My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 250

Episode Date: October 25, 2021

This week’s hometowns include a Spooky Halloween™ ghost story and a celebrity hitchhiker.   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. We at Wondery live, breathe, and downright obsess over true crime. And now we're launching the ultimate true crime fan experience, Exhibit C. Join now by following Wondery, Exhibit C, on Facebook and listen to true crime on Wondery and Amazon Music. Exhibit C, it's truly criminal. Hello and welcome to my favorite murder, the mini-soad. Mini-soad time for you.

I'll go first. This email, the subject line is why it's hip to be square. Oh. Hello, humans, mammals, and other earthlings. When I was 20, I lived alone for the first time in a small, quiet apartment community. After a long evening out chatting with friends in the parking lot of the local hangout, I noticed our group had started to dwindle as it was getting pretty late and all of the businesses nearby had been closed for hours.

One of the people that had been chatting with us was a new face and I learned that he was bicycling across the country after beating cancer, camping, and couch surfing as he went along. Everyone was very intrigued at his story and how he was living his dreams. He had stated a male friend's house the previous two nights, so when I was ready to leave, I asked if he would be staying at my friend's house again, but he said no since my friend had to go out of town and he would have to make camp. At this point, the others had left and it was just me and him saying goodbye.

It was spring, unusually cold, and this guy looked real thin and already shivering, so I did the best thing I could think of at the time, one alone in a parking lot at midnight with a strange traveling man, and I invited him to sleep on my couch. I felt it was super uncool of me to not offer and I thought it would be awesome to be part of his story. After loading his bicycle into the back of my Corsica. Wow, and getting back to my place, I offered him a snack and chatted with him for only a few minutes in the living room.

I had to work early in the morning so I let him know and handed him some blankets. He seemed really grateful and it wasn't until I went into my bedroom that I realized what I had actually done. I had invited a strange bicycling man back to my apartment and no one knew it but me. At the time, I didn't have a cell phone and the only house phone was in the living room with him. I went to lock my bedroom door and only then realized there was no lock on it. My apartment was so quiet you could hear a pin drop so I very carefully pushed my fake

wood, light as a feather and not going to stop anyone dresser in front of the door, thinking at least if he came in it would give me a second to defend myself with absolutely nothing because I had no weapons whatsoever in my room and was on the second floor. Somehow I dozed off and a couple hours later woke by the sound of him quietly calling my name from the other side of the door. I went to the door and without opening it or moving the dresser I asked him what he needed. He said he couldn't sleep and was wondering if I wanted to talk.

I decided right then that I needed to take him somewhere else knowing that I wouldn't get any rest with this random dude in the other room so I told him just a minute and that I would be right out. Ignorant to everything I have learned about Stranger Danger in the last 17 years since this happened I pushed the dresser out of the way and opened the door. It was very dark in the hallway with only a tiny bit of light from the street shining through the blinds but as I struggled to focus my eyes I realized that he was standing right in front of me less than inches away still at my door.

It startled me so I asked what he was doing and he said again I just wanted to talk. Now at this point my eyes had fully adjusted and I could see that he was completely 100% naked. Oh no. I'm not sure what he was expecting to happen or what kind of woman has ever been turned on by a scrawny man with a with a flaccid penis. As I backed into my room a few steps and I shut the door between us and loudly proclaimed that I was giving him one minute to get dressed and that he needed to leave.

During this one minute I started to shake with rage and decided maybe it was he that should be scared of me. I barged out of the bedroom on the offense shouting and now holding a screwdriver the only thing I could find nearby. Hey that'll work. As I was shouting loudly at him about taking advantage of women he tried to interject that he thought my invitation to crash on the couch meant something more but I was not having it.

Yeah then you would have invited him in your bed dude. Right. It would be quite clear if she was interested in you in any sort of way. So now she's being punished for being decent and basically accepting you guilting her as you stand there shivering alone in a parking lot and you're not understanding any fucking cues as to a woman not being fucking interested in you. Or you understanding that you got no cues but you want it anyway so too bad for her right. Well no because now we're back in the email okay let's do it.

Because my intensity built I continued to interrupt him yelling get out while channeling my inner carry and then it parentheses it says Stephen King. At this point it should be mentioned my actions were also an incorrect response since I didn't have any special powers or a real weapon to back up my rage. Fortunately the guy quickly dressed grabbed his things and rode off in the night on his bicycle. I learned a lot from this experience and it changed the way I interact with strangers and how I manage my personal space from then on.

Thanks for listening to my story. Stay sexy. Who cares if you're cool and remember you don't have to help anyone. Brittany. Love it Brittany. That's right you are not obligated and it might be awkward in the lot those few moments of you not offering. I'm sure not obligated in any way to help people out because of fucking guilt.

Now if you lived in a house with you know say three large dudes and a couple other people then that's fine because it won't be on you but as a woman living alone or by herself that's the re you can look that guy in the eye and go you it's not safe for me to bring you right back to my house that would be crazy right and then good luck friend you should have actually you should have locked this down earlier. Totally. No he was waiting for a single woman to fucking invite him over that's what he was doing. Could have.

Yeah. All right. But this is how we learn she also shouldn't feel guilty because this is how we learn it's like you can't you can make assumptions and then once you're in a scary situation go well now I've learned my lesson. Totally. No guilt no shade continue on stronger than ever growing learning loving. Let's screw drivers screw drivers the cocktail or the screwdriver all of it the weapon the

cocktail. Okay I'm not going to tell you the name of this one you guys are my favorite. This is long so I'm jumping in I've written the story to you before but since then my beloved great uncle has passed away and the reflection of his memory has been brought back to the surface beautifully put when I was around 12 years old my parents told me that my mother's favorite aunt and uncle would be coming to visit for a while I had never met them but my mom always spoke of them fondly when they arrived I was surprised to see them park their giant RV in front of our house Christmas Vacation style I love that reference

I love it although they were welcome to our to our guest bedroom they told us that they felt more comfortable just staying in their home they parked in front of our suburban home for a little over a week and despite the attention their RV drew from the kids that rode my school bus they were fun to have around they sat in our living room strumming the auto harp wailing out tinny bluegrass songs and telling stories of their colorful life living across the country in an RV I knew that my uncle let's call him John had been a very successful businessman so once they left I asked my mom why they lived in an RV she very calmly said oh they're on the lamb and they're just traveling the country

in the RV until the statute runs out you probably shouldn't tell any of your friends what their names are oh oh they're on the lamb I'm mom I'm Carol your mom they're on the lamb Carol they're on the lamb and then she writes I'm sorry what so we just had a wanted fugitive stay with us for over a week and you're just now giving me the heads up about this as it turns out uncle John was wanted for a huge male fraud scam oh his brother who was now in prison was arrested first but John and his wife got the heads up early so early enough to take off I asked my mom for more details and she said well for years here's Carol well for years they sent out advertisements in the mail for a penis enlargement product

once the men had mailed their checks in for the product all John and his brother sent back to them were photos of naked women it's sarcasm through the mail that's fucked up like they didn't have to send anything they could have just not responded and said they're like they're like they made enough money to support two households so apparently his quote successful business was not at all what I thought it had been John statue ran out over 20 years ago but he and his wife got so used to living on the lamb that they decided it was home and continue to live that way until he recently passed I guess I'm glad that his ridiculous scheme ended up providing them with their dream lives I'm also glad

that I didn't have to explain to the kids on my bus why the SWAT team showed up to arrest the people in the trailer outside my house because of a penis enlargement male scandal as a 12 year old that would have been very bad for my social life anyway I love you guys stay sexy and don't promise penis enlargements Angela from Tulsa oh no Angela penis enlargement that is hijinks hijinks and it must have been like the 60s or something I'd assume or the 70s yeah when people mailed things people mailed things they there was no way to kind of like get the word out they probably wouldn't anyway because it's like hey this didn't happen to me but it happened to a friend of mine I mean how would you press

charges would be so embarrassing probably it's horrible it's almost I mean they I think that's probably part of it right they're taking advantage of the fact that yeah I do it's that's like when um when it's not Etsy when eBay first started I knew somebody that was selling it would be a picture that he just bought like postcards at the like at a gift store but then he would put it on there and people assumed they were like fancy posters because he was charging like $250 for them and then he'd send it and it was just a postcard but he was like I'm putting in the size right oh I like it's just that they're not doing their homework so it's like taking advantage it was the first wave of taking advantage of

people who don't really know how to use the internet right and there's no checks and balances because the website's kind of new and it's like well sorry it's that thing of getting you on it on that like well did you not read right that it says right there it's five inches by three inches like oh I just feel myself falling for something like that so I feel for it entirely um okay this is there are so many O's in this word spooky spooky Halloween story hi Karen Georgia Steven an exactly right crew oh thank you oh man have I got a ghost story to put you in the spooky Halloween trademark simple mood oh thank you yes let's get into this spooky Halloween mood okay this is my third hand retelling of my aunts my mom's

sisters wild spiritual encounter I would have asked my aunt Katie for her first hand account but my family doesn't talk to her anymore gotta love those dysfunctional extended family members am I right oh yes oh yeah we don't we don't have one of those think of you you don't have ever in the family now everyone's on the level there's no that's nice that's good yeah I don't think there's any now but I think over the years also because our family is gigantic right over the years there have been like there was one between my mom and my grandma that I that I heard about years after oh where it was like basically my grandmother said something about my mom's good friend and then she was like you have no right to judge

her and then there was like it was like silent treatment for a year oh yeah we'll do that okay we've done that I thought that was normal I thought that was just families I thought you were talking about like decades that's just Thanksgiving that's every year I think everybody's family has that kind of shit there's no one that can hurt you more than like your own family yeah oh yeah my sister and I didn't talk for like gear yeah now we're like close okay yeah that's normal okay got it now for the creepy shit my mom is the youngest of three siblings with her brother Rob in the middle and her sister Katie as the oldest my grandfather hope these aren't real names oh well my grandfather's job required him

to move his family all over the country every several years whether my mom and her siblings liked it or not after just moving from New York state down to Bel Air Maryland which is in parentheses it says my hometown during the summer of 1972 my 12 year old mom and her family were settling into yet another home one of the first nights there my aunt Katie woke up the rest of the family with a blood curdling scream hearing this my grandmother rushed to her daughter's room to see what was wrong I just saw Nana sitting on the bed cried my aunt this was especially shocking as my great grandmother had passed away just a few months prior according to Aunt Katie the apparition of my great grandmother was

reading a newspaper with the front page headline Bel Air family dies in house fire what my grandma assured Aunt Katie that it was just a dream and to go back to sleep what makes the story even more chilling is the fact that an inspector was scheduled to come the next morning to make sure the new house's electric heating cooling gas etc was in working order for the new owners when the inspector was finished he informed my grandfather how lucky he was that he had come out that day because if my family had turned on the AC unit in the basement they would have certainly blown up due to faulty wiring killing everyone inside okay hold up right now yeah like I believe imaginations do a lot of things but a 12 year

old imagining that head like that's just not that's like a really elaborate thing to imagine it could have just been the grandma telling her you know hey you're gonna die in a house fire you know it's like yeah exactly it's elaborate and also it's the kind of thing where you know oftentimes people who don't believe in ghosts or those kinds of experiences are like yeah just doesn't really make any sense but this one is just like clearly I am warning you right the right like I'm trying to I'm breaking through for this very specific task okay so shout out to my great grandmother's ghost for warning my family of an imminent danger and keeping them alive so I could be around today to be a murderer you know stay

sexy and take your grandma's ghost seriously love to you all Maddie she her wow that is spooky Halloween trademark and that's a spooky Halloween trademark good one Maddie nice one um all right I have a first responder story great we haven't had one of those in a while this is also a famous person story at the same time Kerry Grant is that you Kerry Grant Kerry Grant are you here to tell us about my house fire all right first responder story hello I tried sending this story in before but now looking back even I'm horrified at how long it was see it takes a little bit of time to get to really see with clear eyes like that yeah so this is a revised edition here we go I'm a prosecutor and my husband

is a firefighter paramedic so you can imagine between the two of us we've got stories before moving to Massachusetts my husband was a firefighter paramedic in Montana one night around 1am they get dispatched for a report of a man walking down a rural road who may or may not have been intoxicated they respond and find the man who is walking aimlessly down this road in the middle of nowhere Montana and he's holding two bottles of wine sounds like a party they ask him what he's up to and he responds that he's going for a walk because it was a beautiful night he then informed them that his friend was having a party and that's where he had come from but now he didn't know how to get back to the house so my husband

and his partner were obviously familiar with the area and they happen to know that Jeff Amit the bass player for Pearl Jam had a house nearby so they have a fairly good idea of where this gentleman was trying to get to they offered him a ride which he gladly accepts the man climbs into the cab of the fire truck and they begin driving to Jeff Amit's house is that right Amit? I think so that was a little over two miles away once inside the cab my husband's partner is talking to the man and eventually asks hey is your name Eddie? The man responds that it is which then prompts the question are you Eddie Vedder?

Yeah And you guessed it the lead singer of Pearl Jam was now hitchhiking a ride with a local Montana fire company back to Jeff Amit's house they dropped him off he thanked them and then carried on with his night my husband and his partner were familiar with Jeff Amit's house because he used to hold Sunday skate sessions for local skateboarders he had a whole skate park on his property and sometimes people would get hurt so the local first responders got to visit but they never had an opportunity to offer a rock legend a ride before first time for everything I hope you enjoyed the story and I know everyone thinks you for

talking about mental health so I'm not going to repeat it but I have one very important detail to add I started listening to MFM because my therapist recommended it to me she also loves your podcast and knew that while I was going through some really dark shit you guys can make me laugh so it's official your therapist recommended hey who needs an award trademark trademark stay sexy listen to your therapist when she tells you to listen to MFM and watch out for men wandering rural Montana roads they just might be a grunge rock star love a yes any better that's the coolest I mean here's a thing that guy I've heard lots of stories about Eddie better over the years he is a humongous rock star an amazing talent he parties

and he has a good goddamn time yeah like yeah yeah that's what you would do yes or am I just chill person picturing him on portlandia and he seemed really cool on that no no no everyone that I know that has met him adores him and it's like yeah when that's what I I would either when I got really drunk I'd either want to start singing or I'd want to take a walk and you're in Montana which is like so gorgeous I used to leave parties all the time sometimes if they had a dog I'd take the dog for a walk sometimes I was wander off on my own which is insane now that I think about it I also have a story that I used to do in my act because one time my dad goes hey when he came it was when I was still in high school or high school or college and he came home from the

firehouse one day and goes hey I met your friend last night and I was like who and he goes yeah we were in they apparently they had to resuscitate slash after a concert in San Francisco the fire department got called because he like OD or something bad happened yeah and my dad was like the oh Karen knows Karen must know this guy Karen must know slash from guns and roses because it was like a put somebody that partied that was just like you know oh I met your friend it's your friend slash yeah amazing right looking for a better cooking routine with meal planning shopping and prepping handled hello fresh has you covered hello fresh makes home cooking easy and affordable so you can stay on track and on budget in the new year hello fresh meals are convenient

seasonal and delicious stay cozy all winter long with classic comfort foods available weekly why stop with just dinner now you can enjoy hello fresh's expanded menu of quick lunch solutions weekend brunch simple side dishes and amazing desserts Karen January is going to be my month for hello fresh I am so sick of takeout I miss cooking so much I haven't lifted a knife or a pan since like early fall so I can't wait to get back in the kitchen and hello fresh makes it so easy and also makes it so that my food tastes good which is hard to do on my own it gives you everything everything you need so get up to 20 free meals with purchase plus free shipping on your first box at hello fresh dot ca slash murder 20 with code murder 20 that's up to 20 free meals

plus free shipping on your first box when you go to hello fresh dot ca slash murder 20 and use code murder 20 goodbye what makes a person a murderer are they born to kill or are they made to kill I'm Candice DeLong and on my new podcast killer psyche daily I share a quick 10 minute rundown every weekday on the motivations and behaviors of the criminal masterminds psychopaths and cold-blooded killers you hear about in the news I have decades of experience as a psychiatric nurse FBI agent and criminal profiler on killer psyche daily I'll give you insight into cases like Ryan Grantham and the newly arrested Stockton serial killer I'll also bring on expert guests to dive deeper into the details share what it's like to work with a behavioral assessment unit at Quantico

answer some killer trivia and even host virtual Q&As where I'll answer your burning questions hey prime members listen to the amazon music exclusive podcast killer psyche daily in the amazon music app download the app today it's my turn to shine go okay get it girl I'm not going to read you the subject line hi Karen and George and all associated pets and people you asked for a story like this so here it goes my grandmother was born in 1932 in Jersey City to Italian immigrants and she and my grandfather born in Brooklyn also to Italian immigrants both had hilarious stories of growing up straddling the line between being authentically American and Italian at the same time my grandfather passed away years ago but this is a story that

my grandmother still tells to this day my grandma Rachel and her cousin Rose had no one's named Rose and that's so like first-generation classic yeah and her cousin Rose were inseparable growing up they always did things together they went to the New York World's Fair of 1939 even good god anyway my great grandmother Rachel's mom decided to send the girls on a special mission at the tender age of nine they were to go to the home of a family friend and pick up a very important and very illegal package homemade vodka so basically like Italian moonshine homemade vodka yeah my great grandma could make the most delicious lemon cello from this high-octane vodka so of course she wanted to send the most innocuous smugglers to get the job done her child and niece

in order to hide their legal activities the girls were set up with a baby buggy with lots of blankets inside so they could disguise the alcohol as a baby oh just amazing they were to go straight to the moonshine ladies house and not to talk to people along the way so they don't arouse suspicion but of course act natural too so hustle but be natural off the girls went and once they arrived the lady wrapped several giant jugs of vodka in the blankets swaddling them if you will and weighing the buggy down more than the any infant possibly could they were told that no matter what do not let anyone see the baby inside the yeah no shit it took both girls all their combined strength to get the buggy up the block and through the neighborhood because it was so weighed

down with the vodka they would stop and rest for a minute when they could all the while trying to avoid making eye contact with anyone and if someone did start to show interest in them and their cute little baby they would simply say no no this baby is very ugly and keep on hustling up the street just gonna say it was a fate it was a doll it was a baby's ugly don't bother this baby's too ugly to look at and the time I got back then old time you're like yeah probably some ugly babies in the old time they're like I don't want to see an ugly baby thanks for the warning they made it back home sweaty and tired but safely delivered the precious cargo to my great grandmother she was very proud needless to say no one went to jail not for that

anyway and my grandmother still makes her mother's recipe of lemon cello from legally purchase vodka this time and it's amazing and I really need to learn it I love you all and appreciate what you do stay strong stay sexy and maybe don't let your children transport your illegal alcohol for you xoxo sarah sarah you need to learn how to make it and send us some because I want to try that that's the shit yeah that sounds amazing yeah I bet it really I bet it really is yeah okay I'm not gonna redo the hilarious name of this wait okay yeah you read it at the end you'll get it it's quick hi human friends hi furry friends I've been meaning to write in about this for a while when my sister Allie was in college she watched a boy named Thomas from birth to around five years

old my sister and I are a lot alike in the sense that we always lose our car keys or lock our keys in our car I wish at age 30 I could say I've grown out of it but no um on one of the instances my sister lost her keys she had to borrow her roommate's car to get to her babysitting gig Thomas was two years old at the time and his parents were so excited to have a night out in Bloomington Indiana little did they know they'd have to go through some drama first when she got there and shortly before they left Allie was making faces you know happy silly faces you make with children what if it was a terrifying monster just like silent scream faces you know at Thomas while his parents were holding him then she took her roommate's keys and took what she

thought was a laser light and pressed the button on said laser light near Thomas's face no no no no no it was not a laser light I mean it says why would you shine a laser light near two-year-old is beyond me but nonetheless all caps it was mace oh yes my sister maced a two-year-old boy she babysat oh my god it took everyone a second to react including Thomas but once he did it was pure chaos and then it says don't worry he's fine uh he screamed bloody murder and then I shit you not he started throwing up yeah yeah they put him in a bath I guess that helps question mark and then his parents were on their way to their date oh what really yeah she said the parents were there for yeah yeah they were holding the baby and she was making faces at it

oh let me put a laser light in your little face holy shit then it says if I had a two-year-old and didn't get out much you but you bet your ass I'd probably do the same thing your parents weren't upset with my sister or anything but I'm sure they were thinking why the fuck would you press a button near a child's face if you aren't certain what the button is for yeah my sister said it was one of the top five worst moments of her life yeah I bet you would never stop like getting like a hit of that and cringing you just would never stop you make a baby you maced a baby stay sexy and maybe don't mace the child your baby sitting Hannah like you knew it was coming the whole time and then it just came

yeah and then there it was and also um you know I think we talked about this before because I have uh several cousins who are uh San Francisco policemen and they have to get maced right when they first start training right because it's like you can't you have to know the weapon and the intensity of the weapon you're about to use on people and so I was asking one of my cousins about it and he was just like it's the worst thing that's ever happened to me yeah so and he was you know 27 when it happened so it's like a baby two years old yeah that's the other thing that's so so fucked up about you know when we watched like all the um all the marches and all the protests over the like last summer and then that it was like there were cops that would just go out and

just spray it like a fucking hairspray it was horrifying uh so fucked up totally um um is that it would that we just have to sit with anyway uh yeah I think it's it but the intensity of that scenario clearly if the parents were like all right we're going to dinner let us know if he if anything bad happens yeah obviously not it wasn't and I think when you're a parent too you're like yeah that happened like you're you're more used to bad shit happening because children constantly try to kill themselves and that's like your job in the beginning is to like make sure they don't kill themselves yeah you don't like I it makes me panic because I don't have kids right those those parents are like oh we've seen way worse unfazed yeah yeah tell us

that's like the the time that me and our my next door neighbor uh stuck a pole into a hornet's nest and then got covered in beastings I never told you that story no it's probably whatever sorry wasps or hornets whatever ones they're ones that build their nests underground so we found it in the backyard because it was just like a big open field yeah like holy shit what's this and we tried to put a bucket over it but then the bucket turned black it was like a white bucket and the bucket turned black because the bees were trying to come up all night and so we're like oh we got to knock that bucket off because we are now we made them angry and so we took this really really long pole and we're trying to knock the bucket off and instead it knocked the bucket off then the

pole went straight into the nest and then we stood there and literally watch I can't believe I've told you this story I've definitely told it on podcast before we watched a swarm of bees come straight up out of the ground and just like a cartoon pause look at in like a cloud and then come straight at us did you it was so bad oh my god it was insane I was covered from head to toe and I was wearing overalls of course because I was like 10 and so I had overall I had bees in my clothes in my hair and then I run up to the back door we lived five miles out of town right we didn't lock our front door the back door was locked somehow so I was in a like still in the swarm of bees banging on the back door waiting for someone to open the door how do you and my mom

walked up with one of those like cordless curling irons going what are you doing in like yelling at me and then I just run in and like 20 bees come into the house with me it was insane that's terrifying and then they went out to dinner I got yeah they all decided to go out with my parents my mom put a full like so baking soda kind of poultice thing on every limb and I just laid on the couch and then they were like all right call us if anything happens and went to my aunt Jane and uncle Steve's for dinner hey do you have a story that's like that right hey it is at my favorite murder at Gmail my brother got covered in a red ants one same kind of Mario yeah and same thing then your mom was like peace I gotta go to the PTA meeting no my mom didn't go to the

fucking PTA meeting she went to the crazy horse or whatever fucking line dancing thing was annoying she gotta go like tonight's my line dancing night that's right that's right asher sorry about that sorry buddy uh write us at my favorite murder at Gmail I already said that if you want another hometown we do one more on the fan cults at my favorite murder dot com thank you guys so much exclusive content yeah exclusive stay sexy and don't get murdered goodbye Elvis do you want to 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 Jay Elias and Haley Gray send us your hometowns and your fucking hurrays 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 dot com rate review and subscribe