My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - 392 - Hollywood Phony

Episode Date: September 7, 2023

On today's episode, Karen and Georgia cover the "Highway Killer" and the controversial history of the "Bodies" exhibits.For our sources and show notes, visit www.myfavoritemurder.com/episodes.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is exactly right. Mike Williams set off on a hunting trip into the swamps of North Florida, where it was thought he met his fate by a group of hungry alligators, except that's not what happened. And after the uncovering of a secret love triangle, the truth would finally be revealed. Listen to over my dead body gone hunting early and add-free on Wondering Plus. Hello! Hello! Hello! And welcome! She's my favorite murder! That's Georgia Hard Stark.

That's Karen Kilgarif. It's Monday. To us. To us, it's Monday. What day is it to you? Hey, in your heart and your mind and your spirit and your soul. What day is it? Now I'm going to play the part of the listener.

Okay. If somebody asked me that question, yeah, I'd be like, I'm kind of a solid Thursday person. Mm-hmm. Were you gonna say the same thing? I was literally like, yeah, like a Thursday is the good, the good milk as my therapist calls it. Yes, it's like, there's still potential.

You have one more day of work, but you're kind of grateful that you're closing it out. Yeah, yeah, and you're like planning the weekend And like it's all right in front of you. Amy Sideris, the wonderful, amazing Amy Sideris, just like post on Instagram now, like gifts that are supposed to translate into the days of the week. So like Monday is always a gift. If someone like getting hit over the fucking head with like a barbell and falling over. Fridays are celebratory, obviously, but Thursdays are the ones that are like, it's coming. I'm like a freight train. Yes. Here it comes. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. It's excitement. There's so much potential. You can pretend that you're going to go to

like a rooftop bar. At some point this weekend. This will be the weekend you put on your big felt. Finally, finally, you're felt. You do those hot roller long curls in your hair and you go to the rooftop girl. Do you know what I actually did last weekend and I followed through with it, which is not like me at all. I got dressed up. I thought can did the whole thing. I got cookie, I got dressed up, I thought can did the whole thing. I got cookie, a babysitter, a.k. my dad, the whole thing. I went and saw the golden girl's live drag show. Yep. With none other than Jackie beat as B. Arthur, who, oh my God.

I never seemed better acting in my life. Jackie beat, I know I've done this brag before, but Jackie Beat worked on the first writing job I ever had. It was a sketch show for the WB. And I truly think Jackie might be the funniest person on the planet, like the sharpest mind, the fastest mind, but then also this incredible singing voice. Really?

Just like one of the greats I talk about Jackie beat a lot and brag about Jackie you took me to Jackie beats show Long time ago and I was like blown away, but you know, who else was in it? Of course Sam Pancake as a stelgetti just killed it. Yeah, and Sherry Vine as the amazing Ruma clan of Han But none other than exactly right's own as the amazing Ruma clan of hand, but none other than exactly right's own, a rose Hernandez, as the cutest, Betty White I have ever seen,

picture it, it was like the cutest fucking thing. So, Rose was standing in for Drew Drogey? Yes, exactly. Awesome. And by the end of the show, I was like shy and star struck and there's a photo of me with fucking exactly right's Karakling because we went together. And I'm like shy and star struck and there's a photo of me with fucking exactly rights care at clink because we went together And I'm like blushing. I'm so excited to be in a photo with them

Yeah, that's awesome. She's I mean she's so talented, but that show also It's a kind of thing where you don't even have to have That much of a huge attachment or deep fan ship of the Golden Girls to just have it be like, hey, did this play in your house when you were a kid? Because you will get this and you will like this and the energy around it is so like, fun times, summertime, fun time. Well, everyone's saying the intro together,

a whole theater of people, word for word, even though some of us are kind of confused on a certain sentence here there, saying along and it was like this beautiful feeling. So good. Also, I think, because you know, we're all being so careful. You're on exactly right to not promote anything on television or film because of the strike. What a great opportunity to talk about talented people that we love that deserve. I mean, I think that show is sold out all the time. So it's almost mean to talk about it because people can't get enough. But live comedy performances, if you want a little boomer. That's where it's made. It's like the perfect thing to bring someone from LA to go eat it. Kacita.jumpo, one of the best fucking Mexican restaurants in town,

and go see Golden Girls live. And it's Golden Girls with a Z girls. So check that out. Make no mistake. Is it in the theater at Kacita's cell campo downstairs? No, I think they're doing right now. It was on that. It was at Lyric. Whatever.

Oh, got it. Got it. At the Lyric theater, just in case someone could get it. Yeah. At the Lyric Hyperion. I, got it. Got it. At the lyric theater, just in case someone could get a ticket. At the lyric hyperion, I mean, incredible. Love it. Good vibes. It's up with you. Good vibes.

I just got back from headaluma. I stayed up there hiding from the hurricane, hurricane. That never did. It never was. Thank God. It was that way, because there was lots of jokes of like, here's normal people prepping for hurricane. Here's people in Los Angeles prepping for hurricane. Yeah, and then it's just footage of people just running down a slip-in slide

Like treating everything like it's a joke. Yeah, and I was really afraid that it would be like that for like the first two hours And then something or fine would happen devastation. Yeah Just a suggestion. How about a little less devastation It just the onslaught. Please be careful. If you are watching the news at a regular pace, which my dad does all goddamn day every day, why do you do that?

You gotta be careful. I think it's that feeling of like, especially right now, trying to stay up with like the breaking news and the latest news. Yeah. But so much is going on in this world. There's so much devastation. There's so much like rough stuff you have to be careful.

Don't totally dissociate. Stay in with your empathy. Sure. Don't test yourself. You're only human being. Yeah. That's a good, those are good. That's a good thing for like anything in life.

Don't test yourself. You're only a human being. Yeah, that's true. That's a good thing for anything in life. Don't test yourself. You're only a human being. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Just know when you're getting full and then step away. And it's so hard. So I have, I'm really ashamed of this callus I have on my pinky because it's where my phone rests

when I'm scrolling. Oh yeah, I have the same one on my phone right there. Okay. And I feel like it's one of those things where it's like, well, if I don't ever put my phone rests when I'm scrolling. Oh yeah, I have the same one on my phone right there. Okay, and I feel like it's one of those things where I was like, well, if I don't ever put my phone down, it's never gonna go away for the rest of my life. And then the other day I cut the tip of my thumb off while I was cooking. So I had like banded it up.

So I couldn't scroll with the fat thumb. And then I had this fucking painful callus on my thing. And it was just like almost like a punch in the face of like, you're doing it too much, you know. Your hands are punching themselves in the face. Or just like, hey, we don't work anymore. What are you going to do now? How about you like pet your cat and read a book instead? Here's the thing. The book thing is great. It doesn't work fast enough. As a person who is fully addicted to TikTok

and needs to see 150 strangers telling me, like, assuring me that their opinion is right, and I have to do what they're doing. Yeah. Or this product will change your fucking life or this recipe is gonna give you so much more time in your life or whatever. Yeah, or just watching a woman my age put on concealer correctly.

And now I know how to put on concealer correctly. It's like, thank you. You never go out and put concealer on anyway. Now I'm all concealer. Just catch me. Catch me outside with my concealer on. I can't even see your face. It's just a full face of concealer right now.

Isn't it just glowing with three shades too light? It's the 90s again. Somebody, there was a TikTok and I do apologize. This is the thing I do all the time. It's not like I write it down. It was just someone that had taken concert footage of Robert Smith, who God bless him. The lead singer of the cure. And he's on stage,

in all of his middle-aged glory with his, his sloppy punk rock lipstick and his crazy hair. And then underneath it, it said something like me rolling home at 2 a.m. You know what I mean, whatever it was. And it just was like, thank you. I get this. I feel this like this. It truly was on my 4u page because it was for me it hit it hit for you in the realest way

I can kill garif it hit middle-aged tiktok or a caron Well, they're calling us. They're calling me and us old millennials Is that right ancient millennials some founder millennial? Thank you Alejandra I couldn't remember that because I am old. There you go. I'm an elder millennial. Elder millennials. Yeah.

So there's younger ones that were born like in the later 80s and 90s. So I'm a young as shit, Gen Xer. I'm like the youngest Gen Xer that could possibly Gen X. Also the oldest millennial that could millennial. So I'm like right there and it's hard to be called elder anything. Yes.

Sure. That's what I am. If you're a young Gen Xer, then I think I'm just solidly. Right. Am I the oldest Gen Xer? Am I elder Gen X? Borderline Boomer?

What's the number? No, it's like 80, I think. So you're solid Gen X. Solid Gen X, okay. Yeah. I mean, when in the history before like this and social media and this kind of weird trendy way of talking, did anyone give a shit what generation they were in? This was not the discussion. But if you call yourself the greatest generation, then you obviously fucking give a shit mom and, like calm the fuck down.

True. You don't even know what's coming after, like chill. Compared to what? Boomer, you like? Yeah, your parents fucking struggle to bring you here to this country. You know, that's very telling, because my dad's from the silent generation.

And that is shit the fuck up. So dead silent until you try to run the dishwasher and then he loses his mind. We had the most hilarious fight about the dishwasher. And of course, on top of that home gym is very hard of hearing. His neighbor Julie brought over homemade cookies. And these were, they were the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever had. And I am a self-proclaimed connoisseur, which just means I've been paying a lot of attention

to cookies, my whole sugar. Sure, why wouldn't you? I don't think that's a mystery, but they were perfectly made, perfectly made. And so the next time I was walking the dogs and I saw her. And so I just was like, Julie, those were the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever had. And I was like, what was that recipe?

Is that that New York Times recipe that has like, sultanate or like this one or that one? And she goes, no, a tall house. Yeah. She's so blase about it. And then I just went, wait a second, it's because she made them for, well, me. I mean, I was glomming on.

Yeah. It was like homemade cookies for us, for my dad. And I was like, that's the difference. From her kitchen walked over to our kitchen. Yeah. And like cared enough about it, for you. Wait, I want to hear the dishwasher argument, the heart of hearing the dishwasher.

Like what, Karen, what are you doing wrong with the dishwasher as when I'm trying to run it at all? I'm literally called a Hollywood phony when I try to run the dishwasher. That's my dad's favorite insult, which is pretty hilarious. But the reason I told the whole story about Julie is because the next day when I told her,

I saw her and then I told her how good her cookies were and we talked about it for 10 minutes. And then I said, because she goes, is your dad doing okay? Because you know, we're here if you ever need us. And I go, I just need you to know

that he is borderline stone deaf. And there's a lot of yelling that goes on in that house that is not elder abuse. It probably sounds like it, but you have to be up at opera levels just for him to hear you. And then that's when he mutes football to go,

why? Which is, of course, in cheerleading. And she's she started left where I'm like We got to do a fight at Christmas that I only realized after like 30 seconds into us fighting that both the sliding glass door and the Front door were open and it's dead silent in his neighborhood. Yeah, and I'm like, oh, I'm the lunatic that comes home and just starts screaming at her old dad, that everyone loves. And I was just like, so I had to say to her face, I was just like, there's a lot of yelling, but it's not always fighting.

But the dishwasher fight was fighting because we were getting ready for my sister's birthday dinner. And my dad does a thing where he just puts stuff in the dishwasher and then just keeps taking it back out and rinsing things individually. So he almost uses the dishwasher like a drying rack. He just never runs it. So then if I go to like have cereal, then I have to hand wash a bowl.

I think that's dumb. So we should run this because there's a bunch of other dishes in it. Yeah. Well, you know that's the first sign of being a Hollywood phony. When you think you're fancy enough that you're gonna run the dish wall when you should want to use a dishwasher

as it is intended for. It is supposed to happen? It's much more sanitary than just having shit sit there for days. Ew. They have like drying racks and you could just use that. No, that's crazy. Please, please don't you also be a Hollywood Fony in Georgia.

Don't you go the way of me, the Hollywood Fony. Just ridiculous. There's lots of stuff like that, but then, of course, lots of laughs, because home gym to this day is the funniest person of all time. I love it. Very funny. I love it. Very funny.

I tried to get him to watch Escape from New York. And then I fell asleep, of course. Yeah. And he got up and went, like stood up and declared, this is the stupidest movie I've ever seen in my life. Wow. And then went home. I thought old guys love that fucking movie. I did too.

I was like, Snake Pliskin, you're not going to get on board with this. He didn't like it. That's an old guys movie for sure. But maybe not so old. That's so old. I think Gen X for sure, maybe Boomer, but not Silent Generation. Silent Generation. Sorry, I got so mad at the greatest generation. I think I confuse them for Boomers, so I take it all back.

I think the greatest generation are the ones that fought World War II. So they'd be older than my dad. Right. Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you for your service. You know, should we just do a quick note at the top of this episode? If you are a podcast listener who also is in their 90s are apologies to you.

And thank you. You were the greatest, it turns out. Your kids, not so much, but call your kids and ask them what the problem is. Are they Hollywood elite? Cause they kinda act like it. Are you phony? All right, exactly right corner?

Let's do it. All right, hey, we have a podcast network. It's called exactly right media. Here are some it. All right, hey, we have a podcast network. It's called exactly right media. Here are some highlights. The first two episodes of our brand new series, Infamous International, the Pink Panther Story, drops Thursday, September 14th. Please don't forget to follow that show.

So you can be there for every single episode. I think we're putting out two on the day that it drops so people can get hooked. Guys, rate, review, subscribe. We appreciate it. And then hilarious comedian Maria Bamford joins Kurt and Scotty this week on bananas to discuss the world's weirdest news. She also has a new book coming out that looks so good.

It's called Sure. I'll join your cult. A memoir of mental illness and the quest to belong anywhere. God, I love that woman. If you haven't seen Maria Bamford's comedy, please do yourself the favor, talk about something good to look forward to. Maria Bamford is arguably the best standup comic

of the last 40 years, unbelievably talented, unbelievably brilliant. And then she also does impressions of people that you've never met, but you know when she's doing them. And she's incredible. All of her stand-up specials are amazing. She did one of them. She filmed it in her parents living room and did it just to the audience of her parents. It's amazing. She's so genius. Oh, she's so good. Yeah. Babs, Tess and Brandy over on Lady to Lady, are Bridger's guests this week on I said no gives the ultimate crossover.

I love an ERM crossover. I buried bones, Kate Winkler Dawson, and Paul Holes cover a young girl's murder in 1958, a historic case that changed the Canadian legal system forever. Check that out. Also, if you're so inclined to the MFM stores, currently hosting an end of

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But I really meant it. Hey, I have a question. Here's my first question. Am I supposed to know what's going on? Now, I heard lately you've had some dishwasher trouble, Karen. Tell me about that. Oh God, I hate talk shows. Okay. Team me up. Team me up for the next bit. newspaper. Every big moment starts with a big dream, but what happens when that dream turns out to be an even bigger failure? Each week on Wonder Woman's New

Podcast, The Big Flop, host Misha Brown is joined by different comedians to chronicle some of the biggest failures and blunders in pop culture history. Each episode will have you thinking, why in the world did this get made? From box office flops like Cats the Movie, to Action Park, New Jersey's infamous theme park that had countless injuries, many lawsuits, and rides so wild it became known as Class Action Park, or Quibi, that short form video platform with an even shorter lifespan. It's a story of a spectacular failure with lots of surprises along the way. Enjoy the big flop on the Wonder App, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to the big flop early and add free on Wonder e Plus. Get started with your free

trial at Wandery.com slash plus. Okay, I am very excited to get to tell you this story. Alejandra, do you know who found this story that I'm doing today? Was it Marin? was it you, was it Hannah, was it me, was it ghost? I think it was you Karen, yeah, you sent it to Marin. But if I already knew that, and I just, that was also fake, even brilliant, brilliant mine. See what a phony I am? Okay, so there is a TikTok account and also I think more famously a YouTube account. And it's now one Dree podcast, Mr. Ballin. And he covers True Crime and he's really good at it. He's great at telling a story.

And I saw a TikTok of this story and I could not believe I'd never heard of it. It's just a story I can't believe. So thanks to Mr. Ballin and please listen to that podcast when you get a chance because if you haven't already, you probably already do, but if you haven't, you'll love it. So here's the story. Okay, so it starts on Sunday, July 30th, 2007, outside of the Macdenna family home in a small New England town, Chelmsford, Massachusetts. The odds that it's not pronounced Chelmsford are so high, but we're going to plow ahead. Great. This family consists of Kevin and Jeannie, the parents, and then their two teenage children,

Ryan and Shay. They live in a cute quiet neighborhood that's actually strange that it's quiet because it's very close to interstate 495. And tonight, the kids are out with friends, Jeannie and Kevin went out to eat and then now they're home watching a red socks game. Their 15 year old daughter Shay is the youngest child. She's got a midnight curfew. She comes home like 15 minutes early. She goes through the back door, that's been left unlocked for her. And she knows her brother Ryan is coming home after her

and she figures she's just gonna leave the door unlocked instead of getting woken up two hours later from a text from him saying, let me in the back door. Yeah, I've never heard him speak, that was not. That sounds like a brother for sure. Right? Come on, Come here.

This is so. What she doesn't know is that Ryan already called his parents and told them he's staying at his friend's house tonight. So Shay goes to bed and the next thing she remembers is waking up and feeling something cold on her neck. Here's a quote from her. She says, quote, I thought it was a gun. I didn't know it was a knife. I just saw dark eyes and a mask.

The man spoke and it was a voice I didn't recognize. And he said, if you make any effing noise, I'm going to kill you. And that's when I went into panic mode and I started kicking. I pushed my back against the bed, hoping to make as much noise as possible so that my parents would wake up and hear me." And quote, so such a smart woman for immediately thinking about what she can be doing if nothing else with a knife to her neck to help herself out. And it actually works. Kevin and Jeannie hear these noises coming from their daughter's room. They get out of bed, they go to investigate, and what they find is a huge black silhouette standing over their daughter's bed, holding an enormous knife to her neck.

They both immediately run at this figure, and I will just trigger warn you now for an upsetting injury detail that is coming up in like about a sentence and a half. Kevin immediately jumps onto this man's back and Jeannie grabs the stranger's 15 inch knife blade with her bare hand and does not let go. I know what this one is because of that injury. Did you see me laying my hands in the air? Yeah, just now, yeah, yeah, because I knew what was happening and I was like, oh yeah, she's the biggest bad ass of all time She actually would go on to say that she did not feel anything

Yeah, she did this even though that 15 inch knife cut through to the book Horrible, I'm sorry. We can all come back. I won't do that again But this is a horrible story This is the story of a literal knife-wielding maniac breaking into people's homes. So this is where we're at. So still on the man's back, Kevin calls to his daughter and yells,

Kyle 911 and go get my gun. And he'll later say, quote, I don't have a gun, but something inside me told me to say that to keep this man on his guard. And it's where, oh my God. Right. So Shay takes off, running out of the room as her parents fight to restrain this maniac,

even though the man has about a hundred pounds on Kevin, Kevin was a high school wrestler. And he knows he's fine that it's a bigger guy. All he has to do is get him in a chokehold. So he throws all of his weight into that and he's able to pull the man down to the floor and he basically is able to choke him out. And then he and Genie, who's still bleeding from her cut up hands,

restrained their daughter's attacker until the police arrive. In addition to that knife, the officers find Chinese throwing stars and choking wire in the fanny pack on this man's waist. And when they identify him, they learn that he's a 43-year-old long-haul trucker from North Carolina who himself has a wife and kids. But what they also learn is that this man is a serial killer.

This is the story of the highway killer, Adam Luroy Lane. Oh my god. So, the sources used today are the Mr. Ballin podcast, as I mentioned from TikTok. A 2013 episode of 48 hours called Family Under Attack stops serial killer. That's what I saw. The 48 hours. Uh-huh. It's incredible. Yeah. It's such a great horrifying story. So a 2009 episode of Date Line NBC titled A Stranger in the House, a 2007 AP article entitled Picture Emerges of a Deadly Stalker by Alan G. Breed and the rest of the sources are in our show notes if you want to go look at those.

Okay. the sources are in our show notes if you want to go look at those. Okay, so on the same night of the attack on the McDonough family, officers find and search Adam Leroy Lane's semi-trailer. Inside they find a spotting scope, knives, and a copy of a low budget movie called hunting humans. It's like the most not chill fucking thing I've ever. Yeah, that's just a series of items that each one you pull out and you're just like, uh, like, your stomach drops worse and worse. And then that's basically like, what are, oh my God, what are you doing? A detective named George Tyros is assigned to this case. He and his colleagues quickly

connect Lane with multiple 911 calls that were placed in the area that same night. In one instance, police respond to a woman's home after she reported a person dressed in black lurking outside. And then not long after that, another woman calls police saying that a man dressed in black is standing in her yard watching her daughter through a window. And the woman says that when this man realizes he's been spotted, he runs to their front door and starts beating on it maniacally. And then he smashes their porch light before he leaves.

And then the next 911 call they get after that one is the call from the McDonough's. Holy shit. So it's like a right in a row. So Adam LaRoy Lane's taken to jail where he is held without bail and the officers put out an all points bulletin to departments in other states because even though Lane's record in Massachusetts is clean, Detective Tyros knows this could not be his first attempt at a home invasion.

Within days he gets a response from a detective in New Jersey named Jeff Noble. Detective Noble is investigating the seemingly random murder that took place just one day before Shea McDonough is attacked. So, Monica Massaro is a 38-year-old woman who lives alone in a beautiful historic home in a small town called Bloomsbury, New Jersey. You know, it's just the classic tragic story that you see when you're watching date line or 48 hours. It's a beautiful woman who is living her life to the fullest.

She owns her own cleaning business. She's really social, fiercely independent. She travels the globe. She goes out with friends. She dates a lot. And she loves spending time with her parents, Frank and Fay. One of Monica's friends tells a reporter, quote, she dates a lot, and she loves spending time with her parents Frank and Fay. One of Monica's friends tells a reporter, quote, she used to say that where she lived was like living in a Norman Rockwell painting.

She felt safe and everyone was friendly. She just loved living there. End quote. So she knows most of the people in her small town and like many other people in Bloomsbury, she leaves her doors unlocked. Yeah. So, the morning of July 30th, one of Monica's clients is unable to reach her. So they call the police and ask to basically go do a wellness check to make sure she's okay. And when officers arrive at her house, they see Monica's car in the driveway. No one answers the door when they knock.

So after a few moments, they enter the unlocked home, they take a look around, but there's no signs of disturbance. And then they enter her bedroom. And that's where they find the body of Monica Masaro, lying on her blood-soaked bed, dead from multiple stab wounds. Oh my God. A detective noble is put on this case, and he cannot make sense of it. He talks to a lot of people are going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be And one of the many times he revisits the crime scene, he realizes there's a truck stop at the end of her block, just off Interstate 78. And that's when he thinks, quote, there's all kinds of people

from all over the place, frequenting this particular stop. That just makes this case so much bigger. I mean, huge. It could be anyone now. End quote. So when Detective Noble hears about this all-points bulletin coming from Massachusetts describing a violent home invasion involving a truck driver, he's putting it together thinking there could be a connection to this murder

that he just caught. So he reaches out to Detective Tyros and he asks if they can compare notes. He learns that the officers there have access to Adam Lane's truck. So he asks if the Massachusetts police have found any indication that Lane may have stopped in New Jersey or had been in the I-78 in recent weeks. And when Detective Tyros goes back to the truck, because it's still being processed, he sifts through everything that's in there and amid all the truck logs, receipts, and toll records, he finds a receipt from a truck stop in Bloomsbury, New Jersey, from July 29th, 2007, which is the day Monica was murdered.

Holy shit. So he's now certainly is connected Lane to Monica's death. So he asks to interview him and Detective Tyros tells him go ahead but we haven't had any luck, he's not talking. Somehow Detective Noble gets him to open up. And the first thing that Lane says to him is quote,

this is gonna kill my family. And then he goes on to admit to murdering Monica Massaro in cold blood. He says after he parked his truck in the Bloomsbury truck stop, he walked around the neighborhood nearby, jiggling door knobs until one finally opened. What the fuck?

Oh my God. He says Monica was sleeping. She woke up, she started screaming, and he repeatedly stabbed her. But when detectives ask if he was sexually motivated, Lane adamantly claims it was not. Very odd. So this confession is not the end of the story though.

It's actually just the beginning, because 17 days before Monica Massaro was murdered in New Jersey, and 18 days before Shay McDonough was attacked in Massachusetts, there was a murder in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. This is the part of Mr. Ballin's story that I saw that was the mind-blowing part, this case here. So on Friday, July 13th, a 42 year old woman named Darleen E. Walt is sitting on her back patio,

talking to her friend, Chet, on the phone. It's about 10 o'clock at night. Darleen's husband Todd opens the patio door and says that he's going to bed for the night. And Darleen says, I'll be off the phone in a second, and then I'm gonna come right up. But as Todd falls asleep, Darleen is still talking on the phone outside. The next thing Todd knows,

he's waking up to his bedroom door, being kicked open and several men with guns and flashlights storming into his bedroom. Todd thinks it might be a home invasion until one man announces that they are state troopers. And within minutes, he and his son, Nick, Nick's in his early 20s and he lives at home. They're both handcuffed, taken downstairs and questioned. They have no idea what's going on.

Oh my God. What the fuck? That's when Todd sees his wife's keys and purse sitting on their kitchen table. And then there's a flash from outside. There's flash photography outside on the patio. And that's when he fears the worst. After several hours, police finally confirmed Todd's fear that his wife, Darleen, has been brutally murdered. Oh my god, that is so fucking tragic. So basically, here's what happened after Todd told Darleen, he was going upstairs to go to bed. Chet, who's the guy that Darleen was talking on the phone to, he hears Darleen say, oh, God, four times. Then it's followed by muffled sounds and then the call cut out.

And he was so freaked out by that by what he heard that he and his wife get into their car and drive over to the Ewaltz house and they find Darleen stabbed to death on the patio and She was stabbed in her neck So they like run to see if their friend is okay, and she's been murdered Darleen's husband Todd says Quote that's when things started to fall apart for me. I remember hearing my son scream. He was in the kitchen still handcuffed.

End quote. So Todd and Nick are both considered suspects, but soon the focus narrows down to just Todd and the local district attorney later tells date line, quote, in this case, we had a husband who was in the house, who apparently didn't hear anything when his wife was killed on the back patio while she was on the phone with another man. Certainly, the police wanted to talk to Mr. E. Walde back at the police station and determine exactly what was going on at that residence.

End quote. So of course, this is a living nightmare for Todd. Darlene is his beloved wife, the mother of his children, his best friend. He's known her since he was 15 years old. He said, quote, they just want to meet a breakdown and say, I did it or I paid someone to do it, but I knew I didn't do it." End quote. So when police asked Todd to take a lie detector test, he complies. And when they tell Todd, he failed the test. He says, quote, how could I fail it

when I didn't commit the crime? They tell him, will you tell us? And he says, I don't have an explanation. Oh, dear. See, I guess I asked for a lawyer. You know, Hey, guess what the next line is? So Todd's family get him a lawyer.

The entire family rallies around Todd E. Walt, including their two children. They fiercely defend him. His daughter Nicole says, quote, I never asked myself once if my dad killed my mom because I just knew. But no one can think of anyone who could have wanted to kill Darleen.

Nicole says, quote, my mom had no enemies. She had a great personality. She was just loved by everybody. Why would someone want to hurt her, let alone kill her? Who could be such a monster?" End quote. So, now Todd E. Walters feeling this pressure mounting and as he is the investigation in a Monica Masaro's death continues in New Jersey. Detective Noble has a confession for that murder. death continues in New Jersey. Detective Noble has a confession for that murder. He's still working to build an iron clad case

that shows Adam Blu-ray Lane is that killer. So he sends the knives that they find online and in the truck out for DNA testing. And Detective Noble says, quote, several weeks after we submitted Adam Lane's knives to our laboratory for analysis, we got word what the results were. Not only was Monica Masaro's DNA on his knives, but so was Darleen Ewaltz.

Wow. And through that same DNA, they connect yet another knife attack in Pennsylvania. Just days after Darleen Ewalt was murdered, a woman named Patricia Brooks is attacked in her home near the interstate. So on the night of July 17th, Patricia Brooks wakes up to a man dressed in all black, stabbing her shoulder with a large knife. She's somehow able to fight him off and the man runs. Patricia calls 911 and when the police arrive, they find discarded

latex gloves like in the area. So they keep them as evidence, then they send them off for DNA testing. And when those gloves come back, they have both Adam Leroy Lane's DNA on them and Darleen Ewaltz. So Patricia Brooks survives this attack and will later identify Lane in a police lineup. Thank God. And to the incredible relief of the entire e-walt family, this information finally exonerates Todd e-walt. Unfortunately, they learn about it on the news.

No. Yes. So not great. No. Yes. So not great. No. Todd, of course, is incredibly relieved that he's no longer suspected of killing his wife. But then he learns about the MacDonna family in Massachusetts who fought off and captured his wife's killer.

Todd says, quote, I can't even begin to think of how bad it would have been if Lane was never caught. I think I would have been on trial for the murder of my wife. Oh, God. Now Adam Lory Lane faces a laundry list of charges in multiple states and a preliminary hearing related to the attack at the Madonna House is up first. Jeannie McDonough shows up to the hearing ready to see justice served,

and she would later say, quote, even though Lane terrified me, I wanted to face this guy down. I'm sorry, dude, you don't come into my house and attack my family. I'm going to be there. I'm going to watch you every step of the way." Wow. End quote. This hearing does not result in a trial because Adam Luroy Lane accepts a plea deal

and a sentence to 25 to 30 years in prison for attempting to murder Shay McDonough. Next, he's tried for the murder of Monica Massaro, both the McDonough's and the Ewalts are there in the courtroom for this trial, in a showing of solidarity with Monica's parents, Frank and Fay. Jeannie says, quote, even though the legal battles for us were over, I was gonna see this thing through. I was gonna make sure that I was at every hearing he was at and that I was with the families of the other victims. It's amazing.

It's incredible. These three grieving families become a support system for each other. Jeannie says, quote, it showed a lot of solidarity between the families, the connection that we all feel as a result of being tormented by this guy. And, quote, and Shay McDonough says, quote, I remember giving Monica's mama hug and just saying how sorry I was and just really feeling her pain. And Jeanne and Kevin are introduced to Todd Ewalt for the first time. They learned

that their bravery didn't just save their daughter's life, but his as well. And Todd tells a reporter, quote, I was just thankful to meet them just to shake their hand and tell them, thank you. And, quote, I mean, what a, what a connection, what a group of people. Totally. So at the culmination of this trial, Adam Leroy Lane is sentenced to 50 years in prison, which is on top of the 25 to 30 that he's already received for Shea McDonnell's attack. And soon after, he's convicted for the murder of Darlene Ewalt and sentence to life in prison. It's unclear why Adam Loury Lane went on this killing spree, attacking and murdering all these women in July of 2007. Yeah, so weird that it was just like a spree like that.

It's beserking. It is like the craziest like one right after the other wild thing. And the weirdest part is he doesn't have red flags in his personal history like most serial killers usually do. Really? By most accounts, he had an uneventful childhood. He grew up to be a somewhat boring man. He had no violent criminal record.

Doesn't mean he's not violent. He just never got caught doing anything. He's also adamant that his crimes weren't sexually motivated, which is like, why are you so keyed up about it? Yeah. And like, bros, if why would you believe anything you fucking say? Yeah. Detective Jeff Noble says, quote, Adam Lane, note out about it is perhaps the most dangerous man that I've seen

personally. And the reason is because there is no explanation. There is no why with Adam Lane, he killed in my opinion for the sport of it. End quote. But perhaps the best insight here comes from Lane's ex wife, Miriam, who tells reporters that Lane is in fact an abusive misogynist. She says, quote, he thought women were beneath him and that he could do whatever he wanted. He hit me one time, he abused his mom,

he would cuss her, call her names, and hit her. So, Jeannie McDonough accepts that she might never know why Lane turned out this way or what exactly led him to entering her family's home, not hot summer night, but she would never stop wondering. And this curiosity culminates in her writing a book called Caught in the Act, which she co-authors with noted true crime writer Paul Lennardo. And Jeannie remains in touch with the Maseros and the Ewalts.

Todd and Darlene Ewalts' daughter Nicole says, quote, the McDonnell's stopped an innocent man from going to jail. They put a guilty man away and they saved countless women. I can call Gini any time. She's programmed into my speed dial. And usually at the end of every phone call, it ends with I love you.

It's almost like a second mother." But Jeanie simply says, quote, we did what any other parent would have done in the same situation, protect your child and go into survival mode, were just survivors. And that's the unbelievable story of the highway killer Adam Loury Lane and the love shared by the families that he terrorized. Oh my God. Can you believe that fucking story? I mean, the thing that always talk with me about that story almost as much as the fucking hand catching the knife thing is the idea of your parents bursting into your room, like superheroes to save your life and like what a beautiful thing that is. And like they were able to do what I think as most parents would say is like their dream is to protect their child.

It's just such an incredible story. And they saved so many other families from the same awful fate because they were so brave. Yeah. And meanwhile, they couldn't have known obviously, but then the ripple effect where this insanely very strange, it's like a closed room mystery of Darlene Eewalt in her backyard on the phone, hanging out, and suddenly she's dead.

And it's like, well, the husband did it, right? That's what everyone says. That's the assumption. And that would have been the assumption because there was no other explanation. And they weren't looking for another explanation. A stranger just happening upon this woman is so out of fucking out of the ordinary.

Yeah, it doesn't match what we all think of as like motives, and my people will get killed. It's just, if we're gonna give it a detective, George Tyros is the one who put out that APB. Yeah. So because he knew it's like the difference in all that kind of over the years, collective knowledge that investigators have,

where it's like this isn't a very extreme advanced home invasion-attempted murder. This person's not new. This must have happened before. Let's collect our information. Let's all get out there and like share the information, talk to other police departments. The thing that so often doesn't happen is exactly what they did this time. Yeah, because he would have gotten only 25 to 30 years and out on good behavior, probably

if he hadn't done that. Yeah. You know? Yeah. If they hadn't connected more, it's like he would have been out. And there would just been cold case murders. Yeah. Yeah.

It's just like, if you wrote this as a movie, people would be like, sorry, this is not realistic. Yeah. Yeah. realistic. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Unbelievable. Good job. Thank you. Great job, Marin.

The Clashin, my researcher, who put it together like a superstar. All right, let's do a fucking pirouette, shall we? Yes, always. And I'll go to it. It's disturbing, but it's not the same. OK. Karen, today I'm going to tell you about the creation, history,

and controversy of the wildly popular bodies exhibits. I could have sworn I had this on my list. This I am obsessed with this tomorrow. How are you? Have you been? Tell me Are you? Have you been? Tell me your story. Have you been? It came out in the 90s, right?

That's right. When I was at my most curious and doubtful of all things. The second I saw it, I was like, who would want to go and tour that and look at it? Who did this? Whose idea was this? Because it immediately seemed so creepy to me. More of it. It's so morbid.

Did you go? Because I went in San Francisco in the early 2000s. You did? You know, I've always been fascinated with true crime and vintage murder photos. And I've seen a lot of that stuff So I was like I can handle this. I had to leave. I was so light-headed and overwhelmed

By what I saw that I had to walk out it was just I was really dizzy and like had a sit down for a while It's so disturbing that's fascinating to hear that because It's the kind of thing that I feel like happens often in culture where stuff gets popular and people are like, I love this and then you're having your own individual reaction to it going like, sorry what? Yeah, well it's like the museum of death. People think that we'd be really into that, but we're not into memorabilia of fucking murderers. Like that's not, you know, what we're interested in. Well, yeah, that's kind of the thing we talked about

when we first started this podcast where it's like, it's less about the infamy of the serial killers themselves and more of the stories of how is this possible. But yeah, it's just, it's just, okay, I want you to talk about this because this is this possible. But yeah, it's just, it's just, okay, I want you to talk about this because this is so exciting. Okay, so my main sources for this story are a 2007 article from The Independent by Jeremy Lawrence and a 2013 article from Wired by Daniel Ingber and the rest of the sources can be found in the show notes. So just right up the bat, the creator of this entire thing is Gunter von Huggins.

He's born Gunter Gerhard Liebhenn in 1945 in what is now Poland, but at the time that have an annexed by Germany in the first few months of his life as World War II draws to a close and the Red Army approaches his family flees west to what will ultimately become a part of East Germany, which is fucking dark. So Goontur has hemophilia, a disorder that stops his blood from clotting properly, and at six years old he's hospitalized for six months, and this sparks his interest in medicine. And you can kind of imagine a young child wondering what the inner workings of his body is doing when he has hemophilia, right? Like, it kind of connects, don't you think?

Absolutely. I think that's such a scary, probably especially for a child, scary disease to have, where if you just have a normal cut, you could die. So there's something maybe that's, as a child's scary disease to have, where if you just have a normal cut, you could die. So there's something maybe that's, as a child, you have to think about much more than any other kid. You have to come obsessive, maybe. So he leaves school at 16, works a number of odd jobs, including as a mailman and an elevator attendant.

After going to night school, he gets accepted to a university to study medicine, which just shows you should follow your fucking dreams. Right. Yeah. At 23, he's caught trying to flee to West Germany with a forged passport, goes to prison for two years when he gets out. He's able to complete medical school and becomes an anesthesiologist.

He looks to me as an adult, personally, like he'd be played by a not red-headed David Caruso. You see that? It's from CSI Miami, right? Sure. I don't know. That's who I'm picturing when I see him. So at around age 30 in 1975, he gets married, and he takes his wife's name, which is Von Hagen's.

And he says the reason for changing his name is because his real last name, Leaphen, means little darling in German. So he gets teased about a lot. So he took his wife's name. Yeah. He's not going to get teased about that. Not as much as being called little darling. I assume.

That's why he says he did it. But some people point out that Dr. Vaughn Hogan's father was a Nazi SS officer. So it's possible he also may have been inspired to change his last name to kind of distance himself from that, you know. I would imagine that would be the number one reason. I would hope you got a hope. Either way, he keeps the name, even though he eventually divorces and remarries, he still keeps that last name.

Sounds progressive. who knows? Not long after his first marriage, Dr. von Hoggins takes to wearing a black fedora. It's his like Steve Jobs fucking, you know, peace. Meaning it becomes his signature look. Sure. But the time he's famous, he'll never be photographed without it. One article says it's originally meant to cover up his baldness, but he says it's a symbol of individuality, which, you know, could be both. You know, much like a baseball hat is a symbol of individuality. It's really, it sets you apart. That's why Steve Jobs wore the turtle neck is to cover up his neck baldness. Right? So what they say? Yeah, that's what they, that's the rumor. I don't know if it's true. You know, they call them old naked mech.

That was just real embarrassing. So in 1977, Dr. Vaughn Hoggins discovered a method for filling dead kidney tissue with plastic. And he then comes up with a method to do it with many other types of tissue. So here's some info about it that if you're a scientist, you might understand, Wired Magazine reports that, quote,

he starts with regular embalming the injection of formaldehyde into femoral arteries and then submerges the body in acetone, which dissolves its fat and water. After that, he drops the corpse into a basin filled with liquid polymer, its placed inside a vacuum chamber where the acetone bubbles off as plastic pushes in to take its place." So it's the basics.

Why, though, like he's a doctor, he could be studying anything in the world and what he's studying is how to basically take people apart. I think it almost sounds like a different way to embalm people, you know, to me, where he's like trying to figure that out. I'm sure it's educational for, you know, students, medical students. He patents this process that he figured out, calling it plastination. Originally Dr. Von Hogan sells his plastinated cadavers and body parts to educational institutions. So originally it's for educational purposes.

And he sees that. But in the 1990s, when Karen's like, you know, God, and shit, he revives the old tradition of public anatomy exhibitions. So in the 1800s, as we know, atomical exhibitions were considered CD, but were very, very common. The article in Wired says, quote, these were galleries of the Grotesque showing wax and models of dissected naked women, dismembered genitalia, and casts of skin disease or venereal infection.

Like the Mooture Museum. Yeah, exactly. But I mean, it is that is educational because you as as a non doctor are probably never going to see the effects of syphilis on someone's nose from, you know, whatever, like that, that was fascinating. I understand that part, but much like being at the Moodyer Museum, or it's like, you can only take so much if you're not a doctor type, you're kind of looking at it and then you're like, okay, got it. Because it's intense. I get it. Yeah, it's just intense to see.

I think it just shows us, it shows humans how vulnerable we are. It's creepy. The procurement of bodies for exhibits and for scientific institutions, of course, has always been highly problematic. We've done episodes about these problems. And actually just a few weeks ago, on August 15, 2023, the Washington Post reported on how,

in the 1930s, the Smithsonian's chief anthropologist dug up the remains of indigenous people in Alaska and displayed them to promote racist and false theories about human anatomy. So even if it's an educational quote unquote, it doesn't mean it's correct in any way. Yes, that's down to the people who are choosing to do it and what their beliefs are and their reasons are. By the 1920s, these types of exhibits were no longer popular. Intel, Dr. von Hagen's, revives them. So they'd totally gone out of style. He's like the guy who was like, I see a void,

I'm going to fill it. Dr. von Hagen's first exhibits plastinated bodies in Tokyo in 1995. His show, which is called Body Worlds, then makes its way to manheimheim Germany by the end of 1997. It's a wildly popular and it's first two months in Germany, 200,000 people attend the exhibit, which is a lot of fucking people. That's huge, yeah. The New York Times describes displays saying, quote, the runner, just the name of one of the exhibits, is frozen in the loping gate of a marathoner,

stripped of almost everything except bones and muscles. Its outer muscles fly backwards off its bones as if the muscles were being blown by the wind rushing past. So like they were all in motion, all these, like in poses and doing things, right? Right. and like in poses and doing things, right? Right, yeah. They also say the muscle man is a bare skeleton that holds up its entire system of muscles, which looks like an astronaut's bulky spacesuit dangling on a hanger.

Like they were a little exploitative the way he posed them. Yeah, like he was in his mind, he's demonstrating how people use their muscles, but right, but they was in his mind, he's demonstrating how people use their muscles, but. Right, but they were a little like, they were a little tongue and cheeky. Oh, really?

Yeah, oh, yeah. So here's one, the figure with skin retains all its muscles in organs, but its skin is draped like a coat over one arm. Oh no. So they're definitely tongue and cheeky, like running, and it shows like they're like skin blowing backwards. The expanded body resembles a human telescope. It's skeleton pulled

apart so people can see what lies beneath the skull and the rib cage. Unquote. Unquote. Unquote. Disquote. I do remember the runner there was a picture of the runner in like the SF weekly whenever it came through Mm-hmm. And just Yeah, it just is really Gross looking. It's disturbing. It's disturbing It's also fascinating in a lot of ways. It's it's like it's a way That we've never seen ourselves before and almost like a way to realize how Delegate we are and you you suddenly realize that that's what you're made up of.

And I think that's what made me so like lightheaded and dizzy is how fucking fragile and intricate everything is and yet somehow we're just fucking walking down the street like no big what. Right. Anyway, the exhibit which Dr. Vaughan Huggins describes as quote, he calls it anatomical art. It immediately sparks a debate in Germany on the ethics of such a display.

Catholic and Protestant leaders, of course, come forward as they like to do, and they take particular issue with it. One academic theologian and ethicist says quote, the manheim exhibit fits somewhere between art and commerce, one in which the likely damage Shatebuz has been factored in as a cost. He, who styles human corpses as a so-called work of art, no longer respects the importance of death. So throughout the late 90s and the early 2000s, Body Worlds is a huge commercial success,

and Dr. von Hoggins expands his plastination empire. He has hundreds of people working for him in Germany and China all over to plastinate human remains. Dr. Von Hoggins says that all of the people whose bodies are plastinated have consented to the process. But you remember when the whole controversy came up about that, right? That they didn't have that permission? Yeah. Yeah. So in 2003, a reporter for the British Medical Journal points to ambiguities in Dr. Von

Hogan's accounting for where the bodies come from and the consent process. The reporter writes, quote, one of the most controversial pieces in his exhibition in London was the reclining figure of an eight months pregnant woman with her womb open to show the fetus. Oh, God. Yeah, and goes on to say, it is hard to imagine why the woman thought she might die

and how exactly Bon Hogan's managed to obtain her consent to preserve her after death. When I asked him, he said that he could not divulge for legal and confidentiality reasons, the exact circumstances in which any of his quote plastonates died, because that might make it possible to identify them, unquote. So it's this thing of like, I can't tell you

for their privacy, but also like, I don't have to tell you anything because of privacy. Right. So it's a little sketch. but also like I don't have to tell you anything because of privacy. So it's a little sketch. Also sorry, but when you said the thing about people working in China to make these, it sounds like he's producing hundreds of bodies doing this to hundreds of bodies.

Why isn't it 10 things that will make you go, oh my god, like that's, I see what the, the fragility of the human body is all about, and that's the thing that's on tour. Why is he making a bunch of different ones? At a type of popularity, and even now, there's multiple shows going on throughout the world, too. Like, it's very, very popular, you know?

Yes, but I guess if you're going to argue it's educational, then then you would only need the one show and you'd only need to plastinate 10 bodies as opposed to make factories of people plastinating bodies. It's what only because how in the world would people be giving permission to be put on display? We'll wait for this. Uh oh. Well, okay, before I get to that, and I'll tell you in January would people be giving permission to be put on display. We'll wait for this. Uh-oh.

Well, okay, before I get to that, and I'll tell you, in January of 2004, Germany's most prominent news magazine, Der Spiegel. I thought of that. Have you? Alleges that Dr. von Hagen's, his company, had bought the bodies of executed Chinese prisoners. So that was the big second controversy. Remember? Yes. Now that you say it, yeah. The article sites emails from a former employee of his and the magazine claims that some of the bodies have bullet holes in their heads.

For his part, Dr. Ronhagen says that as far as he knows, neither he nor anyone in his company accepted the victims of execution. He also says that the large majority of the bodies and his original exhibition come from Europe. And he has long maintained a registry of people who wish to donate their bodies. So people fucking sign up for this. Like, I'm a donor, but there are people who like think

that this is, I get why it would be in someone's mind that this would be a way to be immortal almost, you know? I'm talking about people who buy their free will because even if the Chinese prisoners did quote, unquote, sign up for this, it's obviously not by their own free will, but the people who actually did eventually sign up by their own free will, were fucking interested in it.

I just don't see why it had to turn into, like, Thomas can cade the painter of light where there had to be factories churning this when they actually were real bodies. Like, yeah, that's my only thing. I'm just still baffled by that part. And how do you get to that part? Where you're like, no, we need more bodies

and more interesting stances or poses or ways to get worse? Okay. I'm going to stop interrupting. No, I love it. It's like how interested you are on this. Okay. He says, quote, my orders have always been clear.

No one who was sentenced to death, but I wouldn't put my hand in the fire for it and say we weren't perhaps given one or the other execution victim." Why is he talking like he's taking orders from someone else? Isn't this his thing? He also says, quote, the likelihood is very slim, but I cannot rule it out. So he's essentially saying, that wasn't our point, that's not what we wanted.

If it happened, it wasn't on my dime. So Dr. Ron Huggins is ultimately granted an interim injunction against your favorite magazine, Der Spiegel. Der Spiegel. Which stopped the magazine from claiming that the body works exhibit,

contain the bodies of executed prisoners, which to me means they didn't have any actual proof. It was just a guy who had worked there, you know, said that, right? That's proof. Isn't it? I don't know. You know said that right that's proof No, no With the success of dr. Huggins exhibits he gains a new source of bodies Here we go visitors to exhibits can sign up to donate their own bodies

So you're fucking waiting in line at mama or whatever to see this and you can sign up to have your body donated to this. You know, it could have started with people who donated their bodies to science generally as a doctor or as, I don't know if he was a professor or what, was able to use those. Like, you don't have to specify, like, you could become a donor and go to a plastic surgery school and your face can get worked on. It's like not like your you could become a donor and go to a plastic surgery school and your face can get worked on. It's like not like your heart goes to a child and everything's great, you know? Yeah, yeah.

But it does seem to be a couple steps past the line to have all of your skin removed and put over your arm like a coat. But you're right that there's people who are like, when you're dead, you're dead and education is important. And it shouldn't be a mystery and it shouldn't always be a taboo. Yeah. Everyone read the book, stiff by Mary Roach,

and find out what happens to your body, your after your life body. I mean, crash test dummies like that's, it's just, it's wild. It's such a good book. So the visitors sign up to donate their own bodies, so it's plausible or even likely that by the mid-2000s, he really does have a supply of consenting people. But that's not the end of the story when it comes to plastinated bodies of unclear origins. In 2005, an American company called Premier Exhibitions puts on another show called Bodies the Exhibition.

So this has nothing to do with him. This exhibit is not affiliated with Dr. Von Hoggins. Everyone's trying to jump on this bandwagon. And also, he's become wealthy from the sale of plastinated remains to scientific institutions. So they are being legitimately bought as well. So Bodies the Ex the exhibition is seen by many as a copycat cash grab. The show features bodies of about 20 people

as well as body parts, organs, and fetuses in different stages of development. The bodies in that show come from Dallion Medical University in China, which is a school where Dr. Von Hogan's previously had a business relationship. And the person working with premier exhibitions to supply the plestinated bodies is the same former colleague of Dr. Von Hogan's who had fallen out with him before speaking to Derspiegel. So he was like maybe trying to throw him under the bus to be like, well, come to my show instead. Oh, right. Okay.

So that's why it's like questionable if that it was true or not. Got it. You know, or if he knew about it or not, we can say. So human rights advocates, of course, immediately opposed the show Harry Wu, director of an organization that specifically looks into abuses in the Chinese penal system, says that there's a history of fabricated consent for the donation of organs and body parts in China, of course. Wu says, quote, considering that China executes between 2003,000 prisoners a year, and their long history of freely using death row prisoners

for medical purposes, you have to wonder, unquote. Even if the bodies do not come from non-consenting prisoners, the words of the president of premier exhibitions, Arnie Geller, are almost as struggling. The New York Times writes that Geller, quote, insists that the human remains, all but two of them male male are those of the poor, the end claimed, or the unidentified.

So like Dr. Ron Hogan says about his own shows, proponents of this exhibition say that the show is educational, one part of the exhibition shows the effects of smoking on the lungs. So that, you could say, is educational, right, for people who are coming through to see it and they see what happens when you're a smoker. But critics say that the show's primary objective is to be profitable and that it's different from using

Plastinator remains for educational purposes like in medical schools. So yeah, of course, it's fucking art show. In 2009, Dr. Runhagen's opens a new exhibit in Berlin. This time it's called The Cycle of Life and fucking get this. It features body's pose so that they're simulating sex acts. No. Absolutely not. I mean, in your death, that is grandma. Like whatever you were supposed to have gotten

from the first exhibition. Yes, we got it. Right? It doesn't need to have different iterations and I mean, I don't think, because I literally can still remember the runner because when you see eyes without skin around them, and teeth and muscles and stuff,

it's just like you don't forget it. It's like, it's, and muscles, and stuff. It's just like, you don't forget it. It's like, it's like, it's terminator two kind of stuff. We're just like, it's genuinely scary, and also, I don't know. And if you're like an everyday person, like we are, you don't need to see, you don't need to see that. We don't need to understand that. If we were really interested, we could look it up in a like textbook or whatever. Like that's for medical students to learn about, or for't need to understand that. If we were really interested, we could look it up in a textbook or whatever.

That's for medical students to learn about or for dentists to learn about or for a second. We don't need to see it. We don't need to see it now. So I think there is a thing in human beings where we don't like to see it because that is actually like we were just talk this story. I just told where a woman grabbed a knife just hearing about that is bad enough. The idea that you'd be like, well, you can come and look at this display where you can see every level that that knife, it's like, no thanks, I get it.

I get it went on the verbal. I get the, yeah, I don't know. I will say that the thing I did take away personally and this might be a very small percentage of the people who see this is how delicate, how beautiful life is that this is what we're made of and yet we get to exist on the planet. It's, you know, every day is a gift to all these things of like, you know, it's just, it's overwhelming like what we're made of and and yet what we can accomplish, and, you know, we're so much bigger than having a bad day. Like look what our fucking bodies can do.

Let's like treasure that in a way. And in that newest display, literally look what our fucking bodies can do. I mean, I don't know. That's just like, yes. I think that went one step beyond, for sure. So of course, it causes an uproar as it should. Dr. Von Hagen says that the men and women featured in the exhibit have consented

to appear in sexual poses. So it wasn't just donation, like they were. I'd love to see that paperwork. I can you send it over in a zip file? I'm going to look at every single one. And because by this point, thousands of people have signed up to donate their bodies, this could be true. Okay. And we actually, I looked it up on my favorite murder gmail account. And I listened to Rodin, named Jessica C. Rodin that her father-in-law had been picked up after his bicycle broke down.

He was hitchhiked and get home. This is in Europe, so it was fine. And the person who stopped and picked him up and became really like a friend was none other than Gunter von Hagens. And at the end of it, her stepdad said it was a nice car ride and he expressed that he wouldn't mind being a donor in the future. He told von Hagens right to his face? No, he didn't tell him that. He told the daughter-in-law that he at the end of it. He was like,

Oh, oh, I would, I, okay, I'll do it. Okay. So by the 2010s demand for the various bodies exhibits is dying down. Dr. Von Hagen's has opened a permanent plastination facility in Germany, which he calls the plastinarium. Wired says, quote, at its busiest, the complex employed 220 people and turned out specimens for exhibition, along with those that could be sold to medical schools around the world. Limbs and joints for orthopedics, jaws for dentistry, spinal columns for neurology, and $75,000 plastic-filled corpses for gross anatomy." End quote. But it's facing some financial difficulties nowadays.

And Dr. Von Hogan says he will have to scale back his staff. And they do animals too. They're just really interesting. The exhibits have long been the money maker and the business of plastinating remains for educational purposes is much smaller. That said, there are to this day plenty of operational body world exhibits. They're still going on. There are two traveling exhibits in the

US right now and one exhibit of animal remains. There's also one permanent exhibit in the US and there are several traveling and permanent exhibits in Europe as well. And today, the number I found was that they have sold more than 35 million tickets to the show. The Body Works website claims that more than 20,000 people have signed up to donate their bodies to the exhibit. I feel like I've been proven wrong that this is just a thing that like, there are plenty of people who aren't creeped out by this at all.

Yeah, I bet they feel like it's immortalizing them in some way or like giving back to the community through educational purposes, you know what I mean? Yeah, I want to go on record and say, I do not want this to happen to me when I fucking die. Well, we'll see what happens. I mean, like, you like to think you can control it, but... Oh, that's true. So potential donors can rescind their consent at any time and to be considered have to write an essay. So they're not just like accepting anyone. Like I think they're

like taking it very seriously, but you can't just be like, I want to do it. You have to be like, here's why I want to do it. You know, yes, you'd kind of prove solid thinking and clear. Yeah. Yes. So Dr. Von Hollgens was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease more than 10 years ago, and he is currently in his late 70s. He says he plans to be plastinated after he dies. He says, quote, my plastinated corpse will then stand in a welcoming pose at the entrance of my exhibition. Wow.

And that is the history and story and controversy of the bodies exhibits. Amazing. I mean, at the end, like, he really is putting his money where there's mouth is. Yes. That's good. What feels so crazy is it feels like it should have started

in the 50s, you know? Like, it feels so antiquated. And yet, it started in the 90s and it's still going on today. It's just, there's never going to not be a fascination with morbid topics. Yes. You can tell by this podcast, it's popularity. I mean, true, except for I am fascinated by true crime and I am so not fascinated by anatomical

realities. It's not the same being into like blood and gourd is not the same fucking thing as being interested in true crime stories. No, it really isn't. Finally, people are understanding that, which is good. Well, that was fascinating. Okay, yours too. Great story. Guys, we did it again. We did it. We brought you two topics just to kind of like, hey, how about this? Now, how about this? I served them up and now we're fucking Take it in back. Thanks for listening every week. We really appreciate you listener there for us I met a couple people in pedaluma who listen to the podcast and so lovely

It's just so nice to meet people that are happy to meet you. Yeah. It's very exciting. It is. Yeah, thank you guys. You're the fucking best. We appreciate you. Stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Goodbye.

Elvis, do you want a cookie? Ah. This has been an exactly right production. Our Senior Producer is Alejandra Keck, our Managing Producer's Hanna Kyle Crighton. Our Editor is Aristotle Acevedo. This episode was mixed by Liana Squilachi. Our researchers are Marin McClauchon and Ali Elkin. Email your hometowns to my favorite murder at gmail.com.

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