Small Town Murder - #19 - Two Deaths, One Unexpected Murderer in Eldorado, Illinois

Episode Date: May 24, 2017

This week, we take a peek at the rural town of Eldorado, Illinois, where the successful, and beloved town doctor tries to keep some gruesome family secrets, causing the town to rally behind him, and be horrified by the results of the trial. Along the way, we find out what a "sundown town" is & why it's scary, just how many floats can possibly be in a small town's parade, and how many family members you can kill, in the same manner, before someone starts to catch on!!Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie WhismanNew episodes every Thursday!!Please subscribe, rate, and review!Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!Head to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder!For merchandise: crimeinsports.threadless.comCheck out James and Jimmie's other show: Crime in Sports Follow us on social media!Facebook: facebook.com/smalltownpodInstagram: instagram.com/smalltownmurderTwitter: twitter.com/MurderSmall Contact the show: [e-mail] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Small Town Murder early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. What if you married the love of your life and then stood by them as they developed 21 new identities? What would you do? This Is Actually Happening is a weekly podcast that features extraordinary true stories of life-changing events told by the people who lived them. Listen to the newest season of This Is Actually Happening on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. This week, we check out the town of Eldorado, Illinois, where a successful town doctor tried to keep some deadly family secrets. Welcome to Small Town Murder. Hello, everybody.

Welcome back to Small Town Murder. My name is James Petrigallo. I'm here with my co-host. I am Jimmy Wissman. We're pumped. Hell yeah, we are. We're excited to be here today. We have a wild, wild story for you today.

It's really crazy. Town name's fucking great. And wait till you hear how it got the name, too. It makes it crazier. And the murder that happened there. Murderers. Sounds so cowboy. It's a wild town.

It's not at all cowboy. No, no, no. We'll get into it. Before we get into that, I just want to thank, first of all, everyone for your tremendous outpouring of iTunes reviews this week. The support. Holy shit. Guys, oh, you're killing it.

You are crushing it right now for us. I'm telling you, we have, you guys are the best listeners that a podcast could possibly want or ask for. Thank you guys so much. Real people. Yeah, thank you guys so much. If you haven't done it yet, please get on iTunes. Give us five stars. Say anything you want. I don't give a shit. Anything.

I don't care what you say. Say that. I don't care what you say. I don't care what you say. That's even better. I was going to come up with something else, but you got that. I don't care what you say. I don't care what you say. It doesn't matter. Five stars. I don't care what you say. It helps us care what you say. That's even better. I was going to come up with something else, but you got that. I don't care what you say. I don't care what you say. It doesn't matter. Five stars. I don't care what you say. It helps us on the business end so much.

So if you like the show and you like to support the show and you'd like to see it get more successful and do better. I sure do. Please do that. It takes 30 seconds. It's no big deal. Sign in. And if you don't feel like doing that or once you've done that, I should say.

And if you're like, you know what? This show, it gets me through my cubicle, my workout, my drive to work. It gets me through it. You feel unfulfilled after those five stars. What else can you do? What more can I do? You can do something else, Jimmy. There is something.

You can go to patreon.com slash crimeinsports. That is our other podcast, which you should also definitely be listening to. So much fun. Don't have to care about sports at all. It's about the crime and the idiocy and us making fun of them. But you can make a donation there. That is more appreciated than you could know. It's about the crime and the idiocy and us making fun of them. But you can make a donation there. That is more appreciated than you could know. It's heartfelt, honestly.

That is as appreciated as something could be by two human beings. And if you just want to make a one-time donation, you can go to PayPal, and our PayPal there is crimeandsports at gmail.com. You can do that if you feel like it. If not, you say, screw you guys.

I just want to listen to your goddamn show. Shut up and give me murder. You know what your goddamn show. Shut up and give me murder. You know what? Sit back. Shut up and give me murder. Shut up. I want murder now. Then you can sit back and you can enjoy murder then because that's fine also.

We're all good with that. But if you feel like it, help us out there. That would be tremendously appreciated. We got kids. We got kids. And I have no health insurance. That's true. It's very true.

Wait until December, you guys, and you have to sit through four weeks of James' stuffy nose. Oh, it's awful. It sounds terrible. Look, there's about, yeah, Crime and Sports, there's about four episodes there where I sound god awful because I couldn't get any antibiotics. How shitty is that? It was shitty.

I got to say, it felt awful. We were sick at the same time. You got medicine and felt better in like three days. I was sick for three more weeks. There's one episode of me sounding worse of a wheeze than I already have. And then it goes away. Yeah, and then the next one, I'm fine, but you're fucked. I was fucked bad.

One thing before we get started, got to do the disclaimer. Got to do it. It's so necessary, and that's a bummer. It sucks that it's necessary, but you know what? It is necessary, and some people might think it's something that it's not or think it's one thing. This is a comedy podcast, just so you know. The facts are real. The murders are real.

All the stats, the research, everything's real. That's not what's comedy. James sweats for your pleasure. I have not slept in a while, in a long time, so that's all real. But we do make jokes. We never intend to make jokes at the expense of the victims or the victims' families. That's not what we're about. We're not assholes. We're not looking to make cheap jokes about things like that. We are assholes. We never intend to make jokes at the expense of the victims or the victims' families. That's not what we're about. We're not assholes.

We're not looking to make cheap jokes about things like that. We are assholes. We're not scumbags. That's it. There you go. That's better. We're assholes, but not scumbags. Not scumbags.

Small town murder. Assholes, but not scumbags. That's us, folks. So, honestly, if you want to have fun and laugh with us, we're going to laugh at some small towns, because we're all from a shitty small town, and we're going to laugh at some bumbling, stupid police force, or some murderer who did some stupid shit and thought he'd get away with us. We're going to laugh at some small towns because we're all from a shitty small town and we're going to laugh at some bumbling stupid police force or some murderer who did some stupid shit and thought he'd get away with it. We'll laugh

at that stuff. So if that's cool with you, thank you. Welcome. Good to have you aboard. If not, we shake hands. We part ways and we say adios. Hey, not bad. We both decided that Spanish is the chosen language. Enjoy the dusty trail. Enjoy it. And now that we've told people not to listen and begged them not to, let's get on with the show.

Let's do this. Let's do this. Today, we're going to El Dorado, Illinois. Sounds so cowboy. It's not cowboy at all. No. It's redneck, but not cowboy. I'll say that.

That's funny. It's a different kind of person there. El Dorado, Illinois. It's not even named for why you would think it would be like El Dorado, New Mexico. You know, you got the Marlboro Man out on the plains. It's not like that at all. It's in southeastern Illinois. The area, the whole area around there is known as Little Egypt for some reason.

Okay. Not sure. Don't know why, but that's what the area is known as. If you look it up, it was hard to find out the actual town name. Because all these articles and everything just says Little Egypt. Little Egypt, that's the area. I don't get it. There's no pyramid of any sort?

No pyramid. There isn't much. There isn't like the high school cheerleading team forms a pyramid? Nothing? No, maybe. That's Egypt. That's us now. We are Little Egypt.

Those nine girls made Egypt. We got extra girls. They made a sphinx one time. We called Little Egypt. Those nine girls made Egypt. We got extra girls. They made a sphinx one time. We called ourselves Egypt. Actually, it's Illinois, so more nasally. Yeah, super nasally. Nasally. So anyway, it's about two hours outside of St. Louis, about five hours to Chicago.

So pretty much in the middle of fucking nowhere, let's just say. It's not a lot, not close to anywhere that you'd want to go. It's in Saline County. It's a small little town, 2.43 square miles. So that's a tiny area of a town. Zip code is 62930. Area code is 618. This place, if we're getting a little bit of the history here, started being kind of

noticed. Population started swelling to more than just some scattered farms in about 1900. Reached a peak of 8,000 people in 1925. That's the most they've ever had. Really? In 1825? 1925. Oh, 1925.

The city's name is spelled El Dorado, like a Cadillac El Dorado, like a Spanish word, except it's not two words. It's one word. El Dorado. It's one word, El Dorado, because it is not named for like whatever el dorado is in spanish it is actually named for the two founders this is how bad this is they're a judge samuel elder and a joseph reed so it was what elder dash rito was the name of it and apparently the legend has it that a sign printer for the railroad painted the name el dorado on the town on the train depot and they were just like i guess that a sign printer for the railroad painted the name El Dorado on the train depot.

And they were just like, I guess that's our name now. The painter said we're El Dorado. I guess everybody changed their little outgoing address stickers, whatever those are. He's like, this is so much easier. This is El Dorado. They were all like, all right, whatever. I mean, that's how much pride they had. They were like, either way.

The sign guy is like, it's clearly misprinted. I'll fix it. There's no way they're naming the town Elder-Rito. They were like, either way. The sign is like, it's clearly misprinted. I'll fix it. There's no way they're naming the town Elder-Rito. That's not a town name. No, it's Eldorado. One word. Interesting. So this was at one point just basically a maze of railroad tracks that kind of made

the town center in the middle of all of them. That was pretty much all that it was. That's why it was there, because it was just a center of railroad tracks. But now it's all bike trails that replaced all the railroad tracks, because we don't use all that it was. That's why it was there, because it was just a center of railroad tracks. But now it's all bike trails. They replaced all the railroad tracks because, you know, we don't use trains that much anymore as much as we did in the 1900s. We have a Beatles connection for you, Jimmy. I know you'll be so excited for this, as we all know Jimmy hates the Beatles. In September 63, five months before the Beatles' first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, which was what made them famous here, or, you know, even bigger here, George Harrison and his brother were visiting their sister

who lived in a nearby town to this. For some reason, George Harrison's sister moved from England to some little town in the middle of southern Illinois. What in the hell? I don't know. Things were not going well for them. They were visiting there, and George Harrison performed at the VFW Hall, the Veterans of Foreign War Hall.

Oh, my God. With the town band. Oh, that sounds terrible. Just a local band, and they said, George Harrison. And he hadFW Hall, the Veterans of Foreign War Hall. Oh, my God. With the town band. Oh, that sounds terrible. Just a local band. And he had a hell gig there. Yeah, this poor guy. We've all done comedy shows in places like that. I've done a VFW.

It's not pretty. It's a hell gig. It's terrible. It's a hell gig. They yelled at them and called them long hairs, I'm sure. You told them stupid haircut and all that shit. Yeah, quit smoking those jazz cigarettes they were telling them. Speak American and all that.

Speak American. George was probably lucky to get out of the town because also until about this time, the mid-1960s, this is what's known as a sundown town. You know what a sundown town is, Jimmy? I don't. The horrible things happen after sundown? A sundown town is a town mostly throughout the South in the United States and post-Civil War, but also throughout the North. There was plenty of them. They had them in Connecticut.

They had them in every state pretty much there was. This was a town that basically had an ordinance that said, if you are black, get out of town before sundown or bad shit's going to happen to you. And they would put a sign up that said get out of town. And there's still towns in Texas that have this, by the way. There's still a couple of these towns that they say, oh, it's just a historical thing that said get out of town. And there's still towns in Texas that have this, by the way. Really? There's still a couple of these towns that they say, oh, it's just a historical thing of the past. No, it's not. No.

They mean it, I feel like. And this, so you can tell this. Southern Illinois, by the way, if you're from Southern Illinois, I apologize, but it's fucking true. Because I have no people that are from Southern Illinois. Southern Illinois is Alabama. It just is Alabama. It's just super redneck and super racist. Illinois is Chicago and then Alabama.

Chirac. That's what it is. No, it is, too. It is Klan territory. Wow. It's even funny, too, because I've seen two documentaries that take place in Southern Illinois. Both of them, huge Aryan Brotherhood Klan shit around it. Absolutely.

That's all it is. It's the only way I can describe it. Wow. So this shit continues to this day. And I'm sure there are towns. Someone's going to say, I'm from southern Illinois and my town is like that. I understand your town isn't like that. Go to the town over there like that.

That's what I'm saying. Someone around there is like that because that's the way shit is. Is that what happened to Sammy Sosa? They converted him and then he started turning white? Well, no, no, no. He didn't go to southern Illinois, I'm sure. He stayed far, far away from it. He stayed on the north side of Chicago just to stay as far away from it.

Have you seen him lately? He is so pale. It's crazy. How does that happen? He's losing pigment like crazy. I don't know. I don't know what happened to him. I don't know what happens to a Dominican man when they get older.

Do they lose a pigment? I have no clue. His skin goes gray. Not his hair. Just his skin. If you're Dominican, shout us out. Tell us if you've been losing pigment. Let us know why that happens.

We have no idea. But, yeah. So, it was a sundown town town, so that's not terrific. That's not a terrific lineage here of this town. Get into the people here. The population is 4,064 at the moment. It's down about 10% in the last 15 years because what the hell is going on around there? It's about 54% female, which, as we know, is a little higher than average.

It's usually about 51. Fascinating. And married people versus non-married people, it's all average. That sort of thing is average. The only thing that's weird there in the stats is there's more than double the average of widowed people there. Really? Yeah, so a lot of dead people there. You'd think that would be in Iraq.

A lot of dead spouses there. In Chirac. No, no. In Chicago, they have a lot of dead people and lots of widows. More widows here. Fascinating. More widows here. Fascinating. More widows here. I would rather be in the worst neighborhood in Chicago than a sundown town, to be honest with you.

I don't know. Maybe that's because I'm from the north, and that just shit freaks me out. What is going on with that? I don't understand, but whatever. The median age here is 36.4, which is about a year younger than the average median age. You figure it's probably young people or people starting families, all that sort of thing. But it's not. It's actually very odd the way it breaks down.

There's only about – or there's more, about a third more people, children, zero to nine years of age than average. Really? A third more? Yeah. There's a lot of little kids, more 18 to 20. And then everything else is less, less in age groups. And then 75 and older, there's way more.

So they have babies and elderly people. And nothing in the middle. Nothing in the middle. I don't know who's taking care of these people. That's how they get the median age. They got people that are 90 and people that are two. Yeah, that's exactly what we're getting at here. It's all it is.

Now, racially, it's mostly white, as you might imagine. It's 95.14% white, so pretty So pretty white. 62% is the average. 1.09% brave, brave black people. Super brave. The bravest. They unscrewed the sign and took it down on their way in with the U-Haul, apparently. I don't think that's going to happen here. Not in my hometown.

Yeah, I don't think so. 0.0% Asian, 0.0% Native American, 0.77% Hispanic. Oh, my goodness. They barely even have two people. Yeah, 99.23% non-Hispanic. That's quite the quote, quite the stat they have here. It's about 17% normally. Religious, they're awfully religious down there.

Really? 62% are religious. That's 12% more than the average of about 50. That's interesting. 41% are Baptist. Yes. Ooh, lordy. Here we go. Lordy, lordy. That's the ones with hoods about 50. 41% are Baptist. Yes. Ooh, lordy. Here we go.

Lordy, lordy. That's the ones with hoods and shit. Hellfire right there. 30% Catholic. Yeah. So I'm sure they were angry trying to keep them out originally. 0.06% Jewish. So not a whole lot of Jewish people moving there.

You need a doctor and a lawyer here and there. You know that there's going to be violence if there's that little amount of Jewish people. Bad things are going to happen. 0.0% Muslim. As far as politically, about 64% are Republican, as you would expect from that breakdown of everything else. I mean, stereotypically, it completely makes sense. And then you hit us with that. And now you get it.

That's what it is. Ain't that America, guys. That's their wheelhouse. As John Cougar Mellencamp once said, ain't that America. So many pink houses. So many pink houses. This is where those pink houses are, right here, for you and me. Household income.

You know Jack and Diane was written about this fucking time. You know it was, yeah. Absolutely. Before he got ran out of it for being a hippie. Yeah. They called him a dirty pot-spoken hippie and ran him out. Get out of here, Cougar. Now let's jump over to the Scarecrow album.

We'll hit songs off of that one, too. Yeah, that's fine. So it's a poor area. Poor area. And yes, by the way, I do hate the Beatles and I do know a lot of John Cougar Mellencamp songs. Everybody knows a lot. It's not voluntary.

No, my mom had every fucking album. You grew up in that time period. You're going to hear a shitload of John Cougar Mellencamp, period. That's it. That's just all of its life in general. Hilarious. So a poor area here. Their average household income is $24,786.

That is way below the $53,000 average. How do you even live on that? I don't know. That is less than half the average median in the U.S. That life has to be so miserable. It's tough. 28.3% of the people make under $15,000 a year. How?

I would assume that's your elderly people, and that is your government assistance people. It's not having a family. That's for damn sure. Well, not having one that you take care of. Lots of drugs spent. Yeah. Basically, 56% of the people make under $35,000 a year in this town. Oh, my God.

So that's rough. All other income levels are less than average. Only 4% make between $100,000 and $150,000 a year. The average is like 13%. 2% make between $150,000 and $200,000 a year. 0% make over $200,000 a year. The rich get richer. This is a poor town.

Yeah. And these people are, now let's not get into the politics of it, but yeah, this is a rough area, man. The jobs there are, I mean, it's bleak, man, as far as this goes. It sounds like it already. Yeah. I'm looking at the jobs and everything, and there's some sales. There's a lot of production, transportation, that sort of thing.

There isn't even a lot of construction jobs. sales. There's a lot of production, transportation, that sort of thing. There isn't even a lot of construction jobs. I feel like there's not a lot of jobs there. And there is an eight, the unemployment rate's 8%, 8.5%, which is 3% higher than our average nationally at the moment. Cost of living, though. Overall, we do 100

being the average cost of living. Cost of living here is a 73. Now, everything else, groceries, health, all that stuff's around average, around 100. Housing is a 24. 24 out of 100 is housing. Costs you nothing. Nothing to live there.

The median home cost here is $44,400. Wow. That's the median home cost. You can absolutely buy a home with 15 grand there. Yeah, that's what I mean. Average in the country median home cost is $185,800. So that tells you a lot right there. Most houses, about 50% of the houses are between $20,000 $185,800. So that tells you a lot right there.

Most houses, about 50% of the houses are between $20,000 and $60,000. That's amazing. Which is incredible. And then a lot in the under $100,000. But when you're thinking about a $20,000 house, it's not a house you want. No, only about 4% of the houses are over $100,000 in this entire place, which is incredible to me. That's wild. 4%. If we have convinced you to move there, as you have to be closer to this place, as is incredible to me. That's wild. That's, uh, yeah. Now, if we have convinced you to move there, as you have to be closer to this place, as I can imagine, uh, the, we have

the Eldorado real estate report. Fantastic. Average two bedroom apartment goes for $635, which is about $400 less than the national average here. A three bedroom, two bath home, 1500 square feet on Dewey street is $64,900, which is a pretty good price for a 1,500-square-foot home. A two-bedroom, two-bath, 910-square-foot home is $48,000. It's newly remodeled also, which I would assume would cost more than $48,000 to remodel a kitchen and a bathroom. A three-bedroom, now this is if you want to, you're going to live like a king in El Dorado. You're the one in that 2% bracket that makes a lot. You are making it.

It's three-bedroom, three-bath, 3,900 square feet, $275,000. That's a big house. That's a big house for 200. Anywhere else in a desirable place, that would be, you know. That would be huge bedrooms. Very expensive. Huge bedrooms. I'm sure big rooms, big everything.

I'm trying to compare it to what I have, and I have more bedrooms than that, and I have a much smaller house. And my bedrooms, I'm like, I'm living like a king here. I feel great. Yeah, no, this is 3,900. You can spread out. Yeah. That's some room you can stretch your shit out.

4,000 square feet is ridiculous. That's a big house. Yeah. Now, things to do. Basically, things to do in this town are nothing. You can go eat. You can go lunch. There's some shit to do.

They cross burning on Wednesday nights. But you want to save your energy, though, for September 17th when the Town and Country Parade comes. Oh, boy. Town and Country Parade annual. It's at 1 p.m. on the 17th. It says that its slogan is, quote, little bit country, little bit rock and roll. It says, now, if this doesn't excite you, come out, Jimmy. Are you kidding me?

You're going to want to go here. Let me read the description. You're going to want to go here. Bill Kittinger organizes the parade every year, and our local businesses have a very healthy competition with their floats for winning the big prize. The parade begins at 1 p.m. on Saturday this year. Candy is abundant, and kids of all ages bring their bags to load up. After all, who doesn't love a good parade? You're there, right?

You're all going to buy that $48,000 shitty little house. Kittinger sounds like such a Blues Brothers fan. Isn't that from Blues Brothers? He's a little country, and I'm a little rock and roll? That is Donny Osmond and his sister. You're right. That is the Osmonds. It's definitely not from Blues Brothers? He's a little country and I'm a little rock and roll? That is Donny Osmond and his sister. You're right. That is the Osmonds. You're right.

It's definitely not the Blues Brothers. Neither of them were a little bit country at all. They were both very blues. I saw the phrase coming out of Dan Aykroyd's mouth. No, no. That's why. That's ridiculous. They stole black people music is what they did.

And Blues Brothers. Fuck the Blues Brothers. You hate the Beatles? I fucking hate the Blues Brothers. And I love they did. And Blues Brothers. Fuck the Blues Brothers. You hate the Beatles? I fucking hate the Blues Brothers. And I love Dan. I hate them. I love Dan Aykroyd. I hate the Blues Brothers.

Let's get into the crime rates here. Let's get into our crime. Let's get into all this stuff here. The crime. Property crime, which is burglary, larceny, theft. You know, your basic small shit is a little bit higher than average here, actually. It sounds like it's probably a bit meth-y around here. I'm just going to say. I don't know. Just saying. This is an It sounds like it's probably a bit meth-y around here. I'm just going to say.

I don't know. Just saying. This is an area where I would go probably a bit meth-y. Dad goes to the Klan meeting. Son's cooking up some meth in the bathtub. I think that's how this is working. And mom partakes to forget that that shit's going on in her house. Pills.

Pills. Moms on pills. Come on. Jesus Christ. Give her some respect. Opioids. It's middle America. Let's get our shit together here, Jimmy.

Son's on meth. Mom's on opioids. Dad's shit-faced at a Klan rally. That's how this works, Jimmy. Alcohol, opioids, that's, come on. She washes them down with a nice Pinot Grigio. There's a flow here. Violent crime, murder, rape, robbery, assault is pretty low, actually. It's about a third lower than average, so it's not bad here.

It's a safe place, unless you're black, probably. But hey, let's not get into that right now. Let's introduce somebody. Okay. Let us introduce John Dale Kavanagh. This is Dr. John Dale Kavanagh, a doctor also just known to all as Dr. Dale. Okay. Dr. Dale.

I was just going to say, you know it's Dr. First Name. It is. Absolutely. Dr. Dale. Dr. Dale is the town doctor. He worked his ass off through college to be called Dr. Dale. Well, he's a small town doctor that makes house calls and shit, so he wants to...

I think it's a more personal thing here. He recommends they do what you think? I'm not sure. I think it probably just stuck. He's casual with it. It's all good. He grew up in the Little Egypt area. As we've said, this whole area, Little Egypt. He was born in 1925. So, tough times to come up in

in any area, but especially if you're in a rural area. His dad was a tough guy. His dad was a Gandhi dancer. Do you know what a Gandhi dancer is? I have no fucking idea. It's a railroad track maintenance worker. That's a dancer? It's called a Gandhi dancer for some reason.

I don't know why. I had to look up what the fuck a Gandhi dancer was when I read it. And I was like, oh, okay. So he's a tough guy that works outside in the sun on the tracks all day. So father's a tough dude growing up in the depression. He's got some calluses. Working on the railroad. Oh, God. He's got calluses on his

heart. His hands are like burlap. I'm sure when you shake them. Oh, my God. Do you even have skin? Yeah. So he grows up there. His dad was a tough guy. Tells him to be tough, too. He gets married early as everybody did in the 40s. Everybody got married when they were 17 years old as soon as possible.

He's not in World War II from what I understand. I don't see anything about him being in World War II, which for a guy born in 1925 seems odd. But I don't know. Maybe he was some sort of I think he went to medical school. He was probably in school at the time. And then probably by the time he was done, the war was over, I'm thinking, based on the timing.

He gets married early, like I said, as they all do. He was fortunate enough that his family – his dad had a job. In the Depression, if you had a job at all, you were fucking – you were doing well. So, yeah, they were known as a well-off family because his dad worked at the railroad. I mean, that's about all there was. They scraped together enough money to send this kid to college. He goes to college. He goes to medical school.

He comes back to start a practice. He comes back to Little Egypt to start a hometown small doctor practice, which is kind of folksy in the 40s. It's like the late 40s, and he's going to come home and be the small. It's like Doc Hollywood, basically, except he's not from Hollywood. Not not driving a porsche he's not going to yeah he's not on his way to be a plastic surgeon or anything like that uh he gets his wife leaves him pretty much right away when he gets home from uh from no from yeah from from medical school and everything his wife she's an idiot yeah right he's gonna be the town doctor well there's a there's a uh the reason why she would do that is what sounds like a dream life, but he's also a pretty cruel and violent guy already.

Yeah. Even at a young age. At this point, I'm already giving him a pass on everything because he's a hero to me right now. Yeah, yeah. But no. He's kind of a dick. He's kind of a dick. He grows up kind of a dick here.

In 1951, he finds another wife. That's okay. He's like, hey, I don don't need you I'm the town doctor I'll find somebody damn it he finds a nurse named Marion Newberry perfect well yeah they have that quick less than a year of a courtship and they're married in 1952

she takes a lot of the brunt of his bullshit okay his physical and he abuses her physically emotionally he's just he's an asshole he starts to of his bullshit. Okay. His physical, he abuses her physically, emotionally. He's just, he's an asshole. He starts to drink a lot, starts to use drugs that he has access to, things like that. So now he's like a small town rural doctor making house calls.

The town loves him. He comes home, drinks a lot, beats the shit out of his wife. Well, and I mean, she's looking at it like, where the hell else am I going to go? I'm going to go live with some dude that shovels horse shit and then he's going to beat me? That someone's going to beat me? Someone's going to beat you. Right. Probably. At least I got a nice house.

That's what I mean. And that's sad as that is. That was that's that was a life. A lot of what you are, at least what you thought you had as an option as a woman in the 50s, because that's what that people told you. You know, it was like, hey, you didn't go to secretary school. So you better, you know, you better stick with him. Right.

You know, duck and cover. I don't know. And she's watching the fucking ridiculous midday TV while he's out doing house calls and stuff. She sees Rosie Riveter, and she wants to knock Rosie out. She's like, look at me, asshole. How about me? Find some help for me. Yeah.

No, it's absolutely true. They had sons. He has four sons. Wow. He has four kids. Each one that comes out, she's like, here's another one that's going to beat a wife. That's another one that's going to beat a wife or another one for him to beat. He's horrible with all of them, basically.

He plays, also to the whole family, he plays practical jokes on his family, like locking them in closets and attics. Hilarious. Like, oh, can you go in there and get me something? And he'll go in there, ha, ha, ha, and leave them in there for hours. Hilarious, right? Asshole. Yeah. In 1971, the drinking and his drug use kind of caught up with him a little bit here.

He causes an auto accident while drunk and kills a father and his 10-month-old baby, which back then in 1971, they probably didn't even have seatbelts on, but still, he kills them. When he was told afterwards that they were dead, his answer was, this is some bedside manner on a doctor here. He said, quote, everybody's got to die sometime. Wow. Not at 10 months old. I don't think that's their time.

Not after you drank a fifth of gin, you dick. No. Police found a loaded pistol and a shotgun in his car, also an open bottle of booze, and his alcohol limit was over twice the legal limit, his blood alcohol level. What did he get for this? What would you get for that now? Right now, vehicular manslaughter, 20 years. 20 years.

He got three years probation and a $1,500 fine. Holy shit. $1,500 fine. Small town, too. That's the other thing. Small town. He's the doctor. He probably saved the judge's wife's or mom's life.

That's the thing. It didn't even hurt his standing in the community. Didn't hurt his practice. What? Go to doctor. Kill a baby. Go ahead. Knock yourself out.

People still make fun of Laura Bush for killing somebody when she ran a stop sign. Yeah, that's the thing. And this guy gets scot-free. Unreal, man. Yeah, that's all he got. I mean, that is scot-free, pretty much. Yeah. That is what it is.

Now, they have a house that is just outside El Dorado, but they spend a lot of time. He likes to tend to his livestock, and so do the boys and the family. They're kind of on the farm all the time in El Dorado. It is called Hickory Handle Farm in El Dorado. But this is just, it's not a, you know, this isn't like a fun thing where everybody's going down to work on the farm. I'm sure he was beating them with, you know. With hickory handles.

With hickory handles. That's probably what it's named after. Farm equipment and everything else. Now, Marion, in the early 1970s, a little bit after this, I think 73, she says, that's enough for me. I've had over 20 years of this bullshit. I'm getting the fuck out of here. She takes off. So good for her.

But leaves behind these four sons who have to deal with this maniac. She put in the time that he should have spent behind bars. Yeah. No, absolutely. And now the divorce, it affected their kids too, the divorce. Especially their oldest son, Mark. Mark Dale, of course. He's named after the father here.

Mark, he drops out of high school. Just never really. He's just always, always unraveled, always raveled up, wrapped up in his dad's vortex, basically. He's always doing shit for his dad. His dad's manipulating him, making him do things. He's trying to please his father as the firstborn. But he's not. He's doing a terrible job at that.

So everyone loves him, and still he's beating the shit out of his kids, this Dr. Dale asshole. He hated Mark. He just hated his son, Mark, his oldest son. He called him a no-good pot smoker all the time. That was the thing all the time. He's just a no-good pot smoker. He's worthless. He's useless. This is the 70s. What do you expect? It's the early 70s.

You live in the middle of nowhere. Be happy he's not on meth. If they had meth, he would have been on meth back then, so be happy. Marion, the ex-wife, she moved to St. Louis. She got the hell out of there. She moved two hours away like, I'm getting out of here. Later on, she would tell people that whenever she would

talk to Dr. Dale on the phone, the ex-husband, all he would do would be complain about Mark and make sarcastic comments about Mark and just talk shit about him. It's like, this kid we got. What a piece of shit he is. That was the whole conversation. Eventually you just stop calling because I'm tired of hearing about how much of a shithead my son is from you.

Yeah. No, it's absolutely true. He once told, with his son, Sean, who we'll talk about later, he once had a fight. Dr. Dale had a fight with his son, Sean, and told his ex-wife on the phone, quote, I don't care if I go to jail. I'll kill him. Wow. So that's an odd thing to say about your kid, you know, when he's a child. Yeah.

The kid was like a teenager at that time. That's a little steep, I think. Now, 1977 comes along and we get to April of 1977 and everyone is invited. Mark invites everybody over for Easter. This includes the Marion, the ex-wife, the kid's mother. Everybody, we're going to have a family Easter. Yeah. the ex-wife, the kid's mother, everybody.

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like small town murder. Promo code STM at MackWeldon.com. Really, guys, we couldn't tell you a better product to get. So go ahead and get it. Now back to the show. So we get to April. It's April 9th, 1977, and they're all there. Everybody's waiting at the farm.

Where the hell is, you know, where's Mark, actually? Oh, Mark. Where's the oldest son? Everybody's sitting here. They're all sitting around. Ready to hunt eggs. Yeah, that's all it is. There's the 19-year-old brothers there.

Everybody's there. Mark is 22 at this moment in time. They can't find him. So Kevin, the 19-year-old brother at this point, heads out to, Mark lives on a trailer on the farm. He lives out in the kind of rural places. They'll do that. The kid will set up a trailer over there and then bring some girl in and get them pregnant

and have a brood of kids. And then when they die, they move into the main house. I think that's how it works. So he heads out to the trailer to go look for him. Mark had a Jeep pickup truck, and they see that. And Sean walks by the Jeep pickup truck, and he sees that. He's on the way to the trailer to go look for him. Mark had a Jeep pickup truck and they see that. And Sean walks by the Jeep pickup truck and he sees that he's on the way to the trailer and he looks down and he sees something that is pretty remarkable. Yeah. He sees a decaying corpse of his older brother, Mark, laying in tall grass by the truck.

Oh, my God. Yeah. It's not wonderful. He'd only been dead. They figured for a little over about 12 hours because that's when people had talked to him last. Yet there was basically nothing left of his body. Wow. Because it was a rural area, and they figured out that it was just scavenger animals just attacked him.

Attacked him. That fast? That fast. The flesh of his skull was completely gone. Oh, my God. One eyeball and hair remained. In 12 hours? In 12 hours.

His upper torso had been skeletonized so that only a few fragments of skin remained. Oh, my God. His lower body had jeans on and heavy work boots, so that was fine. They couldn't get through the jeans or heavy work boots. Never die in Illinois. The only way that Sean could identify his brother was by his belt buckle because he knew a belt buckle before. He had a specific belt buckle. They had to make a positive identification from the medical examiner through dental records.

Wow. There for 12 hours. Now, he was about 12 feet from the truck. His feet were pointing toward the vehicles. And they couldn't, because of the way it was moved around by the animals, they figured who knows where the body was originally. And they could have dragged him. Animals could have dragged him here and there, moved him around. So they basically have no way of setting up a crime scene.

Yeah. Because it's been ravaged by animals. So that's pretty screwed here. Now, investigators, they suspect that Dr. Dale has something to do with this. Really? They suspect Dr. Dale, but the crime scene, like we said, completely contaminated by not only animals, but all the family members trying to help and looking around and doing all that. Robbery was ruled out because his wallet was found nearby.

Still in the jeans. So they're figuring that's probably not it. His shirt was found a distance from his body, and it showed it. It was clear that he had been wearing it when he was shot. It was a 12-gauge shotgun he got shot with, loaded with buckshot, because there was a 2 1⁄2-inch to 4-inch hole surrounded by blood between his left breast pocket and the center button line of his shirt aiming at the heart just a bit yeah a big hole right in his

heart who knows where the heart is like god that specifically yeah that's amazing isn't it wild right this truck was a complete mess there was blood on the driver's seat floorboard the driver's door panel the floorboard everything it was just covered and on and on the floorboard, everything. It was just covered. And on the floorboard, they found a shotgun with the end of the barrel extending out of a case. Okay. Now, a coat hanger with a camouflage hunting vest that was hanging off of it was attached to the trigger of the loaded shotgun. Okay. See what I'm saying? The hanger was hanging around the trigger like that by the hook end.

Somebody's trying to position this. I got you. I'm on board. Yes. The bottom of the vest had been shut in the passenger door. So, picture it on the hook end. Somebody's trying to position this. I got you. I'm on board. The bottom of the vest had been shut in the passenger door. So picture it on the floorboard. The barrel's pointing one way. It's pulling.

And so, like, somebody closed it, that and the other passenger door here. Now, police, they figured that Mark took a point-blank shot to the chest when he reached for the gun and pulled it toward him because it appeared the coat hanger had pulled the trigger. Now, Kevin, the brother, the younger brother who's three years younger, he does not believe this at all, that it's an accidental death because he said his brother was way too experienced with guns to just grab a gun off the floor by the barrel. The other thing is who puts a fucking hanger on the trigger?

Yeah, they're saying it was an accident or whatever. Now, the chief investigator agreed with Kevin, not only on his expertise with weapons, but also that it wouldn't that basically the gun, what it was, it was a Browning automatic, wouldn't have ejected the shell onto the floorboard of the truck, which that's where they found the shell. It would have been in the case. So they're saying that's a tough one here, but they couldn't figure it out. They couldn't figure it out. Also, another thing that's a weird factor is just a couple months before this, Dr. Dale took out a $40,000 life insurance policy on his son, Mark. So this is pretty naming himself as a beneficiary. Of course.

Obviously. It wasn't like somebody else. Right. He was just trying to make sure his mom would be taken care of if anything happened. Stuff like that. Yeah. It seemed odd, obviously. As if this is the moment that he's going to become a good father yes that's the thing it seemed odd at that point where it's like now he cares about

his son now that he's 22 and he considers him a complete fuck up right you know uh now dr dale continues to abuse drugs and alcohol uh his his son he would finance a drug deal later on and his son kevin would find out about it and he kevin said that dr dale told him quote if you tell anyone i'll kill you uh-huh so he's threatening to kill his son and he believes him and he believes him because he's suspicious also of the of the father now the case was never solved uh some believed it was an accident the townspeople of course so like it's a poor doctor he lost his son he's a great guy. Because he was like a John Gotti with medical care. Like he would, if someone was poor and lived in some farmhouse somewhere, he'd make a house

call and wouldn't charge them for it if they couldn't afford it. Stuff like that. So he endeared himself to the town like a mob boss. Right. Like Pablo Escobar. Yeah, like Pablo Escobar. And then he could kill his kids and nobody cares. It's unreal.

But he brought my kid a Coke when he was chewing on my chaff. So, hey, it's all fun. You're really digging into the Duck Hollywood, aren't you? I love that movie. I know that. There you go. There's your 80s reference, assholes. Enjoy.

Enjoy. We got it. Duck Hollywood this week, guys. Enjoy it, assholes. I know that shit like the back of my hand, too. I could go all night with you on this, but we got murder. All right, go. So, oh, man.

That's so funny. Now I want to go home and watch Shock Hollywood. What am I supposed to do now? This sucks. Now I know what I'm doing tonight. Before he shook. Oh, that was such a good movie. All right.

So there was one detective who believed that Dr. Dale was the culprit, and he was suspicious for years. It's Detective Jack Nolan. Like I said, he was certain that Mark's death was a homicide. He said, quote, he was my suspect all along. He's a 32-year veteran of the state police also. So he's 20 years plus in the criminal investigation division. Yeah, that sounds like a guy.

That's a fucking cop, man. He's on the case. It's going to be solved with Jack Nolan on the case. Yeah, he's got a loose tie. You know what I mean? He's like an old-timey. He doesn't have time to tie it. He's too busy.

No, he's like, I'm too busy. I've been working for 72 straight hours. I don't have straight hours let's wrap this shit up as quick as i can he said quote he was the only suspect we had after we went through all the evidence we've ruled out everyone else the guilty party is usually the only one left which is logical that's why he was a good investigator for 20 years i like him uh wendell lambert who's a former saline county coroner also was suspicious of the doctor, according to this coroner's wife. In early 1977, in May of 1977, it ended up finally being ruled as accidental, even though everybody kind of was fact-checked. Everybody suspects, but they just got no concrete proof.

Yeah, it's the lack of physical evidence is what it was that they couldn't prove it because of the animals attacked the body. So they couldn't really do anything. Now, the younger brother, Sean, Sean never recovered from this. He loved his brother and he found his brother. Sean was 19? Sean, no, Sean was, I believe, 15. Oh, my God. I can't even imagine.

He found his brother. Yeah. So Kevin was 19. He's the other one. All right, yeah, yeah, yeah. So there, he also had a hard time through this. He really did. He turned to drugs and alcohol and just became a guy that

needed therapy and he went to 12-step programs and inpatient programs and just was trying to find, get through it. He was having a really hard time. Sean actively wanted his father's love too because he just needs his father. He wants to

be loved by his dad. All these kids, they look up to their dad, and their dad's done nothing but shit on them their entire lives. He just doesn't trust him. No, he was constantly just told to fuck off, basically. Now, 1980, we have Dr. Dale had another problem. He has to plead guilty to deceptive medical practices. The details of this are really hazy, but this is his second criminal conviction, of course,

after the, you know, killing a man and his baby. Yeah. So 1980, like I said, and here he is pleading guilty to deceptive medical practice, which doesn't sound good, but the town behind him. They could give a fuck. Practice doesn't suffer at all. It's crazy. They love him.

He's Dr. Dale, God damn it. 1984, Dr. Dale convinces his sons. Now, he has no interest in his sons whatsoever, doesn't come to them for anything. He comes to his sons, Sean and Kevin, and asks them to participate in an insurance investment that would benefit them in the future because basically

you could borrow against the policies. It's that sort of thing where you could borrow against a policy. Sounds illegal. Yeah, it's a little shady is what we're going. I'm not an insurance agent, but it sounds a little shady. He told them that he would pay the $1,000 monthly premiums that he can use as a big tax deduction. So he said, tell you what, you invest in this. I'll pay the premiums in the future.

You'll get paid back money. And the kids are like, dad wants to do something with us. Holy shit, awesome. Yeah, sure, dad. And it's finance. This could be fun. Dad's got money You'll get paid back money. And the kids are like, dad wants to do something with us. Holy shit. Awesome. Yeah, sure, dad. And it's finance. This could be fun. Dad's got money. We're broken alcoholics.

What the hell? This sounds good. You know what I mean? And he did this to us. Exactly. Now, but he still, he was losing, he was having problems financially, Dr. Dale. He was filing his tax returns that indicated that he was just going deeper into debt. He owes close to half a million

dollars. So he's, yeah, there's no, so the fact that he would need something to deduct against his income is not really. Doesn't matter. Especially $12,000 a year. What's the, what's the point when you owe that much? It's so strange. So December, 1984, this, this is, this has happened a few months before the insurance investment scam here. Sean's body is found. Oh, no. Yeah. Sean, the son, is found by a farmer in a remote area, a town that used to be called Times Beach.

This is a town that was – it's a ghost town because it was shut down because of a toxic cancer, high levels of cancer causing dioxin. They had to clear the town out. It's one of those. There's a bunch of towns like this. It's like an Aaron Brockovich town. Yeah, no. Some company decided to dump a bunch of shit and they didn't care and it happened and so they had to clear a whole town out.

Wow. Yeah, they turned it into a super fun site which ended up being a bird sanctuary after a while and once they buried everything. Now they have birds with two heads. But no people, because it was shut down by the EPA. We would thank fuck for that. So nobody else died. But anyway, poor Sean is found.

His dead body is found near a farm outside of this area, which is just super sad. Sean had been shot twice in the back of the head by a.357. Holy shit. That's rough. That's a rough way to go. He only needed one. Only needed one.

Yeah, man. He was lying on his back with both his arms to his side. Hard to say that's a suicide or an accident. That's tough. Yeah, a farmer found him. How do you put two.357 slugs in your own head? That's talent. I mean, people have done it.

Yeah, I'm sure they have. But it's not common, I would say. A farmer found him. Sean was dressed. No identification on the body at all, so the farmer didn't know who it was. They called police. Police were able to identify Sean by his fingerprints because luckily he had had a misdemeanor traffic stop a couple

years earlier that ended up helping him be identified. That misdemeanor was the best thing to happen to him. Yeah, that's what I mean. The best possible thing. There was two entrance wounds, both in the back of his head, and one apparent exit wound under the left eye. So that is rough. Yeah, I don't know if one must have stayed in there. When they found the body, it was still warm,

so they decided it was probably within three hours of time of death. The shot to the back of his head, what they think is the first shot, was just to the right of the center line of his skull and traveled upward, and that's the one that came out of the left eye. They said it had been fired from a distance of an inch or less, which is, you know, pretty. Point blank. That's close. That's as close as it gets.

That says suicide a little bit. I mean, it's hard to get that gun all the way to the back of your head, though. And it was not a contact wound, though. It wasn't actually touching the skin because there was less gunpowder on there than there would have been. That's execution style. Yeah. Now, the blood spatter analysis indicated that Sean had been standing with his left arm raised when the shot was fired. So he was, like, pointing to something or something like that.

Hitler or something. Yeah, he was hiling. I'm not sure. We shouldn't say. We don't know if Sean was in there. Sean seems like a nice kid. Sean's not a Nazi. Poor kid fucking found his brother. He helped take that sign down, guys. Yeah, he did. He sure did. As a small, small child, he helped take it down.

Let's build Sean up, shall we? Let's get some sympathy for poor Sean here. I feel like he doesn't have enough. Now, forensic evidence said the second shot had been fired from a distance of about 12 to 18 inches away as he was on the ground. Okay. So it came out. So it is no longer suicide for sure. It's tough. Yeah. It entered the right rear or the right by the right ear and was lodged in his brain. So 357 lodged in the brain. That's things aren't going to go well. They said either shot would have killed him. Both shots were deadly. It also said the autopsy said that he had consumed over a dozen drinks.

His blood alcohol level was like four times illegal. Jesus. I mean, he was hammered. Yeah. What they thought at first going by it, it looked like an execution style shooting. Back of the head, second shot on the ground, two shots, second one to make sure. That's execution style is what they thought here. Also, too, the absence of a wallet and all that. He didn't have his ID.

They thought it was like a hit, like a drug dealer thing or people that robbed him and just knew what they were doing and wanted to kill him. So they were looking for things of that nature. kill him so they were looking for you know things of that nature the the analysis of the crime said quote these circumstances imply a removed killer with no personal attachments to the victim and motivated by financial gain to pull the trigger maybe so but he was housed like he was so drunk that also sounds like his dad yeah yeah exactly just like his dad no personal attachment financial gain that's his father sadly enough but he was shithoused like somebody went out and spent time with him long enough to get him shithoused that's as personal as it gets that's yeah oh they're that's crazy so police though they're focusing on dr dale i would hope so they're

they're saying let's take a look at him first since we had that other sketchy one let's see here uh his first statement was his first statement was to police was that he hadn't seen sean for several weeks he's like i don't know what you're talking about I haven't seen him but police found some eyewitnesses that had seen him and Sean leaving Sean's apartment together the night before which is great he was he had been observed uh driving around an apartment complex and a couple who also lived there said who the hell is this guy driving around so they wrote down his license plate number oh and then they observed Sean and dr dale hugging each other and they recognized him from they said oh that's his father whatever and they completely forgot about it until they were contacted by

authorities saying hey did you see anybody with this guy and they went actually his dad was here here's his license plate number and they went oh well that's interesting somebody's story now sucks somebody's story is now shitty yeah and also too they said they heard at 3 a.m. they heard them leaving the apartment. Really? So they heard two footsteps leaving the apartment at 3 a.m. So they went out at 3 a.m. for some reason leaving Sean's apartment. Now, hours after Sean's death, before Dr. Dale was notified, quote unquote, by police, he attends a Christmas party. Really?

A community Christmas party. Bunch of people there. Bunch of friends were questioned by police. They said he was acting perfectly normal, laughing, drinking, having a good time. So, odd. That's not a murderous behavior. It was so inconsistent that they were like, God, who

could be that cold? Right. Who could be so callous as who could possibly be that cold? When they know that 50% of their kids are dead. 50%? Yeah, they're dead and you probably killed them. And both of them were 22 when they died, too. Is that right? Oh, that's so sad. Both kids were 22 when they died.

Now, Kevin, his son Kevin is getting ready for bed with his wife and he gets a call. And he's outlived both his brothers at this point. Yeah. He gets a call saying, are you Kevin? And he's like, yeah, what do you want from me? And they tell him there's been a problem. And Kevin got all pissed off at him and said, how do I know you're a police officer who how do i know who the hell you are yeah he's just whatever and they said look it's serious he thought it was a joke kevin he's like i thought

it was a joke the whole time and uh they told him your brother sean is dead and once he gets down there kevin said look i'm sorry i was rude to you over the phone you can't blame him he's thinking that's a joke because his whole life he's been told shitty jokes by his dad. Those impractical jokes were all terrible, shitty jokes. Can you smell the attic for me? There you go. He was sitting there for a while. But Kevin says to him, I'm sorry I was rude over the phone.

It's just, you know, I've been through this whole thing before. And the cop was like, what do you mean you've been through this before? Because this was a new guy. He didn't know. Oh, shit. And he said, oh, I had another brother who was killed seven years ago. You he said blah blah blah and the guy said really another brother and they said was he shot too and he's like yeah of course and they're like really well then they said how old was he and he goes 22 and they go how old was sean 22 this is getting really fucking weird now this is the worst police department ever how do they how

do they not know that the other one's dead, too? I don't know. This is a small town. It's not like they have 20 random 22-year-olds shot in a farm every day. This is, you know. Well, apparently they do. Yeah. Apparently they do.

Kevin had no idea who would kill him. He said, I don't know who would kill Sean. Everybody loves Sean. He was a good guy. It's the whole thing. So Dr. Dale is confronted about the lie. They're like, hey, you know, they said we saw you. And he said. He was a good guy. It's the whole thing. So Dr. Dale is confronted about the lie. They're like, hey, you know, they said we saw you. And he said, oh, yeah, yeah, I did that on purpose. I understand that that was a lie. I did it because, look, we were out

drinking, he said. We went out and went for a ride and ended up at a park where he was found. And he said Sean asked his father. His father had a pistol, as he always did. And he said Sean asked to see the pistol. And he said Sean put the pistol to the back of his head and said asked his father. His father had a pistol, as he always did. And he said Sean asked to see the pistol. And he said Sean put the pistol to the back of his head and said to his father, tell mom I'm sorry. And he pulled the trigger. That was his story. Okay, that's one shot. Oh, that's not good.

He just told them he was there when he was dead. Yeah, yeah. That's not good at all. Well, this is even worse. How do you explain the second shot? He says the second shot, the other one uh this he said the first shot was the one that it would behind the right ear that lodged in the brain that was the one sean did to himself but the dr dale said that suicide him killing himself would have

destroyed his ex-wife it would have destroyed her so he said i have to stage this to look like a robbery oh my god my ex-wife would be so sad if he killed himself. Way less sad if he was robbed and murdered. But if he killed himself, forget it. She couldn't go on. So he said, you know, Sean was on the ground, so he came up behind him and fired a second shot and was head and stole his wallet. This is a guy that's been through medical school, and he is stupid as fuck. And gotten away with murder twice.

And he's so dumb. Three people he's killed. Never been in a fucking jail. This is the hubris. He just believes he can just get away with murder twice. And he's so dumb. Three people he's killed. Never been in a fucking jail. This is the hubris. He just believes he can just get away with anything at this point. So the story is complete bullshit. 0.26 blood alcohol level for Sean, by the way. So he got him shit-faced so he couldn't defend himself.

Ridiculous. He didn't even feel that. Yeah. At that level, you wouldn't even feel getting shot. Absolutely. So they think that he's pretty. They said, okay, financial benefit with the insurance thing he just did. Financial benefit. Lied to us.

Said he pulled the trigger on a second shot. Went to a Christmas party and acted like nothing was wrong. After that. After he admitted to shooting, watching his son blow his brains out, then shooting him a second time. And he was like, well, you know, it was fine. blow his brains out shooting him a second time and he's like well you know it was fine so the day after sean's memorial service which is very interesting and we'll get to in a moment the doctor is arrested good they arrest him for murder he's charged with murder uh the community is outraged they're like how fucking dare you arrest get out of here i swear that how

dare you arrest him he's a a good guy. Disbelief. Refused. They just refused. So what did they do? They set up a fund to aid his defense. Get the fuck out. People in the town offered to sell their houses to pay this guy's defense fund. Well, in their defense, it's only like 17 grand.

That's true. Yeah, they were like, I don't know. That's not going to pay. We all need to sell our houses together. It's going to pay like two days of court if we get a decent lawyer in here. Just nobody believed it. People would would say why would anyone stay up all night to save people then go out and shoot their son well that's it's crazy because he cares about you not his own kids how fucked is that cuckoo crazy that would be my fucking guess that's just off the top of my head cuckoo crazy he's in a lot of debt and he needs money that's why that's it

so yeah legal defense fund is is uh established by a longtime friend named Bertus Herman. Yeah. And he's now deceased. And this held $37,000 at one point for his defense. He has a trial. People say they show up. They say, quote, he was the great doctor, probably the best in the area. No one ever disputed the fact that he was a tremendous physician.

Detective Nolan, our hard-boiled detective. Yeah, hard-boiled. I love it. An El Dorado barber named John Martin, he was a close friend of Dr. Dale, said that alcohol would change the doctor's personality. He said, quote, old Doc was a different man when he got a few drinks in him. All right. Which sounds just like that's what they call him all through every article. Like Jekyll and Hyde doctor. Because he's a doctor.

They're completely uncreative, the press. They have no creativity to come up with anything new. So he goes on trial. Courtroom is filled with supporters. They have this big trial. And it ends in a mistrial. Get it. What?

In a fucking mistrial. The judge determined that the jury had seen documents that were not introduced. As evidence, somehow they got mixed into everything, so there's a mistrial. But there is a second trial. They're not letting this guy go with no second trial. Prosecutor Stephen Goldman said in his opening statements that the father and doctor was the beneficiary to the two insurance policies totaling $148,000, which he needed to get out of debt. Wow. Which he needed to get out of debt.

He said, quote, he took him, this is the prosecutor, said, quote, he took him out and got him drunk and then drove him to an isolated area where he shot Sean twice in the head. The balance sheet will show the defendant had more than $27,000 in out-of-pocket cash expenses from his farm and cattle. The evidence will show the farm was highly mortgaged and he owed money on the cattle. So he's saying this is for his farm, which was like the most important thing to Dr. Dale. Now, his defense attorney, some idiot named Arthur Margulis, portrayed Dr. Dale as just this. He says he's a successful millionaire. I don't know what you're talking about.

He has plenty of money, which can be easily shown. Disputed, yeah. Yeah, he said the doctor had a cash flow problem, but he has cash value of more than a million dollars. He said he has a lot of shit to sell. He could have sold things off, but he didn't want to. He wanted that money for that. He loved that stuff. He didn't love his kids.

That's what he was doing. Absolutely. Now, Sean's girlfriend, Tina, testified that Sean was often drunk, but he was very cheerful before his death because his father was showing increased interest in him. He was happy. He was like, finally, was showing increased interest in him. He was happy. He was like, finally, my dad loves me. Yeah. No, he was setting you up. That's so sad.

He loves to kill you. Yeah. He, this is unreal. Before the memorial service, the brother called to ask about Sean's ashes and the funeral director told him that the check had bounced. What? Yeah. ashes and the funeral director told him that the check had bounced.

What? Yeah. She said that Kevin and his wife finally paid the funeral expenses with the money that the townspeople set up for the defense fund. They used it for that. Dr. Dale didn't want to even pay for it because he told her when she said, hey, let's take the expenses out since your check bounced. Yeah. He told her when she said, hey, let's take the expenses out since your check bounced.

Yeah. He said that Sean was a, quote, hindrance and an embarrassment. And he said that paying for the funeral would be a waste. That's not what you say. Because he said, quote, Sean has no friends. Why spend the money on flowers and music? What? Wow.

That's your son. That's some cold-hearted shit. This guy's a cold son of a bitch, man. The jurors in the second trial deliberate for less than three hours. And they finally come out with a verdict of guilty. First degree murder. Finally. Yahtzee. Yahtzee.

They were they came in. They he showed no emotion when they when they read it. When they read it, he faces he faced either the gas chamber or life in prison. Those are the only two options here. Now, on January 8th, 1986, because this was in 85, Judge Drew Luton Jr. of St. Louis County Circuit Court imposed the sentence of death in the gas chamber. Yes, awesome. Death in the gas chamber. No execution date was set, as it's an automatic appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Now, so you figure he's going to appeal the hell out of this, right? Well, he appeals in a different way. In November 1986, at about 730 in the morning, Don Klein, who's a deputy warden at Missouri State Prison, found Dr. Dale dead in his cell. He said, quote, he hung himself from the bars above his cell door. He had an extension cord or a cord from a television set or something. He fashioned it into a noose. I love it. He had also secured the door cell by wrapping something around the bar so no one could open it

and get to him quickly. And also he left a note, left a suicide note indicating that he had planned it out. An autopsy is to be conducted, but we're pretty sure, you know, that's what happened. Party time, party time. They saw him at 7.20 a.m., and he was sitting on his bed. He was fine, and then they returned 10 minutes later, and he was dead, hanging.

You can celebrate death sometimes. In this case, you can, for sure. He deserves that. Now, listen to what he did, though. One last little screw of the insurance company. No. The day after, this is amazing. screw of the insurance company.

The day after, this is amazing. This was the day after a clause expired in his life insurance policy that would have prevented payment in the event of suicide. Ah, he knew. He knew exactly. And it was exactly the day after he did this. And who was the beneficiary? I'm not sure, but it's- It paid.

It paid. It paid. His son, Kevin, said, quote, as his final act, he reamed another insurance company. That's what he said. It's like my fucking dad, man. Unbelievable. I love it. Today, basically everyone there considers him a piece of shit.

They finally sunk into the town. We have a quote here that says, from a townsperson, says, quote, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone left who thought Dr. Kavanagh was an innocent man. A lot of people who supported him here are older and mostly most of them are dead now. Unbelievable. Now, Nolan, Detective Nolan said, quote, if we had DNA technology back then, we positive positively could have identified Mr. Kavanagh as the killer. There's no doubt in my mind of the first one. Yeah. But ends up, got away with one, killed the other, and yeah, good. He got his- Got away with three. Three.

Three. I mean, because just- I mean, they had the guy, and they still let him go. Unbelievable. So there is a novel about this, a book written in 1989 called The Murder in Little Egypt by a guy named Darcy, or I'm sorry, a woman named Darcy O'Brien. Okay. That is out there.

There's like an e-book for it and stuff. Like, I didn't read it, but I did all the other research. You guys can read it if you want. You can read it if you want, but you heard the story here. You know everything. That's Dr. Dale. That is El Dorado or El Dorito, Colorado. Whatever you want to call it.

Holy shit. If you enjoyed that. El Dorito, Indiana. El Dorito, Indiana. Illinois. It's Illinois. Illinois, yeah. You said Colorado the first time.

Oh, did I? Yeah. El Dorado, Colorado. That sounds great. El Dorito. You said El Dorito, which I was said Colorado the first time. Oh, did I? El Dorado, Colorado. That sounds great. El Dorito. You said El Dorito, which I was like, El Dorito. That is El Dorado, Illinois. Now, if you like that story, if you found that story compelling and you were like, God, that was fun.

You know what you should do right now? You should get on iTunes. You should give us five stars and tell us anything you want. Tell us five stars is fun to give. Yes, it is. I don't care what you say. It's fun to give. It's fun don't care what you say it's fun to give fun to receive and helps us out tremendously that's a great way you can help the show if you

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And the amount of tweets of people telling us that they only are on Twitter just to talk to us warmed my heart. That's so nice. Every week I get like three or four of them. And this week there was like, Jesus, I want to say there was like 12. James Musgraff or Sausage on Instagram. James Musgraff, not on Instagram, Snapchat. James Musgraff in the UK donated this week. Coim Burn, I want to say Coim, C-A-O-I-M-H.

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Yeah, we love her. She's the best. She tweets out everything to us. I believe she upped her donation also. Thank you. She did. From $25. That's amazing. She's the best. She tweets out everything to us. I believe she upped her donation also. Thank you. She did. From $25. That's amazing.

Thank you so much. We really, God, we appreciate it so much. Lucy Endro-Diova. Endro-Diova. That's such a long last name. I love it. Anyway, whatever. My last name is Petra Gallo.

That's a good point. I'm not going to say shit. Yeah. Lucy Endro-Diova. Hell of a name you got there. I like it. Jennifer Gish. Tasha Rossi upped her donation.

Thank you. Bart Stockton, Ricky in New Zealand at Nude Toes. Whatever. He's got a fetish. What do you want? It's a girl. Alana Spano, Jason Kobler, and then Sloane Proenza. She's in New Jersey.

She's a college student. She doesn't have a lot of money. That's what she said. That was amazing of her. So she didn't donate anything. She didn't have a lot of money. That's what she said. So she didn't donate anything. She didn't donate cash. She took and financed a package all the way across this country and sent us a ton of stuff for the show. So thank you, Sloan. Thank you. You rock. We appreciate it. And thank you. Thank all of you for doing that. We appreciate every bit of attention you want to

give us, every nice word that you throw at us, every donation, every review. And really, we see it and we love it. And it means a lot to us. And it makes the show worth doing because God knows, you know, financially, it's not the most lucrative thing in the world at the moment. But you guys are helping it become better that way. And that's the way we like it, honestly, because we'd rather be beholden to you than anybody else.

That's what it is. That's what it is. I'd rather hear from you guys and tell us. You guys tell us when you're pissed off at something we do. Yeah. Because you're much easier to talk to. Yeah, and we'll tell you to go fuck yourself. But still, afterwards, we'll shake hands and we'll listen to another show.

We'll hug it out and next week we'll do it again. That's right. You want to give them your social media, Jimmy? At WismanSucks, W-H-I-S-M-A-N sucks on Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. Find me. And I am at JimmyPIsFunny on all the appropriate whatever apparatus. And you can try to spell my name if you want or cut and paste from the show description

if you want to be smart about it. Other than that. Or you can see my man, Jimmy, James Petrogallo at Jimmy P is funny at the Tempe Improv next weekend with Mr. This weekend. This weekend.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tomorrow, tonight. Yes. Through tonight through Sunday. That's it. It will be with John Reap at the Tempe Improv. Yeah, man.

If you want to come out and see that. He's awesome. He's funny. That would be a good time. And James is too. Yeah, we'll have fun. Actually, he is. He's awesome. He's funny. And so is John Reap at the 10 p.m. Yeah, man. Come out and see that. He's awesome. He's funny. And James is, too. We'll have fun. He is.

He's awesome. He's funny. And so is John Reap. We'll say it that way. Thank you, Jimmy. I appreciate that. We're going to have a ball. But, guys, can't wait.

And until then, we'll see you next week, guys. It's been our pleasure. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Small Town Murder early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.

Or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. I understand that anybody who's paid attention to the media would have to come to the conclusion that I killed my wife. Hi, my name is Zach Stewart-Pontier. I'm one of the filmmakers behind The Jinx, and I'm excited to bring you The Official Jinx Podcast. We'll be revisiting all six episodes of Part 1 and watching along with Part 2 as it airs on Max,

starting April 21st. Bye-bye. The Official Jinx Podcast. Listen on Max or wherever you get your podcasts.