September 19, 2019 • 27 mins
MonstruoPodcast.comFrom the collective minds of Jack Luna (Dark Topic), Tyler Bell (The Westside Fairytales) and Mike Boudet (Sword and Scale) comes Monstruo, the most disturbing podcast ever made. Nine stories, carefully crafted, one year in the making. Each two part episode of episode of Monstruo delves into the the most heinous and depraved killers ever to walk this earth. Told from the perspective of the individuals who were unfortunate enough to be there, and using highly-immersive audio-drama-like presentation, each story uncovers the motivation of these human monsters. The presentation of Monstruo consists of two 30-minute episodes followed by an after show where the hosts and creators chat about the story in their own words and further explore the details of each grizzly case.SUBSCRIBE NOWApple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monstruo/id1440306805Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wondery/monstruoTuneIn - https://tunein.com/podcasts/History-Podcasts/Monstruo-p1184745/Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5TxmPu677nCiBAtSKc8b6uPodbean - https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/whmbk-804d1/Monstruo-PodcastPlayerFM - https://player.fm/series/monstruoPodbay - https://podbay.fm/podcast/1440306805/reviews
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Murder isn't cute. Murder isn't ameme. It's not something funny to chat
about with the girls over a glassof wine just to be edgy. It's
sure as fuck is in a lifetimemovie. Murder is pure violence of the
most extreme form. It's removing ahuman life from this planet by force.
(00:28):
About a year ago, I anda few fellow podcasters set out to describe
exactly what this act entails, tofill in the blanks, so to speak,
of dialogue or thought, but tokeep all of the factual details of
the story in place. We wouldpick the most extreme of the extreme,
(00:49):
heinous murders that make your stomach turn. And because of the narrative nature of
the show, we wouldn't be limitedto the States. The entire thing would
be an international tour of real lifehorror. We called it monstro, the
Spanish word for monster, which isexactly what the protagonists of these stories are.
(01:11):
Many of you weren't ready. Weget that, and this show isn't
for everyone, that's for sure,But myself, Jack Luna from Dark Topic
and Tyler Bell from West Side fairyTales think it's some of the best and
most original work we've ever done andmay possibly ever do so. Today we're
announcing the launch of season two,and you're about to hear part one of
(01:37):
the very first episode. If youwant to hear the rest, including all
of the nine stories of season oneand all of the rest of the nine
stories of season two, then headon over to Apple Podcasts or your preferred
podcast player and search for Monstro podcast. That's m n st RUO. Thanks,
(02:00):
and we recommend you finish eating yourbreakfast or lunch before listening. Enjoy.
What you're about to hear is basedon actual events. Listener discretion is
advised. It's hanging right there infront of'em, catching the light like
(02:32):
a dirty shower curtain. What littlesun hits it from the room beyond stains
the thing a brownish yellow color thatreminds the detective of the callouses on the
soles of his feet, feet thatare itching now as he takes the rest
of the thing in its own feet, Dangling empty and slightly wrinkled above the
(02:58):
linoleum, the victim's skin peeled fromthe meat of his body and hung in
the doorway from its mouth, thedistended lips yanked open in a silent endless
scream. Geordie looks over the topof his cruiser at the crowd of people
(04:13):
gathering on the street outside the house. The crowd has grown steadily since the
first units arrived and shows no signsof slowing. Most of the onlookers already
seemed to have a better idea what'sgoing on inside the residence than he does.
They keep asking if cath finally didhim well, did she? It's
not something he can rightly answer.He arrived just before the detectives a few
(04:35):
minutes ago and was charged with sittingoutside and managing the crowd. None of
the locals seemed much concerned about causinga ruckus, though a few of them
are snuck up to him and theother officer at the barrier whisper about how
they might want to keep an eyeout for the night brothers. Those ones
can start trouble, they suggest.Mostly he's been standing with his thumb up
(04:57):
his ass and chasing the odd onlookeraway from the car hidden around the side
of the house. They move onagreeably, wiping sweat off their foreheads and
making comments about somebody named Pricey,who Jordy supposed his owns the home an
old man steps out of the crowd, having only just wandered up the street.
He waves at Jordy, who sighsand turns that cut. Finally do
(05:17):
him, he asks, and Jordyhas to get him to clarify. The
man nods his head toward the house. His breath is fetted with the stench
of alcohol. Kath, Kath,finally kill Pricey. He searches Jordy's face
for any sign of acknowledgement, findssomething there, and then spits and shakes
his head. Ah fucking shame thatPricey was an all right sort hell of
(05:41):
a bloke. Damn fucking shame,sir. If you've got any information about
the crime, you need to sharethat with the police, Jordy says,
fanning some semblance of authority as muchas he can muster anyway. The old
guy waves a hand at him andturns to leave. Boy, kell it
you're sticking around, the old guy, asked one of the onlookers. The
(06:01):
man says he is, and theold guy slaps him on the back.
I'm handing a pill for a drink. You can come by and fill me
in later. There's a shot knitfor you. Kelly laughs, and nods,
and the old guy says a loadto a few others before disappearing up
the street, heading for the town'sonly other bar, having maybe been kicked
out of the downhill one already arookie. One of the detective's calls from
(06:24):
the front door of the building.Jordi acknowledges the man and jogs up to
him. The detective's face is drawnand pale. He's breathing in the outside
air like a man just escaped froma gas chamber. Jordy looks past him
into the house for just a second. It's dark inside, and there's a
terrible smell leaking out the door,and the hot summer air is the kind
(06:44):
of stents you can feel collecting inyour pores. Bring your coughs. The
detective says, meat was Detective Murdockin the bedroom back there the well.
She was still in the house,so there's not going to be a man
hunt. Jordy asks that it giveshim a square look, and then loosens
the color of his shirt, pullinghis necktie open to let in air despite
(07:04):
the march heat. No man hunting'salready done, you can say, the
detective mutters to himself. His eyeswander over the crowd, and then he
hisses at Jordi, pointing at therookie shoes. Don't fucking move. Jordy
freezes and looks down at a lumpof old barbecue laying on the grass.
(07:25):
He looks back of the detective,the question apparent in his eyes, but
the detective looks past him and wavesto the other officer in the yard.
The man jogs over. You getinside and assist Detective Murdoch, he says
to Jordy, pushing his shoulder toget him going. He hears the other
officers speaking with the detective as heenters the house. They're supposed to be
(07:45):
a dog around here, somewhere.It comes up trying to eat that right
there on the ground. You stopit, kick it if you have to,
but don't touch that meet and don'tlet anybody else touch it. Jordi
passes beyond where you can hear thedetective's voice. The interior of the house
smells awful, a deep coppery scenthe knows to be blood and something else,
(08:07):
things cooking, things stewing, thesmell of steam and vegetables and something
else, something deep and raw underall the rest. It makes the hairs
on the back of his neck standup. There is blood when he turns
on his flashlight, literally buckets ofit, flicked onto the walls and poured
and scraped over the floor, andpatterns that but leaguer his brain when he
(08:31):
tries to make sense of them.He puts his back to a torn looking
curtain that separates the hall from thekitchen and tries to avoid stepping in anything.
He calls to Detective Murdoch, whobarks a gruff back here that Geordie
follows all the way to the bedroom. There is more blood and then less,
just spatters and specks that seem tocover everything in equal portions. His
(08:52):
flashlight falls on a shape by oneof the living room's easy chairs. It's
a mannequin, he thinks, andcloser at it. It's sitting just in
front of the chair on the floor. There's a Sodo bottle under its hand.
It has no head. Detective Murdochcalls to Jordy again, breaking his
attention on the odd thing in theliving room. The mannequin. A mannequin,
(09:16):
it has to be. Jordy shakeshis head and walks into the bedroom,
where the blood spatters continue to pepperthe walls and ceiling. They are
a touch sparser here, he thinksthis is where it started. There is
a woman sitting on the bed inthe rank chaos of this home. She
is a clean and almost radiant thing. Her hair is a mad coppery fringe
(09:39):
around a face slack with exhaustion.She's middle aged, and though she may
have been pretty once, time hastaken that babble and tarnished it beyond repair.
There are glasses over her eyes,and her eyes are black. They
find Jordy and he looks away despitehimself. You're going to lock up with
Officer in here, Detective Murdoch saysto the woman. She stands and turns,
(10:03):
offering Jordy. Her wrists an oldpro Jordy puts on the cuffs without
a struggle and gets a good lookat Murdock's face. In the interim,
the old detective is looking at thewoman with a mix of disgusted and undisguised
interest, like a ship covered Rubik'sCube two turns away from being solved,
a puzzle that's close to completion buttoo disgusting to touch. Murdoch dismisses them,
(10:26):
and they walk down the hall.The woman, Katherine Knight the Calf,
locals them in asking after lets themlead her down the hall. They
skirt the bloodstains, and she doesn'toffer up a lick of resistance until just
before they reach the front door.Jordy realizes then that she's fairly large for
a woman. Before he can tellher to keep moving, she speaks in
(10:48):
a whisper that unnerves a young cop. That's what you fucking get, Pricey,
you fucking rapist your child. Fuckher. Jordy blinks and follows her
gaze to the tattered tarp hanging betweenthe kitchen and the living room hallway.
Now the light from outside is fallingperfectly on it, and he could see
what he couldn't earlier. The tarpis made of human skin, peeled perfectly
(11:11):
from the meat of what he perceivedto be a mannikin in the room beyond.
His eyes move up the thing,from where the flesh that once covered
the toes hang gently curling just abovethe floor. A man's cock and balls
dangle limply from the crotch of thepelt, which is faintly translucent tends yellow
by a scant sunlight. It hangsfrom its mouth by a hook panted into
(11:33):
the beam overtop the door. Theempty eye holes are drawn wide and staring
horror at Catherine, who was alreadypulling the shell shocked young policeman at the
front door of the house, gentlychuckling under her breath. The cracked and
gaping mouth of the human pelt seemsto call out for a drink, something
its former owner, a man knownto his friends as Pricy, likely had
(11:54):
needed badly before his death. Allright, Price, I'll tell you about
(12:16):
calf and me. Kellett relents,waving for the bartender, who brings down
two fresh beers and a bottle ofwhiskey. He uses to refill the little
shot glass by Kellett's elbow. Price. He sits right of Kellet, his
tired eyes constantly roaming two and fromthe door. There are only two bars
in town, the uphill one andthe downhill one. It's not hard to
(12:39):
find a drinking man in Aberdeen.He worried about her coming to get you
here, huh, Kell, Itasks with a chuckle, swirling around the
whiskey and then taking it in ashot. His eyes narrow and he looks
tired for a moment, older thanhe is, though he's no longer a
young man. None of them arethat, No Calf, He looks at
(13:01):
the door himself and then raises ahand for another drink before starting on the
beer. There's a lot to tellyou about with Kath and me. We
go way back, you know.I met at the Abatoir and all that,
back in oh seventy two, seventythree of the like she was just
(13:22):
about seventeen, freshen to work atthe butchers, like I was dropped out
of school and all that. Shewanted to follow after her dad Ken.
But you never met him. Iguess weird relationship. That a lot of
what I heard as rumor, eventhough we were together all them years,
and all of it bad. Shesaid, he did all sorts of things
(13:46):
to her. You know, theirparents are never due to children those sorts
of things. Even then, shealways wanted her life as an adult to
mirror her mom and dad's. Everythingwas Barbara this Ken that when we'd married,
she'd expected me to hang the laundrywhile she did the finances, because
(14:07):
that was how Barb and Ken didit. The littlest thing was out of
place, off plan and she popoff like fireworks, bang bang bang.
It was fucking mental, But backthen I was a wild card myself.
We met out there at the abatoire, like I said, which she wanted
as a job because that's what daddid. She wanted him to piece up
(14:31):
the carcasses as a boner. Butthat's a high level job in that line
of work, so she had astarting decapitations. She enjoyed the hell out
of that. I won't lie.That's probably what brought us together at first.
I worked on the killing floor beforeshe got that job, bolting pigs
(14:52):
in the head. I gotta getkick out of it too, watching fat
fuckers squeal and squirm and shit allover the play. She did too.
Fuck she'd come and watch, evenwhen she was on break, just sit
there and eat luncheon and watch ustwo pigs. Anyway, I got fired
from that job for growing smoke underthe boss's office. Big fucking inconvenience.
(15:18):
That by my soldiered on son.I soldiered on. Me and Cath started
going together full time around then,and we made something of a name for
ourselves in the community. She wasbigger than me by a bit. I'm
not ashamed to say she swatted mearound something fierce. But of course you
(15:39):
know all about that by now.That said, she was also bigger than
the other mules around town, andwe'd get into scuffs and this bar or
that party. I'd start them andshe'd finish them, coming hard and fast
and swat people write in the backof the head. She would a lot
(16:00):
of fun. Yeah, going aroundwith her, which shoot of trains and
hunt rules in the bush, Iget in all sorts of trouble with the
law, which she commemorated by puttingthe stories in the paper into this little
scrap book. Biden wasn't all perfect, you know. She got that promotion
to Boner and they gave her aset of big fuck off butcher's knives to
(16:23):
go do the job with. Fuckingtook to those knives more than she did
to me, and they were alwayssort of around, you know. She
kept them sharpest sin and even huggingthe fuckers over the bed gave some sort
of line about how she might needthem if somebody broke in whatever, She
still hang them like that. Yeah, I thought so, I could keep
(16:48):
you here all night telling you storiesabout kath on your tab. But here's
whine that'll kind of get you towhere I think you're going with all this
one night, drunk up and lookingfor some fun, and we end up
in this farmer's paddock with a chainsaw. I kill this steer because the fuck
it, why not? And that'sthe end of that, right, But
(17:11):
you should see calf while I'm doingit. Her eyes are all big.
She's got her hands clenched in thefists and pushed against herself, you know,
down there like a kid needing topee. I think she's into me,
because I've seen her like that beforeon the killing floor, all though,
(17:32):
eyes watching the pigs get done.But I'm fucking wrong because I finished,
and she pulls a fucking knife outof god knows where and starts skinting
the fucking thing. And it's abig fuck off steer. You know.
That shit takes a long, longfucking time. So I tell her I'm
(17:52):
getting sick of standing there, andshe just sorts of growls at me about
this pelt. How it's a funtime we've been having and she wants to
remember it, so she's gonna takethat skin and to keep it hanging on
the wall or some shit. I'msure you've seen the walls any place she's
allowed to decorate, real horse showshit. And you know she tried to
(18:15):
kill me a couple of times,though I never talk. And I'm sure
you've talked to some of the otherguys too, you know how it goes
with cath Right at the end.I woke up with her on top of
me in bed one night. Shehad my arms pinned down and one of
those big fucking knives to my throat, told me how easy it would be
(18:37):
to kill me, joking like,But her eyes were black, like you'd
never seen a person's eyes get.And that was pretty much the end of
us. She's sneaky, Pricey,that's what you gotta know. And she
never forgets nothing doms a box ofrocks, me his shit and can barely
(19:00):
read, but she never forgets.And just mind you, she knows where
you sleep that night. Pricey dreamsof clanking machinery and the steady rumble of
(19:33):
rubber conveyor belts, of the smellof blood, and the half muddled moans
of things dying in a slaughterhouse.He is sitting in the stuffed armchair in
Catherine's apartment. However, the onehe doesn't like to visit. All around
him, her heads and pelts,and obscure twisted bits of metal. He
knows, her old game traps,collectibles never used. He tries to stand,
(19:55):
but can't. His arms and legsare bound together, and chains that
criss cross over his shoulders and intertwinedthrough stainless steel ringlets. They clicked softly
as he struggles. The chair iscomfortable. Otherwise, ahead of him is
Katherine's bedroom. He first saw theinside of that place years ago, now
taking her home from one of thebars in town and sealing himself to her
(20:17):
indelibly. The arrangement of the furnitureisn't correct, the bed being set just
in front of the door, sothat he's looking directly at it. Normally
it would be against the wall.But he can understand now why it's arranged
like this. It isn't the bed, but the knives hanging over it that
he's meant to see. Katherine's knives, the one she was given more than
twenty years ago when she moved upto the position of boner at the abattoir,
(20:40):
an assortment of tools she used tostrip down carcasses to their most basic
parts. Pulling the bones from themuscles and readying the meat for the lighter
butchery down the line. She keptthem above her bed ever since he'd known
her. They kept them sharp andshining, so that they look brand new.
Old knives, well used knives aren'tlike new knives. You can tell
how old they are up closed.The shine isn't from freshness, but from
(21:03):
care. The glitter comes from thousandsof nicks and scratches along the blade and
halft, all polished, smooth andsharp. He feels somebody put a hand
on the back of the chair,and it slides forward gently just a bit.
His restraints allow him just enough movementto see a set of tracks on
the floor, like for a railcar and a mine. The hand hesitates
(21:26):
for just a second and then giveshim a firm push. The chair rolls.
He can hear the steady rumble ofthe old casters and the wheels.
For a second, he thinks he'llroll right into the bedroom, but the
chair flips forward ninety degrees and fliesdown a shoote into the guts of some
red hall. The sound of theslaughter house becomes louder, overbearing. The
(21:47):
chair continues along its track, buthe does not. Instead, he falls
directly at the ground, chains buttinginto his shoulders and leaving him dangling with
his head over a white plastic bucket. The bucket is square in the sides,
with a big hole in the middleleading into a drain. Pricey screams
for someone to help him, butthere's nobody. All he can see in
this dark space to the dull redlights of industrial exit signs and the hundreds
(22:11):
of bodies hanging alongside him. Theytwist and squirm, leaking into squaresh white
buckets like the one beneath him.He tries rocking and swinging, but none
of it helps. He's trapped,stuck. Nobody is coming, But that's
not right, is it. Thereis somebody on their way to him.
(22:32):
He can hear the wump and pumpof a double hinged door flipping back and
forth as somebody steps through it.He thinks to call out, but that's
not a good idea, he knows. The lights flicker on, and Pricey
screams when he sees what's been hangingaround him in the dark. The bodies
dangling from hooks, all of themin different stages of butchery. Some are
(22:52):
a little more than skeletons. Somehave been fully disemboweled and left with gaping
cavities where their organs once were.But all of them have one thing in
common. They are all wearing Price'sface. She's approaching a woman wearing black
lingerie and a butcher's apron. It'sCatherine, of course, her hair up
in a bun and tucked underneath aloose blue hairnet. A black bag,
(23:17):
like a doctor's bag, dangles fromher lips. She stands in front of
Pricey, hand on a hip,shaking her head. I think you're gonna
leave, don't you, she asks, kneeling down and plucking at a strap
on the side of the bag.It unfurls into a long black leather sheet.
Her knives are unveiled in this display, all of them kept in place
(23:40):
by little pockets sewn into the fabric. His heart is racing. She picks
one, a simple, silvery thingno longer than Pricey's hand, and twirls
it between her fingers like a drummer. Pals. Those are nice to keep
on hand if you want to remember, she says, running her hand down
Price's check. To his embarrassment,he realizes he's naked, but what you
(24:04):
eat of a thing that stays withyou, stays with you forever. She
holds the knife against his throat andhe begins to shiver. He can't help
himself. She laughs. Don't worry, pricing, she says, setting the
knife down behind her. I wouldn'tstick you while you're swirming around like that.
(24:26):
It's not humane. She turns andpicks up a mallet the size of
her fist. The impact edge ofit is slightly rounded. He tries to
beg but she puts a finger toher lips and shakes her head. No,
no, this is how it ispricing, she says. Now,
don't move. I'll have to hityou twice if you wiggle out of the
way. She brings the mallet backand swings it at his temple. Pricey
(25:06):
wakes in the cold sweat, Sittingstraight up in bed. He slaps his
body, checking for chains or cutsor something. It's shortly after midnight,
and though he doesn't know it yet, it's the eve of his death.
He wipes the sweat from his foreheadand takes a deep breath. Then he
(25:27):
freezes. There's a shape in thedoorway, or so he thinks it is.
Vaguely feminine, and there is somethingshort and shining in its hand.
Kat he asks, the shadow doesn'trespond. He hasn't completely broken up with
(25:48):
Katherine yet, but he also didn'tlet her sleep over tonight. Pricey turns
and flips on the bedside light,which fills the hallway by the bedroom.
In an instant, there is nothingthere, no shadows, no Catherine,
no knife. Pricey walks through thehouse, shaking off the feeling of being
(26:11):
watched, and washes his face inthe bathroom. He tries to think of
something to do next, tries toimagine a game plan that makes any sort
of sense, and fails in time. He makes the last tour of the
house, checking the locks and windows, and then goes back to bed.
(26:34):
His dreams are quiet, dark andpeaceful, But there is a shadow on
the lawn outside his house, onethat will not scatter when you pour light
on it. A shadow with somethingshort and shiny in its hand. Monstro
(27:04):
is an incongruity production. If you'veenjoyed this experience, please subscribe and leave
a positive review. Please support oursponsors. You can find out more by
searching for Monstro podcast on Facebook,Twitter, and Instagram, or visit us
at monstro podcast dot com. Theshow was written and hosted by Jack Luna,
(27:26):
Tyler Bell, and Mike Boudet.Sound designed by Jonathan McMichael and Robert
Rivelli. Original score by Leon Rogers, art by Jake Perez. Executive producer
Mike Boudet.
Murder isn't cute. Murder isn't ameme. It's not something funny to chat
about with the girls over a glassof wine just to be edgy. It's
sure as fuck is in a lifetimemovie. Murder is pure violence of the
most extreme form. It's removing ahuman life from this planet by force.
(00:28):
About a year ago, I anda few fellow podcasters set out to describe
exactly what this act entails, tofill in the blanks, so to speak,
of dialogue or thought, but tokeep all of the factual details of
the story in place. We wouldpick the most extreme of the extreme,
(00:49):
heinous murders that make your stomach turn. And because of the narrative nature of
the show, we wouldn't be limitedto the States. The entire thing would
be an international tour of real lifehorror. We called it monstro, the
Spanish word for monster, which isexactly what the protagonists of these stories are.
(01:11):
Many of you weren't ready. Weget that, and this show isn't
for everyone, that's for sure,But myself, Jack Luna from Dark Topic
and Tyler Bell from West Side fairyTales think it's some of the best and
most original work we've ever done andmay possibly ever do so. Today we're
announcing the launch of season two,and you're about to hear part one of
(01:37):
the very first episode. If youwant to hear the rest, including all
of the nine stories of season oneand all of the rest of the nine
stories of season two, then headon over to Apple Podcasts or your preferred
podcast player and search for Monstro podcast. That's m n st RUO. Thanks,
(02:00):
and we recommend you finish eating yourbreakfast or lunch before listening. Enjoy.
What you're about to hear is basedon actual events. Listener discretion is
advised. It's hanging right there infront of'em, catching the light like
(02:32):
a dirty shower curtain. What littlesun hits it from the room beyond stains
the thing a brownish yellow color thatreminds the detective of the callouses on the
soles of his feet, feet thatare itching now as he takes the rest
of the thing in its own feet, Dangling empty and slightly wrinkled above the
(02:58):
linoleum, the victim's skin peeled fromthe meat of his body and hung in
the doorway from its mouth, thedistended lips yanked open in a silent endless
scream. Geordie looks over the topof his cruiser at the crowd of people
(04:13):
gathering on the street outside the house. The crowd has grown steadily since the
first units arrived and shows no signsof slowing. Most of the onlookers already
seemed to have a better idea what'sgoing on inside the residence than he does.
They keep asking if cath finally didhim well, did she? It's
not something he can rightly answer.He arrived just before the detectives a few
(04:35):
minutes ago and was charged with sittingoutside and managing the crowd. None of
the locals seemed much concerned about causinga ruckus, though a few of them
are snuck up to him and theother officer at the barrier whisper about how
they might want to keep an eyeout for the night brothers. Those ones
can start trouble, they suggest.Mostly he's been standing with his thumb up
(04:57):
his ass and chasing the odd onlookeraway from the car hidden around the side
of the house. They move onagreeably, wiping sweat off their foreheads and
making comments about somebody named Pricey,who Jordy supposed his owns the home an
old man steps out of the crowd, having only just wandered up the street.
He waves at Jordy, who sighsand turns that cut. Finally do
(05:17):
him, he asks, and Jordyhas to get him to clarify. The
man nods his head toward the house. His breath is fetted with the stench
of alcohol. Kath, Kath,finally kill Pricey. He searches Jordy's face
for any sign of acknowledgement, findssomething there, and then spits and shakes
his head. Ah fucking shame thatPricey was an all right sort hell of
(05:41):
a bloke. Damn fucking shame,sir. If you've got any information about
the crime, you need to sharethat with the police, Jordy says,
fanning some semblance of authority as muchas he can muster anyway. The old
guy waves a hand at him andturns to leave. Boy, kell it
you're sticking around, the old guy, asked one of the onlookers. The
(06:01):
man says he is, and theold guy slaps him on the back.
I'm handing a pill for a drink. You can come by and fill me
in later. There's a shot knitfor you. Kelly laughs, and nods,
and the old guy says a loadto a few others before disappearing up
the street, heading for the town'sonly other bar, having maybe been kicked
out of the downhill one already arookie. One of the detective's calls from
(06:24):
the front door of the building.Jordi acknowledges the man and jogs up to
him. The detective's face is drawnand pale. He's breathing in the outside
air like a man just escaped froma gas chamber. Jordy looks past him
into the house for just a second. It's dark inside, and there's a
terrible smell leaking out the door,and the hot summer air is the kind
(06:44):
of stents you can feel collecting inyour pores. Bring your coughs. The
detective says, meat was Detective Murdockin the bedroom back there the well.
She was still in the house,so there's not going to be a man
hunt. Jordy asks that it giveshim a square look, and then loosens
the color of his shirt, pullinghis necktie open to let in air despite
(07:04):
the march heat. No man hunting'salready done, you can say, the
detective mutters to himself. His eyeswander over the crowd, and then he
hisses at Jordi, pointing at therookie shoes. Don't fucking move. Jordy
freezes and looks down at a lumpof old barbecue laying on the grass.
(07:25):
He looks back of the detective,the question apparent in his eyes, but
the detective looks past him and wavesto the other officer in the yard.
The man jogs over. You getinside and assist Detective Murdoch, he says
to Jordy, pushing his shoulder toget him going. He hears the other
officers speaking with the detective as heenters the house. They're supposed to be
(07:45):
a dog around here, somewhere.It comes up trying to eat that right
there on the ground. You stopit, kick it if you have to,
but don't touch that meet and don'tlet anybody else touch it. Jordi
passes beyond where you can hear thedetective's voice. The interior of the house
smells awful, a deep coppery scenthe knows to be blood and something else,
(08:07):
things cooking, things stewing, thesmell of steam and vegetables and something
else, something deep and raw underall the rest. It makes the hairs
on the back of his neck standup. There is blood when he turns
on his flashlight, literally buckets ofit, flicked onto the walls and poured
and scraped over the floor, andpatterns that but leaguer his brain when he
(08:31):
tries to make sense of them.He puts his back to a torn looking
curtain that separates the hall from thekitchen and tries to avoid stepping in anything.
He calls to Detective Murdoch, whobarks a gruff back here that Geordie
follows all the way to the bedroom. There is more blood and then less,
just spatters and specks that seem tocover everything in equal portions. His
(08:52):
flashlight falls on a shape by oneof the living room's easy chairs. It's
a mannequin, he thinks, andcloser at it. It's sitting just in
front of the chair on the floor. There's a Sodo bottle under its hand.
It has no head. Detective Murdochcalls to Jordy again, breaking his
attention on the odd thing in theliving room. The mannequin. A mannequin,
(09:16):
it has to be. Jordy shakeshis head and walks into the bedroom,
where the blood spatters continue to pepperthe walls and ceiling. They are
a touch sparser here, he thinksthis is where it started. There is
a woman sitting on the bed inthe rank chaos of this home. She
is a clean and almost radiant thing. Her hair is a mad coppery fringe
(09:39):
around a face slack with exhaustion.She's middle aged, and though she may
have been pretty once, time hastaken that babble and tarnished it beyond repair.
There are glasses over her eyes,and her eyes are black. They
find Jordy and he looks away despitehimself. You're going to lock up with
Officer in here, Detective Murdoch saysto the woman. She stands and turns,
(10:03):
offering Jordy. Her wrists an oldpro Jordy puts on the cuffs without
a struggle and gets a good lookat Murdock's face. In the interim,
the old detective is looking at thewoman with a mix of disgusted and undisguised
interest, like a ship covered Rubik'sCube two turns away from being solved,
a puzzle that's close to completion buttoo disgusting to touch. Murdoch dismisses them,
(10:26):
and they walk down the hall.The woman, Katherine Knight the Calf,
locals them in asking after lets themlead her down the hall. They
skirt the bloodstains, and she doesn'toffer up a lick of resistance until just
before they reach the front door.Jordy realizes then that she's fairly large for
a woman. Before he can tellher to keep moving, she speaks in
(10:48):
a whisper that unnerves a young cop. That's what you fucking get, Pricey,
you fucking rapist your child. Fuckher. Jordy blinks and follows her
gaze to the tattered tarp hanging betweenthe kitchen and the living room hallway.
Now the light from outside is fallingperfectly on it, and he could see
what he couldn't earlier. The tarpis made of human skin, peeled perfectly
(11:11):
from the meat of what he perceivedto be a mannikin in the room beyond.
His eyes move up the thing,from where the flesh that once covered
the toes hang gently curling just abovethe floor. A man's cock and balls
dangle limply from the crotch of thepelt, which is faintly translucent tends yellow
by a scant sunlight. It hangsfrom its mouth by a hook panted into
(11:33):
the beam overtop the door. Theempty eye holes are drawn wide and staring
horror at Catherine, who was alreadypulling the shell shocked young policeman at the
front door of the house, gentlychuckling under her breath. The cracked and
gaping mouth of the human pelt seemsto call out for a drink, something
its former owner, a man knownto his friends as Pricy, likely had
(11:54):
needed badly before his death. Allright, Price, I'll tell you about
(12:16):
calf and me. Kellett relents,waving for the bartender, who brings down
two fresh beers and a bottle ofwhiskey. He uses to refill the little
shot glass by Kellett's elbow. Price. He sits right of Kellet, his
tired eyes constantly roaming two and fromthe door. There are only two bars
in town, the uphill one andthe downhill one. It's not hard to
(12:39):
find a drinking man in Aberdeen.He worried about her coming to get you
here, huh, Kell, Itasks with a chuckle, swirling around the
whiskey and then taking it in ashot. His eyes narrow and he looks
tired for a moment, older thanhe is, though he's no longer a
young man. None of them arethat, No Calf, He looks at
(13:01):
the door himself and then raises ahand for another drink before starting on the
beer. There's a lot to tellyou about with Kath and me. We
go way back, you know.I met at the Abatoir and all that,
back in oh seventy two, seventythree of the like she was just
(13:22):
about seventeen, freshen to work atthe butchers, like I was dropped out
of school and all that. Shewanted to follow after her dad Ken.
But you never met him. Iguess weird relationship. That a lot of
what I heard as rumor, eventhough we were together all them years,
and all of it bad. Shesaid, he did all sorts of things
(13:46):
to her. You know, theirparents are never due to children those sorts
of things. Even then, shealways wanted her life as an adult to
mirror her mom and dad's. Everythingwas Barbara this Ken that when we'd married,
she'd expected me to hang the laundrywhile she did the finances, because
(14:07):
that was how Barb and Ken didit. The littlest thing was out of
place, off plan and she popoff like fireworks, bang bang bang.
It was fucking mental, But backthen I was a wild card myself.
We met out there at the abatoire, like I said, which she wanted
as a job because that's what daddid. She wanted him to piece up
(14:31):
the carcasses as a boner. Butthat's a high level job in that line
of work, so she had astarting decapitations. She enjoyed the hell out
of that. I won't lie.That's probably what brought us together at first.
I worked on the killing floor beforeshe got that job, bolting pigs
(14:52):
in the head. I gotta getkick out of it too, watching fat
fuckers squeal and squirm and shit allover the play. She did too.
Fuck she'd come and watch, evenwhen she was on break, just sit
there and eat luncheon and watch ustwo pigs. Anyway, I got fired
from that job for growing smoke underthe boss's office. Big fucking inconvenience.
(15:18):
That by my soldiered on son.I soldiered on. Me and Cath started
going together full time around then,and we made something of a name for
ourselves in the community. She wasbigger than me by a bit. I'm
not ashamed to say she swatted mearound something fierce. But of course you
(15:39):
know all about that by now.That said, she was also bigger than
the other mules around town, andwe'd get into scuffs and this bar or
that party. I'd start them andshe'd finish them, coming hard and fast
and swat people write in the backof the head. She would a lot
(16:00):
of fun. Yeah, going aroundwith her, which shoot of trains and
hunt rules in the bush, Iget in all sorts of trouble with the
law, which she commemorated by puttingthe stories in the paper into this little
scrap book. Biden wasn't all perfect, you know. She got that promotion
to Boner and they gave her aset of big fuck off butcher's knives to
(16:23):
go do the job with. Fuckingtook to those knives more than she did
to me, and they were alwayssort of around, you know. She
kept them sharpest sin and even huggingthe fuckers over the bed gave some sort
of line about how she might needthem if somebody broke in whatever, She
still hang them like that. Yeah, I thought so, I could keep
(16:48):
you here all night telling you storiesabout kath on your tab. But here's
whine that'll kind of get you towhere I think you're going with all this
one night, drunk up and lookingfor some fun, and we end up
in this farmer's paddock with a chainsaw. I kill this steer because the fuck
it, why not? And that'sthe end of that, right, But
(17:11):
you should see calf while I'm doingit. Her eyes are all big.
She's got her hands clenched in thefists and pushed against herself, you know,
down there like a kid needing topee. I think she's into me,
because I've seen her like that beforeon the killing floor, all though,
(17:32):
eyes watching the pigs get done.But I'm fucking wrong because I finished,
and she pulls a fucking knife outof god knows where and starts skinting
the fucking thing. And it's abig fuck off steer. You know.
That shit takes a long, longfucking time. So I tell her I'm
(17:52):
getting sick of standing there, andshe just sorts of growls at me about
this pelt. How it's a funtime we've been having and she wants to
remember it, so she's gonna takethat skin and to keep it hanging on
the wall or some shit. I'msure you've seen the walls any place she's
allowed to decorate, real horse showshit. And you know she tried to
(18:15):
kill me a couple of times,though I never talk. And I'm sure
you've talked to some of the otherguys too, you know how it goes
with cath Right at the end.I woke up with her on top of
me in bed one night. Shehad my arms pinned down and one of
those big fucking knives to my throat, told me how easy it would be
(18:37):
to kill me, joking like,But her eyes were black, like you'd
never seen a person's eyes get.And that was pretty much the end of
us. She's sneaky, Pricey,that's what you gotta know. And she
never forgets nothing doms a box ofrocks, me his shit and can barely
(19:00):
read, but she never forgets.And just mind you, she knows where
you sleep that night. Pricey dreamsof clanking machinery and the steady rumble of
(19:33):
rubber conveyor belts, of the smellof blood, and the half muddled moans
of things dying in a slaughterhouse.He is sitting in the stuffed armchair in
Catherine's apartment. However, the onehe doesn't like to visit. All around
him, her heads and pelts,and obscure twisted bits of metal. He
knows, her old game traps,collectibles never used. He tries to stand,
(19:55):
but can't. His arms and legsare bound together, and chains that
criss cross over his shoulders and intertwinedthrough stainless steel ringlets. They clicked softly
as he struggles. The chair iscomfortable. Otherwise, ahead of him is
Katherine's bedroom. He first saw theinside of that place years ago, now
taking her home from one of thebars in town and sealing himself to her
(20:17):
indelibly. The arrangement of the furnitureisn't correct, the bed being set just
in front of the door, sothat he's looking directly at it. Normally
it would be against the wall.But he can understand now why it's arranged
like this. It isn't the bed, but the knives hanging over it that
he's meant to see. Katherine's knives, the one she was given more than
twenty years ago when she moved upto the position of boner at the abattoir,
(20:40):
an assortment of tools she used tostrip down carcasses to their most basic
parts. Pulling the bones from themuscles and readying the meat for the lighter
butchery down the line. She keptthem above her bed ever since he'd known
her. They kept them sharp andshining, so that they look brand new.
Old knives, well used knives aren'tlike new knives. You can tell
how old they are up closed.The shine isn't from freshness, but from
(21:03):
care. The glitter comes from thousandsof nicks and scratches along the blade and
halft, all polished, smooth andsharp. He feels somebody put a hand
on the back of the chair,and it slides forward gently just a bit.
His restraints allow him just enough movementto see a set of tracks on
the floor, like for a railcar and a mine. The hand hesitates
(21:26):
for just a second and then giveshim a firm push. The chair rolls.
He can hear the steady rumble ofthe old casters and the wheels.
For a second, he thinks he'llroll right into the bedroom, but the
chair flips forward ninety degrees and fliesdown a shoote into the guts of some
red hall. The sound of theslaughter house becomes louder, overbearing. The
(21:47):
chair continues along its track, buthe does not. Instead, he falls
directly at the ground, chains buttinginto his shoulders and leaving him dangling with
his head over a white plastic bucket. The bucket is square in the sides,
with a big hole in the middleleading into a drain. Pricey screams
for someone to help him, butthere's nobody. All he can see in
this dark space to the dull redlights of industrial exit signs and the hundreds
(22:11):
of bodies hanging alongside him. Theytwist and squirm, leaking into squaresh white
buckets like the one beneath him.He tries rocking and swinging, but none
of it helps. He's trapped,stuck. Nobody is coming, But that's
not right, is it. Thereis somebody on their way to him.
(22:32):
He can hear the wump and pumpof a double hinged door flipping back and
forth as somebody steps through it.He thinks to call out, but that's
not a good idea, he knows. The lights flicker on, and Pricey
screams when he sees what's been hangingaround him in the dark. The bodies
dangling from hooks, all of themin different stages of butchery. Some are
(22:52):
a little more than skeletons. Somehave been fully disemboweled and left with gaping
cavities where their organs once were.But all of them have one thing in
common. They are all wearing Price'sface. She's approaching a woman wearing black
lingerie and a butcher's apron. It'sCatherine, of course, her hair up
in a bun and tucked underneath aloose blue hairnet. A black bag,
(23:17):
like a doctor's bag, dangles fromher lips. She stands in front of
Pricey, hand on a hip,shaking her head. I think you're gonna
leave, don't you, she asks, kneeling down and plucking at a strap
on the side of the bag.It unfurls into a long black leather sheet.
Her knives are unveiled in this display, all of them kept in place
(23:40):
by little pockets sewn into the fabric. His heart is racing. She picks
one, a simple, silvery thingno longer than Pricey's hand, and twirls
it between her fingers like a drummer. Pals. Those are nice to keep
on hand if you want to remember, she says, running her hand down
Price's check. To his embarrassment,he realizes he's naked, but what you
(24:04):
eat of a thing that stays withyou, stays with you forever. She
holds the knife against his throat andhe begins to shiver. He can't help
himself. She laughs. Don't worry, pricing, she says, setting the
knife down behind her. I wouldn'tstick you while you're swirming around like that.
(24:26):
It's not humane. She turns andpicks up a mallet the size of
her fist. The impact edge ofit is slightly rounded. He tries to
beg but she puts a finger toher lips and shakes her head. No,
no, this is how it ispricing, she says. Now,
don't move. I'll have to hityou twice if you wiggle out of the
way. She brings the mallet backand swings it at his temple. Pricey
(25:06):
wakes in the cold sweat, Sittingstraight up in bed. He slaps his
body, checking for chains or cutsor something. It's shortly after midnight,
and though he doesn't know it yet, it's the eve of his death.
He wipes the sweat from his foreheadand takes a deep breath. Then he
(25:27):
freezes. There's a shape in thedoorway, or so he thinks it is.
Vaguely feminine, and there is somethingshort and shining in its hand.
Kat he asks, the shadow doesn'trespond. He hasn't completely broken up with
(25:48):
Katherine yet, but he also didn'tlet her sleep over tonight. Pricey turns
and flips on the bedside light,which fills the hallway by the bedroom.
In an instant, there is nothingthere, no shadows, no Catherine,
no knife. Pricey walks through thehouse, shaking off the feeling of being
(26:11):
watched, and washes his face inthe bathroom. He tries to think of
something to do next, tries toimagine a game plan that makes any sort
of sense, and fails in time. He makes the last tour of the
house, checking the locks and windows, and then goes back to bed.
(26:34):
His dreams are quiet, dark andpeaceful, But there is a shadow on
the lawn outside his house, onethat will not scatter when you pour light
on it. A shadow with somethingshort and shiny in its hand. Monstro
(27:04):
is an incongruity production. If you'veenjoyed this experience, please subscribe and leave
a positive review. Please support oursponsors. You can find out more by
searching for Monstro podcast on Facebook,Twitter, and Instagram, or visit us
at monstro podcast dot com. Theshow was written and hosted by Jack Luna,
(27:26):
Tyler Bell, and Mike Boudet.Sound designed by Jonathan McMichael and Robert
Rivelli. Original score by Leon Rogers, art by Jake Perez. Executive producer
Mike Boudet.
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