My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 309

Episode Date: December 12, 2022

This week’s hometowns include relatives who were on the Titanic and a kid attending a murder trial. 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 to my favorite murder. It's the mini-soad. Hey, hi, mini-soad. We're about to read you your emails. Are you ready? Are you ready? You want to go first? Sure. This first one, the subject line is Family Titanic Story. Hello, all. My great-grandmother Rose Hickman was born as a first-generation Canadian to British parents in 1912. The same year, her cousin Louis was engaged to marry a farmer's daughter in Manitoba. So he decided to make the

trip back to England to bring his two brothers back to live with him and work on the farm. On the way back across the Atlantic, they were able to afford three second-class tickets on the Unsinkable Titanic. None of the three brothers survived. However, Louis's body was among the victims that were recovered. Up until this summer, when I bothered my grandma about it again, this was all I knew. However, the story gets juicy. As Louis was engaged to a rich farmer's daughter, they had the means to cart the body back to the prairies to give him a proper burial. When the body finally arrived, the family opened the casket to discover that this was not Louis. It was one of his brothers. His brother must have grabbed Louis's jacket and run up to the deck when

the ship began to sink. The farmer and his daughter decided to just nail it up, have the funeral, and move on. My grandma simply said that back in those days, you just had to make do with what you had. Stay sexy and be grateful for whatever corpse you get, Stephanie from Vancouver. I like that as a senior management decision that they made. It's like, how awful will it be to make it about that? You don't even get to mourn the person that you think it is. It's like, no, continue on with the plan. No, we're not even going to comment on it. Moving forward. Wow. Wow. Titanic relatives. That's a good one. So amazing. Okay, this one's called Awkward X Run-In or Is It? Hello, murder ladies. Let's just do this thing because just like running

into an ex, I want to make it short and leave you with that lingering what just happened feeling. Some years ago, I was working as a receptionist at a Kung Fu studio that was in a shopping plaza. You probably know it. It's the CVS and Smart and Final one on Hollywood Way in Burbank next to Western Bagel. What up, LA murderinos? Hey. Most of the small storefronts in the plaza have floor-to-ceiling windows facing the lot. I was closing up that Thursday night around 7 p.m., but it was springtime in LA, so it was still early twilight, and there was plenty of light out. I've got my back to the huge parking lot as I lock the double doors, thinking the universe that I don't have to be back here for a couple extra days as I was about to have a long weekend

and ladies' vacation with my BFFs up in Oakland. As I start mentally making my packing list and checking that the doors are securely locked, I see the reflection in the large window next to me of a curly-haired guy in a leather jacket I froze. I instantly knew who it was. It was my high school sweetheart, now ex. Like many teenage relationships, it was intense and dramatic and ended in a similar fashion. It was the last interaction I wanted to have that moment, but I could see him strolling through the lot walking directly to me. I took a deep breath and turned around, expecting to see him directly in front of me and ready for the awkwardness. Instead, to my surprise, I find nothing. Nothing but cars in a half-empty lot devoid of any

other people. I'm stunned. Did he change his mind about greeting me and run to hide behind one of the cars? Is he crazy? Am I crazy? I try to shake it off, go home, pack, and leave on my trip early the next morning. I have an amazing time with my girls, but the whole time I can't get that weird non-encounter out of my head. When I get home late Sunday, I'm feeling good and excited to share about my adventures. My husband greets me, listens politely, and chuckles when I try to entertain him with some of the weekends shenanigans. Then he calmly says, I need to tell you something. I could tell something was off the whole time, so I fearfully say, what is it? He responds, Daniel died. Daniel, my three-year high school sweetheart, the ex I

just seen being a weirdo in a parking lot a few days before, had died. That previous Thursday morning, he had died in an accident in Mexico City. He had moved there the year prior to start a restaurant. I was an absolute shock. I still don't know what to think. I think of Daniel every once in a while when I hear Pink Floyd, when I see a Chrysler LeBaron, and whenever someone brings up how gross avas-avas are. I agree, but he loved them. Yuck. Anyway, he meant a lot to me and his death was a strange thing to mourn at 26 years old. Even stranger when five years later, I had to tell my husband that his high school sweetheart had also unexpectedly passed away. Oh no. Death, am I right? I'll always be grateful for the time I had with Daniel, discovering love,

and grateful that he stopped by to say goodbye on his way out. Hope you enjoyed this story. Stay sexy and don't haunt your ex's V. I mean, he came to say goodbye to her. Yep. Yeah. Damn. Same thing happened to me. High school sweetheart, he died. I shot up in the middle of the night. It turned out that was when he had gotten in a car accident with a migraine that was killing me, and that exact moment he was in his car dying. Jesus. My high school sweetheart. Yeah, very weird. Wow. Yeah. Horrifying. 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

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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. Hey, I'm Aresha. And I'm Brooke. And we're the hosts of Wanderer's podcast, Even The Rich, where we bring you absolutely true and absolutely shocking stories about the most famous families and biggest celebrities the world has ever seen. Our newest series is all about the incomparable diva, Whitney Houston. Whitney's voice defined a generation and even after her death, her talent remains unmatched. But her incredible success hit a deeply private pain. In our series, Whitney Houston, Destiny of a Diva, we'll tell you how she hid her true self to make everyone

around her happy and how the pressure to be all things to all people led her down a dark path. Follow Even The Rich wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. Okay, I'm not going to read you the subject line of this one. This is not romantic or it's not about human connection. Is it tragic? Quite the opposite. No, it's kind of funny. Good. We need it. It's a bit of a left turn. Okay, great. So it just starts. Hi, friends. I just finished episode 339 where Karen covers the 1964 Alaska earthquake and y'all requested earthquake stories. So what baby wants, baby gets. And then in parentheses, it says Karen, I'm so sorry, LOL. Yes, you're right to know that I'm furious right now. There's a little dive bar

in my hometown, Sitka, Alaska, called the Pioneer Bar. Locals call it P bar or the P. There's a giant bell hanging above the bar. And if you ring the bell, it means that you're buying a drink for every single person in the bar. Now this is a binding deal. There are no accidents and there's no going back once you've rung that bell. Oh yeah. Anyway, about eight or nine years ago, I was there with a group of friends drinking and having a good time when all of a sudden the bar starts shaking like crazy. We eventually realized it's an earthquake and whatever fear we may have felt was quickly overshadowed with the overwhelming excitement when the earthquake shook the bar enough for the bell to ring. Yay. The earthquake eventually stopped and we all started cheering

and high-fiving each other because the earth just bought us around and then they put in parentheses LOL idiots. So we're sitting in a bar about 50 feet from the harbor after the earthquake and it took us an embarrassing amount of time to remember that typically earthquakes are followed up by tsunamis. Really hit as the tsunami sirens started going off and we all realized we need to figure out a plan to get to higher ground. Not one of us was in any condition to drive a car. As we're attempting to make a plan, a police officer enters the bar and announces that a tsunami warning is in effect and we all need to get to higher ground by any means necessary. He told us they won't be issuing any DUIs that evening. We just need to get ourselves to safety. Whoa.

And then they wrote in all caps, excuse me sir. I'm no expert but I feel like flooding the roads with drunk drivers while everyone in town is panic driving to higher ground is a more than questionable choice. Yeah. Although what option do they have? Totally. I just hope the city of Sikke has come up with a better tsunami evacuation plan for bargoers since then and if they haven't I'm full on calling them out now and then they did the laughing so hard they're crying emoji. Anyway, we picked the most sober one in the group to drive us all to a friend's house who lived on the top of a hill and continued to imbibe in doomsday merriment as the impending tsunami inched closer and closer to shore. Thankfully in the end, the wave that hit Sikke registered

about six inches above sea level and all was well. Stay sexy and make sure your city has a plan for drunk people during a natural disaster and there's no name. That's a really good point. I mean, that's hilarious. Drunk people, you're in charge of yourselves no matter what's going on in nature. Yes. And also just try not to get a DUI in general, no matter what a cop just told you. No. But I do think that's kind of smart where it's like, how do you get all those people to higher ground? Yeah. Yeah. Oh my God. They don't have time to rent a bus, a party bus. A party bus. Party bus. Okay. This is called my grandma sass the FBI. It just starts, hey, how about a classic hometown with a badass grandma and a bit of treasure? Yeah. My pops grew up on a farm in

northern Michigan. Every year a family with kids around his age would spend the summer on the property across the road. As you can imagine, people and by extension friends were few and far between in the woods and swamped. So they were all besties pretty much immediately. They stayed good friends up until their adulthoods and stood in each other's weddings and celebrated big milestones together. Then the wife of one of the boys from across the road went missing. She may have struggled with mental health or substance abuse. That part is hazy. I was so young when it all went down that I only really remember shadowy images of the courtroom because when she couldn't be found, her husband was tried for her murder.

My parents were called to testify and I was too little to be left alone. So that's probably how I ended up a murder Reno sitting on a wooden bench in a room full of adults talking about the different ways a body can be disappeared. One side argued she was crazy and ran away. The other side argued the husband is always guilty. There was no forensic evidence and the two kids defended their father and he was eventually acquitted, but not before the FBI went to the property up north with dogs and metal detectors and a bunch of excavating equipment. When they didn't find the missing wife across the road, they took their circus to my grandparents farm and demanded to dig up the garden and the fields in search of a body. My grumpy old Mennonite grandmother gave

them all some serious shit because nobody could have buried anything on her farm without her knowing about it. And those fruits and vegetables were literally her meal ticket. They did it anyway. And all of those men and all of those dogs and all of that equipment managed to find a super secret and very criminal cache of garbage that my grandfather had buried because they didn't have a county dump. The missing wife still has a profile on the dough network. Stay sexy and maybe recycle. Jesse and Jamie. God. I know. That is a true like childhood hometown. Yeah. I can't believe they brought her to court. That's so, yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're just like they got to be there. Yeah. There's no childcare. No. Guess what you're about to do.

We know we're going to have to pay for therapy one day. So let's just start it early. Yeah. I wonder when they do stuff like that, if the police have to like try to put that back, if they dug up their hole, filter, farm or something. That's a great question. If anyone knows the answer officially. Yeah. I want to hear it. Okay. The subject line of this one is the plot of every horror movie. I'm currently at the gym listening to multiple episodes of the pod. And I thought I'd share one of the scariest moments of my childhood. Let's set the scene. Halloween 2010. I was about eight at the time and I decided to go to my friend's house. She lived in a super old house with a forest at the back,

which had a World War II bunker in it. So it was a really great house for Halloween. The woods, like a house set at the edge of the woods. I want to watch any scary movie that starts there. 100%. Because the woods, anything can happen in the woods as we've discussed many a time. Yes. Okay. We decided to go into the woods and play by the bunker. Let's go play by the bunker. Can you imagine saying those words? No way. Come on. It'll be fun. It was the middle of the day. The sun was shining. So it didn't seem too creepy. As we were playing in the woods, a random person dressed in a full scream costume appeared, mask, hatchet, black coat, the full shebang. We obviously screamed and started to run back

to the house and this fucker starts running after us. We make it back to the house and Mr. Scream stops at the edge of the woods, starts laughing maniacally, and then just turns around and walks back into the woods. I hate you. I mean, we told parents, teachers, friends, and not one believed us. Why not? Yeah. Like, it's 2010. People are assholes. Remember that weird trend where clowns with like axes showing up on the side of the road at night? Yep. What's so hard to believe that there's creeps in your town? Seriously. Yes. I sometimes think it was just a dream, but we both experienced it and we remember it exactly the same. It wasn't a fucking dream. No, it happened. It was a creepy, probably like stoner kid. Yes. Loner that's like. Yes. Has sociopathic tendencies.

Exactly. To this day, we don't know who it was and why they were in my friend's back garden. Stay sexy and don't scare eight-year-olds in the woods. Great. Thor do. I mean. Yeah, we believe you. Because the hatchet part is what makes. If it was just a scream mask and then just a kid wearing jeans. Yeah, that's true. Who cares? But you don't need the whole outfit, sir. Okay. My last one's called Earthquakes and Disaster in Montana. It just starts, hello. On a mini-soad, you said you wanted to hear from your not-your-average listener. I am a 30-year-old male and make my living as a hunting and fishing guide in Montana. Yes. Hi. Yes. You're the one we're looking for. You're it. Thank you for writing in. Sir, welcome. Lots of people find it odd that I dearly love a podcast

that never ceases to remind people to stay out of the woods. But I am proudly one murderer that hasn't died yet outdoors. Yeah, represent. Come and tell us what it's like. I could tell you many wild stories accrued from a life lived outside, but I think you'll find the story of Quake Lake more interesting. Quake Lake is located right outside Yellowstone National Park and about 30 minutes south of my hometown of Ennis, Montana. It was formed in 1959 when a violent 7.5 magnitude earthquake broke loose an entire side of a mountain. The huge landslide damned the Madison River and sadly killed 28 people camping in the area. It is an incredible place to come visit if you're in the area. The amount of rocks and dirt moved is unbelievable. My interesting story of the

lake, however, isn't mine, but a fishing client I floated with one day. I guess they call it floating instead of fishing. Interesting. I asked what brought him to town and he said to revisit the Quake area. He'd been staying in a cabin along the banks of the Madison right near where the landslide hit. In the middle of the night, his mom woke up the entire family saying she had a bad feeling and they needed to go now. Grudgingly, they started getting ready to leave right as they were about to get in the car, the Quake hit. They somehow made it to a high spot just above where the now Quake Lake campground is located and were rescued hours later. The cabin they were staying was demolished and moved about 50 feet. Oh, you can still see remnants of some of the cabins today.

Never heard of this. Doesn't that sound crazy? Never heard of it. Yes, it's amazing. My client said he had revisited before and found comic books, clothes, and his mother's makeup bag that were left in the confusion of the night. He's forever thankful for his mom's premonition that gave them enough of a head start to survive, which so many others didn't have. The lake is still quite spooky as it is filled with standing dead trees that are filled with black cormorant birds. There are 18 people still buried somewhere below the rubble and the Quake Lake Visitor Center stands as a tribute to them and the incredible power of nature. The moral of the story is don't ignore your mom if she's acting a bit crazy. Sometimes they do know best.

Thank you for all the work you put into your podcast. And if you're ever in Montana, please take time to come float and fish with us, Austin. Austin, first of all, was your mom acting crazy or did she save her entire family? Right. I mean, Jesus Christ. Yeah. Yeah. That's like, it's kind of the plot of Dante's Peak. You're on the mountain. Yeah. As like a landslide and an earthquake is happening. Terrifying. Terrifying. Oh, amazing. Is that it? Oh, yeah. I went first. That's right. Yeah. All right. Well, thanks for writing in, everyone. And please continue to do so at myfavoritmurder.com. Write us your favorite story. What's your favorite story of your life?

Yeah. Tell us. All we're looking for is good stories and good email time with you. That's right. And also for you to stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Goodbye. Bye. 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 Maren McLashen and Gemma Harris. Email your hometowns and fucking hurrays to myfavoritmurder at gmail.com. Follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at myfavoritmurder and Twitter at myfavemurder. Goodbye.

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