February 10, 2025 • 20 mins
This week’s hometowns include finding money on the ground and attending a celebration for Aretha Franklin.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Hello, and welcome to my favorite murder, the miniesode. That's right, Yes,
do you want to go for Oh wait, it's me,
It's me. Do you let me go watch this? The
subject line of this email is lies from my mom
hometown request, Helly my ladies, hgl y, helly my ladies.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Okay, intentional? Perhaps I love the request about lies. You
found out that your parents had told to keep you
from getting into trouble, and this lie was discovered because
of MFM. I am an almost Christmas baby born on
the twenty second, and anytime there was an option for
a birthday party when I was small, I owe wanted
to go to Showbiz Pizza and it says this was
(01:03):
Chuck E Cheese before it was Chuck E Cheese. And
side note, do yourself a favor and watch the documentary
about the Rock of Fire explosion. Do you know this?
Speaker 1 (01:12):
No? Were the band?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, the animatronic band that played in the restaurants. It's
worth your time.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
I've seen that a million years ago, but yes, it's
totally worth your time the documentary.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
AnyWho. Because of having to compete with Jesus for attention
around that time of year, I was typically granted my
request to have a party there. I was also the
first to shove any other birthday party invite into my
mom's face when it was going to be held at Showbiz.
One day, my mom told this story about, Hey, how
they were investigating Showbiz because a little girl was kidnapped
(01:43):
there and the kidnappers took her to the bathroom, chopped
off her hair and put boy clothes on her and
they still hadn't found her.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Gasp.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Of course, this scared me to death, and I loved
my long hair and I didn't want to be kidnapped.
The horror, so we never went back again.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Fast forward. I am a day one EMMAFM listener and
then it's parentheses. It says love you guys seriously. And
one day this story creeps back into my brain. I
start Internet sleuthing about my hometown, time of year, Showbiz.
Did they find her? The list goes on nothing. I'm
thinking that it was just solved quickly or something, and
(02:20):
given the early nineties and lack of online inquiries, wasn't
a big deal. Come to find out, No, my mother,
sweet Cynthia, made the entire story up so we wouldn't
ever have to go back to show buzies.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Cynthia, are you fucking kidding you? Induced childhood trauma?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Are you kidding?
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
All?
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Because we're all we all can't, We're all yes, what
the fuck?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Well, it's you know what I mean. I think Cynthia
was like, we need to slice this clean off. I
cannot go and listen to that animatronic band play one
more time.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Totally. I feel for the mom. I got it, but
there's like it's pretty extreme.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah. I casually asked her one day about the details
and she said, oh, yeah, that wasn't true. I just
hated going to that loud, german fested pit. Cynthia, thank you, mom,
Thank you not only for the mental scarring of having
my hair chopped off, but also robbing me of shitty
pizza and child casino games for penny prizes, says DGM.
(03:22):
And always question your mother, Tarin, Louisville, Kentucky. It's just
so extreme, is because I remember here that was like
urban legend. Yeah, but it was one where I'm sure
was based in some distant thing. But I remember my
aunt Joe telling me that where it's like they were
in Kmart and she was and it was always a friend.
(03:44):
And then like they had to all of a sudden,
they were locking the doors and everyone to stay there.
And then there was a missing child and when they
found the child was in a stranger's arms, cut chopped off,
dyed hair to like.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Look the act to sneak out the boy.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Wow, so that must have been like an a yes, Oh,
that's just story feeling, so scary.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Okay, here's another scary one, classic hometown hitchhiking murders plus
some coincidences. Hello, love you guys. I'm a doctor who
did my residency training during the pandemic and all I
can say is please get your vaccines. While I was
in training, I told my team the story, and the
room got very quiet and awkward, and I realized there
was no murderino to be found. But I thought you
(04:26):
guys might appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
That's such a sad feeling and you're just like, oh wait, nobody, okay,
I'll take this somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Like no one knows how to respond to this, and
I just made it awkward. Yeah. So, my mom's brother
was a very popular, all around good guy who spent
his summer in Europe in the seventies, where hitchhiking was
totally normal. When he got back to the States, he
kept hitchhiking. Him and a friend will call them. Joe
and Jim were hitchhiking back to their car after an
Oakland A's game when the people in the car, who
(04:55):
were very high on drugs, stabbed both of them multiple
times and left them for dead. My uncle Joe didn't
make it, but his friend did survive. Oh my god,
fucking crazy. The killers were caught days later when they
were bragging about the murders at a party. My mom
went to their court things and they went to prison
for a very long time. Cut to a couple years ago,
(05:16):
my mom was at church and she sees all cap
her brother's killer signing books at a table. He had
gotten out of prison, written a book on recidivism and
was signing it at my mom's church. Ultimately, my mom
wrote to him to say she forgives him and if
he ever wants to chat, she's open to it, but
he never responded. This murder really took a toll on
(05:39):
my family, even though it happened before I was born.
It gives me some insight into generational trauma and why
my mom is generally pretty anxious but also a badass bitch.
Thank you for all you do to promote mental and
physical health. Love you, guys, xoxo.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Naomi is so unexpected, kind of out of to be
in church, first of all, Yeah, and then see that
person that you think is just like.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
The grace it took to not just fucking start screaming
and hitting that person.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Right well, and then to write a letter yeah and
say like I forgive you is a huge deal. And
then to have that just kind of ignored. Yeah, yeah, wow, Yeah,
wouldn't take a little left turn. Please, I'm not going
to read you the subject line it says, hey, howdy hate.
My first year out of college, I was waiting tables
(06:28):
because what better way to put that two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars degree to good use. Needless to say,
all my income was in cold, hard cash, and in
order to prevent myself from spending, and I was too
lazy to take it to the bank every few days,
I would hide the money all over the place. But
I needed one concise place to keep my rent money
since I needed to be sure how much I had
(06:49):
and if I needed to wear my rent money shorts
to my next shift.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Wow, So she'd like put it in a pair of shorts, Like,
don't forget to take the rent money out of their
shorts before you were them.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
No, no, no, no. She had to put it in
a place that was like safe. So it's like you're
hiding money everywhere. You'll never spend this money because that's
the rent money, Like, never tap into that, Okay, and
then if that's too low, she puts on her short
shirts and goes to work and gets better tips. Okay,
Now I got it rent money. I mean, that's how
I'm interpreting it. Obviously, I couldn't hide it in the
(07:22):
sock drawer or envelopes in my desk, so where to
put it? Enter the tissue box. I got one of
my square tissue boxes, carefully took out all the tissues
out in their perfectly folded stack, and placed my rubber
banded stash at the bottom, replaced all the tissues, gave
it a little fluff and no one would know the wiser.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
No.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Fast forward a few months and my apartment was broken into.
My bedroom was completely ransacked, dresser drawers tossed on the floor,
everything in my closet pulled off the racks, my mattresses
pushed off the frame. I broke into a cold sweat.
But there on my nightstand, not even moved in the
slightest was my tissue box and in the bottom every
dollar of my life rent. The only thing missing was
(08:03):
a jar. I kept all my coins in, maybe twenty
dollars worth. Stay sexy and don't touch my tissues.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Jess. I thought she was going to say someone threw
the box away at the end of it, But.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Like me and my dad in this butterbox, it's still
so mad about that.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Wow, that's uh who smart? Smart and lucky.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yes, the problem is I was doing. I started hiding
cash during quarantine because it was that thing of like, yeah,
what is it whatever? There was all those weird kind
of like the world is going to change.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Over, it's got to run out, and we're going to
need the app rumber that.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
But of course I didn't like write down, Like I
was like, here's a really vague Manila envelope, I'll put
it in here. You have no idea, no idea, but
I'll find it one day when I cleaned that drawer out,
but totally still there. It's just or like did I
spend it in it like a weird I'm not sure,
but then it's like and then I put it other
places where I'm just like, is it over here? Like
(08:56):
the worst person to be doing that trick?
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah, I'd lose it. Uh. Oh well, hey, here's a coincidence.
This one's called the world is my money boost. It
just starts not a murder and not a sinkhole, but
a glitch in the matrix that I've been benefiting from.
And I want to brag about it in your voices.
I live in Chicago and I find money on the
ground all the time. Yes, not just quarters or useless pennies,
(09:22):
but twenties, tens, and even a fifty dollars bill. I'll
be out walking, on a run or commuting via my
bike and I'll find money. Here's a list of finds
in the past year.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Yes, yes, yes for this email yees a crisp five
dollars bill at the busy six corner intersection in the
Wicker Park neighborhood as I was rushing to cycle to
my physical therapy appointment.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
I was five minutes late, but my therapist just laughed
when I told her why. On her run, some beautiful
Saturday morning and I spotted a twenty dollars bill that
was missing a large piece after having gone through a lawnmower.
I pause on my run to take it to the
bank to see if I could change it. Despite missing
most of the middle top half, it still had a
serial number, and I was able to leave the bank
(10:05):
with a fresh one.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Amazing.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
I think it's like it's more than one corner that's
missing or something like that. That's when I heard that
could be wrong.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
I'd love to get a graph about exactly how much
you need?
Speaker 1 (10:17):
How fucked up does your bill have to be?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
What if it's you cut walk in with the serial number? Yeah,
just a little circle of paper.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah. Literally four days before the damage twenty I found
a different twenty dollars bill in the middle of an
intersection as I was biking home. I had worried my
new sunglasses tint would obscure my talent, but they didn't.
I think it might be Chicago people just fucking losing
money drunk.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Is it like, do you find this on Sundays or Mondays?
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Because yeah, last winter, while walking into the entrance of
Zoo Lights with my husband and stepson, there was a
gusta win and a pile of leaves went by. I shouted,
there's money. I snatched up a fifty dollars bill. We
had a fun night from that. It paid for our admission.
We rode the Ferris wheel and my step son got
a toy. Hell yeah, at this point, it's what happened
(11:02):
to me for about fifteen years. It either irritates my
family and friends or they just shake their heads at me.
So last year I decided to pay it forward and
I ran the Chicago Marathon on a charity team. From
my skill set, I raised forty seven dollars from ground
scores alone. Ground score, I don't know what that means.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Scoring money on the ground.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
That's amazing. It's not my money, and I figured it
should go to a no kill animal shelter instead. Nice,
that's amazing. We all have our superpowers. In mine is
finding money or useful things. I found a north Face
fleece a bluetooth speaker as well. Fuck so take that
mental health walk, put your phones onto not disturb, look
around and you never know what treasures might be waiting
(11:43):
for you. My hopeful next find is a kitten. Oh
aliyah oh oh Leiah you're a lucky, lucky person, wishing
you the cat distribution system works in your favor. I
mean it got to yeah, Chicago littered with kittens.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I'm just trying to think of like that. I feel
like I have been a lucky person, not in the
times of like I've never like won contests or anything
like that, but I do feel like i've It's the thing.
I think we've talked about it. I used to go
when I was really broke. I would just get up
and go through my coat pockets and my all the
pockets and my clothes in my closet, and I would
always end up fighting twenty five dollars, twenty dollars, ten dollars.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
So I wonder if there is a something about the
looking yeah brings it to you.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Just like yeah, manifesting it makes you notice it. It's
still going to be there for anyone, but you're the
one who've been thinking about it.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Unless we live in the matrix and they're like, sure,
you can have ten dollars if you tap in, fucking
do it? Come on, then okay, last tear for me.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
The subject line of this email is Aretha Franklin elbowed
me at the buffet line. Hello, Karen Georgia, and everyone died.
Exactly right. I just listened to episode four sixty about
Mayor Jones, and it brought me so much joy. That
was the Mary Jones was the Aretha Franklin personator.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Oh yeah, so good.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
And it brought me so much joy because it reminded
me of the time Aretha Franklin elbowed me at a
buffet line.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
It sounds like someone explaining their dream.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yes, completely, yes, it is a dream. It was twenty
ten and I was living in New York City, having
recently earned my Masters in publishing from Columbia. Wow, well, well.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Well, well, yes, smarty pants listening, Oh well, well.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Okay, the publishing world was collapsing. Magazines were folding suddenly,
no one was hiring, and I was scraping by with
any job I could get, living on food stamps and
feeling increasingly panicked that I'd have to abandon my dreams,
go back to my hometown of Albuquerque and probably switch careers. Okay, sorry,
we said, well, well, well, if you we were, I'm
(13:53):
saying wee, but it was me. In the midst of
all the turmoil, I managed to land a gig as
a freelance red carpet reporter. Oh well, and because I
got paid per quote, You'd better believe I shoved my
way past every camera person and had no time for
feeling starstruck because every celebrity I talked to meant I
could survive in the city a little longer.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Wow. What a hustle.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, badass. It was a crazy job, and I constantly
got hit in the head by camera equipment. But it
was amazing because you don't think about that that danger
on the red carpet. But it was amazing because I
met so many incredible people and had access to some
seriously exclusive events. The most memorable experience had to be
when I was tasked with covering the Spring Benefit Concert
(14:34):
and awards ceremony at the Apollo Theater on June fourteenth,
twenty ten, honoring none other than the Queen of Soul herself,
who performed that night and was inducted into the Apollo
Legends Hall of Fame. I mean, God, just the electricity
of being in place, storic time.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
I grew up listening to her music and I was
beyond excited to go, which every I'm sure person in
that building was like going insane after a star started
Red Carpet, where I got enough quotes to time me
over for another month. I love that. It's wow, very satisfying.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yeah, I just sounds. It sounds like a book, like
a novel character. I was allowed to go inside the
theater and watch the show for free as a member
of the press. That alone would have made all my
struggles in New York worth it. But then I was
invited to a private catered party right there at the
theater with a glorious buffet. I was standing in line,
oggling food I could never have afforded when someone elbowed
(15:31):
me in my right side. Aretha Franklin, Live and in
the Flesh stood next to me, grinned and said, looks
pretty good, doesn't it. Before I had a chance to
do or say anything, she walked ahead, nudging and hugging
people here and there, stopping to make brief conversation.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Oh. She disappeared after that, but I know it happened
for sure, because the people in front of me turned
around and we all squealed in pure joy.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
I loaded my plate, went back for seconds, and at
some point floated back to my tiny apartment to send
in my work, feeling more love toward New York than ever.
I ended up getting a job at in Style soon
after that, and though I'm back in Albuquerque these days,
I'm here willingly and happily and still work in publishing.
I'd like to think that on that day, a little
bit of Aretha is Magic rubbed off on me, giving
(16:19):
me a very needed boost to keep going. I listened
to you since the early days, and my sister and
nieces and I love you. Thank you so much for
all you do, and please stay safe during this crazy
fires in La SSDGM and riespct. Oh, Monica, that's good,
mona cup.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Wow, Oh what a moment, What a moment in life.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, just like just hustling. You got yourself there, you did,
You're asking good enough questions that you keep getting rehired.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Yeah, And it's like a month to month thing, like
you don't know what the fuck's gonna happen next month.
Anything can happen.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Just got to keep on trying. And then suddenly I
honestly thought it was gonna be I just figured, because
you know, I've seen a lot of clips of Retha
Franklin where she's kind of like she's very like Blaise
Blaise and like it has to go out on the
step and repeat to take pictures and throws her person
or fur down in a corner, like she's just so
like eye roll. So I could totally see it be
(17:16):
just like, out of my way, this is my show.
But instead she's like.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Let me give this chick a moment that she's gonna remember.
She knows, she knows.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
That's true, true queen behavior. She's like, aren't we all
having fun with my party?
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Here's something to tell people when you get home tonight.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Oh my god, so jealous.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
I want to end on that one. It was so good,
but I have a quick my quick last one.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah, okay, they're all good. They're sweet.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
I feel like, yeah, it's called You're in our Love Story.
Oh hi, Karen and Georgia. What am I even doing
right now? Feeding my baby or listening to my favorite podcast?
And then it says it wouldn't it be funny if
I said it wasn't yours? Yes, it's called SmartLess. I
thought I might share why you're partially to thank for
my daughter being here at all. I met my partner
(18:01):
while working in the same building, and we bonded over
many things, including being murder reinos. On our first day,
I opened the door and instead of flowers, he was
holding your book. He remembered I had wanted to read it,
and I was immediately smitten. After falling in love, buying
a home, blending our family, and being told I couldn't
have more kids, here I sit feeding our nine month
(18:22):
old baby cheerios while we listened to rewind episodes. If
you read that right, it looks like the baby's name
is Cheerios, which I think was Hi seating our nine
month old baby cheerios, But it's beeeding our nur went
old baby cheerios. Oh, listen to Rewind up. So it's
thank you for forever being a part of our love
story and giving my guy the little boost of confidence
it took to land a haughtie like me. Yes, girl,
(18:46):
stay sexy and hope that babies can't understand what you're
listening to.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Love Alyssa, Oh Lissa, that was the perfect last email
I know.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
And doesn't this come out around Valentine's Day?
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Sweet up for Valentine's Stah.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Hey send us your love stories, whatever they may be.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
That's so sweet.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
I know that's so weird.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Shout out to Alyssa's husband.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Yeah, good job, dude. Yeah, hey, thanks for listening. Uh,
Alyssa's husband, Melyssa's husband especially, and Cheerio especially.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Oh my god, Cheerio. We're so proud of you.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Cheri uh Senah's your emails at my Favorite Murder at gmail.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Thanks for all your stories. We appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Stay sexy and don't get murdered. Goodbye, Elvis, Do you
want a cookie?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
This has been an exactly right production.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Our senior producer is Alejandra Keck.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Our editor is Aristotle Osceveda.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
This episode was mixed by Leona Squalacci.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Email your hometowns to My Favorite Murder at gmail dot
com and.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at my Favorite Murder. Goodbye,
Hello, and welcome to my favorite murder, the miniesode. That's right, Yes,
do you want to go for Oh wait, it's me,
It's me. Do you let me go watch this? The
subject line of this email is lies from my mom
hometown request, Helly my ladies, hgl y, helly my ladies.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Okay, intentional? Perhaps I love the request about lies. You
found out that your parents had told to keep you
from getting into trouble, and this lie was discovered because
of MFM. I am an almost Christmas baby born on
the twenty second, and anytime there was an option for
a birthday party when I was small, I owe wanted
to go to Showbiz Pizza and it says this was
(01:03):
Chuck E Cheese before it was Chuck E Cheese. And
side note, do yourself a favor and watch the documentary
about the Rock of Fire explosion. Do you know this?
Speaker 1 (01:12):
No? Were the band?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, the animatronic band that played in the restaurants. It's
worth your time.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
I've seen that a million years ago, but yes, it's
totally worth your time the documentary.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
AnyWho. Because of having to compete with Jesus for attention
around that time of year, I was typically granted my
request to have a party there. I was also the
first to shove any other birthday party invite into my
mom's face when it was going to be held at Showbiz.
One day, my mom told this story about, Hey, how
they were investigating Showbiz because a little girl was kidnapped
(01:43):
there and the kidnappers took her to the bathroom, chopped
off her hair and put boy clothes on her and
they still hadn't found her.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Gasp.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Of course, this scared me to death, and I loved
my long hair and I didn't want to be kidnapped.
The horror, so we never went back again.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Fast forward. I am a day one EMMAFM listener and
then it's parentheses. It says love you guys seriously. And
one day this story creeps back into my brain. I
start Internet sleuthing about my hometown, time of year, Showbiz.
Did they find her? The list goes on nothing. I'm
thinking that it was just solved quickly or something, and
(02:20):
given the early nineties and lack of online inquiries, wasn't
a big deal. Come to find out, No, my mother,
sweet Cynthia, made the entire story up so we wouldn't
ever have to go back to show buzies.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Cynthia, are you fucking kidding you? Induced childhood trauma?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Are you kidding?
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
All?
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Because we're all we all can't, We're all yes, what
the fuck?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Well, it's you know what I mean. I think Cynthia
was like, we need to slice this clean off. I
cannot go and listen to that animatronic band play one
more time.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Totally. I feel for the mom. I got it, but
there's like it's pretty extreme.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah. I casually asked her one day about the details
and she said, oh, yeah, that wasn't true. I just
hated going to that loud, german fested pit. Cynthia, thank you, mom,
Thank you not only for the mental scarring of having
my hair chopped off, but also robbing me of shitty
pizza and child casino games for penny prizes, says DGM.
(03:22):
And always question your mother, Tarin, Louisville, Kentucky. It's just
so extreme, is because I remember here that was like
urban legend. Yeah, but it was one where I'm sure
was based in some distant thing. But I remember my
aunt Joe telling me that where it's like they were
in Kmart and she was and it was always a friend.
(03:44):
And then like they had to all of a sudden,
they were locking the doors and everyone to stay there.
And then there was a missing child and when they
found the child was in a stranger's arms, cut chopped off,
dyed hair to like.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Look the act to sneak out the boy.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Wow, so that must have been like an a yes, Oh,
that's just story feeling, so scary.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Okay, here's another scary one, classic hometown hitchhiking murders plus
some coincidences. Hello, love you guys. I'm a doctor who
did my residency training during the pandemic and all I
can say is please get your vaccines. While I was
in training, I told my team the story, and the
room got very quiet and awkward, and I realized there
was no murderino to be found. But I thought you
(04:26):
guys might appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
That's such a sad feeling and you're just like, oh wait, nobody, okay,
I'll take this somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Like no one knows how to respond to this, and
I just made it awkward. Yeah. So, my mom's brother
was a very popular, all around good guy who spent
his summer in Europe in the seventies, where hitchhiking was
totally normal. When he got back to the States, he
kept hitchhiking. Him and a friend will call them. Joe
and Jim were hitchhiking back to their car after an
Oakland A's game when the people in the car, who
(04:55):
were very high on drugs, stabbed both of them multiple
times and left them for dead. My uncle Joe didn't
make it, but his friend did survive. Oh my god,
fucking crazy. The killers were caught days later when they
were bragging about the murders at a party. My mom
went to their court things and they went to prison
for a very long time. Cut to a couple years ago,
(05:16):
my mom was at church and she sees all cap
her brother's killer signing books at a table. He had
gotten out of prison, written a book on recidivism and
was signing it at my mom's church. Ultimately, my mom
wrote to him to say she forgives him and if
he ever wants to chat, she's open to it, but
he never responded. This murder really took a toll on
(05:39):
my family, even though it happened before I was born.
It gives me some insight into generational trauma and why
my mom is generally pretty anxious but also a badass bitch.
Thank you for all you do to promote mental and
physical health. Love you, guys, xoxo.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Naomi is so unexpected, kind of out of to be
in church, first of all, Yeah, and then see that
person that you think is just like.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
The grace it took to not just fucking start screaming
and hitting that person.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Right well, and then to write a letter yeah and
say like I forgive you is a huge deal. And
then to have that just kind of ignored. Yeah, yeah, wow, Yeah,
wouldn't take a little left turn. Please, I'm not going
to read you the subject line it says, hey, howdy hate.
My first year out of college, I was waiting tables
(06:28):
because what better way to put that two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars degree to good use. Needless to say,
all my income was in cold, hard cash, and in
order to prevent myself from spending, and I was too
lazy to take it to the bank every few days,
I would hide the money all over the place. But
I needed one concise place to keep my rent money
since I needed to be sure how much I had
(06:49):
and if I needed to wear my rent money shorts
to my next shift.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Wow, So she'd like put it in a pair of shorts, Like,
don't forget to take the rent money out of their
shorts before you were them.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
No, no, no, no. She had to put it in
a place that was like safe. So it's like you're
hiding money everywhere. You'll never spend this money because that's
the rent money, Like, never tap into that, Okay, and
then if that's too low, she puts on her short
shirts and goes to work and gets better tips. Okay,
Now I got it rent money. I mean, that's how
I'm interpreting it. Obviously, I couldn't hide it in the
(07:22):
sock drawer or envelopes in my desk, so where to
put it? Enter the tissue box. I got one of
my square tissue boxes, carefully took out all the tissues
out in their perfectly folded stack, and placed my rubber
banded stash at the bottom, replaced all the tissues, gave
it a little fluff and no one would know the wiser.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
No.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Fast forward a few months and my apartment was broken into.
My bedroom was completely ransacked, dresser drawers tossed on the floor,
everything in my closet pulled off the racks, my mattresses
pushed off the frame. I broke into a cold sweat.
But there on my nightstand, not even moved in the
slightest was my tissue box and in the bottom every
dollar of my life rent. The only thing missing was
(08:03):
a jar. I kept all my coins in, maybe twenty
dollars worth. Stay sexy and don't touch my tissues.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Jess. I thought she was going to say someone threw
the box away at the end of it, But.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Like me and my dad in this butterbox, it's still
so mad about that.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Wow, that's uh who smart? Smart and lucky.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yes, the problem is I was doing. I started hiding
cash during quarantine because it was that thing of like, yeah,
what is it whatever? There was all those weird kind
of like the world is going to change.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Over, it's got to run out, and we're going to
need the app rumber that.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
But of course I didn't like write down, Like I
was like, here's a really vague Manila envelope, I'll put
it in here. You have no idea, no idea, but
I'll find it one day when I cleaned that drawer out,
but totally still there. It's just or like did I
spend it in it like a weird I'm not sure,
but then it's like and then I put it other
places where I'm just like, is it over here? Like
(08:56):
the worst person to be doing that trick?
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah, I'd lose it. Uh. Oh well, hey, here's a coincidence.
This one's called the world is my money boost. It
just starts not a murder and not a sinkhole, but
a glitch in the matrix that I've been benefiting from.
And I want to brag about it in your voices.
I live in Chicago and I find money on the
ground all the time. Yes, not just quarters or useless pennies,
(09:22):
but twenties, tens, and even a fifty dollars bill. I'll
be out walking, on a run or commuting via my
bike and I'll find money. Here's a list of finds
in the past year.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Yes, yes, yes for this email yees a crisp five
dollars bill at the busy six corner intersection in the
Wicker Park neighborhood as I was rushing to cycle to
my physical therapy appointment.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
I was five minutes late, but my therapist just laughed
when I told her why. On her run, some beautiful
Saturday morning and I spotted a twenty dollars bill that
was missing a large piece after having gone through a lawnmower.
I pause on my run to take it to the
bank to see if I could change it. Despite missing
most of the middle top half, it still had a
serial number, and I was able to leave the bank
(10:05):
with a fresh one.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Amazing.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
I think it's like it's more than one corner that's
missing or something like that. That's when I heard that
could be wrong.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
I'd love to get a graph about exactly how much
you need?
Speaker 1 (10:17):
How fucked up does your bill have to be?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
What if it's you cut walk in with the serial number? Yeah,
just a little circle of paper.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah. Literally four days before the damage twenty I found
a different twenty dollars bill in the middle of an
intersection as I was biking home. I had worried my
new sunglasses tint would obscure my talent, but they didn't.
I think it might be Chicago people just fucking losing
money drunk.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Is it like, do you find this on Sundays or Mondays?
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Because yeah, last winter, while walking into the entrance of
Zoo Lights with my husband and stepson, there was a
gusta win and a pile of leaves went by. I shouted,
there's money. I snatched up a fifty dollars bill. We
had a fun night from that. It paid for our admission.
We rode the Ferris wheel and my step son got
a toy. Hell yeah, at this point, it's what happened
(11:02):
to me for about fifteen years. It either irritates my
family and friends or they just shake their heads at me.
So last year I decided to pay it forward and
I ran the Chicago Marathon on a charity team. From
my skill set, I raised forty seven dollars from ground
scores alone. Ground score, I don't know what that means.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Scoring money on the ground.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
That's amazing. It's not my money, and I figured it
should go to a no kill animal shelter instead. Nice,
that's amazing. We all have our superpowers. In mine is
finding money or useful things. I found a north Face
fleece a bluetooth speaker as well. Fuck so take that
mental health walk, put your phones onto not disturb, look
around and you never know what treasures might be waiting
(11:43):
for you. My hopeful next find is a kitten. Oh
aliyah oh oh Leiah you're a lucky, lucky person, wishing
you the cat distribution system works in your favor. I
mean it got to yeah, Chicago littered with kittens.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I'm just trying to think of like that. I feel
like I have been a lucky person, not in the
times of like I've never like won contests or anything
like that, but I do feel like i've It's the thing.
I think we've talked about it. I used to go
when I was really broke. I would just get up
and go through my coat pockets and my all the
pockets and my clothes in my closet, and I would
always end up fighting twenty five dollars, twenty dollars, ten dollars.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
So I wonder if there is a something about the
looking yeah brings it to you.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Just like yeah, manifesting it makes you notice it. It's
still going to be there for anyone, but you're the
one who've been thinking about it.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Unless we live in the matrix and they're like, sure,
you can have ten dollars if you tap in, fucking
do it? Come on, then okay, last tear for me.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
The subject line of this email is Aretha Franklin elbowed
me at the buffet line. Hello, Karen Georgia, and everyone died.
Exactly right. I just listened to episode four sixty about
Mayor Jones, and it brought me so much joy. That
was the Mary Jones was the Aretha Franklin personator.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Oh yeah, so good.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
And it brought me so much joy because it reminded
me of the time Aretha Franklin elbowed me at a
buffet line.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
It sounds like someone explaining their dream.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yes, completely, yes, it is a dream. It was twenty
ten and I was living in New York City, having
recently earned my Masters in publishing from Columbia. Wow, well, well.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Well, well, yes, smarty pants listening, Oh well, well.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Okay, the publishing world was collapsing. Magazines were folding suddenly,
no one was hiring, and I was scraping by with
any job I could get, living on food stamps and
feeling increasingly panicked that I'd have to abandon my dreams,
go back to my hometown of Albuquerque and probably switch careers. Okay, sorry,
we said, well, well, well, if you we were, I'm
(13:53):
saying wee, but it was me. In the midst of
all the turmoil, I managed to land a gig as
a freelance red carpet reporter. Oh well, and because I
got paid per quote, You'd better believe I shoved my
way past every camera person and had no time for
feeling starstruck because every celebrity I talked to meant I
could survive in the city a little longer.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Wow. What a hustle.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Yeah, badass. It was a crazy job, and I constantly
got hit in the head by camera equipment. But it
was amazing because you don't think about that that danger
on the red carpet. But it was amazing because I
met so many incredible people and had access to some
seriously exclusive events. The most memorable experience had to be
when I was tasked with covering the Spring Benefit Concert
(14:34):
and awards ceremony at the Apollo Theater on June fourteenth,
twenty ten, honoring none other than the Queen of Soul herself,
who performed that night and was inducted into the Apollo
Legends Hall of Fame. I mean, God, just the electricity
of being in place, storic time.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
I grew up listening to her music and I was
beyond excited to go, which every I'm sure person in
that building was like going insane after a star started
Red Carpet, where I got enough quotes to time me
over for another month. I love that. It's wow, very satisfying.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yeah, I just sounds. It sounds like a book, like
a novel character. I was allowed to go inside the
theater and watch the show for free as a member
of the press. That alone would have made all my
struggles in New York worth it. But then I was
invited to a private catered party right there at the
theater with a glorious buffet. I was standing in line,
oggling food I could never have afforded when someone elbowed
(15:31):
me in my right side. Aretha Franklin, Live and in
the Flesh stood next to me, grinned and said, looks
pretty good, doesn't it. Before I had a chance to
do or say anything, she walked ahead, nudging and hugging
people here and there, stopping to make brief conversation.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Oh. She disappeared after that, but I know it happened
for sure, because the people in front of me turned
around and we all squealed in pure joy.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
I loaded my plate, went back for seconds, and at
some point floated back to my tiny apartment to send
in my work, feeling more love toward New York than ever.
I ended up getting a job at in Style soon
after that, and though I'm back in Albuquerque these days,
I'm here willingly and happily and still work in publishing.
I'd like to think that on that day, a little
bit of Aretha is Magic rubbed off on me, giving
(16:19):
me a very needed boost to keep going. I listened
to you since the early days, and my sister and
nieces and I love you. Thank you so much for
all you do, and please stay safe during this crazy
fires in La SSDGM and riespct. Oh, Monica, that's good,
mona cup.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Wow, Oh what a moment, What a moment in life.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, just like just hustling. You got yourself there, you did,
You're asking good enough questions that you keep getting rehired.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Yeah, And it's like a month to month thing, like
you don't know what the fuck's gonna happen next month.
Anything can happen.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Just got to keep on trying. And then suddenly I
honestly thought it was gonna be I just figured, because
you know, I've seen a lot of clips of Retha
Franklin where she's kind of like she's very like Blaise
Blaise and like it has to go out on the
step and repeat to take pictures and throws her person
or fur down in a corner, like she's just so
like eye roll. So I could totally see it be
(17:16):
just like, out of my way, this is my show.
But instead she's like.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Let me give this chick a moment that she's gonna remember.
She knows, she knows.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
That's true, true queen behavior. She's like, aren't we all
having fun with my party?
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Here's something to tell people when you get home tonight.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Oh my god, so jealous.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
I want to end on that one. It was so good,
but I have a quick my quick last one.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah, okay, they're all good. They're sweet.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
I feel like, yeah, it's called You're in our Love Story.
Oh hi, Karen and Georgia. What am I even doing
right now? Feeding my baby or listening to my favorite podcast?
And then it says it wouldn't it be funny if
I said it wasn't yours? Yes, it's called SmartLess. I
thought I might share why you're partially to thank for
my daughter being here at all. I met my partner
(18:01):
while working in the same building, and we bonded over
many things, including being murder reinos. On our first day,
I opened the door and instead of flowers, he was
holding your book. He remembered I had wanted to read it,
and I was immediately smitten. After falling in love, buying
a home, blending our family, and being told I couldn't
have more kids, here I sit feeding our nine month
(18:22):
old baby cheerios while we listened to rewind episodes. If
you read that right, it looks like the baby's name
is Cheerios, which I think was Hi seating our nine
month old baby cheerios, But it's beeeding our nur went
old baby cheerios. Oh, listen to Rewind up. So it's
thank you for forever being a part of our love
story and giving my guy the little boost of confidence
it took to land a haughtie like me. Yes, girl,
(18:46):
stay sexy and hope that babies can't understand what you're
listening to.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Love Alyssa, Oh Lissa, that was the perfect last email
I know.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
And doesn't this come out around Valentine's Day?
Speaker 2 (18:58):
Sweet up for Valentine's Stah.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Hey send us your love stories, whatever they may be.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
That's so sweet.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
I know that's so weird.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Shout out to Alyssa's husband.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Yeah, good job, dude. Yeah, hey, thanks for listening. Uh,
Alyssa's husband, Melyssa's husband especially, and Cheerio especially.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Oh my god, Cheerio. We're so proud of you.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Cheri uh Senah's your emails at my Favorite Murder at gmail.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Thanks for all your stories. We appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Stay sexy and don't get murdered. Goodbye, Elvis, Do you
want a cookie?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
This has been an exactly right production.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Our senior producer is Alejandra Keck.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Our editor is Aristotle Osceveda.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
This episode was mixed by Leona Squalacci.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Email your hometowns to My Favorite Murder at gmail dot
com and.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at my Favorite Murder. Goodbye,
Hosts And Creators
Georgia Hardstark
Karen Kilgariff
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