May 13, 2025 • 29 mins
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Podcast. Reviews and recommendations! Summer Bucket lists are the best! Ready to embark on a podcast journey to three different tropical islands? In Season 3, Episode 11 of One Good Thing Media, host Jeryl Spear shares vacation-themed podcast adventures for perfect audio escapes to your own fantasy island vacation.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Welcome to One Good Thing Media, your official
podcast review channel.
We search the vast digitallandscape on a daily basis to
discover the best shows thatpodcasters have to offer.
Are you ready to discover newfavorites to add to your
playbook?
Stay tuned and listen to hostGerald Spears' latest podcast
reviews.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Hello, lovelies, welcome to Season 3, Episode 11
of our One Good Thing MediaPodcast.
This is Gerald Spear, yourtrusty host and tour guide.
This is Gerald Spear, yourtrusty host and tour guide.
This week launches our annualvacation extravaganza.
When the weather's warm andwe're ready to rumble, we know
(01:14):
you want to hit the road too,and for this episode it's going
to be all about island escapes.
As for our family, the weatheris warmer, the sun is shining
brighter and we are itching toenjoy the great outdoors.
(01:36):
So are you ready to set themood for your next tropical
getaway?
Today, I'm sharing podcaststhat are mostly crime light,
with a bit of fluff thrown in tosweeten the pot, and one of a
more serious nature that reallyserves as a warning if you're
thinking about getting away toofar away.
So buckle up, because we'rehitting the road and taking you
(01:59):
along for the ride.
Your mind.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
This week we decided to lounge beachside in the
sultry heat of Florida a statethat we craved to visit every
(02:35):
year.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
After spending six months in chilly mountain
weather, we imagined ourselvessipping pina coladas with our
toes buried in warm sand.
But wouldn't you know it, eventhough we traded our towering
peaks for palm trees, we'recurrently huddled in our hotel
room with a view of the oceanand the downpour that's beating
(03:00):
on our windows so hard that I'mexpecting for the glass to break
any time.
Even so, you know, life ispretty sweet.
The rain will pass and in themeantime, I have you and a lot
of great shows to keep meentertained.
And luckily for this littlepodcast junkie, my vacation
(03:22):
playlist is locked and loadedand ready to send us on three
wildly different adventures.
One to the steamy shores ofFlorida.
Then I'm going to transport usto a fictional dot in the ocean
called Sex Island, a dark comedythat liberally spoofs the most
(03:44):
cringeworthy reality shows andno, this is not about Jeffrey
Epstein.
And to wrap things up, we aregoing to be transported to a
private island off the coast ofPanama.
So are you ready for somequality vacation time?
I am.
(04:05):
Let's get rolling.
(04:38):
The first show that I'm coveringtoday is called Love Murder
Florida.
It is a deliciously clevermurder mystery soaked in scandal
, fargo-esque comedy and steamyfun.
Lead character Ruth, played byactress Tammy Cates, has always
(04:58):
played it safe and it's onlygotten her trampled on for her
entire life.
In fact, if she were to take ona new middle name, it would be
Dormat.
The most recent egregious actsthat have been put upon her were
by her husband, who left herfor another woman, and then by
(05:20):
her longtime so-called friend,jane, played by actress Jane
Lynch, who stole the mostlucrative contract from Ruth's
bus company, despite being partof her life since high school.
Discouraged, disappointed andat her wit's end, ruth escapes
(05:41):
for a mental wellness vacationto Florida, and this is when
Ruth's one-person pity partyturns into a salacious event
Sandwiched in between pinkflamingos, mexican palms and
mojitos.
Ruth has a serendipitousencounter with a much younger
(06:05):
beefcake named Logan, who endsup showing her the wildest time
of her life Sex, booze and drugs.
And I'm just getting started.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Someone is dead because of me.
Constance you're supposed to beon the road, already On a hop.
Yeah, give me that, look, seewhat happens.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Starring Glee and Best in Shows, Jane Lynch.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Sometimes I think that I might be Jane's only
friend.
We lost the Timber Grovecontract, what To who you can
ask your friend Jane, and whatare you going to do about it?
Speaker 4 (06:54):
It started as a simple feud between rival bus
companies, but that's not whereit ended.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
I'm going to Florida.
I can't look at another bus.
Hey Ruth, you need to get laid.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
It was supposed to be just a fling.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
In the sun, his body glistened.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Water dripped down his chest, it became something
dangerous.
What would happen if?
Speaker 5 (07:19):
Jane wasn't around.
What if?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
she was gone.
Like to Europe or somethingsomething, a dark crime story
with a dash of florida strangeare you?
Speaker 6 (07:31):
kidding me ruth.
We can leave now, no one wouldprosecute this.
Or we can finish it now, and noone will ever know murder's
hard work, ruth, you can'thalf-ass it.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Maybe we deserved each other.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
If you like Better Call Saul or the White Lotus
crime and dark comedy fromVoyage Media, producers of the
hit podcast Red Meat Village,love Murder, florida, available
on Apple Podcasts, spotify andanywhere you listen to podcasts
(08:08):
there.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I was drunk enough to make bad decisions, but sober
enough to know it.
Were I sober as a judge, thoughLogan's eyes would still have
intoxicated me.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
So when he casually alluded to Jane dying, I heard
myself say how you know, Iusually don't give unsolicited
advice, but if Ruth were herewith me right now I would look
her in the eyes and say Ruth,honey, you should going to love
(08:44):
this podcast.
It's called Murder on SexIsland.
(09:28):
It's actually an audiobookwritten and narrated by Joe
Firestone.
The plot goes something likethis when a cast member goes
missing from the hit realityshow Sex Island, the producer
hires Luella Van Horn to goundercover as a contestant and
(09:49):
solve the crime.
What the show team doesn'trealize is that the enigmatic
Luella Van Horn is actually aplain-dressed, mousy woman named
Marie Jones, a divorced,ex-social worker and sad sack
from Staten Island who isleading a double life as a sexy
(10:13):
private eye, being a couchpotato IRL, with TV being her
only company.
Marie is unable to resist theopportunity to become part of
her favorite trashy TV show.
So Marie Azluella accepts thegig and jets off on a journey of
(10:34):
liberation and intrigue.
First Shocked, she realizesshe's expected to go undercover
without much cover, as in abeach babe wearing nothing more
than a fig leaf and two stringsand acting like a nympho between
the sheets.
How's she going to get aroundall of this?
(10:57):
Why is there a body in herbathtub and what are the sleazy
producer and director up to?
And what are the sleazyproducer and director up to?
You'll need to turn out bytuning in to this spoof to find
out the whole story unfolds over13 episodes and will keep a
(11:22):
smile pasted on your face allday.
Speaker 7 (11:25):
This is Murder on Sex Island, written by Joe
Firestone and read by JoeFirestone, and both of that's me
.
That's both of those of me.
Chapter One Like my forefathers, gene Simmons and Christina
Aguilera, my life began inStaten Island.
The first 25 years of my lifewere going somewhat according to
(11:46):
plan.
I was an underpaid socialworker.
I got married to a man I knewfrom high school and, to top it
all off, I was dead inside.
What can I say?
It's a Staten Island way.
When most grown people get bored, they cheat on their spouses,
they start buying lotterytickets, they develop a drug
habit Not me, though.
No, sir.
When I need to fill a gapingvoid in an otherwise predictable
(12:07):
, monotonous life, I like tothink outside the box.
So I made up an alter ego namedLuella Van Horn, who solves
crimes.
Is that the worst thing in theworld?
In theory, no.
When I slap on a blonde wig,fake white teeth and some red
lipstick, I become PrivateDetective Luella Van Horn.
Suddenly, I'm a woman who knowswhat she wants and gets it.
(12:28):
People start paying attention tome.
They tell me things they're notsupposed to.
The powerful see me as an allyand the weak see me as a threat.
I think it's probably becauseof the teeth Growing up.
All I wanted was to be someonelike Luella Van Horn, to have
people finally look at me like Ihave something to offer,
something they want.
When you're mousy, nobody careswhere you're going at night.
(12:50):
When you come back to the houseat 2 am and your husband
sleepily asks were you gone?
You can say no and he'llbelieve you turn over and go
right back to sleep.
Nobody bothers to ask whyyou're spending thousands of
dollars on blonde wigs made withreal human hair and going to
the dentist for teeth molds andmaxing out your credit cards at
Sephora.
They've barely noticed.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
In this clip it is showtime for Luella Van Horn.
She walks on set for the firsttime, meets a lot of the
archetypes that I talked aboutearlier and, because they were
filming this, it was her firstintroduction to her future
audience.
Speaker 7 (13:31):
Two minutes on the dot later, issa wrangled me back
, leading me to a large beachhut covered in tropical flowers.
As we got closer I recognizedPhil and waved to him.
He waved back and I blushed,absolutely humiliating.
I felt like an eighth grader.
Phil was standing with a fewother cast members I recognized
as Tasha, sarah, david N, nate,ethan and Blair.
(13:52):
Oh, I loved Blair.
She could be so mean.
One time she stuck a wad ofchewed gum in Sarah's long
blonde hair because she couldn'tfind a trash can In a
confessional.
She once told millions ofviewers that Nate's balls
smelled like Lipton soup mix.
She had curly brown hair, aflat stomach and I'll say it,
breasts the size of cantaloupes.
It's possible Blair was made ina lab for reality TV.
(14:17):
As I approached the group, issamade introductions hey folks,
this is Luella.
She's going to be joining us asa wild card.
Me the wild card Hi.
I tried hard to swallowanything that could be
misconstrued as fangirl energy.
The collective group murmuredsome casual hellos.
Nate even flashed me a peacesign For them.
(14:37):
I gathered this was just atypical Wednesday.
They all looked so different inperson.
David N wasn't nearly as skinnyand I noticed for the first
time he had bright green eyes.
On television Ethan lookedpractically orange, but here he
just looked like a guy who gothis money's worth at the tanning
booth.
I could see Sarah's individualtoe rings.
I counted seven.
(14:57):
Issa got a far off look assomeone spoke into her earpiece.
All right, in a few minutesLuella's going to be coming in
through the hibiscus arch cameralift.
I need jealous reactions fromSarah and Blair and a sexy
reaction from Nate.
I tried to remind myself thiswas somehow detective work.
Phil spoke up.
Hey, issa, I'd like to do asexy reaction too.
(15:17):
Nate let out an exasperatedwhine.
Why can't I be the only sexyone for once?
Issa held up her finger,waiting for the person in the
earpiece to respond.
Okay, we're gonna have bothNate and Phil giving sexy
reactions.
Nate sulked.
Issa continued Ethan and Davidin.
Let's have you wrestling in thebackground, and Tasha, we just
(15:38):
want you to stand there.
Tasha crossed her arms andlooked toward the ocean, her
long black hair shining in thesun.
No bitch, she said under herbreath.
For what it's worth, tasha didtechnically just stand there.
I was amongst professionals.
I was escorted to the hibiscusarch camera lift.
Issa got that far-off lookagain, as someone in her
(15:59):
earpiece gave her furtherinstructions.
A sound guy came over to giveme a microphone pack on a
lanyard.
As he placed it around my neck,he muttered just don't touch it
and you'll be good.
I'd once heard that samesentence from my 85-year-old
male gynecologist.
Issa addressed me Luella,you're going to walk through the
hibiscus arch, shake your hairand give a smoldering look to
camera.
This footage will be in slowmotion, so try not to blink at
(16:21):
all and stop covering your body.
That's why you're here, readyin 4, 3, 2, action.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
And there you have it Just a small snippet of 13
episodes and multiple.
My last review for today is atrue crime tale that's
(17:02):
definitely not family friendly.
It has to do with an Americanexpat named William D Holbert,
aka Wild Bill, who fled Americansoil as a wanted man in the mid
2000s.
After fleeing to Panama, wildBill escalated his criminal
(17:24):
activities from theft on an epicscale to murder.
At that time, panama wasoverrun with corrupt officials,
attorneys, judges and evenclerks, who were responsible for
state paperwork, includingissuing licenses to businesses
and deeds to properties.
To say that Panamanian justicewas fluid at that time is an
(17:48):
understatement.
It was also a country thatHolbert viewed as a land of
opportunity.
Realizing that the rules wereloose and money was the justice
du jour, he became a serialkiller who preyed on other
expats by killing them, stealingtheir property and then paying
officials to change saidproperty to his name.
(18:11):
It was all too easy to resistand, one by one, american expats
disappeared, and then, wouldn'tyou know it, holbert would
become the new owner of theirproperty and life would move on.
Out of all the podcasts thathave covered this serial killer,
I'm focusing on season three ofthe Criminal Conduct Podcast.
(18:33):
It's hosted by Javier Leva, whois also the host of the Pretend
Podcast, and John W Taylor, whodivides his time between
criminal conduct and the Twistedpodcast.
I definitely trust theintegrity of their investigation
.
But beyond that, javier andJohn devoted an entire season to
(18:55):
this killer's crimes and hisfive maybe six victims.
In doing so, they amassedseveral hours of phone
interviews with Colbert, who'scurrently serving a 47-year
sentence in a Panama prison.
As an aside, his former wife,laura Reese, was also convicted
(19:15):
of being complicit in thosemurders and is serving a long
prison term.
I was also drawn to theirpodcast for a more personal
reason.
One of the victims, bob Eisler,lived in my hometown of Santa
Fe, new Mexico, before sellinghis business in the mid-2000s
and moving to what he thoughtwould be a fresh start on an
(19:39):
island paradise off the coast ofPanama.
I'm going to play a coupleclips from the show so that you
can get an overall idea of whatthe show is like.
And I have to say and this isreally frightening, but you know
, people are trusting andWilliam Holbert is a confidence
man above all else If you didn'tknow he was a convicted serial
(20:02):
killer.
You might even like him.
He even sounds honorable.
So be careful when you're outthere folks, you never know who
you're talking to.
Speaker 6 (20:19):
So, Javier, tell me about the phone call you just
got.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
John, it was the craziest thing because it's New
Year's Day and there's nothinggoing on.
Really, I mean, it was just aquiet day and all of a sudden I
get this call from this guywho's known as Wild Bill.
Speaker 8 (20:38):
I want to be really clear that I don't feel like a
serial killer, feel like aserial killer and when I think
of the word serial killer or ofa person who's a serial killer,
I think of a guy like Ted Bundyor a person who does things for
compulsion or emotional needs,emotional reasons, and I myself,
(21:01):
I'm not a person who has anyblood lust.
These terrible things I did, Idid, you know, starting about 15
years ago, and I was just aheartless, cold-blooded asshole
who hurt and killed people formoney.
You know, I don't have acompulsion to kill people or a
(21:21):
desire necessarily to do that.
Like you gotta understand.
The expat community is not anormal community.
People in the expat communityare, by nature, fucked up.
They're not people who, they'repeople who can't be in their
own country for some reason.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
They're running away from something right.
Speaker 8 (21:39):
Exactly, or they like cheap drugs because drugs are
cheap and abundant and betterthan the drugs in the United
States.
They're here for, you know,craziness and stuff.
Speaker 6 (21:50):
While Bill's partying days were coming to an end, at
least in Bocas, because he gotword that the authorities were
going to come looking for him.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
So let's talk about your time at Bocas del Toro.
You know you were like asocialite, the number one
socialite during that timeperiod.
You said everyone was afraid ofme.
Why were they afraid of you?
Speaker 8 (22:08):
Well, I don't think it was a very big secret that I
was a killer when I lived there.
I lived huge.
I wasn't quiet about anything.
I was a fucking idiot.
I believed my own bullshit.
Never do that.
I mean never believe your ownbullshit.
It's okay when you bullshiteverybody else, but you should
never bullshit yourself.
It's okay when you bullshiteverybody else, but you should
(22:35):
never bullshit yourself.
I really believed that nobodycould stop me.
Do you know what I mean?
Like I was never afraid.
I knew without a doubt I wasgoing to get away, because I
always got away.
Everything always workedexactly how I had it planned and
I knew for certain that I'd getaway.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
These conversations took place over the course of
several nights.
Each time we spoke we got alittle deeper.
John, I couldn't even eatdinner that night in
anticipation of that phone callwith Wild Bill, and then, after
we were done talking, I couldn'teven sleep that night.
(23:14):
It was just so disturbing.
I've never spoken to a serialkiller before, let alone anyone
who's ever killed anyone, or atleast that I know of.
Speaker 6 (23:24):
Yeah, I mean the thing is you just you didn't
know what you were going to runinto.
You just didn't know what anglehe's going to come at you.
There's just there's manyaspects as far as he could be
coming at you completely calm,talking about what he's done,
which could be very unnerving,or he could be very explicit and
put images and words in yourhead that you're never going to
(23:45):
be able to get out.
Javier, I found your interviewcompletely fascinating and I
mean I have a lot of opinionsabout what I heard.
But one of the things I likedis kind of your style in
interviewing Wild Bill, becauseyou separate Wild Bill from
William Holbert and I think thatthat distancing, that
(24:06):
separation, allowed him to kindof speak more freely and be more
comfortable because he candistance himself from, say,
actions he did that he's notproud of.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
Yeah, I didn't even know how forthcoming he was
going to be, so I wanted to likekind of ease my way into it,
but at the same time I alsodidn't know that I was going to
eventually talk to this guymultiple nights in a row.
I thought this first call wasgoing to be my last, so I just
got down straight to business.
Speaker 6 (24:35):
Yeah, and what you were experiencing is what
essentially every detectiveexperiences in an interview.
You can't jump right in, but atthe same time, there's always
the possibility the personyou're talking to will stop
talking.
So you have to try to getthings important out early, but
you also have to balance thatwith the idea that maybe they'll
just stop talking and I'llnever hear from them again.
So, yeah, I think what you werefeeling is very real.
Speaker 8 (25:00):
Or it wasn't something.
I was like, yay, I get to gokill somebody.
I was like, fuck, I gotta go dothis shit, but I mean I don't
have to.
I chose to Don't misconstruewhat I'm saying, but I never
enjoyed it and it was always anerve-wracking thing for me,
completely, just like totallyugh, like very, very
anxiety-filled.
And when it was over I was likeso relieved, thank God that
(25:23):
that's over.
And I mean like I'm speakinghonestly with you about it.
I mean, it's not something thatI ever enjoyed doing.
If you enjoy killing people,something's fucking wrong with
you.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 6 (25:36):
Like you've got a real problem.
Javier Wild Bill did not answeryour question, so you asked him
if he remembered killing thevictims, and what he talked
about was that he said he didn'tenjoy killing people.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
Yeah, he was just taking me for a ride, taking me
in whatever direction he wantedme to go in.
Speaker 6 (25:51):
The reason that wild bill gave for not giving you
more information was that it'sjust too painful and I don't
know that.
I buy that.
I mean that's that could bepart of it, but there's
certainly other reasons why he'snot giving you more information
it's good to talk to you again.
Speaker 8 (26:10):
The phone, just the minutes, ran out the last time.
I didn't have an, I foundanother chip that had minutes on
in here and I stuck it in, butnow it would have been too long
and you had already.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
You know it had been like an hour or something no, I
waited around a little bit, butI figured that's what happened
while bill's minutes ran out,and so we picked up the
conversation the following night.
When I think about CherylHughes, I just want to know, not
about the killing, but likewhat did you know about her?
Did you consider her a friendat the time?
Speaker 8 (26:38):
Well, I don't know how much of this stuff you've
listened to, but even during thetrial I told the truth that
Keith World paid me to kill hiswife.
That happened.
He ran off with a new chair.
I mean, everybody in Bocasknows that.
I don't know.
It was a stupid fucking thing.
I should have never done that.
I mean, I knew Cheryl to someextent not like really really
well, but I knew her fairly welland it took me three times to
(26:58):
kill her.
Speaker 6 (26:59):
Keith, by the way, is Cheryl's estranged husband.
Speaker 8 (27:02):
I invited her over three different times before I
could come up with the balls todo it.
It before I could come up withthe balls to do it.
It's not something I wanted todo.
It's actually something Ididn't want to do.
It was something that,economically, I didn't even need
to do.
I didn't need to do it.
But.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
I was involved to do it.
If you would like to listen tothe entire story, tune in to
Criminal Minds wherever youlisten to your podcasts and
scroll down to Season 3.
That's a wrap for this show.
(27:49):
Thank you so much for joiningus.
Please make sure that you hitthe notification button, because
next week we have another tripto share with you, and this one
is all about entertaining yourkids so they don't kill each
other while you're trying toenjoy the scenery.
We'll see you then and in themeantime, always remember you
(28:13):
know we love you.
See you next week.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
One Good Thing Media is brought to you by our host
and creator, gerald Spear.
All things technical are byDavid Dodd and our announcer is
Robert Spear.
Our theme song is Force by HGST.
Thank you,
Welcome to One Good Thing Media, your official
podcast review channel.
We search the vast digitallandscape on a daily basis to
discover the best shows thatpodcasters have to offer.
Are you ready to discover newfavorites to add to your
playbook?
Stay tuned and listen to hostGerald Spears' latest podcast
reviews.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Hello, lovelies, welcome to Season 3, Episode 11
of our One Good Thing MediaPodcast.
This is Gerald Spear, yourtrusty host and tour guide.
This is Gerald Spear, yourtrusty host and tour guide.
This week launches our annualvacation extravaganza.
When the weather's warm andwe're ready to rumble, we know
(01:14):
you want to hit the road too,and for this episode it's going
to be all about island escapes.
As for our family, the weatheris warmer, the sun is shining
brighter and we are itching toenjoy the great outdoors.
(01:36):
So are you ready to set themood for your next tropical
getaway?
Today, I'm sharing podcaststhat are mostly crime light,
with a bit of fluff thrown in tosweeten the pot, and one of a
more serious nature that reallyserves as a warning if you're
thinking about getting away toofar away.
So buckle up, because we'rehitting the road and taking you
(01:59):
along for the ride.
Your mind.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
This week we decided to lounge beachside in the
sultry heat of Florida a statethat we craved to visit every
(02:35):
year.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
After spending six months in chilly mountain
weather, we imagined ourselvessipping pina coladas with our
toes buried in warm sand.
But wouldn't you know it, eventhough we traded our towering
peaks for palm trees, we'recurrently huddled in our hotel
room with a view of the oceanand the downpour that's beating
(03:00):
on our windows so hard that I'mexpecting for the glass to break
any time.
Even so, you know, life ispretty sweet.
The rain will pass and in themeantime, I have you and a lot
of great shows to keep meentertained.
And luckily for this littlepodcast junkie, my vacation
(03:22):
playlist is locked and loadedand ready to send us on three
wildly different adventures.
One to the steamy shores ofFlorida.
Then I'm going to transport usto a fictional dot in the ocean
called Sex Island, a dark comedythat liberally spoofs the most
(03:44):
cringeworthy reality shows andno, this is not about Jeffrey
Epstein.
And to wrap things up, we aregoing to be transported to a
private island off the coast ofPanama.
So are you ready for somequality vacation time?
I am.
(04:05):
Let's get rolling.
(04:38):
The first show that I'm coveringtoday is called Love Murder
Florida.
It is a deliciously clevermurder mystery soaked in scandal
, fargo-esque comedy and steamyfun.
Lead character Ruth, played byactress Tammy Cates, has always
(04:58):
played it safe and it's onlygotten her trampled on for her
entire life.
In fact, if she were to take ona new middle name, it would be
Dormat.
The most recent egregious actsthat have been put upon her were
by her husband, who left herfor another woman, and then by
(05:20):
her longtime so-called friend,jane, played by actress Jane
Lynch, who stole the mostlucrative contract from Ruth's
bus company, despite being partof her life since high school.
Discouraged, disappointed andat her wit's end, ruth escapes
(05:41):
for a mental wellness vacationto Florida, and this is when
Ruth's one-person pity partyturns into a salacious event
Sandwiched in between pinkflamingos, mexican palms and
mojitos.
Ruth has a serendipitousencounter with a much younger
(06:05):
beefcake named Logan, who endsup showing her the wildest time
of her life Sex, booze and drugs.
And I'm just getting started.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Someone is dead because of me.
Constance you're supposed to beon the road, already On a hop.
Yeah, give me that, look, seewhat happens.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Starring Glee and Best in Shows, Jane Lynch.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Sometimes I think that I might be Jane's only
friend.
We lost the Timber Grovecontract, what To who you can
ask your friend Jane, and whatare you going to do about it?
Speaker 4 (06:54):
It started as a simple feud between rival bus
companies, but that's not whereit ended.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
I'm going to Florida.
I can't look at another bus.
Hey Ruth, you need to get laid.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
It was supposed to be just a fling.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
In the sun, his body glistened.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Water dripped down his chest, it became something
dangerous.
What would happen if?
Speaker 5 (07:19):
Jane wasn't around.
What if?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
she was gone.
Like to Europe or somethingsomething, a dark crime story
with a dash of florida strangeare you?
Speaker 6 (07:31):
kidding me ruth.
We can leave now, no one wouldprosecute this.
Or we can finish it now, and noone will ever know murder's
hard work, ruth, you can'thalf-ass it.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Maybe we deserved each other.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
If you like Better Call Saul or the White Lotus
crime and dark comedy fromVoyage Media, producers of the
hit podcast Red Meat Village,love Murder, florida, available
on Apple Podcasts, spotify andanywhere you listen to podcasts
(08:08):
there.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I was drunk enough to make bad decisions, but sober
enough to know it.
Were I sober as a judge, thoughLogan's eyes would still have
intoxicated me.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
So when he casually alluded to Jane dying, I heard
myself say how you know, Iusually don't give unsolicited
advice, but if Ruth were herewith me right now I would look
her in the eyes and say Ruth,honey, you should going to love
(08:44):
this podcast.
It's called Murder on SexIsland.
(09:28):
It's actually an audiobookwritten and narrated by Joe
Firestone.
The plot goes something likethis when a cast member goes
missing from the hit realityshow Sex Island, the producer
hires Luella Van Horn to goundercover as a contestant and
(09:49):
solve the crime.
What the show team doesn'trealize is that the enigmatic
Luella Van Horn is actually aplain-dressed, mousy woman named
Marie Jones, a divorced,ex-social worker and sad sack
from Staten Island who isleading a double life as a sexy
(10:13):
private eye, being a couchpotato IRL, with TV being her
only company.
Marie is unable to resist theopportunity to become part of
her favorite trashy TV show.
So Marie Azluella accepts thegig and jets off on a journey of
(10:34):
liberation and intrigue.
First Shocked, she realizesshe's expected to go undercover
without much cover, as in abeach babe wearing nothing more
than a fig leaf and two stringsand acting like a nympho between
the sheets.
How's she going to get aroundall of this?
(10:57):
Why is there a body in herbathtub and what are the sleazy
producer and director up to?
And what are the sleazyproducer and director up to?
You'll need to turn out bytuning in to this spoof to find
out the whole story unfolds over13 episodes and will keep a
(11:22):
smile pasted on your face allday.
Speaker 7 (11:25):
This is Murder on Sex Island, written by Joe
Firestone and read by JoeFirestone, and both of that's me
.
That's both of those of me.
Chapter One Like my forefathers, gene Simmons and Christina
Aguilera, my life began inStaten Island.
The first 25 years of my lifewere going somewhat according to
(11:46):
plan.
I was an underpaid socialworker.
I got married to a man I knewfrom high school and, to top it
all off, I was dead inside.
What can I say?
It's a Staten Island way.
When most grown people get bored, they cheat on their spouses,
they start buying lotterytickets, they develop a drug
habit Not me, though.
No, sir.
When I need to fill a gapingvoid in an otherwise predictable
(12:07):
, monotonous life, I like tothink outside the box.
So I made up an alter ego namedLuella Van Horn, who solves
crimes.
Is that the worst thing in theworld?
In theory, no.
When I slap on a blonde wig,fake white teeth and some red
lipstick, I become PrivateDetective Luella Van Horn.
Suddenly, I'm a woman who knowswhat she wants and gets it.
(12:28):
People start paying attention tome.
They tell me things they're notsupposed to.
The powerful see me as an allyand the weak see me as a threat.
I think it's probably becauseof the teeth Growing up.
All I wanted was to be someonelike Luella Van Horn, to have
people finally look at me like Ihave something to offer,
something they want.
When you're mousy, nobody careswhere you're going at night.
(12:50):
When you come back to the houseat 2 am and your husband
sleepily asks were you gone?
You can say no and he'llbelieve you turn over and go
right back to sleep.
Nobody bothers to ask whyyou're spending thousands of
dollars on blonde wigs made withreal human hair and going to
the dentist for teeth molds andmaxing out your credit cards at
Sephora.
They've barely noticed.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
In this clip it is showtime for Luella Van Horn.
She walks on set for the firsttime, meets a lot of the
archetypes that I talked aboutearlier and, because they were
filming this, it was her firstintroduction to her future
audience.
Speaker 7 (13:31):
Two minutes on the dot later, issa wrangled me back
, leading me to a large beachhut covered in tropical flowers.
As we got closer I recognizedPhil and waved to him.
He waved back and I blushed,absolutely humiliating.
I felt like an eighth grader.
Phil was standing with a fewother cast members I recognized
as Tasha, sarah, david N, nate,ethan and Blair.
(13:52):
Oh, I loved Blair.
She could be so mean.
One time she stuck a wad ofchewed gum in Sarah's long
blonde hair because she couldn'tfind a trash can In a
confessional.
She once told millions ofviewers that Nate's balls
smelled like Lipton soup mix.
She had curly brown hair, aflat stomach and I'll say it,
breasts the size of cantaloupes.
It's possible Blair was made ina lab for reality TV.
(14:17):
As I approached the group, issamade introductions hey folks,
this is Luella.
She's going to be joining us asa wild card.
Me the wild card Hi.
I tried hard to swallowanything that could be
misconstrued as fangirl energy.
The collective group murmuredsome casual hellos.
Nate even flashed me a peacesign For them.
(14:37):
I gathered this was just atypical Wednesday.
They all looked so different inperson.
David N wasn't nearly as skinnyand I noticed for the first
time he had bright green eyes.
On television Ethan lookedpractically orange, but here he
just looked like a guy who gothis money's worth at the tanning
booth.
I could see Sarah's individualtoe rings.
I counted seven.
(14:57):
Issa got a far off look assomeone spoke into her earpiece.
All right, in a few minutesLuella's going to be coming in
through the hibiscus arch cameralift.
I need jealous reactions fromSarah and Blair and a sexy
reaction from Nate.
I tried to remind myself thiswas somehow detective work.
Phil spoke up.
Hey, issa, I'd like to do asexy reaction too.
(15:17):
Nate let out an exasperatedwhine.
Why can't I be the only sexyone for once?
Issa held up her finger,waiting for the person in the
earpiece to respond.
Okay, we're gonna have bothNate and Phil giving sexy
reactions.
Nate sulked.
Issa continued Ethan and Davidin.
Let's have you wrestling in thebackground, and Tasha, we just
(15:38):
want you to stand there.
Tasha crossed her arms andlooked toward the ocean, her
long black hair shining in thesun.
No bitch, she said under herbreath.
For what it's worth, tasha didtechnically just stand there.
I was amongst professionals.
I was escorted to the hibiscusarch camera lift.
Issa got that far-off lookagain, as someone in her
(15:59):
earpiece gave her furtherinstructions.
A sound guy came over to giveme a microphone pack on a
lanyard.
As he placed it around my neck,he muttered just don't touch it
and you'll be good.
I'd once heard that samesentence from my 85-year-old
male gynecologist.
Issa addressed me Luella,you're going to walk through the
hibiscus arch, shake your hairand give a smoldering look to
camera.
This footage will be in slowmotion, so try not to blink at
(16:21):
all and stop covering your body.
That's why you're here, readyin 4, 3, 2, action.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
And there you have it Just a small snippet of 13
episodes and multiple.
My last review for today is atrue crime tale that's
(17:02):
definitely not family friendly.
It has to do with an Americanexpat named William D Holbert,
aka Wild Bill, who fled Americansoil as a wanted man in the mid
2000s.
After fleeing to Panama, wildBill escalated his criminal
(17:24):
activities from theft on an epicscale to murder.
At that time, panama wasoverrun with corrupt officials,
attorneys, judges and evenclerks, who were responsible for
state paperwork, includingissuing licenses to businesses
and deeds to properties.
To say that Panamanian justicewas fluid at that time is an
(17:48):
understatement.
It was also a country thatHolbert viewed as a land of
opportunity.
Realizing that the rules wereloose and money was the justice
du jour, he became a serialkiller who preyed on other
expats by killing them, stealingtheir property and then paying
officials to change saidproperty to his name.
(18:11):
It was all too easy to resistand, one by one, american expats
disappeared, and then, wouldn'tyou know it, holbert would
become the new owner of theirproperty and life would move on.
Out of all the podcasts thathave covered this serial killer,
I'm focusing on season three ofthe Criminal Conduct Podcast.
(18:33):
It's hosted by Javier Leva, whois also the host of the Pretend
Podcast, and John W Taylor, whodivides his time between
criminal conduct and the Twistedpodcast.
I definitely trust theintegrity of their investigation
.
But beyond that, javier andJohn devoted an entire season to
(18:55):
this killer's crimes and hisfive maybe six victims.
In doing so, they amassedseveral hours of phone
interviews with Colbert, who'scurrently serving a 47-year
sentence in a Panama prison.
As an aside, his former wife,laura Reese, was also convicted
(19:15):
of being complicit in thosemurders and is serving a long
prison term.
I was also drawn to theirpodcast for a more personal
reason.
One of the victims, bob Eisler,lived in my hometown of Santa
Fe, new Mexico, before sellinghis business in the mid-2000s
and moving to what he thoughtwould be a fresh start on an
(19:39):
island paradise off the coast ofPanama.
I'm going to play a coupleclips from the show so that you
can get an overall idea of whatthe show is like.
And I have to say and this isreally frightening, but you know
, people are trusting andWilliam Holbert is a confidence
man above all else If you didn'tknow he was a convicted serial
(20:02):
killer.
You might even like him.
He even sounds honorable.
So be careful when you're outthere folks, you never know who
you're talking to.
Speaker 6 (20:19):
So, Javier, tell me about the phone call you just
got.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
John, it was the craziest thing because it's New
Year's Day and there's nothinggoing on.
Really, I mean, it was just aquiet day and all of a sudden I
get this call from this guywho's known as Wild Bill.
Speaker 8 (20:38):
I want to be really clear that I don't feel like a
serial killer, feel like aserial killer and when I think
of the word serial killer or ofa person who's a serial killer,
I think of a guy like Ted Bundyor a person who does things for
compulsion or emotional needs,emotional reasons, and I myself,
(21:01):
I'm not a person who has anyblood lust.
These terrible things I did, Idid, you know, starting about 15
years ago, and I was just aheartless, cold-blooded asshole
who hurt and killed people formoney.
You know, I don't have acompulsion to kill people or a
(21:21):
desire necessarily to do that.
Like you gotta understand.
The expat community is not anormal community.
People in the expat communityare, by nature, fucked up.
They're not people who, they'repeople who can't be in their
own country for some reason.
Speaker 5 (21:37):
They're running away from something right.
Speaker 8 (21:39):
Exactly, or they like cheap drugs because drugs are
cheap and abundant and betterthan the drugs in the United
States.
They're here for, you know,craziness and stuff.
Speaker 6 (21:50):
While Bill's partying days were coming to an end, at
least in Bocas, because he gotword that the authorities were
going to come looking for him.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
So let's talk about your time at Bocas del Toro.
You know you were like asocialite, the number one
socialite during that timeperiod.
You said everyone was afraid ofme.
Why were they afraid of you?
Speaker 8 (22:08):
Well, I don't think it was a very big secret that I
was a killer when I lived there.
I lived huge.
I wasn't quiet about anything.
I was a fucking idiot.
I believed my own bullshit.
Never do that.
I mean never believe your ownbullshit.
It's okay when you bullshiteverybody else, but you should
never bullshit yourself.
It's okay when you bullshiteverybody else, but you should
(22:35):
never bullshit yourself.
I really believed that nobodycould stop me.
Do you know what I mean?
Like I was never afraid.
I knew without a doubt I wasgoing to get away, because I
always got away.
Everything always workedexactly how I had it planned and
I knew for certain that I'd getaway.
Speaker 5 (22:53):
These conversations took place over the course of
several nights.
Each time we spoke we got alittle deeper.
John, I couldn't even eatdinner that night in
anticipation of that phone callwith Wild Bill, and then, after
we were done talking, I couldn'teven sleep that night.
(23:14):
It was just so disturbing.
I've never spoken to a serialkiller before, let alone anyone
who's ever killed anyone, or atleast that I know of.
Speaker 6 (23:24):
Yeah, I mean the thing is you just you didn't
know what you were going to runinto.
You just didn't know what anglehe's going to come at you.
There's just there's manyaspects as far as he could be
coming at you completely calm,talking about what he's done,
which could be very unnerving,or he could be very explicit and
put images and words in yourhead that you're never going to
(23:45):
be able to get out.
Javier, I found your interviewcompletely fascinating and I
mean I have a lot of opinionsabout what I heard.
But one of the things I likedis kind of your style in
interviewing Wild Bill, becauseyou separate Wild Bill from
William Holbert and I think thatthat distancing, that
(24:06):
separation, allowed him to kindof speak more freely and be more
comfortable because he candistance himself from, say,
actions he did that he's notproud of.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
Yeah, I didn't even know how forthcoming he was
going to be, so I wanted to likekind of ease my way into it,
but at the same time I alsodidn't know that I was going to
eventually talk to this guymultiple nights in a row.
I thought this first call wasgoing to be my last, so I just
got down straight to business.
Speaker 6 (24:35):
Yeah, and what you were experiencing is what
essentially every detectiveexperiences in an interview.
You can't jump right in, but atthe same time, there's always
the possibility the personyou're talking to will stop
talking.
So you have to try to getthings important out early, but
you also have to balance thatwith the idea that maybe they'll
just stop talking and I'llnever hear from them again.
So, yeah, I think what you werefeeling is very real.
Speaker 8 (25:00):
Or it wasn't something.
I was like, yay, I get to gokill somebody.
I was like, fuck, I gotta go dothis shit, but I mean I don't
have to.
I chose to Don't misconstruewhat I'm saying, but I never
enjoyed it and it was always anerve-wracking thing for me,
completely, just like totallyugh, like very, very
anxiety-filled.
And when it was over I was likeso relieved, thank God that
(25:23):
that's over.
And I mean like I'm speakinghonestly with you about it.
I mean, it's not something thatI ever enjoyed doing.
If you enjoy killing people,something's fucking wrong with
you.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 6 (25:36):
Like you've got a real problem.
Javier Wild Bill did not answeryour question, so you asked him
if he remembered killing thevictims, and what he talked
about was that he said he didn'tenjoy killing people.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
Yeah, he was just taking me for a ride, taking me
in whatever direction he wantedme to go in.
Speaker 6 (25:51):
The reason that wild bill gave for not giving you
more information was that it'sjust too painful and I don't
know that.
I buy that.
I mean that's that could bepart of it, but there's
certainly other reasons why he'snot giving you more information
it's good to talk to you again.
Speaker 8 (26:10):
The phone, just the minutes, ran out the last time.
I didn't have an, I foundanother chip that had minutes on
in here and I stuck it in, butnow it would have been too long
and you had already.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
You know it had been like an hour or something no, I
waited around a little bit, butI figured that's what happened
while bill's minutes ran out,and so we picked up the
conversation the following night.
When I think about CherylHughes, I just want to know, not
about the killing, but likewhat did you know about her?
Did you consider her a friendat the time?
Speaker 8 (26:38):
Well, I don't know how much of this stuff you've
listened to, but even during thetrial I told the truth that
Keith World paid me to kill hiswife.
That happened.
He ran off with a new chair.
I mean, everybody in Bocasknows that.
I don't know.
It was a stupid fucking thing.
I should have never done that.
I mean, I knew Cheryl to someextent not like really really
well, but I knew her fairly welland it took me three times to
(26:58):
kill her.
Speaker 6 (26:59):
Keith, by the way, is Cheryl's estranged husband.
Speaker 8 (27:02):
I invited her over three different times before I
could come up with the balls todo it.
It before I could come up withthe balls to do it.
It's not something I wanted todo.
It's actually something Ididn't want to do.
It was something that,economically, I didn't even need
to do.
I didn't need to do it.
But.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
I was involved to do it.
If you would like to listen tothe entire story, tune in to
Criminal Minds wherever youlisten to your podcasts and
scroll down to Season 3.
That's a wrap for this show.
(27:49):
Thank you so much for joiningus.
Please make sure that you hitthe notification button, because
next week we have another tripto share with you, and this one
is all about entertaining yourkids so they don't kill each
other while you're trying toenjoy the scenery.
We'll see you then and in themeantime, always remember you
(28:13):
know we love you.
See you next week.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
One Good Thing Media is brought to you by our host
and creator, gerald Spear.
All things technical are byDavid Dodd and our announcer is
Robert Spear.
Our theme song is Force by HGST.
Thank you,
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