, I bet. Right. Both wood burning stoves are lit and burning. I know what's going to happen. Poor Myron. He's standing there like, I just wanted to learn to play the guitar. Yeah, it's all right. And then the devil walked in and was like, what the fuck? This sucks. I would never
Starting point is 00:31:08 do this. Even I think this is too much, especially for Methodists. Okay. So Myron sends for Sheriff Wagonsell, who is in Port Huron. You guys have the best sheriffs. How did he send for him? We're not sure. It is four hours away walking. Okay. So I imagine that he flagged down a very small child and said, you have to go do it. Yeah. Stop bailing hay or whatever manual labor job you have, eight year old, and go run to Port Huron and get the sheriff. Then run back and continue and then bailing six more hours on that job. Someone's got to get cornbread on the table or whatever they used to eat in 1909. Okay. I also wrote maybe he attached a message to a falcon's foot. I waste so much time when I'm supposed to
Starting point is 00:32:11 be actually telling, that's why I never know what the date is or how to pronounce fucking anything because I'm like, what is this? Okay. Either way, the sheriff comes. Okay. At some point, that's what Sheriff Wagonsell was like. He would show up. So they begin to investigate the scene and they follow what are very bizarre and seemingly misshapen footprints up that aisle and to that wood burning stove. That's burning. They throw some water in on the fire and the first thing they find is a hatchet head and with no, the like arm of the hatchet is burned, but the hatchet head is in there. And then they find a big old piece of human skull as well as as well as as well as part of a torso, a jaw bone, some false teeth and
Starting point is 00:33:11 a stick pin. Oh, no. This is in a church, inside a church. There is another part of the torso and other parts of the body in that back wood burning stove. Now, the sheriff's told that the right Reverend John H. Carmichael, I am calling him that. I don't know if that's what you're supposed to call him, but it's, I think I heard it somewhere. So I'm calling him the right Reverend. He's nowhere to be found. And both the caretaker or Myron and the sheriff are really afraid that that's who is in these fires. And right, what it is, right? So the caretaker notices that all the oil lamps in the church, they had normally been kind of low. And recently the Reverend had told him, you need to fill up all these
Starting point is 00:34:04 oil lamps, which he had done in the past, in the recent past, like the last couple days. And he looks around and sees that they're once again really low. And they realize that whoever was in there took all the oil lamp oil in the oil lamps through it on the fire so that they could actually cremate the body parts that were in each. So this, it was someone who knew what they were doing. Yeah. They also bail out. For some reason, this creeps me out the most. They bail out the well that's in the front of the church to see if they can find any clues. That means they drained it, right? Yeah. Can you drain a well? No, you got, you just pull that bucket up like 500 times. They got the kid when he came back
Starting point is 00:34:46 right from Port Huron. They're like, there's job number two. Do you want an apple for Christmas or not? They didn't find any clues in there, but there was a girl in a nightgown with long black hair waiting, just waiting. They left her. They left her. It was fine. Okay. So of course, murder inside a church is a huge story, not to mention the added detail of this well known and very well respected Reverend who's now missing and possibly dead. It's all over the newspapers. There's a $500 reward put up to find the Reverend. And the next day, the citizens of Adair, is that what you're supposed to say? They don't even know. Someone in the front row just goes, I don't know. It really is just like a conversation between
Starting point is 00:35:41 the two of us, isn't it? Those citizens notice that Reverend Carmichael is not the only person missing. Another local man named Gideon Browning also cannot be located. Browning is known as a carpenter, a sailor, and a roustabout. Oh dear. He's super fun. Right? He could climb up things and he wears a very blousy shirt. The Reverend had recently hired him to do some carpentry and remodeling inside the church. And so now everyone's like suspect number one. So when police go to talk to the Browning family, they find out that from Browning's nephew that he had overheard Reverend Carmichael promise Gideon Browning another job, one where he wouldn't have to do anything but quote, stand around and smoke cigars. And they find
Starting point is 00:36:32 out from the Reverend's daughter that actually what that means is her father had written a manuscript for a book called The Devil and His Works. And he decided he was going to have Gideon Browning be his book agent. I'm not, I'm not buying it. I mean, it seems odd. Yeah. Roustabout carpenter. Sure. High powered book agent in Port Huron. Now here's the fun surprise when they go to talk to the Reverend John H Carmichael's wife. She tells them or they get it out of her. It's a dirty book. It's body and lusty. Oh my God. And dirty. What is it? The perfect Reverend? What was he called? The right Reverend. The right Reverend is wrong. He is damn wrong. So they talk to Carmichael's wife. I wrote Jane Doe
Starting point is 00:37:29 Carmichael who complains that her husband has written actually a couple what she calls trashy novels. And she told the sheriff, I saw some of his manuscripts once a few sheets. I don't remember what they said, but I felt called on him to tell him that he should not not write such things. She loved it. She fucking loved it. The old prune. Okay. Now several witnesses come forward and tell the sheriff they saw Gideon Browning in the Reverend's company at the train depot the morning of the murders. So apparently Gideon Browning boarded the train to Port Huron and then came back later that day, but he didn't take the train home to Adair. He instead got off at Hickey. Oh, you know Hickey. You got to. And
Starting point is 00:38:22 he inquired of two men which way to the rattle run church. Well, he was there telling each of them that he had an appointment to meet someone there. You know when you're asking directions. So you tell the people exactly what you're doing in the place that you're asking directions to. Do you know the way to the gas station? I'm going to go ahead and get some unleaded. Probably $30 worth. I'm going to want to buy Snickers. This time I'm not going to do it. People just walk away from your car. So at this point, I don't know how this actually happened chronologically, but I would put it here if it was a movie. So I'm going to now someone had the presence of mind to show the stick pin to Mrs. Browning
Starting point is 00:39:08 and ask her if she recognized it and she did. That was her husband's stick pin and her husband had false teeth. It was her husband in the wood burning stove. It was Gideon Browning and now everyone's like, the fucking Reverend. And then someone says, well, that would make sense because the Reverend has something wrong with his gate, like his leg. And when he walks, one of his feet turns out. So that's why the path up to the wood burning stove, the steps looked all fucked up. So he didn't think this thing out at all. No. He didn't go get his fake wooden foot and walk it along like a cane. Like I would have. Okay. So suddenly instead of getting a Browning killing the Reverend, the sheriff realizes, okay, I wrote
Starting point is 00:40:04 that twice. The next day they find the minister's horse tied to a tree in Pine River, 20 miles from the church and on the way to the Grand Trunk Tunnel Depot. Like an abandoned car but eating grass instead. So the police interview a ticketing agent at the depot and he tells them that a bearded man in a large fur coat had bought a ticket to Chicago at 5 a.m. on Wednesday morning. But when they show that agent a picture of the Reverend, he can't positively identify him. But now the story is out. I think I don't know if this picture order is right. Oh, that's Gideon Browning and his wife. Okay. Roused about and his side piece. You can tell what a big fucking deal it was to get your picture taken. If I could
Starting point is 00:40:58 only tell them about selfies, I think it's there. Oh, okay. Here we go. Oh, wait, don't read that. In the newspaper, they actually drew the crime scene. I love this picture so much. You probably balcony. Can you see this? It's, they're like, you mean the little black lines on the white square? They basically showed the path of the footsteps going up the aisle toward the pulpit and up at top left is where the wood burning stove is. Obviously, this is the church. And then there's the haunted well. Okay. Let's see. Oh, that those are the, that's a picture of the bloodstains behind the pews. Yes. That's fucked up. Let's see what this says. Okay. Oh, that's the crossroads. That was, I was supposed to put that earlier.
Starting point is 00:41:59 I had it. This is hurting my neck. Can I tell you, can I tell you something? You know why? Because when I was in the hotel earlier, it was like a shower and I wrapped my head in the towel, my wet hair. And the towel was so heavy, I cricked my neck. Because I'm 100. So let's, we might need to start taking pills of some time. Okay. Don't look at that. Okay. Sorry. Now, where the fuck is that? I missed one. Oh, wait, it's back here. Hold on. You told us not to look at it. I know. Now you got to look at it now. Yay. So the press goes fucking back shit when they find out that the Reverend is the person missing. And they're basically suggesting that it's a blood sacrifice that all the things that we were joking about earlier,
Starting point is 00:42:55 they put in the paper like, this could be it guys. Yeah, you might want to check your neighbors. I bet it is. Dude, I mean, course clue. Oh, the story's out. Reports. Guys, stay with me. Reports start coming in from all over saying the Reverend has been seen in Indiana, Chicago, and Wisconsin. But none of those were verified. So sorry, none were verified. And that's when Mrs. Carmichael reveals to the press that her husband's sister was an inmate in the West Virginia insane asylum. What? Now, did she tell that to the press or was the press lurking under her window one night? Like that doesn't seem like something anyone would share. Did she tell the cops, right? Oh, let's say she told the press. Yeah, but I wrote that. And you know that's not true. If it's from
Starting point is 00:43:51 me. Okay. Basically, it's just seeding doubt. The press is seeding doubt in the entire community that the the Reverend of three major major Methodist churches in the area, they don't know who this guy is. Okay, so on Saturday, January 9th, a man checks into a boarding house in Carthage, Illinois. It's a woman named Miranda Hughes is boarding house. Oh, sure. So apparently, if you marry a Reverend, you disappear. But if you run a boarding house, they know your first and fucking last name and it'll be in every newspaper. Just if anyone's thinking of career change. So the man gives the name John Elder saying that he's in town because he's planning to build a woodworking factory nearby. And on the morning of January 11th, Miranda offers to make this man breakfast. He says no,
Starting point is 00:44:43 thank you. He goes upstairs. He writes one letter to the sheriff. And one, which is 10 pages long, and then a letter to his wife. He goes back downstairs. And he tells Miranda that he's going into the woodworking area. But what he does actually is go out into her shed, take out a pocket knife and slit his throat. The problem is, it's January, the wound isn't bad enough for him to die from immediately. So he lays there and then dies of exposure. Again, let's plan ahead. So now this is the craziest thing. When they get this confession letter, it's his version of everything. And it does turn out that the Reverend Carmichael did have some serious untreated mental illness because he believed that Gideon Browning had hypnotic control over him. In the letter, he
Starting point is 00:45:47 describes how Gideon Browning kept showing up everywhere that he was and telling like and lording over him and making him feel small and acting proud. And it's the weirdest, like the way he writes it out. There's one, at one point he's out in the barn and he says that Browning showed up in the manure hole and began telling him that he had to do what he said. So in this, he says that basically Gideon Browning told him that he was going to get married, that he was separated from his wife. He wanted to get married and he was meeting the Reverend in the church. And then when they met in the church, Browning said, I'm not, he started laughing and said, I'm not getting married and I control you. I have you under my hypnosis. Lift your arm and then in the letter,
Starting point is 00:46:40 he's saying, and then I lifted my arm against my will and then put it back down. And he's basically describing this man, like kind of nonsensically doing all this crazy shit. So one of the quotes was, when he set his eyes upon me in the queerest sort of look, something like the look of a snake's eyes, I felt his influence tightening his grip on my mind. So he's basically going through what is probably a psychotic break, but blaming it on Gideon Browning, who's just the carpenter who's there to fix the church, essentially. So in the letter, he also describes the attack. And he says, by this time, so he's basically after the hypnosis part, by this time I was so alarmed that I was in a cold sweat. I then leaned over to see if anyone might be on the road
Starting point is 00:47:31 when he began to laugh again. And I saw that he was holding a weapon of some sort up his sleeve. How? Instantly, I made a grab for it and got the hatchet from him and asked him what he meant to do with it. And he said, I'll show you. And from his overcoat pocket, he drew out a knife in each hand. Samurai style. Oh, shit. Fuck, this is some samurai shit. This is turning into a fucking Quentin Tarantino movie all of a sudden. This is kill the Revlin Bill Carmichael. He came at me striking with both hands while I backed back to cross the church down the side aisle and across the front. But I did not dare turn about to open the door. Then I threw the hatchet and struck him and he fell just in one one. Then I then I turned to open the door when he grabbed me by the leg
Starting point is 00:48:22 and threw me down where my hands came upon the hatchet. There was a desperate struggle in which I used the hatchet until he laid quiet. I cannot tell all what happened after that. I was wild to dispose of the body I was in a horrible terror. So I began pulling off his garments that I might drag the body away somewhere and hide it. Then when my eyes fell upon one of those knives, I flew into a rage and began to cut him when and then he woke and grabbed me. Oh, then for a while I used that hatchet until I was sure he was dead. So, anyway, when the police so so obviously Miranda calls the police they come and they look through his room and the Reverend they find hypodermic needles in his belongings and they
Starting point is 00:49:18 find needle marks on his arms and apparently he's among other things and possibly this was part of the mental illness he was a morphine addict. So that could have been the hallucinatory idea of like someone's controlling me and they're meeting me everywhere I go. For sure. Three days after Reverend Carmichael's suicide four Detroit physicians performed an autopsy on his body and found that the preacher had suffered from several brain abnormalities. Gideon Browning's widow who lived in Auburn New York stated for the record that her husband had no occult powers and had not been studying hypnotism. Yeah, right. Of course that's what she'd say. Of course she'd say that. She's got first name and everything. You saw her in that dress? Yeah. The New York
Starting point is 00:50:02 Times found the case interesting enough to note editorially that it is impossible to hypnotize someone against his will. Thank you. Just so people knew and impossible to make a hypnotized person do something that he would not ordinarily do. The Rattle Run Methodist Church, the wood burning, oh at the Rattle Run Methodist Church, the wood burning stove was replaced. You gotta hope. Right? And the pews were replaced and the walls were redecorated is the word they used. Let's give it a new theme and make it a little cheerier in here because I don't, flower, like, flower wallpaper? Anything. Anything but blood. We'll go more of a blue. But then, and we can get back to this picture. Oh no. It's horrible. There, 28 years later,
Starting point is 00:50:57 they knocked down that church because everybody stopped going to it. A lot of people blamed Polish Lutheran farmers for moving into the area and taking away that Methodist business. But we all know it was the Unitarians. Come on. And that, I'm so sorry to tell you, is the story of the Rattle Run Methodist Church. Amazing. The Reverend did it. I thought the Reverend was going to end up like having stolen his identity in later date out of town, hoping that they would think he's, I don't know, I planned it more than he did. Please write it down. I will. All right. Okay. Here we go. Oh, thank you. Don't, there, that's what I'm doing. I'm doing the, I thought that was my last one. That's okay. I'm doing the murder of Tina Bigger.
Starting point is 00:52:00 Here, let me show her to you. This is Tina. Sweet baby angel. Okay. 1995, everyone. Tina Bigger. She's 23 years old. She's an honor student majoring in psychology at Oakland University. The screaming. Banshees. Right. That's right. It's in a suburb outside of Detroit called Farmington. Or Farmington Hills. I couldn't figure, they're saying no. Farmington. Okay, great. What about Farmington Meadows? No, we hate that one. That's where the mall is. And I got a lot of information from forensic files episode, a city confidential episode. I fucking love that thing. In a sleepy bird of Farmington. I think I deleted how they explained what Farmington was, but it was like, if Detroit is an angry car zipping through the, you know, speeding, then Farmington is a vintage
Starting point is 00:53:06 bicycle ride. Like it was seriously the most insane thing. And I don't know why. Nothing better. City confidential is truly number one. That's right. Okay. So she's the L list of five. And she's born in South Dakota to a military family. Her dad is a Coast Guard commander. Her mother's a nurse. And of course the family moves around a ton because that's what happens when you're in the Coast Guard apparently. I've never done it. I don't know. But she's super close with her family, of course. That's what happens. And everyone says she's a, her siblings say she's a great big sister. And so she goes to Oakland University for psychology. She lives with her boyfriend Todd in an upscale apartment in Farmington, upscale neighborhood. Who cares? I
Starting point is 00:53:51 mean, okay. So they've been here for a few years before they moved in together and he helped her get a part-time job as a waitress to put herself through school at Rochester chop house, which is like an after party there. She's super popular waitress. They say she always earns the highest tips because people like her immediately. That she could wait on anybody and they would not just like her but the restaurant too and they keep coming back for it. And so she's paying right through school but money is tight. She maxes out her credit cards. She hits rough. Todd is a student at the University of Michigan. Hey and Tina. We're not doing this today, guys. I have to hear it in my own home all the time. He and Tina. He and Tina. Huh? What did you say? He and Tina. Todd and
Starting point is 00:54:50 Tina. He. Oh, God. Sorry. I'm so sorry. I thought you were saying what the name of the mascot was. Oh, no. I skipped that one. Do you want to do it? No. The Fighting Farmingtons? Great. So Todd and Tina, they're on and off again for years. Friends say they're affectionate but their relationship is tumultuous. And the year before it's Tina's fall semester of her junior year in September 1994, Tina had gotten this crazy big opportunity at her college. Only eight students got it to a sister psychology professor in a research project that was about AIDS awareness. It was funded by the CDC and the whole point was to interview sex workers who worked on the street and those who were then incarcerated. So at a detention center near Detroit. So basically
Starting point is 00:55:45 they would go in, they would interview the sex workers and find out their knowledge about STDN AIDS and then they would track them afterwards and follow up on the retention of their information, et cetera. Friends say that she got really committed to the project and that she became close with the sex workers. She was just like a kind person who really enjoyed her work. So she then proposes her honors project of her own entitled Survey of Sexual History and Health Practices Among Women Employed as Escorts. So she wanted to go from the sex workers who worked on the street to actual escorts and see what was this fucking story. But her school professors were like, we're not going to send you out there to do that. That's a no. Okay. So here's where
Starting point is 00:56:37 we are, et cetera. On August 23, 1995, Todd leaves for work that morning. He leaves Tina at home asleep. But when he gets home, she's gone. But all of her car is gone. But all of her personal belongings are gone, including her glasses, which she needs to see, obviously. So Todd's wondering where the hell she is. Where could she be? He calls the chop house and is like, you know, it's Tina there. And they're like, what are you talking about? She quit four months earlier. Yeah. Okay. And he's like, what are you talking about? She washes an iron, irons her waitress outfit all the time and goes to work every day. Maybe not every day. But all the time, what the fuck? This is weird. So Todd waits for her. She doesn't come home. And then
Starting point is 00:57:24 he calls Tina's father Bill, who comes into town to help look for Tina. They do some digging of their own. It's weird. They call the police. And police discover that Tina had been planning to move out of the apartment with Todd that they shared. So that made them suspicious of him. But spoiler alert, it wasn't him. Okay. Police also learned that Tina had found evidence recently that Todd had cheated on her when he discovered the worst of all things, a suggestive greeting card in his drawer. With the most unimaginative affair in the world. Back when you just wanted to go ahead and put it down on paper that you were cheating. Not on paper. You want to go into a fucking hallmark. Go to the I'm having an affair aisle. Yeah, really? What's the
Starting point is 00:58:17 one behind the beads? Right. Back in the corner, the adult cards. That's right. Actually, I'm having a recovered memory of walking home from school one time and we found a bunch of, well, it was like garbage in a ditch. And we loved garbage. We were like little raccoons. And we would just go through that garbage. But one of the things I saw laying there was so stupid. It was basically a guy in a bathtub. And it was like, I use dial soap because dial spelled backwards means happiness, which is laid, like getting laid. And I didn't know that term because I was like eight. So I was like racking my brain. I was just like, what could this be? I was so, I was titillated to a point. And then I just couldn't go any further. Well, you're not supposed to
Starting point is 00:59:15 understand dad jokes at eight. Yeah, greeting card jokes. So I'm slightly sorry. Tina found the evidence that Todd was having the affair. Tina found that evidence like in the past year. And so they were planning on moving, she was going to move out. They were still going to date. But then she didn't come home. So, and people said that Todd and Tina fought all the time, blah, blah, blah. You're supposed to be suspicious that he did it. But I already told you he didn't. Yeah. We're past that part in city confidential. Right. Yes. I mean, clearly, I wrote this. Okay. So Todd is baffled. He doesn't understand where the hell she went. So he starts searching the apartment for clues and he finds a duffel bag he's never seen before.
Starting point is 01:00:00 Opens that fucking shit up and insider condoms, thigh high stockings, lingerie, lube, credit card slips and envelopes addressed to the LA escort service with the name crystal on the upper corner. And so he calls the escort service. They're like, we don't know anyone named Tina Bigger, but we do know who crystal is. And it turns out that it's Tina. He's like, we actually have six crystals here. Crystal C or crystal R. Crystal B or D or L. Crystal with two Ys or crystal with one. Crystal with three Ys. Everyone here is on crystal. So we don't know which crystal is which. It's the 90s. Everyone's on crystal. Okay. So fucking shit. It turns out that way back when she was like, when she was interviewing the sex workers that were locked
Starting point is 01:00:54 up, they were like, honey, you're so hot. And since you're smart, you'd be really good in this business. And she was like, you know, probably curious. But then so it's so hard to tell exactly what happened, obviously, because she can't tell it herself. But she had eventually in late 1994 begun working at the gross point escort service called classical elegance with a rose at the end of it with a tiny crystal at the bottom. Just like in case you weren't sure what it was, just the name crystal was listed at the bottom. And listen, for you little babies, there was no internet. There was no Craigslist back then and escort services that you found like in the paper, right? Really the way that you would discreetly meet up with someone. It was like the free weekly
Starting point is 01:01:39 paper. Yeah. And there would be like, do you want pot? You have to sign up for a medical trial and be injected with weird drugs. And everyone's like, we know that's a cop. We're not falling for it. So then business was slow at classical elegance with a crystal. So she went to LA Dreams and another which is like LA Dreams. That's so sad. If you've been there, you know that it's not a good dream. It's all that dream is traffic and rejection. Yeah. Dream on. Mostly like Inland Empire nightmares. And the other one was called calendar girls, which is a little better. That's for the really old ladies. I saw that movie. All those ladies were 75. And so those two were run by two different sisters. Their name was Debbie and Donna. I'm not going to say
Starting point is 01:02:32 their last name because whatever. We don't want to. These are good women. I mean it. I'm not being okay. Let me tell you why. Okay. Stopping so defensive. Why am I telling the story ahead of times constantly? So Tina became a really popular escort there. She booked as many as 50 appointments between May and August. At one point she earned as much as $250 per appointment, which in today's money is actually $430. Oh wow. Which inflation, man. That shit's crazy. To her bosses, of course, Donna, our friends Donna and Debbie, they said that she was anomaly because of her wholesome appearance and modest dress. You know, she was just a college student trying to make some extra money. And when they asked her why she became an escort,
Starting point is 01:03:21 Tina said, Todd, this is my way of paying him back without him knowing it. Oh, I know. Just break up. Okay. Despite her success though, it schools her top priority. She's still getting great grades and doing really well in school. And she goes home all the time to visit her family. So no one has any idea of her life like that until she disappears. So then when looking into what the fuck's going on, they find out that two weeks before her disappearance on August 11th, 1995, Tina had booked an appointment through LA Dreams with a 42-year-old dude named Ken Tranchita. And he says he's a wealthy businessman. Sure. I think I have a photo of him. Here he is. Right. Okay. Was that Rob Riggle?
Starting point is 01:04:17 That's who's going to play him. Do you know his cousin was my Uber driver in Hawaii? Oh. Rob Riggle's cousin? Very weird. Did you say prove it? Text him right now. Prove it? I didn't. Okay. So this dude Ken, like Tina, he was raised a devout Catholic from a large family. But now he's a drifter and a petty con who can't get a shit together. Between menial jobs, he sponges off his relatives. His stepfather said about him, and this is what you want your stepfather to say about you, he was a great con man. He made everyone feel sorry for him. Stepdads. So he had grown up in Southfield. And between 1981, where nobody lives anymore,
Starting point is 01:05:13 and between 1981 and 1993, he had been convicted of at least seven petty offenses ranging from credit card theft to parole violation. And in total had spent five years and five months in prison. On again, off again, relationship with prison. With prison. Yeah. So he's of course not a wealthy businessman like Tina thinks, but he's currently working at a car wash. Or not many wealthy businessman work. But at least they have that great theme song. Records from the escort services reveal that he had requested Tina's services many times in the first two weeks of meeting. The first meeting takes place at the Bluebird Motel, which I'm sure is great. Super nice. Five stars. Five stars. 12 days before her disappearance. So when he
Starting point is 01:06:05 meets her, he tells her that she's the most beautiful woman in the world. And then he calls up the escort service and is like, I bought her a ring. Like he's already obsessed with her. Okay. So according to him, they started to meet after that first session without the agency knowing and she stops charging him as if they're like in love. But that's what he fucking says. And I don't buy it for a minute. She's like, it's a thing of like when you're nice to someone who's crazy and they think that that means they're in love with you. Right. Really, you're paying them to be nice to you. Literally. Yeah, it's just crazy. He says that they're planning on moving into a new apartment together. And that they find a love letter from Ken and Tina's personal items. It reads, dear Tina,
Starting point is 01:06:51 my heart is yours for you to keep. Your love will lift me off my feet. Oh wait, wait, this is going to be a rhyming one. That's what you think. And then this next line comes blows it out of the water. You came to me. Your love is so willing. I know it's worth all our waiting. So no. No. Sorry to disappoint you. So police go to Ken's apartment and they notice the name Crystal on some artwork on the fridge and they find out that a local car dealer said he saw Tina with Ken and they were looking at cars together right before her disappearance. And Ken had said he was going to help her and give her like 11 grand for a new car. So that's, and then they were ended up fighting at the car dealership a couple days before she disappeared. So up until that point, she may
Starting point is 01:07:43 have really believed he was a rich businessman, like he said. Okay. So for two and a half weeks after Tina's disappearance, Todd and Tina, Todd, her ex, her boyfriend and Tina's dad, Bill, they searched for her. And from phone bills, it's clear that she was deeply involved with escort services. And let's see. So then Bill, the dad, Mr. Coast Guard, he calls Debbie up the calendar girls, one of the sisters, and he's like, I need your help. And even though they were risking incriminating themselves, both sisters were like, fuck it. Yes, we'll help you. You know, they cared for Tina. So they, they give him like all the information about Ken and shit. And so it seems like kind of dropped out of sight at this time by but on August 31st, he leaves a message with
Starting point is 01:08:33 Debbie who now is fucking looking for him. And the it's traced to a bowling alley where in Farmington Hills, police find him. They question him on and off for nine hours and he denies any knowledge of her disappearance. He says that he drove her to the airport for a flight to Ohio where she was meeting a client. But so many people want to cheer for Ohio and they know they know it's inappropriate. Just do it. Oh, and then people hate Ohio. You guys. You know, it's really weird about this and the University of Michigan melee is that when you don't give a shit about sports or college, you don't know what the fuck people are cheering about. It's just noises. Yeah. Why are you mad at them? It's just a college. You guys be friends. And
Starting point is 01:09:31 we're all just trying to get an education over here. Okay. I didn't know, you know, the team for Los Angeles, the football team that were just in the ramps. I didn't know where they were from when I asked Vince. Oh, and where are they from? Oh, Los Angeles. I need to try to give a shit once in a while. They questioned him for nine hours. He denies any knowledge. He says he flew her to, he drove her to the flight. Here's her fucking car keys in his pocket because he says that she left her car with him for safekeeping while she was away in Ohio. Yeah, for real. Every one of them. Green flags. So police get her car, find her car. They search through it. The trunks like full of, you know, you're a college student. You just throw shit in
Starting point is 01:10:30 the trunk. They don't know. There's nothing to be seen here, officer. And they find paperwork from the escort service and they find out that she had had contact with people that are living out of the state and out of the country. So they're like, well, maybe she did fucking later days somewhere. But police use cadaver dogs to search the area near Ken's home. They can't find anything. And so they have to release Ken from custody. So fucking Bill Bigger, the dad, such a badass motherfucker. He is so pissed off. He goes to his friend, Ken's friend's trailer where he's staying and questions him throughout the night relentlessly. The fucking dude who's suspected of killing his daughter. It's crazy. Yeah, this guy's a badass. But to no avail. Although they
Starting point is 01:11:20 say at one point he had to go in the other room and throw up because he was so freaked out about talking about it. How fucking annoying. Okay. A couple of weeks later, no other leads. Police are like, you know what? Let's look through that car a little bit more. Like, let's move something to one side and look underneath things. Which they had and isn't. Okay. What they thought were coffee stains. It's not coffee stains. Let me look and show you. That's not coffee. Oh no. That spilled coffee in her trunk. It's blood. And they pick up the fucking mat and that's a pool of her blood in the trunk of her car. And DNA confirms that it belongs to Tina. Because of the amount of blood, police upgrade the case from a missing person to a homicide. Ken's a prime suspect,
Starting point is 01:12:13 obviously, but he's fucking gotten out of there. And then a month after Tina's disappearance, the cops get a tip. And it had been cold. They had no idea where she was. Ken's own fucking brother suggests that the police search a deserted home once owned by their aunt in Southfield. I think I have a photo of it. No, I don't. Just picture the Methodist church, but with less windows. For real? Like, super, yeah, abandoned creepy style. He's like, go look over there. And so they did. And the house is just 10 miles from Tina's apartment. And there they find the badly decomposed body of a young woman in the woods behind the house. And of course, dental records show that it's Tina. But because of the rate of decomposition, they can't tell the exact
Starting point is 01:13:08 cause of death. But they do know that whatever it was started in her neck. So they think it's strangulation. So meanwhile, they're like, oh, shit, we need to find Ken. So he spotted and so in forensic files, they call it a rundown neighborhood in downtown Detroit, which I'm guessing now is like really nice. And some of you probably live there. So it's, it's called the cast corridor. Is that right? And then I, and then they showed what the apartment building where he was. And I could tell it's a nice neighborhood because there was a whole foods there. And it's in the Nottingham apartment. So if you live in there, congratulations. It used to be a terrible neighborhood. As police closing on him, Ken does like a bullshit attempt at
Starting point is 01:13:56 killing himself. He slits his wrist and takes some pills, but he thankfully survives. And after hours of interrogation, he says that he and Tina had had an argument about money and they struggled and the old fucking bullshit. She fell and hit her head story. But the X-rays to Tina's head show no sign of any trauma at all. So they're like, you're fucking lying. So then he confesses that he said, he fucking said, Tina was just so miserable in those last days that I decided I made a decision to end it for her and put her out of her misery. Yeah. He accepts a plea bargain and pleads guilty to second degree murder. And of course, Tina's family don't want to accept that, but they also don't want what you guys know would fucking happen if they go to trial,
Starting point is 01:14:43 which is that the defense attorney would make it seem like a relationship or something. No, would make it seem like Tina, like slut shame Tina, basically, drag out all the shit she's been going through. And her parents didn't want that to happen to her. So they accepted begrudgingly the plea bargain. And at a sentencing trial, this is him. He says to the fucking family, I miss Tina just like you guys do. Prosecutors believe that when Tina found out that Ken had lied to her about having money, they fought and Ken strangled her. So on September 27th, the funeral is held for Tina in Acme, Michigan. Her casket is carried to the church by six white-gloved Coast Guardsmen. And so after, let's see, he's found guilty. Ken's found guilty, of course, two weeks after his
Starting point is 01:15:42 sentencing, our friends Debbie and Donna of Calendar Girls and shit. LA Dreams. LA Dreams and Calendar Girls. They're fucking arrested for solicitation. So they knew that if they said, yes, we'll help you and, you know, admitted that they did this, that's possible is going to happen. And they did it anyways, which is pretty insane. Yeah. They're sentenced to probation and they say they have no regrets about cooperating. Debbie said, for the sake of the bigger family, I would do everything all over again. Yeah. Tina's father, Bill, refused to concede publicly that Tina was doing anything other than research. And he said, my daughter is not on trial here, this is about the son of a bitch who killed her. Yeah. Yeah. And Ken's sentenced to the maximum
Starting point is 01:16:33 penalty in Michigan, which is life in prison, where he still is today. Yes, go. Yeah. Wow. Crazy. Jesus. I know. It's so frustrating. It feels like it was like 50 years ago. Yeah. In that way where it's just like, okay, there's so much to risk if you if you're a sex worker, and then somebody actually fucking hurts you. Yeah. It's insane. Ridiculous. It's time for home town murder. Hey, thank you. Hey. Tell us what you told it. Remember the party stores? We found out that party stores are where you buy mylar balloons. You guys want to hit a party store after this? Yeah. Get a couple of few forties. Okay. Thanks. All right. You guys have to listen to these rules. It's really important that you listen to the rules. Because the rules
Starting point is 01:17:43 have been made for a reason. We're just trying to get good stories up here that we can all enjoy in a sober and cleanly told manner. We don't want you to embarrass yourself or your family. And we don't want to be bored. Who does really at the end of the day? Truly. Keep it tight. Don't be so drunk. You can't tell your own story. Keep it local. Missing indefinitely. Destroy indefinitely. Somewhere on here. Yeah. Keep it in the mitten, please. And also, I guess, everyone hates you, I think is the other one. Okay. Should I do it? Yeah. Do it and do it quick. Okay. Can I get light and don't just do don't do the why thing. Don't do it. Whatever is flashing in front of you. Just feel something with your heart. You can do
Starting point is 01:18:37 it. Oh, you got it. Can I get the lights? This is so scary. It's harder than you look. Yeah, you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come over this way. Yeah, you have to walk this way. Around the front. One and two. Faster. It's very scary doing that, guys. Hi. Tara. Hi, guys, it's Tara. Come over here. Tara, where are you from? OMG. Where are you from? I'm from the west side in Muskegon. What's your hometown? Okay. So about 20 years ago, I worked in a factory. Where's the factory? In Grand Haven, Michigan. What did you guys make at that factory? Plastic parts for the car industry? Sure. The one that goes under the hood? We appreciate it. So I worked in this factory and I went to work one night and a coworker who was close and aged
Starting point is 01:20:07 to me didn't show up for work. So the next night, we worked third shift. So the next night, I got up. I was late for work. I saw something on the news about a murder. But I didn't pay attention because I was late for work. So I go to work and everyone is very upset. And I don't know why until they tell me. That's very upsetting because I knew this person. What was their name? April. What was really sad is her mom worked there as well. She was a manager. Okay. So that night, it was very upsetting because we did find out that April was murdered. And what happened was she was murdered. It was Thanksgiving time and she went to her boyfriends for Thanksgiving dinner. And her boyfriend's brother, for whatever reason,
Starting point is 01:21:40 decided to murder his family. Oh my God. And he murdered his brother, his mother, his father, April, and his grandfather, and her mother because she didn't show up to work. They called her as an emergency contact. And she went to the scene and interrupted the murderer, Seth Bravaki. While they were trying to, whatever they were doing, they were trying to hide the bodies, whatever they were panicking. Anyways, Seth Bravaki was caught and he was convicted along with his son. And then, I believe in 2015, he attempted to escape the prison that he was in and he was shot and killed. And that's my hometown. Thank you, darling. Tara, Tara, Tara, Tara. Yeah, that's what it's like. Fuck, man. That's the reality of these fucking stories and this
Starting point is 01:23:26 reality of life. Really fucking horrible things happen to people and their people, they're, it's the people around us. It's the people that you look at every single day. Everybody has a story, maybe not as fucking awful as that story, but everybody has a fucking awful story. And it's a very good thing to keep in mind when you're going out into the world because it's very easy to think everybody has your story instead of a story like that. So what's beautiful about this community and the things that you guys are doing with each other is that you're all coming together with this empathy and this understanding about the worst shittiest parts of life and how the only thing that can help us through those things are each other. That's it. I mean, you can drink and
Starting point is 01:24:23 you can get high and you can do a bunch of other shit, but at the end of the day, you're still going to have to deal with the horrible stuff. And so it's very, very amazing. We just got together because we wanted to talk about things that we were like, holy fucking shit. Can you believe that happened? And it made us feel better with our anxiety by telling someone else that story that kept us up at night. Right. But then out of that grew this thing where all these people wanted to listen and feel those feelings and empathize and emote because that's really what it's all about. That's just really what it's all about at the end of the day. Thank you guys for creating this fucking incredible community. We're so honored to be a part of it,
Starting point is 01:25:11 to be up here on stage. You guys are incredible. And I just have one more thing. Sorry. I found out today that a comedian that I love very much died. Brody Stevens died and it's terrible. I've known him for a really long time. He really, really suffered with his mental illness, but he also fought with it and he also was in it with it constantly. If you go home and watch his comedy, he's really miraculously hilarious. Comedy that is coming from a place that is somewhere else and part of the reason he can do what he does on stage is because he has that mental illness. It's part of the personality and he made it kind of work for him. And that's also a big part of art. It's not about being perfect. It's about being incredibly fucked up. And so I was texting
Starting point is 01:26:24 with my friends who know him also and love him also. And one of my friends told me that Brody Stevens' grandfather used to run the Fox Theater. So crazy. We missed you Brody. You were one of a kind. Sorry, I just wanted to say that because it seemed very fateful that that would be what was going on tonight. Anyway, we love you guys and we're thrilled to be here with you. Thank you so much you guys. Thank you. This is the, this really is the pinnacle of comedy performance for me anyway. Coming up as a stand-up, shows like this, I never thought I was going to be able to do them. So the fact that you've given me this gift and giving us both this gift, we'll never be able to thank you enough. Nope, never. Do us a favor and stay saved. I'm just kidding. Stay sexy.
Starting point is 01:27:29 And jump in! Thanks to Troy.

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