My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 277

Episode Date: May 2, 2022

This week’s hometowns include martini nights with grandma and a baby who saves the day.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We at Wondery live, breathe and downright obsess over true crime and now we're launching the ultimate true crime fan experience, Exhibit C. Join now by following Wondery, Exhibit C on Facebook and listen to true crime on Wondery and Amazon Music, Exhibit C. It's truly criminal. Hello. And welcome. So my favorite murder. This is the mini soap. That's right, you know it. You participate in it. You like it, we hope. Are we ready to start? You want to go first? Sure. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I can go. Do it. Okay. This is called That Was a Dumb Decision, a college memoir. Oh, hell yeah. Hi, ladies. I've recently realized my storytelling skills are below average since my toddler tells me to stop talking 30 seconds in, but we will give this

a go. Picky, picky. Okay. So I know, man, toddlers these days. It's okay. So while in college, I lived on my own in a cute little duplex. It was a warm day and I decided to write one of my papers outside on my laptop. As I'm typing, I noticed a lady walking along the fence in my neighbor's yard looking at me. Thinking it was said neighbor, I waved. The woman then asked me, do you have a phone I can use? Clearly confused. I said, what? She then proceeded to slip between the wire fence towards me and immediately began telling me how her and her boyfriend had gotten a fight. The woman was distraught and shaking and she had a bag of clothes and blood on her arms and wrists. I told her I was calling the police, but she said she'd already did and that she had to get

away from him. I handed her my phone to make a call, but no one answered. The woman then asked me if I could get her some water. I noticed she was sweating and could now tell that she had been running. I went inside my house, leaving my screen door shut, but the main door open. When I turned around from my refrigerator, she was standing inside my house. As I'm handing her the water, she asked if she could use the bathroom to wash off her arms. I pointed her in the direction and immediately armed myself with my expired pepper spray once the bathroom door was closed, just in case. I wonder what expired pepper spray was. It starts even more, I would think. Just lightly seasoned your eyes. I waited for her to return and then led her back out of my house.

Unsure of what to do, I asked if she wanted to call anyone again. She did, no answer. The woman starts getting very nervous and starts crying about how he's going to find her walking along the road. She asked if I would consider dropping her off at a friend's house that was right up the street. Guilted and feeling sorry for her, I did. During the drive, she was ducked down in the passenger seat, wearing a cap low down to her eyes and she told me to let her know if I saw an old red pickup truck because that was him. We arrived to her friend's house, she got out of the car and thanked me over and over again and that was the end of it. Or so I thought. The next day, I went to class and I'm walking in with my group of friends. When one of them said, Julie, don't you live behind

that hospital? Did you see the alert about the inmate who escaped from there while they were checking on her baby? All caps. Yep, you guessed it. I gave the lady who escaped a ride. I asked her to show me the article and sure enough, it was her. After having a full-on panic attack about how naive I was, I called the cops where I had to give a written statement and tell them where I dropped her off at. I also received a stern lecture about not giving strangers rides. Also, yes, they found her and yes, this event happened before I listened to your podcast. Stay sexy and don't talk to strangers, Julie. Oh, Julie, I would have done that if that was a person that I was dealing with and they were under threat like that with, I think the blood is

the kicker. Yeah, I believed everything up until that point. Like, yeah, help her get away. Yes. Do what you can. You're a good Samaritan until you're actually not. Until you're aiding in a bedding. Oh, my, well, also that just made me think and I know I've told the story multiple times on the show, so I won't go that far into it. But the time when I was taking diet pills slash straight-up speed, so I would just kind of weirdly like walk around my house and smoke and watch black and white movies and talk on the phone. I was like a human phone tree. And I heard, I went back to put laundry in my roommate Dave's room and I heard a noise outside and I opened, it was like those old fashioned flat windows. Oh, yeah. And I pulled open and

there was the runaway drinking out of the hose. Oh, my God. I don't remember this. Oh, fuck. It was so scary and I was by myself. Were you on the ground floor? Yes, it was like, it was the house. So she was right there. Right up the street from your and Vince's old apartment. And so it was a regular house that you could walk into the backyard from the street and she did and was drinking out of the hose. And so when I opened the window, she looked up at me and then ran and I went out the back door and I was like, hey, hey, come back here. It's okay. Yeah. And she did. Oh, she was like, please drive me out of the city. Please drive me. And it was so upsetting. And basically, she had been like, she was getting jumped into a gang or something really fucked up. And I was like,

there could be people waiting where this is just, I make the wrong move in this moment. And you're involved. Yes. So I had to come around to the front, sit on, there was like a front porch with a kind of alcove. So I was like, sit here with your back to the thing so no one can see you. And let me go make a phone call and stay here. Or you can make a phone call with my phone or whatever. And we ended up calling the Covenant House and they came to pick her up. I love Covenant House. That place is amazing. Yes. And that was because I had just seen a commercial where they had the phone number on the TV. That was the only reason I knew to call them. But I was like, this is a very young girl who shouldn't like who, I don't know if she can get

far away enough to deal with this. I mean, that place is amazing. I had a tour of it once because I did like a event there. I went to an event there and it's just the things they do for at-risk youth is incredible. But good for you, Karen. Thank you. Quick thinking. Thanks so much. The PSA was the only reason I knew it existed. Oh, wow. But then also I was like, you don't want to get involved. Now you're the person that whoever's chasing her, you're now you're in the chase too. Like let's end the chase here and get the authorities involved. It was crazy. And then my friend, it was the day before I think it was like some huge party we were about to have. So my friend Pat Buckles was going to come and drop something off like,

you know, one of those huge buckets you put a keg in or something. She was coming over to drop off like party supplies and she sees the Covenant House van and all these people and the girl walk out and she like walks up with these huge eyes like, I think you have a story to tell me. And I was like, oh, yeah, get in here. Holy shit. I don't, I feel like you've never told me that before. That's wild. It was really scary because everything was so surreal. Yeah. It was just that mid 90s. Suddenly you're in it. Like there's no being like buy and go back in your house and pretend it's not happening. No. And also have to judge, am I safe right now? Yeah. Is this person going to like, what's happening here? Totally. Yeah. Good for you. Thanks. Thanks

for just let me give, just do a little brag real quick. Okay. Here's my first email. The subject line is everyone needs a grandparent story with a hometown robbery. So it just starts, my Brooklyn, New York raised grandmother was a bank teller in our hometown of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The local bank that she worked at was very secluded. Behind the bank was a field and nothing much on either side. So it was quite the target for bank robberies. On a cold Friday morning, she left her station to get a cup of coffee. While she was there, two men in masks and hoodies came into the bank guns drawn. My grandma peaked in from the break room, saw what was going on and got the hell out of there. Later days. You don't have to hang out at a bank robbery

just because you're on the payroll. There's no camaraderie in bank robberies. No, no. Every man firm saw every grandma for themselves. Out the back door, she went looking for help once outside realized that there was absolutely nowhere to go. She tried to get into a few cars to hide, found one and then slumped in the passenger seat. While she was hiding, the bank robber started their escape while kidnapping the bank manager at gunpoint. Holy shit. What's the getaway car you ask? The exact car my grandma's hiding in. Oh no. No. To know my 411 spunky grandma is to know that she loves her jewels. She has gold diamond rings on every finger, gold chains, earrings, you name it. Grandma's love jewelry. They fucking love it. They do. While in hiding,

she now realizes this might be problematic and tries to hide her hands in her sleeves. The robbers now see my grandma in the car and they point the gun at her head. My grandma could only think that she wasn't going to live to see my ninth birthday, which was two days from this incident. They told her to get out of the car and that she wouldn't get hurt. They let my grandma go but took the bank manager with them. Thankfully, they let her out a few miles away once they realized there was no die packs in the stolen money. My grandmother was terrified to go back into the bank because she didn't know if her coworkers were alive or dead. A man pulled into the bank not knowing what had just gone down. My grandma made him go into the bank with her to

check on everyone. The poor guy who was just stopping for in for penny wrappers had to stay for the rest of the day to answer police questions. Just got to run a quick errand and then I'll be home for the rest of the afternoon. It'll be fine. Nope. You have to come and testify about a crime you were not there for. Oh my god. Fast forward to March of 2020. The world was on the verge of a pandemic. My grandma was giving every ounce of herself to caring for my grandfather who was losing his battle with cancer. After 55 and a half years of marriage, Papa passed away. While this was happening, I was realizing that my marriage of only three months wasn't turning out the way I'd hoped. When my now ex-husband started to become verbally abusive, I packed up my dog, left,

and asked grandma if we could live with her. Without hesitation, she said yes. The two of us were simultaneously going through the worst periods of our lives, but we had each other. Now, fully in quarantine and trying to find a bright spot, we made Thursday nights martini night at home. Grandmas. I fucking love this. Because grandparents know how to get through shit. And that's with spirits. It's liquor. Dark and light. My grandparents previously frequented the local watering hole on Thursday, so in honor of Papa, we made it something to look forward to each week. I'm a fabulous bartender, and grandma was happy to oblige my skills. And then in parentheses, it says, what else do we have to do? It was a fucking pandemic.

Two years later, we're still roommates, and my grandma may love my dog more than me. I cannot help but think that if things had gone differently all those years ago, I wouldn't know my grandma the way I do after the countless martinis we've shared together. Stay sexy, and as grandma would say, everything happens for a reason. Corinne. Oh my God. Isn't it the best? I'm thinking of my grandmas, and that would totally happen with them. Yeah, totally. Oh my God. Isn't it funny, though, that she's like, she tries to make an escape and ends up putting herself directly in the line of fire? It's like, that went poorly. Of all the cars. Of all the cars. And of course, it's unlocked. Yeah. Oh my God. That was beautiful. Also, why don't they, what shitty bank robbers?

There's no getaway driver. Like you just went and parked. What the fuck? Open the car, turn it on. Yeah. Small potatoes. That was really good. Looking for a better cooking routine? With meal planning, shopping, and prepping handled, Hello Fresh has you covered. Hello Fresh makes home cooking easy and affordable so you can stay on track and on budget in the new year. Hello Fresh meals are convenient, seasonal, and delicious. Stay cozy all winter long with classic comfort foods available weekly. Why stop with just dinner? Now you can enjoy Hello Fresh's expanded menu of quick lunch solutions, weekend brunch, simple side dishes, and amazing desserts. Karen, January is going to be my month for Hello Fresh. I am so sick of takeout. I miss cooking so much. I haven't lifted a knife

or a pan since like early fall. So I can't wait to get back in the kitchen and Hello Fresh makes it so easy and also makes it so that my food tastes good, which is hard to do on my own. It gives you everything, everything you need. So get up to 20 free meals with purchase plus free shipping on your first box at hellofresh.ca slash murder 20 with code murder 20. That's up to 20 free meals plus free shipping on your first box when you go to hellofresh.ca slash murder 20 and use code murder 20. Goodbye. What makes a person a murderer? Are they born to kill or are they made to kill? I'm 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. This one's called the Christmas Gift that Keeps on Giving. Just starts. Ladies, you asked for hometowns involving weird and wonderful holiday gifts at

some point in our lives. We did, yeah. Apparently. Okay. So I had to share this gem with you. My dad's side of the family always did a white elephant style gift exchange at Christmas every year and many people would contribute gifts that were just this side of inappropriate or off color. Well, it was the early 90s and an urban outfitters had just opened in our town. While shopping there with my mom one day, she was delighted to find penis pasta. That's right, pasta shaped like dicks. Yeah, we know what penis pasta is. What else could it be? Disgusting. I was probably eight or nine and I was just mortified that my mom was standing there in public cackling at this box of X-rated macaroni. She bought it with the idea that it would be her

contribution to the gift exchange that year. Everyone in the family got a kick out of it and lo and behold, the next year someone re-gifted it in the exchange and a tradition was born. Yes. The annual penis pasta present. This is a fun family. After about eight years of this, my mom was once again the recipient of said pasta and decided she'd had enough of the long-running joke. One day, my very prude, very Christian homeschooled neighbor friend came over to hang out. As we opened the door before my mom could see who it was, she shouted from the kitchen, hope you're hungry for some penis pasta. Yes, she decided it was simply time to cook and eat this erotic pantry item. We didn't let anything go to waste in our house. I wanted to die. My friend

looked absolutely horrified and needless to say, we didn't hang out too much after that. Stay sexy and don't cook naughty food, eh? It's exactly what Christian people think that the heathens down the street are doing. That's so true. Playing right into that. Oh, my God. That would have been great if she had invited her for dinner and she had to sit in front of a bowl of penis pasta and be like, I'm not hungry. Eat it. No, eat it. Eat it. You're going to hell. How long does dry pasta last? Not eight years, I can imagine. Eight years. That is stale pasta, stale penis pasta. And also, I think novelty pastas, I don't think they're being made for deliciousness in the first place. No. There's no Italian grandma's recipe

happening at penis pasta. So crazy. Okay. This one's kind of amazing, but also illegal. So we're not endorsing it and we're not saying this is right. Okay. We're just reading what our listeners send us. Yeah. Let's stay agreement. Yeah. Hi, I'm FM crew. I've been getting caught up on your whole catalog the past few months and have been debating on back and forth on what to send in for a hometown. I've worked with someone who arrested Stephen Avery, went to school with the son of a convicted killer, and my grandpa should probably be in prison for arson and insurance fraud. And then a parentheses that says, yay, therapy. So true. This deck is loaded. I finally decided to tell you about my awesome mom and the

time she saved us from her abusive asshole husband. And then cue the Dixie Chick song, Earl's Gotta Die. My mom had me at 17 and since it was the 80s, decided to marry a friend of a friend who was just getting out of prison. She was 20 at the time. And then a parentheses that says, drugs. Am I right? Unsurprisingly, the relationship quickly turned abusive once he was out of prison and moved in with us. I was in pre K so no more than three or four years old. But I remember them fighting. And even then I could tell it was bad. My mom who undoubtedly was just trying to find love and stability for herself and me when she married the guy decided she was done for good when she caught him cheating. You see, asshole still had a regular P tests as a condition

of his parole. So one morning, as he was getting ready to head to his PO's office, my mom slipped a hit of speed into his coffee. He peed hot and went back to jail and she got an annulment. Holy fuck. Right. My mom got remarried again when I was nine and he adopted me. I gained a father and a sister and a little girl's happily ever after. My dad was truly the best man I've ever known. And after 22 years of marriage to my mother, he passed away in 2015 from cancer. It's not been an easy life for my mom and I, but her determination to give me a better life than what she had has paid off. And I'm a fierce and proud woman raising my own daughter to be even more fiercely feminist. Stay sexy ladies and don't be afraid to spike your abusers coffee and

get his ass thrown back into the clank. Love sea. Oh my God. Look. Listen. Listen. Like, you don't know what other people are going through, you know? Also, here's the thing. If you think that's unjust to the man, don't hit people. Yeah. Maybe don't hit people. Yeah. He wouldn't have gone to prison for beating her, but he, you know what I mean? Like, that's right. Which is horrible. So like, also he was beating her in front of her toddler. This is not a person. Right. I mean, anyway, not for me to judge. Just a story I'm reading. Amazing. Amazing. These are some heavy hitters this week. Yeah, they are. Okay. This one's called lethargic baby who doesn't know anything about anything saves the day. I already love it. Hi, MFM crew and fur children. You asked for stories

about badass parents who saved the day. So I thought you might like a story about a badass baby who saved the day. A couple of years ago I was eating dinner with my parents and my boyfriend when out of the blue, my dad turned to my boyfriend and asked, do you want to hear a story about how he saved his mom's life when he was a baby? I was like, what? This is the first time my parents met my boyfriend. It's totally stranger to them. And this was the first time I was hearing the story after 40 plus years of life. Thanks. What? My parents and I came to the US as refugees from Vietnam in 1975 when I was 15 months old. My father was in the South Vietnamese Air Force and the city of Saigon was about to fall. My dad evacuated my mom, me and my aunts to a local air base

as there were bunkers there and heavy bombing and shelling was about to begin. The plan was to fly out of the country to Thailand and then to Guam. However, because of the heavy constant shelling, my mom and my aunts were trapped in the bunker for a while as it was unsafe to leave the bunker with bombs being dropped everywhere. Also, I was very sick at the time. I was throwing up constantly and crying. My mom and my aunts were told that we'd be taking off as soon as the bombing seemed to be easing off. Finally, the bombing stopped. My mom prepared to run outside to retrieve our laundry from the clothesline and she handed my sick useless baby self to my aunt. Right as my mom reached the door, I began to vomit. I began projectile vomiting everywhere like a fucked up

baby Yoda. My aunt started screaming and my mom turned around right as a bomb fell directly on the clothesline. Had I not vomited at that moment, my mom would have been standing directly where the bomb had fell, which destroyed everything. We were later able to board the plane and flee to Thailand and eventually to the US. I have vomited many times since under many different circumstances and situations and due to many, many, many different reasons. But I don't think my vomit has saved anyone's life again. We'll see. Stay sexy, support all refugees and no more fucking war. And then it's I bobo the badass baby. Holy shit. Epic, right? I love it so much. I also love that such a dad move. It's like you're kind of trying to, it feels like the dad is trying to

kind of boost them up a little bit. You know what I mean? It's like to the boyfriend, like you will never believe what they were like when they were a baby, but then also embarrass them. Right. But how do you never hear a story about yourself like that? It's why, I mean, that sounds like a very traumatizing time. So maybe they didn't like to talk about the past, but you got it. Yeah, it took a while to see the silver lining of projectile vomiting. Right. Or maybe there's like an awkward silence with the boyfriend at dinner and they're like, we got to fill this. Okay, here you go. This is what the mini soads are all about is reading you hometowns that you can then, if you're in an awkward social situation,

retell stories. Yeah. Please try to credit people if you can. Yeah. Or if you need to lie and say it's your story, just get out of that awkward situation. That's the goal. That's the goal. Any means necessary. By any means necessary. Or start projectile vomiting. I mean, I also, it's like that baby got a vibe. Let's just be honest. Yeah. That baby's tapped in. Yeah. Bobo. It couldn't yell, mom, stop. It was, it just came out differently. It's like, what will stop my mom? Oh, right. Yeah. Exorcist barf. Okay. The subject line of my last story is organ transplant story will make Karen cry. Oh, I love it. So let's just see. Okay. Hi all. I just listened to episode 318 about the shooting of Nicholas Green and you all asked for organ transplant

stories. I have one that gives all the good feelings. My brother in law grew up in Western Kentucky and this is technically his hometown story, but I'm telling it. When I first read that sentence, I read it like sibling style of like, but I'm telling it. I'm telling it. He went on to go to Western Kentucky University with one of his best friends. When they were 19, his best friend was killed by a drunk driver. His death was extremely hard on my brother who had to continue through college without his childhood best friend by his side. Flash forward 20 years and my brother in law is in a Lowe's halfway across the state living in a new city. He walks up to the paint station to get some paint mixed and the Lowe's worker turns around. My brother takes a step back.

Pin to the employee's Lowe's vest is a picture of his late best friend at 19 exactly as my brother remembered him. Oh my God. After gathering his breath, he asks the employee why he has a picture of his friend pinned to his vest. Now it's time for the Lowe's employee to lose his breath. He quietly says to my brother in law, I have his heart. Oh my God. I'm gonna cry. Oh my God. Yeah. Right? My brother in law lost it right there in Lowe's. He'd never known who his friend's organs went to after he passed. He hugged the man and sat with him for 30 minutes talking about his friend. My brother's friend had saved this man's life and in his honor, the man kept a picture pinned to his vest even 20 years after his passing. Oh my God. If the man didn't have this picture,

my brother would have never known that he was standing so close to his late friend's heart. Yeah. Like what are the chances? What are the fucking chances? Not in the same hometown, like not in the same place. Yeah. He would have gone about his day as any other day. God, that is really weird to think about. Yeah. He would have never seen the good that came from such a tragedy. My brother still gets teary when telling the story to us and others. So I had to share it with you all. I'm teary. It worked. Yeah, me too. That worked good. Organ transplant stories are incredible to me. I'm not a religious person, but something about having someone else's original parts in you makes me believe a part of their soul stays with you. I think that's true too.

I think so too. It makes death a little more bearable if they live on in others. So sign up to be an organ donor. Thank you, Karen and Georgia, for everything you do. E, she, her. Oh my fucking God. Can you imagine that? No. How weird that would be. That is beautiful. Like sometimes life doesn't suck. There are these little moments where you're like, hey, everything in the world is on fire, but they're still good and some people, you know, and there's still little moments of magic in the world. It's the thing my therapist says, which was, you can always be surprised. You have to remember that you are not a fortune teller. You don't know, you don't know anything for sure. And there's plenty out there that can surprise you. You can

always be surprised. That's so true. Yeah. Nice batch. Good grouping. Amazing batch. Yes. Send us your stories, please, whatever you want them to be. And also, if you want to hear one more story from each of us, it'll be there in the fan cult. And there's a ton of those back cataloged too, so you can listen to all of those if you want for a long drive or whatever the fuck. Yeah, plan ahead, you know, be a part of those things early and often. Yeah. And also stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Goodbye. Elvis, do you want a cookie? This has been an exactly right production. Our senior producer is Hannah Kyle Crichton. Our producer is Alejandra Keck. This episode was engineered and mixed by Stephen Ray Morris.

Our researchers are Gemma Harris and Haley Gray. Email your hometowns and fucking hurrays to myfavoritmurder at gmail.com. Follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at my favorite murder and Twitter at myfavemurder. Listen, follow, and leave us a review on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget you can listen to new episodes one week early on Amazon Music or early and ad free by subscribing to Wondry Plus in the Wondry app. Goodbye.