My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - 311 - Challenge Practice

Episode Date: January 27, 2022

On today's episode, Karen covers the murder of Charles de Young and Georgia covers the mysterious locked-room murder of Greg Fleniken. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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, Exhibit C. It's truly criminal. Hello and welcome to my favorite murder. That's Georgia Hardstar. Thanks. That's Karen Kilgariff. You're welcome. And here we are again. That's right. Here we are in the same room for the first time this year. The vibes are off the chart. This time it's really happening. This time it's personal. Can you handle it? Can you handle it? Um, Frank's here as well. That's right. Kind of, he's milling around. He's a little bit too interested in Georgia right now.

And licking the couch. Hi, Frank. He's got an, he's got anxiety issues and it shows. Maybe he smells the same on me. Maybe he's like, or kindred anxiety spirit. He's like, hey, hey, I recognize the panic in your eyes. Racing thoughts, sleepless nights, licking a couch constantly. Oh, I know you. Oh yeah. I see. I see your sister. I see you licking that couch. That's right. How crazy was it in The Great, which is a great show. When she was pregnant and had to eat handfuls of dirt. And I've heard of that. That's a thing when you're like low on some mineral, right? Yeah, I think there's a mineral issue that you could probably take with a nice centrum. Nowadays. You know, yeah, not back then. No, back then you actually had to eat dirt.

The combination of the costumes, the setting, and then the fact that it's real. Yeah. Like, because I was like, when season two started, I was like, what's going to happen? And I'm like, oh, it already happened. You could look it up on Wikipedia and what happened to Catherine the Great. Many people go to college and learn about this intentionally. This is actually taught to us in public high schools, but I forgot. I mean, I had no idea. I had gone there. I was busy. I was busy that day. I just wish someone had approached learning in a different way for me with cursing and sex. Yeah, I'm kind of like, these are real people. Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah. Am 19 years old. Or 70. Right. Right. Like, what the fuck, man? Speaking of shows, because it's still a pandemic,

that's all I'm really doing. Oh, we're just we're snapping right into that. Oh, I don't know. We don't have to. No, no, go for it. I just wanted to say that there's a third and final season of the Ricky Gervais show after life. Oh, shit. Where his, you know, his wife, the whole show promises that his wife had died of cancer. That's not a spoiler and him like, getting through the grief of it. Not a spoiler. It's not a spoiler. It's called after life. Correct. After her life. But this is the third and final season on that. We watched it literally in one night. The whole thing. And I live, I don't cry at things. And I was fucking balling at the end of it. No, that show is really beautiful. It's really, really real and honest. Yeah. Is our friend,

that brilliant British actress, a tall blonde woman who was the sex worker in the second season? Is she in it? She's not in the season. She gets talked about and referred to, but she must have been filming something else. Well, because she had her own show. Right. Which we've already talked about. But oh, that's, I mean, I'll miss her. But yeah, also that's okay. But it, I mean, what an incredibly done show. It's just it's so it was so beautiful. Oh, I can't wait. Yeah. Thank you. Because well, I didn't extended Christmas vacation where I stayed up north for an extra month. Yeah, you did. And I was in a house that didn't, I couldn't figure out, it had streaming services. It had all the stuff. I couldn't figure out how to make it work. So

I was watching a month's worth of regular TV. Ooh. And comments. It's like a time machine you were in it for real. It was it was like going back to the 90s. When I used to just watch the Jamie Fox show, because that's the only channel I got the WB or UPN. I can't remember which one they were on. But yeah, it was very, I did, I, it was a lot of like, I'll just watch Lawn Order. I'll just watch it. That's fine. It's easy. It's on. You can start in the middle of it. You know, when you're eating a quesadilla or whatever, it's like not a big deal. It's always, it's always good. It's always good. It's always when you've seen before. So it's not like surprises. But then there's, I love the, and I talked about this with the That's Messed Up ladies on their show,

but like I love a Jim Gaffigan walk on. Oh yeah. There's so many like New York actors and comics that have bit parts on Lawn Order from the 90s. It's so great. I love it. And that's what That's Messed Up, the exactly right podcast is all about. We didn't mean to do that deep plug, but if we have to do it, let's fucking do it. Yeah, fucking right. You know what, if we're going to do a deep plug, we've already made the announcement on our social media, but we haven't gotten the chance to talk about it together on this public forum, our podcast. You and me face to face. And to say we now are, we have joined with Wondery and Amazon Music to be on their platform and we're super stoked. It's really cool. It's a really big deal in our lives, like celebrating

deal, like celebration deal. Like it's been in the works for a long time. It's been hard and harrowing, but at the end of it all, it's so rewarding. It's still exactly right. Nothing's changing. We're not, you know, nothing's changing. They're going to help us to grow. But that doesn't mean you have to pay for anything. It's everybody's number one concern, of course. And so don't worry about that part. So it's like, you can still get it on any platform. Wondery just gets to put it out a week early because we're working with them. Right. That's how deals work. That's how they get it. That's the bonus for them. But other than that,

it's completely the same. So it's very exciting and we're super excited because then we get to make even more podcasts for Wondery, which if you know anything about podcasting, they are the stalwarts of the podcasting business. They've been doing it maybe the longest. Yeah. And the wellest. For sure. Like A plus work for almost 20 years. Yeah. And it's incredible. This is just a big deal for you and me, I think. I can't wrap my head around it. You know, we started this podcast in my one bedroom apartment because we liked talking to each other about true crime. And like we've just, we've built a fucking business out of it. And now we have

opportunities through exactly right to help other people that we admire and that we think are talented grow their own podcasts. And also all the employees at exactly right are so fucking incredible and talented that we get it, you know, we get to keep hiring rad people to work with us. It's just, it feels really lucky. I feel like there's a woman part of it too that like two women in any industry is, you know, has to work a little harder to kick down doors. And we did it. I'm proud of you. Thank you. I'm proud of you too. Thank you. Well, you know, here's the thing. When we started this, we let, we do say that

that's our party line of like, we didn't know and it was just this little thing or whatever. But then once we started to know that it was becoming a thing, it was our intention, very intentional decisions we began making to make that network and to make that network the way we wanted it to be and to do business the way we wanted to do business. And, you know, we thank you guys who listen and who have supported us all along, because I think you know us well enough to trust us for the intentionality and the consciousness that we bring to what we do and how we do it. And there's, you know, when announcements like this come out, it's like, who knows what can happen.

Right. But basically the direction we are, we have now turned to is incredibly exciting and has so much potential. Yeah. It's just going to be really amazing. It, it truly feels like we're now in Barney's. We're in Saks Fifth Avenue of podcasting. It smells like perfume, expensive perfume. And people are like, oh, do you want to get, do you want to get the perfect blouse with that pair of jeans? That's that expertise. Yeah. It's amazing. Yeah. It's a huge opportunity. I could cry if I keep thinking about it. But I thought you didn't cry. I don't. I said I could cry.

Possibly. Probably not. I like that on almost every episode you need to talk about how you don't cry. Right. Yet you did this one time. Right. It's like a monumental thing that I have to point out every time, instead of just doing it and being fine with it. But like I want you to know, like if I'm crying, it's because that's how important it is to me. Oh, Station 11. I fucking bawled at the end of it. I'm only halfway through it because again, regular TV for the past month, regular TV. Right. But I love the way people are raving about Station 11 on social media.

So good. It's such, it's gorgeous. Yeah. That's a good show. Yeah. Well, let's see. Oh, I could tell the story of getting locked out of the, of the place I was staying at, which was, it was kind of awesome because it was right. It was the day before I was supposed to leave. And we had to record a mini-sode. We had a small window to record it. Like usually it's like, can we push it? Can we push it? And everyone can push it. Everyone meeting me and Stephen and you. Yeah. But this time it was like, no, we have this two hour window and like we have to do it.

Have to do it then. Yeah. So we're getting all ready. I have all my stuff upstairs ready to go. I just, I just thought real quick, well, because you know that when you leave, like you stay a place for an extended period of time and then when you start getting ready to leave, you start, you just go through room after room, make sure you didn't leave a charger in the wall. Yeah. Make sure your socks aren't behind the bed or whatever. And so I'd been doing that all day and I thought, oh, the garage, they had a pool table in the garage. So I was like, oh, I didn't go out there that much. But when my family came to visit me

several times, I know they brought stuff out there. So I was going to do a check through. So conscientious of you, right? Like I'm the adults with it, you know, in the rental house. I go out there, the door closes behind me. It's locked. And I at first was like, oh, it's just a, it's just a little lock. You know, it's just like a little turn, like one of those little things you turn. It didn't seem like it wasn't, certainly was a deadbolt. So I was like, this is fine. I'll figure something out. You'll figure you'll learn how to pick locks real quick. I'll just kind of, well, because we used to have like lockable doors, like the push-in locks at our old house that, that my sister and I would go get a butter knife

and you twist it and pop that lock open and then grab the curling iron and like, don't lock me out of the bathroom again. So I, that gave me the, you know, the belief and the confidence that I was like, this is only going to take me a second. And you're in a garage with like tools and shit. You're like in the best place to break in. But turns out this garage has, I think it had a Phillips head screwdriver that helped me not at all and nothing else. Everything else was just kind of like a nice rental house garage. So there was nothing extra. Yeah. So I messed with that door for an hour and a half. And meanwhile, I was not wearing shoes. I was not wearing a bra and I had not brushed my hair that morning. I'd just been drinking coffee.

And then finally I had to go outside and because also I was way the fuck out in the middle of nowhere. Yeah. There was other houses around me. I hadn't seen anybody like on the street. It wasn't like there's people around. And thank God I heard a car coming. It was a neighbor. And I had to go out and to the end of the driveway and wave sheepishly with my arms, kind of keep my arms crossed, but wave and be like holding your boobs, hold my like self bra. Yeah. And then wave a person down the nicest man who was like, he rills his window and he's like, hello. And I'm like, I just got locked out of my rental. He's like, oh no. And we figure out, he knows Ellen, my friend who was the person who lived

in town and who got me the friends and family rate in the first place. So he left a note on her door. And I was like, thanks so much. Well, she told me she was leaving town that day. So I was like, that's not gonna help. So fucked. So I just went and after a while, because I tried every door, that house was locked up so tight, they should never worry again about anything. I literally was like, taking the screens off the outside of windows to see if I could, it was crazy. Finally, a security guard drives by. I do the same shame wave. Like, hey, looks weird. I, because also at one point I was wearing a knit black knit cap. You look like a burglar. I was dressed exactly like a burglar.

The bra, the braliest burglar. Yeah. That's like, that strikes again. Yeah. That's how she gets like freaks you out. And then she steals all your stuff. So I have to wave this guy down and he, in all his like full on biker mustache, like he was a biker. Yeah. And, but he was driving at like a RAV4. And I was like, hi, lock myself out. You know, those Harley guys love a RAV on the weekends. He's got to drive like a safe look at a security car. Yeah. He jumps out and he's got every house's house keys on a chain, which seems dangerous, but I'm happy for him. He's security. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you wanted at that point. Yeah. Right. It's like the best thing ever.

He let, he let me right in. It was the greatest, but I had been standing out there so long. I told you this, I got a sunburn. Like it was that because at one point I just started staring at the sky. Like I was like, well, now I've completely blown off Stephen and Georgia. They're like sitting on the zoom waiting for me and I'm just not there. But you've never not, we figured something was wrong because you've never not like been like, Hey, I need this many more minutes. Right. I usually text, Hey, sorry, I started plucking my eyebrows. Now I'm late. But yeah, no, it was, it was hilarious. Because also, but barefoot, there was all kinds of walking around the house, which was like is kind of a

little bit on a mountain side wasn't great. It was ridiculous. But you know, I had a nice conversation about cats. A shocker. And then, yeah, figured he'd be around. Should we do exactly right news? Absolutely. Yeah. It's Lady to Lady's one-year anniversary of joining exactly right. They've been around for much, much longer. They're a very legendary, old and storied podcast. But for their exactly right one-year anniversary, their guest this week is Georgia Heart Start. Hey, that's me. It was really fun. We, I told them the story of punching a girl at soccer practice when I was a kid. And just we had a lot of fun chit chatting. Awesome. Yeah. That was great. Great fun. And then on this week's episode of parent footprint

with my cousin, Dr. Dan, host Elizabeth Taylor and Alex Shapiro, who of course host the True Beauty Brooklyn podcast are his guests. Also, we've been recording new fan cult videos. And now, if you're a member of the fan cult, you get to vote on like some of the question topics. Like, go to the fan cult if you're a member and you can see the new videos. And then you can see also the ways you can interact and have a say in what we talk about on those. That's right. Tell us what to talk about. Oh my God, there's a new MFM animated video by Nick Terry, of course. It's on the exactly right YouTube channel. It's, did you watch it? I haven't watched it yet. Oh, my God. He, every fucking time. He's a genius. He's really the greatest. He nails it so hard.

I'm laughing at my own shit. It's like the best. So go watch it. It's the episodes called the chainsaw chicken based on an old hometown. It's just incredible. We love you Nick Terry. We love you Nick Terry. There's a bunch of other episodes that you, I mean, yeah, all of them are there. So please watch. Also, we just came out with, you know, the poetry fridge magnets that came out that were very popular in the 90s. Well, there's now a my favorite murder version of those with all the words that we like to use on this show. And you can buy those magnets and then stick them on your fridge and put together your own phrases. I have fuckity fuck fuck online. And then all the names of my animals. I got one for free, if you can believe it. And then

there's also other magnets and classic designs that are new. So go ahead and put those all over your fridge. If you please see business. It's about business. We're business ladies at the end of the day. What do you want? It's a business we've built here. Yeah. Um, well, should we get into it? Let's do it. I think you're first. I am. Okay. Looking for a better cooking routine with meal planning, shopping and prepping handled. Hello Fresh has you covered. Hello Fresh makes home cooking easy and affordable so you can stay on track and on budget in the new year. Hello Fresh meals are convenient, seasonal and delicious. Stay cozy all winter long with classic comfort foods available weekly. Why stop with just dinner? Now you can enjoy Hello Fresh's expanded menu of quick

lunch solutions, weekend brunch, simple side dishes and amazing desserts. Karen January is going to be my month for Hello Fresh. I am so sick of takeout. I miss cooking so much. I haven't lifted a knife or a pan since like early fall. 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. What makes a person a murderer? Are they born to kill

or are they made to kill? I'm Candace DeLong and on my new podcast Killer Psyche Daily, I share a quick 10-minute rundown every weekday on the motivations and behaviors of the criminal masterminds, psychopaths and cold-blooded killers you hear about in the news. I have decades of experience as a psychiatric nurse, FBI agent and criminal profiler. On Killer Psyche Daily, I'll give you insight into cases like Ryan Grantham and the newly arrested Stockton Serial Killer. I'll also bring on expert guests to dive deeper into the details, share what it's like to work with a behavioral assessment unit at Quantico, answer some killer trivia and even host virtual Q&As where I'll answer your burning questions. Hey Prime members, listen to the Amazon Music exclusive

podcast Killer Psyche Daily in the Amazon Music app. Download the app today. All right. Well, then my story this week was suggested to me while I was on my extended vacation by my friend Janet Ramazzi, mother of Mary and Sophie, all three who listened to this podcast. So hi everybody. Hi Ramazzi ladies. And because it takes place in San Francisco and I was up there, so it's like it's kind of, it's a hometown I never knew existed that's about the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, which has been the R newspaper of note along with the examiner, full props to the examiner. I don't think that one exists anymore, but Oh, are you doing the Zodiac Killer? No. I never heard of it. What if I just unrolled this thing?

It was like it's four hours long. No, this is actually, it's about the murder of the San Francisco Chronicle founder Charles DeYoung. Oh, this is fucking nuts. So I'd never heard anything about this. You know, we're now in Kate Winkler Dawson territory. This is very historical murder time. Okay. I'm going to give my sources. The first one is an article from the San Francisco Chronicle by writer Gary Camea. There's the New York Times archives from 1880. There's two articles from the archives. Then there's a digital book from Google Books that's written by Charles F. Adams. That's called Murder by the Bay historic homicide in about the city of San Francisco. Then there is the San Francisco Chronicle archives from newspapers.com.

And it's the actual article by Charles DeYoung about Caliq. Then there's the Wikipedia page about Charles DeYoung, Wikipedia page about Isaac Smith Caliq. And then there's the Charles DeYoung obituary from the New York Times archives in 1884. Okay. So I will tell you it starts in 1876. So this is like just past the minor 49er era of San Francisco. Okay. Where it basically gold mining like up in Sacramento and center Creek and stuff brought all that money down into San Francisco. But it also brought all the miners and then a bunch of crooks and a bunch of people that were going to steal your money and a bunch of like it was a gritty town. Okay. So this takes place in 1876 or this is this one of the starting points I should say. Because that's when a very

charming and boisterous pastor named Reverend Isaac Caliq moves from Kansas to San Francisco. And he takes a job at the Baptist Metropolitan Temple. So this redheaded red bearded 240 pound preacher captivates a congregation of up to 5000 members every Sunday, which is the largest in the city. And he soon wins over the hearts of many San Francisco believers. So much so that in August of 1879, the newly formed political faction in the area called the Working Men's Party nominates Caliq to run for mayor. Okay. So what the faithful San Francisco don't know about Caliq is that he isn't necessarily, hasn't always been, I should say, the pious man of God that he presents himself to be in the pulpit every Sunday. Back in 1855, he had found it necessary to

move from Boston, Massachusetts to Kansas to escape the bad reputation that he'd gotten for himself as a boozer and a gambler and a little loose with the ladies in his east coast congregation. Hmm. Amen. Right. Caliq never quit these less than holy habits. He just was able to conceal them better in Kansas to the point where he'd even started a political career there becoming a Democratic leader in the Kansas state legislature. Now he's moved to San Francisco, hoping to rebuild his political career. But there's one man who stands in the way of his plans. And that is the editor-in-chief of the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, Charles D. Young. So basically up until this point, the Chronicle had supported the Working Men's Party, but in the summer of 1879,

the D. Young family and the Chronicle jumped political ships and they started backing the opposing party, which was called the Honorable Bilks. Cool. Cool name. When the news of Caliq's nomination for mayor got to Charles D. Young, the owner of the San Francisco Chronicle, he vows to compel Caliq to decline the nomination. So he doesn't like it. He doesn't like anything about it and he's not into it. And I think maybe he'd done a little research. Right. So a couple days later, Charles D. Young calls Caliq and tells him to his face over the phone to step down from the mayoral race. And of course, Caliq refuses. So Charles threatens to reprint a story of Caliq's Boston scandals in the Chronicle. So Caliq tells Charles to go ahead

and then issues a vague thread of his own saying that he can share equally terrible stories about the D. Young family. But Charles isn't scared at all. So on August 20th, 1879, the Chronicle releases its first in a series of disparaging stories about the Reverend Isaac Callan's past. So the first article details his many, quote, two intimate relations with several married and unmarried members of his flock, one of which actually led to a trial where ten jurors found him guilty of adultery, although he was never sentenced. There was another story that was an, quote, escapade, an escapade with one of the Tramont Temple choristers in Boston. And a third was about a failure to pay his debts. So all of these scandals,

as D. Young says in the article, lead to Caliq's being, quote, driven forth from Boston like an unclean leper. So essentially, it's now it's just like a battle is waging in the newspaper against this man. D. Young then publishes at least two more stories about Caliq's immoral exploits, including one that accused even Caliq's deceased father of sundry immoralities. Just vague and being immoral vaguely. You know, just, yeah, he's just kind of a bad guy, sundry. So Charles is now satisfied that all the bad press will destroy Caliq's reputation for good, but for Caliq, this war has just begun. So let me just tell you a little bit about Charles D. Young and how he got to be the head of the San Francisco Chronicle. He was born in 1846 in

Louisiana. He's one of eight children. He has five sisters and two brothers, and the younger two boys are Harry and Gustavus. And around 1854, their father dies, leaving their mother to care for eight children on her own. So soon after, the whole family moves to San Francisco, where eight-year-old Charles gets work as a newsboy to help support the family. So it's real serious, you know, everybody has to pitch in and get a job. So of course, this is 1854 San Francisco, so it's about as rough and dirty as it possibly can be. The quote here is, the great bulk of the population of San Francisco consists of gamblers, whiskey dealers, and miners who come to the city to dissipate their gains made in the mountains. So it's a little bit like Vegas or Reno in that

wild west in a way. Yes, it's completely the wild west. Yeah. Like there's a lot of gunplay in this story. Sounds fun, to be honest. So growing up in this environment makes Charles a particularly tough kid, and he's very intelligent and really street smart. He never shies away from a fight. And as he gets older, he makes a habit of carrying a revolver with him everywhere he goes, which kind of sounds like that was relatively common, based on this story that I read, and only this story. But at the same time, he has a very soft spot for his mother, so he's a real gun-twin cowboy sweetheart. Okay, so he's not interested in school. Amen. But he's trying to make life as easy as possible for his elderly mother and the rest of his family,

so he focuses on work and he ends up landing an apprenticeship at a local printing office. And then soon after in 1859, when he's 13 years old, he starts his own paper called The Holiday Advertiser. That's 13. Yes, he's doing it. You can tell he's one of those 13-year-olds that like, he probably wore like a little vest every day and had kind of a scratchy voice and was like... had a timepiece with a pocket watch. I also love that his mom is called elderly. I bet she's 38. You know what I mean? Like back then, it was like... She's 38. She looks like she's 70. She can't walk and she's fucking had it. Basically, here she's been exhausted by children and by gunplay. And by her love of gold. So, he fucking starts his junior high newspaper.

Yeah, it's like a zine. It's just like, you know what? So, here's what he does. He's a businessman and a badass. Once he gets The Holiday Advertiser off the ground, he turns around and he sells it. Right? And then he joins forces with his brother Harry and he launches a new daily newspaper. Now, this one focuses on the happenings and gossip in San Francisco's theater art scene and it's called The Dramatic Chronicle. Fun. Right? Yeah. I mean, because you have to imagine in this era of San Francisco, there was tons of theaters and shows because all the miners are there to spend their money. Right? Right? It's like, it's all about that. And he's like so-and-so sleeping with so-and-so. This person got fired from this and they're fighting with that person and how fun. It's an

awesome column. And then shows it. One shows it eight and one shows it ten. Check your gun at the door. So, they get enough advertisers and they release the first issue of The Dramatic Chronicle on January 16th, 1865. At this point, Charles is 19 years old. So, they've launched The Dramatic Chronicle. So, that newspaper's popularity grows and then Charles and Harry enlist Gustavus, their other brother. In just four years, they transform their little drama gossip reg into what will become the journalistic juggernaut of its time and beyond the San Francisco Chronicle. Holy shit. So, they basically take that and they just are like, no, we're going wide and this is going to be like the city paper. Wow. Their impressive office building at the corner of

Kearney Street and Bush Street becomes the paper's first headquarters. And in a few years, the San Francisco Chronicle grows to be worth $250,000. But this is in the late 1860s. It's the equivalent of $6 million in today's market. So, they're rich as fuck. And they fucking do it. They start their own teen newspaper business. Wow. Oh, not like it. They're teens and they start a newspaper. They're the teens. Yeah. This isn't sassy. I mean, what if sassy was a newspaper? I should have kept my copies of sassy. I swear to God. Absolutely should have. I got sassy first a dish because my mom, there was some magazine drive and my mom signed me up for there. It was supposed to be like Teen Vogue, but at the time it was new and they just never came out with it. They were like, no, you're

getting sassy. Sorry. Sassy. Yeah. And I was like, great. I love it. Oh my God. So, Charles DeYoung is a man with strong opinions, good for a newspaper man. He's also open and honest, if not outright aggressive in exposing the ills of his enemies' pasts through the use of the Chronicle newspaper. And this comes in handy as the success of the Chronicle earns him political clout. So he starts using his publication to support candidates for various political offices when he likes them and disparaging the candidates he doesn't like. And his sharp tongue earns him some enemies, but he isn't afraid of them in the least. In fact, he's reported to be, quote, proud of the notoriety that he had obtained and proud of the personal danger as a legitimate

element of that notoriety. Wow. That's from the New York Times archives. So this is like other newspapers talking about the newspaper and the newspaper owner. When the news man becomes the news. Yeah, man. I just kind of like that idea that if you're going to start this business, that you have to be like, yeah, I'll fight you. It's like, oh no, this isn't some intellectual endeavor. It's just like, no, we're fucking going for it. Okay. So another element of San Francisco in the 1870s, which by now it's the 1870s, there's a lot of racial tension because there are 30,000 unemployed citizens because there's a big recession in 1877. This is going to sound very familiar to you, but the poor white contingent begins to focus their blame on Chinese

immigrants who they claim are taking their jobs. And so the Working Men's Party exploits this racist blame mentality and promotes themselves as the blatantly anti-Chinese party. Wow. So they've vowed to bring back jobs to the poor white people. And here comes the Reverend Isaac Kallick with his charisma and his speaking skills and his popularity. He ends up being the perfect choice to lead this cause. So Charles DeYoung's disdain for Kallick isn't just about a seedy pass. It turns out the last mayoral candidate, mayoral, mayoral, mayoral. Who knows? Nobody knows to this day. So I'm going to go ahead and put an I in there and say mayoral. It feels better. That sounds right. Candidate that the Chronicle endorsed was Andrew J. Bryant. You may have heard of a street. Oh, yeah. Bryant

Street. So he won the mayoral election in 1875, but then quickly fell out of favor when the recession came, right? So Charles DeYoung is basically kind of has a chip on his shoulder about who he picked for mayor and the control that he may or may not have in politics. May or may not. Mayoral may not. So basically DeYoung prints insult after insult about Reverend Kallick. For all of San Francisco to read, in one passage he writes, quote, at the head of the list of communist tyrants stands Kallick, the mock minister traveling Mount Bank and carpet bad demagogue who wants to be mayor, but not because he is fit, but because he knows himself to be unfit for the pulpit and is probably an atheist and a blasphemer at heart.

What's up, minced words? Don't do it. It's like, take this down and then he just starts ranting about all the different ways he can slam this guy. So in response, Reverend Kallick delivers several rage-fueled speeches calling all of the DeYoungs, quote, the hyenas of society, and, quote, hybrid welps of sin and depravity. In one speech, he even claims that if he's elected mayor, he vows to, quote, kill the San Francisco Chronicle. He's going to murder the newspaper. He's pissed. Okay, but DeYoung is unrelenting. He threatens that if Kallick doesn't step down from the race, that he'll publish the transcript from Kallick's Boston adultery trial. This is like clickbait central, but it's oldie fashion D newspaper. This is a Twitter feud.

Right. So Kallick, he's not letting up at all, except for he only has the one bit, which is basically calling the family trash and saying the mother is a whore, essentially. So he tells an audience he's speaking to one time, the DeYoungs are the bastard progeny of a whore conceived in infamy and nursed in the lap of prostitution. Wow. So it's on. Yeah. It's on. Okay. So the next day after that speech, August 20, 30, 1879, Charles DeYoung hears about these comments and he loses his shit. He grabs his revolver. He marches out of the Chronicle office. He has his carriage driver take him to Kallick's church. Around 10 a.m., Kallick walks outside where he's greeted by a young boy. The boy points to the carriage on the street and tells Kallick that a woman inside

wants to pay him her respects. So Kallick happily walks up to the carriage. But before he can grab the door handle, Charles DeYoung pulls back the curtain and fires a bullet at point blank range right into the left side of Kallick's chest. Holy shit. The horrified Kallick stumbles backwards, clutching his wound as Charles stands and steps closer and fires another shot into Kallick's thigh. Then he jumps back into his carriage and orders the driver to pull away. But there's a hitch in his plan because there's a working men's party rally taking place nearby. So when they hear the shots, they rush over. They surround DeYoung's carriage. The mob's ready to pull Charles from the carriage and kill him in the street. He fends them off by threatening to shoot them. So he's

waving that revolver around. Finally, basically the crowd doesn't retreat until the police come, arrest Charles and take him away. So Kallick's life hangs in the balance for the next nine days as a team of doctors and surgeons work to repair his wounds. Competing papers report in favor of Kallick because, of course, it's their rival that actually participated in this attempted murder. The shooting is called cowardly and cold blooded. And of course, the working men's party is furious, especially Kallick's son, Isaac. He issues a statement saying that he's confident his dad will recover and become mayor, adding, quote, if DeYoung does not hang, then help me kill him. Whoa. Yeah. So it turns out Kallick does recover. No. Yeah. And he does it just in time before the

election. The press surrounding the shooting helps boost Kallick's votes. And he ends up winning the 1879 election and becomes the new mayor of San Francisco. Nothing makes you more popular than surviving a fucking crazy ass shooting. Yeah. And like coming back. And coming back and being like, hey, don't think that was unfair. That can't take me down. Nothing can. Vote for me. Vote for me. I can't be murdered with bullets. That's right. Meanwhile, Charles DeYoung posts a $25,000 bond, gets out of jail, flees to Mexico and hides out there waiting for the whole ordeal to blow over. Yeah, it is. So this is very Wild West. Yeah. I mean, it just, yeah, it can't be. They must have had dirt in the street still. Yeah. I'm imagining cobblestones and dirt and

horseshit. And it's just like, it's rough times. That's right. Okay. So five months later in January 1880, Charles returns to San Francisco. He comes back and he's the editor-in-chief of the Chronicle again. He still is going to face a trial for the shooting. But in the meantime, he sends a reporter out to Boston to gather evidence that supports the claims that he initially made against Caliq. So he wants it like on record. He wants the proof that he wasn't just saying your mom's a whore, like Caliq was. He's like, no, this guy is a bad guy. The adultery, the failure to pay debts, his all-around bad pastor behavior. But in the evening of April 23, 1880, while Charles is working late into the night at the newspaper office, Caliq's son Milton is sitting at a bar on

Market Street brooding over his drink. Been there. Done that. Brooding over a drink. He's got, as my dad would say, a pretty good heat on. And he's got a five-shot revolver on his waistband and he's got revenge on his mind. This is the son. The son of the reverend. His name is Milton, which is my favorite where it's like Milton's going to have his revenge. Melt. Good old Melt's going to take care of it. He's wearing a sweater vest and he's going to have his revenge. His name is Milton. So later that night, Charles is talking to an employee whose last name is Reed. The office door swings open and Milton Caliq walks in the door. He points his gun at Charles and fires his first of five shots. He misses Charles. Charles takes cover behind his employee.

Oh, not cool. I think HR would have something to say about that. And then Milton fires his second shot. The bullet comes close enough for gunpowder to burn Reed's face, but Milton had missed again. So Charles runs for the back exit. Milton follows closely behind, firing off another two shots that don't land. So there's a chance that back then everyone had a gun, but no one actually knew how to use guns or shoot them. He was stewing over a couple drinks, not just one. Oh, no, I think he had a bunch of drinks. Yeah. So he's just like, he's just like, are you over there? I see. Why are there four of you? My eyes are crossed. Charles takes the opportunity to duck down and reach for his own revolver,

but before he can grab it, Milton unloads his last shot and it's actually through Charles's face. He's killed instantly. Charles DeYoung was 34 years old. So while all this is happening, there's a group of DeYoung haters in a nearby bar. And when they hear the gunshots coming from the Chronicle building, they rush over and then when they get there and when they see Charles DeYoung brought out on the stretcher with like the sheet over him, they all start sharing and celebrating in the street. Oh my God. So he really did have a lot of enemies. You know, he was a controversial character. Charles's funeral is held two days later on April 25th, 1880. While his friends and family mourn the loss and celebrate Charles impressive and

controversial life, Calyx supporters boo and hiss the funeral procession as it passes by. Guys, let the family mourn. No, they can't. So Milton Calyx is promptly arrested after the murder and his trial is held in January of 1881. 208 witnesses provide their testimonies over the course of 22 days. So because they were at the Chronicle, all of the employees were there. They all saw what happened. They all were able to tell the story and they all were like, yes, it's clear he did it. Right. Milton's gun had clearly fired five shots while Charles's gun was never fired. It looks to be an open and shut case. Until the end of the trial, when Milton's father, now mayor, Reverend Isaac Calyx takes the stand. As the prosecuting attorney questions

Mayor Calyx, he notices the mayor clanging two small metal object around in the palm of his hand as he's speaking. Finally, unable to ignore distraction any longer, the attorney asks the mayor what's in your hand. The mayor stands and says, these are the two bullets from D'Young's murderous weapon, which were extracted from my body. And then he turns and hands the bullets to the jurors. Oh my God, what a power play. Also, it's his murderous weapon, except for D'Young didn't kill him. Right. Murder-ish weapon. Murder-esque. The jury deliberates for a few days and then they find Milton Calyx not guilty of the murder of Charles D'Young by reason of extenuating circumstances. Damn. To make matters worse, one of the employees who testified to

witnessing Milton murder Charles is hit with a perjury charge and ends up serving a stint in prison himself. What? So now a free man, Milton Calyx, skips town for a little while to let the dust settle on that whole ordeal. When he eventually returns, he works as a lawyer in San Francisco until his death in 1930. Wow. Yeah. His father, Isaac Calyx, serves two years as a mayor, then opts not to run for re-election in 1881. He returns to his pastor job at the Baptist Metropolitan Temple for another two years. Then he leaves that job in 1883. He moves to what was at the time Washington Territory. It hadn't become a state yet. He takes up farming and he stays there until his death in 1887. Jeez. So in 1884, Harry D'Young commissions sculptor F. Marion Wells to make an

eight and a half foot bronze statue of Charles D'Young at his grave in San Francisco's Odd Fellows Cemetery. Then Harry takes over operations at the Chronicle and he ends up running it for the next 50 years. Wow. And the Chronicle is eventually built into a huge and well-respected publication, winning numerous Pulitzer Prizes and becoming famous for its writers, its columnists. And most importantly to me, its movie rating system that appeared in the Sunday edition of what they called the pink section, which was the entertainment section. I was reminded of this in the Wikipedia page, but this truly is the best movie rating system there ever has been. Wow. And ever will be. And actually, and I found this in the Wikipedia page,

Roger Ebert said the exact same thing. Roger Ebert said, quote, the only rating system that makes sense is the little man of the San Francisco Chronicle. So basically this is the movie rating system. There is a tiny man sitting in a movie theater seat and the man is either sitting up out of his seat applauding. So it's like his butt is like raised up three inches from the seat. That means he fucking loves this movie. He's going crazy. That's one review you can get. Then he's just like sitting up really straight and clapping. That's the second one. Then he's just sitting attentively and watching, but not clapping. That's the third one. Then he's asleep. Then the chair is empty. Those are the five ratings you can get. Wow.

In the Chronicle. And no joke, it's like I took it for granted. Everyone in the Bay Area took it for granted because you would just go through it. It'd be like, oh, no, the chair's empty. Yeah. That's so complicated, though. Well, but visually, it's complicated to hear it described. That makes sense when you see it. Visually, you get it immediately. Oh my gosh. It's a little man that looks like Wimpy. Gladly pay you Tuesday for him. I see it in my mind. And he's either loving a movie like he's going apeshit or he fucking loves. He's sleeping. It's the greatest. And that is the story of the murder of Charles DeYoung, the founder of the San Francisco Chronicle. Wow. I have never heard that.

I had no idea. I'd never heard it at all. And I'm from there. Yeah. That's wild. Wow. Great job. Thank you. Twists and turns and dusty roads. Dusty old roads. Dusty old roads. This isn't historic, but so recently I was looking up just for fun locked room murders or locked room mysteries where someone's murder in a room that by all intents and purposes, no one could have gotten into. And I came across this story I'd heard about. It's the mysterious locked room murder of Greg Flinneken. And there's this great, you know, long Vanity Fair article written by Mark Bowden. And it's a great article and a really crazy weird case. It's a mystery, but then it's not. Okay. So the locked room mystery is essentially

a murder's committed. There's no explanation for how the perpetrator was able to get in or out of the crime scene without getting caught. And here's a pretty, pretty crazy one. It's very Agatha Christie, this whole concept. Yeah. Yeah. So September of 2010, 55 year old Greg Flinneken is living in Lafayette, Louisiana with his wife, Susie. The couple had married when they were young, divorced, won their separate ways. And then 15 years later, got married again. Oh, isn't that sweet? Yeah. They're very much in love. And Greg is the vice president of OGM Landco, which is an oil company. He started with his brother, Michael, and the company's doing really well. So Greg has this kind of weird schedule, work schedule. So a lot of his work

is conducted two hours away in Beaumont, Texas. So on Monday mornings, he drives out to Beaumont, checks into this hotel called the MCM Elegante Hotel. Sounds elegant. Elegante. It must be very elegant. Yeah. And he stays in Beaumont until Thursday, going to work every day there, and then drives home and spends a weekend with his family. And Greg, this is kind of like, he's like this kind of salt and pepper attractive, like handsomely rugged looking dude. Looks like he's in good shape. Greg has been working this schedule for 10 years. He always stays at this elegant hotel. It's like his place. He seems like a creature of habit. He could rent an apartment in Beaumont, but he likes the simplicity of staying at a hotel

and has kind of a ritual when he goes there, which I totally appreciate. So his ritual when he gets back to the room after a long day of work, he's always tired, of course. So he likes to watch a movie. So he gets on his bed, props himself up with two pillows, watches a movie, eats a candy bar, drinks a soda and smoke cigarettes. Like that's his ritual. On September 15th, 2010, Greg is staying in room 348 at Elegante. He speaks to his wife, Susie, multiple times throughout the day, which is normal for them. He spends the evening like he does every other evening when he's in the hotel. Tonight, he's eating a Reese's Crispy Crunch Bar, drinking a root beer, smoking his ciggies and watching Iron Man 2.

So just hanging out on the bed in his pajamas. The next day, Susie calls, but nobody answers, which is weird because Greg is known to always answer the phone when Susie called, even if he's in a meeting, which I love their codependency. You know what I mean? Like, speaks to me. At around 9.30 that morning, Susie calls Greg's office and finds out that he's not there. So of course, she panics and two co-workers go to his hotel room. Nobody answers the door there and some management lets them in and they find Greg dead on the floor. He's face down on the rug with a cigarette in between his fingers like he collapsed while walking across the room. The police arrive and notice that there's no blood in the room. There's no obvious wounds

on his body and there's also no sign of a break-in or struggle. Nothing is missing from the room. He had, including his wallet, he had a stack of hundreds in it. It's still there. So police don't suspect it's a robbery gone wrong. Because of the circumstances, everyone assumes that Greg's cause of death is just natural causes. And it turns out Susie was like, well, yeah, he never exercised and he never went to the doctor. So we kind of always figured and he ate whatever he wanted. He wasn't unhealthy, but he kind of lived the life he wanted to live. So I think no one was really surprised by it being natural causes. And then police speak with guests who were staying at the hotel as well. No one reports hearing or seeing anything unusual. The night before,

in fact, a maintenance man had been in Greg's room around 8.30 that night while Greg was alive because he had tried to microwave a thing of popcorn and had blown the fuses in like the whole hotel. So the maintenance man had to come up at 8.30. He was alive and well. So natural causes seem like the obvious reason. But Greg is transported to the medical examiner just for the basic autopsy. Dr. Tommy Brown examines Greg's body and finds only two marks, a one inch abrasion where his face had hit the rug and a half inch laceration on his scrotum. According to Vanity Fair, the article, the quote sack itself was swollen and discolored and around the room was a small amount of edema fluid. The bruising had spread up through the groin area

and across the right hip. So Dr. Brown theorizes that the wound to Greg's scrotum was most likely caused by a hard kick. So when Dr. Brown opens Greg's torso up, he finds something he is not expecting. It's a total mess. There's a lot of blood and internal damage, even though there's just that one little laceration outside. There are small lacerations to his intestines, his stomach and liver. He also has two broken ribs and a hole in his heart. Dr. Brown theorizes the injuries to Greg's chest and his body were caused by being beaten or crushed to death. Then he surmises that Greg bled to death in less than 30 seconds and Dr. Brown rules Greg's death a homicide. So when Lee detective Scott Apple finds out that Greg was murdered, he is very surprised by it. Homicide

doesn't line up with the evidence in the room and Greg's body doesn't show any outward signs of being beaten or crushed. And there's no sign of an altercation at the hotel room and no one at the hotel heard anything in the hallways or anything like that. So Apple considers that maybe Greg had been beaten to death somewhere else and then his body was taken back to the room. But it doesn't make sense because someone would have heard or seen something in that case, plus Greg was found with that lit cigarette. So no one would have gone to the trouble to put a lit cigarette or, you know, a cigarette in his hand. Yeah, that doesn't make sense. So Apple focuses on trying to find a motive. So maybe there was someone who wanted Greg dead. But it doesn't seem that way. Everyone

loved Greg. He didn't hear to have any enemies. Suzy described her husband as a kind and intelligent person who lived an honorable life. She said Greg couldn't even tell a white lie and people respected that about him. Apple also finds that Greg was never at the hotel bar. He didn't socialize with anyone. It's not like, you know, he's a partier. Apple looks into the possibility that Suzy had hired a hit man or maybe Greg's business partner, his brother Michael had done so. But once again, he finds that those are dead ends. Both Suzy and Michael loved Greg very much. So Apple looks into the hotel maintenance records again. Because, you know, the maintenance man had been in his room when he had broken a circuit, blown a circuit, whatever. So it had affected the power in multiple

rooms besides Greg's. He called the front desk to let him know what happened. The maintenance man is sent to his room to reset the breaker. And it turns out when Apple looks into the maintenance man, he finds out that the man is a sex offender. So Apple theorizes that perhaps the man punched Greg's scrotum with a screwdriver as some kind of sexual assault. And that's what caused the internal injuries, maybe. But this angle doesn't pan out. It just doesn't work. They're just trying to put something together. Right. Right. The other lead is about some electricians staying in the room next to Greg's. At the time Greg was murdered, a group of electricians from Wisconsin are all staying at the hotel for months while they worked on a refinery expansion. And on the

night Greg was killed, three of the electricians were in the room next to Greg's partying. They had been questioned on the day that Greg's body had been found. They all said they hadn't heard or seen anything. But Apple keeps going back to these three electricians. He knows that they're known to get drunk together and party. He theorized that the men were drinking when maybe when Greg blew the circuit, maybe the men knocked on Greg's door, were pissed about it. Some words were exchanged and then a fight could have broken out in the hallway. Then maybe Greg was kicked in the scrotum by one of the electricians who was probably wearing steel toe boots, you know, just this far fetched theory. And then Greg went back to his room and collapsed. But the theory

doesn't make sense. Again, the cigarette found between his fingers and no one heard anything like that. Right. So in November, after a few months of no answers, Greg's family announces a $50,000 reward. That leads nowhere. And so Suzy hires a man named Ken Brennan, who's a former police officer and DEA special agent now working as a private detective. He's got like a really strong New York accent. It seems sounds kind of rad. In April, Brennan meets with Apple and they go to the hotel room where Apple tells Brennan everything he knows, like they're going to work together on this case. Brennan says that Apple's theory about the electricians is the most plausible. And they start looking into this angle further. They re interview the electricians who had been

staying in the rooms throughout the hotel. One says he heard rumors about a gun going off in one of the rooms, but he isn't sure if it's related. And Apple and Brennan go back to Greg's hotel room and scour the area for a bullet hole. They check the floor, the furniture, the walls, but they don't find anything. And then according to Vanity Fair, just as they're about to give up, Brennan, quote, notices an indentation in the wall alongside the closed door that leads into the adjoining room. Ooh, the indentation looks like a repair job. They decide to go into the adjoining room where the electricians had been and look at that side, there's a hole that lines up with the one that goes into Greg's room. It had been patched with toothpaste. Oh, that's like an old

college dorm room trick. Right. Like, yeah, you won't get caught or like... Right. Any kind of, if you have a pin prick in the wall, you cover it with a little toothpaste. Yeah. So it turns out it is a bullet hole, which had traveled through the wall of 349 where the dudes were partying and had exited through the adjoining door to room 348, the exact spot where Greg had been sitting, propped up, watching Iron Man 2. He got shot through the wall. Brennan and Apple go back to the medical examiner, Dr. Brown, with their findings. He's like, that's impossible. He was not shot. There's no way I wouldn't have seen that. He had seen no evidence of a bullet hole. But as they look over the autopsy photos, they realize that the bullet had entered Greg's scrotum.

And according to Vanity Fair, Dr. Brown hadn't realized it was a bullet entry because, quote, the scrotum was soft and pliable. It had folded over the entry wound, making it less obvious that it was actually there. God, that's just so odd and like... And like, what are the chances? Yes, completely. After entering the scrotum, the bullet had bounced around inside of Greg's torso, damaging organs as it went. And the hole that had been found in Greg's heart had also been a bullet hole. Oh my God. So, Andrew's scrotum went through his body and did it at his heart. So, everything now makes sense to them. When Greg was shot, he was smoking a cigarette in bed. After being shot, he got off the bed and moved towards the door. He probably just had this

sharp pain and didn't know what it was, right? So, he gets up to go to the door, but he falls face first to the ground and dies before he could make it, which explained why he still had a cigarette in his hand when he fell. Yeah. Dr. Brown's now convinced that Greg died of a gunshot wound, not of a beating or crushing. So, Brennan and Apple decide to re-interview those electricians who had been in 349. They first meet with Tim and he tells them that he doesn't know anything. But after detectives tell him what they know and that they know something happened, Tim confesses. On the night of September 15th, the three men were drinking in the room. At some point, Lance asked Trent to go get a whiskey bottle and his nine-millimeter pistol from his car. Trent comes back and Lance takes the gun and starts playing with it.

And the gun goes off accidentally. And a bullet hit the wall behind them. They didn't go check to see if the bullet had struck anyone. I mean, what are the fucking chances it would have? Right. But still, the chances are good. It happens all the time. Don't fucking play with guns, you fucking idiot. Absolutely. Why is that a thing? Why can't men just be like, hey, I like hanging out with you? Instead, they're like... Go get my gun. I have to play with my gun in front of you. Yeah, I loaded gun. Guns should have breathalyzers. I mean, good lord. I know. It just shouldn't be. Yeah. Anyway. Yes. They didn't go check. Instead, Lance freaks out, wraps the gun up, took it back to the car. Trent went back to his room. They were all really upset about it. And Lance and Tim used

toothpaste and toilet paper to fill the bullet hole in the room. Then went to the hotel bar and kept drinking. They said they didn't know anyone had been hurt until Greg was found the next morning. They freak out and Tim thought Lance had killed the guy. Like, they obviously could tell what was happening. Lance gives an attorney the gun. Then the attorney looks at the original autopsy and is like, no, he got beaten to death. So you didn't actually kill him. So you don't need to go forward with that. So Lance figured he was clear of all wrongdoing. You know what I mean? Yeah. So the electricians stay at their job until it's complete. They go back home to Wisconsin. They don't tell anyone what happened before leaving the station. After being questioned, Tim calls Lance in front

of Brennan and Apple tells him that he confessed after officers told him that Greg had died from a gunshot wound. Lance refuses to believe it. But then Tim tells him it's true and he should contact his attorney and detectives. So the other guy Trent corroborates what Tim had said and Lance Mueller is arrested. And finally, the locked room mystery of Greg Flanagan is solved. So in October 2012, 48 year Lance pleads no contest to manslaughter. He faces sentencing from probation to 20 years and he ends up getting sentenced to 10 years. After the judge tells him that he had just gone to authorities or at least checked to see if anyone had been hurt after he fired the gun, he probably wouldn't have gotten in trouble. But he didn't. And that is the

locked door murder mystery of Greg Flanagan. God, it's just a tragedy all around. It's like there's so much to lose. There's so much to lose. He was 55 and you know, living his life. Also just random and crazy. Yeah. Like what like what the chances I feel like are one in a million that they would hit someone who was sitting in that exact fucking spot. Yeah. And like not even hit him in the arm, like hit him and killed him. Yes. Within moments. Yes, exactly. Like the the the odds are insane. And also just just in one second, everything changes and everything. And they don't know, but they also didn't ask. Like you shoot a gun through a wall. Yeah. Hotel. Yeah. I would have somebody check on it. I would call down. Absolutely. We fucked up really bad.

Yeah. But that idea that you're kind of like, I'm sure it's fine. Right. I mean, even I hate to say that because you know, there's no malice. That was just a stupid drunken mistake. Totally. Totally. It's really it's tragic. And yeah, that's that's what happens when you play with guns. Yeah. Absolutely. Good. Should we do a couple fucking arrays? Sure. I'll go first. You want me to go ahead? Okay. This was emailed to us. It starts fucking hooray. I quit drinking two years ago today. I obviously didn't know that nine weeks into sobriety, the entire fucking world would shut down and I might lose my business and home. I've been hilariously pissed at myself for my terrible timing. But just imagining where I might find myself today, after those months in quarantine

with fear, anxiety and booze makes me so fucking relieved. So cheers to pushing 50 and coping with the pandemic, menopause and this hellscape we call home with the help of medical science and the world's greatest friends, not alcohol. Oh, nice. No. Wait, who wrote that? I didn't sign it. Oh, Anon. Anon's. Alcoholic Anonymous. Amazing work. And you know what? It's so it's such a good point to make that like everybody gets to have their escape however they need it. We all need our oblivion as my therapist likes to say. But it does add to it, you know, alcohol is a depressant. And the idea that that person is appreciating, it's almost like it's good to practice doing hard things. It's good to practice doing the thing you don't want to do because then the next hard

thing is a little bit easier because you do it. I love that. Yeah. That's actually a quote from my cousin Stevie. He's the one that said that. That's a really great point though too. It's like I get grumpy that I have to do the things I don't want to do. But the things that I know will help me like not drinking and exercise. But yeah, you practice those and then the big things come that are even harder to do and you're you can believe in yourself. It's like challenge practice. Yeah. Just kind of like then you can then everything doesn't feel so overwhelming. If you're kind of like, all right, this isn't it's like when we were texting earlier, I'm like, it's not the hardest thing we're ever going to do. We can do it. Yeah. Which is, you know, that's like I stole that from

someone else too, where I was complaining about going to the dentist because I hadn't been to the dentist in a long time. And the person who said it to me is like, it's not the hardest thing you're ever going to do. And I was like, yeah, so you're right about that. Oh, God. My first one is from Ania from Twitter. Ania underscore 0515. This is from back in November. I printed these ones up and I have them just sitting on my desk. I know. They're so minor old. They're evergreen. Yeah. So Ania says, my fucking hooray is that yesterday I got to open a production of R&H. What does that mean? R&H is Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella in which I play Cinderella showing all the children of color in my community. They can be whatever they want to be.

Oh my God. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That is beautiful. Congratulations, Ania. That's incredible. I hope that run of Cinderella was amazing because I bet it's over now. All right. My last one. This is one's called Fucking Hooray. Now featuring Teraway Pants. Oh, this is from Megan. My fucking hooray is that my boyfriend, who I spent all of Christmas Day roasting for wearing Teraway Pants, ended up tearing off his pants in front of my whole family to reveal nice clothes and then proposed to me. How good is that? Oh, I'm so jealous. Oh, good. That's such a, oh, that's the best. So how did he propose to you? Wow. Teraway Pants. He showed up all sloppy and I had to give him shit for looking sloppy. Oh, he knew that would

bug her. Yeah. What a good move to like, Hey, Megan, in front of the whole family hilarious. He knows how close I am with my family and enlisted the help of my mom to make it absolutely perfect. Love it. He also picked out the ring all by himself and showed it to my mom, his response was, you literally found Megan in ring form. God, congratulations, Megan. High five. High five in Teraway Pants. This is also Twitter from Roman Danvers, R M Danvers. My fucking hooray is that after two years and seven months of not speaking, I saw my parents and we are now on track to having a better relationship. Yeah. They also told me that they were proud to have me a trans man as their son. Oh, God.

Right. Chills. Congratulations, Roman. Oh my God, Roman. What an incredible name, first of all, but oh my God, two and a half like that. Also, just the ability to stick in and keep trying with something that hurts so bad and is so difficult is the amount of strength that shows. Yeah. Because it is all about repair work as we know in the long term, and that is an incredible accomplishment. And it really says something about Roman's parents too. Yeah. And it's such a mature, it's mature to decide that you don't need a relationship with people who have hurt you, but it's just as mature to decide that you want to work through those things to have a different and better relationship with someone. Yeah. Yeah. He killed

it. Yeah. Congratulations, Roman. Guys, great fucking arrays. Keep sending them in and then we'll read them in three months. We'll read them when we read them. They were in a drawer. Mine had to simmer in another drawer a little bit to just get to the perfect spot. They had aged, lightly aged. Perfectly aged. Oh my God. Yeah, I think that's it for us, right? Yeah. You guys, all of this epic stuff we couldn't fucking obviously do without you. We're nothing without you. We're nothing and we appreciate you so much. We are huge fans of yours. Yeah. So stay sexy 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 Stephen

Ray Morris, researchers J. Elias and Hailey Gray. Send us your hometowns and your fucking arrays at myfavoritmurder at gmail.com. And follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at my favorite murder and Twitter at my fav murder. And for more information about this podcast, or live shows, merch, or to join the fan cult, go to myfavoritmurder.com. Rate, review and subscribe.