June 12, 2017 • 24 mins
On this week's My Favorite Murder minisode, Karen and Georgia read your hometown tales including the terrifying discovery in a crawlspace, the tragic murder of Micaela Costanzo, and the Smiley Face Bomber.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Welcome, Hi Karen, Welcome to my favorite murder, Hi doored
It minisode.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hi, Hi, Let's tell people stories that they sent us
to tell them. Let's rate it back right to them.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yeah, this is my favorite Murder the mini episode where
we read you back the hometown murders that you email us.
It's the murders that happen in your hometown clearly, or
your college town or your cousin's hometown that you grew
up near. What else you're just one more example, your
new hometown. Yes, you've moved from your old hometown to
(00:48):
a new one. Your mom's hometown totally applies. Yeah, So
we're gonna and you can send them to my favorite
Murder at jmail. Steven reads them, picks them, and gives
them to us, and then we say them into microphones.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
For example, this is our first one. Stephen Ray Morris
has picked it out for me to read to you,
and the subject line is let's roll out the barrel.
This should be fun past past worktown murder. That's just
the first sentence. Then there's an ellipsis, there's no high
(01:23):
there's no hello, not a fan, just as just a
past worktown murder. So this is Actually it's a category
we haven't named. I didn't name it worktown, but that
makes sense. You live in one town, you work in
a different one, and in this town that you work in,
that's where the murder happens. Yeah, which would be maybe preferable.
I mean, yeah, right right past worktown murder. It's nineteen
(01:44):
ninety nine. A guy buys a house in upscale Jericho,
New York, is cleaning out basement of crawl space of
heavy drum. Oooh that sounds fun, drags to curb for
trash pickup. Okay, so keep in his basement crawl space,
he finds a heavy drum and then he drags it
out to the curb.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Clearly he's never watched forensic files, because come on.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, he's just like, oh, this drum is fine. Yeah.
Everyone else would be like, oh great, a dead body,
and he's like, I don't know, this is none of
my business. I'm gonna drag this to the curb. Uh. So,
sanitation workers won't take it because they don't know what's
in it. Yes, they do, very smart. So they open
it a find a mummified pregnant woman's body and it's
(02:29):
covered in plastic bits The police trace the drum manufacturer
to nineteen sixty three, trace the contents not the woman,
but the plastic bits to a plastic flower company. They
trace that to the now retired owner of the plastic
flower company, Howard Elkins. Turns out he used to own
the house and now lives in Florida. Nassau County cops
(02:51):
pay him a visit. He admits to having an affair
with a woman matching that description, but can't remember her name.
He refuses to give DNA to match the feet, and
cops leave and get a court order. He hits the
local Walmart, buys a gun and AMMO, and kills himself
in a friend's garage and then in parentheses, Wow, maybe
(03:12):
the worst friend ever? Now what this is the most
interestingly interestingly written hometown we've ever had? Yeah, because at
first I was positive this was translated from Japanese.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, it's written by the guy who owned the home,
who just thought that the barrel should be dragged out
to the curb.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
That's right, a real basics Yeah, no, greetings, butt and dried.
Keep it simple, stupid situation. Okay, so now what great
thing to write into any email?
Speaker 1 (03:43):
We're just shaving so manys like we're talking so many
people out of ever writing to.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Him, which you know who you are? You know who
you are. That's less stuff Stephen has to do. Okay,
now what they find an old address book with the body.
They start calling the numbers that are thirty years old.
They find someone who is still at her number and
knows who the victim is. It's Raina Angelica Marricane, Marricane.
(04:11):
I'll just go that, who disappeared in nineteen sixty nine
at the age of twenty seven. Maybe she had come
to the US from El Salvador in nineteen sixty six
and got a job in the plastic flower factory. Her
boss and lover, Elkins, promised her marriage, but he was
already married. Raina apparently had called his wife, told her
(04:32):
she was pregnant, and Elkins flipped out and killed her.
Police think that he brought the drum containing her body
home from work and was going to take it on
his boat and dump it at sea, but it weighed
almost three hundred and fifty pounds, so he pushed it
into the space under oh, the cross space, where it
remained for thirty years. Sound familiar. This was a two
(04:56):
thousand forensic five. I was just gonna say, I've seen
this forensic for real? Yes, oh shit, I have totally
saying this one. I remember all it's so sad, and
then it just says Renee, fucking Renee. That was from
back to basics, Renee who doesn't want to fuck around,
she wants to tell the story bTB Renee. It's her
new name, and BFF Renee so sad. Also, how do
(05:22):
you live in a house for thirty years with a
dead body in the back? How did how did it
not smell?
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Ever?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Was sealed up in that drum? I mean? But still right? Well,
if it's air tight, if it's vacuum sealed. Shit, man,
he did something at that fucking warehouse. Why was it
too heavy? Yeah, he got it into the house, I think,
if I remember correctly, like his son or someone helped
him bring it in. Oh, he told him it was.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Something else maybe, oh god? Or did they build they
built the house around it. Yes, something happened. I'm gonna
say something happened. Okay, that seems reasonable. Yeah, was okay?
The person asked me more questions. Okay, let me ask
you this. The guy that dragged the drum to the corner.
(06:12):
Did he find that in the crawl space in the
basement because a young girl in wet pajamas and long
black hair kept appearing in the upstairs all way?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yes, question right? Yes? Okay? Did he also do that
because while he was eating dinner he would look up
and there would be a Civil War general sitting on
a cross the table from him with a skeleton face
who was saying, go check the fucking crawl spaces, super
scary voice or sped up. My sister and I one
time decided, did you ever see the Mothman prophecies? Oh? No,
(06:47):
I don't think so, Richard gear No, there's a part
we were watching it. Then we decided the scariest thing
you can do in a movie, in a horror movie,
not stabbing someone right in the face with a knife.
That you show. None of that shit, not not those
like the loud jump scares. Not smashing a car into
(07:07):
another car in a realistic manner, which infuriates me. I
don't want to be in a car. I don't want
to be in a croccident. I know we don't put
that in.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
There's a commercial lately that's got that in it, and
I'm like, angry at them.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
It's so it's like traumatizing to me. I've been into
so many car accidents, but here's the scariest thing you
can do that sped up talking. Oh my god, Like
what shall I There's a there's a part where Richard
gear is like in his hotel room the phone rings,
and he did this to my sister on the phone
when she got really mad at me, picked up the
(07:38):
phone and it's like like that, like super sped up,
crazy fast talking. It's so, why is it so scary?
Speaker 1 (07:46):
And the same thing I hate movie. I hate zombie movies.
When zombies can move at normal pace. Yes, so zombies
are running after.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
You like twenty eight days later. Yeah, he's like, no,
they're supposed to drag it legs.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
You can get the fuck out of there, right to know,
and they're just like booking it after you.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yes, it's like not there the one. That's why that
movie was so good twenty eighties later, because the idea
of a rage zombie, which just by the way, everybody
just f yi, that's what the world is turning into.
Rage zombies. Rage zombies, whether it's because of chemicals, whether
it's because of just we're done as the human rights
whatever the puticles we've been fucking given ourselves since we're
(08:22):
in the womb and we're feeding it to ourselves. Then
we're peeing it out into the sewer systems, and then
it's being processed into the water processing systems, and then
we're re drinking it. They don't, they don't. You don't
know if they can filter out those drugs.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
The secret is to just drink your own pea. See,
I had out the middle this. I told you this
time and again. But that was conspiracy theories and answers
that Karen and Georgia.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
It's called living solutions.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
But death hacks, Georgia apocalypse hacks when the.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Rage zombies are coming at you. But I really feel like,
and this is not a political thing, I feel like
people on every side of every possible pull are doing it,
but especially that the rage, the heights of rage people
are at now. And I mean, I feel you should
have heard me when there's somebody on Franklin stopped to
(09:17):
let a pedestrial walk and they block the lane in traffic,
the volume to which I can scream at people, did
you not see the pedestrian? Nope?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I do it and I feel so, and I go ahead, sorry,
you know, but also I'm like, fuck, calm down, Georgia.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
You can either say sorry, you can also double down
and pretend that you're still right. Like that's That's what
I think their culture is turning into. It's just like
everybody thinks that their rage is justified.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, anyway, but we're not wrong.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Never you and I ever ever. Stephen, You'll get a
pass on this one. Stephen. All right, so this is
a long one.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Then I'm gonna I'm gonna say in fast horror movie speak,
I was leave my sister.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
When I did that to her, started screaming at it.
She's like, never fucking did. I guess I love it.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Okay, So this was sent to me, and the thing
I found so interesting about it that I didn't I
just read through it and then I was like, what
the Fuck's I looked at it to like google the
person who emailed it to me, and they just made
up a name to send this to me.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Uh huh. So it's anonymous. I like it? So I
hate it. No, it's good. Okay, Okay, says Hi.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Let's just say my name is Andrea or Andrea, and
I'm fifty years old. The story I have to tell
is somewhat a confession because I've never spoken of this
to anyone since the murder took place in nineteen eighty one.
Fuck in the fall of eighty one, I lived in Massachusetts.
I hung out and went to school with a couple
of girls in the Mitchell family, Bonnie and Shirley. We
were from the same neighborhood and all in our early
(10:50):
teens thirteenth through fifteen, Bonnie being the fifteen and the
oldest of us. I would on occasion sneak around with
Bonnie's boyfriend, Chris, who was seventeen of the time. He
was a dropout and would skip school to hang out
at his house sometimes, and we would sometimes fool around.
We even had our last sexual encounter a late one
night in Saint Joseph's cemetery two weeks before the murder. Oh, okay,
(11:12):
so Bonnie was infatuated with Chris and had very deep
feelings for him, So of course I never told her
of our special dates. But Bonnie did, however, find out
about another girl who was catching Chris's attention. I believe
her name was Christine, and this Christine made Bonnie extremely jealous,
and Bonnie would try to meend up with this girl alone,
to beat her up and tell her to leave Chris.
I kind of remember there being a pregnancy involved, not
(11:35):
one of mine, but one.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Of the two girls. I don't recall if this was correct.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Anyhow, I never developed feelings for Chris, and our escapades
were just that. Really it was just acts of foolishness,
and then bored him on days I sipped school, skipped school,
been there, okay, And it was maybe more than five
times plus that one night in the cemetery. Yes, we
did have sexual intercourse at a semi at night in
(12:01):
a cemetery, and actually it was the last time we
hooked up because Bonnie was getting suspicious, so we agreed
to chill for a while. Okay, So Chris TEMs Bonnie
she's inconsolable, And one day Chris asked Bonnie to skip
school and she did, under the premise to work things
out with her, led her into the Pine Grove Cemetery
(12:23):
on the other side of town so they could be alone.
They walked into some sort of small building there where
he pulled out a rope from a clothesline he had
hid in his pocket. And strangled her until she died.
What Later that day, Chris bragged about killing Bonnie to
a girl, to Christine the new girl, and to some
other people, and even brought them out to see the body, which,
(12:45):
in turn which later that night, without him knowing, Christina
went and told the police. He was arrested and convicted
and sentenced to seventeen to twenty years. I moved for
away and I lost touch with everyone. When he asked
why he did it, he stated he was tired of
Bonnie being jealous all the time and constantly hanging around.
Chris thought he was a player, but in the end
(13:07):
he was just a murderer, one that I had sex with.
WHOA Yeah, and Bonnie was laid to rest in Saint
Joseph's cemetery, Yes, the same seminary Chris and I had
our last sexual encounter in Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
That's the third time she's mentioned having sex in the cemetery. Well,
she's into it. Uh, holy s So I did look
it up and he's still into it. Wow, that's so frightening.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
At first I thought it was the murder. It sounded
like the murder that remember the movie River's Edge. Of
course that we all love because I'm in love with
Crisp and Glover. It sounded like, you know, that wasn't
based on an actual murder, so I thought it was that,
but it's not.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yeah, it made me think of Double Jeopardy starring Ashley
Joe Freman. No, Tommy Lee Jones. Oh what do I
remember Morgan Freeman in that? Because she was in several
movies with Morgan Freeman. This is the one that her
husband sets her up and makes it look like she
(14:06):
murdered him, and then at one point he locks her
into a mausoleum in a cemetery in New Orleans. Remember
that scene? No, he like shuts her into one of
those things and then she's just like and then she's crazy.
How the movie ends yep, just with being interred live.
That's horrifying. It's just shit like that that.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
It's like, yeah, we did some really fucked up things,
Like when I was thirteen and fourteen and on drugs,
and I remember like, oh, you know this girl'll be
at that girl because she was hanging out with her
boyfriend and that and this and that, and it's like, God,
what if someone had killed one of them?
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Right? It's crazy. Usually more likely when you're on drugs
or like when everyone's kind.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Of ratcheted up right hormones and jealousy and you don't
understand what murder and death means.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
It's so crazy. Okay, you go, Okay. This next one
is from Kristin. It's hi you guys. I'm a new
listener and been binge listening for the past week. You rock,
and I cry, laughing, then I gasp, then I cry,
then I laugh. I'm addicted. Okay, that's what That's what
Renee is starting. That's how you start a fucking hometown
(15:16):
just kidding, Or you make.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Up a Gmail address just to tell us a fucking
secret that you've kept for fucking thirty years.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Full disclosure from fake Andrea. Yeah, come on now, But actually,
Renee yours was awesome. I will never stop thinking about
that drum being rolled out by a man who's like,
better get rid of this thing in my basement without
looking into it. Maybe what if it hadn't been money
and not a dead body? Right? But he's like, either way,
it's none of my business. Weird important wearing a tie
(15:44):
on the weekend, always wears a tie. Why are you
wearing that? So listen Her name is Kristen. She grew
up in Elko, a small town in northern Nevada about
two hours east of Elco. There is a tiny town
right on the border of Nevada in Utah called Wendover.
Think casinos, desert and trailer parks with nothing but hours
(16:05):
and hours of desert in every direction. Oh and the
population of just over four thousand. And now for the murder.
Here's the headline from the Salt Lake Tribune. A Mormon
teenager has been sentenced to life behind bars for helping
her boyfriend beat his ex girlfriend to death with a shovel,
in a crime the judge branded as as violent as
I've ever seen. Sixteen year old Mikhail Costanzo, or Mickey
(16:28):
as she was known to her friends, was a gorgeous girl,
well liked by everyone, a cheerleader editor of the school newspaper.
The list goes on her ex boyfriend named Cody Patten, Cody,
Codyty cute little Mickey, Cody. Cody started dating a girl
named Tony Fratto. These names are like straight out of
the Desert Registry. It's hilarious.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
I'm sorry I made find the named Cody. Actually, no,
really nice girl named Cody. Cody, Okay, I'll accept it,
thank you. Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
So Cody starts dating a girl named Tony who's intent
insanely jealous. Here's our theme of Mikayla and Mikayla's relationship
with Cody. It's mentioned numerous times and articles that Tony
was a Mormon, which typically leads you to believe that
she'd be a religious good girl, which would make it
hard to believe that a Mormon girl could have anything
to do with a murder, especially in a small town
(17:21):
like Wendover. The story goes that Tony could just not
deal with the thought of her boyfriend Cody seeing or
talking to Mikayla any longer. They decided to offer to
give Mikayla a ride home from school so Tony could
confront her and tell her to stay away from her boyfriend.
They drove Mikayla a little way into the desert, where
things escalated. Tony said that when Mikayla got out of
(17:43):
the car, she fell and hit her head on a bumper.
A Parenthesi's sure she did, and so they panicked and
everything else after that is a blur quote. Those are
that's in quotes. Tony and Cody ended up beating Mikayla
in the head with a shovel. According to Tony, it
took a really long time for her to die. She
admitted to sitting on Michaela's legs while Cody slid her throat.
(18:08):
They buried her in a shallow grave in the desert.
There was no physical evidence linking Tony to the murder,
but apparently her good girl conscience got the best of her,
and a few days later she ended up asking her
dad to drive her to the police station, where she
confessed every detail of them. M that's crazy, weird. Were
they on drugs? I just don't think sounds crazy. The
(18:31):
court proceedings for Tony and Cody were in my hometown.
Tony was sentenced to life with possibility of parole after
eighteen years, which is unfathomable, and Cody was sentenced to
life without parole. Things this horrific and violent just don't
happen in our area. It's so heart wrenching. Thanks for
(18:52):
reading my hometown, stay sexy. Oh really, gil Elu Kristen,
that's the worst. Thank you. I'm glad she started it
out cheery because yeah got real dark. Yeah all right, ready,
for one more.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Yeah, okay, this one's called the smiley faced Bomber parentheses
No one dies.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Yep, that's how you end it.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yep. Hi, Karen, Georgia, Steven Elvis, and Mimi. My name
is Will and I come from Wisconsin and this is
my favorite hometown case. While googling potential in state college
is to go to, I came across the University of
Wisconsin's stout Wikipedia page, where under the notable alumni section
was the name Luke Helder aka the Midwest Pipe bomber Fuck.
(19:46):
In two thousand and two, while in college, Helder began
to garner an interest in astral projection, believing that death.
Why is Stephen laughing so hard at this? What did
I say? No, just the idea that somebody is into
a projection, like in college. Yeah, I'm going to get
into it.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Do you know what are you into? I'm into the dead.
I'm into the grateful dead. I like roasted root.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Um projection, believing that death of flesh and body was
not the end of existence. This, mixed in with his
anti government stance, led him to plant bombs and multiple
mailboxes across the US. Of course, I don't trying to
kill himself and see if he lives. He tries to
kill other fucking people. But also it's he's sorry. The
(20:32):
problem was with the government. So he's putting pipe bombs
in mailboxes. I guess, okay, in the shapes, it's a
federal crime.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Yeah, stance.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
He had plant bombs and multiple mailboxes across the ou
apps US in the shape of a smiley face to
gain media attention to spread his ideas. That's how you
do it. You have to start a podcast, obviously, if
you want your ideas to be spread.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
AnyWho.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Eight bombs were found in Nebraska, five in Iowa, three
in Illinois, and one each in Colorado and Texas. Of this,
only the five in Iowa exploded, causing six injuries to
residents and postal workers, including a postal worker had recently
gotten back from cancer treatment and a retired couple mailing
a letter and then it says, sweet baby Angels. While
(21:22):
this was going on, the Postal Service canceled their services
in some regions, or to only deliver mail if the
door to the mailbox were open or taken off. The
local police would attach fishing lines to some of the
mailboxes to open at a safe distance. At the same time,
the FBI analyzed anti government notes that accompanied the bombs
and one that Helder sent to the Bagner Herald that
(21:44):
was entitled explosion A bit of evidence for you to
craft a criminal profile. Helder's father received a letter from
Helder which would end up providing authorities with enough information
to find an arrest Helder. He was arrested before he
could complete the full smile. In two thousand and four,
Helder was diagnosed with schizoactive disorder. Wait a second, I
(22:08):
don't get it.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
The shape of the smile bomb the map of the
United States. So he wanted bombs to go off and
a smiling like if you were basically if you were
looking from a satellite down in the shape of I
get it. It's very high concept, it really is. Before
they get put okay.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
So in two thousand and four, Helder was diagnosed with
Schitzo effective disorder and was sounding competent to stand trial.
Helder is currently incarcerated in the Federal Medical Center in
Minnesota and has had multiple hearings in the past years
to see if he is still incompetent to stand trial.
On a side note, Helder was part of a local
grunge band named Apathy before his bombing spree and released
(22:46):
one CD that is now sought after by some music critics.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
I wonder if Vince has it.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
I recently graduated from UW Stout and would bring up
this story to some of my friends who couldn't believe
that he went to the same school as us. So
I had classes with some of the professors who had
UH who gave interviews about Helder. I never brought it
up to them, though. This case always trucked me in
with This case always stuck with me for my time
(23:13):
attending Stout, and I always found it odd how it
was under the Notable Alumni section in the Wikipedia, but
I guess with their name there anyway. Thank you for
your time and I hope you enjoyed the hometown case.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Shout out.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Shout out for my friend Lizzie for recommending your podcast.
I am officially caught up. Stay Sexy and don't get murdered?
Will nice one, Will nice Will. I've never heard of that.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
No smiley face. Why do we know about the unibomber more? Yeah?
Did I guess think he killed people? He actually killed people?
Where's this guy just injured people? Yeah? You disagree, Elvis okay,
and the fucking podcast already.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Well shit man, bye oh bye oh no, wait to
tell people to do things, stay sexy, don't get murdered.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Bye bye.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
What does you want to cook?
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Alright? Bye From a laying position
Welcome, Hi Karen, Welcome to my favorite murder, Hi doored
It minisode.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hi, Hi, Let's tell people stories that they sent us
to tell them. Let's rate it back right to them.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yeah, this is my favorite Murder the mini episode where
we read you back the hometown murders that you email us.
It's the murders that happen in your hometown clearly, or
your college town or your cousin's hometown that you grew
up near. What else you're just one more example, your
new hometown. Yes, you've moved from your old hometown to
(00:48):
a new one. Your mom's hometown totally applies. Yeah, So
we're gonna and you can send them to my favorite
Murder at jmail. Steven reads them, picks them, and gives
them to us, and then we say them into microphones.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
For example, this is our first one. Stephen Ray Morris
has picked it out for me to read to you,
and the subject line is let's roll out the barrel.
This should be fun past past worktown murder. That's just
the first sentence. Then there's an ellipsis, there's no high
(01:23):
there's no hello, not a fan, just as just a
past worktown murder. So this is Actually it's a category
we haven't named. I didn't name it worktown, but that
makes sense. You live in one town, you work in
a different one, and in this town that you work in,
that's where the murder happens. Yeah, which would be maybe preferable.
I mean, yeah, right right past worktown murder. It's nineteen
(01:44):
ninety nine. A guy buys a house in upscale Jericho,
New York, is cleaning out basement of crawl space of
heavy drum. Oooh that sounds fun, drags to curb for
trash pickup. Okay, so keep in his basement crawl space,
he finds a heavy drum and then he drags it
out to the curb.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Clearly he's never watched forensic files, because come on.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yeah, he's just like, oh, this drum is fine. Yeah.
Everyone else would be like, oh great, a dead body,
and he's like, I don't know, this is none of
my business. I'm gonna drag this to the curb. Uh. So,
sanitation workers won't take it because they don't know what's
in it. Yes, they do, very smart. So they open
it a find a mummified pregnant woman's body and it's
(02:29):
covered in plastic bits The police trace the drum manufacturer
to nineteen sixty three, trace the contents not the woman,
but the plastic bits to a plastic flower company. They
trace that to the now retired owner of the plastic
flower company, Howard Elkins. Turns out he used to own
the house and now lives in Florida. Nassau County cops
(02:51):
pay him a visit. He admits to having an affair
with a woman matching that description, but can't remember her name.
He refuses to give DNA to match the feet, and
cops leave and get a court order. He hits the
local Walmart, buys a gun and AMMO, and kills himself
in a friend's garage and then in parentheses, Wow, maybe
(03:12):
the worst friend ever? Now what this is the most
interestingly interestingly written hometown we've ever had? Yeah, because at
first I was positive this was translated from Japanese.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, it's written by the guy who owned the home,
who just thought that the barrel should be dragged out
to the curb.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
That's right, a real basics Yeah, no, greetings, butt and dried.
Keep it simple, stupid situation. Okay, so now what great
thing to write into any email?
Speaker 1 (03:43):
We're just shaving so manys like we're talking so many
people out of ever writing to.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Him, which you know who you are? You know who
you are. That's less stuff Stephen has to do. Okay,
now what they find an old address book with the body.
They start calling the numbers that are thirty years old.
They find someone who is still at her number and
knows who the victim is. It's Raina Angelica Marricane, Marricane.
(04:11):
I'll just go that, who disappeared in nineteen sixty nine
at the age of twenty seven. Maybe she had come
to the US from El Salvador in nineteen sixty six
and got a job in the plastic flower factory. Her
boss and lover, Elkins, promised her marriage, but he was
already married. Raina apparently had called his wife, told her
(04:32):
she was pregnant, and Elkins flipped out and killed her.
Police think that he brought the drum containing her body
home from work and was going to take it on
his boat and dump it at sea, but it weighed
almost three hundred and fifty pounds, so he pushed it
into the space under oh, the cross space, where it
remained for thirty years. Sound familiar. This was a two
(04:56):
thousand forensic five. I was just gonna say, I've seen
this forensic for real? Yes, oh shit, I have totally
saying this one. I remember all it's so sad, and
then it just says Renee, fucking Renee. That was from
back to basics, Renee who doesn't want to fuck around,
she wants to tell the story bTB Renee. It's her
new name, and BFF Renee so sad. Also, how do
(05:22):
you live in a house for thirty years with a
dead body in the back? How did how did it
not smell?
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Ever?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Was sealed up in that drum? I mean? But still right? Well,
if it's air tight, if it's vacuum sealed. Shit, man,
he did something at that fucking warehouse. Why was it
too heavy? Yeah, he got it into the house, I think,
if I remember correctly, like his son or someone helped
him bring it in. Oh, he told him it was.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Something else maybe, oh god? Or did they build they
built the house around it. Yes, something happened. I'm gonna
say something happened. Okay, that seems reasonable. Yeah, was okay?
The person asked me more questions. Okay, let me ask
you this. The guy that dragged the drum to the corner.
(06:12):
Did he find that in the crawl space in the
basement because a young girl in wet pajamas and long
black hair kept appearing in the upstairs all way?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yes, question right? Yes? Okay? Did he also do that
because while he was eating dinner he would look up
and there would be a Civil War general sitting on
a cross the table from him with a skeleton face
who was saying, go check the fucking crawl spaces, super
scary voice or sped up. My sister and I one
time decided, did you ever see the Mothman prophecies? Oh? No,
(06:47):
I don't think so, Richard gear No, there's a part
we were watching it. Then we decided the scariest thing
you can do in a movie, in a horror movie,
not stabbing someone right in the face with a knife.
That you show. None of that shit, not not those
like the loud jump scares. Not smashing a car into
(07:07):
another car in a realistic manner, which infuriates me. I
don't want to be in a car. I don't want
to be in a croccident. I know we don't put
that in.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
There's a commercial lately that's got that in it, and
I'm like, angry at them.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
It's so it's like traumatizing to me. I've been into
so many car accidents, but here's the scariest thing you
can do that sped up talking. Oh my god, Like
what shall I There's a there's a part where Richard
gear is like in his hotel room the phone rings,
and he did this to my sister on the phone
when she got really mad at me, picked up the
(07:38):
phone and it's like like that, like super sped up,
crazy fast talking. It's so, why is it so scary?
Speaker 1 (07:46):
And the same thing I hate movie. I hate zombie movies.
When zombies can move at normal pace. Yes, so zombies
are running after.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
You like twenty eight days later. Yeah, he's like, no,
they're supposed to drag it legs.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
You can get the fuck out of there, right to know,
and they're just like booking it after you.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yes, it's like not there the one. That's why that
movie was so good twenty eighties later, because the idea
of a rage zombie, which just by the way, everybody
just f yi, that's what the world is turning into.
Rage zombies. Rage zombies, whether it's because of chemicals, whether
it's because of just we're done as the human rights
whatever the puticles we've been fucking given ourselves since we're
(08:22):
in the womb and we're feeding it to ourselves. Then
we're peeing it out into the sewer systems, and then
it's being processed into the water processing systems, and then
we're re drinking it. They don't, they don't. You don't
know if they can filter out those drugs.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
The secret is to just drink your own pea. See,
I had out the middle this. I told you this
time and again. But that was conspiracy theories and answers
that Karen and Georgia.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
It's called living solutions.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
But death hacks, Georgia apocalypse hacks when the.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Rage zombies are coming at you. But I really feel like,
and this is not a political thing, I feel like
people on every side of every possible pull are doing it,
but especially that the rage, the heights of rage people
are at now. And I mean, I feel you should
have heard me when there's somebody on Franklin stopped to
(09:17):
let a pedestrial walk and they block the lane in traffic,
the volume to which I can scream at people, did
you not see the pedestrian? Nope?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I do it and I feel so, and I go ahead, sorry,
you know, but also I'm like, fuck, calm down, Georgia.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
You can either say sorry, you can also double down
and pretend that you're still right. Like that's That's what
I think their culture is turning into. It's just like
everybody thinks that their rage is justified.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, anyway, but we're not wrong.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Never you and I ever ever. Stephen, You'll get a
pass on this one. Stephen. All right, so this is
a long one.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Then I'm gonna I'm gonna say in fast horror movie speak,
I was leave my sister.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
When I did that to her, started screaming at it.
She's like, never fucking did. I guess I love it.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Okay, So this was sent to me, and the thing
I found so interesting about it that I didn't I
just read through it and then I was like, what
the Fuck's I looked at it to like google the
person who emailed it to me, and they just made
up a name to send this to me.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Uh huh. So it's anonymous. I like it? So I
hate it. No, it's good. Okay, Okay, says Hi.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Let's just say my name is Andrea or Andrea, and
I'm fifty years old. The story I have to tell
is somewhat a confession because I've never spoken of this
to anyone since the murder took place in nineteen eighty one.
Fuck in the fall of eighty one, I lived in Massachusetts.
I hung out and went to school with a couple
of girls in the Mitchell family, Bonnie and Shirley. We
were from the same neighborhood and all in our early
(10:50):
teens thirteenth through fifteen, Bonnie being the fifteen and the
oldest of us. I would on occasion sneak around with
Bonnie's boyfriend, Chris, who was seventeen of the time. He
was a dropout and would skip school to hang out
at his house sometimes, and we would sometimes fool around.
We even had our last sexual encounter a late one
night in Saint Joseph's cemetery two weeks before the murder. Oh, okay,
(11:12):
so Bonnie was infatuated with Chris and had very deep
feelings for him, So of course I never told her
of our special dates. But Bonnie did, however, find out
about another girl who was catching Chris's attention. I believe
her name was Christine, and this Christine made Bonnie extremely jealous,
and Bonnie would try to meend up with this girl alone,
to beat her up and tell her to leave Chris.
I kind of remember there being a pregnancy involved, not
(11:35):
one of mine, but one.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Of the two girls. I don't recall if this was correct.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Anyhow, I never developed feelings for Chris, and our escapades
were just that. Really it was just acts of foolishness,
and then bored him on days I sipped school, skipped school,
been there, okay, And it was maybe more than five
times plus that one night in the cemetery. Yes, we
did have sexual intercourse at a semi at night in
(12:01):
a cemetery, and actually it was the last time we
hooked up because Bonnie was getting suspicious, so we agreed
to chill for a while. Okay, So Chris TEMs Bonnie
she's inconsolable, And one day Chris asked Bonnie to skip
school and she did, under the premise to work things
out with her, led her into the Pine Grove Cemetery
(12:23):
on the other side of town so they could be alone.
They walked into some sort of small building there where
he pulled out a rope from a clothesline he had
hid in his pocket. And strangled her until she died.
What Later that day, Chris bragged about killing Bonnie to
a girl, to Christine the new girl, and to some
other people, and even brought them out to see the body, which,
(12:45):
in turn which later that night, without him knowing, Christina
went and told the police. He was arrested and convicted
and sentenced to seventeen to twenty years. I moved for
away and I lost touch with everyone. When he asked
why he did it, he stated he was tired of
Bonnie being jealous all the time and constantly hanging around.
Chris thought he was a player, but in the end
(13:07):
he was just a murderer, one that I had sex with.
WHOA Yeah, and Bonnie was laid to rest in Saint
Joseph's cemetery, Yes, the same seminary Chris and I had
our last sexual encounter in Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
That's the third time she's mentioned having sex in the cemetery. Well,
she's into it. Uh, holy s So I did look
it up and he's still into it. Wow, that's so frightening.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
At first I thought it was the murder. It sounded
like the murder that remember the movie River's Edge. Of
course that we all love because I'm in love with
Crisp and Glover. It sounded like, you know, that wasn't
based on an actual murder, so I thought it was that,
but it's not.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yeah, it made me think of Double Jeopardy starring Ashley
Joe Freman. No, Tommy Lee Jones. Oh what do I
remember Morgan Freeman in that? Because she was in several
movies with Morgan Freeman. This is the one that her
husband sets her up and makes it look like she
(14:06):
murdered him, and then at one point he locks her
into a mausoleum in a cemetery in New Orleans. Remember
that scene? No, he like shuts her into one of
those things and then she's just like and then she's crazy.
How the movie ends yep, just with being interred live.
That's horrifying. It's just shit like that that.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
It's like, yeah, we did some really fucked up things,
Like when I was thirteen and fourteen and on drugs,
and I remember like, oh, you know this girl'll be
at that girl because she was hanging out with her
boyfriend and that and this and that, and it's like, God,
what if someone had killed one of them?
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Right? It's crazy. Usually more likely when you're on drugs
or like when everyone's kind.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Of ratcheted up right hormones and jealousy and you don't
understand what murder and death means.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
It's so crazy. Okay, you go, Okay. This next one
is from Kristin. It's hi you guys. I'm a new
listener and been binge listening for the past week. You rock,
and I cry, laughing, then I gasp, then I cry,
then I laugh. I'm addicted. Okay, that's what That's what
Renee is starting. That's how you start a fucking hometown
(15:16):
just kidding, Or you make.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Up a Gmail address just to tell us a fucking
secret that you've kept for fucking thirty years.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Full disclosure from fake Andrea. Yeah, come on now, But actually,
Renee yours was awesome. I will never stop thinking about
that drum being rolled out by a man who's like,
better get rid of this thing in my basement without
looking into it. Maybe what if it hadn't been money
and not a dead body? Right? But he's like, either way,
it's none of my business. Weird important wearing a tie
(15:44):
on the weekend, always wears a tie. Why are you
wearing that? So listen Her name is Kristen. She grew
up in Elko, a small town in northern Nevada about
two hours east of Elco. There is a tiny town
right on the border of Nevada in Utah called Wendover.
Think casinos, desert and trailer parks with nothing but hours
(16:05):
and hours of desert in every direction. Oh and the
population of just over four thousand. And now for the murder.
Here's the headline from the Salt Lake Tribune. A Mormon
teenager has been sentenced to life behind bars for helping
her boyfriend beat his ex girlfriend to death with a shovel,
in a crime the judge branded as as violent as
I've ever seen. Sixteen year old Mikhail Costanzo, or Mickey
(16:28):
as she was known to her friends, was a gorgeous girl,
well liked by everyone, a cheerleader editor of the school newspaper.
The list goes on her ex boyfriend named Cody Patten, Cody,
Codyty cute little Mickey, Cody. Cody started dating a girl
named Tony Fratto. These names are like straight out of
the Desert Registry. It's hilarious.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
I'm sorry I made find the named Cody. Actually, no,
really nice girl named Cody. Cody, Okay, I'll accept it,
thank you. Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
So Cody starts dating a girl named Tony who's intent
insanely jealous. Here's our theme of Mikayla and Mikayla's relationship
with Cody. It's mentioned numerous times and articles that Tony
was a Mormon, which typically leads you to believe that
she'd be a religious good girl, which would make it
hard to believe that a Mormon girl could have anything
to do with a murder, especially in a small town
(17:21):
like Wendover. The story goes that Tony could just not
deal with the thought of her boyfriend Cody seeing or
talking to Mikayla any longer. They decided to offer to
give Mikayla a ride home from school so Tony could
confront her and tell her to stay away from her boyfriend.
They drove Mikayla a little way into the desert, where
things escalated. Tony said that when Mikayla got out of
(17:43):
the car, she fell and hit her head on a bumper.
A Parenthesi's sure she did, and so they panicked and
everything else after that is a blur quote. Those are
that's in quotes. Tony and Cody ended up beating Mikayla
in the head with a shovel. According to Tony, it
took a really long time for her to die. She
admitted to sitting on Michaela's legs while Cody slid her throat.
(18:08):
They buried her in a shallow grave in the desert.
There was no physical evidence linking Tony to the murder,
but apparently her good girl conscience got the best of her,
and a few days later she ended up asking her
dad to drive her to the police station, where she
confessed every detail of them. M that's crazy, weird. Were
they on drugs? I just don't think sounds crazy. The
(18:31):
court proceedings for Tony and Cody were in my hometown.
Tony was sentenced to life with possibility of parole after
eighteen years, which is unfathomable, and Cody was sentenced to
life without parole. Things this horrific and violent just don't
happen in our area. It's so heart wrenching. Thanks for
(18:52):
reading my hometown, stay sexy. Oh really, gil Elu Kristen,
that's the worst. Thank you. I'm glad she started it
out cheery because yeah got real dark. Yeah all right, ready,
for one more.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Yeah, okay, this one's called the smiley faced Bomber parentheses
No one dies.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Yep, that's how you end it.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yep. Hi, Karen, Georgia, Steven Elvis, and Mimi. My name
is Will and I come from Wisconsin and this is
my favorite hometown case. While googling potential in state college
is to go to, I came across the University of
Wisconsin's stout Wikipedia page, where under the notable alumni section
was the name Luke Helder aka the Midwest Pipe bomber Fuck.
(19:46):
In two thousand and two, while in college, Helder began
to garner an interest in astral projection, believing that death.
Why is Stephen laughing so hard at this? What did
I say? No, just the idea that somebody is into
a projection, like in college. Yeah, I'm going to get
into it.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Do you know what are you into? I'm into the dead.
I'm into the grateful dead. I like roasted root.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Um projection, believing that death of flesh and body was
not the end of existence. This, mixed in with his
anti government stance, led him to plant bombs and multiple
mailboxes across the US. Of course, I don't trying to
kill himself and see if he lives. He tries to
kill other fucking people. But also it's he's sorry. The
(20:32):
problem was with the government. So he's putting pipe bombs
in mailboxes. I guess, okay, in the shapes, it's a
federal crime.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Yeah, stance.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
He had plant bombs and multiple mailboxes across the ou
apps US in the shape of a smiley face to
gain media attention to spread his ideas. That's how you
do it. You have to start a podcast, obviously, if
you want your ideas to be spread.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
AnyWho.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Eight bombs were found in Nebraska, five in Iowa, three
in Illinois, and one each in Colorado and Texas. Of this,
only the five in Iowa exploded, causing six injuries to
residents and postal workers, including a postal worker had recently
gotten back from cancer treatment and a retired couple mailing
a letter and then it says, sweet baby Angels. While
(21:22):
this was going on, the Postal Service canceled their services
in some regions, or to only deliver mail if the
door to the mailbox were open or taken off. The
local police would attach fishing lines to some of the
mailboxes to open at a safe distance. At the same time,
the FBI analyzed anti government notes that accompanied the bombs
and one that Helder sent to the Bagner Herald that
(21:44):
was entitled explosion A bit of evidence for you to
craft a criminal profile. Helder's father received a letter from
Helder which would end up providing authorities with enough information
to find an arrest Helder. He was arrested before he
could complete the full smile. In two thousand and four,
Helder was diagnosed with schizoactive disorder. Wait a second, I
(22:08):
don't get it.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
The shape of the smile bomb the map of the
United States. So he wanted bombs to go off and
a smiling like if you were basically if you were
looking from a satellite down in the shape of I
get it. It's very high concept, it really is. Before
they get put okay.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
So in two thousand and four, Helder was diagnosed with
Schitzo effective disorder and was sounding competent to stand trial.
Helder is currently incarcerated in the Federal Medical Center in
Minnesota and has had multiple hearings in the past years
to see if he is still incompetent to stand trial.
On a side note, Helder was part of a local
grunge band named Apathy before his bombing spree and released
(22:46):
one CD that is now sought after by some music critics.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
I wonder if Vince has it.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
I recently graduated from UW Stout and would bring up
this story to some of my friends who couldn't believe
that he went to the same school as us. So
I had classes with some of the professors who had
UH who gave interviews about Helder. I never brought it
up to them, though. This case always trucked me in
with This case always stuck with me for my time
(23:13):
attending Stout, and I always found it odd how it
was under the Notable Alumni section in the Wikipedia, but
I guess with their name there anyway. Thank you for
your time and I hope you enjoyed the hometown case.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Shout out.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Shout out for my friend Lizzie for recommending your podcast.
I am officially caught up. Stay Sexy and don't get murdered?
Will nice one, Will nice Will. I've never heard of that.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
No smiley face. Why do we know about the unibomber more? Yeah?
Did I guess think he killed people? He actually killed people?
Where's this guy just injured people? Yeah? You disagree, Elvis okay,
and the fucking podcast already.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Well shit man, bye oh bye oh no, wait to
tell people to do things, stay sexy, don't get murdered.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Bye bye.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
What does you want to cook?
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Alright? Bye From a laying position
Hosts And Creators
Georgia Hardstark
Karen Kilgariff
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.