70 - Live at the Moontower Comedy Festival

It's a new My Favorite Murder, live from Austin, Texas! Karen and Georgia cover the infamous Yogurt Shop Murders and America's 'first' serial killer, the Servant Girl Annihilator.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Hi, Austin. Oh my god, me too.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Just do that for a little longer. I'm trying to
finish my mint. You don't mind.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
They love it.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
They love it. Spit it over there. What's up Texas
or Miley here?

Speaker 3 (00:55):
I wore my cowboy boots for you guys, take go out,
walk those things around.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Ben said, oh.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
They're not.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Scared.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Ben said that they're culturally appropriating. Yeah, I'm culturally appropriating, you're.

Speaker 4 (01:16):
This is definitely a problematic way to start the.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Show, for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Is And I also wore my hair closer to god.
I guess that's yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
They love that. See I know how to panda? Yeah yeah,
what about what are you wearing tonight?

Speaker 4 (01:34):
I'm wearing a dress that's a little too tight, and
so it's got I've got like a reverse bank situation
where kind of like you can't tell if it's a
big stomach or a flop of material, and neither can I.
I'm not sure what's happening down here, and I don't
care anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
So everyone, you're fancys.

Speaker 4 (01:59):
I really wanted to put my microphone next to that microphone.
Do you know how much the sound guy would hate
me if I did that, just like, what do you think, Oh, no,
so obnoxious.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
This place is haunted. I heard Stephen. Is that Stephen
sent us this.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
Long text that I got off to, Like we got
off the plane and it was like it was like
the fact, like the history of this place and you
are all the ghosts.

Speaker 4 (02:22):
There's a project there's a projectionist that works here. When
this was a movie theater and he died while showing Casablanca,
which everyone thinks is beautiful because he died doing what
he loved.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
I agree. I didn't mean to stay. I didn't mean
to say it like that.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
That sounded argumentative and.

Speaker 4 (02:39):
Bizarre, so stupid you guys think that's nice.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
What you don't know is, okay, I was going to
tell you on stage that saving it for this. Yeah,
So Vince and I were on the airplane today and
I couldn't like get into Wi Fi. So he was
like leaned over as been we'll do, and it's like,
let me figure this out, and so he like figures
all the stuff out and then it goes to click
on a website just to see if it's working, and

(03:06):
he pulls down my favorites page.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
But you know, most people.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
Are like Facebook and Twitter and like Craigslist or whatever,
the normal.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Things are yep.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
And and then he stares at it for a minute
and he goes, are these all serial killers? And I
was just like yeah, yeah. And then we moved on
and that a serial killers are my Google.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
That's all given. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (03:33):
I had a kind of a fascinating thing happened. First
of all, I was the last person on the plane.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Oh my god, you give me a panic attack.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
It's I know, it's uh. That's how different George and
I are.

Speaker 4 (03:44):
I was standing in secure the security line like, oh, this.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
Sucks, and George's like text, text, X.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
I'm on the plane.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
Where are you?

Speaker 4 (03:54):
So I walked right on last.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (03:59):
Then a guy who looked like he was it could
have been I mean, he was on his way to
the city. But I was like, is he coming to
our festival? He was really big and had a ton
of tattoos and many on his neck.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
My friend used to call those the job stoppers.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Just something to consider.

Speaker 4 (04:22):
But these guys look like they look like they were
at the band of Like it could have been Lincoln Park.
I'm not sure I'm really old. I'm incredibly old, but
I mean.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
He didn't have like tattoos that are like, oh, he's
like he just like pays one of money and gets tattooed,
like they look like prison tattoos.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
They look like.

Speaker 4 (04:37):
Defensive maneuvers, the way a cuddlefish changes into a different
thing in the ocean of be like, don't get me.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah, he's really like, beware of me. I'm very scary.

Speaker 4 (04:48):
Well, he stands up and he's like, I gotta get
off this plane, and he fucking takes off.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
He had to go.

Speaker 4 (04:55):
He couldn't handle flying the plane. I think he he
may have had a teardrop tattoo, but he couldn't had
a three hour flight was not going to happen in his.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Life, just like he was panicking. Yeah, I know that's sweet.
You should have cradled him the whole flight. Could you
come down here a second.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
You're gonna love this.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
I'll hold your ham.

Speaker 4 (05:18):
I know it's a weird time for you, and it's
probably very shaming to be a very large, mean looking
man that's literally like, give me off this plane right now.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
Best to buy a panic attack. Yeah, I loves a bummer.
I mean I've had it.

Speaker 4 (05:31):
I've had an on a plane I've actually had a
seizure on a plane.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
No bag, no bro, No, it's pretty cool.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
I was.

Speaker 4 (05:42):
I had been bumped up to first class because they
screwed up my ticket, and I was flying home from England,
Oh my god, and I was sitting next to I
was sitting next to this man who was like he
was like a silver fox and he had like really
expensive clothes on from what I could tell, like not Target,
and it's like I wanted to touch it. And he

(06:05):
was like kind of being charming and.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Talking to me.

Speaker 4 (06:07):
And I had the thought in my head of like,
why can't I have a sugar daddy, Why can't I
be one of those girls.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
I would be the I would.

Speaker 4 (06:14):
Be the best kind because you wouldn't see it coming.
It'd be like, oh, is that your assistant, and be like, yep,
that's my assistant. I had this whole fantasy in my
mind of how we were going to do it.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
But then I had a seizure and that's the worst possible.

Speaker 4 (06:34):
It was then yeah, not cool, Like it's not how
you want a guy to see you foaming at the
mouth with blue lips. The last thing I heard was
him go excuse me. I think this young lady needs help,
like he was already.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
It's like we were.

Speaker 4 (06:49):
No longer even close anymore. He was immediately distancing himself
from me just because I was having a seizure like
a common drug addict on a plane.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
That's oh ooh, that makes me that's scary.

Speaker 4 (07:04):
I know, sorry that I just dug that one up
from deep.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
Deep down inside.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
I've only died a normal throwing up thing on a
plane before, like everyone here has, probably right, Uh nope.

Speaker 4 (07:18):
Well I think they have some questions like I do.
Was it in the aisle or in the bathroom?

Speaker 3 (07:22):
No?

Speaker 2 (07:22):
No, no, it wasn't a receptacle like not where in
your lap?

Speaker 1 (07:25):
Though? Uh I don't?

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, say yes, what into one of them bags? Yeah?
For you use a barf bag a plane? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (07:37):
Are you from nineteen fifty five? This is amazing.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
Yeah, that happened.

Speaker 4 (07:45):
That's uberfore though, right, No, totally sorry, the tone is wrong.
I'm a little nervous, So everything I'm saying isn't how
I mean it.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
It's all coming out super weird.

Speaker 4 (07:54):
But did you have to This is a question I've
always had because it's barf.

Speaker 3 (07:58):
I mean, it just comes out.

Speaker 4 (08:00):
So do you like make your own thing at the
top so it doesn't come out the side.

Speaker 3 (08:05):
Yeah, hopefully it won't be like overflowing. You don't have
to grab your neighbors, right, but then they have like
it's like you're at like the grocery store getting vegetables
and it has.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
A little like twist time.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
No, it's like it's a bag of cookies from Trader.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Joe's or something. Oh, I don't want to eat you
solid once. I'm just gonna wrap it down. But it
is size.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
I'm a good I'm a like good controlled barfer though,
so like it was fine, yeah real oh from practice?
Well yeah yeah, eating.

Speaker 4 (08:35):
Disorders tea with junior cope of therapy, very difficult time,
got real deep, real quick hours. It up.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
God, I wish i'd I knowing that about you.

Speaker 4 (08:49):
Cool lots of anorexics in house tonight and Billimix.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
Hey.

Speaker 4 (08:56):
I actually had my dentist when I was in college.
My dentist who doctor Brown, Who's my dentist all my
life since I.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
Was a baby.

Speaker 4 (09:04):
And I was like baby teeth, baby tea. I opened
my mouth and this is probably sophomore year in college,
and he goes, oh, no, are you vomiting. Oh, Doctor
Brown and I were the only ones that knew. I
was like, it's still not working, doctor Brown. This isn't
the diet they promised it would be. He was like,

(09:27):
don't drink fifty beers every night, Karen. I was like, sorry,
I have no control over that part, Doctor Brown.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
None of this is real.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
None of that part of the conversation happened. It's called
ad libbing. We love it.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
We love it. Thanks.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
What a What a historic place to perform in that
gorgeous song that I to mean so much, And what
a historic place to talk about barfing. Yes, it's pretty beautiful.
This is the most beautiful place I've ever talked about
barfing before.

Speaker 4 (10:05):
Now I want to see you do it myself. I
have to say.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
I'll let you know next time it's something going on
this tour. I want to see it.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
Okay, I had red wat too much red wine, you know,
ooh sort of thing.

Speaker 4 (10:15):
That would be a bad one. I know, because that's
going to stain me as well as you.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Wow. Yeah, this is clearly my favorite murder.

Speaker 3 (10:25):
Hi. Hi, Yeah, I'm a little nervous about this show.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
I don't know why, because Austin's cool people.

Speaker 4 (10:35):
Also school people. You know that it's comedy people. It's
very important. Yeah, it's also Texas. You guys have been
showing up for this podcast since day one, like big time.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:52):
I feel like when we were in New York and
I was like this is big at the weekend, I
go the same way where it's like, oh my god,
don't make them hate you on.

Speaker 4 (11:01):
This moment where it's all click click click. I saw
him live.

Speaker 3 (11:05):
That was it.

Speaker 4 (11:07):
I got it out of my system. Oh no, it
happens sometimes. Yeah, we'll think of something else, we'll make
croissants or something.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
It'll be fine. We'll be fine. Oh we got cookies
backstage too. Oh yeah, thanks for the cookies. Yeah, they're
so pretty. We love them. No, should be very good stage.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
Somebody with who clearly studied theater was like, you're welcome.
I used my diaphragm project your voice.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
There you go, there you go.

Speaker 4 (11:40):
Do you know you want to know a trick about
song performance? Yes, this is one of the only things
I learned in college, and because I took a class
it was stage performance for musical theater singing stage performance.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Back we got the musical theater crowd. I heard what
up nerds.

Speaker 4 (12:01):
So you guys already know this, so don't go get
bored as I tell you this. But as people in
musical sing, you just always have your arm going in
a different direction.

Speaker 3 (12:11):
Oh yeah, God.

Speaker 4 (12:12):
And the thing is if, like, if you're going to
sing about the horizon, you don't point to the horizon.
You like, sing about the horizon, but you point down there,
and then suddenly you're like, oh my god, I love that?

Speaker 3 (12:21):
Is it because someone's gonna you point the horizon and
the people are going to be like.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
Where's the horizon?

Speaker 3 (12:26):
Is there a horizon in here?

Speaker 2 (12:27):
Really a horizon? Okay? So it's just.

Speaker 4 (12:30):
Really just kind of go opposite of what you're talking about,
and it creates a bit of a cognitive dissonance in
the mind, and then the performance seems more important than
it actually is and you're not just singing about Oklahoma.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
Wow, that's really great. Thank you.

Speaker 3 (12:48):
I also need to learn how to sing and not
just hurt people's ears when I sing. But but I'll
do it this while I'm doing it, just.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
Give it a whirl.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
Yeah it will next time at karaoke. Okaye is Stephen
under here? No Steven's at home watching my cats, and
he keeps sending me the cutest photos, like.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
Really cute photos.

Speaker 4 (13:12):
I feel like, if there's anyone that was ever born
to be a cat, it's Steven Ray Morris.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yeah. Like if you don't know him, and maybe some.

Speaker 4 (13:20):
Of you don't, or you're like, who's this guy, it's
just if you picture cats sitter in your mind just
as fast as you can, that's.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
Him at a mustache boom.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
It's so funny because sometimes I get depressed when I'm
on the like when we're out touring, because I miss
my cats, and I'm like.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Are they okay? I don't know if they're beating them?
And I won't if he misses me, you know.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
Yeah at the part I trink too much red wine
to forget it. But like knowing Steven's there, like I
barely thought about them. No, I'm just like, no, they're
actually they like him a little better than me. Yeah,
he and he loves them more. He loves them way
more than I love, you know. And he just is
taking so many selfies with the cats. And I gave
him my Instagram, my cat Instagram password.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
Whoa, I'm just like, go crazy dude. That's real commitment.
Got me some followers with the work at Steven work it.
Let's got it together. Yeah, let's hear it for.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
Stephen Ray Morris.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
He makes it.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
He makes it all happen. We recently got asked if
we were really as mean to him in real life
as we are in the podcast.

Speaker 4 (14:23):
We are, but it doesn't matter because now he gets
anything that we get sent. They people send things to
Steven now too.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
Yeah, so he's just he's on the bandwagon.

Speaker 4 (14:34):
I think the dream is to start making enough money
that Stephen not only is able to come on tour
with us, but he is lowered.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
Down on a half moon at the top of the show.
Wouldn't that be good?

Speaker 4 (14:46):
Oh my god, holding a live hairless cat.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
Immediately that needs to happen to me. Yeah, should we
sit down look at these nice seats.

Speaker 4 (14:55):
I know these are some good young I think these
are kind of the nicest ones we've had in a while. Yeah,
I'm gonna do this though. Last time I really felt
like something rated like NC seventeen was happening Oh no,
while I was on stage. So I just like to
do a little less of the direct, like you didn't
pay extra for those seats, did you.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
You don't get to have that. Everyone look away real quick.
Oh there we go. These might be more form than function.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
All right, how's that? Did you hear that? You can
make it fart far fee so it feels a little unstable,
like you know what I mean? So one of us
might fall.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
Someone in the back that works hears crying.

Speaker 3 (15:41):
They're like, those are my good stools.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
I thought they would love them.

Speaker 4 (15:48):
I'm just like, yeah, it's just a li Oh, this
is perfect.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
I'll sit like this a three quarter and then when
I tell my murder, I'll.

Speaker 3 (15:58):
Just do this the and I'll do this, and then
I'll do this, and I just want to even look
at you the time.

Speaker 4 (16:05):
You're gonna share and stone this thing. I thought, that's
what I thought. That's what you were doing. I didn't
mean to put you in a bad place.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
No, I mean no, my mine as well. So I
can't sing and you don't want to see my underwear.
Those are the two. Those are my two rules. Yeah,
in life, you've got to have at least two rules.

Speaker 4 (16:25):
When you go on stage, and not showing people you're
underwear should maybe should be in there.

Speaker 2 (16:31):
If that's your thing.

Speaker 3 (16:32):
Sure, probably if you're a podcaster, right right, yeah, because man,
I don't spend enough money on laingerie because who cares.
Who's gonna target again? Bought mine from Target?

Speaker 2 (16:45):
Not like rich people.

Speaker 3 (16:46):
I mean, look, it works, Target works, and so we
work it. Yeah, I mean I need to get look,
I need to get eye drops, bananas and a brand
new coat. Where am I gonna go?

Speaker 2 (16:59):
And fucking owned a Target? Should we do our murders?
You want to I guys want to do. I want
to hear.

Speaker 4 (17:08):
So now I'm ready.

Speaker 3 (17:15):
Well, Karen, let me tell you what to you A murder?

Speaker 2 (17:22):
That was cool. It's like when you get your haircut.
So just you and you're like, why though, why come back?
Are you staying there? I don't want to be emphasized.
I was okay, Yeah, So how do we boo? Uh
oh boom? Yeah, where I break my own nose.

Speaker 3 (17:39):
We just got to a little You can tell I've
worked at an office for like ten years because I
know how to boot boop these chairs perfectly. Oh you
did it real subtle? What you mean you did little booboo?
Yeah boo, nice good work.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
I'm new to chairs. This is the listening arm.

Speaker 3 (18:02):
Yes, oh interesting, okay, I'm first, right, you're first this time?

Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yeah, okay, right now, thank you? Right, okay, I can
see I don't want to oh oh oh, you start
reading mine? Stop it. Georgia always knows that.

Speaker 4 (18:19):
Anytime her paper is a face up near me backstage
and I go and like anywhere new, She'll go, don't
be it, and I'm like, I am blind.

Speaker 2 (18:28):
I can't see anything.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
With no glasses on. I just love when it's a surprise.
I don't know why. It's like, doesn't make a difference.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
But I love it.

Speaker 3 (18:35):
It's our thing. It's our thing, just like the underwear rule.
It's ours, ours and ours alone.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
And one of the other reasons I'm nervous is because
this murder. Like when we knew we were coming to Austin, I,
like a baby brat, said I get this one, like
called it to Karen so hard and she was like,
go ahead. And then I took it on and I was.

Speaker 2 (18:56):
Like, this is hard. Uh shit, you know what were you? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (19:01):
Wait, is this the one you told me you weren't
going to do? I said I was going to do it,
and then I said, never mind, I'm not doing it,
and then I did it, and now you're about to
do it.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
I know I'm doing it. Okay, this is this is
the yogurt shot.

Speaker 3 (19:19):
Right now, We've got to figure out a way to
explain to people who like work here or might just
be passing through the room accidentally, what that moment is about.

Speaker 4 (19:37):
Yeah, because it's not what it seems. It's not what
it appears.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
That's a good point. Yeah, whatever'll worry about it. It'll
say there may be cheering for murders, but it's not
that exactly that. It's not really that. Yeah, but we
don't okay, Yeah, whatever, not our problem.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (19:59):
So in in Texas the early nineties, it's still a
relatively small college town feel where violent crime was fairly rare.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
And that all changed.

Speaker 3 (20:09):
On December sixth, nineteen ninety one, when thirteen year old
Amy Ayre's fifteen year old Sarah Harrison when they went
to I can't believe it's yogurt in a strip mall.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
It's like a really unfortunate name.

Speaker 3 (20:22):
No, listen. I wanted to laugh too, but I'm a professional,
so I didn't.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
But I heard a snicker and then I was like,
do we do that?

Speaker 3 (20:32):
Well? There's a whole run of yogurt. We could just
visit this for one second.

Speaker 4 (20:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (20:36):
In nineties, in the eighties and nineties, frozen yogurt was
like the penicillin of America. It came so hard for
us and we all bought it. Talks on hundred percent
were like in my mind, I was like, well, this is,
this is a diet. I'm going to eat this, only
it's yogurt. Yeah, and this is and now I'm going.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
To have like Joan Hughes high school experience.

Speaker 3 (21:02):
I didn't turn out that way now, but I still love.
I would get carib chips on mine because oh, hippie,
you are a big hippie. You aren't a big hippie.

Speaker 4 (21:11):
But the name's also so there was I can't believe
it's not yogurt.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
It was, I can't believe it's yogurt. I can't believe
it's yogurt.

Speaker 3 (21:18):
I had one across there at my house called frogen yoser.
It's just like you just can't name it, like my
my frozen yogurt.

Speaker 4 (21:25):
I worked in one in high school called how Sweet
it is Gotta But then it was almost like a
subtitle of we have yoga.

Speaker 3 (21:33):
Trust you'd think that since I love puns so much,
i'd love like a play on a name.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
But yes, you know, sometimes it's it's got to be simple.

Speaker 4 (21:40):
There's also the country's best yogurt, which if it's a chain,
how can that be?

Speaker 2 (21:45):
But let's not argue right now. Is it a franchise
or no?

Speaker 3 (21:50):
Okay, I can't believe it's yogurt in a strip mall
off West Anderson Lane to visit Sarah's seventeen year old
sister Jennifer and their friend Eliza to also seventeen, as
they closed up the shop around eleven pm. Remember when
you could just work at places by yourself until eleven pm? Sure,
just like hanging out closing shops by yourself.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
I totally can. I'm a sophomore, of course I can
do this business. And I have a key. Of course
I should all the keys and work this safe. Totally.

Speaker 3 (22:17):
Yeah, that's definitely something perfect sense. Well, so the girls
were gonna have a sleepover afterwards, so Amy and Sarah
came by to help.

Speaker 4 (22:25):
What just that they're like closing a business and then
going to a sleepover.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
That should be the Hey, like half of them can't drive.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
Yeah, and then they're so they're helping to close up,
which is so sweet.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
They're like, we'll help you mop so we can go hang.

Speaker 3 (22:39):
Out sooner and so so this was close to eleven
PM when Amy and Sarah showed up, and let's cut
to midnight. About an hour later, after the closes sign
had been turned, the front door was locked, and the
man who owned the shop next door called party House
spotted flames and smoke and call the fire department.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
Let's do the first picture, please.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
That's I can't believe it's yogurt exclamation mark.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
Fucked up right.

Speaker 4 (23:12):
I mean we really couldn't believe it was yogurt at
the time, and it just was tasted so much like
ice cream.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
It was like, am I a dairy queen? This is insane.
My life is so much better now, and yogurt's healthy.
I eat it all the time. And you're a hippie,
I mean all these things.

Speaker 3 (23:28):
That's such a nineties crime scene photo. Yeah, it's like
such a bummer.

Speaker 4 (23:34):
It should have like the digital date down to the bottom,
like your mom took the picture with her camera.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
Oh this is okay.

Speaker 3 (23:41):
I think what's so crazy about it is that this
is a really like almost suburban area, and this like
the strip malls, and like it's pretty safe and you
don't normally see seventeen fire trucks at a spot, so
I think everyone knew something was up.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, okay, you can take that off, thanks Burnett.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
Oh, I didn't mean it like that. I didn't.

Speaker 4 (24:06):
Sorry, No, No, that does not count against me this time.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
I did that cut that.

Speaker 4 (24:13):
Stephen that never happened in reality.

Speaker 3 (24:21):
Sorry, okay, you can take it down, because I want
everyone staring at me and not that horrible photo.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
No, today's the days she turns into a.

Speaker 3 (24:31):
Deepa I've been waiting till Austin don't really come out.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
And that's right, you all, No, I love you all well,
or we can leave it up. As they worked to
put out.

Speaker 3 (24:45):
The flames, the building was of course trampled by many
firefighters because I though thought it was just a fire.
And then one of the firefighters went in the back
door spotted a human foot inside the back door of
the storage room, like sticking out, and then shortly after
that they realized what was going on. The bodies of Sarah, Jennifer,
and Eliza were all found together in the storage area.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
They'd all been stripped.

Speaker 3 (25:10):
This is so they've all been stripped and two were
bound and three girls were shot in the back, and
the three girls were shot in the back.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
Of the heads with twenty two calibers.

Speaker 3 (25:18):
Eliza and Sarah had been stacked upon each other and
Jennifer was lying next to them, possibly having been moved
by the high powered fire hoses that had left the scene.
And then thirteen year old Amy was found a few
minutes later, lying alone. She was barely alive and she
was near the bathrooms. She had been initially shot with
the twenty two as well, but had survived that and

(25:41):
was shot again with a thirty eight and she died
shortly after. Some of the girls had been raped, but
it would be years before DNA testing would become available,
so investigators concluded that the fire was set to cover
up the crime, and the culprits had drenched tyrophonam cups
with lighter fluid and set them on fire.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
There was about five hundred.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
And forty dollars missing from the register, but investigators didn't
think the motive was robbery because there was also a
bank bag underneath the cash register and it had money
in it, and nobody took it. So I've been reading
the book Who Killed These Girls by Beverly Lowry, which
is a new book of simply about this crime. It's
really good and don't read it before you go to bed.

(26:27):
And so she says that some of the shortcomings of
the lesson experienced Austin PD. They talk about that a
lot fire and water damage, the lack of mode, of
multiple victims, the amount of people trapesing through the scene.
All should have been handled by investigators who had experience
in these kind of crime scenes, but they weren't because
Austin at the time didn't have that.

Speaker 4 (26:47):
Well, so when you think it's a fire, you're not
treating it like a crime scence.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
No, that's the exact opposite of how you had treated
a crime scene.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
Right, But as soon as that, like, as soon as
that happened, it should have been locked down. They should
have gotten someone in who was you know? But anyways, Yeah,
the bodies weren't swap for traces of an accelerant, the
bathrooms weren't dusted for fingerprints, the trash bags weren't comb through.
The metal shelves and mops that were next to the
girls when the fire started somehow ended up in the
alley and then they disappeared, most likely taken to the dump.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
So that's what happened during the investigation.

Speaker 3 (27:22):
Daryl Croft, who seems like a badass, he was a
former cop who ran a security company now and he
had been in the yogurt shop around ten o'clock that
evening buying yogurt, and while he was there, he told
investigators that he was approached by a man wearing a
military fatigue style jacket and he was telling the other

(27:44):
customers to go ahead of him for some reason, and
he asked Daryl if he was a cop because he
saw his car that had lights, the security lights on it.
And when he said no, he offered Daryl to go
ahead of him, and I think, like a normal text
and man he was like, no, you know, gruff his
go ahead kind of a thing. So then the man,
So Daryl said that when the man did go to

(28:05):
the counter in front of him, he ordered only a
can of soda, and then after he paid, he moved
around the counter and went to the back of the store.
And when Daryl asked where he'd gone, Eliza told him
that she'd allowed him to go to the back to
use the.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
Bathroom, so she didn't know him.

Speaker 3 (28:21):
Daryl hung around that for a counter for a few
minutes to see if the man ever returned, but he didn't.
He stayed in the back and then Daryl said there
was just something that didn't feel right, and when the
man just didn't return, Daryl left the store.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
That was around ten pm. He's got to have some guilt,
you know what I mean, what's it?

Speaker 4 (28:38):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (28:39):
Oh, I didn't know what was what's everyone doing?

Speaker 2 (28:43):
There was a hubbub. Well also, that's the.

Speaker 4 (28:45):
Thing of if he stays in the store and now
he's the weird guy in this totally.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
I mean, but I think he knew them, the girls,
Oh he did.

Speaker 3 (28:51):
Like small town he knew them even weirder, don't you.
Well yeah, he also he went to the he knew
them for the gym, so that would be weird too.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
Yeah, yeah enough.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
There was also a couple, an older couple, that visited
the store closer to closing time than Darryl on the
same night of the murders.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
They saw the two men.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
They saw two men sitting in a booth acting strangely.
The woman said they made her uncomfortable. The couple left
around ten forty five, as the girls began to close
up shop. They closed at eleven, and they left the
two men alone in the shop. So the policy of
the store was to lock the door ten minutes before
actual closing time, but you leave the key in the lock,

(29:33):
so everyone who's finishing up you can just easily let
them out. But nobody knew could come in, so the
door is locked. So these two creepy dudes were the
last customers in the store last night that night, and
about an hour later the fire was first noticed, So
that's okay. Eight days after the murder, however, Jennifer, Eliza

(29:55):
Amy and.

Speaker 2 (29:57):
Sorry.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
Eight days after the murders and stigators picked up a
sixteen year old kid named Maurice Pierce than North Cross Mall,
which is just a couple of blocks from the crime scene.
He was carrying a twenty two caliber handgun. During questioning,
he said that he'd lent the gun to a friend
Forrest Welburn, who was fifteen, and that they'd use it
to commit the yogurt shot murders, and Welborne denied any involvement,

(30:22):
but told investigators that he and Pierce and a pair
of acquaintances, Robert Springsteen and Mike Scott had taken a
joy ride to San Antonio and a stolen suv not
long after the crime, and so it put these two
other boys, Robert and Mike on the radar as well.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
Let's I have a photo of it. You commit the
next one? No, that's not it. Here we go, that's them.

Speaker 3 (30:49):
It's like, it just reminds me of Paradise Loss. What
do you think, guilty or not guilty?

Speaker 4 (31:01):
Oh shit, you're just saying that because of the mullet.
It's not fair. And I made sense back then. I
got people that Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1 (31:14):
My mom.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (31:16):
So so Wellborne's brought in for questioning by the detective.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
He passes a polygraph test.

Speaker 3 (31:21):
The ballistics of the gun didn't match up to the
bullets that had been used. There was no evidence to
link any of them to the crime, and detectives noted
that Pierce seemed to have a mental illness. But anyways,
they were dismissed as suspects and the case stalled.

Speaker 4 (31:36):
So it was Pierce the one that said he did it. Yeah,
and that so that's almost exactly.

Speaker 3 (31:42):
Yeah, the crime you just named, I was like innocent something.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
It just happened and we can't remember. Yeah, that's right,
because that's right. Okay.

Speaker 3 (31:57):
So five years later, and around three one hundred and
forty two suspects and fifty false confessions or confessions that
didn't pan out, a new detective, Paul Johnson, takes over
and he Okay, obviously it's one of those the cities
freaking the fuck out. Why haven't you caught the murders.
You guys are inept that sort of thing. And so
the cops do the thing that they always do, or

(32:18):
they're like, it's this guy, you know, because they're like,
we got someone. So Paul Johnson did that. He he
focused on the boys, the four boys, let's see. He
brought in Pier, Scott, Springsteen, and well Born for questioning.
Five years later, all of them died any involvement in

(32:38):
the murders at first, but after a series of intense interrogations,
Scott broke down and admitted that he helped carry out
the murders, saying he shot one of the girls in
the head.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
At Pierce's insistence.

Speaker 3 (32:50):
The police theory was that the four guys, this four teenagers,
planned to rob the yogurt shop. Three of them would
go in one of them would wait in the car,
but that something went right and the killing started. Then
the detective that had originally dismissed the boys as suspect
was never consulted by the new cop, so in nineteen
ninety nine all fourmen charged with capital murder. Springsteen admitted

(33:13):
to shooting one of the girls, but Pierceon Welmore never
admitted to killing and they were let go. So the
crazy one who started at all was let go, despite
having nothing but confessions to use against them, which by
then they had both recanted, saying that police had of
course coerced their statements.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
And there was even a photo.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
Of Paul Johnson holding a gun in the interrogation room
to the back of one of their heads. What yeah,
who took a picture of that?

Speaker 2 (33:39):
It's like a.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
It was a selfie. H it was surveillance video. Oh
the fucking oh oh shit. Yeah, So like that's kind
of cordial, not know, I mean, Jesus, well, he had
he had already put people away for false confessions that
later were exonerated by DNA and people admitting to it.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
So this was kind of his thing.

Speaker 3 (34:10):
And here he is.

Speaker 4 (34:11):
Now you get to say your side of things.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
I went to hometown murder is.

Speaker 3 (34:21):
Okay, so so but they're sentenced to So Springsteen sentenced
to death, Scott's sentenced to life in prison without parole
in two thousand and one and two. Then in two
thousand and seven knew and so that was two thousand
and one. New DNA evidence not available during their original
trials revealed a male's DNA on the youngest victim, Amy.

(34:45):
When the DNA was tested, it didn't match any of
the fourteens.

Speaker 2 (34:50):
Convictions were overturned.

Speaker 3 (34:51):
The cases were thrown out more than ten years after
they were arrested, so they were in jail for a decade. Yeah,
all right, So what really happened? So it wasn't until
two thousand and eleven that Carlos Garcia, the lead defense
attorney for Mike Scott, put the crime scene photos into

(35:13):
sequence looking for details that he might have previously missed.
This is fucking bananas. When he looked closely at a
specific crime scene photo, go When he looked at a
specific crime scene photo of the dining area of the store,

(35:34):
which wasn't that badly damaged by the fire, it showed
the room mostly clean for the night. Tables had chair
stacked on them. The napkin holders were full except for
one table, a booth in the back barely visible, and
also the booth that the elderly woman told the investigators
that the two sketchy men were sitting in close to
closing time, had no chairs on top of it, and

(35:56):
then napkin holder was empty.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
Okay, let's get that what for real? Yeah, right back there.
Oh no, and that fucked up.

Speaker 4 (36:08):
I got chills, like in the weirdest way up my
neck when you said that.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
Look at the napkin older. It's fucking empty, man. Yeah, dude,
every table has a chair on it.

Speaker 4 (36:21):
Also, look at that picture. I can't believe that's yogurt.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
I fucking can't believe. Oh my god. So like, yeah,
that's okay, close, unlock the door. While these guys finish up.

Speaker 4 (36:33):
They put that cop in the office. He flips down
that pictures. He's like screaming aloud by himself.

Speaker 3 (36:39):
I think everyone kind of went, oh fuck, we really
missed something. I think everyone kind of lost their minds.
So good for this dude fucking finding it. It's pretty amazing.
So so clearly they had been sitting there at closing time.
The girls were cleaning up around them. They let the
last stragglers stay, and at eleven o'clock the no sale

(37:04):
button was pressed on the register, so that's when they
think everything started.

Speaker 2 (37:09):
They asked for change, they did something.

Speaker 3 (37:11):
They held a gun up to their faces. Probably I
was like, give me all your money. That's true too,
one of those.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
For the meter.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
They started off nice?

Speaker 4 (37:26):
The fuck am I talking about?

Speaker 2 (37:29):
Can I get some quarters for the meter?

Speaker 4 (37:31):
It's eleven o'clock at night and I love yogaurls.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
I still can't believe. I still cannot believe this. This
is crazy.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
I need change. So the defense lawyers believe that's the
table where the killers sat. He was still in the
door when the fire started, which means the last customer
had never been let out. There was a rag on
the counter of as someone had been wiping down the counter,
and there was also an unopened can of coke sitting
near the register.

Speaker 2 (37:59):
Remember he ordered a can to coke?

Speaker 3 (38:00):
Yeah, the guy who they found and the register had
no sale at eleven o'clock and the money was stolen,
so that's when that probably started. And the killers likely
escaped out of the back door after they started the fire,
so they.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
Had an hour to do all of this.

Speaker 3 (38:15):
Neither Darylcroft or the older married couple were called to
testify at the teens trials, so it's not known exactly
what they saw because there's no testimony. So who killed
these girls has The book has a fucking detailed bananas
theory and it made me sick and not be able
to sleep.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
So if you're a.

Speaker 3 (38:34):
Creep like me, go read it. Not if you don't
like crime scene photos. There's not a single one in there.
But it's like reads like okay.

Speaker 4 (38:42):
Yeah, oh no, you talking about this before the picture
came up.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
I was like, oh I want.

Speaker 3 (38:47):
To go home.

Speaker 4 (38:48):
It's like something about that that's just so fucking It's
like the thing that's there that people cannot see.

Speaker 2 (38:54):
How did you want to say? Like how did they
not say this? But like I don't would any of us.

Speaker 3 (38:59):
No, it doesn't necessarily mean anything unless you put all
of this stuff together, Like there was two guys who
were there at the end of it, and like and
they didn't let people you know, it's just well, also,
you have the shock and horror of a town like
this and then four teenage girls being brutally murdered and
in a way.

Speaker 4 (39:19):
That's just there's so much grief, there's so much horror
and loss that, like, I think details always get missed
in that situation because it's everyone's just going fix it,
solve it right now. This has to be over.

Speaker 2 (39:31):
And everyone in town.

Speaker 3 (39:32):
And I think a lot of I've read a lot
of like hometown murders that people wrote, and they're like,
this is when we stopped being able to go out,
this is when the town wasn't the same anymore. And
I remember it being this stage in it happening, and
it's just it is such a horrible I mean, I've
kind of followed it since it happened, and I remember
seeing that recently and it's just one of those things
that keeps unfolding and getting more and more gross and horrible.

(39:57):
So many people think this the serial killer Ken McDuff
was the one the men and was one of the
men in the yogurt stores that night. He had kidnapped
and killed Colleen Reid on December twenty ninth, nineteen ninety one,
in Austin with an accomplice. That's twenty three days after
the yogurt shot murder. He had a history of multiple

(40:18):
murders involving teenagers, but he was soon.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
Ruled out of the crime.

Speaker 3 (40:22):
And I literally couldn't find anything more on this than
someone saying he flat out said, had I done it,
I would tell you because I'd be proud of it.
And then they're like, so it probably wasn't him, goodbye,
Like it's so, I feel.

Speaker 4 (40:35):
Like that's a trick. I feel like that's a trick
he would use.

Speaker 3 (40:39):
Yeah, it's just and it sounds well if you read
about his and I was scared that maybe you were
doing that murder and I was like, stealing your whatever.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
So much you're around me, I know, listen, but.

Speaker 3 (40:51):
This guy is a fucking monster animal, and from the
other crimes he's committed, he is absolutely capable of the
details that I read about in the book.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
It's it's not this is a crime that is not
four teenagers. You know, in my mind it could be wrong.

Speaker 3 (41:06):
But it's the sadistic serial killer who got let out
after eleven years as a known serial killer because there
was overcrowding in Texas prisons. Well, yeah, let those serial
killers go first, because there are people who smoke potty.

Speaker 4 (41:20):
Legally, So you've got to you've got to teach them. Yeah,
you've got to teach them. It's so easy to have
the answers when you have a pretty dress on and
a great stool.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
Yeah. So this Ken McDuff motherfucker is crazy.

Speaker 4 (41:38):
Wow, Well that's incredible. That also that like a suspect
that big.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
Would be in town, I mean in town.

Speaker 3 (41:44):
Yeah, and he killed this other girl with an accomplice.
So he works with two people like the two of
them regularly.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
It just it fits.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
And he's a rapist and he's just sadistic, So it
doesn't it doesn't.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
It adds up.

Speaker 3 (41:58):
Yeah, but it's rumored that he admitted to the day
he was put to death. Some people say he admitted
to the yogurt shot murders, so they think he did it.

Speaker 4 (42:10):
But what jailhouse gossip like, no one can confirm it.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
Yeah. Fuck yeah, Ken.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
Detectives are I know, this guy's a fucking creeper too.
If you see his photo, you're just like, oh, I
would never like let you in my store.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
I don't have it. Sorry.

Speaker 3 (42:26):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (42:27):
And I was trying so hard.

Speaker 3 (42:28):
There's like this guy. Daryld has a description of what
the guy looked like. And I was taking I was
looking for photos of him, and I was like, please
have a pointy nose, Please have a pointy nose, and
let he did it, and I was like, well, I'm
not showing that photo of him because he could have
punched himself in the notes. Yes, he doesn't line up
with what I wanted to, so I'm not going to
even acknowledge it because I don't have to because it's
a little more podcast.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
That's the way.

Speaker 3 (42:51):
So detectives are still working on finding more evidence in
the murders, but for now it remains an unsolved mystery.
And I have the photo of the girls if you
want to see them.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
I know, I'm sorry. That's Amy right there.

Speaker 3 (43:04):
That's Jennifer or sister Sarah, and that's Eliza, sweet baby angels.
Doesn't it horrify? They're sisters.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
We love sisters.

Speaker 4 (43:14):
I just, uh, this one hurts me bad.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
I know, I'm sorry. No, I mean, I hope yours
is funny.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
Now pull us up.

Speaker 4 (43:25):
You know, it's just like, that's what everybody looked like
at my high school. I know, you worked in the
yogurt shop we worked at. It was because the Noles
sisters worked there and so we it was like, oh,
do you want to work at the yogurt shop, Susie
Knowles can get a great job.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
Well that's what happened with these two girls. They were
best friends. She's like, let me get you the job
at the yogurt shop.

Speaker 3 (43:42):
And I wasn't going to post the photo because it's
so sad, but I'm like, that's not fair to them.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
You gotta like acknowledge, we gotta.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
Power through it.

Speaker 4 (43:50):
Yeah, it's just yeah, it could be all of us,
and any of us I know.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
Yeah, it comes out. So that's the yogurt shot murders.

Speaker 3 (43:59):
You're not as excited as you were in the beginning.
I can tell see how fucked up these live shows are.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
That guy's leaving.

Speaker 3 (44:06):
He can't fucking take it. I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
I'm so sorry you too. Oh we're fus.

Speaker 3 (44:13):
Fucking front row. This is bullshit. But like, actually we
could just see George's underwear and it's freaking a develop
So we're gonna go stand in the bed.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
We're fine with the murder.

Speaker 3 (44:23):
It's just that where are you getting those stripes?

Speaker 2 (44:25):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (44:26):
Those are clearly from four years ago, at least two
years ago.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
Everyone, I'll pick up a pair.

Speaker 4 (44:33):
That's literally there's like weird shreds coming off of them,
where you're just like, well, first of all, a where
did I buy these? And secondly did I only pay
ninety nine cents for them? And why won't I throw
them away?

Speaker 3 (44:45):
Everything you're saying. And then I think about like friends
who like buy expensive lingerie. And then I pull out
underwear and it's got the target you know when you
rip the tag off and it has the threads still
in it.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
Yeah, I don't cut that out. It's just like it's
all of my underwear have a little thread from the
tag I pulled off on it. And that's just what
I do.

Speaker 4 (45:05):
I want to know that people who wear like fancy
lingerie around, So what kind of day do you have
where that's that's something that you can make work underneath
until the night time.

Speaker 3 (45:20):
I don't if I lived alone, and when I did, oh,
they would just be as I would wear.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
Them like I wear some what not.

Speaker 3 (45:27):
I have to throw them away sometimes because I'm like,
it's just gonna think on this person, But I totally
am that person.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
I just wears seven year old underwear.

Speaker 3 (45:35):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (45:36):
I mean sometimes it feels like a victory to have
seven year old underwear, because you're just like you pick
it up and then you're just like, oh my god,
remember when.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
You had your fucking purple hair or whatever.

Speaker 3 (45:47):
Yeah, my good memories and knees.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
Moving on. That was a sidebar, Yeah, underwear sidebar. Uh.

Speaker 4 (46:03):
Well, because we're in Austin, I'm going to do this
Servant Girl Annihilator. Yeah right, it's the one that listen
if you google Austin's Serial Killer, that's.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
What comes up.

Speaker 3 (46:15):
It's like the first seven results.

Speaker 2 (46:17):
And this will light in.

Speaker 3 (46:18):
The mood a little I feel like, which is I
think this will lighten the mood a little bit? Yes
for sure.

Speaker 4 (46:22):
Oh yeah, vintage murders. Everyone's like vintage. There's annihilation. It's
what everybody likes.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
Yeah, all right.

Speaker 4 (46:31):
Uh. Sometimes when I'm writing this and I'm under pressure
because it's five oh five yep, and we have to
be here at six because the show starts at seven.

Speaker 2 (46:43):
I emailed this to vincat like five forty five. I'm like,
can you print this on me?

Speaker 4 (46:48):
Do you find that you're more you let yourself be
more of flowery and interesting as you write your as
you put it together.

Speaker 3 (46:55):
No. I started it like two weeks ago and I
was like, this is going to be so detailed and interesting,
and then I kept going back and be like I
don't have as much stuff as I thought I did,
and like fuck and like copying a pasting shit.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
Oh okay, no oh, because I get well. My only
point was just I do stuff.

Speaker 3 (47:11):
Like the year of eighteen eighty five, and.

Speaker 4 (47:17):
It was a difficult one for Austin, Texas.

Speaker 2 (47:21):
Now that guy leaves.

Speaker 4 (47:22):
Fuck, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine. He was just
here with this girlfriend anyway, He's never been into it.

Speaker 2 (47:32):
Now she has to watch football. It's a trade off.

Speaker 3 (47:35):
Thing happens a lot. Or wrestling maybe yeah, maybe some wrestling,
essial wrestling.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
She okay.

Speaker 4 (47:45):
In eighteen eighty five, here in your beautiful town, there
was an unprecedented axe murder crime spree that had the
entire city in a panic. By the end of the year,
there was a city wide curfew. Strangers were forced to
identify themselves or be run out of town Georgia.

Speaker 3 (48:03):
It was like cat, did my middle name's land?

Speaker 2 (48:08):
No out out, we don't know you.

Speaker 4 (48:11):
Citizens formed a vigilance committee to patrol the streets at night.
Downtown saloons were being forced to close at midnight.

Speaker 2 (48:19):
What insanity horror?

Speaker 4 (48:23):
It said, saloons and other raucous businesses. So what's that
you guys? Yeah, it's like cooorhouse. We're talking about horsa.

Speaker 3 (48:33):
I mean sex worker house, sex workers apartment building.

Speaker 4 (48:42):
At one point the city hired Pinkerton detectives to come
and try to find this man, but they couldn't do it.

Speaker 2 (48:50):
If a Pinkerton people can't find it, if the pinker
does can't find it.

Speaker 4 (48:54):
Four hundred men were arrested. No one was ever officially
charged for all the crimes. To this day, no one
knows for sure who the servant girl annihilator was.

Speaker 3 (49:05):
So it all.

Speaker 4 (49:05):
Started on the night of December thirtieth, eighteen eighty four,
at nine oh one West Pecan Street or Pecan.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
I don't know how you guys do it.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
I home Pekan beca Pecan, p Can percorn.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
It's pecorn.

Speaker 3 (49:21):
Okay, it's actually said Almond Oh Almond Street.

Speaker 4 (49:25):
Yeah, sorry, I'm from California. Nine oh one West Pecran Street.
A twenty five year old woman named Mollie Smith, who
was working in that household as a cook, was attacked
with an axe while she slept. Then the intruder dragged
her unconscious body out of the house into the backyard,

(49:49):
raped her, and then murdered her in the backyard.

Speaker 2 (49:51):
Rye fie, I mean, I why, it's a lot of that.

Speaker 4 (49:57):
No, just yeah, philosophically but also emotionally yeah yeah, okay,
and then also just why didn't you stay inside?

Speaker 2 (50:06):
Just dandside. That was my main why. But that sounds
shitt Is that the main why?

Speaker 4 (50:10):
I actually really wanted to, uh, but it turns out
I had to take a shower.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
I wanted to do a.

Speaker 4 (50:17):
Thing where I looked at what the full when the
full moons were because there's a lot of theories about
that part of it. When when this gets really bad
and this axe murderer in your town repeatedly kills a
ton of people, everybody goes nuts with the theories and
it's kind of awesome case. We'll get to it a
little bit. So Molly was the first victim five months later,

(50:38):
on May seventh, eighteen eighty five, at three Zho two
East Cyprus Street.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
Doctor Lucian B.

Speaker 4 (50:44):
Johnson has employed a cook name Eliza Shelley. Eliza is
a thirty year old mother of two young children. One
is six years old named Georgia. Okay, and one is
six months old. Eliza's husband is in prison and she
lives in doctor Johnson's home working for them with her children,

(51:05):
and she's described later as an excellent woman. On the
night of May seventh, and intruder breaks in and attacks
Eliza as she sleeps, murdering her.

Speaker 2 (51:18):
With an axe. So two weeks.

Speaker 4 (51:21):
Later, on May twenty third, at three Oho two East
London Street, in the home of Sophia Whitman.

Speaker 3 (51:29):
So basically Sophia had her house up.

Speaker 4 (51:31):
In the front and then there were apartments in the
back and back there a widow named Irene Cross lived
with her son Washington and her nine year old nephew, Douglas.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
And Douglas Washington. Uh no, Washington was the other son. Guy.

Speaker 4 (51:46):
Sorry, it's okay. We've got to be able to talk
about stuff like this. So that night, same intruder breaks
into Irene's apartment and murders her in bed with a knife.
Her son, Washington, who was adult I think he was
twenty four, was gone, he was out for the night.

Speaker 3 (52:08):
Douglas, the nine.

Speaker 4 (52:09):
Year old nephew, is the one of the only real
eyewitnesses of the servant girl annihilator, and when he talked to.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
The police, he described the police. To the police, the
person he saw was quote a big, chunky Negro.

Speaker 4 (52:25):
Man who was barefooted with his pants rolled up. What
So three months go by. Now we're at three hundred
East Cedar Street and it's the home of a man
named Valentine Weed.

Speaker 2 (52:39):
That's all one wants for Valentine.

Speaker 4 (52:41):
I mean, only great things are happening in that house
with Valentine Weed.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
She's so passed a block.

Speaker 4 (52:53):
So this is and this house is exactly a block
north of where Eliza Kelly was murdered. So a woman
named Rebecca Raimie, who was a fifty year old widowed
mother of three, got a job as a domestic servant
for the Weed family.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
She lived on the property.

Speaker 4 (53:11):
With her eleven year old daughter Mary, and Rebecca actually
came from a very prominent Austin family. Her brother, Edward Carrington,
ran the Carrington Grocery Store, which was one of the
first black owned businesses in Austin, and she also had
another brother who ran the nearby blacksmith shop. I couldn't
find I couldn't drag and drop this picture to give

(53:32):
it to Stephen to put in our thing. Oh I
bet I have a picture too. You can throw up
really whatever you have.

Speaker 2 (53:37):
Oh, look, there's your town. Remember when it was just
a grid? Where are we?

Speaker 4 (53:43):
It was so easy to ride your bike around with
your big beard or whatever. Oh but there was a
picture of Rebecca's family and they all have these amazing
like you know, like the coke model lady. They all

(54:05):
had like those tiny waist high neck lresses with a
big hat nail, super like, you know.

Speaker 2 (54:12):
Don't fuck with me. It was awesome. Yeah, don't fuck
with me. I'm about to faint for my organs.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
Yes, seriously, please don't fuck with me because I will
pass out.

Speaker 4 (54:24):
Okay, so she she is. When she is widowed, she
has to start working for herself. So she gets this
job and uh she works for the weeds.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
Uh so dumb, okay, so horrible pun but I'm not
gonna well do it? Do it?

Speaker 4 (54:43):
And intruder breaks into her bedroom window, beats her until
she's unconscious, then goes into eleven year old Larry's grown
drags her out into the backyard, rapes her, and murders
her with a fucking axe.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
All right, fuck?

Speaker 4 (54:58):
Uh so these this is when the rumors begin because
people start talking about this must be a supernatural being
because everyone's saying that the nights these attacks occur, no
dogs bark, so there are dogs in the next door
neighbor's yards. When he pulls people out into those yards,
no dogs are barking, and they can't figure out.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
Why you have a mistake. Oh for a mistake? Well
hold on, it's just well good night everybody, thanks so much.

Speaker 3 (55:32):
I mean you guys have seen cartoons, right, and they're
like trying to sneak in and they're just like, you.

Speaker 4 (55:36):
Just got a steak and then the dog eats it
and pulls out a cat cats skeleton for I mean
fish skeleton forget it all right, okay, okay, So among
those because also there was many nights it was either
a full moon or there was just a lot of moonlight.
So people don't understand how this person's getting away with it.

(55:59):
A lot of people think you might be invisible. Uh,
there's a there's an invisibility factor to it.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
Look here he is now.

Speaker 4 (56:10):
Nothing moving on? Why is every page upside down?

Speaker 2 (56:18):
I think this makes sense. Trying to do this right
on a month later on.

Speaker 3 (56:24):
The night of is that right?

Speaker 2 (56:26):
Yeah? Yes, his three months.

Speaker 4 (56:29):
Went by, so a month later. And this is also
the thing that they're spaced out in this really interesting
way where he like has a bunch of murders, then
rests for three months and has a classic serial killer
on the night of September twenty eighth, at the residence
of William B. Dunham's house. It's at two four zero
eight Guadaloupe Street.

Speaker 2 (56:48):
Do you live there, Guadaloupe. I'm not talking to you anymore.

Speaker 3 (56:57):
So, man, he's nervous about Texas. This is nothing compared
to we've had, well, we've had to be born.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
Sure.

Speaker 4 (57:08):
So in this house in the back, there's a cabin
in the back of the house where twenty five year
old Orange Washington and his girlfriend, twenty year old Gracey
Vance are sleeping, and the intruder once again breaks in
and he murders Orange in his sleep and then drags
Gracie into the backyard, rapes her, and murders her. Three

(57:31):
months later, Christmas Eve. It's a two oh three Water Street.
It's the home of Moses Hancock, so forty one year
old Susan Hancock, who is the mother of two girls.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
It's Christmas Eve.

Speaker 4 (57:43):
They're out at a Christmas party and she is asleep in.

Speaker 3 (57:47):
One of their rooms. It's not a happy marriage. Moses
is sleep in the other room.

Speaker 4 (57:52):
Let's not talk about it, it's none of our business.
So an intruder breaks into the house, into the room, grabs.

Speaker 2 (58:00):
Her, drags her into the backyard.

Speaker 4 (58:03):
Now because up with that right, he wants to be outside.
He wants to be under the moon like a fucking
were wolf, which brings us back to the supernatural element
of trying to introduce him to this podcast. In two months,
we're going to be all were wolves.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
I can't wait. And no one ever listened again. Uh okay.
So her husband, Moses, is sleeping the other room. He
wakes up because he hears a noise, goes outside. There's
a man murdering his wife in the backyard. He tries
to attack the man. The man turns around, starts hitting

(58:41):
him with the axe, and.

Speaker 4 (58:42):
Then brings away. So he's very badly injured. Four days later,
missus Hancock dies from her injuries. So then when he recovers,
mister Hancock is arrested for the murder of his wife.

Speaker 2 (58:55):
Yes, yes, he got a fucking hatchet in the face. Yeah,
but it does any one can do that. His daughters
both come to his defense.

Speaker 4 (59:05):
They say he's never been he's a lovely father, he's
never been bad to any of us.

Speaker 3 (59:09):
But a family of Susan Hancock.

Speaker 4 (59:12):
A test that Moses was a vicious drunk and that
Susan was about to leave him, And later they find
this letter that she wrote to him but never gave
to him in her belongings that read, dear husband, I've
lived with you for eighteen years and have always tried
to make you a good wife and help you all
I could. I have loved you and followed you day
and night. You won't quit whiskey, and I am so nervous.

(59:33):
I can't stand it. You know, it almost kills me
for you to drink. And Lena is almost crazy and
will lose her mind.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
She fucking puts it on her daughter.

Speaker 4 (59:41):
Lena is a nut, and it's your fault. If I
was to do anything to disgrace you and our children,
you would leave me. You would have quit me long ago,
which is a good point. And then she says, take
care of yourself. Write me at Waco. I will answer
every letter your wife until death, sue Hancock. But then

(01:00:02):
she doesn't leave him, she stays, so, honey, So everyone's like, oh,
how convenient, But now your wife has been murdered in
the backyard. But Moses Hancock is never convicted for the
murder of his wife. On the very same night, Christmas
Eve at three h two Hickory Street, Ula Phillips, who

(01:00:22):
is a seventeen year old wife and mother of one.

Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
What the hell you want to hear about it?

Speaker 4 (01:00:30):
She got married off in an arranged marriage when she
was no fourteen and then had a baby a year later,
and so strangely enough, it turned out she wasn't that
happy in the marriage because she had to marry a
guy that was I think he was twenty one when
she was fourteen.

Speaker 3 (01:00:49):
I mean, it doesn't matter at what age, great desin
it sucks. Yeah, yeah, it does matter a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
That's right. You're right. We've gone into an area where
you're fourteen.

Speaker 4 (01:01:06):
You probably have a retainer and you won't stop talking
about skittles, and you shouldn't have your own baby. Maybe
some do it and some do it. Great anyway, So
she had actually already taken the baby and left her husband, James,

(01:01:27):
because he was also a huge drinker.

Speaker 2 (01:01:29):
What's going on Austin.

Speaker 4 (01:01:31):
It's all anyone did in the eighteen hundreds.

Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
And still do Yeah, rock on.

Speaker 4 (01:01:40):
Then single sad tear for me not being able to
I had all mine already, met me.

Speaker 2 (01:01:49):
Bars, read wine, you pull.

Speaker 3 (01:01:51):
Out a drink from down here, okay.

Speaker 4 (01:01:54):
So she left him, and while she was gone, she
ended up having an affair with a wealthy, well connected
man named John Dickinson.

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
Got that girl, but then James, that's right.

Speaker 4 (01:02:08):
But then James got a job, he stopped drinking, got
his whole act together, and he went and found her
and he was like, please take me back.

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
I want to make this work. Are you wealthy?

Speaker 3 (01:02:16):
Yeah yeah, And she's like, well I'm seventeen, so okay yea.

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
So she goes back.

Speaker 4 (01:02:25):
But then this night, on this night of Christmas Eve,
she had snuck out of the house and she had
gone to one of the basically the eighteen hundreds version
of a hotel motel, and they didn't no one knows
who she was going.

Speaker 2 (01:02:39):
There to meet.

Speaker 4 (01:02:40):
But she went there, asked for a room, and the
person that ran and said no rooms tonight, And so
she went back home and within an hour she was dead.
She was attacked with an axe while she was sleeping,
she was dragged into the backyard.

Speaker 2 (01:02:54):
She was raped and murdered. Her husband heard her.

Speaker 4 (01:02:58):
Being attacked, runs outside, also attacked, and he's very badly wounded.
But he is arrested, tried, and convicted for her murder.

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
So we think he did it.

Speaker 4 (01:03:08):
It knew, Okay, I do he The prosecution painted him
as a violent, jealous drunk, but eventually the case is
overturned because his lawyer argues that he never knew about
her affair, So how.

Speaker 3 (01:03:23):
Could he be jealous? Hey, wrap that up, nice, little,
easy peasy, you old drunk.

Speaker 2 (01:03:33):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:03:34):
So here's a couple of things, A couple interesting trivia facts.

Speaker 2 (01:03:37):
All of the.

Speaker 4 (01:03:40):
All of the victims that were left behind that their
husbands didn't come upon them. They were all posed in
the same manner. I could not find what that manner
was on the internet. Maybe someone knows. I like to
picture it was kind of a beechey thing like this,
But that's more of a defense mechanism, because this is
fucking horrifying.

Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
This is worse.

Speaker 4 (01:04:03):
Six of the murdered women had a sharp object inserted
into their ears.

Speaker 2 (01:04:08):
The worst, oh air, the worst? Oh have you like?

Speaker 3 (01:04:14):
Yeah, it's not the same thing as stabbing yourself with
a cue tip.

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
Georgia like, but just don't even say it out loud.

Speaker 4 (01:04:19):
But it's so bad that that's as bad as you
want to imagine it being.

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
That's how bad that is. Yeah, that's how I can
even go too.

Speaker 3 (01:04:27):
Here's my favorite.

Speaker 4 (01:04:29):
At several of the crime scenes, bloody footprints were found
and the uh right foot was missing a left toe.

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
Ooh, no, that doesn't work.

Speaker 4 (01:04:44):
The right foot was missing a big toe.

Speaker 2 (01:04:47):
Shut it up up.

Speaker 4 (01:04:49):
Oh my god, perfectionism with the words and the details.

Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
I didn't I didn't catch it. I was like, uh huh,
it's right there. I wrote it right there on the page.

Speaker 4 (01:05:02):
I can do it whenever I want, even twenty minutes
before left toe send.

Speaker 3 (01:05:08):
Print saying board forever.

Speaker 4 (01:05:16):
If you guys hadn't made a collective Austin based grown,
we had been like, great, no, left toe sounds good.

Speaker 3 (01:05:23):
If you're new to the podcast, this is basically what
it's like. What happened is now if someone says something wrong,
the other one not knowing it, and then moving.

Speaker 2 (01:05:32):
On, it's like living Twitter, but the best kind. Yeah, Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:05:38):
There were lots of quote unquote eyewitnesses during this murder spree.
So the killer was variously reported to have been a
white or dark complexioned or yellow man wearing lamp black
to conceal his actual skin color, which because there were

(01:05:59):
so many lamps around, so you were just like you
did do it's so many murders. He was also described
as a man wearing a Mother Hubbard style dress.

Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
Why yes, so much worse.

Speaker 3 (01:06:14):
It's yes, this is your kind of story, is mother Howard?

Speaker 2 (01:06:20):
And now this mother Goose is the one with all
the kids underneath.

Speaker 4 (01:06:23):
He's like, I'm an axe murderer and I have children
under my dress.

Speaker 2 (01:06:26):
Oh no, how fucked up is that? They're into it.
They're into murder too, and they all come out and
they're like, pray love murder. Fuck uh.

Speaker 3 (01:06:37):
He was also described as being a man wearing a
slouch hat. That's pretty hip.

Speaker 2 (01:06:41):
I don't know what that is. What if it's just
a cat and hat.

Speaker 4 (01:06:47):
That motherfucker he's always up to no good. It's just
the cat and hat, Like I did some murders in
the eighteen.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
Hundreds, No big deal. Who fish Bowl.

Speaker 4 (01:07:00):
Also a man wearing a hat and a white rag
that covered the lower part of his face. That's the
elephant man got it together eyewitnesses. There is also a
story about a Malay cook. I'm assuming that means Malaysian,
but I'm not sure. And it's fun to walk the

(01:07:20):
line of this could be intensely offensive and racist, but
I found it on.

Speaker 2 (01:07:26):
I think they would have corrected Wikipedia. There would have
been a huge.

Speaker 4 (01:07:29):
Malay response by Malaysian. So the story was that there
was a Malay cook calling himself Maurice had to can't not.
He had worked at the Pearl House in eighteen eighty
five and he left some time in January of eighteen

(01:07:50):
eighty six, which is exactly the timeframe of these axe murders,
and the.

Speaker 2 (01:07:55):
Last in the killing of Miss Hancock and Miss u
of Phillips.

Speaker 4 (01:08:01):
The former occurred during on Christmas Eve, that was just
before the Malay departed, and then that's when the murders ended. Wow,
So they think he did it, and they also think
that he went he got on a boat and he
went to England and he.

Speaker 2 (01:08:18):
Became Jack the River Shut up. Don't you love it?
I love it? The Malay that you.

Speaker 4 (01:08:30):
Never saw coming is actually the star of the show.
Just a low key Mulay named Maurice.

Speaker 2 (01:08:38):
That's like, guess fucking what. My name's not Jack.

Speaker 4 (01:08:44):
But people love to theorize, don't, especially when we don't
know anything that's real.

Speaker 2 (01:08:51):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:08:52):
I also introduced the idea that the Servant Girl Annihilator
could also be the Axe Man of New Orleans.

Speaker 2 (01:08:58):
Yeah, who for that?

Speaker 4 (01:09:00):
That was my very bold and brave theory that I
pulled off of Wikipedia because he was he was in uh,
he was doing it in the nineteen fourteen, nineteen sixteen.
Who knows all competing theories, anything's possible.

Speaker 2 (01:09:16):
Here's the most interesting.

Speaker 3 (01:09:18):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (01:09:18):
I love it.

Speaker 4 (01:09:19):
In February of eighteen eighty six, at a saloon in
the East Austin, a nineteen year old cook named Nathan
Elgin was verbally and then physically attacking a woman in
a bar with such viciousness that it scared the rest
of the patrons of the bar into silence. He then
dragged her out of the bar and down the street

(01:09:42):
to his sister's house and inside so can you.

Speaker 3 (01:09:46):
M oh my god, right, so many questions, Yeah, of
how are you just sitting there?

Speaker 2 (01:09:51):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:09:52):
Right?

Speaker 4 (01:09:52):
And okay, go on, But also how scary was the
guy that everyone's like I've got two guns right now,
and I'm still too scared to go after I'm made
of guns.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
It's what I do for a living.

Speaker 4 (01:10:04):
I'm a cowboy in Austin, Texas.

Speaker 2 (01:10:07):
You go ahead and take her. That's fine.

Speaker 4 (01:10:12):
So the barkeeper and another man chase him, and somebody
else goes and gets the sheriff. They all end up
at this house and inside he's attacking this woman.

Speaker 2 (01:10:23):
He's on her.

Speaker 4 (01:10:25):
He's got a knife, and they start to tussle with him.
He basically essentially brandishes the knife and the sheriff shoots
him dead. I think I have a picture of that
sheriff if you want to skip ahead.

Speaker 2 (01:10:36):
It's pretty epic. Okay, let him No, it's not very shit.
I saw him walking down the street today.

Speaker 4 (01:10:50):
Remember now he roast coffee beans for a living, but
he used to be the sheriff.

Speaker 3 (01:10:58):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:10:58):
I love him so much.

Speaker 4 (01:11:01):
The Austin vampire, the hip vampire that's been alive for
ten thousand years, just doing right by everybody.

Speaker 3 (01:11:11):
Anyhow, here's the thing.

Speaker 2 (01:11:13):
He shoots in.

Speaker 4 (01:11:15):
I had his name on here somewhere, it's long gone.
The sheriff shoots this guy, and then when they take
off his shoe.

Speaker 2 (01:11:23):
No, no big chow on his right foot. Motherfuckers. Yes, no,
it was him, It's totally him.

Speaker 4 (01:11:30):
Well they don't know, and they couldn't prove it because
the guy was dead.

Speaker 3 (01:11:34):
But there were no more X murderers after that day.
Formal Asian guys like, they kind of drove me out
of Austin.

Speaker 2 (01:11:41):
I really wanted to stay here. Yeah, I never killed anyone.

Speaker 3 (01:11:44):
And this guy in public, Maurice.

Speaker 4 (01:11:48):
Maurice is like, it's freezing in London. What about the
fuck you guys? I was a really good cook. It's rude. Wow, yeah, dude, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:12:00):
That's it. Sorry, thank you, that's great.

Speaker 3 (01:12:07):
A rap uh I think we're yeah, yeah, you guys,
we don't have time to know a home down word
and we're so.

Speaker 1 (01:12:15):
Sorry you can't.

Speaker 2 (01:12:17):
Ye'll know you're not allowed to.

Speaker 3 (01:12:19):
And I'm so fummed because I know from Twitter that
we have a crime scene investigator on the home hites.

Speaker 2 (01:12:24):
I'm so in the office.

Speaker 4 (01:12:26):
Can we bring the house slights up for one second,
just so we can look at a crime scene investigator in.

Speaker 3 (01:12:29):
Real life, and we turn them up just slightly slightly,
and then don't stand uppreciate a crime investigatory.

Speaker 2 (01:12:38):
Shorry. Oh you're sorry.

Speaker 3 (01:12:42):
She's wearing a toxic masculinity shirt. But she can't wear
that just to work, almost to school, Like.

Speaker 2 (01:12:47):
Can I just ask you a quick question? Don't answer
for her?

Speaker 4 (01:12:50):
Do you feel crime scene tape and take it to
your home like we do post it notes?

Speaker 3 (01:12:57):
Do you just.

Speaker 2 (01:13:03):
No, she's not talking to me. We're very excited her here.

Speaker 4 (01:13:10):
Thank you for sending us that message. It's always very
exciting when actual professionals are like, we don't hate what
you're doing, so very fun.

Speaker 2 (01:13:19):
We're going to be back here a lot. I feel
like we really love Austin, Texas. How can we not?

Speaker 3 (01:13:26):
You guys have so much murder in this state that yeah,
we could do the rest of our shows here.

Speaker 2 (01:13:31):
Yeah, then we'd be fine. It'd be very cool. And
you guys are awesome and.

Speaker 4 (01:13:35):
Our numbers are so bafflingly high in Texas that all
the people that we're in Feral are like, is one
are one of you from Texas?

Speaker 2 (01:13:43):
Like what? Why?

Speaker 3 (01:13:45):
And we don't know? But we love you for it.

Speaker 2 (01:13:47):
Thanks so thank you so much, you guys.

Speaker 1 (01:13:50):
Stay sexy by

Speaker 2 (01:14:00):
Please please prays things pleas