November 17, 2025 • 25 mins
This week’s hometowns feature creepy neighbors. Stories include the Golden State Killer and an accidental curse.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Hello, and welcome to my favorite Murder the minisode.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
We're doing a themed episode this week. Creepy neighbors. Some
of you guys need a fucking move.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
My god, these are not funny stories. There's a lot
of people up on other people's porches for no reason.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, a lot of people leaving things for you that
you did not ask for and do not want.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Well, let's get into it. Let's you want to start shirt. Okay,
that was almost like re rehearsing.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
I know, and I was too smooth. We're just we're
on the road and we're just killing it.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
We're just locked in.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Okay. This one's called a Virgin and a pear Tree. Hello,
MFM ladies. I have been wanting to write this in
for quite some time, but it's a long one with
a lot of twists and turns, so it's taken me
a moment to get my thoughts down in what I
hope is a cohesive manner. When I was a sophomore
in college in Alabama, I lived alone in a two
bedroom house thanks to my roommate transferring the week before
school started.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Hell yeah, wow.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
It wasn't in a bad neighborhood per se, but there
were some creepy apartments next door that resembled an hourly motel.
It's like everywhere in Los Angeles. Yeah, in my backyard,
my landlord had so lovingly planted a pear tree that
would cover my car in such thick sap that I
would have to hand wash my car in order to
see out the windshield.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Oh Jesus.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
One afternoon, while washing my car, and neighbor from the
creepy apartments came outside to drink a beer. He started
talking to me innoscently enough in the beginning, but then
shit got weird. He began to tell me he was
a Vietnam War veteran and devoted himself to the service
and therefore had never had a wife. His problem, he
was saving himself for marriage.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Sir, that's your private business. Take it to your pastor.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Yes, this lord knows how.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Old man started talking to me about how he was
a virgin and then starts commenting on my looks. I
quickly created an excuse to get the fuck away from
this conversation and locked myself in my house because fuck politeness.
I wish I could say that's where it ends, but
it gets weirder from then on a flower pot full
of cigarette butts would magically appear every time I walked
out my front door, as if someone were watching me
(02:15):
go in and out of my house, just fucking chain
smoking and watching.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Her like he was standing out there watching.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
I think, so, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Weird notes would be left in my mailbox, and when
I passed the virgin neighbor outside, he would ask if
I had checked my mail lately and laugh uncontrollably. The
worst was when my friend and I were sitting on
my front porch eating boozed up Italian ice and a
detective approached. At first, I thought I was about to
get in trouble for my delicious treat.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
How did he know?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
But I quickly lost my buzz when he told me
some girls down the street called nine one one when
they saw a weird man trying to break into my
home earlier that day.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Good for those, yeah for real.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
At the end of spring semester, on the day at
my last final, I was sitting at my kitchen table
eating breakfast. The window faced the creep apartments. Into my shock.
They were quickly surrounded by SWAT teams and DEA officers.
This perked me up quicker than any cup of coffee
could and my mouth hung open as they dragged my
creepy neighbor out of his apartment in handcuffs. Ladies and gentlemen,
(03:15):
this man was running a full blown met lab in there.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I'm not sure whatever happened to him, because, needless to say,
my mom was ready for me to get the fuck
out of there. I ended up transferring that summer, and
it was the best decision I ever made. Stay sexy
and don't plant that pear tree.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Aaron, So was he even a virgin? I mean, was
he lying the whole time?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Dang?
Speaker 4 (03:40):
We trusted him.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
We trusted that virgin.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
A meth lab, Like that's so dangerous, Oh my god
in an apartment.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah yeah, that's insane. Ooh.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
And also just that idea that then she's like, yay,
I get this house to myself.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Now I'm trapped in this house.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Every time you walk out the door, there might be
something that's I've we've all done that.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
It's just it's like you're being held hostage.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
And just United Girls of the World calling the cops
and oh yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, well we're in it now,
we're in it. I'm not going to read this subject
line of this it says high MFM crew, you asked
for crazy neighbor stories, so I decided it was finally
time to write in. My sister and I used to
talk on the phone every week or so. She would
(04:23):
mostly chat about her pets or her spouse, and then
in parentheses it says, in that order, but a couple
of times she mentioned a particular neighbor who gave her
hell along with a strong dose of both the he bees.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
And the gv's.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Apparently, it was not unusual for him to curse loudly
or yell at passers by, so naturally he was pretty
much outside in his garage or in the yard all
the time. And then in parentheses it says, why can't
craiky people stay indoors and yell at the TV like
normal folks. What's so funny is it reminds me of
we used to, you know, live out in the country,
so it was like country roads, and people would literally
(04:57):
go eighty five miles an hour. As my sister and
I are out there on her back, my father yelled
at every car that sped.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I was picturing your dad, like there was something in
your voice that was like, I'm familiar with this, this
is and it Well, he wasn't wrong.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
He wasn't wrong, but I don't know how effective it was.
I'm sure it was very soothing for him, though, so
On several occasions, my sister and her dogs were the
target of this yelling. This prickly grump would yell at
her for her dogs doing a normal dog thing, like
walking in the grass or breathing too loudly. A few
times she even saw him on the ground trimming the
lawn with scissors and muttering to himself. Weird, but I
(05:32):
guess if he's muttering to himself and not yelling at her,
it's okay. I said something to the effect of, well,
he sounds like a real delight. Then suggested it might
be a good idea to consider a different route for
her dog walks, lest she gets stabbed in the foot
with his lawn scissors. We laughed, and she agreed it
would be best to avoid further confrontation and just let
the crusty old timer live out his life with his
perfectly edged grass. My sister eventually moved to a different
(05:55):
city with much nicer neighbors, none of Hume used kitchen
utensils on their lawns, and I never thought about the crotchety.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Clipper again, I have a feeling I know what it is.
I think you do.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Oh my god, Tolly.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
That is until twenty eighteen, when a massive story broke
and I heard the name of a familiar street on
the news.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Oh wow, someone has been arrested in my sister's old neighborhood.
Wait did they just say that.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
The neighbors called him cantankerous, and he was known for
swearing at people and crawling on the lawn to handcut
the edges. Holy ship. That grumpy bastard was Joseph D'Angelo.
Oh my god, I remember the scissor lawn scissor cutting
so wild. I scoured the articles until I found one
with a photo showing the house number, and then in
(06:38):
parentheses it says, don't docs folks, even serial killers, And
then it says Anne pulled up a map to compare
my sister's old address with this one. It was less
than ten houses away.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Holy show, So she lived.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
On the same block as this guy. It sounds like
the freaking Golden State killer yelled at my sister.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Oh oh, how fucking terrifying.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yeah, my sister was not a and would probably have
lost her mind if she knew she lives so close
to an actual monster. But perhaps fortunately she died before
genealogy caught up with her asshole of a neighbor. At
least the world knows how intensely vile this man is,
and I can only hope he gets everything he deserves.
Stay sexy and avoid the creepy neighbor.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
M Oh my god, Okay, this is just called creepy neighbor.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Hi, murder friends.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
I will be keeping my name out of this, but
shout out to my sister who also loved this podcast,
and then says her sister's name, and then goes on
to do a lot of details that I think I'm
not going to say the sister's name, essentially, because it's like,
if you want to be anonymous, well, this is not
the way to do it. Your sister's a very unique name.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
When I was in college working on my master's degree
in architecture, I was employed at a restaurant that was
walking distance from my apartment. I lived on a main
road in a town on the water where there was
commercial space below and apartments above. One day, when I
was on my way to my car to go to school,
I saw a note had been left behind on my windshield.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
It said, quote ever look.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Into someone in the eyes and instantly feel there is
much depth, the kind of depth that can stop you
in your tracks. Most days I see short sighted emptiness
in people's.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Eyes, but not you.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Eyes are the windows to the soul, and yours runs
deep question mark. I find it very rare these days,
and I thought it was worth sharing end quote.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
You're reading this note next to your car, and then
you're looking sus.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
I immediately took a picture of it and sent it
to my boyfriend and was like, look at this note
with no name left on my car.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
My partner said, oh, yeah, I found one on your
car last.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Week and threw it away so you wouldn't be scared, sir,
sir get it together, Like what the fuck? I, of course,
was confused, and the detective and me started to think
about who it could possibly be. I had no idea.
A few weeks later, I was walking down the stairs
of my apartment and a man popped out of nowhere,
blocking my exit and standing in the landing inside where
only the tenants should be It was the renter of
(08:59):
one of the commercial spaces below my apartment, who would
come into the restaurant with his daughters. His business was
not open to the public yet, and I didn't know him.
Besides that, he did look to be almost forty and
I was twenty two at the time.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
He asked me on.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
The spot if quote I ever wanted to hang out sometime.
I have plenty of wine in my unit and you
could just knock on the door. I sleep there most nights.
I said no, thank you with an awkward smile, and
left with that. Further incident. I was working that month
and got assigned to his table and told the bartender
to please take his table.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
I told them what.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Happened and showed her the note and how I thought
he sent it and felt very uncomfortable. She said he
was a towny going through a divorce and she had
known him her whole life and agreed it was creepy.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Oh thank god.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
She went over to talk to him, and I'm not
sure what she said, but he pretended I didn't exist
after that, and I was fine with that. Fucking tell
the bartender when you're uncomfortable.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah, that's very smart, right Vice Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Nonetheless, it is very scary to have a creeper who
knows where you work, live and what your car looks like.
Thank you to all those strong, badass bartenders and others
who can stand up for those who are not good
with confrontation. Even in dangerous situations. I usually told myself, well,
that was weird, but they didn't physically hurt me, like
that time when a kid held a knife up to
my wrist and I did not tell my mom, but
(10:13):
my friend who was nearby me at the time, told
her mom later crying, and the police were involved. Story
for another time. My mom sent me to therapy to
help me understand why I should have told somebody I
was in it for the candy. I guess at therapy
and barely talked during my session. But now, as an adult,
I know that I was desensitized from the abuse I
suffered from my father that blurred my lines. Sorry, this
(10:35):
is a bit long. Love you guys, and please ask
for help even if it makes you uncomfortable. I believe now,
at the age of twenty seven, I have the strength
to fuck politeness. Yes, thank you for all that you
guys do.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
SSDGM anonymous Anonymous I just want to say that for myself,
saying stuff like fuck politeness is the kind of thing
you develop when you're in your forties and fifties. Yeah,
like you live through life and you live through those experiences.
If you're in your twenties and that's not something that's
familiar or comfortable for you, that makes a lot of sense,
(11:06):
and that's great advice coming from you saying like, get
someone else to help you.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Totally, it's a hard thing to do. Ask for help.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
But also the more you practice it, the more you
realize a lot of times a creep like that, or
somebody that's like they just have the wrong idea, and
it's just like it's whether you set a boundary, which
is everybody has hard times doing totally a hard time
doing that sometimes, or you find a bartender, yeah smart, Okay,
we'll change the temperature a little bit, right now.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
There's got to be some good neighbors, right.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
No, actually that's not what's going to happen here.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
But we ask for creeping.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
The subject line says, Karen asks for a hero senior dog.
I give her a hero senior dog. Karen exclamation part
Georgia exclamation point. The whole gang. Exclamation point. Longtime listener,
first time caller. Let's get into it. I've always lamented
how I never really had a good hometown, But it
turns out, after listening to Minisod three eighteen, I do
(12:04):
you ask for a hero senior dog story, and boy
do I have one. I was the youngest of my
family and my mom was a stay at home legend,
so me, her and my sweet big Newfoundland dog Boo
would spend a lot of time home alone together.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
I want to show you this dog now, Boo.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Holy my god, that is just like the ball of
giant fir.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Are you familiar with Newfoundland dogs?
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Not really a cool, lot of drool, a lot of drool.
They're gigantic. And my parents took us to the San
Francisco Dog.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Show when I was like eight years old.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Amazing, and you get to walk through as they're like
grooming the dogs and see every kind And my sister
and I got to the Newfoundland table and we were like,
we begged. Our parents were like, it's good for the
country and it could run around and feel like a
sheep dog, yes, but like a small horse.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
And they're from Newfoundland, Canada and they swim in the ocean, is.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
What I heard.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
So there that's a kind face too.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
I know there's so sweet swim in the ocean, and
they like you and your sister did all this research.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
So I present to your parents like we.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Could bring her to the ocean, and we could so.
My sweet baby angel, ten year old dog would never
hurt a fly and was well known in our neighborhood
as a gentle giant. We also had this old creepy
neighbor who we used to joke about being involved in
anything weirdly dark.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
We could think of.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
One particularly dark winter night, creep neighbor had decided to,
for reasons unknown, come over to our house while only
me I was fifteen at the time, My mom and
Boo were home. He also, for some reason, decided to
walk around the back of the house to our sliding
glass door, even though our front door was much closer.
When my dog noticed someone at the back door, she
(13:43):
perked up, and when she noticed it was him, she
lost her goddamn mind. When I say I've never seen
my dog flip her shit like this, I mean it.
She hopped up from her deep slumber, teeth showing hackles,
raised near foaming at the mouth. She was barking so
intensely and her face was pressed up on the glass.
Me and my mom were so shocked since we'd never
(14:04):
even seen her chase as squirrel, so we just stood
beside her and stared at him, not doing anything to
make her stop. Needless to say, creep neighbor turned and
left in a fucking hurry. My dad went over that
night after work and berated him for coming to our
back door in the pitch black and for alarming me
and my mom as well as our sweet old dog.
After that episode, my dog would bark incessantly at his
(14:26):
car every time it drove by, or at him if
he got too close to the property.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Wait, is this the Golden State killer again?
Speaker 1 (14:34):
This dog caught?
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Joseph to Angela, Oh my god, she said, not today
or any day, Creep. Years later, my parents moved into
the city, but did hear some interesting news. It turns
out that Creep was involved in some gross, creepy church activities,
including some abuse claims as well as general thievery. It
just goes to show always trust your gut and more importantly,
(14:57):
trust your sweet old dog's intuition. SSDGA Bell and then
it says, ps, I've attached a photo of my sweet
guardian angel dog. She passed away almost nine years ago,
and I think of her every time I choose to
say fuck that to something that gives me that hell
fucking no gut feeling. She was just really cute and
I wanted to share that with you and the MFM team.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Isn't that cute?
Speaker 4 (15:19):
That's so sweet?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Honestly, Like, nothing has ever made me feel more safe
than having a dog with me at home. Yeah, Like,
you know, Cookie's not going to fucking attack anyone, but
she's going to break her fucking head.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Off, and she knows what's going on.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
She lets me know. It's priceless, like you can best.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yeah. Yeah, Okay, we accidentally cursed the neighbor.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
This one's along, but weren't it.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Yeah, Hello, MFM crew, I thought you might like this
story from my college days, way back during the first
Bush administration, when what my friend and I lived together
in an off campus apartment in a complex that was
almost entirely college students. We all kind of hung out
together and my roommate had a fling with one of
the neighbors. We'll call him Josh. Things ended really all
(16:06):
caps badly. I don't remember exactly what happened now, but
she was very mad and upset, as twenty year olds are,
and we never hung out with him again. A day
or two after they split up, I was at Barnes
and Noble and in the Chochkei section where they had
all the mini kits Minnie's En Rock Garden, Mini Fashion
Emergency Kit, etc.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Remember I found the Mini Love.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Voodoo Doll Kit. Remember the oh yeah, Mini Love Voodoo
Doll Kit. I thought it would be hilarious to give
it to my roommate, and indeed she thought it was hilarious.
Let's pour some seven and seven and use it, because
what harm can a Mini Love Voodoo doll really do?
Speaker 4 (16:41):
We were to.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Find out ooh, I think we had a note he
had written that she folded up and stabbed the doll
with some pins, then put it in a mold of
her teeth she had from some dental work, so teeth
were biding the doll's neck.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
We had a good laugh and promptly forgot about it.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Oh oh.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Josh avoided us until he moved out a few weeks later.
I heard through mutual friends that his Army Reserve unit.
Was called up to active duty not long after that,
but never really heard much else about him. One day,
almost a year later, I was homesick and he signed
onto AOL instant messenger, which he hadn't been on in
a long time, remember first Bush administration ending. This seemed
(17:17):
weird because last I had heard he was deployed in Iraq.
This was not long after the Iraq War started, and
in two thousand and three slash four having access to
aim well deployed seemed insane. I messaged him because, well,
why not. It had been almost a year and I
was curious how he was doing. Josh responded and told
me quite the tale. Apparently, right after he ended things
with my roommate, he met a girl and they started
(17:39):
dating and then got engaged, but she cheated on him
and dumped him, and he was completely heartbroken. He had
been the victim of some sort of outrageous identity theft
where he lost six thousand dollars. I guess they put
how much in today's money, which, oh, yes, six thousand.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
In the early two thousands, six thousand dollars would it
be like close to nine thousand dollars?
Speaker 4 (18:00):
Ten and a half.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Oh yeah, yeah, and had to sue his bank. Then
he got deployed to Iraq, where he contracted meningitis and
had to spend his twenty first birthday in a field hospital.
He was actually still in the hospital recovering, which is
how he had internet access, and was talking to me.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
My roommate came home while I was talking to him,
and I called her into my room to hear the
tale of what happened to Josh.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
She arrived right when he wrote quote it.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
All started when I ended things with roommate, And I
feel like maybe it was punishment for being such a
jerk to her.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Oh he knew.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
God, that feels so good, right, Like I was an asshole.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
It so rarely happened. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
We looked at each other in horror as we both
remembered the voodoo doll. It was still where we had
left it all those months before, in the teeth. We
ran out of the room to grab it, remove the pins,
and get rid of it.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
How did the voodoo doll have such power?
Speaker 2 (18:53):
We had just thought of it as a funny thing
that was a little cathartic for my scorned roommate, but
not that it could actually curse anyone. Do you think
we could curse Josh even accidentally without having it come
back to us.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
No, we could not.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
As it happened, this was shortly before Valentine's Day and
both my roommate and I got dumped by the guys
we were dating out of nowhere just a few days later.
Since then, we have both avoided any curses, voodoo dolls,
or sending bad vibes to anyone. It's not worth the
karmic backlash. I heard Josh got married a few years later,
but we have lost touch with him and most of
the friends we had back then. I talked to my
(19:27):
friend slash x roommate before sending this email, and we
both hope he is doing well and send him good vibes. Now,
stay sagazing and don't curse anyone even accidentally.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Jay, Wow, it's like if you had taken out the
voodoo doll part, would those things have happened anyway? And
then it's just kind of the focus of life or
just like but it does make sense where it's like
putting bad vibes in the world isn't a good idea?
Speaker 2 (19:51):
No, just to try to avoid it. But when you're twenty.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
That's all you do is like send bad vibes to people.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
You just you have experiences, then you feel so and
then you want to change it.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Whatever.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
All right, here's my last one. The subject line is
child of the eighties nine to eleven, trash parents, creepy neighbor.
This story has everything and it says, hello, all you're
the best.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Let's do this.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
I grew up in a Saint Louis suburb that was
generally safe and quiet, but we had a neighbor across
the street that creeped out all the kids. His house
was run down, his yard was overgrown, and he had
a giant bush with bats living in.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Okay Dracula.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
There were rumors among the kids on the street that
he had a giant dog living in his basement that
was trained to attack anyone that walked into his yard.
As a child of the eighties, I babysat my younger
siblings often, usually just while my mom ran.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
To the store.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
My parents decided that at eleven years old, I was
seasoned enough to babysit my two younger brothers, aged four
and seven, for the evening. As they went out around
nine pm. I made sure all the doors to the
house were locked, and eleven year.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
Old, I don't know, though I feel okay about it.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
You do maybe not?
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Yeah, No, it's sixth grade. Let's see. My nephew's ten
and my other one's like five.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
No girls though, girls maybe.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
But then I think about like Nora back then, or
just like I would just and I'm sure my sister
was like this, where it's like you could go out
to dinner all you want, but you're just like, oh,
what's gonna happen?
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Like I don't know, I've got that weird like between
is it okay and is it not okay?
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Vibe, Like I don't know.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
I think you need to be at least a freshman
in high school.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Okay, thirteen, let's go thirteen thirteen, fourteen, Yeah, because I
think you have to make well, you'll see, okay.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
Sorry.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Around nine pm, I made sure all the doors of
the house were locked, just that alone is so scary,
and we piled into my parents' bed. My little brothers
quickly fell asleep, but I lay awake with the TV on,
nervous to be the official adult of the house.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yeah, you're right, it's too fucking young, because something could happen.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
That's the thing I'm not thinking of, right, it's just
like happened.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
You could for the hang It's great, yeah, absolutely right,
But then if like, oh, a small fire starts over there, now,
what do we do? Totally So, around ten o'clock I
heard banging on the front door. Oh right, this was
not normal knocking. It was pounding and banging. The banging
started at the front of the house, and then it
was moving closer to the back of the house where
we were. As it was getting louder and louder. In
(22:15):
my heart, I just knew it was my creepy neighbor
trying to get in to murder us. All The phone
in my parents' room was a rotary phone. Remember rotary
phones where you had to spin for each number. Let's
hold onto that magic for a moment. I missed out
my neighbor's number at least three times. Then I just
went for nine to one one. The nine one to
one operator could hear the banging over the phone, that's
(22:38):
how loud it was. She stayed on the line with
me as I waited for the police to come to
save us from my creepy, murderous neighbor. By this point,
my brothers had woken up and they were also terrified.
After what felt like an eternity but was probably five minutes,
the dispatcher told me that the police have arrived in
front of my house, that they were shining a spotlight
and it was my parents.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
I had locked this.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
I had locked the front screen door, which had no key,
and Chane locked the back door so my parents couldn't
get in. The police found my very pregnant mother sitting
on our front porch reading a newspaper. Oh well, my
dad was banging on the door and all of our
bedroom windows, thinking we're asleep and that he just needed
to wake us up.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Beause waking up your.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Young children by pounding on all their windows is a
super great idea.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Tell their names.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
It's dad, Yeah, Hey, hey, hey, hey guys, hey, it's.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Your friendly neighborhood dad. Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
I was so embarrassed that I made my seven year
old brother go unlock the door to let my parents in.
They thought this was hilarious and told me that I
did the right thing by calling nine one of us, because.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
If she got in trouble, it was gonna be fucking furious.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
I know.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
It's like you.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
You did this.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
This event did not stop my parents from using me
as their free babysitter for many years to come, stay
sexy and don't call nine one one on your parents
when you're the one who locked them out.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Natalie.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Oh, I want people to email us about how old
is okay to babysit? Yes, And I want parents of
young kids now to tell me why they would never
leave their fucking child alone to babysit.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Yeah, talk to us about how you're breaking the generational
curse of you babysitting your three year old brother when
you were nine by now not letting your seventeen year.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Old upay the house without location service.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I think we got an infant with my friend a
neighbor when I was like eleven.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Yeah, an infant.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Yes, my baby sat an infant and fell asleep on
the couch because I had to get up at like
seven in the morning to go. It was like a
summer job, and it was like a two year old
that was just sitting there playing with stuff and I
was watching, and then I just went like that and
then like woke up. Yeah, so like high pressure, but
at the same time, you just don't get what this
is the consequences totally.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
I want to hear about floods. I want to hear
about fires.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Why did you never get to babysit again? Ooh, yes,
we'll still cover these, it's not too late.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
No, we have to creepy neighbors can go on for
he for sure and stay sexy and don't get murdered.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Goodbye, Elvis, Do you want a cookie?
Speaker 1 (25:13):
This has been an exactly right production.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Our senior producer is Molly Smith and our associate producer
is Tessa Hughes.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Our editor is Aristotle Ascevedo.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
This episode was mixed by Leona Scuolacci.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Email your hometowns to My Favorite Murder at gmail dot com.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
Follow the show on Instagram at my Favorite Murder.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Listen to My Favorite Murder on.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
The iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Or watch us on YouTube. Search for My Favorite Murder
and then like and subscribe.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Goodbye,
Hello, and welcome to my favorite Murder the minisode.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
We're doing a themed episode this week. Creepy neighbors. Some
of you guys need a fucking move.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
My god, these are not funny stories. There's a lot
of people up on other people's porches for no reason.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, a lot of people leaving things for you that
you did not ask for and do not want.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Well, let's get into it. Let's you want to start shirt. Okay,
that was almost like re rehearsing.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
I know, and I was too smooth. We're just we're
on the road and we're just killing it.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
We're just locked in.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Okay. This one's called a Virgin and a pear Tree. Hello,
MFM ladies. I have been wanting to write this in
for quite some time, but it's a long one with
a lot of twists and turns, so it's taken me
a moment to get my thoughts down in what I
hope is a cohesive manner. When I was a sophomore
in college in Alabama, I lived alone in a two
bedroom house thanks to my roommate transferring the week before
school started.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Hell yeah, wow.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
It wasn't in a bad neighborhood per se, but there
were some creepy apartments next door that resembled an hourly motel.
It's like everywhere in Los Angeles. Yeah, in my backyard,
my landlord had so lovingly planted a pear tree that
would cover my car in such thick sap that I
would have to hand wash my car in order to
see out the windshield.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Oh Jesus.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
One afternoon, while washing my car, and neighbor from the
creepy apartments came outside to drink a beer. He started
talking to me innoscently enough in the beginning, but then
shit got weird. He began to tell me he was
a Vietnam War veteran and devoted himself to the service
and therefore had never had a wife. His problem, he
was saving himself for marriage.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Sir, that's your private business. Take it to your pastor.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Yes, this lord knows how.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Old man started talking to me about how he was
a virgin and then starts commenting on my looks. I
quickly created an excuse to get the fuck away from
this conversation and locked myself in my house because fuck politeness.
I wish I could say that's where it ends, but
it gets weirder from then on a flower pot full
of cigarette butts would magically appear every time I walked
out my front door, as if someone were watching me
(02:15):
go in and out of my house, just fucking chain
smoking and watching.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Her like he was standing out there watching.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
I think, so, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Weird notes would be left in my mailbox, and when
I passed the virgin neighbor outside, he would ask if
I had checked my mail lately and laugh uncontrollably. The
worst was when my friend and I were sitting on
my front porch eating boozed up Italian ice and a
detective approached. At first, I thought I was about to
get in trouble for my delicious treat.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
How did he know?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
But I quickly lost my buzz when he told me
some girls down the street called nine one one when
they saw a weird man trying to break into my
home earlier that day.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Good for those, yeah for real.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
At the end of spring semester, on the day at
my last final, I was sitting at my kitchen table
eating breakfast. The window faced the creep apartments. Into my shock.
They were quickly surrounded by SWAT teams and DEA officers.
This perked me up quicker than any cup of coffee
could and my mouth hung open as they dragged my
creepy neighbor out of his apartment in handcuffs. Ladies and gentlemen,
(03:15):
this man was running a full blown met lab in there.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I'm not sure whatever happened to him, because, needless to say,
my mom was ready for me to get the fuck
out of there. I ended up transferring that summer, and
it was the best decision I ever made. Stay sexy
and don't plant that pear tree.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Aaron, So was he even a virgin? I mean, was
he lying the whole time?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Dang?
Speaker 4 (03:40):
We trusted him.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
We trusted that virgin.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
A meth lab, Like that's so dangerous, Oh my god
in an apartment.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah yeah, that's insane. Ooh.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
And also just that idea that then she's like, yay,
I get this house to myself.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Now I'm trapped in this house.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Every time you walk out the door, there might be
something that's I've we've all done that.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
It's just it's like you're being held hostage.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
And just United Girls of the World calling the cops
and oh yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, well we're in it now,
we're in it. I'm not going to read this subject
line of this it says high MFM crew, you asked
for crazy neighbor stories, so I decided it was finally
time to write in. My sister and I used to
talk on the phone every week or so. She would
(04:23):
mostly chat about her pets or her spouse, and then
in parentheses it says, in that order, but a couple
of times she mentioned a particular neighbor who gave her
hell along with a strong dose of both the he bees.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
And the gv's.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Apparently, it was not unusual for him to curse loudly
or yell at passers by, so naturally he was pretty
much outside in his garage or in the yard all
the time. And then in parentheses it says, why can't
craiky people stay indoors and yell at the TV like
normal folks. What's so funny is it reminds me of
we used to, you know, live out in the country,
so it was like country roads, and people would literally
(04:57):
go eighty five miles an hour. As my sister and
I are out there on her back, my father yelled
at every car that sped.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
I was picturing your dad, like there was something in
your voice that was like, I'm familiar with this, this
is and it Well, he wasn't wrong.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
He wasn't wrong, but I don't know how effective it was.
I'm sure it was very soothing for him, though, so
On several occasions, my sister and her dogs were the
target of this yelling. This prickly grump would yell at
her for her dogs doing a normal dog thing, like
walking in the grass or breathing too loudly. A few
times she even saw him on the ground trimming the
lawn with scissors and muttering to himself. Weird, but I
(05:32):
guess if he's muttering to himself and not yelling at her,
it's okay. I said something to the effect of, well,
he sounds like a real delight. Then suggested it might
be a good idea to consider a different route for
her dog walks, lest she gets stabbed in the foot
with his lawn scissors. We laughed, and she agreed it
would be best to avoid further confrontation and just let
the crusty old timer live out his life with his
perfectly edged grass. My sister eventually moved to a different
(05:55):
city with much nicer neighbors, none of Hume used kitchen
utensils on their lawns, and I never thought about the crotchety.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Clipper again, I have a feeling I know what it is.
I think you do.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Oh my god, Tolly.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
That is until twenty eighteen, when a massive story broke
and I heard the name of a familiar street on
the news.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Oh wow, someone has been arrested in my sister's old neighborhood.
Wait did they just say that.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
The neighbors called him cantankerous, and he was known for
swearing at people and crawling on the lawn to handcut
the edges. Holy ship. That grumpy bastard was Joseph D'Angelo.
Oh my god, I remember the scissor lawn scissor cutting
so wild. I scoured the articles until I found one
with a photo showing the house number, and then in
(06:38):
parentheses it says, don't docs folks, even serial killers, And
then it says Anne pulled up a map to compare
my sister's old address with this one. It was less
than ten houses away.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Holy show, So she lived.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
On the same block as this guy. It sounds like
the freaking Golden State killer yelled at my sister.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Oh oh, how fucking terrifying.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yeah, my sister was not a and would probably have
lost her mind if she knew she lives so close
to an actual monster. But perhaps fortunately she died before
genealogy caught up with her asshole of a neighbor. At
least the world knows how intensely vile this man is,
and I can only hope he gets everything he deserves.
Stay sexy and avoid the creepy neighbor.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
M Oh my god, Okay, this is just called creepy neighbor.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Hi, murder friends.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
I will be keeping my name out of this, but
shout out to my sister who also loved this podcast,
and then says her sister's name, and then goes on
to do a lot of details that I think I'm
not going to say the sister's name, essentially, because it's like,
if you want to be anonymous, well, this is not
the way to do it. Your sister's a very unique name.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
When I was in college working on my master's degree
in architecture, I was employed at a restaurant that was
walking distance from my apartment. I lived on a main
road in a town on the water where there was
commercial space below and apartments above. One day, when I
was on my way to my car to go to school,
I saw a note had been left behind on my windshield.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
It said, quote ever look.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Into someone in the eyes and instantly feel there is
much depth, the kind of depth that can stop you
in your tracks. Most days I see short sighted emptiness
in people's.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Eyes, but not you.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Eyes are the windows to the soul, and yours runs
deep question mark. I find it very rare these days,
and I thought it was worth sharing end quote.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
You're reading this note next to your car, and then
you're looking sus.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
I immediately took a picture of it and sent it
to my boyfriend and was like, look at this note
with no name left on my car.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
My partner said, oh, yeah, I found one on your
car last.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Week and threw it away so you wouldn't be scared, sir,
sir get it together, Like what the fuck? I, of course,
was confused, and the detective and me started to think
about who it could possibly be. I had no idea.
A few weeks later, I was walking down the stairs
of my apartment and a man popped out of nowhere,
blocking my exit and standing in the landing inside where
only the tenants should be It was the renter of
(08:59):
one of the commercial spaces below my apartment, who would
come into the restaurant with his daughters. His business was
not open to the public yet, and I didn't know him.
Besides that, he did look to be almost forty and
I was twenty two at the time.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
He asked me on.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
The spot if quote I ever wanted to hang out sometime.
I have plenty of wine in my unit and you
could just knock on the door. I sleep there most nights.
I said no, thank you with an awkward smile, and
left with that. Further incident. I was working that month
and got assigned to his table and told the bartender
to please take his table.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
I told them what.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Happened and showed her the note and how I thought
he sent it and felt very uncomfortable. She said he
was a towny going through a divorce and she had
known him her whole life and agreed it was creepy.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Oh thank god.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
She went over to talk to him, and I'm not
sure what she said, but he pretended I didn't exist
after that, and I was fine with that. Fucking tell
the bartender when you're uncomfortable.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah, that's very smart, right Vice Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Nonetheless, it is very scary to have a creeper who
knows where you work, live and what your car looks like.
Thank you to all those strong, badass bartenders and others
who can stand up for those who are not good
with confrontation. Even in dangerous situations. I usually told myself, well,
that was weird, but they didn't physically hurt me, like
that time when a kid held a knife up to
my wrist and I did not tell my mom, but
(10:13):
my friend who was nearby me at the time, told
her mom later crying, and the police were involved. Story
for another time. My mom sent me to therapy to
help me understand why I should have told somebody I
was in it for the candy. I guess at therapy
and barely talked during my session. But now, as an adult,
I know that I was desensitized from the abuse I
suffered from my father that blurred my lines. Sorry, this
(10:35):
is a bit long. Love you guys, and please ask
for help even if it makes you uncomfortable. I believe now,
at the age of twenty seven, I have the strength
to fuck politeness. Yes, thank you for all that you
guys do.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
SSDGM anonymous Anonymous I just want to say that for myself,
saying stuff like fuck politeness is the kind of thing
you develop when you're in your forties and fifties. Yeah,
like you live through life and you live through those experiences.
If you're in your twenties and that's not something that's
familiar or comfortable for you, that makes a lot of sense,
(11:06):
and that's great advice coming from you saying like, get
someone else to help you.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Totally, it's a hard thing to do. Ask for help.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
But also the more you practice it, the more you
realize a lot of times a creep like that, or
somebody that's like they just have the wrong idea, and
it's just like it's whether you set a boundary, which
is everybody has hard times doing totally a hard time
doing that sometimes, or you find a bartender, yeah smart, Okay,
we'll change the temperature a little bit, right now.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
There's got to be some good neighbors, right.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
No, actually that's not what's going to happen here.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
But we ask for creeping.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
The subject line says, Karen asks for a hero senior dog.
I give her a hero senior dog. Karen exclamation part
Georgia exclamation point. The whole gang. Exclamation point. Longtime listener,
first time caller. Let's get into it. I've always lamented
how I never really had a good hometown, But it
turns out, after listening to Minisod three eighteen, I do
(12:04):
you ask for a hero senior dog story, and boy
do I have one. I was the youngest of my
family and my mom was a stay at home legend,
so me, her and my sweet big Newfoundland dog Boo
would spend a lot of time home alone together.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
I want to show you this dog now, Boo.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Holy my god, that is just like the ball of
giant fir.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Are you familiar with Newfoundland dogs?
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Not really a cool, lot of drool, a lot of drool.
They're gigantic. And my parents took us to the San
Francisco Dog.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Show when I was like eight years old.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Amazing, and you get to walk through as they're like
grooming the dogs and see every kind And my sister
and I got to the Newfoundland table and we were like,
we begged. Our parents were like, it's good for the
country and it could run around and feel like a
sheep dog, yes, but like a small horse.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
And they're from Newfoundland, Canada and they swim in the ocean, is.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
What I heard.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
So there that's a kind face too.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
I know there's so sweet swim in the ocean, and
they like you and your sister did all this research.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
So I present to your parents like we.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Could bring her to the ocean, and we could so.
My sweet baby angel, ten year old dog would never
hurt a fly and was well known in our neighborhood
as a gentle giant. We also had this old creepy
neighbor who we used to joke about being involved in
anything weirdly dark.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
We could think of.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
One particularly dark winter night, creep neighbor had decided to,
for reasons unknown, come over to our house while only
me I was fifteen at the time, My mom and
Boo were home. He also, for some reason, decided to
walk around the back of the house to our sliding
glass door, even though our front door was much closer.
When my dog noticed someone at the back door, she
(13:43):
perked up, and when she noticed it was him, she
lost her goddamn mind. When I say I've never seen
my dog flip her shit like this, I mean it.
She hopped up from her deep slumber, teeth showing hackles,
raised near foaming at the mouth. She was barking so
intensely and her face was pressed up on the glass.
Me and my mom were so shocked since we'd never
(14:04):
even seen her chase as squirrel, so we just stood
beside her and stared at him, not doing anything to
make her stop. Needless to say, creep neighbor turned and
left in a fucking hurry. My dad went over that
night after work and berated him for coming to our
back door in the pitch black and for alarming me
and my mom as well as our sweet old dog.
After that episode, my dog would bark incessantly at his
(14:26):
car every time it drove by, or at him if
he got too close to the property.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Wait, is this the Golden State killer again?
Speaker 1 (14:34):
This dog caught?
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Joseph to Angela, Oh my god, she said, not today
or any day, Creep. Years later, my parents moved into
the city, but did hear some interesting news. It turns
out that Creep was involved in some gross, creepy church activities,
including some abuse claims as well as general thievery. It
just goes to show always trust your gut and more importantly,
(14:57):
trust your sweet old dog's intuition. SSDGA Bell and then
it says, ps, I've attached a photo of my sweet
guardian angel dog. She passed away almost nine years ago,
and I think of her every time I choose to
say fuck that to something that gives me that hell
fucking no gut feeling. She was just really cute and
I wanted to share that with you and the MFM team.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Isn't that cute?
Speaker 4 (15:19):
That's so sweet?
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Honestly, Like, nothing has ever made me feel more safe
than having a dog with me at home. Yeah, Like,
you know, Cookie's not going to fucking attack anyone, but
she's going to break her fucking head.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Off, and she knows what's going on.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
She lets me know. It's priceless, like you can best.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yeah. Yeah, Okay, we accidentally cursed the neighbor.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
This one's along, but weren't it.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Yeah, Hello, MFM crew, I thought you might like this
story from my college days, way back during the first
Bush administration, when what my friend and I lived together
in an off campus apartment in a complex that was
almost entirely college students. We all kind of hung out
together and my roommate had a fling with one of
the neighbors. We'll call him Josh. Things ended really all
(16:06):
caps badly. I don't remember exactly what happened now, but
she was very mad and upset, as twenty year olds are,
and we never hung out with him again. A day
or two after they split up, I was at Barnes
and Noble and in the Chochkei section where they had
all the mini kits Minnie's En Rock Garden, Mini Fashion
Emergency Kit, etc.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Remember I found the Mini Love.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Voodoo Doll Kit. Remember the oh yeah, Mini Love Voodoo
Doll Kit. I thought it would be hilarious to give
it to my roommate, and indeed she thought it was hilarious.
Let's pour some seven and seven and use it, because
what harm can a Mini Love Voodoo doll really do?
Speaker 4 (16:41):
We were to.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Find out ooh, I think we had a note he
had written that she folded up and stabbed the doll
with some pins, then put it in a mold of
her teeth she had from some dental work, so teeth
were biding the doll's neck.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
We had a good laugh and promptly forgot about it.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Oh oh.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Josh avoided us until he moved out a few weeks later.
I heard through mutual friends that his Army Reserve unit.
Was called up to active duty not long after that,
but never really heard much else about him. One day,
almost a year later, I was homesick and he signed
onto AOL instant messenger, which he hadn't been on in
a long time, remember first Bush administration ending. This seemed
(17:17):
weird because last I had heard he was deployed in Iraq.
This was not long after the Iraq War started, and
in two thousand and three slash four having access to
aim well deployed seemed insane. I messaged him because, well,
why not. It had been almost a year and I
was curious how he was doing. Josh responded and told
me quite the tale. Apparently, right after he ended things
with my roommate, he met a girl and they started
(17:39):
dating and then got engaged, but she cheated on him
and dumped him, and he was completely heartbroken. He had
been the victim of some sort of outrageous identity theft
where he lost six thousand dollars. I guess they put
how much in today's money, which, oh, yes, six thousand.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
In the early two thousands, six thousand dollars would it
be like close to nine thousand dollars?
Speaker 4 (18:00):
Ten and a half.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Oh yeah, yeah, and had to sue his bank. Then
he got deployed to Iraq, where he contracted meningitis and
had to spend his twenty first birthday in a field hospital.
He was actually still in the hospital recovering, which is
how he had internet access, and was talking to me.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
My roommate came home while I was talking to him,
and I called her into my room to hear the
tale of what happened to Josh.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
She arrived right when he wrote quote it.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
All started when I ended things with roommate, And I
feel like maybe it was punishment for being such a
jerk to her.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Oh he knew.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
God, that feels so good, right, Like I was an asshole.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
It so rarely happened. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
We looked at each other in horror as we both
remembered the voodoo doll. It was still where we had
left it all those months before, in the teeth. We
ran out of the room to grab it, remove the pins,
and get rid of it.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
How did the voodoo doll have such power?
Speaker 2 (18:53):
We had just thought of it as a funny thing
that was a little cathartic for my scorned roommate, but
not that it could actually curse anyone. Do you think
we could curse Josh even accidentally without having it come
back to us.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
No, we could not.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
As it happened, this was shortly before Valentine's Day and
both my roommate and I got dumped by the guys
we were dating out of nowhere just a few days later.
Since then, we have both avoided any curses, voodoo dolls,
or sending bad vibes to anyone. It's not worth the
karmic backlash. I heard Josh got married a few years later,
but we have lost touch with him and most of
the friends we had back then. I talked to my
(19:27):
friend slash x roommate before sending this email, and we
both hope he is doing well and send him good vibes. Now,
stay sagazing and don't curse anyone even accidentally.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Jay, Wow, it's like if you had taken out the
voodoo doll part, would those things have happened anyway? And
then it's just kind of the focus of life or
just like but it does make sense where it's like
putting bad vibes in the world isn't a good idea?
Speaker 2 (19:51):
No, just to try to avoid it. But when you're twenty.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
That's all you do is like send bad vibes to people.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
You just you have experiences, then you feel so and
then you want to change it.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Whatever.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
All right, here's my last one. The subject line is
child of the eighties nine to eleven, trash parents, creepy neighbor.
This story has everything and it says, hello, all you're
the best.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Let's do this.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
I grew up in a Saint Louis suburb that was
generally safe and quiet, but we had a neighbor across
the street that creeped out all the kids. His house
was run down, his yard was overgrown, and he had
a giant bush with bats living in.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Okay Dracula.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
There were rumors among the kids on the street that
he had a giant dog living in his basement that
was trained to attack anyone that walked into his yard.
As a child of the eighties, I babysat my younger
siblings often, usually just while my mom ran.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
To the store.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
My parents decided that at eleven years old, I was
seasoned enough to babysit my two younger brothers, aged four
and seven, for the evening. As they went out around
nine pm. I made sure all the doors to the
house were locked, and eleven year.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
Old, I don't know, though I feel okay about it.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
You do maybe not?
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Yeah, No, it's sixth grade. Let's see. My nephew's ten
and my other one's like five.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
No girls though, girls maybe.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
But then I think about like Nora back then, or
just like I would just and I'm sure my sister
was like this, where it's like you could go out
to dinner all you want, but you're just like, oh,
what's gonna happen?
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Like I don't know, I've got that weird like between
is it okay and is it not okay?
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Vibe, Like I don't know.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
I think you need to be at least a freshman
in high school.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Okay, thirteen, let's go thirteen thirteen, fourteen, Yeah, because I
think you have to make well, you'll see, okay.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
Sorry.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Around nine pm, I made sure all the doors of
the house were locked, just that alone is so scary,
and we piled into my parents' bed. My little brothers
quickly fell asleep, but I lay awake with the TV on,
nervous to be the official adult of the house.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yeah, you're right, it's too fucking young, because something could happen.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
That's the thing I'm not thinking of, right, it's just
like happened.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
You could for the hang It's great, yeah, absolutely right,
But then if like, oh, a small fire starts over there, now,
what do we do? Totally So, around ten o'clock I
heard banging on the front door. Oh right, this was
not normal knocking. It was pounding and banging. The banging
started at the front of the house, and then it
was moving closer to the back of the house where
we were. As it was getting louder and louder. In
(22:15):
my heart, I just knew it was my creepy neighbor
trying to get in to murder us. All The phone
in my parents' room was a rotary phone. Remember rotary
phones where you had to spin for each number. Let's
hold onto that magic for a moment. I missed out
my neighbor's number at least three times. Then I just
went for nine to one one. The nine one to
one operator could hear the banging over the phone, that's
(22:38):
how loud it was. She stayed on the line with
me as I waited for the police to come to
save us from my creepy, murderous neighbor. By this point,
my brothers had woken up and they were also terrified.
After what felt like an eternity but was probably five minutes,
the dispatcher told me that the police have arrived in
front of my house, that they were shining a spotlight
and it was my parents.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
I had locked this.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
I had locked the front screen door, which had no key,
and Chane locked the back door so my parents couldn't
get in. The police found my very pregnant mother sitting
on our front porch reading a newspaper. Oh well, my
dad was banging on the door and all of our
bedroom windows, thinking we're asleep and that he just needed
to wake us up.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Beause waking up your.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Young children by pounding on all their windows is a
super great idea.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Tell their names.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
It's dad, Yeah, Hey, hey, hey, hey guys, hey, it's.
Speaker 4 (23:30):
Your friendly neighborhood dad. Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
I was so embarrassed that I made my seven year
old brother go unlock the door to let my parents in.
They thought this was hilarious and told me that I
did the right thing by calling nine one of us, because.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
If she got in trouble, it was gonna be fucking furious.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
I know.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
It's like you.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
You did this.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
This event did not stop my parents from using me
as their free babysitter for many years to come, stay
sexy and don't call nine one one on your parents
when you're the one who locked them out.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Natalie.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Oh, I want people to email us about how old
is okay to babysit? Yes, And I want parents of
young kids now to tell me why they would never
leave their fucking child alone to babysit.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Yeah, talk to us about how you're breaking the generational
curse of you babysitting your three year old brother when
you were nine by now not letting your seventeen year.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Old upay the house without location service.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
I think we got an infant with my friend a
neighbor when I was like eleven.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Yeah, an infant.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Yes, my baby sat an infant and fell asleep on
the couch because I had to get up at like
seven in the morning to go. It was like a
summer job, and it was like a two year old
that was just sitting there playing with stuff and I
was watching, and then I just went like that and
then like woke up. Yeah, so like high pressure, but
at the same time, you just don't get what this
is the consequences totally.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
I want to hear about floods. I want to hear
about fires.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Why did you never get to babysit again? Ooh, yes,
we'll still cover these, it's not too late.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
No, we have to creepy neighbors can go on for
he for sure and stay sexy and don't get murdered.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Goodbye, Elvis, Do you want a cookie?
Speaker 1 (25:13):
This has been an exactly right production.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Our senior producer is Molly Smith and our associate producer
is Tessa Hughes.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Our editor is Aristotle Ascevedo.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
This episode was mixed by Leona Scuolacci.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Email your hometowns to My Favorite Murder at gmail dot com.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
Follow the show on Instagram at my Favorite Murder.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Listen to My Favorite Murder on.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
The iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Or watch us on YouTube. Search for My Favorite Murder
and then like and subscribe.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Goodbye,
Hosts And Creators
Georgia Hardstark
Karen Kilgariff
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