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Fire Eyes Media. Today, I'm taking you back to July
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nineteen twenty nine, to a house on Saint Aubin's Street
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and to a mystery that's haunted generations. The Evangelista's family
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murders remains unsolved nearly a century later. What motive could
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lie behind such brutality? Was it something a cult, something personal,
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or something more ordinary twisted into horror? Hello, and welcome
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to another episode of Truly Twisted. As always, I'm your host,
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Alicia Watson, and every Thursday, I will be bringing you
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a story that is always victim focused and fact based.
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One thing that you all listening might not know about
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me is that I love fall, Halloween, and pretty much
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anything spooky. If you've come from Twisted and Uncorked, that's
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not new news. But to anyone else, I just wanted
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to announce that I'm doing something a little bit different
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for the remainder of season one. I am bringing you
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stories that have a spooky twist in some way, but
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it'll always remain about the victims here. I just wanted
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to be able to combine it with a season that
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I love, and you may also be wondering, why not
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just do the Five Thursdays in October. Well that's because
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in my house, spooky season starts September first, So this
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is a little happy medium. If you have any story
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suggestions that you think would be perfect for this, please
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send them to me at Alicia at fireeyesmedia dot com
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and friendly reminder that if you're enjoying the show, to
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please leave me five stars wherever you get your podcasts.
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It really is the best way to spread word and
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help me grow the show. It also makes me super
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happy to know that people enjoy what I put out there.
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Now on to the story today, I am telling you
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about what is known as the Detroit Occult murders. On
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July third, nineteen twenty nine, a summer day in Detroit,
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Michigan that should have held warmth would soon be a
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day of unspeakable tragedy. The house stood at three, five
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eight seven Saint Aubin's Street, an address now long gone
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from maps, but forever etched into the city's darker history.
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The Evangelista family lived there, Benny Evangelista, his wife Santina,
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and their four children, Angelina seven, Margaret five, and gn four.
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Mario was just eighteen months old, Benjamino Benji evangelista immigrated
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from Naples, Italy in nineteen oh four, and eventually made
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his way to Detroit. For many immigrants, moving to the
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United States was not the dream that they envisioned. Instead,
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they were met by terrible working conditions, a great deal
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of racism, poverty, and in some cases, even death. But
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Benny managed to beat all these odds. But he also
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wasn't your average immigrant laborer. He was a mystic, a healer,
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a spiritualist. Some people believed that he could communicate with
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divine forces, offer cures, blessings, and even curses. Others dismissed
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him as a complete fraud. But still Benny managed to
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make a living offering spiritual services from the front room
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of his home. Clients came by appointment. Some left feeling
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very hopeful, while others left kind of angry. He was
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also working on a manuscript, a sprawling egocentric religious texts
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that he he claimed had been dictated to him by
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an other worldly force. He called it the Divine Evangelist Revelation.
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Benny wasn't just a mystic. He saw himself as a prophet,
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but not everyone respected him for it. Around nine am
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on the morning of July third, nineteen twenty nine, real
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estate agent Charles Wolfe, I also saw on a few
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of my sources that his name was Vincent Elias arrived
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at the Evangelista home to finalize some paperwork on a
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property that Benny was going to be purchasing. Benny had
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invested in different properties and either sold them or rented
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them to different tenants. We all need a side hustle, right,
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But when the agent knocked, there was no answer. The
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house was far too quiet for a family of five,
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let alone with three young kids living there, and something
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was definitely wrong. The agent forced his way into the home,
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but nothing could prepare him for what he would discover.
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What he discovered was beyond all expectations. Inside Benny's study,
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Benny himself was seated behind his desk, his hands folded
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in his lap, almost in a prayer like position, and
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his head was laying at his feet, having been cleanly
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cut from his body and posed in a virtualistic and
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grotesque manner. There was no blood on the walls or
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the floor, which indicated to police that he had been
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posed there purposely. What the agent would discover upstairs was
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somehow much worse. Santina was found in her bed holding
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little Mario. She too had been decapitated, and her infant child,
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lying in her arms, had had his skull crushed by
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what was likely the blunt end of an axe. Across
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the hall, the other children, Angelina, Margaret and Jeanne, were
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found laying in their beds. They had died in the
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same way, seemingly as they slept. The scene was unthinkable.
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The Detroit Police noted that there was no signs of
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forced entry, no obvious external break in points. Doors seemed
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to be locked and undisturbed. Neighbors reported seeing nothing out
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of the ordinary in the days leading up to the
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massacre and hearing nothing strange the night of it. There
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were no strange visitors, no loud arguments, and a murder
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weapon was never found. There was also no fingerprints to
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go off of, except for one bloody fingerprint on the
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front door handle. Benji Evangelista's work and the occult definitely
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added a new layer and an extremely wide suspect pull
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to go through. The brutality of these murders seemed to
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be carried out in a rage. It had to be
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personal who would do this to anybody, let alone four
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young children. Forensics in nineteen twenty nine was still in
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its infancy, and despite their best efforts, police hit a
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standstill before the trail went cold altogether. Over the decades,
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several theories had been floated, some more plausible than others,
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some more sensational. Benny's line of work definitely added a
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new layer and became the likely only motive for the
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murders in Philadelphia. Before moving to Detroit, Benny had claimed
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to have received a divine vision that changed his life.
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He became consumed by mysticism and began developing his own cosmology,
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his own spiritual system. By the time he had arrived
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in Detroit, he had widely been known as a divine healer,
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and people frequently paid him for protection, charms, love spells,
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dream interpretations, and even curses for their enemies. Some say
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he had a following, others believed that he was as
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feared as much as he was revered. His Divine Book,
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the manuscript found at the crime scene, read more like
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a prophecy than a scripture. It was full of biblical
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sounding passages, cosmic war, and visions of divine justice. The
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book portrayed Benny as a kind of chosen messenger, so
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it was a little grandiose, to say the least. In
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a deeply Catholic and superstitious community, such boldness might have
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been seen as blasphemous or even dangerous, so that became
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the motive for the murders. The funerals for the family
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members took place on July sixth, nineteen twenty nine, and
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over three thousand people attended. Some were clients of Benny's,
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others believed he was a fraud, but overall everyone was
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shocked and horrified by the end that came to him,
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his wife, and their four children. Police were on site
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for the funerals all day to ensure that the scenes
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stayed peaceful, but also to see if anyone suspicious showed up.
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No one in attendance caught their attention, and the funeral
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went on uninterrupted. A thousand dollars reward was collected for
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any information that may lead to the identity of a
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person responsible, but no new leads were ever generated, and
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this would be about sixteen thousand dollars today. As time
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went on, the home sat empty, left to decay before
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eventually being torn down altogether. When you search that address
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as of twenty twenty three, the lot is still fenced
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in and completely empty. So what do we think happened here?
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What are our theories? Dary one a jealous client or
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former follower, someone close, perhaps a client who felt cheated,
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or a follower who believed that Benny had misled them
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or worse, betrayed their faith. In such a mindset, rage
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could become lethal. And if someone believed that their spiritual
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or economic well being depended on Benny, then anger, humiliation,
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or betrayal could provoke unthinkable violence, as we see in
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this case Theory two personal or family conflict. It's possible
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that this was not about the occult at all, but
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something personal, either a love affair, a betrayal, some sort
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of personal debt. Some sources mentioned that Benny was selling
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love charms or love potions, and this was a transaction
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of cost, expectation, and sometimes deception. Could somebody have believed
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that they were simply swindled. Could there have been a
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secret scandal involving this family. Way one really knows for sure.
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Another possibility is that it was simply somebody that was
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unwell and in the wrong place at the wrong time
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and took opportunity to cause harm on this family. But
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the acts are so brutal and so intimate that they
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to me suggest something more than robbery or just a
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happened opportunity. The next theory could be a tenant or
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a real estate customer. The night before the murders, a
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man named Umberto Tequino visited the Evangelista home to make
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a final payment on the house that Bennie had sold him. He,
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along with a friend named Angelo d'poli, had a couple
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of drinks with Benny before leaving the home. They remain
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adamant that they knew nothing about the murders. However, when
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police visited his home for questioning, they found an axe,
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a banana knife, and a pair of suspiciously cleaned work
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boots in the barn. Accounts mentioned that just three months
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prior to the massacre, Umberto had knifed his brother in
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law to death during an argument, and how he escaped
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any prosecution for that is unclear, but it certainly gave
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investigators a reason to make him a prime suspect. However,
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there was no physical evidence and no confession, so Umberto
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was eventually let go, and he died a few years
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later in nineteen thirty four. Other reports indicate that Benny
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was suspecting a lumber shipment to be coming. In strangely enough, though,
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the delivery man never arrived and there was no cash
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ever found in the home for Benny to have made
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said purchase. Was the person involved and did they know
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that there was going to be no need to make
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this delivery because the family was brutally murdered? Who knows.
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I also saw in some sources that Umberto and this
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lumber delivery person were possibly the same person. So again,
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do with these theories what you will. It is the
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nineteen twenties of it all, and unfortunately some records do
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get lost. Or theory six. An old friend, Benny's old friend,
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Aurelius Angelino, murdered two of his children in nineteen twenty three,
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and prior to the murders of the Evangelista family, he
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had been housed in a Pennsylvania prison for the criminally insane,
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but somehow he managed to escape and he was never
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seen again or apprehended by police. Had Angelino somehow made
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his way to Detroit, But then again, what's the motive here?
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What did Benny do to this man that would have
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provoked such violence, even if that violence was just within him.
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How would he get from Pennsylvania to Detroit and commit
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these crimes with no one knowing anything. I will also
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say that I couldn't find any historical evidence of this
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said friend or the murders that he allegedly committed, So
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do with that theory what you will. But again, like
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I said, some records can get lost. If you have
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any tips or old family stories, archives, newspaper clippings, if
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you lived in Detroit or your family talked about the
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Saint Aubun's Street massacre, I would encourage that you reach out.
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You may have the peace that's needed to solve this
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horrific murder. Nearly a century later. And at the end
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of the day, no matter what Benny did for a living,
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his family deserved to sleep safely in their home. They
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didn't deserve to be murdered in such a horrific way.
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And in the cases of these children taken way too soon,
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it's heartbreaking to picture these kids sleeping in their beds
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and having been found that way. Of Santina holding her
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baby infant in her arms, it makes you wonder what
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the feelings and thoughts were of this family in their
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last moments. And I do wonder who did this personally,
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My theory is that, yes, it could be somebody involved
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in Benny's side hustle, so to speak, where maybe it
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was a property deal gone wrong, or maybe somebody wanted
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to take advantage of him and you know, purchase this
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property without actually having to give him the money, and
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by taking out his entire family, they could take the
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money back and still have the property document signed over
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to them. Or maybe it was somebody on his main
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hustle where they did feel wronged or cheated, or like
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the work that Benny was doing was somehow evil or wrong,
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or maybe he had made them believe that something was
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gonna work and it didn't and they did feel cheated.
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I can't ever imagine feeling so angry towards one person
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that I would take it out on four others on
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top of it, or five others on top of it.
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But that's just me. We're the people telling the stories, thankfully,
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and I do hope that you enjoyed this occulty spooky
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kind of twist in an old timey murder, But at
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the end of the day, people still lost their lives,
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and that's important to highlight. If you look at the
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oldnewspapers dot com articles for these murders. It's interesting to
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see the language that's chosen in headlines and how distasteful
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they can be at times. I have a few of
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them linked in my show notes below if you choose
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to look at it. But for example, divine prophet wife,
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four children hacked to death. That's really really disturbing language.
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So I hope that I told the story well and tastefully.
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And again, if you like the show, please leave me
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five stars wherever you are listening now. I will see
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you next week for another episode with a spooky twist.
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And in the meantime, remember you are wanted, you are loved,