November 4, 2025 • 33 mins
After Brandon Grossheim was kicked out of the Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity, he moved into an off-campus apartment. Soon afterwards, a friend from across the hall named Alex Vogt killed himself. It was as if everywhere Brandon went, suicide followed. During this time, both Brandon and Alex Vogt — and many others in our story — worked at a restaurant called the Wooden Nickel. For this episode we visit the restaurant and look into accusations that it wasn’t just Brandon who caused a disturbance in some of these victims’ lives, it was someone closer to home.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Warning.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
This episode discusses youth depression and suicide. These topics may
be distressing for some listeners. About eight months after the
suicide of her son Alex Mullins, Melissa bad Or Ferry
met with police detectives in Kirksville. By now, two more
(00:21):
of Alex's fraternity brothers had killed themselves. Melissa had been
following the cases closely and thought she knew most of
the details about this suicide cluster. All three deaths had
these things in common. They were all Alpha Kappa Lambda members,
they all hung themselves at the frat house, and they
(00:42):
were all friends with Brandon Grossheim.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Except there weren't three.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Police informed her that there was another suicide in the cluster,
one that wasn't reported in the media at all. His
name was Alex Vote and he killed himself in January
twenty seventeen. When she learned about him and the fact
that he was also close with Brandon Grossheim, that's when
the shit hit the fan. As Melissa told us back
(01:11):
in episode one, that's.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
When it kind of all started to take a different turn,
if you will. Just the fact that at that point
to find out that Brandon had been either present to
find the bodies, or had been the last known person
to be seen with them, or showed up at the
scene and asked about the bodies. Like all these things
(01:36):
started coming out because the police were telling us about them,
and that's when, you know, I started putting some of
the back pieces together.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
What's interesting is that this death she was just learning about.
Alex Vote, not to be confused with Melissa's own son,
Alex Mullins. This Alex wasn't an Alpha Kapa Ambda fraternity
member like the others. Alex Vote didn't even go to
Truman State, but he lived in an apartment near campus,
(02:05):
and incredibly, he killed himself shortly after Brandon moved in
across the hall. So that made four suicides under similar
circumstances with Brandon at the center. It boggled the mind,
and so Melissa badorf Airy worked to figure out everything
(02:26):
she could about the case of Alex's Vote and his
relationship with Brandon Grossheim. This podcast series tells the story
of the most infamous suicide cluster in American history. It's
a production of iHeart Podcasts and Cool Fire Studios. I'm
your host Ben Westoff along with Ryan Crawl.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
This is the peacemaker.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Alex Vote was a student at nearby Moberly Area Community College.
He was twenty one years old, solidly built, with a
big Charlie Chaplin tattoo on his left shoulder and bicep.
He was a fan of first person shooter video games,
and he also played those sorts of games in real
life with plastic pellet firearms called airsoft guns. Here's one
(03:24):
of his friends describing him, named Terry Yardley.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Me and him would party all the time.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Who was a caring dude, Like if somebody needed something
and he could help, he would help. Never got the
sense that he was struggling mentally.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
One of his classmates named Dalton McVeigh, saw Alex differently.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
However, we had a couple classes together.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
I always got the vibe that he was a very
unhappy individual, Like I don't know, I guess like my
childhood wasn't particularly great, so he just kind of like
you see it, you know, you see other kids, and
you're like, man like, I don't know the deal, but
I feel you.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Brother.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
The truth was, Alex's Vote was severely depressed, exactly the
kind of person Brandon Grosheim made a habit of befriending,
or some might say, praying upon. In fact, Alex's depression
went back for years. In twenty fourteen, he made suicidal
comments at his school, and so the Kirksville Police took
(04:26):
him to a psychiatric center in Columbia, Missouri, ninety minutes away,
apparently for four days of hospitalization. In September twenty sixteen,
just a few months before he died, he was in
a severe car accident. It was bad enough that there
was a lawsuit. The guy who hit him would eventually
(04:47):
have to pay twenty five thousand dollars. Plus there was
drama in Alex's personal life. He'd had a child at
a young age. The boy apparently lived with his mom
in the It's not exactly clear what happened between Alex
and the child's mother, but they were estranged. Alex sent
(05:09):
them money as often as he could, but according to
a letter to the court from Alex's mom, he only
got to.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Visit his kid twice.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
All of this stress would take its toll on anyone,
and according to a police report, Alex had been diagnosed
with depression, bipolar, and ADHD. He'd been prescribed adderall prozac
and an antipsychotic medication, pretty heavy meds, and then over
Thanksgiving break twenty sixteen, according to Alex Votess girlfriend Madeline Mazaak,
(05:44):
he broke down. According to her account to the police,
she told him she thought they should break up. He
got upset, went to his apartment and locked the door.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
When she keyed in using her own.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Key, she saw him attempting to hang himself. She was
able to talk him down, but over the next month
Alex remained very unsteady and then poof, Brandon Grosheim walked
into his life. In December twenty sixteen, Brandon moved into
(06:18):
Alex's building. This was not long after the first two suicides.
Brandon had been kicked out of his fraternity and he
dropped out of school.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
The apartment building.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
He moved into was called the Journal Printing Company Building.
Its name comes from the fact that it used to
house the local newspaper. The apartment building was actually owned
by Alex Vote's parents. Brandon and Alex may have known
each other previously. Though Alex Vote didn't go to Truman State,
(06:51):
he was friends with many people there and had even
been called an honorary AKL fraternity member. In any case,
Brandon moved into apartment three, right across the hall from him.
In apartment two was Alex. Alex worked at the Wooden Nickel,
a restaurant in pub right across the street from.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
The apartment building.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Brandon, at the time worked at the Wooden Nickel as well.
The Wooden Nickel appears to be where the two of
them became close. They bonded, apparently over the fact that
Alex took LSD at work. He enjoyed tripping out while
staring at the sauces he was cooking. Hey, Brandon, this
is what I watched when I triped balls, he said,
(07:34):
according to a New Yorker story quoting Brandon. At one point,
Alex and Brandon started taking LSD together. Brandon frequently took
drugs with guys who later killed themselves. He also tripped
acid with Jake Hughes. He and Alex Mullens smoked blunts together.
Brandon and Alex vote grew tight. They played the game
(07:57):
Katan together. Other times they partied with the folks in
their apartment building. But though he may have hid his
depression from some people, things were getting worse and worse
for Alex. He began having more problems with his girlfriend
Madeline again. She said they should break up. He responded,
(08:19):
if that happens, I'll kill myself. Obviously, it was a
horrible position to put her in. She said she didn't
know if he was serious, but agreed to stay together.
The night of Alex's death, he and Madeline went out,
had drinks and.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Ate at the Wooden Nickel.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
They returned to Alex's apartment, became intimate, and then fell
asleep in his lofted bed.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Sometime in the.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Middle of the night, Alex climbed down and hung himself from.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
A water pipe.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Madeline discovered him when she woke up around seven am.
He was hanging just inches away from where she'd been sleeping.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
She called the police.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
When they arrived, they couldn't get into the building, so
they called Madeline back. Then, to the police's surprise, who
should let them into the building but Brandon Grossheim. They
soon interviewed him for his account of the night. He
said he'd been working at the Wooden Nickel, picked up
(09:25):
his girlfriend, went back to his apartment, and then saw
Alex in the hallway. They chatted briefly, nothing very consequential,
according to Brandon, but then after the interview, Brandon had
an unusual request for the police. He wanted to see
Alex's body. The coroner's office was about to take the
(09:48):
body away, but Brandon asked an officer if he could
see it first. What made the request especially strange was
that apparently Brandon had already seen Alex's body. Here's what
a Kirksville officer wrote in his report. Other officers had
informed me of his request, which they felt was odd.
(10:09):
I believed it was odd, but felt it was his
way of saying goodbye. Grosheim advised that he had seen
Vote in the loft, but was unsure if he was dead.
He made his request to me after he was told
that Vote was dead.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
So let me get this straight.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Brandon had already seen Alex's body, but wasn't sure if
he was dead. All of this, to me seems very strange.
Brandon seemed fascinated by people who had just died in
a way that I believe goes beyond normal curiosity. In fact,
it recalls Brandon's other bizarre interactions with people who had
(10:46):
just passed, like his grandmother. As we noted previously, this
happened when Brandon was in high school. When he realized
that his grandmother was dead, he sent his mother away so.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
He could be alone with the body.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
In any case, this time, it's unclear if the police
permitted Brandon to see Alex's body, but something else peculiar happened.
A counselor working in conjunction with the police department wanted
to contact Brandon's family about this suicide, but according to
the police report, Brandon refused to allow them to contact
(11:24):
his family. So I don't know a lot of smoke
when it comes to Brandon Grossheim and the suicide of
Alex's Vote.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
But no smoking gun.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
There aren't allegations that Brandon texted him messages about how
to kill himself, as someone claims Brandon did to the
second suicide victim, Jake Hughes. But following Alex Vote's death,
Brandon made strange comments. According to an acquaintance named Gentry Mininger,
Brandon went into a spout about how suicide was your
(11:56):
own free will and that if you felt that was
the best decision for your life and that's where your
life should go, then that was your own personal choice
and no one should try to stop you. She told
The New Yorker Brandon said they should only try to
understand and accept it.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
The Wooden Nickel is a.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Kirksville bar and restaurant that's been around for decades. In fact,
it calls itself Kirksville's only full service restaurant. Pretty much
everyone in Kirksville knows the Wooden Nickel. It attracts a
wide variety of people, college kids, townies, locals, college kids
who became locals. It's where the third suicide victim, Alex's
(12:57):
vote was a cook. In fact, a lot of people
involved in our story worked there. Besides Alex, there were
members of the Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity from Truman State
working there, including Connor Templeton, who we've been talking to
in this series. And then there was a guy named
Cody who also lived in the journal building and Cody's
(13:19):
girlfriend Glenna, both of whom you'll hear more about soon.
Also working at the Wooden Nickel was Brandon Grossheim. Here's
his colleague and fraternity brother, Connor Templeton, talking about him.
Speaker 6 (13:33):
Yeah, the time frame's a little rough, but he probably
he started working there maybe a year or two after,
probably a year after me. Think he was a server
busser Yeah, he usually be there a little before me
since other bartender and he was serving.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
The Wooden Nickel is where the people in our story worked, commiserated,
did drugs, and drank, particularly Alex Vote in the months
leading up to his death. Here's Connor Templeton again talking
about Alex.
Speaker 6 (14:01):
And we'd have a drink here and there together in
chat after hours because he lived in the building right
across the streets. When I was closing, he'd come over,
hang out and talk for.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
A little bit.
Speaker 6 (14:10):
I mean he had, I'd say he had. He could
tell he had a lot on his mind just the
way he talks. I don't know. I feel like when
we talked sometimes you just tell he had a lot
to let out.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
It might sound dark, but the Wooden Nickel was the
backdrop during a time when many young people's lives began
to unravel. Because of that, I wanted to get a
sense of what the place was like. And so after
a long day of podcasts reporting in Kirksville with our
producer Ryan Krawl, he and I went out.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
To the Wooden Nickel to get a few drinks.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Well, producer Ryan doesn't drink, and to be honest, I
don't really drink much either. Do you have any anglers
like alcoholics?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, we too. The place has a cool vibe.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
It's different, classier than Kirksville dives.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Like the bar next door.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
That place is called TP's Offense, and they have twelve
dollars all you can drink specials.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
It gets pretty sloppy.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
The Wooden Nickel, on the other hand, has an awesome
neon sign out front, spelling its name in red and
green neon. In the front is a restaurant with lots
of Italian offerings.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Ryan and I had dinner there.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
It was, you know, fine, But the place really comes
alive in the back area behind the restaurant. There the
blues music is cranked up a little louder. It's got
some slot machine type games, and an American flag paying
homage to the Second Amendment. Naturally, the theme of the
establishment is I guess you would say wood wood since
(15:54):
the place is called the Wooden Nickel.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
I guess that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
The floors and the bars are made of wood, and
the bathroom doors have signs designating them for woodies and
wood f and then the backbar has a sign explaining,
I guess who runs the place. Woodies, it reads, so
then that begs the question who is Woody?
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Ryan asked the waitresps.
Speaker 6 (16:23):
I asked her who like Woody was was, and she's like,
I don't know if there is a Woody.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
If it is, it's the owner of Dan that gry.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
That would be the Wooden Nichols proprietor named Dan Vote.
He's the father of the third suicide victim, Alex Vote.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Everybody in town knows who Dan Vote is. He owns
the Journal building and the Wooden Nickel. That's why most
of the people that were living in the Journal building
were employees at the Wooden Nickel, because right across the street.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
That was Terry Yardley, a gregarious local who has spent
some time at this bar. We should make one correction,
though Dan Vote doesn't actually own the Wooden Nickel anymore.
His daughter actually owns the Wooden Nickel. But according to
people interviewed for this story, Dan was more or less
in charge during the time when these suicides were happening,
(17:16):
and the apartment building he owned, the Journal Printing Company building,
was where his son Alex killed himself. In fact, it's
where two of the deaths in our story happened.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
More on that later, but.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Suffice it to say that the more we dug, the
more it was clear that Dan Vote was a central
character in this story, not just because his son killed himself,
but because Dan knew Brandon Grosheim well.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
See. He was the owner of the Journal.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Building where Brandon lived, and he was also the former
owner of the Wooden Nickel where Brandon worked.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
And yet, unlike the.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Parents of some of the other suicide victims, Dan Vote
is not suing Brandon Grows. I wanted to know why,
and as luck would have it, Dan is there at
the Wooden Nichols back bar when producer Ryan and I arrive.
He wears a Stag baseball cap as in Stag beer,
(18:16):
and he has sunglasses.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Perched on top of them.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
He also wears a black shirt that says, you don't
know teamwork until your partner is a twelve hundred pounds
free spirit. I'm not exactly sure what that means. I'm
guessing it's an inside joke of a mounted division of
the Saint Louis Metropolitan Police Department, who are also referenced
on the shirt. Because you know, a horse might weigh
(18:40):
twelve hundred pounds. Whatever the case, this guy, Dan is
kind of intimidating looking to be honest.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
I mean, he's in his.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Sixties, but he's big and solid and he's kind of
soft spoken.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
A lot of people don't like Dan. He could be
hard to get along with. He's Dan was not afraid
to speak what's on his mind. Was so but uh,
I always liked Dan. He was a tough boss, but
not in a bad way.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
You know.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
He just made to share.
Speaker 6 (19:07):
He loved his restaurant. His restaurant was his passion and
his life, and he didn't want to see anyone being
disrespectful to it or not working hard in it.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
That's Connor Templeton, who is Dan's former Wooden Nickel employee. Now,
I must say it's quite possible that Dan didn't run
the tightest possible ship well with his son tripping acid
while on the clock and whatnot, And some people we
talked to in Kirksville were more negative on him, including
Dalton McVeigh, his former tenant.
Speaker 5 (19:38):
I mean, overall, I would say his like standing of
character is a pretty poor one. I mean, he doesn't
manage the Wooden Nickel very well. He's just kind of
like a bit of a mean guy.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
This next quote is from Terry Yardley, who was a
friend of Alex Votes.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
And I've always heard that Alex's dad was real rough
on him all the time, but I never wi missed it,
and I never heard it from him, So that's all
just hearsay.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
One young woman who works at Truman State and knew
the central players in our story, named Gentry mining Her
told us she thought that Dan's relationship with his son
could have played a role in his suicide, though she
wasn't more specific than that. I told this to Dalton McVeigh,
and this is what he said.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
I could certainly agree with the statement that, like their relationship,
like the father son relationship with the Votes was a
tenuous one that probably puts a mental strain on him
and contributed to, you know, eventually reaching that breaking point.
But I don't think it would be justified to call
it the sole factor.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
In any case when it comes to the Kirksville suicide cluster.
This was the first time we heard anyone mentioning someone
other than Brandon Grossheim. But still it must be said,
we never found any evidence that Dan Vote did anything kriminal. Really,
to be honest, I was particularly curious about his relationship
(21:07):
with Brandon Grosheim. That's because Dan Vote had some pretty
weird run ins with Brandon when Brandon was his tenant.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
This is what happened.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
When Brandon was living in the Journal printing company building,
he was pilfering electricity via an extension cord from another apartment,
one being rented by the guy named Cody. Apparently Dan
Vote was paying for Cody's electricity, so Dan didn't like
the idea of Brandon stealing it.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Here's Brandon talking to the cops about it.
Speaker 7 (21:39):
I mean, at one point, Dan cut the extension cord
after who did Dan? Okay, departments, Yeah, yeah, might be
using Cody's apartment, and yeah, I didn't Cody gave me
from me to use electricity.
Speaker 6 (22:02):
And I'm not trying to get into you're not looking
at any charge, not looking at each charges or anything
like that.
Speaker 7 (22:07):
He apparently Dan was paying for his electricity, so I
helped Dan's pocket.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
I'm sure I could maybe you understand that.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
But.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Okay, it's not exactly clear why Brandon was using his
neighbor's electricity. Did his own apartment not have it? Was
Brandon just broke and it seems perfectly justified for Dan
Vote to dismantle this hookup, especially if he the landlord,
was paying for the electricity. Beyond that, it was probably
(22:39):
also a fire risk and a safety hazard. This was
not a criminal matter, and it's not even very clear
why the police were questioning Brandon about it. It certainly
didn't have anything directly to do with the suicides, but
it was an example of Brandon's dealings with Dan Vote,
a guy who is basically his boss and his landlord
(23:00):
at the same time, cutting him checks and also taking
checks from him. And so I wanted to talk to
Dan about his relationship with Brandon, among other issues. But
I didn't approach him that night at the bar when
Ryan and I were there. That's because I'd already tried
talking to Dan before, and that didn't go so well.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
See, I'd called up Dan a few weeks earlier.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
He answered the phone friendly enough, but his tone soon changed.
(23:50):
When I called Dan Vote to ask him about his
son Alex and about Dan's relationship with Brandon Grossheim, he
wasn't thrilled. He got irritated when I explained that I
was hosting a podcast about the Kirksville suicide cluster.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Oh yeah, that's a great story.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
He said, I'm not interested in speaking about that at
all or my family. Goodbye, and then he hung up.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
So fair enough.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
I'm sure many reporters have contacted him since the suicides,
and he's probably sick of them.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
More power to him.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Were very annoying, but as I mentioned, he's an important
part of this story, and he's also a controversial character
in Kirksville for many years now. We did a little
digging and found that way back in nineteen eighty nine,
he was fighting sobriety checkpoints. He presented a petition containing
(24:46):
one thousand signatures to the Kirksville City Council saying that
the planned sobriety checkpoints for which the city received a
state grant, was a violation of their constitutional I'm not
sure how that worked out, but for a bar owner
to fight against enforcing drunk driving seems.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Dubious, whatever the case.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Like I said, Producer Ryan and I wanted to talk
to Dan, but since he'd already denied my request for
an interview in no uncertain terms, I didn't want to
harass him, and so we decide to just, I don't know,
soak up his aura a little bit sitting at the
table while we wait for our na beers. Ryan and
(25:30):
I gaze in his general direction. He wears work boots
with dark socks and shorts. He has a mustache and
close cropped salt.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
And pepper hair.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
When we worry we're becoming too obvious about staring at him,
we glance around at other things, like the bars, decor.
Speaker 7 (25:50):
Yeah, the stained glass of the Uh, it's like it's
the North Missouri State.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Bulldog. I guess, oh that's the former name.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Oh, Northeast Missouri State University is what Truman used to
be called before its name was changed back in nineteen
ninety six.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Fun fact.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Anyway, Finally, our na beers arrive, only not the ones
we order.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Okay, I like, these are the only non alcoholics. Oh
it's perfect.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Maybe we look dorky sipping na bruise, but we feel
pretty cool doing on the scene reporting from a rural bar.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
I'm like, very rarely done reporting like this. Oh, just
sitting sitting back and yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Like you hear about corners getting all these great scoops
by just like being.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
A fly on the wall, you know nightlife.
Speaker 6 (26:49):
Yeah, like I never liked staying out, Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
And then, just as we're talking about how good patient
reporters wait for the action to come to them, a
bit of a ruckus breaks out just a few feet
away from us. Michael, almost it's hard to make out
(27:13):
what's being said. Basically, it's an argument between a younger
woman and an older man. The woman wears a shirt
with an orange tiger on it, the Kirksville High School mascot.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
I believe.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
The guy wears overalls with a beard and no mustache.
Our recording is bad, but the woman accuses the man
of having been very inappropriate during an event that happened
a couple of weeks ago. The altercation does not get physical,
but it's still a pretty lively confrontation that catches the
attention of everyone in the bar. When the waitress comes by,
(27:50):
I ask her what they're fighting about, arguing about they're
not going to you're throwing models right. Our waitress isn't
much help, But later we talk to a different waitress
who says they're arguing about something that happened during an
annual Kirksville event called the Whiskey and Turkey Festival otherwise known.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
As Whiskey Turkey.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
The dispute itself is kind of obscure, But what's interesting
to me is the identity of the woman.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
She is Jen Ray, the daughter of Dan Vote.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Her brother Alex Vote, was the third suicide victim, and
it turns out she's the current owner of the Wooden Nickel.
Jen and the guy in the overalls continue arguing with
each other for a while, maybe ten minutes, but then
Jen stops yelling at this guy and turns to her dad,
Dan Vote.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
She's pissed at him too.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
She accuses him of just watching this argument neutrally the
whole time and not taking her side. I'm sick of
you not supporting me, she says, and then she storms out.
Though she had come in with a bunch of girlfriends,
she just leaves everyone behind.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Ryan and I aren't.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Sure how to process all of this, and so we
finish our drinks. We figure that's enough excitement for one day,
and so we ask the waitress for our check.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
She says we can pay at the bar.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
But it's pretty crowded at the bar, so I have
to kind of wedge myself in, and that's how I
find myself standing right next to Dan Vote as in
eyeball to eyeball. It's quite awkward, but I figure this
is my chance to well, not interview him, just try
to take the measure of the man. I guess, still,
(29:43):
what am I going to say? He doesn't seem like
the type to suffer fools, so I have to make
it something good. Then I start noticing the music, the blues.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
I enjoy the blues. I con vibe with this.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
And one of Dan's old employees told us that Dan
loves the blues, so I'm guessing he picked out this playlist,
or at the very least approved it.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
So I tell him I'm digging the music.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
I love the blues. I say, it's a bit weird.
I'm just coming out of nowhere with this. He looks
me dead in the eyes. My heart is pounding, and
then he sticks out his hand to shake. He smiles
and says something like, hell yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
That's probably not what he said. I can't remember.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
I was just psyched that I'd pressed the right button
with this guy. I ask him who his favorites are,
Buddy Guy, he says Robert Cray and then some others
I don't catch. I say, I like Stevie Rayvaugh, to
which he responds that he plays Stevie Rayvaugh all the time,
and that's it.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Ryan and I pay the check and we leave. What
was the point of all this?
Speaker 2 (30:55):
I guess while we couldn't pin him down about Brandon
Grossheim or the suicide, it was helpful to understand Dan
a little bit. Considering he was such a force in
some of our characters' lives, we were able to hopefully
paint a broader picture, particularly concerning his son and their
allegedly fraught relationship. Sure it's admirable that he employs people
(31:20):
and that he has a neat looking bar in restaurant,
but man, the dude is kind of scary. But I'm
also glad we got to see the world where he, Brandon,
and several of our other characters inhabited, a place where
Booze is at the center, because Brandon and the four
Kirksville students who committed suicide lived in that same kind
(31:41):
of world. As became increasingly clear in our reporting, many
of them had issues with alcohol and substance abuse. And so,
having finished staking out the Wooden Nickel, Ryan and I
stagger out of there, tipsy from the experience, if not
the na brus and then we come face to face
(32:01):
with the Journal Printing Company building, which is right across
the street. This is another important location in our story
where lots of our characters lived. Practically the whole crew
working at the Wooden Nickel lived there. It's the apartment
building where, if you'll recall, Brandon Grosheim moved in and
then very soon after Alex Vote killed himself. It becomes
(32:25):
clear to me that this is a place we need
to investigate because this is where the shit truly went south.
You see, this apartment building is where the fourth and
the fifth deaths happened. That's right, a fifth death. Yes,
it's true. There was another Kirksviell death, one we haven't
(32:46):
mentioned yet, a twenty nine year old woman. It wasn't
suicide exactly, but it happened not long after Alex votes
suicide in the exact same apartment and she had a
strange encounter with someone from the building right before her death.
That person was you guessed it, Brandon Grossheim. That's next
(33:09):
time on The Peacemaker. The Peacemaker is a production of
Cool Fire Studios.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
And iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
It's hosted by me Ben Westoff and Ryan krall Our
Executive producers are Jeff Keene, David Johnson, and Steve Lubert.
Music and audio engineering by Brent Johnson. Executive producers for
iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Are Katrina Norvell and Nikki Etour.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
If you are someone you know is having suicidal thoughts,
there are resources available to you. Please call the Suicide
and Crisis Lifeline nine eight eight
Warning.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
This episode discusses youth depression and suicide. These topics may
be distressing for some listeners. About eight months after the
suicide of her son Alex Mullins, Melissa bad Or Ferry
met with police detectives in Kirksville. By now, two more
(00:21):
of Alex's fraternity brothers had killed themselves. Melissa had been
following the cases closely and thought she knew most of
the details about this suicide cluster. All three deaths had
these things in common. They were all Alpha Kappa Lambda members,
they all hung themselves at the frat house, and they
(00:42):
were all friends with Brandon Grossheim.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Except there weren't three.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Police informed her that there was another suicide in the cluster,
one that wasn't reported in the media at all. His
name was Alex Vote and he killed himself in January
twenty seventeen. When she learned about him and the fact
that he was also close with Brandon Grossheim, that's when
the shit hit the fan. As Melissa told us back
(01:11):
in episode one, that's.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
When it kind of all started to take a different turn,
if you will. Just the fact that at that point
to find out that Brandon had been either present to
find the bodies, or had been the last known person
to be seen with them, or showed up at the
scene and asked about the bodies. Like all these things
(01:36):
started coming out because the police were telling us about them,
and that's when, you know, I started putting some of
the back pieces together.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
What's interesting is that this death she was just learning about.
Alex Vote, not to be confused with Melissa's own son,
Alex Mullins. This Alex wasn't an Alpha Kapa Ambda fraternity
member like the others. Alex Vote didn't even go to
Truman State, but he lived in an apartment near campus,
(02:05):
and incredibly, he killed himself shortly after Brandon moved in
across the hall. So that made four suicides under similar
circumstances with Brandon at the center. It boggled the mind,
and so Melissa badorf Airy worked to figure out everything
(02:26):
she could about the case of Alex's Vote and his
relationship with Brandon Grossheim. This podcast series tells the story
of the most infamous suicide cluster in American history. It's
a production of iHeart Podcasts and Cool Fire Studios. I'm
your host Ben Westoff along with Ryan Crawl.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
This is the peacemaker.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Alex Vote was a student at nearby Moberly Area Community College.
He was twenty one years old, solidly built, with a
big Charlie Chaplin tattoo on his left shoulder and bicep.
He was a fan of first person shooter video games,
and he also played those sorts of games in real
life with plastic pellet firearms called airsoft guns. Here's one
(03:24):
of his friends describing him, named Terry Yardley.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Me and him would party all the time.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Who was a caring dude, Like if somebody needed something
and he could help, he would help. Never got the
sense that he was struggling mentally.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
One of his classmates named Dalton McVeigh, saw Alex differently.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
However, we had a couple classes together.
Speaker 5 (03:49):
I always got the vibe that he was a very
unhappy individual, Like I don't know, I guess like my
childhood wasn't particularly great, so he just kind of like
you see it, you know, you see other kids, and
you're like, man like, I don't know the deal, but
I feel you.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Brother.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
The truth was, Alex's Vote was severely depressed, exactly the
kind of person Brandon Grosheim made a habit of befriending,
or some might say, praying upon. In fact, Alex's depression
went back for years. In twenty fourteen, he made suicidal
comments at his school, and so the Kirksville Police took
(04:26):
him to a psychiatric center in Columbia, Missouri, ninety minutes away,
apparently for four days of hospitalization. In September twenty sixteen,
just a few months before he died, he was in
a severe car accident. It was bad enough that there
was a lawsuit. The guy who hit him would eventually
(04:47):
have to pay twenty five thousand dollars. Plus there was
drama in Alex's personal life. He'd had a child at
a young age. The boy apparently lived with his mom
in the It's not exactly clear what happened between Alex
and the child's mother, but they were estranged. Alex sent
(05:09):
them money as often as he could, but according to
a letter to the court from Alex's mom, he only
got to.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Visit his kid twice.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
All of this stress would take its toll on anyone,
and according to a police report, Alex had been diagnosed
with depression, bipolar, and ADHD. He'd been prescribed adderall prozac
and an antipsychotic medication, pretty heavy meds, and then over
Thanksgiving break twenty sixteen, according to Alex Votess girlfriend Madeline Mazaak,
(05:44):
he broke down. According to her account to the police,
she told him she thought they should break up. He
got upset, went to his apartment and locked the door.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
When she keyed in using her own.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Key, she saw him attempting to hang himself. She was
able to talk him down, but over the next month
Alex remained very unsteady and then poof, Brandon Grosheim walked
into his life. In December twenty sixteen, Brandon moved into
(06:18):
Alex's building. This was not long after the first two suicides.
Brandon had been kicked out of his fraternity and he
dropped out of school.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
The apartment building.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
He moved into was called the Journal Printing Company Building.
Its name comes from the fact that it used to
house the local newspaper. The apartment building was actually owned
by Alex Vote's parents. Brandon and Alex may have known
each other previously. Though Alex Vote didn't go to Truman State,
(06:51):
he was friends with many people there and had even
been called an honorary AKL fraternity member. In any case,
Brandon moved into apartment three, right across the hall from him.
In apartment two was Alex. Alex worked at the Wooden Nickel,
a restaurant in pub right across the street from.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
The apartment building.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Brandon, at the time worked at the Wooden Nickel as well.
The Wooden Nickel appears to be where the two of
them became close. They bonded, apparently over the fact that
Alex took LSD at work. He enjoyed tripping out while
staring at the sauces he was cooking. Hey, Brandon, this
is what I watched when I triped balls, he said,
(07:34):
according to a New Yorker story quoting Brandon. At one point,
Alex and Brandon started taking LSD together. Brandon frequently took
drugs with guys who later killed themselves. He also tripped
acid with Jake Hughes. He and Alex Mullens smoked blunts together.
Brandon and Alex vote grew tight. They played the game
(07:57):
Katan together. Other times they partied with the folks in
their apartment building. But though he may have hid his
depression from some people, things were getting worse and worse
for Alex. He began having more problems with his girlfriend
Madeline again. She said they should break up. He responded,
(08:19):
if that happens, I'll kill myself. Obviously, it was a
horrible position to put her in. She said she didn't
know if he was serious, but agreed to stay together.
The night of Alex's death, he and Madeline went out,
had drinks and.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Ate at the Wooden Nickel.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
They returned to Alex's apartment, became intimate, and then fell
asleep in his lofted bed.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Sometime in the.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Middle of the night, Alex climbed down and hung himself from.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
A water pipe.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Madeline discovered him when she woke up around seven am.
He was hanging just inches away from where she'd been sleeping.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
She called the police.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
When they arrived, they couldn't get into the building, so
they called Madeline back. Then, to the police's surprise, who
should let them into the building but Brandon Grossheim. They
soon interviewed him for his account of the night. He
said he'd been working at the Wooden Nickel, picked up
(09:25):
his girlfriend, went back to his apartment, and then saw
Alex in the hallway. They chatted briefly, nothing very consequential,
according to Brandon, but then after the interview, Brandon had
an unusual request for the police. He wanted to see
Alex's body. The coroner's office was about to take the
(09:48):
body away, but Brandon asked an officer if he could
see it first. What made the request especially strange was
that apparently Brandon had already seen Alex's body. Here's what
a Kirksville officer wrote in his report. Other officers had
informed me of his request, which they felt was odd.
(10:09):
I believed it was odd, but felt it was his
way of saying goodbye. Grosheim advised that he had seen
Vote in the loft, but was unsure if he was dead.
He made his request to me after he was told
that Vote was dead.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
So let me get this straight.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Brandon had already seen Alex's body, but wasn't sure if
he was dead. All of this, to me seems very strange.
Brandon seemed fascinated by people who had just died in
a way that I believe goes beyond normal curiosity. In fact,
it recalls Brandon's other bizarre interactions with people who had
(10:46):
just passed, like his grandmother. As we noted previously, this
happened when Brandon was in high school. When he realized
that his grandmother was dead, he sent his mother away so.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
He could be alone with the body.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
In any case, this time, it's unclear if the police
permitted Brandon to see Alex's body, but something else peculiar happened.
A counselor working in conjunction with the police department wanted
to contact Brandon's family about this suicide, but according to
the police report, Brandon refused to allow them to contact
(11:24):
his family. So I don't know a lot of smoke
when it comes to Brandon Grossheim and the suicide of
Alex's Vote.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
But no smoking gun.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
There aren't allegations that Brandon texted him messages about how
to kill himself, as someone claims Brandon did to the
second suicide victim, Jake Hughes. But following Alex Vote's death,
Brandon made strange comments. According to an acquaintance named Gentry Mininger,
Brandon went into a spout about how suicide was your
(11:56):
own free will and that if you felt that was
the best decision for your life and that's where your
life should go, then that was your own personal choice
and no one should try to stop you. She told
The New Yorker Brandon said they should only try to
understand and accept it.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
The Wooden Nickel is a.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Kirksville bar and restaurant that's been around for decades. In fact,
it calls itself Kirksville's only full service restaurant. Pretty much
everyone in Kirksville knows the Wooden Nickel. It attracts a
wide variety of people, college kids, townies, locals, college kids
who became locals. It's where the third suicide victim, Alex's
(12:57):
vote was a cook. In fact, a lot of people
involved in our story worked there. Besides Alex, there were
members of the Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity from Truman State
working there, including Connor Templeton, who we've been talking to
in this series. And then there was a guy named
Cody who also lived in the journal building and Cody's
(13:19):
girlfriend Glenna, both of whom you'll hear more about soon.
Also working at the Wooden Nickel was Brandon Grossheim. Here's
his colleague and fraternity brother, Connor Templeton, talking about him.
Speaker 6 (13:33):
Yeah, the time frame's a little rough, but he probably
he started working there maybe a year or two after,
probably a year after me. Think he was a server
busser Yeah, he usually be there a little before me
since other bartender and he was serving.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
The Wooden Nickel is where the people in our story worked, commiserated,
did drugs, and drank, particularly Alex Vote in the months
leading up to his death. Here's Connor Templeton again talking
about Alex.
Speaker 6 (14:01):
And we'd have a drink here and there together in
chat after hours because he lived in the building right
across the streets. When I was closing, he'd come over,
hang out and talk for.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
A little bit.
Speaker 6 (14:10):
I mean he had, I'd say he had. He could
tell he had a lot on his mind just the
way he talks. I don't know. I feel like when
we talked sometimes you just tell he had a lot
to let out.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
It might sound dark, but the Wooden Nickel was the
backdrop during a time when many young people's lives began
to unravel. Because of that, I wanted to get a
sense of what the place was like. And so after
a long day of podcasts reporting in Kirksville with our
producer Ryan Krawl, he and I went out.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
To the Wooden Nickel to get a few drinks.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Well, producer Ryan doesn't drink, and to be honest, I
don't really drink much either. Do you have any anglers
like alcoholics?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, we too. The place has a cool vibe.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
It's different, classier than Kirksville dives.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Like the bar next door.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
That place is called TP's Offense, and they have twelve
dollars all you can drink specials.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
It gets pretty sloppy.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
The Wooden Nickel, on the other hand, has an awesome
neon sign out front, spelling its name in red and
green neon. In the front is a restaurant with lots
of Italian offerings.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Ryan and I had dinner there.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
It was, you know, fine, But the place really comes
alive in the back area behind the restaurant. There the
blues music is cranked up a little louder. It's got
some slot machine type games, and an American flag paying
homage to the Second Amendment. Naturally, the theme of the
establishment is I guess you would say wood wood since
(15:54):
the place is called the Wooden Nickel.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
I guess that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
The floors and the bars are made of wood, and
the bathroom doors have signs designating them for woodies and
wood f and then the backbar has a sign explaining,
I guess who runs the place. Woodies, it reads, so
then that begs the question who is Woody?
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Ryan asked the waitresps.
Speaker 6 (16:23):
I asked her who like Woody was was, and she's like,
I don't know if there is a Woody.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
If it is, it's the owner of Dan that gry.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
That would be the Wooden Nichols proprietor named Dan Vote.
He's the father of the third suicide victim, Alex Vote.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Everybody in town knows who Dan Vote is. He owns
the Journal building and the Wooden Nickel. That's why most
of the people that were living in the Journal building
were employees at the Wooden Nickel, because right across the street.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
That was Terry Yardley, a gregarious local who has spent
some time at this bar. We should make one correction,
though Dan Vote doesn't actually own the Wooden Nickel anymore.
His daughter actually owns the Wooden Nickel. But according to
people interviewed for this story, Dan was more or less
in charge during the time when these suicides were happening,
(17:16):
and the apartment building he owned, the Journal Printing Company building,
was where his son Alex killed himself. In fact, it's
where two of the deaths in our story happened.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
More on that later, but.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Suffice it to say that the more we dug, the
more it was clear that Dan Vote was a central
character in this story, not just because his son killed himself,
but because Dan knew Brandon Grosheim well.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
See. He was the owner of the Journal.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Building where Brandon lived, and he was also the former
owner of the Wooden Nickel where Brandon worked.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
And yet, unlike the.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Parents of some of the other suicide victims, Dan Vote
is not suing Brandon Grows. I wanted to know why,
and as luck would have it, Dan is there at
the Wooden Nichols back bar when producer Ryan and I arrive.
He wears a Stag baseball cap as in Stag beer,
(18:16):
and he has sunglasses.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Perched on top of them.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
He also wears a black shirt that says, you don't
know teamwork until your partner is a twelve hundred pounds
free spirit. I'm not exactly sure what that means. I'm
guessing it's an inside joke of a mounted division of
the Saint Louis Metropolitan Police Department, who are also referenced
on the shirt. Because you know, a horse might weigh
(18:40):
twelve hundred pounds. Whatever the case, this guy, Dan is
kind of intimidating looking to be honest.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
I mean, he's in his.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Sixties, but he's big and solid and he's kind of
soft spoken.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
A lot of people don't like Dan. He could be
hard to get along with. He's Dan was not afraid
to speak what's on his mind. Was so but uh,
I always liked Dan. He was a tough boss, but
not in a bad way.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
You know.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
He just made to share.
Speaker 6 (19:07):
He loved his restaurant. His restaurant was his passion and
his life, and he didn't want to see anyone being
disrespectful to it or not working hard in it.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
That's Connor Templeton, who is Dan's former Wooden Nickel employee. Now,
I must say it's quite possible that Dan didn't run
the tightest possible ship well with his son tripping acid
while on the clock and whatnot, And some people we
talked to in Kirksville were more negative on him, including
Dalton McVeigh, his former tenant.
Speaker 5 (19:38):
I mean, overall, I would say his like standing of
character is a pretty poor one. I mean, he doesn't
manage the Wooden Nickel very well. He's just kind of
like a bit of a mean guy.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
This next quote is from Terry Yardley, who was a
friend of Alex Votes.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
And I've always heard that Alex's dad was real rough
on him all the time, but I never wi missed it,
and I never heard it from him, So that's all
just hearsay.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
One young woman who works at Truman State and knew
the central players in our story, named Gentry mining Her
told us she thought that Dan's relationship with his son
could have played a role in his suicide, though she
wasn't more specific than that. I told this to Dalton McVeigh,
and this is what he said.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
I could certainly agree with the statement that, like their relationship,
like the father son relationship with the Votes was a
tenuous one that probably puts a mental strain on him
and contributed to, you know, eventually reaching that breaking point.
But I don't think it would be justified to call
it the sole factor.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
In any case when it comes to the Kirksville suicide cluster.
This was the first time we heard anyone mentioning someone
other than Brandon Grossheim. But still it must be said,
we never found any evidence that Dan Vote did anything kriminal. Really,
to be honest, I was particularly curious about his relationship
(21:07):
with Brandon Grosheim. That's because Dan Vote had some pretty
weird run ins with Brandon when Brandon was his tenant.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
This is what happened.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
When Brandon was living in the Journal printing company building,
he was pilfering electricity via an extension cord from another apartment,
one being rented by the guy named Cody. Apparently Dan
Vote was paying for Cody's electricity, so Dan didn't like
the idea of Brandon stealing it.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Here's Brandon talking to the cops about it.
Speaker 7 (21:39):
I mean, at one point, Dan cut the extension cord
after who did Dan? Okay, departments, Yeah, yeah, might be
using Cody's apartment, and yeah, I didn't Cody gave me
from me to use electricity.
Speaker 6 (22:02):
And I'm not trying to get into you're not looking
at any charge, not looking at each charges or anything
like that.
Speaker 7 (22:07):
He apparently Dan was paying for his electricity, so I
helped Dan's pocket.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
I'm sure I could maybe you understand that.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
But.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Okay, it's not exactly clear why Brandon was using his
neighbor's electricity. Did his own apartment not have it? Was
Brandon just broke and it seems perfectly justified for Dan
Vote to dismantle this hookup, especially if he the landlord,
was paying for the electricity. Beyond that, it was probably
(22:39):
also a fire risk and a safety hazard. This was
not a criminal matter, and it's not even very clear
why the police were questioning Brandon about it. It certainly
didn't have anything directly to do with the suicides, but
it was an example of Brandon's dealings with Dan Vote,
a guy who is basically his boss and his landlord
(23:00):
at the same time, cutting him checks and also taking
checks from him. And so I wanted to talk to
Dan about his relationship with Brandon, among other issues. But
I didn't approach him that night at the bar when
Ryan and I were there. That's because I'd already tried
talking to Dan before, and that didn't go so well.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
See, I'd called up Dan a few weeks earlier.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
He answered the phone friendly enough, but his tone soon changed.
(23:50):
When I called Dan Vote to ask him about his
son Alex and about Dan's relationship with Brandon Grossheim, he
wasn't thrilled. He got irritated when I explained that I
was hosting a podcast about the Kirksville suicide cluster.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Oh yeah, that's a great story.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
He said, I'm not interested in speaking about that at
all or my family. Goodbye, and then he hung up.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
So fair enough.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
I'm sure many reporters have contacted him since the suicides,
and he's probably sick of them.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
More power to him.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Were very annoying, but as I mentioned, he's an important
part of this story, and he's also a controversial character
in Kirksville for many years now. We did a little
digging and found that way back in nineteen eighty nine,
he was fighting sobriety checkpoints. He presented a petition containing
(24:46):
one thousand signatures to the Kirksville City Council saying that
the planned sobriety checkpoints for which the city received a
state grant, was a violation of their constitutional I'm not
sure how that worked out, but for a bar owner
to fight against enforcing drunk driving seems.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Dubious, whatever the case.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Like I said, Producer Ryan and I wanted to talk
to Dan, but since he'd already denied my request for
an interview in no uncertain terms, I didn't want to
harass him, and so we decide to just, I don't know,
soak up his aura a little bit sitting at the
table while we wait for our na beers. Ryan and
(25:30):
I gaze in his general direction. He wears work boots
with dark socks and shorts. He has a mustache and
close cropped salt.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
And pepper hair.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
When we worry we're becoming too obvious about staring at him,
we glance around at other things, like the bars, decor.
Speaker 7 (25:50):
Yeah, the stained glass of the Uh, it's like it's
the North Missouri State.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Bulldog. I guess, oh that's the former name.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Oh, Northeast Missouri State University is what Truman used to
be called before its name was changed back in nineteen
ninety six.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Fun fact.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Anyway, Finally, our na beers arrive, only not the ones
we order.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Okay, I like, these are the only non alcoholics. Oh
it's perfect.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Maybe we look dorky sipping na bruise, but we feel
pretty cool doing on the scene reporting from a rural bar.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
I'm like, very rarely done reporting like this. Oh, just
sitting sitting back and yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Like you hear about corners getting all these great scoops
by just like being.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
A fly on the wall, you know nightlife.
Speaker 6 (26:49):
Yeah, like I never liked staying out, Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
And then, just as we're talking about how good patient
reporters wait for the action to come to them, a
bit of a ruckus breaks out just a few feet
away from us. Michael, almost it's hard to make out
(27:13):
what's being said. Basically, it's an argument between a younger
woman and an older man. The woman wears a shirt
with an orange tiger on it, the Kirksville High School mascot.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
I believe.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
The guy wears overalls with a beard and no mustache.
Our recording is bad, but the woman accuses the man
of having been very inappropriate during an event that happened
a couple of weeks ago. The altercation does not get physical,
but it's still a pretty lively confrontation that catches the
attention of everyone in the bar. When the waitress comes by,
(27:50):
I ask her what they're fighting about, arguing about they're
not going to you're throwing models right. Our waitress isn't
much help, But later we talk to a different waitress
who says they're arguing about something that happened during an
annual Kirksville event called the Whiskey and Turkey Festival otherwise known.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
As Whiskey Turkey.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
The dispute itself is kind of obscure, But what's interesting
to me is the identity of the woman.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
She is Jen Ray, the daughter of Dan Vote.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Her brother Alex Vote, was the third suicide victim, and
it turns out she's the current owner of the Wooden Nickel.
Jen and the guy in the overalls continue arguing with
each other for a while, maybe ten minutes, but then
Jen stops yelling at this guy and turns to her dad,
Dan Vote.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
She's pissed at him too.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
She accuses him of just watching this argument neutrally the
whole time and not taking her side. I'm sick of
you not supporting me, she says, and then she storms out.
Though she had come in with a bunch of girlfriends,
she just leaves everyone behind.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Ryan and I aren't.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Sure how to process all of this, and so we
finish our drinks. We figure that's enough excitement for one day,
and so we ask the waitress for our check.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
She says we can pay at the bar.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
But it's pretty crowded at the bar, so I have
to kind of wedge myself in, and that's how I
find myself standing right next to Dan Vote as in
eyeball to eyeball. It's quite awkward, but I figure this
is my chance to well, not interview him, just try
to take the measure of the man. I guess, still,
(29:43):
what am I going to say? He doesn't seem like
the type to suffer fools, so I have to make
it something good. Then I start noticing the music, the blues.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
I enjoy the blues. I con vibe with this.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
And one of Dan's old employees told us that Dan
loves the blues, so I'm guessing he picked out this playlist,
or at the very least approved it.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
So I tell him I'm digging the music.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
I love the blues. I say, it's a bit weird.
I'm just coming out of nowhere with this. He looks
me dead in the eyes. My heart is pounding, and
then he sticks out his hand to shake. He smiles
and says something like, hell yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
That's probably not what he said. I can't remember.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
I was just psyched that I'd pressed the right button
with this guy. I ask him who his favorites are,
Buddy Guy, he says Robert Cray and then some others
I don't catch. I say, I like Stevie Rayvaugh, to
which he responds that he plays Stevie Rayvaugh all the time,
and that's it.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Ryan and I pay the check and we leave. What
was the point of all this?
Speaker 2 (30:55):
I guess while we couldn't pin him down about Brandon
Grossheim or the suicide, it was helpful to understand Dan
a little bit. Considering he was such a force in
some of our characters' lives, we were able to hopefully
paint a broader picture, particularly concerning his son and their
allegedly fraught relationship. Sure it's admirable that he employs people
(31:20):
and that he has a neat looking bar in restaurant,
but man, the dude is kind of scary. But I'm
also glad we got to see the world where he, Brandon,
and several of our other characters inhabited, a place where
Booze is at the center, because Brandon and the four
Kirksville students who committed suicide lived in that same kind
(31:41):
of world. As became increasingly clear in our reporting, many
of them had issues with alcohol and substance abuse. And so,
having finished staking out the Wooden Nickel, Ryan and I
stagger out of there, tipsy from the experience, if not
the na brus and then we come face to face
(32:01):
with the Journal Printing Company building, which is right across
the street. This is another important location in our story
where lots of our characters lived. Practically the whole crew
working at the Wooden Nickel lived there. It's the apartment
building where, if you'll recall, Brandon Grosheim moved in and
then very soon after Alex Vote killed himself. It becomes
(32:25):
clear to me that this is a place we need
to investigate because this is where the shit truly went south.
You see, this apartment building is where the fourth and
the fifth deaths happened. That's right, a fifth death. Yes,
it's true. There was another Kirksviell death, one we haven't
(32:46):
mentioned yet, a twenty nine year old woman. It wasn't
suicide exactly, but it happened not long after Alex votes
suicide in the exact same apartment and she had a
strange encounter with someone from the building right before her death.
That person was you guessed it, Brandon Grossheim. That's next
(33:09):
time on The Peacemaker. The Peacemaker is a production of
Cool Fire Studios.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
And iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
It's hosted by me Ben Westoff and Ryan krall Our
Executive producers are Jeff Keene, David Johnson, and Steve Lubert.
Music and audio engineering by Brent Johnson. Executive producers for
iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Are Katrina Norvell and Nikki Etour.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
If you are someone you know is having suicidal thoughts,
there are resources available to you. Please call the Suicide
and Crisis Lifeline nine eight eight
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