Episode Transcript
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Rob (00:00):
Hey everyone, just a quick
reminder this is part two of our
coverage of Susan Savakis.
In the last episode, hannahwalked us through the twisted
and tragic story of Tanya Hughes, later revealed to be Sharon
Marshall, and the horrific truthbehind her relationship with
Floyd.
We ended with Floyd's shockingabduction of young Michael in
(00:21):
the heartbreaking mystery ofwhat happened next.
And now the conclusion we pickup right where we left off last
week.
Hannah (00:29):
Okay, Hi, I'm Hannah and
I'm Courtney.
Join us as we delve into truecrime, paranormal encounters and
all things spooky.
Courtney (00:48):
Grab your flashlight
and get ready to wander into the
darkness with us.
Hannah (01:10):
This is Wicked
Wanderings why do they always
want to do that, I'm sorry.
So he wanted a hybrid modelwhich reminds me of several
other cases and I'm gonna say itoh man, reminds me of fucking
bundy.
We've talked about other caseswhere these motherfuckers are so
narcissistic that they thinkthey can defend.
They think they can defendthemselves, they think they can
(01:30):
question people in their defense.
It just wow I don't know.
Courtney (01:35):
People always want to
defend themselves and it doesn't
make any sense to me unlessthey want to get put away for it
.
Do you think at a certain pointpoint that I'm going to control
this by literally controllingthe entire thing?
Hannah (01:48):
I think so, but it's a
narcissistic way of thinking, I
feel.
Courtney (01:53):
I'm always torn
because I think if I was a
narcissist, wouldn't I want tokeep going out and being able to
live my life the way thatbenefits me, and wouldn't that
mean giving a professional thechance?
I think it's because we're notnarcissists, true?
Plus, it sounds like he's beenbehind bars several times, so
maybe he's had bad experienceswith public defenders and things
like that, because obviously hewas going to get a public
defender later on in the storyhe really thinks that there's no
(02:15):
evidence against him at all ohokay, so partially like
delusions so currently theycannot get him on michael's
murder because they don't have abody right.
Yeah, for all they know, hereally did just like drop him
off with a rich person, likeright, so they really only got
him on the kidnapping, on thehandling of the gun, on
imprisonment of the principaland because they also don't know
(02:38):
that he hurt sharon right,because they're just assuming or
cheryl right and they haven'tconnected those dots yet, I'm
sure correct he ended up getting52 years in prison.
Hannah (02:50):
No parole for the
kidnapping kidnapping of michael
because they could not find thebody, so that's the best they
could do.
But honestly, 52 years, 52years with no parole that and
with the past history too.
I'm sure that helped get thewhole time so they ended up
finding the principal's truckwhich apparently they couldn't
find in the beginning, and theyfound taped underneath was a
(03:13):
package like a regular, likemanila envelope type package
right of child pornographypictures, including pictures of
a young Sharon and her friendCheryl.
But the pictures of Cheryl waslike she was so beaten.
The FBI agent was like there'sno way she lived through this.
So the FBI said somethinghappened with Cheryl.
(03:34):
We know it did Like she hasn'tbeen seen.
Courtney (03:36):
But they weren't found
in his truck.
They were found in theprincipal's truck.
Hannah (03:40):
Yes, so it's like was he
trying to plant?
Courtney (03:41):
the evidence on the
principal oh, I'm sure he was.
I mean stupidly, because theyknew that you took his truck,
but that's also like a weirdplace to hide it and it also
makes me think like so, unlessyou intended to do exactly what
you did, you went into theschool, you kidnapped the
principal, you made him help youkidnap michael at gunpoint.
You got in the principal'struck, I'm assuming you left
(04:02):
your truck at the school or youwalked, yeah, and then you
carried a manila envelope withyou to do all that, right filled
with no.
You had to stop someplacebecause if you had gotten caught
and apprehended at the school,you would have child pornography
linking you to two dead womenand multiple more there was
multiple children on those.
Hannah (04:20):
They didn't even know
who they were.
That's so sad.
The fbi said obviously there'sno way this woman lived through
this beating.
So through some meandering ways, through the system, through
collaboration, they ended upfinding a body buried on the
side of a highway with justskeleton remains.
Two bullet holes were found inthe head.
(04:41):
Come to to find out it wasCheryl.
She had been threatened by himoutside the strip club because
one of the girls witnessed it,saying I'll kill you.
Remember this?
Blah, blah, blah.
And he ended up getting asentence of lethal injection for
this murder.
But they still never knew aboutwhere Michael was.
They still don't know aboutMichael and they still don't
(05:02):
know about Cheryl, because rightnow it's a hit and run, right,
or Sharon?
Yeah, right, I'm sorry, sharon,sorry, there's so many names,
there's so many names, sorry,guys.
So do you remember the trailerpark where they lived?
Yes, okay, so we're going to goback to that trailer park in
Florida, the one with the inflorida 15 year old girl who
babysat sometimes, yes, wherecheryl would go and visit them.
(05:25):
Yes, okay a guy was seen goinginto their trailer park and he
came out, he left and the wholetrailer goes kaboom.
So they think that he hiredsomeone to go blow up the spot.
Courtney (05:38):
So there was no
fingerprints or dna because,
come to, find out.
Hannah (05:44):
The mattress that cheryl
was found on was the mattress
from that trailer.
Wow, yep, this is why, huhright, they left tulsa because
he had just murdered cheryl.
So he took michael, he tooksharon and then blew the trailer
.
And blew the trailer up.
They knew that the police wouldbe looking for a man with his
(06:07):
description, with a daughter anda grandchild.
What does he do?
He goes to New Orleans, hemarries Sharon and claims
Michael as his son.
Wow, because?
No one's looking for a man andwife and a child.
Courtney (06:19):
And we still don't
know what his relation to Sharon
actually is, because he's notthe biological father, right,
right and there's no DNA.
Right.
Hannah (06:31):
Here we go.
Like we said, there's twoquestions who is Sharon Right
and where is Michael?
Courtney (06:38):
And who is Frank Floyd
to?
Hannah (06:41):
all of these people?
All these people?
How is Frank put in all this?
A journalist ends up gettingkind of a hint to all this and
he's told to go on the exploitedchild website, right.
And he ends up finding apicture of Sharon when she was
very young, probably about fiveyears old, with Floyd.
The psychologist said the facethat she has is a child that's
(07:06):
been abused.
Just the way that she looksokay, which just I still see it
in my head, which brings myheart.
So, since floyd's in jail, thejournalist decides to go see if
floyd will talk to him whilehe's in prison.
Courtney (07:18):
what does he have to
love to lose?
Because they did sentence himto lethal injection, so he's
just waiting at that point andlike a psychopath he likes to
talk.
Hannah (07:26):
They always love to talk
.
So what does Floyd do?
What does a psychopath like todo?
More than anything else.
Courtney (07:33):
Point you in the wrong
direction, to then make you
come back.
And then they giggle at you andsay, oh, maybe it was this.
I don't remember and Tell you.
If you let me out of jail I canshow you Talk about themselves.
That's true.
Hannah (07:43):
What does he do?
He talks about himself.
Great, tell us who the fuck youare.
This journalist ended upwriting a book which I ended up
putting on my TBR.
The thing is with this book,the end story is not in it,
because it was written in theearly 2000s and there's a lot of
information Like.
The way it finished is not howthe story finished, if that
makes sense it does.
Courtney (08:05):
I feel like a lot of
the I don't want to say this
one's newer because it's not,but a lot of the newer ones like
we.
We've talked about the karenreed trial.
Hannah (08:13):
Well, very hard to
present the book is called a
beautiful child a true story ofhope, horror and an enduring
human spirit, by Burbeck, and hewas on some talk shows and
everything talking about thisstory.
Courtney (08:27):
I'm adding it to the
TBR right now.
Hannah (08:29):
It looks really good.
I do want to read it because Ithink it would give some good
insight.
So Floyd ended up talking abouthimself and he said you know, I
was born in 1943.
My father had died, my mom hadseveral children and decided she
couldn't take care of him.
He ended up getting sent to theGeorgia Children's Baptist Home
, which I looked up andapparently it's still running,
(08:51):
oh God, right outside of Atlanta.
So I was surprised by that.
That's interesting.
Based off of what he said, hewas abused there.
It sounded like he was sexuallyabused, physically abused.
It sounded like he had a reallyrough childhood, which doesn't
excuse his behavior, but it kindof shows you why he is the way
(09:11):
that he is Abandoned, abused.
He said he was smaller than theother guys.
He actually talked aboutphysical abuse that happened and
sexual abuse that happened inthe prisons.
I always want to believesomeone that is privy to having
these things happen to them, butyou never know too.
(09:34):
But it sounded like he had apretty rough life.
Of course, floyd deniedeverything he did.
He, yeah, denied everkidnapping.
He denied all the murders.
Courtney (09:44):
He did, even though
there were witnesses right being
, obviously, when he went intothe school and did what he did
right saw him but because of thebook, you know.
Hannah (09:55):
word got out and
sharon's daughter was found.
She had been adopted.
So remember when she waspregnant in high school?
Yes, she had a daughter thatended up being adopted.
Courtney (10:08):
So there were two
children, then Three.
Oh my gosh.
Hannah (10:12):
She had three children
and I was really surprised by
that Between 18 and 20.
Yeah, she had three babies.
I was really surprised by that.
Between 18 and 20.
Yeah, so, New Orleans, 1989,Tanya and Clarence their names.
Then they go to an adoptionagency and they say we can't
afford another child.
And this was.
They had Michael at the time.
(10:32):
This was the third child.
I don't know what happened tothe first, but they were saying
that she had three.
Courtney (10:39):
He did according to
her best friend's story.
She was told you're going towhat happened to the first, but
they were saying that she hadthree.
Well, he did.
He did according to her bestfriend's story.
She was told you're going togive this baby up, yeah, and
then you're going to come takecare of me, right?
So we now understand all toowell right.
Hannah (10:49):
We don't know about the
first, but we do know they had
michael at this point and theywanted to give up this.
Third.
The adoptive parents went to gopick up megan that they called
her at the time at the hospitalbecause she had just given birth
.
It ended up being the two momstogether and she's like do you
want to see her?
Do you want to see what shelooks like?
And she's like I just I can't,I can't do.
(11:11):
And she just like rolled overand the mom, the adoptive mom
even said she's like I wish Iknew.
I wish she said like I needhelp, like you know it, because
it's she's like.
I wish I knew, I wish she saidlike I need help, right you know
?
Because it's she seemed like amother that wanted to keep her
children.
Courtney (11:27):
Like.
This is a woman that was abusedin so many different ways and
it seems like it was evident yes, from what a lot of people are
saying.
Yes, it was evident physicallythat she was being abused.
Hannah (11:32):
So again, she had the
three pregnancies.
The first one adopted she hadMichael, which I don't know why
he let her keep.
Courtney (11:39):
Michael Were the other
two girls, I'm wondering.
Hannah (11:44):
And did he not want to
touch someone else?
Wait, you're saying he ended upbeing a good person.
Courtney (11:47):
I'm just wondering if
maybe he knew that if they were
girls and that they kept them,if he worried that he would do
something, maybe he did want tonot do that, because if the
other two were girls, why wouldhe have kept a boy?
Hannah (12:00):
There's nothing known
about the first one.
I would love to hear more aboutyour theory because it could be
one.
But you know, the third oneagain I said was Megan and she
was given up to adoption.
So yeah, I mean it's aninteresting theory.
Maybe in the book they'll know.
Maybe, right, I mean Wanderers.
We may come back for this.
Courtney (12:19):
And if you know, text
us.
Hannah (12:21):
So Sharon's case got
sent to missing and exploited
children because they wanted tofigure out, like, who was Sharon
Right, because obviously shewasn't Floyd's daughter, right,
right, yeah, they got interestedand they ended up contacting
the FBI.
The FBI ended up going to seeFloyd again and apparently they
go to have an interview withFloyd, and Floyd ends up
contacting the fbi.
The fbi ended up going to seefloyd again and apparently they
(12:42):
go to have an interview withfloyd, and floyd ends up ranting
like ranting and raving beforethey even say anything and
they're like, dude, we are notyour lawyers, and they're like
he's like what?
Courtney (12:50):
like this guy's on
death row, right, right.
I mean nothing that they say isgonna do anything worse to him.
He said what, what you're not.
Hannah (12:55):
Who are you?
And they're like we're fbiagents viewing his guts to fbi.
Oh my god.
He's like what do you want?
They're like well, we want toknow where michael is and who
the hell you are.
Also, he's like you need toshut that case.
And they're like well, we'rejust we would need a buddy first
.
Thank you, so we ended upconfessing that he had shot him
two times in the back of thehead.
(13:16):
To make it quick, he claimedthat he was buried on the
oklahoma texas border and theysearched for two days.
Yeah, and they claimed we did110 percent like we tried
finding him and they never foundhis body, a lewis lent, who
does that constantly exactly allthe time exactly he's alive in
jail doing that still.
(13:37):
Yep, they ended up finding outthat he had a different alias.
So this guy had so many aliases.
He had another alias calledbrandon.
Cleo williams never did like a.
Brandon sharon was suzannesavakis and she was born in
livonia, michigan.
What ended up happening wasthat he ended up marrying her
(13:59):
mom.
So Suzanne's mother and father.
They were childhood sweethearts.
The father ended up going toVietnam.
She was pregnant.
He ended up coming back fromVietnam, so I guess he got like
a week leave to visit his newdaughter, suzanne, right?
He came back after the VietnamWar and he was just different,
which a lot of men were at thattime.
Courtney (14:18):
Yeah, understandable.
Hannah (14:19):
But come to find out he
was changed and she was dating a
different man.
Oh man, yeah.
So she married that guy, hadtwo more daughters, oh boy, got
divorced, okay.
And then moved to a trailerpark with all three kids, with
all three kids herself, okay.
And apparently a tornado hit.
(14:41):
The mom claimed she had PTSD,she didn't know how to take care
of her children.
She was like just reallytraumatized.
So she was always told if youneed help, go to social services
.
So she said to them, like Ineed help.
And the woman's like go tochurch, go to church, oh man.
And to church, oh man.
(15:01):
And she's like, okay.
And also come to find out.
Suzanne's father was approachedby social services and said
listen, I know only one of themis biologically your child, but
would you take all three girlsbecause they're all connected?
He said I was in such a badplace after vietnam I was
drinking.
Courtney (15:12):
I was living with my
parents, like there was no way I
could take care of three girlsby myself and it sounds like he
was also trying to make a choicetoo, that maybe he didn't
consider what the other optionswere.
He was just knowing that if hehad had those girls come with
him, that he wouldn't have beenable to do the job right so she
goes to church like the socialservice like she doesn't want
(15:32):
her to go for an event, or didthey just be like find jesus?
Hannah (15:35):
jesus will save you.
Courtney (15:36):
Oh, basically, and
this is where she met floyd- oh,
of course he's preying on womenat the church and he says I
promise you I'll help you withyour three girls, we'll get
married.
Hannah (15:47):
Life will be dandy,
white picket fence, blah, blah,
blah.
Right, of course they end upbeing this jolly family, right,
him and her and the three girls,sure.
But he starts showing his truecolors, right, like you're never
gonna fucking leave me all thiscontrolling crap, right all I'm
hearing in all of this is thatwe have suzanne accounted for
(16:08):
and three missing women.
Courtney (16:12):
That's all I'm hearing
in this.
Hannah (16:15):
The mom ended up writing
a bad check at the 7-Eleven
because she needed diapers forher child.
This is according to her.
She ends up getting 30 days injail for it.
Holy crap, how expensive werethose diapers, I know, I know.
And so he ends up taking thegirls Like just out, like taking
them and running.
She gets out of jail.
Her three daughters and herhusband aren't there, so she
(16:36):
goes to the police departmentand they're like well, are you
married?
And they said yeah, like well,that's an issue you guys need to
figure out between yourselves.
Courtney (16:43):
So she ends up finding
the two.
Hannah (16:44):
Because she was in jail
there was probably some kind of
stigma against Right, so sheends up finding the two younger
daughters at an orphanagebecause he dropped them off and
she it makes me wonder do weknow how much older Suzanne was
than the other girls?
Courtney (17:02):
I'm trying to think
like probably, at least like
four years, I would think Maybehe just felt more of a
connection, or because he waslike, well, this one's not a
baby anymore, so I can keep thisone alive by myself.
Maybe it's just weird, knowingwhat he does to young women,
that he was like had three athis disposal, yeah.
Hannah (17:23):
And he was like well'm
gonna take this one.
Courtney (17:24):
But like he had
already taken a four-year-old
girl and raped her like and thenthey didn't.
Did they ever find that?
Hannah (17:28):
girl.
I mean I think they did basedoff of him being in jail for it
and she must not have died,because then it would have been
murder right, right okay withthis really hefty story.
I'm glad they've actually foundher name and who she was.
She was a woman that seemed tobe smart, beautiful and kind on
many levels.
(17:49):
I mean, I'm thinking about thetime that she was raped in front
of her friend and she.
She consoled her friend, likeshe's the one that went through
that terrible thing and she'sstill like everything's gonna be
okay like and still was smart.
She was still accomplishingthings in high school and then
trying to take care of a son byher rapist, like it just.
(18:09):
And then even the foster familywas talking about how
behavioral michael was, where hewould just like smash his head
on the floor and have these hugetantrums and the work that
we're in it.
Courtney (18:20):
Just, I'm thinking
about it, I'm like it's strange,
but back then it was also avery different, because michael
was only I think two years olderthan what I am right now, so
he's not even 40, if he wasalive, right?
Hannah (18:35):
I mean, they still
haven't found a body.
Courtney (18:37):
I do think he's passed
, but there's still no body and
that's hard too, because withpeople like that and this is
kind of where, like thatlove-hate relationship of, for a
lot of people the death penaltyis tough because it's like, on
one hand, did you get justice, Imean I, I guess I have a hard
time feeling like that but, atthe same time, if you take that
(18:59):
person's life, there's no chancethat you're going to get that
information.
Rob (19:07):
And we know firsthand.
Courtney (19:08):
When somebody has
nothing else to lose, their
behavior is erratic.
They do whatever they want,there's nothing left for them to
possibly earn, and I just feellike, as a behaviorist who's so
reinforcement driven and notpunishment, I'm failing to see
how this is helpful to getclosure for Michael, and in so
many cases it's the same thing.
Hannah (19:25):
So some good things,
which I know it's hard to find.
The good in this is that withso Megan, her third daughter,
you know, was found with heradoptive parents and the
journalist ended up finding her.
That made the book and theydecided to change her headstone
from Tanya to actually her fullbirth name and a little
inscription and a picture andthey were able to have like a
(19:46):
commemoration ceremony, whichwas beautiful.
Her daughter Megan ended upcalling her first son, michael,
for her brother, just to kind ofhonor him and his life and,
even though his body wasn'tfound, she's like just to
commemorate him as my brother,something I just didn't find
justice in, because I know we'vehad conversations about the
death penalty and everything,yeah, but floyd ended up dying
(20:10):
from natural causes in january23rd 2023 why does that always
happen?
okay.
So I'm gonna tell everybodylike, please go and watch the
documentary that this is basedoff of.
It's called Girl in the Picture.
It's actually on Netflix and itcan give you a lot more
information.
But this thing took me for aride.
I watched it twice and actuallypeople that I saw online
(20:33):
watching it, they had to watchit twice because it is just an
extreme amount of information.
It's mind-boggling.
As I'm even reading it, youknow from my notes, I'm like
wait, this is from here and hereto there and all the aliases
and everything.
But this guy was a completedouche canoe and it just sounded
like he just took a woman thatI think could have done
(20:54):
brilliant things in her careerif she went to georgia tech and
just it just breaks my heart.
Courtney (21:00):
so I'm going to say
that that was the story of
suzanne savakis, because that'swhat it was I feel like that's
just such a a wild ride andthere's so much, and this is why
we we do what we do here.
I guess the psychologicalcomponent of so many of those
people and how everything turnedout the way that it did.
(21:24):
Like you know, why did frank dothe things that he did?
Well, and I know you drew theconclusion that you know he I
did look up that place thebaptist place.
It's still near atlanta theyproudly put on their website 150
years of housing children, yes,which is horrifying, and I just
feel like it's.
We always come down to this too,no matter what story we tell,
(21:45):
monsters are monsters and theydo horrific things.
But what made them that way?
What was the thing?
And the things that they didare not justifiable.
They're not okay.
They're not being condoned byanybody here on this podcast,
surely?
But we are so interested in theinner workings and why, yeah,
and I I do feel like I don'tknow my theory about the kids.
Hannah (22:06):
I really want to know
what the gender of that first
baby was for some reason it justwasn't no and, like you said,
maybe it's in the book maybe Imean it's definitely going on my
tbr.
Courtney (22:15):
it already did,
because my tbr not that my tbr
isn't 600 million trillionbillion books long.
But yeah, that's a real stumper.
So we're going to do Pick aCard, any Card.
I'm going to shuffle these badboys up because I feel like it's
(22:38):
been a while since we've.
It's been a while, all right,and I'll pick a card, any card.
She's making heat everybody,just one cheater pants am I
reading or are you reading?
Hannah (22:51):
you're reading?
Okay, I have the three of clubs, are you sure?
Yes, vincent wadlington.
On february 17, 2011, thevictim was found stabbed in the
railroad tracks in the area ofDanford Street near the
intersection of Durfee Streetand Odd Street in Fall River.
The victim was last seen 10 pmon the night before near
(23:12):
President Avenue and North MainStreet.
If you have any info about thecase, please call 1-855-MASOLVE.
Again, this is VincentWadlington.
Courtney (23:23):
I don't know much
about anything from Fall River
except for the Lizzie.
Hannah (23:26):
Borden house, I know.
Courtney (23:27):
It's so sad because I
feel like some areas, especially
for wicked or crime-relatedthings, they have one thing that
just kind of like takes over,because I can't even think off
the top of my head what FallRiver's socioeconomic status is.
Mostly I really it's I wouldsay city-ish.
Hannah (23:48):
It's city-ish.
Yeah, I would say it's city-ish.
It's very different than fromwhat Luzbeth lived in.
Courtney (23:54):
I would think so.
Hannah's blonde statement forthe day.
I would happen to think so.
I know the cards are always sosad.
I do think it's almost time wecan say that we don't have.
We probably have less than halfthe deck left and our producer
would tell us we need toremember to do the cards more.
But if you have a differentstates, also do the cards.
(24:16):
So when we wrap upMassachusetts, if anybody has a
state that they would like torequest for us to do we were
thinking Connecticut, but wecould leave it up to the
Wanderers, and if you have adifferent state or a different
type of activity we could do atthe end that you would rather
hear.
Let us know, Text us.
Hannah (24:33):
Thank you, Wanderers.
Thank you, Wanderers.
Bye Till next time.
Thanks for listening today.
Rob (24:42):
Wicked Wanderings is hosted
by me, Hannah and co-hosted by
me, courtney, and it's producedby Rob Fitzpatrick.
Hannah (24:45):
Music by Sasha N.
If you enjoyed today's episode,don't forget to leave a rating
and review and be sure to followon all socials.
You can find the links down inthe show notes.
If you're looking for somereally cozy t-shirts or hoodies,
head over to the merch store.
Thank you for being a part ofthe Wicked Wanderings community.
We appreciate every one of you.
Stay curious, keep exploringand always remember to keep on
(25:08):
wandering.
Thank you.