Small Town Murder - #555 - Murder On The Trail - Pearisburg, Virginia

Episode Date: December 26, 2024

This week, in Pearisburg, Virginia, an area in the hills is sent into a panic, when a local, who is known for his constant lying & strange behavior, brutally murders two hikers, in absolutely awful ways. He is sent to prison, and earns parole, living a simple reclusive life, until one day, when he surprises everyone by attacking more people, leading to a manhunt, some strange "Satatnic" writings, and a wild conclusion to the story!!Along the way, we find out that scarecrows don't scare people, that it's very weird to laminate pages of a Hustler magazine, and that sometimes, you can tell exactly what someone is going to do, based on what they've done in the past!!New episodes every Thursday!Donate at: patreon.com/crimeinsports or go to paypal.com and use our email: [e-mail] to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder & Crime In Sports!Follow us on...twitter.com/@murdersmallfacebook.com/smalltownpodinstagram.com/smalltownmurderAlso, check out James & Jimmie's other show, Crime In Sports! On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Wondery, Wondery+, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

So, get this, the Ontario Liberals elected Bonnie Cromby as their new leader. Bonnie who? I just sent you her profile. Her first act as leader, asking donors for a million bucks for her salary. That's excessive. She's a big carbon tax supporter. Oh yeah, check out her record as mayor. Oh get out of here. She even increased taxes in this economy. Yeah, higher taxes, carbon taxes. She sounds expensive. Bonnie Cromby and the Ontario Liberals.

They just don't get it. That'll cost you. A message from the Ontario PC party. With Audible, there's more to imagine when you listen. Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, new ways of thinking.

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turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. Follow Hollywood and Crime, the Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. This week in Parisburg, Virginia, fear strikes the area as a strange, lying, porn-obsessed murderer known as the A.T. Killer stalks the countryside and creates an awful legend welcome to small town murder Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder. Yay! Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petragallo.

I'm here with my very sick co-host. Oh, yeah. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you so much for joining us today on another episode of Small Town Murder. We have all sorts of a crazy story for you today. Very insane here. We will get to all that.

And we have the announcement of the new tour dates for 2025 We'll tack those on at the end of the episode So you can check that out and people who are just tuning in for the first time don't have to hear all that So we'll get to that very quickly. First of all, shut up and give me murder comm that is where you can go So it's not get your tickets for the live shows. They are on sale right now right now right now 2025 tour some places we've never been before like Grand Rapids stuff like that We're coming and we can't wait so get your tickets and get them quick because this year they went very fast and people are Disappointed when they waited so get in there and get those tickets shut up and give me murder.com or week you can go to

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it's just gonna be fun can't wait wait for that. Then for small town murder, something that cost tax dollars, billion taxpayers, billions of dollars, the CIA thought they could get it so people wouldn't be just psychic. They could remote view, which is they could see what's going on 10,000 miles away by concentrating hard enough. So that's what they had there. I don't think so we'll talk all about that his patreon.com Crime and sports also listen to crime and sports our other show and your stupid opinions as well cuz Damn, it is it funny so check that out hang out with us and keep doing that Well, you can hang out with us all week that way that said disclaimer time Everybody it's a comedy show. It is we're comedians, but the thing is the stories are

Excessively real there is nothing nothing embellished no details that are you know? Oh, we're gonna say this so it's funny or none of that stuff stories are as real as they get and they are Meticulously researched and everything so get in there and check that out what we do is you might go How to murder and crime and comedy go together well if you do it tastefully, that's how you go. Let's say you do it. Yeah. What you do is you don't make fun of the victims or the victims families. Why is that James? Because we're assholes, but we're not scumbags. See? That's how that goes. See? And if that sounds good to you, you're going to hear a goddamn wild story. You think true crime and comedy should never ever go together, we might not be the

show for you, but we might be the show for you. You never know. Give it a chance, but tell you what, no complaining later. How about that? That said, I think it's time everybody. Let's do this. Let's do it. Here we go.

Deep breaths, arms to the sky. Let's all shout. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this everybody. Let's go on a trip. I'm dragging Jimmy and all of his medicine behind me. Let's do it. Let's get out of here. This is miserable.

We're going to Virginia. Oh yeah. Here we go. Been a while since we've been in Virginia here the Virginia we're going to Paris Berg Virginia which is pear like the fruit yeah it's and then is Berg so yeah they don't know how this so this is a north central Virginia it's about an hour 10 to Roanoke and about an hour 5 to Beckley so you know you're in a great spot when you're right between Beckley and Roanoke and about an hour 5 to Beckley. So you know you're in a great spot when you're right between Beckley and Roanoke. That's the sweet spot right there. This is in Giles County

Area code 540 and the motto of course Virginia is for lovers. It sure is even if it's your cousin. That's okay That's all right down there. It's fine history That's right. God damn it. Well, we're far enough away Yeah, it's fine. History. God damned. That's right, god damn it. Well, we're far enough away. History of this town was founded in 1808 when the county was established.

It was named after a guy named George Paris, P-E-A-R-I-S, like the town. He's a local landowner who donated a 50 acre tract to be used for a town that would grow around the county courthouse. They built the courthouse and they said, we'll make a town around that here. Now this guy, by the way, George Paris was actually like a war hero. And it's funny because when you look for pictures of him, the best you can find is like this third graders watercolor painting of him. And he looks, it makes him look like an Amish child.

And I'm like this man, this poor man was a hero for Christ's sake. He commanded a company of Virginia cavalrymen under Joseph Cloyd and was instrumental in the American success during the War of Independence and a 1780 on October 14th they his crew defeated the Tories at Shallow Fork on the Yadkin River and Yes, yes, absolutely and the War of Independence and he sustained a severe wound to his shoulder and then he moved to Giles County Virginia purchased the property got married operated a ferry had at the first survived it survived it yeah which back then a wound like that I mean

that'll take you that'll take you even if the wound doesn't kill you, the infection will later. The infection will, yeah. Yeah, there was no antibiotics or anything like that. So then he operated a ferry, the first store in town, and a tavern, and was appointed the first chief justice of the peace of the town as well, or the county. So Paris was the man here.

He operated a ferry on the New River at a settlement called Bluff City, which they just took into Parisburg and made a part of that. So he took that. He died in 1810, this guy, and he's buried in his own cemetery. Just missed World War of 1812. The Paris Cemetery, which by the way, if you check out pictures, look it up. It is the scariest looking place ever.

It looks like a cemetery that was abandoned 100 years ago. That's what it looks like. Like the gravestones are tilted and there's like tree limbs growing through everything. They're not putting new people in. No. What's there is not being maintained. Not being maintained at all. It is really bad stuff here.

So we have one review of this town, because it's a small town, there's not many reviews. One review review four stars and they say great little town okay all right double exclamation point so it must be true born four stars not five born and raised there and I would love to go back if I could looking for a retirement place there but not sure what is available hmm if only there was a place you could find available real estate. Have you heard of Zillow? You found the niche website to put this review,

but you didn't take it one step further to go, you know, real estate, Parisburg. It only takes a couple letters. Only takes a couple words. This town, too, looking at the other stuff, too, it's like there's a little restaurant in this town that looks like it's like a it's like a trailer building that they put a They put a sign on and then that burned to the ground and then they there's a motel there that also burned to the ground Like it's it's bad. It's flammable as shit. It's very flammable. Then there's a very crappy motel here

Very very crappy that one of the person one of the people reviewing it said had their bathroom had a quarter inch of quote scunge on it I don't know what the SK you and DG e scunge so you know what that is you know what that is it is funk funk and scunge and something that came out of someone else's body that's not yours those Those are bodily fluids. Define scunge, something that came from someone else's body, that's scunge. Yes. And is now stuck on the ground. Yeah, stuck on the ground. People in this town, 2878, so a very small little place here. There is more females than males by a good margin here. It's 53% female, which is way out of whack with normal here. Median age is 45, which is about seven years older

than the national average. There is 0% 18 to 20 year olds here, zero. There's almost 3,000 people and none of them are 18 to 20 years old. As soon as you get legal age to run screaming from this place you do apparently. And then come right back. And then come back when you're 21 apparently. Go fail elsewhere.

Yeah, come on back to Parisburg. 50% married, very high single with children rate. It's normally 10% here. It's about 25%. Race of this town, 88.1% white, 9.5% black, 2.4% Hispanic, and that's it. Wow. 0.0%, anything else that could possibly exist here.

Religion in this town, it's 50-50, which is the national average actually too. And the highest one you'd think normally, it's Baptist. We say Baptist or the Catholics of the South. Here, no, it's Baptist. We say Baptists are the Catholics of the South. Here, no, it is Methodist. Oh yeah. Coming in with 17.5% out of the whole crew here. The unemployment rate is low in the country, actually.

Not a lot of people without jobs here. Median household income is pretty close to the national average. It's almost $66,000. Rest of the country, it's $69,000.000. So that's not bad at all. And the cost of living very low. What? Yeah, normally a hundred is average in the rest of the country. Here it is 80 out of 100. And the housing is 49 out of 100. So that's terrific. Low median home cost here $188,400, Which is not too shabby honestly.

That's pretty damn low. That is not bad here. And alright so if that sounds good to you, you can't wait to stay out of Parisburg. We have for you the Parisburg Virginia Real Estate Report. report. Here we go. House number one is a four bedroom, two bath, 2,090 square foot house on a 0.75 acre lot. And it's not, it's a schizophrenic house. This house, half of it looks like somewhere where the Texas Chainsaw Massacre family lives and then from another angle it looks kind of like a quaint country home. It's really what depends on the lighting.

It's either a cottage or a murder house. One of the two. Inside it has not been touched since maybe the 60s. I mean literally the 60s. It doesn't have cabinet doesn't have like cabinet doors It just has a curtain across across it. It's one of those. It's got like several different old-timey floors It's got drop acoustic ceiling in a couple of the rooms like it's an office It's a really weird fucking house man, and it says back on the market. I bet it is

Oh the last offer fell through I bet it is. The last offer fell through. I bet it is here. This house is $154,950 though. Not bad for a little bit of land and 2,100 square feet. Almost an acre, that's not bad. Yeah, if you want to put it together you can here. House number two is not really a house. There is a structure on it but you can't live in it because it would fall on your head eventually here This is a hundred and seventy one point seven acres of land in the hills here

It's a shitload of land and it said it's embraced the opportunity to own one of the region's most exquisite plots of land It's on like a mountainside It is it also comes with it says the true gem of this property is the historic cabin on lot C an Artifact with stories dating back to the Civil War Well, that scares me. Yes. I don't know what happened in there and it's like falling apart and like you can see It's not structurally sound this building. It's it's pretty scary here But it said that it is a complete with four-wheeler trails and hiking. It's a hunter's paradise I think that's kind of what it is

$562,000 for over 150 acres that's not bad 170 acres here house number three four bedroom three and a half bath almost a t-bull for each and every beehole 3932 square feet on one point six six acres It's just a big McMansion It's one of those houses that has it's on a big lot One point six six acres where they cleared all the trees first before they put up a house So it's just this house sitting in the middle of a field basically is what it looks like.

I don't like when they do that. They do that up by me all the time and I'm like, why did you do that? You cleared out all the trees. Clear a halo around the house to keep it safe from being burned down and then... That's all. Or a tree falling in. Otherwise, keep some mature trees around. Instead, they knock all these trees down, then plant small ones.

It's like, you had a tree right there. Why didn't you just keep it? Assholes. So I don't know. It's like that fake brick facade. It's like, you had a tree right there. Why didn't you just keep it, assholes? So I don't know, it's like that fake brick facade. It's all right, I don't know. 750 grand for this house, though. It's a little, it just seems a little cheesy. I don't know, not my favorite.

It's a lot. It's a lot, it's too much, honestly, here. For an acre and a half, that's not good pricing. No, no, that's what I mean. It feels terrible for that kind of pricing I mean especially for the house things to do in this town Okay, here we go the scarecrow festival, of course and This just appears to be kind of like, you know people with their tent set up selling like handmade jewelry and shit

Yeah, and at the same time the scarecrow festival they have a giant with their tents set up selling like handmade jewelry and shit. And at the same time, the Scarecrow Festival, they have a giant scarecrow person with a pumpkin on their head on stilts. They're on stilts. This person's 14 feet tall. And all the pictures I saw the entire festival, not one person's even looking at this guy. This dude is in the middle of the street in the middle of a crowd like hey I'm the scarecrow and there's kids not

even like interested like don't even fucking care. Pumpkin seeds in his hair. No one gives a shit this guy's gonna go home if he doesn't fall and break his neck he's gonna go home and pick pumpkin seeds out of his hair and no one could care less what he's doing here. They couldn't fucking care less. So yeah, there's that. It's the Every October, the Parisburg Merchants Association will host the annual Scarecrow Festival in our downtown streets. It's one of those where they close off all the streets and you just walk around. There's a classic car.

No, but it's not inconveniencing anybody. No, 2,800 people. Just avoid the one street. You're fine. There's a classic car show, which from the looks of it was like literally nine cars. Yeah. With a few old men. One of them was a Fox Body 80s Mustang so it wasn't even like, I mean, technically classic but it's 40 years old. Not really what we're going for when we're going for a classic car thing here. So that's pretty fun. One of

the favorite parts of the festival, according to the website here, is that it kicks off the tradition of seeing the scarecrows located throughout town. These are the things that no one gives a shit about or even looks at. That's one of the favorite parts of the festival, according to them. Another scarecrow. To have people risking their lives on stilts while people ignore them completely so that's fun Residents and visitors alike are greeted in the downtown Parisburg are greeted in the downtown Parisburg as well as outside in the downtown

Parisburg as well as outside the town area to a parade of scarecrows during the month of October a parade of scarecrows during the month of October. A parade? They just all walking? I guess they're all walking with pumpkins on their heads here. They're gonna have vendors and live entertainment, which is so good that they won't tell you what it is. But based on the pictures of it, one was a bunch of old people,

and another one was a guy in a Dak Prescott, a Dak Prescott Cowboys Jersey singing in Virginia singing outside of a Like a like a garage shop like that was they just had a stage set up outs right outside the bay doors of a garage That's where you do it. It's big time. It's big time a car and motorcycle cruise in a dog show Okay. Oh baby a dog show and more. Don't miss this event. I don't know how you could. I won't. I will not miss it. So it's the only thing to do.

It really is the only thing to do there. Lookin' all the shit up, I mean, 2800 people, what do you want? It's mainly all the, like, recreation is outdoor shit here. It's in the mountains, it's right by the Appalachian trails, so it's essentially people hunt and fish and you know camp and do all that shit. They're not in a lot of really other stuff like that. That's kind of what the area is about. So more than

that and you know this is like this is getting all the people in from the hills to come actually into town and do something here. Crime rate in this town, what we are interested in here, property crime is actually higher than the national average somehow. Is that right? There's 2,800 people and they walk around with pumpkins on their heads and somehow there's a lot of crime, I don't get it. Violent crime, murder, rape, robbery,

and of course assault. The Mount Rushmore of crime is about half the national average. So they won't kill you but they'll steal your shit. So that's that. Certainly, but they'll steal your shit They want your car that said let's talk about some murder. What do you say everybody? Let's do this. Let's talk about a lady first here talk about a woman named Loretta Smith Now Loretta Smith here. she is a hardworking lady. She starts out in the laundry at the Giles Memorial Hospital and

works her way up to a nurse's aid. So hard, hardworking lady. Yeah, I mean, that's that's, you know, hospital works hard work. It just does. She apparently here, she gets married, has a young boy named Randall Lee Smith, and that's her son, he's born in 1954, and then poor Loretta here with her son is divorced when Randall is six months old. Oh no.

So now it's like 1955 1955 and she's a single mom Working in the laundry of the hospital with a with a with a baby boy and we'll never hear from this dad again He just disappears on that's it. He's gone So, I mean there's no help at all and anything like that. So she and her son are a pair Yeah, they're they're gonna we're in it to win it. Sorry. That's just the world just the two of them here and Randall the son Randy as people call him not only they call him Randy. They also have a nickname for him great It's good when when you have a nickname and the whole town just calls you that it's awesome. It fits It's a good nickname for you. Well his nickname that everyone calls him is Lion Randall

Yep lion with an apostrophe. Oh boy. It is a... Skeeter? Nope, it is Lion Randall, LR. They literally call him LR. Hey what's up LR? That's a little bit...

That's fucking bad. That's tough stuff. Yeah, that's not T-Bone or some shit like that. No. That's not cool at all. That's not cool. Hey what's up Lion Randall's over here, and he just goes hey everybody so

now when he was little they lived in several small houses around trying to Find a place because she doesn't have a lot of money at all. You know times are tough here and So finally they settled down in a four room single story home. It's got a basement too, but four, not four bedroom, four room. It's a very small little house they live in. It's like a little box basically. And that's where they're going to live. They find that one, I think Randall's about four or five years old and they are going to stay there for the duration. That's their forever home. That's their forever home here. It's at 190 Virginia Street in Parisburg

in the Ingram Village area apparently. Now, like I said, Loretta worked in the laundry room at Giles Memorial Hospital. A neighbor of theirs, who's I guess vaguely related to them, a guy named Carl, Carl my sort of cousin over here. A fella, yeah. Kind of cousin Carl. He said, she made a living and that's about all.

That's it, and it was tough. Just enough to pay the rent and get some food, but outside of that, not much going on here. And Randall, in addition to being poor and not having a dad, which back then was not normal back then, especially in a rural area. So that made him a little bit different.

And then he made sure to make himself as different as possible as well. And it's not like he did it on purpose. He was just trying to be different. He's not like Damien Echols or something. Like just trying to fucking freak out the squares He's just a weird kid. Oh He's just a weird kid

He like other kids would play and congregate and do games and Randall would just like stay a yard away Just like looking at him But he wouldn't like go play or do anything just leering like a fucking creep He didn't have any many friends at all in school. I mean, very rarely did someone talk to him, other than to just be like, it's Ryan Randall, and fucking make fun of him or something. One guy who went to school with him named Gerald Smith

said he was a loner and he stayed too much to himself, and then said the funniest thing I've ever heard, for a child not to ever have a friend that's unusual Yeah, I would say so yeah, usually Kids will find somebody that's else. That's weird amount of time to spend by yourself though You know I mean, I mean I guess if it's noticeable then that's the wrong amount I think so I think whenever you see all the kids out playing and you never see Randall in the group. I think that's when it's you know

Where's Randall he's just like sitting in his yard. You're like, okay, he's a creep staring at people so yeah, and and it's Self-inflicted too like he's just very very strange a very strange man And we'll find out there's no like he doesn't have like a you know a Disability or like a mental problem. He's just a strange fucking weird guy Yeah, so I'm like a super low immune system or nothing like yeah, he's just sticking to staying away from people He's he just doesn't want to be put back in the bubble. Yeah, that's all it is so he his big interest, all the other kids are into baseball

and then girls and then cars and stuff like that. He's into collecting arrowheads that he finds buried in the ground out in the Appalachian Trail behind his house. Which the other. Is there a lot out there I imagine? Must be I guess. He made a lifelong hobby of it, there's got to be plenty. Otherwise you get bored by the time you're 12 if you can't find anymore. I got three, I found three of them and then I turned 12 and I'm still looking.

So I don't know. But he, uh, that's what they said. He would basically go out into the woods by himself and that was, that was his day. He'd come back later in the night with a couple of arrowheads and they were like you have a good day Randall He was like, oh, yeah found a couple arrowheads and now he seemed to be fine with that. Yeah, which is Here see lobbying. Yeah, I was for sure So Loretta Loretta's sister lived next door and her husband, who's Randall's uncle, would take him camping sometimes. I was like, so that to give him some kind of, I guess, male influence and Loretta wasn't a big camper.

So this guy would take him camping and even he said Randall's a weird fucking kid. He's just a weird kid. He's just weird. He's one of those kids that's weird. Randall drops out of school after 11th grade and he actually, he's got like, he's not lazy. That's one thing about Randall. No, he doesn't. He's almost there.

He doesn't seem lazy. I know, dropped out after the 11th grade. Well, I mean, I stopped like halfway through my senior year so it tells you how dumb I am. Yeah, very angry. So close. Well, I realized I was gonna be credit short And I was like, what am I doing? What am I doing here? Yeah, so this guy he just I don't know if you how many

credit short he was gonna be but I'm gonna assume quite a few and He's like I said, he's pretty industrious though. He likes to likes to do things He's got a motor and after this he, he heads over to Newport News, Virginia, and gets jobs working, welding jobs in a shipyard. Hell yeah. At 17. That's man work.

That's some go-getter, yeah. Yeah, and those are guys with families and kids to support welding in the shipyards. Angry fellas, yeah. Yeah, That's a real, like a tough job. So he does that. He'll go like, do, you know, a couple of weeks of work, like a project, and then he'll be home for a while and he'll go back. I think he just makes enough money to have some money for a while.

And then he goes back and works more. And, um, so yeah, he would just leave and come back and leave and come back. And when he'd come back, he'd have crazy stories to tell. Yeah. Crazy stories. Now, all through junior high and high school, there was never a girlfriend. There was never a girl he talked to. There was never a friend who was a girl. Oh.

Like, he just, no girls talked to him and he didn't talk to girls, basically. But when he would try to fit in he would just lie that would be his way to fit in. All these other kids I got a girlfriend this one's talking about this he just makes some shit up so he in his in his mind it would make him fit in. So one of his classmates said quote he was a habitual liar we called him LR all the time. Lion Randall. Yeah. He called him LR.

He was habitual liar. And it is too. He says shit that can't possibly be true. That's the crazy shit. Yeah. He's, things that aren't even plausible. Yeah. Like he'd go and do like a two week welding job and come home and then talk about having multiple girlfriends

and children out there. Okay. Somehow he knocked people up and they had full gestation and spit a kid out in the two weeks he was in Virginia. He's fantasizing about the wrong life. He really is. He's like, I got girlfriends and I've been knocking, slipping them past the goalie left and right and it's just tough.

They're going to hit me with that child support soon. It's rough. But no one ever saw him or knew of any actual romantic relationship he ever had. You know, not like he brought any of these girls home with him or anything. It's like, who you should see me in Virginia? Newport News, they can't keep their hands off me. Behind the closed doors of government offices and military compounds, there are hidden stories and buried secrets from the darkest corners of history. From covert experiments pushing the boundaries of science, to operations so secretive they were barely whispered about. Each week, on redacted, declassified mysteries, we pull back the curtain on these hidden histories. 100% true and verifiable stories that expose the shadowy underbelly of power.

Consider Operation Paperclip, where former Nazi scientists were brought to America after World War II, not as prisoners, but as assets, to advance U.S. intelligence during the Cold War. These aren't just old conspiracy theories. They're thoroughly investigated accounts that reveal the uncomfortable truths still shaping our world today. The stories are real. The secrets are shocking. Follow redacted declassified mysteries with me, Luke Lamanna, on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. To listen ad-free, join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made. A

seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune and lives can disappear in an instant. When TV producer Roy Raden was found dead in a canyon near LA in 1983, there were many questions surrounding his death. The last person seen with him was Laney Jacobs, a seductive cocaine dealer who desperately wanted to be part of the Hollywood elite. Together, they were trying to break into the movie industry. But things took a dark turn when a million dollars worth of cocaine and cash went missing.

From Wondery comes a new season of the hit show Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of The Cotton Club Murder early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus. I got news for you, you don't wanna miss life, Randall. No you don't, Randall.

So no one remembered him going to like, I got news for you. You know, I know you don't Randall so No one remembered him going to like parties that the kids had or social events or Never any of that like oh, yeah I remember that big kegger when then Randall got drunk and ran into that tree like there's no stories of Randall like that That's a cheerleader pregnant Yeah On other the ones that when he did show up to things like that, all he would

do is lie and no one would want to talk to him. His friends said he told lies about the money he didn't have about a property he claimed to own in other states. So not only does he have girlfriends and children, but property too. He lives quite the life outside of this place. But then he just lives with, comes home to live with his mom for a few weeks, just to take a break from it all. Wow.

The rat race, it gets to you after a while. It really is exhausting. Gonna take a little break here. And this is a pretty poor area too at the time. In the 70s, his mom's house was worth less than $10,000. What? Less than $10,000. What? Less than $10,000. Wow.

Which I mean even adjusted for inflation, that's crazy. That's incredible. That's way crazy. That's like 60 grand it's worth now, which how many houses are worth 60 grand? They're not very good houses. We've seen them on a real estate report here. It's bad, yeah.

It's a bad fucking house, so that is crazy. So they, like I said, but for them this was a good house It's a bad fucking house. So that's that is crazy. Um, so They like I said, but for them this was a good house because it was the best house they've had Here I mean, you know Now Randall at one point when asked about this I guess his family didn't go to church him and Loretta Loretta's probably tired I think she's she's got to work at the hospital. Like you want me to go on Sunday? Yeah, I got that's my one only day off. I'm not going. So he didn't go to church and I guess in this area if you didn't go to church you were considered a little aberrant and

you kind of have to lie about it. So he said quote by the time I was in junior high I'd learned to lie when someone asked what church I went to Rumors always spread like wildfire ending with a dozen people personally letting me know I was going to hell or telling me They were praying for my soul It's like my mom's just tired. Yeah, and I it's my weekend with the kids. So, you know, it's a lot The little lady won't let me she's just I've been gone all week She's trying to bang on size and I was gonna say both these, my girlfriends, they're a tug of war at this point and you know I don't have room for God to come in and pull on the other side. So he had very few if any friends and his one guy, the spower guy, he describes himself as probably the

closest person to Smith and they're not even close close He's the guy who said he's a habitual liar and you know, blah blah blah, but let me get close The thing is about randall Randy is a hell of a welder apparently really his welding work is on point Which I mean he keeps getting re like hired for jobs in the shipyard. So it has to be decent like hired for jobs in the shipyard so it has to be decent. So Spower has a shop where he does like drag racers and off road vehicles and all that kind of shit, repairs and makes and customizes. So whenever Randall is home from Virginia,

he'll hire Randall to do welding work for him at the shop. Because he said quote, he was a real good welder. That's what Spower said. So as much as he lies and as weird as he is, he's a decent welder. I mean, you ever talk to welders? A lot of them are weird people. The vast majority are pretty interesting.

Pretty interesting folks there. So they said he would drop out of site for weeks at a time. This is hilarious, man. Because this Spower, he'd be working, welding, doing shit, putting stuff together, and he'd have a couple other people in his shop helping him out or whatever, doing spot jobs. They said that you would, Randall would have been gone for a month, they forgot all about Randall.

They're working and then they'd turn around and Randall would just be in the corner working on something. He'd just show up, not even say hi, and just start working on shit. They were like, all right, Randy's back, I guess. That's what kind of a fucking weird guy he is. Like, he comes in from a month. Is he dragging a torch around,

or is he just leaving all his shit there and popping in to put a 74 Nova on the front of a fucking tugboat? I think that it's a shop that has all the equipment. So he just comes in and starts doing shit. Yeah. That's it. So they're really like, what a fucking.

He just pops in and uses a torch and a welder and goes to work. What a weird, yeah, he doesn't even say hello. So they're like, okay, well, I mean, he's welding, I guess. I'm gonna list his shit over here, I'll just do it. That's it, so they thought that was very weird. It's just like he never left. You know what I mean?

Like even like when they'd all stop work and he'd be like, so you know, we start talking about a job, they'd be like, how you been for a month, Randy? Right. Where you been for a month? Hey, normal people conversation. How you been? What's been going on? Were you in Virginia or Newport News or whatever?

And they said that the weird part is that once they would be done with all this stuff like when they would be done with cars or trucks or drag Racers or four-wheelers. Yeah, they would you know go do like four-wheeling shit And they would like go to the race to watch the car Randall wouldn't perform. He wouldn't come with them ever what yeah He didn't want to go and they said well why come on Randall? Why won't you go out with us? And he'd say quote it's my weekend to have the children Okay, he doesn't like you guys at all children not child even Like he just goes for a couple months comes home with multiple kids apparently that are born and ready to be watched by him Yeah, it's fucking weird

He's also in addition to arrowheads he has one other big interest. Oh yeah. It's three mainly. This is the big triad. Arrowheads, welding, and nude pictures in Hustler and Penthouse. Sure. Loves those. Those are the good ones, yeah. Loves them. And I mean this is the 70s so that's about the... This is the heyday for fucking porn mags. And that's about the heyday for fucking porn max and that's about the highest level of accessible porn that normal people in a small town would have it's not like you can go to Times Square and go to you know jack booths or anything this is he's going to whatever store in rural Virginia they might have a hustler you know that's big time for him. So he would take his favorite pictures, cut them out with an X-Acto knife from the magazine,

not like cut out the silhouette of the picture, the whole page, and laminate it. So he can just whack it for years on that thing. Just wipe her down and go again. He's like, I'm gonna buy me a laminating machine and a squeegee and this is gonna be my forever thing here. Remember when you had to cut out magazines and glue them to a paper board and the Elmer's glue would fuck that paper up. Make it all fucking bubbly. Yeah that was

the worst. I always use too much glue also. Laminate that shit. You are good. Laminate it up. So he did that. He had a collection of magazines which he would either laminate the pictures or put them in plastic like comic book sleeves. God damn. Like they're valuable. Preserving them. Like it's a Superman number one or some shit.

Here it is. Fascinating. Yeah. The fucking Hustler 77 fucking spread in the middle here. So that's what he would do and that was very strange. He also was obsessed with, his other obsession is his truck. He's got a four wheel drive pickup truck

and he is absolutely obsessed with the, not only the mechanical working of it, but also its cleanliness. He's constantly Polishing it with a rag gotta keep that truck clean. It's clean. It's not that great of a truck. It's like an older truck He doesn't give a shit. He's on it though Looks brand new though. He told everybody that there were several airline Stewardesses in his words that were in love with him. Oh He's never been on a plane in his

fucking life. So I don't know where he's meeting several airline stewardesses or why they would fall for him. Maybe they love him. You know, I always hear it's a old cliche that stewardesses flight attendants are suckers for an arrowhead collection. I hear it's true. Southern accent really really gets the the gay fellas that are flight attendants Yes, the gay fellas in the and the fucking 75 year old women who are Around there. That's pretty much who flight attendants are now in the 70s though Flight attendants were they had to have like physical like there was you can't be Yeah, they had like a weight for your height that you could be like you know flight attendants were

very very attractive in the 70s and they were considered like they are just they don't yeah they just hire whoever applies for it now it's just it's basically you know whoever would be waiting tables but doesn't want to wait tables there it is yeah that's what they're doing seats in the sky that and then there's the flight attendants who've been doing it for 45 fucking years. They cannot wait to quit this. They can't wait. And they're like, people used to say I had a nice ass when I walked by, you know,

and it's like, okay grandma, that's great. You're pretty surly now. So, I don't think so. So he would fantasize about that. Um, he drinks as much as, you know you know casually as much as other people. He's not a alcoholic But he's also not a tea total or of any kind drinks a normal amount Occasional drug user mostly just some weed here and there something like that nothing He's not really into that too much He has no criminal record doesn't get in trouble because you have to do things and go places to get you gotta leave the house Generally, yeah digging for arrowheads and welding in your neighbor's garage really aren't things that are gonna get in trouble too much for

so yeah, so he did some odd jobs he went and did some welding and Came back and this left him free to do what he really loved which was hang out all the time on the Appalachian Trail. Okay. Now if you don't know what the Appalachian Trail is, it goes from Maine all the way to Georgia. It's over 2,000 miles long, and it's an uninterrupted trail where you can walk all the way through it,

no roads, go, you know. Whole thing on foot. Yeah, you don't have to like stop at an interstate crossing or anything. It's just right down. They've made everything around it So it's very cool like you can go there's entrances to it probably about 15 minutes to my house from my house you can go on the Appalachian Trail and when I was a Kid teenager we used to go there you drive out to the Appalachian Trail and they had like little bunkhouse things

Basically where you could sit and smoke weed in there And they have like cots you could sit on and smoke weed get cover from the rain and shit like that So it's fun and the trail was gorgeous to like little bridges over streams to walk over and shit's idyllic It really is it looks like a hairy armpitted gal with a oh you're gonna get that you're gonna get that yeah She's and if you shouldn't like what you're doing, she will pelt you with trail mix. Don't think she won't. Is that right? Oh, I'm sure, yeah, it's rough.

It's, dried cranberries hurt when they hit you. Let me tell you something. So, that's what he liked to do. He liked to do the Appalachian Trail. He wouldn't hike it, he just liked to hang out on it. Just go sit, yeah. And also there's fishing in there. There's all sorts of creeks and stuff.

So, he'd go fishing Yeah outdoorsy shit looking for his arrowheads. Like we said that sort of thing. So now he Takes off from his house on May 30th, 1981 All right, May 30th, 1981 Randall the house he shares with his mom He says I gotta go somewhere. I gotta go. I'm taking off. I'm going to Connecticut. Oh And then he leaves the house. Okay now he had been gone for over a week before that Okay as well just got so he's been gone. Yeah Just got back from a week popped in and said I'm taking off

I have to go to Connecticut and he got in his truck and he left. And that was that. He was gone. So Virginia didn't know what the hell was going on. His mother, he just thought, at this point, I don't think you question weird shit that Randall does. If you're his mom, you just go, okay, whatever. I don't know.

You know what I mean? Like he's been weird his whole life. He's continuing to be weird. I can't fix it. So then we kind of find out what happened to him and where he's going because we find out back on may 19th about 11 days before this There had been an incident on the trail here There was a man named robert mountford jr

Who was 27 at the time but looked like a retired defensive coordinator for an NFL football team He had like a big Dave Juan stat mustache. Oh, yeah. He he looked like he was 48 years old. He was 27 crazy While back then how different people looked so Robert was with another 27 year old named Laura Susan Ramsey who goes by Susan Now these two were hiking the Appalachian Trail. They might be some of the nicest people I've ever heard of here, these two. Kind. They're social workers from Ellsworth, Maine. They're counselors at the Homestead Project which is a home for disturbed children in Ellsworth, Maine

Which to be able to do that number one hats off to you, you know, I can't fucking do that So they decided on their idea. They would hike the entire 2050 mile Appalachian Trail, right to raise money for mentally disturbed children. Oh That is Pretty nice. Yeah. I'm I can't work with the kids and I'm definitely not walking 2000 miles. I'm not walking 50 miles. Not doing that. I'll pay. I'll sponsor your walk, but that's about it. So Ramsey had joined him as well. Cause it was Bob's idea. He's going to do the whole thing. Susan comes in as well. Um,

now around the 19th, they were seen at the bland County store, which is called Trent's grocery so they're seen at Trent's and apparently They earlier in the day had befriended a female hiker on the trail This is a very this trail is a very social thing too. Yeah. Yeah, it's a lifestyle. It's like a lot. Yeah driving a Jeep. It's driving a Jeep or it's like those weird golf cart old people neighborhoods Like yeah where they congregate on their golf. Yeah, that's what this is that people walking up and down the trail We'll meet other hikers go meet up at our campsite later

We'll all drink and all that kind of shit part of this together. Once the sun goes down, there's nothing to do there. So it's just drink and hang out. Drink till you can sleep basically and then wake up. So they befriended this female hiker. They all agreed to meet in the area above Parisburg. Now this woman waits for them and waits for them, but they never show up. Now rather than thinking that maybe they didn't like me as much as I thought they did, which is what I would think.

Wow, talk about that. That's a high opinion of yourself. Right? If someone didn't show up, I go, I thought they liked me. Fuck. And I just sit there the whole night going, I guess they didn't like me. What'd I do? I suck, I guess.

Yeah, I would just think I was a piece of shit all night. This woman is so confident in herself, she alerted the authorities. Clearly it's not me. This woman is so confident in herself. She alerted the authorities Definitely not that they don't want to hang out with me all night a stranger they just met it's Tragedy has befell them. There must be crime. That's what happened. That's the only way this didn't happen So she alerts authorities so the authorities look for them as they do the US Forestry Service employees here now they had heard that The people last people who saw Bob and Susan said that they were with a man named Billy Joe Yeah, which they were like well shit. That's half the people who live around here fuck

God damn it Jesus Christ fucking Billy Joe Fuck. God damn it. Jesus Christ. Fuck, Billy Joe. They said they saw this. He's calling himself, a guy calling himself Billy Joe. And this was at the Wapiti II shelter. They saw this.

Now there's all these little shelters along the trail that are just basically three-sided wooden boxes. With a roof. So there's an open side to it, but it's good to protect you against elements Yeah, wind cold rain things like that. Yeah, and it's a good place to camp too because there's a wooden floor Yeah, it's already above the ground. Yeah. Yeah, so you're not like with the animals or anything So you can put your tent you put your sleeping bag in there And it's a better place to sleep and also just to hang out people hang out in these shelters So that is where they were seen with Billy Joe at the wapiti to shelter. That's the name of it. So They're invest they're investigating they're going all they they got several investigators looking because after an initial search nobody comes up with them

investigators looking because after an initial search nobody comes up with them and Apparently they had plans to meet other people like they had a whole bunch of plans that none of them came to fruition So they think they might be missing So they had a few different investigators going up and down the trail asking other hikers about them Have you seen them anything like that? one hiker Told them the police that Mountford and Ramsey had been seen with what they called a quote, strange looking man near the Whoppedee shelter. So that's where they said.

So now they've been told by multiple people that they were seen at the Whoppedee shelter with both with a weirdo named Billy Joe. So a local they're probably thinking, I would imagine. So the investigators head to the Wapiti shelter because they go, they got it. They must have been there. Maybe they left some kind of clue behind. So the initial, the main head investigator here

looks around the shelter and it's very small. It's smaller than a bedroom in a house. Yeah, it's like an easy up. That's exactly what it is. It's a very small thing It's smaller than a bedroom in a house. It's like an easy up. That's exactly what it is. It's a very small thing. You could probably fit, I would say you can lay probably side by side. You could probably have five sleeping bags in there comfortably to where you wouldn't bump into people.

Otherwise it would be kind of a little crowded. So he ends up looking around, doesn't see anything until he looks down at the floor of the shelter Where he said it looked like something had run down between the floorboards Quote so I run my knife down between the boards. It was a thick and red substance down there scunge red scunge Fucking discarded Kool-Aid So he said I need to we need to tear this floorboard up. I think there's blood here scunge, fucking discarded Kool-Aid. So he said, I need to, we need to tear this floorboard up.

I think there's blood here or score scone, but we're going to check it out. So what they did is once they figured out it is blood under the floorboards, they went out 30 yards in all directions, kicking over logs and you know, knocking weeds out of the way. They came upon a small open area. In this area they noticed a big mound of leaves as if someone tried to cover something up. There's nobody raking out here.

So if you see a pile of leaves, it's not just an animal going, I got to clean this place up. Jesus Christ, let me. There's people all walking all around, we look like slobs, clean up everybody. That's not happening. So they start digging in the leaves, and they notice a cloth sleeping bag in the leaves, and there's something inside the sleeping bag,

and it's Susan Ramsey. It is 27 year old Susan Ramsey. So they find her, then they bring in dogs, because they go, okay, now we actually know we have a crime scene here. So they bring in dogs that are trained to search for bodies, cadaver dogs. They stop, the dog stops several hundred yards from the shelter, poking its its nose around and then it sat down near a stump now The cop who by the way is the dog's trainer and handler said quote. I thought maybe he was tired

Not like I taught him how to signify what he found when we're looking for it, but okay Turns out he wasn't tired. He found something. Yeah. The dog's not lazy. He's into this. He, the dog has much more like gumption than these cops do. Yeah. So does Randall as a matter of fact. So right there also buried in a sleeping bag, they find Bob Mountford as well. So now we have Bob and Susan both found, obviously killed in the woods, and covered up too. I mean, neither of them are, you know, obvious to the

naked eye. Their bodies have been covered. Bob is several hundred yards from the site. I mean, he's not even close. And Bob's a pretty decent-sized guy too, so for someone to get him from the shelter all the way out there Would take something you know what I mean he'd been shot three times in the head Bob Susan had completely different wounds. She wasn't shot at all. No, that's the other thing. That's yeah This was Bob was disposed of quickly. It looks like Whereas Susan had defensive marks all over her hands She had she fought which if you put together logically what happened here, it's pretty

easy to see. He wants, he wants to get rid of the guy to have something to do with this woman here. So the police said she fought him very hard. He used a piece of iron to hit her in the head. He also stabbed her with a long nail. A long nail and we'll find out exactly where that came from. She had 13 puncture wounds from the nail. As well as stab wounds from a knife too.

So three different weapons used on her. Blunt force to the head, nail punctures and weapons used on her yeah blunt force to the head Nail punctures and stab wounds on her three different ways three different ways meanwhile Bob shot three times in the head She is also wrapped in plastic Susan is oh before she's stuffed in her sleeping bag Where's Bob is just in the sleeping bag with no plastic? interesting so The medical examiner said the hikers had been dead at least several days when their bodies were discovered.

So this is on the 30th they're found. So I'm thinking this is the same day that Randall takes off to Connecticut. So I'm thinking here that they were probably killed on the 19th and have been in the woods for 10 days. Like this. It's been a while, that's crazy. Now Robert

A little more about the the injuries here Robert had been shot in the head, but police couldn't find the gun There's no gun in the area. No, they looked for that everywhere metal detectors. You name it. They couldn't find it Susan had been stabbed what they said repeatedly in the chest Not only that's with the knife and then on top of the puncture wounds with the nail, hit in the back of the head with a blunt instrument and the police found those weapons though. Oh? Yes, but not the gun. The lead investigator said, we discovered a piece of angle iron Rot iron that was in the was in the fireplace that was used as a poker to stir up the ashes

Yep, he said I did see a large spike nail that had been used to put the shelter together as well there Yeah, so they think that is what he was using a lot pulled a nail out this guy just whatever was around I mean the fireplace poker and a nail from the shelter is crazy. Based on the forensic evidence, they believe that the killer attacked the two hikers after they went to sleep. OK, so they think they went to sleep and then they shot Rob Bob Mountford. The investigator says, quote, it does not penetrate the skull the first shot. Oh No, he that's dude this guy had a big fucking like X NFL defensive lineman head on him

Apparently so thick bullets don't fucking penetrate it not on the first shot Wow He says as Mountford starts to turn over and starts to get up. He shoots him in the cheek, which is a little softer That round goes up and into the brain. That's the round that killed him And then he shot him one more time too just to make sure but this guy's Skull will repel bullets. That's how that is impressive so he said then the killer turned his attention to Susan Susan Ramsey and based on the crime scene He puts together that quote she runs he chases Grabs the wrought iron poker as she's running. He's taking the spike nail that was on the ground. He's stabbing her as

She went down. He hits her in the back of the head at that point she's at his mercy because she's out of it and police could not determine because this is also 19 you know early 80s police could not determine if she had been sexually assaulted because of the decomposition of the body for 10 days 10 days in the woods in the summer in Virginia is gonna bag in a plastic bag is also gonna make it worse so they don't know but I assume that was be the reason for why he's doing this I can't imagine any other reason why someone would do this the investigator

said I don't know it's amazing what human beings can do to other human beings he also said we found evidence in tree stumps in knot holes in trees under rocks We found two paperback books that belonged to her One of the paperback books when we were thumbing through the pages. We found a fingerprint a bloody fingerprint on the book Okay, they also talk about Susan had cuts and bruises on her fingers to show what kind of defensive wound she had But both bodies had been dragged from the shelter Also tests of the blood for Bob and Susan's showed that they had drank enough to be under like, you know drunk legally But yeah, they're in the fucking woods. Of course, they're drunk. Yeah, they're camping

So when they came across her backpack, that's where they found the book. It's a paperback novel called Mount Olive, one word, by Lawrence Durrell. And I've never heard of the book before, I'm not sure. But it had the bloody fingerprints. One of the bloody fingerprints wasn't hers. Oh, great lead.

Yes, so they have this fingerprint. It fingerprints not Bob's either they test that so now they're like, okay This is probably a murderer. I would say yeah So they run it through the regular database. Nothing comes up. Okay run it through the FBI database Nothing comes up They got nothing. So now they're like well fuck what do we do? So then they decided Okay, what if we go to? private industries that fingerprint their Employees and see if we can run that so the first place one of the first places they go is the Norfolk shipyards. Oh

Because you have to be to work in shipyards. You have to be Terrorist yeah, you got even even back then you had to do that. So They end up running it through there and they get a print hit on Randall Smith Because Randall had to get his fingerprints done to go to the Norfolk shipyard. So they're like, okay Well, that's a place to start and Randall lives nearby. They look at his address and they're like well all, well, that's a place to start. And Randall lives nearby. They look at his address and they're like, well, all of this makes a lot of sense. This is lucky.

Yeah, this is lucky. Then they ask around, they find out he's a guy that's always hanging out on the trail and all that kind of shit. By the way, this was the first double homicide in the history of the 2100 mile trail here. So yeah, there's been single homicides but never a double now there's a friend who was supposed to be there Renate Lilifers who had planned to join the hikers but didn't because of a foot injury oh yeah he got lucky this guy here this person he said that they found out from the cops that charcoal from a campfire had been used to smear over the blood stains on

the wood floor of the shelter. Pretty smart. Which is smart. That's what I mean. Randall's not a fucking idiot. That's the thing. Cunning. Yeah.

Cunning. Exactly. So that's, I mean, you wouldn't notice that looking down quickly. You'd have to look down between the cracks to really see anything. So police, when they removed the floored boards obviously confiscated them as evidence And they found also Some of the victims belongings covered with leaves and tree stumps in the woods near where the bodies were recovered So he kind of just spread their shit and just kind of buried it temporarily

None of these things that he was doing is a permanent solution. That's what I don't get Yeah, it's very Take this yeah It's real short-sighted as far as no one will ever stumble across this body is kind of a crazy thought On a trail where there's constantly people on it. It doesn't make any sense made a very obvious grave with leaves on it That's that's the thing. He would have been better off like Burying them shallow or something, but to make a pile of leaves that looks unnatural in the woods, I have woods.

I've never seen a pile of leaves like that ever once in those woods. And if I did, I'm running the other fucking direction. He was hip hop's biggest mogul, the man who redefined fame, fortune, and the music industry. The first male rapper to be honored on the Hollywood walk of. Did he built an empire and live the life most people only dream

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and bone-chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Amazon music or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Somebody put a body there and I don't want to know about it. So yeah, they said that this is funny. This is the guy who could have been there with them but had a foot injury. He said quote, this is such a narcissistic quote.

I could have been with them. That's what's strange to me. To you. That's what's strange. Not that this happened at all, but that I could have been with them. That's what's strange to me To you that's what's strange not that this happened at all, but that I could have been there you imagine that not me Fuck them, but me He also said Bob and Susan were not violent people. They would not instigate what happened They wouldn't be like fuck you looking at fucking hillbilly get over You know not trying to fight them or anything And I wouldn't either if I wasn't with them

because I was supposed to be, but that's the weird part. That's the weird, though, that's the strange thing to me. I could have been there. So now there's a giant don't be afraid of the trail campaign. Of course. Of course, because people are terrified of this now, which I mean, yeah, you're in the woods, you're by yourself, it's alone, it's dark, quiet.

No good. Anything can happen out there. We've all seen Friday the 13th. So in Appalachian Trail, they're saying it's safe. An official is urging backpackers to stay away from that section of the trail. Just stay away from the crime scene. That piece. Everything else is fine.

He would never leave and go do it somewhere else. No, no, no, no. He's probably hiding very close nearby, maybe up in a tree. I'm sure we missed him, but don't go by there. So Dave Startzel, who's the associate director of the Appalachian Trail Conference, guy running this joint, he says, just looking at the statistics, it's probably still safer along the Appalachian Trail than in most suburban backyards. Right. Yes because most people have had double murders in their backyard literally. Shit loads up just last weekend. And their suburban backyard. I try to tell people stop killing people in my backyard. Every time I come back. They keep coming. Every time I come back from the road. How many bodies? There's three bodies in my backyard.

Three bodies, four bodies if it's a long trip, you know, I was in Phoenix for a week But I've got to clean this up first. Oh five bodies next thing, you know, and you go to urgent care you come back There's a body there. That's the problem every time every time I I can't cook dinner. You know what I mean? It's ridiculous already Paul's cough drops and shovels. I'm buying them at the same rate. I can't keep enough shovels That's the problem. I really can't I can't keep enough shovels in the house So yeah, D said that I but you can't do this indefinitely. Uh, don't avoid that section. I'm definitely, you know, for a little while till we figure it out. So since they know it's Randall Smith's fingerprints, they go to his house. Yeah. He's not home.

No, he shows up. Yeah. The cops show up mom said I said he went to Connecticut I don't fucking know what he's doing here. So they look around his house, which doesn't take very long as we know That's quick. Yeah, and in the basement they discover some blood-soaked jeans Yeah, which that's not great And what they say at the the investigator very, in very technical terms as quote, some stuff that belonged to the hikers. Very technical and legal and you know. That's practically a trial inventory of their things.

Yeah, some stuff. Thanks guy. Now June 8th, 1981. So almost 10 days goes by since they discovered these bodies. They're looking for Randall everywhere. They know what he drives. They know his license plate. They know everything.

They can't fucking find this guy. Can't find him. Uh, then on June 8th, 81 in Myrtle beach, South Carolina, just nowhere fucking near here. Not near Connecticut at all. No, no, not near Connecticut, not near Northern Virginia in the Appalachian Trail Mountains either. So they find his pickup truck abandoned in Myrtle Beach.

And by the way, there's a note inside that's quite a doozy. Y'all can have it? No, it's not. Y'all can have it. It's real weird. It was found near a wooded area at Myrtle Beach, and an extensive search was made of the woods for him.

I figure he can't be far behind. So a note with some references to the murders was found in the truck here. First they won't release the notes contents to the press, they just say that it's disjointed. Here is the note. We have the note now though Okay quote this boy and girl have been so nice to me you would too if it meant your neck That's the opening line. Yeah, and by the way, that doesn't make any sense If you're gonna kill them anyway, why would they be nice to you?

Yeah, I think they're being nice to you because they think you're a normal person who's not gonna murder them probably He said all the money they gave me is almost gone It is going to be a real shame for them when the time comes to get rid of them he sold the parts off the truck and gave me all of his hunting and fishing guns and Kniffs he spelled it wrong. No, no II and and kniffs he spelled it wrong no no e good guy and fishing stuff his girlfriend gave me her car it's bad that I have to get rid of them his girlfriend is so pretty and nice I will be far far away before truck and these people are found that's what he says why would he

write that why would he write an internal monologue down and put it in his truck and leave it there? I have no idea. And the tenses of it are crazy too. It's very, very strange. He writes it at one point like he's with them. They're being nice to me and but then it's the money he gave me is almost gone. That's a way later thing. And then he talks about it's going to be bad that I have to get rid of them, which is then

they're the tenses Yeah, they don't even go from like past to present to future They go they're like in the past and they're now then they're back to the past again Leave the they didn't leave the structure No, not at all and he's selling her car somewhere He got rid of her car apparently because I didn't hear anything about her car being found out there either or why she even would have a car. They hiked from, oh I think she met, Bob did the whole trail, Susan came a little later. So I don't know if she met him there with her car or I don't know what the fuck happened.

That's really weird here. So they're looking at that, they're saying is this a suicide note? Is this, I'm leaving this in my car and I'm going and going off in the woods and off in myself here so that's what they're thinking about so they have to search for Randall they contact Giles County dentists to try to find dental records for him if they find some you know some corpse that's been completely emaciated so the dental records are you know used to identify a body so they're thinking they're probably not going to find him alive here. And the

state police assistant agent said, quote, we consider it a possibility that Randall Lee Smith may not be alive, but I'm saying that we feel confident that has occurred. I'm not saying we feel confident that's occurred. Might be dead, maybe not. So they found his dentist here and an FBI agent contacted him to ask if he had treated Smith and this guy said he didn't treat Smith. So then they found the guy that actually did treat Smith but he has no records for him somehow. Somehow just didn't save any of that stuff. Oh yeah, I know Randall, he comes in.

Let's make a discount dentist. That's it. Yeah Oh, yeah, I know Randall he comes in That's it. Yeah, he goes. I don't keep file cabinets or nothing like that. That's just That's it shit and send them on their way send them on their way. They come back. They'll tell me what their history is next time It's alright. So the Giles sheriff John e Hopkins the third Said he had no comment when asked about the request for dental records or if he thought Smith might be alive he said it's not particularly unusual to seek dental records in this kind of case so don't take anything from it. June 11th 1981 he's officially charged with two murders but he's still not in custody but there is a charge out there he's been charged he's still not in custody, but there's a charge out there. He's been charged. It's not arrested yet here So they keep searching for him

Keeps going on this is into June 12 June 13 June 14 days pass now Lawson who is the lead? Investigator he's the guy who ran his knife in between the floorboards and found the knife and all that He said he needed a he needed a break. No no no it's the opposite all that. He said he needed a break. No, no, no, it's the opposite of that. It's not, this is personal, I will not sleep and rest until this man is found. He said, I need a vacation. He literally said, this manhunt,

they found the bodies on May 30th. It is June like 17th, and he said, I can't take it anymore, I need a break. It's not even been three weeks and he's just like, woof. Yeah, this PTO, you gotta use it or lose it. Man, dude, imagine if he lived in a place where there was actually murders that needed to be solved all the time.

Like, he would be useless, this guy. So, he instead says, I'm taking my family on vacation to Myrtle Beach. That's what I'm doing here. Has no idea. Well, he knows the truck was found down there, but who cares? says I'm taking my family on vacation to Myrtle Beach. That's what I'm doing here. No idea. No, well he knows the truck was found down there but who cares. Myrtle Beach, that sounds great. Yeah we're down here anyway. I called the wife up, told her pack the car, bring the kids, fuck it I'll stay here. So shortly after he

arrives in South Carolina with his family. He gets a call from his bosses saying back to work asshole God do that why because we found a guy we think might be Randall Smith Come on back in here. So I'm sure he I picture him leaving his wife and kids at some seaside motel Yeah, I don't know guys. I don't know when I'm gonna be back Take the kids to the beach now. He was buried and his kids were burying him. He had to rise from the sand and fuck it all up. So while in route here, officers told Lawson that the individual being detained was claiming

to have amnesia and couldn't remember his name or even how he got to Myrtle Beach. Doesn't even know that much. I don't even know how I got here. Okay. So Lawson took a look at him and he said this is Haggard guy. He's got insect bites all over him,

like big bleeding blotchy shit. He's been living in the woods in South Carolina in the summer for weeks. And he said, it's fucking Randall Smith as soon as he showed up. Because yeah, that's Randall Smith. I know this guy, it's Randall Smith. So he's arrested in what's called a quote,

litter-strewn wooded campsite on the outskirts of Myrtle Beach after they found his truck. They said that the note plus all the other evidence and a bloody fingerprint, pretty decent case here. Kind of a slam dunk, yeah. They said he'd been lurking in the campsite for about two weeks. That's not a good way to describe.

Lurking. Yeah, this guy lurks. He doesn't hang out. He lurks. So he's going to be charged with the two murders, like we said. They don't know. They said, he said, I don't know who I am, where I'm from, how I got to South Carolina, nothing.

Yeah. And his attorney, court appointed attorney says, I think he's telling the truth. Is that right? This is Philip Sasser, who is a very easily fooled man. He said, quote, if he's a faker, he's the best I've ever seen. Yeah. Yeah. I've never watched a movie before. Yeah. Now I've avoided cinema my entire life, but I don't think he's acting. So he's got a full beard and they said jeans and a blue knit shirt and they said that, his lawyer said, my client is not mentally competent to stand trial. This fucking guy doesn't even know who he is.

He said, quote, I've had eight or 10 conversations with him and the contents are very similar. I asked him who he was and he says, they say I'm Randall Lee Smith. I asked him where he's from and he says, say I'm Randall Lee Smith. I ask him where he's from and he says they tell me I'm from Virginia. I don't know I'm the man with no name here. Yeah they got Kurt Russell in the lobby trying to marry the man. That's it yeah they're gonna give him off to somebody there yeah. He's showing his picture on the news. So Sasser hisasser, his lawyer, said that Smith, they brought his mother in

and he didn't even recognize his own mother. Is that right? So clearly. I mean that's, what more evidence do you want? He must be telling the truth. He said, she said, my boy, and he said, I don't know. I don't know that bitch. I don't know, man, I don't know.

So anyway, he's got shit all over him, him bites everywhere and he said he knew it was Smith though He said that Randall was exhibiting dissociative behavior and conveying the impression. He'd forgotten everything about his past You know something that obviously they thought once we get him into any kind of pre-trial psychiatric testing They're gonna know he's full of shit. So that's not great. They said if anything, his response was as real as the kidnapping note he left here. So here we go. He is, this is what they do to him.

They take him into an interview room, they sit him down, they go outside, and they go, how are we gonna get him to fucking admit to who he is? We need him to just admit it. Yeah, we need confession. Somebody has an idea. They're like, all right, check this out. We need him to just admit it. Yeah, we need confession. Somebody has an idea. They're like, all right, check this out.

This is what we're gonna do. We're gonna tell him, you put a fucking white coat on. You detective, put it like a doctor's coat on. We got a stethoscope around here. Throw that on. Throw that on the corner, borrow his jacket. We're gonna go in there, we're gonna tell him that basically his wounds and bug bites are so bad that he needs medical attention

right this minute or his life is in danger. So and it by the way this again is somehow perfectly legal to do. So they do this they observe that he's exhibiting so much physical discomfort scratching himself and obviously he's had poison ivy and mosquitoes all over him and everything else and he's got open wounds and shit so they said others is unforgiving oh there's a lot of bugs down there they said there's other scratch marks on him that they thought were probably from Susan Ramsey even though that was a month ago they still think that they're deep ones probably so they said okay is what we do

He said we told him that those bug bites were quite serious and told him if he didn't get medical attention We don't know what could happen to him. I mean he could be he could die from infections or so They said he was nodding his head furiously and you know, yeah. Yeah, I know I get it. I get it So you want medical attention? He said please I love medical attention. He's scratching. They said, okay, yeah, no problem. Let's get you medical attention so you don't die. But before we get the treatment, you just need to sign this consent form real quick, you know, standard procedure here.

So he goes, oh, okay. He said, do I have to? And they said, I mean, unless you don't want medical attention, yeah. And he said, okay. And he just scribbled Randall Lee Smith. Like you fucking dummy. Got you, dumb dumb. And then they give him calamine lotion and fucking put him in handcuffs. There you go stupid. Here's your medical attention.

You fucking dummy. So yep. He said yeah yeah and that was that. And as they said as soon as there was Randall Lee Smith the cop said bam we had him. That was that. So then the cop said quote he's a very sharp sharp cunning person very precise in what he does That's the opposite of cunning. Yeah to a point Yeah, he's He seems like he if you think he's a nice guy and you're in the woods He could trick you into thinking he's a nice guy long enough to kill you while you sleep. I'd say he's elusive Yeah, he's not gonna. He's not coming up with any grand plan.

No. That note was supposed to throw the cops off his scent. That didn't do anything. That'll get him going somewhere else. No shit, man. So the attorney general here has extradition papers and his lawyer, Randall Smith's lawyer said the papers were not enough to make a case for extradition from South Carolina. They said that the prosecutors must prove that Smith was in Giles County when the murders

occurred before he could be handed over to Virginia authorities. His lawyer said, I don't believe the state of Virginia has established that Randall Lee Smith was in the state at the state of commission of the crime. What the fuck are you talking about? His bloody fingerprint. It's on the book. On a book, that puts him there during the crime

while blood was flowing. He's got their blood on jeans in his basement. There you go, and their blood on his hand on a fingerprint. It's not, doesn't take a genius here. So they said when the agents from the Virginia State Police discussed what happened at the shelter and sought out details, they said, he'd just say, I don't wanna talk about it.

That was it. He just said, I just don't wanna talk about it. I don't wanna talk about it either. No. So he does get extradited. He's arraigned in Virginia. And the Giles County Commonwealth attorney's name is Hezekiah Osborne.

Fuck yeah. The prosecutor's name is Hezekiah. You're getting some fire and brimstone biblical shit if the prosecutor's name is Hezekiah. He's quoting Bible verses. My God. So he said he has a good case against randall e smith currently 27 years old He said quote. This is funny. They said you think he's a murderer and this guy. This is the

Fucking County attorney said this quote if he ate one He's got a whole lot of explaining to do if he ate one he's got and then he pulled a Ricky Ricardo Yeah, if he ate one he's got some splayed and to do here That's the that's has a kia the guy in charge. Okay eight one if he ain't the one that's that so he is charged with the slayings though for sure and they said they they they set a grand jury date and Obviously there was plenty to Indite him obviously that's nothing There was plenty to indict him, obviously. That's nothing.

So they said two counts of first degree murder. There's a strong suspicion that Laura had been sexually assaulted, possibly raped either before or after death. They're not sure, but they couldn't prove it due to the condition of her body. So they said they would not charge him with the sexual assault. We did this murder thing to her. So we'll just charge him with the sexual assault. We know he did this murder thing to her, so we'll just charge him with that. It's logical that the only reason he's did any

of what he did is for this. So that's the logical end, but physically they can't prove it. Now, nowadays they'd probably be able to prove it. Oh, in a second. Now, back then they couldn't do it. So by the way, the people in Giles County want blood from this guy.

Because he's fucking up the trail and also he's probably- Ruining our lives. Ruining everything here. So they want a real hard sentence. He was found mentally competent to stand trial by psychiatrists at the Central State Hospital during tests. Doctors wrote court officials their evaluation saying that he's mentally competent and was

mentally competent at the time of the crimes as well. So 1982 here, the trial's a week away. Okay. There's questions about some sensitive evidence here, how it's been stored and things like that come up in questions questions which is never good. The prosecutors and defense lawyers were given until a certain date to file all their arguments and everything like that to find out what should be admitted and what's not admitted. The pretrial really is the trial.

The pretrial and the jury instructions are really everything because the pretrial is what's evidence is going to be allowed into trial, that makes 95% of the difference. Then the jury instructions, you're telling them exactly what to, how to do it. So I mean, that's a big part of it. So they said that if the judge agrees with the defense that the search of Smith's abandoned pickup truck was illegal, then the letter cannot be admitted as evidence in trial. They're saying that they found the pickup truck abandoned on a vacant lot near the ocean. A former

Myrtle Beach policeman named Rick Pearsall said he checked the truck a few hours after it had been reported as suspicious by another officer. The truck was hidden from view, locked, and the license tags had been removed. Oh, yeah. That's abandoned. That's an abandoned vehicle, yeah. That's abandoned. He said he jimmied the lock on the passenger side door so he could read the identification, the VIN.

He wanted to read the VIN, so he jimmied that open. He said that's when he found the handwritten note from Smith. That's what they're talking about, whether the note should be allowed in. Because he found it in a way that was. Not a proper search. Yeah, the word Jimmy implies negative connotation.

That's something. Which annoys the piss out of me. That's, yeah, that's, well, we've both had that our whole fucking lives. That's fucking, it's obnoxious. Because I don't know if everybody knows this, but everyone on earth calls me Jimmy, except for you people

You guys that's it because Jimmy's Jimmy on his birth certificate So he has no choice So I'm like I'll be I'll take the bullet and be James this time because you got nothing So you have to be Jimmy, but either way. Yeah, Jimmy means a dick a condom a fucking breaking into something It's never good. Jimmy is always bad. A sprinkle apparently from what I found out. Evidently on ice cream and bad engineering. It's our fault.

It's all our fault. We did it all. So yeah, and that sounds bad that he jimmied it open. But the way he got it open really isn't the point of the legal battle. The legal battle is whether this truck would be considered abandoned Which means it's nobody's property anybody could do whatever they want with it Yeah, or whether it is his truck that they broke into and then look for a note

So it's that's that's the way it is. They said that the Sources close to the investigation said it makes reference. Oh, that's the note They said when while police obtained a search warrant for a truck the following day, the defense claimed the seizure of the note was illegal and it should be withheld from the jury. They said that one of the court-appointed defense attorneys said that police had no information at the time they went into the truck of any alleged crime had been committed. But they did. That's why they were down here.

They found the murder suspect's truck, which honestly makes it a little bit worse that they broke into it without getting a search warrant. Because they knew what they were doing. Yeah. They just found an abandoned truck, didn't know they were looking for his truck and then you know, whatever. Maybe this is it, some shit like that. Yeah, but his lawyers are saying no, they knew it was his truck because the Myrtle Beach

Police is saying it was just truck. Because the Burdell Beach police is saying, it was just reported as an abandoned vehicle. So I was trying to get the VIN number. And they're saying, no, no, no, you knew whose truck it was, and you were trying to break into it. So that's the fight here. Another lawyer of Randall's said, it scares me to think I could park illegally,

and in four hours could have my car broken into and rummaged through. Well, would you hide it and take your license plates off of it first? That's the other thing. When I park my car like and go into the mall, I tend to leave my license plates on the car generally. Yeah. Anytime I walk away from my car, I always cross my fingers that everything's going to

stay in there. Everything will stay in there. Yeah. I trust it. No, no. So they, they argued that Smith was taking chances when he left the truck unattended. He said the Commonwealth takes the position that it's an abandoned vehicle. Randall Lee Smith has no standing to object to the search. He abandoned it.

In addition to the note, they say they have a wealth of circumstantial evidence. Four strangers have testified they saw Smith with one of the victims near the shelter where the bodies were found. That's not good. His bloody fingerprints found on a book next to one of the hikers and bloodstained clothing found in his house bad stuff so No March 23rd 1982 his trial is just about to start and unless he has fucking Vincent LaGuardia Gambini coming down to help him, I think he's got problems here. Yeah, I don't think he's beaten this one.

And out of nowhere, surprise to everybody, the day before the trial's supposed to start, he accepts a plea bargain. Fascinating. Actually, it's the other way around. The state accepts the plea bargain offered up by the defense. From him?

Wow. Yeah, the defense is offering up plea bargains. This is right before jury selection was to begin. And he will plead guilty to two counts of second degree murder. There we go. Now, a big part of this is both the Ramsey and Mountford families had to agree to the plea bargain,

the prosecutor said before they would do it. So they said that he was recommending, the prosecutor told the family that he was recommending the pleas after discussing it with the families of both victims. They said that he was not certain he could approve first degree murder, which I don't know how much more proof you need.

The lack of self-awareness and confidence Come on, man. Dude, you have his bloody fingerprint. Know when you win. You know what I mean? Know when you've won and fucking accept it. I went to law school, man. Dude, this is fucking crazy. This is why we fucking play the game. This is it right here. Somebody hit somebody. Let's get it on. So yeah, they said, so sentencing comes around, and by the way, they said in private discussions that the prosecutor said he wasn't thrilled with having the second degree sentences.

He said first degree murder would have imposed 20 year prison sentences on each charge So you could have got it given him 40 years But instead he will get you sir may fuck off 30 years in prison, okay That is the sentence, but that is not what he's gonna do. We'll find out Yeah, he's not doing all that so part of this is he had no criminal record That was part of it, which really once you've murdered two people and possibly raped a corpse

I feel like your criminal your past is pretty irrelevant at that point That's a little bit and it's the recent past when you were murdering people to me so they said the consent was considered lenient and A lot of people were pissed off about this in the town. Yeah, people lost their fucking minds. But the families were OK with it. And that is what Bob Mountford Sr. said. If the Ramses went along with it, we were going to go along with it.

We didn't want him to get the death penalty, but we also didn't want him to ever get out. Great people. You can see why these Susan and Bob are so nice. You know what I mean? They come from nice backgrounds. So they said that Mountford, this is Mountford Senior, said that he was struck by Randall's personal background, which partly influenced his decision in accepting the deal. He went, Jesus, this guy's pathetic, basically.

Really sad, yeah. Yeah, he said he heard about his lifelong fabrications and he said, I don't to sound like I sympathized with him After all he was a murderer, but he really never did have a life and what life he did have he made up Dude, he fucking he wanted to be a 36 year old divorcee. That's what he was looking for. That's what he was looking for So a lot of people were very pissed off though. Police officers were very pissed off about this. They were really mad They also disagreed with the prosecutor who told fellow lawyers he didn't want to risk a trial

because he had been unable to discover a clear motive for the double homicide. Who cares? Who gives a shit? Wanted to kill him, rape her and rob them. There is your motive. I don't know what we're talking about here. What the fuck?

So yeah, and they said that the families have said the whole thing's been really hard and people have wanted to talk about it with them all the time, and they kind of just wanted to get it over with, basically. Yeah, Mrs. Ramsey, Susan's mom, said, "'Just getting through the emotional shock "'will last forever.'"

But the prosecutor said that this agreement lays to rest any questions about the slayings least everybody knows who did it. They said we now know who killed Susan and Bob and that is something certainly worth something to their parents. I feel that I'm exchanging the somewhat remote possibility of a larger sentence. I don't think it's somewhat remote at all. I think that I think he would have got first-degree consecutive sentences and got fucked good He said the possibility of a larger sentence with the certainty of a smaller sentence

There's one guy who's really pissed off about this. Yeah. Who do you think that is? His right a random hiker exactly. Yeah, Warren Doyle 32 Spends his day picketing the front of the courthouse by himself protesting with Lee Bargain. Yeah, he said, no way, this is ridiculous. Yeah, they said, well, you must have been good friends with Susan and Bob. He goes, oh, I never met them before.

Never met anybody. Never met any of these people. He goes, but you know, he said that he believes the- Really pisses me off. Yeah, he said the lawyers in the case should have gone ahead with a jury. So the residents of Giles County, um, instead of what the, what he called the judicial powers could decide on the case, he said,

a jury trial might've answered the question of motive. Yeah. Why are you protesting a plea deal that the parents are okay with? That's the problem. There's nothing else. It's so weird. He walked back and forth in front of the black iron fence that surrounds the courthouse. Was interrupted frequently by passersby who wanted to talk to him about the protest. As he walked, he carried a red and black lettered sign that said, Did Bob and Sue plea for their lives? Did Randall Smith give them a bargain? Shame on the murderer. shame on our judicial system

One night one knife's the living the other knife's the survivors. That's all on one sign That's a he's got to understand marketing. Yeah, you think man a billboard can't be too wordy You got to tell people what you're doing real quickly. Yeah. Yeah shame on the plea deal or just yeah Pick a fucking pick a sentiment. He just stuffed it all into one here so one person who lives three houses from Randall Smith's mother Described himself as one of Randall's best friends. Oh Which isn't really it says nothing told Doyle they were surprised by they were surprised Smith was guilty

He told the protestor we were surprised. He's guilty. Yeah Yeah, he said this is crazy Warren Doyle jr. This guy here He's a veteran hiker. He said he'll soon finish his 11th trip of the of the the entire Appalachian Trail He said, you know, this is the protester, he said he was so offended by the plea agreement that he had to pick at the courthouse. He had no fucking choice. He said if another incident happens with Randall Smith, perhaps the people who are responsible for the plea bargain should be put on trial.

That's not how things work, but okay. He said that he's the only one who did not get life without parole also. And they said that everyone associated with the trail security remembers the Smith case. He said since 1981, there's been three murders on the trail. Each time people would say, where's the guy from 81? Whereas Randall Smith, oh, he's in jail. Okay. I guess nine people murdered on the trail since 1974 up to that point.

That sounds like a lot. They said that more precautions have been taken to ensure safety such as increasing the number of ridge runners who patrol sections of the trail and report suspicious people, though there are seasonal ridge runners in the busy areas and that sort of thing. So you can't- Likely volunteers.

Those are not paid physicians. Yeah, you can't police 2100 miles of no of woods That's the thing. This isn't a structure with a building. There's no stoplight to run through It's impossible and they said also more than 3 million people use the trail every year. Wow Good luck One guy said I don't want to react overreact to the fact that a handful of socially marginal people have killed a handful of hikers socially marginal. That's one way to put murder. Okay. So in prison, he is sent to the not away correctional center in Burkeville.

He's inmate number one, two, seven, eight, eight, five, in case you're wondering, in case you want to look them up there and there's more though. Don't worry. Then by the way, this is in the flat area of Virginia with no mountains and he's very sad. That's tough stuff. He's very, very sad here. In 1985, when he's in jail for a couple years, a book comes out about him here.

It's called Murder on the Appalachian Trail by Jess Carr. And yeah, I guess she's also a Giles County native, the person who wrote it. And yeah, the book honestly is kind of a disjointed book. It's a little- Yeah, but it's real personal to her. It's a little odd. Yeah, it's a little strange.

So in the book though, they reconstruct a scene in which Smith, Ramsey and Mountford drink together, because we know that happened. Mountford behind Ramsey and Mountford drink together because that's we know that happened Mountford behind Ramsey on the trail caught up Smith leaves angry because the social workers are quote trying to see inside my head Trying to see inside my head. Yeah, they said Ramsey and Mountford continue drinking They bed down for the night Ramsey suggests that Smith wants to rape her to sense to Mountford I'm a little worried about that. So that's what they think happened here, putting this all together. And now, Hezekiah Osborne, who went to private practice after this, said

that he, this is his, from all the evidence he's seen, he said they drank together. And he said, Randall, I think made a pass at the girl Mountford intervened and Randall left but he returned to shoot Mountford while he was still in a sleeping bag He said that Smith and Ramsey according to the evidence had a hell of a battle. He did treat her pretty bad He said I would fucking say so Holy shit. They said her head injury was fucking brutal. The palms of her hands were cut to shit. It was brutal, man. So, 1986 comes around.

You might say, why the hell are we talking about 86? Randall's away for 30 years. Randall's up for parole. That's fast. That's real fast. Yeah, Virginia's lenient. Bob Mountford Sr. said, what the fuck? He said he's not even serving for one death, let alone two.

What he got was little enough to be paroled in five years would be a complete travesty of justice. Yeah. Absolutely. Miscarriage. Fuck yeah. He also said, this is something we're going to have to live with for the rest of our lives. We won't get paroled in 10 or 15 years.

We won't ever get paroled. He shouldn't be allowed to get out, Susan's father said as well. They said, for obvious reasons, I have a very negative prejudice. It was our daughter, but I would feel the same if it was someone else's daughter. I think the parole board would not be doing its duty to let a guy out who did what he did out on the streets, especially not in five years. Truth, yeah. Whatever energy he has, he's gotta sit in there

for a while and burn up that energy and be too old to go out and bother and do that shit again. Otherwise, I don't trust this fucking guy. So they said, you know, he's just up for parole. Doesn't mean he's getting released. One of the people here, this is the chairman of the parole board, said no matter how heinous the crime, if the person's eligible for parole,

we're supposed to look at it from the perspective that he could be released. He said, but you're not talking about people operating in a vacuum, we have families and children too and we can be just as affected by a crime as anyone else. We're not trying, yeah, we're not trying to put someone out there just to see how they will do. It's just an experiment.

Then another hiker from there outside the parole board said he really hopes he doesn't get paroled. He said he scarred this area of the country permanently. Permanently. He also said that I tried to shield them, talking about the notoriety of the trail, said I tried to shield my kids from it, but when people would ask where they were going their answer would always produce the same response oh that's where the murders happened it's the murder trail yeah that's the murder spot there now Randall's mom Loretta she is trying it she's just all alone

sitting in a little house she said even though I'm here and he's there I've been treated a lot of times like someone who was in prison. Everyone from here to Washington knows who I am and knows who he was too." She said she hasn't seen her son since he was sent to prison in 82. This is in like 86. But she talks to him by telephone every two weeks and she knows he's waiting anxiously for word from the parole board. Anxiously? Does he think he's getting out right now? That's crazy. They said, well, where would he like to be and she said he would like to be where he's not penned up I bet no shit I bet if you asked all the guys in prison they'd say so yeah not jail I do not know what his chances are but I do hope

he gets out she says she does not believe her son committed the crimes. Unbelievable. Does not believe it for a second. There's a certain level of delusion and reality blocking that only a parent could do. You know what I mean? Only a parent or a spouse could do. Well that's half her DNA. So it couldn't be that she'd have to recognize that she contributed to this.

She said if he had ever bothered anybody, I would know about it. I would be the first one to know Hey, ma tried to rape this lady She wouldn't let me so I had to shoot her boyfriend and stabbed the shit out of her, but you know how it goes Anyway, how is your evening? How was your fucking shift at the hospital Jesus she said that my son was framed. Oh, he's been framed. God damn it. Really? She said if there was more investigation done, they would have found some things that didn't come up. But they quit looking when they picked

up my son. They got my son and that was it. Ma. That's what she says. And I hope she didn't say that to the parole board. No shit. So he is denied parole in 1986 here. In prison they said he never made any, didn't really make any friends. No? Nope, didn't do anything. Just continued living his life the same way? Just continued doing what he was doing.

He said there was keeping him constant company where various members of the Appalachian Trail Conference who religiously filed an objection and each year he came up for parole. So yeah, they said that he did. He underwent a lengthy educational program that was intended to increase post-release employability. Basically got a GED exam and a couple other things he did. That was what he did. So he does all that. They said he also got into religion, but not the religion that everyone in church, everyone in town wants him to be into.

No, he got into Wicca. Hell yeah. Yeah, he got into Wicca here. Nice work. Nice work. That's what he found, which I mean, he loves nature and loves the woods, so why not? Might as well Blair Witch it. What the fuck here?

So for, yeah, there you go, that's what he's gonna do. Now September 27th, 1996, been in for 15 years in custody and in jail here. He is released on mandatory parole. Mandatory? Mandatory, as he finished one of his whole sentences. So he will be supervised for ten years though terrific He's gonna be on home confinement for a while and then be on like supervised parole for ten years

So that's interesting. He had two visits from his mother and ten and the whole 15 years. He was in jail It's the only contact he had with anybody So basically he was weird before, he's gonna be real fucking weird now. Real isolated, yeah. Real weird, yep. They said, and the cop who, the lead investigators who didn't want him out said quote,

he had been a model inmate, never caused any problems, so they let him out. And back then to- Right back to the same town? Back then every day you did would give you a day of good time too, so if you did 15 did would give you a day of good time, too So if you did 15 years, that's 15 years a good time, which means they let you out So he returns to his home

With his mom and starts doing odd jobs again sure And also begins to immediately lie again, too His friend spower there the guy who he welds for, he visits Randall at his house after Randall was placed under home confinement, and he claims he still has severe amnesia, by the way. He's had severe amnesia for 15 years, apparently. In prison?

That's a great way to do 15 years. I guess so. That's the way you'd want to do 15 years. Just bash your head into the fucking wall every day. You're doing it. No clue. This power guy said I walked in and he said, who are you? And I said, you know who I am.

He said, I don't remember nobody. I said, whatever. Whatever Lion Randall. We fucking know. Yeah. said whatever whatever line Randall fucking know yeah so later on they walked around the house and carried on their conversation dude said it got just weirder and fucking weirder obviously he said that if you didn't know him before it might have seemed like he was actually crazy he said but I know this

fucking guy I know he's full of shit. This ain't crazy. This is Randall. Yeah. He said at one point Randall showed Spauer a page of a word puzzle book that had words circled in pencil. The guy Spauer said, quote, he then says your name's on this right here. I said, really? And he said, yeah, the FBI knows everything about you. Perfect. He said, so we just kept that up for a while. That's what Spauer said. He said, this is fun. Let's see. I would find this fun.

Let's see how far he'll go with lying. Fuck it. He then said that Spauer's name was in a crossword puzzle as well. He said that was in a crossword puzzle. So there's that. Then he said, quote, this is Spauer, he said, I can't remember nothing about this place. None of this stuff comprehends to me. So we step out on the porch and looked up at the mountain. I said, that old antique school bus, I didn't

know that was up there. He said, yeah, that's something that's been up there since I was a kid. He said I knew right then he was lying to me. Bullshit. Yeah that's what he does it's the same as you need to decide this oh no problem. Yeah. He also noted that while Smith lied practically about everything in his life from his wealth to his education there was one theme that he was always lying about and that was the women that he had and he would continue that because if you thought he was a desirable piece of ass before, now he's a double murder has been in prison.

Now that all the ladies want to fuck him. People are jumping out of planes. These slight attendance to try to get in his pants. Now forget it. So this guy said the women he had, he would talk about his girlfriends. He'd have one living in bland. He'd have one living in Blacksburg. They seem to be everywhere. Certainly popping girlfriends. He'd have one living in Bland. He'd have one living in Blacksburg. They seem to be everywhere He said we rode over there one day before Christmas because mama wanted some purple candles from roses He rode over to Blacksburg with me. He said my little woman works over at that place

So I said really that's right where we're going perfect perfect So I pull in I go inside he just sat outside in the truck and never mentioned that story again. That was it. It's so funny. He just shut the fuck up when caught. When caught, he's like, oh shit, damn it. He said, we'd be here on Friday thinking of somewhere we might go, maybe have a nice cold one, get a bunch of guys together, maybe watch the home run championship or something. But he had no desire to head off at five after hours for a drink with the boys or to chill out. He'd say, I've got a little lady and I've got to go meet her at six or seven o'clock

tonight. Pick her up and take the kids out tonight. Can't keep them waiting. Can't keep them waiting. That's how it is. Those kids, boy, they get real ornery when they're hungry. You know what I mean? They're on that shit.

He said, I'd say, all right, so he'd go home to Ingram Village and we'd drive by real slow and there was his red truck sitting right there in the driveway all by itself. Doing nothing. Full of shit is what it means. Dracula, the ancient vampire who terrorizes Victorian London. Blood and garlic, bats and crucifixes, even if you haven't read the book, you think you know the story. One of the incredible things about Dracula is that not only is it this wonderful snapshot

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You can binge all episodes of the real history of Dracula exclusively with Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus and the Wondria, Apple podcasts, or Spotify. Behind the closed doors of government offices and military compounds, there are hidden stories and buried secrets from the darkest corners of history. From covert experiments pushing the boundaries of science to operations so secretive they were barely whispered about. Each week on redacted

declassified mysteries we pull back the curtain on these hidden histories. 100% true and verifiable stories that expose the shadowy underbelly of power. Consider Operation Paperclip, where former Nazi scientists were brought to America after World War II, not as prisoners, but as assets, to advance U.S. intelligence during the Cold War. These aren't just old conspiracy theories. They're thoroughly investigated accounts

that reveal the uncomfortable truths still shaping our world today. The stories are real. The secrets are shocking. Follow redacted, declassified mysteries with me, Luke Lamanna, on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. To listen ad free, join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Year 2000, Randall's mom, Loretta, dies. Fuck.

Loretta is the last piece of tether holding him to anywhere near sanity or a normal life or society. Once she dies, he just becomes a complete fucking Ted Kaczynski recluse weirdo at this point. So real fucking weird. The first thing he did was take all the pictures off the walls. Like the day his mom died, he did was take all the pictures off the walls. Oh. Like the day his mom died, he took everything down off the wall. Everything, even if it was like a, you know, a painting of a mountain down at just clean walls.

Well, you gotta have room for your hustler laminates as well. Yeah, sure. The second thing he did here was run out of money because he doesn't really have any money anyway. He got nothing coming in, yeah. And it would get worse every month. Later on, all his utilities will be shut off. It's not good.

September 2006, he's been on parole for 10 years. He's off parole. He is a free man. Off supervised parole, and he wants some property. He has no money. No. His electricity is getting turned on and off. I don't know where he thinks he's gonna have money for property, but there's a guy,

a couple named Robin and Jason Steven. They own 98 acres of wooded mountainside between Smith's house and the Appalachian Trail. Sure. So that's what they, he has to cut through their property to get to the trail. What he wants is a piece of that property that would allow him to go to the trail. What he wants is to a piece of that property like that that would allow him to go to the trail. Sell me a, sell me a trail through your trail. Basically. He said that shortly after he was released from prison, this couple said that he just rolled up to them as a neighbor and said, quote, you may hear some things about

me that aren't true that I killed some people. That's not a good way to say it. Nice to meet you, neighbor. Can I get you a beer? Like, holy shit. Yeah. And he said, and then they heard too. They had heard about him. Everyone said, oh, you meet Lion Randall yet?

They're like, Lion Randall? Who the fuck is that? You know, the murderer that lives three doors down. Wait, there's a murderer named Lion Randall that lives three doors? Yes, there is. Okay, well, great job buying this. Excellent, thanks, real estate agent. Randall it lives through? Okay. Okay. Well, great job buying this. Excellent. Thanks.

Real estate agent. So this guy, um, the Randall then told Jason that he doesn't hike in the trail anymore or do any of that. He said, I'm getting too old for that sort of shit. Can't be doing that to go all the way around. So I want to be able to just walk right over there to it, to hang out. And, um, yeah, he yeah, he said Smith wanted permission to walk the property in search of arrowheads to get to the trail also, and he wanted to buy a small parcel at the top of their land so he could put an old trailer next to the trail

and live there. God, Jesus. That's what you want. A fucking recluse, lying weirdo living on your land in a trailer that murdered people. Who's a murderer also. But even if he wasn't a murderer, I wouldn't want that. So he would show up all the time to ask this guy to sell it to him.

And the guy would say, sorry, I don't want to sell any of my land. Not doing that. Yeah. Jason's wife, who was a real estate agent, so she could have made the sale. She's aware. Said she never felt comfortable around Randall at all and said that Randall always seemed to ignore her like in a weird way. Like she wasn't there.

Like she didn't exist. It's between men. Once he told, he told the Randall told the husband that he could see her coming a mile away that jet black hair. So that made him uncomfortable. Like you've been looking at my wife you just haven't been acting like you are which is even creepier. He said when they did talk Smith would repeatedly ask her if she wanted to sell the parcel of land and she would say

no and he'd go alright yeah. The Stevens ended up selling the entire parcel to someone else. Oh fuck. Oh shit, they sold them. So Smith approached the wife, or Smith, yeah, approached the wife and said, will you list my house? He said, I wanna move in a few months. He said he had things he needed to do, is what Smith said. Everybody's named Smith in this town, by the way.

Real estate agent, wife, neighbors, named Robin Smith. So he said he had things he wanted to do. He also told her he'd been in the hospital and wanted to settle down and that his days of walking on the mountains were over. And they didn't know they were like, I don't know what the fuck but either way, you're not we're not selling this shit to you. So February 2008, not long after she told Randall that she was not going to list his house as well here he said that he needed to move.

One afternoon in the month of February here this is one of the neighbors said they were at home when they saw a very weird sight from their kitchen window. Okay. Randall Smith was making trip after trip from his cellar, which he accessed by an exterior door, one of those, you know, double open doors there. They said he was carrying what they called an astonishing amount of bright yellow plastic grocery style bags filled with something into the house from the basement. They said his actions were common method Okay. They said his in and up.

Yeah. Yeah. They said his actions were common methodical. They said in some ways it was like he was collecting the ingredients to make like a cake or some shit like I got it like he went grocery shopping, but probably not. They didn't get it. Then they figured out later that they is he may be assembling things for a lengthy trip like canned goods because a lot of it they figured out was canned goods like maybe he's going out camping or

something like that. April 28 2008 Randall's public water is cut off. That was his last utility that he had working was water. So now he's got no we can't even shit in his house. Nothing goes away. Everything sticks. Nothing goes away. Everything sticks. Nothing goes away. You're, you're, you're keeping all of it.

Yeah. You're keeping dinner last night from last night. So the house is dark and quiet. During this period, neighbors noticed that he's not around. So they said, that's weird. Um, then, you know, six weeks go by and haven't seen Randall. There is a shitload of mail piled outside the house. I mean, also like weeks worth of mail out there,

so they're like, that's really weird. So on April 30th, a missing persons report was filed about Randall. They said concerns about his welfare and mental state and what he might be doing out there. Maybe he's an older guy too at this point, maybe he got sick in the woods. Maybe he fell and hurt himself. All too possible. Yeah. You never know. So they didn't know.

And the cops, they didn't, they weren't really looking for him like that because he's off parole. So he's like anybody else. So he is missing. They put up a big picture of him missing, looking for him, missing hiker. So they said that one person here who's with the sheriff said apparently during this time we never had the first problem out of him since he got out of jail. They said no other crimes never failed to signal a right turn. He was as invisible as invisible can be kept it all together kept it together kept it tight. He lived up there in that little house and pretty much kept to himself I heard that some dumbass went up there and tried to get him to autograph the book that just car wrote and Smith didn't want to sign it, but that's about it

So he's basically invisible until 2008 some dumbass to go knock on a murderer's door and ask them To sign the book about the murder that he didn't even write is crazy. That is fucking crazy, you're an idiot. So they said, quote, so we went up to the house and broke in, and his house looked just as if he was there right now. Everything was there in place. It looked like he just walked out. He said, we started checking it,

and it seemed like his water and stuff had been shut off some time before for non-payment. We talked to some of the other people, and they said he liked to go up on the cliffs right above the house that were right near the Appalachian Trail. They said he liked to go up there and sit and just watch the world go by. So they were like, okay, that's a place to look, I suppose. But you know, they said, why not? They check it out.

In the house though, they said they were doing nothing crazy. They were just dusting for fingerprints, like kind of doing like a burglary scene thing just to see what they could find. They checked his mailbox. They found that his mail had not been picked up since March 3rd. Oh boy. So quite a while, two months almost. They said that's about when he left his home, but they don't know maybe.

There were signs that he had run out of money, packed a few things, removed his pornographic material. He took that with him. He took his porn with him. They said, yeah, it looked like he just walked out. It was real weird. They said, so they were worried about, so we're thinking, okay, he's gone up there on the trail and he broke a leg or had a heart attack or something.

So we had a big search and never found any trace of him. So they put up all these posters. If you see this guy, let us know. They everything they said. We figured at that point that he probably died in the woods and that some hunter would probably find him in the fall. Figure it out later. That's it.

Literally someone's going to trip over his bones in a couple months. Don't worry about it We'll be alerted to his corpse soon. Yeah, we'll find a skeleton and we'll do it from there They said as the kind of as more time passes and everything there's the chances that he's alive or less and less probably That so May 8th 2008 This is that dismal Creek in this area by the way, it's beautiful dismal Creek It's a it's a trick Dismal Creek. Fantastic. It's a, it's a trick.

Strategically named. It's a trick. Yeah. But it does say right under the side, no alcoholic beverages allowed, which is also a trick because everyone's got booze in this trail. The number one thing people have is fucking nuts and booze.

That's what they got. So now we'll talk about Sean Farmer, who is 33 years old. Sean is a big fucking guy. 64, 350. God damn. Big old dude. Just a big giant honking son bitch here.

Now he's with his buddy, longtime best friend Scott Johnston, who's 37. They're both from Virginia also. And they're going up camping in the Walnut Flats area of the Dismal Creek section of the Jefferson National Forest. They're going trout fishing. Oh yeah. Good trout up here, babe. That's the good stuff.

Scott Johnston said, I love coming up here. It's easy to get on the trail here. It's a good place to meet other hikers. So they were on the trail near the trail on Brushy Mountain, miles away from civilization, and they were going for a creek that apparently was just jumping with rainbow trout.

More than you could reach in with your bare hands and scoop them out. So he said, they asked him, this is actually Chris Hanson asking him later on, how was the fishing that day? And he said, actually awesome, I hammered them laughing hammered back some fish they said how many did you get and he said six so he said six nice ones six nice trout that's a damn good day now Sean and Scott out here fish and said they had a weird feeling that someone was watching

them all day which in the hills of Virginia you should probably always feel. Yeah. Anyway. In the hills of anywhere, feel that way. Feel that way, yeah. Just assume there's someone watching. So he said, they didn't know it though, but just weird. He said also that the local sheriff, some hikers had reported to the local sheriff that

they had seen some odd shit on the trail, strange symbols and threatening signs painted on rocks and trees. The sheriff said there were skulls and crossbones painted on rocks, you know, enter at your own risk, which is hadn't been there before. None of that shit. Yeah, it's all new. So Scott Johnston said I had fished all morning and I was coming back up the mountain and there was this dog in the road When I when I stopped I got out of my truck, you know, someone walked up out of the creek bank So we talked a little while talked about fishing and stuff and he told me he says oh, you know, there's no fish in this creek

And he said so Chris Hansen asked this guy, no fish. And the guy, Scott Johnson said, yeah, that's what he said. So I opened up the cooler and pulled out a bag of trout. And I said, here, you can have these. Yeah, I took them all. I'm sorry. I got a bunch. And so they said, did he strike you in any way as weird?

And Scott said, no, he just looked like a camper. He looked exhausted. A normal camper. He looked exhausted. A normal camper. He looked tired. He looked like he was hungry for fish. So that evening as Sean, the big guy, was setting up his tent near Pdismal Creek, that's the same guy comes by again. And Sean Farmer, the big guy, said he just you know walked up and I you know

I said how you doing type of thing and he'd spoke to Scott and they were fishing together Sean and Scott say an unwritten rule the trails to offer aid and friendship to fellow hikers and fishermen It's part of it. Yeah, it's like it's the last bastion of hippie ism you know what I mean when you're out there help people and they did just that. So they were trying to help him and um, Scott said, you know, he'd been coming up here since his early childhood with his dad and everything. So they sit down and they talked to this guy and this guy, this Haggard fucking Haggard camper said that he was an engineering graduate from Virginia Tech.

Sure. But they were like, no, he's not. They didn't. They looked at each other like, yeah, right. They took pity on him. Basically, they said Scott and Sean, they were like this fucking guy, he's wandering around the woods, fucking wandering around the woods, puffing up his credentials like he's on a job interview, fluffing his resume.

Yeah. So they sat around, they talked with him, they ate food together there and that's how that went. Now, the weird part is that they were before this too, before the campsite, because he met him in the road, gave him some fish, and then later on ran into him. And he had asked Scott if he was going to set up a camp nearby, and Scott said, yes, my friends come in and point it in the direction of the campsite. This man told Scott that his own camp happened to be in the same direction, about a mile

or so beyond where you're pointing Yeah, he said so maybe I'll stop by later on my way to my campsite and they said yeah, sure Why not? That's how it goes here By the way, the this guy that they run into is carrying a 22 pistol rifle the whole time. Oh pistol pistol So that's when like we said Sean arrives later on they're setting up their tent So, that's when, like we said, Sean arrives later on, they're setting up their tent, they start cooking about four o'clock, and that's when, by the way, Johnston at the time was working as a chef. So he built a campfire, cleaned and cooked the trout, which if you got to, that's pretty

good. Probably good food. You're getting good trout there. That's when Smith rolled up when the fire was going and they invited to join them for dinner and Farmer said we talked to him for about three, three and a half hours. God dang. Imagine talking to a stranger in the woods for three and a half hours. That's a fucking nightmare. They didn't even learn you teach a man to fish.

They're just giving him fish all day. Giving him more fish. It's the same day. Yeah. Maybe tomorrow. Teach him. I'm not sure. So this guy, Farmer said, I never got the feeling that any of this was out of the ordinary. He was pretty charismatic He didn't talk like he was lying anything. We talked about he seemed to know something about

He told them by the way, not only did he have attended Virginia Tech as an engineering student He wrote papers for NASA sure sure thing now He's emaciated needing him fucking donations of trout in the woods. Neither guy believed the stories. They all thought he was bullshit. They said, my, this is Johnson. My intuition was the guy was an alcoholic who'd been kicked out of his home. Probably closer to the truth. Yep. So farmer said the only thing that was unusual was how long this guy stayed with them. He said he told us where his camp was and I knew it was about an hour

walk away. That wouldn't have been a problem for Scott and me to walk through the woods in the dark to get there, but I thought most people would have a problem getting there in the dark. I don't even think I realized it at the time that where the fuck is this guy gonna go? On foot, yeah. Yeah, where is he gonna go? Now, the stranger tells the Sean and Scott that his name is Ricky Williams.

Yes, the running back, why not? Yeah, I'm Ricky Williams. My dreads get in the way of getting of my helmet sometimes. Yeah, like to smoke weed. Obviously, this is Randall Smith, clearly. Now at about 830 p.m., old Ricky Williams gets up to leave. He goes, Well, that's about all. Thanks for the trout. You fellas have been a hell of a turn in. Really appreciate your hospitality, but I'm going to be getting on out of here. So they go, well, great to meet you. You got to be careful going through the woods.

It's at that point that, you know, this it's Randall Smith. He walks behind Sean Farmer, the big guy, and like he's going to leave and instead pulls out his 22 caliber pistol and fires two shots into Sean's head and back. How quick, quick, right? fires two shots into Shawn's head and back. Pow pow. Shit. Quick quick, right? Yeah. So, Smith turned and from about 10 feet away aimed his pistol at Johnston and fired two rounds into Johnston's neck and face.

Fuck. Yeah, this is fucking crazy. Johnston, and we'll get into more detail, ran into a clump of trees near the camp and Smith turned back possibly to shoot Farmer, but Farmer had already taken off running. Unbelievable. Both these guys have two bullets in them and they're both moving around so yeah they later on in the spot they said that it was right there they had all these they had some dinner some conversation Scott said we were sitting around the campfire talking about sports and fishing. Sean said and then it was dark by that time and he walked over to get his dog right in front of Scott's tent and you know, padded his leg.

Like I could hear him say, come on, boy, we need to get back to camp. It seemed to be quiet and just an easy way. And he said, Scott said, and the next thing, you know, I mean, just hear pow pow. And I see his arm stuck out towards Sean. Sean said, I just had this ringing in my head where he shot me right in the side of the face. You know, I, I hear that boom. I couldn't hear any other gunshots because inside of my head was like, wow, five days, just as loud as you could possibly imagine.

It rings in your head unbelievably and my mouth was swollen immediately so I really couldn't speak after that and then my vision in my right side went bad. Oh Jesus. Now Sean said and I stood up staggered back and all I could see were you know shots of what looked like fire which were bullets discharging towards Scott. He said now it was all about survival. So Scott, who's also shot, says, and I jumped up and I took off and I started running this direction,

ducking down, and he's pointing. Scott says, and I guess he turned and shot me in the back at that time. And then I run up and I get down behind this clump of trees to protect myself. Still moving. Still moving, yeah, shot in the back. Scott says, and then I realized that I was shot in the neck.

I could actually see the blood squirting like a foot every time my heart would beat. He had an artery. Yeah. He hit the main vein there. Not good. He said, I mean, it was just pulsing out of me. Well, I felt around my neck, and I was like, oh, you know, and I felt the bullet hole and

I just stuck my finger in the bullet hole to plug the wound to keep the blood from, you know, squirting out. Oh my God. That is the horror. God, he's the toughest man alive. That's wait till you hear Sean too. Sean remembers the scene unfolding as if it was slow motion. He said the shooter turned back toward him and gets ready to fire again.

And Chris Hansen asked what was the look in his eyes and Sean said just a blank look like it's almost like he was looking past me. You know crazy. Crazy, you know a murderer in the woods for no reason. So Sean's a fucking enormous guy, like we said. Sean said, I'm gonna rush him, fuck it. I got a better chance if I bum rush him. So Sean rushes him and Sean said, once I saw that happening, I just went toward him.

And they said, Chris Hansen said, and what was your intent? He said, just to stop him from shooting us just to get to him So now he said he's face to face with the gunman here, and he's struggling with him and He said he charged the shooter and Sean said he turned back toward me shot me in the chest So that'll end that so many shots that'll end trying to go after him Yeah, Sean said at that point nothing happened. There was no more bullets. No more fire So it was just you know staring each other down briefly

Now you had to be scary for Randall at that point You shoot a guy who's six far fucking four three fifty and he doesn't go down and he's staring at you You're in deep shit. Yeah. You're in deep shit. So he somehow absorbed a fucking, and it was like three feet away, point blank gunshot wound to the chest. At that point, Sean turns and runs for his Jeep. Somehow is able to turn and run. He gets in, by the way, Randall's chasing him fucking with his gun, trying to fix it or whatever,

trying to line him up. Sean said at that time, I just put my hand up, just hoping to, if he was going to shoot me, shoot me through the hand, you know, to block it a little bit. Slow it down, ricochet off one of my bones, something. So I start the car and once the car started, he went past me and was from behind so when I started the car I ducked down in the passenger seat and just drove away now meanwhile Scott is hiding in a clump of trees in the woods remember that yeah so Scott Johnston's taken refuge in the wood he'd been shot in the back and neck

all he remembers thinking is that he could bleed to death right in the woods yeah he's got the Vegas right in the woods. Yeah Fuck yeah, he said he said I mean the blood was just squirting out of my neck fuck I mean it was every time my heart beat it was just boom boom and I assume in that case your heart would be beating Pretty fucking hard fast. Yeah, and I and like I say I mean I just stuck my finger in you know Probably a quarter a quarter inch down inside the wound. Holy, he put it in like he's trying to hear on the phone, put it in his ear. Oh my God, imagine putting that in your neck.

Fuck. So Chris Hanson said, and you knew you had to get that wound plugged, and he said, yeah, I knew that. And he said, otherwise I would have died right there. And so Sean tears out of the campsite he then Sean said he realized Scott was still back in the woods somewhere right wounded and bleeding now Scott Shaw saw Sean make a

run for it and at that point Scott described it thusly quote I took off and made it down through the woods I was going to go down to the road and I met Shawn down at the road with his truck He said I saw his headlights coming down and stops and I jump in and I just screamed go go go We're both shot and we got to get out of here. And I mean he just punched it so Shawn says I was just lucky that my car was aimed heading out of camp and the keys were in the ignition. Because it's bad enough to try to drive with not having vision in one of your eyes, but to do it in reverse through the dark in the woods.

Well, you're injured, yeah. With only your red tail light glow to guide you would be fucking horrific. So, holy shit, so now that is wild. They said that they saw, wow, Farmer said he saw him in the rear view mirror. He saw Randall Smith at that point come up next to them

and raise the gun again. And they're both in the truck and he pulls the trigger, but the gun didn't fire. Suck it. So they said they had ran out of ammunition, it looked like, and as he began reloading, that's when they took off. Go, yeah. Now as they're going here, yeah, it's wild. They said they're flying down the road,

the ride from their camp, there's no houses for about five miles from here too, so there's some time. Then at this point, Farmer's tongue, Sean, the driver is so swollen because the bullet entered through the back of his head and remained in a sinus cavity. By the way, it'll never come out of his sinus cavity and blood is squirting like a fucking like bugs. Bunny just got shot a bunch and drank something out of Scott Johnston's neck. Neither one of them could drive independently. They're both drifting in and out

of consciousness. This is insane what's happening right now. This is almost like the guy riding off on the four-wheeler in Utah, bleeding. Blood on the icicles it's called. But he's trying to get away. So yeah, well so is this guy. Same thing. Because that was a father trying to save his kids. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. On the snowmobile, the same deal. On the snowmobile, that's right. On the snowmobile. So neither one of them could drive. They're both drifting in and out of consciousness. They said they couldn't really even remember much about the drive here.

Farmer said, as soon as we pulled away, we both ducked down in the seat because we thought he was going to shoot again. My throat and my tongue were so swollen I couldn't talk to Scott. And I remember I was feeling around for an exit wound But I couldn't find anything I Started spitting to see if I was spitting up blood when I didn't see any blood. I knew I was gonna be okay Wow, I wouldn't have thought that I didn't know that I would have said I must be out of blood That's what I would think must have ran out of blood

It's not gonna go well But then at this point now they still have to drive five miles drifting in and out of consciousness and bleeding to death So Sean said I knew I was running off the road like he couldn't keep it together And he said but I could feel Scott's hand on my steering wheel keeping us on the road One hand with a finger in his neck hole the other hand is steering the car Farmer said I blacked out and my vision was blurred out of my left eye I couldn't hear out of my left ear either. It was like a ringing you have with a bad case of swimmers here

He said my vision kicked that back in at the hospital, but I don't remember much about the ride going to someone's house. So he does remember seeing the blood spurred out of Johnston's neck and he said he wanted to talk to him, but he couldn't because his jaw was and his tongue were fucked up. He said, quote, I've always been an outdoorsman. The thing that saved us was that Scott and I know each other so well and that we know that the other one was going to do without thinking about it. They're flying down the road.

One is passing out while the other one will grab the wheel. Then Scott would start to pass out and Sean would grab the fucking wheel again and take over. This is crazy. Yeah. Scott Johnston said, we went down that dirt road doing like 40 miles an hour, 50 miles an hour on the road that you can normally do 20. He said, and I can look, he said, I can look over and I can see he's shot in the face.

And I, I'm worried like, you know, he shot in the brain or something, you know, it's dark. I mean, we're both shot. We're both bleeding. I mean, we're both in a panic. There's a small bridge that you have to cross the creek. We cross that and then the road veers left. Well, when we veer left, the next thing I know, the Jeep just runs on the side of an embankment. Oh God.

Fuck. And I mean the rocks are flying and there's trees and I'm screaming, Sean, Sean! And we come down off that embankment and we stop he shot in the face, and I was sitting there thinking well You know he can't see he's blacking out I said let me steer and I said you just listen to me, and I'll tell you when to work the pedals Holy shit Gas break more that's fucking crazy But I mean all of a sudden we just take off again and I mean we're flying down the road and the road curves and S turns and you know, turns. And I,

I mean I'm steering from the passenger side. I'm holding my finger on the bullet hole there trying to keep myself from bleeding to death. He said, and we drove about two or three miles. Holy shit. Wow. I'm going to be saying fuck. And it comes to a really sharp curve in the road. And the next thing I know, we hit it too fast. And I'm like, I'm telling him, I'm like, slow down, slow down. And we just skid sideways in the road around that curve. And the wheels probably come within a foot of going over like a 20 to 30 foot embankment.

They almost flew off a cliff now and we skid to a stop right there totally sideways in the road and then I'm like, you know, go, go, go. When I whip it back around and we take off, this is crazy. So it's zigzagging, careening out of control. He said, I'm screaming, stop, stop when I want him to slow down and you know I'm trying to steer. He said that he took his finger out of his neck, blood squirted everywhere, he had to stick it back in because he thought maybe I don't need it now. So yeah this is crazy. He said Sean we've been shot we're gonna die if we don't get help you can't go off the road dude. We gotta fucking do this shit. So anyway they come to a house here. The first

house they come to they pull in it's under construction no one's here. Fuck they get back second house they go it's dark. Okay fuck it we don't care we're banging on the door people live here there's cars in the driveway. They're banging banging banging screaming call 9-1-1 me and my friend have been shot, call 911, call 911. Good answer. Good thing to do there, yeah, don't make them think that you're there to sell fucking Avon or something.

Make sure they know what you're there for. So this is an Amway, I swear. So Farmer is still in the truck. Well, it's Johnston who runs up there, he's got a lot of energy. Melissa Miller is the homeowner. She opens the door. She said she thought it might have been a home invasion at first.

That's why she didn't come out at first. But they kept screaming, call 911, call 911, and she could see blood. We're covered in blood already, yeah. Yeah, so she said, I said, oh my God. Her and her son, Randy, went out on the porch, and Mom told Randy to go get some towels. They got some towels they

called 911 the ambulance is coming from bland which is 20 miles away. Oh they better hurry. Holy shit Randy the kid said I was just shocked to think that two people might die right there in front of my eyes on my front yard. So Melissa thought maybe these two strangers at first she thought they got in a fight and shot each other She thought they got in a fight with each other shot each other and then we're like, oh shit We're both gonna die. So let's help each other But when he but when Randy the kid gets back granny's 20, by the way the kid here he recognized farmer

He knew him. I know this fucking guy farmer had dated a friend of his that he knew like a work friend so he said I know this fucking guy yeah they sat on the porch they were applying wet towels they were listening for the ambulance and she said I called them again and I said where y'all at hurry up I'm out of towels where we have rad done I've done ran out of towels and my bounty supply is dwindling So they said blood had soaked the towels Randy went to get more Wow, that's fucking crazy

By the way the run-up to this is from Scott's side because that was Melissa's side of what she saw Scott said we make it down to the bottom of the mountain and we just got down to where there was three or four Houses and for some reason, you know, we passed the first or second house and I just says, I said, stop here. I said, these people are going to help us. Whether they like it or not. Whether they like it or not. I jump out and I run up to the house and I bang on the door and I say, call 911, call 911. I said, me and my friend have been shot and they come to the door and they see me soaked in blood I mean from head to toe meanwhile Sean got out of the car and tried to stagger to the house Sean said I was I guess so drained because when I got out of the car I almost I almost just fell down I was just out of it and Melissa Miller

thought I thought what I thought it was one of my friends my son's friends playing a joke being real funny being, until I actually went to the door and seen him holding his neck and blood was running down and I said, oh my goodness, this isn't a joke. So, the cops get a crazy call, because obviously once the ambulance comes, they're gonna get the police involved, because there's a lot of gunshot wounds here.

So this cop, this is a wild fucking quote from this cop. This is, he He said quote, so whatever night it was, I got a call, I got a call dispatch and they said I'd better come out because Randall Smith had shot two more people. Incredibly cavalier. And I was like, yeah, right. Yeah, that's a lot of joke playing going on over there dispatch for fucking murder suspects but they were serious so I had to go out there yeah you do stupid I had to go out there yeah dummy so I guess that I one of the local people said mr. Smith was known to loaf around the hikers a lot so they were kind of looking around to see

if he was hanging out with other hikers. Then John Beckham of Atlanta said some hikers were sleeping off the trail avoiding shelters because it was, because that's where the murders happened. So even 20 years later they knew it. 25 years later they said that they saw a sheet of loose leaf paper with a skull and crossbones and the words you've been warned drawn on it. Stay out.

And his father saw the same image and words on a rock So that's what we've been seeing Yeah, that's a lot a hiker named Danny Reid said he heard the gunshots that night when he later heard that the shooter may have Been Randall Smith. He said he couldn't believe it. He said quote. I was like you got to be kidding me that guy's back again Yeah, stupid. He is so like you gotta be kidding me that guy's back again yeah stupid he is so Randall makes his escape in Scott Johnston's pickup truck may as well take it yeah it's a Ford Ranger pickup truck it's in the woods with the keys in it so Randall takes that that's that now the following day this is the day after the shootings

here they there's a guy named moon, that's what everyone calls him on the trail. He goes and talks to the cop that's looking for Randall Smith in the woods and this cop said Moon Dog told us he'd been camping the night of all this over in a thicket and he heard the truck coming by and stop near the end of an old fire road. He said he knew it was a Ford Ranger pickup because he had one and he knew what the tail lights looked like and he recognized the door chong chime, the bong bong bong when the door was open. He knew it was a Ranger. He said that he saw someone get out and start walking around this old

fire road with a flashlight. He could tell he was looking around for something. He was rooting through the leaves and stuff and the guy was cussing. He said, this moon dog hollers out, hey, and a couple more cuss words come out, and then the guy with the flashlight jumps in his truck and takes off. So the cop said, so we went with moon dog back to his campsite.

That's a weird thing to say. Thanks to his thicket. We went with moon dog back to his thicket and shared a breakfast of groundhog, So we went we went we went with moon dog back to his thicket and shared a breakfast of groundhog is what the next line is probably gonna be there and you could tell that he'd That he'd been there a couple of us walked down the road and he said stop right there. That's where he was look around Sure enough right in this brush pile. We found stuff that belonged to Randall Smith There it is. They said it was an astonishing amount of items. Some of it weird, some of it strange, some of it just

puzzling. You will find out exactly how weird this guy is. All of it creepy. We definitely know it's his though. For sure. They said we were sure it belonged to Smith because it had things in it like his GED certificate He got when it's in prison never get rid of that and if that's not enough it had his birth certificate in there as well So it's definitely Randall Smith He said a couple other things including a little tape recorder that had a tape of some kind of ritual Oh, you could hear people moaning and screaming. It sounded like a witchcraft kind of thing hear people moaning and screaming it sounded like a witchcraft kind of thing. The official investigation narrative referred to the audio cassettes contents as quote,

some kind of satanic ritual. Right. Okay. This is fucking hilarious. They agreed that the cassette featured a man's voice chanting and women's voices moaning in the background, augmented by music apparently generated by a theremin. So here we go.

That creepy old music. There was also some kind of handwritten what they called a cult material found along along with the items. They said this is what Skidmore said, quote, we found written incantations that I will buy believe were from the Wiccan religion. All hail guardians of the watchtower and so forth. This is the exact thing. Hail to the guardians of the watchtowers of the east powers of air and invention, hear

me. Hail to the guardians of the watchtower of the south powers of fire and feelings, hear me. Hear me, hail to the guardians of the watchtowers of the west powers of water and intuition spelled I-N-T-O, like upon a star. Intuition. Hear me, hail to the guardians of the watchtowers of the north by the powers of the mother and earth. Hear me, hear me roar hear me roar aid me in this magical working on

this maze eve garden of the bitter sea show me your glory show me your power I pray thee I pray thee I invoke thee oh sacred one I hear also sacred one hear my calls ancient wise one teach me my ways lend me thy powers show me thy glory I invoke thee I invoke thee Oh ancient one. It's from the craft. Of course it's from the movie the craft 1996 with for who's a Balkan other bunch other women. Yeah, it's the craft It's a witchcraft movie from the 90s a teen witchcraft movie from the 90s that this 60 year old fucking weirdo puts a goddamn tape recorder up to and audio records shit off of it okay other

handwritten incantations as they call it which is fucking hilarious is well we'll talk about this the handwritten version found among Smith's belongings is almost word for word, identical in incantation uttered by actors, Fruz, a bulk Rachel, true Neve Campbell and Robin Tunney during this stormy scene on the beach, which significantly advances the plot. They said it's not a perfect match. There's some places this Smith text diverges from the movie script,

but it's enough that that's he was getting to what he could remember intuition the other handwritten incantation now incantation now is the time now is the hour ours is the magic hours is the power which is absolutely from the craft because that was on the trailers features prominently in the beginning of the craft as does one of the abstract occult symbols drawn apparently by Smith on one of the stashed documents. He was just really into the craft. That's all it was.

He wasn't into Wicca, really. Just into the craft, whatever they were into. Just wants to fuck a crazy girl. Holy shit. Among the items too that he had were a copy of a law enforcement radio, ten codes, and a police scanner. There was also a small battery operated television. There were molded plastic contour maps

of the area of Giles and Bled counties where the attempted murder occurred. There were several places marked in pencil on the maps. He said, we searched those places and didn't find anything. There was, I don't know, now they're talking about in his stuff, there was I don't know how many dozens of knives. Most of them look like kitchen knives. There was a couple hunting knives and maybe a butcher knife But dozens of knives there were clothes. I'm wanting to say eight pairs of ladies underwear. Oh boy. That's new

That's there were several pairs of eyeglasses that were either ladies or unisex style glasses What so he just anything that a woman had, he feels like he can, he can like some kind of witchcraft power. He can extract some pussy out of that. I don't know what his deal is. It's so strange. What a weird guy. Um, so the panties and the eyeglasses and all this type of shit. So now they're really want to find him. They bring in cadaver dogs, ponds are drained to scour the muck for corpses, nothing found. Roughly a hundred of the collected items were called for DNA testing. The eight pairs of ladies panties, by the way, were black size large, bright

pink size seven, pale pink size large, light purple size medium six, white lacy size L7, large 7, white Hanes size 8, white size 7, and white with blue trim size 7. They yielded no leads, no DNA, same thing with the glasses. They're thinking that he might have taken those off somebody's clothesline. Sure, yeah. That's like one person, one lady, one lady's clothesline and then stole her glasses too maybe out of her car or something who knows? So they said we wanted to see if there was any blood on these knives. We got nothing We sent out the underwear, but they'd been exposed to the elements and there was no DNA on it So we don't know who any of that belonged to we passed the word all up and down the trail for any unsolved

Homicides or anything like that nothing. It was just a crazy crazy case unsolved homicides or anything like that, nothing. It was just a crazy, crazy case. You would think that you could put a word out, anybody here get a bunch of underwear stolen from him? Yeah. Weird underwear thief? Maybe it's a cabin that somebody's not at a lot. That's the other thing,

that they might have found something like that or broke into somebody's house, and that's all he stole was fucking underwear like a weirdo. So, at that point, finally, What's fucking underwear like a weirdo? so At that point finally They spot him with the ford ranger one day in the woods and they give chase on sugar run road Which is also in Giles County Randall

Leaves the scene takes off in the fits a Ford Ranger, a state trooper spotted the vehicle on Sugar Run Road near Eggleston, Virginia, pulled on to, on the road behind Smith. He took off, went off the road to try to like, run through the woods and flip the truck, Randall does. Yeah, those aren't real good off-road trucks. Not the best of Ford Ranger, especially not, I don't even think it's a four-wheel drive.

It's a tough going, yeah. He was transport, it's like, I had a 99 Ford Ranger, it's even think it's a four wheel drive. It's a tough going. Yeah. He was transport. I had a ninety nine Ford Ranger. It's not a real big off road truck. So he's transported to the hospital where he's treated for injuries. He had a trooper recovers a gun at the scene. It's the gun he shot boys with there. They said that the he was released into police custody. They said we read him his rights and formed him.

He was being charged with two counts of attempted capital murder, two counts of the use of a firearm during the commission of a felony, one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and one count of grand larceny related to the theft of the pickup truck. And then we'll tax Mel Son for underwear after that, but that's a whole other thing. So that's May 5th, they find him, they get him from the hospital. They bring him in the pictures of him sitting in the police station with a sling on his arm. He looks like a dead person. He looks like a fucking corpse. It's in you look at him and you go, that person's alive.

Ran from the law. Shocking that he's alive. then on May 10th five days after he crashes the truck Randall dies in jail oh shit croaks in fucking jail they said at first the cause was unknown but tests later on showed that he had a blood clot from the car accident that they didn't catch at the hospital and he died they went whoops oh well sorry about it and he died. They went whoop so well. Sorry about it. And he's dead. So there you go.

Randall Smith is dead. Jesus Christ. That's fucking insane man. That's crazy shit. Yeah he just dies in a chase. Blaze of glory I guess for him. As it can get yeah. I mean shit.

I mean fucking he had Bon Jovi cranked when he crashed. When they found him it was just a skipping CD of, I'm going down, down, down, down, over and over again. And he just couldn't get to Blaze of Glory. So both of them survived the experience. Scott is hospitalized longer than Sean, but they end up getting better. The bullets, they both still have bullets stuck in their body sure

Farmer had been in sales, but within a few weeks. He ended up getting out of sales and getting a job driving a coal truck He didn't want to do sales anymore. He said I did not Said I didn't have to interact with as many people Then he was laid off due to a slump in the coal industry. Ouch. Johnston had been doing some contracting work in the Bluefield area and also helping his mother who'd been dealing with some health issues of her own. Sean said I've camped out since then and I've been alone in the woods.

The only thing that's different now is that I used to be Mr. Nice Guy to strangers, but now I'm not. I was never like that before. I would never again. No, get the fuck away. Anybody walking up, the fuck away from me. I'd be cocking my shotgun going, keep on walking. This is all right.

Yep, not what you're doing here. Johnston, the smaller guy, said, I feel like I got my life back. We both have a little pain, but all in all, but all the good that has come out of this has outweighed the bad. I still go out and fish but I guess if this has taught me anything it's taught me to appreciate the smaller things in life and to live day to day. He said Randall Lee Smith tracked Sean and I that day and we survived. It all happened within the blink of an eye and I've always been a good judge of character but I never saw that coming.

Missed it. and I and I've been and I've always been a good judge of character but I never saw that coming. Missed it. Yep. Yep. One thing they'd like to figure out is they want to nail down confirmation that the 22 revolver with the one he shot Johnston and Farmer with was the same one he used to shoot Bob Mountford with because they never found gun, and it was a 22 also. So they're thinking it might be the same one.

The gun they got in the second crime, the cop said, was a very old gun, the one he used to shoot these two. He said it misfired a lot and it wasn't reliable. We ran a trace on the gun, and it shows that it was sold to him in June of 81. He's had it a long time. Which is, yes, that's fucking crazy. They noted in the early 80s, by the way, because the murder happened in May of 81, but they

said that in the early 80s, the cop said it was not uncommon for a gun dealer to wait two or three months after a sale before sending the official paperwork. They think it's the gun he shot everybody with. Probably. He saved and stashed a fucking murder weapon away. They never found it. They looked through his whole house and everything. They never found it.

They said so he could have bought it in May or April and just not have been turned in yet. They said the visible evidence as far as the bullets were long gone since, meaning the bullets from the first murder case had been disposed of because the case was over with. So when Smith was found unresponsive in his jail cell, they said that was the end of it as far as they were concerned. One of the cops said he wasn't going to murder anyone else. So yeah, they said they asked what about the case? What's the progress

of the case? Somebody in the press asked. And the cop said, what's it classified as? We don't have anyone to prosecute. We don't have a victim. We don't have a crime. Other than the fact that he shot those two boys there that night. There's nothing illegal about having a stash of hidden stuff in the woods. There's nothing illegal about a man possession possessing women's underwear or women's eyeglasses. There's nothing illegal about a person having 30 something knives. Anything that could have been any help to us any lead has been exhausted It's just a dead case that cop has a lot of ladies underwear. Holy is like listen It's not illegal to have four dressers full of ladies underwear

It's not illegal to do that to have more ladies underwear than the rest of your clothes put together That's normal now, right? It's not illegal to wear four or five pairs of ladies underwear at the same time, is it? No, it's not. Now, the best part of this entire thing is that on Randall Smith's Find a Grave, which findagrave.com is a very somber official thing. They have like the person's obituary, they have people write nice things about them, flowers, where they're buried, where they're born. It's a remembrance of their life. So it's very rarely insulting. You know what I mean? It's usually reverent. His fucking thing says Randall quote, lion Randy Lee Smith. Hilarious. It says Lion Randall on his find a grave,

which is fucking incredible. Take that. Incredible. Now Sean and Scott, how are they doing these days? I hope this is them. And I found an article about them doing, I think it's them, there's no pictures, so I don't know if it's them,

but fingers crossed it's them. This article says otherwise there's two guys named Sean Farmer and Scott Johnston who are just as close which is weird. Sean Farmer and Scott Johnston are two highly acclaimed musicians who've made significant contributions to the music industry. Farmer is an accomplished guitarist and singer-songwriter known for his innovative and eclectic style while Johnston's a renowned drummer and producer who's worked with various artists.

Including the Foo Fighters, it says. What the fuck? Together Farmer and Johnson have collaborated in several projects. Their work has garnered praise for its originality, emotional depth, and sonic experimentation. Farmer and Johnston's partnership extends beyond music creation. They're also involved in philanthropic initiatives

and have used their platform to raise awareness for social and environmental issues. Their commitment to using their art for positive change further highlights their dedication to making a meaningful impact. In conclusion, Sean Farmer and Scott Johnston are two exceptional musicians whose collaborative efforts have produced remarkable music.

Their innovative approach, musical prowess, and commitment to social responsibility makes them influential figures in the contemporary music landscape. I hope that's them. I really do. You just got a good shot and you're incredibly talented. And then maybe you get super talented after that,

or maybe they decide just to go all in with that shit I don't know what happened, but we hope so either way Randall's fucking dead. He's not gonna kill anybody else But what a fucking disaster. This is a mess. Yeah, imagine living in that area. No, thank you this time fucking crazy shit So there you go everybody if you like that story you should absolutely Shortly tell the world about it, I would say. Tell every god damn person you know. Did I say bod damn? God damn.

God damn. Every god damn person they know about it, please, because it really, really helps the show out. Also, get on, you definitely want to go to shutupandgivemurder.com, get your tickets for live shows. 2025, yeah. to shutupandgivemurder.com. Get your tickets for live shows. Because 2025 is ready and it's out, and we will go over those dates real quickly here. Let me pull those up.

There we go. All right, let's do it. We have February 7th in Pittsburgh, February 8th, Columbus, Ohio at the Davidson. It's a nice place, we've been there before. Pittsburgh, it's the Carnegie Music Hall with the bigger one in Oakland right there because we're stepping it up there.

May 16th. We are in St. Louis at the pageant. Same place as last time. Beautiful place. Come out there. May 17th, Chicago at the Riviera. Can't wait for that. We love Chicago.

September 6th. We are at San Diego, California at the observatory where we've been before. September 7th, 2025, we are in Irvine at the Irvine Improv that's outside of Los Angeles. September 20th, now there is going to be another show added to this, by the way, the next day. September 20th in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I believe it's the night before is the other show.

We can announce it right this second and when you hear what city it is, you'll go, oh yeah, I get why they didn't announce it that day because it would be pretty shitty to do. It was just a cheesy thing to do. Okay, but definitely another show there. October 17th, we are in Portland, Oregon at the Newmark. October 18th, Seattle, Washington at the Moore.

That's a gorgeous place. December 12th, we're in Philly. Oh Oh baby back in Philly at the Fillmore can't wait to get those cheesesteaks again and December 13th we are in Washington DC so get in there and get your tickets right now they are available everywhere so get in there we're fucking jacked where we. We can't wait, shut up and givememurder.com. Follow on social media, at Small Town Murder, on Instagram, at Small Town Pod on Facebook. So hang out and do that.

You definitely wanna listen to our other two shows, Crime in Sports, which is hilarious, and you don't have to like sports. We have a horrible, like basically, somebody who makes Marlowe on the wire look like a nice guy. An awful drug dealer guy who has two seconds of sports and then it's all crimes right now, so check that out.

And then we also, you wanna listen to your stupid opinions, which, everybody, it's fucking hilarious. It's terrific, yeah. If you're not listening to that show, you're missing out. You're really missing out, it's really funny. Check it out. Also head to Patreon patreon patreon.com Slash crime in sports is where you get all of the bonus material anybody five dollars a month or above you get hundreds of episodes

Immediately upon subscription subscription whole huge back catalog of bonus stuff You've never heard then new shit every other week one crime in sports one small-town murder and we say it's shit But you'll think it's stuff. It's great. It's good stuff this. One crime in sports, one small town murder, and we say it's shit, but you'll think it's stuff. It's great, it's good stuff. This week for crime in sports, we're gonna talk about, just gonna have some fun talking about old sports songs, not songs about sports, athletes thinking they can sing, which is fucking hilarious.

We're gonna make fun of them, and it's really, really great, we can't wait for that. Then for small town murder, we're gonna talk about remote viewing, which is something that the CIA spent billions of dollars trying to do so someone could sit in a room, concentrate hard enough, and see what a terrorist is doing

in a cave 10,000 miles away. And mixed results, let's just say that. So we'll talk about all that and more, patreon.com slash crime and sports. And you get a shout out, which comes right fuckin' out. Jimmy, hit me with the names of the most Wonderful goddamn people on the face of this earth who would never ever ever shoot us multiple times at a campsite Hit me with them right now this executive producer Gary Howard Laura shin and mark made made a made a Louisa and Sam Bam

Merry Christmas Merry Christmas to you. Yeah, and at Hollywood, Courtney Jadal, Jadal Jadalay, Jadalay. And Dr. Rita Miller, thank you all. Thank you. So much for what you do. We appreciate the hell out of you. Other producers this week are Peyton Meadows, Liz Vasquez, Jennifer and Dan Ward,

happy 18th anniversary. Janice Hill, Jonathan Braun, Samantha Clark, Mysteries with no last name. Nancy Sticelinger. Brandy Lynn Pierce. Richard with no last name. Amy Jen-ah-john? Jen-ah-john?

Jenny John? Jimmy Johns? Or Celia? I may, no. It's Jenny. That's definitely Jenny. It's a competitor to Jimmy Johns? I like Jimmy Johns.

I'm getting Jenny Johns. Well, I mean, I'll eat anything. I'll eat Subway. I don't give a shit, but I prefer like a good deli sandwich with a good stiff bun and roll and you know how it goes. Good buns on those Jenny Jones. Ah, or Celia Price. Diddy Concepcion? Concepcion.

Diddy Concepcion. Oh, Diddy, that's better than Diddy. You gotta be careful. Yeah, it is, yeah. Well, Kayhee. Ian Luckett. Luke it, Luckett.'s better than Diddy, you gotta be careful. Yeah, it is, yeah. Well, Kay, he. Ian Luckett, Luke it, Luckett. Ian Keith also, that's two different Ian's, that's rare.

John with no last name, Corey Neely. Julia with no last name, Alexis Croce, Miranda Oliva, Kiddo Coyote, Michael with no last name, Xavier with no last name, Chan Chan with no last name, Lauren Hunter, Heather with no last name, Steven Louder, Amanda Harker, Peter LaFreniere, Neil Poling, Hey J, Elizabeth Cajos, that's not right. Patty FK Nelson, also probably not right. Also possibly. Wim Capella, Christopher Demars, Brie Busell,

what's, yeah, all right. Mucho macho. All right. J.K.U. Alien. Jacu. Amber. Fyette. Fyvette. Fyvette. Amber with no last name. Kaylee Hafner. April with no last name. Samantha McFadden. Sean with no last name. Madeline Happold, Whitney Patterson, Pam Parker, Kelsey Drew, Miriam Tachydeen, Megan, Majen, Majen, Majen Thompson, M-A-G-E-N, what is that, Megan? Megan, Megan, Majen. Megan, Megan Thompson. There we go.

That's what that is. Carlos Edward, Laura, Laura. Their parents did her wrong though, that's rough. Yeah, they sure did. They fucked you over, Megan. They spelled Megan like that. She was like, you fucking assholes. Just spell it normal.

Kate Maxwell, Emily Vanchillete, Victoria Lenya, Clayton Bonner, Janice Klee, Brian Herman, Misty Edwards, Kyle Stubbs, Lauren Truc, Costobo, Costobo Park, Cowstub, Cows-tub, I don't know. Cows-tub. Cou-stube. Heather, Heather Orozco, Trenton Miller, Britt McPeak, Ann Marie Cooper, Ree would know last name, Jessica Lingafelt, Lingafelt, Linge, all right, Michael Johnson, Cheyenne would

know last name, Blake Turner, Lauren Farrell, Mackenzie Engler, Mark Linus, Leslie Foster, Sarah Dixon, Kevin Etion, Lauren Rushing, Kevin Bacon, ah, that's amazing. Awesome. B-A-K-I-N, that's very funny. Kevin's bacon. Yeah, he's bacon. William Wagner, Morgan would know last name.

Sea Witch 555. Kelly would know last name. Kathy Gaskell. Trevor would know last name. Eric Giuliano. Willem Verhagen. Kay Nicole. Nancy Cagle. Luke Robinson. John Gray. Corey would know last name. Jill would know last name. Natalie Arch. Stephen Condleff, Lisa Eisenberg, Alyssa Heberger, Hey-Bager, Hee-Begger, Hey-Begger, Avery Aden, Candy Brewer, Jadia with no last name, Daniel Pittman, Aliza Elise, Elise Johnson, Leila, not Layla, Leila, not Layla, okay.

Jennifer Donato, Martha Grigsby, Katie C. Keith with no last name, Nicole, with no last name, Gabriel Lucero, Evan Katz, Maya Holcomb, Eliza Holly, Miranda Davy, Christina Cruz, Elsa Al-Mansuri, A.W. Jess, with no last name, Megan, well, Megan Velaykis. I'd rather be so. At least you got the Megan part right.

You got that now. She'd rather have the other way. That last name's no good. Tiffany Skates, Amanda Redfern. I can't laugh, time. You should rather have the other way. That last name's no good. Tiffany Skates. Amanda Redfern. I can't laugh, look at mine. It's worse, probably. Sarah Delayla.

Tara would know last name. Jay's Rock and Roll Stories. Waffle Bros. Rebecca would know last name. Rize804. T Breezy. Laura Burgard. Laura Burgard.

Amanda Hamm. Emily Kittleson. David Talkington. Eric Seuler. Like, my cellington, Eric Seuler, like Mycelar Water, Seuler? Seuler? Oh, okay. All right, Alice Mouse, Steve Chippendale, underwhelmed reader, Melinda Johnson,

Jasmine Bond, Jordan Bond, Becky with no last name, Mallory Hakes, Mallory with no last name, Larry Lava King Jack skin skinzel okay Sophia Hayd not gonna fuck with all right Mickey Farrell be more Sarah for she Mary Mark Mark Cook Sydney Olsen Chris B Aaron Garrity Liz Lisa Lisa McCall ski Michael ski Amy Williams our Minden our Minda our Minda arm in the green Michael left which probably Byron's arm Tatum with no last name Kelsey Dunlap our Minda that's why like our Tiffany Morris our Minda yeah our

men green just like your mom you like your arm would be in the green to in the pink like type of deal like that yeah And all over patrons you guys are the best especially arm in the green. Thank you so much everybody your wonderful Fantastic bastards we cannot thank you enough for what you do for us on a daily weekly monthly yearly basis Thank you. Can't wait to see everyone at the live shows come out and buy tickets You want to follow us on social media real goddamn easy to do all you have to do is Go to shut up and give me Murder calm it's all right there. That's that. Thank you for joining us and a lot. No, not live. That's the other show Let's do that and we'll say instead until next week everybody. It's been our pleasure This holiday season, give your loved ones only the best from L.L.Bean. Let them wrap

themselves in L.L.Bean's wide variety of sweaters. Choose from L.L. Bean. Let them wrap themselves in L.L. Bean's wide variety of sweaters. Choose from L.L. Bean's classics like their rag wool and cotton fisherman sweaters, crafted with exceptional materials like lamb's wool and premium cotton. They're the perfect way to stay cozy and warm all winter. Give only the best gifts from L.L. Bean at Oakville Place, George and Mollinbury, and CF shops at Don Mills. From the award-winning masters of audio horror. I see a face right up against the window.

Bleach white, no hair, black eyes, a round hole for a mouth. It's flat, Taylor, it's completely flat. I don't know what that is. I don't know what kind of a head is flat. Comes the return of Dark Sanctum. Look. What is that coming under the door? It's blood.

Seven original chilling tales inspired by the Twilight Zone and Tales from the Crypt. Get back in your car. Lizzie, it's okay. I'm here now. Josh, get in your car. Lizzie, it's okay. I'm here now. Josh, get in your car! Starring Bethany Joy Lenz, Clive Standen, and Michael O'Neil. Welcome to the Dark Sanctum. Listen to Dark Sanctum Season 2 exclusively on Wondry+. Join Wondry Plus and the Wondry