March 26, 2026

Tylenol Murders

Tylenol Murders
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We’re taking a break this week and using the time to amplify the voices of other creators we love in the true crime space. This week we’re bringing you a fabulous story from the Rainy Day Rabbit Holes podcast hosted by our friends Shea & Jody.

This episode delves into the chilling events surrounding the Tylenol murders of 1982 and the subsequent Excedrin poisonings in 1986. It explores the tragic deaths caused by cyanide-laced capsules, the investigations that followed, and the impact these events had on product safety regulations in the United States. The discussion highlights the key figures involved, including Stella Nickell, who was ultimately convicted for product tampering, and the broader implications for consumer safety.

Visit our website! Find us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Patreon, & more! There are so many ways that you can support the show: BuyMeACoffee, Spreaker, or by leaving a rating & review on Apple Podcasts.

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Welcome to rainy day rabbit Holes, where we take the

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history of the West off the rails.

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If you like your history unhinged, you are in the

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right place. I'm shy and I'm Jody. Let's fall down

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the rabbit hole.

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It begins with a throbbing in the temples, maybe a

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feeling like an ice pick behind your eyes. You rub

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the bridge of your nose, but it's getting worse.

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So what do you do, Jody? Get some tile and

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all that's right? You pop a tail and all, oh,

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I was right, you were right. Yeah, good old assema. Uh,

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let's see, how do we say this? A ceda menafin Jesus,

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a ceta metaphin. Look, it's not that hard, guys, it's

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a ceda menaphin. So Thailandl's name is being dragged through

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the mud by a bunch of claims made without real

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scientific backing.

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But you know that's never stopped. Captain Cankeles or doctor

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Brain were before.

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Nope.

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And even though this shifts blame onto women once again

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and once again restricts their choices, you know, let's just

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put the current nightmare that is our country aside for

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a moment. Let's travel back in time to another nightmare,

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a darker time when taking a tailanol for a simple

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headache was like playing Russian roulette, a time when an

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innocuous bottle of tailanol could kill Jody.

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That's your cue. Oh, dun't dun't du I was like thinking,

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in my head, I was here. I mean, I remember

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this all going down. I already know where you're headed,

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and I was remembering it all in my head.

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It's September nineteen eighty two in Chicago. The hair was big,

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the pizza was deep. There wasn't a Federal National Guard

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person to be seen. Ice wasn't snatching people off the street,

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and a series of terrifying deaths would grip the nation

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and lead to massive changes in the United States. In

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the early morning of September twenty eighth, twelve year old

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Elk Grove resident Mary Kellerman had a bit of a

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sore throat and a ready nose. No big deal, normal

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type of complaint, the beginning of a little cold, so

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her mom gave her a single extra strength tile and

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old capsule to soothe her aching throat. Mary collapsed on

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the bathroom floor and was dead by seven am.

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Wow, how long after she took it.

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It's very short. They didn't give an actual time, but

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I think it's within minutes.

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Wow.

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The same day as well, however long it would take

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for that gelatine capsule to dissolve in your stomach.

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Minutes, yeah, for sure.

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The same day, less than ten miles away, in Arlington Heights,

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a twenty seven year old postal worker named Adam Janis

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took two extra strength tilnal capsules. He hadn't been feeling

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well when he woke up for work that day, so

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on his way home, he stopped at the jewel Oscar

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store in Arlington Heights and bought a bottle of pain reliever.

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He took the pills and began to feel strange Very

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shortly after. He went to lay down, but when he

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became unresponsive, he was rushed to the hospital. He died

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that afternoon. Doctors told his grieving family that it had

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been a heart attack. The family wept over Adam's body

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and then went back to Adam's house. His brother, Stanley Janis,

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twenty five years old, and Stanley's brand new wife, Teresa,

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twenty years old, both in shock and feeling terrible with

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massive headaches, found a bottle full of tilnyl capsules in

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the house and took a couple each. A third brother, Joe,

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watched in horror as his brother Stanley fell to the floor,

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white foam coming out of his mouth, eyes rolled backwards, words,

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and Joe called an ambulance. When the paramedics were loading

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Stanley into the ambulance, Teresa stumbled after them, calling her

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husband's name and collapsed. Both were taken to the hospital

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and later died. At their funeral, both caskets were carried

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into the same church where they had been married just

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three months earlier.

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Three months Sorry, I had like all of a sudden

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got me choked up.

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It was just as so tragic, both caskets being carried

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in one after the other.

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Just can you imagine.

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Over the next few days, three more strange deaths would

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rock the community. Thirty five year old Mary McFarland of Elmhurst,

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thirty five year old Paula Prince of Chicago, and twenty

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seven year old Mary Reiner of Winfield, who had just delivered.

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Her fourth child.

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Besides dying tragically young and living in the Greater Chicago area,

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what did these three women have in common? Well, they

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all took tylanol shortly before dying. At this point, investigators

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were making the connection between the deaths, thanks in part

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to some savvy people, firefighter Chuck Kramer and plucky nurse

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Helen Jensen. She worked in Arlington Heights Village, and they

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both worked to put two and two together. Tylanol was

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at the time the most popular non aspirin pain reliever

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in the United States, and these gelatin capsules were especially

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popular because they were easy to swallow. Helen visited the

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Janus's home and noticed the almost full bottle of Tylanl

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extra strength capsules sitting on a counter. She counted the

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capsules and noticed that six were missing, two for each death.

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She immediately brought this to the attention of the medical

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examiner and the police, but they laughed at her. Kramer,

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the firefighter, tracked down a pair of medic who had

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responded to the twelve year old Mary Keller's death, who

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said she had also taken Thailand all. He also reported

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his findings, but nobody believed him either, so they both

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just kept hounding the police and the medical examiner, who

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eventually agreed to look into it, and shortly it was

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discovered that the capsules in the bottle contained lethal doses

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of potassium cyanide powder enough to kill a person many

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times over. Wow, And so do you know was it

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the whole bottle or just was it a Russian roulette situation.

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I don't think every single capsule was I was contaminated.

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I can't remember. That's a lot of you know, product,

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And you know that you had to take each of

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those pills apart, dump them out, put them back together,

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a lot of eff Yeah.

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Yeah, And there's so when I was looking into this story,

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I listened to an amazing podcast all about the Thailand

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All murders, and it was done by the Chicago New Tribune,

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So an incredible investigative journalism. Yeah, and we'll get into

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it later. But the one person that they really were

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focusing on as a suspect later on, at one point

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was saying that he was helping the investigators and describing

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how they might contaminate the capsules by using like he

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called it the breadboard method, where it was something about

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creating a channel in a plank of wood and putting

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the capsules in there, and you could dump the cyanide

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on the board and just scrape it into this channel

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with a knife. And it would fill the capsules.

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Oh got it.

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I mean yeah, it's time consuming to fill all those capsules,

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but you know it was doable.

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Yeah, yeah, for sure. So a nation, if you're if

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you're if you're dedicated to your mission, it probably is

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not a problem at all. Right, you know, if you're

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really serious about what you're about to do and you

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need the result that you're after, right.

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Right, A nationwide panic ensued. Obviously, law enforcement drove through

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neighborhoods with loud speakers telling all of the residents to

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throw any tail in. Johnson and Johnson recalled at least

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thirty one million bottles. It was the first mass recall

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in American history.

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Oh really yep?

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And it started a murder investigation that would span over

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forty years and had more twists and turns than an

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Agatha Christie novel, which we will get into after this

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quick break. Seven innocent people were now dead, all after

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ingesting deadly cyanide tainted tailanl capsules. But how did the

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cyanide get in there? Both law enforcement and Johnson and

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Johnson were digging into the case. Jay and j quickly

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established that the cyanide lacing happened after the tilanol left

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the factory, and police found receipts for the purchase of

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tilanol by several of the victims, Jewel food Stores in

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Arlington Heights and Elk Grove Village, Walgreens in Chicago's Old Town,

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Oscar Drug at the Woodfield Mall, Dominic's, Finer Foods in

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Old Town, and Woolworth's in Lombard. The police hypothesized that

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the bottles had been taken off the store shelves, most

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likely stolen the capsules laced with cyanide, and then the

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packages returned to the shelves. So for our younger listeners,

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you may not know this, but back in the day,

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there were no safety seals on bottles, right, that's a

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new invention because of this.

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I remember as a child that they had to add that.

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Yeah, you had a flimsy paper cardboard box, most likely

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not glued shut. It was just a flap that you

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could pull open and then you just screw off the top.

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And all that is in there protecting your medicines from

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the rest of the world is a ball of cotton.

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That's it.

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And these gelatin capsules were popular because they were easy

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to swallow, unlike you know, your regular tablets, they get

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stuck as soon as they get sticky when they get wet,

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and it's harder to swallow. So these were popular. But

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they were just a gelatine capsule that you could just

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break open and dump all the contents out.

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Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's just a recipe right there

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for disaster exactly. In early nineteen eighty three, at the

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FBI's request, a trap was set to lure the killer.

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In Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Green published the home address

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and grave location of twelve year old Mary Kellerman, and

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then they kept a twenty four hour surveillance on the

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Kellerman's home and Mary's gravesite for several months, just hoping

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that the killer would show up, but to no avail.

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And I am really surprised that the family of Mary

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Kellerman went along with this. It was their home address

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that the question in the paper, so anywheredo so oh,

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and they were part of it. I was wondering when

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you said it, like ooh, like that is not kind

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to the family. But they were aware of it, huh

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they went away.

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Yeah, I mean they went along with it, which is

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very surprising. I mean, yeah, of course they want to

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know why this happened to their daughter and catch the

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person responsible. But you know that's that's scary.

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Boxing meant something different back then. Maybe it didn't see

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miss Scary. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

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I mean, but remember back in our research, back in

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the olden days, when somebody was reporting on a story

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and somebody just you know, they interviewed somebody on the street,

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they would.

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Publish their name and address. Oh yeah right, they're like according.

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To miss ethel Hefferman, who resides at one two eight

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six five Grove Courts, Northwest and Tacoma, Washington, and the

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blue house with the red shutters, you.

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Know, and legitimacy to the story by having exact details.

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Right, we didn't make her up. You could just go

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to her house and knock on the door and ask

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her if she said these things, and like, I just

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can't imagine that right now, you know. So there was

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also one surveillance photo of another victim, Paula Prince, that

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she was purchasing her bottle of tail and al at Walgreens.

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There's this bearded man in the video be just behind her,

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and they surmised that maybe that was the killer. But

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that was literally it that's all they had to go on.

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They had nothing, just real guesses, is all they're walking with. Yeah, exactly.

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But then in October of the same year, law enforcement

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received a chilling letter. It included details of the investigation

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that had not been made public, and it demanded one

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million dollars to stop the killings. It was signed by

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a man named Robert Richardson, and here's what it said, gentlemen.

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As you can see, it is easy to place cyanide,

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both potassium and sodium into capsules sitting on store shelves.

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And since the cyanide is inside the jelatine, and it

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is easy to get buyers to swallow the bitter pill.

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Another beauty is that cyanide operates quickly. It takes so

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very little and there will be no time to take countermeasures.

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If you don't mind the publicity of these little capsules,

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then do nothing. So far, I have spent less than

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fifty dollars and it takes me less than ten minutes

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per bottle. If you want to stop the killing, then

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wire one million dollars to bank account number eight four

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four nine five seven at Continental Illinois Bank, Chicago, Illinois.

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Don't attempt to involve the FBI or local Chicago authorities

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with this letter, a couple of phone calls, Buy me,

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will undo anything you can possibly do?

233
00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:49.440
Wow? Ballsy right? So, and do they look into this

234
00:13:49.480 --> 00:13:52.919
bank account? It feels like that'd be very easy for

235
00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:54.320
them to identify someone.

236
00:13:55.000 --> 00:14:00.519
This was really interesting. So Robert Richardson owned a travel

237
00:14:00.559 --> 00:14:06.559
agency called Lakeside Travel and One, and they had recently

238
00:14:06.639 --> 00:14:09.360
shut down. One of the people he used to work

239
00:14:09.399 --> 00:14:15.200
there was a woman named Leanne Lewis, and when Lakeside

240
00:14:15.360 --> 00:14:20.039
Travel closed its doors, it had a lot of back

241
00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:24.399
pay owed to its employees and never paid them. Leanne

242
00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:27.080
was an accountant at Lakeside Travel, so she would have

243
00:14:27.159 --> 00:14:32.759
had access to their bank account information.

244
00:14:32.360 --> 00:14:36.080
And where that money went or write if there is any.

245
00:14:36.159 --> 00:14:40.480
So this letter led them back. Obviously they looked into that,

246
00:14:40.519 --> 00:14:44.559
and they looked into the employees. That bank account belonged

247
00:14:44.559 --> 00:14:49.360
to Lakeside Travel, but it wasn't Robert Richardson. He didn't

248
00:14:49.720 --> 00:14:51.919
do this and sign his own name like that would

249
00:14:51.960 --> 00:14:54.440
be very dumb. But it led them to the husband

250
00:14:54.480 --> 00:14:57.919
of Leanne, James W. Lewis, and they linked him through

251
00:14:57.919 --> 00:15:01.519
handwriting and fingerprints on the let When they talked to

252
00:15:01.639 --> 00:15:07.240
James Lewis about this. He said that it was an

253
00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:11.120
attempt to embarrass his wife's former employer because you know,

254
00:15:11.200 --> 00:15:14.159
they didn't pay her her back pay, and also to

255
00:15:14.200 --> 00:15:19.159
bring attention to Johnson and Johnson's vulnerability. He denied any

256
00:15:19.200 --> 00:15:23.039
involvement in the title murders, but he was convicted for

257
00:15:23.200 --> 00:15:26.799
attempted extortion and served twelve years in prison for this.

258
00:15:26.879 --> 00:15:29.360
But they at that time were not able to link

259
00:15:29.440 --> 00:15:30.600
him to the title of murders.

260
00:15:30.679 --> 00:15:32.639
But you could he was just trying to make money

261
00:15:32.679 --> 00:15:35.519
off this. Well, but they haven't ruled it out that

262
00:15:35.559 --> 00:15:37.720
it wasn't oh got it, okay, They just didn't have

263
00:15:37.919 --> 00:15:40.159
enough evidence to actually tie him.

264
00:15:40.159 --> 00:15:43.879
All they had was this letter. Sure, But something interesting

265
00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:48.159
that they found out. James Lewis's daughter, who was born

266
00:15:48.200 --> 00:15:51.559
with Down syndrome, was born with a lot of heart defects,

267
00:15:51.720 --> 00:15:54.919
had a lot of surgeries, and she passed away in

268
00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:59.200
nineteen seventy four from complications from this congenital heart defect.

269
00:15:59.399 --> 00:16:02.000
And it was found that the sutures used in her

270
00:16:02.200 --> 00:16:06.559
heart during this most recent surgery had ripped, and those

271
00:16:06.639 --> 00:16:09.840
sutures were under a patent held by Jay and.

272
00:16:09.840 --> 00:16:13.759
J Okay Yep so suture business.

273
00:16:13.360 --> 00:16:17.440
To this day, right, So they suspected that maybe this was,

274
00:16:18.519 --> 00:16:22.000
you know, some retribution for the death of his daughter,

275
00:16:22.039 --> 00:16:25.919
though he denied it forever. So Lewis was the investigator's

276
00:16:25.960 --> 00:16:29.159
main suspect for decades, but they were never able to

277
00:16:29.159 --> 00:16:32.600
pinant on him. The case went cold. No, remember this

278
00:16:32.679 --> 00:16:35.480
was nineteen eighty two that this happened. It was reopened

279
00:16:35.480 --> 00:16:41.080
in two thousand and nine by the FBI, but despite

280
00:16:42.039 --> 00:16:45.320
having a search warrant for James Lewis's house and seizing

281
00:16:45.639 --> 00:16:49.840
a ton of potential evidence, including computers and documents and

282
00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:53.679
DNA analysis, they were still not definitively able to tie

283
00:16:53.759 --> 00:16:58.399
him to the murders. And unfortunately, to this day, we

284
00:16:58.480 --> 00:17:02.840
will never know if James Lewis was indeed the title

285
00:17:02.919 --> 00:17:07.440
and all killer because he died in July of twenty twenty.

286
00:17:07.160 --> 00:17:08.799
Three, oh recently ish.

287
00:17:09.240 --> 00:17:12.640
Yeah, but side note, it's not that he was just

288
00:17:12.680 --> 00:17:16.079
an innocent bystander. Like obviously we already know about the

289
00:17:16.119 --> 00:17:19.839
extortion letter that he served twelve years for. He was

290
00:17:19.880 --> 00:17:25.480
also convicted of mail fraud, so he dabbled. Yeah, he

291
00:17:25.559 --> 00:17:28.839
sent a threatening letter to President Reagan threatening to use

292
00:17:28.920 --> 00:17:33.039
a radio controlled model airplane to interfere with Secret Service

293
00:17:33.079 --> 00:17:36.799
operations at the White House. In two thousand and four,

294
00:17:37.079 --> 00:17:41.880
he was arrested in charge with multiple felonies, including rape, kidnapping, assault,

295
00:17:41.920 --> 00:17:47.119
at administering drugs with intent to commit a crime. So broad, yeah,

296
00:17:49.240 --> 00:17:52.480
area of illegal criminalidations.

297
00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:52.880
Yes.

298
00:17:53.839 --> 00:17:56.640
So in that one, he allegedly lured a young woman

299
00:17:56.640 --> 00:18:01.440
into his home, drugged her with and assaulted her don't I.

300
00:18:01.359 --> 00:18:03.079
Don't know, obviously not potassium.

301
00:18:04.160 --> 00:18:07.279
It wish she would be dead. Yeah. He was held for

302
00:18:07.359 --> 00:18:11.319
three years and released when the charges were dismissed because

303
00:18:11.319 --> 00:18:16.279
the woman refused to testify. He was also this was

304
00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:19.279
very interesting. He was also charged with the murder and

305
00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:23.400
dismemberment of one of his tax clients in nineteen seventy eight,

306
00:18:24.200 --> 00:18:28.160
but that case was dropped because the original arresting officers

307
00:18:28.359 --> 00:18:32.599
failed to properly mirandize him and therefore all of his

308
00:18:32.720 --> 00:18:38.200
testimony and everything that came after that was not admissible. Insane, Yeah,

309
00:18:38.440 --> 00:18:42.440
so the DA had to just drop it loopol. That

310
00:18:42.559 --> 00:18:44.680
was a really sad part of this story. It was

311
00:18:44.720 --> 00:18:48.839
this old man who James Lewis was his tax man,

312
00:18:49.559 --> 00:18:52.720
and like everybody in the town knew this old man

313
00:18:53.119 --> 00:18:56.240
and he had been talking about how like, man, my

314
00:18:56.359 --> 00:18:58.960
tax guy just keeps hanging around, he keeps showing up

315
00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:01.240
in my house like he's getting in my business in

316
00:19:01.279 --> 00:19:03.640
a way that's that I don't like. And then this

317
00:19:03.680 --> 00:19:06.880
guy just disappeared. Nobody could get a hold of him.

318
00:19:07.319 --> 00:19:09.599
They went to his house and there was a padlock

319
00:19:09.680 --> 00:19:12.279
on the door. They couldn't find him anywhere. And then

320
00:19:12.359 --> 00:19:15.119
finally they went up into the attic and there was

321
00:19:15.160 --> 00:19:19.640
this like his dismembered body in the attic.

322
00:19:20.240 --> 00:19:22.960
What go ahead? Like, just who was this body?

323
00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:25.480
Like this man that I'm talking about, this old man,

324
00:19:25.839 --> 00:19:29.680
his body was in his own attic. Okay, And a

325
00:19:29.720 --> 00:19:34.839
few days after he disappeared, a five thousand dollars check

326
00:19:35.519 --> 00:19:39.759
made out to James Lewis was attempted to be cleared

327
00:19:39.759 --> 00:19:40.599
through his bank.

328
00:19:40.880 --> 00:19:42.440
Wow, there was a.

329
00:19:42.359 --> 00:19:45.440
Lot of evidence tying this guy to this murder. But

330
00:19:45.480 --> 00:19:48.880
because these officers were so gung ho and they did

331
00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:52.839
not that's unfortunately William randize him. This poor guy. They

332
00:19:52.839 --> 00:19:57.079
had to just ano family who won't ever see any consequences. Right,

333
00:19:57.920 --> 00:20:02.839
But back in nineteen eighty six, James Lewis was on

334
00:20:02.920 --> 00:20:06.640
the radar but hadn't been just you know, he was there.

335
00:20:06.720 --> 00:20:11.000
Nothing really had happened. The case was still open, so investigators,

336
00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:14.079
even though they suspected James Lewis, they still did not

337
00:20:14.279 --> 00:20:17.039
know for sure who had committed the murders. Maybe it

338
00:20:17.119 --> 00:20:20.200
was Lewis, but maybe the real killer was still out there,

339
00:20:20.799 --> 00:20:25.240
and maybe the killer had moved to the misty forests

340
00:20:25.279 --> 00:20:26.599
of the Pacific Northwest.

341
00:20:26.839 --> 00:20:28.680
Maybe maybe. Yeah.

342
00:20:28.720 --> 00:20:31.079
But before we go on and come to our region,

343
00:20:31.799 --> 00:20:42.480
let's take a quick break before we get back to

344
00:20:42.519 --> 00:20:45.359
the story. If you're listening to this episode before Christmas

345
00:20:45.359 --> 00:20:47.839
of twenty twenty five, we want to announce a special

346
00:20:47.839 --> 00:20:50.359
gift we're giving to our listeners for the holiday season.

347
00:20:50.599 --> 00:20:52.720
We're going to choose one lucky listener to get their

348
00:20:52.759 --> 00:20:57.119
own piece of bespoke fan fiction. Now, normally this is

349
00:20:57.200 --> 00:20:59.839
reserved for our Patreon supporters, but we want you to

350
00:20:59.880 --> 00:21:03.000
do on the fun. If you listen to some of

351
00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:07.880
our recent episodes like Tacoma's Cursed ghost Ship, Haunted Brothels

352
00:21:07.880 --> 00:21:10.319
of the wild West, you can hear some of our

353
00:21:10.359 --> 00:21:13.640
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354
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go to our website and sign up for a newsletter.

355
00:21:16.079 --> 00:21:18.799
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356
00:21:18.839 --> 00:21:21.119
can tell us who it'll be about. Is it you,

357
00:21:21.400 --> 00:21:22.680
is it a friend? You want to do this as

358
00:21:22.680 --> 00:21:24.640
a gift for somebody, Then you can also tell us

359
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360
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361
00:21:29.319 --> 00:21:32.279
unique gift to give somebody to have their own little

362
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story all about them. And uh yeah again, you can

363
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just go to Randy Day rabbit holes dot com and

364
00:21:37.920 --> 00:21:40.720
we'll have a link there to sign up. All right,

365
00:21:40.799 --> 00:21:46.440
let's get back to the story. So it's nineteen eighty six, Auburn, Washington.

366
00:21:46.960 --> 00:21:50.759
The hair is still big, although slightly more damp. A

367
00:21:50.960 --> 00:21:54.039
young Jodie King is emptying a bottle of aquinet on

368
00:21:54.079 --> 00:21:56.119
our bangs for sure.

369
00:21:56.119 --> 00:21:59.319
Actually it was an Ausi sprune spray probably, Okay, a

370
00:21:59.319 --> 00:22:03.640
bottle of a rapey preparing to go out and dissipate

371
00:22:03.720 --> 00:22:07.640
some poor little girl in the soft ball field. Yeah,

372
00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:10.759
hit with a pitch, for sure, if you're nasty.

373
00:22:11.519 --> 00:22:16.599
On June fifth, Stella Nickel called the fire department. Her husband, Bruce,

374
00:22:16.759 --> 00:22:21.720
a heavy machinery operator, had collapsed. Emergency personnel rushed to

375
00:22:21.759 --> 00:22:25.000
their single wide trailer in Auburn, where the unconscious Bruce

376
00:22:25.119 --> 00:22:28.759
lay on the floor. He was rushed by helicopter to

377
00:22:28.799 --> 00:22:33.400
Harbor View Hospital in Seattle, but died shortly after. The

378
00:22:33.480 --> 00:22:37.759
autopsy declared the cause of death to be Emphysima. Stella

379
00:22:37.880 --> 00:22:40.279
said that Bruce had come home from work that day

380
00:22:40.279 --> 00:22:43.960
with a headache. He took four extra strength et CE

381
00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:47.720
cap lets with capsules, which I think is more than

382
00:22:47.720 --> 00:22:48.559
the recommended doses.

383
00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:51.319
That seems like, I mean, if they're the same as

384
00:22:51.359 --> 00:22:54.720
they are today, Yes, that's twice the dose. Yeah.

385
00:22:54.759 --> 00:22:57.119
Well, and when't is extra strength so that you can

386
00:22:57.200 --> 00:22:57.720
just take one?

387
00:22:59.039 --> 00:23:03.920
Yes, but max dos is their five hundred milligrams each

388
00:23:04.200 --> 00:23:07.400
and max dos is one thousand at a time. Yeah.

389
00:23:07.519 --> 00:23:11.680
So anyway, so he popped four of these puppies, walked

390
00:23:11.720 --> 00:23:14.279
out onto the back deck to watch the birds, and

391
00:23:14.359 --> 00:23:20.319
collapse within minutes. Then six days later, on June eleventh,

392
00:23:21.039 --> 00:23:25.240
fifteen year old Haley Snow found her mother's Sue unconscious

393
00:23:25.279 --> 00:23:27.599
on the floor of the bathroom in their Auburn home.

394
00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:31.359
She was also taken to Harbor View by helicopter, but

395
00:23:31.640 --> 00:23:38.279
tragically died, But this time pathologists had a clue. They

396
00:23:38.319 --> 00:23:42.759
could smell bitter almonds during the autopsy, so tested for

397
00:23:42.920 --> 00:23:47.920
cyanide poisoning. Soon, the FDA announced that cyanide laced extra

398
00:23:47.960 --> 00:23:51.240
strength in cedron capsules had been found in her home.

399
00:23:52.039 --> 00:23:55.039
The FBI was notified and at that point they took

400
00:23:55.079 --> 00:23:58.839
over the investigation. So, just like in nineteen eighty two

401
00:23:58.880 --> 00:24:01.839
with the Tail and all deaths, the Bristol Myers company

402
00:24:01.920 --> 00:24:05.759
initiated a nationwide recall of the drug and halted production.

403
00:24:06.559 --> 00:24:11.920
At this point, the drug manufacturing conglomerate was also really alarmed,

404
00:24:12.359 --> 00:24:17.079
so they banded together to offer a three thousand dollars

405
00:24:17.200 --> 00:24:20.880
three thousand, three hundred thousand dollars. Yeah, three thousand's not

406
00:24:20.960 --> 00:24:21.400
that much.

407
00:24:21.640 --> 00:24:25.279
I don't remember. I didn't realize the price difference.

408
00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:32.079
Yeah, inflation really is no three hundred thousand dollars. So, uh, Jody,

409
00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:36.839
what is in nineteen eighty six three hundred thousand dollars?

410
00:24:36.839 --> 00:24:38.920
What would that be today? That's got to be at

411
00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:42.759
least double, if not morking now, maybe more like a

412
00:24:42.799 --> 00:24:44.920
million dollars. Oh, very close.

413
00:24:45.079 --> 00:24:47.680
Eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars, That's what I'm gonna guess.

414
00:24:48.759 --> 00:24:51.599
Are you serious? But it's eight hundred and eighty six

415
00:24:51.759 --> 00:24:55.200
thousand dollars, seven hundred and ninety five. I'm good. I

416
00:24:55.279 --> 00:24:58.319
guess it. That is real good. You were off by

417
00:24:58.400 --> 00:25:04.920
thirty six thousand, seven ninety five dollars and sixty two cents.

418
00:25:04.960 --> 00:25:09.480
So specific all right. So a sweep of grocery and

419
00:25:09.480 --> 00:25:13.599
pharmacy shelves in King County produced another bottle of tainted

420
00:25:13.640 --> 00:25:17.480
pills from Johnny's Market in Kent. So this was put

421
00:25:17.519 --> 00:25:21.359
out on the news. You know, don't take etctern throw

422
00:25:21.359 --> 00:25:24.759
it out. And the next day, Bruce Nichols's widow, Stella,

423
00:25:24.960 --> 00:25:27.839
called the FBI to tell them that she too had

424
00:25:27.920 --> 00:25:31.279
bottles of etceterron and that Bruce had taken some right

425
00:25:31.359 --> 00:25:34.720
before collapsing. When investigators showed up at her home to

426
00:25:34.759 --> 00:25:38.000
collect the bottle, she produced two bottles, saying that she

427
00:25:38.039 --> 00:25:42.759
had purchased them on two occasions from two different locations.

428
00:25:43.200 --> 00:25:45.920
Both bottles contained tainted capsules.

429
00:25:46.279 --> 00:25:46.680
Whoa.

430
00:25:47.039 --> 00:25:51.039
Blood tests showed that Bruce, like SEUs Snow, had died

431
00:25:51.079 --> 00:25:54.160
from cyanide poisoning. And by the way, I've just got

432
00:25:54.200 --> 00:25:56.920
to insert something here. So one of these articles I

433
00:25:57.000 --> 00:26:00.599
read it said one of Stella's neighbors character rised her

434
00:26:00.680 --> 00:26:03.839
as a washed up honky tonk girl.

435
00:26:03.960 --> 00:26:14.400
Oh my god, so picture a burn, so this was suspicious.

436
00:26:14.839 --> 00:26:18.000
It's pretty unlikely that she could have purchased two contaminated

437
00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:21.759
bottles from two different locations, given that there were only

438
00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:24.319
four known four or five by the end of this

439
00:26:24.799 --> 00:26:29.119
known contaminated bottles. One more tainted bottle was found a

440
00:26:29.160 --> 00:26:33.079
bottle of a Nassin three in the same store that

441
00:26:33.119 --> 00:26:35.039
she had bought one of her bottles of etceterron, so

442
00:26:35.079 --> 00:26:39.160
a different brand, but same store that she had bought

443
00:26:39.200 --> 00:26:43.480
this extceterron from. So although investigators were suspicious of Stella,

444
00:26:43.559 --> 00:26:47.599
they needed more evidence. They were also suspicious of Sue

445
00:26:47.599 --> 00:26:51.519
Snow's husband, Paul Webking, as he claimed to have taken

446
00:26:51.599 --> 00:26:54.079
two pills from the same bottle as Sue when he

447
00:26:54.200 --> 00:26:58.200
left for work, but he was fine. Both Stella and

448
00:26:58.240 --> 00:27:03.279
Paul Webking brought wrongful death lawsuits against Bristol Myers. Now

449
00:27:03.319 --> 00:27:06.480
When examining the cyanide powder in the poison bottles, they

450
00:27:06.519 --> 00:27:12.200
found these flecks of some unknown green substance, and it

451
00:27:12.279 --> 00:27:16.160
turns out that it was an algaeicide called algae Destroyer,

452
00:27:16.759 --> 00:27:20.759
which is used in home aquariums to you know, help

453
00:27:20.839 --> 00:27:25.079
with algae problems. Now, knowing that the deaths were now

454
00:27:25.400 --> 00:27:29.319
characterized as murder. Investigators turned their attention to their two

455
00:27:29.480 --> 00:27:34.279
prime suspects, Paul Webking and Stella Nickel. Both were asked

456
00:27:34.319 --> 00:27:38.359
to take polygraph tests, which Paul agreed to, but Stella

457
00:27:38.599 --> 00:27:42.440
was a bit more cagey. She had started drinking heavily

458
00:27:42.519 --> 00:27:45.839
after Bruce's death, and she said she was too shaken

459
00:27:45.920 --> 00:27:46.759
up to take the test.

460
00:27:47.319 --> 00:27:50.039
Well, drinking also will make it, so it's not an

461
00:27:50.079 --> 00:27:53.039
accurate test. I mean as accurate as it already is, right,

462
00:27:53.160 --> 00:27:56.119
but I mean it will impact those physiological things. So

463
00:27:56.200 --> 00:27:58.200
I'm not sure if it would have changed anything. But

464
00:27:58.319 --> 00:28:00.960
it is suspicious when people say nope, I don't want

465
00:28:00.960 --> 00:28:01.279
to do it.

466
00:28:01.559 --> 00:28:04.319
Well, no, I don't actually think it. It is well

467
00:28:04.680 --> 00:28:08.160
maybe back then, but today not agree to a polygraph

468
00:28:08.160 --> 00:28:08.640
test ever.

469
00:28:08.880 --> 00:28:11.839
Well, I have actually taken one for a case. I

470
00:28:11.920 --> 00:28:15.880
was not the accused. I was the victim, and when

471
00:28:15.920 --> 00:28:19.880
I gave my testimony, it said that I was not

472
00:28:20.039 --> 00:28:24.599
truthful and I was telling the truth should never and

473
00:28:24.640 --> 00:28:27.279
I was not the one accused. So it's like I

474
00:28:27.279 --> 00:28:30.519
didn't have much to Yeah, and there were certain sections

475
00:28:30.920 --> 00:28:32.880
I think really what it was I'd put myself in

476
00:28:32.920 --> 00:28:36.519
a position to be a victim and so I felt

477
00:28:36.559 --> 00:28:39.480
guilty about that, and so it was coming across on

478
00:28:39.559 --> 00:28:43.359
the machine that I was not being truthful about the case.

479
00:28:43.920 --> 00:28:47.200
That makes sense. It's not reading, it's not picking up

480
00:28:47.200 --> 00:28:51.119
the right story. Yeah, it's there is a physiological change,

481
00:28:51.160 --> 00:28:53.920
but it's not what you think. No, don't.

482
00:28:54.240 --> 00:28:57.559
Yeah, I've watched enough true crime to not do not

483
00:28:57.960 --> 00:29:00.480
if you, yeah, don't ever take a polygraph test. It's

484
00:29:00.559 --> 00:29:03.000
junk science. It's not admissible in court, but it can

485
00:29:03.079 --> 00:29:05.599
certainly taint the investigation. And if people are like, if

486
00:29:05.640 --> 00:29:08.880
you're not, if you're innocent, why wouldn't you take a

487
00:29:08.920 --> 00:29:11.559
polygraph test, It's like, because they fail all the time.

488
00:29:11.599 --> 00:29:14.680
It's junk science. I'm not going to do it anyway.

489
00:29:15.319 --> 00:29:18.920
That's either here nor there. So with more digging, detectives

490
00:29:18.920 --> 00:29:23.200
turned up incriminating evidence against Stella. Prior to the death

491
00:29:23.240 --> 00:29:26.000
of her husband, Bruce, she had taken out a seventy

492
00:29:26.079 --> 00:29:29.920
six thousand dollars life insurance policy on her husband, and

493
00:29:29.960 --> 00:29:33.319
here's the kicker, it paid out an additional one hundred

494
00:29:33.359 --> 00:29:38.839
thousand dollars if the death was accidental. So even before

495
00:29:39.200 --> 00:29:43.319
Sue Snow died and gave investigators some idea that the

496
00:29:43.359 --> 00:29:48.680
deaths were linked. Stella insisted that Bruce's death was suspicious,

497
00:29:49.480 --> 00:29:53.519
he had no history of inmphysima. And then detectives found

498
00:29:53.519 --> 00:29:59.480
two insurance policies with Bruce's forged signature. And what about

499
00:29:59.519 --> 00:30:02.920
the flex of algaecide in the cyanide? Well, Stella had

500
00:30:02.920 --> 00:30:05.720
an aquarium. Now, she insisted up and down that she

501
00:30:05.759 --> 00:30:09.640
had never purchased an algaecide, But investigators talked to the

502
00:30:09.680 --> 00:30:12.759
owner of the local pet store who said that Stella

503
00:30:12.799 --> 00:30:15.880
had ordered such a large amount of algae destroyer that

504
00:30:15.920 --> 00:30:18.240
he had to make a special order for it. Yes,

505
00:30:18.599 --> 00:30:22.319
so it was speculated that Stella used the same container

506
00:30:22.400 --> 00:30:25.599
to crush the algaecide as she did to crush the cyanide,

507
00:30:25.720 --> 00:30:30.119
hence the contamination. Now, Stella finally consented to a polygraph

508
00:30:30.319 --> 00:30:33.920
in nineteen eighty six, but failed. However, as we all know,

509
00:30:34.039 --> 00:30:38.039
polygraphs are junk science, so that means the thing they

510
00:30:38.240 --> 00:30:41.559
couldn't prove that she had purchased the cyanide or tained

511
00:30:41.599 --> 00:30:46.839
to the capsules, even though there were those suspicious insurance policies.

512
00:30:47.799 --> 00:30:52.680
But finally, in nineteen eighty seven, something crazy happened that

513
00:30:52.759 --> 00:30:56.480
broke the case. Don't doudge Me, which we will get

514
00:30:56.480 --> 00:31:09.480
into right after this quick break back to nineteen eighty seven,

515
00:31:10.440 --> 00:31:15.200
Stella's grown daughter, Cynthia, went to the police with information

516
00:31:15.240 --> 00:31:19.839
about her mother. Now little history. Stella and Bruce both

517
00:31:19.960 --> 00:31:24.160
had checkered backgrounds. Stella had her first child, Cynthia, at

518
00:31:24.200 --> 00:31:27.799
the age of sixteen. Not long after, she became pregnant

519
00:31:27.839 --> 00:31:30.880
with a second child by a different man, and knowing

520
00:31:30.920 --> 00:31:33.000
that it would be tough to attract a husband with

521
00:31:33.039 --> 00:31:36.920
two kids from two different fathers, she gave up the

522
00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:38.039
new baby for adoption.

523
00:31:39.079 --> 00:31:41.759
She was for that reason, so that she could attract

524
00:31:41.759 --> 00:31:45.000
a man in the future. Oh my golly.

525
00:31:45.759 --> 00:31:50.839
Now, according to her children and other people who knew her,

526
00:31:50.960 --> 00:31:54.599
she was a neglectful and sometimes cruel mother to Cynthia.

527
00:31:55.240 --> 00:31:58.039
When Cynthia was nine, Stella beat her legs with a

528
00:31:58.079 --> 00:32:01.720
curtain rod, and when Cynthia reported her to the police,

529
00:32:01.759 --> 00:32:04.799
she claimed that the child was lying. At one point,

530
00:32:04.839 --> 00:32:09.400
she just abandoned her child to one of her husbands.

531
00:32:09.759 --> 00:32:12.319
She's a lovely lady. Yeah, she's great.

532
00:32:12.599 --> 00:32:14.640
So she spent a lot of time not actually having

533
00:32:14.640 --> 00:32:19.119
Cynthia in her life. Stella also, yeah, they weren't close.

534
00:32:19.200 --> 00:32:22.119
It wasn't until Cynthia was a teenager that she actually

535
00:32:22.160 --> 00:32:24.240
went back to live with her mother. She had a

536
00:32:24.240 --> 00:32:28.640
long history of fraud, forgery, and drinking. So she met

537
00:32:28.680 --> 00:32:32.799
Bruce in nineteen seventy four and they bonded over going

538
00:32:32.839 --> 00:32:36.359
to bars. When Bruce decided to get sober some ten

539
00:32:36.440 --> 00:32:40.200
years later, Stella found herself bored with the marriage. They

540
00:32:40.279 --> 00:32:42.680
used to have so much fun together going to bars. Yeah,

541
00:32:42.880 --> 00:32:45.920
now they had nothing in common, and her own drinking

542
00:32:46.079 --> 00:32:47.680
became much worse.

543
00:32:48.079 --> 00:32:50.240
She picked up what he dropped off.

544
00:32:50.359 --> 00:32:55.279
Exactly according to Cynthia, Stella told her that if Bruce

545
00:32:55.359 --> 00:32:57.920
was out of the picture, she and Cynthia would have

546
00:32:58.079 --> 00:33:01.440
enough money to open a tropical fish store or maybe

547
00:33:01.440 --> 00:33:02.279
a ceramics store.

548
00:33:02.279 --> 00:33:04.519
I mean, why don't she have all these algae or

549
00:33:06.160 --> 00:33:10.839
aquarium supplies yet? She Oh, my god, but want store

550
00:33:11.240 --> 00:33:13.880
opened a tropical fish store, right, But no, I don't.

551
00:33:13.920 --> 00:33:15.920
I would never order that. That's great.

552
00:33:16.119 --> 00:33:19.440
So she checked out several books from the Auburn Library

553
00:33:19.599 --> 00:33:23.279
that included information about poisonous plants. She even confided to

554
00:33:23.279 --> 00:33:26.519
Cynthia that she had tried to poison Bruce in the

555
00:33:26.559 --> 00:33:31.160
past with fox glove hidden in capsules, but all that

556
00:33:31.279 --> 00:33:37.200
happened is he got suddenly very sleepy. Records from the

557
00:33:37.240 --> 00:33:40.240
Auburn Public Library showed that Stella had checked out several

558
00:33:40.240 --> 00:33:44.319
books about poisons, including human poisonings from Native and cultivated

559
00:33:44.359 --> 00:33:48.759
plants and Deadly Harvest. That should be a book that exists.

560
00:33:48.839 --> 00:33:52.839
I know, That's what I like. Anybody who checks that out,

561
00:33:52.880 --> 00:33:55.839
you should be suspicious. How to kill people with what's

562
00:33:55.880 --> 00:33:56.559
in your yard?

563
00:33:57.559 --> 00:34:01.680
Right? That sound like a terrible book.

564
00:34:02.160 --> 00:34:04.720
Well, the other thing is she'd never returned the book

565
00:34:04.799 --> 00:34:05.440
to the library.

566
00:34:05.440 --> 00:34:06.400
Oh my gosh.

567
00:34:06.440 --> 00:34:10.079
And Stella's fingerprints were found on several books she had

568
00:34:10.159 --> 00:34:13.079
checked out, and she had also left fingerprints and palm

569
00:34:13.119 --> 00:34:17.320
prints on entries about cyanide poisoning in three encyclopedias at

570
00:34:17.360 --> 00:34:17.840
the library.

571
00:34:17.920 --> 00:34:21.719
This woman was meant to commit crime. Clearly she was

572
00:34:21.800 --> 00:34:23.920
meant to get caught. Yeah.

573
00:34:24.159 --> 00:34:26.960
Stella was indicted in federal court and found guilty of

574
00:34:27.079 --> 00:34:29.719
product tampering, not murder.

575
00:34:30.079 --> 00:34:34.000
WHOA and was sentenced to ninety years in prison just

576
00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:36.480
from product tampering. I think it was product tampering that

577
00:34:36.519 --> 00:34:40.239
caused death, was the sentencing. Yeah, okay, and we'll get

578
00:34:40.320 --> 00:34:42.360
we'll get to that. So not murder, but kinda.

579
00:34:43.000 --> 00:34:46.760
Yeah, her own daughter, Cynthia, was a star witness against

580
00:34:46.840 --> 00:34:50.519
her own mother, and she received two hundred and fifty

581
00:34:50.599 --> 00:34:53.320
thousand dollars of the Drug Industry Award.

582
00:34:53.760 --> 00:34:54.480
Oh wow.

583
00:34:54.840 --> 00:34:57.840
Now, this of course led to some speculation that perhaps

584
00:34:57.960 --> 00:35:01.239
it was a conspiracy between Cynthia and Stella to get

585
00:35:01.239 --> 00:35:04.039
that money, but that was never verified.

586
00:35:04.239 --> 00:35:06.280
I mean, why would you have a conspiracy where you

587
00:35:06.320 --> 00:35:08.119
go to prison? Right now?

588
00:35:08.239 --> 00:35:12.280
Stella maintained her innocence, insisting that her daughter lied on

589
00:35:12.320 --> 00:35:15.320
the stand in exchange for the reward money. Now, I

590
00:35:15.960 --> 00:35:21.239
mean I think Stella, I mean, Stella is obviously guilty, yeah,

591
00:35:21.360 --> 00:35:26.039
but do I also think that maybe this woman who

592
00:35:26.159 --> 00:35:29.760
was raised by somebody who has a is not an

593
00:35:29.760 --> 00:35:33.880
honest person, could have maybe come forward to capitalize.

594
00:35:33.360 --> 00:35:38.679
On that sure genetics and environment, yeah, provided by her mother,

595
00:35:39.519 --> 00:35:40.519
right either.

596
00:35:40.360 --> 00:35:44.119
So I don't know, but yeah, it is Stella did this,

597
00:35:45.519 --> 00:35:47.920
I mean allegedly. No, she was convicted of it.

598
00:35:47.960 --> 00:35:51.000
She didn't, right, No, no longer a legend. So over the.

599
00:35:51.000 --> 00:35:55.719
Years, she's filed multiple appeals and even petitioned for compassionate release,

600
00:35:56.000 --> 00:35:59.159
but all have been denied, so she remains incarcerated at

601
00:35:59.239 --> 00:36:02.760
FCI Hazelton in West Virginia with a projected release date

602
00:36:02.880 --> 00:36:05.360
of March seventh, twenty forty three.

603
00:36:05.559 --> 00:36:10.039
Wow, twenty forty three, so that's yeah, seventy years then

604
00:36:10.559 --> 00:36:16.480
ish before she can even seek release. That's crazy. Well good,

605
00:36:16.559 --> 00:36:19.079
twenty forty three now less than less than twenty years.

606
00:36:19.280 --> 00:36:22.000
No from nineteen eighty seven.

607
00:36:22.280 --> 00:36:25.079
Oh yeah, Both the Thailand al murders and the Exceeddron

608
00:36:25.159 --> 00:36:28.360
poisonings had a profound impact on product safety regulations and

609
00:36:28.440 --> 00:36:32.039
how tampering cases are handled in the United States. Before

610
00:36:32.159 --> 00:36:35.119
nineteen eighty two, over the counter medications like Thailand or

611
00:36:35.199 --> 00:36:38.480
Exceedron were packaged, like I said, in simple plastic bottles,

612
00:36:39.039 --> 00:36:41.360
often with nothing more than a thin cardboard box and

613
00:36:41.400 --> 00:36:43.360
a water cotton stuffed inside the neck of the bottle

614
00:36:43.480 --> 00:36:44.679
to protect earpills.

615
00:36:45.159 --> 00:36:45.599
There were no.

616
00:36:45.639 --> 00:36:48.599
Seals, no shrink wrap, no real way to know if

617
00:36:48.599 --> 00:36:52.000
a product had been opened or altered. You know, it's interesting,

618
00:36:52.039 --> 00:36:55.840
we've become so used to this, Like all our products, toothpaste,

619
00:36:55.880 --> 00:36:58.039
whatever it is, anything that we're going to put in

620
00:36:58.079 --> 00:37:01.119
our body or on our body, have some sort of seal,

621
00:37:01.639 --> 00:37:05.920
right that when it doesn't, you are immediately suspicious. And

622
00:37:06.599 --> 00:37:09.280
I ordered a bunch of stuff from Korea and they

623
00:37:09.400 --> 00:37:13.119
just have different product packaging regulations. And when I got

624
00:37:13.159 --> 00:37:15.480
the products and they didn't have that little foil seal

625
00:37:15.760 --> 00:37:18.960
over the the like skincare product thing, I was like

626
00:37:20.280 --> 00:37:22.519
And then I got online and read and they're like, yeah,

627
00:37:22.519 --> 00:37:25.960
they just don't do that with this brand. And I'm like, Okay,

628
00:37:26.000 --> 00:37:28.199
I guess I'm gonna take the chance of rubbing. But

629
00:37:28.480 --> 00:37:30.639
Arsenic come so far, so good.

630
00:37:31.000 --> 00:37:34.639
I'm fine. I mean, look at this, Look at this skin. Yeah,

631
00:37:34.679 --> 00:37:37.519
you can definitely tell you've been using Korean skincare.

632
00:37:39.679 --> 00:37:43.000
All of this changed after the Thailand All Murders. Working

633
00:37:43.039 --> 00:37:47.079
with the FDA, Johnson and Johnson pioneered tamper evident packaging,

634
00:37:47.480 --> 00:37:51.679
introducing foil seals, shrink bands, and other security features that

635
00:37:51.719 --> 00:37:55.159
made it immediately obvious if a product had been opened.

636
00:37:55.679 --> 00:37:58.519
The company also redesigned its capsules to make them more

637
00:37:58.559 --> 00:38:03.480
resistant to tampering. These innovations quickly became the industry's standard,

638
00:38:03.920 --> 00:38:07.880
and in nineteen eighty three, Congress passed the Federal Anti

639
00:38:08.119 --> 00:38:11.840
Tampering Act, better known as the Tailanyl Bill, making it

640
00:38:11.880 --> 00:38:16.159
a federal crime to tamper with consumer products. This new

641
00:38:16.239 --> 00:38:19.679
law gave federal authorities the power to investigate and prosecute

642
00:38:19.719 --> 00:38:23.440
such crimes, carrying penalties of up to life in prison

643
00:38:23.559 --> 00:38:27.880
if deaths occurred. So when Stella Nicol placed cyanide laced

644
00:38:27.880 --> 00:38:31.880
eccedrin capsules on store shelves in nineteen eighty six, prosecutors

645
00:38:31.960 --> 00:38:34.679
used this very law to bring her to justice. The

646
00:38:34.760 --> 00:38:38.400
Tailanyl build allowed federal jurisdiction over her case and made

647
00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:41.920
the product tampering resulting in death a serious federal offense.

648
00:38:42.440 --> 00:38:44.400
It was one of the first major tests of the

649
00:38:44.480 --> 00:38:47.119
law and set the standard for how similar cases would

650
00:38:47.119 --> 00:38:50.360
be handled in the future. And thanks to these tragedies

651
00:38:50.440 --> 00:38:53.599
and the lessons learned from them, today's consumers can buy

652
00:38:53.639 --> 00:38:58.760
medications with far greater confidence in their safety. Foil seals,

653
00:38:58.880 --> 00:39:02.320
shrink wraps, and safety caps might seem like a small annoyances,

654
00:39:02.920 --> 00:39:06.199
but they exist because people once really did have reason

655
00:39:06.320 --> 00:39:07.519
to fear what was in the bottle.

656
00:39:08.000 --> 00:39:10.840
Yeah, I remember, because I was, like, you know, eighty six,

657
00:39:10.920 --> 00:39:15.039
I was fourteen ish. That is terrifying to think that

658
00:39:15.119 --> 00:39:17.960
you could go pick up this bottle at the store

659
00:39:18.000 --> 00:39:21.000
in a box, take it home and somebody's tampered with it.

660
00:39:21.119 --> 00:39:22.239
So it was scary.

661
00:39:22.719 --> 00:39:26.320
And while today tail and all and asked me to Oh, no,

662
00:39:26.400 --> 00:39:26.800
I did it.

663
00:39:28.639 --> 00:39:31.800
I see Amitavan It's because you got you got autism

664
00:39:31.840 --> 00:39:32.440
from taking it.

665
00:39:32.719 --> 00:39:35.920
I did well today, Thailand all, And.

666
00:39:39.199 --> 00:39:43.239
I can't say it all. I'm just ceda menaphon. I'll

667
00:39:43.280 --> 00:39:49.320
do it for you. You say, Thailand, I'll say.

668
00:39:47.920 --> 00:39:50.519
And while today, tail and All and a Ceda medafin

669
00:39:50.719 --> 00:39:53.960
are being demonized in some corners of the Internet and

670
00:39:54.199 --> 00:40:00.000
the press, despite the flimsiest of despite the flimsiest of evidence,

671
00:40:00.280 --> 00:40:05.199
because like, who needs facts anymore? Right, sciences for krommies.

672
00:40:05.239 --> 00:40:08.159
I just feel like it. You know. That's vibes, Yeah,

673
00:40:08.199 --> 00:40:08.880
that's vibes.

674
00:40:09.320 --> 00:40:11.679
There was a brief moment in the nineteen eighties when

675
00:40:11.719 --> 00:40:14.760
that fear was actually kind of justified a little bit.

676
00:40:15.480 --> 00:40:18.159
For a few terrifying years, reaching for a bottle of

677
00:40:18.239 --> 00:40:22.320
painkillers really could end all your pain forever.

678
00:40:23.360 --> 00:40:24.400
Bom bom boom.

679
00:40:25.599 --> 00:40:28.440
Definitely Okay, And so if you guys haven't guessed yet,

680
00:40:28.519 --> 00:40:32.960
this was my shameless attempt to take advantage of the headlines.

681
00:40:34.000 --> 00:40:38.960
You're welcome, nice work. Well, I mean it is a

682
00:40:39.039 --> 00:40:42.440
hot topic right now, so well, and it does have

683
00:40:42.559 --> 00:40:45.800
link to where we live, I mean, right, now we

684
00:40:45.840 --> 00:40:49.519
are literally sitting probably fifteen minutes away from where this happened.

685
00:40:49.800 --> 00:40:53.320
Yeah, and the Auburn ones not Chicago obviously. So this

686
00:40:53.480 --> 00:40:55.679
is one of those things. If you're a true crime

687
00:40:55.800 --> 00:40:58.480
nut and you live in the Pacific Northwest, you know

688
00:40:58.559 --> 00:41:01.760
this story like you saw you you like knew immediately.

689
00:41:01.960 --> 00:41:04.880
I knew immediately. I forgot it was Aburn though, Yeah,

690
00:41:04.960 --> 00:41:07.039
right here, because at the time I lived farther away

691
00:41:07.039 --> 00:41:07.599
from Auburn.

692
00:41:08.119 --> 00:41:10.840
You guys probably have been to the same bars that

693
00:41:10.920 --> 00:41:12.079
Stella Nickel has been to.

694
00:41:12.159 --> 00:41:14.559
Yeah, we'll have to talk about yeah.

695
00:41:14.159 --> 00:41:15.519
Yeah, we need to figure that out.

696
00:41:15.719 --> 00:41:16.000
Yeah.

697
00:41:16.039 --> 00:41:18.039
So I want to thank all of our Dedicade listeners.

698
00:41:18.079 --> 00:41:20.480
We appreciate you so much, and thank you to our

699
00:41:20.559 --> 00:41:24.119
amazing patrons, You guys rock. And a big thank you

700
00:41:24.239 --> 00:41:28.719
to our new amazing marketing team, the incredible Letha Davis,

701
00:41:28.719 --> 00:41:31.519
who is responsible for a beautiful new website, and the

702
00:41:31.599 --> 00:41:34.519
talented Coral and Logan Hine who have been making some

703
00:41:34.639 --> 00:41:38.159
killer videos for our YouTube and social media. And if

704
00:41:38.159 --> 00:41:40.519
you want a website as gorgeous as ours or some

705
00:41:40.639 --> 00:41:43.960
great social media content, head on over to LEITHA. Davis

706
00:41:44.079 --> 00:41:47.159
dot com. That's l. E. T. H. A D A

707
00:41:47.360 --> 00:41:50.760
v I s and reach out to Letha. This website

708
00:41:50.800 --> 00:41:54.519
design is mind bogglingly good, especially for podcasters.

709
00:41:54.719 --> 00:41:57.320
Yeah, it's crazy. She is so talented.

710
00:41:57.960 --> 00:42:00.519
I don't even to understand how she made this happen.

711
00:42:00.639 --> 00:42:03.599
It's full of all these automations and like AI tools

712
00:42:03.639 --> 00:42:08.079
that you just like copy and paste a couple of things,

713
00:42:08.119 --> 00:42:10.320
and then all of a sudden you have this beautiful,

714
00:42:11.039 --> 00:42:13.320
this beautiful post for your episode up there.

715
00:42:13.400 --> 00:42:16.239
I just I don't know what happened the player embedded

716
00:42:16.280 --> 00:42:16.679
in it.

717
00:42:16.679 --> 00:42:20.239
It's great, It's it's incredible. It's so good. And if

718
00:42:20.280 --> 00:42:23.519
you want your own piece of custom bespoke fan fiction

719
00:42:23.639 --> 00:42:25.880
based on one of our stories, all you have to

720
00:42:25.920 --> 00:42:28.599
do is either sign up for the contest, which you

721
00:42:28.639 --> 00:42:30.920
go to at our website, or sign up for a

722
00:42:31.000 --> 00:42:34.719
Patreon You get bonus content, ad free episodes and more.

723
00:42:34.960 --> 00:42:37.000
Head on over to Rainy Day rabbit Holes dot com,

724
00:42:37.000 --> 00:42:40.719
forward slash support for more information, and as always, if

725
00:42:40.760 --> 00:42:43.079
you would like to help us out but you don't

726
00:42:43.079 --> 00:42:46.440
have the wherewithal to support us on Patreon, go leave

727
00:42:46.480 --> 00:42:49.880
a radio review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Really makes

728
00:42:49.920 --> 00:42:52.760
us feel great to hear kind words from you. If

729
00:42:52.800 --> 00:42:56.239
you comment on our YouTube. Maybe say something nice.

730
00:42:56.400 --> 00:42:57.000
It's funny here.

731
00:42:57.199 --> 00:42:57.519
Guess what.

732
00:42:58.039 --> 00:43:02.679
I delete the the crappy comments because I don't like

733
00:43:02.760 --> 00:43:07.360
seeing them. It makes me feel bad. She feels like

734
00:43:07.400 --> 00:43:11.559
there's people pointing at her, yelling shame, shame.

735
00:43:11.880 --> 00:43:14.920
Look, I will shame myself enough. I don't need you

736
00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:17.480
to do it too. If you don't have something remember,

737
00:43:17.960 --> 00:43:19.639
if you don't have something nice to say, don't say

738
00:43:19.639 --> 00:43:23.920
anything at all. Keep it till your sale, all right, guys, Well,

739
00:43:23.960 --> 00:43:25.920
thank you so much. We'll see you next time and

740
00:43:27.360 --> 00:43:29.800
see it a ravel perfect