MFM Minisode 492

This week’s hometowns include rabies at church camp and two legendary trash dads. For our sources, please visit https://www.myfavoritemurder.com/episodes. Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3UFCn1g. Head to social media to share your favorite moments from this episode. Instagram: instagram.com/myfavoritemurder http://instagram.com/myfavoritemurder Facebook: facebook.com/myfavoritemurder http://facebook.com/myfavoritemurder TikTok: tiktok.com/@my_favorite_murder http://tiktok.com/@my_favorite_murder Send your hometown stories to [email protected] mailto:[email protected]. Join the Fan Cult to access ad-free episodes of My Favorite Murder. Members also receive merch store discounts, exclusive audio and video content and more! Visit www.fancult.supercast.com http://www.fancult.supercast.com/ to join. Shop for My Favorite Murder and other Exactly Right merchandise here: www.exactlyrightstore.com https://www.exactlyrightstore.com. Rate, review and follow My Favorite Murder on the iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you like to listen. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  This is exactly right.

• 0:06Speaker 01

  In New Orleans, truckers kept getting sideswiped the exact same way. When a man is found murdered under questionable circumstances related to these accidents, the rubber hits the road. And what the feds uncover is a complex scheme of staged wrecks, financial fraud, and a pair of conspiring lovers behind it. This is a story about fake accidents that led to real consequences. Listen to Over My Dead Body: Operation Sideswipe wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all episodes early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

• 0:42Speaker 02

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• 1:13Karen Kilgariff?

  Calling all amateur detectives and podcast obsessives.

• 1:16Georgia Hardstark?

  Virgin Voyages' second True Crime voyage sets sail March 20, 2027, for a five-night escape to Grand Turk and the Beach Club at Bimini.

• 1:25Karen Kilgariff?

  As part of the On Air at Sea collection, this immersive sailing brings together fan favorite podcasts, including Disgrace Land, Buried Bones, and Wise Crack, for live recordings, behind-the-scenes access, exclusive meet-and-greets, and crime-themed programming that you won't find anywhere else.

• 1:41Georgia Hardstark?

  All aboard our award-winning, kid-free ships.

• 1:44Karen Kilgariff?

  Head over to virginvoyages.com/truecrime to secure your spot. Goodbye.

• 2:06Karen Kilgariff?

  Hello and welcome.

• 2:08Georgia Hardstark?

  To my favorite murder.

• 2:10Karen Kilgariff?

  The minisode.

• 2:10Georgia Hardstark?

  That's right.

• 2:11Karen Kilgariff?

  That's right.

• 2:11Georgia Hardstark?

  This is the minisode. We tell you things about yourself that you didn't even know you wanted to know.

• 2:16Karen Kilgariff?

  Are you ready for a little bit of self-examination?

• 2:19Georgia Hardstark?

  Can we do this?

• 2:21Karen Kilgariff?

  Finally, get you to admit your side of things.

• 2:25Georgia Hardstark?

  Go first.

• 2:25Karen Kilgariff?

  Okay, yes, I will go first. Thank you. The subject line of this first email is rabies at church camp. All your favorite topics. And it starts, "What's up, hotties?"

• 2:37Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh.

• 2:38Karen Kilgariff?

  Cute. "No time to waste. Gird your loins for a wild tale. When I was 11, like any good Christian child, I was sent to church camp. However, I had developed a reputation for running into troubles just the year before." Troubles.

• 2:51Georgia Hardstark?

  Troubles, multiple.

• 2:54Karen Kilgariff?

  "Just the year before, I had been sent to the hospital with a back injury after a pool game of playing in the swimming pool of chicken gone wrong, where I nearly drowned."

• 3:05Georgia Hardstark?

  Holy shit.

• 3:07Karen Kilgariff?

  So, true troubles.

• 3:08Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 3:09Karen Kilgariff?

  "The camp setting was at a state park in the middle of the Tennessee woods, so the next year, when my mother got a phone call from a park ranger..." Oh, so where that injury happened.

• 3:17Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, okay. Oh, got it.

• 3:18Karen Kilgariff?

  "...was in the middle of a state park in Tennessee."

• 3:20Georgia Hardstark?

  Got it.

• 3:21Karen Kilgariff?

  "So the next year, when my mother got a phone call from a park ranger stating that I had had an accident in the park pool, it felt like déjà vu. My mother firmly stated, 'You must be mistaken. Did you find some old documents or something? That accident happened a year ago.'"

• 3:36Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, we were going through some paperwork and we're like, "Hey, emergency."

• 3:39Karen Kilgariff?

  Call 911.

• 3:40Georgia Hardstark?

  Call them immediately.

• 3:41Karen Kilgariff?

  Hold on, let me get this cobweb off. Call 911.

• 3:45Georgia Hardstark?

  Sorry, I'm making fun of their mom.

• 3:46Karen Kilgariff?

  It says, "The calm ranger responded to my mother with, 'No, ma'am. This morning at 10 a.m., your daughter Sarah had an incident in the pool involving an animal attack.'"

• 3:56Georgia Hardstark?

  What?

• 3:57Karen Kilgariff?

  Dun, dun, dun. "Cut to my 11-year-old perspective. I was swimming..."

• 4:02Georgia Hardstark?

  I like this.

• 4:03Karen Kilgariff?

  This is a perfectly written email. "I was swimming in the pool, minding my business, when I heard someone yell, 'Get it out, get it out.' I was curious and swam over to the growing crowd surrounding a brown dot squirming in the water. I pushed through the crowd and approached this creature. There's your problem right there."

• 4:20Georgia Hardstark?

  Right. You've got to be involved.

• 4:21Karen Kilgariff?

  "Hang back, maybe get out of the pool."

• 4:23Georgia Hardstark?

  Run the opposite way.

• 4:24Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah. "You don't need to be up in there. You're 11."

• 4:26Georgia Hardstark?

  No.

• 4:27Karen Kilgariff?

  I pushed through the crowd and approached this creature. I wasn't wearing my glasses.

• 4:32Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, then why? Okay. I don't want to yell at a child. I mean, I do, but I shouldn't.

• 4:38Karen Kilgariff?

  So to my naked eyes, it appeared simply to be a bird. In my mind, I was an animal savior to all creatures, great and small. An animal savior to all creatures, great and small is italicized.

• 4:50Georgia Hardstark?

  Amazing.

• 4:52Karen Kilgariff?

  So into my hands it went. However, as I exited the pool, I began to notice the features of this creature were not that of a bird.

• 4:59Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, dear.

• 5:00Karen Kilgariff?

  But rather, a curved-nosed bat.

• 5:04Georgia Hardstark?

  No.

• 5:05Karen Kilgariff?

  The second my brain realized what it was,

• 5:08Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh.

• 5:09Karen Kilgariff?

  it awoke from its post-drowning nap and began to bite me on my thumb. I panicked as the pain surged from its teeth, digging into me. I looked around for help, but none came, so my-

• 5:20Georgia Hardstark?

  Because everyone knows not to touch a bat. But everyone wears their glasses on in the pool.

• 5:26Karen Kilgariff?

  Everyone with good vision-

• 5:27Georgia Hardstark?

  Right.

• 5:28Karen Kilgariff?

  stayed in a circle around the bat-

• 5:29Georgia Hardstark?

  That's right.

• 5:30Karen Kilgariff?

  and did not break through. I relate to this person so much. Stop breaking through. I looked around for help, but none came, so my solution was to rip it from my flesh and throw it across the concrete pool side.

• 5:43Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my god.

• 5:44Karen Kilgariff?

  Which, we get it.

• 5:45Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, no, totally.

• 5:46Karen Kilgariff?

  Makes a lot of sense. The rest is a blur, but a ranger came and captured the bat and took it away. I didn't know the procedures of such attacks, but what I did know is that I was never allowed in the park pool again.

• 5:58Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow.

• 5:59Karen Kilgariff?

  Banned at age 11.

• 6:00Georgia Hardstark?

  I don't know if that's her fault. It's like, do we have any adults present, keeping an eye on everything?

• 6:05Karen Kilgariff?

  It sounds like, I bet you there was a 15-year-old-

• 6:06Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 6:07Karen Kilgariff?

  up on that lifeguard stand-

• 6:08Georgia Hardstark?

  Right.

• 6:08Karen Kilgariff?

  who was also just watching the kids circle up around a bat. The worst part of this story is that my parents got a fateful call from the park labs and were told that they had less than 72 hours to get me to the hospital and get me vaccinated because the bat tested positive for rabies.

• 6:26Georgia Hardstark?

  That's like a hardcore treatment, too, right?

• 6:28Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh, yeah, very painful.

• 6:30Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh.

• 6:30Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes. We had to call Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, to make sure they even had the vaccine to give me, because it wasn't every day that they had to administer rabies shots.

• 6:41Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my god.

• 6:41Karen Kilgariff?

  It's real old-fashioned.

• 6:43Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 6:43Karen Kilgariff?

  After 23 shots-

• 6:45Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my god.

• 6:46Karen Kilgariff?

  I was in the clear. Of dying from rabies. To this day, I always get weird looks when people see my vaccine records. So yeah, Batman doesn't have shit on me. They said crap, but I changed it.

• 6:58Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 6:58Karen Kilgariff?

  Because it's funny. Thank you for being here and telling your stories. I'm a private duty nurse and my patient and I love to listen every morning and it makes our days better.

• 7:08Georgia Hardstark?

  Aww.

• 7:08Karen Kilgariff?

  Hi.

• 7:09Georgia Hardstark?

  Hi.

• 7:10Karen Kilgariff?

  Stay sexy and stay out of the church camp pool, Sarah.

• 7:14Georgia Hardstark?

  Where was Jesus in that moment? Not.

• 7:17Karen Kilgariff?

  Up on that lifeguard's hand, watching over the lifeguard.

• 7:19Georgia Hardstark?

  Wasn't swimming next to you.

• 7:20Karen Kilgariff?

  Who watches the watchers?

• 7:24Georgia Hardstark?

  Okay, that's great.

• 7:25Speaker 05

  Cash flow crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds, up to $200,000, right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 7:55Georgia Hardstark?

  This is called Broadmoor Hospital Celebrity Spotting. Hi Karen and Georgia. Greetings from Kent, the Garden of England.

• 8:05Karen Kilgariff?

  What news from Kent?

• 8:07Georgia Hardstark?

  I live in the county town, Maidstone.

• 8:10Karen Kilgariff?

  You did it.

• 8:10Georgia Hardstark?

  Straight out of Game of Thrones, which is a bit of a shithole.

• 8:14Karen Kilgariff?

  Doesn't sound like it.

• 8:15Georgia Hardstark?

  But does have a prison where Reggie Cray was incarcerated for a spell. But that's not the reason I'm writing.

• 8:21Karen Kilgariff?

  The Crays?

• 8:22Georgia Hardstark?

  The Crays were the crazy twin, like mobsters.

• 8:25Karen Kilgariff?

  Mobsters. Or were they twins or were they just very close in age?

• 8:28Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, something like that. And they like terrorized that area.

• 8:31Karen Kilgariff?

  Everybody.

• 8:32Georgia Hardstark?

  By being.

• 8:32Karen Kilgariff?

  But also had a really great nightclub.

• 8:34Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 8:35Karen Kilgariff?

  Watched Tom Hardy.

• 8:36Georgia Hardstark?

  Right.

• 8:36Karen Kilgariff?

  In Legend, or Legendary.

• 8:40Georgia Hardstark?

  Right.

• 8:40Karen Kilgariff?

  He plays both parts.

• 8:41Georgia Hardstark?

  Okay. My sister Kate and I are avid day one listeners and have always wished we had a story for you. When I heard the Shakespeare at Broadmoor episode, episode 532, I realized that finally, this is my time to shine. Kate will be fuming, I've beaten her to it, if you read this out.

• 8:57Karen Kilgariff?

  Nice. Go to hell, Kate.

• 8:59Georgia Hardstark?

  We love starting sibling fights. We come from a very large family with a, shall we say, colorful past. When I was a kid, I was a keen nerdy letter writer and one of my favorite correspondents was my uncle Jeff, but with a G. Joff?

• 9:14Karen Kilgariff?

  Giaff.

• 9:15Georgia Hardstark?

  Joff. When sober and medicated, Joff was warm-

• 9:19Karen Kilgariff?

  It's not really-

• 9:19Georgia Hardstark?

  I know. Jeff was warm, kind company, prone to lavish gestures and possessed a dry, dark sense of humor. When he wasn't, things were harder for him and he spent many spells at Her Majesty's pleasure, including some stints at Broadmoor.

• 9:33Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 9:34Georgia Hardstark?

  I don't know exactly how he came to be there, but he was definitely nearer the June and Jennifer end of the spectrum than the hardcore wronguns.

• 9:42Karen Kilgariff?

  Wronguns.

• 9:43Georgia Hardstark?

  Wronguns. Anyway, one day, when I was about 16, I went with another of my uncles to visit Jeff there, in the central hall where I think the Shakespeare performance must have been held. It was great to see him and he was calm, genial company. He bought me flowers and a very expensive bottle of perfume and says, "I don't know how he got ahold of it, but I do know that I couldn't wait to crow about it to my pals." The wording of this email is great.

• 10:05Karen Kilgariff?

  Sorry, gift giving from within?

• 10:08Georgia Hardstark?

  Uh huh. He had a touch rated that, like cigarettes or something like that.

• 10:11Karen Kilgariff?

  That's really nice.

• 10:12Georgia Hardstark?

  Right?

• 10:12Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 10:13Georgia Hardstark?

  The whole thing was a young murderino's daydream at the races. My other uncle and I were not the only visitors and the hall was pretty crowded. Just over the way was Ronnie Cray-

• 10:24Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh.

• 10:24Georgia Hardstark?

  -and visiting associates, looking for all the world, like a twinkly grandpa with his smart zoot suit and teddy boy, brill-creamed hair. It was 1991, so pretty anachronistic, but very dapper.

• 10:37Karen Kilgariff?

  He still was like getting dressed up.

• 10:39Georgia Hardstark?

  And people were still coming to see him.

• 10:41Karen Kilgariff?

  They were. They were.

• 10:42Georgia Hardstark?

  Mm-hmm. And then, across the room, staring, all caps, right at me, was none other than Peter Sutcliffe, AKA The Yorkshire Ripper.

• 10:53Karen Kilgariff?

  Jesus.

• 10:53Georgia Hardstark?

  When I was growing up, he was the absolute number one fear of young women in the UK, and I am not joking when I say his dead, cold stare made my blood run absolutely icy. And the kicker? His visitor was a beautiful young woman. What was she thinking?

• 11:10Georgia Hardstark?

  Jeff struggled in the outside world and is long gone now, but I like to think he was in the audience of the play. And I know he would have found it to be bomb for his troubled soul. Stay sexy and don't ever lock eyes with the serial killer Beck.

• 11:23Karen Kilgariff?

  Wow.

• 11:24Georgia Hardstark?

  Like.

• 11:24Karen Kilgariff?

  That, what an experience of like going into a place like that where you are, there's somebody that you're there for a real reason.

• 11:33Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 11:33Karen Kilgariff?

  But you know where you are and you know what you're looking at.

• 11:36Georgia Hardstark?

  I mean, how scary for the people that are there, not because they've committed any crimes, but just.

• 11:41Karen Kilgariff?

  Right.

• 11:42Georgia Hardstark?

  Need some help.

• 11:42Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah. Interesting.

• 11:45Georgia Hardstark?

  Broadmore gets brought up a lot in this podcast.

• 11:47Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah, it does.

• 11:47Georgia Hardstark?

  Fascinating.

• 11:48Karen Kilgariff?

  Find someone that used to work there.

• 11:50Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 11:50Karen Kilgariff?

  Bring him on. Or go there.

• 11:54Georgia Hardstark?

  Do a live show. My MF him at Broadmore. No, just kidding.

• 11:59Karen Kilgariff?

  Just shut it down. We just end up getting all of it shut down.

• 12:03Georgia Hardstark?

  We are not the Cramps. This is not.

• 12:05Karen Kilgariff?

  No, no, no.

• 12:07Speaker 02

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• 12:39Speaker 06

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• 13:09Karen Kilgariff?

  Okay, the subject line of this email is "Energy Vampire Teacher." I went to, and it just gets right into it. "I went to a small high school, maybe 150 students, in the Midwest. On the last day of the school year, I confessed to one of my teachers that I hadn't completed my final project, comparing a historically important piece of literature to a modern version, so he asked me a couple of questions. Did you read the books? Yes. Did you learn something? Yes. Okay, then you passed. High school anxiety procrastination somehow won that day."

• 13:40Georgia Hardstark?

  Amazing.

• 13:41Karen Kilgariff?

  "Years later, while watching the intro to the first episode of a new TV show, I had to pause it in disbelief when I saw and later learned that the very same teacher, Mark Proch, was now the one and only, our favorite energy vampire, Colin Robinson of What We Do in the Shadows."

• 14:01Georgia Hardstark?

  He was a teacher?

• 14:02Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes. I love that fucking show.

• 14:05Georgia Hardstark?

  I love him so much.

• 14:06Karen Kilgariff?

  And I love that guy.

• 14:07Georgia Hardstark?

  He's so funny.

• 14:08Karen Kilgariff?

  He is so good. All of them are so good on that show.

• 14:12Georgia Hardstark?

  If you haven't watched the TV show, What We Do in the Shadows, I feel, I am jealous of you that you get to start over.

• 14:17Karen Kilgariff?

  You have seasons and seasons to binge. You have Matt Berry to, to learn about and then enjoy for the first time.

• 14:24Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my God. Yes, and he's just still, this guy's, I didn't know his name, but that's amazing.

• 14:29Karen Kilgariff?

  I know. And it's very funny that you, he's not a household name, but Colin Robinson, I would have been like, absolutely.

• 14:35Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally, and I thought, I thought I would have known his name, and so I'm surprised.

• 14:38Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah. Proch.

• 14:40Georgia Hardstark?

  Proch.

• 14:40Karen Kilgariff?

  "I honestly hope that he doesn't remember me now because my anxiety brain still recalls with too much clarity all the ways I embarrassed myself that year and probably irked him in one way or another in other chance meetings throughout the remainder of my teens. I guess he has more important things to think about, but the high schooler part of my brain will always worry about what people thought of me 20-ish years ago. I first began listening to my favorite murder right after moving into a house in the woods, so sorry I missed that little tidbit of advice to stay out of the forest. Your voices have continued to keep me company throughout the years, and yes, I am still in the forest, and I am still, knock on wood, fine." And then it just says A.

• 15:18Georgia Hardstark?

  A.

• 15:19Karen Kilgariff?

  Yep.

• 15:20Georgia Hardstark?

  That's so cool. He was a teacher. He was probably so over it at that point. He was like, "Did you read? Did you learn? Then that's enough."

• 15:27Karen Kilgariff?

  Then God bless.

• 15:28Georgia Hardstark?

  I have an audition.

• 15:29Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 15:29Georgia Hardstark?

  For this show. He was, he was an improv guy for a long time.

• 15:33Karen Kilgariff?

  He was an improv guy and he did this really amazing thing because my friends ran the Found Footage Festival.

• 15:38Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, yeah.

• 15:39Karen Kilgariff?

  So they got the footage of him as a fake expert. I think he was a fake yo-yo expert on local news.

• 15:45Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, that's right.

• 15:46Karen Kilgariff?

  That's kind of where he first got discovered because he was so, he just ruined the morning news on purpose and so realistically.

• 15:54Georgia Hardstark?

  Amazing. Yeah, so amazing.

• 15:56Karen Kilgariff?

  So good.

• 15:57Georgia Hardstark?

  Uh, okay, I have two left. I'm not gonna tell you the name of this one.

• 16:01Karen Kilgariff?

  Okay.

• 16:02Georgia Hardstark?

  Hi, ladies and co.

• 16:04Karen Kilgariff?

  That's a good one.

• 16:05Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah. Love y'all lots. Thanks for being rad. Let's get into it. My dad was raised and lived in the suburbs of Chicago for his entire life. When my dad was in his high school days in the seventies, he and his friends decided to build and sell large speakers. With this, quote, lucrative business in mind, the group started to collect supplies. They needed a particular type of foam to fill the speakers with and they found a local junkyard that would sell it to them for cheap. The owner said for 20 bucks, the boys could take as much foam as they could carry. The owner called his brother over and told the brother to show my dad and his friends where the foam was located. They started walking with the brother and the guys all got strange vibes from him immediately.

• 16:45Karen Kilgariff?

  Hmm.

• 16:45Georgia Hardstark?

  Any guesses yet?

• 16:47Karen Kilgariff?

  Uh, well, foam, it, is it one of the-

• 16:50Georgia Hardstark?

  Has nothing to do with foam. Well, no.

• 16:53Karen Kilgariff?

  Hillside Stranglers?

• 16:54Georgia Hardstark?

  No. All my, and this is, it's in Chicago.

• 16:56Karen Kilgariff?

  Okay.

• 16:57Georgia Hardstark?

  All my dad's friends were avoiding talking to the brother because of how creepy he was.

• 17:00Karen Kilgariff?

  I was thinking about what we do in the shadows.

• 17:04Georgia Hardstark?

  But my dad, being a smart and savvy businessman, knew the more he got on this guy's good side, the more opportunity they would have in the future to grow their speaker business. And that was how easy it was to make money back then.

• 17:16Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes.

• 17:16Georgia Hardstark?

  You just made a thing. Out of nothing, out of trash.

• 17:19Karen Kilgariff?

  You made something and then you were a nice man to another man.

• 17:22Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 17:23Karen Kilgariff?

  And then, good luck with everything.

• 17:24Georgia Hardstark?

  Right. My dad's schmoozing and kindness led to this guy eventually softening a bit to my dad, but only my dad. After they collected all the foam they could carry, my dad thanked this man and said they would be back again for more. After building one to two speakers and being immediately bored of the project, the guys quit their speaker building business and therefore never returned to the junkyard. Years later, my dad saw a news report about a man suspected of domestic terrorism and murder. He recognizes the man, being fingered, but can't quite place him, and it bothers him for months. Months, maybe even close to a year later, my dad realizes that the man was the one who worked in the junkyard. The man was none other than the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.

• 18:07Karen Kilgariff?

  I didn't realize. I thought he was, he targeted professors, but he was, he himself wasn't.

• 18:15Georgia Hardstark?

  He, yes, he went to Harvard. Remember, they did the, like, they think that they did all these LSD experiments on him and...

• 18:20Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh.

• 18:21Georgia Hardstark?

  Made him all. And remember, his brother's the one who turned him in.

• 18:24Karen Kilgariff?

  Turned him in?

• 18:25Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 18:25Karen Kilgariff?

  But I did, I just never realized he had like a junkyard phase.

• 18:28Georgia Hardstark?

  Same. No, that was...

• 18:30Karen Kilgariff?

  That's deep cut.

• 18:31Georgia Hardstark?

  The factory yard they picked up the foam from was owned by Kaczynski's brother. He and his wife would later turn Kaczynski into the authorities. This is just one of the many stories my dad shared with me over the years. My father was always into true crime and mysteries, later going on to become a lawyer and pass his love for mysteries on to me. My dad became a well-respected lawyer, working for the state's attorney's office for many years, being on staff while cases like John Wayne Gacy and other notorious Chicagoland-area murders were being tried and sentenced. So of course, he had many crazy stories and sometimes insider info on Chicagoland crimes. Can we have that, please?

• 19:06Karen Kilgariff?

  Uh, no, actually. You legally cannot.

• 19:09Georgia Hardstark?

  All right. He ended his career at our country's courthouse where he worked for over a decade. He passed away in August of 2019 after a long battle with skin cancer. Shortly after, one of the halls in our county's courthouse was named after him in honor of his devoted heart to seeing liberty and justice for all. He left a forever impact on our county, our family, and the lives of so many. I am proud to be part of his legacy. Karen, you sharing your, Karen.

• 19:35Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 19:35Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah. You sharing your journey of losing your mother to a disease where you don't recognize your family member has touched me and made my journey of being a caretaker for a sick parent feel a little less isolating. Thank you both for making me laugh on tough days and being an escape from reality when I needed one while taking care of him for the last few years of his life.

• 19:55Karen Kilgariff?

  Tough.

• 19:55Georgia Hardstark?

  Stay sexy, don't buy foam from serial killers, and most importantly, get your yearly checkup at your dermatologist, Katie.

• 20:04Karen Kilgariff?

  God.

• 20:04Georgia Hardstark?

  Katie, so many lessons to be learned from this one.

• 20:07Karen Kilgariff?

  So many lessons, but also what a, what an incredible thing to like have a dad that worked so well, didn't just work hard.

• 20:15Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 20:16Karen Kilgariff?

  Didn't just like.

• 20:17Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 20:17Karen Kilgariff?

  Devote himself for whatever his reasons are, but like to the point where they're like, oh, we're gonna give him a wing, we're gonna name a wing after him.

• 20:24Georgia Hardstark?

  And Ted Kaczynski, who famously hated everyone.

• 20:27Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh, yeah.

• 20:28Georgia Hardstark?

  Fucking likes you.

• 20:29Karen Kilgariff?

  Liked you.

• 20:29Georgia Hardstark?

  Only you.

• 20:30Karen Kilgariff?

  You kissed up to somebody that was uncussable to.

• 20:33Georgia Hardstark?

  Or like you were just like, you treated them like a human being enough that they were like, this guy's pretty cool.

• 20:38Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 20:38Georgia Hardstark?

  Wild. Thank you, Katie.

• 20:40Karen Kilgariff?

  Good job, Katie.

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• 21:41Karen Kilgariff?

  All right, here's my last one. So in honor of Father's Day, we're talking about Champion Fathers, right? Which is coming up. The subject line of this, the American version, I couldn't read to you, but here's the British version. The subject line is "The Ultimate Cunt."

• 22:00Karen Kilgariff?

  Now, do with that, editors, what you will. Okay, so it says, "Hey to all the pets and people at My Favorite Murder. Firstly, I'd like to say how much your podcast has helped with some of the hardest times in my life. I now listen while making ashes jewelry." And then in parentheses, it says, "Yep, like the cremations of people and pets."

• 22:18Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh.

• 22:20Karen Kilgariff?

  So you can have a little permanent...

• 22:22Georgia Hardstark?

  I want that.

• 22:23Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah.

• 22:25Georgia Hardstark?

  You just gave me the look of, "Really?" I didn't realize you were morbid as fuck.

• 22:31Karen Kilgariff?

  Well, I was just like, Elvis has been gone for too long, so you can't have...

• 22:35Georgia Hardstark?

  I have his ashes!

• 22:36Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh, do you really?

• 22:38Georgia Hardstark?

  Of course!

• 22:38Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh, you didn't bury him?

• 22:40Georgia Hardstark?

  Where am I gonna... I don't live anywhere long enough to like...

• 22:43Karen Kilgariff?

  Up at Forest Lawn. Look, I'm not gonna fight with you on mic about this, but you should've buried him in a human cemetery.

• 22:50Georgia Hardstark?

  He's on a shelf. It looks lovely.

• 22:52Karen Kilgariff?

  Well, now you can make a jewelry out of him. You've got a friend in the business. Okay, sorry. "My dad was always doing something dodgy for quick cash. One of his many great get-rich-quick schemes involved my brother and myself. He had decided that selling cigarettes he had purchased in France would be his new money-making idea."

• 23:11Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, Dad.

• 23:13Karen Kilgariff?

  So this isn't just your average... I think that we've gotten a lot of trash dad stories where it's like, he forgot to pick us up from skating or whatever. And this is like, I think this is, might go into a new level of British trash dad.

• 23:26Georgia Hardstark?

  It's actually illegal at this point. We're getting into illegal territory.

• 23:30Karen Kilgariff?

  We're getting creative with how we're gonna be trashy. So it says, um, the only problem being that you could only bring a few cartons without having to pay tax coming back to the UK. That's when the baguette trip started.

• 23:47Georgia Hardstark?

  What?

• 23:48Karen Kilgariff?

  He would take us both over on the car ferry to France, fill the back of the car fully with crates of cigarettes, and then place a blanket on top and tell me and my brother to pretend to be asleep when the customs person would come and look in the car. My dad would innocently say that his two young children were asleep in the back and they would let us pass without any search. And then in parentheses, it says, this was the early 90s.

• 24:10Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my god.

• 24:11Karen Kilgariff?

  This happened regularly for a few years.

• 24:14Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my god.

• 24:15Karen Kilgariff?

  What did me and my brother get out of this trip? You guessed it, a fresh baguette.

• 24:20Georgia Hardstark?

  Or, I mean.

• 24:23Karen Kilgariff?

  Come on.

• 24:24Georgia Hardstark?

  Kind of worth it.

• 24:25Karen Kilgariff?

  Get some of that French butter, you're all set.

• 24:27Georgia Hardstark?

  Hell, yeah.

• 24:28Karen Kilgariff?

  I wonder what my teachers must have thought when they asked what we did most weekends, and I answered with, we went to get the baguettes. It wasn't all that bad. As on one of the baguette trips, he surprised us with a trip to Disneyland Paris. It was probably our cut of the money from the cigarette smoking operation we had been crucial to carrying out. Not sure how or why the trip stopped, he probably found his next big idea and moved on. When my siblings and I laugh about the stuff that happened in our childhood around normal folks, we usually get the wide-eyed horror, you might need therapy looks, but I wouldn't change my wild childhood for anything. I mean, the kind of dad that would cook up a plan like that.

• 25:09Georgia Hardstark?

  It's like innocent in a way.

• 25:11Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes.

• 25:12Georgia Hardstark?

  And I'm dying to know how much money he made.

• 25:14Karen Kilgariff?

  Because he's just trying to get around like a tax. It's not, he is not stealing money from other people.

• 25:19Georgia Hardstark?

  No, he's not putting the kids in harm's way in any way.

• 25:22Karen Kilgariff?

  No, not really.

• 25:23Georgia Hardstark?

  And he's giving them bread.

• 25:25Karen Kilgariff?

  And he's giving them the best bread in the world.

• 25:27Georgia Hardstark?

  So you could argue that he's like.

• 25:29Karen Kilgariff?

  He cares more than other parents. Because he's delivering fresh French. Have you ever had a French baguette?

• 25:35Georgia Hardstark?

  Fuck, yeah.

• 25:36Karen Kilgariff?

  I mean, my dad was a chain-smoking, flat-cap-wearing, cunt-word-loving man.

• 25:42Georgia Hardstark?

  And British.

• 25:43Karen Kilgariff?

  British cut. He passed away three weeks ago from cancer and listening to all his friends and family tell the most unhinged stories about him and his life has made me cry, laugh, and be so thankful for the colorful childhood I had. If you need any more wild stories about trash dads, I could probably write a thousand emails. Like the time he turned off someone's water and then cemented over the tap.

• 26:06Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my God.

• 26:09Karen Kilgariff?

  Or his, I need to know.

• 26:10Georgia Hardstark?

  On purpose?

• 26:11Karen Kilgariff?

  Who deserved that?

• 26:12Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 26:12Karen Kilgariff?

  What did they do to deserve that? Or his 40th birthday where he wore a penis hat with 40 on it and just tiny pants all day.

• 26:22Georgia Hardstark?

  Photo, please.

• 26:23Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh, the list is wild. His last wish, which he gave me the pleasure of executing, was to have a flower arrangement with his favorite word on it. Try organizing that with a funeral director. Oh, my God. Ha, ha, ha.

• 26:37Georgia Hardstark?

  No.

• 26:38Karen Kilgariff?

  I have an attached photo for you. Please feel free to share. Stay sexy and use your children to smuggle cigarettes, or maybe don't.

• 26:48Karen Kilgariff?

  Here's the picture.

• 26:49Georgia Hardstark?

  It says, it's, there's like a beautiful flower arrangement in the back of our hearse with the coffin and a little red ribbon sign that says cunt.

• 26:58Karen Kilgariff?

  Cunt.

• 26:59Georgia Hardstark?

  And that is.

• 26:59Karen Kilgariff?

  But do you see what that flower arrangement is? It's a cigarette.

• 27:02Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my God. I didn't even know what.

• 27:05Karen Kilgariff?

  It's very subtle.

• 27:06Georgia Hardstark?

  I just thought it was like, kind of weird, but no.

• 27:09Karen Kilgariff?

  No.

• 27:09Georgia Hardstark?

  A cigarette with the word cunt on it.

• 27:11Karen Kilgariff?

  A cigarette with the word cunt.

• 27:12Georgia Hardstark?

  That's how you, that's how you go out.

• 27:14Karen Kilgariff?

  And I think, if I'm not mistaken, I could be, but that's on top of the coffin. That's in the back of the hearse.

• 27:21Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, that's the coffin right there.

• 27:22Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah. So that's all.

• 27:24Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my God.

• 27:24Karen Kilgariff?

  That's the decoration on top.

• 27:26Georgia Hardstark?

  We'll put it on social media. That's beautiful. Wow.

• 27:30Karen Kilgariff?

  Well, our condolences to you about losing your father, especially so recently.

• 27:35Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 27:36Karen Kilgariff?

  I love that they used this email to basically process some memories because please, please send more.

• 27:46Georgia Hardstark?

  The trash dad stories or trash parent stories, trash sibling stories. A great, a good auntie one is welcome.

• 27:54Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes.

• 27:55Georgia Hardstark?

  My favorite murder at Gmail.

• 27:56Karen Kilgariff?

  What a way to celebrate Father's Day, though. It's like a great dad that, that really lived and lived and lived and then included his kids.

• 28:04Georgia Hardstark?

  I was gonna say that. He could have gone on his own and been gone all weekend and no, he was like, I need to spend time with my kids, but I also need to make that my me.

• 28:11Karen Kilgariff?

  And I need to not get caught.

• 28:12Georgia Hardstark?

  Right.

• 28:13Karen Kilgariff?

  And I love bread.

• 28:14Georgia Hardstark?

  And I can put those things all together.

• 28:15Karen Kilgariff?

  Let's mix it in a big salad of illegal childhood activity.

• 28:21Georgia Hardstark?

  Okay, well, I'll do one more trash or treasure dad for Father's Day.

• 28:24Karen Kilgariff?

  Great.

• 28:24Georgia Hardstark?

  In honor of Father's Day. Hey, besties. My parents divorced just before my second birthday, leaving my dad to navigate life with two little girls every other weekend. Think birthday dinners at Red Lobster with all my dad's bachelor friends and backyard bonfires with those same guys where I got to play bartender and stay up late until the dirty jokes started.

• 28:46Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes.

• 28:47Georgia Hardstark?

  Hell, yeah.

• 28:47Karen Kilgariff?

  And then basically the slightly drunk dad's like, oh, you guys ought to go to bed.

• 28:51Georgia Hardstark?

  Don't tell your mother.

• 28:52Karen Kilgariff?

  No, you can't.

• 28:54Georgia Hardstark?

  My dad was also very frugal and taught me and my sister to always be on the lookout for spare change on the ground. I was excellent at this, spotting a penny from feet away, oftentimes collecting several coins at once before my sister even had the chance to look at the ground. She was more of a head in the clouds kind of girl, but not me. I had my eyes on high alert for those precious bits of spare change. I had been doing this for as long as I can remember and pride myself on being pretty good at finding things. While visiting my dad recently, I was reminiscing about my childhood finds and saying that now when I find change, I give it to my daughter for her piggy bank. My dad smiled and said, that's nice, but he's surprised I'm still finding change on the ground. I assumed he meant because we've become a cashless society, but no.

• 29:39Georgia Hardstark?

  He goes on to say that he used to drop coins for us to find outside his car before getting us out of our seats. Part of me was in disbelief that my finding skills were based on a lie. But a bigger part of me has found so much joy in this.

• 29:57Karen Kilgariff?

  It's so cute.

• 29:58Georgia Hardstark?

  I know. And you used to steal all the change from your dad.

• 30:00Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah. Change is a big part of like, childhood with your dad.

• 30:04Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally. My dad, my dad may have been a typical 90s trash dad at times, but he also tried so hard to make every moment of our limited time with him special. So maybe he is a treasure dad after all.

• 30:17Karen Kilgariff?

  He is, he is.

• 30:18Georgia Hardstark?

  Stay sexy and drop change for your kids to find. You never know what could turn into a core memory. Sally forth, Sarah, she/her.

• 30:28Karen Kilgariff?

  Thanks, Sarah.

• 30:29Georgia Hardstark?

  If I had, if I had a switch to flip, I'd be crying right now. And I can feel it deep inside of me, but it's not happening.

• 30:35Karen Kilgariff?

  We've got it. We'll give it a couple of months.

• 30:37Georgia Hardstark?

  Okay.

• 30:37Karen Kilgariff?

  I mean, that's beautiful. And also, it truly is like the weirdest surprise I didn't see coming.

• 30:43Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, me neither.

• 30:44Karen Kilgariff?

  He's just like, distraction.

• 30:46Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, you're so good at finding change. I'm so good at finding, like, what a beautiful thing to bestow.

• 30:52Karen Kilgariff?

  This is what I'm good at.

• 30:53Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah. To bestow on your child. I love that.

• 30:55Karen Kilgariff?

  And he's like, how are you still finding change?

• 30:57Georgia Hardstark?

  Wait.

• 30:58Karen Kilgariff?

  I threw that change.

• 30:59Georgia Hardstark?

  You never, I never told you?

• 31:01Karen Kilgariff?

  And now, it's like someone with an eagle eye.

• 31:03Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 31:04Karen Kilgariff?

  It's like, I paid my mortgage with that change, Dad. Thank you.

• 31:07Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh.

• 31:08Karen Kilgariff?

  Well, Happy Father's Day, to everybody who celebrates.

• 31:11Georgia Hardstark?

  Right.

• 31:12Karen Kilgariff?

  Dads and grads.

• 31:13Georgia Hardstark?

  That's right.

• 31:14Karen Kilgariff?

  And moms who act like dads.

• 31:15Georgia Hardstark?

  That's right.

• 31:16Karen Kilgariff?

  And dads who do it all.

• 31:17Georgia Hardstark?

  And moms who do most of the things, too.

• 31:19Karen Kilgariff?

  As well. And let's not forget the moms on Father's Day.

• 31:22Georgia Hardstark?

  Right, please.

• 31:23Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh, and stay sexy.

• 31:25Georgia Hardstark?

  And don't get murdered.

• 31:26Karen Kilgariff?

  Goodbye.

• 31:27Speaker 07

  Elvis, do you want a cookie?

• 31:36Karen Kilgariff?

  This has been an Exactly Right Production.

• 31:38Georgia Hardstark?

  Our senior producer is Molly Smith, and our associate producer is Tessa Hughes.

• 31:42Karen Kilgariff?

  Our editor is Aristotle Laseveta.

• 31:44Georgia Hardstark?

  This episode was mixed by Liana Scolacci.

• 31:46Karen Kilgariff?

  Email your hometowns to [email protected].

• 31:49Georgia Hardstark?

  Follow the show on Instagram at MyFavoriteMurder.

• 31:51Karen Kilgariff?

  Listen to My Favorite Murder on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 31:56Georgia Hardstark?

  And now you can watch My Favorite Murder on Netflix.

• 31:58Karen Kilgariff?

  And when you're there, hit the double thumbs up and the remind me buttons. That's the best way you can support our show. Goodbye.

• 32:11Speaker 02

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• 32:42Speaker 07

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• 32:55Speaker 01

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