233 - Free Range Children

Karen and Georgia cover the Zoot Suit Riots and the 1976 Chowchilla bus kidnapping.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hello, and welcome to my favorite murder where we talk
about true crime exactly how you want us to. That's right,
and the exact cadence and speech patterns. I'm a human
and slow and fast slow. A lot of pauses like
this make it seem important. It's basically ASMR. Yeah, Hey, hi, Hi,

(00:39):
are you trying to fall asleep right now?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Do you like the sound of zippers?

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Do you like the zipper? Oh? The zippers? Is that
a thing?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
I don't know the first then I just started talking
so loud. The first time I saw an ASMR video,
it was something like that. It was a very specific
sound where I was like, this is for one person,
maybe four Yeah, And it was just like you know,
it was like titled like plastic ski jacket zipper or

(01:07):
something like that.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Someone has always loved but never even realized it was
a thing they loved.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
There's like I saw recently it there's hair brushing videos,
which is the sound of hair being brushed. Oh, the
audio of audio for ASMR of hair being brushed. That's
someone's thing.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
See, I might have the opposite of whatever the fetish
is for hair brushing sounds, because there's nothing that bothers
me more. And this is very like when you're the
first year living out of your parents' house, when you're like,
I'm living with the girls and we're living it up
or whatever best and there's always some roommate that will

(01:47):
get out of the shower with wet hair and then
brush her hair violently, like in front of the TV.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Oh yeah, that's always driven me.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Those kind of girls are like just just like pulling
their own hangle, just.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Like ripping through their hair with the tangles. Yeah, just
doing it really fast. You could tell they had the
kind of mom or sisters that was like two.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Bads, suck it up. You have to get your hair brush.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Oh my god, my mom used to make us cry
by French braiding our hair. Yeah, because she pulled it
so it was so tight and she'd yank it. Not
on purpose, but it's like it was maybe maybe a
little little maybe maybe Janet was getting back had hurt.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
It does feel so good though, I can French braid hair.
I know.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
I've been meaning to get you to French braid of
hair my hair. It's been little absolutely do it. I
don't know why it's never happened like on tour or something.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
I guess because we don't roller skate that much in
nineteen eighty four, it's like, how weird would it be?
You're like, we're going to go down to the Applebee's
two blocks down.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Will you French braid.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
My hair first?

Speaker 1 (02:47):
You know what? I just realized, Sometimes when I can't sleep,
if I need like a soothing thought, I'll think of
myself French braiding hair, like just a long fucking French braid. Yeah,
that's my ASMR in my brain, French.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Braid of it.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
But it's the visual or the visual audio as well.
Visual and then the feel of French braiding is like
so soothing, isn't it?

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (03:11):
You know so Yeah, as we said, this is true crime,
so good.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
We're here to tell you about things that sound, ways
that people have made sounds work for them, whether it's
this podcast, uh, the old can opener ASMR.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
I love the sound of Bumblebee Tuna being open, being opened.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
By an electric can opener from nineteen seventy.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Chicken of the Seat is kind of my thing.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
I like the sound of my mom lighting a match
and touching it to the end of a Benson Hedges
lights one hundred at the gas station with the windows
rolled up in the car.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Oh god, do you know what I did the other night?

Speaker 2 (03:50):
I got a nice smoke.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
I fucking smoked a cigarette for the first time in
probably five years, out of what boredom. No, I just
was like kind of going crazy. I was having it.
Just I was having a lot of anxiety about what's
happening indoors right now and which is nothing. And the
thought of smoking a cigarette like that thing of like

(04:12):
it's escape. You get a walk out of a fucking
party or bar, or room or quarantine and fucking have
a contemplative cigarette. And I don't, fucking I have not
all for it. Smoking super bad for you and it'll
kill you and all this shit. But I had a
cigarette a Winston and it was fucking it was excellent.
I thought I'd get nauseous.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
You know, did you find that pack of Winston's under
the floor mets of an old Nova that was parked
in front of your house?

Speaker 1 (04:40):
No, but I did find a brat for sale, you know,
those those super super brat for sale, like a nineteen
fucking seventy something. It's silver and I want it so bad.
Holy shit.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Okay, my friends, my friend Sam Moen.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Did I tell you about this?

Speaker 2 (04:55):
My friend Sam Moen was doing this thing on Twitter
where he was posting pictures when he saw super u
Brat and I loved it and it was like my
favorite and then I just started rip it. I just
started doing it myself where I was like, oh wait,
the reason you love this is because it's Sam's idea.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
You're like, this is the best idea I've ever don
This is.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
The fucking that happens all the time to me on
Twitter where I love something and be like all about it,
and then two months later I'm like, this is my
original idea that it's never It's so embarrassed.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
To assume that you never have ever once had an
original idea. None of us anything.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
We're ripping. We're ripping off terrible sitcoms. We stared at
us children.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, this podcast is because we both were super into
the last podcast on the left. To give them credit, it's.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
Like, yeah, we're we just cut up old scripts from
last podcast on the left and put them in a
fish bowl and just pull out lines.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
So anyways, that's Marcus Parks and I'm Henry's Abrowski. No,
I want to be Henry Elvis and Kissel. Okay, what
do you have for me?

Speaker 2 (05:57):
I have for you your birthday present that's a month late.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
No, those are the best kind. I did not expect it.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
It's it was took a really long time in the mail,
and then I was like, forget it. It's too late,
and it's like I went past the cute, funny quarantine
window and into the rude window. And then I was
like but then I was like, well, what am I
gonna do? Save it for Christmas? God knows what could
happen between then and now. So here we'll do a
zoom presentation of your birthday present.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
Okay, should we just say what happened this prop here? Yes,
definitely say what happened? Everyone doesn't know. But we just
had a fiasco happen where we were can you feel it? Recording?
And it's been like forty five minutes of me trying
to figure out where my fucking internet was down, and
then I just had to come to the office instead

(06:46):
to use the internet here. I haven't been out of
the house in six fucking months, so this is very odd.
I'm drinking the end of Paul Holes's Glenn Lovett because yes,
that was very stressful. Wait you haven't You truly have
not gone anywhere. No, we are not. We don't go anywhere. Yes,
that's amazing. You don't go anywhere. We don't even go

(07:08):
We get instacart delivered. Yeah good, Yeah, so the safest.
This feels very weird and I'm digging it. Okay, so
trip out.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
Well, while you were gone, Stephen and I we did
a minisode within the max eisode that was just a
Karen and Stephen chit chat. I'm gonna we're gonna put
that on the fan could for It's the most boring
conversation of us being anyway.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
I wonder where she is.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
But that basically I was in the middle of giving
you a belated birthday present.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
You were such a bummer, like, paused right as you're
reaching your hand in, and I was like.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
Well, and the funniest part was it paused with you
and your expression was my internet's going out, so you
look like and I was like, look your birthday present,
and you're just like, uh oh, so long. I thought
you were vibing me out or I was like, hey,
fucking better late than never. And then Stephen getes I
think she's frozen.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
Oh no, I love it. Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
Okay, so I'm going to open your present at you.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
I love that.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
So you can see. This gift bag is definitely recycled,
orgeous gift bag. It's real good. And then I actually
took the time to put paper in it and stuff.
I will drop this off at your house.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
Okay, Steven, are you recording this? Can you video this?

Speaker 2 (08:26):
Are you ready for this fucking thing?

Speaker 3 (08:28):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (08:28):
What is that? I can't see? I can't see it.
Hold it down close? Oh my god? Is that a
book about cats?

Speaker 2 (08:36):
It's a fucking tashi And book. And this guy was
this super famous cat photographer from nineteen forty two. Or
maybe it's all the most favorite. Maybe it's not just
one guy, it's all the name pictures.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
I am obsessed with it.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
Okay, Walter Chandoha is the is the name on it?

Speaker 1 (08:56):
This is this is everything I've ever wanted. Thank you
so much.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
It really heavy because it's a tash And book.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
Yeah, you know, I like I like books that you
can put out and make people think you're artsy and smart,
like in your living room. So this is perfect. Yes,
And Tsha is the best.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
Tashian is number one, especially if you're looking for a gift.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
This is so pluggy.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
But I swear it's just a recommendation and it's something
I believe in. Go to the tash and website. They're
big fancy coffee table books, and I swear to god,
it's the best. It's the best present. No, you would
never buy for yourself.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
There's and there's like every there's like a whole book
about like vintage boobs, like vintage porn and stuff. Thank you.
I love it this ship because of that gift bag.
I now have gold sparkles all over the front of
her shirt's I mean we both win.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Right and then Stephen we in all of this.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
We discovered Stephen.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
Yeah, I also got you a belated birthday present. Oh
what is it you?

Speaker 1 (09:58):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (09:58):
Yeah, Okay, I love it, Okay because she wrapped it
all bit. So this one is one that I picked.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
Out presents for George. Let's do every week. Yeah, I
just have to get me something every week. What even
switch it?

Speaker 3 (10:18):
It's a vintage cooking for two.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
I almost bought that exact book the other day.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
That's so good.

Speaker 3 (10:25):
It's just like the cooking These books from the late
seventies eighties just have the most insane.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
It's like yeahm and like yes, pineap broccoli.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
It's like broccoli cheese with sliced deli ham wrapped around
it with some kind of like cherries as a garnish,
Marsha and Marshino cherries. You guys like know me. It's
almost like we spent five years talking to each other
about our most intimate fucking.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
There's more recording our conversations and editing those conversations.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
Right, it's Oh, my god, found this. It's a gourmet
magazine from your birth year and month.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
Oh she's a good gift giver. Stephen Brennan knows her shit.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
And it's just like these old like again, it's like
there's no food on it. It's just like a temple
or something like that.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
Or may was like the Vanity Fair of food magazines.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
If I may be so bold, Oh are you crying cat?

Speaker 1 (11:22):
Oh she's doing it. Oh. These are the most thoughtful gifts.
Thank you so much. And honestly, when it's always been
like I love getting books for a gift, it's like
I feel like it's a very meaningful thing that people
think you're smart and shit and thank you.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
Mine's just pictures. There's no words the whole cats but
it's cats.

Speaker 3 (11:45):
But it's cats mostly pictures too.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
So happy birthday, Happy related thank you COVID birthdays. You
get a stretch for as long as you want. Yeah,
I'm on, I'm so touched. Thank you both so much. Okay,
I'm next week, So Karen's next week.

Speaker 4 (12:05):
What Vince, Vince got you a cameo from Kevin Nash,
the wrestler Kevin Nash, Because if you tell Vince that
you have a favorite wrestler, then for the rest of
your life, he's going to always like send you gifts
or news updates or cameos for your birthday.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
With that, and I didn't realize, Like, first of all,
it was fun to be able to pick a favorite wrestler.
And the reason I pick Kevin Nash is because he's
a very large man. He's gorgeous, he's a fascinating individual.
But he also co starred on an episode of Detroit
Ter's on a couple episodes, I think, playing Tim Robinson's father,

(12:46):
and he was so funny and so good, and that's
I learned about him backwards from the Detroiters first, and
then Vince was like, that's.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
Kevin Nash and also Magic Mike of course.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
Right, although he did, I mean, he was like an
amazing body in that, but he never I never felt
like he got the character development he deserves.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
No, he's a body. He's a body. He's a wrestler.
He called me, he called me sweethearted.

Speaker 2 (13:11):
My cameo.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
He's very exciting. Okay, next week because Karen, Yeah, and
then Stephen, you can go the following week. What if
and also what if?

Speaker 2 (13:19):
This is the rule. It's just it's called COVID random
quarantine gifts to keep ourselves going. But if like, so
we just gave you books accidentally, but now this week,
you guys can't.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
You can meet.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
Anything but books like you check off the column. Okay,
so that after we do this for like six months,
it's gonna have to start getting real obscure pack of cigarettes. Super, Karen,
we're basically stealing Bridger.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
Shit. Well, this is a good segue. That's a great segue,
in perfect segue, exactly right corner.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
See, we were just talking about stealing, and we did
it all right before our very eyes.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
Bridger, don't be mad, please, we got Bridger. We got
last podcast on the left. Oh my god, that's fucking hilarious.
Let's let's since this is a great segue, let's go into.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
Well I will I will start with Bridger with I
said No Gifts because, as you know, last week we
posted a live show, almost had to post one this week,
so that's a fucking WiFi out your blessings if we're back.
But so this week, Sashir Zamata is on I Said

(14:35):
No Gifts with Bridger Wineger, and she's hilarious and brilliant
and you've seen her on lots of things, and she
is a podcast star herself. I don't want to upstage her.
But last week I think it is a notable uh
to mention that Bridger as his guest, had on one

(14:57):
of the great actors of our time, Emma tom So
live from the UK, Like.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
Tell everyone how that happened. It's just well, bananas, it's
not bananas. It's it's I said no gifts.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
It's I said no gifts. It's the fall line. Uh.
Apparently she listened to the episode of I Said No
Gifts with Janelle James and then Emma. Emma and her
daughter sent emails to Bridger and Janelle saying, like we're
big fans, call us if you don't believe us, So.

Speaker 1 (15:28):
He called Janelle. Janelle did that's right, Janelle.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
Janelle's like, I don't give a shit, I'm gonna call
And then they all found out it was real and
not a prank and not you know, some some weirdo
trolling though.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
And Emma freaking Thompson is gone.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
Was like, I'll do your podcast. It's amazing, delightful. I mean, like,
what a joy, what an exciting, beautiful thing. When when
we heard about that, we were freaking out a huge fans.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
Another another podcas you can listen to that's on the
exactly right network. So let me tell us who's on
the per cast this week?

Speaker 3 (16:05):
Well, this week it's Matt Apadaka, who's an Earwolf producer
and truly one of the sweetest sweethearts, and talked about
is two cats, Hurley and Sawyer name after the lost character.
Yet it was just like a feel good time just
talking about yeah, just talking about you know, cuddling cats
and all that good stuff. So so that's.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
What the world needs right now. All right, It's true
since I got the per cast as well, and there's
a bunch of other if you look up exactly right
network on iTunes. It'll show you all the podcasts we
have on our network, and we are so close to
having more. We just you know, had some contracts signed
and I can't wait to announce those coming up soon. Yeah,
but not right now, sorry now, but very soon. Yeah.

(16:47):
And then I guess while we're on the we're talking
about it, we can talk about well, the fan call,
will put this, put the unwrapping video up on the
fan call maybe yeah, nice, Okay, and then we'll we
also are putting up every week now recording video of
us of Stephen pitching the titles for the episode that
he has been writing down the whole episode, and so

(17:09):
we're posting that. It's always really funny. And then we
also have new merch up on my favorite murder dot
com in the store. One of them we are doing.
We're so excited about this, this beautiful design that Murderino
Dana Marie Hostler, who's this incredible artist aka she's at
Mighty Pigeon Underscore art on Instagram. It's an We're All
Indoor Cats Now shirt. It's so beautify, it's so beautiful.

(17:32):
It's my three cats, So how can I not love it?
Of course, but then yeah, it's just the coolest design
to check that out.

Speaker 2 (17:39):
It's such a good design. We were so excited that
she wanted to make sure it's with us. So definitely
support your fellow Murderino artists. And I'm very thrilled. I
think we may have hinted at this, but one other
new We've got a bunch of new merch ups. So
if you feel like it and you're in that place,
you can go look at it. But as we just

(18:01):
puzzle the puzzle, people are sending pictures of it finished.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
There are those who.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
Can, and so they will and do and did. I
started yelling at George about how it isn't that hard,
and that I was lecturing her about how I George,
uh Nora and I once did a puzzle that was
just all the same gumballs over and over. It was
like a huge thing. And then her internet went out
because she was tired of me yelling at her. So

(18:28):
but I'm very excited because you know we have had
the sweatpants in the store fuck you I'm married. Well
now we're following that up with the lounge set and
it fucking says fuck you, I'm divorced. And go get them.
Are you divorced?

Speaker 1 (18:45):
Are you proud and you want to make her laugh?

Speaker 2 (18:50):
Does someone cry a lot and need some sweats to
make her feel like she's not alone? Get those fuck
you I'm divorced sweats. They're they're available. Now, are you
divorced and you can't wear? Or fuck you I'm married
sweats anymore? Throw those fuckers out, No, give them to
fucking give them to good.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
Well, are you getting divorced?

Speaker 2 (19:07):
And this is how you'd like to let your significant
other know that it's over. Put on those fucking fucking
divorced sweats and let them answer their own question.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
The next ones we have to make our fuck you,
I'm married again, sweatpant, fuck you, I'm remarried, fuck you,
I'm remarried. Yeah, fuck you?

Speaker 2 (19:25):
This is my second. Uh well, I was gonna say
a husband, but that leaves a bunch of people out.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
Okay, what else do we have well talk about?

Speaker 2 (19:34):
I'm tired of business and I want to talk about
our conversational things.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
Let's do at it. I got I got some topics.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
Now that your birthday party is over, it was just
a couple, a couple things we could I couldn't figure out.
Steve and I were trying this is what was happening
while you were gone running around trying to get.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
Your chilling casually chilling.

Speaker 2 (19:55):
Steve and I were trying to figure this out because
I got a bunch of tweets and the first one
I got was for Kristen and she wrote, hi carecle Gariff,
a fellow Murderino in the Indie Murderino group who doesn't
have Twitter, reminded me to remind you to put your
trash out tonight. So but I don't think we talked
about it on My Favorite Murder. I think Chris Fairbanks
and I talked about it on Do You Need a Ride?

(20:16):
That I keep forgetting to put my garbage out because
it's a boys chore and I'm mad that I have
to do it for myself lately, so I keep forgetting,
and then the then the garb the garbage gets piled up,
and then the dogs go over and they're like, are
you not home? We're going to go like shopping through
the garbage, and it's a nightmare. And so now people

(20:38):
have taken it upon themselves to remind me. I love
that to put my garbage out it's the sweetest. It
made me laugh so hard.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
It was just like, I this is your life talking
about it. This is your life now.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
Yes, I'm having conversations I can't remember about bullshit that
we're just trying to like fill the air. And then
people are like, hey, you know, we're in your brain.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
The best is when we put up a live episode
and people start like sending you a quote that you said,
and you're like, don't have any fucking clue who said that,
what it was said about? When it was said, you're
just right, You're just fucking and it's, oh, that's funny.
Don't bring a fucking don't bring a broom to a
knife fight or something Max fight. That's funny. But I
don't remember any of that.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
I know sometimes it triggers a memory, but for for
the most part, the idea that we did all those
shows and were on the road, it's just such it
feels like a lifetime ago and it was only a
couple months ago.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
I've been really enjoying Karen kill gear gifts on Twitter. Oh, schmoo, schmoo.
Hard work she does probably schmoo. She's she put up
Karen kill gear gifts and it's very funny. Yeah, and
there's also my favorite murder out of context. My favorit
murder quotes out of context, which I find it's almost

(21:58):
I get why my mom is mad about this podcast
when I read this quote. Yeah, we say some fucked
up ship. Yeah, we really do. It's great. Uh, Okay, it.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
Doesn't these days. I mean we're not alone anymore. That's
what's nice.

Speaker 1 (22:11):
Oh, speaking of can I say real quick, yeah, Nick
Terry put out a new MFM animated video about from
the What's Her Face? Oh Mary? Episode? That's always a
fucking joy to watch.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
It's so lovely. Yeah, he's it's so funny you can,
and I of course have watched those so many times.
There's so many tiny jokes in it, like, it's just
so well done.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
It's so well done.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
So thank you Nick Terry for your constant, your constant work.
And also I was looking because I was watching a
bunch of them on YouTube and then they had his
merch underneath.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
Nick Terry makes merch of scenes and characters from the
animated shorts. So if you love the animated shorts, you
can get like a T shirt of a ballerina hippo.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
I didn't know that, and I.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
Just started looking and I was like, oh my god,
I did see the one my the one Patty Riley
wears that has all of the characters on like the
lineup thing.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
But he's got a bunch of.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
Really good shirts, so so buy some support nicktry as well.
Oh so this just made me laugh because we just
recently rewatched the second season of Succession.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
Oh yeah, which is just.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
It's so it's it like a good Nick Terry animated
short delivers it.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
There's it's just so good.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
And all the Emmy nominations just came out, and so
I knew that Nicholas Braun was nominated, and I knew
that cousin Greg was nominated, which is yes, any I mean,
who deserves that more cousin Greg?

Speaker 1 (23:56):
And I want, like actual cousin Greg to win that,
you know, Like, yeah, I'm sure the actor's fine and
great and I'm happy for him, but he's so good
as cousin. It's so enjoyable. So so I rag sprinkles.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
I started thinking because I was like, I started getting
mad thinking assuming for reasons I can't explain, because it
makes no sense that Karen Colkin wasn't nominated. I don't know,
I'd never even looked, but I kind of had this
thing of like, he's so good that people aren't realizing
that he's acting, which is very much how cousin Greg
is too, where it's like totally that's not the person

(24:35):
that actor is. But it's so realistic and amazing and
it's such a I'm sorry to say it a tour
de force performance. So I look up to be like
how many, like who did get nominated and how many whatever?
And this is a subject line or the headline that
comes up. It's an Entertainment Weekly article that came out
like two days ago that says Karen Colkin says he'll

(24:57):
punch Nicholas Braun in the Balls of Succession co star
beats him for Emmy. So he is nominated, So congratulations
Karen Culkin. Something this character.

Speaker 4 (25:06):
Would say, that's his character would say, it's you know,
we shouldn't.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
Get it because it's just who he is. Oh my god,
I wonder it's the best. I love it best. Also
love that guy Watchman got nominated for a bunch of shit,
which is awesome. It's so good. Oh, speaking of glitter
on your shirt and TV shows First of all, so
I've been watching All be Gone in the Dark every week.

(25:32):
We watch it every Sunday night before Perry Mason. It
is so fucking good. It is heartbreaking and heart wrenching
and scary, and like I can tell, Vince is a
little freaked out watching it because it's it's so true
to the book, which kept me up for fucking months,
you know, especially before he was caught. First of all,
we want to say that you look great and purple.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
This week I was you were in a purple, really
bright purple shirt, blouse looks great on you. You should do.
Uh yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:02):
I got my colors done in sixth grade. My mom,
my aunt Kathleen, Aunt.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
Liza was there.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
Aunt Joe. I'm I'm a spring I'm a spring Winter
because I dye my hair so that actually that color magenta,
which I think I got it like the gap outlet
or something.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
But I didn't even know it was yours, because like,
it's so not your thing, dude.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
My shirt and I did my hair and makeup. I
was like, this is a disaster. Waiting to have this
is like every other fucking thing I was on where
Thank you. People have been very nice it's very nice.
What's very sweet is several of my friends and my
friends that are listeners who I don't know, have said
when they see me in it, and then they use

(26:45):
that Leonardo DiCaprio gift from Once upon my Time in
Hollywood where he's drinking a beer and pointing at the TV.
Have you ever seen that.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
Gift where he just goes like he's like, I love it.
It's so good and so Paul Holes. I have to say,
it's like classic Paul Holes. Why we all fell in
love with him way back, Like it's got this like
he's so he is so effusive and so like you
can just tell he's kind by listening to him talk

(27:17):
and cares, and it's the whole show is just fuck
it's It's one of the best true crime shows I've
ever watched.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
And so glad.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
I sent Pat and Oz all the like a fucking
post show like sad Instagram message because it's just it
pulls out your heartstrings about Michelle too. It's just really
beautiful and so hard, such a tough tough thing.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
Yeah, Billy and I have been talking to Billy where
he's like, have you watched it yet? Have you watched
it because and then I'm just like I need a year.
I think I just need distance and like not whatever.
But it's I know, it's another one of those things
where we're just like, yeah, I don't know if I
want to sit down, and like I feel every fucking
awful feeling. But yeah, I'm so so glad it turned

(28:01):
out great and I'm not surprised. And Adrian actually said
the exact same thing. She said, when Paul Hols talks
about Michelle and gets choked up, it is one of
the most like lovely and touching and like heart wrenching pantalets,
she said the exact same thing. I love it. It's
so it's so nice and and it's so cool that

(28:22):
that they got such a unbelievably talented director like that
whole project.

Speaker 1 (28:27):
You know, it's really it's incredible, really, and I totally
understand why you guys can't watch it. I didn't know
her personally, and I know you did, so that was
that just seems so hard. How about the Madeline McCann updates,
We're getting what I haven't gotten any Oh, they what
you know about the guy in jail right and the

(28:50):
German dude?

Speaker 2 (28:51):
Oh, was that the guy that they linked the cars?

Speaker 1 (28:53):
Like, yeah, that it's not a copper And I think, oh,
they're about to find They just found a like a
not a cross space, but like almost like a basement,
a seller space where he used to live that had
been left over from some of the other tenants. And like,
I think they're about to find proof that that kissicker.

(29:14):
I think he's yeah, because he's that's the guy that
lived on that property of that resort, right. I don't
know if he lived there or near it, but he
definitely It almost seems like he was in cahoots with
someone who was letting who worked there, and this is
all fucking what's it called cont personal opinion conjecture personal
opinion that let him know when people were not in

(29:36):
their room so he could steal shit. Not like it
wasn't for that reason to take a child, but it
seems like that was kind of hism o is is
breaking into people's, you know, holiday ors rooms and stealing stuff.
And so I totally think it's him, and I think
they're about to find something big shit, and I have

(29:56):
to keep my Yeah, I should set my some Google alerts.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
I did not. I remember reading that article a little
while ago, but that could have been fourteen years ago.
It could have been I could have dreamed it, and
it was from last night. I have no clue what's
happening in you.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
Yeah, yeah, I get that.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
I don't know I get that, but oh, I just
wanted to talk for a second about Perry Mason this week, which, yeah,
it's like I don't want it to end, and it's
clearly like about to end, and everyone's talking on Twitter
about somebody did like a fan post, kind of like
a loving post about how amazing those title cards are,

(30:35):
like how beautifully designed the graphics are.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
And then so I was like, yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:41):
They they're firing on all eight over there, whatever that
team was that they put it all together, they're nailing it.
And then as that episode ended, and I know, spoilers,
but just in case if he's some kind of a
you know, reactive asshole, spoiler alert, which is nothing, but
the guy steps into the doorway.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
Remember at the very.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
End when he was like trying to see if he
could find the fourth I think it's the fourth man,
but either way, the guy steps into the doorway and.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
I don't see it. It's almost ten pm at that
point when we watch it. I've already watched I'll Be
Gone in the Dark, so I'm emotionally drained and a
couple cans of wine in yes, no.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
True, and it's like that's it's the Sunday night pile
up that used to happen with Game of Thrones. There
was one night where like everything was on on.

Speaker 1 (31:29):
Sidey and I can only handle like those two shows
I'll Be Gone in the Dark and Perry Mason are
so intense and dark that like I shouldn't be watching
them side by side.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
But yeah, yeah, definitely not at the same time.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
No, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
But what I was going to say is just that
very that very last shot, the guy steps in the
doorway and then you see as a gun. It's not
a spoiler, but like whatever if you haven't seen it.
But as that happens, this horn, like this soundtrack kicks
in and it's basically the outro music jazzy horn, and
yeah it's like a trumpet. But it scared the fuck

(32:05):
out of the way they did it. It was so
perfect where I was like, I think I'm having a
panic attack and it's not. I don't usually house.

Speaker 1 (32:13):
There's something in my house right now? Am I being held?

Speaker 2 (32:17):
It was so effective, And then I listened to the
whole outro song that I was just like, these guys
are just it's you.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
You can tell.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
It's like all the honor students of show business got
together and they're like, I'll direct it.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
You do the Yeah, you do the title cards, nailing
do the music, nailing it. It's so hard, it's so good.
It's such a good show. What was I gonna say?
What else? Anything?

Speaker 2 (32:39):
We love that? Oh the alienistes out and I love
that too, but it's a different vibe. Yeah. Oh there's
like four, there's four waiting for you. Okay, great, I
think it's four.

Speaker 1 (32:50):
We're just blowing our way through parks and rack at
this point. Oh no, that's good. I need something like
the alien As to come bring me down again.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
Don't get too high up there with our with with
friend of the pod, Nick Offerman.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
A friend of the podcast. That's not I'm not being
a weird phony right now. It's actually really wait, this
is the okay?

Speaker 2 (33:13):
Sorry? Can I just read this?

Speaker 1 (33:15):
Yes, this girl sent this tweet.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
And I think she was being funny and sincere at this.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
That's the best duo of personality.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
It was such a good job, she writes. Okay, so
this is from Andrea at a k A I fish.
I don't know, but she says, so she's talking about
all beyond in the dark. But she says, beautiful job
done by friend of the pod Karen kilgarl.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
Wait to use our own joke against us.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
I love it. I get to be a friend of
my own kid. That's how we grow. You're a friend
to yourself first. You can be a friend to all
the pods.

Speaker 1 (33:58):
You can't be a friend of other people's podcast if
you're not a friend to your own podcast. First, first, a.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
Friend of your own.

Speaker 1 (34:05):
Bogus. So she said.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
The whole message, which is very lovely, is beautiful John
my friend of the pod last night in HBO Ducks
I'll be Gone in the Dark, paying tribute to the
iconic and badass Michelle McNamara.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
That was the whole message.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
But so it was so sincere that the friend of
the part pod part cop me out guard.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
Yeah joke, Andrea, good joke, love a good joke, good
one way to turn it on its head. Good, good work,
good work. That's how I talk. Now, what else?

Speaker 2 (34:33):
I just have one book recommendation. Right, okay, because as
you well know, George, I felt maybe just a touch
insane at the end of last week. I was feeling very.

Speaker 1 (34:47):
Another tough business week we had. Do you know that
magazine Business Week? It was like we were being it
was rolled up and we were being slapped with it.
But no, there was just a bunch of stuff to
do and think about, and and I worry in these ways.

Speaker 2 (35:06):
I make up what I need to worry about so
that I have it all in front of me in
case one of the thirty seven things I've made that
path you.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
Don't want to be caught off guard. I totally understand
that future don't future worry? Is that what they call it?

Speaker 2 (35:19):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (35:20):
Yeah, like projection worries.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
But so that's where I was last night last week,
and I was really bumming me. I was just like
I didn't want to do anything, and I was like, please,
I can't do anything. And then I remembered when I
get into that place, it's because I got so into
listening to the ram Das podcast for a while, and
Ramdas is all about that's nice, that that suffering that

(35:44):
you're doing is what you're supposed to be doing because
this is all the work of waking up, and so
I read I went on because I was like, I've
listened to I think every episode of that podcast. So
I went to look at what books he has, and
there's a book called Becoming no which is the essential
Rahm Doas collection. So it's kind of like a starter

(36:05):
for me, definitely, because I'm very new to that whole
realm of work and awareness and stuff. But I swear
to god Becoming Nobody. It's such a good audiobook. It's
him talking, they're like the original lectures he gave, and
it's basically this thing of like you're not your thoughts
and your thoughts aren't real. So the work is just

(36:26):
when you're in that shit, stop taking it so seriously
figure out their different ways and it's like a practice
and you have to kind of be it's about awareness,
but you can wake yourself up out of all those
thoughts and just step away from it, and it's possible,
and it's really cool when you I think these days,

(36:47):
I definitely am feeling those feelings where I just I
don't even know what the fuck's going on, So I
don't even know where to put my stress. Sometimes or
how to manage it.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
Or to like even to excuse it away. It's impossible
because it's true and real what you're feeling. It's not Yeah,
it's not just you spinning out or having too much coffee.
We're in a fucking global pandemic and and on top
of everything else going on.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
Right, and then you're the reactions that you're having in
this scenario, Like I keep judging myself like I should
I'm overreacting, and it's like, no, no, you're you're in
a quarantine. You're quarantine in a pandemic. There's kind of
no way to overreact. I was telling Stephen I went
out the other day just to leave the house, and

(37:31):
as I drove my car, I started getting like motion
sickness from moving fast in a car.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
Yess me too, Like what the fuck is that? We
went for a drive. Then I started having a panic
attack that we were going to get killed in a
car accident and motion sickness because I have been indoors
for fucking six months. Yeah, it's really weird. We're in
a very weird place, for sure. It's very weird.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
So if you're looking for you know, if you have
that feeling of like you're being hounded by your worries
and your thoughts and these like there's a lot on
your shoulders. I highly recommend this book because it's about
instead of analyzing all those ideas, it's about practicing just
stepping away and like being your own personal observer because like, yes,

(38:15):
you're worried, and that's real, and the suffering of it
is real. But there's another part of you that isn't worried,
that's watching you worry, that can see that, and that's
what you start identifying with, okay, is that the ability
to look at yourself doing it and go, I don't
think I'm that worried. I think I'm just uncomfortable. The
difference from this is sorry one more, but my therapist

(38:37):
just talked about this today, the difference between actual danger
and discomfort. A lot of people don't know the difference
at all, because it's.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
The same fight or flight mechanism that rings up inside
of your Your body doesn't know rather and not you're
actually in front of a bear right.

Speaker 2 (38:54):
Right, Well, your eyes tell you you're not, but your
body is having this reaction, and so you, like you
have to you have to teach yourself and remind yourself
that you're safe, just uncomfortable, because you can be uncomfortable.
It's not going to hurt you. And the discomfort is
what people So many people think they're never supposed to

(39:17):
feel anything bad ever, and so that when they do,
they flip out of like, this is all going down.
I mean, this is what I do. It should I
should be just admitting it. It's the thing of I'm
not supposed to blank blank blank.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
Well one time you told me. It was before a
show that a live show, which was so is so
scary for me, but you were like, my therapist once
told me that being nervous and being excited are the
same feeling, and so now it's kind of cool to
think of when I'm nervous about something being like maybe
it's just excitement and if you think of that in
terms of that, it's fun instead of scary.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
Yes, well, and that reminds me. You said the funniest
thing this was like two weeks ago when we were
very stressed out and you go, I don't know, I
kind of like conflicts, So I'm okay.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
And it made me laugh so hard where it's like, yeah, actually,
this is all It's all like no one does.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
No one doesn't want to know what's going on, right,
No one wants that feeling of like huge question mark
with no answers coming. That you're not alone in that stress. Like, so,
don't don't beat yourself up for being upset that you're
like what the fuck? And everything on our phones is
making us more scared, and.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
We add on this thing of like, not only are
you actually upset because a thing is going on, but
then you're fucking on top of it, guilting yourself and
feeling bad about yourself and feeling like a loser because
you're upset about it. Just deal with the upset nousts.
You don't have to also pile on the negativity.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
Right, Yeah, because then once you actually if you can
sit there and breathe and go, I'm really upset.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
I need to.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
Actually like feel it, let it, let it expand see
how big it can get. It doesn't get that big.
These we're so afraid to actually feel things because we're
like I don't want to be uncomfortable, I don't want
to be I don't want to cry, I don't want
to be sad whatever. But then it's like, but if
you actually let it happen.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
It happens for three minutes max.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
And then and then usually there's like a little bit
of a lull and you can feel that. It's like
it's like a sine wave like anything else. It comes
and goes and it doesn't kill you, and it does
and you can actually build up a tolerance and then
start noticing, like, this is this thing my brain does
when I feel like I might be being betrayed, right,

(41:35):
and suddenly it makes everybody.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
Everybody's betrayed. That's my trigger. Betrayal is the trigger of mine,
and so it I spirally Yeah, totally, guys, Feeling Feelings
is a friend of the podcasty, welcome, front of the pod.
Feeling feeling, Feeling feelings. Crying turns out as a front
of the podcast. I've been trying so hard not to
let this friend in and now it's in and it

(41:57):
does feel good. And Stephen his first.

Speaker 3 (42:00):
Your first Georgia, Yeah fuck you did els Christians from Amsterdam.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
So this week I'm going to do what.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
Were you reading something?

Speaker 1 (42:17):
Can you hear it?

Speaker 2 (42:19):
No? No reading?

Speaker 1 (42:20):
Oh? Yeah? Like you just said that so slowly and
staring straight ahead where I'm.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
Like, what's this going to be?

Speaker 1 (42:26):
Karen, So I am doing the zoot Suit Riots. Oh shit, Yes,
I don't know how this has never crossed my mind
to do it, Like it's always just kind of been
an afterthought. And then I start looking into it and
it's bananas. Yes, And there's so much to know. It's
our city here, Los Angeles, that we know and love.

(42:49):
So this is when Los Angeles experienced one of the
most historically significant episodes of racial violence in the twentieth century,
known as the Zootsuit Riots.

Speaker 2 (42:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:00):
So, there's so much good information out there on the
Internet and podcasts and books. Some of them I got
from the hundreds. An article by Brandon Diaz Smithsonian dot com,
an article by Alice Gregory La Daily Mirror dot com.
They have a bunch of old articles that you can
read up there. There's an article by actual friend of

(43:21):
the podcast, Alena Shatkin, who who's a friend of mine
and she's a really great food writer, but she wrote
an article on last about it. Cool scholar historian Eduardo
o'bragen Pagan who wrote Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon, the
book about it. And then there's a podcast called Latino

(43:42):
Rebels Radio and they posted an episode called from Latino
Media Collective, where they interviewed Professor Gerardo Lecone and he's
it's an incredible interview. My Mercury News dot com History
channel has a documentary thought co article by Robert Long,
curbed LA article by Elijah Chiland. I mean, there's just

(44:04):
so much out there.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
So did you now, may I ask please? Did you
watch the film zoot Suit starring Edward James Almost?

Speaker 1 (44:12):
I did it? Really? It's so good. Yeah, I mentioned
I mentioned at the end of the end of this
it's like I saw.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
That in the theater.

Speaker 1 (44:20):
You did. I know it came out eighty one eighty one.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
Yeah, I really remember is Yeah, but it was like
if it was playing downtown, we'd just go see it.
We saw everything. Yeah, and he I just remember Edward
Jane James almost in those zoot suits or whatever and
that leaned back thing that I think it just was
the stylistic, fascinating kind of thing that I'd never seen

(44:46):
or heard of before. Was like did they invent something new?
And it was like no, no, no, no, this is
this is Latino history, this is like this is origin shit.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
This is and I just had no fucking clue and
there's okay, and it goes it goes so deep, and
I'm obviously not going to do a great job in
ten pages of getting to everything, so please do read
about it and look it up, because there's so many
connotations that come along with this. Anyways. Yeah, so let's
first start with a little history. The Mexican Revolution, which

(45:18):
lasted roughly from nineteen ten to nineteen twenty, caused many
Mexican families to immigrate to Los Angeles, so much so
that by the nineteen thirties, new immigration from Mexico, migration
from other states, and the longtime presence of multi generational
residents dating back to the Rancheros had made Los Angeles
home to the largest concentration of Mexicans and Mexican Americans

(45:40):
living in the US, the working class communities, most of
which were concentrated to the diverse East Side of Los Angeles.
Everyone here knows that that's the East Side, you know,
was historically Mexican and Mexican American families like Boyle Heights
and Lincoln Heights were traditional, conservative and self contained, and

(46:00):
actually so my family immigrated here from Eastern Europe to
Los Angeles in the twenties as well or late teens,
early twenties, and Boyle Heights was kind of the only
place where anyone who wasn't white could live. So yeah,
there was a big Jewish population there was well, and
that's where my family's from, so from Boyle Heights. Uh huh,
oh nice, Well that those houses are rare amazing. Yeah,

(46:24):
but it was like a lot of farmland too. I
have old photos of my grandma and like the farmland there.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
It reminds me of something else. And this could actually
be in another Edward James almost film Stand and Deliver,
one of the great so other great eighties movie that
as a teen, I was like, oh, I'm so inspired.
Maybe I happen to take calculus. There's no fucking way.
But and I can't remember. It might be from that,
it might just be ya, you know, other stuff I read.
But it was some kind of thing where somebody yelling

(46:53):
like go back to your country to Mexicans and Mexicans
being like, bitch, this is our we were here long
before you. This is part of Mexico. Like what are
you talking about. You're in our country.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
That's that's part of the story, right. So the Mexican
American communities in Los Angeles had phased decades of discrimination,
you know, including not being allowed to patronize or even
work in many of the businesses. So like even waiting
tables at a restaurant they weren't allowed to do. They
could be the bus boy at the most and even

(47:25):
they were expected to step off the sidewalk when white
pedestrians passed them. So it was just incredible discrimination. By
the nineteen forties, LA had a Mexican American population of
over two hundred and fifty thousand, and many of those
families now had teenagers that had grown up in Los Angeles,
you know, so they this, this is where they're from,

(47:46):
while their parents had been immigrants or you know, had
lived there for generations. This is their hometown. This is
where they're from, and so they felt like the city
was theirs as well. And what do teenagers do. They
fucking rebel And these teenagers were different, so known as pachucos.
So pachucos are the youth of this counterculture and they're

(48:08):
experiencing this huge cultural and generational gap between themselves and
their parents. It kind of reminded me of like rubble
without a cause. The way they were, like we don't
want the norms that you're used to. We need to
break out of what's going on, you know, and pave
our own way.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
Yeah, they were.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
They were fucking over discrimination that their parents and grandparents
had experienced, and they wanted to create their own identities.
Enter the zoot suit. So the fashion trend I didn't
fucking know this at all had first been popularized during
the nineteen thirties in Harlem's jazz dance hall scene and
were predominantly worn by black teenagers.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
So that's where it started. I didn't know that at
all with.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
Black teenagers super you know, the jazz scene. The extravagantly
styled two piece suit so just people who don't know it,
typically included the bright color fabric knee length suit coats,
so it almost looked like a like an overcoat, but yeah,
it was a suitcoat down in the knees. They had
excessively wide shoulders. It was very flamboyant and extravagant. The

(49:12):
flowing pants that ballooned out at the knee and tapered
really tight at the ankle. I read a thing that
sometimes they were so tight that you had to put
lubricant on your feet to get it over your feet.
It was just like it was just this like it was.
It was purposely ostentatious. Yeah, you know what I mean.
And part of the reason that it was so tight
it was also like function because they were jitterbugging. They

(49:34):
were doing these amazing dances, and so having flowing pants
at the ankle would get in the way. So that's
pretty cool. That's where that came from. These weren't suits
you could buy at the store. Either you had to
go to a specialty tailor, or you could take a
regular suit that was two sizes too large and have
that tailored the right way. So what I didn't realize

(49:56):
about the style of dress is that the ostentatiousness and
the flamboyant of the suit itself was a way of
refusing to be ignored and dismissed as a minority. Hell yes, right, so,
and this is such a youth culture thing of fuck you,
I'm not fitting in, and I'm going to look you know,
loud and get attention. I'm not going to fade into

(50:17):
the background.

Speaker 2 (50:18):
Right, I'm not going to step off the sidewalk because
you're walking by. I get to be like it's like
I get to take up space and I get to
be here as I am exactly exactly, So minorities and
people of color have always been expected to blend in
and kind of be behind the scenes, you know, like
they were menial workers.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
They were making everything comfortable for white people. But the
rebellious youth refused to fade into the background. And that's
where the zoo. What the zoot suit represented, plus the
amount of material and tailoring required to make them made
them a luxury item. So it was like a defiance
against their association as a second class citizen. You know,

(50:57):
they'd save up all their money and they'd have these
luxury tailor made suits. They were essentially I wrote, they
were essentially balling shot calling.

Speaker 2 (51:08):
One could say, if you're having a hard time relating
to what this means, that truly the definition of bawling
and shot calling.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
Right, And so the zootsuit becomes a symbol of counterculture
and empowers young Black and Mexican youth to express their
individualistic identity within their culture and society. Fucking both Caesar
Chaves and Malcolm X were zoot suit wears.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
Nice right now.

Speaker 1 (51:35):
The female members of this counterculture are called pachucas and
They wear tight sweaters and short for the time skirts
that are like flared out. You can see them in
the movie zoot Suit. They have fishnets, they have high
hairdows and big earrings and heavy makeup. It was rumored
that some of the Pachucas would hide knives in their

(51:55):
like bouffonts.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
Yes, I've heard that, so bread knives and blade sometimes,
I mean love it, I hate violence.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
I'm against violence.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
That's badass, really well, because if you need it right,
if you need it, throw it up in that air.

Speaker 1 (52:09):
That's right, do it. Other Patchukas would actually wear zoot
suits themselves, and that was a weighted to rebel against
gender norms, which is so ahead of its time and
incredible bad. I know, I know so. Catherine Ramirez, she
wrote the book Woman in a zoot Suit, wrote quote,
these youths refused to accept the racialized norms of segregated America.

(52:32):
With their flashy ensembles, distinct slang, extra cash generated by
a booming war economy, and rebellious attitude, Pachuco's and Pachuca's
participated in a spectacular subculture and threaten the social order
by visibly occupying spaces public spaces.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
Hell.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
Yeah. So in Los Angeles, Pachucos adopt the zoot suit
in order to brand themselves as rebels. But white people
see zootsuits as un patriotic, and zuters, as they're called,
quickly become branded as a negative thing. So this is
partly due to the fact so it's early nineteen forties,
we get into World War two. US enters World War

(53:14):
two in nineteen forty one, and the rationing of resources
and the commercial manufacture of civilian clothing becomes strictly regulated
because both fabric and the time and energy is focused
on the war effort. So zuters become a public enemy
because of the amount of fabric it took to make

(53:36):
the zoot suits, because of racism, because that's an excuse
for you to be racist.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
So bootleg tailors continue to make the zoot suits, which
uses a lot of ration fabrics, and so white people
view the zootsuit itself is harmful to the war effort,
and the young people who wear them are seen as
Unamerican and unpatriotic, which is just an excuse for the racism.
It's always it's unpatriotic, you're against the military, exactly it's

(54:03):
all this, it's yeah, right, yes, one, especially because by
World War Two, migration had peaked, so there was a
lot of tension going on in Los Angeles. And don't
forget that this was also a time when Japanese Americans
were forcibly sent to internment camps. Japanese Americans who lived

(54:23):
and thrived in Los Angeles were forcibly removed from their
homes and businesses and sent to internment camps for the
duration of the war. So obviously racism is rampant and
blanket society.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
And that this is just a I think we've talked
about this before, but when the Japanese were sent to
those internment camps, all of the they many Japanese people
lived in southern California because they were here to grow
the citrus groves, which used to be everywhere down here,
just everywhere, and like in Burbank, every other street has

(54:56):
like a lemon tree or an orange tree.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
Why Orange County is called Orange County.

Speaker 2 (54:59):
It's mile after mile. And when they in turned the Japanese,
they stole their land, they stole their property, and people
like Bob Hope went in and bought up all of
this stolen land. And then it was just when those
American citizens who happened to be Japanese got released from
those internment camps, they just didn't have anything because it

(55:20):
was it's so ugly.

Speaker 1 (55:22):
It's one of the most disgusting historical times in art. Well,
they all are. Okay, there's so many, there's so many
to pick from. We'll talk about all of them on
this podcast. Okay, So throwing lighter fluid onto this fire
is the fact that a naval school for the Naval
Reserve Armory was built in Chavez Ravine. It's a primarily

(55:45):
Hispanic neighborhood. It's named after Julian Chavez, a rancher who
eventually served as assistant mayor, city councilman and became one
of La County's first supervisors. So that area, you guys
will know. It's where Dodger Stadium is, which'll get to later.
But Dodger Stadium was built in Chavez Ravine. The area
had been home and it's it's kind of these beautiful

(56:08):
rolling hills. It's this really lush, lovely place in Los Angeles.
It's right above Echo Park if you've ever been here,
and the area had been home to generations of Mexican
American families, and the city used imminent domain, that motherfucking
bitch to clear out some of those homes, and then
sailors that had so they put the sailors in this

(56:30):
Mexican American neighborhood of Chavez Ravine, and then sailors had
to cut through those neighborhoods to get downtown. So they'd
be going downtown to drink, they'd come back through those neighborhoods.
So of course there's going to be tension, and there'd
be cat calling, there'd be all kinds of you know,
tussles and that sort of thing happening. Stuff to start

(56:51):
fights with exactly. I think those buildings are still there too.
If you're driving off the five to get into Dodger
Stadium to get tested for COVID, now what it's for. Yeah,
you'll see these old buildings and I think that's where
it's from.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
Wow, pretty interests. Thank you Sean Penn. By the way,
you know, Sean Penn's the reason all that COVID testing
is set up at Dodger State You're kidding. I swear
to god, I didn't know that. I don't know if
he's financing it if he organized it or what. But
that's his thing. And I know a couple people who
have done it and they say, you pull up and
the line looks insanely long.

Speaker 1 (57:24):
It's you're done like that. I've heard that too. That's great. Yeah, yeah,
everyone be careful, this is not a joke. Wear a mask, okay.
By the summer of nineteen forty three, tensions between the
thousands of white US servicemen station in and around Los
Angeles and the Pachucos are running high because we also
have ports here. There was station you know, in stationed

(57:47):
in San Diego, all along the coast up through LA
there's a lot of service men here, right, So many
of the LA area servicemen view the zudters as draft dodgers,
despite the fact that nearly half a million Mexican Americans
are serving in the military at the time, and a
lot of the zoot suited Pachucos are teenagers, so like
twelve through sixteen, so they're actually too young to even

(58:10):
be eligible. So it's false. Yeah, okay. So before we
get to the zootsuit rights, we have to go over
it's the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial, which happens a year
before the riots and is considered a precursor to them.
So Sleepy Lagoon was a rural reservoir. And this is
another thing, is a lot of Los Angeles which is
now overdeveloped and crazy was rural. So like even Chavez

(58:33):
Ravine was rural, rural, hate, rural, rural, rural, rural, real.
So it's a rural reservoir. And the east side of
Los Angeles and what is now Commerce and it's a
popular swimming hole, hangout spot, Lover's Lane for Mexican Americans,
partly because they're banned from segregated public pools, so that's

(58:55):
where they swim. In the early hours of the morning
on August second, nineteen forty two, a brawl breaks out
at a birthday party near that near Sleepy Lagoon. When
police arrive, they find an unconscious and mortally injured twenty
two year old name Jose Diaz on a nearby dirt road.
He died shortly after being taken to the hospital. His

(59:17):
cause of death is inconclusive, although he has severe blunt
force trauma to the back of his head. They think
it's from being jumped or hit, or it could be
from a car accident. They actually he might have gotten
thrown off a motorcycle. They don't know for sure, but
authorities blame his death and the big fight that had
happened on the at the party on the so called

(59:38):
quote Mexican youth gang problem in Los Angeles. So in
the following days and there's amazing pictures from this, and
I'm sure we'll post one on Instagram. In the episode post,
the LAPD arrests seventeen Mexican American teens that are associated
with the so called thirty eighth Street gang. And the

(59:59):
word gang is is really different back then. You know,
it's it's not what you think of now. So these
kids who lived around thirty eighth Street that hung out
together are called a gang when really it's just teenagers
hanging out together.

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
Yeah, there's no they're not getting jumped in. There's not
like you have to go now do violence or whatever.
It's right, just like kids that are all from the
same neighborhood. I mean, that's exactly my dad grew up
in San Francisco. It's just like you kind of represented
your neighborhood right, and then on the weekends you'd get
drunken street fight people. My dad used to love to
say that. He goes, oh, we couldn't find other people

(01:00:34):
to fight, we just all fight ourselves because he had
four brothers.

Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
So yeah, man, yeah exactly. So thirty eight strin gang quote.
And despite lack of sufficient evidence, the young men are
collectively charged with the murder of Diaz. They're denied bail
and they're held in prison, and they become known as
the Sleepy Lagoon defendants, and they're paraded in front of
the press. And part of the reason is because the
LAPD there's been a lot of false newspaper articles about

(01:01:03):
this Mexican youth gang problem, and so LAPD is like,
look what we're doing about it, and they praye them
in front of the press to make it seem like
they're actually taking care of it. But really all it
does is make people even more afraid. So by the
end of the week, police have used the excuse of
Diez's death to further arrest hundreds of Mexican Americans and

(01:01:28):
nightly sweeps for offenses that are just trumped up, like
even possessing a draft card with an incorrect address. You
can get arrested for unlawful assemblage like all these you know,
they're just arresting people. Yeah, and they single out youths
in zoot suits in particular, Cops line up outside of
dance halls and they have like pokers that they with

(01:01:51):
razor sharp blades that they use to rip the peg
top trousers of the zoot suits of the boys as
they come out. So there's a lot of there's a
lot of like photos from back then of kids that
have clearly been in fights and the trouser of their
legs are ripped. So the media doesn't help matters and
prints incredibly racist headlines that history has shown were not

(01:02:13):
supported by either facts or statistics, and in fact, the
government statistics from that time found no increase in youth
crime or delinquency. So talking about it now, it's completely
trumped up.

Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
And it's basically just how dare you wear these outfits
and say that you belong staying that it's your city.

Speaker 1 (01:02:35):
Stay in your fucking lane essentially, is what they're saying.
So in order to scare people, the press refer to
the zuitters as a quote Mexican goon squad, and they
called them delinquents and hoodlums, and they also distribute false
stories of Mexican boys prowling in wolf packs, armed with
clubs and knives and tire irons. They say they're invading homes,

(01:02:55):
peaceful homes. It's all it's all nonsense. So, after months
of racist media coverage that goes nationwide, including a fucking
Disney cartoon in which a Donald Duck beats up another
duck dressed as in a zoot suit for being unpatriotic
Fucking Disney, the Sleepy Lagoon defendants go on trial in
October of nineteen forty two. There's never any testimony that

(01:03:20):
anyone saw one of the defendants strike the victar like,
no one can put any of these defendants with or
near the victim, and some of the defendants can't even
be placed at the murder scene. And yet Judge Frick
permits the chief of the Foreign Relations Bureau of the
Los Angeles Sheriff's Office to testify as a quote expert witness.

(01:03:42):
He says that Mexicans, as a community, he testifies us
in court, have a bloodthirst and a biological predisposition to
crime and killing because of the culture of human sacrifice
practiced by their Aztec fucking ancestors. Jesus Christ.

Speaker 2 (01:03:58):
Yeah, that's a strike because the Aztecs haven't been around
for a while. A and B have you ever heard
of vikings?

Speaker 1 (01:04:07):
Have you ever heard of racial profile hels? Have you?

Speaker 2 (01:04:11):
Have you ever heard of every single human clan has
always had eat?

Speaker 1 (01:04:20):
Okay? The trial ends on January thirteenth, nineteen forty three,
when three of the seventeen defendants are convicted of first
degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, nine others
are convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to five
years to life, and the other five defendants are convicted
of assault. So, following the Sleepy Lagoon case, there's a

(01:04:40):
lot of hate towards the Mexican American community and US servicemen,
most of whom, by the way, grew up in other states,
so they had had very little contact with people of
Mexican and LATINX descent. They're now streaming into southern California
to prepare for war and are getting into violent altercations
young Mexican American zuitors. And you also got to think

(01:05:02):
they're fresh out of boot camp. They are also fucking
young men, you know, and they have this they have
what they think is this patriotism that allows them to
fight for their country, and they see these you know,
others as not American and it's just I mean, it's

(01:05:22):
a what's it called tinder box? You know?

Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
Yeah so, but also but it is that thing of there.
There's people from small towns all over this country where
they show up and instead of going I'm new to
the big right, they start looking at people who whose
parents have lived there for and say, hey, get hey, foreigner.

(01:05:48):
I mean, like, that's just that American ignorance. That's so
tragic because this entire country is made up of foreigners. Yeah,
I hate to tell you.

Speaker 1 (01:05:58):
I hate to tell you. I love to you to
tell me about it. I hate I love that to
do you listen New Zealand, can you get me and
Karen and Steven? Can we get in their place? Okay,
they're like, hail no. Only a week prior to the
outbreak of what would become the Suit Riots, a number
of Mexican Americans dancing at the Aragon Ballroom in Santa

(01:06:21):
Monica and Venice are attacked by a mob of American
servicemen and bystanders after rumors spread that a sailor had
been stabbed, which there's no police report. To corroborate that,
An LAPD officer later says that quote, the only thing
we could do to break it up was arrest the
Mexican kids. So that's that. It sounds like a setup.

Speaker 2 (01:06:41):
Yeah, that almost sounds like a burning car at three
pm on on.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
Labra and fairfest does or a guy with an umbrella
breaking a fucking window at a hocken What was it?
What was the place?

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
An auto party that was in Minneapolis. Yeah, the big
tall guy with the that covered himself entirely and completely
got caught because everyone's now onto that ship. Yeah, okay,
so modern.

Speaker 1 (01:07:07):
Times, modern times, it's the worst. I want to make
clear that these are normal teen teenagers who are rebelling,
so of course they get into trouble. There's some escalated issues.
They there are some that are you know, looking to fights.
There are you know, it's it's the normal teenage thing
that both you and I and everyone we know who's

(01:07:27):
cool went through as teenagers. So you know, there were
these there were cases of shit going down, but it
was normal teenage stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:07:36):
But that's the same thing as like in these in
the protest, there will be a person here and there
that's going to be like I'm going to loot that store,
and then that is what's manipulated and turned into this life.
People are yeah, and it's.

Speaker 1 (01:07:50):
Yeah, right, So I don't want to seem like I
want to make clear that I understand that. And it's
partly from the fact that there's it's there's a wartime
effort now that's growing. It includes women being able to
work in these labor in the labor force, so women
and like mothers and grandmothers are now working in the

(01:08:11):
labor force, so they're away from home. The fathers are
either at war or they're working as well. The demands
of the war effort made it so both parents were
working and out of the house for the first time,
and they're also working through the night. So kids are
you know, they have a freedom they didn't have before,
and they're not being looked after the same way because of.

Speaker 2 (01:08:32):
That, But then they're also being watched in a different
way probably than they had.

Speaker 1 (01:08:38):
And police records at the time though show that there
wasn't there's no escalation from regular juvenile delinquency, so it's
not there is no proof that it was worse at
the time, it was normal juvenile delinquency. Government statistics reported
at the time found no increase in youth crime. And
also the other thing that scared people is that the

(01:08:59):
police officers, a lot of them are away at war
as well, So people are already primed and ready to
be scared of, you know, this fictitious mob that's going
to come after them because they're not protected by the police.
So it's the crazy story and that so many little
things had to add up to what happened, right, and

(01:09:19):
they fucking did. So all this tension is simmering, rumors
are flying, and just the sight of a zoot suit
at this point is enough to fucking piss people off.
Until one night in early June, an altercation between a
sailor and a pachuco escalates into a brawl outside a
bar in downtown LA and this sailor gets maybe gets

(01:09:40):
knocked unconscious, we don't really know. There's a rumor that
a sailor gets stabbed that's never corroborated. And so the
following day, the following night of June third, around fifty
sailors leave the armory flanked with makeshift weapons, and they
want to get revenge for the fight from the night before.
So at the kar theater downtown in Downtown Lay. They

(01:10:03):
get the house lights turned on and like fifty sailors,
they roam the aisles looking for zooters. They find two boys.
Their ages are twelve and thirteen.

Speaker 2 (01:10:12):
They know.

Speaker 1 (01:10:13):
They yank them out of their seats and it says
ignoring the protests of the patrons. So, you know, the
people there were not fucking cool with it. The sailors
drag them on stage. They rip the zoot suits off
these kids, and they beat the boys up and they
set the zootsuits on fire. Jesus Christ, and this is
the start of the zootsuit riots, and so this becomes

(01:10:34):
a kind of a theme of humiliation and violence. The
next night, over two hundred sailors grab a fleet of
twenty taxi cabs, which the taxi cabs waive the fare
to transport them, and decide to take the fight into
the Mexican American neighborhoods of East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights.
And the sailors cruise the neighborhoods. They storm into bars

(01:10:57):
and cafes and theaters. There's nowhere that's sale, and you know,
violence continues. On the night of June fourth and fifth,
confrontations between servicemen and zuters occurring all over the city,
and some military person I'll start targeting anyone who looks
to be of Mexican descent, like they don't even care
about zootsuits anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:11:18):
They're berserking.

Speaker 1 (01:11:19):
Yeah. On June fifth, a group of Mexican musicians from
El Paso are assaulted as the exit the Aztec Recording company,
even though they're not wearing zoot suits at all. The
racist press encourages a serviceman. The Hearst's own Herald and
Express publishes inflammatory stories, including one that warned of five
hundred zuitters planning to kill every cop they came across.

(01:11:43):
You know. The Los Angeles Time applauds rioters for teaching
suitors a lesson, but the media just happens to suppress
any mention of the white mobs that are actually you know,
the fucking rioters. They're the rioters. And one Los Angeles
paper prince a guide on how to de zoot a
suit a zoot suitor so like Jesus Christ. However, a

(01:12:07):
reporter for the city's black weekly newspaper, The California Eagle,
named Charlotta Spears Bass. She writes a piece blasting mainstream
newspapers for race baiting and calls for black readers to
stand with Latinos. And there is a camaraderie there with
the zoot suits and these teenage rebellion, like they understand

(01:12:28):
that they're borrowing this culture, this jazz culture, from another culture,
and they all kind of stand together, which is good, incredible,
and also another thing that could fucking scare racists is
you know, camaraderie.

Speaker 2 (01:12:44):
Yes, you know what I mean is is yes, is
marginalized people laying down any kind.

Speaker 1 (01:12:50):
Of biases or banding together.

Speaker 2 (01:12:53):
And banding together, I mean yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:12:57):
On the night of June seventh, a crowd of five
thousands of millions and gather downtown. So it's civilians, it's soldiers, marines,
sailors from other stations as far away as Las Vegas.
They fucking get on board and come down to fight
this fight. Witness of the attacks, a journalist named Carrie

(01:13:17):
McWilliams writes, quote, marching through the streets of downtown Los Angeles,
a mob of several thousand soldiers, sailors and civilians proceeded
to beat up every zoot suitor they could find. Jesus
and there's photos of this. There's these two young boys
sitting one has clearly been beaten and unconscious, the other
ones like hunching over him, naked, and there's a crowd

(01:13:43):
circling them. It's pure humiliation and violence. A man named
Vincente Morales and his girlfriend were at a show at
the Ortheum Theater, which is a friend of the podcast
Front of the Pot, where sailors drag him out of
the building, strip him of his clothing and beat him unconscious,
and when he comes to lap the officers arrest him

(01:14:06):
for distorting the peace.

Speaker 2 (01:14:09):
It's so oppressive, it's so it's so upseting, it's expressive.

Speaker 1 (01:14:14):
And if you think it's that much different from the
way it is today, you're reading the wrong fucking newspaper. Yeah,
you know, yep. As writing spreads into predominantly black neighborhoods
like Watts, Latinos join with black residents to mount a resistance,
with hundreds gathering. There's a Coca Cola plant on Central Avenue,

(01:14:34):
I guess. Years later, participant Rudy Leevos tells the La
Times Reporter quote, toward evening, we started hiding an alleys.
Then we sent about twenty guys right out into the
middle of the street as decoys. They started coming after
the decoys. Then we came out. They were surprised. It

(01:14:54):
was just the first time anybody was organized to fight
back nice, So they fucking joined f horses like the
fucking X men. The police arrest dozens of young Mexican
Americans and one of them asks. When one of them asks,
why am I being arrested, the response is that they
get savagely fucking beat with a nightstick for asking that.

(01:15:14):
When the boy falls to the sidewalk unconscious, he's kicked
in the face by police. Please remember these are thirteen, fourteen,
fifteen year old children.

Speaker 2 (01:15:23):
Junior high students, yep, getting getting the shit kicked out
of them.

Speaker 1 (01:15:26):
By adults who have been trained in.

Speaker 2 (01:15:32):
Military combat.

Speaker 1 (01:15:33):
Exactly. So, at midnight on June eighth, my birthday, Bye,
happy birth again, happy birth, thank you, the Navy and
Marine Corps finally intervene and declared downtown. So all the
you know, they intervene, all this shit happens that they
they're like trying to restore order, so they say, but
the fucking the riot last until June tenth. Essentially, their

(01:15:58):
official position is that there are men were acting in
self defense. On June ninth, the La City Council passes
an emergency resolution that makes it illegal. Ready for this
makes it illegal to wear a zoot suit on city streets,
not to beat the fucking shit out of someone for
their outfit. And actually, what's really fucking interesting is that

(01:16:20):
the War Production Board, which is a government agency that
oversees industrial manufacturing, they put in all these guidelines. They
make it required that manufacturers use twenty six percent less
fabric when they're making suits, which effectively criminalizes the manufacture
of zoot suits, which is the first time any piece
of clothing has ever been criminalized. WHOA, yeah, so you

(01:16:44):
know it keeps happening and other cities as well. There's
no reported deaths, but more than one hundred and fifty
people are injured in the LA riots, and police end
up arresting more than six hundred Mexican Americans on charges
ranging from rioting to vagrancy. Only a few servicemen are
arrested overall. In total, the riots last ten days from

(01:17:05):
June third to June tenth. Shit and no, so no
one died. Wait, that's not ten days. The riots lasted
ten days from June thirty. Nope, to June thirteenth. That's
not ten days. I'm gonna say June first to June tenth,
or it lasted seven days, but it's early June. Is
like the no, you know they ended. Who knows what

(01:17:28):
the last day was, is what I'm trying to say.
Got you what did you say?

Speaker 2 (01:17:31):
What were you saying that no one died?

Speaker 1 (01:17:33):
You said there's no reported deaths reported? Like officially, got
it right. So afterward, in response to a formal protest
from the Mexican embassy, who were like, I'm sorry, what
the fuck? A special committee is appointed to determine the
cause of the riots, and the committee concludes that racism
is the root cause of the violence, and also places

(01:17:54):
the blame on the press for associating Zuters with a
supposed crime wave. Yeah but LA Mayor Fletcher Bourron is
intent on preserving the city's public image and declares that
Mexican juvenile delinquents and racist white Southerners are the ones
who cause the riots, so they're fum, we didn't do

(01:18:16):
any wrong. He claims that racial prejudice is not and
would not become an issue in Los Angeles. No guys. Come, yeah,
we got some news for you from the future.

Speaker 2 (01:18:30):
Yeah, it's not a friend of your podcast. You admit
it now, admit it now.

Speaker 1 (01:18:36):
The Unamerican Activities Committee attempts to prove that the the
Zootsuit Riots were sponsored by a Nazi agencies attempting to
spread you know, their Nazi propaganda between the United States
and Latin American countries. But, of course, not surprising, nothing
comes out of that.

Speaker 2 (01:18:55):
Yeah, but let's bookmark that for another time because I
feel like couldn't be more relevant today.

Speaker 1 (01:19:01):
Right in the after Okay, so that's the Zootsuit Riots.
In the aftermath the Sleepy Lagoon Trial, remember that, yeah
sucking thing. The community organizes the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee SLDC,
and by nineteen forty four they raise enough money to
bring the case to the Second District Court of Appeals,

(01:19:24):
where in the Judge Clement Nye overturns the vert exciting
insufficient evidence, the denial of the defendant's right to counsel,
and the overt bias of Judge Frick in the courtroom. Nice.
All seventeen defendants are released in nineteen forty four from prison,
with their criminal records expunged, so that's post Zootsuit Riots. Officially.

(01:19:48):
The death of jose Diaz from the Sleepy Lagoon murder
remains unsolved. But before her death in nineteen ninety one,
a former patchuka named Loraina and Sina confides to her
children that her brother Lewis, who's dead, was the one
who beat and killed Jose A Bs that night, which
we don't know if it's true or not, but that

(01:20:09):
was her confession. There's so much more. Please look into
the chop As ravine and see about imminent domain and
what ended up happening that they fucking forcibly removed the
remaining Mexican American homeowners who lived there for generations. They
rip them out of their homes, They bulldoze themed home.
They gave them fucking pennies on the dollar what their
homes were worth, and they for because they were going

(01:20:31):
to redevelop the land and high end homes, which didn't happen,
and they ended up the city ends up fucking selling
that very fucking crucial land at a huge profit. Is
sold to the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Walter O'Malley,
who starts building the Dodger Stadium in nineteen fifty nine.
That is a fucking light on our fucking city, Dodger Stadium,

(01:20:52):
and I really suggest people look into that. I mean,
it's a great fucking I love love the Dodgers, love
the stadium, love going to it. It is an ugly
time and history of what happened there horrifying.

Speaker 2 (01:21:05):
Yeah, and it also hasn't changed too much in that.
And I won't get into because I actually I've only
very recently been reading about it, but is this is
like kind of the spine of gentrification in that way
where people that are from an area, especially in Los Angeles,
and the way people migrate to this town and then

(01:21:26):
the actual families and the people that have lived there
for a long time, yeah, are forced out, and then
they treat and because then those rents go up, and
you've got all the people that are like, I'm going
to be on a pilot this year.

Speaker 1 (01:21:37):
Well, it's urban sprawl. And so when you put when
you put entire cultures in a certain neighborhood and segregate
them to that neighborhood, then when you want that neighborhood back,
it's not like, you know, the city is naturally growing,
You fucking steal that land back, even though you told
them that's the only place they could live. You build
freeways through their fucking homes so that the houses are

(01:21:59):
worthless or they're divided from, you know, quote better parts
of town. You know, the whole La freeway system. There
was a recent La Times article about it, how fucking
racist and how race played into us building, like, the
freeways make no sense here. You're on the four or
five and you want to get to fucking Hollywood. It's
going to take you forever. It's because of those those neighborhoods.

Speaker 2 (01:22:22):
Because they were building them through They certainly weren't building
them through Hancock.

Speaker 1 (01:22:25):
Party were sure, No, they were building them through Englewood.
So it's ugly. As for the zootsuit itself, although it
did fall out of fashion eventually, the part it played
and challenging the entrenched roles of race, gender, and class
identities of mainstream America during World War Two has not
been forgotten. In nineteen seventy eight, actor and playwright Luis
Valdez wrote the play zoot Suit. It's the first play

(01:22:49):
on Broadway made by somewhat of Mexican descent, And I know,
and that got turned into a movie nineteen eighty one
starring Danielle Valdez who's so cute and sweet, and Edward
James almost and actually, in twenty sixteen, Los Angeles County
Museum of Art searched out at zoot Suit to display
as part of their like they had a men's history
of men's fashion, and it cost them nearly eighty grand

(01:23:13):
to acquire a like legit.

Speaker 2 (01:23:14):
Old school suitsuit because they had been destroyed and kind
of targeted that way where it was so impossible to
find them.

Speaker 1 (01:23:21):
Probably. Wow, there's been a push from historians to change
the name from zoot Suit Riots, which fucking implies that
it was the Zooters who were writing to the Sala Riots.
But that hasn't stuck yet. And yeah, that's the story
of the zoot Suit Rights and the Sleepy Lagoon Murder.

Speaker 2 (01:23:40):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:23:41):
The book that you can read if you want to
know more is Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon, zoot Suits,
Race and Riot in Wartime La by Eduardo of Bring
On Pagan Paga n is the last name.

Speaker 2 (01:23:53):
Wow, that's amazing. That's such a good history. Lesson and
living in the city. It's really embarrassing. Yeah, that I
don't know anything about It's it's just that feeling every time.
It's the same feeling of watching that OJ special and
learning all about.

Speaker 1 (01:24:08):
The wats riots.

Speaker 2 (01:24:09):
We're just like, how come I I, you know, we
don't know these things.

Speaker 1 (01:24:14):
Because they don't because it's because it makes us look bad, right,
and like that's somehow not okay to be like we
did a really horrible thing and but we're learning from it,
you know.

Speaker 2 (01:24:25):
Yeah, because I think a lot of people aren't there yet,
and a lot of people in charge aren't there yet,
and yeah or whatever, great job.

Speaker 1 (01:24:31):
Thank you, that was really gook you. That was a
really thank you to Lily for all her research notes.
That was a really that was That was an interesting one.
I definitely spend a lot of time researching that, and
I could have spent a lot fucking more time, Like
there's so many good articles from every different angle.

Speaker 2 (01:24:46):
Cool. I definitely want to look up did you say
the Getty is the is the museum that got because
they were doing the fashion? Sorry?

Speaker 1 (01:24:54):
No, no. In twenty sixteen Los Angeles County Museum of Art,
they had a thing called raining Men Rain and get
REI she and I and Raining men fashion in men's
wear from seventeen fifteen to twenty fifteen. Oh shit, sounds
fucking cool.

Speaker 3 (01:25:10):
Yeah, I was going to say one thing really quickly.
I texted my grandma to confirm because my mom's out
of my family has been here, I mean for generations.
And my grandma's brother was actually a Zoot suitor, but
he entered the army, So I wonder if he And
now I want to like call my grandma and ask her, like,
I wonder if maybe he avoided this because and they were.

Speaker 1 (01:25:33):
In an Orange county They were in LA and Orange
County right, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:25:35):
Well my grandma specifically grew up here. My mom grew
up in Atwater Village, so who like we grew up yeah,
so I really Now next time I see my grandma,
I like, I want to learn more of this because.

Speaker 2 (01:25:45):
I want to know even, Please ask your grandma if
she has a picture. Yes, yeah, I would love to
see an actual legit. And yeah, Morris family, what would
that be?

Speaker 3 (01:25:56):
What's your mom's My mom's main name is Valdez. Raymond
was my grandfather and then my grandma. Her maiden name
was Flores, so Sarah Flores.

Speaker 1 (01:26:06):
Oh my god, if she has a story, please get
it on video or record it incredible. I'm still zummed.
I can't ask my grandma. It was very old, but
I'm so bummed. I can't ask her if she remembers it,
although I know she would have just said, yeah, that
was scary, Yeah, that's incredible, Steven.

Speaker 2 (01:26:26):
I got a tweet from a listener named Emma well
her her at her Twitter handle is Emma Malia. Emma said, Hey,
Karen Colegarreff, ever heard of the nineteen seventy six chow
chilla kidnapping? It's bananas and I feel like I should
have heard about it before. Emma, really good suggestion. I

(01:26:47):
thought I'd already done this.

Speaker 1 (01:26:49):
I thought, this isn't the chicken coop one.

Speaker 2 (01:26:52):
No, No, that's the that's the wine what was it,
Wineville Chicken?

Speaker 1 (01:26:59):
Yeah? Right, yeah, yeah, no, this is okay.

Speaker 2 (01:27:05):
So I have a very distinct memory of this report
coming like my family. So it was nineteen seventy six,
so I was six years old, and my parents never
caught on that maybe the six year olds shouldn't watch
the seven o'clock news along with them, huh So, and
I paid a lot of attention to things. So when

(01:27:27):
this report came out the night that had happened. I
heard it and then would not stop asking my mom
about it, and she was like, I don't know, we'll
find out. It was like I remember it so distinctly.

Speaker 1 (01:27:40):
Yes, you were a murderine, a baby murderino.

Speaker 2 (01:27:43):
I was a baby well, and also that it was
that feeling of like, I'm sorry, I just came off
a nice run of sesame street. Yeah, what are you
talking about? This mass kidnapping?

Speaker 1 (01:27:53):
Hold on a second, and then like we're never going
to hear about it again. You're never right. This should
be the only thing we talk about out.

Speaker 2 (01:28:00):
You will you will not sweep this under the rug patent, Jim,
because it's now on the table and you need to
explain it to me. And I do remember asking my mom, like,
explain to me why, and she was like, I don't know,
I'm tired. So this is the Chowchilla bus kidnapping of
nineteen times show.

Speaker 1 (01:28:20):
Okay, yeah, all right, so good, it's so good, Emma,
good catch. I swear to god.

Speaker 2 (01:28:26):
It was like, there's no way I haven't done this already.
I'm such a California legendary. And okay, so there is
a real you can go look on YouTube.

Speaker 1 (01:28:37):
You can watch the news.

Speaker 2 (01:28:39):
Footage as this story plays out in the news. Someone
has compiled all of it. Is this the is this
the buried?

Speaker 1 (01:28:46):
Yep? This okay, horrific and insane and I'm so excited.
I'm so excited for this.

Speaker 2 (01:28:53):
Me too, Okay, And just the majority of this information
and like the shape of this story is from an episode.

Speaker 1 (01:29:02):
Of forty eight hours Live to Tell where.

Speaker 2 (01:29:05):
They interviewed now grown children who were on this bus.

Speaker 1 (01:29:09):
Are they all just still screaming?

Speaker 2 (01:29:12):
I mean okay? So no, no, it's kind of amazing. Okay.
So aside from forty eight hours Lived to Tell, which
did an amazing and incredibly thorough job, and all of
these people got to tell their own story. Yeah. Best wait,
my favorite favorite way.

Speaker 1 (01:29:27):
To experience true crime, Karen Kilcara.

Speaker 2 (01:29:30):
You tell me what happened to you? That's all I
care about. So, but the other sources CNN, CBS News,
sf Gate, Wikipedia, So here we go. So this basically
starts July fifteenth, nineteen seventy six. It's around four o'clock
in Chowchilla, California, and the dairy Land Elementary School's bus driver,

(01:29:52):
Ed Ray, is dropping kids off after their summer school
field trip.

Speaker 1 (01:29:56):
Is this day northern California, like near you, No, Chowchilla
is about fifty miles north of Fresno, Okay, So centrally
it's central. Yes, it's very central, but it's that part
of California. So it's it's like it's below Modesto, it's
above Fresno.

Speaker 2 (01:30:12):
It's right there.

Speaker 1 (01:30:12):
On the ninety nine I took land and stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:30:15):
It's all fine. I mean, it's the Dairyland Elementary School.
It's all cows. And that's also it really gets me
because all of this footage from nineteen seventy six, it
looks like this things that are in my head as
childhood memories because it all looks the same as where
I grew up to of just like.

Speaker 1 (01:30:34):
Rolling hills with oak trees and big cow pasture. There's
a brown lots of brown shades.

Speaker 2 (01:30:41):
It's lots of brown. And as the people in the
forty eight Hours lived to tell you and describe it,
it chow Chilla was.

Speaker 1 (01:30:48):
It had less than five thousand people.

Speaker 2 (01:30:50):
Living in it. It was a tiny cow town. As
one of the guys describes it, people did not lock
their doors at night.

Speaker 1 (01:30:59):
They didn't know.

Speaker 2 (01:31:00):
They couldn't even imagine why they would have to. It
was kind of out in the middle of nowhere. So
it's central central California. Yeah, and people in central California
they have accents like they're from the South.

Speaker 1 (01:31:12):
It's really funny.

Speaker 2 (01:31:13):
It's like that part of that it's very agricultural and
people it's like they're there for generations with the same
range that they.

Speaker 1 (01:31:21):
Came from, like the dust bowl. So it just kind
of stopped.

Speaker 2 (01:31:24):
Yeah, I think so, yeah, yeah, I think that's what
it is, like, that's what this is how my mom talked.
But there's like a lot of that kind of accent
where you're just like, we're in California.

Speaker 1 (01:31:33):
This is amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:31:33):
So it's my It's one of my favorite things because
California is gigantic, but there's definitely a lot of the
likes a South in or Midwest in it.

Speaker 1 (01:31:44):
So element yeah, I love it.

Speaker 2 (01:31:45):
Okay, yeah, okay, So ed Ray is the bus driver
right now. These kids their age range is from five
years old to fourteen years old. This is this is
summer school, right, so they're just it's like a group
of kids that are just doing and stuff while their
parents are at work and on this day, the field
trip was to the town swimming pool that was at

(01:32:06):
the chow Chill a fairgrounds.

Speaker 1 (01:32:09):
Take me in there, take me you can see it.
Everything is golden.

Speaker 2 (01:32:13):
It all looks like it's like everything's all this news
footage looks like it's being shot at Golden Hour. But
it's like, no, this is just what it looked like
back then.

Speaker 1 (01:32:21):
It was so weird.

Speaker 2 (01:32:22):
There's one little girl who goes through this whole experience
wearing her bathing suit. So it's that kind of thing
where like they left the pool and they got on
the bus, like wearing the that like get out, no,
you have to get out of You're gonna get in trouble, Jennifer,
and so like it. It's like ran so trippy they
ran on the bus. It was a boiling hot day
because it's central California in July. And the kids talk

(01:32:47):
about how they remember driving the bus. They loved ed
They all called him Edward. He had been the bus
driver in that town for twenty six years. I believe, yes,
twenty six years. So I'll go back to this little bit.
Ed is just beginning the route home. So he's dropped
off a couple kids. Just at the beginning of the
drop off route, he approaches a t stop intersection and

(01:33:12):
there he sees a broken down white van that's blocking
the intersection. So right now, at this point, there's twenty
six kids on the bus, twenty seven people total including
ed So ed Ray has like lived his almost his
entire life in Chowchilla. He's been the school the school
bus driver for the past twenty six years. He knows

(01:33:33):
everyone in town as well as he knows these country.

Speaker 1 (01:33:35):
Roads that make up his daily route.

Speaker 2 (01:33:37):
So when he sees this white van blocking the intersection,
he doesn't think twice about pulling right up and opening
the bus door to see which of his neighbors might
need help, because that's the kind of town it was.
It's kind of out in the middle of nowhere, so
it's not like it's like, oh, strangers, you know, that's
not anyone's first thought.

Speaker 1 (01:33:56):
Plus, it's like if you keep driving, then that person's fucked.
It's not like they have cell phones to call. It's
like you're going to be the only car in for hours.

Speaker 2 (01:34:03):
Maybe I'm telling you this footage from nineteen seventy six,
you might as well have it looks like it's the
turn of the century. It's so old looking, and it's
so funny to me because like it it doesn't seem
that long ago to me, But when you see this footage,
it's like, yeah, it's it's there was, there was. If
you had a if your car broke down, yeah, in

(01:34:25):
the middle of the afternoon on a July day in Chowchilla,
you would be boiled to death.

Speaker 1 (01:34:31):
Yeah the sun. Yeah okay.

Speaker 2 (01:34:33):
So, so Ed pulls right up and opens those doors
to see what's going on and who needs help, And
as he does, two men climb onto the bus wearing
pantyhose pulled over their head bank robber style, which is
so scary if you were a little kid, and one's
holding a sawed off shotgun at Ed and tells them
to get into the back of the bus. Then that

(01:34:54):
mask man turns the gun onto the kids as the
second man gets.

Speaker 1 (01:34:58):
Into the driver's seat and to drive.

Speaker 2 (01:35:01):
A third man is following in the white van that
they pretended was broken down. So with Ed and all
the kids on board, these three masked men have just
hijacked a school bus full of children. Fuck so yeah.
So one of those kids is nine year old Jennifer Brown,
who is in this episode of forty eight Hours Live to.

Speaker 1 (01:35:23):
Tell she's she's an amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:35:27):
It's it's one of those things where they keep showing
pictures of her at nine years old because there's so
many pictures of these kids, and she looks the face
is exactly the same, and she has this kind of
like So she's the one that says when Ed walks
through the back of the bus, he says to all
the kids really harsh. He says, just be quiet, sit down,

(01:35:47):
do what they say. And she had never heard him
talk to the kids like that before, so she knew
she knew. That's how she knew something was really wrong.
So the hijackers take off down the country road. They
eventually drive down into a dry river bed in the
Brenda Slough, which is seven miles outside of town. And

(01:36:08):
basically they drive down into this area and there's of
course you can see pictures.

Speaker 1 (01:36:15):
The slough had all.

Speaker 2 (01:36:17):
These trees and bamboo that were like double high a
normal school bus.

Speaker 1 (01:36:24):
What the hell is a slough? As someone from suburbia,
it slew is like a riverbed.

Speaker 2 (01:36:28):
It's basically and I believe I didn't look it up,
but I think it's like that when they make a
riverbed cement, right, so they make sure that like water
can go, it like runoff can go or whatever. It's
not just a river. But you know what, hey, all
you you heads out there slew arenos, I'd love to
hear how wrong I am. Please educate me because I

(01:36:50):
don't feel like it.

Speaker 1 (01:36:51):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:36:51):
So, so the weird thing is these because these bamboo
trees are so high. They drive this bus in and
it's perfectly hidden. You can't see it at all. So
they park the bus. The third driver from the white
van now backs a second van that's green up to
the bus doors. He opens the rear doors of the

(01:37:13):
van and that reveals an interior of a van that's
been reinforced with wood paneling, and all the windows have
been blacked out and there's no ventilation that's been added.
So they've customized the inside of this van so that
no one can see in or out, and basically that
it's it's a little cell. And they basically tell the

(01:37:35):
kids to jump from the bus into the back of
the van so no footprints go on the ground and
they can't see that anyone has been there.

Speaker 1 (01:37:44):
What the fuck? Why you'll tell us yes.

Speaker 2 (01:37:47):
So at gunpoint ed and all the kids have to
jump from the bus to the van. They fill up
one van, drive it away, pull the other one up,
and the rest of the kids have to have to
do this same thing in the second van. I believe
that Ed was in the second van and six year
old Larry Park who he's six when this happens, he's

(01:38:09):
obviously an adult. When he's telling his story, he says
that as he walked toward the man holding the shotgun,
the barrels started looking like they were getting so big
that they were going to swallow him up.

Speaker 1 (01:38:21):
He's six years old. He's a baby. He's a baby.

Speaker 2 (01:38:26):
So so Jennifer isn't a nine year old. Jennifer isn't
in the first van. She gets put into the second
van and she gets separated from her ten year old
brother Jeff, and that's when she starts really getting scared.
She keeps telling her friends, I want, I want Jeff.
None of the kids know what's going on, like it's
couldn't be more frightening and or more like getting loaded

(01:38:50):
from their bus into the back of a dark van
and they're just in pitch blacks and they're jammed in there.
They're jammed in.

Speaker 1 (01:38:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:38:57):
So meanwhile, Jennifer and Jeff's mom, Joan Brown, she comes
home from work to what would normally be a house
full of kids waiting for her to get home from work,
and instead, as she says it, quote, there's no peanut
butter on the counter, there's no chairs out there. They
just weren't there. So because it's the seventies, they wait

(01:39:20):
a little while to see and it is the thing
where it seems so bizarre now, but like was the
This was the era where your parents would be like
in the summertime, it'd be like go outside until the
street lights come on. Totally like it was all kids
are very self regulating.

Speaker 1 (01:39:36):
Sometimes you just go to your friend's house for dinner
and they wouldn't they'd be mad at you, but you wouldn't. Yeah,
it wouldn't worry.

Speaker 2 (01:39:42):
Yeah right, no cell phones, no helicopter or anything. This
was when it was like free range children. But after
a couple hours, parents start calling each other and realizing
that almost none of the kids from summer school made
it home that day, only those kids that got dropped
off right at the beginning. So the parents so it

(01:40:04):
takes about it almost two hours. The parents called the police,
but two hours in the seventies is a modern day
almost immediately, so stop.

Speaker 1 (01:40:12):
Judging, okay.

Speaker 2 (01:40:13):
So, so police and parents go out together and they
retrace the bus route, but there's no sign of any
of the kids and it isn't until police start a
search by air that they spot the bus in the slough,
hidden in the bamboo. So Madera County Sheriff Ed Bates
and his deputies rushed to the scene, but the bus

(01:40:36):
is abandoned. There's no footpints on the ground. They don't
really know what's happened, but they are able to track
the van's tire marks and they make it clear that
they make it clear what happened that someone pulled up
those vans. So now they know that basically all those
kids that were on the bus have been loaded into

(01:40:58):
another vehicle that they don't know what it is, and
have been transported somewhere. So Sheriff Bates calls Governor Jerry
Brown and asks for the help of the FBI. Immediately,
thank god, So thirty FBI agents are called in to
assist assist the investigation. Meanwhile, Ed and the kids are

(01:41:19):
being driven into jam packed vans. The windows are blacked out,
there's no ventilation, and they can't see where they're going.
It's a brutally hot July night at this point. There's
no food or water and they don't let anyone take
bathroom breaks and they drive for almost twelve hours.

Speaker 1 (01:41:39):
What.

Speaker 2 (01:41:40):
Yeah, So you can imagine there's kids that throw up
from the motion, sickness of not god, not being able
to see out. And it's a bumpy it's bumpy country roads.
There's of course kids crying. There's lots of crying, and
then other kids, the older kids are trying to keep
you know, keep everybody, like, keep kids from crying. So

(01:42:02):
they start singing the hits of the day. They all
sing Boogie Nights Together. They sing Love Will Keep Us Together,
which was never not on the radio back then.

Speaker 1 (01:42:12):
Well, the fucking hours.

Speaker 2 (01:42:14):
Twelve hours of being in the back of a car.

Speaker 1 (01:42:18):
I mean I was, I drove fifteen minutes over the
weekend and I almost threw up. That's like, oh my god.

Speaker 2 (01:42:24):
Yeah, and little kids that are scared and like trying
to comfort each other. At one point, the older kids
have everybody sing if You're happy, and you know it
clap your hands. But they change the lyrics too. If
you're sad and you know which I fucking love because
they're not being creepy like nothing's happening. It's like, no, no, no,
we're all freaking out. Let's let's sing the song. So

(01:42:47):
that's the new that's our new quarantine song. Hey, look,
if you're sad and you know it, clap your hands,
you might as well.

Speaker 1 (01:42:53):
That's total I love that, Okay, Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:42:56):
So finally, around three thirty in the morning, this van
comes to a stop. It's now Friday, July sixteenth, early
in the morning. One of the van's back door opens
and the mass men yank it out first and then
shut the door, and then the kids just sit there waiting.
Minutes past. They don't know what's going on. Ed's gone

(01:43:18):
and then you know, and then the door opens again
and one of the men reaches in and just grabs
the nearest kid to the door and they do this.
This is how they unload both vans. So there's little
kids just sitting there waiting. They don't know if people
are getting taken out and killed. They don't know anything.
They're just sitting there waiting to see what's going to happen.

(01:43:39):
It's the idea of it is horrifying, and there's a
really sad moment.

Speaker 1 (01:43:44):
Okay. So the oldest boy is this fourteen.

Speaker 2 (01:43:47):
Year old boy named Mike Marshall, and he is one
of the He's the last kid in the van with
a five year old girl and he doesn't want to
send her out by herself, and he's making they're making
them come out one by one. So he has to
literally like pry her hands off of his arm so

(01:44:08):
that he can get out. And he he's so I mean,
he talks about how horrifying a decision it was because
he was like, I can't send her out there alone.

Speaker 1 (01:44:17):
I have to go out before her. But then I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:44:19):
Then the five year old is left in the van
by herself. It's just a scary, Like what you don't
know which one's.

Speaker 1 (01:44:24):
Scary are yet because right, you have an experience y?

Speaker 2 (01:44:29):
So okay, So when they when they do lead the
kids out, they realize they get walked from the van
over to basically what looks like a ladder going into
a hole in the ground. There's they're out in the
middle of nowhere. It's kind of sandy there's there's no
it's like pitch you know, it's the middle of the night.

(01:44:50):
And Jennifer Brown says that when she came up on
that ladder, she remembers thinking to herself, oh, they're sending
us to hell.

Speaker 1 (01:44:58):
And so then they.

Speaker 2 (01:44:58):
Go down the and realize they're in an underground bunker
and all the kids and ed have been loaded down there.
So every kid that gets down the ladder then realizes
no one's been taken off and killed. So they all
are like happy, and you know, they're all like it's reunited.
They're all together again. The problem is though it's pitch

(01:45:22):
black down there, it's they can't see a thing, but
they like their eyes adjust they realize there's a table
that's got some jugs of water on and some food.
And then there's these kind of like slapped together kind
of toilets that are built in these boxes that are
where the wheel wells are, just like a hole in

(01:45:44):
the ground or a hole that they like built just
so people could have somewhere to go. But the good
thing is they can hear fans spinning, so that they
know there's some sort of planned ventilation.

Speaker 1 (01:45:58):
So fuck yeah. So then this is like, this is
like the prequel to Saw. It feels like it's it's horrifying.

Speaker 2 (01:46:08):
I mean, imagine I Saw was twenty six kids. It's
so it's so awful. So basically, once all the kids
edder down inside, the kidnappers throw down a roll of
toilet paper, pull up the ladder and say we'll be
back for you. Then they cover the opening with what
everyone believes to be a manhole cover. It's very it's

(01:46:29):
like it sounds like one. It's really heavy.

Speaker 1 (01:46:33):
So this is not how I thought it was. I
always pictured in my you know, I hadn't read enough,
so I pictured them in the school bus, being buried
in the school bus. This is this is fucking crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:46:43):
Yeah, no, they yeah, they transferred them into another thing,
and this is the horrifying part there. So they're down there,
the manhole cover closes, they're standing in the dark, and
then they hear material being poured on top of whatever
they're in, so they realize they're being buried alive. So
back in Chowchilla, the parents are gathered at command posts

(01:47:05):
that's set up at the fire station. Of course, everyone
the whole town is worried, sick. Everyone knows about it.
Everyone's trying to figure out what's going on. The police
are trying to formulate how anyone could kidnap twenty six
school children, let alone who would do it, let alone

(01:47:25):
why they would do it. They just are baffled by
all of it, And of course this story makes the
national news. So that night, Walter Cronkite's opening like, oh,
I sorry, I don't know if it was opening, but
this is how I'm picturing, because this is how I
remember it. Walter Kronkite going. Twenty six school children and

(01:47:45):
their bus driver have vanished. Anguished parents, President Ford and
hundreds of police are asking the question, where are the children?

Speaker 1 (01:47:54):
You mean? Okay, six year old Karen should not have
fucking heard that. First. Here's me.

Speaker 2 (01:47:59):
I'm over here playing with matches. What's this now, Mommy.

Speaker 1 (01:48:05):
Karen, go play with your matches. Don't worry late, it's
too late. And then I just light one of our cigarettes.

Speaker 2 (01:48:11):
I already saw mother, it's ruined.

Speaker 1 (01:48:14):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:48:15):
So it's declared to be one of the biggest kidnappings
in US history, but no one's heard from the kidnappers
or has any idea who they might be, so they don't.

Speaker 1 (01:48:25):
Understand that you would hope it would be ransom so
you could pay it and get your kid back. But
that's not rap. That's terrifying.

Speaker 2 (01:48:33):
Yeah, they're just everyone's holding their breath waiting. But that's
but then calls pour in to the chow Chilla Police
Department from all around the world, well wishers, reporters. I mean,
this is like it's it's blowing up. So twelve hours
go by, people wait there just waiting for word in

(01:48:55):
chow Chilla. Well down in the hole, as the kids
be like come to call it, things go from bad
to worse. So they've run they've run out of food there,
they have a little bit of water left, and the
fans that they could hear that were providing ventilation have stopped.

(01:49:17):
Now this is kind of fascinating, and I love this kid.
I love this kid whoever he is because he doesn't
get named. But there's so they basically there's blocks that
are on the ground that these four by four pillars,
there's four x four pillars kind of stand around every

(01:49:37):
in each corner of this box that they're in, and
there is basically holding up it looks like it's holding
up the ceiling and and kind of like they're bracing
the sides of it and holding the ceiling up. So
one of the boys starts kicking at these blocks and
just out of pure fury and fear and you know everything.

(01:50:01):
And with every block, every kick, he's moving the blocks.
And when the blocks move the ceilings, that means the
beam is moving. And then the ceiling starts to cave
in a little bit, and the walls of the of
the box that they're in is start to bow inwards,
and dust and dirt starts streaming in. So everyone's terrified
that the ceiling is going to collapse. But Ed and

(01:50:24):
the older kids they get together and they decide together,
if we're going to die, we're going to die trying
to get out of here. So Ed and the oldest boy,
Mike Marshall, they decide they're going to stack up these
mattresses that have laid all around like the outside and
all the kids are just have just been laying on them.
They stack them up so Mike can get climb up

(01:50:48):
them and reach the hatch from the top the peace style, right,
They get up to that manhole cover. But then when
Mike gets up there, he tries to push it and
it's like it's so.

Speaker 1 (01:51:03):
Heavy he can barely he can barely push it.

Speaker 2 (01:51:06):
He basically says, he talks about it, he's like got
his you know, he looks like a classic like Rancher.
You know, he's got like his his cowboy shirt on
and his hat and his whole thing. And he was like,
I'm getting I'm giving it everything I got, and the
kids are cheering me on. You know, come on, Mike,
you can do it.

Speaker 1 (01:51:23):
You can do it.

Speaker 2 (01:51:25):
And all of a sudden they say, it moved.

Speaker 1 (01:51:28):
It moved.

Speaker 2 (01:51:29):
So this this cover that he's pushing against, he gets
he's able to move it to the side a little
bit so that there's a hole about half a foot wide,
and basically he has to climb up through that hole
and then figure out whatever's up there.

Speaker 1 (01:51:50):
Like the guys could be standing there with the guns.

Speaker 2 (01:51:52):
They don't know what's up there, but they're like, but
we got we have to get out of here because
the ventilation there's no water, Like, we have to get
out of here. Mike at fourteen years old is like,
I'll go up there. So he gets up out of
the hole and realizes he's standing in a little box
and the box has dirt in it, and it has
two truck batteries that were on the manhole cover, and

(01:52:16):
that was the reason it was so crazy heavy. But
once they started moving it, they knocked the batteries off,
and they knocked this dirt off. So then he's in
this box and he's like so he just starts beating
on the sides of the box and realize it's just
this fabricated wooden box that was covering over the hole.
He beats his way out of the box and.

Speaker 1 (01:52:40):
Oh my god, I'm fucking Okay, yeah I do. This
is some fucking I have the Tiger fucking Parkour, extreme
fucking sports.

Speaker 2 (01:52:49):
With little kids and medium kids and big kids. And
then Ed himself, who's the blow down school bus driver?

Speaker 1 (01:52:56):
No, I'm picturing Ed as is on Bob's Burg. Who's
the guy who's Teddy Teddy? Yes, that's exactly what he
looks like. I'm not joking. Yes, totally looks like him
without the beanie. Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:53:09):
So Mike is like punching these wooden like walls and
then he breaks through and Larry Park, the six year old,
he describes seeing Mike punch and this ray of sunshine
come down into come down into from the box down

(01:53:29):
into the hole, and he says, looking up, the dirt
was falling through the hole and the sunshine made it glimmer,
and it looked like shooting stars to him. Like all
of a sudden, they were like, we're out, so.

Speaker 1 (01:53:43):
Uh after uh and this is this is the craziest
story I've ever heard.

Speaker 2 (01:53:48):
Him Fuckings, it just gets crazier too. So Mike steps
out first outside the box to make sure the coast
is clear. He doesn't see anyone. They see hills and
trees and it all looks kind of the same. He
and Ed help all the kids get out of the hole.
By the time they get out, it's eight o'clock on

(01:54:11):
July sixteenth in the morning. They have eight pm. Sorry,
it's eight pm on July sixteenth. They've been in captivity
for sixteen hours. And Jennifer, when she finally gets outside,
the nine year old, she looks around and looks back
at where they were and says, it looked just like
a sand dune with like a little rectangle and a ladder,

(01:54:33):
not the ladder, like a little rectangle, but other than that,
there was nothing around. She said, if they were just
if they just stayed in there, no one would have
ever known they were down there. So they just start
They hear in the distance engine sounds and whirring and metal,
and they don't know if that's where their captors are
or what, but they just start walking toward the sound,

(01:54:56):
everyone together, and when they get up close to it,
they real they're at a quarry. And so it's all
those like miss those machines and they're.

Speaker 1 (01:55:05):
Called it you see machines.

Speaker 2 (01:55:07):
The big core, a quarry, courrier, a coary isser. So
these guys in hard hats. Imagine if you're in this
guy that you've got the night shift at the quarry,
and you turn around and there's twenty six kids that
are like that, look like they've I mean, it's when
you see these pictures two of these kids later on,

(01:55:30):
it's unbelievable. But they basically walked up to these guys
that worked with the corriers, said ed the courriers, and
ED said, we're from Chowchilla and were lost. But of
course they knew they were because it was the huge story. Yeah,
so do we know where they are? Are we allowed
to talk about where they are at this point? Yes? Okay,
they at this point, even though they've been. They drove

(01:55:52):
for twelve hours. They were in Livermore, California, which is no,
it's actually only a couple hours up the ninety nine
and over. But they didn't go straight there, they just
drove around.

Speaker 1 (01:56:03):
They were trying to confuse the kids or let time
pass or what.

Speaker 2 (01:56:07):
Yes, yeah, they wanted to make sure no one knew
where they were. So they were basically one hundred miles
northwest of Chowchilla. Livermore is the city when I'm driving
from La to Petaluma, you go up the five and
then finally when the five is up by the East Bay,

(01:56:27):
you basically take a left off the five and now
you're going into the East Bay. And Livermore is that
for it's pretty much the first big city that's off
of that the five eighty, so it's kind of right there.
So they get the police are called, obviously, and they
get there. They take pictures of all the kids, and
this is in that forty eight hours. They just start

(01:56:48):
showing these kids that are like wide eyed and kind
of dirty, and you know, they have stuff on their
face and they're like look like they were all cried out.
Then they load them into a bus.

Speaker 1 (01:57:00):
So seventies. Listen to this shit.

Speaker 2 (01:57:02):
Listen to how seventies, like seventies were pro trauma. They
were like, we gotta if we're here, let's do it.

Speaker 1 (01:57:09):
Let's double down on this bust, double down. Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (01:57:12):
They get these kids onto a bus and take them
all to the Santa Rita Rehab Center, which is a
local jail but it had yes. So Jennifer talks about
driving onto the grounds and being like, uh, oh, I
think we're I think we're in trouble. Yeah. But basically
once they get there, it's great because they don't you know,

(01:57:34):
they get inside, they're in a classroom now.

Speaker 1 (01:57:37):
So basically it was just the one.

Speaker 2 (01:57:38):
Spot that they had nearby that could hold all of
them and like basically keep the situation contained so they
could interview everybody and see what was going on. So
the kids are let into a classroom, they're given soda
and apples.

Speaker 1 (01:57:51):
The healthiest snack after fucking twenty eight hours of thing. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:57:57):
They are also given jumpsuits from the jail to change
into adult jumpsuits. So all these kids, and they were
of course really little, so some of them had to
roll the pant leg and the arms up and then
some of them are just letting them flap around. But
when you see those pictures, these kids are so happy
to be you know, there's there's two female police officers

(01:58:20):
that are right in there with them and holding the
little ones and like they're they all are like we're safe,
We're all safe, and we're all together.

Speaker 1 (01:58:27):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (01:58:28):
Yeah. So doctors arrive quickly, check everyone out, make sure
that no one's hurt or you know, dehydrated whatever. Aside
from some bruises and some scrapes. Luckily, everyone's okay.

Speaker 1 (01:58:39):
Physically incredible that no one's hurt. It's incredible.

Speaker 2 (01:58:44):
It's an unbelievable and it's I bet you they must
have been dehydrated, oh, to some degree. Because also it's
a summer day, it's like and the crying, that's yes,
and so much crying. So but you know, everyone's fine.
The police questioned Ed and the kids for four hours
before finally yeah please before, seriously, please, before finally putting

(01:59:09):
them on a greyhound and two buses after this, two buses.

Speaker 1 (01:59:15):
Stop bus ride stop it, stop it. Yeah, they can't.
They didn't know.

Speaker 2 (01:59:20):
It's it's like back when the doctors used to First
of all, doctors were barbers, and barbers would just bleed you,
like if you had a fever, they'd just like bleed them. Yeah,
that's that's how they did stuff back then. But these kids,
they picture the pictures of them on the Greyhound in there,
they're still in their white jail suits. It's the cutest
they're all now, they're all stoked and they're fine. Yeah,

(01:59:41):
And at this point it's four in the morning. They
get a police escort while they're on this Greyhound bus
back down to Chowchilla and they arrive.

Speaker 1 (01:59:53):
Sorry, they arrive at four.

Speaker 2 (01:59:54):
In the morning, so they probably left it too or whatever.
The bus pulls into Chowchilla and as the kids get off,
they're escorted by the police through a big group of
news reporters. You see Mike Marshall, the oldest. He's so cute,
he's such a seventies like cute.

Speaker 1 (02:00:11):
Are we're talking like Matt he'd be played by Matt Dylan,
a young Matt Dylan. Who'd he would be?

Speaker 2 (02:00:17):
Yes, he was definitely in the Matt Dillon spectrum of
a cute kind of Italian probably maybe either Hispanic or
Italian or Portuguese. Uh. Yeah, And he's and one of
the reporters yells, high Mike, what was the pit like?
So like all these all these people that these kids

(02:00:38):
have no idea who any of them are. They all
know them by name. That's how these people have been
following this story and reporting the story. When ed Ray
steps off the bus, he's met with a round of
cheers and applause. So the investigators returned to the burial
site at the at the rock Quarry and they dig
up a moving truck that had been buried in this

(02:01:01):
big open field at the rock Quarry and they start
looking for clues. That's the weirdest part. It's a moving
truck that looks like it's from nineteen sixty five. So
it's got the big round wheel wells and the trailers
like kind of separated from the back. So they took
the work that it took to bury a truck that

(02:01:23):
big because it's really big, and plan everything out. It
must have taken weeks, if not months. So investigators immediately
surmise whoever is behind this must have had access to
this quarry somehow. So this is now, this is the
part where it flips over because it's so sinister, it's
so scary. Like you said, it's like what is this saw?

(02:01:46):
Now we're going to get into the slapstick insanity aspect
of this story because it boggles the mind. Okay, so
of course if they go, well, wonder if it's someone
that has connections to the quarry. How about the quarry
owner's son, twenty four year old Fred Newhall Woods, who

(02:02:06):
has a criminal record. Just two years before him and
two of his buddies, brothers rich James and Richard Schoenfeld,
they were all arrested together for grand theft autos. Yeah,
Fred and James worked together selling used cars and they
were arrested teaming up with Richard to steal one. But
they all got away with that without ever serving jail time.

(02:02:30):
They just received fines and probation. Because all three of
them were from rich, white families.

Speaker 1 (02:02:35):
How quickly did it take them to investigators to zero
in on them? Was it like like one day? Okay,
like two so obvious that.

Speaker 2 (02:02:44):
Well, because yeah, they just stood back there going you
the energy time whatever it took to bury a full
size moving van, moving trailer. Yeah, yeah, it's an inside job.
It's a quarry inside job.

Speaker 1 (02:02:58):
Like I so like I'm not into like grand theft auto.
But I feel like if you get caught planning it
instead of even doing it, you're not very good at
it and you should quit it. Yeah, for sure, for sure. Okay,
So authorities review the quarry of security footage. They find
that the three had spent months leading up to the
kidnapping digging a massive hole at the quarry, and security

(02:03:22):
guards do confirm the identity of Fred Woods. So they
all said, yeah, that guy's been around here a ton.

Speaker 2 (02:03:30):
So police they go to Fred's dad's estate. These motherfuckers
are rich, like rich, I mean, he owns a quarry.
It's like, that's fucking Fred Flintstone, right.

Speaker 1 (02:03:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:03:43):
They get to the dad's estate and in and there
they find the shotgun that was used in the kidnapping.
They find papers detailing a kidnapping plan. It literally they
show they have the the uh police footage in this
and they show a piece of binder paper.

Speaker 1 (02:04:04):
Oh no, it's yeah, it's the it's the assistant DA.

Speaker 2 (02:04:06):
Now who pulls this piece of binder paper out of
an old box and it just has an all caps
the word plan written at the top.

Speaker 1 (02:04:15):
No joke, I'm laughing, because nobody died but yeah, the
fucking fact that they're so stupid and did this so poorly.

Speaker 2 (02:04:24):
So poorly and strangely. Okay, And this is the reason
my mom couldn't explain it to me, because she was like,
because when you're on the other side of it, it's like,
this is so sinister, this is so horrible. Well, okay,
So so it's his plan. At the top of the page,
the ransom note was never delivered. It demanded five million
dollars in exchange for the return of the twenty six

(02:04:46):
children on the bus, but it was still They still
had the ransom note. No one ever, no one ever
received it. I'll tell you so. Arrest warrants are issued
for Fred Woods, James Schoenfeld, and Richard Schoenfeld, and Richard
turns himself in on July twenty third, eight days after
the kidnapping, but James and Fred both take off in

(02:05:09):
different directions. James zigzags all over the western United States,
Fred tries to head north for Canada two weeks after
the kidnapping. James is apprehended in Menlo Park on the
morning of July twenty ninth, and Fred is caught in
Vancouver trying to go over the border British Columbia on
the same night. They don't want you to, man, No, yeah,

(02:05:30):
don't worry about it, and they don't want us to
this day to this day. During the oir interrogations, the
kidnappers revealed that they had been plotting this crime for
a year and a half and what they were supposed
to do was after they had kidnapped the bust full
of kids, they were supposed to call the chow chill

(02:05:53):
A police department and demand their ransom and then say
we're sending you the note. But the story had already
broken worldwide, so they couldn't get through. The phone lines
were busy, so they decided they were gonna wait it out,
and they took a nap, and when they woke up
from their nap, they turned on the news and ed

(02:06:14):
and all the kids had escaped.

Speaker 1 (02:06:17):
So listen, I'm gonna make a fucking educated guess that
meth was involved somewhere.

Speaker 2 (02:06:24):
Or just really shitty weed, you know what I mean,
where it just kind of they were just.

Speaker 1 (02:06:28):
Confused stems and seeds, man.

Speaker 2 (02:06:30):
Yeah, just not enjoying themselves and confused when asked for
a motive. James Schoenfeld explains despite being from wealthy families,
all three men were in debt. Of course, he says, quote,
we needed multiple victims to get multiple millions, and we
picked children because children are precious. The state would be
willing to pay ransom for them, and they don't fight back.

(02:06:53):
So these guys bungled their plans so badly that they
had no choice but to plead guilty to twenty seven
counts of kidnapping for ransom and robbery in July of
nineteen seventy seven. And they're also charged with eight counts
of bodily harm for the physical injuries that some of
the kids sustained. But their lawyers advise them they're facing

(02:07:16):
life in prison no matter what. But if they're found
guilty on the charges of bodily harm, they'll have no
chance for paroles. So the men plead not guilty to
the bodily harm charges. Many of these kids, including Jennifer
and Michael, testify against these kidnappers in court. And I

(02:07:37):
tell you, there is video of this little girl, this
nine year old Jennifer, who talks about and they had
all the kids make to retell the story on tape afterwards,
like for themselves to basically like process the story. So
they have tape of these children at that age telling

(02:07:57):
what happened, that they play in this in this forty
eight hours. It's really amazingly done. So basically they talk
about the horrible conditions of the whole and the chronic
nightmares and PTSD that they now suffer from. Their testimonies
lead to a guilty verdict on the bodily harm charges
and on February seventeenth, nineteen seventy eight, Fred Wood and

(02:08:21):
James and Richard Schoenfeld are all sentenced to life in
prison without the possibility of parole. So, five weeks after
the kidnapping, ed Ray and all twenty six kids get
taken on a trip to Disneyland right on August twenty
second this same year. Basically, they basically waited about a

(02:08:42):
month and then Chowchilla celebrated their first annual ed Ray
and Children's Day, complete with a parade down the town's
main street honoring the twenty seven brave survivors. But of
course the kids are traumatized by this experience. There's some

(02:09:03):
suffer panic attacks. Almost all of them have recurring nightmares
that haunt them and their families. So it's they it's
really tough. I mean they went through something horrible and
like to look at it from the other side. To
come up out of that pit and turn and be
like what the fuck is one thing, But to be
down in it when you're six years old and you

(02:09:25):
can't understand. All you want is your mom and you're
just stuck somewhere, I mean, it's a nightmare. So basically, then,
in nineteen eighty four, years after the kidnapping, Fred, James,
and Richard all appeal the bodily harm charges. Their lawyers
argue that the cuts and bruises on the children are
not enough to warrant the official legal charge of bodily harm,

(02:09:45):
and they win this art Now the bodily harm charges
are reversed, and now they're all.

Speaker 1 (02:09:51):
Eligible for parole.

Speaker 2 (02:09:53):
Two years later, in nineteen eighty two, parole hearings begin
and all of the survivors get dragged back into to
further testify to try to keep their kidnappers behind bars.
It all told the survivors of the chow Chill a
bus kidnapping have had to endure sixty parole hearings zero

(02:10:16):
six zero.

Speaker 1 (02:10:17):
That is additional trauma to the trauma they already fucking
endure it, and that.

Speaker 2 (02:10:22):
Is endless, like fair every however, many years, every however
many Okay, so I hate that.

Speaker 1 (02:10:29):
It's horrible.

Speaker 2 (02:10:30):
So in this period of time after that, you know,
all this time is passing, Larry Park becomes, in his
own words, an angry child, just absolutely beyond justified. His
rage leads his parents to put him in a juvenile
detention facility when he's fifteen to try to rehabilitate his behavior.

Speaker 1 (02:10:49):
It doesn't work.

Speaker 2 (02:10:50):
By the time Larry's twenty one, he's using meth, crack
and other drugs recklessly. And this is what happened to
a lot of these kids. Mike Marshall, the fourteen year hero,
he said, when he was a kid, he could see
all the years ahead of him. Then after the kidnapping,
I could not see tomorrow. So he begins drinking excessively
when he's eighteen years old, and he does it until

(02:11:12):
he's forty eight. But then he finally finds the strength
to treat his alcoholism. But I mean it's you know, yeah,
thirty years of being in the bottle because of this
trauma and what it did to him. Jennifer Brown is
also haunted by nightmares and PTSD for years. But today
she's married, and she says she's worked through her struggles

(02:11:33):
with the help of her family and quote her church family,
so she has a lot of support. And there's this
really amazing moment where they have footage of a reporter.
It was when she went back I Believe to testify.
There's a reporter that asks.

Speaker 1 (02:11:52):
Her and she's just lit.

Speaker 2 (02:11:54):
She's just this little girl and she's kind of like
rocking back and forth, you know, and she's like, hm,
got like one of her friend teeth is gone. And
the reporter says, why do you think they did this?
And she goes, I don't know. They didn't get enough love,
and she says it like super she has this big
smile on her face. Also that she tells a really
funny story of taking her gum out, taking her gum

(02:12:16):
out before she testifies because she didn't want to spit
it at them when she went to tell this. She
didn't want to get so mad she'd spit it at him,
so she gave her dad her gum and then when
they cut to her talking to that reporter, she's chewing
the gum again.

Speaker 1 (02:12:30):
I want I want that one I want that one
my favorite. She's the cutest. Okay.

Speaker 2 (02:12:35):
So in June of twenty twelve, thirty six years after
the kidnapping, Richard Schoenfelt is paroled and his brother James follows.
Three years later, in twenty fifteen, many of the now
grown children and their families are angry that the bodily
harm charges were reversed and that parole was a possibility

(02:12:55):
for them. But there's a notable exception. After years of
suffering and substance abuse, Larry Park says that he finally
realized his resentment for the kidnappers was killing him, so
he decides to meet to He decides to ask to
meet with the Schoonfeld brothers, who had recently gotten out

(02:13:15):
of prison, so that he can forgive them, and they agree,
and he says about this experience quote, it changed my life.
Something washed over me and there was a peace like
I'd never known. I knew that day I would be okay.
And now he's Larry's sober and he runs his own
handyman business and he sometimes volunteers as a pastor at

(02:13:38):
his local church. Fred Wood still remains behind bars. From
the beginning, police suspected that fred was the mastermind behind
the entire plot, a true sociopath who had roped the
Shonfeld Brothers into his plan, and who to this day
shows no remorse for his actions. His last parole hearing
was October twenty nineteen, where he was denied parole for

(02:13:59):
the nineteenth time, and his next hearing is set for
twenty twenty four. After the kidnapping, ed Ray goes back
to driving a school bus, and he does it for
twelve more years until he retires in nineteen eighty eight,
and then on May seventeenth, twenty twelve, ed Ray passes
away from natural causes at the age of ninety one,

(02:14:22):
and the town of Chowchilla still continues to celebrate ed
Ray in Children's Day every February twenty sixth in honor
of these guys. In twenty sixteen, the survivors of the
Chowchilla bus kidnapping file a lawsuit against their three kidnappers,
demanding monetary compensation for the horrors they experienced, and they
wind up receiving a settlement. The exact amount is never

(02:14:45):
publicly disclosed, but one survivor says it was quote enough
for some serious therapy, but not enough to buy a house.
And that is the horrifying story of the chow Chilla
school bus kidnapping.

Speaker 1 (02:15:00):
Layers upon layers, isn't that nothing? So God? That goes
so much deeper than I fucking knew. Wow, great job,
that was great job, Thank.

Speaker 2 (02:15:10):
You, great suggestion. It's just so funny I saw this story.
Is such a weird close.

Speaker 1 (02:15:17):
To my heart true crime, like grew up with story. Yeah,
it's so weird that I haven't done it. No, someone's
is it right? Wow? That was incredible, good job. I
fucking thank you. You love that you told that story.

Speaker 2 (02:15:30):
So before we go, we just want to talk to
you about something that's vitally important that you know about already,
and I'm sure you've been hearing all about it, but
we want to remind you were less than one hundred
days away from election day, which is November third, twenty twenty.
So between a global pandemic and rampant voter suppression efforts,

(02:15:53):
it is critical to help every American register to vote,
to be prepared to do so safely, and to ensure
that every vote counts, which includes encouraging as many Americans
as possible to request to vote by mail.

Speaker 1 (02:16:06):
So vote Saveamerica dot Com is a one stop shop
for voter registration and engagements and it's being put on
by our friends at Crooked Media and they've created this
incredible hub that's compiled every freakin tool you need. So
you're able to request your vote by mail ballot early,
which I've already done. You can volunteer to call young

(02:16:30):
voters in battleground states, which is so important and talk
to them about voting by mail.

Speaker 2 (02:16:35):
That's huge. Yeah, you can donate to groups on the
ground working to mobilize diverse voters. And you can volunteer
as a poll worker if you're healthy and you're able.

Speaker 1 (02:16:45):
Yes, and you guys, we're all in this together to
win in November. We need to do everything we can.
Every single one of us voting counts. Even though you
think your state is this or that it doesn't matter.
We need to. We need to show our forces. So
we need to get involved and make sure that everyone
we know is doing that as well.

Speaker 2 (02:17:06):
So visit vote Save America dot com, slash every last
vote and get involved. It's such a great resource. Those
guys in Crooked Media and Podsave America, they're amazing political analysts.
They're brilliant minds, and they have put together this drive
and this directive so that people feel like there's something

(02:17:28):
they can do and they can start. You know, there's checklists,
there's all kinds of information.

Speaker 1 (02:17:34):
Go to that website.

Speaker 2 (02:17:36):
And see take some action, and see what you can
do about helping this country get out of the very
frightening position that we're in right now.

Speaker 1 (02:17:45):
It's the darkest timeline and the only way we can
get out of it is to vote. So please make
sure that everyone you know is doing this as well.
Send emails, send them a link to this. Let's fucking
do this, you guys. Let's do it.

Speaker 2 (02:17:58):
And you know what else, stay sexy.

Speaker 1 (02:18:00):
And don't get murdered. Goodbye, Ellis. Do you want to cook?

Speaker 3 (02:18:05):
E