Pod Insights Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén Talhotblond: A Catfish Tale About this episode An online love triangle explodes into deception and murder when a middle-aged factory worker poses as a young Marine to seduce a teenage girl.
Sources for this episode include:Talhotblond (2009) Directed by Barbara Schroeder“An IM Infatuation Turned to Romance. Then the Truth Came Out” (WIRED, 2007) by Nadya LabiABC News coverage (2010)
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Transcript 0:08 Speaker 00 You know, there's something I've always wondered about in the story of The Little Red Riding Hood. After the wolf kills the grandmother, he puts on her clothes. And he talks in an old lady voice, but why? I get that he wants to trick Little Red, but... The great big eyes, the ears, the teeth. She can clearly tell he's not really her dear old grandmama. If his whole plan is to just eat her, why bother trying to disguise himself? Well, maybe. Just maybe. It's because a disguise buys us something. Something powerful. Courage. Courage to do something great. Something terrible.
0:52 Speaker 00 Something beyond what we think we are capable of in our ordinary lives. It just depends.
1:01 Speaker 00 What kind of person are you when you're hiding behind a mask? Do you become the hero?
1:08 Speaker 00 Or are you the wolf?
1:13 Speaker 00 In today's story, a suburban dad finds his disguise not in a grandmother's cabin, but in an equally terrifying place.
1:23 Speaker 00 An internet chatroom.
1:29 Speaker 00 I'm Haru Gien, and this is Killer Stories.
1:57 Speaker 00 Today's story takes us back to 2005. The tracksuits are juicy, the jeans are low, and the Uggs are not yet ironic. It's a time when technology is moving faster than people can keep up with. Google Maps, YouTube, and Reddit have all been launched, but people are still printing directions off MapQuest. Social media is still dominated by MySpace, and chatrooms are still a popular way to communicate.
2:22 Speaker 00 Thomas Montgomery is a middle-aged ex-marine who loves chatrooms. He has a nice home in upstate New York, a stable job that pays the bills, and an adoring family. It's the kind of life a lot of people dream of, and Thomas is about to screw everything up. Because he is a catfish. Before that term even existed. Thomas tripped into a chatroom through an online poker habit, and now, instead of talking to his adorable wife Cindy, he befriends random strangers on the internet, which admittedly is something we all did back then. Before avatars and photo icons, all we had were embarrassing screen names.
3:07 Speaker 00 And Thomas's screen name? Marine Sniper. Which is only embarrassing when you hear the backstory. Thomas watched a lot of war movies as a kid. I guess he never heard of cartoons. And he dreamed of being a combat marine. And he did become a marine and served for six years. But he never saw combat. And he certainly was never a sniper, so his screen name is a lie. A fantasy. A version of himself he wishes were true.
3:44 Speaker 00 One day, Thomas is lurking in a chatroom that he shouldn't be in. It's for teens only. He later says he didn't know that. Come on, Thomas. He starts DMing with someone who calls him out. She tells him, "You're not supposed to be in this chatroom." Thomas realizes his bio gives him away, because he is 46 and he's caught off guard. He's probably seen that show To Catch a Predator, where men get caught talking to young girls online, and he's an outstanding member of his community. His neighbors like him, he teaches Sunday school, and he helps out at his daughter's swim club.
4:27 Speaker 00 Instead of logging off his computer, or going to an age-appropriate chatroom, though, he lies. He tells her, "Oh, I'm just using my dad's account. My name's Tommy, and I'm only 18." She tells him, "Cool. She's 18, too, and her name's Jessie. She's a high school senior who's really into sports, especially softball. More than anything, she can't wait to graduate high school and maybe move out of her small town in West Virginia." Jessie uses a screen name, @tallhotblond, and she sends Thomas two photos of herself in bikinis to prove that she really is all of those things. Now, Jessie's only 18
5:11 Speaker 00 and was tricked into this whole situation, so I will not be showing them. But Thomas, obviously, has no problems looking at these pictures. He keeps talking to her and lying about who he really is. He's thinking to himself, "Well, what's the big deal? With a little casual banter, he's never gonna meet her in real life." But he doesn't keep things casual for long.
5:36 Speaker 00 While they talk, Thomas is creating this whole life for his alter ego, Tommy. He tells Jessie he's joining the Marines and paints himself as this tortured soul. He's a loner who doesn't let anyone get too close, and he hasn't felt love in his life since his mom died. He's letting her in on all these vulnerable secrets, only, they're all made up.
6:03 Speaker 00 But Jessie is apparently buying it, so he keeps going, burying himself under a pile of lies. I'm not talking about just one online chat. Soon, they're talking all the time.
6:19 Speaker 00 It goes on for months. They're instant messaging, they're calling each other on the phone. Sometimes, Thomas pulls all-nighters, chatting with Jessie until it's time to leave for work in the morning. They go from being strangers to friends to something more. When Jessie asks what Tommy looks like, he says he's six foot two and 190 pounds, which might have been true of Thomas at some point. When he was younger, not so much these days. Instead of Thomas's balding head, Tommy has thick hair, broad shoulders, scars, where he's been shot before, and a nine-inch penis. Yeah, I guess the reason she needs to know that
7:01 Speaker 00 is because they start having cybersex. Now, keep in mind, Thomas is really 46 years old, and he's collecting all these photos of Jessie. She's often in revealing clothing or provocative poses. She sends in these slideshows, set to love songs like Aerosmith's "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing", and a "one" and a "two", and what's that?
7:26 Speaker 00 Okay, nope. Actually, the producers are telling me that I can't sing that song, so... At some point, Jessie asks to see a photo of Tommy. So what does Thomas do? He actually sends a picture of himself in uniform, since Jessie thinks Tommy's now a Marine. Can we see that photo, please? Yeah, he sends her this. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, it's just that this photo is from 20-something years prior. As a reminder, this is what Thomas actually looks like around this time. Can you put that up there?
8:08 Speaker 00 I think we can all agree. Jessie's probably gonna be more interested in picture A than picture B. Please take that down. Thank you. You'd think some alarm bells would be going off for Jessie, right? But no, she doesn't seem to suspect anything. Not even when Tommy finishes up his imaginary boot camp and tells her he's shipping out to Iraq. Now, Thomas runs into a little problem. Tommy is supposedly overseas, in a war zone. He wanted to sound like a badass, but he literally only communicates with Jessie via internet. And then, he tells this girl he's catfishing that he's going to a place that doesn't have internet.
8:53 Speaker 00 So, to get around this, Thomas invents yet another fake persona for himself. This time, he just goes by his own name, Thomas. But he says he's Tommy's dad, and he offers to get messages back and forth between Jessie and Tommy. Again, Thomas really does have two kids, but both daughters. He doesn't have a son at all. Later, Thomas says he has a reason for inventing this new character. He's starting to get concerned that he's in too deep. Ya think? For one thing, Tommy has asked Jessie to marry him when he gets back to the States. And she says, "Yes."
9:37 Speaker 00 Like, she thinks they're engaged. So maybe he thinks that he can use Tommy's dad to help end things with Jessie. While he's pretending to be Tommy's dad, he picks a fight with Jessie, accusing her of flirting with other men online. So he's trying to break up with her in the weirdest possible way. And his scheme doesn't even work. When Jessie protests, "No, I'm in love with your son, I swear," Thomas backs off.
10:08 Speaker 00 Okay, then. He immediately caves and goes back to chatting with Jesse all the time. Sometimes as Tommy, and other times as their middleman, Tommy's dad. We have no idea what's going through Thomas's head. Maybe he just enjoys playing mind games, but there are signs that he's losing himself in these characters. Like the sculptor who fell in love with his own creation. Thomas begins to wish he truly were Tommy. When New Year's rolls around, he makes a resolution. It's not exercise more, and it's definitely not spend more time with the family. No, Thomas takes out a piece of paper and writes,
10:49 Speaker 00 quote, "On January 2nd, 2006, Thomas Montgomery, 46 years old, ceases to exist and is replaced by an 18-year-old battle-scarred Marine." He writes about how he's going to magically wake up as Tommy, complete with a birth certificate and $2.5 million in the bank. And he hides this letter at work, as if some magical catfishing elves will visit him in the night and make all of his wishes come true? Thomas obviously doesn't turn into Tommy overnight, but there is a consolation prize. Jesse sends Tommy a care package.
11:33 Speaker 00 It has these cute little custom-made dog tags with their names on them. It's really cute, and a love letter, and a lacy thong. She mails all of this to Thomas's address so he can pass it along to Tommy. But Thomas doesn't get the package. Someone else finds it first. His wife, Cindy. When Thomas gets home, she tells him, "I think we need to have a talk."
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14:40 Speaker 00 Cindy Montgomery had her suspicions long before she found out what Thomas was up to. She has eyes. She could see he was on his computer all the time. She'd even try to look over his shoulder at his screen, but he'd always hide the chat window and claim he was talking to friends. I think we all know that's never a good sign. When she intercepts Jesse's package, everything suddenly makes sense. She confronts Thomas and figures out that he's been catfishing a stranger online. Luckily for Thomas, Cindy is extremely level-headed. I mean, she's obviously upset that he's cheating on her, but she's actually more concerned about Jesse. She's worried about this poor teenager her husband's been leaning on,
15:25 Speaker 00 which is an extremely level-headed response. I don't know if most people could keep their cool like that. And that brings me up to a segment I like to call, "What Would Harvey Do?"
15:38 Speaker 00 Okay, if I found out that my seemingly normal husband and father of two kids had been emotionally cheating on me and having cybersex with the girl he was catfishing online, I would consider kicking Thomas in his probably-not-nine-inch penis, but then I'd realize violence isn't the answer, so I'd simply ransack his closet, pile all of his clothes into his car, set it on fire, and have my Angela Bassett in waiting-to-exhale moment. Then I'd pack my bags, fly to Jamaica, and have a fling with Taye Diggs. All I'm saying is, do not F with Angela Bassett.
16:16 Speaker 00 I just love her so much.
16:20 Speaker 00 Back to the story.
16:22 Speaker 00 But that's not what Cindy does. She simply asked Thomas, "Why can't you just talk to me so we can work things out?" And Thomas tells her, get this, "It's easier for me to talk to somebody I can't see, because look at how angry you are."
16:40 Speaker 00 Excuse me? After that comment, Cindy does two things. She moves Thomas into the basement, and she mails Jesse a letter. She includes a photo of her family and basically says, "Look, this is the real person you've been talking to. There is no Tommy, and we don't have a son at all. Thomas is a 46-year-old married father of two, so please be careful about who you trust online." Jesse gets Cindy's letter and has no idea what to do. Her whole reality is shattered. The man she thought she was in love with and was going to marry isn't just gone, he never existed. She has a lot of questions,
17:22 Speaker 00 so she reaches out to 22-year-old Brian Barrett.
17:29 Speaker 00 Brian is one of Thomas's coworkers. The three of them have played games together online and talked in a chatroom, so she kind of knows him already. Brian confirms that everything Cindy told her is true. Thomas is really in his 40s, and he's not in Iraq. They work together at a factory in Clarence, New York, making parts for power tools. It's not the news Jesse wants to hear, but at least now she has someone who knows exactly how she's feeling. Because Brian has also lost Thomas as a friend.
18:04 Speaker 00 Back when they met, Thomas took him under his wing, even inviting him home for family dinners. Now Brian realizes his mentor is being a creep online. Now, if you're a little confused, you're not alone. It's not totally clear how much Brian knew about Thomas and Jesse's relationship. I know Thomas did like to tell his coworkers about his young girlfriend. I'm assuming he conveniently left out the part where he was catfishing her. Anyway, Brian doesn't want to hang out with Thomas anymore. Especially once Jesse and Brian start talking all the time, now they get close and fall for each other. And who does Jesse go tell about her new boyfriend? Thomas. That's right.
18:48 Speaker 00 She goes back to chatting with Thomas online. Apparently, this is pretty common. Catfishing victims often choose to keep talking with the person who catfished them, even after all the lies. Maybe it's because she misses their connection, who doesn't have a toxic ex, they just can't quit.
19:09 Speaker 00 Or maybe, it's just because she wants a little payback. Why else go and tell Thomas that she's with Brian now? Okay, so the situation starts to get so messy, Brian tells their coworkers that Thomas catfished a teenager. Well, Jesse lashes out at Thomas, even getting him kicked off of his favorite gaming platform. So now, everything's crashing down on Thomas, right? Both at home and at work. So Thomas says, "Look, just leave me alone." He wants to forget the whole thing and move on. But one night, he's back online chatting, yep, you guessed it, with Jesse again. Just like everything else in their on-again, off-again situationship,
19:51 Speaker 00 this convo plays out like some melodramatic soap opera. And that conversation went a little something like this.
20:02 Speaker 00 "I'm sorry for all the pain I caused you with my lies." "Will you do me a favor?" "What is that?" "Don't let Tommy die." "He won't, as long as he's in your heart." "Let him live in you." "You're crying, aren't you?" "I haven't stopped." "You sound like my Tommy." "But I can't be your Tommy."
20:30 Speaker 00 "I wish you all the happiness in the world."
20:35 Speaker 00 "I love you, Jessica, and I always will."
20:40 Speaker 01 "Okay, I'm ready."
20:43 Speaker 00 "Okay, honey."
20:46 Speaker 01 "Goodbye, Tom."
20:48 Speaker 00 "Goodbye, Jessica."
20:52 Speaker 00 And scene.
20:56 Speaker 00 Applause in the studio.
21:01 Speaker 00 Yes, it reads like an alien's idea of what human romance novels sound like. But I do actually believe this is Thomas's version of a heartfelt goodbye. The truth is, Thomas and Jessie just can't seem to stay away from each other. They go through this cycle of hating each other, then trying to be friends again. One time, they even have cybersex again! Ew. Folks, I'm no geometry professor, but this is turning into like a big, messy love triangle. During one of those phases where Thomas is friends with Jessie, he tells her, "I hate him with a passion, and for ten cents, I would eliminate him."
21:45 Speaker 00 You know, casual friend talk. Like, I always say to my friends, "What?" Now, by all accounts, Brian is a good-natured guy. He never complains, he works hard, and he's going to school to become a teacher. He just happens to fall for his ex-friend's ex-girlfriend, and they have a way more age-appropriate relationship. I don't really know how deep his connection is with Jessie, whether it rivals what she had with Thomas. What I do know is that Brian and Jessie's relationship gnaws at Thomas. He sees himself as the victim of the ultimate betrayal, and he grows more and more consumed by his anger, to the point of obsession.
22:30 Speaker 00 But time passes, and the spark between Jessie and Brian fizzles out. They reach a crossroads where everybody could just go their separate ways and live their lives. This whole story could have ended as a stupid mistake. But then, something happens. Something that should have been totally mundane: Jessie and Brian become friends on MySpace. For some reason, that's the final straw for Thomas. He messages Jessie and demands to know if she's back with Brian. She says no. They just talked, but things escalate quickly. Moments later, Thomas is threatening her. "You better be afraid now." My, my.
23:14 Speaker 00 It's scary enough that Jesse reaches out to Brian to warn him, but Brian seems pretty unfazed. Sure, he thinks Thomas is strange, but doesn't truly believe he'll make good on his threats. His plan is simple. He'll ignore Thomas. And yet, a small part of Brian wonders if he should tell someone at work what's going on, just in case. But as usual, he never complains.
23:41 Speaker 00 It's now September 15, 2006, about 16 months after Thomas met Jesse. Around 10:15 on Friday night, Thomas waits in the parking lot outside work. He's been there for a while. At some point, he got hungry and snacked on a peach he brought from home. He's not just loitering, though. He's hiding near Brian's truck, watching, waiting for him to get off his shift. In the meantime, he slashed one of Brian's tires, so whatever happens, he can drive away. Brian clocks out at the factory and walks through the darkened lot. Then he climbs in his truck and shuts the door. He should drive off into the night, maybe blasting his favorite CD all the way home.
24:26 Speaker 00 But that's not what happens. Before Brian can even turn his key in the ignition, Thomas appears outside his driver's side window. He raises a 30 caliber rifle and fires three shots, hitting Brian in the arm and the neck.
24:45 Speaker 00 Nobody's around, so Thomas just slinks away as Brian dies.
24:51 Speaker 00 His body isn't discovered until Sunday morning.
24:56 Speaker 00 At first glance, police are baffled. They have no idea who'd want to gun down a good kid with no criminal record, but they can tell this wasn't some random shooting. The evidence points to a premeditated murder. First, they find a clip for an M1A1 rifle, originally designed for military airborne units. And second, a peach pit, which authorities collect and send off for DNA testing. The shooter had planned this, but he wasn't all that careful. When detectives question Brian's coworkers, one name keeps popping up: Thomas Montgomery.
25:30 Speaker 00 Police learn things have gotten messy between him, Brian, and Jessie. Ever since then, Thomas has been talking behind Brian's back, asking when his shifts end, and making troubling comments. One coworker claims Thomas told him if he ever did kill someone, he would use an M1A1 rifle, like the one used to shoot Brian. Just one small problem: detectives can't seem to find Thomas. They're also getting worried. They think the reason they can't find him is because he went to West Virginia. If he was mad enough to kill Brian, maybe he's on his way to confront Jessie.
26:13 Speaker 00 Police find Jessie's number in Brian's phone and call her. And thankfully, she's okay. And they're able to confirm some details of the story with her help. She says, yes, she was in an online relationship with Brian, and yes, she lives in West Virginia and never met him in person. She even gives them her address. Two local officers drive over to check on her. But when they arrive, things get confusing. They knock on the door, but it's not Jessie who answers. It's a middle-aged woman, Mary, Jessie's mom. The officers ask to speak to Jessie, and Mary says, well, she's not there. She doesn't live there anymore.
26:55 Speaker 00 Okay, Jessie just told the officers this was her address. While the officers are trying to figure out what's going on, they start noticing this lady is looking super nervous, like she's hiding something. So they keep asking her about Jessie, until finally, Mary hits them with a bombshell. Jessie's safe, but she doesn't even know who Thomas Montgomery or Brian Barrett are, because this whole time, Mary's been pretending to be her daughter online. Let me say it again: Jessie's mom, Mary, is tall, hot blonde. She's been tall, hot blonde this entire time. The catfisher has become catfished.
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28:47 Speaker 00 Tommy may have been a fictional character created by Thomas, but Jessie does exist. She's a real 18-year-old living in West Virginia, and all those photos Thomas and Brian received are actually of her. That's why I didn't want to show them, because Jessie never sent those photos. Her mom did. The real Jessie had no clue any of this was happening. Mary Shiler's story sounds kind of like Thomas's. People know her as an incredibly dedicated mom. For years, she drove Jessie to various sports and activities, only ever missing one game. And she's been happily married for 23 years. When investigators check Mary's computer, they find a trove of pictures of Jessie.
29:30 Speaker 00 There's a lot of voyeuristic shots where Jessie clearly doesn't know she's being photographed. Sometimes she's just hanging out at her house in loungewear or playing sports in her backyard. All along, Mary was sneaking pictures of her daughter to share with Thomas, Brian, and God knows who else. We don't know the full extent of Mary's deception. We may never know. But we do know her now ex-husband had this to say. Mary would try to get away with just about anything if she thinks nobody will find out.
30:04 Speaker 00 While police are making this bizarre discovery about Mary, they're still on the hunt for Thomas. When they finally track him down, he claims he had nothing to do with Brian's death. He tells them it's impossible. He was home that night with his loving family, long before Brian was shot at the factory. I guess he's assuming Cindy will back him up, but uh, hmm, he loses that bet. Cindy insists Thomas actually wasn't home until 11:00 PM, about 45 minutes after the shooting. Thomas argues, well, he doesn't even own the kind of rifle used to kill Brian, but investigators can see he does have a whole ass gun cabinet sitting in his house, right out in the open.
30:49 Speaker 00 And there's an empty slot where a rifle could have been. So, they don't give up that easily. Sifting through the Montgomery's family photos, detectives find an old picture of Cindy. In the background sits that gun cabinet. It looks exactly the same, only the empty slot isn't empty in this photo. It's holding an M1A1 rifle. The evidence so far is circumstantial, but not for long. Remember that peach pit? Not the hangout spot for the 90210 gang, but the actual fruit left at the scene of the crime? Well, the DNA comes back as a match for Thomas. He's arrested a few days after Thanksgiving.
31:33 Speaker 00 It's only then that he learned the truth about Tall Hot Blonde, that Jesse was really Mary. He's totally floored. He can't even speak. He turns deadly pale. Later, he says Mary was an amazing actress and that's how she was able to fool him for such a long time. In court, Thomas takes a plea deal. His charges are reduced to first degree manslaughter, for which he receives 20-year sentence. So, we know more or less why Thomas did what he did. He fell trapped at his job, unable to bridge this growing divide with his wife, so he easily bought into a fantasy. But what about Mary?
32:16 Speaker 00 Now, she claims she began using Jessie's screen name by accident. And when she learned Thomas lied and Tommy didn't exist, she needed to keep talking to him. Why? Well, she says she wanted to protect everyone. She thought he might come for her or her family, or maybe he deceived some other 18-year-old online. It's honestly not the worst excuse I've ever heard. Clearly, this guy was unpredictable. Except, Mary's own family doesn't seem to buy it. Her husband is so totally blindsided by all this, when Mary tells him about Brian's death, she doesn't tell him everything. She leaves out a few key details of the story. I don't know, such as the months-long relationship she carried on with two men,
33:00 Speaker 00 the cybersex, oh, and the fact that she was using their daughter's identity. He doesn't learn the full story until Mary's call to testify before a grand jury. Now, since this happened, Mary has been super tight-lipped. She only breaks her silence to say she should have just let it go after learning there was no Tommy. And so, we don't know much else about Mary. But we do know investigators never find any proof that she egged Thomas on. And catfishing itself isn't illegal. So, Mary is never charged. As for the real Jessie, at some point in this long and painful odyssey,
33:44 Speaker 00 she starts hearing gossip around town. She Googles her mom's name to find out what everyone's whispering about. And that's how she finds out what Mary did. Which I honestly can't imagine, but my heart breaks for her. She had a super-involved mom she was close to, who ended up betraying her. This story can feel so frivolous at times, but it truly is a surreal nightmare for Jessie and Cindy, an unimaginable devastating situation for Brian's family. And to think, everyone's lives were completely changed by one bored man having the most embarrassing midlife crisis ever.
34:29 Speaker 00 By the way, Thomas ends up getting paroled in 2024. In the end, he served just 16 years for killing Brian Barrett, the only person in this love triangle who was honest about who he was. The internet isn't the only place we wear disguises. I mean, lying has always been in vogue. And since this crime took place, it's only gotten harder to tell reality from pretend, which is scary for all of us. And not just because we could end up on the wrong end of a catfishing scam, but because the easier it is to change who we are, the more likely we are to do it. And the more we change ourselves,
35:12 Speaker 00 the more we ensure we'll never be loved for who we are. Which, at the end of the day, is all anyone wants, right? It's what I want. But for that to happen, the mass needs to come down, even if it reveals a wolf.
35:35 Speaker 00 Thanks for tuning in to Killer Stories, a Spotify podcast. New episodes release on Mondays. If you liked today's story and want to learn more, we dropped some of our favorite sources in the episode description. Until next time, I'm Harvey Guillén. Stay safe out there.
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