The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 555 - The Poison Gang - live

Episode Date: October 17, 2022

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine the Poison Gang of Philadelphia Sources Tour Dates Redbubble Merch     Helix Sleep  Mindbloom Squarespace

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you sir. Thank you. All right. Well sir, Jesus Christ. Some intense stuff right there. Hi everybody, ready already, huh? You don't want to fuck around. I don't, I don't really know how to talk about how great it was to come into Philly. It was great coming into Philly. That's right, that's where we are. Sir, keep them in your pants. I saw a statue of Benjamin Buttons. Harris Benjamin Buttons. Yeah, you know what they say about that statue? It gets smaller. Eventually it just becomes clay. Why is that? Don't worry. Okay. Our president, Benjamin Buttons. That's what I feel like is happening with Biden because every time I see him like this is just getting

younger and younger. Oh yeah, no, he's he's in full baby mode. What is the secret? Yeah. I'm never gonna, I'm never gonna get over seeing him be scared of the guy in Easter Bunny costume. To be fair, you don't know if there was a guy in there. That could have just straight up been the mutant bunny because that's how he reacted. Yeah, he was like, oh, okay, now I think we can start. Anyway, yeah, not recording. Nope. And the dollop is brought to you in part by Squarespace. Squarespace, of course, an all-in-one domains, websites, online stores, marketing tools, analytics, Squarespace, the all-in-one platform, build a wonderful online presence, run your

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recorded in Philadelphia. You're listening to the dollop! It's an American History podcast for each week. I, Dave Anthony, read a story from American history to this guy. Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. So you say. January 26th, 1892. Paul Petrio. I'm sorry was there anything special that happened in 1892? Oh, it was the year of our Lord Jesus Christ. Son of God. Paul Petrio was born in a Moscone, Italy. What? Where was he born? Moscone. You're doing an accent and it's not helping me know where he was from. Moscone. Moscone. Okay. And that's in Italy? Yeah. Okay. Wow. Very good.

No, no, no, no, no. Spats. No, no, no. We're doing good. He integrated to the U.S. in 1910 with his wife Angelina. Angelina. Both of them could read, write, and speak English and they became U.S. citizens. Not much is known about his life. This is going to be a weird story. It's like a huge component of this. So we know in 1930 he was working as a tailor and he had his own tailor shop. He also sold life insurance. Sure. It's just most stories lately there's like he was a farmer and a pilot. And a doctor. Yeah. Fisherman. He created the gun. He owned a house in Philadelphia's 26th Ward. That's about right. I don't know anything about your

words but yes. 26th. Nice. His older son was going to college. Paul by all accounts is a very successful American businessman living the dream. Okay. Then the Great Depression hit. Okay. And very few people could afford clothes made by a tailor. Right. Add to that. Department stores, mass producing clothes. It's you know, it's the death time for tailors. Right. So tailors demand dropping fast. He has seven kids. Jesus. Right. Yeah. He was counting on that tailor cash. And he liked to dress well. So he needed he needed another way to make money. Okay. He couldn't just make his own clothes. Feels like if there's anyone who kind of

figured this predicament out. Yeah. But like you need you need the fabric. No. Well you need more like you can't just make clothes. You also need food and stuff like that. Sure. But I mean you didn't say he liked to dress nice and eat. Well I just I just assumed that you knew people had to eat. Well of course I know they need to eat. But I mean that again you're writing sir. You said that he liked to dress nice. I'm just saying he could probably figure that out. What did I say about Madison's? No. No. No. I'm not. I'm sorry. Sorry. You're right. You're right. So he he needs another way to make money. And now Paul is a self-proclaimed I'm sure

I'm fucking just whoever's Italian just yell. Dave I don't think you need to tell those people to do that. If you're Italian just shout at me. Perfect. He is a self professed a facetary a male witch. So we always wait for that initial detail. There we go. He's a facetary. Yeah. Okay. Sure. As close as I got. I'm sure. Yeah. For all of our facetary listeners we apologize. Don't give us one of your Italian witch spells. People in the neighborhood believed he had taken witchcraft lessons for 50 cents each from an African-American Cirrus. Cirrus? Yeah. A woman who could see the future or whatever. Right. Okay. Okay. This allowed

him to talk to spirits, sell magic powders and just do general witch witchy stuff. Sure. Because he paid 50 cents per lesson and now he can go sell powders. And now I yeah now I can do. But citaro stuff. Yes. Right. Locals called him a quote professor of witchcraft. Mm-hmm. All right. Now witch. Southfilly. Oh the good that's where they sell the health shoes. Vitamin sneakers. The health shoes. That's right. We sell health shoes and good shoes. What do you want? You're not gonna get both when you're getting a health shoe. These shoes will cure your kidneys. That's right. It's just self-excepted kidneys. Health shoe. Health shoe. Oh you got a cough? Yeah.

Try the health shoe. I feel so much better. Do you sell good shoes? Yes. I also sell sick shoes but you don't want those. The witches sell those. The vegetarians. That's how I got the chlamydia. All right. Just this pair then, sir. That's what I'm telling my wife. All right. So should I do a check or would it be cash or what do you see? Not really. Just these please, sir. And serverless. No. All right. You got both. And the God. They're gonorrhea. Sir. Sir. We're good. Just give me the fuck. Why don't you wear health shoes? You sell them. I don't even want to know. I don't want to know. Don't answer. Put your finger down. I don't even want to know. Thank you.

Purpose. All from the shoe. Yeah. I had nothing to do with anything else. All right. Look. I'm not here to poke holes as some people. No. I was going to say. No. Poke holes. Just write a check I guess is the best thing. That'll take the shortest amount of time I feel. Don't talk because you definitely look like you're about to talk or so. I can't think of $150. Just I'll get out of here. Unfortunately, I can't think of any of the VDs. Congratulations. Thank you. Now, South Philly was really big on the old world evil eye. The old the what like the death stare. The evil eye. Yeah. They believed in it very much so. Still do. Yes. And they were constantly looking for signs like reoccurring hiccups or a few people yawning

at the same time or a person whose eyes were flecked with another color. Were flecked. So that's a lot of people. Yeah. It really hits. Okay. And those people to them were evil. Yeah. They can give the evil eye or I think if I was yawning, they're like someone's getting the evil eye right now. Quick. Put your masks on. It's airborne. Oh no. We don't put our masks on. Oh right. Sorry. Just let her rip it. Yep. To distract the evil eye, or charms shaped like devil's horns or phallic symbols. People would pay people like Paul to cast spells to keep them safe. Wow. From the hiccuping. Well, yeah, hiccuping is a sign. Right. Yeah. Okay. Paul, Paul sold charms and magic potions which brought unhappy housewives

into his shop. And Paul enjoyed the ladies. So I'm just gonna not try to jump ahead, but it feels like one of his remedies to an unhappy housewife would be, again, getting the devil away with a penis. Yes, sex. Right. Yes. Right. Okay. Despite having a belly and being married, he's a ladies man. So he's a little roundish guy, but the ladies fucking love him. Right. So it's fine. And he's married. A little cushion push. There were quite a few people doing what Paul did, and they would gain the trust of the superstitious immigrants and then take advantage. Right. So are you saying that Paul was not a real vegetarian? Yeah. Yeah, I'm saying he's not actually a witch. Well, thanks for the heads up. Paul's witch work

brings him in contact with other people in the same world. They can work together a little bit like Morris Bohr. Morris was a Russian Jewish immigrant who was known as Louis the rabbi. That's right. Okay. The name has nothing to do with. No, he's not. Not a rabbi. Right. Well, yeah, I mean, the vegetarian, I mean, it's, you know, really need to get certified. I've, you know, I said I was a rabbi for four or five years. Last time we were here in the temple, I was, uh, my whole thing was I was a rabbi. You remember that? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Remember, I was sued. Sued. Yeah, they sued me for well, impersonating a rabbi and just performing a circumcision rabbi. Moil. That was my name. I'm not doing a multi hyphenate.

I was rabbi. Moil. Who'd you do the circumcision on? You dummy. Remember? You got furious. Cause I overdid it. I did it three times. And then you said, try the tip and I went, oh yeah. I'm going to throw up. So as you said, uh, Louis, not a rabbi. He just taught Hebrew. He said he was a mystic and had magical healing powers. That's right. Yeah. It's very simple. A lot of Italian immigrants in South Philly came to Louis for cures and lucky charms and Paul and Louis became friends, started working together. So at some point they had the moment where they both admit that they're full of shit and decided to be full of shit together. Yeah. You know, it's like, so you do, or it feels like, uh, you're able with the devil

cock to a swear of devils and demons and things of that nature. You know, very interesting because as a working rabbi, I am able to also, uh, get rid of evil spirits, things of, uh, you know, the dimensions such as, uh, you're bullshitting too, right? Yeah. Okay. I just want to make sure. I'm like, I've never gotten this far in the conversation with some of the bosses. I was like, I was like, it's just really, yeah, I was digging, digging, digging. I'm not even Jewish. I'm not Italian. Yeah. There we go. I'm Polish. Holy shit. This is quite the... I'm Polish. I'm not even Russian. I was lying too. I'm not even a guy. I'm not guy. I'm human horseman. I'm a dog. I knew you were a dog. You good boy.

So they started referring clients to each other and started... This guy is unbelievable. You had an AP housewife. You go see my buddy. He is unbelievable. Polish the best there is. And they started looking for ways to make money together. Now Paul has a few life insurance agents he knew and they tell him about a way to make money off insurance. Okay. Take out a policy on someone with bad health in your name as the beneficiary. The Mike Malloy theory, right? Yeah. Right. Yes. Okay. So you're hedging... I mean, it's human death wagering. Well, yeah, except unlike Malloy, they're doing it on people they think are going to die. Right. They're not trying to kill the person, but they are. Yeah. Which,

by the way, I feel like that will come back in the stock market at some point. There will be a time when they're like, this guy looks pretty sick. What do you say? I'm all in on Danny. Yeah. Yeah. Which will be a great phase. Great. Six, seven months, I'd say. So hopefully the person would die soon and they could collect the money. Hopefully. Yeah. I mean, God forbid they pull through. Stay alive. Jesus. A lot of policies could be written without a medical exam because the companies made enough money to handle the risks. Wait, what said again? A lot of the policies, the person wouldn't have to get a medical exam because the companies were making enough money. Oh, okay. Right. They could be like, all right. So how are they

determining who was unhealthy just kind of based on... I think based on like talk around, you know, the community. What do you got on that guy? Well, he ain't doing great. He ain't feeling well. He is always holding his stomach. I've seen him bar from the alley the other night and he won't even drink it. I like what they hear. I like what they hear. I know a guy who has chlamydia, syphilis, gonorrhoea, and herpes. We better hope that none of these people go get health insurance. Otherwise, there's health insurance. I don't... This is not my first language. You have to admit that's pretty fucking good for like... Don't be fucking pricks. I mean, of course. So Paul starts doing that. He took out some by the

person's wife or kids and then assigned them to himself. Yeah. Yeah. And he just took them out himself saying he's a relative, like he's doing different little... Now, Paul and a cousin, Herman, the 40-year-old barber, he lives in a Langholm and he also has a side business of counterfeiting an arson. So this is the stuff he does on the side. His main job is he cuts hair, but then sometimes he'll burn shit down or just make some pile of fake money. Right. Yeah. I like... I love the side hustles of these people. They're really great. Yeah. It's fun. He had a lot of contacts in the Black Hand or the Mafia as it is now known. Okay. He was known to flash a giant roll of fake bills. That's cool. You can

look around. Yeah. See that? Monopoly. Guy loved it. Yeah, look at that. This is mostly paper. Herman was... He's cool, huh? What? No. Okay. Herman was married to five kids. Cool. He also dressed very stylishly. He's five feet, five inches tall, but a huge lady's man. He was known as, quote, smoothie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now, Herman told Paul he could make money if he sent the insured to California. If he sent the insured? The insured. Oh, the insured. He took out the policy on... Why? While California meant killing someone. Well, now that I know the translation, I get it. Well, I wish you'd said something earlier. I spent a lot of money on buses. It's got a postcard from one of them. I'm having the

best time. I'm an actor. I bet Senca guy's a hollow for the coast. I got him in houses. They got a house together. They're loving it. Got a guy in Malibu. Starting a van. I'm fucking broke. God damn it. You know, I have a half a mind to send you to California. The new one. Now, Paul's not really sure about this idea. It's a pretty big step. It seems risky. I mean, it's just amazing because it's like every, the progression is like, Hey, let's take out life insurance on the sick. Hopefully they die. Hey, you know, you can just start killing them. I don't know, man. I mean, I feel like that's kind of fucked up, isn't it? Yeah, a little bit. I don't know. I don't want to fix the game. So instead

of this, he leaned on his and Louis witchcraft to speed up the depth. So they're actually trying witchcraft to speed up the death. That'll work. Yeah. So he is a bullshit witchcraft artist. I mean, maybe he's not. And now I kind of believes like he is able to do it to some extent. I think, I think they all to some extent believe that there's, I mean, eventually yeah, you'd be like, but again, like it's pretty, I mean, I think they use it to scam people, but also there's, there's a basis in truth to it. Right. Like they do, they all do believe in the evil eye. Like they do believe in certain things. Right. Right. Yeah. Like, like, like, like John Edwards, like at some point was like, actually, I am

able to like, probably contact people. Yeah. Yeah, I got this. I think there was a woman whose name started with W out there today. I don't care. I'm using the fucking reference. No. But even with their witchcraft, the deaths aren't happening fast enough. Hmm. He's not witching. Well, it's the witch harder. Now one of Louis clients has a husband who's cheating. Okay. And so Paul moves in and who's the wife starts moving on the wife. Sure. Her husband has a $10,000 insurance policy. Dave, I'm, I things feel like they're going in a bad direction. He's also a heavy drinker. So they tell her to when he's really

fucking hammered one night, strip him naked and then open a window right by where he's sleeping. So far, it doesn't feel like he has to be naked for this. Just get his clothes off, open a window and then I'll come in and fuck. And then I'm gonna bang him. All right. And I'm gonna marry him. All right. Stick with me. Okay. Then I'm gonna divorce him and break his heart. Then we kill him. What? Then we'll kill him. After I've fucked him, loved him and left him. We'll kill him. It's the perfect crime. And I don't think it's, I don't even know if it's a crime. I don't know what's happening. Is it crazy to just marry your husband for a couple of years after I fornicate with him? I mean, he's not your

husband a little, huh? What? What? I'm not just gonna kill someone I've never married. You're an animal and I'm technically a dog. You only kill people you marry, but you're a hit man. I'm new to this and I want to get to know him. Wow. Anyway, get him naked and open that window. Well, she does it and the guy dies from just freezing. Yeah, he freezes to death. So easy to freeze someone back then. Yeah. That's all it took. Yeah. He's like the anti Mike. It's like that could have happened any like naturally. Probably why it's a perfect crime. Yeah. So she splits the money with Paul and Louis. And then Paul is like, well, this is the way to go. And he starts looking for more naked and open windows. Yes. He starts

looking for more greedy unhappy women. But one big problem was with the depression on not a lot of husbands had life insurance. Wow. Damn. Such a bummer about that depression. Holy fuck, Paul over. So Paul talked to a woman Paul talked to a woman named Anna arena. So he talks her into taking out an insurance policy on her husband, Joseph. Okay. Now, is he is he pretty? He's he's like, I'm falling in love with you. Like, is he doing that stuff or he is he is sleeping with them? Sometimes sometimes you seem down want to kill your husband by freezing him. Well, sometimes it's just a client. He goes, do you want to get rid of your fucking asshole husband? Like it's a variety of things. Okay. What a good

witch. Yep. Classic witchcraft. A lot of spells. My spell involves you taking all of the clothes off of your husband and opening a window. That's a ghost. It's not a witch. I'm a witchy man. I'm looking into the ball. The bowling ball. Yes. Yes. Interesting. You have no idea what a witch is. I have I am one. You take off all of your husband's clothes. Okay. Interesting. No, not interesting. I didn't even say open a window. Stop it. Pretty good. No. No. So Louis the rabbi tries his sorcery. It's not really working fast enough. That sounds very funny. Come on. Oh, that's sorcery. No. Thank you. So he calls up Herman and asks Herman, hey, can you help me send this guy to California? So Herman reaches out to two guys to do it.

One happened to be Anna's lover. So he must have known this guy's Anna's side piece. So she is unhappy. He'll help kill. He'll be happy to help kill. Sure. It's his lover. I like that it's a given that everyone will jump in on the murder. Yeah. Well, I mean, he's banging her. He'll be a fucking murderer, obviously. The Wooden. So the two guys must sit on the husband because they talked to him and they planned on a fishing trip with Joseph on June 30th. And then they get on the lake. Why don't you get naked when we fish? Put your feet in the river. Perfect. We're just gonna shoot him. Oh, yeah. Once out on the lake, they knocked him out with an ore and then threw his unconscious body

in the water. Nice. Absolutely. You have absolutely no idea what a fucking witch your ghost is. I put a spell on him. Get the ore. Hit the fucking guy with it. Oh, splooshy splashy. Oh, I'm exhausted from that. We're all exhausted. Anyone got a cigarette? I'm fucking done. Oh, was that good or what? Oh, my Lord. No. Oh, I got to use the little penis handle. That was good. That was real good. So Anna collected the insurance as it's clearly an accident. I mean, what did they say? A fucking fish jumped out and knocked him out. It's fucking salmon. You know, they go the other way. We had no idea. Two of them just kept going back and forth just walloping the guy. Poor bastard. I don't know what they

said. I mean, I couldn't find that. Be amazed. I mean, because that's a great thing to do if you want to hide the body and get rid of it, you know, just like in the river. But it's all it's a crazy one to be like, he's dead. What happened? He died fishing. Fuck. I don't know what we're going to say. Here's the deal. We was with him and he was on the boat and then he fell and he hit his head right on the water. Yeah, the water. And the whole thing just caked in on the side. Yeah. No, wait. Yeah, I mean that too. But when he fell, we were rowing and his head went down and we did a hard row. And I roll like this. Yeah. Yeah. And the rabbi here. Up and down. He rose like that because he's part

more y'all, huh? Very similar to the, yeah. Come on. That's pretty good. Consider we, you know. So she collects the insurance. It's an accident. She gives the money to Paul who splits it up between everyone involved and it's just happy that her husband's gone and she can now be with her side piece guy. Right. So it's a good business model. Yeah, it's very successful. It works for everybody. Everybody wins except for the guy. Yeah. But anyway, he died what he loved. Yeah. So they decided to continue. They bring in Herman who would pose as husbands to take out life insurance policies. So I mean, again, this is just kind of the luxury of the time where you could just go in and you're like, so he's going

to different ones, obviously. It's not just going to the same. I'm also married to her. Yeah. And her too. Yeah. I'm a different guy. Okay. Okay. He's just going to a different cashier. Mm hmm. Yeah. Perfect. The guys started being killed in different ways. Louis liked to hit them on the head with a sandbag, which caused a cerebral hemorrhage. The method really depended on what the guy did. Like a roofer. A roofer was thrown from the top of an eight story building. So you would cater it to what was working on the building or they just like, he loves heights. Boom. What roofers going to be on the ground when he died? We take him high up. Boom. He fell off the skyscraper. Yeah. No problem. Boom. No, he sees a building

is like, hold on. I'm a roofer. I'm going to go up there. Now, are they really getting him up there or are they getting them like somewhere they're throwing a sandbag on him and then they're like taking you to a building and then going like, Hey, all right. I mean, it's different guys. Some guys just got the sandbag and they died, but the roofer was probably working and they threw him. Okay. So he was working. They were like, Hey, you always see a certificate certificate. Shove him. And then instead of beating people to death and throwing them on roofs, they turned to poison. Arsenic. They're like Maloyan. So Paul would find the victims usually through wives who came to him as clients. So it's kind of that out in the open. Like, I mean, wives are like, they're like,

you want to kill your husband. You go see these guys. Yeah. What did he like to do? All right. We're thinking we're going to throw a sandbag on him and, um, you know, say he was swimming. Boom. Oh, done. Quite a few of the women are happy to go along with it to get rid of their husbands and knowingly poison them, or they help Paul so he could do it. But some were told they were giving their husband a love potion to make them fall more in love with them. Wow. You gave him too much. His heart freaking exploded. He was overwhelmed with emotion for you. I guess you've got to give us part of that insurance money though, huh? You messed up. We ain't going to tell anybody because we like you. Okay. Some may trick into buying life insurance. Others, they scared it to do that.

I don't know. I couldn't figure that out. It's an amazing thing to do. Go ahead and sign here. Yeah. Others, they scared it to buying in, uh, during seances. It's coming to me right now and he's saying, oh, what a weird, so transactionary. But I guess I'll just say it. Take out a huge insurance policy on your husband. Ooh. What? I'm as baffled as you are. But I guess we should listen to the spirits. I don't know. What do you think we should do? Should probably just do it to be safe. I mean, it's just $10,000 policy. I don't know. Ooh. I don't know. I'm nearly a vehicle for these spirits. Yeah. No, the spirits are just talking through you. Absolutely. Yeah. It's taking me over. You should take out a big insurance policy on your husband. What did he say? What did he tell

you to do? The exact same thing you did. The same. That's crazy. So that's two of us. One from this realm, one from that realm. I think you got to do it. What do you think? I mean, whatever you think, but I mean, I think you probably, oh, you should definitely do it. Have a different spirit. I'm exhausted from all that. That is, was that just a lady who was in me? I feel so feminine. What did she say? Did she have any new ideas? Hopefully. No, it's the exact same thing. She also? Yeah. I mean, at this point, I feel like you got to. I don't. Am I crazy? Yeah. Yeah, I think. Why don't you do it to be safe and we'll just see if there's any other spirits with any other ideas over the next 24 hours. But go do that. Then come back. I'll let you know if there's anything that happened. Is that

nuts? They're fucking pissed at you. They don't like your attitude. Okay. Unhappy wives were offered illegal abortions, then blackmailed afterwards and told to give poison to their husbands. So what, six, seven years from now? Say that again. So they were in an unhappy marriage and they got pregnant, so they didn't want to have the kids. So they would help them get abortions and then they would blackmail them for having the abortion. Okay, right. Fuck it's so dark, but also the future. Yeah. Yeah, sorry, we're cavin on Alita. Not all knew what was happening. Paul told one woman to slip a powder in her husband's glass and it would cause him to stop drinking. Instead, it killed him. Well, to be fair, he doesn't drink no more. Problem solved. So guess you got to give

us like $8,000. One woman paid Louis 500 to cure her grandson who was paralyzed, but she ended up in jail when her husband died from the poison. How does that work? I don't know. Is he still paralyzed? Yes. But is your husband paralyzed? Yes. Well, okay, wheels are in motion. God works in mysterious ways. Absolutely. They recruited Karina Favato, who was known as the Philadelphia Witch. Oh boy. Karina sold charms that were supposed to turn cheating husbands into faithful men. When women came to see her, she would put a bit of poison in their drinks just enough to make them sick. Then she would make it seem like she had healed them. She's got to really be like careful with that measurement. Yeah. Oh no. She's dead. Well, on June 26, 1983, both Karina's husband and

her 17 year old stepson died of what was reported to be pneumonia. They died of pneumonia. They died from pneumonia. Going around. She threw a party the day they died and then bought a new car. That's how I want to go. Well, I'm going to die later. Let's have a party. Your son's dead. Yay, a Buick. All right. She gave Paul and Louie a list of clients who were ripe for picking. By the end of 1937, the poison were going to kill about 50 people. Holy shit. I mean, this is not a very sustainable business model. Why not? Well, I mean, it's you're murdering a lot of people. Yeah. Right, fair, good pushback, but they must also be making, are we talking about $10,000 of pop here? Yeah, they make a good money. So five, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars in this time is 1.2

billion, right? Yeah, sure. Perfect. Okay. So it's just very lucrative. At some point, you gotta like, you know, cash out. Keep going. Keep going. Exactly. Thank you. Now, at this point, they had on their payroll doctors, druggists, undertakers, and even a matchmaking service for the new widows. Oh my god. Why do you even need that? Just like afterwards, like in case they want, in case they're like depressed and they want to talk, they're like, thank god it worked out. I have a new bow. No, to set it up for the next one. Oh my god. Is that true? You're so innocent. Yeah. So already, they're like, hey, my husband just died. Well, what you need to do is get back on your feet as soon as possible. Okay. This guy's unbelievable. You know what you should probably do? Put a little

love potion in his drink just to make sure. Yeah. Might be a good idea, huh? Yeah. No. How come every guy you set me up with is deathly ill? I don't know. So wild, huh? It's like, what? This matchmaking service, I think they suck. Go out with him, get a life insurance policy, date him for a minute, see what happens. If you like him, take off all his clothes and open the window. Is that nuts? Maybe try it? No, no. We're all just like a team pitching here. Yeah. Yeah. Herman had a friend named Ferdinand. I don't trust him. Who helped with counterfeiting and fencing goods. And he had a really hot wife. Okay. She was not happy with the marriage and started having an affair with Herman. Okay.

So Herman talks her in to getting rid of Ferdinand. Yeah, she's like, I don't know what to do. He's like, I mean, this is actually what I do professionally. Really? Yeah. Yeah. I get rid of husbands. Which one's Herman? Is he the? Herman's the counterfeiting arson brother, a cousin of Paul. Okay, right. Okay. So Herman's not a murderer. So he goes to find one. But I know murderers. So this is George Meyer. He just gets out of prison and George wants to start an upholstery cleaning business but needs a loan to get some money to start it. I want to be on the up and up, straight and narrow. I think I want to do upholstery. That's really what I want to do. I promise I don't have any money. Well, we got an idea. Well, no, he comes to Herman because Herman

has the counterfeit cash. Right. And so Meyer wants to borrow $25. Oh my God. Herman counters and said, what about 600 in real money or 2,500 in fake money to murder a guy named Ferdinand? I mean, I think I just would do the $25 to be honest. I love options. But now that I hear those, the $25 seems pretty great. I just got out of jail. So it would be great to just get the 25 real dollars. So we're going to do it? I mean, I, the 600 is great. But again, it's murder. Sort of feels like. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the 2,500 fake feels not great either. It's pretty good. I mean, kill a guy, get something that's not real. Right. Wait, what was that? Yeah. Uh-huh. Good sell. You kill a guy, you get fake stuff. Uh-huh. Yeah. Oh, 600 real ones.

Right. So much more than 25. That's right. But again, it's that old murder thing to me is just yeah, I guess it's sort of whatever. I would do it myself, but my hands are hurt. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. They're hurting. Right. Your hands hurt so you can't kill them. All right. Sure. Yeah. I guess I'll. Good call, kid. Nice. It's going to be great. Yeah. I feel like since we're talking about it, I feel like it works out. Before you do it, let's take that insurance policy on you. I mean, now I think I definitely want the 25. The 25, I just think sounds so good now. I'm going to go and back. I'll get the 600. Okay. And thank you. So, uh, Meyer. So he wanted Meyer. This was his plan for Meyer. It's a really good plan

to murder Ferdinand. He wanted him to hit him with a lead pipe, then throw him down some stairs so it looked like an accident. Now, we'll ask him a couple of times so it looks like the stairs really hit him hard. It was like a rounded thing. You know what I mean? So whack him with a pipe, then shove him down the stairs. I mean, amazing thing you could cover your tracks that easily. What did he die from, Coroner? Well, he's got a huge dent in the back of his head and he was at the bottom of some stairs. I think this case is pretty closed. He fell down them, head first repeatedly. He hit every stair on the way down on that back part of his head. It's a strange fall if I've ever seen one, but no need to question. Strange that there's some

numbers dented in the back of his head too, isn't it? Three quarter inch. Three quarter inch stairs. Tiny stairs, if you think about it. Stairs for a mouse, really, but I'm not here to nitpick. Nope. So he found out a set of mouse stairs that weren't at the scene. Look, I've got a lot of bodies in here lately. I don't have time to go over case after case. He fell down a set of mouse stairs and hit the same spot over and over again. And mouse stairs have their sizes listed. Move on, everybody. So Myers doesn't say no? Interesting. He doesn't take any money, but... He doesn't take... I'd like to do it for free.

It sounds like a great time. He's not saying yes, he's not saying no. What he does is he goes to the Philadelphia police. Can I kill a guy if I'm getting paid for this, officer? Of course you can. Well, the cops just laughed at him and said he was making it up. Good cops, always finding a way to be great. Ha! Imagine someone paying to kill a guy. Get out of here, Meyer. Nice try. So, Meyer had previously been a snitch for the Treasury Department, so he reached out and was soon telling them about Herman and this offer. And the Secret Service were already aware of Herman and thought this was the perfect chance to catch him. Because he's a counterfeiters. The Secret Service for who? The Secret Service handles counterfeit crime. Oh, okay, okay.

So an agent goes under cover posing as a hitman and the two men tell Herman and said they would do it together. Right? We're a team. This is my guy. It's George and Frank. We always work together. I give him the pipe and then he waxes him with it. Or I put the bullet in the gun and then he shoots it. Or I take the clothes off and he opens the window. Or I pour the drink and he puts the powder in it. Or I take him to the river and he hits him with the oar. Yeah, we got it. I'm just saying, there's a lot of options. I buy the ticket for the roller coaster. He tosses him out of it. I get him to go to the top of the roof. He hits him with the sandbags. I tell him he can swim underwater because he has gills. He holds him under.

I say, let me see your penis handle. He cuts it off and bleeds him out. I say I'm a brain surgeon. He puts a saw into it. What we know we got it. Just want to be super clear. So I tell him I'm a soccer coach. He shoots him. I say he's a garbage man intern. We cut his heart out of his chest. There's options. We're very natural at what we do. I tell him I'm auditioning people for Broadway. He lets him know if he has a good voice or he has to work on it.

Then I shoot him with stuff we can do. So Herman goes to the guy and says, will you kill someone? The guy goes, I don't know. And then he comes back with another guy and he goes, so this is my random new friend. He's in on it. And Herman's like, that sounds fine. Oh, great too. That's great. More mouths. But Myron says he will take the $2,500 big cash. After thinking about it, I want the worst option. And then they kept trying to stall as much as possible.

Because they actually don't want to kill anybody. Wow. So they say. Good thing we got the crim. Now it is. I don't want to do this story anymore. Sorry, we're just going to do a little technical stuff. Johnny, can we work on Light 9B? We did a Q2Q earlier. Great. That's better. Spot me.

It's time. It's always been this way. Don't worry. We can keep going. I think we know who the real star is. Go on, Dave. You were talking about your story from earlier. I'm just so hung up thinking about a dame. But there I go again. Head in the clouds. No. Hello. Good thing we're not recording this one.

So they keep stalling. They keep coming up with reasons why they can't kill Ferdinand. We're busy. We're busy that day. We've got every soil, the grass. I'm sick. We're both going to be sick. We're getting tattoos of each other. We're getting matching cats. Yeah. We come up with a dance and we've got to keep doing it.

We're fusing our bodies together. We like to pitch ideas. Then suddenly Ferdinand was rushed to the hospital with what seemed like pneumonia. This is before they've agreed? They've been putting it off. So all of a sudden he gets rushed to the hospital with pneumonia. Agents go to see him and ask if he has life insurance and he says he doesn't. I don't. I don't. At least I would know about it if I did.

He said he had a buddy named Herman. Ferdinand did? Yeah. My buddy Herman. Who got him an agent and he filled out the applications but they were all rejected. I bet they were. I bet they were. Yeah, they turned you down.

Damn, every one of them too. I don't know. His wife read him the rejection letters because he didn't speak English and couldn't read them. We can't do it, Ferdinand. Unfortunately, you're too high risk. You've tried everyone. Just forget about this, okay? That's from the insurance company.

Love insurance company. He actually had what would be about $150,000 in insurance today. Now, arsenic is a very painful way to die and the husband was in the hospital for over a month. Oh, God. You just give me the ore. Yeah, yeah, Herman told the agent and Myers he was tired of waiting and had poison. Quote. You guys, okay.

I got impatient. I'm sorry. Quote, we let him down with arsenic and he still lives. We can't understand it. The son of a bitch must have nine lives because we gave him enough arsenic to kill six men. When he did finally die, the Asians already knew Herman was having an affair with the wife. Okay. So they're both charged with murder.

On what grounds? Then an insurance investigator sees Herman's picture in the paper and realized that that's the guy he met at Karina's home after her insured stepson, 17-year-old kid, had died. So he had seen Herman at that and he goes, well, that is interesting that Herman was at the thing for a dead kid. Right. Because he was always suspicious that a 17-year-old had a much life insurance. 17-year-old.

Now, he's quite a daredevil. Just seems like he's always cheating death. So instead of sitting down and talking to him, I think I'd like to buy as many insurance policies as possible. He's always playing with arsenic and stuff. So the investigator told the cop and the cop knew exactly who Karina was. He'd investigated her after a homeless guy with tons of insurance from their neighborhood died. Man, come on.

That's like, who's the insurance company? They're like, really? Shouldn't he use some of this money to make his life better? Nope. He's just dead set on taking out as much insurance. I don't know what he's up to. You know, anyway, merely a liaison for him. So, but think about it.

If he dies, he'll have a lot of money. Yeah. So then he can change his life. Oh, yeah, I guess. Well, he wouldn't think of this through, I guess. So while looking into that, the cop found out three men Karina took care of as a home health care worker died in a short period of time. Dave, what was their insurance status?

Insured. And you're good, good, good. So he asked the DA to exonerate. And you can take insurance policies out on anybody. Well, you're doing it in tricky ways. They're not just doing it. Okay. But so she's basically being like, like, I'm the aunt of this.

Well, she could have had the same thing. They didn't know what there was. They don't know what they're signing. Right. Or another guy goes in and takes it out. Like a lot of things. Right. So.

And you're never notified. No. There you go. Just like, okay. Okay. So the cop asked the DA to exhume the step son's body. And the DA just laughed at him and said he was crazy. Come on. That's gross.

What are we going to do? Dig? Come on. That's crazy. And let you look further into it and find out Karina applied for 18 insurance policies just on her step son. Still hurt each year. Plus one for his birthday.

Don't tell him still the DA was like, come on. What are you going to do? Go get him. Open the casket. It'll be gross smelling. Come on. You guys, this is really icky. It's pretty gross.

I don't want to hear about it anymore. He's already down there. It's like six feet. So the cop just keeps pushing it. Finally, the DA gives in and he's like, look, he probably wrong. And if you're wrong, you're going to have to resign from the department. So they dig him up and the step son is full of arsenic.

So now Herman starts to squeal and he is telling the details of all the murders that he knows of. OK. And he said he's innocent. I didn't do anything. I just was watching him do it. And he said Paul and Louie are the guys who were doing it all. They made me do it. And then the cops arrest Paul and Paul says he's innocent

and Herman and Louie were doing it all. I was possessed at the time of all of these. What you got is a ghost killer and I want to help you find them. Is that nuts? And then they arrest Louie and Louie said he's innocent and it's all actually Herman and Paul. So I mean really worst case scenario for all three. Yeah.

Right. Because if they all were like it's this one guy that would help. But instead they're like I didn't do it the other two did. Wasn't me the other two did it. I have no idea. It's these other two. Yeah. I'm just a simple rabbi who's non-Jewish.

So now the DA is checking every mysterious death that's happened for years. Bodies are being exhumed all over Philadelphia. And it's really icky. So they needed so many tests of so many bodies that Hoover at the FBI offered his lab to help the overflow. Wow. And they're finding poison bodies all over Philadelphia. A grand jury was arraigned and a trial began

and the press is going fucking nuts. The women who had helped kill their husbands were called poison widows or the black widows of Philadelphia. Wow. So the big day was in the trial. The big day in the trial is May 19. We call the fattest. May 19, 1939.

Because that was the day widow Rose Carina was being arraigned. She had been nicknamed the Rose of Death. She was caught after two months on the run and the courtroom is packed to sear because police said she had used her charm and good looks to lure in victims. And she married five times and three of those guys were dead. The two who were alive were the only two who refused to take out insurance. Okay.

So while she's on the run, the press just keeps building her up to be this crazy hot woman. She's quote irresistible and bucks them. And the cop said she's a professional. You can't not fuck her. It's bonkers. We don't want to bring her in here. We feel like we'll flood the courtroom. I'm just stating facts, your honor.

The cop said she was a professional widow. She's a pro widow. So there's a lot of excitement to see her in the courtroom. It was a packed house. Huge crowd. That's amazing that like, I mean, it's just like the spectacle of that where you're just like, she's so hot, you can't handle it.

And everyone's like, perfect. Like all the men aren't like, oh boy, what a murder. Like, oh, God, I got to get eyes on her. She can take an insurance policy out of me anytime. Hey, Charlie. Hey, Charlie. Hey, hey, hey. Oh, she can make me an arsenic and gin anytime.

And a huge crowd. What am I being stripped naked by her and having her open the window? Hey, it'd be worth it. It'd be worth it. I'd go salmon fishing with that dame. Y'all. So overflow out of the courtroom, packed outside, all waiting to see Rose. And she rolls up and she's just an ordinary looking woman.

So they're like just being like, this is Marilyn Monroe. And she's like, hello. And they're like, whoa. I mean, I still would. I still would, huh? I mean, I don't know if I'd let her strip me naked, but she could open the window or she could open the window. I haven't had sex in a while, so don't mind if I do.

So she's short. She's thick. She's matron-licious, thick glasses. She wears black shapeless clothes. She chewed her nails as she waited for court to begin. I've got a fetish for nail chewers. One reporter wrote she was the quote, no longer blooming rows of death. It makes no sense to do that as a prosecutor, right?

Prosecutor? If they're calling her into the courtroom. Yeah. And you're setting her, oh, the papers are doing that. Papers are. Okay. Yeah, right. Well, I mean, even then, that's just like,

doesn't help a prosecution's case in any way. Yeah, I love it. Makes a difference. Really? What? To just be like, oh, her charm. She's unbelievable. You're not going to get over this.

And then she's like, how are you? Yeah, but I don't know if they did that in the courtroom though. Like, we don't know. I mean, it was overflowing with dude. It was press and the cops saying it, but not necessarily prosecution. Okay. So she had a new boyfriend,

which while she was on the run, she met a new boyfriend. The guy's like, I'm cool with it. And he thought. Dude, don't give a fuck. She, you know, she took out a lot of insurance policies and bird. Yeah. She's chilled though. I mean,

hmm, I'm in a lot of trouble finding women I like. So she said she's changed. I mean, just for her birthday, I'm getting her insurance policy on me and this. He didn't know anything about it, but he came to court with her and he. What are you doing here again today? He thought her name was Mary.

Mary, what is this? Why are they all? What's going on here, Mary? Okay. So I just want to be full of this closure. So I am going to be called because I'm basically on trial for Arsena King, some guys making a ton of money off them.

That's cool. I mean, I just, I just, yeah, I want to have sex and I know you do. So I'm okay as soon as you fill out the NDA that I have about, you know, as soon as you sign the sexual disclosure agreement, as soon as you sign the sexual disclosure agreement, I'm going to fucking get you naked, open that window, and you're going to take the bang train to come to, okay? And that is so soon.

I should just tell you, you're probably going to hear some stuff today that's just kind of like crazy, but it's all bullshit. Even though it's like a ton of corroborating stories. It's all the ads. But we're going to have sex. As soon as that paperwork clears, the sexual disclosure agreement, again, and I don't even want that.

That's just because, you know, like I told you before, I have to have that for my medical situation. As soon as I get you fill that out with your information, your social stuff, your birthday, all that stuff, you know, and then we then we have, oh my God, yeah, it's going to be crazy. Yeah, we're going to, what's going on? It went early. Yeah, that's fine.

Actually, that's better for me because what we'll do is we'll get you out of those wet things and we'll just put you on the bed and just open that window to cool you off. Yeah, I'll make you one of my delicious whiskey powders. Yeah, I'm just going to love it. Oh, you are. Tell you what, don't even let it go home. Don't even listen to that. Why do they bring you is a really good question probably.

It's a crazy thing I've done, I guess. Go home and just wait for me. Why do they keep calling you Rose? Huh? You don't have a nickname? They call me the Rose of Death. I mean, I was a wrestler. Maybe.

It's fair. Yeah. Okay, damn, it's exciting. Hopefully I can wait. I probably can. So the whole crowd. Oh, that's yours. Fuck.

So obviously the day was profoundly disappointed for the thousands of people are whatever watching. Now Herman's tried first. He's charged with murder. The judge's nickname was hanging Harry. The jury was made up of seven women and five men. Again, many witnesses broke down the murder racket and how it all worked. Two doctors said Herman had tried to buy live typhoid fever germs from them.

Objection, your honor. Are we going to put my client's hobby under a microscope? The man collects deathly diseases for the love of God. He had an ant farm too. Shall we get into that? We're not doing well. Just so you know. Tell him the typhoid was because I have gophers.

That your honor just brought to my attention that the typhoid was a part of my client's gopher thing because he wanted to get rid of them. I think I'm going to get away with this. Not that I did it. I didn't. If I did do it, I would get away with it as it is. I'm just knocking again. I've got a bad feeling.

You can come over to my house, your honor. No gophers. Don't do that. Got rid of them all. I used. Really, it's a lot of it is through me. I used the live typhoid cultures. I used arsenic.

Some of it was a sandbag. I'd kill some gophers with an ore. Oh, shit. There are so many different ways. Yeah, this is not true. Some gophers. Objection, your honor. I'd leave that side and leave the window.

Your honor, I object. My client pleads the fifth, your honor. I want to hold my client in contempt. Is that possible? If you take off a gopher's clothes. Whoa, that's his fur. Your honor, please. Can we take a long recess?

Permission to walk far away from the bench. Please. Your honor, if it's a crime. Please stop. If it's a crime to kill a. It is. Stop. A little creature in a hole.

Well, then I'm guilty. Yes. Not great language, your honor. I really. Permission to bind the stenographer. And if it's wrong to take out. Sir, sir, sir. $16,000 was the bench.

No, that's a crime. On the gopher. That is a crime. That's a crime. Your honor. Then your honor, I am guilty. Your honor. And if it's a crime to take one as your wife.

My God. No, no, no, no, no, no. And to make sweet love. No, your honor, please. With that little blind woman. Your honor. Your honor. That little hairy blind woman.

Your honor, please. Permission to remove his microphone. Is there any way to just. Well, then I am guilty. Your honor. Stop saying that, please. We are again to be very clear. We are pleading not guilty.

We are. Guilty of being in love. No, well, sure, whatever. But we're very, we're, we're married to the not guilty. Please. So again, if we could just take a couple of days off, that would be fantastic for us. Little vacation, maybe.

We made babies. Okay, dokey. Chipmunks. Stop. Your honor, our contention is that my client had chipmunk babies with a gopher. Is that a crime? I think it's good.

I think it's good. Is that, is that a crime? We made it work. I got a really bad feeling still. Perman also asked a pharmacist for hydrosanic acid, which was used for executions. Your honor, for, for, no, come on. Again, we, we are, this man is not allowed to have a hobby.

Can he not collect baseball cards or stamps? My God. He said, he told the pharmacist he was going to use the acid on his hair. Which again, your honor, is it wrong to dye your hair with acid? The last time I checked, that wasn't a crime. My God.

When her. Is he the only one who's acid-ing his hair? He is? Well, that's crazy, huh? We should have talked through that one. We should have talked about a lot of this stuff. Yeah. Well, I mean, you went through.

Because you told me the whole, you told me to do the gopher thing. No, I was very clear through it all. Oh, fuck. That was a dream. No, no. That wasn't you. No, that wasn't me.

I was going to dream my ass. No, that was here. That was earlier today. You told me to say the gopher thing? No, though you dreamt that. Now I get it. Yeah. Yeah, no, that was not something I said to do.

When Herman took the stand in his defense, he said all the witnesses had lied. Every one of them, your honor. Carp, we're crazy what they're doing to me. The judge asked him why he had put check marks next to arsenic formulas in a catalog in his home. Those are the things I don't want to get. Everything else was the stuff I bought.

I agree. It looks crazy now. Gosh. He said he didn't make check marks, and the catalogs was for a hair formula he was working on called New Life. Yeah. I'm making hair product.

Is that so crazy? The jury was out for four hours about that. Like part of that was lunch. It's like a two hour lunch. What do you say? They did. About a third of the time was spent eating lunch.

They found I'm guilty and recommended execution. As the jury forewoman read the verdict, Henry rushed at her yelling, quote, you bitch. And he tried to punch her, but she ducked. Wait, who's he trying to punch? The jury forewoman reading the verdict. He's like, she did this.

The jury forewoman did this. And what a great way to validate everything. You bitch, I'll kill you with arsenic. Ah, fuck. So he tries to punch her. Guards tackle him. They carried him and literally threw him through the swinging doors and out of the courtroom.

The trial is covered across the country, which leads to tips, and at least 25 people are arrested. Karina goes on trial next. Who? Karina, the poisoner of the stepson. She was still in the face the whole time. Witnesses told tales of her witchcraft. It was revealed she had built a recreation room

with the money from her stepson's death. As a homage to my boy. He left an air hockey. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And an air hockey table. Yeah.

After days and days of crushing testimony, Karina just stood up in the middle of trial and said, quote, all right, if you want me to talk, I'll talk. I mean, again, the lawyer's like, Karina, that's actually not what we. All right, fine. I did it. What's next?

And then her lawyers quickly pleaded guilty for three murders and she was happy as shit. She has the biggest grin on her face. She's that's right. When that that's down below, it says, please guilty in the arson that ring trial. It should just say the happiest. She's so fucking happy.

Because I did so many more. I'm devastated. I just, oh, wow, I really, I didn't even do the three. I did so many. No, we know. Good work. We should celebrate. Captain.

What happens now? I just walk. No, no, I just did three. So what is that, like six weeks? All your life. I should have probably just pushed her. Yes. She did it.

She said she did it because she was worried some of the poison gang would kill her son. I had to do it before he was poisoned by people who didn't love him. She said he was being threatened. And he came to city hall with police, her real son we're talking about. Oh, okay.

He's still alive. Right, okay. He came to city hall with police guards and urged his mom to talk, to snitch. And she gave up enough info to have a dozen men convicted. Wow. This stenographer carried a stack of notebooks out of the room with him.

This led to a bunch of arrests. I like that this stenographer has to care. Part of the job is carrying all the things you tie. What? Sorry. I'm just a fast typist. And you move the stuff you tie. So these people sure are talking.

Does anyone can help me? No. Three men who were just about to be killed as part of an arsenic thing were saved. Uh-huh. Then Herman started talking to the cops. Okay. So now Herman's squealing.

And he said he wanted to come clean. He probably was hoping it would spare his life. I feel like it's not going to. So the cops take him to a restaurant. The cops take you to get whatever you want. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, yeah. I'll have clams casino.

Oh, you guys are pretty cool. Should we want to do some mozzarella sticks to start? What's going on here? Just so I'm cool. We're pals now, right? They're cool. My guys? Margaritas?

What are we feeling? Yeah, they do. Do you know a karaoke bar? I can't believe how fast we're paling up. Yeah, they were just acting like they were buddies with him. And they did let him order what he wanted. And he just started fucking talking. So you guys are not like here as cops, right?

Like you guys are just my new best friends. You wear cop uniform. That's right. That's unbelievable. We just went into prison and took you out to buy you a meal. We thought you were interesting. It's funny because when I was in there, I kept going like, I feel connected to you.

Again, have some more shrimp, guys. Really, I'm not going to be able to eat all this. But I'm like, I really got along with these guys. It's so interesting. Should we do another round of beers? I mean, that's exactly what happened. These wings aren't going to eat themselves, BFFs. You know what we need?

A BFF handshake, huh? Oh man, I'm loving this. I'm going to go take a piss. Do you guys want to come with me again? Like we keep doing? Or can I go alone? No, we're going with you. Hey, BFFs pee together.

Hey, we're PFFs. Let's roll, gang. That's right. Come on. Man, I love watching my BFFs pee. Look at us whizzing the whiz boys. What if we got jackets made, huh, pals? Yeah, sure.

I got an idea. Should we just like move in together? Is that crazy? By the way, a lot of us ask if it's crazy. Maybe we get to play something like that, billiard table? I wish this was that far off in reality. He implicated himself in 32 murders and said he sold arsenic, he gave up names,

and even started talking about unrelated crimes he committed. Well, you know, now that we're paneling around, there's some stuff I haven't told you guys about. I blew up some buildings. It was actually like my main source of income for a while. Do you guys ever do that or nobody does that? No. Oh, man, it was nuts.

I don't know. Maybe like, I know you guys have your other jobs, but you're off duty when we're hanging out. If you ever wanted, we could really blow some stuff up together. I could show you how to do it. It's awesome. I mean, you like fireworks? Buckle the fuck up.

You got to implode a building with dynamite. It's awesome. Fuck, I love us and this crew. Yeah. We're so dope. Yeah. You know what? I feel like I'm doing all the talking.

Yeah. You are. I don't even know your last names, or sorry, your first names. My first name is Officer. Okay, I'll just make, come on. Yeah, that's... Well, you guys want to start calling me Officer. Okay, shut the fuck up.

He was brought back to his cell and bragged how he now had detective friends. It was going to beat the chair. He also said he was now thinking about becoming a detective. I mean, I mean, what is in his head? What is that? He's like, yeah, how did it go? I mean, real good. Real good.

First of all, they're awesome dudes. You get them out of here. They're just like us. I feel like they basically deputized me. By the way, you guys probably shouldn't talk about your crimes in front of me anymore. I mean, I did with them, but we kind of were like, have that code. But the second I become a cop, I could use it against you. Oh, fuck.

No wonder they weren't wiz. Without wiz. I've probably just been paranoid. Meanwhile, Corina is completely losing it. The guards thought she was faking being crazy to avoid the electric chair. She was babbling incoherently and screaming that witches were in herself. She tried to kill herself twice in one day. Okay.

Wait, in one day? How about a little monitoring? First, hang yourself with a handkerchief. Then, slashing her wrist with a safety pin. That's how Epstein went. When cops brought any of the main suspects together, sometimes they would do that to question them. They would have two in a room just to fuck with their heads.

What do you mean they bring them both into the same room to question them? Yeah, they'd bring like Paul and Herman. Oh no, I feel like my bullshit's going to conflict with his bullshit. So, when they were in the room together, they were terrified of one another because they thought they would give them the evil eye. Can I have some sunglasses, please? I would also like some sunglasses. Louis, who had brown flecks in his eyes, was accused the most.

They yelled, quote, don't you give me the eye at each other. Don't you give me the eye? You keep... Don't give me the eye. I'm closing my eyes. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Guys, stop it. Stop it.

They would refuse to look at each other. I will not look at him, officer, because he's going to kill me with his eyeballs. How many times do we have to go through this? But why don't you look at him? Don't. You're my... You're my best friend. I need you.

So, tons of widows are being questioned by the murder squad. One widow denied her hat maker husband had been poisoned and then asked at midday if she could go home to bathe and get papers that would prove she was innocent. May I take a bath and get some evidence? Is that allowed? How does this all work? May I just take a bath? Take a bath? She took advantage of the situation to run from the cops, grab a piss, and let her?

She take a bath and get the evidence. We're not going to follow you, but you better fucking come back. You understand us? Not only did they let her, but the... The stenographer was like washing her back in the tub. Is this real? Yeah. The stenographer was like, do you guys realize I'm like a typist?

You understand? All right, you carry all the stuff you type and then you got to go sponge bathe this one when she goes home. She's going to get evidence, but when she's there she wants a sponge bath. Okay, okay. Make a pizza when you come back too. It's like a skill. It's a highly skilled position. I think she was the only woman involved in the trial.

That's why they had her do it. She wanted to be a cop. She later became a cop, so... So it's still fucking... Okay, well, while she's bathing her, the woman leaps out of the tub and runs and grabs a pistol from her chest of drawers and tries to shoot herself, but the stenographer wrestles it away. So the stenographer's like, she grabbed a gun and she is pointing it right at me, right now. And now she is soaking wet.

I'm hiding right now in a little cupboard here outside. She will probably hear my tapping. That's not good, I've thought to myself. Does this become a first person novel? Who thinks that it has, she said out loud, worried for her own life. It was at that moment I decided I wanted to become an officer of the law myself. A seed had been planted, but would it be fertilized? Chapter two, life in a cupboard.

When they got the gut away from her, they learned she had also taken arsenic, but somehow she survived. She took arsenic, she was like, I'm going to poison myself, kill her, and then boom, we're done. She could have just run. Well, no, I don't know if she could have run. I mean, there's a cop downstairs. Oh, there was. She was upstairs.

Okay. So the cop's downstairs is like, all right, look, go take your bath. But we don't trust you enough to soak yourself. The stenographer's going to go up there and lather you. No funny business. It's a straight back evidence back to the courthouse promise officer now be down here in the other story of the house, not expecting any shenanigans. What do you mean?

While she was up there under my careful watch, she ate poison and tried to kill the bathing stenographer. No, trying to kill herself. But she also, oh, she wasn't trying to kill the stenographer. No, just kill herself. All right. Well, that changes the story. It turns out I was overreacting.

Classic me. Oh, Sheila, you fool. A seed had still been planted. Chapter three, the realization. So she ends up living and she testifies against Paul. On the witness stand, she said she had sex with Paul and that he was a demon lover. Well, no objection there, you know. Oopsie Daisy, sorry.

Hey, the devil's cock got rid of all the spirits. Hey, fist bump lawyer. Yeah, come on. I banged a good otherworldly. Come on, guy. What are we proud of? Wow, what a square permission to have a new one. She also said he could command God and devils and put a jinx on her so he did whatever he wanted.

Oh, that's not good. So police, through all this information they're getting from... Police are like, all right, this is, how do we figure this out? They're all guilty in crazy different ways. They have now done, they've arrested 75 people and done a shitload more exhumations. Police, the courtroom now was burglarized. God damn it, if there's ever a time for a camp burglar. Shit.

And they immediately think it's an attempt to destroy evidence and they catch the burglar and he just turned out to be an out of work guy who was really hungry and robbed the first place he came to. Is this a bank? Oh. The odds. I just got a bunch of cocaine. Let me do a bump. No, no, no, no, no, no.

Boy, that ain't good shit. That burns. So Paul goes on trial for five murders. The biggest event of the trial was an evil eye-off duel between Paul and Louie. Ah, so Louie Ah, ah, ah, ah. Yes. Ah, ah, ah, ah. Your honor, what the fuck is going on right now?

Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. Ah, ah, ah. Should we take a recess? Oh, oh, ah, ah, ah. Get me a Gatorade. Ah, ah, ah, ah. I mean, it's what happened. So Louis on the witness stand and shot the evil eye at Paul.

And Paul was scared and opened the first and fourth fingers on his hand and pointed it at Louis to ward off the evil eye. Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. Incidentally, this is where the Universal Heavy Metal Assembly will come from. Ronnie James Dio's grandmother used it to show him the horns to ward off the evil eye, and he picked it up.

Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. But it was literally like, besides just doing this, he was like, he was doing shit, like pushing it back. And like, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. Yeah, I mean, what you're doing is exactly what happened. Your Honor, we don't even need to talk to each other. We know we want everyone to be guilty. Ooh.

Over 100 witnesses testified against Paul, and he decided to plead guilty at that point. I don't know. I think he thought that would help if he was, and he wouldn't be sentenced to death by pleading. He would not. Yeah, he thought he wouldn't be if he pleaded guilty. I mean, even if he sentenced to death,

he could just possess someone when he comes back. He's good to go. But he was sentenced to death. That's so really, he should have just pushed it. Yeah, they all should have. They're all lying, Your Honor. I was actually possessed at the time, the whole time. Robbie James Dio took me over.

The next trial was for the widow Herman was having the affair with. Stella Alfonzi. The press broke her down as she entered the court. Quote, although she has been in prison for a year, Miss Alfonzi gave no evidence of that fact when she appeared for a trial. She was smartly dressed, completely in black,

with a black turban on her head and black pumps on her feet and a black person in her hand. She also displayed a new wave in her black hair. Always. Always. Doesn't matter what it is, the woman is there. Coming into the courtroom right now, wearing a very, very... She's got a demure black dress on, not too short, not too low.

Beautiful pumps. Gosh, where'd she get those? She's carrying a black purse. Just me or she'd redone her hair. We'll be back with the Westminster Woman Show. Perfect. I love the trot. She's got a confident strut.

Is that just me? No, actually, that's something she's been working on all season. Well, it's really paying off today. She gets some of that juror box. God, I love the way that she's putting her hand on the Bible. Fingers arched a little bit, which I love. Well, that's European. A lot of the French women are doing that now.

Really paying off here again. That nail polish, what is that? Well, that's actually just peeling nail polish. So she hadn't done it, and she let him peel. Very natural. I love it personally. Shows that she cares, but only when it's appropriate. Today's a different time.

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. So Stella was found not guilty. She told reporters people should remember her as a woman who had an unfortunate experience. Rose had a second murder trial, and this time was found not guilty. Wow, OK. And Karina was the one who smiled.

Fuck, I don't remember. There's so many people. Yes. OK, right, OK. Because I was going to say, otherwise, Rose, after, I'm not guilty. She was like, and then she exploded into consent. A man named Salvatore Sortino testified

that he had paid $50 to watch one of the witches to learn how to hatch a tiny devil under his armpit. He was. Your Honor, in my defense, my radio had stopped working. I just wanted to see a devil-egg edge. He was 36 and carried an egg in his armpit for nine days straight. He did it?

He thought if he put it under his armpit, he would, like, mother his hand as devil-egg. He was learning how to hatch a tiny demon. And that you do by putting an egg under your armpit. Oh, demon eggs are so much like chicken eggs. That's right, sir. I hope I don't mix it up with my other eggs and make a devil-egg or something like that.

You know what I mean? It could be an oopsie-coopsie. Get out. It's been a great night, everybody. Thank you. On the ninth day, Saboteur went down to his cellar and waited for the devil, but the devil did not come. Wait, was it the wrong armpit?

His arm must have been, like, his shoulder, his neck. He was probably like, man, this ninth day can't come fast enough. This is fucking killing me. Thank God, it's the ninth day. Hopefully, it's early morning when it happens. Oh, it's afternoon. It's midnight.

Oh, no. Nothing. He was then sentenced to life for drowning a man for the poison crew. Karina, Karina was also an armpit witch. She was known to tell clients chickens lay smaller eggs called devils eggs in June and July. And if you put one under your armpit,

it will put an evil spirit inside of that person. Inside of who? So it's very simple. I'm sorry. Yeah, again, I should be grasping this simply. In June and July, the hatching month, chickens lay smaller eggs. Right, you take those.

Those are devils eggs. You take those, and you put it under someone's armpit, and it will put an evil spirit inside of that person. OK, but they don't need to hold it under their arm for nine days. No, they probably don't even know it's there, because you're putting it under someone's armpit. Yeah, you're never going to notice if someone slips you an egg, Mickey.

Correct. Who would notice that? What the fuck are you doing? Uh-uh. Are you putting a devil egg under my ear? No, I just put my incubator broke. What? Please, go to sleep?

No, I will not. Let's play Truth or Dare. No. I'll give you some money to please. No. Do you like eggs? The arsenic trials went on for two and a half years. What the fuck?

Detectives. There were so many witnesses. They were like, we are unasserting. The jury was like, oh my god. Because the poison gang, as they're called, went on for like 13 years. Oh, wow. I mean, they made fucktons. They made fucktons of money, but the cops, some detectives thought there were thousands

of dead people. Probably in the hundred, definitely in the hundred, over a hundred. 21 murders were proven. There were 23 convictions, 15 life sentences, a few got up to 20 years, two death sentences, both Karina and Louis, the rabbi, only got life for squealing. Paul and Herman waited too long to talk and got death. So if they had immediately talked, like Louis and Karina, they would have gotten off. Paul was executed on March 31, 1941.

Herman was executed 200 days later. He did everything he could do to have it commuted to life. He even appealed to FDR. At the end, he was in, quote, frenzied prayer. People who heard it said it sounded like gibberish. Guards had to hold him upright as they took him to the electric chair. That's how I would go. Yeah.

You know what I mean? I wouldn't be like, right here? Okay, awesome. And then that one there, and, all right, well, this is, are you sure? Okay, the phone's not, okay. You know? No, no, no, no, no, no, please. Once he was drafted, he kept saying he was innocent and trying to get out of the chair.

And then he said to the witnesses, quote, you wouldn't want to witness the death of an innocent man. Give me a chance to prove my innocence. And then he said, quote, I want to see the governor. And then the mask was put over his face and he started screaming until he was dead. Oh my God. Several of them. Did he have an egg under his pit?

They were like, hey. Well, now you fucking blown it. Anyone want to screamy? Oh, whoa. Oh, yeah, it works. That is the, like, I mean, again, like, whatever, I'll shut up. But that means, like, the electric chair is just such a graphic, affordable, it's horrible. It's horrible.

Yeah. It's not how anybody gets. Several of the arsenic, well, we just shouldn't, you know, kill people. I agree completely, you know, but that that was a phase where we still do it off the electric where in, like, Texas, they just brought it back somewhere because it's got to be Texas if they brought it back. I think it's, I believe it is. Is it?

Oklahoma. Yeah. Well, that's basically Texas. Yeah. Yeah. That's where Texans go on vacation. Yeah. Several of the arsenic widows served time together in the same jail working on sewing

machines or on the farm. Louis the rabbi rediscovered his Jewish faith in prison and wanted to move to Israel, but couldn't because he was in prison for life. I have decided that I'd finally like to make a pilgrimage to Israel. I feel like it's time for me to wait. Sure. But can I finish? No.

Okay. You're in prison for life. Right. Yes. The lying. Yes. Me who lie. Yes.

I am now a, I love Judaism and the Torah has spoken to me on a level that is, no, no. That's great. I don't care. That's a command. It's me. I'm Jewish. Please. No.

No. We're anti-Semites. It's America. I'm Christian. God. He's so good. Jesus was like crazy cool. Huh?

What was in that guy? Huh? Wow, body of Christ, I would like to go to Jerusalem to see where the, if you kill me I want to be stoned. No. Wait. Cross. Final answer.

One of Paul's nephews, it turned out was serving time for a murder Paul committed and he was relieved, released after 16 years when evidence proved that Paul had killed him and not him. And the whole time he was like, my uncle did it and they never believed him. Cool to see you, nephew. Thank you again. Well, Paul's dead. I died.

This is the end for us. Verses, King of Poisons by Jar Pera Skandola, Catherine Canavan wrote True Crime Philadelphia, Arsenic and Lace the Bizarre Tale of a Philadelphia Murder Ring by Robert James Young. Yeah. That's it. Fuck. Man. It was just so, it was so much easier to do that, well, to do most shit, like to do most

criminal activity was like, the fact that you could just go get like life insurance on anyone, you know, that just get them to, by the way, you didn't even need them to sign it really, did you? Yeah. Couldn't you just forge a signature and be like, hey, yeah, that's his. And they'd be like, okay, that looks like a J. Yeah, yeah. That's a lot of murder though. Yeah.

The slow play. The best murder. Mm-hmm. That's what happens. Dare I say, David, it's birth out of the great depression. Well, that's what I was going to say. It's actually a pretty good. I think I'm supposed to keep talking now, Dave, or wait, did I die in the chair?

What was in this? Oh my God. Yeah. It's because of the great depression always people needed money. I mean. Yeah. And so you get, so like we keep doing that where you create, you know, the desperation for people and they act desperately shockingly.

That's right. Yeah. Correct. I'm excited for the greater depression. The greatest depression. USA, baby. Thank you all for coming out. We appreciate it.

Thank you to Twin Elephant for these beers. Help yourself. This is pretty much the only place left that's selling them. Thank you very much, guys. Appreciate it.