July 31, 2023 • 44 mins
So, what was on "bottom of the box?" Do we know? Could it have been two things? A Wildcat Community Theater of the Air double feature: Two cold-case detectives several hundred miles away make an eerie discovery.
Dr. Dan Friedman, Jack the Ripper researcher, puts the finishing touches on what we thought we knew.
But then, just as we thought the story is resolved, the true, horrible meaning of “The Bottom of the Box.” Check your answer sheet, did you see this surprise ending coming?
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Superstition here and jealousy.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Superstition and jealousy.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Okay, okay them with your call him with your car.
I'm on international frequency.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Come here, tell me what you I'll tell you what
you are.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
It was a time when eating classic stream of sturdy
first time in any first kids, kid.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Do you indeed think you there is life on other planets?
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Stop?
Speaker 5 (00:46):
This would be more effective at midnight and pounding winds
and crushing thunder, And even then it wouldn't frighten anyone.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
The flames cleanse.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
My soul of it is evil.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Of it's lust for blood.
Speaker 6 (01:03):
Five second, mister Argall, Welcome to Ean Punnett's Vaudeville for
the Frightened, a fresh mix of audio, art, music, interviews
and fiction that will have you.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Wondering what is there to be afraid of? Here's the
Deacon of the Dark, Ian Punnett.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
In this new episode of Vaudeville for the Frightened, episode
seven of the Bottom of the Box series. We'll have
a special Wildcat Community Theater of the Air double feature,
but let's first go over what we know. Some of
the themes we've been discussing, like superstition, fear, and jealousy,
(01:57):
serial killers often high in plain sight. There could be
two to three thousand at work at any time in
the United States, hundreds of them just working the highways.
Each person largely fits into one of two categories, organized
and disorganized. Serial Killers of both types take time off
(02:22):
between deaths. Nobody can determine a serial killer based on
appearance alone. In fact, many serial killers are highly accomplished
in life. Think about Ted Kaczinski, the unibomber, achieved a
PhD in mathematics from the University of Michigan. Ted Bundy,
(02:44):
Handsome Guy, had a degree in psychology and was in
law school as he killed across the country. In the UK,
Stephen Griffiths, the so called crossbow cannibal, murdered at least
three sex workers while he was finishing his PhD in
(03:04):
wait for it, homicide studies. Connor Sturgeon, the twenty five
year old former bank analyst who shot and killed four
of his colleagues after losing his job, was a star
athlete in high school and destined for great things, but
suffered multiple concussions which forever changed his brain's ability to
(03:27):
process things in the same way that it used to.
At least that's what a friend claimed serial killers are
frequently married, have kids, have jobs, mortgages, retirement dreams. For some,
serial killing is something they hope that they can never
succumb to again. Well, for others, it's like a retirement
(03:48):
hobby they look forward to getting back to. Biochemical imbalances
in any of our brains can change over time, and
if you pardon the expression, that can trigger stress in search.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Of a release.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
If three thousand serial killers are operating in the US,
how many could any of us have interacted with in
our lifetimes and not even known it. I have, in fact,
known several people who have gone to prison for murder.
If three thousand seems like a bizarre number to you,
(04:27):
consider that there are only about five hundred crime scene
cleaning companies in the country, and each one employees, let's
say about six cleaners. So the number of crime scene
cleaners is about the same as the number of serial killers. Coincidence,
(04:50):
we do know that while both serial sexual offenders and
serial killers may share a common background, their predations are
different and one does not necessarily become the other. There
needs to be more well trained police detectives that protect
the public in hot and cold cases and don't just
(05:13):
rely on luck. Intuition is undependable, and sometimes when the
police officers themselves aren't up to the task, these are
bells that cannot be unwrung. Every investigator has to sort
through a lot of ground clutter on their radars to
(05:34):
find the truth of what happened. But consider it this way,
it's not the power of the best police officers that
society should fear. It's that the least qualified, the least mature,
the least emotionally intelligent. Police officers have the same power
(05:55):
to walk around with firearms, arrest people, search people homes,
and they usually have the sympathetic ears of a jury
if they abuse those powers, what else do we know
for sure? A lack of training encourages police to depend
(06:16):
on their intuitions and to lead them to incorrect suspects. Often,
if cops depend on intuition to pursue suspects, intuition can backfire.
Red herrings in investigations are everywhere. These coincidences are natural.
They happen, but they are distracting, and it takes the
(06:40):
time of a disciplined investigator to separate our real leads
and real suspects from false ones. Sometimes the guilty go
free because of investigative myopia. Sometimes intuition leads investigators to
focus on the right person for the wrong reason. Sometimes
(07:03):
the guilty are caught early in their criminal careers, meaning
we will never know what they were capable of. They
may not either false subjects might look perfect but are
fool's gold for detectives. People can be careless and mean
(07:23):
and selfish when it comes to their careers. But we
do have questions in all of what we've heard so
far that remain unsolved, as they have been from the
very first episode. What is the meaning of Mark's recurring
nightmare about watching his whole family being wiped out by
(07:46):
a killer who seems to be working the highways? What
is his subconscious trying to sort out, as doctor Orloff suggested,
or could it be a symbolic cautionary vision similar to
what Ernie Lapointe swears by. And just what is in
(08:08):
the bottom of the box? Which of the many boxes
we've talked about so far does the title refer to?
After all, that may be the biggest mystery, and that
will require a wildcat community Theater of the Air double
feature to wrap up this series next.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Ian Punnett's vaudeville for the frightened, Use Your Ears to
Fight Your Fears, Series one, The Bottom of the Box.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
So did you always want to work cold cases.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Since the academy? It probably first occurred to me in
high school when I learned that my grandmother had been
murdered instead of dying by natural causes, which I had
always been told.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
And they never caught the killer.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
They had suspects, but the investigators botched the case. It
remains unsolved.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
How about you.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
I used to work hot cases, but after a few
decades trying to track serial killers working the highways, and
I just got really depressed.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
What's your estimate of the number of serial killers out there?
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Easily hundreds hundreds, and that's just the highways. Even the
experts don't agree. Sometimes they take years off between attacks
because they have careers or raising kids, or they move
for work, but they'll get triggered again eventually.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
So why not just quit?
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Long story? I'd put in for early retirement. I was
burned out. The department shrink recommended that I ride a
desk until I hit retirement, but I was ruled fit
for duty, so quitting wasn't an option. If I wanted
that pension. Then they offered me this. It was as
good as it was going to get. It's everything I
love about being a homicide detective without the lawyers and
(10:19):
the blood in that order. Okay, what did you find?
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Well, I don't know if I found anything other than
something interesting. These two boxes are the files that contain
everything on the Angel McCarty murder.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
The woman who was found off a rural highway in
South Georgia back around two thousand and nine. No car
or ID Why that one.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
I don't know. We got a request from a GBI
agent in Douglas County looking for anything we might have
on the Angel McCarty case, and since I was new,
I got the owners. Okay, go on, I pull these
two file boxes on the table. What do you notice?
Speaker 2 (11:02):
One is labeled McCarty number one with the case number,
and the other is the same except labeled number two.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Is that all.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Casebox two is more weathered. Looks like somebody spilled a
liquid on the top that dried years ago.
Speaker 5 (11:16):
Something milky, Yeah right.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
I didn't notice it at first, and then I saw
that dried coffee with a stain running down the side
of the box. And this place here where it looked
like it pulled on top and dripped inside the way
I figured it is some detective was going over the
contents of casebox one while they were using casebox two
as a coffee table. Somehow the coffee got knocked over
(11:39):
and got into the box through the scene here.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
Okay, I accept that theory.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
So what?
Speaker 3 (11:45):
So I came down to process the request by Douglas
County for everything that had gone into the file. The
log indicated nothing new had been added for years, but
I wanted to be thorough, so I thought I would
inventory it at once to make sure it was all
in there. That's when I turned over the whole box
onto the stable and started cross referencing numbers. I was
(12:06):
one document short from what the log said was in
the box. A transcript called the Case of the Kleenex Killer,
all with case and a smiley face drawn after it.
That wasn't on the table. I thought that was weird,
so I checked on the upside down box again and
noticed these coffee stained pages had dried onto the bottom
of the box.
Speaker 5 (12:27):
How did you get them out?
Speaker 3 (12:29):
See this part that's curled up slightly with a tear
in it, clearly somebody had tried to pull it off
the bottom of the box before, then stopped when they
noticed they were ripping it. So I signed it out,
took the box upstairs to the break room, filled the
waste basket with super hot water, placed the box on
top of the waste basket, and after thirty seconds of
steaming it, I peeled it off.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
Clever, Did you learn anything? I think so.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
You see here this is a copy of a letter
that somebody sent into the bureau claiming to have no
the VI's killer, but not by name. In fact, he
writes that he feels responsible for Angel McCarty's death.
Speaker 5 (13:08):
You know, we get hundreds of false confessors every year.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
And that's probably what this is too. But I've seen
a bunch of these confession junkie letters, but never one
like this. First, it's printed from a computer. Zero spelling errors,
perfect grammar not to mention, double space times, new rum,
and font twelve point type. These notes usually look like
they're written with crayons or popsicle sticks. What salty not
(13:33):
bar writes a letter like this one?
Speaker 5 (13:35):
A well educated one?
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Yeah right, I mean it's just the guy seems to
write a lot of formal reports of something. It's the content.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Read it, dear special agents. Although I am no longer
a resident of Georgia, I recently saw an article online
about the unsolved murder of Angel McCarty, and I would
like to offer my assistance by way of confession. Two
years ago, I suffered from postpartum depression that was going
(14:03):
untreated because the acute form of this condition is rarely
reported by men and most often associated only with women.
While understudied, research data indicates that one in ten fathers
also experience PPD and serious symptoms similar to post traumatic
stress disorder. In my case, howardly, I suffered in silence
(14:26):
after the birth of my child, but my inner conversations
were dominated by evil thoughts of fight or flight. The
walls were closing in on me from every direction, and
I felt as though I was being buried alive. I
was in a pine box, and every doctor's bill or
past due notice felt like another nail in the lid
that would in tune me forever. Even though a part
(14:48):
of me knew it was completely irrational, I blamed my
wife and child for my twenty four hour dread. The
fog of the male postpartum depression gripped my throat from
the inside and prevented me from screaming help as it
slowly strangled me. In the view of others, if my
wife were cross with me, but especially when she was
(15:09):
upset with me for not bringing in enough money while
she delighted in the wonders of motherhood by bouncing our
baby on her knee, I saw the faint face of
a devil under her skin. It was though she were
a demon that was wearing a flesh suit ripped off
my real wife's bones that didn't fit right. I became
convinced that our new baby was growing horns, and every
(15:30):
time I was asked to change our daughter, I searched
my baby's diapers for signs that she was nursing blood
from my wife's breasts. As I fell deeper into these
postpartum delusions, I became convinced that my wife was now
a succubus and our child had been replaced with something
so unholy that it must be killed in the crib.
(15:51):
I was too late or too weak from sleeplessness to flee,
so my only option was to fight. Using a colleague's
I searched how to hire a hitman with surprising results.
Not just one, but two people were willing to kill
my family for just a few thousand dollars. I chose
to engage the one who seemed to my ppd addle
(16:15):
brain to be less likely to be an undercover cop.
I got a burner phone and the negotiation became a conversation.
A guy who went by Randy was unfazed when I
told him that I needed to kill my wife and
my child. He sounded as though he wanted to. Almost
before I finished my proposition, a photo popped on my
(16:35):
burner phone from Brandy of the woman I now know
to be Angel McCarty. The photo appeared to be the
original because it was lit by the cell phone and
had a time stamp in the corner. The body was
face down with blood trickling out of her mouth, but
so much of her face was visible that I remember
her expression of shock. He bragged quite off handedly that
(16:59):
he kills hitch hikers, prostitutes, and stranded women along the
roadways at will. The impending reality of our conversation should
have horrified me, but instead, for the first time, I
saw a light at the end of the tunnel that
I couldn't get to fast.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Enough. Then Randy told me.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
The plan, the same mo he used with Angel McCarty,
the same play he had run dozens of times. I
was to drive to an isolated spot where he would
be hidden nearby in a separate car, waiting with a friend.
Randy recommended an isolated and abandoned roadside gas station just
outside Valdosta that was off Ice seventy five south. Randy
(17:39):
explained how Angel McCarty's husband disoriented her with a big
fight about his driving style on the car. Randy then
approached Angel from the darkness as a man in distress
from a broken nose with blood all over his face
after a car accident up the road. Would she have
some sort of Kleenex or towel he could use to
stop the blaze. With Angel's guard down, she moved sympathetically
(18:03):
toward Randy to get a better look at his supposed wound.
When she turned back to her car for a rag
or something, he shot her point blank. Randy and his
accomplice then stuffed Angel in his trunk to dumper somewhere else,
took the keys for her car from her husband, and
drove off in the night. Angel's husband was supposed to
wait an hour before finding the nearest cop or police station.
(18:27):
And that's how that went down with Angel McCarty. Anyway,
the only problem was he asked for five thousand dollars
for the job, but I told him that I didn't
have that kind of cash.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
However, he could.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
Have everything I did own, a used Volvo station Wagon,
all this fancy new baby stuff, and this really expensive
child's car seat that looked like they had been ejected
from an F sixteen by chance, A new safe car,
high end baby equipment, and the top of the line
car seat was what Randy was going to spend the
(19:01):
money on. Anyway, he had a new baby on the
way and his girlfriend was after him to be a
better provider. He seemed very focused on making her happy,
so we had a deal. We agreed on two am
at that abandoned gas station near Valdosta on I seventy five.
(19:22):
Now you should know there are very few pivotal moments
in my life for me. The first time I read
Ketcher and the Rye pivotal. The second was the birth
of my daughter pivotal. The third came when I pried
off the invisible hand that had been gripping my throat,
(19:43):
and I aborted the plan to kill my family and
start from scratch. It all came down to seconds. My
wife and I had switched places. Randy had emerged from
the shadows, and she had started to walk towards him,
and I suddenly knew there was another way. I knew
(20:06):
I had to either act on it right then, or
my wife and child were gonna end up like Angel McCarty.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
What had been wrong with me?
Speaker 4 (20:16):
How could this ever have been the only way out?
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Get in the car.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
I heard myself saying in my head. I would have
said it out loud, but I couldn't get in the car.
She was within six feet of the guy when she
turned around and started walking back to the car.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Well, I don't know if I have a Kleenex, but
I might have a wet ones.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
I was incredulous, and I was trapped. Get in the car.
And that's when I noticed this man with the bloody
nose was beginning to make his move. I knew I
had only seconds to make mine. What are you doing?
Get in the car?
Speaker 5 (21:01):
Thank god she did.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
Randy seemed confused by me screaming, and he was disoriented
enough to give my wife a moment to jump behind
the wheel and take off. As we pulled away, Randy
had an expression on his face that was a mix
of disappointment, anger, and a sense of what am I
going to tell? My girlfriend and my daughter would never
(21:27):
know just how close to the edge of life male
postpartum depression had pushed me. It triggered something deep down inside.
It's been two years since I left Randy underneath that
flickering busted Texaco sign. God only knows how many hardworking
(21:49):
family women he has killed for fun or profit.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
He must be stopped.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
I mean keilly prostitutes or women like my fine, but
my daughter, that would have been wrong, creepy.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
Huh. Do we believe him?
Speaker 3 (22:10):
My intuition says yes. But he confuses me. He obviously
thinks it's okay to kill some women.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Obviously the officer who dismissed this as the case of
the Kleenex killer didn't share that intuition. He notes on
the file here that somebody called a week later to
confirm the letter had been received, asked whether we were
going to act on it, and then hung up without
answering any questions.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
But we can run Randy through VISCAP with these details.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Or he could turn out to be the most educated,
creative confession junkie we've ever encountered.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Maybe, but I read this two days ago, and I
keep having this vision of us finding Randy in some dark,
windowless bar and seeing the look in his face when
it's two women who are bringing him to justice.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
Or maybe it's just a dream the letter writer was having.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Only one way to find out. You grab a box
and I'll grab a box and we'll get to work.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
You're gonna wake up the fish. I used to say
that to Avi when she was little. We were going
for an early morning row on the water. Oh Avi's
my daughter. By the way, Box Turtle Lake is so
beautiful at night with the moonlight shimmering off the surface.
(23:45):
I wish you could see the stars like I see
them right now. But I don't want to undo your
blindfold yet because according to the GPS, we're almost there,
and it would ruin the excitement. Anyway, It'll be over soon.
(24:07):
The twenty pound weights are on your ankles, will take
you down fast, and the box is so deep and
cold you may even see an actual box turtle on
your way down. You know, the box turtle was almost
(24:27):
our state reptile. True, a fresh water octopus is just
a myth. Still, I call my little collection of women
like you standing permanently at attention for me on the
bottom of the box my octopus's garden. You'll be number six,
(24:48):
just so you know, and you'll have company. Those other
ladies got to be sick of each other by now.
They've been down there for so long. The water is
so at the bottom of the box that the human
body gets all waxy, but it doesn't really decompose. And
(25:10):
you are special? Did I mention that you are special?
My wife gave me permission just for you. That's a first.
She said, do what I need to do to feel better. Well,
being a great citizen is what I do to feel better.
(25:34):
That's how it's been since I made that deal on
the side of the road. I'm only doing what our
government does, only faster, right. I mean, you enjoy doing
certain drugs which the government, which the government makes you
(25:55):
sell your body to get. That's what's really killing you,
not me. I picked you out from your Twitter post,
just like the trash I used to pick up at
rest stops, because society had.
Speaker 5 (26:10):
Already thrown you away.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
I like to picture myself as like a boy scout
earning a merit badge, beautifying the world with a pointed
stick and a canvas bag. You know what, You're like
the beer can, just rolling in the wind along the
side of the road, except except now I do it
(26:34):
on social media apps. Now you might be wondering why
so long between you and number five? Were you wondering that? Well,
the first one was ten years ago, and it was
so disappointing. I mean, I wasn't hoping for a parade
(26:55):
or anything, but I wasn't expecting total silence either. I
felt like Chatkowski after he played his famous piano concerto
Number one to Rubinstein.
Speaker 5 (27:06):
Now, I wit, you probably don't know that story, do you?
So telling it to you like you grew up with
this stuff.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
But I waited for some mention of number one in
the paper posters around town. Something. It would have been
too much to hope for one of those missing white
girls of the week, you know, like Natalie Holloway. But nothing,
(27:34):
not a single word, not a single remark. If you
knew how stupid and intolerable. The situation is of a
man who cooks and then sets before a friend a
meal which then his friend proceeds to eat in total silence.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
Oh but for one word, for a friendly.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
Remark, But for God's sake, even a word of sympathy,
if not one of praise. My need was for commentary
about my technique, for everybody to wonder where did she go?
But the media maintained a silence of the greatest significance.
(28:22):
It was like one missing prostitute didn't matter. I wanted
to yell well, I was not only astounded, but I'll
be honest with you, I was a little outraged by
the whole scene. I'm no longer a boy trying his
hand at composition like I did when I had mal
(28:44):
drive off before Randy could pull the trigger. I had
to set out to prove that I no longer needed
lessons from anyone, especially from that Randy guy. But the silence.
So I waited a while, and I performed my second
open and still nothing. But when Mary Kay Campbell was killed,
(29:07):
I realized that from the media's point of view, it
wasn't about quantity. Perceived value was the issue. The point
I was tried to make all along.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
Mary K.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Campbell was a beautiful young grad student with her whole
life in front of her. Nobody cares about you, crackhorse.
I mean, no offense. It was just so agitating. How
many missing prostitutes? Wait, sorry, excuse me, sex workers will
(29:43):
equal one college graduate student and finally bring the media
back to the campus for another cookout for a week.
So when I wash you clean in the waters of
box Turtle late, you'll finally be serving that higher purpose.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
You know what that is.
Speaker 4 (30:07):
Helping me relax. I used to let the ladies I
lured from the highways run around the cabin free a
little bit before I shot them. But have you ever
tried dragging a body through the woods to a boat
without being noticed? I mean that is hard work. The
(30:28):
crossbow seemed like fun for a time, you know, like
that famous crossboat Cannibal in the UK. But yeesh. After
two of those I knew that even though it was
quieter and okay, granted a little more sporting, it was
still a lot of work to use a crossbow and
(30:48):
the blood Hugh, I don't mind telling you. It was
a lot easier on my back tricking you into thinking
that we were going to have sex on the dock
for all that extra money. In the end, it's all
worth knowing you'll be down there looking up at the surface,
waiting for me to return. My octopus's garden, my happy place,
(31:16):
what some might call an imaginary world. It's my go to.
I mean, you're down there and you're a wheel, right,
so so are the other five ladies, just waiting to
bring comfort to me. And in times of great stress,
I'll add another so you'll have somebody new to get
(31:39):
to know. In the meantime, you'll see me Robi now
and then, just floating on the surface, maybe having lunch
with Avi. Oh, she doesn't know anything about this, by
the way, or having a glass of wine.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
But don't worry, I won't.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
Forget about you, whatever your name is. I'll always pour
some wine into the lake and toast the good work
that you're doing for me. Okay, time to get ready,
get started with your new life. Into the water, into
(32:21):
the water, fighting into the water.
Speaker 6 (32:24):
You go.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Well, that feels better.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
Thank you, mal I owe you for this one, trying
to knock me out of a promotion. I did not
see that coming, not from you. By adding another sex
worker to my lady's auxiliary on the bottom of the box. Though,
(32:54):
I think I can, I think I can forgive you,
Mal for wanting to ruin and my reputation on campus. Well,
actually it might take two someday, Mal, I mean, we
both know you will have to pay for this act
(33:15):
of disloyalty, just like my mother with the distant rumble
(33:36):
of a racing motor boat and a horn sounding a warning.
We know now the final and true meaning of the
bottom of the Box. The first story for the vaudeville
for the Frightened series. My wife hates that ending, but
(33:56):
I've always been fond of the unreliable narrator motif in fiction. Myself,
she said, I don't like that you're the killer, but
narrating the story myself and playing off my own image
and reputation as a generally nice guy, I cast myself
against type, which was fun. Plus, so many the elements
(34:20):
of the story are true, that me being the narrator
and me being Mark is already a blurred line. What
I like about that is, in effect, the narrator did
it right. But this means I should probably explain more
about what is and what is not true about what
(34:42):
you've just heard.
Speaker 5 (34:44):
Next.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Ian Punnett's vaudeville for the Frightened usual ears to Fight
Your Fears series one, the Bottom of the Box.
Speaker 4 (35:11):
Well, I hope you've enjoyed Bottom of the Box. As
I mentioned along the way, this story represents a series
of true events in my life laid over my ongoing
research into the mindset of people who murder. For example,
I really was saved at the last second from a
creepy kid in my neighborhood who wanted to do me harm,
(35:33):
saved by my older brother. My wife and I really
did have an encounter with a guy with a bloody
nose at an abandoned rest stop north of Valdosta on
my way to a Thanksgiving with my family just after
our first child was born.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
It was a boy, by the way, and.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
She really did start walking toward him in the middle
of the night, then turned back to go to the
car to get a baby wipes for his face while
I was in the back. And I really did have
to keep saying get in the car until she finally
came to her senses. Something I obsessed over four years,
how close did I come to seeing my wife abducted
(36:16):
or killed? And I really did call the incident into
the Georgia Bureau of Investigation the GBI, and they did
put a guy on the phone for me to take
my information, who thought the whole thing was really kind
of silly, and he blew me off. The higher ed
journals are filled with stories about backstabbing and kneecapping of
(36:39):
academics by other academics to prevent them from getting promotions
or even quote unquote canceling them. Obviously, Charlie Pellegrino's story
is true about the Jurassic Park incident, as many of
you are already aware, as are any of the other
(37:00):
elements in the story. I do have a wonderful relationship
with my mother, however, so that's not even remotely true.
But I did flat out lie to the police when
I was a kid to draw them subconsciously. I can
only assume to the house of the boy in the
neighborhood that would have been my molester, and he really
(37:22):
did later go to prison, and he really did threaten
to kill me if I told anyone. Plus the anonymous
shooter who roamed the streets of my hometown at night
working up the courage to kill somebody is based on
a famous murder in my hometown. In fact, that kids'
(37:43):
parents came to my wedding and people I know who
study such things insist that the detectives were thrown off
because of the total randomness of the murders. They spent
a full six months trying to make sense out of them,
and then only tripped over the right path by virtue
(38:05):
of somebody who knew more details than they had told
previously and came forward. Police described aspects of the crime
appearing professional like it was a professional hit, while others
indicated an inexperienced killer They could not agree. The media
referred to it actually as a hit that was connected
(38:27):
to the Irish Republican Army, believe it or not. Coincidentally,
the teenage killer who had been starting fires, roaming the
streets at night, idolized mob hitmen, and once fired a
pellet gun at somebody passing his house on the sidewalk,
But at every turn his parents used their money and
(38:48):
influence to get him out of trouble, going so far
as to check him out of a psychiatric facility and
never bringing him back, even by his own admission, had
it not been for a seemingly random break, he was
destined to kill again and again. But given that serial
(39:09):
killers and CEOs have virtually identical psychological profiles, and they
both use well crafted facades to hide their similar traits.
It may just be a matter of wobbles, a fundamental
principle in theoretical math. Wobbles exist everywhere that variables are present.
(39:33):
For example, nine out of ten times, a shortstop in
baseball can feel the ground ball in the dirt cleanly,
easily accounting for slight deviations in the ball's path due
to wet turf, new leather, top spin backspin on the
ball when it left the bat. Sometimes, however, a ground
(39:54):
ball can hit an unseen rock and take a weird
hop and end up in left feet yield. While the
shortstop thought that he or she had a bead on
the ball, there was a wobble in the formula that
can be detected on replay. Probability predictability is just a
(40:17):
case of wobbles. Many of the same formative events that
created a serial killer or a CEO happened to me,
but something accounted for or compensated for the wobble, which
neutralized its impact. I'm fascinated by this. I am not Mark.
(40:39):
I am not a serial killer. Neither likely are you.
But under other circumstances, in the randomness of life wobbles.
Who knows, And that's the part my wife hates when
I speak as though, somehow, somewhere on another planet, in
an alternative universe, maybe it could be possible that it's
(41:02):
just math, that's just science, that's just luck, that's just faith.
Call it whatever you want. Life wobbles are everywhere, and
any outcomes may only be detected on replay. This is
why parents who raised two children under the exact same circumstances,
(41:24):
only to see one become a happy, productive member of
society and the other a menace a villain, are often
just left scratching their heads. All great literature, the greatest
stories ever told, are all premised on the unpredictability of life.
(41:45):
Predictable stories are boring stories. Every recipe for effective mysteries
needs red herrings twas ever, thus, well, now you know
(42:06):
what's at the bottom of the box.
Speaker 5 (42:10):
So how do we wipe this all away?
Speaker 4 (42:13):
Let's end on something more positive like Ernie Lapointe sitting
Bull's great grandson who had a vision. This vision is
something I think we can all get behind. In the
next episode on Vaudeville for the Frightened, this episode of
(42:33):
Vaudeville for the Frightened featured the Wildcat Community, Theater of
the Air, Tracy Van Camp, and Fernanda Martinez. The theme
for Vaudeville for the Frightened was written by Andrew Clark
and performed by Ryan Winters and Pistol Beauty. Original music
by Colby Van Camp, Engineered by Jacob Cummings, Colby Van
(42:57):
Camp and Mason Kamara. Special thanks to Marjorie Punnett, Corny Cole,
Lisa Lyon, Chris Boros, Bill May, Tom dan Heiser and
Julie Talbot. And thank you Joe Brannan. This has been
a fourth Down and ten production.
Superstition here and jealousy.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Superstition and jealousy.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Okay, okay them with your call him with your car.
I'm on international frequency.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Come here, tell me what you I'll tell you what
you are.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
It was a time when eating classic stream of sturdy
first time in any first kids, kid.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Do you indeed think you there is life on other planets?
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Stop?
Speaker 5 (00:46):
This would be more effective at midnight and pounding winds
and crushing thunder, And even then it wouldn't frighten anyone.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
The flames cleanse.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
My soul of it is evil.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Of it's lust for blood.
Speaker 6 (01:03):
Five second, mister Argall, Welcome to Ean Punnett's Vaudeville for
the Frightened, a fresh mix of audio, art, music, interviews
and fiction that will have you.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Wondering what is there to be afraid of? Here's the
Deacon of the Dark, Ian Punnett.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
In this new episode of Vaudeville for the Frightened, episode
seven of the Bottom of the Box series. We'll have
a special Wildcat Community Theater of the Air double feature,
but let's first go over what we know. Some of
the themes we've been discussing, like superstition, fear, and jealousy,
(01:57):
serial killers often high in plain sight. There could be
two to three thousand at work at any time in
the United States, hundreds of them just working the highways.
Each person largely fits into one of two categories, organized
and disorganized. Serial Killers of both types take time off
(02:22):
between deaths. Nobody can determine a serial killer based on
appearance alone. In fact, many serial killers are highly accomplished
in life. Think about Ted Kaczinski, the unibomber, achieved a
PhD in mathematics from the University of Michigan. Ted Bundy,
(02:44):
Handsome Guy, had a degree in psychology and was in
law school as he killed across the country. In the UK,
Stephen Griffiths, the so called crossbow cannibal, murdered at least
three sex workers while he was finishing his PhD in
(03:04):
wait for it, homicide studies. Connor Sturgeon, the twenty five
year old former bank analyst who shot and killed four
of his colleagues after losing his job, was a star
athlete in high school and destined for great things, but
suffered multiple concussions which forever changed his brain's ability to
(03:27):
process things in the same way that it used to.
At least that's what a friend claimed serial killers are
frequently married, have kids, have jobs, mortgages, retirement dreams. For some,
serial killing is something they hope that they can never
succumb to again. Well, for others, it's like a retirement
(03:48):
hobby they look forward to getting back to. Biochemical imbalances
in any of our brains can change over time, and
if you pardon the expression, that can trigger stress in search.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Of a release.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
If three thousand serial killers are operating in the US,
how many could any of us have interacted with in
our lifetimes and not even known it. I have, in fact,
known several people who have gone to prison for murder.
If three thousand seems like a bizarre number to you,
(04:27):
consider that there are only about five hundred crime scene
cleaning companies in the country, and each one employees, let's
say about six cleaners. So the number of crime scene
cleaners is about the same as the number of serial killers. Coincidence,
(04:50):
we do know that while both serial sexual offenders and
serial killers may share a common background, their predations are
different and one does not necessarily become the other. There
needs to be more well trained police detectives that protect
the public in hot and cold cases and don't just
(05:13):
rely on luck. Intuition is undependable, and sometimes when the
police officers themselves aren't up to the task, these are
bells that cannot be unwrung. Every investigator has to sort
through a lot of ground clutter on their radars to
(05:34):
find the truth of what happened. But consider it this way,
it's not the power of the best police officers that
society should fear. It's that the least qualified, the least mature,
the least emotionally intelligent. Police officers have the same power
(05:55):
to walk around with firearms, arrest people, search people homes,
and they usually have the sympathetic ears of a jury
if they abuse those powers, what else do we know
for sure? A lack of training encourages police to depend
(06:16):
on their intuitions and to lead them to incorrect suspects. Often,
if cops depend on intuition to pursue suspects, intuition can backfire.
Red herrings in investigations are everywhere. These coincidences are natural.
They happen, but they are distracting, and it takes the
(06:40):
time of a disciplined investigator to separate our real leads
and real suspects from false ones. Sometimes the guilty go
free because of investigative myopia. Sometimes intuition leads investigators to
focus on the right person for the wrong reason. Sometimes
(07:03):
the guilty are caught early in their criminal careers, meaning
we will never know what they were capable of. They
may not either false subjects might look perfect but are
fool's gold for detectives. People can be careless and mean
(07:23):
and selfish when it comes to their careers. But we
do have questions in all of what we've heard so
far that remain unsolved, as they have been from the
very first episode. What is the meaning of Mark's recurring
nightmare about watching his whole family being wiped out by
(07:46):
a killer who seems to be working the highways? What
is his subconscious trying to sort out, as doctor Orloff suggested,
or could it be a symbolic cautionary vision similar to
what Ernie Lapointe swears by. And just what is in
(08:08):
the bottom of the box? Which of the many boxes
we've talked about so far does the title refer to?
After all, that may be the biggest mystery, and that
will require a wildcat community Theater of the Air double
feature to wrap up this series next.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Ian Punnett's vaudeville for the frightened, Use Your Ears to
Fight Your Fears, Series one, The Bottom of the Box.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
So did you always want to work cold cases.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Since the academy? It probably first occurred to me in
high school when I learned that my grandmother had been
murdered instead of dying by natural causes, which I had
always been told.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
And they never caught the killer.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
They had suspects, but the investigators botched the case. It
remains unsolved.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
How about you.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
I used to work hot cases, but after a few
decades trying to track serial killers working the highways, and
I just got really depressed.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
What's your estimate of the number of serial killers out there?
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Easily hundreds hundreds, and that's just the highways. Even the
experts don't agree. Sometimes they take years off between attacks
because they have careers or raising kids, or they move
for work, but they'll get triggered again eventually.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
So why not just quit?
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Long story? I'd put in for early retirement. I was
burned out. The department shrink recommended that I ride a
desk until I hit retirement, but I was ruled fit
for duty, so quitting wasn't an option. If I wanted
that pension. Then they offered me this. It was as
good as it was going to get. It's everything I
love about being a homicide detective without the lawyers and
(10:19):
the blood in that order. Okay, what did you find?
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Well, I don't know if I found anything other than
something interesting. These two boxes are the files that contain
everything on the Angel McCarty murder.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
The woman who was found off a rural highway in
South Georgia back around two thousand and nine. No car
or ID Why that one.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
I don't know. We got a request from a GBI
agent in Douglas County looking for anything we might have
on the Angel McCarty case, and since I was new,
I got the owners. Okay, go on, I pull these
two file boxes on the table. What do you notice?
Speaker 2 (11:02):
One is labeled McCarty number one with the case number,
and the other is the same except labeled number two.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Is that all.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Casebox two is more weathered. Looks like somebody spilled a
liquid on the top that dried years ago.
Speaker 5 (11:16):
Something milky, Yeah right.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
I didn't notice it at first, and then I saw
that dried coffee with a stain running down the side
of the box. And this place here where it looked
like it pulled on top and dripped inside the way
I figured it is some detective was going over the
contents of casebox one while they were using casebox two
as a coffee table. Somehow the coffee got knocked over
(11:39):
and got into the box through the scene here.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
Okay, I accept that theory.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
So what?
Speaker 3 (11:45):
So I came down to process the request by Douglas
County for everything that had gone into the file. The
log indicated nothing new had been added for years, but
I wanted to be thorough, so I thought I would
inventory it at once to make sure it was all
in there. That's when I turned over the whole box
onto the stable and started cross referencing numbers. I was
(12:06):
one document short from what the log said was in
the box. A transcript called the Case of the Kleenex Killer,
all with case and a smiley face drawn after it.
That wasn't on the table. I thought that was weird,
so I checked on the upside down box again and
noticed these coffee stained pages had dried onto the bottom
of the box.
Speaker 5 (12:27):
How did you get them out?
Speaker 3 (12:29):
See this part that's curled up slightly with a tear
in it, clearly somebody had tried to pull it off
the bottom of the box before, then stopped when they
noticed they were ripping it. So I signed it out,
took the box upstairs to the break room, filled the
waste basket with super hot water, placed the box on
top of the waste basket, and after thirty seconds of
steaming it, I peeled it off.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
Clever, Did you learn anything? I think so.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
You see here this is a copy of a letter
that somebody sent into the bureau claiming to have no
the VI's killer, but not by name. In fact, he
writes that he feels responsible for Angel McCarty's death.
Speaker 5 (13:08):
You know, we get hundreds of false confessors every year.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
And that's probably what this is too. But I've seen
a bunch of these confession junkie letters, but never one
like this. First, it's printed from a computer. Zero spelling errors,
perfect grammar not to mention, double space times, new rum,
and font twelve point type. These notes usually look like
they're written with crayons or popsicle sticks. What salty not
(13:33):
bar writes a letter like this one?
Speaker 5 (13:35):
A well educated one?
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Yeah right, I mean it's just the guy seems to
write a lot of formal reports of something. It's the content.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Read it, dear special agents. Although I am no longer
a resident of Georgia, I recently saw an article online
about the unsolved murder of Angel McCarty, and I would
like to offer my assistance by way of confession. Two
years ago, I suffered from postpartum depression that was going
(14:03):
untreated because the acute form of this condition is rarely
reported by men and most often associated only with women.
While understudied, research data indicates that one in ten fathers
also experience PPD and serious symptoms similar to post traumatic
stress disorder. In my case, howardly, I suffered in silence
(14:26):
after the birth of my child, but my inner conversations
were dominated by evil thoughts of fight or flight. The
walls were closing in on me from every direction, and
I felt as though I was being buried alive. I
was in a pine box, and every doctor's bill or
past due notice felt like another nail in the lid
that would in tune me forever. Even though a part
(14:48):
of me knew it was completely irrational, I blamed my
wife and child for my twenty four hour dread. The
fog of the male postpartum depression gripped my throat from
the inside and prevented me from screaming help as it
slowly strangled me. In the view of others, if my
wife were cross with me, but especially when she was
(15:09):
upset with me for not bringing in enough money while
she delighted in the wonders of motherhood by bouncing our
baby on her knee, I saw the faint face of
a devil under her skin. It was though she were
a demon that was wearing a flesh suit ripped off
my real wife's bones that didn't fit right. I became
convinced that our new baby was growing horns, and every
(15:30):
time I was asked to change our daughter, I searched
my baby's diapers for signs that she was nursing blood
from my wife's breasts. As I fell deeper into these
postpartum delusions, I became convinced that my wife was now
a succubus and our child had been replaced with something
so unholy that it must be killed in the crib.
(15:51):
I was too late or too weak from sleeplessness to flee,
so my only option was to fight. Using a colleague's
I searched how to hire a hitman with surprising results.
Not just one, but two people were willing to kill
my family for just a few thousand dollars. I chose
to engage the one who seemed to my ppd addle
(16:15):
brain to be less likely to be an undercover cop.
I got a burner phone and the negotiation became a conversation.
A guy who went by Randy was unfazed when I
told him that I needed to kill my wife and
my child. He sounded as though he wanted to. Almost
before I finished my proposition, a photo popped on my
(16:35):
burner phone from Brandy of the woman I now know
to be Angel McCarty. The photo appeared to be the
original because it was lit by the cell phone and
had a time stamp in the corner. The body was
face down with blood trickling out of her mouth, but
so much of her face was visible that I remember
her expression of shock. He bragged quite off handedly that
(16:59):
he kills hitch hikers, prostitutes, and stranded women along the
roadways at will. The impending reality of our conversation should
have horrified me, but instead, for the first time, I
saw a light at the end of the tunnel that
I couldn't get to fast.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
Enough. Then Randy told me.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
The plan, the same mo he used with Angel McCarty,
the same play he had run dozens of times. I
was to drive to an isolated spot where he would
be hidden nearby in a separate car, waiting with a friend.
Randy recommended an isolated and abandoned roadside gas station just
outside Valdosta that was off Ice seventy five south. Randy
(17:39):
explained how Angel McCarty's husband disoriented her with a big
fight about his driving style on the car. Randy then
approached Angel from the darkness as a man in distress
from a broken nose with blood all over his face
after a car accident up the road. Would she have
some sort of Kleenex or towel he could use to
stop the blaze. With Angel's guard down, she moved sympathetically
(18:03):
toward Randy to get a better look at his supposed wound.
When she turned back to her car for a rag
or something, he shot her point blank. Randy and his
accomplice then stuffed Angel in his trunk to dumper somewhere else,
took the keys for her car from her husband, and
drove off in the night. Angel's husband was supposed to
wait an hour before finding the nearest cop or police station.
(18:27):
And that's how that went down with Angel McCarty. Anyway,
the only problem was he asked for five thousand dollars
for the job, but I told him that I didn't
have that kind of cash.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
However, he could.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
Have everything I did own, a used Volvo station Wagon,
all this fancy new baby stuff, and this really expensive
child's car seat that looked like they had been ejected
from an F sixteen by chance, A new safe car,
high end baby equipment, and the top of the line
car seat was what Randy was going to spend the
(19:01):
money on. Anyway, he had a new baby on the
way and his girlfriend was after him to be a
better provider. He seemed very focused on making her happy,
so we had a deal. We agreed on two am
at that abandoned gas station near Valdosta on I seventy five.
(19:22):
Now you should know there are very few pivotal moments
in my life for me. The first time I read
Ketcher and the Rye pivotal. The second was the birth
of my daughter pivotal. The third came when I pried
off the invisible hand that had been gripping my throat,
(19:43):
and I aborted the plan to kill my family and
start from scratch. It all came down to seconds. My
wife and I had switched places. Randy had emerged from
the shadows, and she had started to walk towards him,
and I suddenly knew there was another way. I knew
(20:06):
I had to either act on it right then, or
my wife and child were gonna end up like Angel McCarty.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
What had been wrong with me?
Speaker 4 (20:16):
How could this ever have been the only way out?
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Get in the car.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
I heard myself saying in my head. I would have
said it out loud, but I couldn't get in the car.
She was within six feet of the guy when she
turned around and started walking back to the car.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Well, I don't know if I have a Kleenex, but
I might have a wet ones.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
I was incredulous, and I was trapped. Get in the car.
And that's when I noticed this man with the bloody
nose was beginning to make his move. I knew I
had only seconds to make mine. What are you doing?
Get in the car?
Speaker 5 (21:01):
Thank god she did.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
Randy seemed confused by me screaming, and he was disoriented
enough to give my wife a moment to jump behind
the wheel and take off. As we pulled away, Randy
had an expression on his face that was a mix
of disappointment, anger, and a sense of what am I
going to tell? My girlfriend and my daughter would never
(21:27):
know just how close to the edge of life male
postpartum depression had pushed me. It triggered something deep down inside.
It's been two years since I left Randy underneath that
flickering busted Texaco sign. God only knows how many hardworking
(21:49):
family women he has killed for fun or profit.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
He must be stopped.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
I mean keilly prostitutes or women like my fine, but
my daughter, that would have been wrong, creepy.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
Huh. Do we believe him?
Speaker 3 (22:10):
My intuition says yes. But he confuses me. He obviously
thinks it's okay to kill some women.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Obviously the officer who dismissed this as the case of
the Kleenex killer didn't share that intuition. He notes on
the file here that somebody called a week later to
confirm the letter had been received, asked whether we were
going to act on it, and then hung up without
answering any questions.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
But we can run Randy through VISCAP with these details.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Or he could turn out to be the most educated,
creative confession junkie we've ever encountered.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Maybe, but I read this two days ago, and I
keep having this vision of us finding Randy in some dark,
windowless bar and seeing the look in his face when
it's two women who are bringing him to justice.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
Or maybe it's just a dream the letter writer was having.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Only one way to find out. You grab a box
and I'll grab a box and we'll get to work.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
You're gonna wake up the fish. I used to say
that to Avi when she was little. We were going
for an early morning row on the water. Oh Avi's
my daughter. By the way, Box Turtle Lake is so
beautiful at night with the moonlight shimmering off the surface.
(23:45):
I wish you could see the stars like I see
them right now. But I don't want to undo your
blindfold yet because according to the GPS, we're almost there,
and it would ruin the excitement. Anyway, It'll be over soon.
(24:07):
The twenty pound weights are on your ankles, will take
you down fast, and the box is so deep and
cold you may even see an actual box turtle on
your way down. You know, the box turtle was almost
(24:27):
our state reptile. True, a fresh water octopus is just
a myth. Still, I call my little collection of women
like you standing permanently at attention for me on the
bottom of the box my octopus's garden. You'll be number six,
(24:48):
just so you know, and you'll have company. Those other
ladies got to be sick of each other by now.
They've been down there for so long. The water is
so at the bottom of the box that the human
body gets all waxy, but it doesn't really decompose. And
(25:10):
you are special? Did I mention that you are special?
My wife gave me permission just for you. That's a first.
She said, do what I need to do to feel better. Well,
being a great citizen is what I do to feel better.
(25:34):
That's how it's been since I made that deal on
the side of the road. I'm only doing what our
government does, only faster, right. I mean, you enjoy doing
certain drugs which the government, which the government makes you
(25:55):
sell your body to get. That's what's really killing you,
not me. I picked you out from your Twitter post,
just like the trash I used to pick up at
rest stops, because society had.
Speaker 5 (26:10):
Already thrown you away.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
I like to picture myself as like a boy scout
earning a merit badge, beautifying the world with a pointed
stick and a canvas bag. You know what, You're like
the beer can, just rolling in the wind along the
side of the road, except except now I do it
(26:34):
on social media apps. Now you might be wondering why
so long between you and number five? Were you wondering that? Well,
the first one was ten years ago, and it was
so disappointing. I mean, I wasn't hoping for a parade
(26:55):
or anything, but I wasn't expecting total silence either. I
felt like Chatkowski after he played his famous piano concerto
Number one to Rubinstein.
Speaker 5 (27:06):
Now, I wit, you probably don't know that story, do you?
So telling it to you like you grew up with
this stuff.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
But I waited for some mention of number one in
the paper posters around town. Something. It would have been
too much to hope for one of those missing white
girls of the week, you know, like Natalie Holloway. But nothing,
(27:34):
not a single word, not a single remark. If you
knew how stupid and intolerable. The situation is of a
man who cooks and then sets before a friend a
meal which then his friend proceeds to eat in total silence.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
Oh but for one word, for a friendly.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
Remark, But for God's sake, even a word of sympathy,
if not one of praise. My need was for commentary
about my technique, for everybody to wonder where did she go?
But the media maintained a silence of the greatest significance.
(28:22):
It was like one missing prostitute didn't matter. I wanted
to yell well, I was not only astounded, but I'll
be honest with you, I was a little outraged by
the whole scene. I'm no longer a boy trying his
hand at composition like I did when I had mal
(28:44):
drive off before Randy could pull the trigger. I had
to set out to prove that I no longer needed
lessons from anyone, especially from that Randy guy. But the silence.
So I waited a while, and I performed my second
open and still nothing. But when Mary Kay Campbell was killed,
(29:07):
I realized that from the media's point of view, it
wasn't about quantity. Perceived value was the issue. The point
I was tried to make all along.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
Mary K.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Campbell was a beautiful young grad student with her whole
life in front of her. Nobody cares about you, crackhorse.
I mean, no offense. It was just so agitating. How
many missing prostitutes? Wait, sorry, excuse me, sex workers will
(29:43):
equal one college graduate student and finally bring the media
back to the campus for another cookout for a week.
So when I wash you clean in the waters of
box Turtle late, you'll finally be serving that higher purpose.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
You know what that is.
Speaker 4 (30:07):
Helping me relax. I used to let the ladies I
lured from the highways run around the cabin free a
little bit before I shot them. But have you ever
tried dragging a body through the woods to a boat
without being noticed? I mean that is hard work. The
(30:28):
crossbow seemed like fun for a time, you know, like
that famous crossboat Cannibal in the UK. But yeesh. After
two of those I knew that even though it was
quieter and okay, granted a little more sporting, it was
still a lot of work to use a crossbow and
(30:48):
the blood Hugh, I don't mind telling you. It was
a lot easier on my back tricking you into thinking
that we were going to have sex on the dock
for all that extra money. In the end, it's all
worth knowing you'll be down there looking up at the surface,
waiting for me to return. My octopus's garden, my happy place,
(31:16):
what some might call an imaginary world. It's my go to.
I mean, you're down there and you're a wheel, right,
so so are the other five ladies, just waiting to
bring comfort to me. And in times of great stress,
I'll add another so you'll have somebody new to get
(31:39):
to know. In the meantime, you'll see me Robi now
and then, just floating on the surface, maybe having lunch
with Avi. Oh, she doesn't know anything about this, by
the way, or having a glass of wine.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
But don't worry, I won't.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
Forget about you, whatever your name is. I'll always pour
some wine into the lake and toast the good work
that you're doing for me. Okay, time to get ready,
get started with your new life. Into the water, into
(32:21):
the water, fighting into the water.
Speaker 6 (32:24):
You go.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Well, that feels better.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
Thank you, mal I owe you for this one, trying
to knock me out of a promotion. I did not
see that coming, not from you. By adding another sex
worker to my lady's auxiliary on the bottom of the box. Though,
(32:54):
I think I can, I think I can forgive you,
Mal for wanting to ruin and my reputation on campus. Well,
actually it might take two someday, Mal, I mean, we
both know you will have to pay for this act
(33:15):
of disloyalty, just like my mother with the distant rumble
(33:36):
of a racing motor boat and a horn sounding a warning.
We know now the final and true meaning of the
bottom of the Box. The first story for the vaudeville
for the Frightened series. My wife hates that ending, but
(33:56):
I've always been fond of the unreliable narrator motif in fiction. Myself,
she said, I don't like that you're the killer, but
narrating the story myself and playing off my own image
and reputation as a generally nice guy, I cast myself
against type, which was fun. Plus, so many the elements
(34:20):
of the story are true, that me being the narrator
and me being Mark is already a blurred line. What
I like about that is, in effect, the narrator did
it right. But this means I should probably explain more
about what is and what is not true about what
(34:42):
you've just heard.
Speaker 5 (34:44):
Next.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Ian Punnett's vaudeville for the Frightened usual ears to Fight
Your Fears series one, the Bottom of the Box.
Speaker 4 (35:11):
Well, I hope you've enjoyed Bottom of the Box. As
I mentioned along the way, this story represents a series
of true events in my life laid over my ongoing
research into the mindset of people who murder. For example,
I really was saved at the last second from a
creepy kid in my neighborhood who wanted to do me harm,
(35:33):
saved by my older brother. My wife and I really
did have an encounter with a guy with a bloody
nose at an abandoned rest stop north of Valdosta on
my way to a Thanksgiving with my family just after
our first child was born.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
It was a boy, by the way, and.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
She really did start walking toward him in the middle
of the night, then turned back to go to the
car to get a baby wipes for his face while
I was in the back. And I really did have
to keep saying get in the car until she finally
came to her senses. Something I obsessed over four years,
how close did I come to seeing my wife abducted
(36:16):
or killed? And I really did call the incident into
the Georgia Bureau of Investigation the GBI, and they did
put a guy on the phone for me to take
my information, who thought the whole thing was really kind
of silly, and he blew me off. The higher ed
journals are filled with stories about backstabbing and kneecapping of
(36:39):
academics by other academics to prevent them from getting promotions
or even quote unquote canceling them. Obviously, Charlie Pellegrino's story
is true about the Jurassic Park incident, as many of
you are already aware, as are any of the other
(37:00):
elements in the story. I do have a wonderful relationship
with my mother, however, so that's not even remotely true.
But I did flat out lie to the police when
I was a kid to draw them subconsciously. I can
only assume to the house of the boy in the
neighborhood that would have been my molester, and he really
(37:22):
did later go to prison, and he really did threaten
to kill me if I told anyone. Plus the anonymous
shooter who roamed the streets of my hometown at night
working up the courage to kill somebody is based on
a famous murder in my hometown. In fact, that kids'
(37:43):
parents came to my wedding and people I know who
study such things insist that the detectives were thrown off
because of the total randomness of the murders. They spent
a full six months trying to make sense out of them,
and then only tripped over the right path by virtue
(38:05):
of somebody who knew more details than they had told
previously and came forward. Police described aspects of the crime
appearing professional like it was a professional hit, while others
indicated an inexperienced killer They could not agree. The media
referred to it actually as a hit that was connected
(38:27):
to the Irish Republican Army, believe it or not. Coincidentally,
the teenage killer who had been starting fires, roaming the
streets at night, idolized mob hitmen, and once fired a
pellet gun at somebody passing his house on the sidewalk,
But at every turn his parents used their money and
(38:48):
influence to get him out of trouble, going so far
as to check him out of a psychiatric facility and
never bringing him back, even by his own admission, had
it not been for a seemingly random break, he was
destined to kill again and again. But given that serial
(39:09):
killers and CEOs have virtually identical psychological profiles, and they
both use well crafted facades to hide their similar traits.
It may just be a matter of wobbles, a fundamental
principle in theoretical math. Wobbles exist everywhere that variables are present.
(39:33):
For example, nine out of ten times, a shortstop in
baseball can feel the ground ball in the dirt cleanly,
easily accounting for slight deviations in the ball's path due
to wet turf, new leather, top spin backspin on the
ball when it left the bat. Sometimes, however, a ground
(39:54):
ball can hit an unseen rock and take a weird
hop and end up in left feet yield. While the
shortstop thought that he or she had a bead on
the ball, there was a wobble in the formula that
can be detected on replay. Probability predictability is just a
(40:17):
case of wobbles. Many of the same formative events that
created a serial killer or a CEO happened to me,
but something accounted for or compensated for the wobble, which
neutralized its impact. I'm fascinated by this. I am not Mark.
(40:39):
I am not a serial killer. Neither likely are you.
But under other circumstances, in the randomness of life wobbles.
Who knows, And that's the part my wife hates when
I speak as though, somehow, somewhere on another planet, in
an alternative universe, maybe it could be possible that it's
(41:02):
just math, that's just science, that's just luck, that's just faith.
Call it whatever you want. Life wobbles are everywhere, and
any outcomes may only be detected on replay. This is
why parents who raised two children under the exact same circumstances,
(41:24):
only to see one become a happy, productive member of
society and the other a menace a villain, are often
just left scratching their heads. All great literature, the greatest
stories ever told, are all premised on the unpredictability of life.
(41:45):
Predictable stories are boring stories. Every recipe for effective mysteries
needs red herrings twas ever, thus, well, now you know
(42:06):
what's at the bottom of the box.
Speaker 5 (42:10):
So how do we wipe this all away?
Speaker 4 (42:13):
Let's end on something more positive like Ernie Lapointe sitting
Bull's great grandson who had a vision. This vision is
something I think we can all get behind. In the
next episode on Vaudeville for the Frightened, this episode of
(42:33):
Vaudeville for the Frightened featured the Wildcat Community, Theater of
the Air, Tracy Van Camp, and Fernanda Martinez. The theme
for Vaudeville for the Frightened was written by Andrew Clark
and performed by Ryan Winters and Pistol Beauty. Original music
by Colby Van Camp, Engineered by Jacob Cummings, Colby Van
(42:57):
Camp and Mason Kamara. Special thanks to Marjorie Punnett, Corny Cole,
Lisa Lyon, Chris Boros, Bill May, Tom dan Heiser and
Julie Talbot. And thank you Joe Brannan. This has been
a fourth Down and ten production.
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