My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark - MFM Minisode 349

Episode Date: September 18, 2023

This week’s hometowns include a murder house for sale and a meet cute between neighbors.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. Mike Williams set off on a hunting trip into the swamps of North Florida, where it was thought he met his fate by a group of hungry alligators, except that's not what happened. And after the uncovering of a secret love triangle, the truth would finally be revealed. Listen to over my dead body gone hunting early and add-free on Wondering Plus. Hello! And welcome to my favorite murder. The mini-sode. We reach your stories. You send them to us.

The choice do we have. Well, that's the way we're going to do it. Do you want to go first? Sure. Okay. This one's called Freak of Nature Literally. Oh. Howdy y'all from Iowa.

Not only am I going to give you a freak nature story, but a freak nature spirit story, question mark. In the spring of 2019, my aunt passed away from ALS. She moved into my family's house and my mom, a nurse practitioner, to care for her until the end. My aunt was my rock star, my idol, and someone I will endlessly look up to. She was such a force I could go on forever. A month after her passing, I was back home visiting family

when my dad suggested my boyfriend and I take a break and go kayaking. It had rained pretty hard the night before, but the river wasn't too high and appeared to be calm. We went to the local riverbank where many people inserted their kayaks and canoes. My dad helped us load into each of our kayaks near a dam. My boyfriend went in first and disappeared around a bend. As I was loading in, my dad noticed my life jacket wasn't properly clicked in. It was just hanging around my neck. As he was yelling to click in my life jacket and I was looking back at him to see what he was yelling about, I didn't notice the fallen tree on the river that was acting as a vortex and sucking everything underneath it. Holy shit. I know. I got sucked in and my life

jacket slid off. I remember this moment very vividly because suddenly everything went to slow motion and I was very calm. And then I heard my aunt tell me to grab her arm. I grabbed her arm and was pulled out. Yes, I was literally pulled out from under a tree in a rapid river. Ooh, my dad thought I was still stuck under water and was running up and down the riverbank looking for me. I'll never forget the look on his face when he saw me alive. My boyfriend kept kayaking.

Just thought I'd clumsily tipped over and I'd catch up later. Yeah. We broke up three weeks later. Anyway, stay sexy. Donate your local ALS chapter and buckle up your fucking life jacket, AGB. So a ghost aunt rescued her from under a tree, from drowning. And her real life boyfriend was fucking a quarter a mile up the river.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean. Yeah. Thank God that in end of like, and he became my husband. Right. Who? Wow.

That was a strong kickoff. I have a similar strong kickoff. Okay. I won't read you this subject line because it gives it away. Greetings to the MFM O'Hana. I've been an avid listener of the podcast for years, but I've been putting off sending in my hometown murder. Now my hometown of Lahaina has been swept into ashes.

And I found myself reminiscing about this old story that used to frighten me. One day chief Kakaia, forgive me if that's incorrect, but it's two A's at the beginning, so it seems like Ka-ke-a, is said to have suspected his wife, a princess of having an extramarital affair. After a fit of uncontrollable fury,

the princess and her loyal maid fled to the treacherous sea caves, hidden amidst the eerie black sand beach. They concealed themselves in the depths of the mysterious cave, perched upon a narrow ledge, while the maid fan the princess with a feather symbolic of royalty. While searching for the princess, the chief caught a glimpse of the reflection of the feather, and followed this elusive clue to their hiding place. As the punishment for her alleged infidelity, he killed them right there on the spot. Once a year, tiny shrimp appear in that pool, turning the

water red. Some say it's a reminder of the blood of this lane princess, scientists just call it biology. Mahalo for letting me share the story and love to the islands right now. Kanoi Lonnie. Wow. Yeah. I love a legend. Send us your hometown legends. I mean, right? Yes. That was amazing. That was great. That was great. If you're a true crime fan, you know a lot of stories come out of Florida. And unfortunately, they sometimes involve alligators. But more importantly, you know that things aren't always what they seem. And all of these things are true in the new season of Wonder's limited series Over My Dead Body Gone Hunting.

Gone Hunting tells the story of Mike Williams, who set off on a hunting trip in the swamps of North Florida 23 years ago. He planned on being back in time to celebrate his sixth wedding anniversary with his wife Denise, but he never made it home. Friends and loved ones feared that Mike had been killed by alligators, and it would take over two decades for the horrible truth to be revealed. A secret love triangle, a kidnapping, and a predator no one ever suspected. Over my dead body, gone hunting is out now on the Wendery app or wherever you get your podcast,

or you can listen to over my dead body early and add free on Wendery Plus, get started with your free trial at Wendery.com slash plus. Good bye. Okay, this one's called, I'm not gonna read you the title. Okay, hello all, let's get right into it. I grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey, a beautiful town that benefited from an influx of wealth

in the late 1800s and early 1900s from which New Yorkers looking to move to the suburbs. This all changed after the Plainfield rebellion in 1967 as civil disturbance associated with the growing discontent of the African-American citizens of the town. White occupants left plainfield in large numbers, leading behind their Victorian and tutor-style mansions. While I was not fortunate enough to grow up in such a mansion, I got to see many of them as my mother drove me to school each morning. There was one particularly large mansion on a corner we often passed. For years my mother would remark what a beautiful house it was and how it was still for sale. Every now and then she

would update me that the sellers had lower the price, saying just $350,000 for such a large beautiful home. Don't you kids want to live there? Well the thought of not having to share one bathroom with my entire family was appealing. Something about the house gave me the creeps. Eventually, I asked my mother why she and my father weren't putting in an offer on the house if she liked it so much. She calmly responded, oh, because of the murder.

No one's gonna buy that place. I'm waiting for the price to come down. Murder, I inquired. Yeah, she said, the woman who lived there got murdered by her son-in-law. He chopped off her hands in the bedroom. Oh my God. Wondering if this was going to be my new bedroom,

I found a few old articles detailing the murder. In 1992, Mary Mason, then 74 years old, was strangled by her son-in-law, Mark Masters. Mary, a widow, had originally purchased the home and lived there with her Mary, a widow, had originally purchased the home and lived there with her daughter, Minka, who was also a widow and her granddaughter. They renovated the space and would run it out for weddings and other events. The details are not completely clear, but from what I can gather, Mark was hired as a handyman for the home and married

Minka, the daughter. One day, when Minka was home and her daughter was at a friend's house, Mark strangled Mary for unclear reasons, claiming it was an accident and threatened Minka with a gun asking for her assistance hiding the body of her mother, dude. An axe was found near Mary's body with both her hands severed. Minka called the police and 18 hours stand off with a SWAT team ensued, involving Mark firing multiple shots at the officers,

and the use of two smoke bombs to flush Mark out of the home. Close to being apprehended, Mark shot himself in the chest and survived. He would eventually confess to the murder and be sentenced to prison with a chance of parole after 15 years. He was found dead in prison after an apparent suicide, and after recanting his confession. Numerous rumors have swirled around our town about his suspicious death, and that the circumstances behind Mary's death might involve other family members, I guess we will never

know. Anyway, my parents never bought the house, and I never got my second bathroom. I can only imagine how spooky it would be to live there, and I no longer need to wonder where my true crime obsession comes from. Your podcast has been the world to me. Thank you so much for tackling such difficult topics with thoughtfulness and humor. I also appreciate your continued conversation about the importance of mental health. Stay sexy and wait for the mortgage rates to drop, regards Hannibal he, him. I mean, as opposed to like your old-fashioned Victorian ghost, that's such a terrible scenario, terrible situation,

it's like torture and murder. Totally. Just horrible. You don't want any part of that. I can't imagine moving into a place like that. That's rough. And there are people, I think it happens more than people would probably even

want to admit. What that they'd move into a murder house? They would move into a house for the price and be like we're not dealing with that part of it and maybe the in nothing ever comes of it. But yeah. The subject line of this email is God gives his biggest Wendy's to his most fucked up cult followers.

Good day, Karen and Georgia. I'm running this in between classes instead of doing my urgent homework because priorities are not my strong suit. I've been meaning to write this because I've been thinking you'll love it. Cults and water parks and a big ass Wendy's all included. So my family moved to my hometown when I was three and I was raised there and stayed in the same house until I moved for college. My housing division got bigger over time, but one thing never changed, the fucking cult

out back. So sort of on the way out of the division through the back, current day you will see a big empty hotel tower and a bunch of secretive buildings and sort of set back housing units. And what this is is the current day cult that owns the land, but that's not the fun part. When I was little and my mom would drive me and my sister pretty much anywhere,

we would always pass by a huge princess castle and then in parentheses it says, look up Heritage USA castle if you want to see. Do you remember Heritage USA? No. I think it's something from my era. Uh-huh. I'll go on to explain what it is, but I immediately remembered it and knew what it was and I think

I remember seeing commercials for it on network television. So it says we would always ask when we would get invited to the castle and why we weren't allowed in for tea. Sweet mom usually just said that they would invite us one day maybe and didn't really say much else. Eventually the castle was demolished in 2013 and I really didn't think much about it until. The pandemic gave me a lot of time to be bored and do nothing and one day it decided what the fuck is up with that cult, who are they, what do they want? And I shit you not, it was insane. Apparently

what used to be back there was a literal Jesus Christ-themed water park slash theme park owned by a televangelist. And it was called Heritage USA. Oh my god, that's not familiar at all, no. At a certain point in time, it was the third largest theme park by attendance only behind the Disney parks. Wow. Did anyone else know this? And so sidebar, yes I did. Okay.

So it says, I didn't, I mean, I wasn't alive then, but it feels like information that would transcend into history. I agree. I'm surprised that I think maybe I was the last generation and it was like a 70s 80s thing. So this massive water park theme park was an operation for a while and was pretty big and successful in all of that.

Eventually the IRS revoked its tax exemption and the owners were embroiled in some classic fucked up televangelist slash religious icons candle and the park shut down and the land was sold off to several groups including another cult, which is the one currently back there. They don't know how to vet people to sell land to in this town seems like. And also it's like who would like to occupy this old theme park? Right. But here's the thing I'm thinking as I'm reading this, and this is just a guess,

that it was Jim and Tammy Faye Baker's theme park. So the cult that's currently back there and to some development companies who eventually built my childhood home, and then it's a little sideways heart. On the same property is the Upper Room Chapel, which is an exact recreation of the real Upper Room where the last supper

was held, that's still there. But the best part is the Princess Castle from my childhood was also in the information that I read. So it wasn't really in use with the original heritage USA and the people who bought it next used it as a go-cart slash arcade track. But originally, it was supposed to be the world's largest Wendy's. Oh, I could have had the world's largest Wendy's in a princess castle behind my house.

I would be wolfing down junior cheeseburgers deluxe on the reg. Anyway, if you want more info, I suggest looking it up. I got it, I got it right here. You were completely correct about televangelist Jim Baker and his wife, Tammy Say Baker being the founders of this place. Okay. And I think they got so big in the like the 80s

that it was just like, we're going for it and here we come, like Christian America, we have our own theme park. It's so crazy. So crazy. Crusaders. Anyway, I just love that they say, if you want more information, look it up. It's like, boom.

Thank you. Thanks. It says, it's kind of crazy and a whole lot more than I remember. The Wendy's really sticks with me though. Yeah. Stay sexy and go down a water slide of holy water. Elizabeth. And then it says, P.S PS the cult there currently also doesn't maintain the road it owns

That's the fastest way to the local high school. So it's really like we still have fucking bumper cars back there I would go to that water park even though it's Christian thing who doesn't love a good water park and it's in Europe backyard? Yeah. And also that aside from maybe the music that was playing or the vibe of the people working there, you're still just on a water slide. That's not denominational really when it comes down to it. I mean, Christians have to eat corn dogs too, right? So like, we're fine. Yes. You can wear a little cross with a tiana across from where. This is called Hello from a hospice social worker. This is my last one. Hi to everyone. Thanks for the kind words you shared recently about hospice workers. And fortunately, there is a lot of misinformation out there, so it's always good to hear positive reminders

that we are a great resource for patients and families at end of life. One of the things I love best about hospice, and I wish was adopted by our medical system in general, not only do we address patient's physical needs, but their spiritual and emotional, that says that's me, needs as well. So each team has a nurse, chaplain, and social worker involved with the patient's care. Anyway, I wanted to write in about the most memorable death I have witnessed. Eva was a patient in a nursing home with ALS. Sadly, she had been a resident in the nursing home for over 10 years and had no real family involvement. In my nice social work speak, I would describe her as feisty. She was unhappy with her situation and often

took it out on the faculty staff. The one thing she loved was Elvis, and that's the singer not my cat. She had posters, what if she was obsessed with my cat? Would that be kind of? That would be incredible. She had posters everywhere, all kinds of memorabilia, and tons of CDs. Fast forward to the chaplain of myself being bedside with her as she lay dying, helping her transition to the next part of the journey. I made sure she had Elvis playing during her final moments and with one huge breath she died.

I went to go find the nurse to pronounce Eva and she came in a few minutes later and confirmed the absence of her vitals and stayed in time of death. As she was walking out of the room to notify the doctor and funeral home, Ava took another big breath. Yes, she came back from the dead as one last F you. About 10 minutes later, when she died again, for real, at that moment, her Elvis CD stopped

playing and I knew she was gone and had finally met the king on the other side. Whoa. Stay sexy and do not go into the light until you are good and ready, Karen. That's really scary. I know. Wait, so it sounded like she took her big last breath

and then was just quiet for 10 minutes and then did the same thing again? Yeah. Like, not her best, but like, her vitals were probably so low big last breath and then was just quiet for 10 minutes and then did the same thing again. Yeah. Like that on purpose, but like her vitals were probably so low they were in, you know, couldn't pick them up. Okay. This is one of my favorite subject lines ever. Meet Q less than a three minute read. I love a people to do that. 2.5 minutes long. Seriously. This is, it's like the best way to sell yourself, where it's just like, the thing is it's not going to weigh you down.

You can keep it moving with this. If you hate it, you haven't wasted that much time of your life. Yeah. Okay, it says, good day all. I'm an elder millennial as evidence by my hotmail email address. So I'm going to skip the anxiety inducing info. Picture it, May 2009. I'm fresh out of the clink. And then parentheses it says, drugs are bad and they fuck up your life kids, clothes parentheses. And early in my recovery from a

decade-long heroin addiction, I was trying to adult for the first time and be a better mother. My child however had a different agenda and tested the limits of my better parenting vow. He was a whirling dervish, never rested, hardly slept, and significantly increased my agility while trying to keep up with him, catch him. My God. Yeah, Xander, my son, decided climbing the neighbor's fence

was the best of times. He couldn't figure out how to actually get over and climb down the other side, so he'd just get up to the top and then scream to be rescued. I'd get him down and as soon as I wasn't looking, he was right back up there. As I was raised in the 80s by a mother who didn't care how I occupied myself as long as it was outside and who was a firm believer in natural consequences. So true. I decided to take a page out of her book. I get him to the top of the fence and I just let him hang there. I was just thinking about what would happen. Right. The fence owner and adorable lesbian who had just come out to cook on her grill asked if I was going to get him down.

No, let him be stuck there for a few minutes and maybe he'll stop climbing your fence. Well, she picked him up over the fence with my permission and got out the yard toys she kept for her nieces and nephew. Thanks to my ranbunxious little guy, she and I just celebrated our 14 year anniversary and in October, we will be married for six years. Oh my God! I forgot it was a meat cue. It's a meat cutie. Oh my God! But because we were so enthralled with the fact that it was only meat cue. It's a meat cutie. Oh my God.

But because we were so enthralled with the fact that it was only three minutes long, they buried the leaf. Okay, this beautiful life is all due to zander and I will be forever grateful. Though she did tell me years later, she put him in her yard because she was afraid that I would, because she was afraid that I would sue

if he got hurt. Fair enough. I'm still not sure why she decided to take a chance on me. I certainly wasn't a catch at the time, but I'm so glad she did. Stay sexy and let your children get stranded on fences. Question mark on the shell. Oh my God. I did not see that coming because I forgot about the new cute. I thought it was going to be some tragedy.

Well, and also, I love Michelle's just complete honesty and transparency where it's just like I just out of jail. I was a heronetic. I'm trying to get my life together. Parenting is fucking hard. Parenting a toddler while you're doing all of that. Single parent, yeah. Incredible. Thank you, Michelle.

You did it, Michelle. You did it and, I mean, just great. Thank you. That's what people need to hear. It's like all the challenges people go up against, all the things, and it's like you gotta get through it and find that grilling lesbian on the other side of your fence that's going to scoop you up and be there for you. Nothing is insurmountable, including a fence that your toddlers climb.

Happy to climb. Those were great. That was a great ending. Send us your stories to my favorite murderer, Gmail. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of all of this, whatever it is. All this slop. Yeah. And stay sexy. And don't get murdered. Bye.

Bye. Elvis, do you want a cookie? This has been an exactly right production. Our senior producer is Alejandra Keck. Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo. This episode was mixed by Leonis Kulachi, email your hometowns to my favorite murder at gmail.com and follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at my favorite murder and on Twitter at my fave murder.

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