April 23, 2022 • 21 mins
Episode 24 The Woman At The Bar
Join Kimberly and Katie from A Date with Dateline podcast as they discuss a case that is beyond bizarre – that of killer grandma, Lois Reiss featured on Dateline's episode 'The Woman At The Bar' On March 2018, Lois murdered her husband Dave in their home in Blooming Prairie, Minnesota. After living with the body for a week while she prepared to make her escape, she absconded to Florida, where she abandoned Dave’s Escalade and checked into a hotel on the beach. There, while making friends at the bar and beach, she carefully selected a look-alike to murder so she could assume her identity. After befriending her, Lois shot Pam Hutchinson in a hotel room and stole her car and credit cards so she could support her life on the lam – and her gambling habit. If it weren’t for a chance encounter with someone from back home who recognized her, Lois might still be on the run today. This case is a bizarre and crazy case of murder, greed and intrigue!
Be sure to follow Kimberly and Katie on their social media:
@datedateline on Twitter and Instagram.
Visit their website where they have Dateline Bingo cards and more:
https://www.adatewithdateline.com/
To listen to every episode of this show AD-FREE and get benefits like bonus and early-access episodes of every show on the AbJack Network, consider an AbJack Insider subscription from Apple Podcasts.
Join Kimberly and Katie from A Date with Dateline podcast as they discuss a case that is beyond bizarre – that of killer grandma, Lois Reiss featured on Dateline's episode 'The Woman At The Bar' On March 2018, Lois murdered her husband Dave in their home in Blooming Prairie, Minnesota. After living with the body for a week while she prepared to make her escape, she absconded to Florida, where she abandoned Dave’s Escalade and checked into a hotel on the beach. There, while making friends at the bar and beach, she carefully selected a look-alike to murder so she could assume her identity. After befriending her, Lois shot Pam Hutchinson in a hotel room and stole her car and credit cards so she could support her life on the lam – and her gambling habit. If it weren’t for a chance encounter with someone from back home who recognized her, Lois might still be on the run today. This case is a bizarre and crazy case of murder, greed and intrigue!
Be sure to follow Kimberly and Katie on their social media:
@datedateline on Twitter and Instagram.
Visit their website where they have Dateline Bingo cards and more:
https://www.adatewithdateline.com/
To listen to every episode of this show AD-FREE and get benefits like bonus and early-access episodes of every show on the AbJack Network, consider an AbJack Insider subscription from Apple Podcasts.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You're listening to Beyond Bizarre True Crime, brought to you by Abject Entertainment.
Be sure to check out some ofthe other great true crime podcasts from this
network, including The Murder in MyFamily, Missing Person's, dna I,
d Zodiac, Speaking Scene of theCrime, and Three Men and a Mystery.
(00:20):
All of these podcasts are available foryou to binge on right now wherever
you listen to podcasts, subscribe whereyou're listening to this podcast so you don't
miss an episode. Welcome to anotherepisode of Beyond Bizarre True Crime. We're
(01:19):
your host for this episode, Kimberlyand Katie from a Date with Dateline.
In this episode, we're going tobe talking about a case that is beyond
bizarre, and since we recap Datelineepisodes, we're going to be doing a
very abridged recap of a Dateline episodecalled The Woman at the Bar. I
can't say it's the most bizarre we'veever covered, because they are all the
(01:41):
most bizarre. It's definitely just bizarre. It's bizarre because we're talking about a
killer Granny right exactly, Granny's whokill good times. Yeah. This episode
of Dateline is hosted by Dennis Murphy, who is known for his calm demeanor
and his durable brand of mixing colloquialismsand metaphors and combining them into sentences that
(02:06):
don't entirely make sense, but welove him for it. They make perfect
sense. How dare you? He'sa national treasure and I won't hear any
different. We love you, DennisMurphy. We love you, Dennis Murphy.
Our story starts in Fort Myers,Florida, Because Florida you want a
bizarre there we go. You knowwhere to go. Dennis says Fort Myers
(02:27):
has party on vibes and is boozein a blender. That seems right.
I love when Dennis is hip,yeah, which is as hip as Dennis
gets. Yeah. And I feellike that's parts of Florida. That's Florida
on spring break. But I alsofeel like Florida's got that bath salts vibe
going. It's got all the vibes. It is all bunch of different vibes.
(02:50):
Pamela Hutchinson was only supposed to stayin Fort Myers for a couple of
days, but she called the frontdesk and said she had met fun people
and was gonna stay long. Afew days later, her body is found
in her hotel room, shot throughthe heart. Oh yeah, who's to
blame. Security footage shows Pamela walkingaround with a woman who kind of looks
(03:13):
like her and is the same age. Police find an abandoned car nearby and
they run the plates and it belongsto a Lois Reese who looks like the
woman on the security video. Veryimpressed with this police work. I'm usually
not, but in this case Iwas. So she's from Minnesota, So
now we rewind back to Blooming Prairie, Minnesota, three weeks earlier. Lois
(03:40):
was a mom and a grandma whoran a daycare. Just you're all around
nice lady. If it turned outshe had bodies buried underneath the house,
all the neighbors would say, shewas such a nice lady. That's what
they would say. I used torun into her at Cole's. The neighbor
next door is what people keep calling. Or you're friendly grandma next door.
(04:00):
You're just your neighbor next door,Just a nice lady next door who maybe
gives you sweet treats. When thenoh, spry surprise. Yeah. So
her husband, Dave was a getReady worm wrangler, which is not a
dance move you do at your cousin'swedding slash butt mitzvah, but an actual
(04:21):
profession. It can be both.Dave got sick one day. He stopped
coming into work, very concerned aboutthe worms. Who's rankling them? There
must be an assistant wrangler. Assistantto the worm rangler. Yeah, that
sounds more like it. His friendTom gets some weird messages from Dave,
which is strange in itself because Davedoesn't text, because he is known throughout
(04:46):
Minnesota for having comically oversized thumbs andis teased mercilessly about it. Not sure
what those nicknames are, Hey thummy, Oh no, hey this guy,
he's all thumbs and so he evertexted. And also, this is the
sort of random detail that dateline letsyou get in the two hour episodes because
(05:06):
they have time for it. Inthe one hour episodes, you're not getting
those. And in our very abridgedrecap, we felt like it was just
important, and it was important enoughfor you to understand Dave worm wrangler.
Yeah, but I feel like bothof those things equal. Jolly somehow,
I feel like it was a goodnatured man. I would love to sit
(05:28):
down with Dave. If I wasat like a family barbecue or a block
party, I think he'd be ablock party guy, and you would want
to pull up your lawn chair nextto his and be like, what's new
in the worm wrangling game? Dave? Absolutely, And I would say yeah,
and he would tell you about theconvention back in two thousand and two.
Oh yeah, when everybody got alittle wild, words got out and
(05:53):
there was so much wrangling. Thatwould be great. No, Dave is
the one that if Dave throws theblock party, you're coming. Were kicked
out of that Hyatt never invited back. They still have warms in the third
floor. So after two weeks ofnot showing up to work, a friend
calls the police. They do awelfare check and they sadly find Dave's body
(06:15):
in the bathroom at home, shottwice. Police can't find his wife,
Lois anywhere. Now. Apparently Loisand Dave have been having money problems because
not because worm wranglers don't make goodmoney. If you thought that, you
were wrong, Dave made a heartyliving taking care of those worms, but
because Lois is gambling problem. Gamblinggranny, yeah, her nickname at the
(06:42):
casino was losing Lois, which isnot a creative nickname. It's like the
kind of nickname you get in kindergarten. It's not great, but it's an
alliteration. So I like it betterthan what we came up with for thumbs,
which right now is thumby thummy.So until someone thinks of a better
one, Lois, Who am Ito judge? Yeah, we can't judge,
(07:04):
but I will say if I wasnicknamed losing anything at the casino,
that I would never go back tothe casino. Right, No, it's
embarrassing, but this woman, noshame No. So investigators figure out that
Lois had recently been stealing thousands ofdollars from the Worm Company Worm Ranch Worm
(07:26):
Compound. I don't know how she'sgoing to wriggle out of this one.
That's all I got, That's allI got. Lois drives south, stopping
at several casinos along the way andgambling away her worm money. In Florida,
she goes to the bar of anOyster brewery, which is the first
of many seafood extravaganza stops along theway. She loves her seafood, and
(07:49):
she meets there. You guessed itPamela Hutchinson. Oh boy. They quickly
become BFFs and are seen leaving thebar on the staple of true crime shows
the grainy surveillance footage. Lois isthe one who called the front desk,
pretending to be poor Pamela, wantingto stay longer so she could get a
(08:09):
couple days head start. She wantedto worm her way out of there,
so she sneaks out of the hotelwearing Pamela's hat and steals Pamela's car.
She starts driving west, checking intohotels using Pamela's ID and credit card.
Again, no shame. Meanwhile,the police announced nationwide that she's wanted for
(08:31):
murder. She's tagged the killer Grandma, another nickname that's not that creative but
accurate. So, yeah, policeare tracking Lois, but this Grandma is
always two steps ahead. She goesto Louisiana to a casino. She wins
fifteen hundred dollars. I'm imagining sheimmediately demanded her nickname be changed to Yeah,
(08:54):
it's gotta be lucky Lois. Ithink she had the owner of this
casino called the other casino, andlike, I got this lady here Lois.
She is demanding that you officially changeher name a handwritten letter and said
just so you know, and senta copy photocopy of the winning's receipt.
Just spread the word next time shewalks in there. She wants the round
of people going, hey, it'slucky. Yeah. So Lois arrives in
(09:18):
South Texas and checks into a motel. It's, as Dennis says, a
slow little town South Padre, aso called island getaway. But it's not
an island so called. It's aso called island getaway. Unsure is it
on an island. It might bean island, an inlet, it's it's
(09:39):
so called, Katie, that's onlyokay, excuse me, it's so called.
But I will say the town itselflooked cute and if you like seafood,
you're this is the one. Also, memorable personalities, people you would
just want to talk to, muchlike David the warm guy Rip. Yes,
there's a world famous Padre Rita grillthat had award winning shrimp tacos,
(10:01):
and you know that's drawn in Lois. She loves shrimp taco Yeah. So
one day she comes in, sheapparently delightful, orders a Mark, and
she loves Margarita's and shrimp tacos.Kathy, the manager says, what's your
name? And the woman says,La Donna. Oh boy, La Donna.
(10:22):
She just seems real, true blue. I'm gonna come up with as
many of us Madonna puns as Ican, as fast as I can quickly.
I can't think of the lyrics toLa Bonita, but I'm trying really
hard. It's something about meeting aman and I feel like his name might
be the name of this town.So LaDonna starts to come into Padre Rita
every night. The whole staff ischarmed by her. Clearly, no one
(10:45):
there is watching the news because sheis nationwide known as the killer Grandma.
Meanwhile, police figure out that Loisis probably heading to Mexico and they're running
out of time because she's only afew miles from the border. But she's
living life and hanging out, drinkingmarks and eating all the shrimp tacos,
award winning Apologies, award winning shrimptacos that her heart desires. One day,
(11:07):
she meets a woman named Bernie.Bernie you and danger girl, Oh
Bernie. They've become best friends instantlybecause Apparently LaDonna slash Lois is like the
most charming person in the world.She should teach a class at the Learning
Annex how to win friends and murderthem. Oh boy, Adonna's a mistery
(11:31):
three grandmamast. She's having a roughtime, yea, LaDonna. So Bernie
offers to show LaDonna around her neighborhoodbecause apparently she's in the market for some
property. She spends the night atBernie's house. How is Bernie still alive?
You're asking? Yeah, how isBernie not dead? And being propped
up with fixed sunglasses on like weekendat Bernie's she is still alive because she
(11:56):
said, my house is so safe, LaDonna, this area is very safe,
but I do have security cameras allover my house. There we go,
just as an aside, she saysit, And that's enough for LaDonna.
Lois probably had a knife behind herback and then was like, oh,
okay, puts the knife back intothe knife flock. Yeah, you
(12:18):
escaped death. So Bernie stays alive. The next day, they make plans
to meet again, and when Berniecalls Ladonna's phone, the voicemail says the
equally believable name of Stormy Liberty okay, which sounds like an insurrection that says
it does in a human Stormy Liberty. She's just picking names off of signs.
(12:43):
Yes, there's like the Stormy seagullin and she's like, oh,
stormy is good. And then Libertyis like on the back of a truck
and she was like, that's it, Stormy Liberty. I'm in Texas now,
y'all. Yeah, she's not goodat making up names. No,
if you met a grandma and shesaid stormy Liberty, you meet a grandma
that says LaDonna, which one areyou believing? I don't know neither,
(13:07):
right, I don't. I don'tknow LaDonna maybe LaDonna, maybe LaDonna,
but I don't know. I'd stillhave questions. But it's also making me
think that Losing Lois was a nicknamethat Lois coined herself for herself based on
decent made up names. She's notgood. If you go on the run,
get yourself a book of baby namesand go Jennifer Janet, all the
(13:28):
Jays, you know what, orgo to your hotel nightstand, open the
book Zedediah, Jedediah, Obadiah,Leviticus, Deuteronomy, get in there,
get yourself a name, Sarah,Sarah Smith. Come on. So we
enter George Higginbottom, Oh boy,our hero of the story. He works
(13:52):
at an establishment called Dirty Owls,which doesn't seem like the type of place
Lois would go into because she thinksshe's a little hoity toity, but she
wanders in there one day. Georgehas seen the news. He recognizes her
immediately. He tells his coworkers andthey're like, no, it's not George.
God bust those tables, Higgs HigginHiggy. Oh, it's another conspiracy
(14:16):
from Higgy. Yeah, because Ibet he does that all the time.
He's that wasn't Elvis sitting at thebar the other day, Higgy? Oh,
it's you know, it's Higgy.He's making things up again. But
he's going to get his come up. And at the end, this is
your moment to shine, Higgy thehero. Let's go. This is your
origin story, your hero origin stores. Everything turns around for you. So
(14:37):
George Higgs aka Higgy, George goeswith his gut calls the police while Lois
orders seafood enchiladas. I don't knowwhat kind of seafood. Goes and seafood
enchiladas. Sure, I do lobsterwhat Hilariously, it's not actually seafood.
What normally goes in seafood enchiladas unlessyou're at a very fancy restaurant, is
imitation crab. That would be crabwith a ki. Yeah, so seafood
(15:03):
would be in quotes when they saylike fresh ye, and both words are
in quotes. So officers come tothe restaurant and they spy their undercover.
They spy Lois being kind of rudeto her waitress, who is just doing
her best. Yeah. So,in a very dramatic moment, and we
are seeing this on surveillance footage fromthe restaurant, Lois slash LaDonna slash Stormy
(15:28):
Liberty is swarmed by the US Marshall'steam. Very dramatic. Bernie, meanwhile,
who's still alive, goes to therestaurant where she was supposed to meet
LaDonna slash Stormy and they tell heryou must not have seen the news.
LaDonna slash Stormy Liberty is actually Loisand a man named Higgs single handedly stopped
(15:52):
and murders Free. Also, youalmost died, Bernie. Oh you got
you got lucky? Congrats, Imean, she was probably sad because her
new best friend is a murderer,but happy that she escaped death. I
think the minute you hear the stormyliberty message, you start having questions she
wasn't going to be her best friend. Maybe yeah, maybe she went to
(16:15):
the lunch to confront her. Don'tever do that, by the way,
pro tip, I think she knewLaDonna was a liar. Yeah. Lois
pleads guilty and is given two lifesentences for Dave and Pamela's murders. And
I really feel like if she wasn'tso tempted by that local seafood cuisine,
she would have gotten away with it. She was so close to Mexico,
(16:37):
So if she had just stayed atthe one bar and not ventured out to
the other bar, she would havebeen okay. Yeah, because nobody at
this other bar knew who she wasin town. But she went up the
road a little. She got cockey. She thought she was going to be
fine. Yeah, she was feelingher in her LaDonna is it last night?
I dreamt of somepod. Is that? Is that actually the lyrics in
(17:02):
that song? I don't if notit should be, because that would tie
this all together in a nice littlebow. Right, it's pink it is
It's called South Padre. Oh boy, so I was wrong on both of
the names of the town. Notonly was it not San Padro, it
was South Padre. If you guysdo check out our show A date with
date line, you won't be gettingaccuracy, but you'll be getting lots of
jokes. You'll be getting accuracy aswell. I'm offendish, that's horrible,
(17:27):
but this was accurate. Lois isa real human who killed two other humans
and did this very late in life. Yeah, just woke up one day
and was like enough of this,Yeah, I'm out of here, and
went on a crime spray. Shewent on the run. What's a not
a midlife crisis but a later lifecrisis, an extreme. Instead of getting
(17:49):
a convertible and a divorce, shedecided to start killing worm wranglers and nice
ladies. It's shocking and living underan assumed identities multiples assumed identities. Yeah,
very strange. Since our normal episodesare usually like three to four times
as long as this episode, I'veobviously left out a lot of details that
(18:12):
we usually include, and we alsodo segments at the end called b roll
Bonanza alternative titles and theories. Wedo Fashion Police will remock the terrible clothing
and troubling facial hair of yes,and we call out great tweets that happened.
Thank you again for joining us forthis episode of Beyond Bizarre True Crime,
(18:36):
And if you're interested in the story, you can check out the dateline
episode The Woman at the Bar.We hope you'll listen to our show,
A Date with Dateline. You canfind it wherever you listen to podcasts,
and you can follow us on Instagramand Twitter at date Dateline. You can
check out our website at Date withDateline dot com where we have bingo cards
and you can play along while you'rewatching Dateline. It's really fun. It
(18:59):
is fun. As we wrap up, we want to leave you with a
promo of our show, A Datewith Dateline, and be sure to check
out the next episode of Beyond BizarreTrue Crime, which will be hosted by
Eileen from the podcast Crime Laps.Oh yeah, yeah, that sounds great,
And remember don't talk to grandma's atbars and Kimberly, what do you
(19:22):
call a grandma on speed dial?What Instagram? This used to be my
grandma. That's a deep cut fromLa Data. Thank you, everybody,
Thanks everybody, Diabolical Vengeance, betrayal, bad hair Leaning. Hi everyone,
(19:51):
This is Kimberly and this is Katie, and we have a weekly podcast called
A Date with Dateline, a recapof Dateline episodes. We talk about important
issues like grainy surveillance footage, cellphone towers, Andrea Canning's white jeans and
Manky's hankies. We delve into thedetails of any victim who's ever loved life
or lit up a room. Sofind us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,
(20:12):
and iTunes to make a Date withDateline and remember, don't watch alone.
A Date with Dateline is a podcasthosted by two professional amateur true crime
TV experts with no formal training butevidence lockers filled with snark and uninformed opinions.
Beyond Bizarre True Crime is produced byMike Morford and Jess Bettencourt for abjac
Entertainment, with music by Connor Bettencourt. If you enjoy this podcast, make
(20:36):
sure to subscribe wherever you are listeningnow, and please take a moment to
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The views and opinions of the hostsand guests on Beyond Bizarre True Crime
(21:00):
do not necessarily represent those of theshow's creators, producers, or sponsors.
Be sure to tune in on Saturdaysfor all new episodes of Beyond Bizarre True Crime.
You're listening to Beyond Bizarre True Crime, brought to you by Abject Entertainment.
Be sure to check out some ofthe other great true crime podcasts from this
network, including The Murder in MyFamily, Missing Person's, dna I,
d Zodiac, Speaking Scene of theCrime, and Three Men and a Mystery.
(00:20):
All of these podcasts are available foryou to binge on right now wherever
you listen to podcasts, subscribe whereyou're listening to this podcast so you don't
miss an episode. Welcome to anotherepisode of Beyond Bizarre True Crime. We're
(01:19):
your host for this episode, Kimberlyand Katie from a Date with Dateline.
In this episode, we're going tobe talking about a case that is beyond
bizarre, and since we recap Datelineepisodes, we're going to be doing a
very abridged recap of a Dateline episodecalled The Woman at the Bar. I
can't say it's the most bizarre we'veever covered, because they are all the
(01:41):
most bizarre. It's definitely just bizarre. It's bizarre because we're talking about a
killer Granny right exactly, Granny's whokill good times. Yeah. This episode
of Dateline is hosted by Dennis Murphy, who is known for his calm demeanor
and his durable brand of mixing colloquialismsand metaphors and combining them into sentences that
(02:06):
don't entirely make sense, but welove him for it. They make perfect
sense. How dare you? He'sa national treasure and I won't hear any
different. We love you, DennisMurphy. We love you, Dennis Murphy.
Our story starts in Fort Myers,Florida, Because Florida you want a
bizarre there we go. You knowwhere to go. Dennis says Fort Myers
(02:27):
has party on vibes and is boozein a blender. That seems right.
I love when Dennis is hip,yeah, which is as hip as Dennis
gets. Yeah. And I feellike that's parts of Florida. That's Florida
on spring break. But I alsofeel like Florida's got that bath salts vibe
going. It's got all the vibes. It is all bunch of different vibes.
(02:50):
Pamela Hutchinson was only supposed to stayin Fort Myers for a couple of
days, but she called the frontdesk and said she had met fun people
and was gonna stay long. Afew days later, her body is found
in her hotel room, shot throughthe heart. Oh yeah, who's to
blame. Security footage shows Pamela walkingaround with a woman who kind of looks
(03:13):
like her and is the same age. Police find an abandoned car nearby and
they run the plates and it belongsto a Lois Reese who looks like the
woman on the security video. Veryimpressed with this police work. I'm usually
not, but in this case Iwas. So she's from Minnesota, So
now we rewind back to Blooming Prairie, Minnesota, three weeks earlier. Lois
(03:40):
was a mom and a grandma whoran a daycare. Just you're all around
nice lady. If it turned outshe had bodies buried underneath the house,
all the neighbors would say, shewas such a nice lady. That's what
they would say. I used torun into her at Cole's. The neighbor
next door is what people keep calling. Or you're friendly grandma next door.
(04:00):
You're just your neighbor next door,Just a nice lady next door who maybe
gives you sweet treats. When thenoh, spry surprise. Yeah. So
her husband, Dave was a getReady worm wrangler, which is not a
dance move you do at your cousin'swedding slash butt mitzvah, but an actual
(04:21):
profession. It can be both.Dave got sick one day. He stopped
coming into work, very concerned aboutthe worms. Who's rankling them? There
must be an assistant wrangler. Assistantto the worm rangler. Yeah, that
sounds more like it. His friendTom gets some weird messages from Dave,
which is strange in itself because Davedoesn't text, because he is known throughout
(04:46):
Minnesota for having comically oversized thumbs andis teased mercilessly about it. Not sure
what those nicknames are, Hey thummy, Oh no, hey this guy,
he's all thumbs and so he evertexted. And also, this is the
sort of random detail that dateline letsyou get in the two hour episodes because
(05:06):
they have time for it. Inthe one hour episodes, you're not getting
those. And in our very abridgedrecap, we felt like it was just
important, and it was important enoughfor you to understand Dave worm wrangler.
Yeah, but I feel like bothof those things equal. Jolly somehow,
I feel like it was a goodnatured man. I would love to sit
(05:28):
down with Dave. If I wasat like a family barbecue or a block
party, I think he'd be ablock party guy, and you would want
to pull up your lawn chair nextto his and be like, what's new
in the worm wrangling game? Dave? Absolutely, And I would say yeah,
and he would tell you about theconvention back in two thousand and two.
Oh yeah, when everybody got alittle wild, words got out and
(05:53):
there was so much wrangling. Thatwould be great. No, Dave is
the one that if Dave throws theblock party, you're coming. Were kicked
out of that Hyatt never invited back. They still have warms in the third
floor. So after two weeks ofnot showing up to work, a friend
calls the police. They do awelfare check and they sadly find Dave's body
(06:15):
in the bathroom at home, shottwice. Police can't find his wife,
Lois anywhere. Now. Apparently Loisand Dave have been having money problems because
not because worm wranglers don't make goodmoney. If you thought that, you
were wrong, Dave made a heartyliving taking care of those worms, but
because Lois is gambling problem. Gamblinggranny, yeah, her nickname at the
(06:42):
casino was losing Lois, which isnot a creative nickname. It's like the
kind of nickname you get in kindergarten. It's not great, but it's an
alliteration. So I like it betterthan what we came up with for thumbs,
which right now is thumby thummy.So until someone thinks of a better
one, Lois, Who am Ito judge? Yeah, we can't judge,
(07:04):
but I will say if I wasnicknamed losing anything at the casino,
that I would never go back tothe casino. Right, No, it's
embarrassing, but this woman, noshame No. So investigators figure out that
Lois had recently been stealing thousands ofdollars from the Worm Company Worm Ranch Worm
(07:26):
Compound. I don't know how she'sgoing to wriggle out of this one.
That's all I got, That's allI got. Lois drives south, stopping
at several casinos along the way andgambling away her worm money. In Florida,
she goes to the bar of anOyster brewery, which is the first
of many seafood extravaganza stops along theway. She loves her seafood, and
(07:49):
she meets there. You guessed itPamela Hutchinson. Oh boy. They quickly
become BFFs and are seen leaving thebar on the staple of true crime shows
the grainy surveillance footage. Lois isthe one who called the front desk,
pretending to be poor Pamela, wantingto stay longer so she could get a
(08:09):
couple days head start. She wantedto worm her way out of there,
so she sneaks out of the hotelwearing Pamela's hat and steals Pamela's car.
She starts driving west, checking intohotels using Pamela's ID and credit card.
Again, no shame. Meanwhile,the police announced nationwide that she's wanted for
(08:31):
murder. She's tagged the killer Grandma, another nickname that's not that creative but
accurate. So, yeah, policeare tracking Lois, but this Grandma is
always two steps ahead. She goesto Louisiana to a casino. She wins
fifteen hundred dollars. I'm imagining sheimmediately demanded her nickname be changed to Yeah,
(08:54):
it's gotta be lucky Lois. Ithink she had the owner of this
casino called the other casino, andlike, I got this lady here Lois.
She is demanding that you officially changeher name a handwritten letter and said
just so you know, and senta copy photocopy of the winning's receipt.
Just spread the word next time shewalks in there. She wants the round
of people going, hey, it'slucky. Yeah. So Lois arrives in
(09:18):
South Texas and checks into a motel. It's, as Dennis says, a
slow little town South Padre, aso called island getaway. But it's not
an island so called. It's aso called island getaway. Unsure is it
on an island. It might bean island, an inlet, it's it's
(09:39):
so called, Katie, that's onlyokay, excuse me, it's so called.
But I will say the town itselflooked cute and if you like seafood,
you're this is the one. Also, memorable personalities, people you would
just want to talk to, muchlike David the warm guy Rip. Yes,
there's a world famous Padre Rita grillthat had award winning shrimp tacos,
(10:01):
and you know that's drawn in Lois. She loves shrimp taco Yeah. So
one day she comes in, sheapparently delightful, orders a Mark, and
she loves Margarita's and shrimp tacos.Kathy, the manager says, what's your
name? And the woman says,La Donna. Oh boy, La Donna.
(10:22):
She just seems real, true blue. I'm gonna come up with as
many of us Madonna puns as Ican, as fast as I can quickly.
I can't think of the lyrics toLa Bonita, but I'm trying really
hard. It's something about meeting aman and I feel like his name might
be the name of this town.So LaDonna starts to come into Padre Rita
every night. The whole staff ischarmed by her. Clearly, no one
(10:45):
there is watching the news because sheis nationwide known as the killer Grandma.
Meanwhile, police figure out that Loisis probably heading to Mexico and they're running
out of time because she's only afew miles from the border. But she's
living life and hanging out, drinkingmarks and eating all the shrimp tacos,
award winning Apologies, award winning shrimptacos that her heart desires. One day,
(11:07):
she meets a woman named Bernie.Bernie you and danger girl, Oh
Bernie. They've become best friends instantlybecause Apparently LaDonna slash Lois is like the
most charming person in the world.She should teach a class at the Learning
Annex how to win friends and murderthem. Oh boy, Adonna's a mistery
(11:31):
three grandmamast. She's having a roughtime, yea, LaDonna. So Bernie
offers to show LaDonna around her neighborhoodbecause apparently she's in the market for some
property. She spends the night atBernie's house. How is Bernie still alive?
You're asking? Yeah, how isBernie not dead? And being propped
up with fixed sunglasses on like weekendat Bernie's she is still alive because she
(11:56):
said, my house is so safe, LaDonna, this area is very safe,
but I do have security cameras allover my house. There we go,
just as an aside, she saysit, And that's enough for LaDonna.
Lois probably had a knife behind herback and then was like, oh,
okay, puts the knife back intothe knife flock. Yeah, you
(12:18):
escaped death. So Bernie stays alive. The next day, they make plans
to meet again, and when Berniecalls Ladonna's phone, the voicemail says the
equally believable name of Stormy Liberty okay, which sounds like an insurrection that says
it does in a human Stormy Liberty. She's just picking names off of signs.
(12:43):
Yes, there's like the Stormy seagullin and she's like, oh,
stormy is good. And then Libertyis like on the back of a truck
and she was like, that's it, Stormy Liberty. I'm in Texas now,
y'all. Yeah, she's not goodat making up names. No,
if you met a grandma and shesaid stormy Liberty, you meet a grandma
that says LaDonna, which one areyou believing? I don't know neither,
(13:07):
right, I don't. I don'tknow LaDonna maybe LaDonna, maybe LaDonna,
but I don't know. I'd stillhave questions. But it's also making me
think that Losing Lois was a nicknamethat Lois coined herself for herself based on
decent made up names. She's notgood. If you go on the run,
get yourself a book of baby namesand go Jennifer Janet, all the
(13:28):
Jays, you know what, orgo to your hotel nightstand, open the
book Zedediah, Jedediah, Obadiah,Leviticus, Deuteronomy, get in there,
get yourself a name, Sarah,Sarah Smith. Come on. So we
enter George Higginbottom, Oh boy,our hero of the story. He works
(13:52):
at an establishment called Dirty Owls,which doesn't seem like the type of place
Lois would go into because she thinksshe's a little hoity toity, but she
wanders in there one day. Georgehas seen the news. He recognizes her
immediately. He tells his coworkers andthey're like, no, it's not George.
God bust those tables, Higgs HigginHiggy. Oh, it's another conspiracy
(14:16):
from Higgy. Yeah, because Ibet he does that all the time.
He's that wasn't Elvis sitting at thebar the other day, Higgy? Oh,
it's you know, it's Higgy.He's making things up again. But
he's going to get his come up. And at the end, this is
your moment to shine, Higgy thehero. Let's go. This is your
origin story, your hero origin stores. Everything turns around for you. So
(14:37):
George Higgs aka Higgy, George goeswith his gut calls the police while Lois
orders seafood enchiladas. I don't knowwhat kind of seafood. Goes and seafood
enchiladas. Sure, I do lobsterwhat Hilariously, it's not actually seafood.
What normally goes in seafood enchiladas unlessyou're at a very fancy restaurant, is
imitation crab. That would be crabwith a ki. Yeah, so seafood
(15:03):
would be in quotes when they saylike fresh ye, and both words are
in quotes. So officers come tothe restaurant and they spy their undercover.
They spy Lois being kind of rudeto her waitress, who is just doing
her best. Yeah. So,in a very dramatic moment, and we
are seeing this on surveillance footage fromthe restaurant, Lois slash LaDonna slash Stormy
(15:28):
Liberty is swarmed by the US Marshall'steam. Very dramatic. Bernie, meanwhile,
who's still alive, goes to therestaurant where she was supposed to meet
LaDonna slash Stormy and they tell heryou must not have seen the news.
LaDonna slash Stormy Liberty is actually Loisand a man named Higgs single handedly stopped
(15:52):
and murders Free. Also, youalmost died, Bernie. Oh you got
you got lucky? Congrats, Imean, she was probably sad because her
new best friend is a murderer,but happy that she escaped death. I
think the minute you hear the stormyliberty message, you start having questions she
wasn't going to be her best friend. Maybe yeah, maybe she went to
(16:15):
the lunch to confront her. Don'tever do that, by the way,
pro tip, I think she knewLaDonna was a liar. Yeah. Lois
pleads guilty and is given two lifesentences for Dave and Pamela's murders. And
I really feel like if she wasn'tso tempted by that local seafood cuisine,
she would have gotten away with it. She was so close to Mexico,
(16:37):
So if she had just stayed atthe one bar and not ventured out to
the other bar, she would havebeen okay. Yeah, because nobody at
this other bar knew who she wasin town. But she went up the
road a little. She got cockey. She thought she was going to be
fine. Yeah, she was feelingher in her LaDonna is it last night?
I dreamt of somepod. Is that? Is that actually the lyrics in
(17:02):
that song? I don't if notit should be, because that would tie
this all together in a nice littlebow. Right, it's pink it is
It's called South Padre. Oh boy, so I was wrong on both of
the names of the town. Notonly was it not San Padro, it
was South Padre. If you guysdo check out our show A date with
date line, you won't be gettingaccuracy, but you'll be getting lots of
jokes. You'll be getting accuracy aswell. I'm offendish, that's horrible,
(17:27):
but this was accurate. Lois isa real human who killed two other humans
and did this very late in life. Yeah, just woke up one day
and was like enough of this,Yeah, I'm out of here, and
went on a crime spray. Shewent on the run. What's a not
a midlife crisis but a later lifecrisis, an extreme. Instead of getting
(17:49):
a convertible and a divorce, shedecided to start killing worm wranglers and nice
ladies. It's shocking and living underan assumed identities multiples assumed identities. Yeah,
very strange. Since our normal episodesare usually like three to four times
as long as this episode, I'veobviously left out a lot of details that
(18:12):
we usually include, and we alsodo segments at the end called b roll
Bonanza alternative titles and theories. Wedo Fashion Police will remock the terrible clothing
and troubling facial hair of yes,and we call out great tweets that happened.
Thank you again for joining us forthis episode of Beyond Bizarre True Crime,
(18:36):
And if you're interested in the story, you can check out the dateline
episode The Woman at the Bar.We hope you'll listen to our show,
A Date with Dateline. You canfind it wherever you listen to podcasts,
and you can follow us on Instagramand Twitter at date Dateline. You can
check out our website at Date withDateline dot com where we have bingo cards
and you can play along while you'rewatching Dateline. It's really fun. It
(18:59):
is fun. As we wrap up, we want to leave you with a
promo of our show, A Datewith Dateline, and be sure to check
out the next episode of Beyond BizarreTrue Crime, which will be hosted by
Eileen from the podcast Crime Laps.Oh yeah, yeah, that sounds great,
And remember don't talk to grandma's atbars and Kimberly, what do you
(19:22):
call a grandma on speed dial?What Instagram? This used to be my
grandma. That's a deep cut fromLa Data. Thank you, everybody,
Thanks everybody, Diabolical Vengeance, betrayal, bad hair Leaning. Hi everyone,
(19:51):
This is Kimberly and this is Katie, and we have a weekly podcast called
A Date with Dateline, a recapof Dateline episodes. We talk about important
issues like grainy surveillance footage, cellphone towers, Andrea Canning's white jeans and
Manky's hankies. We delve into thedetails of any victim who's ever loved life
or lit up a room. Sofind us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,
(20:12):
and iTunes to make a Date withDateline and remember, don't watch alone.
A Date with Dateline is a podcasthosted by two professional amateur true crime
TV experts with no formal training butevidence lockers filled with snark and uninformed opinions.
Beyond Bizarre True Crime is produced byMike Morford and Jess Bettencourt for abjac
Entertainment, with music by Connor Bettencourt. If you enjoy this podcast, make
(20:36):
sure to subscribe wherever you are listeningnow, and please take a moment to
rate and review the show. Youcan find Beyond Bizarre True Crime on social
media. We're on Twitter and Instagramwith the handle at Beyond Bizarre TC.
You can also find us on Facebookby searching for Beyond Bizarre True Crime podcast.
The views and opinions of the hostsand guests on Beyond Bizarre True Crime
(21:00):
do not necessarily represent those of theshow's creators, producers, or sponsors.
Be sure to tune in on Saturdaysfor all new episodes of Beyond Bizarre True Crime.
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