My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 243

Episode Date: September 6, 2021

This week's hometowns include a mistaken mini fridge and the invention of Minty Water™️. 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! Hello! Well, rusty still. And welcome to my favorite murder. The mini-soad. It's mini and adorable. Are you ready to be back with fresh new mini-soads in your life? That's right, stories. We tell you that you've told us that we told you to tell us. You're just listening to yourself. You told us. We said sure. Yeah. Then we agreed. It's like a game of telephone. Privately agreed. Right. And

now this is the result of that, that tacit agreement that we all have together. You remember how this works? Oh, did I mention that I'm going to start dropping $10 vocabulary words all throughout the mini-soad and then you, if you don't know what it means, look it up, write in, express yourself. What did you just use? I'm going to have to look it up. Tacit. T-A-C-I-T. What does it mean, Karen? It means unspoken. Oh. God, I hope I'm right. I feel, here's the thing. This is like the Gen X experience. You say stuff like that. You're absolutely positive. And then some 19-year-old comes back. It's like, um, actually that's, I mean, it hasn't ever meant that. Well, look, if you didn't grow up with the internet telling you everything, then you too wouldn't know anything.

Then your vocabulary would also be a dent of lies. Yeah. Imagine having an idea or a thought or a question and not being able to easily look it up. No, you have to have a very experienced cousin to answer your questions or tell you vocabulary. Right. Or a parent to say, look it up in the encyclopedia that we only have six of instead of the whole set. What happened to the other one? What happened to them? We don't fucking know. 20 or 20 to 25, just gone. You keep bringing them outside to play with your friends with the encyclopedia because that's all there is to do. You're like, look, there's one picture of an octopus in this big old book. My mom told me not to touch it that much. It's got to come outside. That's right. There's a, there's a sketch

of a male genitalia and you're, take that out. And you're dying to bring it to the neighborhood? Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Because everyone's like, what does the penis look like? Or you're like, well, look at this thing. Here's the sign. There's other stuff down there too. Oh, one of those things. Strong start. Strong start back. Strong and powerful. Do you want to go first? Sure. Hello, Queen of the Murderinos. Oh, just you? What are you? I don't know. I'm not sure. Maybe I'm not in this one. Maybe you're a human. Oh, no, I'm sorry. Queens of the Murderinos. That's why you said that. Oh, you just didn't even hear it. I thought you were just like, I refuse to accept that I'm a queen. One of us has been named a queen, but they have not said who. This fight

is intense. Fight about it. Okay, so it starts. So my deaf mom and I grew up using ASL, American Sign Language. A lot of people think that makes my mom weak, dumb and helpless. But let me tell you, my mom is one badass bitch. Not only did she raise me single-handedly, my dad was an ass, she did it while going to college. She became a teacher. She is fearless and is one is the one that introduced me to my love of true crime. Okay, story time. So she was in downtown Chattanooga, outside an office building. She was in her car, yes, deaf people can drive, looking through some paperwork. Out of nowhere, this guy jumps in the passenger side of the car. He is dressed in black and pointing a knife at her. At this point, most people would freak out a bit and do what the guy

asks, right? Not my mom, y'all. She was so incredibly pissed off that this guy thought he could treat her that way, that she starts to go off on him in sign language. Yes. Yes. That's so rad. If you haven't seen a deaf person angry sign, look it up. It's terrifying. It scares this guy so bad that he was the one that freaked out and froze. He then jumps out of the car and takes off running in the other direction. Moral of the story is to stay sexy and don't underestimate a deaf woman. Yes. There's no name. That's badass. That's such a good story. Yeah. That is such a great story. Hell yeah. Angry sign language. I want to see it. Well, you can see it if you watch the Rizad Ahmed movie, The Sound of Metal. Oh, that's great. Because that's a lot of what takes

place in theirs. They used actors that are deaf and it's really an amazing film. And lots of big feelings. But yeah, that's the whole thing is, it's aside from the actual sign language, the expression you use along with your sign language is you saying what you're saying, but with your face and your whole body. It's really cool. I love that story. Yeah, me too. All right, let's see. Here's my first one. Subject line gives it away. Hello, Karen, Georgia, Steven and the rest of the MFM fam. I could go on forever about how amazingly wonderful my badass not to be fucked with sister is like the time that she helped stop a shoplifter by slamming the door into him as he tried to run out of the store. Is your sister a narc?

Or the time she was being followed by a man around the grocery store, flipped the script on him and started following him around while making prolonged, uncomfortable eye contact. I'm back on her side, which scared him enough that he literally ran to his car and sped the fuck out of there. Yeah. So now I just have to say, was there a chance that man was not following her around, but just shopping for the same things? That's why he got so scared. Hey, Karen is questioning everything about this sister. This is how I am this fall. But this story is incredible. This story just shows how amazing, caring, crazy and brave my sister, Shannon, really is. Oh, she's a Shannon. She doesn't give a

fuck. Oh, Shannon's. Shannon's legendary 70s name and personality. Yeah. A lot of gum, maybe some cigs, lots of barfights, lots of perfume made by Cody. All right, ready? Yeah. My bad sister Shannon was running errands when she decided to pop into a fast food place to grab a treat. She walks in and gets in line when a girl who she later learned 17 approaches her and asks if she can pretend they know each other because a man has been following her around the place. My sister said, of course, they walk back to the table where the girl was eating and they talk while she finishes her food. After a while, the girl turns to my sister and says thanks, and thanks her for staying and lets her know she's ready to go. My sister refused to let her leave

by herself because that creepy ass guy was still in there. As they're walking out, the man comes up to them and asks where they're going. My sister responds, it's none of your business, don't worry about it, and continues walking with the girl. Then the man grabs my sister's arm. Shannon turned to him and said, if you ever touch me again, I swear I'll stab you. Holy shit. Shannon did not fuck around. She's not playing at all. The man let go and told Shannon there was no need to act that way. That's when my sister told him she was calling the police. The guy ran to his car and tried to peel out of the parking lot. That's especially sad. The creep at the fast food restaurant that's trying to pick up on teenage girls, he tries to peel out as his final word

on this topic. Thankfully, this place is on a pretty busy road and he was forced to wait for traffic to clear before he could leave. During that time, the girl was taking pictures of his car. The cops show up and my sister and the girl tell them everything. Shannon, being the amazing person she is, gave the girl her number and told her if she ever needed to talk to the cops or even if she just needed to talk to give her a call. A few days go by and my sister gets a text from the girl. The police caught the guy. Turns out he had three active warrants for sexual assault and rape. Thanks to my brave as fuck sister and this kick-ass girl, that motherfucker, hopefully, is living a miserable existence in prison. Thank you, Karen and Georgia, for taking the

time to tell the story. Thank you for all the stories that you tell and all the laughs that you give. The world can never repay you. Megan C. Hell yeah. Megan and Shannon. Man. Killing it. And ultimately, reaching out to other women to go, I have a bad feeling. So even if I'm wrong, are you cool with helping me? Love it. And that's the key because sometimes it's that hideous outcome and sometimes it's just you had a bad feeling and you just needed some backup. Totally. Oh, I love it. Love it. Okay, this is a postal worker dad story. Greetings. Love you mean it. Let's get into it. The year was 1996 in my hometown of Bloondale, Ohio, population less than 600. I was six years old and really do not remember this happening as I was really in the

Power Rangers and dressing my outdoor barn cats in dresses, putting them in my doll strollers and pushing them around the yard. Animal torture. That's solely specific animal torture. So degrading. So degrading to cats. My dad was a rural mail carrier, aka he drove a regular car but sat in the passenger seat and drove while delivering mail. That doesn't make sense. How could he sit in the passenger seat and dry? They have to sit in the passenger seat. So they're on the mailbox side. So they have like a, it's like a British car. It's flipped. Okay. Because they need to be closest to the mailbox. I just pictured him leaning over the steering column, leaning over the middle and driving with no, they don't have to lean at all. Okay, great. He was coming up on the last

stretch of his route, turned a corner onto another country lane to see a van completely upside down on the side of the road in the ditch. He pulled behind the van to check on the passengers as there were no emergency response vehicles in sight and he found a lot more blood than expected. My dad noticed that both the driver and the passenger in the van had been shot. He went to check pulses to unfortunately find none on either man. Realizing that these guys were dead and my dad couldn't do anything to help out of frustration, he kicked the side of the van and broke his toe. Don't worry, I have confirmed that no additional glass was broken to sabotage the crime scene. Then embarrassed by his broken toe, my dad got back into his mail car and drove

to the closest home where an older gentleman and wife called 911 for the van murders, not the toe. And the authorities quickly arrived at the awful scene. This murder case was left unsolved until 2005 when the murder weapon was found in a creek and was linked back to Thomas Gallin. Gallin was considered a middleman in a lot of the court documents and was very heavily involved in the drug trafficking scene. This is ultimately the reason why the two men who were brothers were shot and killed. Turns out Galen would just end up killing anyone who we owed money to to eliminate the debt, which is rude. Galen was found guilty in district court for drug conspiracy and the murders of the brothers. The super fucked up part is Galen and the murdered brothers were

related. I think they were cousins. The most ridiculous part of the story is that my dad went on his merry way and kept delivering the mail on his route with his broken toe. He's now retired after delivering mail for 30 years. I asked him if he had any other wild tales from his route to which he replied, there was one time I opened a mailbox to find a handmade bomb. I don't think it was meant for me. So I shut the door on the mailbox and slowly drove away. So maybe I'll follow up with that story another time. Molly from Ohio. I'm sure he called the fucking cops about the bomb. I'm gonna say Molly's dad doesn't like to get involved. He's the kind of postman that's like live and let live. Yeah, my business. Mine, my business. It's a small town

in Ohio. Goodbye. Yeah. And also who else could it have been for if he's the mailman? He's the one that gets it. Yeah. If you put a mail, a bomb in a mailbox that doesn't have any mail in it, chances are no one's going to open it and tell the males in it. It's illegal. It's illegal to go into people's mailboxes. That's a federal crime. That's right. You've heard it from us. Molly, can you write down the following questions when you circle back with your father? A, why the apathy? B, do you have anger issues for just kicking a truck? But man, when you're mad. Well, I mean, I'm sure he was freaked the fuck out. It's like you walk up thinking it's a horrible accident and then it's a double murder. Totally. What do you do? Fargo shit right there. I mean,

I bet you that's why he's like everything else that happens. He's like, forget it. I mean, I can't. I already got involved the one time. Yeah. Okay. Again, the title gives it away. So I'll just say Dear Karen, Georgia, Steven, pets, both fiercely private and non-NMFM crew. This recently happened a few blocks from where I live and I had to share. A couple nights ago, there was a huge police presence in the downtown area of my city. We're talking every member of law enforcement patrolling downtown by car and on foot canines, shutting down traffic in all directions, the works. It all started when a 24 year old man assaulted another person outside of an apartment building. Upon hearing the commotion,

another tenant opened their door to see what was happening. Clearly not a properly trained murderer. The man then pushed past the other tenant to get into their apartment, stole a safe, and took off running. Whoa. Who steals a fucking safe and then runs off with it? It turns out, not even this guy. You see, as this brilliant member of my community tried to flee with a large clunky safe, he realized it was not a safe. No, it was a mini fridge. How do you misake the two? Well, you're just in a hurry. You're in a hurry. You're mid crime. You know all those frigid air safes they made back in the 60s. Yeah, the mini fridge with the big spinny thing on the front of it so you can't get in when you're stupid. Okay, wait. Upon deciding,

he had not stolen treasure and probably just wound up with somebody's backup beers. He dropped it and hurled himself into the river that winds through downtown to avoid police. Wow. To add insult to injury, when he tried to swim away, he discovered he could not in fact out swim an entire police department and was so tired he required assistance from the fire department to get back to shore. Guys, stay sexy and always make sure you know what you're stealing just to be safe. And then in parentheses, it says that pun was for you, Georgia. I didn't even catch it. I love it. You did it. Great job. I haven't had enough coffee today. There it is. It was worth it. Pun injection. Thank you. I had energy. I needed that. Energizing pun injection.

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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. Okay. This is my third one. Subject, a tale of tiny drug dealers. It just starts, oh, you want stories about crushing up cocaine rocks? Then let's fucking go. Don't remember that,

but absolutely. But somebody somewhere, when we said it, turned to their laptop and was like, you know, hitting the caps button. Here we go. And it was worth it. This is a great story. I grew up in a very small town in Wyoming. We're talking a post office, a general store, and an elementary school. That's it. Both my parents own their own businesses, so I grew up with a healthy entrepreneurial instinct and a lot of unsupervised free time. Great combo. My best friend, Jake, and I ran every money-making scheme you can think of in that little town. Lemonade stands with adult options. Can you imagine? Walking up. Throwing up. Throwing some booze in there.

Yeah, their parents aren't home. They're like, well, let's get something for the adults, because that's how we make the money. Very smart. And they're like, and they charge $18 per, because what are you going to get a drink somewhere else? That's right. And also, I've never been to a bar, so I don't know how much cocktails are. Let's do it. Adult options. Interior and exterior car washes. I'm sure they did a great job on the interiors. Just turn the hose on to the interior. Rinse it. Rinse it. Walk away. Vacation pet and plant sitting and date night baby sitting when we were way too young.

Then it says, seriously, why did my neighbors let an 11-year-old watch their one-year-old while they were getting sloshed at my parents' New Year's party? So many questions. When we were in third or fourth grade, our school implemented an eco-friendly and health-conscious program by giving the entire school reusable bottles to cut down on trash and encourage kids to drink more water. That's great. Jake and I quickly recognized this as a lucrative opportunity. We understood that kids don't want to drink water. It's boring and flat and tasteless. Kids want flavor. So we biked over to Hungry Jack's General Store and bought everything that could possibly transform water from dull to delicious.

We spent an afternoon trying different concoctions and methods of adding flavor until we finally developed our ideal product, minty water. Oh, no. Of course, you put a little TM in there in case you and I tried to steal it. All we had to do was crush up Altoids, portion them out into small tin foil squares, and sell them to our fellow students to dump in their water bottles in order to elevate their hydration experience. Oh, aluminum foil. This person is a great Alex. You're a great writer. It was a foolproof money-making plan. The next day, we began selling our new product, but we kept it on the down low, knowing the illusion of exclusivity would drive up demand. Business was booming and Hungry Jack's

could barely keep mints on the shelves. About a week later, Jake and I were called into the principal's office to find two police officers and the dare instructor waiting for us. Turns out two kids secretly selling small tin foil packets filled with white powder had garnered a lot of attention from teachers and staff. I bet. When we were questioned, we struggled to understand what we had actually done wrong. At first, we thought it was because we were tainting the healthy habits the school was trying to instill. But once we explained the benefits of minty water to the officers, they quickly dropped their serious demeanor and loosened up. However, they told us we had to shut down our new endeavor without really telling us why. Looking back,

I can't imagine how relieved those officers must have been. It wasn't until Jake and I arrived home to our parents absolutely cracking up at the phone calls they received that the implications of what we were doing was fully explained to us. All this to say, I still don't know anything about crack rocks or cocaine rocks or whatever. Thanks a lot there. But my mom still laughs until she cries when she reminisces about trying to tell the two naive nine year olds why selling fine white powder and homemade dime bags is not okay. Stay sexy and always support your local neighborhood business children. Alex, she her. I love the idea of business children. They have all the best ideas. Yeah. As a person who doesn't, I only like mints as a mint like water on your way into a party.

Mint water is a nightmare. That's me. Just doesn't work somehow. Like having a mint and then drinking water. Fine. But like cremented water. No, that's like you're drinking someone else's water who just brushed their teeth and then spit into the cup. Yeah, there's a real backwash positive backwash element to minty. I mean, would you rather smoke a menthol cigarette or drink minty water? And then like even if you're not a smoker, that's a hard decision. It's all, it's all not great. Plus Altoids, like that was that thing where like suddenly super strong mints got popular. Yeah. Fisherman's friend, all that shit. Yeah, like they have to be. It's like they're not angry. Yeah, it's not like they're picking peppermint candy to stick in water. A shirt. A nice shirt. Just like

a nice beautiful orange shirt. Just all of that. Yeah. No, they're picking like fucking military grade mints to mix into water. Just put some toothpaste in there and she'll give it a shake. Yeah, you know, kids love that. Okay. This is my third one, right? Yes. Karen, Georgia, Steven and assorted pets. Do I have a story for you? I was recently talking to a friend of mine in Sydney and this story came up. This is weird that I picked this story and you picked your first story. Okay. My friend was sitting on a very crowded all station Sydney train one day and was staring adoringly at the yellow Labrador seeing eye dog. We call them guy dogs in Australia. I think we call them that here too. Sure. We're bigger. So there's more words to

choose from here in America. Sitting quietly between its owner's feet under the seat across the aisle from him. The owner's handbag was placed on the floor right next to her feet with an easy reach for her when it was come time to disembark the train. My friend also noticed a man sitting close to this blind passenger who was staring at the dog then looking down the aisle at the doors to the carriage getting a weird vibe from this guy. My friend was about to get up out of his seat and go stand nearby the blind passenger when the train pulled into the station. The doors of the train automatically opened and the creepy guy jumped to his feet in a matter of seconds. The creep ran past the blind passenger put his hand down

closed his fingers around the handle over handbag and was about to lift it off the ground when the guy dog turned and bit him. My friend described the response of the dog as not today motherfucker. The creep's shrieks of pain intermingled with incoherent swearing at the dog were quickly muffled by several other passengers who rugby style tackled him to the floor of the carriage waiting for the police or guards to come and deal with him. Although shaken, my friend told me the blind passenger was fine and her dog returned to his lazy Labrador slumber within minutes of the incident. Fucking Labrador's man. They're the chillest motherfuckers. They're the chillest and they're so nice and when they're service dogs, they're such professionals. You know what I mean?

But of course, this is a built-in part of their service. It's like, oh, you're gonna invade our space? Goodbye. Yeah, I'll take care of it and then I'll go back to sleep. Because it's not a big deal to me. I'm a service dog. This is what I do. I love this story more so now because I've finally been informed that after almost a year on the waiting list, I have been matched with my second guide dog. I'm legally blind and have relied upon guide dogs since the age of 18 in 2005 when I was given my first dog, a black Labrador named Hector. He was my best friend, my baby, and my soulmate who left a mark on every single person that met him. I want people to know that these are working animals. Yep, they are. However, low vision and blind people literally put their

lives into these dogs' hands every single day and are the most wonderful silver lining any of us could ever ask for in our situations. I'd also like to mention that just that after losing Hector in July of 2019, I never thought any dog could fill his shoes. Until now, when I was told that my perfectly matched second guide dog was a yellow two-year-old male Labrador named Hector. I hope this got Georgia. We got Georgia. We got her on the first mini back. Now that I have Cookie, my dog, you know, it's like, okay, my cat probably wouldn't save my life, but Cookie would. Your cat would stand and watch like an audience member if it were up to that cat and then walk away calmly. So no, your allegiances are in the perfectly right place. Thank you. I hope this

email warms your hearts and makes Tails wag and always remember that blind or low vision people and their dogs are an unstoppable force to be reckoned with. Stay sexy and don't fuck with a guide dog, Louise. Yes. And she lives in Whitsundays, Australia. Good job, Louise. I love that story. What a great thing to like. I didn't even know that was the kind of feel good story that could be out there. I love it. That's a great fun. And listen, then this episode is like opens and closes with these great stories. I know we pick these separately and privately without each other's knowledge. So weird. That is beautiful. Well, you know, I don't think Vince would have let me got. Sorry. I don't think Vince would have let me get our kitten that we have if its name hadn't

originally been Elvis. Like he kind of couldn't say no to that. And then I changed the name to Moses. So I kind of the jokes on him. But like, there was a kitten named Elvis. I had to get him. Right. But people name those cats Elvis because of you. We did follow each other on Instagram. So maybe you're right. You're set up for getting a cat any time you want to, if that's your rationale. That's true. Oh, I'll tell you the story of Cookie. I was bringing her. I was going downstairs to give her a bath. My ankle went out on like the last step. I was with her. I tripped and fucking fell down like a stair or two and like maybe slipped in her pee pad. That's I slipped on it. I land with a clunk and I had the spoon of peanut butter to give her a bath with it,

you know, but she comes over to me to see if I'm okay. But no, she actually came over and stole the fucking spoon of peanut butter and ran. Yeah. So she was not concerned with my well being at all. It was humiliating. I think humiliating for sure. But it's good to know like what other people's priorities are. And with dogs, it could be the second coming of Christ and dogs would be like, did you say peanut butter? Like that's always their number one pick. No one's beating peanut butter. I mean, maybe she did it to make me laugh because I did laugh. So it was pretty cute. Like she was concerned and scared and like hunched down and then grabbed the fucking peanut butter spoon and ran. It was like, I thought she was coming at like

take care of me. Oh, no. Are you okay? Check out. Check my vitals. I don't know. No, you did not adopt a nurse dog. What are you talking about? Oh, he has a nurse. How cute would that be? Oh, great batch, everybody. How fun to be reading these again. Back in the mix. I miss this so much. Thank you so much. Keep sending your stories in. And don't forget to stay sexy and don't get murdered. Go by Elvis. Do you want a cookie? This has been an exactly right production. Our producer is Hannah Kyle Crichton, associate producer Alejandra Keck, engineer and mixer Steven Ray Morris, researchers J Elias and Haley Gray, send us your hometowns and your fucking arrays at my favorite murder at gmail.com and follow the show on Instagram and Facebook

at my favorite murder and Twitter at my fave murder. And for more information about this podcast, our live shows, merch or to join the fan cult, go to my favorite murder.com. Great review and subscribe.