The Death of R. Budd Dwyer: Murdered by the State of Pennsylvania?

In keeping up with Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, Drewby and Yergy delve into the case of Robert Budd Dwyer, an American politician who served as the 30th State Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He served from 1965 to 1971 as a Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and from 1971 to 1981 as a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate representing the state's 50th district. Dwyer then served as the 30th Treasurer of Pennsylvania from January 20, 1981, to January 22, 1987, when he died due to committing suicide during a live press conference.

In the early 1980s, Pennsylvania discovered its state workers had overpaid federal taxes due to errors in state withholding prior to Dwyer's administration. A multi-million-dollar recovery contract was required to determine the compensation to be given to each employee. In 1986, Dwyer was convicted for accepting a bribe from the California firm that won the contract. He was found guilty on 11 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, perjury, and interstate transportation in aid of racketeering, and was scheduled to be sentenced on January 23, 1987. On January 22, Dwyer called a news conference in the Pennsylvania state capital of Harrisburg where he fatally shot himself with a .357 Magnum revolver in front of reporters. Dwyer's suicide  was broadcast later that day to a wide television audience across Pennsylvania, including children that were home from school due to a severe snowstorm.

Throughout Dwyer's trial and after his conviction, Dwyer maintained that he was not guilty of the charges for which he was convicted, and that his conviction resulted from political persecution. Former U.S. Attorney James West, who prosecuted Dwyer, affirmed Dwyer's guilt, stating that "the evidence against Dwyer was overwhelming and indisputable". All posthumous appeals made by Dwyer's lawyers on Dwyer's behalf were denied, and his convictions were upheld.

In 2010, Honest Man: The Life of R. Budd Dwyer, a feature documentary about R. Budd Dwyer’s life and the tragedy of his suicide, premiered at the Carmel Art and Film Festival in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with the Dwyer family in attendance. In the documentary, William T. Smith, a former chairman of the Dauphin County Republican Committee and one of the key trial witnesses in Dwyer’s conviction, admits that he lied under oath at his own trial about never offering Dwyer a bribe in hopes of reducing his own sentence and to spare his wife from being prosecuted for her role in the conspiracy. He expressed his regret for lying and the role it played in R. Budd Dwyer’s public suicide.

Although these revelations suggest that Dwyer may not have gotten justice, he did at least secure his family’s future. Since Dwyer died while still in office, his widow, Joanne, was able to collect full survivor benefits that totaled more than $1.28 million. Many close to Dwyer feel that he may have committed suicide to preserve the state-provided pension for his family, whose finances had been ruined by legal defense costs.

Suicide Hotlines Worldwide: http://www.suicide.org/international-suicide-hotlines.html

LGBTQ+ Lifeline: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/help-yourself/lgbtq/

Veterans Crisis Line: https://www.veteranscrisisline.net/

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#podcast #documentary #truecrime #suicideawareness #suicideawarenessmonth #mentalhealth

Source Material:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Budd_Dwyer

https://allthatsinteresting.com/r-budd-dwyer

https://www.amazon.com/Honest-Man-Life-R-Budd-Dwyer/dp/B006I9PO2G

The Tragic Death of Ronnie McNutt | We’re in a Suicide Epidemic | How the Internet Exploits Suicides

September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.

In light of this very important month, Drewby and Yergy discuss the tragic death of Ronnie McNutt, and young veteran from Mississippi, who took his own life on August 31, 2020 while on a Facebook livestream that was not taken down for many hours, despite many reports from people watching. Unfortunately, the footage got into the hands of internet trolls who decided to splice the footage into innocent videos and post them to TikTok, with the intent on traumatizing children, which is TikTok's largest demographic.

We discuss the death of Mitchell Henderson, who became the target of 4chan trolls after taking his own life in 2006, Nikki Catsouras, whose accident photos went viral after unscrupulous police officers leaked them online, and the victim who was likely impersonated and made the topic of the "Sh*t Was So Cash" meme who died in a car accident. In all these cases, the victims families were subject of harassment after dealing with the loss of their loved one. 

Suicide and loved ones who have struggled with mental health issues are both things that have affected both our lives very deeply. You are more than welcome to reach out to us if you feel you have nowhere else to turn. Email, Instagram DMs, our Discord, whatever medium you prefer. Please don't go through this alone.

We are unfortunately living in a time where mental health issues are not only stigmatized, but people who die by suicide are either ridiculed, exploited, or lavished with comforting reassurance that could have easily been brought their way when they were alive and struggling.  This is a multi-faceted problem that will be very difficult to overcome, but the first step in tackling it is being more willing to reach out and be there for people in our lives who are suffering. Right now, there are arguably more people affected than ever before due to COVID-19.

Let us all work together to be better to our loved ones. It's the only way our society will have a chance.

Link to Ronnie's Funeral Fundraiser: https://celebrationchurchms.churchcenter.com/giving/to/ronnie-s-funeral-fund?fbclid=IwAR2On_sPyZjj5C0pdfTqo-HkB3axBqmrAqOwoVsfRNuSVJtl4ZfLlqD-GHs

Suicide Hotlines Worldwide: http://www.suicide.org/international-suicide-hotlines.html

LGBTQ+ Lifeline: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/help-yourself/lgbtq/

Veterans Crisis Line: https://www.veteranscrisisline.net/

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#podcast #documentary #truecrime #suicideawareness #suicideawarenessmonth #mentalhealth

Links about suicide during COVID-19:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/media-spotlight/202006/are-we-facing-post-covid-19-suicide-epidemic?fbclid=IwAR2On_sPyZjj5C0pdfTqo-HkB3axBqmrAqOwoVsfRNuSVJtl4ZfLlqD-GHs

https://www.psycom.net/covid-19-suicide-rates?fbclid=IwAR2On_sPyZjj5C0pdfTqo-HkB3axBqmrAqOwoVsfRNuSVJtl4ZfLlqD-GHs

Dennis Nilsen: The UK’s Jeffrey Dahmer | The Muswell Hill Murderer | The Kindly Killer

Happy Labor Day!

This week, Drewby and Yergy take another trip across the pond and delve into the horrors of Dennis Nilsen, whose crimes bear striking similarities to that of our own Jeffrey Dahmer. We also discuss the upcoming 3 part miniseries "Des," starring David Tennant as Dennis Nilsen - which we are very excited for.

Dennis Andrew Nilsen was a Scottish serial killer and necrophile who murdered at least twelve young men and boys between 1978 and 1983 in London, England. Convicted of six counts of murder and two of attempted murder, Nilsen was sentenced to life imprisonment on November 4th, 1983, with a recommendation that he serve a minimum of 25 years. 

All of Nilsen's murders were committed in the two North London addresses in which he resided between 1978 and 1983. His victims would be lured to these addresses and killed by strangulation, sometimes accompanied by drowning. Following each murder, Nilsen would observe a ritual in which he bathed and dressed the victim's body, which he retained for extended periods of time, before dissecting and disposing of the remains by burning on a bonfire or flushing down the toilet. He died in prison on May 12, 2018 of a pulmonary embolism and retro-peritoneal hemorrhage.

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#podcast #documentary #truecrime 

Source Material:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Nilsen

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/david-tennant-on-playing-dennis-nilsen-the-making-of-a-murderer-0mh8bwz2b

https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/dennis-nilsen

https://murderpedia.org/male.N/n/nilsen-dennis.htm

Gloria Ramirez: The Toxic Lady - Medical Malady or Mass Hysteria?

This week, Drewby and Yergy review the mysterious case of Gloria Ramirez, a cervical cancer victim, whose brief but dramatic emergency room stay  in Riverside, California and untimely death baffled the medical community in the mid 90's due to medical workers falling very ill just by being in the presence of her and her body, prompting concern that her body had turned into a chemical weapon, and this was further highlighted as a possibility due to her alleged self-administration of Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Later the county health department attempted to make the claim that the whole thing was simply a case of mass hysteria, as many of the workers who fell ill were women. The case was further complicated due to multiple autopsies with the majority done after her body had already badly decomposed. Several conspiracy theories have since arisen.

We also discuss the need for continued funding to clinics that specialize in reproductive health in order to detect, treat, and eradicate diseases such as cervical cancer and HPV, the leading cause of this fairly preventable disease. 

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#podcast #documentary #truecrime 

Source Material:

https://www.rxlist.com/dmso_dimethylsulfoxide/supplements.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheyne-Stokes_respiration
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Gloria_Ramirez
https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/analysis-of-a-toxic-death

The Horrific Torture Killing of Kelly Anne Bates

Due popular demand by our viewers, we recount the tragic death of Kelly Anne Bates - an English teenager who was murdered in Manchester, England at the age of 17 by her abuser and live in partner, James Patterson Smith, who was roughly 30 years her senior. She was tortured by him over a period of four weeks, including having her eyes gouged from their sockets up to three weeks before her death, before being bludgeoned over the head and drowned in a bathtub.

The murder inquiry was headed by Detective Sergeant Joseph Monaghan of Greater Manchester Police, who said: "I have been in the police force for 15 years and have never seen a case as horrific as this." William Lawler, the pathologist who examined Bates' body, described her injuries as the worst he had seen on a murder victim. 

Smith, with a history of violence and torture against former partners, denied murdering Bates but was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on 19 November 1997.

This case has been compared to the Junko Furuta and Sylvia Likens case, and once again highlights the topic of bystander apathy.

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Source Material:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kelly_Anne_Bates

https://www.manchestersfinest.com/articles/manchesters-vilest-murder-kelly-anne-bates/

https://allthatsinteresting.com/kelly-anne-bates-james-patterson-smith

https://murderpedia.org/male.S/s/smith-james-patterson.htm

The Death of Kendrick Johnson: Accident or FBI Cover Up?

This week, Drewby and Yergy discuss the tragic death of Kendrick Johnson, conspiracy theories related to his untimely death, the gross mishandling of his case at the hands of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and how the legal system has yet again failed a person of color.

On January 11, 2013, the body of Kendrick Johnson  was discovered inside a vertical, rolled-up mat in the gymnasium of Lowndes High School in Valdosta, GA where he was a student. KJ, as he was known by family and friends, was described him as a sweet and quiet boy. He was a three-sport athlete and dreamed of one day playing professional football.

A preliminary investigation and autopsy concluded that his death was accidental, and was classified as "positional asphyxia" or that he suffocated as a result of being stuck upside-down in an enclosed space for an extended period of time. Johnson's family had a private pathologist conduct a second autopsy (and years later, a third) which concluded that Johnson died from blunt force trauma, which was allegedly inflicted by means of a 45lb weight or dumbbell, according to many accounts.

Also discovered during the second autopsy was the fact that Kendrick's body lacked internal organs, and that his body cavity had been stuffed with newspapers during the embalming process. The absence of his organs raised questions pointing at a cover up at the hands of the coroner that handled the initial autopsy, and sparked conspiracy theories regarding organ harvesting and trafficking. Kendrick's family sued the funeral home, but the case was subsequently dropped as nothing technically illegal had occurred. 

On October 31, 2013, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia announced that his office would open a formal review into Johnson's death. On June 20, 2016, the US Department of Justice announced that it would not be filing any criminal charges related to Johnson's death. Kendrick Johnson's family filed a $100 million civil lawsuit against 38 individuals. The lawsuit alleged that Johnson's death was a murder and accused the respondents of a conspiracy to cover up the homicide, which involved two sons of an FBI agent.

Johnson’s father, however, admitted that he had no hard evidence to back up any of these claims and the Johnsons had to drop the suit. They were sued for more than $850,000 in attorney fees and more than one million in defamation charges. They were ultimately ordered by a judge to pay close to $300,000 worth of lawyers’ fees to those they had accused with no evidence.

Some people have compared KJ's death to the Emmett Till case.

Drewby and Yergy also touch on the racial elements of this case, and discuss whether or not the case would have been handled differently if Kendrick would have been a white student.

Black Lives Matter

Links to the Petitions To Reopen the Case: https://www.change.org/p/united-states-supreme-court-justice-for-kendrick-johnson, https://www.change.org/p/gbi-justice-for-kendrick-johnson & https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/kendrick-johnson-petition

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#podcast #documentary #truecrime #justice4kendrick #blm

Source Material:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Kendrick_Johnson

https://allthatsinteresting.com/kendrick-johnson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9_n9vXz_LM&t

The Mysterious Death of Kenneka Jenkins: Are The Conspiracy Theories True?

This week, Drewby and Yergy dive into a YouTube listener suggested case - thank you so much Chiffon for your suggestion!

Kenneka Jenkins was a teenager girl found deceased inside a latched walk in freezer in a remote kitchen within the Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare hotel in Rosemont, Illinois, after attending a party there on September 10, 2017.

The medical examiner's report found Jenkins' death to be accidental. Alcohol and Topiramate found in her system were thought to have hastened the effects of hypothermia sustained by Jenkins remaining inside the freezer. While the Rosemont police department did not suspect foul play, they stated that their investigation was incomplete. Jenkins' family and friends criticized the initial police response, and a lawsuit was subsequently filed against the hotel and others.

The case was also rife with conspiracy theories, many pointing fingers at several of Kenneka's friends, with one of the more outrageous theories claiming that Kenneka was murdered in order to provide Selena Gomez with one of her kidneys.

We also have a guest interview with a clinical pharmacist to cover Topiramate, the effects it could have had on Kenneka, and if it is possible that she could have been slipped an undetectable drug. 

(If you think we botched this, we want to correct it. We thought Elisa Lam was murdered, and if Kenneka was too then we want to signal boost that. If you can point us in the right direction on sources, or let us know what we need to scrutinize more, we can do a follow up episode. We spent many hours on this, and its possible some of the wilder theories like Selena Gomez killing her got in the way of us seeing more legitimate theories.)

This week's episode is sponsored by Nautics: https://thenautics.bandcamp.com/

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#podcast #documentary #truecrime

Source Material:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Kenneka_Jenkins

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-kenneka-jenkins-hotel-death-anniversary-20180906-story.html

Where is Ashley Morin?

As we've talked about in previous episodes, the treatment of Indigenous and First Nations people, specifically women, in Canada is unacceptable. Today we're sharing a case with you courtesy of our friends at Occultae Veritatis Podcast. If you have any information, please utilize the links below.

Tipline Email: shorturl.at/pHKMX

Saskatchewan Crime Stoppers: 1-800-222-8477

https://www.p3tips.com/tipform.aspx?ID=206#

https://www.facebook.com/bringashleymorinhome/

https://saskatoon.ctvnews.ca/timeline-a-look-at-the-tiki-laverdiere-homicide-investigation-1.4543609

Maine’s First Shark Related Death

This week, Yergy and Drewby report on Maine's first shark related death that took place on July 27th in the town of Harpswell, on the quaint Bailey Island - a place Yergy and Drewby both grew up visiting. 63-year-old Julie Dimperio Holowach, a New York native who, while staying at her summer home in Harpswell, was tragically killed by a great white shark while she was swimming in the ocean. We cover the facts of the case as made public by the media, and give our own tips as locals on how to stay safe in the ocean this summer. 

This week's episode is sponsored by Podcorn: https://podcorn.com/

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The Life of Billy Herrington ♂ Aniki ♂ Gachimuchi ♂ レスリングシリーズ ♂ 哲学 ♂ 森の妖精 ♂ 妖精哲学

This week, Yergy and Drewby take a break from true crime to pay tribute to the legend known as Billy Herrington, highlighting his early work in male adult entertainment, and his unexpected rise to internet fame in Asia, and later the rest of the world, through the internet phenomena of Gachimuchi.

Billy Herrington was born in North Babylon, New York, and grew up on Long Island learning karate from his father, who was a sensei. He had interests in boxing, wrestling and martial arts, but did not start bodybuilding until he was 24 years old, after moving to New York City.

Herrington began his career when his then girlfriend from Long Island submitted his pictures to Playgirl magazine. The photographs won him a "Real Men of the Month" contest and a $500.00 prize. His appearance in the magazine caught the eye of famed photographer Jim French, but it was two years before Herrington posed for his first Colt calendars for French. Soon after, Herrington was filming adult films for All Worlds Video, and appearing on mainstream TV programs such as Love Connection and the Ricki Lake talk show. 

Herrington gained fame in Japan as an Internet meme, after a clip from one of his videos was posted on Nico Nico Douga, a Japanese video sharing website. Thousands of mash-up parody videos of him have been made, many of which utilize deliberate mishearings of lines from his films. He is affectionately called "Aniki," or "older brother," among the Nico Nico Douga community, and most of his videos are deliberately mistagged with "Wrestling Series," "Forest Fairy," "Philosophy," or all three, later these videos would crossover to Youtube as well as Twitch through streamers like Forsen, and Gachimuchi would gain international popularity alongside the Catalina Video meme craze.

On February 14th, 2009, Herrington visited Japan after he was invited to make an appearance in a special Nico Nico Douga livecast for Valentine's Day. According to the YouTube video description, more than 10,000 fans of Billy Herrington showed up at the Nico Nico Douga event in Tokyo's Akihabara district. On the same day as the event, Japanese model kit makers Good Smile Company announced that they would manufacture a limited-edition Billy Herrington action figure.

During the evening of March 1, 2018, Herrington was involved in a car accident on California State Route 111 in Rancho Mirage. He was found trapped in the wreckage and was brought to a Palm Springs hospital, where he died the next day. On March 3rd, film director Chi Chi LaRue tweeted a memorial tweet for Herrington, which gained over 4,000 retweets and over 1,500 likes in less than 12 hours. Shortly after, Herrington's mother, confirmed the death in a Facebook post which received over 1,400 reactions over the same time, revealing he died in a car accident. Fans responded with hundreds of tributes across video sharing sites and message boards. One tribute video uploaded on Nico Nico Douga accumulated over 80,000 views in less than one week. Herrington was buried at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Cathedral City, California.

We miss you Billy ❤ ♂ RIP

This week's episode is sponsored by True Crime by Indie Drop-In: https://pdsh.re/p/true-crime

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#podcast #documentary #truecrime

Source Material:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Herrington

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/billy-herrington-gachimuchi

https://siivagunner.fandom.com/wiki/Gachimuchi
https://gachimuchi.fandom.com/wiki/Gachimuchi_Wiki

Jeffrey Dahmer & The Effect on the Milwaukee LGBT Community

It's our anniversary! Thank you so much to all of our listeners that have been with us on this crazy ride. We appreciate all that you do and cannot wait to see what this next year brings. To help celebrate, this week we are releasing the heavily anticipated "Dahmer Episode" guest starring the one and only Eddy!

Jeffrey Dahmer and his crimes in the late 80's and early 90's shook the US. The murders of almost 2 dozen men and boys, many gay men of color, sent waves of fear through the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; in particular the LGBT community, which was already suffering through the turmoil of the AIDS epidemic, as well as prejudicial violence. 

Rather than discuss Dahmer and his crimes as a whole, Drewby and Yergy do a deep dive on how his crimes affected the LGBT community, and if there was any lasting effect today. We shed light on how Milwaukee for the time was something of an unexpected beacon for the community, developing progressive policies that became the model for anti-discrimination legislation that we see today across the United States. 

Eddy gives an invaluable first hand account of LGBT life in Milwaukee, as well as his own Dahmer connection, and how natives - both in and outside the LGBT community, view Dahmer's crimes and the effect they have on Milwaukee today. 

This week's episode is sponsored by True Crime by Indie Drop-In: https://pdsh.re/p/true-crime

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Source Material:

https://www.wuwm.com/post/how-did-jeffrey-dahmer-harm-milwaukees-gay-community#stream/0

https://www.wuwm.com/post/walkers-point-gathering-space-milwaukees-lgbt-community-75-years-and-counting#stream/0

#podcast #documentary #truecrime

Mary Kay Letourneau | The Media Going Easy on Women Predators | Do Abused Boys Get the Support They Deserve?

Drewby and Yergy cover the recent death of Mary Kay Letourneau, who was an American school teacher (and tabloid fixture of the 1990's) who pleaded guilty in 1997 to two counts of felony second-degree rape of a child, Vili Fualaau, who was 12 or 13 at the time, had been her sixth-grade student, and had allegedly also taught him in second grade. While awaiting sentencing, she gave birth to Fualaau's child, a daughter named Audrey Lokelani. With the state seeking a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence, she reached a plea agreement calling for six months in jail, with three months suspended, and no contact with Fualaau for life. The case received national attention.

Shortly after spending three months in jail, the police caught Letourneau in a car with Fualaau. A judge revoked her plea agreement and reinstated the prison sentence for the maximum allowed by law of seven-and-a-half years. Eight months after returning to prison, she gave birth to Fualaau's second child, another daughter named Georgia. She was imprisoned from 1998 to 2004. Letourneau served her sentence in the Washington Corrections Center for Women.

In October 1998, Letourneau and Fualaau co-authored a book, which was published in France, called Only One Crime, Love. In 1999 a second book appeared, this one published in the United States, but written with only minimal cooperation from Letourneau, and none from Fualaau: If Loving You Is Wrong.

Letourneau and Fualaau were married in May 2005, and the marriage lasted 14 years until their separation in 2019. Letourneau died of colon cancer in July 2020 after several months of treatment, with Vili Fualaau at her side.

We dive into the hard questions - Did the media go too easy on Letourneau? Although now a legal adult, could Fualaau really make an informed decision after being victimized for years by Letourneau? If Letourneau were a male teacher, would the media still be hailing their story a fairy tale romance? Do boys get the support they need when preyed upon by older women? We speculate on all of these questions, share personal thoughts and experiences - and more.

This week's episode is sponsored by True Crime by Indie Drop-In: https://pdsh.re/p/true-crime

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Mr. Hands | The Enumclaw Horse Sex Case | 2 Guys 1 Horse

This week, Drewby and Yergy discuss in great detail the Enumclaw horse sex case, which was a series of incidents in 2005 involving Kenneth Pinyan, an engineer who worked for Boeing and resided in Gig Harbor, Washington; James Michael Tait, a truck driver; and other unidentified men. Pinyan and Tait filmed and distributed zoophilic pornography of Pinyan receiving anal sex from a stallion under the alias "Mr. Hands". After engaging in this activity on multiple occasions over an unknown span of time, Pinyan received fatal internal injuries in one such incident.

The story was reported in The Seattle Times and was one of that paper's most read stories of 2005. It was informally referred to as the "Enumclaw horse sex case". After Pinyan's death, a video circulated around the internet of Kenneth Pinyan engaging in receptive anal intercourse with a horse. The video was nicknamed "Mr. Hands" or "2 Guys 1 Horse". The video, intended originally to sexually gratify the viewer, became one of the first viral reaction videos.

Pinyan's death rapidly prompted the passing of a bill in Washington prohibiting both sex with animals and the videotaping of such an act. Under current Washington law, bestiality is now a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

We also discuss what qualifies as a "snuff film" and we touch on the furry subculture and how "Mr. Hands" does not represent furries.

Happy Birthday Eddy, who was our patron and believed in us even when we had no subscribers and were struggling to get 100 views a month. We love you. 

This week's episode is sponsored by True Crime by Indie Drop-In: https://pdsh.re/p/true-crime

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Mary Cowan | The Borgia of Maine | Maine’s First Serial Killer

This week, Drewby and Yergy discuss the little known case of Mary Cowan, who arguably is Maine's first serial killer. We also touch base on her connections to Lewiston.

Mary A. Cowan, known as The Borgia of Maine, was an American serial killer who poisoned two husbands (Willis W. Bean, and George H. Taylor), and four children between 1884 and 1894 (Gracie, Alice and Mabel Bean - as well as stepson Willis Cowan), and attempted to murder a third husband (Elias Cowan). Convicted of killing her step-son in September 1894, Cowan was sentenced to life imprisonment and sent off to the Maine State Prison, then in Thomaston, for the following two years.

In 1898, her examining physician turned to then-governor Llewellyn Powers with the request of pardoning Mary, as she was in failing health and wished to die peacefully in her Dixmont home. Despite her ailment, Mary gave birth to a child while in prison (an unnamed baby girl - referred to as Mary's final victim), but it, along with herself, died soon after.

Cowan, by then dubbed 'The Borgia of Maine' by the press, was first interned at Etna, where her parents lived, but her body was then moved to the Sawyer Cemetery in her birthplace of Plymouth, where she was buried on the family plot with her murder victims.

This week's episode is sponsored by Podcorn: https://podcorn.com/

Burial Plots of Mary and her Victims: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/82040802/mary-bean-cowan

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The Mysterious Death of Elisa Lam | The Cecil Hotel Controversies | The Real Dark Water

This week, Drewby and Yergy discuss the tragic death of Elisa Lam, a Canadian student at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death.

The body of Elisa Lam was recovered from a water tank atop the Cecil Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles on February 19, 2013. She had been reported missing at the beginning of the month. A maintenance worker at the hotel discovered the body when investigating guest complaints of problems with the water supply. The person who found her soon left the country due to mysterious circumstances.

Her disappearance had been widely reported; interest had increased five days prior to her body's discovery when the Los Angeles Police Department released video of the last time she was known to have been seen, on the day of her disappearance, by an elevator security camera. In the footage, Lam is seen exiting and re-entering the elevator, talking and gesturing in the hallway outside, and sometimes seeming to hide within the elevator, which itself appears to be malfunctioning. The video went viral on the Internet, with many viewers reporting that they found it unsettling. Explanations ranged from claims of paranormal involvement to bipolar disorder, from which Lam suffered; it has also been argued that the video was altered prior to release.

The circumstances of Lam's death, once she was found, also raised questions, especially in light of the Cecil's history in relation to other notable deaths and murders. Her body was naked with most of her clothes and personal effects floating in the water near her. It took the Los Angeles County Coroner's office four months, after repeated delays, to release the autopsy report, which reports no evidence of physical trauma and states that the manner of death was accidental. Guests at the Cecil, now re-branded as Stay on Main, sued the hotel over the incident, and Lam's parents filed a separate suit later that year; the latter was dismissed in 2015.

Some of the early Internet interest noted what were considered to be unusual similarities between Lam's death and the 2005 horror film Dark Water. The case has since been referenced in international popular culture.

LordanARTS BrainScratch YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/user/GeekenDorx

Twist YouTube Conspiracy Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ckLZsNdkRY&t

Elevator Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZJCADL83X0

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The Keddie Cabin Murders | Cabin 28 | The Strangers

This week, Drewby and Yergy tackle another great listener suggestion (thank you to our new patron, Kearen!) and discuss a complicated case more commonly known as the Keddie Cabin Murders.

The Keddie Cabin Murders are an unsolved 1981 quadruple homicide in Keddie, California, a rural resort town in the Sierra Nevada. The victims were Glenna Susan "Sue" Sharp; her son, John Steven Sharp; daughter Tina Lynn Sharp; and John's friend, Dana Hall Wingate.

The murders took place in Cabin 28 of the Keddie Resort during the late evening of April 11, 1981, or early the following morning, and the bodies of Sue, John, and Dana were found on the morning of April 12 by Sue's 14-year-old daughter, Sheila. Sue's two younger sons, Rick and Greg, as well as their friend Justin Smartt, were also in the house, but were unharmed. Tina was missing from the scene.

Tina remained a missing person until April 1984, when her skull and several other bones were recovered at Camp Eighteen, California, near Feather Falls in Butte County. Multiple leads and suspects were examined in the intervening years, though no charges were filed. Subsequent sheriffs in Plumas County would state that the initial investigation was disorganized and poorly conducted, resulting in the overlooking of crucial evidence. Several new leads have been announced in the 21st century, including the discovery of a hammer in a pond in 2016, as well as announcements regarding the discovery of new DNA evidence.

The Keddie murders have received national media attention, including coverage in People magazine, an Investigation Discovery documentary series, Buzzfeed’s Unsolved and an independent 2008 feature documentary titled Cabin 28. Renewed public interest in the case was sparked in part by the release of the 2008 horror film The Strangers, which various Internet bloggers theorized was inspired by the Keddie murders; despite slight similarities, the film made no such claims to having been based on the crimes.

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The Murder of Charlie Howard | Maine’s Most Notorious Hate Crime | The Real Adrian Mellon

In honor of Pride month, this week, Drewby and Yergy discuss the tragic case of Charlie Howard, a young gay man that was murdered in Bangor, ME in 1984, who never really received justice due to his sexual orientation. 

As Howard and his boyfriend, Roy Ogden, were walking down the street, three teenagers, Shawn Mabry, James Baines, and Daniel Ness, harassed, assaulted, and murdered Howard for being gay. The youths chased the pair, yelling homophobic epithets, until they caught Howard and threw him over the State Street Bridge into the Kenduskeag Stream, despite his pleas that he could not swim. He drowned, but his boyfriend escaped and pulled a fire alarm.

Charlie Howard's body was found by rescue workers several hours later. The boys were sent to the Hancock County Jail and later released into their parents' custody. They were tried as juveniles and sentenced on 1 October 1984 to the Maine Youth Center not to exceed their 21st birthdays, however all parties served less than 24 months. This event galvanized the Bangor community in ways similar to the killing of Matthew Shepard, although the case never attained the same level of national notoriety.

This incident inspired a similar scene near the beginning of Stephen King's novel It, in which three homophobic teenagers throw an openly gay man, Adrian Mellon, over a bridge and into the Kenduskeag, where he was set upon and murdered by the monster It in the form of Pennywise.

Today, a short distance from the site of Howard's death, a memorial has been erected; engraved on the stone are the words: “May we, the citizens of Bangor, continue to change the world around us until hatred becomes peacemaking and ignorance becomes understanding.” July 7, Howard's death date, is now Diversity Day in Bangor.

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GRAPHIC: The Murder of Sylvia Likens | Do Women Get Lighter Sentences For Child Murder? | Bystander Apathy | Indiana’s Most Sadistic Case

This week, Drewby and Yergy cover the tragic story of Sylvia Likens. We draw comparisons to her case and that of Junko Furuta, and discuss the phenomena of bystander apathy, why no one in power stepped in to assist, why neighbors were apathetic despite numerous instances of public child abuse, and why neighborhood kids considered the ordeal to be some sort of funny sideshow or game, despite there being dozens of witnesses to her torture.

The murder of Sylvia Likens was a child murder which occurred in Indianapolis, Indiana in October 1965. Likens, aged 16, was held captive and subjected to increasing levels of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse and torture, and neighborhood children were allowed to do the same if they paid an admission fee, which many did. These inhuman crimes were committed over a period of almost three months—by her caregiver, Gertrude Baniszewski, many of Baniszewski's children, and countless other neighborhood children, before ultimately succumbing to her injuries on October 26.

Despite the ages of some of the perpetrators being in their late teens, none were tried as adults, and all got incredibly light sentences for their crimes, including Gertrude Baniszewski who was paroled after only 14 years in prison, despite receiving a life sentence, overall contributing to the data that women get lighter sentences compared to men for all crimes involving abuse towards children, no matter how heinous.

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The Disappearance of Randy Leach | 1980’s Satanic Panic | Do Small Town Police Mishandle Cases?

Armin Meiwes | The Rotenburg Cannibal | Der Metzgermeister

This week, Yergy and Drewby take a trip to the Fatherland to discuss the culinary proclivities of Armin Meiwes, whose crime inspired several musicians to make songs about his actions, and highlighted a massive hole in the German legal system where cannibalism is technically legal.

Armin Meiwes is a German former computer repair technician who achieved international notoriety for killing and eating a voluntary victim in 2001, whom he had found via the Internet. After Meiwes and the victim jointly attempted to eat the victim's severed penis, Meiwes killed his victim and proceeded to eat a large amount of his flesh. He was arrested in December 2002 and in January 2004 was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to eight years and six months in prison. In a retrial May 2006, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Because of his acts, Meiwes is also known as the Rotenburg Cannibal or Der Metzgermeister (The Master Butcher).

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Murder Hornets: The New Plague of Locusts?

This week, Yergy and Drewby take a break from the weekly grind of true crime to bring to you an even bigger viral threat: Murder Hornets.

The Asian Giant Hornet (or Murder Hornet) is native to East Asia, South Asia, Mainland Southeast Asia, parts of Far East Russia, and was found in the Pacific Northwest in late 2019. It is currently the largest hornet species in the world by far.

We discuss the impact this species could mean for the US, what dangers it could present, and if the media hype around them is a fair assessment. We also compare the Murder Hornets to similar known species as far as venom toxicity and pain on the Schmidt sting pain index.

We also can confirm that Murder Hornets are what killed Macaulay Culkin in My Girl.

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James Hicks Part 2 | The Murder of Lynn Willette | Maine’s Only Serial Killer

James Hicks Part 1 | The Murders of Jennie Cyr Hicks & Jerilyn Towers | Maine’s Only Serial Killer

This week, Yergy and Drewby discuss the crimes of James Rodney Hicks, arguably Maine's only known serial killer. 

On 1 November 2000, Maine's Penobscot County grand jury formally charged confessed killer James Hicks, 49, with the murders of Jerilyn Towers and Lynn Willette. Hicks served six years of a 10-year prison sentence for killing his first wife, 23-year-old Jennie Hicks, who disappeared from the couple's Carmel home in 1977. 

Hicks was not arrested for her murder until 1983 and was convicted in 1984. Before his arrest, Towers, 34, of Newport, disappeared after leaving a Newport bar with Hicks. In fact the police investigation into Towers' disappearance prompted the re-examination Jennie Hicks' disappearance and subsequently the charging Hicks with her murder. At the time he was not charged with Towers' death because police lacked adequate evidence.

After his release from prison in 1990, Hicks met 40-year-old Willette of Orrington with whom he worked at the Twin City Motel in Brewer. The two eventually lived together at a South Main Street apartment where Hicks now claims he killed Willette 26 May 1996. Though also suspected in her disappearance, Hicks was never charged with her death because of lack of evidence. That is until he was handed a 55-year sentence in Lubbock, Texas, and confessed to the three killings and led authorities to their bodies.

Hicks was convicted in Texas of holding a gun to the head of a 67-year-old woman, forcing here to write a check to him and sign over the title to her car, and then write a suicide note. He planned to drug and drown the woman to make it look like a suicide, but she somehow managed to escaped. When he was convicted to 55 years in prison Hicks asked to cut a deal with authorities in Maine whereby he agreed to direct them to the bodies of the three missing in exchange for serving his time in Maine instead of Texas.

Back in Maine Hicks located the remains of his three victims after two days of digging around his former home in Etna and at several roadside sites in Aroostook County, Maine. The remains of his former wife and Towers were found 100 feet apart next to the home where he grew up. Willette's remains were found in concrete buckets buried next to the road in Aroostook County. Apparently all the bodies were dismembered and some parts he allegedly tossed in a nearby river.

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Mona Fandey | The Murder of Datuk Mazlan Idris | The Singing Witch

We hope you're all staying safe in quarantine out there! This week, Drewby and Yergy discuss the case of Mona Fandey - a failed pop singer later turned shaman and murderer from Malaysia. Fandey was executed at the age of 45, after being convicted of the murder of a politician, Mazlan Idris in 1993, who had solicited Fandey to perform a "witchcraft ritual" to help his position within his political party.

Ending Song: "Ratapan Anek" By Mona Fandey

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Futoshi Matsunaga | Junko Ogata | The Kitakyūshū Serial Murder Incident | Japan’s Only Known Serial Killer Duo

This week, Drewby and Yergy cover the ghastly crimes of Futoshi Matsunaga, who is a Japanese serial killer who kidnapped, defrauded, and tortured his victims in what is collectively known as the Kitakyūshū Serial Murder Incident. Matsunaga was convicted of six counts of murder and one count of manslaughter between 1996 and 1998 and sentenced to die by hanging. He murdered his victims with an accomplice, Junko Ogata, who also received a life sentence. Both were on Japan's most wanted list, and remained at large for years. This also makes the pair one of the very few known serial killer duos in the world, and the only known serial killer duo in Japan.

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