Witnessed: Devil in the Ditch - A Friendly Stranger with A Terrifying Secret - My Friend the Serial Killer

Episode Date: June 10, 2024

What would you do if someone you knew turned out to be a serial killer? In the 1970s, Steve Fishman was an intern at his local newspaper. One day, he hitched a ride back home from Boston with a kind stranger who graciously picked him up and dropped him off at his destination. What Steve didn’t know however, was that this stranger was hiding a dark secret: by the time he picked up Steve, he had already killed three people - all hitchhikers. But this fateful ride was just the beginning of Steve’s story. While this may have been the first time Steve met the man he’d come to know as Red, it wouldn’t be the last… Featuring exclusive interviews and never-before-heard tapes, join Steve as he tells his chilling story for the first time and unravels the lingering questions surrounding this wild chapter of his life. Why did Steve get spared by the killer during their first meeting? And what could have possibly driven Steve back to the same killer he had just escaped? Find out on Smoke Screen: My Friend, the Serial Killer - available now wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribers to The Binge can listen to all episodes right now, completely ad-free. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, Witness listeners. Sean Flynn here. While our story of the manhunt in Austin has come to an end, another wildly gripping podcast has just dropped on the Binge channel, Smoke Screen, my friend the serial killer. In the 1970s, host Steve Fishman was an intern at a small newspaper in Connecticut when he hitchhiked home from Boston one day. Steve got dropped off and didn't think much about the trip after that, until his newsroom got a bulletin that that same driver had been arrested by Florida police and had confessed

to a number of disturbing murders, of hitchhikers. It was a bone-chilling brush with death that shook Steve to his core. That was only the beginning, because that close call with the serial killer, that was only the beginning. Because that close call with the serial killer? That was the first time Steve would meet the man he came to call Red. But it wasn't the last. Join Steve Fishman himself as he unravels and recounts this harrowing tale that is as terrifying as it is fascinating, uncovering new revelations all these years later. Here's a sneak peek.

So now I fall into the routine of the newspaper and also I keep itch-yanking. Sometimes the rides are great. You would get these mothers who would have their children in the backseat or young hippies in minibuses who would offer me drugs and also, you know, dreams of changing my life, like buying a van and painting it purple and driving across America. And then there were other kinds of rides. One time a couple of guys took me to the end of a dirt road. And right before they steal my backpack, one of them says to me, don't you know you shouldn't

hitchhike? Maybe I'm willfully oblivious, but I figure I've been lucky enough. I'm gonna keep hitchhiking. One weekend, it must've been around the fall of 1975. I'd just turned 20, and I need to get back to Norwich from Boston where I'd been visiting friend.

So here I am again on the side of the road, thumb out and waiting for a ride. Do you remember the moment when the car picked you up? So I was on the side of the road and there's a, a, a, a, a Lesaber. The car in my memory is kind of a green, you know, So I was on the side of the road and there's a Laseber. The car in my memory is kind of a green, you know, a sedan, like a nice enough car, pulled up, and I was just really happy. But there's this guy, like nice enough. He had a kind of, like a bit of a drawl. He seemed to be kind of my size, kind of red-orange hair. He probably was 10, 15 years older than me at the time.

I tell him, I'm going to Norwich, and I'm lucky. He says he's from Norwich, and he knows a shortcut. Nice guy. He says he's from Norwich and he knows a shortcut. Nice guy. Tells me his nickname is Red, like his hair. So he seemed a little bit like a stranger, but not like strange, but a stranger. And we kind of fell into conversation about like,

so where are you from? What do you do? And he says, well, I'm kind of an electrician, but you know, I'm trying to get on my feet. I said, yeah, it's not easy always. He said, well, that's, you know, I just came out of prison. So that's both like a conversation stopper. And now I'm thinking, wow, this could be a story, you know,

like feature a guy just coming out of prison, reintegration into society. Now I'm trying to draw him out about it. And would you be open to doing a story about it? And he says, sure, yeah, sure. I mean, he's a guy who's articulate, he's friendly, he's open. 15- 20 minutes go by and we're getting to my destination. I jot down his contact information. The car stops. I reach for the door handle and it doesn't open. The handle just doesn't work.

I turn quickly to see what the hell's going on, and I feel panic taking over. Ready for the rest of Steve's story? Search for Smokescreen, my friend the serial killer, wherever you get your podcasts to listen now.