My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 298

Episode Date: September 26, 2022

This week’s hometowns include an awkward misunderstanding and a hike in the snow. 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. This is the mini-soad, like Karen said.

After emails, you've sent them into the Gmail, we read them to you. Everyone wins. That's right. Should I go first? Yeah, do it. All right. I'm not going to read you the title of this one. Hi.

Hello. How's it going? Great. That's wonderful. Not so great. Treat yourself to a nice meal. You deserve it. Taking care of.

Yeah. Then it says, my cats, Mocha, and Cinnamon also say hello to Mimi, Dotty, and Moe. Thank you. Eenie, meenie, Dotty, Moe. Oh my God. Okay, I'm going to try to be as anonymous and brief as possible because the drug underworld is a super scary place, but this is my favorite weird and also not funny, but funny, but also interesting party story that I tell everyone when I feel awkward and I want to share it

with you. That's exactly what hometowns are about. Entirely. We're giving you conversation starters for the next month. That's right. And we want to hear your conversation starters as well. If you're going to take one, you have to give one, essentially like a penny. Some years ago, when I was 19, I returned home from college for the summer.

And thank God I did because I will take San Diego dry summer heat over Boston's sweaty balsak humidity of hell. Wow. Thank you for making me say that. During one of my grocery trips with my amma, we were listening to Narkacoridu on the radio. And Narkacoridu is a subgenre of Corrito, a.k.a. a narrative ballad popular in Mexico that focuses on illegal activities, a.k.a. drugs and not the good kind. I'm sure I said that so poorly and I apologize profusely.

I grew up listening to this and other Latino music, so I never paid attention to the lyrics until I heard my last name in the song. Now, my last name is very unique in the U.S. as in there's not even a handful of people that have my last name. So I turned and asked my lovely amma, is my last name common in Mexico? But in Spanish, you know. And on our way to Wally World of All Places, she says to me, oh, that's your great uncle. Insert me looking confused in Spanish.

Okay. Okay. After more probing and getting nothing out of my amma, I decided to do some research and discovered that this man was not only an infamous cartel, but also worked side by side with El Chapo. He was even a reoccurring character in Netflix's Narco, Mexico season one through three in case you were curious. Narcos.

I haven't watched Narcos because any show about either mafia, cartel, whatever, to me there's so much violence and then there's very rarely any kind of like, you know. Yeah. Good romance or anything else that's going to keep you there. But I've always heard Narcos is awesome. Yeah. Let's pick that up. He's also dead supposedly.

And to my greatest relief, my family distanced themselves from him the moment he got into crime. I was also the last one to find out and I'm pretty sure it's because I was the baby of the family. As I mentioned previously, I consider this my party story. I also consider this my, I don't know if you want to get involved with me, man. My family has a history. So leave me alone, you fucking creep story.

I have a sister who listens to you guys. Hi, Melly. And she hates talking about this while I just yap about it freely to anyone. Like I have nine lives instead of one. Anyways, thanks for reading. Stay sexy and tell everyone your dark family secret when it's an interesting, but also concerning story B. B-E-A.

B. First of all, what a great name. So good. Old school. And also, yes, so true. How bizarre would it be? You're listening to a song on the radio and then it's suddenly like, your uncle John. Yeah.

You're like, wait, is that a common name? It's like, he was an electrician. One of the great. But guess what? He was also in narcos. He was a character on narcos. That's intense. That's amazing.

Oh, the legend of John Kilgariff. Oh, you know, just to update, my uncle John was not in the cartel in any way. He was a great man. Rest in peace, uncle John. Truly one of the funniest people I've ever known in my life. The best was, so he got tongue cancer and he had to come down here because there was a doctor in Southern California that had like a, there was like a specialist for the thing that he had.

And so my dad came down with him and like stayed with him while he was getting these treatments just so it wouldn't be by himself. So I went out to meet them to go out to dinner with my, and my cousin Pete and we were there and I walked in and I'm like, uncle John, how do you feel? And he goes, I'm dying. He just like screamed it in the middle of this Italian restaurant. You know, I didn't know you had a John kill, an uncle John Kilgariff. And I just totally fucking made a name up and got uncle John Kilgariff.

Right. Oh yeah. I said uncle John first. So yeah, that's why I said it. And I went with it. Okay. Now I got it. Yeah.

Got it. Do you just felt the power of improv? I did. Cause uncle John was so fucking funny. Yeah. Thanks, uncle John. You got us all. Okay.

This says the subject line is babysitting hometown. And then it just starts in all caps. Guys, my sister will lose her mind if you read this on the show, please read it. You won't regret it. My, my sister Christina got me hooked on your podcast and this story is about her. We're both in our late twenties now, but this story happened when we were 19 and 21. So she was a nanny for a couple for a while in our early college years. One Friday when she received her paycheck, she realized that it was a bit short.

No big deal. Of course she knew it was a simple mistake that the parents would fix. She messaged them in a group chat politely letting them know that her paycheck was short. They apologized profusely, feeling embarrassed that they had made the mistake. She assured them it was no big deal and that they could give it to her on Monday. Fast forward to the weekend. My sister is drunk on stage at a restaurant singing karaoke. Oh no.

Then in parentheses it says she's actually a really good singer too. She had for no specific reason chosen the song, bitch better have my money by Rihanna. It's not no specific reason. It's subconscious basically. And also that song rules as well now. When they got the bill and asked for the Chagot boxes, the waitress took the food back and placed it in a box herself, marking the outside with the song that the person had sang on stage to keep straight whose food was whose. Monday morning rolls around and my probably hungover 21 year old sister grabs her to-go box of leftovers as her lunch for that day.

She shows up to her nanny job, pops it in the fridge and she's getting the kids settled as the parents are heading for work. The dad opens the fridge to grab his lunch and sees the box that says bitch better have my money written in bold letters. No. Yeah, shocked and pissed off, this man looks at my sister and says my wife will have your money to you this evening. Completely oblivious, my sister replies okay no problem and he leaves for work. As lunchtime rolls around and she reaches into the fridge, she internally dies of embarrassment as she realizes her mistake. The dad thought she had written bitch better have my money on her lunch as a message to his wife. She attempted to apologize through another group text to the couple that was reluctantly accepted.

She didn't work for them much longer after that. Anyway, I hope you had a good laugh. This is my favorite story to tell about her. Thanks for all you do. Sincerely, Iliana, she, her. That's another great name. Iliana is a good one. Oh my God, that is cringy and I love it.

It's so embarrassing and how if you were that father, how psychotically passive aggressive would you? You're just like they're threatening me just in case I see her food container. Yeah. Like how insane. You would get scared if that person was in your house. It's like a threatening weird message that's like inappropriate and oh my God, I love it. And then you're just leaving your kids alone in the house with that person. Yes, you have to because you have to go to work.

Oh my God, please send like, please send awkward misunderstandings. We need those. I would love to know how what Christine is like in real life was just like, was it a total like Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde? We're just like that really nice girl. I need awkward misunderstandings. Please send them to my favorite murderer Gmail. Looking for a better cooking routine? With meal planning, shopping and prepping handled Hello Fresh has you covered.

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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 murder20 with code murder20. That's up to 20 free meals plus free shipping on your first box when you go to hellofresh.ca slash murder20 and use code murder20. Goodbye. What makes a person a murderer? Are they born to kill or are they made to kill? I'm Candace DeLong and on my new podcast Killer Psyche Daily, I share a quick 10-minute rundown every weekday on the motivations and behaviors of the criminal masterminds, psychopaths and cold-blooded killers you hear about in the news.

I have decades of experience as a psychiatric nurse, FBI agent and criminal profiler. On Killer Psyche Daily, I'll give you insight into cases like Ryan Grantham and the newly arrested Stockton serial killer. I'll also bring on expert guests to dive deeper into the details, share what it's like to work with a behavioral assessment unit at Quantico, answer some killer trivia and even host virtual Q&As where I'll answer your burning questions. Hey Prime members, listen to the Amazon Music Exclusive Podcast Killer Psyche Daily in the Amazon Music app. Download the app today. I'm not going to read you the subject line of this one. Hello Murder Fam.

I think you all are great and I appreciate your openness in talking about mental health, medication, addiction, etc. But for real, let's get into it. Six years ago, my mom died from pancreatic cancer and after a difficult divorce that left just me and my dad to celebrate holidays together, so I try to make them special. My dad grew up in rural Michigan where it snows, so I wanted to take him somewhere it snows. Mistake number one, I thought it would be fun to see the dogs, puppy included, experience snow and get some time outside. Mistake number two. So on Christmas Day, my dad and I set out with my puppy Nelson and my 13-year-old Australian shepherd, Pebbles,

to walk along a pretty tame portion of the Pacific Crest Trail. I turned off the main road and instantly hit slushy icy mud. I knew I needed to put the chains on because it was only going to snow more and more and get harder to drive. Now you should know I don't drive to the trailhead in all my gear. Hiking boots, warm jacket, the car is warm so I can put all that stuff on at the trailhead. Same thing goes for my dad. So I lay out the chains for the tires and I'm no expert here, so I'm trying to line up my tires with the chains and my dad steps out to help. We leave the car running with the hot air so the car doesn't get too cold.

You already know what's going to happen, right? I think so. Just as I step back to the car to drive over the chains, my 40-pound puppy Nelson looks me dead ass in the eyes and steps on the lock button. The car keys are in the ignition. The car is running and I have no phone and my dad and I are locked outside the car effectively in t-shirts and slip-on shoes in a snowstorm. We're on a lightly trafficked dirt road on Christmas Day and virtually no cars are coming and going. My dad's on blood thinners and I'm worried about him getting cold and Nelson isn't quite reliable with the potty training so I'm worried about the mess we'll come back to. I feel like that's the least of your problems because you're about to fucking die of hypothermia.

Yeah, but don't forget that she left the heater on in the car so whatever mess happens is going to be multiplied by 50. Finally, a car passes us and offers us a blanket. After about another 10 minutes, another car sees us and offers to call AAA. They warned me it would be expensive but at this point I'd offer them Nelson in exchange for getting in the car. Another guy lets us get warm in his pickup truck while we wait for AAA. All these people, total strangers, might have saved our lives. We easily could have died from exposure in a few hours. The AAA guys come and pop the door open in a second.

Nelson wasn't the least bit remorseful for nearly killing me or my dad. I haven't left Nelson alone in a running car again, however, that's one mistake you make once. Stay sexy and don't leave your keys in the car alone with your dog, Lauren. Also, how about stay sexy and don't just because your dad grew up where there was snow doesn't mean you know how to deal with snow or driving it or handle it. Right. I think another thing too is always put your cell phone in your pocket when you get out of the car no matter how quickly you're getting out of the car, right? Yes, yes. Oh, God. Just always, always prepared for the worst.

Just stay home. Just fucking stay home. Just stay home. Well, also because I'm, it's making me think, did they say the Angeles Crest Forest? The Pacific, I think it was the Pacific Crest. Oh, okay. I was assuming it was literally like up the five or something. Oh, no, no. I think this isn't like actual snowy cold. Got it.

Got it. Yeah. I mean, it's also very beautiful that those people helped because I wonder how much it influenced the people to help people on Christmas Day. Yeah. Oh, they loved it. You know what I mean? It is also sad. Like these people are trying to do this lovely thing because the mom died. This person got a, Lauren got a divorce.

They're trying to have like a nice, memorable, still happy celebration and it's probably kind of great that everything went to shit. Because it's like a funny story to tell now, right? Yes, exactly. They needed it. They needed it. They needed it. And then it's like, how about we don't go for a hike in the snow? Yeah.

How about next year? We go out and have a bottle of wine and a really nice dinner. That's right. Okay. Here's my second one. This headline, it says, PhD in earthquakes, my time to shine, get payback on my wife and talk about quicksand. Cool. And then the beginning of this just starts in all caps. Finally, I've always wanted to write in, but I'm from a tiny town in Texas, Porter, Rancis.

What's up? So I have never had a hometown, though my mom and grandma did find a dead body on the beach one time, but that's annoyingly all the details they've ever given me. Oh, that must have been so scary. Creepy. Clearly I didn't get my murderino genes from them. Anyway, this week, Karen told the story of the Alaska earthquake and my time has finally come. I just finished my PhD in geoscience with a focus on earthquakes in late 2019.

Congratulations. Wow. I actually worked on a machine that my advisor built that simulates some of the effects of faults moving. With that said, I'm going to try to not get too excited about earthquakes, but I did want to share a little. On last week's episode, you were wondering unless the week's episode is meaningless here because of the just so everyone listening understands. These are all out of time. Yeah. Time is not relevant anymore on this podcast.

Time is like melting butter. It doesn't hold up. It just doesn't matter. Yeah. On last week's episode, you were wondering about what controls the duration of earthquakes. Consider this an anti-corrections corner email because you were absolutely right. Now, the equation to determine earthquake magnitudes includes the distance that the fault ruptures or moves. So in general, the farther the fault slips, the higher the magnitude and the longer the earthquake.

That's horrifying. Wow. No, I don't want it. So quick jolt. Those little threes that we feel, threes and fours every once a while down here. Yeah. Just a like, uh-oh. Oh my God.

Okay, earthquakes have a lot of other crazy consequences that not everyone knows about. You mentioned tsunamis, which is a huge one. I actually lived on a ship in the Indian Ocean for two months, studying rocks underneath the ocean in the same area that the 2004 Sumatra earthquake happened. Magnitude 9.1. Holy shit. Yeah. Remember that one?

Yeah. Sumatra earthquake. But I think one of the crazier things is called liquid faction. All right, so this is the reason that I got excited about the email. I mean, I like it in general. When I bought my first house, I had to sign a ton of extra paperwork because of liquid faction. I don't know what that is. It sounds like an energy drink, but I guess not.

It does. Liquid faction zero, no sugar. Liquid faction pounded. Let's let the earthquake doctor tell us all about it. Liquid faction has caused massive damage in New Zealand after earthquakes. When the ground shakes for a long time, soil gets compressed and water pressure increases underground. This increase in water pressure underground can cause the ground and soil to appear to almost flow, much like quicksand. In New Zealand and other places, this has been severe enough to essentially sink cars partially into the ground.

Earthquakes have so many different consequences and are really scary for people living on or near fault lines. The other issue is that they are almost impossible to predict. Anyway, I could go on forever, but I really just wanted to write in because I finally had a reason. Also, my wife and I live in Houston and she went to a live show here before I moved down and talks about it all the time. Oh, those Houston shows. Man, Texas shows up. Texas knows how to party because they pound liquid faction before every show. I'm on this tip now.

Yeah, liquid factions. I was basically told I lived close enough to the LA River that if there's a high enough earthquake, my entire house could fall into the ground. It was sinkhole potential. Oh, my God. And you were not that close to the LA River. You were not close. Oh, my God. So if this email makes it onto the next episode, I'll finally have beaten her in cool MFM experience.

Love it. That's what we're here for. We love y'all. We've been OG listeners. Thanks for always being vocal about mental health and the crazy-ass world we're living in right now. SSTGM Abby, she heard. Yes, Abby, you won. What's up? You win. You win a case of liquid faction. Fuck, I can't get off of it. I think it's the funniest name I've ever heard in my life.

It sounds so dramatic that, like, truly the year after I bought that house, I was like, everyone that I knew that had also bought a house. I was like, hey, did you have a liquid faction thing? Oh, my God. You were just sure it was going to happen at that point because it just sounds so insane. Yes, if they warn you about it, you have to sign paper work about it. But I've never heard of it. That's terrifying. This one is called My Grandma and the Mob Parade. And it just starts, Alejandra, I am definitely willing to bribe you, so let me know if you're open to negotiations.

Alejandra, of course. Yes, the answer is yes. I'm going to ask her hometowns and clearly she is open to it. When my grandma was four years old, there was a parade in town. Her father thought it would be fun for her to ride in the parade, so he just handed her up to a guy who let her ride in his lap. Fun story, right? No. Except this was 1946 in Detroit, Michigan.

The parade was the auto industry's golden jubilee and the man holding my tiny grandma was none other than Jimmy Hoffa. I was like, John Wayne Gacy. Teenage John Wayne Gacy. For any listeners who don't know, Jimmy Hoffa was the notorious leader of the Teamsters Labor Union and is known for his criminal activity and mob connections. My great-grandfather was a union rep for the Detroit Auto Workers at the time, and he met Hoffa through the union. Hoffa became the local union president not long after the parade and went on to be the vice president of the Teamsters in 1952. He was eventually convicted of jury tampering, bribery, conspiracy, mail fraud, and wire fraud. After getting out of jail, he mysteriously disappeared.

Of course, we all know about Hoffa's grave not being found. It is widely believed that he was murdered in a mafia hit, but his body was never found. So that's the story of how my four-year-old grandma rode in a parade on the lap of a notorious mobster. Grandma claimed she has a photo of it somewhere, but I've yet to see it. I discovered your podcast about a year ago and have since been every episode. All I can say is thank you for being you. Stay sexy and don't give your children to mobsters, Kate. Imagine a modern-day parent handing their toddler up to a fully grown man on a parade float and being like, meet you later.

I'll see you at the end of the parade, or I'll just meet at the local bar when this is over, bringing my kid. Yeah. It's just so absurd. And then in addition to fucking mob boss, essentially, that you're handing your kid to. Well, I mean, you know, the mob eventually became a power player. Yes, I'm here to argue for Jimmy Hoffa. That's right. The subject line of this email is, yes, Jeff from a she-chef.

Hello, food arenas. Yes, so much going on all at once. I squealed with joy when I heard you wanted to hear from chefs. I always felt like I never had anything good to write in about, no hometown murder, no family scandal. I'm just a basic boring bitch, really, except for this one thing of being a chef. I have so many stories from cooking in restaurants from NYC to SF, even a small three-month stage in the middle of nowhere, France. Because they said, even a small three-month stage. And then in parenthesis, it says pronounced stage, S-A-T-A-J.

So it's stag. Stag. Stag. Stag. Stag. Because that J is not a G, right? Stag must be meaningful in some way. Yeah.

Thanks for the pronunciation and no explanation of an American word with a, like, a Dutch pronunciation. Okay, anyway, I'm not mad. My favorite memories were at a restaurant in Midtown Manhattan some 10 years ago, working for a celebrity she-chef. She was and is a badass who would yell things like, plate fucking faster, or I don't care if you get burned, put your fucking finger in it to check if the food is hot. Oh. All in an open kitchen in front of all the diners. Yes. She even kicked some diners out of the restaurant for accusing the cooks of tasting with dirty spoons.

Hell yes, that's the coolest. Oh my God. No, I don't think this kind of behavior is okay, but she taught me everything I know, so I'm forever grateful. Just want to take a quick break here to say, it seems like for chefs, that's pretty mild behavior. Standard and mild. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Kind of high pressure situation. Okay. One night, she said her friend, the one and only Anthony Bourdain, was coming for dinner. Oh my God. He was sat at the chef's table with in view of the open kitchen. I was on saute that night. It was very busy and I was turning and burning, dripping sweat and cursing under my breath, trying to keep up. I was putting a couple of finished plates in the past and looked up to see the silver fox himself, looking at me dead in the eye with an ear to ear smile, waving at me with one of those long arms.

As if to say, you are in the shit right now and I see you. Cheer the fuck up. I didn't fully appreciate it in the moment. While I was thinking about where the next orders to get out, God, I miss that man. For real. Several years later, I helped open a restaurant for the same chef in SF working 16 hour days, six days a week. And she was being featured on Mind of a Chef and of course had to film opening night, the fuckers. Things were toxic and I was diagnosed with severe anxiety and depressive disorder, which I think was always there, but I just couldn't ignore it anymore.

I almost left the industry altogether after getting professional help and taking medication. I left that place. I met my husband, moved to the North Bay, got a dog, had a baby and have been chefing for a great wine company for the past six years. Anyways, thanks for being fans of what chefs do. We do it for you. We are in fact a bunch of traumatized, emotionally handicapped masochists who live for the moment. However small of having someone say, well done, you did a great job. I hope to cook for you all someday.

Be sexy and don't put your fucking finger in it unless you want to get burned. Katie. Oh, that was fun. That was a really fun one. Wow. Yeah. That is wild. Was that the last one? Yeah.

Yes. Ending on that one. Yes, chef. Thank you. Yes, Jeff. Thanks. Thank you, Jeff. Of course, Jeff.

I would love to hear more stories like that, that idea of especially in fancy restaurants when rich people try to accuse people of things. Yeah. I mean, how satisfying is that where it's like, get the fuck out. You know what I was reading last night? I follow this. I secretly follow Kitchen Confidential on Reddit. There's like a Reddit thread of just back of house stories. And one of the questions was, have you ever had to come out from back of house to defend front of house and kick out the customer or whatever it is to defend them?

And there are some great stories in there. So maybe we can get people to write those in as well. Oh, yeah. Like, have you ever, you know, waiting tables and like having to grab the fucking dishwasher and been like, can you come stand up for me because this customer is being an asshole? Yeah. Those stories. Yeah. That would be really exciting.

Yeah. Any like work drama stories. Totally. That it's all good. It's all a good story. Life stories, really. At my favorite murder at Gmail. Tell us about your life.

Tell us about everything. Tell us. But 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 Hannah Kyle Creighton. Our producer is Alejandra Keck. This episode was engineered and mixed by Stephen Ray Morris. Our researchers are Marin McClashen and Gemma Harris. Email your hometowns and fucking hurrays to myfavoritmurderatgmail.com. Follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at myfavoritmurder and Twitter at myfavoritmurder. Goodbye. Goodbye.

Listen, follow, leave us a review on Amazon Music, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey Prime members, did you know that you can listen to my favorite murder early and add free on Amazon Music? Download the Amazon Music app today. You can support my favorite murder by filling out a survey at Wondery.com slash survey.