My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - 301 - A Place For Moms
Episode Date: November 18, 2021On today’s episode, Karen and Georgia cover the survival story of Paul Martin Andrews and the unsolved murder of E.C. Mullendore III. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Ca...lifornia Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Hello.
Hello.
And welcome.
To my favorite murder.
That's Georgia Hartstark.
Thank you.
That's Karen Calguero.
You're welcome.
This is a podcast, true crime comedy.
Are you ready for it?
Your dad is mad about it.
Your mom is making that face again.
Well, this is your life, friend.
Your life.
That's right.
You live it the best you can.
You listen to whatever you want.
Your little earbuds, everybody else's talking.
Their mouths are just moving.
Yeah.
You're listening to us.
Yeah.
Be like my puppy and have selective listening.
That's right.
That's the way to be in this world.
You know, I'm training my kitten, the cat, the kitten, Moses, training, like sit, stay,
stay, paw.
How's that working out?
It seems to be working, but I could be making that up.
That could be a creation.
It could just be me.
What's your approach to kitten training?
Treats.
Yeah.
I honestly think it's working.
I think all animals are food motivated.
Yes, I am.
Myself.
You and I, for example.
If someone was like, Karen, go for a walk and then they just held out like a, like those
mac and cheese balls that we had at that restaurant.
Yes.
Right?
You'd follow somebody anywhere.
Well, that's kind of what I do when I'm working out is you, cause you're doing this,
I think to myself, you get to eat whatever you want tonight.
Perfect.
I honestly do.
Yeah.
Or when I was smoking, it would be like, get through this and you can have a cigarette,
which is not.
That's the inverse of the first plan.
That's right.
Yeah.
And now I get to eat whatever I fucking want.
Hey, congratulations.
What are you doing to exercise?
I did Pilates the other day.
How was it?
I hate it.
I love it.
It was great.
My body felt great.
But the machines, you know, there's Pilates.
I like floor Pilates or bar or whatever, but the machine scared the shit out of me.
The reformer.
I have no balance.
So I would just get scared.
Everyone moves so fast.
I could tell it was being judged.
Always.
Well, it's Los Angeles.
Yeah.
So don't show up to a Pilates class if you don't want to get judged.
That's what you're supposed to.
That's what I used to love about like when I went to Goldenbridge a couple times with
my friends and there were people that would get there like 20 minutes early and line up
and sit in the front row so that the teacher would look right at them and stuff where I
was just like, this is, I just have never been into this type of community before.
Yeah.
The yoga community.
Well, or just any kind of like get there 20 minutes early to try to make eye contact
with the leader.
But it's not only that, the people who sit in the front want to show everyone behind
them how like they want to be like, well, I know what I'm doing.
It's like this whole thing, a whole headspace thing.
Or it could be people who are like, I don't want to watch the back of other people.
What I'm doing yoga.
I want them to watch me.
Yeah.
I don't sit in the, I do like a medium back to the side with a wall next to me because
I have no balance.
So I need to fall against something.
And that's it.
I mean, it just, I feel like of all the things to classes to take and the things to be doing
with yourself, being super competitive in yoga is a little bit against the point of what
the great, most of the great gurus want you to really be thinking about.
So fucking literally.
It's a Los Angeles to just take a really beautiful spiritual practice and then pervert
it to the degree where you might as well be at Warner Brothers auditioning for Aero or
some shit like that.
That reminds me when I did a hot yoga class recently, Bragg, the dude next to me and you
know, people wear like not a lot of clothes because it's really fucking hot, whatever.
But the guy next to me had on like boxer briefs, like he had his underwear on.
Yeah.
No.
He was like, I saw his butt crack.
It was like, I guess.
Yeah.
That's what he was there for.
Oh, it was like, why do I have to be next to this?
That's the agreement.
Also, why can't he just, yeah, why can't he just take shorts?
Any other piece of clothing?
Shorts.
Other than underwear.
Although, you know, I'm sure that he would, if he could argue it in a court of law, he'd
just be like, well, isn't that your bra?
No.
Isn't that your...
I mean, if I had like a fucking triangle like Lacey Bra on, fair.
But I had a sports bra, whichever one knows is the least sexy bra.
Yeah.
In the world.
Yeah.
You're not trying to attract anybody when you're flattening the gals down to try to get
some exercise out.
That's right.
Not getting hit in the chin.
Oh, I wish I could get hit in the chin with these things.
So that's fitness corner.
Great job.
Well, speaking of which, Frank and I took a walk the other morning.
This is, I was laughing so hard at surprise at myself because I came around a corner and
there was a guy walking out of the driveway.
And of course, I had my earbuds in listening to another podcast.
And so this guy kind of walked out into the street and was looking at Frank and smiling.
So I take my earbuds out and he's like, who's this little guy?
And I'm like, that's Frank.
And we start to kind of chit chat.
He said, do you live in this neighborhood?
And I said, yeah, up the hill.
And then I proceeded to describe the front of my house.
I don't because, and then were you trying to convince him that you weren't so interloper?
Probably deep down probably.
But then I was like, I, and then I kind of went, Oh, do you live here?
And then he goes, I do some work for like, he, he did two names, Janet and Marty basically.
And I was just like, but he just kind of gestured.
And I was just like, I just told you where I fucking live.
I just walked up to a dude that was walking on my street randomly and was like, Oh, look
for me.
I'm up at that house up the street.
And then I just couldn't stop thinking about it where I'm like, I get on this fucking
podcast on my high horse with the waving my finger about, don't do that.
And the second I'm out of my own house, I'm just like, what's up, stranger?
Now listen to me describe my address.
And here's the keypad number to get into my house.
But the good, the thing is you have a enormous dog with you.
So he looks into me, he's like the sweetest baby, but he's muscly, Frank looks intimidating.
He's he'll fuck with you for sure.
I think he would attack someone who tried to break in here for sure.
He, I think he would too, but he wasn't attacking this guy who walked straight up to him, went
who's this little guy and began to caress him and Frank immediately flipped on his back
because he loves to do stranger puts treats, dog treats in his pocket to disarm strangers,
females, strangers to tell them where they live.
I just think we might need a pandemic reset of just our, just the kind of the rules regulations.
Also not just with that of kind of the general safety of, oh, that's right.
Don't just do whatever in a panic, Karen, but also just socializing wise, just interacting
with people and then being like, oh, I don't actually know you that well.
Day to day interactions need to be relearned.
It's like physical therapy, like after a break in the leg or whatever, it's like, you're
not just going to get up running again.
We've broken, we've broken ourselves.
We broke every bone in our body.
We were in traction for a year and a half.
Now go easy, easy down the hallway, go slow, you don't have to tell your whole story.
That's right.
Except like a walker or a cane, like it's not, you know, it's not shameful to need some
help reentering society.
Or just like for me personally and the people like me, just be quiet sometimes, just be
the one at the table that isn't telling a story and see what that feels like for the
first time in 45 years.
Just don't lead.
Yes, it burns.
Yes, it hurts.
Am I disappearing off the planet?
Maybe.
Yeah.
Try it out.
If there's a moment of silence, it's okay.
You don't have to, I'm talking, I'm not pointing at you, but I'm talking at me.
Always.
Turning this finger around.
Always.
It's not your fault if there's a silence, then you need to fill it.
No, you're not some weird fifties housewife that is in charge of all of the way everything
goes.
This isn't a boardroom and you're not the fucking CEO of your life.
No, you know, I met Bridger Weineger, you may have heard of him, he has the podcast,
I said no guess, and world renowned.
I met Bridger for dinner at Swingers, and as I walked up, because I was walking up and
I'm like, I'm wearing the same, you know, I have four pairs of black sweats that I love
and that's all I wear, and then I have about eight black t-shirts and that's all I wear.
Yeah.
And I've been comfortable and happy for two and a half years.
Good.
But so I was like, that's what I'm wearing to meet Bridger for dinner, because that's
that.
And it's a casual setting.
Bridger's a casual guy.
Yeah, it's a true diner.
As I walked up, there was a couple fighting in front of me.
I'm excited for this.
Now, this doesn't count as me reporting overheard, which I really hate when people like take
to the internet and they're like overheard in Los Angeles and they're just asshole conversations,
which is like, okay, you're nosy, that's what this is about.
But I had no choice because I was going in, I was like, I'm in my sweats under the radar,
trying to be low key, no eye contact, and this girl, Ann Guy, were fighting in front
of the doors.
So I would have had to walk between them to get into the restaurant.
And it was so hilarious and loud and it filled me with joy.
What were they yelling about?
She wanted him to get back in the car and she wanted him to act like a human being.
Well, that's not too much to ask.
You know, we'd like to think that, although I'd love to hear his side because he wasn't
saying much and she was saying what she was saying incredibly loud and there was like,
you know, tables outside, it wasn't just like me and them, there was lots of people.
Public places.
They were having it out where I was like, did you guys just sit and stew inside swingers
and walk outside and just burst into this fight?
You had your tune out and now you're ready to fucking fight.
I sat down at the booth with Berger and Jimmy filled with glee and I was like, I just witnessed
a true and straight up loud fight.
And I got so excited when I heard that, my favorite thing to say when someone, okay,
my friend, Micah Calabrese, this one time we were...
I know Micah Calabrese.
Yeah.
He's a wonderful guy.
We were at a restaurant or somewhere and this couple was fighting and he under his
breath goes to us, I want you to want to do the dishes.
Wait, Micah said that to you.
Yeah, he like jokingly said that that's what they were.
I want you to want to do the dishes, which is like the such is the fight that couples
have.
And so whenever I see a couple fighting, I fucking, I want you to want to do the dishes.
Oh, it's my favorite.
It's so good.
Hey, Frank, get out of there, he literally is just digging into your purse.
I have treats.
I do have treats.
Let me, can I give him?
You can, but he doesn't deserve it after sticking his whole nose in your purse.
It might smell like, oh, look at his fucking face.
Oh my God, Frank, did you say thank you?
Uh-oh.
Uh-oh.
He's trying to back out and get away because Frank is now convinced.
So Georgia just gave Frank a really nice, look like a, almost like a human piece of
beef jerky.
No, it, yeah, it's like a choo-choo toy.
He backed out of here like we were all grabbing it with, with both hands.
No one wants your shitty piece of like horse meat, Frank.
God.
No, I just, I, that's the part of being in public that I miss.
I feel like that.
Writing?
Yes.
In any normal setting, say four years ago, I wouldn't have been like, oh my God, get
it together.
But now I'm just like, look at this.
They're really living.
Because you got to see emotions for the first time in so long.
Other people's emotions, fucking getting them all over the place.
Yes.
Please give it up.
I would love to be in that position.
Here's my favorite thing is in a situation like that, you go to say, if you would just
act like a human or whatever the thing is that she was saying, but instead you go, and
then you just turn around.
Yes.
She does or he does?
No, me.
That's my ultimate.
That's the ultimate move.
You're going to fight?
Act like a human?
Seems like you're going to fight?
No, you don't never say a thing like that.
No.
That's insane.
Listen, think it through.
What you're about to yell at this dude, every, like if eight people can hear you, like run
it through your head a couple of times.
That's a pretty awful thing to say to someone.
It's horrible.
Yeah.
Now, could he be the biggest douchebag of all time?
Yes.
Perhaps.
Probably.
But then get away from the douchebag.
Don't beg the douchebag to not be one.
If someone drives you to the brink of yelling at them in public, the relationship's not
good.
I used to have, I had one relationship with a dude that we would just fucking fight all
the time, which is not my style and any relationship I've ever been in.
And this hit me that I was like, what are we doing?
Like clearly we're not compatible.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So like you shouldn't be fighting in public.
I know.
That's a bad sign.
Maybe once in a blue moon.
It's fine.
Yeah.
Like I think the goal is, I'm enjoying it because it's like, I feel like I might be
at the goal point now, but this also could be quarantine induced psychosis that I'm even
saying this.
Yeah.
I like to think that I'm at the point now where just be like, oh, and then you know,
hold on, I'm yelling on Beverly.
Yeah.
I need to zip it.
Yeah.
Nothing I'm about to say is going to make me look like the winner.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because I'm yelling in public.
Yeah.
Even if you're fucking right and he's a narcissist who doesn't act like a human, maybe he's
even an alien and you're like, act pretend you're not an alien.
So what you do then is you go, oh, Uber, doot, doot, doot, doot, doot, doot, jump in a car
and drive away.
That's right.
That's all.
That's all.
That's fine.
Emotional relationship tolls are on the front of my mind right now because the thing
I can't stop watching right now is Taylor Swift's new fucking 10 minute music video.
How that, would you explain it to me word and beat by beat?
Did you not listen to it?
No.
You know how she re-released this out?
Oh, I don't want to get too into it, but like, I know she, she had to re-release because
Scooter Braun wouldn't give her any of her rights.
That's fucking right.
So she re-releases the song and this album that's clearly like a fucking indictment against
Jake Gyllenhaal, even though she doesn't fucking say it and really show it.
It is so juicy and good and like the, like the video that she made and she made it longer
is like clearly about him.
It's just like, and she's such a good songwriter and it's just like, ugh, that happened to
me too.
You know, like, yes, I was 19 and a 29 year old fucked me over and I just had to write
about it in the memoir, but she gets to fucking sing about it and it's so cathartic.
Oh, because she was a little baby and he was a grown man that should have known better.
Yeah, and there are these lines where she's just in it, but she's just like, you told
me that if I was a little older, maybe it would have worked out, but now your girlfriends
at the same age I was, then I swear to God, she calls him the fuck out and it's so satisfying
and it's a great song.
You have to listen.
Damn.
Even Vince is like into it.
I think he's like secretly a swiftie.
How could you not be?
That's, it's just good songwriting.
It's just good, solid songwriting and has been since she was 14 years old.
Like you don't build that.
You don't build that and get worse and worse songwriters to help your talent as we go.
Then only the best come out and they're like, guess what we're going to do now?
So all I've been doing is singing it out loud.
Terribly.
It's so good.
I am, I feel sad because Nora texted me and goes, are you going to watch Adele's special
at the Griffith Observatory?
Adele did a concert and it was on one of the, it was on regular TV.
And all her friends were in the audience.
It was like on the steps of the, of the observatory.
It was really beautifully lit.
I didn't know that.
And she sang her basically the new album.
But I haven't listened to any of it because I have been so stressed out lately.
I'm like, I don't have time to cry about shit that happened 15 years ago.
I just don't.
To someone else or to you.
At all.
Privately, publicly, whatever.
So when Nora texted me that I got that like lump in my throat, like I was about, it was
going to start.
I was just like, I can't do it right now.
She's like, I'm 13 and I don't know what you're talking about because I've never had
my heart broken yet.
She's just like, it's actually not that big of a deal.
You can watch a concert, but not with Adele because Adele's whole journey, I've been there
since Adele was, her videos were being posted on Prez Hilton in like, yeah.
And she had won a contest and she, her video for, I won't be able to remember the name
of the song, but it was my fave.
Oh, it's the hometown, hometown heroes or whatever.
And she's just this little baby and turn the piano player and you're like, who the fuck
is this?
And now she's at the Griffith Observatory and she's killing it.
And why don't you get invited?
I'm not friends with her.
He was literally like her friends, friends, I think.
Did I ever tell you I went to this like, it was like 30 people to see Florence and the
Machine on the rooftop across in the Cafe 101, that old Hollywood hotel.
She just did this like quiet secret concert for like KROQ or whatever.
And I sat in the front row and just fucking watched Florence to kill it.
Jesus Christ.
It was magical.
How many people were there?
There was like 30 people there.
It was like a small thing that they wanted an audience for that like, I just happened
to get invited to.
And then?
In 2018, she came to hear our show.
She came to our concert.
You guys, Florence is a fucking murderer now.
Florence came to our London show.
Well, we don't, do we know that?
Well she came to our show.
She came to our show.
I've been to plenty of shows where I'm like checking my watch.
I know.
What is this shit?
But why would she?
She's fucking Florence.
She's not going to waste her time with like her, dies a drag along.
True.
Right?
Florence fucking is not a drag along person.
Good.
You're right.
You're right.
I needed to hear it.
Can I do a brag like that?
Yeah.
In the early 2000s, it may have been late, early 2000s because Manor Keenan is a friend of
everybody in my comedy circle and he's the lead singer of Tool.
So we got to go, I'm not going to be able to remember the name of the album.
I don't even think they had it assembled as an album.
We just got to go into the tiniest studio and there was like 12 of us and just listened
to the songs they had ready right then.
Her tool, like one of the biggest fucking bands.
It was crazy.
It was the loudest.
It gave me brain damage.
Yeah.
I think it was so loud and we, you couldn't not be near a gigantic speaker and you just,
it was like inside your body where I'm like, I have to be a fan of them for the rest of
my life now just because that was like a transitory experience.
And they gave you tinnitus.
So you have to.
Exactly.
You have to be friends with them.
They owe me.
That's right.
I'm owed.
That's the cool thing about I have to say living in Los Angeles.
The parking sucks, the people are the worst, but every once in a while you get like people
are just like, ooh, come to this thing with me and suddenly you're like, holy shit, it's
everything I've ever dreamed of.
It's these like experiences where you go, oh, this is what people move to LA for.
Like this is what they think LA is like and I'm having an experience of that.
It just happens once every eight years though.
So you really don't hold your breath.
Totally.
But it's, but it'll keep you for another eight years in LA.
So suddenly you've been here for fucking 25 years.
For real.
For real.
Yeah.
Which I would never want to live anywhere else.
So I don't care.
Now I've tried to live other places, but it is, um, I tried once.
This is the spot.
Yeah.
It's just where it's happening.
Now Frank won't leave us alone because he's like, oh yeah, it took cookie like three days
to finish.
Oh please.
This guy's like, do you have any pencils?
I can't keep pencils out of Frank's mouth.
I swear to God.
It's like, he's like, here's my impression of a beaver and then he eats a fucking really
nice pencil.
A goat.
That's what I was trying to think of earlier.
He's like a goat.
He's just like a goat.
Tim Cannes.
Great.
He was just too long on the street where he's like, look, there's protein inside that
pencil.
It's this or nothing.
I'll never eat again.
Should we?
Georgia brought me.
Hey guys.
Now we're talking to you.
Hey guys.
Hey.
Georgia brought me a treat.
It's not for you Frank, get up here.
He sounded like a horse.
I know.
Get up here.
Sometimes he sounds like a horse and sometimes he sounds like Chewbacca when he yawns.
It's the funniest thing.
So Georgia came bearing Kit Kats tonight.
Hell yeah, I did.
And this one is a hazelnut spread Kit Kats.
I've never had that.
It's unofficial Nutella.
Yeah, totally.
They can't call it that.
I went to the best place in the world, Cost Plus World Market.
And I saw all these Kit Kats from, I think these are like probably from Canada or the
UK or something, but they're not from the US meaning they're good.
Yes.
And it made me so sad for our office.
Oh no.
It made me be like, oh my God, we used to have drawers full of fucking Kit Kats at the office
because people just sent them to us from not the United States.
I swear to God, I think these are from Ireland.
How come?
Because that's what it says under this.
It's Nestle product of the UK.
Yeah.
Oh.
It says Nestle UK.
It's made in over on 3030 Lake Drive City West Business Campus in Dublin.
Oh my God.
We have Dublin Kit Kats.
Oh shit.
Dublin Kit Kats.
Get ready.
I feel like we're in Willy Wonka.
Should we try them?
Yeah, hold on.
Should we open mine up?
Should we chew in a podcast like everyone likes?
Should we chew?
Should we chew straight in the way?
Should we even edit the sound out?
Even bleep this?
If you like hazelnut spread, let's call it that.
Okay.
It's like calling it a tissue instead of a Kleenex.
If you like that, right as I went to put it in my mouth, I could taste that Nutella taste
and that's a great experience.
What's Kit Kat doing?
They're like Oreos where they're just going through it.
Last week I covered the Chippendales murder.
As we were talking about it last week, Steven was like, oh, I'm going to ask my mom because
she lived in LA at that time.
So Steven, do you want to turn it over until your mother's Chippendales experience?
Yes.
She grew up in Los Angeles.
She's had plenty of night stalker serial killer connections and she has a Chippendales connection
in which she went to the Culver City location, which I think was the original.
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah.
And I asked her to describe it and she was like screaming woman with lots of dollar bills
and then she saw a woman making out with one of the dancers in the bathroom.
Yes.
And she was like quick to point out, was it me or your Aunt Teri?
Yeah, right.
Wow.
Yeah.
That's awesome.
Because I kind of assumed most of those dancers must be gay men because they have such perfect
bodies.
But that's really exciting.
Those men must have been in heaven.
Oh.
That's like a dream job.
Oh my God, up to their necks.
My friend Doug Jones, who's a original listener, his mom and dad are from here too.
But his dad is a pastor and so they're both like really sweet, normal, innocent people.
And so he goes, I texted my mom and she responded, I think Chippendales had nail strippers.
Of course, I never hung out there.
And then the emoji with the, what's it called, the halo.
And I said, yeah, I said, plot twist, your dad was a dancer and your mom was a patron.
That's how they bet.
And then he wrote Chippendales, a place for moms.
Oh my God.
Can you imagine if there was like a story of, oh, for sure, because then God, that would
make you feel so like popular and attractive.
If you were the one that the Chippendales dancer is like, it's gotta be you.
Yeah.
I can't live without you, Mary.
Or whatever your name is.
It's like you're different than all the other screaming women shoving money in my underwear.
You're the one.
You're the one.
Let's go make out in the bathroom and do a coat.
Let's do a quick, exactly right corner.
Sure.
So this week on True Beauty Brooklyn, two of the hosts of Lady to Lady, Babs Gray and
Tess Barker, they are the ones who have Britney's Gram, their podcast.
They have an additional podcast, Britney's Gram.
They basically broke the story that Britney was being held under conservatorship.
So they are kind of doing the rounds right now because it's such a popular story.
And so they went on there and talked to Alex and Elizabeth about all kinds of stuff.
It's a great podcast.
And then also, you know, we're doing our celebrity hometown special for the holidays.
And this week we have Patton Oswaldon, who is just the most delightful.
We talked to him for like an hour.
It could have been a two-parter because he's so fun to talk to.
And of course, the three of us have so much in common.
It was a very delightful episode.
So listen to that.
Oh, and then in the merch store, we have drinks, lots of drinkware options.
Are you thirsty right now?
Well, guess what?
We have vessels for you to put your drink of choice in, including koozies, water bottles,
wine glasses, and mugs.
So go to myfavorimurder.com and then go in the store.
You get it.
And then follow exactly right on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for more updates.
That's the business part.
Yep.
We're done with that.
Now it's time to get into the stories.
Yep.
Let's do it.
I think are you first?
No, you're first.
Am I?
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Goodbye.
Hey, I'm Mike Corey, the host of Wondery's podcast against the odds.
In our next season, three masked men hijack a school bus full of children in the sleepy
farm town of Chautchilla, California.
They bury the children and their bus driver deep underground, planning to hold them for
ransom.
Local police and the FBI marshal a search effort, but the trail quickly runs dry as the
air supply for the trapped children dwindles, a pair of unlikely heroes emerges.
Follow against the odds wherever you get your podcast.
You can listen ad free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app.
All right.
So this week to kick it off, I'm going to do the thing that I used to do all the time,
bringing it on back.
This is a story I got from an episode of I survived.
Wow.
Yes.
It's been a while.
It's been a long time.
I think because I cycled through all of the stories on I survived that I like that struck
me and hit me because I survived is the it's their own stories.
And that's the thing that I liked so much about it is it's me acting as if Jennifer
Mori telling her story about what happened to her was my friend telling me that story.
Right.
And then you, my friend are telling me that story.
Yes.
Because I'm going to be like, you have to know about this person.
That's how we are.
That's how we want.
That's how we do.
Right.
And so we have another, another of these people, right?
This is the story of the abduction of Paul Martin Andrews.
So he, Paul Martin Andrews, he wrote a firsthand account of what happened to him for a magazine
called the hook in 2003.
And now the hook has all of their back issues online.
It's going to say episodes.
Of course, his episode of I survived.
There's also a people magazine article by Bill Hewitt, morbidology article, morbidology.com
by Emily Thompson.
And Andrews wrote an article for the hook.
There's also an article for the freelance star by Laura Moyer.
An article for the website wavy.com by Andy Fox.
There is Bella online, which is like a blog by Erica Lynn Smith that had a lot of good
information in it.
There was Fox news.com article by Nicholas Lanham, ABC news, Washington Post, and of
course, Wikipedia.
Love it.
I mean, a lot of people talking.
Well, it's been, you know, this happened in the seventies and, and it kind of went on
for a while because it's the kind of story, you know, well, you'll see, you know what,
I'll see, you know what, instead of, why, why am I synopsizing story?
I'm also about to tell you that's one of the major mistakes in podcasting that.
And when people ask a question and then they go, they go, like, what happened to that person?
I mean, did they get married?
Did they go on vacation?
Did they did?
My sister does it all the time.
And I go, stop asking me sub questions and I will answer the original question and that
will answer all of the other questions.
That and eating on air.
Can you believe how unprofessional some people get me still snacking now, just even making
that noise.
Yeah.
My sister would be so furious if she was listening to this podcast and I made mouth sounds like
that.
That's her absolute pet peeve.
She can't stand.
I think there's a lot of people have this like a vert like physical reaction to that
noise.
Yeah.
It's not.
It's not great.
No.
Staying to other people eat.
Maybe take that.
Maybe Steven bleep Karen doing that.
But I did it the least damp way possible.
Yeah.
It was a joke.
It was a joke.
Don't you?
This is a true crime comedy podcast.
It was a joke.
Okay.
Now we're starting this story.
Okay.
So it's around eight in the morning, this beginning to is, it's one of the ones where
you're just like, what if this was, what if this happened to you?
Yeah.
It's just so unbelievable.
It's eight in the morning on January 19th.
It's 1973 and January 19th is the last day of rabbit hunting season.
So there's two hunters driving through the woods in each in their own pickup truck and
they both hear someone screaming.
So luckily they stop and get out and they're looking around.
Now they're in the middle of the forest, out in the middle of nowhere and they're walking
around and then they look and they see a metal door in the ground.
Why is there a metal door in the middle of the forest?
It is straight out of almost like a hacky horror movie script of like out in the middle
of nowhere, there's a door.
So it's partially covered with leaves, but it's propped open and so one hunter approaches
this door slowly with his rifle aimed toward it, of course, and he calls out to say whoever's
inside come out right now and then the hunters hear a young boy yelling back, I can't come
out because he's chained up and he needs help.
Oh my God.
So they throw that door open and they uncover a horrific scene inside of what looks to be
a small dark box is a chained up 13 year old boy with black eyes, a broken nose, bruises
all over his face and body and a broken front tooth.
And this boy's name is Martin Andrews.
So these hunters call the police.
When the police arrive on the scene, they begin photographing the whole area, including
the box with Martin still inside still chained up.
This is when I read this, it was like it broke my heart.
It is the most seventies.
No consideration for the victim kind of procedural moment where it's like, so they got all their
work done first and then then they cut him loose with a pair of bolt cutters, horrifying,
disgusting, horrifying.
So they take him to the, I can only guess it's pronounced the OBC Memorial Hospital,
but it's O B I C I O B G, I don't know.
And here's the thing, Martin's mom works at this hospital as a nurse and she had reported
her son missing seven days before the police told her he was probably just a runaway and
then just to wait it out and he would come back.
She knew that wasn't the case.
So when Martin is brought in covered in bruises and clearly, you know, beaten and assaulted
and almost collapses partly from relief that he's alive and then partly because looking
at him, she can see that her son has been through something horrible.
Yeah, oh my God, awful.
So Paul Martin Andrews, so he goes by his middle name Martin.
He's born in 1959 in White County, Virginia.
He's the oldest of three kids.
When he's 12 years old, his parents get a divorce, which is of course rough for the
whole family.
A year later, his mom remarries and the new stepdad has three kids of his own.
So Martin, the mom and his siblings, they move into the new stepdad's house in Portsmouth,
Virginia.
So this is like a bigger town than he lived in before.
There's more to do.
They have movies, they have arcades, there's convenient stores.
And so Martin and his siblings are latchkey kids, both parents work.
So he gets, he starts smoking.
He's based, they're basically kind of like, it's their early seventies lifestyle of they're
out and about.
He's, he basically has a bunch of stuff to do and he's, you know, he's living his best
life, living his best preteen life, smokey marbles.
I mean, they practically came on your birthday cake when you turned 12 in the seventies.
You know, happy birthday.
What else are you going to do down in the creek?
So he decides, because he wants to do all these things and he wants to be out and about.
So he gets a paper route.
On January 11th, there's a big snowstorm.
The schools declare snow day in Georgia year from California.
So snow day means you don't have to go to school because it's snowing.
They tell you on the news and stuff, it's a real big deal.
California kids don't understand.
So all kids are off from school.
And of course, Martin is stoked to have the day off, but he still has to do his paper
route.
So what he does, he's puts on ice skates and he skates down the street and pulls the newspapers
in a sled.
Aw.
Isn't that cute?
So he makes the most of it basically.
Then later in the afternoon, he and his sisters decide that they're going to make ice cream
out of the freshly fallen snow, which I guess is something kids did do in where it's snow.
It seems gross, but so they have sugar and of course they have the snow.
So now all they need is some milk.
So Martin volunteers to walk down to the local convenience store to go get it.
And he gets about three blocks down the street when a blue Ford van approaches and the driver
introduces himself as Pee Wee.
And he asks Martin if he wants to help him move furniture at his brother's house and
he'll pay him $3 to do it.
And so Martin's like, yes, more money.
So he agrees because he wants the money and also because he assumes that this guy who's
talking to him must be a neighbor in this new neighborhood that he just hasn't met yet.
So he gets into this van.
Yeah, horrifying.
And it's the same thing I did with the guy where you're kind of like, if you think someone
is your neighbor or someone other people know and like a fixture, then trust is so much
more automatic and so much more.
It's kind of like you just-
Especially if they have an air of confidence of like, yeah, I belong here.
And you're like, okay, what am I doing to question it?
I'm not going to question it.
Yeah.
If you're a 12-year-old kid and you're like, oh, hey, come help me do this thing, it sounds
like they're going around the corner to do it.
Totally.
So Martin feels fine about this decision until Pee Wee merges onto the interstate.
So he, of course, thought it was going to happen somewhere in the neighborhood they
already were.
Right.
Now he doesn't know the area, they're getting far away from, he already is new to the area.
Now he doesn't know where he is.
He knows they're somewhere near Suffolk, but doesn't know the exact location and he starts
to worry that he's going to get in trouble for going off with a stranger.
And then he sees a long knife in one of like the door pockets in this van and he starts
getting like panicky.
And so as any 13-year-old in the 70s would do, he starts smoking and he pulls out a cigarette
and starts smoking.
And then Pee Wee goes, oh, that's the kind I smoke too.
And then he was like, oh, okay.
And he's kind of comforted by that, like, oh, this isn't so bad, maybe I'm just overreacting.
So then Pee Wee stops at a store and says he has to grab some things before they get
to his brother's house.
So as Martin's sitting in the van, he wants to jump out and run, but he doesn't know
where he is.
He doesn't know where he'd run to.
He thinks he's going to get in trouble overall.
And then he also thinks, I told, I gave this man my word, I would help him and take this
job and it would be bad of me to run away right now.
Or what would that look like if I ran away and he really just was...
Right.
Well, it's that classic, I'm overreacting, relax, you're being dramatic thing that we
all tell ourselves instead of listening.
When our instincts, yeah, exactly, are telling us a totally different thing.
But that's what most people do.
And also that's why it's like when you are 12 years old, you start thinking of things
that your parents, of course, would be like you would never be in trouble or just running
and just going into the store and saying, I don't know this man in a van or whatever.
But I mean, this is what happens.
So he basically just stays where he is.
So they get back on the road, they drive about 15, 20 miles south further, they turn
on to a dirt road near a place called Dismal Swamp.
And then yeah, then they pull up and down the dirt road, there's a chain that's blocking
the road that's like a locked chain.
And Peewee says that his brother keeps the key to this like fence in a deer box out in
the woods.
So they just need to walk out to the deer box to go get it and unlock it.
So Martin follows this guy out into the woods and they soon reach the metal door that's
in the ground.
So Peewee opens it, he crawls inside the deer box.
So it's actually, these are common things for like deer hunting season.
So you can hide and like surprise the deer.
Oh, I didn't.
I always thought they were like up in the trees.
I didn't know they had them underground.
I think those are blinds, right?
I think they have both.
But I guess this is like, these aren't, it's not unheard of.
Okay, I've never.
It is just to us.
Again, I'm from Southern California.
Yeah, we just don't know snow days.
We don't know hunting.
So Peewee gets into this box first and he says, here, I need you to come in and help
me move this stuff around.
So Martin follows him in and as he goes inside, Peewee pulls out a 12 inch hunting knife
and says, I've got bad news for you.
You've just been kidnapped.
Oh, God.
And then it's really horrible because that's, Peewee immediately makes Martin strip naked.
He rapes him.
And this is the first of four sexual assaults that happened on that first day.
Martin will end up being held in this underground box in the woods for the next seven days
being repeatedly raped and beaten, viciously beaten.
Sometimes he gets let outside either to help Peewee cook or to walk through the woods or
to sit by the campfire.
But of course, the abuse Martin endures makes him tread lightly when Peewee has his moments
of calm.
Yeah.
He tries to, you know, make casual conversation with the man hoping that he can eventually
kind of convince him to let him go.
But Peewee is erratic and unstable.
Martin later recalls being in constant fear for his life, just like, totally so scared
saying, you just never knew what was going to set this guy off.
So he's really erratic, really violent, horrible.
How is he telling his story on I Survived?
Is he like stoic?
Is he?
He's, yeah.
He's just like all the other survivors where he's, it's very, there's definitely moments
where you see him kind of well up and it's such an overwhelming, horrible memory to that
day.
You know, it seemed, but at the same time, he's very good at telling his story.
I think especially for, you know, not to speak on this in any way that I know about it, but
I think as we all know, culturally, it's so hard for men to talk about sexual assaults.
It's like, because we all know men are allowed to have feelings anyway, they aren't allowed
to, you know, and then something like that is all the implications of that and the shame
and everything around it.
So it's really kind of amazing to watch him, because most of the men on I Survived, their
stories are about how their snowmobile overturned and they got stuck in like a frozen river
for real.
And then you have two women who are telling these horrifying stories.
So he really does stand out as this really strong narrator of what is a complete nightmare
story.
Just unbelievable.
So, so Pee Wee comes and goes from this box in the ground.
He always makes sure that he ties Martin up when he leaves.
So Martin is chained by the ankle to the side of the box.
His feet are tied together with wire and his hands are tied behind his back with wire.
So then eight days into the abduction, Pee Wee leaves, Martin chained up inside the
box and he doesn't return.
And Martin thinks he's been left for dead underground in the middle of the forest and
in the middle of nowhere.
So when he finally hears those trucks coming in the distance, he figures out a way to prop
one of the doors open and he just starts screaming and just by a miracle of God, the passing
hunters in trucks hear him screaming, stop, look for him and find him.
Especially because if it's, you said it's the last day of a rabbit hunting season, which
means maybe people aren't going to come out again after that day, right?
Right up.
Yes, exactly.
Like that was the, that was probably the last day.
Anything like that would have happened or like was possible and the idea that there
would be people out there for that reason, like suddenly there would be no reason to
be out there at all, horrifying.
So it doesn't take police very long to identify Martin's attacker.
He's 33 year old Richard Alvin Osley.
He's a child rapist who's on parole for abducting a 10 year old boy in 1961.
He also raped that boy and the boy was found hog-tied and left for dead in the woods.
So it was exactly the same crime that he had already gone to jail for, gotten out on parole.
He served 10 years, got out on parole and the day he abducted Martin, he was supposed
to appear in court to face additional sodomy charges because he attacked another 14 year
old boy in 1972.
So he, it was, he got out and immediately started doing it again.
He's a real predator.
So the police show Martin a photo lineup and Martin picks out Richard Osley right away.
They tell Martin that they were sure Osley was their guy, now Martin has confirmed it.
But the police had told Martin's parents when he was reported missing, they thought he was
a runaway.
So that begs the question, if the authorities knew that a child rapist had skipped his court
appearance and was on the lam, once he didn't show up for court, why wasn't there any kind
of communication or protocol in place so that when Martin's mother reported him missing,
the connection would be immediately made and they'd connect those dots and not assume the
boy is a runaway.
Or even let everyone know, in the public know, it's like a be on the lookout, be extra cautious.
This person has skipped out and he's a fucking predator, like warning the public.
But I mean, it's the early 70s, so it was kind of like, was there even 911 back then?
All these things that we take for granted as if they've existed always are, so many
of them are so recent.
And I think stuff like this, if it was maybe by chance in a different county, it's always
that story of if it's one county over or one city over, it just doesn't get conveyed.
But that idea that a mother coming to say, my 12-year-old son is just missing, he went
to the store and didn't come home, my preteen son went to the store and didn't come home
and had plans with the sisters, like it doesn't, you know, it's just, anyway.
But that also was that time where it was early enough, because I believe it was, yeah, 73.
So that was just the end of that summer of love kind of thing where all the teenagers
went to San Francisco.
This was the thing the cops said all the time and used all the time to just not have to
track anything down.
So the good news is that four days after Martin was discovered, January 23rd, 1973, Richard
Owensley turned himself in, he's charged with abduction, rape, and sodomy, and he's guilty.
I think he pled no contest.
He's given a 48-year prison sentence.
So the Sunday after his rescue, so now this is all about basically Martin being the victim
of this horrible crime and basically having to, you know, come back into his family and
into his community and how things got dealt with back then.
So the Sunday after his rescue, Martin goes to church with his family, and this was the
congregation they had been praying for him when he was missing.
They had all been waiting for his return.
Of course, everyone was so thrilled, there's a story about his like six-year-old sister
saying that she, the day that Martin was found, she saw a rainbow in the sky and she knew
that was like a message that he was going to be okay.
And a lot of people in this community, even though the cops said he was run away, they
knew that something bad had happened.
There was one church congregation member, was a fireman named Troy Tippin, who had spent
the week doing an aerial search in a helicopter looking for him.
Like there are people who really took it seriously.
And so once he was safe and home again, everyone basically tries to not talk about it, say
he's fine, he's back and that means everything's fine.
They're of course all afraid any discussion of it is going to traumatize Martin even further.
And one of the only people who wants to talk about the fact that Martin was kidnapped and
that this was, you know, like an assault was Troy Tippin, this fireman.
And Martin would later say that he so appreciated the fact that Troy was trying to acknowledge
what he'd actually gone through instead of this idea of like, you know, he has to be
a man and he has to be tough and not talk about it and basically ignore it, which is,
as we all know, not the solution.
So I mean, it was again, the 70s, no one knew how to handle anything.
But it seems like it's not that different now in a lot of cultures.
Right. Well, because I think there's, yeah, I think that's just the thing that's starting
to change now, you know, a little bit more with like social media where people are like
talking about things and coming forward with things.
But that idea to say, to qualify somebody else's experience of be like, he's fine is
so, you know, minimizing and demeaning to that person's experience of what they went
through.
I feel like back then too, it's like, we're grateful he's home.
Let's not question it.
Let's not talk about it.
Let's just give him a normal quote life and we'll all forget about it.
Right.
And he'll forget about it.
Which of course doesn't work.
And because of course things weren't okay after that, such a horrible experience.
His parents and their, his doctors, like basically he felt like they thought he was broken and
that they were trying to fix him.
And basically the experts warned Martin's parents that the trauma could make him act
out, do a bunch of stuff and possibly go on to be a sexual predator himself.
So with the fear that this would be some kind of like an instigating experience in his life,
his parents end up sending him to a psychiatric ward for treatment.
Dear.
Right.
And that's really sad and difficult because of course he's in there with truly mentally
ill people.
Right.
He's a preteen boy.
Yeah.
Oh, it's heartbreaking.
He has, he has to go through a bunch of tests.
He is in group therapy.
He has individual counseling.
He's of course incredibly frustrated and it's arguably as traumatizing a situation.
Although he does continue like the counseling, of course, at least he finally got to talk
about it and it was being acknowledged and discussed and faced in a way.
So he does continue counseling after his release, which I think is good.
For a while, you know, when he's in these teens, he turns to alcohol and drugs to escape,
which is completely justified and understandable.
But after he graduates from high school, he moves to Fort Lauderdale, Florida to get a
fresh start and he works as a computer repair man and he becomes active at the local press
paternian church where he lives.
He's very well liked in this congregation of people.
He has one friend that he met there who would later tell reporters, he's amazingly gentle.
You cannot find a kinder, more compassionate human being.
And in 1980, Martin meets a man named Mark Levy when he's out at a nightclub.
The two start dating.
They move in together shortly after that and they've been together ever since.
Holy shit.
Yes.
So Martin's life finally starts coming together, but he still never tells anybody about what
happened to him.
He never talks about it.
And even his partner, Mark, he's aware that Martin went through something, some sort
of traumatic event in his childhood, but he doesn't ask about it.
They don't discuss it.
And he says that he figured when the time came, Martin would tell him about it.
So then almost 30 years later, after what Martin went through in 2002, he finds out
that Richard Owsley, who's now 63, is up for parole.
I knew you were going to say that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So Martin searches for some way to prevent Owsley's release and he discovers there's
a legal process in Virginia called civil confinement where the worst violent sexual predators are
evaluated after their prison sentences are over to see if they're fit to rejoin society
and if they're deemed to not be fit, then they're sent to special treatment facilities.
So the Civil Commitment of Sexually Violent Predators Act became a statute in 1999, but
because of lack of funding, the program never got up and running.
So Martin is determined to keep Richard Owsley out of off the streets, essentially.
Yeah.
He's still young.
He doesn't do that constantly.
Right.
He's only in his 60s.
So Martin decides it's finally time to share his story with the world.
He has to talk about it.
I have chills.
I have chills.
Right?
So he goes to the parole board and he tells them his story in detail.
And then he goes to a number of Virginia lawmakers and he goes to several media outlets.
He tells them everything Richard Owsley did to him.
He puts basically the whole thing puts pressure on the state of Virginia and they end up allocating
funds to the Civil Confinement Program.
Wow.
So this actually ends up working.
Richard Owsley's parole is denied and in 2003, Virginia Governor Mark Warner includes funding
for the Civil Commitment of Sexually Violent Predators Act in the state budget.
Amazing.
So a few months after Martin speaks publicly, another man comes forward.
He said he too was assaulted by Richard Owsley in 1972 when he was 14 years old.
Yep.
He was also too afraid to tell anybody about the horrors he'd suffered and he had kept
them a secret for all of his life until he heard Martin tell his story and it gave him
the courage to come forward.
So this was essentially the case that Richard Owsley skipped out on.
That day that he kidnapped Martin, he was supposed to be going to court for this boy's
attack and rape.
So basically the Richard Owsley returns to court to face the sodomy charge for the 1972
assault and he pleads no contest.
The judge adds another five years to his sentence and he ends up going back to jail.
When he's in jail on January 13th, 2004, Richard Owsley is strangled to death by his cellmate.
Wow.
It turns out his cellmate had himself been sexually assaulted when he was a child and
he'd actually warned the prison guards not to assign him to a cell with a pedophile because
he wouldn't be able to control his actions and those guards either didn't listen or they
did listen.
Yeah.
Holy shit.
Jesus.
Yes.
And when reporters inform Martin Andrews about Richard Owsley's murder, he tells them,
I'm still very conflicted and I'm trying to come to terms with it.
I did what I did to keep him off the street.
Nobody deserves to be murdered.
Wow.
That's fucking grace right there.
Yes, it is.
And that is the survival story of Paul Martin Andrews.
Jesus.
Right?
That's neat.
That's crazy.
So in 2021, they tried to repeal that act and there was a senator that said, you should
not be able to send people to jail for crimes you think they're going to commit, which is
an argument that is very true.
Yeah.
Great job.
Thank you.
Wild story.
Yeah.
Nice to have you back doing.
I survived.
I mean, they're so fraught.
But then it's the beautiful thing of people surviving and then going on and affecting
change.
I don't know.
Yeah.
Definitely.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, this isn't a nice survived.
Today, I'm going to tell you about one of Oklahoma's most high-profile unsolved murder
cases, the murder of cattle ranch empire owner, E.C.
Mollendor III.
Oh, okay.
So, the sources that I used are three Oklahoma articles, one by Richard W. Brake, one by Ann
Kelly and another by Silas Allen, an unsolved magazine article by Mike Easterling, a Paris
News staff article, Glanz and Associates, the Cowley County Historical Society Museum
and the Oklahoma Quarter Horse.
All right.
On October 26, 1937, Eugene Claremont Mollendor III is born and he goes by E.C., so I'm going
to call him that from now on.
His parents are Gene Mollendor II and his wife, Kathleen.
They have built their family's cattle ranch business into an empire.
By the time they built it up, the couple had owned more than 130,000 acres of land along
the Kansas-Oklahoma border.
They breed quarter horses, they raise the best cattle, they drill for oil and they become
known as the largest cattle shippers ever on the Santa Fe Railroad, so they're fucking
rich as fuck.
Yeah.
Gene and Kathleen, the parents are a great team.
She is in charge of the main house, the cookhouse for the helpers and keeping the books and she
even becomes a pilot so she can fly over the ranch and let her husband know if there's
any animals running loose.
Whoa.
So, she kind of sounds like a badass.
She's getting it to also, you know, she makes like a hearty biscuit, maybe some delicious
fried chicken.
Can we do biscuits and gravy?
Please, God.
She makes a great biscuits and gravy.
And maybe some nice kettle of beans.
Oh, man.
I'm hungry.
Okay.
And Gene is in charge of everything else, the whole cattle ranch.
So they have their son, E.C., in 1937, they have a daughter in 1940 and then the couple
and their family moves into a mansion on Crossbell Ranch which encompasses around 42,000 acres
of the family's empire land.
So much land.
It's too much land.
No wonder she needs to be a pilot.
Yeah.
You can't just go for a walk.
No, you have to, I mean, that's so, it's so much work.
Yeah, that's true.
It's so much work.
Right.
We live next door to my aunt, Gene and Uncle Steve and they had just like a fun farm.
It was for no reason except for we would, we had like, you know, sheeps, sheep and cows
in the fair.
I always forget you like grew up on land.
Yeah, on land, but like we were the, my dad used to say, we're the gentlemen farmers.
None of these people take us seriously because all around us were like poultry ranches and
dairy farms.
Dairy farms and the whole thing.
Yeah.
But even just the having like, you know, six cows is so much work.
Yes, totally.
I would imagine.
Yeah.
I had a cat and it was a lot of work because I can't imagine six fucking cows.
Okay.
So the area is located in a remote area of Osage County in Northern Oklahoma.
It's one of the state's largest ranches, thousands of livestock.
According to Unsolved Magazine, everything about Crossbell was kept in first class illustrating
the Mollindore's fondness in life for finer things.
So they made a lot of money off of this.
Big money.
Big money in farming.
Yeah.
So just to give you an idea of how much land and how opulent it was, to get to the mansion,
you had to drive up a four mile driveway.
Yes.
Right?
Is that what you want in life?
I mean, so wait, sorry.
It wasn't just like, because some people live on their cattle ranch and they're home, they
keep it all real low key.
You just kind of wouldn't know they had money at all is almost like, that's a very Sonoma
County way to do it.
Yeah.
It's just like, you know.
Down home.
They're not bougie.
They're not flaunting.
No.
This doesn't sound like that.
It sounds like they had a mansion with a big long driveway.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They built a private school on the ranch for EC and his sister and the children of the
Cowboys working for the family to attend.
So a lot, like enough Cowboys to create an entire school out of it.
Yeah.
It's crazy.
That's a huge staff.
Yeah.
So the kid of EC eventually heads off to Oklahoma University, but he moves back home in 1959 at
22 years old after his father basically hands him the ranch because the dad's eyesight's
failing, his kid's 22, he's like, take over the ranch.
He's like, I simply can't do this anymore.
Yeah.
I can't see shit.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So he marries his high school sweetheart Linda and the couple go on to have four children
and they live on the Crossbell Ranch and what's referred to as the Little House, not
far from his parents' mansion.
So the Mollindore family's opulence just continues to grow once EC takes over.
He's like the moneymaker.
He spends money, like it grows on trees.
He makes expensive upgrades.
He goes on sprees where he buys lots of land and livestock and Linda becomes known as the
Jackie Kennedy of Osage County.
Oh my.
And rarely she's like gorgeous too.
So this is kind of like Dallas.
That's exactly what it says.
Yes.
It says that in one of the articles.
Yes.
So like these are the Dallas people.
Okay.
But of course this kind of lifestyle is not sustainable, spending all of your money and
taking out huge loans and by September 1970 EC's life is falling apart around him.
He's in debt for 11 million dollars.
Oh no.
Yeah.
Oh.
And that's in 1970 money.
So what is that today?
88 million.
That's right.
I actually, can I look that up in the old translator?
Yeah.
Do it.
What if I'm getting that rose?
They did it.
I have a 10 million.
Okay.
So the rose in 1970 is the equivalent of 71 million, 285, 890.
So we're like four in between.
So how would you say?
I said 59.
Yeah.
It's basically, I think it's like a little bit above one million more of that.
Can you imagine being that much in debt?
Oh dude.
What do you even spend that much money on?
Well, it's like, I think probably the kind of thing where he's like used to spending
money.
Yeah.
And so then it's like, you don't have one car, you have eight cars.
Right.
You don't have six cows.
You have 27 cows.
Yes.
And so probably maybe buying land, all the equipment, like the, everything that makes
it run.
Your mom's planes that she likes to fly all over the place.
Oh those planes.
She's, she's in a private jet looking down over the land.
Everything looks fine.
She's got an army helicopter that she circles in.
I mean, the easiest thing in the world is to spend money.
So I think like the more you have, the more you.
Yeah.
I think especially when you grow up with money too, probably it's just like, it's not a big
deal to you.
Yeah.
So parties.
I'm going to keep thinking of things this moment.
Oh, like what, what are the debutant balls for your children?
Yeah.
For all the kids at the schoolhouse.
That's right.
Everybody.
That schoolhouse was so, so expensive.
Oh, opulent.
They had chandeliers in every classroom.
So of course he's stressed out because he's 11 fucking million dollars in debt.
So he does what anyone who's stressed out does back then and now starts drinking.
And when he drinks, he likes to fight.
He likes to get into fights.
Hello, friends.
Hello, sir.
Yeah.
He's not a fun friendly drunk.
He's a let's fucking fight.
Yeah.
Like, so the more they get into debt, the more you see drinks and of course it takes a huge
toll on Linda and their marriage.
It doesn't sound like he fought her, but.
He made problems.
Yes.
Yeah.
He likes some chaos.
Exactly.
So on September 20th, after a quote intense argument, Linda takes the couple's four kids,
gets the fuck out of there, moves to Tulsa and files for divorce.
So just before midnight and six days later on September 26th, 33 year old EC is at home.
And the only other person there is 29 year old Damon Anderson, whose nickname is Chubb.
Oh.
Which is a great.
So he is what I saw in one article called, he's EC's quote, man servant.
And he was, he had once been a horse thief, but he supposedly left the life of crying
behind him.
And he's been with the family for around four and a half years.
He works as a driver, a babysitter, a handyman, a ranch hand and a bodyguard, aka man servant.
He does it all.
He does it all.
And he just was surprised when you just said EC is 33.
I know.
Don't you think of like an old fucking ranch dude?
Yeah.
And also that much in debt.
That's a good point.
Like, wow, he was working on it.
I mean, how do you, I just don't even, it's boggling.
It makes me think that maybe the substance abuses were taking place before that.
Like the alcohol, but you can't just like get drunk and buy shit online back then.
No, that's true.
You have to like go somewhere.
You have to flip through that Sears catalog, all sloppy, like, I get these curtains.
What?
Say it again?
I get these curtains.
What else do you want to buy, ma'am?
Just get a rug matched to curtains.
What color would you want that in?
You pick it.
It's funny.
That's me on the, are you the operator for Sears?
I fucking am.
I'm just trying to get you to keep talking.
Ma'am, is there anything you want?
Did you want to have the beautiful doilies that go with it?
We have to just go over Christmas to look at some toys.
This is the only thing here, catalogs.
Good for anyway.
Ma'am?
That's the turn.
You and I fight.
There's always a turn.
You're mad at me.
All right.
So Chubb is there.
EC is there.
And then what happens next is just a huge gossipy debate thing.
But what Anderson says happened, Chubb says happened, is he's upstairs drawing a bath
when he hears a gunshot from the basement den.
He runs downstairs and finds EC sitting on the couch.
His bloody head is slumped forward and he'd been badly beaten.
He had lacerations to his scalp, contusions to his face.
And also some of his teeth had been knocked loose and he had been shot once between the
eyes.
Oh my God.
I know.
So Anderson's leaning over EC, like being like, what the fuck?
And then suddenly he feels something behind him and he had been shot in the shoulder behind
him.
He jumps to his feet, draws his pistol and starts chasing after two stocky men in suits
who are taking off from the basement den, who had just shot him and shot EC before him.
Huh.
Mm-hmm.
I don't know.
Why are they in suits?
Why?
Well, here you go.
I'll tell you why.
Okay.
Okay.
They exit through the sliding glass door.
Anderson just empties his clip trying to get them, but the men get away.
Anderson tries to call 911, but the phone had been disconnected due to non-payment.
So that's the kind of debt.
Oh, Jesus.
Yeah, that's the kind of debt we're talking about.
Like even the phone company was like, you're fucking cut off.
That's crazy.
I know.
I know.
The horses are coming in the window.
Hey, can we get some food?
What's going on?
Yeah, this is bananas.
So Anderson runs 200 yards to the house of the ranch manager to tell him what happened.
So then they call an ambulance while Anderson drives himself with a bullet wound in the
shoulder to the hospital because you're a rancher and that's what you fucking do.
That's the thing about when you live way out in the country, either you find out where
a doctor type lives nearby to come to you, everything is very, you can't get that right
now.
It's not going to be for another hour.
Like that's the whole thing is it's real nice.
You can see all the stars at night, but man, it can have your own plane, but you can't.
If you're shot, then you need to take yourself to the hospital.
You're just like, yeah, you can't have pizza delivered and you can't get to the hospital
very quickly at all.
Oh, geez.
Six.
LA, love it here.
Hey.
Okay.
So because the call to the police station is made from five miles away, it's like something
about the wrong jurisdiction is called.
So the police officers from another jurisdiction show up and they are all really inexperienced.
So this is just the beginning of an investigation that's just all errors.
So outside the house, the crime scene has been described as being like a circus.
The Osage County Sheriff's Department and the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation are assigned
to the case, but officials from nearby counties just show up to gawk because I feel like nothing
like that happens around there and they're like, I'll help.
It's like they're like, it's up at the Ewing's house.
Somebody shot JR.
So yeah, everyone's just going to go to see what they can see.
Totally.
Exactly.
Because again, there's nothing nearby.
Right.
So any evidence of tire tracks or other physical evidence is ruined because so many people
are chomping around.
Inside the house is just as bad.
Barely any evidence is collected, just a few fingerprints lifted.
No hair or blood samples are collected and EC's body is removed before any photos are
taken.
So there's no photos of him in the crime scene and they're told not to, but the funeral home
cleans up EC's body and starts the embalming process before an autopsy can be performed
before any samples can be taken.
So it's just immediately any evidence is just gone.
And what year?
1970.
Oh, okay.
Right.
So that seems like the kind of thing that would happen.
Yeah.
So this means that police can't take, test his hands for gunshot residue or take any scrapings
from his fingernails.
Basically, no evidence is collected really.
Then a private investigator and former detective named Gary Glanz is hired by Linda, the wife
who had left for Tulsa.
And he shows up at the ranch.
He later says the investigative deputies look very young and it's clear they have no idea
how to work a murder.
So Linda fills everyone in on EC's huge debts and how he tried to get loans from known crime
figures in Kansas City and St. Louis.
And so it seems that his murder was a result of a mob hit, which would explain the two
assailants wearing suits.
Hmm.
Right?
Maybe.
Definitely.
I just feel like people loved to bring the mob in in times where the mob, they, they're
innocent.
Are you giving them a pass?
Here's the thing.
I love the mob.
I think that they are misjudged.
No, I just think that like, that's the thing that you see happen all the time where the
people that are in the family are in the inner circle are always like, I don't know.
It seems like, seems like the Italians were here where it's like, I don't, it's gotta
be those mobsters.
I don't know.
Well, she has no reason to lie and if he's $11 million in debt, that can't all be on
the books.
True.
Right?
No, no.
Yeah.
I get that.
In this case, it definitely seems plausible.
It's plausible.
Yeah.
So it is plausible.
I will tell a spoiler alert.
It is plausible.
No, but not, but no, but that's, no.
Nothing firm.
That's not what happened.
Okay.
Oh.
Please also question other people who've recently been at the ranch and some of these people
are known crime figures.
However, they are, there are rumors that E.C.'s death could have been the result of a robbery.
Others speculate that perhaps he had taken his own life and made it look like a robbery
or a crime, a mob hit so that his family could collect the $15 million insurance policy.
Yes.
That was on him.
Uh-huh.
Yeah.
So when this dude, this fucking private eye, Glanz, hears what Anderson, Anderson, I know.
I'm sorry.
That's not a great name.
G-L-A-N-Z.
Glanz.
Yeah.
It's better in the reading than in the herring.
Like Glanz.
So when Glanz hears about what Anderson, the manservant, has to say about what happened
that night and after he's questioned by the police, he realized that this isn't a mob
hit.
That's a professional opinion, Anderson's a fucking killer, for sure.
No pictures of the crime scene were taken, but Glanz had been permitted to sketch the
crime scene.
So he knows that Anderson's story doesn't add up to where the bullet holes were located.
So this guy's like, he's got his own detective show where you see the pieces, you know, like
Matrix-style put together in his mind.
So he's kind of like, yeah, this isn't, this geometrically is not a line.
That's right.
Yeah.
So he feels that Anderson's account is like too much of a John Wayne hero story of him
chasing the bad guys out and shooting them out and everything like that.
He's like, this, that doesn't happen.
He's like not a dreamer.
I'm not loving the idea of like, you wouldn't know some two people were in the room with
you until you got shot in the shoulder.
Right.
But I guess you can run down all harried because you heard a gunshot, but yeah.
Maybe be panicking.
I don't know though.
But why would they shoot you?
Like you're not even paying attention when they just run for it.
Okay.
I don't know.
Or kill you.
Very true.
Please don't.
Everybody needs to stop spreading rumors about the mob.
They're innocent.
This is a mountain Karen is willing to die on.
For years said, I don't like mob stories.
And now I'm suddenly very sensitive about how they're constantly scapegoated.
Email us at my favorite murder at gmail.com.
Especially if you're in the Capano crime family.
That's right.
Karen Kelgueroff.
Okay.
So Glans feels that Anderson's guilty, but he has a meeting with him one-on-one,
and he actually likes the guy, and Glans eventually becomes a confidant of Anderson's.
So Anderson must be really charming because Glans thinks he did it, but he still likes
it.
He's like, oh, he's kind of cool.
Yeah.
He listens to great music.
That's right.
Two weeks after the murder, Sheriff wayman makes a big announcement.
He knows who's responsible and he says charges will be filed soon.
So, when Anderson finds out what women says, he calls Glans, and he's like, can we meet?
I'm fucking worried about this, I feel like it's gonna be me.
So they meet in Glans' car, where Glans has set up this fucking elaborate, especially
for the 1970s, recording thing that Unsolved Magazine describes as a state of the art,
reel-to-reel tape recorder hidden in the trunk of his car, and a microphone embedded
in the dome light.
Those guys are fucking private dick, like old school, yeah.
Reel-to-reel.
Reel-to-reel.
Wire.
That had to be so loud, though, like in the trunk.
It's all making screeching noises, and he's like, oh, my brakes.
Ugh.
That was not a quiet machine.
That's, yeah, this guy is like the original private eye.
Yeah, he's, what's his face?
He's so awesome.
Columbo?
Yes.
He was, yeah.
Oh, god, he's hot.
Okay.
What?
Columbo?
I know, I don't know what I meant by that.
I think we're, are you thinking of my camera?
What is that?
Stacy Keech.
I don't know what you're talking about.
Jack?
Co-jacked MPI?
I don't know.
There's something about Columbo that just like makes me feel safe, and I think that
that is a turn on for me.
Absolutely.
He was very friendly, and he would always just show up at your house and only have a
couple questions.
Yeah.
And he just would have one more question.
Oh, one more question.
I bet he should just be like a fun dinner date.
Absolutely.
Like, there'd never be boring conversation with him.
I'd never have to feel like I need to fill a conversation with Columbo.
Also Columbo is so charming because he's always making really intense eye contact with you.
Even though he only has one eye.
Well, he, and he like uses it, he hangs a lantern on it.
You know what I mean?
He doesn't try to.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He's, he's, it almost makes him more intensely connected.
Disarmingly.
Yes.
Yeah.
He wants to be connected.
He's very interested.
He'll ask you a bunch of questions.
Okay.
Let's picture Glanz as Columbo from here, from here on out.
Sounds good.
I'm down.
Okay.
Okay.
So, the microphone embedded in the dome light.
Insane.
Genius.
The microphone that was embedded in the dome light was three feet long.
You just put your hands up and it'll make you laugh.
Yeah.
He's like, what's that?
Oh, it's just a dome light.
Yeah.
Don't worry about it.
So, Glanz tells Anderson that he doesn't believe, he's like, I don't fucking believe
your story.
I like you.
Don't believe you.
I think you're lying.
He tries to offer sympathy telling him that he thinks Anderson killed Estee in self-defense
because again, he was a fighter when he got drunk.
Yeah.
And he says he could tell by the blood spatter found inside the house that Anderson's fucking
lying.
And he tells Anderson that police should have come to the same conclusion, but they've
watched the investigation.
So, he totally comes clean on Anderson.
And he tells Anderson, quote, they might charge you with a crime, but I don't see how there's
any way they can prove it.
He essentially like just admitted to me because they fucked up the investigation so much that's
not going to hold up in court.
Right.
And so, this whole time Anderson's just sitting there quietly, never confirms or denies what
Glantz is saying, probably because he saw the huge microphone on there.
Yeah.
Just like tap, tap, tap.
I'll say right into here, no, sir, you're not correct.
Right.
But he says to Glantz that he might confess on his deathbed adding, quote, if I get shot
through the heart, Gary, come see me quick.
Wow.
Okay.
So, then he's...
Yeah.
So, they don't see each other again for 37 years.
In the meantime, in December, 1971, Linda and the life insurance company settled out
of court for $8 million, so the $15 million.
She ends up marrying her lawyer and they live happily ever after.
But the $8 million is the largest amount ever paid out in an individual's death and it makes
the Guinness Book of World Records.
Jesus.
Yeah.
As soon as the settlement made, Glantz is told he's no longer needed to investigate
the murder.
So, she's basically like, it's settled.
That's what more can you do.
Yeah.
So, the father dies, so then his daughter Kathleen takes over the ranch until she passes
in 1998 at 93 years old and then the ranch is taken over by her daughters, so they are
able to pay off the debt and figure it out.
Oh, the women get in there.
That's right.
Turn it all around.
That's fucking right.
Right.
There are fucking planes all over the sky and take care of business.
They're just like, no more crazy spending.
Yeah.
Let's close this school down.
That's right.
They cut education first in America.
They always cut education first.
And no more late night calls to Sears.
That the Sears stuff stops now, then they burn the Sears catalog in the front driveway.
Meanwhile, Glantz becomes one of the nation's premier private detectives, but the whole
time he still thinks about E.C.'s death and he is positive that Anderson killed E.C.
He figures they got into a fight, but how did Anderson get shot in the shoulder?
Did he shoot himself?
These questions kind of haunt him or stick in his mind.
He keeps up with Anderson's movements and finds out in 1990, Chubb Anderson went on
the run after a warrant was issued for his arrest after he was caught running a multimillion
dollar marijuana operation.
Oh.
Yeah.
Okay.
That's a...
I didn't think you were going to say that.
Yeah.
That's fine.
So you're thinking hippie now.
Right.
Yeah.
He spent some time in Mexico and then settles in Montana where he works on a bison ranch
and assumes a new name and identity.
And meanwhile...
And he does a thing where you find someone who's deceased and you take their name and
identity.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
That's like the word.
The identity theft.
Yeah.
But they're dead.
So it's like no one will kind of know and I don't know.
Still creepy.
I don't get identity theft, thankfully.
It's not for me.
It's just not my thing.
It's just not anything I'm interested in doing.
Yeah.
Like the mob.
I don't care.
The story is a huge story in the state, like everyone is like...
It is like the who shot JR thing, essentially, it seems like.
Yeah.
Right?
Right?
So this is a huge story in the state and the subject, it's thousands of newspaper articles
are written.
This bestselling book is written by reporter John Quinty.
So in June of 2006, Anderson is arrested after he goes to the hospital seeking treatment
for a kidney issue.
So they realize who he is.
He's faking his name and shit.
He serves seven months before he's paroled due to his failing health on that marijuana
charge.
In September 2008, Anderson calls Glans.
They haven't spoken in 37 years.
Over the next few months, Anderson confesses what really happened on the night of September
26, 1970.
Shit.
That evening, Anderson and EC got into a fist fight.
Anderson couldn't remember why at that point, I mean.
So they were drinking together.
Yeah.
Who among us?
Okay.
They had some really smoky, whiskey, neat, right?
Yeah.
And a lot of it.
A lot of it.
They're down in the, in the brumpest room.
Yeah.
And they haven't eaten.
The wife is gone, so they don't know how to cook, they haven't eaten in fucking days
probably.
No.
There's no phone.
So they're just kind of like making do.
Yeah.
They can't order a pizza.
So they haven't eaten.
No.
So at some point, EC pulls out a gun.
Anderson takes it away and hits him in the face with it and they start to struggle.
He says the gun goes off shooting EC in the forehead, which is like, that's a pretty specific
fucking place to accidentally shoot someone.
Yeah.
And also that, that means it has to turn all the way around and like an arc going all the
way back to his head.
Totally.
Like if they had been able to do an autopsy, they would have seen if it like, yeah.
So then Anderson's like, had to quickly figure out how to cover up the crime.
So he gets a ranch hand who was waiting outside for Anderson to give him a ride home and he
grabbed him and he's like, you need to help me cover this up.
For some reason, this guy agrees and they staged the scene to make it look like two
assailants were responsible.
Anderson fires some shots through the patio door and then this dude shoots him in the
shoulder.
Can you fucking imagine being like, okay, here's the next step.
I need a gunshot.
Yeah.
This is going to get so much more involved, complicated and we're going to roll the dice.
I just feel really proud because the second that the reports, the police is like two guys
in suits.
Yeah.
No, no, it didn't.
You're called bullshit.
No fucking way.
Because if they were going to be just separate from the my mob theory, is if they were going
to send out guys, the guys would be dressed like they belonged in the area.
Why would you be like, here, it's the Blues Brothers.
I wonder what they're doing here.
100%.
Also, you would have killed both of them.
Like you would have just killed both of them or you would have made sure that only one
person was in the house.
So yeah, there would have been an exchange of gunfire.
These are cowboys on a like cattle ranch.
Or both EC Anderson would have been killed.
They're not going to just shoot you in the foot and run.
They're not going to leave one guy with a bullet in his shoulder.
They're going to be like, oh, that bullet in your shoulder is now going to enable me
to put it between your eyes.
That's right.
So you were Karen, you are correct.
God, it feels so good.
To not to not being the mob.
It feels so good to defend the mob and to be right about it, right to instinctually
know and care.
Once again, they were the fall guys.
God, yeah.
Sick of it.
If it weren't for you.
Defending the honor of the mob.
So Glanz tries to speak with the guy who helped him to corroborate the story.
He won't talk.
He's worried he'll get in trouble for helping, but not knowing that the statute of limitations
is to help someone cover up a murder back then was three years, so you got away with
it.
Jesus.
Fucking hate that.
Aiding and abetting.
Yeah.
And shooting someone.
Still, Glanz gives police his recordings of Anderson confessing and they are excited
at the prospect of finally arresting Anderson and putting this like huge story to bed.
But then authorities find out that Anderson has been moved to a nursing home due to his
poor health and anytime they try to talk to him, someone in his close circle fucking drives
them away.
Yeah.
Get out of here you.
You know.
And that works on the cops there?
I guess.
That's fine.
I guess that's fine.
I didn't think about that.
You get out of here.
It's just some super bitchy nurse at this restaurant and she's like, enough.
I do not put up with this from anyone.
I'm in the mob.
So officers still fill out a warrant for Anderson's arrest, however they never get a chance to
serve the warrant because Anderson dies on November 24th, 2010.
And along with him dies the chance for authorities to finally put an end to this 40 year old
cold case.
Yeah.
The case remains unsolved to this day unless officers can prove that his accomplice played
a bigger role.
It's unlikely that he or anyone else will ever be arrested for the murder of millionaire
Osage County rancher, E.C. Mollendore, the third.
God.
Fucking.
That was a thrill ride.
Oh, good.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Yeah.
That was like, man, it was an oldie, but then truly fascinating.
Left turns.
Right turns.
Yes.
And because of the way you described at the beginning, I thought it was like, it's technically
a cold case, but not really.
Right.
But they'll never, it can never be solved.
I feel like we need to focus on more stories that have deathbed confessions.
Oh.
I feel like.
Don't shoot.
Dare.
Don't touch me.
Should that be the challenge for the next, our next stories?
Deathbed confessions were just like, and then.
Why don't you do.
Four years later.
Why don't you do deathbed confessions next episode?
Three good ones?
No.
Mine's already big.
I know my two.
So someday one of us will do deathbed confessions.
You were assigning me one.
Well, because I don't want to.
And you had it all broken out.
I don't want to steal it.
You're going to pick three.
And.
I'm going to write it up on this chalkboard.
You're just going to see.
That's my wall.
Where'd you get chalk from?
What does it make any sense?
I didn't want to steal your idea, but it's a great idea.
But we both have stories picked out for the next like six weeks.
Yeah.
So I think we'll slip it in there somewhere.
We can surprise each other.
We can figure it out.
Yeah.
For sure.
Yeah.
Because that's a good.
That's a good one.
Another great one.
Thank you.
You too.
Um.
Yeah.
There it goes again.
Everyone.
Boom.
Thank you as always for listening and supporting.
Uh.
But mostly listening.
Mostly listening.
And then.
We interpret your listening as supporting.
I guess that's true.
Yeah.
It's the same thing.
Although there is a lot of online interaction where people really convey support, which
I think is a very beautiful part of this podcast host audience relationship.
Yes.
Where we have listeners who really let us know that they care.
Yeah.
Like they're part of things.
And if they like us, that's really, it's, it's, it's like, yeah.
It really makes it fun.
It does.
Because they're all cool people that we like too.
Except for that one.
Except for that one.
You know who I'm talking about.
Marie.
Some crushes their car.
I love calling out Marie.
Call out Marie.
Marie.
God damn it.
Marie.
Knock it off.
Uh.
We've done it.
We're done.
Did it again.
Thanks for listening.
I'm Marie Morris.
Thank you for your support.
Please thank your mother for her beautiful Chip and Dale story.
Yep.
What's your mom's name again, Steven?
My mom's name is Ramona and it was her birthday yesterday.
Oh.
Happy birthday, Ramona.
Ramona is the most beautiful name.
I know.
That's a great name.
Yeah, it is.
Thank you.
Well, you didn't name her, Steven.
Jesus.
But it's fun when a Ramona story gets to make an appearance.
Absolutely.
Always.
All right.
Well, hey everybody.
Thanks for watching.
See you next time.
And don't get murdered.
Goodbye.
Elvis, do you want a cookie?
This has been an exactly right production.
Our producer is Hannah Kyle Crichton, associate producer Alejandra Keck, engineer and mixer
Steven Ray Morris, researchers J. Elias and Hailey Gray.
Send us your hometowns and your fucking arrays at myfavoritmurder.com and follow the show
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