December 8, 2025 • 19 mins
Charlie dives deep on the history of Shady Grove, and its beloved pudding foundry, which has supported and shaped the community for over a century, and is far more interesting than it sounds. More murders and corruption of the past begin to haunt the present. Prostitutes are briefly discussed. Members of the town offer their help, and the local police department struggles to find a solid lead.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Charlie Incarica (00:02):
Okay, so I've just gotten into Shady Grove.
It's pretty quiet.
Just waiting for my car.
Not really sure.
Oh hold on.
This might be.
I think this is it.
Hey, it's Steve, right?
(00:23):
Okay.
Here we go.
Mind if I I'm just gonna move acouple of these things over.
So you yeah, you know you knowthe way?
Have you lived here a longtime?
Oh wow.
(00:48):
Not a lot out there.
Is it usually this quiet outhere?
Almost as soon as I arrive inShady Grove, it becomes clear
(01:11):
that to truly know who might bebehind this heinous crime, I
need to understand the dynamicsof the community.
I need to learn about ShadyGrove's unique and troubling
history.
It's my best shot atunderstanding the possible
motives for these horrific andhopefully commercially
compelling murders.
Shady Grove was founded in1840, and then again in 1841,
(01:35):
two miles to the west, when thesettlers, exhausted after an
extended buffalo hunt, decidedit would be easier to just start
over where they were resting.
The land was beautiful,especially if you find flatness
attractive, but harsh, and thesettlers led hard scrabble
lives.
However, by the mid-1850s,through grit and diligence, most
(01:57):
citizens were living at least amedium scrabble existence.
When the Civil War began, ShadyGrove recruited both a
Confederate and Union company.
But when they converged on MainStreet to march to their
respective armies, they realizedthat if they each agreed to
stay home, it would be a wash,and so returned to their farms.
Shady Grove kept pace with therapidly growing nation in the
(02:22):
years that followed, as itscitizens engaged in the typical
pastimes of the era, such asattending square dances, racism,
and staring somberly intocameras.
In fact, Shady Grove was a lotlike any other small middle
American community until theearly 1900s, when a young Edward
Putnam began pursuing hislifelong ambition: the
(02:44):
puttifying of America.
Estelle Hayes (02:46):
Every school child here knows Edward Putnam
was born on April 19, 1889.
Other boys his age wereobsessed with going fishing and
playing baseball, but Edward wasall about the pudding.
Charlie Incarica (02:59):
Estelle Hayes is the town's librarian and
local historian.
She also owns the Airbnb I'mstaying in, and comes into my
room at all hours to chat.
So I try to steer theconversation to the murders.
Estelle Hayes (03:11):
Day and night pudding, pudding, pudding.
Pretty fucking weird when youthink about it.
Charlie Incarica (03:17):
Pretty weird indeed.
The third child of seven,Edward was solitary and
single-minded as a boy.
And while his classmatesidolized baseball players such
as Cy Young, Edward looked up toAndrew Carnegie.
Estelle Hayes (03:31):
When he was nine years old, he told his teacher
he wanted to do for pudding whatAndrew Carnegie did for steel.
Nobody knew what the fuck hewas talking about.
Charlie Incarica (03:40):
By the time he was 13, the industrious Edward
had saved up enough money tostart his burgeoning pudding
enterprise in earnest.
A former classmate recalls thismomentous occasion in Edward's
life in the 1950 documentaryPutting Things Right, the Edward
Putnam story.
Classmate (03:56):
His father acted as a signatory, and Edward leased a
tiny little building, more of ashack than anything else,
nestled between the town'schurch and brothel.
His first day there, he placeda sign on its door.
It simply read E.
Putnam Pudding Monger.
And every day after he'dfinished his chores in school,
(04:16):
he'd experiment with variouspudding flavors and
consistencies.
Sometimes the teachers let himout early on account of how he
made everyone around himuncomfortable.
Estelle Hayes (04:27):
People laughed at him.
And also felt creeped out byhim.
But it was mostly laughing, Ithink.
Bit of both.
I mean, there's not like dataon this.
What, you seem pissed.
Charlie Incarica (04:38):
Oh, I'm not.
Estelle Hayes (04:39):
Well then lighten the fuck up, podcast boy.
Let's do some shots.
Charlie Incarica (04:42):
Oh no.
Estelle Hayes (04:43):
Don't be such a pussy!
Charlie Incarica (04:45):
At fifteen, Edward arrived at the pudding
recipe that would make thePutnam family fortune.
Even later, when he was forcedto remove the cocaine from the
recipe, it still retained itspopularity as the most popular
dessert in the Midwest.
Estelle Hayes (04:58):
People still laughed at him, but they also
ate shitloads of his pudding.
Horatio Alvarez (05:03):
It's hard for us to fully appreciate the mania
this pudding created.
Charlie Incarica (05:07):
Horatio Alvarez holds the Little Debbie
Chair of Sociology and SnackFood at the Putnam Online
Institute for the Advancement ofPudding Studies in Chicago.
Horatio Alvarez (05:16):
You have to understand that to rural and
working class Americans,enjoying things was a brand new
craze sweeping the nation.
So yes, timing was a factor,but the man made a damn good
pudding.
Charlie Incarica (05:28):
By 1916, the demand for Shady Grove pudding
was so great that Putnam builthis first pudding foundry just
outside of town.
It was soon operating 24 hoursa day.
Estelle Hayes (05:38):
They couldn't make that shit fast enough.
Charlie Incarica (05:41):
Still, all was not well in Shady Grove.
Estelle Hayes (05:44):
Edward Putnam ran this town like a king.
Sure, he and his cronies weregetting rich, but the common man
was suffering.
And then the first murdershappened.
Charlie Incarica (05:55):
First murders.
Estelle Hayes (05:57):
Yeah.
I mean, Jesus, what the Did youeven bother to Google this
place?
Charlie Incarica (06:02):
I had.
Or I did, when I got back to myroom.
In the summer of 1936, anautomobile belonging to Edward's
elder son, Walter, was found onthe outskirts of town, with the
bodies of two murdered women inthe back seat.
Estelle Hayes (06:17):
They tried to hush it up, but hey, you want to
refill?
Charlie Incarica (06:20):
Oh no.
Estelle Hayes (06:21):
I'm just gonna top myself off.
unknown (06:22):
Okay.
Estelle Hayes (06:23):
Yeah, anyway, it's a small town.
You can't cover up somethinglike that.
But it didn't matter.
Walter never even got chargedwith anything.
Or the second and third times.
Charlie Incarica (06:33):
How many times did that Listen?
Estelle Hayes (06:35):
Crazy runs hard in that family.
Walter was like his old man.
With Edward, it was makingpudding.
With Walter, it was killingprostitutes.
Charlie Incarica (06:43):
It's hard to find much in the way of official
records on these murders.
Some of it survives only aslore.
But many believe Walter killedup to eight sex workers between
1936 and 1938.
Yet the only evidence of Walterhaving a run-in with the law at
that time was a traffic ticketissued in September of 1938 for
speeding in a puddingmanufacturing zone.
(07:06):
With the town growing restlessdue to the perception the
Putnams were literally gettingaway with murder, as well as the
growing prostitute shortage,the Putnam family sent Walter to
scout new pudding markets inSouth America.
But before he reached his finaldestination, he reached his
final final destination.
Which means I'm saying he waskilled.
(07:28):
Walter Putnam's death was ruledas a result of a car accident
by the county coroner, but somefelt it was a case of another
Putnam murder, pointing out thatcar accident victims usually
don't have multiple stab wounds,as Walter's body did.
Also, he was found in hiskitchen.
He was survived by his wife,Tess, and his two young
(07:48):
daughters, Mary, three, andCatherine, 18 months.
They soon left for partsunknown, and there they seem to
fade from the picture.
At least for the time being.
But remember them goingforward.
As for Walter, Eddie often.
Edward Putnam Jr., known to allas Eddie, was playing a larger
(08:09):
role in the day-to-dayoperations of the company, and
was widely known as ruthless inbusiness.
And he had come to view hisolder brother as bad for
business.
Estelle Hayes (08:18):
Walter had become an embarrassment to the family.
Think about how fucked up youhad to be to claim that title.
Charlie Incarica (08:25):
Very is the answer.
The year before, Edward Sr.
testified before a Senatesubcommittee, urging Congress to
subsidize his plans to designlow-cost housing built with what
he claimed to be arevolutionary new material,
which he repeatedly promised thepress and Congress was not
related to pudding.
But when he arrived to givetestimony, he ceded his time to
(08:46):
his imaginary friend, ProfessorPudding.
And when Putnam was questionedby visibly uncomfortable
senators, Edward answered everyquestion with the word pudding.
He was seldom seen in publicagain.
The company and the townbriefly became a laughing stock.
Pudding sales slowed to acrawl.
Estelle Hayes (09:05):
But thank God World War II happened.
The American people in theirrighteous might will win through
to absolute victory.
Charlie Incarica (09:15):
This gave the Putnam family the second chance
it needed.
Estelle Hayes (09:18):
Somehow Eddie got the government to declare
pudding an essential wartimeindustry.
Everyone knew the whole thingwas corrupt, but everybody was
getting rich, so who's going tocomplain?
And the few people who did,well, they tended to go missing.
Charlie Incarica (09:31):
Shady Grove received a massive contract from
the government, and by thewar's end, virtually all of
America was making Shady GrovePudding its dessert of choice.
By 1948, the Shady GrovePudding Empire was at its apex.
Under Eddie's cutthroatbusiness tactics, the company
had extended its reach intosignificant holdings in
textiles, owned a string ofnewspapers and radio stations
(09:55):
throughout the Midwest, andsponsored one of the most
popular radio programs in thecountry.
This ad, which aired regularlyin 1948, is typical of the Shady
Grove pudding marketingcampaigns.
Commercial Voice 2 (10:08):
You're so right, Marty.
Foreigners are funny.
Commercial Voice 1 (10:18):
Don't be silly, Tom.
They only probably steal yourcase of delicious shady pudding.
Shady Grove really attends tomy everything.
Estelle Hayes (11:06):
Paddling around with movie stars and mobsters,
sleeping with starlets, andexpanding his financial empire
off and all at once.
He hadn't been back there inalmost three years when the
strike broke out in 49.
Pass me that bottle, we justkilled this one.
Oh, I haven't been drinking.
Well, you've been in the room.
It's trying to be inclusive.
Anyway, 49, big strike.
Charlie Incarica (11:29):
This is a crucial moment in the town's
history, and I believe it mighthave a direct bearing on the
case.
Apparently, the Putnams Companyhad been unionized since the
20s.
The chief negotiating victorythe union could boast of was a
1932 agreement from managementthat when a worker died on the
job, something that happenedwith surprising frequency for a
pudding factory, his familywould be entitled to 30% off
(11:52):
Shady Grove pudding for sixmonths.
But in 1949, a young radicallawyer named Alexander Hart came
to town with the expresspurpose of giving the company's
workers a fair shake.
Before long, Eddie had borroweddozens of union busting goons
from the Ford Motor Company in apilot program for goon sharing
among the top corporations inAmerica.
(12:14):
Still, the workers didn't givein, and so many thugs were
eventually brought in that inthe 1950 census, union busting
was Shady Grove's second mostpopular occupation, running
almost in a tie with puddingworkers.
Estelle Hayes (12:28):
The rest of the country was enjoying real
prosperity, assuming you were awhite man, and in those days
everyone assumed you were.
But here it was a pretty darktime.
A lot of good men were killed,also a fair amount of pricks.
Charlie Incarica (12:40):
But then, Alexander Hart devised a
brilliant plan.
Luckily, newsreel footageannouncing the breakthrough
still exists.
Anthony Giofreddo (12:48):
Today, the negotiations between myself and
Mr.
Anthony the Razor Giafredo havesuccessfully concluded in an
agreement to unionize the unionbusting goons who were
previously terrorizing many ofthe strikers at Mr.
Putnam's factory.
Mr.
Geoffredo and his union membershave further agreed to commence
a strike in sympathy with thepudding mongoers of America.
(13:09):
Mr.
Giafredo.
Speaker (13:22):
However, to honor the terms of our previous contract,
we will continue to beat factoryworkers until the 15th of next
month.
Anthony Giofreddo (13:31):
But as a show of good faith and solidarity,
several goons will themselves bebeaten up each day.
And factory workers will form arotation in which they will
also brutalize their fellowemployees.
Charlie Incarica (13:44):
It proved to be a stroke of genius.
Ford and the other companiesabandoned the Putnams.
For Eddie, it was a crushingand humiliating blow, one from
which many say he never fullyrecovered.
He was forced to negotiate acontract that allowed for paid
vacation, shorter hours, andinsulin for the vast diabetic
population of the town.
(14:04):
Hart eventually settled inShady Grove, as did many of the
newly unionized goons, whom Hartwould frequently represent when
negotiating terms with othercompanies who needed their
services.
And so, the bitter rivalrybetween the Putnam and Hart
families began.
The next years were uneventful,although in 1961, Edward Sr.,
(14:30):
though no longer active inday-to-day operations, donated
$15 million to NASA to study theeffects of weightlessness on
pudding.
Infuriated, Eddie stripped hisfather's right to control his
own money.
Estelle Hayes (14:43):
I mean, given the way Ed Sr.
was pissing it away, it madesense.
But the way he did it not onlyalienated him from his father,
but from his 21-year-old sonRobert.
Eddie Jr.
was grooming him to take overthe plants upon his retirement,
but Robert never forgave him.
Also, Robert was a fuckingidiot.
Horatio Alvarez (15:00):
Robbie.
Well, Robbie was always a freespirit.
A true iconoclast.
Estelle Hayes (15:05):
He was a true fuck up.
Horatio Alvarez (15:07):
He was always thinking outside of the box.
Estelle Hayes (15:10):
If Robert Putnam ever thought outside of the box,
it was because he was too dumbto figure out how to open it.
Charlie Incarica (15:16):
By 1967, Eddie only saw Robert when he'd begun
some ill-fated business ventureor another.
In 1970, less than a year afterWoodstock, Robert sank nearly
$3 million into his ill-fatedPUD Stock.
And despite offering luminariessuch as Jimi Hendrix, the
Rolling Stones, Janice Joplin,and John Lennon well-compensated
(15:38):
slots, the only two performershe was able to secure were
Academy Award winner MickeyRooney and Heisman Trophy winner
O.J.
Simpson.
And despite theirgroundbreaking duet rendition of
the Who's Rock Opera Tommy, itwas a disaster, with Robert
somehow losing $7 million,despite only investing $1
million.
And then, the town was hitparticularly hard by the rough
(16:01):
economy of the 70s.
Estelle Hayes (16:02):
You can't base your economy on one product,
especially if it's fuckingpudding.
Charlie Incarica (16:07):
But if the Putnams and Shady Grove itself
were going through hard times,Alexander Hart's family was on
the ascent.
His only daughter, Alice, hadgraduated from law school and
was duly sworn in before the baras the state's first
lawyerette.
Women weren't called lawyers inShady Grove until the early
1980s.
In 1983, she became thecounty's youngest and first
(16:29):
unpenised district attorney.
And her first target was ShadyGrove Pudding's grip on the
town.
She immediately pressed ShadyGrove's city council to rename
the town's streets, which hadall been named Pudding Street
since 1930, making the mostbasic navigation in town
excruciating and dangerous.
While that move was widelyapplauded, in 1997 she indicted
(16:52):
Edward Putnam Jr., then 86 on 14counts of witness tampering,
murder, and transporting puddingacross state lines for the
purposes of voter intimidation.
Quickly the town turned on her.
Estelle Hayes (17:06):
Alice underestimated the love the
community had for the Putnams.
Not Eddie, per se.
But you see, for Shady Grove,that company had become
synonymous with their identity.
Our high school sports teamsare called the snack packs, for
fuck's sake.
But she humiliated that man,and that was going too far.
She lost the next election.
Charlie Incarica (17:26):
Eddie pleaded guilty, but shot himself before
sentencing.
Two weeks later, Edward Sr.
died at the age of 108.
It was a shock to thecommunity.
People referred to the time asDouble Fudge December.
Estelle Hayes (17:40):
By then, Robbie had long left the company trying
to break into the burgeoningcult industry.
So the board, looking to showcontinuity, chose Robert's son
Teddy to become CEO.
An unfortunate choice.
Anyway, the town.
It was never the same.
It just wasn't the place thatI'd always know.
Charlie Incarica (18:04):
You need to take a minute.
Then, with Shady Grove in aseemingly irreversible decline
through the nineties and thefirst decade of the 2000s,
(18:25):
Teddy's twin sister, Amanda,took the reins of her family's
moribund company, and throughher discipline and grit, brought
Shady Grove Pudding and ShadyGrove itself, roaring back to
life.
By 2015, she was hailed as thetown's savior.
So, who would possibly want tokill her?
(18:46):
More than a few people, itturns out.
The prime suspects in episodethree of the murderer killings.
Oh, hi.
(19:39):
I uh I I I ordered my food liketwo hours ago.
It it's Charlie Incarica.
I ordered a burger and amilkshake.
What's that?
No, I I
Okay, so I've just gotten into Shady Grove.
It's pretty quiet.
Just waiting for my car.
Not really sure.
Oh hold on.
This might be.
I think this is it.
Hey, it's Steve, right?
(00:23):
Okay.
Here we go.
Mind if I I'm just gonna move acouple of these things over.
So you yeah, you know you knowthe way?
Have you lived here a longtime?
Oh wow.
(00:48):
Not a lot out there.
Is it usually this quiet outhere?
Almost as soon as I arrive inShady Grove, it becomes clear
(01:11):
that to truly know who might bebehind this heinous crime, I
need to understand the dynamicsof the community.
I need to learn about ShadyGrove's unique and troubling
history.
It's my best shot atunderstanding the possible
motives for these horrific andhopefully commercially
compelling murders.
Shady Grove was founded in1840, and then again in 1841,
(01:35):
two miles to the west, when thesettlers, exhausted after an
extended buffalo hunt, decidedit would be easier to just start
over where they were resting.
The land was beautiful,especially if you find flatness
attractive, but harsh, and thesettlers led hard scrabble
lives.
However, by the mid-1850s,through grit and diligence, most
(01:57):
citizens were living at least amedium scrabble existence.
When the Civil War began, ShadyGrove recruited both a
Confederate and Union company.
But when they converged on MainStreet to march to their
respective armies, they realizedthat if they each agreed to
stay home, it would be a wash,and so returned to their farms.
Shady Grove kept pace with therapidly growing nation in the
(02:22):
years that followed, as itscitizens engaged in the typical
pastimes of the era, such asattending square dances, racism,
and staring somberly intocameras.
In fact, Shady Grove was a lotlike any other small middle
American community until theearly 1900s, when a young Edward
Putnam began pursuing hislifelong ambition: the
(02:44):
puttifying of America.
Estelle Hayes (02:46):
Every school child here knows Edward Putnam
was born on April 19, 1889.
Other boys his age wereobsessed with going fishing and
playing baseball, but Edward wasall about the pudding.
Charlie Incarica (02:59):
Estelle Hayes is the town's librarian and
local historian.
She also owns the Airbnb I'mstaying in, and comes into my
room at all hours to chat.
So I try to steer theconversation to the murders.
Estelle Hayes (03:11):
Day and night pudding, pudding, pudding.
Pretty fucking weird when youthink about it.
Charlie Incarica (03:17):
Pretty weird indeed.
The third child of seven,Edward was solitary and
single-minded as a boy.
And while his classmatesidolized baseball players such
as Cy Young, Edward looked up toAndrew Carnegie.
Estelle Hayes (03:31):
When he was nine years old, he told his teacher
he wanted to do for pudding whatAndrew Carnegie did for steel.
Nobody knew what the fuck hewas talking about.
Charlie Incarica (03:40):
By the time he was 13, the industrious Edward
had saved up enough money tostart his burgeoning pudding
enterprise in earnest.
A former classmate recalls thismomentous occasion in Edward's
life in the 1950 documentaryPutting Things Right, the Edward
Putnam story.
Classmate (03:56):
His father acted as a signatory, and Edward leased a
tiny little building, more of ashack than anything else,
nestled between the town'schurch and brothel.
His first day there, he placeda sign on its door.
It simply read E.
Putnam Pudding Monger.
And every day after he'dfinished his chores in school,
(04:16):
he'd experiment with variouspudding flavors and
consistencies.
Sometimes the teachers let himout early on account of how he
made everyone around himuncomfortable.
Estelle Hayes (04:27):
People laughed at him.
And also felt creeped out byhim.
But it was mostly laughing, Ithink.
Bit of both.
I mean, there's not like dataon this.
What, you seem pissed.
Charlie Incarica (04:38):
Oh, I'm not.
Estelle Hayes (04:39):
Well then lighten the fuck up, podcast boy.
Let's do some shots.
Charlie Incarica (04:42):
Oh no.
Estelle Hayes (04:43):
Don't be such a pussy!
Charlie Incarica (04:45):
At fifteen, Edward arrived at the pudding
recipe that would make thePutnam family fortune.
Even later, when he was forcedto remove the cocaine from the
recipe, it still retained itspopularity as the most popular
dessert in the Midwest.
Estelle Hayes (04:58):
People still laughed at him, but they also
ate shitloads of his pudding.
Horatio Alvarez (05:03):
It's hard for us to fully appreciate the mania
this pudding created.
Charlie Incarica (05:07):
Horatio Alvarez holds the Little Debbie
Chair of Sociology and SnackFood at the Putnam Online
Institute for the Advancement ofPudding Studies in Chicago.
Horatio Alvarez (05:16):
You have to understand that to rural and
working class Americans,enjoying things was a brand new
craze sweeping the nation.
So yes, timing was a factor,but the man made a damn good
pudding.
Charlie Incarica (05:28):
By 1916, the demand for Shady Grove pudding
was so great that Putnam builthis first pudding foundry just
outside of town.
It was soon operating 24 hoursa day.
Estelle Hayes (05:38):
They couldn't make that shit fast enough.
Charlie Incarica (05:41):
Still, all was not well in Shady Grove.
Estelle Hayes (05:44):
Edward Putnam ran this town like a king.
Sure, he and his cronies weregetting rich, but the common man
was suffering.
And then the first murdershappened.
Charlie Incarica (05:55):
First murders.
Estelle Hayes (05:57):
Yeah.
I mean, Jesus, what the Did youeven bother to Google this
place?
Charlie Incarica (06:02):
I had.
Or I did, when I got back to myroom.
In the summer of 1936, anautomobile belonging to Edward's
elder son, Walter, was found onthe outskirts of town, with the
bodies of two murdered women inthe back seat.
Estelle Hayes (06:17):
They tried to hush it up, but hey, you want to
refill?
Charlie Incarica (06:20):
Oh no.
Estelle Hayes (06:21):
I'm just gonna top myself off.
unknown (06:22):
Okay.
Estelle Hayes (06:23):
Yeah, anyway, it's a small town.
You can't cover up somethinglike that.
But it didn't matter.
Walter never even got chargedwith anything.
Or the second and third times.
Charlie Incarica (06:33):
How many times did that Listen?
Estelle Hayes (06:35):
Crazy runs hard in that family.
Walter was like his old man.
With Edward, it was makingpudding.
With Walter, it was killingprostitutes.
Charlie Incarica (06:43):
It's hard to find much in the way of official
records on these murders.
Some of it survives only aslore.
But many believe Walter killedup to eight sex workers between
1936 and 1938.
Yet the only evidence of Walterhaving a run-in with the law at
that time was a traffic ticketissued in September of 1938 for
speeding in a puddingmanufacturing zone.
(07:06):
With the town growing restlessdue to the perception the
Putnams were literally gettingaway with murder, as well as the
growing prostitute shortage,the Putnam family sent Walter to
scout new pudding markets inSouth America.
But before he reached his finaldestination, he reached his
final final destination.
Which means I'm saying he waskilled.
(07:28):
Walter Putnam's death was ruledas a result of a car accident
by the county coroner, but somefelt it was a case of another
Putnam murder, pointing out thatcar accident victims usually
don't have multiple stab wounds,as Walter's body did.
Also, he was found in hiskitchen.
He was survived by his wife,Tess, and his two young
(07:48):
daughters, Mary, three, andCatherine, 18 months.
They soon left for partsunknown, and there they seem to
fade from the picture.
At least for the time being.
But remember them goingforward.
As for Walter, Eddie often.
Edward Putnam Jr., known to allas Eddie, was playing a larger
(08:09):
role in the day-to-dayoperations of the company, and
was widely known as ruthless inbusiness.
And he had come to view hisolder brother as bad for
business.
Estelle Hayes (08:18):
Walter had become an embarrassment to the family.
Think about how fucked up youhad to be to claim that title.
Charlie Incarica (08:25):
Very is the answer.
The year before, Edward Sr.
testified before a Senatesubcommittee, urging Congress to
subsidize his plans to designlow-cost housing built with what
he claimed to be arevolutionary new material,
which he repeatedly promised thepress and Congress was not
related to pudding.
But when he arrived to givetestimony, he ceded his time to
(08:46):
his imaginary friend, ProfessorPudding.
And when Putnam was questionedby visibly uncomfortable
senators, Edward answered everyquestion with the word pudding.
He was seldom seen in publicagain.
The company and the townbriefly became a laughing stock.
Pudding sales slowed to acrawl.
Estelle Hayes (09:05):
But thank God World War II happened.
The American people in theirrighteous might will win through
to absolute victory.
Charlie Incarica (09:15):
This gave the Putnam family the second chance
it needed.
Estelle Hayes (09:18):
Somehow Eddie got the government to declare
pudding an essential wartimeindustry.
Everyone knew the whole thingwas corrupt, but everybody was
getting rich, so who's going tocomplain?
And the few people who did,well, they tended to go missing.
Charlie Incarica (09:31):
Shady Grove received a massive contract from
the government, and by thewar's end, virtually all of
America was making Shady GrovePudding its dessert of choice.
By 1948, the Shady GrovePudding Empire was at its apex.
Under Eddie's cutthroatbusiness tactics, the company
had extended its reach intosignificant holdings in
textiles, owned a string ofnewspapers and radio stations
(09:55):
throughout the Midwest, andsponsored one of the most
popular radio programs in thecountry.
This ad, which aired regularlyin 1948, is typical of the Shady
Grove pudding marketingcampaigns.
Commercial Voice 2 (10:08):
You're so right, Marty.
Foreigners are funny.
Commercial Voice 1 (10:18):
Don't be silly, Tom.
They only probably steal yourcase of delicious shady pudding.
Shady Grove really attends tomy everything.
Estelle Hayes (11:06):
Paddling around with movie stars and mobsters,
sleeping with starlets, andexpanding his financial empire
off and all at once.
He hadn't been back there inalmost three years when the
strike broke out in 49.
Pass me that bottle, we justkilled this one.
Oh, I haven't been drinking.
Well, you've been in the room.
It's trying to be inclusive.
Anyway, 49, big strike.
Charlie Incarica (11:29):
This is a crucial moment in the town's
history, and I believe it mighthave a direct bearing on the
case.
Apparently, the Putnams Companyhad been unionized since the
20s.
The chief negotiating victorythe union could boast of was a
1932 agreement from managementthat when a worker died on the
job, something that happenedwith surprising frequency for a
pudding factory, his familywould be entitled to 30% off
(11:52):
Shady Grove pudding for sixmonths.
But in 1949, a young radicallawyer named Alexander Hart came
to town with the expresspurpose of giving the company's
workers a fair shake.
Before long, Eddie had borroweddozens of union busting goons
from the Ford Motor Company in apilot program for goon sharing
among the top corporations inAmerica.
(12:14):
Still, the workers didn't givein, and so many thugs were
eventually brought in that inthe 1950 census, union busting
was Shady Grove's second mostpopular occupation, running
almost in a tie with puddingworkers.
Estelle Hayes (12:28):
The rest of the country was enjoying real
prosperity, assuming you were awhite man, and in those days
everyone assumed you were.
But here it was a pretty darktime.
A lot of good men were killed,also a fair amount of pricks.
Charlie Incarica (12:40):
But then, Alexander Hart devised a
brilliant plan.
Luckily, newsreel footageannouncing the breakthrough
still exists.
Anthony Giofreddo (12:48):
Today, the negotiations between myself and
Mr.
Anthony the Razor Giafredo havesuccessfully concluded in an
agreement to unionize the unionbusting goons who were
previously terrorizing many ofthe strikers at Mr.
Putnam's factory.
Mr.
Geoffredo and his union membershave further agreed to commence
a strike in sympathy with thepudding mongoers of America.
(13:09):
Mr.
Giafredo.
Speaker (13:22):
However, to honor the terms of our previous contract,
we will continue to beat factoryworkers until the 15th of next
month.
Anthony Giofreddo (13:31):
But as a show of good faith and solidarity,
several goons will themselves bebeaten up each day.
And factory workers will form arotation in which they will
also brutalize their fellowemployees.
Charlie Incarica (13:44):
It proved to be a stroke of genius.
Ford and the other companiesabandoned the Putnams.
For Eddie, it was a crushingand humiliating blow, one from
which many say he never fullyrecovered.
He was forced to negotiate acontract that allowed for paid
vacation, shorter hours, andinsulin for the vast diabetic
population of the town.
(14:04):
Hart eventually settled inShady Grove, as did many of the
newly unionized goons, whom Hartwould frequently represent when
negotiating terms with othercompanies who needed their
services.
And so, the bitter rivalrybetween the Putnam and Hart
families began.
The next years were uneventful,although in 1961, Edward Sr.,
(14:30):
though no longer active inday-to-day operations, donated
$15 million to NASA to study theeffects of weightlessness on
pudding.
Infuriated, Eddie stripped hisfather's right to control his
own money.
Estelle Hayes (14:43):
I mean, given the way Ed Sr.
was pissing it away, it madesense.
But the way he did it not onlyalienated him from his father,
but from his 21-year-old sonRobert.
Eddie Jr.
was grooming him to take overthe plants upon his retirement,
but Robert never forgave him.
Also, Robert was a fuckingidiot.
Horatio Alvarez (15:00):
Robbie.
Well, Robbie was always a freespirit.
A true iconoclast.
Estelle Hayes (15:05):
He was a true fuck up.
Horatio Alvarez (15:07):
He was always thinking outside of the box.
Estelle Hayes (15:10):
If Robert Putnam ever thought outside of the box,
it was because he was too dumbto figure out how to open it.
Charlie Incarica (15:16):
By 1967, Eddie only saw Robert when he'd begun
some ill-fated business ventureor another.
In 1970, less than a year afterWoodstock, Robert sank nearly
$3 million into his ill-fatedPUD Stock.
And despite offering luminariessuch as Jimi Hendrix, the
Rolling Stones, Janice Joplin,and John Lennon well-compensated
(15:38):
slots, the only two performershe was able to secure were
Academy Award winner MickeyRooney and Heisman Trophy winner
O.J.
Simpson.
And despite theirgroundbreaking duet rendition of
the Who's Rock Opera Tommy, itwas a disaster, with Robert
somehow losing $7 million,despite only investing $1
million.
And then, the town was hitparticularly hard by the rough
(16:01):
economy of the 70s.
Estelle Hayes (16:02):
You can't base your economy on one product,
especially if it's fuckingpudding.
Charlie Incarica (16:07):
But if the Putnams and Shady Grove itself
were going through hard times,Alexander Hart's family was on
the ascent.
His only daughter, Alice, hadgraduated from law school and
was duly sworn in before the baras the state's first
lawyerette.
Women weren't called lawyers inShady Grove until the early
1980s.
In 1983, she became thecounty's youngest and first
(16:29):
unpenised district attorney.
And her first target was ShadyGrove Pudding's grip on the
town.
She immediately pressed ShadyGrove's city council to rename
the town's streets, which hadall been named Pudding Street
since 1930, making the mostbasic navigation in town
excruciating and dangerous.
While that move was widelyapplauded, in 1997 she indicted
(16:52):
Edward Putnam Jr., then 86 on 14counts of witness tampering,
murder, and transporting puddingacross state lines for the
purposes of voter intimidation.
Quickly the town turned on her.
Estelle Hayes (17:06):
Alice underestimated the love the
community had for the Putnams.
Not Eddie, per se.
But you see, for Shady Grove,that company had become
synonymous with their identity.
Our high school sports teamsare called the snack packs, for
fuck's sake.
But she humiliated that man,and that was going too far.
She lost the next election.
Charlie Incarica (17:26):
Eddie pleaded guilty, but shot himself before
sentencing.
Two weeks later, Edward Sr.
died at the age of 108.
It was a shock to thecommunity.
People referred to the time asDouble Fudge December.
Estelle Hayes (17:40):
By then, Robbie had long left the company trying
to break into the burgeoningcult industry.
So the board, looking to showcontinuity, chose Robert's son
Teddy to become CEO.
An unfortunate choice.
Anyway, the town.
It was never the same.
It just wasn't the place thatI'd always know.
Charlie Incarica (18:04):
You need to take a minute.
Then, with Shady Grove in aseemingly irreversible decline
through the nineties and thefirst decade of the 2000s,
(18:25):
Teddy's twin sister, Amanda,took the reins of her family's
moribund company, and throughher discipline and grit, brought
Shady Grove Pudding and ShadyGrove itself, roaring back to
life.
By 2015, she was hailed as thetown's savior.
So, who would possibly want tokill her?
(18:46):
More than a few people, itturns out.
The prime suspects in episodethree of the murderer killings.
Oh, hi.
(19:39):
I uh I I I ordered my food liketwo hours ago.
It it's Charlie Incarica.
I ordered a burger and amilkshake.
What's that?
No, I I
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