My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 316

Episode Date: January 30, 2023

This week’s hometowns include birthday celebrations with Lorraine Warren and a landfill meet cute.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is actually happening is a podcast that features extraordinary true stories of life-changing events told by the people who live them. In a special five-part series called Point Blank, this is actually happening sheds a light on the forgotten spree killings of Rancho Tejama. So this is actually happening wherever you get your podcasts. Hello! And welcome to my favorite murder. The mini-soad.

It's mini. We read you your stories. E-mails. You wrote us. We read back. Yeah. I could do that anything at this point. Truly.

Kick it off. You want to? Sure. This is called the Titanic story you haven't heard. Oh, yes. Mmm. Hi, murder friends. I've been waiting for one of my Halifax murder-rino companions to write in about this, but since

I haven't heard any related stories on the mini-soad yet, I think it's safe to say no one has written in. Halifax is forever tied to the Titanic. Much of the wreckage from the Titanic washed up on the shores of Nova Scotia and now rests in the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in downtown Halifax. I did not know that. I didn't either. That's interesting.

There's also a cemetery here where 150 victims found their final resting place. I think it was that's the closest land, right, where they were all taken. Yeah, it seems like it. Yeah. But the story you really haven't heard is about the filming of the movie Titanic, which also took place in Halifax. On August 26, 1996, dozens of the cast and crew of Titanic wound up in the hospital after eating lobster chowder.

It was presumed at the time to be food poisoning. Shortly after eating the chowder, diners, including director James Cameron and actor Bill Paxton, started feeling disoriented and unwell, except it wasn't actually food poisoning. After an investigation, it was determined the chowder was laced with angel dust or PCP. Oh, my God. Wait. What? I know.

Lobster chowder of all things. Why? And also, that drug is so crazy awful, like it's such a terrible thing to do. It had to be an accident because we always say people don't share their drugs with strangers. Unless there was some local that was like pissed off about something. Yeah. That's true. I mean, anyway.

Yeah. Apparently it was so delicious people kept going back for more, making them even sicker than if they had had a small portion. Sorry. I know. I just don't like seafood, so it's all really gross to me. And then on top of that, it's like, oh, yeah, it's just really good. And it's like, no, it's the drugs.

No, I would eat pounds of that with or without the drugs. Yeah. Because it's fresh. I mean, like, it's like right there. I bet it's incredible. So it's no surprise to me people were going back for seconds. The East Coast of Canada has some of best seafood in the world. Hey.

There are a lot of theories about who may have had the motive and opportunity to spike the chowder. But to this day, no one knows who it was. Luckily, no one was seriously harmed in the incident. Stay sexy and be wary of the chowder, Sarah. I am. You know, here's the theory. What if it was a lobster avenging his family's murder for the chowder?

That could be it. What about starting at the source? Maybe it was the lobster. They're vicious, vicious animals. I think we all know that. Goes all the way to the top. The idea that you would suddenly be told, sorry, you're on angel dust is like nightmare. It's so horrible.

Yeah. Here's my first one. The subject line is civil war muskets exclamation point. Hey, y'all. After hearing on Minnesota 307 that you wanted to hear about civil war reenacting, I felt compelled to write in. From 2001 to about 2015, I was a civil war reenactor who attended events in the mid-Atlantic area on the East Coast.

I was and still am a history nerd, and the hobby felt like a good way to get a better idea of what those soldiers went through in the 1860s. That makes sense. Yeah. Interesting. You asked about the muskets soldiers used then, and they were indeed very potent. The rifles that the North and South used were quite similar. They were long, maybe four and a half feet, remarkably accurate, and could, quote, reach

out and touch someone several football fields away. The bullets they used were more than half an inch in diameter and cone shaped, so they flew straighter. Pretty remarkable for the technology of 150 years ago. Rifles today use much smaller bullets, but with much more energy. Older muskets used in the American Revolution used literal balls of lead, which were not nearly as accurate or long range. The civil war has a popular reputation for battlefield amputations because of the bullets

the muskets used. They were hefty, and their mass could shatter bones upon impact. Ugh. That's horrible. With no way to effectively heal bones and prevent infection due to the medical technology of the time, amputation was the only way to save a soldier's life. During reenactments, the two sides shooted each other with just gunpowder, so it looks real enough, but the reenactors are very strict about safety during these events.

People do use civil war style muskets to hunt with today, and no doubt the story you read about the reenactors using muskets to corner a fugitive would have been a frightening for the man on the business end. I almost lost an eye due to a mishap with my own rifle during a reenactment, but that's a story for another day. Say sexy and keep history alive, Neil. Wow, I would never have guessed that we had a civil war reenactor or a listener ever. I'm honored.

I am too. And the fact that Neil actually was good enough to give us some information is very generous. I'm sure you would rather have been reading some civil war book, so thank you for taking the time to communicate. That's really fascinating, because I also would have guessed the civil war bullets were like the American Revolution bullets. Me too.

Interesting. Yeah. We learn something new every day, don't we, this podcast? Thank God we have listeners who know stuff, because we sure do. We love a good follow-up, I'll say. Yes, yes, for sure. Life is short, and it's full of a lot of interesting questions. What does happiness really mean?

How do I get the most out of my time here on Earth, and what really is the best cereal? These are the questions I seek to resolve on my weekly podcast, Life is Short with Justin Long. If you're looking for the answer to deep philosophical questions like, what is the meaning of life? I can't really help you, but I do believe that we really enrich our experience here by learning from others. And that's why in each episode I like to talk with actors, musicians, artists, scientists, and many more types of people about how they get the most out of life.

We explore how they felt during the highs, and sometimes more importantly, the lows of their careers. And we discuss how they've been able to stay happy during some of the harder times. But if I'm being honest, it's mostly just fun chats between friends about the important stuff. Like, if you had a sandwich named after you, what would be on it? Follow Life is Short wherever you get your podcasts. You can also listen ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app.

This one's a little long, but it's called That Time I Had Dinner with Lorraine Warren, who is the ghost hunter couple, the female. In case everyone doesn't know, she's like old school 70s ghost hunter couple that did like exorcisms, and they were like famous for it. We've talked about them before, satanic panic, bullshit, all that stuff. You're thinking of Vera Farmiga's face, but she is simply the actor who plays Mrs. Warren. That's right. Good job.

Hi, all. After your recent episode about the demon murder trial, I felt like I had to write in to tell you about the time I had dinner with Lorraine Warren. So nice. Back in 2009, I was a freshman attending college in Savannah, Georgia. I got a gig working as a ghost tour guide in the evenings, walking groups of tourists around the city and sharing its haunted history. On my tour route, there was one house that had been investigated by the Warrens.

Being as this was pre-conjuring franchise, this was my first introduction to them. That summer, when I was back home in New York City, I decided to do a little more research about the Warrens since I was really intrigued by what I knew about them from my tour guide, Spiel. I wound up on their very janky website and somehow wound up on the page where they were offering an experience where you could go to dinner with Lorraine and visit her museum of the occult in Connecticut. On a whim, I emailed them and got a prompt response back from her son-in-law saying that

Lorraine would be happy to book a dinner and museum tour. They just had a 10-person minimum. I knew my friends and family would not be as interested in this adventure as I was, so I decided to book it as my birthday party that year so they would have no choice but to go along with it. That's genius. Sneaky. I love it.

Because also, that would be a very difficult thing to think of for your friend. You would have to know all that information to then book it, so I love that they just did it for themselves. Hell yeah. So, one August evening, we headed to Monroe, Connecticut to celebrate my 20th birthday with Lorraine Warren. We were greeted by a very friendly Lorraine who had a wholesome grandmotherly vibe despite her long career investing the paranormal.

She brought us down to her basement where she showed us an old VHS tape of her and Ed performing an exorcism and it says, actually incredibly disturbing. Talked about reading auras and then got us ready to go to the museum of the occult which turned out to be in her garage. Before going in, she very sternly told us to make sure we didn't touch anything while we were there. If we accidentally bumped into something, she told us to tell her immediately so she could get the local priest to come over and perform a blessing ASAP.

Oh. Uh-huh. I'd be like, oh, I don't know. I don't want to go in your garage. No, thank you. We all very carefully stepped through the museum which was brimming with all sorts of things she collected over the years. It was actually very difficult not to bump into anything.

We even got to see the actual Annabelle doll that was later made famous in the movies. IRL, it was a raggedy Ann doll in a bulletproof glass case. Because that doll has powers. That's right. Bulletproof. Bullet powers. Yep. The evening concluded with a trip to Ed's grave and dinner at a local Italian restaurant.

The conversation was actually surprisingly normal and really just felt like we were hanging out with a charming old lady who mainly wanted to talk about her late husband and her love of animals. As we were leaving though, Lorraine gave me a copy of her and Ed's book, The Demonologist. And as she was signing it to me, she said, I'm also going to write my phone number in here because you're going to need help one day. I still have that book and for years I was terrified that I would find myself frantically calling Lorraine Warren in the midst of some terrible paranormal episode.

From my limited experience, it seemed like she truly believed in the work she was doing, but that it was heavily colored by her very devout Catholicism. Whatever the case may be, it was definitely a night to remember and I'm very lucky that I have such wonderful friends and family that are willing to indulge me on my birthday. Best, Isabel. Isabel, that was such a good idea that your friends and family are lucky to be able to go to that birthday party because what an actual interesting, like we can all go to Dave and Buster's.

Sure. We can all go bowling. It's pretty standard. But like to actually have an experience with somebody who's lived this life, whether the things are real or if they're sorry to do this, but whether they're conjuring all of it and it's all fake. Who knows? But it's like, but clearly that would be a fascinating kind of exchange.

I don't agree with Lorraine Warren creeping her out that way where it's like, you're going to need it someday. That's horrifying. Yes. I bet she does that to a lot of people. I bet like they kind of love having that little piece and she knows it, you know, that little piece to take home. Yeah.

I guess that's true. I would do. What? Like if my car broke down, I would call her and be like, well, you have to come and get me. There's a ghost in my car. There's a ghost in my flat tire. Oh, good one.

I like that one. Yeah, me too. I think especially post COVID, I'm always like, what's something I actually want to do and I can't ever think of anything. I have no idea. We'll talk about this on the main episode. I don't know what the fuck is happening. Yeah.

It's like, what's interesting. Yeah. I don't know the movies. What am I curious about? I forgot. Yeah. Go, I don't know. Go outside.

I have to say, I'm home right now at my dad's house and I have had to go to the local hardware store several times and Rex Hardware in Petaluma, California. I played on their softball team and when I was seven, it is the most fun hardware store. I love a local hardware store. They have a stuffed polar bear in the front window, which is like, that's not hardware related. No. People that work there have worked there since probably the 60s.

They know where everything is. You could literally walk in with like a bolt and they'd be like, it's right over here. Yeah. I love that. It's the best. But so my dad only has a couple mugs. If he and I both drink coffee, it's like, now there's no mugs. So I was like, oh, I'm going to get, because we had to get other dumb stuff at the hardware

store. And so I was like, I'm going to get a coffee mug and I went over to the, I knew this would happen. I went to their coffee mug section. I found a mug that has a picture of a cow. And it says, live with gratitude, a photo of a cow's face staring. So it looks like a cow stuck its head over the fence to look at you. And then, so the, the cow just kind of looks kind of dumb.

And then it says live with gratitude. What does that even mean? I can't even begin to piece those two clues together. It's like something a lady at your work would have made herself like, right, oh, I got this mug making kit. It made me laugh so hard. I was like, oh, I have to get this one. There was also a pig that said, like, be kind at like a picture of a pig.

Sure. Then there was one that was like freehand drawing of a gnome standing in a ring of mushrooms. And I'm like, yep, got to get the gnome. It was like, it's the best. I love it. Anyway, that's what I'm interested in, apparently. I'm going to have my next birthday there. Post COVID.

You make everyone go to the hardware store with you. We all have to shop in the hardware store for an hour and then we'll go to get pizza. Okay, the subject line of this next email is the time our trash dad almost got us struck by lightning. Hi ladies, pets and friends of all sorts. I grew up in Western Colorado with my mom, but my dad lived in Denver. So every summer, my sister and I would go stay with him. In Colorado, the yearly rain average is something like four inches.

It rarely rains, but when it does, it's usually a quick passing storm. For some reason, Denver gets particularly bad lightning storms when that does happen. So one summer day when I was about 12 years old, our dad decided to take us to the driving range to hit some golf balls. He was a great golfer, so we would frequently hang out with him at the golf course. It was such a divorced dad thing. My dad would take us to the local football field and just let us hit golf balls. It was a divorced dad.

I don't know what to do with these kids. I don't have a lot of money. Just hit some fucking golf balls, you brats. Here, this is kind of interesting to me, so I'll watch you do it. It won't be like torture. When things were going well, he'd take us to the miniature golf course, but when things weren't, it'd just be fucking slamming balls at the local high school. Marty.

Aim away from the windows. Marty. Okay. It was a normal sunny Colorado day, but quickly turned doom and gloom while we were hitting our balls. An announcement blared over the intercom saying that we all needed to evacuate the driving range due to the incoming storm. We packed up our stuff and headed out to the parking lot.

Being a young child and never having much experience with storms, I asked my dad why we had to leave. He told us that the clubs act as a natural lightning rod, so it's not safe to be out golfing while there's any lightning. He then proceeded to be a huge smart ass and stick his club in the air saying something like, here God hit me. We laughed and then started to pack everything in the car. The next thing I knew, I heard the loudest crack I'd ever heard and everything went white

around me. Oh my God. The only thing I could make out was the silhouette of a tree less than 40 feet away from me. The feeling of electricity jolted through my body and was unlike anything I'd ever felt before. Imagine getting electric shock, but from head to toe. My dad jumped about five feet in the air and within a second, it was gone. We quickly realized what had happened and my sister and I begged my dad to unlock the

car. I think we all just sat in shock and I'm pretty sure I was sobbing. We then went and got lunch at our favorite spot to go when we were visiting. To this day, it's the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. I now live in Boston where it storms much more frequently and you bet your ass I haven't been to a driving range since. Weirdly enough, a few years ago, a friend of a friend was golfing in Boulder and got struck by lightning and sadly ended up dying.

Oh my God. So tragic, but a good reminder not to fuck with nature because it is incredibly powerful. Stay sexy and don't go golfing during a storm, Erin. Wow. I think the lightning hit nearby, but didn't hit. I think it hit a tree, yeah. Oh, that's what it was. Yeah, she saw the tree.

When she said she saw the outline. Got it. But if it had happened a few minutes earlier, it would have hit his fucking golf club probably. Yeah, I mean, Jesus. That's why I don't golf. No, that's not true. And that's why I don't attempt the Lord. Kind of boring.

This is my last one. A toddler, a ghost and a Chinese buffet. Hello and welcome one and all. This is quite the tale. When I was being told welcome to their email, welcome, welcome to my email. When I was about four years old, my family was going to a local family owned Chinese buffet. We went there all the time and my dad actually used to work there off and on before my parents

got married. Anyways, the family that owned the place had really taken a liking to me, especially the family matriarch who I called Nineye, which is grandma in Mandarin Chinese. She would give me small gifts and candy every time we ate there. So back to that day, we're in the car on the way to the restaurant when my mom asked, aren't you excited to see Nineye? And without missing a beat, and again, she's four, I said, no, Nineye's dead. This obviously shook my parents as they quickly tried to correct me to say things like, no,

she's fine. She isn't dead. Well, when we get to the restaurant and walk in the door, we instantly notice everyone's solemn faces, Nineye had, in fact, died. My parents' jaws hit the floor. There was no way I could have possibly known this. I was a closely watched only child and just a toddler. She wasn't that closely watched, she could have walked there.

Did you make a phone call? Yeah. How did you know that? Have you been calling Nineye? They could only assume I had been visited by her spirit before it left this earthly plane. We still talk about the story and how I knew she had passed away before either of them did. I hope she is happy wherever she is. Thank you for the stories and all the laughs, SSCGM, and don't be afraid of kind spirits,

Alex, he, him. Oh, Alex, I love, I wonder if that's just some sort of like unexplainable human connection thing where children are much more aware and open to it. Yes. You know what I mean? I mean, for sure, more like connected to the afterlife. Yeah. Oh, can you imagine being in the front seat of that car when that child says that?

Nineye's dead. Nineye's dead. I'm not excited to see her. Why don't you guys grow up? What? Okay. Is that it? No.

I have one more. Oh, okay. I kind of love it. It's the subject line is, land fill, meet cute. Hello, everybody. Five years ago, this upcoming January, I started work on a landfill just outside the Detroit airport. It's one of the biggest landfills in the company, taking in at its busiest time, like 20 tons

of waste a day. It's not all trash. Much of it is demo, but I drag grass. I, at the time, had the grossest job on the landfill. My job was mostly dealing with landfill gas, which if you can handle the smell and don't like inhale a whole bunch of it, isn't that bad? Oh my God. This is fascinating.

I know, right? It's when it comes to landfill liquids removal, where my job starts to get gross, but that's for another day. Anyways, not long into my employment, one of the roll off drivers, and in parentheses it says, think people who pick up the really, really large dumpsters from Walmart and such, pulled over and was trying to chat me up. But he had braces and rubber bands on his teeth, and I have ADHD, so I had no idea if he was cute or not as a result.

Probably one of my favorite email lines of all time. Yeah, that's how you know that you don't know. You just can't know. The second time he pulled over to talk to me, if you can't tell, I am outside for 90% of my day working outside of a truck. I was able to tell if he was attractive. At the time, I was just talking to this other guy, so when this driver, who at this point in the story, introduced himself as Marty, Marty, asked for my number, I said, sure.

Well, within a couple of weeks, I started dating this other dude, and I told Marty I wasn't interested. From that point on, he never texted me again. But for the next two years, every single day, Marty would honk and wave at me every time he saw me out working on the hill. Then one day I was parked on the road that actually goes up the hill, and he parks his truck next to me and hops out and runs to my truck to talk to me. He blocked the entire road, though, and has previously stated in this, this is a really

busy landfill. So this meant he backed up traffic really bad, like 20 trucks in each direction bad. I asked him what the fuck he was doing, and he said, asking you out. So I said, sure, fine, whatever, just move your truck. And he said, is your number still the same? I had figured he had deleted it since he never texted me after I told him I wasn't interested. And I said, still the same, now get back in your truck and go already. He smiled, ran over to his truck, and then honked one long, excruciatingly embarrassing

honk the entire way up the mountain of the hill. Three days later, we went on our first date. Nearly three years later, he now likes to jump out from behind doors at me and cause me stress. No, but he's the sweetest, goofiest man I've ever met, and I love him dearly. Stay sexy and find love wherever you can, Sam. She, her. Isn't that the sweetest?

He was persistent. I love it. But not like soccery. He was like... No, he was like, he listened to her, but then also was like, that's fine, I'll just wait this out. Yeah. Yeah.

Love it. Dreamy. Dreamy landfill. I want to know more about working in the landfill. Like what do you find? Dude. Like what is it like? I'm dying to know.

What's out there and what have you found that's unbelievable? And the smell. I can't even imagine. Yeah. That smells pretty rough. We used to have to go to the dump. Oh, right. Because we lived outside of city limits.

So my dad had to dump it off and it's pretty rough. But now I think they're getting, you know, that was the 70s. Now that they're doing recycling, I think they're people getting it together. I want to think maybe that's just wishful thinking. You're going to sell your landfill and other stories, people, who we want to hear them. Do you have a competing, finding love in a landfill story? Yeah. Well, then you better write it in right away.

That's right. You want to hear it. 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 Maren McClasham and Sarah Blair Jenkins. Email your hometowns and fucking hurrays to myfavoritmurder at gmail.com. Follow the show and Instagram and Facebook at myfavoritmurder and Twitter at myfavemurder. Goodbye. You've been listening AdFree on Wondery Plus.