Murder & Mimosas - Morris Blakenbaker

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Dot cost Network bringing our indie podcasts out of the shadows.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Are you looking for your next true crime podcast? Do
you crave stories that have mystery and suspense? Well, look
no further, introducing Love and Murder, the podcast that dives
deep into the world of relationships gone horribly wrong. Every week,
I take you on a journey through the dark side
of love, where passion turns into obsession, families become enemies,

(00:32):
and romance turns to murder. From mysterious mysteries to suspenseful suspense,
I dive deep into cases of love gone wrong. So
why should you listen to Love and Murder? Because this
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in crime not guilty, your storytellers, and your weekly dose

(00:56):
of suspenseful entertainments. How many times have I said suspenseful?
So what are you waiting for? Join the Love and
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and Murder because you're either someone's last love or their

(01:17):
first murder.

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Love and Murder available on all major podcast platforms, not
for true crimeers. Under eighteen must be an apple juice
drinking enthusias but not really. Side effects include and join
another true crime podcast, Becoming a Lamb, learning logic and
how to deal with your problems in a healthy manner
and not turn into murder. Waiting for the next episode
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Speaker 2 (01:34):
Dot com and remember all love and no murder. See
you soon.

Speaker 4 (01:43):
Welcome to Murder and Mimosis.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Just a quick disclaimer before we get started. Our show
is Murder and Mimosas. It's a true crime podcast. This
means that we do discuss crimes, including but not limited to, disappearances, murder,
and sexual assaults are a are told with the respect
of the victims and the victims' families in mind. We
strive to ensure that we provide factual information, but some

(02:08):
information is more verifiable than others. With that, grab your
mimosas and let's dive in.

Speaker 4 (02:14):
Welcome back, Hi, Shannon.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
And I'm Danica.

Speaker 4 (02:16):
We're going to tell you the story of Morris Flank
and Maker today, so grab your mimosas and settle in.
It was the Saturday after Thanksgiving It was two days
after Thanksgiving and Yakima, Washington. It had snowed the night
before and was cold on that November morning. In nineteen
seventy five, Dell Suits and Ronald Sell, two men that

(02:38):
lived in an apartment complex, were eager to go hunting
with friends, each for waiting for their rides outside by
five am that morning. They didn't know each other. They'd
just given up light waves or heads nods in passing.
While waiting outside, they see a woman in the house
or a woman from the house next door by the
apartment complex come out in her row and walk around

(02:59):
the house to the alley. Then they both hear the
woman screaming Morris over and over. As she cried, they
see her make her way back into the house. She
was screaming hysterically. He's dead, He's dead. Roland walked over
and informed her to go call an ambulance, and she
went back in to call nine to one one. He

(03:20):
walked around the side of the house to see a
man laying in the snow covered in blood. The police
do arrive to find a thirty two year old Morris
Blankenmaker dead. Who was Morris? Well, I'm about to tell
you he was an exceptional athlete in high school. He
was on the track, football, baseball, and wrestling teams. He

(03:41):
also played in the band. The year he graduated, he
was voted best Athlete of the Year, as well as
he was offered a four year football scholarship to Washington
State University, which he took and set his mind on
being a coach. It said he never had a serious
girlfriend high school. But let's face it, when you have

(04:02):
that much or I'm spending that much time on athletics,
you don't have time for a girlfriend.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
I thought those guys made time for that, especially TDGE boys.

Speaker 4 (04:13):
You would think, but I guess he had his mind
on his goals. He was considered a real catch. That's
what the girls staying happen. Oh.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
I thought that was like a pud into his.

Speaker 4 (04:25):
Sports then too, They said he had movie star good
looks and his athletic muscular build was to die for.
Worse of course, sorry, that was a bad fun. Morris,
of course, was living in Pullman, which was about two
hundred miles away from Yakima, but he came home as

(04:47):
often as he could to see his friends and family
that still resided there. On one of those trips Is
when he met Dianne Brock. She was three years younger,
still in high school. Of course, she went to the
other high school in Yakima, so they hadn't met each
other in high school. Morris was a little smitt and

(05:07):
kitten over Dan. They dated while she finished high school.
He made the four hundred mile round trip all the
time to make sure he took her to prom and
see her as much as possible. The two married two
months after she graduated. It was the sixties when they
got married and men were being drafted for Vietnam, so

(05:28):
Morris dropped out of college and joined the Marine Corps.
He also moved to Tacoma and started college there once
he was discharged from the Marine Corps. After four years,
Dan got a job at a bank while Morris continued
school and Mark not says at a state hospital. The
couple didn't see each other that much, and Dan was

(05:49):
lonely and homesick. She wanted to move back to Yakima.
Morris wanted to make his wife happy, so they moved back,
and he was going to go to college part time
and work. Moose started college at Central Washington College, about
thirty five miles away I.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Just have to say, movon college sucks, like completely sucks,
because especially now I'm hoping maybe it was better than
about transferring classes and your credit, because I would hate
if you'd like wasted a lot of time on classes
that wouldn't transfer.

Speaker 4 (06:24):
I know, I hate that. I've done that before too,
and it does suck. So his old track coach, Gabby
Moore is taking classes there too. The two decide they
would carpool. They were close when Morris was in high school,
but of course you lose touch when Morse graduated and
Gabby he was twenty seven when Morse graduated at the time,

(06:47):
but he was very well respected by the team. Gabby
actually made a name for himself as an amazing wrestling coach.
He was awarded the Outstanding Physical Education as ACA later
That's a mouthful in nineteen sixty nine, and his wrestling
team won state chance in nineteen seventy two. His athletes

(07:09):
love and respected him. He was married to a pe
teacher and they have three kids that attended the high
school he taught at. Morris and Gadby spent a lot
of time together hunting, fishing, whitewater rafting. You know, gostaf
In fact, Morris had saved Gabby's life in one of
their fishing adventures. They went in their boat. Where they

(07:31):
were in their boat which flipped in the undercurrent. Both
men were thrown from the boat. Morris swam to the
surface that didn't see Gabby. Gabby had his boot caught
in bonds and roots and couldn't free himself while stuck underwater.
Morris found him though, and freed his foot, saving his life.
Morris and Deane have now been married eight years. They

(07:53):
have two small children, a boy and a girl. Morris
finally finishes his degree and has just got a coaching job.
Dean has worked her way up in the banks some
They aren't rich by any means, but they are leaving
the American dream. Gabby, on the other hand, has been
very close to twenty years and his marriage is falling apart.

(08:14):
Gabby tells Morris that his wife Gay once a divorce.
While the two men spend a lot of time together,
their families didn't, so Morris doesn't really know Gay. Are
their kids. Gabby asks Morris if he can come move
in with them for a little bit, why he works
on his marriage. Morris, being the nice guy he is,

(08:35):
wants to help, but he just hass to Candence his wife,
so good luck with that. Dane was not sold on
the idea of what a complete stranger moving in with them.
Morris assured her it wouldn't be for long if they
didn't reconcile, then he would get his own place after

(08:55):
a little bit. Dane didn't like the idea that her
husband felt he needed to do this for his friend
because he wasn't in a good headspace at the time,
and he gave it, and she finally gave in. Gabby
moved in in January of nineteen seventy four. Dianne enjoyed
the company. She felt Gavy really listen to her, and

(09:15):
he jumped a rather up to help with the dishes
after they ate. Morris, on the other hand, was noticing
changes in Gaby that weren't great. He was drinking a lot.
Sometimes he would drink for two or three days without sleeping,
and do things that weren't lonely in his nature, for
example taking a gun to his moth's house making threats

(09:38):
toward her. Diane, of course, didn't know this person personality before,
so when she met him, this was just how Gavvy
was She was the shoulder that Gabby cried on about
his marriage that was coming to an end. The two
bonded and an affair began. Just three short months after

(10:00):
Gadby moved in, Dean was telling Morris that she was
leaving him for Gabby. Gabby was fifteen years older, a
little overweight, and had an awesome co comb over for
his thinning hair. So looks really dope matters to this woman,
i'most seem to me.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
Apparently not.

Speaker 4 (10:21):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
He sounds like a catch.

Speaker 4 (10:24):
Yeah, he was a ketch. No, Morris was crushed and
I'm sure very mad at himself because he's the one
that invited this guy into his house.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
But when he did this, this was like his coach,
his mentor, his best friend, Like they did all these
things together. You don't expect anything like that. And you know,
especially in this instant, you're doing him a favor. You
don't expect him to like stab you in the back.

Speaker 4 (10:51):
Yeah, and keep his mentor. And he's you know, a
lot over. She's think of him more like a father figure. Yeah,
I'm sure he was thinking, oh, look at this guy,
look at me. Yeah, this is gonna happen.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
There's a you know, a little over way fifteen years older,
comb over drunk that's.

Speaker 4 (11:11):
Threatening people, and I don't get it. Good.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
Okay, Well, maybe she needed a bad guy because it
sounds like, you know, Morris was very straight and narrow.
Maybe she wanted some adventure or something.

Speaker 4 (11:24):
Yeah, so he repays him by taking his wife. So
that's sweet. So Deane filed Ford of works in March
nineteen seventy four. She and Gabby were married in September
of nineteen seventy four, so she didn't waste much tom Nope,
she and Gabby set up a house together with her

(11:45):
two kids and Gabby's sixteen year old son. Morris was
having a super hard time with this. Not only Dicky
have to see them together when he picked up the kids,
he could see them around town too. Morris decides he's
gonna up and move to Hawaii, and he does. He

(12:05):
doesn't live there very long before he realizes his heart
is still broken. He misses his kids, he misses his
friends and family, so he ends up moving back. He
gets a large house there, Aren's thrones out to friends,
so at least he isn't completely alone. The newly Wads, however,
aren't as happy as Diane expected. She realizes that Gabby

(12:29):
has a drinking problem, and he turns completely different when
he drinks.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
He was drinking before this, like before they got married,
and she didn't notice.

Speaker 4 (12:39):
Or maybe I mean, I guess, you know, you put
your best foot forward usually. I don't know, I had
those rose colored glasses. Or it wasn't a problem then
because he was harassing his ex wife and not her. Yeah, Gabby.
Gabby throws her and the kids out at times when

(12:59):
he drinking. She at times would wait until he passed
out and then go back home. She did leave him
three times, though she kept going back to him. The
last time she left, though, she runs back to Morris
and this guy just welcomes her back with open arms.
She and the kids moved back in with him, and

(13:22):
his roommate's moved out.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
I guess he was attending her with roommates again.

Speaker 4 (13:28):
If he's smart, he's not doing that. So Gabby doesn't
handle this well at all. He is obsessed with Dan,
not that he loves her, but more that she's his property.
He's calling out her at work NonStop. He comes to
the bank asking for her, He's calling her house he's
stalking her. He also tells her that if she doesn't

(13:51):
take him back, he will kill himself right in front
of her so she can watch him suffer. Morris also
works a few knots a week as a balancer, and whennot,
Dan calls him because she can hear Gabby in the
living room yelling for her, telling her he's going to
kick the bedroom door and if she doesn't let him
in the bedroom.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
I mean, how did he get in?

Speaker 4 (14:14):
Although this was a city, they said they didn't have
locks on the outside doors. The only lock they had
on the house was to the bedroom door to keep
the kids out. I guess, you know, for sexy time.
But they weren't worried about people coming in the house.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
That's that's insane.

Speaker 4 (14:33):
Morris brings a co worker, Uh, this was a guy
that he knew and also also knew Gabby because he
used to be his coach on a wrestling team to
the house. When he goes to check this out, Gabby
is no longer in the house when they get there,
but he's beating on the window outside begging Dean to
come out. Although Morris had every right to beat the

(14:57):
snot out of this, the Gabby. He doesn't he talked
to him. He didn't even yell at him. They said,
whatever was said, Gabby got in his car and went home,
and I assume maybe slept it off. Morris called the
police to tell them what happened.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
Worse is level headed as I were, that Bed kicked off.

Speaker 4 (15:19):
He's like a saint. So Gabby was falling apart at
the scenes. He also taught math and driver's education at
the school, and a student had reported him shaking them
when he got upset with them. He had he had
a former athlete, Angelo, which that he went by Toughee
stay in touch with the coach. He saw that he

(15:41):
was drinking heavily. He got together with the other former
wrestling teammates and worked out a schedule to help with
the team because Gabby wasn't always showing them to practice
into matches. Tuffy was trying to save the coach's job.
He idolized his coach and he was like a father
to him.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
Be careful about that.

Speaker 4 (16:04):
With all that, the school informed him they would not
be renewing his contract in the fall, Gabby went right
away to Deanna and told her she made him lose
his job because he can't function without her.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
Oh it's Dan, he can't function. It's not the alcohol
that makes him not be able to function.

Speaker 4 (16:26):
No, No, that has nothing to do with why he
lost his job. Okay, so yeah, hangovers overs are rough,
but we don't know if he stopped drinking long enough
to have one, so we'll see.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
So this didn't win Dian back, and she filed for
a divorce, even though he was having his son and
daughters call and ask her to take him back off.
Stalking her and breaking in her house wasn't working. She
and worse planned to get married by Christmas once the
divorce was final, and pick up or they left off,

(17:01):
or at least try. That didn't happen, though, because Morris
was murdered the night after Thanksgiving. Police suspect Gabby, but
due to all the issues he had caused them that
Gabby refuses to talk to the police or take a
lit detector tests. The police are investigating, but they don't
have a lot of leads when they find out that

(17:23):
Gabby was in the hospital and did not of the murder.
His ex father in law is also his doctor. Gabby
suffers from high pretension and doesn't take his medication like
he should, and he was having lots of nosebleeds. His
doctor admitted him to the hospital for a few days.
They don't have a lot of time to investigate the

(17:44):
him though. By Christmas eed, they are getting a call
that Gabby has been shot in his apartment. The police
find him doa.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
Dead on arrival. If you don't know what that means,
so is it like, is it suicide?

Speaker 4 (18:00):
No, it wasn't. Police aren't sure where to look now,
but they get a lead. There's a twenty two found
under a bridge that is brought in. A reporter mentioned
this in a paper about this gun being found. A
lady named Loretta Scott comes forward with her attorney. She

(18:20):
tells the police that she thinks this gun is hers,
but she lunged it to her cousin Tuffy, which we've heard.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
Honey, we know him.

Speaker 4 (18:29):
Yes, So phileas spring Toughy in for questioning and tell
him that ballistics show that the gun that killed Morrise
and Gabby will show that he did this. Once they
get done processing the gun, us true crime fanatics know
that they have nothing, but Tuffy starts spilling it.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
Well that happens.

Speaker 4 (18:52):
He says that he would go. He would go see
the coach all the time, and he would talk about
the end all the time. He asked if he could
find him a hit man. Tuffy tried to find him
one and gave him a few names that they wouldn't
because the Coach was only offering five hundred. So five
hundred now and two hundred later.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
So seven hundred dollars is a going rate for murder.

Speaker 4 (19:16):
Yes, I mean this was you know, the seventies, so
maybe that was fair.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
Then it's still murder.

Speaker 4 (19:24):
Oh, so coach said Diane would want hum back if
Morse was out of the picture. Finally, Tuffy tells him
he'll do it for him. I guess if you just
snag enough, you're like, fine, Fine.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
All the question is is Tuffy doing it for free
or for the five hundred now and the two hundred later.

Speaker 4 (19:40):
So well, so he does it for free? Wow, Yeah,
but we'll get to that in a second. Well, Gabby
is in the hospital. He calls Tuffy and tells him
this is a good time because I'm in the hospital, dude,
I got an alibi. And Gabby meets Morse in the
alley that when he's getting home from Mark and he

(20:02):
shoots him. So, like I said, he wasn't paid for this.
He just wanted to make his mentor and coach feel better.
This coach, I mean, I have to be a coach.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
Honey.

Speaker 4 (20:13):
You can get people to.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
Do a lot for you. Let them live in your
house for free. Let him still your wife, let him
convince people to kill for you. I mean right.

Speaker 4 (20:26):
So, the police asked if if he learned the coach
so much, why did he kill him, and he tells
him that Gabby still wasn't happy after Morris died. Dan
was convinced he had something to do with Morris's death
and didn't want him still imagine that shock her. He
told her people were stalking him. Gabby told Ian people

(20:51):
were stalking him. He asked Tuffy to shoot him and
the left shoulder and make it look like a break
in so Deane would believe him. Tough, he says, he
told no, but coach threatened him with Morris's murder. Huh.
He told him he would turn him in if he didn't.
Gavin drank a whole bottle of bourbon that night because

(21:11):
he said he didn't want to feel any pain. Tuffy
tells the police he finally decides to do it. Gabby
is there and he aims at his shoulder to shoot,
but Gabby moves as he shoots, probably from all the alcohol.
The bullet didn't go where it was supposed to, and
Tuffy left scared.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
You should have just taken the money from the first
one and caught it good, you know.

Speaker 4 (21:35):
Joke. So Tuffy doesn't take a plea deal. He ends
up going to court and he recants his confession. He
is still convicted for both murders and sentenced to twenty years.
He was released in nineteen ninety five and died of
natural causes in twenty sixteen.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
I don't know if I have words for this. So
what you're saying is Gabby were in his own life,
his wife's life, probably his kids lives, Dianne's life, Morris's life,
morris is kids' lives, and Toughy's life.

Speaker 4 (22:11):
Morris's mom's because she was very, very that was her
only child, and morris mom she was obsessed with her own.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
Probably Toughy's family because you know, he went to prison, So.

Speaker 4 (22:24):
We're talking like because two or three kids by the
time he went. Well, actually, his girlfriend, his fiance was
pregnant at the time he went to prison. Cool.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
So this one man managed to just plow a whole
bunch of lives, just screw them all. Yeah, man, I
feel so I really just feel bad for Morris in
this because Diane left him, so screw her. She left
him for Gabby and then you know, tough he made
his choice. He should have, you know, but Morris just

(22:55):
kept trying to do the right thing over and over
and over.

Speaker 4 (22:58):
He was a good job.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
And then you got shot in the cold snow and
left in an alley like trash.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (23:07):
But I did see pictures of film and we can
post them. He was really attractive.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
Well, he will post him. We're going to post him
right next to Gabby. Yeah, and I'll see if I
can find him one of toughy. But you know, this
is crazy. This is a crazy one because so this
was the one that you read a book about.

Speaker 4 (23:30):
Right, Yeah, this was an annual book.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
We're annual where we like anual. So we'll post those
sources with the name of that book in there if
you want to read it. We will also, like she said,
post pictures. It'll be on our Instagram, which is murdered
mimosas we will post on our Facebook page, which is
Murdered Mimosa's podcast. We'll post a clip of this. You

(23:56):
could share it with your friends on TikTok at Murdered
Mimosas and well, we have a Twitter, it's Murdered Mimosas.
We mostly just post funny memes there.

Speaker 4 (24:07):
But do we even post on Do we even know
the password to get in suit it? But if you do,
that's I don't know anything about.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
You don't know the past ordain any of them know.
So that does amazing. And if you have a case,
you can email it to murder dot Mimosas at gmail
dot com and in a few weeks we will actually
be sharing an episode from one that was shared with us,
so that'll be exciting. So in the meantime, it's Thanksgiving

(24:40):
next week, so have mimosa with your turkey if you want.
I actually don't. That's how good. So what you should
do is you should have mimosas before your family comes over,
and then you will be plenty buzzed when your family
gets there to eat the dry turkey and whatever family
member brings the very gross food. Okay, so have a

(25:02):
mimosa on us before the family arrives. Okay, that is
our murder mimosa's tip of the day. Yeah, also, have
a good holiday, but that it will be better if
you follow the tip and you have the mimosa before
the family arrives. But yeah, I know, I have a
mimosa on us and we'll talk to you after Thanksgiving.

Speaker 2 (25:25):
Bye.